Odds and ends

So, over the last few weeks I've alluded to a friend who was going through a rough patch, most recently in Earworm, 06/14/2017.

Basically, her son went from a 5% chance of surviving, to full consciousness, coherent speech, and walking unassisted.

Apparently, it is possible for certain organs which have shut down to regenerate.

Somewhere in there, I wondered if this was going to turn into a Lifetime movie, or even in to a Hallmark Special.*

Then she told me that certain other aspects of her life were turning around, and now I suspect even Hallmark would turn the script down as too unrealistic...

***

...In the meantime, my wife has been listening to me obsess about the problems of a woman shes never met, and all she says is "What's the news? Is she  doing OK? She probably needs a break, why don't you see if we can take her to lunch or dinner?"

So, yeah, I think even Hallmark would say it was too hokey. 

Also, I love my incredible wife.

***

Also in the meantime, the NRA has relented on it's ban on 1911s and revolvers in the Carry Guard self-defensive shooting classes.  (Dear NRA: WTF is wrong with you?!)

I heard a lot of rationales why this rule made sense, but frankly, IMnsHO none of them stood scrutiny. If someone is paying $850 for a three day class, you should be a little more lenient about what gat they bring.

If Mas can design the shooting courses of MAG40 to accommodate single-stack pistols and 6 shooters, than by Friar Schwartz' ghost so can the NRA.

***

*Okay, so I have this theory that women's lives can be divided into one of three categories:

1. Hallmark Channel movies
2. Lifetime Channel movies
3. Oxygen Channel movies

depending on how horrible the tragedy is, how sordid the scandal is, and/or how many people die and/or go to prison.

There may be other categories, the woman I first developed this theory around turned out to need one of those pay-per-view channels, if you know what I mean, and I think you do...

(Edited to add that I was only "involved" wih this woman as a co-worker.)

I haven't yet heard a proposed equivalent for men's lives, although I suspect my life story will star Bruce Campbell...

Fight the derp!

I have a t-shirt, black with red lettering saying "D.A.R.E"! It looks familiar, except in small letters it says "Derp Abuse Resistance Education". It was a limited edition at SKD Tactical, a Todd L Green memorial of sorts, raising money for Tod's Rampage For The Cure. I wore it at MAG40 last summer, and at the Langdon Tactical class.

Holster Derp

You still see people using Serpa holsters, or imitations. I have a couple myself. I bought them because they're reasonably priced, and retention seemed like a Good Idea.

Then I learned that there were reports of the locking mechanism getting jammed. "Well", I says to myself says I, "I've heard Internet rumors about this problem but not met anyone who saw it happen, and I'm not planning on wearing these things on a deployment or rolling around in the dirt while wearing them..."

Well, apparently it doesn't take rolling around in a bear pit to jam the mechanism, and I've now read too many eye-witness accounts of having to retrieve a gun from one of these with a pair of tin snips to want to risk it.

Plus, there's the whole "Using your trigger finger to activate the release" thing.

Now, when I first heard these particular concerns raised I did some "dry practice" draws, and concluded that the Serpa locking mechanism positioned my trigger finger along the frame of my Combat Commander where it belongs.

Trouble is, well, here's a video:

Note that Mr. "Only a fool can't use a Serpa safely" has his trigger finger inside the trigger guard pretty much during the whole draw stroke.

So in last week's Weekend Knowledge Dump Greg Ellifritz linked to a post Why NOT SERPA | Stuff From Hsoi which included a video of a Serpa jamming up hard during a self-defense training session. (Which also links to a Facebook post that includes the video I just embedded.)

Holster Non-Derp

Last week I found myself trying to explain why you really do need to expect to spend more than a Jackson* on a holster. All too often we see someone dropping five hundred or more on a pistol, just to carry it in what Tamara calls a "sausage sack"; a soft nylon holster that collapses on the draw and that might, even if it covers the trigger guard, might not do a good job of protecting it.

