Tag Archives: Pistols

Weapons

The Chop Glock

5 Comments

When an old battered Glock got traded in, I had to get it.  It was in horrible condition and the trigger wouldn’t reset.  I replaced all the trigger parts and cleaned it out and Slipstreamed it.  It functions flawlessly now.

Glock 22 Chopped to 23 Length.

I cut the Grip Frame down from normal Glock 22 length to Glock 23 length so I can use both mags.  You can see the 22 Mags stick out a bit, but it’s functionally flawless.

With a G23 Mag locked in.

The G23 magazine locks in solid.  Reason for doing this is to make the Glock 22 more concealable. The result is like a Colt CCO or SIG C3.  Longer barrel and slide on a more compact frame.  Greater Concealment without sacrificing shootability, accuracy, or ballistics.  You can see in the second picture the grip is now devoid of texture.  Stippling will commence shortly.  I find it’s best to sand the grips to make a nice blank canvas to work on.  One gets better results that way.  It also narrows the grip a bit, making it feel nice and danty.

You can see the Prior Owner tried to make the slide look Stainless.  This didn’t work so well.  The slide will have to be media blasted and Cerakote finished.  I’m thinking a Dark Gray color.

Weapons

Colts and 1911’s

8 Comments

I spend a good portion of the day cleaning up a bunch of handguns at the gun store. Some Smiths and such… And a couple of Colts. I’ve come to appreciate the Colts more. The way they are designed and built is very clever and well done. From an old Police Positive to a Python, they are impressive machines. What I didn’t like about them was the very rough machining in hidden non-critical areas. These had some of the worst tool marks and hacked finishes I’ve seen on this side of a Mosin Nagant… But then in the working areas and exterior finishes it’s the best I’ve ever seen. I really liked the little Colt Cobra. Light weight, small, what a gem.
About the 1911’s. I am growing to like them less and less… As serious use guns. Don’t get me wrong… I love them for what they are, and cherish the one 1911 that I have that reminds me of my darkened and probably best forgotten past… But it does still give me the warm fuzzies. But if I hear a bump in the night it isn’t a gun I would grab. I’m becoming more and more of a Glock Guy. By that I don’t mean just Glocks specifically, but all of the newer polymer double stacked striker fired pistols for the purpose of dedicated fighting guns. For serious use, would take one over any 1911 any day.

Weapons

S&W M&P Shield

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Smith’s new Shield pistol is going to be a rare find this year… but if you stumble on one – SNAG IT.

It’s very compact, but because of the magazine extension, you can actually get a good solid grip on the weapon.

It’s narrow, but not too skinny as to be awkward.  M&P Lines, so it looks like an M&P, not an upsized Bodyguard… Being a Striker fired gun, it’s all M&P genetics here.  The safety lever is the only wart, but it’s a very unobtrusive one… which means actually using the safety lever is more difficult and of course completely useless.  This is a Bodyguard trait that should have been erased.

Right now, they are out in 9mm.  But they have already gone out to the allotted dealers.  If you see one and pass on it… good luck finding another one in 2012…

It’s kind of like an M&P Compact’s anorexic little sister.

The magazine holds 8, so you are not giving up much on the M&P Compact.  They said they improved the trigger of the standard M&P’s trigger… and that’s true.  They did.  But there are already people out there working on an Improved Improved trigger for it.

It’s not a straight up Single Stack… it does have a slight stagger to it.  This is why it gets as many rounds as it has, and feeds well, and gives you a bit of a funnel for a quicker reload when you need it.

Overall, I’m impressed.  S&W’s M&P line up is all excellent stuff and this gun is no different.  Let’s see, there is the new SIG 938 and the new Beretta Nano, the newest of the Sub Compact Slim Nines… The SIG is a mini 1911 and thus in a class by its self… the Nano is a Double Action.  So while not a real Apples to Apples gun, the Shield smokes it.  The only thing really like the Shield is the Walther PPS and I think the Shield is a much better pistol.  It feels better in the hand, better trigger, and feels like a more solid built gun.   And, I believe, the Shield is less money  These are about 400 bucks and the PPS is, if I remember, about 500.  That’s enough left over for a very nice holster.

Weapons

S&W M&P Shield

15 Comments


I think I’d be interested in this in .40… I like it. An improved trigger, which the M&P line needed, in a size factor that S&W needed to get into. Julie’s hair looked fantastic too.
Okay, let’s take a closer look at the gun. I think it could have been 1/4 inch longer in the barrel… I know they wanted to hit a size point, but I think the took the barrel length dimension a bit too short. The addition of the thumb safety is unnecessary. Oh sure, it’s small enough to be unobtrusive, but it’s also too small to be really useful. It’s like a 3rd Nipple. Still, overall, I like this gun and look forward to trying it out.
Other guns it’s competing with… PF9, Nano, 938, LC9, PPS, PM9… Yeah, I think S&W nailed a Home Run Winner.

