For those of you who frequent the General forum, you may already know that I intended to post my roundup of pistols fired during myself and my wifes recent vacation to Pennsylvania. I have waited a long time to fire all these handguns I had read so much about but never got to handle, so if you'll indulge me a little longer, here goes.
S&W Model 22A 4" Bbl .22LR
The gun we carried around with us whilst staying out in the Pa backwoods for last ditch protection. I loved it, reliable once broken in, accurate, easy and very cheap to shoot and capable of causing surprising damage. Paid just $180 for it at Bravermans in Pittsburgh, best value of the whole trip, sold it prior to our return to J&L Sporting goods of Shippenville, where it no doubt still resides.
Sig P232 in .380 ACP
Lovely carry gun, didn't like the absence of a slide release, fit my wifes small hands like a dream, accurate. Almost bought one for $409.99.
Sig P239 in 9mm
The best handgun I have ever fired. The one we tried had the Hogue aftermarket finger groove grips. Faultless and very well suited to 9mm.
H&K USPc .357 Sig
Nice controls, finger tended to snag on weird double contour trigger guard. .357 Sig was massively unpleasant to shoot, blast, recoil and flash were excessive and although I eventually got some good groups, 50 rounds proved to be 40 rounds too many.
Sig P232 .32 ACP
Not surprisingly a puppy to shoot, but turned out to be a jammamatic, almost certainly caused by a bad mag. Way too big for .32 ACP.
Sig P245 .45 ACP
Surprisingly little difference in recoil to all the lesser calibers, didn't like the low number of rounds (6+1) and found it impossible to get the 6th round into the mag. Jammed 3 times in 50 rounds but was very accurate. Frame too large for grip, gun felt out of balance.
Walther P99 9mm
Absolute POS. Looked and felt terrible in the hand, proved to be the first 9mm I have ever fired that was snappy and uncomfortable to shoot, staged single action trigger a bad gimmick and largely unnecessary, incredibly short reset distance on trigger in single action liable to cause multiple AD's.
Taurus Raging Bull .454 Casull
I was given this gun to shoot as a "this'll sort YOU out" tactic by my range instructor. Fired 3 rounds in single action and found the gun surpringly pleasant to shoot, but not THAT pleasant.
Bereta Cougar .40 S&W
a real eye opener after shooting the .357 sig cartridge out of the H&K compact. I expected similar shooting reactions, but the experience was entirely different. I fired 2 Cougars at 2 different ranges just to make sure and both were identical. The gun was softer to shoot than some 9mm's I have tried, and seemd to have a recoil impulse that started at the rear of the slide and not at the muzzle, he barrel seemed to rise in recoil in line with my forearm and did not angle up independantly as with most guns. It seemed to almost "bounce" up with no snap or unpleasant reactions whatsoever. It was marred by some very wild flyers that I have a hard time believing were my fault because they occurred in the middle of strings that were maybe 3 inches across, only to get a flyer that was almost off the target, did not experience this with any other gun. The Cougar's single action trigger also had to be moved a long way to the rear before all the free play was taken up, I dare say you could get used to that, but after a Sig trigger I was spoiled.
There was one overiding comment on almost every auto I/we fired during our 2 weeks. The last round proved to be impossible or near impossible to get into the magazine on every gun. Is this such a common fault, and bearing in mind that you are stuck with restricted 10 round magazines, why is this incredibly tight tolerance in the magazine sizing so necessary ?
Regards,
Mike H
S&W Model 22A 4" Bbl .22LR
The gun we carried around with us whilst staying out in the Pa backwoods for last ditch protection. I loved it, reliable once broken in, accurate, easy and very cheap to shoot and capable of causing surprising damage. Paid just $180 for it at Bravermans in Pittsburgh, best value of the whole trip, sold it prior to our return to J&L Sporting goods of Shippenville, where it no doubt still resides.
Sig P232 in .380 ACP
Lovely carry gun, didn't like the absence of a slide release, fit my wifes small hands like a dream, accurate. Almost bought one for $409.99.
Sig P239 in 9mm
The best handgun I have ever fired. The one we tried had the Hogue aftermarket finger groove grips. Faultless and very well suited to 9mm.
H&K USPc .357 Sig
Nice controls, finger tended to snag on weird double contour trigger guard. .357 Sig was massively unpleasant to shoot, blast, recoil and flash were excessive and although I eventually got some good groups, 50 rounds proved to be 40 rounds too many.
Sig P232 .32 ACP
Not surprisingly a puppy to shoot, but turned out to be a jammamatic, almost certainly caused by a bad mag. Way too big for .32 ACP.
Sig P245 .45 ACP
Surprisingly little difference in recoil to all the lesser calibers, didn't like the low number of rounds (6+1) and found it impossible to get the 6th round into the mag. Jammed 3 times in 50 rounds but was very accurate. Frame too large for grip, gun felt out of balance.
Walther P99 9mm
Absolute POS. Looked and felt terrible in the hand, proved to be the first 9mm I have ever fired that was snappy and uncomfortable to shoot, staged single action trigger a bad gimmick and largely unnecessary, incredibly short reset distance on trigger in single action liable to cause multiple AD's.
Taurus Raging Bull .454 Casull
I was given this gun to shoot as a "this'll sort YOU out" tactic by my range instructor. Fired 3 rounds in single action and found the gun surpringly pleasant to shoot, but not THAT pleasant.
Bereta Cougar .40 S&W
a real eye opener after shooting the .357 sig cartridge out of the H&K compact. I expected similar shooting reactions, but the experience was entirely different. I fired 2 Cougars at 2 different ranges just to make sure and both were identical. The gun was softer to shoot than some 9mm's I have tried, and seemd to have a recoil impulse that started at the rear of the slide and not at the muzzle, he barrel seemed to rise in recoil in line with my forearm and did not angle up independantly as with most guns. It seemed to almost "bounce" up with no snap or unpleasant reactions whatsoever. It was marred by some very wild flyers that I have a hard time believing were my fault because they occurred in the middle of strings that were maybe 3 inches across, only to get a flyer that was almost off the target, did not experience this with any other gun. The Cougar's single action trigger also had to be moved a long way to the rear before all the free play was taken up, I dare say you could get used to that, but after a Sig trigger I was spoiled.
There was one overiding comment on almost every auto I/we fired during our 2 weeks. The last round proved to be impossible or near impossible to get into the magazine on every gun. Is this such a common fault, and bearing in mind that you are stuck with restricted 10 round magazines, why is this incredibly tight tolerance in the magazine sizing so necessary ?
Regards,
Mike H