David Freeman
I’m a collector of guns. I didn’t set out to become a collector, but by virtue of my life’s circumstances I’ve compiled a collection of guns that mostly just sit in the safe. I’ve sold some of my guns before, but almost always regretted it later, so now when I acquire a gun for writing a review I generally don’t send it back. Also, during the decade I owned a gun store, I also had a job. So instead of paying myself in cash for the services I provided to the gun store, I paid myself in guns. I’ve worded my will such that upon my departure from this earth one of two things will happen to my gun collection. If my wife needs money, the collection will be sold to provide her with the proceeds. But if she’s well situated, my sons and grandchildren will have the opportunity to each choose a share of the collection. And if they don’t want it, my youngest son who has been with me in the gun business and has a modest collection of his own will get the collection to do with as he pleases.
Meanwhile, it seems almost a dereliction of duty for me to not shoot the guns that are under my care. Recently, I decided upon a plan in which I will make my way through the collection by shooting some of the guns each week. Last week I shot the ones whose manufacturer name begins with the letter A. This week I was all set to take out the Berettas and Brownings when an interruptive thought hit me. Why not this week shoot some of my favorite duty-size carry guns. I have a few that you might say are favorites of people who are not only “into guns” but actually carry one everywhere they go. I picked five: the FN509, the Glock 19 Gen 4, the H&K VP9, the Sig P229 and the S&W Performance Center Ported M&P. These are all best of class handguns in my book and none of them are in my collection by accident. Next week I may go back to alphabetical, but I can also see myself opting for a selection of compact handguns. We’ll see.
My range session consisted of shooting 20 rounds through each gun. The target distance was five yards just because I wanted to see tight groups. I shot the guns in alphabetical order which means I started with the FN 509. There is an online article by me on each of these guns done within the last couple of years. If you’re interested in reading about a particular gun, I’m sure you can find an article by me or someone else so I’m going to skip that part and just hit on the highlights of shooting each gun. I do want to highlight the sights and triggers. The sights on all of these guns were easy for me to see. The S&W has a Riton Red Dot sight mounted and it was spot on target. I’ve been writing about and testing Red Dot sights for a while now and I’m getting used to them. My only frustration is when they’re not sighted in properly and that’s always on me as I have the responsibility to adjust them. Every now and then I shoot a gun with a Red Dot and it’s shooting off a bit. I bring it home and check it with my laser boresighter and it shows to be right on. Next range trip with the gun it’s shooting right on, so I don’t know what’s up with the consistency.
After shooting the FN 509 and the H&K VP9 I found the Glock trigger to be hard. The last two guns, the Sig and S&W had fine triggers. Wondering what was up with the Glock I got out my trigger pull gauge and measured all five guns. Here’s what I got: FN 509 – 7 lbs., HK VP-9 – 6 lbs., Glock 19 – 8 lbs., Sig P229 – 7 lbs. and S&W M&P – 6 lbs. They’re all pretty similar and the Glock was the highest at 8 lbs. but that shouldn’t have been that much difference. Oh, well. Pictures of the targets follow.
David Freeman 