Even More First Impressions...written by
Randy Mays...
Even More First Impressions...written by
Randy Mays... 
The summer and fall of 1999 included a couple of interesting shooting matches, in Montana, Virginia, and Tennessee. There is a nice indoor range in Stafford, Virginia and a few weeks ago we went over there for an IDPA match. It was on a week night, after work, and not the best time to be shooting, but it was fun. There were three stages set up. In IDPA, you're supposed to shoot at targets in "tactical" order, nearest target first. Sometimes I get a little bored by so much use of the word "tactical" as an adjective to describe just about everything associated with pistols and pistol competitions. A gunfight is a strategic, not tactical situation, but I guess "tactical" is a good marketing term. At the indoor match, the first shooter shot all of the targets left to right, regardless of the distance from the firing line. All I had to do to get a better score was to do it the right way in about the same time. I took a SIG 226 pistol along for the match, with three ten round magazines. Now, when you think about it, a ten round magazine is a joke with the SIG 226 because the gun was designed to hold more ammunition than that, but IDPA limits magazine size to ten rounds. The 226 is accurate, never jams, and, as I've mentioned before, takes any concerns about the pistol out of the equation so you can concentrate on the match stages. There's another indoor IDPA match coming up in September 1999 and I'll use the SIG 239 in either 9 mm or .357 SIG for that one. There's no advantage in IDPA for using a more powerful caliber, so the 9 mm's reduced recoil helps get through an exercise in less time.
The match in Montana was another "Back to Bigfork" event in August. I got the score sheet today. There were 31 shooters and I placed 15th overall. Not bad. I used the Springfield 1911. We had five different, but typical IPSC stages. The Springfield ran fine all day. On the last shot of one stage, the next round didn't quite chamber, but it didn't matter because I was finished. I put that particular MecGar magazine aside and replace it later with a Wilson 10 round 1911 magazine. I trust Wilson, and I still trust MecGar because as soon as I fired the last shot on a stage, I always bring the pistol back to a retention position close to my chest (with the muzzle pointed down range, of course). I may have done that during the time the gun was cycling and that could have caused the misfeed. There's a reason for "follow through" when teaching marksmanship fundamentals...
Labor Day weekend, I entered a local IDPA match in Brush Creek, Tennessee, about 40 miles east of Nashville. Instead of the big 1911, I shot the Colt CCO. No problems. No jams. Big easy to see sights. When I shoot IDPA, I shoot without my prescription lenses, because if I ever shoot for real, I won't be wearing special glasses. My distant vision is good enough that I can get a good blurry sight picture and center that on the target. That's a good as the "flash sight picture" we teach in the Personal Protection course. My score was ok there, too, in the middle of the pack. This was a 1911 crowd, and the people who weren't shooting 1911s had Glock Model 35s. I think there was one revolver there, too. The match was held behind a gunsmith's shop. I was impressed enough to send the Springfield down there for the installation of a magazine well (Wilson, of course).
Update. The SIG Model 239 is still up in Exeter, New Hampshire getting a factory shop trigger job. I expect to get a second Model 239 next week in 9 mm, and the MMC sights have arrived for the 239. I may put those sights on the 9 mm model since there are so many different bullet weights in that caliber, although I tend to use 115 or 124 grain bullets most of the time.
There's a new SIG 239 in 9 mm here now and we had a chance to fire it during a basic pistol class today. I hope to have another chance to fire it tomorrow. It was very reliable, as SIG pistol are expected to be. I'll write more about it later. The bigger news is the new CZ 75 Standard IPSC pistol that arrived yesterday. Here's what it looks like...
This is a .40 S&W caliber pistol used for IPSC shooting in Europe, but you don't see many of these around in the U.S. As far as I know, there has only been one ad for it in the gun magazines. That was several months ago, and as soon as I saw the ad, I asked someone to place an order for the gun. It took awhile, but it's here now. The CZ 75 design is well known. Add wood grips, checkering, single action only conversion, adjustable sights, and the potential for high capacity magazines, and this is an awesome pistol. Last night several of us fired it at Blue Ridge Arsenal, and I had a chance to adjust the sights. Today I used the pistol as a demonstration in an NRA class. I had to hit the middle of a 1 inch circle in order to get an "exploding target" to go off and got it on the second shot. The first shot hit about a half inch from the second shot. Last night we were getting "one hole groups" with the pistol at "practical" distances. Very impressive. The pistol is big, and the trigger is so light that this would be impractical for concealed carry, but who cares...it's great for IPSC and other competition.
The SIG 239 is back from New Hampshire. The total cost was $73 for the action job, and it was worth it. I have the 9 mm 239 for comparison and the .357 SIG now has a trigger that is lighter and smoother. I can tell the difference, which is surprising because SIGs are so good right out of the box. Last night (10-1-99) I shot 100 rounds of hot handloads and the gun worked fine. I shot 20 rounds of Hornady 147 grain .357 SIG loads, an interesting cartridge, and reloaded the gun with the Gold Dot rounds before leaving the range. The small size of the gun makes it ideal for concealment, and the .347 SIG caliber is hard to beat. The 239 is a real winner.
