A few weeks ago, I had bought some .380 ammo locally (from Cabela’s). I’d bought Herter’s Select and some PMC Bronze. My intention was to shoot both boxes (50 rounds per box) but I ended up quitting after shooting the Herter’s.
Why?
The Plus was biting the webbing of my hand. The part between forefinger and thumb. It wasn’t slide bite but the gun’s beaver tail edges were cutting into the webbing. This was the first time I’d experienced this and I’d shot maybe 250ish out of the gun by that time…without any sharp recoil (that’s what I’m going to call it). I’d not changed how I was shooting. I was holding the gun the same way I always had.
The only thing that had changed was the ammo.
My first thought was that the ammo was hot but when I conducted some quick research on the ammo, I saw that the muzzle velocity wasn’t anything special, so maybe it wasn’t that it was hot.
Today, I took it to the range and shot the PMC out of it. This time, there was no sharp recoil. It had to have been the Herter’s ammo. I’m pretty sure that ammo was hotter than normal. The whole box. I believe it’s made in Europe and I know Europeans usually make their ammo NATO-spec. I’m just glad I now know to avoid Herter’s.
I’m now at 323 rounds through the Plus. That’s more than my XD 9 Mod 2. The Plus is my 4th most fired gun, between the aforementioned XD and the Sig Sauer SP2022.
It is now much easier to fire than when I first bought it. I used to hate how difficult it was for me to operate the gun. I hated the DA trigger, hated the manual safety, hated the decocker’s placement, and hated the safety’s non-intuitive nature (the manual safety operates the opposite of how a 1911 manual safety is operated). What’s different now? The DA trigger must’ve wore in because it’s not so difficult to actuate now (but it is long and pinches the side of my trigger finger…I’d have to wear a bandaid to negate the effect). I don’t use the manual safety at all…I use DA in place of the safety. I do use the decocker (to get into DA mode) but I only use it after racking the slide back and chambering a round. I usually don’t drill when doing this…this isn’t something I need to practice, but I do need to remember to always place the gun in DA mode.
I also published a video update on the Plus here:
I’ve only one holster for the gun, the N82 Tactical Original holster. It is a great holster. The gun will carry well no matter the holster but it carries extremely well with this particular holster. The holster is easy to put on the hip and is easy to remove. It’s a simple holster…simple is good enough for what I need at this time. I needed a holster that removes quickly.
Oh, I’m carrying Inceptor Polycase ammo with this particular firearm, too. I know that .380 JHP is known to have issues penetrating, so I wanted something that I know for a fact will always penetrate. This ammo will not have an issue penetrating, but it shouldn’t over-penetrate either. I’ve tested the ammo at the range to ensure the gun will eat it without issue…it did.
I wouldn’t mind finding different sights for this gun but I’ll wait until I’ve more rounds through the gun first. I wouldn’t mind Big Dot sights for the gun.