Category Archives: ccw

Not how this works

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Christmas afternoon 1979: my grandfather, a combat veteran of several real-life shooting wars, taught me how to shoot straight when I was just five years old when he handed me my first Red Ryder BB gun.

However, first came the basics of firearm safety.

Thus:

Fast forward 40 years and I have shot literally hundreds of different guns ranging from that .177 to 155mm howitzers across five continents and the basics of safety have all remained the same.

I’ve also trained thousands, both in LE/Security courses and “civilian” CCW classes and the first thing that happens is a check of all guns, pockets, boxes, tables, and floors to ensure that nothing resembling brass or ammo is removed– not only from the chamber and magazines but from the area altogether– before the class commences. Chambers then get inspected by at least two other sets of eyeballs and fingers beside the class member’s to build confidence that no one is going to get zapped by a negligent discharge.

Even then, said muzzle remains clear of people and fingers remain off the trigger/out of the trigger well until in a safe and cleared direction/environment. You could almost say that we treated the guns as if they were loaded, even when we believed they were not.

The number of casualties seen at my courses over the years (not caused by staplers) = zero.

This is why stuff like this burns me up.

From the Palm Springs Desert Sun 

A Riverside man attending a firearms training class to get his concealed weapons permit was accidentally shot by a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department trainer, the department told The Desert Sun.

On Aug. 10, the man, identified only as a civilian, was participating in a course at the Ben Clark Training Center’s gun range in Riverside.

According to a department news release issued in response to questions from The Desert Sun, gun range staff inspect students’ firearms during the course and students are instructed to unload their guns.

During the inspection, the range staff member — a civilian instructor the department did not identify — administered a “trigger pull test” and shot the student in the leg. Range staff initially treated the injured man.

Let’s get a little refresher on firearms safety here, please. Just 17 words:

Be safe out there, kids.

G19X Rolling Past the 5K Mark

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My G19X along with the well-used Boker Burnley Kwaiken and Streamlight MicroStream I tote no matter what along with a Snag Mag. The Glock is wearing an EC custom IWB holster.

While writing a piece on my experiences with the Glock G19X for an upcoming publication, I got to doing bullet math on my personal “Coyote Crossover.” I first picked it up in late 2017 for T&E and over a three-month period ran 2,000 rounds through it– without documented issue number one.

Since then, I have alternated it and my S&W M&P M2.0 Compact and 642 J-frame as training and EDC guns. I can now report that the Glock has surpassed the 5,000 rounds fired mark and is going strong.

The number of jams? Zip other than one caused by a fouled magazine, which wasn’t the gun’s fault.

I’ve cleaned it in the neighborhood of a half-dozen times and only plan to replace the recoil spring as it is a recommended item to swap out every 5K or so.

At the 10K mark, I will post an update and plan to change out the other lesser springs (trigger spring, slide stop spring, magazine catch spring, striker spring, and spring cups) just because that is how I roll.

Of note, I have a cop buddy who has carried his same Gen 3 Glock 19 every day since 2004– it’s his only gun– and has put somewhere on the order of 50,000 rounds downrange with no giant issues, only stopping to replace springs here and there. Does he trust it? Did I mention that he has used it across three departments in the past 15 years?

Flying with guns: What not to do

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Airlines and the TSA are pretty humorless when it comes to flying with guns, no matter how funny you are, but that shouldn’t keep you from flying with one in your checked bag.

As part of my job, I spent a lot of time living out of suitcases. While I prefer to drive, on trips longer than a 500nm radius of Biloxi I wind up having to catch a plane– which I abhor.

As I generally like to carry wherever I am going, something that I have done virtually every day since about 1992, this gave me lots of sour experiences with airlines and, post-9/11, TSA.

My lessons learned in this lengthy article at Guns.com.

Burt’s Roscoes

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Burt Reynolds was, of course, a guy’s guy. Besides his prep and college (FSU) athletic career and work on the large and small screen, he was also an avid hunter and firearms collector. As his father was the Chief of Police of Riviera Beach, Florida while he was a youth, Burt no doubt felt a sort of kinship to cop roles, especially those set in the South, and in 1989-90 he played a retired New Orleans PD detective turned Florida houseboat-residing private detective B.L. Stryker for two seasons.

