Midway Coupon Codes

I seem to be on a roll today. I guess I better post this before I forget.

Retailmenot.com list of Midway coupon codes, be sure to check the expiration date. If no date is listed, it probably won't work.

Midway Coupon Code thread on PAFOA forums.

Midway usually puts out the coupons toward the end of the month. If you spend $250, you get $20 off your order, or something like that.

.50GI Conversion for Glock 20/21

More interesting stuff from Guns Magazine.

Guncrafter Industries is marketing a .50GI slide assembly and magazine for Glock Models 20 and 21. The slide and barrel are bare stainless steel, and the magazine is an 8 round unit with an extended base plate. Guncrafter also sells magazines, brass, and loading dies to keep the conversion kit running.

Zombie Targets

I guess it was only a matter of time.

You can order your 23" wide x 35" tall zombie targets from www.zombietargets.net



(I'm kinda stealing the pics, but I'm giving them free advertisement, so I don't think they'll mind.)

U.S. M9A1 Pistol

I got a taste of what the M9A1 was from the latest issue of Guns Magazine. Here is some information on the new U.S. Military issued sidearm from BerettaWEB.com, an unofficial Beretta website.

"Improvements" over the M9 (Beretta 92FS) pistol include:
Checkered front and backstraps
"Dustcover" rail for mounting weaponlights and other accessories
Magazine well with "aggressive bevel" to allow faster reloads (from the outside it the butt look the same as on any other 92; I was expecting some kind of funnel from the description)
Recessed muzzle crown to protect the rifling
3-Dot Sights
PVD coated magazine (yes, PVD; it's not a PVC typo)
Reversible magazine catch

Basically, it looks like a Vertec.

Acrobat (groan*) brochure on the M9A1 from the official Beretta Website. There is a picture of the Glock-like frontstrap checkering, but mostly it's the same information.

There are other snippets of information around, but there's just not that much to say about a slightly updated model 92. Apparently, there's already a bunch of airsoft copies of the pistol floating around.

* - I hate it when people use Acrobat for pictures and small documents that would be quicker to open as HTML or a JPEG.

Lone Wolf and Burris FastFire Mini Reflex Sights

I got the Lone Wolf red dot sight (catalog number: LWD-RDS) first. Testing it out, I quickly discovered that it was really hard to find the dot when aiming at a light colored targets that was brightly lit. The dot also flares pretty bad in twilight.

I read a few short reviews on the Burris FastFire red dot, a similar micro reflex sight. As I write this, the sights are hard to come by, and feedback on them is pretty hard to find, although most of what I found was positive. Finding that Natchez had them available, I placed an order for a FastFire, a Glock slide mount for the sight, and while I was at it, ordered a few $15 Glock factory magazines.

The two sights are very similar, and both share more than a little in common with the Docter Optic sights, now imported by Trijicon. There are reports on the internet that the FastFire works on Docter mounts and vice versa, although the screw threads are different. I tried the FastFire on the Lone Wolf base, and vice versa. Again, except for different screw threads, the sights are interchangeable. The JPoint is a different animal, and the screw holes are in a different location altogether.

Construction wise, the sights are pretty much the same. The main body of the sights seem to be cast aluminum with the hood being a piece of aluminum sheet. The lens, or window, or whatever you want to call it is glass on both, not plastic like in the JPoints. The FastFire has a magnet that holds the battery in place, which is handy and lacking on the Lone Wolf sight. The adjustment bar, for lack of a better term, on the Lone Wolf sight appears to be a more roughly cast part than on the Burris sight, which seems to have a machined adjustment bar. The electronic bits of the FastFire are more securely glued in place than in the Lone Wolf sight. I’m not saying that anything is floating around loose in the Lone Wolf sight, only that the Fast Fire might be more recoil resistant.

(Sorry, my camera won't focus on the dots. LWD-RDS on left, FastFire on right.)

(Lone Wolf Red Dot on left, FastFire in the Middle, Tasco PDP2 (30mm tube, 5MOA Dot) on right)

Sitting the Lone Wolf and FastFire side-by-side, the FastFire is noticeably brighter, which is what I was after. The FastFire dot still flares a bit in low light, but being brighter, the dot is much easier to find. Although the Lone Wolf sight is advertised to have a 6MOA dot, it appears to be exactly the same size as the FastFire 4MOA dot.

For my purposes, the FastFire is the better product. To be fair to Lone Wolf, Burris only offers a one-year limited warranty, and the Burris sight costs twice as much. The Lone Wolf sight works pretty damn well indoors, but would not work as well for sunny outdoor or low-light matches. Although I could have used the Lone Wolf RDS on one of several plinkers, or put it on the airsoft Glock to train with, ultimately I needed the $80 back more.

For the price of an unmodified Docter Optic mini-reflex sight, you could buy 5 or 6 Lone Wolf red dot sights. For the price of a (plastic) JPoint, you could buy 3 of the metal and glass Lone Wolf sights. Neither of the more expensive sights is particularly bright either, except for the Docters modified by Beven Grams of Grams Engineering, and the modification costs another 1.5 times the price of the Lone Wolf.

