Tomorrow, Friday, July 1, Bill Stanley, Membership Coordinator of GeorgiaCarry.org, will be at Trigger Time Range in Flowery Branch, Georgia, from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Anyone who joins GCO or renews their membership can then shoot for free, all day long. Membership is just $15 a year.
Then on Monday, July 4, Bill will be at Big Woods Goods in Canton, Georgia, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM for the same deal.
If you are in the area on either of these days, please make plans to drop by and visit a very nice range, shoot for free and get a chance to win a Ruger P95.
My plans for the 4th are not set as of yet, but if I'm in town, I plan to check out Big Woods around 11:00 AM. If you're there I will be the one in the USA hat, like in my picture above. Please say hello.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Review - Gun Stories
Last night I watched the premiere of a new television series on the Outdoor Channel, Midway USA's Gun Stories, hosted by Joe Mantegna. All in all, I enjoyed the show a lot.
Episode 1 focused on the Government Model 1911 pistol, designed by John Moses Browning. It went through the history of the gun, from the Army decision to abandon its .38 pistol, to the competition with the Savage pistol, to acceptance and distribution. Along the way, through interviews with a cross section of gun authorities, historians, competitors, and famous personalities, the depth of the 1911's enduring legacy was firmly established.
Now, I have to admit, I had gone into the program expecting something else. Other programs produced by Michael Bane on the Outdoor Channel focus more on the firearm itself - how it operates, how to run it, how to fix it. After watching the whole show, I realize that there are probably a lot of people who are like me, who have focused our gun attention on the mechanics of guns and how they work, but not so much on how we got there. Gun Stories tells that story, and on this it delivers.
Far from being a bunch of timelines and historical footage, Gun Stories lets people do the telling. I especially enjoyed hearing Ted Nugent tell about how his father carried a 1911 in World War II and Korea. Buzz Mills, president and CEO of Gunsite Academy, told how his grandfather was issued a 1911 as part of the New Mexico National Guard, and carried one while fighting Pancho Villa, during the Banana Wars, World War II, and Korea. He also told of buying a 50th anniversary 1911 from the NRA in 1961, by mail order, for $15. And he still owns that pistol.
Given the 30 minute time frame, the show covered all it could cover. There were interviews with competitors like Gene "Evil Roy" Pearcy who told of its adaptation to improve accuracy so it could be effective in competition. Granted, no one went into how to improve the accuracy, but again, that isn't the focus of the show - you can find that out on another show, or on Youtube.
I felt the same about the transition from the 1911 as the US Army sidearm to the Beretta 92F. There was a little discussion of the 9mm versus the .45ACP, but that was more from the political perspective of coordination with NATO, not on the ballistic compromises involved. Again, since the show isn't so much about the 1911 as a weapon, but about the history of the 1911, that was okay with me. If you want that discussion, go on any gun forum and ask. (I dare you.)
Now, there was one area where I thought the show excelled - the slow motion footage of the 1911 in action was some of the best slow motion video I have ever seen. You could see the bullet leave the barrel, the working of the action, the ejection of the spent shell, down to the engagement with the extractor. Then, the stripping and feeding of the next round, all before the gun came back down to firing position. I have always imagined that this is how Rob Leatham sees his gun operate. Very impressive.
Joe Mantegna was a great host. The show style was him commenting and introducing segments, and the people being interviewed just told their stories, with no interviewer.
I look forward to future episodes, and to deepening my admiration of these guns by knowing more about their history.
Episode 1 focused on the Government Model 1911 pistol, designed by John Moses Browning. It went through the history of the gun, from the Army decision to abandon its .38 pistol, to the competition with the Savage pistol, to acceptance and distribution. Along the way, through interviews with a cross section of gun authorities, historians, competitors, and famous personalities, the depth of the 1911's enduring legacy was firmly established.
Now, I have to admit, I had gone into the program expecting something else. Other programs produced by Michael Bane on the Outdoor Channel focus more on the firearm itself - how it operates, how to run it, how to fix it. After watching the whole show, I realize that there are probably a lot of people who are like me, who have focused our gun attention on the mechanics of guns and how they work, but not so much on how we got there. Gun Stories tells that story, and on this it delivers.
Far from being a bunch of timelines and historical footage, Gun Stories lets people do the telling. I especially enjoyed hearing Ted Nugent tell about how his father carried a 1911 in World War II and Korea. Buzz Mills, president and CEO of Gunsite Academy, told how his grandfather was issued a 1911 as part of the New Mexico National Guard, and carried one while fighting Pancho Villa, during the Banana Wars, World War II, and Korea. He also told of buying a 50th anniversary 1911 from the NRA in 1961, by mail order, for $15. And he still owns that pistol.
Given the 30 minute time frame, the show covered all it could cover. There were interviews with competitors like Gene "Evil Roy" Pearcy who told of its adaptation to improve accuracy so it could be effective in competition. Granted, no one went into how to improve the accuracy, but again, that isn't the focus of the show - you can find that out on another show, or on Youtube.
I felt the same about the transition from the 1911 as the US Army sidearm to the Beretta 92F. There was a little discussion of the 9mm versus the .45ACP, but that was more from the political perspective of coordination with NATO, not on the ballistic compromises involved. Again, since the show isn't so much about the 1911 as a weapon, but about the history of the 1911, that was okay with me. If you want that discussion, go on any gun forum and ask. (I dare you.)
Now, there was one area where I thought the show excelled - the slow motion footage of the 1911 in action was some of the best slow motion video I have ever seen. You could see the bullet leave the barrel, the working of the action, the ejection of the spent shell, down to the engagement with the extractor. Then, the stripping and feeding of the next round, all before the gun came back down to firing position. I have always imagined that this is how Rob Leatham sees his gun operate. Very impressive.
Joe Mantegna was a great host. The show style was him commenting and introducing segments, and the people being interviewed just told their stories, with no interviewer.
I look forward to future episodes, and to deepening my admiration of these guns by knowing more about their history.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
New Show on Outdoor Channel Tonight - Gun Stories
If you're part of Gun Culture 2.0 like me, you may not know a lot about some of the guns you've heard about. Michael Bane, producer of such shows as Shooting Gallery, Best Defense, and Cowboys, has addressed that with what some are calling the best show on the Outdoor Channel, Gun Stories.
Hosted by actor and gun enthusiast Joe Mantegna, the show premieres today. The first airing is at 2:00 PM ET, and another at 7:30 PM ET. Check your listings for all the times. If you don't get Outdoor Channel, I don't know what to tell you.
Bane said in his podcast this week that his goal is to bring guns to life for those of us who may not know all their history, and to breathe fresh life into them for those who think they already know all about them. The first episode is about the 1911, and next week they talk about Mausers.
I'm going to watch the 10:30 PM ET showing, and I'll let you know my thoughts live on Twitter.
Live, Dead, or Undead?
Last week I talked about my upcoming gun projects. The three projects on my plate are to refinish my shotgun, build an AR-15, and pimp out my Ruger 10/22.
I did some research on the first pieces for my AR. I think I've settled on the lower above - the Zombie lower from Spike's Tactical. The brand comes well recommended, and I especially like the labeling on the safety selector - Live > Dead > Undead. I spoke to my guy at Lakeside Guns and they can order it for me. I'll stop by this weekend and get it coming.
I should be able to order the rest of the AR lower by the middle of July. In the meantime I'm going to try to find a local gun shop that carries them.
Also, after trying in vain to find a local shop that carried Duracoat, I ended up ordering some flat black and a Hogue overmolded stock for my Mossberg 500, online. It should be here in time to complete the project the second weekend in July.
Of course, I will document all my work and post it as it happens.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
Where do you buy your guns, ammunition, and shooting accessories? It's quite a decision to make. If you're like me, you spend upward of $1,000 a year, maybe more if you decide to add an AR, or start reloading.
How do you decide where to spend that money? Does it matter?
To me, it does.
There is a war going on between pro second amendment people and organizations, and those who want to take our guns away. On the side of the anti-gunners are people like billionaire Michael Bloomberg. To say that we can be out-spent is an understatement.
