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Posts by Lance Rankin

Ruger LCP Max with the Magpul grip: the pocket .380, improved

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Pocket pistols involve a trade most people don’t think about until their first range session: the smaller the gun, the harder it is to shoot well. I’m Lance Rankin, owner and gunsmith at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas, and I’ve handed a lot of tiny .380s across my counter. Ruger’s LCP Max with the Magpul grip module is the version of this gun I’d been waiting for somebody to build.

Why the LCP Max mattered in the first place

The original LCP sold by the truckload because it disappears in a pocket, but nobody ever called it pleasant. The sights were vestigial, and most shooters could only get two fingers on the grip. The LCP Max fixed a surprising amount of that. It has real, usable sights and more capacity in the same footprint, and the recoil became manageable instead of punishing. It moved the platform from a last-resort gun to a legitimate defensive pistol.

What the LCP Max Magpul grip adds

The weak point that remained was the grip itself, and that’s the part Ruger handed to Magpul. The Magpul EHG grip module is the whole story of this variant. The texture gives you actual traction instead of the slick factory feel, and the extended profile gives your fingers somewhere to live. On a gun this size, purchase is everything. When your hand isn’t fighting to keep hold of the frame, the sights come back faster and the little gun stops feeling like it’s trying to escape.

Magpul knows polymer as well as anyone in this industry, and it shows in the details. The stealth gray module looks sharp too, though I’d buy it in any color for the texture alone.

The honest limits

It’s still a pocket .380. A compact 9mm is easier to shoot well and hits harder for about the same money, and if you can dress around one, that’s my usual recommendation. My home defense handgun guide and my handgun guide for women both get into why shootability beats size on paper. Where the LCP Max earns its keep is the wardrobe problem: gym shorts, or business clothes that hide nothing. The gun that’s actually in your pocket beats the one sitting home in the safe.

Two notes from the bench. First, ammo choice matters more in .380 than in bigger calibers, because the short barrel gives up velocity. Buy a quality defensive load and test it in your gun. Second, pocket carry means a pocket holster, full stop. Something rigid has to cover that trigger guard, and it keeps the pistol oriented the same way every draw.

Where it fits

If you already carry an LCP Max, the Magpul grip version improves the one area the gun genuinely needed it. If you’re shopping for your first pocket pistol, this is the configuration I’d point you toward. Carrying in Texas? My Texas LTC guide covers the licensing side. We do online orders with local pickup by appointment here in Roanoke, and I’m at [email protected] if you’d rather talk it through before you buy. If the LCP Max is spoken for, the closest thing on our shelf is the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 2.0 .380, another 12-round pocket .380. Either way, load it with a proven defensive round such as Hornady Critical Defense .380 and carry it in a rigid holster from our holster section.

LCP Max Magpul grip questions

Is the Magpul grip a factory LCP Max model or an add-on?

It is a factory variant of the Ruger LCP Max built around the Magpul EHG grip module. Everything else about the gun, the sights, capacity and footprint, carries over from the standard LCP Max.

Is a pocket .380 enough for self defense?

It can be, with the right load. The short barrel gives up velocity, so buy a quality defensive hollow point, test it in your gun, and accept that a compact 9mm is easier to shoot well if you can dress around one.

What holster should I use for the LCP Max?

For pocket carry, a rigid pocket holster that fully covers the trigger guard and keeps the pistol oriented the same way on every draw. Never carry it loose in a pocket.

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Grit Grips Glock-compatible frames: a gunsmith’s take

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Glocks made their reputation on reliability, not on how they feel in the hand. I’m Lance Rankin, owner and gunsmith at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas, and a good share of the Glock work that crosses my bench exists because somebody wanted the gun to fit better. Stippling, grip reductions, trigger guard undercuts. Grit Grips went at the problem from the other direction: instead of reshaping a factory frame, they build a different frame entirely.

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Grit Grips at a glance

  • What they make: complete Glock-compatible pistol frames, plus slides, barrels and aluminum mag wells for full builds.
  • The big change: a different grip angle from the factory Glock, something no stippling job on a factory frame can fix.
  • Ergonomics: directional texture, palm swells, an extended beavertail and an undercut trigger guard, molded in.
  • Sizes: frames that take Gen 3 Glock 19 components, and slimline frames for G43X and G48 builds.
  • Legal status: the frame is the serialized part, so it is a firearm and ships to an FFL. Slides, barrels and internals ship to your door.
  • Founder: Dusty Sroufe.

What Grit Grips changed

The company was founded by Dusty Sroufe, who came to it with real pistol design experience, and the headline change is grip angle. Grit Grips frames alter the front strap so the gun points more naturally for shooters who never got along with the factory Glock pitch. Whether that angle is a flaw or just a preference is an old argument, and I have customers on both sides of it. What I’ll say is that grip angle is the one thing you can’t fix on a factory frame, no matter how good your stippling guy is.

