I was wondering if anyone every used one of these for practicing Bullseye at home. I have Steyr LP50 which I use but it just isn't quite the same as my .22lr or .45ACP. I was wondering if anyone uses one of these and has added either Bo-Mar like sights or a rib for a scope and how good that setup is for practice.
Total cost would be in the $200-300 range. They have an accessory rail and adjustable sight on the Umarex website but I'm not sure how good the adjustable sights are. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
I don't know that particular pistol, but most of those look-a-likes are not well made and have terrible triggers. For serious slow fire practice I suggest a Weihrauch Hw75 or Hw40. Accurate, good trigger and sights, and feel like a 45. Can be fitted with a red dot
It might work but it works on an internal revolver design. In order to use the gun in a single action mode, you have to cock the hammer, otherwise it has a heavy DAO trigger.... The sights might not be very good either.
Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I've been doing some research about the pistols you guys mentioned and am not sure about which one to get. They both cost a fair amount.
Don't bother with the Umarex 1911. I'd had one. It's not appropriate as a 1911 trainer.
Airsoft replicas have become popular trainers among action shooters. They're dimensionally accurate and many have gas powered blow back actions. The downside of airsoft guns is that they shoot a plastic 6mm bb through a smooth bore - so they're not notorious for their accuracy.
But I've gotten surprisingly good results using a heavier bb to about 7yds. The gun I have can hold about 1/2" at that distance. But it does throw fliers.
arjuna70 wrote:Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I've been doing some research about the pistols you guys mentioned and am not sure about which one to get. They both cost a fair amount.
Can you change the grips ont he HW75 to traditional 1911 Slabe Side Grips? Can you add a red dot to either? What do you guys think.
The P1 will take conventional 1911 grips. It is a spring powered gun, so it does have some 'recoil'. It will take a red dot.
My P2 (Beeman version of the HW75) took a red dot. My particular P2 would not take conventional 1911 grips, but other versions did, so you should ask the folks at PyramydAir. The HW75 is a SSP, so it is recoiless and somewhat more accurate than the P1.
Both guns are very well made, have good triggers, and can easily hold the 9 ring on a 10M AP target. A lot more fun than dry firing, but I am not convinced that they provide better training than an equal amount of time spent dry firing with a pencil in the barrel.
Thanks for the help everyone. I went ahead and ordered the Weihrauch HW 75. Seems like the consensus. They said it should accept the 1911 Grips but they weren't 100% sure. We'll see.
Although dry fire is probably just as beneficial, I prefer real fire. Thanks again.
"Although dry fire is probably just as beneficial, I prefer real fire. Thanks again."
Dry fire is exponentially MORE beneficial than live fire; ESPECIALLY live fire with a modified version of your competition arm.
Two somewhat important reasons why (more reasons exist, but these two are relatively easy to explain & understand):
1. With dry fire you can train on things that matter most, because you can see the important results of your technique.
2. With live fire on modified equipment, you are distracting your training effort from the actual system used in competition. While their may be some "cross training" effect, this is watered down by the fact that it is live fire and *not* the more effective cross-training while emphasizing a narrow element of technique.
If it makes you feel any better, I had one for about a year myself back in the late 1990s.
Wasted a while lot of time fooling around with it. When I finally realized that 1) I was getting no training benefit out of it whatsoever; and worse yet 2) training with it was rapidly destryoing my ability to call my shots; and 3) messing with was taking a lot of time; then at that point I finally got rid of it.
