My very first revolver, that is the first one I owned, was a Charter Arms .38 Special snub-nosed revolver. I don't remember the model number but I am pretty sure it was called the Undercover, and that was in the early 1980s. Currently, Charter Arms offers several models of revolver in .38 Special such as the Charter Arms Undercover model 13820 Blue Standard. Back then as now (as far as I can remember) it came in blue steel, had a 2 inch barrel, and was a 5 shot revolver. It accepted standard powder charge 38 special ammo, the current one can handle +P loads. The current model comes with a traditional exposed spur hammer as did mine (they also offer double action only with shrouded hammer). I don't remember if mine had a shrouded recoil rod or if it was exposed but the current one is shrouded. The revolver weighs in at 16 ounces and the suggested retail is $365.00.
My opinion about revolvers like this is that they are fair to good home and self defense firearms. Revolvers eliminate some of the stupid factor that can take place with semi-automatic pistols or should I say that come into play because of gun owners who have not become sufficiently with how to operate and shoot their firearms. Guns are not stupid nor can they be, it is people who can be and often are stupid. So what does that translate to about a revolver possibly being easy to become accustomed to than a semi-auto? Well, first of all a revolver is less prone, under most conditions, to jamming. Jamming in a semi-auto pistol require knowledge of how to clear a pistol should it jam. Thus it requires more learning than does a pistol. many types of jams with semi-autos, at least with those of high quality, are shooter induced at that. So not only do you need to learn how to clear a jam with a semi auto should one occur, but you should also know how to shoot said pistols without the likelihood of causing a shooter induced malfunction. Now this is not to say that malfunctions leading to a revolver jamming never take place. They can and do occur but are usually less likely to occur. Of course a shooter should know how to prevent and fix them too but the thing is if a revolver jams during a firefight you can just about forget getting it cleared in time to come out the winner. Hmm, maybe that is a negative on the side of the revolver that needs reconsideration when saying a revolver may be preferable to a semi-auto, but that discussion is for another day.
Allow me to get back to the revolver, such as the Charter Arms Undercover for home and self defense. Revolvers like this are fairly easy to conceal, and fairly easy to shoot, probably are less prone to jamming than a semi-auto (whatever the cause), and certainly do not have a slide to rip open your thumb depending upon how you grip it (never grip a semi-auto pistol with the weak hand thumb on top of the strong hand thumb around the backstrap, if you do you will find out first hand about that of which I write). As opposed to most semis, snub-nosed revolvers carry less ammunition - this one is limited to 5 rounds in the cylinder. The trade off here is that 38 Special +P rounds are more powerful to some degree than are most .38 caliber (9MM and the like) semi-auto rounds. As with any 38 snub-nosed revolver though you are bound to have to put up with a decent amount of recoil, especially if using +P rounds in the current model.
Short barreled snub-nosed revolvers, this one's barrel is 2 inches, are primarily close in weapons. They are best used for shooting at distances from arms length away to about 10 yards distance but you can become proficient with them out to 25 or more yards distance. As I recall, shooting my Charter Arms 38 snub-nosed was fun. It was accurate out to 25 yards although I could hardly imagine using it at that distance in a self defense situation.
I cannot speak to the quality control of currently produced firearms by Charter Arms but as I already pointed out I had some experience with a Charter Arms snub-nosed back in the early 1980s. While I liked how mine shot, I also recall a pesky problem that kept recurring with it. It had a cylinder stop, the current one does not. The reason I recall it had a cylinder stop is because when combat unloading the cylinder would sometimes ride up over the cylinder stop. Easy to fix, but quite the unwanted thing to take place during a self defense situation - did I say something about revolvers being less prone to jamming. I sold that one to a gunsmith who was looking use it as a practice piece for engraving. Of course he would also keep it as a shooter. I liked everything about that revolver except of course for the poor fitting of metal parts that allowed the cylinder to ride up over the cylinder stop. I would have gotten another but for the fact I had heard that said problem was a common one and I had a buyer who knew of the problem but was eager to buy it. As I said above, I cannot speak to the quality control of the currently manufactured models. My guess is that they are not quite up to the standards of Smith & Wesson or Colt but I base that on hunch and pricing alone. Why pricing? Well, because Charter Arms is a lower cost alternative to those more expensive brands. Lower cost usually implies lower quality, but not necessarily low quality.
So, one may be left wondering about whether or not they are quality firearms or not - if only because of the low prices at which their firearms are offered as compared to brands like Colt and Smith & Wesson. Then again I have heard some good things about Charter Arms in recent years, so it is quite possible that their current manufacture revolvers are of high quality with no such problems. Looking through the firearms forums on the Internet I have come across people both praising and complaining about Charter Arms quality control with regard to their current production revolvers. My guess is that they make a viable alternative to a Smith & Wesson for someone who cannot afford the higher priced brands; then again I don't know that I would want to bet my life on it. If you do get one, read the instructions and follow them. Get yourself familiar with the revolver and how to shoot it. Then go to a range and shoot about 400 to 500 rounds of ammunition through it to make sure it functions flawlessly before you depend upon it as a self or home defense weapon.
All the best,
Glenn B
Showing posts with label revolver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label revolver. Show all posts
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Biweekly Gun Shots 4 - Remington Model 1858 New Army (by Cabelas)
What's this? Two revolvers in a row. You betcha! This one is a black powder reproduction of the Remington 1858 New Army. The particular one pictured is available through Cabelas (I believe it is made for them by Pietta). This is one big sized revolver, and I guess a lot of that is due to its .44 caliber. It needs the heft to control the round and load needed to propel it. It weighs in at 2 pounds 11 ounces, is 14" long and has an 8" barrel. An extra nice feature of this revolver is that it has interchangeable cylinders. No not so that you can fire another caliber, but so that you can reload 6 rounds swiftly. I don't know if this is the same model of gun, but it reminds me of the one used by Clint Eastwood, in one of his westerns years ago, where the character changed cylinders to reload. This is available from Cabelas right now at the sale price of $189.99. For a bit more it is available with target sights, and there are other models also available such as one with case hardened steel, and another with a brass frame. Go here for more info on this particular model: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0006195210082a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=remington+army&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1.
