Category: Glock

Shooter Ready?

On By Tom LindsayIn Glock, GSSF

I’ve been spending the week preparing for the biggest GSSF match of the year, the Glock Annual Shoot at the South River Gun Club in Conyers, Georgia, this weekend. My prep has been a little more focused this year.

I did a deep clean of my G17 last weekend, and cleaned and inspected all my magazines. I have enough magazines to shoot the whole match without reloading now, so that will make my day easier.

I have been doing the Wall Drill for ten minutes every evening, and I can only trust that this has helped. It sure seems like the front sight is a lot more stable than when I started.

Yesterday, I went to the range at lunch, and shot my 100 round GSSF practice routine:

Using a 1/3 scale NRA D-1 target from GlockFAQ:

From the ready position, I come up and shoot one round into the A or B ring. Repeat for a 16 round magazine.

From ready, come up and shoot 2 rounds into the A or B ring. Do this for 2 16 round magazines.

From ready, come up and shoot 2 rounds into the A or B ring, then transition to a second target and shoot 2 rounds. Repeat 3 times.

From ready, shoot 2, transition, shoot 2, and continue to transition until the magazine is empty.

I was careful to use good form with follow-up, as I learned at my training with Tom Givens.

I also shot my Buck Mark a bunch. The work I did last weekend paid off. I kept the targets, but the first photos I took didn’t come out well. From 7 yards, shooting 1 round a second, I was able to shoot a ragged hole. At 10 yeards, I shot 20 rounds as fast as I could, and all 20 were in a 3 inch circle.

I also had zero failures to extract, which had been a source of annoyance for us at the range the last time we went. Part of the work I had done involved removing the extractor, cleaning it well, and polishing it with the Dremel buffing wheel.

On thing I noticed was the Browning extractor had sharp edges all around, unlike the factory Ruger extractor on my 10/22. I assume Browning’s manufacturing process involves cutting instead of stamping. In any case, the extractor was very nice, especially once I smoothed it up with the buffer.

I plan to shoot Saturday at Conyers, in the morning. If any of you plan to be there, email me and we’ll get together.

Otherwise, look for some video on my Youtube channel, probably Sunday evening.

Other People’s Money

On By Tom LindsayIn Bruce, Captain America, Duke, Glock, GSSF, Lee, Liberty, Vassily3 Comments

I am the proud owner of three Glocks. That’s Bruce in the middle, flanked by The Duke and Liberty. I’ve built this modest collection all on other people’s money.

Bruce was bought with the proceeds of some stock options that I had to exercise after changing jobs in 1992. I was fine with just one Glock for a while, but after a few years I wanted to add a second gun. My company had a sales contest one fall, and I managed to win enough Visa gift cards to buy a G21SF using my GSSF discount. This one I named The Duke.

Then, 2 years ago, I won a Glock in a random drawing at a GSSF match. A Glock 19 named Liberty joined the gang.

It doesn’t stop with Glocks. I’ve also used a company safety bonus to buy a very nice used Mossberg 500, bank bonus money to buy an SKS, and another sales contest to buy a Ruger 10/22.

The best deal – a coworker called me one Saturday from a gun show. He had found an excellent deal on a couple of Mosin Nagants, which he described as in excellent mechanical shape but needing substantial cleaning. His offer: if I would clean one of them for him, I could have the other one for myself. I agreed. Welcome, Vassily!

Now, if I could just figure out a way to get other people to pay for ammo!

Frankenglock

On By Tom LindsayIn Bruce, Glock, GSSF3 Comments

Starting this blog got me thinking about Bruce, my Gen 2 Glock 17, so I went back and looked through my notes I’ve kept over the years about the changes I’ve made. After marking up an exploded parts diagram, I’ve come to the realization that after 18 years there are only 6 original parts left – the frame, the barrel, the slide, the slide cover plate, and the two pins. Maybe, instead of Bruce, I should name it Frankenglock.

While some parts have been replaced because they broke, and some have been changed deliberately, most of the parts have been replaced as part of my yearly visit with the Glock Armorers at a GSSF match. This is a benefit of belonging to GSSF that cannot be overstated – you get to visit with a professional factory Armorer (not just an amateur like me), who goes over your Glock with a fine toothed comb. They replace any parts that even seem like they might fail in the near future, and in most cases they give you the old parts as spares. Beyond the obvious customer service advantage, this service makes sense economically from Glock’s point of view. Chris Edwards, the GSSF Director at Glock, once told me they save quite a lot of money every year just on shipping charges for warrantee work alone.

The only parts that have been replaced because they actually failed are the rear sight and the extractor. The rear sight was originally an adjustable target sight and was broken when I got it from the pawn shop, a fact I learned from the two policemen I met at the range that first day. The extractor got chipped over time, probably because I ignored good advice and would load a round directly into the barrel then drop the slide on it, rather than loading it through the magazine the way they tell you. Let that be a lesson, kids.

Parts that I’ve changed voluntarily probably aren’t as many as they would be if this were any other pistol. I installed an extended magazine release and an extended slide stop lever to compensate for my short fingers and thumbs. I’ve also installed Warren-Sevigny sights with the fiber optic front sight, and when I’m competing with Bruce, he gets the (-) connector to lighten the trigger pull a little. For carry, the normal connector goes back in, although the current connector is a GSSF replacement.

The only other change I’ve made is to use a slip-on Hogue rubber grip, just to provide some indexing for my grip. Since the Gen 2 frame doesn’t have molded finger grooves, this helps me get the same grip all the time.

All the other parts – trigger, firing pin, recoil spring, internal safeties, and the like – are all factory Glock parts, albeit replacements. I see no reason to mess with what’s worked.

So, that brings us to the point – is Bruce still Bruce? Certainly from the BATFE’s point of view, yes, since it still has the original frame and serial number. Beyond that, I think so. Look at his namesake, Bruce Willis. Is he the same man in Red as he was in Moonlighting? Less hair, move the muscles around some, maybe some additions or subtractions not publicized, but yes, he’s still the same, even better from the added experience. And so it is with my Bruce – still the same, in fact, arguably better.