hsart
09-23-2009, 08:32 AM
Writing this to help purchase decisions for my fellow handgunners. I am a 60 y.o. non-military or police. Interest is personal defense of home and family, and concealed carry. Some neuro problems in hands so was particularly interested in recoil issues. Other handguns - Glock 19. Ammo used for the first firing - Speer Lawman FMJ 230 gr and Remington UMC FMJ 230 gr.
I was surprised that my hands were able to get a good grip with my pinky finger resting on the bottom edge of the mag. I was expecting a heavy recoil, but I would estimate that recoil was only 20% heavier than my Glock 19 9mm, which surprised me – was expecting much hotter recoil. In fact I would categorize the PM45 recoil as between light to moderate and should be able to be handled easily by most. I have some hand and wrist problems and was wondering how many rounds I would be able to shoot before tiring. After a series of 20 rounds in my G19, then 70 rounds in the PM45, and another 20 in the G19, there was absolutely no issues or fatigue, and absolutely no marks or rubs on my hands, though I did notice that during firing the grips felt a bit rougher than my G19. I did notice that recapturing the frontsight after each shot required very slightly more time than the 9mm Glock, but certainly in the hardly noticeable category. Trigger release was longer than I am used to and wonder how that would affect speed of multi-round firing, since the trigger reset needed to go forward almost all the way to reset. I would suspect that the long trigger reset plus the heavier recoil together would considerably slow down a 3-shot sequence. Trigger pull was smooth though. The magazine, most of the time would not drop and needed to be pulled out. Not sure whether a quicker press of the mag release button will solve this or perhaps just the breaking in of the gun will loosen it up. I was also expecting that my groupings would be quite a bit wider than the Glock which I shoot regularly (3000-4000 rounds through it this year), since the PM45 is not broken in and first time shooting a .45. Once again the difference was not too noticeable, though I was shooting a little low at times. I purchased the PM45 because I wanted a concealable handgun with the most stopping power, figuring that if it was too hot to handle I would sell it and get the PM9. Ammo also seems to be getting easier to find now through a few online sources. So far it looks like a keeper.
I was surprised that my hands were able to get a good grip with my pinky finger resting on the bottom edge of the mag. I was expecting a heavy recoil, but I would estimate that recoil was only 20% heavier than my Glock 19 9mm, which surprised me – was expecting much hotter recoil. In fact I would categorize the PM45 recoil as between light to moderate and should be able to be handled easily by most. I have some hand and wrist problems and was wondering how many rounds I would be able to shoot before tiring. After a series of 20 rounds in my G19, then 70 rounds in the PM45, and another 20 in the G19, there was absolutely no issues or fatigue, and absolutely no marks or rubs on my hands, though I did notice that during firing the grips felt a bit rougher than my G19. I did notice that recapturing the frontsight after each shot required very slightly more time than the 9mm Glock, but certainly in the hardly noticeable category. Trigger release was longer than I am used to and wonder how that would affect speed of multi-round firing, since the trigger reset needed to go forward almost all the way to reset. I would suspect that the long trigger reset plus the heavier recoil together would considerably slow down a 3-shot sequence. Trigger pull was smooth though. The magazine, most of the time would not drop and needed to be pulled out. Not sure whether a quicker press of the mag release button will solve this or perhaps just the breaking in of the gun will loosen it up. I was also expecting that my groupings would be quite a bit wider than the Glock which I shoot regularly (3000-4000 rounds through it this year), since the PM45 is not broken in and first time shooting a .45. Once again the difference was not too noticeable, though I was shooting a little low at times. I purchased the PM45 because I wanted a concealable handgun with the most stopping power, figuring that if it was too hot to handle I would sell it and get the PM9. Ammo also seems to be getting easier to find now through a few online sources. So far it looks like a keeper.