Month: February 2010

On personal defense

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Most people are hip to the notion of defending your home. It’s your sacred and personal place in the world, one we don’t want to have violated. Pro or anti gun, aggressive or pacifist, you’ll find most people are fine with defending your home.

Could you not say that your own person, your own body… could you not say that place is even more sacred, even more personal?

Why then do some people have a problem with a desire to keep your own person, your own body from being violated?

The retort typically is “Of course I don’t have a problem with this”, especially if you paint that violation in a context of something like rape.  But if that’s the case, why are we taught to just “lie back and take it“? Why is the constant refrain to not fight back, to “just give them what they want”? Don’t forget how the words “Let’s roll” and the actions that followed changed the course of events on 9/11/2001.

Realize most violent crime occurs away from the home. If it’s acceptable to defend yourself at home, I would reason it’d be more important to defend yourself when you’re away from home! However, some people don’t think that.

“To force the general public to be exposed to the risk of loaded guns when they are out with their family in public areas is outrageous and has absolutely nothing to do with the right to defend the home,” [Jonathan E. Lowy, a lawyer with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence] says.

Source here.

You know…. the general public is exposed to the risk of loaded guns all the time. Last time I checked, the police carried loaded guns. When you’re out and about with your family in public areas, hopefully there are police around somewhere, right? Are their guns any different?

Jay is working his way through the police academy. Consequently, he has a fair perspective on the process. He recently wrote a 2 part article on the requirements to get into the academy. Part 1, Part 2. It’s a little long, but it has to be to provide the proper perspective.

Where is the difference between a cop and a CHL? You can argue training, but as I’ve already said previously, little time actually deals with firearms. You can argue psychological examination. However, as proven in the past, psych exams aren’t foolproof. They can be beaten and fool even some of the best in the psych field. You could argue firearms qualification, but the last time I checked, a CHL’s qualification is harder than that of a LEO.

That is why I push for less carry restrictions for CHL holders. Because in the end, there isn’t any real difference at all.

Student shot

/ hsoi

This past weekend a student in Orlando, Florida was shot in a class. There are many copies of the article floating around, but they all seem to have the same text so here’s a link to one of the articles.

A few things about this report need to be addressed.

A gun instructor accidently shot a student in the foot Saturday during an NRA class to receive certification to carry a concealed weapon, Orlando police said.

First, it should be noted that the NRA doesn’t specifically have classes about concealed carry certification. The NRA course “Personal Protection Outside the Home” does talk about concealed carry techniques, but it has nothing to do with actual certification. However, many states accept NRA training as the “required training” component towards the state’s licensing requirements. So, the above statement is a bit of a half-truth. If we want to get a little more pedantic, the NRA is very specific that a firearm is not referred to as a “weapon”. Furthermore, knives, sticks, saps, clubs, swords, nunchucks, and so on are also weapons, but any sort of “license to carry a concealed weapon” is about handguns. Thus the above sentence is better phrased: “A gun instructor negligently shot a student in the foot Saturday during a class to receive certification to carry a concealed handgun, Orlando police said.”

Nevertheless, the question remains: why was there live ammunition in the classroom? If this instructor was an NRA Certified Instructor, he should know that NRA policy states you are not to have live ammo in the classroom.

Second, why was the instructor’s gun out of the holster? If you do have a live gun, if things are running hot, it’s simple: put it in the holster, leave it there, don’t touch it and mess with it. This is what you risk.

Third, this NRA instructor violated the 3 very rules that are fundamental to the very course he was teaching. I don’t know what course he was teaching, but every NRA course I’m aware of discusses the 3 safety rules:

  1. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
  2. Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
  3. Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

And by the accounts we have, all 3 rules were violated. Not the sort of learning the students wanted, but they got a sober lesson in what happens if you violate the rules.

