CWSA Hanging Plate Match 10/01/06

Well, yesterday's hanging plate match certainly wasn't a high-point of my shooting season. My always reliable High Standard that shot flawlessly all day long at Saturday's pin shoot, and shot flawlessly Saturday evening for shooting my entries for the e-Postal handgun golf match, decided after the first distance was shot to start mis-feeding. I had checked the gun over Saturday night, did a little cleaning and checking, and made sure it was ready to go.

For the first three shot strings at 10 yards, it worked perfectly, and I had a perfect 18 for 18 going. At 15 yards it mis-fed after the first shot was fired. You only have six seconds for each string of six shots, so if it's jammed at all ,you don't have time to get it cleared and get any more shots off. Why couldn't it have been after the sixth shot had been fired? Second run, it mis-fed after the second shot. Third run, after the first shot again. Score at the first distance: 6-6-6. Score at the second distance 1-2-1. YUCK!

I scurried back to the bench where you could do repairs, and popped off the barrel and slide. Cleaned and lubed everything, although it looked OK. Cleaned the magazines too, but they also looked OK. Changed to a different box of ammo, in case there was a bad batch or something. When I got back to the line for the fifteen yard runs, it didn't work much better, although I did get a few hits. Still lots of mis-feeds.

For the fourth distance, 25 yards, I switched to a different brand of ammo that had never worked too well for me in the past due to failure to fires. They fed and fired perfectly, and I shot 6-5-6. Go figure. It was Evil Al's day, and congratulations to him for both good shooting and good sportsmanship, as it was Al who gave me the alternate ammo that allowed me to shoot the final three shot strings. (He did mention that he would be mailing me a bill for the ammo, however!)

Sounds like it's time for a complete dis-assembly and ultra-sonic cleaning of the High Standard and it's magazines.