This will be a fairly short update because there is very little to report. The little SIG P365 ran through another 200 rounds (199 actually) without only one hiccup and that was an ammunition issue. One round failed to fire. There was a good indentation on the primer and the other firearms I had with me failed to fire that round either so I am chalking that up to a defective round. I should have brought it hope and opened it up but I didn’t think about it.
That’s 500 rounds of mixed ammunition, including Hornady, Speer, CCI, Magtech, Fiocchi, my own reloads, and S&B, and both FMJ and HP with no firearm related failures or malfunctions. It went through the entire testing without being cleaned or oiled.
There were no changes to accuracy or point of impact during the testing.
One note, it does appear that there is a little striker drag happening. I don’t know what this will mean for long term reliability and I will continue to watch it. I will also check my Glock 43 and see if I see any indications of this with rounds fired from it.
At this point the little SIG will get a good cleaning, a touch of oil and then after a function test will start to work its way into my carry rotation.
I really can’t say enough good things about this little pistol. It shoots well. It has proven itself reliable so far and it offers a significant improvement in capacity over similar sized pistols including the Glock 43 that I have carried for several years now. I really like it a lot.
On my way home from a business trip I stopped into a local gun store and guess what they had in stock? Yup, the SIG P365. They had it for below MSRP and they even had an extra 12 round extended magazine to go with it…
How could I resist?
Really, someone tell me how I can resist spending money I really shouldn’t on yet another new gun.
Of course, as soon as I got it home I stripped it down, gave it a little cleaning (it was soaking in oil) and did a little side by side comparison with the Glock 42, the Glock 43 and the Kahr CM9. Here are my initial thoughts on the little SIG.
Have you pulled the trigger on a P320 yet? If so, then you know what the P365’s trigger is like. They feel pretty much identical to me; the same light, slightly mushy striker trigger. The P365s trigger feeld a bit heavier than the one P320 I have tried but since I couldn’t compare side to side I wouldn’t swear to it. The trigger on the Glock seems a bit more crisp and a bit lighter.
Take down and reassembly, for me, required “reading the fine manual.” Nope, despite owning other SIGs I couldn’t figure it out on my own. Why does the take down procedure have to vary this much between models? Reassembly required going back to the manual as well…a couple of times. That little footnote that says “you may have to” should be one of the steps in the process. I walked through the process repeatedly and every single time reassembly required that extra little step listed under “NOTE” at the top of the page. Overall, take down and reassembly are not difficult once you decode the instructions.
Sights…
Coming from shooting primarily snub-nosed revolvers with the most rudimentary sights I was excited about the three dot night sights that some standard on the little SIG. After a few sessions of dry fire…not so much. The sights are cool in the dark but in mid level lighting are really hard to see and pick up. To be honest, so far I am just ignoring the dots and focusing on the blade instead. In all but the lowest lighting environments I don’t think they will be much faster or better than the gutter/blade sights on my J-frames. Again, these are all just initial impressions based on a little dry fire time and no real range time. That will have to come later.
The slide is definitely a bit harder to rack than the little Glock although that may change over time and my Glock 43 has quite a few rounds through it. While the gun itself was oozing oil the magazines seem like the are pretty dry on the inside and the followers stick a little. I think a disassembly, a little cleaning and a touch of lubrication should help them out a bit. The magazine springs are VERY stiff. Not they are not unmanageable but Wonderful Wife would not load more than one or two before turning that task over to me. These may get better with time and with use as well but we will have to see.
Now for the amazing aspect of this little critter…
It is small. Not LCP tiny but very small. In fact, it is almost identical in size to the Kahr CM9 although it weighs a bit over an ounce more. Here are some comparison photos with the G43 and G42:
P365 vs. G43Another comparison G43 vs. P354The P365 is a bit wider at the base of the grip
The pictures don’t really do justice to the difference in size between these two pistols.
Here are the comparison photos with the G42 (.380 ACP):
P365 vs. G42Almost twins!The P365 is a bit wider than the G42
So, we have a 9mm double stack (10 rounds in the flush fit magazines and 12 in the extended magazines) that is essentially the same size as a single stack .380 ACP…
The Kahr CM9 has always been one of the smallest of the pocket 9mms out there and the P365 is just about the same size:
Twins again, Kahr CM9 and P365Nearly identical…The P365 is (again) just a bit wider.
