Last week, the significant other and I spent a great week in Utah’s beautiful Wasatch Mountains, teaching a MAG-40 class. We finished the week on Sunday at the Glock Shooting Sports Foundation (GSSF) match at the Kay Lee range in Salt Lake City. Several of the teaching staff and the students came with us.
I was reminded that shooting is a relaxing sport. It was the closest to a vacation day that I’d had in a long time. Met a lot of old friends there, and was able to introduce the attending students to one of the great figures in self-defense and officer survival training, Dennis Tueller.
As is usual at GSSF matches, both the Glock headquarters staff and the range officers there with boots on the ground were friendly, welcoming, and nurturing to new shooters and old heads alike. I was very proud of how well my students did there, particularly my young protégé Tommy Nelson, who according to the preliminary scores won the Civilian class with stock guns shooting his Glock 17 9mm ( http://www.gssfonline.com/results/2014/2014sut.pdf ). His lovely wife Danica (one of my graduates, I’m proud to say) came in third in the Glock Girls event, shooting in competition for her first time ever. Tommy kicked my butt in at least a couple of the events there, and there’s no better compliment a student can pay to his instructor than to beat him in the discipline being taught.
One of my recent grads brought his young son Josh with him, the first match for both. Dad and son shot the father’s compact Glock 23 carry pistol with full power .40 S &W ammo…and each of them cleaned every steel plate rack with none left standing. Josh, you made us all proud.
My significant other, the Evil Princess, took high woman in her age class in Civilian, and second overall in the Glock Girls event, and beat most of the men with the subcompact .45s in Major Sub. Me? The old guy here was a bit TOO relaxed and shot his worst Glock match of the year, but was able to salvage a couple of second places behind Bryan Dover, the current man to beat nationwide at this game, for which I was grateful.
We brought four Glock pistols to the tournament. She shot all her 9mm events with our Glock 17 RTF2 with Dawson adjustable rear/fiber optic front sights, and I shot all of mine with her Baby Glock G26 subcompact with AmeriGlo sights. We both shot the Major Sub event with one of my stock Glock 30 sub-compact pistols with Trijicon night sights and 230 grain .45 hardball, and the Pocket Glock event with an out-of-the-box G42 Glock .380.
One of our companions noticed that Gail carried the 17 and the 42 to the firing line in a pistol box, while I came to the line with the G26 in a Mitch Rosen scabbard on my left hip, and the G30 in a Galco inside the waistband holster on my right. He asked why.
I explained:
“Foxes carry Glockses in boxes,
“But oldsters use holsters.”
Dunno if it’s a Mars and Venus thing, but it was the best explanation I could deliver on short notice.
Civilian champ Tommy Nelson runs the camera and coaches wife Danica to a third-place finish. Note spent brass in the air as she fires Glock 17.
It was good to spend some catch-up time with old friend Dennis Tueller, right, whose officer survival research has saved many lives.
Mas, you’re a poet and you didn’t even know it!
Flinging hot lead downrange can’t fix every kind of problem… but it’ll sure cheer you up while you’re doing it!
Glad to see that you’re still shooting GSSF. By the way the GSSF match in Milwaukee is the weekend after the GRPC.
I have been working with a laser in my Glock 19. Along with a Glock reset trigger it is a great training tool. (The trigger automatically resets for each shot without racking the slide. Perfect for dry fire.) http://www.laser-ammo.com/surestrike
Coupled with the Centrolutions Laser Activated Shot Reporter Software, a computer and a netcam; one can get a lot of practice. (http://www.centrolutions.com/products/lasr-laser-activated-shot-reporter)
The software will report hits on targets that you designate. It will give you range commands, a beep to start and records time to first hit, split times and time to last shot. One can also have the software call the shots at random so you have to respond and shoot before it calls the next target, time to next target can be adjusted within the software. This would make a great article for those of us that do not have a range right outside the back door.
I am not connected with these companies in any way. It is not often the I find something like this that works as advertised.
Useful info, Randy. Thanks! Wish I could make the match you mentioned, but I have to be elsewhere; hope you shoot great.