The texture is engineered to be directional, so it bites during recoil without chewing your side raw during a full day of carry. Palm swells fill the hand, an extended beavertail keeps the slide off the web of your thumb, and an undercut trigger guard lets you get your hand higher on the gun. Those are the same modifications people pay gunsmiths for, molded in from the start.

The lineup

Grit Grips started with frames compatible with Gen 3 Glock 19 components and later added slimline versions for G43X and G48 builds. They also sell slides and barrels for complete builds, plus aluminum mag wells for both frame sizes. If you’re deciding which footprint to build around, my Glock 19 vs Glock 17 comparison covers the size trade-offs.

The part people forget: the frame is the gun

Here’s the detail that matters legally. On a Glock-pattern pistol, the frame is the serialized part. A Grit Grips frame isn’t an accessory. It’s a firearm, and it transfers like one, through a dealer with a 4473 and a background check. Buy one online and it ships to an FFL like mine, where the transfer fee is posted up front. Your slide, barrel, and internals are just parts and can ship straight to your door.

My honest take

Aftermarket Glock-compatible frames run the full range from excellent to junk, so I pay attention to design details, and everything about these reads like it was drawn by people who actually shoot. Feedback from shooters running them has been positive on recoil control and on comfort across different hand sizes. My standing advice on any aftermarket frame still applies: build it, then feed it a few hundred rounds before you trust it for carry. Fit between aftermarket frames and various slides varies, and a weekend of range work tells you more than any spec sheet will.

If you want a build like this done right, that’s what my bench is for. We handle frame transfers, fitting, sights, and Cerakote in-house here in Roanoke, and I’m glad to talk through a parts list before you spend money. Email [email protected], or browse our slides and frames and pistol parts online. If you would rather start from a factory gun, the Glock 19 Gen 5, the Glock 43X and the Glock 48 are the three footprints these frames are built around.

Grit Grips questions

Is a Grit Grips frame a firearm?

Yes. On a Glock-pattern pistol the frame is the serialized part, so a Grit Grips frame transfers through a licensed dealer with a Form 4473 and a background check. Slides, barrels and internals are parts and ship to your door.

What Glock parts fit a Grit Grips frame?

The standard frames take Gen 3 Glock 19 components, and the slimline frames are built for Glock 43X and Glock 48 slides and parts. Fit between aftermarket frames and various slides varies, so test the build before you carry it.

Does a Grit Grips frame change the Glock grip angle?

Yes. The front strap is reshaped so the gun points more naturally for shooters who never got along with the factory Glock angle, which is the one thing stippling or a grip reduction cannot change.

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5.56 NATO vs 300 Blackout: which AR-15 caliber should you choose?

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I build AR-15s for a living, and the 5.56 versus 300 Blackout question comes up at my counter about once a week. I’m Lance Rankin, owner and gunsmith at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas, and I own and shoot both calibers. Here’s the honest version of the comparison, without the marketing gloss.

5.56 NATO vs 300 Blackout: the short answer

If you’re buying or building one general-purpose rifle, get 5.56. If you’re building something short, something suppressed, or a dedicated hog and deer gun for Texas distances, 300 Blackout starts making a strong case. And because this is an AR, you don’t actually have to choose forever. More on that below.

The case for 5.56 NATO

The AR-15 was designed around this cartridge, and everything about the platform reflects it. Ammo is everywhere, from match loads to bulk range fodder, and it’s the cheapest centerfire rifle practice you’ll find. Brass-case plinking ammo runs somewhere around 35 cents a round as I write this, less for steel case. The load I stock deepest for that job is Federal XM193 55-grain M193 ball, the same 5.56 spec the military trains on. That matters more than people admit, because the shooter who practices monthly with a cheap caliber beats the shooter who practices twice a year with an expensive one.

Recoil is mild, which makes it easy to shoot fast and easy to teach on. It’s genuinely effective out to around 500 yards from a 16-inch barrel. Two caveats from the bench. First, 5.56 depends on velocity for its terminal performance, so very short barrels cost you real effectiveness. Second, cheap FMJ is range ammo, not defensive ammo. If the rifle guards your home, load it with a quality expanding or fragmenting load.

If this is your first rifle, start with my best AR-15 for beginners guide. The answer there is a 5.56 gun, and it’s not close.

The case for 300 Blackout

300 Blackout was developed by Advanced Armament Company to solve two specific problems: getting real power out of short barrels, and playing nicely with suppressors. It does both better than 5.56 ever will.

