DocHawk

Nobody uses Kydex holsters? That's all I use anymore... the biggest considerations being active retention without needing an active defeat, and maintaining shape when the gun is drawn, so that I can reholster without using my support hand (or worse, root around with the muzzle) to open the mouth of the holster.

Anti-gunner logic is fueled by fairy dust and rainbow farts.

Man I am shopping for this exact truck... just about 12 years newer. Moving up from my 2003 F250 7.3 Super Duty long bed crew cab. I need a dually for the things I ask it to do... unfortunately, she runs so well at 200K miles, I have attachment issues.

Congrats on the sale - I'm trying to find an M107 through distribution but they never come up for me. I think I might be the one other guy in Hamilton County with a Porsche and a Hummer. Just got back from a Cherohala Skyway run. This place is automotive heaven. Let me know when you want to carve some canyons!

Hi Nashville shooters, Would anyone happen to be available for an hour or two of firearms-related labor next Thursday or Friday? I'm a gunsmith, recently relocated to Chattanooga from San Diego. My shop is still active in Commiefornia, so that's where all my equipment is. As I've grown into Tennessee I have come to find that professional gunsmithing is fairly rare out here (the opposite of what I expected, moving to such a gun-friendly state). So, I have decided to buy another lathe, mill, etc. and set up another shop in my new hometown. I have a line on a mill and lathe located in the Rosebank area of Nashville. If I get it done, is there anyone who would be willing to help me get these loaded for transportation? I have a hydraulic drop-deck trailer that literally puts the flatbed on the ground, so there's no crazy lift to do, but a 1000# metal lathe is just too much for one man to shimmy around with rollers, pipe and a pallet jack. I'm looking at December 29th or 30th, but I could float it a day or three. I'd be happy to pay for your time, or even happier to treat you to lunch, talk guns and make new friends. Merry Christmas!

I'm a car/truck guy - I did that even in CA! One difference in TN is that they wave back with all 5 fingers.

Whatever you do, don't remove the takedown lever. It will lock the gun up (worse). Use the side breech window to ensure there's no round in chamber. Depress trigger. Make sure firing pin is retracted (use a flashlight). Use a rubber mallet to put the slide all the way into battery if it isn't. Mallet to get it out of battery if it is. Once out of battery, you'll be able to rack it back. Use the slide lock repeatedly while the slide is back. Release.

Looks to be a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

UTG makes (in the USA, no less) an excellent over-cover picatinny rail that replaces the rear sight and bolts into the stock tangs. Much more secure and better at holding zero than other options.

This is not regionally specific - the same was true in Southern California and Southeastern Arizona, where I lived previously. Especially as true gunsmiths become fewer and further between, those performing armorer work elevate themselves to the gunsmith title, lacking anyone to compare themselves to, I suppose. I am a gunsmith by trade... I founded AO Sword Firearms in San Diego, where my crew still turns out "Custom Tools with Triggers" for our customers. I've done my time behind enemy lines, though, and moved to Chattanooga with my family this year. I thought I might encounter a multitude of comrades here in the Old South, and learn a thing or two alongside the grognards. Imagine my surprise upon finding even fewer craftsmen here than in anti-gun California! I've been introduced to several people in local gun shops that the other folks call their gunsmiths. Generally when talking shop, it becomes apparent they are armorers (and not even certified armorers, usually), and I gracefully praise their expertise. To his credit, one local gunsmith was quick to qualify that he's a journeyman who does light repairs and parts replacement - and not surprisingly, upon probing I found him to be the most knowledgeable of the bunch. I have great respect for a good quality armorer - I employ two, and I would be lost without them. Nobody wants to pay gunsmith time for a job that just takes a trained armorer's hand on a $600 sight pusher, or a seasoned eye on an action bar and barrel nut wrench. I respect them all the more when they know the difference between a problem diagnoser, parts changer, and parts maker. I come from a tradition of manual mill and lathe to make parts that need replacement. $10,000+ in specialty tools just for building 1911's. Another $20,000 for all the dang vices, action wrenches, special tools, jigs, and other precious nonsense for working on bolt guns. More and more again for the full spectrum of different sized spares and the multitude of generations of lifters, followers, bushings, rings, nuts, lugs, and oh-dear-Lord the screws. In contrast, today's gunsmith seems to expect to buy a complete kit in a plastic blister box to do everything needed for the job du jour. I've already filled the weekends since I've been here with jobs for my neighbors and their kin, and I love it. I am shopping for a metal lathe, now, because there's such a need. My gunsmithing shop remains at my gun store with my apprentice in San Diego, so I'll have to establish a new one. It's like paradise out here to a shooter who has had to fight for every inch of the 2nd Amendment for the last decades. I hope y'all know how good you have it... and that you do the work to keep it. Sorry, I digress! But, I love Tennessee so much, it's distracting.