I cannot afford one right now (nothing new) otherwise I would pick it up at the sale price . I have owned one or two black powder pistols over the years and I have got to say they are lots of fun. The one that comes to mind immediately was a cap and ball Derringer. I put that one together from a kit. It was a load of fun; but a six shooter in a black powder firearm as opposed to that single shot Derringer, and one for which you can get additional cylinders, sounds like an absolute blast.
All the best,
Glenn B
Friday, February 13, 2009
Biweekly Gun Shots 3 - The Ruger New Model Blackhawk Convertible
I cannot recall myself ever owning a single action only revolver, so that would be something new for me. Going with the concept of 'new' I figure that a gun with new in the name would fit right in. The one I have chosen for this edition of Biweekly Gun Shots is the Ruger New Model Blackhawk Convertible in .45 Long Colt/.45 Auto. Yep it can fire both and comes with interchangeable cylinders one for each caliber. Being that I have never owned a firearm in .45 caliber of any sort, this would be another new addition for me. Now if I opted to be on the frugal side then I'd go for this fine revolver in .357/9mm. It would be a tough choice, but if I had enough money to buy what I wanted, I think I would opt for the .45 first just for a plinker. Of course it would be a pretty good gun to have in hand if some evil doer broke into my home and tried to harm my family or myself although I must admit, in that case I would much prefer a double action handgun, or my Remington 870 to be in hand.The .45 version of this revolver is available with either 4 5/8" or 5 1/2" barrels. They both come with a blued finish, ramp front sight, adjustable rear sight, have a western style grip. The shorter barreled version weighs in at 42 ounces, and its length is 10 1/2". Its barrel has 6 grooves with 1:16" RH twist. The longer barreled version weighs in at 44 ounces. It has an overall length of 11 1/4". The grooves and twist specs are the same as for the shorter barreled version. The cylinders of each hold 6 rounds. The MSRP is just under $600. (All this info can be found on the Ruger site at http://www.ruger.com/Firearms/FAProdResults?function=famid&famid=19&variation=.45%20Colt%20/%20.45%20Auto%20Convertible&bct=Yes&type=Revolver.) By the way, the one shown in the pic is the BN-455XL (the 5 1/2" version) as opposed to the shorter BN-44XL not shown
I could just imagine myself having to get western cut jeans and a pair of decent boots before going out to shoot this one. Nah, not really but the attire would fit right in with the gun, that is for sure.
All the best,
Glenn B
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Ballseye's Firearms Training and Tactics - Breaking In A Pistol (and Glock 26 Range Report)
Old timers probably remember, in years gone by, that when you bought a new car it came with a break in period. During that period you were supposed to drive the car moderately with regard to speed, distance, and braking. It was new and it needed to get settled or broken in. Cars today are not the same. You drive em out of the showroom ready to go. Still though, I think there is a break in period for new cars, and that would be the first several hundred miles (driving here in the NYC area) or maybe the first one thousand miles elsewhere with less traffic, less stop and go, less potholes, and so on. Its not a time when I baby the car either, but rather one wherein I give it a good long once over test drive to see if it is truly road worthy for say a vacation trip, daily commuting and so forth with my family in it. What I am driving at is that if it does not show itself as having problems in that time, well then nothing catastrophic - like a wheel falling off, the brakes failing, the steering failing - is likely to happen afterwards when I am driving it with my wife and kids in there with me. My testing it like this is a prudent thing to do with a new car instead of just blindly depending on it as being truly road worthy for all road conditions.
I do likewise with guns, especially with firearms that are meant for self defense purposes. If I am going to trust my life to a pistol, or revolver, or shotgun, or rifle, well you can be darned certain that I have tested it before betting my life on it working when I need it to go bang. Of course that goes out the window in an emergency when I might just grab any gun at hand, but my regular carry pistol or revolver, or my regular home defense shotgun or rifle, has had a good deal of ammunition run through it before I will use it to defend my life or that of another.
Now many a shooter buys a new gun, and buys a box or three of ammo, then takes the gun to the range to shoot it. They shoot up a box or two and save the other box to have enough ammo to load up the gun for self defense purposes with some left over. So it turns out that maybe they fired 50 to 100 rounds through a new pistol or revolver, and probably less through a new rifle or shotgun. If they encounter repeated failures to feed, to fire, to extract or to eject - they usually guess that there is something wrong with the gun. That is a good guess, but not always right. On the other hand, if they had just a jam or three they usually attribute them to the firearm being new, and to it needing the kinks worked out of it. They, like on the other guess with more jams, may or may not be right on that one too. Some of them may even guess it is the ammo that is at fault, and they too could be right. On the other side of the coin, they may have no malfunctions at all, and therefore arrive at the conclusion that the firearm is in perfect (relatively speaking) working order. Again they may be right, but again they may be wrong.
