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Found this posted on GlockTalk:

The pistol purchase program as we know it ends today, Monday February 8, 2010, and you MUST redeem your certificates by April 2, 2010. This includes certificates that GSSF is mailing out today. Use them or loose them, it's that simple.

Now the good news is, despite frequent complaints from GlockTalk members, GSSF is continuing the program with slightly different rules. GSSF is expanding the dealer base to include some non LE Dealers. Since these dealers cannot purchase pistols under the LE Program, GSSF member price is going to increase by about $25.00 to $30.00 per pistol--still one fantastic deal. GSSF cannot provide a dealer list, but when you receive your new certificate you should call Glock, Inc. (not GSSF) in order to find a participating dealer nearest to you. Starting tomorrow, GSSF will mail these new certificates to members requesting them--if it's time for one to request a new certificate.

GSSF charged my card on 2/5/10, I really hope they sent my certificate along like I asked, otherwise this feels a little like bait and switch.

Update:

More info from DannyR on GlockTalk:

If your mailed in membership application/pistol request was received as late as today, you will receive the old pistol purchase certificate. If GSSF receives your request after today, you will get the new form. I do not know if it has an expiration date, but I'm sure it's good for at least 12 months.

Good to know. I should be getting the old one.

The competition was really good this time, and I didn't shoot the match I could have.

I totally blew the stage with the Texas Star on it. I'm going to see if someone doesn't make an airsoft version of that thing so I can practice it. It's evil I tell you!

I also had a weird malfunction on one stage that cost me. I think I had the hammer follow the slide because the first shot went, then I pulled the trigger and nothing happened, not even a click, and the hammer was down. I racked out the round and things went fine after that, but I was all flustered. Might be time for some upgrades to my RIA.

But mostly, I blame me. I wasn't getting the front sight in focus when I should I have. I wasn't keeping my eyes open when the shot broke. I wasn't driving the gun like I know I am capable of. I kept looking for the holes in the target. Lots of silly things.

More work to do.

(Note to gubmint busybodies, I bought this for myself out of my own pocket.)

My new Tucker Gunleather Silent Thunder Champion holster.



Not sure why it says Garrett Industries though ... anyway, as you can see it's a Kydex holster with a nicely boned cowhide lining.



I haven't had a chance to use this in a match yet, but I've probably already done 500 draws with it, and I really like it. For a holster that has enough tension to hold the gun in place upside down, the draw is unbelievably good. (I still might loosen it up for matches though.)

I once had a little debate on a friend's blog about some other guy's vow to boycott any manufacturer who developed "smart gun" technology. Their point of view is that this is bad for our gun rights.

I really can't agree provided the free market is allowed to work, and is not meddled with by our "representatives". Technology isn't inherently good or bad, and it certainly can't do anything on its own (until Skynet becomes operable that is).

Anyway, here is something for them to boycott on thefirearmblog.com. :)-~

Personally, I have no desire for the silly, yet expensive, thing, but if they ever came out with something useful I wouldn't hold this against them. I think it's interesting that you have to squeeze the grip to activate the "smart" stuff. It would be somewhat cool if they integrated the P7's squeeze-cocker into that. If you have to waste time doing that, you should at least get a single action trigger pull out of it.

Just to be clear, I think it's a waste of money and damned sure wouldn't trust my life to it, but if it appeals to you, go for it.

As I mentioned previously, I am working up a new .45ACP load.

One of the things I am really leery of is powders that don't fill up a case very much. It's easy to overcharge or double charge a case that way.

So, if you're putting a load together and looking to do it with a powder you haven't used before, how can you determine the volume of the charge to know how well it fills the case? Sure you can ask around on various boards, or ask more experienced reloaders, but not everyone has tried every powder in every caliber.

I found that Lee has some charts listing the volume of one grain of powder. If you're lucky, like I was, they will have a powder you are familiar with as well the new powder(s) you are interested in.

Using the data from Lee, it turns out that a load of 4.9 grains of WST has the same volume as my current load of 8.3 grains of HS6, and that load fills up the case nicely. I don't think it's quite over 50% of the volume, but a double charge would be very noticeable nonetheless.

The calculations is in one of the pdfs, but it is pretty simple.

Take the given volume, multiply it by the number of grains you are dispensing and that gives you the volume in cubic centimeters.

My HS6 load:    0.0712 x 8.3 = .59096

Max WST load: 0.1205 x 4.9 = .59045

Pretty damned close, identical to the eye for sure.

