Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

I ordered 2 mouse pads from VCDL the other day. When they came, the good folks at VCDL had very thoughtfully also included an Otis gun cleaning guide and a little international orange plastic thang shaped like a "J".

I don't reckon I ever saw one of whatever the little orange thang is before. Not sure if it is to drive pins out or just to drop into the bore behind the bolt to flag a chamber as empty or what. If I ordered it, I didn't mean to; so I assume it must be some giveaway designed to keep me and Ralphie from shooting our eyes out.

Anybody know for sure what that doo-dad's good for?

If it's what i"m thinking of, it shows your chamber is clear. You put it in your chamber with the long part of the J going in.

Kinda looks like this, but maybe a brighter or more fluorescent color plastic: http://www.brownells.com/shooting-acces ... px?ttver=1

oh, it's not a dumb question. That thingie helps keep rso's calm.

Without a doubt, that's what it is.

I hadn't thought of the RSO angle, because we don't have much in the way of formal ranges; much less ones with RSOs out here in the wilderness. Out here gun safety and muzzle discipline is pretty much instilled from the time you're knee high to a grasshopper, and ruthlessly enforced with ostracism and ass-whuppin's as the case demands. Folks just know better. So when I surmised that this might have been the intended use of the doo-dad, my very next thought was that anybody who really needed such a thing didn't have any damn business with a loaded gun to begin with. But I can see if you were an RSO in a city where you had a crowd of shooters you didn't know from Adam and no way of knowing which one(s) of them were idiots, that would be a handy thing to have folks using.

'Preciate the input.

Yea, they just kinda glance to see the bright plastic then go about their business drinking coffee.

It doesn't always help,however. The last time I went to the NRA range (maybe 10 years ago), I was using a HK usp tact (it has an integral slide lock). I took it out of the case and put it down, then the RSO started yelling at me to open the slide or I'd get thrown out. I had to get the key out to do it. So, as this guy is standing screaming at me to get my slide open, I fished through my keys and unlocked it, then was able to pull it back. I told the guy it's kinda hard to pull back a slide that's locked shut. He turned and walked away.

One of the local indoor ranges here will have a stompy-hissy fit if you walk in without something to show the chamber is empty. It's a good thing to have.

I know its a PITA but some of those RSO have a pretty tough crowd walking around with un holstered weapons LOL

Chamber flags are required for NRA pistol matches that I shoot at, and for Appleseed clinics. When you take a group of up to 30 shooters of all levels of experience forward of the line to check/change targets twelve times in a day, you want to make safety checks quick, obvious, and foolproof.

I have a couple of chamber flags that I use in class sometimes. That's no doubt what they sent.

Agreed, they are definitely for marking a safe chamber. We used to use fluorescent clothespins for it

The Otis flag can also be used to get light down the barrel for inspection if you don't have direct access or don't want to disassemble. Obviously, make sure it's safe first.