New Pics!!: My New Toy

silver_pilate

silver_pilate

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
3,974
This little fella came in today, and after a little paperwork and a phone call, he got to come home with me.

I've had an eye out for one of these for several month now and finally broke down and picked one up off a dealer on Gun Broker:

EMP.jpg


It's a Springfield EMP 9mm. It's got a 3" barrel. ambi safeties, and 9+1 capacity. Springfield took the standard 1911 frame and massaged it/re-engineered it around the shorter 9mm cartridge. The result is a smaller front-to-back grip width which fits my hand perfectly. The grips are G10, and it's got night sights. Comes with three 9-round mags as well as a little composite holster and mag pouch. I'm going to pick up some Alumagrips soon, and maybe some custom wood grips later on.

I also picked up a couple hundred rounds of 9mm ball ammo to start breaking it in and some Gold Dots to try out the JHP's. Should be a fun weekend at the old homestead :D. That's one benefit of growing up in the country: my shooting range was my back yard. I'm gonna have to go see the folks this weekend and do some plinking.

--nathan
 
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Sweet. Not a fan of 9mm (personal bias) but that is a nice looking handgun!

Have fun breaking it in and give us a range report soon.
 
Thanks, Wade. I've had .45's, .380's, and .40's in the past, and it's hard to beat the good old .45, but I wanted to be able to shoot a lot of rounds, and the bigger ammo eats the wallet up pretty fast. I chose 9mm for this one because there's plenty of bulk deals for quality 9mm out there, and I can spend a longer day at the range before I'm limp-wristing everything :). And when it comes to it, 9mm in the right place with the right load will be enough for daily carry protection. My last gun I had for carry was a little Walther PPKS, and I wanted something a tad more substantial this go round.

I'll let you know how it does.

--Nathan
 
very nice Nathan . Stock up on the ammo before we can no longer get it . There are a lot of behind the scene things going on in the government these days trying to restrict gun and ammo sales .
 
Great new toy. I love my kimber ultra. It's a 45 but similar concept, how small can we make a 1911 and still be a 1911 and reliable.

My only suggestion is to not be surprised if you have reliability issues with certain ammo and to check into different strength springs if you do. The smaller they get the more touchy they get to that. Mine actually requires a significantly stronger spring than usual and I have to replace it more often. On the other hand, as long as the ammo's good, and the spring isn't worn, it is 100%. I imagine the same is true of the EMP.
eta: I don't mean stronger than a full size version, that's a given, but the default spring for my kimber was not sufficient for most defensive ammo, only lighter practice loads. +p would jam almost every magazine with the stock spring, and regular defensive would jam maybe once every other mag. A heavier spring and it's happy, but sometimes has issues if I make my reloads too gentle. They're fun in the full size but not reliable in the compact.

I actually considered the EMP's a while back but decided that if I was adding a 9mm to the collection I'd go with higher capacity and something I loved in the past. Wound up with an HK USP-C. Not as slim and concealable as the EMP though.
 
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Remy, I know that earlier run EMP's were having some issues with FTF and FTE. Some tweaking of the feed ramp and extractor solved most problems, but some had to get the champers worked. There were also some mag issues causing FTF. Later serial number EMP's have been really reliable with varieties of ammo.

One potential drawback to the EMP and several other sub compact 1911's is that the recoil spring and spring guide are all one pre-assembled unit. It consists of a full-length guide rod, a dual recoil spring, and a captive recoil spring plug, so changing springs isn't really an option. The good thing is that SA's stock springs are pretty firm as is.

From talking with other EMP owners, it seems that if you break them in well and lube them well, they'll handle most loads with no trouble. I do know SA recommends replacing the recoil spring assembly after so many rounds, so I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Jack, as soon as another paycheck hits my account, I'm going hunting for some bulk ammo buys (as well as a holster).

--nathan
 
I saw an EMP not long ago at the local gunstore (Gun Shack). It was silver with the B & W G10 slabs. Dang thing nearly broke my neck on the double take. They sure are pretty guns. I had to summon up all the will power I had to walk out of there without it. If you are looking for an IWB holster I'll suggest the crossbreed supertuck. I guarantee that with the EMP you'll forget you have it on you and nobody's going to see it either!
 
The Crossbreed supertuck is in my plan, Ed. Looks to be a very comfortable and easily concealed holster. Gun Shack did the FFL transfer for me, and I saw the same one you did. They've had two in in the last two months (a 9mm and a .40), and both sold. She said that almost everyone who had come in had picked up the EMP when she had them in stock.

--nathan
 
Range report:

Well, I got to take the EMP to the homestead today and put it through a bit of break in. I ended up running 220 rounds total consisting of a mix of 115 gr. Remington and Winchester FMJ, and finished off with a couple of mags of Speer Gold Dot JHP's.

First off, I really enjoyed the 9mm's. Compared to the .45 I used to shoot a lot, this little guy is a pleasure to shoot. Not that I didn't enjoy or had trouble with the .45, but the 9mm is pleasant over a bunch of rounds.

The gun shot very well. Not a single FTF or FTE. Not a signle hickup. And it's as accurate as I can make it be at 10 yards. My mom even got out and shot a few rounds, and her first shot was a a bullseye (my mom for whom this was the second or third round she has ever shot in her life). As for me, I was mostly 2" left of my point of aim. About 1/2 way through, I did start to diagnose my problem. I was anticipating the shot/recoil and not simply squeezing it off. It's been a few years since I've shot pistol, so I've got a few bad habbits to break again. When I did start squeezing the shots off better, my aim was dead center, but I'm still getting used to the 6 o'clock sight picture to get things lined up in vertical.

Anyway, I'm very pleased. Now I just need to find a few 1000 round box deals and spend some time at the range. After the break in, there was no trouble with the JHP Gold Dots.

--nathan
 
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If you can stand the wait, a milt sparks Versa Max 2 is as good as it gets for iwb.

That's annoying that it's a completely captured unit. The kimber is a captured spring but also a larger main recoil spring you can change easily. Glad to hear it went well, it's always frustrating when a new gun just doesn't want to perform.

For ammo, I've found sgammo.com is often a good source. Not all the time, but they get deals in pretty regularly and tend to stock a good selection of defensive ammo at great prices. There's lots of other sources, but they're the main one I've used lately and they tend to not show up in the usual searches so I figured I'd mention them.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, Remy. I've had several people recommend the Sparks VM2. Looks like a good holster for sure.

As for the spring, I'm going to go ahead and order a spare from SA so that when it's time to change out, I'll have it on hand. I'm just glad the gun seems to be working well after hearing about some of the issues with earlier serial numbers. My old Para P12 had some reliability issues, and I never trusted it to carry. Part of it I'm sure was me limp-wristing, but even with that, I had tons of stovepipes and FTF's and even some failure to fires with inconsistent primer hits.

Thanks for the ammo site as well! I'll check them out.

--nathan
 
Got my Alumagrips in today. They're thinner and really help the feel of the gun in hand. Plus, they're a lot smoother against the body, but still plenty of grip for holding on to the gun:

3b10cbc3.jpg


--nathan
 
Nathan, that's a sexy little pistol!!! It's got those 1911 looks but shorter I like that alot.

hmmmmmmm pistol's in the works next I think.....

can you get an in hand shot please?
 
Sure thing:

4103ce7b.jpg


This 3" 1911 in 9mm shoots great. I had a 3.5" .45ACP 1911, and it was a lot of gun to control. The 9mm round matches up great with this size pistol, and it's small and thin: easy to concealed carry.

--nathan
 
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