Pistols I saw last week & what stood out

[Tom Duffy]

What stands out to me is that someone paid $1600+ to take a class and buys a bargain-basement pistol.

Less surprising is the guy with the unvetted STI/ammo.

[Zincwarrior]

Sometimes you guys amaze me.

What "bargain basement" pistols are we talking about? I didn't see any Jennings, SCCY's, Hi Points or discount Turkish or Chinese knock-offs on Erick's list. All of the guns listed are quality service pistols. That includes the XD's.

Surprised he took an M&P instead of M&P 2.0? Gun's aren't iPhones. They don't come with an expiration date. Why waste money on a new gun when the old one still works just fine?

Anecdotally...

One of my best friends at work carries an XD45 he bought in 2006. It's been through lots of classes and seen a decent amount of abuse. I know it has had at least 5000 rounds through it by now (although he doesn't keep a round count). Its only issue was one bad mag that Springfield swapped out for him. Pretty good service for a "bargain basement" pistol...

I agree, there are better choices than the XD out there and I don't own one, but I certainly don't turn my nose down on those that do. Going all the way back to the HS2000 they aren't a bad design and certainly aren't bad guns.

Well an M&P 1.0 can be tricked out to a sub 3Lb trigger pull if you want with an Apex barrel for excellent accuracy, and adjustable sights.
I am slightly surprised there were not more Sigs and CZs though.

[BillSWPA]

Thanks to the original poster for taking the time to provide some good observations and data points.

My father in law bought an XD9 when the guy behind the counter at a gun shop (yes, I know) suggested that it was every bit as good as a Glock. At the time it came as a package deal with 3 magazines and an adjustable polymer (Kydex or similar) paddle holster. I used to have a membership at a range with numerous rental guns, and got to use them free of charge at my membership level. I took advantage of this to let my wife try most of the 9mm pistols that were then available, as well as some .38 revolvers, a couple of .45 autos, and a few .380 pistols. The only things she liked reasonably well were a Smith & Wesson 4" K-frame and a Beretta Elite II, but DA trigger pulls were a problem for her, so she did all of her shooting single action. She tried her tather's XD, and easily placed 10 out of 10 shots right where they belonged. She liked the gun, so I bought one for her.

Neither individual is a high round count shooter, but the guns have both been reliable and reasonably accurate. My wife has had zero problems. My father in law had some problems with PMC ammo that disappeared when he switched to Blazer Brass, and has had no other issues.

If you shoot anything enough, it will fail. I have had both a Glock and a Kimber first generation 1911 fail during matches, and both have gone on to have several thousand trouble-free rounds through them. I have seen both Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers fail. I have a High Standard pistol that is not a super high round count gun, but currently fails to extract more than it succeeds. I wouldn't call any of them low quality.

[revchuck38]

Well an M&P 1.0 can be tricked out to a sub 3Lb trigger pull if you want with an Apex barrel for excellent accuracy, and adjustable sights.
I am slightly surprised there were not more Sigs and CZs though.

If I ever get to take 250, I’ll be shooting my CZ-75B, because Cooper (and because l’m not sure I want to shoot that much .45 ball through my Commander).

[11B10]

[QUOTE=Erick Gelhaus;896069]Uhm, I'm a former gun writer.



Erick, I just got home and saw this. I honestly didn't know and offer my sincere apologies. However, in my feeble attempt at defense, you did say you were a FORMER gun writer. Perhaps you saw the light?

[Bucky]

Every match I go to, it never fails, the most malfunctions come from 1) the guy with the most tricked out gun, regardless of manufacturer 2) re-loads and 3) both.

I've yet to see an oem pistol with factory ammo malfunction (in a match setting).

Anecdotally--This includes an older gentleman who has a Kimber that looks like it is older than me, rattles when he walks around, yet with good mags and factory ammo it runs great and is accurate...meanwhile the guy with flame-graphics on his glock 34 with cool-guy high speed trigger, etc, has given up minutes to everyone else due to malfs.

After shooting USPSA for 27 years, I’ve found the most consistent variable to be ....

- Not the model gun
- Not the extent of mods
- Not what...

But WHO!

Some people can’t make anything work, and some people can make anything work. Those in the middle will usually adjust accordingly.

[SeriousStudent]

He's still in recovery.....

[AKDoug]

I don't currently carry it, but my first plastic fantastic handgun was an XDM .40 my wife bought me for my 40th birthday a decade ago. I rocked that thing for three RedBack1 classes without a single burp, even won a patch for the best accuracy in one of the classes. Between those classes and my shooting I have 7 gallons of empty .40 brass... I figure that's 9000 rounds and I know I didn't pick up all the brass in practice and NONE of it in my classes. That pistol probably is at 12,000 rounds now. I mastered one handed manipulations before going to my RB1 classes (it can be done with training) and I had no issues doing it under stress in class. The only repair I did to the gun was preventative. I replaced the firing pin roll pin with a better quality spring steel pin. In it's life it has had one failure to chamber that was cured with with a tap, and one failure not related to the pistol when I chambered gravel into it when I didn't realize my mag pouches were full of rocks from a particularly tough drill in a RB1 class.

Due to the seemingly endless hatred of the .40 and XDM's I switched to a G19. I am glad I did. It's a better sized pistol for me and I just like it better. The XDm resides in my office as a business defense tool.

As to pistols in the six national level classes I've been to, the only problems were M&P's auto forwarding (debatable if it was a problem), and lots of 1911's with issues. Most of the 1911 guys went to Glocks because of the rounds fired in these classes were geared around high capacity 9mm's. I will say they got really good at reloading

[HopetonBrown]

Aaron Cowan's observations.

[HCM]

Well an M&P 1.0 can be tricked out to a sub 3Lb trigger pull if you want with an Apex barrel for excellent accuracy, and adjustable sights.
I am slightly surprised there were not more Sigs and CZs though.

There was nothing wrong with the M&P 1.0 in 40 and 45. The accuracy issues were only with some of the the 9mm Guns.