Gear Review: Springfield Armory XD(m) 40

Hey there folks! I thought it was about time I got around to doing a review so here we go...

Today's guest is the Springfield Armory XD(m)40. Let's see, first things first some specs: this is a polymer frame pistol with steel slide and match grade 4.5 in barrel. Mine is in .40S&W and has a capacity of 16+1. It has a ambidextrous magazine release and standard sites. It has the all black Melonite finish. (Don't ask me what that is exactly, it's what they call it) It comes with 3 interchangeable back-straps to accommodate different hand sizes. The very nice case it comes with also includes 3 magazines, a polymer pistol holster, a dual magazine holster, speed loader for the magazine and a cleaning brush.

Mine is also considered to be a mk1 version. They have since come out with a newer model that has been cosmetically modified but to the best of my knowledge has not been changed mechanically. The biggest difference is the slide serrations. Mine are straight slashes and the new ones have chevrons cuts. So now on to the rest of the fun stuff.

I found the XDm to be a very user friendly firearm. I have read a number of folks who's opinions differ from my own but again, as with my Mossberg, I will continue to like my choice. Getting the full magazine inserted into the pistol can be difficult at first. It requires a good solid smack on the base plate to seat it all the way. Some folks complain about this and as compared to a 1911 I can see the complaint. Personally I like it, when I load up I feel confident that I am good to go when I give it a good smack. Ejecting a full magazine is also very difficult as well. While I can do it with just the magazine release, I find that giving some upward pressure on the base plate while I hit the release will has it coming out just fine. Again, some folks complain about this but I have two questions. First why would you have a sudden need to eject a full magazine under combat situations? I mean, isn't the saying for clearing a jam to tap, rack, bang? Well if you try to fire and can't (because I don't know, maybe you forgot to chamber a round in the first place) then racking the slide should clear this issue. My second question is this, if the magazine requires good force to seat it, and extra pressure to release it if full, then isn't that a pretty good thing because it means that the magazine isn't falling out of the pistol.

Firing to me is a breeze. I have found that as long as you maintain anything even resembling a proper firing grip that the grip safety will always be engaged. I have read more than one forum with users (who by the way are glock fans in general) complaining about the grip safety and it stopping them from firing under emergency circumstances (if they were to ever supposedly be in such a situation). Seriously though, I have tried to hold the pistol (unloaded of course) in such a way as to prevent me from engaging the grip safety and the only way I could resulted in me holding the pistol in such a way and to make firing it almost impossible. I said almost because yes I could still manipulate the trigger but in order to reach it I felt all sorts of wrong and of course, the grip safety prevented me from pulling the trigger as it should. There is a safe action trigger, much like on Glock and the Smith & Wesson M&P lines.

Regular cleaning is a breeze. Lock back the slide, eject the magazine, flip up the take down level and release the slide to remove. Pop out the recoil spring and guide rod, remove the barrel and there you go. Ready for cleaning.

I will admit to some prejudice with this particular firearm. This was my first pistol to own. I took some time in choosing this one and it really came down to the ease of tear down vs the S&W M&P at the time. I think the M&P' have been improved because I have heard from a owner of one of the new Shield models that the tear down is very easy on them now. I did try comparing to Glocks as well and found they didn't work well in my hand. I am very happy with my choice of firearm. The Springfield Armory company has a fantastic customer service department and I would highly recommend this pistol to anyone who is thinking about a purchase. I hope that you have enjoyed this review. I am sorry for not including more pictures. Until next time....Keep a weather eye out!

Gear Review: Mossberg 500

When you ask most people that practice home defense about what to get and use, the answer is almost always a shotgun. They are not too technically demanding, depending on the ammo in use over penetration is not generally a worry and they make great clubs if you run out of ammo (kidding on that last one). I was able to come across this shot gun a couple of years back, a Mossberg 500a. 18 1/2 inch smooth bore barrel with 5+1 capacity.

I made some minor modifications to it in order to make it just a touch more user friendly in the home. I removed the fixed stock and added a collapsible, 6 position stock from Blackhawk (not the recoil absorbing one, couldn't afford it and didn't want to pay more for the stock than I did the gun). The addition of the stock made handling a little more comfortable for me and a lot more for my wife. The fixed stock was just a bit too long for her to feel balanced and in control but with the shortened stock she feels very much in control.

