Doubling Your Pistol’s Effective Range

Advertisement from “Survive” magazine March/April ’83

From a young age, I always thought pistols and revolvers, which had the capability to attach a shoulder stock, were not only practical, but pretty cool. As practical and cool as I thought they were, I was not willing to go through the ATF’s process to own one.

I remember the Freedom Arms “Steady Arm” advertisements (shown above), that I’d seen in many firearms and survival magazines, but when I was old enough to have my own pistol, they weren’t made anymore.

Bubits Brace, top, G19X, bottom left, G21, bottom right.

RTG Parts sells an item called the, “AUSTRIAN MADE BUBITS TYPE G1 GLOCK ARM BRACE & PERSONAL DEFENSE TOOL”, that can be used in the same roll as the “Steady Arm”, but they still place this caveat in the description,

“This was designed by the legendary Austrian gun designer William Bubits, to be a Glock arm brace & personal defense tool. As you may know the BATF is not currently approving law letters for new braces or pistol stabilizing devices. As such, this is not being offered as an approved brace. ALL NFA Rules apply! That means: NEVER attach a pistol to the Arm Brace and/or never store a pistol with the Arm Brace without prior registration of the pistol as a short barreled rifle with ATF.“

While doing some research on the legality of the brace for use without an SBR “Permission Slip”, I found this info from “USA 1SHOT”

“Our engineer from the opening paragraph and CTO of Accurate Pistol Systems, Robert Gilmer, asked the ATF Technology Branch for a letter to clarify, but the Tech branch stated that since it does not attach to the firearm or impact the design or function of the handgun in a permanent manner it is simply a shooting rest and not covered by the purview of the Tech branch.”

“USA 1SHOT” makes a similar shooting aid, and have a new version coming out in July of this year. Since they’ve gone through the effort of talking to the ATF about legality, let’s talk about the advantages of a device like this, when using it on the range.

Two of the pistols I tried with the brace, were both made by Glock. My G21 and my G19X are pretty accurate as is, so I was interested to see how much better they’d shoot, accuracy wise, with the aid of the unattached, 16″ long, 8 ounce, Bubits Brace.

As you can see above, the brace has an area designed to cup the grip of the pistol. The only thing keeping the pistol in the area designated for it, is the grip pressure of the shooter. If you release your grip, the pistol will fall out of the brace.

The first time out, with the G19X, my best group size at 50 meters was 3″, while shooting, standing off-hand. This might seem like a big group, but using pistol sights for that distance is pretty challenging, until you get used to having such a broad front sight.

Shooting off-hand with the G21 gave a “Best” group size of 4″ at the same 50 meters. Obviously, recoil with the .45ACP cartridge was more than the 9mm, but with the brace and your shoulder absorbing most of the recoil, follow up shots are quick and easy.

A nice addition to the brace is the picatinny rail on the bottom support. As shown, you can attach a light to it, in case you don’t have a rail on the pistol you are using in the brace.

Although this brace is obviously designed for use with Glock pistols, other pistols I tried in it were the Springfield XD, shown above and a full size S&W M&P 9mm. All three pistol types shot well, and functioned fine with the brace.

Legally, the brace mentioned in this post is no more “Illegal”, when used with a pistol, than the set of shooting stick used for stabilizing the front of this pistol.

On the legal side, the brace is obviously not attached to the pistol, anymore than resting the dustcover of the pistol (area forward of the trigger guard) on a mechanical rest or the top of a cane or set of shooting sticks, makes that supporting item a “forward grip” (another accessory not allowed on a “Non-NFA” regulated firearm).

As shown, the brace has several slots for sling attachment, and can easily be slung out of the way, on your back, when not in use. If you have a minimalist survival kit, that only includes a pistol, this might be the perfect addition to give you more speed and accuracy with that pistol, and at distance, than anything else.

JCD,

The Bushbastard