There are a lot of places where I join the fight. I write my local, state, and federal representatives regularly about the issues, and I'm pleased that they are all on our side. I would say I'm fortunate to live where I live, except that this is one reason I choose to live here.
I also participate in action groups like the NRA, GeorgiaCarry, and the Second Amendment Foundation. These organizations take our message to meet larger foes head on.
One area most people may not consider is the gun and ammunition retailer. These businesses are on the front lines, too, and many times they pay the price.
I can do like we do for a lot of things, go for low price. For me that would be Walmart. But Walmart is part of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a Michael Bloomberg-funded anti-gun organization. Even their latest decision the start selling guns again doesn't sway me. Walmart's decisions are all based on dollars sold per square foot, and if they thought they could make more money converting their guns counters into nail salons, they would do it.
On the other side of the aisle are the locally owned stores. A really good one recently opened near me, Lakeside Guns in Acworth, Georgia. As a member of the National Association of Firearms Retailers, part of the NSSF, they help fight the war. Plus, the service is exceptional, and the people there all seem to love their jobs. When did you last see that at Walmart?
Consider, too, Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Georgia. In 2007, Michael Bloomberg decided that large gun stores in other parts of the country were responsible for the guns in New York City, and he sent people to 27 such stores around the country to buy guns using fake identification. He then sued those stores. Most stores settled out of court. Adventure Outdoors did not.
Owner Jay Wallace (that's him in the photo above) has spent over $1,000,000 of his own money fighting Bloomberg. He is suing Bloomberg over the incident, and it hasn't kept him from buying a large grocery store across the street, and renovating it, and adding an indoor shooting range, meeting rooms, and a cafe.
I recently needed to replace some Glock magazines. I chose to buy them at Adventure Outdoors so I could help them in their fight. Yes, I spent a little more than I could have if I had bought them on-line. Yes, it meant driving out of my way on the way home one day. But to me it's money well spent. It's money well invested.
So the next time you have money to spend, think about the big picture. Use your money to further the cause. If you have to spend a few dollars more, consider it an investment in your shooting future.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Fellow Travelers and Other Random Stuff
Two co-workers revealed themselves as Glock owners last Friday. Both came to me, saying they had heard I was "the guy." One has a G21 and is looking to replace the sights. I suggested Sevigny-Warren competition sights like the ones on Bruce, or alternately, that he take it over to Glock in Smyrna, where they will install a set of night sights for $55 while he waits.
The other co-worker, when I asked, first said he had "a couple of Glocks." Turns out he has 5, plus handguns of other makes. Last fall he spent 3 days at Blackwater in North Carolina for some training. I felt very small.
We talked a while about training, and he is a proponent of formal training at least yearly. Interestingly, he doesn't compete, but I think I have at least persuaded him to think about the GSSF match near us in July.
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Friday night I found some ammo in my bedside table that I didn't notice before. I asked my wife about it, and it turns out she had been collecting loose rounds from my pockets after matches and practice sessions. Nine rounds of .45ACP, six rounds of 9mm, and 2 rounds of 7.62x39.
Note to self: pat downs are in order.
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After another review of home invasion plans, I'm working on an idea for the living room, to keep a pistol under one of the side tables, using a magnet to hold the gun in place, and an old holster to cover the trigger. I bought a magnet at a hardware store for $4, versus the "gun magnets" advertised for $25. I will report more when I get it installed.
For me one essential thing is to have the trigger covered, since I plan to store it there with a round in the chamber.
Then it's train, train, train. Since I plan on using Bruce, my G17, for this duty, I'll replace the barrel with my plastic training barrel, and everyone will get used to retrieving it while moving away from the stairs and toward the back bedroom, which is our safe room.
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I'm borrowing a compressor and nail gun for a project at the house this coming weekend, so I'm also going to be getting some Duracoat coming. I bought an inexpensive spray rig at the hardware store, so that part is covered. Next, order a polymer stock, and the project is done. Look for a complete report with pics next week.
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My NFML mags for my G17, which are being retired, and headed for a better place. Look for a post about them this week, when I have pics. It will be a lot more interesting that way.
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I didn't retire the old mags without buying new ones. There are three new mags in the closet, numbers 8, 9, and 10. More on them later.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
More Free Shooting from GeorgiaCarry
GeorgiaCarry.org, the premier voice for the Second Amendment in Georgia, will be holding a membership drive again this weekend, and giving new members or those renewing a chance to shoot for free.
Tomorrow, Friday June 24, they will be at Patrick’s Gun Range in Garden City, Georgia, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This is your chance if you live near Savannah.
Saturday, June 25, they will be at Eagle Gun Range in Macon from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Membership is just $15 per year. Come out and join or renew, and enjoy some free range time.
Also, the GeorgiaCarry Annual Convention is coming up, August 5 and 6, at the Waverly Hotel in Cobb County, near the Galleria, and I plan to attend. Look for more information later.
That New Podcast Smell
This week, JP at the EyesNeverClosed blog posted the first episode of his podcast, the Empty Mags Podcast. If he keeps up with it, I think it’ll be a good one to watch.
The first installment was impressive, and not just because he told about this blog in the first five minutes.
JP's style is relaxed and conversational. He really appeals to me because his target audience is the everyday shooter, the regular guy or gal who owns a couple of guns and shoots for fun, competition, and self defense, not an operator. He maintains an even pace throughout the show, and he changes topics effectively.
The main topic of the first episode is deciding whether to build your first AR rifle, or build it. I won't give away his advice, but he convinced me. Give a listen and see if you agree.
The first installment was impressive, and not just because he told about this blog in the first five minutes.
JP's style is relaxed and conversational. He really appeals to me because his target audience is the everyday shooter, the regular guy or gal who owns a couple of guns and shoots for fun, competition, and self defense, not an operator. He maintains an even pace throughout the show, and he changes topics effectively.
The main topic of the first episode is deciding whether to build your first AR rifle, or build it. I won't give away his advice, but he convinced me. Give a listen and see if you agree.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Lessons Learned and Re-learned
Writing this blog has forced me to look at my shooting techniques in black and white terms. One thing I am confronting is the lack of actual training I have gotten, and how my shooting has suffered as a result. It's one thing to read in a forum or see on TV how something should be done, and another thing altogether to realize I am not doing it that way.
For 18 plus years I was a self taught shooter. I taught myself a lot of things that I’ve found out not to be the best way. Notice I don’t say these techniques are “wrong,” because I managed to shoot decently. But, I know now I would have shot a lot better if I had done things the other way. That’s the reason for my post the other day about bullet orientation in my magazine pouch. If there’s really a better way I want to use it.
Today I’m writing about the biggest mistake I made, and how I fixed it. And boy, has it made a difference.
Drum roll.
Until recently, I didn’t really look at the front sight.
I started out focusing on the target, and the gun’s sights would be blurry at best. Because I was shooting competitions where the targets were at 3 to 15 yards, it's how I did it, and I got away with it. My shots were mostly As and Bs on an IPSC target, with Cs on the far targets. Sometimes I would have complete misses, and I was at a loss to tell you why.
Yes, I always heard teachers say “focus on the front sight,” but I didn’t think I needed to do anything different.
Then, about two years ago, I was watching the Pro Tip on an episode of American Shooter. KC Esubio was talking about calling your shots. To me this was a foreign idea at best, but he was using a helmet camera that actually focused on the front sight. I could see the rear sight alignment great, and the target was somewhat fuzzy, just like I had heard it described.
Then he shot a string of fire and told us to call his shots. I was surprised – I could tell exactly where the sights were aligned when the front sight lifted. I called his shots.
So I thought, maybe I should start focusing on the front sight, and maybe I could call my own shots, and figure out why I was missing targets.
There was a problem, though. Thanks to presbyopia, “old eyes” for you young whipper snappers, I physically couldn’t focus on the front sight. I wear contact lenses that give me good vision at normal distances, but I’ve had to wear reading glasses for the last 12 years or so. Even with my glasses, I couldn't make something that close come into sharp focus.
