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And man, am I jet-lagged out! I kept popping awake at odd hours last night and wondering where I was. LOL! Anyway, it was a great opportunity to "get inside" a big company like Armscor/Rock Island Armory. I don't like the package trips with 20 other journalists...I much prefer one-on-one, where I have a chance to sit down with the manufacturing manager, the QA guys, people in research and development, etc. because that's how you really get an idea of how a factory is running and how it's likely to run in the future. The design and the process tell you huge amounts about the gun.

One of the things we talked about at some length is the challenges of the 1911, a gun designed when precision handwork was cheap and machines expensive (or nonexistent), in a 21st Century manufacturing environment. Right now, Armscor is casting their frames, but forging the slides. They're working toward a fully forged version in the next year (I saw the test forgings). I thought it was interesting that they were EDM'ing the 1911 breech faces, one of the more critical, and complicated, cuts. I'll be talking about it more in this week's podcast.

And, yes, I really liked shooting the .22 TCM...yes yes, I know that all the calibers ever needed have already been invented, but then again, I have adult attention deficit disorder...LOOK! A kitty!

BTW, check out this review of my concealed carry video from Kevin at Misfires & Light Strikes!