While it was not his best acting, he apparently really dug the guns from the show as he kept the S&W Model 10 .38 special that was used on camera in his “B.L” role until he died and it was later sold at an estate sale, reportedly in unfired condition.

The Stryker Smith

Notably, the Smith was without the on-screen holster used by Reynolds.

That, according to auctioneers, went on to be used in his real life to carry his EDC wheelgun around his Florida homestead. It was an old-school 1970s-era carbon steel round-butt Rossi .38 that had its 4-inch barrel chopped to 2.75-inches and a new sight added.

It has a lot of honest wear.

I have a couple of these old (pre-Taurus) Rossis and will vouch that they are reliable. When talking recently with a friend of mine who cut his teeth in the Brazilain Army’s mountain troops, he also stood by those old Smith-pattern Rossis.

Sold by Julien’s Auctions, it is now on the market again (for $4K), with the verbose tag that “Every day Burt carried this Rossi concealed, where he knew if required he could draw and defend himself from any crazed maniac or other threat.”

Note the BL Stryker cocoa basketweave special…waste not, want not.

 

Dragoon Snubbie?

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Photo and caption via the University of Utah’s collection:

Colt's 1st Model Dragoon Revolver, Serial No. 3262 Stekes Utah Historical Collection

“This was Colt’s 1st Model Dragoon Revolver, Serial No. 3262. This revolver was made in 1848 or 1849 as records show that “a little over 4000 of the first model were made in 1848.” The barrel has been shortened from the original 7 1/2 inch length to 2 1/2 inches. The loading lever has been removed and a new front sight has been dove-tailed in on the barrel. This was a common practice to enable quicker drawing and firing & to carry concealed. The revolver was allegedly brought to Salt Lake City in 1936 by a lady from “Southern Utah,” who said that it had some connection with John D. Lee. It could hardly have belonged to Lee as William Stokes, Deputy U.S. Marshall, who arrested Lee at Panquitch on the morning of Nov. 7, 1874, related that Lee was curious about a similar revolver that he (Stokes) used. Could this perhaps be the Stokes modifed “dragoon pistol?” C.K. Gift of Charles Kelly. “

For reference, John Doyle Lee was famously convicted as a mass murderer for his role in the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre and executed by firing squad at the Mountain Meadows site in 1877.

For further reference, this is what an unmodified Colt Dragoon looks like:

Pvt. Mabry W. Wafer, Company C, First Texas Partisan Rangers Colt Dragoon revolver Texas Historical Society Civil War

Pvt. Mabry W. Wafer, Company C, First Texas Partisan Rangers, shown with his Colt Dragoon revolver, photo via the Texas Historical Society

22 Years with the same old Snubby

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For those situations where a more full-sized gun isn’t on the schedule, this Smith & Wesson Model 642 Airweight has often tagged along with me, especially in hot summer months.

I picked up this 15-ounce piece of prevention back in 1997 and, while my typical everyday carry is a double-stack 9mm compact (alternating between Glock’s G19 and S&W’s M&P 2.0) this .38 special often pokes its head out of the safe for various uses. While not perfect, they do have their place and this one has been nothing but faithful for 22 years.

More on its journey in my column at Guns.com.

The micro-carry offerings keep getting more interesting

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Firearm evolution has always interested me.

When I was a kid in the 1980s, when it came to compact (“pocket-sized”) handguns that weren’t derringers, the king of the hill for the past half-century was the Walther PP/PPK. Lower down on the same hill was the even older Colt Pocket/FN1910/Browning Model 1955 blowbacks and Beretta’s seriously tiny .22/.25-caliber “cat guns” (Minx. Bobcat, etc).

Then came George Kellgren’s Keltec P32 in 1999, followed by his P3AT (which was a .380 version of the former), followed by the Ruger LCP (which was a Ruger P3AT with a slide stop added). Then, three years ago, came the Glock 43– which was just barely bigger than the LCP but in 9mm– followed last year by the Sig P365, which was a Walther PPK-sized 9mm with a larger magazine capacity than the G43.

Now, there is the Naroh Arms N1. At 6.1-inches long overall, the hammer-fired N1 is slightly shorter than Glock’s G43 while offering a 7+1 round capacity against the Glock’s 6+1. Best yet, it is supposed to be just $399.