As far as pistols go, the thing is though that running just 50 rounds, or even a hundred, through a pistol to run it through a break in period, is just not enough ammunition to test its reliability. Sure it may seem like a good amount of ammunition to shoot, but it is often not enough to make something go kerplunk when instead it should have gone click, bang, rack, click, bang, and so on. What I am driving at here is that I have, in my almost 35 years of pistol shooting, seen many a pistol fail, and most of them that I have seen fail have either failed after having many thousands of rounds of ammunition fired through them, or have failed after only having a few hundred rounds shot through them at most. What that translates to is this:
A pistol, that has been fired again and again with proper maintenance will usually fire many many thousands of rounds before it fails. When it fails, it usually fails due to things like a broken part, metal fatigue, a worn piece, a weakened spring and so on. This is actually to be expected as a pistol gets older and older and is fired more and more. Parts need to be checked and replaced as needed. Of course all of this relates to a pistol that has been broken in and that has proven itself reliable from the start.
There are problems that arise with pistols, like all of those I mentioned above, that can start happening anywhere from the first round fired through the first hundred rounds fired, or in fact anywhere after that. While I just mentioned they can happen at anytime, they are less likely to happen, to a pistol that has proven itself reliable during a break in period, before you have reached the point where several thousand rounds have been put through it. What I am saying is that the break in period is the time during which many a problem due to faulty manufacture of the pistol's parts, or due to improper assembly, will become evident.
So what does one do to properly break in and test fire a pistol to check its reliability. Well first of all, and I am talking a newly acquired pistol that is either new in the box or used, you get the manual for it and read it. After doing that you ascertain that the pistol is safe, then disassemble it as recommended by the manufacturer for a good cleaning. After cleaning it, lubricate any parts that the manufacturer recommends lubricating, then reassemble it. Now the fun begins because now you take it to the local range with at least 400 to 500 rounds of ammunition to test fire it; and that ammunition should be the same ammunition you plan on carrying in it when you use it for self defense purposes.
Why so much ammo? Well because firing that many rounds through a pistol usually makes something go pppffffzzzt or kerplunk, or splat when it should being doing otherwise. If there is a weak part, something that is likely to break, well then that many rounds through the pistol will likely bring that problem to your attention whereas 50 rounds may not be enough. In other words, from my experience in over 35 years of shooting pistol and 14 years as a firearms instructor, and from what I have been told by other instructors, putting 400 to 500 rounds though a new pistol is a fairly reliable way to make it break if it was manufactured in a faulty manner. Another thing about using that much ammo is that the gun gets kind of dirty with that many rounds through it. So if it was put together to specs that were to tight and the guns starts to action slowly after say 300-400 rounds, it may also be a good indicator that the gun will not tolerate dirt and fouling as well as one would hope. Now while you are shooting 400-500 rounds at a single range session to break in a pistol, you can bet that if you were firing at a good steady pace, the gun is prone to get hot. This will also provide another indication of if it will function properly when needed in a tight spot. Some pistols begin to seize up when they get hot. If you fire this many rounds through it and yours does not, well bravo. One other reason to fire this many rounds, doing so will smooth out the operation of almost any pistol that was properly manufactured. What I means is that when a standard commercial pistol is manufactured there are bound to be tool marks and burrs on the metal. maybe not ones visible at first glance without magnification but they are likely there. Firing a pistol several hundred times, after having cleaned and lubricated it properly will smooth off many of these imperfections. This will allow the pistol to operate more smoothly. In addition if the pistol was finished to very tight specs, firing 400-500 rounds through it should also help to loosen things up just enough to help assure smoother and easier functioning.
Besides using that many rounds, you maybe wondering why I said to use only the ammunition you plan to use in the gun when you actually use it for self defense purposes. If you were wondering, well good for you, it is a good question. The reason I recommend not mixing ammunition, or simply using a cheaper ammo for practice and a better one for self defense, is this: You want to be absolutely sure that not only does your new pistol shoot, and that it shoots reliable, but YOU WANT TO MAKE DARNED SURE IT SHOOTS RELIABLY AND ACCURATELY WITH WHATEVER YOU PLAN TO USE TO DEFEND YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF YOUR LOVED ONES. You can take a pistol to the range, and then shoot Winchester White Box ball ammo (an inexpensive type of ammo sold for plinking and informal target shooting) though it for the 400 to 500 recommended rounds. The pistol may handle it flawlessly. They you leave the range, clean the pistol, and then load it with 115 grain Speer Gold Dot Plus P ammunition. You put the gun up on the closet shelf in the bedroom and that is that.
Well that was that at least until a few days later when you are awakened in the middle of the night by strange noises downstairs. Your wife is awake too and she is scared, she says she heard glass breaking and footsteps crunching the broken glass. You are sure it is a burglar. You have the wife call the cops and you get the pistol loaded with the hollow points (yes the ammo I described is HP ammo). Suddenly the bedroom door is hit and an armed intruder bursts into the room in a rage. You see him pointing a shotgun at your wife and you fire, the first shot going god knows where, and you try to squeeze off another shot, but for some reason the pistol has gone kerplunk instead of bang/rack/bang. When the police arrive they find you dead in a pool of your own blood. You wife has also been shot but she has survived. The bad guy has fled. When police examine your pistol they discover that the hollow points you were using would not reliable feed into the pistol and the somewhat rather rough feed ramp caused the jam. Too bad for you. that you tested your gun with ammunition that you did not depend upon to save your life; and too bad you assumed that if cheaper ammo fed in your pistol then more expensive ammo would feed too. Think that was too dramatic? Don't believe it could happen to you? I have seen it happen, that is the jamming thing, with many people's guns at the range. I'd rather not see the results, firsthand when it happens in a bad situation - though I have read accounts and seen photos of guns that have jammed for various reason, all when they were needed most. That is why I highly recommend using only the ammo with which you will defend yourself as your break in ammo for a new pistol, and why I recommend a break in test in the first place. Of course you can fire other types of ammo through your gun, but be darned sure you can fire the ammo with which you plan to defend yourself, that your gun operates reliably using that ammo, and that you can shoot accurately with that ammo.
