So I went to the range. Accompanying me were 2 of Trollop’s guns and my new Commander. I needed to test the Strain Screw adjustment on the big ol .44, and I wanted to see how I did with 2 boxes or so of ammo through an XD .40 and if that gun truly suited me, and also to get some more ammo through the 1911 to see if it would jam.
It was a success all around.
The .44 I shot exclusively single action, because that’s the way it would most likely light strike the primer. Wow, what a pounder. Not one hiccup, though. After shooting the .44, I had the bonus of thinking the recoil of the .40 and .45 feeling like a .22, so it was good anti-flinch training. So, fixed.
The XD .40 has a mush trigger that I don’t like. Sort of like Glocks do. But that doesn’t seem to matter, the shot all fall in the middle, consistently and everything. It truly does seem I should never have gotten a 1911 or a SIG, but gotten an XD and a spare and the revolvers and been done with it. Why of why can I shoot this gun well, but am hopeless with a Glock? And middling with everything else? It doesn't make any sense.
The 1911 was… ok. No jams, certainly, so that is the big success. I really want to pop for a lot of expensive hollow point ammo and run that through it. My usual flaw for semi-autos I have is the left-handers bane, low and right. (You righties with similar problems are low and left.) I may be tightening it toward the vertical center line, which is good, but I’m still low. So minor success in shooting skill improvement.
Wrist break? Anticipation? Flinch? But why? Especially after that .44 work. 6 out of the cannon, then 7 gentle ones out of the .45. It was lovely. So why the unlovely target? I’m a glutton for punishment, continuing to work on improving my 1911 shooting. And now you know a big reason why I don’t like to carry the CCW. I shoot DA revolvers better than the 1911.
Here is the first target. One cylinder of .44 top left, 2 rounds top right, XD on the bottom left, 1911 on the bottom right:
I need to learn how to be a better photographer, too.
Here is the first target. One cylinder of .44 top left, 2 rounds top right, XD on the bottom left, 1911 on the bottom right:
Same story with the second target. A little wild on the .44. It's a boomer and kicks almost as much as Breda's Bersa:
And the 3rd. Except the top left is the final 3 mags from the XD, when I am getting tired. I even put pasters where I knew the .45 would hit, lower right. It's grouping up, and moving toward the center as you see. The XD is low and right like everything else I shoot semi-auto, but a lot LESS low and right. The .44 is getting better concentration on the top left:
I need to learn how to be a better photographer, too.
7 comments:
Sorry to hear of the mush trigger on the XD-40. The trigger on my XD.45 was the thing that won me over to carry it instead of my 1911.
I used to find a considerable difference between "test" range sessions and "practice accuracy" sessions - though my recent "test" session was testing an "accuracy load" through my 5" S&W 625.
Jeff Cooper advocated practice sessions of 50 rounds - with emphasis on EACH round. I found really concentrating on each and every round greatly helped my shooting.
When I say 'mush' it's just how all striker fired triggers feel to me. M&P, XD, or Glock. I don't like the feel, but I can't argue with my results with the XD.
The Glock grip angle is strange. Some people never adapt to it well. What is weird is how many people learn on glocks and then find themselves unable to use other brands of guns.
At first I caulked it up to the usual nonsense of "my-brand-is-better-than-your-brand" crap. But the more I looked the more I saw some people did have a real problem. They could hit the bullseye with a glock with boring ease but they could barely hit paper with any other gun, HK, CZ, Sig, S&W, 1911, etc.
My name for it is glockitis. The better you get with a glock the worst you get with other guns. This is why (imho) so many makers have "budget" guns like the sigma.
Better to have the new guys learn to shoot with a 19 degree grip than to have them lock into the 22 degree grip of Gaston's gun.
I doubt the grip angle is the only reason but it should be a large part of it.
You and Clint may be on to something. At the Northcoast Blogshoot, Carol fell in love with the Xd System, but hated the Glock. She says it just feels "better" in her hands than Glocks, even with the Grip Safety. Wish we could Lease pistols in this country, so we could do extensive Compare and Contrasts of various weapons. Guess there are only so many Gun Writing slots to go around.
Perhaps your Commander would benefit from a trigger job?
XD's have nice triggers which means if I were to buy a plastic gun, that would be it. My friend and gunsmith has a Glock but he prefers the XD trigger.
Right now, I still love my Kimber. I also love my S&W 5904 which works great as my carry gun for the majority of the time.
If you get disillusioned with the Commander, send it to me. It will have a loving home here! LOL
Oh I like the Commander. Probably more than my Springer Gov't size at this point. If I was going to send you the defective part of the system that would either be my head or my hand.
I do roughly equally well with my Kimber 1911 and the XDm .40 (and the CZ75 in .40 and the S&W 625 in .45ACP). My shooting in the last 6 months has improved a lot from paying more attention to my trigger control. Using a grip exerciser with four independent finger tabs and practicing pullin ONLY my index finger back while keeping the others straight out seems to have helped immensely. Both right and left hand shooting have improved.
Post a Comment