Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Things I used to like and don't anymore.

1) Hex-head grip screws on a 1911.

Who carries an allen wrench around with them all the time? On the other hand, there's almost always something handy that can be pressed into service as a screwdriver, including various parts of the gun itself.


2) Hogue soft rubber grips.

That neoprene is nice and sticky-grippy in my hand. Unfortunately it's also nice and sticky-grippy in my holster. By the end of the day my tee shirt would be all balled up around the pistol, which is considered to be a fairly serious faux pas at an ATM at two in the morning.


3) Blued steel for CCW guns.

Sure, I like traditional blue steel because it looks the way a gun should look, but when it comes to something that's going to get sweated on, maybe rained on, and be in and out of temperature extremes, I'd personally rather slap a coat of paint on it or make it out of soulless stainless steel.

29 comments:

  1. "Painted ordnance", anyone?

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  2. Hell, various heads on bolts these days. Had to put a luggage rack on the UncleMobile and it had some bizarre 6 pointed bit thingy. Had to go to Lowe's and buy a set to do that.

    Odd.

    -SayUncle

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  3. I'm with you on everything on the list, Tam.

    Hex head grip screws I never quite got - I *believe* the reasoning was that they weren't as likely to strip as a flathead screw. Of course, they're also assuming that anyone using them will have the exact sized hex wrench handy at all times and *won't* just jam the nearest T-star bit (*ahem*)

    I was gonna debate the Hogues, except that you're spot on. I still lurve the Hogues on my P226, but I don't carry that. I was going to offer the model 38 for rebuttal, except that it gets carried in a pocket holster (Nemesis FTW) and as such falls outside the purview of your point... I've noticed the same phenomenom WRT shirt bunching with the 360PD in the Bianchi pistol pocket.

    And lastly, hell yes on the stainless or other finish. I've been starting to look into getting the P3AT slide hard-chromed or somesuch for that very reason; of course, that would then double the cost of the Kel-Tec...

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  4. "Had to put a luggage rack on the UncleMobile and it had some bizarre 6 pointed bit thingy."

    Torx wrenches. I have a folding set of them plus a real small one for when the wife's laptop needs the cat hair cleaned out of it.

    I have hex-head grip screws on two of my guns. Phillips strip. Flatheads also get ugly unless your really careful about what size screwdriver you put in them. Hex generally stay pretty. And about the only time I take the grips off of those guns is when I'm at my workbench.

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  5. TIUTLBDA:

    Obsolete/odd/variety of carry guns.

    Not now, I've settled on one sort of .45, one .380, and one tiny. They are all stainless, all modern, all have the same shoot/load/unload system, and I have several of each. So it's always the "same" emergency gun.

    No "What gun is this?" in the mix.

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  6. Because a muzzle strike once worked for me, I've got a two-piece guide rod in my carry 1911A1. And I've got stainless hex head screws holding my crimson trace on. Heads of carbon steel grip screws kept rusting in the humidity. Brownells Teflon on 1911. Yes I know, I'm taking a terrible tactical risk with shiny screw heads.

    Whenever I'm civilian carrying, I've got to have my license on my person; so it's no problem to keep two small Allen wrenches in my wallet with my carry permit.

    YMMV, but it works for me.

    Personally, I'm still waiting for Col. Cooper's Peabody Spoonbill.

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  7. What about a Parkerized gun? YMMV, but I like that finish a lot.

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  8. Thing I like about stainless, I can leave a gun in the car for a month or two and it's still good.

    I mean, I actually HAVE had stainless guns show points of rust before, I'm that hard on them.

    Not a surprise, I've also had a crop of grain growing inside the car trunk before, too.

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  9. I opine that hex-head fasteners are simply Robertson screws designed by a committee.

    Jim

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  10. My last pistol was in plastic and stainless steel (S&W M&P) but...the stainless steel was black! Anodized, I think. I carry my blued M13 in the winter, but during summer, it's the M442 and my SS Para CCO or the M&P.

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  11. A neglectium exterior is a fine thing in a CCW gun.

    At one point I hadda have me some S&W wood finger groove combat grips. They looked so cool. Once I had them I found out they don't soak up recoil, they forced my hand into a weird position, and they're hard to shoot left-handed, so I sold them.

    Jerry Miculek grips, on the other hand, are wonderful. Good shape, don't require your fingers to fit into finger grooves, and they work equally well left or right handed. CrimsonTrace LaserGrips with a Miculek profile would be my S&W dream grips.

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  12. "Who carries an allen wrench around with them all the time"

    Raises hand.

    of course, I do that shit for a living, so I ALWAYS have a bucketload of tools.

    I still prefer slotted grip screws, though.

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  13. i carry a blued .45 for the last 30 yrs. If you dont have the time to take the 5 min it takes to wipe a oiled rag to the surface of YOUR LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM. Then you need to take a good look at why you carry.

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  14. Anon 5:31,

    Gosh, you're right.

