Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

THE ITALIAN INVASION: Benelli’s NEWEST Semi-Auto Shotgun…the M2-G1

I’m a Generation X man, who remembers when semi-automatic shotguns, that weren’t legacy designs (like the Browning Auto-5 and its spawn/Remington Model 11) were considered iffy at best. The first police department I worked at as a cadet used Remington Model 11-87’s and they could be quite picky with some buckshot and slug loads. A few guys had customized combat Remington Model 1100’s and they would also run SOMETIMES. But this was with the buckshot and slug loadings of the nineties…that’s the 1990’s kids.

Time marches on. When I reached the age where I could buy my own shotgun, a Remington 1100 or 11-87 was out of my price range, and the DREAM gun of every man who liked action movies was a Benelli M1 SUPER 90. However, a Remington 870 with an 18.5″ barrel and a parkerized (the ORIGINAL EXPRESS) finish was $180 at the local Ace Hardware. So that’s what I had! A short time later, when I began work as a shotgun rider on an armored truck, the issue scattergun was a Remington 870 Police in the 20″ barrel with a six-round magazine configuration or the 18.5″ four-shot Police model. I was quite familiar with it by that point, and I was happy to have it on a number of occasions! It’s hard to make sense of in my mind, but that was 30 years ago, many of my coworkers from that job have passed away, and I am still using a Remington 870 (now modified by Vang Comp) or a basic 30″ Wingmaster for my shotgun duties. Enter my only Son, who, unlike the offspring of many of my friends who have ZERO interest in firearms at all, my Son not only enjoys shooting, but also training, BJJ, knife fighting, and all of the other avenues of study I hoped he’d enjoy when he became a man. So he expressed some interest in the Beretta semi-autos and bought one to use for training and for defense. Beretta A300 Ultima Patrols are considered the floor for usable semi-auto shotguns, by most professional shotgun trainers. The exception to this is the MAC 1014 which is a copy of the Benelli M4, that is recommended by my friend and mentor Tom Givens, as well as my friend Zach Cox. I have exceptionally poor luck with Turkish firearms, so Dashiell bought the A300 and I just kept on a running with my 870 and my 590. However my gun sommelier, Rylan Martin, showed me a Benelli M2-G1 and I was instantly captivated. It has several features that made it desirable to a fellow like me, who is a semi-auto shotgun Luddite, and unabashed Remington 870 fan.

My Son Dashiell, with his Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol in 12 gauge, learning about the patterning capabilities of his unique gun, which, as I will describe later, seems to like the Winchester 9-pellet 00 buckshot load, like all of the Italian shotguns we own. Luckily for Dashiell, the Winchester load fits a college student’s budget much better than the vaunted Federal Flight Control 8-pellet 00 buckshot, which costs at least 2x as much.
The shell release tab for the Benelli is in the same position as the action release tab on a Remington 870. This familiarity is helpful for the author, who has discovered he is less apt to accidentally put a round onto the lifter with the release being in this position. On the Beretta A300 and 1301, it is quite easy to inadvertently hit the shell tab button and put a round from the tubular magazine onto the lifter…doesn’t matter how many rounds you have in the tube at that point; short of completely unloading the gun and starting over, your loading operation is complete. In over 1000 rounds of testing, I am proud to say that I didn’t hit the shell release tab even ONCE accidentally while loading, nor did the other two brave volunteers who assisted me in the testing.
The large, tubular charging handle and the bolt release are easy to grab ahold of and use, even when wearing gloves. I checked the attachment bolts on the bolt release periodically for movement, and they remained snug throughout the test firing.
The profile and features of the gun are racy and definitely Italian. The gun handles as good as it looks. I handed it off to a few of the elder statesmen of my local trap club, and besides their disgust at the ghost rings sights and the short barrel (for a trap gun) they liked it. The stock has a 13″ length of pull, and while that is probably on the long end for some users, everyone involved in my testing was at or well over six feet tall, and the LOP wasn’t an issue, even with 1600 feet per second slugs, or 3″ magnum, Fifteen pellet 00 buckshot loads.

EVERY SHOTGUN IS AN INDIVIDUAL

I heard Tom Givens say in my Shotgun Instructor Development Course years ago (you can read about it here) that, “each shotgun is an individual snowflake,” and that you have to pattern your particular shotgun for the distances in your applications you might expect to use it at, with several buckshot loadings to determine what works best in YOUR particular gun. I have found that to be true, and as much as I wish that Federal Flite Control EIGHT-pellet 00 buckshot would pattern perfectly out to 25 yards in every shotgun, it simply isn’t true. I would say that MORE OFTEN THAN NOT that is true, but alas, it isn’t true every time. So, we pattern.

CHOKES

A choke in a shotgun refers to the tapering diameter of a portion of the shotgun’s bore, that constricts the shot column as the payload moves down the barrel. This results in a tighter or looser pattern of shot on target, depending on the degree of taper, as the range increases. Different applications require different chokes, and this is accomplished by having either screw in choke tubes (like this Benelli M2-G1) or having a dedicated choked barrel (like my 30″ Remington 870 Wingmaster). This particular gun came with a flush fitting MODIFIED choke tube, oddly, because most tactical shotguns in my experience have either a cylinder or an IMPROVED CYLINDER choke tube. Luckily, all Beretta family shotguns, including this Benelli, Dash’s A300 and my Over Under Franchi Instinct use the same choke tube system. Although I prefer to use the VANG COMP system in shotguns, it simply isn’t an option on guns like this Benelli, nor is it possible on other guns like the A300 and 1301’s. Thus, matching a load to the gun, the choke tube AND the patterning distance, is important. You can’t simply count on the regularity with 8 pellet Federal Flite Control that one gets from SOME cylinder bore shotguns or Vang Comp guns with that load. Experimentation must take place, and here we will reach the most cumbersome part of the article. I pattern my guns to see what they’re capable of, but since my primary application these days is home defense, and the LONGEST shot in my house is 15 yards, that’s the pattern I am most concerned about. Past 15 yards is another consideration all together, but more on that later…here is the data.

As expected, the 5 yard pattern and the Flite Control wad are one projectile. This is also with the OEM choke tube, which is marked MODIFIED.
10 yards and unsurprisingly, the wad has dropped off via wind resistance and gravity, and delivered a tightly clustered shot pattern that is smaller than the palm of my hand.
Like I mentioned, the furthest realistic distance in my house, is 15 yards or nearly 3 car lengths. And with the OEM Modified choke, the pattern is still well within the -0 zone of this IDPA target.
At 20 yards with the OEM Modified choke tube, the pattern opens quite significantly, putting two pellets outside the 8” ring of the IDPA target. Not ridiculously huge, but not as clustered as I would prefer.
At 25 yards with the OEM Modified choke tube, we’ve lost a soldier somewhere along the path. I counted only 7 pellets that had impacted the target.

As a scientific clinician and surgeon, I often spend a lot of time thinking about the, “WHY,” of almost everything. In this case, I wondered WHY a gun intended for tactical or self defense use would come with a Modified choke, as that seems like an odd choice, but since the gun didn’t come with an instruction manual and I don’t read Italian, the explanation is unknown. Further, maybe the guns were supposed to come with a cylinder or improved cylinder choke? I’m unsure. Anyway, instead of wondering, I sought out a few other choke tubes to see what works best, and here are the results of my findings over the past week of nearly constant experimentation.

This is the CARLSON, “Tactical,” choke. It looked mean. I think that the serrations on the end are probably just for aggressive esthetics, although the function of these serrations were originally on breaching shotguns to allow them to bite into the material around door frames to stabilize the muzzle. It conveniently screws into the threads of any 12 gauge shotgun using Beretta’s MOBIL choke system.
Unremarkable Federal Flite Control pattern with the TACTICAL choke. There WAS a noticeable reduction in the already modest recoil of this shotgun.
Oddly, at 10 yards, you can see the wad has yawed and impacted the target lengthwise, although still either containing or following the same path of flight of the wad.
At 15 yards, the TACTICAL choke has turned the pattern into a columnar shape, and the wad is still buffeting through the air, presumably. The pattern is still quite usable, at least for my purposes.
At 20 yards the pattern is quite large, and impacted far below my point of aim. All 8 pellets are still present, and within the -1 zone of the target, although not as centered as I would like.
At 25 yards, the point of impact is again low (I aimed at the perforated, “-0,” visibly stamped into the middle of the 8” circle) and one pellet is unaccounted for.

MISSION?

I don’t ride shotgun on the armored truck anymore. Making a 25 yard or further shot across a bank lobby with a shotgun just isn’t a thing for me anymore. I am no longer a peace officer either, so using a shotgun for the law enforcement mission isn’t on my list of needs either. As a capable CIVILIAN DEFENDER, I really only need my shotgun for home defense, and as I stated earlier, I need the shotgun to work for defending the confines of my home, and the longest shot in my domiciles is 15 yards. So for that task, either the OEM MODIFIED choke tube (flush fitting) or the Carlson TACTICAL choke tube (sticks out slightly with porting and aggressive teeth) would work great. If I was recoil averse, the Carlson TACTICAL choke would be a great choice, as the recoil mitigation due to the radial ports is substantial, and I would estimate the reduction in muzzle rise and rearward impulse to be approximately 30%. A lighter weight shooter might appreciate that more, as would some of my colleagues and students who have implanted medical devices like defibrillators and/or pacemakers that cannot take the kinetic shocks from heavy recoiling long guns.

WHAT ABOUT NEEDING TO ENGAGE A THREAT PAST 15 YARDS?

There is a non-zero percent chance of having to engage a threat outside of the 15 yard indoor distance I have prescribed. For example, we DO have bears here that have been known to be aggressive. In fact, there was a black bear attack last weekend not 30 minutes from me. So for that dangerous animal defense role, a rifled slug would be more appropriate, and it would also work for a human threat that presents itself outside of the 15 yard window I normally pattern buckshot for. In that case, it was prudent to check the accuracy of the Benelli M2-G1 with FEDERAL TRUE BALL rifled slugs at 25 yards. I prefer to shoot from my shoulder at 25 yards with slugs, as I would in an actual situation, and I find that standing is less abusive than using a sandbag off of a bench or a tripod.

The opposing choke tubes, and 5 round groups, fired at 25 yards, offhand. The OEM Modified choke tube group (in my usual 4+1 YIP configuration…ignore the wad rip) on the left, and the Carlson TACTICAL tube on the right. As I mentioned before, the attenuated recoil with the Carlson TACTICAL choke was pronounced. If I was going to set this gun up for dangerous animal defense, and load it with slugs only, the Carlson TACTICAL choke would also be my tube of choice. In fact, I may do a future vignette on this gun with 3” Brenneke slugs, a red dot, and a sling for dangerous animal defense.

8 PELLET FEDERAL FLITE CONTROL IS CONSIDERED THE GOLD STANDARD IN BUCKSHOT FOR DEFENSIVE USE

But what do you use when Federal Flite Control 8 pellet is unavailable? Federal Flite Control 9 pellet? What if IT is also unavailable? Winchester makes a military grade 9 pellet 00 buckshot shell that comes in 25 round boxes and is ubiquitous in my area, and also available online for relatively inexpensive prices. I opted to try it and see how it compared against the 8 pellet Federal Flite Control…stand by for even more data.

I love that these come in a 25 round box!
At 15 yards, my mission parameter maximum range, all of the rounds are in the down zero except for one. This is with the OEM Modified choke tube.
At 20 yards, with the OEM Modified choke, there is some vertical dispersion, but laterally the 9 pellets are all still present.
I was running out of daylight fast, so I shot the 20 yard target a second time and marked the hits with an, ”X,” that landed at 25 yards, and with the OEM Modified choke tube, all 9 pellets landed.
While the Winchester has more recoil than the Federal Flite Control, the shell hulls don’t end up in the next bay. In fact, with most loads, the shells eject and land within 5 feet or less. The lower recoil rounds eject even less forcefully.
Yet another Carlson choke tube…this one is an IMPROVED CYLINDER that as you can see, stands out of the barrel just slightly. For tactical use, I’m not mad about this. I think you should reach out and tighten your magazine tube (or make sure it is snug) every 20 rounds or so, and it is easier to do that with this choke tube, because you can just turn it with your fingers. The flush fitting chokes require a wrench or at least a quarter to turn them. My hope for this choke tube was that it would shoot Federal Flite Control 8 pellet 00 well…at least better than the OEM Modified choke tube did. Recall that I still wasn’t getting all 8 pellets on the target at 25 yards YET. I’ve also lived with enough defensive shotguns over the years to know that the muzzle gets bumped into door frames, truck ceilings, weapon racks, etc. in daily use. Replacing a choke tube for $25 that gets banged up and bent is better than having a bent or pushed in barrel.
Nothing exciting here at 5 yards with 8 pellet FFC. These are the TA Targets, “C ZONE,” cardboard targets which approximate the size of the (wait for it) C Zone on a USPSA target!
Yawed wad, but it appeared to have little effect on the pattern…
Don’t mind my point of impact shift here…that was my fault. What you can’t see here is that this was actually taken after dark. The new iPhone does a fantastic job on color correction in lowlight (the previous 5 yard target was taken AT dusk),
20 yards and we are still golden!
Down one pellet at 25 yards…WTF! I HAVE heard that there were QC issues with some 8 pellet Federal Flite Control that resulted in a lost pellet, not unlike the classic 9 pellet loads losing one at distance. So that COULD be happening here, or it is simply a mismatch with the load/tube/gun. Hard to say the exact etiology, but the results are there. Again, at 15 yards, inside my mission parameter for distance, no concerns!
Yet another Carlson’s choke tube, this one in FULL choke. Not for general/tactical use, but for my latest obsession/hobby, which is trap shooting! When I went through the cadet academy in the 1990’s, using a police shotgun (called, “riot guns,” at the time) using the guns on the trap range was part of the familiarization training. Upon researching this lately, the NRA LE Shotgun course ALSO has a trap shooting component, so it is/once was a real thing. I find port loading to be a fine motor/challenging operation at times, especially when it is cold out, so I figured that 75 repetitions under competitive stress in a session would be beneficial. I wanted to get a choke that I could use for trap shooting…
This is the pattern density with #7.5 shot at 1150 feet per second. Even at this lower velocity, the gun functioned 100%. It ejects the empties cleanly, about 3 feet to my right in a neat little pile. I HOPE to find a load that runs lightly enough that it won’t eject/will stove pipe, so I can lift the empty shell out, stow it in my shot shell bag, and then load it. People that use semi-autos in trap shooting generally use a little wire device that traps the ejected shell and keeps it from flying out, because SOME serious trap shooters are weird people that get mad about many trivial things like saying, “pull,” clearly (because they don’t want to move their jaw too much to deviate their point of aim…I’m not kidding) or God forbid get their leg hit by an empty shotgun hull. Life is very strange sometimes. So the search continues for this mythical low velocity load that won’t cycle this gun. “Tactical Trap Shooting,” will be featured more, later. I HAVE shown up with my 19” Vang Comp modified 870 and shot a 24/25 so it is quite possible to shoot a competitive trap game with a, “riot gun.” Seeing the serious trap shooters get their feathers ruffled by the, “kid,” with a short barrel (comparatively, not legally) shotgun is indeed a, “riot.”

I’M ALL CHOKED UP

Tired of hearing about chokes yet? ME NEITHER! In my epic search for a choke that will make my Benelli M2-G1 pattern 8 pellet 00 Federal Flite Control at 25 yards as well as my 870 does, well, it took some patience, lots of cardboard, and a couple of Amazon Prime deliveries. Yes, who’d of thunk it, but literally ANY Beretta/Benelli/Franchi choke tube that uses the Beretta MOBIL choke system is available on Amazon, and that includes the aftermarket Carlson’s chokes, but also the Beretta OEM chokes. I lastly purchased a Beretta MOBIL IMPROVED CYLINDER (IC for short and this tube is a flush fit/not extended) choke tube AND an MTM Case Guard clear plastic case to hold all of these tubes and the wrench, in my range bag.

