All posts tagged 38 Special

Revolver cleaning and tools

I finally got around to hitting my Dillon 550B and loaded up a ton of my favorite 38 Special hand loads.   I’m amazed at how well I shoot with some of these bullets because I’m usually doing most of my training with semi-auto guns and the ammo is rarely very accurate.   Hits are usually what I am looking for in defensive shooting, but when I am shooting a Smith & Wesson Model 19, I can actually go for a bulls eye.  A few months ago I dug up a bunch of SWC lead bullets and used  up a  full pound of Unique gun powder.

The one bad thing about getting in a good range day was that I had to clean all of gun gun out of my gun  before I put it away.   I don’t mind shooting lead in revolvers, but I won’t do it in semi-autos anymore.   I used my Otis gun cleaning kit because not only did it have the brushes to get the job done, it had a nice scraper to get in to the areas that needed to be cleaned.   When I used a 1911 and shot lead bullets, I found compacted lead in so many areas that I didn’t think the gun would be reliable if I didn’t get it all out.  The extractor areas can be a tipping point if  you gunk them up.

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Military handguns and gun grips

I know several first hand bitchin and moaning concerning both the 1911 and Beretta 92FS or both.   I rarely engage in these arguments because I am experienced enough to know that people have preferences and forcing someone to carry a firearm that does not fit them very well is not wise.   I expect that the military will eventually move towards an handgun that is more versatile as far as adjusting to varying hand sizes much in the way that the M4 Carbine is adjustable for various operators.

The guns that seem to have improved operator control with gun grip changes were the Sig family of firearms.   There is something serious lacking in the factory grips because in my humble opinion they feel too slippery and that is not something I think is good.   Every Sig that I have seen in a Defensive Training course had altered gun grip and everyone was using the Hogue pistol grips, wrap around, finger grooves or standard ones.   My Beretta 92FS felt smaller by putting finger groove grips on it and the Sig 239 I own feels like it’s suppose to, an extension of my hand.

 

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Laser grips? Are they any different now?

Just like the white lights that could only be mounted to trigger guards and the lasers that mounted the same way, gun manufacturers have been modifying their firearms so that can all be accessorized.  It’s really easy to spot some of the older model Sig 228 and Sig 229 guns because they don’t have rails.  Now it’s pretty much the law of the land to have a rail on your handgun because so many understand the need for using a white light.  Just like everything that has to do with firearms and caliber debates, you have to know what the task at hand is and know what tools will work to get the job done.

I agree that the best place to put a laser is probable right inside the barrel and beam it out of the exact same spot the bullet flies out of, but right now that is impossible.   Lasermax and Crimson Trace laser grips have different approaches to getting the same job done, and it’s really what your preference is.  For close up fighting, once you get your laser setup for the ranges you wish to do combat training or defensive training in your laser will work, but side mounted lasers will become inaccurate once you get out of your comfort zone.

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Revival of laser grips?

I think there really has been a change in attitude towards  using laser grips.    Now that police and military are actually being trained to use their weapons and every municipality has a better trained SWAT team than a decade ago, lasers are actually finding a place in the CCW and LEO communities.   When I first saw lasers coming onto the scene in the late 1990s many un trained LEOs got into situations where they would have normally pulled the trigger and taken the first shot, but the lasers slowed their shooting down because they were tracking the dot.

Instinctive shooting can’t be compromised, period.  When you are  in a defensive situation, you are more than likely within 9yds are less of your attacker and there is no need to even look at your sights let alone your laser dot.   Now that we have cleared that up, Crimson Trace laser grips has done a good job as a company of sending out a Free DVD that gives you some ideas on how to deploy a laser in defensive situations where it actually reduces your chances of being shot by helping  you stay under cover.

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Road trips and cleaning firearms

I was never one to jump on the bandwagon that it should  be necessary for someone in the military to break their M16 down every day and clean it.   I always thought that if the gun needed that much attention, they really should think about a new design.   The real reason the military does this for many soldiers is basically to keep everyone occupied and give them something to do.   I don’t think even an M16 needs to be cleaned more than 2 or 3 times a week, even in dirty conditions.   I’m sure that it some situations you are better off keeping  your chamber hatch closed and not opening to clean it when the air is full of sand and will just attach itself to the gun lube on your  bolt.   We sell a lot of Otis gun cleaning kits to the military for a reason though.   Everything you could want to clean a pistol or rifle is in a small compact case.

I personally find using rifle cleaning rods to be easier and for some reason I feel like I am getting a thorough cleaning.   Bore snakes work very well, but I have found them to become real messy to use if they are being used often.   You have to put them back in the clear case they came with and sometimes I feel it’s easier and cleaner to toss out dirty cleaning patches instead of putting the filthy boresnake back in it’s patch.   Bore snakes are easy to clean if you want to toss them in a wash machine, but this isn’t practical if you are on a road trip.   Otis gun cleaning kits, depending on which you purchase, should have just about every tool and brush you need to clean your firearm.   I did jam a patch in a rifle once and i did have to resort to using a cleaning rod to unjam it, but after I got the right method for “taking a pinch on the patch” and not using too much of it for a smaller caliber, I got the job done.   Otis has plenty of videos you can watch before you buy a cleaning kit if you think the kits are a little overwhelming.

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New tools new tactics

Whenever we run a novice student through a carbine course, one of the first things we teach them after the basic saftey and shooting techniques is barrel sight offset.   Since so many people are using AR15 type rifles, there is a considerable distance between the place where a scope points its crosshairs and where the bullet is going to impact at close ranges.   Something like a Trijicon ACOG gives you a good idea of what people mostly use and we show crosshairs pointing at a dot and where the bullet hits approx 2 inches below that.   This really only has a purpose in showing a shooter what could be applied is using a firearm in self defense in a hostage type situation.

Since lasers have been improving and prices are coming down, we see them showing up more and more on handguns.   While I suggest people take a look at the price they are paying for them and do a lot of research on the durability of the product, a whole new can of worms emerges when sighting in your crimson trace or lasermax laser sights.   Depending on how your laser is mounted, there will be a windage offset that needs to be known.  Crimson Trace laser grips on revolvers can project from right above the grip area or there is a newer style that projects next to where the barrel line is.   Each have their pros and cons, but there is still an offset.   With new tools, there are always slight changes that need to be made to insure an operator knows that with distance, bullet impacts change.

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