Category Archives: Weapons

Weapons

The SIG GSR 1911 C3:

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The SIG GSR 1911 C3:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can I say? I had to have it when I first saw it and I’ve been working on getting one for a long time… today was the day it came home with me. Sexy little minx, the C3. The C3 is SIG’s answer to the CCW question. Colt used to make a pistol called the CCO, a gun that I have always wanted since I first saw it. Then Colt dropped it because Colt is run by a pack of useless idiots with balls slightly smaller than your average sun-dried raisins. Well, SIG, being smarter than the average bear, is making their own flavor of the CCO concept. Commander length barrel on top of an Officers sized frame. This is, and I am not saying this lightly – the PERFECT concealed carry combination.

You know how I’ve said that Kimber makes “one of the best” production 1911’s out there? Yeah, well SIG is the other part of that equation and they do make The Best production 1911 out there. I’d like to see some top gunsmiths make some top end customs based on the SIG GSR’s. In the photos, take a close look at the frame to slide fit. No, scratch that… Go to a stocking SIG dealer and look for yourself with your own eyes. To get better than that, you are going to have to buy a full house custom built gun for at least double the money… and even then I really don’t think you can get better than that. Not when you are talking Stainless and Aluminum… now if you were doing a solid steel gun with the same steel on the frame and the slide – maybe it might look tighter, but you can’t actually make it any tighter. There is ZERO play in this C3’s frame to slide fit. There is no play in the barrel.

Kimber still makes some great handguns, don’t get me wrong. I’m still a huge fan of Kimber’s Tactical series. But SIG’s GSR’s? They’ve taken it up a notch. The reason I got the C3 was that I wanted a good compact 1911, but I wasn’t quite sold on the Ultras… It’s the Bushingless Bull Barrel that turned me off. The C3 has a Bushing. It has a GI type follower… no full length guide rods… no paper clips required to take it down… no gimicks or bullshit… just a solid 1911 the way John Moses Browning would have approved of. Say hello to my new daily carry gun. To get better than this – I’d have to buy a Wilson Combat or a Nighthawk Custom.

Shooting the C3, I couldn’t be happier. It’s A+ on the Accuracy Score. Even out to 50 yards, it was precise. Reliability is exactly what you come to expect with SIG, meaning it was flawless. Yeah, you can say I’m a hard core SIG fanboy now. So what do I think is better, the SIG or the Kimber? Read this post again. The SIG’s don’t use plastic mainspring houses, let’s just leave it at that.


Weapons

The Zen Of Handgunning

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The biggest mistake novice pistoleros make is a simple matter of forgetting the basic fundamental skills. For some reason, they can tell you what it takes to shoot, but when they draw the weapon, it all goes out the window. For me, the biggest reason I enjoy handgun shooting is that it is more of a challenge. What makes it challenging is that handgunning is a whole person event. You can’t half-ass a pistol shot. It takes a combination of body and mind and an almost zen-like “one-ness” with your handgun to make those pistol shots consistent. And it all starts from the ground up.


The Stance, is something continually harped on by martial artists… placement of your feet, your balance on your feet… there is a reason serious martial artists harp on this so much. Everything is build off that foundation. For handgunning, it is the same. We are not tensing up to throw round-house kicks, but we are getting ready to take some recoil and to possibly make movement. But since we are not about to Chuck Norris anything, our feet should be shoulder width apart, nice and comfortable, knees unlocked and just slightly bent, and our weight just a bit forward… on the balls of the feet not the heels.

Going along with the stance is a huge debate in the Gunner’s Community about Weaver vs Isosceles… the correct answer is the same answer as “Mary Anne or Ginger?” The answer is “Both”. We should learn to use both and to transition seamlessly between the two. Which one we use and when all depends on the situation. If I am in an Interview Position, where I am talking to someone who I am not clear on the identity or Intent of the person – I stand with my weapon side away from that person. This puts me into the Weaver position. Should I be facing a potential threat and I’m wearing armor – I want as much of that armor facing the threat as possible so I’ll be set up for an Isosceles position. And you can’t say “I only use Weaver and nothing else” Well, that’s just stupid because in real life, target engagements do not happen in static positions like they do on the range. Say, I’m facing a target and it starts moving from my left to my right – and I track that target with my weapon, I am swinging through Weaver into Isosceles. Say that target goes from straight in front of my Weaver position and breaks to my left – then I bring my right foot forward and I am now into the Isosceles again. So train with both, because in reality, you will need both.

Get a grip: It’s almost scary when I hand a person at the gun counter a pistol and I watch them take up their grip on the gun… it’s really easy to spot the Ignorant and the Novice and the Braggarts and who is an experienced shooter. Women make the biggest mistakes in the grip department. The Ladies will often grab the grip very low, putting all fingers on the grip under the trigger guard, leaving almost an inch or more between their hand and the beavertail or base area of the pistol. This is the “I’ve never shot a gun before in my life” grip. I especially find it amusing when the guy gripping the pistol like that has made claims to being Super Secret Squirrels in the military. Uh huh. The other common problem grip is the Revolver Grip. This is where the Support Hand’s Thumb goes across the top of the firing hand, behind the pistol. This might be okay with a Revolver, and maybe that’s how you’ve done it all your life. But now days when you do that, you run the risk of the slide hitting your thumb and causing you some sudden discomfort and or lacerations. The grip should start out with the firing hand with the pistol inline with the bone of the forearm. This grip should be up as high on the gun as possible, to put the bore axis as low as possible. The support hand then wraps around the firing hand fingers, anchoring the pistol in a vice, with both thumbs together and if possible, pointing forward. The trigger finger is up along the frame of he pistol when the pistol is not aimed at the target. A good grip is critical because because a handgun does two things during firing. One is the recoil is going to make the gun kick back and up. Torque is going to want to make the gun twist. You can Recoil from the mass of the bullet and the pressure of the charge sending that bullet out of the gun and down range. You get torque because the barrel has rifling in it to impart spin on the bullet. A good grip controls Torque and Recoil and minimizes their disturbance.

