Well, the grips and the trigger shoe look salvageable,
so it's not a total loss.
Very odd 1911 configuration, almost as if somebody had made a newbie a "deal" on this thing when the newbie didn't want to pay Kimber, Les Baer, Ed Brown, etc... prices. I can't imagine anyone who'd had a 1911 that long to not know the difference between a .40 S&W and a .45 ACP cartridge almost instinctively.
The author looses all credability with this remark.
The 1911 is the best looking semiauto pistol ever made.
What's a trigger shoe?
Upon inspection, I found that I had chambered a roll of wintergreen lifesavers.
So I made the same mistake--backwards.
Good thing--the 1991 is now worth ~$1500 due to custom work.
My eyesight is getting really bad. Both boxes of ammo looked the same in the dim light and a couple rounds had rolled out of the .45 box. Yeah; I should not have had them both on the bench at the same time. My bad.
I shot good with the .45; good with my .22 ruger; AWFUL with the sig. My eyeballs just are now having trouble with the white-dot sights. G**d getting old is rotten.
--Boris, both guns intact; some targets left in range trash can!
I got a Romanian AK-47 clone recently, the WASR-10, took it to the range for the first time yesterday. Had a great time.
There were some gangbanger rap video looking jokers there shooting a .357 revolver, having trouble hitting the target (large silhouette - they were excited if they could hit the corner of the paper) at about 15 feet. They saw my AK and wanted to fire it, I said, sure if I can put a few rounds through your .357. Got a nice grouping with his .357
He went on to try to fire my AK, and at first wanted to fire from the HIP. Oh sheesh. No, I said, from the shoulder. He raised it, and had the buttstock about 3 inches in FRONT of his shoulder. No, plant it in your shoulder. Close your left eye. Line up the sights.
I was in the lane nearest the wall (indoor range) and the wall was all he could hit... Doh.
Ugly, yes, but valuable and probably an excellent shooting gun in it's "before" condition. Throwing away the trigger shoe and the chrome parts would have helped a lot, and picking up a round off the ground and putting it in your gun is just stupid, even if it's the RIGHT caliber. Unless you're the one who dropped it, you don't know where it's been or who loaded it.
What a dumbass..
All of you would be experts miss the major error here. The guy had an unusual discharg and did not, since it was not a combat situation, fully inspect the weapon and fired the piece with an obstructed bore. It is amazing how easy it is to load a .40 in a .45 mag. I did it myself on my private range. After the unique discharge, the weapon was cleared and inspected. In my case the extractor pulled the ruptured .40 case out of the chamber and no damage was done to the gun.
Yikes..
I'm just glad the guy's ok. Maybe he'll learn something from this and go on to teach others.
I would also add the practice of not using other's reloads and I don't buy surplus powder.
That is like loading a dud where the primer fires and lodges the projectile somewhere inside the barrel, then manually loading a live round on top of it.
There was a guy at Gabe Suarez's Frontsight acadamy in Nevada who shot himself in the leg do to a trigger shoe, not a good thing on a combat handgun.
I'm surprised they didn't make this guy remove it.
........ er speaking of which, where is that 9mm of mine Eaker?
I was plinking using my own handloads. Shooting double taps and noticed a squib round but had fired the second before I could stop. The second shot kicked hard but I didn't see anything wrong with the gun.
I took it home and field stripped it. That was when I noticed a bulge in the barrel. I eventually replaced the barrel although it shot as well as ever, which was very good.
As near as I can figure, I had put too much lube on the case and it had contaminated the powder. The bullet had stayed in the barrel.
One thing I never figured out was how that squib had enough power to eject and chamber a second round.