Fortunately, Kathy Jackson (smooth segue, huh?) has just completed a six-part series on holsters:

• Holster Conversations | Cornered Cat
• A Better Holster, Part One | Cornered Cat
• A Better Holster, Part Two | Cornered Cat
• A Better Holster, Part Three | Cornered Cat
• A Better Holster, Part Four | Cornered Cat
• A Better Holster, Part Five | Cornered Cat
• A Better Holster, Part Six | Cornered Cat

Her Bottom Line: A good holster

1. Protects the trigger, 
2. Holds the gun securely, and 
3. Allows the user to access the gun when they need it. 

Ammo Derp

Speaking of Greg Ellifritz, in the same Knowledge Dump I referenced above he links to a poll of the Best Self-Defense Ammo...

The Best Self-Defense Ammo, Voted by You, and One Takes Home 45% of the Vote

Contemplate this. (Did you say that in James Earl Jones' voice, and continue with "...on the Tree of Woe?" 'Cuz I did while typing it...)

Anyway. They crowd sourced what everyone thinks is the best self-defense ammo!

There are decent loads on this list.There are loads on this list that have been off the market for over two decades. There are loads on this list that were hot stuff three decades ago but are now, shall we say, passé. And there are loads on this list that are pure derp.

If one has questions about what round to carry, the standard advice is to carry whatever the local constabulary carries. If one still has questions, the best bet is to start your research with the "sticky" threads on this page: Ammunition -- Pistol-Forum.com. Note that a couple of those stickied threads have to do with ballistic gelatin testing and wound ballistics. Minimal research will tell you that one does not simply walk into one's local Safeway and buy ballistics gelatin (do we need a Boromir meme for that...?) so when that YouTube celebrity says he was using clear Knox gelatin for his test, well...

Guns

You get what you pay for. The $500 (new) gun is better than the $300 (new) gun, and the $1000 (new) gun is better than the $500 (new) gun. (Granted, there may be exceptions, including lucking into a Steal of a Deal.)

Mind you, the qualitative difference between the three Franklin gun and the five Franklin gun may be greater than between the five and the ten. All other things being equal, an all-metal gun is almost certainly going to cost more than a polymer gun of equivalent size and quality. Do your research, and determine what you are giving up by going with, say, the Kel-Tec P3AT versus the Ruger LCP, S&W Bodyguard, or Glock 42.

Ideally, read those ammunition threads I just linked to and buy a 9mm instead of a .380...

Training

"Derp Abuse Resistance Education"...

Since I mentioned Pistol-Forum.com, one of the members has put together what is shaping up to be a pretty useful tool, which he calls the Firearms Training Hub. Looking for a specific type of class? Or classes in a specific area? Here you go. Mind you, the trainers have to let him know that they're available to include, so it is not necessarily 100% as to what is scheduled where, but it's certainly a good place to start.

Archives

I've written a few posts on the subject of derp, using the tag Derpitude

And a few tagged Training as well.

***

*AKA an "Irony". If that puzzles you, research Andrew Jackson's relationship with the US Bank, and extrapolate to the concept of the Federal Reserve. One must assume that Andy J would be fine with having someone else's face on the $20, although how he would feel about being replaced by Harriet Tubman I refuse to speculate.

Musings, 1911

So, there seem to be two schools of thought about the 1911-pattern pistol:

1. It's an archaic jam-o-matic, or 
2. It's Certain Death for Evildoers.

The truth, of course, is that it's neither.

Here are some facts*:
The M1911 was designed by John Moses Browning (pbuh) to US Army specs.

The story is well known, the Army went from the Single Action Army revolver in .45 "Long" Colt¹, to a double-action revolver in .38, which proved less than adequate in the Philippines.

At the time, semi-automatic pistols² were just coming into use, and the Army included features that seemed like a good idea at the time.

• Things like multiple safeties, since it was expected that most of the Army's pistoleros were going to be on horseback.³
• And lanyard rings, ditto. (Including on magazines!)
• And sights that are nearly vestigial, since the art of combat marksmanship as envisioned by the military at the time didn't really go in for sighted fire as we know it.
• Also, of course, it was made of steel because what else was there?
• Oh, and keep the tolerances somewhat loose to allow for minimal maintenance under field conditions, not to mention so that it will cycle ammunition loaded "kinda sorta" to spec under wartime conditions.

