Yesterday I pulled out my snub revolver for some dry fire. I looked down at the right-side of the gun and noticed a screw had backed almost all the way out!

In the above image, you can see arrows pointing to two screws. These two screws help to hold on the side plate. In my case, it was the lower screw that was nearly backed out. I immediately obtained a screwdriver and ensured all three of those side screws were tight (the upper one hadn’t backed out, but wasn’t tight; the crane retainer screw was fine). No, I did not use Loctite; I reckon that’s nothing you want that close to your action internals.

Just a note for folks — especially if you carry a snub. Check your screws. Do it now while it’s fresh in your mind.

My next thought was wondering if you can get replacements of these screws, just in case. I assume you can.

ETA: I assumed correctly. I droped S&W an email and asked if you could obtain replacement screws if needed, and sure enough you can. Just drop ’em a line or give ’em a call.

ETA2: Folks have been commenting that I should use blue Loctite on the screws to keep them from backing out. While I grant the joys of Loctite, I just did not feel right about using it on those screws given their location and relative softness.

So I asked the gunsmith that did the custom work on my 442, Verne Trester. His reply:

I wouldn’t use loctite, put some fingernail polish on the head only, then if you need to remove them use nail polish remover readily available at a drug store

There you go.

The KR Training July 2010 Newsletter is now up.

There’s a ton of stuff packed in this newsletter. Worth the read.

And here’s a special offer: if you’ve taken Beyond the Basics before and want to attend this Saturday’s (July 24) BTB session, refresher student price is $40!

Inert dummy replicas are useful teaching and training aids. To help me practice my reloads, I wanted to get some weighted magazines. Ring’s Manufacturing makes a wide variety of replicas, including weighted magazines. However, to obtain weighted magazines apparently requires a custom manufacturing run because I tried obtaining through a retailer, but that had unfortunate results.

I phoned Rings, put in an order. They were very polite, friendly, took my order, made things, shipped it… and that’s when the problems began. You can click the link to read what happened.

So I spoke with Rings, eventually the order was able to be shipped back (and they paid for that) so things could be corrected.

Then the order was returned, and things weren’t much better.

Finally this past weekend I was able to give the 3rd guy in the order his part of the order. We tried things out in his guns, they still stuck, so Karl pulled out his Dremel and files and cleaned it up. I know that was a solution to things, but IMHO there’s no reason why we should have to do that. I was willing to send things back a third time, but also I was tired of the whole thing. The 2 AR magazines? They still don’t work 100% right but I can make them work well enough for my needs, and again, I’m just tired of dealing with this fiasco.

I’m very disappointed. I cannot understand how these products could have left the factory in a non-working condition. I cannot understand how these products could have left the factory a second time in a non-working condition! And since this isn’t baseball, there’s no “three strikes”. These products were very expensive (the weighted AR mags were about $60 each, the weighted XD mags were about $27 each), and while I could understand if one or two didn’t work the first time around (ignoring the omission of the mag catch on all 6 XD-9 mags), I cannot understand how they still failed to work the second time around. All I can say is I’m disappointed. Disappointed in the manufacturing, in the quality control, in the consistency. I will say the Ring’s folks were courteous on the phone and at least attempted to do the right thing (e.g. when I requested they pay for the return shipping they didn’t argue), but courtesy with a faulty product is still a faulty product.

Will I buy from Ring’s again? I’m sorry, but hard to say. They make products that few others make, so depending upon my needs in the future I may have to. Best I can say is it’s going to be difficult for Ring’s to earn my money again, but moreso my trust. 😦

When I did my last big Comp-Tac purchase, I obtained a full shell for my MTAC, a Two O’clock holster (both previously reviewed). The other two pieces I obtained were the Settable Cant holster and The Beltfeed. While I’ve used them at home in practice, yesterday’s Team Tactics course was the first time I used them live.

Settable Cant Holster

I don’t use OWB holsters much because my primary means of carry is concealed, so that really means an IWB holster. However, OWB is preferred for some competition (e.g. USPSA/IPSC), so I wanted to give up using the XD Gear and get something better. I like Comp-Tac so I figured I’d start with them.

I went with their Settable Cant Holster because that seemed to provide the most options: I could use it as a paddle holster or with a belt-slide. It could have the cant set vertical, or 15º back or forward, plus some degree of height adjustment. I also liked that it had a full body shield. The one downside of this holster compared to their other models (e.g. Belt Holster, Paddle Holster, Locking Paddle) is the front/sight edge of the holster is full length whereas it’s short on those other models which would allow the muzzle to clear and exit the holster a hair sooner. That’s not a huge issue to me, as wearing IWB and primarily drawing from IWB requires me to do a full pull-upwards anyways on the draw, so I don’t feel I’m losing anything and would rather not “game” my draw because my primary intent is self-defense with gaming just a fun side-activity.

I played with the cant and in the end settled on a straight vertical cant. While my IWB carry has a slight forward tilt, doing that with this OWB holster just didn’t work well for me. Having it in the vertical position felt very natural. Even tho this holster sets the gun well off the side of my body (instead of plastered against my torso like the IWB holster), I had no problems drawing or reholstering without looking… all through yesterday’s class, lots of drawing and never thought about it nor fumbled a draw or reholster. The only noticeable difference was as this was a all-Kydex holster (vs. the leather backing of the MTAC) so there was a more noticeable click/lock upon reholster. If I tugged the gun up the hold was firmer, but on a real draw I didn’t notice that firmer retention — didn’t slow me down.