Pictures of the FastFire mounted on a Glock are of my racegun, as it currently stands. It is a Glock 17 with a Carver Hunter mount and a top plate that I cut from 1/4" thick aluminum. The whole point of fiddling with the slide-ride optic was to get a red dot scope small enough that I could mount it forward of the ejection port where it wouldn't interfere with ejection and get beaten up by the reciprocating slide.

Live Fire Testing
I had a little trouble sighting it in at first. A couple times I forgot to unlock the adjustments, which put me way off in the wrong direction. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong, it wasn't long before I was shooting out the X-Ring at 50 feet.

For a while, I had trouble finding the dot, and had put a pin at the front of the mounting plate, which I used to help find the dot. After a little practice with the new set-up, I found that I wasn't using the pin anymore, and have since removed it. I will cut the mounting plate down to match the front of the scope mount eventually.

The adjusting wheel that fits over the shaft of the screwdriver makes it pretty much impossible to see where you're putting the blade. I'm thinking about drilling a few holes in the wheel, but I'm a little concerned that I'll then end up breaking the plastic wheel in my gear bag.

My RaceGun with the PDP2 before I got the FastFire set-up

UPDATE: I've noticed the dot getting really dim now and then. After firing a shot it gets back to full brightness. After the last outdoor match of the season, I'll call Burris and see if there's a fix.

UPDATE, AGAIN: Got to poking around on the internet, and discovered that others were having the same problems with the dot fading out randomly, and then coming back after firing a shot. Putting a piece of rubber band between the mount and battery seems to be a half-assed, although effective solution.

New Chinese SMG and a Couple Pistols

Some pictures and information at SecurityArms.com
Cutaway Picture (no. . . I can't translate it)

Ugly as sin, but feeds from either a standard pistol type magazine, or a 50 round helical Calico/Bizon type magazine.

Picture of Type 92 (DAP92) Pistol

A 5.8mm pocket pistol. Not very interesting, but I might as well post the pic.

QSZ Full-Size Pistol, Pic from CivilianGunner.com

Another 5.8mm pistol. A modern service pistol type.

Ruger SR9 Safety Recall

Some pistols made between October 2007 and April 2008 may fire if dropped with the safety off. These pistols have serial numbers that start with 330.

Click here for more information from Ruger.

Stop Plates and Pact Mk.IV Timer

I'm posting this because the info is hard to find. The manual that comes with the timer sucks, and it's hard to get hold of Pact Technical Support.

There's three jacks for RCA mini-plugs (the kind you find on a headphone cord) on the back of the timer. Two for stop plates, and one labeled "AUX," which I think is actually for headphones, so you don't disturb other shooters with the beeping. If you plug anything into the jack for Stop Plate 2, the timer automatically goes into head-to-head mode.

Anyway, the timer can be set to stop when the circuit either opens or closes. For example, if you hooked up a normally open switch to the timer, and the stop plate closed the switch, you would go into the timers menu and select "Stop Plate Circuit Open"- "Yes". I may have the language a little off, but I think you get the general idea.

I plan to make a plate rack for the Airsoft gun next weekend. Depending on which way works best, I can either set it up so that the plate holds a plunger switch closed when the plate is up, or I can let the plate fall on the switch to push it closed.

Boyd Coddington Died In February

(Until now) I haven't mentioned that Charlton Heston has died, since I'm sure just about everyone has heard it on the news. Until today I had not heard that Boyd Coddington has passed.

Boyd was famous for his high-end hot rods, hosting American Hot Rod on The Learning Channel, and his line of custom wheels.

FWIW, Wikipedia says his death was due to complications from diabetes.

Use GoodSearch, Money Goes to NRA

GoodSearch Search Engine, NRA Foundation as Selected Cause

Clicking the link above will take you to GoodSearch with the NRA Foundation also selected. You could also go to goodsearch.com, and enter "NRA Foundation" in the "Who Do You GoodSearch For?" box.

Estimated amounts earned from using GoodSearch

SWFA Aimpoint CompM2 Sale

I was at the SWFA website looking for information on the Burris FastFire red dot, and discovered that they are having a sale on night vision capable Aimpoint CompM2s.

For $399.95 you get the scope, an Aimpoint quick-release mount, the double battery Module, and a spare battery.

Details on the sale at the Opticstalk.com message board

It's a great deal, but I want a Meopta K-Dot. I figure there's probably lots of others that might be interested though.

My Hotmail Account was Hijacked

A word of warning to those using free web-based e-mail:
Apparently it's not that hard to hack the password of a Hotmail/Yahoo/Google e-mail account. I did a quick internet search for "hotmail hacked," and came up with a page full of how-to articles. This is pretty disturbing, because Microsoft Money uses the same username and password as Hotmail, and if you log into MS Money while online it saves your financial information on a Microsoft server somewhere.

Kudos to CitiBank!

I got the money back from a fraudulent charge on my Citi Mastercard, plus they paid me interest on it and refunded a late payment fee (that was totally my fault).