Originally posted by Brigadier
Too bad. I've seen $2000-$3000 custom 1911's jam during qualification exams in LFI. Never have I seen a Beretta 92FS jam.
At my LFI class, we even had a Glock magazine break... the follower broke. Mas Ayoob had never seen a Glock mag break before in any of his classes, and he teaches a few
, so he grabbed his camera and took some pics.
If you hang around any training class long enough, or any shooting range long enough, you'll see every type of gun jam, even Glocks and SIGS and Beretta's and Heinie & Novak & Laughridge & Dave Lauck 1911's ... even a Rem 870. It is a matter of time only. Clearing exercises are a must.
It is the shooter's responsibility to make sure their gun shoots reliably and then you must maintain that gun. I even had a Taurus revolver that jammed... sheesh..."revolvers aren't supposed to jam", and not from a bad crimp and bullet displacement either. I had it fixed by a gunsmith (something internal) and sold it. That was my lesson on Taurus vs. S&W. No more.
Originally posted by Brigadier
"Unless you still haven't grown out of the hicap mag fettish."
Fettish? No, just icing on the cake. Plus, I can shoot more and reload less. A nice little advantage under stress. IDPA rules really handicap this advantage.
I used to think more was better too. Then I decided that you have to carry a backup magazine no matter how many rounds you had in your primary. Mags can break, like guns can jam. I also decided that those first 3-4 rounds were absolutely critical. I then chose a big fat .45 acp for those rounds. They need to be very well placed in one or two people typically. The second group of 3-4 rounds is rarely fired in most civilian gun fights. A second magazine full? Not unless you are a spray-n-pray type, or in a true gun battle with multiple people, or your mag went south.
I will say that if I were a cop, I'd probably carry a Glock 22 (40S&W)with hicap mags. (Cops are rarely allowed to carry .45acp, although state troopers sometimes get to). But I'd have a damned 12 ga and a damned .223 carbine in the trunk too! (remember the LA bank robbers!) Cops may get into true gun battles where they must take down the perp, they can't or aren't supposed to totally leave the scene if you see what I mean. Civilians ought to generally be looking to make solid hits and/or find cover (order depends), make solid hits, and then find a way to get the hell out of there.
Your analysis of what's important may vary from that ... well, Brigadier's already did.
Originally posted by Brigadier
No need to [polish the feed ramp] on a Beretta 92. Mine are box stock.
Good for you. You minimized your work load. By that logic, no need to polish a SIG or Glock or a Kimber feed ramp. However, my own personal logic varies... it is a simple task and can make any semi-auto pistol a somewhat more reliable feeding gun if the mags are already good. Directionally, it is a simple and effective modification.
Originally posted by Brigadier
A 115/124 gr. +P+ JHP does the job just fine thank you. Besides, I can rip off 3-4 well placed shots to most .45 owners' 1-2. I've done it in one-on-one training drills. They usually just look at me and shake their head after they lose.Never understood the DA/SA trigger transition problem. Never experienced it. NOW THAT's Hype IMHO, from 1911 devotees.
I would agree, I can shoot a 9mm faster than a .45acp also. I noticed the guys at LFI who shot 9mm could complete their course of fire (6 or 12 rounds) a couple tenths of a second faster than I could with my .45acp (twice the bullet weight, twice the recoil). And they didn't score any better. And you know what, Ayoob makes notes on which gun you complete his courses with. If he goes to court on your behalf, he can say "yep, this guy shot a 295 in our police qualifier with a .45acp, and so sure, he was qualified to have been carrying that 9mm when he shot that @$$hole, for sure. The .45acp is a more demanding gun to shoot." You wouldn't want him to be in the converse position.
I can also shoot a 20ga faster than I can shoot a 12ga. That doesn't mean I take my 20ga duck or goose hunting. Or my .223 deer hunting. And that analogy is an "ok" analogy also. And I also ended up, with the same capability of choosing 9mm over .45acp, choosing .45acp when it was all done.
And I'll say that if someone is more comfortable and confident shooting a 9mm, they should do that. In fact, when somebody asks me what I'd recommend in a self defense pistol, I ask if they are willing to practice with it (if not, revolver in .38sp) and I ask if their wife might/can/would use it, and if so, I recommend a 9mm. And I'm not saying you are a "woman" if you shoot a 9mm. It is the minimum round I'd carry if I was betting my life on a pistol. And 9mm is, in general, easier for most women to handle effectively for that 2nd and 3rd round.
I used to think a light/fast 115/124gr +P etc was "as good" as a .45acp, when I was learning anyway. I used to think "95% stopping power! Yeah! And I can shoot it faster". I read Marshall & Sanow "Street Stoppers" and "Handgun Stopping Power", et al. And I re-read M&S a couple MORE times. Pretty good work, has some methodological problems, but probably better than most any other work out there. Even the FBI goofed in selecting 9mm subsonic for a while. And I read the side of the slow/fast crowd. And I figured out that you had to be very selective about which 9mm rounds you chose, but well chosen, it is an effective round, approaching .40S&W and .45acp when you hit fleshy targets. And then I also noticed that in M&S, it almost didn't matter which .45acp round you chose, so long as you found a hollow point, and found one that fed reliably in your gun. That says to me "it is VERY hard to beat a .45acp hollow point" in terms of
versatility, I repeat,
versatility against a human target. It took me a while to figure that out. But I'm pretty much done thinking about it.
If the 9mm 115/124 expands, you get a nice fat projectile ... IF it expands. If it plugs on clothing, you don't. Same goes for .45acp, except that if it doesn't expand, it's still pretty good diameter and heavy. If you hit bone, or shoot through a car glass or windshield or autobody metal, I'll take the freight train called 230gr Hydrashok anyday over a light/fast. And I also used to think I wanted to minimize overpenetration. No longer. Not after hunting animals (deer). Downrange liability is a tiny probability really. You want a hole out the other side for them to bleed out of, I am absolutely convinced of that. But I'm tired of typing.
It's a debate, and many have argued the pros/cons of both. I used to also. I used to always wonder why Walt Rauch didn't join in the debates on some of the handgun type forums. Then I figured it out. Then I sold all of my 9mm's and all my .40S&W except my Glock 27 for CCW. I decided to kind of "standardize" on .45acp for the car and home. I used to think the 1911 officionado's were over the top and slavish in their devotion. Then I figured it out... the trigger and ergonomics are about as good as it gets, for a lot of people. And so I own 3 1911's (all Kimbers) and 1 Glock in .45acp.
Brigadier, have you shot a 1911? Glock? Sig? If you have and you chose Beretta, you did the right thing. Have you handled a Microtech and Emersons? If you did, and chose Emerson, you ... uh ... aw, nevermind.
(I own a Mach-I that is decent...had to sell the Specwar, it had problems).
I'll take a 1911 and a Microtech anyday.
Others prefer a 9mm DA/SA and an Emerson.
To quote the philosopher Punch, of Punch & Judy fame, "Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Knife content: hey, how about that Emerson QA/QC!
