Phase 1 of the G35 Gen 4 unbuild

[Bongo Lewi]

I am returning this Glock to a more subdued configuration. Long ago, I had the slide cut for the first generation Burris Fastfire. That was back in the day when red dot optics were new and nobody was optics-ready.

I did well in matches when the gun was new and bone-stock. Encouraged by how well I did with this gun in competition. I got carried away and started adding parts. That changed absolutely nothing in terms of my match performance. I still won and placed a few times after the upgrades. It didn't improve my win/loss performance at all.

I also grew to hate the shiny parts so I'm removing them. The upgrade trigger is from GlockStore Lenny. It's fine, but it's being replaced with a Johnny Glock. The original slide that I had milled is replaced by a stock G35 slide with no MOS. I'm going to put some nice iron sights on this slide to replace the cheap plastic factory sights. Maybe light pipes. At least on the front. The replacement barrel is OEM. It came with the slide. The extended and ported barrel goes in my abandoned barrel box. I may lop off the end and attempt to put a nice crown on it.



The Carver mag well and accompanying grip plug/brass weight go too. I might re-use them on another Glock. I couldn't find any Gen 4 DLC pin sets in stock but I'll replace those along with the garish GlockStore extended mag release. I've already replaced the slide lock with a DLC part.

The bottom line is I don't need all the added junk to shoot this gun well. With the exception of a Johnny Glock trigger and upgrade sights, this longslide is going to look factory original. My OCD is triggered by the fact that the slide and barrel s/n dont match the frame but I'll learn to live with that. I may have the original stock barrel someplace but I cant recall where I put it.

 

[no4mk1t]

If you were a youngster and fairly new to pistol craft, I would say you had an epiphany. Cooper opined many times that the essence of a proper pistol is a good trigger and good sights. He was opposed to what he called "gadgetry", with red dot sights at the top of the list. He also thought a pistol should be "dehorned" with all sharp edges rounded off. 1911's would also get a beveled mag well.
These things were epitomized in the Gunsite Service Pistol. Everything you need and nothing you don't was the ad copy if I recall.

Now since you aren't a kid and I'm sure are well aware of Coopers position on this and other things. From the text above the pistol had been in modified condition for some time, so what clicked in your head to cause this back-to-basics decision?

Sometime in the past I remember reading an article where two IPSC top competitors shot a course of fire with their tricked out race guns and then again with a basic 1911 with irons and minimal mods. One of the shooters was Rob Latham and I don't recall the other, Maybe Jerry Barnhart.
Anyway, there was hardly any difference in their performance. For a top competitor in IPSC any advantage can be the difference between winning and second place, but on the street, carrying a long slide with a comp and a red dot is not gonna happen outside a Terminator flick.

 

[Bongo Lewi]

I haven't shot this gun in ages. I believe it was probably 2011-12 I was shooting it in matches. The Gen 4 was a new thing.

I have been going thru my orphans, setting aside those I am going to sell or trade. Rather than sell this one I thought I might like it better if it were literally unadorned. I did well competing with it as a bone stock longslide in 40. Also did some informal pin shooting with it just for fun. I have some residual affection for the .40 S&W.

I am not a big fan of accessorizing. Aside from triggers, sights, and threaded barrels, I have rarely added anything to any of my many pistols in during the the past 30 years. Regarding this G35, I observed some others in matches with ported barrels and the huge mag well and my curiosity led to what you see. It made no difference at all, as I mentioned. The gun was fine the way it came out of the box.

As far as the Colonel is concerned, I agree that other than what I might describe as fitting, accessorizing a 1911 is a sin. He had no love for any other handgun. I was especially repelled by people putting red dots on them. It looks ridiculous.

That said... the newer adaptations of the 1911.. like the double stacks and some of the custom and semi custom 9mm variants I find today's reflex optic to be a useful tool. As do most SOCOM badasses these days. There's no debate among practicing professionals about their ability the enhance speed and accuracy in a combat scenario. It's OK with me that Grandpa's and the dead don't like red dots. My serious striker guns all have Trijicon, Aimpoint, or Leupold optics. None of my 1911's have an optic. Excluding 2011's. Personal choice.

I've put less expensive red dots on PMFs: Viridian, Vortex, CT, HEX. They work fine on range and fun guns. I don't do Horosun. Putting expensive optics on a cheap gun is kind of pointless.

Cooper had his own likes and dislikes. Always a strong opinion, as it usually goes with Colonels. Many people thought the Yaqui holster he helped design was the dumbest thing ever. It's faded into history. Personally, I think the Yaqui is OK if you are riding your horse around your property line with a 1911 on your hip and lever action with a saddle ring on Old Paint.

As we have discussed before, I believe the Colonel's color code/situational awareness model is well suited to an operator or someone in a recon unit, not civilians. Not even cops. My respect for the man is great but his opinions are not irrefutable. That said... For a man his age, the world was a little more black and white than it is today.

