Late last year, I’d had some good weather days at the range and elected to try a course that’s become a favored baseline evaluation for me – and various guns and support gear. I’d not fired the Mike Waidelich/Bakersfield (CA) Police qualification with a more-or-less standard 1911 and I’d never fired it with my lightly modified Gen4 GLOCK 19. It was time to set that right to see if I pass with these different guns.
If you’re new to the wires, the course of fire came from Mike Waidelich, retired from PD Bakersfield California. I never got to meet him and first heard of him through an email from Andy Stanford. I won’t recount the whole story, but Mr. Waidelich went to Bakersfield PD in about 1967 and created a short evaluation that makes considerable sense when you see what he was trying to accomplish.
The course is biased to accuracy over time; while a miss could derail a shooter with a single round – just like “out in the world” – being ¼ second over the par time costs only a single point. Each shot is worth a maximum of ten points (he used a target they said had a 7” maximum scoring zone (10 points), with a 9” x 13” 9-point zone).
I often staple a B-8 repair center over a silhouette. Scoring can vary – for strong shooters, the ca. 5 ½” 9-ring and inside counts ten, the 8” 8-ring counts 9 and six points for anywhere else on the B-8 (CP) sheet. For rank-and-file, the 8-ring works for a 10-zone, with the (CP) getting a value of 9 and the rest of the silhouette gets five points.
That’s me “guessing.”
A miss from the silhouette means your day is done; time to go home.
To get 80/100 (passing in the old days), you can be over time on a number of strings. Dropping points from ‘bad’ hits gets you out of the running quickly.
This time, I used a Ruger SR1911-CMD (steel-framed “Commander”) in 45 Auto. It’s fitted with Harrison Sights – the Harrison Custom “Extreme Service” rear sight -- with a .165” notch width and 2 lamps, a square notch design – and a Dawson Front sight with a large white outline around the Trijicon vial. I also used one Ruger magazine and a pair of Wilson Combat ETM - Elite Tactical Magazines. The ammo I used was Cor-Bon Performance Match 230 FMJ.
The remainder of the pistol is stock as a stove, with the hardwood Ruger stocks, titanium firing pin and other components of the standard Ruger SR1911 line. The holster was the Simply Rugged DEFCON 3 holster – a close-fitting pancake-style design.
The course I’ll lay out with the results for each string of fire.
When I’m doing work like this, I begin with a stage of five single hits from ten feet. You start with your hand on the holstered handgun, as if you detect a potential problem that hasn’t called for shooting. On the tone, you have a second to make a single hit to the main scoring area in the silhouette “head” box. My times were marginal, each causing the loss of a single point – that’s five down. The hits were good.
This is followed by my take on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement qualification, Stage 2. It calls for a pair from ready in a second. Unlike Florida’s course, I remain at ten feet and shoot from a legit low-ready – below the base of the target frame. My times were better, as I was down only one point from three strings of two rounds. For these two prep stages, I was at 104/110.
All the work that followed was from the holster.
Doing my take on the Bakersfield course, at 10 feet (“no one should get closer than that”), I was down one for time (par is 1.5). Twenty feet (the length of an old patrol car) showed me dropping a pair of points on the target as well as losing two more on time (over the 2 second par). At 30 feet (from the curb to the front door), it calls for drawing to a pair, reloading (we go from slide-lock) and another pair in six seconds. I was over on time, dropping four more points. Finally, “from the opposite curb to the front door” at sixty feet, the pair in 3.3 seconds was ahead of the par, but I lost another nine points due to a maladjusted “trigger control nut.”
The final was 81/100 – sad, but passing.
Was it the old gun’s fault? Or the old, slow cartridge?
It was more someone who shoots slim-framed single action autos once or twice a year while shooting revolvers or striker fired autos dozens of times a year. The holster – far from slowing me down – kept me in the running to the end.
By the way, for all the complaints about reliability, the Ruger SR1911 CMD – properly lubricated and with the very good Wilson Combat magazines, demonstrated no stoppages. This wasn’t a “torture test,” but the gun didn’t choke when I needed it.
Later, I’ll report the results of shooting a more modern – plastic striker fired compact – pistol in 9mm, just to compare.
-- Rich Grassi