Today was the first day at the range with the new Ruger Mk III. The verdict?

I love it. Just like I thought I would. The trigger is crisp, clean, and surprising (like it’s supposed to be). This pistol performs better than I will ever be capable of. Having grown up on my dad’s Mk I, I expected the Mk III to be a superb gun, and it actually surpassed my expectations. It was worth every penny – especially when you consider the fact that a brick of 500 rounds of .22LR costs less than a box of 50 rounds of either .45 or .380.

This trip, before I fired the Ruger, I took the opportunity to test the Hornady Critical Defense carry rounds I got for the Kel-Tec. My main concern was that they feed and fire reliably. I don’t have enough for real practice with those, and they’re expensive ($22 for 25 rounds). With only 25 rounds, I had exactly enough to shoot 2 magazines and have enough left to load 2 magazines and have one in the pipe for carry. So that’s all I shot – 12 rounds. I had no problems.

I did, however, notice that I was shooting extrememly low. I had printed targets on regular paper, and while I was aiming at the bullseye, I was only just hitting the bottom of the paper at 10 yards (well, 10 paces really, but close enough). This confused me, because last time I took this pistol out, I was grouping right around my point of aim at 7 yards (it was a big group, but that’s just me, and why I need to practice more – thus, the Mk III purchase).

Once I had run a few magazines through the Ruger, I got the Kel-Tec out again, and loaded up with the Winchester white box ammo I picked up last week, and tried to figure out what was going on. The first round surprised me – the recoil was noticably heavier with the Winchester than the Hornady. Then I realized, the FMJ rounds are more massive than the JHP, so recoil would naturally be stronger. Somewhere in the second magazine, I realized something:

I had developed a flinch.

It was a #6, actually. I was dipping the muzzle downward just before the trigger break. I also realized that I had been doing the same thing with the Ruger, but had corrected it without even realizing it at the time.

You should understand something. I have been shooting since my parents decided I was old enough to do so safely – around 6 or 7 years old. So when I realized I had developed a flinch, I saw it as a personal affront. How dare my neuromuscular system do that to me? I was determined to fix the problem, right now!

I spent the rest of the evening – and the rest of the box of .380 – working my way through that. By the time I got towards the end of the box, I was once again clustering my shots around the point of aim. I also learned that 10 yards may be better than 7 for reinforcing the basics – it seems to make me work harder to compensate for my essential tremors, and therefore makes me more successful at doing so. I was actually getting better grouping than at 10 yards than at 7.

On the other hand, the longer I shoot, the worse the tremors get. Towards the end of the box, I had a couple of flyers, one of which was fairly devastating (click to embiggenate):

If you can’t tell from the crappy cell phone pic, one of my shots cut the wooden upright I staple the cardboard to (and yes, that’s an old pizza box – it was convenient, and, most importantly, free). It wasn’t low, though. Here’s a close up of the damage. You can see there were actually 3 shots that hit the upright – one clean hole, one graze, and the killer shot:

I took that as a sign that it was time to go home.

I managed to scrape up a little unexpected free time today, so I decided I needed to get my new acquisition out to the range. (I love it when the boss walks in and says “Go ahead and finish up what you’re doing, we’re going to cut out a little early today.” But I digress…)

I only had one box of 50 .380, so this was more of a “will it go bang when I pull the trigger” range day than real range time, but that was all I was planning on. I won’t carry something in the real world until I’ve had a chance to run some ammunition through it and make sure it will, y’know, work if I actually need it.

First, the good. As I expected, this gun is more accurate than I am. With the exception of about 4 or 5 flyers, all rounds were on the paper. I attribute those flyers to me getting used to the gun, i.e., finding the right grip, the right trigger pull, and so forth. Recoil is brisk, but not as bad as I’d feared. I wouldn’t want to go through a hundred rounds without a break – in fact, 37 rounds was getting to the limit – but it’s tolerable, and it’s really not a range gun anyway.

I did notice that even with a firm grip, I was having to re-adjust my grip every few rounds because the gun would shift a bit in my hand. If you limp-wrist this one, you’ll know it, because it will end up turning in your hand.

Now, the bad. After the third magazine (18 rounds), I started getting failures to eject that jammed the weapon. These were not “tap and rack” jams, either. Recovery required removing the magazine, pulling the slide back, pointing the muzzle to the sky, and shaking it until the jammed casing fell out. On my last 3 magazines, this happened 4 times, and the last time the case jammed in the chamber tightly enough that I was reduced to using the edge of the table to push the slide back so I could use my leatherman to grab and pull the case out (which didn’t work. I finally got it out when the slide slipped and went forward with enough force that the extractor engaged the rim and pulled it out – like it’s supposed to do in the first place). It did run smoothly for those first three magazines, though.

I suspect that this was a result of dirty ammo (American Eagle). The brass I recovered* was pretty filthy, and I assume some of that stayed in the gun. But still, this was rather… irritating. I’ll get a better idea once I clean it.

On the other hand, if I need that many reloads in a social situation, I’m pretty much FUBAR’d no matter what.

*Here’s a tip – If you use a public range and only want to recover your brass – because you’re not sure where all the other brass on the ground has been, or how long it’s been there – take a Sharpie and mark across the base of the round. It’s real easy to just drag the marker across the row of ammo while it’s in the box. Pick whatever color you think will stand out best, and it will let you distinguish your brass from everyone else’s, and can make it easier to pick out without having to bend over to see that it’s not yours. I used a metallic silver Sharpie this time around, but I think something that contrasts better with the brass and silver of the casing (blue, maybe) would be a better choice.