Yesterday was my birthday and I decided that I would go to the range after work.
There was a 40-minute waiting list and I almost ended up leaving. That’s the first time I’ve ever been to Elite Shooting Sports where there was a backlog during the week day. What’s cool is that they had tablet kiosks to allow you to add yourself to the wait list and you’d be texted (to your phone) when a slot was available.
The staff was cordial and I know they were really busy, but none of the register attendants acted like they wanted to be there. When you’re buying merchandise, service, or just space/time, the worst thing is to interact with employees that act like they don’t like what they’re doing. This is the second time I’ve noticed this…was hoping it wouldn’t turn into a trend.
Anyways…
I decided to shoot the Bersa Thunder 380 Plus first, since it was something different for me (blow-back design and .380 caliber). Man, is that thing accurate! Recoil is next to nothing, too. I dumped 3 rounds into each target, 7 yards away, semi-rapid fire, from upper right to upper left, lower right to lower left, then center. The first shot was dead on the red (as well as being a DA shot), but the following two flew a bit upward. Then next target was a bit wide, but I still touched the red at least once. The rest of the groups tightened up significantly as I navigated the targets.
I shot a total of thirty-four rounds before I put the Bersa away. Since I only had one magazine, I stopped shooting it. I’ve ordered 3 new OEM magazines from MidwayUSA.com (was marked down at $27 each but has since been up-priced at $49)
I then focused on the Tristar T-100 9mm for the rest of the range session. One thing I neglected to do was manually decock the gun for a DA shot. I’ve a feeling I wouldn’t have hit red in DA like I did with the Thunder, as the DA trigger is long and strong (much longer and stronger than what I’m used to). But I did a mag dump in the center target as a first date:
I started off fine but as I sped up my follow-on shots, my group began to lose composure. That’s not the gun’s fault…it’s mine. I was treating it like the Bersa since the Bersa was the gun I was shooting prior to picking up the T-100. Recoil was significantly more than the Bersa, but I was all over the target center before I upped the pace. This gun is just as easy to shoot as the Bersa, because of it’s low bore axis and it’s non-traditional rail setup (it’s using the CZ design).
I then tried to focus on small groups (using the same target):
The groups are very tight, especially upper left. The lower right had a flyer, but the two that landed were almost on top of each other and near center-mass.
For the T-100, I used the same Remington 147-grain flat-nosed FMJ that choked my Grand Power P11. It ate 150 of that make/model without one failure. One round had a slightly crinkled lip but I wanted to see if the round would still chamber and fire without issue…it did. I expected nothing less, as I know that CZs aren’t designed to be as tight as GP’s products. The gun frame was warm to the touch when I was done with it (it’s a metal-framed gun), but not uncomfortably so. For the Bersa, I used Federal 95-grain FMJ, and there were no failures.
I also fired some spare ammo from my GP P11 (8 rounds of Winchester Personal Protection JHP that had been chambered several times…they needed to be used or disposed of, so I used them). There were no issues whatsoever. I neglected to bring non-Remington 9mm so I couldn’t fire the P11 any more than that. Plus, I only had the lane for an hour and I was out of time after firing 8 rounds from the P11. I need more range time with the P11 since it is my carry gun. Of those 8 rounds, only half hit the target. I found I was slapping the trigger, but as soon as I figured that out, the rest were all in the red. The P11 doesn’t seem to be as forgiving with heavy-handedness, and it’s SA trigger is very light. I’d have done better if I’d have had more time to adjust to the switch-up of handguns.
I had fun with the two new guns, especially the Tristar. I’ll probably shoot it again the next range visit.