 

[no4mk1t]

Cooper had many opinions and viewpoints. Some I agreed with and others not.
Even his family said he was something of an acquired taste to be around. His own son-in-law tried working for him at Gunsite and didn't stay very long. At times he could be too much of a Colonel, which in the civilian world doesn't play well with people that are not a captive audience like those in service.

What he was, was a word smith. He wrote well and had a good command of the English language that distinguished itself by virtue of its clarity. He was also a product of his generation, as we all are. Inclined to revere what was familiar, and sneer at what he perceived as disingenuous because it was new and not actually better.
He clung to the 45 and disdained the 9mm as he was raised using Ball and even as controlled expansion ammo technology advanced, elevating the 9mm's performance, he never really fully accepted it.
He was not a fan of the Glock, more for the spongy trigger with no manual safety than that it was plastic, but many of his students were LEO's and were issued it, so he was forced to be exposed to it.

He was something of a Germanophile and had a predilection for German compound words that had no English equivalent. Sometimes this proved amusing, other times it was an exercise in linguistics that didn't seem to serve a purpose other than his fascination with them.
He also favored German cars, which most of us see as complex and over engineered, something he didn't like in firearms. I suspect he didn't do his own wrenching.

Something I noticed and was always curious why no one called him out on it was he frequently criticized the 375 H&H Magnum as "excessive for 90% of your African shooting and insufficient for the other 10%." in his earlier writings in the 80's, but actively promoted the 376 Styer in the Scout platform as an ideal medium game caliber. The ballistic performance of the two calibers is essentially the same.

 

[Alex]

Gunsite as an organization is staying relevant and adapting to new technology. Case in point, I took 250 Pistol that was entirely devoted to teaching pistol mounted optic usage. I'll be back next year for the 350 version of the class. Hopefully the Colonel was not rolling in his grave that week. Our instructor, Lew, was using the Glock Gunsite Service Pistol for much of the class. But one day he showed up with a Ruger RXM. I am certain he could outshoot everybody in our class with that little thing. They also had it for sale in the gift shop, er, Pro Shop, with the Bird and the Word emblazoned upon it. The Ruger was on the bottom of the case, top shelf was where they put the Staccatos they also just started carrying.

Cooper's Scout Rifle was something I never understood. What problem was it addressing that could not be solved with existing firearms? Maybe is was simply a product of the era and Cooper's interest. Kinda like quad rail ARs, or BL's G35 built by Lenny. I admit to making gun configurations that don't exist just because I wanna.

 

[no4mk1t]

Cooper's Scout Rifle was something I never understood. What problem was it addressing that could not be solved with existing firearms? Maybe is was simply a product of the era and Cooper's interest. Kinda like quad rail ARs, or BL's G35 built by Lenny. I admit to making gun configurations that don't exist just because I wanna.

Jeff died almost 20 years ago. Technology has advanced a good bit since then. I wonder if he would embrace the things he sneered at back then if he saw the current state of the art.

The Scout rifle concept was put forth by Jeff as a general purpose rifle. He based the length and weight parameters on his first prototype rifle which was a Remington 600 with a Burris pistol scope, which was 1 meter in length, and 3 Kgs. in weight. He knew this rifle was not exactly what he wanted and he held several Scout Rifle conferences with industry folks and knowledgeable shooters to refine the details. After many years, he finally convinced Steyr to bring his concept to fruition with the Steyr Scout.
Everyone focuses on the forward mounted scope, but this was just one of the features which made the Scout. Handiness was the primary feature. The Ching Sling was another. Backup iron sights were part of it. Onboard additional ammo was part of it. The built in bipod was part of it.

The forward mounted scope was chosen so that the shooter could have peripheral vision with a crosshair. This permitted the shooter to shoot with the peripheral vison of iron sights, and the precision of a magnified image and cross hair. The concept is something that one must experience to appreciate.

The tree stand deer hunter will not see the advantage of the Scout. Neither will the South Dakota Prairie Dog hunter. The GP rifleman will though.

 

[Bongo Lewi]

A Marine Corps Colonel sits at the right hand of God. And if you forget that, they vigorously remind you.

I had a lot of dealings with Marines, who are deployed as guards at all US embassies, which number just shy of 200 locations worldwide. The larger of those, especially in certain areas of the world have what would be described as a Marine platoon. 20-30 Marines. These units have NCOs, but unlike other Marines, they report to a civilian officer located at each embassy.... a civilian Federal Security Officer called an RSO.

On occasion I would encounter a visiting Marine Corps Colonel. I would sometimes have to provide a respectful reminder to him that he may make requests but didn't give me or the RSO orders. That always went over well.

 

[Bobster]

He clung to the 45 and disdained the 9mm as he was raised using Ball and even as controlled expansion ammo technology advanced, elevating the 9mm's performance, he never really fully accepted it.
He was not a fan of the Glock, more for the spongy trigger with no manual safety than that it was plastic, but many of his students were LEO's and were issued it, so he was forced to be exposed to it.