The cartridge burns its powder quickly, so it gives up very little from a 9-inch barrel. That’s why it dominates the AR pistol and SBR world; my AR pistol roundup is full of Blackout guns for exactly this reason. And it runs bullets from 110 grains up to 220-grain subsonics. Pair those heavy subsonic loads with a suppressor and you get a rifle that’s genuinely quiet, not just hearing-safe on paper. Supersonic and subsonic feed from the same rifle and usually the same magazine, no parts swap required. As a Type 07 FFL and SOT, suppressors are a big part of our business, and 300 BLK is the caliber I recommend most often to first-time can buyers.

The downsides are cost and reach. Blackout runs roughly two to three times the price of 5.56 per round, and it’s a 300-yard cartridge in practical terms. It’s not a volume-training caliber unless you reload.

The safety warning I give every buyer

Read this part twice. A 300 Blackout round will chamber in a 5.56 barrel, and firing it that way can destroy the rifle and injure you. Both cartridges use the same bolt and fit the same magazines, which is convenient right up until the moment it isn’t. If you own both calibers, keep the ammo rigidly separated: different magazines, marked and dedicated, ideally different colors or brands, and never a loose round floating in a range bag. I’ve seen the aftermath of a Blackout kaboom on my bench, and The Firearm Blog has documented the same failure. The gun was scrap and the shooter was lucky.

Home defense considerations

Counterintuitively, 5.56 with proper defensive loads is often the safer indoor choice, because lightweight fast bullets tend to fragment and dump energy quickly, reducing over-penetration through walls compared with heavier projectiles. Subsonic 300 BLK through a suppressor, on the other hand, protects your hearing in a hallway better than anything else on this list. Both are defensible choices with the right ammo. My home defense AR setup guide walks through the whole configuration, not just the caliber.

You can have both

Here’s the good news the caliber-war crowd skips: the two cartridges share bolts, magazines, and lowers. A complete 300 Blackout upper drops onto your existing 5.56 lower in seconds with two pins. Build or buy one quality lower, then run a 16-inch 5.56 upper for training and general use and a short suppressed Blackout upper for the fun stuff. My AR-15 build guide covers the process, and building uppers to order is a big part of what my shop does.

Bottom line

5.56 for your first rifle, for training volume, and for all-around use. 300 Blackout for short barrels, suppressors, and hog control. Both if the budget allows, with your ammo storage sorted out like your safety depends on it, because it does. Want help speccing a build or picking a suppressor to go with it? Call me at 817-393-4000 or email [email protected], and check the online store for current inventory.

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HR 1005, the NICS Review Act, and the shadow of a federal gun registry

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I run background checks for a living. I’m Lance Rankin, owner of Western Sport, an FFL here in Roanoke, Texas, and every gun that leaves my counter goes out the door only after a NICS check. So when a bill proposes changing how long the government keeps that check data, I read it. HR 1005, the NICS Review Act introduced by Representative Carolyn Maloney, is one of those bills.

How NICS retention works today

Here’s the part most buyers don’t know. When your background check comes back as a proceed, federal law requires the FBI to destroy the identifying record of that approved check within 24 hours. The permanent record of your purchase is the paper Form 4473, and that stays in my bound records at the shop, not in a government database. That 24-hour destruction rule is the firewall between a background check system and a purchase registry. It’s there on purpose.

What the NICS Review Act (HR 1005) would change

The bill would stretch that retention window from 24 hours to a minimum of 90 days. Read that again: 90 days is the floor, not the ceiling. The text sets no maximum retention period at all, and that omission is the whole problem. A database of approved gun buyers held for 90 days is troubling. A database with no legal requirement to ever delete it is a federal firearms purchase registry in everything but name.

Why gun owners flinch at the word registry

Some folks roll their eyes at registry concerns. I’d point them at history. In jurisdiction after jurisdiction, here and abroad, registration lists have been the tool that made later confiscation programs workable. You can’t come collect what you can’t locate. That’s not paranoia, it’s paperwork, and it’s why federal law has prohibited a national firearms registry for decades. Any bill that chips at the 24-hour rule deserves a hard look regardless of how modest it sounds.

How it compares to HR 127

If you followed HR 127, the bill that proposed registering every firearm in the country, past and future, HR 1005 looks tame by comparison. It only touches future purchases, and only through the background check pipeline. But the direction of travel is the same: government retention of who bought what. The narrower framing makes it more politically viable, not less consequential.

Where this stands and what to do

As of this writing, HR 1005 is a proposal, not law, and most bills like it die in committee. Check its current status on congress.gov before you repeat anything from this post, and read the bill text yourself. It’s short, and firsthand beats secondhand every time. If it moves, your representatives hear from lobbyists constantly; a call or letter from an actual constituent still counts for something. The gun rights organizations that track legislation full time are worth supporting for exactly this reason.

