I took HK SFP9L OR with Aimpoint ACRO C1 to IPSC match - you want believe what happened!

Actually nothing really shocking, but since I baited you here, you can well read and watch match video ;)

Recently I received from Aimpoint T&E sample of their new, pistol oriented ACRO C-1 sight. Thanks to HK distributor in Poland, Cenzin sp. z o.o., I was able to put my hands on optic ready HK SFP9L OR. Aimpoint provided correct mounting adapter plate for HK OR system and I was good to go. And what place better to test, shot of real life use, than competition?

So I took this combo to L1 IPSC match, registered in Production Optics division. As new rules allowed I uses modified trigger I used Lazy Wolf trigger and HKParts match springs set. Some anti skid tape on grip and good to go. In short, this kit is better than shooter. Acquiring dot is easier than on open design sights, however it is possible to loose dot, especially when shooting in non standard position just after magazine change.

I was only shooter in Production Optics on this match, so I won with myself ;) But there was also overall match results, with all divisions together and I had 64% and a change of Open division winner. I'm sure that with more time with this combo (I just had enough time to zero it properly at 20m) and I could do much better!

Leviathan Awakes

No, this post is not about excellent Sci-Fi series The Expanse and neither about book with this title. It is about what apparently happened recently to Heckler & Koch.

Obviously one of things that happened is HK433. Still behind the glass, still in late prototype stage, still confirmation on expected prices, but it is here. But that is not all. Far from it.

Second glass box on HK booth at Enforce Tac fairs hold short barreled
versions of G36 and HK416 in .300 Whisper aka .300 AAC Blackout. Yes. Finally HK joins the band and better late than never. But this is not all. Far from it.

Is Polish MSBS rifle is as good as dead?

This is not factual information, but opinion piece based on my personal assessment of future of MSBS rifle program. Please take it with grain of salt.

MSBS program is in place for over 10 years already. It should be enough to design and start manufacturing of 2 or even 3 designs. What we have after this time is:

1. 100+ MSBS straight pull repeating blank firing rifles delivered to Ceremonial Company of Polish Armed Forces.
2. Some prototypes of MSBS delivered for informal testing by Border Guard and Prison Service.
3. MSBS in military certification trials scheduled to end later this year (those are not acceptance tests!)
4. MSBS bulpup is even no longer presented by FB Radom on trade fair exhibition.

This of course does not outright mean that program will be canceled or rifle will not be adopted. But there is one big nail to MSBS coffin:

Trijicon HD sights on my HK45C

Yes, I'm alive! Sorry for long hiatus, but "real life" come in way. Happens.

Anyway, Santa come little earlier this year with nice set of Trijicon HD sights for my HK45C. I used first opportunity to install them. It was not easy, but they sit in place. Then I went to verify zero on the range. On picture you can see two 25 round groups. First was on 15m (some 16+ yards), second on 25m (some 27+ yards) - I think it is easy to tell them apart on first glance. POA was top of front sight "slice" bulls-eye in half (at least I tried to keep it there). Both shot offhand with two hand grip, slow pace (and breaks to change/load magazines every 5 rounds). Looks like I need to adjust POA a little, but overall I'm really impressed with this sights. They do agree with my eyes. I will see how they work on some IDPA matches at first opportunity, but I expect them to do just fine. Previously I used Heinie Straight 8 sights, but those did not work good for me. I did not care much for dot over dot alignment and POA/POI relation was completely of for me with POI much higher than on stock sights. Finally I went back to stock HK sights. But looks like Trijicon HD sights will stay here for good. I also need to replace my aging Meprolight sights on P2000SK and SFP9-SF will need nice set of sights, when I get one in my hands.

New Aimpoint Micro T2

I just got info that Aimpoint is going to show new Micro T2 at Eurosatory fair.  It has updated body, with flip-caps, ability to ad anti-reflective device, shielded turret and increased body ruggedness. There is also new reflective coating on lenses to improve quality of view, delivers 5 years on one battery and is water tight to 25m. Basically this is all that was revealed for now. I must say it looks slick. Can't wait to put my hands on one and look trough it. (picture: Aimpoint)

Cutting HK MR223/MR556 barrel - good, bad or ugly?

There were several discussion on cutting and re-profiling 16.5" heavy match barrel that HK installs in MR223 and MR556 series rifles. Profile is rather mater of personal choice and taste, but cutting down generates some controversy. HK claims that when they cold hammer forge their barrels, they make them in way that barrel bore has a swage (constricts) toward muzzle. Barrel is manufactured for it's final length, so cutting it down remove this narrower portion and affects barrel performance. I decided to find out how it turns out in real world.

