Month: September 2009

My flashlight

/ hsoi / 21 Comments

I carry a flashlight with me wherever I go. Why? Because it’s useful.

I never carried a dedicated flashlight, even something like a cheap little keychain fob LED. A couple years ago I started to carry one, and now I can’t live without it. You just don’t realize the utility and cannot appreciate it until you have one on you. There are more than enough times you’ll find yourself out and about, in a low light situation, and you will find it useful to have a light. Our eyes tend to work better that way. 🙂

The flashlight I carry is a SureFire E2L Outdoorsman.

I know. It’s boring. It’s not some tacti-cool flashlight like their Z2 or G2Z or the E2D Defender or 6P Defender. That’s OK and how I wanted it. I didn’t want a flashlight that draws attention. I wanted a flashlight I could take onto an airplane and have no one think twice about. I wanted a flashlight that I could pull out at a Scout campout and no parent or BSA policy would freak out over. I wanted a flashlight I could use on a daily basis, but that I could also use in a self-defense situation if necessary. I think the E2L fits that bill.

Many of the “tactical” flashlights are designed around a very powerful beam of light. That’s great for blinding people, for flooding an area with light. But what if you’re working on something close up? What if you’re out camping, it’s nighttime, you need to read a map. Having 100+ lumens reflecting off the map back into your eyes is not enjoyable. The E2L has two settings: a low power with 3 lumens, and a high power with 60. The low power is actually still fairly bright: shine it in someone’s eyes and they will be blinded; I’ve had it reflect off some close-up materials and still mess up my vision. The high power may not be as bright as some other flashlights, but it’s still amazingly bright. I recall on one campout using my E2L as a floodlight, holding it at arms length above my head, to light the way for a bunch of Cub Scouts and it lit up the pathway some nearly 100′ out like daylight. Another parent was using one of their cheap-o $2 special flashlights and it didn’t illuminate much past the end of their feet. So the variable light output is a big part of why I like this flashlight, because it enables more practical daily use.

The clip on the flashlight is also helpful as a daily flashlight. Just attach it to something like a hat brim and you’ve got hands-free light.

To use the flashlight in a self-defense context, I’ve found the flashlight works fine. It provides ample light, even if all you get is the low beam. In fact, to quickly switch from low to high beam is a mini strobe effect which at least when I’ve surprised some friends doing a quick “from darkness, to low beam to high beam” flicker has proven to be a bit more disorienting than just flashing to a single beam. I have not struck anyone or anything with the flashlight, but I feel that it could work fine for such a thing. The bezel doesn’t have the extreme crenellation the “Defender” flashlights have nor the added strengths of say the Pyrex window, but there’s a mild crenellation and certainly if the flashlight doesn’t survive the encounter I’m not going to sweat it too much… I can always buy another one afterwards.

I’ve been quite happy with the flashlight. I’ve tried using a more dedicated “tactical light” as a carry flashlight, but how often do you need such a thing? If you’re a police officer, perhaps so. But for private citizen me, most of my portable light needs are just daily needs to help me see where I’m going or what lurks in some dark area. I feel the SureFire E2L Outdoorsman provides me with a flashlight that addresses daily needs quite well, and doesn’t leave me feeling at any sort of disadvantage in other possible use areas.

Note: I’m not affiliated with SureFire. No compensation or anything for this. This is just private me talking about the gear I use.

Magazine pouch pondering

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

The Desantis Mag Packer is a fine way to carry a reload, but it takes up a pocket. Plus pant pockets can vary: mouth too wide so the packer doesn’t get caught on the way out, mouth too narrow so it’s tough to get your hand in there quickly, pocket might not be deep enough or might be too deep. These sorts of variances don’t help in having a consistent draw behavior. If you’ve got a folder clipped to your pocket, now the two items are competing for space. It’s fairly comfortable tho, and concealment is pretty high.

An OWB single mag pouch is useful, but a bit harder to conceal (relative to the Mag Packer). Placement and withdrawal can be fairly consistent however, which helps with your reloads.

