MD State Championship and EIC at Fort Hill

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Finch

To tack on one last EIC match for the season I headed to Fort Hill Rifle and Pistol which is tucked the hills of western Maryland for the MD state Championship on Saturday and an EIC match on Sunday. Ft Hill is really a great club. Not a huge range but its run by a very dedicated group of folks who really made the match run smoothly.

600 yard line

MD State Championship

The MD state championship was a CMP 800 Agg. It was cool and overcast most of the day. which made for a nice day of shooting.

I had an up and down match but all in all it had some bright spots. Off hand started out about average in the first string, then I finished up with a bang and shot my best ever off-hand string a 96-2 . That’s good news the way I see it as now I know i “can” shoot well in off-hand I need to just not screw up so much.

DCIM128GOPRO Show me your warface!

Sitting was a hot mess, rushed the first string after bumbling the load. The second string went better but still a little weak. During the off-season I am going to spend some time practicing getting into position and firing with my 22 upper, my club as a nice warm, indoor 22 range that would be perfect for this.

Rapid prone had been causing me some trouble in the past few XTC matches. I was able to get it together this time and post a reasonable score. Big surprise the key is slowing down.

Back to 600 I added another layer of bad shooting followed by one of great shooting. I shot my lowest ever slow prone in the first string. Dropping 5s, and 7s all over the place. Then, something clicked and I shot my best ever slow prone at 600. As in off-hand from this match I’ll take this as progress as it just means I have a higher potential for improvement now.

Fort Hill EIC Match.

Pre dawn I jumped back in the truck and crossed the MD line to Fort Hill’s Warrior Mountain Range for a day of shooting. I was hoping to take the best of what I did the day before and reproduce the best strings. Well, things didn’t quite go as planned. The

Off Hand started out good and ended good but I popped a 5 in the middle of the string, I knew it was bad when it left, I wasn’t ready and squeezed it anyway. Frankly i am lucky i caught that 5 ring. That said the rest of the string was good. Still feeling ok about off-hand.

She ain’t got no alibi

Well, In sitting I finally was that guy, I called an alibi. First round wouldn’t feed and while tried my best to troubleshoot it the clock ran too long. After trying to replicate the issue at home with some dummy rounds I think the culprit was as simple as i didn’t seat the mag all the way. Either way I pulled that mag from rotation.

Rapid prone proved to be a bright spot a with a nice and neat 1/4/5. if I work on my pace a bit I am sure I can tighten that up.

DCIM128GOPRO

Before I racked my rifle at the 300 yard line I cranked on the elevation, I needed to head back to 600, Or so I thought. Took my time squaring up the first shot, squared trigger, bam, right in the dirt. Check my sight everything seemed fine, I added 5 clicks, maybe the light is different, maybe it was a bad round. Second one, perfect 6:00 right below the 5 ring.

Took the rifle out of my shoulder and cranked the elevation all the way down, at one rotation it bottomed out. I had put 38 clicks on instead of 63. Well there went trying to make the cut for a silver achievement award. I went on to have a pretty good string, but there was no coming back from those two blanks. My rear sight now has a nice index mark so at a glance I can see if I am at the right elevation for 600.

In the end I made some stupid mistakes this weekend but I’ll take that as progress. I’m feeling more confident off-hand and at 600 so I’ll I need to do is not F up. Easy right?

NJ State Championship and New Holland: 168 Rounds in One Weekend

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Finch

In my excitement after shooting the NTI and P100 at Perry, I signed up for a series of late season XTC and EIC Matches. This weekend I scheduled an aggressive line up: a NRA 800 Agg at New Holland, a match behind enemy lines in NJ for a Governors 10 Match (P100 format), and a EIC match right after. These were also the first matches with my new White Oak A4 sporting a Geissele MK7, but more on that later.

New Holland 800 AGG

It was a beautiful almost fall day for the NRA match at New Holland . Off-hand went well. I don’t mean to jinx it but I’ve been hitting the low 90s pretty consistently now in with the black rifle. While this is no high master score, its a big improvement from where I was last year (70s).

Sitting went well. The first string I was a little low. Turned out my “come ups” were a little off from practice. Two more clicks fixed it for the second string. Well mostly fixed it. I let the rifle slip during one of the shots and shot a “96 the hard way”, 9 in the 10 and 1 in the 6 ring. Whoops.

Rapid Prone was better than it had been for me in the last 800 Agg. I need to focus on slowing down a bit. At the next match I am going to start using my timer.

DCIM128GOPRO

Back on 600 again I creeped up a bit. I am weakest on the 600 yard berm and I need to work on that. In the Garand games matches I used to think I was pretty good in prone shooting but the 600 has been humbling.

In the Pit

NJ State Championships and EIC match at Cumberland Riflemen

At 3 am the next morning the alarm went off and I drug myself out of bed and headed behind enemy lines for a long day of shooting in NJ.

First was a Governors ten match which is a “presidents course” thirty rounds: 10 off-hand, 10 rapid prone, followed by 10 slow prone. It was a good chance to check my zeros. I ended up bringing my off-hand zero to the same 8 clicks as my sitting zero and brought my rapid prone zero up another click.