There is another reason to go to the range and fire off about 400-500 rounds of ammo with any new pistol. It helps to assure that you are familiar with the pistol, and it should let you know whether or not you need to correct any bad shooting habits or if you need to adjust the sights to achieve accuracy with the new gun. Yes new guns are sort of like new cars, they are both machines, each make and model of both a car and a gun have a distinctive feel about them that you need to get used to, and they can offer quite the fun experience to use - as in drive or shoot while at the same time can also offer pure utility to the user.
Did I just mention fun, why yes I did. Shooting is good old American style past time that is lots of fun. The more you shoot, the more fun you have, well up to a point and dependent upon caliber anyhow. If you go out and shoot a .454 Casull 400 to 500 times in a day - well either you are a man of steel or are out and out nuts. Why? Well because you are bound to be hurtin bad if you are a mere mortal like me and fire that many of those big rounds in one day. Some pistol and revolvers require a few days break in period to shoot that many rounds, and those days may be spread out over weeks. With the lowly 9MM round however, it is a different story. You can probably easily shoot 400-500 rounds in a single trip to the range if you are a shooter of average build and strength.
Heck I did it today even though I have not been feeling my best lately. The truth is I had fun, and I was quite satisfied with my new Glock 26's operation at the range. I fired at least 400 rounds, and think it was actually 430 rounds I put through her today. I had a blast both figuratively and literally. I found out the new Glock 26:
1) Is an accurate shooter, probably more accurate than I can be with it.
2) Was probably made well, and will probably go a long time before breaking, since it fired every round with which it was loaded without a failure to feed, to fire, to extract, or to eject. (I had once failure to feed but only because I had not fully inserted a mag - shooter error - no fault of the Glock. I did have about 4 or 5 ejections where the shell casing came back at my face, and one or two that actually went to the left of the gun, I need to check on the ejector and make sure it is not bent at all; though most shell casings ejected properly.)
3) Can cause a blister on my trigger finger after firing 430 rounds within an hour.
4) Gets my fingers really dirty. I have to check into that, I don't remember that happening with other Glocks I have fired.
Here are the pics of some targets I shot. The one at 7 yards is the second magazine ful of round I fired from my new Baby Glock. The first 7 were shot into an already used target, I had been shooting my Ortgies Pocket Pistol in .32 ACP also. That first group looked to me to be a slightly better group, but a pic of that would have made a poor pic with .32 caliber holes and 9mm holes mixed together. All the targets are annotated to show at what distance they were set, and all have a U.S. quarter to sow scale for group size.
As you can see, there was probably some shooter error. I don't mean as to group size, that was more than good enough for me; but you can see I am shooting a tad to the left of center of paper (where I aimed) when shooting at anything further out than 7 yards. I'll have to work on that.
All the best,
Glenn B
I do likewise with guns, especially with firearms that are meant for self defense purposes. If I am going to trust my life to a pistol, or revolver, or shotgun, or rifle, well you can be darned certain that I have tested it before betting my life on it working when I need it to go bang. Of course that goes out the window in an emergency when I might just grab any gun at hand, but my regular carry pistol or revolver, or my regular home defense shotgun or rifle, has had a good deal of ammunition run through it before I will use it to defend my life or that of another.
Now many a shooter buys a new gun, and buys a box or three of ammo, then takes the gun to the range to shoot it. They shoot up a box or two and save the other box to have enough ammo to load up the gun for self defense purposes with some left over. So it turns out that maybe they fired 50 to 100 rounds through a new pistol or revolver, and probably less through a new rifle or shotgun. If they encounter repeated failures to feed, to fire, to extract or to eject - they usually guess that there is something wrong with the gun. That is a good guess, but not always right. On the other hand, if they had just a jam or three they usually attribute them to the firearm being new, and to it needing the kinks worked out of it. They, like on the other guess with more jams, may or may not be right on that one too. Some of them may even guess it is the ammo that is at fault, and they too could be right. On the other side of the coin, they may have no malfunctions at all, and therefore arrive at the conclusion that the firearm is in perfect (relatively speaking) working order. Again they may be right, but again they may be wrong.
As far as pistols go, the thing is though that running just 50 rounds, or even a hundred, through a pistol to run it through a break in period, is just not enough ammunition to test its reliability. Sure it may seem like a good amount of ammunition to shoot, but it is often not enough to make something go kerplunk when instead it should have gone click, bang, rack, click, bang, and so on. What I am driving at here is that I have, in my almost 35 years of pistol shooting, seen many a pistol fail, and most of them that I have seen fail have either failed after having many thousands of rounds of ammunition fired through them, or have failed after only having a few hundred rounds shot through them at most. What that translates to is this:
A pistol, that has been fired again and again with proper maintenance will usually fire many many thousands of rounds before it fails. When it fails, it usually fails due to things like a broken part, metal fatigue, a worn piece, a weakened spring and so on. This is actually to be expected as a pistol gets older and older and is fired more and more. Parts need to be checked and replaced as needed. Of course all of this relates to a pistol that has been broken in and that has proven itself reliable from the start.
There are problems that arise with pistols, like all of those I mentioned above, that can start happening anywhere from the first round fired through the first hundred rounds fired, or in fact anywhere after that. While I just mentioned they can happen at anytime, they are less likely to happen, to a pistol that has proven itself reliable during a break in period, before you have reached the point where several thousand rounds have been put through it. What I am saying is that the break in period is the time during which many a problem due to faulty manufacture of the pistol's parts, or due to improper assembly, will become evident.
