I have to stop and remember, while using the new Arex, just how obsolescent old school my pistols have been, and for how long they’ve been that way. I swapped my worn-out 1911 for a big-bore revolver 12-13 years ago. My concealed carry pistol is a Makarov. It’s not like I’ve never fired a polymer 9, I’m not quite that much of a fossil. But I’ve never owned one. And the differences involve rather more of a learning curve than I expected.
For one thing, I think I want my manual safety back. According to my crappy trigger pull gauge…
The Arex trigger breaks between 7 1/2 and 8 pounds. Which makes me nostalgic for my S&W, which has an awesome trigger. I get why pistol manufacturers tend toward really hard triggers in guns without manual safeties but this seems excessive. So I’m having to re-learn trigger control. Breaks nice and crisp for a striker gun, though, I’ll give it that.
I’ve got about 200 rounds through the Arex now, and yesterday cleaned it for the first time…
…and holy mackerel, how are you supposed to clean powder residue out from between all those little stampings? I never had a gun with anything like that.
And I quickly learned that, like revolvers and specialized screwdrivers, high-cap nines also require an essential tool that damned well ought to come with the gun…
Because loading double-stack single-feed magazines is literally a pain after a while. Glad I was able to find a loading tool in town – the local drug store sells the damndest things.
Happily, I retrofitted my m69 with a red dot going on two years ago so at least I don’t have to learn that from scratch.
Finally: A neighbor who attended my birthday party last Saturday sent me the following picture – photographic evidence if anybody needed it that Joel and Gun Jesus are not, in fact, the same person…
Uh….where the heck did you get kindly eyes?
It’s like those bush babies that look so sweet and cuddly right before they rip your throat out. I’m pretty sure it’s bush babies.
Glocks come with a basic magazine loader. It works.
…but uplulas rock harder.
QHM
Hmmmm. Looks like Gun Moses and Gun Jesus… Happy B Day Joel.
I have found an ultrasonic cleaner to be quite useful in keeping a Modern Plastic Pistol clean (Pro Tip: the Hornady ultrasonic is available in Harbor Freight livery for 2/3 the price). Field strip, immerse everything, set for 30 minutes, remove, blow off with compressed air, immerse/clean again for 5 minutes, repeat compressed air, lubricate gently with a quality lube (I have found a 50/50 mix of Mobile 1 ATF (which is SAE 24.5) and Mobile 1 SAE 0-20 works pretty well and a quart of each seems like a lifetime supply). 100% Simple Clean seems to work pretty well, and a 50/50 Simple Clean/H2O for the 5-minute re-dose works as a “final rinse” but the H20 part does dictate a very thorough air-cleaning and re-lube. I have occasionally used what used to be called 100% Varsol, aka “Deodorized Mineral Spirits” for 30 minutes on very filthy guns followed by the Simple Clean / SC+H2O procedure, but it isn’t as “deodorized” as they would have you believe.
I guess there will always be trade-offs with any firearm. As for cleaning, you may want to pick up a set of gun cleaning picks to get into all those little nooks and crannies.
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Avid-Stainless-Cleaning-Maintenance/dp/B0BT3VJ2PL/ref=sr_1_4
For some reason, I always thought you had Crazy Old Man hair. First time I’ve seen you without a hat.
Tree Mike
I spray my Glock lower with any degreser, let it set for some minutes. Maybe tooth brush it it some. Run hot tap water through the works for several seconds (you may not have good enough pressure), hit it against a wadded up towel to dislodge most of the moisture (compressor works great). Hot receiver drys out right away. It’s never perfectly clean. Lube lightly. I clean my Glock, maybe twice a year. Plastic fantastics really don’t need much care, mainly keep chuncks and sand out of them. Mine is 34 years old, runs great.
Pretty sure you gun is just an improved Glock 17. They are hard to screw up, don’t ever reset your trigger with the slide off, that’s a no-no.
Constantine, they do work well. As a bonus, I clean bike carbs in it, too (OK, that was the reason for buying it, but it works for several things).
Constantine: I’m honored to meet someone who’s even more OCD about action cleaning than I am.
CZ: Before I started buzzing my head bare, the best I could manage was Crazy Old Man fringe. But I did look pretty whacky for my first several years in the desert.