Almost halfway done...

Range day yesterday morning: Fifty rounds of Winchester 125gr FMJ and fifty of American Eagle 125gr FMJ from Lucky Gunner.

I had...or rather, Jeff at Indy Arms Company had already replaced the magazine springs with 11-coil units from full-size Glock mags, which should eliminate the problem of the slide outrunning the magazine spring's ability to get the next round into position in time. I will note that with the eleven-coil springs, you will definitely be wanting a Maglula UpLULA to assist in getting the last round or two into the magazine.

In the little ziploc baggie is a 20# ISMI flat-wire recoil spring, two pounds heavier than the stock unit, with the intention of keeping the slide from bottoming out so viciously against the frame and exacerbating the gun's muzzle flip.

The first box of fifty, the Winchester stuff, was fired into the lower cluster of shots. Everything fed fine and there were no malfunctions. I then switched out the recoil assembly and loaded up the American Eagle and fired it at the head area of the B-21E target.

Again, the weapon went through the complete cycle of operation with all fifty rounds. Further, gone was the feeling that I could induce a "failure to go into battery" malfunction at will by not gripping the gun firmly enough. Lastly, the heavier spring seemed to have the gun shooting much flatter, as though the slide were no longer slamming violently to a stop at the end of its travel. I'd love to look at this with some high-speed video.

At any rate, that makes 900 total rounds fired since the firearm was last cleaned or lubricated, with four failures to go completely into battery (#63, #78, #126, #748) and four failures to feed (#221, #224, #282, #734). 1,100 rounds left to go.
.

#PeaceInOurTime #Reset

Now is a time when we need a great statesperson at the nation's helm! #Hillary2016 #gohillary pic.twitter.com/hxMBbqN2Tc

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) May 27, 2016

EDIT: #TMWYR that people have no clue who Neville Chamberlain is, nor do they recognize one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th Century. Which, when you think about it, handily explains the mess in which we find ourselves...

Tab Clearing...

• "How to Be a Gunwriter" by Weaponsman is a pretty good primer on the topic. The most important thing, of course, is to write. Which I need to be doing right now, actually.


• Got to finally meet wheelgun guru Grant Cunningham at the NRA Annual Meeting. We geeked out over Korths. As a sidenote, why is everybody losing their minds over the price tag on the Korth? Nobody blinks an eye at a $3k high-end 1911, after all.


• Why pretend to be looking around when you should really be looking around?

Spring Thing

On the advice from a friend who has experience with Glock 32s, I've swapped the magazine springs in the Glock 32 mags for the eleven-coil ones from full-size Glock mags. This is to cure this problem here:

I also picked up a 20# ISMI recoil spring. The factory unit is the same 18# recoil spring assembly used in the Glock 19, and you can feel the slide bottoming hard against the frame. I'm going to at least experiment with the heavier spring and see what it does. You'll notice that with the Gen4 guns, Glock introduced a dedicated recoil spring assembly for the .357/.40 guns, rather than just using the 9mm one. I'm filing that under the "clue" column.
.

Note to self:

Apparently when Sudafed said it would turn off the snot faucet for twelve hours, they didn't mean "...in a row."

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) May 25, 2016

Does size really matter?

Thus far I've been shooting a bunch of Lucky Gunner's .357SIG ammo through my Glock 32, which has a 4" barrel. Since .357SIG's stock in trade is blazing speed, would a little more barrel help?

To find out, I took the Glock 35 I had converted to 9mm, and converted it back to its .40 configuration, and then dropped in a 5.32" Lone Wolf .357SIG conversion barrel.

I was dreading doing the re-converting, because I had even changed the extractor and trigger housing (which contains the ejector) to the appropriate 9mm parts, but I needn't have worried. Even my ten-thumbed self had the frame and slide stripped down, the parts swapped, and the gun reassembled in fifteen minutes.

So it was off to the range with a chronograph and some ammo...

American Eagle 125gr FMJ
LO: 1386
HI: 1410
AV: 1397
ES: 23.58
SD: 9.16

Federal HST Tactical 125gr JHP
LO: 1358
HI: 1416
AV: 1392
ES: 58.36
SD: 15.96

Hornady XTP 147gr JHP
LO: 1228
HI: 1259
AV: 1243
ES: 31.32
SD: 9.64

Those averages are, respectively, 53fps, 36fps, and 55fps more than the shorter-barreled gun. It's not a ton of improvement, but it's there. The long-slide gun also shot a whole bunch flatter than the compact 32. The small gun borders on being a handful, while the bigger one is almost docile. Without having yet tried them on the clock, I'm betting splits on harder targets, such as steel plates at 20+ yards, will be noticeably quicker.
.

