Calling this the “second half” is a bit of an exaggeration. Truth be told, Tom Jones and I covered the majority of the pistol-related products during the first two days. Thursday and Friday were spent mostly in meetings or just standing around talking with friends.
A few things of note:
Trijicon has joined the u-notch craze with its “HD” sights, but they’ve done it in a way many pistol-training.com readers will really appreciate. The front tritium dot is surrounded by a durable, high-visibility ring of either orange or yellow, while the rear dots have no rings or other visual distractions. Presently, the sights are available for Glocks, SIGs, the Smith M&P, and the Springfield XD.
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The bad news: no plans for a figure 8 configuration; no plans to make them for HK pistols; tritium capsules are all green without an option for more subdued rear option; personally, I’d prefer a little more width in the rear notch given the necessarily wide front blade.
The Trijicon salesman was a little too enthusiastic about the sights, however, telling us that their “military team has taken point-two-oh off their hammer drills using these sights.” If a set of sights cuts your splits by two tenths of a second, there’s a serious problem with your vision… or your shooting technique.
Had a long talk with Stan Chen of ASYM Precision. The quality control steps his company undertakes when producing ammunition is just incredible, especially for a small “boutique” manufacturer. I’m trying to convince him to produce a YouTube video showing the multiple steps in their QC process. For example, every single round gets chamber checked in a SAAMI-spec gauge, pictured at right. Chen modifies the gauge to insure tighter tolerances on overall length. During this step of the process, the inspector also does a final visual examination to assure that each round has a properly positioned primer.
We also checked back at the NLT booth and got a sneak peek at their next model:
(full size S&W M&P SIRT pistol)
NLT is working directly with Smith & Wesson to make some final adjustments to the trigger feel to get it as close as possible to an actual M&P… something Smith should have done itself with its new M&P22 training pistol.
Crimson Trace debuted its new Lightguard, which is their take on a small rail-mounted flashlight. Unlike the traditional universal-fit rail lights, however, each Crimson Trace Lightguard is custom designed for a specific weapon platform and includes a built in grip switch so the light’s activation is automatic whenever you grab the gun (which will no doubt be very controversial in some circles). Also — and you did not hear this from me — I confirmed with two separate sources that CTC has a prototype P30 Lasergrip that may come to market if they can overcome some fitting issues.
Chiappa Firearms had its new Rhino revolver on display. The Rhino has garnered a lot of attention for its unique approach to the traditional wheelgun. Instead of the barrel aligning with the top chamber in the cylinder, it lines up with the bottom chamber. Essentially, this dramatically lowers the “bore axis” of the gun more than any semiauto could achieve. A slick cylinder release and very smooth trigger (courtesy of an internal hammer mechanism) reportedly combine to make the Rhino a very shootable sixgun. It will be interested to see how the height-over-bore issue plays out. One well known gun blogger has already told me he’s going to try to win a F.A.S.T. coin with the Rhino!
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
(Rhino photo from Chiappa Firearms; all other photos courtesy Tom Jones)
Anyone who can do the FAST drill under 5 with a revolver is a stud. I don’t care how low the bore-axis is.
Seems like I’ve seen that bright ring around the front sight dot before.
Why are they so dead set against HK sights?
My bet is on Caleb being the “well known gun blogger” and my money is on him reaching his goal. What great publicity for them if it happens.
Given how little the typical rep know about anything, I’m sure that the Trijicon guy doesn’t know the difference between a hammer and a controlled pair. Last time I checked, sights are only used on the first shot of a hammer, not both, so a .20 reduction in time would seem to be even more impressive (or his shooters are just learning to shoot) than if it was a controlled pair.
Robbie — Both the Trij and Ameriglo guys I spoke with said the HKs simply don’t sell in large enough quantities to create demand nearly that of the others.
SLG — If we begin with the premiss that the rep didn’t know what he was talking about, ascribing any meaning to the claim seems overly generous. Let’s face it, the viability of the sight will need to be proved by shooters, not sales reps. I’d definitely like to get a set to play with.
wow, what equals “enough” in their silly little world? given the ease of manufacture these days I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t sell enough to offset their setup costs. Given that a friend of mine just setup a much more complicated design, complete with custom extrusions, jigs etc, and he’s supplying a small market. yet he’s going to recoup costs within a few hundred units. Manufacturers that don’t want to make money just baffle me.
Those Trijicon HD sights sure do look a A LOT like Ameriglo’s Pro Glo/Hack design that’s been out and on the market for quite a while now…
Looks to me like S&W isn’t the only company having trouble coming up with fresh ideas of their own…
“Anyone who can do the FAST drill under 5 with a revolver…”
…probably has a Louisiana accent. 😉
The reports I’ve read of the Rhino have said that the trigger pull is unbearably heavy and also very inconsistent. Have they done something to fix this since they were first released last year?
Yeah, I was really kind of disappointed that the trigger was reported to be so bad in double action, because otherwise it sounds like a very shootable and innovative gun.
H&K needs to standardize on one dovetail dimension for all of their pistols.
That’s the big problem with sights for H&K’s.
To expand further on my previous post.
I wish the industry as a whole would standardize on a dovetail cut for pistol sights.
It would make life simpler for everyone.
I had a police trade in SIG 229 refinished in cerakote. The guy that did it carries a Glock 21 with a front sight outlined with the bright orange finish. I was really impressed with how the bright orange caught the eye. Grand total of $25.
According to the Rhino guys I talked to, including Mr. Chiappa himself, the Rhino has two different trigger modules that will be available. The snubbies have a heavier trigger that stacks a bit, and the target models have a lighter trigger. The 6 inch target model I shot at Media Day actually had a really nice DA trigger.
I want one of those NLT M&Ps in the worst way…
Caleb — Everyone I spoke to who’d test fired the media day Rhino was impressed with the trigger. I definitely think it’s doable.
CR — They’re supposed to be sending me one (and one of their AR bolts) once it’s ready for prime time. You’re welcome to borrow it.
I think most people refer to a “Hammer” as two shots with one sight picture, but I’ve heard old timers refer to a Bill Drill, reload, Bill drill as a “Hammer Drill.” That could have been what the guy meant.
wonder if they are going to make any DA SIRT pistols?
A friend of mine works for Trijicon and hooked me up with a set of their new sites. They’ll go on my Gen4 G19 this week and hopefully I’ll be able to report back with what I think of em soon.
“I confirmed with two separate sources that CTC has a prototype P30 Lasergrip that may come to market if they can overcome some fitting issues.” Awesome news, hopefully they can get the issues worked out.
Todd,
Newcomer to the website here, great work. These sights caught my eye, so to speak. I have trouble keeping focus on the front sight in 3 dot sights – my focus seems to jump back and forth from the front to the rear, the faster I want to break the shot the worse it is. I shot a gun with the xs sights and liked it a lot, and I also saw your comments about them. Do you think that this kind of sight would help me out? Thanks.
Jeff — If you are changing your focus repeatedly, changing sights won’t help nearly as much as changing habits. Do something like the Wall Drill slowly with your mental and visual focus on the front sight. Make the front sight a habit.