A double pouch is a bit better, in terms of how much you can carry. Now, I wouldn’t get one like this because it puts one magazine facing the wrong way (it should be positioned “bullets towards the bad guy”). Of course, with 2 pouches it’s harder to conceal, but it’s do-able. It’s also going to be a bit more uncomfortable. This sort of pouch is useful for training because now you can have at least 3 magazines rotating while you’re on the line. In most of the classes I take (Combined Skills was a perfect example), this is a minimum. It’s also nice to have the 3 magazines because it ensures you can always reholster with a full gun J(provided you didn’t burn through all the magazines, of course).

Then there’s something like this quad pouch. Not suitable for carry, but good for competition. Good for class? Depends upon the class. If it’s a class about competition, sure. If it’s a class about defensive handgun work for self-defense, I wouldn’t use it because it’s not your carry rig and you should take the class with your carry rig.

A magazine-flashlight combo pouch is also appealing because it allows you a spot on your Batman utility belt for both items. If you don’t normally carry a flashlight around with you (even a cheap little keychain fob LED) you may not appreciate how useful it is to have a flashlight always on your person; once you start to regularly carry one, you won’t want to be without one. Of course, this then has similar bulk as the double pouch, but only provides one magazine. But of course the tradeoff is a well-defined spot for your flashlight.

BTW, I refer to Comp-Tac because I’m a satisfied customer, and they provide a wide swath of options, including I think the only people that will make a flashlight holster for the flashlight I carry.

Anyway… just thinking out loud.

Sunday Metal – King Diamond

/ hsoi

Theatrics have always been a part of music, especially metal. Alice Cooper, KISS, GWAR, amongst others. Then there is King Diamond, known not just for putting on a show but also his frequent use of falsetto and penning concept albums sometimes having the story span multiple albums (e.g. “Them” and “Conspiracy”).

I’ve always wanted to see King Diamond live and almost had a chance to, but then King injured his back and has been on the shelf for a while. I hope he heals up and is able to be back on the road in full capacity soon.

How apropos

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Linoge shares with us a couple passages from his current read.

“The woman with the earrings”. Indeed.

Oh, while at the bookstore last night, it was pretty cool to see a big display for Atlas Shrugged. A big “WHO IS JOHN GALT?” staring you down when you entered the store.

How disheartened should I be?

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Last night, Wife had a workshop to attend so it was just me and the kiddos.

We had dinner at home, then opted to go out for ice cream. The particular shop we went to has a place outside where you can sit, kids can run and play, and you can just enjoy the evening. The weather was fantastic last night, so outside we went. Being a gorgeous Friday night, lots of other people were out and about, many kids running around, chasing each other, playing. A good night.

As soon as we found a spot, we sat and started to eat. Not a few seconds later did I look over and see a little girl maybe 8-10 years old lying in the grass on her back, crying pretty hard, holding her head. One of her friends was kneeling over her asking if she was OK. I could hear the crying girl affirming she was OK, so as I watched for a few seconds I was observing a few things: was she in fact OK? give it a few seconds to see if she shakes it off, gets up, and keeps on playing? Parents coming over to check on her? Well, I saw none of this. Little girl remained on the ground crying, no adults whatsoever coming around. In fact, there was a lady sitting on a rock between me and the little girl (i.e. right there not 10 feet from the girl, closer than I was) and the lady never made a move to check on the girl.

After a few seconds, I opted to go over and check on the girl. I asked her if she was OK, she continued to nod yes and got up off the ground, sill crying, but I could tell she was OK. She ran off to go find her parents. I watched the girl run off, over the hill, down to another restaurant then lost track of her. A minute or so later I noticed a couple of the other girls that were in the same pack were pushing each other with mean looks on their faces and one got knocked to the ground. I was “this close” to stepping in but as soon as the one girl hit the ground everything broke off on their own. As I saw these girls throughout the evening, they were all still playing with each other so who knows what the social dynamic was.

So what bugged me about this?

That no one cared.

The place was swarming with adults, but there’s a little girl… crying… lying on the ground in pain. And no one noticed. No one (but me) cared. If anyone did notice, they didn’t feel any motivation to check on her and help her. I’m not painting myself as a saint, but rather an observation of how oblivious people are.

As my own children played and ran around, I kept an eye on them but also watched all the other people. Task fixation was rampant. People minded their own children to some extent, but then there was little mind paid to what was going on around them. I was just a bit appalled. Why is this? What has come of our society?

