“Put a little color in your carry” writes Everydaycooling over at Everyday Carry.
While I eschew colors (aside from basic black), Everydaycooling implores people to do just the opposite. Given how everything usually stays in one’s pockets, I’m not sure why it matters what colors one’s accessories happen to have.
He has his GLOCK 43 with a +2 mag extension by Taran Tactical.
A “RATS” tourniquet also rides in his pocket. I had not even heard of them until recently. He packs a Benchmade blade as well, a FACT 417 manual-opening blade by that company in Oregon.
Didn’t “everydaycooling” have an EDC pocketdump just the other day with this Glock and a bunch of different gear? Why, yes!
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2019/03/john-boch/a-monday-edc-everyday-carry-pocket-dump-of-the-day/
So my perception is that most of this isn’t what everydaycooling actually carries every day, but is an exercise in still life photography.
Also, that’s a crappy belt. (ETA: Is that even a real belt? I don’t see any holes at the far end. The buckle sure doesn’t look especially sturdy, nor the leather stiff enough.)
I found that the belt buckle is a real thing and not as flimsy as it looks. But it’s also stupidly expensive:
https://www.pvk.vegas/Blackside-Customs-Modular-Belt-Buckles-p/bc.htm
$130 for a rectangular metal belt buckle. Riiiight.
I agree. Everydaycooling’s pocket dumps are just artsy photagraphy. His past photos are filled with clean pristine items without a single sign of wear and tear beaging for attention and parise. Furthermore, his loadouts really doesn’t give the viewer an idea of what works in the real world but rather a what looks pretty in the photography world. His flashlight(s) currently do not add that splash of color, the photography world awaits with great anticipation on what his next week’s edc presents.
So you want a slim 8+1 9mm…
Instead of taking a very concealable Glock and adding a $30 part to it which decreases it’s concealability but gives you that extra 2 rounds try buying a different gun.
Might I suggest something along the lines of a Star BM. 8+1 and, drumroll please, a better trigger so you don’t have to complain or upgrade your Glock! All at a price tag of half or less than the Glock and in a 1911 style package but without the grip safety! A better gun at a lower price and the ability to really tick off the fanboys on all sides!
Star BM: 35 ounces.
Glock 43: 18 ounces.
It could make a difference. My full size Ruger SR1911 in .45 ACP is only 39 ounces and the 4.5″ commander version is only 36.4 ounces, so not really seeing the point of going down to 9mm in a gun that hefty.
Also, Star BM seems like a very nice gun, but I’d prefer it had kept the grip safety.
Because the Star shoots well and has basically no recoil for a 9mm because it weighs that much.
Better trigger (not that I particularly care but a lot of people seem to) in an easier to point (again, other people care) package that recoils less for faster followups. At half or less the price of a new Glock. Plus, the Star isn’t “soulless”.
No, really, it does have faster followups and it negates a ton of the complaints you see on TTAG daily.
I simply don’t see the point in buying a “really concealable” handgun and making it less concealable when you could have just spent less money to get the same thing in something else that is what you turned the original object into. The reasons I generally see for mag extenders are “the gun didn’t fit my hand well and I wanted more ammo”. Uh, OK… then why did you buy that gun instead of one that fit your hand and had more ammo?
Sure, there’s going to be a trade off in most cases but mag extenders on sub/compact pistols are, to me, like buying a Cutlass so you can tear it apart and turn it into a rally car. It won’t work as well and will end up costing more than just buying what you wanted in the first place. Unless the project is what you want I don’t get it.
I also am not a fan of mag extenders, so I understand you on that part. I think the 6+1 of the G43 flush magazine would probably be “enough” for me. I carry a G26, though (or a Ruger LCR!) and am not interested in the G43.
I shoot the G26 well and like the trigger OK. I’m used to it. Its recoil is essentially unnoticable to me. “Soulessness” is not a factor that enters into my buying and shooting decisions. 🙂
I don’t find .45 recoil hard to control, though, so if I was going for a nice SA 1911 style trigger (and I understand why you would), I’d lean toward the .45. I like my SR1911 a lot, I just don’t carry it as EDC.
I still have my Star Firestar I bought in ’93. It has more soul than my Glock 19.
Is the Star striker-fired?
Personally, the only way I’m comfortable carrying a semi-auto deep, as in appendix, is if the first shot is DA…
The BM is a single action with an external frame safety. There’s a bunch of reviews of it on YouTube if you want to see it and how it functions.
My brother bought a Star BKM new back in the 70s. I was not impressed.
Would only feed ammo and after 4 boxes of ammo the rear of them barrel was peened so much it was chasing on the slide. And as I recall, didnt have a drop safety.
