Good luck to any potential applicants! It was a great experience being on the show, and I hope that you guys get out there and apply!
Colt Match Target M4
I picked up my Colt Match Target M4 about a week ago, and I’ve had some time to shoot it since I grabbed it from the shop. Unlike the factory guns which are available right now, this particular version has the Gunsite logo lasered on the right side of the magazine well, which honestly looks pretty cool.
Let’s go over the quick hits of the rifle, the stuff that I didn’t discuss in my previous post on it. Obviously, the tech specs are the same, the upper is monolithic, the compensator is pinned to the barrel, and the stock only looks like a collapsible stock, it’s also pinned in place. All of these features and the fact that the gun ships from the factory with a 5 round magazine instead of the more common 20 or 30 round mags makes it legal in 49 out of 50 states. Guess which state it’s not legal in? That’s right, California. Sorry to all my readers in Cali, but this won’t be on the menu for you until you kick all the hippies out.
This rifle has a lot of features that I really like – the first of which being the compensator. I’m sad that Colt is going to lose the compensator on future versions of the rifle, because this thing works. The rifle balances really well, and when firing rapid shots it just sort of “floats” on your shoulder. There is almost no vertical movement in the sights during rapid shots or transitions. The grip is standard AR fare, which means I’ll probably replace it for something more comfortable.
I am not a huge fan of the factory sights. I’ll probably remove the rear sight and replace it with an MBUS at some juncture, simply because I prefer a large aperture rear sight. That’s pretty much my only complaint about the gun – it’s light weight, the rail system isn’t bulky and ridiculous, the compensator does amazing work, and most awesome of all – it’s a Colt. There is something that is just right about owning a Colt M4.
It’s good to keep something sharp around
Insights Training Center recently introduced their Blade-Tech PH Lite. I managed to get my hands on one of these 2 7/8″, 2.6oz knives and it really is nice. It’s incredibly sharp and has put up with the day to day abuse of the range for a couple months now with no noticeable wear. It’s small and light enough that I can carry it around in my useless girl pockets and still has a long enough blade to do everything I need it to.
The reason I bring this up is due to the importance of having a good blade around. I started carrying knives around in my years of outfitting, which makes a lot of sense, but the usefulness rolls over into other worlds as well. I don’t really recommend trying to open a box, pry large staples or cut a seat-belt with a gun but a good knife will get the job done.
What it comes down to is that there’s no excuse for having a gun and not having a good knife. Not only is it a backup weapon system in a jam but is a tool with many day to day uses.
IDPA Basic class
If you live in the Seattle area, I wanted to direct you to an upcoming class at Norpoint Shooting Center, just north of Seattle in Smokey Point. This is an IDPA Basic Competition Class. This class is for entry level IDPA/competition shooters looking to expand their skills and gain a better understanding of the IDPA rulebook and strategies. Hit the link to the Facebook page for more info. You can also send an email to [email protected] for more info. The class is 500 rounds over two days and also features an “Understanding the rulebook” portion, which is crucial to any shooter looking to cut down on those ridiculous procedural penalties.
Gun Nuts and GunUp
I’m excited to announce that in addition to my duties here at Gun Nuts Media, LLC that I’ve joined forces with GUNUP.com, a leading online firearms community as their Director of Community Relations. Here is the joint press release with the details:
SEATTLE, WA (January 4th, 2010) GunUp.com, the authoritative community for gun enthusiasts to share, discuss, review and compare guns, has hired Top Shot Competitor and veteran blogger, Caleb Giddings (bio) as their Director of Community Relations. In his new role, Caleb will manage community and industry relations, promote the GunUp brand, as well as continue to grow the GunUp Blog Network and GunUp Pro Staff.
Caleb started shooting competitively in college in the NRA’s Collegiate Pistol program. After college, he branched into the action shooting sports, finding success in IDPA, Steel Challenge, and the Bianchi Cup. Caleb’s success landed him a slot on the premiere season of History Channel’s hit reality show “Top Shot”, where 16 of the country’s best marksmen competed for a $100,000 prize. In 2006, he founded Gun Nuts Media, which has grown to be one of the leading shooting sports blogs and websites.
