Glock 19 Frame Mods

This past weekend I attended an American Small Arms Academy 2 Day Intermediate Handgun Course hosted, of course, by Chuck Taylor.  As will be no surprise to any one who knows me, I used a Glock 19 exclusively for this course.  Some time ago I had altered the frame of this 19 at two points.  One was the junction of the trigger guard to the front strap, which was beveled for clearance of my knuckle.  And the second mod was a clearance the “thumb rest” swell on the frame to facilitate operation of the magazine release.

I have shot USPSA matches over the years and these two mods helped tremendously in acquiring the gun in the holster as well as reloading.  But this class was the first time I had ever spent a full day (and ultimately two days) drawing and firing repeatedly.  At the end of the first day it was apparent some additional modifications would be desirable.

The very large blister on my right middle finger made it clear I would be doing more work to the trigger guard joint.  I thinned the trigger guard at the frame joint and increased the amount of the beveled area.

This resulted in a smooth surface with no hard edge to rub against the middle finger of the shooting hand.  I also increased the clearance for the magazine release further upward and rearward.  Then I broke the lower and forward edges of the button its self.

The biggest surprise to me was the interaction of my pinky finger and the frame.  I tended to get the tip of my pinky stuck in the checkering on the presentation.  To the extent that I had a large blister there as well.

I decided to remove the grenade checking from the pinky finger grove.  Leaving a smoothly radiused surface.  These few changes make an amezing difference in how this pistol feels.  Even though I still have the blisters from the class.

Savage SBS

I bought a wood forearm for the Savage SBS.  The Ramline piece, while functional, is ugly. This part is from Numrich Gun Parts, and is described as a “shock absorbing forearm”.

What it looks like to me is some one made a run of forearms that were too short.  And then made a plastic bushing fill the gap.  Still, it works with the stubby barrel on the SBS.

What is the spread like on a 13″ barrel 12 gauge?  The following targets show the patterns produced by the Savage SBS with S&B #1B, twelve pellet load.

If I recall correctly the dots are 1.5 inch diameter patches that come with the large Shoot-N-C targets.  At five yards the pattern is covering about 5 inches and just over 10 inches at ten yards.

Here are fifteen yards coverage is 14 to 15 inches.  And I lost two pallets over the top of the board.By twenty yards the pattern is huge.  There are nine pellets on this board covering over 2 feet.  So yeah, shot barrel and no choke make it a real scatter gun.

J&G Sales Ban State LE Sales Policy

I am proud to be one of the originators of this policy announced on J&G Sales’ Facebook page today:

ANNOUNCING A NEW J&G LEO SHIPPING POLICY

For immediate release:

As state and local jurisdictions are increasingly passing laws which infringe upon the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, J&G Sales is implementing a new policy on shipping restricted items to these states and localities.

Effective immediately, laws that restrict firearms, ammunition, or magazine possession by law abiding citizens will also be applied to state and local law enforcement and government agencies in that jurisdiction. All residents will be treated equally. Honorable citizens, law enforcement personnel, and government agents, should all be allowed to utilize the most effective defensive equipment available.

J&G believes that there should not be a difference between the rights of citizens and those of government employees. This new policy will also help us to be sure we avoid the consequences of not conforming with the anti-firearm regulations in these various jurisdictions.

We expect to lose some revenue from government purchases, however we feel it is essential to defend the US Constitution by making a statement about the importance of the Second Amendment in maintaining all our freedoms.

We await the day when all law abiding citizens will be able to possess the most effective means and tools available for self-defense regardless of where they live or for whom they work.

Thank you

Whippet Good

Ever find your shotgun is too long?  30″ barrel, is this a .338 Snipe-Tac?  Nope, just a 12 gauge.  Ridiculous.

Let’s take a bit of that excess off.  About 17″ should fix it.

Time for a hack saw…

Oops, maybe that was too much?

Nah, thirteen inches.  Just right.

I think the bore is a bit off center though.  But the crown is clean so I should be able to maintain 1 MOA patterns through one yard.

The extra barrel is longer then the actual barrel.

Whippet.  In addition to the M1918 BARs they stole from National Guard Armories, infamous bank robbers Bonnie & Clyde were also partial to several other Browning designs.  Among them the Auto-5 shotgun.  Often they found commercial and military firearms overly long for their line of work.  They referred to their cut down rifles and shotguns as Whippets.

