Month: September 2009

OMG! It’s a bear! Run!

/ hsoi

Bear sightings are on the rise in Aspen, Colorado.

If you see a bear, what advice do authorities give on dealing with them?

They are now actively telling residents to be, literally, mean to the bears. Yell at them, throw rocks and if they charge you, stand up to them.

Be a big meanie.

Well, I would agree you shouldn’t invite them in for tea, but that advice doesn’t seem to sit with me. I mean, are they expecting people to keep a pile of rocks in their home and throw them when the bear attempts to invade? Or how about if they’re walking down the street, hauling a sack full of rocks? Kinda cumbersome, and you can’t throw them that well anyway.

I know something that’s easier to carry, to keep handy, and can throw things a lot faster and more effectively at a bear. But let Greg Hamilton of InSights Training Center sum it up better.

The US forest service has done extensive study on bear behavior, OC for bears, and guns against bears. I have been involved in all aspects of that from the beginning.

Almost everything you hear or read is personal opinion based on either no or very limited data points.

Looking at all the data for 100 years presents a very different story.

For bear defense it cannot be shown that the type or caliber matters, people that shoot back with anything win, people that don’t shoot back many times lose. All calibers and action types have been used. Handguns are almost always used at mauling distance. Longarms at 25 yards to dead at your feet.

There is no evidence to support 44 over 357, revolvers are more reliable at contact distance but people have won with semi-autos (but the data pool is very small, as it grows we would at some point start to see malfunctions)

A good revolver in 357 or 44 with powerful solids made to go deep and not deflect is probably the best answer for carry. The pump shotgun still has more kills of grizzly than anything in defense, believe it or not with OO buck, though common wisdom nowadays is use brenneke slugs. Pre WWII 90%+ of the kills were OO.

Joe Perry says I’m alright

/ hsoi

Joe Perry, guitarist for Aerosmith:

I’m an advocate for gun rights.

I guess it’s time for a round-table with Uncle Ted.

“If we could start all over again, it would be great if there were no guns in the world,” he continued. “It would be great if there was no war in the world. It would be great if evil people didn’t do evil things to other people — but that’s not the kind of world we live in, and history bears that out. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is.

“It’s nice to sit there and go, ‘Let’s take all the guns away.’ Well, if you take the guns away, all the criminals will have guns because they’re not going to turn them in. There are so many firearms in this country right now, and there are a lot of things that I think need to be adjusted as far as gun rights go, but the bottom line is it’s a fact of life and it’s something that we have to deal with.”

It would be great if there was no war, no evil people doing evil things. But we don’t live in such a world and frankly, such a world is impossible. Thus, good men need to ensure they are not left at the mercy of bad men.

I am curious what he thinks needs to be adjusted as far as gun rights go. Perhaps future interviews with Mr. Perry will allow him to elaborate on that topic. Again, let’s have a roundtable with Uncle Ted. 🙂

Where will this journey lead?

/ hsoi

I remember going to “horse camp” a few summers as a kid, and I did some one-off horse rides at other times in my youth. It was fun to ride horses, but I never developed a passion or developed much interest in them. Heck, as a young child somehow I got to be part of a National Geographic book on pets (me and 2 of my cats were photographed for it). One thing I recall from that book was a chart discussing each type of pet in the book. The chart contained things like the food they would eat, care required, activity level, housing needs, etc.. There’s one row in the chart that always stuck out in my mind: cost. I will also never forget that of all the animals listed in the chart, only one was listed as high cost.

Horses.

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Sunday Metal – White Zombie

/ hsoi

I always loved White Zombie because it was larger than just “straight music.” Rob Zombie created artwork, added sound clips and interludes that made for a total immersive experience. It was like watching a classic “B” movie.

I’ve seen White Zombie live a few times. The first time I think it was on tour with Pantera, I can’t recall exactly when… but I do recall 2 things from the show. First, Sean Yseult (bassist) walked by me and I was amazed at how tiny she was. Second, I picked up a favorite concert t-shirt, with a La Sexorcisto devil artwork on the front and on the back “I went to Hell and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” A fun play on the cliché. 🙂

Hubud drills, and other FMA finds

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Ever have one of those online sessions where you’re just browsing the web, you come upon something interesting, then either you start clicking deeper or Google for more information, and just come upon all sorts of interesting things? I’m having one of those, relating to a Filipino martial arts drill known as “Hubud” or maybe “hu bud” or “hubad” or “hu bad”.

