Guns

To Guide Rod or Not

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

The Springfield XD-9 Tactical (5″) has a “hollow” guide rod. It weighs about 0.80 oz or about 22.8 grams (I took it and weighed it on my powder scale).

PistolGear.com sells a solid stainless steel replacement guide rod. It’s listed as weighing 40.25 grams, or about 1.4 oz.

There’s a Canyon Creek Tungsten guide rod. It’s listed as weighing 3.2 oz or 90.7 grams.

Wow. That’s a lot of weight.

So… supposedly it will help with muzzle flip. But I also figure it may throw off the balance of the gun. Plus swinging the gun for target transitions, probably harder to move quickly and stop quickly. I know how it goes… there’s always a trade-off somewhere.

I wonder if it’s worth it. I don’t really have all the money in the world to play with and experiment this out. So, I figure I could think out loud here.

Being able to reduce muzzle flip and get back on target quickly is certainly welcome. But the world isn’t always about shooting at the same target. Is a solid steel rod enough extra weight to make an improvement yet not have too much degradation in other areas? I know you can’t have it all…. hrm.

Updated: Upon further reflection, I think if I went this route I’d go solid steel. The tungsten seems too heavy, and I’d be concerned about brittleness and breakage.  Now, will I get the solid steel? That still remains to be seen.

Alamo Tactical – Questionable Retailer?

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

I wanted to order a couple RINGS Blueguns magazines for my Springfield XD. Why? So I can safely practice reloads with a magazine that has the heft/weight of a real loaded magazine. Trouble is, finding a retailer that has them in stock.

Google said that Alamo Tactical had them. Now of course, maybe they don’t have them in stock, but they are listed as something one can purchase through their website. And hey, they’re just down in San Antonio. Sounds good to me. I put in my order for 2 magazines.

That was 3 weeks ago.

Immediately after placing my order I received the automated email confirmation of the order.

That’s all I’ve received.

I have emailed them a week ago asking for order status. Nothing.

I have telephoned them on numerous occasions. There’s never a response. No one picks up the phone. I couldn’t figure out a way to leave a message or even if their phone system supported that.

I called American Express and while the order was authorized it has not gone through.

The only way to cancel my order? Send Alamo Tactical an email. A few minutes ago I sent them an email. But given their lack of responsiveness so far, I’m wondering if the order will cancel.

I did a little bit more Googling. Seems the company isn’t very well regarded. Here. Here. Here. I’m not sure what the deal is, and I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt. But if these stories are true, damn…. yeah maybe you’re busy, but being an asshole isn’t a great way to build your reputation and give people a desire to do business with you. And even if you are busy, the amount of time I’ve waited seems like too long to have to wait. If you’re that swamped, maybe you need to hire some help. This is not a way to succeed in business.

I don’t write this to badmouth. I write this to convey my experience, which was a poor one. I don’t know what gives with the company, but I sure hope they can get their act together.

Updated 2 Feb 2010:

I just received an email regarding the cancellation of my order:

It has been cancelled.

Sorry for the lack of service on this order. We have been forced to move
into our new location over the last few weeks or so before it was ready for
us to move into. The data and phone service has not yet been moved over
here so we are answering emails from a single laptop with a wireless aircard
that has taken a while to get setup correctly so that our emails are
actually going somewhere- and even that is still hit and miss. I sincerely
apologize for your experience.

Chris

Well, it was nice to receive a reply. It was nice to receive an explanation. It was nice that he was nice (given a lot of other things I’ve read have demonstrated the owner was very caustic and rude).

But that said, if the above is the case, why is that not communicated to customers? Why isn’t that put on your website? Why isn’t that included in the order confirmation email? Why isn’t there an automated response whenever an email is sent to the contact email address? There’s little reason to not relay such important information to customers.

Is it worth dying over?

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

Boy, so many things from this past weekend are just coming back. It’s wonderful!

