Yes

Disclaimer, this is not my current carry ammo. This is some old Sig Elite that I set aside when I noticed some setback. 1-5 may still be new new it's right around 6-7 that it's visibly shorter, but that may also just be a manufacturing variance.

Where do you draw the line between being safe to send down range vs throw it in the squib bin?

I'm trying to suppress uncommon guns. I started with a Walther P1 with the locking block system. This time it's a gas delayed blowback Vector CP1. Barrel removal was a little tricky since there is little to no documentation.But it got done.

HK SP5K - not sure the LAM is in a viable position as is. Still trying to decide on a better solution for it.

Here’s my AP5. Honestly, no regrets so far about not purchasing an actual HK. I’ve been enjoying my clone a lot. However, I’ve never actually held a real HK, so I can’t really compare the two.

Backstory: I am man enough to admit that when I was a youth i did a lot more shooting tons of trap shooting and a lot of rifle too. Well about 4 yrs ago I bought myself a 30-06 as a nice birthday present wanting to get into long range shooting. I want to take it for deer/bear/moose but ive been out of the game for a minute.

Question: any of you guys have tips for getting comfortable again with the higher caliber? Not in a position to buy a new rifle and I do really like the rifle on top of that. Its just so funny to me that I have almost 100 pounds on myself from back then and im worse at controlling the recoil and steadying the scope. I am considering a brake bur idk what to look for.

Know im a bit of a dip for this one, but hey worth an ask for some tips or drills I figure. Dont want the rifle staying as a range puppy forever.

Few notes: I live in Canada so I could get a brake but not a supressor. Good hunting but shit gun laws.

This is and older pic the “can” on the 11-87 is just a bottle I slipped on it to look sorta like the movie prop planning on making it for real once the nfa changes are finalized

Tuesday catch-all post for all the questions, comments, rants, etc. that don’t belong in their own thread or the designated Politics thread

Today's Topic:

Do you consider firearms and firearm adjacent hobbies to be your main hobby, or is it a side hobby to you? What is your main hobby, or side hobby, that isn’t firearms related?

Finally acquired an ISM-V for the project.

I have a smith and Wesson Sd9VE. Last time I shot it was well over a few years ago and I do want to shoot it aging but haven’t oiled or cleaned it. Should I do that soon also what precautions should I take? I don’t want a mishap and the thing explode in my hand cuz I’m an idiot. Thanks.

16" .223 wylde build with huxwrx 556 ti

Zastava PAP M92 with Dead Air Nomad 30

4.5" 9mm build with huxwrx 9k ti

I am getting a Pedersoli baker soon look it up it totally and utterly beautiful gun the goal is to have it for spring bear next year.

I have no idea what the hell my boyfriend wants for Christmas he texted me on his lunch break I’ve asked for more information or pictures of what he wants for his guns but I have yet to get a response but I also want to surprise him but I don’t want to buy an expensive scope he can’t or won’t use because of the quality. All the information I got was a vortex or a Leaupold scope a 12 power or better I’m wanting to spend no more than $400-500

If this isn’t a good sub to post to my apologies o want wanted some advice since I don’t know much about these things

Pretty much what the title says. There’s a lady I know that is trying to get rid of her late husband’s guns. There’s 3. These were the only 2 I could ID from the information she gave me. The third one looks to be a bolt action with an archangel stock on it. That’s all I know but they seem to all be lower budget options.

Does anyone know if the 2 that I did ID are reliable and if so how much would be a fair price if they are in good condition?

Always been a fan of German hammer-fired guns since I played Rainbow Six and saw that classic HK USP on the cover of the box.

Since then I have been able to get myself a little family of German compact handguns that I love all equally for different reasons.

I will always prefer a DA/SA hammer-fired handguns over all else as they are what I have been raised off them growing up..
On that note, the golden-age of those pistols were the 90s/early 00s (before Glock came along and changed the entire handgun game with the striker-fired design), and the kings of those DA/SA hammer-fired designs, for me, will always be HK and Sig Sauer. Something about the aesthetics of their slides and frames made my brain tingle since I have seen them for the first time.

So here is what is here and what I think of each:

Sig Sauer SP2022 9mm
My first handgun, and honestly one of my favorite pistols for many many different reasons, but the one that is above all else is the price and affordability of this thing. It is at most, about half the price of a P226/229 or USP Compact, and about 2/3 the price of a P2000, yet it has all of the features of the P229 including controls, just with a polymer frame. That is really it. You are getting P229 for half the price...

