Sunday Range Trip

Given recent events, there was more of a rationale to get to the range and get better.

Met up with Tosh at the range. It was in the low 30s and breezy, 

I had just put a new suppressor on the PS90 , so I took it to the range and got some trigger time in.

It's a Polonium K, replacing the SilencerCo Hybrid 46 that is going to be used on another rifle.  

The Polonium K is both thinner and smaller than the 46 and took only two days of ATFE processing from start to finish (compared to the 46's over a year to get approved) and no tax. Thank you President Trump!

It looks much better on the PS90 than the 46, and given the suppressor bore size, suppresses better than the 46.

 

 

I'm quite happy with it, makes the PS90 package footprint even smaller, and the PS90 keeps running like a champ.

After some rifle and PDW fun, we got on to practice with pistols.

I ran the Walther PDP, and it ran through all the drills without any issues. 

All drills were done from concealment and given the weather we had on rather heavy sweatshirts for the drills. 

We started with the single shot from concealment to the 7 yard A-zone drill.

I definitely had some rust to shake off.  I was getting hits in around 1.5-1.4 seconds once I settled in, with some much higher times as well.

We then did the 3&2 drill and I did better with that  getting under 3 seconds pretty regularly and some runs under 2.5 which was good.

Then on to Bill Drills.  I was able to get under 3.0 seconds which was good, and I'm still chasing the sub 2 second time - from afar.

For the final drill,  the one shot from concealment to an A-Zone at 25 yards we ended with a bang.  My best times were two at 1.60 seconds, and generally I was around 1.78-1.70 on average, which was pretty happy-making for me.

Tosh, by comparison, was averaging a fast 1.65, and had a couple at 1.6, and one at a blazing fast 1.35 seconds which is fantastic. The man can shoot.

A most challenging bit of practice, and it just points out I've got lots to work on to improve.

Last Range Trip of 2023

After arriving back in town on Friday night, On Saturday morning I got up nice and early and headed to the range to meet up with Tosh, Jason and Spencer.

Weather was cold but not terribly so but compared to where I had been it was kinda cold indeed.  So we got targets setup and commenced shooting.

We started off with handguns and I fired my Black Friday purchase for the first time.

A PSA Rock in 5.7 to compliment my PS90.

I had thrown on a Romeo Zero Pro (will be changing for a better optic shortly) and had it ready to go.

 First impression: Rather impressed. It came with two 23-round magazines, and was optic-ready right out of its very nice carrying case.

The firearm grip is not nearly as bulky as I thought it would be and it fits my hand well. Interestingly, the Romeo Zero Pro as installed was right on and required no adjustment to zero which was nice.

Spencer also had his new to him Smith and Wesson M&P 5.7 along for comparison.  We both found that the M&P 5.7's grip is more rectangular and feels like a 2x4 compared to the Rock's.   The M&P also carries one less round at 22 in the magazine.  The Rock's trigger was also better, and is better than a stock Glock.

Recoil on both was pretty much negligible, and the lack of recoil was made up for with rather loud and enthusiastic muzzle blast from each pistol.  Didn't time it, but Bill Drills were ridiculously fast as the guns simply didn't shift in recoil and stayed right in the A-zone the whole time while firing.

I'd say PSA got the Rock right and its one very attractive package both cost and functionally speaking for people looking to pickup a 5.7 pistol.

Fired 250 rounds through it with zero failures and big smiles from all four of us.

I then pulled out the PS90 and those 50-round mags got fired quickly and accurately by all, again with some big smiles.  Too much fun.

I also shot my IWI Masada, as I hadn't taken it to the range in a while, and it performed perfectly as expected.

We shot quite a few more handguns including Jason's new Beretta 80x and his new Stoeger STR9-F that he got for a steal of a price with its rebate. The Stoeger STR9-F feels kinda like a reshaped Gen 3 Glock, and at the price he got it for, it is one amazing value.   It was a nice shooter and had zero issues.

Since Spencer and Jason were going deer hunting after the range trip, they brought along their 450 Bushmaster rifles for us to try.

Spencer had a Savage in 450 and Jason had a Ruger American Ranch in 450. 

The 450 has lots more recoil than the 5.7, to say the least, but both were perfectly good shooting rifles with very smooth bolt actions.  Lots of fun was had by all hammering steel plates at a distance with them.

I then pulled out the Tavor and Jason and Tosh their AR-15s and we did some magazine changing drills on the clock.  Need more practice with that, but lots of fun.

It was a great way to close out the 2023 Shooting Year.

Range Trip - SIGs, Bullpups, And More

Went to the range this morning with Tosh.

We started off doing some handgun practice.  

Tosh wanted to work on splits so we setup a silhouette target at the center of the Bay and another on the far right side and worked on transitions between them. Good practice and we hadn't done much on transitions before and it showed.  Need more practice with that,. My heavy sweatshirt got in the way a few times as well to slow me down, so it was good to practice with different clothing on.

Then we moved on to Bill Drills, and my lack of range attendance the past couple months showed there.  While I fired three sets all clean, none were below 3 seconds. Shooting is a perishable skill and ,my Bill Drill progress sure perished.  Need to get to the range more.