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If you could only have one

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Reading this blog posting it got me back to thinking…

First, yes the discussion of “just one gun” and “ultimate SHTF” gun has been done to death, and let’s do a little more. 😉

Second, I do think he’s got a fair point about the practicality factor. If you’ve got to be working and doing other things, a long gun just may not be practical, but you can always have your handgun on you. It’s not to say don’t eschew a long gun in favor of a handgun, but there is a certain bit of reality and practicality involved here.

Third, most of these discussions branch into the realm of 2-legged predator discussions. But if we’re really going to talk about “survival” aspects, how about just the ability to hunt game for food? Or just depending where you might be out and about, maybe you have 4 legged critters as a bigger concern. I’ve got a buddy that flies small planes as a hobby and some of the airports he goes to are rather remote and unpopulated… more concern of 4-legged predators than 2-legged ones.

I’ve thought about this before. If I could only have one handgun, what would it be?

In the past I’ve leaned towards a .44 Magnum revolver or a 10mm semi-auto (e.g. Glock 20, STI 1911). Strong enough for most 2 or 4 legged critters you may have to contend with. I’m not sure there’s a distinct advantage to either one. Of course, some would wonder why I’d want these if what I’d normally carry is a 9mm. I think 9 is OK for 2-legged critters and some of the smaller 4-legged, but not for the larger 4-legged ones. If I could only have one gun, I’d need to cover as wide a range as possible, minding the tradeoffs and finding the best balance. But since in normal life I’m not limited to just one gun, I’ll pick what I feel suits the particular task at hand.

What say you? I’m not so much talking societal collapse or zombie apocalypse, just if you had to be limited to just one handgun for whatever reason, what would it be? And why?

Friday miscellaneous

/ hsoi

I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid…

Zipped over to the indoor range this morning to recheck the zero on my hunting rifle. When I was last at the range I had some issues with zeroing and so I wanted to ensure I went back to reconfirm. Got there, shot at 100 yards, cold barrel, hunting load, nailed it just where I wanted it. Shot 2 more rounds, grouped well. Gave it a couple clicks left just to fine-tune, 2 more rounds. It seems to be going where I want it. Any fault now lies with the shooter, not the gun. Was at the range maybe 20 minutes total, which was fine with me. I was the first customer in the door this morning. As I was packing up, lots of folks were coming in. You can tell other hunters are getting ready for the season.

I also had my first real hunting dream last night. I was up in the tree stand, looking down at the hunting grounds. Just a large vast tract of land, but trees and scrub and other such stuff out there. It was early morning, the sun just starting to creep up and light just starting to come into play. I would see some animal, shoulder my rifle, but then not shoot because I would see another animal and change to that. Some of the animals were takers, some not. I recall a zebra. Not 100% sure where that came from, Wife thinks it’s because of my newfound love of Pearls Before Swine. Never shot anything, but I could see the land, the animals. I could feel the cold air. The anticipation. The excitement.

I’m thinking about shooting in the steel match on Sunday. Don’t know yet. We’ve been having a lot of rain (finally) and the range may be too muddy, yet again. No word yet if the match is on or not. If it is on, not 100% sure I’ll shoot it as I’m feeling that I’d like this weekend to sit around and do nothing with my Wife and Kids. Either way, while I was at the gun range I picked up an inexpensive bag for the Buck Mark to make it easier to tote around.

Finally got my badge/passes to the Austin Rifle Club. I’m a full-fledged member now. I hope now I can make it a fairly regular thing to get to the range, and to take the kids.

Final thoughts?

Give someone a hug today. Call your mother. Smile, laugh, play. Don’t spend too much time on Facebook… go outside. 🙂

Tales from a Pizza Hut

/ hsoi

Scumbag walks into a Pizza Hut in Statesville, North Carolina intent on robbing the place. Scumbag demands employee opent the safe, but employee can’t. Scumbag escalates things, drags the employee into the bathroom, held the gun up on the employee and fired but nothing happened.

The employee fought back.

The employee fought hard.

The employee came out on top, including taking control of the gun.

The scumbag begged for the gun back, because it wasn’t his. Uh…. OK?

‘You shouldn’t have been here trying to rob somebody who’s trying to make a living,’

And the ironic thing is? I bet the employee gets fired because Pizza Hut (like many other companies) would say this is against employee policy, the employee broke the rules by fighting back trying to save his life.

That would be a travesty of justice. I hope I’m wrong.

To the employee, Therman Martin, I say, good job. You did what was right. Let’s hope your employer recognizes that.