Sometimes you hear things from other people in the gun business and today I heard a story from someone who attended the H&K school in Northern Virginia. He said he was very impressed with the USP (Universal Service Pistol), both the full size and compact models. In a week of training with quite a few students, there were no malfunctions. That's quite an achievement (for any pistol other than a Beretta 92...). The same fellow also told me that the Navy SEALs are considering a switch from the SIG Model 226 to the Glock Model 17. That would be a significant change.
Another story from this past week was a fax from Colt which said they were going to stop making and selling a number of their handguns, including the Magnum Carry revolver, their .380 semi-automatic pistols, and the 1991A1 line of .45 pistols. They will continue to make and sell single action revolver for the Cowboy action market, and a few other pistols, but it sounds like the lawyers have had their way with Colt. That's a sad turn of events for a great American company. There are also rumors that Glock may stop selling handguns to private citizens and concentrate on the law enforcement market.
Another American company is going the wuss route as well. UPS will no longer accept handguns for ground shipment, but instead will only ship handguns by next day air service. This is an admission that UPS does not trust its employees to refrain from stealing shipments. A new company called RPS will take up the slack. I've already heard one firearm dealer cancel his shipping account with UPS, for rifles as well as handguns. We are living in a period of change. At the moment, I have two SIGs out for sight installation and trigger jobs. I hope they come back ok. They won't come back via UPS. That's for sure.
The new CZ IPSC pistol went to an IPSC match today. That's the good news. The bad news is that I brought Winchester "white box" .40 S&W and the gun jammed on every shot. The extractor doesn't seem to be working. I will send it back to CZ in Kansas City. They have a gunsmith who was trained at the factory and I'm sure they can fix it. This is such a nice, and expensive, gun that I don't mind waiting until they get it right. When it failed to operate, I put it away this morning, strapped on a borrowed Glock 19 and finished the course with no jams, no failures to feed, no problems, and lots of good hits. With a 9 mm, you often have to hit the top of a "popper" to make it fall.
It's Halloween, 1999 today. Yesterday, a few of us went back to West Virginia to Westlance for a shooting match. These are getting to be routine events. The routine for me is that I start slow, get better, then make some stupid mistake toward the end and lose. Yesterday, I was able to work my way up to the finals of the "pins and poppers" stage, but lost on the last run. Many of the shooters were using 9 mm pistols and those make a big difference in shot recovery on the poppers and plates. The problem with the 9 mm is that unless you get a dead, solid perfect hit on a pin, the pin may fall onto the table. I used the Springfield 1911 with 5 rounds to start (one of the rules) and a Wilson 10 round magazine. I could miss twice and still have enough ammunition, and made it through on the last shot a couple of times. In other words, I didn't have to reload any more often than the guys with the high capacity magazines, as long as I didn't miss often. The .45 blew the pins off the table.
Today I took the SIG 239 (.357 SIG) to the range to check out the MMC sights. I wish I had not been shooting the Springfield with Novak sights the day before... The MMC sights are fine, but the Novaks are great. The 239 is all broken in now, and has never jammed. It's small, powerful, and works. It is on the "most trusted" list.
Kel-Tec P-32
At this year's SHOT Show in Atlanta, we saw a new pistol from Kel-Tec. Kel-Tec has been making small 9 mm and .40 S&W pocket pistols for awhile and they introduced an even smaller pistol in .32 ACP caliber. I asked Virginia Arms if they would order one of the new .32s. That was back in February. It's November now and the P-32 arrived last week. It was worth the wait. Friday, I had a chance to fire the new P-32 at the NRA range and later at Blue Ridge Arsenal. The P-32 is a locked-breech design, unlike most .32s which are blowback. The sights are there, but not very fancy. I fired the gun first at 15 feet and got a small group in the center of the target. So did several others, and we all liked the gun very much. Friday night I folded an FBI "Q" target in half to get a plain white target and ran it down to the 25 yard line. I got a 6" group in the center of the target. That was amazing.
The pistol shoots Mag-Tech and Winchester Silvertip ammunition without any problems, but the pistol does not like Blazer ammunition at all. One of our instructors figured that one out. The Blazer rims are squared off, while the other ammuntion rims are rounded. The Blazers hang up in the magazine.
Extended Magazine for the P-32
The Kel-Tec Web site shows some accessories for the P-32, including this extended magazine and a belt clip. I was able to fine a "baby belt slide" from Uncle Mike's designed for .22-.25 pocket pistols and "very small .380s." It's a good fit for the P-32.
Is the .32 ACP an effective personal protection round? I doubt it, but two or three well placed shots are better than not being able to shoot at all because a larger caliber pistol was left at home or in the car when it was most needed. The Kel-Tec is reliable with the Silvertip ammunition, and the .32 is far from ineffective.
