New-to-me P-64 to the Range

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kbuilta
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Location: Rock Island, IL

New-to-me P-64 to the Range

Post by kbuilta »

Took my Thanksgiving purchase from Classic to the range yesterday for the first time (arrived on 01 Dec via USPS). It arrived in good condition and no cosmo but a fair amount of gun oil. Two mags, one with the pinkie extension broken off but fully functional, the other in good condition altogether. Knowing I wasn't going to the range for over a week, I ordered a set of Wolff springs and made the changes before yesterday's outing.

No matter how many times I had read that these are prone to slide bite, I forgot all that in first-shot excitement and on the first shot put my left thumb over the back - got it bit! :oops: Drew a little blood but nothing badly hurt but my pride. Otherwise, it shot great. I can't see the front sight unless I hold my head well up (look through the bifocals) so accuracy loss was from my own technique. Since I didn't shoot it before making the spring change, I don't know how much effect it had but the DA pull is still pretty stiff and it does have a fair kick. Not enough kick that I can't shoot it one-handed, though. I'll probably experiment with paint dots on the sights to help see them, too (have seen the threads on that).

It cycled all 50 rounds of PPU 95gr round nose I fed it with no problem and flung the brass all over the place. Found one case way down the range about 20 yards. Buddies I was with said they saw them spinning vigorously on the floor after they landed. I collected 48 of the 50 for reloading - I actually found some Titegroup at a LGS this week! - the other 2 cases went who-knows-where.

I'm more of a rifle guy - mostly WW2 wood and steel milsurps - so I've got a bit of learnin' to do with this. I'll probably use this for Carry if/when I get the Illinois CCW, and for making more noise at the indoor range over the winter than I can with my Ruger 22/45 (only other pistol). When the weather's nicer, I'm outdoors on the long ranges.

Here are a couple of views. It's definitely not unfired - wear on the finish from holstering and on the outside of the barrel from the spring dragging - but the bore is chrome-clean and sharp and the whole thing looks good to me. So far it reliably goes bang on command, too, so I'm pretty happy - now that I know where NOT to put my left thumb:
Left Side.jpg
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Right Side.jpg
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MakAttack
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Re: New-to-me P-64 to the Range

Post by MakAttack »

Congrats on the purchase.

This grip (thumbs forward) seems to be in vogue keeps the thumbs out of the way of the slide, I find it also helps with accuracy:

Image

http://blog.cheaperthandirt.com/the-proper-pistol-grip/
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kbuilta
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Location: Rock Island, IL

Re: New-to-me P-64 to the Range

Post by kbuilta »

Yes, that's a much better place for the thumb. Learning all the time.

Tonight I was prepping the cases from Wednesday's shoot and found about 10-15% of the cases had bulges on them at the bottom, next to the case head. Same curved outline on those that had any at all, though the amount of bulge varied. The bulge only came from firing, the case in the pictures hasn't been sized yet. I've read about bulging due to bullet setting but this is not it.

Cases were commercial PPU ammo Tuesday and once-fired PPU cases today so not yet reloaded. PPU 7.62x54R factory ammo was a little hot and had pierced primers so maybe they load the 9mm Makarov a little hot, too?

I've been reloading .30-06 and 7.62x54R for about a year but none of my bottle-neck rifle cases have looked like this and I just want to make sure it's OK to go ahead and size the bulge away and not some sign of inadequate case strength. It almost looks like that part of the case is unsupported in the chamber. Could that be?
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Curly1
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Re: New-to-me P-64 to the Range

Post by Curly1 »

Welcome to the forum.

Todd Jarret on pistol holds and shooting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa50-plo48

As far as the brass bulge check this thread it mentions unsupported chamber also..

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5342&p=49650&hilit= ... ass#p49650
Laugh Hard and Often.

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Re: New-to-me P-64 to the Range

Post by Ketchman »

Welcome to The Brotherhood. Sounds like the bug for this little piece of wonderment has bitten you too as well as the gun! PPU ammo has been nited before as a little hot. In fact most european ammo is loaded hotter than US loads. I would try some Hornady ammo to see if your still getting the bulges. And you could try chrono'ing any of that lot of PPU if you have any left to see what the FPS is. Oh yeah, and we ALL learn to keep out thumbs out of the way. :oops:
Close enough for Government work will get you dead, ask any Vet.
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kbuilta
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Location: Rock Island, IL

Re: New-to-me P-64 to the Range

Post by kbuilta »

Thanks, y'all, for the feedback on this. Lots of help here and I appreciate it. 100 Starline cases arrived yesterday and I still have 100 rounds of the PPU factory ammo left as well. I don't expect to be hammering as many rounds downrange with the P-64 as I do my Garands or 1903A3 so I'm hoping to get just a reasonable amount of usable brass on hand, either as new brass or once-fired factory ammo, and I should be good to go. I'll probably pickup some examples of a couple other ammo makers, like Hornady or Winchester, et al - it's all usable brass in the end if it doesn't act like the PPU.

I did load up 18 rounds of the once-fired PPU brass with a mid-range load of Titegroup (actually found some pistol powder!) under some Speer 95gr TMJs to try out. This will be an acid test for this brass. If it can make it through 3 mag loads with no bulging (or worse) then I may hang on to the rest of the PPU brass. Otherwise, it's once-fired and then into the recycle can.
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