quickcanary
Member
Nothing like getting on the boards, reading posts and looking at pics to get me ready and rarin' to go to the range. The girlfriend is at work all day today and, with the lawn being mowed earlier this week, I had nothing but spare time and a couple of boxes of ammo. So I grabbed up my 19 thinking I'd hit the range for a bit...Today, I halfheartedly hoped, wouldn't be quite so boring and my Glock would experience some kind of malfunction. No luck there. 
I arrived just as an IPDA match was drawing to a close. Normally, I have the range to myself, but they sometimes hold matches and competitions on Sunday. This turned out to be a blessing -- the guys were very friendly and eager to share the range with an unfamiliar shooter.
After they were done, one of them stayed behind to practice with the wheel o' plates and after running a couple of mags through my 19, I just had to ask what he was shooting. I wasn't surprised to find out that it was a Smith & Wesson 1911 (most of the guys there had one on their hip, although there were a couple of Glocks and XDs as well). I told him that I had joined a couple of gun forums and that most of you guys maintained that if you stay in the hobby long enough, you will end up adding a 1911 to your collection. He wholeheartedly agreed and we talked about his other guns for a bit -- one of which was an XD40 compact and while I was mentioning a buddy at work having an XD45 compact he was loading rounds into a mag. He offered to let me take the gun for a spin (score!) and I emptied a full mag into the plates. The gun jammed on the very first shot (FTE), but I'm not able to hold that against the XD. All rounds fired were reloads, and it's possible that I limpwristed the gun in my excitement. I became more conscious of my grip, and the rest of the rounds fired without incident.
One thing that I commented on was that I couldn't believe how mild the recoil was out of this lightweight, compact .40. It was certainly less than the full size USP .40 that I shot, which was very puzzling to me. He then told me that his reloads were downloaded a bit for competition which made perfect sense to me (I was shooting WWB .40 S&W out of the USP). Still, I was impressed with the XD. Not enough to dump my Glock for one, but it was pretty impressive to have that much firepower in such a small autoloader (keep in mind I haven't fired any of the compact or subcompact Glocks in .40 or .45, so this was the smallest semiauto that I've ever fired). I can't wait to shoot my friend's XD45 compact with factory ammo for comparison.
I then mentioned that I was strongly contemplating a .45 for my next purchase, and that the Sig 220 was pretty high on my list based purely on what I've read but I had also started looking at some 1911s, including the Springfield Mil-Spec. I was giddy with joy when he loaded 8 rounds into a mag and handed me his Smith & Wesson 1911. Would the gun live up to the expectations I had, given the amount of praise that the 1911 receives on the forums?
In a word, I'd say YES. It certainly had a solid feel after handling the XD, but the real joy came when I pulled the trigger. I racked the slide and proceeded to unload 8 rounds of pure bliss into the plates with impressive accuracy considering this was my first time shooting a .45, and a 1911 for that matter. The darn thing was a *****cat. The recoil wasn't bad at all; in fact I'd say my 19 might even have more felt recoil than the 1911. In fact it was MUCH less than I was expecting from a .45, although I can't confirm if the rounds I fired were also downloaded like the .40 loads. Nevertheless, the gun was a joy to shoot and I can definitely see why people like the trigger on these guns. I wish I had spent more time with it so I could really concentrate and get a feel for the crispness, but I only had 9mm rounds with me and I wasn't about to ask him to load another mag (come to find out, he had loaded 2 mags for me and only remembered after I stopped talking about the gun and he had packed it up, hahaha).
I apologize for the long read, but as an enthusiastic and somewhat new shooter, I was extremely excited to be able to play with some new toys. I haven't found a place that rents guns around here, so my first gun purchase was made solely based on recommendations and advice that I received on the forums.
This may be sacrilege to some of you, but even after shooting the 1911 I have no regrets about purchasing my Glock. I don't consider myself a Glock fanboy by any means, but I won't hesitate to continue to recommend them. Today the thing was once again boringly accurate and reliable, and I was somewhat surprised that even after shooting the "better pointing" guns like the XD and 1911, my target acquisition and accuracy with the 19 was seemingly unaffected. I shot well with it before, and shot equally as well with it after shooting the others. I don't know whether that's due to my lack of inexperience; that I haven't fully "adapted" to a certain grip angle or what, but I like to think it's simply because I'm a naturally good shot.
I can definitely see a 1911 purchase in my future, but I'll have to do a lot more research before I'm comfortable making my mind up. In the meantime, I have a nice mainstay to keep me company and hopefully I'll get to hold & shoot a wider variety of guns with more trips to the range. As the guy was leaving he pulled out a tiny Kel-Tec -- my first thought was "P3AT?" but it was the .32 and wow is that gun a great size for pocket carry. It made my Glock seem like a full size behemoth, but he said I should have no problem carrying the 19 when I get my permit.