So I got an idea. The next time I went for my annual eye exam, I asked the optometrist to help me out. He isn’t a shooter, but he understood what I wanted. He ended up giving me a sample contact for my right (dominant) eye that corrects it to 20/20 at arm's length. Suddenly, my fingernail was in focus at arm's length. The rest was up to me.
It was harder than I thought to train myself to look at the front sight. But to make it easier, I changed my sights on my competition pistol to a set of Sevigny competition sights with a fiber optic front sight. The difference has been amazing.
The first competition I shot with the contact in was the GSSF Annual Shoot, and it was my best GSSF match ever. Before this, my personal best was four misses in a match. This time I had only one miss, and I even called that one when it happened, and I knew I had jerked the trigger when it happened.
This contact has lasted me over a year, since I only wear it for about 6 hours at a time a few times a month. And, at my annual visit this year, my optometrist gave me another sample that I can use when this one wears out.
So, what's next in my rebuilding of my technique?
Three Months Already?
Hard to believe that three months ago today I got a wild hair and clicked on the "Create Your Own Time Sink" button.
Thank you to everyone who reads this blog. I've gotten to meet a lot of good people, and I've learned a lot, mostly about how much I have to learn.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Summer Thoughts
Summer is the time of the year I like most. Many people say "I can always put on more coats in the winter." Not me, I can never get warm enough. I prefer to feel the sweat roll down my . . . neck. I like it hot.
Summer is the height of competition season, and on this Solstice I'm struck by how little I have competed so far this year. I have two favorite USPSA clubs here in the Atlanta area that I shoot at, one the second Saturday, and one the third Sunday, and I've had other family commitments so far this summer. I've shot two Steel matches, at that's it. Yes, I spent Memorial Day at the LuckyGunner Blogger Shoot, but that doesn't count.
In July, I have a Steel match, a USPSA match, and a GSSF match in successive weekends. Then, Gaston Glock's birthday on the 19th. It should be a good month.
So, okay already. Stop my bitchin'. Load some magazines, get my practice in, and hit the road. I have no one to blame but me.
Monday, June 20, 2011
A Yellow Day - Be Prepared Part 6
This weekend my wife and I had a few more discussions about family safety and preparedness. It started with another robbery in the news, where some people were mugged, and despite giving the robbers what they wanted, were shot and killed. Our take was that there was really no excuse for two people together to be surprised by a robber, if they were paying attention to their surroundings. That got us to talking about awareness.
There are a lot of ways to describe our levels of awareness, and maybe the best was put forth by Lt. Colonel Jeff Cooper in his book Principles of Personal Defense. My wife is not a reader of the good Lt. Colonel Cooper, so I talked a little about his color code. For those who might have missed this or forgotten, Cooper summarized those this way:
White – Unaware and unprepared.She seemed to really take to our discussion, so we talked about how we can work as a team when we’re out, watching out for each other. She immediately noted that we would be in Yellow all the time, but if one of us sensed something, we needed to be able to tell the other without alerting the threat. After some talk, we decided our code for that would be to pointedly use the word “orange,” as in “I feel orange right now, three o’clock.”
Yellow – Relaxed but alert of your surroundings, and prepared to defend yourself if necessary. You see people and things coming in and out of your area, and you assess them for threat, almost subconsciously.
Orange – Something is not quite right and has your attention. It may be time to take furtive evasive action or other action.
Red – In an active fight. It's time to either get away, or defend yourself if needed.
We’d had the Condition Red talk before, without using that phrase, and she has always known that if I ever had to draw my gun, it would not be to threaten, it would be because, as Tom Givens put it, there was somebody there who needed to be shot. That would be her cue to move with the kids as fast as she could away from me and away from the threat, since I then became the number one target for whoever we were confronting.
Later, we went out for a little shopping, and we talked about this again in the car. The telling time happened when we stopped to use an ATM in a part of town we don’t normally frequent. As we pulled up I talked about what I was going to do, and she agreed to watch out for anyone approaching the car.
My ATM routine is simple. Pull up as close to the ATM as I can so I don’t have to open the door. Keep the doors locked. Keep the car in gear. Don’t keep my arm hanging out of the car while I wait. As money, card, and receipt come out of the car, I shuffle them into my other hand and into the car. As soon as the ATM is done, I pull away, and I put the money and card away when I stop later.
We finished our shopping and got home with no incidents.
Now, I admit, we used to go our way in condition white, or as we also call it, Fat, Dumb, and Happy. So, did our awareness spoil the time together? Not at all. In fact, we probably felt better because we knew we were watching out for each other, even more than before.
It was a yellow day.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Bullet Orientation in My Magazine Pouch
I was thinking about the training session I had a few weeks back at the LuckyGunner Blogger Shoot, and how the trainers told me I had my magazines in my magazine pouch backward. The idea was that the magazine should be in the pouch with the bullets facing forward, so as you draw a new magazine from the pouch, you can place your index finger on the tip of the bullet and index it into the magazine well.
The problem is, when I first started shooting 19 years ago, I guessed wrong. I had no instruction, and I had a 50 / 50 chance in orientation of the bullets in my mag pouch. I don't remember thinking about it at all, but I know I started facing them backward.
I became aware of this "error" some time ago, and I even tried turning all my mag pouches around, and trying to teach myself to to it the other way. It was hard, because to me I seemed to be working against normal physiology. My way, I just pivot my wrist to orient the bullets forward. The other way, I have to twist my wrist, which seems to be a more awkward movement.
Any way, I worked on it off and on for about a month, before I gave up and went back.
So at the training class I just said "20 years of muscle memory, sorry," and kept them like they were.
Modern behavioral science tells us that it takes about 1,000 repetitions of anything to ingrain it as muscle memory*. In the mean time, when I tried to do it full speed, I messed it up.
I am willing to put in the training it takes, provided I know there is a solid reason.
So I ask, is there a real, verifiable reason for one orientation over another**? If so, I will work through the pain and change. If not, I'm going to stay the way I am.
Thank you in advance. I await your responses.
* I tried to find a first source for this assertion. Most of the sources I found just stated it as known fact.
** "Real, verifiable reasons" do not include "because that's the way they teach it at Gunsite" or "because that's the way Dave Sevigny does it." I need scientific proof, not hearsay or legend.
The problem is, when I first started shooting 19 years ago, I guessed wrong. I had no instruction, and I had a 50 / 50 chance in orientation of the bullets in my mag pouch. I don't remember thinking about it at all, but I know I started facing them backward.
I became aware of this "error" some time ago, and I even tried turning all my mag pouches around, and trying to teach myself to to it the other way. It was hard, because to me I seemed to be working against normal physiology. My way, I just pivot my wrist to orient the bullets forward. The other way, I have to twist my wrist, which seems to be a more awkward movement.
Any way, I worked on it off and on for about a month, before I gave up and went back.
So at the training class I just said "20 years of muscle memory, sorry," and kept them like they were.
Modern behavioral science tells us that it takes about 1,000 repetitions of anything to ingrain it as muscle memory*. In the mean time, when I tried to do it full speed, I messed it up.
I am willing to put in the training it takes, provided I know there is a solid reason.
So I ask, is there a real, verifiable reason for one orientation over another**? If so, I will work through the pain and change. If not, I'm going to stay the way I am.
Thank you in advance. I await your responses.
* I tried to find a first source for this assertion. Most of the sources I found just stated it as known fact.
** "Real, verifiable reasons" do not include "because that's the way they teach it at Gunsite" or "because that's the way Dave Sevigny does it." I need scientific proof, not hearsay or legend.
EyesNeverClosed ePostal Match
JP at the EyesNeverClosed blog has thrown out a challenge in the form of an ePostal match, through his Twitter feed. Rules and the target are posted here. Anyone on Twitter can shoot it, and submit a picture of their result by June 30.
I went to the local indoor range today during the lunch hour to shoot it with my Browning Buck Mark, and I took away some lessons.
* I am not and have never been a bullseye shooter. I need to learn slow fire techniques.
