13 December 2014: The FN Five-SeveN and the
Glock 42
Introduction
Today I decided to try out two handguns that
I am interested in: the FN Five-SeveN and the Glock 42.
This is basically a sort of review of the two guns, but it's
also an article about what I did at the range on this day.
The FN Five-SeveN
The first thing I noticed about this gun is that it's not abnormally large in hand. For a duty, or full size, handgun, it was easy to handle. It wasn't overly heavy, until loaded with ammo, but even then it wasn't that bad. I had no complaints about construction. The trigger felt wide for no apparent reason, so I didn't like the trigger as much, but it worked. The ambidextrous safety was fantastic. Now mentally 20 rounds seems like overkill, but the bullets aren't as wide in diameter as 9mm, so the grip wasn't abnormally wide, either. It felt about as wide as my Glock 19 (double stack 9mm).
I think what got me was how narrow the barrel is, and how small the ammo is. I usually thought of 5.7x28 as being almost as big as 5.56. Yeah, I'm a newbie. It was definitely not the size of 5.56. This is why I was thinking the gun was going to be heavy and have an overbearing recoil. I was wrong.
Shooting it wasn't so bad. It was a new gun, and I was more concerned with feel and recoil than trying to aim like a perfectionist. I was instantly amused at how small a hole it punched in the target. Supposedly these bullets are designed to yaw or tumble when they hit a soft target (humans). I guess if that's how they're compensating for the size of the bullet, so be it. I remember loving the P90 gun on Counter Strike "back in the day", but I am wondering about how much practicality a round that needs to tumble to be effective will be.
If I wanted a gun for the "zombie apocalypse", this would not be it, due to the lack of availability of the ammo in terms of scavenging, and how expensive it would be to stockpile. For the ZA, I'd prefer 9mm or 5.56 or 7.62.
The Glock 42
Oh my goodness! First, it's .380 ACP. I don't like how expensive .380 ACP is, nor 5.7x28, but .380 ACP is cheaper than 5.7x28, and more plentiful, believe it or not. You can get it in Federal Hydra-Shok and other good defense loads.
Second, the gun! It felt great! I am definitely buying this gun next, if I ever save up the money. It was very shootable, recoil was easy, and it felt great in my hand. This is definitely the gun I'd want to own for those situations where I need something .380 ACP that's small and easier to conceal than my Glock 19. Again, I didn't try to really aim very hard, I just wanted to experience recoil and feel. I love it!
Working On My Technique
The rest of what I did today was work on my technique. After 200 rounds today at 25 yards, I felt a lot better about my marksmanship, but I still want to improve more. After 200 rounds of hard concentration, the next thing I wanted to do is rent the Uzi and blast some stuff, but alas that wasn't an option. But what I did was work on my trigger technique, something that, apart from slowing down, my range officer and mentor thinks is my problem. Funny how I've gone through 1200 rounds as of today and never truly understood proper trigger technique as it applies to Glock (i.e. making sure your trigger pull is perfectly straight backwards). In chronological order:
