Lovely days lately here in western Montana. Time to dust off the mountain bike and get ready for warmer-weather activities.

More than anything else, I need to start an actual training regime at the range. I’ve gone through the trouble and expense of acquiring .22 conversion kits for my rifles, and picking up a .22 Glock 44 to practice my pistol handling skills….now I just need to adopt a plan of shooting drills and exercises, to be performed on a regular basis, to make sure I’m staying competent on decay-susceptible skills.

(And, by the way, the Mantis system I purchased a while back is excellent and I highly recommend it for those times when getting to the range just ain’t gonna happen.)

While Im at it, I need to get back to some form of weight and mobility training. Its been too long since I sat on the floor, did stretches, and moves a bunch of weigh around.

With the end of the world (in some fashion) seemingly just around the corner, I’d like to have a headstart on being able to competently place in the top slots in the upcoming Shoot-n-Scoot Olympics.

There is no shortage of gun drills out there….the Mozambique (later renamed to Failure Drill) is probably the best known…but there’s others out there. I’m curious – if you were going to establish, say, a weekly routine of basic shooting skill drills for rifle and pistol, which ones would you do? Please link to a description/video.

And, for fun……..

While upgrading the sights on a firearms is always a worthy endeavour, the real pain in the tuchus comes from having to re-sight the bloody thing in. But it’s gotta be done.

As I mentioned, I had installed night sights on my favorite GP-100. It’s a very nice pistol..I got it from Caleb Giddings a number of years back and its got a nice smooth action to it. It really is my favorite .357 at the moment. And..wow, is it accurate. My preferred ammo is 8.0 gr. of Unique under a 158 gr. JHP. Not an earthshaking load, but not a powderpuff either. Cases eject cleanly from the cylinder, recoil is manageable, and, in my two GP-100s, it’s really really accurate. I shoot really well with this gun.

Anway, with the new night sights there was a need to re-sight the gun in and….it was great. Took about three cylinders to get things where I wanted and confirm where they were hitting and it was some tight groups. I’m pleased. I wouldn’t want to run the apocalypse with a revolver if I had a choice, but if I had to carry one through Ragnarok…. this little package would be hard to beat.

Sighting in the new 8-shot Redhawk, however, was a different story. I just could not get it to group nearly as well as the GP-100. I think part of the problem is the grips on the gun. Smooth hardwood that doesn’t really fill the hand well. I normally like Pachmayr Grippers on my revolvers, but the GP-100 has a Hogue Monogrip on it an I shoot that gun quite well. The smooth grips on the Redhawk make it hard to keep the same grip, recoil whips the gun around in my grip, etc, etc. Why do gun companies go through the expense of making these types of grips that are just going to call for replacements anyway? Frustrating.

But..I got to spend time at the range, had a very satisfying time with my GP-100, and crosses some stuff off my To-Do list. Calling it a win.

I had mentioned a while back ( here and here ) that I was having some trouble with MKE metal MP5 mags in my MP5k clone. I diagnosed it as some sort of issue with the magazine catch. Plastic mags worked fine, but the metal mags just would not seat and lock in the gun. I tried the mags in my other MP5 copies and they worked fine. No doubt, the problem was this particular gun.

I contacted Bill Springfield, whom I have used for at least eight or nine guns by now, and he said he could fix the issue. So, I sent the gun off to him and received it back about a week and a half later. All my mags seat and lock just fine. I asked him what the problem was. Apparently the catch that engages in the magazine notch of the mag was just slightly (he said .5 mm) off spec. I can’t imagine that half a millimeter makes a difference on anything, but, whatever, all I care about is that the gun does what it’s supposed to.

This is the second time I’ve had to send an MP5 clone to him. Both were PTR’s that exhibited magazine lock/release issues. On one gun, the magazine release lever wouldn’t budge. And on the other gun the mags wouldn’t lock. In both cases, Mr Springfield fixed the issue and got the gun back to me quickly.

While I am a bit disappointed with PTR’s QC, I can unreservedly recommend Mr Springfield for the work that I had performed. I can’t say anything about the other services he performs on other guns. But…for putting paddle mag releases on G3 clones, and for diagnosing and solving magazine seat/lock issue, I recommend him.

Now, you may ask why I didn’t send the guns to PTR for warranty work. Easy reason – my experience with returning guns is that a) they often take forever to get returned and b) too often the problem is never fixed to my satisfaction. To me, it was worth the $60 I paid to get my gun back to me in a hurry and to know the job was done right. YMMV.

