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It was “International” at Nighthawks league last night. The turnout was relatively small especially considering that the temperature had backed off from previous weeks.

Posted in a thread at forum.m1911.org as user edski.

Time to reverse myself in this same thread.

The heat last night was oppressive at the weekly Nighthawks league at the [Phoenix Rod and Gun Club][1]. As I prepared for each shot, I couldn’t tell if those things crawling down the back of my neck, chest and leg were beads of sweat or the swarming bugs. There was almost no air movement and clouds of smoke hung on the line. The floodlight on target 1 was missing its cover and the bugs that flew into it gave off a unique roasting aroma each time we walked past to score the targets.

There were eight shooters at last night’s Nighthawks league at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club. There was one Tyro (me), one Expert, five Masters and one High Master. We shot the “International” (as in Olympics) style competition consisting of three Slow Fire and three Dueling Fire targets of ten rounds each. Mario was the winner with 570 (out of 600) points and took home a small cash prize.

Ignoring the “first round flyers” (described in previous blog) which I think are an artifact of our test procedure, the group sizes and shapes I fired on the Ransom Rest this past Saturday in my factory-new (December 2004) Smith and Wesson Model 41 were:

We shot eight (8) brands of .22 ammunition at 50 yards yesterday before packing up around Noon when the temperature passed 105. Some recurrent problems were observed that will get followup attention but, nonetheless, the core of the results are reliable and what we were hoping to get.

Joe and I will be doing some accuracy tests tomorrow at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club. We will have a total of three (3) Smith and Wesson Model 41s of various vintages – mine is 99% “factory original” and less than one year old – as well as several other guns.

Some months ago I asked for help on this list [Bullseye-L] in my struggles with the 45. I received many helpful and encouraging replies. As a result, I’ve kept at it and kept at it until enough things finally started to work that I’ve gotten past that early frustration. I’m still well down in Marksman-land for sure but, every now and then, there’s a glimmer, a single target, that suggests what’s ahead.