Not What I Expected...

So, I mentioned going shooting yesterday with friend, commenter, and all-around mensch Brad_in_MA yesterday. He's been itching to try out the Conspirator AR-15, and his range has both 100 and 200 yard stations for shooting steel with rifles. This was surely a match that would go well, right? The 200 yard station has its own dedicated 18" steel plate suitable for everything up to .338 Lapua Magnum (previous outings have seen it survive hits from a .325 Winchester SSM). The 100 yard station has hooks available, so I strung up my 10" steel plate from AR500.

We shot the 10" plate with the Conspirator (.223 Remington), several .22LR rifles and a handgun, 9mm out of a carbine, and .357 Magnum out of a rifle and handgun. At the end of the day, we were shocked to see this:

Four holes punched clean through. Decent grouping, too, for 100 yards... Now, I've hit this with 9mm and .223 Remington before - the .223 Remington leaves the tiniest hint of a dimple; 9mm doesn't even leave that much (same for .45 ACP and .38 Special). The only new caliber is the .357 Magnum - which was fired out of the Rossi model 92 lever action rifle with 24" barrel.

Now, when you hear about a round going through a steel plate, it's usually because a rifle round was shot at a plate meant for handgun ammunition. Naturally, my first thought was that the holes were made by the .223 Remington out of the Conspirator; however a closer look revealed otherwise:

Yeah, that hole is WAY too big for .223 Remington. We deduced that the holes had to have been made by the .357 Magnum out of the Rossi, since both the 9mm out of the Kel-Tec SUB2000 and the .223 Remington hit the plate far more than 4 times. The Rossi only ran a total of 7 rounds through it, five from me and two from Brad, so it's far more likely to have been the culprit.

Isn't that weird? .357 Magnum out of a rifle had enough power to get through a 3/8" thick steel plate that easily stopped a .223 Remington? I wouldn't have thought it possible, but the proof is in the plate, so to speak. Or through the plate, more accurately...

Other highlights from the day:

• Hitting the 10" steel plate 5 out of 10 times at 100 yards with the Ruger 22/45.
• Hitting the 10" steel plate (once) at 100 yards with the Smith & Wesson model 13.
• Hitting the 18" steel plate at 200 yards 19 out of 20 times with the Conspirator (and I suspect that the 20th time was a hit dead amidships that didn't make enough noise to hear).
• The Conspirator ran like an absolute top. I think we put ~ 80 rounds of lower end .223 Remington through it without the slightest hiccup.
• Running the 15 yard plate rack and dueling tree with the Kel-Tec SUB2000 like a boss. Six horizontal plates on the rack and six vertical plates on the tree hit in very rapid succession. The SUB2000 has impressed the hell out of me.

And in any case, it was a day spent lobbing lead downrange with a good friend - what more can you ask for?

That is all.

Pre-Friday Gun Pr0n

Reader Jim was kind enough to send in a review of his new (to him) PA-63. I'll let him tell you about it...

---

If you're like me, you'll find that two toned automatics are sexy. Which, of course, is why I'm drawn to the FEG (Fegyver És Gépgyár) PA-63.

My first impression was that it looked good, was small, handled great, was relatively light (due to the aluminum frame), but had a double action trigger that made me feel like a weakling. It registers in the mid to high 20 pound range. The single action trigger has a little take up, but is a pretty crisp 6-ish pounds.

The sights are small, military style, and drift adjustable. I have since painted the front sight bright orange to help with acquisition.

Disassembly is made easy with a downward pull on the trigger guard and a back and up motion of the slide.

On a note: unless there is a problem, disassembling the pistol is highly discouraged. The little pieces are under pressure and very hard to find when they come rocketing out of there.

For those who do not heed my warning, replacement parts are really hard to find. Luckily, Kassar PMK firing pin and springs are 100% interchangable.

Range Time:

Shooting this gun is a pleasure. Recoil is very manageable allowing for quick follow up shots. I had noticed that my slide would lock back at random intervals. After looking at schematics online, I found that my gun was missing the spring that kept the slide lock in check. A quick job with a needle nosed plier and a piece of a paper clip and I was back in business. about 150 rounds later, it still works without a hitch.

Super high tech repair job. I have since replaced the the paper clip with the real thing.

