For many years, and even to a lesser degree still today, one of the oft-debated topics in the gun community was the question: What’s better for a magazine? Leave it loaded, or unload the mag at a given interval to allow the springs to rest?

The general consensus is frequent loading and unloading of mags induces more wear on the springs than does leaving a magazine loaded for any length of time.

With that being said, I decided – somewhat accidentally – to put the latter to a long-term test.

Loading the magazines

Thirteen years ago, I picked up a handful of 15-round KCI Glock magazines. These Korean-manfactured mags were some of the first non-OEM Glock mags to hit the market, at about half the price. At the time, I figured I’d test them out to see how good they were. At the time they ran fine and dropped free.

I decided to load up two mags with some FMJ rounds and tossed them in the ole bug-out-bag with some real Glock mags. Over time, my carry gun shifted from a Glock 19, but those two Korean magazines still stayed loaded. They eventually ended up in a box with all my other Glock 19 mags, tucked away in a closet. Not sure why I didn’t unload them or just shoot them. I’m sure I had a reason back then.

Finding the magazines

Last year, I picked up a Gen 5 Glock 19 MOS and dug out the ole Box O’ Glock mags to head to the range. The two loaded KCI mags were still in the box.

Doing a little mental math, I figured they’d been loaded for at least 12 years. I decided to keep them loaded for one more year and then see how they fared.

The magazine spring results speak for themselves, along with the fact that certain Mexican ammo sure does get really smokey after more than a decade of storage.

As you can see, both magazines functioned with no problem.

Although it’s a case study of one, I figured if two aftermarket magazines run fine after all these years, long term storage of loaded pistol mags is a non-issue for me. (Magpul magazines are another story for another time.)

Inspect your gear

As a related side note concerning magazines, while getting ready for the range test, I noticed that one of the baseplates had a hairline crack in it.

I can’t say when it happened, or how long it had been like that, but clearly it held together. A quick swap with a Vickers Tactical Glock Floorplate and it’s back in action.

Just another reason to check your gear on a regular basis.

As a child growing up during the 80s, it’s no surprise my first “gun crush” (and likely MANY others like myself) was a Beretta 92. Martin Riggs and John McClane did for Berettas what “Dirty Harry” Callahan did for S&W Model 29s. It wasn’t until relatively recently that I finally picked up one. Now, there are three in my safe. They seem to multiply.

My first Beretta was a 92G. Anyone will tell you, once you go “G”, you never go back. For those of your not familiar, on “G” models the safety lever acts only as a decocker. When my father passed away, I inherited his M9A1. It was completely stock and I intended to leave it that way.

After a while the thumb safety started bugging me, so I order the “G” conversion kit. While I was at it, I figured I’d drop in the seemingly-mandatory “D” spring as the factory trigger pull, well… stunk. And while I was at it, might as well bling it up with some Wilson Combat grips, steel guide rod.

So much for keep it stock!

About this time Ernest “Ernie” Langdon with Langdon Tactical Technologies came out with his Trigger Job In A Bag. Touted as equivalent to 90 percent of his custom gunsmith work, it had my attention. When it comes to gunsmithing, Ernie is to Berettas what Bruce Gray is to SIGs. For $165, it was almost a no-brainer decision.

Langdon Tactical’s Beretta 92 Kit Includes:

• Wilson Combat Ultimate Trigger bar
• Elite II hammer
• Sear
• Sear Spring
• Trigger Spring
• Hammer Strut
• Wilson Combat Reduced Power Mainspring of your choosing. (12, 13, & 14 pound are the standards options listed – I went with the 12 pound spring.)

(The trigger bar, hammer, hammer strut, and sear come pre-polished and stoned.)

I’ll be honest, before the kit showed up, the extend of my gunsmithing skills had been installing Apex Tactical trigger kits into M&Ps and the occasional deep Glock cleaning. I was a little… anxious, you might say about taking the Beretta all the way apart. However, watching Ernie’s YouTube installation video and one or two others made installation a breeze. I’d venture to say that Berettas are one of the easier pistols out there to work on. Start to finish, installation took me about 45 minutes – and that was including multiple rewinds of the videos.

Langdon Tactical lists the expected trigger pull weights post-install with their corresponding mainspring weight as:

Double Action:

11# : 5.3 to 6 pounds
12# : 5.6 to 6.4 pounds
13# : 6.3 to 7 pounds
14# : 7 to 7.5 pounds
16# : 7.2 to 8 pounds

Single Action: between 3.5 and 4 pounds.

Installation Results – Beretta 92 with Langdon Tactical’s “Trigger in a Bag”

I decided to go with the 12 pound mainspring since shoot the pistol in IDPA. (It’s been stated that you can potentially run into primer ignition issues if you go below 12 pounds.)

