Advantage Arms

05 Aug 08

Comments on 22/LR conversions, from a friend with much experience. He doesn' t mince words:

"22/LR conversions for both 1911s and Glocks, manufactured by Ciener, were utter failures with all ammunition, including recommended brands. Among other difficulties, supplied magazines are too tight to fit into Glock's magazine well. 'Customer Service' is nonexistent, and the website and supplied documentation are so sparse and incomplete as to be useless. Several patient attempts to reach a live person failed, and their correspondence is insulting. No joy there!

Marvel's unit is not much better, despite friendly, helpful people at the company. It will not feed reliably. They supplied several magazines, butall had tippy followers that caused monotonous nosediving of the first round. I gave up on them too.

Happily, the Advantage Arms conversion is great, but even it needs to be kept clean, shot with a firm hold, and fed exclusively recommended Remington Golden Bullet. Advantage Arms customer service is wonderful - articulate, polite, and competent/informed people. My copy is now well beyond 2K rounds and still running fine with all ten supplied magazines It also takes standard, and aftermarket, Glock sights - a very good thing!"

Comment: Advantage Arms is the way to!

/John

Garand

05 Aug 08=20

Garand:

At an Urban Rifle/Shotgun Course in MI last weekend, we had two Ruger Mini-14s, several AR-15s (M4s) , a Kalashnikov, an MI Carbine, and a Garand. All ran fine, aside from an occasional hiccup.

My student with the Garand is a larger-than-average male with much gun experience. He is an experienced supervisor with a large police department and has attended numerous Courses, with us and other well-known instructors, and he is a suburb marksman and Operator.

This is not the first time we've seen him with his Garand (a long-ago birthday gift from his parents). He lives within the city limits of Chicago, and thus a Garand is one of the few genuinely capable military rifles that is legally ownable by those so unfortunate. Willfully naive and gun-stupid, City officials classify the Garand as a "relic," and, unlike "black" rifles, it is thus mostly unregulated.

The Garand is a bruiser! It is the biggest, heaviest, most powerful military rifle ever issued to soldiers anywhere, before or since. When you bring a copy to one of our Courses, it will beat you up far more, and faster, than will lighter, more modern, rifles.

My student did fine for the first five-hundred rounds, but then fatigue set in, and he started pitching shots. Re-stoking it with eight-round clips became arduous and slow.

In any event, after five-hundred rounds, my student finally had enough! He could barely hold it steady. His shoulders (both- we require students to shoot from both left and right shoulders) were sore, and his thumbs were beat-up from constant reloading.

We substituted a Krebs Kalashnikov in 7.62X39, and he finished the Course, including passing his Practical Test, in good order. This Kalashnikov, likeall of Mark Krebs' rifles, ran superbly.

The lesson here is that all of us have limits! And, when you find yourself in "divide overflow," you need to make whatever changes arenecessary and promptly get back into the fight! No matter what you do, it won't be perfect, but your mind has to be constantly looking for ways to win! However, the more experience you have with a wide spectrum of guns, the more comfortable and confident you'll be with whatever you find yourself armed with.

The Garand is a wonderful rifle, as is, for that matter, the '03 Springfield! I own several of each, as does every self-respecting American!But, when run hard, it will ware you down a good deal quicker than will a DSA/FAL, PTR-91, or even an SA/M-1A, much less an RA/XCR, M4, SIG/556, Kalashnikov, or Kahr/M1 Carbine.

That Garand is, I'm sure, guarding my student's house as I write this. However, he now has experience with other, equally wonderful, rifles that are a good deal lighter and handier, at least in our domestic/defensive environment. When the moment of truth comes, he'll emerge victorious, no matter what he is shooting. I've no doubt!

In World History, weapons come, but they never really go. They are all still with us! Over eons, there have been many, and each has a definitive set of skills associated with it. As time marches on, much of that knowledge has regrettably been lost. We none-the-less have great respect for all of them,and honor the mighty warriors who wielded them with such eminent skill and courage, as we are their spiritual descendants. Many of us are literal descendants!

However, in our time we have our own dreadful challenges, and they are ominously rushing upon us! We adore our past, but we don't live in it!

Cogito, ergo armatum sum

"I think! Therefore, I am armed!"

/John