3 competition videos

I just added 3 videos from competitions in April. 2 are from 3Gun matches and 1 is from IDPA match.

First video is recent Liga Sportera match. It was not my best performance so far. Partially I blame gear (obviously! it is always gear problem!), but I'm afraid I had my own part in this.

IWA 2014 - Minox ZP8 Tactical 1-8x24

One of most interesting things I noticed on IWA was new 1-8x tactical scope from German company Minox.

IWA 2014 - Walther CCP

On IWA I had my first opportunity to see Walther CCP 9mmx19. Pistol actually makes good impression. Fits hand very nice, slide is easy to operate and trigger is decent.

IWA 2014 - HK news in civilian products

I've seen several interesting things today, for example new Walther CCP with HK P7 style piston system, but now I want to cover some more HK stuff.

IWA2014 - HK at EnforceTac

Today I visited EnforceTac exhibition as prelude to IWA 2014 fairs. Managed to talk a little at HK booth and got some news. Unfortunately, looks like striker fired pistol (HK SFP9) will be delayed more. They have prototype at the booth but not for open play or taking photos. But this delay might actually lead to good news, because they want to refine some aspects of pistol. Other news will be presented soon (hopefully tomorrow - I will believe when I see it) - new version of civilian HK416, named HK MR223A3. It is supposed to have (or at least mimic) features of HK416A5, including ambidextrous layout.

First 3Gun Liga Sportera match in 2014 - Season Opener

My first match this year and (as shameful as it sounds) almost first opportunity to shoot at all this year (I just managed to verify zero on my rifle and to learn POA/POI relation for B&P Big Game slugs on my shotgun).

Fortunately organizers prepared a bit easier shooting that they could. Mostly because they were afraid that in bad weather we could not shoot all stages due to slow pace. But looks like we have beautiful Spring this Winter (but we had share of snow and low temp as well).

New seasons sees number of changes in Liga Sportera rulebook. Most of them apply to all divisions, but some significant ones apply to shotguns in Open division and makes it more balanced for both magazine fed and tube fed shotguns. It still probably needs some fine-tune but is better (from my point of view at least) that it used to be. But one of general changes (starting condition of firearm) gave me some hard time. Before, firearms that we pick up during course of fire where loaded, chamber empty, slide/bolt closed, hammer down and safety could be in off position. Now safety must be on even with empty chamber (if technically possible). You can easily see that on at least 2 stages (Stage 5 and 3) it took me some time to go, find my brains and let it figure out why the hell my shotgun is not going bang. Hopefully I will learn fast.

On this match I used my 14.5" HK MR223 rifle with Aimpoint MicroT1, 18.5"  Benelli M1 Super 90 shotgun and Glock 17 Gen4 with slide mounted Vortex Razor Red Dot. I also used new HK polymer translucent magazines. So far they work flawless for me and I like them very much. I do also try new way to (not) clean my guns. All were primed with Fireclean gun oil(?). I intend to shoot them some more before I even try to clean them, maybe except few passes of Otis Ripcord in my rifle barrel.

It has been to long

Looks like I went to winter sleep or something, but I'm slowly stretching my limbs and going back. For this Sunday I will have first 3Gun Liga Sportera match this season, so short report and video will show up sometime next week. My P30L is well past 2000 rounds no cleaning and no lube. It is becoming boring, because it just works. As I wrote before, this test was pointless anyway. First week of March I go for IWA2014 fairs in Nuremberg. Hopefully I will have some exciting news or at least some nice pictures to throw on blog. Anyway, welcome to 2014!

Glock 17 Gen2 ends its career in style

My friend had and Glock 17. It was Gen2 (CNM series), that he bought used some10+ years ago. It was not used a lot by security company that owned it, they mostly carry, rarely shoot (even for training). But my friend, he shot it a lot. And he shot it good (he is one of best IPSC and IDPA shooters in country). He even cleaned it... once a year or so. (Pictures inside!)