The Sight Picture. Often I ask the students what they are looking at and what their sight picture looks like. I get some strange answers. First off, the Sight Alignment, how you should align the sights. Take a look at this simple Paintbrush rendering of a sight picture.

When we are shooting target sights, we use the sights with the top of the center post even with the rear sights and we center that across the equator of our target, ( a center hold) or we put the target on top of the center post, (a 6 O’clock hold) which is the least ideal sight picture one can have in my opinion. Now, for Defensive or Tactical shooting, we use just the Dots. Line up the dots, and put that dot on the center of the target as shown in the little .gif image. The Sights and the Target together make the Sight Picture. Now how do we look at the Sight Picture? Our eyes are trying to focus on 3 things at once… something that they are not able to do. So where are we looking at? Our eyes should take a sharp focus on just one thing… the Front Sight Post. In an engagement, we are looking at the target, first and always… When a threat is identified, we bring the weapon up into the eye level and we are now looking at a sight picture. From here, shift your eye’s focus to the Front Sight Post and apply pressure to the trigger. Simple as that. Don’t over-think this. You don’t have time. Place the Dot, and Place the Shot. Nothing else is important to look at.

The Trigger: Triggers get a lot of abuse… They get jerked and slapped and crushed just beaten on all the time. You can do everything right, and ruin the shot with even a slight case of trigger abuse. When you pull the trigger, do so with a steady pressure until the trigger breaks and the weapon is fired. To do this right, in a way that is consistent, it requires practice in large quantities. That means Dry-Fire Practice. So get some snap-caps and get to work. If you are using a pistol with a round barrel, balance a coin on it. You should be able to dry-fire the weapon without the coin falling. I like to use a laser to practice this as well. If you have a laser mounted to the weapon in the guide rod or the grip or wherever – great. You can activate the laser and dry-fire with it. The laser will clearly show you what you are doing wrong. If you do not have a laser, you can buy a cheap laser pointer for a couple of bucks. Many of these are the diameter of a pen. You can put the laser pointer in the barrel. It doesn’t have to line up with the sights. You are not aiming with it. But it will still show you what is happening. The laser should not move when you dry-fire the gun. Now, it’s important to practice dry-firing just as you would with live ammo. Important to note – Do not Dry-Fire any Rim-Fire type firearm without the use of a Snap-Cap. Most of the time with the laser, you will see the dot jump to the right. This is sometimes caused by a bad placement of the finger on the trigger. Use the Pad of the trigger finger, not the knuckle. The pull should be straight in line with the trigger’s arc of motion. Some triggers have Over Travel. This means the trigger breaks and fires before the trigger has moved all the way back… this allows the trigger to jump that last distance and smack the back-wall of the pull and this could throw the shot off. Over Travel can sometimes be remedied by the user, or sometimes it needs a Gun Smith to sort it. The trigger can be gritty, or heavy, or it could stack. Stacking is where the trigger pull gets heavier just before it breaks. There is a lot that can be wrong with the trigger pull’s qualities… but almost all of them can be overcome with lots of dry-firing practice. Okay, now that you have the trigger pulled back, and the weapon is fired – keep the finger on the trigger. Almost all Novice shooters instantly at the firing – take their finger off the trigger completely. Then they start all over again. This isn’t good. This leads to Trigger Abuse. Don’t beat your trigger. When you break the shot, keep your finger on the trigger. If you have a rifle, pistol, revolver, shotgun… take a moment there at the back wall. This is a part of Follow Through. Don’t let up off the trigger until the Front Sight is back on the target. Let the trigger forward slowly. You will feel the trigger reach a point before it’s all the way forward where it clicks. That’s the reset. As soon as it resets, start pulling it back again for your second shot and then so on.

Training Scars: There are tons of Training Scars out there, too many to deal with. But I’m going to talk about two of them. A Training Scar is any Bad Habit you have picked up that needs to be worked out. If you have Training Scars, the best thing to do is to get with a serious Firearms Trainer to work with you. Your shooting buddy doesn’t qualify. In fact, that could be one of the reasons you have Training Scars. Find a real Trainer who can watch you and see what you are doing wrong so he can help you do what is right. Anticipation can be fun and can sweeten the moment. Like when your lover comes out wearing some sort of sexy candy wrapper (what you tear off before consuming) that is some excellent anticipation. For those to young to know what I mean, think about Christmas Morning before Mom lets you open those presents. Or if your Extreme-Muslim – that moment just before Akmed pushes that button to detonate that vest you made for him. Those are examples of Anticipation. In shooting, Anticipation is a bad thing. Don’t anticipate Recoil. This leads to an instant before firing where you actually push the gun. Even just slightly… this can throw your shot off. Anticipation’s Best Friend is Flinch. Flinching is bad, because you can do all kinds of jacked up things including actually closing your eyes just before firing. Look, it’s a simple as this… you can’t hit the target if your not even looking at the thing. You are also legally liable for every round that you launch… so it would be in your best interest to keep your bloody eyes open, okay? Now, if you have Flinch it’s going to take a lot of training to get it out of you. The best way to get rid of flinch is to take your shooting back to Square One. Get out the old .22 pistol or even an Air Gun. (Airsoft isn’t accurate enough to really see what you are doing) Start shooting those low recoil guns, use the laser, and dry fire a lot to work out any sign of Flinching.

Weapons

S&W Bodyguard .380

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It’s been some time since my last article for Concealed Carry Magazine. I’ve been meaning to write one sooner, but to be perfectly honest, most of the new concealable handguns that have been coming out have just not sparked much of an interest in me. I’ve been bored with most of the options out there and no one wanted another Compact 1911 article. Most of this time off I’ve been packing SIG C3’s and 229’s and all year I’ve been packing a G23-RTF2 and that has all been from Mark Walter’s bad influence on me.

