Had an interesting time at my range yesterday. A friend who had just bought his first handgun asked about coming out to shoot so of course I invited him. He came witha friend who had limited experience with a variety of handguns but did not own any himself. I am usually shooting with experienced shooters so I was curious how this all would go.
My friend brought his new S&W Sigma 9mm, which he bought mostly because it was cheap (about $300 new). He shot it pretty well, and to its credit it went through about 200 rounds with no any failures (all FMJ).
The Sigma had about the worst trigger I have ever pulled, but I noticed that my friend had no issues with it because he had no other experience, and just thought all pistols were like that. The pull was so heavy I actually thought at first there was something wrong with it.
I then set out, for their sampling, a Springfield EMP (9mm), a Glock 23 (.40) and a Colt Commander XSE (.45) and watched their reactions. We shot paper targets, then tried multiple steel targets.
First, with the Colt and the EMP they got a bit wide-eyed when they found out what a trigger can be. Neither objected to recoil in the .45. Neither was particulary fond of the Glock.
The EMP was the clear hit of the day -- both kept coming back to it for more. They remarked on the small size of grip, the good trigger and both shot it very well. I predict that I sold at least one EMP from this session.
Very interesting to see people with no pre-conceived notions about caliber, polymer-vs-steel, Glock-vs-1911, react to the various pistols. I saw that if you have not shot a good trigger you have no issues with a bad one. Also, notwithstanding the endless debate about relative recoil, these guys found little practical difference in recoil among the calibers (the heavy .45 vs the light EMP 9mm may have contributed to that).
My friend brought his new S&W Sigma 9mm, which he bought mostly because it was cheap (about $300 new). He shot it pretty well, and to its credit it went through about 200 rounds with no any failures (all FMJ).
The Sigma had about the worst trigger I have ever pulled, but I noticed that my friend had no issues with it because he had no other experience, and just thought all pistols were like that. The pull was so heavy I actually thought at first there was something wrong with it.
I then set out, for their sampling, a Springfield EMP (9mm), a Glock 23 (.40) and a Colt Commander XSE (.45) and watched their reactions. We shot paper targets, then tried multiple steel targets.
First, with the Colt and the EMP they got a bit wide-eyed when they found out what a trigger can be. Neither objected to recoil in the .45. Neither was particulary fond of the Glock.
The EMP was the clear hit of the day -- both kept coming back to it for more. They remarked on the small size of grip, the good trigger and both shot it very well. I predict that I sold at least one EMP from this session.
Very interesting to see people with no pre-conceived notions about caliber, polymer-vs-steel, Glock-vs-1911, react to the various pistols. I saw that if you have not shot a good trigger you have no issues with a bad one. Also, notwithstanding the endless debate about relative recoil, these guys found little practical difference in recoil among the calibers (the heavy .45 vs the light EMP 9mm may have contributed to that).