I work a very stressful job and find that a range session on the weekend really helps. A friend works a stressful job, too, and after going shooting with me, she said she realizes why I go shooting so often – the stress relief!
““Foxes carry Glockses in boxes,
“But oldsters use holsters.””
That got a giggle-snort. You, sir, are a hoot! Love your blog, thanks for doing it. 🙂
Mas, do you use Baby Glock pistols just for the challenge? I imagine with a Glock 19, 21, 22, 23 etc. you’d have collected another trophy. But my hypothesis is you shoot subcompacts in these events like guys shooting trap with a .410 or 28ga… you want to continually improve 🙂
-Johnny
Big time fan, long time reader.
Love the GSSF format. Its the perfect entry level competition. All you really need is a Glock some ammo and hearing protection.
Yes, the therapeutic nature of shooting is well documented, just ask my congregation. They say some of my best sermons come after a match Saturday. All my sabbaticals/vacations are shooting related. It seems, at least in my case, us baptists have need to “get the lead out” occasionally. Thanks, Mas & team for helping all those times with my therapy.
Johnny C, shooting the G26 gives me 3 categories I can shoot with the same pistol. The Baby Glock in the subcompact match expressly for that type of gun; Master Stock where I could use up to a Glock 17 with a 4.5″ barrel; and Competition where they allow the longslide Glocks. Danny Ryan, who runs the GSSF sub-forum over at http://www.glocktalk.com, turned me on a few years ago to the fact that top shooters like Mike Ross and Bryan Dover were winning overall Matchmeister now and then with Glock 26s. I tried it, and found that my scores were about the same with the 26 as the 17.
In this case, since we were flying, it was one less gun to bring along. I did a little testing for my column in GUNS magazine a while back, and found my groups a little tighter on the up-to-25-yard Glock Gallery course with the 3.6″ barrel G26 compared to a 5.3″ Glock 34. Go figure…http://gunsmagazine.com/the-long-and-the-short-of-it/
We had been in SLC to teach a MAG-40 course, which completed the day before we shot GSSF. I do try to make a point of shooting the pace-setter for the qualification on the last day of class with a pure “carry gun,” to show the students they don’t need a tricked-out target pistol to get good hits under time pressure. The little G26 on Saturday gave me a 300 out of 300, with the 60 shots in a four and five-eighths inch group. That’s all I can ask.
I smiled and thought of Dr. Seuss, reading your reply Mas. All you need is a proper (Cat-in-the-hat) hat!
Of Glockses and boxes and cases, oh my!
Midwayusa carries soft cases for pistols in 4 colors. Price is $8-$10. They have an advantage over the box as they have enough pockets for magazines to shoot the whole match. I got my wife a pink one.
Be sure when placing the pistol in the case to always orient the muzzle in the same direction, so that the muzzle is pointed down range when the case is opened. The R Os tend to get a little testy when they see the muzzle pointed at them.
It’s good to see you spending time with the G26. Some equate short barrels with reduced accuracy. This is just not true. It just requires more attention to the basics. I personally found that practice with compact weapons translates to much better accuracy with my full size weapons.
Changing topics, due to the seemingly endless shortage of rim-fire ammo (at least in my area), I’ve found myself day dreaming about .22 center-fire revolvers for trail use. Center-fire for reload-ability and revolver for ease in recovering brass.
I recall a buddy, years ago, having a S&W in .22 Jet Magnum (I believe that’s right). My day dream calls for a reduced capacity version of this. Something on the order of .22 magnum rim fire ballistics. Do you know if anything like this is being considered by any manufacturers in the industry? I know that S&W stopped production of the .22 Jet Magnum because of pistols being destroyed by reloaders pushing the envelope, but if they would bring case capacity down by using, say, an elongated .25 acp type case, this problem could be eliminated. I know that new calibers require co-operation with ammunition manufacturers, but I personally believe it would be a feasible endeavor.
Is this a possibility or will it remain my day-dream?
P.S.– the old .32-20 , other than the thin case, might fill the bill, but finding one is next to impossible.
Dennis– l believe the .22 jet was discontinued because of case set back. Bottleneck cases in revolvers have never been a success.By setback I mean that the case sets back against the recoil shield and locks the cylinder up.
