Today I went to the range with just the SD9 to finish up it's 1000 round break in and to test some reloads. My first ten round string had a lot of vertical stringing and was about two inches to the left. That kind of bummed me out because those are both signs of fundamental flaws in my shooting, bad breath control and recoil anticipation. I tried several more times but the groups just kept getting worse and worse. After about thirty rounds I switched to a different reload as I figured that it must be an ammo problem. It got worse, much worse. I was so focused on my shooting and a suspected ammo problem that I completely failed to notice that the rear sight was loose and working it's way out of the dovetail. After drifting it back into the middle of the slide and tightening the set screw everything came right back to normal. Not the greatest day at the range as I wanted to work on reloads and holster presentation, but I did run 300 rounds downrange and found a weak spot to keep an eye on with this gun.
Shooting log summary:
1015 rounds total
300 rounds today
malf list:
3 failures to eject total - weak handloads
4 failures to lock back on last round total - weak handloads
2 failures to feed total - human error.
2 failures to feed today. Both times failed round was slide release nose dive on a fresh magazine. Hand racking the slide cleared both malfunctions. Probably sloppy putting the last round into the magazine.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Getting a 'Good' Gun
Caleb over at Gun Nuts posted this today.
http://gunnuts.net/2010/12/15/life-is-too-short/
I encourage you to go read the article as it's a pretty good post about equipment reliability and choosing a firearm that you can trust. The only thing I don't agree with is his characterization that a Glock or a S&W revolver is going to be a better gun than a Bersa or any other cheap gun. All guns are mechanical objects that can fail. The only way to never experience a failure with your firearm is to never shoot it. I own two PF9s, a Ruger P95, a Smith and Wesson SD9, and a Sig P239. I mention these guns in particular because two weeks ago I took them all to the range for an extended range session. Now up here in Montana we are experiencing something of an indian summer. It's above freezing and the sun is shining. Two weeks ago it was 12 degrees and there was 17 inches of snow on the ground.
These are not ideal gun conditions. Guns carried next to the skin are warm, happy, and moist. The second they clear the holster they are covered in frost and you don't want to lick them. The first thing I did when I got to the range was practice an all up, the crap is hitting the fan drill. Now, not all of my guns were in their carry holsters on my body when I got the range. The SD9 is brand new and hasn't earned it's place as a carry gun yet. The Ruger is semi-retired with almost 8k rounds through it. One PF9 was in my pocket and the Sig was IWB. The PF9 came out first and all eight of it's rounds rang the steel at 25 yards with narry a glitch. Same with the seven round reload. The Sig came out and the first round range steel at the same time that the magazine dropped out of the gun and all the little bullets rattled around on the ground at my feet. The magazine spring was stuck all the way at the bottom of the magazine and I was unable to clear that malfunction until I got the magazine on the bench at the house.
Both the P95 and the SD9 choked on the some low power LRN bullets that I built in my quest for the most accurate range load I can build. But when using factory and full power reloads both of those guns performed flawlessly. The Sig continued to run very well with a different magazine.
I guess my point here is that a cheap gun is probably no less reliable than an expensive gun. The only way you really know if a gun is going to go bang for you, is to pull the trigger. I would never have guessed that my Sig would have such a catastrophic failure that day. Two is one and one is none, no matter how 'good' a gun you've got on your belt.
http://gunnuts.net/2010/12/15/life-is-too-short/
I encourage you to go read the article as it's a pretty good post about equipment reliability and choosing a firearm that you can trust. The only thing I don't agree with is his characterization that a Glock or a S&W revolver is going to be a better gun than a Bersa or any other cheap gun. All guns are mechanical objects that can fail. The only way to never experience a failure with your firearm is to never shoot it. I own two PF9s, a Ruger P95, a Smith and Wesson SD9, and a Sig P239. I mention these guns in particular because two weeks ago I took them all to the range for an extended range session. Now up here in Montana we are experiencing something of an indian summer. It's above freezing and the sun is shining. Two weeks ago it was 12 degrees and there was 17 inches of snow on the ground.
These are not ideal gun conditions. Guns carried next to the skin are warm, happy, and moist. The second they clear the holster they are covered in frost and you don't want to lick them. The first thing I did when I got to the range was practice an all up, the crap is hitting the fan drill. Now, not all of my guns were in their carry holsters on my body when I got the range. The SD9 is brand new and hasn't earned it's place as a carry gun yet. The Ruger is semi-retired with almost 8k rounds through it. One PF9 was in my pocket and the Sig was IWB. The PF9 came out first and all eight of it's rounds rang the steel at 25 yards with narry a glitch. Same with the seven round reload. The Sig came out and the first round range steel at the same time that the magazine dropped out of the gun and all the little bullets rattled around on the ground at my feet. The magazine spring was stuck all the way at the bottom of the magazine and I was unable to clear that malfunction until I got the magazine on the bench at the house.
Both the P95 and the SD9 choked on the some low power LRN bullets that I built in my quest for the most accurate range load I can build. But when using factory and full power reloads both of those guns performed flawlessly. The Sig continued to run very well with a different magazine.
I guess my point here is that a cheap gun is probably no less reliable than an expensive gun. The only way you really know if a gun is going to go bang for you, is to pull the trigger. I would never have guessed that my Sig would have such a catastrophic failure that day. Two is one and one is none, no matter how 'good' a gun you've got on your belt.
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