The Art and Science of Keeping Your 1911 Running

[Evil_Ed]

Sig and Wilson Combat both offer 38 Super defensive ammo.

FWIW, I've gone through a few hundred rounds (in the neighborhood of 5-600) of the Sig stuff, and I've found it wildly inconsistent. There would usually be 1 to 3 rounds in the box of...20? 25? That were underpowered; enough so that the gun barely cycled and the brass just kind of plopped out the port of the 1911. There'd also be the other side of that, where a couple of rounds would really light the world up. I never noticed any overpressure signs on them, but you could feel the energy difference.

Admittedly this may have been older ammo; the last time I spent any appreciable amount of time shooting Sig 38 Super was maybe 4 or 5 years ago at this point so their load quality may have improved since then.

YMMV and I probably wouldn't mind using it for defensive purposes, if I could guarantee that the loads were consistent.

I bought a couple hundred rounds of Georgia Arms 38 Super 124gr Speer bonded HP loads for defensive use a few years ago; I've got maybe 75 rounds of it left. Very consistent stuff...sadly it looks like when the ammo crunch hit, GA took it off the menu to concentrate on less hipster loads..

[Robinson]

FWIW, I've gone through a few hundred rounds (in the neighborhood of 5-600) of the Sig stuff, and I've found it wildly inconsistent. There would usually be 1 to 3 rounds in the box of...20? 25? That were underpowered; enough so that the gun barely cycled and the brass just kind of plopped out the port of the 1911. There'd also be the other side of that, where a couple of rounds would really light the world up. I never noticed any overpressure signs on them, but you could feel the energy difference.

Admittedly this may have been older ammo; the last time I spent any appreciable amount of time shooting Sig 38 Super was maybe 4 or 5 years ago at this point so their load quality may have improved since then.

YMMV and I probably wouldn't mind using it for defensive purposes, if I could guarantee that the loads were consistent.

I bought a couple hundred rounds of Georgia Arms 38 Super 124gr Speer bonded HP loads for defensive use a few years ago; I've got maybe 75 rounds of it left. Very consistent stuff...sadly it looks like when the ammo crunch hit, GA took it off the menu to concentrate on less hipster loads..

Thanks for report.

[awp_101]

Since we’re talking about hipster rounds (.38 Super SD loads, 9x21, 9x23 ), anyone here ever fiddled with .400 Cor-Bon? No, I don’t have a use for it but I do have a thing for oddball calibers.

[fatdog]

Georgia Arms 38 Super 124gr Speer bonded HP loads for defensive use a few years ago; I've got maybe 75 rounds of it left. Very consistent stuff...sadly it looks like when the ammo crunch hit, GA took it off the menu to concentrate on less hipster loads..

About 15-20 years ago when I was shooting USPSA open with an SVI built in .38 super, I convinced myself to run a single stack carry gun in the caliber for a while. Georgia Arms was loading 147gr Gold dot bullets in .38 super, and those were not only screamers but one hole accurate. I agree, they appear to have dropped everything that is not common commodity to focus on that high volume high margin stuff this year. Their .460 Roland stuff was extremely accurate and the cheapest factory ammo on the market back when.

[Elwin]

First, thanks for the help with spring weights. The gun seems to like the 18lb/23lb combo best, and it shoots well and locks back on empty with everything I tried ranging from powder puff 200gr. SWC loads to 230gr. HST.

On another topic that isn’t directly 1911-maintenance related, but I have to ask it somewhere so it’s going here; is there any non-pirate way to get the Hilton Yam duty tune series in download format? I literally don’t own anything with a DVD drive and would like to avoid investing in dead tech, so a purchase option using the current decade’s technology would be cool.

Yes, I’m a little salty about this.

[Evil_Ed]

First, thanks for the help with spring weights. The gun seems to like the 18lb/23lb combo best, and it shoots well and locks back on empty with everything I tried ranging from powder puff 200gr. SWC loads to 230gr. HST.

On another topic that isn’t directly 1911-maintenance related, but I have to ask it somewhere so it’s going here; is there any non-pirate way to get the Hilton Yam duty tune series in download format? I literally don’t own anything with a DVD drive and would like to avoid investing in dead tech, so a purchase option using the current decade’s technology would be cool.

Yes, I’m a little salty about this.

Buys 110 year old gun, but thinks DVDs are dead technology?

Just buy the DVDs, it's still the portable long term data storage media of choice.

[Elwin]

Buys 110 year old gun, but thinks DVDs are dead technology?

You know what, fair.

[Evil_Ed]

You know what, fair.

Don't get me wrong; I agree they're kind of bulky and not exactly as portable as a thumb drive

On the flip side, you're probably not going to watch it on your phone...you'll have it on a laptop, or monitor, or similar. Something big enough to actually have a dvd drive, or at least a USB port to plug one in.

Once you get the dvd, you can make a backup copy of it to a thumb drive. I'd be surprised if you couldn't call/email Hilton/10-8 and ask for a copy of it on a thumb drive up front, though...

[MGW]

First, thanks for the help with spring weights. The gun seems to like the 18lb/23lb combo best, and it shoots well and locks back on empty with everything I tried ranging from powder puff 200gr. SWC loads to 230gr. HST.

On another topic that isn’t directly 1911-maintenance related, but I have to ask it somewhere so it’s going here; is there any non-pirate way to get the Hilton Yam duty tune series in download format? I literally don’t own anything with a DVD drive and would like to avoid investing in dead tech, so a purchase option using the current decade’s technology would be cool.

Yes, I’m a little salty about this.

This doesn’t answer your question but Amazon has decent external DVD drives for about $20. I know several people that have bought them off of my recommendation. If nothing else it’ll give you options for storing DVDs in a more usable format.

[NPV]

Quick trick for those without a blasting cabinet needing to do some blending. 60 or 80 grit sandpaper and some light tapping with a 5 ounce ball peen hammer will get you pretty close to a “media blasted” finish, barely discernible once the cold blue goes on. Pics below for reference stock extractor is out of the gun on the right.