I ran across this it NRAAM in Indy:

Naroh Arms Intros New N1 Compact Pistol (VIDEO) (2)

I plan to check out their factory in Florida in the next few weeks. Until then, check out my piece on the N1 over at Guns.com

Beretta shrinks APX

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Beretta is ramping up the info dump on their new line of subcompact single-stack 9mm pistols– the APX Carry. The legendary Italian gun maker announced the new 19.8-ounce handgun earlier this week and seems to be Beretta’s answer to the very popular Glock G43, beating that polymer-framed wonder in just about every dimension while sporting either a 6+1 round flush fit or pinky extension magazine or an 8+1 capacity extended mag.

Available in four frame colors, the APX Carry’s serialized chassis can be swapped out by the user.

MSRP is set at $425, which is more than a $100 drop from the standard-sized APX model, which would put over the counter price in the $350-arena, which also poses a challenge to the G43s more common $450~ ish price point.

I will be sure to check these out in Indy next week. Until then, if you want more info, check out my column at Guns.com

Ruger brings (hammer-fired) budget subcompact to market

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When it comes to subcompact 9mm carry guns, the “baby Glock” G26 has been king of the block for nearly three decades. I mean what’s not to like in a 21.5-ounce, 10+1 capacity handgun with a 3.42-inch barrel. Sig’s P365 has the same capacity while going just slightly smaller and has been a hit since it was introduced two years ago, giving the G26 a good fight. However, there now seems a bit of a red hawk flying on the horizon.

Two years ago, Ruger introduced a hammer-fired (both the G26 and P365 are striker-fired with one having a noteworthy issue with striker drag) polymer-framed pistol based on the LCPII’s fire control system. The Security-9, with a 4-inch barrel and 15+1 capacity, was/is pitched as a budget home defense gun and has been well received. I have a friend who has used one extensively and she loves it.

Now, Ruger has shrunk the Security-9 to a compact version which is a 21.9-ounce, 10+1 capacity handgun with a 3.42-inch barrel (seem like a familiar dimension neighborhood?) that debuted this month.

Ruger Security 9 compact

Unlike the G26, though, the Compact Security-9 is hammer fired, has front slide serrations, adjustable sights and an accessory rail. Plus, it is likely to run about $100 to $150 cheaper than its Austrian competitor, which should be interesting.

I’ll be sure to check them out in Indianapolis later in the month.

Check out more in my column at Guns.com.

Sig is getting really close to marking 6th gen pistol territory

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So in my mind, there have been at least five solid generations of semi-auto pistols.

The 1st gen was the experimental guns such as the Roth–Theodorovic, Mars, and Borchardt C-93.

The 2nd Gen were guns like the Luger, FN 1900 et. al that worked great on the drawing board and sold well but would prove lackluster under field conditions.

The 3rd Gen was the follow-on guns of the 1910s-1950s such as the Colt M1911, Walther P-38, Sig P210, S&W 39, etc. that were much better than their predecessors and are still often in circulation as new construction clones today.

Then came the 4th Gen double-stacks like the Browning Hi-Power, CZ 75, S&W 59, Beretta 92 and the like. These are now classic “old school” designs that are much-loved and will likely still be produced by someone, somewhere, for the next 50 years.

The 5th Gen guns are the plastic “Combat Tupperware” from the innovative HK VP70 through the Glocks of today and so forth. These are now standard.

Now, I really think we are in the 6th Generation.

We are now looking at modular framed guns that use swappable (serialized) fire control units to move from size to size to size. Formerly, the “gun” was the frame. Now, the frame is like Legos. Add to this the factory standard feature of an RMR cut and plate system on the slide for optics and it really is unlike past generations. Like it or not, optics on handguns are the way of the future.

Sig Sauer has really been pushing this with their P250 and follow-on P320 series guns, which have been adopted by the Pentagon as the M17/M18 Modular Handgun System.

Now, they have turned out a very nice compact gun in the line that has tons of high-end features– front and rear serrations, flat-faced trigger, optics plate with standard night sight rear, modular frame systems, double-stack 15+1 flush fit mags– you know, all the cool stuff that is often done after the fact.

Best yet, this gun, the XCompact P320, sports an overall length of 7-inches and weighs in at 25.3-ounces, which is the same territory as the Glock 19, the benchmark for a carry gun.

I dig it.

Have my name on “the list” to T&E one to see if they live up to my expectations.

More in my column at Guns.com

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