Shop visit with Pro Shooter Adam Petrulis and Glock Ambassador Jim Kuzak
Mentioned Links:
- Shark Coast Tactical Podcast ep. 11 with Johnny Glocks
- Adam Petrulis Instagram
- Jim Kuzak Website
- Evolution X Competition Johnny Glock Trigger
TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00.07] - Johnny Glock
You know what? I got the best labor force around. In honor of them and in honor of you guys, we are going to do a site-wide sale, 15% off plus free shipping. I appreciate the support, and hopefully you come to the site, man. If you haven't got a Johnny Glock's newsletter, go to the site and make sure you do that because that's where all the codes are going to be going out and stuff like that. So sign up and get yourself some Johnny Glock's triggers, brother. All right.
[00:00:40.12] - Mike
So I think the first thing I would like to go over is the visit with Adam. Adam P.
[00:00:49.12] - Johnny Glock
Okay.
[00:00:50.06] - Mike
Who is Adam Petrulis?
[00:00:54.07] - Johnny Glock
So when I first started Johnny Glock, like in the podcast, and If you guys haven't seen that, there's a Shark Coast podcast that we'll link somewhere that basically talks about the beginnings of Johnny Glock, and you've seen some of that on the YouTube channel as well. When I first started, I was going territory. I was going from gun shop to gun shop to gun shop. Now, I especially liked ranges because in the ranges, I could say, Hey, look, put these triggers into your range guns. And then that way, if someone's on the fence about shooting a Johnny Glock trigger, just say, Here, take this range gun into the... And I knew as soon as they shot it, it was a sale. So I was focusing on ranges, and there was a range called Fowler's Range down in Fort Myers. And I showed up down there one day, pedaling my goods. I'm pretty sure Adam originally got my trigger there and then contacted me. And so that's how we became Because he's been an amazing shoot.
[00:02:45.09] - Johnny Glock
It's a decade plus, probably 15 years that I've known him. It's probably from here to that wall. Yes. And a big long corridor.
[00:02:54.21] - Johnny Glock
You've seen the videos. Yeah, you've seen the videos. I've seen the videos. Absolutely. Absolutely. Just for some reference, Mike, Adam was literally my first... You could probably film this, too. I'm filming. You're filming?
[00:03:11.12] - Mike
Yeah, always filming.
[00:03:13.00] - Johnny Glock
Adam was my first shooter ever.
[00:03:21.10] - Adam Petrulis
Over a decade.
[00:03:22.20] - Johnny Glock
Oh, yeah. I didn't even know you could sponsor shooters. You know what I mean? He was slinging lead constantly back then, too. He was my first... He was my first sponsored shooter. But yeah, he was the first person that shot under the Johnny Glock's name. We've just always been friends ever since. Always kept in touch. Then once the Instagram revolution came out, he started posting on Instagram.
[00:04:32.05] - Johnny Glock
Instagram, and whenever he would need things tuned up, he'd just show up at the shop. He's got a kid and life, too. It's funny. Those of us have lives. We're barely able to get together. So when we do, we're like, You know what I mean? It's almost like a reunion. But yeah, he's literally the first shooter I've ever had. We have pictures. I have to find. Maybe we could do a still of one of the pictures. It might even be on Instagram, but it was just a phone picture of me and him at Fowler's on one of those days that I would do the same thing with Shark Coast. It would be like Johnny Glock day, and it would just be me with a table, and you would bring your gun in. I'd take your gun apart. I would hot rod your parts and put them back in your gun, and you'd be like, Yeah, Yeah, great. I always talk about that's how I got the skillset that I have because I was doing so many one-offs because I'd say, Hey, what do you want this to be like? And I'd say, I want it to be like this.
[00:05:39.16] - Johnny Glock
And then I would have a grinding wheel. I would just do all those little tricks of the trade that I know how to do, and I'd hand it back to them, and they'd be like, Well, that's perfect. And the other part of that was, you couldn't screw up. You understand what I'm saying? Because I didn't have extra parts. I had some, but at that point in time, those had to be sold because things were tight. So I had to make... That taught me the whole less is more thing, for real, for real, because I had to shave off just a little bit at a time to get that trigger to respond exactly how I wanted it to. But yeah, I used to do it. Remember when what's his name? When Shark Coast said, It was one of your one offs from one of those Johnny Glock days. I would do those, and then I would go to gun shows and do the same thing. And that's why I always keep that rolling cart because that's... Yeah, but that was...
