Category: Self-Defense

Sir: A question was posted on your site about the ability to use a Glock 23 with a 9mm barrel. It has been my (limited) experience that all that is needed to shoot the gun in 9mm is a replacement barrel and a 9mm magazine. I first heard of this from a friend of mine who is a part time gun writer. I was skeptical but, given the source, I gave it a try. I am not a Glock fan but my then girlfriend was. She shot her Glock 23 more as a 9mm than as a .40 because it …

Mr. Rawles, I read somewhere that there was a .40 S&W to 9mm conversion barrel for a Model 23 Glock. This would not only save me the cost of another pistol, but would give me more versatility with a pistol I am familiar and comfortable with. I assume the barrel would have to be slightly thicker in overall diameter than a standard Glock 9mm barrel to fit a 23 slide. I have been unable to find this conversion barrel. Do you know anything about it? (I realize that a 9mm magazine must also be used.) Thanks for a great web …

Mr. Rawles: I am finding your SurvivalBlog to be of interest. Here’s some info for those wishing to convert their Inch rifles to have a true BHO after the last round is fired with a magazine in place. For several years I’ve used an 1/8 inch roll pin to replace the ground pin. This seems to work out better than a piece of drill rod because the roll pins are already hard, and of course by design are compressed slightly when inserted, so they tend to hold in place better than just a press fit rod. The pin hole will …

Sir: The pin on my L1A1 bolt hold open was cut off. Do you have the part that holds the pin with a pin that has not been cut off? Thanks for the help. – The Texas Aggie JWR Replies: Most countries that issued the L1A1 foolishly specified them without a working automatic bolt hold-open (for after the last cartridge in the magazine is fired), even though it is part of the original design. This specification change was ostensibly done because they didn’t want dirt or sand entering the action when the bolt was held open. I suspect, however, that …

The Gun Owners of America (GOA) recently posted an interesting recap on the importance of privately owned firearms to defend lives and property, vis-a-vis Hurricane Katrina. For the vast majority of SurvivalBlog readers this is like preaching to the choir. But you might find it interesting. See: http://www.gunowners.org/no02.htm

Hey Jim, A gent recently wrote you regarding the reliability of the AK. This is something I can attest to first hand. Kind of a long story so I’ll try to keep it short. My nephew had used one of my Polytech AK’s one weekend he was visiting, cleaned it and gave it back. Let me preface this by saying that I’ve had this particular weapon almost 20 years now and have had no less than 30,000 rounds through it. And yes, the barrel is pretty shot out at this point, accuracy is about 1/3 of what it originally was. …

Mr. Rawles: Glad I found your site…it is a daily read for me. I watched a show that was on Discovery (I think) channel this past weekend, about a special police force in South Africa. Relevant here is that part of the show where they went to destroy certain arms caches left from a war decades ago. The arms were buried under massive rocks, far from civilization. At one point it show a truly nasty AK-47, rusted and just looked like garbage. One of the officers poured a can of oil over it, and in it, worked the bolt a …