In this case the P365 is almost identical in size to the CM9 but with four to six extra rounds on tap.
Now how about weight?
Here the .380 ACP Glock is the clear winner weighing in (unloaded) at only 12.21 ounces.
Glock 42: 12.21 ounces
The Kahr comes in next at only 15.24 ounces:
CM9: 15.24 ounces
And the Glock 43 weighs in slightly heavier at 16.19 ounces:
G43: 16.19 Ounces
The SIG P365 is the heaviest of the four but only by a quarter of an ounce or so:
P365: 16.44 ounces
Now, the CM9 is a much lighter gun but I will be honest, even “Mr. I Love Recoil” himself, find the little Kahr to be a bit snappy. Wonderful Wife won’t even shoot it. So I am hopeful that the extra ounce or so will mean that the P365 will be an nice to shoot as the G43. Won’t know that until we get it to the range…
How about the weight when fully loaded?
Glad you asked.
Fully loaded with seven rounds of 9mm ammunition the G43 weighs in at 21.13 ounces.
With four extra rounds of ammunition the P365 is about two ounces heavier.
I can’t wait to take the little SIG out to the range and get a side by side comparison with the G42 and the other two “pocket nines” I have. Like all my semi-autos I will want to send quite a few rounds through it before I am willing to trust it with my life and (more importantly) the lives of those I love but I have high hopes for this little critter.
I think it could be a welcome addition to the arsenal and provide a nice little upgrade in capacity without sacrificing carry-ability.
The the Range Report I posted last month (link) I shared my initial thoughts on the Glock 43 magazines from ETS.
The main selling point, for me, on these magazines is that they are designed to have a seven round capacity while still fitting flush in the firearm. At the range I was unable to fit seven rounds into either of the magazines. A quick call to ETS’ customer support line (very nice folks by the way) resulted in a suggestion to load the magazines and let them sit for a week or so. This would “loosen up” the springs an allow them to be loaded with the extra round.
As you can see, it worked.
I am now able to load the magazines to their advertised capacity.
However…
The spring is now 100%, fully compressed. There is no more give AT ALL. So inserting a fully loaded magazine into the firearm requires some serious brute force and effort. Once inserted that same pressure is now applied to the inner workings of the firearm. I think there is a strong possibility that the pressure and resulting drag on slide operation could cause feeding issues. I have not tested it at the range yet so maybe with the energy of a full powered self-defense cartridge working the action it won’t be an issue. We will see.
I can see this possibly being a good choice for a “spare” magazine. Loading the magazine on seven rounds while the slide is locked open no problem and once the pressure of that seventh round is relieved the magazine should operate normally. Despite the extra pressure on the top round is seem to feed fairly easily and properly.
For the moment these will not be in my carry rotation. Until and unless I can get a lot more comfortable with their reliability I will continue to depend on my tried and true six round magazines.
For Father’s Day I ordered myself a new Spike’s Tactical lower receiver. It is for a new build that I am planning and has an image engraved that I particularly liked:
Well, the lower finally came in and I was eager to pick it up. Wonderful Wife suggested I get some range time in too. I sure do love that woman but I suspect it may have had more to do with her wanting to go shopping for the grand kids than me getting some time on the range. Regardless of the motivation behind it I was eager to get back to the range especially after the challenges I had last time out.
First and most importantly, whatever was affecting my shooting last time out seems to have been resolved. No idea what was causing my inaccuracy last time out but I was able to tear the “X” ring out of targets at 3 and 7 yards pretty easily. It was obvious that I still need to get back to practicing more regularly but I was back on track with both the Glocks and the revolvers.
My secondary goal for this range trip was to test out the new ETS magazines for the Glock 42 and 43. I loaded the Glock 42 magazine first and immediately had issues. Two or three malfunctions per magazine. I repeated the test and got the same results. As a test I tried one of the Glock factory magazines I had with me and although it seemed slightly more reliable I still had issues. I only brought one box of .380 (Sellier & Bellot FMJ) but I did have a full magazine of my carry ammo for the G42 (Hornady Critical Defense) which seemed to run fine. This is probably an ammo related issue but until I can bring some different ammo to the range and test it out the G42 goes back in the safe.
