Last Thursday night I was catching up with a colleague of mine from our London office who is here in Dallas on an extended assignment. In the course of casual conversation it came up that he was planning to head to the range over the weekend to try his new pistol. A ha! Finally I had someone to go to the range with.
I really enjoy going, but I don’t own my own pistol yet and it is rare that I find someone who is interested in shooting up some paper targets. I leaped at the chance. On Friday after quitting time we headed to the DFW Gun Range on Mockingbird lane. My colleague and a friend of his who is getting her concealed handgun license were already there with a couple of lanes. I joined them inside after getting some ear and eye protection and the three of us took turns loading magazines and firing his and her pistol.
She had a smallish 9mm Glock of a type which I had fired several times before. His new pistol was a beauty. It was a Sig Sauer P226 X-5. The thing has a 19 round clip, adjustable sights, plenty of heft and only a 2 pound pull on the trigger. One word – wow!
Despite the fact that I get to shoot only rarely, I’m not bad at all. But this pistol put me in an entirely new category. At the range of 20 yards I was able to make a pattern at least as tight as the one shown here, and sometimes better.
For those of you that haven’t ever fired a pistol on a target range, let me tell you – 20 yards is a long damned way to shoot a handgun with any accuracy. It’s not uncommon to see newcomers miss the target pattern entirely at half that distance. At close up ranges of seven yards or so I was able to shred the center of the target. Considering that most self defense with a handgun takes place at ranges of less than three yards, I very much doubt that any attacker approaching me with that pistol in my grip would survive my first shot.
I left the range with a whole new respect for the difference that the quality of a weapon can make.
OK, ‘A’ for effort but let’s put this in perspective.
The X-5 was built for USPSA Limited, not PPC, but it is accurate enough to clean a B-27 target just the same.
The 10-ring on that target is 3×4 inches and at 20 yards X ring groups should be very realistic. Even a rack-grade issue service pistol with plain white box ammo can expect piles of 10′s.
Thanks for posting your target! I discuss this a little bit here:
http://funshoot.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/shooting-basics-uspsa-idpa-ipsc/
Well, let me start by saying I don’t doubt that you’re comments are correct in every respect. I’m essentially an enthusiastic novice that gets to the range about 2-3 times per year. You, on the other hand, sound like a well practiced expert.
I was impressed with the X-5 because I could shoot so much better with it. The smaller guns with heavier pulls result in much more scattered patterns for me.
By the way, I’m very impressed that expert shooters can get X ring groups at that range – with any weapon.