Duane Thomas

October 7, 2011

Sure. Why wouldn't it be? It's a factory part.

October 7, 2011

I am currently running a stock firing pin spring with self-polished trigger system parts, including a Gen-3 trigger bar and a factory 4.5 pound connector, in my Gen-4 G17. Resultant trigger pulls are nice and smooth, and actually do go 4.5 pounds according to my NRA weight set.

October 7, 2011

Here's a link to a thread on the new Gen-4 beavertail availability:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=137309

October 7, 2011

There is now a hand shielding beavertail available as a pin-in-place backstrap on the Gen-4. At least "available" as in "we know it exists." Not sure on its actual availability yet. I'm going to call up Glock tomorrow and see if I can get one for test and eval, and when I do I'm going to also ask that question.

Here's a photo:

October 7, 2011

"OTD"?

October 7, 2011

Guys, let's cool the commentary on what other members should and shouldn't be thinking. This would be a good time to reread the Forum Guidelines, specifically this part:

Attitude
Please be polite. Or if not polite, at least respectful.

On BrianEnos.com we don't engage in back-and-forth exchanges where we tell each other what we "should" be thinking, or what the other person should or shouldn't be saying. The "what you did was rude, no, what you did was MORE rude" game is one we simply don't play here. If there does need to be correction of a member's behavior, then a moderator will do it via PM, in private. Thanks.

October 7, 2011

I do the same thing, especially if there's movement involved, you can put the mag in the mag pouch while moving from the start position to the first shooting position, so it costs you no time there, and you save yourself MAJOR time come the mag change.

October 7, 2011

The captured unit makes it easier to reassemble the gun. The uncaptured unit makes it easier to check the length of the recoil spring to see how much it's been compressed, and determine when it's been compressed enough to require replacement, and to replace it when that time is reached.

October 6, 2011

I don't believe an Amazon.com review would count as a valid reference per their standards.

October 6, 2011

I use an old cutter to hog out the material and then switch to a sharp cutter and I've never had an issue.

That's a smart way to do it.

October 6, 2011

From Wikipedia:

Tara of the Twilight is a fantasy novel written by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Zebra Books in October 1979.

According to Carter's introductory note, Tara of the Twilight represents his attempt to combine the genre of sword and sorcery with pornographic fantasy. Based on the unresolved state of the plot, he evidently intended at least one sequel, but none was ever published.

Plot summary

Tara, a foundling, has been raised as the ward of Chanthu the sorcerer to be a War Maid, a member of an order of virgin swordswomen. At sixteen she is sent on a quest into the Twilight, a dim, dangerous and mysterious realm full of violence and magic, to discover the mystery of her origins. Her friend and protector Khaldur, a highly intelligent lion-like carnivore, accompanies her.

Unfortunately for Tara (the goddess of her order being quite strict on the virginity requirement), the Twilight proves to be a hotbed of decadence and perversion. Her quest devolves a series of captivities and escapes, in which she is in turn separated from and reunited with her feline guardian. She is successively enslaved by lecherous inhabitants of the city of Paltossa, the Northern Barbarians, the sorceresses of the Witch Wood, and the sorcerer Sarkon and his three Womanthing minions.

During the course of her adventures she picks up additional companions, including the bisexual girl Evalla, the Lion Warrior Thund, and the teenage boy Zorak, all of whom provide opportunities for sex play between adventures. Throughout all, she somehow manages to maintain a technical virginity, primarily because her various antagonists seem too depraved to consider ordinary intercourse, while her male companions are either too honorable, too inhibited, or too distracted by Evalla.

The novel ends with the quest unfinished and the mysteries of Tara's heritage and destiny unresolved, with the travelers flying onward to new adventures in their magical air-gondola.

October 6, 2011

Here is my Amazon.com review:

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars

Sword and Sorcery Porn,

August 4, 2007

By Duane Thomas (Tacoma, WA United States)

Linwood Vrooman "Lin" Carter is remembered today for two things: (a) he was one hell of a science fiction/fantasy editor, critic and historian; ( he was a mediocre novelist whose output consisted almost entirely of lukewarm pastiches of more famous - and better - writers he admired, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett, Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Kenneth Robeson, and Clark Ashton Smith. If I had to pick one novel in which Carter broke from his imitative mold and created something uniquely Carterian, it would be Tara of the Twilight.

Tara of the Twilight is a blend of two genres: the sword and sorcery tale and the porn novel. This was a major departure for Carter. As he says in Tara's introduction, "I have never written a heroic fantasy novel from the viewpoint of a woman. Nor have I ever written anything that was particularly erotic, if not downright pornographic. But I am nearly as interested in erotic literature as I am in the literature of the fantastic."

