Good Day

Hung out with a friend today helping him set up his Dillion 650 press.  It's different from my Hornady.  I like the case feeder, their primer mech is superior, the indexing is perfect.  The powder measure sucks, I don't like the separate seat and crimp operation.  It's a wash.  Both units have nice features, both will run fast enough to pay for themselves.  It's been said before, choose red or blue and pick 'em.

We were building 45 ACP rounds today.  I think we should seat them a little longer and add some powder.  We had some pretty extreme velocity fluctuations and the seal wasn't as tight as it could be.  I did get to shoot a Glock 21 today.  I got to be the guinea pig, the load was mild and I had no worries.  It was a Gen 2 model that feels like a 2x4.  It's hard to make a double stack .45 that I can fit my hand around, Glock fails, even with the new short frame models.

With my 9mm I had an awesome day.  The lower recoil meant that I hardly noticed it after running through fifty full house .45 loads.  Today was a real breakthrough.  I could tell that my sights are a little off.  POI is to the right.  At 25 yards, I had to hold about 4 inches left to hit the center of the target and I made a nice little cluster right in the middle of the target.  When I had a miss, I called it even before my sights came back on target.  I'm super happy with how I shot today and super excited to be adding .45 ACP to my reloading abilities.

SD9 malfunction

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.

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.

SD9 Magazines

For a very reasonably priced gun, magazines are silly expensive.  $40 a pop.  I tried the gun show today but struck out.  Found a total of four at local sporting goods stores.  All of the mags I found are for Sigmas but other than a slightly different floor plate, they are identical to the SD mags.  The Sigma floor plate blends right into the gun.

SD9 at the range

It was a blowing blustery day at the range.  Probably 30mph winds and a brisk 25 degrees.  The SD off the rest at 25 yards put together some 4 inch 10 shot groups for me.  I think it's capable of more, but not in those conditions.  At 10 yards I had no problems keeping 15 shots inside a two inch circle off hand.  I also stopped by the store and tried the gun in a Serpa M&P holster (size 25) which fits it like a glove.  I'm betting most holsters for the M&P will fit the SD9 with no problems at all.

Pictures of the SD9

Hopefully it will go to the range tomorrow.  I did about 200 dry fires last night.  I really like the way it feels in my hands.  The trigger is just fine, it's no STI but I like it.  For a budget gun it sure has a nice finish.

New Pistol Smith and Wesson SD9

A S&W SD9 followed me home this week.  I really like the trigger.  It's better than a Glock trigger and certainly better than a Sigma trigger.  I've never had a chance to shoot an M&P so I can't comment on that.  Overall I like the gun to start.  It's grip angle is slightly different than my P95 so I'm a little slower getting on target.  The front night sight is great, very easy to pick up in low/no light.  It appears the magazines are Sigma mags with a different base plate,  $40 a pop is bit expensive, but that's S&W for you.  The grip frame is very comfortable and surprisingly slim for a double stack gun.  I've got a nice holster on the way for it and I'm hoping that the Serpa M&P holster will fit it.  Pics and a range report to follow.