I did a bunch of dozer work at Boomershoot Mecca this weekend. It was very dirty work. The ground was very dry and it turned to powder as soon as I broke it up with the blade. I got really dirty:
I wore gloves and my hand was clean by comparison:
I have a solar heated shower at Mecca so I dusted off my clothes and rinsed off my head, arms and hands before I got in my car and left for the day.
But what I didn’t have there was my gun cleaning supplies.
It probably is functional for at least as many shots as would be needed in a self-defense situation. But I’m sure the wear rate would be dramatically increased with the oil being soaked up by the dust. And the odds of a malfunction have to be much higher than normal.
It’s ultrasonic bath time for my STI.
I have seen some sort of “body bag” on guns at some matches but I didn’t think of it until after I saw how dirty the gun was. And it of course then it was too late.
Shower caps. Great idea. For next time.
Thanks
On a related note, OTIS makes very nice compact cleaning kits.
One should be onboard with your other ‘possibles’.
It wasn’t the bore that needed cleaning. It was just fine. It was the slide-frame area and especially the hammer-firing pin area.
Drive the dozer directly at the threat, raise the blade and advance the throttle to full power. I’d almost guarantee that one will have enough time to draw and remove a shower cap.
Full throttle is probably five miles an hour. You’d have time to remove a full complement of winter clothing before you got to the target.
Can’t deny the psychological impact though, which might buy you time to deploy something which moves a BIT faster than 5mph 🙂
IIRC full throttle in 5th gear is just under 5 MPH. Just changing gears probably takes longer than it would to remove the covering, draw, and fire. Jumping off the cat on the opposite side of the threat would be a better plan than using it as weapon against a person.
Now if they trying to run over you in a car then I would total go for using the cat as a weapon.
Shows what I know about cats as opposed to other tracked vehicles which have lots of armor plate. 🙂
I can’t speak to other cats that well and not at all to armored vehicles. But there is a bit of info you didn’t have that probably is relevant: This cat is 71 years old.
I had a similar problem this weekend, I dug a 40 foot trench by hand to uncover a sewer line at my Mom’s house. There you don’t dig with a shovel, you dig with a pick and scoop up the dusty gravel with a shovel. 10 hours later my XDm 9mm was caked in dust and sweat and the take down lever had actually partly rusted closed. the action still cycled fine, but it took some serious cleaning to get back to normal. I was a bit disappointed by that, though it’s been quite a while since I fired my carry pistol (and just as long since I cleaned it), so it may have been a longer process than a single hard day. I assume I need more regular maintenance whether I shoot it or not.
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THAT’S NOT THE SHIRT I SENT YOU!!!!!!1!!1!!!!
It is so nice Barb only lets me wear it for formal occasions.
I’ll post a picture someday.
Thank you for sending it.
That’s a polymer frame, and a rust-resistant slide.
I would have been tempted to wear it in the shower to at least remove some of the dust and grit, then detail strip and clean it at first opportunity.
Only the grip is polymer. The frame and slide are NP3 coated stainless steel.
But yes. I could have worn it while showering. It was going to be three days before I could really clean it the way I wanted to. And I was going back out into the dust the next two days so I just let it be until I could get it disassembled and into the ultrasonic cleaner.
Not rocking the Gunblog 45 for the dirty work anymore?
If i know I’m going to do dirty, wet or salty work I tend to wear a 2nd tier carry gun.
Not that any good carry gun can’t handle it, but it does age the gun a bit more.
I “archived” the Gunblog .45 and don’t even take it to the range anymore. I only wore it at all, let alone in the dirt, when my STI was being overhauled.
I only carry one gun. The one, for me, which has the best tradeoff of accuracy, power, and speed, (DVC). Self-defense is a “1st tier” task.
Maybe the old flap holster wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
A striker-fired might be a bit less vulnerable to ingress, though apparently the 1911 has done pretty well in the “sand box”.
Wet lubes are great until you end up in a very dusty environment.
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Note that the polymer grip is starting to stretch away from the metal subframe. I understand that this an issue for folks who regularly carry their STI/SV cocked-n-locked.
Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out.
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