Smile yall. No one is shooting at you.

Two co-workers revealed themselves as Glock owners last Friday. Both came to me, saying they had heard I was “the guy.” One has a G21 and is looking to replace the sights. I suggested Sevigny-Warren competition sights like the ones on Bruce, or alternately, that he take it over to Glock in Smyrna, where they will install a set of night sights for $55 while he waits.

The other co-worker, when I asked, first said he had “a couple of Glocks.” Turns out he has 5, plus handguns of other makes. Last fall he spent 3 days at Blackwater in North Carolina for some training. I felt very small.

We talked a while about training, and he is a proponent of formal training at least yearly. Interestingly, he doesn’t compete, but I think I have at least persuaded him to think about the GSSF match near us in July.

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Friday night I found some ammo in my bedside table that I didn’t notice before. I asked my wife about it, and it turns out she had been collecting loose rounds from my pockets after matches and practice sessions. Nine rounds of .45ACP, six rounds of 9mm, and 2 rounds of 7.62×39.

Note to self: pat downs are in order.

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After another review of home invasion plans, I’m working on an idea for the living room, to keep a pistol under one of the side tables, using a magnet to hold the gun in place, and an old holster to cover the trigger. I bought a magnet at a hardware store for $4, versus the “gun magnets” advertised for $25. I will report more when I get it installed.

For me one essential thing is to have the trigger covered, since I plan to store it there with a round in the chamber.

Then it’s train, train, train. Since I plan on using Bruce, my G17, for this duty, I’ll replace the barrel with my plastic training barrel, and everyone will get used to retrieving it while moving away from the stairs and toward the back bedroom, which is our safe room.

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I’m borrowing a compressor and nail gun for a project at the house this coming weekend, so I’m also going to be getting some Duracoat coming. I bought an inexpensive spray rig at the hardware store, so that part is covered. Next, order a polymer stock, and the project is done. Look for a complete report with pics next week.

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My NFML mags for my G17, which are being retired, and headed for a better place. Look for a post about them this week, when I have pics. It will be a lot more interesting that way.

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I didn’t retire the old mags without buying new ones. There are three new mags in the closet, numbers 8, 9, and 10. More on them later.

Order this shirt here at Despair.com

Hard to believe that three months ago today I got a wild hair and clicked on the “Create Your Own Time Sink” button.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of good people, and I’ve learned a lot, mostly about how much I have to learn.

Summer is the time of the year I like most. Many people say “I can always put on more coats in the winter.” Not me, I can never get warm enough. I prefer to feel the sweat roll down my . . . neck. I like it hot.

Summer is the height of competition season, and on this Solstice I’m struck by how little I have competed so far this year. I have two favorite USPSA clubs here in the Atlanta area that I shoot at, one the second Saturday, and one the third Sunday, and I’ve had other family commitments so far this summer. I’ve shot two Steel matches, at that’s it. Yes, I spent Memorial Day at the LuckyGunner Blogger Shoot, but that doesn’t count.

In July, I have a Steel match, a USPSA match, and a GSSF match in successive weekends. Then, Gaston Glock’s birthday on the 19th. It should be a good month.

So, okay already. Stop my bitchin’. Load some magazines, get my practice in, and hit the road. I have no one to blame but me.

I was thinking about the training session I had a few weeks back at the LuckyGunner Blogger Shoot, and how the trainers told me I had my magazines in my magazine pouch backward. The idea was that the magazine should be in the pouch with the bullets facing forward, so as you draw a new magazine from the pouch, you can place your index finger on the tip of the bullet and index it into the magazine well.

The problem is, when I first started shooting 19 years ago, I guessed wrong. I had no instruction, and I had a 50 / 50 chance in orientation of the bullets in my mag pouch. I don’t remember thinking about it at all, but I know I started facing them backward.

I became aware of this “error” some time ago, and I even tried turning all my mag pouches around, and trying to teach myself to to it the other way. It was hard, because to me I seemed to be working against normal physiology. My way, I just pivot my wrist to orient the bullets forward. The other way, I have to twist my wrist, which seems to be a more awkward movement.

Any way, I worked on it off and on for about a month, before I gave up and went back.

So at the training class I just said “20 years of muscle memory, sorry,” and kept them like they were.

Modern behavioral science tells us that it takes about 1,000 repetitions of anything to ingrain it as muscle memory*. In the mean time, when I tried to do it full speed, I messed it up.

I am willing to put in the training it takes, provided I know there is a solid reason.

So I ask, is there a real, verifiable reason for one orientation over another**? If so, I will work through the pain and change. If not, I’m going to stay the way I am.

Thank you in advance. I await your responses.

* I tried to find a first source for this assertion. Most of the sources I found just stated it as known fact.

** “Real, verifiable reasons” do not include “because that’s the way they teach it at Gunsite” or “because that’s the way Dave Sevigny does it.” I need scientific proof, not hearsay or legend.