At SHOT 2010 I trudged through the show looking for something that peaked my interest enough to review. As I looked at all the new guns on the market, I really struggled with the malaise that’s been plaguing me when it comes to small handguns. That was until I walked into the S&W booth. They showed me their new Bodyguard BG380. Instantly my Spock Eyebrow went up. What’s this? A little auto pistol that I want to go shoot? Since Kahr hasn’t come out with a 10mm MK10 pistol, this would do.

While the BG380 is the same size as the other pocket .380’s that have dominated CCW handgun sales for the last two years, the new Smith is different. The difference comes from the whole feel of the gun. It’s as if S&W took an M&P pistol over to Walt Disney and put it in their “Honey, I shrunk the thing” machine. Normally when you shrink something, you lose a lot of qualities other than just size and weight… much like the Doberman Pincer shrunk to Toy Pincer size gives you a twitchy, fickle, and delicate thing. These Micro M&P’s are just as serviceable and snarly as the original… just in pocket size.

The most unique feature of the BG380 is the in-frame laser module. Insight Technologies makes it for S&W and we’ve not seen anything similar out there. The Module, should it fail, is replaceable. It’s fairly bright, but not as cohesive as other laser aiming devices from other companies. This isn’t a problem as this pistol isn’t meant for any longer range shooting, but I would have liked a more powerful laser. If I was Crimson Trace or Viridian, I’d be working on my own module to drop into the Bodyguard. The limitation on power comes of course from the batteries, and having the batteries within the frame as they did it makes me scratch my head. You can only shove so much battery in there. I’d have rather engineered the weapon to carry the batteries in the floorplate of the magazine and had power contacts on the sides of the magazine body. Dewalt knows how to do this, it wouldn’t be hard and they would have been able to use more battery. More battery is a good thing.

Some shooters argue against lasers as unnecessary gadgets. It’s true that a laser isn’t a necessary thing, but any device that gives you any sort of an advantage in target engagement or intimidation is a huge benefit… especially with pocket sized guns. Another thing some guys claim, is that sights are unnecessary to such small guns. However I checked the law books and I didn’t find any exceptions to gun laws or liability of gun use for small guns. You launch a bullet out of a small gun, you are just as liable for where it goes. And for a pocket gun with the purpose of defensive use, that bullet needs to go exactly where it will do the most work. Shot Placement is even more critical in small defensive guns.

The pistol its self is just the platform from which the projectile is launched… and the BG380 gives you a small, concealable platform that you can have on you at all times, or just when greater discretion is required. The only thing one is giving up with the BG380 is power. I can’t let this review go by without mentioning that I consider the .380 Auto round to be the minimum cartridge which I deem as acceptable for defense. It falls someplace in the Force Continuum between “Harsh Language” and 9mm. I would only use it when guns of greater caliber are not an option. While I am not a huge fan of the .380 auto, I must admit to being a fan of the Bodyguard. It’s cool, it’s reliable, it works. It’s an absolute buy for those looking for a pocket pistol.

Weapons

All New

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What really bugs me about the Gun Industry is how they change one or two small details and act as if it’s something completely new.

Take a look at SIG Sauer.  They have the TACOPS 1911, which is a great gun.  They Cerakote it tan, change the grips, and all the sudden it’s a “Scorpion” and thus a completely different gun.  Some rifle makers will change the stock, and now it’s a completely different model.  For the most part, the gun is only cosmetically different.  Yet the gun companies wave flags of originality and claim innovation.  Look, if you are using off the shelf parts that have been on the market for over a year, you should not be allowed to use the word “Innovation” or anything in a thesaurus that is similar.   Worse yet, the Gun Writers out there who have to review these things.  Never mind that its the same damn gun with different cosmetics… these guys have to write another 2,000 words with photos on how this is something new and fresh.  And they publish those articles and people buy those magazines and it’s all just rehashed shit from 20 years ago.  I’m not naming names but I swear to the All Holy that I read the same rifle article 20 years as I just read in a new magazine 20 minutes ago, with the only difference being the freaking handguards.  Its the same thing.

christian_bale_as_bruce_wayne_and_batman__drawing__by_p_shdw-d665959

I was going to say Clark Kent and Superman, but I hate Superman… he’s a Douche.  But look at Bruce Wayne.  League of Shadows Ninja, and then changes costume to become Batman.  Really only cosmetically different.   Bruce Wayne could still kick your ass without the Dark Knight costume.  He doesn’t need the costume to perform.  And just because he is in the costume, doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a better fighter.  He’s no tougher, no stronger, or any smarter while in the bat-suit.
Who else does this a lot?  Kimber.  Freaking hell, they only make like 3 different 1911’s but given them different skin treatments and all the sudden you have guns from 699 all the way to 1400 without any special Custom Shop work… just cosmetics.
Poor Gun Review Writer.   This is one of the reasons I stopped writing gun reviews.  I got really jaded and sick of rewording the same review for the same gun that’s just had a small detail difference.
Kimber Custom II.  Kimber Target II.  Same flippin gun, just a different rear sight.  But according to Kimber, it’s a whole new model.
Now, I’m not busting Kimber’s nuts on this, or SIG’s… because so many other gun makers do it too… they all do it.  Accept for Taurus, who has so much CQ issues, everything they make is totally different.

Imagine if you will, if the Auto Industry worked in the same fashion?  This car is the same as that one, but this one has XM built in, so it’s a totally different car!  We call this one the Stallion, and this one the Tornado Hunter!  See, it has a pin stripe too.  (Well, they kind of do… looking at the Subaru and Toyota sports car, but that’s another subject)

No, people would not tolerate this in the auto industry.  Yet it’s SOP in the Gun Industry.  I like what the Car guys do those… They have Trim Levels.  Same car, with a series of steps in upgraded add on features that go from basic to fully loaded.
The Gun Industry should look at that model for awhile and think about it really hard.  Because right now it’s just ridiculous.

