Range Report: XDM 10mm+MkIV, 10/7/26

[BassCliff]

How in the world are ya?

It was a great fall day here in the Wild Wild Upper Midwest. After my morning workout and coffee, I hurried my way over to the newer facility.

It wasn't very busy when I arrived, just a guy on lane #1 and I got my favorite, lane #2.

Again I brought my new XDM Elite OSP 4.5" 10mm pistol along with the Ruger Mark IV. The XDM was fed the Freedom 180 grain 10mm and for .22 ammo I brought the 60 rounds I had left of the CCI Mini-Mags. I ran out of time and did not shoot the other .22 ammo.

I had my little screwdriver handy because I knew I was going to adjust the rear sight on the Mk IV. I also tried my new 5.11 competition shooting gloves during the session. It was a simple course of action today. All targets were placed at 10 yards, mostly 10-shot or 20-shot strings on the targets. I was working on fundamentals with the 10mm beast and trying to refine the rear sight on the .22 pistol.

The very first target of the afternoon, using the 10mm, came back like this. It was a lot better than the first target last week.

There's a nice group of eight hits with a couple of flyers. I'm trying for consistency for the whole 10-shot string. Seems I'm still dropping or flying two or three every string. Target #2 looks a little more centered but not really a tight group.

Target #2 had a couple hits low and left of the black. I need more support hand grip. Target #3 looks a little better, except for that one flyer that got away because I was riding the reset.

Seven hits in the 10-ring. I needed to hold my concentration for one more shot, but NOOOooooo! Let me try real hard for target #5.

Ha! Am I the King of Line Breaks, or what? With the line breaks, I count seven in the 10-ring again with a couple of flyers out of the black. At least I'm consistent with my inconsistency. Before I start on the next box of cartridges (100 total rounds of 10mm today), and the next set of targets, let's look at the B-8 target after 50 rounds.

Yeah, OK. I've got the start of a couple of raggedy holes with a bunch of flyers out of the black. But I think I'm making progress. Now I'm going to stick on the 8" shoot-n-see target. Maybe when the whole range can see my hits I will behave myself better. I'm going to put 20 rounds on this one.

The first reactive target came back like this, with one hit off of the sticker. Drat.

I'm sure most of you know this; The 8" sticker is the same size as the 8-ring on the B-8 target. The 9-ring on this sticker is 4" in diameter. The 9-ring on a B-8 target is 5.56" in diameter. The 10-ring on a B-8 target is 3.36". My goal is to keep all hits inside the 9-ring on this sticker. I'm not doing too well so far.

I told myself I would practice with my new gloves today. I put them on for the next 20 rounds.

The (size Large) gloves fit me nicely and felt good. They offered a little more cushion against the recoil. I had no trouble working inside the trigger guard or thumbing the controls. However, being new, the palms were rather slick. I think the instability of my grip may have added to my inconsistency. The 20 rounds wearing gloves came back looking like this. Ack!

I think I'll have to wear the "new" off of these gloves before the grip will stay consistent. I'm going to take off the gloves for the last 10 rounds.

There we go, all but one hit inside the 9-ring on this sticker. Is it OK if I blame the gloves, this time? This is a pretty good target so, let's do the glam shot.

I'll come back in the next post to give you the exciting conclusion of my session, using the .22LR Ruger Mark IV 5.5". Thanks for letting me share my fun. Be right back.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[BassCliff]

And we're back!

As mentioned, I had a partial box (60 rounds) of the CCI Mini-Mags that I wanted to try in the Mk IV.

I even took the extra precaution of putting a couple drops of oil on the bolt, even though this pistol has had only about 250 rounds through it since the last cleaning. It didn't look bad at all. I'm going to patch up my 8" sticker and see what kind of damage I can do. That yellow sticker is from a local breakfast place. It makes for a great bullseye. I stick it on top of one of my 4" "aim small, miss small" targets.

I think I put 20 rounds on this target. While there are 5 or 6 hits on the yellow "bullseye", they seem to be drifting low. I'm going to adjust the rear sight to see if I can raise the POI. I want a 6 o'clock hold, so I can see the hits right above my front sight.

Wouldn't ya know it? On the third magazine I started getting FTEs. There were no duds at all but this ammo failed to eject three or four times out of the sixty rounds. This ammo is at least 5 years old. Could that be a problem?

I guess nothing's perfect. I finished that 20 rounds and the hits are starting to hit where I want them to hit in my sight picture.

Just a couple more clicks and we'll see what the last 20 rounds look like.

Well, drat. I wasn't paying attention to that one low flyer. But the rest look pretty good. I was going to try one more click but was out of time. We'll pick this up next week. Let's do the glam shot.

It's time to pack up my kit. Hey, I didn't even shoot my favorite target today.

Business was picking up as I shot my Mk IV. I noticed my instructor was giving a private lesson a couple of lanes over from me.

I did not say, "Hi", didn't want to disturb his student. But I did talk to another new shooter at the range. He was considering a membership. Later he said he signed up after talking to me. I wonder if I should ask for a commission?

Anyway, I'm going to bring these two pistols back next week and continue the adventure. Thanks for hanging out with me. Next week I'll have a training session on Monday in addition to my practice session later in the week. Shooting twice in one week is a treat for me. It gives me an excuse to be extra nice to Mrs. BassCliff. She puts up with me pretty good. Until next time...


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff