Month: March 2010

Changing again

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Summer of last year I stopped my Kuk Sool practice.

It’s become evident to me based upon the past few months that my current “traditional” martial arts study is also going to go on the shelf for a bit.

My current study is under Ray Parra. Ray teaches Kali, Silat, Jeet Kune Do, Thai Boxing. It’s basically Ray’s blend of things and it works quite well. The study of it? Great. Ray’s a great guy, good teacher, good school, good curriculum. I like how they actually roll, hit, spar, throw down, and so on. The philosophy is very much in line with my own. It’s a friendly and useful environment. I really like how everything is done there. My backing away has nothing to do with Ray or anything like that.

Man, this sounds like trying to break-up with a bad girlfriend:

“It’s not you, it’s me.” 🙂

But that is the truth. Nothing about this decision has anything to do with Ray or what he teaches, his school, or anything of the sort.

It is me and what’s going on in my world.

On the one hand, I’m feeling spread too thin. Too many things going on in my life, and I just cannot give them all the attention they need. I’ve got some new endeavors, things with my kids, current pressures at work, all sorts of little things that add up. When the day is still only 24 hours long well, only so much you can cram in. Something has to give.

I don’t want to give up martial arts, because it’s something I enjoy. So I am not giving it up entirely, just the formalities. Fact is, if I can’t make it to class on a regular basis due to whatever reason, then I’m just fooling myself and wasting my money. So that’s what I’m removing. I will still practice on my own. I will still keep up skills as I can. Later this year Leslie Buck will be holding seminars on edged weapon defense; arrest & control / baton tactics; and weapon retention, disarming, and improvised weapons; it’s my plan to attend these seminars. I know I will also continue to have on-and-off private sessions with Kuk Sool instructors. So my empty hand work will not go away entirely, it just won’t be a focus.

What am I going to focus on?

Handgun.

Continue to take instruction. To dry practice every day and get to the range as often as I can (once a week would be ideal, but schedules aren’t always conducive to that). To shoot more competition (haven’t shot lately due to schedule conflicts). I want to really excel in this area, and to do that requires focus and dedication.

So martial arts aren’t leaving my life, just another evolution… just another step along the journey.

Thank you, Jens

/ hsoi

Jens Pulver vs. Javier Vazquez @ WEC 47.

Great fight. Decisive win for Vazquez.

Of course, I was rooting for Pulver, not because I have anything against Vazquez but I know Pulver has been working hard and it just hasn’t been panning out. I wanted to see him win. That loss to Vazquez… the arm bar submission certainly looked painful, but I think it was the interview afterwards that was even more heart-wrenching.

Jens is a class act. Lot of respect for him and what he’s done for the sport. Couldn’t help but get a little choked up listening to that after-fight interview. If Jens does retire (and it sounds like it), he had a good run, always an entertaining fighter putting on a good show for the crowd (win or lose). My hat is off to you, man. Thank you.

Random (?) violence

/ hsoi

Some “random” violent events are happening in Austin:

Police charged two teenagers with murder in the death of 75-year-old Jennie McClusky.

McClusky died Wednesday from injuries sustained when she was beaten and robbed in a Taco Bell parking lot in January. The Austin Police Department said the attack was part of a gang initiation.

Police arrested 17-year-old Jonathon Anthony Contreras Friday. Both Contreras and a 14-year-old boy are charged with felony murder.

Contreras is being held on $1 million bond.

Since the attack, a series of drive-by shootings in Austin have also been connected to gangs.

Some take-home:

  • The attack occurred in a parking lot, not at home. Home defense strategies mean nothing if you’re not at home.
  • I don’t think “just give ’em what they want” would have been enough here. They were working on an initiation, so there was no way they were going to stop at petty cash… and obviously they didn’t.
  • Criminals aren’t always lone operators.
  • Just because they look like a child, doesn’t mean they’re going to act like one. You have to get over any mental blocks that “I can’t hurt a child” because in a case like this, you’re not dealing with a child.

It also makes me think back to “draaiorgelfan” from my Unpossible article. Just how was that 75-year old woman supposed to protect herself? She doesn’t have “Perpetual Motion” on her side… so what can this woman do?

Stay safe out there.

Updated: More information. And thus more take-home. It happened at 4:30 PM.

Corrected Rangemaster Level V Handgun Qualification Course

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I shot the Rangemaster Level V Handgun Qualification Course…. or so I thought.

