Range Report on P97
This was originally posted at The Firing Line:
Once again I am very happy with a Ruger purchase.
I detail stripped the slide of the Ruger Saturday night after the trade and cleaned and relubed everything. There was very little residue under and around the extractor and firing pin channel. This tends to confirm my suspicion that this gun was likely shot very little. My P89 was much grimier when I detail stripped it for the first time this week. It's had about 4K rounds or so. I found one minor scratch on the slide at the muzzle end (Oh the horror!) and one minor scratch on the backstrap of the grip. I might try to buff those out, but I'm not really concerned about it. If I carry this like I expect to it will start seeing some wear.
We got home a bit early from our zoo trip yesterday so I decided to sneak off to the range for an hour to try out the P97. I am a bit light on FMJ .45 ammo at the moment. (gotta order some lead so I can load up some). I had a couple of boxes of Blazer Brass factory ammo on hand so I ran them through the gun to test for accuracy and function. I had no failures of any kind, which is what I expected. I'm also a bit light on carry ammo (Hornady TAP). I'm down to about 2 boxes, which is less than the minimum I like to keep on hand. I only fired one magazine through the gun to start testing for function and accuracy of the ammo. (I'll reserve carrying this one until I can run more TAP through it).
Now the target pics:
First let me say that I'm sorry for the redneck targets, I ran off to the range so quick that I left the bag with my staple gun and good targets at home. I found a couple of printed targets in the truck along with some stick ons, my range notebook and a roll of duct tape. I improvised.
Also a note about how I shoot. At close range (7-10 yds) I tend to shoot fairly quickly. Not what I'd exactly call rapid fire but as soon as the front sight settles from the last shot I'm sending the next one on it's way. At the 20-25 yd line I tend to slow down and go for slowfire/best accuracy. For me this is an habitual thing. I have trouble slowing down at closer distances without concentrating a good bit to do it.
First target shot. Seven yards Blazer Brass 8 shots freehanded.
I then moved the target to the 25 yd mark and benched the P97 on my Caldwell Deadshot sandbag. 8 shots, blazer brass 25yd benched.
As a comparison I swapped out for my P345 and did the same thing at 25 yds.
As a side note I see I'm still shooting a bit left at that distance with the P345 when I take as much of the me factor out of it as I can. I'm gonna have to drift that rear sight again I think, but that's for later. I'll also do a full side by side comparison of the P90, 97, and 345 when I have more ammo and time on my hands.
Another 7 yd freehanded group with the P97 and Blazer Brass
Then a 20 yd freehanded group with Blazer Brass. The shot to the low right was a called flier. I jerked the trigger, mea culpa.
Now for the only group shot with my carry ammo. Hornady TAP 230 Gr. +P at 7 yds, 9 rounds. This was shot in my semi-rapid fire mode, from a holster draw.
Overall I'm very pleased. The gun feels good in the hand, points very naturally for me, and recoil is very manageable. I find the recoil to be very similar to the P90 and a bit more pronounced than the P345, though not terribly so.
After I was done shooting I did some dry fire practice and draw/dry fire. Also did some quick mag change practice. One thing I found interesting about the P97 is it seems to shoot the mags out the bottom. They don't just drop free they fly free. My P345 and P90 are not quite that forceful I don't think. A nice feature too....
