Rogue Elite

I’ve been getting good at sensing changes in the gun industry and I think we’re on the precipice right now.   Synthetic stocks are far superior to what was out a decade ago and machining has improvement so well on the AR15 design that even the direct impingement guns are superior to what was out a decade ago.   I think  if you have the money to spend, you can get a good DI gun that is as reliable as a piston gun.   On the discussion of rifle magazines, once you get to the point that you can drive your car over a magazine and then still reliable shoot it in your gun, you have arrived at the top of the mountain.

I think Glock magazines are pretty tough, but I’ve never seen somebody drive over one with a car and still have it run.  If anyone has seen a pistol magazine as tough as the Magpul Pmags let me know? Wilson combat magazines are the most reliable gun magazines, but I don’t think any 1911 magazine would hold up to a 200lb person standing on it let alone a 2 ton truck.   Maybe we don’t need gun magazines to be this tough, but I sure think that if we can improve the light bulb, we can improve the handgun or pistol magazines.

I’ve been fortunate enough to attend some of the IDPA National competitions in recent years and it has still amazed me that the 1911 is the number one firearm that is being  used.    I’ve spent enough time on the range to know that the 45acp is more consistent in knocking down targets and makes bigger holes.   The triggers on the 1911 design can be sweetened and even though there are some draw backs to the 1911 design, for competition, there aren’t any.   Glocks have a good showing because they have a consistent trigger design like the 1911, but they are very different to shoot.

I understand that many shooters will probable shoot a 9mm more proficiently over a 45acp and I have done personal evaluations of novice shooters and done comparisons.   The 9mm is easier to shoot and will most likely get you a higher hit percentage. For more advanced shooters, they won’t have problems with the 45acp.  Wilson Combat magazines are still the number one 1911 gun magazine that I see at these events followed by Chip McCormick.   Every 1911 design can be tweaked and modified just like a pile of Legos.

Gun vests are as diverse in application and gun holsters are.   There are various types of vests for specific missions and some of the best ones to get are the ones that you can configure yourself.   Not everyone needs to carry 12 gun magazines for their M4 Carbine and most of that would even be considered extreme for a combat soldier.   I am a big fan of leg holsters because my primary fighting weapon is an M4 rifle and I don’t like the idea of putting a handgun up on my vest because it’s one more thing for my rifle sling to snag on.   Eotac and Woolrich Elite vests suit me better because they are softer and don’t have a holster for retaining a firearm, it’s all magazine and gear and the pistol magazine holder is inside the pockets, not outer pouches.

I am also not a fan of vests that carry tons of rifle and pistol ammunition, it’s good to be able to carry a backup handgun incase your primary goes down, but I’m more inclined to bring a spare bolt and firing pin so I can replace most broken parts on my M4 in only a minute.   Having 2 or 3 Wilson combat magazines for my 1911 is all I need for most practical purposes.  If I need more handgun ammunition than that, I might as well pack a few grenades and be able to call in an airstrike, too.  If you are wearing a tactical vests, in my opinion, it’s cross draw, or it’s a leg holster for your handgun.

I recently got a crash course on disassembling 1911 handguns that were not GI guns.   I have several Colt and Springfield guns that only give me problems if I am shooting something other than ball ammo.   I really don’t feel the need to carry hollow points for such a slow and large caliber already.  All of the 1911 guns I own cost me less than $500 and I have seen so  many malfunctions with guys with higher end guns.   I know Kimber messed around with John Moses Browning’s design and went back to the original extractor design after a failed attempt to use an external extractor.

Many of the shorter barreled 1911s have a short reliability life when it comes to recoil springs because they wear out faster from the amount of stress the 230gr chunk of lead causes.  I guess because the 1911 has such a slower cycling rate, many people that bobble the gun will cause malfunctions.  Wilson combat magazines have improved the reliability of many 1911 guns I have shot, but there is something to be said for GI Milspec reliability.  The original design worked very well and deviating from that doesn’t really mean an improvement.

I finally got to pick up a few of the Wolff gun magazines that some of my friends have raved about and I’m still trying to find out how I didn’t know about these for so long.  I guess getting stuff made in the  gun accessories and firearms industries is getting easier now and many companies can go out there and just find somebody with the tooling.   These did feel more like Chip McCormick magazines and they were fairly close in design.   The one thing I know to monitor on 1911 metal magazines are the followers which is something I’ve had problems with in the past.  Usually it was the less expensive and practically considered to be thrown GI 1911 magazines.

Something I’ve seen happen on less durable 1911 magazines it that they will not hold up very well at all if you one up the guns.  If you have an 8rd magazine and put one in the chamber and then load it back up to capacity, you are putting slightly more tension on the magazines and the cheaper mags, and the magazine springs will fail you.  Wilson Combat magazines, Wolff 1911 magazines and Chip McCormick magazines will hold up.  I had problems with Colt magazines, GI magazines and some MecGar magazines when I did this and always had 2nd round malfunctions.   I’ve learned to not on up the guns, but single stack magazines seem to handle this better than double stack.