Meanwhile, the system we have keeps working the way I described. If you want to understand what actually happens to your information when you buy a gun, I wrote up how FFL dealers and transfers work and what to expect buying a gun in Texas. If you buy a gun online elsewhere and want us as your receiving dealer, add an FFL transfer to your order. And if you’d rather ask a person than read a post, call me at the shop, 817-393-4000. I’m happy to walk anyone through what the paperwork does and doesn’t track. Fewer myths make for better arguments on both sides.

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Taurus TH9: is a sub-$200 9mm worth it? My take on the range test

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The video above puts a Taurus TH9 through a couple hundred rounds with mixed ammo, and it’s an honest look at what you get for a 9mm pistol that sells for under $200. The range work is theirs, not mine, so watch it and judge the footage yourself. What I can add is context from the gunsmith’s bench. I’m Lance Rankin, owner of Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas, and budget pistols cross my counter and my bench every week.

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What the Taurus TH9 is

The TH9 is a full-size, polymer-frame 9mm with a hammer-fired double action/single action trigger and a manual safety. Capacity is a legitimate 17+1, and it appears to share magazines with Taurus’s G3 series, which keeps spares cheap. Sights are basic three-dot. Nothing exotic, but at this price nothing should be.

Two things in the video match what I’ve seen handling these in the shop. The ergonomics are genuinely decent, with good grip texture and finger grooves that fit most hands. And the slide is noticeably light to rack for a hammer gun. That last point matters more than reviewers usually admit. For shooters with arthritis, weaker grip strength, or just less experience, an easy slide can be the difference between a gun they’ll practice with and one that stays in the drawer. It’s one of the first things I have customers try at the counter, and I talk about it in my handgun guide for women too.

How the range test went

The first magazines at 20 yards went fine. The trigger runs stiff, so does the magazine release, but both are the kind of thing you adapt to. Stretched out to 35 and 55 yards, hits got harder, which is true of most service pistols in most hands.

The trouble showed up as the round count climbed. The testers hit repeated failures to eject across different ammunition, including Magtech 115-grain and some lead-free loads. When a malfunction follows the gun across ammo types instead of following one specific load, that points at the gun. The ejection pattern was also all over the map: brass going forward, backward, straight at the shooter, sideways. Erratic ejection is often an early symptom of marginal extractor tension or spring issues, and on a defensive pistol I take it seriously.

They also dinged the finish as rust-prone, which tracks with budget Taurus offerings. If you own one, keep a light coat of oil on it and don’t store it in a sweaty range bag. Cheap insurance.

Where it sits against the competition

The video’s comparison is fair: against a Hi-Point, the TH9 is lighter, points better, and shoots softer than the Hi-Point’s blowback action. Against something like a CZ P-10 for a couple hundred dollars more, the TH9 loses on refinement and, based on this test, on reliability. That’s the honest math of budget guns. My roundup of the best 9mm handguns under $500 covers what that extra money actually buys you.

My bottom line

I’ll say what I tell customers in the shop: a defensive gun has one non-negotiable job, and that’s going bang every time. Failures to eject in the first few hundred rounds would keep the TH9 off my nightstand until it proved itself. As a budget range gun, a first pistol to learn on, or a project to break in and watch, it offers a lot of features for very little money, and the easy slide is a real virtue. If you buy one for defense, run at least a few hundred rounds of your chosen carry ammo through it without a hiccup before you trust it.

Want a second opinion on a budget pistol you’re considering? Order online, or email [email protected] with questions, and if the TH9 is the one you want, ask and we will see about ordering it in. Taurus pistols in the Western Sport store in the same price class include the Taurus G3 9mm, the compact Taurus G2C and the micro Taurus GX4 Strike Bravo. Whichever you pick, prove it with a proven load like Federal HST 124 grain before you trust it. And if your TH9 is spitting brass in every direction, that’s a fixable problem; email and we’ll help you sort it out.

Taurus TH9 questions

Is the Taurus TH9 a good gun for the money?

For a budget range gun or a first pistol to learn on, it offers a lot: 17+1 capacity, decent ergonomics and a slide that is easy to rack. The range test in the video showed repeated failures to eject across several ammo types, so prove yours before you rely on it.

Is the Taurus TH9 reliable enough for self defense?

Not until it earns it. A defensive pistol has one job, going bang every time. Run a few hundred rounds of your chosen carry ammo through it without a stoppage before it goes on the nightstand.

What magazines does the Taurus TH9 use?

It is a 17-round, full-size 9mm, and it appears to share magazines with the Taurus G3 series, which keeps spare magazines inexpensive. Confirm fit with Taurus for your specific model.

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