Well, I wound up doing what I said I wasn't and can officially pronounce this stuff as junk. I'd like to say I was bold, but the truth is I was just too lazy to carry it back to Walmart this morning. I hated to take back an open box of bulk ammo, as well. Figured it might be a hassle, but the sealed box is certainly gonna be exchanged for some Winchester or other brand. I sort of hand tumbled it a bit in an old towel, but it didn't clean up much.
Took it and my new Charger to the range this afternoon and things started out dismally. I loaded the factory mag and 3 hi-cap mags before I left home. I think it was a combination of bad ammo and the gun requiring some break in, but I couldn't get 4 straight shots out of any of the mags. All that made it to the chamber without jamming shot, but not that well. The report from about a quarter of them was noticably lighter than the others. Obviously underpowered. All of the initial jams were FTFeeds that I would lay on the gun needing a little seating in. I cleaned it before shooting it the first time, but I didn't detail strip it. Perhaps I should have, but that straightened itself out after about a hundred rounds. I did have to discard a half dozen rounds that were bent to badly to retry. The ones that weren't damaged shot OK. I sure got tired of clearing it, though.
However, that's not the end of the story. Once the gun smoothed out, about once a mag, I'd get a stovepipe FTE. I always knew when it was gonna happen, though, because those were always the light rounds and I could hear that they weren't right as soon as I pulled the trigger. I did manage to get around 350 rounds down the pipe, but I can't say it was all that enjoyable. That said, I do think the gun is gonna be enjoyable once I get some decent ammo.
This Charger is more of a fun gun than anything you'd find useful, not that there's anything wrong with a fun gun. Shooting it is a hoot and accuracy is good enough for a plinking pistol, but I don't think I'll ever be able to control it well enough to shoot squirrels. Even though it's a 10/22 varient, it's really nothing like one. It's too front heavy and unbalanced for a small caliber pistol and keeping it on target isn't easy. That's probably why they put the bi-pod on it, however it didn't seem to help much. I'm sure I could give a bunch of cans hell, but I'm afraid I wouldn't put poor squirrels through my ineptness. I shot mostly steel today, but would estimate my groups at around 4 inches, with quite a few flyers, hopefully ammo related. I'll probably improve, but really don't see this thing becoming a competent hunting firearm, even with decent ammo. But, I am looking forward to giving it a workout with some.
I don't regret buying it at all. I knew it was somewhat of a specialty gun and I think it'll be a lot of fun once I shake all the bugs out of it. It's pretty and it's unique. Beyond that, I figure anything else it gives me is gravy.
I'm happy, but I'll be much happier once I learn what she likes to eat. She sure pukes on this Federal bulk stuff. Not sure I'll be buying more bricks than I intend to shoot in the future.
