All posts tagged .380 magazines

Magazines should drop free

Glock magazinesWe all start out at some point with our firearm training or learning experiences.   I started out at 10yrs of age with handguns and 22lr rifles and it was basically all a Father/Son environment where kids shot next to their parents and learned the basics.    You learn the basics at a 100yd range with a 22LR and the differences between bullet weights and velocity can mean several inches in bullet drop.   Iron sights are always the best starting point and optics should come later.   When you move away from bolt action rifles, things can become more complicated and reliability of firearms can dramatically diminish with second rate magazines.  I’ve had bad experience and witness tons of malfunctions with semi-auto 22LR rifles but there are things you can do to improve reliability.

Back in the 1990’s after the AWB there were a ton of people buying aftermarket magazines and some firearms just didn’t handle them very well.   Many Factory Glock Magazines where going for close to $100 and aftermarket mags could be had for under $30 but they didn’t drop free or sometimes just didn’t run right.   There are several manufacturers that make magazines for several different companies but just stamp different brand names on them.   Magazines like Mec-Gar and Promag do have magazines for Walthers and Browning that work well but I often tell people that if the magazine doesn’t drop free you are going to have problems with it and might want to stick with Factory magazines.   There are replacement parts you can buy like followers, Wolff gun springs and base plates that can fix things but there’s an awful lot of testing I would do before I used them as self defense mags.

Top

And the most popular concealed carry firearm

According to all of our holster requests are hands down Kahr firearms.  I don’t have a ton of experience with these firearms, but I will say that they are the smallest 9mm handgun that I would ever consider carrying.  I find them to be a little too harsh to shoot for that size, but depending on the on the circumstances I would not feel under gunned with one of these.   I actually first found out about the Kahr firearms from a retired Law Enforcement Official that work in the NYPD for 3 years.   He was the first person I ever met that actually carried two firearms, and  one was a Kahr PM9.

The .380 is a buzz, but every time I look at the ballistics of the firearm, I just cringe.   If I’m going to carry a gun, the 38 Special is the smallest caliber I will carry, but the Kahr PM9 and some spare Kahr Magazines fill my pockets.   I have several friends that pocket carry these firearms and 6 or 7 rounds of 9mm and a spare magazine is not minimal.  Maintenance on the firearms is not different than any other,  it is always wise to keep up with your recoil spring replacement and magazine rotation.

Top

Kahr firearms and .380 pistols

I remember the first time I ever shot a .380 pistol and it was an NAA Guardian gun.   They seemed so small that my initial impression was it was just a step up from a fly swatter.   I’ve done some not so scientific ballistics tests on metal fence posts and saw the penetration differences between a .38 Special and a 9mm, and there is a substantial difference between those calibers and penetration.  The .380 is practically a 38 Special short and people need to be realistic when they want to consider what a firearm engagement will be with a pocket pistol such as this.   Worrying about accuracy ans sights on this gun IMHO is pointless because this is the type of firearm that will only stop a threat if it’s put into the main reactor of the Death Star or  you unload the whole  thing and hope the bad guy isn’t wearing body armor.

I have shot a lot of Kahr firearms and I think the 9mm pistols are very well made and I see no reason to change the caliber to a smaller one when the 9mm already fit in your pocket.   Kahr magazines are what you want to use in the gun and I would not compromise on this issue with a concealed carry firearm.  There is  nothing wrong with having range magazines so you don’t wear out your primaries, but it’s mostly only with 1911 firearms would I stray from factory magazines.   If you have a semi-auto that holds 5-7rds and can carry a backup magazine,  and you’ve done some training, you should be good to go.

Top

.380 guns be realistic about what you are carrying

I think this past year may have been the year of the .380 pistol.   I don’t know exactly why everyone went with the .380 this year, but it was popular and considering the run on the ammunition and it’s lack of availability,  I think I should have purchased some stock in .380 and not just gold.   I recently attended a Taurus firearm event where the TCP .380 was being shown.   When I think of .380 guns I believe that up until this year, I could only think of the Sig Sauer 230 and the Sig 232 and the Walther PPK.  I have enough friends that like the look of the PPK but were not a fan of the gun due to the hammer bite.   If you have big hands that gun is most likely not for you.

