Glock

Team Glock on Gun Nuts

Posted on by Caleb

Big thanks to Dave Sevigny and Randi Rogers for taking time out of their schedules at Bianchi Cup to chat with me on Gun Nuts Radio last night!  Dave and Randi are class acts, and even more so are extremely knowledgeable about the shooting sports – there are a lot of National Championships split up between those two, and with any luck they’ll be claiming two more at this year’s Bianchi Cup.  To listen to last night’s episode featuring Team Glock, click the preceding link.   If you’d prefer a portable .mp3 file, click here.

As usual, the episode is available for download on Caleb Giddings - Gun Nuts Radio | Blog Talk Radio Feed for you Apple product users and you can subscribe to the Gun Nuts RSS feed if that’s what tickles your fancy.

The show also covered the upcoming HAVA Charity auction. We’ve got some great products and gear that we’re going to be selling for charity, so keep it here for updates. Don’t forget to join us on Facebook and check out the Gun Nuts Gear shop where you can find all kinds of goodies like the Tactical Coffee Mug.

Check out the show next week at 9pm Eastern time as we bring more of the latest info on the shooting sports and guns and gear!

Bianchi Cup

Good luck!

Posted on by Caleb

To all the shooters at the 2010 NRA Action Pistol Championships aka Bianchi Cup: Good luck!  Shoot ’em in the middle, and I hope you all have a great match.  I’ll be keeping my eyes on the Production Division of course,where Dave Sevigny is looking to repeat as champion but faces a much tighter field than last year.  BJ Norris could also take the Cup in Production using an M&P, so we won’t know until all the brass has fallen!  Again, good luck to everyone out there in Columbia and I wish I could be there!

IDPA

Quest for Master Class: Gun parameters

Posted on by Caleb

I was exchanging emails with a reader about the upcoming/ongoing “Quest for Master Class” series, where my goal is achieve IDPA’s 5 gun Master class award.  He asked what guns I was planning on using to get the “master class” ranking in the 5 divisions of IDPA, and while I thought I had previously answered that question, he made a good point.  The question was “why use ‘competition’ guns for this, wouldn’t using the kind of pistols that the average guy buys make more sense?”

I thought about that for a while, and I actually agree.  The goal of the entire series isn’t for me to take a $2k 1911 and shoot it, but rather to show people that these are achievable skills with practice and their carry guns.  So after some thought, I’m making some specific rules for me to help keep this series true to the spirit of IDPA and relative to the average CCW permit holder.

  1. No 1911s – I know that’s going to be controversial, but the 1911 platform is absurdly easy to shoot when it’s well made.  Using a 9mm 1911 for the Enhanced Service Pistol master class score is almost like cheating.
  2. No Glock 34/35 model pistols or M&P Longslide guns.  Not that these are not great guns, but you don’t see a whole lot of 5 inch Glocks riding around in CCW and LE holsters.
  3. Use “carry gun” style sights only.  Most carry guns come from the factory with 3-dot sights, or Heinie straight-8 sights, so that’s what we’ll use.  In fact, in all cases but for 2 we’ll use the factory sights.  Those two exceptions are my S&W 625, since I already have my Enhanced Revolver Master card, and I won’t use the factory sights on any Glocks that may get shot because those plastic sights tend to break.
  4. No action jobs – these guns should have factory triggers.

Again, the point here is to show people that with their guns and carry gear they can get out and shoot IDPA, and with a little bit of practice they can truly excel at the sport.  June is  a busy month – I’m shooting wheelguns at three majors through June, but come July I’m making the switch back to semi-auto pistols to go for the “big double”: Stock Service Pistol and Enhanced Service Pistol.  I’ll use the same gun for both divisions.  Stock Service Pistol is the “easiest” to get in to, and Enhanced Service Pistol is considered the most difficult.  July will be a fun month!

Top Shot

Meet the host of Top Shot: Colby Donaldson

Posted on by Caleb

Meet Colby Donaldson, host of Top Shot on the History Channel.  Here’s his official bio:

Survivor’s COLBY DONALDSON will be the host of Top Shot! Colby is widely known as the record-breaking runner-up of “Survivor: The Australian Outback,” and most recently appeared in “Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.” A competitive athlete, Colby particularly enjoys water skiing and mountain biking. His experience with guns and hunting began in rural West Texas, where he was born and raised. And, that’s exactly where you’ll find him when he’s not working in California. “Life is all about balance. The best way for me to offset the L.A. hustle is to load up my dog and head to the ranch to spend some quality time with my family, friends, and Mother Nature.” Be sure to catch him on the premiere of Top Shot, Sunday June 6th at 10/9c on HISTORY!