He would definitely be considered a "FUDD" today...

Cooper's Scout Rifle was something I never understood. What problem was it addressing that could not be solved with existing firearms? Maybe is was simply a product of the era and Cooper's interest.

I didn't quite understand it either when Ruger first offered it up. I think this scoutrifle.org article pre-dates that. I would have posted the pics but they are in FUCKING .webp format...

The forward mounted scope was chosen so that the shooter could have peripheral vision with a crosshair. This permitted the shooter to shoot with the peripheral vison of iron sights, and the precision of a magnified image and cross hair. The concept is something that one must experience to appreciate.

At the informal Carbine Match at my club this weekend, Mitch the organizer, had his DBX in 5.7x28 out. Equipped with a chest sling to pull against and a mid-mount Meprolight M21 with tritium reticle, polarizer and aperture lens accessories, he had a little difficulty when moving from the right (strong) side to left (weak) side during that portion of the match (10 shots each side at targets ~10m away). This required substantial sling adjustment. But he did OK considering he was coming back from shoulder surgery.



At the end of the match, he offered us a chance to shoot the DBX and I knocked off two items from the "haven't done that yet" list. (pulling against a sling and 5.7x28 "rifle/lg. format pistol"). But being cross-dominant--left-eye/right handed the benefit was not realized until I went full lefty. Then, it was possible to close the aperture where the left eye would see only the dot reticle and the right eye would see the rest of the picture and the brain would do the super-imposing of the dot onto the picture. I didn't find his shoulder strap sling setup all that comfortable but I was able to pull against and get all rounds in the black of the target at 5m so it was certainly functional.

 

[Bongo Lewi]

My anti-bling kit arrived and I replaced the shiny bits on the lower with nitride parts. A new Johnny Glock trigger has not arrived. I became impatient waiting for the trigger and replaced all pins and the mag release that I hated from the get-go.

This .40 long slide was my first venture into serious competing and the seduction of accessorizing with Glockstore junk when that was a popular thing to do among match participants. I admire Lenny and the fortune he made as a purveyor of unnecessary Glock upgrades and the ambiguous performance claims of many of them. Quite a huckster he is. Gotta give the guy credit. He saw opportunity and seized it.



Not only do fancy parts not do fuck all to improve your marksmanship, they often get in the way. Zircon encrusted firing pins. Sounds like something Frank Zappa made up.

I went with Johnny's Evolution X trigger and I did add the VEX shoe. Mostly because it's metal not plastic. In my opinion. this is the best Glock trigger out there. There are others that are good. And they perform just fine. I just believe that the workmanship and thought that JG puts into their triggers is a cut above. I also believe if you are going to spend money on a striker gun, it should be on the trigger. Nothing else you do will have more of an effect on your accuracy. Provided you are practiced and have good form in the first place.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this 40 caliber relic when it's done. I'll probably relegate it to being a range gun just for shits and grins. Or maybe I'll shoot varmints in my garden. I suppose I'll sell it one day. It would be an affordable match gun for somebody just starting out. Like I mentioned, I did pretty well in match play with this gun right out of the box. I'm sure it would be the same for someone new.

 

[Bongo Lewi]

Johnny Glock trigger is finally on its way. The unbuild will soon be complete. Not 100% OEM like I originally planned. I got a 15% discount on the trigger. I'm impatient with long lead times on parts but the Johnny G triggers are worth the wait.

 

[One Ping Only]

Not only do fancy parts not do fuck all to improve your marksmanship, they often get in the way. Zircon encrusted firing pins. Sounds like something Frank Zappa made up.

 

[Alex]

I don't know who is spying on me but this guy popped up in my feed, possibly the only person using Cooper's scout rifle as intended.


View: https://youtu.be/rVwDYOv-zzY?si=OOkQC2k7HD0NTCHx

 

[no4mk1t]

I have both the Styer and Ruger Scouts. Both have their pluses and minuses.

 

[Bobster]

Zircon encrusted firing pins. Sounds like something Frank Zappa made up.

They must be installed with tweezers...

 

[seniormoment]

They must be installed with tweezers...

Great googly moogly

 

[Bongo Lewi]

I’m gonna be a dental floss tycoon. Me and my pigmy pony.

 

[Bobster]

FZ was obviously a champion of dental flossing!

 

[Bongo Lewi]

Johnny has arrived. I'll install it tomorrow.

 

[Bongo Lewi]

Fini. Johnny Glock trigger installed. The unbuild is done. Except for new sights. No optic. Just some nice irons. Haven't bought them yet.

Damn, Johnny makes a good trigger. 3.25 lbs. Short travel, breaks like glass.

 

[Bongo Lewi]

As Fellini subtly put at the end of his films....

Fini

It is done. Last step was new irons. Almost as God and Anton intended. Aftermarket sights, Johnny Glock competition trigger, extended slide lock.