Now, I understand that a gun company needs to make new stuff to sell more stuff.  But I think these guys are going about it all wrong.  Let’s look at to examples.
Glock.  They make the same damn gun in 3 sizes in common calibers and that’s it.  That’s what they do… because they’re Glock.  The do what they do and they do it very well.  You don’t hear about quality control issues with Glock. You don’t hear about anything other than “It’s a Glock”. And they sell and sell and sell to the point that Glock’s Marketing effort is about like the Maytag Repairman’s schedule.  Because you know what you are getting with a Glock… Your getting a Glock.  Now look at SIG.  The P250 the P2022, the 229, 228 M11 226 MK25 and they are all different and you really don’t know what you are getting anymore with SIG or anything from SIG wearing that badge… I’m saying this because I love SIG and really I’m feeling like they have let me down.  Lost their way.  Looking more at Cosmetic Themes than keeping a tight ship… because I’ve seen some SIG’s with some serious issues that should not have been there.
Some guys have said they wished Glock was more colorful or fabulous like SIG is.  When really I’d like to see SIG act more like Glock.  The worst thing Glock stamps their name on is those disposable pens they give away.  SIG’s?  That could take all day talking about.  You don’t know what you are getting with SIG anymore and that’s a shame.

 

Weapons

My disagreement with Grant Cunningham and Rob Pincus…

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My disagreement with Grant Cunningham and Rob Pincus regarding the Beretta 92FS.

I checked out a podcast that Rob Pincus was guesting on not too long ago.  The question was asked “What gun do you hate when they show up at your courses” or something along those lines… I forget, it’s been awhile since I heard the podcast.  Rob’s answer was “The Beretta 92”.   Now, I respect Rob a great deal, and while we differ in opinion on something, I always respect his opinions and positions because he always has a well reasoned explanation for them.   

Rob tends to not like the Beretta because it’s large and heavy for it’s caliber… it is.  It has an old fasioned DA/SA Trigger mechanism… it does.  And it has an upside down, slide mounted safety lever.  Yup.  It has that too.  This is a trifecta of good reasons not to like the Beretta.  Rob is a believer in consistency, and a good consistent and simple trigger mechanism as in a modern striker fired pistol gives the shooter some advantage… Yes, that’s true too.
But I still disagree with him regarding the Beretta 92.   More on my rationalizations later.
This morning I read an article by Grant Cunningham on why the Beretta 92 is an inefficient handgun for defense.  And now I’m like “Oh come on.”  I like Grant, and respect his opinions as well.  However, I disagree with him on the Beretta 92.

“When you need to use your handgun, it should ideally come out of the holster in a ready-to-fire condition without you needing to do anything extra before pulling the trigger.”

I agree, Grant.  And here is what I do…  When I holster the Beretta, I then flick the weapon Off Safe.  The Beretta is certainly safe to be carried in such a manner.  Because in order to fire, the trigger must be pulled all the way to the rear to move the rather large and over-sized firing-pin block up and out of the way of the firing pin.  Also, the trigger being pulled to the rear moves the hammer back against spring tension, into the firing position before it can be released to fly forward to hit the firing pin.  These things are not going to happen on their own if the weapon is riding in any holster of half decent quality.   Anything that could impact your holstered weapon hard enough to cause a discharge… Well, you’ve either been hit by an RPG or rapidly moving Osh-Kosh built M-ATV armored truck.  Either way, you’ve got bigger problems to worry about than the risk of a 9mm wound in the leg.

As far as DA/SA trigger pulls go.  This is a training issue.  I’ve seen many shooters running DA/SA guns, do so with great skill and with great results.  SIG’s, HK’s, CZ’s, S&W’s, and most self loading guns that are not 1911’s or Striker Fired Polyguns are in fact DA/SA guns.  A shooter can and will get used to the trigger mechanism if they will actually get out to the range and fire their weapons once in awhile and practice with them.

Here’s the thing that the DA/SA guns have over most of these Striker Guns… That SA pull.  I’ve fired some DA/SA guns with triggers so good it makes you want to go slap Gaston.  Even with my tricked out Glock trigger, which is really dang good… It’s not as good as the SA pull on my Beretta 92.  It just isn’t.  Because mechanically all that trigger has to do is release the hammer.  In the Glock and M&P, the trigger still has to pull that striker back just a little more before it can release.  This gives it just a bit more take up… a little longer… just not quite there where a good SIG or Beretta or CZ trigger can be.  I won’t say HK, because they have triggers like toggle switches, but that’s because the Germans believe in Corporal Mortification or something… I don’t know.
But back to the Off Safe Carry, the process is simple.  After firing, you decock and safe the weapon, holster safely, and then flick the weapon off safe.  Done.  The most dangerous moment in handling the weapon is when holstering.  And holstering a decocked Beretta 92FS is probably the safest gun you could ease into any holster.  It doesn’t get safer.  The trigger is disconnected and the firing pin transfer is rotated 90 degrees away from the firing pin.  There is no way a round could go off in this condition.  No matter how sloppy your reholstering is.  Once safely nestled in it’s holster and everything is good… *Flick*  Your weapon is now read for a rapid draw and fire without worrying about an external safety.

