Shield’s UP!…or Not…

Hey y’all, long time no post. Life’s thrown me an unexpected curveball recently, but in a good way. Long story short is that I was given the opportunity to proof-read and copy-edit the rough draft of a soon-to-be-published novel. I won’t say which one, but suffice to say it’s the sequel to an already-published novel by a pair of established authors. So this is kind of a big deal. Most of my spare time in the last few weeks has been devoted to that. And the manuscript is nearly 600 pages long, so it’s been taking me a while. But I’m about 2/3 of the way done, and hope to have it wrapped up by the end of the week. Then I’ll be back to regular, primarily gun-centric posting again.

Speaking of gun-centric, I fired an AR-15 for the first time last week. Yes, I already fired a Colt SMG, but this was a carbine-length, gas-operated (the SMG is direct blowback) in .223 Remington. IIRC, the particular model I fired was manufactured by Smith & Wesson. Thoughts: I gotta get me one of those! But I’m definitely going to get one with a mid-length gas system. The one I fired was carbine-length, and since I have really long arms (almost gangly-long), my firing position had my support hand right at the end of the handguards, so I singed my thumb on the gas block a few times.

Also found a new (as in new-to-me) gun store: In Site Firearms & Law Enforcement Supply up in Jeffersonville. The staff was very friendly and helpful, and while their selection of firearms (or at least handguns; I wasn’t looking to hard at the long rifles) doesn’t appear to be as varied as Targetmaster’s, they have an incredible selection of accessories. I’ve been looking for a holster for my P228 ever since I picked it up, but to no avail. No one ever had any in stock (and yes, I know a P229 holster should fit a P228, but the P229 holsters I found were all for the variants with railed dustcovers), but within minutes of my arrival at In Site, I found not one, but two P228 holsters. I picked up one of them – a concealable belt holster from Galco – and a matching magazine pouch, plus a copy of Art of the Dynamic Handgun from MagPul and a set of snap caps for dry-fire training. If you’re in the area, I highly recomment In Site and encourage you to give them a look.

Anyway, getting to the point of this post, I drove down to Targetmaster today and rented a Smith & Wesson Shield in 9mm. Also lucked out and arrived just as they were putting out 500-round cases of American Eagle 9mm, so I snagged one. Now I don’t have to worry about my ammo supply… at least for a few more weeks.

Anyway, I put a box of ammo through the Shield, and all in all, I liked it. Like the Kahr I tried a few weeks back, it sports a steel slide on a polymer frame, but unlike the Kahr, it didn’t feel top-heavy at all. Rather, it felt perfectly balanced – at least with the 8-shot extended magazine installed. The rental didn’t have the standard 7-round mag with it for some reason, so I didn’t get to try it. The trigger was very crisp, with a very short pull and light weight (though it did feel a little heavier than my P228 in single-action). It was also very accurate: once I got used to the trigger, which only took about three rounds, I was putting all my shots into a 3-ish inch group at 7 yards. I probably could have done better with more practice, but I ran out of ammo. Note to self: next time, buy more than one box…

All that said, while the Shield is a phenomenal pistol, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a carry piece, I personally am not going to buy one. Two reasons: first, it’s too thin. I know, that seems like a shocker, but I did some experimenting after I got the holster, and it turns out that I can effectively conceal my P228 under a T-shirt, so thickness isn’t so much of an issue for me anymore. However, the problem I have with the Shield is that the grip is so thin, combined with my really long fingers, that when I have my trigger finger actually inside the trigger guard and pulling the finger, the tip of my finger actually touches my support hand’s palm. It’s not very comfortable. The second reason is that the way the slide lock is positioned, the thumb of my shooting hand rests up against the lower corner of the slide lock. This doesn’t cause me to accidentally engage the slide lock during recoil, but it does cause the corner of the lock to smack my thumb a little during recoil. Again, not comfortable, but I’ve never heard of anyone else having that problem, so it’s probably just me. I suspect that if I adjusted my grip a little, the problem would go away.

That said, I absolutely loved the way the Shield felt in my hand. Honestly, if it wasn’t so insanely thin, I’d probably be seriously considering it. Next time, I think I’ll check out the S&W M&P Compact in 9mm. It’s still thinner and lighter than my P228 (which honestly isn’t as difficult to conceal as I thought – don’t worry, I haven’t worn it concealed outside the house), but I don’t think it’ll be so thin as to be uncomfortable. And comfort is important for me because I still live with my folks, and they still have their “you don’t need more than one gun!!!!” thing going on, so I would have to sell my P228 in order to buy a dedicated carry piece. Which, like I said, I could carry concealed if it came down to it.