Granted, we are without complete details of the incident, so the above is based upon what was reported. Regardless of some specific details, the indisputable fact is a student was on the receiving end of a bullet from an instructor’s gun. For that to happen, the basic rules of gun safety had to be violated. Other information may come to light that clear up some other details, but the fundamental problem appears to be indisputable.

“We won’t be having anything like that in our church in the future,” [church communication’s director Kristy-Lee] Lawley said.

The event was being held in a classroom at a local church, because some of the church members requested holding the class there. Not church-sponsored, just an available location. It’s a shame that the negligence of one has now ruined things for everyone. I hope the church would be willing to reconsider, but I can understand their reluctance.

I love how the article ends:

This was not the first time something’s gone wrong during a gun demonstration in Orlando. In 2004, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration shot himself in the thigh with a .40-caliber Glock pistol while talking to schoolchildren about gun safety.

That situation was something totally different. Yes it still reeks of rules violations, yes it will forever live in Internet infamy. But the way it was tacked onto the article? Good grief… a little reporter bias? It also ignores something. The implication of the above is this is now 2 instances of such a thing happening in Orlando in the past 6 years (or more). I don’t have the numbers, but I’d reason hundreds if not thousands of other successful gun courses have occurred in Orlando in the past 6+ years and nothing happened. Let’s ignore all the good for the sake of a little sensationalized reporting.

Bottom line: the rules start with an important word — always.

Long term reloading plans

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Now that I know my 9mm reload recipe is solid, the goal is to reload until I’m sick of it. 🙂

I’m going to reload 9mm until I run out of some component. If I can get a few thousand of them in the larder, that’d be great. Heck, I think 10K on ice would be a nice surplus but we’ll see where that ends up. Point is, I just want to get a lot loaded so I can shoot and not have to worry about obtaining or making ammo. Because….

I want to get back to working on a .223 Remington load. Yeah, the whole hunting load hasn’t been working out so I put it on the backburner. What I’d like to do is start off with just a cheap plinking load. Just help me find a load that works, work to perfect my skill at making rifle loads, and so on. And yes, if I can eventually work up a great load like foo.c’s zombie load, that’d be cool.

Of course, down the line once I get good at making a .223 rifle load, then it will be time to make a .308 Winchester load. That should be fun. 🙂

More tips for success in class

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

If you are a student in a handgun class, here’s some further tips for success:

  • Bring lots of magazines. I would say 5 is a bare minimum, and there’s not really any such thing as too many magazines.
    • Make sure those magazines are clean and functioning.
      • Have a magazine brush on you, in case the magazine gets that dirty that you need to clean it to keep it running. Of course, this is slow and takes time and class may not have a break in the action to clean them. This is why it’s good to have as many magazines as possible, so you can just set the broken/dirty one aside and grab a working mag and get back into class.
    • Have appropriate ways to carry those magazines. At least 2 mag pouches on your belt, more if you can and/or is appropriate. Have a way to carry more magazines to the line, like wearing cargo pants.
  • Load all your magazines before coming to class (e.g. night before, at home).
  • The magazines should be appropriate to the context. A 33 round Glock magazine is not appropriate for a defensive handgun class (unless you’re somehow able to conceal a 33 round Glock magazine). A 33 round mag might be appropriate if it was a competition class. Whatever, just consider context and be appropriate for it.
  • The “Sabrina” is rarely a good thing to do.
  • If you are the sort that always racks your slide after inserting a magazine, likely dumping a live round on the ground, at the appropriate time please pick up your live rounds off the ground. Not only is it a waste of good ammo, but it’s more work for us that have to clean up after you to have to sort out all your live ordinance.
  • If the range policy is no steel nor aluminum cased ammo (i.e. brass-only), please honor that policy.
  • Electronic ear muffs aren’t required, but they are nice for hearing range commands and receiving instruction.
  • Safety glasses that completely enclose your eyes are good. So it’s not just from the front, but also from all sides. Things fly around, especially if you’re shooting steel… little lead fragments can and do happen.
  • If you’re not on the line shooting, you should be reloading magazines. While you do that, keep one ear and one eye on the line so you can be aware of what’s going on, especially if any instruction or teachable moments happen.
  • Keep hydrated.
  • Don’t skimp on your gear. Good belt. Good holster.
    • Make sure that good holster allows you to reholster without looking and without having to use your other hand to work the holster… putting your other hand in front of the muzzle isn’t a recipe for success.
  • Keep a little note pad and pen in your pocket, so you can take notes on the drills, your progress, or whatever else you deem important.