I guess I’m getting old when I have to refer to my  years of chatting on gun boards because they seem to be something from so far in the past now.  Blogging and tweeting and Facebook seem to have replaced the discussion forum format.  I have watched so many of my friends transition from full size autos to small Kahr semi-autos and the Ruger LCP.   The .380 is still revered as underpowered, but when most people think about the likely hood of dealing with a threat and how much firepower they will need and how much weight they want to tote around, people are going with smaller firearms.

I’m not in the camp that thinks that the smallest caliber gun is fine, but if that’s what you want to carry, I won’t condemn it, but you better train to be able to fight with it.   One discussion that still rings in my ears from the gun forum years was that the 1911 pistol was out dated because magazine capacity was only 7 or 8 rounds while most modern 9mm service guns held 13-19rds.  Wilson Combat magazines have made the firearm more reliable, but it’s still a very heavy gun. Magazine capacity was the big thing in the 1990s but not so much anymore.   Most Police now have quick access to an M4 and over loading a handgun seems to be a thing of the past.   Do people still look down a 5 shot revolver now that all of those .380 pistols only  hold 5 – 7 rounds?

Sometimes ballistics testing can get too complicated and there are so many variables when it comes to testing a bullets performance that people really have to look at the results under realistic conditions and and realize that getting a hit is more important than which caliber, but when you compare hit to hit, there are differences in performances.    I’ve seen ballistic results where 9mm ball ammo was said to have hit with the same energy that a 45acp had, but I have seen multiple times that steel plates would not go down as frequently with 9mm ball ammo.   There were times when we heard  hits and nothing would drop.

Now that so many criminals are getting a hold of body armor, bullet penetration is coming more of an issue.   Even for those that are service over seas, 9mm ball ammo doesn’t penetrate a suicide bomber vest.  M855 is not very good for soft targets but against body armor it is.   We’ve been selling more Wilson Combat magazines to troops doing security detail because in their opinion 45acp worked better on soft targets and M855 was still necessary for penetration against suicide bombers and taking on cars.

I am pretty much stuck on Wilson Combat magazines for my 1911s but I am aware that not everyone likes the way they are extended on the base pads.   I am also not an IDPA guy, but I’ve attended a lot of events and I don’t really see much more than Wilson and Chip McCormick being used.    The Chip McCormick magazines from what I have seen are pretty much a toss up when it becomes a relibility question between Wilson combat magazines and them.   There are several things to keep in consideration with each magazine you try.

The first thing I want is reliability,  I would have to say that I’d try 3  magazines with a manufacturer and rotate through about 250 rds and then declare them to work.   The second thing I want from a magazine is for it to drop free.  Giving the number of gun manufacturers out there I wouldn’t claim that Wilson Combat magazines are always going to drop free for you, but I find them to be the best in these regards.   The extended base pads can come in useful if you want extra grip on the magazine when removing it, but I don’t really notice that.   If I was shooting a short 1911 gun, I might notice the lack of flush fitting more.   My Sig 239 is a great CCW gun but if I had anything that wasn’t flush fitting for that I would probable not like shooting it.

It has been  year since I got out to the Valley Forge Gun Show here in Pennsylvania.  It is probable the 3rd largest gun show after the Pittsburgh NRA Convention, and the Harrisburg Farm Complex.   There are some pretty big fluctuations from year to year.   Two Years ago there was a run on ammunition and firearms because Obama was elected.   Then move forward 2 years and there are a lot of good deals on used firearms because all of the people that lost their jobs are looking to get there money back.   I predicted that and I also predicted that there would be a reset on ammunition prices.

This weekend I went to the show to price gun magazines, ammunition, rifle accessories and reloading supplies.   I picked up large primers, small primers, pistol primers and rifle primers just because I could.   That was another thing that just flat out disappeared.   Primers seem to be under $30 now and that’s not too bad.  I next went to the pistol and rifle magazine section and picked up Glock 19 magazines.  I saw piles of Wilson Combat magazines, but I never noticed any shortages on those magazines, EVER. I noticed the Korean Glock 19 magazines looked well made, and they were only $10 each, but I didn’t want to take the chance since I knew nothing about their reputations.

There has been much debate about the 45acp use in handguns.   With the number of shootings I have seen where 9mm bullets were used, I’d have to say that the 9mm is definitely not a powerful round, but I have heard of bad guys taking multiple hits from an M4 that kept on coming, so there are many things that can come into play.   The 1911 has remained a popular gun and not because it is the most reliable weapon in 45acp.   I have come to the conclusion that the modern polymer guns are superior to metal guns as far as durability and reliability, but many of them do have crappy triggers.

When the Springfield XD first came out, it was a big deal for 1911 guys to find something that wasn’t a DA/SA handgun and didn’t have a sponge trigger like Glocks do.  You can get a lot of improvement in reliability with a 1911 with good gun magazines like Wilson Combat or Chip McCormick.  I have respect for Glocks, but they do have an odd feel to them and are not traditional.  The XD 45acp felt more natural to a 1911 enthusiast and brought them into the modern world.   The 1911 still has one of the best triggers, but it is not in the same category as some of the guns being made in 45acp these days.   I have several Sig 220 that have been extremely reliable, but Glock has an edge over them as far as endurace.