Short Revolver Rant
This is one of the things that I truly appreciate about carrying a revolver. I know revolvers can fail and when they do it is rarely something that can be fixed in the middle of a fight but with a revolver I don’t have to worry about magazines failing or wearing out, ammo that doesn’t feed right, or weak extractor springs or any of the other small parts that can affect the reliability of a semi-auto. Semi-Autos are pretty darn reliable these days when it comes to feeding and extracting but they are still not as reliable or worry/hassle free as revolvers when it comes to feeding and extraction.
So, it appears the issue with the feeding on the Glock 42 was not related to the ETS magazines. The G43 (9mm) magazines from ETS all seemed to perform well and none had issues with and feeding or extraction issues. They all dropped free when empty. However, the big selling point for me on these magazines was that they are advertised as carrying an extra round in flush fit magazines. For whatever reason I could not seem to be able to get that extra round in there. Here is a photo of the 12 round magazine loaded up but only holding 11 rounds:
It is possible that after the springs wear in a bit I will be able to load the extra round but in the meantime, other than cost, I don’t see any reason to use these magazines instead of Glock factory magazines.
All in all, it was a really good day at the range.
God bless.
Note: I did call ETS support and they suggested loading and unloading the magazines a few times or leaving one loaded for a week or two and then trying again…
In the last range report I posted, I mentioned how poor my performance was with both the Smith & Wesson 442 and the Ruger LCR. My accuracy was definitely not what it should be and I feel that deficiency could cost me or a loved one our life in a self-defense situation.
The issue is not related to the firearms themselves or the ammunition. It is either that I haven’t spent as much time practicing as I should (most likely) or the trouble I have been having with my shoulder and elbow are impacting accuracy. I am hoping that with a little more range time I can get back to where I think I need to be but
In the meantime I have put my snubbie’s away and will carry my Glocks instead. The lighter trigger, better sights and reduced recoil of the Glocks will help my accuracy and the extra couple of rounds provide a little insurance for my (temporarily) reduced skill set. The G42 is almost as light as the snubbies and will take over as my daily carry while I am working from my home office. I am not a big fan of .380 for self-defense but the G43 is a very soft shooter and should get the job done with seven rounds on tap. It will ride in my pocket when working from home where I am literally within arms reach of my gun safe.
I have also been known to carry a snubbie when heading out on quick trips around the neighborhood but until I sort out my accuracy issues with the snubbies the G43 will get the nod on all trips out of the house for a while.
My walk with God and my efforts to get in shape suffered. I only exercised, read the Bible and spent time with God three times this week. I had several sodas this week and consumed quite a few sweets. Between my schedule and the time Wonderful Wife is having to put in at work as part of the buy out we did’t do our joint devotional at all this week.
Not a bad group once I got dialed in
On the other hand, I was very productive from a self-defense perspective. I made it out to the range for a bit this week. I was able to test my 9mm reloads which seemed to they work just fine. This was my first time shooting with the new Tijicon front sight on the Ruger LCR and the front and rear Trijicon sights on my new Glock 43. It took some time to get used to the new Trijicon front sight on the LCR but I was able to dial it in after a few dozen rounds. The Trijicon sights on the new G42 were easy to get used to and really nice to use. I may add those to all my Glocks here before long. The new Glock 43 came with aftermarket springs installed. I will probably put the originals back in. The lighter trigger is great but under stress I think it might be too light. Even under low stress conditions at the range it surprised me a couple of times.
I de-primed and cleaned all the brass I used during the range session and it is ready to be reloaded. I picked up some reloading supplies to help that process along including primers and bullets. The bullets are lead Hollow-Based Wad Cutters (HBWC) from Hornady. It will be interesting to see how well they work. While I was out and about on a customer call I also happened across some CCI MiniMags in .22 LR so I picked up a couple of boxes. I rarely see these in stores anymore so I pick them up whenever I do.