The TCP was a little finicky about the ammo it ate, but I have shot several of the Rohrbaugh R9 pistols and they were also very picky about the ammo they ate.   When  you get down to those small semi-auto guns, you better put the range time in to know the limitations of the guns.   You won’t get a pocket pistol that will run for hundreds of rounds without needing to change springs or be lubricated.   Rotating your gun magazines is a must for smaller semi-autos. The .380 is also a very mild round and I witnessed first hand the lack of energy it had when shooting steel plates.  I watched a recent video where I heard 4 shots fired, one miss, 3 hits and the metal plate only fell one time.  Be realistic about the guns you are carrying and and why.

Top

Speed loaders and training courses

I was fortunate to attend a sniper competition a few years ago where I must have learned more about combat than every before.   About 40 students were attending this training competition even and given the rules for attending the match.   Everyone was told to arrive with unloaded firearms, but to keep all of their gear in the cars and attend a safety briefing.    Well, one of the  best events for this competition/training even occurred in the first 30 seconds after the safety briefing.   Everyone was asked if they understood all of the safety rules and when everyone said yes, it began.    The Instructor explained the first stage of the shooting event.   Everyone was told to grab their gear from their car and immediately return to the firing line, unload the gear and engage the targets.   The attendees gave us a big smile while the students/competitors did an “Oh, Shit!”

I sat and watched every student run back to their car which was about 15-30yds behind the firing line, I noticed varying types of rifle cases and rifle bags, some shooters showed up with loaded magazines and others had to manually load the guns, as soon as they were ready to shoot, they engaged the targets.   I believe they had 6 minutes to take down all of the targets from 100-200yds.   The variations in time to engage the enemy targets varied by several minutes.   Anyone that had a M4 Carbine or 30rd magazine that didn’t have loaded gun magazines or didn’t have a speed loader, was the last to engage the targets.   I saw only 2 people out of 40 engage the targets in the first 5 minutes.   Maglula speed loaders are must for anyone serious about using a carbine for self defense, unless  you have the military style loaders.

Top

CCW and thinking ahead

The Boy Scout motto is BE PREPARED.   When we accept our responsibilities in carrying a firearm, one thing we have to be aware of is making sure that we are concealing our weapons and not overdoing it.    There are a few placed in the Country where you may be fined if anyone spots your concealed firearm, and although I think the vast majority of criminals aren’t looking for citizens with guns, it’s best to not advertise it.   I’ve found that over the years of carrying duty size weapons on the job and CCW are different for me.   I’m not too comfortable carrying double stack spare magazines around all day.

Something to consider while carrying a CCW gun is, it is good to always have a backup magazine available, but don’t go overboard in carrying gun magazines.   Statistics show that most gun fights occur with shots fired being in the single digits.   Knowing how to retreat from a gun fight is more important than carrying tons of ammo and expecting to stand your ground.

Top

Carbine malfunctions, what to blame?

gun magazinesI first stepped into the world of tactical carbines after years of toting around an M16A2 for close to 10yrs.   We basically had to clean and maintain our firearms daily when deployed and I often wondered what we might have been able to do during the day if we didn’t have such a high maintenance rifle.  Looking back, I realized there wasn’t much else to do and this was something that we did to just occupy time.   The M16A2 is not a very clean running firearm, but it can go for hundreds if not thousands of rounds without cleaning if it was lubed correctly from the beginning.   In all of my years of service with the M16A2, and the years standing next to operators with AR15 rifles, I’d say 90% of malfunctions were bad magazines or improperly loaded, and bad ammo.   The next was improper lubrication.   It’s been a few years since I’ve been on the range during hunting season, but It was about 5yrs ago that I ran into an AR15 owner that said the key to running an AR15 reliable is to run it dry.   Well, if you own an AR15 and you think this is true, I can’t help you.

I recently watched a DVD about advanced Carbine tactics and although I thought it was of some value to Novice Carbine Operators, they left out something that I found to be crucial to all operators.   PUSH, PULL will eliminate 99% of your magazine malfunctions and I couldn’t believe that after close to 10yrs of video, I never saw this tactical being used.   Sometimes a magazine will insert into a Carbine and load a round, but by the 2nd round and after the recoil of the first round, gun magazines will drop loose.  I actually witnessed this on a Carbine course this week and the operator didn’t even know his gun was unloaded until he moved 10ft forward.

Top
Page 1 of 1