8 Sept 03

From a friend who just attended a week-long pistol course at a well known school:

"We shot 1000-1200 rounds during the course of the week. Most students brought 1911s. All of them had 'customizing' and aftermarket parts. All 1911s experienced feeding and ejection problems, some chronic. Several broke parts and went down after the first two days.

There was a single Taurus pistol. It fell apart the first day.

An SIG 220 ran well all week, as did a G21. Both were 'out of the box.'

This school likes 1911s, but the performance of the ones in this class was less than inspiring, particularly those that had been 'customized.'"

Lesson: The 1911 system is inherently sound, but its devotees will not be dissuaded from tinkering with it. Usually a bad idea, as we see.

/John