Review – Page 5 – A Geek With Guns

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.

Gunzilla

Well it’s been positively dead around here but fear not after this week things should start up again. Anyways since I have a little free time I thought I’d give my thoughts on a CLP I recently tried called Gunzilla.

One of my friends has been proclaiming it as pretty good stuff so I finally tried it. This stuff is pretty bloody awesome. The first thing to note is that Gunzilla is made from plant byproducts making it “all natural” or “organic” or whatever hippie name you want to attach to it. The bottom line is Gunzilla doesn’t have harsh chemicals common in cleaners. Better yet this CLP has very little smell; what little there is smells of vegetable oil.

So how does it clean? Pretty well. I took it after my AR-15 a couple nights ago to test it and the gun cleaned up pretty quickly. I will admit it wasn’t atrociously dirty by any means but it was the only gun that wasn’t cleaned so that’s what I had. Gunzilla cleaned it up very well although not noticeably better than most other cleaners on the market.

What Gunzilla did very well was lubricate. That stuff makes everything it touches turn into a slick and slippery mess. Of course this makes it less than fun to work with but it also means it will work great at reducing friction. I haven’t shot the AR-15 since cleaning it so I don’t know how well Gunzilla will hold up but I certainly will post my findings the next time I take the gun out.

Overall I’m impressed though. Somebody managed to make a CLP that doesn’t reek of chemical cleaner and it cleans. I’ll post a more proper review after trying it on more guns and getting some range time in with a gun cleaned with Gunzilla.

Meet the Glock 21SF and CMMG’s .22 AR-15 Conversion Kit

So the gun show this weekend ended up being very fruitful. My friend obtained a CMMG .22 conversion kit for his AR-15 for the cost of a song and dance. That thing is wicked fun. All the conversion kit does is replace the bolt and magazine, installation takes roughly 30 seconds. Once installed you get the have fun with cheap .22LR rounds.

We tested it out by shooting steel plates. The kit operated very well once he found the ammunition it liked. It’s strange firing an AR where there is literally no recoil. Anyways some of the plates were rather stubborn and wouldn’t go down with a single strike, but they went down after a good ten strikes in rapid succession. Seriously I can not emphasis how much fun the kit was.

For myself I ended up getting a Glock 21SF at the show. The one I got had the standard 3rd generation frame, ambidextrous magazine release, and the standard Glock rail. The dealer also had one with a picatinny rail but finding holsters for that particular model can be a nightmare. Anyways I obtained the gun because I want to start IPSC this year. I didn’t really want to use my 30SF due to the fact it’s just not a great competition gun (Small and heavy on the recoil). On the other hand I wanted to practice with my carry gun. The 21SF allows the best of both worlds in that it’s a larger and therefore heavier gun while having the exact same controls as my carry gun.

We took it to the show as well and I ran 100 rounds through it. As expected it worked like a dream. It shoots very nice and I really like how a full sized gun feels in the hands. Have an ambidextrous magazine release is also nice in that it makes shooting it left handed easier. I know a lot of people simply say to hit the magazine release with your middle or trigger finger but being my fingers are quite long I have to completely change my grip (Most to push the gun forward) so I can move my finger back far enough to hit the release. This is uncomfortable and time consuming so I prefer to hit the release with my thumb.

As with my 30SF there is one thing I don’t like. Slamming in a fully loaded magazine when the slide is forward is difficult (Not nearly as bad as the 30SF though). I expected this and since I’ll be doing limited 10 I won’t have to concern myself with having a full 13 rounds in the magazine.

Otherwise the gun seems pretty great. I’m going to reserve final judgement until I get more trigger time with it but so far I love it. As a bonus it fits perfectly into my 30SF carry holster. That saves some time having to find a whole new holster for it.

The Lost Fleet Series

You know it’s come to my attention that I have an entire science fiction category and I hardly use it. This most certainly was not my intention. I’ve been planning on doing more science fiction reviews and after the previous story about the religious zealots not like the genre I thought I’d start posting more science fiction content. I’m going to start with a brief introduction to a science fiction series know as The Lost Fleet.

