3rd Annual A Girl and A Gun Annual Conference

Well, they did it again. Another year is in the books for the A Girl and A Gun Annual Conference. Women from all over the US gathered in the Texas Hill Country to enjoy a long weekend of shooting, training, and sisterhood. This year's conference took place in Marble Falls at The Retreat at Balcones Springs and Copperhead Creek Shooting Club. The Retreat was a beautiful and peaceful setting for classroom training sessions, vendor shopping, and bonding while Copperhead Creek was full of things that go boom.

The second day was Demo day at the range. Several firearm manufacturers came out to show the ladies what they have to offer and to put their products straight into their hands. There were representatives from Glock, Remington, and Viking Armament to name a few. Gene spent that day at the range. Part of his day consisted of helping run the mock IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) stage for the conference participants. I, on the other hand, spent the day at the retreat center checking in all the vendors and helping them get set up.

Friday was the first "official" day of conference. On Friday and Saturday, the ladies took turns taking classes at the retreat center and at the range. The instructors came from various shooting backgrounds ranging from Firearms Instructors to Professional Shooters. There was an even wider variety of trainers and speakers this year, some of which are personal friends of ours. The list of instructors is too long to name but a few of them were Anette Wachter, Gabby Franco, Kathy Jackson, and Janna Reeves. Some of the classes offered were Precision Rifle, Adaptive Sight Alignment, Shooting Under Stress, and Extreme Malfunction Drills to name a few.

Gene and I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as range support staff which involved anything from setting up bays, providing participants and instructors with things they needed to any other miscellaneous chores that needed to be done. When were weren't working as range staff we were Safety Officers for Gabby Franco, BJ Norris, and Mark Passamaneck.

I just barely got to meet Gabby Franco last year, so it was a thrill to be able to spend a day with her this year. Gabby's husband, JD, was there working a Safety Officer alongside us and he is a pretty cool guy. The two of them just moved to Texas, so maybe we will be able to see more of them in the future. BJ Norris is a professional shooter who has racked up an amazing amount of competitive shooting awards.

Mark Passamaneck, the President of Carbon Arms, was there to teach Competitive Shotgun Loading classes. Since Gene and I are in the process of getting into 3 gun, it was very fortunate that I was able to pick his brain about what the different types of shell carriers. What was even better is that he brought some shell carriers with him so we were able to directly purchase some from him. The shell carriers were the last piece of the 3 Gun puzzle that we needed to solve. Ok, maybe the last piece is practice and we are working on that.

On Sunday, all participants had one last day of classes at the range. Once the final class was over, we stayed behind for several more hours breaking down the bays, packing up, and picking up loads and loads of shotgun shells. There is one thing I can tell you, these women like to shoot. Then again so do we. There were shells and brass everywhere. I can't even conceive how many rounds of ammunition were fired over the weekend. I can definitely say that everyone had a good time.

Even though it was a working conference for us again, we had a really good time and we were very happy to be able to spend some time with some of our local and long distance friends and of course each other.

Here is a link to our Dropbox account with our pictures from this year's conference.
Dropbox link for 2015 Conference pictures

Clay Holders - On A Budget

We are always looking for ways to save money since we are always having to buy for two. Aside from guns and gear, another thing that gets really expensive is targets to train with. We were at Lowes one day and I saw something that might actually work to hold clay targets for training with a shotgun [or pistol]. What I stumbled upon were actually metal stakes that are used for holding electric fences. They are shaped in such a way that they hold the clays just right [Figure A]. And when they get hit they are not harmed because they are metal. They do have a rubber coating at the top end but ours have taken a lot of abuse and are still holding up [Figure B].

 Putting them in the ground is easy to do since they have a dual prong at the base that has a plate built in so you can drive them into the ground using your foot [Figure C].When you first start to use them you may have to spread the curled end a little so that it actually holds the clay. Also, since clays are so fragile, be careful when putting them on the stakes. With continued use you will get the hang of it. The stakes only cost a few dollars and should be easy to find. Hopefully this will be a welcome addition to your training equipment and a more economical way to train with your shotgun especially if practicing for 3 Gun competitions. Happy shooting!

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

Polymer Dyeing: The Making of Christy's Purple Mags

Have you ever wanted to change things up a little and change the color of your mags and other polymer parts. This can be done for a change of pace or just to mark polymer mags to set them apart from others at the range. That is generally when we bust out the trusted can of spray paint and give it a quick color change. The problem with this is in just a short amount of time, with average use the part will be in need of a new paint job. While this method is quick, it is not the longest lasting option. You could take the parts to someone for them to Duracoat it, but while it lasts longer, it is not the most economical option.

I have a tan Arredondo magwell on my AR and the color did not really go with my rifle. I remembered reading an article once about dyeing polymer parts using hot water and RIT fabric dye so I decided to give it a try. Taking something from tan to pure black takes a while but it was definitely worth it. No one can tell that the magwell was ever another color besides black. Dyeing the polymer part was a lot cheaper than buying another magwell and it will last a lot longer than painting it ever would.