This brings me to an important point. The blowback operation makes the action ridiculously simple. In my book, simple usually means less likely to break.

The pistol can be fired in either single or double action.

This is two five rounds sets. The fliers at 12 and 7:30 are from the double action pull. Being able to hit soup cans at 10 yards consistently is nice for plinking, definitely within Minute of Bad Guy.

For carry, I picked up some Hornady XTP loads. XTPs aren't my favorite for carry, but I could not find any Speer Gold Dots in 9mm Mak. After using my wet pack set up, I shot with both XTP and FMJ ammo. The XTP penetrated about 8-10 inches in all three tests with reasonable expansion to .585" The FMJ rounds penetrated all the way through my 18" wet pack and broke the cinder block behind.

XTP, FMJ, and FMJ after hitting the cinder block.

Overall, I find this firearm aesthetically pleasing, simple to operate, easy to conceal, and cheap to purchase and feed.

Comparison of other carry guns: Keltec P3AT, Glock 23, Rock Island 1911

---

Thanks for the review, Jim - looks like you got a winner there!

That is all.

Hey, I Know That Guy!

Robb got himself a new writin' gig. Shiny.

Man, it should be illegal to have that much talent - master of photoshop; bringer of snark; Para gunblogger; and now, official gear writer. And all done without the aid of pants.

He reviews three different brands of inexpensive .45 ACP ammo - invaluable information to have in today's age of ever-increasing ammunition prices. My experience with Tulammo mirrors Robb's - he notes it's a little dirty but not too bad - except that the 100 rounds I put through my SW1911 all fed, fired, and ejected without issue.

Oh, and if someone were to need another gunblogger to write other reviews of ammo, I happen to know this guy...

That is all.

Range Report: SW1911

I took my new (to me) SW1911 to the range along with the Model 34 with LaserLyte CK-SW this past weekend. I wanted to get a feel for the new 1911, curious to see how Smith & Wesson's foray into the crowded 1911 field fared in comparison to the other 1911s in the G. armory. Given the adjustable sights and trigger on the SW1911, I had a feeling this was a good shooter:

Not Bad

Yeah. That'll do. Both targets were shot at 25 feet off-hand; the target on the left was also used for sighting in the Model 34. Here's a close-up of the grouping on the left:

That'll Do

Five rounds touching in the center and a cloverleaf a little low and left. I can live with that. Y'know, I hate to say it, but I think I shoot this gun better than the Colt Gold Cup. The sights are pretty close - the SW1911 front blade is a little wider than the Colt; this obscures (slightly) more of the the target but allows for more precise shooting. The triggers are very similar - both are adjustable for take-up - the biggest difference I can see is the checkering of the grip straps allowing for a sturdier grip.

In any case, I'd say we have another target 1911 here...

That is all.

Sunday Afternoon Range Report

I mentioned yesterday I was going to the range with Lissa and Mike, in the context of not shooting any wheelguns for once. Lissa has a detailed report up, including some very nice and flattering words for your humble host. She also points out one of her many excellent targets - this woman is a natural, folks. I'd like to put her and Breda side-by-side at the range and just bask in the glow of the fabulous marks(wo)manship.

I did manage to get some shooting done with both the G30 and the P226 with the laser sights indoors. I'm hoping to have a range report up later in the week - I'll just leave it that Will was spot-on about lasers being better-suited for indoor work. It was significantly easier to use the laser sights at the Lissaville indoor gun range than at the Jay G. outdoor one...

And Lissa was extra-nice in not pointing out just how badly I shot - it's true, you really do have to practice!

That is all.

Girl Gunnie Goodness...

Lissa gets her Range Report on. Go. Read. Now.

New female MA gunnie. Sarah Brady has had her shoelaces and belt taken away...

That is all.

Weekend Range Report UPDATE!

Lissa has her range report up. With pictures. Something tells me Lissa won't be getting a snubbie any time soon...

Go. Read. I *think* she and Mike had a good time.

That is all.

It Has Been Said...

That a bad day at the range beats a good day at the office, a sentiment with which I heartily concur. Now, when you have a good day at the range, it can erase an entire bad week at the office. And when you have a great day at the range, well, the sun is shining and all is right with the world...