* I should eat before I go.
* I shouldn't go when I have 40 minutes to shoot. The target is pressure enough.
* I shouldn't go to a range where the targets oscillate 5 degrees once per second, and take 5 minutes to stop oscillating. This turns it into the Bianchi movers stage, which I don't think were part of the rules.
* The red dot sight I had from my old Buck Mark fifteen years ago may need replacing. I can't seem to get it adjusted like I should be able to.
None of these are meant as excuses, I just need to learn more. My best score was 12 out of 20. I may post it later. I may not.
Gun Podcast of the Week - Tom Gresham's Gun Talk
I love where I live in Kennesaw, Georgia. But that means I’ve never had a very easy commute, dealing with Atlanta traffic, which means I have to have something in the car to keep me interested, or I go nuts.
In the past couple of years I’ve found a number of podcasts that fit this bill nicely. I'm always sampling new podcasts, some of which I like, and some not so much. Over the next few weeks I'll share what I've found, starting with the ones I listen to regularly.
Gun Talk
http://guntalk.libsyn.com/
Available on iTunes
I wanted to start this feature with the first podcast I started listening to. Tom Gresham hosts a weekly 3 hour syndicated radio show covering all facets of the shooting world. I first came across this show one Sunday afternoon on satellite radio, and when I discovered the podcast, it became a staple.
Gun Talk is a very well produced radio variety show, where the topic happens to be shooting, hunting, reloading, and self defense. Tom mixes interviews and personal commentary with listener calls and other segments.
For me, the top feature is the interviews. Tom’s interviews feature the top people in shooting and gun rights, from Rob Leatham and Doug Koenig, to Alan Gura and Congressman Darrel Issa. He also does interviews with gun and accessory manufacturers, and trainers like Tiger McKee and Ed Head, which are very informative. Tom is a great interviewer.
The call-in segments are a good mix of information and listener questions. Having been involved in shooting from a very early age (Tom is the son of legendary gun writer Grits Gresham), Tom usually has an answer, but he’s also quick to admit when he doesn’t. Fortunately, the listeners almost always have an answer, so stay tuned.
Tom handles discord well. Callers who disagree are never dismissed out of hand or derided. Rather, Tom states his view, and does so compellingly.
Tom also hosts and produces several TV shows on the Versus network – Gun Talk TV, Guns and Gear, Personal Defense TV - and he gives good information on what’s coming up on those shows.
Gun Talk is my Monday commute, and it starts my week off well.
In the past couple of years I’ve found a number of podcasts that fit this bill nicely. I'm always sampling new podcasts, some of which I like, and some not so much. Over the next few weeks I'll share what I've found, starting with the ones I listen to regularly.
Gun Talk
http://guntalk.libsyn.com/
Available on iTunes
I wanted to start this feature with the first podcast I started listening to. Tom Gresham hosts a weekly 3 hour syndicated radio show covering all facets of the shooting world. I first came across this show one Sunday afternoon on satellite radio, and when I discovered the podcast, it became a staple.
Gun Talk is a very well produced radio variety show, where the topic happens to be shooting, hunting, reloading, and self defense. Tom mixes interviews and personal commentary with listener calls and other segments.
For me, the top feature is the interviews. Tom’s interviews feature the top people in shooting and gun rights, from Rob Leatham and Doug Koenig, to Alan Gura and Congressman Darrel Issa. He also does interviews with gun and accessory manufacturers, and trainers like Tiger McKee and Ed Head, which are very informative. Tom is a great interviewer.
The call-in segments are a good mix of information and listener questions. Having been involved in shooting from a very early age (Tom is the son of legendary gun writer Grits Gresham), Tom usually has an answer, but he’s also quick to admit when he doesn’t. Fortunately, the listeners almost always have an answer, so stay tuned.
Tom handles discord well. Callers who disagree are never dismissed out of hand or derided. Rather, Tom states his view, and does so compellingly.
Tom also hosts and produces several TV shows on the Versus network – Gun Talk TV, Guns and Gear, Personal Defense TV - and he gives good information on what’s coming up on those shows.
Gun Talk is my Monday commute, and it starts my week off well.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Evaluating Upcoming Projects
NERD ALERT: As my mother was fond saying, "Many people are not engineers." As I read through this post before publishing, I realized it is a topic that may not be attractive to anyone who doesn't have at least a small nerdy streak. If at any time you feel your eyeballs glazing, please scroll down and look at the gun porn a while. Then you can skip to the Results. I won't mind, honest.
Like most of you, I have several gun projects in the works. And, like most of you, I have limited resources to complete those projects, both time and money. I sat down to rank my three most emotionally attractive projects by how much I wanted to do them, and they came out this way: build an AR-15; pimp out my Ruger 10/22; and finish re-finishing my shotgun.
But, my engineer mind took over, and I wondered what would happen to that order if I used my engineering project management skills to decide priorities.
Projects can be prioritized using a number of criteria. After some thought a research, the ones I used were
Results: Will the project get me where I want to be? How sure am I that I can achieve the project like I want to?
Utility: How much will I use the finished project? How much will it affect my shooting, both accuracy and frequency?
Effort: How hard will it be to complete, and how long will it take?
Cost: How much will it cost, and where will the money come from. Include Cash Flow and Return on Investment (ROI) if applicable.
I ranked each criterion 0 through 5. For Results and Utility, 5 is high, and for Cost and Effort, 5 is low. I then added them up, to rank the projects.
Here’s what I found.
AR-15 Build
I want an entry level AR-15 I can use for 3-gun and home defense. I was set to buy one, then I borrowed a friend’s AR to take on a shooting trip, the same time EyesNeverClosed was live tweeting a lower receiver build. I'm convinced now that I can do all the work needed to assemble this gun, so I’m going to build my own.
Results: 4. This will be a new gun, so it will certainly get more use than the one I don't have now. Granted it’s an entry level, but I’m not going to use it in the sandbox or the USPSA Multi-Gun Nationals, so I can live with that.
Utility: 4. I expect I will shoot this gun as much as any other, in 3-gun and other competition.
Effort: 3. I’m not sure what skills I’m going to have to develop, but as a Glock Armorer I have confidence I can do it.
Cost: 2. This one is the most expensive. I’m budgeting $750, and I’m having to save up as I go. I have a side project that I'm dedicating the proceeds to, so it doesn't come out of normal cash flow, until I run out of that money, any way.
Final Score: 13
Super 10/22 Build
Right now my Ruger 10/22 looks more like Steve Rogers, but I want to turn it into Captain America. This means a new bull barrel and stock, plus more Duracoat. Optics are optional.
Results: 2. Yes, it will look really cool, and it may be a lot more accurate, but it’s not a big leap over my stock 10/22.
Utility: 2. I probably won’t shoot it any more than I do now.
Effort: 4. This is fairly simple once I get the parts. Hey, it’s a 10/22!
Cost: 3. $250, cash flowed.
Final Score: 11
Shotgun Refinish
Some time ago I got a wild hair and decided to refinish Lee, my Mossberg 500 shotgun. So far I’ve got the bluing stripped off, and I admit, I've put off completing the project for some time. To finish, all I need to do is apply some flat black Duracoat and add a new black polymer stock.
Results: 5. This will get me a shotgun that I can use the rest of my life.
Utility: 3. I will mostly use this for trap and home defense, until I get into 3-gun.
Effort: 4. Fairly easy, can be done in one day. Maybe even easier than that, but I’ve never used Duracoat before.
Cost: 4. $100, and I can do this out of normal cash flow.
Final Score: 16
RESULTS
Come here if the discussion made you dizzy.
Finishing my Mossberg came out on top, which was a small surprise, since I really wanted to build the AR first. But, I trust the process.
The AR and the 10/22 come out very close to each other, and if I didn’t already have a 10/22 I could shoot, it would probably have gotten a higher Results score, and it would be first.
So now I set some goal dates, based on cash flow, what else. I plan to have the shotgun done by July 4th. I set a goal date of November 8 for the AR build, and a tentative date of the end of the year for the 10/22, depending on cash flow after that.