Anything to add?

National Parks won’t change a whole lot today

/ hsoi

So today the new federal law change kicks in, where law-abiding citizens can continue to abide by the laws of their state.

Of course, much hysteria is coming with this, but I get the feeling this will be a lot like when concealed handgun licenses were coming about. All the predictions of death and destruction, OK Corral style shootouts in the street, and in the end the result was quite the opposite effect; in fact violent crime statistics went down. Gee.

One cool thing tho is the National Park Services website is to be updated to provide information on the laws of that particular state. In poking around this morning I’m finding the website to be inconsistent, some park entries having information and some not. If they are there, it tends to be under the particular park’s website, under Management, under Laws & Policies. Hopefully it’s just a matter of time before the entire website is updated.

Tragic Rules FAIL

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

In India, a young man and woman get married. The bride is waiting in the car to go to the reception, the groom is on his way. The groom’s uncle wants to celebrate the occasion so he takes out his gun to fire it into the air. Apparently as he was loading it the gun fired accidentally, the bullet striking the groom in the head killing him. Story here.

What a way to turn a most joyous day into a most horrible day.

If the story is correct, there was no accident — only negligence. If the gun fired while it was being loaded there’s only one way for that to happen: the uncle had his finger on the trigger. Yes, perhaps the gun was mechanically unsafe, but that’s unlikely to be the case. Even if that was the case, to continue to carry and use an unsafe firearm is well… bad! So the first rules violation was finger on the trigger. The second rules violation was where the muzzle was pointed — certainly it was not pointed in a safe direction. Even firing into the air is not safe because what goes up must come down.

Whatever gun safety rule set you want to follow, in the end it breaks down to two things: where the muzzle is pointed (safe direction), and keeping your finger off the trigger (on target on trigger, off target off trigger — that simple). Both of those fundamental rules were broken and it created a horrible, tragic day for these families.

Some rules may have been made to be broken, but not these rules.

AT-6 Pistol Workout

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Yesterday I took part in KR Training’s AT-6 Pistol Workout class. This is KR Training’s most advanced class, focusing on high speed shooting. It also focused on long distance shooting.

Drills

We divided into two groups of 7, which made it easier to run the line and rotate between the drill stations. I was in group 2.

The first thing we did? Cold? Shooting groups at 25 yards. Not nice. 🙂  But I don’t go to class to be treated nice, I want to be challenged. Was I good at it? Well, let’s just say I’ve improved. What’s it all about? Trigger control. That’s really the key. I will say it’s also about finding a good index point. For instance, on an IPSC target it’s tough to aim “dead center” because it’s just a blur of brown cardboard and what may look dead center this time may be off just enough next shot such that your groups really open up. You really need an index point, such as aligning the top edge of your sights with the “shoulder edge” of the target. But it all depends what you’re going for: smallest groups (which I was) or getting ’em all in the A-Zone.

We then went to shoot the FBI Qualification course. The course was slightly modified, for instance we didn’t go prone because the ground is still a mess due to the near constant rain we’ve been having for months in this part of Texas.

We had a steel shootoff. Nine steel targets were set up, 4 on the left, 4 on the right, and one stop plate in the middle. Each steel was different shape, size, and distance. One shooter on the left, one on the right. The drill was on the buzzer both shooters draw, engage their plates from outside to inside, must hit each plate once, and the first person to hit the stop plate wins. Then the winners shot against each other and so on. This is high speed shooting at its finest. After running it one time with two-handed shooting, we’d run it again one handed, strong side. Then we’d run it again one-handed but you’d have to draw, shift to your weak hand, then shoot.

