Tag: General Hardware

Glock 17 Generation 4 After Range Report

I promised I’d do an after range report on the Glock 17 Generation 4 so here it is.

The gun shoots beautifully. I never fired a previous generation Glock 17 so I can’t compare mine to any other one. But the double recoil system seems to do its job well. Aimed rapid fire is very doable and the recoil is almost nothing. At 21 feet I was able to dump the 17 round magazine in very short order and keep all the rounds in the middle of the human silhouette target. Accuracy out to 25 yards (The range’s maximum) was great. Placing rounds into the head of the target was not issue at all (Not that it has been with any other gun but the groups at that range were pretty decent for me).

The gun is picky on the shooter though. I let the person I was shooting with fire a magazine out of the gun. She never made it through the magazine though because in her hands the gun kept failing to return to battery. Now she’s a small person at five feet tall but she handles an EAA Witness in .45 without a problem and has had no problem with my 1911, Glock 30SF, or Glock 21SF. But that Glock 17 would not properly operated so I’m baffled to say the least. I finished off the magazine with no issue and put about 200 rounds down range without a single failure. I’m guessing the gun requires somebody with at least a little mass to keep it stiff enough to cycle well. That could be due to the new telescopic recoil system but I’m unsure. Either way it’s something to note.

The back strap system certainly raised my ire. I’m not really a fan of the setup after trying to attach the “L” back strap at the range. Getting the trigger pin out isn’t an issue nor is clipping the back strap into place. But getting the longer pin through properly proved to be difficult. The back strap pieces don’t align absolutely perfect on my gun so you really have to push them in to get the pin through. The included tool is a joke and unusable for the task it was designed for. It’s so flimsy that when you try to push the trigger pin into the gun is bends before the pin begins to move. Do yourself a favor and get a real 3/32″ punch (Which is all the Glock armor tool is). The easiest way to get the pin in that I’ve found is to use a dramatically over sized punch to push the pin through both holes and use the 3/32″ punch to push it properly into the grip holes.

Either way it’s not a fast tool less swap like the M&P palm swell. I think Smith and Wesson had a better design as far as inserting or removing their palm swells. What I do like better about the Glock back strap is it extends the length of the entire grip not just the palm area. For me that makes it more comfortable and consistent feeling. It Also adds width where I really need it, at the top of the grip. That way my trigger finger doesn’t feel like it’s going to wrap around the trigger twice. But the execution of attaching and removing the back straps is dreadful at best. Likewise the back straps themselves feel flimsy. I’m sure they’ll stand up well but they sure feel like they could snap if you look at them wrong.

Overall I really like the gun through. It shoots well, unless of course if you’re too small apparently. Having 17 rounds in the magazine is also great (I’m coming from a .45 background where 10 to 13 rounds is impressive). Just don’t plan on swapping back straps often.

Terminator’s .45 Laser Sight

Here is a rather interesting article I stumbled upon. I’m sure everybody here has seen Terminator, if not go watch it. In the movie he uses a .45 with a laser sight attached to it. This day and age that doesn’t sound impressive but back in the ’80’s:

This was the early days of lasers for commercial use. “At that time we were dealing with helium neon laser. All the newer lasers are solid state, about the size of an aspirin or smaller.” HeNe lasers are much larger than that, he explained, and required about 10,000 volts to get started. Once ignited, they take 1,000 volts to keep them running. That makes the power supply a tricky thing to design.

Now consider the movie didn’t have a terribly high budget and this article makes for an interesting read.

One Handgun, One Shotgun, and One Rifle

The Firing Pin Journal has a post where you select one pistol, one rifle, and one shotgun for self defense. So I figured what the Hell I might as well play along.

Pistol
My Glock 30SF. I carry it on my person every day, it’s proven itself to be reliable, and it shoots a .45 which I’m just a fan of. Also parts for Glocks are easy to find and the gun is easy to work on. Heck you can detail strip it in the field without any issue.

Shotgun
My Remington 870 Marine Magnum. It’s a pump action shotgun that is one of the most popular in the world (The 870 line itself not the Marine Magnum line). It has an 18″ barrel making it maneuverable and a large magazine capacity meaning you don’t have to jam shells into the tube as often. To top it off it’s idiot proof. Oh and like the Glock parts are easy to come by which I just kind of like.

Rifle
This is a harder one. It’s a toss up between my beloved M1A SOCOM 16 and the AK-47. In the end I’ll chose the AK-47 because this is for self defense and honestly 7.62x39mm is plenty enough to drop a person. To top that off the AK-47 is world renowned for reliability, parts and ammo are easy to find, and frankly it’s idiot proof.

Glock 17 Generation 4

I’ve been hemming and hawing about what 9mm pistol to get. I narrowed it down between the fourth generation Glock 17 or a Beretta 92FS. My justification to myself is I wanted a smaller caliber pistol to bring when I take new people shooting. Right now when I take a new person shooting they get to start on a .22 and jump to a .45 (Unless they’re willing to try a revolver but I notice many people don’t like that idea). I recently purchased a PA-63 which is in 9×18 but that gun is rather vicious and likes to bite the web of your shooting hand and the index finger of the hand wrapped around the shooting hand. I like it but I don’t think new people would.

Of course that’s just B.S. justification for the fact I want to own a 9mm. Yesterday I went into Ammo Craft in Hopkins, MN (Yes they get free advertisement because I really like the guy who runs it and their prices on guns are always good) and they had a fourth generation Glock 17 in stock. I thought I’d play around with it a bit and decided to purchase it. I’m taking it to the range for testing tonight. Until I get a range report I’m going to write some of my thoughts on this gun.

