When the mercury drops into the single digits and stays there, things you don’t normally see freeze will freeze. Fortunately for most of the United States, this is a rare occurrence, though this season seems to be the exception. For extreme cold conditions, we have to take special precautions to ensure that our equipment functions. Our friends in the Northern US, or elevation in the mountain regions simply call this “Tuesday-another day at the office”. Continue reading
Recently, several folks have asked why we cover the 9mm variations of Glocks/M&Ps and seem to ignore the other calibers, specifically the 45. So here are a random collection of thoughts on the Glock 21. When selecting a pistol for duty, it’s really hard not to get mired in a caliber debate. Without digressing too far, it is my strong belief that in service handgun calibers, using modern hollowpoint ammunition, the caliber used is of no real significance. Yes, you could split hairs, but for all intents and purposes handgun calibers are all weak. So if we can agree on that, it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to deviate from the 9mm. This caliber offers the following advantages: higher capacity, lower recoil, and reduced costs for training. The lower recoil is a significant advantage even to red blooded American males who aren’t recoil sensitive as it allows for longer training periods with less fatigue and more importantly, significantly reduced probability of wear and tear to your joints and connective tissue over a career of high volume shooting. All things being equal, the reduced recoil also allows most shooters to put down accurate followup shots more quickly. Continue reading
As this week’s weather pattern drops most of us into the single digits or below for daytime temps, it is easy to bypass training outdoors.
A good quality airsoft gun has a lot to offer as it comes to individual training. A couple of years ago, I bought a bunch of airsoft stuff for a project known as “MST” that Randy Lee and I have been working on for about 5 years. It has mainly found a home on a shelf in my closet until recently. I’ve started using it to grab 10-15 minutes here and there of basic dry fire style practice. I can do it in my garage. About all it requires is safety glasses and a cardboard box backstop. Continue reading
So we have another SHOT Show under our belt, and I thought I would share some of the products that we were most excited about. This is not intended to be a summary of all the notable introductions at the show, but rather the products that caught our attention at the show. Continue reading
For many years, the internal extractors in later model SIG P-Series pistols have been somewhat problematic. The problems have been largely hit and miss, but were evident in some of the X5 pistols, as well as the P220 and others fielding the internal design. SIG eventually switched out to the short external extractor, and currently to a long external extractor.
My mentor, Bruce Gray at GrayGuns, INC has been working on the problem for several years and has finally come up with a “fix” for the reliability issues with the internal extractor guns. As can be observed in the video, the new extractor cleans up ejection and extraction, making it consistent and reliable. The process involves fitting the new extractor to the individual pistol and tuning it for reliability. The turn around time is about 10 days, and the cost for the modification is $200.
More information can be found at www.grayguns.com.
I am a self professed, self styled Glock hater. They are ugly. They have no soul.
About seven years ago, I had a very good opportunity at work. The down side was that it required me to give up the SIG P226 I was carrying, and forced me to a Glock.
I bought my first Glock 22 in around 1994, predating my entrance into law enforcement just a bit. All the other cool guys were carrying them, and it was the “wave” of the future. I shot it for a while, had some marksmanship problems with them, and quietly sold the G22 and went back to a P226. Now, in fairness, that was probably about the start of my wanderlust of pistols. I traded pistols at work every couple of years looking for the “One” that would make the bronze God of all things tactical. I drifted between calibers, and manufacturers every so often. As this offer came up at work, I made the switch to the G22, and eventually the G35. Continue reading
This photo was sent to us by one of our more dedicated students after he discovered Next Level Training’s SIRT pistol. Though optimized for the laser training pistol and rifle bolt, this can be used with virtually any dry practice setup. An A-frame ladder can be utilized for virtually any conventional or unconventional braced position. With this setup, your training is truly only limited by your imagination. Single target and target to target transitions are just the beginning. So stop making excuses and start off the year right with some solid training.
Training Course Tuition- $600
Airfare- $550
Ammunition- $450
Customized SIG Sauer Pistol- $1800
Spending the entire class clearing malfunctions because you refused to buy new magazines springs- Priceless Continue reading
You all know “that guy”. He is the Tactical Placekicker. He is the guy that expounds all kinds of tactical advice based upon the “average”. His entire being exists at “bad breath” distance with a bad guy inches away. He tells of the “average” gunfight being 1-3 rounds, 1-3 feet, and over in 1-3 seconds. He waxes poetic on all types of scenarios, and all of which fits neatly in the overhead bin of the J frame in his pocket. He often quotes “competition” can get you killed. He also knocks any training as “unnecessary” that is beyond bad breath distance, involves malfunction clearing, or multiple targets. He believes trigger control is overrated, and not really needed for the scenarios involving “Give me your wallet”!