A special setup was done with some steel reactive targets. These targets are steel targets but with a plastic “man-like” covering, who is then dressed in a t-shirt. The intent is to provide you with a 3-D realistic target that only falls over if you hit it squarely in the vital areas. It’s a great way to break out of training against 2-D targets and non-realistic targets, which just don’t give you the same aim points at this such target does. It was a small scenario simulating getting out of your car and having to shoot on the move (from car to cover), engaging 2 reactives while you did so. So shoot on the move, proper targeting, shooting from cover, and so on.

Then another shoot on the move segment was done along a string of paper targets. Shoot shoot shoot, kneel behind cover, reload, stand up and keep moving and shooting at more targets. Since that takes a while to run (only one person can shoot at a time), after you shot that you’d go back to the steel range and shoot those same steel targets in the same way, shooting and moving.

Intermixed with all of this was drawing, trigger control, sight alignment, dealing with malfunctions, reloading. You weren’t really told to do these things, you were just expected to keep your gun running at all times. BTW, an UpLULA pays for itself very quickly. 🙂

The crazy thing? Next thing I know Karl is saying it’s time to take down the targets. I couldn’t believe 3 hours had already passed and class was over. I was just getting warmed up! I don’t know what the final round count was, but people were saying close to 400. I guess ultimately it all depended how much you missed on the steel targets. 😉

One thing to note. Usually this is a 4 hour class, but Karl ran it in 3. The class may or may not run like this again in the future. We got all the material, due to excellent structuring of the class (the FBI qual, the steel, and the reactive drills were run simultaneously on different ranges with different instructors).

My Performance

On 25 yard group shooting. I am improving, but I still have a ways to go; I’m pleased with my results in the class, but I know there’s room for improvement. One thing I need to do more of is shooting it from a benchrest so I can eliminate some factors from the equation. Make sure I know my sights, e.g. Springfield factory sights shoot high at 25 yards but I don’t have factory sights. Make sure I know the performance of my reloads AND my carry ammo at that distance. Get my eyes used to it. Then move to freestyle, including one handed shooting.

I’m happy to say I qualified on the FBI course. I heard no one in group 1 qualified, and I’m not sure how the others in group 2 did. Tho I’m not out to compare myself to others, there’s something useful about knowing where you sit in the grander scheme of things. My main lose of points was at 25 yards. But my 25 yard shooting here was the best of the day. It’s a matter of just doing more 25 yard shooting.

On the steel, I didn’t come out the grand prize winner, but I was one of the faster shots. I know my problem is high speed trigger control. I do know how to go fast when it’s time to go fast, and slow when it’s time to go slow, but I’ll still feel the pressure of the timer and the other guy and sometimes yank the trigger. Still, I felt good about my performance and even surprised myself at how well I did. Many times in a class I’m wanting to focus so much on particular areas of improvement that my brain gets in the way of things. Here I was of “no mind”. I knew what to work on, but when it came time to shoot I just shot. All the dry fire I’ve been working on since my private lesson with Karl has paid off.

The reactive. Plain and simple: trigger yanking. High speed, high pressure, and I’d yank the trigger and just miss. Not acceptable. But, I know what to work on. As well, I’m going to need to put in an order for my own targets and buy some photo-realistic targets and train with them more often. While I tend to use IPSC-style targets most of the time, the A-Zone just isn’t the same as the vital area.

Shoot and move, I did alright in.

Other general things: I’m happy with my reloading in the sense of the mechanics and doing it at the right point. Scanning, breathing. My draws were better. When I’d hear the “b” in “beep” on the buzzer my hand was moving and I was getting the gun out there as fast as possible, getting on the trigger faster, but taking my time to get the hits once it got out there (all depending on distance, e.g. I could shoot sooner at 3 yards vs. 25 yards). Again I paid some attention to how others were performing on the draw and I was happy to clear Kydex so quickly. Just like all things, getting faster.