Jump ahead fifty years or so.  A bunch of guys have been exposed to the 1911 and the .45 ACP round but, largely because of Army pistol marksmanship instruction, don't really understand it. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, of officers and technical specialists have been handed a big chunk of metal and told "go qualify", but not really told how to do so. Once again, the #2 pencil is the greatest tool for making sure the unit's numbers come out right... But what the hey, we won, right?⁴

But the war's over, and a bunch of guys are getting together to invent a new sport involving pistol shooting. And it turns out the M1911 is a pretty good tool for that.

Earworm, MAG-40 edition

Still going over my notes, going to start transcribing them in a few days, and will start working on the AAR at that time.

The short version is, if you own a gun for self-defense take MAG-40 if you have to manufacture the chance to do so.

In the meantime...


(The Andy Sanford version is what was played in class, and is preferred for many reasons, but the YouTube recording has so much background noise I went with this one instead.)

Well, that escalated quickly...

In my previous post, as I was lamenting the fact that I had discovered by day three of MAG-40 that the three "generic" stainless steel magazines for my 1911s were crap, and the feed lips had spread to the point where, not only would they not lock back the slide when empty, but I couldn't even get one of them in the mag well, I added as an aside

the blued ones actually marked as GI mags seem to be working OK.

By the time we had finished shooting the last drills and were about to shoot the qualification several of my blued steel mags were also failing to lock back the slide.

I suppose the "COLT" marked ones have an excuse, since they came with my Combat Commander, which I purchased almost exactly 30 years ago.

Annoying, but nowhere near as annoying as getting that hot brass down my back from the Marine shooting his Ruger LC9S S&W Shield next to me was. ("Mas! The blogger is doing Saint Vitus' Dance!""Is his muzzle pointed in a safe direction...?")

That and it made the Glockenspielers even more insufferable.

Note to self...

Dear Self:
Remember writing this post? 

Turns out that when you said

• On the one hand, my habit of buying 1911 magazines over the last year or two seems like a good one.
• On the other hand, buying the cheap ones marked and packaged as GI 1911 mags may not have been so smart.

the twinge you felt when typing the first bullet was not just your bursitis acting up at the self-back-patting, it was foreshadowing.

Bullet two OTOH, was prescient. (Except the blued ones actually marked as GI mags seem to be working OK.)

Day three of MAG 40 and I now have three fewer 1911 magazines than I came with. Turns out those "generic" stainless steel magazines simply marked ".45 ACP" weren't even worth the sawbuck each they cost me.

In mitigation, I would like to point out I bought the things strictly for use in training.

Too bad they won't even go into the mag well easily enough to use them to practice reloads.

Defense Authorization bill was signed Wednesday

I can't help thinking it's a trap.

S. 1356, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (Opens a .pdf, all 584 pages of it.)

Military.com reports that they have finally passed a "blended" retirement program. When I was getting ready to retire, it was being reported that the Pentagon was resisting calls to include the Uniformed Services in the government's IRA program, because it would lead to reductions in retirement pay. OTOH, this looks like it will result in some sort of payout for those who leave with less than 20 years. You get a lot of time-servers after about the 12 year mark, not sayin' I would have left earlier if I had the prospect of getting paid, but...

It also includes "language designed to stop Obama from closing the detention facilities at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

Plus:

Allowing personal firearms on stateside bases — Lawmakers are requiring Defense Secretary Ash Carter to develop a plan by the end of this year that would allow stateside base commanders to decide whether to allow their service members to carry personal firearms on duty, or in areas where that is currently restricted by the military. Any such plan would not supercede local laws.

Per the NRA-ILA (which incorrectly refers to the bill as the Defense Appropriations Bill"*) also

...clarifies an exception in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that pertains to ammunition. Although TSCA clearly exempts “cartridges” and “shells” from the Act’s jurisdiction, radical environmental groups like the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) have for years been trying to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate lead projectiles under the Act. ...

Section 315 of the NDAA makes explicit the clear intent of the exception, which was to conclusively remove ammunition from the scope of the TSCA. Thus, the exception now includes not just shells and cartridges but “components of shot shells and cartridges.”

