1 Mar 00
Clarification:
A
number have asked why I used 90gr 9mm ammunition instead of what I have often
said I prefer in that caliber, 115-124gr bullets.
The
reason is that in a suitcase one can get more rounds in the lighter bullet
weight than would be the case with heaver bullets. Sometimes non-tactical circumstances make hypocrites of us all!
Most
police holsters there are level-one with conventional thumb-break snaps. Unfortunately, the snap doesn't work well
when the CZ-75 pistol is cocked and locked.
Several small, local manufacturers make acceptable leather, concealment
holsters, nothing, of course, like Lew Alessi or Mitch Rosen. Kydex is generally unavailable. My friends there now all have Elderton
Ky-Tac holsters and love them! There is
nothing like Kydex in hot, sweaty weather.
I
wore Second Chance's new Zylon Ultima body armor both to and from Africa and
for much of the time I was there, particularly when I went on several
ride-alongs with the Capetown Traffic Police to some of the city's garden
spots. It is amazingly thin, flexible,
and light. The most comfortable body
armor I've ever worn. Great stuff. Glad I had it!
Since
he first invented soft body armor, Dick Davis has been responsible for every
significant advance in the technology since.
This newest innovation is no exception.
The first soft body armor was made by Second Chance. The best still is!
/John
7
Mar 00
This
from a friend who is a commercial airline pilot:
"John
McCain was a flight instructor of mine during the Basic Jet phase of my Navy
flight training at Meridian, MS in 1965.
I owe him a debt of gratitude for what he taught me about taking control
of a jet and making it do exactly what I wanted it to do with precision and
confidence.
Unhappily,
I subsequently lost faith in John McCain.
A large group of airline pilots, faced with mandatory age-sixty
retirement, who, like me, knew John from their military service years, were led
by him to believe that he would lead a legislative push to overturn the
infamous "age-sixty" rule.
After leading our group on, he dropped us cold when ALPA (Air Line
Pilots Assn) showed up with PAC money in hand."
This
is the one who is interested in political finance reform?
/John
7
Mar 00
This
from a friend in the Philippines:
"Had
the chance to examine and work with an ASP Baton yesterday. After an hour of
practice, I could no longer get the forward most shaft to retract into the
handle. I banged the thing on a concrete floor in an attempt to get the device
to close. No luck.
I
then sprayed penetrating oil on the frozen section and left it to soak
overnight. Still no luck.
Pass
this around to your law enforcement buddies. They may have experienced the same
thing with ASP batons and perhaps can share a fix."
If
you have comments, I'll pass them on.
/John
7
Mar 00
This
from friend who is an ER physician in the Midwest:
"Last
week I evaluated three gunshot victims in the ER and operated on one.
Victim
1:
Young
male sustained gsw (handgun) to R neck in submandibular area. Bullet with significant fragmentation
ultimately lodged against skull base in mastoid region. Small entrance wound without powder burns. Massive swelling to lateral neck secondary
to probable avulsion of occipital artery.
He was alert and verbal. He'll
be okay.
Victim
2:
Young
male inside restaurant sustained close range gsw (handgun) to right
forehead. Golfball-sized swollen region
on forehead with central stellate entrance wound. No exit wound. Venous
bleeding and brain matter spontaneously expressed. Flexor posture on right, 7mm midposition pupils. Trace withdrawal on left. CT showed bullet/bone
fragments
from frontal entrance wound through basal ganglia. Bullet lodged adjacent to torcular. Rapid deterioration to brain death. His only family was a father who had loaned him his car to go get
lunch. I escorted the father to the ICU
bedside for ID
Victim
3:
Elderly
male sitting in car in drive thru sustained gsw (handgun) to left parietal
region. Range to shooter was fifteen
feet. Oblique entrance wound with
silver-dollar-size subgaleal hematoma.
He was combative but eventually followed commands. CT showed 4x4 cm posterior
temporal-occipital hematoma.
Bone/bullet fragments along trajectory.
