A Little Housecleaning

I spent some time this past week reading every blog on my blog list. You will note that some of the bloggers there I have had the pleasure of meeting, and others I read even though we've never met.

Sadly, a few blogs are missing. Some are still there but have chosen to stop posting new material, like Breda and North. I will be looking for new blogs to link to, so if you know of some good ones, let me know by comment or email.

Although it may seem like it sometimes, I haven't abandoned my blog. I have been going through a few things at home recently, that limit my time on the Interwebz.

Thank you to all who continue to read.

Family Matters

Picture unrelated, mostly.


It is a time of change here in the FYH household.

My daughter has her first serious boyfriend, and he has come to visit several times. Last time, I happened to need to clean guns, so I made that announcement and left them on the couch, crouched over their laptops, and set off for the workshop.

Of course, I watched for the young man's reaction, and there was none to speak of. He didn't seem to cringe from the idea, nor did he offer to come help, or even ask what kinds of guns I was going to clean.

Nevertheless, as a good father, I've thought about what this could mean, and here are my possible conclusions, in order of highest probability to least probability:

> He didn't hear me, being too engrossed in Facebook or studying civil engineering.

> He heard me, but my daughter had warned him of the possibility of my gambit, and convinced him that he had nothing to fear.

> He heard me, but he comes from a family where cleaning guns is a normal weekend thing, and he was afraid to ask, worried that I might try to get him to clean AR gas tubes all afternoon instead of doing the Facebook thing, or studying civil engineering.

> He heard me, but he comes from a family that is indifferent to guns, and it wasn't enough to steal him from Facebook or civil engineering.

> He heard me, but he comes from a family that is actively anti-gun, and he decided to wait for another time to bring it up.

> He heard me, but he also saw the 4 or 5 shovels I have in the garage, as well as the 20 acres of woods behind my house, and decided to play dumb.

In any case, I will try to actively engage him next time on the subject, maybe even invite him and my daughter to go shooting with me.

More to come . . . .

A Year Already?

Photo courtesy of Janell's Cakes.

It occurred to me last night that I started writing this blog March 22, 2011. Hard to believe it's been a year already.

Beyond writing about shooting for the everyday citizen, I really had no clear vision or goal of what I wanted to do with this blog when I started, and I'm happy to report that I've hit dead on 100% of the time with that.

Thank you to all my readers and followers. If you like what you read, pass it on. If you don't, let me know, and, better, let me know what else you'd like to see. Remember, though, it has to fit with my vision and goals.

Thanks again!

Time Dilation Under Stress, Courtesy of Walt in PA

Courtesy of Walt in PA

Walt White at Walt in PA has posted another match report from his recent USPSA match. Check it out.

As I read Walt's description of his first stage, Stage 4, I began to see a neat demonstration of a curious phenomenon: how time slows down when we're "in the zone."

To see what I mean, read Walt's description of this malfunction he ran into:

It was at this point that I ran into trouble. My slide was locked back but my magazine wouldn’t drop free after pressing the magazine release button. I gave the gun a little shake to try and free the magazine but was unsuccessful. Being the first time I had ever encountered this problem, I acted on instinct. I mashed down on the slide release lever and the slide snapped forward. A press on the magazine release lever sent the empty magazine falling to the ground. I re-inserted a new magazine and racked the slide.

With a round in the chamber and the slide in battery, the gun appeared ready to rock. I raised the gun and fired two last shots on the one remaining target.

As I read this, and imagined it in my mind, I thought it might take him 5 or 6 seconds to clear the problem.

Watch the video though:



You can see that it takes Walt 3 seconds, from 0:29 to 0:32, to clear and bring the gun back up. I think the fact that he was able to describe dropping the slide and trying to drop the magazine shows that he could and think about and clearly see all the details of what was happening.

All this happens because, when we are "in the zone," or under stress, the body is filled with the "fight or flight" response, and flooded with adrenaline. Our brains speed up, and perception of time is altered. Lots of people have reported this, and I once experienced it during an auto crash.

Just a neat observation. Thanks, Walt.

Great Detailed Match Report from Walt in PA

This isn't Walt, he does this a lot better.

I'm a little behind in my blog reading and podcast listening, but with the warm weather this weekend, I got to do a lot of yard work, and, thanks to noise-cancelling ear buds, catch up some on the podcasts.

In his most recent podcast, Walt White at Walt in PA talked about his first USPSA match of the year, and that led me to the collection of videos and stage debriefings on his blog.

