That Gun Probably Really Sucks and Other Stuff

The Kimber Solo.

It was on the cover of the October, `11 American Rifleman. Like a lot of the gun press, one can usually count on good reviews of guns made by companies that advertise heavily. So it was a little surprising to see an acknowledgment that "earlier samples were troublesome". I take that to mean "they had to send us several guns to test until we got one that functioned."

It's hard to know who to trust on gun reviews. The Internet tends to hype any problems. The commercial gun press almost never lets a bad word slip about anything. About the only hint you can get from them is if you don't see a review of the WhizBang 2200. Gun Tests reports what it sees, but if they bought a gun that turned out to be ahead or behind the quality curve, well, that's the risk of testing a single item.

One good thing about the Taurus Judge and the S&W Governor is that they are helping to make decent .45 Colt ammunition more prevalent. A lot of what is out there are "cowboy" loads that are designed for the Cowboy Action Shooting game; they are lower-velocity rounds.

The other day at the range, I shot some of the cowboy loads from Winchester and Magtech. They were 250 grain lead flat point loads. I then tried some American Eagle (Federal) 225 grain jacketed soft points-- the recoil was more pronounced and, unlike the cowboy loads, the JSPs had some muzzle flash out of a 4.75" barrel. They felt almost like the standard-pressure Buffalo Bore load, but cheaper to shoot.

What's interesting is that the street price of the supposedly cheap-jack Blazer rounds in this caliber is higher than the American Eagle JSPs, which have a brass case, in the event that you want to collect cartridge cases for reloading. The Blazers seem to be pretty potent hollowpoints, so you pays your money and takes your pick.