Well, that wasn't the problem...

So, if you'll recall my misadventures with the Steyr C9-A1 and the Wolf Polyformance 115gr FMJ ammo...

I stopped by the Steyr booth at the show. I mentioned to the guys in the booth that I'd been shooting one and asked if there was an updated extractor available for the gun. He allowed as there was, and I said that was a good thing, because mine's been a complete dumpster fire so far.

He also told me about the Steyr's tight European tolerances and how I should avoid weak ammunition because a finely crafted piece like the C9 would be a fussier eater than...other guns. I think I did a good job of keeping a straight face, but you'll have to ask Kevin if I really did or not.

Canis lupus lupus, the Steyr's bête noire

So, anyway, from the wild ejection pattern of the Wolf and the number of malfs, I had surmised on that previous range session that the Wolf was extremely variable in velocity, with weak rounds failing to run the gun and hot ones functioning it fine. I saved ten rounds to take to the range and test over the chrono...

Here are the results:

Wolf Polyformance 115gr FMJ
LO: 1150
HI: 1178
AV: 1159
ES: 28.56
SD: 9.74

That's...well, pretty much the opposite of inconsistent. As a matter of fact, it borders on freakishly consistent for cheap FMJ ammo. I think it's safe to say that the problems are with the Steyr, hopefully they can be solved by an upgraded extractor, because otherwise this thing is just way too annoyingly fussy for me to bother with. If I take a pistol to the range, I want to be able to buy whatever cheap range fodder they have there without worrying whether my gun will run it or not.

At least the ten-round chrono string went off without a malfunction.

This makes 630 rounds fired through the Steyr C9-A1 without cleaning or lubing, with five failures-to-fire (#8, #472, #535, #555, #558), seven failures to extract (#234, #266, #276, #531, #535, #543, #558), and one failure to go completely into battery (#116). 1,370 rounds left to go.
.

Oh, please, no...

Drifted to sleep on the futon in the living room last night with earbuds in, listening to the dulcet tones of Ballistic Radio. Now I'll have to re-download that episode.

Woke up still fully clothed and...oh, no...with my soft palate all tender and bruised feeling, the usual forerunner of a sore throat. And then my nose started running. Oh, please don't let this be "con crud"; I've had more than enough sick days this year.
.

I guess it was inevitable.

Instead of a SHOT Show unveiling, Smith & Wesson waited until mid-May and the NRAAM to drop their newest offering, a .45ACP addition to the M&P Shield line of single-stack subcompacts:

Shown here with the flush-fit six-round magazine in the paw of your faithful correspondent, the .45 Shield is practically indistinguishable, size-wise, from the 9mm/.40 version unless the two are side-by-side. Smith has pictures. It's distinctly slender-er than its most obvious rival, the Glock 36. I'd have to see it next to a Kahr P45 to be certain, but I'd say they're roughly comparable in size.

SayUncle hand-models for you here, with the seven-round extendo. Smith claims a weight only a few ounces more than a classic Model 36 Chief's Special J-frame. I have not verified this.
.
.

I'm not gonna take it anymore.

If the purpose of advertising is to make you stop and look, this worked.

I was indeed stopped in my tracks, temporarily bereft of the ability to even.

So, I'm supposed to be taking my 1911-buying advice from underemployed Eighties hair metal singers now? Also, if Dee Snyder's so into 1911s, how come we can only get country friggin' music at our annual NRA soirees?
.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig...

I am back home again in Indiana.

Blogging should resume shortly, after I hydrate. Beer has water in it, right?
.

Can't I just phone this one in?

Sunday morning and my head is emptier than an Ethiopian pantry.

I've got to get out on the floor here soon and sweep up the corners I missed the first two days. Something like normal blogging should resume tomorrow.

Also, I would have been uploading all kinds of pictures of stuff, but I forgot my laptop power supply at home, so that's going to have to wait 'till I get home, too. If you have the Instagramming, there are photos there.

Second Amendment Cosplay

There have been some amusing displays of exhibitionary open carry this year, but nothing truly noteworthy. I guess for some people, a gun show or convention like this is their only chance to really signal tribal affiliations, so they go all in.

And when you think about it as cosplay, a con's the perfect place for it.

Renaissance or end of the line?

This is a pretty slick little wheelgun. I'd love to run one for a bit.