My first time shooting this shotgun was a fun trip out with guys guys from work to shoot some clay pigeons. Having been out shooting trap before this, I still had a very informative learning experience. First off...if you have followed all of the safety rules of gun handling and you are really, totally sure you are ready to shoot...no matter how hard you try, you cannot squeeze the trigger on this shotgun with the safety on. I had gotten too excited to fire off my first shot, so when I called out "pull", raised the front sight to track the bird and then squeezed, and then squeezed harder and then glanced down at my gun when the pigeon hit the dirt. That's when I saw I had left the safety on. Oops!!!

The next thing I learned was how the gun felt when it went boom.  ....er I mean.... BOOM!!!!! I had been given an assortment of shells to try with the shotgun to see what I wanted to use with it. Being the rocket scientist that I am (no offense to any ACTUAL rocket scientists), I started out with solid slugs...ouch! From those miserable misses, I moved on to some 00buck, 04 buck, and finally ended up shooting bird shot.

I found that my previous experience with shooting clays wasn't helping me. I couldn't seem to hit any thing with my shotgun. Finally, I got a little jumpy and let go a shot a little earlier than I had planned and actually hit the bird. I knew I had been leading them correctly but then it hit me. Since my barrel was shorter than the 24 and 28in barrels being used by my friends, I needed to get my shot off faster. The spread pattern was much greater. Well, once I did that I started to hit more than I was missing. It was at that point I finally became happy with my choice.

I have made one other modification to my gun from the stock model. I added a one point sling attachment ring from GG&G to use with a Blackhawk Storm Sling. Later on I added a more traditional two point shoulder sling from Remington for more extended carry periods. The one point sling is great for short distance travel, i.e. walking from the car to the firing line where we shoot but I found it to be a bit uncomfortable to walk with the shotgun for a longer carry period (less shooting and more walking).

 

I personally like this shotgun. It's not fancy, I can tear it down and put it back together again. No matter if you agree with my opinion or not, I will still like it. I would even recommend it to those of you in the market for one since they can be found on sale for under $300. 

Some of you may have noticed the trigger lock on the shotgun in the pics. I know some of you don't agree with that for home defense but I have my reasons for it, one of which is smiling so beautifully in the pictures above. The gun does stay loaded with the safety off so that lock is the last resort safety should I somehow commit the ultimate blunder and leave the gun where the kids can get to it. I take my responsibilities towards keeping my family safe and until the day comes that the kids are out of the house, I will practice safe storage methods for my firearms. That doesn't mean I can't get to them and yes it would take a few extra seconds to deploy them. If my life depended on those few seconds though, I may as well be walking around in my own home weapons in hand and at the ready on patrol at all times. If the world has gotten that bad (it wasn't the last time I checked) then I will be glad I bought the slings. Until then, Peace be unto you and yours.

Gear Review: Personal Responsibility

 

Hey Folks...it's me again. I was going to make this another of my gear reviews, this one featuring my Springfield Armory XD(m) 40. Looking at the above pic though, I decided to write about something different, I hope you don't mind. I promise that I will do a good and detailed review of the XDm another time. I am sure the folks at Springfield (fabulous folks there by the way) will probably not even notice my little review either way. Now without further ado...

Some of you might have looked at my pic and thought what a horrible parent. How could this man expose his daughter in such a reckless manner to those horrible and disgusting things. Doesn't he know he could have killed her?

Actually, I just have to laugh at you folks and I hope I don't offend you with that as I shake my head at you. The truth is I would never endanger my beautiful daughter or my son with any reckless actions. Before I ever bought my first real firearm, I had a plastic pistol that fired orange foam darts which have a suction cup on the end. Yup, that's right, my daughter was started on safety with Nerf pistol. I taught her that you don't point the nerf at someone's face. She doesn't play with the nerf unless she asks first so that the adults know what she is doing. Later I bought a airsoft pistol, spring operated, that shoots plastic bb's. With this purchase we started to teach more safety lessons. I taught her that she never touches the pistol unless Daddy is supervising. I taught her more basic firearm safety lessons like never point a firearm at something or someone that you don't want to hurt (destroy or kill were the terms used later). She was told that if she ever found the gun laying around to not touch it and tell Mommy or Daddy about it first.