Saturday afternoon was spent in gunnie heaven (or, as I like to call it, gunnervana, the state of perfect gun nut bliss) with Lissa and her husband Mike. They are currently going through the byzantine process of getting their permits in MA, and are starting to think about which gun(s) they would like to purchase with their shiny new permits. Being as I have a few guns kicking around*, I'd offered to bring them to my club and let them try a few guns from the G. armory.

*Lissa asked how me how many guns I owned, just out of curiosity. I paused for a bit, thought about it, and replied that I wasn't quite sure, but I was pretty sure it was under triple digits... She laughed and remarked that she thought it might be over 50 or so...

We went back and forth in e-mail a few times hashing out what they'd like to try. Here's what we finally settled on:

1. Sig P226 (9mm)
2. Colt Gold Cup 1911 (.45 ACP)
3. Sig P232 (.380ACP)
4. S&W model 38 (.38 Special)
5. S&W model 422 (.22LR)
6. Remington model 572 (.22LR)
7. S&W model 39-2 (9mm)
8. Marlin model 39A (.22LR) - this was the only gun we didn't shoot.

Lissa and Mike are "more of a semi-auto family right now" (Mike's words), before anyone wonders why I didn't bring the S&W model 19 or 17. The P232 and the model 38 were explicit requests - Mike had inquired about "anything like a snub-nose .38 or a .380 ACP" they could try. Not wishing to subject either of them to the Snubbie from Hell™ quite yet, I opted for the model 38 instead - slightly heavier than the SfH, and .38 Special only. The P232 was a natural choice given their predilection for SigSauers; I figured it was more refined and would be more to their liking than my Makarov, she of the spartan Russkie stock...

We started off with the 422; always good to warm up with a gentle rimfire I always say. Lissa and Mike are, how shall I put this, rather competitive in their shooting - it was very cute to watch - and insisted on calling a cease fire after every couple of sets so they could compare targets. Even though I hadn't been in quite a few weeks, I wasn't as rusty as I feared I would be (no "minute-of-berm" for me this time! *g*). We moved onto the Sig P226, and continued in the Sig family with the P232. Neither was much of a surprise - they're Sigs. They work, they work well, they put the bullets where you want them to go.

And then we tried the snubnosed revolver.

The snubnosed revolver is not an easy gun to master; it takes a lot of dedicated trigger time to develop mere proficiency. The short sight radius combined with the most rudimentary of sights make it a daunting gun to shoot accurately - Lissa asked if the smaller-barreled gun was less accurate than a gun with a longer barrel, and I responded that it was harder to shoot accurately, not that it had any less inherent accuracy. Important distinction. It's even harder when you're shooting double action only on a gun that's set up for either (i.e. doesn't have an improved trigger). I haven't seen a range report from Lissa yet (and she had the camera!); I won't divulge her reaction to the snubbie other than to say she made a note in her little notebook (she is so organized!) that basically crossed it off her mental list...

However, we made up for it with the Colt Gold Cup National match - both Lissa and Mike chewed big ragged holes in the centers of their targets (and I even got a couple bullseyes!) with the stainless .45. Lissa commented on the heft of the Colt - this is not something you'd want to tote around all day to be certain - and quite correctly opined that it's probably why the .45 ACP doesn't seem to have the same recoil as even the .380 ACP. It seemed to me that the Gold Cup was a hit - we broke out additional magazines even - as it's just such a joy to shoot and really wrings out the best of even the most mediocre shooter like your humble host. We then had a brief discussion of the bazillion different flavors of 1911, then put away the paper targets. It was time for fun...

Busted out the Remington, set up the steel plates and some clays, and spent the last half hour or so plinking away with a .22LR pump-action rifle. Talk about fun! I brought along a jar of Federal bulk .22LR for the occasion, and we managed to shoot a good 3/4 of it in that half hour. Breaking clays is fun; clanging steel is fun; hitting the steel plates with a pistol and the clays with the S&W model 39 at the 25 yard berm was eminently satisfying as well. Lissa commented on Marko's prowess with a pistol from the Northeast Bloggershoots, and the simple fact that my meager shooting could prompt that memory put a smile on my face that's still here today...

