Mike Harris recently made me aware of Action Shooting International , a shooting league that holds move-and-shoot matches. It was interesting because the courses of fire are made to be suitable to anyone that can hit a target, and matches are designed to be fun and educational rather than competitive. Yes, stages are scored and technically it is a competitive sport, but scores are more for tracking your own progress. There are no ‘classes’ of shooters, no prizes- the idea is to have fun, socialize, learn where you need to improve and to track your progress.

Some thirty years back I shot USPSA/IPSC matches, but by the end of the 1980’s I had stopped, for a variety of reasons. Most of these come back to money; the cost of ammo, the cost of a competitive gun etc. But there was a part of me that didn’t relish the hyper-competitive atmosphere and the ever-increasing gamesmanship employed to be competitive. ASI, with it’s more laid-back attitude, was appealing to me. I decided to give it a try.

According to their website you need a handgun of 9mm caliber or larger (.380 ACP counts,) and I certainly had a variety of options available. I decided to go with one of my carry-guns, a Detonics Mk.1 Combat Master .45. I had a holster but needed a mag-pouch. I whipped one up Friday, so there wasn’t really any time to practice with it before the match- which certainly showed in my performance! I didn’t make things easier on myself by making a ‘match’ style high-profile pouch- this one is meant for concealment and works quite well for that.

The Match was due to start at 10AM and I showed up at Renton Fish and Game at about 9:15. My pal Pat Hillyer was due to meet me there early to settle any issues or questions since this was my first match. You can show up with a loaded gun, but you cannot carry one around the match for safety reasons. No problem- just find a range officer and tell them you need to unload and they’ll walk you over to a shooting bay to do so.

Next was filling out the waiver and paying the range fee. Helpful to know that they only take cash for the $20 range fee- or you can walk over to the rifle range when they open at 10 AM to use a card. After that there was a new-shooter’s briefing, which was basic gun-handling safety and range commands. Then you sign up for a squad; they started with a squad at each of the six stages, and you simply rotate through the stages from there. Pat put me on a squad with him and some other people he knew, so I was set. At 10AM there was a Shooter’s Briefing and then we dispersed to our stages.

Given the dual goals of ASI- to be self-defense applicable and to be accessible to anyone that wants to participate- targets were pretty close and the courses of fire were set up to include not more than one reload. Some stages had a mandatory reload, some didn’t. In six stages I went through 53 rounds of ammunition, and one of those was optional. It took about 2-1/2 hours to cycle through the six stages.

The atmosphere was very laid-back and everyone was super-friendly and helpful. There was none of the tension of a ‘serious’ league match. There were people shooting that, from their gear and they way they performed, were obviously IDPA competitors. At the opposite end of the scale there was a fellow who had bought his first pistol three weeks before, and this was the third time he’d shot it. About 70-80 people showed up for the match, which elicited some surprised comments from the range officers.

So, how did I do? I honestly have no idea; I haven’t bothered to look up the results. I did discover some areas I need work on- picking up the front sight quickly and magazine changes were the stand-outs. It also reinforced my dislike of three-dot sight systems; I found the ones on my gun rather imprecise and slow to pick up. Also the gun is less ‘grippy’ than I would have preferred. I learned eventually to relax, have fun and go for it; I was overly cautious on many of the stages, and on the last one I said, ‘What the hell- I’m going to smoke this one!” And I did- except for loading the wrong magazine, which meant the gun went dry unexpectedly. This resulted in some befuddlement and a very slow magazine change (about 8 seconds. Ouch!)

The upshot of it all is that I had a great time with a great bunch of people, learned some things I needed to know and had fun. The best part is that the bar for entry into this form of competition is so low- basically hearing and eye protection, a gun with a reload and a couple of boxes of ammunition, These folks will be happy to guide you through things and help any way they can. I would heartily recommend this to anyone that shoots and wants to expand their skills but is intimidated by the seriousness and intense competition of some other venues like IDPA. If you can hit a target you can have fun at one of these matches, and you’ll have the opportunity to shoot in ways that normal range-time doesn’t allow.

My experience did inspire me to make two changes to my gun- first off, no more three-dot sights. I filled and painted over the white dot on the front sight.

The other modification- I used contact cement to affix a strip of 120-grit emery cloth to the front-strap of the grip. Simple, but it makes a huge difference.

I will definitely be attending ASI matches regularly. For the moment I will be relying on the Detonics, but there’s a revolver match coming up later this year, and at some point (after I am set up to reload the ammo) I very much want to shoot a match with my Mauser C96 ‘Broomhandle.’ Just for the hell of it, and why not? It’s all in good fun anyway.

If you are interested in trying this yourself follow the link above to find a match in your area. You won’t regret it!

Michael Tinker Pearce, 14 May 2019

This is the question my wife asked me the other day. She was getting ready to go to a nearby park to walk Lilly, and I told her I’d like her to take one of her pistols.

“Why?” she asked. “What do you think is going to happen?”

“I don’t think anything is going to happen,” I replied. “If I did I’d be asking you to not go.”

It’s not the first time the question has been asked, and my answer has always pretty much been the same. I carry a pistol for self-defense. The chances I will ever need it are, let’s face it, pretty slim. There are well over 200,000,000 adults living in the USA, but only 300 civilian self-defense shootings a year. Of course this doesn’t count incidents where a gun is deployed that do not result in a shooting, but even if you do include those the odds of needing to use your gun are not high.

I don’t carry a gun because I think something is going to happen. If I thought something was going to happen I wouldn’t go. If I thought I would need a gun and for some unimaginable reason I went anyway I’d take a rifle, thanks very much.