After handguns, I broke out the PS90 and we each shot a full magazine of 50 rounds through it. Quite simply shooting the PS90 is a ton of fun.  No recoil to speak of, multiple shots right on target as fast as you can squeeze the trigger as the firearm simply doesn't move, and its' a nice compact package.  It's a fun gun that never ceases to put a smile on the face of whoever shoots it.

We then moved on to rifles, and I shot my Tavor  X95 and Tosh his shorty AR. he was getting a ton of gas blow-back from his Griffin Armaments suppressor. So much so that the charging handle occasionally flew back all by itself while shooting.  It's a great suppressor that works amazing, and a great value for the price, but you do pay for that sound reduction in gas right to the face.

We then decided to work on rifle reloads because that's not a thing we typically do, as in just about ever. Reloads were out of our back jeans pockets as we hadn't brought rifle magazine holders out.

Basic setup was a full magazine in the back pocket, a round in the chamber and an empty magazine in the gun. On the beep, safety off, come up and shoot the silhouette and then immediately drop the mag and reload and fire a second shot at the target. Then safety on, pickup the empty mag from the ground and reload it into position and full mag back into the back pocket and repeat. Both shots had to hit to count.

We did this on the timer and the lack of practice showed. Managed after a bit of initial fumbling to get the time from first shot to second shot hitting after the reload down to 4ish seconds but with practice I think I can get it faster.  Great practice and the Tavor does handle differently from an AR for reloading. But, once you have the process down, you can do it at a decent clip.

Then, we moved on to shotguns and did transition shooting with them.  I brought out my third bullpup of the shoot, the Tavor TS-12. Tosh brought his Mossberg 590A1.  With 16 rounds loaded on the Tavor it was fun to just keep right on shooting and hitting the targets long after he ran out of his 9 shot and was having to reload.  Much fun was had and I tried out his 590A1, as he got to use the TS-12, and it was a lot of fun and rather smooth - he's upgraded the safety and the magazine follower and it works quite well, and the pump action is rather smooth after all the rounds he's run through it. He's considering SBS'ing it and if he does I'll help him with his doing a Form 1 for the first time.

It was a heckuva good time at the range on a beautiful clear if cool morning.

Sunday Range Day

So yesterday morning I got up, loaded the car, and met Tosh at the range.

Did some solid handgun practice, in which I learned I need to practice more, but I think I already knew that.   To be fair, I was using a couple new handguns while doing so, so getting used to them likely slowed me down a tad.  More on that in another post.

We also shot my Turknelli shotgun, which is still having some issues since coming back from repair and is now being broken in all over again.

We then shot Tosh's AR-15 with his new can.  It is much more pleasant to shoot it with a suppressor but it does kick a lot of gas right back in your face and he's working on modifications to reduce that.

We then shot my PS90 and much fun was had.

So as it turns out, we shot those three firearms in descending amounts of recoil.

In short, the Turknelli shotgun with 12-pellet 00 Buck kicks quite a bit and wants to get off target. 

The AR-15 by comparison had very little recoil and was easy to keep on the steel silhouette target.  

The PS-90 had effectively no recoil at all and stayed right on the target without any effort at all.

That was a darn good time at the range.

The Wait To Finally Get It To The Range Was Worth It

The other gun I took to the range on Saturday was a PS90.

I had always wanted one and had tried a friend's PS90 and found it both a neat design and very fun to shoot. 

So I ended up getting one last year.

 

However, with the 16" barrel it really just doesn't look right. 

So, in accordance with the Laws of the Lord and Man, it was to be duly circumcised.

The Laws of Man caused the most delay in the circumcision ceremony taking place.

First the Form 1 had to be approved.

Then, unfortunately, by the time it was approved, the Law of Supply and Demand caused an issue - no one had the proper short barrel available to purchase anywhere.

This was annoying as many were available when I first purchased it and did the Form 1. But, under no circumstances do you want to have a short barrel in your possession without the approved tax stamp, so it had to wait - by which time they were all out of stock everywhere for months.

Finally CMMG did a run of them, and I got my barrel and the circumcision ceremony could take place. 

The ceremony was then undertaken, and included all the appropriate prayers as well as vocabulary, a drill, a vise, and some other tools, and it was done:

Then I mounted a Holosun 509T, added an Urban ERT Sling kit to the mix (great sling btw) and then took it to the range.

Impressively, the sight was dead on at 100 yards.  Close in, it was good enough to nail steel at both 10 and 7 yards, and with holding on the top of the steel at those ranges I could hit it right on and flip a small disk back and forth as seen below. Closer than 7 yards, the offset between the height of the sight versus the barrel becomes readily apparent and it really shoots predictably low compared to your aiming point.

The PS90 is quite simply ridiculously fun to shoot.  

With a 50 round magazine and no felt recoil, accuracy was great and it was really just plain fun. Tosh couldn't believe how much fun it was to shoot:

I also put on a SilencerCo Hybrid46 Can, which reduced the sound a bit, but not the supersonic cracks of the rounds.

 Lots of fun was had, and it ran absolutely flawlessly.  The only downside is the cost per round.  At nearly $1 a pop, 50 rounds kinda hurts the wallet even as it puts a big smile on your face.

The wait was well worth it.