John Tuley

Here in the Front Range of Colorado (i.e. the edge of the plains, not up in the Rockies) we had snowfall yesterday through this morning. On my drive in to work, the roads were the worst we've had all winter/spring. It's not just Fairbanks that won't warm up!

I've had good results with WeaponShield CLP for everything, but I also use Slide Glide in my competition guns where appropriate. I lube my guns pretty liberally. I used to be a Hoppes #9 (solvent then oil) guy, then used Mlitec-1 on my USP for a while, before settling on WeaponShield for the last few years. I do still get out Hoppes or Montana Xtreme when I have a lot of copper fouling.

Thanks for all the info! I appreciate everyone's contributions.

CC's work was an improvement in what way? Was the trigger smoother? Shorter? Lighter? I don't doubt you that it was better than the kit. As much as I've seen in this thread in favor of the PRP kit, I think I want to have a pro do the work for two reasons: first, he'll do a better job than I will, even if it's just installing/fitting the kit (which I doubt). Second, this is for a carry gun, so it has to work. I have some mechanical sympathy, but not enough to feel like I can guarantee that level of reliability. Thanks for your input; it's definitely helpful!

Thanks, I didn't think about Springfield.

I recently bought an XDm .40 for carry. From my research here, it seems like Canyon Creek, Springer Precision and Powder River Precision all have excellent reputations and loyal followings, and I'm 100% convinced that all three do great work. So I'm not asking which is "best." I'd like to see if anyone can describe the differences between them (or two of them, if you haven't come across all three). Pretravel, overtravel, crispness of the break, crispness of the reset -- things like that. Then I'll try to decide which is closest to my ideal trigger. Weight's going to be 3.5-4 pounds, since it's a carry gun, so that's not a factor. I'd love, of course, to shoot all of them, but that's probably not feasible (since it requires finding them, shooting side-by-side, etc.). If it happens to work out, I'll be happy and will do that. Thanks in advance for everyone's input!

Dot Torture Drill Probably depends on your level of shooting - the DTD is helpful at my level to improve my trigger control. +1 for this drill. I print mine from http://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture; the printout has directions on it. At 10 feet, I have yet to run this drill clean. (For context, I'm bottom-C in Production and L10.) It's great at exposing the weaknesses in your fundamentals.

What amazes me are the number of spelling and grammar mistakes I see in cover letters from applicants. I'm a software engineer (and hiring the same) - so English spelling and grammar may not be the most crucial things to the job, but computers aren't forgiving, and spelling/syntax mistakes in code simply won't work. And really ... if you're applying for a job, can you not take an extra five minutes and check your letter and resume? If you're not willing to put that small amount of effort into trying to get this job, why should I even look at your application?

Colorado actually has pretty great open carry laws. Anybody (who can possess a handgun in the first place) can open carry. You need a permit (issued by the county sheriff) to conceal a handgun on your person. However, private properties may of course post and enforce restrictions, and many movie theaters here do just that. Side note: membership-in-good-standing in a national shooting sport replaces the state's training requirement, which was convenient. All that said, I too would like to add my +1 to sympathy for the victims. I hope justice will come swiftly and surely, and that the survivors and families of the victims are able to find some small comfort, or at least closure, from it.

My experience with Tripp mags: I have five 10-rd Cobra mags for my .40 Trojan. (They're .40, not 10mm, since I run factory ammo.) Out of the five, four are pretty good but #3 tends to fail to feed the first round (when loaded to 10) -- it seems to nosedive. I'm still shooting it a bit more, confirming this problem, and then will contact Tripp to see about resolution (i.e. determine if it's the mag or the gun that's likely to be the source, and how to proceed). -- John.

To each his own, of course, but I prefer to keep zombies in videogames (Left 4 Dead 2, anyone?) and in survival planning. (I figure if you're ready for the "zombie apocalypse, you're ready for darn near anything.) So, no zombie-killin' ammo, zombie-killin' EoTechs, zombie-killin' machetes, "zombie slayer" ejection port covers for me . . . but if I see one at the range, I promise to look suitably impressed and appreciative, and will enjoy the owner's fun with their toys. 'Cause let's be honest -- your toys are all about you, not me, and if you like 'em, I like you liking 'em. -- John.

When I shot L10, I had four pouches, starting around where the belt buckle would have been. Those first couple were angled back, but the last two were angled forward. Basically, I loosened the cant adjustment on each one and positioned it to the most natural angle, to keep my wrist as straight and "comfortable" as possible. So they kind of reverse-fanned, like / / | \. With production, of course, you have to start behind the hip line -- but I suggest the same process. Start by loosening the screws that hold the pouches at a certain cant, position according to what feels right, tighten, and move to next one. Don't start by assuming that they should all be canted at the same angle, or even in the same direction. -- John.

The math gets even worse. Let's assume a 20,000 round life on a 20" AR15 barrel, firing ammunition with a muzzle velocity of 3000fps. (We're playing with roundish numbers to make the math easier.) Doing some algebra and assuming a constant acceleration, we come to the formula time = length / (24 * velocity) (with length in inches, velocity in ft/sec, and time in seconds) for the length of time the bullet spends in the barrel during a single shot. (I haven't studied internal ballistics and I know the acceleration isn't constant, so feel free to add a small "fudge" factor if you like -- it won't change the picture much.) So our conclusion is that it takes roughly 1/900th of a second for the bullet to travel those 20 inches. So your barrel's working life is 22.222 seconds. A .45 making 900fps out of a 5" barrel 20,000 times comes to 4.630 seconds. Now ... be glad that you got a whole "minute and a quarter" of shooting! -- John.

To be completely honest, she's not exactly saying "we should have one," but she's agreeing "that's cool and if we have the money (haha) I won't object to you buying it." But that's progress, and I'm working on the money thing. I also think their business model is backwards: I'd pay some good money to go to TopShotLand, or whatever the theme park would be named, and pick my favorite ten challenges that they've ever done and run them. I'd pay even more money if Taran and some of the other coaches would work with me for 30 minutes first! -- John.

My wife enjoys watching it with me -- and she's not really a shooter. She's also seeing some of those really cool toys agreeing with me when I say "that's really cool ... I want one someday." Hell, even the cute 22-year-old intern at work watches Top Shot and talks with me about it at the office. I think Top Shot is relatively good PR for shooting in general, as others on this forum have said before. The shooting is fairly uncomplicated (for the most part), and they almost never move, but they also have had VERY few (but not zero, I'll admit) safety violations, so they're presenting shooting as a safe and fun sport to the general TV-watching public. That's something we could do with more of, instead of our TV action heroes committing multiple unsafe maneuvers in seemingly every frame. Long story short, it's not terribly exciting shooting, but it I think it is good for shooters, and it gives my wife and I something to laugh at together, which little enough TV does these days. -- John.