Most porn novels are poorly constructed trash. By contrast Tara is well-written; the plot meanders somewhat but the events occurring on-page are always interesting; in characterization Tara comes across as perhaps a bit immature and stuck on herself but still a courageous and innately decent human being. Tara of the Twilight is written in stylized, almost quaint verbiage that works very well as a contrast to the bawdiness and violence of the events being described.

Tara is raised and trained by kindly Chanthu the sorcerer to be a War Maid, an order of virgin swordswomen, and when she's 16 is sent into the Twilight, a dim and dangerous realm full of violence and magic, to discover the mystery of her origins. Even Chanthu does not know where Tara came from, who are her parents, what is her destiny. Her only companion as the quest begins is her childhood friend Khaldur, "a great golden cat with a crimson mane and lambent emerald eyes" possessed of near-human intelligence. Khaldur is Tara's steadfast protector though the two are frequently separated - the better for Tara to be chained and abused through many erotic adventures, natch.

And my God, it seems like this girl just can't keep her clothes on. First she's captured and used as a pleasure slave in the perverse, decadent city of Paltossa. Escaping that, she's then captured by the Northern Barbarians and their brutal, rapacious king. During the course of that adventure she meets, and henceforth travels with, both bisexual nymphette and, ahem, play partner Evalla and studly male Thund the Lion Warrior, for whom Tara feels an immense and reciprocated lech. Thund is thereafter the #1 contender to put paid to that whole "virgin swordswoman" thing. (Apparently, having sex with women doesn't count as no-longer-a-virgin in Tara's mind.) Then there are encounters with the lesbian sorceresses of Witch Wood, and Sarkon the Sorcerer and his trio of magically created Womanthings. (The Sisters Weird, indeed.) Along the way, Tara's band picks up Zorak, a teenager with whom Evalla can play "boy-and-girl games of their own." These adventures end with the bad guys and girls dead (usually) and Tara, in the course of having multiple orgasms, still maintaining her "virginity."

Though there's blood and pain in this narrative, in general this is all good-natured fun, with a heroine who's noble and true, despicable villains and some very hot sex scenes. Tara of the Twilight is both a good porn novel and a compelling sword and sorcery tale, and as such, a better book than most that are simply one or the other. This could have been the first entry in a truly memorable series.

However though it would be another nine years between the 1979 publication of Tara and the 1988 death of Carter, a chronic chainsmoker, from cancer, he never wrote another novel about Tara. The hell of it is that he left himself set up SO nicely for a sequel. Thus we are left with one of the most promise-laden, stand alone first novels to an unfinished series in adventure fiction. Where did Tara come from? Who are her parents? What is her destiny? What further violent and amatory adventures awaited her and her small band of friends? Would she and Thund ever get it on? For that matter, would young Zorak ever get a shot at the older and more experienced, drop dead gorgeous Tara?

We'll never know. Tara of the Twilight will always, for us, be caught, like a fly in amber, travelling in the magical air-gondola Boabdil, just beyond the River of Smoke, on her way, along with Thund, Evalla, Zorak and Khaldur, over the Trembling Lands, on past the Mantichore Mountains, on her way to City Gondomar in the country of Karge, and whatever unknown and untold conflicts await her there.

October 6, 2011

Just a few minutes ago I noticed that Wikipedia had a page on an old favorite novel of mine, Tara of the Twilight. "Coolness!" thunk I, so I went to check it out. I was surprised, and hideously amused, to discover that the Plot Summary portion of the page (this entry was posted in 2010) is simply a condensed and slightly rewritten version of the Amazon.com review of Tara of the Twilight that I wrote back in 2007. I'm not irritated, I'm not mad, just amused. :lol:

October 6, 2011

Seems like a lot of work and expense given the multiplcity of front sight sight heights available out there to zero a Glock with fixed sights. I have been told, BTW, by numerous pistolsmiths that they really hate milling on Glock slides because the Tenifer finish just absolutely eats up cutting tools.

October 6, 2011

I have to admit I'm surprised at the results of this poll. I've been firing Glocks since shortly after they were first imported into the U.S. and I've never been slide bitten. Nor have I ever known anyone who's been bitten either - or if they had been, they certainly didn't mention it to me!

October 6, 2011

Merged with an already existent, and currently active, thread on this topic - which was only the second topic down on the first page, actually. You might want to put some effort into searching before posting a "new" topic.

October 5, 2011