Todd Jarrett Wins \\World Shoot X - uspsa

HISTORYcontinued from page 8.looks of the Commander hammeron a Government Model tothe standard hammer spur.It was not until somewherein the early 1980s that beavertailsafeties came along. Theymay have been around longer,but that is when they seemed tobecome fashionable, the practicalaspect notwithstanding. Iremember having the narrowstock grip safety beat itself intomy hand hard enough to causebleeding during practice withfull IPSC loads. It was not hammerbite that caused the bleedingbecause the gun had a Commanderhammer. Prolongedshooting would still cause whatlooked to be hammer bite, butit was simply that the smallarea of the stock grip safetywas unable to distribute the recoilforces sufficiently.I have not confirmed thiswith Ross Seyfried, but a storywent around in 1982 or so thatduring preparation for the 1981World Championship he hadexperienced the same problem.As the story goes, he went tothe "name" shooters of that eraand asked them what to do toprevent the bleeding. He wastold that he had to shoot a lotto build up calluses andtoughen the skin. This raisedthe question of what constituteda lot of shooting, for Rosshad, it was claimed, fired some80,000 rounds over a six monthperiod of preparation. Realistically,that is a lot of shooting inanyone's book. The solution wasthe introduction of the beavertailgrip safety around 1981 or1982.As I recall, I first placed abeavertail on one of my gunsabout two weeks before theSteel Challenge match in 1982,and I had some real doubtsabout going into a major matchwith it such a short time laterbecause it had not yet provenitself to me.The grip safety I had beenusing was a drop-in from WilsonCombat, so frame modificationswere not needed. It wassuch an improvement that Ihave several guns with thedrop-in grip safety. Wilson alsooffered a more contouredbeavertail that required framemodification. The guns I wasusing already had platedframes, and I was not anxiousto grind on the fi-ame.Today, the frame-modifyinggrip safeties offer the advantageof allowing a higher grip toaid in controlling recoil. EdBrown was instrumental in allowingthe hand to grip higheron the gun with the introductionof his beavertail. The Wilsonand Brown safeties are stillthe leading safeties.VANDENBERG CUSTOMCOMPETITION • DEFENSE • LAW ENFORCEMENTCUSTOM 1911's • HIGH CAPACITY AND SINGLE COLUMN OPEN AND LIMITEDCOMPLETE CUSTOM SERVICE ON AR-15's870-1100-1187 SHOTGUNS12430 Galveston Rd. B-18 Houston, Tx 77598Ph (713) 480-3180 Fx (713) 480-3189As a direct result of competitivepistol shooting, specificallypractical pistol, we gained improvedsafeties for both thethumb and grip. Some will arguethat the stock thumb safetyis perfectly adequate, and ifthat suits you, there is nothingwrong with that. I used thestock safety for a couple years,but after missing it a coupletimes in matches, I quickly convertedto the extended version.There was also more weakhandshooting back then, somost people opted for the ambidextrousmodel, which was arequisite for left-handers.The replacement barrelsused were almost unanimouslyBar-Sto. There were also fittedColt and military barrels, butthe Bar-Sto barrels were, andare, top of the line. Today, Bar-Sto has considerable competitionfrom other barrel makerssuch as Nowlin and Schuemaim.The type of sights used wereBo-Mar, Micro, or Smith &Wesson. The Micro seems tohave disappeared on the GovernmentModel, as has theS&W. The Bo-Mar is still afirst-class choice, but it facesstiff competition from Novakand other fixed sights as well asfrom a few other adjustablemodels.Mag-well funnels were notavailable. The mag-well openingwas beveled and that wasit.Have we come full circlewith the popularity of Limitedclass? I don't think so. The improvementsand the willingnessof today's shooters to continueexperimenting to find out whatworks while building upon thepast shows that the circle is notclosed. The path remainsstretched out ahead. It is up tous to travel it."itPage 56 March/April 1997