Monthly Archives: "April 2019"

Ok, so you bought your first gun…now what? This week’s Technical Tuesday is for the new shooters out there with some recommendations of what you should do and what to focus on to get started in shooting sports with your new pistol.

Start out by reading our manual–we know, this sounds like a given, but we did put some extra practical information into our manual, such as an introduction to pistol marksmanship and additional, real-world safety practices. For those of you who are new shooters who didn’t buy an MR918, we will be publishing this information in the coming days on our blog. Check back here for links.

Understand the safety rules, and then don’t ever lose respect for those safety rules.

There is no replacement for good instruction. Go to your local range and ask them if they have an instructor on staff or if they work with an instructor that they recommend. The NRA also has a nation-wide training program, which could be a great resource for you. Get someone who knows what they’re doing to teach you.

Once you’ve had some instruction and you’ve learned your techniques and you want to get better, here’s the secret. You actually don’t need ammunition to get better with your shooting techniques. Most competitive shooters will tell you that they actually got better and got faster with dry firing. Work at home with your unloaded pistol to run through your techniques and drills until you feel really comfortable with them. Use dry fire as a very inexpensive way to get better at shooting.

You still need to go and shoot live at the range to solidify those techniques. If you are trying to choose to spend your money on the next cool gadget or buying $200 in ammunition to go practice at the range, buy the ammo. Practice will do much more good for you than the next new gadget.

As always, if you have any other questions or just want to talk shooting with our team, give us a call at 469.458.6808.

Taran Butler and Jade Struck visit with the Shadow Systems team and take a look at the MR918, Shadow Systems Barrels, and the new Trijicon SRO optic.

 

Today’s Technical Tuesday is focused on something that may sound boring and mundane but is very practical! Let’s talk about how to load magazines. Today, we will be sharing firearm basics for making it easier to load mags, how to load magazines for maximum reliability, and how to maintain your magazines for longterm reliability. Since magazines can be one of the most common failure points in a firearm, we feel like this discussion could be helpful to everyone.

Firearm Basics

We’re using brand new Magpul magazines, which some folks think can be a bit difficult to load, especially as you’re loading higher round counts into the mag. We like Magpul magazines for two specific reasons: 1. Magpul magazines are easy to disassemble and clean. 2. They have a really nice gripping surface for emergency magazine removal.

First tip, how to easily load a magazine. Once you get about 10 rounds loaded, you will find that the magazine will start to feel a bit stiffer. Take your thumb and push down on the top round in the magazine, then hit the bottom of the magazine against the palm of your other hand. Doing this will cause the 10 rounds you’ve already loaded to act as a giant hammer, compressing the spring all the way to the bottom of the magazine, allowing the next rounds to go into the mag much more easily. It’s such a simple trick that can make loading higher round counts much easier.

The second tip when you’re loading a magazine, after you load a magazine, take it and tap the back of the magazine against the palm of your hand. What this does is to seat all of the round to the very back of the magazine, so that the rounds are all positioned in the same way as they are engaged by the slide and pushed into the chamber. This can help with reliability.

How to take care of your magazine

Finally, let’s talk about how to take care of your magazines to ensure they’re going to run when you need them. Maintenance is so important for mags–if you have to choose whether to clean your gun or clean your mag, always choose to clean your mag. The guns will normally run fine if they’re a bit dirty, it’s the magazine that is going to be the weak link. The reason cleaning your mags is so important is because, as the spring compresses, the spring gets twisted into a tight little ball, so dirt or mud inside of the magazine can really cause a problem. Again, why we like the Magpul mags is how easy they are to take apart to clean–depress the detent, and out comes the spring and follower. Get yourself a cloth (Microfiber is great; some guys in the competition world will choose to use a rod and reel cloth that does have a bit of silicon on it). Use a pencil to push the cloth into the magazine and pull it through. This will quickly take out any dirt or debris that has gotten inside your mag. Then take the cloth and wipe along the entire length of the spring, getting every coil. Finally, ensure the follower and detent are seated properly on the spring and reassemble.

Hopefully, you find this helpful! If you have any more questions on how to load a magazine into your gun, give us a call at (469) 458-6808. And please leave a comment with any other firearm basics you’d like us to cover on a future Technical Tuesday!