Sunday afternoons we go to the range and today was no exception. Even though it was the middle of November, the temperature was in the 70s. I had a chance to fire a new Ruger SP-101 .32 revolver (with .32 S&W Long cartridges) and a Crimson Trace Laser grip, a new SIG 220 (.45), and both of our SIG 239s (.357 SIG and 9 mm). I don't have any use for lasers, but if you like lasers then the ones built into the grips are ok, I guess. The new SIG 220 had a great single action trigger. The SIG tradition of quality continues. The MMC sights on the 239 were a little bit off to the left and we got those drifted back into the middle. At this point I'm not sure I like the MMC sights, but time will tell. The other 239 (9 mm) has SIG fixed sights and it shoots right to the point of aim. There's a possibility that practicing with the 239 in .357 SIG and then shooting the 9 mm version is like swinging a heavy bat and then using a lighter bat for baseball. The .357 SIG isn't a problem to handle, but it has a lot more recoil than the 9 mm. Shooting the 9 after the more powerful round is like shooting a .22 (or .32 revolver).
More SIG 239 comments... After mentioning some recent adventures with the SIG 239's sights, I'm going to give this particular model a rest for awhile. I've fired it at least 50 times each day for the past four days, each time learning something different. This is Sunday. Thursday night was a practical exercise and match at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly. We had to fire the Gunsite qualifier, which starts at almost contact range (one shot to the head at contact distance, from the holster in 1.5 seconds) and goes to 25 yards (2 shots in 7 seconds). I was over time a few times, but that's because I'm old and slow. I think I hit the target with every shot. After that we ran through the qualifier for the FAA Sky Marshals. It's much easier than the Gunsite series. I found that since many of the stages were at close distances, and since there was a time limit on each stage, I did a lot more point shooting than aimed shooting, and it didn't make a lot of difference. Friday night we just did regular target shooting, using the FBI's "Q" targets. I noticed that the gun shot to the left a lot, even though it had been centered a week ago. When I checked it later, I noticed the MMC rear sight had moved to the left in spite of being tightened down (two small Allen screws). Saturday, I removed the rear sight. I've always been curious about what would happen if I just used the front sight with no rear sight, lining the front sight up with other visual references. On Saturday afternoon, I tried that. The lateral errors disappeared, and I discovered that if I put the bottom of the front sight on the center of the target, I'd get center hits. Interesting. Today, Sunday, I put the original SIG Sauer rear sights back on the gun, but left the MMC front sight in place. The MMC front sight is higher than the SIG front sight. I loaded the gun with Federal 125 grain jacketed hollow points, and put the sight picture in the center of the target. The holes were about 6 inches below that. I moved the sight picture to the top of the target, and the hits were in the center. The MMC front sight is too high. The next experiment will be to put some MecGar rear sights on the gun, same as I have on the SIG 226, and try that. I hope the MecGar sights can be adjusted to compensate for the height of the MMC front sight. These series of experiments are expensive, but I'm learning a lot.
Today's biggest lesson had to do with CorBon .357 SIG ammunition. While everything else works great in the SIG, the CorBon does not. It may be because some of the cases had rough edges where the bullets were seated. It may have been due to the higher velocity, but for whatever reason, there were failures to feed, and a couple of stovepipe jams - unthinkable with this caliber. I'm sure CorBon makes fine ammunition, but I don't plan to use any of it in the SIG 239.
Next week, I'll be in Montana again. Our Virginia carry permits are good out there. While the SIG 239 .357 SIG sights are getting sorted out, I'm going to stick with another gun I understand a little better: the Colt CCO .45.
The Axmen store in Missoula, Montana may be one of the best in the country. It's in the top ten for sure. They have a selection of rifles and handguns from different eras, and for different purposes. Sportsman's Surplus is another good gun store in Missoula, and there I had a chance to take a look at the Remington 11-87 deer gun, a 12 guage semi-auto shotgun with a 21" barrel, sights, and both a rifled slug and modified choke as part of the deal. I think I want one of those.
The little Kel-Tec was a hit among the locals, although nobody could figure out what sort of effect a .32 might have. Out here in Montana, there are very few .30-30 rifles for sale, and lots of bolt action rifles in more powerful calibers. There are more 10 mm pistols around, than those in weaker calibers. The animals out here are bigger. There's a chance a bear might choke on the Kel-Tec, but would ignore being shot with the .32.
I've been putting off getting a Glock Model 29, but now is the time. The Model 29 10 mm is small, and if you put a grip extender on the magazine, it has a decent feel to it. This is necessary when shooting full power 10 mm loads. A related experiment will be a Commander length barrel for the Colt CCO in .40 Super caliber. That should be, to use a southern expression, a pretty darn good pistol. I thought about getting a barrel for the Springfield, but the Colt will be more fun. The flash to bang ratio will be very high, always a treat at an indoor range. The Glock 29 will be for bear country. The little Kel-Tec has convinced me that travelling light is not a bad approach. The Model 29 isn't too heavy.
It turns out that if you buy a gun safe in Washington state, you don't pay sales tax. What a great idea. You don't pay in Montana either, but that's because there is No Sales Tax in Montana. I did encounter a 2 percent "resort tax" in Whitefish. What a dumb idea. At least the shopkeepers and tourists think so.