 Finally, Section 1087. The NRA again:

Rounding out the list of pro-gun provisions is section 1087, which restores authorization to the Secretary of Defense to transfer to the Civilian Marksmanship Program surplus M1911 and M1911A1 .45 ACP pistols for sale to the public. The component of the CMP that dispenses the pistols would be required to obtain a federal firearms license and abide by all requirements of the Gun Control Act pertaining to licensed sales and transfers. Currently, the military has some 100,000 such pistols that it no longer needs and that are being stored as taxpayer expense. These historically-significant firearms can now be transferred to law-abiding owners at a net gain to the government’s heavily-indebted balance sheet.

 I'll take two, please.

***

*From the Military.Com article: "The legislation is only half the annual budget process for Congress. Lawmakers still need to pass a defense appropriations bill for fiscal 2016 to start new programs and acquisition plans. Congressional leaders are hopeful that can be done before Dec. 11, when a short-term budget extension expires."

Oh, please, oh please, oh please...

Remaining Government Stock of WWII M1911's Handguns to Be Sold Off to The Public.....

Gettin' Siggy With It

OD Green and Full Dark Earth as well as Black, and 9mm, .357 Sig, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP

I was told that this is soon to be a factory option.

"Urban Defensive Tactics" class, 12/14/14

In previous installments of "The Education of D.W. Drang" we saw him take an "Introduction to Handguns" class (One Step Back, Two Steps Forward?) and the same (local) range's "Progressive Handgun Skills" class (Another Step Forward). I've also shared some Soul-searching (Gringo Pistolero edition) with you and inflicted some related but Random thoughts on the subject of guns and gun design on you.

On Sunday 12/14/14 I took Federal Way Firearms Training's newest class, Urban Defense Tactics. FWFT conducts it's training at my Friendly Local Gun Store & Range, Federal Way Discount Guns. About a week before the class, we were notified that the course description had been updated to emphasize that we were encouraged to bring a rifle and/or shotgun to practice with, and also that a quality flashlight was highly suggested.

I also realized Saturday night that it suggested a good pair of knee pads, and I had neglected to get any; fortunately, the Big Blue Big Box home improvement store opens at 0800 on Sunday morning, so I was able to get a pair before class.

Instructing was Grif, retired King County Sheriff's Deputy and Law Enforcement Instructor. Janice, the manager of FWFT and the lead instructor of the Introduction to Handguns class I had taken, was assisting.  There were two other students.

While the Progressive class moved directly to the range after a short safety briefing, this class started out in the classroom and stayed there for an hour or two. Topics discussed in the classroom started out with a review of Revised Code of Washington (RCW) articles:

• RCW 9A.16.050: Homicide — By other person — When justifiable. and
• RCW 9A.16.060: Duress.

Random thoughts

Remember: The guy who said "A more elegant weapon for a more civilized era" was impressed by Imperial Stormtrooper precision.
— Drang (@DWDrang) September 6, 2014

So there I was on Facebook...

...minding my own business (yeah, yeah, I know, no one on Facebook minds their own business, I mean, that's the whole point, but work with me here) and reading one of the posts by Michael Z "Mad Mike" Williamson demolishing the absurd claims that enabling women to defend themselves from violent assault somehow enables "rape culture" itself, (of late, he and Larry Correia have been tag teaming a whole passel of Social Justice Warriors, AKA SJWs, AKA gutless progressive crypto-commies) when someone opined that

I'd kinda like a picture of Charles Darwin saying "John Browning gave the female gender a way to teach the male gender not to rape via natural selection."

I live to serve*...

*Not really.  Get your own damn' sammich.

Random thoughts

It is not a good sign when the server at dinner doesn't know the special of the day.

• Not just "What's the special?" "I don't know", but "We'll have the Hummingbirds Tongues in Aspic", and you have to explain that it's the special.  "Did you see it on a board some place?"
• Proof: she doesn't bring you the wine until you're halfway done with the entree.  
• EDIT:  Mrs. Drang reminds me that when she did bring the wine, it was the wrong one.
• And then brings you the Special Of The Day white chocolate bread pudding with butterscotch sauce at room temperature, served with a scoop of ice cream.
• We could have done without all the proof...

The weather alert I posted a day or two ago has been rescinded and then re-alerted several times.

• Don't be surprised if you hear soon that Spokane is the newest west coast port...

One thing I've learned, or had confirmed, hanging out on Internet firearms fora is that every handgun manufacturer has it's fanbois, as well as it's hateh's.