Until next time, peace.

-Raptor

Houston, We Have A Problem

Went to the range again today. Unfortunately, this time A Bad Thing happened. Fortunately, it wasn’t the sort of Bad Thing that ends with somebody getting shot. Basically, what happened was that I wound up pretty much confirming something that I’ve long suspected: there is something wrong with my right shoulder.

I’ve been seriously toying with the idea of a 12-gauge shotgun, probably a Mossberg 500/590 for my next firearm purchase. As you may remember, I fired a shotgun some months back, and I enjoyed it. However, said shotgun was a Remington 870 that featured a recoil-reduction mechanism in it’s buttstock and was loaded with low-recoil shells. I prefer the control layout of Mossbergs to the Remington, but Mossberg does not offer their shotguns with the BLACKHAWK! stock that the Remington had, and the location of the Mossberg’s safety makes it hard to manipulate when the shotgun is fitted with a pistol grip. So, in a nutshell, I wanted to see just how stout the recoil of a “regular” shotgun loaded with “regular” ammunition was before I committed to buying one, so I rented Targetmaster’s other Remington 870, the one with a “normal” synthetic stock. Bought a 25-round box of 00-Buck too. 2.75″ shells, standard velocity, not 3″ Magnums. Just regular shells. This is important.

Took it out onto the range, set up my targets, loaded up the shotgun, braced the stock real good against my shoulder, racked a load in, fired.

Pain.

Not “that’s gonna leave a mark” pain, or “you’re gonna feel that in the morning” pain, but the kind of exquisite, agonizing pain that makes you stop what you are doing, step back, and say to yourself “I need to seriously re-evaluate my life choices.” Not the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life (that would be my appendicitis), but pretty darn bad nonetheless.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take the hint. I thought I hadn’t had the stock braced up against my shoulder very well, which would’ve allowed the weapon to get a “running start” from the recoil and really wallop me. So I braced up even harder and fired off the five shells left in the magazine. Each one brought forth another bout of “You have made several bad life choices” pain.

Worse, I’m both stubborn and cheap (I paid $25 for this box of ammo, and I’m gonna get my money’s worth, dammit!) so I kept plugging away. By the time I was down to the last six shells, my shoulder was hurting so bad that even shouldering the shotgun was markedly unpleasant. So I switched shoulders, opting to the shoot the shotgun left-handed instead of right-handed.

It hurt, sure, but on a  “that’s gonna bruise” level rather than the “bad life choice” agony my right shoulder felt. Nowhere near as bad. Forget same ballpark, it’s not even in the same city. It’s been about two hours since I left the range, and Left Shoulder doesn’t hurt at all, while Right Shoulder is still in a significant amount of pain.

And like I said, this only confirms something I’ve suspected for quite some time. My right shoulder has been bothering me for a number of years now. It’ll start aching after only a relatively-moderate amount of physical activity. Carrying a somewhat-heavy backpack, paddling a canoe or rowboat, lifting weights, etc. all aggravate it, and sometimes it just starts hurting for no reason. I suspect that I injured it somehow at some point in my not-so-distant youth, but being the stubborn fool I can be sometimes, I never bothered getting it checked out.

That ends now.

Or, at least, it’ll end pretty soon. My benefits from work kicked in recently, so I’ll be making a doctor’s appointment for my day off next week. I gotta get this figured out, and I gotta get it fixed. But until then, I’m off long guns, or at least anything with more oomph than a .22LR.

I’ll be keeping y’all posted on this. Until next time, peace.

-Raptor

Magnum Opus

Now that I’ve got the problems with my SIG-Sauer shooting grip all figured out, it was time for another “fun” range trip. Okay, I’ve yet to have a range trip that wasn’t fun, but today’s was focused purely on having a good time rather than strictly focusing on shooting skills. So as is my custom, I decided to rent a gun that I’ve never shot before.

This is what I chose:

Image from http://www.smith-wesson.com

It’s a Smith & Weson Model 686 Plus, chambered for the mighty .357 Magnum cartridge. The revolver earns the “Plus” moniker because, unlike the standard 686, it holds 7 rounds in the cylinder vs. the normal 6.  The specific example that I rented, like the one in the picture above, sported a long 6-inch barrel, though the gun can also be found with barrels ranging from 2.5″ to 8″.

