HK45 Endurance Test: Week Twenty

by ToddG 13 Comments

27,654 rounds

0 stoppages 0 malfunctions 0 parts breakages

Twenty weeks, no stoppages. I may try burying the HK45 in cement just to see if it works or not.

As promised, a big part of this past week’s shooting was at a Judgment Day “class.” The J-Day classes are really nothing more than an opportunity for students to run through a number of standard exercises that are used all over the world to measure and judge shooters. In demonstrating the drills, I also get to record my own results, which included:

  • Shooting a 285 on the Hackathorn Standards. I was too nonchalant on the first drill, which consists of three easy hits on a 6×6 target at just 5 yards, and managed to miss a shot. That cost me 5 points and my chance to score a 290 for the first time ever…
  • Total 31.85 on Dave Sevigny’s Catch-22, from concealment on 8″ plates at 15yd. Too many misses cost me serious time. Best 2H hit was 1.48, worst was 2.52; best SHO was 1.46, worst was 3.01; best WHO was 1.92, worst was 2.76.
  • Three El Presidente runs scoring 8.06 (6.95 seconds, 56 points), 8.07 (7.06 seconds, 57 points), and 7.76 (8.26 seconds, 59 points) hit factors. I’m losing about a second on my first shot, which is the most important — but also gamiest — part of the drill. Dave Sevigny sent me some advice about proper footwork on the spin and it improved my first shot by almost half a a second, so there is hope for me yet.
  • Three F.A.S.T. runs scoring 6.12 (clean), 5.68 (4.68 seconds, -1 body), and 6.92 (4.92, -1 head). Far from my best performance there. The only consistent thing about my HK45 F.A.S.T. results is that they’re so inconsistent.
  • An aggregate 11.45 on Max Michel’s Triple Six. My times were 2.47 at 7yd, 3.81 at 15yd, and 3.97 at 25yd for a total of 10.25, with one C-zone and one clean miss. I didn’t call the miss but the entire class examined the target and no one found anything that looked like a double, unfortunately.
  • Two smoking good runs on the Triple Nickel: 4.61 and 4.44 seconds, both clean. That coin would be mine if they’d let me try! I might have to call my Congressman… The 4.44 is my personal best. Sorry the video doesn’t show the hits, you’ll have to take my word for it:

This coming weekend the HK45 will be in Los Alamos, New Mexico for an Aim Fast, Hit Fast class. Good friend (and 365 Days of Training celebrity) Tom Jones will be borrowing the gun for the whole class. Look for his thoughts on running the HK45 after more than a year of dedicated P30 shooting to be posted soon.

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG

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

  • 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
  • Announcement

13 comments

  2. Todd,

    Is there any trick to releasing the slide so quickly on reloads or is that just from practice?

    Reply

  3. Zack — I pre-load the lever. It’s hard to explain in writing. We discuss it at length in classes because it makes the slide release lever much faster and less fumble prone.

    Reply

  4. I need to get to one of your classes. I got a big head in the academy from shooting 100’s and 99’s all the time. I now know that that means next to nothing. I have been somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of information on this site and in particular your weekly updates, including the M&P and P30. I never realized how much variation and tweaking needs to be done to the grip to get the best control over the gun for example. Anyway, thanks for the info and keep up the good work.

    Zack

    Reply

  5. Sounds like Grover or someone from Sesame street saying “Clean” at the end. lol

    Reply

  9. Todd, Awesome job! I have no doubt the coin would be yours. You can be proud of that fact. Keep up the good work and I am a big fan of the web site and I turn as many on to the site as I can.

    Reply

  10. cant you just get sworn in as a Sheriff somewhere like Steven Segal, and then get the coin? 😉

    Reply

  11. @Todd – Preload the lever? I wanna know how to do that!

    @Zack
    Most HK’s I have ever shot if you slam the mag in hard enough it releases the slide on its own. I think this was considered a flaw to the gun at one point, but in a firefight you slam that mag and keep firing. No need to fumble around and look for the slide release. I actually busted the bottom off a couple mags slammin it in like that on my Mk23, but you can use USP mags in that gun. Little bit less expensive and easier to find than the MK23 mags.

    Reply

  12. @HK,
    A lot of Glocks will do that too. My issued G17 for the first part of the academy would do it pretty consistently. Of course, I didn’t know that was happening, and they were teaching slingshot reloads, so I kept being confused as to why I only had 5 rounds fired, and 5 holes in the target, when I’d loaded 6 in the magazine…
    Naturally, the G22C I’m issued on duty hasn’t done it yet that I can recall.

    Having taken AFHF within the past year (Sacramento, March 2010), I really wish I could remember the “preloading the slide release/slide lock” part…but I failed to take notes.
    Oh well. I can still practice drills and Dot Tortures, and keep practicing with what I have.

    Oh, and Todd: I finally took your advice (and a couple of the other students’) and picked up an off-duty piece to complement my on-duty weapon.

    Thanks.

    Reply

Leave a Reply