MikeO
05-24-2011, 07:41 AM
FWIW went to a Police Week pistol match at the local USAF base Saturday. Pop ups, steel plates, 150 yd target on a tank downrange... fun stuff.
If you did not want to shoot your own stuff, they provided a govt gun (Beretta M9), ammo (Win frangible Mk254 Mod O), and holster (Bianchi UM84) at no extra charge. During 6 hours of shooting, saw several guns choke, none of them the beat up M9s (about 12 opted for 'em, not counting military shooters also using them), and they were handing out some of the crappy Checkmate (Chokemate) mags w 'em too.
Asked the range guys about the M9s. They have cracked slides at very high round counts (50K+), but have never had a catastrophic slide separation. Blocks break at higher round counts too (20K+), they replace 'em when they do. Newer contract guns have several plastic parts (guide rod, hammer, safety lever, slide stop, trigger). They have plenty of older steel guide rods they swap out. The other plastic parts they leave in and haven't had any problems w them.
When the match was over, they put on a 7.62 mini gun demo and blasted some old vehicles (M113, M60, M2/3, Peacekeepers) on the range.
A Texas State Police pistol team took second place team. One of their guys took second individual. Only reason I remember that is there was a woman on their team who was hard to forget... ;)
If you did not want to shoot your own stuff, they provided a govt gun (Beretta M9), ammo (Win frangible Mk254 Mod O), and holster (Bianchi UM84) at no extra charge. During 6 hours of shooting, saw several guns choke, none of them the beat up M9s (about 12 opted for 'em, not counting military shooters also using them), and they were handing out some of the crappy Checkmate (Chokemate) mags w 'em too.
Asked the range guys about the M9s. They have cracked slides at very high round counts (50K+), but have never had a catastrophic slide separation. Blocks break at higher round counts too (20K+), they replace 'em when they do. Newer contract guns have several plastic parts (guide rod, hammer, safety lever, slide stop, trigger). They have plenty of older steel guide rods they swap out. The other plastic parts they leave in and haven't had any problems w them.
When the match was over, they put on a 7.62 mini gun demo and blasted some old vehicles (M113, M60, M2/3, Peacekeepers) on the range.
A Texas State Police pistol team took second place team. One of their guys took second individual. Only reason I remember that is there was a woman on their team who was hard to forget... ;)