glockrocker

It's been several years since I have been to a match. Life has happened and it's been a rocky road, but I'm back. Today I will be shooting again. I'm excited. I had lost that excitement. It feels good to have it back. I like! glockrocker

I voted 9mm because that is what I currently use. However, that being said I had problems with steel at my last match. I use 125 gr precisions with enough tg to make 135 pf. I hit a steel target 4 times and no go. Another shooter using 147 gr 9mm at 139 pf knocked it down. Problem is I don't like the feel of heavier bullets. Can't really nail down why, but I "feel" slower and slightly sluggish with the heavier bullets. It took some time for me to get the perfect bullet weight and power factor figured to suit my personal preference and now I'm not knocking down steel with it. If I could develop a .40 cal load that felt as quick as my 125gr/135pf load I would switch in a heartbeat if it knocked down the steel better. Downside is the cost of components jumps a bunch from 9mm to .40 and for me that is a big factor. I have never been involved any sport/hobby that had so many catch 22's. "This is defiantly the best way to do that, unless of course you are dealing with the thing, in which case that is not the way to do this." I guess experimentation is the only way to figure it out. Try different loads until you find the one that works best for you. One trap to avoid is trying to develop the "softest" load possible. I shoot WAY better with 135 pf loads than I do with 125 pf.

I bought the M&P15T. For what you get the price is pretty good. Don't pay MSRP of course. I think I paid right at $1200 for mine new. You get rails, folding battle sights, adjustable stock, and chrome lined barrel. It has run perfectly from day one with all the factory internals. I put an SJC comp on it and it shoots awesome. I won my first and only rifle match with it in Tulsa last fall: Oklahoma Pratical Rifle. I like the folding sights as they are pretty versatile. I have my dot scope positioned so I can see the battle sights for close work through the scope and fold them down out of the way for distance or put the dot on top of the front post works pretty well too. If your looking to buy a complete rifle over the counter you can't go wrong with an M&P (IMO).

Check out Lifelock.com. For $10 bucks a month they will keep your fraud alerts updated, send you a credit report to review every year, get you off the junk mailing lists (snail mail), take care of everything for you to replace the stuff in your wallet if it is lost or stolen, and they will take care of everything for you if your identity is still stolen while you are a member. Most of what they do (except the million dollar guarantee) you can do yourself, but for the $10 bucks it is out of site and out of mind and taken care of without all the hassle. I am a happy customer.

It's your vacuum cleaner....

Keep em' on hallowed ground. Someone else who is purchasing a gun can get enjoyment from what they purchase whether or not they buy yours or someone else's. So I don't think your reasoning for selling it (so someone else can enjoy it) jives. Maybe that reason would jive if you were giving it away to someone who could not otherwise afford it. I have sold guns and regretted it. It is not a good feeling. The fact that you are asking for opinions on the subject means that you are not sure. If you are not sure you will probably end up regretting it. The only guns I have sold that I have not regretted selling are guns that I had for a very short period of time i.e. bought it and didn't like it so sold it right away. I once gave a shotgun away to a friend that could not afford it. I sometimes wish I still had the gun for sentimental reasons, but do not regret doing it because I know how much it means to him. It's kind of weird how personal/sentimental guns can be as opposed to other types of possessions.

This is Dillon country. On a quiet night you can hear a Hornady rust.

I have tried the little $39.00 model that they have. It was given to me and it is worthless. The model at the top of the list for $179.99 looks more like one of the cleaners sold by the high dollar companies though. I wonder if it works as well? I know you usually get what you pay for, but one thing I can't understand is why the name brand ultrasonic cleaners are so expensive to begin with. There just doesn't appear to be much to them. I know most of them are marketed to various medical professions which probably explains it, but still....

I fired a few minor loads through one of LWD steel comps using Precision Bullets. Leaded up the comp pretty bad. I asked LWD about cleaning the comp and they suggested using an ultrasonic cleaner. I don't have one so have not been able to try it, but that is what they suggested and sounded pretty confident about it. I would be interested to know if that would work for sure. Anyone tried? It is hard to get those things clean and if an ultrasonic cleaner would work on that I imaging it would work on just about anything. If they weren't so expensive I would try one to see.