Search term blog fodder

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

And so… back to the search terms, for more cheap blog material.

hwarangdo vs kuksool

What do you want to know? Both rather controlling, ego driven, Hapkido-related, traditional Korean martial arts. They both have really fancy schmancy uniforms. They both claim to be the ultimate in martial arts covering everything for every one. They both claim to have gazillion year old lineages, full of secret information.

I remember long long ago when I first heard of HRD that I was impressed… I thought it was such a cool, bad-ass martial art. Then I read a lot of the rules, rules that broached into your personal life for a total code of behavior. While I can sorta see the traditional aspect behind that, it also reeks of cult-ism, which both of these arts have been accused of. Not that they are a cult, they aren’t, but they do exhibit cult-like behavior. Still, if you watch the senior ranking masters perform, they’re quite awesome. Taejoon Lee of HRD and Sung Jin Suh of KSW (both the sons of the respective art founders) are fantastic martial artists.

Given a choice tho, I’d study neither. HRD offers me nothing that I haven’t already dealt with in Kuk Sool, and after 6 years of Kuk Sool I opted to leave it and study other things.

difference in damage from 9mm to 45

On paper, in ballistics gel, in the laboratory, .45 ACP probably does more. In the real world, doesn’t really matter… both suck.

Shoot the gun that you can shoot best: fast, accurate. You want to get fast, accurate hits in the proper target zone. Shot placement is key. The biggest baddest round in the wrong spot means nothing. And lots of little “weak” .22 LR’s placed in the right spot have taken down all sorts of things over the years. Shot placement matters more.

And so to improve your chances at shot placement, you want to shoot the gun you can shoot better. Me, I can shoot .45 ACP just fine and dandy, but I can shoot 9mm better because there’s less recoil to manage (I can get back on the sights and on target faster). I can shoot it faster and maintain a high level of accuracy with it.

YMMV

best email client for macintosh snow leopard

What’s left these days? Microsoft Entourage and Apple’s Mail.app. Is there anything else even available?

Mail.app has the advantage of a lot of integration with the OS, with your iPhone, and so on. I still don’t think it’s as good a client as Entourage is tho. But I must admit, Mail’s complete integration, especially now that I have an iPhone, really makes it tempting for me to want to switch to Mail.app. Why don’t I? Inertia. There’s WAY too much to overcome to make the switch.

how to manage geeks

See: how to herd cats.

Or more easily: enable them to do their work and leave them alone to do it. Don’t bullshit them. Meritocracy tends to be strongly in play.

“kuk sool won” mcdojo

Yup.

I shouldn’t be so harsh. Any martial art can be a McDojo. Unfortunately, more and more the way World Kuk Sool Association is running Kuk Sool Won, it’s reeking more and more of McDojo-ism. The art itself can be a very solid art, unfortunately the way the business side of things is run, you get what you got.

hfs+ detect changes spotlight

FSEvents.framework is your friend.

why did marlin sims leave kuk sool

Why don’t you ask him?

But if you don’t want to, my understanding is disagreements with the WKSA. He wanted to do one thing, they wouldn’t let him. Exerting too much control over a person, restricting and restraining, that’s not a productive thing. He left. I don’t blame him.

But whatever. He’s doing his own thing now. I think it’s better for the martial arts world in general, because now he can control his own destiny… he can share his vast knowledge, experience, and ability with the world and no one can stop him. It’s a loss for WKSA but a big gain for the rest of the world.

BTW, I got to speak with him at length on the phone one time. Great guy. Funny. So knowledgeable. An artist, but more so a scientist. I never got the chance to directly train with him, but would love to do so if the opportunity arose.

best good nine 9 mm handgun

As opposed to the best bad nine 9mm handgun? Or maybe the worst good nine 9 mm handgun?

how far does a 9mm hand gun shoot?

If you angled everything just right, centerfire handgun rounds can travel about 1 to 1.5 miles.

This is why you must follow the rules, especially NRA rule 1 or Cooper rule 4.

how many shots does a 9mm gun carry?

Depends upon the gun and the magazine. For instance a Glock 17 magazine holds 17 rounds. A Springfield EMP magazine holds 9 rounds. I can buy a 33 round magazine for the Glock…. it sticks out a lot, but still can be used.

best 9mm handgun 2009

Springfield Armory’s XD(m) won the 2009 NRA Golden Bullseye Award for Handgun of the Year. Take that for what it’s worth.

shotgun vs pistol home defense

Neither. Rifle.