Gunsmith Comments

11 Aug 09

Shooting lead,

>More comments from gunsmiths:

"When you insist on pounding lead bullets down your pistol's bore, you will get lead build-up. It's unavoidable! However, when you shoot lead bullets exclusively, you will experience a progressive, and significant, degradation in accuracy, and, as you mentioned, a greasy, gummy, disgusting mess, but there will probably be no safety issue associated with the practice.

The problem comes when you subsequently shoot high-performance, jacketed ammunition through a barrel with appreciable lead build-up. Catastrophic bulging, even bursting, of the barrel is likely. In the latter case, the frame may well be ripped asunder also. When the dust settles, pray you still have a hand!

There was a time when this routine was common with 38Spl revolvers. FMJ ammunition was fired through the revolver now and then in order to 'clean out the lead.' Actually, precious little lead is actually thus removed, but the procedure was common. A few revolvers blew-up, but not many, due to the relatively low pressure of the round, and the fact that the cylinder/barrel gap functioned as a safety-valve, bleeding off excessive pressure, and, of course, most lead bullets were cold-formed and thus dead-soft.

Continuing that same practice today, with relatively high-pressure rounds (40S&W, 357SIG, 45GAP), and autoloading pistols where the chamber is continuous with the barrel, and lead bullets that are hard/cast, is tantamount to begging the question!

Not recommended!"

>Gunsmith Two:

"OEM Glock parts are relatively loose-fitting, in order to promote reliable functioning under a wide variety of circumstances. However, tolerances on those same parts are so precise as to come close to being exact. Impressive!

Everything Glock does is by design. Nothing is left to chance!"

>From friend and colleague, Irv Stone, owner of Bar-Sto. Irv is not only a good friend, but a shooter and manufacturer for whom I have immense respect. I personally have Bar-Sto barrels on several of my carry-guns. If it were otherwise, he would not have a voice in this forum:

"There is no 'compromised accuracy' with my barrels! I have never seen any factory barrel shoot close to ours, with regard to accuracy, nor durability for that matter. We make barrels for Glocks, and just about every other main-stream auto-pistol."

/John

Training Hints

11 Aug 09

Training comments, from a retired USN commander, and one of our Instructors:

"After years of running emergency drills on US Naval vessels, I learned (mostly the hard way) a few vital Principles of Training.

In a real emergency, our students will invariably rise to the level of their training- not their, nor our, expectations! So, the more painful, relevant, hard, and emotional our training, the better we respond when bad things happen.

As an example, when fire breaks out inside a submerged submarine (something that happens a lot more often than is ever reported) visibility degrades to near-zero, usually in less than a minute. Yet, we routinely trained in bright light, and could not turn off the lights, due to the need to operate the reactor-plant safely.

One of my sharp, young sailors suggested stuffing the inside of our emergency air-breathing apparatus with black trash-can liners, in order to simulate low visibility, and bad air. We did it that way, and quickly, unhappily discovered that our previous training had been utterly inadequate. Our first drill, thus encumbered, was a fair imitation of a Three-Stooges movie!

I began to realize precisely what you emphasize in Classes: Good training is ever scary, demanding, and makes you feel inadequate and stupid. When you finish and 'feel good about it,' you probably weren't pushing yourself hard enough. Learning takes place when you fail, not when you succeed!

Thus, any training worthy of the name is going to be both frustrating and ' dangerous,' no matter what safety procedures are in place. But, failing to train is even more dangerous, and the consequences ever appalling and irrevocable. Ask any commander who has lost a battle!

And, failing to train because those in charge are more worried about their next promotion than the lives of their crew-members, is criminal!"

Comment: Naive "administrators" about whom we're talking fully expect a chocolate cake to emerge when they dump together vinegar and baking soda, and are astonished when it doesn't happen!

"We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears."

Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld

/John