Furthermore, I watched other children on the playground. I saw the general lack of manners, turn taking, consideration for others. Then I saw their parents, and the role model was evident. Not all were this way, but many were.

Then we walk through the parking lot and I see people just walking out in front of moving cars. I don’t care if you have a legal right of way, if the driver doesn’t see you, you will lose the battle with the ton of steel hurtling towards you. Why do people do this? Sense of entitlement? Ignorance? An “I’m right and fuck you!” attitude? I don’t get it.

Just how disheartened should I be in my fellow man?

I am no saint. I used the opportunities from last night to talk with my children to reinforce some valuable lessons (teachable moment). Yes sometimes you have to resist, but sometimes it is better to yield. Pay attention to the world around you. Be polite. Treat people as you want to be treated. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Buckshot for self-defense

/ hsoi / 15 Comments

Yesterday I posted how birdshot is for birds. The general maxim is, if you’re using a shotgun for self/home-defense, buckshot (generally 00) is the way to go.

I have heard some people recommend #1 buckshot as being better. For instance, arfcom, Chuck Hawks, the firearmstactical.com brief. There’s also some talk that #4 is better, like here and even Massad Ayoob.

Well, as luck would have it, just today on the InSights mailing list someone posed such a question about shotgun self-defense ammo and one of the instructors, Keven Kerkam, responded with the following:

The “standard” loadout for a self-defense shotgun is 00-buck in the tube and slugs on the side-saddle.

Use 00 or 000 buck. We have observed a direct correlation between shot size (or number of pellets) and pattern size. Unlike what many people (uneducated people) say, you want *tight* pattern. You own each pellet that goes down range, so you want everything to hit the bad guy. We have found that the new(ish) Federal LE 132 00 load produces exceptionally tight patterns in nearly all guns. There is an older LE 132 load — this ok but not great — so look for LE 132 00 with the “flight-control wad” mentioned. Ammoman.com has it, btw.

I notice that there is now a LE 133 00 load that is an 8-pellet load as opposed to the 9-pellet 132 load. That *might* (no idea till we play with it) be even tighter than the already amazingly good LE 132 00 load. For now I am only recommending the LE 132 00 though.

For slugs, I recommend a reduced-recoil variety. The Foster-style works as good as any (most common type of slug on the market). The other common type is the Brenneke, but that one is usually marked “Brenneke” and mostly comes in “max” (i.e. high-power) loads. If it just says “slug” you’re getting the Foster type. Brand doesn’t matter, just make sure it is marked reduced/low-recoil or, sometimes, they’re called “tactical” which makes it even cooler because you’re not shooting a wimpy load that way. 🙂

Between my yesterday blog posting and the #1 buck being on my mind, I thought I’d ask for their input on the matter. John Holschen wrote:

For defensive shotgun use we need:

a.      No stray pellets (each one is a liability, without any positive effect.)

b.      Sufficient depth of penetration of each pellet to reach vital organs.

Detailed Criteria

a.      I would ideally like all pellets in the “A” zone at 25 yds. More realistic is all pellets on target at 25 yds. More pellets does not enhance performance in this criteria.

b.      OO buck is the lightest pellet that will reliably reach vital human organs through clothing at a distance.

Keven’s previous recommendations take into account both of these criteria.

Besides, it’s tough finding “smaller buckshot” at retail stores and even online retailers. Most of the time you’ll only find 00 buckshot, maybe 000 if you’re lucky.

Some important things that come from this as well:

  • Use tight(er) chokes.
  • Test your patterns
    • Before you go test, figure out the ranges at which you’ll be shooting. For instance, if it’s a home-defense shotgun, figure out the maximum distance you can shoot within your house.
  • Practice, and know the capabilities of your tool and yourself.

Updated: The original instructor, Keven Kerkam, added some additional information:

Yeah. A good number of years ago I did some pattern testing with all the different buckshot loads & sizes I could find (4, 1, 0, 00, 000) from Remington, Federal, and Winchester and found that the smaller the shot, the larger the pattern. Now with some of the more expensive rounds, you would get tighter patterns with 00 than 000, but if you kept things to the same type of construction/quality, 000 would shoot tighter than 00.

Granted, this was only with one gun, but I’d be willing to bet that 90% of the guns out there would show the same overall behavior, just different scale.

