OK Jim. Here it is. It's not a full on review because I forgot to take pictures. I saved my targets so I might photo them if I don't decide my shooting is just too embarrassing to share.
It's bigger than my P32 but not by much at all. It's lighter than the Bryco-Jennings J22 that I have carried from time to time. I think it's just right for a pocket gun; like my P32. I'm looking forward to getting a P3AT to compare apples to apples.
I spent last night tearing it down, cleaning, re-lubing and generally "working" the parts. I ran the slide 100 times, took off the slide and ran the hammer in to the meat of my hand 100 times, and used an old tootbrush to work the magazine 100 times. That should be plenty of break-in.
At the range, my boy was shooting his Ruger SR22. His Weaver stance is improving, as is his accuracy, but the biggest thing is that he was having fun.
First off, lets get this out of the way. Yes, the sights suck. They're tiny, low contrast, and sewing needles have a longer sight radius. That said, my very first magazine produced a 3" group at 21 feet. OK, so that's not spectacular, but I'm not a spectacular shooter either.
The recoil is exactly comparable to my PF9, which I shot side-by-side with the 738. The 738's recoil felt maybe just a ittle-wittle bit less. Maybe. If you can shoot the PF9, you can shoot the 738. There's no comparing it to the P32, however. The P32's recoil is... well... when compared to the stout recoil on the 738, when you shoot the P32 you ask, "what recoil?"
The trigger is DAO. It is long but pretty smooth and not as heavy as I was afraid. Reminded me of the PF9 but I think the stroke on the PF9 is longer. Don't know for sure, but it seemed that way to me, anyhow.
As for accuracy... (I wrote this on another forum) It's plenty accurate for me.
First, let me caveat just a bit. 1) I'm not a top ranked Bullseye Shooter by any means. My eyesight isn't that good anymore and I doubt I had the skill when it was. I've gotten better since but now I have to wear reading glasses to see my sights. 2) As I was monitoring my 11yo son, one of his .22LR spent brasses kicked up and came straight down in between my glasses and my face. No serious injuries, of course, but it did poke me in my eye. My DOMINANT eye.
It watered and quite a bit and has been blurry ever since (about 1.5 hours now) with no signs of letting up today. I'll probably be OK tomorrow, but it really borked my shooting.
So, the crux of it is, I'm not the best person to ask if it is "MOA accurate?" Fair enough?
So, on to why I think it's accurate enough. After I poked my eye with a burning hot brass (literally), I went ahead and ran a standard 8" midway black-10-ring bullseye target out to 50 feet. I ran one mag (6 rounds) into it. Even with my aged, blurry, watery, injured dominant eye, I was able to keep all 6 on the paper and in the 8 ring. Now, bear in mind, that the last time I was shooting my P64, I put all rounds within ~2" group at the same distance, so I was clearly more accurate with the P64.
Neverthelss, the thing was
surprisingly accurate. Like I said, the sights pretty much suck, it has a long DAO trigger (though not particularly "heavy"), and the sight radius is pretty small, even if you're used to the P64.
Now, I know that you may have a different opinion than I do, and that's perfectly fine, but
I honestly don't have a good reason for expecting 8" groups at 75', never mind 2" groups, from a palm-sized personal defense gun. If I can keep 1' groups at 15', while under stress, with a SD handgun, then I think it's serving its intended purpose. Personally, I spend most of my handgun practice at between 21' and 30'. Sure, I do push out to 40 and 50 feet sometimes, but that's just for fun and to challenge myself.
Like I said, I kept all rounds on paper at 50 feet with this so I'm confident in its accuracy.
To be fair, I was more accurate with it today than I was with my PF9.
I was running Blazer Brass 95 gr. FMJ in the 380 and Federal 115 gr. FMJ in the PF9. I'll stick with the Blazer Brass FMJ for carry until I decide which uber-expensive SD round I'm going to go with. My top contenders are Cor-Bon Pow'rBall, Cor-Bon 90gr. JHP, and Speer Gold Dot, 90 gr.
Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