Trigger is awesome and smooth, outside of a strange false-reset click that you might notice if you are very very slowly creeping off the trigger after a shot. Most of the parts outside of the outer shell of the actual grip/frame are made out of metal, which is a plus over the P2000, which uses polymer all over the place.

No matter what people tell me, this is Sig Sauer greatest polymer framed handgun, and it is a huge shame that is got discontinued last year. There was so much potential to explore with the Sig Pro line of polymer framed DA/SA hammer-fired handguns...but it never came to pass.

Still very easy to find however, and still very affordable. Seriously one of the best quality handguns or firearms you can get for the money...only other one I can say gives you this much bang-for-the-buck out of the box is a Beretta 92...

Sig Sauer P229 Enhanced Elite 9mm
Yea so I got my SP2022 first because I was a poor-poor when shopping for my first handgun. Years later I got the heirloom (to me) version of the SP2022, and the pistol it pretty much is the budget version of...the P229. I really don't know what to say about this thing that has not been said, but the entirety of Sig Sauer's pistol reputation before recent events was built on top of the P226/8/9. Even recent events cannot really tarnish the reputation of reliability, safety, and capability of the P22X series of Sig Sauer pistols.

So what makes this better than the SP2022?

The biggest thing is that it has an all metal construction with the grip/frame being constructed out of aluminum alloy compared to the polymer of the SP2022. Also the frame on the Enhanced Elite is the extended beavertail one to held with a better hold and comfort.

It also includes a Short Reset Trigger on the Enhanced Elite, which makes the single-action reset very short and very crisp.

The entire thing feels nice, and honestly after getting it, my desires to get a 2011 went down substantially.

HK P2000 V3 9mm

So the last one I want to talk about is the HK P2000 V3, the V3 meaning that it has a trigger mechanism that is DA/SA with a decocker (so just like all the other pistols here).

When I was going to get my first pistol, it was going to be this one, before I saw the price after all the taxes and fees, then I looked elsewhere and saw the SP2022.

Later down the line I got my hands on this P2000 V3 that I always wanted and there are definitely things about this pistol that may justify the price over an SP2022.

First and foremost, the thing about the P2000 that I like over both the SP2022 and the P229, is the compact nature of the whole pistol compared to the Sig's, which goes along with allow it to have a better hold for my smaller hands.

What I mean here is that if you look at the picture, you can see that the frame of the P2000 is not as thick in both width and height compared to the Sig Sauers. This allows the bore-axis to be lower on the HK, along with the ergonomics just feeling better and closer to a Glock. I absolutely love handling this handgun!

This along with the recoil spring system being a captured one with a buffer, this allows the HK P2000 to feel like better shooter for many people.

Now things that irk me about this HK are two things, the use of polymer on so many different parts and the feel of the trigger. The polymer use on this pistol is very extensive, like the slide stop lever is polymer, the hammer is polymer, mag release lever is polymer, and even the trigger is polymer. Just was a bit weird to me, and it probably is not even an issue.
What I will say is the HK's polymer is second to none, period. They make the best polymer anywhere, and the feel of it without a doubt feels more solid than any other polymer I have felt on any firearm.

On top of that, the trigger feel on the V3 is very average and maybe even bad, especially for the double action pull. The double action trigger pull is already pretty heavy on the P2000, but it also is not smooth as it seems to get noticeably heavier as you get closer to the break, along with it having a very long travel distance getting to the wall. The SP2022's trigger in comparison feels smooth with a smooth travel and consistent weight through the entire double action pull.

But I absolutely love this thing, and I am very happy that I picked one up when I had the chance.

So yea...heres to some German hammer-fired handguns!

What's your take on them and what you got?

Brand brand new Romanian micro Draco, about 300 rounds through it, bump fired a good two 40 round mags.. wooden hand guard already a little loose.. is this really that normal?

Followup to this thread

It took a couple months, but SOLGW did send 2 replacement barrels out of a different batch.

SOLGW SPR

These barrels are supposedly polygonal rifled, and some goontubers claimed they were the best performing barrels on the market. Seems surprising given their price point and that SOLGW supposedly warranties them against wear for life, meaning you get freebies when you shoot one out. Forever?

Some goontubers claimed the magic P3 rifling makes a better seal with no sharp corners, makes them easier to clean, makes them work across more bullet weights.

