I hate my guns

Two weeks ago I shot in a Steel Challenge match with the Lewiston Pistol Club. Nice match, nice people.

I shot both my Gun Blog 45 and my STI Eagle. Twice the fun for the same investment of time. But there were problems.

I had recently got my STI back from being worked on. While it was gone I had been using my Gun Blog 45 and had practiced with it enough that I seldom hit the bugs with the stupid LDA trigger.

With the STI back I shot it for practice and then tried to shoot both guns in the steel match.

About 10 or 20% of the time I used the Gun Blog 45 I would try and take the thumb safety off at the same time I was prepping the trigger after the draw. This resulted in the trigger going all the way to the rear without anything happening. It would take another 0.5 seconds (yes, I got the first shot times back from the R.O., I had a bimodal distribution of first shot times: ~1.5 and ~2.0 seconds). Other times when I was prepping the trigger for the next shot I would over prep and fire a shot prior to when I really wanted it to shoot. The long LDA trigger pull is tough for me to shoot rapidly.

Fine. I’m done with this gun. I’ll clean and oil it and put it away. It’s a nice memento of the Gun Blogger Summer Camp but I don’t like shooting it.

The STI shot well but one of the brand new magazines I purchased after shooting a hole in a magazine last May, which worked fine before I had the gun worked on, would drop out of the gun on the first shot. The first time I thought it was because I hadn’t seated it correctly or something. The second time I put the magazine away for later study. After the match I discovered that both of the new magazines would do that. One after just racking the slide. Okay. I’ll need to look at this closely and figure out what is going wrong.

That night I cleaned the Gun Blog 45 and carefully packed it away. Figuring I would only get it out for teaching and new shooters that wanted to try a .45. I was done with it.

I then cleaned the STI and discovered the link from the barrel to the frame had a crack in it. I have fired about 300 rounds after getting it back from the factory and it has to go back to the shop for another repair. And that means I’m carrying the Gun Blog 45 for self-defense until I get the STI back.

I put 30K rounds through my $300 (in 1994) Ruger P-89 with only one trip to the factory for repair and it only misbehaved when I used non-factory magazines, crappy Egyptian military surplus ammo, or it was extremely dirty. The $2000 STI has had numerous repairs with about the same number of rounds through it and the Gun Blog 45 has the paint wearing off and the LDA trigger is a piece of crap.

Sometimes I hate my guns.

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8 thoughts on “I hate my guns

  1. The only issue I had with my Ruger P90DC was the magazine catch spring broke, dropping a mag to the ground. It took about a week to get the replacement spring from Ruger; it was a freaking unstoppable gun. The only other issue I had was it ate shirts (the decock lever was sharp, and I could never get it smooth enough).

    As for ergonomics – my Glocks were better.

  2. Sometimes I feel the same way about my bikes as you do about your guns… 🙁 Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with them Joe.

  3. I’m not a huge Glock fan, but I have one and it’s been through almost as many rounds as your Ruger. The one real problem it had was a broken slide stop, which can be replaced by the user. The frame, having been battered by thousands of full house defense loads, has chipped on the insides, but it seems to have had no effect on it’s performance. The finish is wearing off the slide from holster wear, but the bore and camming surfaces look great. Someday I suppose it should go back for a new frame.

    I’d almost rather carry a single action because reholstering a loaded Glock makes me nervous. Unless you have unusually large hands, I’d steer most people away from the full frame 20 & 21, and related models though. If I were to get another Glock it’d be the full sized .40 as it would fit my hands better. Been carrying the 20 for several months now, and I’m starting to question the apparent obsession with teeny tiny guns for CC. Unless you’re wearing shorts with no shirt, you can conceal a full frame gun with little trouble.

  4. Then again, Stephanie here can handle that G20 quite well, and she’s pretty small.

  5. +1 on the Rugers. My P94 just doesn’t quit. It’s clunky, thick, hard to carry because of that and has stupid 10 round magazines, but I have yet to find a single round of .40 it won’t just gobble up and shoot. I shoot it reasonably well, not as well as my XDm, but I can hit IPSC targets easily at pistol distances.

    Ruger did it right, and my military friends tell me it was designed to compete in military trials, and thus the overbuilt qualities.

    Bill

  6. “I’d almost rather carry a single action because reholstering a loaded Glock makes me nervous.”

    As I say to anybody who states that: “Would you feel nervous reholstering a loaded DA revolver?”

    Same mechanics, just as safe.

    Then again I carry a Single-Action 1911. But the Glock trigger is longer and heavier, so I would say that would be SAFER given all the ins and outs.

    No gun is 100% safe…if it was it would be a nerf bat, and I’d rather not stick one of thems in my holster.

  7. “Would you feel nervous reholstering a loaded DA revolver?”
    Not if I could keep my thumb on the hammer. Big difference there, plus the Glock trigger doesn’t have to move as far, but I do get your point.

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