Shooting
After playing with the gun and taking the pictures for
this presentation, the time for shooting had come. Unfortunatelly,
since the pistol didn't arrive on Friday, and I could never
think that it would be delivered on Saturday, I hadn't gone
shopping for any Green Gas or CO2, so it was impossible
to test fire the pistol over the weekend. So first thing
Monday morning, I visited the local hunting supplies shop
and came home with about 15 CO2 cartridges. Unfortunatelly,
Airsoft is not wide-spread in Greece, so no Green Gas, unless
I was willing to drive to down-town Athens, which I definitely
was not.
So, for the first time in my life, I loaded the extended
CO2 magazine with some pellets. Darn, what a boring job,
you have to put the pellet in the small opening of the magazine,
and push it in, while you are, in the same time, holding
back on the magazine folder. This being a two-column mag,
means that you have to make sure that the pellets (BBs)
are inserted in a staggered fashion, if you want the to
feed properly.
With the mag half-full, I inserted a CO2 cartridge in the
appropriate opening and tighten up the cover. The folks
that make this magazine, have slotted its bottom cover,
so that it can be used as a plyers, to tighten up the cap
that holds the CO2 cartridge in the magazine. Nice thought.
I inserted the mag in the pistol, racked the slide and
fired my first few BBs out of it. At about 5 meters (~15
feet) the BBs hit the target a bit lower and to the left
of my point of aim.
Here are the first targets I destroyed.
Some adjustment of the Bomar-look-alike sight and the shots
were now nicely centered (LEFT).
The shots on that pink styrofoam piece, were three groups,
one towards the top, one in the middle and one at the bottom.
I still need to bring the point of impact a bit to the right.
I didn't try any longer shots, since I didn't feel confident
with the accuracy of the pistol, and I didn't have a large
enough target to use.
In the afternoon, I tried some more target practice within
the appartment. Here are the targets:
This time, I got brave enough to fire from 10 meter distance.
The target you see is a standard A4 paper size sheet, with
two targets created on it. The one on the right was shot,
as the pistol was from the morning session, in other words
adjusted for 5 m. The one on the right was shot with the
pistol re-adjusted for 10 m, with some more elevation and
adjustment for the left drift of the POI.
I believe that this pistol's accuracy is not yet fully
exploited. I'll try to improve it a bit, by adding a copper
ring around the front end of the barrel, so that it can
better lock up with the slide, and I'll report back to you.
One thing I noticed during this firing sequense, was that
the pistol lost power, after 6-8 continuous shots, possibly
due to the cooling of the CO2 cartridge and hense the loss
of pressure that this caused. As a result, the slide didn't
cycle and the hammer stayed at half-cock. You had to let
the pistol warm up a little and cock the slide again, before
you could continue firing.
Shooting, some more...
I got so impressed by this pistol, that I just had to
see how it performs in some real, IPSC-style scenarios.
First of all, I needed some targets, and these were made
by downloading the IDPA target from www.ammoman.com and
printing it on A4 size paper. Then I stick those targets
on a similar-sized box, in which I also put a folded newspaper
and voila! I created three of these targets and I arranged
them in my yard, in the following pattern.
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The red rectangles are the targets (T1, T2, T3) and
green rectangles are the Firing Positions (FP1, FP2
and FP3), the distances between the targets and the
firing positions being shown on the arrows.
The purpose of this setup was to evaluate how capable
was the pistol, in training for IPSC-style shooting,
in ranges which are usually found in such exercises.
After firing a few test shots at the maximum distance,
and doing some adjustments in the elevation of the
rear sight, I proceeded to shoot this course a few
times. Two things need to be clarified. I have no
chronograph, so no time was registered. Also, I have
no holster for such a pistol, so starting was performed
with the Hi-Capa in the rear pocket of my jeans, hardly
an ideal way to start a string.
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The following scenario was shot:
From position FP1 I fired two shots at T1, T2 and T3. Then
I moved to FP2, from where I fired two shots to T2 and T3
and then I moved to FP3, from where I fired two shots at
T3.
I was amazed to see that even though I was shooting as
fast as I could (which is not blindingly fast, mind you)
the accuracy of this pistol was enough to keep all shots
within the target boundaries. This means that it is quite
possible to practice IPSC exercises, within your house or
back yard. Even the longest shot, which was at 16m from
my firing position, were very consistent.
I still want to play a bit with the Hop-Up adjustment of
the Hi-Capa, because in order to make the 15-20m shots possible,
the Bomar-look-alike had to be adjusted a little too high
for my liking, but overall, I was quite impressed with the
accuracy potential.
I also noticed that during these scenarios, the time between
the shots was enough to let the gun warn up, from the previous
shots, so the loss of power was not observed during this
test, as it was when I fired continuous shots for a rest.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I would say very favorable. The cost of this pistol is
125 US$, and that of the CO2 magazine is 45 US$, so with
about 170$ you get a nice set to play with, with the added
convenience of CO2 cartridges. With the exception of the
barrel/slide loose fitting, and the loose connection between
the two parts of the grip safety (which was corrected finally
with a drop of nail polish), this pistol is a fine shooter.
I wouldn't suggest this pistol for bullseye training, due
to the loose fit barrel, but it can serve very well in the
role of "in-house training" for IPSC practice.
The End
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Credits/Acknowledgments
This review was brought to you
by John Caradimas (M1911).
The M-1911 Pistols Organization
www.m1911.org
September 20, 2005. Athens, Greece. |
