I wanted a place to discuss my handguns and firearms in general. Everyone seemingly has lots to say about guns, so I promise you this won't be a rant blog.
I didn’t have a good picture of the gun…I only had the pictures I took the day I picked up the gun from the gun shop.
I now have three extra mags for it (five total). That arrived yesterday, along with 1000 rounds of Wolf 9mm 115-grain FMJ ammo.
The N82 Tactical Professional holster also arrived. I’m not in love with it. It doesn’t fit like the one for my Bersa. The hard shell is large and bulky, because the gun is large and bulky, I guess, but my Alien Gear feels more comfortable. Because of the large shell, it is difficult to put on my hip…it’s very difficult to fit it in the gap between my body and waistband of my pants, and I’ve a good 1″+ of space. I’m trying to give it time to grow on me…it’s not really going to break in enough for me to begin to like it. It’s a shame because it’s a nice holster. I like the retention system. I like the professional look and feel of the holster. I like the way you can adjust cant. It’s just larger than I thought.
I suppose since the ammo and magazines have arrived, I’ve no excuse to not visit the range tomorrow.
My P320 subcompact grip assembly arrive today. I can already tell that it’s the better size just by gripping it in my hand. I’ll swap out the gun’s slide and FCU tomorrow and maybe use a tape measure to get measurements (I’ve no calipers).
Oh, I’m still awaiting my stealth controls to arrive. I’ve no idea when they’ll show or how they’ll show. It’ll arrive via USPS, almost certainly…I don’t know when, though. I’m thinking I might keep the PX4 as an F-type. F-type isn’t bothering me like I thought it would, since I just keep it off of safe.
So, I went to the range yesterday and still had issues with the Grand Power.
Well, to be honest, it was the ammo…the gun didn’t like the ammo. How do I know this? Because the PX4 had the same issue with the exact same ammo. Both guns exhibited the same problem and both had the same problem on the first round of ammo.
This choked the P11. The side of the round is flat and if you look closely, you can see rifling marks.
Here’s a different view.
The PX4 choked on this one (The pictures show two totally different rounds, each coming for a different box — the boxes have the same lot number, though).
You can see the rifling marks on the gun…this is not typical of a chambered round that was extracted.
The ammo I was using was Winchester White Box 124-grain FMJ. I’ve shot WWB from this gun many times, but this is the first time I’ve shot WWB 124-grain from it.
Now, it’s the fault of the ammo, BUT the PX4 had no problems after the first round choked it…it shot the rest without issue. The P11 had to be cleared or had to have it’s slide smacked multiple times.
The P11 was cleaned and lubed well, so the problem isn’t because it was dirty or needed lube. It was due to the gun being tight. It’s a pro of the brand but in this case, it is also a con. This is not the first time I’ve had to deal with the gun being plagued by out-of-spec ammo…it ruins a range session, especially if it’s my carry gun and I’m trying to polish my trigger skills. If I’m spending more time clearing the gun than shooting it, that’s not fun nor does it give me confidence in the gun. Now, I know this is practice ammo and I know that self defense ammo will not have such issues (far less likely than practice ammo, at least), but I can’t practice with SD ammo. Well, I could, but that would NOT be cost effective.
I’m tired of dealing with the P11’s fickleness. It is now retired from EDC duty. I retired it early out of frustration.
I still need a good holster, though. Right now I’m using one of my Alien Gear Cloak Tuck 3.0 holsters with a PX4 compact shell. It works well, but I want something that I can easily take off and put back on, so I ordered one of N82 Tactical’s Professional series holsters.
I also ordered 3 more magazines. The mags are generally expensive (but cheaper than the $50 that P11 mags cost). Beretta sells them for $40. After searching far and wide, I found that Ammo Depot had them for $22 each! The next cheapest was $33 at Tombstone Tactical.
I went to the range with the owner of a business that I’m transferring over to. I brought my own ammo but he insisted that we use his…he brought a small ammo can of Tula ammo. I shot about five mags of that from my gun. It didn’t choke at all (and the P11 didn’t choke on it either when I shot Tula from it awhile back). I was impressed with that ammo, so when I got home, I ordered 1000 rounds of Wolf from Ammo Depot. The link shows a case of 500. I ordered two of them.
I also traded guns with my new boss (he brought a Springfield XDM, the 4″ model). He shot well enough with my gun but he didn’t shoot it like he did his XDM. He said he loved the heft of the Storm. Now, I loved his gun. I haven’t shot striker-fired in awhile (I’ve several of them). I thought I would have issues with the trigger. Nope. My grouping was tight. It was just as tight as when I shoot my DA/SA guns. I might have to look into that gun. The trigger was better than what’s in my XD Mod 2.
Oh, and I also got a notice that a store now has a medium P320 subcompact grip module in stock, so I ordered that, especially since those are difficult to come by.
Lastly, I ordered stealth levers for the PX4 Storm. I ordered both the stealth safety/decocker levers and the slide catch levers. Those should arrive soon (it’s coming from a shop in Italy…I ordered from them since Beretta USA didn’t have those parts in stock). Once it arrives, I’ll convert to the G-type.
So, this next few weeks will be fun. I’ve more info to share about a recent range visit, but I’ll do that in a different blog entry (it involves the Bersa Thunder).
