Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your Glock.
Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?
O! for a Glock of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!
Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?
Hat tip to
Showing posts with label Glock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glock. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
And you don't mess around with Slim
Slim Frame or Short Frame?
I know most of the official press declares ithe G 21 SF to mean "Short Frame". It seems that everyone else has decided it stands for Slim Frame.
Either way it's the first revision of the 3rd Generation Glock in years. I know, guns aren't like cars or other consumer goods. The 1971 Cold Government Model is identical to the 1975 Colt Government Model.
I tend to look at the SF, though, as a Generation 3.5. It's not as radical as adding finger grooves (grrrrr!) or even forward and back stippling to the grip. The grip angle remains the same. There is still a big hollow space behind the magazine well. The biggest functional difference is a stock ambidextruous magazine release. This was something clearly done right and is one of the few things that Glock needed to learn from the XD.
Some things I wish they would unlearn from XD is lawyer triggers. I've become a spoiled puppy. I have had my triggers worked on so they are lighter, crisper. Around 3 lb but with less take up than I had on my 17L.
After going for a torture test this morning I am willing to confess to anything my 21 SF wants to hear me say. I think I hit 200 rounds and my trigger finger tip is still tender. I know, 200 rounds isn't even a break-in on a Glock. I don't think anything short of making it lay naked next to Rosie O'Donnell will make it so much as wince.
Of course it fed hardball. It fed hard-cast SWC and it fed "slow-ass Gold Dot". I'm tempted to try plugging spent cases back into the magazine to see if it will feed those.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
BAG Day Doin's
I decided against buying a gun for BAG day this year. I'm focusing on specific shooting activities and attempting to avoid distractions that would lessen the impact of specific training I'm working on.
Well, that and I couldn't decide what I really wanted.
I did not spend BAG day without putting something into action, however. I gave myself training.
I took a course from a local instructor in defensive shooting with a handgun. The instructor isn't a gun-store commando or a mall ninja. He is a retired police trainer. Since he is not instructing civillians I'd have to say he doesn't fit the "Only Ones" mold. In point of fact he showed my fellow students Lee Paige's performance on the "Glock Foty".
Yesterday was all class room with almost no hands-on. We watched some videos and listened to the instructor. There were 8 people in attendance (2 more had registered but did not show up). Seven men and one woman (the wife of one of the men). We had some friendly times and a lot of fun on both days but nothing compares to trigger time and we got a lot of that in today.
This morning started with a drive down back country roads to a private shooting range. The owner and his son were very friendly to us and we had no problems from neighbors even when making lots of loud noise on a bright, sunny, very windy Sunday.
Safety was of primary importance. While some in the class were seasoned shooters there were some who were relatively new to the task. It was very wise of the instructor to start off with slow warm ups and to emphasize safety over realism at this phase with such a group.
Thankfully incredibly bad habits I had in my early years are not part of my current life. I did not get a "talkin' to" about my trigger finger or muzzle control. Some did, both early on and much later in the day when we were all rather tired.
Part of the warm up was to shoot a somewhat reduced PPC qualification round. The course of fire was 18 rounds from 20 yards, 18 rounds from 15 yards, 12 rounds from 10 yards and 6 rounds from each hand at 3 yards.
I've thought about posting about something I'd noticed over the past year and a half for some time. Each time I deleted such posts.
Not everyone shoots very well.
I probably got a complex about it because I made it a point to shoot with a group of people who really do shoot very well. I would occaisionally happen to see other people, though, who had the "spray and pray" philosophy down. Sometimes I would try to give some help if they seemed receptive.
The 8 people I was with today don't fall into that category. Everyone shot a very respectable score. After the warm up we shot the reduced PPC qualification course again for final score. No one turned in less than 80%. I've seen much worse at the gun clubs.
My target from the second qualification round is posted above. After shooting a 298 in practice I was able to turn it around and pull 300 or 100%. The lone woman in the class was second with 295 final score. Her good-natured husband had to put up with a lot of ribbing as she continued to surpass him. He was not bad, she was just better.