To go with my rental, I purchased a box of .357 Magnum cartridges, as well as a second box of .38 Specials. No, I didn’t have a “DERP!” moment: The .357 is exactly the same dimensions as a .38 Special, except the .357′s brass case is 1/8″ longer than the .38′s. This means that you can load & fire .38′s in a .357 revolver, but .357 cartridges won’t fit in a .38. Thus ends your firearms trivia fact for the day Anyway, my plan was to shoot the box of .38′s first to familiarize myself with the revolver, get used to the grip, balance, trigger pull, sights, etc., and then shoot the .357′s. And it was a good plan… sort of, I guess.

Out of a gun that weighs a smidge under  3 lbs empty, the .38 Specials were absolute pussycats, an a real pleasure to shoot. Felt recoil was significantly less than my P228, though greater than a .22, and the report was a quiet, polite, “bap!” Accuracy was, sadly, lacking, though this is purely my fault as I was not at all used to shooting the gun. The 6″ barrel makes the gun noticeably muzzle-heavy, and I was not used to the long and heavy double action pull (longer and heavier than my SIG’s) nor the hair-light single action pull. Once I got used to those three factors, cutting dead-center on the target became pretty easy.

Then it was time for the .357′s.

This Is What We Call “A Learning Experience”

As you may remember, I’ve been having a problem with my SIG-Sauer P228. Namely, I haven’t been able to shoot it worth a darn. Literally, ever single pistol I’ve shot, with the exception of a S&W .22 revolver, I’ve shot world’s better than my SIG. I was at the point where I was seriously considering selling the SIG and putting the money towards a new pistol.

Then I stopped and thought about it for a moment, and realized something: every single pistol I’ve shot so far – Ruger Mk. III, Glock 17, Browning Hi-Power, Kahr CW9, 1911 – has had a grip that is markedly thinner than my SIG’s (the Glock being the possible exception). Maybe, just maybe, the P228′s grip is too thick for me. And maybe the new E2 grip would solve that problem. That said, I didn’t want to drop money on the new grip if it wasn’t going to help me any. So I went out to the range today and rented a P229 with the E2 grip installed and tried it out.

The grip is indeed noticeably thinner than the old-style SIG grips, and once I got used to the feel of the grip, I was indeed shooting the P229 noticeably better than I’ve shot my P228. Not as well as I did with the 1911 (put about half a box of ammo into one ragged hole I can cover with my palm) but still a marked improvement. All my shots were in the black, clustered pretty evenly around the bulls-eye, and I even cut the ten-ring a few times. Worlds better than than “shotgun patterns way low and to the left” that I usually shoot with the P228.

So I shoot about 70-75 rounds through the P229 and have pretty much decided that I’m going to order an E2 conversion kit when it occurs to me that I should probably shoot the P228 for comparison’s sake (I only had 2 boxes of ammo). So I put down the P229, hung up a new target, loaded up the P228, and… shot it just as good as I’d shot the P229. What the heck?

Okay, technically, I didn’t do nearly as well as I did with the P229. My shooting glasses had fogged up, so I was having a hard time finding the front sight. Vertically, my strings were all over the place, but they all went into a column maybe 4 inches or so wide. But even taking that into account, it was nowhere near the aforementioned “shotgun pattern way low and left.” I’ve never shot the P228 that well before. And I couldn’t figure out why.

All too soon, I ran out of ammo and started packing up when I decided to compare how well each pistol pointed for me. What I did was this: hold the (unloaded) gun at retention, close my eyes, push the gun out into an “instinctive” firing position, open my eyes, and acquire the sights.  With the P229, the sights aligned perfectly. Normally, when I do this with the P228, the front sight will be way low, to the point where it’s not even visible. But this time, the sights aligned perfectly too. So I did it again, this time consciously checking my stance and grip, and it was only then that I figured it out.

I was using a thumbs-forward grip.

Normally, when I shoot, I shoot thumb-over-thumb. But for some reason, this time I switched my grip to thumbs-forward and didn’t even realize it. I tried the instinctive-point drill again with both pistols, this time consciously switching to thumb-over-thumb. Both pistols pointed low. The P229 didn’t do as badly, but it was still noticeable. And I discovered that I get a much firmer hold on the P228 with thumbs-forward vs. thumb-over-thumb.

