Weer'd World

Yep it was the Gas Block. Turns out the longitudinal cut goes on the TOP face of the gas block. Also using the page I linked above it only took me about 5 rounds to get the gas regulator set to a good level, and given that I was using South African 7.62x51mm NATO ammo which is a little on the light side I suspect the setting I have (which as the page recommends is two clicks more of gas pressure than is necessary) this will likely be a near universal setting (tho it can be dialed in for other loads as needed)

The gun shoots well, I was surprised at how comfortable the recoil was, also tinkering in the armory I thought the stock trigger felt a bit heavy, but gun-in-hand it felt crisp and nice, we’ll see if I continue to feel that way.

Also the gun is quite accurate….but the sights are off. The rear sight block runs on a little ladder like the tangent sights on a lot of guns…but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to unlock them to adjust them. Any Help?

Oh and on a gunnie fun note, I talked with a few guys on the firing line. One was a relatively new shooter with an H&K USP Compact in .40 S&W. Not a bad gun, but my opinion of H&K and .40 S&W are unchanged. Another gentleman was practicing for his instructor’s test and he had with him a S&W 1911 Compact and that gun was a dream to shoot. 100% reliable (The guy said it only gave him issues for the first 150 rounds, which sounds like standard break-in) and the recoil didn’t feel too much worse than my Scandium Commander. Also those rough textured grips are ugly as sin, but they supply an aggressive grip that is still comfortable to hold. Don’t think I’ll be buying one as I conceal my 1911Sc just fine, and I’d rather spend my money getting this FAL tweaked just the way I want it.

Dunno if I would have done anything differently, but I took the FAL to the range without completely tearing it down. I just pulled the bolt out and made sure the barrel was clear and looked good.

Well it was shooting like a straight-pull bolt action. The gun would fire, and the action would stay closed. Having not dissembled the gas system before I didn’t want to do it at the range with no reference materials.

Well I think I have everything figured out (If anybody knows L1A1s my gun’s gas block has no marks on one side, and a groove that is cut the length of the block. I think the grooved face needs to be up for normal gas function) And Unix Jedi sent me this handy site to tune the system to my loads.

I’ll try again after dinner. Now time to run some errands.

And yes this post is JUST an excuse to use that title!

Got an Email last night from Dragon I’ll Paraphrase: “I have the 1911 I want all picked out, I gotta make a few FlatJack sales, but if I can sell 6 of them, I can buy the one I want outright.”

Hey, we can make this happen and help a hard-working pro-rights entrepreneur get his first 1911. Here’s my 1,000 words:

That’s MY first 1911, retained in a Dragon Leatherworks Flat-jack. For a reminder and more pix, plus links to Jay’s reviews, check out my review of my Flat-Jack holster.

So go over to Dragon Leatherworks and see if there’s a holster that tickles your fancy. I’ll tell you right now they’re a high quality holster first before Dragon makes them look GORGEOUS!

Oh and for those of you who already know what the 1911 thing is all about, remember he makes 1911 holsters…and for those of you heretics, he also makes rigs for the guns of the non-believers too! 😉 (I kid!)

Seems a bunch of cool kids are dropping some hate on the Taurus Judge First up look at that video! Essentially Taurus came up with and answer, and then threw their marketing department with all its money at finding a question. First up I specifically want to throw up a picture I took at the NRA convention to SPECIFICALLY enumerate my dislike of the gun:

Look at the SIZE of that cylinder! My hands are NOT small, and this gun is completely freakish in proportions. Its essentially a compact revolver that Taurus stretched like a limo to accommodate the .410 shot shell.

OK let’s talk about shot shells for a second. Most people don’t realize (or think about) this, but there is no “Cumulative effect” of shot shells, they are essentially an equivalent of a burst fire from a full-auto weapon of an odd caliber. Overall the ordinance coming out of the business end of a shot gun are not impressive, but they make up for their ballistic inferiority with volume. See a #00 Buckshot pellet is only about .33 Caliber, and being a sphere doesn’t weigh much at all, but it makes up for it that fired from a standard 12 gauge load there are nine of them, so the chances of getting a single vital hit are good, and multiple vital hits are decent. The smaller the shell, the less pellets you can fit in it…with .410 you get….3 #00 in the 2.75″ shells. Add in the odd pattern created by a shot cup spinning down the rifling and you have a ballistic nightmare.

Honestly I HATE .410, and I don’t see the point of it outside of a specific tool to skirt stupid hunting laws (you know like the law that says you can’t hunt with a .30-06 rifle…but a 12 gauge with a rifled slug barrel, a scope, and shooting a .30 Caliber saboted slug) but overall I feel the .410 doesn’t accomplish much, and a shooter would be much better off shouldering a 20 gauge.

And that’s talking .410 out of a shotgun, not a snub-nosed wheel-gun that’s the size of a 5″ 1911! And to add insult to injury, the Judge can eat .45 Colt shells which is an AWESOME revolver load…but to put than monstrous cylinder on it?

So my point is if the frame and cylinder is cut down to accept .45 colt we have an interesting gun….interesting, but not GOOD if you still have that famous Taurus trigger pull that is often described using terms like “dragging a Piano” and “Down a Dirt Road”.

Such a shitty gun, and I hate them!