Flex is referring to a model with 3 pins in the frame vs. an older model with only two. Here is a pic of a 3 pin gun:

I just explain that it is a balance of speed and accuracy. The person with the fastest time may not win due to poor hits and the person with the best hits may not win because of poor time. The winners are the one's who can balance the two. I have never tried to explain the specific scoring method without a target or pen and paper in hand. The hit factor formula is easy enough to get across to someone if they can see it on paper while looking at a target or a sketch of a target.

You can reposition a stock trigger only by making internal modifications. No external mods are allowed. If there is any question on your part whether or not the external modification prohibitions apply only to recoil controlling mods, consider this....I have an email from John Amidon (dated 12-16-2007) in which he states that he considers a trimmed (yet still functioning) trigger safety on a Glock "an external modification and there fore not allowed" in Production Division. The 2008 rulebook states on page 75 "Unless specifically authorized, modifications are prohibited."

Yeah, she'll be pissed. Mine hated the beginning, hated what happened in the middle, and said the ending sucked. Definitely not for someone who likes "feel good" movies. I thought it was cool though. They did a good job of making New York City look deserted and there is a cool chase scene between a Shelby GT500 and a herd of deer....

It was "28 days later" meets "Old Yeller". I liked it.

Does this happen frequently? One or more of the safeties not functioning? I'm curious how big of a problem this is. I wonder if there are people knowingly shooting glocks with a defeated safety or is there a general sense of surprise when this happens?

There is a lot of talk about eliminating pre-travel in glocks. There are different methods for eliminating the pre travel, but one thing seems to be consistent if I understand it correctly. When a glock is loaded and ready to fire, the left arm of the cruciform rests on a ledge within the trigger housing. As the trigger is pulled, the cruciform drops off of the ledge allowing firing pin to move forward. This is how the drop safety is designed to work. As long as the cruciform is resting on the ledge the gun can't fire. To eliminate pre-travel (irregardless of which method is used) the trigger assembly must be moved rearward which results in the cruciform resting closer to the edge of the ledge in the trigger housing. There is a point when the trigger assembly can be moved too far (ALL pre-travel eliminated) and the cruciform will be extended beyond the ledge (see stage 2 of the attached diagram) effectively defeating the drop safety. The firing pin safety COULD still be intact, but in the event of a dropped gun, the impact could depress the firing pin safety plunger as well as the trigger safety. Glocks were designed so that all three safeties would work INDEPENDENTLY of each other. Am I wrong? Here is how I check to see if my drop safety is working: Remove the slide. Push the trigger bar forward until the trigger safety engages the frame and stops. Push down on the cruciform (the metal at the very back end of the trigger). If the cruciform stay’s up then the drop safety is working. If you remove to much pre-travel and defeat the drop safety then the trigger bar (cruciform) will go down and then you rely on the firing pin safety. This is assuming that other parts of the trigger bar have been properly modified so that the firing pin safety plunger in not depressed prematurely. ALL of the competition triggers in the glocks I have owned have had three fully functional safeties and passed the above test. I have seen first hand an aftermarket glock trigger that fails the above drop safety test. I will not say who made it because this is not a flame. The manufacture of this trigger stated to the buyer that all safeties would work. There was next to NO pre-travel in this trigger and the drop safety was defeated. I am in possession of the above trigger and over the next couple weeks am going to try and prove (in a controlled environment) that impact will fire a glock with this trigger installed. My sole intent and purpose is to inform as many people as I can about this for safety purposes. I believe that it is a matter of time before something bad happens with this practice. Eliminating SOME pre-travel is safe if done by someone who knows what they are doing. Pushing it too far is a disaster waiting to happen. Please, if you are uncertain whether or not your drop safety works, check it. Also, if anyone has theories to the contrary I would love to hear them. Shoot Safe. Drop Safety Diagram

Here is a link to his site: Vanek Custom

There is really no need to clean your glock mags between stages unless you drop one in the mud and then step on it or something. The people you see cleaning mags between stages are doing it out of necessity in order to keep their finely oiled machines running. Your glock is not a finely oiled machine. In fact it should have no oil in it at all. A little dust or grit won't hurt a thing. Just slap the mag against your leg a couple times and wipe the outside with a rag and your good to go. If you do want to take the mags apart find a wood post or table or something and push the base pad against it (hard) while pushing in the retaining button on the bottom of the base pad. It's a PITA without modifying the mag as the previous poster suggested.