This method is not new or unique by any means.  I know many Military Personnel who carry in this manner and are trained to carry in this manner.  It’s safe and efficient and requires very little training to get used to doing.  1 day at the range.  That’s it.  Drill the motions for awhile, and then reinforce throughout a day of shooting… pretty much done.  This is not solving a Rubik’s Cube.  Give the Students more credit.    Many who detract the Beretta’s mechanics make allowances for the 1911’s.  Yet the Beretta has a couple distinct advantages.  One, the Beretta’s safety when carried Off Safe is only manipulated after the fact.  When everything is cooling back down and the gunshots are still ringing in your ears and your getting your breathing back into control… your checking yourself and following your training and thinking again.  The 1911’s safety is manipulated in the heat of the “Oh Shit” moment when you “Skin Leather” and all your thinking about is that Treat Target that’s closing that 21 Foot Rule distance like a Saber Toothed Cheetah.  It’s in that moment with a 1911 that you have to remember to sweep the lever Off Safe.  Easier putting it on when reholstering than taking it off when drawing.  See my point?  Two, the other big advantage with Beretta is that I can load and unload the weapon, press check, and do whatever in need to with the Safety On.  With the 1911, any slide movement has to be done with the safety off.  And since you are gripping the weapon when doing it, you most likely also have the secondary grip safety disengaged as well.  How many 1911 Operators out there have a 5 Gallon Bucket of Sand they use for Clearing and Loading in their home?  Not many? Who’s safer?  Advantage Beretta.  I’m not saying a 1911 is unsafe here.  But if we are boiling down Shooters as  thick headed cavemen, I think I’d much rather see the students with a Beretta than a 1911.  Personally I do cringe when students bring 1911’s shorter than 4 inches… but that’s because those guns are going to be jamming like a jazz band before the end of the day.  And I’m saying this as a guy that loves 1911’s.  But it’s an Aficionado’s gun.  An Expert’s gun.

The gun is large and doesn’t fit everyone.   True.  But if I am buying the gun for myself and it fits me, then why the hell do I care if it might not fit someone else?  This is my gun.  Don’t “What If” unlikely scenarios that support your throwing your weapon to a small handed partner to support your argument.  Leave such moves for the next Die Hard movie.   Sure the 92 is a large pistol.  My hands are not all that large, and it fits me.  I can shoot the Beretta quite well.  And I enjoy doing so… Because evidently shooting the same gun that has served both Military and Law Enforcement roles around the world for the last 30 years is something again to grinding your own flour and baking your own bread these days.  Quaint and rustic.  Like rolling down a car’s window with a crank.
Here’s the deal… The 92FS/M9 pistol is a fantastic handgun.  It’s battle proven around the globe. It’s both accurate and reliable, and has proven to be more accurate and reliable than most. It’s passed all the tests and it’s leaped all the tall buildings and it’s still serving strong.  It’s one of the very best handguns in the world.

Weapons

Armchair Quarterbacking: Kel-Tec

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It’s time for another Armchair Quarterbacking session of another Gun Maker. This time, I aim my sights on Kel-Tec.

Kel-Tec CNC, Inc. is a small gun maker out of Florida that specializes in building some very affordable little guns, and some guns that are just crazy enough to be absolutely brilliant.  One thing I admire about Kel-Tec is that they are clever and not afraid of trying something completely different.  And because of this some things are quite all there.  Not every piece of pasta sticks to the wall.  But over all, it’s really a home run.  However, it’s time to take them down a peg, and then bring them up a few notches, if you know what I mean.

Let’s start with the Branding. From the perspective of a former 9 year Gun Dealer and dealing with the general gun buying American consumer, there is room for some work.  I’m glad they took the US Flag out of the logo.  I’m not saying that I’m tired of the Flag, but Old Glory shouldn’t be used in anyone’s marketing.  The new logo however still has the red stripes, hinting at the flag that’s some place in negative space behind Kel-Tec.  It even has some angle built in there to make it almost look like “action lines”.  Moving forward… speed… That’s good.  But the name in the logo is Kel-Tec.  One of the most misspoken, misspelled names out there next to Burnelli.  Let’s clean the name up, clean the logo up… and make it just “KT”.  Maybe even with an angle. KT.  Let’s try that in bold… KT.  Solid. Simple.  And hard to screw up.  Throw in those red action lines behind that.  HK, XD, FN… Those work, and KT works too.  We want a new face for this brand once we are through… so KT is good to go.  Moving on.

Let’s go down the list of guns.  First one, the SUB-2000.  Generally the public has a love it or hate it response to the Sub-2000.  What does the “Sub” mean?  Don’t answer that, no one cares… But people do ask that at the gun counter.  If I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question, I’d take my wife out to a lobster dinner. In France. And I wasn’t even a stocking dealer.  Here’s the thing… This is a clever little carbine with a lot of spunk.  If it were a dog, it would be a Jack Russel.  I mean that as a compliment.  Let’s first fix the name.  Call it the S2K.  The KT S2K.  Just typing that, the hard core Gun Guys are going to readily and automatically know what that is.  Because that’s what a lot of us call it anyways.    You know what?  Let’s take this gun up a notch, and end up calling the new version the KT S3K.  Let’s start by getting rid of the folding trick.  It’s really costs more sales than it’s garnered because most guys just didn’t like it and ended up picking something else.  Anything else.  Even the Hi-Point Carbine.   Sure, the Sub-2000 has it’s fans, but it’s got more detractors. Which is why you don’t see them in everyone’s gun vaults. Let’s make it a fixed receiver, with the barrel threaded securely into a beefy steel block for best accuracy, like your SU-16. A trunnion (that means on a pivot) mounted barrel just gives a lot of people the creeps.  Give it a monolithic top rail.  This gets rid of the rear sight wedge thing.  You show a tubed fore-end on the site, so I know you can do it… but I’ve never seen one in real life.  The new hotness is a tube that goes all the way out to the muzzle.  Do that.  Let people decide what flip up or fixed sights they want on this.  That’s what the people with the money to burn are buying.  You don’t really need a muzzle break, but do it anyway.  Because that’s what people with money are buying.  Not an A2 style, do something that looks high tech.  And then recess that and make the fore-end deflect the blast back forward.  They are doing this with AR’s, you can figure that out here.  Now instead of rails, leave it round, but use pre-threaded holes and rail sections so the customer can do whatever he or she wants with it.  Redesign the pistol grip to be more like an PF-9’s grip in appearance and feel.  That’s a good grip.  It works, so pass it along.  The Sub-2000 – S3K carbine can really use that.  Contour the receiver’s looks to bring it up to date as well.  The old one looks terrible.  The stock needs to look more up to date as well.  More like the new Battlelink Minimalist stock, and let it have a little adjustment for length of pull.  To simplify things, I’d drop the number of magazine options to one.  Glock.  If you have to have two, then Glock and Beretta.  Because those mags are cheap and abundant.   You can do all of this and keep the price low… MSRP can be 699 and guys would line up to buy it.

