U.S. Concealed Carry Weekly Newsletter February 6th, 2007 Dear Friend,    Ah yes... Here is a "Cheaper Than Dirt" Catalog. When I open it's pages, I get sucked into some sort of time-eating worm hole! Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been sucked into the "Cheaper Than Dirt" time-eating worm hole? Some of you are nodding your heads in agreement. You know what I'm talking about! ;-) For the rest of you, here is a little more explanation. Every three weeks or so, I get a "Cheaper Than Dirt" catalog in the mail. This is a simple catalog with all sorts of firearms related gear and accessories. Some of it is really just junk, but a lot of what appears on the pages of this catalog is pretty neat stuff! The funny part of this story is that each catalog has almost exactly the same products. They're just moved around a little bit! Nonetheless, I find myself spending a lot of time reading these darn catalogs. One time I bought a whole box of M14 chamber brushes. When the pakage showed up I was surprised to find over 100 chamber brushes in the box! I don't know WHAT I'm going to do with all of these... I think 3 of these brushes will keep my M14s clean... for the next 10 years! Oh well... I'm sure some of you can relate! Quote of the Week Sometimes a good quote will inspire or motivate you. Sometimes, they'll just put a smile on your face! Here is the quote for this week... "You cannot arm slaves and expect them to remain slaves, nor can you disarm a free people and expect them to remain free." ~Don Cline - USCCA Member Well said, Don. Thanks a lot for sharing this quote with us. Tim Concealed Carry Magazine Here are some highlights of the current issue of Concealed Carry Magazine. CCM is the official publication of U.S. Concealed Carry... You should have received your January issue of Concealed Carry Magazine by now. I think this cover photo may be my favorite one yet! This issue is jam-packed with great articles. The article on handgun safes was excellent and George Hill's review of the CZ100 was fantastic. Gabe Suarez writes an excellent article about school shootings. (This article might be a little controversial!)    Here is the latest issue of Concealed Carry Magazine. I think this might be my favorite cover photo yet. Gun & Gear Review Here we go! My favorite part of every "Tip of the Week". This is where we get to look at some neat and interesting guns and gear. Be sure to send me a message if there is something you'd like to read about in this section. Click here to go to our contact form. Tim's "SureSight" Project Well, my SureSight project is finally complete! After a few hours in front of the ol' workbench, I'm ready to give you a full report on this interesting product. Installation: I've installed many sights on many guns, so I'll have to admit that I was a bit surprised when the installatin process did not go perfectly. Believe it or not, but I started by reading the directions (something I rarely do). The first thing I noticed was that there was no installation wrench included with the sight. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but I don't know where you'd find a wrench like the one you'd need to install this sight. As luck would have it, I just happened to have one of these wrenches from the last set of sights I installed. (NOTE: I asked Chaim Stein about the "no wrench policy" and he explained that he is trying to encourage professional installation by a gunsmith.) Here is my Glock 21 and my tools waiting patiently for me to begin the installation process. You can see the old sights that I just got done removing. Moving on... Once I found my tiny little hex wrench, the front sight went on easily. As you can see in the close-up picture, the front sight is expertly machined. Both leading and trailing edges are beveled and raked to minimize snagging. Compared to most front sights, this one is nice and big. The upper triangle tip is painted onto the steel sight with an extremely durable, high-visibility yellow paint. Here are some close-up shots of both the front and rear sights. I was very impressed with the machining and material surface quality of both components. Installing the rear sight was a little bit more of a challenge. The directions explained that I might have to file a bit of the dovetail material away for the sight to fit. As I read this I thought to myself, "I can either file the dovetail down or just use a bigger hammer!" ;-) I tried to tap the sight into place without any material removal. This did not work. I spent about 20 minutes carefully filing and testing, and filing and testing, until I had the rear sight perfect. I tapped the sight until it was perfectly centered in the rear sight dovetail of my Glock 21. (within a couple of thousandths of an inch.) Here is the bottom line regarding installation of these sights. Unless you really know what you're doing, I'd find a good gunsmith to install them for you. Dry-Fire Testing: With the SureSight sights finally installed, I took a few steps back and looked at my handiwork. I liked the way my gun looked. I thought the sights might look big and clunky. That was not the case at all. The expert machining and the high quality surface finish complemented my firearm just fine as far as I was concerned. I grabbed the gun and brought the sights up to my focal plane. The sight picture of the SureSight is simply fantastic. Your mind naturally wants to complete the picture of the "triangle". Getting your sights alinged with the SureSight is very intuitive. Hmmm... this is really interesting. As I stared down the length of the slide, I was rather impressed with how natural and intuitve the sight picture seemed. As you can see in the three sight picture images, it is pretty obvious when the sights are aligned. This whol triangle thing is not some gimmick... it actually works. ** NOTE ** The inventor of this sight sent me an article that explains why this whole "triangle thing" works. You can click here to read the article. As I performed some standard dry-fire tests, I tried to focus on the front sight as well as the target. I was intrigued at how easy it was to align the sights while my focusing on my target. This is counter to a lot of current "front-sight" theory. I thought to myself, "I can't wait to take this to the range and actually shoot it." Range Testing: It is REALLY cold in Jackson right now so I didn't shoot the gun for too long. Heck, my hands were about ready to freeze off. Nonetheless, I DID manage to fire a couple of boxes of cheap W3 ammo (Walmart-Winchester-Whitetox). It was really FUN to shoot with these sights. I think this Chaim