I went to Top Gun this evening and initiated her with about 9 mags. Thoughts are as follows:
I'm very happy with accuracy. It is highly tactically accurate at 10 yards (what I am interested in).
Kick was a little sharper than expected, but not overwhelming or unmanagable. A slightly longer grip would help a lot in this area, I think. A slightly longer magazine with an extra round in it would be a very nice option for those who were willing to sacrifice a little concealability in the grip area for better control and more firepower. In any case, the kick is likely something that can be adjusted to with a little practice. I had no problems quickly regaining sight picture, but the gun wasn't quite as solid in my hand as I would have liked.
Trigger was absolutely fantastic. This is one of the best things about this gun. The trigger is butter smooth on glass. It is just the right amount of pull, without too much carry and no takeup before fire. The trigger also broke at exactly the same spot every time. I can't say the same for my 340PD. I never can tell where exactly in the trigger pull that darn thing is going to go off.
Reliability is a sore subject so far. While I have done my homework and I realize the pup is finicky about it's dinner, I took the recommendations of folks here and still had less than steller results.
1st mag - WWB 115gr FMJ - one FTE, third round in the mag This was a bitch to clear, as I had to drop the mag, which was being held in by the tension of the slide on the top of the 4th round. It almost required three hands to get this done.
2nd mag - Hornady TAP 124 gr - no problems
3rd-6th mag - WWB 115 gr JHP - Two FTE, same as above; 4 FTF: these were very distressing to me. I really don't like it when the gun goes click instead of boom. The option of a second pull of the trigger to make it go off was nice, but I would rather not have to do that. The first FTF went off with a second pull, but the second one did not, so I cycled it out. The third did, but the 4th required a third pull of the trigger to make it go off. The primer shows a decent strike on the second round that never went off, but not clear like on other pistols I own. I think if I had continued to pull the trigger on this one, it probably would have gone off, but I don't like this much at all. I've never had a gun FTF like this before, with any ammo, much less WWB. This is reported often enough that it really sounds a lot more like equipment than ammunition. Is the firing pin too short? Not enough hammer spring tension? I don't know, but I'm very hesitant about this.
One user error note, upon magazine insertion from clearing a FTE, I did not fully seat the mag, so it didn't pick up a round when I slingshot it. This made the gun go click, of course, but was not counted as a FTF. I reseated the mag, slingshot the slide, and was good to go again.
7th-9th mag - Federal Hydra-shock 124gr - each mag of this ammo locked up the first round out of the mag against the feed ramp. It took some working to get that first round to chamber properly. Other than this problem, the Federal ammo was flawless. Having done my research here first, I was also very careful to make sure the first round was canted upwards "just so". It did not matter with this ammo. The slide picked it up, the lip caught the ramp, the rounds tilted downwards (parallel to the barrel) and that was it. Stuck she was. It was only the first round, but it bound up every time. Something tells me, that's going to impact tactical reload time.
(see previous comment)
So anyway, overall level of satisfaction after the first range outing is now about a 6 out of 10. I'm going again tomorrow to see if I can work anything out here, but the WWB seems to be verboten for this pistol.