What To Work On

Certainly 25 yard group shooting. Yeah, I know people go on about how most self-defense shootings are within 5 yards, and that’s true. But how do you know when it’s your turn you’re not going to be the statistical exception? One of Tom Givens’ students, I don’t recall the details of the story well enough to retell it, but the key point was he had to make a 20 yard shot (and did, and saved his life). And not just for self-defense, but for action pistol competition… long shots do come up.

I’m at a point now where dry fire is still something to do, but it’s actually not helping me so much any more. The thing is, my brain knows when I dry fire there won’t be any bang or issue to deal with, so everything is perfect. I need recoil. I need the noise, I need the recoil, I need to recover from the shot and shoot again. I need that. I’m not going to progress any further unless I just flat out have more trigger time on the range because the things I need to work on won’t come from dry fire. Yes I still need to dry fire and I won’t stop doing that, but I need to get to the range more and regularly.

When I’m at the range, what I need to do is run drills that push me. So, pick a drill like the Central Texas Standards, Two Target No Reload Standards, the Texas CHL qual, Bill Drills, IPSC classifier stages, whatever. Just pick something. Shoot the drill with no par time. The goal with no par time is to shoot it clean so you can be sure you’ve got the marksmanship skills to shoot it. If you can’t shoot it clean with no time, you need to work until you can shoot it clean with no time. Once you can do that, time how long it takes you to shoot it clean. Whatever that time is, that’s now your starting par time. Shoot it now with that as a par time set so you have the pressure of the buzzer. Once you can do that, drop the par time by say half a second. Shoot it again. Once that’s clean, drop it another half second, and so on. This is what I need, because I’ve got the fundamental skills, I can have the accuracy, I can have the speed. I now need to go faster, yet maintain the accuracy. This is how to do it.

One thing to do as well while I work my drills? Ball and dummy drill.

That’s the big things for me, really. There are some other things to continue to work on as well. I’m buying some weighted “blue magazines” (i.e. dummy magazines, but with the same action and feel as a loaded magazine) so I can do more practice of my reloading technique. On the gear front, while I love my combo mag/flashlight pouch, I need to get another dual mag pouch for use in class; the XD Gear mag pouch is OK to get by with but the fact it cants the mags gets annoying. Plus I’ve had thoughts about carrying 2 reloads and putting the flashlight elsewhere on my person. Furthermore, my XD-9 5″ is going to get sent off to Springer Precision soon. Oh, and I need to buy lots of reloading components. If I’m going to spend that much more time at the range, I need lots of ammo. 🙂

That’s about the size of it. A good class.

9mm load recipe – plinking/target load – performance data

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

So I have my basic 9mm load recipe for a plinking/target load.

Briefly: Berrys 9mm 115 grain plated RN DS bullet, Remington 1.5 small pistol primer, mixed used brass cases, COAL 1.135″, 4.5 grains Titegroup powder. Reloaded on my Hornady Lock-n-Load AP.

I actually had some other bullets and figured why not try out the recipe with those bullets as well. I also made it with Hornady’s 115 grain 9mm FMJ RN bullets, and with some Speer 115 grain 9mm TMJ bullets. Just basic bullets.

I ran them through a chronograph. It was fairly humid today, and temps were probably was in the 50’s when I did the chrono. This was done out at the A-Zone Range. Thanx to Karl Rehn for letting me use his PACT Timer/Chrono setup with the fancy new screens.

Most shots were done out of a Springfield XD-9 with a 4″ barrel. 10 shot strings.  The chrono was about 10′ away from the muzzle. I won’t give all the statistics because frankly I’m not interested in typing up all that data. 🙂

The Data

Federal American Eagle, 9mm 124 grain

This was the only factory ammo I had on me, and I wanted to shoot it to have some sort of baseline comparison. The one bummer is it has 124 grain bullets vs. the 115 grain bullets. Also, I believe I only shot 5 rounds in this particular string, so the numbers aren’t exactly apples-to-apples comparison.