Does this approach get me anything over my gut feelings? Yes. This process has forced me to really evaluate these projects, and spell them out. As a result, I will have my shotgun back sooner than if I had waited.
I also have a new framework to use when I consider new projects.
I’ll be sure to report on these projects as I go.
Like most of you, I have several gun projects in the works. And, like most of you, I have limited resources to complete those projects, both time and money. I sat down to rank my three most emotionally attractive projects by how much I wanted to do them, and they came out this way: build an AR-15; pimp out my Ruger 10/22; and finish re-finishing my shotgun.
But, my engineer mind took over, and I wondered what would happen to that order if I used my engineering project management skills to decide priorities.
Projects can be prioritized using a number of criteria. After some thought a research, the ones I used were
Results: Will the project get me where I want to be? How sure am I that I can achieve the project like I want to?
Utility: How much will I use the finished project? How much will it affect my shooting, both accuracy and frequency?
Effort: How hard will it be to complete, and how long will it take?
Cost: How much will it cost, and where will the money come from. Include Cash Flow and Return on Investment (ROI) if applicable.
I ranked each criterion 0 through 5. For Results and Utility, 5 is high, and for Cost and Effort, 5 is low. I then added them up, to rank the projects.
Here’s what I found.
AR-15 Build
I want an entry level AR-15 I can use for 3-gun and home defense. I was set to buy one, then I borrowed a friend’s AR to take on a shooting trip, the same time EyesNeverClosed was live tweeting a lower receiver build. I'm convinced now that I can do all the work needed to assemble this gun, so I’m going to build my own.
Results: 4. This will be a new gun, so it will certainly get more use than the one I don't have now. Granted it’s an entry level, but I’m not going to use it in the sandbox or the USPSA Multi-Gun Nationals, so I can live with that.
Utility: 4. I expect I will shoot this gun as much as any other, in 3-gun and other competition.
Effort: 3. I’m not sure what skills I’m going to have to develop, but as a Glock Armorer I have confidence I can do it.
Cost: 2. This one is the most expensive. I’m budgeting $750, and I’m having to save up as I go. I have a side project that I'm dedicating the proceeds to, so it doesn't come out of normal cash flow, until I run out of that money, any way.
Final Score: 13
Super 10/22 Build
Right now my Ruger 10/22 looks more like Steve Rogers, but I want to turn it into Captain America. This means a new bull barrel and stock, plus more Duracoat. Optics are optional.
Results: 2. Yes, it will look really cool, and it may be a lot more accurate, but it’s not a big leap over my stock 10/22.
Utility: 2. I probably won’t shoot it any more than I do now.
Effort: 4. This is fairly simple once I get the parts. Hey, it’s a 10/22!
Cost: 3. $250, cash flowed.
Final Score: 11
Shotgun Refinish
Some time ago I got a wild hair and decided to refinish Lee, my Mossberg 500 shotgun. So far I’ve got the bluing stripped off, and I admit, I've put off completing the project for some time. To finish, all I need to do is apply some flat black Duracoat and add a new black polymer stock.
Results: 5. This will get me a shotgun that I can use the rest of my life.
Utility: 3. I will mostly use this for trap and home defense, until I get into 3-gun.
Effort: 4. Fairly easy, can be done in one day. Maybe even easier than that, but I’ve never used Duracoat before.
Cost: 4. $100, and I can do this out of normal cash flow.
Final Score: 16
RESULTS
Come here if the discussion made you dizzy.
Finishing my Mossberg came out on top, which was a small surprise, since I really wanted to build the AR first. But, I trust the process.
The AR and the 10/22 come out very close to each other, and if I didn’t already have a 10/22 I could shoot, it would probably have gotten a higher Results score, and it would be first.
So now I set some goal dates, based on cash flow, what else. I plan to have the shotgun done by July 4th. I set a goal date of November 8 for the AR build, and a tentative date of the end of the year for the 10/22, depending on cash flow after that.
Does this approach get me anything over my gut feelings? Yes. This process has forced me to really evaluate these projects, and spell them out. As a result, I will have my shotgun back sooner than if I had waited.
I also have a new framework to use when I consider new projects.
I’ll be sure to report on these projects as I go.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Gun Pr0n 101
One thing about being a nerd my age is by now I have quite a large collection of neat hobby stuff. In a previous life, I dabbled quite a bit in photography, back when photos were taken on something called "film." For a while I even had a neat deal going - I took pictures of people's weddings, and they paid me money, and I bought photo equipment with the money, and the IRS said it was okay.
Well, I don't take photos for money any more, but I still have the lighting equipment. So I decided to haul some of it down from the attic and set it up in the workshop.
Click to embiggen
Here are some results of my attempts. I think Oleg and Yamil can relax.
Bucky, my Browning Buck Mark
The Duke, my Glock 21SF
The Glock family
Sergei, my SKS
There were more in the session, but I think I need a different camera and more patience. Look for more examples in future posts.
Oleg, you made it look so easy at the Blogger Shoot. Unfair.
Well, I don't take photos for money any more, but I still have the lighting equipment. So I decided to haul some of it down from the attic and set it up in the workshop.
Here are some results of my attempts. I think Oleg and Yamil can relax.
There were more in the session, but I think I need a different camera and more patience. Look for more examples in future posts.
Oleg, you made it look so easy at the Blogger Shoot. Unfair.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
What a Day
On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution creating the Continental Army. This was a significant move in the formation of the United States, as it sought to unify the military forces of the 13 colonies under one command - General George Washington - in its fight against the British.
Before this, since the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, the Revolution had relied almost entirely on the efforts of local militia, groups of men who fought for their freedom with their own guns and their own resources. While these men were not part of the Continental Army, they were an effective force, and continued to be a vital part of the Revolution, even after the formation of the Army. But now, with a central command, there was the beginnings of a national armed force.
Later, after the Revolution was won, and the Constitution established, Congress sought to make right an oversight. It adopted the first set of ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights. One of those, the Second Amendment, recognized the part the militias played in the Revolution, when it said that the militia was "necessary to the security of a free state," and it enumerated the "right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
So, how did we get to the "well regulated militia = National Guard" idea? This misunderstanding rises from the fact that most people don't use the word "regulated" the way our founding fathers did. They used it in the same way we use it when speaking with a gunsmith about a double barreled shotgun or a double rifle. In that sense, to regulate these guns means to adjust them so that both barrels shoot to hit the same target point. A well regulated militia is then a group of citizens who are proficient in arms, and can all shoot well enough to hit the same targets.
Today's "well regulated militia" means that we citizens, men and women, must be prepared to protect our homeland, the same way the militia did in 1775. We need to practice so we can all hit the same target point if the time comes. While fewer of us may come to shooting from a military background, this doesn't excuse us from that responsibility, nor preclude us from that right.
Interestingly, exactly two years after the establishment of the Continental Army in 1775, the Congress adopted the familiar Stars and Stripes as the national flag of the United States.
While you celebrate Flag Day today, remember our army as well, and the well regulated militia that stands behind them.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
"Tell Me Your Story" - Gun Culture 2.0 Revealed
Some of the people I had the great fortune of meeting at the LuckyGunner.com Blogger Shoot a coupe of weeks ago was Jennifer, who writes the blog In Jennifer's Head, and her husband Evyl Robot Michael.
Yesterday, Jennifer asked in her blog for her readers to tell us her story - how did we get into the gun world? This prompted over 50 stories of how they started shooting. I even posted a link to my story, my first real blog post 3 months ago.
Many people who posted linked to their own blogs, and their comments sections had people posting how they got started. I didn't count them all but there's a lot.
One of the things that I noticed was a lot of the posts, maybe a third, represented what is becoming know as Gun Culture 2.0. I first heard this phrase used by Michael Bane, and it means those whose entry into shooting deviates from the traditional, established route of gun ownership. Traditionally people were around shooting all their life. Shooting was passed down from parents and grandparents, or perhaps learned in Scouts or 4H. There are also those who took up shooting in the military.