“From the first time I met Caleb, I knew that there was a lot of great synergy between the great things he has done with Gun Nuts Media and the vision of GunUp”, says Dan Hall, CEO of GunUp.com. “Caleb is a master class shooter with strong ties to the industry and his passion for the community makes him a natural selection to head Community Relations as we grow. We are excited to have him on board. “
“GunUp is the kind of company that builds on the vision I have for Gun Culture 2.0,” Caleb Gidding adds. “The landscape of the shooting sports is changing at a fundamental level and I’m looking forward to making GunUp a big part of that.”
Besides promoting the GunUp brand and managing relations with the community, Caleb will also be joining the GunUp Pro Staff and will be contributing to the new GunUp.com Question and Answer section on their website.
Caleb can be reached at [email protected].
About GunUp, Inc.:
GunUp, Inc., located in Seattle, Washington, was founded in 2010 by Dan Hall, a combat veteran and firearms enthusiast. Working with a team of like-minded, internet savvy technicians and programmers, they created the only online firearms community where new and experienced gun owners can access current product information and subject matter experts in the firearms industry. www.gunup.com
GunUp is a natural fit to our current stable of sponsors, joining other industry leaders like Cheaper than Dirt and Downrange.TV in their support of social media and Gun Culture 2.0. I’m looking forward to bringing you guys new content both here and with GunUp and doing my part to support what I believe is the future of the shooting sports!
Now what I’d really like all of you to do is head over to GunUp’s website, sign up, click around, and send any feedback you have to me at [email protected] – thanks!
40 Minor vs 9mm
I was recently given a box of .40 Cor-Bon performance match ammunition to shoot through my M&P Pro 40. I finally had a chance to use it at West Coast Armory’s Manic Monday this week, where we shot a USPSA-inspired outlaw course (that was very well designed, if I do say so myself.). For me the difficulty in describing this ammunition is deciding what to compare it to: The BVAC 180gr jacketed hollow points loaded for USPSA major out of my M&P Pro 40 or the 147 gr Winchester out of my coworker’s M&P Pro 9.
Originally I was told that the .40 match ammo should outperform the 9mm I’ve been using for classifiers and sanctioned matches. While sight reacquisition was much simpler with the .40 Cor-Bon ammo, my shooting was still significantly more accurate with the Winchester 9mm at the Postal Match on Tuesday. Given the significant change in accuracy I think the major determining factor was that the 9mm has less recoil, though it may be a bit snappier, so I have less of a reaction to it.
However there is no comparison between the BVAC and the Cor-Bon. The BVAC major loads hammered back to the point where I dropped almost every shot. After my first run Monday night the Cor-Bon minor loads seemed really slick, I’m pretty sure I actually shouted in surprise at the first couple shots. I still dropped a lot of the shots but it was not nearly to the same extent as the BVAC.
At the end of the day if I have to shoot .40 I’ll stick with a minor load, but if there is a coworker around with an M&P Pro 9 I’d rather steal that. My opinion on this has a lot to do with my particular shooting abilities though. For me recoil anticipation is a greater concern than sight reacquisition or speed. If I was more concerned with the latter I would probably lean toward the Cor-Bon match ammo because, while it had a more recoil, it was smoother to shoot.
Ruger LC9
Yesterday, as Shelley noted on Gun Nuts, Ruger announced their new LC9 pistol. Obviously, the internet went bananas with reactions ranging from “ho-hum” to “OMFG ANOTHER KEL-TEC RIPOFF!!!!!ELEVEN” and the more reasonable “they will probably sell a lot of these”. Having spent some quality time with a lot of Ruger products recently, including their excellent SR9c and SR40 pistols, I wanted to add my thoughts on the LC9. The first thing I want to address is that this isn’t a Kel-Tec “ripoff” any more than the Taurus TC9 or whatever it’s called is. The Ruger LC9 was developed specifically because people wanted a larger, more powerful version of the LCP chambered in 9mm. Ruger delivered on that promise with the LC9. The second thing I want to talk about is the manual safety. People seem to not like it. That’s cool, you don’t have to use it. There is a weird misconception that you need to use every safety device that your pistol comes with. Down this path lies madness. I don’t use the safety on my SR9c ever, and I don’t use the safety on a Beretta 92FS for anything other than a decocker. If you don’t like it, don’t use it.
