Sunday, September 09, 2007

A Day at The Range

The Class

Yesterday V completed her one day Women's Pistol Course at Tiger Valley. There were three women attending the course and two instructors teaching it.

It was hot (95°F+) and muggy, typical for Texas this time of year. We did have a breeze, and it was a beautiful day.

Picture Perfect Day

V enjoyed herself and learned a lot. She is now interested in going to the range with me to work on drills instead of just plink. That in and of itself made this training day a success.

I had sole use of the falling plate bay. Yep, it was just me against the plate racks. I had a blast. My range does not allow the use of steel targets in the pistol bays, so shooting plates is always a treat. I also had the chance to put some Federal HST +P through my Kimber. I called Kimber a couple of weeks ago to inquire about using the HST +P in my alloy frame Pro Carry II, and they assured me that it was no problem. After shooting the +P's, I am back to being concerned about my frame.

I guess I could just choose a steel framed pistol for carry...

3 comments:

Fits said...

The +P's work just fine in a Glock 30, to the tune of over 1K of them in the past several months, and to be honest, I don't think Federal's +P is all that plus.Recoil is subjective, but +P's shoot softer in my polymer-framed pistols because, I believe, the frame gets to flex even more thus absorbing some of the kick. May sound ludicrous but time after time I've felt the same thing and you could hand me a loaded gun and after a shot or two I can identify a +P just by the recoil or lack thereof, audio sensitivity notwithstanding. That said, if you felt what amounts to too much kick in your Kimber it might be nothing more than the Aluminum evincing a different flex than steel but I'm making presumptions now.

John R said...

It wasn't too much kick, just noticably more than normal loads. I've always had a question in my mind about alloy frames.

Shooting the heck out of these +P's should put that question to rest, one way or the other.

the pistolero said...

I'd be worried about those aluminum frames too, even though Kimber does say they've been tested to 20,000 rounds without any "meaningful wear." But as far as I know, the only steel-frame sub-Govt. model size 1911s Kimber makes are the Eclipse Pro and Eclipse Ultra, both black stainless. Springfield makes at least one steel-framed carry 1911 that I know of, albeit with a 3.5" barrel as opposed to the Kimber Pro Carry's 4". I'd guess it'd probably be a grand out the door, but it'd be more than worth it to me. Springfield makes great guns and stands behind them. I can personally attest to that. :-)