Posts
All Comments
On a whim I took my G17.2 out to the range Tuesday and noticed something.
No little scrape on the side my hand from the slide.
The G17.1 clones scrape my hand. The Gen 2 grip textures were/are an improvement over the Gen 1. Gee, I think I remember reading the GunWriters® saying something about that in the way back...
I shoot low with it, though...
I give you the S&W Equalizer with thumb safety!
The cuts on the slide give a better grip for Harvey to pull and the lighter spring means she can work the slide like a pro!
The slide stop, on the other hand, is almost impossible to press down and release the slide. I tend to slingshot the slide, but she'd prefer to use the stop. I worked it obsessively for a bit and it's better, but still not easy. Harder than a Gen 1 Glock!
It introduces a 15-round magazine to the Sheild Plus line-up in addition to the 13 and 10 round choices.
Plus! Optics ready!
It's almost the same size as the M&P 2.0 Compact:
A bit lighter and narrower means it carries better for her.
It's a bit bigger than a Shield Plus, mostly in length.
The trigger doesn't have a hinge or a little paddle in it.
That's because it has a grip safety.
If you think about it, the trigger safety is also a grip safety, just a different grip...
Harvey has complained about her grip strength since she went bionic.
Because she's hit the wall in improving her shooting, we decided to rent a gun designed for people with bad grip strength.
The S&W Equalizer!
It's like a Shield Plus and an M&P EZ had a baby. Even uses the Shield Plus magazines that I already have stacked deep for my pocket gun.
She liked it well enough that she decided we could pay interest on the credit card for it.
In GURPS terms it's identical to the M&P 2.0 9mm Compact it replaces, except for being 1.8 lb. loaded instead of 2 lb. Same 15 round capacity.
Another plus is it fits slightly better in her purse's gun compartment.
It came with a 10-rounder, 13-rounder and 15-rounder and an UpLula. You need that UpLula to get all 15 rounds into the big mag.
Thanks to the Shield Plus, we have a lot of the 13 rounders around already, gonna have to get some more of the 15 shot mags.
She didn't shoot the rental any worse than the M&P 2.0 9mm Compact she's been carrying; but she was much better with manipulating the slide. She gushed about that.
One oddity was the slide lock is insanely hard to push down to let it slide home.
I'd have never noticed because I slingshot the slide, but she's been using it to release the slide on all of her pistols since she started learning to shoot.
Should be easy for her to adapt.
The OG Wonder Nines™, in roughly chronological order, are the H&K VP70, S&W 59, CZ CZ75, Star M28, H&K P7M13 and Beretta 92.
This is if you accept:
"Wondernine: A term coined by gunwriter Robert T. Shimek to denote the modern breed of 9mm Parabellum auto pistols of recent design, usually featuring high magazine capacity and a double-action trigger mechanism or other modern ignition system (e.g., the squeeze-cocker of the Heckler & Kock P7 series or the Safe Action of the Glock)."
J. Libourel
I've argued that the hoary old Browning Grand Puissance should be included despite the lack of a double action.
I further define the OG's as pre-Glock, so vaguely 1980 for the cutoff. Yes, I know the Glock P.80 didn't enter service until 1982, but that 80 stands for 1980!
I don't really think of the H&K P7M13 when I think of wonder nine, but Shimek included it.
I'm missing examples of the VP70, CZ 75, P7M13 and Star M28.
I don't have the first three because they're expensive as fuck compared to other guns. The Star is a bit obscure but I've seen one for sale on Gunbroker every time I've looked.
CZ thinks they are H&K with regards to pricing; though prices appear to have come down a lot lately.
The VP70 and P7M13 are actual H&Ks in addition to being collectibles.
I've fired them all though.
I like the CZ quite a bit, but I appear to be immune to the Kool-Aid. My ham-fists aren't precise enough to grab the narrow slide sometimes and the disassembly is archaic.
The VP70 is just plain unpleasant to shoot because of that trigger. I remember seeing a lot of them in Polizei holsters in and around Stuttgart.
The P7M13 is goofy. I found it tiring because I over-gripped the stapler-gun safety. I wasn't given enough rounds to get the front blazing hot.
The Star I got to shoot had a bad extractor and didn't run well, but it was comfortable and the bullets went where they were told. It's got the same narrow slide problem I have with the CZ.
Did you know they made arched grips for 3rd gen S&W autos?
I do now!
Model 915 before:
Model 915 after:
I have long thought that the 59, x59 and 59xx series of guns needed an arched grip, and I was blissfully unaware that you could fix the 59xx guns!
Allegedly, there's a replacement, arched, backstrap for the 59 and x59 guns, but I have only seen a couple pictures, never the part for sale.
Magazine springs are wear items.
Check every once and while if they've shrunk.
The top magazine is brand new. The bottom one isn't. I think it's an early 80's version of the 59xx series magazine.
The top spring is from an early 59xx 15 rounder. The bottom spring is the same too short spring as the first pic.
Unloading the magazine with the shortest spring had a couple of moments where the follower wasn't following.
It was time to replace them.
A Marlin Camp Carbine in 9x19mm uses the same magazines as a S&W 59 series pistol.
10 (ick), 15, 17 and 20 round magazines are available from Mec-Gar, assuming you can get their web page to work, which it wasn't at the time I tried to check on this.
It seems silly that the 20 rounder is so much longer than the 17 and only holds three more rounds.
Looks like 5 more rounds, at least, would fit, no?
They're built very differently internally.
The 17 rounder has a shorter follower and the top of the spring is designed to telescope inside itself; that's how it gets 17 rounds where S&W designed 15 to go.
The 20 rounder reminds me more of the S&W 15 rounder they introduced with the 3rd gen. Tall follower, normal spring geometry, it just eats the space up inside.
