This is what bad 25 yard targets look like, bad shooter day, guns are fine.

[Joe L]

I have some back and hip problems that are killing me, but I went to the range anyway for some bullseye practice and some trigger time with the P-10C after polishing the internals. 

I filmed the bullseye training session but no one is ever going to see it.  I had a much better session last week, couldn't shoot over 95 today.  No video.  I decided to put up some tape squares at 25 yards and shoot the P-10C after  a "control group" with the Kadet for comparison.  If I had shot one hole on the tape with the Kadet, I could expect to shoot the P-10C well.  If not, then, everything today was just trigger time.  Not that there is anything wrong with that. 

So here is the resulting video.  Not all days are sub 1" groups with the pistols.  Today was humbling.  Still fun.  And the P-10C is growing on mel, now that most of the grittiness is gone.  So far, the P-10C is working out just like the P-07 did when I got it--rough out of the box, then I fixed the rough spots and got enough Sugru and JB-Weld on it to get it to fit, and it became a bullseye gun. 



Joe

[baldrage]

Sorry to hear about your back/hip problems. Hope your trigger time got your mind off the pain for a while and gave you some relief.

[armoredman]

Get rest and meds, and I hate to say it but I'd probably be happy with 25 yard targets like those.

[Joe L]

Thanks, gentlemen. 

After I made that video, I helped one of our young engineers take the intake manifold off her 4 valve Toyota Camry to see if we could fix a loose runner divider that is making noise (but not hurting anything).  Getting one bracket loose was as fiddly as putting the decocker spring in a P series CZ.  Let's just say the exercise didn't result in anything helpful to the back and hip.  I am going to hobble in to the office this morning and no one better ask how my weekend went. 

Oh, wait a minute--I got to show a young one how to change the oil and filter in her car, how to operate a floor jack and to use jack stands safely, check and correct the air pressure in her tires, and how to be skeptical of YouTube experts who say "the fix is easy".  She also learned how to find trim hardware at O'Reilly's instead of the Toyota dealership and how to find all the pertinent maintenance information in her owner's manual. 

So, on balance, I had an excellent weekend!!  Just maybe not with the individual project results I had planned on.   

I think I will dwell on the educational aspects of the weekend's events, both at the shooting range and in the shop, and not so much on group size. 

Joe

[MadDuner]

I hope your back and hip get to feeling better soon!

As for group sizes.... those will always shrink and grow. 
You just have to remember to only photograph the good ones! LOL
Over the years I have recognized that I will only post about the winning moments and somehow completely gloss over all the losing or poor performance outings.  If I were honest about it - the winning to losing would be about 5/1.  I just keep quiet about it. hehehe

[Joe L]

So I went back to the range on Tuesday afternoon and tried it again, back to the usual med schedule, and, sure enough, things went better, just not quite back to normal. 

First the Kadet for bullseye practice.  I had a couple of good slow fire targets, high 80's, and a couple of 97's timed and rapid fire.  About 1/2 the targets were "good", but still scattered a few shots that lowered the averages.  But, an improvement.  I was able to control the gun much better, single hand standing. 

Next, instead of using the kadet as a barometer for how well I could shoot this session, I got out the P-07, which is now fitted with open sights.  I remember from the last trip, the rear sight needed to be nudged right a few thousandths, so I did that and then shot 20 rounds from a rest with each pistol as a warm up.  Results were good, so I put up another target sheet (shown below) with tape squares and shot 10 more rounds with each gun, five at a time in each of two squares, then marked the shots with a / and went back and took 10 more shots, five at a time, with each gun.  The circled holes are the final 10 shots. 



This is closer to normal--the pistol I have been shooting the most recently is the P-10C and the group sizes were consistently much smaller than in the video above.  The groups with the P-07 were similar but slightly larger, and I know this gun is very tight and I've shot 1" at 25 yards with it with a red dot mounted.  Bottom line is the P-10C is very good mechanically, and I should be able to get as good results from the P-10C as I did with the P-07 when I am not ailing quite so much, AND have a red dot mounted or practice a bunch more with the open sights. 

This range trip was encouraging.  Maybe my poor results last week really are temporary. 

I'm liking the striker trigger more and more as I get more range time with it.  Shooting the buttery smooth and lighter pull P-07 alternating with the P-10C was quite pleasant.  what I noticed today was the overall pistol weight of the P-07 seemed to be more than the P-10C and the grip is much thicker since it has much more Sugru on it than the P-10C.  I may have to fix that eventually.  I really like the size of these pistols, but a red dot is going to be a necessity if I want to shoot them well at "long" distances.   

Joe