The SU-16.  This is the Football Bat Rifle.  You have the SU-16A, B, C, CA, and D, and they are all F, U, B, A, R.  The Integral bi-pod is a pain in the membrane.  Get rid of it.  Any accuracy this thing can have is ruined with it, and if you grip it inconsistently.  Give this the same free floating barrel treatment that we just discussed with the S3K.   No more different versions, and get rid of the Grandpa’s Shotgun stock.  Give it an AR Grip attachment point and sell it with a basic A2 grip on it.  For the stock, give it something that looks like its off an ACR or SCAR or a G-36.  Don’t do an AR stock here… you can Side Fold… Underfolding is a poor choice if you can Side Fold with some rigidity.  Even Underfolding AK’s are less popular.  Do this and the SU-16 will become quite popular very quickly.  Also, the name… The Sucks 16?  That’s what a lot of guys are calling it.  Let’s get rid of that badge.  Give it a good trigger pull, some nice looks on the receiver and call it KTR556.  That sounds like it’s going to go out and kill shit.  That’s not something that sounds like it sucks.  Sounds more like it’s some Predator Murder Weapon.   Now get rid of all the other versions, and only offer the one… The KTR556.

The RFB.  Take every RFB you finish, and send it to Crusader Weaponry in SLC.  There, Crusader can do the permanent Slipstream Treatment to the internals of every single RFB before it ships to customers.  Better yet, buy Crusader Weaponry, move them to Florida lock stock and barrel and have them turn the RFB up to 11.  That’s it.  Done.  Don’t touch anything else, unless Crusader wants to Cerakote them.  Which is a great idea and should be done.  So do that.

Okay, and now for the thing that is missing from your line up.  The 5.56mm version of the RFB.  Where is it?  I’ve not seen that yet, and this is wrong.  You need to fix this.

The KSG.  I completely fell in love with the KSG at SHOT Show when I saw it and handled it.  And then some time later, I finally had the chance to shoot one.  Oh I was looking forward to that so much… and then I stepped up to the firing line.  Imagine lusting after Scarlett Johansson, and then you finally get to slow dance with her…  and you find that she has the body odor and breath of a 3 week dead trout.  I’m not a mechanical engineer, but that gun needs more work than an 84 Audi Fox running on only 2 cylinders.  The main problem from what I’ve seen in the guns I’ve dealt with… Things are binding up inside.  My suggestion for the RFB should also be applied to the KSG.

The PF-9.  Don’t touch it, it’s great.

The P-11.  Make it look like a double stack PF-9.

The P-32.  .32 Auto is useless.  The only thing worse is the .25 Auto and the only thing worse than that, are the people who like .25 Auto.  Change it to a .22 LR and call it the P-22.  And make it look like a little PF-9.

The P3AT.  Make it look like a little PF-9.

Okay, now that you’ve done that, rebuild them all into Striker Fired pistols because all of these triggers flat out suck.  No, really.  They do.  They just do.  Look, I love these little guns, seriously.  But the triggers have been what has been holding these things back from being as awesome as they could be.  The Double Action Only thing was fine for Kel-Tec, but for KT, it’s got to be next level.   Knowing how you guys think outside of the box, I would be surprised if you didn’t already have a striker mechanism designed.

Now, there is a hole in this line up.  Where is the full sized, duty worthy, double stacked auto?  A PD-9 and a PD-40.  You guys are more than capable of bringing out something new that can run with the big dogs.  Something wild and different.  I’d be surprised if it didn’t look like something off of that Oblivion sci-fi movie.  I bet you guys have something up your sleeves.  Throw it down.  If not, do it.  Soon.  Very soon.

The PLR-16.  Give it an A2 Grip, so people can swap that out for their favorites. The rest is good.  Activate the Crusader Plan on these too, just for good measure.  The .22LR version, consider the same things.

Okay, now the for big one.  The PMR-30.  First off, why in Hades Underworld do you not have a .22LR version of this?  Whatever you are doing, drop it, and make a .22LR version.  While we’re at that, forget the 4.2” Barrel, and roll it out to a full 5”.  For both versions.  But especially for the Magnum.  Anything people are doing with the PMR-30, they can do better with that extra inch of barrel and sight radius. .22 Mag will also gain a good advantage from the longer runway.   Same with the .22LR.  So just do that.  The rear of the slide is just so incredibly hideous that it causes the same madness as prolonged exposure to Cthulhu, or Congress Woman Fredrica Wilson.  It just hurts to look at and you can’t really tell how to fix it other than to just scrap the whole thing and make one that looks like… oh… I don’t know… A GUN.  Browning has this figured out on the Buckmark pretty well.  Regular ridges and it has two nice “ears” that really help in charging.  The barrel on the PMR-30 is a hot mess… Beef it up to keep some weight on the muzzle end, help accuracy, and help with the thermal dynamics. Or, contract with Tactical Solutions out of Idaho to do your barrels.  They make some seriously accurate, tac-driving barrel.  But still, the PMR-30 needs some beef there.  Not a lot, but more than it has.  By about 100%.   