THIS IS THE PATTERN I WOULD LIKE TO get with the Benelli M2-G1. The patterns shown here are from my VANG COMP modified 870. This is the baseline…what all shotguns SHOULD shoot like in my opinion. I would use this gun for the CIVILIAN DEFENDER mission no doubt, but also for armored truck guard duty, or any domestic law enforcement patrol task I had performed in the past. An 870 just feels right…I’ve rarely met an 870 I didn’t like. Now, to get the Benelli to pattern to THIS standard.
With the FFC 8-00 and the IC choke, the 10, 15 and 20 yard patterns are all well within CIVILIAN DEFENDER mission parameters!
AND INSTANT DISAPPOINTMENT when at 25 yards, there are THREE pellets not in the pattern/A-Zone. A boy could dream, right?
Not content with the results, I fired three more rounds from 25 yards, marking the patterns from each successive shot, and noticed that 50% of the time, the pattern was complete and in specification, and half the time pellets were dropped. What exactly is happening here?

THE CASE OF THE MISSING 25 YARD PELLETS

My working hypothesis currently is that perhaps the case of 8 pellet Federal Flite Control I purchased several years ago had QC issues. I have more FFC enroute and I will retest with it once it arrives. But currently, like I stated earlier, for my 15 yards and in usage envelope, the gun, and all of these choke tubes I tested, deliver. Some tighter than others, but all within a statistical margin of error and acceptability.

THE FEEDING OF THE BEAST

Shotguns are so incredibly fun to shoot, but tedious to load. Having some method of shell carriage on the gun itself is extremely beneficial. Local to me here in the great PNW is an awesome gear company called ESSTAC. We used about fifteen copies of their Generation One and Generation Two Velcro shell carriers to feed the gun from a large bin of shells. The cards were then ripped off of the loop Velcro on the receiver of the gun, and replaced with a fresh, loaded ESSTAC card. These shot cards are stiff, and unlike many of the elastic type cards, these are a good deal sturdier, and don’t seem to lose their grippiness, even when the shells are loaded brass down or brass up. We had zero, “garage sales,” of shells during the course of the testing, and thus no shells were lost, ever! You can buy the ESSTAC carriers on Amazon, here, or directly from their website, HERE.

SUMMARY

Who is this gun for? I think that the cross bolt safety, the shell tab release and the ejection port all feel very Remington 870-ish in placement and operation. Meaning if you are an 870 person, this won’t feel as odd to you as a Beretta A300 or 1301 feel.

In a week’s worth of testing, two other shooters and I put a combination of 00 buckshot, rifled slugs and some birdshot (mostly 00 buckshot) totaling over 1000 rounds, through the gun. The ONLY ammo that didn’t function 100% was the Fiocchi low recoil 00 buckshot and the low recoil slugs. Everything else, ran with aplomb. I did not clean the gun throughout any of the testing, and I used the factory supplied oil flask to oil the gun once after the first 500 rounds were fired.
My Son’s classmate and also my gun sommelier, and student/range instruction assistant Rylan having an absolutely awful time with the Benelli M2-G1 as evidenced by his grimaced visage. Despite being a giant at 6’6”, the 13” LOP was quite comfortable for him to shoot extensively, even with 3” magnum buckshot (15 pellet 00) and 1.5 ounce rifled slugs! Throughout the 1000 round testing the magazine tube remained tight, as did the magazine clamp/sling mount, the front sight tower, the rear adjustable sight AND the rail section.

I don’t normally go in for slings on tactical shotguns that are intended for home defense, but this Benelli comes with QD (quick detach) cups that will accept sling rings that allow one to rapidly attach or detach a sling. This gun does get hot, and after a few strings where three shooters loaded and fired the gun as fast as possible, there were times where the front support hand needed a glove. This was after 5-6 tubes worth (35-42ish) rounds had been fired, so far more than would ever be fired under real conditions. Defensive shotgun events are historically low round count affairs, often requiring one or two hits to definitively end the attack. This shotgun holds 8 rounds total, and 9 if one chooses to ghost load. I think that ghost loading is needlessly complicated and of dubious value for exactly the aforementioned reasoning of shotgun fights being low round count events; it just isn’t necessary to ghost load. If you are a competitive shooter and this is your gun choice for that, it’ll do it, rest assured, but for serious use, I don’t see the point.

While many people choose to add an optic to their shotgun (even I have one Mossberg 590S that has a Holosun EPS on it) I don’t think that it is necessary, for me, on this gun. The ghost right sights are easy to see and use with buckshot or slugs, and even in low light after dusk, the front sight was easy enough to make a coarse sight picture and deliver hits.

The Carlson’s IMPROVED CYLINDER choke has an impressive radial muzzle blast after dark.

IN CONCLUSION

I love shotguns. I enjoy using them for sporting purposes, and also for defensive use. I think they are an incredible weapon that requires extensive training and thus they aren’t for folks that want something simple and easy. Shotguns (despite what Hollywood and the internet will tell you) must be aimed, and the muzzle blast and recoil can be punishing to some. Some people probably are better suited with a center fire rifle or even a pistol caliber carbine. But for those willing to put the work in, a shotgun offers many advantages. I think that the Benelli M2-G1 won’t necessarily supplant the Beretta A300 and 1301 shotguns in the semi-automatic shotgun market, but it offers an attractive option to folks like me who like the feel of it, the controls and the souped up semi-870 vibes over the other Beretta products. I give the Benelli M2-G1 a resounding three thumbs up!

This entire article, the gun, the ammo, the chokes everything was funded by yours truly and every word was crafted by ME, without the use of artificial intelligence. If you enjoyed this article, please share it on your social media pages, and subscribe here to my feed. I am no longer participatory on Social Media, so unless you push this out to your friends and colleagues, me and nine other people will read it. Thank you for taking the time to read this and visiting my odd corner of the swap meet just adjacent to the restrooms! See you on the next one! THANK YOU- DR. HOUSE
Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

A REAL NON-SHILL GUN REVIEW: THE SPRINGFIELD ARMORY 10-8 PERFORMANCE MASTER CLASS

Look at its sleek profile and Armand Swenson-esque squared trigger guard. It is an elegant weapon, for a more civilized age. 😉 Hilton Yam knows a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to the operational use of 1911’s, from his experiences on the American streets with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the gun culture and training industry, we are surrounded by shills. The definition of a shill, according to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary is: “one who acts as a decoy (as for a pitchman or gambler) or one who makes a sales pitch or serves as a promoter.” The latter definition isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but since I have a bit of an insider baseball knowledge in how firearm promotions work, from my time in the industry, I KNOW that gun companies send their products to professional reviewers for positive reviews, and often that gun is either GIVEN to that author, influencer or content creator gratis, or at a tremendous discount, in return for a positive review. For experienced gun buyers and gun users, this isn’t a shock, and most savvy folks won’t be easily swayed by the full color and high production values. But the cynics among us, who HAVE bought lemons, or guns that were pumped up to be awesome by fugazi reviewers, know better. “Once bitten, twice shy,” as the old saying goes.

These days, MOST gun, “reviews,” come from YouTube, where the revenue earned by the content creator comes from ad revenue. Meaning that the more eyes their review gets in front of, the more money they make. So good for them! But since making enough videos to produce an income stream takes production, it also takes products. Most content creators don’t want to nor can they afford to buy their own products to video and promote, so they gladly accept free products and I KNOW that they always give objective reviews. I know this because I have seen what was in the actual footage and what they released in the promoted video. There was a large discrepency! I’m not saying everyone who promotes products are shills, and I’m also not saying that all product reviews are promoting products that are crap, but ultimately, buyer beware. Don’t stake YOUR LIFE on someone else’s review thinking, “they did the homework, so I don’t have to.” AND I’m even talking about MY WORD. I bought this firearm, the ammo, the magazines, the holsters, and all the supporting gear you read about in my work. Nobody gave me anything for my time, or my consideration. These are all my experiences and those of my colleagues under my supervision. So here we go…

BACKGROUND

The 10-8 PERFORMANCE MASTER CLASS (in 9mm) is a full size, “Government Frame,” steel frame pistol that feeds from the nine round Mecgar and/or Metalform OEM magazines, and also comes with elegant, yet grippy, Hilton Yam logo VZ Grips (don’t get mad at me Cooper Acolytes and 1911 guys…that is the name of the company; I am aware that Cooper correctly called them, “stocks,” and that, “grip,” is a verb) that are not abrasive on the skin or clothing, but provide a hold that is ready to resist the massive recoil experienced when unleashing a round of 9mm ammunition from a 43 ounce firearm…I’m being a smartass (sorry Mom). This (and all steel frame 9mm 1911’s) are about as close as you can get to using a recoilless pistol. The gun soaks up recoil from the 147 grain Speer LAWMAN TMJ’s I prefer to use for practice, training and competition, as well as the Federal HST 147 grain duty ammo I have the gun zeroed for and carry in it.

I have fitted this pistol with a CHPWS AOS compatible optic plate for the Trijicon RMR family of optics, and to it I mounted the Trijicon RMR-HD with a 3.25 MOA dot. I chose this mounting plate because unlike the OEM plates, the rear sight is NOT adjustable for windage. It is monolithic in construction. On a duty gun, I think it is important to minimize the parts of your gun that take a beating (the beavertail/hammer/rear sight/back of optic) on a duty gun are exposed to the elements/garment abrasion on both concealed and duty holsters, so the less problems they are exposed and susceptible to, the better. The CHPWS plate also uses T-nuts that insert into recesses on the base of the plate, that provide a recoil boss effect AND also provide more screw engagement for the optic. So again, a more rugged option. Yes, it is a more expensive option than the OEM plate (you get a discount coupon with the gun to order the OEM plate) but if you are using this gun for carry/duty/rugged use, I would personally go for the heavier duty plate system. I chose the RMR HD because it is, in my experience, the ruggedized version of the Trijicon SRO. While I love the large field of view the SRO offers, it isn’t the MOST rugged of PMO’s (Pistol Mounted Optic) around. I don’t worry so much about bashing it into the steering wheel of a patrol car, because I don’t work in patrol cars anymore, but I DO worry about knocking it off my nightstand where it sleeps at night, onto my hardwood or concrete floors. Yes…SRO’s still work with the glass cracked, but if I can have an optic that is significantly MORE rugged, with a bigger window than a Type 2 RMR, AND does not have to be removed from the gun to change the battery? Then all the better! This configuration works for me, in practice, competition, carry and testing. And I live in an area where torrential rain is a thing, but the gun continues to function, open emitter optic and all.

Before I get really far down the road with PMO’s, and any other changes to the base gun, I like to make sure that the thing works. I fired 500 rounds of SPEER LAWMAN 147gr TMJ as well as WWB 115gr FMJ before I even thought about mounting the optic. The rounds all went off without a hitch, and I applied some lubrication, liberally, at every 250 round mark. The rear sight worked loose, although the retaining screws come from the factory with yellow threadlocker on them. So if you are going to run just the OEM iron sight plate, I would recommend applying some blue loctite after you degrease the holes and the hardware. The front sight, although it didn’t make a complete escape from the pistol, it DID work itself loose. I remedied this by cleaning it up, degreasing the sight and the dovetail, then laid down a bead of red loctite and then slid it back into place, centered it, and then I applied a coat of red loctite around the periphery of the sight. I let it sit for 30 minutes, and then I cleaned up the excesss. As you can see, it rains alot here, in the great PAC NW, but the cerakote finish on the gun repelled the water just fine. The cerakote is a blessing and a curse…after you begin shooting the gun, it wears off of the slide rails, and when compounded with lubricant, it creates a sludge that can bog the gun down. This is a minor issue and it happens with any of the spray applied finishes. Clean it up throughout the break-in period and you’ll be just fine!
AS IS MY ZEROING CUSTOM, I will get a machine rest (RANSOM MASTER REST) at 10 yards, and then shoot the gun at another clean, 1″ paster square and get a three round group that hits it. As described by my mentor Tom Givens, machine rests test the INHERENT ACCURACY OF THE GUN, and the handheld group tests the accuracy of what I AM CAPABLE OF. I can and have done only handheld zeros before, at 10, 15 and 25 yard, but the Master Rest really does help, “get in the ballpark,” quicker and sooner. And there is almost always (with rare exception) a variance, even if only slight, with elevation when comparing the machine rest to the offhand group. My shooting ability and quality depends on far more variables than the machine rest does! You will notice here that the 10-8 is wearing wood stocks…
These are Herrett’s stocks, in Zebrawood, and if you are a traditionalist, you can swap them out. Of course, these don’t change the mechanical function of the gun(although poorly fitted stocks CAN impede the magazine release and/or the safety), but if you love wood, you’d be hard-pressed to do much better than Herrett’s out of Idaho. My grandfather used Herrett’s stocks back in the day, in the 60’s and 70’s, and they’ve been around for decades now.
I tried these on too…my favorite variety of VZ grips, the, “Aliens.” I don’t know why they’re called, “aliens,” but I imagine it has something to do with the texture being close to the eponymous creature from the Ridley Scott filmography, or at least that creatures hive(s)! These grips were originally specified for use by the USMC on some of their hard-use 1911’s. They’re sturdy and they work well!
This is my typical offhand group shooting these days when I’m on good rip. I usually shoot two, three round groups, which invariably end up being an, “x+1” configuration. Meaning a few are tightly grouped, and one isn’t from a, “yip,” on my part. Poor trigger control, wanging on the trigger, El Snappo, and all exacerbated by too much caffeine! It happens.
I am blessed to have two wonderful, very nice shooting facilities in my area. One, is the Skagit Shooting Range in Burlington WA, and the other is the North Whidbey Sportsmen’s Association in Oak Harbor, WA. This group, and much of my accuracy testing takes place at the indoor range. The lighting conditions vary between the different lanes, but they’re all dark! Definitely would fall within the light variables of what Tom Givens would call, “low light conditions.” So a five round group, not fired particularly slow from 25 yards, off hand, with mediocre quality ammunition into a decent pattern? I’ll take it.

NOT PRACTICE, NOT COMPETITION…TRAINING (aka teaching you how and what TO practice)

This pistol was designed to be a duty gun. Meaning for uniform or concealed carry (it ain’t that big y’all…plenty of people were carrying full sized 1911’s as concealed pieces LONG BEFORE Gaston Glock’s people ever thought up the Glock 43X, so take it easy gang!) is where it is intended to function. I have occasionally helped my dear friend Rick Remington by functioning as a range safety officer in his classes, through his company, FOUNDATIONAL DEFENSIVE TRAINING, LLC. Rick teaches at the aforementioned SKAGIT SHOOTING RANGE and his teaching and their facility is excellent! Rick is a Rangemaster Certified Instructor and all of his curriculum closely follows the Rangemaster/Tom Givens doctrine, which is a further development of the Modern Technique of the Pistol, as delineated by Jeff Cooper (Tom was a student and colleague of Colonel Cooper). Training opportunities are sparse in Washington State, especially outside of Snohomish and King Counties, so avail yourself of Rick’s course offerings! Rick also hosts many other excellent instructors at the Skagit Shooting Range.

The Skagit Shooting Range has an excellent classroom facility!

