As some of you might recall, I posted in a previous thread about the FTF problems I experienced with my R9. In 120 rounds over two different range sessions I had 13 or 14 failures, where the nose of the bullet lodged up against the top of the chamber. I know there were some other people experiencing this same problem.
After talking with Karl about it, one thing he recommended is that I try shooting it one handed.
Today I shot 25 rounds of 124gr Gold Dots, one handed, and I didn't have a single failure. I stopped at 25 rounds because I wanted to quit while I was ahead. I'll shoot another 25 rounds when I get a chance and if I have no problems with those, I'll consider the gun reliable enough to carry.
I'm used to burning through two or three hundred rounds at a time with my favorite 1911, so shooting only 25 rounds seems a bit strange. But I'd never shoot as many as 25 rounds in a self defense situation, so I figure 25 flawlees rounds at a time is plenty good enough for this gun.
As to the one handed shooting, even though I normally shoot all of my guns with a two handed grip, a one handed grip is likely to be how I would get off the first shot in a self defense situation, and I actually thought the felt recoil of the R9 was less with a one handed grip.
I'll experiment later on with a two handed grip again, but for now I'm pretty darn happy that I don't need to send the gun back to the factory.
Oh, and even though it's obvious, I thought I'd mention that this seems to confirm the problem was indeed caused by some peculiarity of my shooting/grip style and not by the gun itself, except to say that the small size and design of the gun does probably make it more much more sensitive to variations in shooting style than a larger gun.
