In sum, the gun was flawless, my shooting? Not so much...
I picked up my Factory Robar (purchased from another member here) yesterday. I ducked out of work for 45 minutes, time enought for me to:
1. Walk to my private indoor range (at the foot of tony Greenwich Ave in Greenwhich CT),
2. Sign in, shoot the syte for 5 minutes with the regulars at the Thursay morning "Coffee and Bullets" shoot.
3. Shoot all 20 of my 124 grain Gold Dots and 40 of my Winchester Silver Tips
4. Show the gun to three different members
5. Walk back to work.
Recoil was managable, at least the felt recoil part. But my shooting at first was pretty bad.
From 30 feet:
I putt 1 out of 5 rounds in the 8 inch target (the target is a round one, in the middle of an 8.5 inch by 11 inch standard piece of paper), which I taped to the carboard backstop. Next 3 strings (I shoot 5 rounds to a sting) were a little better, 2 rounds in the 8 inch circle.
From 21 feet:
This was better, I was getting used to the gun, all the Gold Dots gone so I switched to the silver tips. I was placing between 2 and 4 rounds in the target, with the later strings Bullet holes one on top of another (an up and down pattern as opposed to a tight circle). I did score one or two bullseyes. My last 10 rounds was on a fresh target, 8 in the circle, with 2 in the 9x/bullseye.
I have no idea which round produced more recoil, I shot better as I progressed, but still pathetic IMO. I am used to placing half my shots in the 8 ring or better using my 4 inch barreled S&W 357 (using standard 38's). I have 220 round coming tomorrow from Natchez, 100 of the 115 grain gold dots, 100 of the 124 grains gold dots, and 20 of the 147 grain gols dots. I saved 10 of the Winchester silver tips in case I run into an Orc war party on the way home tonight. But if I need to place head shots because of their armor, this will be my last post on this forum...
The gun has about 230 rounds in it now, so I will change the spring tonight when cleaning it. I took it apart last night and found a perfectly clean and lubed weapon (thanks Eli). I found using the take down tools was harder than simply using the "kung fu" grip to align the holes to push the pin out. I dissassembled and reassembled 5 times last night for kicks. Much easier for me using no take down tools.
Oh, another word about the range session. I took no breaks in shooting the 60 rounds, other than re-loading my mags and taping a new target up once in a while. The slide was never warmer than luke warm, no failures of ANY kind (except my lousy shooting). I am sure at least one of the club regulars came over to see why, at only 20 feet, I was only hitting the target once or twice - so there was a three minute "rest" period for the gun at one point because I stopped to show this guy the R9 (which the loved, but had never seen/heard of it before) and explained this was my first time shooting it. My shots were all "slow and aimed".
Next Thursday, I need to bring a body sized target to see just how bad my shooting really is. My problem was that there were no "fresh" cardboard backstops, mine was riddled with holes from a previous shooter, so if I did not "hit paper" there was really no way for me to see where the "strays" went.
Senior club members will often glance over to assess a junior members shooting - looking to see how close the target is, and how often that junior member "hits paper". The senior member who came over and looked at the Robar was impressed with it's small size, and told me it took him a few range session to get his PPK to hit paper. It would have been an entirely different conversation if he had come over and saw I was shooting a 6 inch barrel revolver, or any normal sized gun.
One last word on the recoil. It was not that bad, and my shooting improved once I started to use an agressive "push pull" grip. I have high hopes that my shooting will improve, and plan on shooting 40 rounds each week until I start to see some improvement.
Oh, and I did not notice a diff near the end when using a mag with a straight extention as opposed to a mag with no extention. I do have two of the hooked extentions, maybe I will try those out. But if I can shoot the R9 well without the extention, I will prob list them here for a deep discount...