Thank you, Lissa and Mike, for making the long haul out to the sticks to go shooting with me. I've got a bunch more guns you can shoot if you'd like; I'd love for you guys to try out the S&W model 17 (.22LR) wheelgun (I will try to convert you yet!) as well spend some more time plinking. Let me know the next time you want to head out this way, and I'll clear some time to head back to the range. Oh, and if it helps to sweeten the deal, we could hit the rifle range with some evil black rifles and scoped bolt actions for long(ish) range goodness... ;)

If Lissa and Mike had half as good a time as I had, I'll be a happy man, because they'd be pretty darn happy with our shootie outing this weekend...

That is all.

PS: Sorry there's no pictures, but the kids were going to a Halloween party and Mrs. G. wanted the camera. Lissa took a bunch, and I'll rely on her good graces to pick the least ugly picture of me... ;)

Range Report: S&W Model 34

I had a chance last weekend to take the new Model 34 out to the range to put it through its paces. One of the great things about having a range only 10 minutes away is that I was able to drive to the range, shoot the M34 enough to get a feel for it, and get home in under an hour. I also brought along my G30, wanting to put a few magazines through it to re-acquaint myself with the stubby .45. With the advance of fall and winter - and the return of cover garments! - the G30 will take a more prominent role in the carry rotation.

How did the Model 34 perform? Well, I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Rapid Fire

That's a "rapid" fire target (club limits shooting to one round per second, so double-tap practice is out (at least with company...) Taking the dropped shot at 10 o'clock out (which is 6 o'clock as the target was shot), that's 11 shots in a 2" circle...

How about slow-fire?

Slow Fire

Damn. Just damn. The biggest problem with this, of course, is that I no longer have an excuse for shooting my centerfire snubbies poorly... Any inaccuracy is coming from my flinching, not from the short barrel of the snubnose... That's a group of six shots at 25 feet that can (almost) be covered by a quarter... Now, granted, this came after a dozen or so cylinders through the gun, so I had started to get a pretty good feel for the snubbie by this time...

The model 34 is just a great little gun. It's all steel, so it's significantly heavier than the aluminum framed model 38 or the scandium framed 360 (weight comparison of the three guns later this week - I love having a postal scale!). Couple the heavier gun with the .22LR chambering and recoil is removed from the equation entirely. Not only that, but because it's a smaller gun overall than the model 17 or the Colt Official Police in .22LR, it's less fatiguing to shoot for longer sessions.

---

And just for s**ts & giggles, how did I do with the G30? Well, I'll preface this by admitting that I haven't shot the big bore compact in a while. I've concentrated on the snubbies and the P3AT in the summer months, as they see a greater roll in the carry rotation. Also with the price of .45 ACP climbing ever higher, it's more economical to shoot .38 reloads than factory .45ACP...

Anyways, I was surprised by how well I shot the G30:

G30 Rapid Fire

29 rounds (one nine round mag, two ten round mags), all COM as fast as the range will allow. I'd like to see the overall grouping a little tighter, but for defensive point shooting I'll take it. This is overlaid on an NRA B-34 target, which is a 25 yard target - all hits are 7 ring or better.

All in all, an excellent day shooting.

That is all.

MArooned Shootin' Gear Review: .22 Target System

Picked up a Caldwell Resetting Target System from MidwayUSA (this one) and brought it to the range last weekend to put it through its paces. Here's what it looked like before:

Shiny!

And after:

Not So Shiny...

Here's a close-up of one of the swinging targets:

Still In One Piece!

---

Overall, this is a GREAT target system for the price. The minimum distance recommended by Caldwell is 25 yards, which by a happy coincidence happens to be the back of the pistol range at my gun club. The targets are only 2.5" across, which tends to make things challenging using a pistol (oddly enough, the first two times I shot at this target I used my scoped Remington 511 and my Smith & Wesson Model 17. Of course, I hit it more times with the Smith...).

The "resetting" part works - when the swinging targets will actually stay up top. 9 out of 10 times, you'd hit the last target hanging down only to have another target be jarred down. This is a minor quibble, in that the fun lies in hearing the "tink" of lead on steel rather than in the mechanics of getting all the targets up at once - although there is somewhat of a rush when you hit those little targets with all six shots out of a revolver at 25 yards...

Overall, an enthusiastic two thumbs up for the Caldwell .22 Resetting Target System!

That is all.