The bullet fractured the occipital bone inner table but did not
exit. Entrance wound skin grayish
discoloration/burned look with underlying punched-out skull fracture and linear
fracture extending posteriorly. Brain
matter/blood spontaneously expressed from dural opening. Upon opening dura, I found herniation of
swollen brain/hematoma. Deeper arterial
bleeding from probable sylvian vessels and multiple bone fragments lodged deep
in brain with hair strands and metal fragments. I debrided and closed primarily after excising scalp entrance
wound."
Lesson:
When
using a handgun, the head is always a poor target, even at close range. Of the three head wounds described, only one
was fatal, and in at least two cases, the victim was alert and completely
capable of defensive actions. If you
need to take someone out of the fight quickly, the chest and neck are the best
targets. Rapid, multiple hits are
always indicated.
/John
7
Mar 00
From
my friend in the Philippines:
"On
the legal front, the Chief of the National Police has recently liberalized the
number and type of guns one can own.
Previous limits were lifted, and the sole restrictions now remaining are
submachine guns and other full-auto weapons.
At
the same time, permits to carry handguns outside residence have been very
slow. Since the new chief took over in
November, only fifteen permits have been issued (all to his friends and other
politicians). This is in contrast to over two thousand per month during
previous years.
The
new Chief finally allowed rifles to be owned so that citizens have the
capability to fight heavily armed criminals should they invade innocents'
homes. But, he won't trust the same
populace to carry their legally
licensed
guns for protection when they go about their normal routine.
We
live with what we have and then fight for what we deserve."
Lesson:
This is the problem when unelected bureaucrats acquire arbitrary power at the
expense of citizens' rights. This is
also what happens when local control is lost.
That national police chief couldn't care less about the plight of
innocent citizens in some out-of-the-way place.
Therefore,
be wary when someone gets appointed as the "czar" of something.
Any
time government at any level wants to "do" something for you, they
remove the opportunity and the possibility of you doing it for yourself.
/John
14
Mar 00
At
a Course last weekend in Los Angeles, one of my students carried a Glock-17 in
a plastic holster made by a company called Fobus. We've seen a few Fobus holsters in other courses. They are inexpensive and, while they are not
nearly as elegant as those made by Dave Elderton at Ky-Tac, Dave Wegner at
Blade-Tec, or Gregg Garrett, they are at least functional.
Not
this one! A piece of plastic
continuously pushed in the magazine-release button as the weapon was
holstered. The result was that the
magazine kept falling out after the gun was drawn. A quick swipe with my Cold Steel Scimitar solved the problem, of
course. This is the first example of
this problem I've seen.
Another
student carried a Witness pistol in 10mm.
It's basically a copy of the CZ-75 and worked about as well! It experienced a failure to feed every fifth
round. The barrel was vented, and the
venting did reduce the muzzle flip, but nobody wanted to stand next to it! The student eventually abandoned it for
another Witness pistol, this one in 9mm.
It worked only slightly better.
/John
14
Mar 00
This
from my friend in the Philippines:
"A
local Army Unit adopted M16s manufactured by Olympic Arms. ‘Select fire' is a proper description.
Either it fires or it doesn't!
Examination of the defective units showed that the gas port in the
barrel is off center and not mating fully with the gas tube. The same weapon manufactured by Bushmaster,
and in use with the National Police, are much better.
The
M16 shall remain our standard service rifle for quite some time. The H&K G36s would have been fine, but I
can't see how any armed force can adopt them in large numbers, aside from those
within affluent nations.
The
Beretta 92DAO (‘D' model) that was adopted by the national police is plagued by
its size to the point that many troops cannot grip the pistol well. The
leadership has consequently approved the conversion of these guns to manual
decocking, at the user's expense.
The
only cops who go about life unharassed around here are those using personally
owned weapons like Glocks and 1911s which are better suited to our hand
sizes."
/John
21
Mar 00
I
just finished an Advanced Defensive Handgun Course with several friends form
the intelligence community in the Washington, DC area. Of the twenty people there, most had 1911s
(Kimbers, Wilsons, and Para-Ordiances).
There were several Glocks, and one Beretta 96 Compact.
