How many shots is enough - Page 9

Hunter Customs · January 23, 2014, 01:07 PM

It all depends on where I'm going and what I'm doing.

When on my horse out in the woods I mostly carry a S&W model 36 38 special with 5 extra rounds.

When going to the cities I mostly carry a custom 1911 commander in 45 acp with 8 rounds and a spare mag.

However I'm beginning to think instead of a spare mag for my 1911 a bug gun such as a Kel-Tec P11 may be a better choice.

The reason for this is, in the last few years I've had two incidents with factory ammo failures that totally disabled the gun I was shooting the ammo in.

The first incident was while doing some defense drills with my commander.
The factory 45acp shell casing split all the way around about half way up between the front and rear of the case (very much like a rifle case will do in a rifle with head space issues).
The rear portion of the brass ejected, the front portion of the brass stayed in the barrel which made it impossible to load another round in the chamber.
The only way to remedy the problem was to take the gun to the shop, remove the barrel and do the old bronze brush trick to remove the front portion of the brass.

The second incident was while shooting a custom 1911 in 40S&W caliber.
The case head ruptured (not the normal web area rupture), letting the hot gas cut the breech face of the slide and a strange pattern in the top of the chamber of the barrel.
This caused a perfectly reliable gun to immediately start having failure to feed issues because of the depths of the cuts.
It took a new slide and barrel to fix the problem with this gun.

If either of these incidents would have taken place when you needed your gun the most, I believe the pucker factor would have been extremely high.

As I said earlier I'm now thinking a bug gun would be a better choice then a spare mag.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com

January 23, 2014, 01:07 PM	#201
Hunter Customs Senior Member Join Date: March 26, 2005 Location: Osborn, Missouri Posts: 2,697	It all depends on where I'm going and what I'm doing. When on my horse out in the woods I mostly carry a S&W model 36 38 special with 5 extra rounds. When going to the cities I mostly carry a custom 1911 commander in 45 acp with 8 rounds and a spare mag. However I'm beginning to think instead of a spare mag for my 1911 a bug gun such as a Kel-Tec P11 may be a better choice. The reason for this is, in the last few years I've had two incidents with factory ammo failures that totally disabled the gun I was shooting the ammo in. The first incident was while doing some defense drills with my commander. The factory 45acp shell casing split all the way around about half way up between the front and rear of the case (very much like a rifle case will do in a rifle with head space issues). The rear portion of the brass ejected, the front portion of the brass stayed in the barrel which made it impossible to load another round in the chamber. The only way to remedy the problem was to take the gun to the shop, remove the barrel and do the old bronze brush trick to remove the front portion of the brass. The second incident was while shooting a custom 1911 in 40S&W caliber. The case head ruptured (not the normal web area rupture), letting the hot gas cut the breech face of the slide and a strange pattern in the top of the chamber of the barrel. This caused a perfectly reliable gun to immediately start having failure to feed issues because of the depths of the cuts. It took a new slide and barrel to fix the problem with this gun. If either of these incidents would have taken place when you needed your gun the most, I believe the pucker factor would have been extremely high. As I said earlier I'm now thinking a bug gun would be a better choice then a spare mag. Best Regards Bob Hunter www.huntercustoms.com