I wonder how many people it will take
to force me onto the plane tomorrow.
I continue to ponder
yesterday's wisdom about the Glock 29. I still think that's a
good idea. A lot of people are fearful of the recoil and blast
from a small 10 mm pistol, and so am I, but by the time you react the
bullet is on its way. I do not like the 8 pound trigger on the
Model 29, although I thought I would until I fired one. The
regular Glock trigger should be sufficient.
Good News! The CZ-75 ST Limited IPSC model is back, and it works. When it was new, there were extraction problems. Mike, the CZ gunsmith in Kansas City, replaced the extractor spring (which must have been too weak). Last night (December 10th), I had a chance to fire at least 100 rounds and there were no problems. Extraction with Winchester "white box" ammunition was 100 percent reliable. This same ammunition had failed to extract at an IPSC match. The gun will get a real workout next weekend at the December bowling pin match at Westlance Arms in West Virginia. With four 16 round magazines, I shouldn't have to reload very often. Sure wish I could find a holster made for the CZ-75 ST.
The CZ-75 ST worked fine at Westlance, when I remembered to release the trigger after each shot. When you're used to firing SIG Sauer pistols, or even the Colt or Springfield 1911s, a very sensitive trigger takes some extra effort to master. There were no extraction problems thorugh maybe 300 rounds of ammunition, so the original problem has been fixed. During the match we discovered something interesting about bowling pins. During the summer, they tend to absorb the bullets. During colder weather, around 40 degrees, the pins come apart when hit by .40 and .45 bullets. This made reactive targets even more interesting to watch.
The Sunday afternoon before the Westlance match several of us had a chance to fire a Churchill 10 guage double barrel shotgun. We had 3.5 inch shells and while the recoil was a lot more than a 12 gauge, it wasn't bad. The double barrel 10 gauge would be great for long range goose hunting with steel shot, but since I don't hunt, it was enough to turn a traffic cone into small bits of plastic.
The "loaded" Springfield has a new barrel, a .400 Cor Bon barrel made by Laseraim. The barrel seems to fit just fine, but the setup hasn't been fired yet. I may have to replace the current spring with something heavier. Wolff sells spring kits on the Internet so that will be easy. I have about 60 rounds of the 165 grain Cor Bon ammunition to try out. The .400 CorBon is supposed to be equivalent to or a little better than the 10 mm. It will be interesting to compare the two - on cold bowling pins. This isn't scientific, but who cares.
Adding a barrel isn't the same as getting a new gun, so the latest new gun is the Glock Model 35. The Glock 35 starts with a Model 22/31 frame. The Model 22 is a .40 S&W while the 31 is a .357 SIG. The frame on the new 35 has the extra beefed up area so it shouldn't be a problem adding a .357 SIG barrel later. From the "22/31" frame, Glock adds a longer barrel, longer slide, extended magazine release, extended slide release, a 3.5 pound trigger, and adjustable sights. The result is a gun set up for competition, either IDPA or IPSC. I was able to replace the safety plunger and striker with Titanium parts. The result was a much smoother, crisper trigger, and a faster "lock time." That means the striker weighs 60 percent less than the regular Glock striker (for those in Manassas, this is the firing pin). When the striker goes forward, the light weight does not contribute to any movement of the pistol. Here's a picture of the Model 35...
In spite of many holiday activities, there's always time to go to the range to check out a new pistol or two or three. Tonight several of us took time to fire the Springfield with the .400 Cor Bon barrel, the Glock 35 (40 S&W), and a new HK USP Compact .357 SIG. Here's a picture of the H&K pistol -
The H&K Compact is the very latest model. There is a new lock inside the magazine well that will disable the gun. This is one of the best safety locks I've seen so far. The Taurus revolvers have a lock on the hammer. The new Steyr pistol has a key lock on the side, plus so many safe modes that I'm not sure how to fire the gun. The H&K has a simple special key that moves something inside and nothing works until it is unlocked. The H&K USP Compact has a combination safety-decocker that permits the gun to be carried three different ways (four if you're crazy enough to carry the gun cocked and the safety off). The first way is cocked and locked, just like the 1911. The second is DA/SA (double action on the first shot, single action on subsequent shots). The third is DA/SA with the safety on. For a police officer, this third mode would be good. You have to take the safety off, then pull the trigger in double action. If an officer lost his or her gun, the "recipient" would have to know about the safety and the DA trigger, and the time it would take to figure that out would be enough for the officer to retrieve the gun or present a Walther PPK or Kel-Tec back-up gun.
The H&K is lighter to carry than the SIG 239, but has a bigger grip. I guess a Blade-Tech inside the waistband holster would be perfect for the H&K. People who will want to carry the H&K tend to wear shirts like this.
