Range Report

Today being a rather nasty day weather wise, my shooting group decided to forego the outdoor range and have an hour or so at the nice, heated indoor range.  Apparently we weren't the only ones who had this idea, because there was a wait for a lane when we left.

I took along the CZ-82, Taurus Model 85, RIA Government Model 1911, and the new S&W 22A-1.

Thoughts:

• The 22A is a great little pistol.  Mine is the base model, so the sights are pretty basic, but easy to see in good lighting.  I'm going to use it as a pistol trainer for Girlie Bear and Irish Woman, so I won't be putting an optic on the integral rail.  Only thing I might do is put a dab of orange or white gun paint on the front sight.  I shot Winchester high velocity .22 long through it, and the muzzle flipped less than an inch during rapid fire.  My groups started out at about 10 inches across, but tightened up some as I continued putting rounds downrange.  
• Between me and the rest of my group, we put about 150 rounds down the 22A, and I had three failures.  One was a stovepipe on ejection, the other two were problems with feeding from the magazine.  One of the failures to feed dented the cartridge bad enough I discarded it.
• Disassembly of the 22A was about as easy as I've ever seen on a pistol.  Lock the slide back, push in the disassembly button, and lift off the upper part of the gun.  Definitely easier than a 1911 or Mark III.
• The CZ-82 is fast becoming my favorite pistol.  It's as light as the Model 85, but has enough weight that it doesn't flip around a lot from recoil.  It shoots very well, has a good trigger, and made a ragged hole in the target at 21 feet.  I was firing Fiocci rounds out of it today.  Next time I go to the outdoor range, I'll try out the cheap Tulammo steel cased ammunition I bought for it.  
• The 1911 is probably going to come out of rotation as a carry piece.  It just doesn't want to consistently feed non-FMJ ammunition.  If I can get my hands on some EFMJ ammunition, I'll try it and re-evaluate carrying the 1911.  It's a perfectly adequate range gun, and it is extremely enjoyable to shoot.  Some have turned their noses up at the RIA brand, but other than the issues with hollow point ammunition, it's pretty solid. I'm between 1000 and 2000 rounds into its lifespan, and no components show any signs of problems.  
• The Model 85 is my carry piece, and I need to seriously start doing dry fire on a regular basis.  The DA trigger isn't too stiff, but I need to strengthen my hands in order to consistently fire it accurately.  At 21 feet, I was still hitting the vitals with every shot, but my groups were between 6 and 8 inches across.  I want to tighten that up so that I can hit a 3 inch group with a cold gun.  Other than that, I really love this little revolver.

Hopefully spring will hurry up and get here so I can get out to the outdoor range and spend a little more time shooting.  It's hard to linger over your shots and analyze when you're paying by the hour.  The indoor range is really nice though, and I definitely enjoy going out there when the weather is bad or I don't feel like driving the 45 minutes to Knob Creek.