Range Report: S&W M13-3

Got a chance to put the new S&W Model 13-3 through its paces last Saturday:

Not Too Shabby

Those are 6" targets, so it's getting ~ 3" grouping at 25 feet. Not horrible, especially for the first outing with the new Smith, but certainly room for improvement. The red ramp front sight/white outline rear sight was nullified by the direct sunlight on the targets since we went in the afternoon; it will be instructive to see how these sights improve (or not) the shooting in the dimly-lit indoor range...

(And no, I didn't miss the top right target entirely. Just taking advantage of a cold range to get a few pics)

There's a lot to like about this gun. The single action trigger pull can't possibly be more than an ounce or two (only slight exaggeration); the double action pull is smooth and steady through the whole pull (IOW, traditional S&W DA pull for a gun that's been shot/dry-fired a bit). The shorter barrel requires a steady hand for greatest accuracy, and in other, more competent hands I'd wager this would be a right tackdriver.

Gee, I guess I'm going to have to shoot it some more. What a shame.

That is all.

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...

---

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...

---

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...

---

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

That is all.

Range Report: Conversion Kits...

I asked a while back about various conversion kits I'd been thinking about. I was looking for input from folks that had owned or used such kits; ideally looking to separate the cream from the chaff, as it were. At the very least, I wanted to eliminate the "ZOMG this POS never worked!!!1111" kits from consideration.

Commenter OrangeNeckInNY left the following comment:

I have the Kimber conversion kit, which I haven't even tried out yet. I bought it after the election. I suppose I could take it to the range tomorrow and put a few hundred rounds through it, along with the Browning Buck Mark 7.25 Contour URX, and give you a full report afterwards. With pictures.

And, sure enough, true to his word, he did:

It was drizzly, cold and windy, but I had a great time. Had the range all to myself and I even did the whole move and shoot thing.

Anyway, to answer your question, the donor frame is from my Kimber 1911 in 10mm. I should've just bought the Buck Mark with the money I spent on the conversion kit. And that's only because I'm having a hard time getting a frame to convert my conversion kit to an entity unto itself, so that I'll 3 complete 1911s - a 10mm, a .45 acp and a .22LR (all Kimber).

Anyway, here are the pictures for you to look at. Don't let the hits on the conversion kit target fool you. Those are very nice groups. At the end before I left, I was shooting at things that were on the ground - shot casings, cardboard boxes, rocks, etc. - ranging anywhere between 7 yards and 50 yds. BOTH pistols were hitting
everything I aimed at. So really, you can't go wrong with a complete gun or the conversion kit.

The ammo I used were Federal Standard Velocity (red & black box), Federal High Velocity (blue box) and CCI Subsonics. The subsonic rounds cycled just fine in my Buck Mark, whereas I had to manually cycle each round in the Kimber. If I missed anything, let me know and I'll see if I can answer you.

-OrangeNeck

He provided pictures, as promised:

Browning Buckmark and Kimber with conversion

And the results:

Good shootin'!

It's nice to find someone even more anal-retentive than me... *g*

Thanks for the write-up, OrangeNeck. It's helped me to choose to get a conversion kit for my 1911, to start with. Depending on how that goes, I might expand into other kits...

That is all.

Range Report: Glock 30 .45 ACP

I need to start making this a more regular feature - a range report following the first outing with a new firearm...

I took my new-to-me Glock 30 to the range last Friday. I put it through some quick paces, rapid-fire drills and quick-mag changes; generally a reliability test that I insist any carry gun go through before I am comfortable carrying it.

Five second review: It's easily as reliable, accurate, and controllable as the SW99 I've been carrying. Only instead of 10+1 rounds of 9mm +P+ JHPs, I'll now have 10+1 rounds of .45 ACP +P JHPs...

Gee, ain't that a kick in the head?

Need proof?



I'm still pulling my shots a little on the low side under rapid fire; definitely something to work on down the road. The target on the left is the SW99 9mm - definitely more comfortable with this firearm; of course, I've put at least a couple thousand rounds through it, so I should be. The Glock 30 target's on the right - this is the very first target I shot with the new Glock. I'd say the results between the two pistols are pretty comparable, all things considered...

How did the Colt shoot? In a word, beautifully:

Not too shabby for a 60+ year old gun. Hard to argue with a grouping of less than 1". And that's free-hand, with fixed sights consisting of a groove carved into the top strap - not the deluxe adjustable target sights of the S&W Model 17...

All in all, a good day's work.

That is all.