Today's Range Report
Was goin' to town to get some paint and such, so I decided to load up the lil'Ford Ranger with arms and ammo, and take a trip to the indoor range while I was in civilized locales.
Today, wanted to do some test firing, breaking in of a new PM9 9091, some shootin' of the little .44 Boomer to actually see where it was hitting as I aimed, s'more test shootin of the RIA 4" .38 Colt Police Positive wannabe, and to wow the crowds with the Serbu Super Shorty six inch barrelled, three shot, 12gauge pump. I had 300 9mm's, 150 .38 Specials, 100 .44 Russians, and 150 12g #7-1/2 target loads.
First the Kahr. Got yet another PM9, "as new" (unfired), yet 2nd hand. Guy's wife picked it out. He got it for her, and then she realized she couldn't pull back the slide. He didn't want it. Shop was giving them only $200 for it "used", which pissed him off royally. It was complete, and totally as new, with the greasy bag, case, instructions, lock, little chamber thingy, all of the little do-dads of a new PM9. He took $250 for it since the shop offered him only $200, but... I gotta help him tear down his fence too, which I woulda done anyway.
Had 150 Winchester White Box 115g's and the little Kahr ate 'em up like a fat lady in the dessert line at a smorgasbord. Devoured everything in sight. I hadda take a break. I had one full size silhouette at a measured 7 yards and after a few zingers that still hit the center of mass, the rest blew out the center of the target easily. I think its about as big as the palm of my hand, give or take. I gotta get out more, the zingers upset me. Zero malfunctions btw. Then I tried three boxes of Speer Lawman 124g ammo, and had similar great results (still shootin' the same target cuz I'm a cheap bastard). I did have one single failure. Totally... totally... my fault. I got sloppy and didn't quite seat the last round in the magazine. The magazine went in with a bit of effort and I got neither nose dive nor stovepipe. The round sort of hit the ramp head on and there it stayed. I knew this was my fault, and I sort of expected it when I pushed the magazine in with force.
Drill - tap, no go. Retract slide, drop magazine, strip round quickly as you check the chamber. Reinsert the mag, drop the slide and go. It was nearly instinctual. My left thumb was stripping off the top round and my eyeballs were looking at the chamber. Good to go. The mag went in smoothly and I got 100 percent function after that.
The little Kahr was so reliable, it was damn near boring to shoot, so the emergency stoppage drill was almost a welcome relief.
After the Kahr PM9, I put about a box and a half through the same target with the Serbu. Good lord... bad bad bad medicine by Teddy's standards. The target was confetti after that. The Serbu will fly the wads through the target at close range, so you got an idea of where its shootin'. I've found I have to aim just a little lower with it than I'd have guessed. Once that's done, I was putting wads through the middle of the target every time. The report of the Serbu, and the smell of shotshell ammo being fired, its quite different from the 9's and 40's most folks there were shooting. They perked up, and I changed the target.
Next... I shot the RIA .38 M200, with its 4" barrel. Mostly it went ok, but after two boxes, I started having trouble with the trigger returning forward. I'd have to help with with my trigger finger. Kept shooting though. It shoots high on paper with light .38's at that distance. I was shooting Gecko target loads. My guess is that with any SD ammo at 25 yards it would be close to spot on. I aimed at the center of mass, got a nice group, very tight, at the guys throat! No shots missed the outline. Light loads tend to shoot high, so I'm not worried about that. However, once home, I did discover that the trigger pin walked out of its position. It supposed to be brazed or soldered into the frame. Obviously, a cause for a problem. I don't need to send it back to RIA to fix that though. I got the skills to pay the bills with that sort of "make a new pin" thing. First time I shot it on paper, and, it was a nice shoot. I'm happy with it, even with the funky pin. For $200 brand new - shipped - from Bud's, there's not much room to complain.
Then I shot the .44 Boomer. This was a bit of a learning curve, and everyone is gonna be different, as shooting AND HITTING the target will take some practice. Here's what I found. Forget what you think is "lined up". Toss it out. Go with your instincts on aim, and see where the bullets hit the paper. For me, it was an "aim" at Center of Mass, but I was hitting (and sometimes missing) the "head" on the outline. Sudden realization - shoot for his balls! Doing that, I was pumping 240ish grain bullets into the "chest" area of the silhouette with ease. What seemed like an instinctive shot to the groin, ended up being a great shot to the chest. No sights on the Boomer, so you gotta make your own plan with it. This worked for me, and YMMV. My advice - go with your instincts and see where it's hitting, then adjust your point of aim so you don't have to fight your instinctive hold.
And finally - more with the Serbu. This was fun. I got four other guys in the range to shoot it, three shots each. One Jamaican guy was ear-to-ear with it. "Oh that's a badazz mon!" was his comment. Couple of young fellows, not more than early 20's in years got to shoot. One said that's enough. He was done. The other didn't say a word, looked at me sorta funny like he'd been had, and walked back to his full size Glock. A bullseye shooter tried it too, and he just smiled. Its a damned fun gun to shoot and when you put a bunch of 7-1/2's at close range though paper - its Confettiville.
That was today's shootup special. I didn't prep or do a thing to the little PM9 at all. Just out of box, smellin' new, feelin' new... and trial by fire. It passed and I'm a happy happy camper (the fence job is after the 1st of the year.....
That's all for today!
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Originally Posted by Ken L
