Dear Sport Shooters,
Togehther with some shooting buddies, we thought to testfire some compact .45s for combat and target shooting and we were amazed at the results of the ol' 4516 from S&W.
We are no professionals but in the handgun sport shooting for more than 20 years (oh no..) and pretty accustomized to handguns.
On trial were the H&K USP Compact .45 against the Glock 36 and Colt Defender, and just for fun i packed along my slighlty modified 4516, i will come to that in just a moment.
We were using light FMJ reloads (200gr with 4,6gr titegroup and 230gr with 4,4 gr titegroup) that gave us fine results, as well as the standard stiff loaded 230grs from Remington, that gives quit a jolt.
The H&K and Glock, as usual, showed nice performance overall, followed by the 4516 & Defender. I will not get into boring details here.
But what was a little surprising, was how properly and fast we could draw and empty the 4516.
Although initially not as good in the hands like the USP Compact or the Colt when picking up, the 4516 seems to have a natural fast draw and shoot ability, at least for us.
Of course follow up shots were quicker due to his weight, okay, but that's good, isn't it?
We just were astounded how good this old pistol was in comparision to newer H&Ks and Glocks. The Colt did fine, too and pointed also quiet naturally, but i must admit that the H&K and Glock would be the safer choice and are hard to beat.
My 4516 was somewhat modified in that it had the safetylever and slide release drilled and dremel'd down, to give it a smoother overall feeling and nothing to hang on when drawing and power racking(see pics).
The 4516 had quit a smooth operation altogether, which led to longer sessions with it, with only one jam on the full power loads from Remington, but probably i need to change the mainspring.
This is how we "re"discovered how good this discontinued S&W is
Just wanted to share that and state that the 4516 can be quit and still is (in our opinion) a good compact combat handgun.
"keep you powder dry..."
Steve
Togehther with some shooting buddies, we thought to testfire some compact .45s for combat and target shooting and we were amazed at the results of the ol' 4516 from S&W.
We are no professionals but in the handgun sport shooting for more than 20 years (oh no..) and pretty accustomized to handguns.
On trial were the H&K USP Compact .45 against the Glock 36 and Colt Defender, and just for fun i packed along my slighlty modified 4516, i will come to that in just a moment.
We were using light FMJ reloads (200gr with 4,6gr titegroup and 230gr with 4,4 gr titegroup) that gave us fine results, as well as the standard stiff loaded 230grs from Remington, that gives quit a jolt.
The H&K and Glock, as usual, showed nice performance overall, followed by the 4516 & Defender. I will not get into boring details here.
But what was a little surprising, was how properly and fast we could draw and empty the 4516.
Although initially not as good in the hands like the USP Compact or the Colt when picking up, the 4516 seems to have a natural fast draw and shoot ability, at least for us.
Of course follow up shots were quicker due to his weight, okay, but that's good, isn't it?
We just were astounded how good this old pistol was in comparision to newer H&Ks and Glocks. The Colt did fine, too and pointed also quiet naturally, but i must admit that the H&K and Glock would be the safer choice and are hard to beat.
My 4516 was somewhat modified in that it had the safetylever and slide release drilled and dremel'd down, to give it a smoother overall feeling and nothing to hang on when drawing and power racking(see pics).
The 4516 had quit a smooth operation altogether, which led to longer sessions with it, with only one jam on the full power loads from Remington, but probably i need to change the mainspring.
This is how we "re"discovered how good this discontinued S&W is
Just wanted to share that and state that the 4516 can be quit and still is (in our opinion) a good compact combat handgun.
"keep you powder dry..."
Steve