Here are the links:

Perfect Powder Measure Instructions (go to page 3 for the volume calculation)
Powder VMD's

I was watching the State of the Union address tonight, and at one point during the speech Obama said he was open to other ideas, and looked over at the Republicans and said something like "where are they?"

Personally, I'm tried of this whole Democrat vs. Republican bullshit. They all need to be tarred and feathered and run out of town, but I digress ...

I personally believe about 90% of what the Federal Government does is not only unnecessary, but unconstitutional as well, but let's just assume for a moment that the government can be involved in the delivery of any service it wants to get involved in, and put those concerns aside. Furthermore let's assume a "progressive" policy is just hunkydory, and it's ok for the government to nanny us.

Let's stop worrying about health care, and worry about health. Subsidizing health care insurance is in reality subsidizing insurance companies, and why in the hell would we want to do that?

I propose that we start subsidizing people's actual health instead. Let's get people involved in their health. We're a nation of fatties, let's encourage people to lose weight. (Even better would be to encourage people not to get fat in the first place.) Let's reward people for making good choices.

In addition, let's discourage people from making bad choices, choices which make us unhealthy.

How would we do that?

If you tax something, you get less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more of it.

There's a lot that could be done, and the specifics can be left to someone else to come up with, as far as I'm concerned, but here's a few.

Subsidize:
Weight loss
Healthy foods
Exercise facilities
Maybe throw some tax credits to employers for giving employees time during the work day to exercise.
Running shoes

Tax:
Fast food
Trans fats
High-fructose corn syrup (stop subsiding corn production while we're at it)
Tobacco
Laziness

Obviously there would still be sick people, but we could make a big dent in avoidable illnesses that cost us all.

While I'm at it. Let's tax people that waste health care resources, and reward those who use them judiciously but not to the point that we discourage the truly sick from seeking care, or we encourage people to skip checkups.

MadTV spoofed the iPad before the iPad even existed.



The Apple Ipad for Women - Watch more Funny Videos

I am using Windows 7 for work for the first time this week. I've been stuck on XP forever ...

I like how if you install Outlook 2007 after installing Visual Studio 2008 that when you click the Toolbox in VS2008, you don't see a message that says "Initializing Toolbox" and then get a crash. I like that you don't have uninstall and re-install VS2008, a process that takes over 2 hours, to get it to work again after spending 4 hours googling for solutions.

I like how it sets Windows updates to reboot your computer at 3 am, and that the default power settings don't cause it to hibernate well before then causing it to never install updates. I also like that it doesn't nag you all gawdammed day when you start work in the morning, after those two features worked so well together.

I like how when you install the VS2008 Service Pack 1 that it doesn't wait until after you spent 30 minutes installing it to tell you that it can't install correctly without Administrator privileges, and that you don't have to run it again wasting another 30 minutes.

Up to now, all of my pistol loadings are "full power", so as to better simulate my chosen carry ammo.

There are times that a lower recoiling target loading is more appropriate though, and I don't have one.

My requirements for this loading, in order, are:

Availability of components
Makes IPSC major power factor
Moderate recoil
Decent accuracy
Powder should meter well and be clean burning

So I did some research and looked at the choice in components I have available in this time of scarcity, and made some selections.

Primer:  Wolf LP
Powder: Winchester Super Target (WST)
Bullet:    Precision Delta 230 gr FMJ
Case:     Mixed

Looking forward to working this up.

Here's the load data from Hodgdon:

Bullet Weight (Gr.)

Manufacturer

Powder

Bullet Diam.

C.O.L.

Grs.

Vel. (ft/s)

Pressure

Grs.

Vel. (ft/s)

Pressure

230 GR. HDY FMJ FP

Winchester

WST

.451"

1.200"

4.1

733

13,900 CUP

4.9

848

16,100 CUP

I sent off my application to join GSSF today, and am intending to buy my first Glock soon.

I've never cared for Glocks, to be honest, but I'm holding out hope that the new generation (Gen 4) will work for me.

I'm not intending to carry it, but anything is possible. I'm wanting it for home protection, and possibly shooting Production class in IPSC.

I'm still debating the G17 vs the G19.

I've shot the Gen 3 G19 and do pretty well with it once I have the sights lined up. The Gen 3 G17 does not feel right to me though, but I've not actually shot one. I'm holding out hope that the new smaller grip size will work for me.