"try and" versus "try to"

You're absolutely correct. "Try and . . ." is almost always incorrect. For example, "I wanted to try and play tennis," suggests two different actions: to try and to play tennis. To try to play tennis suggests the act of attempting to play tennis, which would seem to be the point of the statement. To "try and . . ." is grammatical only if the "trying" and the "doing" should be noted as different actions, which, in most cases, they should not be.

I had a discussion about this with a language authority, which I can't cite at the moment because it's on an ailing computer, but the upshot is that this is actually an ancient usage, which also shows up in the form of "be sure and." It pretty much defies logic, but it is idiomatic, so opinions don't count. I don't like it either, but it has been part of the language for centuries. If I can resurrect my computer I will share the information I have (or had).

Peter

I have no issue with try and. I find it in respectable writing in art, academia, and science: (Emphases in the quotes are mine.)

Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
161. Epigram Addressed to an Artist

DEAR ———, I'll gie ye some advice,
You'll tak it no uncivil:
You shouldna paint at angels mair,
But try and paint the devil.

To paint an Angel's kittle wark, 5
Wi' Nick, there's little danger:
You'll easy draw a lang-kent face,
But no sae weel a stranger.—R. B.

William Makepeace Thackeray. (1811–1863). Vanity Fair. [Thackeray employs this construction often.]
XIX. Sunday after the Battle

…
Poor Rawdon took up the paper and began to try and read it until his brother should arrive.
…

The Forces of Matter, Delivered before a Juvenile Auditory at the Royal Institution of Great Britain during the Christmas Holidays of 1859–60
Lecture VI.—The Correlation of the Physical Forces

Michael Faraday

…
But we have other and deeper relations than these; we have not merely to see how it is that one power affects another—how the force of heat affects chemical affinity, and so forth, but we must try and comprehend what relation they bear to each other, and how these powers may be changed one into the other; and it will to-day require all my care, and your care too, to make this clear to your minds.
…

George Eliot. (1819–1880). The Mill on the Floss.
Book VI—The Great Temptation
X. The Spell Seems Broken

…
But at length the music wrought in her young limbs, and the longing came; even though it was the horrible young Torry, who walked up a second time to try and persuade her.
…

Henry James. (1843–1916). The Portrait of a Lady.
Chapter IX

…
“I mean to try and imitate them,” said Isabel.
…

There is also that childhood (or childish) challenge: "Try and make me!"