Now for the story about our night at the range with three new items to try. First the bad news. The Springfield fired the first several shots without any problems. We were using .400 Cor Bon 165 grain ammunition. It is very accurate, and the recoil, while a lot different from a .45 ACP, is not a problem. After firing maybe 20 rounds, the Springfield started to have feeding problems. We took the gun apart and noticed that the link on the bottom of the barrel had what appeared to be an oval opening rather than a circular one. This could have moved the barrel enough so that the hollowpoint bullets would get stuck on the feed ramp. Not good. The next experiment will be a change in the barrel link to see if this helps. If this setup can be made to work, the Springfield with the .400 Cor Bon barrel would be a good gun to carry in the woods in Montana.
Now some good and bad news. The HK Compact USP worked great with Winchester "white box" 125 grain ammunition, and with 147 grain Hornady ammunition, and with Speer Gold Dot 125 grain. When I loaded the gun with Cor Bon, the combination resulted in feeding problems. I'm pleased that the Speer Gold Dot bullets work in the HK, and that the Winchester practice ammunition (with the same bullet weight) is also ok. However, this is the second pistol that has had problems with the Cor Bon .357 SIG ammunition. The Cor Bon cartridges do use a lengthy hollow-point bullet, but so does the Hornady brand - and the Hornady works fine. I wonder when Black Hills will start making .357 SIG. They may be already; we'll find out at the SHOT Show.
The star of the show was the Glock 35. Wow. Several of us shot it. It worked every time. It's accurate. All it needs is a better front sight to handle holster wear and competition. It's going to be fun using the Glock in competition next year.
It's the day after Christmas and that means the range at Clark Brothers is open. I took the new H&K Compact .357 SIG to try it out, without the distractions of the .400 Cor Bon and the new Glock. I bought one box of Remington "UMC" (cheap practice ammunition). Considering what it costs for ammunition at Clark Brothers, one box was all I could afford - if we wanted to have enough money for dinner tonight. I put up two targets at about 50 feet. Clark Brothers has moved some of their pistol target stands up to the 7 yard line, but I'd rather shoot at a longer distance. Anyone can shoot well at 7 yards after a little practice. I found out several things about the H&K. It is very accurate when you concentrate on the fundamentals. It is very reliable with the UMC ammunition (so far the Cor Bon is the only ammuntion it does not like). You can shoot it a lot without fatigue. The H&K has a nice feel to it, sort of like the SIG 226. There were several dead center hits on the left target, and I could tell when the shots were going outside of that area. It was always due to me and not the gun. The right hand target got the last 25 shots, and a few spread out as my arm tired a little.
Sixty degrees on January 2nd? No way. Way. Yes it was and several of us went to the outdoor range today. After all the experiences with the .400 Cor Bon in the Springfield, I was concerned that the pistol still worked with the regular .45 ACP barrel. There was no need for concern. It worked fine. The Springfield has a heavier trigger than some of the 1911 competition guns, but I don't notice the trigger move when I fire, and that makes up for the actual trigger weight. The Springfield is a bear to carry in a holster for awhile, after having the smaller and lighter, and just as powerful, pistols around for the past couple of weeks.
Wow, it's almost February and there hasn't been much to write about. At our most recent trip to Blue Ridge Arsenal on Friday night (January 28), I had a chance to fire a used Remington 1100 shotgun with 2 3/4" shells. The NRA has a shotgun patterning target that's a large piece of paper with a picture of a clay target in the middle. I ran that down to 25 yards, although the right distance would be 45 yards, and fired one shot. The pattern was nice and right at that distance, just what you'd expect with a long barrel and full choke. My experience with shooting trap had been loading one shot at a time, but the 1100 is a repeater. When I loaded two rounds, the second round would feed. Later the bolt locked open and wouldn't close. The general opinion was that a part had broken inside. The 1100 is an older, but classic, design so it has more small parts than something new like the Benelli Nova. The 1100 is at the gunsmith's now, and will be working again in time for the good weather. The gun has a good feel to it. Adding a little length to the stock is going to give it a perfect fit, very important on a shotgun.
The other "gun 'o the week" was the H&K USP Compact. We fired two different types of .357 SIG ammunition and noticed some obvious, but significant differences. First, an older batch of Speer Gold Dot 125 grain ammunition had almost no muzzle flash and not very much recoil. Second, an older batch of Remington UMC practice ammunition had more recoil and lots of muzzle flash - impressive, but not good if you were shooting in the dark for real. Other than with CorBon ammunition, the USP has never jammed or failed to feed.
If you would like to see another Web page which may be a little bit more outrageous than this page, take a look at www.irighti.org. In case it isn't real obvious what that stands for, try reading it as "right between the eyes."
It's been awhile since I wrote anything. In the past week there has been a lot of new information, a new pistol, and some new ammunition to write about.
The new gun is a North American Arms "Black Widow" in .22 Magnum. The "Black Widow," is shown here as the shorter of the two revolvers in the picture. I got one with fixed sights. The trigger isn't that great, it only has 5 shots, the .22 Magnum isn't a very powerful cartridge, and the rear sight tends to drift a little even when dry firing. On the other hand, this little revolver is a lot of fun to shoot. The trigger will smooth out, and there's a solution to keep the rear sight in place.