There is something about the polymers that you guys use that just look… like they are made from recycled AK Mags.  I know the stuff is tough.  I watched a P-11 take both axles of a Chevy 2500.  It was my P-11 actually and it was on the back bumper when a helpful soul decided he was going to move my truck for me… He lurched forward, causing the gun to fall, and then backed over it.  The gun was just fine.  This was out in Utah Deserts at a super secret shooting location.  Dirt, rocks, BFG A/T, didn’t even leave a mark.  But it still looks lower level.  Now the options are to change the polymers… which isn’t really necessary.  Or coat the polymers.  Which is a damn fine solution.  Cerakote everything.  Added Value.  And add some profit.  Cerakote the frames early on in a mass production method and there you go, cost effective and simple, and the guns are going to look so much better that everyone is going to want to shove one down their pants.

This brings us to the last problem.  Actually two problems.  First is your Production Capability.  You don’t have any.  The PMR-30, RFB, KSG… People have been waiting to get them.  You are not making them fast enough.  Now, while you could expand your factory and hire more people and invest in production capability… It might be better to subcontract production to a company that has capacity.  Even if just for bottle-neck causing parts. Or even whole frame assemblies or slides.  Whatever you do, you have got to get your Production numbers up.  And your Quality Control.  Ramp those up.  And Secondly – Your Distributor Only sales model.  Oh, it’s easy to go D.O.  But D.O. is a No Go for many Dealers who stock guns.  Remember when I said that I wasn’t stocking them?  I wasn’t because there was no margin in them.  I’d order them for customers on request, but I made nothing on those sales.  So I had no incentive to sell them.  I had more incentive to nudge the customer to something I had on the shelf.   Distributor Only works for Ruger because there is enough nationwide demand to drive those sales.  Kel-Tec doesn’t have that.  Let’s look at FN.  I was a full line stocking FN dealer.  We had everything from pistols to bolt action rifles, FS2000’s and PS-90’s… We had all of them and loved selling them.  And then FNH decided to drop the Direct to Dealer business model and go Distributor Only.  Essentially giving their Dealers the Middle Finger.  We stopped ordering FN.  And were soon out of FN.  The only FN gun we had requests for was for the Five-seveN pistol, so we kept getting those in… when we could.  But everything else… those nice Patrol Bolt Rifles… Sorry.  We sold Remington Tacticals instead.  At that point we were #4 in the State of Utah.  A dealer of that magnitude dropping your line?  Ouch.  And we were not the only ones.  FN took a shot to the nuts because of that.   You open up to Direct to Dealer Sales and push those dealer incentives… Your sales will increase.  Your profits on those sales will increase.  Because there are no smarmy middlemen to take all the margins.

Keep up the good work, KT.  Keep pushing those new ideas.  Keep being awesome.  We love you guys and wish you balls to the walls success.

Weapons

Top Ten Guns used in Crime

10 Comments

According to Time Magazine:

1. Smith and Wesson .38 revolver
2. Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic
3. Lorcin Engineering .380 semiautomatic
4. Raven Arms .25 semiautomatic
5. Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun
6. Smith and Wesson 9mm semiautomatic
7. Smith and Wesson .357 revolver
8. Bryco Arms 9mm semiautomatic
9. Bryco Arms .380 semiautomatic
10. Davis Industries .380 semiautomatic

I find this all very interesting about what is On and Not on this list.  In my experience, Hi-Points are also highly used, as are Cobra and Charter Arms.  Also, the guns that are not on the list according to the News:  AR-15’s, AK-47’s, and Glocks.   Now, crime according to the Movies and TV:  AR-15’s, AK-47’s, Uzi’s, Desert Eagles, Mac-10’s, Nickle Plated 1911’s, HK P-7’s, and Walther P99’s.

The reality of guns used in actual crimes are that they tend to be cheap, and they tend to be stolen.  S&W revolvers in .38 to .357, this report is as specific as saying “Ford Truck”… You are talking about the most common longest continually made double action revolver on the planet that’s been manufactured since 1908 with the first Hand-Ejector model. That’s over, by my math, a hundred years of constant production.  They are going to be out there in some numbers.   A brand new full sized S&W 686+ is not a cheap gun, MSRP is $849.00.  But I doubt that criminals are sporting a brand new gun.  Not unless they stole it in a home invasion.

Weapons

Top Ten Guns I Hate: Pistols

16 Comments

10.  The S&W Sigma.   A direct attempt at copying Glock.  Who’s idea was this anyways?  Who thought that it was a good idea to copy Glock so closely the first versions you could even swap parts?  They did a pretty good job to… They got everything right… save for the quality and not knowing what a decent trigger is supposed to feel like.  They were crap then, and only until the last iteration now called the “SD Series” is it even half decent.  Which brings me to #9.

9.  The S&W SD Series.  Trying to make the Sigma into a half decent gun, they’ve almost gone close enough to the M&P  That it makes me scratch my head.  Who are they competing with now?  Drop the SD’s and the Sigmas all together, and lower the cost of the M&P by deleting unnecessary milling processes by giving it normal straight slide serrations and simpler slide geometry like on the SD while keeping the quality high like the rest of the M&P series.  Done.  You’ll be a better price point and you are no longer competing against yourself.   The SD may seem to be filling a nitch, but it really isn’t anymore.  It’s more money than that the cheaper guns, still has the Sigma Stigma, so buyers are just confused about it and either go cheaper or just get an M&P.  Couldn’t give those things away as a Retailer.

8.  Taurus.  Anything Taurus.  This whole list could be just the Taurus Product Catalog, but that’s too easy.  So I’m just going to say “Taurus”.  I’m not a Dealer anymore so I don’t have to make allowances or mince words about them.  The only thing half decent from them are better made by S&W and Beretta.  I know they are growing and trying hard and getting better, but they are not there yet.