Average Speed: 1128.4 fps
Standard Deviation: 5.9

Berry’s bullets

Average Speed: 1144.6 fps
Standard Deviation: 12.4

Hornady bullets

Average Speed: 1138.3 fps
Standard Deviation: 16.7

Speer bullets

Average Speed: 1158.6 fps
Standard Deviation: 14.8

Berry’s bullets, but out of a 5″ XD-9

Average Speed: 1208.2 fps
Standard Deviation: 13.2

Federal American Eagle, out of a 5″ XD-9

Average Speed: 1162.2 fps
Standard Deviation: 12.5

Data Analysis

My load performs about the same as the factory load, which means that my load would probably be a little underpowered compared to a factory load with a 115 grain bullet. When shooting my reload, that’s about how it feels. It feels very close to factory ammo, just a hair less.

Given the speeds that I’m seeing, this load is certainly about maximum for the Berry’s plated bullets as they’re not supposed to go over 1200 fps. Sure I could perhaps bump up the powder by a tenth of a grain or two to push the Berry’s to their edge, but that’d only be if I was going to shoot this ammo out of a specific gun (like the 4″). Since I want a general purpose load, I’m going to leave things where they are else any more would certainly push things over the limit in the 5″ gun.

I was happy to see the standard deviations were pretty low. The coefficient of variation is just a hair over 1%, with the Hornady bullets being the worst at 1.47%, which is most acceptable to me.

This load would be suitable for IPSC competition, as it does make the minimum power factor. It flirts with the minimum, but the easy way around that? Use the 5″ gun to get a bit more velocity. Using the 5″ gun would be better anyways since it’ll manage the recoil a bit better plus longer sight radius and so on.

I was also surprised to see that overall the Berry’s bullets performed best. Certainly they’re the cheapest bullets of the lot and that they did so well? Great!

Other Performance

I used my reloads to take an advanced shooting class. I never had a problem in terms of failures to feed, eject, or what have you. Everything ran like a champ and I never once had to even think about the fact I was running my reloads instead of factory ammo. The quality was good.

Accuracy was quite nice too. In the class we were shooting from 3 yards out to 25 yards, including groups at 25 yards. The bullets always went where I told them to go… even if I messed up and told them to go somewhere I didn’t intend (e.g. yanked the trigger). In fact, after the class Karl shot my totally stock factory XD-9 5″ from 25 yards for groups using my reloads and things were pretty tight. I forget the exact group size… maybe 2-3″? Not too shabby, especially with a factory trigger and sights.

Conclusion

I’m keeping this load recipe. It seems to run well for me.

Of course over time, some other things will probably change, like trying different primers because well.. that’s what was available for purchase at the time. And I’m sure as soon as I run out of all the bullets I have I’m going to try Precision Delta. I suspect the recipe will run just fine… certainly the raw data will change, but performance will be more or less the same.

I’m happy!

Now I need to crank out as much of it as a can… couple thousand rounds, at least.

Updated: I made some modifications to the load and that additional data can be found here.

Sunday Metal – Overkill’s Ironbound

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I know. I probably sound like a shill for the new Overkill album, Ironbound, but I’m just really loving the album! Since buying it on its US release date it’s about the only thing I’ve been listening to.

Here’s the video for the first release off the album, “Bring Me the Night”

A great choice for a first release. It’s a strong album end to end. Thrashier numbers like “Bring Me the Night”, “Ironbound”, “The Green and Black”. Then you’ll have more mid-tempo songs like “The Head and Heart”, which just has a great structure to it. Really, I think it’s a strong album end to end.

BTW, iTunes Music Store eventually got back to me. They refunded my purchase (sigh) and are going to investigate the sound quality issue… try back in a few weeks. Ugh.