Other than a tight pattern for liability reasons, you want a tight pattern for wounding. When a pattern goes beyond a certain critical size, its effectiveness will drop off dramatically. Since #1 will spread faster than 00 which spreads faster than a good “tactical” 00 like the Federal LE 132 00, your effective range with #1 is significantly less than with a load like LE 132 00.

The typical argument for the #1 loads revolves around its reduced penetration through interior structures. This has some merit and is something that each individual has to work out for themselves and their unique circumstances: whether they want something with more wounding potential or less penetration through interior structures.

Some will argue that you have 16 pellets vs. 9, but if you hit a guy in the chest with a pattern that is, say 8″ (i.e. about 7-8 yards away — shot tends to spread around 1″ per yard give or take – more for lighter/more pellets less for larger/fewer), the majority of the pellets are going into the lungs and periphery (read: not immediately fight-stopping) and you get a few into the heart. But with pellets that are only .30/40.3gr, you may not do significant (read: fight-stopping) damage to the heart. And depending on the angle, positioning of other body parts, etc. you might not even get enough penetration to reach the heart at all. I mean, you’re still going to upset him but, you might be a bit disappointed in the immediate results.

But, if say, you hit him with a tight-shooting load like the LE 132 00, where we’ve seen patterns at 4″ or even <2″ (!!!) inches at 7-ish yards, virtually all of the load will hit the heart (assuming a well-placed shot of course) and the BG will have to be a lot more motivated to continue and physics will dictate that he’s only going for a max of 10-15 seconds more because his pump is no longer running.

Also, lighter shot will not penetrate heavy clothing as effectively. A good number of years ago, a Bellevue police officer used a 12ga shotgun to defend himself against bad guy who was seated in a car and drawing a handgun. The BG was wearing a leather jacket. I don’t remember if he was using #4, #1 or #0, but it was not 00. Where the leather jacket covered the BGs hand/arm that was hit, there was little damage. Only the uncovered portions were severely damaged. The loose leather jacket sucked most of the energy out of the shot.

IMHO, pretty compelling argument to stick with 00 buckshot. And if you can, to get some of the LEO-specific 00 buckshot.

Bulletproof Carbon

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Check this. Carbon nanotubes being used to make bulletproof material.

Nanocomp Technologies, is the first in the world to make sheets of carbon nanotubes — microscopic tubes stronger than steel but lighter than plastic. The Pentagon has financed much of the Concord, N.H., firm’s work; stakes include the $500 million U.S. market for body and vehicle armor, which is currently dominated by DuPont’s Kevlar.

In April, [Nanocomp’s owner, David] Lashmore had a mechanical multicaliber gun shoot bullets at different versions of his sheet, each less than a fifth of an inch thick, at a speed of 1,400 feet per second. Four sheets were breached, but three showed no damage. Lashmore and his 35 employees were ecstatic.

[…]

Army tests show the material works as well as Kevlar. The military also hopes to replace copper wiring in planes and satellites with highly conductive nanotubes, saving millions of dollars in fuel costs.

It’s interesting. Lashmore was able to grow nanotubes large enough to make into yarn and sheets, and from there they can do whatever. Gotta wait to see where this is going to go.

Range Report – always good to learn something

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Went to the Austin Rifle Club this morning with Tom Hogel. Tom is becoming a good friend, and he’s certainly a mentor for me in the realm of shooting (and some other areas too; I learn a lot from him). It was good to have his eyes looking over my shoulder, and I always welcome his input and corrections.

So we met for breakfast (big mushroom omelette, side of grits, fresh squeeze grapefruit juice… mmmm), then headed to the range.

Working

My intention was to work on things from the Combined Skills class, Tom’s intent was to work on some 25 yard shooting. I started just warming up at about 7-10 yards and was shooting OK. Tom was watching me and he directed me over to his 25 yard setup. I was shooting for accuracy and not hitting where I was shooting. Tried Tom’s gun and was nailing it, Tom tried my gun and was also a bit high, so there’s suspect that my sights might be hitting high at longer distances. I’m not convinced that’s the case just yet (1. we should have used a benchrest to verify, but didn’t, 2. I have other issues which I’m about to detail), but I have noted it for later to check into. Watching me shoot more and me paying attention to my shooting, some things were noticed.