• One guy can post an innocuous question about, say, getting his gat refinished, and someone will be along shortly to warn him that, because it's the make and model it is, it will blow up in his hand and he should get something else¹.  Usually a specific "something else."  Which a third party will be along to villify in a post or three, the cycle repeating itself until pretty much every manufacturer and model out there (including some waaaaay out there) has been claimed to be simultaneously the greatest thing since Friar Schwartz²  had his little lab accident AND the greatest danger to the operator imaginable.³
• Pistol-forum.com is far better than most, if not all, others, although talk about 1911s will inevitably draw Glock or HK fanbois who will solemnly avow that one must first pay $1000+ for a 1911, and then spend another $1k on it to ensure it doesn't simply fall apart at the first shot.
• Admittedly 1911 sights as John Moses Browning (pbuh) designed them for the Army are practically vestigial. And the 1911s running from $4-500 new are imports from countries which do not necessarily have great metallurgical quality.  But that doesn't mean you just bought a grenade...

Another thing I've learned specifically from Pistol-forum.com is that, not only is the answer to the question "How many magazines should I buy?" "Even more", but the magazine is probably the most sensitive part of the semi-automatic pistol.

• If the magazine does not present the bullet to the chamber at the proper  angle and in the proper orientation, it doesn't matter if the feed ramp has been all smoothed and polished.
• On the one hand, my habit of buying 1911 magazines over the last year or two seems like a good one.
• On the other hand, buying the cheap ones marked and packaged as GI 1911 mags may not have been so smart.
• I went to Joanne's Fabrics yesterday and bought a paint pen, and now all the magazines are marked with my name and an identifying number. Magazine goes bad? Smash it and toss it.
• Tamara uses cute stickers on some of hers, but I have my image to keep up...
• Also, I've ordered some Pachmeyr magazine bumper pads, and stickers won't stick to the rubber.

Have I mentioned that taking a "Basic, Fundamentals" handgun class was totally worth it? Maybe if I'd done that 25 years ago I wouldn't have this unreasonable prejudice against Beretta handguns.

• Please note that I do refrain from telling everyone that just because I couldn't shoot well with one that obviously means no one will, or that they're just one round away from blowing themselves up...
• Mostly this speaks to the Army not really caring about handguns or handgun training.
• Think about that when someone says "This guy at work  was in the Army and he says..."  "This guy at work" is probably That Guy, so at least find out more about "this guy's" actual qualifications.

Intermediate class tomorrow.  We'll see how I do...

• Including whether I need to buy a dozen new/replacement 1911 magazine springs and followers.

***

1. Although sometimes the warning is followed up by "Send it to me for disposal", which is a sign it's a desirable piece of gear.
2.  Or Roger Bacon.  Or Francis Bacon, I can't remember who. Whom. Yes, I know black powder was first formulated in China.  They don't seem to have had the necessary mindset to look at a mortar launching it's pestle, and visualizing the AK47...
3.  At the first Gun Blogger rendezvous I attended, the local gunsmith who was handling FFL duties made the claim that the M1911 as issued in WWII was an unreliable piece of crap, that all 1911s since were even worse, and that the best handgun for self-defense was the Hi Point 9mm.

Interesting

UPDATE:  A couple of errors corrected.

Went out yesterday to test-shoot the Colt Rail Gun. (She talked me into it!)

First I attached the Official Crimson Trace Rail Master Green Laser Sight (CMR-203) I got at Gun Blogger Rendezvous last year.

I have to say I am not thoroughly thrilled with the way it attached, I feel it's a bit too far forward, but that may just be an aesthetic mater.  It works just fine, as we shall see...

Black plastic laser on a matte stainless 1911, just doesn't seem right, somehow...

I tried to mount it further back, but short of trimming away material, it just wouldn't fit.

The first mags were at 15 feet and were down to my usual barely adequate performance levels. Actually, the first targets were mostly trying to get a feel for the gun, and where the sights were regulated to.

Top target was a 6 O'clock hold, bottom one was 12.  (I got used to a 6 O'Clock hold with the Commander, using anything else is taking some getting used to.)

No champion shooters are metaphorically looking over their shoulders for me... Although...

