Range Report: Browning Hi-Power & Colt New Frontier

Took my two newest guns to the range yesterday with the express intent of shooting 'em for a proper range report. I'm happy to report mission accomplished. The guns in question are the Browning Hi-Power which was my Buy A Gun Day purchase and the Colt New Frontier that was my "happy birthday to me" present. Yes, both guns were acquired in April. Yes, I am well aware that it is currently July. Shaddup...

Anyhoo, onto the reports...

There's really no bad to report for either gun. Both are *far* more accurate than I can shoot; both functioned flawlessly; both were more fun than a barrel of hyperactive Calebs. The hardest problem I faced was which gun to lead off with. I chose the Colt New Frontier as I at least shot the Browning back in April...

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Colt New Frontier Single Action .22LR:

Federal bulk 40 gr. CP .22LR, 25 feet

My good friend Heath (he of teh awesome fu-stache) raves about his Colt New Frontier ("the most accurate single action .22LR out there"), and with good cause. Given that I haven't been to the range in quite a long time (not quite two months, but close...), keeping all but one shot out of six in the 10 ring is a testament to the accuracy of the Colt, not my shooting ability.

There were a couple of small faults I found with the Colt, and I'll readily admit that they are pretty nit-picky. First off, it took a couple of go-arounds before I realized I had to manually push in the safety bolt to eject the empty casings. With the safety bolt out, the ejector will only push the casings out about a quarter-inch, which makes for tedious and slow emptying of the cylinder. Once I figured it out, though, it was easily the smoothest single action unloading of any I've ever fired.

The other "fault" really isn't - the grip is just a little too small for my meathooks. I found that there wasn't quite enough of the grip to really hold onto, and I found the Colt shifting in my grip between shots. With the wild popularity of the Colt single action revolver, I'm guessing there's probably an aftermarket company or two that might make some grips for this gun. I'm thinking with the case-hardened frame, a nice set of elkhorn or staghorn grips would look kick-ass...

Anyone have a line on some nice grips for a New Frontier?

The good *FAR* outweighs the bad (think like 100:1 factor at a minimum). The sights are adjustable, clear, and shoot to point of aim. The gun makes that unmistakeable "C-O-L-T" four-click upon cocking that's music to the SA crowd's ears. It's scary-accurate - I haven't exactly been burning up the range time lately, and even I can hit the center with this gun!

All I need now is a nice embossed holster and a .22LR cartridge belt...

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Browning Hi-Power single action semi-automatic 9mm:

Winchester White Box 115 gr. FMJ 9mm, 25 feet

This is the second time I've shot the Hi-Power, the first being at my new shooter outing in April shortly after acquiring it. At the time I wasn't terribly concerned with fine shooting ability, but with reliability, given that it was for a new shooter. Two dropped shots (both of which I called) notwithstanding, the Hi-Power certainly lived up to its reputation as an accurate single action semi-automatic.

That's seven shots in the center there...

Both of the magazines that Zach so kindly sent me worked flawlessly (although one very stubbornly clung to the gun and needed a stern lecture to get out); I put about a hundred rounds through it without a single failure; about the only thing of note was that the Browning got HOT by the end of the range session. Oh, and it was even responsible for the deaths of a couple evil orange clays on the 25 yard berm...

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Two new guns, two range reports in one; it all adds up to a good day shooting.

That is all.