First thing noticed by Tom was my trigger finger was bumping into the frame of the gun, thus pushing my shots to the left. I didn’t notice it myself, but once he mentioned it I did notice. My finger is coming into the trigger guard at a downward angle with the pad of my finger touching the “top” of the trigger (where it comes out of the frame); thus, that means the side of my trigger finger gets pressed into the frame and my finger works at a downward angle. When I moved my finger pad to tough the end of the trigger, all was better. Tom suspected it might be subconscious… my fingers are hurting from the past weekend, I’ve got a rubbed raw spot on my right middle finger (where it comes up under the trigger guard), so my body might be trying to avoid it. I suspect not. I suspect it’s just an unconscious shifting of my hands or a poor grip from the get go. I’ll have to watch for this and do a lot of dry fire to try to get the proper trigger finger back.

Second thing was uneven hand pressure. I’ve noticed this lately. I’ve been working hard on that “Todd Jarrett kung fu grip” where you “grip 20% harder”, and there’s no question it helps with recoil management. But what happened was I was putting a majority of my grip into the left hand. It was an effort to put more into my pinky area, to counter the arc the gun takes when it recoils. While it worked well for recoil management, the trouble was I noticed it turned my grip into a Weaver-esque “push-pull” sort of tension. That’s not what you want. What you want is a neutral grip (read Brian Enos‘s book). I had noticed this in the past some weeks, it was alluded to during the Combined Skills weekend, and Tom mentioned it again. So today I worked on that a bit, adjusting my grip (along with the trigger finger), and lo… shooting improved.

Another thing that came from this. I’ve been having problems where I’m shooting and next thing I know my magazine drops free. Not good. I’ve been trying to determine why this is happening. Is it something I’m doing? bad magazine? faulty magazine catch? I’m not sure, and honestly I’m still not 100% sure of the problem, but I suspect it’s me. While shooting today (i.e. being aware of trying to look for the problem), I noticed that upon recoil my left index finger is wrapped around such that it contacts the magazine release on the right side of the gun. Is that what’s happening? I don’t know, but it’s highly suspect. No mags dropped free today, but feeling where my fingers shifted during recoil I can’t help but wonder.

Playing

After having shot a bit, Tom pulled out his .44 magnum revolver. Big gun, heavy. Slick trigger on it. I shot some target loads and they were no big deal. Shot one powerful CorBon load… ooh, that kicks. It wasn’t too bad, to be honest. The main thing it did was fuel my desire for a big revolver. 🙂

Also, every time I shoot one of Tom’s XD-45’s (all Springer Precision customized) I want to get my XD-9 5″ customized.

As well, picking up all of that .45 ACP brass… yeah, I want a gun in .45 ACP. 1911… mmmm….

Got to finally try out the SureFire Shottimer iPhone app. It works but… being under the tin roof of the range, I think there was just too much noise/concussion for the microphone to pick up everything. If a shot went fast enough it could miss a follow-up shot. I played around with the settings some and couldn’t get it quite right. I’ll keep playing with it tho. It’s free so why not.

Summary

So what did I learn:

  • Need to be aware of trigger finger bumping into the frame
  • Need to even out my grip pressure – neutral pressure.
  • Keep watching my grip, if it’s causing the right-side mag release to hit.
  • .44 Mag is fun
  • I want lots and lots of money to buy more guns and customize them too. 😉
  • Tom’s a lot of fun to hang out with.

A good start to the weekend, I’d say.

Greedy much?

/ hsoi

Don’t get me wrong. I think money is just fine. If you can amass a giant mountain of it and sit atop it, more power to you.

But this is ridiculous.

#1 – some things come and go, but the music industry refuses to evolve, which might include parts of it are to die off.

#2 – they refuse to let market forces do what they do

#3 – their ideas are so bad they know they can’t sell anyone on them, so they turn to Congress to line pockets, call in favors, scratch backs, and get laws passed to stave off death and evolution as much as possible. Can’t get your way? Use the force of law. Bad idea.

#4 – To force payment for the 30 seconds? Fine. The solution is simple: Apple (and other retailers) stop offering the 30 second snippets. See what that does for your revenue stream.

The music industry is having a tough time only because the model is changing. Better is to go with the flow than to try to stem the tide… the rush of the water is too powerful.