The Glock Armorer's Class Report

Thanks to my membership in GSSF, I had the opportunity to enroll and attend the Glock Armorer's Class held at the Macomb Community College Criminal Justice Training Center.

Most of the 35 attendees were law enforcement, and a variety of South-East and Central Michigan police forces had personnel attending. There was also quite a few civilians attending and everyone got along very well. This was especially important once small parts began to fly around the room.

The officer's departments were all using Glocks and seemed both satisfied and confident in carrying them.

The instructor had a great presence and a good sense of humor, and the day at times felt like drinking water through a firehouse - lots of information and details delivered in a very short time. Everything from the history of Glock to changes in the parts and compatibility or lack thereof through the production line from Gen 1 through Gen 4 and things to look out for when examining the pistols.

He also brought quite a few pistols along for us to examine.

Yes, that is a Glock 18C at the top left.

I got to handle it and manipulate the happy switch. Sadly, I was not allowed to take it home with me even after asking very nicely. A pox upon the Hughes amendment.

There was quite a variety of Glock pistols on display, from a cutaway pistol that showed the operation of the gun's internals to the red training and blue simunition guns as well as the Glock 34, 30SF, 36, and 21SF and a Gen4 22 in addition to the Glock 18.

We went into how the Glock operated in detail and the function of each part in the firing sequence. There was a very well done animation of the entire operation and excellent diagrams and pictures to work from.

There was also plenty of hands-on practice. Boxes containing Glock 23s were handed out. Each box held the pistol and also had a magazine, a separate NY trigger spring and a screwdriver inside the box.

We began with safety and basic function testing and how to perform an external inspection and rapidly moved on from there.

Then we did a detailed dis-assembly and reassembly of the slide and all its internal parts step-by-step. The only things not removed was the sights.

Spring cups have a nasty way of departing the firing pin at a high velocity, thanks to the firing pin spring.

After the first time doing it step by step, we then did it an additional four times on our own and we all got it down pretty darn well.

Then we disassembled the frame quite completely, including the magazine catch and locking block and its spring.

Yes, I was able to reassemble it back to its original state, and after a few tries was quite quick in doing so.

After assembly and dis-assembly we then had fun with the trigger springs - we installed the NY1 and also on some guns the NY2 spring and tested the feel. We also saw what happens if you put the gun together without a trigger spring or if the trigger spring breaks - the gun will still shoot and function as long as you use the trigger reset method rather than completely disengaging from the trigger after each shot.

We then did a practical exam of a complete detail strip of both the slide and frame and reassembly - hands on repetition really works, and you begin to appreciate how darn easy it is to work on a Glock pistol.

We then finished up with diagnosing engagement problems, then moved on to some general troubleshooting and testing magazines and how to resolve the feeding problem that sometimes happens when lights are put on the light rails.

We also learned quite a lot about Glock.

Apparently they're well on their way to produce a million pistols this year. Demand is very high in both the civilian and law enforcement markets. This could explain why I'm still waiting on my friendly local dealer to get in the Gen4 Glock 21 I've ordered....

Interestingly, while pistol frames, barrels and slides are produced in the US, all the small parts are brought in from Austria. Compounded by the vagaries of the international arms trade and regulations, we typically get pistols made in Austria here in the USA, while pistols made in the USA are exported elsewhere due to more favorable import laws regarding American over Austrian products. Go figure.

We were also told about the hopefully imminent release of the Glock 30S. The 30S is a Glock 36 slide on a Glock 30 frame - resulting in a Glock 19 sized 45 ACP pistol with 10+1 rounds. Apparently this combo was first requested by the LAPD's Special Investigation Section.

The instructor demonstrated what it would be like by swapping the slides accordingly -- and it was very nice indeed.

I'd certainly buy a 30S pistol, as it really makes the Glock 30 feel much less clunky and more balanced.

In addition to the practical demonstration of competency with the function testing and detail stripping, there was an also a written test. I scored 100% on it, as did quite a lot of the attendees.

The Armorer's class gave me a far more detailed appreciation and understanding of the Glock pistol, its operation, repair and maintenance. It was well worth the time and money spent. I learned a lot and will certainly be better able to maintain my Glocks and can highly recommend the class.

Glockingly Good Educational Pursuits

Since I should always strive to challenge myself and learn new things, I decided to do something different with my day today.

In short, after an excellent all-day class, I'm now a certified Glock Armorer.