The Lost Fleet is a series penned by John Hermy under the pen name Jack Campbell. Why he used a pen name I’m not sure since the series is incredibly good. The basic premise is this, it is far into the future (When else?). The human race has not only developed faster than light travel but we’ve colonize many worlds. Eventually human colonized space was controlled by two entities; the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds, or Syndics.

Of course if there are two super powers you know there has to be a war. That’s where this story takes place, a century into a war between the Alliance and the Syndics. The series follows the exploits of Captain John “Black Jack” Geary. At the beginning he is recovered by an Alliance fleet inside of Syndic territory. See life sucked pretty hard for Captain Geary, he was there at the first battle of the war. Unfortunately for him his ship was destroyed and he had to eject into a stasis pod where he sat for 100 years.

Anyways the fleet reaches the Syndicate home world where shit hits the fan and through circumstance out of his control Captain Geary becomes the head of the fleet. Being a captain who has held the rank for 100 years he’s the highest ranking officer in the fleet, fancy that.

The series, comprising of five books with another due this year, follows the fleet on their journey back to Alliance space. There are a few elements that really set this series apart from others though. First of all this is more of a naval fiction in space series. As I mentioned the series follows John Geary who becomes the fleet captain, which means a lot of logistics are used.

The biggest way to see that this is a naval fleet series is during the battles, which are masterfully done in my opinion. Everything is taken into consideration. The author details a navigation system where everything is measured relative a system’s sun. You either go towards the star, away from the star, or move up and down relative to the sun’s equator. All navigation on done with this mechanism and it’s a mechanism that makes sense (A opposed to made up sectors and quadrants that are never explained).

A lot of attention to detail is made for the fights. For instance the effects of relativity are a problem due to the speeds at which battles happen. Computers are required to fire ship based weapons during fleet confrontations because no human has the required reflexes. Fleet formations and their proper uses are also explained in detail.

It certainly shows that the author was a naval officer. A lot of people always ask why science fiction ships are controlled by the navy when they aren’t at sea. It’s not because they have nothing else to do, it’s because they understand how to manage large fleets of ships that are staffed by hundres of personel.

Anyways I’m getting side tracked here. The fleet has to deal with more than just combat. Unlike many science fiction series the fleet in question here doesn’t have infinite resources. They have limited fuel, ammunition, repair supplies, food, etc. Captain Geary spends a good amount of time on such logistics and their consequences.

The books are very well paced. I can say I plowed through the currently released five in no time at all and nowhere did I feel there was a lull in the books. Pacing is difficult in a series where everything isn’t based around action, and Mr. Hermy does an excellent job of it. He manages to deliver a great amount of detail without going overboard. The situations he places the fleet in are generally unique enough where you don’t feel you’re reading about the same problems over and over again. Any series that extends past three books usually ends up repeating itself, this is not the case though.

One criticism about this series is the opening of each book does a recap of the previous books. The author has stated he does this on purpose so a reader can pick up any book in the series and be able to get into the story. With that said I’d recommend starting from book one, Dauntless. Although each book does a recap such summaries can’t really give all the details by their nature.

This series is very well done and a refreshing break for the usual slew of science fiction space marine stories. It’s good to see not everything in the future revolves around space marines.

Glock New York 1 Trigger Spring

After a rant I thought I’d post some actual content that is worth reading. I purchase and installed a Glock New York 1 (Known most commonly as the NY1) trigger spring into my 30SF.

For those who aren’t familiar with Glock pistols or their various factory trigger the NY1 spring replaces the standard s-shaped trigger spring in Glock pistols. It does two things. First is makes the trigger pull more consistent. But more importantly, in my case, it increases the trigger pull weight. A stock Glock trigger pull is about 5.5 pounds depending on where you measure it. Installing the NY1 spring bumps that weight to roughly 8 pounds.