Finally I bought my first real firearm, a shotgun. As with the other pistols, I taught about her how to be safe around this firearm. I let her come and see the shotgun (unloaded, checked 2 times) on my bed and ask questions. She actually approached it like a display at a museum. She leaned over and looked at it and then stepped back and asked if it was real. I said yes it was very real and then reminded her of all the safety things we had discussed so far. I asked her if she wanted to pick it up and she said no...it was too big for her and that she would wait until we got a "girl" size one for her to use.

We went through this same stuff when I bought my first pistol but we did add one additional step at this point. I field stripped the pistol and then made my daughter hold the stripped frame. I wanted to teach her how to touch and carry the pistol safely. The reason for this is that her little brother was going to need some extra eyes looking after him. I gave her permission to touch the gun only in a situation where she needed to move it to someplace safe and then go tell Mommy or Daddy right away that it wasn't put away. She understands that my guns are not toys, that they can and will cause serious hurt and could kill. We took our pumpkins out and shot them up after Halloween one year and she saw what happened to them. She even took a turn on her Grandpa's .22 rifle one year at the family reunion. She wanted to shoot it but was really nervous. She fired one shot and then was completely satisfied. She was proud of how brave she had been to fire the gun but didn't want to shoot anymore than once. I was proud of her for being brave.

Have I endangered my daughter? I don't think so. I have equipped her with tools that will allow her to respect the capabilities of firearms. She will treat them with respect and caution. She knows how to not endanger others if she needs to handle them. Did I remove the danger that a gun can represent? I think so because a gun is just a simple machine. It is not sentient. It is not a condensed lump of evil that radiates an uncontrollable desire for death and mayhem. It is just a tool and like any tool can be dangerous if you don't know how to use it and how to do so in a safe manner. I have taught my daughter how to handle a firearm in a safe manner and what it can do. She is going to face many dangers in her life; high school, driving, boys (ugh!!) but one thing that she now has the knowledge to deal with safely is firearms.

...now if I can just figure out how to teach her about dealing safely with boys I should be a shoe in for parent of the century.

Gear Review: Leatherman Wave

Hi all, as I said before I would be reviewing pieces of gear on here. Well, it's time once again for another review. Today's featured item is my trusty Leatherman Wave. I have been a fan of multi-tools since my first Boy Scout Swiss Army knife. As the years have gone by, my tastes for equipment have grown more sophisticated. The first Multi-tool I purchased was a Gerber Multi-plier. I used it for a few years and found it most useful on my bicycle for emergency flat fixes but otherwise found it lacking it range of applications (this was probably my failing and not the tool). A year or two after getting married, my father-in-law was kind enough to give me my first Leatherman. It was one of the original pocket survival tool designs. I found I was able to apply this tool to a wider range of applications yet still found limitations. I loved the needle nose pliers on it but when using them, I always would hurt my hand from the rather sharp edge of the grip. Sadly, that tool was stolen during my tenure in the Navy. I replaced it with a couple of different Victronox Swiss army knives (which I might go into at another time) but eventually found the Leatherman Wave.

Leatherman Wave, Gen1

It had all of the features that I loved from my original Leatherman; needle-nose pliers, an assortment of screwdrivers, a file and a great can opener. This new design though...hallelujah...they had finally realized that not everyone had the completely calloused hands of a lumberjack. They had redesigned the handle so that when the pliers were deployed, you had a rounded grip surface to squeeze on. They also had redone the blades adding a serrated blade and a saw. All four of these blades had been placed on the outside and a locking mechanism was added for safety. Now I could access the knife without having to open my pliers. This thing was awesome.

 

At the time I bought this knife it was part of a combo pack at Sam's Club that included a flashlight with a combination case that held both light and tool in one holder. I thought that was a fantastic idea at the time because I was doing field service work and regularly used both tool and flashlights. The drawback to the package was the flashlight...it has a end-cap activation button that seemed like a great thing. At the time I was using a Mini-Mag light and had to screw the flashlight top to activate it, now I could just hit this button and be ready to go. Well, the button got hit alright on the first work trip I took it on...by the seat in my car. After driving 6 hrs to get to my job site, I found my flashlight was dead. Since I couldn't use the light, I swapped my Leatherman into my old Gerber tool pouch and carried my mini-mag in it's pouch as well.  