I’m here to tell you, his kit isn’t 90 percent of a custom trigger job; it’s more like 98 percent! If you own a Beretta 92, you need to buy this kit!

The double action pull came in at 6.8 pounds, and single action was exactly 3.5 pounds. This was down from the factory pulls of 11.3 pounds and 6.6 pounds, respectively. There was zero, and I do mean zero, stacking in double action mode. To say it was smooth would be an understatement. The single action pull with crisp and clean, with no over-travel.

One thing I didn’t mention was that my 92G was worked on by another well-known Beretta gunsmith, and I’ve shot a few “slicked up” ones as well. I’m here to tell you, LTT’s “Trigger Job In a Bag” is literally a close as you can get to a custom trigger job, without having to ship your pistol off. Yes, it’s that good!

On top of that, it’s probably the best value for a trigger job out there. Just to give you an idea of what an insane deal this is, the parts and springs alone come to almost $130. So for an extra $35, you’re getting professionally polished parts from the leading expert out there on Berettas. I’ll take that every day of the week and twice on Sundays!

Just like Apex triggers kits are “must haves” for my M&Ps, Langdon Tactical’s “TJIAB” is now a “must have” for any future Beretta. If you own a Beretta, you really owe it to yourself to pick one of these up. Trust me, you won’t sorry.

For longer than I probably care to admit, I thought I had a good grasp of what I’d do if the SHTF. Some of you may have thought the same thing, or heard the proverbial lines “If someone breaks into my house I’m gonna (insert tactics here)…” or “If I get into a gunfight I’ll…”

I’m here to tell you, unless it’s actually happened to you, you have no idea. Outside of armed combat, I’d offer the next best thing is Simunition® training.

Full disclosure, I’m high drag, low speed and have never pulled a gun in anger in my life. I shoot competitively and would consider myself a decent shot. That being said, my first sims class was an eye-opening experience. It’s all fun and games until you have to go up against the likes of Jerry Jones, Michael Wray, and Bruce Gray – and oh yeah, they get to shoot back at you!

If you’ve never heard of or experienced force-on-force training with non-lethal training ammunition, think paintball on steroids. Sims uses conversions kits of real life pistols/rifles and a proprietary marking round. They are very accurate at distance, and trust me, you’ll know if you get hit.

Inside Simunition Training

My first sims class was right after I joined the OpSpec ranks. It consisted of five scenarios, all based off of actual real-world situations. While I don’t want to give away too much (and the curriculum has changed a bit), I can tell you that skinning the smoke-wagon isn’t always the best choice. No one wants to hear “Congratulations, you’re going to jail for shooting an unarmed man.”

The force-on-force portion of the class built on two days of learning “tactics” – how to slice the pie, conventional and unconventional shooting positions, light discipline and the like. The culmination of these two days ends with you against two SWAT operators and a multi-time international shooting champ, who’s also a deputy sheriff.

As I mentioned before, not every problem is solved with the gun. It’s more a “thinking” class than a “shooting” class. The motto of our class was “Stupid Should Hurt.” If you were stupid (not applying what you were taught), the hurt would come in the form of catching a sim round or two.

What was amazing was the things I did not do. I vividly remember my first round in the shoot house. Sight alignment and trigger control went right out the window. In a world where you’re held accountable for every round that leaves your firearm, that’s not a good thing. As things progressed, you get a little used to it. But some of those “oh here’s what I’ll do” things just didn’t happen – I was too dealing with the adrenaline, my heart going 180 bpm, trying to process things, all while trying to avoid being shot. I’ll say it will give you a newfound respect for first responders and combat veterans.

As a minor aside, one thing that has stuck with me over all these years is just how heavy a fully loaded Glock 19 can be. Holding it out at arm’s length for 10+ minutes while clearing a shoot house makes a 30oz gun feel like 50lbs.

Honestly, I’m quite surprised force-on-force classes aren’t more popular. I personally think it’s one of  the best training classes anyone who carries a gun can take.

Find out for yourself.

Bruce Gray discusses the Bump Drill at an OpSpec Training class in June 2017. The class was held at SIG SAUER Academy, in Epping, N.H.

Seller’s remorse is something most firearms enthusiasts suffer from on occasion. Such was the case with my SIG SAUER® P556. For those unfamiliar, the P556 is a pistol version of Sig’s 556 model semi-automatic gas piston rifle chambered in 5.56 mm. The design lends itself well to a Short-Barreled Rifle (SBR) conversion.

That was the intent of this purchase. Under federal law, a rifle is a shoulder-fired firearm with a barrel of at least 16 inches and an overall length of at least 26 inches. Any rifle with a shorter barrel or overall length is an SBR and is subject to the restrictions of the NationalFirearms Act. I was excited about the project and was perfectly willing to pay my tax and wait for the proper paperwork to be filed.