    I guess I'll just stop carrying. Thanks for clearing that up for me. :)

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  15. PS: Do you have an electric starter on your car?

    I mean, if you don't have the extra thirty seconds to hand-crank YOUR LIFE SUPPORT VEHICLE, maybe you need to take a good look at why you drive...

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  16. A few decades ago I ran across a CHROME plated Remington 51. The gee who had it claimed it was factory nickel. Hah!

    Whoever did the job did it right because it's been my almost daily carry since, with no visible wear. I can't say much about looks but it sure is shiny. Shooty, too, when I need to turn loose a round.

    Stranger

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  17. Anon 5:31,

    Gosh, you're right.

    I guess I'll just stop carrying. Thanks for clearing that up for me. :)





    Hey Tam,

    Geez, all this wiping and caressing of firearms for CCW; I mean wouldn't it just be easier carry an old blued or nickel plated .38? I mean it's not like you are running out of them anytime soon! LOL!

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  18. I have the time, I'd just rather spend five minutes a day not rubbing a pistol.

    Your tastes may differ.

    Snark off.

    If one ought not to have safety equipment unless one spends five minutes daily on maintenance, then one had better reevaluate those jumper cables, spare tire, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, food-n-water, flashlight, generator... counting the ones for car and house both, that's an hour a day.

    Captcha word, coations- what Anon 5:31 uses on his LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM.

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  19. True Confession: Of all my medium-frame revos, the one I shoot the most is my 2" Model 64 because I don't feel bad about dirtying it up, sweating all over it, and then waiting a couple days to clean it...

    I'm a bad gun owner. :o

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  20. Those original M1911 grip screws were precisely shaped so they could be turned with the rim from a .45ACP cartridge. It's the only screwdriver you need to carry for a 1911.

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  21. "i carry a blued .45 for the last 30 yrs. If you dont have the time to take the 5 min it takes to wipe a oiled rag to the surface of YOUR LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM. Then you need to take a good look at why you carry."

    Because you take 5 minutes to wipe down your pistol every time that you carry, right?

    And you carry that blued steel gun, EVERY DAY, right?

    Let's see, here:
    (30 years) * (365 days) * (5 minutes) = 54750 minutes.

    That's 912.5 hours, which is 38.02083333 days that you've allegedly spent, wiping down that good old .45 of yours.

    Now, I'm quite the fan of the carbon steel 1911, myself. But 38 days worth of work (with no sleep, no time for coffee breaks, no eating, pooping-- just wiping... wiping....) is worth a lot more than your average top-shelf 1911. Frankly, figuring in 3 shifts a work day, that counts as 114 days worth of work. Now, in one hundred and fourteen days worth of work (wiping, wiping), I believe that I could aford a seriously high-end pistol, made of carbon steel, stainless steel, or unobtainium. And I'm not even paid much.

    Sure, your stainless pistol needs wiping down occasionally, too. It still needs cleaning. But if you carry a gun to protect your life so that you can go about living it, rather than carrying a gun so that you can live another day to do nothing more than carry a gun (and be wiping, wiping), then maybe it occurs to you after awhile that saving the time and the effort, and just carrying a more corrosion-resistant gun is worth it.

    And anonymous? Tam has had the opportunity to consider why she carries a gun. I would ask if you had, but I'm afraid that I'd get another sweeping declaration that doesn't make any sense.

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  22. Iwipe down my gun when I'm taking my morning constitutional, thus avoiding the extra expense of time. Multitasking. Live it, love it, learn it.

    Oh, wait, you mean HANDGUNS.

    Roger: Without f**cking up the grip, you can't get near the grip screw on a 45 with a cartridge rim.

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  23. Fear Matt whipping out the unobtainum. Now I have to watch The Core again.

    Russ

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  24. I've heard that for concealed carry it is a good idea to have a gun finish and holster in a shade close to your skin tone. It won't show through thin fabric as much.

    I don't think I'd care for a pink pistol, but Coyote Tan duracoat would probably be close enough.

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  25. You don't even need a screw driver to remove flat-head grip screws. The standard screws are hemispherical-headed, and can be screwed in and out with the rim of a .45 ACP.

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  26. If you don't have a couple of twenties extra to spend on getting a stainless steel gun (rather than the marginally cheaper blued steel) then you need to question your need for that gun.

    (Stainless 625 owner)

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  27. I've heard that for concealed carry it is a good idea to have a gun finish and holster in a shade close to your skin tone. It won't show through thin fabric as much.

    Hmm. Who makes guns and holster in fish-belly white? Maybe I should just paint everything over with Liquid Paper, instead.

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  28. I just checked on my old 1911 Government Model (mid-50s vintage) and the grip screws stick out of the grips just far enough that a .45 ACP rim fits them perfectly, without touching the grips.

    Sounds like these modern rigs have messed up yet another part of the 1911 mystique :-).

    Consarn it, as if forward slide serrations, full-length guide rods and gouged-out ejection ports weren't enough, they also had to mess up the grips.

    And you kids, get off my lawn!

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