New Owner On The Block

I had have my first dose of the 2A world with my first time shooting at an indoor range and instantly knew I had to own my own pistol to continue this feeling. If I was labeled a natural, I knew I had to have my own to practice and improve my skill and education. My friends offered to let me “share” their guns whenever we would go to the range; but that was a non-starter for me. So what did I buy? Why did I buy those things? How did figure all this out? Well let me answer the last question first, how did I figure all this out? No truly one knows everything as technology continues to change what the standards are and improvements to older tools continue as evolution is inevitable. Safe to say I’ve been fortunate to start my journey at a highly saturated market. The gun community is littered with a wealth of resources, some are extremely subjective that you have to filter through, so you can imagine my eyes were wide open when I started my education. I spent (and still do) countless hours watching YouTube videos “Best New Shooter Gun”, “What is the best gun to carry”, “Guns for everyday carry”, “EDC guns”. Finally, after doing some independent research I reached out to my friends and asked them what they owned and why they own them and if they had any tips. “Glock 19, that is a staple in the industry”. “The Glock 19 is like the Honda Civic of the gun market, its easily purchasable, it has lots of options for customization to meet your personal preference.” So there you have it, I started looking at the Glock 19, learning what it was, how much it cost, what were the pros and cons of the gun and how I could go about making it my first gun. I asked my best friend (who I thought owned a Glock 19, but I was incorrect), “Hey what gun did I shoot with you that I mentioned felt best to me?” “Oh that was my P80.” “What’s a P80?” I asked. “Oh, haha, so its the frame of the gun but the upper components are a Glock 19” “So whats the difference in a Glock 19 and a P80 Glock 19?” That was when he explained to me that a P80 (short for Polymer80) frame was an unfinished frame that you must complete yourself to be able to fully accept the necessary parts in the frame and a slide and barrel to become a complete gun. I could build my own?! That sounded so cool. I’m a car guy, I like to DIY and having the freedom to make something of my own that is custom to my style and preferences sounded right up my alley. After comparing the cost of buying a Glock 19 and then upgrading parts versus building with the upgraded parts from the get-go; my direction was clear I was going to build a P80 Glock 19. So I went back to my trusted resource for parts, Brownells. I purchased everything I needed to complete this build with Brownells. I purchased the Polymer 80 frame kit, the lower parts kit, slide completion kit, slide and barrel. The parts arrived from Brownells rather quickly and I was excited to learn how to build this frame. I followed various guides on YouTube and consulted with my friends for tips and tricks and dove right in. The frame building process was nerve wrecking, you have to think about the tolerances needed to have everything line up perfectly so that your gun operates both safely and repeatedly. Getting all the pins lined up was the easy part, but when it came to filing down the unnecessary polymer pieces I had to invest my best friends steady hands to help provide some oversight. After a hour of careful crafting and triple checking our work the frame was finished and ready for the parts to be installed. The Brownells parts kits and slide proved to be a perfect match and fit perfectly with the first couple racks. After we built the gun we took a quick trip to our local indoor range and did some test shooting to verify everything was fully operational. When we arrived at our bay I could feel my nerves spike. Was this going to go well? What if it blows my hand off? Did we do this right? We’re not professional gunsmiths, are we sure we did this correctly? I loaded a magazine of 15 bullets and slammed it into the frame. I checked the mag release and the magazine dropped freely with no problems. Success number 1. Then I reloaded the magazine and pressed my thumb on the slide release “smack” the slide flew forward and the round loaded into the chamber. Success number 2. Ok, this is it. Time to see if this build fires. My hands were sweating, my heart was pounding. I pointed the gun towards the paper target 5 yards away. I lined up my front sight inside my rear sight. I slowly moved my trigger finger from the side of the frame onto the Apex Trigger I installed hours ago. I slowly pulled the trigger to the wall (the breaking point). BANG! I pulled the trigger past the wall, the round sped down range and hit the lower neck of my target. The cartridge ejected out the right side of the gun and the next round chambered. SUCCESS! It works! I dropped the magazine, ejected the chambered round and inspected the gun. Everything looked like it should, but I handed it over to my friend to let him double check it. “Looks good to me man. Put more rounds in it let’s see how it handles more rounds”. I reloaded the magazine and shot the remaining 14 rounds in a fury. Round after round, the gun performed flawlessly. My fears were gone, I had built my own gun and it actually works! We shot nearly 100 rounds and every round shot without a problem. Oh what a feeling to build something yourself, like a new engine or a piece of furniture. This was my first gun and it was one that I built with the help of my friends and the great people at Brownells. The months following, this gun build proved to be a reliable range gun and is what got me into precision shooting and everyday carry.