The really impressive score, to me, was turned in by another experienced shooter who was using his real carry gun, a S&W PD DAO with 1 7/8" barrel. Since several shooters had full-sized 1911 clones he turned in a very, very respectable performance. I don't think I could do as well with my 3" J-frame.
We did some reloading drills, first with one round in each magazine, then with three. My reloading speed sucks at 5.3 for the time between shot 1 and shot 2. I need to work on that. Six second to fire 3 and reload, then fire another three. It's clearly not the shooting that's taking up my time.
We took a break for lunch and after the break we went into some MILD simulations of the two-way range (as Fits calls it). We had plastic barrels we had to use for cover while firing at "threat" targets.
This was all done in a mild way. This portion was not done for score and we were not graded on our accuracy during this phase. We were being graded on tactical skills and handling our weapons.
The instructor did not allow drawing "hot" from the holster for the students at this level of training. That's another step up. Again, I consider this wise as he could not expect everyone to have good trigger and muzzle discipline, yet.
The first challenge involved moving at a run up to the first pair of targets and taking concealment (plastic barrels may be called 'cover' but are not by definition). We then drew, loaded and engaged, three rounds in each. Speed reload, move to the next concealment, engage with three rounds to each target, speed reload and then engage a single paper target consisting of three figures, two hostile and one don't-shoot.
My first runthrough I committed the same sin as everyone, I got too close to the concealment. Score B+. The plus was because I knocked over the middle barrel but continued to act, not siezing up.
We were treated to some "why you don't get up close on your cover" lessons and then it was time for another run-through. Some lost a + over forgetting to stay off the concealment but everyone did better the second time around. My grade was A++. I was granted this because after my initial loading I realized that I had not seated my magazine and did an immediate action drill and continued the exercise.
The final activity was more simple and rightly so as many errors that people hadn't been guilty of for most of the day started to come out. From a hot ready engage one target with six rounds, reload, move to the next station, engage with six, reload and then move to the final station and engage with your remaining six. This one didn't have as much realism but it was less a tactical exercise as a weapons-handling one. The instructor wanted to see people reloading without taking their eyes off the targets. I met that goal.
Today wasn't a typical BAG Day celebration but I'm happy with what I spent my money on. I may only have some paper to hang up to show for it but training is harder to come by than firearms. I've been shown areas that I need to improve upon and will be working on. Better to learn those lessons now than if I ever need them later. I have a chance to practice the rougher areas in the meanwhile.
Glocking report. My G 23 aquitted itself very well. There was one failure to load and I blame that on the ammo. I had taken my big can of Miwall factory reloads, not the new stuff I'd been saving. I burned up a lot of it and the only somewhat mechanical issue was that failure to go fully into battery with one round. When we got that round to seat it fired and extracted without any difficulty.
My problem with not fully seating magazines was evident and is another rough spot to work on. That happened twice.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Grip A Glock
It was well over a year ago that I first fired a Glock. It was a 2nd gen with a home-stippled grip frame lent by a guy I got a short course from. I had other guns but wanted to see what all the Glockenfuss was about.
I wasn't too impressed by the feel of the gun but when the instructor popped the slide off of his G 35 and I saw how sweet and simple the engineering was I got hooked. I'm a sucker for good engineering.
It wasn't until later that I heard from another guy about how bad his hand got bitten by Glocks when he was doing IPSC competition. Silly me. I'd drawn that G 19 many times, blew 250 rounds of ammo and failed to get slide bite.
Well, hearing about it sort of cursed me. I did get slide bite from Glocks mostly because I was fearing it. I wasn't even drawing the gun from holster so why I should get bitten must have been out of fear of it.
I let my slide bite heal and then went back to the Glocks. Between last weekend and this one I've fired 200+ rounds out of my G 23 doing grabs from the holster, both from a Blackhawk CQC and a Galco Combat Master.
No slide bite.
Draw, fire, holster. Draw, fire, holster. Draw, fire, fire, fire, holster. Over and over and not once did I get bitten. Well, a light nibble when I shifted to my left hand. More because I haven't been working on training that hand to grip as much as I should.
I haven't stippled this G 23's grip. It's 3rd gen and I haven't even ground off the silly finger spacers.
No Glock Finger. No slide bite.
So much for the fears. Now to work on the real issues.
