On Friday, I got it done. Took a drive to Smith Park Range over in AR on Friday. Only one shooter was there when I arrived; had there been more I probably would have made a U-turn and driven away - I've seen too many morons there before. As it was, I stayed, I figured one guy would not be too hard to keep an eye on. Seemed like he knew what he was doing while tinkering with the scope on his rifle, then I noticed the bolt was closed. A few minutes later, as I loaded magazines at one of the benches, he gets up from his bench, walks around in front of his rifle, bends a bit at his hips and puts his hands on his knees and starts peering either into the scope or the muzzle or both. Then he walked back behind the firing line, sat at his bench and told me he was going to shoot one round; that was a plus but did not make up for walking in front of the firing line and peering down the muzzle or scope from the wrong end. Anyway, I gave him the thumbs up and said okay since I had my eyes and ears on already. He fired one shot and then fiddled with his gun some more. A short time later, I told him I was going hot and he said okay. I fired 14 rounds out of my Sig Arms GSR Revolution RCS - n o problems. Then I shot 64 rounds through one of my two Zastava M70 pistols using all 8 magazines I have for them. Every round fed, fired, extracted and ejected nicely through the first M70.
A little bit later, after I had reloaded my mags, I was getting the other M70 ready to fire and was about to put a mag into it since the line was hot and the other guy had been firing. I turned to tell him I was about to load and fire and there he was just passing the bench to walk downrange to his target. He did not say a thing to me and obviously did not look at me and see my handling my pistol. I put the pistol down immediately. When he came back with his target in hand, I got up and walked over and told him what just happened. He said he did not know I had been handling a gun - hell we were in the middle of shooting without anyone calling a ceasefire. At least he was civil about me telling him he had just walked downrange while I was handling a gun. He thanked me and said he'd be more careful. Then he just proceeded to get his gear together and got ready to leave; he had gone downrange to retrieve his target. Seemed like a nice guy but also typical of the shooters I have seen at that particular range - virtually clueless to range etiquette and firearms & range safety.
After that, I shot about another 136 rounds with the M70s. Two failures to feed HP rounds in one of them, no failures in the other. Could have been the ammo (this stuff was very old and slightly corroded) or the magazine - I recently got a replacement mag for one of the extras I had purchased but that had been frozen by rust. I forgot to clean the gunk out of the new mag before hitting the range. Also could have been the gun as I am pretty sure it failed to feed a round out of two different mags. It fed, fired, extracted and ejected flawlessly with FMJ today - jammed a few times on my first range trip with it - so maybe it was the gun and it just needs a bit more breaking it. Next time I bring it along, I will bring more ammo and put it through a real workout to see if things smooth out; I'll also make sure all the mags are clean and gunk free.
So far the only issue other than those failures to feed is the fact that the mags do not fall free on their own when the mag release is depressed, you have to pull them out an inch or two before they free fall. I don't anticipate ever carrying one of these for self-defense and only am planning on using them at the range or for plinking. They handle nicely, fit in my hand okay although are on the small side, have minimal recoils (they are chambered in 32 ACP), and seem fairly accurate. I like them both the one that performed flawlessly better than the other but figure once broken in, the other one will be just fine. If not then some small bit of polishing the feed ramp should help.
I alternated shooting between the M70s and the Sig. I shot 50 rounds of FMJ and about 100 rounds of JHP through it through the Sig. There were two failures to feed - both on the last round. That could have been because the pistol has not been broken in, due to user error (like limp wristing), due to the ammo (there were some deformed rounds in a box of Target Sports Prime ammo I had with me (maybe I missed two when loading mags but I think not), or due to one or the other or both of the magazines. I am not sure if it happened with one or both mags - just that it happened twice. Again, next time I bring it to the range, I'll bring more ammo and if it happens again, I'll mark the mag used when it happens. Regardless of the two failures to feed, this is one nice pistol. It fed, fired, extracted and ejected with only those two failures. ZIt is on the small side for a 1911 type 45; the one thing I did not like is that sometimes it almost jumped out of my hand because the grips do not seem quite long enough; I'd just have to shoot it a lot more to get used to that if I ever decide to carry this for self-defense. I shot FMJ and JHP through it and two types of JHP at that.
After done with those, I pulled out the Ruger Redhawk in 44 Rem Mag. I was shooting the other pistols at 25 yards and continued at that distance with the big revolver. I put 5 of six shots in an 8 inch circle and had one flier about an inch outside of that. I fired about another 18 or 24 rounds after that before calling it a day. While shooting the Ruger, I shot to different brands of ammo, one at 240 grains and the other at 300 grains. Surprisingly enough, they were hitting in the same area on the target with no difference due to brand, grain weight nor the load for each. That has not been my experience in the past and on previous range trips I'd have to adjust the rear sight when switching ammo. Not today and that was a good thing. I was quite satisfied with my shooting. All of it, when actually shooting at the targets, was two hand unsupported at 25 yards. When putting rounds through the 45 and the two M70s - lots of the rounds through the 45 were shot one handed as well and not aimed at anything in particular - I was just doing a function check on it for the most part. I did not bother aiming on target for any of the shots with the M70, I already know how accurately I shoot with them, today was just further function checking them and breaking them in. I must say that as far as the shots at the target went, with the 45, I probably had a 5 or 6" group at 25 yards with one flier; as for the Ruger 44 Mag, my group was about 5 - 6" with a couple of fliers. All the shots from the Ruger were at the target.
My hankering was finally satisfied after about two hours there at the range. It was a good day.
All the best,
Glenn B
),
the magazine(s), the ammo or the gun. If it is still doing that after
500 rounds or so, I'll look into it further. Not too concerned now as it
is not currently and not likely to become my carry gun.