This is just a quick note about my range trip yesterday. I'm too darn sleepy to think well enough to do a report now.
The first shot I fired hit dead center of the target at 7 yards or so. The recoil wasn't bad. I'm sure glad that I put the bike inner tube on the grip. Before I was through, I put my right hand glove on because I kept getting my right thumb on or near the magazine release and that thing is rough. I would consciously try to keep my thumb off, but it wound up there too often -- not pressing on it but close enough that the recoil would push it into my thumb.
When I could get a bullet into the chamber, I found it easier to shoot or shoot better than the PM9. That was a surprise!
I had trouble with chambering rounds from the first attempt -- both 5-shot magazines wouldn't hold the bullet up high enough and it would slam into the bottom of the feed ramp and if you tried to hit the slide to help it into battery, the bullet would stay where it was... or more often the slide would close, but but the bullet stayed in the magazine and had a scratch on top where the slide's cartridge pusher scraped across the top.
It got to where I would chamber a round, withdraw the magazine, and check that indeed a round had gone into the chamber. I got tired of clicking on an empty chamber.
I fired 200 rounds of PMC 230-grain FMJ which shot pretty well and wasn't real "dirty". I then fired 34 rounds of Remington Golden Saber 230-greain BJHP which had a lot more kick for some reason. I thought both loads were "standard" .45 ACP. I had trouble chambering that as well at first. I did manage to get through shooting all of that, but I usually made sure that a round was stripped from the magazine before aiming and firing.
I liked shooting the PM45 and found I was more consistent and had tighter groups with it than the PM9, but I could sling shots about with poor trigger control or hasty shots.
I'll try to post some pix later and explain what I was experiencing or observing. I'll also do a post on the Double Tap +P GDs versus the Speer 124-grain GD Short Barrel +P... flash and recoil. The GDs worked fine except in the 7-round magazine that I've had problems with -- 4 shots and the last 3 are jammed too low to be picked up and the slide closes on an empty chamber.
I had one spare CorBon left over from earlier testing and fired it on video for comparison as well.
I need to get some sleep! Later.
Wynn