I am not entirely unhappy with for a first time shooting the gun at 25 feet.  (Was adjusting to 1 O'clock, since I seem to be pulling to the left.)

And then I turned on the laser.  After trying to use the laser AND the iron sights, I shot one last magazine with just the laser, looking over the irons, ignoring them.

Alrighty then!

Odd angle seems to make the Commander larger than the GM...

Quicky review

So it's been a week, here are a couple of quick pics.
Been using a Don Hume clip-on IWB for years, this is so much more comfortable to wear it's unbelievable. The mag/flashlight pouch is even better. 
K Rounds has j-hooks available for those wanting a tuckable option.

T-shirt was purchased from Annette "30 Cal Gal" Wachter, who was raising money for the USO.

She talked me into it!

I'm pretty sure it actually had nothing directly to do with the previous post*...

(*But see also this one.)

Soul-searching, gringo pistolero edition

I've been a gun nut for as long as I can remember.  I always liked to look at guns, read about guns...

But, oddly, I never owned that many guns.

I mean, sure, I probably have more guns than most Americans -- which means, of course, more than 99.9% of humanity -- but compared to the people that I like to read blogs by, and participate in online fora with, I'm a piker.

And I've averaged maybe two range trips year for years.  Basically, I may have been a Gun Crank (as Elmer Kieth would put it) but really, for all practical I was a dilettante. (I hope not a Gun Store Commando!)
 
So, a while ago, I decided to get serious.  At least one range trip a month.  Replace all the cut-rate gear I've accumulated over the years, discard it or relegate it to the "spares, loaners, and giveaways" box.  Better holsters, better magazines, carrying a flashlight as well as a gun and reloads... I also joined Pistol-Forums.com in hopes of learning a thing or three about shooting.

Now, my primary interest in shooting has long been self-defense. And one of the things I picked up, articulated best by Tamara although others seem to follow the same philosophy, is that, since guns are machines, and machines are unreliable, one should have one's carry  pistol, and a spare carry pistol, and a range/training pistol, and a .22 caliber version of the carry pistol.   Plus the regular holster, the weak-hand holster (in case your strong hand is incapacitated), maybe the back-up holster.  Magazines -- when asked "How many should I have?" the traditional answer is "more."  And mark them individually somehow so that when one goes belly-up on you you can tell for sure which one it was and discard it.  (Smash it flat...)  And, of course, you need a way to carry those.

If one is really serious, one will get an inert trainer with which to practice draws from concealment. (Blue, yellow, or red, I'm not sure it matters except to the manufacturers each of whom uses a specific color.)(Depending on model of pistol, there may be a laser simulator available...)

Now, call me a traditionalist, but I've been a 1911 man for... well, ever.  I've noted before that I can't seem to get a decent grip on a Block, er, Glock.  I never cared for the Berettas the Army issued me, and I can't afford an Heckler and Koch.  Tried the S&W M&P at the local range, and was not impressed.  Sigs are OK...

...In fact, the dilemma I've arrived at is that I am wrestling with whether I should stay with the 1911 platform, probably by getting a Colt Rail Gun¹ and maybe a .22 LR trainer^2, or to switch to the Sig P229 or 226, probably in 9mm.  Or one of each, and a .22 version.
The biggest advantage the Sigs have would be magazine capacity, and ammunition economy.  (Assuming 9mm doesn't become as rare as .22 Long Rifle.)

(Some Many communists idiots misguided individuals will argue that 1911s are unreliable, but one thing I've learned reading the Internet is that the least reliable pistol brand in the world is a tie between Sigs, Colts, Rugers, HundKs, Springfields, Berettas, CZs, Kel-Tecs...
(Seriously, though, there is nothing inherently unreliable about the 1911 design, as long as quality materials are used and the design isn't "improved" upon.)

OTOH, Sig includes military retirees in their "Law Enforcement Sales" program.  (As do Glock and Smith & Wesson.)

At the moment, I'm leaning 1911, for reasons of familiarity, and having to replace less "stuff."  Saw a Rail Gun in a local gun shop yesterday.

But... I dunno.  Maybe I'll win the lottery and do both.



