Having been on vacation for the last week and still having another week off ahead of me I've had time to go to the range a bunch...Pretty good timing considering that I've got the Coonan Classic 357 to mess with. Without trying to mutilate the written word I'll attempt to give an accurate representation of how the pistol has preformed up until now and try to give some insight into what new owners can expect when they get one of these.
In its 357 configuration the gun itself has functioned flawlessly. There has been one ammo related problem....if the pistol is getting towards the point where it needs oil the slide might stop just short of fully locking up the barrel. A tap on the back side of the gun and it fell into place....I think that has only happened once or twice. This was after shooting a few 38 specials through it too. I've never shot a factory round out of this gun so my guess is that factory 357 ammo would just fine too.
The 38 special spring was used in a few different ammo tests. First I tried some of my powder puff 38 special loads....they wouldn't cycle the slide as expected. The heavy 38 special +p load I came up with had no problems making the gun function. Unfortunately shooting 38 special and 357 in the same barrel causes some issues when switching back to the longer case. So I've come to the conclusion that although the gun functions fine with heavy 38 special loads being a reloader negates any real cost difference between the 2 calibers....It's full power 357 loads from here on out. That's what this gun is built for and that's what it's going to get.
The sights are top notch as expected with a firearm of this quality. The white dots are very bright although they are not night sights. The sight picture is also perfect in my opinion. There's just enough of a gap on each side of the front sight blade that it easy to snuggle down into the rear sight.
The trigger is a perfect compliment to the pistol as it doesn't pull you off the target when you touch off a shot. A slight amount of take up on the first stage then a very clean break when all the slack is taken up. No overtravel to speak of and a positive reset combine to make for relatively easy follow up shots.
Magazines aren't abundant for the Coonan Classic. But they are easily acquired through Coonan inc. I ordered a new magazine on a Monday and had it by Thursday of that week....all the way from Minnesota. $67 bucks to my door....certainly not cheap but when you see the workmanship involved in these magazines you will soon understand why they aren't. Basically they are a scaled up version of any 22 lr semi-auto magazine. Coonan is nice enough to include a handy little magazine spring compression tool for ease in loading. Those are some heavy duty mag springs!
The finish on the gun is very nice although I was hoping there would be some checkering. Bead blasted stainless on the top of the slide, the dust cover and the front and rear straps along with brushed stainless sides. The bead blasted finish does a fine job helping grip the gun. The dull finish on the top of the slide also helps keep the glare down for the sights....so it isn't all boos for the lack of checkering.
One of my initial complaints was that the grip panels are too light....Well I've got another theory to test out here....The more I shoot it the more handling the grips will get....the more the grips are handled the more color they will pick up along the way....So the jury is still out on the color of the grips....I'm hoping that they get darker as they become worn in.
It would be remiss of me to not include at least a mention of this machine's thirst for oil. This thing goes through more oil than an engine oil pan with the plug removed! The gun comes with a small bottle of fp10 lubricant and a large piece of paper tells you the Coonan has been de-greased and needs to be lubed up before shooting. The lube is very light and requires reapplying every box of ammo or so. It really lets the gun run "loosely" which is what it needs to do to cycle the massive slide and compress the 22 lb recoil spring! The pistol hasn't told me that I've run it too wet yet so I'm going to keep on lubing it up often.
Those are my follow up impressions of the gun after having run a good number of rounds through it already. If you are looking for something a little different the Coonan Classic 357 definitely qualifies.
In its 357 configuration the gun itself has functioned flawlessly. There has been one ammo related problem....if the pistol is getting towards the point where it needs oil the slide might stop just short of fully locking up the barrel. A tap on the back side of the gun and it fell into place....I think that has only happened once or twice. This was after shooting a few 38 specials through it too. I've never shot a factory round out of this gun so my guess is that factory 357 ammo would just fine too.
The 38 special spring was used in a few different ammo tests. First I tried some of my powder puff 38 special loads....they wouldn't cycle the slide as expected. The heavy 38 special +p load I came up with had no problems making the gun function. Unfortunately shooting 38 special and 357 in the same barrel causes some issues when switching back to the longer case. So I've come to the conclusion that although the gun functions fine with heavy 38 special loads being a reloader negates any real cost difference between the 2 calibers....It's full power 357 loads from here on out. That's what this gun is built for and that's what it's going to get.
The sights are top notch as expected with a firearm of this quality. The white dots are very bright although they are not night sights. The sight picture is also perfect in my opinion. There's just enough of a gap on each side of the front sight blade that it easy to snuggle down into the rear sight.
The trigger is a perfect compliment to the pistol as it doesn't pull you off the target when you touch off a shot. A slight amount of take up on the first stage then a very clean break when all the slack is taken up. No overtravel to speak of and a positive reset combine to make for relatively easy follow up shots.
Magazines aren't abundant for the Coonan Classic. But they are easily acquired through Coonan inc. I ordered a new magazine on a Monday and had it by Thursday of that week....all the way from Minnesota. $67 bucks to my door....certainly not cheap but when you see the workmanship involved in these magazines you will soon understand why they aren't. Basically they are a scaled up version of any 22 lr semi-auto magazine. Coonan is nice enough to include a handy little magazine spring compression tool for ease in loading. Those are some heavy duty mag springs!
The finish on the gun is very nice although I was hoping there would be some checkering. Bead blasted stainless on the top of the slide, the dust cover and the front and rear straps along with brushed stainless sides. The bead blasted finish does a fine job helping grip the gun. The dull finish on the top of the slide also helps keep the glare down for the sights....so it isn't all boos for the lack of checkering.
One of my initial complaints was that the grip panels are too light....Well I've got another theory to test out here....The more I shoot it the more handling the grips will get....the more the grips are handled the more color they will pick up along the way....So the jury is still out on the color of the grips....I'm hoping that they get darker as they become worn in.
It would be remiss of me to not include at least a mention of this machine's thirst for oil. This thing goes through more oil than an engine oil pan with the plug removed! The gun comes with a small bottle of fp10 lubricant and a large piece of paper tells you the Coonan has been de-greased and needs to be lubed up before shooting. The lube is very light and requires reapplying every box of ammo or so. It really lets the gun run "loosely" which is what it needs to do to cycle the massive slide and compress the 22 lb recoil spring! The pistol hasn't told me that I've run it too wet yet so I'm going to keep on lubing it up often.
Those are my follow up impressions of the gun after having run a good number of rounds through it already. If you are looking for something a little different the Coonan Classic 357 definitely qualifies.
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