Runs great suppressed, @FrankD! As I mentioned, an inexpensive upgrade changes the stock OFF-ON-ADVERSE adjustable gas regulator to a suppressor-ready SUPPRESSED-ON-ADVERSE unit. Since I have no use for the "off" position, changing it to a low-gas "suppressed" option was just the ticket. It is soft shooting, POI shift is minimal with the can on/off (haven't benchrest measured yet but I'm still on 9" steel standing offhand at 100yds, 20-30rpm ROF).

This Sunday! First time visiting; I hear it's really nice at Christmas time. We will be in Pigeon Forge through Monday morning, too.

Yes, STANAG magazines. This is another important factor for me - any potential fighting rifle on the North American continent needs to feed from the same mags as ARs, because that's what's most available and guaranteed to be in the pouches of the people around you.

This guy's got a Legion For this Christmas season 'Cause all the cool cats Packin' SIGs for their gats Let me know if you ever make it down towards Chattanooga. I'm headed the other way (Dollywood) for my only travels this season, unfortunately.

Holy downer thread, Batman! Some serious tragedy right there.

I have been enjoying growing into a new platform. My trusty AR's have gone through many evolutions as I've grown as a shooter, and my handguards have reflected this evolution from Milspec to Magpul, then free floated keymod, and on to Mlok. My receivers have made similar changes, having experimented with all manner of ambi controls and lighter weight. I've tried gas piston over direct impingement, side charging over rear charging, folding stocks, and more. My optics have gone from irons to red dots to scopes with mall ninja side dots to LPVOs. Everything has been a delightful (expensive?) journey. Recently, I started playing with a new platform, the CZ Bren 2 MS. This piston driven, lightweight carbine is the standard issue police and military carbine for the Czech Republic, and it is best described as a modern (and improved) version of a SCAR. Non-reciprocating side charging handle, ambi controls, lightweight, fantastic center of gravity with more weight behind the pistol grip, folding stock that doesn't need to be extended to fire, and an adjustable gas block in case you need extra gas for adverse conditions, questionable ammo, or like slinging your empties across the range. The Bren 2 platform is practically everything I've been spending money to make my AR15's into. Lightweight and balanced. Compact, with a functional folding stock. Better controls and more combat-effective manual of arms (the side charging handle doesn't make you lower the rifle and lose your sight picture/target awareness to run it). An inexpensive gas selector swap gives you a new "suppressed" setting, to avoid overgassing. So far, so good. I'm getting about 1.5MOA accuracy with 55gr FMJ, which makes it only half as accurate as my quality ARs, but it's certainly nothing I notice in drills out to 100yds. It would not be my DMR of choice for working out at 500 yards, but it sure does the job inside 50. I bought the 8" and 11" pistols, and converted the 14" pistol into a rifle with folding stock. I'll let you all know how my additional testing goes. Doc