Weapons

Kimber Sucks

48 Comments

I’m going to throw down some hate on a gun company favored by many.  Kimber.  They freaking suck.  Kimber is backlogged so deep, ordering anything from them is freaking useless.  The little Solo pistol they put out is virtually vaporware as we’ve had some on order since last summer and still haven’t seen any.  We could have sold a hundred of them if we had them.  The institutionalized corporate arrogance is astonishing.  Last year we ordered a simple 9mm 1911 at the beginning of the year.  It was a Christmas Present from a mother to her son and she knew Kimber was slow.  We had estimated dates from Kimber and it looked to be fine.  He didn’t get the gun till late January.

Kimber’s attitude is worse than their guns.
1400 dollar pistol and they put in plastic mainspring housings?  Really?  Come on.
We had some pistols that had waves inside the barrels.  Kimber’s response was flippant.  “Oh, that wont effect accuracy.”  The hell it doesn’t.
Brand new Tac Custom II’s… With Slide Release and Safety Levers that look like they went through a Rock Chipper.  They didn’t want to send us new parts so we just sent the guns back to them and we had to pay for the shipping.  Nice.  And to top it all off – they only include 1 magazine.  WTF?  How useless can these people be?  Come on.  But people put up with all that BS because Kimbers have one thing going for them… They are Pretty.  People will happily pay for arrogant, tacky, high maintenance shit if they are pretty.

Yes, I just compared Kimber to Paris Hilton. My apologies to Paris Hilton Fans.

What people are going for when they ask to look at a Kimber is a good quality 1911… If that is what you want – Get a SIG 1911.  Seriously.  In many cases, you will even pay less money for the SIG which is a much better built gun. Feature for feature you are about 200 bucks less for a better made SIG than for the similar gun made by Kimber.  And you are going to get a more accurate gun as well.  My SIG C3 spanked the hell out of my Kimber Tac Custom II and Custom II, and Warrior, and Raptor, and CDP Pro II.  Look, if you have a Kimber that you like, that’s fine.  Enjoy it and be happy.  If you are looking to buy a Kimber… Buy a SIG.  You will get a much better gun and it even comes with a spare magazine. How novel is that?

Weapons

Less is More?

24 Comments

There are two pistols in 9mm that I actually want.  As of right now, everything on the market on most gun store shelves… I don’t want.  I just don’t… they don’t do anything for me.  I’ve no interest in them.  But coming soon, we’ve got a couple that have made me raise my Ogrish Eyebrow in interest.

First is the Strike One pistol from Arsenal Arms.

The second is the Caracal pistol.

 
The Strike One, to me, just seems really interesting and I really dig the super low bore axis and full 5 inch barrel. I’d like to see some accuracy tests. I’d like to do some accuracy tests. The new action and some innovations in this gun make it most interesting.
The Caracal has been tested by our friend Rob Pincus and he is all over this handgun… If Rob really likes something like this, it’s worth taking a look at. I’ve read what’s out there, seen the pics and vids…. But I want to get one and shoot it.
Now, none of these handguns are any revolution in hand held weaponry… both are firing the same 9mm rounds that everything else is, and as a result, we’re going to have the same terminal ballistics, effective ranges, and ammunition supply as everything else. So why do I want these guns? Because I’m looking for something other than the same routine. For the last several years I’ve become painfully jaded about the handguns on the market… there are no perfect handguns out there. Maybe there is something here that is getting us closer to that. Both of these pistols have something in common, other than in caliber… Simplicity. They are both very simple pistols in design and mechanics and that’s something I truly appreciate… when Less can be More.
Take my new Motorcycle for instance… the Superhawk really is a very simple bike. It’s a simple V-Twin with very little technology going on in there… other bikes of it’s type are using computers and electronic fuel injection… The Superhawk has a pair oversized carburetors and a choke lever. But everyone how has ridden one as almost universally agreed its one of the best rides – in the world. It gets there not just by being simple, but by doing simple very well. So simple, it smacks of elegance.
The Glock Pistol illustrated this beautifully when it took the world by storm. Yet the Glock is not perfect at all. Rob Pincus has pointed out his distaste for the requirement of Dry Firing the weapon to disassemble it. Springfield has corrected this from the XD series in the XDM series. The M guns don’t require it and the mechanism is about as complicated as a Slingshot. Maybe that’s what I am looking for… the simplicity of design, distilled down the it’s most basic form that interfaces with the shooter like it was coded in the very DNA.
Until we achieve a completely Matter-Energy Conversion power source that can feed the energy requirements of hand-held Directed Energy weapons or Electro-Magnetic Mass Drivers… we are going to be forced to continue to use cartridges as we know them today… and Simple Elegance is the best we can aspire to.

