First rounds

Finally took my P3 to the range, little pistol worked like a champ.

When I 1st bought it, gave it a clean/lube. Hand cycled the Corbon & Speer JHPs I got with the gun, both would occasionally FTF. So I gave it a F&B, lubed it back up, all better. Started buying FMJs whenever I could find them till I had enough for a range trip and still have enough left over. Painted the sights, padded front/rear of the grip w/strips of mouse pad, sanded down the trigger/guard, and stretched the bicycle tube sleeve on it. Also painted the top chamfer on the rear of the hammer yellow. That helped me stage the trigger without adding the eraser stop.

Went with Federal American Eagle 1st as that was the only round nose I could get my hands on; wanted to give the P3 best chance starting off. Fired fine, good accuracy at 7 yards. Recoil was impressive, but not too difficult for me to control. I have small hands and regularly do pull-ups, so I have strong forearms. After a couple of mags of FAE, switched over to Winchester White Box, also cycled perfectly. Felt recoil was about the same to me as the FAE, accuracy was also comparable.

Couple mags of that, switched to Speer Gold Dots. Cycled perfectly, felt recoil/accuracy the same. Then came the Corbon JHP. Definitely felt an increase in recoil. Rapidfire accuracy less due to having a harder time getting back on target, but slow fire accuracy comparable.

Didn't have much of the Corbon or Speer, after 10 rds of each, switched back to the FMJs for some mags at 15 yards. Had a much tougher time getting good groups out to there. Shot some of both FMJs before bringing it back to 7 yards for the final rounds of FMJ I was going to use up. Shooting at 15 seemed to help me get even tighter goups at 7, an indication that the pistol shoots on point, it's just me that has to get better with the pistol.

Shot off a total of 120 rounds, no problems at all with any of them! I've read some think it is not a pleasant pistol to shoot with, and while not a soft shooter, I enjoyed shooting the P3. No pain in the web of my hand (I'm sure padding helped), only a slight discomfort on the front/bottom of my trigger finger, despite sanding the inside of the trigger guard smooth. Not enough for my to want to use gloves next trip, but I will try a band aid on my finger for protection.

Disassembled/cleaned immediately when I got to my girlfrinds house, not too dirtly at all for the rounds fired, probably could have shot off another 75-100 rnds reliably. Only concern is a slight dink I noticed on the top/right side of the aluminum frame directly across from the ejector, like if some part of the slide was hitting it slightly. I'm going to put a small chamfer on it, paint it black with marker, and see if it shows signs of contact on the next trip.

Overall very happy with the gun. And one of the cool things about an inexpensive little pistol like this is that I can "customize" it at will without having to worry about affecting resale price like I would if I had purchased a [insert name of expensive gun here]. Kind of like me not having any qualms about taking my 98 Z28 daily driver to Wally World, but no way would I take a [insert name of expensive vehicle here]. The p3 is going to be my pistol daily driver. ;-)

 

Thanks for the welcome. Nope, not my 1st gun, but I actually haven't shot a pistol in years, I've been heavy into cars/drag racing for a while. But recently saw someone post up about his new P3 on a car forum. Liked the way it looked, compact size, 380 is a credible round IMO.

I did some research on the net on the P3, started reading about the recoil, people saying it was unpleasant to shoot, almost went to the P32 instead. But then I saw a vid on youtube of some guy showing his 50+ mom how to shoot it... decided it couldn't be that bad. I mean if I had big hands or stiff joints, maybe might not be for me. But thought it's size might work for me, decided to check one out in person. Went to look at one @ LGS, liked the way it fit my small hands, light weight, how easy it slipped into my pocket, it came home with me.

Ser no is K42xx OG. Will post up pics tomorrow, taking GF out for lunch, shopping. Plan on stopping by Wally's and maybe Academy looking for more ammo.

 

Wally World had zip, but Academy had a full shelf of ammo. 32, 357, 9mm, 44, you name it, they had it, including 8 boxes of 50 rd 380 WWB. I grabbed 4. Bad part is the price wasn't as nice as the last time I found 100 rd boxes there. $20 box/50 vs ~ $32 box/100. Just hoping all the ammo on the shelf, plus this being my 2nd trip there in a row I found 380, means the pipeline might be filling again.

Here is a pic showing the bike tube sleeve. I did the 1st one to a drawing I found on the net, but the front seemed a little short. So I did a 2nd one with the front about 1/8" higher so it would come up on the bottom of the trigger guard. Also left the rear strip of mouse pad long so it would protect the web of my hand when the muzzle flipped up.



And here is one of me holding it. Ignore the stray camera strap. :embarrassed:

Thanks for the info, will just ignore it for now. As far as a holster, have not decided yet. I've been totally focused on finding ammo, then trying out the different rounds I found to verify reliable performance thru my pistol.