The pictures simply do not convey how cool this gun is.  If Arizona ever thaws out, I definitely plan on a video up date.  Even non-gun people grin when they hold it.  It is irresistible.  Auto-5 pattern guns look unwieldy, but the hump backs point naturally.  Browning knew what he was doing.

Blast from the Past; My Glock 22 Open Gun

In December of 2004, I bought a police trade in Glock 22 to turn it into a USPSA Open Division pistol. I intended to lighten the slide, port the barrel, and mill a pocket to mount a Docter Optic Sight II into the slide.  Ultimately I planned on a caliber conversion to 9mm Major, which USPSA had legitimized around the same time.  These first pictures show my Open Glock after it’s Stage I modifications, still in .40 caliber.

The most apparent modification are the ten flared 3/8″ diameter port holes down the sides of the slide.  Four right and six left.  These port holes removed a good several ounces from the slide, which I returned to the reciprocating mass when I attached the Docter Sight to the slide.  But these were not the only cuts made, an Open Gun needs to be ported and this pistol was indeed.  I milled open the top of the slide, similar to a model 34.  And cut four large rectangular ports down the center line of the barrel.

The first port’s rear edge is 2.7″ from the breach face.  This gun was literally a blast to shoot.  Both for the shooter as well as any near by bystanders.  Zero muzzle flip.  However, recoil was brisk, with the pistol moving straight back into the web of the shooting hand.

The Stage II modification was eliminating the adapter plate and mounting the Docter Sight into the slide its self.  There was no one offering this service at the time.  I did this on a manual milling machine.  Reverse engineering the dimensions for the pocket cut, mounting screws, and recoil pins from the Docter Sight itself.  While not as clean in appearance as a CNC cut mini RDS pocket, it is functional.  And with the four full recoil pins, I never had the issues with loosing zero when removing and replacing the sight from the slide.

Stage III was the conversion to 9mm Major, which was based on a KKM Precision Glock 35 conversion barrel.  I threaded the barrel to add a comp I made.  The compensator was a simple two chamber with six ports design milled from 7075 aluminum stock.  Unfortunately I never took an pictures of it in this configuration.

I used Vihtavuori’s published load for 3N38 with 147gr XTPs.  I used Zero 147gr JHPs in my loading.  My gun never achieved the 1207fps with the book max load.  Its 5.3″ barrel only making 1180fps, which was still good for a 173pf.  I never ported the 9mm barrel because of this.  Fearing not being able to make major power factor if I did.

As a 9mm Major Open Gun, this Glock was a pleasure to shoot.  None of the blast like the ported .40 barrel and soft mild recoil.  And it was very pleasing accurate.  I think the quality of KKM’s barrels is well known as are that of VV powder and Zero bullets.  That combined with the precision and ease of sight alignment offered by the 3.5 MOA dot made this pistol seem like a laser.

You may have noticed that I am taking about this pistol in the past tense.  It died during local club match, after only a few months of shoot 9mm Major.  Cause of death: over exuberant gunsmithing.  Seems the two additional port holes on the left side turned out to be a bad idea.

I don’t feel to bad about because Glock has made a similar mistake with the model 34.  They put an internal lightening cut right through the same area.  Which makes the 34 not suitable for use as a 9mm Major platform.

Sadly, Glock will not warranty this. I have asked.

Threaded Ruger 22s

Here are a pair of Ruger .22 Autos, a stainless MkII and a blued MkIII, both of which were 5&1/2″ bull barrels.  I cut both barrels to 4″ and then threaded them with the standard .22 rimfire thread shank of .500″-28tpi”x.400″.  The first pictures show the muzzle threads and the thread protectors made from the cut off muzzles of the barrels.

Here they are with a pair of suppressors attached.  The large suppressor on the stainless gun is a Thompson Machine Isis-2 9mm with a fixed barrel mount.  The small suppressor on the blued gun is a Gemtech Outback IID.  Until the last few years you would not want to use a center fire suppressor on a .22LR host because of how filthy the cartridge is.  Today many of the newest suppressor designs are user serviceable.  The Isis-2 pictured is one of those new designs.

DW Razorback 10mm to .40SW Suppressor Host

Added a few accessories to a customer’s Razorback.  I fit the KKM Precision threaded .40S&W barrel and  Briley spherical bushing.  Internally there is a GI pattern Springco recoil reducer.  And on the muzzle is a Gemtech Blackside 45.  The barrel is threaded with the standard .578″x28tpi threading, so the Blackside can go from its .45ACP host to this .40 S&W host, without having to change pistons.