9mm Luger and Longshot

[Rick in Oregon]

Like you, I've had a lot of motorcycles over the years.

And I've got all the aftermarket titanium implants, pins, screws and scars to prove it.

I live a much more sedate life now from my previous one. Just tryin' to stay alive here, boss!

But I'll be the first to admit that after my first Honda at 14, a steady succession of bikes, dirt, street, Harley choppers, back to screamin' dirt bikes, then to the peddle-power of trick mountain bikes, I miss riding very much, but want to maintain the ability to walk for as long as I can. Walking is good. (But riding is better!) At least with a rifle in my hands instead of a bike under me, I don't have any "crash worry"......

[skipper]

Fire for Effect - Range Report

Wow, I'm impressed with Longshot. My first two magazines were loaded with leftover Monarch 124 gn factory loads. As you can see by the top bullseye, they were all over the place. I was convinced that part of the problem was the trigger over-travel. NOT SO, my friends. Next two magazines were loaded with 124 gn Hornady XTP hollow point bullets over 5.5 gn of Longshot with Winchester primers. What a difference. The lower left group was the first two magazines I shot with this recipe. A big grin came across my face as I realized that the six inch plus group of factory ammo suddenly shrunk to less than three inches. I just couldn't believe handholds made that much difference. So, I loaded up two more magazines with the handholds and shifted my POA to the lower right bullseye. I think I'm starting to get the handle on this Sig Sauer P229 Legion.

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I wanted to share a little experiment I did while at the range today. I taped a piece of Velcro behind the trigger in an attempt to reduce the amount of over-travel. See the picture below. Well, the jury is still out on that mod. While shooting the lower right bullseye I tried my best to Hold 'em and Squeeze 'em. That didn't work as well as snapping the trigger whenever the red dot was aligned with the bullseye. I use a grip that has worked for me over the years where I use my left index finger to hold the front of the frame up and the web of my right hand to hold the rear of the frame while I squeeze/modulate the trigger with my right index finger. When I was in the Marines that grip led me to a 5 year pistol expert level of shooting. I was even on several base shooting teams where I did pretty good, even if I have to say so myself. No stolen valor here folks.

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This grip doesn't feel right with the Sig. I'm thinking that the frame and trigger guard are just too big for it to work well with this pistol. I sure wish it wasn't so but it seems that I will have to modify my grip to work with this pistol. I guess that means I'll have to spend more time at the range. Awe shucks.

I wanted to try the Velcro before I paid $77 for the Armory Craft fully adjustable trigger. I'm going to make another trip to the range to see if I can do any more adjustment to my hold and trigger snapping technique before I modify this Sig. Stay tuned!!!

[skipper]

Making Progress

I will have to say that I'm making headway taming the Sig Sauer P229 Legion RX. I went to the range this morning after the last of Memorial Day company left the house. Tuesday's are Senior's Days at Hot Wells range, so I took advantage of the $3 discount.

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I was excited to apply the snapping technique that I tried last time I was at the range. Only problem was that it didn't work as expected this trip. So I experimented with grips and trigger techniques till I stumbled upon one that seems to work for me AND this pistol. The shots outside the outer ring were shot using the snapping technique, or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Now when I adjusted my trigger squeezing technique to curling my trigger finger so that the very tip of my finger engaged the trigger things started to tighten up. So then I tried the same contact point with my trigger finger, however I consciously made an effort to also keep my finger from ridinging the trigger guard as I squeezed. That's when it all seemed to come together. Holes started stacking on top of each other. Yes, I realize I have high right to low left stringing. I'll work on that at the next range trip.

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Just FYI, this entire string of fire was using my hand loaded rounds with Longshot under 124 gn Hornady XTPs. I don't want to change more than one variable at a time so I'll use the same recipe at the next range trip where I plan to work on perfecting the grip and trigger pull. The more I zero in on the perfect combination, the better I like this gun.

[skipper]

I forgot to mention that I had one failure to feed today. When it happened, I didn't try to force the slide home. Instead, I just ejected the case and examined it later at home. Here are a few pictures of the round.

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FeedFailure2.jpg (120.49 KiB) Viewed 5402 times

CaseHeadStamp.jpg (90.65 KiB) Viewed 5402 times

As you can see the bullet is not properly aligned with the case mouth. I'm unsure when the misalignment happened. It could have been during reloading or during chambering. I will watch for that particular situation more closely in the future so I can determine when the failure occurred. I'm not inclined to consider this a failure of the pistol. At least, not yet.