Sunday, August 05, 2007

Range Report

On Friday afternoon I finally had the opportunity to head out to the range and run the box of Federal Premium L.E. Ammunition (HST) through my Kimber to check function and reliability. V was supposed to work late that evening, and when she works late, I head out to the range.

USCitizen (the author of Traction Control) was able to join me, so off we went.

At first glance you can see major differences between the Hydra-shok and the HST bullets. In the HST, Federal did not include the center post that distinguished the Hydra-Shoks from other bullets. The skiving on the HST is much more aggressive than on the Hydra-Shok, and runs the full length of the exposed bullet.

I fired 49 rounds of the HST through my Kimber without any failure (as expected). I saved one cartridge for photos. I intended to have side by side images of the HST and Hydra-Shok for this post, but could not get any that I liked. The HST proved to be as accurate as I am, and held a slightly smaller five shot group than my normal range ammo. End result? So far so good. I would be very comfortable in using the HST as my routine carry ammo.

Fits has more information on the HST here.

USCitizen brought out his Kimber and a short barreled Thompson. Firing .45 ACP through a long gun is quite a blast. Getting to meet another Gun Blogger, and shooting the chit about issues we are all passionate about is a great time. I am looking forward to doing this more often.

2 comments:

the pistolero said...

I live a good piece southeast of Big D, but I have family in the Metroplex and points east, too. Not sure when I'll make it back up that way, but I wouldn't mind making a side trip to throw some lead and chew the fat a while.

Fits said...

My main carry piece in the summer months is the G-27. Was getting rid of some old ammo that found its way into the sock drawer, and had never seen such accuracy with that peashooter before, so looked into what those new fangled HST's were all about. They group, from my gun, as if they were made for one another and when a guy stumbles upon the "perfect" round its nirvana.