It's
interesting to see the perennial popularity of the 1911 among those who work in
unwholesome environments. When working
with police departments on the East Coast, one usually sees Glocks and
Berettas, but not with these folks.
Carry
ammunition for the 1911 was mostly 230gr Federal Hydra-Shok.
/John
21
Mar 00
From
a friend with a PD on the East Coast:
"It's
in vogue for everybody to carry some type of big knife. Last week, while running a qualification
course, I watched one of our officers, who is no amateur with a pistol, swiftly
speed load his Buck 110 folding knife into the magazine well of his SIG
228! He had placed his knife pouch in
front of his magazine carrier. The two
apparently felt the same, and he withdrew the knife, indexed properly I might
add, and shoved it into the gun."
Lessons:
Don't put things of less importance than your spare magazine in front of it!
/John
21
Mar 00
This
from a friend who just returned from a trip to Disney World in Florida:
"A
‘fanny pack' is an excellent concealment option for tourist attractions such as
Disney World, blending in to that habitat perfectly. Even my large Bianchi in black nylon generated not so much as a
second look, and the Mickey Mouse patch I attached to the front was perfect
camouflage."
'Safari
vests' are sold there in the gift shop, so they are therefore quite common on
the park grounds. They also don't
generate any particular scrutiny"
/John
21 Mar 00
Are subguns as intimidating as
shotguns?
This is from a friend in a
Midwest PD:
“During a drug raid at a local
flop house last week, two suspects were located in the living room. Terry was the first one through the
door. He leveled his pistol on the
suspects and ordered them to the ground.
To his amazement they just stood there and ‘stared at me.’
His partner then came through
from behind and leveled the subgun ( Steyr 9mm) on them, simultaneously
repeating the command. They dropped so
fast that they nearly put dents in the floor!
No shots were fired”
/John
23
Mar 00
Training
Female Students!
Two
weeks ago Vicki conducted an all-female, Basic Defensive Handgun course in
Nevada. I assisted (too much at times!)
along with several of our local instructors.
Our
students ranged in age from one teenage girl (her father assisted with the
students) to a successful business woman in her seventies. Most were thirty-ish and married with
children. None had any substantive
experience in the defensive shooting arts when they came to us.
I
knew the class would be a distinguished experience when a woman I was coaching
fired her first shot (from a Glock 19) and knocked down a steel place eight
meters downrange. The moment the plate
fell, she burst into tears! It was
completely spontaneous, and the event took both of us by surprise. Several others had similar experiences.
Vicki
had great success! At then conclusion
of the course nearly all of our students were able to pass the practical test,
and they all vowed to return for the next program. They had overcome their fear and their doubts. It was a great victory.
I
am still a pitiable novice at this, but here are several things I learned and
won't forget:
>
Women are far more verbal than graphic.
Detailed, step-by-step instructions are necessary for each motor
sill. Unlike men, women don't visualize
in great detail and thus won't fill in the blanks, and they won't go forward on
their own unless they are confident they adequately understand the next step.
>
This skill has a great emotional content when it is taught to women,
particularly when they confront the reality that they are learning to inflict
lethal wounds on human beings. Men
don't feel the emotion as intensely and don't display it as spontaneously.
>
Women don't come to us with the mechanical skills which most men possess and
take for granted. The way the slide
moves on the frame, the way cartridges are fed in to the chamber, even the act
of charging a pistol magazine are not as intuitively obvious to women as they
are with men with mechanical backgrounds.
One must thus slow down and explain these things thoroughly, lest
students start regarding the pistol as a magical contrivance rather than the
deadly simple machine that it is.
>
When women cry, one must just let them cry and then get back to the task at
hand without further delay. Like
vomiting, crying is something which cannot be controlled, nor should it
be. Female students must understand
that crying is okay but that it will not bring a halt to training. After the crying, the lesson resumes.
>
Male instructors, like me, must make an emotional connection with female
students. They need to understand that
we have their best interests in mind even when we're not a patient or as
delicate as they would appreciate us being.
