Cleaning a 1911 Pistol
Tonight I cleaned my Kimber Stainless Steel Raptor II for the first time.
Ok so you cleaned a pistol - Big Deal!
It isn’t the actual cleaning that merited a post it is what happened. Sitting at the family dining table cleaning my pistol when I turned the barrel bushing and the spring plug shot stright up into the light above breaking the globe. Note to self: Spring may be under pressure causing the spring plug to rocket into the air at the speed of light.
Now not only do I have a mangled 1911 spring plug I have to replace a globe in the light. The replacement globe is probably $4 where the plug is $10.50 from Kimber plus an insane $7.50 in shipping.
Lessons learned today - Don’t clean guns on the kitchen table. Wear safety glasses at all times. Get mechanics gloves (cut my hand cleaning glass).
Plugs HatTail Headwear - Review
A while back I was contacted to do a product review. When I read about Plugs HatTail Headwear’s Plugs hat I was a bit skeptical. In fact when I read about it I chuckled a little. As always open minded and willing to try anything once I obliged. It took a couple read of Tom Duffy’s e-mail to decide weather it was spam or not.
You can see if you read it too:
Hello,
I came across your blog today by way of google. I am really impressed. There aren’t many good shooting blogs for sport shooters out there! Anyways, my name is Tom Duffy and I am involved with a company called HatTail Headwear. www.hattail.com
HatTail Headwear has a product called Plugs. Plugs offer a unique feature built into the hat specifically for shooting. The feature is a built in ear plug for each ear. The ear plugs are rated specifically for shooting (-27db) and when retracted they hide nicely inside the hat to maintain some sense of
fashion.The reason that I’m contacting you is to see if you would like a sample hat to review on your blog. If you would like one, just email me at tom@techremedy.net and I will send you one. The main thing that differentiates this from a normal request for a product review is that I’m not asking for a GREAT REVIEW! I’m asking for an honest review. This product is new and not very well known yet. We have so much confidence in the product that we know when it becomes more well known, people will like it.
Please let me know if you are interested in a sample. Either way, I was so impressed with shootingsportsblog.com that I will be a continued reader and will definitely share the site with my other shooting buddies.
Thanks for the great blog!
Tom Duffy
As a disclaimer I was in no way paid for this review and to keep my integrity this is 100% honest.
My first few thoughts about the hat before ever seeing it 1) Where is made 2) What about replacement ear plugs 3) What about hygiene
I found out the hat is made in China and custom work is done in Stockton, California. Replacements are readily available and most any brand can be used. The verdict is still out on hygiene. Being directly attached to the sweat band of the hat bacteria and germs could build up and cause ear infections - problem with any ear plug.
In truth I am a bit of a connoisseur of hats. I give the hat a tolerable comfort level, on my head. The bill of the hat needs a little work as it seems to be a bit flimsy. The material of the crown or bucket part was of good quality in a 5 panel style. It is a one size fits all adjustable hook-n-loop closure. I like the concept in fact I love it. But some changes need to be made for me.
I would like to see the same concept held into a an unstructured under armor type of hat. s-m-l-xl stretch fit. Also gives more options to embroider on too. A newer more stylish hat.
All in all I think the has great potential and would like to do a more detailed review and propose the next line of plugs hat. But for the time being the product I reviewed is a good. For a day at the range in style the plugs hat meets the need. What would be really cool is get these hats and give them out in the goody bag at the matches along with the t-shirts.They will also let you design your own hat for a personalized cap.
In attempt to put together a video with my new video equipment I made an attempt at making a video demonstrating the plugs. What do you think?
Shooting the XDM
Over time I have assembled a collection of post about the Springfield XDM. I have done a torture test, a review, posted pictures, and others. But something I haven’t done yet is fire at night, low light situation, or posted video of me firing it. So on Wednesday I did both with the YouTube result below.
What do you think? Will you be purchasing one?