I had planned to use the 10-8 in Rick’s recent, “Defensive Pistol 2,” class, but local full-time peace officer and friend, Jacob Quarrels offered to run it through the 500 rounds of the course. Jacob is a firearms training officer at his department, and I have competed and trained with him extensively. He is a top level shooter, and this year at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference, he was THE top cop competitor, meaning out of the law enforcement officer competitors, he won! So I instead trusted my 10-8 to Jacob for the class, and I used a Dan Wesson Specialist 9mm, which is very similar except for its more traditional 1911 styling.

Like I mentioned earlier, the range is a bit dark in places! Rick lead the class, consisting of four students. Rick is an excellent coach and diagnostician, and he gives good correction ands advice. He also demonstrates to a high degree of expertise and ATTAINABLE competence, ALL of the drills he requires of his students in class.
Jacob is so serious about being a Hilton Yam fan that he even has the official uniform of 10-8 Performance!
Rick’s DEFENSIVE PISTOL 2 culminates with a timed and scored evaluation consisting of the FBI Firearms Qualification (2019 version) and the Rangemaster Baseline Assessment Drill (BAD). Jacob smoked both!
This is the holster used for the course, which is a CrossBreed Holsters by N8 Tactical IWB worn in the appendix position. This holster is inexpensive, but it works well! I normally use a JMCK AIWB or DARK STAR GEAR holster for my 1911’s but because of the trigger guard, fit with adequate retention is tricky. This N8 was designed to fit the Stealth Arms Platypus, and it works well for it, ALONG WITH the 10-8 without feeling like it is too much gun pushed into not enough holster or being clicky or loose. I’d use this rig for concealed carry without issue. This holster is also available on the SPRINGFIELD ARMORY online pro-shop under, “accessories.”
This is a QVO Tactical, “More Discreet,” AIWB holster with a DCC Monoblock clip and the metal wing. I really like this holster too, and it was made to fit the Springfield Emissary, which just like the 10-8, has the squared trigger guard. I like this rig as well, although I wish there was a sterile version that didn’t feature the QVO (which stands for QUICK VIOLENT OVER) because I don’t like to have any logos which could be seen in an unfavorable light by a malicious prosecutor. I could blast or sand off these logos, with ease. Other than that, the holster is great, and I have several of these for a few 1911 pistols.

CLASS PERFORMANCE

Jacob was easily the top shooter in the class! The 10-8 ran well with his 142 grain 9mm reloads, except for one failure to return to battery, which happened predictably around 250 rounds into the class. As I mentioned earlier, I use 250 rounds as my interval for AT LEAST lubing my 1911 pattern pistols. I don’t always detail clean them (although I do) after every use, but I DO lube them religiously. Aside from that isolated stoppage (which would’ve been around round 800, approximately) there were no other problems. The gun runs well with Wilson Combat ETM 10 round magazines (my preferred magazine, especially in neutered magazine states like WA) and also the OEM magazines it comes with, that only hold 9 rounds.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a fan of full size guns for concealed carry. As I am now older, more mature, dress like an adult (meaning I don’t wear scrub pants anymore) and don’t need to carry the smallest gun I can shoot well because of clothing limitations in the HOT weather, I prefer a full size pistol that is easier to shoot, but also easier to do everything else with. INCLUDING conceal (more on that in the future). Jacob, like me, prefers the same. About the smallest pistol I will carry these days is a FINK’S CUSTOM Gunsite Service Pistol CCO in 9mm, which has a 4.25″ barrel/slide on an Officer’s length alloy frame. That gives me 9 rounds in the gun, in a package that is roughly the same size dimensions as a Glock 48, but it is imminently more shootable and safer to carry, because of the manual and grip safeties. Oh, and a plus is it runs EXACTLY like the 10-8 and the view from my end is basically the same, albeit slightly less cluttered with the irons-forward configuration. I’m not a, “carry rotation guy,” but I have a full size steel 1911, an alloy CCO and a J frame. When I lived in a FREE state, it was a full size M&P, a Shield and a J frame. So just a slight pivot!

This is the ultimate Gentleman’s Carry Pistol. The aforementioned FINK’S CUSTOM Gunsite Service Pistol CCO in 9mm, which has a 4.25″ barrel/slide on an Officer’s length frame.

WHAT I DON’T LIKE

The 10-8 uses a bull barrel with a blind plug, and then a short (GI Length) spring guide which means this 1911 comes apart like a GP35/Browning High Power. You take the slide stop out as you normally would on any 1911 pattern pistol, and then be wary that the recoil spring is going to go BOING when you remove the slide off the frame. I have thought about replacing this with a Dawson Precision toolless guide rod and a flat spring. Flat springs last for hundreds of thousands of rounds (although don’t do that) compared to coil springs and the toolless guide rod is very easy to service. It makes it easier to take the gun apart into two pieces for thorough lubrication during training without a BOING and possibly losing parts in the field.

The sights were a minor issue, but I think with all duty sights, and 1911’s in particular, loctite is important. Once you have found your duty load and have zeroed/verified point of impact, freeze those sights just where they zero! Clean up the excess within 30 minutes of application to avoid a gooey mess.

Anyone who is a 9mm 1911 guy knows that magazines in 9mm 1911’s are weird. I carry the Wilsons, but I train with the Mecgar and Metalform OEM magazines. Because when the instructor or the Match Director says, “You will need three 7 round magazines,” with Wilson magazines, you need a LULA UPloader to download your Wilson magazines by 3 rounds to meet the stage/evolution requirements. With the OEM magazines, you can just thumb out two rounds. NOT the end of the world, and I would use the 9 round OEM magazines for duty carry without issue, but the Wilsons are a BIT more rugged, and they’re stainless too, which is important for on-body carry and also in the chronic rain of the PAC NW. With Wilson mags if you strip a partial magazine from the gun, you will often lose a round out of the top of the magazine, AND the round under that one will be scooted forward slightly. This makes stripping the partially magazine out of the gun a pain. This isn’t an issue with Wilson magazines that are empty; they fall freely from the gun without help. This happens in every 9mm 1911 I have tried Wilson ETM 9mm magazines in. Again, not the end of the world, but something to be aware of!

THE VERDICT

The 10-8 is good to go in my view. I would wholeheartedly recommend it for consideration for folks like me that have the time, money and dedication to give to a premium production 1911. For others that want a carry gun they can treat like they maintain their lawnmower, there are better choices! But for those that like the safety and trigger control a single action pistol offers, this is a great choice. But like I stated earlier, don’t take my word for it. We used to tell students that they needed to test their shotguns with all manner of ammunition to make sure that they were compatible, functioned and patterned correctly and appropriately. Now? I recommend people do that with all of their guns. It seems like post-Covid, gun makers AND ammunition factories have turned out some real turds, and that trend has continued into the current market. The minor issues I had with the sights on this gun were not a big deal. When I volume test guns like this, I have a system and it starts with a Pelican case of twenty five, 10 round Wilson Combat ETM magazines. I load all of them (that’s 250 rounds for my fellow public school grads) and then I shoot them in a freshly lubed 1911. The 10-8 made it through that…twice. It also (unironically) made it through the, “10-8 Function Test,” flawlessly, which measures the extractor function, as well as the fitting on other key 1911 parts.

I realize many folks probably think it is anachronistic to use a 1911 as a carry gun in 2026, and that’s ok. A pistol that was designed in 1908 and fielded in 1911 makes it in common use for 125 years now…and that’s a long time. If there was a better product, I’d use it. But the 1911’s of today aren’t your great great grandfather’s 1911. They are an evolution of that product, but they have significantly changed. Better parts, better construction and for some guns, a return to fitting the barrel to the slide and the slide to the frame. All of this comes together in a package that is easy to use. I’ve often joked with my other colleagues and students that the 9mm 1911 is a cheater gun. It’s very easy to hold it still and align the sights because it weighs almost 3 pounds, but the trigger pull is 4.5 pounds, and it is safer to carry than a striker fired gun because it has a grip safety AND a manual safety that requires deactivation before the gun can be fired. Ernest Langdon said recently that the difference between a striker fired gun or a traditional double action in single action mode and a single action gun with the safety off is that there IS no difference! That’s a little scary. I trust when I carry AIWB that the gun pointed down the front of my body has several passive and active safety devices working to keep me from inadvertently touching a round off into my body, and I like that! Couple that with the fact that 9 or 10 round magazines are legal in every state in the Union, and you have a universally accepted service pistol. Recoil shy shooter? With Barnes 115 grain TAC-XPD duty ammo, the recoil from this gun is MINIMAL. The 10 pound recoil spring is EASY for even the weakest most arthritic person to push through with proper technique. Heck, with a rugged optic or tall iron sights, they can even push the slide against the range bench in training or their dresser at home to load the gun or clear malfunctions! With training and familiarization, it’s a great system, and what I will use for the rest of my trips around the Sun. IF you are a 1911 fan, look at the 10-8 PERFORMANCE MASTER CLASS from SPRINGFIELD ARMORY!

THANK YOU FOR READING! As always, everything in this piece is owned, and was purchased, by yours truly. And all of this was written by me, on my iPad, without the use of Artificial Intelligence of any kind! If you like my work, please like, share on your social media platforms and subscribe to the feed here so that you never miss an article. I proudly have ZERO social media presence now, so if you are reading this, thank you for your landing here and thank you for your continued patronage. -Dr. House

Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

REDUCED CAPACITY MAGAZINE ISSUES (NEUTERED MAGAZINES) and WAYS to Navigate Them

You’ll notice that not all, not all, not all but MOST non-standard capacity (AKA neutered) magazines have a plastic boot, for lack of a better term, that comprises 1/3 to 1/2 of the magazine. The remainder is the stamped metal tube that would make up a standard capacity magazine. These SEEM TO BE made not for efficiency or reliability but seemingly the afterthought of, “how do we sell our product in a BAN state?”

Over the last few years, I’ve found myself living in the state of my birth, Washington (NOT DC). But the current iteration of Washington isn’t what it was when I was a child or even a teenager. Around the time I became an adult, the 1994 Crime Bill came to be (see here) and unfortunately, I almost immediately had to figure out how to intelligently and legally purchase firearms for personal defense that fit within the bounds of the newly minted, federal restrictions. Now, circa 2026, the 1994 Crime Bill is gone, having expired in 2004. In addition to being functionally ineffectual on, “crime,” it was the first LARGE scale infringement on civil rights that many Generation X’ers like me experienced, at the grass roots level. But Washington State, and many other states, have decided that they best way to combat crime is to either disarm or greatly complicate the ability of law abiding citizens to defend themselves and their families by limiting magazine capacity, and also the purchase of semi-automatic rifles. If you’re reading this, you already recognize the folly in this way of thinking, and I won’t expound on it much further. I will tell you more about how I have personally navigated this quagmire of bureaucracy in a state where I encounter dangers relative to the nature of my work within the bounds of the law. It also bears mentioning that in this state and others imposing such restrictions, that the electorate is guarded by security specialists who are NOT subject to these restrictions, and some states also have provisions where the law makers are NOT subject to the restrictions either. Gun control is ALWAYS about control, not guns. Remember that…END SERMON.

This information is also useful to those of us who travel frequently and need a, “50 State Legal,” sidearm. As more of these restrictive areas pop up, the need to still be readily armed and capable in these places is crucial.

LOADING ISSUES

The act of simply loading rounds into the magazine with some neutered magazines can be challenging. I work with my hands for a living, often using a device you’d think of as a pair of pliers to literally wrench teeth from bone in my work as a professional exodontist. That requires grip/forearm strength and stamina. And yet, there are times I struggle to load neutered magazines to their ten round capacity. The springs are shortened, and the plastic boot I mentioned earlier functions to limit the volume that remains in the metal tube of the magazine. Thus, it gets progressively harder to load the magazine, and unlike most standard capacity magazines, the loading practice does not get easier with time! In many of these magazines, the floor plate CANNOT be removed for cleaning! UNACCEPTABLE!

There are a few makers/magazines I have discovered through trial and error, and also renting guns at my favorite local indoor range (Skagit Shooting Range in Burlington WA). One choice is the Springfield Echelon. The magazines for this polymer popper are easy to load in either the full size Echelon 4.5 (Glock 17ish size/4.5″ barrel) or the Echelon 4.0 (Glock 19ish size/4.0″ barrel). I’ve also had good luck with the 10 round magazines from Springfield Armory (which I believe are made by Checkmate and MecGar) for the Springfield PRODIGY, which is a double stack 1911. And lastly, the current iterations of Glock double stack (Glock 17 and Glock 19 size) neutered magazines work well and are not difficult to load. Same goes for the MAGPUL iterations of the Glock magazines. I have extensive experience (about 10K rounds this year) with them through a STEALTH ARMS PLATYPUS with no issues.

YET ANOTHER, “loading,” complication I have encountered with neutered capacity magazines is their inability to seat on a pistol with the slide forward. Meaning, if your gun doesn’t have the slide locked to the rear, you will not get a magazine to lock into the gun. Like the old GI M-16 magazines which wouldn’t reliably seat, or allow bolt manipulation unless the mags were downloaded, these suckers do the same. Heart breakingly for me (you know how much I love the S&W M&P series of pistols) the ten round neutered magazines for the M&P series DO NOT allow the user to load on a pistol with the slide forward. I discovered this the hard way (although thankfully) in competition on a, “cold start,” where you begin with the gun unloaded on the bench, and at the BEEP start signal, you grip your pistol, load the magazine into it, rack the slide, and then begin shooting the stage. I did as I have automated myself to do, over thousands of reps of practice, and found that not only could I not retract the slide to charge the chamber, the spring tension on the magazine was so great I could now NOT get it out of the gun by depressing the magazine release button. The spring and the tension created between the slide and the rounds was too great! I ended up pushing down on the magazine button with the edge of the loading table, with the muzzle pointed downrange, popping the magazine free by prying simultaneously with my thumbnail, and ditching the magazine. I then locked the slide to the rear, loaded the neutered magazine, and began the string. I made still managed to turn in a respectable score and time, but DAMN. That didn’t go as planned. Had BIG BLUE known about these problems? Would they care? How many neutered magazine pistols make up their market share every year? Is is reasonable to think that they should care about this?

I know that my level of curiosity and intellectual pursuit allows me to design an algorithm to get around this deficiency, but what about others that don’t have the level of drive, desire, education, training and/or experience that I possess? I think that they might find themselves at a huge disadvantage! Thumbing rounds into a magazine at the worst possible time (during a critical incident) is a bad practice but it has happened in real life (Stephen Willeford). And I’ve read enough CLAUDE WERNER/THE TACTICAL PROFESSOR analyses over the years to know that many people don’t have a defensive pistol on them 24/7 and have to retrieve and/or retrieve and load their pistol from whichever place they have secreted it. If these issues aren’t anticipated and a counter isn’t devised, a bad outcome can result!

Lots of people think that the fantastic UP-LULA magazine loader is for weak people, but it is a great tool for anyone and a REQUIREMENT for those of us who teach others. For neutered magazines though? These should come with every purchase!

FUNCTION

I have been fortunate in that I haven’t experienced any reliability issues (in the conventional sense) with the neutered double column magazines I have used from S&W, Glock, and Springfield Armory. I have also had good luck with Glock 43X/48 10 round magazines in their OEM form from Glock. I shoot in a weekly indoor, lowlight pistol competition league, and also monthly ASI matches at my local gun club. I shoot about 250 rounds a week in structured practice and drills in addition to competition. So I have lots of rounds running through magazines!

My colleague Erick Gelhaus of COUGAR MOUNTAIN SOLUTIONS and the WORLD FAMOUS Gunsite Academy is ALSO an M&P guy and he HAS had issues with the 10 round M&P magazines. So I MAY have just been lucky, but Erick is a hard user of his gear and if he has had issues, it’s a definite possibility.