When I saw the listed course it did look like a Rangemaster course, but doing the math on the course didn’t add up. So I dropped a line to Tom Givens to ask. He sent me the corrected course:

  1. 3 yards – Draw and fire 3 rounds. 2.5 seconds. Repeat.
  2. 5 yards – Draw and fire 5 rounds, dominant hand only. 5 seconds.
  3. 5 yards – Start at (low) ready and fire 5 rounds, non-dominant hand only. 5 seconds.
  4. 5 yards – Draw and fire 3 to the chest and 2 to the head.5 seconds.
  5. 5 yards – Draw and fire 3 to the chest and 2 to the head, dominant hand only. 6 seconds.
  6. 7 yards – Draw and fire 5 rounds. 5 seconds.
  7. 7 yards – Start at (low) ready, 3 rounds only in gun. On signal, fire 3 rounds, reload, fire 2 rounds. 8 seconds.
  8. 10 yards – Start at (low) ready, stove-pipe malfunction in place. On signal, fire 2 rounds. 5 seconds.
  9. 10 yards – Start at (low) ready, dummy round as top round in magazine (live round in chamber). On signal, fire 2 rounds. 7 seconds.
  10. 15 yards – Draw and fire 3 rounds. 5 seconds. Repeat.
  11. 25 yards – Draw and fire 4 rounds. 8 seconds.

There are 50 rounds total, 250 points possible, 200+ to pass.

According to Tom Givens, on an RM-Q2 target the rings are scored 5, 4, 3, and that would work on an IPSC target.

To understand the context of this course, it is fired during the Rangemaster Level V class as a progress check. According to Mr. Givens, 90% or better is pretty good performance.

Big thanx to Tom Givens for sending me the corrected information and fielding my questions about the course.

Gunsite and Rangemaster standards

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Did a little shooting today. No strict practice. I wanted to run a couple standards against a timer and see how I do.

The Courses

Gunsite 250

It’s been hard to find a clear description of the Gunsite 250 standard. For instance, what target? I figure from a holster, but open carry or concealment? Is there a particular scoring, or just you “hit in the right spots” else it’s a miss? So I just filled in the blanks for myself and this will be “my standard”, if you will. Even if this winds up not being exactly like the Gunsite standard, well, this is the course I shot.

I shot at a home-make IPSC target. I get lots of cardboard from UPS deliveries or Costco or wherever, so on pieces big enough I keep them and trace out my own IPSC target at the official size. It’s cheap, and works with that “reuse” portion of recycling, and then I can still recycle it when I’m done. 🙂  I shot my Springfield XD-9 Service from an IWB holster, drawing from concealment (t-shirt, pulling it upwards). No race, no gaming, like I carry.

From what I can tell, the standard looks like this:

  1. 3 yards – 1 head shot in 1.5 seconds
  2. 7 yards – 2 rounds to the body in 2.0 seconds
  3. 10 yards – 2 rounds to the body in 2.0 seconds
  4. 15 yards – 2 rounds to the body, standing to kneeling, in 3.5 seconds
  5. 25 yards – 2 rounds to the body, standing to prone, in 7.0 seconds

I couldn’t get to 25 yards nor go prone, so #5 was shot standing to kneeling at 20 yards.

My times:

  1. 1.72 seconds
  2. 2.3 seconds
  3. 2.39 seconds
  4. 3.39 seconds
  5. 4.63 seconds

Not bad, but not great. I also didn’t get 100% A-Zone hits. On the whole you can see I’m running just a couple tenths of a second slow. I’ll analyze in a moment.

Rangemaster Level 5 Handgun Qualification Course

This is the way I found the test. While the description only said “fired on an RM-Q2 target”, given the nature of the Rangemaster classes I’m going to assume this course of fire also assumes things like a concealment draw, carry guns (i.e. not race guns), and so on. I shot this using the same equipment and setup as above, including using an IPSC target instead of the RM-Q2.

