Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Range time

This being another in a row of cloudy, rainy days, and the ground being too wet- even if it wasn't dripping- to go to an outdoor range, I went to one of the indoor ranges in town tonight. Partly relaxation, partly testing.

There's one problem with old Martini target rifles; they leave you no excuse whatever.

Big test was some Aguila IQ in .45acp. My dad had asked about it, I found him some, and got a box for myself. It's odd-looking stuff: the bullet has a silvery colored jacket and a very deep hollow cavity, weight is 117 grains for the .45. Profile is like a slightly long ball bullet with a flat nose. I shot half a box tonight, all functioned flawlessly in my pistol. Accuracy seemed good, though all were fired offhand, I was most interested tonight in 'do they work?' and real accuracy testing will be done off a rest later. I don't know if the 9mm and .40S&W is the same, but be prepared for the muzzle flash with .45, it's friggin huge in a somewhat dim range lane, and the report is sharp and loud. Recoil wasn't bad, I'd describe it as 'softer' than a standard hollow point round. This bullet design is supposed to stay in shape and penetrate hard targets, but mushroom out in soft; I'm not sure how to test this, so I'll try to find some tests from someone with the stuff to check that point out. So far, performs quite well.
I do wonder about the 'hard-target penetration' factor for a home- or self-defense round. In most houses, if you hit a wall you want the bullet to either lost most of its energy or break up some to cut down on the chance of hitting someone in another room or the house next door. This light a bullet may shed a lot of velocity even if it retains shape passing through a wall; I'm too lazy and it's too wet to build a section of wall to try it on. Maybe someday.

Cleaning tomorrow, in honor of Halloween approaching I'm going to watch 'The Legend of Hell House' tonight.

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