I Call It Tactical Cheetah

Glock 17 - Tactical Cheetah - 1
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It all started back in November of last year. Like most other USPSA Matches that I was attending, I met up with a couple of shooting buddies that I met at a prior match. We got together to shoot the York IWLA November USPSA Match. There was a chill in the air and the layout of the club made things ever more brisk. Huddled in the shade of the forrest around us, standing a mere fifty feet from a stream, a group of about 75 shooters were going through the registration process.

As I’m standing there, talking to one of my shooting buddies, he takes his hands out of his jacket pockets and I spot them. Wrapping his hands were a pair of cheetah print gloves with the fingers cut off. You know that sort of snort that people tend to make when they see something funny but they don’t want to come right out with a belly-laugh? Well, my buddy must have picked up on it. He looked me square in the eye, a big kool-aid smile on his face, nodding his head up and down as if to say ‘oh, yeah!’, and said to me ‘I call it Tactical Cheetah’.

My snort of laughter turned to an all-out laugh and the rest of our small group had a nice chuckle at the exchange. The rest of the match was peppered with jokes, mostly how this friend of ours should be awarded some sort of style points. Despite the stages being a little boring (This match was a 4 Stage Special Classifier) we all had a good time, our fellow squad mates included.

About a month or two later, I met up with this shooting buddy outside of the range. The shooting season officially ended in Pennsylvania and we were getting together over coffee to discuss next seasons plans. As we talked, this buddy of mine made mention that he decided to have some customized cosmetic work done to his gun. With the same smile and nod, he told me that he was going to have a Glock 17 all decked out to match his Tactical Cheetah gloves.

As it turns out, he was uncomfortable with the thought of shipping off his gun to a stranger he found on the internet. Instead, he was able to find a company, somewhat local, to do the work. He drove out to the shop, met the husband and wife team, and was happy enough with the meeting to turn over his gun.

The image above is the almost-finished product (Photo was taken before the sights were installed). While I could never pull off the Tactical Cheetah look, I am impressed with the finish. I absolutely love how detailed the slide turned out through the use of Hydrographics. I think that the moment this gun comes out of the holster at our next USPSA Match, it will turn a few heads.

There is some more to this story, but I don’t want to bog down your Friday with a thousand-plus word essay. Instead, I’ll leave the rest of the story for another post (That post will probably come next week, shortly after I pick up my gun…. cliffhanger, perhaps?!)

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Walt

Hi There, My name is Walt White and as the name of this blog suggests, I am a Pennsylvania resident. In addition to having numerous hobbies that I discuss on my blog - Iā€™m also the father of three little girls and a pitbull.

6 thoughts on “I Call It Tactical Cheetah

    1. DD,
      I don’t see it as a problem. In the event that someone points what looks like a gun at another person, while committing a crime, is asking to get shot. Be it a custom painted Glock 17 or a Blue Gun, I wouldn’t blame a police officer of the average person carrying a gun for taking action to defend themselves.

      I’m not sure if Mayor Bloomberg in NYC was successful or not, but he wanted to ban the use of specific paint products (Duracoat was one brand) on guns. in what I believe was retaliation, Duracoat released the Bloomberg series

  1. That slide is ridiculous. But at least it’s well-executed! Just a matter of time til you see a logo’d slide. Just like the morons who put the sticker on their windshield indicating the exact model they’re driving.

    Oh well šŸ™‚

    1. Mike,
      I’ve seen custom engraving on slides, just never the brand / make / model of the gun (outside of stock company logos / names). The Cheetah pattern isn’t for everyone, but there is some really cool stuff out there if you want to customize the look of your gun.

  2. It took me awhile but I also asked why Cheetah. They say always make fun of yourself before others do. There will always be controvesy over guns no matter what color. A red corvette can go as fast as a black one and a driver can be cautious or reckless. It is all about the owner and his/her choice.

  3. I can’t belive you remembered all that , and can’t wait to see these guns in person.

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