KR Training’s AT-1A class is good because, as I said before, we spend all this time teaching you how to use your gun and use it well, then we throw something at you where using your gun may not be the right thing to do.

tgace’s tactical preschool 45 is titled “What’s Your Hurry?” He goes on to discuss the thought process you must have about “clearing a building”:

Going into a building after an armed and barricaded man or clearing your home in the middle of the night is probably the most dangerous thing you could ever do. You need to seriously consider the necessity of attempting it before you do it. Ask yourself, is there really a need to “go in”? Is someone in danger?

If you know someone is inside a building, armed, alone, and not ready to surrender, what is the hurry? Why would you need to “go dynamic” and risk getting shot? Perhaps there IS a reason, but you really need to figure out what that reason is first and be able to articulate it. If you go in and get yourself or someone else killed, what will your explanation be for your decision? If you and your wife are in your bedroom and you hear someone in the house (you KNOW someone is in the house and there is nobody else living in the house with you), what possible reason is there to go out looking? Arm yourself, call 911 and bunker down. It may even be a good idea to announce what you have done quite loudly. ..the fact that you are armed and have called the cops that is.

Breaking the rules has serious consequences. Don’t do it.

/ hsoi

This past weekend, ToddG had a student in class that shot himself (in the leg). Todd relays the story here, not to chastise but to point out to everyone the importance of having an emergency plan in place and ensuring all students in the class know where first aid materials are and how each person in the class should react should something occur (e.g. you call 911).

The reason for the discharge? The student admits he had his finger on the trigger when he went to reholster.

I wanted to relay this because while the 3 classes I helped with this past weekend went pretty well, the worst thing I saw, overall, were violations of the two cardinal safety rules. I don’t care if you follow Jeff Cooper’s rules or the NRA’s rules, the two key rules come down to muzzle awareness and direction, and trigger discipline (and keeping your finger off the trigger when it shouldn’t be there).

In terms of muzzle awareness, people get slack about awareness at “off” times. That is, when it’s time to shoot they know to point the muzzle downrange. When it’s a not-shooting time, that’s when muzzle awareness and discipline falters. People would go to rack their slides and muzzles got pointed in all sorts of directions, typically somewhere to their left (for right-handed shooters). Many times people would be in a ready position with the muzzle pointed up… not straight vertical, but enough of an upwards angle that if a shot fired from that angle it would go over the berm. Most of this was unconscious action — the student wasn’t aware they were doing it. You cannot not be aware. You must always know the direction of your muzzle, and take steps to ensure your muzzle is pointed in a safe direction.

In terms of trigger discipline, when the muzzle is properly on target and you are ready to shoot, the finger can be on the trigger. Else, the finger is off the trigger and indexed along the upper part of the frame or slide. Helping people gain such trigger discipline was probably the biggest thing done throughout the course of the class. Unless your muzzle is on target and you are explicitly going to shoot, finger must not be on the trigger and must be indexed along the slide or upper frame. That’s all there is to say.

Violation of one of these rules is bad. Violation of both of these rules is what leads to tragedy.

3 Classes, Long Day, Lots Learned

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Yesterday was a long but satisfying day.

I spent it at KR Training helping with 3 classes: Basic Pistol 2, Defensive Pistol Skills 1, and AT-1A Low Light Shooting. It was a long and busy day, but overall a good one. Students were shooting well, worst thing really was helping some people break long-ingrained (bad) habits. Students were challenged, pushed, and they performed well.

One very cool thing was the weather — literally. It was quite cold, with a strong arctic wind blowing. It made being outside quite miserable. Consequently, Karl adjusted the course to utilize dry fire within the classroom. All the tables and chairs were cleared away, then the students made 2 lines back-to-back. Instructors walked behind the students and thus we always had safe directions. Various drills were worked on in the classroom dry. When we finally went out to the range, the student performance was higher than usual. We’re pretty sure it was due to the dry practice. We were able to hear each other better. We could give a lot more personal instruction. I think the big part as well was the students got more trigger time. Think about it. Depending upon the drill, in a live fire exercise a student would only get to fire a limited amount of shots per drill, just due to the nature of the drill and all the logistics of working on the range and having to rotate groups on the line. Working dry, a student could press the trigger a few hundred times per drill. They can work it over and over without any sort of time lost to administrative whatnot. There’s no question the dry fire paid off as a teaching technique. Yes it threw off the schedule a bit, but it was well worth it. Hopefully as well the students saw the value of dry fire and will continue to practice that way on their own.

