Good Day At The Range

[AzShooter]

Today I shot out monthly Steel Challenge match with my Volquartsen Black Mamba and test fired my new Colt 1911 22 Gold Cup Trophy. I shot the best time I've had in 5 years.

Even with a few jams, ammo related, my times were faster. I've been practicing on plain paper targets ( Bianchi Tombstone ) instead of Shoot N See targets which I think has helped my confidence.

I was verifying each shot on the black targets but with the white and not being able to see the X or 10 ring, I built up my confidence and speed. I've got a long way to go to get back to my original speeds but every gain is welcome. I could watch my dot and just felt when I had a miss. My pick-up shots were very quick.

( Ammo Problem): CCI Standard Velocity doesn't seem to like the cold but worked flawlessly once the temps got over 70. It doesn't make sense but it happened to two of us using SV today. I've been running Mini Mags the last few months and they work 100% but I didn't want to waste my stash and I have over a case of SV. I'll regulate it to practice instead of matches until I figure this out.

I also shot my GC. I loaded up 7 magazines with CCI Blazer for the test. I just wanted to see if it would function perfectly after doing a trigger job. Had hammer fall a few times and I know how to fix it so I'll do that tomorrow ( Sear Spring tension ) I have 5 springs to replace the one I shot today. I'd rather just replace the spring then bend the leaf for the disconnector. When I get it going right I'll play with lighter trigger pulls again.

This gun is a real blast. It's just like shooting my old 1911 but there is absolutely no recoil. Accuracy is superb and I didn't have one miss throughout the test. Of course the targets are quite large for Steel Challenge but I could sweep from target to target watching the fiber optic sight and had no extemporaneous movement.

Next month the club is having an abbreviated match with only 5 stages so I plan on shooting the Colt for fun.

[StrangeBird1911]

When I shoot speed steel, it seems that EVERYONE shooting a 22 pistols has ammo problems. As a 9mm guy, seems to me that 22 technology isn't reliable.

[Mike38]

CCI Standard Velocity doesn't seem to like the cold but worked flawlessly once the temps got over 70. It doesn't make sense but it happened to two of us using SV today.

You are not the only one that has had problems with CCI-SV. For the past year or so, for what ever reason, CCI-SV seems to have more wax on it than previous years. Cold makes the wax slightly harder, and problems with semi autos fully closing happen more often. I gave up on CCI, as well as all waxed .22LR. I now use what I would call "oiled" .22LR such as SK Pistol Match. The SK costs almost twice as much as CCI, but little to no failures makes up for it, for me anyhow.