MacTech
Member
I just remewed my membership at the South Berwick Rod and Gun Club, after a couple years downtime (I was living in Vermont at the time, and the R&G club in Barre, Vt was't as convenient to get to), so I took my three newest firearms to the range to get some trigger time....
Harrington and Richardson .22 Sportster single-shot;
Sweet shooting little carbine, well balanced, pointable, sights well, the iron sights were dead-on out to 50 yards, the gun was exceptionally quiet, thanks to it's heavy, solid breech and break-barrel action, I love this little .22
Ruger 10/22 Carbine with Bushnell 3-9X scope, Ruger 10-shot rotary magazine and Butler Creek Hot Lips 25 round banana mag
First off, I bought this gun used, with the scope already attached, the gun is in about 99% condition, only one insignificant scratch on the barrel near the reciever, the scope however was badly off, by at least 3" to the right, 1" down, I did a respectable job zeroing it, but will have to have it boresighted to make sure, once sighted in, it was a tack-driver, groupings of 1/2 to 1/4 inch from an unsupported bench rest position
the Ruger mags worked brilliantly, perfect functioning every time, 10/10
the Hot Lips mag, well, now I understand why everyone hates them, I had at least 3 FTF's per 25 round loadout, and when the rounds did fail to feed, the gun actually *BENT* the rounds, the bullet was angled up away from the brass, I had the urge to toss the useless mag the second time it bent my ammo, when it did feed, it fed reasonably reliably though
Butler Creek Hot Lips Mag; 3 out of 10, 1 point for capacity, one point for ease of loading, one point for feeding rounds, minus seven points for unreliable operation
.22 ammo used was Federal red-box in both .22's and Aprilla SubSonic Sniper shorts in the H&R, SSS fired and ejected 100%, Federal ammo had two squib rounds out of 100, and two rounds damaged by the Hot Lips magazine, for a total of four failed rounds
Taurus PT-99AF;
This was the one I was looking forward to, I've always wanted a Beretta-style handgun, now I own one!
I only brought a box of 50 Federal Red Box with me, as well as 20 Speer Gold Dots, I have 17 loaded into one mag as my defensive mag, so I had three "spare" left over to try, but first I shot the Federals
The PT-99 is a *GREAT* gun, a little louder than I expected (but with the open slide, I should have expected it to be noisier than an enclosed slide semi) a nice, sharp *crack*, similar to a .357 Magnum, recoil was marginal, and easily controllable, it wasn't snappy, more of a quick but gentle lift and push back, getting back on-target was quick and easy, and rapid fire and double-taps were easily controllable, compared against a .357 Mag, the .357 had a much sharper, snappier recoil
the gun was impressively accurate out to 50 yards, I could place all rounds in center-mass easily, at 25 yards, i felt like I could almost shoot all the rounds through the same hole, this gun shoots better than me
there was not a single malfunction, FTF, or FTE in all 50 rounds, I know 50 rounds isn't all that much really, but compared against the Butler Creek .22 mag for my 10/22 (2 FTF) out of a box of 50, it was impressive reliability, i'd imagine, thanks to the open-top slide design, it looks like it'd be pretty hard to get a stovepipe jam with an open top slide...., the Taurus PT-99AF seems to be a very reliable firearm, as well as accurate and controllable, there's something to be said for a full-sized 5" barreled metal-framed semiauto, one of the shooters in the stall next to me (similar build as me) was shooting a Glock 17, and he seemed to be dealing with a much greater amount of recoil than me, his gun was a tad quieter though
He came over as I was policing my spent brass (this is one behavior I *DON'T* like about semiautos, spitting brass everywhere, revolvers are much easier to clean up after...) and seemed intrigued with my H&R single shot, so I let him have a go, he also wanted to try the Aprilla SSS ammo, he seemed quite impressed with the little H&R, come to think of it, maybe I should have asked to try out his Glock..... oh well, maybe next weekend, as I *will* be back, I forgot how much fun shooting is, besides, I gotta keep up my accuracy for when the Zombies arise and start looking for Spicy Braiiinnns!
Once I got home, all that was needed to clean the firearms was a quick Boresnake treatment (Dear Og, I *LOVE* Boresnakes), and once again, I saw another benefit of the Beretta-style open top slide, it made boresnaking the barrel a breeze
I'll check with the range officers to see what's okay for targets, I'd like to do my own ballistics tests to see how coconuts and/or cantaloupes respond to .22 and 9mm, it's safe to assume how they'll respond to a 12-gauge though, no need to test that...., if it's okay to shoot produce, I'll bring my digicam and make some QuickTime videos of the veggiepocalypse!