I also got to do something I hadn’t done before. The AT-1A class contains a scenario to introduce students to a different mode of thought. You see, we spend all this time training and teaching people how to shoot and shoot well. Then when they get to this more advanced level of training we teach them not to shoot. That is, first we work on the mechanical skills, then we start to add in the mental skills. Is this situation worth dying over? Is there anything in there that’s worth your life? This is the lesson of the scenario. And…. I got to play the “person” in the scene. I don’t want to say too much and spoil the scenario, but it was a lot of fun to play the role. Didn’t hurt that I got to be inside the whole time out of the cold. 😉

Very good day. Many satisfied students. Got to see some familiar faces. Had a great time.

Oh, and TXGunGeek gave me some presents! A big box of .38 brass and a box of OC spray. Thanx!!

Scanners at the Texas capitol?

/ hsoi

The Austin-American Statesman has an article about possible security increases at the state capitol building.

One possible sticking point: how to allow Texans with concealed-weapons permits to get through security with their guns. Perry, Dewhurst and Straus probably will make the final decision.

Yes, that is a big sticking point, especially given that many of our legislators are CHL holders.

Earlier this week, [Senator Dan] Patrick — who holds a state concealed-handgun permit, along with a number of other Texas lawmakers — sent his colleagues a letter advocating increased Capitol security. “However … I do not want to see those who have a legal right to carry a gun denied their constitutional right.

“Whatever new measures we may adopt, I would not want to stop law-abiding CHL holders from carrying their guns in the Capitol,” he stated in the letter. “The goal is to stop those who bring illegal weapons into the Capitol, not those who have a legal right to do so.”

Note that it was Sen. Patrick’s office that was visited by last week’s gunman. Hearing this sort of attitude and approach from him makes me happy.

Reached by phone Thursday, Patrick said Texans with concealed-handgun licenses might “put their gun in a tray, go through the detector, pick it up and go,” or perhaps they could show their state-issued license and walk around security-screening devices.

Well… I hope they don’t do the “gun in a tray” thing. To have to have people disarm right then and there is risking trouble. The more you handle the gun, the more risk of discharge. Leave it in your holster and don’t mess with it. So hopefully something like showing the license would suffice. In the end, I wouldn’t see the point of putting the gun in the tray anyway. We might have more than one gun, we might have other weapons too (e.g. pocket knife). We’re still going to set off alarms, all that disarming would be troublesome and probably make the sheep nervous too. If we show the license that’s really good enough… it’s reasonable enough to assume we’re armed and going to set off the detectors. Just show and go.

Why not make the Capitol a gun-free zone altogether, like schools and businesses?

“If you continue to restrict more and more places where CHL holders can carry their weapons, you’re tearing away at the intent of the legislation that established this program,” Patrick said.

Thank you!

Rangemaster February 2010 Newsletter

/ hsoi

The Rangemaster February 2010 newsletter is posted.

Half of the newsletter talks about the upcoming Polite Society conference (wish I could attend this year, but scheduling won’t work out).

The other half of the newsletter contains an excellent article by Tom Givens titled “Intelligence Gathering for Personal Safety”. A snippet:

In this article we will examine some of the facets of personal intelligence gathering and processing, to assist you in a realistic threat assessment of your environment, and to provide forewarning in street encounters with likely threat sources. While this will not be an exhaustive examination of every threat, it will at least expose you to the main elements of some of the more common criminal types with which you will likely deal.

The purpose of this endeavor is to allow you to recognize subtle danger signs that will be present prior to an assault. By recognizing these cues, you can place yourself on alert, and be thinking about a planned response. As we discussed previously, being aware of a threat and having a plan in mind to deal with it greatly decreases reaction time, and helps overcome the mental inertia that slows down our response. When interacting with strangers, these subtle cues, once learned, can assist you in evaluating the proper degree of vigilance and readiness to act.

