I have had various 1911s since 1973

by passing by, Saturday, April 06, 2013, 00:45 (4253 days ago) @ mcassill

some have been ok, some have been horrible, some have been wonderful, most needed some sort of tweaking and some were horrible no matter what was tweaked or completely rebuilt. I could never take any of them and shoot them with a three finger loosy goosey hold with loose wrist bent 90degs, although one or two came close, Norincos and an old Remington sorry to say.

Probably could have left the G36 alone to see if it failed to extract in another 500rds, but decided to be proactive since a plausible and under $20 cause/fix was available with simple parts swap, and otherwise the gun has been totally flawless, and it amazes me.

It shoots as accurately as most 1911s I have owned, better than some, worse than others, playing card accurate at 25yds, although not easy to do as it is close to a 1911 in feel in some ways, but lacks grip support in other ways, me probably needing some sort of filler on outboard side.

But then i would lose the flat smallness of the G36, and it is 1911 flat throughout, perhaps thinner in grip than some 1911s, depending on panels, but it is their thinnest gun, and probably the only Glock with a reach short enough for my hands, would put it in flat MSH/Long Trigger 1911 reach class.

Certainly most anyone could make a headshot at 25yds with it. I really don't need more accuracy than that, hard to explain to anyone a self defense shooting at 50-100yds most times.

Feed on this one seems pretty much straight line into chamber, it does not set back bullets into cases no matter how many times chambered, although it seems top of ogive just kisses chamber as it feeds. I assume chamber is typical Glock slobbo and that extractor establishes headspace, but just guessing. No case bulging with standard hardball loads, which are no pipsqueaks when it comes to stressing either brass or gun design.

If anyone cares about my theory as to failure to extract with the LCI on the G36, which has many stand-alone parts, i think it has to do with poor hook design combined with angular momentum and mass. The extractor pivots outboard at ejection, the slide accelerates forward, the extra outboard mass and longer design of the LCI extractor leaves it pinned under acceleration in the pivoted-out/case-ejection position, and as it feeds the next round and the slide halts, the extractor never gets a proper seat on rim (it is a CRF design, it seems) and pops over rim at next extraction cycle, leaving empty in chamber, Nice theory anyhow.

Apologies about a REAL hijack. Will post a proper review of G36 sometime, and anyone is free to insert Taurus or Daisy comments there.