“It won’t have a sunset this time.”
Sebastian is absolutely right – which is why it will be very important if you live in a district with one of the new “blue dog” Democrats, to let them know where their bread is buttered. Any coming gun control legislation will need to be fought tooth and nail in the Senate and the House.
I’ve talked a lot about USPSA and IDPA guns here on the blog, and today I wanted to talk about a relatively simple way that you can build your own gun for Limited Division competition – you get all the pride of ownership of having put the package together yourself, and at the same time you will be able to learn a lot about the internal function of your firearm. The platform for our “do it yourself” Limited Gun isn’t going to be a 1911 – it’s actually going to be a Glock 35, which is the longslide “competition” Glock in .40 S&W. For the sake of the post, I’m going to assume that you want to turn your Glock into a full on custom rod-hot, so we’re going to do an example of taking the modifactions to the literal max.
To start with, you’re going to head over to Brownells and purchase their excellent “All-in-one” Glock tool, which is quite literally all the tools you’ll need to perform this build. Once you have the tools, you can then start on building the pistol. As an aside, I’m not going to go into detailed instructions on how to put all the parts together in this post, I’m merely going to list all the components for the uber-Glock.
Step 1 of the actual build is to get yourself a new frame. Bear in mind that all these steps are optional, as the Glock 35 out of the box is ready to go for Limited division in USPSA, but since we’re playing with pretend money, we might as well have some fun, right? So we go over to CCF Race Frames and pick up a new frame for the gun. Personally, I’d go with the alloy option, as it balances the desired attribute of making the gun a little heavier without making it too heavy.
Now that we have our frame, we need to do something about the trigger. Stock Glock 35s have a pretty good trigger out of the box for a Glock, but it’s not great. That means our next stop is Glockworx, to pick up one of their Fulcrum Ultimate Trigger kits. The neat thing about the Fulcrum is that it is actually 100% drop-in (this is also a neat feature of Glocks in general, i.e. they’re easy to work with), which means that just like every other step of this build, you can do it at home. The Fulcrum trigger also comes with a new striker for your Glock, which is designed to be lighter and thus make the gun function faster.
Now we have trigger and frame, so let’s move on to the upper half of the gun. Starting with the barrel, we toss out the factory Glock barrel and replace it with a Storm Lake Glock barrel. I have a Storm Lake barrel in my Glock 24, and it’s superbly accurate. This is a well made precision barrel, which is capable of delivering all the accuracy you’re going to need for IPSC.
We’re not done yet though, because this wouldn’t be the uber-Glock without the addition of a Caspian slide. Caspian is well known for their custom 1911s and parts, however their Glock slides are top of the line as well.
As we get near the end of the build, we still need to get a couple of key parts. While not in possession of a great website, IMSI does make some excellent springs for your Glock pistol, including a complete set for replacing the polymer guide rod in your Glock with a steel guide rod and 13 pound recoil spring. Once we have the new recoil spring, the last item we need for our competition Glock to be complete is to replace the factory sights mounted on the gun. Trijicon, Novak, and a whole raft of manufacturers make aftermarket sights for the Glock pistol, and it’s up to you to choose the model that best fits you. Personally, I tend to prefer an all black rear sight with a fiber optic front sight for competition; I’ve always had problems with the “three dot” system when I’m trying to shoot quickly. With one fiber optic (or tritium insert) I find that my eyes are naturally drawn right to the front sight, which is where they should be. With three dots, I’ve noticed a bit of hesitation in picking up the front post, as for some reason it takes my brain just a fraction of a second longer to figure out which dot it should be focused on.
That’s it for the uber-Glock build – all the parts and toys you need to turn your factory Glock 35, or Glock 22 into a hot-rod Limited Gun. I should also point out that all these modifications would make the gun not legal for use in IDPA. Additionally, the best part about all of these modifications? They’re all totally optional. Unlike a bone stock 1911 (which I am not knocking, so don’t kill me), a Glock 35 is ready to go for competition right out of the box.
I was watching Outdoor Channel last night, and Jerry Miculek was destroying cabbage with a Smith & Wesson .460 XVR revolver which I was enjoying most heartily. My cat Malcom jumps up on the entertainment center and spends the next minutes staring intently at Jerry on the screen.
