Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911 Endurance Test: Report #21

The SACS/Warren pistol saw a good number of rounds over the past week between the class with  Robert Vogel (pictured left) and regular practice.

I was only able to attend the first day of the Vogel class due to unforeseen circumstances but it was a worthwhile day of training. Robert has a unique approach to gripping the handgun that is definitely worth exploring. It involves getting the support hand much farther forward than most people teach (myself included) and using the base of the thumbs more than the palm to put pressure on the frame.

One of the fun drills we shot involved five pieces of steel and a giant casino die. On the buzzer you roll the die and it tells you which target you start on. You engage the leftmost target (T1) with one round, T2 with two sounds, and so on. I rolled a six… but because there were only five targets that meant I was to start on T1.

I’m genuinely sorry that I missed the second day of class. Everyone said it involved a lot of good drills and some good-natured competition between the students. I did get some decent video of myself to help analyze technique better, like this simple 2-reload-2 drill. Given the skill level of some of the students in the class I was pretty happy to be starting my reload before anyone else broke their first shot:

After taking a few days off from gun handling I started my dry fire routine again. Thursday night as I neared the end of my 100 slidelock reload practice I noticed a small screw had fallen out of the gun: the trigger overtravel screw. Replacing and adjusting it made me realize how much overtravel the gun had developed recently. It feels much more tuned and proper now.

Friday I spent a full day at the range split up into three separate practice sessions. The results were excellent. I set a personal best on this week’s pistol-forum.com Drill of the Week — the iHack — with five straight clean runs. I also tied my personal best on JodyH’s great 99 Drill with a 97… I dropped one point each during the 7yd 3-shot and 10yd 3-shot stages. And finally, for the first time since I picked up the Springfield 1911 I managed a perfect 50 on Dot Torture at 7yd (my personal record is 10yd, performed during the HK45 test three years ago).

This coming week includes a KSTG match, hopefully a lot more dry fire time, and at least one range practice. Look for the next update.

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG

You can also follow and discuss via the pistol-forum.com 2012-2013 Endurance Test thread.

Previous Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911 Endurance Test posts at pistol-training.com:

• Report #20
• Report #19
• Report #18
• Report #17
• Report #16
• Report #15
• Report #14
• Report #13
• Report #12
• Report #11
• Report #10
• Report #9
• Report #8
• Report #7
• Report #6
• Report #5
• Report #4
• Report #3
• Report #2
• Report #1
• Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911: The Magazines
• Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911: The Gun
• I Own 1911s
• Springfield Endurance Test Guns
• Why 1911?