So what does one do to properly break in and test fire a pistol to check its reliability. Well first of all, and I am talking a newly acquired pistol that is either new in the box or used, you get the manual for it and read it. After doing that you ascertain that the pistol is safe, then disassemble it as recommended by the manufacturer for a good cleaning. After cleaning it, lubricate any parts that the manufacturer recommends lubricating, then reassemble it. Now the fun begins because now you take it to the local range with at least 400 to 500 rounds of ammunition to test fire it; and that ammunition should be the same ammunition you plan on carrying in it when you use it for self defense purposes.
Why so much ammo? Well because firing that many rounds through a pistol usually makes something go pppffffzzzt or kerplunk, or splat when it should being doing otherwise. If there is a weak part, something that is likely to break, well then that many rounds through the pistol will likely bring that problem to your attention whereas 50 rounds may not be enough. In other words, from my experience in over 35 years of shooting pistol and 14 years as a firearms instructor, and from what I have been told by other instructors, putting 400 to 500 rounds though a new pistol is a fairly reliable way to make it break if it was manufactured in a faulty manner. Another thing about using that much ammo is that the gun gets kind of dirty with that many rounds through it. So if it was put together to specs that were to tight and the guns starts to action slowly after say 300-400 rounds, it may also be a good indicator that the gun will not tolerate dirt and fouling as well as one would hope. Now while you are shooting 400-500 rounds at a single range session to break in a pistol, you can bet that if you were firing at a good steady pace, the gun is prone to get hot. This will also provide another indication of if it will function properly when needed in a tight spot. Some pistols begin to seize up when they get hot. If you fire this many rounds through it and yours does not, well bravo. One other reason to fire this many rounds, doing so will smooth out the operation of almost any pistol that was properly manufactured. What I means is that when a standard commercial pistol is manufactured there are bound to be tool marks and burrs on the metal. maybe not ones visible at first glance without magnification but they are likely there. Firing a pistol several hundred times, after having cleaned and lubricated it properly will smooth off many of these imperfections. This will allow the pistol to operate more smoothly. In addition if the pistol was finished to very tight specs, firing 400-500 rounds through it should also help to loosen things up just enough to help assure smoother and easier functioning.
Besides using that many rounds, you maybe wondering why I said to use only the ammunition you plan to use in the gun when you actually use it for self defense purposes. If you were wondering, well good for you, it is a good question. The reason I recommend not mixing ammunition, or simply using a cheaper ammo for practice and a better one for self defense, is this: You want to be absolutely sure that not only does your new pistol shoot, and that it shoots reliable, but YOU WANT TO MAKE DARNED SURE IT SHOOTS RELIABLY AND ACCURATELY WITH WHATEVER YOU PLAN TO USE TO DEFEND YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF YOUR LOVED ONES. You can take a pistol to the range, and then shoot Winchester White Box ball ammo (an inexpensive type of ammo sold for plinking and informal target shooting) though it for the 400 to 500 recommended rounds. The pistol may handle it flawlessly. They you leave the range, clean the pistol, and then load it with 115 grain Speer Gold Dot Plus P ammunition. You put the gun up on the closet shelf in the bedroom and that is that.
Well that was that at least until a few days later when you are awakened in the middle of the night by strange noises downstairs. Your wife is awake too and she is scared, she says she heard glass breaking and footsteps crunching the broken glass. You are sure it is a burglar. You have the wife call the cops and you get the pistol loaded with the hollow points (yes the ammo I described is HP ammo). Suddenly the bedroom door is hit and an armed intruder bursts into the room in a rage. You see him pointing a shotgun at your wife and you fire, the first shot going god knows where, and you try to squeeze off another shot, but for some reason the pistol has gone kerplunk instead of bang/rack/bang. When the police arrive they find you dead in a pool of your own blood. You wife has also been shot but she has survived. The bad guy has fled. When police examine your pistol they discover that the hollow points you were using would not reliable feed into the pistol and the somewhat rather rough feed ramp caused the jam. Too bad for you. that you tested your gun with ammunition that you did not depend upon to save your life; and too bad you assumed that if cheaper ammo fed in your pistol then more expensive ammo would feed too. Think that was too dramatic? Don't believe it could happen to you? I have seen it happen, that is the jamming thing, with many people's guns at the range. I'd rather not see the results, firsthand when it happens in a bad situation - though I have read accounts and seen photos of guns that have jammed for various reason, all when they were needed most. That is why I highly recommend using only the ammo with which you will defend yourself as your break in ammo for a new pistol, and why I recommend a break in test in the first place. Of course you can fire other types of ammo through your gun, but be darned sure you can fire the ammo with which you plan to defend yourself, that your gun operates reliably using that ammo, and that you can shoot accurately with that ammo.
There is another reason to go to the range and fire off about 400-500 rounds of ammo with any new pistol. It helps to assure that you are familiar with the pistol, and it should let you know whether or not you need to correct any bad shooting habits or if you need to adjust the sights to achieve accuracy with the new gun. Yes new guns are sort of like new cars, they are both machines, each make and model of both a car and a gun have a distinctive feel about them that you need to get used to, and they can offer quite the fun experience to use - as in drive or shoot while at the same time can also offer pure utility to the user.
Did I just mention fun, why yes I did. Shooting is good old American style past time that is lots of fun. The more you shoot, the more fun you have, well up to a point and dependent upon caliber anyhow. If you go out and shoot a .454 Casull 400 to 500 times in a day - well either you are a man of steel or are out and out nuts. Why? Well because you are bound to be hurtin bad if you are a mere mortal like me and fire that many of those big rounds in one day. Some pistol and revolvers require a few days break in period to shoot that many rounds, and those days may be spread out over weeks. With the lowly 9MM round however, it is a different story. You can probably easily shoot 400-500 rounds in a single trip to the range if you are a shooter of average build and strength.
