Rallypoint.org After Action Report

Yesterday was the latest Rallypoint.org shoot, down at Doubleaction.org in Yeadon, PA, and it looks like we gained another shooter -- my wife.

When I met her, my wife was decidedly anti-gun. Over time I converted her to ambivalency. Yesterday, she came to the range with my dad, brother and myself. My brother has instructor experience and is a good teacher, so at her request I let him handle the instruction while I went to my own booth and shot.

He started off with the very basics -- stance, sight picture, breath control, and the manual of arms for the S&W Model 18. We set a target out at about 5 yards. At first she didn't hit the paper but by the time we left she was printing decent groups centered on the paper.

Afterwards she mentioned that now she wants to go again but next time try a Browning Buckmark, and to get a "nice little pink gun" to keep in our bedroom. :-D

While my wife was learning how to shoot, I ran 55 rounds through my Springfield M1911. On Saturday I'd swapped out the full length guide rod for a GI-style spring guide and plug, because the FLGR makes it a PITA to field strip. I'm not sure if it was the new spring guide or the UMC ammo I was shooting, but I constantly was experiencing last-round failures to eject. After shooting the last round in a mag, about half the time the case would fail to clear the ejection port, and get caught between the magazine feed lips and the front edge of the port. Heretofore, this pistol has been extremely reliable so I'm going to try it with Winchester USA ammo, which it is known to work well in it. If that doesn't fix it I'll try different magazines, and if it's still malfing after that, I'll put the FLGR back in.

I also shot my S&W Model 640 .38 Special snubbie. As expected, it worked perfectly.

Aside from that, a fellow shooter let me run 10 rounds through his Stevens Visible Loader .22 slide action rifle. This was made sometime in the late 19th/early20th Century, and is a neat old gun. In deference to the age of the piece we used CCI CB Caps. With these there was less noise and recoil than some spring piston air rifles I've shot.