In reality-land, they have sharp lands just like any barrel does. It is true that there are only 3 of them, but the fouling that came out of the first set was so atrocious and the copper fouling build up on the edge of the lands was so shocking that it is hard to believe any of the benefits.

And the first two couldn't stabilize/group 55gr ammo.

The First Two

Both of the first two were extremely ugly barrels. Not at all like a precision bore.

Non-lapped

Burr gas port

Packed full of dry crud

As ugly as the BCA barrel tested earlier in the series

Rough chamber too

I would rate this a 1/10 bore. The only reason they didn't get a 0 is that they didn't have major visible defects.

Both of them were this way - even though they were sent from different distributors.

They also BOTH had ejection issues. The chamber was so rough that the brass would stick and I had to hammer them out using the charging handle - damaging my bag riders. :(

I tried cleaning them before shooting but it was fruitless. I have never seen a barrel produce so much black crud and not make any progress on reduction. Eventually I gave up and shot them.

After the test, they were copper fouled pretty badly, attesting to the poor quality bore.

The Second Two

These might have come from an entirely different planet.

All of the roughness is gone, but the rifling design is the same.

Still burred gas block, but not as bad as the first one. Its almost as if these had been fired a fair bit for precision before being sent my way because they came new out of the box with the early stages of gas port erosion.

Another bore shot showing them to not be hand lapped, but possibly some degree of machine lapping.

However, still not precision barrels. Here you can see the crooked cut throat against the other side.

Again, both barrels had identical bores, nearly identical crooked chambers.

Barrel Omega had a preference for Hornady's secant ogive bullets (.39 v .45 MR), while barrel Alpha had a preference for Sierra's tangent ogive bullets (0.485 v .381).

Why would two identical barrels prefer different bullets? The secret is in the throat. While they both had throat reaming flaws, but Omegas was off-center, while Alpha's was off-angle.

Being off center likely favors secant ogive bullets because they are thrust into the lands at a fixed angle (parallel to the bore) and only displaced into the center of the bore, while being off angle favors tangent ogive bullets because they self-align in the bore. Self aligning by angle correction is good when the angle is off, but if displaced, pushes the bullet out of correct angle.

But that's speculation, either way - one liked one, the other like the other.

Bores on these, I would rate a 7/10.

But that's not the end of the story. While I did not have any ejection issues, I did have feed issues with both barrels and all ammo types.

I suspect this to be due to the feed ramps having unbroken burs that you can see were grabbing the jacket of bullets going up the feed ramps. Most barrel makers break those sharp corners to prevent that issue.

They also weren't... attractive. Look at the dimpling nipple, weird extra ring scoring and finish issues - again, both barrels had similar burnishing or wearing off of the blackening.

New Barrel Results

Alpha's test target

Omega's test target

These barrels did okay. Both of them laid down some decent performance with small ES groups, but both had some curious habit of being diffuse rather than centering. Odd distribution from these.

Really remarkable how similar the barrel performance was - to within 2-hundredths of an MR MOA.

/u/MrSandwich69 selected, and I also recommended, taking Omega back as his pick of the batch in return for lending me one. Even though it had a slightly higher average group size and MR, it grouped smaller discarding the one match ammo least likely to be used and had the best performance across the 77gr class.

Best 2x10 by grain class

4x10 across all ammo

Conclusion

Good v Bad Buys

Good v Bad Buys, all ammo

Good v Bad Buys by Weight

Good v Bad Buys by Weight, all ammo

I don't think there is any category that these are a recommended buy, let alone a top choice.

At $350, that is an atrocious value.

Both barrels performed worse than the recently tested Rosco Purebred at a little over half the price of these SOLGW barrels.

Both barrels performed worse than the Criterion Core barrel that was a little more than half their weight.

I think all of this are systemic characteristics of SOLGW - not having barrels on hand, not being hands-on with the barrel process, and allowing these types of quality issues while the price of the barrels keep climbing - now at or even over $400 from some retailers with tax/ship.

Why did some goontubers glaze the moon about them? Who knows, that is up to you to speculate how they got the barrels. But even the honest ones, I suspect their early barrels were very different animals than the barrels than came out of the at least two, maybe three, different batches that I tested.

Next up on the docket is an FN vs Hodge test. Place bets now on whether some magic mystery metal and 'Hodge controls the specs' makes it perform any differently.