Saturday Night Range Report

Last night I hit the range with Dad and put some more rounds through the Ruger SR22 along with my CZ P-09.

I put around 75 Remington Golden Bullet hollow points, 100 Golden Bullet solids, and about 60 Federal 550 bulk pack hollow points through the Ruger. The gun didn't have any malfunctions that weren't related to ammo. To wit:

--Four of the Golden Bullets required a second hit to ignite.
--Three of the Federals required second hits.
--One of the Golden Bullet cases split and needed to be pushed out with a cleaning rod.

This batch of Golden Bullets seems especially bad. Previous range trips in which I've shot a couple hundred rounds of it had no more than one misfire per trip.

That's the most problems I've ever experienced in one range session with .22 ammo. When folks point to the unreliability of rimfire ammo as one reason .22s aren't suitable for defense (ballistics aside), this is what they're referring to.

In contrast, I've experienced exactly one misfire with CCI .22 rimfire ammo, among thousands fired.

The Remingtons seemed loaded hotter than the Federals, something I've noticed before. They also spit a lot more -- after virtually every shot I felt unburned powder granules on my face. I won't be using it when teaching my daughter to shoot.

I continue to be pleased with the Ruger SR22. The SA trigger is smoothing out, although the DA pull remains long, heavy, and has a lot of creep.

My round count through the CZ was much lower. I ran one 50-round box of Speer 124 grain Gold Dot JHPs through it as a function check. My dad also put 30 rounds of Fiocchi 9mm 115 grain ball through it. As expected, it worked fine. The pistol has over 500 rounds through it so far without any issues.

Dad brought his S&W Model 67 with some .38 Special 158 grain LSWC handloads and his S&W SW9VE, aka the "Smegma." The SW9VE is an economy gun but gets a bad rap because it isn't as refined as the M&P. Dad's has been trouble free for over 1,000 rounds.