When the emotional connection is lost, learning ceases.
I
know much of the forgoing is politically incorrect, but the notion that men and
women learn the same things in the same way is rubbish. Of course, there are some men who tend to
learn like women and visa versa, but the goal of the student and the instructor
is always the same: the improvement of the student. Many times, they can't come to us. We have to come to them!
/John
24 Mar 00
"It's tough taking sides in
an argument between Charlton Heston and Bill
Clinton. On one side you have a classic actor trained to fake
emotion
for the camera, trained to win you over with a well rehearsed
script and
then on the other side you have Charlton Heston."
-- Allyson Smith, San Diego Tribune, 3/22/00
/John
24
Mar 00
This
just in from a friend in a position to know:
"Look
for the US military to dump the M9 (9mm Beretta 92F) at their next opportunity
and go back to the 45 ACP, probably an H&K."
/John
24
Mar 00
Did
you see this in the "mainstream" media? This from a friend in the US Border Patrol:
"Just
last week in El Paso, two of our horse-mounted officers were chased by nine
Mexican soldiers in jeeps. The incident
took place three miles inside the US.
They shot at our guys more or less continuously for nearly an hour. We're extremely lucky they're such bad
shots, as none of our guys were hurt.
We finally got some help on scene, and we took them all into custody at
gunpoint.
What
a surprise! Next day Janet Reno ordered
us to send them all back to Mexico, with their weapons, ammunition, and
vehicles. No charges. No detention. All they did was try to murder federal officers on US soil,
nothing really serious! As you can
imagine, morale here is something to behold.”
/John
24
Mar 00
This
just in from a friend who is a range officer with a large, metro PD. Did you see any of this in the media?
"I
had a chance to see one of those locking magazines that Glock has
produced. Our idiot governor has forced
the State Park Police to adopt them (the governor's own bodyguard detail is
apparently exempt; what a surprise!).
During
the televised news conference where the locking magazine was first shown to the
public, no one, not the governor nor any of the police officials present,
including the chief, could figure out how to unlock the damn thing and render a
gun which was capable of firing. This
was all despite the fact that during the various attempts the gun was pointed
at everyone on the room several times as well as in every other conceivable
unsafe direction.
None
of them were being shot at. There was
plenty of light to see what they were doing, and they had presumably rehearsed
the act many times in preparation for the press event. Still, none of them could get the pistol to
where it could be fired.
Amazingly,
instead of expressing concern for the safety of his troopers, the governor and
his assembled gallery of yes-men all commented on how well the device obviously
works!
We
tested the device here at the PD range last night. After much practice, it took the best of us a minimum of ten
seconds to get our Glocks unlocked and ready to fire, and that was with enough
light to see well enough to operate the lock.
In the dark, it took much longer, and many of us were unable to make it
work at all.
In
addition, we found that the magazine can easily be bumped and inadvertently
locked without the officer being aware of it.
Perhaps
it is just me, but the problem of safety locks is like the dilemma of Descartes
and the mind/body issue. No matter
where you say the intersection of the mind and body is, you still have to
explain how they can interact. No
matter how deep in the mechanism you put the safety lock, if the gun can be
made to fire, it can be made to fire at the wrong time. But maybe it is just me who doesn't get
it."
An
additional concern is that officers, instead of securing their guns within a
locked container, will simply flip a switch on the magazine and then leave them
lying around.
Lesson:
Public officials don't care about the safety of their officers any more than
they care about the safety of citizens.
As always, you're on your own!
/John
27
Mar 00
Trigger
"safety" locks!
This
from a friend in MA:
"Last
week in a local Massachusetts courthouse, an attorney was placing his handgun
in a locker, as is required at this particular public building. He was carrying on a state CCW permit.
Apparently
wanting to be 'really safe,' the lawyer drew his pistol and then attempted to
put a trigger lock on it prior to placing it into the gun locker. You guessed it! As he was attempting to install the trigger lock on his loaded
pistol, it discharged into a wall.
Fortunately, there were no injuries.
The attorney was not charged, and the whole incident was quickly
buried."
