HK45 Endurance Test: Week Thirty

42,734 rounds

1 stoppages

1 (*) malfunctions

1 parts breakages

Not quite 1,000 rounds through the gun this week due to the Phoenix Aim Fast, Hit Fast travel.

The goal of getting some good, benched groups with the Asym Ammo last week fell through. Apparently, the NRA Range bought new pistol rests (Delta Rests) but failed to fill them with sand. This makes them all but impossible to use, and attempts to wring maximum accuracy out of the gun just weren’t happening. I spent literally hours cleaning the gun and soaking the barrel for this test, and it was all for naught.

I also put a replacement o-ring on the barrel. My plan was to compare before and after groups, but as I said the groups just weren’t consistent enough to draw conclusions.

After the botched group shooting, I began the F.A.S.T. drills. First eight in a row were all clean, including three new personal bests with the HK45:

• 4.55 (clean): 1.45, 0.41 / 2.03 / 0.23, 0.21. 0.22
• 4.25 (clean): 1.38, 0.42 / 1.83 / 0.21, 0.21, 0.20
• 4.19 (clean): 1.32, 0.43 / 1.83 / 0.21, 0.20, 0.20
• 4.42 (clean): 1.37, 0.49 / 1.91 / 0.22, 0.22, 0.21
• 4.14 (clean): 1.33, 0.37 / 1.82 / 0.21, 0.21, 0.20
• 4.25 (clean): 1.38, 0.41 / 1.83 / 0.21, 0.21, 0.21
• 4.56 (clean): 1.40, 0.53 / 2.00 / 0.22, 0.20, 0.21
• 4.49 (clean): 1.48, 0.42 / 1.92 / 0.23, 0.23, 0.21

(previous best with the HK45 was a 4.41; personal overall best is 4.08 with the HK P30)

The two things that made the big improvement were working on 2 shots to a 3×5 at 7yd in 1.5 seconds, which has forced me to push my draw and acquisition of the 3×5 for the first shot; and, being more deliberate and smooth on my reloads. Unfortunately, after those eight clean runs, I got cocky and started trying to push the speed all day long, resulting in too many missed head shots during the remaining runs. Still, the speed is noticeably faster across the board compared to last week:

	27-Oct
Average (total)	5.46
Average (raw time)	4.50
Best run	4.14
Worst run	8.46
Head hits	80%
Body hits	98.0%
Draw (avg)	1.43
Head split (avg)	0.45
Reload (avg)	1.94
Body splits (avg)	0.23

The class in Phoenix went very well (read some AARs here). We had a couple of celebrities in class, including Mark Garrity of Garrity’s Gunleather (maker of the In-Victus AIWB holster I wear daily) and Tom Jones of 365 Days of Training.

While I fired less than 250 rounds over the weekend, the sand, dust, and grit on the range left the HK45 clearly worse for wear. It never missed a beat, though, even when the slide felt like it was rubbing two pieces of sandpaper together every time it cycled. No surprise, given the intensely hostile operating environments for which it was designed.

In fact, the gun turned in some great times. My best F.A.S.T. for the class was a 4.80 (clean) at the end of the weekend. We also ran Triple Nickel, my demo scored a 4.74 with all shots not just in the bottle but inside the 8″ target circle… which is why I do the double-Fonzie at the end. Completely forgot about the reload until the gun stopped working, though, can you tell?

The area where I’m really noticing a difference in performance is SHO and WHO at speed. I shot a few students’ 9mm pistols and compared to them, I felt my demos with the HK45 one-handed were slow and not as accurate as I’d like. With only a few weeks of testing left, if I’m going to get that stuff up to speed — literally — I’d better put some more focus on it.

No travel planned for this week so hopefully three or four range sessions will keep me (and the gun) busy. Check back next week…

(special thanks to Mark Garrity for the great photos and video!)

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG

Previous HK45 Endurance Test posts at pistol-training.com:

Week Twenty Nine

Week Twenty Eight

Week Twenty Seven

Week Twenty Six

Week Twenty Five

Week Twenty Four

Week Twenty Three

Week Twenty Two

Week Twenty One

Week Twenty

Week Nineteen

Week Eighteen

Week Seventeen

Week Sixteen

Week Fifteen

Week Fourteen

Week Thirteen

Week Twelve

Week Ten

Week Nine

Week Eight

Week Seven

Week Six

Week Five

Week Four

Week Three

Week Two

Week One

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