Gun Culture 2.0 are those like me who took up shooting because of a concern for personal protection. I even noted that several people mentioned Hurricane Katrina as a driving force in their decision. It was not a family tradition, and in some cases, people bought their first gun despite a family tradition of anti-gun attitudes.
Welcome to the fold, fellow members of Gun Culture 2.0. I look forward to meeting you!
Yesterday, Jennifer asked in her blog for her readers to tell us her story - how did we get into the gun world? This prompted over 50 stories of how they started shooting. I even posted a link to my story, my first real blog post 3 months ago.
Many people who posted linked to their own blogs, and their comments sections had people posting how they got started. I didn't count them all but there's a lot.
One of the things that I noticed was a lot of the posts, maybe a third, represented what is becoming know as Gun Culture 2.0. I first heard this phrase used by Michael Bane, and it means those whose entry into shooting deviates from the traditional, established route of gun ownership. Traditionally people were around shooting all their life. Shooting was passed down from parents and grandparents, or perhaps learned in Scouts or 4H. There are also those who took up shooting in the military.
Gun Culture 2.0 are those like me who took up shooting because of a concern for personal protection. I even noted that several people mentioned Hurricane Katrina as a driving force in their decision. It was not a family tradition, and in some cases, people bought their first gun despite a family tradition of anti-gun attitudes.
Welcome to the fold, fellow members of Gun Culture 2.0. I look forward to meeting you!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Next Big Scare
Here is the subject of the next Scare Email that is going to show up in your inbox soon: another proposed UN small arms treaty. According to Larry Bell writing in an Op/Ed for Forbes Magazine, this treaty would
1. Enact tougher licensing requirements, creating additional bureaucratic red tape for legal firearms ownership.
2. Confiscate and destroy all “unauthorized” civilian firearms (exempting those owned by our government of course).
3. Ban the trade, sale and private ownership of all semi-automatic weapons (any that have magazines even though they still operate in the same one trigger pull – one single “bang” manner as revolvers, a simple fact the ant-gun media never seem to grasp).
4. Create an international gun registry, clearly setting the stage for full-scale gun confiscation.
5. In short, overriding our national sovereignty, and in the process, providing license for the federal government to assert preemptive powers over state regulatory powers guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment in addition to our Second Amendment rights.
Obviously these terms an unacceptable. Does such a treaty present a threat to our Second Amendment freedoms here in the United States? In my opinion, yes, and no.
Any research will show that the issue of whether treaties trump the US Constitution is divided. Personally, I believe they do not. However, I choose not to have to rely on some future Supreme Court to decide the issue, when to me, the best course of action is to prevent ratification of the treaty by the Senate, and, if possible, its presentation to the Senate in the first place.
Treaties are presented by the President to the Congress, and ratified by two thirds of the Senate. The current Senate is unlikely to vote for such a treaty. Despite the vocal exceptions like Schumer and Feinstein, the majority of the Senate remains pro-Second Amendment. This is logical, because the majority of the American people are pro-Second Amendment, outside of the areas represented by the obvious anti-freedom members.
It is up to us to contact our Senators and make sure they understand what is happening, and we let them know where we stand. I know that both of my Senators in Georgia, Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, are staunchly pro-Second Amendment, but I am writing them about this any way.
Despite the fact that the House of Representatives does not vote on treaty ratification, they almost certainly will have their say. I also plan to write my Congressman, Dr. Phil Gingrey. I will report the responses of my representatives here as they arrive.
Of course, the President presents any treaty to the Senate for ratification, so the opportunity is there to affect this, provided the treaty can be delayed until after the next inauguration in January 2013. The need to elect a President that reflects the love of freedom shared by the rest of the country could not be greater.
I believe if we act now and maintain contact with our Senators on this issue, we can hold off this threat. But it won't be the last. That's okay. This is part of the "eternal vigilence" that is required of us.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Lessons from the Memorial Day Weekend Match Results
On Memorial Day I shot the Pistol Steel Challenge match at the Creekside Firing Range in Taylorsville, Georgia. This was part of a series of matches that weekend to raise money for the local family of a fallen warrior. In addition to the pistol match, there was a shotgun match, a service rifle match, and a tactical rifle match.
In the pistol match there were 35 shooters, and they had expected about 15, like the match earlier in the month. So, this made the 5 stage match last till about 2 PM, when they expected to be done by noon. I had plenty of other things planned for the day, so I didn't stay around through the auction to find out the results.
Well, I just downloaded the results and found that I finished 12th out of the 35 shooters. Not bad considering I left steel standing after the par time expired on 2 stages. But so did most of the shooters - it was not an easy match.
Looking at the results of all the matches, I took away some interesting facts:
* In the shotgun match, overall was won by a pump gun.
* In the the tactical rifle match, overall was won by a shooter using iron sights, versus optics. In fact, all the iron sights shooters finished in the top half overall.
The lesson, of course, is that an auto shotgun or optics on your rifle do not necessarily make you a better shooter. Training and practice make you a better shooter. If you add optics to your rifle, trying to compensate for poor technique, all you have done is ensure you will shoot poorly with more expensive equipment.
By the way, that's why I shoot Production in USPSA. If I'm going to shoot poorly I want to do it cheaply, too.
In the pistol match there were 35 shooters, and they had expected about 15, like the match earlier in the month. So, this made the 5 stage match last till about 2 PM, when they expected to be done by noon. I had plenty of other things planned for the day, so I didn't stay around through the auction to find out the results.
Well, I just downloaded the results and found that I finished 12th out of the 35 shooters. Not bad considering I left steel standing after the par time expired on 2 stages. But so did most of the shooters - it was not an easy match.
Looking at the results of all the matches, I took away some interesting facts:
* In the shotgun match, overall was won by a pump gun.
* In the the tactical rifle match, overall was won by a shooter using iron sights, versus optics. In fact, all the iron sights shooters finished in the top half overall.
The lesson, of course, is that an auto shotgun or optics on your rifle do not necessarily make you a better shooter. Training and practice make you a better shooter. If you add optics to your rifle, trying to compensate for poor technique, all you have done is ensure you will shoot poorly with more expensive equipment.
By the way, that's why I shoot Production in USPSA. If I'm going to shoot poorly I want to do it cheaply, too.
Join GeorgiaCarry.org and Shoot for Free
Here's a chance to join the premiere voice in Georgia for your Second Amendment rights, and get some free range time to boot.
GeorgiaCarry Membership Coordinator Bill Stanley will be touring ranges in Georgia in June and July, and if you join or renew, you can shoot that day for free. Here are the details, from the GCO website:
Be prepared to have a FUN day at your range this summer. Shooting is always fun, but when it is FREE, it ’s even better:
Bill Stanley will be visiting participating ranges throughout the state from June 1 to July 31, 2011. On the day GCO is at your range (or one nearby), if you:
Join GCO
Renew your membership
Extend your membership (September expiration forward)
You can shoot for FREE (compliments of your range and GCO)
Here is the current schedule. More ranges are being pursued and will be announced as they agree.
June 8 – Wednesday - Adairsville Sporting Range in Adairsville, Ga. from 10 am to 5 pm.
June 9 – Thursday – Sandy Springs Gun Club and Range in Sandy Springs, Ga. from 11 am to 6 pm.
June 18 – Saturday – SharpShooters USA in Roswell, Ga. from 9 am to 6 pm.
June 24 – Friday – Patrick’s Gun Range in Garden City, Ga. from 9 am to 5 pm. (This is your chance if you live near Savannah)
June 25 – Saturday – Eagle Gun Range in Macon, Ga. from 10 am to 5 pm.
July 4 – Monday – Big Woods Goods in Canton, Ga. from 10 am to 5 pm.
July 16 – Saturday – Ga. Firing Line in Marietta, Ga. from 10 am to 5 pm.
July 23 – Saturday – Camp Sumter Shooting Range in Andersonville, Ga. from 8 am to 1 pm.
July 30 – Saturday – Hi Caliber Firearms in Holly Springs, Ga. from 10 am to 5 pm.