I am a fiend for good descriptions of stages and how they are shot - visualization, planning, and the actual "Red Haze" shooting of the stage, and Walt really delivered. Check out the hat-cam video Walt provides. Coupled with his insightful and no-holds-barred self examination, I found it a really great read.

I am almost convinced that Walt and I are separated at birth. He doesn't cut himself much slack in reviewing his performance, and neither do I.

On a related note, one of the other podcasts I listened to was Episode 254 of Down Range Radio with Michael Bane. Michael has been competing as long as there have been competitions, and this episode he talked about Winter Range, the big Cowboy Action Shooting match. He didn't do as well as he thought he should have, or could have, either.

But he talked a lot about how the top shooters are able to shake off a bad stage, and go on to the next stage. Without that ability, they could easily let a poor performance take down their whole match.

I've been looking into this concept some, and I plan to write about it some more in the near future. In the meantime, I will take away the good and try to learn from the not-so-good.

Comments

I've had my share of problems with the word puzzle feature of Blogger's comment section, so, as with a lot of other bloggers, I've turned it off.

At the same time, I will now require some kind of registration for comments. If you want to comment anonymously, register anonymously. But register.

I also reserve the right to delete comments that are vulgar, irrelevant, or just plain stupid. There's no need to subject the good readers of this blog to your drivel.

If you feel the need to leave me a vulgar, irrelevant, or stupid comment, just put it in an email to me at FillYerHands at gmail dot com, and save it as a draft overnight, and read it again. Hopefully you'll come to your senses, but if you still feel the need, send away. Again, I don't take them personally, but I don't subject others to them either.

AK vs. AR

I've seen all kinds of torture tests, but this is one takes the cake. Next time at the range, I'm going to try this with my Mosin Nagant.


H/T BrokenTrace at Burgers and Boomsticks.

Double Barrel 1911

Courtesy of The Firearm Blog

There has been quite a flutter over this in the blogosphere today. Supposedly this gun holds twice the amount of .45ACP, so it's All That And a Bag of Chips. There are two triggers but one slide, so I can't imagine shooting one shot at a time.

My Glock 21SF holds 13 rounds of .45ACP plus one in the chamber. And it weighs 28 ounces fully loaded, versus about 6 pounds for this monster.

Yes, there is the Cool Factor. Plus, if you know that all the USPSA stages are going to be paper targets, it would be neat to shoot them all with one sight picture each.

But, where are you going to get a holster?

Interesting Car Stage

I've shot car stages in USPSA, but never like this.



H/T Every Day No Days Off

Range Day

I took a day off last week to head to the range, more for relaxation than for any training or learning purpose. Of course, things being as they are, I managed to learn a few things any way.

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The first thing I learned is that I need to always keep a camera in my gun bag. It was a gorgeous day, and other people at the range had some really good looking guns with them, that I would have loved to documented. And, about halfway into the session, 6 men from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources enforcement division came to the range. It would have been a nice picture to have.

So, when I finished cleaning guns this morning, I dug through our collection of cameras, and found an older one, that I took this picture with. With fresh batteries, it now rests in my gun bag, ready for next time.

++++

Second, I learned that "customer golf" doesn't always involve golf. The guy I arranged to meet at the range is in the same line of work as I am, and in between shooting, we had some interesting conversations that could well lead to new business opportunities.

In any case, he's had a lot more formal training that I have, both shooting, and in our line of work. I plan to make use of both cases.

++++

Third, I learned something about long distance pistol shooting. I was doing a lot of 100 yard rifle shots with a scope, focusing my eyes on the target, overlaying the cross hairs, and making the shot. Then, I switched to using my Glock 21 for 100 yard shots, and I lazily used the same technique. In fact, it was the same technique I had to use for all my pistol shooting, before I got a contact lens for my right eye that allowed me to focus on the front sight, where I focused on the target (since it was the only thing I could get into focus) and laid the sight picture over it, in a blur.

My shots with the Glock were hitting low and left, or high and right, or full left - none were anywhere close.

Then, I remembered something I had once heard about, or read about, somewhere, and I tried it. I focused, as best I could, on the front sight, lined it up with the rear sight, and put that onto the slightly blurry target picture.

After a couple of shots to get a feel for the hold-over, my shots started hitting the target.

So, while I thought I had learned to focus on the front sight, line up the sights on the target, breathe, and squeeze the trigger smoothly, in fact, I learned to listen to everything I've learned before. There's nothing new here, folks.

