Nov 12, 2009

Wow. I shot a plastic gun.

Field Report:

The Glockish semi-auto was brand new and brought to the Great Pheasant Shoot-At by a friend of my son, a good man fairly new to hunting and shooting. His first handgun, it was a product of Croatia marketed by Springfield in Geneseo.

We were stowing the shotguns as shooting hours closed. He showed us the new pistol and invited me to shoot it. We put five 9x19 rounds in the magazine, and I scored one hit on a 12-ounce plastic Coke bottle at ten yards or so. My spotter, Ryan, 13, a man with a good eye, thought the rounds were going a little low and left, and a Kentucky windage shot suggested he was correct.

I liked the grip ergonomics and the three white sight dots. I hate the look and feel of plastic where God intended man to use steel. But I respect the gun. For its purpose, self-defense at a reasonable range, (What's that? Aww, I dunno. Ten yards, 15 maybe?) it is a perfectly acceptable tool. More to the point, the new owner likes it. Even more so, he is committed to mastering it.








6 comments:

Jinglebob said...

Pictures?

Jim said...

Naaah. I photograph the kids doing interesting stuff, but will they shoot me doing important stuff? Naaaa,

I should have noted it was an XD-9. One place to get a wordy review and picture is

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/review/XD-9_Tactical.htm

JohnW said...

I'm glad you liked it. The one time I shot a plastic fantastic my right thumb kept going, "Boss? Boss? I'm just hanging out here - where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do?" I suppose I could get over it...

Jim said...

The proper place for the shooting-hand thumb is a book-length subject, and the gurus of "just comfortably along the grip" need disciplining.

My earliest pistol mentor, who can still probably outshoot most, believed that on a 1911 the thumb belongs nearly vertical to offset the tendency to cant the pistol to port.

But on a plastic machine I suppose comfortably along the grip is fine. There, the thumb adds structural strength and catches the drippings from overheated PVC.

Unknown said...

The reason you don't mind the Croatian import is that the grip angle, unlike that made by Herr Gaston Glock, mimics St. JMB's 1991grip angle.

My X-ray-Deltas and 1911s live peaceable side by side.

Unknown said...

Bad typo.... by 1991 I obviously meant 1911.