As I’ve worked to try to improve my skills – with mild success – I’ve come up with a few things that have really improved my dry-fire practice with Glocks. They may or may not help you, but they have been winners for me.
The biggest thing, of course, is consistency and timing yourself. You need to dry-fire daily to really develop the skills you’ll need to get better.
Continue reading Things I have done to improve my (Glock) dry-fire practice
A reader recently asked me to give the low-down on magazine compatibility vis a vis the Jericho. I’ll go a step further for you, and finally put a bunch of Internet misconceptions to bed based on personal experience.
The Israelis mostly made two types of guns:
Tanfoglio full-size, small frame: BUL Cherokee (gen 1 and gen 2), BUL Storm, all full-size and semi-compact Jerichos
Tanfoglio compact-size, small frame: BUL Storm Compact, Jericho Compact
Read on for my findings, plus some information about BUL M5 magazine compatibility.
I had previously opined that BUL had never released the “official” factory mag sleeve for the BUL Impact. Apparently, this was not quite true, because a pair of 9mm BUL Impacts being auctioned off by Mach1Arsenal on Gunbroker have them:
These appear to work like the 3D-printed ones that I’m using – slip over the top of a full size magazine and just slide them down. There’s no locking mechanism at the top of the heel of the sleeve, which I had theorized might be a way of keeping it permanently connected to the grip. Unlike in the official shots, this sleeve doesn’t seem to be pinned to the bottom of the magazine. It looks to me like these sleeves are what would have been the bottom of the Impact’s grip if it were full-size.
As you’ll recall from my review of the BUL Impact, I loved the pistol, but bemoaned the lack of a way to get a nice flush fit with the full length BUL M5 9mm magazines. There was a product image showing a sleeve adapter, but I had never seen one in the wild.
Well, if you can’t buy it… you build it. Or in my case, you 3D print it.
One mystery that consistently driven me a bit crazy is the subject of whether BUL M-5 Ultra magazines are compatible with the BUL Impact, and vica versa. I finally have an answer. As you can see in the above picture, the difference between the two magazines is the follower. The Impact magazines (seen on the right) have a slightly different follower with a higher left hand side to push up the Impact’s slide stop. The M-5 magazines (on the left) have a “normal” profile follower without the raised edge. You can use either magazine type in either gun, but the M-5 magazines won’t actuate the slide stop on the Impact, and the Impact magazines will require more force to release the M-5’s slide on an empty magazine.
Given that proper Ultra-X magazines appear to be going for astronomical ($100+) prices these days, being able to use DDA mags should be very financially helpful to owners of the Charles Daly M-5 Ultra-X and the Kimber Ten II Ultra.
I guess I missed this because of high holidays, but FAB Defense has announced their 30rd AR-15 and AK magazines under the brand name of “Ultimag”. I’ve heard they’ve been in the wild for a few months, but expect a US appearance soon.
The AR mag is your standard windowed polymer magazine. I assume it is meant for export to non-US countries, given the complete market dominance of the Magpul “pmag” in the USA. FAB Defense might also try to sell them to the IDF domestically – they bought 10k CAA mags a few years back, and I suspect there’s a lot more aluminum magazines to replace given how often they become unusable due to dents.
The AK magazine is similar to Magpul’s MOE AK magazine, which is to say it doesn’t have steel-reinforced locking lugs. On the other hand, it does have a window, which makes it unique. I have had some evolution on my views of the necessity of a window on a magazine, but I admit that it’s a feature which can be construed as reasonably helpful. I am skeptical it will see much take-up in the USA, but I could see buying one for testing.
One of the big advantages of the upcoming Galil ACE line from IWI is the ability to take standard magazines. While I have no particular problem with Galil mags, they’re pretty much proprietary to the Galil (well, and the SiGalil). Being able to use AK, AR-15, and SR-25 (“DPMS-style”) magazines is a big step forward for the Galil platform.
One lesser-known feature of the Galil, though, is that with some work and an adapter, you can get it running AR-15 magazines.
Like most gun owners, I think of being able to share magazines between guns to be a Very Good Thing ™. Not only can new mags be expensive, but it simplifies storage when I can just dump a bunch of them in the same box. Plus, if you live in a mag-cap-limit state, it can be super convenient to be able to use what you’ve got grandfathered in, rather than hunt up 10rd mags.
Therefore, I was interested in finding new ways to use my unmodified Uzi magazines in places other than my Uzi. And, since I am a great lover of pistol caliber carbines and AR-15s, it seemed like a 9mm AR-15 would be just the ticket. There is a product that let me do this: the VM Hy Tech (VMHT) Uzi magazine adapter.
I got an email this morning from Guy Tal over at MagLULA announcing their newest Israeli-made product, the 30-round AR15 / M4 universal heavy-duty Range BenchLoader. It appears to be a polymer cost-reduced version of their existing AR15 / M16 / M4 BenchLoader. Given that this new version has a MSRP of $165 (versus $430 street for the older one), I think it has much more of a chance at succeeding in the market. You can see how it works in this video.
Personally, I’ve always been a little skeptical of the need for this product for individuals – I find that the stripLULA works wonderfully if you get your stripper clip infrastructure in place ahead of time. I would have a lot more use for a cost-reduced variant for AK and/or Galil mags, since neither of those can use stripper clips effectively. (And where is the AK-74 stripLULA?)
The Hebrew Hammer 