The garden is going well and we harvested our first tomato. A single cherry tomato… 🙂
There are quite a few more coming in behind that one. The peppers should really have been started earlier and could use more sun. The squash was planted too closely but, hopefully, we’ll at least get a few before the cold sets in. It’s time to rotate canned goods from the emergency pantry into the main pantry but that will have to wait until next week.
Our finances have taken a bit of a hit as well in the last few weeks. We loaned money to a couple of family members who ran into unplanned expenditures which means our savings took a hit. I am sure they will pay us back eventually but it will be a little at a time over the next year or so. I closed and cashed out a stock option account from a previous employer. When that money comes in I will roll it into a retirement account. I also received a dividend on another stock option account I have from a different previous employer. I requested a check for it as well but I haven’t decided where to invest it yet. It may go into savings or some sort of hard asset.
Well, that’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this week. How about you? What did you prep this week?
My walk with God is still not where I want it to be but it is definitely moving in the right direction. I am spending more time in prayer and study and those are both good things.
Glock 43
From a self defense perspective I bought another Glock 43. This one has night sights installed so I can get a good comparison between the two on how well I shoot them. This will help me make a decision on replacement sights for my other Glocks. I also purchased backup iron sights and a weapon mounted flashlight for my AR.
I made a trip to the range and got some good practice in. I was also able to test my 9mm load. It worked fine with no issues locking the slide back. Based on this test I will start loading more rounds shortly. When I got back from the range I prepped the .38 Special cases I fired at the range so they are ready to be reloaded.
Fun Range TripMTM Ammo Crate
I am always looking for more efficient ways to store things, especially ammo. This week I bought an ammo crate from MTM for long term storage of 21 Ga. It is plastic and although I prefer the metal surplus ammo cans this one is perfectly sized to hold ten boxes of 12 Gauge which don’t seem to store efficiently in standard .30 or .50 cal cans. This solution seems to work well. It has a rubber gasket making the cans water proof and they are designed to lock and stack easily. My only complaint so far is the labels I use don’t seem to want to stick to the plastic exterior.
We didn’t add anything to savings this week but Wonderful Wife gets paid this weekend so we should be setting some aside next week.
That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this week. How about you? What did you prep this week?
In addition to dragging the old Webley out for the first time in about fifty years I also brought along my Glock 19. For me, the G19 is pretty much a full sized gun and too big to carry or conceal easily. It is, however, my “bedside gun” alongside a spare G17 magazine giving me around 36 rounds to deal with a threat or fight to my long gun. Since I don’t practice with it often and I wanted to test my 9mm reloads in it I decided to lug it to the range along with the snubbies and Glock 43 that I normally carry.
I practice the most with my carry guns for a few reasons. If I encounter a dangerous situation and need a firearm the chances are that it will be away from home. They are also much more difficult weapons to master than larger firearms like the G19.
Easy
I ran the dot torture drill with the G19 first. I figured since I had practiced with it the least I should spend some quality time with it up front. Thing was that at the 20 foot distance I was working I couldn’t seem to miss. On some of the multi-shot dots I was all the rounds through the same, ragged hole and doing so pretty quickly. I chalked it up to one of those special days where everything just seems to work better than normal until I picked up the Smith & Wesson 442.
Hard
I went from sending each round through the same hole as quickly as I could bring the gun back on target to struggling to hit the dot. The better sights on the Ruger LCR helped me bring (most of) my shots back into the dot and far more quickly than the 442. The Glock 43 was better still with the shots grouped nicely inside the two inch dots and even better speed but nowhere near what I could do with the Glock 19. The bottom line is that not having shot the G19 in a fairly long while my times and accuracy on the Dot drill were significantly better than they were when I trained with it regularly…
So, why could I shoot the G19, which I rarely train with these days, so much better than the guns I practice with regularly?
Here’s my theory…
As I mentioned before, snubbies and pocket 9mm semis are much more difficult guns to shoot well. So, I practice with them a lot and practicing (training) with things that are difficult makes me better with the things that are easy…a lot better. The long, fairly heavy triggers on the revolvers, the light weight and snappy recoil of the revolvers and the G43 take a lot of work, work that makes me a much better shooter with the easier to shoot G19.