I thought about getting the adjustable sights, but that seems a little extreme for a small gun like this. The picture shows the adjustable sights.
Aguila Ammunition is made in Mexico. I've shot quite a bit of the Aguila 9 mm, but now they have something new on the market called .45 High Power. This ammunition uses a high velocity 117 grain bullet, which has the deepest hollowpoint I've ever seen, which is designed to break up into several pieces when it strikes a target. Last night (late February) we tried some of the Aguila ammunition in a stock Colt 1911 and it worked fine. There was a lot of muzzle blast, but that was to be expected. Will this be a better "carry load" than the standard or +P ammunition? I'm not sure. I plan to try the new ammunition in the Colt CCO in the near future to see how it works.
Colt Concealed Carry Officer's Model
Well, it worked great... The Aguila ammunition had no problems in the Colt CCO and it shot where the sights said it should go. If I was going to shoot this ammuntion all the time, and never shoot 230 grain bullets in the gun, it might be worth some tinkering with the recoil spring or at least checking it for its remaining useful life (by comparing its length with a new spring every so often). I don't ever fire bullets into anything other than paper or steel reactive targets so I have to take someone else's word for how well the Aguila 117 grain bullet would perform in a software medium. In theory it should expand and fragment.
More Adventures with the North American Arms "Black Widow."
It is March 5th (2000) and the NAA "Black Widow" is in a FedEx box waiting to be sent to Provo, Utah. Here's the story. I put some LocTite on the the sight, but that didn't help so one of the mangers at NAA said to send it back. He answered my e-mail right away and said they would fix or replace the gun. I like this kind of service. Guns are made on an assembly line and once in awhile a small problem slips through the system. The "Black Widow" will shoot small groups at 7 yards all day long and makes a very good back-up gun because of its small size and weight. I am willing to be very patient because I know NAA will fix it (they have a good reputation).
If I didn't like the little Kel-Tec .32 pistol so much, I might be tempted to get one of the North American Arms .32s. I've read a lot of good reports on those. The little Kel-Tec is loaded with Winchester Silvertips, oiled with synthetic gun oil, and just sits in a safe place, ready to go. I don't expect to shoot it much; there's not a lot of fancy technique involved in point shooting a .32 pistol at 3-4 yards. I do expect it to work if needed, however.
Right now I feel kind of bad that I spent a lot of money on a SIG Model 239 in 9 mm. OK, I don't feel that bad. After all, it's a SIG. Since then I've had a chance to shoot a Kel-Tec 9 mm pistol and it worked just fine. It has more recoil than the SIG 239, but that's to be expected because of the weight difference.
The next big milestone will be the arrival of this year's Smith and Wesson "Mountain Gun" in .45 ACP caliber.
It is now March 14 and the "Mountain Gun" arrived last Friday, just in time for our regular range session. First impressions: the new revolver is Big, but the same size as another Mountain Gun I had in .44 Magnum caliber. The new gun got a good workout with a variety of .45 ACP ammunition at ranges between 7 and 25 yards. Some of the loads were +P, and some of those produced a big muzzle flash. The Winchester SXT ammunition seemed to be the most accurate. I haven't fired the new Aguila 117 grain bullets in the Mountain Gun yet, but will try that this week. The day after the gun arrived, I managed to pick up some .45 Auto Rim ammunition (not cheap, but not easy to find either) and will keep the fired cases to see if one of the group can work up some interesting reloads. The Auto Rim cases do not require half or full moon clips in order to extract from the revolver. I've also ordered several full moon clips for regular .45 ACP ammunition, a "demooner" to remove the empty cases from the clips, and some moon clip holders. The throught has crossed my mind to try the Mountain Gun in an IDPA or even an IPSC match. Those loaded clips can be extracted and reloaded very fast; maybe not as fast as a 1911 magazine, but fast enough to make things interesting.
North American Arms was very responsive when I sent them e-mail about the minor problem of rear sight drift on the .22 Magnum "Black Widow" revolver. They replaced the revolver with a new one! I've fired the new one a grand total of 5 times, but will give it more of a workout this week to see if the rear sight stays put.
The Black Widow went through almost 200 rounds since it got back, including Winchester, Federal, and CCI ammunition. The Winchester ammunition didn't work very well. When the hammer struck the rim, the resulting distortion of the metal was enough to drag the cylinder against the frame. This does not happen with Federal or CCI. CCI has a new "+V" high velocity .22 rimfire magnum that works great in the little revolver and may be one of the better loads for personal protection (in that caliber and in that particular gun).
This week Smith & Wesson was in the news. A company that's for sale isn't much of a bargain when there are major lawsuits pending, and British owned S&W is for sale. While all that was going on, several us had a chance to fire the S&W .45 Mountain Gun again with more ammunition, and today (3-19-00) we learned something important about the new revolver.