Also, when I shot the P228 this time, I was really concentrating, taking my time with each shot, focusing on everything – sights, breathing, trigger pull, stance, grip, follow-through – the whole ball of wax. I realized that when I normally shoot the P228,  I don’t do that. That definitely made a difference.

Now, I must admit that the E2 grip is more comfortable, for me, than the standard grips. But not so much that I feel justified in dropping the money on the E2 Conversion Kit. What I have works just fine, or at least it will in the future, now that I’ve finally figured my problem out.

All this time, I’ve been blaming the gun for my poor performance, when all this time the real problem has been my shooting grip. This, class, is what we call “a learning experience.”

A Stainless .45 Made Me Open My Eyes…

In light of my search for a carry piece being derailed, I wasn’t going to go to the range today. But I did, and I don’t regret it for a second. Not that I’d regret it anyways, but today I’m especially happy I did.

See, what happened was, I decided to rent a 1911. Specifically, a Springfield Armory Mil-Spec in .45 ACP, exactly like this one:

Image from Springfield-Armory.com

It was purely an impulse decision, and I have to admit I was somewhat… anxious, shall we say, after I rented it. I admit it: I was intimidated by the .45. After all, the cartridge has a reputation as having very stout recoil and a very loud report, along with severe muzzle blast. And the most powerful round I’d ever fired before today was the “wimpy” 9mm, so I honestly was expecting to be beat up and knocked around by the big .45. So it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I loaded a single round into the 7-round magazine, loaded it into the pistol, pointed the big hand cannon downrange, and pulled the trigger.

…hey… wait a minute… that wasn’t bad at all. It was actually… kind of… pleasant? …the heck?

So I loaded up a full magazine and commenced firing. And my first impression of the mighty 1911 in .45 ACP proved to be an accurate one. Amazingly, the 1911′s felt recoil was noticeably less pronounced than my SIG P228′s, and while the report probably was louder (it’s difficult to tell when wearing ear protection), it was more of a deep BOOM! than the 9mm’s sharp CRACK!” It was a surprisingly comfortable gun to shoot, especially in light of the .45′s reputation.

Here’s the really shocking part: once I got the trigger figured out and got used to the gun (which took about 20 rounds or so), I was able to put the rest of the box of ammo into an area of the target that I can cover with my hand. Most of those made up one ragged hole that’s smaller than my palm. It was centered maybe an inch low and to the left of the bulls-eye, but even so I have never, never shot a grouping like that, not even with my SIG that I’ve been shooting about once a week since December. Not even my so-called “perfect pistol,” aka the Browning Hi-Power.

Figure that out, huh?

Some small part of my brain is telling me that I should be thinking about trading in the SIG for a 1911 in .45 ACP. But I’m not seriously considering that right now, so don’t come asking to buy it. It’s not on the table, not by a long shot.

Having thought it over, I think the main reason I shot the Browning, Kahr, and 1911 so much better than I shoot the P228 is because those pistols have thinner grips, whereas the P228 has a very thick, wide grip. I think it might actually be a little bit too wide for me. Fortunately, SIG recently introduced a new grip design for their double-stack pistols, which they call the Enhanced Ergonomic Grip, or E2 Grip for short. Targetmaster has a new-model SIG P229 with the E2 grip available for rent, so what I’m thinking is that next week (or sometime soon), I’ll rent that pistol and see if it fits my hand any better than my P228, and if I shoot it better. If it does, and I do, than I’ll contact SIG and see if the P229′ E2 Upgrade Kit they offer will fit my older-model (and now sadly out of production) P228. If it does, I think I’ll be ordering it.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t want a 1911. I do. Badly. So much so that I think it’s supplanted the beloved Browning Hi-Power as my Perfect Pistol.

Until next time, peace.

-Raptor

Quest… Interrupted

Well, that didn’t last long. Mama and Papa Raptor have put the kibosh on my getting a dedicated carry piece. In their words: “I don’t need more than one gun!” so as long as I live under their roof, buying a second gun – of any kind – is verboten unless I sell/trade my SIG. Which I’m honestly not all that keen on doing right now, at least not for a dedicated carry piece. In a pinch, I can make the P228 work for CCW. So my Quest For a Carry Piece series is on hold until either my folks have a change of heart or I can afford to move out.

Quest For A Carry Piece Part 1: The Kahr CW9

Image from Kahr.com

For my first candidate for a new carry gun, I selected the Kahr CW9, which is produced by Kahr Arms. It is a semi-automatic handgun chambered in 9mm, with a polymer frame and an interal striker mechanism vs. an external hammer. MSRP is $485, and from what I’ve seen they tend to sell in the low $400 range, which is more than ideal in terms of my self-imposed budget.