Thanks for reading and be safe,
Rob
I arrived just as an IPDA match was drawing to a close. Normally, I have the range to myself, but they sometimes hold matches and competitions on Sunday. This turned out to be a blessing -- the guys were very friendly and eager to share the range with an unfamiliar shooter.
After they were done, one of them stayed behind to practice with the wheel o' plates and after running a couple of mags through my 19, I just had to ask what he was shooting. I wasn't surprised to find out that it was a Smith & Wesson 1911 (most of the guys there had one on their hip, although there were a couple of Glocks and XDs as well). I told him that I had joined a couple of gun forums and that most of you guys maintained that if you stay in the hobby long enough, you will end up adding a 1911 to your collection. He wholeheartedly agreed and we talked about his other guns for a bit -- one of which was an XD40 compact and while I was mentioning a buddy at work having an XD45 compact he was loading rounds into a mag. He offered to let me take the gun for a spin (score!) and I emptied a full mag into the plates. The gun jammed on the very first shot (FTE), but I'm not able to hold that against the XD. All rounds fired were reloads, and it's possible that I limpwristed the gun in my excitement. I became more conscious of my grip, and the rest of the rounds fired without incident.
One thing that I commented on was that I couldn't believe how mild the recoil was out of this lightweight, compact .40. It was certainly less than the full size USP .40 that I shot, which was very puzzling to me. He then told me that his reloads were downloaded a bit for competition which made perfect sense to me (I was shooting WWB .40 S&W out of the USP). Still, I was impressed with the XD. Not enough to dump my Glock for one, but it was pretty impressive to have that much firepower in such a small autoloader (keep in mind I haven't fired any of the compact or subcompact Glocks in .40 or .45, so this was the smallest semiauto that I've ever fired). I can't wait to shoot my friend's XD45 compact with factory ammo for comparison.
I then mentioned that I was strongly contemplating a .45 for my next purchase, and that the Sig 220 was pretty high on my list based purely on what I've read but I had also started looking at some 1911s, including the Springfield Mil-Spec. I was giddy with joy when he loaded 8 rounds into a mag and handed me his Smith & Wesson 1911. Would the gun live up to the expectations I had, given the amount of praise that the 1911 receives on the forums?
In a word, I'd say YES. It certainly had a solid feel after handling the XD, but the real joy came when I pulled the trigger. I racked the slide and proceeded to unload 8 rounds of pure bliss into the plates with impressive accuracy considering this was my first time shooting a .45, and a 1911 for that matter. The darn thing was a *****cat. The recoil wasn't bad at all; in fact I'd say my 19 might even have more felt recoil than the 1911. In fact it was MUCH less than I was expecting from a .45, although I can't confirm if the rounds I fired were also downloaded like the .40 loads. Nevertheless, the gun was a joy to shoot and I can definitely see why people like the trigger on these guns. I wish I had spent more time with it so I could really concentrate and get a feel for the crispness, but I only had 9mm rounds with me and I wasn't about to ask him to load another mag (come to find out, he had loaded 2 mags for me and only remembered after I stopped talking about the gun and he had packed it up, hahaha).
I apologize for the long read, but as an enthusiastic and somewhat new shooter, I was extremely excited to be able to play with some new toys. I haven't found a place that rents guns around here, so my first gun purchase was made solely based on recommendations and advice that I received on the forums.
This may be sacrilege to some of you, but even after shooting the 1911 I have no regrets about purchasing my Glock. I don't consider myself a Glock fanboy by any means, but I won't hesitate to continue to recommend them. Today the thing was once again boringly accurate and reliable, and I was somewhat surprised that even after shooting the "better pointing" guns like the XD and 1911, my target acquisition and accuracy with the 19 was seemingly unaffected. I shot well with it before, and shot equally as well with it after shooting the others. I don't know whether that's due to my lack of inexperience; that I haven't fully "adapted" to a certain grip angle or what, but I like to think it's simply because I'm a naturally good shot.
I can definitely see a 1911 purchase in my future, but I'll have to do a lot more research before I'm comfortable making my mind up. In the meantime, I have a nice mainstay to keep me company and hopefully I'll get to hold & shoot a wider variety of guns with more trips to the range. As the guy was leaving he pulled out a tiny Kel-Tec -- my first thought was "P3AT?" but it was the .32 and wow is that gun a great size for pocket carry. It made my Glock seem like a full size behemoth, but he said I should have no problem carrying the 19 when I get my permit.
Thanks for reading and be safe,
Rob