Lesson: Trigger "safety" locks should be
banned from the face of the Earth! I
highly recommend against their use and the use of any other device which goes
inside the trigger guard.
/John
28
Mar 00
This
from a police range officer in Wisconsin:
"The
Wisconsin State Patrol recently got a whole bunch of surplus M-16s from the
government's North Star program, and quite a few troopers now have them in
their patrol cars. A number of local
departments, including the Madison PD, have done likewise. It's becoming more difficult, however, as
the supply of North Star M-16s has now mostly dried up. A few departments have opted for Mini-14s.
The
point is that now that the WSP has broken the ice, shotguns are quietly being
replaced with rifles in beat cars statewide.
Interesting how rapidly trends like this can take hold. As you might imagine, there has been zero
publicity!"
/John
28
Mar 00
Maybe
there are at least a few intelligent people left!
This
is from a friend in upstate NY:
"Two
weeks ago our county legislature was discussing a bill that proposed 'mandatory
trigger locks.' We went to the meeting
and brought an unloaded gun and a trigger lock, and proceeded to show them just
how 'effective' such devices are. We
showed them how trigger locks are a veritable invitation to an AD.
By
some miracle they actually got the message and 'determined to study the issue
further.' At the next meeting we were
also there and pointed out how the proposed new law (like most gun laws) was
self-contradictory, impossibly vague, and so poorly written that none of the lawyers
in the group were able to say for sure what the law specifically required.
Apparently
there are still some politicians with at least half a brain. We won! The bill is dead."
/John
29
Mar 00
We
conducted a defensive handgun course last weekend in Texas. During the course, two pistols experienced a
blowout, a 239 SIG and a S&W P99, both in 9mm.
In
both cases, the chambered, 9mm, hardball round blew out on the unsupported area
of the feed ramp. Both cases ruptured
and leaked gas into the receiver. The
shooters suffered no injury, but both pistols were out of action afterward, one
temporarily and one permanently.
In
the case of the SIG, the gas leak blew out the extractor plunger, leaving the
(now disabled) extractor and spring in the pistol. We never recovered the plunger, but replacing it will get the
pistol back into action. There was no
other damage.
In
the case of the P99, the gas leak built up enough pressure to put a sizable
crack in the polymer frame. The slide
and barrel were fine, but the frame was history. It will have to be replaced.
At
this point, I can't say if the incidents were caused by defective ammunition
(It was a factory reload in both cases, but from different lots) or the pistol
firing out of battery.
Such
incidents are not common, but they do happen.
I had an extractor blow out on both a Kahr-40 and SIG 229 (357SIG) last
year. Again, no one was injured, but
both pistols were rendered temporarily out of action.
Lesson:
Never travel with only one gun. When
your pistol suddenly goes south, as they all can, you'll need a gunsmith (or
maybe a gun dealer) to get you rearmed.
That probably won't happen instantly.
In the interim, you need another gun.
/John
30
Mar 00
From
a friend who runs a large, commercial pistol range:
"I
have witnessed many pistol 'blowouts' like the ones you described. I have never seen ANY polymer-framed handgun
survive such an event. The frame is,
without exception, destroyed by the leaking, high temperature, high-pressure
gasses."
Lesson:
That is the price one pays for carrying plastic pistols. They are light and wonderful, but there is
no way plastic is going to be as strong as steel or even aluminum alloy.
/John
31
Mar 00
On
the Ruger Mini-14 and other rifles from a range officer in a large, Midwest PD:
"Most
commercial Mini-14s come with light barrels which, of course, are definitely
not designed for high-volume fire. They
heat up rapidly and promptly start stringing shots vertically. Cook-offs are not uncommon. The LE version has a heaver barrel, and that
is the one I recommend for defensive purposes.
The
configuration of the Mini-14's front sight is such that it's easy to mistake
one of the protective ears on the side for the front blade. When that happens, the student, of course,
shoots way off to one side. We see this
many times when students are shooting fast and/or in low light. The same thing can happen with the AR-15,
but, because of the way the front sight is designed, it is much less likely.