Dark Earth versus the new Sand color

Recently Christy got a purple handguard installed on her AR but it needed a little something to balance it out so I filled in the lettering on her gun with purple paint [it was previously pink]. She was still wanting a little more color but not necessarily on the rifle itself. When we were getting her front end put on her gun we saw Magpul P-Mags that were a really pale color . Magpul calls this color "sand". These were much lighter than dark earth and we were told Magpul did this so the mags could be dyed a different color. Remembering this Christy thought the perfect thing to do was to dye her mags purple to match the gun.

A quick trip to the gun store to get the mags and then to Hobby Lobby to pick up some purple dye was soon underway. We wanted to have them done before the 2 Gun match on Sunday so there was no time to waste. I could have dyed our existing tan P-Mags but decided to get the lighter color mags to make things easier. If you want to try this dyeing technique, make sure you start of with light colored polymer parts such as sand, tan or foilage green. I'll state the obvious here....black parts cannot be dyed!

Everything you need

Once we got home I grabbed my metal tongs, cooking thermometer, a large pot, a measuring spoon, the mags and the dye and we were ready to get started. We knew that it would be impossible to exactly match the mags to the color of the handguard but we were going to try and get close. It took some trial and error to say the least. We started out with the dust covers for the mags to test the color. We only had three of them so we had to make each one count. Once we found the color that we were happy with it was time to start on the mags themselves.

Strip the polymer of metal parts

We started by disassembling the mags and removing the spring and follower. You want to remove any hardware from the parts that you are dying and strip the part down to the polymer itself. It is generally good to wipe down the parts with rubbing alcohol to remove any oils that may be on the polymer.

Use the right sized pot

Make sure you use a pot that is large enough for the part that you are dying to move freely in but don't use one that is too big since you will have to use a lot more dye to get the color correct. Heat the water to between 150-170 degrees [hotter is not always better]. Add the dye to the water and mix thoroughly. The amount of dye you use depends on if you use the powdered or liquid dye and it is generally a good idea to start off lighter at first and then adjust the color as you go to suit your taste. We generally use one teaspoon of liquid dye to 6 cups of water to start with.

You don't necessarily need to add a ton of dye to the water because the amount of color soaked into the polymer is also affected by the amount of time it spends in the dye solution. We would carefully dip the part into the water and then set the timer for a minute. We would then use the tongs to pull the part out of the water to check the color. We did this minute by minute on the first part (dust cover) to test the overall time it took to get the color we desired. We achieved the color we wanted at about 8 minutes. Now, keep in mind that as the part dries and cools the color will start to get darker. It is a good idea to let the part cool fully before you make your final decision on the color.

If you want to get creative, you can dye the parts two or three different colors. Also, you can use vinyl tape cut in patterns to make your own camo. One other technique that I tried was wrapping the mags in a plastic shopping bag [held in place by rubber bands]. The mags will look like a different purple in the pictures even though we used the same dye. The reason for this is we did not have any more of the sand colored mags so we used tan Magpul mags. The darker mag color will make for a different shade than the sand obviously.

Using the bag technique will not call for anything different than if you were dyeing a solid color. The plastic bag will cause there to be more of a tiger striped effect which looks really cool. Magpul has a Youtube video that shows them making dyed mags using the bag technique using a big pot and a campfire. I would suggest being a little more structured than that so you can be consistent with your colors. It's a good video nonetheless!

I almost forgot, if you are not satisfied with the results of your dye job or eventually want to change the color out again, you can actually bleach the mags back to almost their original color so you can then start over. This is done by mixing 1 parts bleach to 2 parts water in the same size pot that you originally used. Heat the solution up [in a well ventilated area] to around 140-145 degrees and then let the part sit until you see most of the color come back. This happened for me generally at the 20-30 minute mark. As soon as you drop the part in the bleach/water solution you will notice the color lighten up. If this is all you are trying to achieve then you are done at this point.

Regardless of what color you decide on or what technique you decide to use, we think that adding this dying method to your bag of tricks will be a cool way to set your gear apart from others. Remember, get creative and have some fun!

Minute 1

Minute 4

Minute 8

Heligunner at A Girl and A Gun 2015 Conference

Not only was this the third year for the A Girl and a Gun Conference, but it was also our third year working the conference. Just like last year, the conference started out with our first day with Heligunner. We were able to work as safety officers again and enjoy watching the participants get a thrill out of shooting at targets out of a Little Bird MD 500 helicopter.  For most of them it was their first time, but there were a few that were hooked last year and just had to come back for more. Of course we got to spend time in the chopper as well which is always a great time!

A separate blog about conference is soon to come. For now, here is a link to our Dropbox account of the pictures from the Heligunner event. There was a glitch with the link, but it is now working. Enjoy!

