Had a couple of experiences at the range today. I had a Ruger P95 that needed to be shot, and my wife took her Beretta 86 out for some exercise.
I had a malfunction on the first magazine with the P95, and it went downhill from there. After about 100 rounds the gun had turned into a single shot. I have to admit that I was surprised. I've owned more than one P95, and whatever else can be said negative about them, I've always found them to be very reliable.
It was failing to eject, it was failing to lock back, it was failing to feed (jamming) it was failing to feed (closing on an empty chamber), the slide seemed sluggish. Basically it just wasn't working at all. What was interesting is that I could manually chamber a round from the magazine with no problem, but it wouldn't feed during normal firing.
So I tried changing magazines. No dice. I tried changing ammunition--same problem with all 5 types I had on hand. So, finally I tried actually thinking.
This gun has a pretty terrible DA trigger. That's not really uncommon for a new P95. I take advantage of the trigger by using the gun for dryfire practice. If you can get to where you can dryfire a stiff/stacking DA trigger without jerking the gun around, you've accomplished something worthwhile.
(Be patient, I promise that this small diversion will eventually get tied back into the plot.)
At any rate, that means that this gun gets handled a lot. In addition, I was doing some work trying to get a feel for the specifics of the internal workings of the P95 some time ago, so for awhile I was taking the gun apart on a frequent basis. A lot of lube is problematic if you're taking a gun apart frequently and handling it a lot so I had wiped the gun pretty much dry without really thinking about it.
You're probably ahead of me by now...
When I pulled the gun out of the safe, I didn't think to do a basic lube on it before taking it to the range. Although I knew in some deep dark recess of my mind that the gun was more or less dry, it didn't really click at the time that the gun wasn't properly lubricated. Once it finally hit me what was wrong, I pulled out my range kit and applied a little CLP to the appropriate spots and finished shooting with no more malfunctions.
My wife also had a few failures to feed with her Beretta 86. The Beretta 86 is a discontinued .380ACP autopistol with a tip-up barrel design. The tip-up design, as implemented by Beretta, leaves a small seam between the frame and the feed ramp of the barrel. I was aware of the fact that aggressive hollowpoints can sometimes hang up on the seam but that wasn't going to be a problem because she was shooting only FMJ. Except that one of the types of ammo I grabbed from the inventory was a flatpoint FMJ design. Again, just like with the P95, I knew what the problem was, but in this case I hadn't quite made the jump to realizing that a flatpoint FMJ was going to occasionally hang up on the seam just like an aggressive hollowpoint would.
When I finally realized the source of the problem, she switched to a different ammunition type with a rounded tip and had no more jams.
After coming home, I added notes in my inventory document that remind me of the Beretta's ammunition preference.
The P95 is now cleaned and back in the safe--this time properly lubricated. Fortunately this particular P95 isn't doing self-defense/home-defense duty so it wasn't really the issue it could have been.
I guess the point is that the reason these two guns under my control weren't reliable was ME. I was The Weakest Link. I knew that the P95 wasn't properly lubricated and I knew that the Beretta 86 had distinctive ammunition preferences. In both cases I hadn't put 2 and 2 together to get the right answer until after the problem surfaced. Both problems were amplified by the fact that neither gun had been to the range in a long time. It had been awhile since I thought about them very much. Another factor was that there are enough guns in the safe that it's hard to keep track of all the little details about each gun.
On the other hand, both problems were solved at the range because we had extra ammo on hand, a range kit with CLP in it, and some additional magazines available to try.
So, I guess there are a few lessons to be learned from the things I did wrong and the things I did right.
Most guns have some minor idiosyncrasies--it's probably a good idea to keep notes about them somewhere. I know at least one person who ties small paper tags to the triggerguards of each of his guns. The tags contain useful and necessary information that relate to that particular gun. I keep an inventory document on the computer with notes about each gun. The more guns you have, the more important this kind of recordkeeping is--however you choose to implement it.
When you go to the range, take a few extra magazines and some different types of ammunition. Being able to try different mags and different ammo can help you diagnose a problem, and may very well solve the problem if it's magazine or ammunition related.
It's important to test ammunition in a gun before you rely on it for anything important. That's true even if the gun is one that you already know to be reliable with other types of ammuntion. The Beretta 86 is really very reliable if the ammunition has the proper bullet profile, but that certainly doesn't mean it's reliable with every kind of ammunition out there. It's one thing to have malfunctions at the range, it's another to have malfunctions when you're relying on a gun to save your life or someone else's.
It's worthwhile to carry a simple cleaning/maintenance kit to the range. Maybe a nylon brush to knock the crud off during an extended session, perhaps a few patches, cotton swabs and certainly some sort of CLP that can be used for a quick cleaning job or for lubrication. Having some basic supplies on hand can be the difference between being able to finish a range session or having to go home early.
