How Reviews Work at the Gentleman Gunner along with the Drills that are Used!
How Reviews Work
Every review should be relevant to the shooter in mind, not why we think it’s special
Enthusiast - Reviewing a gun for Key Decisions a performance shooter will want to know.
Goal - Express and evaluate key points a performance oriented shooter will want in order to make an informed decision
Price, Availability, and Whats included
Validating Factory Claims and Key Features
Shooting Impressions
Price Availability and What’s included
Price - what is the value proposition and what category (Race gun, Compact, Performance, etc…)
Availability - what is the current market condition mainly? Hard to get, long wait, etc…
What’s Included - touch on what comes with it and considerations you may have to buy such as extra mags, holster, etc…
Validate Factory claims and Key features
Review Key Features that are important to the performance shooter
What actually makes them special for a performance oriented shooter
Is there any competitor or supporting data/evidence to validate what differentiates said features
Shooting impression - Controlled and Dynamic
Controlled - to help develop a clear baseline which in turn highlights the guns shooting characteristics in accuracy, manipulation, recoil impulse, variances, aggressive loading (doubles) and Transitions. This is the Gentleman Gunner Evaluation test!
Dynamic - this is a parameter involves a situational use that truly will test and verify not only the function and shooting impressions… but get a solid use case as close to “real-world” as possible. An example… shooting a match!
Serious Shooter - supplemental to the Enthusiast videos, this dives deeper into the long-term use case a performance shooter may need to consider
Goal - follow up any concerns, confirm reliability and ownership - video is supplemental to the Enthusiast
Concerns - Typically items that need to break in such as trigger pulls, slide fit, etc… any baseline reliability issues found earlier
Reliability
Multiple ammo tested at this point
Additional Dynamic Shooting events
Ownership
Maintenance - ease of maintenance and cleaning
Warranty/Custom Service if applicable
Pride of ownership
Controlled Drills
Doubles Drill
Procedure - Shoot 5 strings of 5 doubles (10 rounds each string) on an IPSC Target at 10 yards. Record avg split time and review target footage later for grouping of each string
What is being Evaluated?
Avg split time
Group size
Recoil impulse
How the gun returns under intense use
Why is it relevant? Controllability under rapid fire can reveal the performance and handling characteristics that shooters may endeavor whether having fun or trying to engage a close target (which many gun fights are in close quarters).
25yd Bill Drill
Procedure - Shoot 5 strings of 6 rounds (30 rounds total) at an IDPA Target set @ 25yds. Gun must be drawn from a barrel as well as with the safety on. Record hits on target after reviewing the footage.
What is being Evaluated?
Total Time
Hits on the target giving 5 points for Alphas (8” circle), 3 points for Charlies and 1 point for Deltas
Hit Factor - Hits on Target divided by Time; a higher score is ideal here
Recoil impulse
Return to Zero
General Accuracy
Ease of getting on target (ie picking the gun up from the barrel)
Why is it relevant? This highlights the ease of acquiring a desired target, handling, and return to Zero. A test under duress of this nature not only see how well the gun operates… but how accurate and consistent it is to hit an optimal zone. This where you see the difference in quality of the trigger job, overall weight, compensator (if applicable), and ergonomics are brought to light
Transition Drill
Procedure - placing 3 USPSA Targets at distances of 10, 15, and 20 yards with 3 yards of spacing each as well as placing one 12” steel plate at 10yds placed 3 yards to the left of the 20 yard target. Beginning at low-ready racing the base of the steel plate, you will shoot the steel plate once then shoot the 20yd target with 2 rounds then back to the steel plate with round and repeat until you finish your last round on the steel plate. Record time and go and tape all targets while recording hits on paper (5 points for Alphas, 3 points for Charlies and 1 point for Deltas).
What is being Evaluated?
Total Time
Hits on the target giving 5 points for Alphas, 3 points for Charlies and 1 point for Deltas
Hit Factor - Hits on Target divided by Time; a higher score is ideal here
How the Gun swings from target to target
How well it settles and returns to zero
Accuracy
Why is it relevant? This supplements the other drills by extrapolating how well a gun maneuvers under pressure. How well a gun recovers and moves on is critical to getting maximum performance and accuracy while shooting multiple targets. Ergonomics, balance, weight play a crucial part in what separates cheap from great. Typically, heavier guns will be affected here but on high-end guns… balance can make up for weight. This drill also can put lighter guns such as Glocks in a spot light as less mass tends to maneuver much easier from target to target.
Dynamic Shooting
To make a well rounded review in terms of shooting performance… having controlled drills can highlight the design and intended performance attributes in optimal manner. However, in the real world… we don’t have optimal conditions so we need less than ideal to see where these guns stand.
I tend to choose matches for this purpose because its designed to be as close to a real world scenario as possible. I literally just signup for local match and run as is to keep it as “dynamic” as possible. While this is weighted heavily on my performance as a shooter… I tend to leave out match scores and/or focus on winning (if it happens, it happens)… you can look up match score though if you’re curious as I leave my profile public.
What happens usually is that I verify the shooting traits from the data on the controlled drills in addition to finding out how practical the gun is. There are times where I love how a gun shoots… but drawing, manipulating around barriers and performing reloads stands out on this. There also times where I can have the ideal grip in the controlled drills but then I find out that a gun can be hard to hold and shoot accurately or even cause a malfunction because I’m in a situation that induces less than perfect results such as shooting on a hard lean.