We had an older Model 625 at the range in addition to the new 625-6 model. The older revolver had a longer barrel and was set up for target shooting. We discovered that the Mountain Gun would sometimes misfire unless the cartridges were in the moon clips. The cartridge headspaces on the case in the older 625, but appears to headspace on the moon clip in the new one. This means that you have to use moon clips for reliable operation of the Mountain Gun. No problem, but I'm glad we learned this during testing and not somewhere in Montana later this year. The Aguila ammunition did ok in the revolver, but had a little trouble extracting. Now, that's very interesting because the Aguila is not marked "+P." I have never had a problem ejecting empty +P cases from the Mountain Gun. Either the Aguila is at a higher pressure than advertised, or the case walls aren't very storng and tend to expand a lot after firing.
At this point, with much more left to learn, I believe the Triton .45 ACP +P is the best ammunition for the Mountain Gun. It would not be fun to fire six rounds of the Aguila and then have trouble reloading because the cases didn't want to come out of the cylinder.
Prior to all of this, we had an actual IPSC Match at Mark and Angie Ewing's Westlance Arms range in West Virginia. The match was run by the North Mountain Practical Shooters, a new group from the Martinsburg, West Virginia area. I decided to join the club to help them get going, but will continue to renew my membership in the Big Sky Practical Shooting Club in Montana (www.bspsc.org).
Mark's range has one long berm for pistol shooting so the match stages were set up in front of that single berm. One of the stages was interesting. There was a single die under a coffee can. When the buzzer went off, the shooter looked under the can and saw the number on the die (1-6 for those of you who have never been to Las Vegas). You had to shoot all of the numbered poppers except the one with the number on the die. That required a little extra thinking.
I used the Glock Model 35 and it worked fine. It would be nice to have a high capacity magazine for the Glock .40 caliber pistol, but that won't make the difference between 20th place and 1st place.
April 2, 2000. The Glock Model 35 will accept the older high capacity (15 round) magazines, but the magazines do not "drop free." This may be by design, but it makes no sense. Anyway, I got a high capacity magazine from Glock as well as a 12 round after-market magazine which drops free all day long. This should provide enough ammunition capacity for most IPSC stages.
We had another match at Westlance and I decided to shoot the SIG Model 226, and came in second overall. The accuracy and reliability of the SIG always makes a difference.
A lot of people would like to shoot, but do not like recoil. The .22 Long Rifle is one solution to this problem, but the .22 LR has very little muzzle energy and is pretty much useless for personal defense applications. There are alternatives, like the .22 Magnum, .25 and .32 ACP, the .380 and .38 Special, but all of these are still in the low power range. There is an alternative which has a decent amount of energy, but little recoil: the .32 H&R Magnum. Today we had a chance to shoot a Ruger SP-101 in this caliber. This particular SP-101 holds six shots and has a rear sight adjustable for windage. At 7 yards, it was very easy to put all of the shots into the center of a "Shoot n C" target. I expect the .32 H&R Magnum will see a lot of use in our training classes. Although this gun will also fire the S&W .32 Long cartridge, one of our group has found that this shorter case causes the chambers of the SP-101 to accumulate too much lead, which makes it difficult to insert the longer Magnum cases. Considering there is a good source of .32 H&R Magnum at our local gun shows, I don't have any plans to use the .32 S&W Long in this revolver.
It's April 8, 2000, which means that it has been 32 years since I joined the Navy. The year 1968 was not the best year in American history, but most of us survived the experience. In the meantime, the new Ruger SP-101 has had a good workout and now sports a new set of Hogue grips. The Ruger grips are ok, but I like the Hogue grips with the finger grooves better. Last Sunday we had two SP-101s in .32 H&R Magnum at the range and had a great time. Today, at the regular Bealeton, Virginia gun show, I picked up several boxes of ammunition for the revolver, but with lead wadcutter and semi-wadcutter bullets for practice - again staying away from the S&W .32 Long to avoid leading the cylinder.
Today was our regular NRA Personal Protection Class in Warrenton. The only shots I had to fire were to demonstrate point shooting. I used the new .45 ACP Mountain Gun for that. This was the first time I had fired it with Winchester Silvertip ammunition. I had six of those loaded in a moon clip. Once that was over, I had a chance to shoot at some exploding targets. By then I had WInchester 185 grain +P ammunition in the gun. The students were banging away at the small exploding targets. I had only six shots, but got two of them. Another instructor nicked the edge of the third target and it caught fire. That was exciting.
Friday afternoon, I bought the new issue of "Combat Handguns" magazine. There was an article about a new Croatian pistol called the HS 2000. Here is a picture of the pistol.
It is getting to the point where there is nothing new under the sun, as some writer once said, and this pistol, while new, still fits that rule. It's a 9 mm, although the slide rails look strong enough for .357 SIG and .40 (and the pistol is supposed to be available in these calibers). The HS 2000 has a lot of interesting features. The trigger is little bit like the Glock. The grip is like the former Colt "All American" pistol, and it has a grip safety. The grip safety prevents the slide from moving unless the safety is applied. This is a good deal when re-holstering the gun. The HS 2000 has a magazine release on either side. The magazine itself is a metal drop free type. The sights look pretty good and the gun points well. Although I haven't fired one yet, it looks like a pretty good pistol. Prices seem to range from $427 in a store down to $389 at today's gun show. I learned a couple of lessons about buying the first "edition" of a new model (with the Kahr 9 mm and the S&W Sigma .357 SIG), so I may wait awhile on this HS 2000, but it sure seems like a good buy if it holds up. One of the distributors gave it a thorough test and had no problems.