So if I don’t expect anything to happen why carry a gun? Simple- for the same reason I have car insurance even though I don’t expect to get into an accident. For the same reason I have home-owners insurance even though I don’t expect my home to be damaged. For the same reason I have AAA even though I don’t expect my car to break down. For the same reason I take my cell-phone even if I am just going round the block to the convenience store. I do all these things because life has taught me that unexpected things happen. When these unexpected events occur I want the right tools on-hand to deal with the situation as best I can.

It’s axiomatic that it is better to have a thing and not need it than it is to need a thing and not have it. That’s really all of the justification you need.

To be clear- I carry a handgun for self-defense, or the defense of other innocents when there is absolutely no other option. I do not carry it to be a hero and I am not looking for trouble, or a reason to use it. In fact I go out of my way to avoid any situation where I might need it. I live on a pretty safe block, I am aware of my environment. I know my neighbors and my neighborhood. But despite our best intentions and efforts sometimes ‘excrement occurs’ and we have to deal with it, ready or not.

I doubt I will ever need my gun; in fact I earnestly hope that I will not. I would happily live out my days without ever shooting another human being. But if I ever really, really need to I’ll have a gun to do it with.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 4 May 2019

PS: May the 4th be with you!

The first pistols I owned were replicas of Colt’s percussion revolvers, an 5-1/2″ ASM Navy Sherrif’s Model, and a Navy Arms 1860 Army .44. I loved the look and feel of those guns, and more than a few Coyotes met their ends because of them. I graduated to one of Colt’s ‘re-issue’ Pocket Navy .36s, one of the most beautifully made guns I have owned.

As an aside, the 1860 inspired me to have a T-shirt made. It read, in old-timey script, “Life Insurance by The Colonel” over a drawing of the 1860 Army, and in smaller script beneath, “Address Colonel Samuel Colt, New York, USA.”

They were fun to shoot and surprisingly accurate… but they were painfully slow to reload, only reasonably reliable and clean-up was a pain in the butt. Following the best information I had at the time I would fully disassemble each revolver, immerse it in boiling water, then scrub with hot water and dish soap, then dry everything in a warm oven before oiling it and reassembly. Eventually I was seduced away by modern cartridge revolvers, and seldom looked back.

Around a decade ago I discovered the wonderful world of cartridge-conversion revolvers, and the Kirst gated Conversions that would let me make my own from inexpensive percussion revolvers. I started off with a Remington snubby with a .45 Colt conversion, and progressed to a Colt .45 Schofield conversion.

Kirst makes a hell of a good product, but they aren’t cheap and I am, so it was inevitable that I would eventually start doing my own conversions. I started by boring through percussion cylinders and making breech-plates for them. In a six-shot percussion cylinder there simply isn’t room for a .45 caliber cartridge (percussion .44s have a .451″ bore, but conventional .45-caliber cases are close to .475 in diameter) which is why the Kirsts are 5-shooters. A bored-through percussion cylinder takes a .44 caliber casing with a .451 heel-base bullet, like the original .44 Colt. In other words the bullet and case are the same diameter.

I made some dies to swage 200gr LFP bullets into a heel-base bullet and bought a special crimping die and set to work developing loads, with limited success using smokeless powders. The best results were with Trail Boss, but it was still somewhat inconsistent, and not entirely satisfactory.

I also did a Colt Walker conversion, shortening the barrel and boring through the cylinder. While there is more than ample room in the cylinder for a .45-caliber cartridge I decided to go a different route… I shortened and expanded some British .303 cartridges and loaded them with my 200gr heel-base bullets- it is, in effect, a ‘stretched’ .44 Colt. With a wonking great charge of Trail Boss behind it, it worked well enough. Since the case will comfortably hold 55gr. of Black Powder I called the resulting cartridge .44-55 Walker.

Eventually I bought a cop-and-ball revolver to convert to fire cartridges, and it came with a flask of FFFg black powder. Just for fun I loaded a .44 Colt cartridge with it. I’ll make a note here- BP is dead easy to reload in cartridges designed for it. Since you cannot have air gaps in the chamber when dealing with BP, cases are designed to hold the correct amount of powder. Simply fill the case almost to the rim and you’ve got the right load. Stuff a bullet on top, crimp it and you are good to go. I also loaded a few .44-55’s with it. I took the guns off to the range and, with some trepidation, touched off a few rounds.

Wow. It was a transformational experience; the guns barked with authority and set a massive cloud of smoke downrange. Finally my .44 Colts were acting as they should. The .44-55 Walker was even better- it actually recoiled like it meant business, though it’s still not at all uncomfortable. Since my latest .44 Colt conversion also has a percussion cylinder I loaded that up and tried it. The same grin-inducing boom-and-buck.

I don’t think I am going to get back into cap-and-ball revolvers at this point in time- but FFFg is my powder of choice for these two cartridges from here on out. I’m even planning on doing a rolling-block carbine in .44-55 Walker to complement ‘Thumper’ (The converted Walker revolver.)

Yes, clean-up takes a bit more effort, but my standard cleaning regimen works just fine- some Hoppe’s #9 followed by a bit of CLP and the gun is good to go. The guns do need to be cleaned immediately after coming back from the range; black-powder residue is hydrophilic and rapidly attracts moisture, so you want it out of your gun as quickly as you can conveniently manage.

I have a number of antiques that fire black-powder cartridges like .450 Adams, but having developed satisfactory smokeless loads for these guns I am a little reluctant to expose them to the mess.

So, the Holy Black is back in my life- for limited uses at least!

Michael Tinker Pearce, 26 April 2019