My 13 year-old son has been wanting a 1911. He enjoys history and WW2 in particular, so he wants a GI model, and he's been saving his pennies. We've been looking at some of the cheaper offerings....Rock Island, Tisas, and the Springfield Milspec...and I think he's leaning towards the Springfield, which makes me happy because IMO it's a better gun.

I wanted to be sure he understood the shortcomings of the GI guns, so we took my Loaded and DRMO 1943 Remington Rand (not really mine, I'm just "fostering" it for work at the moment) to the range yesterday. We shot a dueling tree at 15 yards, and I have to say I was pretty impressed. He's come a long way in the last couple of years, and actually gave me a run for my money a couple of times...and he was shooting that hammer-bitey Remington Rand with crappy sights against me with my worked-over Loaded.

We swapped guns a couple of times so that he could get a feel for the difference. He admitted that it was nice not to get hammer bite with mine, but the sights didn't seem to make much difference to him at all (gotta be the younger eyes). The trigger on that '43 is abysmal, but it didn't seem to really have a negative effect on his shooting, either. At the end of the day, he still wants a mil-spec.

We also did some shooting with my new 640 Pro (range report forthcoming when I get a chance to write it up), and tested some reloads out of the GP100. The local Dunhams had CCI Small Rifle Magnum primers last week, so I bought a few hundred hoping I could use them in some large volume pistol cases like .38 Special, since I can't find Small Pistol Primers anywhere. If anybody's considering doing this, don't bother...no pressure issues, but they're too thick and a bunch failed to ignite on the first strike. I'm going to have to try them in some rifle cartridges. We did get to shoot that gun a whole bunch, though, which was a blast (I'd forgotten what a great trigger it has, and how accurate it is!), and functionally dummy round practice (bang-bang-click-bang-click-bang-click-click-bang-click-bang-click) so it wasn't a total waste.

All-in-all, decent day at the range!

Sounds like a fun day he and you will remember for a long time.

Range trips with my Son were always a lot of fun.

Indeed, that sounds like a great time!

Sometimes the heart just wants….

Honestly, I don’t blame him. At least a third of what’s in my safe and probably more than that is from WWII. There’s just something about the firearms fielded in that conflict that interest me. My first 1911 was a Springfield Loaded Champion that I traded to a friend for an early 1943 Remington-Rand like your DRMO, and I like it so much better that it’s not even close. I often forget I ever owned that Springfield, and on paper, it was a much better gun. The Remington-Rand is more fun to shoot than the Springfield was, hammer bite and all.

Sounds like a fun range trip, and I’m happy to hear he’s turning into a fine shot. Hope he winds up with that Milspec and it scratches the itch.

That's a nice old Remington Rand there. I'm a little jealous.

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Honestly, I don’t blame him. At least a third of what’s in my safe and probably more than that is from WWII. There’s just something about the firearms fielded in that conflict that interest me

Yeah I don't blame him either. And I'm glad he's interested in it, and not just for the guns. There's a lot of cultural, political, and historic lessons to be learned there. We have a couple of Garands, and I'm always on the lookout for affordable stuff from that era, but that's getting few and far between these days.

And yeah, that RR is a sweetheart. Some day sadly they'll come asking for it back, but until then we're going to enjoy it.

Nothing is better than a day at the range with you son who actually enjoys shooting. Glad you guys had a great day and made some memories.

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He admitted that it was nice not to get hammer bite with mine, but the sights didn't seem to make much difference to him at all (gotta be the younger eyes). The trigger on that '43 is abysmal, but it didn't seem to really have a negative effect on his shooting, either. At the end of the day, he still wants a mil-spec.

Sometimes it's amazing what a pure heart, a good pair of eyes and a lack of expectations can do.

Sounds like a great day. Repeat often.

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Originally posted by Il Cattivo:

Sometimes it's amazing what a pure heart, a good pair of eyes and a lack of expectations can do.

True....it sure worked for him!

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Sounds like a great day. Repeat often.

It was, and we plan to!

Geesh, I miss those days with my son. We even had a Springfield 1911 just like yours. Happy days ....