Well, that didn’t go well!
Between some gear issues and my one-handed performance being a bit of a shambles, the weekend didn’t quite go as intended. I made the three-hour trek up to the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center again, this time for my very first Pistol Clinic.
Following the familiar format of safety briefs, solid tuition, and plenty of shooting, I felt ready for the program. I’d brought along my Springfield 1911 and my Buckmark, with my XD tucked away as a third option just in case. The 1911 actually performed brilliantly during the initial training and drills.
We started the morning with a Red Coat Assessment, and I only managed to clear the 44-yard target. We spent the rest of the morning working through the drills, and by the afternoon, we were ready to tackle the first P-AQT. That first one went mostly without a hitch, though I failed to get a couple of rounds off and recorded a 158.
Then the wheels started to come off. During the second test, the 1911 began acting up—failure to feeds and a stovepipe or two. I didn’t even bother getting it scored. After more of the same, I made the call to switch over to my Buckmark URX and some Aguila SE .22 LR. I had a cheap Amazon red dot mounted on it, which proved to be another hurdle.
As always, the breaks were filled with fantastic Revolutionary War history narrated by our volunteer instructors. It’s consistently one of the best parts of these clinics.
The switch to the Buckmark helped with the recoil, but I struggled to find that cheap dot quickly, and it sat much higher over the bore axis than I’m used to. I did manage to eke out three more scorable P-AQTs, recording scores of 189, 202, and 196. Stage 3—the one-handed stage—was what really ate my lunch every single time.
Overall, it was a frustrating weekend. In my opinion, the pistol is a significantly bigger test of marksmanship than the rifle. Still, a bad weekend on the range is miles better than a bad weekend on the couch! I’ll be back to settle the score.
A Rifleman learns from his gear failures and comes back stronger!
—EnglishBob
