Gun-a-Day 40: The Fearsome Glock’L’Max is Spotted in Broad Daylight

I guess 40 consecutive days of shooting is some kind of milestone, and I feel very blessed to have gotten this far into this project. Here’s to the hope for at least 325 more days’ worth. Dei gratia & Dei volente

My goal today was to test the laser in the light of day (albeit in a mostly shady spot), and the mission produced good intel. The first magazine was emptied with laser targeting, but when I reloaded I couldn’t relocate the red beam and spent the last 15 rounds with regular sighting. This loss of signal could be (probably is?) a function of old batteries about to go out after an impressively long tour of duty, or the sun could have just been too bright for my eyes (not as good as they used to be) to distinguish the red dot and black target field from the red light … or both.

Either way, the record now includes another 25×25 and “7’s or Better” session, and I got to try out a new set-up with the camera. I like the proximity very much, but the target hits are mostly too hard to see in the shade from the morning light. The new particle board target back worked well enough that I’ll use it every day until there’s not enough left to hold the paper.

I’m glad the time lapse caught some of the flying debris. Those cedar trunks are getting chewed up pretty heavily, but they are doing good work with no pass-throughs.

Shot o’the Day is of the gear I use to make time lapse videos with my iPhone 4.

First and foremost: the app is iTimeLapse, and if I can make it work with only user-image issues and edit-errors left over after just a couple of tries, then it can be used to good effect by almost anyone.

Also important is The Glif. My web-biz partner came across this at kickstarter.com while it was still in design/development/pre-production, and we got our orders in “on the ground floor.” We both like the simplicity and versatility, and I’ve used it like crazy with the tripod screw mount.

Lately, my stand-of-choice is this mini UltraPod rig that I got from an Eddie Bauer outlet store years ago. The position-control is very, very adaptable, and the lock-down is solid. It balances well and supports/distributes weight well.

The top section of this slide-on iPhone cover by Great Shield allows me to use the Glif and helps me pretend that I’m “protecting” my little “golden Apple-item” from possible debris and fragment damage– at least over most of the phone’s surface. The lower section doesn’t quite fit the Glif, and I don’t want to stress/stretch that little gadget out of shape.

All told, this set up costs about $35 today (that’s less than I spent), and it’s about as crucial to the Gun-a-Day blog as the guns and ammo themselves.

Gun-a-Day 39: Beware the One-Eyed Glock’L’Max!

Before buying my Glock 9mm, I decided that it needed to be equipped with a guide-rod-installed LaserMax sighting system in order to be complete.

Today’s shooting session was fresh proof of the wisdom of that decision (hey, my good choices come few and far between, so I have to celebrate the lonely little fellas on those rare occasions when they happen).

The LaserMax homepage recommends annual battery replacements, but I have to admit that I haven’t changed the batteries since the day I put it in– that’s at least eight years, and I think it’s more like 10+ (I’ll have to dig out the receipts and double-check the dates). Pretty impressive lithium-life.

Today’s shots o’the day are seen in the time-lapse. That’s a big, ragged hole next to center-red, and that’s where the bullets went when I open-eyes-fired with the laser on the bullseye. No squinting, no long-arming, no rigid positioning– just a sideways stance and a firm hold and an effort to squeeze and not jerk the trigger.

There were no Brown Bear jams or misfeeds, and I think the four or five shots farthest from center were all due to user-aim issues. I noticed that I was pulling a bit on a few …

Just when I thought maybe my tests were becoming redundant and the the Glock was about ready to be rotated out for practice time with another gunI get this result and see that the pistol and the laser work, and they work well when I give them half a chance. There’s more to do and more to learn here, for sure.

It’s obvious that I’m going to have to get a real and reliable target support system in place. There’s been way too much jumping around in the past few days while I’ve been scrounging to scrap together backing boards.

The angle is not great on this video, so the full-screen view really helps.

With shots like these today, I am very interested to see if I can do better tomorrow … and to see how well the laser does in daylight down my shade-covered firing lane.

I’d love to find out that I can improve to the point of consistently hitting inside the 8-rings at 20+ feet away in a one-handed, right-shoulder-forward stance.

Gun-a-Day 36: Let the Glock-Shine In!

A hint of morning sun was a preview of afternoon clearing. By 1 pm, the wind was gusting again, and I couldn’t get over the “waves” of the treetops rising and falling under the big skies.

Beautiful, beautiful day.

The pond is overflowing, and I’m feeling the same. There is so much abundance to be thankful for. The luxury (and hard work) of pursuing my goal of shooting one of my guns every day this year is only a small part of the many, many blessings in my life.

One of the best parts about this project is that I don’t easily come back inside once I get out and empty some shells. A walk around the property almost always follows, and while I have to make sure that I manage to keep my real job, there is nothing like the sense of peace and calm that I feel sitting out at the pond by the weeping willow trees, and I’m glad for the “excuse” to take and make time for it all. Life is too valuable to wish it away while over-timing and over-working day after day, year after year.

Also, as the song says, “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”

I happily warmed the Glock up just fine today with 24 of 25 Brown Bear slugs in the center-mass rings. These new targets aren’t adhesive, but the size is right for home defense practice shooting.

It would have been nice  if all of the shots had been in the black, but I’m not gonna beat myself up about the one high stringer. It’s actually still in the area of “upper center-mass,” but I am always trying for a 25×25 day with this pistol. In the meantime, this is, I think, a tighter bundle– side to side– than the past couple of practice sessions, and I haven’t even turned on the LaserMax yet.

Speaking of add-on accessories, I’m also glad I have the “Klip” (seen in the top picture) installed as an alternative to wearing a full holster. Even I couldn’t mess up the installation too much, and the LaserMax actuator still works (actually this makes it easier to turn off– nice unexpected benefit). It also works just fine with the regular holsters I have– no worries either way.

I was going to call the high hit my Shot o’the Day, but that can begin to be a bit self-indulgent.

Instead, this “moving target” is the image that grabbed me the most today.

I saw it down at (on!) the pond, and it is just begging to be shared. The run-off rush evidently took this colony of ants by surprise. They were making a life-raft of each other a few feet from the water’s edge when I spotted them swarming in the floodwash debris. This writhing mass of bug-life was about 6 inches across, and it seemed to be “swimming” for the shore. Kinda really creepy (pun admitted), but a fascinating bit of nature at work, for sure.