1. Why the Rail Gun?  I want a full-size 1911, and this has a Picatinney Rail for mounting a light or laser, for use as home-defense pistol.  The laser also doubles as an excellent training tool. The foremost experts on these things say that Colts are the most reliable 1911s made today. &nbspIf I go with Sigs I'll obviously opt for the railed versions.
2. Got a Ruger 22/45 with that in mind, but a Colt Ace would be closer.

Happy (Belated) 1911 Day!

Picked up my Combat Commander from Dave Nielson at Southridge Arms and Refinishing yesterday morning.

As soon as I uncover the Safe Place where I put the DSL battery charger in the move, I'll post more pics, including before-and-after comparisons.  For today, however, my usual mad, leet photography skillz elude me with the cell phone and camera mode on the Kodak Z3 camcorder.

In other words, today I'm more of a fauxtographer...

 Anyway.  Work done:

• Novak sights
• Ed Brown extended beaver tail grip safety
• KG Gun-Kote, semi-matte black
• Trigger job
• Re-staking the pivot pin and one of the grip screw bushings

The grip panels are new, too.  Going with ivory polymer seems to have been a good choice with that finish.  I may start open-carrying...

Here's the first target from the quick range trip.

Still shooting low, but that's on me.  At least I can see the sights now, to put all (well, most) of the rounds on the target!  Even at 25 yards, my flyers (about one per mag) were close enough to the silhouette that I can tell myself that I am simply getting used to the feel of the gun, and new sights.

I put about 100 rounds through it in half an hour or so, and "Look, Ma, no slide bite!"  Folks who were at GBR-V are able to attest to the fact that the web of my right hand looked hamburger after our Steel Challenge match Saturday AM.

Pistolas

I started this last summer (!), experimenting with Google Docs to write the posts, intending to then cut and paste it into Blogger. And promptly forgot about it. There are a few other relics languishing in my My Google Docs, I'll work on finishing and posting them over the next few weeks, as if anyone cares...

Few weeks ago at the local gun show I learned that "The Marines want the new pistol to be a .45, the Army wants a .45, but the military wants a .40." I guess there's nothing saying a gun store owner (or gun show table holder, in this case) can't be a Gun Store Commando.

Been several posts on the subject of the 1911 lately--Tam, Breda, and Frank James. My own first experience with a 1911 was with a friend's "parts gun", which, as I remember it, had a gap between the slide and frame you could read the newspaper through. Now, that's not possible, and I know it, but that's the way I remember it. Maybe it's the way he was sniveling about how inaccurate it was, until he handed it to me and I proceeded to use the 230grain hardball rounds to scoot that coffee can down the range. At the time I regarded myself as a rifleman--I don't think Clint Smith had yet said "A pistol is what you use to fight your way back to your rifle", but I was familiar with the concept--but shooting Old Slabsides was fun. I had heard all sorts of stories about how punishing the recoil was, but it is simply not true.

Later--years later--I used some TDY money to buy myself a Colt Combat Commander, and discovered the hard way what my friend had--a semi-automatic pistol needs (or did, at the time) to be "broken in." That, and cheap ammo... Well, let's just say you get what you pay for, usually. As Frank James relates in his post linked to above, at the time if you wanted a full-sized semi-auto your choices were pretty much a Colt 1911 and a S&W 9mm, unless you wanted to spend more than a junior SGT E5 had to spend on an import. (I was also calling Uncle Sam's bluff on replacing the 1911; lost that one.)

Oddly--or not, considering my experience--when the M9/Beretta 92 was adopted and fielded while I was at Ft. Ord, the first qualifications were disastrous. The pistols evidently needed breaking in. Too, the Beretta is a big pistol. It may fire a smaller round, but the double stack magazine requires a wider grip. It is also "blockier"--from an ergonomic viewpoint, it is less friendly to the majority of hands. Especially in an MI Battalion, full of officers who, if they had qualified on a pistol at all, it was the 1911, or even one of the myriad .38 Specials the Army was issuing at the time to females and to Counter-Intelligence personnel.

