P30 Thursday: Week Seventeen

33,755 rounds
7 stoppages, 0 malfunctions, 1 parts breakages

Four months down, two to go! The P30 traveled across the country this past week for an Aim Fast, Hit Fast class in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Great group of students, with some of the best scores we’ve ever seen. I’m already looking forward to a follow-up class down there next year.

6in-circ-1in-sqFor my own practice, I’ve now switched completely over to the 2″ dot targets I mentioned last week along with another target I put together quickly on the computer a while back. This one is a 6″ circle with a 1″ square in the center. (pictured at right; click on the image to download a full size .pdf version)

One drill I like to do with this target, after I’ve been doing some speed work for a while and maybe my sights or trigger finger are getting a little sloppy: slow it down and empty a magazine, one deliberate shot at a time, into the 1″ square at 7yd. Then use the 6″ circle of the same target to practice 2-5 shots from the holster for a couple of magazines. Put up a new target and repeat the process, going back and forth from top accuracy to speed.

The only run at the F.A.S.T. all week was a demonstration for the students at the beginning of AFHF: 4.93 clean. Certainly not a record-setting run, but not bad considering I hadn’t fired a gun in a couple of days. Of course, having an entire class full of students watching me doesn’t affect me at all. Not at all. Not one bit. Never. Riiiight…

As promised in the previous log entry, Dot Torture at eight yards was the challenge this week. And a challenge it was. On my first attempt, I scored a 49, missing one of the shots on dot #4 simply because I was being impatient. On the second attempt … another 49, this time missing one of the SHO shots on dot #5. It was a classic case of flexing the thumb during the trigger press, sending the shot high. Oh well, we’ll try again next week.

While we’re on the subject of aiming and accuracy: I got an email from Richard Heinie about the sights. As many of you had suggested, it was in fact the notch that was slightly off-center, not the dot! Heinie is expecting more Straight Eight night sights for the P30/HK45 in a few weeks and promised to send me a couple sets. There is also a design change being implemented with the new version of the sights, but I’ll wait until they’re in hand before spilling the beans on that.

Finally, this week’s Grey Room photo: a rather tricked-out sample of the ill fated XM8. We’re running out of photos, actually, so it looks like it may be time for another visit!

P30-gray-XM8

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG

Previous P30 Endurance Test posts at pistol-training.com:

  • Week Sixteen
  • Week Fifteen
  • Week Fourteen
  • Week Thirteen
  • Week Twelve
  • Week Eleven
  • Week Ten
  • Week Nine
  • Week Eight
  • Week Seven
  • Week Six
  • Week Five
  • Week Four
  • Week Three
  • Week Two
  • Week One
  • Initial Report

3 comments

  1. Hey Todd,
    What happened to Week Eightteen??? It’s coming up on Week Nineteen tomorrow??? 🙂

    Enquiring minds want to know! 🙂
    Kevin

  2. No kidding! I miss one week and 2 million people head to Washington to protest about it! At least, that’s how I see it.

    Kanye West said Week Eighteen was ok, but Week Nine was the best ever!

    Serena Williams told me if I posted Week Eighteen, she’d shove a tennis ball down my throat.

    Keith Olbermann declared war on Week Eighteen.

    The President wants to know, what can your school children do to help Week Eighteen?

    (the reality is, weeks eighteen and nineteen were both pretty light on the number of rounds downrange due to other priorities, and we just never had a chance to get a meaningful post written up last week … there will definitely be one tomorrow!)

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