Silver S&W M&P Shields 5 to 1

Am I now known as the ShieldMan? 

By James Nicholas 

I am called the XDMAN since I am known for my work on Springfield Armory XD pistols. But in the last two years, it is starting to look like I should be called the ShieldMan. I am not a gun snob and love all shooting and firearms--no matter the brand. A good gun is a good gun. A couple years ago I had the opportunity to shoot the Shield at the Shot Show before the public release.  I fell in love. There at the show I made an effort to make sure that I would be one of the first in the country to get my hands on one of these new pistols. After some time tinkering around and learning this new pistol, I made sure to share what I found out about these great little pistols. While the shield is great from the factory, I wanted to make it mine. Since then I have had the opportunity to work on literally thousands of Shields for people.  I help to personalize their Shields just for them. It seems though in the roll up for this holiday season, I am seeing M&P Shields 5 to 1 over XD's. The most popular modification is to refinish the slide.  Stainless steel KG Gunkote is by far the most popular option followed by Titanium and Leupold brown, respectively. For sights, the new Truglo TFO's are popular but S&W fans also love the XS Big Dots. Below are a couple pictures from a batch of stainless steel slides we did last week. They are now fully cured and just waiting for reassembly. Yes the odd looking slide is an XDM 3.8, so I guess I will still touch an XD for money. 

New from KG Gun-kote

First Look New Colors & New Formulation

By James Nicholas

I opened my box from KG Industries today and inside are some new goodies including a new coating formulation not seen outside of the factory yet. Some of the new colors of Gun kote that have just been released are Black Chrome, Magpul Tan and Magpul OD Green. KG has has also settled on a Name for Leupold Brown which is officially now Anodized FDE. What was really special was a secret sample of their new Nano Series Gun Kote. This stuff is not even supposed to be officially released to the public until the 2014 Shot Show. The original Gun Kote was developed in the 60's, with 50 something years of experience in firearms refinishing. This new formulation will be the product that will push KG into the future along with some new branding for the whole company that will follow soon. When I talked with the folks at KG they were very excited about the Nano series and think that it will set the new standard in firearms refinishing. I look forward to testing the is stuff out and seeing what it is all about.