The original Model 59 magazines only held 14, but S&W changed the baseplate from metal to plastic and let it sit a little outside the gun giving just enough more space for a 15th round. When the 59 was introduced, it was a selling point to have one more round than the competition, the Browning Hi-Power. By the time the 3rd generation guns came out, the competition was the Beretta 92 and they needed to have at least as many rounds as them.
I think Mec-Gar figured out the additional two rounds to have parity with Glock.
For some reason I'm better with the Gen 1 Classic than the P80 Classic.
Two mags at 7 yards.
The factory Glock sights still suck for me trying to go fast on a 3x3 set of rings though. Lack of practice, I am sure.
The Gen 1 Classic's slide doesn't scrape the top of my hand like the P80 Classic. Odd.
How I toted on the Czech-West German border.
If I had not disregarded the future collectors, this picture would be impossible for lack of a lanyard.
The P80 Classic did not fill the void.
So I've kept hunting for either a real steal on an actual Gen1 or a decent deal on a Gen 1 Classic.
I found the Classic because the seller listed it as a real Gen1 and that wouldn't attract someone who wanted a Classic.
Without regards to future collectors, I decided to make it a clone of my actual first Glock 17.
This means I can put the lanyard on it!
The hole for the lanyard is not on the initial issue of the P80 or G17, and it appears erratically in production until all guns after a certain point have it. The one I bought at the Patch Rod and Gun Club had the hole, as did the one I bought later at Jacobson's Gun Center. The gun I bought stateside also had adjustable sights for ATF import points.
Here's what's wrong with the P80:
And here's why the Gen 1 Classic is acceptable:
And except for the serial number range, that's all the differences between them!
I've been watching, and enjoying, the NBC show "The Blacklist."
It's a bit formulaic, but lots of fun.
James Spader is a joy in this role.
Not the smallest matter of fun is his chosen pistol is a Browning Hi-Power.
The HP is one of my all-time favorite nine millimeters.
If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up!
Software Janitor is not familiar with S&W latest offerings.
This is an M&P 2.0 9 Compact.
It's about Glock 19 size and is distinct from the M&P 9C in capacity. The 9C only holds 12 rounds, this one takes 15.
As far as I can tell from trying to find spare magazines anyways.
The grip shape fits my hand a bit better than a Glock 19 and I like having a manual safety even if I shouldn't need one. Old. Set in ways.
This is my Goldilocks gun. It just fits my hand and I shoot it better than any other 9mm I've ever owned with the possible exception of the Browning HP.
It totes wonderfully in a gun-bra under a Hawaiian or flannel shirt when it's not unseasonably warm here in Florida in the late fall, winter and early spring.
I need to get a workable IWB holster to see if under an untucked t-shirt works.
Took the Glock P80 to the range.
Like all factory Glock sights, I shoot low and left until I remember how they work.
My astigmatism makes the front sight slanty looking and that makes me veer off to one side with some sights, but not all sights. I do better with dots.
But I can figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Getting the G17.1 was pure nostalgia and I remember why I was excited to get a Gen 2 when they came out. I forgot about how the slide would bite with the pebble texture letting my hand slip just a little bit.
Even got a Lovely Harvey action shot!
She's gotten so much better than when we started shooting, though she still tires quickly with her shoulder. Gonna be years before those muscles finally get settled.
Also of note is her wandering over and helping a group of first time shooters! She remembers how she struggled.
After struggling with the Otis tool, I wondered if there was a better way.
It works so much better!
You put the button on the post sticking out horizontally:
Then you push down against the bar, that levers the base off the little tabs.
Then you put the hole in the baseplate over the vertical post and slide the body back:
It drops the baseplate and locking plate into the little tray and you just lift the body up and the spring remains controlled.
You can reverse that last step to reassemble them!
Works with Glock 21 magazines too!
This is so much better than the Otis one, I highly recommend!
The underside is also a magazine unloader.
The Otis brand Glock magazine disassembly tool arrived today!
It works really well on magazines that have been disassembled before and not at all for the first take down!
For the first take down you need a flat-blade screwdriver and come in from the back.
This will deform the little retainer nubbins enough that the tool will have enough leverage next time.
How it's supposed to work: You depress the subfloor button with the nubbin of the tool...
Then you lever it against the front wall of the magazine until the floorplate clears the subfloor button.
It's much harder than it needs to be.
The newer magazines are much harder to get apart than the 1994 models I have here too! Perfection! I guess.
I also found an older magazine loader in my pile of things.
The new one has a texture and is slightly shorter.
They moved the logo too!
The 2020 made P80 magazines have two differences from the magazines that came with the 2019 made Glock 45.
First is the follower color, which I noticed right away.
The P80 floorplate has less of a toe sticking out.
The bodies bear the same part numbers.
My Classic Edition Glock 17 arrived today!
Interestingly, it's not called a Glock 17 anywhere on the gun's markings or the box.
The model number on the label is P80.
Tupperware!
My example appears to be nearly unfired if it was fired at all.
My low-ball bid was $350 (plus shipping, insurance, taxes and transfer fees). The original owner paid a bit more:
The trigger is standard Glock and breaks at about 7 lb.
The magazines are the same as what came with my Glock 45, but with black instead of orange followers.
It's 0.6 oz. lighter than a Gen 2; 1 lb. 8.8 oz. vs 1 lb. 9.4 oz. with an empty magazine. Could that be the metal, tritium sights on my Gen 2 vs the plastic?
The slides will interchange.
The only real visible differences are the slide marking and grip textures. I find I really like the old texture and contour. It fits my hand really well.
Something I think is neat is the tooling left a ghost of a mark where the lanyard hole should be.
