{"id":5324,"date":"2019-01-12T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-12T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=5324"},"modified":"2019-01-05T16:26:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T21:26:27","slug":"when-guns-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/when-guns-surprise-you\/","title":{"rendered":"WHEN GUNS SURPRISE YOU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every now\nand then, a firearm surprises you with more accuracy than its genre is\ngenerally thought capable of producing. \nBill Ruger brought out his first firearm, the low-priced, high\nfunctioning .22 semi-auto that would later become known as the Standard Model, in\n1949. It became immediately apparent that it was WAY more accurate than its\n$37.50 price tag would have led anyone to expect.  A high quality barrel rigidly fixed to a\ntubular receiver, and sights rigidly fixed to both with no movement during cycling,\naccounted for much of that.  Soon Ruger\nbrought out the same gun as a dedicated target pistol, the Mark I (for $57.50\nif memory serves), and circa 1953 my late, lamented friend Jim Clark, Sr. won\nthe national pistol championships with it at Camp Perry.  Jim, a decorated sniper in the Pacific\nTheater in WWII, was long since out of the military at the time, which made him\nthe first and, IIRC, the only civilian to ever win the overall national title.  The rest, of course, was history: Ruger .22s\nhave been a staple on competitive firing lines ever since, and Bill\u2019s firstborn\nis now in its fourth generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reminded of \u201cguns that shoot above their weight class\u201d this week.\u00a0 This is the time of year when I take a few weeks sabbatical from teaching to attend to personal affairs, get ahead on writing deadlines, and this year, to have eye surgery.\u00a0 Among my Christmas gifts was a case of ammunition from the Evil Princess, one of my old favorite rounds that I wanted to get reacquainted with, Black Hills\u2019 200 grain lead semi-wadcutter in caliber .45 ACP.<\/a>\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I took it\nout to my range with five handguns I particularly like, whose manufacturers\ndon\u2019t disapprove of all-lead bullets (which are not too compatible with\npolygonal rifling).  Two of these .45s\ncost well into four figures, a couple more go for a little under a grand, and\none of them retails for under $500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guess which\none shot the best?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only\none go apiece, six shots per at 25 yards, but the cheap little Smith &\nWesson .45 Shield shot the tightest group. \nSee photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a\nlightweight concealed carry\/off duty\/backup pistol, but on that occasion it\noutshot two dedicated target handguns and two competition-grade service\npistols.  I shouldn\u2019t have been\nsurprised. When I tested it for GUNS magazine back in 2016 right after the .45\ncaliber version of the Shield came out, with Remington 185 grain jacket hollow\npoints it gave me a five-shot group measuring 1.45 inches, with the best three\nof those in .30\u201d measuring center to center between the bullet holes.  It shot to point of aim, too, as it did with\nthe 200 grain Black Hills.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I own\nShields in all three of their \u201cservice calibers,\u201d and have tried the .380\nversion, called the \u201cEZ\u201d because its slide is so easy to rack.  The .380 has the least recoil, of course,\nclosely followed in that by the 9mm, but the lightweight polymer frame Shield\nis remarkably light in recoil with .40 and .45. \nI find the latter two about equivalent in that respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\n\nIt\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve seen a gun \u201cshoot above its weight class.\u201d  \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sometimes it\u2019s just a very well-designed firearm for its price: I remember the budget-priced Savage 110 bolt action hunting rifle often outshooting its pricier, more famous competitors, the Winchester Model 700 Remington 700, and Ruger Model 77.\u00a0 I also remember on sighting-in days seeing hunters who were more accurate standing and shooting offhand at 100 yards with their iron-sighted lever action .30-30 than their scoped bolt action .30-06.\u00a0 It was counterintuitive, and I think for the most part the reason was that in a standing position, they got less wobble with a 6.5-pound carbine than an 8.5-9 pound scoped rifle, and were less disconcerted by their iron sight picture than by the wobbling they saw in the magnification of their telescopic sights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, enough\nof my commentary: I invite you to share what YOU\u2019VE seen with\nsmaller\/lighter\/and\/or less expensive guns shooting \u201cabove their weight class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Every now and then, a firearm surprises you with more accuracy than its genre is generally thought capable of producing.  Bill Ruger brought out his first firearm, the low-priced, high functioning .22 semi-auto that would later become known as the Standard Model, in 1949. It became immediately apparent that it was WAY more accurate than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5324"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5346,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5324\/revisions\/5346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}