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Becca Cocks a Saiga AK

 

● The Double Stack Sig P227 chambered for .45 ACP

Sig Sauer P227 Standard Frame

At last year's SHOT Show SIG fans were excited to see a new Sig Sauer pistol.  The P227 is Sig's first double-stack .45 ACP handgun.  It is essentially a double stack version of the P220.

When I saw it for the first time the gun seemed to be a P226 but when I looked down at the label, sure enough, it said “Sig P227, .45 ACP.” I picked it up and thought, “Boy, I would have never thought this was a .45.”

The gun has all the classic looks of the P226 line. Its milled stainless steel slide is mated to an aluminum-alloy frame and an accessory rail allows the mounting of lasers or weapon lights. The slide’s Nitron finish provides a businesslike look that’s attractive, and, it’s a SIG, so the double-action trigger pull is better than most. The usual decocker is there as well. The gun has mildly aggressive texturing on its one-piece polymer grip, with no screws to dig into your hand.

How many of us have considered all of the great features and high quality of Sig handguns but when it came down to the ammo capacity we selected a different manufacturers product?

Sig has finally seen the light and developed a double stack gun.  The P227 has capacity of 10+1 and optional 14-round extended magazines.

The P227 .45 ACP is offered in three models, a full-size P227 with a 4.4-inch barrel, one with and one without night sights, and a 3.9-inch Compact SIG Anti-Snag model with night sights. SIG’s SAS handguns are dehorned, with the sharp corners rounded off, and are intended for concealed-carry and come without a Picatinny rail and with night sights.

The Sig P227 is priced between $890 to $1,085 depending on features.

The P227 will be parts-compatible to a large degree with the P220 and you will be able to swap slides between them.

The P227, SIG is standard with DA/SA (dual action/single action) decocker handgun which is true to the original P220.   Down the road they will plan to roll out with a SAO (single action only) model and a DAK (dual action) model for those crowds, and also an Elite model and a Stainless version.  

Sig Sauer P227 Compact Model

The P220 .45ACP was developed in 1975 to replace the WWII-era SIG P210 standard issue with the Swiss military, and is the first and original model of what is considered today to be the “classic P-series” SIG pistols. All the other designs are derivatives of the now-iconic P220.

We Salute Kalashnikov - The most prolific rifle designer of modern times

Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 rifle, died on Monday in Izhevsk, the capital of the Russian republic of Udmurtia, where he lived. He was 94. 

Born a peasant on the southern Siberian steppe, General Kalashnikov had little formal education and claimed to be a self-taught tinkerer who combined innate mechanical skills with the study of weapons to conceive of a rifle that achieved battlefield ubiquity. 

 

His role in the rifle’s creation, and the attention showered on him by the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, carried him from conscription in the Red Army to senior positions in the Soviet arms-manufacturing bureaucracy and ultimately to six terms on the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union’s legislative body. 

The AK-47 cemented its place in history in the 1960s in Vietnam. There, a new American rifle, the M-16, experienced endless problems with corrosion and jamming in the jungles, while Kalashnikovs, carried by Vietcong guerrillas and North Vietnamese soldiers, worked almost flawlessly.  Many US Solidiers and Marines commented after the war, they were at a severe disadvantage taking their M16 against the Russian AK-47.

Tens of millions of Kalashnikov rifles have been manufactured. Their short barrels, steep front-sight posts and curved magazines made them a marker of conflict that has endured for decades. The weapons also became both Soviet and revolutionary symbols.

The general, who sometimes lamented the weapons’ unchecked distribution but took pride in having invented them and in their reputation for reliability, weathered the collapse of the Soviet Union to assume a public role as a folk hero and unequivocal Russian patriot. 

A Soviet nostalgist, he also served as the unofficial arms ambassador of the revived Russian state. He used public appearances to try to cast the AK-47’s checkered legacy in a positive way and to complain that knockoffs were being manufactured illegally by former Soviet allies and cutting into Russian sales.

The weapon, he said, was designed to protect his motherland, not to be used by terrorists or thugs. “This is a weapon of defense,” he said. “It is not a weapon for offense.” 

General Kalashnikov’s public life resulted from a secret competition to develop the Soviet infantry rifle for the Cold War. The result was the AK-47 — an abbreviation for “the automatic by Kalashnikov” followed by the year the competition ended. 

