Per the request for a performance review, I took my new P-3AT to the range today to break it in and get a first impression of the little beast. Overall, I am happy with its performance, but there were a few things which disappointed. I will just list the highlights in bullet form.
Preparation:
- Degreasing and cleaning
- Light F&B – polished feed ramp, removed burs
- Sanded trigger face to remove sharp parting lines
- Painted front sight orange.
Shooting
- 200 rounds of S&B FMJ. On the second magazine load, the last round failed to extract. Otherwise all 200 rounds fed and extracted perfectly. I cleaned and relubed the gun after the first 100 rounds. All rounds were fired at 7 yards with one or two handed grip offhand. It shot to point of aim using a center hold. In slow fire groups were generally about 4 inched CTC. In semi-rapid fire, the groups opened up to about 6 inches CTC.
- 18 Cor Bon 90gr. JHP were fired. In each of the three magazine loads, the # 2 round failed to feed. On the second and third magazines, the #3 round also FTF’d. Out of 18 rounds, there were a total of 5 FTF’s. It was the typical type in which the bullet simply got caught on the feed ramp. A bump or push on the rear of the slide successfully chambered all 5 of the misfeeds.
- It was about 98F and I was rather sweaty so I found it very difficult to rack the slide to chamber a new magazine after the first two. This was much worse than the P-32 due to the heavier recoil springs and lack of a slide lock. I was able to rack it by either thoroughly drying my hands and racking it normally, or by using an overhand grip and pushing the slide back with my entire hand.
- On 3 or 4 occasions, I lost count and let the hammer fall on an empty chamber.
- Recoil was not painful in anyway. I suppose that it is more severe than the P-32, but unless you shoot them side-by-side, you may not notice. Since my hands were rather slippery, as mentioned above, the pistol shifted in my grip on a few (<10) occasions during the end of my session. The required me to shift my grip prior to the next shot.
