MAG-40 Photos
Monthly Archives: September 2011
The MAG-40 class.
This class was hosted by THE GUN DUDES, with special guest THE GUNFIGHTER CAST. Meeting these guys in person was fantastic. And of course learning from Massad Ayoob was absolutely amazing. Their links are now on the right side over there under the A List Links. The class was held at a confidential law enforcement training range. A beautiful range, that was a great venue for the training course.
There are a lot of great shooting schools out there. I’ve been to a bunch of them, and all can help you be a better shooter. But the way of the gun demands more than just being a good shooter. Because if you are ignorant, you might win a gunfight, and then spend the rest of your life in prison. Let me be clear about this, the MAG-40 class was the most important class I’ve ever taken. Half of it was shooting. Half of it was legal lectures and videos. In the course, you will take a lot of notes. Technology is great, and Gundoc and I used our HTC Sensation smart phones for note taking. At the end of the course, there is a test. I’d suggest bringing a notepad and pen, and then after the class, each nite, transfer what you wrote to your computer so you are going over everything twice at least. The note taking is heavy and justifiably so… the info flow was heavy. Heavy in volume and significance. I can’t stress this enough, this was the most important class I’ve ever taken. Also, as a bonus, when you graduate, should you be involved in a defensive shooting, Mas will serve as an expert witness should you be prosecuted. That could be worth it’s weight in gold one day. Everyone who takes the art of the gun seriously, or carries one daily by choice or career… you need to take this class.
The shooting is straight forward Old School stuff, with some modern stuff thrown in to keep it up to date. Mas is big on the Classics and makes sure you try it out. Weaver, Chapman, Isosceles. You fire 6 rounds in each course of fire… each stage. So you are only loading 6 per mag. You can very easily bring a Revolver to the MAG-40 class and do very well with it. In fact, if I take another one, and I’d love to, I’ll bring a revolver. Accuracy over speed is stressed. Over all the shooting portion was great, and I enjoyed it. The Qualifier had me shooting a 298 out of 300. I posted a number of class photos on my Facebook page, so if you want to see them, then by all means, check them out there.
Uprising SWAG
Hoodies, T-Shirts. More coming. Get it. Wear it. It grants the wearer, +4 against Zombies and the effects stack.
Almost a whole hour?
Some customers at Basin Sports… You just want to say “Get Out.” Guy wanted some new arrows cut to length of his old arrows. Okay, fine. No problem.
But then the guy starts running is mouth… “Yeah this is my last arrow.” Alright, not really caring about what you do with your splinters, but fine. “I shot this big old Buck this morning… nailed it. High shoulder hit. Blood was pumping out like a fire hose. Those Grim Reaper heads really cut them open, you know. But the critter ran off. The blood trail ran out about a hundred yards. Searched for that sucker for almost a whole hour. Gunna go back out and get another one. Gotta fill the tag you know.”
I chewed on my tongue as I cut the arrows. I had a lot I wanted to say… but instead I just did my job and kept my mouth shut.
Bike chain failure.
I knew I was well overdue to get a new bike chain. I was planning on doing it in October, towards the end of the riding season. Fate however, had other plans. Coming back from a lunch at Cafe Rio, the chain broke.
I’ve had a chain break before on me. When it did, the chain locked up the rear tire and I was suddenly dumped to the ground. I was going pretty fast and the results were unpleasant but not serious as I was wearing good protective gear. I was shaken, but not stirred. This time, it was strange… engine RPM just ramped up and spun free with no increase in speed… the chain just unspooled off the sprockets.
The bike will go into the shop tomorrow. New chain, sprockets, tires. (7000 miles of hard riding is evidently the life span of these tires I had.) While it’s in the shop I’ll have them put in some iridium plugs, K&N filter and rejet it.
I think my riding for the year is done. I’ll hit it again in the spring.
The Glock 23 in School
The MAG-40 class is a subject unto its self. And will be. My thoughts at the moment are about the Glock 23 .40 caliber pistol that is on my hip right now, and was with me through the course. Riding of course, in my Sharkhide rig from Adams Holsters, which was asked about all the time through the course. Sharp looking rig, good rig, and it worked great through the class.
I will make this point as clear as I can. The Crusader Modified Glock 23 RTF2 performed flawlessly. It shot point of aim, point of impact when I did my job right. The gun was digesting some horrid ammunition. I did what I had sworn that I would never do… I used steel cased ammo for the class. 500 rounds of Tulammo, 180 grains. Let me tell you, this stuff is complete crap. I could feel the differences in pressure from one shot to the next. Some rounds felt like 10mm loads, others felt like they were damn near squibs. But it was cheap. 14 bucks a box, so I snagged it. I am impressed with the Glock in that it shot all of that very well. I had zero malfunctions of any sort. Period.
I do believe that my groups could have been better with some better ammo, but I can’t make any excuses. Just before the course, Gundoc gave my Glock a Trigger Job, which caused me some stumble at first – all the sudden I had a different trigger than I was used to! But I quickly adapted to the new pull and I was well pleased with the result. The same weight, but it was crisper and there is no over-travel. Very nice. Using this combination, I shot a 298 out of 300. I’ll take that. I’ll happily take that. I wanted 300. I wanted it bad. But the shots I dropped, high and left, were not the fault of the gun or the ammunition. Those were my mistakes and I’ll own those.