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Fourth, I learned a few things about Vassily, my Mosin Nagant. This was the first time I got to shoot it more than about 6 shots in one session.

I have found that the trigger, which at first I disliked, is not as bad as I thought. As Colonel Cooper wrote:

The most essential element of the "shootability" of rifle or pistol is its trigger action. The ideal trigger breaks clean without telling the shooter that it is about to do so. This quality is generally referred to as "crispness" and does not refer to trigger weight. . . . A trigger may be quite light, but still "mushy" in the sense that it moves perceptibly when activated. Such movement is called creep, but it is not "take-up," which occurs before the trigger has reached the point of ignition pressure.

I added the emphasis, because it expresses what I learned. The Mosin Nagant trigger has a lot of take-up, which I interpreted as mushiness. But, once it reaches the end of it's take-up, it breaks cleanly. This need for this long take-up can probably be easily be understood if one imagines shooting this gun in full Russian Army gear of a heavy wool coat and thick gloves. It is doubly understood if one does so in the face of a charging hoard of the Kaiser's best troops, or Nazis in Stalingrad, or even Finnish rebels. I now officially like this trigger.

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What led to that conclusion was as much what follows, as it was due to Jeff Cooper.

One thing I like to do at the range is to place some orange clay pigeons out on the berm at 100 yards, and plink them with Captain America, my 10/22. Usually, the way this works is I shoot them in half with the .22, then shoot the shards.

I decided this trip to take aim at a pigeon with the Mosin Nagant.

I knew before now that the sights on the Mosin Nagant were very accurate, even given my untrained technique. My first shooting experience with the rifle, I had put four shots on a paper plate at 50 yards, then rung a steel sniper target four times at 120 yards.

I lined up on the top of the first pigeon and shot, and the earth exploded on the berm a half a foot above the target. So, I moved to a six o'clock hold, and shot.

The pigeon exploded.

I moved to the next target, and replaced it with a crater. And the next, and the next. Four shots on 4 inch targets from 100 yards, and four craters. For a novice, I was quite proud.

After a day of shooting .22LR, the force of the 7.62x54R cartridge was quite a surprise. Even more surprising was how easy it was to shoot accurately.

I shot up all my 7.62x54R ammo, so I will need to buy more, before I take it to a range with a longer test. But I think I know why this rifle lasted so long in service.

The Big Yawn of Gun Culture 2.0

I just read this interesting article from AmmoLand about the state of saturation of the AR market (H/T RomeoTangoBravo).

Granted, this isn't the first article about the over-saturation of the AR market, but it is one of the more interesting, in that it actually talks about what AR makers could be offering that wouldn't put the AR market to sleep. In fact, I like the suggestions offered, and I don't even own an AR.

But what struck me most was the first line of the article:

Ho-hum. Yet another AR rifle is being introduced to the market place…. Seems like we are getting to the point where this is happening all the time, aren’t we?

It struck me, because this is the same thing I think every time I read about the latest and greatest bolt action hunting rifle, or $1000 scope. Heck, almost those exact words came in my mind the first time I heard about the Ruger Scout Rifle. I mean, forgive me Colonel Cooper, but a bolt action "tactical" rifle, in the 21st Century? Really?

I guess this confirms my membership in Gun Culture 2.0. I honestly have no interest in hunting rifles, or optics, or tactics. Yes, I realize there are men in Afghanistan right now who are using those rifles and tactics and optics. My brother is one. It's just, I'm not there.

But hey, it's a big world, and you're welcome to your side. That's also the reason our founding fathers put that amendment first. Knock yourself out.

Just don't expect me to stay awake for it.

The First Death Knell for "May Issue?"

Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation won another battle today, as a Federal judge ruled that Maryland's "may issue" concealed permit law, which required that citizens show a "good and substantial reason" why they need a gun for self defense, is unconstitutional.

Quoting U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg:

“A citizen may not be required to offer a ‘good and substantial reason’ why he should be permitted to exercise his rights. The right’s existence is all the reason he needs.”

Amen.

+++++

How long until the other "may issue" states' laws go by the same way?

I am reminded of when I received my first concealed carry permit in Alabama. After everything was set, the Sheriff stuck his head out from his office, and looked me over, and approved the permit.

I didn't think much of it at the time, because I didn't know much about "may issue" and "shall issue" permits. But now I know that Alabama is a "may issue" state, meaning, the Sheriff has the last word on who does and does not get a permit. I guess I got lucky.

Of course, I'm white, which may have been a lot of the luck I needed.