I have a Contender with a .22 hornet barrel and it is very accurate. Also have a Remington Xp-100 in .221 Fireball it also very accurate. 1 shot 400 yds target was a gallon milk jug. .22 ref ammo getting more available. Powders suitable for handguns is hard to find unless willing to pay highjacked price.
Hope this helps.
Dennis-
What’s wrong with the .22 Hornet? It is available in several revolvers, is very versatile, accurate,and is easily and inexpensively handloaded.
And if you check the dimensions, the Hornet is pretty much an elongated, rimmed .25ACP case!
Mas-
We just had another LEO-involved shooting here in Savannah, GA. Charles Smith.
And, of course, among the uninformed yappers and yelpers, a big deal is being made that he was handcuffed at the time.
He’d slipped the cuffs to the front of his body.
Would you care to write about officer safety when an arrestee is able to move the cuffs to the front?
Or only has one cuff on, and the other is swinging free?
Things can get real ugly, real fast.
In fact, an article by you on handcuffs in general would make a nice read.
Dennis, you might want to look into the old .22 (.224) Harvey Kay-Chuck. It’s a total wildcat, and as you know will require you to form the cases and everything. Might be a fun project, though.
Petercat, I did a piece on the potential lethality of handcuffed suspects a while back in Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement, in my FIrst Responder column. I forget the exact issues, but you might want to go through the magazine’s archives at http://www.tactical-life.com.
Thanks all for the feed back. Wasn’t aware that the hornet was available in revolvers, which is a requirement for a “kit/Trail” gun that I’ve got in mind.
Found that the .218 bee was available from Taurus in a revolver, but it’s a huge weapon (Raging Bull frame w/10″ barrel) too large for the trail gun I envision.
Thanks again folks. I apologize for interrupting the thread topic.
No need to apologize, Dennis. Fun with guns in one way or another WAS the thread topic.
Mas – please forgive me for using this blog – but I know of no other way to thank you and tell you what a pleasure it was (I know it wasn’t for you!) for me to follow your total class responses throughout the ordeal that was the “Whose lies..” blog. Also, I have always enjoyed the posting done here by “Dennis” – again, especially the “Whose lies” blog. Thanks, guys – for demonstrating maturity, logic, and common sense, which is almost non-existent on the internet today.
> trap
A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of WW Greener’s “The Gun and Its Development”, the 9th edition from 1910. It has been a fascinating look into the second half of the 1800s and how fast things moved from flint to percussion to cartridges.
I had noticed that Greener was talking mostly about very expensive guns, but it wasn’t until he was talking about shooting pigeons that I realized that it must have been an expensive sport; they used real birds, bred for the purpose. British breeders were unable to keep up with the demand, so some clubs were using birds imported from Europe. And they had to be kept, fed, managed at the field, and released by paid keepers.
Some events used glass balls instead of live birds. I’m a child of the late 20th century; my first thought was bystanders and broken glass scattering in all directions…
All you skeet/trap/clays guys probably knew that already, but that’s not my sport, and it was all news to me.
Mas,
Do you run your G26 in the GSSF with the NY-1 and “-” or just as it comes?
I’ve recently switched my G19 Gen IV over to this and I like the bit of roll in the trigger compared to my well work G23 with a conversion bbl.
Thanks again
Look forward to seeing you back in Texas. I’ve have to start bugging Karl.
Chuck, the girlfriend’s g26 sometimes has a minus connector if she’s shooting a match, sometimes a 5.5 if she’s carrying it, and standard spring. My regular carry Glocks are set up with NY-1 module and standard connector. Significant other hates the NY-1 pull, so when we’re traveling together and might be sharing a carry gun, it’s stock 5.5 pound like the Glock 30 I carried as primary, and we both shot in competition, in Salt Lake City last week. I have the same out of the box set-up in a Glock 19 and a GLock 26 we’ve been known to share.
Mas, I found the article that you wrote- but I could only read the first few paragraphs without buying the back issue. You have over 500 articles there, and while I would like to read them all, (this is the first time I’ve ever said this to another man) Mas, I can’t afford you!