7.   CZ P-07 Duty.  It’s ugly.  It’s awkward.  The CZ-100 looked cooler and should have been improved.  “This is a P-01 with plastic frame”, no it isn’t.  Because a P-01 doesn’t look like a Hi Point got drunk and fucked a Baby Eagle with Down Syndrome. I hate the trigger guard, the trigger pull and the sights.  If there is anything good to be said about the P-07 Duty, is that you can’t hurt it’s feelings when you throw it off a bridge from the center span.

6.  Ruger LCR.  A Plastic framed revolver.  W. T. F.  Take something traditional, and make it bite a pillow.  For what gain?  What’s the point?  To make it lighter?  Take an SP101 and make it out of a light weight alloy like Smith & Wesson and even Taurus does with the classic J Frame.  They figured it out, why can’t Ruger?  Come on Ruger, Make an Air Light SP-101.  Put some effort in it.  Instead you phoned it in with a Polymer frame that looks like you made it on a 3D Printer after drinking too much Wild Turkey and staring too long at an HK VP70 and then watching Blade Runner with one hand down your pants.

5.  The SIG 2022.  You want a SIG, but you don’t want to pay for one.  So you get this runt of the litter pick that only has one step below it on the SIG ladder, the P-250… you don’t want that, you want a “Real SIG” as I’ve heard said from behind the gun counter so many times I now have an involuntary eye roll when I hear “SIG 2022”.  While it’s not really a bad gun, it’s just the weird way they made the grips.  They couldn’t sack up and just make a decent grip like other guys, they have to just have interchangeable grips like all the cool guys do… But they could do it like that, they had to make the whole grip frame into two pieces like they just gave up and the end of the design day so it’s like a Stephen King book that’s good until the last chapter when King says “Fuck it” and let’s his Editor finish the ending for him.

4.  The XD.  Sure, it’s a good pistol, functionally.  But it’s dated and now eclipsed by the new XDM series which not only looks better but is better in capacity, trigger and accuracy.  Leaving the base XD’s in the Springfield line up is like Ford leaving the Mustang II in the line up as a low cost alternative to a new Mustang GT.

3.  Kahr’s CW Series.  Horrible patterning and molding on a gun that could be so much better.  The guns themselves are full of good potential but Kahr cheaped out on them so hard that it’s laughable.  The actions are about as smooth as Hillary Clinton’s thighs, while being about the same weight.  It’s impossible to drop the slides using the lever, which is about as sharp edged as a new CRKT knife – and I hate CRKT knives too.  For the price of 399, the gun might hit that “I’m cheap enough to buy on a whim” price, the fact that you can’t even throw in a spare mag makes the CW’s laughable.  And then the price of the upper scale P series is even more laughable considering they look virtually identical.  Find some Middle Ground, make the CW smoother, throw in that second magazine.  The trick to selling a CW is to make sure they don’t try to handle it.  Because they will try to pull the slide back, and then try to release the slide again… at which point the customer fails and and asks to look at the Stoeger Cougar.  Sure it will protect you, but it will also hurt you… leaving the only people who like the CW’s as Domination Mistresses and guys who talk like they’ve had repeated concussions.

2.  I was going to say The Judge here, but I’ll just leave that in the junk pile of #8 and move on to the Hi Point.  However the Hi-Point its self is what it is and remains a self defense value.  If it was food, it would be the burger off the Dollar Menu at McDonalds.  They are cheap.  Crappy, but cheap.  And they work pretty good, for what you paid for it.  But what makes it something that raises my lip into a Billy Idol Snear is the hordes of People Of Walmart who come out of Wal-Zone to defend the Hi-Point, yelling their one toothed yells of how good they are.  I’ve watched 4 of them self destruct in the hands of the owners while shooting.  Spontaneous Self Destruction, or Self Field Stripping… I can’t tell if this is a Bug or a Feature.   Next time someone tells you a High Point is good, ask them to Field Strip it for you.  Piece Of Shit.  For 130 bucks for a self defense tool to ride in a tool box, man, it’s fine for that.  For something to be actually used from time to time – Buy a good tactical folding knife.  You’ll get more mileage out of it.

1.  Kimber Ultra.  Any Kimber Ultra sized 1911.  Ultra Carry, Ultra CDP, whatever it is, it’s going to look nice, but not actually work.  Attractive and Useless… like Half the population of California, Blackberries, and Super Models that don’t speak English.  They are also expensive.   I can’t tell where the pride in ownership of a Kimber Utra CDP comes from, but it must be like owning a Prius.  You have an expensive, nice looking gun that is too good for the rest of us peasants that actually want a tool to be functional.  That’s fine.  You can look down your nose at my pedestrian Glocks, or my son’s M&P… but we can at least get through a day long shooting course without praying to Kimber that the gun finish a Magazine without Jamming.

 

Weapons

Apple iPhone’s iOS7 Review

3 Comments

The reason for this video was really just to give me an excuse to test out the Beretta 92FS after installing a new D-Spring in it which dramatically effected the trigger pull.  In fact, it cut the weight in half, or so it feels.   This one shot was the first live round I fired through it after I changed it.    To say the least, I am satisfied.  The Double Action pull, which I fired later, was also just as impressive.  Much lower weight than previous, with an overall better feel.  If you have a 92 series pistol, the D-Spring swap is a must.  It just is.
The truth about the iPhone – yeah, it’s a real iPhone, and it was mine, and I really shot it.  However it died the day I bought it because it got a little damp riding in the same pocket as my Droid phone in a water proof jacket, in a water proof pocket… but what moisture got in evidently killed it.  None of the “fixes” actually fixed it.  It was just DOA.  So I kept it.  Always with the intent to shoot it… because Apple.

Weapons

Favorite Pistol

26 Comments

image

Have to admit, I keep coming back to my Glock 23 RTF2 as my favorite pistol.
The balance of size, weight, and fire power is perfect.
Reliability has been flawless.  Accuracy has been very good.  It fits my hand very well thanks to the work I did on the grip.  I love it.
What’s your favorite?