Carry a Man’s Gun and stop whinning

A great comment to the page “Sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs” brought us an issue I’d like to expand on. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from people all across this country the complaint that this pistol or that is too big or too heavy for carry. What a load of crap. All of these “girlie men” are looking at the smallest polymer .32 or even .25acp’s they can find. If they are feeling Hardy that day they might look at a 9mm.

This is one of those things I will say only once so take heed; you should be worried about too little gun, not too much. If you have too little gun you might as well be carrying a BB-gun because there isn’t much difference between the two. For instance, did you know that a .22lr has more energy than a .25acp? I wouldn’t recommend a .22lr for defence…at all. The .25acp is worse than the smaller caliber. If your life is in danger and you pull out either one of those calibers you are a dead man.

One of my favorite things to do, when these full grown men are whining that they won’t own a certain pistol because it’s too heavy, is to pull up my shirt and show them my Springfield Armory 5″ 1911 on my hip. They didn’t know it was here until I lifted up my shirt. Then they see my .45acp hand cannon of a gun and they’re all of a sudden humble. In that moment they went from being the authority on the subject to realizing that they don’t know a darn thing about what they’re talking about.

Then I politely explain to them that I am more confident because I have enough gun to take care of any situation. I don’t have to wonder if I can save myself and my family because the gun itself strikes fear into those it is drawn against. Then I cast my shirt back over the gun and it disappears again.

If you are going to take on the responsibility of concealed carry then carry a gun big enough for the job. This isn’t a “mine’s bigger than yours” issue. You simply need something with enough power to stop illegal aggressions towards you and your family. You will look back without regret at all those long days of inconveniencing yourself with a little heavier gun if you ever have to defend your family. However you will regret not carrying enough of a gun and some dirt bag ends up harming your family even after being shot up with a wimpy caliber. Which would you rather have? A heavy gun or a harmed family?

Now there are lighter guns out there with big enough calibers. Glock, Springfield XD, FNP are all polymer pistols that have .40 or .45 calibers. Both are good choices. Heck I will even through 9mm in there as long as you have good quality hollow points.

So, go forth with a man’s gun and join those of us that dare to proudly carry our guns ready to defend our selves, our family, and out neighbors.

DuraCoat Steps

I wanted to give you some of the basics of DuraCoat. It’s an involved process so I’m going to give you the bare bones basics.

The first thing to consider is what type of gun you have. If you are doing an AR-15 your “prep” work is less involved than many other firearms. The difference is the aluminum receivers and other parts. These are all anodized and receive much of their strength from that finish. It is extremely hard stuff. Therefore, never grit blast the anodizing off or you will compromise the strength of the receivers.

If you have an all steel gun we still have a couple things to consider. It all comes down to weather or not the gun is parkerized or not. Parkerizing and anodizing both are perfect base layers for DuraCoat so you want to keep both of them. If your steel gun is blued you will need to grit blast the old finish off. What you are looking for is a matte finish by media blasting or other finish (i.e. parkerizing). If you have a polished finish the DuraCoat has nothing to stick to and all your work is doomed to failure. Also,be sure before blasting that you plug both ends of the barrel. We don’t want to have a matte bore. Blue painters tape works well for this.

Once you have media blasted your firearm it should look like this rifle. All traces of the old finished removed and only bare metal left.

For the next several steps you want to have it hung where you will be coating it. From this point on never, never, never touch it with your bare hands. Doing so will transfer oils from your hands to the firearm and may compromise the finish in that spot. Always wear latex gloves anytime you need to handle the firearm until the project is finished.

Once every grain of your blasting media is cleaned from the gun (an air hose works well) you are ready for the next step in the preparation process. It’s time to degrease. You may do this with DuraCoat Reducer and a rag but there is a much more efficient way of doing it. While still hung up use what ever you have for a sprayer to hose down the firearm. There are other things you can use to degrease but DuraCoat Reducer is specially formulated to work with the coating. Anything else could also compromise the finish and allow it to chip, peal, and otherwise come off.

Depending on how long the bare metal has set out before finishing (this one over night) the DuraCoat Reducer may discolor the metal. This isn't a problem. It's still clean and ready to be finished.

 You are now ready to coat the firearm. I suggest using an airbrush or HVLP sprayer. You want to use light even spray across one direction and then the other. You may need to do a couple passes to get a good coat and that’s OK. It’s much better than getting too much in one area and having it run. I can talk about the coating process all day long but only experience will get you doing it right. That being said I will leave you with finished pictures of the pieces above with only this more to say, it is an involved process and any mistake can compromise the finish so try it at your own risk. I would still suggest taking it to someone qualified to do the job and make sure that person knows he needs to do the clear coat for added protection.

Desert FAL

I wanted to show you an FAL I recently finished so you could see that DuraCoat can be applied to more than just AR’s. This is one that a customer had me build for him. It’s a DS Arms kit.

The sage brush pattern does well in the shadows

I wanted to highlight how the base color is so close to the color of the grass. Especially when you have spots of sunlight.

Even in direct sunlight the colors in the pattern bleach into the background. Imagin being 100yds away and trying to spot this rifle in the desert.