  1. 3 yards – draw and fire three rounds in 2.5 seconds
  2. 5 yards – draw and fire 5 rounds with dominant hand only, in 5.0 seconds
  3. 5 yards – from low ready, fire 5 rounds with the non-dominant hand only, in 5.0 seconds
  4. 5 yards – draw and fire 3 to the chest and 2 to the head in 5.0 seconds (the write-up I found didn’t say “dominant hand only”, but I shot it that way because the next string did explicitly say “non-dominant hand only”, thus I figured this string must be dominant hand only).
  5. 5 yards – from low ready, fire 3 to the chest and 2 to the head with the non-dominant hand only in 5.0 seconds
  6. 7 yards – draw and fire 5 rounds in 5 seconds
  7. 7 yards – start at ready, fire 3 rounds, reload, fire 2 more rounds, in 8.0 seconds
  8. 10 yards – start at ready with a stovepipe malfunction in place. Clear the malfunction and fire 2 rounds in 5.0 seconds
  9. 10 yards – start at ready with a dummy round at top round in the magazine. Fire 2 rounds in 5.0 seconds (my assumption here was a live round in the chamber, so bang, click, tap-rack, bang).
  10. 15 yards – draw and fire 3 rounds in 5.0 seconds
  11. 25 yards – draw and fire 4 rounds in 8.0 seconds

Supposedly the total possible score is 250 with a 200 to pass. Trouble is, I can’t figure that out. If my math is correct, only 44 rounds are fired, and assuming 5 points for each proper hit, how do you get to 250?

Updated: Here’s the proper course.

Nevertheless, I had only 3 non-A-zone hits: 2 were in string #5, the 2 to the head with the weak hand (they were just below the A-Zone), and then one Charlie. My times:

  1. 2.16
  2. 4.110
  3. 4.05
  4. 4.41
  5. 4.23
  6. 3.30
  7. 4.60
  8. 3.37
  9. 4.04
  10. 3.71
  11. 6.28

Seems acceptable, but more analysis in a bit.

Bill Drill

I didn’t plan on doing a Bill Drill but I figured why not and ran it. Target at 7 yards, from concealment, same equipment and setup as the above. I did 3.03 seconds.

Analysis

I’m no Rob Leatham, but I’m happy to see I’m improving.

I shot this cold. Just set up the targets and off I went. I only let off 2 shots prior to starting so I could ensure the shot timer was working (more on that in a bit), and then those weren’t even trying… just for the noise. The Gunsite 250 wasn’t that good, but it all came down to a simple thing: I need to get faster and more efficient. I need to get simply faster. The primary place for this is my draw; concealment draw is just slow but I know I can get quicker with even more practice. Speed can come in other ways like just getting my brain to shorten the reaction time between when my eyes see the “good enough” sight picture for the distance I’m shooting at, my brain processes that, then brain tells trigger finger to move. That’s just going to take more live fire to get there. The efficiency part comes with compounding movement, like getting on the trigger sooner.

The thing is, I didn’t go into shooting this with any particular mindset… just shoot. What I saw is some improvement areas from long ago are becoming natural. What I also saw was the recent improvement areas are not yet natural. This goes back to what I’m working on now, which is getting the finger on the trigger sooner and working to just generally speed up. Dry fire can help me with the draw speeds and getting on the trigger. I will need live fire to help improve my eyes and brain processing.

I am happy with how I shot. I had a couple true “WTF” moments, especially with the malfunction drills, and my body just moved… no thinking, just doing. I am also really happy with my 15 and 25 (well probably 20) yard performance; it’s just applying fundamentals of trigger control and sight picture, and not going too fast. But I know I can do better. Accuracy is good enough, so for now I’ll work more on speed: getting on the trigger sooner, improving draw from concealment times, and so on. Yes more dry fire is in store, but I also need more live fire practice than I’ve been getting.

To me, the key for today was to continue to establish hard data points for myself, and to shoot some courses of fire I haven’t shot before. Practice practice practice, then shoot them again. Work to beat the par times and shoot them 100% clean. Quantified performance is useful.

Updated: for later reference, how to improve split times.

Other Tidbits

Snake Loads

Some time ago foo.c gave me a bunch of old .38 ammo, and included in them were about 8 .38 Special shotshells. Check out what The Box O’Truth has to say about them. I’ve been curious to try them out. I don’t think they’re good for anything except as snake-loads. Given the place I was at today is known for having venomous snakes about, I not only had my snake gaiters on but figured to load my snub revolver with these loads.

Before packing up, I shot two of them to see how they would perform. Both shots were on cardboard out of my snub revolver, one at 3 yards and one at 5. They shot fine, but the pattern is very wide. I would say, at least out of this snub, that 5 yards is kinda pushing the limit for a pattern that hopes to hit a snake on the ground… 3 yards is perhaps even a bit much, but that pattern did seem to be “hand sized” (my hand, spread out). Not horrible. Certainly I plan on carrying these things in my snub when I go into the field… I see no reason not to.