Heck I did it today even though I have not been feeling my best lately. The truth is I had fun, and I was quite satisfied with my new Glock 26's operation at the range. I fired at least 400 rounds, and think it was actually 430 rounds I put through her today. I had a blast both figuratively and literally. I found out the new Glock 26:
1) Is an accurate shooter, probably more accurate than I can be with it.
2) Was probably made well, and will probably go a long time before breaking, since it fired every round with which it was loaded without a failure to feed, to fire, to extract, or to eject. (I had once failure to feed but only because I had not fully inserted a mag - shooter error - no fault of the Glock. I did have about 4 or 5 ejections where the shell casing came back at my face, and one or two that actually went to the left of the gun, I need to check on the ejector and make sure it is not bent at all; though most shell casings ejected properly.)
3) Can cause a blister on my trigger finger after firing 430 rounds within an hour.
4) Gets my fingers really dirty. I have to check into that, I don't remember that happening with other Glocks I have fired.
Here are the pics of some targets I shot. The one at 7 yards is the second magazine ful of round I fired from my new Baby Glock. The first 7 were shot into an already used target, I had been shooting my Ortgies Pocket Pistol in .32 ACP also. That first group looked to me to be a slightly better group, but a pic of that would have made a poor pic with .32 caliber holes and 9mm holes mixed together. All the targets are annotated to show at what distance they were set, and all have a U.S. quarter to sow scale for group size.
As you can see, there was probably some shooter error. I don't mean as to group size, that was more than good enough for me; but you can see I am shooting a tad to the left of center of paper (where I aimed) when shooting at anything further out than 7 yards. I'll have to work on that.
All the best,
Glenn B
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Balleye's Firearms Training & Tactics - Spare Handgun Ammunition
Okay, you have decided to arm yourself with a handgun for self defense, and have obtained a permit if needed. You have purchased and possess one legally - good for you. You have decided on how you will carry it. It is loaded at the ready, on your person, in a holster. You know how to shoot; and are even pretty good at it. So you think you are ready for just about anything. Well if you are not carrying spare ammunition with you, you are quite possibly dead wrong.
There are plenty of gun folks out there who say you don't need extra ammunition. They are usually the macho, all knowing types, the gun gurus. They believe that if you cannot hit that at which are shooting with whatever ammo you have in your gun at any given moment, you may as well forget about having a gun in the first place. That is pretty much abject nonsense. The truth of the matter is that you should always carry spare ammunition if you are carrying a handgun for self defense. There are many reasons for this, some of them being: the probability of multiple attackers in any threatening situation, the possibility of of the bad guy taking multiple hits (even many hits) and the threat not stopping, the chances of having a weapon malfunction that requires you to tap, rack and reload (with a semi-auto), the possibility of you dropping the ammo in your weapon by mistake, and the good old pucker factor making it probable that you will miss more times than you hit your target. Yes folks that good old sphincter muscle tightening itself up, when you are literally just about scared shitless, in order to prevent dirty draws can make you miss. So yes you should carry extra or spare ammunition with you whenever you carry your handgun.
If you agree to that last line above, then it begs the questions: how much spare ammunition should I carry, and how should I carry it. The bare minimum amount of spare ammunition to carry is a practical full reload for each handgun you are carrying. That is a pretty simple formula, but I go beyond that. For example, I usually carry my issued Glock model 19. Fully loaded (as is the way I am required by my job to carry it) it holds 16 rounds of ammunition. By the bare minimum rule of spare ammo, I would then carry a single spare magazine. That is what most of my colleagues at work will do during a normal day. When they go out on a high risk operation such as execution of an arrest warrant they usually carry more spares. I, on the other hand, always carry at least two spare magazines. Why? Well for the reasons I mentioned above, and because if I ever have to reload in a defense situation, I may drop a mag as I try to reload and not be able to retrieve it. Remember that such a situation is one fraught with intensely high stress. If you are using your pistol or revolver to legally defend yourself, your are being threatened with serious bodily injury or death. That is some scary stuff, and when you are scared you maybe shaking or trembling, may start blubbering or crying, may wet your pants, may dirty your draws, and low and behold may even drop your spare ammo while trying to reload. All this stuff not only can happen, it has happened to people in life threatening situations before, and will happen again. That is why I carry at least one beyond a single spare magazine. Sometimes, on certain assignments, I have carried up to 5 or 6 spare magazines, although I think that might be a bit much, let's say overkill, for day to day carry for CCW. I do think though that carrying two spare reloads for your handgun is prudent in everyday carry situations.
That said, you should now be wondering how to carry your spare ammunition. I can tell you one way not to carry it. Do not carry it loose in a pocket. You might think this sounds like ridiculous advice, and you may wonder who on earth would carry like that, but the fact is that too many people do it. It is common among folks who carry revolvers, yet it is a killer, usually of you if you need to reload quickly. If you carry a revolver, I think you should carry spare ammunition in speed loaders, and that the speed loaders should be carried in a speed loader pouch on your belt, and that the puch should have a flap with snap closure over each speedloader. Some people carry in a purse, or in a pocket so as to better conceal a firearm. Then they tend to carry their ammo in the same manner. If you read my earlier piece about holsters, you know I shun such carry methods for handguns; now I am telling you I shun such carry methods for spare ammunition too. If you choose to carry spare revolver ammunition in other than a speed loader, I would suggest at least carry it in speed strips kept in a pouch, in a 2x2x2 speed pouch (not a drop pouch), or in ammo loops - all attached to your belt and easily accessible by either hand keeping in mind that combat reloading is usually done with the strong hand. Don't wear a belt when carrying - your problem - not mine. I suggest you change how you carry for reasons I explained in my post on holsters. Remember though, speed loaders would my my preferred method to reload a revolver.
