22,077 rounds
7 stoppages, 0 malfunctions, 1 parts breakages
Busy week! It started with last Friday, the final day of class at U.S. Training Center‘s Tactical Pistol I class. Most of the morning was spent shooting IDPA-style scenarios like the one pictured at left (that’s our primary instructor Jason Falla shooting, with USTC Chief Instructor Kyle Defoor running the timer). Round count for the whole morning was barely over 100 rounds. But then we spent the afternoon at the Rogers Range, and by the end of that I was well over 600 rounds for the day. Overall, the class was very good and you can expect to see a review of it here at pistol-training.com in the near future.
The P30 was not cleaned or lubricated the entire time at USTC, making it through the whole class with only the Militec-1 oil put on the gun before the week began. While there was one parts breakage (the trigger return spring, as mentioned last week) there were no stoppages or other problems of any kind.
Sunday, the P30 was used teaching the Practice Session at the NRA Range. Wednesday night I got in a practice session of my own. After just shy of 4,000 rounds since being lubricated, the pistol began to feel a little balky. I could feel when the last round fed from the magazine into the chamber, which is usually a sign that the gun is reaching the point where combined grime, grit, and dryness is conspiring to induce trouble. A few more drops of Militec-1 and the gun was back to normal.
This evening I got in another session. Ran the F.A.S.T. drill three times and shot a 4.56, 4.37, and 4.35 back to back, all clean. That 4.35 is a personal best with the P30, but still just a hair (0.09 seconds) off my best run with the M&P9 last year. The breakdowns for each run were:
- 4.56 clean: 1.60 draw, .44 split on 3×5 card, 1.88 reload, .22, .21, .22 on plate
- 4.37 clean: 1.47 draw, .39 split on 3×5 card, 1.91 reload, .22, .18, .20 on plate
- 4.35 clean: 1.44 draw, .38 split on 3×5 card, 1.90 reload, .22, .21, .20 on plate
Next week will mark the halfway point in the test, though we probably won’t be quite at 25,000 rounds yet. Heckler & Koch has sent us all the parts they recommend for replacement at the 25,000 point … it’s a surprisingly tiny number of parts, and almost all of them are springs. We’ll provide more details when we hit 25k and actually swap the parts.
Finally, here is this week’s Gray Room picture: The P30 endurance test gun along with a truly classic HK:
See you next week …
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Previous P30 Endurance Test posts at pistol-training.com:
- Week Eleven
- Week Ten
- Week Nine
- Week Eight
- Week Seven
- Week Six
- Week Five
- Week Four
- Week Three
- Week Two
- Week One
- Initial Report
I honestly don’t remember but with the M&p test didn’t you replace part only when they broke?If so seems fair to do the same with the M&P.By the way when will you publish the M&P vs P30 article?Next Wednesday I’m going away an I don’t know when will be the next time I can go online,could be 2 weeks could be three month.
JD — No, we replaced parts on the M&P according to their recommended schedule. The only exceptions were parts that we did not receive … which included both the trigger spring and slide catch lever that broke. For example, we replaced the recoil spring assembly every 7,500 rounds.
I received the draft of the “P30 vs. M&P” article earlier this week and hope to have a final version online by the end of the weekend.
So… seems the $900 gun is sort of losing to the $500 gun (M&P)… wondering if you could include some brief words on the cost to performance ratio of the guns in your endurance tests, would be meaningful to many readers I suspect. As a former P30 owner, I found the pricetag to performance far out of wack… while I want to love H&K’s I found myself wondering after my initial investment, how much it would cost for a pistol with a decent trigger reset? $1000? $1200?more?
Thanks for the good reports, must be horrible getting to shoot up all those free rounds!
Chip — As I’ve said, I’m not comparing the HK after less than half the test is over to the M&Ps that I shot for more than a year. But I’m not sure what you mean by “cost to performance ratio.” They’re drastically different guns. Each has its strengths and its weaknesses in comparison to the other. If the $500 M&P does everything you want a gun to do, then spending $900 for the HK is silly. If the HK has some feature(s), tangible or intangible, that you want in a gun … then you’ll either shell out the extra cash for it or you won’t.
I’ve got very little bad to say about either gun, and I think both are absolutely excellent options for CCW, duty, home defense, competition, or even just fun at the range. They’re both great, but they’re different and choosing one is going to come down to a whole lot of little individual decisions that each potential buyer will weigh differently from another.
What drop-down holster is the guy on the right running?
Isaac — That’s Jason Falla of Redback One. If you follow the link, they have a Contact Us page and you can probably get more details directly from Jason.
Hey Todd, Did you ever write a review of the U.S. Training Center‘s Tactical Pistol I class? I am interested in the class.
Is this Item for sale the one on the left