I also have to mention here that I have had good luck with the neutered Smith & Wesson M&P 10mm magazines. 10mm is very popular here in Washington because it works for defense from predators of all kinds with aplomb.

I like to either buy or spray paint the floor plates of some of my neutered magazines in the color tan. In TN, in the area I worked in, when people would say the word, “TEN,” it actually sounds like, “TAN.” So in my mind, when I see a TAN magazine, I think TEN. These OEM magazines are made in the tan polymer of the Glock 19X. I have these in the neutered Glock 17 size so I can distinguish them from the neutered MAGPUL Glock 19 magazines I have at a glance.

HOW I HAVE TACKLED THIS PROBLEM

When I first moved here, I consulted with one of my mentors, the great and powerful TOM GIVENS of Rangemaster. His advice, delivered in his inimitable style was, “Don’t move to Washington.” He also told me to look into single column magazines, as they’re generally engineered to run differently than double column magazines and by sheer size and volume alone, are limited to ten rounds or less. Being recently, “Middle Aged,” and also having an inordinate amount of free time, I decided that I wanted to delve into what makes 1911 style pistols attractive and what all the hype was about. That’s an article for another day, but I can tell you that there is a subset of the personal defense culture that literally sells magazines of their own design and manufacture, to sustain the rest of their business! Wilson Combat, and Tripp Research for example, have done for 9mm 1911’s what grape jelly did for dry toast…IT MADE IT AMAZING!!! So I personally have settled on carrying a 10+1 capacity, 9mm 1911 pattern pistol with an optic. I invested in the, “Pair and a spare,” philosophy battery of arms. I have a vetted pistol I use for everyday carry, an identical piece I use for training and competition and an understudy that can fill in for either. With quality ammunition (my current favorite is the CCI/Speer LAWMAN 147 grain TMJ flat point) and Federal 147 grain HST for carry, I have had fantastic results. A 1911 for a dedicated hobbyist like me isn’t an issue, because the additional work and maintenance that goes into keeping and carrying one is time I have to spend, and I enjoy it.

“Precision in language reflects precision in thought.” -JACK CARR

I’ve noticed a trend in the gun tuber/online, “influencer,” crowd that really annoys me lately. It has become common for many of them to say, “BATTERY OF ARMS,” when what they mean to say is, “MANUAL OF ARMS.” A, “battery of arms,” would be a collection of weapons, of any kind. A rack full of pole arms could be described as a, “battery of arms.” The, “manual of arms,” refers to the operations, functions and manipulations required to effectively run a firearm. So if you hear someone say the former, when they mean the latter, mentally cue that they might not be a great influence. That was a complete non sequitur…but needed to be mentioned. Choose your influencers wisely!

As is my custom, here is a series of photos with captions that further illustrate my message!

You’ve seen this M&P 2.0 (aluminum) COMPETITOR in other pieces I’ve written. It wears a Holosun 407 X3, the newest iteration of the Trijicon RMR Competitor from HS. It is about half the cost of an RMR Type 2. The neutered OEM magazines for this pistol have these holy floorplates that are compatible with the giant magwell that comes on the gun. I don’t like that magwell because it seems to gawdy and huge, and I compete with guns that are, “street carry,” type pieces, generally.
THIS IS the newly released SPRINGFIELD ARMORY 10-8 PERFORMANCE MASTER CLASS that I have equipped with a CHPWS AOS plate and a Trijicon RMR-HD. The gun is otherwise stock. I have been a 10-8 and Hilton Yam fan for a couple decades now, and this gun is a worthwhile investment if you want to get into the 9mm 1911 game. THE ONLY issue I have had with this gun is that the front sight is a bit undersized and it drifted with use. I used red threadlocker from XS SIGHTS to glue it into place, and then I cleaned up the excess. Even Dave Dawson at DAWSON PRECISION recommends using loctite on sights, so I use it pretty much routinely. You use it on your optics, right? So why not the irons? Take care to NOT apply it too liberally as you can actually glue the internals of your gun together, inhibiting function. It pays to know how your gun works, and where the guts of it are. For example, you CAN apply loctite to the front and rear sights of a Smith M&P 2.0 because the striker assembly is under the optic plate. However, on a Smith M&P 1.0, the REAR SIGHT covers the striker block assembly, so if you let threadlocker run into the mechanism, you will glue your striker assembly into place! But back to this pistol…like most of the upper end SPRINGFIELD ARMORY (not the XD and the Hellcat is great if you are a masochist!) products I’ve used, it is exceptionally accurate, and reliable. I use the WILSON COMBAT ETM 9mm magazines, and they work well! And, in a move that should surprise no one, this gun passes the 10-8 FUNCTION TEST with ease! The gun that lands closest to this in performance and feel for me is the Dan Wesson Specialist in 9mm. But more on that later!
The SPRINGFIELD ARMORY Prodigy is a controversial pistol. It is referred to as a, “DOUBLE STACK 1911,” or, “DS 1911,” as the term, “2011,” is a trademark of the STACCATO corporation. So don’t write it or say it unless you want them coming after you, legally. These have been on the market for around 4 years now. I have heard of all of the issues, and I have noticed the cottage industry at improving these with enhancements replacing the MIM parts. This one is stock except for a singled sided ED BROWN safety I had fitted by a gunsmith I had to travel to the far-off planet of Dagobah to visit. Luckily he fitted it while I waited, so I didn’t have to make a return trip. Gunsmiths are RARE in WA, as the government has driven most of them away too. Gee thanks! I rented one of these at the local range, put 250 rounds through it (with one ten round magazine…ouch) and it ran fantastically and I was shocked at how well it shot and it was amazingly accurate. Like, offhand, iron sight groups on a 3″ paster at 25 yards in a dark indoor range. So I bought one. My advice? Look around the internet and you can find the neutered 10 round magazines for around $30 with various specials. They are also very easy to load, and the gun runs fantastically with Federal 147 grain HST’s. I will probably carry this gun or a variation of it when I move back to a free state. It isn’t the best for smaller handed folks, but if you’re half Sasquatch like me, you’ll be just fine! Also, the magazines are all steel, with no plastic boot, and they are simply crimped on the sides to prevent holding more than 10 rounds. They also have enough slack in the spring to allow the full loaded magazine to seat when the slide is forward.
The SPRINGFIELD ARMORY Echelon has garnered interest from law enforcement agencies nationwide lately as the latest version of the, “Glock Killer.” It has a comfortable, yet adherent grip that isn’t abrasive on the skin or the clothes, and it is surprisingly accurate. I am not quite sure how exactly yet, as the slide rails are comically small, and the slide seems to glide atop the pistol with great ease. The optics mounting system is solid, and the back up iron sights (or just sights if you choose to run sans optic) are great, even for old eyes like mine. They are a U-notch rear which some people don’t like but I think they work well, and I have had zero issues with them. I had some optic mounting woes at first that were remedied by the great folks at FREEDOM GORILLA where I buy my pistol mounted optics, plates, screws, etc. Basically the OEM screws that came with the optic were too long for the side of the optic where the striker assembly is, and they impinged on the spring. Now, with the proper length screws I purchased based on the guidance from FREEDOM GORILLA, this thing is AREA 51 accurate, and does everything one needs in a compact package with aplomb. I would carry this pistol without reservation. I have also found it useful for novices, as it is largely devoid of the details, has subdued buttons, switches and distractions that scare away many novice shooters. The ONLY thing on this I would change is I wish it had a single sided magazine release, instead of the ambi one. The slide also has enough cuts/grooves in it that everyone can find something they like grabbing onto to manipulate the slide. I haven’t accidentally dropped the magazine, as the spring that powers it is robust, but I could see it happening. I have a watch on the APEX TACTICAL part (single sided release) and I will buy and install it when I get one!

THANK YOU FOR READING! As always, everything in this piece is owned, and was purchased, by yours truly. And all of this was written by me, on my iPad, without the use of Artificial Intelligence of any kind! If you like my work, please like, share on your social media platforms and subscribe to the feed here so that you never miss an article. I proudly have ZERO social media presence now, so if you are reading this, thank you for your landing here and thank you for reading. -Dr. House

Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

The OLD MAN Shotgun (inspired by Claude Werner AKA THE TACTICAL PROFESSOR)

The Mossberg 590, has been a staple of the Mossberg catalog since the late 1980’s, and it has been in law enforcement and military use for that same time period. The top shotgun is the 590A1 with a Hogue short stock (for scale), and the bottom is the newer Mossberg 590S. The two differ mainly in the fact that the 590S comes with the Bantam (12” LOP stock) and has a receiver cut to accept a, “K-footprint,” or other pistol mounted optic (this is the Holosun EPS with the multi-reticle) and accepts 1.75” short shells, AKA, “mini-shells.” The 590A1 holds eight, 2.75” 12 gauge shells…and the 590S holds up to NINE of the 1.75” mini shells, in a significantly lighter, handier and shorter package than its military brother.

If you look up ANY health problem, no matter how minor, the frequency of occurrence for them increases after age 50, in general. Well, having recently reached that, “milestone,” in my own life, I can tell you, joint pain is real. All of the things I did in my youth, whether related to sports like rugby and BJJ, or my work in public safety and the armed transport industry, coupled with my last twenty years in dental surgery, it is all definitely haunting me now. But luckily I am still healthy, and despite some creaks and crunchiness, I am aging as gracefully as I can.

One thing that I never experienced in my younger days though was rhomboid pain. WOW! It is absolutely awful! In addition to it hurting, it makes extending your arm to shoot a pistol, very difficult and sometimes if the muscles are in spasm, impossible. Shooting a long gun is a bit easier, but with a full house 12 gauge, it can be very in pleasant. (Nobody really describes a 12 gauge in a manually operated shotgun as pleasant, but you catch my drift). So when I saw on Rhett Neumeyer’s DEMONSTRATED CONCEPTS Patreon page that he was using 1.75” mini-shells with great effect in his cheek shotgun platform, I thought it was worth looking into. With the 1.75” shells in #4 buckshot (15 pellet load) and a 1 ounce slug, the recoil appeared to be significantly attenuated, but also, and more importantly, the gun seemed to run well. He also tested the shells in clear ballistic gel, and the results for the slug and #4 buckshot were adequate by FBI Standards.

Twenty years ago, on the TOTAL PROTECTION INTERACTIVE website, when I was about thirty, and Claude Werner was approximately my age currently, he began a post series of what he called, “The Old Man Gun,” which was a defensive handgun configured around the idea of something that was concealable, but also highly usable by someone who has diminished hand strength, dexterity or failing vision. And possibly loading ammunition that is slightly less effective in terms of ballistics but still functions reliably in the gun. When I was driving back from the last range trip, I started to think that an analogous idea could be achieved with a home (or business) defense shotgun. So I set out to equip a shotgun to be easy to use, with a sighting system that takes advantage of my far-sightedness but also works within the confines of my home. Here’s what I came up with.

SHORT SHELLS

The 1.75” 12 gauge, “Mini-Shell,” isn’t anything new. When I was in high school in the 1990’s, I remember a mail-order outfit called, “ADVENTURER’S OUTPOST,” selling them. This same company would later become TACSTAR and their most famous product was probably the, “side saddle,” that bolted to the receiver of Remington 870’s and Mossberg 590’s. These were super popular in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, before the Velcro panels came along and changed the game forever. Somewhere around the early 1990’s, the name changed to TACSTAR and the Adventurer’s Outpost disappeared. Although there is a Disney product/location of the same name, so it wouldn’t surprise me if old Uncle Walt’s lawyers shut the name use down, which necessitated the change in the company name. Nonetheless, they were selling 1.75” shotgun shells in buckshot, Foster slugs and birdshot, all the way back then…so around 35 years now. Federal is making the ones that I use, along with Aguila and a few other manufacturers I have not used yet. The mini-shells offer lower recoil, more tubular magazine capacity (because they are shorter) and until recently, ABHORRENT function. Back then, without significant gunsmith modifications, the guns wouldn’t cycle them well. Mossberg designed the 590S to work with any shell between 1.75” and 3”, and in my testing, it works well.

PROBLEMS (illustrated)

Connecticut designed these to work with the short shells, and they do…
But in a move that should surprise no one, the ejection port is the same dimension as any other 590. Which means that if you drop a 1.75” shell into the open ejection port, you better be damn sure it’s pointing the correct direction. While trying to close the action on a reversed shell will do nothing, it’ll cost you time and cause frustration. Which isn’t what you need when the chips are down. I found that dropping it into the chamber slightly muzzle down before running the slide made sure it fell into the chamber correctly and positively. When racking in subsequent rounds, you should always rack authoritatively and without stuttering/hesitation, and with that, function was 100%. Don’t forget…pump action shotguns are powered by ARM STRONG. If you short stroke a shotgun, it will fail, but that will happen with any shell length.

SNAKES ON A PLANE (and optics on a shotgun)…THEY BOTH SOUND WEIRD TO ME IN THEORY

The optics plate, as it comes equipped from the factory, is retained with two thread locked plates. If you remove this plate, there are two holes that are compatible directly with the, “Holosun K,” size footprint optics, and with some degreasing, drying and then test fitting, installation of the optic is a breeze. As my buddy Rick Remington likes to remind me, “INCH POUNDS SHERMAN!” I haven’t stripped an optic screw yet, but if you are a Conan with a Torx driver, take it easy, and use a torque limiter or a torque wrench of some kind and walk the screw torque to the factory specification!

IN APPLICATION

Like most of you, my shotgun is for home defense. In my home, the farthest shot is about 15 yards, but a few of those would require partially shooting through a 90 degree wall. So 10 yards is about the limit for a straight on shot. I patterned the shotgun, and the results are here:

WOW! Look at the size of those #4 buckshot holes! Not really…this is the patterning with the GOLD STANDARD shotgun loading, the Federal Flite Control 00 Buckshot with the excellent Versa-Tite wad that keeps the shot payload together to limit the spread at distance. From 5 yards, all the way to 20, the EIGHT pellet pattern is well contained into the, “A-zone,” of a USPSA target. I’m happy with that. With the short stock (12” LOP) it is easily controllable and fun to shoot. If you’re a young buck or just don’t want to fiddle with short shells, load the Federal FC 8 pellet 00 buckshot and rock on!
THIS IS the patterning with the Federal 1.75” Mini Shells loaded with 15 pellets of #4 buckshot. As you can see, there is a noticeable difference in pattern size/density/dispersion in the five yards between 15 and 20 yards. Since I plan to use this in the house, I know where to limit my spread to, AND keep the 00 Flite Control in reserve if the NINE mini-shells in the gun are insufficient.
At 20 yards, these five Federal 1.75” slugs were very controllable and flew straight and true. The recoil, despite the slug weighing the same as a 2.75” slug (1 ounce) and traveling along at a brisk 1200 feet per second at the muzzle, is very mild. You could shoot these all day without issue. For walking around in bear and big cat country here, nine rounds of slugs in this 590S would be great anti-predator protection.
At ten yards, with the, “32 MOA CIRCLE,” only reticle of the Holosun EPS, the circle is just as big as the 9-ring of the B8 target, and one round send keeps all 15 of the #4 pellets inside of the 7 ring with the majority (12/15 in the 9 and 10 rings). That’s easy math to calculate in a hurry. Look at the threat, see, “through,” the reticle and press the trigger. BOOM SHUCK SHUCK and repeat as necessary. Remember, as the wise Jedi Master Tom Givens teaches, every trigger press from a shotgun is a SINGLE use of force with (in this case) 15 unique projectiles. This is both a blessing and curse. Not too many threats will withstand a shotgun blast of buckshot at that distance BUT ALSO you must be accountable for every projectile you send. Worry less about over penetration, and worry more about shot placement. Keep the pellets in the threat, whether attacking man or beast.

