Test Update...

I have called a few 2,000-round tests to a premature halt before.

There was the PPX, which gummed up its firing pin block enough by round 1,827 that it wasn't reliably lighting off primers anymore.

There was the Bodyguard .380, which after 1,335 rounds without cleaning or lubrication wasn't closing reliably enough to ensure good primer ignition. (A thorough cleaning and lubrication, as well as a prophylactic recoil spring replacement fixed it.)

Finally, there was the Steyr C9-A1, which was a soup sandwich of light primer strikes and failures to eject for 830 rounds before I got bored and dropped it because the Wilson and Nighthawk had just showed up and I needed to shoot them a bunch for a Concealed Carry Magazine article.

It is in the spirit of the latter that I write this post. Well, kinda-sorta, at least. I mean, the Sig P290RS has functioned just fine or, in internet-speak, "flawlessly" for 450 rounds. However, it is such an unpleasant gun to shoot. Fifty rounds at a sitting is close to my limit with it; a hundred rounds leaves the tip of my trigger finger red, raw, and tender. I honestly don't think I could do two hundred rounds at a sitting, and I've sat down and cranked a hundred rounds each through the BG380 and LCP II in one range session.

So, I'm not calling the P290RS test off, per se, but it will be proceeding at a desultory pace in the background, on days where I'm maybe feeling especially masochistic. Expect occasional updates.

Meanwhile...

Last weekend's Indy 1500 Fun Show yielded a LNIB HK P30L for $749 out-the-door. To say that the P30 design is well-proven would be a colossal understatement, but I wanted to try it for myself. I'd fired a few in the past, and had the kind of casual familiarity that one gets with having them in the showcase, but I wanted some in-depth trigger time, and a 2k test seems like the way to do it.

I opened the range session with a quick Dot Torture drill, which I squeaked through clean. Of especial note is dot number six. That one consists of shooting a pair of shots from the presentation before transitioning to dot seven and shooting it with a pair of shots as well. Because dot six is shot from the presentation, this means the first shot will be fired double-action and the second will be single-action; the dreaded "CRUNCHENTICK". That dot is engaged with a pair of shots four times. Eight bullets went through that elongated hole.

I followed that with a box of 124gr Federal HST to the 3x5 at five yards, shooting in three-to-five-round strings, decocking between strings.

The 8" circle was a hundred rounds of Speer Lawman 147gr shot at seven yards, shooting fast and experimenting with different trigger finger placements. The comet tail low-and-left disappeared when I followed a suggestion from Steve Fisher and buried my trigger finger in the guard. I need to play with that some more.

The HK P30L has now fired 200 rounds since it was last cleaned or lubricated with no failures of any type to report. 1800 rounds left to go.
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