Crusader, Weapons

Ordered a .40 Magnum today.

37 Comments

I wanted a gun with more power and longer reach.  So I ordered a Glock 20SF today.  That’s a 10mm, Sports Fans.
Should be here Friday or Monday.  Some have said all pistols suck.  10mm… sucks a lot less.

The Glock 20SF was my pick because I just don’t dig the Gen 4’s and the SF is a lot like the Gen 4 with no backstrap attached.  The only one I could find with any of the distributors were only coming with the 10 round mags, so I ordered some 15 rounders.

I’ll need a holster for it.  I need to pick out some good sights.  And I need to get it to Joe at Crusader HQ for the Full Tilt Crusader Conversion.

This is all because of Nightcrawler.

Weapons

More .40 thoughts again.

75 Comments

I’ve had some discussions at the Gun Counter where I work, about the .40.  Most of my Co-Workers are Die Hard .45 fans.  And that’s fine.  I’m a .45 fan myself.  But the .40 is no slouch when comes to the Defensive Power Factor.  The Defensive Power Factor gives some more insight into why I like the .40.    Looking at the Winchester PDX1 loads to give a more even playing field… going heavy for caliber.

.40 PDX1 180 Grains at 968 FPS =  DPF:  69.69.

.45 PDX1 230 Grains at 882 FPS =  DPF: 91.2.

9mm PDX1 147 Grains at 954 FPS = DPF: 49.78.

Looking at the Defensive Power Factor, it shows the .45 is indeed the potent one.  As we all knew.  And the .40 falls in line where we thought.  Now here’s the deal… the .45 advocates insist that the average defensive shooting is 2 rounds.  1.5 to be precise.  So to them, the shorter round count is not a problem.  Well, that’s not me.  The US Army taught me to prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.  So I’m going to pack more rounds when I have that option. I’m not planning on getting into a shooting.  But I’m also not planning on firing twice and then stopping and then waiting to see what happens.  I’m going to shoot to stop the threat.  And that might mean giving them a whole magazine.

A typical .45 Mag with 8+1 rounds gives a .45 pistol a total DPF load of 820.8.

A typical .40 mag… Glock 22, 15+1, gives your .40 a total of 1115.04.

Typical 9mm Glock 17 magazine, 17+1 gives that 9mm a total of 896.04.  That’s actually even better than the .45!  I can see why the 9mm is popular with shooters… But even the vaunted “more shots in the magazine” argument kinda feels stale now.

These numbers paint a different picture in my mind.  I am looking at these figures and I see that .40 is no longer just the Middle Man… but a jack of all trades, Multi-Role Fighter.  This is one of the reasons the .40 enjoys so much popularity with Johnny Law.  And with Ogres.  You can keep your .45 Autos… and your 9mm’s.  I’ll stick with my .40 calibers… thanks.

 

Weapons

CZ vs The High Power

30 Comments

Don’t get me wrong here… I love the CZ 75, and clones.  The P-01 and SP-01’s are fantastic.   CZ does indeed deserve much love.

But not matter how good the CZ is… it’s a mere shadow of the awesomeness that is the High Power.   The High Power is the original design that the CZ apes.  The High Power, even in 9mm, is one of the greatest handguns of all time.  I know that Colonel Jeff Cooper spoke very highly of the CZ, laying on it much accolades… but I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Cooper was mistaken and he should have named the High Power as the advanced handgun that could unseat the 1911 as the next greatest thing ever.

Look at it… Similar single action function to the 1911.  High capacity.  Low recoil.  Attributes that many of the top shooters are advocating.  So many shooters are going for expensive custom 1911’s chambered in 9mm.  Efforts to regain what was there all along… in the High Power.

If I was sitting at a chair around the board table at CZ USA, a company that has listened to my suggestions before… I’d strongly suggest that they take the CZ75 platform, and not just many a single action only version for competition… But make a new High Power of it, suitable for Duty use. No magazine disconnect or brake, night sights, lock and load carry, and a higher capacity than the original.  Make it look like a High Power.  And put it out with those awesome grips that are on the SP-01 and P-01 pistols.