The life of a CCW pistol is not an easy one. Most guns lead lives of idle luxury. Despite manufacturer's ad campaigns showing specops guys rolling about in the mud, your average rifle or pistol lives in a climate-controlled safe and is transported to and from the range in a carefully padded case. The "Hostile Environment" finish on 90% of civilian-owned HK USP's is rarely exposed to any environment more hostile than the trunk of a car.
Not so for carry pistols. They get bumped, banged, sweated on, covered with clothing fuzz and other detritus, and worn shiny from repeated holsterings and unholsterings. If the owner is conscientous, they also get the wheels shot off them in an attempt to maintain proficiency. As a result, they rarely look like the shiny guns in magazine review photo spreads.
Xavier, recalling a thread from one of the online gun boards, asked to see those beat-up workhorses. Here's mine:
I don't carry the Pro every day, because I have a couple of other 1911's set up more or less identically, but it's definitely my "heavy rotation" totin' iron, seeing the inside of a holster three or four days a week for the last four years. Considering the wear and tear it's had on it, I think the Black T finish is holding up pretty well, but I'll probably have it re-coated at some point in the next year or so.
What's yer carry rig for yer shootin' iron? Galco?
ReplyDeleteso where does your firing-iron accumulate the equivalent of toe-jam?
ReplyDeleteI believe she carries her Pro in a Galco Royal Guard, IWB holster..IIRC
ReplyDeleteb&n: The holster in the picture is a Galco Summer Comfort. The snaps broke on it, and I replaced it with a Galco Royal Guard.
ReplyDeletephlegmfatale: I snapped that picture, thinking it rather artsy and a good job of macro photography, and the kids on the gun board I posted it on gave me nothing but grief for the lint all over the gun. It accumulates mostly in the little hole in the hammer, btw.