The wind was whipping to my 8:00 for the 600 yard stage. I ended up with two minutes of left wind by the end of the stage. Since I was using this as practice I didn’t take any wind on my first shot just to try to learn how to handle conditions like that.

600

EIC Match

The EIC match started immediately after the Governors match and things were running a little late so we skipped the brief break and got right to it. I was able to crack 90 in off-hand with a little luck. I dropped a couple of 8s and then spent some time surrounding the 10 before I found the middle.

Sitting went well. l I had a bit of a windage issue in the Governors match but corrected for it in the EIC. I slowed down a bit in rapid prone but still bounced a little. Back on the 600, the wind had stalled out. I did better, or at least good enough. I still need to work on the back 20.

In the end I made my goal which was to crack the 450 line, which is the cut for CMP’s EIC achievement pin. It was a great match and Cumberland Rifleman is a nice club. This was probably the most fun I have ever had in New Jersey. Next weekend I am off to Maryland’s State Championship and EIC match to get back at it! Just in time to avoid the Philadelphia area “popemageddon.‬”

Glock 40 10mm: Night Sights

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Finch

A quick post on night sights for the G40 since it’s new and has a slightly unique set up. The G40 MOS takes the same size sights as the G20 due to the thicker slide. The MOS cut out causes the OEM adjustable sights to hang off the back of the slide a bit. So some of the after market sight will also hang. While not a functional issue since I was replacing the sights anyway I wanted to replace them with sights that didn’t hang.

I went with Trijocon’s “Bright and Tough” green three dot night sights. Specifically the GL04. I use the same sights on my other Glocks and they will not hang off the back and are functional and simple.

Best of the Big Five: WWII Sidearms

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Finch

Post written by a Guest Author

Today my son had his kindergarten orientation in the morning, so I decided to burn a whole day at work for it since Mondays are pretty slow. I figured I would hit the range for an afternoon of fun with some pistols I’ve never shot.

I filled up my pistol case with the main sidearms of the “Big 5” of WWII and head to the range.

First up was my Ithaca 1911. This is one of my favorites to look at. These old 1911A1s are very pleasing to look at. I love the look of the worn parkerization, which leads you to believe that it must have one heck of a story to tell. I’ve never shot this one before today, even though I packed it along to the range many times. As you could imagine, it shot like pretty much every other 1911A1. Not very well for me. The trigger was decent, albeit heavy. I somehow developed a flinch that didn’t help my pistol shooting much. Although I’m sure it also did not help that this is the first time I’d shot a handgun in months, since I’ve taken up shooting High Power competitions, more seriously. So to sum up this one, good shooter and probably my favorite of the day.

Next up was one I was a little nervous to shoot. One, because of a lack of available parts, and the fact this is an all matching gun, complete with capture papers, but also because I was about to shoot some 8MM Nambu ammo manufactured from 40S&W brass made by Buffalo Arms. The ammo functioned fine though! I recommend it for a cheap source of a nearly impossible caliber to find. If you still didn’t figure it out, it is a Nambu, Type 14, from Japan. This gun had a very light trigger with a lot of creep. The first shot surprised me a little, as I thought I was still staging the trigger. The trigger also seemed a little finicky, with reset. Accuracy didn’t seem horrible, but again, I never shot this gun and that trigger will take some getting used to. A fun one to shoot, but nerve-wracking due to the aforementioned reasons.

After the Nambu was one of the main sidearms of the British Empire. The , firing the anemic 38S&W. Another one that I bought for the collection, and never fired. I had only read stories of the Limeys hate for 38S&W cartridge. After today, I see why. After firing a 1911 and even the Type 14, this thing felt like a cap gun. I’m pretty sure Jerry could have just reached up, caught these .38 bullets and threw them right back at the Brits! Despite the lack of power, this was still a blast to shoot. Breaking the top, flinging the casings proved to be almost as much fun as shooting it. This one shot extremely low. I think the bullet may have been close to dropping out of the air on its travels, all the way out to the target, 25 yards away.

Webley Mk IV

Now, I decided it was time to shoot one with a little more heat. So next, we traveled to Mother Russia and picked up a TT-33. While I never shot this one, I’ve fired other Tokarevs, and they all felt like communist garbage, to me. Trigger slap, pins walking out rickety slides. Just plain junk. Well, the 1939 Soviets must put a little more care into their pistols than they did in later years. This example was very nice to shoot. The trigger was not just adequate for a service pistol, but pretty nice, and it did not feel clunky at all. Very tight, and I think shoots nicer than I did today, with my case of the shakes and fatigue. As I’m sure many of you that have shot the 7.62×25 cartridge before, know, that it’s no slouch. It’s a blast to shoot, no matter the clunky platform you’re using.