Sorry for the lousy picture quality, all I had at hand was my cell phone, and there wasn’t a whole lot of light to be had.
However, what’s really odd is that the second that Jerry’s segment on the show I was watching was over, Malcolm hops off the entertainment center and goes about his merry way doing whatever it is that cats do when they’re not destroying my house.
Ruger is offering a special deal on 20 round magazines for their Mini-14 line of rifles:
Southport, Connecticut- Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR) announces an “Inaugural Special” for Mini-14® 20-round magazines that runs from Election Day to Inauguration Day.
From November 4, 2008 to January 20, 2009, fans of the Ruger® Mini-14 Target Rifles and Mini-14 Ranch Rifles, both chambered for .223 Remington, can purchase Ruger manufactured 20-round magazines (regularly priced at $39.95) for only $29.95. This special offer is only available through the Ruger On-line Store at http://www.ruger.com. Please note that these magazines are not available where state or local regulations limit magazine capacity to less than 20 rounds.
If you have a Mini-14, this is a pretty spiffy on the factory manufactured magazines. High capacity magazines are going to be in strong demand for quite some time. If you own a Mini-14 (which, by the way, is an excellent choice for someone looking for an EBR on a budget), then now would be a good time to stock up on magazines for it.
I was looking around online, and I cannot find STANAG (AR15) magazines anywhere – MidwayUSA is out of stock, which has never happened before. Gun sales, ammo sales, and sales of accessories are absolutely through the roof right now. If you’re looking, I’d wait until the frenzy dies down a little bit and people have settled down, then make your purchases. You’re going to see a lot of crazy inflated prices right now, so a little patience never hurt anyone.
I have probably mentioned in the past that I like FN Herstal a lot more than I like HK. Not just because they make better guns (take THAT, fanboys) but because FN loves the civilian market.
As a compare and contrast, HK said that they won’t make their HK-416 in a civilian legal version. Meanwhile, FNH has decided that they will sell their SCAR weapons system to civilians.
SCAR 16S and SCAR 17S As close to USSOCOM as you can get without enlisting.
Experience the civilian-legal semi-auto only version of the rifle chosen by U.S. Special Operations Command as its first new rifle since the early 1960’s. The SCAR 16S is chambered in 5.56X45mm NATO (223 Rem.) while the SCAR 17S fires the 7.62X51mm NATO (308 Win.) cartridge. The innovative gas-operated, short stroke piston system reduces fouling for greater reliability. The side folding polymer stock is fully adjustable for comb height and length of pull and is colored authentic USSOCOM Flat Dark Earth. Both 10 and 30-round detachable box magazines(DBM) are available, and the ambidextrous operating controls instantly adapt the SCAR S-Series to any user.
Of course, good luck finding someone who actually has one in stock. With the way EBRs are flying off the shelves these days, actually finding these guns isn’t going to be easy.
I realized a while back that, apparently, have a thing for classic shotguns. If you look in my gun closet, in addition to the two 12 gauge single shot break actions that my father in law gave me, I also have a vintage Remington 870 from the 50s, The Frankenshotgun, and now I have my great grandfather’s 1897 Winchester pump action.
Ever since I saw this gun in my dad’s collection, I’ve wanted to get my hands on it; for some reason there is something about the lines and the way the ’97 Winchester handles that makes me enjoy shooting it much more than I enjoy shooting other pump action shotguns.
The ’97 Winchester was an upgrade to the to the model of 1893, the primary new function was that the newer model was designed from the ground up to handle the new (at the time) smokeless powder shotgun rounds, which produced a higher pressure than the more common black powder rounds. The shotgun was produced in two different gauges, 12 and 16, with the 12 gauge guns fitted with a factory standard 30 inch barrel, and the 16 gauge guns fitted with a 28 inch barrel.
My gun is the 16 gauge variety, which scores even more cool points, because hey, let’s face it, 16 gauge is just that cool. Sadly, the gun I have right now is broken – so as soon as I can find a good cowboy action gunsmith, it’s off to the fix-it shop with this gun. The ’97 Winchester model is extremely popular with cowboy action shooters, and although this gun won’t be seeing any of that action, someone who fixes and slicks up those shotguns is going to the “the guy” for me to fix mine.