Monkeylizard provided a great summary. As he mentioned, it applies to any striker-fired pistol or hammer-fired with an SA mode. The reason Glock's name got specifically associated with the negligent discharge was that the introduction of the striker pistol into widespread service with LE and security in the 80's and 90's was met with heavy resistance of a certain segment of the population who were tied to their revolvers, full metal/thumb safety S&W's, and the like. There were a handful of reasonable considerations backing these opinions, and a boatload of emotional attachment and cognitive dissonance. The Glocks were derided as "unsafe Tupperware guns." The wide distribution of Glocks unfortunately revealed unsafe practices in law enforcement gun handling. Many officers tended to index on the trigger with their finger on the draw. The gun transition revealed this problem with far greater frequency than before, because the double-digit pounds of trigger weight on a typical service revolver allowed for this nonsense without consequence. On a striker fired pistol without a manual safety, however, the Basic Firearm Safety Rules are very important. Worse, some officers were bit by their habit of riding that trigger upon reholstering, with the inevitable holster pinch leading to a bang instead of a physical reminder to withdraw the finger. Inadequate training was of course found to be the problem, not an inadequate firearm. However, the term Glock Leg has stuck, and just like "Mexican Carry" it is spoken in professional circles with a bit of tongue-in-cheek double meaning.

Steering the conversation more collaboratively, something I will mention is that in those many discussions of carry, something we have often landed on in agreement is that if there does arise an emergency need to carry a handgun without a holster, a semiauto is best carried in Condition Three (no round in the chamber). The horrible loss of combat readiness on the draw is preferable to the horrific potential for an SA or SA/DA trigger to Glock Leg the carrier.

I did indeed, and I apologize. Please forgive me and extend me a little grace in understanding; having given up my dream home, my lifelong friends, my extended family, my community ties, and my life's work all because of a state that I could no longer support with my tax dollars, almost no insult could cut closer to my bone than calling me Californian.

Good post, Defender. I was just editing my post when yours came through, with essentially the same info. Note Ayoob and I are not in overall disagreement - he cites the *origins* of the term. He says it is not pejorative. However, whenever I have used the term or heard it used, we are specifically describing an undesirable carry method, and usually pejorative describing the person carrying. Compromises must always be made in carry. Size and caliber vs concealment. Carry position vs clothing and physique. Quick detach holster vs fixed belt loops. Or in the case of Mexican carry, old school concealment and ditchability vs going unarmed. It isn't *racially* charged by nature... thats not what I am saying, although it now does paint an associative picture in professional shooting circles. The people who are stereotypically encountered today conducting Mexican Carry are not independent vaqueros defending their way of life from an overbearing tyrannical government. And those who *are* living as modern-day vaqueros have modern-day holster options, if they are educated.

No sir, your California assertions are no more correct than you believing yourself to be an authority based on race. I've delivered tactical training to Navy SEALS on San Clemente, US BORTAC teams in Texas, FLETC students in Georgia, trained guest SF teams from Europe and Africa, and AIF across the Pacific, East Asia, and throughout SOUTHCOM. I've been in the firearms industry for decades and had thousands of carry discussions with tens of thousands of shooters. No professional shooter, no person professionally involved in the shooting community, and certainly no Mexican professionals I've ever met share your opinion of the term "Mexican Carry" being a romantic vision of the Old West. We all cite it as a laugh and a put-down. Edit for clarity: While it did *originate* with the old vaqueros keeping a pistola concealed in their waistbands under their jackets or vests to go armed where it was illegal to do so, nobody cites it in this manner anymore. But by all means, as a first generation Mexican American, you go right ahead believing whatever you like.

As an American of partial Hispanic heritage recently relocated from the American Southwest, please allow me to translate. "Mexican Carry" = a derogatory description of the dangerous practice of stuffing a loaded and chambered handgun in your waistband, so-named because it is stereotypical of an uneducated Hispanic gang-banger lacking the money and motivation to obtain a holster. "Ambi" because hey, if having one gun go off in your pants is Bueno, having two guns go off in your pants must be Muy Bueno!

I would have been impressed with Hi Point if they cost $10 more for a design that doesn't require a hammer and punch to break the gun down for basic cleaning. That's an unacceptable design and the resulting propensity for dirty Hipoints in the wild has led to many range failures of what would otherwise be a reliable, "can't argue with it if it works" gun. Using a hammer and punch for routine maintenance is beyond the average gun owner's skill and motivation.

Marlin / Glenfield 60 with the lil' squirrel.

Thank you! If/when I ever officially open a shop and seek out work, I'd definitely want to be a sponsor on this forum. As of yet I'm just a guy with a particular set of skills. I don't actually talk like that. I just like mocking Liam Neeson whenever possible.