[00:06:27.08] - Adam Petrulis
Just a little cart with all your stuff and set up.
[00:06:30.09] - Johnny Glock
That cart right there. I've always kept that cart because it's just that reminder.
[00:06:35.22] - Adam Petrulis
That's where you started from now you have all this. Yes. 2017, the Gen 5 came out, 2018?
[00:06:41.10] - Mike
Yes.
[00:06:44.02] - Adam Petrulis
Same trigger you put in here. It's probably got 20,000, 25,000 rounds on it. Right. I was like, Here, hold this trigger. Same action.
[00:06:50.18] - Jim Kuzak
And that's why I wanted to come up here because I'm like, Where I'm going to pick up a few seconds is going to be on the trigger.
[00:06:57.07] - Adam Petrulis
I was like, Here, pull the trigger on this.
[00:06:58.06] - Johnny Glock
It's a little rolling cart I had. I had a little setup on top of that, and I would just do it right there. People loved it, too. That's why the Sarasota crew because you... I used to have cameras of what I was doing up on monitors. If you're a gun show guy and you're walking around a gun show, and you see a gunsmith actually doing something, and he's giving away the sauce.
[00:07:22.00] - Mike
So for Petrulis, you carry a 19 and then shoot the 47, but then you comp shoot the ZEV?
[00:07:27.09] - Adam Petrulis
Well, let me tell you, no. The zev's gone, and I'm going to the 47.
[00:07:31.13] - Mike
Oh, really?
[00:07:32.12] - Adam Petrulis
I was doing decent.
[00:07:34.22] - Jim Kuzak
You're doing better than decent. I'll tell you when you suck. You were doing better than decent.
[00:07:40.20] - Adam Petrulis
I shot his 47, actually, with a dot on it. I might have to take a picture of his dot. I might have to get another 47 to run a dot because I'm not a dot guy at all. I'm an off-site guy. I shot his 47, ran a plate rack, and like two seconds, just ding, ding, ding, ding, ding Okay, I'm going to get the 47 because I was debating. I'll just get a 17 and whatever.
[00:08:04.16] - Mike
Why is everybody loving the 47 so much? Because G from Glock Brazil came in. He's a 47 guy now, too.
[00:08:10.09] - Adam Petrulis
Here's what I think. I mean, this is just me. This is just obviously me and probably doesn't make much sense. But what I noticed shooting his and why I don't ever shoot 34s, at least for me, the 34 feels like it dips down. I shoot it, it dips down. I shoot the 34 accurate if I'm shooting slow fire. But if I'm shooting it fast, that second shot always seems to dip down. Well, I noticed when I shot Jim's [Johnny Glock] 47, I don't know if it's because there's not as much guide rod, and obviously because it's 17, obviously, the frame would go to the end. I don't know if there's just a little less mass that it felt like this gun returned back to zero. If you'd like to say, Turn back to zero quicker than a 17, and when I shot his gun.
[00:08:54.18] - Mike
How about you? Some of the history. Oh, he's good.
[00:08:58.19] - Jim Kuzak
History. I had been a law enforcement officer for 18 years, and this was in Western Pennsylvania, outside the city of Pittsburgh. I spent most of my time. What part? Western Pennsylvania that I live in. I lived in Westmoreland County.
[00:09:18.20] - Johnny Glock
Okay. I'm from Elizabeth. You are not. Yeah. I'm from Elizabeth. And my family's, a lot of family from Uniontown. My dad now lives in Smith and PA. Yeah. Yeah. Guess where I started?
[00:09:31.22] - Jim Kuzak
West Newton borough.
[00:09:32.17] - Johnny Glock
No.
[00:09:33.08] - Jim Kuzak
I was a cop first in West Newton borough. West Newton borough.
[00:09:36.23] - Johnny Glock
This is literally in my backyard. Oh, my God.
[00:09:40.17] - Jim Kuzak
Anyway, yes. I was a police officer, started in 1993 outside the city of Pittsburgh in a bunch of little departments. I got full-time, worked in Washington County for most of my career. Narcotics officer as well. Did some details with that. Retired, went to another department just because I wanted to try something new. Started there part-time, and three weeks later, I was shot five times at a home invasion, which gave me the full wheelchair and everything. From there is how my shooting story went. I've always shot. I've always had a handgun or a rifle in my hand since I was eight years old. Once you get in law enforcement, I continued to shoot because you want to be proficient with what you carry, or at least I did. I would venture more into some of the shooting, like IPSC or USPSA because they would allow law enforcement to come and shoot our duty rig so that I was proficient with it. I did that, and then I really got into more of the competition shooting once I was injured and came back to the ability to shoot. I started to put my name out there. I said I wanted to try and shoot in all the sports.
