Category: range visit

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AK-V PSA range visit

PSA AK-V MOE – First Range Visit!

I had fun today!  I ended up shooting 199 rounds from the AK-V.  In an hour.  I had 100 rounds of Wolf 115-gr FMJ and 100 rounds of Winchester White Box 115-gr FMJ.

I started out at 10 yards, then went to 25, then to 20, then focused on 15 yards.  I had no issue staying on the paper while out to 25 and when I moved to 20 (to better see where I was shooting), I ate the bulls-eye up!  This pistol is easy to shoot.  It has very little recoil and you can shoot it fast with ease.

I did have 4 FTEs, though, with one mag.  It was the CZ Scorpion mag that I believe is the issue.  It’s spring is very stiff, to the point that my finger is sore from loading it.  I think it may break in.  We’ll see.  It wasn’t related to ammo because it did it with both brands of ammo.  As well, the bolt didn’t hold open several times.  There was also a time where one round didn’t want to feed and was jammed into the chamber.  When I tried to get the bolt to hold open so I could get the round out, it slammed shut, forcing the round into the chamber.  When I tried to eject the round, I couldn’t get the bolt open, but the trigger was live so I fired it out.  The casing came out but I didn’t see where it went (so I could look at it).  It did this a second time as well, but I was able to get the round out.

I have range footage but my camera wasn’t positioned well (I couldn’t preview the footage to ensure proper framing).

Hopefully, I can get better range footage next time.

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Beretta Bersa Grand Power P11 PX4 Storm range visit Thunder Plus

Range Visit

I went to the range today and brought the Grand Power P11, the RIA 22TCM, and of course I bought my current carry gun, the Bersa Thunder Plus (I’m carrying the PX4 less now, since it is so thick…it’s lumpier and I don’t like that it feels so large on my hip).  I couldn’t use my RIA, though, because I forgot to bring it’s magazine.

I brought 200 rounds of Wolf 115-grain FMJ for the P11.  I fired 150 rounds of it.  I bought 50 rounds of Speer Lawman 95-grain FMJ at the range for the Bersa.  I fired all of that.

I started out with the P11.  I ensured it was lubed properly (using synthetic motor oil – 5w20 Motul) beforehand.  It failed to return to battery once in that first magazine.  It did it again on the 6th magazine (12-round mags).  Then I did twice more through the last two mags.  It probably was pretty dirty with firing Wolf ammo after 138 rounds, so that’s probably why it was failing.  Wolf is REALLY dirty and covered in some type of semi-sticky coating…not exactly conducive to the inner workings of a gun with tight tolerances.

12 yards out with the P11 – not used to shooting that far out…I shot 12 rounds but 3 rounds missed the paper, and the group was not tight.
12 yards out, next 12 round mag with the P11.  The first shots were landing at the top of the target.  I had to 6 o’clock hold the sights to get the rounds to hit around the red.
Went back to 7 yards out.  Notice how the rounds are very vertically oriented.  Need to ensure the front site is lined with the rear dots, but for self defense purposes, this is superb, IMO.
7 yards with the P11…two mags worth.  Still hitting a bit up high but they’re again pretty vertical.
7 yards with the P11 – two mags…this is tight as hell, but I’d still like to work on the 1-2″ left drift of the grouping.  That’s trigger slap or me not using my support hand enough (for stabilization).  Was also shooting a bit fast.
54 rounds @ 7 yards with the P11.  Worked a bit on DA trigger pull (also did quite a bit of dry fire to try to get a feel for the DA on this gun…it’s different than the DA on the PX4, with the PX4 having the better DA trigger, IMO).  So, two mags to the head and two mags to the torso with this target, with several doube-taps using the last 10 or so rounds.
50 rounds of Speer Lawman FMJ 95-grain ammo.  I hated this ammo…it caused the Bersa’s beavertail to sting the webbing of my hand.  After one round of sting, I immediately grabbed my gloves, but shooting with gloves is difficult for me.  The rounds have a vertical pattern, though.

That Speer Lawman ammo for the .380…it was stinging my hand.  I’ll have to avoid that ammo in the future.  It seems I’m going to need to develop a listing of “to avoid” ammo for this particular handgun.

So, I’m now at a round count of 1269 for the P11 and 373 for the Bersa.  I’m not sure if I’ll ever get rid of the fails to return to battery with the P11.  I wanted to give the gun a fair shake by trying a thicker lube, but maybe using Wolf negated the usage of thicker oil (oil that’ll stay put instead of migrating).  There’s always something with the P11…too many excuses being used to explain these issues.  :/  The Bersa is still cool to shoot.  The trigger is smoothing out.  I’m still not as accurate with it as with the P11 or PX4, though…and it’s trigger isn’t all that spectacular when compared to those aforementioned handguns, too.  But it’s definitely utilitarian.  The only thing about this gun that I really hate is it’s recoil sting with certain ammo.

I’ll continue to shoot both guns, although I probably need to put more rounds through the PX4.