Full report to follow.

GSSF Match Results

The preliminary results for the 2012 GSSF match I attended are now posted.

As I suspected, I did much better than last year.

Last year in the Civilian Category I was 44 out of 68 competitors with a total time of 156.34

This year I'm 18 out of 83 competitors with a total time of 113.66 - 42.68 seconds faster overall.

In the Competition category, Last year I was 30 out of 56 competitors with a total time of 111.83.

This year, I'm 15 out of 53 with a total time of 91.97 - 19.86 seconds faster.

It's nice to see some real measurable improvement. I guess all that missing I'm doing at the USPSA matches is paying off.

Michigan 2012 GSSF Match Report

This year I again attended the GSSF match in Brighton Michigan.

I'm happy to report that I did much better than last year and I'm quite pleased with my overall performance.

In addition to shooting, I also volunteered to help setup and RO at the match and had a good time (if really hot and humid) doing so.

It was a darn good time. I arrived early way before the match start and then after assisting with more of the setup acted as a floating RO, mainly keeping an eye on the off-line activity. Since a lot of GSSF-ers are very new shooters, they typically don't understand that a designated "Safe area" is only for handling unloaded firearms and no ammunition can be out and being fondled. So I would politely request that they remove the ammo from the area and that they could load on any of the other open tables. Similarly, I had to keep people from opening up their boxes and pulling out their guns in the "no-gun handling" areas. Everybody took it well and as usual if you're polite others will act polite as well.

Of course there was the days designated "that guy" present - an older fellow, newer Glock shooter and was accompanied by an experienced competitior that really should have kept him under better supervision. I had requested "that guy" clear the ammo off the safe area at the 5 to Glock range and he did. But sure enough about 50 minutes later I'm at the Glock'M range and that guy goes yet again to the marked Safe Area table (each safe area table has a huge sign in red letters "SAFE AREA") and starts loading ammo with his gun out on the table, again. Sheesh.

One bit of fun while shooting the match was that I would float as an RO to each range as I waited to shoot - helping paste, score keep, or run the timer as needed and spell the assigned RO's there, run and get more targets etc. Lots of fun. I would then shoot my course of fire and head off to the next event.

I was very happy with my Glock The Plates times this year. Unlike the fiasco last year, not a plate was left standing in all 8 runs (I shot 2 divisions). Three of the 6 runs were sub-six seconds for all 6 plates down, with the quickest being 5.16 which I'm quite happy with.

The Glock'M and 5 to Glock were similarly very good - decent times, no misses on any target and only a few D hits with the majority of shots in the A zone. While I certainly didn't set the world on fire and I'm sure I did not win the match, I was quite satisfied with my improved performance.

Once I was done with my course of fire I was assigned to RO one of the Glock'M ranges and was either score keep or timer for the afternoon.

A truly excellent match.

Sunday's Glock Match - A Humbling Experience

You're never as good as you think you are, and when you don't listen to your instincts it gets a whole lot worse.

So I went to my first GSSF match ever with Rob on Sunday. We paid our membership and match registration fees and waited for our friend Jon to arrive from Ohio.

My mistake was shooting my MPDC marked Glock 17 rather than my Glock 19. I shoot the 19 better but Rob and Jon were each shooting a 17 and I had heard the 17 was much better suited to the match than the 19 so. . . . I chose wrong and went with the 17.

I did ok but certainly didn't set the word on fire on 5-To-Glock and Glock-M but completely fell apart on the Glock The Plates.

After waiting an hour for my shooting time at the plates (it was massively backed up, the other two events went much quicker), I go to the line and did absolutely lousy.

The same plates that I had shot totally clean and quickly during an IPSC match in June, I couldn't get a decent rhythm at all. I actually left plates standing at the end of two of the eight runs. Embarrassing. Turns out, I was shooting high even though I thought I had decent sight pictures. I halfway wonder if the combo of the Glock 17 combined with the newer shooting glasses gave me some kind of distortion causing me to miss. Probably a combo of the new shooting glasses and using the 17 did it. That, and I was clearly having an off day.

Rob did very well and Jon was just plain awesome, it was only I that was the one holding up the stats from the bottom of the pile that day.

But for all that it was still a fun event and I'm looking forward to shooting another one now having learned from my experience I expect to practice and do better next time. And next time, I'll be doing the shoot with the Glock 19.