The
folding stock that comes on the Mini-14 sucks!
It's too long for my short-statured students, and the metal buttstock is
slick and routinely slips off the shoulder.
In addition, because of its insubstantial design, a comfortable and
repeatable cheek weld is nearly impossible.
Folding stocks found on the Galil and the DSA/FN are vastly superior.
The
bolt catch wears out quickly. The Mini-14s used by the ______ PD started
failing to go to bolt lock on the last round after only 1,500 rounds, and now
it is difficult to even lock the bolt to the rear manually.
Aperture
sights are surprisingly difficult to explain to those who had never been
exposed to military training. Like you,
I've found that many inexperienced students look right over the top of the rear
sight instead of through it, consequently shooting way high. We see this same phenomenon with the H&K
MP-5 also. Less so with the AR-15.
Our
PD had Marlin carbines (9mm) until they fell apart, which didn't take long. The
brass then decided to get military-surplus M-16s, but then
attention-deficit-disorder kicked in, and they forgot. Now, of course, it's too late. M-14s are still available, but they are
unsuitable for most small-statured people.
_______
PD bought surplus M1 30-caliber carbines six years ago, and they'll all still
going strong! No breakage and few
problems. The guys like to shoot them,
and, within one-hundred meters, they are deadly.
Rifles
are finally coming into the system, but it's a rocky road!"
/John
1
Apr 00
Sellier
& Bellot 223 ammunition:
At
an Urban Rifle Course today in Texas, a student brought a case of S&B 223
ammunition for his AR-15. The case was
sealed when he arrived. It was new,
factory ammunition. Right away, he had
problems loading and unloading his rifle.
It took a while for us to figure out the problem: The 223 Remington
ammunition was mixed in with 222 Remington ammunition! The 222 Remington case in similar to, but
significantly shorter than, the 223 Remington case.
We
rarely see something like this. Of the
one thousand rounds in the case, over half were the wrong caliber, and the two
were mixed together, even within the same twenty-round box!
We
have seen a lot of S&B ammunition in courses, particularly shotgun
ammunition. S&B ammunition is
imported from the Czech Republic. It
has never been my favorite label, but it is cheaper than most other
brands. This incident has lowered their
stock with us significantly!
Rifle
cook-offs:
Thick,
military brass, loose chambers, heavy barrels, and mild rifling all will
decrease the likelihood of cook-offs.
Unhappily, most factory, ball rifle ammo does not feature thick,
military cases, and many defensive, military rifles have been
"targetized," which almost always means a tight, "match"
chamber. Severe rifling, such a
one-in-seven-inch twist, also contributes to a rapid heat buildup in barrel and
chamber.
Cook-offs
are a real possibility in any rifle used in high-volume fire. If you have to subsequently hold someone at
rifle-point, this is a good reason to review your "low-ready"
position. Also, when slinging muzzle
down, take time to adjust the sling correctly, so that the muzzle does not
cover your lower extremities.
/John
3
Apr 00
From
a friend in the federal system:
"It
looks as if all the US Armed Services are moving towards non-lead projectiles
for small arms. The current talk is
about tungsten bullets. This will cause
the new ammunition to fall within the "armor penetrating" definition. The current SS-109 round, even with it's
imbedded, carbide dart, does not."
/John
6
Apr 00
This
from a trainer with a Midwest PD. He is
talking about his review of video tapes made of his officers during
roll-playing, confrontational exercises on the pistol range:
"One
thing that fairly jumps out is that most of our officers ‘creep up,' on
dangerous suspects, often leaving cover and closing the distance to the
suspect, in the open, in the process.
This is particularly prevalent when the suspect refuses to comply with,
or appears not to understand, officers' verbal commands.
When
our officers subsequently review the videos with us, they are invariably aghast
at their impetuous behavior and indicate that they had no awareness that they
were sequentially closing in on the suspect.
The exception to the rule are our guys with previous military
training. They steadfastly refuse to
break cover!"
Lesson:
The temptation, strong at times, to be drawn closer to a source of danger must
be recognized and resisted. Getting
closer offers few benefits and many perils.