I will try to make one of these, and I will let you know which one, depending on my schedule. Alas, it won't be Adairsville today.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Pledge
Clip or Magazine?
Yes, there is a difference. But is it important that we chastise anyone, especially casual gun users, or worse, non gun owners, for using them interchangeably?
I read several gun forums, and on a lot of them, the quickest way to get the ire of some forum members is to use a word incorrectly. My observation is that the words “magazine” and “clip” seem to be the ones that draw the most ire from gun purists when they are used interchangeably. Yes, they mean different things. But how important is that? Important enough to alienate someone over?
Are we not all on the same side? Should we not be inclusive to shooters who are looking for advice from those who’ve been there before?
When the zombies come, and I’m shoulder to shoulder with another shooter, shooting his AR, and he asks me for a clip, am I really going to rummage around in my Maxpedition bag and pull out an SKS stripper clip of 7.62x39, and toss it to him? Then laugh as the zeds eat his brains?
Be careful, oh ye language snob. If you insist on separating common usage from technical usage, you made find yourself in trouble.
An example: is this snake poisonous?
Now, if you held this up and asked a biologist who was also a “gun forum purist,” you would be told “no.” And you would almost immediately be bitten, and die a painful death.
That’s because the rattlesnake is not poisonous. In fact, I’ve eaten it prepared several ways, and have never suffered any ill effects from eating its meat.
Is it venomous? Oh, hell yes! But venomous is not poisonous. So sorry, you asked the wrong question. Oooo. You might want to put your feet up and call 911.
Now, if someone asks me if a rattlesnake is poisonous, I say yes, unless they have it skinned and breaded and the fryer is hot. In that case, get out the wing sauce, and let's go.
All this needs to end. We need to act civilly, and be inclusive rather than snooty and exclusive.
To that end, I present The Pledge. It's an expansion of something I read in the signature line of user ManNamedJed on GlockTalk, and I send him my thanks.
First, let me say, I do not mean ill of anyone who does not take The Pledge. You may choose to act the way you do, it’s a free country, and they are free forums. But, I believe that following The Pledge not only will make us more inviting to new shooters and new forum members, but it will make forums a lot more pleasant to use.
The Pledge
When posting on on-line gun forums, I will never:
1. criticize anyone for using “clip” instead of “magazine”
2. get in a discussion about which caliber is acceptable in a gunfight
3. get in a discussion about whether you should use a Glock grip plug
4. criticize anyone about how often they clean their gun
5. criticize anyone for what cleaner or lubricant they use
6. call a shotgun a shottie
7. call a revolver a wheelgun
8. call Walmart “wally world “
9. post simply "+1", “well said,” or some similar agreement
10. accuse anyone of kool-aid drinking
11. tell you that your gun or ammo is unsafe* or junk
12. change your words and say I “fixed it for ya”
13. tell you to move to a gun friendly state
14. use profanity
* unless I think it is unsafe in my opinion as a Certified Glock Armorer, in which case I will tell you why I think so, and what I think you should do about it.
If you agree with me, and want to take The Pledge, feel free. I'm going to include that fact in my signature lines on all my forum profiles, with a link to this page.
Then maybe, in time, we can get to the real work of shooting better, preserving our freedoms, and enjoying life.
Edit: On 6/9/2011 I added the phrase "When posting on on-line gun forums" to the beginning of the pledge, lest anyone think I meant to adhere to this in everything.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Negligence or Set-up?
First impressions are essential, in shooting probably more than in a lot of other things.
Bringing new shooters into the gun fold is the only chance we have to keep our sport and our rights alive. But if we set them up for failure, we are working against ourselves.
When you take someone to shoot for the first time, please use a gentle caliber like .22, and please let them dry fire a number of times, with you watching, so you can be sure they won’t be hurt by the real thing. Then work them up to a full power caliber only as the demonstrate both the skill to handle it, and the desire. When you take the time to do that, you might just find you have created a life long ally.
I ran across this video on EveryDayNoDaysOff, full of negligent discharges, scope kisses, and other gun mishaps. Some are accompanied by laughter from the companions of the shooters, which seems to tell me that the shooters were set up for failure. Many of them are people who are obviously shooting for the first time, either a certain gun, or for the first time altogether.
So, when you watch this video, note both the Negligent Discharges for their safety teaching value, and the first time shooters, for their lesson.
Bringing new shooters into the gun fold is the only chance we have to keep our sport and our rights alive. But if we set them up for failure, we are working against ourselves.
When you take someone to shoot for the first time, please use a gentle caliber like .22, and please let them dry fire a number of times, with you watching, so you can be sure they won’t be hurt by the real thing. Then work them up to a full power caliber only as the demonstrate both the skill to handle it, and the desire. When you take the time to do that, you might just find you have created a life long ally.
I ran across this video on EveryDayNoDaysOff, full of negligent discharges, scope kisses, and other gun mishaps. Some are accompanied by laughter from the companions of the shooters, which seems to tell me that the shooters were set up for failure. Many of them are people who are obviously shooting for the first time, either a certain gun, or for the first time altogether.
So, when you watch this video, note both the Negligent Discharges for their safety teaching value, and the first time shooters, for their lesson.
Friday, June 3, 2011
RIP Magazine Two (1992 - 2011)
When I bought my Glock 17 in 1992, it came with two 17-round magazines. I soon discovered that Glock made "plus 2" extenders that pushed the capacity to 19 rounds, plus one in the chamber giving me twenty rounds total. At the same time I bought the "plus 2's" I also bought an extra magazine, so I could have two spares for defense or competition.
If you know anything about Glock magazines, these magazines were the Non Fully Metal Lined (NFML) magazines, essentially polymer bodies with a metal liner that didn't go all the way around the inside if the magazine. Because of this, these magazines swell when they are loaded, hence their alternate name, "Non Drop Free" - when loaded, they don't drop out of the gun under gravity when you press the magazine release.
There are obvious problems with this design. One, tactical reloads are problematic because you have to pull the magazine out. IDPA rules notwithstanding, if I want a magazine out of my gun in a hurry, I'd like gravity to do the work. Plus, over time, loading and unloading NFML magazines flexes the polymer and the metal lining, leading to material fatigue. Remember that part.
Glock fixed these problems later with the Fully Metal Lined (FML) mags, but they don't swap old mags for new. (I know because I asked, nicely, just this week.) So I bought three FML magazines and three "Plus 2's" for those, giving me six mags total.
Alas, nothing lasts forever.
When I was at the range last month with the Dauphin and his friends, I had a failure to feed using Magazine 2. I did the Tap-Rack drill, and still nothing. So I dropped the magazine (actually, I pulled the magazine out, since that's what you have to do with NFML magazines) and I saw that a couple of the rounds, about midway down the magazine, had caused the mag to swell to the point where they weren't in a nice straight staggered column any more. They were wedged in there so that the mag spring would not push the rounds up. Once I saw that, I banged the mag on a shooting bench, and the rounds loosened up and the mag worked again.
Then, last weekend at the Blogger Shoot, the same thing happened again. Since I numbered my magazines a couple of years ago, I knew this was the same mag that had given me problems before. Banging on the mag worked again, but I decided right then that Magazine Two was history.
I will keep it around, for reloading practice, but I plan to replace it with a FML magazine in the near future. As for the other two NFML magazines I still have, they haven't given me any problems yet. But I will keep an eye on them, and I won't use them for defense or competition. Yes, I could replace the mag springs with new ones, and that might fix the problem, for a while. But I think I'm still taking a risk with these mags, which means I need to get a few more FML mags to replace them.
Sounds like an excuse to head to the gun show this weekend, doesn't it?
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Be Prepared, Part 5 - Family Home Defense
I’ve owned a handgun, and kept it for personal defense, since 1992. I had a young family and I wanted to be able to defend them. My intentions and resolve were clear.
