This is my preferred carry load for the Glock-26. Once upon a time the 9BPLE was colloquially known in some gun-circles as the Illinois State Police Load. ISP was the first major USA law enforcement agency to transition from revolvers to semi-auto pistols. The 9mm S&W Model 39 was the first issued ISP duty semi-auto and initially had problems feeding hollowpoint ammo ... the 9mm ball ammo fed well but did not have much of a reputation for stopping murderous miscreants any more reliably than did the .38 special. Federal's ammunition designers came up with a standard pressure 115-grain hollowpoint (Federal 9BP) that proved to feed reliably but it occasionally failed to expand in tissue. The higher pressure of the 9BPLE load provided the added velocity needed for the bullet to reliably expand, making it a widely recognized high-percentage stopper for the dire situations that patrolman often faced.
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The Glock 26 pictured above is the gun that I used for my initial Illinois concealed carry qualification (just under 5-years-ago) and I have not had it to the range since (shame on me). I haven't carried it very often since I purchased the Glock 43. It is still an old friend, an easy pistol to shoot; it is accurate and reliable; the standard 10-round magazines make reloads easy to manage at each of the 3 distances mandated for the 30-round qualification. I have a concealed-carry-license renewal coming up shortly; this pistol will again see me through. The range session that I wrote about farther down the page was just a dress rehearsal for my as yet unscheduled official qualification session (which will likely be sometime in May).
Except for the thickness, the 10-round Glock 26 has the same overall dimensions as the 6-round Glock 43. The grip length on both pistols feels awkward (to me) especially in the palm area of the hand. Because of my preference for +P loads, I need the pinky-finger magazine extensions on both the G26 and G43 to help me manage the extra recoil-generated "jumpiness". Boot-gripped J-frame S&W revolvers feel better in my hand but the mini-Glocks are noticeably easier for me to shoot; it's nice to do a range session and not have my arthritic hand torture me for a couple weeks afterwards; handgun shooting is a repetitive stress that can aggravate old hand and wrist injuries.
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Target set at 15-feet (5-yards)
Yeah, that photo pretty much shows how my old eyes sees the target.
My left eye is better than my right eye so I shoot cross-dominant. In the photo above, my first 10-rounds have been fired at the target; can you see the bullet holes? Black targets always seem hard for me to work with. Sooooo we'll have to wheel in the target to see how I did.
Okay. First 10-rounds were good enough at 15-feet ...
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Target set at 21-feet (7-yards)
Yep, just as I thought. The first 7-rounds fired at 21-feet were okey-dokey then I pushed 3-rounds down LOW. The pair of rounds that are marked in yellow were still in the scoring zone but the round marked in red is a MISS. If a bullet-hole is not in the numbers it does not count in Illinois; if I put 30-rounds in the head of the silhouette during a qualification I just wasted time and ammo, my score is ZERO. 21-rounds out of the required total 30-rounds fired (10-rounds each distance) must land somewhere on or inside the 7-ring of the target.
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Target set at 30-feet (10-yards)
Only a single round (marked in yellow) of the 10-rounds fired at 30-feet was outside the 9-ring; the other rounds clustered in with the bulk of the others.
Final phase of this qualification drill, only 10-rounds to go. Okay, let's see if I can regain my marginal mojo. FOCUS, BREATHE, SQUEEZE, RESET; FOCUS, BREATHE, SQUEEZE, RESET
For this exercise session, of the required 30-rounds, 29-rounds were in the scoring rings ... BUT there are some instructors who do not like making judgement calls about how many bullets went through a ragged hole; if the instructor believes that 21-rounds did not go inside the scoring rings then it is a reshoot ...
Some instructors are adamant about counting only "distinguishable holes"... if this practice session was the real deal with such an instructor, all shooters in the class likely would have received directions beforehand to "SPREAD THEM OUT!"
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This was one of my better days and I had 25-rounds of ammo and a miniature target left in the bag ... so I decided to have some fun and push into my zones of suckiness.
Mini-Target set at 45-feet (15-yards)
Above is the target after 5-rounds.
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Above is the target after 15-rounds
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Above is the target after 25-rounds
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Above is the target after 15-rounds
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Above is the target after 25-rounds
Were all 25-rounds "on paper?"
well ... let's see ... hmmm
7 of the "distinguishable holes" were outside of the scoring rings.
7 of the "distinguishable holes" were outside of the scoring rings.
12 of the "distinguishable holes" were inside the scoring rings.
I'm confident that I could argue that at least 4-rounds made the "ragged hole" inside the 8-ring.
That leaves 2-rounds unaccounted for ...
The zone of suckiness wins again.
The zone of suckiness wins again.
55-rounds total for the day
Good fun.
Good fun.