GB
Member
Recently, I was fortunate to attend a 3-day Defensive Handgun I class at Thunder Ranch in central Texas. The following is primarily a review of the range performance of my Ruger P95DC (9 mm) and and a question about a malfunction I had occur. This post is not intended as a review of the course. There are a number of in-depth reviews of Thunder Ranch on various discussion groups and I am unlikely to be able to improve on those posts.
To better demonstrate what the gun was used for I feel I need to breifly describe the course. [Besides, the course was lot of fun & I want to say a little about it.] The class was full (24 students) with approximately 5 instructors. Student experience level varied from rather new to handguns to quite experienced. Most students fell into a middle range. For semieautos, I was in the lower part of the middle range of experience. About one third of the class were various types of LEOs. Instruction and drills covered law enforcement and civilian issues. Nearly all guns were 1911s or Glocks. There were also 2 or 3 revolvers, 1 Berretta, my Ruger, and at least one other semiauto. I enjoyed the course very much and learned a considerable amount.
Now. On to the gun review.
I shot about 550 rounds of 9 mm Winchester white box. I wanted to see how the gun would preform with minimal cleaning. I brielfy wiped the outside of the gun and inside the ejection port. I did not break the gun down for a full cleaning.
Overall the gun worked fine. The only malfunctions that were not part of a malfunction drill were due to my not seating the magazine well enough. There were zero failures to feed (except after failure to seat the mag) and zero failures to extract. I did have 3 or 4 double feeds that occurred during drills to clear intentionally caused stovepipe malfunctions.
I also encountered a problem during malfunction drills probably due specifically to my gun and how I hancle it. A couple of times while trying to clear double feeds (resulting during clearing of a stovepipe or intentionally caused) the slide would lock partly open. While I was manipulating the gun I appearently put pressure on on portion of the slide release lever that sticks through the frame on the right side of the gun. When I racked the slide and as the index marks on the frame and slide matched up the pressure on the lever would cause it move 2 or 3 mm through the frame and lock the slide. Putting pressure on the right side of the lever would allow the slide to go forward.
At TR, part of the procedure to clear a double feed is to push on the mag release and pull the mag of of the well. This is done without first locking the slide back and can requrie a fair amount of force to pull the mag out of the gun. I suspect I was shifting my hold on the gun and contacting the right side of thre sidle release lever.
Has anyone else experienced this problem?
Thanks.
GB
To better demonstrate what the gun was used for I feel I need to breifly describe the course. [Besides, the course was lot of fun & I want to say a little about it.] The class was full (24 students) with approximately 5 instructors. Student experience level varied from rather new to handguns to quite experienced. Most students fell into a middle range. For semieautos, I was in the lower part of the middle range of experience. About one third of the class were various types of LEOs. Instruction and drills covered law enforcement and civilian issues. Nearly all guns were 1911s or Glocks. There were also 2 or 3 revolvers, 1 Berretta, my Ruger, and at least one other semiauto. I enjoyed the course very much and learned a considerable amount.
Now. On to the gun review.
I shot about 550 rounds of 9 mm Winchester white box. I wanted to see how the gun would preform with minimal cleaning. I brielfy wiped the outside of the gun and inside the ejection port. I did not break the gun down for a full cleaning.
Overall the gun worked fine. The only malfunctions that were not part of a malfunction drill were due to my not seating the magazine well enough. There were zero failures to feed (except after failure to seat the mag) and zero failures to extract. I did have 3 or 4 double feeds that occurred during drills to clear intentionally caused stovepipe malfunctions.
I also encountered a problem during malfunction drills probably due specifically to my gun and how I hancle it. A couple of times while trying to clear double feeds (resulting during clearing of a stovepipe or intentionally caused) the slide would lock partly open. While I was manipulating the gun I appearently put pressure on on portion of the slide release lever that sticks through the frame on the right side of the gun. When I racked the slide and as the index marks on the frame and slide matched up the pressure on the lever would cause it move 2 or 3 mm through the frame and lock the slide. Putting pressure on the right side of the lever would allow the slide to go forward.
At TR, part of the procedure to clear a double feed is to push on the mag release and pull the mag of of the well. This is done without first locking the slide back and can requrie a fair amount of force to pull the mag out of the gun. I suspect I was shifting my hold on the gun and contacting the right side of thre sidle release lever.
Has anyone else experienced this problem?
Thanks.
GB