General Kalashnikov, a senior sergeant at the time who had been injured in battle against German tanks, was credited with leading the design bureau that produced the AK-47 prototype. He saw his fellow soldiers cut down by the German Army's superior rifles, notably the German's MP-40 and STG machine guns.  Kalashnikov survived the war and set out to design an automatic rifle which would give his fellow Russians the advantage on the battlefield.  In 1949, the Soviet Union began issuing a mass-produced AK-47 rifles.

The true AK-47 was short-lived. It was followed in the 1950s by a modernized version, the A.K.M., which retained its predecessor’s underlying design while reducing its weight and manufacturing time.   A bit shorter than traditional infantry rifles and firing a 30 caliber (7.62x39) cartridge midway between the power of a submachine gun and a high powered hunting rifle cartridge, the Kalashnikov line was initially dismissed by American ordnance experts  in their arrogance, said "The AK was weapon of small consequence. It was not particularly well made."  This arrogance lives on today in spite of the AK-47's repeated battlefield proven reliability, toughness and supreme stopping power. 

By this time, in an effort to standardize infantry weapons among potential allies, the Soviet Union had exported the rifle’s specifications and its manufacturing technology to China, Egypt, North Korea and Warsaw Pact nations. Communist engineers would eventually share the manufacturing technology with other countries, including Iraq. 

The design was not patented and AK-47 variants were eventually manufactured in Finland, Israel, South Africa, China, United States, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and other nations.

Because Kalashnikov rifles were principally made by secretive governments and often changed hands in nontransparent transfers, it is not known how many have been manufactured. Common estimates put production at 70 million to 100 million; either number would dwarf the production of any other gun. 

General Kalashnikov we raise a glass in your honor!

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● Ralphie!

Ralphie got his Red Rider Kalashnikov.  It IS going to be a Merry Christmas! 

● COLD WEATHER CARRY: The Fail-Safe Two Handed Draw

During the winter months Open Carry is especially advantageous over concealed carry methods because we often find ourselves wearing multiple layers of clothing. When we must conceal carry it causes issues when we only practice draws from a well-preparedw stance with best-case clothing. With constant practice, a warm-up and perfect preparation, you might be able to draw and fire one or two rounds from concealment in 1.5 seconds. This is a very good time, but few people can do it cold, on demand, even with extensive practice.

Typical range work is infrequently a reflection of reality. I am more concerned with how a person can draw in response to a threat, without a warm up, wearing what they normally wear and carrying, for instance, a bag of groceries across a parking lot. When it comes down to it, I am actually more concerned with identifying the threat at the earliest possible moment and having the will to deal with it, versus developing a good draw to get you out of a situation you could have avoided or tactically and proactively dominated beforehand.

With multiple layers of clothing that can include both pullover and open shirts and jackets, it is easy to fumble the draw. For many reasons, the first draw we teach is often the "fail safe" two-handed draw. It is not the quickest draw, but it is the most certain and adaptable, and it includes elements of other draws allowing the skill to quickly transfer.  

The draw is basically the same with appendix or hip carry. First, reach around both sides of your weapon (for hip carry as far as is comfortable) and crush grip the bottom of your clothing. The crush grip ensures even if you miss the edge of the clothing, you can still pull it out of the way. Using both hands, pull the clothing up high and use your support hand to roll or flip the clothing over. The roll or flip gets the clothing further out of the way and prevents it from slipping back down over your weapon. Your strong hand moves to grip the weapon. As soon your pistol clears the holster, your support hand can release and join in the presentation of the weapon.

Practice this draw from various "unprepared" states, e.g. standing, walking, carrying an item, and seated. Set up four cones in a rectangle in front of one or two shoot/don't shoot targets. Optionally, walk in a figure-8 around two cones or barrels. Set a timer, carry a box or bag and walk around the cones in until you hear the alarm. Drop the item, turn, move as needed to get a clear shot and engage the threat. Gradually introduce more difficulty by incorporating clutter, use of cover, additional don't shoot targets and increasing your tempo.

So practice your draw - a realistic draw based on your everyday carry and wardrobe. Remember: your ability to survive a suddenly erupting, violent encounter is -at least in part- dependent on the extent to which you commit yourself to realistic training ahead of time.