IN SUMMARY

It seems like only yesterday I was a black haired, svelte 30 year old reading Claude’s OLD MAN GUN articles with academic interest but thinking it wouldn’t apply to me anytime soon. Well, soon is relative. Now, those times are rapidly approaching for me. So I am ready. You won’t catch me ripping off full snort .44 Magnums one handed or .500 S&W’s like I once did, anymore. I got all of that out of my system! Steel frame 1911’s in 9mm, and steel frame M&P’s will be with me for the rest of my days, along with wad cutters in my J-frames and buckshot in my shotgun. While I can use either load in my 590S, you might not be able to. Your wife might weigh 100 pounds, and she would be far better off with the mini-shells. Or maybe you want to take a shotgun class but you just can’t stand the thought of gutting through two days of full power 12 gauge birdshot, buckshot and slugs. Give the mini-shells a try! If it works for you, then you are winning at life. As a medical professional, with decades of experience, I have deduced over time that humans have so much variation across the continuum of normal anatomy and physiology, that what suits one person in terms of function, will not fit another. These issues compound with age, and amassed injuries. So adaptations have to be made. Never stop innovating for yourself…nobody else is going to do it for you!

THANK YOU FOR READING! As always, everything in this piece is owned, and was purchased, by yours truly. And all of this was written by me, on my iPad, without the use of Artificial Intelligence of any kind! If you like my work, please like, share on your social media platforms and subscribe to the feed here so that you never miss an article. I proudly have ZERO social media presence now, so if you are reading this, thank you for your landing here and thank you for reading. -Dr. House

See? I had hair all over most of my head, once. And I would also fire off S&W 500 Magnums at pop bottles that were 50 yards away. And sometimes, I’d even hit them. But now? Now that I rely on my hands for income generation, I would make smarter decisions! Micro damage is cumulative!
Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

REAL MEDICAL EDC and PRACTICAL USE CONSIDERATIONS, with TRAINWITHWILLIS.COM

JONATHAN WILLIS’ RWT (Real World Trauma) kit on the left…THE WILDERNESS (which was my previous pocket carry kit configuration, which has been relatively constant for the past decade or so)

This has been a weird time for those of us in the medical training community. The training community as a whole is in a down turn currently, but the medical training community has had some real challenges lately. Everyone KNOWS that they need medical training, but the desire to actually GET it, is somewhere off the actual, “TO DO,” list. The assassination of Charlie Kirk posed a number of questions to those of us who work in the field about, “WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?” And, “HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THAT?” There isn’t a simple answer however I can say that Charlie’s security team did everything right…unfortunately, when you have a gunshot wound victim who has been shot with a long gun, the BEST thing you can do for them is get them to a surgeon as quickly as possible. No amount of hemostatic gauze, direct pressure, or limb tourniquet application is going to slow the catastrophic blood loss that a long gun GSW (gunshot wound) victim is going to experience. They need emergency medicine and surgery just as quickly as you can.

Pistol wounds? Pistol wounds are another thing entirely.

You’ve probably heard people like Tom Givens say, “Pistols are pop guns. They are relatively low power.” And my colleague and fellow Hospital Dentist (look it up…there are literally dozens of us) Dr. Gary Roberts AKA DocGKR says, “Pistol rounds punch holes. Larger caliber pistol bullets punch larger holes.” The relatively low velocity projectiles that are(under 2200 feet per second) launched from pistols exercise the elastic nature of human tissue which means that the bullet simply cuts a hole, and there is no large scale, fluid upset and tissue damage seen like there is in rifle wounds. Even, “powerful,” pistol rounds with large amounts of kinetic energy behind them, simply create a pressure wave through the elastic tissue that causes it to stretch momentarily, then snap back to its near original shape, save for a tunnel (or hole, as DocGKR says) where the pistol bullet passed through. Even with well designed hollow points, the wounds from pistol bullets can be largely underwhelming.

So what can we carry on our person, daily, to help treat victims of penetrating trauma? Most people immediately think of a tourniquet, and while they’re great, they only work on the extremities…the arms and the legs. People have a torso, a pelvis, a head and in most people, the torso and the pelvis are the biggest anatomical areas of the body. And in some folks, especially here in America, the torso and the pelvis can be absolutely voluminous. If they experience a gunshot wound or other penetrating trauma to those largest areas, a tourniquet, while it does look cool in your instagram photos or worn proudly on your training rig, does NOTHING to help you, help them. However, possessing the right equipment to cover or plug holes in the thorax is important. And my friend Jonathan Willis has come up with a solid and budget friendly system that allows someone to accomplish this in the smallest space possible, whilst still being effective.

THE NEED

I have had the unique experience of having TWO people, on separate occasions, wander into my dental practice seeking medical attention. One had been shot in the face (read about that here) and the other had been shot in the subclavicular (upper chest), bicep and inguinal canal (space between the groin and the upper thigh). The first one was relatively stable, and while the wound was disfiguring, he wasn’t in acute distress. The other patient wasn’t as lucky, as he was suffering from arterial bleeding in the arm, diminished breath sounds from the chest wall injury (most likely he had air and/or blood trapped inside his chest…displacing his lung and hindering its function) and he had some bleeding from his groin injury, although it was not arterial in nature that I could determine. I used a version of the above pictured kit, along with a pair of SOF-T wide tourniquets to treat that man until the police and fire department arrived. I’ve used similar interventions in my years of hospital, reserve law enforcement, and pre-hospital care during my years of service as a fireman and EMT. Of all of those injuries I have treated, you can do a lot with direct pressure and wound packing! But to do either of those interventions, you need to have something to apply direct pressure with (other than your hands) and also something you can pack into the wound(s). Jonathan’s RWT kit accomplishes this with a relatively small and highly portable kit. I’m solidly in, “Dad,” dress mode, which means I can get away with wearing cargo pants or shorts, and this kit fits in either with great ease. It will ALSO fit into the back pocket of blue jeans.

These are the contents of the kit. I’m not going to go through each component and explain to you how they work…that is what training is for! Me explaining each and you getting training on them are two different things. Those that have had training will already understand and those that haven’t had training won’t generally get it without explanation and hands-on, supervised training to ingrain those skills.

THE NEED FOR MEDICAL TRAINING

I taught one of the first, “Civilian Accessible,” medical classes called, “IMMEDIATE ACTION MEDICAL,” back in 2007 for Tactical Response, when the only widely available medical training for civilians was CPR, Red Cross Basic First Aid, or MAYBE EMT/Rescue Squad training, but you had to be a volunteer or professional first responder to get that. I actually trained at Tactical Response with Dr. Spencer Guinn, an orthopedic surgeon who started the STOP THE BLEED curriculum and organization, nationally. The need was there for civilian trauma treatment training. James Yeager requested for me to create curriculum that was vocationally generic, that would work for anyone, from cops to kindergarten teachers, and for people ranging from teenagers to the elderly. The course needed to teach the student how to treat catastrophic blood loss, airway obstruction, and penetrating chest trauma that can lead to a tension pneumothorax. I did as he requested, and over the past twenty years and around 200 classes that I have taught for both Tactical Response and under the CIVILIAN DEFENDER brand, I have heard of about fifty different instances where my instruction helped someone save a life. Those stories make me happy…I am trying to leave this world better than I found it. Now, like many of you, my most precious commodity is my time, and I simply don’t have the time with my busy practice/on-call schedule nor the desire to convince people that they need medical training. They have to come to that realization on their own, and people like Jonathan have FAR MORE patience than I do to convince people that medical training is more crucial than them taking yet ANOTHER carbine course. Carbine courses are fun, I get it, and medical courses (while I try and make them fun) are information heavy. Do you know what isn’t fun? Watching your family or friends die in front of you because they needed bleeding stopped, choke to death on a pork chop, or have a heart attack at the Christmas party! I have seen all of these things happen in my EMS, Fire, LEO, and Hospital Dentist careers, over the past three decades. It is always tragic…you wouldn’t wait for the police to come and solve your existential crisis when someone is trying to kill you with an axe, would you? So why wait for the government to come and save your from a medical emergency? Start the process early! I have used my medical skills literally THOUSANDS of times…as John Farnam is fond of saying, “When it’s least expected, you’re elected.” I seem to get elected several times a year! Sometimes several times a month!

TRAINWITHWILLIS.COM is where you can find Jonathan’s schedule, and his products. Jonathan also stocks flat packed tourniquets, which make carrying them actually on your person, easier.

Branded med supplies WITH his url! GENIUS! Why didn’t I think of that??? This is how the RWT kit comes packaged, along with the flat pack tourniquets. I’m sure it goes without saying at this point, but I purchased these with my own money because I believe in Jonathan’s vision and his implementation is fantastic. Buy with great confidence and get training! If you have training, get more! I have to keep my skills in emergency medical treatment fresh, annually. You should too! It makes you a better asset to humanity, your family, your community and your country.

Check out trainwithwillis.com and see what Jonathan can offer you in terms of training and gear. Tell him that Dr. House sent you!

Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

XS SIGHTS…the best for MY aging eyes

This is the basic/stock S&W M&P 2.0 with the OEM, factory, “tall,” or suppressor height/optic height sights. They’re ok. Most people won’t notice any deficiencies shooting them outside of 10 yards. Closer than that? There is a prominent offset that will send shots BELOW the point of aim. Incidentally for my Washington State readers, this is the EXACT model pistol carried by the Washington State Patrol. If you are so inclined to carry a pistol favored by your local law enforcement, you could do a lot worse than the M&P! So with a 3 dot sight configuration that is tall, when you aren’t mounting an optic, there has to be a better solution. Right?

Like most of you, I got about 74 million emails in the days around Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all the other sales that occur around the holiday season. I deleted most of these EXCEPT for the websites and vendors that were selling some things that I have had on my mind for a time. I had planned on purchasing a number of XS products to upgrade the iron sighting systems on several of my pistols. You will see a number of these write ups. I don’t normally write about products without talking about the accompanying, WHY I like or use that product. You’ll also notice that I don’t write about products I don’t like, because I’m just a dude. Someone else might love what I don’t, and that’s ok. I’d rather be a congratulator than a hater, and since I BUY with my own money, everything that I write about, I am beholden to nobody to provide a quid pro quo, sponsorship, or discount codes.

I have used XS Sights products since 2006, when I first met my friend, the late James Yeager of Tactical Response. I became an instructor for Tactical Response in 2007, and the XS Big Dot was the preferred sighting system of James and thus it was required that his instructors knew about the system, why it existed, and how to teach students (mostly beginners or novice students) to use it. It is a simple system; you put the BIG DOT on what you want to hit, press the trigger cleanly, and deliver the shot. They weren’t target sights; they were not designed for that. They were made for fighting up close, and in force on force training, it was very apparent that many students who were mentally collected could easily focus on the front sight and get hits, while others could remain target focused and STILL see the front sight outline outside of their hard focus and get hits. It was an, “analog,” version of a pistol mounted optic, which in the early 00’s, except for Kelly McCann and a few others (and may surprise you to know, one of them was the late Dr. William Aprill!) were not popular until well after 2015.

XS SIGHTS has continued to evolve and develop more products that work great for everyone, but especially those with aging eyes OR less than perfect vision. If you’ve known me for awhile, you may have noticed that in the past few years, I am rarely seen in public without eyeglasses on. When I was 47 years old, I started to have issues seeing up close and reading without corrective lenses (cheaters or my magnification loupes I wear for performing surgery) on. I went to an optometrist and was prescribed progressive lenses. Luckily, my distance vision is still slightly better than 20/20, but up close, everything is fuzzy. Including iron sights. I am lucky though, because if I close one eye, I can still see enough of the outline of the sights that I can make good hits out to 25 yards on a B8 target. Some sights are more visible than others, and a prominent front sight paired with a rear sight that has visible light around it work best for MY eyes. You MAY have the same visual issues I have. Or you MAY have something else going on entirely. As the old saying goes, “The customer is always right, in matters of TASTE.” What my taste is may not be yours. For personal choices like weapons, holsters, sights, shoes, etc. everyone likes what they like. I figured out early on when as a teenager as I became enamored with the music of AEROSMITH, and I bought their back catalog previous to the album, “Permanent Vacation,” that they didn’t make a solid history of just bangers; some were far better than others. So it goes with guns, holsters, sights, and probably every other choice in the world. I have found a holster that I loved for an M&P say, and then I bought the same model for a Glock 19, and it sucked. It appeared similar in ride height, carriage and weight distribution, but it just didn’t work. Most of us who have been in this industry or hobby for a time have a, “sin bin,” in their garage or storage closet filled with holsters that didn’t work for them, or sights off of guns that just didn’t hit the mark…literally.

I used the site coupon to purchase a number of XS products but I will talk here about two versions of sights for the full size, S&W M&P 2.0 Optic Ready versions. These both are on guns that I have carried, and also used in training classes or tactical competition. They came with the aforementioned, “tall,” OEM sights or these lower profile sights:

This is the 3.6” barreled version of the S&W M&P 2.0 Metal. Essentially a Glock 26 size slide on a Glock 19 sized frame. I’m sure Smith wouldn’t appreciate me using another brand as the benchmark for size comparison, but most people look at you weird if you refer to the Gen 1 M&P that featured a similar sized slide and barrel…because it was made to compete with the Glock 26. Anyway, the OEM sights on this pistol pictured are what Smith ships when they don’t send the, “tall OEM,” sights that will cowitness with an optic, like this:
Back to the 3.6” M&P previously mentioned, you can see the sight picture through the optic has a lot going on. You can see the deck of the optic, a whole mess of white dots and for the front sight to be level in the rear notch, you only see half of the dot. Inside 5-7 yards, not a big deal. Past that distance? You could send a shot astray. I’m not a fan. I spoke about the XS SIGHTS R3D for the optic ready M&P HERE before.

I don’t change much on my pistols. In fact, I leave everything alone except for changing the sights or adding an optic (but not always!). I would rather acquire skill through repetition and practice than try and buy it…I spend the money on ammo! In my experience, nothing wears a pistol’s trigger pull and operation in better than lots of rounds downrange. I really loved the OEM trigger on this basic M&P, and I had a well worn carry gun, another M&P 2.0 Metal that I purchased because that is what my mentor, Tom Givens was using. Both have served me well, and thus I thought it was time to improve the sights with products from XS. So apologies for the long-winded intro, but I like you to know the, “why,” of where I am coming from and not just some BS product, “review.”