As far as looks go, it’s actually not a bad looking gun, and it appears to have decent sights on it. That being said, I personally am not really interested in this gun. The presence of a magazine disconnect safety is a big ol’ turnoff for me; I hope that it’s as easily removed as the one in the SR-series of pistols. This is my personal opinion, I just don’t see 7+1 rounds of 9mm as a really significant improvement over 5 rounds of .38 Special +P or 7+1 of .380. Yes, I know that 9mm is objectively better than a .380, but this gun is a little too large for a pocket gun, and if I’m carrying a gun on my belt it might as well be the Ruger SR9c, where I can get 17+1 pretty easily.
I like the gun, and I like the concept. Co-blogger Shelley will be getting one to review, and hopefully our friends at Crimson Trace will be getting a Laser Guard set up for it in a hurry, since this is a definitely a pistol that would benefit from a laser. I do think Ruger is going to sell a ton of these, specifically because they’re an item that’s been requested by the customer. I hope to see this be a successful item for them!
My Own “Quest for Master Class”
After Caleb was right about the revolver you think I would have learned to listen to him. I still had some trepidation about his latest idea to improve my shooting abilities: lots and lots of rimfire. I can’t quite put a finger on why I hesitated, it makes sense to shoot a lot with something that won’t cause me to flinch in order to improve my accuracy. There seems to be some stigma around shooting .22LR that comes from spending too much time behind a range booth counter: I don’t want to be the little girl shooting the .22. I will be though, and I have overcome my pride and accepted the fact. 
To start I will be shooting Dot Torture twice a day, three times a week with a .22. What would compel me to voluntarily subject myself to Dot Torture six times a week? Well, I made a little deal with Caleb: If I make ESP Master times with a .22LR by mid-July Gun Nuts will supply me with a pair of Smith & Wesson M&P JGs. Which are not only totally awesome firearms but happen to match the pink Spyderco knife SamFromWades bought me for Christmas.
This is a lofty goal, since my current classifier score stands at 226 seconds with a Smith & Wesson M&P9 Pro: 10 seconds below SSP Marksman and 26 seconds below ESP Marksman. My goal is to be able to classify Marksman in SSP with the M&P Pro 40 Caleb has me shooting in 2 months, which should leave me shooting the .22 pretty quickly.
What I’m most interested to see is how my times with the M&P contrast to my times with the .22. If I break down my most recent classifier scores by stage: 58.8 seconds for Stage 1, 50.92 seconds for Stage 2 and 116.28 seconds for Stage 3, it becomes apparent that the 20 yard shots are my current weak spot. Shooting Dot Torture with the .22 should prove extremely beneficial to my accuracy, if nothing else. I’m hoping to shave a lot of time off of that Stage 3 score by shooting Dot Torture until I can do it clean at 20 yards. Easy? No, but easy isn’t what I’m going for.
I’m excited to have begun my own “Quest for Master Class“, and I hope Gun Nuts readers will join me in my pursuit.
Ruger launches its new LC9
Ruger has just sent out an email announcing their new LC9. It’s awesome to see Ruger making their way into the compact 9mm market.
This particular little pistol weighs in at just 17.1 ounces with an empty mag and is only 0.9″ wide making it an ideal concealed carry gun.
Follow Team Gun Nuts
One of the best ways to get additional content from Team Gun Nuts is to follow our social media sites in addition to what you see here on GunNuts.Net. The official Gun Nuts social media sites are here:
My co-author and I each have our own Facebook pages as well. We’ll post a lot of shooting related material on those, and you’ll definitely want to fan/friend us before SHOT SHOW. The way the show works, you’ll see a lot of content on Facebook/Twitter that won’t necessarily make it to the blog as we roam the show floor in search of awesome. Here are our Facebook pages:
SHOT is in two short weeks, and we plan on utilizing social media to its fullest power during the event. We’ll be bringing you updates live from the floor as fast as we can grab pictures and upload them to the web, so don’t miss out!