April 14... We had guests at our regular Friday night gathering, two journalists from BBC Radio in England. They were in the U.S. to gather information on the Smith and Wesson "settlement" and the Million Mom March scheduled for Mother's Day in May. One of our Friday night group is the Virginia coordinator for the "Second Amendment Sisters," a group which will also demonstrate in Washington, DC the same day as the Million Mom March - in opposition to the the misinformed moms. The journalists had never fired a gun before, so I brought a Ruger SP-101 in .22 Long Rifle and a Ruger GP-100 for them to shoot. We talked about safety and shooting fundamentals, and then went out to the range. When both of the journalists were getting decent groups with the Ruger SP-101, we switched to the GP-100 with .38 Special wadcutters and then a few .357 Magnum cartridges. We took a few pictures and then they went on to interview some people at the range for their radio program. It was interesting to teach someone to shoot in such a short time, but we made sure to cover all of the basics. It was also interesting to meet someone from England whose title is "subject." As we all know, the difference between a subject and a citizen is the right to bear arms.
May 6... The latest journalist to show up at Blue Ridge Arsenal was from a Baltimore newspaper. I didn't get a chance to talk to her very much, but I did observe her note taking technique, and she was doing a great job. We did discuss the new movie "Gladiator." This is a great movie. It appeared as though the battle scenes in the movie were true to what we know of the history of the Roman army. Prior to a battle, the soldiers would say "Strength and Honor" to each other. No wonder Rome ruled so much of the world for so long.
Today our instructor group taught a basic pistol class. Since we had a small number of students, we had a chance for some of the instructors to shoot a little more than usual. We have quite a collection of pistols there today. Best I can remember, we had: Glock 17, 29, 29, and 35; SIG 226 and 239; Ruger GP-100; Taurus .454 Casull; and a Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum with a 3 inch barrel. We had the usual array of exploding targets, which require you to hit a bullseye less than one inch in diameter at 7 yards. I nailed a few of those with the S&W .44 Magnum and the Glock 29. The Gun of the Day was a mint condition S&W .41 Magnum revolver with a 4 inch barrel. It was a lot of fun to fire the Taurus .454 with .45 Colt ammunition (very mild), and then with the .454 Casull cartridge (lots of recoil), then switch to the .44 Magnum with the short barrel (snappy to say the least) and then shoot the .41 Magnum - which seemed to be the best compromise of power and control. The Glock 29 (10 mm) did ok, except that it has a minor problem which should be fixed next week by a Glock armorer. We had 200 grain Blazer 10 mm, 150 Grain CorBon, and the Winchester Silvertip 175 grain loads to try. I had never fired a Model 29 with the hotter loads before. It's great, and very close in power to the .41 Magnum. There's nothing like a vintage S&W .41 Magnum revolver, however. In spite of the goofy people who are running the company now, from overseas no less, Smith and Wesson has built some great guns.
The Insight M3 "Tactical Light" is a new addition to the Glock Model 35. Once installed on the frame rails, the light can be switched on by either a left or right handed shooter. There is a momentary switch position and an on-off position. The sight picture is just below the 12 o'clock position of the circle of light. You can point the gun in a safe direction (ready position at an angle toward the ground) and still illuminate the area in front of you. This is a very nice accessory.
Another Mothers' Day is over. The phones will return to normal as soon as the calls to the west coast are completed. We had perfect weather for a day at the range and some new people and a new gun showed up. Here's the latest addition to our list of first impressions, a SIG 229 Sport Model in .357 SIG caliber.
The 229 Sport has a steel frame, compensator, and some nice small touches like extended magazine, decocker, and slide releases. I was shooting an H&K USP Compact .357 SIG, a lightweight pistol, and then shot the 229. Recoil was much, much less, like shooting a 9 mm Beretta 92 FS. The 229 Sport is an interesting gun because it doesn't quite fit one of the accepted IDPA or IPSC competition categories, but it is still great fun to shoot. SIG also has a Sport version of the Model 220 (.45 ACP).
We had a decent day at the range, with some barricade practice, basic students, and a variety of guns. The weather was perfect. After today's session and an evening tactical match last week, I've decided to send the new Smith and Wesson "Mountain Gun" to the S&W shop for a trigger job, and a new front sight. I hope they can put a gold insert into the front sight. I had problems seeing the sight in low light, although there are no problems in the daytime.
The Glock 29 that had a problem at our May 6th class was worked on by a Glock armorer at a GSSF match in Waldorf, Maryland yesterday. He replaced the ejector (the small part the left side of the case hits as the extractor pulls it back after firing) with a longer curved one. We'll see how that works out.
Click here for more "First Impressions."
Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000. All Rights Reserved. Randall A. Mays