10 Sep 98, Thursday, 9:16PM
This from a friend in Oklahoma. Sounds like a good idea!
With all the terrible heat here this summer, we have discovered another desirable modification to the 1911. Since we sweat greatly in this one-hundred-degree, plus heat, and since all that sweat beads up on the port side of the gun, we discovered that the safety-lever plunger in the plunger tube of some pistols have rusted in place!! It freezes the safety lever in place, and thus renders the pistol useless. We subsequently replaced the plungers with the stainless variety, and the problem quicky disappeared.
We’ve just completed this year’s Invitational at Hocking College in Ohio. Some changes/observations:
>On both our pistol and rifle tests, we have now added mandatory, lateral movement. Evidence that this modification is befitting and has been compelling, and it is now official.
>Our Canadian student ran us all through the new and now-official Canadian Police Defensive Pistol Test. It also requires lateral movement and follow-up on all stages and correct use of cover. Center-chest hits are required. It think it is really very enlightened, and genuinely challenging. I hope they stick with it. It could be improved (elimination of some of the twenty-five meter stage, requiring fewer shots overall, etc), but it is very good as it is.
>In our pistol training, we are emphasizing drawing to the retention piston (rock and lock) before full extension, per advice from our African friends, who have seen many officers forcefully disarmed, because they arched into the draw (scooping or bowling).
/John
