Smurfslayer
Member
Since I'm a die hard semi auto fan, I thought I'd post this here as an insight to others who might share this bias...
I picked up a S&W model 327 .357 magnum. Check it out here.
I had several .38 +P's and .357 rounds on hand to fire. The stats are pretty impressive... 21 ounces, 8 shots, 2" barrel.. I was expecting the recoil to be
hateful. I put a few .38's down range, and it wasn't bad at all. So I loaded up some magnums, and quite honestly, I was left asking "where's the recoil?". I'd put all my shots, double action, on notebook paper at 7 yards with not too bad groups. I let a friend shoot it, and then I again shot this time single action, and we both had really tight groups. Impressive for short barrel. I was also pleased with the way the gun handled. I thougth the finger groove wood grips did an excellent job of filling the hand _just_right_ and keeping the gun from jumping around in your grip under recoil.
I would guess 120 - 150 rounds down range without a hitch. Double action trigger pull I'm guesstimating at 8.5-9 pounds, very smooth. Single action about 4 pounds, crisp, consistent break. It's noticeably better than my 325PD, which is very smooth, but heavy - 12 pounds or so, I would guess.
I am a die hard semi auto guy, the ergos just seem to feel better to me, but I have to admit this is the first "wheel thingie" I'd feel good about carrying. The gun comes with optional moon clips. They were surprisingly easy to load and unload, except for CCI blazer, but I note that they are not as positive to get into the cylinder as with the .45 ACP.
Speaking of the .45 ACP, the final chapter has been written in the saga of my ill fated Taurus PT145 Mil. Pro. I bought several boxes of hollow points, some reloads and some +P's. In this session, all the reloads went off without a hitch ( I've had a bad batch of primers but this gun has had a lot of trouble with them, moreso than my other 45's by a wide margin ) Next up I began putting rounds down range and feeding went well. I had been experiencing some failures to feed with factory ammo. Unfortunately, I didn't get through all the ammo. This was the 5th range session, and it was the best, but... I had a misfire on factory (Winchester ranger) ammo. That did it for me. Still, I figured I could use the double action practice, so I continued to shoot Blazer 200 gr. HP's... 2nd mag, I dropped the magazine and the mag release fell out. Ugh. I give. I really wanted this to be a 'carry rotation' gun, but reliability just wasn't there. I was able to correct the mag release in about 10 minutes, cleaned it up and took it with me to the Chantilly, VA show. I landed a deal on an H&K USP .45 LEM
Usually, they are delivered in Variant 1 configuration, but it looks like this was a surplus LE piece. I got 2 standard caps, and the gun for the sale price of $649 - minus my trade... It's big, but experience with my USP 9's has been 99.9% positive.
Of course... I'm still finding myself pondering this wheel thingie....
I picked up a S&W model 327 .357 magnum. Check it out here.
I had several .38 +P's and .357 rounds on hand to fire. The stats are pretty impressive... 21 ounces, 8 shots, 2" barrel.. I was expecting the recoil to be
hateful. I put a few .38's down range, and it wasn't bad at all. So I loaded up some magnums, and quite honestly, I was left asking "where's the recoil?". I'd put all my shots, double action, on notebook paper at 7 yards with not too bad groups. I let a friend shoot it, and then I again shot this time single action, and we both had really tight groups. Impressive for short barrel. I was also pleased with the way the gun handled. I thougth the finger groove wood grips did an excellent job of filling the hand _just_right_ and keeping the gun from jumping around in your grip under recoil. I would guess 120 - 150 rounds down range without a hitch. Double action trigger pull I'm guesstimating at 8.5-9 pounds, very smooth. Single action about 4 pounds, crisp, consistent break. It's noticeably better than my 325PD, which is very smooth, but heavy - 12 pounds or so, I would guess.
I am a die hard semi auto guy, the ergos just seem to feel better to me, but I have to admit this is the first "wheel thingie" I'd feel good about carrying. The gun comes with optional moon clips. They were surprisingly easy to load and unload, except for CCI blazer, but I note that they are not as positive to get into the cylinder as with the .45 ACP.
Speaking of the .45 ACP, the final chapter has been written in the saga of my ill fated Taurus PT145 Mil. Pro. I bought several boxes of hollow points, some reloads and some +P's. In this session, all the reloads went off without a hitch ( I've had a bad batch of primers but this gun has had a lot of trouble with them, moreso than my other 45's by a wide margin ) Next up I began putting rounds down range and feeding went well. I had been experiencing some failures to feed with factory ammo. Unfortunately, I didn't get through all the ammo. This was the 5th range session, and it was the best, but... I had a misfire on factory (Winchester ranger) ammo. That did it for me. Still, I figured I could use the double action practice, so I continued to shoot Blazer 200 gr. HP's... 2nd mag, I dropped the magazine and the mag release fell out. Ugh. I give. I really wanted this to be a 'carry rotation' gun, but reliability just wasn't there. I was able to correct the mag release in about 10 minutes, cleaned it up and took it with me to the Chantilly, VA show. I landed a deal on an H&K USP .45 LEM
Usually, they are delivered in Variant 1 configuration, but it looks like this was a surplus LE piece. I got 2 standard caps, and the gun for the sale price of $649 - minus my trade... It's big, but experience with my USP 9's has been 99.9% positive.
Of course... I'm still finding myself pondering this wheel thingie....