As for semi-autos, I carry at least 2 spare magazines, each full to capacity. I suggest you do the same, and I highly recommend you carry the spare magazines in a double magazine pouch on your belt. Wherever you carry the mag pouch on your belt (or for that matter wherever you carry the magazines even if off of your belt), the magazines should be accessible with either hand in the even a one handed reload becomes necessary. I used to carry on my weak side, opposite the side where I kept my pistol. I now carry the magazine pouch on the same side, but have since seen the light of others more experienced than I; and I now carry it on that side but on the front of my belt so I can easily reach it with either hand. Sure this means wearing a very loose fitting shirt, a jacket, or a vest to cover it all up, and that is exactly what I do. Remember the gun in a holster on your strong side makes it easy to draw your firearm, and keeps it fairly secure. Same for the magazine if kept as I have described, easier from which to draw a magazine, and somewhat easy to secure.
The type of magazine pouch one carries is another issue. As I said I prefer a double mag pouch. Of course you can use two singles, but I just prefer the double. I want mine to have a positive locking/retention device to maintain my mags inside the pouch with less chance of them falling out. I do not want the to be held in by friction only, so I do not want to use an open topped pouch. What I want is the opening to be at the top (I never wear my mag pouches so that the opening is to the front as you see some do), this way gravity helps keep them in the pouch. I want the mag pouch itself to have individual flap coverings to cover each mag while in the pouch; and I want to to have snap closures - not Velcro. As far as I am concerned, Velcro makes much too much noise, and also gathers much to much lint. In addition I require that any mag pouch I will carry will allow for both mags to be inserted into it in the same direction. What I mean here is that I want to have each magazine available to my reloading hand in the same manner, so that I reload in the same manner each time I reload. In other words, I keep both magazines bottoms up, and so that their fronts are facing the forward part of my body as they ride in the pouch (bullets in the mag pointing forward more or less). You could also keep their back facing the forward part of your body, or could align them left or right, it does not matter all that much in which direction they are, so long as each of them is aligned in the same direction. This way you never need to figure out whether or not you have to turn your mag around before you go to place it into the magazine well on the pistol; or if you have to move your hand in another manner to take hold of this mag or that mag. You wind up reloading consistently each time you reload, and that adds to your speed. When I grab my forward facing magazine, I make sure my index finger rides the front of the mag as I bring it up to place it into the mag well. This makes for not having to look at the pistol and mag to make sure they marry up correctly, therefore you can keep your eyes on the bad guy. It requires some practice, but that pointing finger, pointing the way to the mag well, makes it quicker and easier to accomplish a reload.
Basically that is about it. You have a decision to make about whether or not you carry spare ammo, and how to carry it. My recommendations are above, and the recommendations of others can be found on various blogs and gun forums on the Internet, in gun books and magazines, and at training courses. Whichever way you decide to carry both your firearm and your spare ammo, I suggest you try to be as consistent as possible from day to day. This way you never go to draw your pistol or mag from a place on your belt, and then have to remember oh darn, it is in my pocket, or it is in my bag, or it is in a shoulder holster.
All the best,
Glenn B
There are plenty of gun folks out there who say you don't need extra ammunition. They are usually the macho, all knowing types, the gun gurus. They believe that if you cannot hit that at which are shooting with whatever ammo you have in your gun at any given moment, you may as well forget about having a gun in the first place. That is pretty much abject nonsense. The truth of the matter is that you should always carry spare ammunition if you are carrying a handgun for self defense. There are many reasons for this, some of them being: the probability of multiple attackers in any threatening situation, the possibility of of the bad guy taking multiple hits (even many hits) and the threat not stopping, the chances of having a weapon malfunction that requires you to tap, rack and reload (with a semi-auto), the possibility of you dropping the ammo in your weapon by mistake, and the good old pucker factor making it probable that you will miss more times than you hit your target. Yes folks that good old sphincter muscle tightening itself up, when you are literally just about scared shitless, in order to prevent dirty draws can make you miss. So yes you should carry extra or spare ammunition with you whenever you carry your handgun.
If you agree to that last line above, then it begs the questions: how much spare ammunition should I carry, and how should I carry it. The bare minimum amount of spare ammunition to carry is a practical full reload for each handgun you are carrying. That is a pretty simple formula, but I go beyond that. For example, I usually carry my issued Glock model 19. Fully loaded (as is the way I am required by my job to carry it) it holds 16 rounds of ammunition. By the bare minimum rule of spare ammo, I would then carry a single spare magazine. That is what most of my colleagues at work will do during a normal day. When they go out on a high risk operation such as execution of an arrest warrant they usually carry more spares. I, on the other hand, always carry at least two spare magazines. Why? Well for the reasons I mentioned above, and because if I ever have to reload in a defense situation, I may drop a mag as I try to reload and not be able to retrieve it. Remember that such a situation is one fraught with intensely high stress. If you are using your pistol or revolver to legally defend yourself, your are being threatened with serious bodily injury or death. That is some scary stuff, and when you are scared you maybe shaking or trembling, may start blubbering or crying, may wet your pants, may dirty your draws, and low and behold may even drop your spare ammo while trying to reload. All this stuff not only can happen, it has happened to people in life threatening situations before, and will happen again. That is why I carry at least one beyond a single spare magazine. Sometimes, on certain assignments, I have carried up to 5 or 6 spare magazines, although I think that might be a bit much, let's say overkill, for day to day carry for CCW. I do think though that carrying two spare reloads for your handgun is prudent in everyday carry situations.