These are the XS MINIMALIST sights, which feature a large, tritium vial surrounded by a luminescent ring of plastic that makes the front sight visible in any light. The rear is plan, serrated black metal. They install easily if you have a bench vise, a non-marring punch (like a brass set) and a hammer. The hardest part of the install is getting the OEM sights OFF. Some are tighter than others. Pressing the XS sights into place is accomplished quite easily, and then I use a digital gauge to center them in the dovetail. I then test fire them at the range to confirm their zero as well as coincidence with point of aim/impact.
When my eyes are NOT cooperating, or are tired from looking through magnification loupes all day, hard front sight focus gives me a fuzzy sight picture/movie. But at this distance (5 yards) it will still deliver hits!
And with the bottom part of my progressive lenses working (or with my, “reader,” shooting glasses) this is what I see. A crisp front sight, plenty of light on either side, and the rear sight is nearly centered. A very acceptable sighting system!
These are the XS SIGHTS M&P 2.0 Optic Ready FIBER OPTIC sights. The rear is identical to the MINIMALIST set, but the front is a steel post with a hole drilled to hold a fiber optic tube. Again, the sight movie provided is clean and clear, albeit a bit looser around the front sight with larger light bars. I know…I know. Some folks will bitch about the durability of fiber optic sights. Yes…you can get the gun hot enough to melt the tube out of it. I generally get my guns hot in that I will shoot three magazines in a string. That hasn’t caused me any problems yet. WORSE CASE SCENARIO is that the fiber optic tube falls out, and you’re left with an iron front sight that is of the same exterior dimensions as before, with the same point of impact, just no fiber optic tube. Oh well…life goes on! XS DOES include an additional fiber optic tube if you lose the installed yellow/green one, or if you really want an orange one in its place!
Like before, tired eyes, no glasses, what have you, the front sight is still clearly visible through the deactivated optic. I know some people don’t care about back up iron sights. I’m not one of those people. I have seen and expect mechanical and electronic devices to fail. If the optic fails on a gaming gun, well that sucks you lost your game, but if it fails on a working gun, you better have a plan to go to the BUIS, or have great index shooting skills. All things to consider, but I digress. I really like the simple silhouette of these sights, and like the MINIMALIST version, they are free of frills and give a simple, non-busy sight picture.
There is some visual distortion through the glass, but the front sight is still clearly visible and distinguishable in all of its angular glory. I am very happy with this sight picture. XS recommends that you apply the included VIBRA-TITE compound to the sights to ensure that they stay put. On the optic ready Smith pistols, this isn’t an issue like the 1.0 M&P where there were important guts like the striker block directly under the rear sight. You wouldn’t want anything to leach its way down into that mechanism. These 2.0 versions mount the sights into simple dovetails…the guts of the striker system are under the optic plate now! So apply the thread locker, and clean up the excess. XS SIGHTS is one of the few sight manufacturers out there that not only provides excellent written instructions, but they also have an extensive YouTube channel that includes install videos for all of their products. They also offer an INSTALL SERVICE for those who are not DIY’ers like me that enjoy swinging a hammer around. And you can also phone them if you have found yourself in a pickle and their team of gunsmiths will get you back on track.
The 2.0 with the MINIMALIST sights with five rounds fired at 5, 7, 10, 15 and 20 yards. I slightly adjusted the rear to the right about a hair’s width, and the rest of the process was easy! Of this and the Fiber Optic set, I like the MINIMALIST the best. Also, the hit at 12 O, Clock in the 8-ring is a, “yip,” and is my fault…too much caffeine!
I also really like the Fiber Optic sights, but like I said, in the cave-like environment of my favorite indoor range, the MINIMALIST front is far more visible. I think I will like these Fiber Optic sights more when I can shoot them outdoors in practice. Which, in Washington State, might not ever be, since the Washington State government is doing a bang up job closing most of the outdoor shooting spots. I will buy another set of the FIBER OPTIC sights to put onto one of my other dedicated iron sight guns. This set required no change in windage from the installation, as shown from this B8 group I produced with five rounds fired at 5, 7, 10, 15 and 20 yards.

I have always had outstanding experience with XS SIGHTS. I have used their gear for nearly 20 years now, and I have used their warranty service as well. I use my guns, far more than the average gun owner, and they break! I have lost the, “BIG DOT,” off of the front sights, twice; once on a Glock 19 with about 24k rounds through it, and another set on a S&W Shield (Generation 1) and both were readily replaced by XS with just a phone call. They are good people who like to help other good people! Tell them the Doctor sent you!

Just a reminder, so nobody gets confused, but I paid for these myself, with my own money! I did use the Christmas Season discount that was applied to my cart at checkout. This was all written by me, Dr. Sherman A. House, and NOT AI generated. Thank you for reading and please like, share on social media (I am still and will remain, free from all social media platforms) and subscribe to my feed! Thank you for reading!

Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

WEDGIES, MOUSEGUN WOES, 2011 GRUMBLES, AND MORE LIGHT ON WML’S FOR NORMIES: AAR and A DEEPER DIVE FROM MY LATEST, “THAT WEEMS GUY,” POD APPEARANCE

Here is a pictorial essay (people love photos with captions…thanks social media) and explanations to expound on a few points that Lee Weems and I discussed on his excellent podcast, last Sunday. You can watch this show here. We had a great time and I hope you find something useful from it. Talking through things which I don’t normally get to talk about aloud, for me, is a great way to develop ideas and see if things suck or if they hold water. Of course, immediately after the show, I thought of the things that had escaped me during the recording of the episode, and a few other side conversations with Rick Remington, Tom Givens and Louis Caras made me think of a few other things I would add as addendums, or footnotes to that episode.

Here’s what people don’t think about when they carry mouseguns. A contact shot, even with a small caliber gun, CAN be lethal. But many times, it is not. I have a collection of radiographs like this from my time as the Residency Program Director in a GPR/Hospital Dentistry and when I was an Assistant Professor of Oral Surgery. We saw lots of patients just like this. Our area of somatic responsibility was the floor of the orbits (eyeballs) to the Adam’s apple. If someone had something wrong with that real estate, it ended up in our service. This poor fellow was shot with a small caliber pistol round fired at contact distance. Upon meeting him, it appeared as though he had been in a physical altercation, but it wouldn’t ping my acuity radar immediately as a gun shot wound. For hideout guns, deep carry guns, or back up guns, compromises must be made, yes. But for the majority of regular people, you can probably figure out how to conceal something that is marginally more effective in terms of terminal ballistics. It might just be me, with large-man-hand issues, but I can stop most subcaliber pistols from working well; the moving parts rub on my hands. The exception to this is the Ruger LCP and of course the Smith J frames. If someone REALLY needed a small gun that still had a modicum of effectiveness but also allows for regular practice, I would point them to a Smith Bodyguard 2.0 or a Glock 42. Or a J frame in .32 H&R or .38 Special and a whole bunch of training.
This is the STREAMLIGHT WEDGE, which I jokingly referred to as the, “WEDGIE,” because it was truly a pain in the ass for the man who was using it in a recent lowlight class I was in with Steve Fisher. This was the product I mentioned in the episode that didn’t have enough horsepower to illuminate the target from ten yards away. It was just enough light to give away one’s position. I suppose it would work for reading a map…but how many of you have maps? Most people that I know that have maps, have lights more powerful than this. I’m not a Streamlight hater…quite the contrary. I have used Streamlights for 30 plus years at this point, starting with the SL-20, and I think they are innovative, great products. But this one, while it could be great for utility use, I don’t think it does anything that a iPhone flashlight wouldn’t do. They DO make a 1000 lumen variant now, that I haven’t seen, but that version MAY work. Try before you buy.
WML’s for civilian defenders…I am STILL not a fan. Here’s why…it is hard enough to get people to carry a defensive grade pistol in their daily lives. Think I’m wrong? I can tell you that I have personally seen hundreds of students show up to class with a Ruger LCP/J frame in their pocket, and then they will walk to the line and swap that out for a G19 or similar sized pistol. Adding MORE bulk to a gun doesn’t help. I’ve also seen this at competitive shooting events, and I also see what patients carry daily into my practice. People know I am a, “gun guy,” and they wear their guns proudly in my office, which I support. The, “largest,” EDC pistols I see among my patients are single action revolvers, usually with a 4 5/8″ barrel, and in a caliber useful to the farmer or rancher that is wearing it. These are guns that are tools first, and defensive in nature second. Since we have critters up here that eat people, anti critter guns are helpful. Although most of the guns are used to dispatch wounded/suffering animals. Also, for every Ruger Blackhawk I see, I see 5 Ruger LCP’s and five more Beretta Tomcats tucked into the chest pocket of someone’s bib overalls. Those guns are carried as talismans to ward off evil and they aren’t actually effective for real life applications. Thing two is the most important…you SHOULD NOT be pointing a gun at anyone who is not an existential threat to you. With a flashlight attached to your gun, you are going to use it for what? Positively identifying an existential threat? How will you determine who is an existential threat? Not by shining the light around willy-nilly looking for said threat! Yes…the police do that sometimes, even though it is universally considered to be a bad practice. But as civilians, if WE do something like that, and point a firearm at someone who is not an existential threat, we are breaking the law, and we are going to jail. SO WE CANNOT DO THAT. Get a good handheld flashlight, and learn handheld techniques. You will be less apt to point a gun at someone you don’t intend to shoot and you will be more responsible with your firearm. There will be little ambiguity in real life defensive scenarios as to who is attacking you. You don’t need a WML to confirm your target’s identity at that point. The often repeated trope of, “MOST DEFENSIVE SHOOTINGS take place in darkness,” is complete bullshit. They occur during, “hours of darkness,” which is 6pm to 6am. A lit parking lot, the checkstand of a grocery store or the living room of your house with the lights on, all look about the same at 9pm on a Wednesday night as they do during the day. If I am sitting in the dark, watching TV and someone kicks my front door in, and I have to respond from my recliner, do I need a weapon mounted light to determine who just kicked my door off the hinges? Pretty sure it isn’t the Fuller Brush Man or the Girl Scouts with my Thin Mints! And they’ll be backlit by the solar porch lights I have…your mission is the same. Don’t get confused by the Instagram influencers…they aren’t all positive influences (hat tip to Tom Givens on the, “hours of darkness,” and if you don’t know what I am talking about you better train with Tom before he retires).
One more shout out to Tom Givens…I mentioned on Lee’s show that I remember when Tom switched from a 1911 to a Glock 35, but I couldn’t recall exactly all of the specific details (it seems like it was recent but it was probably around 2007) so I asked Tom for clarification. He said,“Tired of being an armorer on 1911. Change springs, tweak extractor, check extractor, tweak extractor again, change extractor. On a Glock, change the recoil spring every 5,000 rds. Rock on. Twice as many BB’s. Pound lighter.” So that makes better sense. With these 2011 guns, they have aluminum or polymer frames, they hold lots of ammo (10 plus one in my case) and they SEEM to run better than my .45 ACP 1911’s. and after about 10K between the two guns, I have yet to require anything other than a recoil spring change at 5K, even though it didn’t suffer any ill effects with a broken in spring. So while it may be a, “phase,” chasing competition wins and building platform proficiency, I will still keep on working with these. Our ancestors and the giants upon whose shoulders we stand knew a thing or two about defensive pistolcraft and the sliding trigger of the 1911 is a great tool, if you know how to use it. I’ve tried other SAO guns like the Beretta 92’s and the SIG P220’s and the hinging trigger versus the sliding trigger just don’t work the same. Your mileage my vary…as well as your budget of time and money. I get where Tom is coming from. If I was still teaching all the time, I would want the simplest solution I could find. In my current station in life, I have lots of time to fiddle and futz with projects. With all that said, I like the Stealth Arms Platypus.

One other mousegun addendum. Craig Douglas’ curriculum on the PCP (Patterned Compliance Pistol) favors a small, flat gun you can keep in your back pocket. You can feign compliance in a robbery attempt until it is time to go to a kinetic solution and deliver contact distance shots. A gun like this would work for that. But for about everything else aside from an interesting piece of micro machinery that also fires .22 LR or .22 Magnum bullets, its utility is dubious. The stocks are made by Hamre Forge and they’re the safest way I can actually handle one of these. I make lots of money with my hands, so I would use a Ruger LCP (the old one) in this PCP role. But again, that’s a niche, hideout gun for a dedicated defensive purpose.
I teased that I was working on piece on the Jeff Cooper Scout rifle concept and practical rifles in general. I found a Grail gun I’ve wanted for a long time, which is the original Scout rifle that Colonel Cooper had in mind, which is the Remington Model 600 Mohawk in .308 Winchester. So we will see how it works out. It’s the lightest of the Scout type rifles I own so far!

THANK YOU FOR READING…if I think of anything else worthwhile to say, you’ll be the first to know! Please like, share on your social media and subscribe to my channel so that you don’t miss anything. WordPress and most of the internet has done a fantastic job of either burying or down throttling the views on defense related content, so as long as my seven regular readers keep tuning in, I’ll keep writing! Be careful out there, and stay alert.

Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

The Civilian Need for WML’s: the home defense handgun. A Use Case Primer for ENTHUSIASTS

This is the S&W 5” M&P 2.0 Metal Competitor in 9mm. XS R3D Suppressor Height Sights, Holosun 507 Comp, Streamlight TLR-1. Although called the competitor, the trigger pull breaks at 5.0 pounds, tested with my LuluAir Trigger Pull Scale.

In my recent piece on Steve Fisher’s Lowlight class, I spoke about the use cases for the regular civilian needing a weapon light. The cases were when you may only have one hand to operate your home defense weapon, because you have a small child or someone who will require one of your arms to move or defend, or if you only have one arm/hand to use! Maybe you just had shoulder/hand surgery? Any of these scenarios can necessitate alteration of gear to meet the demands of the situation (“Mission drives the gear train!” -Pat Rogers, RIP) that you may find yourself in. There are compact lights, smaller than the TLR-1 I pictured here, but again, the use/utilization is the issue I have. See the article I linked for an explanation of that argument.

5” guns aren’t GIANT, they’re roughly the same size as the venerable 1911 pistol in its original configuration. This gun, being a double stack, striker-fired 9mm, is thicker in the slide than a 1911, but not overly so. The trick with 5” guns is concealing them in normal people clothing, but it CAN be done. But that’s not an issue for the case I am talking about here. I carried a pistol similar to this, as a commissioned Reserve Peace Officer in Tennessee for several years (M&P 1.0 4.25”). Optics weren’t widespread in LE like now, especially in Appalachia, but I DID use a WML. But like I talked about in the article, on-duty LEO’s have a different job than regular folks, and it is important to know the distinction.

HOME DEFENSE

The classic home defense situation is the, “bump in the night.” You hear something strange, novel, and it cues you to either investigate, or at the very least, verbally challenge the noise to find out what it is. Hopefully it isn’t a black bear, like this poor gent. But with a pistol mounted WML, and no handheld, because you are in a sling for a surgery following a labrum tear, you may find yourself verbally challenging something at the end of your hallway, or the foot of your bed, hypothetically. Now, the laws of your jurisdiction may vary, but in mine, an unauthorized and uninvited guest to your home is there illegally, and if they are there for nefarious purposes, lethal force could be legally permissible to be used in a case of self-defense. But how do you do this, without muzzling the unknown source, who COULD be a burglar, but COULD also be your child who snuck out to go howling with their friends and you caught them sneaking back in. But my arm is in a surgical splint and sling, so how do I illuminate the unknown threat (it’s a threat at this point, because it didn’t respond to the verbal challenge and we STILL DON’T know who it is…yet) without pointing a gun at a loved one (RULE TWO: Never allow the muzzle to cross anything you are not will to destroy) and because you live in the sticks, the power is out, and you can’t just do the super un-cool Dad trick and turn the dang hall light on!

With my finger off of the trigger and in register, the gun is at a one-handed (I’m injured, carrying an infant, etc.) TRUE low ready position. The secondary spill of the Streamlight is good in this version and even though the gun isn’t pointed directly at the unknown threat, I can see it is SHOOTSTEEL Steve, and I didn’t invite him here. It doesn’t take a vast amount of time to go from the low ready to gun on target, aimed in and/or pressing the trigger.

FOR MANIPULATIONS

Although my current state outlaws standard capacity magazines, having MORE than ten rounds in the pistol would be preferable. Not because you need to shoot more, but because you would need to reload LESS. If you are in your skivvies, or buck naked like most people who are sleeping are, you probably don’t have your EDC gear or your battle belt on. Ok, some of you true believers maybe sleep in the nude with a battle belt on, but I assure you, once you find a romantic interest, that’ll change! If I could use a 17 round standard capacity magazine or even larger, I would! A secondary effect of having tall sights and/or an optic is that you can rack the slide using the sights or the optic as a hook, to gain mechanical advantage, even with one hand.