Harrington and Richardson .22 Sportster single-shot;
Sweet shooting little carbine, well balanced, pointable, sights well, the iron sights were dead-on out to 50 yards, the gun was exceptionally quiet, thanks to it's heavy, solid breech and break-barrel action, I love this little .22
Ruger 10/22 Carbine with Bushnell 3-9X scope, Ruger 10-shot rotary magazine and Butler Creek Hot Lips 25 round banana mag
First off, I bought this gun used, with the scope already attached, the gun is in about 99% condition, only one insignificant scratch on the barrel near the reciever, the scope however was badly off, by at least 3" to the right, 1" down, I did a respectable job zeroing it, but will have to have it boresighted to make sure, once sighted in, it was a tack-driver, groupings of 1/2 to 1/4 inch from an unsupported bench rest position
the Ruger mags worked brilliantly, perfect functioning every time, 10/10
the Hot Lips mag, well, now I understand why everyone hates them, I had at least 3 FTF's per 25 round loadout, and when the rounds did fail to feed, the gun actually *BENT* the rounds, the bullet was angled up away from the brass, I had the urge to toss the useless mag the second time it bent my ammo, when it did feed, it fed reasonably reliably though
Butler Creek Hot Lips Mag; 3 out of 10, 1 point for capacity, one point for ease of loading, one point for feeding rounds, minus seven points for unreliable operation
.22 ammo used was Federal red-box in both .22's and Aprilla SubSonic Sniper shorts in the H&R, SSS fired and ejected 100%, Federal ammo had two squib rounds out of 100, and two rounds damaged by the Hot Lips magazine, for a total of four failed rounds
Taurus PT-99AF;
This was the one I was looking forward to, I've always wanted a Beretta-style handgun, now I own one!
I only brought a box of 50 Federal Red Box with me, as well as 20 Speer Gold Dots, I have 17 loaded into one mag as my defensive mag, so I had three "spare" left over to try, but first I shot the Federals
The PT-99 is a *GREAT* gun, a little louder than I expected (but with the open slide, I should have expected it to be noisier than an enclosed slide semi) a nice, sharp *crack*, similar to a .357 Magnum, recoil was marginal, and easily controllable, it wasn't snappy, more of a quick but gentle lift and push back, getting back on-target was quick and easy, and rapid fire and double-taps were easily controllable, compared against a .357 Mag, the .357 had a much sharper, snappier recoil
the gun was impressively accurate out to 50 yards, I could place all rounds in center-mass easily, at 25 yards, i felt like I could almost shoot all the rounds through the same hole, this gun shoots better than me
there was not a single malfunction, FTF, or FTE in all 50 rounds, I know 50 rounds isn't all that much really, but compared against the Butler Creek .22 mag for my 10/22 (2 FTF) out of a box of 50, it was impressive reliability, i'd imagine, thanks to the open-top slide design, it looks like it'd be pretty hard to get a stovepipe jam with an open top slide...., the Taurus PT-99AF seems to be a very reliable firearm, as well as accurate and controllable, there's something to be said for a full-sized 5" barreled metal-framed semiauto, one of the shooters in the stall next to me (similar build as me) was shooting a Glock 17, and he seemed to be dealing with a much greater amount of recoil than me, his gun was a tad quieter though
He came over as I was policing my spent brass (this is one behavior I *DON'T* like about semiautos, spitting brass everywhere, revolvers are much easier to clean up after...) and seemed intrigued with my H&R single shot, so I let him have a go, he also wanted to try the Aprilla SSS ammo, he seemed quite impressed with the little H&R, come to think of it, maybe I should have asked to try out his Glock..... oh well, maybe next weekend, as I *will* be back, I forgot how much fun shooting is, besides, I gotta keep up my accuracy for when the Zombies arise and start looking for Spicy Braiiinnns!
Once I got home, all that was needed to clean the firearms was a quick Boresnake treatment (Dear Og, I *LOVE* Boresnakes), and once again, I saw another benefit of the Beretta-style open top slide, it made boresnaking the barrel a breeze
I'll check with the range officers to see what's okay for targets, I'd like to do my own ballistics tests to see how coconuts and/or cantaloupes respond to .22 and 9mm, it's safe to assume how they'll respond to a 12-gauge though, no need to test that...., if it's okay to shoot produce, I'll bring my digicam and make some QuickTime videos of the veggiepocalypse!