Increasing the trigger pull weight may seem strange, most people try to lighten their trigger. For those of you who read my previous post Two Schools of Carry Permit Holders you probably already know why I dropped in the NY1 trigger. For those who didn’t the reason is to avoid a charge of accidental discharge in a self defense situation.

I like taking advice from people who have experience and knowledge greater than mine (In other words almost everybody). I’m reading Combat Handgunnery by Massad Ayoob. In the beginning on the book he talks about various popular guns. In the section about Glock pistols he mentions he has and often carries at Glock 30 with the NY1 trigger spring in it. The justification made sense to me. It increases the weight of the trigger pull to such a point that a lawyer is going to have a hard time claiming you accidentally shot a person.

This is an argument that has been used before when a police officer had to use his gun in self defense. In the case the officer was accused of pulling back the hammer of his revolver making the trigger pull weight almost nothing. The lawyer then continued to argue that the police officer most likely didn’t mean to pull the trigger but accidentally set it off during the excitement.

Well I really don’t want that kind of trouble. Increasing the trigger weight isn’t a problem for me either. My first handgun was a Smith and Wesson 686 .357 magnum. Although it has a hammer I almost always shot it in double action. Likewise my Ruger LCP is double action only. I’m used to heavy triggers and my accuracy (What little I have) isn’t hampered by them. So long as the trigger is consistent I’m pretty much set.

Installation of the trigger also reaffirmed how simple Glock pistols are. I’m not going to write out how to do it because it’s something best put in video form. Luckily Eric Shelton from the Handgun Podcast already made a video about doing exactly this. So here it is:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p52Z75UAKC8]

Anyways with the NY1 trigger spring installed there is a noticeable difference. The trigger is heavier and requires more force. With that said it’s still comfortable to pull back. I think increasing the weight much further wouldn’t gain much benefit as the NY1 trigger spring adds enough weight where I feel a negligent discharge is doing to be unlikely. Furthermore the NY1 trigger spring is built heavier than the factory spring (Which is just a spring) so it will probably last longer. Overall it’s a good, cheap (The part is under $3.00), and easy modification to make.

The trigger also lacks the various pull weight. The factory Glock trigger seems to get heavier as you’re pulling it back (I’m not referring to the slack at the beginning of the pull but when the trigger starts exerting pressure). I know quite a few people put in a NY1 trigger spring with a 3.5 pound connector to gain a more consistent trigger without increasing the weight. I can definitely see why that is done, although I don’t see the gain being worth the cost of the 3.5 pound connector (Which is actually fairly expensive for a Glock trigger part).

Advantage Arms Conversion Kit in Cold Weather

Here is yet another post dealing with my Advantage Arms .22 conversion kit for my Glock 30SF. On Saturday my friend, his father, and I went out to the range. This of course may sound like a bad idea to those who were in Minnesota and know it was about -10 (Fahrenheit since I’m a mangy American). But if you can’t deal with those temperatures then you don’t get much trigger time in January and February here.

As most people with .22 conversion kits know they generally work on two basic principals; hope and prayers. Because of this less than ideal situations may cause issues and issues were caused on Saturday. When I first slapped on the conversion kit it was banging away pretty well. The long it was out and thus more exposure to cold it received the worse it started working.

Towards the end I’m not exaggerating when I say I experienced about eight feeding failures per ten rounds. That means only two rounds in the magazine successfully fed into the gun. Just racking the slide was enough to tell you the problem, it was friggin’ cold and the conversion kit wanted none of that.

I’m not knocking the kit at all. It was ten below zero and these kits are notoriously sensitive to everything. They’re made for cheap practice not cold weather use. But it certainly is something to note if you live up in the northern half of the planet.

Update on Advantage Arms Conversion Kit

Hey I thought I might as well give a small updates on the conversion kit for the Glock 30.

I was able to take it out again today and test it with the recommended Remington Golden Bullets. They worked great. In fact I’d go so far as to say they’re a very good choice to run in the kit considering how cheap they are per 525.

It’s still malfunctioning once in a while but being I’m firing .22LR ammunition which I’ve always found on the side of unreliable I’m not surprised. But it’s getting better so it may still be breaking in.

