1/19/09

Well, I didn’t buy a 1911 over the weekend. It wasn’t from a lack of trying though. Oh, I say that. “It wasn’t from a lack of shopping” is more accurate. So here’s how the weekend went, at least up until Saturday night. Friday after work, Larry Shuttlebus and I went to Cheaper Than Dirt Outdoor Adventures. I'm not sure what he was shopping for though. I looked at the 1911s but they were all out of my price range. I perused the other cases to look at other options, but nothing really struck my fancy. I looked for replacement/spare magazines for the Hebrew Hammer but they didn’t have any. I wound up buying two 100-round ammo storage boxes, 150 rounds of round-nose ball ammo, and fifty rounds of Federal Hydroshock self defense ammo. Oh, I also found out what model number of “thumb saver” magazine loader thing I'll need. They didn’t have that one. Larry looked at some stuff and we finally left. On the way home I called Cutie Patootie’s range to get the price on that Taurus PT1911 I saw in the case. I described to the guy where I saw it and he told me the price. I don’t remember now what he said because he went on to say that there was another PT1911 in 9mm sitting there! I knew John would shit kittens if I found and bought a 1911 in 9mm so I knew I had to go see it. That was my new plan for Saturday morning. Come Saturday morning, I got to sleep in because John’s wife, Samantha, had to work or something. He’d said, or I thought I remembered him saying, she was going to be done by 1100 h so I headed over to Cutie Patootie’s range to check out that alleged Taurus PT1911 in 9mm. Yeah, it was a PT111 Millennium not a PT1911. I can see how he’d add the “9” in there. No big whoop. The 1911s they had were all out of my price range for that day also so I shot the Hebrew Hammer instead. Oh, I also dropped off the Judge to have the lead fouling cleaned out. I am not going to shoot Cowboy Action Lead Ball ammo in that gun any more. I'll bite the proverbial bullet and pay the $1.00 to $2.50 a shot for the jacketed hollow points when I “need” to shoot that gun. But back to the Hebrew Hammer, I fired the rest of the flat-nosed stuff I'd bought with the gun and it misfed two times in ten rounds. I shot about fifty rounds of the round-nosed stuff and it fed fine. I tried ten rounds of JHP and it misfed once or twice. When I was done in the range, I told the dude behind the counter that I'd drop off the Hebrew Hammer for a ramp polishing after I took my CHL class next Saturday. It was now around 1130 h so I called John. Samantha still wasn’t home and the “new” time assessment was for 1230 h at least. I said I'd go see Steve/John about the broken hanger on Fifi’s zorst but after hanging up decided I really didn’t want to drive all the way over there and back. I wound up driving around for an hour. Yeah, I see the irony. Shut up. Actually, I went back to CTDOA for a bit then drove around. I called John at 1230 to assess the situation and was asked my twenty. I told him I was right around the corner and was invited to, “Come on by.” He hopped in and we went to Academy Sports and Outdoors to look at Taurus PT1811s. They didn’t have the one I wanted which was an all black model. They had the stainless and some other tarted up one, but not the one in my price range. John looked at Hebrew Hammers I think and then we left. We went to Cabela’s to see what they had to offer. Again, nothing I was willing to buy that day. Well, no firearms, I did buy another hundred rounds of .45 caliber ball ammo. I think we went to Winchester Gallery next and John thought long and hard about the metal-framed 9mm Hebrew Hammer. He couldn’t bring himself to pull the proverbial trigger on the deal though. At some point during the excursion we had lunch and discussed options. John mentioned the Taurus PT111 Millennium as being a good 9mm. He pointed out that Academy had them for somewhere in the $350.00 range. We went to Academy again because I seemed to remember that being better than Cutie Patootie’s price, and it would be a new gun. CP’s was used I'm sure. At Academy I saw it, an all-black PT111 in 9mm for $274.95! I fondled it a bit and said, “Wrap one up.” I filled out the paperwork and was approved by the ATF to buy it. Oh, John had called this Academy and asked about their Hebrew Hammer selection. He was told that they had a metal framed 9mm but it turned out to be another “Combat Tupperware” model. They did however have a metal framed .45 caliber model! I wish I'd known. Oh well. John played with them for a bit then decided he needed the metal-framed 9mm at Winchester. We hauled ass back across town and walked in the door just as they were closing. I looked at a few things while he bought the gun. I took him back home and headed for the house myself. I unpacked my new gun and cleaned off the Cosmoline and other greasy residue. I fiddled with it for a while and discovered that one of the magazines didn’t have the polymer extension on the bottom for your finger. With that mag, my pinky rides under the gun. Well, since I'd gotten used to that with Slick Willie, it wasn’t a big deal. I loaded the replacement .45 ammo into the storage cases and packed my gun bag for Sunday. I planned to go to Whiskey Flats and try out the new gun. Oh, I think I'm going to call it Millie by the way. I updated my ammunition inventory and went to bed. I'll tell y'all about Sunday’s exploits tomorrow.