[00:10:50.12] - Jim Kuzak
I wanted to do IDPA, I wanted to do USPSA. I kept asking anybody that I knew that had any relation to Glock. What did you do? Did you work for them? Did you do this? Did you do that? And I came to find out a friend of mine had an acquaintance called... Her name was Michelle Viscuzi. And I talked to her briefly. Here, her father was also a police officer in Forest Hills in the area around there. So she told me, Hey, you got to get noticed. So okay. So I started throwing my name out there, doing all this stuff around Pittsburgh. And next thing you know, I was contacted by Glock. And they said, Are you interested in becoming a brand ambassador? And I was adamant that, absolutely, the brand ambassador. I carried your firearms since almost as soon as I could in law enforcement. I was forced to carry certain firearms. And then once I was given the choice, this was a choice.
[00:11:53.01] - Johnny Glock
Race that's a little longer than I'd like it, but that's... Yeah. But like we always talk about, the Glock is the Glock for a reason. There's not a... Glock will not go anywhere because it's the only gun they can pull right out of the box. You know it's going to go bang every single time, and that ain't going anywhere. That's the key to the competition guns. Get them fast enough that they retain that reliability without sacrificing any other attribute. Well, I know there. I have to glean a bunch of information from people first. What is the trigger that you're used to? Because I remember when I switched Adam out of a... Because he was very like a two, very stout. All of us cut our teeth on Gen 3s. And Gen 3s are like, wall. That's why everyone says the Glock has a reputation for shooting low left, and it doesn't. It just once you hit that wall and things start to stack a little bit, people engage that pinkie and that ring finger, and then it tilts that gun down. It doesn't have anything to do with the placement of the finger, a chart that used to be where you're placing your finger, it's like, all right, that doesn't really pan out the way everyone thought.
[00:13:06.08] - Johnny Glock
But once you start incorporating this, and if you don't have a good strong support hand, you're going to have problems. Since we were all used to that very two-stagey, when I would build systems for him, I would make it as light as a two-stage as possible. That's what the Evolution X Combat is. That's why everyone's like, When are you going to come out with another trigger? I'm like, Why? This is perfection. It's there. It's there, and it's there every time. I'm not messing with it. The one time I said, Hey, let me just try. He was like, What are your… It's so funny. I'm a competitor. What are your competition triggers like? I said, Hey, let me work you one up. I did. And he was like, drew, and he was like, Yeah, this is what I want. I want this. I want this. Because it felt like the 4311. No wall, just like, pure snap. So he didn't have that, anything to interrupt his sights. Like, he was used to prep, bang, prep, bang. This was just like, bang.
[00:14:08.18] - Adam Petrulis
It rolls through. No wall because you just come up, boom.
[00:14:13.14] - Johnny Glock
It still is. That's just It's still just as good as the day I handed it to you, even better.
[00:14:17.01] - Adam Petrulis
Yeah, it's better. Like 20,000 rounds later.
[00:14:20.04] - Johnny Glock
All right. And so that's how I talked to a bunch of competitors, and I said, All right, explain to me the process of draw from draw to break. When they would give me that information about as they come up and they're creating their grip, they're marrying their hands, and it's as they... Because they're shooting a competition, and we've always talked about that, the difference in between competition and combat, the main thing is you are always going to break that trigger in a competition gun. Always. There's not going to be a single time that you're not going to break the trigger. There's a lot of things that are different as opposed to... That's why sometimes it's scary when competition guys will say, Hey, I got really great trigger control. I want a competition trigger for my carry gun. Because I'm like, You know what? If every time you're drawing that gun and purchasing that shoe, like right here as you're bang, that's what you're going to do, especially when your life's on the line. Basically, I gave him that. I suited him up with one of those. He's like, holy crap. Why didn't you tell me you were doing this before?
[00:15:25.14] - Johnny Glock
I said, well, I was trying to match your style, what you're used to. That's why I said, That's why I did that, because it was what you're used to. But once you got that competition trigger, you're like, Yeah, no, I'm all in. I'm all in. This is awesome.