I wasn't too impressed by the feel of the gun but when the instructor popped the slide off of his G 35 and I saw how sweet and simple the engineering was I got hooked. I'm a sucker for good engineering.
It wasn't until later that I heard from another guy about how bad his hand got bitten by Glocks when he was doing IPSC competition. Silly me. I'd drawn that G 19 many times, blew 250 rounds of ammo and failed to get slide bite.
Well, hearing about it sort of cursed me. I did get slide bite from Glocks mostly because I was fearing it. I wasn't even drawing the gun from holster so why I should get bitten must have been out of fear of it.
I let my slide bite heal and then went back to the Glocks. Between last weekend and this one I've fired 200+ rounds out of my G 23 doing grabs from the holster, both from a Blackhawk CQC and a Galco Combat Master.
No slide bite.
Draw, fire, holster. Draw, fire, holster. Draw, fire, fire, fire, holster. Over and over and not once did I get bitten. Well, a light nibble when I shifted to my left hand. More because I haven't been working on training that hand to grip as much as I should.
I haven't stippled this G 23's grip. It's 3rd gen and I haven't even ground off the silly finger spacers.
No Glock Finger. No slide bite.
So much for the fears. Now to work on the real issues.
Glock Like a Man
This morning I got to the range early. This let me get a pistol berm and also allowed me to go pick up a box full of clay "birds" from the trap shoot range. Once sent down range the range personnel don't care enough to pick them up again.
At the berm there were some partial birds already laying on the backstop so I used those for hip shooting.
The G 23 can put a round into the general vicinity of where you are looking when drawn from the holster. I'm talking within 4". I'm still hitting "high" on hip shooting but I expect practice to bring that down. The draw-to-hip-shoot exercises were never left or right of what I was focused upon.
Movement is still a bugaboo. When I switched to firing at an ICE-QT my misses were present, failing to even nick the cartoon thug 8-10 of the rounds I fired. I even managed to miss the cardboard sheet the target was stapled to once. It pegged into my wooden target stand.
If anyone wants to know why you don't want to use FMJ for wet work shoot the bullet into a 2x2. The hole shows almost no deformity except for the splinters on the rear as the bullet flies out. The hole stays a uniform shape.
If it will go through 2" of pine it won't have any problems passing through muscle fat and most organs and exiting the other side ready to penetrate someone else.
At the berm there were some partial birds already laying on the backstop so I used those for hip shooting.
The G 23 can put a round into the general vicinity of where you are looking when drawn from the holster. I'm talking within 4". I'm still hitting "high" on hip shooting but I expect practice to bring that down. The draw-to-hip-shoot exercises were never left or right of what I was focused upon.
Movement is still a bugaboo. When I switched to firing at an ICE-QT my misses were present, failing to even nick the cartoon thug 8-10 of the rounds I fired. I even managed to miss the cardboard sheet the target was stapled to once. It pegged into my wooden target stand.
If anyone wants to know why you don't want to use FMJ for wet work shoot the bullet into a 2x2. The hole shows almost no deformity except for the splinters on the rear as the bullet flies out. The hole stays a uniform shape.
If it will go through 2" of pine it won't have any problems passing through muscle fat and most organs and exiting the other side ready to penetrate someone else.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Gone Glockin'
After firing off the 7.62 I'd brought to the range I moved over to a pistol berm and used the same target to take rounds from my G 23.
Yes. I've turned into a Glockhead.
Today's practice was useful because I didn't have to stand still. I could even draw from the holster with live ammo in the pistol. Those were both forbidden at the indoor range.
I practiced drawing to fire one handed, transition to two handed and moving backwards/to the side of the target.
Light flannel shirts are not the easiest to get out of your way when you are drawing from concealement.
Lessons better learned in practice than in crisis.
Yes. I've turned into a Glockhead.
Today's practice was useful because I didn't have to stand still. I could even draw from the holster with live ammo in the pistol. Those were both forbidden at the indoor range.
I practiced drawing to fire one handed, transition to two handed and moving backwards/to the side of the target.
Light flannel shirts are not the easiest to get out of your way when you are drawing from concealement.
Lessons better learned in practice than in crisis.
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