Took a couple "new to me" handguns for a spin this morning

[AllenM]

Nothing makes me happier than having a new gun to try out and workup loads for. I am not much of a "combat" shooter, I like trying for extreme accuracy. Probably comes from being a rifle person

Last week I traded for a Clark Longslide 1911 that looked to be in great shape.

So I ordered bullets and powder, worked up a couple loads and went to the range this morning.

Other than being soo out of practice I had a ball with this gun.
It is extremely accurate and I could get plenty of 1.5 inch 3 shot groups at 25 yards freehand,
but I could not hold it together for 5 shots. Just to out of practice.

This is one of my targets, not my best grouping of shots today but one of my best 5 shot targets. A few more trips to the range and I will get this tightened up I am sure. Then on to 50 yards.
I am confident the gun will do it.

Oh I do have one excuse for the soso group, I was trying to sight in a scope on a 44 mag at the same time i was shooting this gun and switching back and forth...Not one of my better ideas

25 yards freehand

 

[NHT3]

Looks like a really nice shape "old school" Clark.. Great find.
[FONT=&quot]NRA Life member [/FONT][FONT=&quot]GSSF member[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
Gunsite graduate Certified Glock armorer[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]1911 Mechanic[/FONT]

 

[JohnP82]

Congrats! and nice shootin

 

[drillsgt]

Great shooting and nice old Clark you got there.

 

[T-DOGG]

If that's your "soso" group at 25yards freehand, I'd hate to see from a rest. Seriously that's not a group to be ashamed of, not in my book at least. Good shooting!!

 

[AllenM]

Yea I been researching bullets and have found a better bullet than what I originally bought, so I ordered some last night.
After a bunch of reading the bullets I shot were not the best. Not bad just not as nice as are available.
I want to test a few different powders and see if anything works better than Bullseye
Yea for load work up.

 

[Colt556]

Nice shooting and great lookin gun!

 

[AllenM]

Nice shooting and great lookin gun!

We'll have to get together once I work a load out for it. Thanks for parting with it

 

[Josh Ward]

Very Nice !!!

 

[Fenway]

Very nice Allen!

 

[AllenM]

Thanks

 

[Que]

Allen, those are very nice. Tell me, what do you like about Bullseye. I've never tried it, but may give it a try.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Darned good grouping. I'm going tomorrow and will use a much larger target at 25 yards

 

[G_Stines]

Allen, as a fellow reloaded and accuracy nut, try a small bottle of Titegroup or Hp-38. 180 gr BTHP and Titegroup have given me a couple of prize papers to keep in the drawer. HP-38 works well for me with JRN, and another good combo is 155 SLWC and bullseye. My experiences and I hope they help, if you haven't already considered these experiments.

 

[AllenM]

Allen, those are very nice. Tell me, what do you like about Bullseye. I've never tried it, but may give it a try.

Que,
I don't know really, other than I grew up out west and always shot rifle. It wasn't until I moved to Indiana that I even learned how to shoot a handgun.
Also it ties in to my reloading in testing and working up accurate loads. It is easy to make a load that goes bang every time, but wait and see with this gun I will have a load that will be dead nutz accurate before I am done.

Sometimes I think I like to tinker more than shoot. Just like building cars once there done I am ready for the next project

Although in another thread you had mentioned doing 50 round drills as a way to conserve ammo and work on shooting skills.
I would be interested in what type of drills you were referring too.
I do like to improve anyway I can.

 

[AllenM]

Allen, as a fellow reloaded and accuracy nut, try a small bottle of Titegroup or Hp-38. 180 gr BTHP and Titegroup have given me a couple of prize papers to keep in the drawer. HP-38 works well for me with JRN, and another good combo is 155 SLWC and bullseye. My experiences and I hope they help, if you haven't already considered these experiments.

Yes I used to use a bunch of titegroup until I got tired of being poked fun at about shooting a muzzle loader to date I have had my best loads with 4.2 grs of titegroup behind a 200gr SWC, so I have some Dardas bullets on order now that are supposed to smoke less and have excellent accuracy I am going to try that load in this gun.

However I am going tomorrow to Profire to pickup up Titegroup and WST also I have Solo 1000 I am going to give a whirl

I hear a lot of good about WST so I want to try it out

 

[AllenM]

I tried too shoot again today without any distractions and a couple changes to my loads.
I think I am really close with my 25 yard load.

I played with crimp tension and modified powder charge by .1 gr I I have a really nice shooting load but I will work up to more variants just to make sure I am in the middle of an accuracy node with this powder bullet combo. Then I can use this as a baseline.

As pleased as I was with one of the loads though I am not sure I am shooting to its potential.
Wish I had a ransom rest.

Any way a couple targets: All were shot standing using 2 hands but no support

My best target is this seven shots, I pulled one and I knew when I did it. But I was still very happy with the results.

6 shots "1 3/4 minus my pulled shot

Here are some targets where I loosened the crimp .002 I could definatley tell they were loosening up some.

 

[Fullmag]

Good shoot'en. Never heard of them "Dardas" bullets. Have heard Bullseye shoots well with lead bullets. Will follow your results with interest, keep them coming.

 

[mtb1981]

Nice pistols, thanks for the pics. How long is the barrel on the Clark?

 

[AllenM]

It's a 6"