HK P30/P30L short travel LEM (CDA) trigger V4.1 aka V4 CH

For last month or so I'm testing reduced travel LEM (called CDA in Europe, for Combat Defense Action) trigger, that I call V4.1 (internal HK designation V4 CH). What this trigger group does is reducing pre-travel  on P30 LEM trigger by roughly 1/3, from 15mm (0.590")  to 10mm (0.393") measured in middle of trigger height. After initial pre-travel there is 1.5mm (0.059") of sear engagement travel (think of it as second stage in 2-stage trigger) and 1mm (0.039") of over-travel. Sear travel and over-travel are same for all variants (V4.1 does not change that) except for V6, that is "real" DAO trigger. Reset is same as standard LEM trigger at 7.5mm (0.295"). 5mm (0.196") of reduction may not sound a lot, but in real life it make big difference. It no longer feels like eternity to take up LEM trigger, so there is less tendency for trigger jerking during fast shooting. Overall feel is very good.

For those wondering how to get this trigger, nice guys from HK sent me conversion chart for every P30/P30L trigger variant and give green light to share it.

5th Olsztyn Open IPSC handgun match

Last Saturday, 25th of May, I shot  IPSC handgun match in Olsztyn, Poland. I had quite a pause in shooting IPSC matches, but it went quite good for me. My new V4.1 LEM trigger in P30L works fine. As always with HK, you just drop parts in and good to go - no fitting needed. I have two failures to fire. When I looked on rounds, it is clear that in new batch of Geco, they used new type of primer. It is either much harder or not very reliable. Actually since RWS moved manufacture of this ammo from Swiss to Hungary (ex-MFS plant) seem like quality went significantly down. Time to start loading own ammo, at least for match use.
On this match I used 224 rounds of Geco 124gr FMJ "IPSC Approved" ammo. That means 691 rounds since last cleaning of pistol. 2 failure to fire malfunctions, both of new lot of Geco ammo.

Blaszanka match and P30L pointless test continued

Last Sunday we handgun shootoff match, called "Blaszanka". Name came from traditional first prize, that is bottle of Whisky in tin can made from "blacha". I do not like shooting steel, it somehow intimidate me, anyway I managed to make 3rd place. I was almost 2nd, but "almost is big difference". During this match I used my HK P30L with LEM trigger. I shot 221 rounds of Geco 124gr FMJ and 3 rounds of Barnaul 115gr FMJ steel cased ammo. Barnaul was used to check it on chrono. It barely made Power Factor 125 (125,000 in IDPA) - this is really weak round. Round count since last cleaning and lubing - 467.

Pointless HK P30L endurance test

Recently I received from HK set of factory parts for my P30L. Those parts are V2 LEM trigger with slightly reduced trigger travel. Reset distance remains same. Anyway, installing this parts (drop in without any need of fitting - HK standard) was opportunity to clean up my P30L. Actually field stripping it, made gunk just drop out under own weight. I did not do detailed cleaning, but removed most of what could be removed with soft cloth and paper towels. Put some oil on it and assembled. I decided, that this is opportunity to see how good my P30L works. So from now on I will keep record of rounds fired, add some oil when I feel it really slows down and clean when it starts to malfunction or I got bored (whatever comes first).
Last weekend was opportunity to log 243 rounds on Steel Day organized by Shooting Academy range. Below is video from this match.

How to mod H&S Speedsec 5CW HK USP speed holster to work with HK P30, P30L, HK45 and HK45c

When I got my first P30, I hand on hand my first IPSC speed holster for HK USP: Hoppner and Schumann Speedsec 5CW. I modified it to work with P30 using Dremel tool with cylinder shaped milling bit and hand file. 5CW is made from polymer so use low speed and work slowly to not overdo. Modified holster still accepts HK USP, but also works with USP Compact, P2000, P2000SK, P30, P30L, HK45, HK45C and even HK P7.

IO Aimpoint Micro cover finally arrived

When I first learned about IO Aimpoint Micro cover, I was very excited. Actually I backed this project via Kickstarter service.

Since shipping cost to Poland would probably beat manufacturing cost, I provided address of my friend in US (with his permission) for shipping my Kickstarter "backer kit". But when cover arrived my friend already forgot about it. When he got package he was all "what kind of s..t is that, I do not even own Aimpoint Micro and never ordered such stuff" and he was ready to trash it. Fortunately on same day I asked him if he received my IO cover yet. That was close! But then cover waited for opportunity to be sent to me. This opportunity presented itself, when my daughter turned 1 and friend wanted to send her birthday gift. So now she plays on nice set Skip-Hop floor tiles, I have my IO cover and we both are happy campers! Happy End!

(on photo IO cover spreads it's love over Aimpoint Micto T1 mounted on wz.96 Mini Beryl 5.56 SBR)