I went to the range again today. I brought along my Colt Gold Cup. It is a .45 ACP pistol which is the identical design to the Colt Model 1911, the standard US military side arm from 1911 to 1987. I like this one a lot. It is easy to shoot and feels really good in the hand. It is also a hammer fired gun. It has a grip safety that is released when you grip the pistol. I shoot a lot of 9mm ammunition which I don't reload because you can get it so cheap. I do reload the .45s however. Factory ammunition is expensive and I can reload it for less than half the cost of new ammunition. Additionally, I can get exactly the bullet and powder charge I want.

Being a semi-automatic, each empty shell is ejected when it is fired. You may think that they all go in the same direction. They don't. They are sprayed through an angle of about 120 degrees. The way the pistol cells are set up, they can land in the Astro Turf in front of the shooting position, on the cement of the firing position or in the gravel behind. I was curious how many I would be able to recover. Amazingly, I swept up 75 of them, which is the number I fired. Then I found another. I make it a habit of making a quick pass of the pistol cells every time I go out. I usually find several .45 casings which I pick up and throw into a bag. That way I stay ahead of the game and never have to buy brass.

So today's photo is of the brass I recovered and of my Gold Cup.