Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Gone Shooting - Déjà vu

I had some free time this morning so I went shooting. After having not gone for such a long time I'm trying to go at least once a month from now on. I don't want to get that out of practice again.

Today I took the same guns as last time, my Colt Commander .45 and my new 9mm. I went to a local public range so I didn't bother with photos. Also, since I've already know how they shoot I wasn't worried with accuracy this time, only with function. I didn't even set up a target but shot at a bowling pin someone left behind on the 50 yard line. I managed to hit it two thirds of the time.

The good news was the Colt, it ran perfect. I had one malfunction during the last outing that I am now sure was magazine induced. I left that mag at home and the Commander went through 50 rounds of Federal hollowpoints without a single hiccup.

The bad news was the 9mm. I had numerous malfunctions with this pistol last time. It had multiple failures to eject the empty and suspected that it was in need of a good cleaning, especially behind the extractor. So I thoroughly scrubbed it the other day, I did not remove the extractor as it is pinned in and I couldn't figure how to get it out. This morning it performed much better but still had issues. Last time I lost count of its failures there were so many, this time it malfunctioned 5 out of 40 rounds, still unacceptable in my book. If there is anything more frustrating than a semi-auto that won't run right I don't know what it is. The gun was mostly a novelty for me and the novelty has worn off, I'm quickly becoming bored with it. To badly misquote Colonel Whelen, "Only guns that work are interesting."***** If this pistol can be fixed cheaply I will do it but I'm not spending much money or time on it. I would rather sell it cheap and let someone else deal with the headache.

Well the day wasn't a complete loss. I did have some fun and Colt proved itself reliable for carry.

*****Actually Colonel Whelen said, "Only accurate rifles are interesting."

2 comments:

Sport Pilot said...

On the Danshway replace the recoil spring and then try running it w/hot ammo. Next option extractor and extractor spring. Then ejector. The mag spring and mag follower are always the first thing I rule out w/any feed or ejection problem as simply trying a different mag is such an easy matter.

Wilson said...

Thanks for the info. Actually the extractor and spring seem fine. Possibly the magazine spring or hotter ammo is needed. My brother thinks it might like steel case ammo since it was a military gun.