We spend a lot of time discussing, even obsessing over our equipment--but it's not always the equipment that's the weakest link.
I had a malfunction on the first magazine with the P95, and it went downhill from there. After about 100 rounds the gun had turned into a single shot. I have to admit that I was surprised. I've owned more than one P95, and whatever else can be said negative about them, I've always found them to be very reliable.
It was failing to eject, it was failing to lock back, it was failing to feed (jamming) it was failing to feed (closing on an empty chamber), the slide seemed sluggish. Basically it just wasn't working at all. What was interesting is that I could manually chamber a round from the magazine with no problem, but it wouldn't feed during normal firing.
So I tried changing magazines. No dice. I tried changing ammunition--same problem with all 5 types I had on hand. So, finally I tried actually thinking.
This gun has a pretty terrible DA trigger. That's not really uncommon for a new P95. I take advantage of the trigger by using the gun for dryfire practice. If you can get to where you can dryfire a stiff/stacking DA trigger without jerking the gun around, you've accomplished something worthwhile.
(Be patient, I promise that this small diversion will eventually get tied back into the plot.)
At any rate, that means that this gun gets handled a lot. In addition, I was doing some work trying to get a feel for the specifics of the internal workings of the P95 some time ago, so for awhile I was taking the gun apart on a frequent basis. A lot of lube is problematic if you're taking a gun apart frequently and handling it a lot so I had wiped the gun pretty much dry without really thinking about it.
You're probably ahead of me by now...
When I pulled the gun out of the safe, I didn't think to do a basic lube on it before taking it to the range. Although I knew in some deep dark recess of my mind that the gun was more or less dry, it didn't really click at the time that the gun wasn't properly lubricated. Once it finally hit me what was wrong, I pulled out my range kit and applied a little CLP to the appropriate spots and finished shooting with no more malfunctions.
My wife also had a few failures to feed with her Beretta 86. The Beretta 86 is a discontinued .380ACP autopistol with a tip-up barrel design. The tip-up design, as implemented by Beretta, leaves a small seam between the frame and the feed ramp of the barrel. I was aware of the fact that aggressive hollowpoints can sometimes hang up on the seam but that wasn't going to be a problem because she was shooting only FMJ. Except that one of the types of ammo I grabbed from the inventory was a flatpoint FMJ design. Again, just like with the P95, I knew what the problem was, but in this case I hadn't quite made the jump to realizing that a flatpoint FMJ was going to occasionally hang up on the seam just like an aggressive hollowpoint would.
When I finally realized the source of the problem, she switched to a different ammunition type with a rounded tip and had no more jams.
After coming home, I added notes in my inventory document that remind me of the Beretta's ammunition preference.
The P95 is now cleaned and back in the safe--this time properly lubricated. Fortunately this particular P95 isn't doing self-defense/home-defense duty so it wasn't really the issue it could have been.
I guess the point is that the reason these two guns under my control weren't reliable was ME. I was The Weakest Link. I knew that the P95 wasn't properly lubricated and I knew that the Beretta 86 had distinctive ammunition preferences. In both cases I hadn't put 2 and 2 together to get the right answer until after the problem surfaced. Both problems were amplified by the fact that neither gun had been to the range in a long time. It had been awhile since I thought about them very much. Another factor was that there are enough guns in the safe that it's hard to keep track of all the little details about each gun.
On the other hand, both problems were solved at the range because we had extra ammo on hand, a range kit with CLP in it, and some additional magazines available to try.
So, I guess there are a few lessons to be learned from the things I did wrong and the things I did right.
Most guns have some minor idiosyncrasies--it's probably a good idea to keep notes about them somewhere. I know at least one person who ties small paper tags to the triggerguards of each of his guns. The tags contain useful and necessary information that relate to that particular gun. I keep an inventory document on the computer with notes about each gun. The more guns you have, the more important this kind of recordkeeping is--however you choose to implement it.
When you go to the range, take a few extra magazines and some different types of ammunition. Being able to try different mags and different ammo can help you diagnose a problem, and may very well solve the problem if it's magazine or ammunition related.
It's important to test ammunition in a gun before you rely on it for anything important. That's true even if the gun is one that you already know to be reliable with other types of ammuntion. The Beretta 86 is really very reliable if the ammunition has the proper bullet profile, but that certainly doesn't mean it's reliable with every kind of ammunition out there. It's one thing to have malfunctions at the range, it's another to have malfunctions when you're relying on a gun to save your life or someone else's.
It's worthwhile to carry a simple cleaning/maintenance kit to the range. Maybe a nylon brush to knock the crud off during an extended session, perhaps a few patches, cotton swabs and certainly some sort of CLP that can be used for a quick cleaning job or for lubrication. Having some basic supplies on hand can be the difference between being able to finish a range session or having to go home early.
We spend a lot of time discussing, even obsessing over our equipment--but it's not always the equipment that's the weakest link.