TGO David

You're a walking wall. Who's going to come up and tell you to disarm if you open carry?!?

But... that's what the big cylindrical thing is on the front of the barrel in that last picture.

I should also note that these barrels are "drop in" replacements and that they use common 1/2 x 28 thread and that they are available in other calibers than 9mm. That particular vendor was listing them around $170 for the threaded version at the time of his post, but non-threaded are also available. Add your favorite suppressor and you have some really cool "active hearing protection" for your next range outing.

I thought these were mouth watering to say the least. Storm Lake is now producing threaded barrels for the Smith & Wesson M&P automatic handguns. These pictures are courtesy of a vendor over on another forum. The gentleman who posted them reported that Storm Lake had advised that his shot groups would improve noticeably with their barrels installed. He was happy to report that this was indeed the case. You can reach them at http://www.grtactical.com/ or you can source the barrels from your favorite supplier.

Have you shot a 1911 before?

I needed a place to post this picture and, well... this is perfect. Todd, Dustin: We can expect to see that incorporated into the Powerpoint presentation right?

Then get a 1911 and shoot that cartridge in the gun it was meant for.

Completely agree! Boy... buying new handguns just got a whole lot more expensive.

I had a P220 SAO Carry. It was a neat, albeit heavy gun. I think it was Massad Ayoob who compared it to being a modern alternative to the 1911 platform with much more reliability built into it. I would concurr with that statement. That being said, now is a lousy time to get into shooting .45ACP unless you reload or don't mind spending nearly 50-100% more than the cost of 9mm ammunition to shoot an equal number of rounds. My own .45ACP is a benchwarmer anymore because of that.

I had a great time shooting my XD Tactical this weekend but your experience with the roll pin (and that's not the first time I have seen this issue with an XD) and my own experience with the magazines jamming up when they got a little dirty has made me give serious consideration to an M&P 9L. I agree completely with your assessment of the Glock platform. This is why I was so perturbed with the silly problems that Smith & Wesson was having with the M&P when it first came out. The compact 9c that I owned had to go back twice for service work. The two 40's never had any problems, which indicates that the issues were really hit or miss. Lately it sounds as though these kinks have been worked out so I'm inclined to give them another try.

The most reliable weapon ever made is a sharp rock. Beyond that, you're going to have problems no matter what. We saw two Glocks go down this past weekend as Eddie alluded to in his reply about a broken slide lock spring and a broken front sight. But both of those weapons had seen a lot of shooting from what I understood. As in multiples of thousands of rounds prior to those failures.

I'll be here with a lot of smart ass comments when your HK ****s up. I'm patient and it'll happen.

We got to play with a Glock 18 at the class too. Oh, baby. ( By the way... I wouldn't want to get shot with either an AK or a Glock. )

Did you give up on the M&P after your experiences with the .357 SIG version?

Yeah yeah... but most people just don't cope well with the transition in pull weight between DA and SA. I'll admit that I am one of them. Striker fired handguns have the advantage of consistent trigger pull every time. The lack of a double-strike capability is a minor handicap but if you train for malfunction drills, it becomes sort of a non issue. I don't want to risk the primer NOT going bang on a second strike either. If it goes click then I'm racking the slide and going for another round. The HK P2000 had a good opportunity to win me over. Had it been 9mm I may still be carrying it. The LEM trigger was a real disappointment and the Variant 2 DA/SA had that whole dual trigger weights thing going on. Sure, they are reliable guns (at twice the cost of a Glock) but HK customer service pretty much doesn't even exist to civilians. My Glock 19 may not be the prettiest, the most ergonomic, the most expensive or the most accurate... but it loves abuse and puts lead down range accurately enough that it still exceeds my abilities.

I've owned them all. Presently own the XD and the Glock and will be adding at least one M&P to the mix soon. I can tell you which one I will carry daily and bet my life on: Glock I was not kind and gentle to my Glock 19 this past weekend. I ran it dry and dirty. I ran it with mags full of dirt. I ran it with ammo caked with mud. I ran it in the rain and I ran it in the hot, sticky humidity. Not one single solitary failure to feed or fire. Not one. It's the AK-47 of the handgun world. My XD never jammed but it had several failures to feed because of dirty magazines. Rinsing them out with water from a spigot got the gun back into the fight, but the XD is clearly more suceptible to failure because of dirty magazines. The Glock just didn't care. I had it throw mud back at me once after ramming in a dirty magazine and going back to firing! I've not had the chance to abuse the M&P yet but I understand from someone who has that it functioned similarly to the Glock. If that's the case then the M&P may be the next evolutionary step beyond the Glock in terms of combat durability and ergonomics. I will have to pick up an M&P 9mm soon and find out. I'm tired of babying my guns. I have one Safe Queen. It's the only one I anticipate having. The rest are going to be put through the wringer.

If anyone sees themselves in a photo and doesn't want it included, just lemme know. I was in a bind for pictures to use and decided to pull some from our photo gallery here. I'm still not sure if I like using this little special effect here or not.

Like them? Hate them? Speak up. It's something I tried over on another forum and it worked out pretty cool there. Just not sure if I really like it here or not.

Hopefully these pictures will make some of you guys want to take a class like this soon, either from CIS or some other professionally instructed program. It really was as fun as it looks. Not only are you learning things that will improve your ability to defend yourself and your loved ones, but you're going to have fun doing things that you won't get away with at most traditional shooting ranges. Things like... Shooting from a draw. Shooting from a draw while moving. Engaging multiple targets. Engaging multiple targets while moving. Engaging targets while on your back. Engaging targets while on your stomach. Reloading with restricted use of your physical faculties (one arm tied behind your back... your STRONG arm) Yeah, you could burn up 1,000 rounds of ammunition at the range just blasting holes in paper. You might even burn up 1,000 rounds of ammunition playing a game at a USPSA or IDPA event if you shot all weekend long in every course of fire offered. But you won't do some of this stuff and you won't learn 1% of what we learned.

Oh and here's Eddie (molonlabetn) kicking ass and taking names on the fun bowling pin challenge...

Here are a few teaser pictures...

Welcome! It's always nice to have another David here. It diffuses the blame when I do something wrong.

LUNCH WILL BE GRILLED ON SITE AT THE GUN CLUB. Please RSVP via the calendar entry (CLICK HERE) if you will be attending.

I wonder how hard it is to extract from frozen... um... meat. Or rather, is this a stab and forget sort of weapon.

I saw this mentioned on another forum and thought I would pass it along here. Apparently a group of "podcasters" have come together under the banner of GunRightsRadio.com to distribute net radio broadcasts ostensibly centered around gun rights issues. The podcasts they have listed right now are: Armed Citizen Gun Rights Advocates Gun Rights News Militant Marksman’s ProArms Podcast The Shot Show Urban Shooter I haven't listened to any of these so I cannot speak to the level of professionalism or TFHR (tin foil hat ratio) so listener beware.