By Lucas Apps, on May 22nd, 2013 I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the only person who doesn’t care what I use to lube my firearms. I’ve been known to use everything from Tri-Flow (for bicycle chains), to 80W-90 gear oil, to motor oil, to whatever else I can get my hands on that is wet and slippery. I just don’t care.
There are some lubes out there that are crazy expensive, and I’ve got to wonder, are they worth it? I can’t say that I care if my firearm lube is eco-friendly, or if some people who are ultra high speed, low drag use it, or whatever. If it works, awesome, but if another lube works, and costs less, I’ll use that.
Some argue that their guns are more reliable with a certain lube, but that hasn’t been the case for me. Currently, my AR-15 has the bolt slathered with axle grease. It stays in place, [...]
By Lucas Apps, on May 17th, 2013
You may have noticed that I’m shooting a lot more USPSA recently than I have been in the past. This isn’t because I dislike IDPA, but because I’m trying to improve as a shooter.
In almost 4 years of shooting IDPA, I’m to the point where I’m almost an IDPA Master, which is, in my opinion, a little misleading.
My first USPSA classification just came in a couple days ago, and I classified C class in Production.
It seems like there’s a huge discrepancy between my classifications between the two games. Being that my goal is to become a better shooter, I feel that USPSA is offering me the chance to improve more than IDPA is currently.
I was hoping the new IDPA rulebook would address the classifier system a little more, but all they have done is adjust the times a little, which probably won’t have too much [...]
By Lucas Apps, on May 10th, 2013 Recently the developer from the Dryfiretimer.com iOS app contacted me and asked if I would check out his app. If you have seen the overviews that I have done for other smart phone shot timers, you know that both of them left something to be desired. When the folks from Dryfiretimer.com contacted me, I was happy to give their app a try.
Right off the bat, I downloaded the app to my 4th Gen iPod Touch. When you open the app, you will see a “sample drill” page setup to run multiple strings of a particular drill, each with their own par time. This is helpful because you can practice running the drill slowly with no par time, then slowly work your way up faster and faster without having to constantly re-set your timer. Once you hit the play button, the app will give you a “stand by” command, and [...]
By Lucas Apps, on April 25th, 2013
The 2013 Tarheel 3-Gun Challenge starts today! This is the second annual Tarheel 3-Gun Challenge being held in New Hill, NC (just outside of Apex). I had the opportunity to attend the match last year and shoot it with a camera, and I was blown away by the stages. The venue is huge, allowing for big stages that were spread out so far that you could drive from stage to stage instead of carrying all of your gear.
Good luck to all of the local competitors, show all the out-of-towners who’s boss!
By Lucas Apps, on April 3rd, 2013 On Monday, I posted about an Android shot timer that I have been using in conjunction with my dry fire practice. I had a couple of emails from readers asking about timers for their iOS devices as well. I’m really an Android guy, but I happen to own an iPod, so I had a quick look in the Apple App Store, and low and behold, I found the SureFire Shot Timer App.
It’s a free app, and while I’m not sure how well it works with live fire, it seems to work fine using the par time function for dry firing.
You can help support Triangle Tactical by using this affiliate link to download the ShotTimer – SureFire, LLC app from the Apple App Store.
Anyways, here’s a quick tour of the App. I found it to be pretty simple to setup for dry fire.
Once in the App, [...]
By Lucas Apps, on April 1st, 2013 If you follow the Triangle Tactical Facebook page, you may have seen a post recently about how I am getting back into a dry fire routine after falling off the wagon for a few months. One reason that a lot of people don’t do constructive dry fire practice, is that most shooters (myself included) don’t own a shot timer. Having a timer, with a ‘Par Time’ function is crucial to constructive practice.
As I mentioned above, I don’t own a timer. I should, but I just haven’t thrown down the $130 for a nice timer, when I could buy ammo or gear with that money instead. However, I’ve found a solution, and a free one at that!
If you have an Android Phone, head over to the Google Play store, and search for “IPSC Shot Timer”. There are a lot of other shot timers in the Play store, but IPSC [...]
By Ben, on March 29th, 2013 One thing I learned during my time among the 1911s is that the thumb safety on a gun is not something that is used before and after shooting, flicked on during the draw and put back on when holstering. The right and proper role of a thumb safety is as a part of the way the gun is gripped.
Military-style 1911 “Government Model”
On modern 1911s, which is to say ones with larger thumb safeties as compared to the old GI-style 1911s with their stubby little ones, a proper grip includes having the shooting hand thumb wrap around and ride on top of the safety. This does two things: first, it ensures that you won’t flip the safety while the gun is recoiling in your hand. Since your thumb is on top of it, the only direction pressure can be applied is down (off). Second, it actually helps you [...]
By Ben, on March 27th, 2013
As happens occasionally, someone recently asked me a question to which I didn’t have answer. The question, as I recall, was “Now that you’ve decided you don’t like your 1911, are you going to sell it?” I had to take a moment and unpack the question because it boggled my mind in two ways.
The first was the idea of “not liking” my 1911. My 1911 is a stainless Springfield TRP which is, it must be said, an outstanding gun. When I was shopping for a 1911, I was looking for something good for IDPA and USPSA. For those of you who know 1911s, that means it needed a good magwell, no rail, a barrel bushing, an ambi safety, and a decently bumpy grip safety. If you’re not familiar with all that, suffice it to say that I was looking for a fairly specific configuration, and I [...]
By Lucas Apps, on March 25th, 2013 Saturday morning I shot the H2O Fowl Farms Mega BUG (back up gun) match. We had several new shooters at the match, and I believe a good time was had by all. On my squad we had a new shooter who’s pistol had a malfunction on the first stage and it wouldn’t go bang after that.
Rather than send the new guy home with a broken pistol, one person on the squad offered the use of his pistol, and two others chipped in enough ammo for the shooter to finish the match.
Even in these times where ammo is hard to find, there was no hesitation from those on my squad offering ammo to the new shooter. I think this says a lot about shooters as a whole. Were a good bunch, we stick together.
If you have never been to any sort of competitive shooting match, [...]
By Lucas Apps, on March 22nd, 2013 If any of you are in Eastern NC, and you want to get started in competitive shooting, tomorrow is the day. H2O Fowl Farms is hosting what is being called the “Mega BUG match”. This match is absolutely perfect for new shooters because:
You don’t need a holster! (Just a bag or gun rug to put your pistol in) You don’t need spare magazines (All reloading will be done off the clock)
This match will have 12 stages, each having 5 rounds fired, for a total of 60 rounds of ammo. If you don’t have a fancy competition pistol, no problem, a BUG match is where we all shoot our little itty bitty concealed carry pistols. I’ll be shooting my Kel-Tec PF-9.
A BUG (Back Up Gun) is generally defined as a pistol with a 3.5″ or less barrel (Think Glock 26, S&W J-frame, M&P 9c, etc), but don’t worry [...]
|
|