Advantage Arms .22 Conversion Kit for the Glock 30

For Christmas to myself from myself I obtained an Advantage Arms .22 Conversion Kit for my Glock 30SF. The 30SF is my new primary carry gun and thus I want to practice with it as much as humanly possible. Alas a predicament exists the 30SF fires .45 auto ammunition which is a touch expensive. On the other hand nothing I’m aware of is cheaper than .22LR. Thankfully Advantage Arms decided a market exists in combining both full size pistols and .22LR ammunition.

First what the kit is and what it isn’t. What the kit consists of is a replacement slide and magazine. The slide consists of your usual stuff including a firing pin, barrel, and recoil spring. One very nice thing about the slide is the size and shape are the same as your Glock so with the kit on you can still practice with your standard holster. The kit also allows you to practice with the trigger on your Glock, be it the stock one or an aftermarket one. What the kit isn’t is a perfectly accurate representation of your Glock, the slide weighs much less than the factory one. This in itself is fairly obvious because a puny .22LR round isn’t going to budge a slide made for a .45.

First off installation is a breeze. You remove the slide from your Glock and than put the Advantage Arms slide on. It’s no different than field stripping your Glock and than putting the slide back on. You couldn’t make it any easier. Likewise you need to use the Advantage Arms magazine with the slide since a regular Glock magazine isn’t going to hold .22LR ammunition.

The magazine is simple enough. Form-wise it’s almost exactly the same as the Glock factory magazines. This means it goes right into the grip without any need for an adapter. It also drops free, usually. The Advantage Arms magazines don’t have the full metal liner that Glock magazines do any hence it’s lighter. Usually the magazine simply drops free but oftentimes you have to make sure you really push in the magazine release. If it doesn’t drop free you just have to give the gun a firm shake downwards. Advantage Arms is located in the People’s Republic of California so 10 round magazines is all you can get. And they’re expensive coming in at $25.00 a piece from the manufacturer. Also they’re in short supply at the moment as nobody has any in stock (much like the kit itself). And finally the kit only comes with one magazine which is a drag in my opinion, but whatever.

There are two types of kits. The target and the law enforcement ones. You don’t have to be a law enforcement officer to get the law enforcement model, and that’s the model I got. The difference between the two types has to do with the sights. The law enforcement model uses stock Glock sights. You can replace them with any sight that fits a Glock. The target model has proprietary sights that are raised up higher than standard Glock sights. From the factory the law enforcement model has a stock Glock front sight and an adjustable Glock rear sight. I really like the fact that this kit uses standard Glock sights. If you want to put night sights on your Glock you can and you can also put those same night sights on the Advantage Arms kit so you’re practicing with the same setup.

When you open the box there is a very large orange piece of paper alerting you to the fact the kit is finicky with ammunition. They recommend Remington Glod Bullets or CCI Mini-Mags. The not also strong recommends against any Remington Thunderbolt, Federal, or Winchester ammunition. I had some CCI Mini-Mags and Remington Cyclones around so those are what I tested with.

Since I’m talking ammunition let’s start with that. Another note mentioned that the kit may not settle in for a couple hundred rounds so until then you may experience higher failure rates than expected. I notice this. With both types of ammunition I had with I experience on average one failure per 10 rounds. But as I shot more and more rounds through it the failure rate started dropping pretty decisively. I got about 200 rounds through today and the last fifty fed through with only two failures. Both ammunitions performed roughly the same although I noticed slightly more failures with the Remington ammunition. I expected as much since I always have more failures with bulk Remington ammunition, but for the price I don’t care. And even with all the failures the kit is more reliably than my Smith and Wesson 22A I got for uber cheap.

The failures aren’t all bad either. Since the kit operates the exact same as the standard Glock setup failures make great opportunities to practice failure drills. Tap, rack, bang works just fine with the Advantage Arms kit.