The pictures show the trigger bar. The connector is located on the side of the trigger housing. You can see the top of the connector in the bottom picture. It is to the far right side of the picture, at the top, and is the part that has the bend in it (bending away from the camera). You can remove the whole trigger assembly by removing the frame pins and removing the locking block. The whole assembly will come out and then you can push the connector out of the trigger housing. Here is a picture of 3 different connectors:

A friend of mine had the same concern as yours. He had a 550 and used jb weld to take the play out of the tool head. He lined the tool head slot on the press with a thin layer of jb weld. Then he put some kind of grease (slide glide?) around the edges of the tool head and inserted it into the press to mold the jb weld to the tool head. Then removed tool head and let jb weld dry. Repeated process until tool head was tight in the press. I remember watching the press operate and there was no movement whatsoever in the tool head. He was also able to change tool heads. That being said, he later bought another 550 and has done nothing to eliminate the movement in the tool head on the new press. He said the press with the anchored tool head loaded no better/worse than using it as it came from the factory.

Save your breath...You'll need it to blow up your date.

How important is a custom trigger? Depends on you. A custom trigger was not important to me at all, nor had it ever even occurred to me to get one at all....until I tried one on someone else's Glock. That someone else happened to be Charlie Vanek at our local range. Prior to firing his gun, I had no idea that my trigger sucked. It was kind like an instant awakening. At that moment a custom trigger became very important to me. Would I be handicapped without one? No, probably not. Have my scores improved specifically because of my trigger? I like to think so, but there is no way to know what my scores would have been had I left it stock. Point is sometimes we make mods because it just feels better or makes us feel better. Doesn't always make us shoot better. That comes from within you. I would not trade my Vanek trigger for anything else and I will never own a Glock used in competition without one. But that's just me.

I had sent an email to Kershaw yesterday. Here is their response. Not sure what to make out of it now, but thought I would post it as I know many of us carry these kind of knives. The original email I sent to Kershaw is listed below the response I received. The attachment sent by Kershaw is included as well: Thank you for purchasing our knives. Our knives are legal in all 50 States and Canada. Unfortunately not all officers know this, they see the speed and instantly think switchblade. We do not make switchblades. We have been making these assisted opening knives for 9 years. We have won cases in TX, IL, MI, CA and Canada. These knives are sold in all 50 States, by every retailer that sells knives. I have attached some info for your reading. I can't give you legal advice. You might just want to be careful where you would carry your knife in the future, i.e. courthouses, federal places, airports, or any place with a metal detector. Most instances we have run across it is better to surrender your knife, have a good attitude with an officer and things will turn out just fine. Much better to purchase another knife than get a citation. Legal_FederalLTR.Kai1.doc Again thank you. Jeff Goddard Director of Sales and Marketing Kai USA, Ltd. Kershaw Knives, Zero Tolerance Knives & Shun Cutlery 18600 SW Teton Ave Tualatin, OR 97062 800-325-2891 503-682-7168 fax -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Contact Us Web Form [mailto:donotreply@kershawknives.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 9:04 PM To: info@kershawknives.com Subject: Undefined (Kershaw) Urgency.........: Normal Subject.......: Undefined (Kershaw) ------------------------------------------------------------ I have 2 Kershaw 1660ST knives which have the assisted opening feature. I have had these knives for nearly 5 years and bought 2 so I would never be without. I absolutely love these knives. To my horror (slightly exaggerating) I visited the St. Louis Arch yesterday and there was a sign at the entrance notifying the public that no illegal knives were allowed in the facility. My Kershaw knife was specifically listed as illegal in the state of Missouri. I inquired of a police officer nearby and he confirmed that it was illegal in Missouri to "carry one of these Kershaw knives on your person". I am an over the road truck driver and travel to many different states. I have carried this knife for years and now don't know how many states that I may be breaking the law in. Can you please supply me with a list of state where this knife is illegal or refer me to a resource I can use to find out. I have tried to search on the web for answers, but have been unsuccessful in finding answers thus far. Any information you can provide would be very valuable to a lifelong Kershaw customer such as myself. Thank you.