That said, you should now be wondering how to carry your spare ammunition. I can tell you one way not to carry it. Do not carry it loose in a pocket. You might think this sounds like ridiculous advice, and you may wonder who on earth would carry like that, but the fact is that too many people do it. It is common among folks who carry revolvers, yet it is a killer, usually of you if you need to reload quickly. If you carry a revolver, I think you should carry spare ammunition in speed loaders, and that the speed loaders should be carried in a speed loader pouch on your belt, and that the puch should have a flap with snap closure over each speedloader. Some people carry in a purse, or in a pocket so as to better conceal a firearm. Then they tend to carry their ammo in the same manner. If you read my earlier piece about holsters, you know I shun such carry methods for handguns; now I am telling you I shun such carry methods for spare ammunition too. If you choose to carry spare revolver ammunition in other than a speed loader, I would suggest at least carry it in speed strips kept in a pouch, in a 2x2x2 speed pouch (not a drop pouch), or in ammo loops - all attached to your belt and easily accessible by either hand keeping in mind that combat reloading is usually done with the strong hand. Don't wear a belt when carrying - your problem - not mine. I suggest you change how you carry for reasons I explained in my post on holsters. Remember though, speed loaders would my my preferred method to reload a revolver.
As for semi-autos, I carry at least 2 spare magazines, each full to capacity. I suggest you do the same, and I highly recommend you carry the spare magazines in a double magazine pouch on your belt. Wherever you carry the mag pouch on your belt (or for that matter wherever you carry the magazines even if off of your belt), the magazines should be accessible with either hand in the even a one handed reload becomes necessary. I used to carry on my weak side, opposite the side where I kept my pistol. I now carry the magazine pouch on the same side, but have since seen the light of others more experienced than I; and I now carry it on that side but on the front of my belt so I can easily reach it with either hand. Sure this means wearing a very loose fitting shirt, a jacket, or a vest to cover it all up, and that is exactly what I do. Remember the gun in a holster on your strong side makes it easy to draw your firearm, and keeps it fairly secure. Same for the magazine if kept as I have described, easier from which to draw a magazine, and somewhat easy to secure.
The type of magazine pouch one carries is another issue. As I said I prefer a double mag pouch. Of course you can use two singles, but I just prefer the double. I want mine to have a positive locking/retention device to maintain my mags inside the pouch with less chance of them falling out. I do not want the to be held in by friction only, so I do not want to use an open topped pouch. What I want is the opening to be at the top (I never wear my mag pouches so that the opening is to the front as you see some do), this way gravity helps keep them in the pouch. I want the mag pouch itself to have individual flap coverings to cover each mag while in the pouch; and I want to to have snap closures - not Velcro. As far as I am concerned, Velcro makes much too much noise, and also gathers much to much lint. In addition I require that any mag pouch I will carry will allow for both mags to be inserted into it in the same direction. What I mean here is that I want to have each magazine available to my reloading hand in the same manner, so that I reload in the same manner each time I reload. In other words, I keep both magazines bottoms up, and so that their fronts are facing the forward part of my body as they ride in the pouch (bullets in the mag pointing forward more or less). You could also keep their back facing the forward part of your body, or could align them left or right, it does not matter all that much in which direction they are, so long as each of them is aligned in the same direction. This way you never need to figure out whether or not you have to turn your mag around before you go to place it into the magazine well on the pistol; or if you have to move your hand in another manner to take hold of this mag or that mag. You wind up reloading consistently each time you reload, and that adds to your speed. When I grab my forward facing magazine, I make sure my index finger rides the front of the mag as I bring it up to place it into the mag well. This makes for not having to look at the pistol and mag to make sure they marry up correctly, therefore you can keep your eyes on the bad guy. It requires some practice, but that pointing finger, pointing the way to the mag well, makes it quicker and easier to accomplish a reload.
Basically that is about it. You have a decision to make about whether or not you carry spare ammo, and how to carry it. My recommendations are above, and the recommendations of others can be found on various blogs and gun forums on the Internet, in gun books and magazines, and at training courses. Whichever way you decide to carry both your firearm and your spare ammo, I suggest you try to be as consistent as possible from day to day. This way you never go to draw your pistol or mag from a place on your belt, and then have to remember oh darn, it is in my pocket, or it is in my bag, or it is in a shoulder holster.
All the best,
Glenn B
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Carrying Firearms...
...in a holster is the way I prefer to carry pistols and revolvers. I wrote about just that and my criterion to select a holster here. I wrote about those topics because the way you carry your pistol or revolver is important, it could mean the difference between whether or not you are the winner in a life threatening situation, whether or not you are able to retain your sidearm, whether or not you shoot yourself with your own gun. If anyone doubted me when i said that I thought a bag of just about any sort was a poor choice in which to carry a handgun, maybe when you read this: S.C. Student Shot by Own Gun in Book Bag Pleads Guilty my point of view will seem to be a little stronger. Sure the bag this pistol was carried in probably was not made for carry. Sure some handbags are made with internal holsters or carry pouches. I still contend that any bag which you pick up and put down is a bad choice for carry. I also contend that there is much more of a chance of a foreign object getting into the trigger guard and against the trigger when carried in a bag - whether or not that bag has an internal carry pouch or holster - than when you carry in a quality made hip holster. Your choice, just like it was this kid's choice. On this topic, learn from his mistakes and not from your own. That way you will, in my opinion, stay healthier.
All the best,
Glenn B
All the best,
Glenn B
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