I’ve taken other guns to other courses and sometimes I come away unhappy with the gun or pleased, depending on things. I was less than satisfied with Beretta and CZ in some shoots… HK and SIG has pleased me… and now this Glock has pleased me a great deal. I am very confident with this pistol and I am more and more impressed with it.
I think I’d like to change up the Warren Tacticals. I like the straight 8 configuration, but I wish the front sight had a white ring around the tritium insert. There was a couple instances where I lost the front sight post…. totally my fault, but I think some more visibility would have been a help.
Other pistols in the course I observed had some issues. I observed a couple XD’s with light primer strikes, and one that had a trigger return spring that failed and the shooter, Gail Pepin, had to change to another weapon. Kimber’s had some issues after the first day… one just didn’t want to run. Others had failures to eject. S&W M&P’s ran gun, only a couple failures to feed a couple times. I saw no failures with any of the Glocks on the range. Now, my Glock did give me some trouble with failing to lock back on an empty mag. Reason being, Gundoc also gave me an extended slide release and my Ogreish thumb kept riding it. This didn’t slow me down though and my mag changes were just fine. It’s easy to count 6 Shots when you only load 6 rounds n the magazine every time.
The solid reputation for accuracy and reliability of Glock handguns is well earned.
If I was going to take the MAG-40 class again, I think I would bring a 4″ revolver.
A customer’s Crusader Broadsword
You’ve seen this photo posted before here… now there is the customer’s review.
We have been increasingly concerned about the Duracoat finishes. The problem is that Duracoat can take up to 8 weeks to fully cure. After that time, the finish is very strong, very tough… but until it’s fully cured and hardened, the finish can be easily marred. This doesn’t reflect on Duracoat to people looking at the gun, it reflects on Crusader Weaponry and we don’t like that. No one wants a gun that is going to take 2 months before they can go out and get rough with it. That’s just not working for us. We are considering dropping Duracoat and going exclusively with Cerakote. Cerakote is a bit more expensive, but it cures very quickly, days not weeks, and it gives a much stronger finish. The down side is that it doesn’t offer the wide array of colors that Duracoat offers. I can live with that, but some customers might want something Cerakote can’t do.
Learning from a master.
In the training class with Massad Ayoob, I am impressed with just what a Pioneer he has been. He will use a phrase that he coined back in the 80’s…. And I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it since by other trainers. To help his lectures, he will show old videos… No one before him was talking about this stuff… And everyone since has taken from it.
It was Mas that did the pioneering work on what happens when one is in a stress situation…. He actually put science behind it. I studied his book when I was a much younger and faster person, and I have heard all this since from others… But its all stuff that Mas pioneered first. A very remarkable man.
I’d dare say that Massad Ayoob is right up there with Jeff Cooper in Trainer Icons.
Some guys shouldn’t have guns.
A friend of mine has a little brother who was is interested in shooting so he was brought along for enjoyment and learning… Little Brother is not so Little. He’s pretty much a grown adult. He just didn’t learn anything and almost killed someone because of it. This wasn’t an Accident. This was his Negligence. Pure negligence and it almost killed my friend.
He was informed that he needed to get some formal and professional training. He refused. He doesn’t need it.
This was a couple years ago. Recently the same thing happened. Little Brother “Had an Accident” again… and again, almost killed someone.
An “Accident” is when a Child wets the bed. When a gun goes off unintentionally, that’s a Negligent Discharge which is a result of Negligence. So now we have a Strike Two. We have a situation where once again Negligence – his negligence almost took a life. But it wasn’t his fault, it was just an accident, and again he refuses to accept that he needs formal training. When you almost kill people TWICE because of the same thing – this takes a step beyond negligence. This is Willful Disregard for the Safety and Lives of Others. This makes one a Dangerous Jackass. And to refuse to accept responsibility – I’m sorry… Your Done. You should not have any firearms. You are an ignorant and arrogant child that shouldn’t even be allowed to handle guns under Adult Supervision. I’d even say that you shouldn’t even be allowed in a Training Class – unless you are fully accepting that YOU are the problem. No – don’t blame the gun. The gun didn’t Malf. If you were squared away and followed the Gun Safety Rules – Malf or not – you wouldn’t have almost killed a guy – again.
Some people shouldn’t have guns.
Riding.
The new helmet came in from LeatherUp.com. It’s a Scorpion. It is lighter and quieter than my last helmet, and fits better too. It’s a good upgrade from the one that literally saved my life. This wasn’t the first time a helmet saved me. These things are important and I just can’t understand why a guy would want to ride without one. A rider is 16 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than a driver… Safety first.
I know the risks, and I am cautious. But bad things can happen. Like a stray five gallon bucket hitting me in the head. Guys, if anything happens to me… Know that I was enjoying doing something that loved. And that isn’t a bad way to go. Because of my health… I can’t do a lot of what I used to do… But I can still ride.
I would still like to trade my Honda Magna for a Sport Bike… Because I need more peg-clearance. Not to go faster… But to slow down less.
Any takers?