Just about the first accessory I bought besides a holster was a pistol safe. I bolted it down in a secure location, and whenever I wasn’t carrying, my Glock went in the safe. Now, if we were home, the safe was open, but I closed it when I went to bed, and if I left the house without my pistol, which was rare. I practiced getting the pistol out, even if the safe was closed, in the dark. When I got new glasses, the old ones went in the safe as a backup pair.
Soon, my wife asked if I would teach her to shoot, and it wasn’t long before we both felt she was good enough with it that I could leave the safe open when I left home.
I suppose I should address my gun safe. Did I worry that my children might get to my gun? Not really. They are both inquisitive kids, but not the kind that tear into things. I think this is due a lot to how we raised them. We never made any secret of the fact that I had a gun, and we never made it a taboo item. My kids came with me to pistol matches, and had a great time. But, just like the hot stove, my kids knew that the gun was something they didn’t need to mess with.
In fact, it wasn’t until my kids were old enough to be left alone, and trained, that they even knew where my pistol safe was located. And as far as I know, neither have given it the least thought. There’s no showing off Dad’s guns to the friends – my son has enough Airsoft and BB guns that it would be almost a letdown.
Home defense was pretty much left to me though, and the plan was to barricade ourselves in the bedroom as a safe room.
Last night, my wife told me about some home invasion stories she saw on the news. We talked about them, and she asked me if there was a way we could start keeping a gun in the living room with us, so that she or the kids could get to it quickly in the event of an invasion of our home. Since most burglaries happen in the day, and my family is home in the day but I’m not, this makes a lot of sense.
So this is my new planning task. We have a split level home with entry in a foyer that has stairs to get up to the living area, so we already have some built in defense. I know it’s going to take more than just keeping the gun handy – we need to train as a family, and work out plans for what to do, just as we have for fires or evacuation.
I’ll share more as the plan develops. And as always, suggestions are welcome.
Just about the first accessory I bought besides a holster was a pistol safe. I bolted it down in a secure location, and whenever I wasn’t carrying, my Glock went in the safe. Now, if we were home, the safe was open, but I closed it when I went to bed, and if I left the house without my pistol, which was rare. I practiced getting the pistol out, even if the safe was closed, in the dark. When I got new glasses, the old ones went in the safe as a backup pair.
Soon, my wife asked if I would teach her to shoot, and it wasn’t long before we both felt she was good enough with it that I could leave the safe open when I left home.
I suppose I should address my gun safe. Did I worry that my children might get to my gun? Not really. They are both inquisitive kids, but not the kind that tear into things. I think this is due a lot to how we raised them. We never made any secret of the fact that I had a gun, and we never made it a taboo item. My kids came with me to pistol matches, and had a great time. But, just like the hot stove, my kids knew that the gun was something they didn’t need to mess with.
In fact, it wasn’t until my kids were old enough to be left alone, and trained, that they even knew where my pistol safe was located. And as far as I know, neither have given it the least thought. There’s no showing off Dad’s guns to the friends – my son has enough Airsoft and BB guns that it would be almost a letdown.
Home defense was pretty much left to me though, and the plan was to barricade ourselves in the bedroom as a safe room.
Last night, my wife told me about some home invasion stories she saw on the news. We talked about them, and she asked me if there was a way we could start keeping a gun in the living room with us, so that she or the kids could get to it quickly in the event of an invasion of our home. Since most burglaries happen in the day, and my family is home in the day but I’m not, this makes a lot of sense.
So this is my new planning task. We have a split level home with entry in a foyer that has stairs to get up to the living area, so we already have some built in defense. I know it’s going to take more than just keeping the gun handy – we need to train as a family, and work out plans for what to do, just as we have for fires or evacuation.
I’ll share more as the plan develops. And as always, suggestions are welcome.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
New Youtube Channel
I now have a Youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FillYerHands?feature=mhee
Take a look. I've uploaded some video from the Blogger Shoot, as well as some older videos from GSSF, like the 2009 Gunny Challenge finals, and some Glock exhibition shooting by Dave Sevigny, Randi Rogers, and Jessie Abbate when she was with the team.
I will upload more videos over time. Keep coming back.
Thoughts on Training
Last Sunday, as part of the Blogger Shoot, I got to participate in some defensive handgun training with Tom Givens of Rangemaster. I briefly covered the training in yesterday’s post, but I’ve thought about the training since then, and I wanted to share some additional thoughts.
While I am fairly new to handgun training, I am no stranger to training in general. I have a degree in chemical engineering, and I’ve attended training seminars and classes on everything from hazardous waste regulations, to how to get more out of Microsoft Excel, to how to deal with the media during a crisis.
One of the things I learned a long time ago is that, unlike college courses, for short seminars and classes, a student can probably expect to take away one really usable point per day. While you might remember more, if you can take one point to heart and make it part of your daily routine, you’re doing well.
Now, I usually try to relax my brain when I take classes, since I never know ahead of time what that one take away point will be. Inevitably, too, there will be a lot of material that is familiar, and I want to avoid letting my mind wander, so I will try to pay attention to the teacher regardless.
Sunday, I almost forgot all that.
Tom started the class with a presentation of the Four Rules of Gun Safety made familiar by Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper. These are well know. Heck, I’ve blogged about them, and about how we should make “Never try to catch a dropped gun” into Rule 5. So, in my mind, when Tom was talking, I was thinking about my blog post. Dumb.
You know what? Later, on the range, Tom told everyone never to try to catch a dropped gun. No, he didn’t make it Rule 5. He just said Don’t Do It.
Later, when we actually got to shooting, he talked about the concept of Follow Through. I had heard others talk about Follow Through before, but I had never been trained about it, but here it was – Follow Through is to complete the shot so that you are ready for another shot if needed. That means taking another sight picture, and having the trigger ready by only releasing it back to reset.
At that point, my mind wandered to a GSSF match at Fort Benning some years back, when an Army Marksmanship Unit RO asked me after one stage, “Do you mind if I give you a tip?” Heck, who turns down tips from the AMU? He then told me that I was taking my finger off the trigger between shots, and instead, I should only release it back until I felt it click, when the internals reset. He even cycled the empty gun for me so I could feel the difference.
Back to the training Sunday, and Sean Sorrentino of An NC Gun Blog and I are cycling each other’s gun so we can feel it reset. But my mind is at Fort Benning. And Sean is no AMU sergeant.
Then we start to shoot. Draw to ready, up, sight picture while taking up the trigger slack, squeeze a shot, follow through, take another sight picture, and let the trigger reset.
Only, after 3 or 4 rounds like this, I become aware that I AM LETTING MY FINGER LEAVE THE TRIGGER AFTER I SHOOT! Since we are only taking one shot, my mind thinks it’s over, and lets reset go out the window. How dumb.
Then, it’s Sean’s turn to shoot, and I’m watching, and he’s letting his trigger go to reset. After one shot.
So when it’s my turn, I concentrate, and let the trigger go to reset, and I put the sights back on the target. At the time, it’s no big deal.
Then comes multiple shots. First, one per second, then two per second, the four per second. I have to admit, in the past my groups have gotten very wide at this point. I’m talking about “Mike” wide. But, since I’m now following up the way I’ve been taught, my shots are still tight. In the end, my target has “one ragged hole.”
So, it turns out, Follow Up was my take away. And, I learned something about myself, that even an old skill can become a take away, if I’ve not used that old skill.
EPILOGUE
Monday, I shot a pistol steel challenge match at Creekside Firing Range in Taylorsville, GA. This was not your typical steel challenge match.
One stage involved taking 3 poppers from behind the left side of a barricade, the switching to the other side of the barricade and taking 3 more poppers, then hitting the stop plate. Sounds simple enough. Only the front popper on the right, it turns out if you watched the shooters, is set an a little bit of an angle, so that it takes multiple 9mm rounds striking it at the top to take it down. I watched one shooter in the squad ahead of us shoot this popper 9 times before it fell.
When my time to shoot came, I made my plan. I would start out on the multiple hit popper, then move on. I drew and aimed at the top center of the popper, and shot, and followed up. In four shots the popper was down, and I went on. Honestly, I don't think I could have made that shot a week before. All because I followed through.
Thank you, Tom Givens.