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1911 extractor fail to feed feed ramp range visit recoil spring SP2022

Bersa Thunder 380 Plus Listings; Metro Arm 1911 Woes

I’ve had several people reach out to me asking about where to find good-priced Bersa Thunder 380 Plus models.  Here are some:

All of those are listed on Gun Broker.  There were at least 7-10 of them listed, but most were over-priced.  I only listed those that were under MSRP, but I did list the Combat Plus because many people are asking where to find those models and supply is scarce.

Also, a few weeks ago, I ended up taking my Metro Arms 1911 (the American Classic Commander, specifically) and my Sig SP2022 9mm to the local range.

I also ended up putting 50 rounds of American Eagle 124-grain through my current carry gun, the Grand Power P11, just to test to see if it was still having issues returning to battery (it ate all 50 rounds without issue).  I’m currently at 582 total rounds through that gun.

7 yards out, American Eagle 124-grain, Grand Power P11

The SP2022 ate 60 rounds without issue.  That handgun is fantastic and is extremely easy to shoot accurately.  I’m at 279 rounds through the barrel with NO issue whatsoever.

7 yards, Remington UMC 147-grain flat-nosed FMJ, Sig SP2022 9mm

The Metro Arms has been problematic.  I shot 48 rounds through this gun this session and had many failures to feed.  In fact, when I go through my range log, This gun has a history of failing.  It isn’t the mags that are causing the issue (it happens with all three mags and two of them are new and from Wilson Combat).  I actually searched and found that this is more than likely an extractor issue.  I checked and found it was too loose.  I tightened it up and now need to revisit the range to test to see if that helps.  If it doesn’t, I’m going to buy a new recoil spring and extractor.  That should fix the issue.  Another thing of note is that the feed ramp has some major abrasions from the last range visit when I shot Tula through it…it did NOT like Tula and I’d made a note of it (and the feed ramp) in my range log.  I shouldn’t need to polish the ramp with so little ammo through the gun, especially since the ramp had a mirror finish when I received the gun.  The gun only has 188 rounds through the gun.

7 yards, Winchester White Box 230-gr FMJ, Metro Arms ACC45, one FTE (24 rounds total)

As well, the point of impact is not hitting where I’m aiming (I’m aiming for the red with the front sight covering the X.  One thing I neglected to check was my trigger finger placement and how I was actuating the trigger.

I may visit the range tonight just to test the 1911.

I still haven’t shot my AR-15 yet, either.  I’m saving that for Father’s Day.  🙂

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9mm Canik Elite Shooting Sports range visit SP2022 TP9SA

A Range Report: Shooting The Canik TP9SA And Sig SP2022!

I took the TP9SA to the range this weekend.  It shot well!  I’m very impressed.

Some notes:

  1. This is the first striker-fired gun I’ve ever shot.
  2. I shot 108 rounds of Remington UMC 115-grain (megabox).
  3. I was shooting from a distance of 10 yards.
  4. There was one stovepipe that occurred when firing the first magazine.
  5. There was one failure to feed that occurred when firing the second magazine.
  6. The trigger is great!  It feels hyper-sensitive.  Reset is loud and tactile enough for me to know when it resets, without issue.
  7. I shot with the larger of the two backstraps…I honestly can’t tell which of the two fit better in my hand, though
  8. A lot of my shots were to the left of the bulls-eye (my left, when aiming).  At first, I thought the rear sight needed to be drifted, so I used Kentucky windage and aimed maybe 1-1.5″ to the right of the bulls-eye and I hit the bulls-eye.  I decided to stick with using the proper sight picture because I know from my prior range visits that I needed to work on trigger pull and finger placement.  Well, the last magazine was very good…I placed a good bit of my rounds in the bulls-eye while using the same sight picture I’d been using the whole session.
  9. Instead of continuing to become familiar with the TP9SA and work on muscle memory with this gun, I switched guns and shot with the SP2022 the last 20 minutes of the session.  This was a bad idea, as the next 20 minutes, my rounds were all over the place.  Next time, I’m only coming with one gun.

I’ve some video footage of the range session, but only of my SP2022. The video is here:

The target is far enough away to where you can’t see a damned thing…sorry about that.  I’ll work it out on the next visit.  I supposed I could lower the FOV setting on the camera, as well as move the target up a bit (in good/bad guy situations with handguns, 10 yards is a bit excessive as far as self defense goes, IMO).

Another thing I did was to test the 9mm Federal HST JHP I have, just to ensure it didn’t jam…I saved it for the last 5 minutes of the session, as I wanted to shoot them while the gun was dirty.  I shot 10 JHPs without issue.  As well, I was only able to shoot them through the SP2022.  I’ve 10 left…I’ll shoot those through the Canik on my next range visit.   The Canik cleaned up pretty well.  There’s quite a bit of barrel wear at the ejection port, though…just the paint coating, though.  It’s not a huge deal, although my SP2022 has more rounds through it and has NO outside barrel wear.  I did lube the Canik VERY well before the range session (with TW25B)…the rails looked good.  There was a tiny bit of wear on the underside of the slide itself, though, and I’ve no idea what caused it, but I’ll be sure to apply some grease to that area before the next visit.

The feed ramp already has what looks to be copper on it, where the bullets contact it while being fed into the ramp.  I’ll leave the ramp alone, though…as long as the gun functions properly, I’m happy.

I’m looking forward to the next range visit with this gun!