A frugal way of shooting the 1911A1 pistol

[bae]

The Appleseed folks indeed provide great instruction, it's well worth checking out!

[daisy]

Check out Project Appleseed for free all day and multi day range time and instruction (not that you need that) in a variety of long guns - even some from the revolutionary war (get your musket balls and powder ready :-)!). You do have to pay for ammo though but they sell it cheap at their "bootcamps". Unfortunately for men it costs. If I was a guy I'd be soooooo wildly fired up and pissed off at free ""ladies nights" when you have to pay. But hey, maybe you like it, what do I know :-)!

Oh cool! Right now the closest I can find is about 4 hours away, so I'll have to keep watching. I have access to outdoor shooting areas, but it would be a lot of fun to try out several different guns.

[Spartana]

Oh cool! Right now the closest I can find is about 4 hours away, so I'll have to keep watching. I have access to outdoor shooting areas, but it would be a lot of fun to try out several different guns.

I've never been to one but my sister just went to a 2 day Appleseed thing and said she loved it. Not only did she get to shoot pretty much everything (as well as her own rifles) it didn't cost her anything! Plus, as an attractive woman in a place that is 99% men, she got to try out alot of other people's rifles and didn't have to pay for the ammo! And after seeing your very cute profile pic, you'll get lots of manly help too :-)!!. She's going to one of their week long camps as soon as she gets laid off from her job (heavily armed security of all things :-)!) and has the free time. Those cost but I think it's only about $10/day plus you have to pay for your own motel or campsite. Sounds fun!

[bae]

I was out working in the woods much of the day today, and put about 500 rounds through this shooting at random fun stuff. It always went bang, and I really enjoyed shooting it.

This is now one of my favorite guns for messing-around-with.

I'm going to order a Patton-style holster for it from El Paso Saddlery tomorrow I think :-)

As to Appleseeds, they offer great shooting instruction, but I will give fair warning, some of the ones I've been to also offered a pretty classical-liberal presentation of early American history, and the reasons you might want to be proficient with a rifle, which some may take issue with.

[Spartana]

As to Appleseeds, they offer great shooting instruction, but I will give fair warning, some of the ones I've been to also offered a pretty classical-liberal presentation of early American history, and the reasons you might want to be proficient with a rifle, which some may take issue with.

My sister did say they gave a history lesson. She liked it and found it interesting but isn't too much of a history buff so didn't really have an opijnion one way or the other on it's objectivity. She just like to shoot at things - random fun stuff like you do :-)!

[daisy]

I would be in it for the shooting, too, rather than the history lesson. But I might have to leave DH home if he's going to impede my access to other guns.

We really do need to get out and practice. DH and I both want to get the concealed carry license, but we've been so busy with the house project that we haven't taken the time to target shoot. The instructor told us that the aiming requirements aren't too precise, but I don't want to embarrass myself in public.

[Yossarian]

However. .45ACP ammunition is a bit spendy these days. You can easily spend 50 cents or more per round for quality match ammunition.

.22LR runs a few pennies a round for high-grade ammunition.

So this is my new favorite option:




Which is 9x19:





Not as cheap as .22 but 9mm is still much less than .45 ACP. They opened a new range near me so it's been great to pick up an old hobby again. I started buying by the case and am going to start participating in the weekly IDPA shoots (my Glocks are 9mm too) so cost matters. In a fabulous rationalization I figure the gun pays for itself in 5,000 rounds.

I like 9mm better than .45 but there is just something about the 1911 that takes me back to when I was a kid, so this is a win-win for me. Thanks Santa!

[cynergyou]

Nice pistol. Thanks for the photos and review.

another affordable alternative is to get a 22 LR conversion for an existing 1911. I used to have a Kimber conversion kit that would replace the upper half (slide, barrel, etc.) and the magazine and convert the pistol into a 10 shot 22LR 1911. It was very accurate and reliable. The only difference in function between a real 1911 and the conversion was that there was no slide-lock feature when the mag was empty. This was done to avoid peening of the slide stop notch on the aluminum conversion slide.

I eventually sold the conversion kit, but if you are a 1911 fan, it might be a convenient alternative to shooting higher priced centerfire ammo.