The article goes on to talk about street gangs, drug abusers, mental cases, and plain old criminals. There’s discussion of behavioral cues to impending aggression as well.

If there’s nothing else you read today, you need to read that article. The information therein could someday save your life.

So… useless

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Last night my brain had enough of working so I plopped down in front of the TV to disengage my brain for a while.

I turned on The Outdoor Channel, since it was “Wednesday Night At The Range”.

Yeah I know the STOU was on but I wasn’t in the mood for my blood to boil.

Some of the shows are just good informational entertainment, like “Shooting USA” or “Sighting In”. I do like “Impossible Shots”… just good entertainment there.

But some shows attempt to be educational, like “The Best Defense” and a new one, “S.W.A.T. Magazine TV”.

Last night, it bugged me.

The “S.W.A.T.” show showcased Tony Blauer, which I thought was cool and thus I tuned in, but it was 30 minutes of nothing. No real teaching of anything useful. Sure they showed off one technique throughout the show, but there was no real instruction for the viewer on the technique, how to do it, how to apply it. So what was the point? Just P.R. for Blauer (which isn’t a bad thing)? Rob Pincus working to increase his visibility?

Then on “Shooting Gallery”, Michael Bane was doing some stuff with Mossberg shotguns, working on shooting, malfunctions, and transition drills. I found myself screaming at the TV for them to move faster! If this was to be a self-defense class, as if your life depended on it, damnit… practice like your life depended upon it! This is not the role model you were looking for. Granted, when you start a class and a new technique you have to be slower because you’re learning… but this pace was like a Sunday walk. Glacial.

The shows are fair entertainment, but like a lot of gun journalism it’s going to be so-so and never speak ill… because in such a small world, it’s not good to upset the advertisers or sponsors.

And… there goes my shot at getting swag. 😉

I still enjoy the Wednesday night lineup (“I’m Larry Potterfield… thanks for your business”), but I need to stop hoping I’m going to get much substance out of it.

I need help – my .223 Rem reloads aren’t working

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

I don’t get it, or maybe I should have seen it coming.

Working with my .223 Remington reloads, trying to come up with a good round for hunting. Last thing I did was the ladder test. Based upon what I saw, I thought I had a decent window to go with, so I loaded up 30 rounds. The trick was varying the powder in 0.1 grain increments. I’d shoot 5 shoot groups at 100 yards, and whatever grouped best I would use. For all the load details, click on the aforementioned links.

Today I finally got to try things out. I sent a few rounds of Georgia Arms Canned Heat downrange to get the barrel heated up, then off I went. I don’t have time right now to take pictures of each target, but suffice it to say the grouping was abysmal. The best grouping I had was maybe the 25.1 grain group, which made a sort of rectangle 2.5″ high and a little less than 1.0″ wide. 25.5 grains had almost a 6″ vertical spread! And it wasn’t just one flier that ruined the group… you’d see the holes fairly decently spread about.

I don’t get it.

So I thought OK…. maybe it’s me. I’m not the best rifle shooter in the world. I was doing my best to use all the proper fundamentals, especially breath and trigger control. I took my time. But it’s always possible I messed things up. I set the rifle down and went into the range’s store and bought a box of Hornady TAP FPD .223 Rem 75 grain. Yes it’s not 100% the same load, but my intention was to pick a round that I knew was known for high accuracy and that I knew worked in this gun. I wasn’t even using the best shooting form and still managed just over a 1″ group. So, could it be me? Perhaps. Could it be the gun? Perhaps. But I’m thinking it’s the load.

I should have guessed it because during the ladder test there wasn’t that perfect ladder, like I was lead to believe there would be. Even then there was too much spread and “randomness” as to where the bullets hit paper. However, I shrugged it off because with only 3-shot groups, I’d have 2 shots reasonably close and the 3rd off somewhere and figured that was me. Now, I don’t think so.

So I don’t know what to do at this point. I don’t know what to change to try to salvage this load. This is where I’m asking for help.

