Range Time!

I was pretty sure today would be a light day at work, and it was, so I was able to get to the range for a while afterward. I think next time I'll go to a different range that has much cheaper rates.

I have come to the conclusion that if I ever want to do any serious pistol shooting I'm going to have to build myself a personal pistol range. There doesn't seem to be a single range in San Antonio that allows so-called "rapid fire." Which means, no double-tap practice. Also, of course, no "shooting while moving" practice.

I did put 140 rounds through the XD40, which puts me right at 200 rounds total. Today there were two failure-to-feeds, but I'm pretty sure it was an ammo problem, not a gun problem. This is because I was shooting gun show reloads that I had a previous problem with. I had already sorted through all of these rounds by dropping each into the (disassembled) barrel to ensure proper seating, but they seemed to be extremely dirty. About 5 shots into a magazine, I was shooting through a haze of smoke. That's never happened to me before with any of my semi-autos. The two f-t-f's today were toward the end, and were probably due to the gun just being dirty after more than 100 rounds pretty much non-stop. Both rounds cycled normally when "recycled."

The "previous problem" caused a jam so bad that it required a gunsmith to fix, and he showed me how the ammo was at fault. This was why I had checked every single round remaining, of which about 10% were bad.

This range has a pistol range which has a hook on a cable to hang your target. You then run the target out to any distance up to 15 yards. I did most of my shooting with my left (strong) hand in the 10-15 yard range. I tried a couple of magazines worth right-handed, but didn't feel completely comfortable with it so I went back to left only. I have done lots of right-handed shooting before but I guess it's been so long I'm just out of practice.

The ammo was purchased from two different vendors. One batch was 180 FMJ and the other 180 grain JHP. The JHP's were noticeably hotter than the others. I've since discovered a gun store that has some pretty cheap factory ammo and I will probably just go there next time.

Now to get a holster.