Shoot Officers .45acp

[Shorts]

Today I went out to the range to shoot the 22/45 and the Colt Officer's i recently got.

I shot the .22 first. Right off the bat my flinch was evident as part of my "normal technique". The flinch I have is actually pushing the gun down/forward when I shoot. Which results in low poi. I shoot a good number of rounds then switched to the .45. Again, same results.


I guess I'm not sure exactly what exercises I need to do to go about correcting this forward push. I imagine I am anticipating recoil and/or the gun jumping out of my hand. I wear double ear protection, so that helps dull out the report so I don't flinch at the noise. I guess I'm just trying to hang into the gun. I only shoot one handed. So, not only must one hand pull the trigger, but it also must be a support for a steady shot.

On a note about the Oacp's performance, I do have fail-to-feed issues to correct. When closing the slide on a full mag, the bullet does not completely feed into the chamber. It jams as though the breakover angle is too sharp. If I pull the slide back a time or two, I can get the slide to load the bullet. The gun does cycle the rest of the mag ok, but it did have a few more mid-mag fail to feeds through subsequent mags.

I shot a distance of 8yrds on a 25yard slowfire pistol target

I do need to polish the breechface. I think that will at the very least allow the rear of the case to slide easier up the breechface as the front of the bullet is manuevering its way into the chamber.

I will also measure the extractor for proper tension. The gun ejected fine (all cases made it out of the gun without stoppages). But on this note, the slide did come back and crunch a few cases. One case it really smashed it up.

Alright, I attached some pics for fun. Give me your thoughts (aside from te fact I need more practice!)

 

[sig-it]

are you left handed?
if so, id say you were "slapping the trigger" usually consistantly low and away shots are connected to your trigger pull...
try imagining that your pulling the trigger straight back into the middle of the frame....as for the just low shots ....id say that your not covering your bullseye or the center of your target with the middle dot...i used to catch myself trying to have my cake and eat it too...or look at the bullseye and aim at it simultaniously...in most cases you want the middle dot to obscure the point of impact....

as for flinching, if you know that you are flinching..some try and sneak snap caps into thier mags to try and train themselves not to flinch... controlling RE-coil is a RE-action...not an action....i use dryfiring to train my shot...doing everything in my capabilities to keep the sights perfectly still as i aim and "shoot" at an object.....

some say that the boom should be a surprise.....i feel the opposite is true....you should be completely prepared and confident in your reaction, that there is no fear in letting the trigger break....

i hope that might have helped...im no expert...

 

[Ledbetter]

Re: your colt

Try another magazine if you can.

Also, the slide must be released to slam into battery chambering a round, not eased down.

 

[ShelbyV8]

Do a lot of dry firing, practicing trigger pull without sights moving. Take a good two handed grip and shoot away. 45 acp recoil is not going to hurt you. If you are limpwristing the weapon it will cause feeding and ejection problems.

 

[Shorts]

sig-it, I am right handed. I will work on some more dry fires. My push-down flinch is evident when I shoot my Beretta. Sometimes it does not lock back last shot. So when I pull the trigger again, I just get a click, but I also see me push the gun down - to my dismay/embarassment/laughter I shoot alone (DH is deployed) so I don't have a partner to load mags. Maybe what I could do is randomly load up the mags then shuffle them up and load them without seeing them. Maybe I can simulate more of that random dummy rounds test. Good thoughts on trigger conrol and sight concentration, I'll try them.

Ledbetter, I have new mags on the way. I used the three from our GI so they weren't completely "right". Hopefully they get here soon. I also "slammed" the slide down on the first round by depressing the slide stop - that didn't work, surprisingly, the Officer has stout springs. So I had to pull the slide back again and release. I only "ease" the slide when I'm closing it on an empty chamber.

ShelbyV8, I have one one hand to shoot with, hence my original posting of "I only shoot one handed". I only have one to work with.

 

[Ledbetter]

Hi,

I have heard that the slide stop is just that; not a slide release. You might try the slingshot method to load the first round (thumb and forefinger of weak hand grips back of slide, pulls to the rear disengaging the slide stop, then release slide).

Good luck. The littlest 1911 is a very handy size, IMHO, but frequently needs some TLC or break-in.