Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Next Test

So, I hadn't actually done a 2,000 round test on the Wilson Combat Tactical Carry Professional. The gun came as a review gun for a magazine article, and while I document the shooting of those for the purposes of the article, I don't make the sort of day-by-day updates on the blog that accompany a 2k round test. I put 1,700 rounds through it before sending it off to the magazine for glamor shots for the article, where it was obviously cleaned.

It came back, I sent Wilson a check, and have since put another 25 rounds through it in the service of some chrono and accuracy testing for an ammo company. I gave the gun an extra good glorping of Lucas Oil on the rails, barrel hood, and muzzle end, and let's go 'head and put a couple cases of ammo through it for the amusement of the internet, hey?

Dat Winchester QC, doe. Soot along case is from the round not having enough pressure to properly obturate.
MALFUNCTION! Only not the gun. Round #29 went *pop* instead of *BANG!*. The slide didn't fully cycle, and had to manually eject the spent case. With the slide locked to the rear, I shone my flashlight into the muzzle end, worried that the bullet might still be in the barrel. Fortunately I could see light through the ejection port; the projectile had had enough steam to exit the bore.

Several people had mentioned experiencing a downturn in QC with Winchester ammo. This is the fourth 500-round case of Winchester Q4318 ("NATO 124gr +P FMJ") and I hadn't had any problems up to this point...

Sigh. Both Remington and Winchester have seen their ammo QC go in the toilet recently. Hornady and Federal/Speer/CCI still remain my go-to choices. Sig's new ammo line appears righteous thus far, as well.

The gun is just stupid easy to shoot. The rounds in the 8" circle were fired at about a .55-.66 second split pace, and it seemed pretty languid. I imagine this would be a great gun on which to learn to shoot fast. An all-steel 9mm 1911 is like shooting on Easy Mode.

This makes 100 rounds fired with one FTE not charged to the gun at round #29. 1,900 rounds to go.
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