SureFire Shot Timer

SureFire made a free shot timer for the iPhone. I tried it once before but it failed miserably where a real shot timer succeeded. My guess? We were shooting under a tin roof and all that echo created too much noise. Probably could fiddle with adjustments to get it just right, but meh… didn’t bother at the time.

Today I was out in the open country: nothing above me but blue sky. Furthermore, there was no one else around, no other shooters, no other sources of noise. So I figured this would be a good “ideal situation” to try out the timer again.

I fired one shot, it didn’t pick up, adjusted the sensitivity to 100% and it picked it up, so I left it there. I used that timer in all of my work today. Just set it to beep for a random start, then I’d shoot. It recorded all the shots and split times just fine. Even caught some slide racking a couple times. I’m pleased.

One thing I noticed was the difficulty in finding the start button. I’d find the button, press, search the screen with the sun glare to ensure it started, then I’d get ready to shoot. While I was shooting I found this annoying because it rushed me. There were more than a few times I would finish verifying it was running (and of course that meant maybe a second went by), look at the target and then immediately heard the beep… I wasn’t ready! It was a little irritating. But looking back on it now, I’m glad it did that because it added a dimension of pressure and stress to me… it took away my ability to have a 100% clear head that was 100% “game focused”. I didn’t have time to start the timer, then clear my head and settle in ready for the buzzer. No, I had to get right to shooting. I’m glad it happened, and I’m glad it annoyed me, because it gave me what I needed: pressure.

Anyway, I’m happy with the timer, especially given it was a free app. For now I’m going to continue using it instead of buying a dedicated timer. It’s “good enough” for my needs. I’m sure eventually a dedicated timer will be purchased, but meantime there’s other things that need my financial attention. 🙂

Daughter

Daughter came with me for all of today (setting up the game camera, filling the feeder, shooting… she would tell me the course of fire and record my times). It was good to spend time with her. 🙂

Note to self…

/ hsoi

Note to self…. check to ensure the feeder works before you put 160# of deer corn into it.

*sigh*

Loaded 160# of corn into a feeder that appeared to be working. Finally remembered how to do a test run with them and nothing happened. Could be the electronics were dead enough to not trigger the motor (unlikely, given all other things about the electronics did appear to be working fine). I think the motor is fried. And trying to replace the motor will be a lot of fun with 160# of corn in the hopper.

Oh well. It’s my fault for forgetting to ensure it was working.

On the plus side, lots of hog tracks in the soft ground. Hopefully I can get back out there and repair the feeder in the next week or so, and maybe there’ll still be some activity on the camera. I want to do some hog hunting. 🙂

I’m big, but not the biggest

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

I’m a big guy. I’m 6’3″ tall, a little over 200 lbs. I’m strong. I’m fit.

Many times in public I’m wearing some sort of boots, thus I’m even taller. Given my size and stature, I have a strong presence. I am bigger than most people.

But just because I’m bigger doesn’t mean I’m the biggest.

I’ve been around guys bigger than me. They may be shorter, but they’ll have a neck like a tree trunk with biceps and thighs of according size. Or they may be taller, and be built like a tank.

But they don’t always have to be bigger. I recall doing some physical drills with SouthNarc, and while he’s smaller than me (lighter, shorter), the first thought that went through my head was “Holy crap, this dude is strong!”.

There’s a misconception that just because we’re big guys means we’re somehow more capable, or less vulnerable. Take this Robb Allen post:

“I’m not surprised that David would tackle somebody like that. He’s 6’5″ and he knows how to handle himself.”

Size has little to do with being bulletproof, mind you. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why some people carry guns – to protect themselves from the physically superior. Still, I’m very glad he did what he did. He quite likely prevented more shootings.

Yes, there’s something to being a bigger guy; I didn’t ask to be built like I am, but I’m certainly happy I am. But like Robb says, we’re still not bulletproof. Many times when I’m at a concert (and rock and heavy metal shows tend to cater to a particular sort of crowd), I observe and consider the people around me. Yeah maybe that dude is short, but he’s a bull. Or there’s some dude that walks around and blocks out the sun (and it’s all muscle). There’s always someone that’s going to be bigger and badder than you. We all are at risk of being on the short end of things. It never hurts to have an equalizer, because you just can’t foresee what you’ll be up against.