Meantime, I think I’m going to buy a few boxes of factory ammo, either Federal’s P223S or Corbon’s version with the 62 grain bullet. Zero the rifle for that factory load. Then at least I’ll have the rifle ready to go for a hunting trip and not have to wait on my reloads before I take her hunting. I also think working on those .223 load may have to wait since I need to crank out a large quantity of 9mm reloads. But who knows… this is going to nag at me. 🙂

If you’re an experienced reloader and have any tips or suggestions as to what I can do, please let me know.

9mm load recipe – plinking/target load – Berry’s bullets, Titegroup powder

/ hsoi / 13 Comments

Those 9mm reloads I did? I tried them out today.

Bullet: Berry’s plated 9mm 115 grain RN DS

Primer: Remington 1.5 Small Pistol

Cases: Whatever used 9mm cases I have

COAL: 1.135″

Powder: Titegroup 4.5 grains

The only case prep was cleaning the cases (dry vibratory case tumbler), then of course a resize and decap. No trimming, no primer pocket cleaning, nothing like that. I used a taper crimp and I know varying case lengths can affect the crimp, but I’m just looking to make a basic plinking/target load that I can shoot in quantity.

I ran about 40 rounds through two of my XD-9’s. Worked just fine. I tried them side-by-side with some Federal American Eagle factory loads and I couldn’t tell a difference in accuracy, how the ammo fed, how the gun felt, how the brass ejected, how the spent brass looked. I’m sure there’s a difference somewhere, but I couldn’t notice. I’m sure if I pulled out a chrono I’d see something. Yes, I’ll chrono things eventually.

Anyway, the above seems to work like a charm, or at least Good Enough™. The 2000 rounds that I need to reload prior to Tom Givens’ next visit in October? I’m going to get started on it now. 🙂

Updated: Here’s the performance data.

Updated 2: As you could see in the performance data, this same load recipe was tried out with bullets other than the Berry’s. I have used Hornady 115 grain 9mm FMJ RN, and Speer 115 grain 9mm TMJ.  Recently (I’m writing this on 15 June 2010, but this was alluded to in the performance data entry) I’ve moving away from using the Berry’s and instead using 115 grain 9mm FMJ’s from Precision Delta. A couple of reasons. First, the Berry’s would have some troubles during reload… I’d go to seat the bullet and the bullet wouldn’t seat right, shaving the side of the bullet or seating in a manner other than straight and centered. It caused too many wasted bullets. Plus, while the Berry’s is the cheapest of what I can find locally, the Precision Delta is overall FAR less expensive; and when buying the Precision Delta in large bulk quantities, the price differential is even greater. As of this writing I’ve yet to run the Precision Delta through the chronograph, but in general shooting the feel and results are about the same. I’ll eventually do more specific testing.

Updated 3: I’ve been able to run the Precision Delta’s over a chronograph, as well as changing primers. All of that data is here.

As expected, not a lot of performance change. Consequently, my general 9mm plinking recipe will now be:

Bullet: Precision Delta 9mm 115 grain FMJ ball copper jacket (but all the 9mm 115 grain FMJ/TMJ’s I’ve tried have worked with similar results).

Primer: Remington 1.5 Small Pistol (I’ve also tried Winchester, Federal, and Wolf small pistol primers and they’ve all worked with about similar results).

Cases: Whatever used 9mm cases I have

COAL: 1.135″

Powder: Titegroup 4.5 grains

Updated 4: It’s been almost 2 years since I came up with this recipe, and it’s still working well for me. The specific bullet, the specific primer, as you can see (if you trace through all the postings with the load data and chrono results) doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference so I go with what’s cheap or available.

I wanted to add that this ammo has been run through numerous guns without any known hiccups. Sure it worked in my XD’s, but over the past year or two I’ve had to loan some ammo, a magazine full here or there, to students in classes. I didn’t keep track of all the guns, but we see the gamut in classes and I’m unaware of any hiccups. And of course, it’s run through all my guns and I’ve had nary a hiccup. I’d say this is turning out to be a nicely proven load.

Of course, if you opt to use it, YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.