Gear Reviews

With all of the knife talk recently, I thought I’d finally get around to writing a review of my current EDC pocket knife, the Spyderco Delica 4 with the Emerson Wave feature. I’ve owned this knife for close to 4 years now, and it’s been a good companion during that time. It’s always a lot of fun to review an item that I’ve used extensively. Let’s have a closer look at what’s good, and what’s …

This is part one in a series of posts on turning a run of the mill S&W M&P Shield into the ultimate concealed carry pistol. The first thing that needed to be addressed with the Shield 9mm was the trigger. I was happy with the weight of the trigger from the factory, but it was gritty, and had a false reset that is common with many of the M&P pistols. My first stop when looking …

After running into issues with my Springfield XDs 9mm not liking certain JHP rounds, I decided that before I do any further with the Ultimate Shield Project I should get it to the range, and run a whole bunch of different defensive loads through it. It was an expensive night at the range, but I successfully fed the Shield a whole bunch of the following ammo: Hornady Critical Defense 115gr Hornady Critical Duty 135gr Federal …

Guns America is reporting that the trigger on their upgraded XDs is about 8oz heavier than the previous trigger. Apparently their shooters couldn’t feel the difference, but they were able to measure it with a gauge. I’m not getting my hopes up, but I’m getting my hopes up.

It’s been beaten to death all across the webbernetz and I’ve purposely avoided the issue for some time now. I’m here to say it: SERPA holsters are dangerous. Ive owned one, and used it extensively in competition and training over several months. On more than one occasion I’ve attempted to draw the pistol, and I’ve been unsuccessful on the first try. This results in me pushing the pistol down in the holster, and pushing the …

People with clean guns, and people with filthy guns. Tonight I decided that I was going to clean my AR since I literally cannot remember the last time I ran anything down the barrel that wasn’t going faster than the speed of sound. I took it down to the garage, separated the upper and lower, and retrieved my cleaning supplies. I did the thing that every one of us does, and that is to remove …

I’ve been complaining about the thumb safety on the S&W Shield since it was first released, and now having owned it for a couple weeks, I feel comfortable saying that it’s too small. In the above picture, you can see that it even has a lower profile than the slide stop. (Safety on the left, slide stop on the right) Why would they do this? I can only think that making the safety lever smaller …

Looking at the latest update that Springfield Armory posted on the Springfield Recall website, they announced that they are still testing possible fixes for the XDs pistols, and that they will begin repairing them once they come up with a fix. We originally estimated a 30-day turn-around time, but it has unfortunately taken longer to develop and identify an upgrade solution. Please know that we are continuing to test potential upgrade solutions at this time …

Local gun shops are dangerous places for your wallet, especially when the guys behind the counter know you well enough to know your taste in guns. This afternoon I stopped in to Carolina Gunrunners in North Raleigh to consign a pistol that I don’t shoot anymore, and we got to talking about the XDs recall and Mike suggested that I should buy a S&W Shield to carry while the XDs is off getting repaired. I’d …

I was recently able to order a couple of M&P 9mm magazines from Midway, and the new magazine followers are just a little different from the M&P magazines that I have purchased in the past. The part of the follower that pushes up on the slide stop appears to have a small bevel on it that is absent on the older followers. When inserting the new magazines into the pistol, the new follower will sometimes …