Monday, September 19, 2011

Words Fail Me...










Seriously? I mean SERIOUSLY? What the heck has happened to Sig?

Friday, September 16, 2011

Lifespan of a Pistol Magazine.

From Todd Green's Pistol-Training.com website:

The pistol suffered another “slide over base” stoppage during the class. It was a different magazine than previous but it seems likely the mag springs are giving up the ghost. Almost all of my shooting has been done with six dedicated training magazines each of which has seen 5,000+ rounds so far. All six magazines are getting replaced. While the problem would most likely go away with a simple mag spring change, it’s always been my personal policy that a bad mag is a Bad Mag and needs to be destroyed. When mag springs go bad, followers and feed lips and floorplates may not be far behind. Unless you live in a state where your pre-ban standard-capacity freedom-loving magazine tubes are irreplaceable, the best approach to fixing a problematic magazine involves crushing it and then replacing it with a nice new magazine.

I've met a few  shooters that think of their mags as a one time investment but they are really  a disposable commodity with what often times is an unknown service life. I know it's a hard thing to do, but eventually you will most likely have to just flat out replace the whole dang magazine. The magazine if the life-blood of a semi-auto pistol, if it's having issues you don't want to hope the problem has been fixed. Pending on firearm type or more specifically the construction of the magazine, you can do more harm to your gun trying to diddle with fixing magazine tubes.

Bottom line, if you have problems you believe to be mag. related, ditch the mag. Have a good numbering scheme for your magazines, or groups of magazines and once mags start diving you issues, get them out of rotation ASAP. Some like to keep them for range use to induce random failures, if that's your thing find a way that makes them visually different than all the others that is a little less subtle than simple numbering, blaze orange floor plates etc. are a good idea. 

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Some More Range Practice w/ the SRP

I took the SRP out for an IDPA match last Sunday with Central Iowa IDPA in Ames, did pretty well. The gun fired every time like it should, the cut of the 10-8 grips is a little sharp, didn't bother my firing hand much but my support hand was felling a little irritated but that was probably be being too loose with my grip.

Overall impressions of the SRP are favorable so far.

Friday, September 9, 2011

"My gun is shooting to the left..."

More often than not, most threads regarding guns not putting shots where the shooter wants them starts just like that: "My gun is shooting to the left", or some variation, high left, low left etc.

The first remedy they ask about is "how do I adjust my sights.


The first such thread on this topic I read this week was from someone shooting 6-8" left with their Sig P238. The manual for the P238 states the following:

Change windage by moving the rear sight either to the left
or right in its dovetail. When you do this, follow the rear sight
rule: Move the rear sight in the direction you want the group
to go. Moving the rear sight 0.020” in the dovetail changes
the point of impact by approximately 3” at 25 yards.

So...I asked this poster at what distance they were shooting....


The answer was seven yards. Without breaking out a slide rule, calculator and some paper and pens I'm going to just go ahead and wager that for a rear sight to be off enough to result in 6-8" of error it would have to be hanging off the slide.

Here it is folks, most people are right handed and when you jerk the trigger or have too much or even too little finger on the trigger, your jerk shots to the left or right...if you have a flinch you'll drop shots low. When you combine the two you get low left, low right etc. the list goes on and on. There's a handy diagnostic target out there on the web that give some helpful hits, but it can't cover all the possibilities of error combinations.

What one needs to do to determine if it's them or the gun, is either properly shoot the gun from a rest in attempt to remove as much shooter error as possible, or let someone that knows how to shoot test fire the gun, preferably both. If after such testing the gun is still shooting left, consult your user's manual regarding how to properly adjust sights, if you are not mechanically inclined, and do not own appropriate sight adjusting tools...like a Ameriglo Rear Sight Tool, you may just want to ask around at your favorite local gun shop & range and see if they have one and are willing to adjust your sights for you. DO NOT TRY TO USE A SCREW DRIVER AND HAMMER!

And maybe, just maybe if your gun is shooting straight from a rest or in someone else's hands, you may just want to check around for a basic marksmanship class.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Glock Gen4 Recoil Spring Assembly “Exchange Program”

 Read the following info over at Pistol-Training.com, great news indeed.

"If you’ve been following the tale of gen4 Glocks, you know that in just over a year the company has tried a variety of different recoil spring assembly (RSA) variants trying to alleviate various problems users have experienced. Adding to the trouble has been the need for different RSAs for guns with and without a properly counterbored spring box (aka, “nose ring”).
Finally, they’ve got it all figured out and Glock is announcing a free “exchange program” for any gen4 Glock owner.  There is now just one RSA per model, regardless of whether the slide was counterbored for the RSA or not. As someone who owns two non-counterbored Glocks, I can tell you that is good news because finding the non-counterbored-only spring (0-2-1) is almost impossible.
All you need to do is contact Glock at 1-877-745-8523 with your serial number and model number. They will send you a replacement spring and a pre-addressed envelope to return the old one. For details, you can visit TeamGlock.com.
Tip of the hat to pistol-forum.com member hvd229 for initially posting the info!"