Stein guy is really onto something. I was simply amazed at how easy it was to get the sights in proper alignment while all the time focusing on the target. My groups were as tight if not tighter than they normally are. Final Analysis: I am giving this product a double thumbs up. Here is why. Even though I had to screw around with the installation procedure, most people that buy these sights will have them installed by a professional. The bottom line is that they really work well. They will help you get your gun on target faster, especically when you are experiencing an adrenal stress response. Here is the final product. Not only do these sights work as promised, I also like they way they look on my gun. I am very happy with these sights. In Chaim's article, he explains how most people who've survived a defensive shooting don't even remember seeing their sights. The SureSight is probably the most natural sight to line up while you're focusing on the target. The website for these sights is www.suresight.com. What can you get for ONE dollar?... You really can't get SQUAT for one dollar. But just for fun let's make a list! If you borrow a quarter from your friend you can guy a large cup of coffee from McDonalds with your dollar. You can buy ONE round of match-grade, 168 GR, .308 ammo. You can become a Member of US Concealed Carry and have FULL ACCESS to our members-only website for an entire week for ONE dollar. Yes, you've read it correctly! For a limited time only, I've set up a "trial membership" that will only cost you a dollar. You'll have an entire week to decide if USCCA membership is really worth it... keep reading The Fine Print: This promotion is for the folks who've been reading these weekly e-mails and for some reason haven't joined yet. Now if you take advantage of this generous offer and download the entire website and then cancel your membership, well... let's just say that would not be very nice of you! I won't be able to do anything about it... but you know what they say about "paybacks". Forum Post of the Week The U.S. Concealed Carry "Member Forum" is a place where members go to get advice, exchange ideas or just talk about some pretty interesting topics. Below is my favorite new "forum post" from this past week! Accidental Discharge Had my first accidental discharge yesterday in over 30 years of handling weapons, 21 of them in the US Army. I'm going to post the information here because, while embarassing to me, there is good training value there. A good friend of mine bought a new Colt Defender .45 (compact 1911 style .45, 3" barrel) and brought it over to my house on saturday. This friend is an avid gun collector and we go to shows together, etc. When he arrived we went downstairs into my home office and he handed me the weapon. I checked it and realized he had handed it to me loaded, and proceeded to tell him that was very bad safety, etc. I removed the magqazine, cleared the round from the chamber, pointed it at the floor. CLICK. We talked about his new pistol and compared it to my Springfield Armory Micro Compact .45 and during the course of our conversation I handed him back his .45 and his loaded magazine. As we continued talking I went and put away my SA .45 and while I did so my friend RELOADED his .45 by putting the magazine back into the weapon. We talked a minute more and he asked me to show him the take down method for the Defender, which like my SA Micro Compact requires a clamp over the spring rod to disassemble the weapon. My friend asked me to show him, and handed me back the weapon. As only a minute or two earlier I had handed Rick the weapon unloaded, I confidently took the weapon and moved the slide back about 3/4 of an inch to show Rick the position of the take down clamp. I noticed the slide did not want to go back forward smoothly, but nothing about that clicked with me. Since the hammer had been pushed back during my demonstration I again pointed the weapon at the ground and cleared it. BOOM! You could have knocked us both over with a feather. I hastily unloaded the weapon and inspected the smoking hole in the carpet. The bullet entered the carpet, hit the concrete slab, and traveled about 3 inches from the carpet entry point. The muzzle blast melted the entry point back together and the hole in the carpet in not noticeable. What a lesson for me. I violated a cardinal rule - unless you have personally unloaded a weapon RIGHT THEN AND THERE, do not assume it is still unloaded. I'm grateful that I still had enough sense to have good muzzle discipline. I will be safer in the future. Incidentally, 4 members of my family were upstairs and never heard a thing! Amazing. jw ******************** jw, although embarrassing, thanks for sharing your experience. It reminds us all to be more careful. I can't imagine that your family didn't hear it. I accidently .... keep reading Closing Thoughts Member Feedback: Some of the best ideas, tips and thoughts come from other USCCA members just like you! So if you have something you'd like to share with the rest of us, please don't hesitate to send me a message. Click here to go to our contact form. I have to admit, I was happy to see the Indianapolis Colts win the Super Bowl. Peyton Manning seems to be a stand-up guy not to mention a fantastic athlete. I've been a diehard Minnesota Vikings fan my ENTIRE life. I think this precludes me from EVER cheering for the Bears. Sorry Bears fans. That's it for this week, folks. I wish you and your family, safety, security and happiness. All the best, Tim Schmidt Founder - U.S. Concealed Carry http://www.usconcealedcarry.com P.S - Wow, listen to what our members have to say... Dear Tim, I consider your publication and website the most informative and focused on the issue of concealed carry. Having it in my house has allowed me to address several individuals' questions about concealed carry and what their responsibilities are as citizens. Most importantly, my wife's opinion about carrying for herself has been turned around totally, such that now she is scheduled to take a CCW class after the holidays, and she has begun going to the range with me to practice. Given her travels around the busy city of Houston in her occupation, knowing she can protect herself gives me a lot of peace of mind. I attribute this change in her attitude entirely to U.S. Concealed Carry. Scott Meador Richmond, TX P.P.S. - Here is the USCCA "Picture of the Week".    Here is Mark Walters (The Ordinary Guy) with Wayne LaPierre. P.P.P.S. - Don't forget to check out our Giveaway Sweepstakes! Every month we give away new products to help you be a responsibly armed citizen.