Call me Ahab

posted by Caleb on Jul 14

I have been trying to explain to my revolver friends why exactly I bought a Glock 24 to compete with, and what was going through my head when I shot it.  Well, after shooting it at Friday Night Steel, I can’t tell you what was going through my head when I shot it, but I can tell what was going on afterwards.  It mostly consisted of the mental version of an endzone dance, as I kept thinking how awesome this gun was.

The Trijicon sights were probably the highlight for me, as they stood out crisp and clear and were bright enough to allow for extremely quick acquisition of my sight picture during rapid shooting.  The long slide and ported barrel made recoil with 165 grain .40 S&W loads pretty much a non issue, which of course helped me pick up those big Trijicon sights for fast follow up shots.

As far as the Glock-ness goes, the only Glock I’d ever spent significant time with before this was my Glock 29 in 10mm, and that was so long ago I don’t remember how it handled all that well.  Having not shot a Glock really since then, I had sort of forgotten had the grip angle (loved by some, loathed by some) helped me manage recoil.

Short version of the story: I loved this gun, and it shoots like a charm.  I will be taking it to the next pin shoot with 180 grain rounds as well, and I liked shooting it so much that I now want to get a Glock 22 and a Glock 35 to round out my fullsize .40 S&W Glock stable.  I have no idea how any of this happened, but I’m turning into a Glock guy, much to my eternal shame.

posted by Caleb on Jul 11

At Marion County Fish & Game tonight.  I’m pretty pumped up about it, as tonight will make a bunch of firsts for me in terms of my involvement in the shooting sports.

• 1st time shooting an all steel match
• 1st time shooting a Glock in any kind of match
• 1st time entering in Open class in any match (side note: it’s sad that I’ll probably get stomped all over the place by production shooters even though my gun is all “rarararara I’m a racegun”)
• 1st time shooting a .40 S&W on any platform
• 1st time I’m shooting a gun in a match that I haven’t taken to the range prior to the match to get dialed in

I will be at Marion County Fish & Game around 5:30ish (depending on when I get out of the office), according to the website shooting starts at 6:15pm, and there is a shooter’s meeting at 6pm for new shooters on the rules and procedures.

Should be loads of fun!

posted by Caleb on Jul 11

It occurs to me that I should probably thank all the people who were instrumental in my purchase of the Glock 24.  Since it wasn’t on the list of guns that I initially wanted to buy, and I had never heard of it, of course my first email went to Tam, which essentially consisted of “There’s a Glock 24 with X extras for Y dollars, I hope you’re near a computer”.

The next email went to Robb, who is a notorious Glock guy, to let him know that I was going to the dark side and buying a Glock instead of another .45 caliber revolver.

The finally piece of the pie was The Breda who proceeded to tell me that I shouldn’t buy plastic guns; and although I don’t think I was able to convince her, she did eventually acquiesce to my decision.

I always get a little panicky when my gun store ideas don’t go according to plan, hence why I feel the need to reach out to the network of gunpeoples to either persuade or dissuade me from certain gun choices.

Thanks for helping me defeat my horrible gun ADD, guys!

posted by Caleb on Jul 10

As I mentioned in the post immediately below this, I just acquired a used-but-not-abused Glock 24, which was Glock’s .40 S&W competition model that was made right up until the currently offered Glock 35 was introduced.

I had been looking for a Glock to shoot USPSA, GSSF, Pins, and other action sports with, and had initially planned on getting the Glock 35 so I could shoot it in IDPA as well. Then yesterday in Gander Mountain, I happened across this used Glock 24 for sale. It had almost zero wear on it, the trigger was great, and this gun is LOADED out. Nevermind the cheap holster it came with, whoever had this gun before me had the frame modified for a laser sight - seeing as this is the pre-rail Glock model, the laser sight is now built into the trigger guard. Plus, the sights are fully adjustable Trijicon night sights, so uh, awesome. What’s that you said? Pics or it didn’t happen?

I also managed to get a really good shot of the porting on the front of the barrel. Unlike the other “C” model Glocks, the Glock 24 uses a series of elliptical ports which increase in size the closer they get to the muzzle; the standard “C” models use two parallel ports.

I am really, really excited about taking this gun to the range - the previous owner had obviously had a serious interest in this gun, going so far as to have the frame forward of the trigger guard cut to accommodate a laser sight. You can see exactly what I mean in this last picture.

I’m actually kind of surprised that this gun went for how low a price I got it for, especially when you consider the Trijicon sights, the laser, and the (admittedly cheap) holster and mag pouch it came with. Add to that the fact that there is very little wear on the gun, just some minor cosmetic scuffs on the slide; and you get what amounts to an almost brand new competition gun, ready to go shoot the Bianchi Cup or a USPSA Match right out of the box (with the laser disabled, of course).

My best guess is that the previous owner of the pistol bought it, had the work done, shot it a few times and then put it in his safe, and then later sold it when he couldn’t compete any longer - now their loss is my great gain.  This sort of stuff does happen a lot, you buy a gun to compete and then never shoot it, and years later you end up needing some dough, so off the gun goes. Now because of that sale, I am pumped up to shoot this gun; I can’t recall the last time I was this excited about taking a gun to the range to go a-blastin’. You have my word that you’ll get a full range report once I do shoot my new-to-me Glock 24.