Had a nice long leisurely range session. Went in to get back to handgunning and to test new (used) guns.
Figured out why my Taurus 85 UL would bind: badly crimped ammo which let bullets back out of the cases. Oops, better not use those handloads for real! I also found that I now shoot all of my guns to the right, not sure how to deal with it.
Beretta 92fs Stainless worked well, with decent accuracy and mild recoil. Two of the three 15rd magazines wouldn't lock the slide back occasionally, and one time slapping in a full mag close the slide on its own! Freaky.
Glock 21 problem with slide locking back diagnosed: my thumb hitting the lever. G21 feeds any ammo given to it, semiwadcutters included. Ejection all over the place, very inconsistent. Need to get parts updated. USP45 also fed everything, ejects more uniformly.
Lots of people were at the range, with maybe 60% being student/teacher groups. Race, age, social groups all over the place ($3000+ 1911s next to $100 Hi-Point). Only one woman in the entire day (I was there for almost six hours).
My SW617 got lended to many newbies whose teachers did not bring .22s and I even gave out abbout a 100 rounds for it. Let folks shoot the 92fs and had a chance to fire a few myself.
Hi-Point .380 was a major surprise. It cost $100 and is quite big for a .380, though not heavy. It has good sights, decent no-creep trigger and comfortable grip. Feeding was reliable but it needed more lubrication than the sample had to go into battery reliably. Accuracy was surprisingly good, with groups only slightly larger than 92fs (I got targets with me, will scan them later). I shot about twenty rounds of Russian .380 which was crap (two misfired which seems to be about normal for the lot). Recoil was very mild. A fairlt large part of the cartridge is unsupported which to me was a bit unnerving. Still, it was not a junk gun and I'd take it over impact/edged weapons.
Tried a 1943 Walther P38. The owner said it belonged to his father and that it couldn't even hit an 8x10 target at 21ft. I tried it. Was decent if not THAt accurate with 115 FMJ, 124 Blazer JHP and 147 FMJ. At 21ft it keyholed with 124 LRN reloads with most bullets hitting sideways! Nice sights and heavy but crisp trigger. I suspect it was not all that well made.
Tried a Chinese Tokarev in 7.62x25. Retrofitted safety from it "fell off and was lost". FOund out the owner paid $300 ata gun show for it and thought it a good deal. I pointed him to http://www.makarov.com because one of the two lots of ammo he had produced huge shower of sparks (and did turn out to be too hot for TT33 upon checking). The thin trigger was not comfortable but broke crisply, sights were OK, Feeding was reliable, accuracy not great but better than the Hi-Point. Whole SA mode with half-cock was strange to me...still, I'd feel well-armed with it. Nice aesthetics.
Had a lot of bad ammo. One Fiocchi 45acp FMJ, one .38 reload, one UNC 124gr 9mm had light strikes. All fired on second try. Need to practice malfunction clearing.
Was please with the day. Need to figure out why I now shoot to the right...
------------------
Oleg "cornered rat" Volk (JPFO,NRA)
http://dd-b.net/RKBA
Figured out why my Taurus 85 UL would bind: badly crimped ammo which let bullets back out of the cases. Oops, better not use those handloads for real! I also found that I now shoot all of my guns to the right, not sure how to deal with it.
Beretta 92fs Stainless worked well, with decent accuracy and mild recoil. Two of the three 15rd magazines wouldn't lock the slide back occasionally, and one time slapping in a full mag close the slide on its own! Freaky.
Glock 21 problem with slide locking back diagnosed: my thumb hitting the lever. G21 feeds any ammo given to it, semiwadcutters included. Ejection all over the place, very inconsistent. Need to get parts updated. USP45 also fed everything, ejects more uniformly.
Lots of people were at the range, with maybe 60% being student/teacher groups. Race, age, social groups all over the place ($3000+ 1911s next to $100 Hi-Point). Only one woman in the entire day (I was there for almost six hours).
My SW617 got lended to many newbies whose teachers did not bring .22s and I even gave out abbout a 100 rounds for it. Let folks shoot the 92fs and had a chance to fire a few myself.
Hi-Point .380 was a major surprise. It cost $100 and is quite big for a .380, though not heavy. It has good sights, decent no-creep trigger and comfortable grip. Feeding was reliable but it needed more lubrication than the sample had to go into battery reliably. Accuracy was surprisingly good, with groups only slightly larger than 92fs (I got targets with me, will scan them later). I shot about twenty rounds of Russian .380 which was crap (two misfired which seems to be about normal for the lot). Recoil was very mild. A fairlt large part of the cartridge is unsupported which to me was a bit unnerving. Still, it was not a junk gun and I'd take it over impact/edged weapons.
Tried a 1943 Walther P38. The owner said it belonged to his father and that it couldn't even hit an 8x10 target at 21ft. I tried it. Was decent if not THAt accurate with 115 FMJ, 124 Blazer JHP and 147 FMJ. At 21ft it keyholed with 124 LRN reloads with most bullets hitting sideways! Nice sights and heavy but crisp trigger. I suspect it was not all that well made.
Tried a Chinese Tokarev in 7.62x25. Retrofitted safety from it "fell off and was lost". FOund out the owner paid $300 ata gun show for it and thought it a good deal. I pointed him to http://www.makarov.com because one of the two lots of ammo he had produced huge shower of sparks (and did turn out to be too hot for TT33 upon checking). The thin trigger was not comfortable but broke crisply, sights were OK, Feeding was reliable, accuracy not great but better than the Hi-Point. Whole SA mode with half-cock was strange to me...still, I'd feel well-armed with it. Nice aesthetics.
Had a lot of bad ammo. One Fiocchi 45acp FMJ, one .38 reload, one UNC 124gr 9mm had light strikes. All fired on second try. Need to practice malfunction clearing.
Was please with the day. Need to figure out why I now shoot to the right...
------------------
Oleg "cornered rat" Volk (JPFO,NRA)
http://dd-b.net/RKBA