On my example, the blued finish has faded to that nice “old gun” brown; there are no rust spots and very little pitting – the gun looks like it has sat in storage for the last 50 or so years (which is probably pretty accurate). I’m looking forward to getting it up and running, just so I can shoot a round or two of trap with my old school shotgun.
Plus, for some reason, it sure does photograph well. Here’s the picture that I liked so much I made it part of my rotating header. Click to enlarge. And of course, the final “good thing” that the ’97 Winchester has going for it is the designer…as Tam would say: “You know who designed that gun?”
John Moses Browning, that’s who.
Sorry this is so late in the posting, but I’m still recovering from my just ended vacation, and this also gave me time to adequately coalesce my thoughts on what went down last night. First off, Say Uncle has a pretty good wrap-up of the post election coverage by a lot of other bloggers right at this link, so check that out.
As to the actual election itself, I can tell you quite succinctly why the Republicans lost. It’s because of George Bush, and the continued abandonment of actual conservative policies over the last 8 years. George Bush was not a popular president at the time of this election, and Obama was able to successfully turn the election into a referendum on George Bush. Combine that with an economic crisis, and people will vote for the guy that seems to be the most different from the guy they don’t like.
Secondly, guns were not an issue this election. That was an incredibly successful strategy right there, because by running as far away from the gun issue as possible, Obama was able to avoid the kind of mobilization that you saw from conservatives in 1994 and 2000. He and the Democrats were able to motivate their base and get them out to the polls; the margin of victory is such that even in battleground states we can not (and we should not) cry “election fraud”. The bottom line on that issue is that Obama won, fair and square, and he will be my next president. None of this “not my president bullcrap”, not from me. He won the election, and as such has earned the right to receive emails and letters from me about policies for the next four years.
So, we lost – but it’s not a total disaster. Dave Kopel points out that last night wasn’t a total disaster for the right to keep and bear arms.
The new House of Representatives will have a pro-gun majority on a normal vote. The Pelosi-Hoyer leadership will certainly not be pro-Second Amendment; but that leadership has recognized that its majority is precarious without pro-gun Democrats. However, a generally sympathetic majority does not guarantee victory for the pro-rights side if the President invests major political capital, as President Clinton did in 1994 to pass the ban on so-called “assault weapons” by a single vote.
Plus, in Indiana, we were able to keep our pro-gun majority in both of our houses, as well as keeping our extremely pro-gun (and possible presidential candidate in 2012) governor Mitch Daniels (MY MAN MITCH) in the statehouse. So again, not a total loss.
Of course, all of this leads to the question, “where do we go from here”, not only as conservatives but as a Republican party. Well, first off, we need to control ourselves. This election is a loss, yes, but it’s not the end of the world. If we as a nation made it through at various times Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and Jimmy Carter, I believe that we will make it through this. Politics, like most things, are cyclical; so we will eventually be given an opportunity in the future. I deeply hope that the Republican party takes this a wake up call, and realizes that you can’t try to act like a Democrat and say you’re a Republican and still hope to win. Last night on CNN, Alex Castellanos accurately pointed out that a lot of what Obama was saying and promising during his campaign were values traditionally associated with Republicans, tax cuts, smaller government, etc. I dearly hope that the Republican party takes that message to heart.
As for me, I would like offer my congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama. For all our disagreements, I am pleased to see that in a country where 60 years ago a black person couldn’t vote, we have now elected one to the highest office in the land.
On a personal note, I am quite frankly glad this election is over. I have worked long and hard on this, and I will be glad to have a break from politics for a bit. I look forward to spending the next few months writing about firearms.
You can click here to download the .mp3 file of last night’s election coverage. It was actually a pretty good show – the election coverage is good, and the callers who shared their election stories were good as well. Click the embedded player below to listen to the audio from last night.
It was a good show, despite the fact that we lost the election. You can start to hear the pessimism creeping into my voice after they called Ohio and PA for Obama, though. Give it a listen, and you won’t be disappointed.
Like Unc, I blame the Republicans for not actually being conservatives since about 2002.
More in the morning.
