I'm back! I'm back!!!

The long run is finally over, and I'm…what do they call that place? Oh yeah…home!

Been a long few months, to be sure. Fun though…I put a lot of rounds downrange and learned a ton. I had a great class with LTC (Retired) Mikey Hartman from the IDF and his merry band of counterterrorism experts. What an honor and a privilege! Talk about superb instructors…I would class them among the best in the world, based on sheer Real World experience. And, to be sure, I've been around.

IDF does things differently, and everything is focused, well thought-out and efficient. I found it fascinating.

I also discovered the limits of snark. I've seen the C.A.A. RONI, essentially a chassis system for Glocks (and other pistols)that converts the pistol into — at least in the U.S.— an SBR. Here's what it looks like:

Note the Glock slipped into the underside. Now you've got a stock and a vertical foregrip (that also holds a spare magazine).  Of course you've also got a $200 tax stamp, but, hey. I saw the RONI at SHOT last year, but honestly didn't pay it any attention. Mikey Hartman had a simple way of dealing with my skepticism. "Shoot it," he said. "Make your decisions based on how it runs."

Reasonable…pretty much how I've approached every gun I've ever fired. So I shot it…a lot. Shot it for accuracy; shot it in drills, shot it on the move. Shot it for score (and yes, I passed the basic IDF Infantry shooting course, although I will never in face be a 28 year-old Israeli). Considering I've been putting A LOT of rounds downrange through 9mm carbines and AR-platform pistols, I had a pretty good baseline to work from.

My conclusions? The Mini-RONI is a wicked SBR, easily on par with the Micro-UZI set up as an SBR. I'd happily run it against a CZ Scorpion EVO, and I think it could hold its own against an SBR-ed Sig Sauer MPX, which has become the standard. We were running them with both irons and the Hartman MH-1 reflex sight (which is destined to become my go-to dot). The spare mag in the vertical foregrip makes for super-fast reloads, and you've got your Glock trigger. Given the preponderance of 33 round mags for

I've got a spare G19 around here, and considering the basic Mini-RONI is $250, the additional $200 is not that big a deal. C.A.A. also makes a pistol version with a stabilizer brace. Oddly enough, I shot it well, both cheeked and in single-handed shooting. Still, I don't think it outperformed the folding stock, vertical foregrip version.

The big advantage to me is that you can fill out the paperwork and continue to use your Glock pistol as a…well…Glock pistol until you get that stamp. I'm thinking it's worth doing…

I'll run down my trip to FTW Ranch for long=range training and an excellent Hill Country whitetail hunt tomorrow...