I will need to do a little shaping of the Kydex with a Dremel tool. I do like the full body sweat shield, but one edge extends just enough that it can rub my thumb on the draw. Just shave off maybe 0.25″ or so, nothing major. I don’t consider this a fault of Comp-Tac, just a matter of my personal body fit.

I was a little concerned about how well the paddle would hold on my belt, especially since it had hooks spaced for 1.75″ belts and my belt is 1.5″. I noticed no problems at all. I didn’t notice any shift as I moved around (and we did lots of movement in the Team Tactics class, running, kneeling, etc..) nor on the draw. I’ve experienced some paddles be a little flakey and needing some tending to now and again, but I never had to bother with it.

I like the holster. I don’t know if I’ll use it with the belt slide, I don’t know if I’ll use a non-vertical cant. But I’m happy I bought this model so I could have the options to try it out and see what I liked. For now, I’ll keep the vertical cant and the paddle. I don’t see myself using this holster for anything but games or maybe classes where concealment draw isn’t a focus.

The Beltfeed

What a nifty thing: 4 magazine pouches all in a tight row. That’s the great thing about it, but also the bad thing about it.

If you shoot USPSA/IPSC Production, you’ll be limited to 10 rounds in your gun. Many of the course of fire will have over 30 rounds, so you’re going to need a lot of reloads. As well, many advanced-level shooting classes are going to require you to have a lot of ammo while you’re on the line, so the more you can keep your gun running the better you’ll manage the class drills. So, The Beltfeed is an excellent solution to that problem.

The Beltfeed puts 4 mag pouches very close together. You see, if you put 4 mag pouches on your belt and followed Production Class rules, the pouches must be behind your hip bone, which often means the 3rd and 4th pouches will be way behind your back and annoying and slow to get to. The Beltfeed keeps everything up front and quick and easy to get to. But in order to have them all up front and tight well… it’s all tight. The magazines are in such close proximity that you cannot get as full a grip on the magazine compared to single spaced-out pouches. It felt very strange to me at first. However, with a bit of practice you get used to it and it can work out. I will say that it feeds very naturally… you swipe your left hand back to obtain a magazine and the first one you hit you grab and use… go for the second reload, sweep your hand back, and while the 2nd pouch is lower and staggered out, you still pick it up naturally. So the flow is good, you just have to get used to the fact that the spacing is tight.

I will say, while I obtained this mag pouch for gaming, my real desire was to have it for classes, because you can never have enough loaded mags on the line. 🙂  I had no problem keeping my gun running and full of ammo. It just fed naturally, and I suspect I’ve been getting enough practice with the pouches to be used to the grip issue. I will say that I don’t feel as good about my reloads with this as when I can get a full grip, but I suspect it’s just a matter of more practice.

I like. 🙂

Sum

To me, the testimony is that I never had to think about my gear during the class yesterday. It gave me no trouble, no problems, and not even a shift in my muscle memory. That pleases me to no end. I’m quite happy with this purchase, as I have been with most all of my Comp-Tac purchases.

Yesterday I participated in KR Training’s first Team Tactics course.

The purpose of the course was to introduce concepts of working in a team within a civilian context, e.g. armed friends, spouses, etc..

What it really comes down to is shooting, moving, and communicating and how to coordinate those things. For instance, when communicating it should be loud, slowly, and using few but directed words. There’s a calling “verb” then a responding “noun”. For example, team member Alpha will yell “MOVE!” to tell team member Bravo to move to some location. Bravo responds with “MOVING!” and moves to the new location. Bravo will say “LOAD!” to tell Alpha to reload, Alpha responds with “LOADING!” and commences reloading and says “UP!” when he’s up and running again. Simple call and response type commands.

As well, the class incorporated some things that you just can’t do at other shooting ranges. For instance, 360º scans, movement between locations (with the pistol or long gun in your hands). The intent is considering how the real world can be and presenting skills for use in that real world situation. To further that end, while the first half of the class consisted of live-fire exercises, the second half of the class involved no use of live weaponry and only plastic dummy guns so we could do some FoF-style scenarios where the team techniques could be utilized in more realistic situations.

I opted to run the class with a pump shotgun for my long gun. Why? Because I could. 🙂  I know that an AR is the preferrable platform, but I just wanted to run a shotgun. Just something satisfying (and fun!) about racking the gun, lots of recoil, big booms, and seeing many big holes in the target. And I enjoyed the fact I used a wood-stocked shotgun… nothing tactical here! (except the 18.5″ barrel and side-saddle). I really need to do more shotgunning… it’s just so much fun!  I actually have some stuff to write on shotgunning for home defense… more later.

That class was good and I enjoyed it. While the live-fire stuff was fine, what I really liked were the scenarios because it puts you in well… it’s still an artificial environment, but there’s aspects of realism you just can’t have with cardboard targets. The unknown of what other live players will do, even in a cooperative artificial scenario, always makes for interesting “think-on-your-toes” situations.

Good stuff. I don’t want to tell too much about the class because, you just need to try it for yourself. 🙂