And finally, to finish off the big 5, the main power of the Axis of Evil, Germany. I grabbed a P-38 to finish out todays shoot. It was a tough choice between this and the P08, as I didn’t want to drag even more guns out, just to clean when I get home. This was a close second, for my favorite of the day. I always love shooting P-38s. Great trigger, great ergonomics, usually accurate (just not today) and just very comfortable to shoot. Also, the cheapest to shoot, and buy, of the main WWII sidearms. This one has a neat story, but no papers to back it up. The guy I bought it from, picked it up at a pawn shop. They told him an old gentleman brought it in to trade it on a game system for his grandchildren! Normally I would frown upon this, but it was assumed that this was his trophy from Germany, so who would I be to frown upon him trading it off for a game system? It came wrapped in a Nazi podium flag, and stuffed in a P-38 holster, just as he brought it in to the shop. I like to think it was true, so I kept the whole grouping together, as it would be a shame to break it up, if it is indeed true.

So to sum it up, it was a great, lighthearted afternoon at the range. You don’t always have to head out to test a load work up, or work on your offhand position. Sometimes its nice to dust off the old war horses and have some fun sending a few rounds down range. Just remember, do a little research and use the proper ammo. A lot of these military surplus guns were designed for very specific bullet weights, such as the P-38, which you could easily destroy by cracking the slide, shooting anything +P, or a 147 grain bullet. Also, replace your 70+ year old springs! Springs are very cheap, and very vital to these old girls. Don’t let a weak $12 dollar recoil spring destroy your valuable, matching pistol!

Glock G40 10mm: One Mean Mother F’er

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Finch

At the 2015 SHOT show, Glock announced that the Glock 40 would be a 10mm long slide, the internet erupted with crying for a single stack 9mm. But not me! This was the Glock I had been waiting for. Since then I have been scouring the countryside asking every shop I stopped in if they had “that new 10mm long slide Glock”. After being shown several .40 cal Glocks, my quest came to an end. I was lucky enough to find a Glock 40 MOS (G40) at a nice little gun store in the Outer Banks of NC when I was on vacation last week. After a couple agonizing days waiting for USPS to get it to my FFL, I picked it up and took it to the range.

The G40 is a 10mm long slide with Glock’s MOS optic mounting system. It a Gen4 Glock so it comes with 3 magazines and interchangeable back straps. It sports a nice 4.5 lbs trigger with a clean crisp break. The G40 has a full 6 inch barrel with a 8 inch sight radius and thick 1.12″ slide, which is quite a bit larger than the other Glock long slides. It was designed and marketed for hunting but I wanted it for … well because it is awesome, and it will make a handy woods gun.

Right off the bat this thing is a monster. It makes G34s look small. I have a couple of 1911s and a 44 in the stable and the Glock 40 dwarfs them all. My local gun shop Gordon’s Sports Supply was kind enough to let me take a comparison picture of it next to a G42 380.

The largest Glock and the smallest Glock.

To the range

This monster can seem a little intimidating at first. But I can assure you it shoots like a dream. The recoil is surprisingly mild; of course I was shooting “normal” factory loads, nothing too hot. I was expecting it to be closer to my 44 magnum but it felt comparable to a 1911.

The long slide at the very least makes me feel like it is more accurate. At 10 yards it makes a nice little 10 round group on my popper.

The G40 is certainly capable of long-range shots. The author however is not quite a long-range pistol marksmen.

My wife sent some rounds down range with the G40 and was also impressed with its accuracy and manageable recoil. We burnt up around 200 rounds a mix of JHP and FMJ and despite some efforts to limp wrist it and not even bothering to give it a drop of lube, neither of us had a stoppage.

Thoughts on the MOS:

As far as the MOS system I am going to hold off on that for now. For my purposes, I won’t be using it for hunting so irons are plenty and less to worry about. I plan on replacing the Glock OEM adjustable sights with 3 dot night sights as that’s what I have on the rest of my Glocks. The MOS adds a nice flexibility to the platform. If you do plan on using the G40 for hunting mounting a red dot optic would be very handy. Chances are I will end up installing something sometime down the road.

Carry

Holsters are limited for the G40 right now presumably because it is so new. The slide on the G40 is the same width as the G20 1.12″ as opposed to the slimmer 1 inch slides of the other long slide Glocks. I reached out to Raven Concealment Systems, who unfortunately informed me they will not be making a light compatible holster for the G40. This is a shame as the G40 with a Surefire X300 ultra would make an outstanding camping gun.

I shifted my holster search to leather holsters and ordered a Simply Rugged Cuda Holster which will likely be my go to holster for this handgun. I have one of their Sourdough Pancake Holsters that will function OWB, IWB and is compatible with their chesty puller chest harness which is handy for carrying large handguns.

A Home Run:

Cheaper Than Dirt, who only briefly shot the G40 at the shot show, complained that the iron sights are too low and did not co-witness with the dot. Because of this, they so boldly claim the G40 is “not a home run“. Well, as CTD often is, they are wrong. If I must use a baseball analogy

this monster is such home run people in the stands are going to start heading home before the 7th inning because the game’s won. Its accurate, powerful, versatile , easy and just plain fun to shoot. If this is a set up you are interested in, using higher suppressor sights is a pretty easy solution.

I’ve been carrying the G40 for a few days in a VG2, around the office and really is not that difficult to carry. It is no Glock 19, but of course it is no Glock 19.

If you are on the fence if the G40 is right for you, I can without hesitation say it is. I’ve only had this Mean Mother F’er for a week or so and it is quickly becoming my favorite handgun.