We wanted to like it. It was slim, light (aluminum frame) and small. Just wouldn’t shoot.
Now I have a Glock 48. Slim, light, and shoots.
YMMV
Would only feed “ball” ammo. Most pistols feed ammo.
The BKM is one of those hit-or-miss pistols IME. Some are great and loved others are lemons and hated.
Mostly from what I’ve heard from others and seen myself it comes down to the fact that back then the lacking tech for an aluminum frame, and because of basically being a 1911 design in the way it feeds, led to a decent number of them having feed problems particularly, but not exclusively, with JHP.
Really a lot of the guns Star made up until the late 1980’s don’t do well with JHP unless you’re very selective about it. One of my BM pistols will only cycle reliably with Golden Saber. Any other JHP hangs up.
I think that was part and parcel for 9mm pistols iin general I’m the 70s and Star in specific.
My wifes uncle bought a Firestar in 40 and absolutely loved it. Fed everything. Loved it so much he bought one in 9mm. Wouldn’t make it through an entire magazine.
I think the biggest jumps in technology are necessarily designs, but manufacturing precision. I wouldn’t wipe with and MKE from the 70s or 80s but modern Turkish pistol are quite good. Too bad they’re from Turkey.
If Star were still in business, they might be a player now.
And the BKM was a cool looking pistol.
Kind of like the little Astra and Colt Pony in 380. Sexy little pistol.
Just wasnt reliable.
The Sigs and Kimbers are just not as pretty. But they work pretty well from what I’ve seen.
It was rumored that there would be a Star-Astra merger but it never happened.
The precision of the manufacture does matter a great deal and varies over time. However the metal does matter too especially with the BKM because if you look at how the gun feeds the feed ramp is actually part of the frame. When they first started making the frames out of aluminum alloy they didn’t figure out how the soft metal on soft metal would work when the slide came forward with the kind of force you get in such a pistol. By the time modern hollow points came along the BKM was no longer being made.
The BM’s tend to be better because the steel frame is a bit more forgiving, especially with JHP, but if there’s a tolerance issue between the slide and barrel then the bottom lip of some JHP won’t make the jump between the frame-ramp and the little tiny feed rampamajigger on the barrel just below the chamber and will get hung up there if the barrel isn’t 100% back during that portion of the loading process.
That’s why the gun becomes inconsistent. If the barrel is where it’s “supposed” to be then there’s no problem, if it’s a bit forward the round jams. This happens in one of mine that I mentioned earlier which was produced in 1976.That particular issue was never a problem with round nosed FMJ and so not something that had really been thought through in terms of making sure the tolerances were always tight enough to ensure proper feeding for ammo that didn’t exist when the gun was designed in the late 60’s or early 70’s and it’s internal workings are essentially what you find in a Star B which was designed in the early 1920’s and then redone in the 1930’s as the “Second Model B”. In terms of the BM you’ll find ones closer to the end of production (1992) are better about JHP than the ones made in the earlier parts of production which started in 1972.
Star made some crazy nice guns but the designs tend to be “tried and true” older designs that are finicky about modern ammunition. That said, if you get a newer BM, or even an older one, and find the right modern JHP round, they run like a top. Some people still LOVE the BKM and those are pricey in comparison. Really, you can tell they didn’t fully understand the metallurgy behind an alloy frame because they made a fair number of BKM pistols and not many survive today. People shot newer and newer ammo though them and beat the frame to hell.
Our sample of one BKM would support that. It was a handy little pistol.
Now I am wanting a BM. Classic has them for 179 right now.
The price point on a BM, for what it is, is a big selling factor IMHO. They’re just not as well known as other guns that, again 100% my opinion, are often inferior pistols in many ways.
They don’t digest nearly all modern JHP like a modern 9, but ~$200 is also a lot less than the street price on a modern “tupperware” like a Glock or FN. Sure, I had to do more work to find the right JHP for my BM than my wife had to do with her FNS-9c and her gun has four more rounds on board while weighing 8.7oz less when both are fully loaded, but I paid $212 after taxes where her pistol was $598 after taxes. $386 buys a fair bit of JHP to try out and the Star mags can be had online for $30 vs $50 in most cases for the FN.
At the price point, even if it’s not a carry gun, you probably won’t regret getting one. Of course, as always, the caveat: YMMV.
If that is hismgear, I wanna see his ahoes. Festive!
And that the second time I have seen a Mighty Hank in a dump in the last week or so.
Same guy?
Same guy.
Hey Thurston Howell, where’s that Mont Blanc?