Heligunner Dropbox pictures link

Gun Connection Gun Store, Taylor TX

Recently we were on the hunt for some .22 wmr and were having horrible luck finding any. A good friend of ours told us that we should check out a new gun store in Taylor, TX since he has picked up some there before. We called them up and sure enough, they had some! From where we live it is a nice little trek to get there but we needed the ammo for the next day. After about a 45 minute drive we arrived at a small, but nice strip mall on the side of the highway. At first glance the store did not look that big but then we quickly realized that it was wider than we initially thought. As we approached the door we were buzzed in and you could hear the locking mechanism release. I said to Christy, "They must have some good stuff inside!". She just giggled [it's the small things in life that please us].

As we walked in the door we were immediately greeted by a warm, welcoming female voice. As we glanced around to get our bearings we saw two employees. One was helping customers at the gun counter and the other was accessorizing a new AR purchase for a couple in the store. This is the first time I had ever walked into a gun store and the first thing you see is a gunsmithing area right up front but I must say, I was impressed by this. I could tell by the grin on Christy's face that she was also. The store is very clean and well laid out. You are met with a nice selection of firearms accessories as soon as you walk into the door.

They have a great variety of firearm accessories at the front of the store including holsters, slings, plenty of AR furniture, mags and tactical gear. Like most people, we glanced at some of the prices to know if we could even afford to shop here and we were pleasantly surprised since there was no price gouging going on! So far so good! I really liked their range of accessories as it was stuff that I would carry if I had my own store. I HATE to order anything!

Next we moved onto the cleaning supplies and I was not disappointed, at all. My pet peeve is going into a gun store and seeing one shelf dedicated to cleaning supplies. These stores have 100 guns, accessories out the wazoo but then they only carry 2 types of cleaner, a jag/brush combo and some one size fits all cleaning patches. I don't know about the rest of you but I take cleaning our firearms as seriously as I do shooting them and I like finding everything I need in one place. I have to say, this is the place! This is the same gun store that I purchased the SLIP 2000 Carbon Killer from that I just wrote a review on.

Now, no visit to a gun store is complete without looking at their selection of firearms. They have a decent amount of pistols that are very well displayed and they actually have price tags on them. The pistols are displayed in cases along a long gun counter. Behind the gun counter there was a generous amount of shotguns, long rifles and AR's that were also well displayed. There were a couple of custom .308 AR platforms that we had our eyes on since we are looking to get Christy a long range rifle soon.

Now, if we did decide to buy one of these rifles for her we would not have to look any further to accessorize it. They carry everything we need to make the rifle long range ready including bipods, scopes and mounts. Now, if I didn't want to do the work myself they would install the accessories for us and set up the scope so there is very little sighting-in that we need to do at the range. They had a nice selection of Leupold and Vortex scopes along with every mount that you may need. They also have a nice variety of red dots as well.

As we were walking around the store I was watching the gunsmith not only mounting the accessories on a AR for the couple I mentioned earlier, but he was also educating them on how to optimize the use of the accessories as well as how to care for the rifle as well. That was nice to see since you don't usually see that kind of service. As soon as Dan was done helping his customers, Christy started talking to him about her AR. The next thing we know he is showing us a wide variety of handguards for her gun. As soon as he mentioned that he can get a ALG Defense handguard in purple, she was convinced she needed one! I was also convinced since he said he would install it for her. We went home later that afternoon, pulled out her AR and then tried to decide what length handguard to order. Christy decided on a 13" handguard in purple and she ordered it a few days later.

The handguard was taking longer than normal to get in but Dan kept us informed along the way. Once the handguard came in Dan gave us a call and we headed up there on a Saturday afternoon. As promised, Dan installed the handguard for her but also educated her on the intricacies of her rifle and how to maintain it. Christy was glued to the front counter watching him install her new handguard. If only I could get her to pay attention to me like that when I am trying to show her how to clean it! haha  Aside from installing the new handguard, Dan went over her rifle to make sure everything was in good working order. I kept trying to get Christy to get a new trigger on her gun and Dan was there helping me to encourage her to do so. He said, "If you buy it, I'll install it!". She put up a good fight and we quickly lost that battle!

ALG Defense also sent Dan three of their new Sidewinder muzzle brakes in the box with the handguard we ordered. Dan said that he was not that familiar with the new brake and asked Christy if she would evaluate one for him. After a brief moment [as what he said sank in] her eyes lit up and she said, "YES!". Dan then installed the brake for her which complimented her new handguard very well. We will be reviewing the muzzle brake soon but until then I will sum it up in one word, "AMAZING!". Not to be outdone, I bought a Lantac Dragon muzzle brake for my rifle and Dan quickly installed it on my gun. It makes a huge difference on my rifle compared to the muzzle brake that I had.

To sum things up, we feel blessed that we found this great gun store and even more blessed to meet a wonderful couple like Shawn and Dan. We always love meeting other couples that are involved in and are passionate about the shooting industry. Not only do they run an amazing store, they are also a couple that shoots together just like us!