Stay back. Stay covered. Stay ready.
/John
7
Apr 00
Maryland
gun bill. This from friend who lives
out there:
"The
new, Maryland gun bill mandates ‘internal gun locks' on all new guns by
2003. The term ‘internal gun lock' is
not defined, and nobody seems to know what that means. I guess all those pesky details can be
settled after the vote.
Whatever
it means, the Governor, like all good elitists, has no intention of enjoying
the same handicap he is imposing on everyone else. You guessed it! Police
officers, including those on the Governor's bodyguard staff, are exempt from
the new law! The Governor's personal
safety is just too important to be trusted to people who have guns which might
not work."
/John
7
Apr 00
From Newaygo County, MI
"State
Police were investigating a man-with-a-gun call. This suspect had returned to a bar in a rural location out of
which he had earlier been thrown. When
the suspect walked back into the bar, he was armed with a shotgun and began
threatening staff and customers.
Two
troopers arrived and took cover behind their vehicles in the bar's parking
lot. The suspect came out of the bar
(shotgun still in hand), saw the troopers, entered his car and fled, ignoring
verbal commands to stop. No shots were
fired in the parking lot. After driving
a short distance, the suspect exited his vehicle and started running, still
armed with the shotgun. He ran into a
wooded area where police vehicles were unable to follow.
The
Troopers exited their vehicles and gave chase on foot. The suspect stopped, turned around, and
fired at the troopers. It was subsequently learned that his shotgun was loaded
with #6 birdshot. Neither of the
troopers were hit as the suspect's shots were high and at some distance. Troopers returned fire with 9mm handguns
Several
such engagements took place as the chase continued. The suspect fired a total of three rounds of #6 birdshot at the
troopers. The troopers fired a total of
twenty-one 9mm rounds at the suspect.
Ranges were between eight and twenty meters. In most cases the suspect was moving as the troopers were
shooting at him. Sixteen of the
trooper's twenty-one rounds struck the suspect's body.
The
suspect died at the scene. Neither
trooper was injured."
Lesson:
It cannot be said too often: The surest and fastest way to end a potentially
lethal encounter is with deadly accurate shooting. Good show on the part of these two troopers!
/John
10
Apr 00
I've
had observed good performance from most of the Kimber pistols students have
brought to courses. However, I just
received this from a friend on the East Coast who works in a large gun store:
"This
Saturday a customer showed me his new 45ACP Kimber compact, lightweight. After digesting a mere 300 rounds (factory
hardball), the pistol had a cracked slide.
Upon inspection I observed a very obvious three-inch crack through the
top of the slide running lengthwise through the locking recesses.
In
addition, the feed ramp on the aluminum frame was so soft that it was badly
misshapen through repeated feeding of rounds.
We
are not happy with aluminum-framed Kimbers!"
I
don't own a Kimber, but I'm wondering what experience others are having with
this brand. I've been recommending
them, but I no longer will if the above experience is common.
/John
11
Apr 00
From
several friends in the training business who have had considerable experience
with Kimber pistols:
"Out
of a dozen I have seen students use, fully half have had repeated problems and
needed to go back to the factory. Five
of those pistols went back more than once.
The
factory has been hard to deal with too. They refuse to acknowledge
problems. The happiest campers are
those who got guns the first year they were on the market. Those folks love
their guns and have had zero problems.
Problems started after the initial glowing reports on the guns in the
press. The factory got huge orders and cranked up production."
"With
aluminum-frame 1911's , I think you need either the one-piece feed
feedramp/barrel
or a steel feedramp insert in the frame. High performance ammo typically chews
up soft, aluminum feed ramps."
/John
11
Apr 00
As
long as the discussion is quality control, I just received this from a friend
in a large PD:
"One
of our deputies is an armorer at Ft ________.
He has 500 Berettas (Army M9, the Beretta 92F) in his armory. As of December of last year, 135 were
deadlined with cracked locking blocks and/or broken firing pins. These pistols
have an average of 3,000 rounds through them!"