Took the Sig P320 to the range yesterday with the intention of putting the last two hundred rounds through the gun required to bring the 2,000 round test to an end. It was hot and sunny and extremely sticky down on the banks of Eagle Creek, and so rather than try and do productive things with a timer out in the pistol bays, I just whaled away in the shade of the covered firing line.
I discovered I still had one box left of that steel-cased WPA 115gr FMJ, plus two full boxes of CCI Blazer 115gr FMJ. After that it would be catch-as-catch-can with the odds and sods in my 9mm ammo can and whatever I could scrounge from my range bag.
For the last fifty rounds, I found an M&P mag with fifteen rounds of CCI Blazer in it left over from the bowling pin match. I loaded one magazine with fifteen rounds of 147gr +P Federal HST, and two with ten rounds each of that Remington 115gr +P HTP.
Two hundred rounds at ten yards, mostly spent trying to shoot with my strong hand thumb curled down. It really does help me with recoil control and keeps my thumb off the slide stop on the P320. I was occasionally managing to track the sights and the couple times I picked up the pace with followup shots, splits felt faster, but that's speculation since I left the timer in the car.
Anyway, none of this was serious pistol work; it was mostly the next step above "dirtshooting". My main goal was just to finish up the 2k rounds. And I did.
This brings the total to 2000 rounds fired with one failure to feed (#
978) and three suspect primers (#
903, #
1323, #
1495). The firearm has not been cleaned or lubricated in any way. Here in the next day or two, I'll take it down and take some closeup photos of the filth before cleaning and lubing it.
I want to do the next test on something different; a .45 or a .380 or something like that, but ammo costs will be a bear. (The costs are bad enough for 9mm; I'd reload, but that adds an extra variable to the test. Plus most people don't reload, and so factory ammo is more representative.) I need to find an ammo sponsor for these things. While I'm looking for one, if anyone wants to hit the "Starving Artist Ammo Fund" tip jar in the right sidebar, it won't hurt my feelings one bit.