Now, don’t think I’m dumping on PTR. The MP5 is a relatively new offering from them so maybe theyre still cutting their teeth. I own eight of their HK91 copies and havent had a problem with any of them…but then again they have had a longer history making those than they have making MP5’s. I have high hopes for the .5.56 gun they are working on but I have no intention of being an early adopter. Let someone else find the land mines.

Anyway, for the work I’ve had done by Mr Springfield, I am quite pleased and wouldnt hesitate to use his services again.

Took the 10mm ( aka Best Millimeter) out for a spin this weekend. I was curious to see how it shot with the .40 barrel in it vs. the 10mm barrel. The difference in point of impact was negligible which makes me think that there is some merit to the notion that most factory 10mm isn’t  different, in terms of exterior ballistics, from factory .40 S&W ammo. So..I’ll order up a shiny new set of Redding reloading dies and start loading my own 10mm.

As for the gun itself, I had swapped out the factory sights for a set of quality night sights. In addition to that, I think I might actually go down the rabbit hole of finding a better trigger. Although this gun is specifically for shooting things at a range that is close enough to let you find your target using the Braille system, I’d still like to be able to have a trigger that doesn’t work against me.

And, I hate to sound like a wuss, but that stippling on the Gen4 frames isn’t terribly comfortable under recoil. But, as I said earlier, this is a gun for emergency use so I think that when I do have to shoot it I will have bigger (and furrier) things to worry about than a little abrasion.

Regardless, its always nice to get to spend some time at the range. I’ve a pile of guns here that need to go out and have me do some work on them…maybe with there being a tad more daylight after I get off work these days I can finally get on top of that. It’d be rather embarrassing to go through the apocalypse with a gun that I cant hit anything with because I was too busy to go to the range and sight the bloody thing in.

Further proof that Bill Ruger is, in fact, still dead:

I suppose this was to be expected. Samson got into bed with Ruger to make these stocks, and for Ruger it’s a no-brainer to let Samson handle that end of the supply chain. Its my understanding the current crop of Mini-14’s are much more accurate than the minute-of-bad-guy accuracy that the originals offered. In a world of mid-tier $700 AR’s that deliver better ergos, modularity, and logistics, why would you spend (dealer price) $1230 for something thats gonna take special mags and be a pain to mount optics?

But…I’ll get one just because. I’m actually starting to amass an interesting array of non-AR .223 guns…. Mini-14, JAKL, BRN-180…..as soon as PTR gets that new roller-delayed .223 out, I’ll definitely be on the line for that one.

It’s nice to see that with Billy Ruger gone Ruger has finally been what it could have been all along…a responsive, market-driven, innovative gun business. With Billy R. outta the way we got Ruger AR’s, 1911’s, PCC’s, PDW wanna-be’s, takedown guns, and 30-rd mags. I used to have a negative opinion of Ruger, but since they changed directions I have been quite impressed with them. And, just from a survivalists standpoint, they make the guns I’d want to carry in the zombie apocalypse…rugged, durable, and nigh-unbreakable.

Its only been in the last few years I’ve been able to buy the guns I’ve always wanted. The catalyst was after finally sucking it up and getting my degree, I started making okay money. I have an advantage in that I don’t have any debt..no mortgage, no car payments, no nothin’. As a result, whatever I do make, I wind up keeping a large chunk of. This means that what might be considered ‘just enough to get by’ for some folks is ‘plenty’ for me….although more is always better.

One of the things I’d been wanting for a while was a Glock 10mm as a belt gun for when I was out in the boonies. And, I got one. I threw some quality night sights on it, bought a half dozen mags, a lovely flap holster, and thats pretty much all I really need to do. Except…10mm ain’t cheap. Nor plentiful. But what is cheap(er) and plentiful is .40 S&W. Turns out the folks at Lone Wolf Distributors make a .40 S&W barrel for the Glock 40. I suppose I might have to change the recoil spring out but given how factory 10mm is watered down to almost .40 levels, I’ll bet all I need is the barrel change.

This’ll be a somewhat more affordable way to practice since I have gobs of .40 S&W ammo laying around from the local PD. And, I suppose, from a preparedness standpoint it’s a good idea to have a couple Glocks laying around in .40 since there still seems to be a ton of badges out there still using the .40 S&W.

Personally, I plan on picking up some 200 gr. bullets and loading them up more to what the 10mm was designed for. If modern 10mm loads are loaded down to hot .40 S&W levels, why wouldn’t I just get a .40 S&W instead? Nope…this’ll be a bit of a project for the reloading bench. If I have to ruin a bruin then I want as much metal going downrange as possible.

It’s nice that I finally have the career path that lets me afford stuff like this. I just wish I had more time available to take advantage of the new toys. But, I guess thats the trade off…time vs money.