The Review

Without any way to test terminal performance, we decided to see if the Federal Syntech Defence 138gr SJHP, that Widener's sent me, would fire and function in a variety of pistols.

All shooting was at 7 yards with Marv, Willard and I trading off the shooting duties.

First off, can you really claim it's in 9mm Luger if a Luger won't shoot it?



I loaded seven round and got two stoppages.  The second of which jammed the nose of the round hard against the back of the barrel.

Many pics below the cut:

Accuracy was ho-hum, but I mentioned previously I hate my new glasses and I haven't been getting to the range as often as I'd like.

Next up was my brand new Glock 45.

I loaded up nine rounds, including the two that were mangled by the Luger.  Ugh.  Using the wrong part of the glasses makes me shoot low.

After we shot all the other pistols I loaded up some Blazer Brass 115gr FMJ and checked to see what the Glock 45 did with cheap range fodder.

I then used up the last of the Syntech:

Although the size of the group is related to my shooting, I'd like to think that expensive ($16 per 20) would group a bit tighter than cheap ($13.85 per 50) practice ammo.

I know I've seen tighter groups with Hornady's Critical Duty ammo than with Blazer in my M&P 9.

Besides the Luger, only two other guns refused to feed the Syntech well.

A Llama XIIB (Willard shooting): the second round crunched against the top of the barrel but was easily cleared.

And a Maadi Helwan (Willard):  The first round didn't want to feed but was cleared by tapping the back of the slide.

The Beretta made model 1951 (Me shooting) ate all five rounds without trouble.

I have to note that all of these guns (except the Glock 45) have been tried by us before and all of them shot to point of aim with PMC 115gr JHP.

Except for the three guns noted above, all functioned fine for their five round "endurance" test.

Walther P1 (Marv):

Zastava CZ999 (Marv):

Beretta M9 (Me): This group really underscores the erratic accuracy of this round.  My M9 would have all five rounds touching with PMC.

Daewoo DP51 (Me):

Astra A-75L (Willard):

S&W Model 915 (Willard):

S&W M&P 9 Shield 1.0 (Marv):

Husqvarna m/40 "Lahti" (Marv):

Taurus PT99AF (Me): The round outside my circle is from Willard generously allowing another shooter to try out the Lahti and her shooting at the wrong target.

Star Super B (Me):

Kel Tec SUB-2000 (Marv):

All of the guns fired have fired to point of aim for all of us before with PMC, Remington and Magtech 115gr FMJ.

This stuff might drop a bad-guy like a 45-70 slamming into a mouse, but we've no way of testing that.

If it does stop like that, then the so-so accuracy and erratic divergence from the point of aim can be somewhat forgiven since all the rounds do hit minute of badguy.