Not the quivering that happens before hopping into bed with a first-time lover, or when about to shoot in competition against (say) Jerry Miculek; I’m talking here about shaking hands last Friday afternoon with two old friends:
…the Ruger Single-Six having been exchanged for my Ruger MkIV 22/45 (thankee, Reader Jerry!). As such, this specific gun wasn’t an old friend, but I’ve owned a Single-Six before, so it was a familiar experience. All shots were taken at 10 yards, and here’s what the target looked like, in overview:
First: the Browning High Power. As my delivery of practice 115gr ammo hadn’t arrived yet (some nonsense about needing an 18-wheeler), I had to go with ten rounds from an old box of Fiocchi I happened to have lying around in Ye Olde Ammoe Locquer — oh sure, like none of you have any “orphan ammo” in your lockers, right? The self-defense load tested was thirteen rounds of SIG V-Power 147gr. I wasn’t trying for any serious accuracy with the 115gr. stuff; it was just getting re-familiarized with the High Power’s trigger. Here’s the result:
Shooting the 115gr was a breeze, and the three outliers were the first three shots taken, holding on the “8” in the target — trigger familiarization, folks. Then I got a little more serious, and dropped the last seven bullets into the single hole, as shown. A tad high, but next time I’ll hold at the bottom of the 8.
Then I changed to the SIG ammo, and I have to admit that the heavier 147gr. bullets took a little getting used to (the hold was on the X):
The 13-shot grouping wasn’t as tight as that of the lighter 115gr, but certainly in terms of self defense clustering, I wasn’t too displeased with the outcome. (Only one flier? I must be getting better, or else the High Power is a better gun than I remember.) It looks like the hold, as for the 115gr FMJ ammo, is at the bottom of the target circle.
I love my High Power 9mm, and once its carry holster arrives from Don Hume and the spare mags from [can’t remember] , it’s onto my waist it’ll be going, on probation of course. You may all reach for the smelling-salts now.
Next came the Single-Six (aiming at 2 1/2″ yellow targets), and I shot one cylinder each of .22 LR and .22 WinMag without too much regard for the grouping, just to get used to the single-action trigger. Then I got a little more serious, and took my time with the next two cylinders, first with the CCI Mini-Mag .22 LR 40gr. solids:
…and then with the CCI Maxi-Mag .22 WMR, also 40gr. solids:
Hmmm… thought I’d do better with the .22 Mags, as I was getting really used to the trigger by then. So what does that mean, Readers? [3…2…1…]
“MOAR PRACTICE!!!!”
Can’t wait. It’s a good thing I stocked up with .22 WMR during the Dubya Administration: .22 Mag is more expensive than 9mm.
And yes: a slow, deliberate, one-shot-at-a-time session with the single-action Ruger was just fantastic.