Sunday, February 8, 2009

Range Report Sunday 2/8/09

Got up at 2 A.M. At work at 3:30.

Dramatic sky, eh?


Home by noon. Off to the range by 1:00. Fired 150 rds of Remington 230-gr JHP through the Kimber, then 20-rds of 230-gr Hydra-Shoks. Had a FTE on rd #3 with the Kimber mag and another on rd #76 with a Wilson 47OXC mag (!). No other failures. No failures with the Hydra-Shoks at all, but it was only 20-rds; those things are pricey! Used six mags: Kimber, Pro-Mag COL1, Tripp 7R-45-WO, two Wilson 47OXCs and a Wilson 47OX. All mags worked well. The cheap Pro-Mag was a pleasant surprise: no failures at all, and this mag has a skirted plastic follower and a little "pinkie rest", although it holds only six rounds. The Tripp mag is built like a Mack truck, but the Wilson 47OXC mags worked beautifully AND loaded like butter; they just felt like "quality" - I think I'll stick with the Wilson 47OXCs. The Wilson 47OX is the same mag but with a larger base plate. That makes a total of 520 rds through the Kimber and it shoots very accurately, for me anyway!

I have "retired" the other two magazines, the Chip McCormick and the Wilson 46. They are both high-quality mags, but not for an alloy receiver like this Kimber.

Also put 100 rds of 10mm through the Witness. Had four or five failures-to-feed: the round got caught on the feedramp. Three factory mags in use here, so a defective mag seems unlikely to be the cause. I polished the feedramp last week using 400-grit sandpaper wrapped around a 3/8" wooden dowel, finishing with 600-grit, then a GENTLE polish with jeweler's rouge and a felt "bullet" on a Dremel (I know, I know! But lightly and gently.)

Check out the firing pin impressions. It looks like the firing pin still hasn't retracted when the casing starts to eject. All of the 10-mm rounds looked like this. Maybe some new, stronger recoil and firing pin springs would be in order; the Witness still has the stock springs. The Kimber's firing pin impressions were perfect; no smears or "commas" there.

Then out to the back porch with the laptop in 66-degree weather (yes!) to write this post alfresco! Coffee with whipped cream, a Drambuie and a fine cigar ... life is good!

You know what else is good? Arriving at the range with a heavy range bag and leaving with a much lighter range bag!

3 comments:

Tam said...

Is that DoubleTap?

Turk Turon said...

Yes, the five shell casings are Double Tap; I fired the remains of a box of Remington 10mm, too, and they all showed the same characteristic impression.

Tam said...

(If this is unwanted advice, please disregard; I just can't resist playing "Gun Doctor". Well, more like "Gun EMT".)

I'd check for firing pin spring tension and also check to see that the FP channel is free of cack.

If all that checks out, I'd consider going to an extra power FP spring or hammer spring.