My first impressions with the gun were surprisingly positive: compared to my SIG, it feels light as a feather, no surprise, as it weighs just slightly over a pound unloaded with an empty magazine, versus the P228′s 1.8 lbs. The pistol pointed very well, though it felt somewhat top-heavy, no surprise considering the polymer frame. Speaking of the frame, this pistol is thin! The slide is only 0.9″ thick, while the frame is (I think) slightly thicker. Even so, it felt really good in the hand. The pistol is just about 6″ long and 4.5″ high, making it slightly smaller than my P228. I think this might be the perfect-sized handgun for me. Sights are of a “bar-dot” configuration, identical to my SIG’s so using them was practically instinctive.

The pistol features a double-action-only trigger mechanism, which means it has a very long, relatively heavy trigger pull that is identical (or very nearly so) from shot to shot. Contrast that with the double-action/single action mechanism of my SIG, which has a very long, heavy trigger pull for the first shot, then short, light pulls for the subsequent shots unless I decock the hammer. I don’t have a trigger pull scale, so I don’t know exactly how heavy the trigger was, but it was noticeably lighter than my SIG’s double-action pull. I’d guesstimate it to be in the 7-8 lb. range. The trigger weight was very consistent through the whole pull, right up until the last 1/8th of an inch. At that point, I experienced what I assume to be “stacking”: i.e. the trigger weight increased somewhat and I felt a little bit of actual resistance. It honestly felt a little bit “springy” for want of a better term, like I was fighting against a coil spring. As a result, the release point was somewhat vague.

In short, I didn’t really like the trigger. However, that was primarily because I am not used to a DAO pull. With sufficient training, I could master it. As it was, once I got used to the trigger, I did manage to put a few rounds into the bulls-eye. Unfortunately, I don’t have the target: it fell off the backer as I was reeling it in, and I couldn’t retrieve it. Okay, I could have, but I wasn’t about to ask the Range Officers to shut down the (very crowded firing line), thereby ruining everyone else’s shooting sessions, so I could get it back.

I have to admit, I was a bit anxious about firing the Kahr. It was so light, at least compared to the SIG, that I expected recoil to be rather harsh and difficult to control. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The gun was extremely controllable, and felt recoil was nearly identical to my SIG. Muzzle rise was noticeably higher, but only just, no surprise given the gun’s relatively light weight. The Kahr was a pleasure to shoot, and I probably would have kept on shooting it longer if I hadn’t run out of ammo: I only bought one box. I can’t comment as to reliability, as I only put fifty rounds through it. That said, the gun is a rental, so it has likely been shot a lot, abused a good deal, and barely ever cleaned, and yet it functioned without a hicup.

The pistol’s magazine is a single-stack design with a capacity is 7 rounds. Eight round magazines are also available. Unfortunately, the magazine proved to be my example’s ultimate weak spot. When loaded with the full 7 rounds, the magazine had a frequent tendency to not hold the first round at the proper angle, causing the round to “nose-dive” when loaded into the pistol. At that point, the round was not angled high enough to move over the feedramp into the chamber, which would cause the pistol to jam. In order to clear the jam, I would have to lock the slide to the rear before stripping out the magazine and attempt to re-seat the rounds in the magazine. This happened regardless of whether or not the slide was locked back when I was loading the gun. After some experimentation, I discovered that the problem would occur if I did not insert each and every round into the magazine in such a way that the round audibly”clicked” into place with the base of the cartridge pressed all the way against the rear of the magazine. Even then, the first round would sometimes nosedive anyway.

I’ve never heard of this happening before with a Kahr, or with any other pistol for that matter. Maybe I just had a bad magazine, but all the same it’s something I can’t accept in a carry pistol. If I find myself in a self-defense gunfight and I’m forced to shoot my pistol dry and reload, if the first round in my fresh magazine were to nosedive like that, it could wind up with me getting killed. That’s unacceptable.

In conclusion, I want to love the Kahr CW9. I really do. It’s the perfect size, thickness, and weight for me, pointed very well, and was a joy to shoot. Minus the trigger, which as I’ve said is simply a training issue. With more practice, I – or anyone else – could master it, no problem. However, the issue with the magazine takes the pistol off my list of contenders. It just haven’t proven reliable enough for me to stake my life on. Which is too bad, because it really is a nifty little gun.