We had some fun with Colby on a couple of occasions, and once the show has aired I’ll be happy to tell you about it!

rifles

Makes me want a fedora

Posted on by Caleb

The winner of Best Display at the NRA Annual Meetings goes to Kahr/Thompson by a mile.  Makes me want a Thompson in the worst way possible.  What’s really crazy is that one of those guns on the rack weighs 13 pounds, and that’s the empty weight.  Fill the magazine with two boxes of .45 ACP cartridges and you can imagine just how massive and unwieldy that sucker is.

My favorite is the topmost Thompson – it’s not a true Tommy Gun per se, as the pistol configuration is a little odd and it’s a semi-automatic instead of full rock and roll, but it still weighs in with a serious amount of steel and wood.  That sucker will definitely tame the recoil of a .45 ACP cartridge and would be a lot of fun to shoot in the process!

Glock

Gun Nuts Radio with Team Glock

Posted on by Caleb

Join us tonight on Gun Nuts Radio!  Joining me on tonight’s show live from NRA’s Action Pistol Championship will be Dave Sevigny and Randi Rogers of Team Glock.  Dave and Randi are looking to defend their titles as Production division championships.  Last year, both shooters shot their way in to the history books as the first ever Production division winners at Bianchi Cup.

The show will air live at 9pm Eastern time at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts – I’m really looking forward to having Randi and Dave join me live on the air, and you should too!  The opportunity to listen to 2 of the best shooters in the game is going to be great, so be there live at 9pm Eastern time.  If you have a question you’d like me to ask them, shoot me an email at [email protected] and I’ll read it on the air.  Join me tomorrow at 9pm Eastern time for Gun Nuts Radio!

Uncategorized

Crimson Trace at the 2010 NRA Show

Posted on by Caleb

Lots of goodies from our friends at Crimson Trace at the 2010 NRA Annual Meetings.  Travis was kind enough to walk me through the booth with a tour of some of their new products. First up is the laser guard for the SR9c – this has been one of my most popular searches, and the new laser from Crimson Trace will definitely enhance this carry pistol.

From NRA 2010

The laser guard series came about to give the laser function to pistols that didn’t have sufficient grip space to mount Crimson Trace’s traditional product, the “laser grip”. Also in the laser guard line up is the new laser for the Taurus PT738, Taurus’ answer to the Ruger LCP.

From NRA 2010

Continuing the laser guard series is the laser for the S&W Sigma. The Sigma has proved quite popular and enduring – I remember seeing articles in gun magazines about it when I was thinking about buying my first carry gun oh so many years ago. The laser guard blends quite well with the frame of the Sigma, and in my opinion actually improves the line of the gun.

From NRA 2010

Finally, proving that it’s not easy being green is Crimson Trace’s MVF-515 with the green laser.

From NRA 2010

Green lasers are a lot harder to do, as they consume a lot more power than red lasers. However, the LE community has been asking for a green laser for some time, and Crimson Trace is ready to answer that with their new product. They also couldn’t have picked a cooler demonstration gun to mount their laser on; a KRISS submachine gun is an awesome platform.

From NRA 2010

Crimson Trace has been good to me as a company, and generally good to their customers. It’s no secret they’ve tossed me some laser grips, and on top of that have donated some great gear to the upcoming HAVA Charity auction. I’m looking forward to seeing what future advancements they have as they race to stay at the forefront of combat laser technology!

self defense

Meanwhile back in reality

Posted on by Caleb

Watch this video.

When you’re done laughing at this idiot for cutting his hand on the slide of the pistol, please join me for a moment of lucidity to discuss all the ridiculous aspects of this.

Stopping the slide of a semi-automatic pistol is almost in the category of the infamous “Beretta Takedown” maneuver made popular by Jet Li in Lethal Weapon 4. Let’s take a look at the issues presented by the “slide grab” technique.

  1. This is a big one: I can still shoot you.  Assuming for the moment that you have effectively grabbed the slide of my Glock before I’ve fired a single round, grabbing the slide of my gun will not prevent me from smoking a round directly in to your center of mass.
  2. I can still shoot you.  Seriously.  This is a problem for you if you’re depending on the “slide grab” technique.
  3. In an even more realistic situation, in the time it takes for you to close the distance between a gun wielding enemy and grab his slide, he’s probably already shot you.  Several times.  Like the Beretta disassembly, this works a lot better in theory than it does in meatspace.

Now, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t do this.  If you’re fighting in a phone booth and can in fact grab the slide of the other guy’s gun, by all means give it a whack.  I would however recommend that this be a last option, which you only exercise when “shoot your attacker with your own gun” has failed you.

1911/Sig Sauer

Now that's a girl's gun

Posted on by Caleb

I don’t buy in to the whole “girl’s gun”, “man’s gun” nonsense that people seem to love to talk about online. I do believe that a good gun fits your hands well and allows you to get a good grip on it and reach the controls. It seems that our female model’s hands fit the Sig P238 pretty well.

From NRA 2010

The Sig P238 runs right around $600 street price.