Accuracy was very good for a .22 pistol. I had no problems hitting a man sized target at 25 yards with it. My groups weren’t great but again they never are. With multiple magazines you can practice reload drills but I only have the single magazine the kit comes with at the moment. Still performing draw and fire drills is great with this kit. Likewise I can work on my point shooting without feeling like I’m wasting a ton of expensive .45 ammunition. All these reasons are why I wanted this kit in the first place and it does very well at all of them. Overall I’m very happy with this kit.

Unfortunately nothing is prefect. The kit itself is the price of a .22 pistol coming in at $265.00. Still I think the advantage of being able to practice cheaply on your desired platform is worth the money. Likewise if you pistol is a .45 auto like mine (Advantage Arms makes kits for 1911s and other Glock models as well) you save a butt load of money when using the kit. This will make up for the cost of the kit after some time.

Because many people hate reading entire reviews I’m going to include a simple bullet point summary.

Pros:
– Easy installation and removal
– Perfectly mimics the function of your pistol
– You can practice with the same trigger
– .22LR is much cheaper than .45 auto
– Uses standard Glock sights

Cons:
– Expensive
– One includes one magazine
– Magazines are expensive and capped at 10 rounds

Ruger LCP Range Report

Well I finally had two things at the same time, time to hit the range, and .380 auto ammunition for my new Ruger LCP. Although I’ve had the gun for a few weeks I’ve not been able to actually shoot it.

I loaded up some rounds using 4.1 grains of Universal Clays powder and 95 grain Montana Gold jacked hollow points (before anybody comments I know a .380 won’t reliably expand JHP rounds, but being their center of gravity is back more JHPs are slightly more accurate than full metal jacketed rounds).

First off I want to say the gun is a perfect little piece. It fits in almost any pocket (although I won’t be carrying it until my pocket holster arrives). It’s very light even when loaded with 6 + 1 rounds of ammunition and conceals better than any other gun I’ve seen.

The Ruger LCP, like most small and light guns, kicks hard. Firing the gun can be painful after a while. The webbing on my right hand hurt quite a bit after roughly 30 rounds so I switched to left handed shooting for the remaining 20 rounds I loaded up. For a mouse gun the LCP is pretty accurate. I was able to peg steel plates from approximately 20 feet without too much trouble. If I’m dealing with ranges beyond that I’ll hopefully be able to use my primary carry gun.

The only thing about the LCP I really didn’t like when firing it was how far and erratically is flung the brass. I was shooting under a covered pistol range section. The roof was approximately 15 to 20 feet and several of the brass casing landed up on there. Other cases went flying 10 feet to the right and angles ranging from 45 degrees to right behind me. Since I load my own ammunition I like to keep the cases and that’s hard with this gun.

Working the slide is pretty simple. Several small semi-automatic pistols I’ve uses had very stiff slides. The LCP’s isn’t very stiff and can be easily manipulated with two hands. Due to the fact the LCP has little in the way of sights there isn’t much to catch it on in order to rack the slide with one hand though. Speaking of sights I wish Ruger would have made them just a hair larger. As they sit right now the sights are all but useless and I didn’t get a crimson trace laser for it (being I had enough trouble just finding the bloody gun). At short ranges this isn’t that big of an issue though since the sights are more than adequate for hitting human sized targets.

The gun came with a small extension for the, one and only included, magazine. I ended up using it simple because I couldn’t get a good grip on the gun without it. With the extension I was able to comfortably hold the gun with all but my pinky finger. I do wish Ruger would have included a second magazine so I could practice reloading it (I order a couple others but they certainly do charge an arm and leg for such a small magazine). I will say the magazine does indeed drop free when you press the release button. And while I’m on the subject of reloading do note that the LCP does not automatically hold the slide open when your magazine is empty so you do need to count rounds with this gun.

Overall I was impressed with the gun. It’s exactly what I was looking for in that it’s a small pistol that is easily placed into a pocket. I don’t see any features that make me want to recommend the LCP over any other .380 auto mouse gun on the market but for the price you really can’t complain much. If you want a mouse gun certainly take a look at one.