OPTICS, SIGHTS AND LIGHTS

I like Holosun optics. I have seen every major brand of optic fail in classes that I have attended or taught, including Holosun, Aimpoint, Trijicon, Vortex and I’m sure some others I am forgetting. I also OWN all of those same makes of optics, and I use them with confidence. Pistol mounted optics (PMO’s) are an enthusiast’s tool; for my normy friends that want the Toyota Tacoma of guns, I would recommend a stock M&P or Glock 19, put on some sights or modify the OEM to something you can see, and press on. If they want a PMO, that’s going to require MORE training AND more maintenance than they are willing to give, so be wary. But many of the malfunctions I have seen were due to install errors, poor surface prep, under torqued screws, over-torqued screws that broke, or batteries not being changed. I change my carry gun batteries, as well as my handheld light’s batteries in November at Daylight Savings time day. Your day may be your birthday, New Year’s Eve day, whatever you like!

This is the Holosun 507 Comp and the, “Comp,” stands for, “competition,” but it really is Holosun’s response to the also popular Trijicon SRO. I like the big window, and for civilian defender duties, an open emitter, if you are an enthusiast who keeps your gear maintained, is fine. I remember my buddy Jeremy Horton, of Horton Knives, world famous blade smith, once said that he didn’t like to use stainless steel in his blades because he can get a better edge with carbon containing steel AND he feels like a person who uses his knives for serious purposes has the duty to inspect their knife and care for it regularly, so that it doesn’t rust, regardless of the environment it is in! Makes sense! Although this optic has about 6 or 8 different reticle options, I use the 2 MOA dot, which looks great to my eye, and is easy to pickup on presentation.

For iron sights, the competitor comes with low mount, or standard height, fiber optics. While they are great if you are just running irons, with a dot, they are too low. So I opted to replace them with the XS RD3 Suppressor height sights.

With the WML activated and the dot overpowered, the front sight is crisp and clear with the XS SIGHTS R3D. The rear sight face is finely serrated to reduce glare and minimize marring from getting bonked up.
In low light environments (it is far darker than my IPhone depicts here) the tritium vials of the XS R3D sights are QUITE visible and the front sight, with the tritium vial AND the glowing green halo around it, definitely appear brighter than the rear dots. If my optic had died, you would see one less green dot! It would be hard with this many landing lights present to NOT have the slide of the pistol oriented in the direction of the threat! XS makes a great product, and Monte Long, the CEO is a competitor and defensive shooter himself who actually trains (that is an unusual thing in the defensive gun industry, believe it or not) and XS continues to make innovative products. The R3D’s can be installed by your gunsmith but if you are in an area like mine where gunsmiths are extinct, you can install it with a bench vise, a brass punch set and a mallet. With all of the M&P series, the front and rear sights are mounted in dovetails, and they usually come from the factory in a centered condition, although I have a had a few that were as much as 1/8” off center. When I install these, I check my math with a set of calipers AND my calibrated eye. I’m fortunate that I work in a trade that values precision and my eye can recognize asymmetry fairly well. Their rear sight has a set screw that you can turn down, and then loctite after you’ve confirmed your zero. Unlike the non-optics ready versions of the M&P, the CORE versions have JUST the dovetail where the rear sight lives; there are no access ports to the striker plunger like in the previous pistols. So no worries about gumming up your gun’s inner workings with loctite!

Like optics, I have seen Streamlight and Surefires fail too, so choose whatever you like. I dig the switchology for the TLR-1 series and I upgrade the activation paddles with the Emissary Paddle Shifters. You may like the OEM switches, but they offer upgrades for the Streamlight TLR-1 and TLR-7 series, as well as the Surefire X300 series.

STORING AND TRANSPORTING YOUR HD GUN

If you keep your gun in a quick access safe or however you store it, I think it is advisable to have something covering the trigger guard. It’s a striker-fired gun, so if you press the trigger with enough force, it will fire. To lessen the chances of an unintentional discharge, holstering this big whammer requires a special holster, called a, “LIGHT BEARING HOLSTER,” and many of the popular manufacturers make them. They run the gamut in so many colors and styles, you take your pick! My favorite comes from the Hauptman’s of PHLSTER. In addition to being true MASTER’S of concealment, the Hauptman’s are also technical innovators and I use their gear daily, and have for about a decade now.

This is the PHLSTER Floodlight 2 and like all of PHLSTER’s products, it shows a ton of thought and innovation into what makes a holster truly useable. Before I had the Floodlight 2, I used the original Floodlight to wear my duty gun from my home to the police station, instead of wearing my duty rig in my truck and destroying my seat! With my duty sidearm concealed under a shirt jacket or flannel, I could stop and get fuel, or move about and just look like fella in a flannel shirt and black cargo or khaki pants, and no one is the wiser…and my truck seats don’t get a hole in them! For the sheer size of this holster, and it is NOT small, it is actually very comfortable AS LONG AS you are tall enough to have enough room between your belt and where the end of the holster rides. It may or may not work for you. I am 6’4” and it is right at the upper limit of size for what I can comfortably use and conceal under normal human clothing. Now that I am no longer in law enforcement (the reserve program was discontinued) I don’t leave the house with a WML attached to my pistol. But I DO keep the gun pictured here IN this Floodlight 2. And if I ever went to the cinema with Greg Ellifritz, I would probably wear this so we could both have WML’s since teamwork makes the dream work, when you have two capable individuals in one place! Also, I LOVE using ORANGE anything for my safety equipment! I also like the University of Tennessee…

IN CLOSING

Another benefit of a 5” gun is you get a pistol that recoils minimally when fired with one hand, and tracks back to target without a tremendous amount of steering. Had I included this caveat piece in my original essay on Steve’s class, it probably would’ve had even fewer views than usual, because articles that exceed 3000 words, well, they are only read by the ENTHUSIASTS. Try as I might, I have never been a TLDR (too long, didn’t read) guy. But who would want a Doctor that performs surgery on people’s heads and mouth’s to be a person that doesn’t read the directions? I sure wouldn’t! Being an, “enthusiast,” isn’t a bad thing…I remember when I first started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, people would call the students who weren’t competitors or full time martial artists, “enthusiasts,” in a pejorative way. Like somehow the people who had to go to their normal jobs the next day were somehow less than their full-time martial artist counterparts. By merely accepting the responsibility and burden of maintaining your own personal security, outside of the requirements of your chosen profession, you are an enthusiast. Don’t be ashamed to be called an, “enthusiast,” by some of the, “professional,” gun toters out there who look at us in the armed civilian community as, “less than.” And most of all, keep on pursuing your studies and your practice with zeal and enthusiasm, YOU BIG ENTHUSIAST!

THANK YOU FOR READING! Please, like, share on your social media feeds, and subscribe to my RSS feed here so you don’t miss any of my posts. Social media and even google itself does a fantastic job of down throttling pro-gun media sources, so we have to get the message out somehow! -Dr. House

Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

The Goldilocks Revolver; AKA the 3” Medium Frame Carry Revolver

Ask anyone who, back in the days of Yore, carried a revolver in some professional capacity, and they will tell you that the cognoscenti of the era often preferred the 3” revolver over the longer 4” or 6” barreled guns that were used in a patrol capacity, or the 1 7/8” or 2” guns that were used by plainclothes or off-duty officers. You get the benefit of more barrel to burn powder, which gives a higher muzzle velocity but less muzzle blast, and more sight radius, without a tremendous amount of bulk that the larger guns inherently possess.

Now, in the, “Revolver Renaissance,” there are more and more people and companies who are recognizing the utility and benefits of using a 3” barreled gun. Whether for everyday carry purposes, for a nightstand gun, or just plain fun, the 3” guns are useful.

For this essay, I decided to take three popular 3” revolvers that cover the gamut from modestly priced to exorbitantly priced, and shoot them with HIGH DESERT CARTRIDGE COMPANY jacketed wadcutters (my home base indoor range only allows jacketed or plated/coated bullets). I used, “THE TEST,” that was created by Ken Hackathorn years back and popularized about 15 years ago by Larry Vickers, who commented that he felt it was a good indicator of skill with a pistol. After I shot 3 iterations of THE TEST, I fired 3 iterations of Tom Givens’ OLD WEST CARD TEST (shot on regulation sized playing cards). Along the way here, I will tell you about these revolving pistols, and what they do and do not do well in my hands.

FIRST, THE COMPETITORS

PASS. The Manurhin MR73 in .357 Magnum (although this test was exclusively was exclusively .38 Special). If you have $3500 and are looking for a good time and adventure, I recommend international travel. But if you want to stay at home instead, Beretta USA is the importer for the MR73 now, and they will gladly sell you one. A point worth mentioning…you will see that the shot cluster of 5 rounds in the Tom Givens, “Card Trick,” (5 rounds, 5 seconds, 5 yards) are balled up at the top of the card. I adjusted the POI after the drills, to get it dialed for the .38 load. I will switch it back to the excellent 158 grain .357 Magnum XTP loading that HIGH DESERT CARTRIDGE COMPANY loads, for its next outing. I don’t carry it often, but mostly because like Tom Givens is fond of saying, “I don’t ride a horse to work or make calls on a telegraph either. Better technology exists.” But for fun, pure accuracy purposes, or competition, it works! It’s also cool to note that this gun was created as a souped up version of the S&W K frame to digest a steady helping of full bore 158 grain .357 Magnums and for the noble purpose of slaying terrorists, following the mayhem that took place at the Munich Olympics in 1972. The grips on this gun, “Trausch grips,” were designed by a GIGN counter terror operative (whose surname was Trausch), and were manufactured until his death in/around 2012. I have two other pairs that are on K frame revolvers of mine, and they are fantastic for fighting guns because they direct the recoil forces of the Magnum rounds into the hand effectively and dampen recoil, even with hot magnum rounds. Yes…they look interesting but trust and believe that their beauty is in the eye of the dude holding this thing. It is truly the Swiss Watch of revolvers!
PASS. The Colt King Cobra .357 Magnum. Again, only .38 Special for this essay. This isn’t to be confused with the Colt King Cobra of the previous century, which was a medium frame (V-frame) revolver on par with the Colt Trooper revolver. This version of the Colt King Cobra was released in 2019 as a reintroduction with the same name, but not as the same product. This was considered a, “reinterpretation,” by Colt. I happened up on this piece in the used case and thought it was interesting, because I had an email conversation with Tom Givens about the newer Colt revolvers (Tom is a long-time Colt revolver user) and his thoughts on them. The price was right and I had store credit! I removed the tacky Hogue Monogrips, which while feeling fine, were too grabby for concealment purposes, and I had a custom set of BADGER grips made for them from Goncalo Alves, my favorite wood species for handgun stocks. Some people love cocobolo, some love walnut, but I love Goncalo Alves. I blame my Uncle’s PD issued Model 19 that he used to keep on top of the refrigerator when my Aunt would babysit my brother and I. I would stare at that gun and I liked the look of the wood. I also like the appearance of well-oiled bowling alley lanes, which sometimes looks similar. This gun comes with an OEM brass bead, that is the middle-aged and old guys’ trick for a good front sight material that grabs the eye in any light and lets you know it’s there.
PASS. The Taurus 856 Executive. I first became aware of this gun at Chuck Haggard’s POCKET ROCKET class I took a few years back. Chuck had a copy that I believe Caleb Giddings (of Taurus USA) had sent him to evaluate. Besides the Colt Python-esque stocks that came on the revolver, I liked it. It shot a little low with anything that wasn’t in the 125-130 grain range, which isn’t what I keep on hand for .38’s. I have maintained a supply of Hornady Critical Defense 110 grain FTX, Federal 158 grain LSWCHP and 148 grain wadcutters from various manufacturers. Wadcutters used to show up around the start of competition season (Spring) and then they’d disappear, until smaller manufacturers like High Desert Cartridge Company, Georgia Arms and Buffalo Bore started making them widely available. I replaced the OEM stocks with these VZ GRIPS wrap around type that cover the backstrap. I have yet to find a VZ revolver grip that I don’t like. They work very well and the fit, regardless of vintage for my Smith guns, is fantastic. I ALSO replaced the front sight (which I mentioned shot low) with an XS brass front sight, that features a brass version of the same diameter of their fiber optic front sights. So you get the benefit of the large, gold bead. Of the three guns, this Taurus is the least expensive, but it still runs around $500 in today’s market.

THE TEST

So just to review, “THE TEST” is preferably shot cold. Meaning no warm-up. From ten yards, and from the TRUE low ready (the gun pointed in front of where the feet of the target would be) the goal is to shoot SIX rounds, in SIX seconds or less, and then score the target appropriately. “Proficient,” is considered 90% or better. The non-revolving pistol version is shot from ten yards as well, but TEN rounds are fired, and the par time is TEN seconds. Easy enough? Try it! Let me know how you fare!

FAIL. I blew the par time by 0.08 seconds. Just EEKED by on score at 90%.
FAIL. Blew the par time by 0.26 seconds BUT hit the points at 91.6%.
FAIL. Good on time, low on points…for only 86%.

THOUGHTS

These are all good guns. Shooting iron sights is tough…now that I am soundly in middle age (50 y/o) I have discovered that the preaching I have heard from Tom and others of, “SIGHTS YOU CAN SEE,” which I really used to take for granted, is a problem now. Three years ago I started to wear progressive corrective lenses. I had LASIK surgery 20 years ago, and since then I have had 20/10 distance vision, which I still have. But I cannot read or see print clearly on my phone inside about 3 feet without glasses. Pretty normal problems for middle aged people from what I understand talking to my peers. The problem with progressive lenses is that up close, unless I look WAY up, with my neck hyper-extended, through the bottom half of my glasses, the front sight is not clear. The target, is crystal clear though when my head is neutral. So, when Tom says, “Get the gun up at eye level, look at the bumpy things on the top of the pistol and press the trigger to deliver effective rounds on target.” So this still works…it just doesn’t work as well as the old days for me when the front sight was CRYSTAL clear. I can say that the gold bead DOES make a difference, as does the bright fluorescent red paint pen on serrated front sights. Everyone has a spectrum of eyesight conditions and you will have to find what works for you!

I blew THE TEST with the revolvers. With pistols, especially pistols with red dots, I can smoke it consistently shooting it clean or down a point or two in the 6-7 second range. With 6 seconds, time is tight!

HIGH DESERT CARTRIDGE COMPANY (HDCC)

I am consistently impressed with HDCC and Steve Shields, the owner. They are semi local to me in WA State, and I like to support local businesses when I can. I use a GARMIN Chronograph at the range to collect data and this is what I found, firing a five round string from each revolver:

Click on each table…

As you can see, in terms of velocities from each of the different revolvers, the numbers are similar. The recoil impulse in all three guns was very mild and tolerable. I fired a total of 100 rounds through the three guns in one session, and my hands still felt great afterwards. Ignition reliability was 100%, and the cases were nickel plated and ejected after firing with ease. The round I used is here and has a published velocity of 725 feet per second. I have more of this round on hand, and I like it!

Steve also makes a 148 grain poly coated SOLID base wadcutter that is slightly slower at 715 feet per second. I will get some of those next, and test them the same way, with THE TEST and the CARD TRICK.

FINAL THOUGHTS

IF I SHOT these same drills again tomorrow morning, I may pass all six of them. I find that as soon as I take my timer out of my bag, my performance is either awesome, or not quite! I DO notice that the more I use that timer though, the less that BEEP shocks me, and the more I react appropriately and in the right alignment to send my shots straight and true. If I sit down and shoot slowly, at a 3” circular paster, these rounds all shoot POA/POI out to 20 yards. That works!