The knife I have is also the 1660ST as pictured above. Here is a photo I took today of the posting at the arch. BTW the officer I spoke with was not one of the security guards at the metal detectors, he was a St. Louis Police officer who confirmed verbally to me that the knife was illegal in Missouri. The picture came out a bit blurry due to glare off of the glass entryway.

PUBLIC CITIZEN.............I probably don't need to say much more, but I will because I'm really pissed. I'm a truck driver (I know I probably just discredited myself to the point that the rest of my rant won't be taken seriously because now days even I am ashamed to be associated with many of the truck drivers I see on the road) and the special interest group PUBLIC CITIZEN is really trying to do it to us. Us meaning truck driver's, any company that uses trucks, retailers............hell, everybody, the U.S. economy in general if they get what they want. Simply put, until a couple of years ago a truck driver could work up to 15 hours in a day before he had to stop driving and take an 8 hour break. 10 of those 15 could be used to actually drive the truck. Once a driver had either driven for 10 hours or worked for 15 he had to stop and take an 8 hour break by law. Then a couple years ago the law was changed because PUBLIC CITIZEN sued the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) and the law was changed. PUBLIC CITIZEN claims 5,000 lives lost a year due to fatigue related accidents with trucks and blamed the FMCSA for allowing truckers to drive too many hours per day/week. The new law was a win/win for law abiding truckers and the special interest groups. This was too good to be true as far as I was concerned. This kind of thing just never comes out win/win. To sum it up the new law allowed a driver to work only a 14 hour day, but he could drive for 11 of those hours. A shorter overall day, but more drive time allowed. The mandatory break between work days was increased from 8 hours to 10 hours. The last piece that kind of complicates things in terms of understanding the before and after aspect of the law is that a driver can now take 34 hours off and zero out his "clock" for the week as in both laws a driver is only allowed to work a maximum of 70 hours in 8 days. If you take 34 hours off that will reset the 70 hour clock to zero and you are good to go for another week. The 14 hour day combined with a 10 hour break lends to putting a driver on a "regular" 24 hour work schedule and theoretically improves rest. It has worked great for law abiding truckers. I have made more money and do feel better than I have ever felt since I started driving some 20 years ago. Well now P.C. (kind of ironic initials don't you think) has sued again. They are ignoring (or not talking about) the fact that we now work a shorter day and take a longer break. They are only focusing on our drive time per day being increased and they don't like the 34 hour reset. They also refuse to comment on how many fatigue related truck accidents are caused by the significant portion of the truck drivers who ignore the hours of service laws altogether. This is a typical case of the many being punished for the crimes of the few. Go into any truck stop and a significant portion of the drivers could care less what changes are made in the law because they ignore it anyway. The drivers that are penalized are the ones who work for reputable companies who require that their driver's follow the law. These are not the drivers that are causing the majority of the fatigue related accidents. Oh yeah, last week United States Court of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of PUBLIC CITIZEN and effective Sept. 14 of this year, the 11 hour drive time will be reduced to 10 and the 34 hour reset will be abolished. This will (after all the fuzzy math is done) decrease the amount of time a driver could potentially drive in a week by 17 hours. This brings us to the economic impact part of this rant. A 17 hour per week reduction in drive time will reduce my income by as much as $400 per week. Multiply that by the number of law abiding truckers in the United States. Then start to consider productivity issues for trucking companies needing more drivers to get the same amount of freight hauled. Then consider the potential rate increase for hauling freight. Then consider the economic ripple effect. Then consider that what PUBLIC CITIZEN really wants (and has been pursuing from the beginning of this) is an 8 hour work day for truckers. Then consider that the driver's who are the most responsible for fatigue related accidents are the ones who have ignored (and will continue to ignore) the existing hours of service laws.