The cynic in me wants to say, however, that the revolver market share is teetering on the brink of precipitous shrinkage. Five or ten years from now, don't be shocked to find nothing but cowboy guns, large magnum hunting revolvers, a scattering of J-frame-type guns for diehard old guys to carry, and the occasional odd lungfish like the Judge or Governor.

The generation who was introduced to guns from video games and action movies just don't seem to bond with the wheelies, by and large.
.

Rise of the Machines...

"Soft-Off" power buttons, which I seem to recall showed up with Win95, are the bane of my existence. I miss having an easily-accessible thing on the front of my PC's case that would turn off the power to the MoBo. When I tell a machine to turn off, I don't want it giving me any lip; I want it turning off. This is the first step towards SkyNet, mark my words.

EDIT: Think about it: "Soft-Off" power buttons impose a software layer between the button and the power supply. You are not turning off the computer, you are asking the computer if it would like to turn off. This doesn't sit right with me, one little bit.
.

The Big Bad Wolf

Fifty rounds each of 115gr Wolf Polyformance and Prvi Partizan 124gr FMJ from Lucky Gunner went to the range on Wednesday morning. I had figured that the Wolf would be more or less interchangeable with the TulAmmo that had functioned the gun reliably the other day. I was wrong; the Wolf was a horror show.

There were multiple failures to extract/eject. Similar to the malfs that popped up with the underpowered Blazer Brass, it was hard to tell if the claw just popped off the rim when the case head encountered the case mouth of the next round up in the magazine or what.

Supposedly there's a newer extractor from Steyr? I should call them.

I mentioned about striker-fired guns and hard Russian primers. The Glock 19 had one failure-to-fire out of 400 rounds of TulAmmo and Brown Bear. The Sig Sauer P320 had three over more than five hundred rounds of random East Bloc steel-cased stuff. The Steyr had one in one hundred rounds of TulAmmo... and a whopping three in only forty rounds of Wolf yesterday.

The Wolf's ejection pattern was erratic, with some spent cases being flung over my right shoulder and others barely dribbling over the left side of the ejection port. Rather than just letting the dumpster fire burn, I cut it short at forty rounds, saving the last ten to shoot over the chrono.

I popped open the box of 124gr PPU, and all fifty rounds went off without a hitch. This gun sure is a fussy eater.

This makes 620 rounds fired through the Steyr C9-A1 without cleaning or lubing, with five failures-to-fire (#8, #472, #535, #555, #558), seven failures to extract (#234, #266, #276, #531, #535, #543, #558), and one failure to go completely into battery (#116). 1,380 rounds left to go.
.

Lazy...

So, my .357SIG conversion barrel for the Glock 35 arrived yesterday.

Now, when I converted the gun over to 9mm, I didn't just drop in the barrel, but I also changed to a 9mm extractor and (because this it a Gen4 gun) a 9mm recoil spring assembly.

While I was up in the attic in the afternoon, I dug out the plastic capsule containing the original .40 barrel, extractor, and RSA. Late last night, while doing laundry after watching Archer, I field-stripped the pistol to change it over to .357SIG...

...only to be reminded that I had also put the trigger mechanism housing with a 9mm ejector in it and the original trigger mechanism housing with the .40 ejector was still up in the attic. (Further complicating things, the Gen4 guns also have a .357SIG-specific ejector, in addition to the 9 and .40...) This would have entailed retrieving the part from the attic, detail-stripping the frame, moving all the trigger guts over to the new housing...

I just couldn't be arsed.

This project can wait 'til Sunday night.
.

The little scar over my eyebrow has stopped hurting.

Hauling out the suitcase yesterday afternoon to start packing for the weekend, I found myself speaking aloud to my telephone "Hey, Siri, what's the weather forecast for Louisville, Kentucky?"

Sure, I could have walked into the next room and looked it up on the computer, but that was still kinda neat. On my older phones, you could verbally "Okay Google" up a search window, but there still would have been links to click and text to scroll and whatnot. Asking the robot what the weather's going to be and having it tell you while you continue throwing stuff in a suitcase is still pretty Jetsons to me.
.

Lares and Penates

Thinking of using the pouch on my media creds for a gris-gris. Keep my mojo strong and bring me luck at #nraam16

A photo posted by Tamara Keel (@tamarakeel) on May 18, 2016 at 5:01pm PDT

Malfunction Junction, how's that function?

Well that's...novel. One of the more interesting of the 4 FTEs this morning. #steyr #steyrc9 #9mm #wolfammo

A photo posted by Tamara Keel (@tamarakeel) on May 18, 2016 at 3:59pm PDT