9mm Shooting
The most valuable feature of these new guns is the extra 9mm Luger cylinder assembly that makes them affordable to shoot. The 9mm and .38 Special loads were also similar enough in their recoil and point of impact characteristics that I’d be inclined to do all my actual shooting practice with the 9mm, which can be had for as little as $13 per 50-round box. By comparison, a 50-round box of ordinary .38 Special runs from $25 to $35 — 48% to 63% more! It takes a lot of practice to shoot a revolver accurately in double-action at ranges greater than the length of a dinner table, and Charter Arms has drastically reduced the cost of developing that skill set.
Charter Arms addressed the fundamental challenge of adapting a rimless cartridge to a revolver in a clever way that employs tiny ball detent-type locks built into the ejector that engage each cartridge’s extraction groove. Moon clips aren’t needed and, in fact, can’t be used with this design.
I found it generally worked well when the pistol was held with the muzzle up and the ejector rod struck smartly. If I pushed the ejector rod slowly, as I do when I’m trying to capture my spent cases in the palm of my hand, the case rims have a tendency to detach from their tiny, spring-loaded extractor buttons and end up getting pushed back into the chambers when the ejector is released. At present, the ejector rod is about 1/8″ too short to get the mouth of the cases past the outer edge of the chamber, where they can more easily fall clear regardless of position.
Ejection problems are typical of most compact revolvers, so I see this as just a minor twist to that old, annoying theme. If the ejector rod was made just a little longer, I expect most of the 9mm cylinder’s ejection quirks would disappear. As is, their design is very convenient for range use but not recommended for self-defense since extraction isn’t 100% reliable, and a fast tactical reload with a speedloader is essentially impossible. That’s a shame since there are so many great 9mm self-defense loads available today. If you are among the surprisingly large number of people who carry a concealed handgun with no extra ammunition, then reload speed is completely irrelevant. In that case, there’s no argument to make against using your favorite high-performing 9mm JHP load.
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