A few years later, I was in Korea deactivating a unit, which turned out to be one of the last to turn in it's 1911s. They had quite a bit of .45 ammo in the bunker, and it's easier to expend it than to turn it in, so... All the SSGs and SFCs got a trip to the range. Qualified "Expert" two or three times over, since we had all that Class V (military designation for ammunition, explosives, and pyrotechnics) to burn. Tried not to laugh at the MPs who were breaking in their new M9s, and bolo-ing miserably... And several years after that, on my last trip to the range before retiring from the Army, I went to that very same range with an M9 that was only a few years old--and just barely qualified. I am usually leery of blaming the gun, or the ammo, but in this case I think I can make my case.

Later, Mrs. Drang picked herself up a Star Firestar in 40S&W. Nice pistol, not quite a 1911... And this one kicks. Not as bad, say, as my 5 3/8" Super Blackhawk, or our his-'n'-her Charter Bulldog .44 Specials, but it's recoil is definitely sharper than the .45. Others have agreed with me about the perceived recoil of the .40 S&W versus the .45 ACP.

Which brings me back to the subject of sidearms. I'm not talking so much about a self-defense pistol for civilian carry, as for military use. You may be aware that the Army was running a competition to find a replacement for the M9/Beretta Model 92. And that the competition was canceled. I'm not going to speculate about the whys of the competition's cancellation, but offer up my thoughts about what would be desirable in a duty sidearm; just my humble opinion. (Stop smirking, you!)

The first thing that needs to be understood is that the vast majority of military personnel who carry a sidearm do so for two primary purposes: Self-defense and as a Symbol of Authority. (A pistol is only rarely used as an offensive weapon; Special Operations personnel have special needs, and a budget that will allow them to purchase a different pistol.) Of the two purposes, self-defense obviously is more dependent on proper design.

Factors to consider in design:

• Ergonomics. Several noteworthy handgun designs today incorporate interchangeable grip backstraps; I would say that, in addition, changeable grip panels, of varying thickness, would also be useful. If your military has a wide variety of sizes of people, and of people's hands, the ability to adjust the standard sidearm to fit the shooter would be golden.
• More Ergonomics: Whether it would be so easy to adjust grip angle, I don't know. As I mentioned, in my opinion (and I am not alone) the Beretta 92/M9 does not have a grip that is ergonomically friendly to most people. Most people seem to believe that the 1911 is about as close to perfection as can be attained for the general populace.
• Even More Ergonomics: Magazine Capacity: This impacts grip size, specifically, thickness. Does a defensive sidearm really need to hold a zillion rounds? A double-stack mag is, perforce, wider, which leads to wider everything. (Tamara has some more on magazine width here.)
• Controls. I am not going to address the whole Single/Double/Striker Action thing here. But proper placement of safetys and of magazine releases is critical. They should probably be ambidextrous. And a mechanical safety should be a requirement--Gaston Glock may feel that his "Safe Action" needs no additional safety controls, but the record indicates otherwise: There are too many incidents involving Glocks going off when something besides a finger gets into the trigger guard.
• Caliber. Okay, I confess that I have said, with a straight face, that any serious defensive pistol should be in "any caliber that starts in '4', and ends in '5'." Ha, ha. Seriously, though, the 9mm is adequate with the right ammunition, as is the .40 S&W, except for that perceived recoil thing... (That and the whole "ka-boom" thing, which seems to primarily be an issue for Glock .40s, especially with reloads. See, inter alia, Frank James, here and here.)

The thing to do would be to hold a "shoot off" to determine which guns should serve as the basis of your service pistol: Acquire several dozen of the dozen or so top contenders, and get as wide a group of test shooters as possibe, from as many demographics as possible: male and female, experianced shooters and rank beginners, from the ends of the spectrum of height, arm length, eyesight, strength and agility, and so forth. You want hundreds, if not thousands, of people to be shooting these things.

I will say that from what I can glean from reading and from anecdotal personal reports, the Springfield XD series seems to be the prime candidate for a service sidearm: Good ergonomics, nearly indestructible, compact concealable versions, for undercover/plainclothes duty, comes in 9mm, .40, and .45 ACP, and it has a mechanical grip safety (although not an elegantly blended one like the 1911.) Designed in Croatia, believe it or not, it is built in the USA by an American firm.

Too bad they're in the state with the most restrictive gun laws there are--which disqualifies them for any contract I'd be letting.

Edited at 11:20 AM to fix some typos. Maybe I should skip the posting at 2AM after getting home from work...