So, at this point you are all wondering what does this have to do with your Leatherman? Well, the folks out at Leatherman are some fantastic people that I had the privilege of working with them for a week on one of their machines. While I was there, the lady I was working with noticed I was using a Leaterman but carrying it in a Gerber pouch (the competition). She looked at me and asked about it. I told her my story and she said "This just won't do. I'll be right back." She returned a few moments later apologizing saying they were all out of the ballistic nylon pouches at the time and only had this as she handed me a leather belt pouch for my knife. I was floored but thanked her profusely. I have carried my Wave in that pouch on my belt almost daily ever since.

I know there are a lot of brands out there but for the money I have found Leatherman to be the best. I will still check out other multi-tools and knives but when given my choice, Leatherman is always where I turn to first.

DM Bullard Dual Carry Holster

Since I said that I would be doing some shooting and talking about gear from time to time, lets talk gear. When I bought my pistol I tried the original holster provided by Springfield Armory. It is a polymer paddle style holster. The pistol fits in there extremely well and it is relatively comfortable however, not what I wanted to use for long term carry. I began to search around for a good leather holster. You would think this shouldn't be too terribly difficult. You would be sadly mistaken. When you want to be able to conceal a full size pistol, the holster is everything. Many people give up on carrying a full size pistol and opt for a smaller, compact firearm in a smaller caliber because they cant find a way to carry comfortably. Thus the search began for a quality holster that would allow me to carry my full size pistol comfortably all day.

I began with general searches and looking at different types of holsters. I reviewed many different gun forums for recommendations. I narrowed my choices down to three different models; the Comp-Tac Minotaur MTAC, the Crossbreed Super Tuck and the DM Bullard Dual Carry. The Mtac and Supertuck are both dedicated in-waist band holsters. Both are made with a leather back that has a kydex holster attached and tuckable belt clips. The Dual Carry is an all leather holster that can be used inside the waist band or outside the waist band. All three are in a similar price range of $70-$90 plus shipping. At first I was very enamored with the MTAC and also impressed by the many, many glowing reviews on the Super Tuck. Both are solidly built devices. Both allow for various cant (tilt) adjustments on the the holster as well as depth of wear. I, being the multi-funtion guy that I am, felt that while both were good at what they did, they were limited to a single wear style.

I then looked more at the DM Bullard Dual Carry. This holster is all leather with metal belt clips. It is hand made in Azle, Texas. Many leather holster are out there but as I looked at them, I felt the workmanship that was used by Mr. Bullard was outstanding. The Dual Carry can be configured for IWB or OWB wear and looks good in both configurations. The metal clips can be swapped out with leather tuckable belt loops if you desire for a small additional cost. I did not go with this option as I was unsure if the holster would work for me or not. I finally ordered his holster and then began my wait. This may sound strange considering that you can walk into most gun shops and there are easily 50 to 100 holsters there on the shelves. However, when you want handcrafted it takes a little more time. Mr. Bullard, at the time I ordered, was essentially a one man shop working from his garage. He made each holster one at a time himself. His popularity meant that he was somewhat back ordered and there would be some lead time involved.

When the holster arrived I was not disappointed with the quality at all. It is made with thick saddle leather, has a re-enforced mouth and heavy duty stitching. The holster fit my pistol like a glove and has remarkable retention all by itself.

I tried it on and after a few minutes of trying in different positions settled for a 4 O'clock position. The holster came set up for IWB carry. This worked very nicely with my belt adding additional retention to the pistol. I then configured the holster for OWB carry. My pistol disappeared beneath my shirt, even when tucked in. The Saddle Brown color of the leather tanning is very sweet. The white thread used for the stitching is heavy gauge and very even. Even when worn OWB, this holster can disappear underneath an untucked shirt.

 The only tiny issue, and one that anyone familiar with quality leather products know of, is the leather squeaks a bit a first. This will reduce over time as the holster is worn more and broken-in.

As I don't currently posses my concealed carry permit, I very much enjoy the fact that I can still use this holster for open carry and that it looks nice when doing it. Once I have my permit, I am still undecided if I will use it IWB or OWB. Most likely I will be switching back and forth between the two (you only need a screw driver to switch it around). I recently checked on Mr. Bullard's website and was pleased to see that his company has done some growing. In fact his popularity has grown to a point where he has added an additional 6 employees to keep up with demand. I would highly recommend the DM Bullard company to anyone looking for a high quality leather holster for their pistol. As I saw on another site for some handmade leather bags, if it is a quality product, leather goods can be passed down. As long as my pistol still works, I hope to pass this down some day to one of my kids or grand-kids.