The end is near–maybe?
Those of you who remember the post about the New Gun Malfunction and its continuation post have no doubt been waiting for the thrilling conclusion. Well, so have I. While we’re not quite there, the FedEx guy has just moved the story much closer to the end by dropping off a spanking new G30.
I’ve been waiting to do this update until this happened, but as fate would have it, it took a while. Once Glock had my original G30 back in hand along with the video I had shot, one of their armorers took it out and ran 100 rounds through it, and oddly enough, he caught brass in the face. Why this didn’t happen to another armor who fired 60 rounds the last time will simply have to remain subject to conjecture.
The armorer called me and we talked the situation out. I have an odd stance, forced on me by my by being right-handed/left eye dominant. This doesn’t help the situation. We discussed the internals of the pistol–it had the correct extractor and ejector and the appropriate recoil spring assembly. Once all that was disposed of, it didn’t leave much room for tinkering with the original gun. To Glock’s credit, they simply said they were going to replace the gun under warranty.
Folks, that is excellent customer service. That’s how you make and keep happy customers.
Unfortunately, Smyrna didn’t have the first or last G30 Gen 4 pistol in stock. I was offered my choice of several others, such as the G30FS, but I explained to them that I wanted the Gen 4 gun for some specific reasons. At this point, early in March, the next production run wasn’t schedule until mid-March, but I was assured that I would get one of the first guns off the line.
That gun showed up today This one is an LE program gun, witnessed by the blue label on the case, and it came with the full kit–3 mags and so on. So even though this has dragged out a long while, those go a way toward soothing any irritation.
Checking the gun, I also noticed something. I’ve been reading Massad Ayoob’s “Combat Handgunnery” over the last few days, and while I hope to write about it more in depth later, one of the things that struck me was the section on trigger finger position and gripping the gun. He advocates using the distal joint, just as Pat McNamara does in the video I posted a while back. He also advocates a “crush grip”, which is basically holding the gun as hard as you can without shaking. This is what I was taught many years ago and far different than how my grip was changed in later years by other trainers. When I use the crush grip, I no longer have a problem getting that distal joint to the proper location on the trigger. That may just make this gun a keeper after all.
The weather here is warming (finally), so I’m hoping to get to the range this weekend and see if this gun demonstrates any random ejection issues. Cross your fingers. I’ll let you know how it all comes out.
I think that will work when the shooter's hand is large enough to accomplish it.
It's common to see female revolver shooters "go deep" on the trigger, primarily because they don't have the hand strength to operate a DA trigger any other way. The problem occurs when more finger on the trigger forces them to rotate the gun in the hand to get more finger on the trigger because their hands aren't large enough to accomplish it any other way, aligning the grip frame backstrap with the base of the thumb rather than in the palm inside the thumb muscle. This misalignment prevents lining the recoil thrust line directly up with the wrist (and elbow, shoulder, etc.) to transmit recoil thrust to the mass of the upper body through the bones. Anything larger than a .22 is difficult to control well when it's rotated in the hand, causing accuracy to suffer and tires the shooter out faster.
The two available solutions are: 1) shorten the distance between the trigger and grip frame backstrap to accommodate smaller hands, or; 2) increase hand strength sufficiently to allow pressing the trigger directly rearward using the approximate center of the first finger pad. (An additional complication, especially among new shooters, is not understanding, or being able to accomplish, pressing the trigger directly rearward with the index finger instead of squeezing with the entire hand, which is guaranteed to cause unwanted gun movement)
#1 fails because the size of the gun is the size of the gun (although grip frame width – as with double stack magazines – plays a substantial role).
#2 is more easily achieved with hand exercises, and stronger hands are a great benefit to good shooting above and beyond just trigger manipulation. (I've sent many students to Walmart to procure "Shooters' Hand Strength Enhancement Equipment", which Walmart sells in packages of 3 for about $1.50, cleverly disguised as a can of tennis balls; squeezed between the fingers, and not in the palm like squeezing a lemon, a couple weeks of 10 minutes a night will work wonders.)
On a separate note, did, or is, Glock considering high speed video to analyze the ejection pattern of your previous gun? It's an odd enough problem that I'd be curious to know what caused it.
The G30 is definitely among the larger guns in the sub-compact category. I compared it to the Springfield XD Mod 2 Sub-compact in .45 that I bought and it is substantially larger. I can do the measurements if anyone is curious. However, all the Gen 4 guns are built on Glock's smallest frame, which allows them to use those god-awful grip overlay things so that Glock Marketing can say they have adjustable grips, too. I have a G19 and G21, both Gen 4 guns, that I have no problem getting my finger in the right place. I have no clue why the G30 is different.
Ayoob goes over the issue of failing to control recoil when a shooter modifies their grip as you've outlined. He calls it an "H grip". It sort of looks, very vaguely, like a letter "H" when you have a grip on the gun.
The hand exercises I've been working on, mostly because my old friend carpel tunnel has been kicking up. Too much time on the keyboard years ago means I have to be very careful now. If I had known I'd live this long I'd have taken better care of myself. 🙂 I have one of those nifty adjustable spring grip gadgets, and another gadget to work on my wrists.
Ayoob's claim is that trainers have been teaching the "center of the pad" trigger position due to the density of nerve endings there–it allows a competitive shooter to feel the reset of the trigger. His contention is that in self defense shooting it is unnecessary, and that the critical need is to make a smooth, straight back press of the trigger, which is best accomplished by using the distal joint (or the "power crease" as he calls it).
I make no claims as to who is correct. All I can say is that moving from the pad to the distal joint fixed my groups, so I'm going to stick with it. I'll experiment with the rest, same as I do with anything that a trainer asks me to try.
I just wish I had discarded some things sooner. Much sooner.