{"id":2023,"date":"2017-03-10T02:46:24","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T10:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/?p=2023"},"modified":"2017-03-10T02:46:24","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T10:46:24","slug":"on-the-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/?p=2023","title":{"rendered":"On the Range"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Back from the range! Another 440 rounds (300 9mm, 140 .45 ACP) have met their appointment with destiny.<\/p>\n

Took four guns with me, my carry Gen-3 Glock 17 (of course), a recently purchased second Gen-3 Glock 17 I\u2019m putting in form as a \u201creplacement gun\u201d duplicate of my carry gun, my Nighthawk Talon .45, and the Officer\u2019s Parabellum. Some nights this whole \u201cgun\u201d thing is just a pain in the ass, nothing works, and I mean equipment and shooting skills. The guns you\u2019re testing are malfunctioning right and left, you can\u2019t seem to get in the groove shooting-wise, you feel like you\u2019re beating your head against a brick wall. But then, some nights, things go well. Tonight was one of the latter occasions.<\/p>\n

Started out benching the \u201creplacement\u201d Glock 17, the first time I\u2019d ever shot it, actually. I already knew that factory Glock sights hit high for me, but I figured I had to check anyway. Yep, 2-1\/2\u201d high at 50 feet from the bench. On a positive note, folks, I have got this whole \u201cloading plated bullets\u201d thing whacked. My standard deviation with the Rainier 124-gr. RN over 4.4-gr. Universal out of this gun was 10. I like single digit SDs, frankly, but I can live with 10. Since I had the chrono set up anyway, I decided to bench my carry gun. Yep, it was still sighted-in, and the SD out of that one was 11.<\/p>\n

In my experience, Universal does not appreciate being run at low pressures if you want a tight SD. At a 130-ish power factor I was getting horrible SDs in the 30s. At a 140-ish power factor (out of the new G17 my ammo went 142.8, out of my carry gun which has a Stormlake stainless steel match barrel it was 141.9) which is factory standard pressure 9mm hardball equivalent, that\u2019s when I start getting the 10\/11 SDs.<\/p>\n

The Nighthawk Talon .45 shot some nice, tight groups, which gives the lie to the idea you need consistent velocities to get decent accuracy. In the low pressure .45 ACP, even at a Major 170.3 power factor, the SD was a horrendous 41.<\/p>\n

I really wish they\u2019d named this powder something besides \u201cUniversal\u201d because it ain\u2019t. For 9mm 124-gr. bullet weight, arguably there\u2019s nothing better. But with 147-gr. 9mm, even a book max powder charge won\u2019t make Minor. And in low pressure .45 ACP, velocities are so variable I\u2019d really be scared of the chrono station, even with a load that averaged Major.<\/p>\n

Then I plopped down behind the bench with the Officer\u2019s Parabellum, since I was curious how much velocity loss I\u2019d see with its short 3.5\u201d Bar-Sto barrel. Not a lot, actually. The new G17 averaged 1152 fps, my carry gun went 1144, the Officer\u2019s Parabellum went 1103 for a 136.7 power factor. Posted a couple of 1-1\/2\u201d groups, too. (I chrono and bench for accuracy at the same time.) RIDICULOUSLY easy gun to shoot. It is a kick (pun intended) to pull the trigger on this little all-steel 9mm 1911 and watch the front sight barely move.<\/p>\n

After the bench, I socked the new G17 away and moved on to more shooting with the Officer\u2019s Parabellum, the Nighthawk Talon, and my carry G17. My typical \u201cstart the practice session\u201d routine of six-shot groups freestyle at 50 feet on a USPSA target, the goal being all A-hits, turned out to be easy with all three guns. I think I may actually be getting a handle on this whole \u201ctrigger control\u201d thing.<\/p>\n

Burned through almost all the rest of the ammo doing Bill Drills with all three guns \u2013 though there were a few 5×5 Drills in there. It\u2019s been awhile since I\u2019ve put any real amount of ammo through a 1911 .45, though for years this was my carry\/match gun of choice. I\u2019ll tellya what, gang, there is something to be said for a nice 1911 .45, and shooting my Nighthawk Talon, which I hadn\u2019t done in awhile, reminded me of that.<\/p>\n

All four guns worked flawlessly. Gotta like that.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s important to finish every practice session doing something you find fun. For me it\u2019s to move in to about two yards and see if I can do ten sub-second draws in a row; it only counts if they\u2019re all A-hits. With the carry gun, of course. As I\u2019ve said in the past, some nights you\u2019re slow, some nights you\u2019re fast. Imagine my surprise when my very first draw was .83 second. Literally my fastest-ever draw prior to tonight was .84 second, and that was years ago. Then my next draw was .83, and the next, and the next, and the next. My first five reps were all .83. I was laughing and thinking, \u201cAll all ten draws going to be .83s?\u201d Then I pulled a .88 and thought, \u201cOkay, the good stuff is gone.\u201d Then a .85. I thought, \u201cLet\u2019s just let it rip and see what happens.\u201d My next rep was .82. Alright! .83 as the fastest draw I\u2019d ever done didn\u2019t last too long. Then a .81. So .82 as the fastest draw I\u2019d ever done lasted even less than .83. That took me up to nine reps. One more to go to get my ten.<\/p>\n

And I felt the hand of Fate on my shoulder. I KNEW<\/strong>. \u201cThis is it, this is when I finally pull a draw in the .7s.\u201d And my very last rep was…wait for it\u2026<\/p>\n

.78.<\/p>\n

As I said, sometimes nothing works. Sometimes it seems like everything is working the way it should, both the equipment and the shooter. I could stand to have more nights like this. \"\"\ud83d\ude00<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, on a negative note, I recently met a guy I hadn\u2019t seen in years, nice guy, and he stuck his hand out to shake. I hesitated, because I remembered he really likes to crush your hand when he shakes. Not being an asshole, he just thinks it\u2019s fun to show off how powerful his hands are. And they are; it\u2019s like sticking your hand in a vice and cranking down on the handle. Anyway, I did shake his hand, and of course he vice cranked me, and this time I\u2019m pretty sure he broke my right little finger. Ah, well. Bones heal, eventually.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back from the range! Another 440 rounds (300 9mm, 140 .45 ACP) have met their appointment with destiny. Took four guns with me, my carry Gen-3 Glock 17 (of course), a recently purchased second Gen-3 Glock 17 I\u2019m putting in form as a \u201creplacement gun\u201d duplicate of my carry gun, my Nighthawk Talon .45, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2024,"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2023\/revisions\/2024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/self-defense-handguns.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}