Glock Match Results
Mr. Completely's new slogan?(Shirt seen at World Steel Challenge Championships)
With a 5.5 lb. trigger, short sight radius, and total unfamiliarity with Glocks and how to shoot them, I didn't hold out much hope of any sponsorship calls from Glock! In fact, with the little bit I did shoot the Glock Model 17 9mm. two days before the match, I was genuinely concerned about not being able to even hit the farther out targets at all, let alone hit them accurately.
I have never been one to let not knowing what I was doing prevent me from participating, I decided to shoot the match, enjoy myself, and not worry about the final results.
Did I enjoy myself? YUP! Sure did! I shot the whole match twice, in two different classes in fact. I entered the "Civilian" class, which is sort of a stock gun or limited class, and shot that first. They also had a class called "Competition" which apparently allows somewhat more "Race-gunnish" Glocks, but without optics. Whatever the differences, the "Competition" class times were noticeably faster. Shot that one, too.
All of the scoring is done by laptop computer, and the results are then posted on the Glock Sport Shooting Federation's website. Now that the results are posted, I was able to cruise through the scores and see how it came out. In the "Civilian" class I ended up 51st. out of 73 entries, and 10th Senior. Not too bad!
Interestingly enough, penalty points for lack of accuracy moved me way down the list, even though my times weren't bad at all. In fact, my time on two of the stages was faster than the class winner's times. I wondered at the time why the RO kept showing me my time on the timer!
In the "Competition" class I ended up 44th. out of 51 shooters. Again it was penalty points for lousy accuracy that moved me so far down the list, as my times were reasonable, I just was shooting with marginal accuracy. I guess that's to be expected shooting something as different as the Glock for the first time.
John D., who talked me into shooting the match, shot very well, finishing in 19th. place and 3rd. Senior in the "Civilian" class, and scoring well in a couple of the other classes, too. Debbie K., who I often see at the KRRC Fun Steel Matches, also shot very well, finishing 40th. and 3rd. Lady.
Yup, the shirt slogan "Speed is everything - Accuracy will come" sums it up, at least, I HOPE that accuracy will come.
It certainly is a lot better than being known as Mr. "Can't hit S*** With a Glock" Completely!
I can see some "Glock-Smithing" in the near future, getting something set up for next year. In fact, maybe it's about time to start on a sequel to the Econo Race Gun series. Maybe tune up the Model 17 a bit for the civilian class and the Competition class, and turn the Model 22 into a full race open class gun? Could probably get some improvement by working a bit on loads, too....
It sounds like a good Winter project!
Labels: Glock Stuff
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6 Comments:
Could probably get some improvement by working a bit on loads, too...
Watch out with reloads in glocks.
Google "glock kaboom". (Comments won't let me put in hyperlink.)
And if you are already aware of this, a thousand pardons. :)
Were I shooting that weapon, and my Glock possession AND experience goes back to 1987, I would do it a bit differently.
There is a special technique to double-tapping (or triple-tapping) a Glock pistol, the technique being required by the Glock patented trigger safety. You actually have to short-circuit the trigger safety, so that the weapon will be back in battery AND the trigger group in FIRE before the trigger resets completely forward. That produces the double-tap, ALMOST akin to a sear and disconnector on a machine pistol.
So, when training for rapid, high-volume fire with the Glock, you have to train just the opposite of "speed is everything, accuracy will come". You have to train yourself to double-tap first. If you can't double-tap, your time will never get up there good enough to be consistent with the best Glockmeisters. Conversely, once you learn to double-tap, you may then work on traversing the weapon while doing the finger-precise trigger reset, and you can double-tap your way to victory.
One caution: doing ANY competitive shooting with a Glock, because of it's unique trigger, could cause you to be all over the place with any other pistol. Other weapons just aren't compatible when it comes to trigger function and technique.
Personally, I don't try to shoot my Glock rapidly. Since I use it strictly as an antipersonnel weapon, that's all I practice for with it, and I will ALWAYS take the time to try to kill my opponent with the first round.
But, you're a target shooter and I'm a putative people shooter: you shoot targets to get better and win at shooting targets, and I shoot targets only so long as I can make the practice count towards proficiency in killing people.
BTW, heed the guy above. ALL Glock injuries I have heard about have come from ammo overloads except one, and that was from a hard baton strike right on the holstered weapon, causing the firing pin to cycle and strike the primer of the chambered cartridge. Also, be advised that the Glock, more so than most other weapons, is very tight in it's range of what it will shoot and function reliably.
CUG: I've heard a little about the Kaboom thing, and it is apparenly more common with the .40's over the 9mm's. I was thinking about going lighter in load, maybe 147 gr. bullets, and a slightly lighter spring, all to reduce muzzle rise between shots.
RD: How about sharing exactly what that "Special Technique" might be?
..... Mr. C.
The "special technique":
1. Glocks are more sensitive than other pistols to limp-wristing, so you have to have a strong wrist BEHIND the weapon when firing, or it will probably smokestack, which of course, negates double-tap.
2. The first thing to practice is relaxing the trigger at the instant of kaboom. That sounds obvious, but may not be if you haven't shot much Glock. Once you have the instant-relax mastered, you go on:
3. To NOT ALLOW the trigger to fully come forward. It has to come forward enough so that the trigger safety (that little thingy in the trigger) can reset, but after it resets, there is about a third of the trigger forward travel left to go. You are going to start your trigger pull on the second half of the double-tap as soon as the safety resets, not as soon as the trigger has reached the limit of it's forward travel. Note that the effort to make this second pull is much lighter than the 5 1/2# of the standard trigger or the 8# of the "New York" trigger (specified by NYPD and some other police agencies). This lighter pull, maybe only 2-3 # or so, is what gets the second half of the double-tap off so quick.
4. Because the second half of the double-tap is coming much quicker than the time to pull the trigger the first time, you will have less time to traverse the weapon to the next target. You have to train for this, and I haven't. When I double-tap, I do it on the same target, so as to get two nearby hits in rapid succession.
My standard double-tap tactic is the Mozambique, where I double-tap the center-of mass and then elevate the weapon and do a full-pull on the "bique". I have seen some real Glockmeisters who can triple tap, and THEIR Mozambiques are nothing short of amazing, sounding like a 3-round burst option from an M16A1 or M-4.
Double-tap is something it will take probably a thousand rounds and many hours to master, but when you do, you are light years ahead of those who can't do it. It can be done with other weapons. I have heard of midified 1911 race guns with a trigger that permits DT.
Mr. C - It's not so much too heavy a load, as that the original Glock barrel has a partial unsupported chamber. You can actually see the bulge in some of the spent brass sometimes. This is now a weakened case, and if the weakened spot chambers in the same place after you reload it... kaboom!
You can go to an aftermarket barrel to alleviate this problem, or so I hear.
Also, always use jacketed bullets in the Glock's original (polygonal) barrel, as lead residue can quickly build up, decreasing the bore diameter and creating dangerously high pressures.
I have reloaded for my Glock 17 and 30 for years, and have never had any signs of case bulges. I only use jacketed bullets. For the 9mm, my gun really likes the 147 gr a little under max load.
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