However, between the mandatory frame engraving, optional legal trust, $200 tax stamp, the criminal legalities of “Constructive Possession,” and all the other legal nuances, I began to get worried. Still, only one of the regulations was truly scary. It’s a federal offense to take an SBR out of its registered state without filling out paperwork and waiting for approval. I was concerned what might befall my wife or daughter if something happened to me and they decided to move out of state without fully understanding the legal requirements.

I couldn’t stand the thought of my girls being held legally responsible for my choices. Granted, the P556 is a fun pistol to shoot, but my primary intention for its purchase was to convert it to an SBR for SWAT and patrol use. The gun did not fit into department policy as a rifle or a pistol in its factory form. With no practical reason to keep it, I sold it and continued to use the more traditional M-4 size rifle with a 14.5-inch barrel (plus flash hider which brings the barrel length to just over 16 inches) at work.

Invention/Introduction

In 2013, Sig somewhat quietly introduced the SB-15 Pistol Stabilizing Arm Brace. It was designed by Alex Bosco of SB Tactical, a veteran of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, to help people with limited mobility enjoy the AR-15 pistol platform. It should be noted that Sig donates $3.00 for every brace sold to Honored America Veterans Afield (HAVA).

This brace slides onto the buffer tube of a traditional AR-15 style pistol and then wraps around the shooter’s forearm which allows him or her to hold the pistol more steadily.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) had ruled in November of 2012 that installing the SB-15 on a pistol does not violate any laws, in itself. Sig sent out documentation of this ruling with each SB-15 it sells. After Sig Sauer put this handy device into large scale production, the shooting public was quick to notice that the arm brace could be used to shoulder fire an AR-15 style pistol.

It wasn’t intended for that use, but the potential was pretty obvious. A lot of us held our breath and our dollars at that point waiting for the other shoe to drop. In March of 2014, the ATF responded to a direct inquiry asking if shouldering a pistol with the SB-15 brace would re-classify it as an SBR. The now highly-circulated letter states firing a pistol from the shoulder does not change its intended purpose and is, therefore, legal. I began to regret liquidating my P556.

Shortly after that, some law enforcement agencies approved the use of AR-15 style pistols for duty use as long as it was equipped with an approved arm brace like the SB-15, and the officer could successfully pass the carbine qualification course with it. I considered buying an AR pistol and adding the arm brace. I even bought most of the necessary parts.

The Party’s Over (or is it?)

On January 16, 2015 just a few days before SHOT Show, the ATF released yet another letter which can be found on the BATF website. That letter seems to very clearly prohibit the use of the SB-15 as a shoulder stock and is obviously contrary to at least two previously released letters. The letter was clear in that contradiction when stating, “Any individual letters stating otherwise are contrary to the plain language of the NFA, misapply Federal law, and are hereby revoked.”

Obviously, the whole thing is confusing. How does the law change two or three times without legislative intervention? Well, it didn’t. It’s just that the agency in charge of interpretation misled the firearms owning public at least once or twice. The problem is now: we don’t know which one to believe.

I stopped by the BATF booth at SHOT Show 2015 to inquire further. We first spoke to an agent who quickly punted us to another agent who, in turn, booted us to one of their attorneys. It was the opinion of the attorney that merely installing a brace on a pistol, thereby allowing it to be shouldered, made it a short barrel rifle and subjected it to NFA controls.

That information was even more restrictive than what the letter indicated. He directed me to, “read the letter” which I told him I had just done 24 hours prior. One of the agents was quick to point out that there were several letters sent out by BATF and not just the three I was aware of. What?  I asked the attorney if shouldering just the buffer tube would have the same legal effect. He said he didn’t want to, “get too far afield” in our conversation and added that his agency was not in the business of hurting innocent people or law enforcement officers.

To paraphrase, there was a mistake on their part and they were just trying to clear it up. I asked if all of those who had taken part in Internet videos shouldering AR pistols with SB-15’s had committed prosecutable offenses. He again said BATF was partially culpable for this confusion and that he, personally, did not see the need to begin prosecutions. The attorney added, though, as the letter becomes common knowledge, that possibility could become more of a reality. At this point, my friend began tugging at my shirt as an indicator that the conversation had run its course. I left more confused than I had arrived.

To be fair, it was obvious on that first morning of the show, people had been throwing rocks at those poor folks at the BATF booth. We found them both professional and gracious. We thanked them for their time.

And Yet Another 180

On March 21, 2017, the BATF seems to have, once again, reversed their opinion. This letter seems to state that the addition and use of an arm brace is perfectly lawful. I think I’ll be waiting for some sort of legislative action before I break out the credit card. I’m not sure how this situation could ever be un-clustered without clear language from the legislature.