Should everyone go out and buy a revolver and/or a pocket 9mm to practice with?
Sure, why not? As long as it doesn’t drive up the prices on the guns and ammo I want to buy, I got no problem with it. If you can’t afford that you can still benefit from this little observation. Focus your training on harder drills than what you might need in “real life” violent encounters. Do I really need to be able to hit a two inch target at twenty feet to stop an attacker? Probably not, but if I can do that on demand I can hit a larger target even faster (don’t forget to practice that occasionally as well). It’s the same principle of “training difficult” so that real world actions are easier.
I finally made it to the range to test the Vickers Tactical/TangoDown +2 magazine extensions for the Glock 43 that I posted about a week or two ago (link). I wanted to make sure they fed properly and that they would drop free.
Standard G43 magazine compared to Vickers Tactical +2
I ran almost 100 rounds through the various magazines including the one equipped with the Vickers Tactical +2 Extension and had no feeding issues whatsoever. That’s a good sign but before I carry these anywhere besides the range I plan on running at least a couple hundred more rounds through them. Call me crazy but I don’t like to bet my life, and more importantly the lives of those I love, on something until I had at least 300 flawless rounds through it.
The magazines with the +2 extension are definitely more comfortable to shoot. The extra inch or so of length allows me to get pretty much my whole hand engaged with holding and controlling the pistol. In some cases, that can be cause of feeding issues in extended magazines. The extra room gives the pinky finger leverage to change the feed angle. I didn’t see any sign of that and even tried to cause a malfunction with extra pressure from the lower fingers. It didn’t seem to cause an issue.
With the longer “grip area” I was curious if accuracy would improve. It didn’t. There was no noticeable decrease in group sizes with or without the extension. The better feel from the longer grip didn’t have a measurable increase in controlability and follow up shots were no faster than without the extension.
Four magazines side by side; Vickers +2 extension, Pierce +1, Glock pinky extension and flush fit magazine
The second biggest concern I had about these magazines was whether or not the extension would prevent the magazines from dropping free of the firearm when the magazine release is pressed. They did not…sort of. What I found is that because of my had position none of the magazines would drop free. In nearly all cases the lower part of my hand contacted the magazines and prevented them from dropping free. This is something I will definitely have to practice while dry firing. I was able to consciously force my fingers away from the magazine and in that case it did drop free…right over the firing line. I had to get a ceasefire called so I could retrieve it…oops. Which is probably what particular bad habit developed.
Anyway, so far, so good with these magazine extensions.At this point I would still recommend them but I still want to do a good bit more testing before recommending them for carry.
It was Wonderful Wife’s payday on Friday and we were able to add money into savings.
We purchased term more 5 gallon Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers for the next round of long term food storage buckets. We have prepared 30 day supply of food for ourselves and our oldest daughter and her husband who live with us. We have also prepared them for my son and his wife as well as my middle daughter and her family. My mother, mother in law and youngest daughter don’t have the ability to store their supplies themselves so we will build these out next and store them here with us in case they need them.
Since it was a pay day I stocked up on ammunition. Right now I am focusing on building up my supply of 12 gauge small game rounds so I bought four boxes of those. I am also pretty low on .38 Special (at least until I can get some reloaded) so I picked up a box of practice ammo. I like the Monarch brand ammo for practice rounds. The brass seems pretty decent and they are loaded with hollow points despite being the least expensive .38 special on the shelves. I also bought a box of large pistol primers. I’ll need those for reloading .45 ACP.
Ammo and primers
I bought the Hogue Bantam Boot grip for the Ruger LCR. The stock grips on the LCR are too big for me to pocket carry this little revolver so I’ll try these out and see how they work. I also picked up another two pack of Bianchi speed strips for .38 Special revolvers. I like to use these with the LCR as well as the Smith & Wesson 442.
I purchased two new magazines for the Glock 43 along with two +2 magazine extensions from Vickers Tactical/TangoDown.
Assembled magazine with extension next to a standard G43 magazine
Welcome To The Resistance! 