Oh she’s a beut Clark! Manurhin MR73
I have a new found respect for the current vintage Colt products. All of the Colt revolvers of recent vintage I have used are smooth, feel very solid and work well. I have tested this King Cobra, the Cobra and the Viper. I like them all. Oh…the Badger grips, I opted for the, “remove palm swells,” and, “relieve for speed loader,” options. They cost a few bucks more, and although I don’t often use speed loaders for my .38/.357 small frames, I might in the future.
The Best Buy option…the Taurus 856 Executive!
This is the Barranti Leather holster (Direct Line CCR) I use for the King Cobra currently. The wait is not awful for custom leather, and the work is beautiful. The cylinder is held quite firmly and like the revolver holsters of the old days (that often had exposed trigger guards) folks tended to see the exposed trigger and freak out; not realizing that the cylinder is gripped so strongly that the cylinder can’t rotate, and thus the revolver won’t fire! Who would’ve thought?
The MR73’s current home, an OWB classic rig with a thumb break from AE Nelson. Before Safariland made the 6280 style, thumb deactivated bale that largely supplanted the thumb break in duty holsters, the thumb break WAS state of the art for a long time. The draw stroke requires that you take your firing grip whilst using your thumb as a wedge to unsnap the holster and then draw the revolver. It isn’t done as a, “establish grip, flick the thumb break AND THEN draw.” The breaking of the thumb break (oh that’s too many times to say, “thumb,” “break,” and, “thumbreak”!) is PART of the draw stroke, not a separate phase. One of my pet peeves was seeing my peers in uniform wearing thumb break rigs with the snap open, for, “quicker access.” If you bring a gun to the fight, it is, “everyone’s gun,” and if you don’t know how to defend it, someone COULD take it from you and remove that decision possibility from your choice tree, completely. Also, the thumb break keeps the gun in the holster, which means that running around, exiting a vehicle quickly, et cetera, means that your revolver will be where you left it last, when you need it.
This is the SIMPLY RUGGED El Dorado with Border Stamping for the Taurus 856. I simply, bucket style OWB hip holster. I HAVE worn this AIWB when I have had occasion to, while driving extensively. It’s relatively inexpensive and Rob Leahy and his crew do fantastic work.

THANK YOU FOR READING! Please, like, share on your social media feeds, and subscribe to my RSS feed here so you don’t miss any of my posts. Social media and even google itself does a fantastic job of down throttling pro-gun media sources, so we have to get the message out somehow! -Dr. House

Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT: MY THOUGHTS INSPIRED BY LOWLIGHT HANDGUN WITH STEVE FISHER OF SENTINEL CONCEPTS

Yeah…I’ll probably get laughed outta the room but my HD shotgun doesn’t have a light on it. This is how my room looks if the door got kicked open by someone, and I have my lights on, with my shotgun aimed at the door. More on this later…
This is a class photo from the, “lights out,” portion of the class…”sarcasm,” is on the gear list for this course!

When I look back at the ~11 years I have been writing for my own site, and for the previous ten or so years I wrote for print publications and for Tactical Response, I would write AAR’s and reviews for classes that were comprehensive. They were more of a, “notes from class,” summary. As I’ve been in the training lane for about 30 plus years now, and in the higher education field as a student and as a Medical University Professor for about half of that 30, I have a pretty good grasp of education. It isn’t novel for me to take additional continuing education in a variety of fields, whether those have been related to firearms training, surgery, medicine, dentistry, pharmacology, forensics or philosophy classes these days that are more geared towards my vocation. So now, instead of vomiting up a list of, “First we did this, then we did that, then they said this, then they said that,” I thought it would be more interesting for both of us (me writing this, and you, the one person who will read this far) to hear about what Steve’s teachings illuminated for me or inspired me to do, STOP doing or think more about. And then relate it all back to my professional experience as a shotgun messenger, reserve peace officer AND professional second responder in the fire service/EMS AND in my current capacity as an average schmuck who has taken many hours worth of civilian sector disaster preparedness, self defense and martial arts training.

Steve is an engaging lecturer. I enjoy hearing people speak who have done this for a long time, and have taught so many classes that they can tell you what they are conveying from the level of their unconsciousness…it is much more exciting for the student to hear than a monotone speaker who is humorless and boring. I’ve sat through a few lowlight classes over the past three decades, and this is a good one.
Years ago, circa 2007 I was working for James Yeager and we were revising Tactical Response’s lowlight curriculum, I first heard the phrase, “using light as concealment.” Meaning, “a cone of light,” so bright, it can act as temporary concealment for the caster and that it causes the recipient of the beam to be blinded, disoriented and hopefully rendered ineffective even if only for a short interval of time, to allow the defender to either deter the attacker, scram in a safe direction, or give the defender time to either draw their weapon or refine their sight movie/press shots. At the time, we had what felt like the LIGHT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT itself, but it was probably 300 lumens, and maybe about 7000 candela. Not very bright, nor powerful…the idea had potential, the gear, at the time did not. This is Steve’s primary light, which I believe is some iteration of the MODLITE handheld. It is BRIGHT!
BUT NOW? NOW, WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY. This looks like it was taken in bright sunlight…it was not. It was taken in a lights off, indoor range. Yes…the range, 25 yards up-range of where we are is lit up with indoor florescent lights, but their impact WAY down here was minimal. This was painful to look at with adapted vision. My buddy Rick Remington, the class host, was smart enough to look away! This was from a NITECORE flashlight, which many of the LEO’s in attendance used as a backup light, attached to their vest or mounted in a carrier in some fashion. This isn’t necessarily to be used as a personal light, meaning one you’d use for general utility use, but in a LEO context, more like a MOBILE TAKEDOWN LIGHT or a LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE LIGHT for the Civilian Defender. I bought one, and when I am walking on the sidewalk at night for recreation/exercise, I have it clipped to my shoulder on a short lanyard, so that it is available rain or shine, and can go right in to the neck index. Interestingly, it is so bright, the secondary beam when you use it in the neck index position causes the transition lenses in my eyeglasses to transition…even though I am technically, “in the dark”.
My hallway when lit only by the nightlight and the red light from the bathroom…I’m backlit by the reflection of my big screen television.
And the light from the NITECORE EDC 37 which is 8000 lumens and SO BRIGHT that it looks like the light in the head and the nightlight are off, which they are not!!! Yes…the 8000 lumen setting gets hot, and yes…it isn’t sustainable indefinitely. It sucks a lot of juice and if the heat sinks in the light get oversaturated, it will need a moment to cool before it can activate at 8000 lumens, again. It isn’t cheap, but for my backup flashlight to my Surefire Stilletto PRO, it is useful.
The NITECORE EDC 37 is slightly larger than the Surefire Stiletto Pro, but a bit thicker. The clip is fixed though, and because of arrangement of the electronics, it cannot be reversed like the Surefire product.
Yes…we are still using the Harries Flashlight technique 50 years later. Why? Because it works! Although weapon mounted lights were used in the class, the handheld was required and after awhile, you can understand why. More on that later. We also went over the modified FBI technique and the neck index. They all serve different purposes and have differing applications.
I used a STEALTH ARMS PLATYPUS 2011 pattern 9mm pistol, that uses Glock 17 magazines. I ran Magpul magazines (the neutered 10 rounders) without issue. This gun took 6 months to be delivered, as they are made one at a time. It has been utterly reliable, and I feed it High Desert Cartridge Company 147 grain TMJ and also the 147 grain XTP that it shoots very accurately and controllably with. The High Desert Cartridge Company ammo has consistently chronographed from my guns with amazing consistency, even box to box and round to round. More on HDCC and Stealth Arms another day. The holster is DARK STAR GEAR’s excellent ORION for the 2011 pattern pistols. It works with Platypus’ that have a standard 1911 type dust cover, as well as the extended and the railed dust covers. Having a holster that conceals AND affords a full firing grip is a slippery slope. I’m not a small man, and getting my knobby knuckles onto the front strap of the gun and not knocking into my belt is challenging with some guns and some holsters. I have THREE copies of the DSG Orion for 2011 and 1911’s so you could say that I am a fan!

FOR THE NORMAL FOLKS…

As my mentor Tom Givens is fond of saying, “Many lethal force encounters take place during the hours of darkness…NOT necessarily in low light conditions. I have seen the sights of my pistol better at 11pm under the lights of a filling station than I have on some sunny days.” As I’ve learned doing this writing thing over the years, if Tom Givens said it before, just quote it and move on! I can’t say it any more succinctly than Tom can! The Surefire Stiletto Pro that I carry as my EDC utility light CAN be used in any of the techniques we used in class (in fact, that IS what I used for the class, along with my old police issue Streamlight STINGER and my Streamlight SL20, which I left in my range bag because I was embarrassed for anyone to see it in its 300 lumen glory AND because it was older than most of the LEO’s in the class!

So, building on Tom’s case of the hypothetical gas station robbery, that may take place on the fueling pad by the gas pumps, why do you need a light? If it’s nighttime and there is plenty of ambient light to be seen by the badguys, but can also see them. Outside the penumbra of fueling pad cover, you may need a direct beam flashlight to see what’s out there. But why are you worried about what’s out there? The dude trying to rob you is in front of you or to the side/rear of you. Again, no light required. Many of the EDC crowd that advocate weapon mounted lights (WML) for regular folks (I am NOT talking about on-duty LEO’s or military folks here) say that they need a WML to be able to ID a target. How much more positive identification of a target do you need? If the dude is going to rob you or carjack you, he is going to be close enough to touch you or close enough to verbally communicate with you. Again, no light required for that…you’ll know who is speaking to you or attacking you.

When I worked in the armored truck industry, there were guys that started carrying Glock lights (the old incandescent models) and the USP light. WML holsters were nylon, very crude and almost completely lacked retention. They sure thought they looked cool though! One overlooked thing about openly carried duty guns most lay people don’t think about is that hip carried duty guns get beat up. Our proprioception doesn’t work well for something that is carried on our hip, outside of our peripheral vision, that sticks out 3-4” further than the rest of the side of our body. So that duty gun is constantly getting whacked into door frames, steering wheels, cargo, etc. One of my coworkers actually LOST his Glock 22 from one of these low quality holsters and didn’t even realize it was gone, until the gun had been spotted on the street by some bystander who called the Seattle PD to report that it was missing. The culprit? A crappy holster. The point? Carrying a WML in the rig at the time, didn’t help him. WML utilization for an armored truck guard is the exact same as it is for a normal citizen. They do not have any enforcement powers, so a light, outside of a handheld, isn’t necessary nor prudent.

My argument is that WML don’t have utility for normal civilians outside of a dedicated home defense gun, and even then, I’d say there is nothing a handheld can’t do that a WML can OTHER THAN BE OPERATED with one hand. If you have a baby or a loved one who is immobile and you have only one hand to spare, a pistol with a WML and a pressure switch would be useful. The only other application that MAY hold water for the civilian is from my buddy Greg Ellifritz who uses a pistol with a WML when he goes to the movie. For him, that makes sense. I’m a movie snob…I like sitting in the back row, right under the projection window, dead center, and I will often buy the seats next to me so I don’t have to sit next to anyone else. I personally would be more concerned with the prospect of making a 100% accurate long range shot from the back row of the theater than I would be worried about positively ID the person shooting. But Greg is much more fun than I am, and he probably wouldn’t walk out of the movie theatre like I would if he couldn’t get the seat he liked, so for that, I support the big man’s choice to use a WML for that purpose! In most theaters, if the screen is on, even in dark scenes, anyone who is low (around the screen and fire exits underneath/behind the screen) will be backlit.

The issue that many people in the EDC community overlook and run off of the flawed reasoning of, “the DEVRGU use the blah blah WML and I do too!” Is that the military special operations community isn’t subject to following the laws of the United States, since they aren’t operating domestically. As my friend Lee Weems has said, “If you are not legally justified to be shooting someone, you aren’t legally justified to be pointing a firearm at someone.” Do you know what doesn’t require you to admittedly use deadly force (pointing a WML at someone) and in fact doesn’t even require a report to the police? Pointing a handheld flashlight at someone! With cameras being everywhere, do you want to end up on John Correia’s ACTIVE SELF PROTECTION YouTube channel showing his millions of viewers how NOT to do the right thing? My goal is to never be in a self defense situation of any kind!

An overlooked skill with a WML that many people just don’t grok, even LEO users who SHOULD know better is that just because it may be excusable in an on-duty context to muzzle someone who doesn’t need to be muzzled, you still shouldn’t do it. You CAN illuminate with the secondary spill of the light, depending on the head of the light/the light’s power and the distance to the person, while effectively keeping the gun pointed in a TRUE, “Low Ready,” position, where the muzzle is not covering the suspect. For laypeople, the argument stands though…with cameras everywhere, why not take action that removes any and all doubt? It would be hard to confuse a handheld flashlight for a WML equipped pistol and much easier to explain to a jury of your peers.

I HAVE personally pointed a powerful handheld light at many people on the street (mostly while innocuously walking my dog or hiking in the trails) in the city and said in a loud voice, “NO THANK YOU,” or, “GO AWAY.” And it makes them go away, look away and/or gives you, the user, the initiative and choice of what to do next. If they press an attack, you’re hopefully one step ahead…if they don’t, mission accomplished. Either way, your goal is to go home safely at the end of the day. Anything else is contrary to your mission as an everyday person.

BACK TO STEVE

Like I said earlier, I don’t want to give away Steve’s secret sauce recipe. If you haven’t had any lowlight training, you should catch Steve next time you can. If you are an LEO, Steve’s material would be beneficial. The main push of the class is to help the students understand that they can use light to control people, places and spaces and increase their effectiveness by using the light correctly. BUT ALSO remembering that if you are in the dark (and nobody is using night vision equipment) and you can’t see the bad guy, he probably can’t see you either! So again, use the light to control the interaction!

Lights are all the rage these days. People post their nightstand, pocket everyday carry item dumps, and they all have a light. Whether they carry that actually or if it’s just for the photo, that is a great question! I tend to carry a light whenever I have pants on, which is most days! I use my light far more often to check the mail at night, not fall down the stairs in my front walkway, find something on the floor/ground that has been dropped, or at work to look in someone’s mouth when I am not in the operatory. But like any kind of technology, they are an electronic item and they will fail. If you don’t have a handheld light that has at least a tactical level of light, you may need one! A handgun accompanying capable light should allow you to see someone’s face, hands and waistline to at least 25 yards…but 50 yards would be better! This is easily accomplished with most of the commonly carried EDC lights.

Depending on where you live in the world, you spend at least half of your day during hours of darkness…but you don’t have to be afraid of the dark. We have black bears, mountain lions, rumored Sasquatches, and orcas here (in the water). I worry far more about the humans that go bump in the night than I do about the creatures that go bump in the night! Luckily, most humans, who go about in the dark to carry out unsavory behavior, in some strange nearly religious significance, are afraid or at least apprehensive of bright light! And that’s a good thing! But like any kind of skill, the utilization of light for defensive purposes takes teaching and practice. And my very tall friend Steve Fisher is just the man to learn it all from! The greatest philosophical quote of Steve’s from this class I recorded was, “The GUN will save your life; the LIGHT will save someone else’s!”

Ooh scary! The bad guy is nicely backlit, and visible to me. Without the light, he can’t see me, but I can see the front bead of my shotgun, clearly!
With my Surefire E2 clicked on, thrown onto the bed, aimed at the door and clicked on, it is NEARLY as bright in my room as it was with the lights on, the bad guy would be a bit blinded, and if he were to shoot at the light, it would be at a place about six feet from my position, which is mostly concealed on the opposite end of the bed. HAVE A PLAN!

THANK YOU FOR READING! Please, like, share on your social media feeds, and subscribe to my RSS feed here so you don’t miss any of my posts. Social media and even google itself does a fantastic job of down throttling pro-gun media sources, so we have to get the message out somehow! -Dr. House