Looking at the gun not much has changed besides the grip is smaller and the texture is different. I like the new texture as it’s more aggressive than the generation three frames but less aggressive than the RTF2 frames. It’s a happy medium. Most people know that the gun now has the ability to use swappable back straps, two of which are included with the gun. One thing I like about Glock’s design is you don’t need a back strap inserted as the grip itself is textured on the back. This means the gun itself is still a self contained unit. Inserting a back strop is as simple as removing the trigger pin, clipping the back strap in, and inserting the included longer pin.

Two things to say about this. First I’m not that big of a fan of needing two pins, one for use when no back strap is attached and one for when a back strap is attached. It’s a small part and will be easy to lose. The second statement is the tool they give you to push the pin out is a joke. This little push punch is flimsy crap that bends when you look at it wrong. Why they didn’t just spend the extra three cents and include a Glock armorer tool I don’t know. Luckily any 3/32″ punch will work to remove the pin so you can get a real tool if you want one.

Overall the back straps make a noticeable difference. I have long fingers and find the grip on the Glock 30SF and 21SF to be comfortable. When the largest back strap is inserted the 17 feels very nice in my hand. As I mentioned the gun comes with two back straps. Without any back strap attached the gun is similar to an SF model of the large frame Glocks meaning it’s smaller than previous 17s. The back strap marked “M” adds 2mm of thickness to the back of the grip while the back strap marked “L” adds 4mm.

Another feature is the magazine release is now only larger but can be swapped around for left handed use. I haven’t tried swapping it around yet so I don’t know how easy it is but I can’t imagine it being very difficult. I’m not too concerned about the ambidextrous nature of the pistol as I simply use my trigger finger to drop the magazine when I’m firing it left handed. What I do like is the magazine release is larger and I don’t have to adjust my hand to hit the release with my thumb. The release is seated just slightly higher than the frame so I don’t believe accidental magazine releases while the gun is holstered will be an issue.

The other new feature in the new generation Glocks is the telescopic recoil spring. I don’t have much to say about it since I haven’t shot the gun yet but it’s supposed to reduce the felt recoil. This really isn’t anything new for Glock as my 30SF also has a telescopic recoil spring but certainly doesn’t look as heavy build is the on in the generation four pistols. One thing is for certain it’s slightly harder to rack the slide (Very slightly mind you). Getting the slide moving takes more force but once it’s “broken” free it’s easy to move the rest of the way back.

All the internal parts minus the recoil spring and barrel look to be the same as previous generation Glock pistols. This means finding parts for the gun shouldn’t be difficult. Of course the slide on the fourth generation pistols won’t fit on previous generation guns since the frame needs to be cut out for the large recoil spring.

Overall I like to look and design. There aren’t many changes to this gun but there really didn’t need to be either. I’ll post about the range results when I have them.

Why I Prefer Common Guns

Many people prefer esoteric guns. These people like having unique guns for various reasons, myself included. For instance I have a SPAS-12 which is kind of a rare breed. It’s fun and a blast to bring out to the range because it’s a very good conversation starter. But when it breaks finding parts and information is almost impossible. Right now it won’t feed shells out of the tube and the gas ring is defunct. Thankfully I found out the same gas ring used on Remington 11-87 shotguns will work on the SPAS-12 but the other problem is harder to diagnose and finding parts is a problem.

This is why I primarily like having common guns. For instance if a part breaks on my Glock I can easily find a replacement. The same goes for my AR-15 and AK-47. To top it off not only can I easily find parts but I can parts for a reasonable price.

Anyways my advice is if you only have a few guns and don’t plan on expanding your collection much further make sure you have some common guns. Sure that fancy SPAS-12 looks cool but you aren’t going to be able to walk into your local gun store and get a replacement part should you need one.

New Desert Eagle

Well it appears as though Magnum Research has made some modifications to the Desert Eagle. According the the post the main features are a slimmer slide (Hopefully that also means a slimmer grip), an improved gas system, improved safety ergonomics, and of course rails.

That’s right the ultimate mall ninja gun (Which I admit I have one of) now has rails for all your mall ninjaing needs. Protect the mean walkways of the mall from coked up heavily armored terrorists with the .50 AE in explosive armor piercing incendiary skeleton removing.

If It Works Ban It

The United Nations in all their stupidity glory decided cluster munitions needed to be banned. But here are the best parts:

The treaty is binding only on countries that have signed and ratified it.

Wait for it:

Some of the biggest stockpilers – including the US, Russia, China and Israel – are not among the signatories.

So this treaty will only be enforced by nations that have signed it. The big three military powers, being intelligent people, decided to not sign it and can continue using cluster munitions. Why would they not sign it? Probably because they don’t want to get rid of devices that actually work.

The IRS Don’t Mess Around

So I noticed this post on The Firearm Blog this morning. The post opens with the following:

By now you have probably heard about the news that the IRS is buying Remington 870 shotguns. Why? Who knows.

So I thought I’d bring up something interesting that most people don’t realize. The IRS, being federal employees, actually have armed agents. The company I work for has been raided by the IRS (Not for anything the company itself did, but because of selected people in the company). This happened before I was hired but I’ve obtained the details from my co-workers who were here at the time since they do like to bring it up. One of the facts that is always emphasizes was that the IRS agents were armed when they entered the building and started rounding up all the employees. Once the employees were rounded up they were put under armed guard until the agents were able to secure all the computers in the building.

The IRS don’t screw around, if you are breaking enough tax codes to catch their ire they will do the logical thing and arm their agents when they come a knocking. The shotguns the tax men have recently purchased are most likely to be used in such raids.