For one little, and one medium sized gun. Had been fussing with springs and followers and god only know what else, plus I wanted to try out some new ammunition for the Glock 27.
350 rounds later, everything was hunky dory. I identifed an offending magazine that I'd suspected was beginning to fail, and discovered the smoothest shooting cartridge to date. Don't believe I'll be getting rid of the Ranger T's just yet, but a relatively old box of Federal 180 grain Hi-Shok's, not Hydra-Shock mind you, provided suprisingly little recoil, and was a point and aimer so smack in the middle of the target it made you blink. Ran 20 rounds of the stuff through the 27, and at 25 feet this bullet was making one small hole into a medium sized hole...we're talking about an inch group...and off-hand to boot. Tried it one-handed and the next 20 rounds grouped close to 2 inches, so brothers and sisters I am here to tell you that this is one accurate cartridge.
Some compact guns in .40 caliber simply detest 180 grain bullets, and the Winchester Rangers are so-so at this weight with regards to accuracy from a 3.49" barrel. So I learned something new this day.
Previous work done with this brand of ammo yielded a muzzle velocity averaging 940 fps from another G-27, with an expansion (as can be seen in the insert) to .70" when fired into water.
Not too shaby. Couple that with the absolutely lowest recoil I've ever experienced from a high pressure round in so small a gun, and the Federal Hi-Shok Jacketed Hollow Point 180 grainer, CW40SWA goes almost to the head of the class. Figures, too. All of the money I've spent on one magic bullet or another and a far older brand outshoots all but one of them.
We took the Ruger GP-100, 3" version along for some work as well, and the ammunition ranged from sparky and nasty 158 grainers from Double-Tap that were cranking out at approximately 1400 fps, to the almost soft and sedate 150 grain PMC Starfires that were slogging along at 1250. .357 magnum rounds can be hell on the ears so we used plugs plus muffs and I couldn't hear a thing, but Lisa developed a headache after the CCI Blazers in 158 grains that spit and spat, and I started to get one as well when trying to clean the filth they left behind. The Speer Gold Dots were middling sort of rounds; moderate recoil for this caliber, probably the most accurate out of the bunch, and 158 grains at around 1200 fps is a good entry-level bullet for this gun.
For me it was a great day. Some mall ninja/chairborne commando's arrived about halfway through our session and pissed Lisa off with their rapid fire and overall lack of courtesy, but to tell the truth I was so busy squeezing away I didn't even know they were there.
A bit over 400 rounds total and I've just finished cleaning them all sparkling shiny. I can squeeze off 9 rounds from the Glock in about 3 and a half seconds (3.56) while keeping all of the holes in a 5" circle at 25 feet, but shooting the double action Ruger is a different story. Six rounds in about the same time (3.42) is the best I can do right now, using heavily loaded .357's, but I could most likely drop a second or so off if I tried it with .38's.
What the hell. Close enough for government work as long as I'm having fun. There are guys braggin in as many gun sites as you can shake a stick at, how they've been shooting six rounds in 2 seconds or so, but I'm happy with my results. Making holes in paper is fun. But I've always been faster while making holes in bad guys, and that's kinda what really counts.
Ya think?
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