Heckler & Koch P30L 2000-rd wrapup, part 1...

To wrap up the 2,000-round test with the Heckler & Koch P30L, I dropped in at the local indoor range on Thursday with a fifty-round box of Federal Premium 124gr +P HST, which is my preferred carry load in Federal Ammo, and is pretty much a coin flip with Speer's 124gr +P GDHP in terms of proven effectiveness.

In order to finish out the two thousand round test, I bought three fifty round boxes of 9mm FMJ ammo from the range: One box of Aguila 124gr ball, one of Winchester 124gr "NATO", and one of Armscor 147gr subsonic.

The Aguila ran fine, and I used it to shoot the 1" and 2" targets in the top right corner, first shot double-action from the low ready on the 2" circle and then transition to a single shot on the 1" square. Lather, rinse, repeat 24 more times until the box of ammo is gone...

Next was the Winchester 124gr "NATO" and the Armscor 147gr FMJ shot at the lower 8" circle at about a half-second pace. It was with the Armscor subsonic that some problems cropped up...

Out of the fifty round box, I was greeted by this sight six times, with only the angle of the spent case varying. It didn't matter how firmly I clamped the gun (and as softly as these rounds were recoiling, it wasn't hard to grip hard enough to nearly eliminate muzzle flip.)

Spent Armscor brass litters the tray in lane six, from where it had dribbled out of the ejection port, instead of flying over my right shoulder as is proper for spent brass from this pistol. So, I don't know whether it's just this lot specifically or if all Armscor 147gr is complete weaksauce, but I wouldn't run it in this pistol.

The 1-inch square and 2-inch circle at top right were shot at a leisurely pace from the 3-yard line by presenting from the low ready and firing double-action at the 2" circle and then transitioning to a single-action shot on the 1" square. The upper 3x5 box was the HST at five yards, and the 8" circle is a hundred rounds fired at a .5 or so pace at seven.

The HK P30L has now fired 2000 rounds since it was last cleaned or lubricated with ten failures to eject (#1,568, #1,578, #1,606, #1,750, #1,965, #1,972, #1,980, #1,985, #1,988, #1,998) and one failure to feed (#1,664). This concludes the 2,000 round test. Stay tuned for dirty gun pics and a summary post.
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