Just a quick report on our range trip this weekend.
Mel wasn't feeling well, but wanted us to go anyway, so we kept it simple; and I only took out the 1911 (because of course I can't go shooting without blasting some .45; in this case about 150 rounds), the new Hi-Power, and my new upper to function test.
The Hi-Power itself functioned flawlessly; the same cannot be said of the somewhat beat up browning factory magazine (one of 4 I got with the gun), more on that later. The 18rd KRD mags actually worked great. I also figured out the gun likes gold dots, and doesn't want to feed HydraShoks when it gets dirty (its OK clean).
I put about 150 rounds through the gun, shooting it in all manners, orientations, and speeds; and the only failures were magazine related from the dodgy mag, and the aforementioned HydraShoks.
Yaknow, I really just love the BHP design. It fits my hand great, and with the mild recoil of even +p+ 9mm in this full frame; there is no sweeter gun to shoot rapid fire strings with, even the 1911 (though it's close).
At one point while I was demonstrating rapid fire grip techniques, Kommander (the pistols prior owner) looked over at me and said 'Where did you manage to get an auto sear for a HiPower"; only half jokingly.
He then made me demonstrate again, so he could try with his SIG. I promptly emptied an entire 18rd KRD mag into a 10" or so circle at 25 yards, in about 3 seconds.
He looked at me funny; and then tried it with his new SIG p229 in .40. He couldnt manage the speed, or to keep up the strings for more than 4 shots without going way off target; but he's getting better.
Of course the point of that isn't to spray and pray; it's to learn to control recoil better so you can rapidly put more steel on more targets.
At that point we brought the rifles out, and had some fun.
Why emphasize the rifley fun goodness?
Because we'd also brought some Tannerite. Boomershoot was this past weekend, and we couldn't make it; but we could at least have some fun with boomers of our own.
Where we were shooting had some old computer monitors, motherboards, hard drives, and an old microwave scattered near the backstop.
Hehehehehehehehe.
Kommander taped his boomer to an old video card he had brought. We managed to find one small piece of it, the backplate; the rest was dust.
JohnOC put his boomer in the microwave, and blew it with his new BLR (in .308). The chassis burst quite satisfyingly, and the metal outer shell blew about 20 feet in the air with a hangtime of about two seconds.
Emily used JohnOCs new AR (his other BAG day gun. The lower was my Xmas present to him); and it took her a while to get settled in; but she blow that monitor into tiny little bits quite handily.
I also planted in a monitor and used JohnOCs AR, but I had one little extra. Remember that recalcitrant factory Hi-Power Mag? Well, the mag was rapidly reduced to it's component elements, and my monitor split in half; the lower bits becoming dust, and the top half blowing about 30 feet straight up.
I also function tested my new upper, and the experimental A-Max ammo I'd loaded for it, but I'm saving that for another blog post. I DID however use the heavy barrel to my advantage, and feather fired a full 30rd mag out in under 5 seconds (without any malfunctions, on a brand new, unbroken in gun).
Funny enough, the people who were camping and shooting the next wash over, sent someone over to ask what kind of cannons and machine guns we were shooting.
Unfortunately just about then a massive thunderstorm started rolling in, and we had to cut the day short. We managed to get packed up and in the truck just as the rain hit; scrambling out of the flash flood zone as fast as we could (we were about two miles back down a twisted and gnarly hilled wash).
Ahhh, good times.