He lurks out there. He can’t run. He can’t catch. He can’t block. He is the Tactical Placekicker.
Socks are an often overlooked but important piece of kit. The importance of high quality and application specific socks cannot be overstated, whether you are military, LE, hiker, hunter, urban walker, runner/jogger, competition shooter, or stand protective post or at a workbench for extended periods. I have been trying different socks for some 30 years. Continue reading
I was first introduced to the HK416 by Larry Vickers and Ken Hackathorn at SHOT Show about six or seven years ago. Back then, it was known as the “HK M4” before Colt had the chance to call foul on the name. Since then, probably every fan of the M4 pattern carbine has heard of it, especially since the commercial version, dubbed MR556, has been released. Gun store gossip aside, do you really need one?
A quick look on popular social media sites such as Facebook or Instagram will yield plenty of photos of highly modified modern pistols worked over by shops such as Boresight Solutions, Salient Arms, ATEi, and others. I don’t think it is debatable that the guns look damn sexy, but do these guns really need all that fancy, and expensive, work to be truly serviceable?
Take a look at the pistol above. This pistol started out as a Glock 17 RTF2 that had nothing more than aftermarket sights (10-8 Performance brass bead front and .140″ notch rear), a factory minus connector, Apex extractor, TangoDown mag catch, and a metric sh!tload of trigger presses. It was one of my favorite pistols to shoot because it was pretty accurate and extremely reliable. But when the opportunity to get some fancy machining done to it by ATEi, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Sometimes being serious all the time gets kinda dry. So here is a link to a video that made me laugh my pants off a few days ago. Found these guys on YouTube thanks to our friend Caleb at GunNuts.Net. Be sure to watch this one and check out the rest of the videos on the same channel. You’ll be glad you did.
Happy to be back from overseas, I figured I really needed to catch up on some stuff I’ve been playing with. During deployment, my platoon decided to do a unit knife. Platoon knives have been something I have done in the past and have seen other units do that usually seem to go over well if there are no issues with the purchase. A little apprehensive on where to go, I was recommended Jack Stottlemire of Rustick Knives from a friend and decided to give him a call. Besides being a ex-marine (a gentle jab at Jack), Jack was awesome to do business with. Now for anyone looking to do a unit order, sometimes its just easier to make a executive decision. Just a gentle recommendation because getting twenty operators to make a decision on something is next to impossible. So after my best efforts of getting a agreement, and failing, I made a executive decision and placed an order.
Jack retired as a Sergeant Major in Special Operations after twenty six years in the US Army and Marine Corps. He is the man behind the knives and uses all his military experience in designing and producing his blades.
We decided (or I decided) on a smaller fixed blade with a small of the back kydex sheath. Counter to popular belief the vast majority of operators do not carry large bowie style cleavers hung upside down on their shoulder strap like something Arnold would do in the movie Commando. For me personally I find a small folder and a good multi-tool ideal for 99 percent of what I do at work. For those in the know, a small fixed blade comes in handy for jobs one might not think of using a knife for – like sifting through dirt or other substances looking for contraband, popping open locked cabinets, opening up loop holes from a hide site, or any other number of unforeseen tasks one might encounter. I find a 4” blade to be ideal with a fairly thick blade giving me a nice tough tip to use. That was exactly what we ended up with from Rustick. The G10 texture of the handle is perfect for work with gloves, he also offers more extreme handle textures I look forward to trying on future purchases. The knife is hefty and made for work with a subdued cerakote job on the blade to limit rust and shine. The feedback across the board form all my guys has been awesome with everyone in agreement we made the right choice for our order.
I urge any blade fans or someone just looking for a 100 percent US made hard use knife to go check out Rustick Knives. Jack is a one man shop with no website, so you have to look him up on Facebook. It is worth the effort and you don’t need an account to access his page and look at his work.
Wilson Combat has been innovating the 1911 world for decades, and hasn’t stopped yet. They continue to make some of the best high end 1911 pistols on the market, and they’ve been making 1911 magazines since before many of our readers were born. Recently, they’ve been changing the 1911 market by introducing flat wire spring technology in their 1911 recoil springs, which reportedly increase the maintenance cycle by up to 10 times. So if they work so well in recoil springs, why not put them in a magazine?
A common complaint regarding many 8-round magazines is the limited spring life. Use them heavily or leave them loaded for a long time and they quickly lose lift, resulting in malfunctions. The new ETM HD magazine addresses this with a longer tube to fit a longer spring, and a flat wire spring that is advertised to provide 25% more lift than standard springs. Like all their products, the magazine is guaranteed for life by Wilson Combat. Continue reading