Month: October 2010

KrimeLabb – city-wide crime data for Austin

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Man…. terrible name, but a nifty service. KrimeLabb, a database of crimes in Austin. You can look up by zipcode, address. See the list of offenses, map them out. It’s pretty cool.

It’s also a good lesson to people who think “it can’t happen to me… not in my neighborhood”. Oh yes… crime is happening all around you.

More classes

/ hsoi

Yesterday I was out at KR Training helping with the Basic Pistol 1 and Beyond The Basics: Handgun classes.

A few observations from the classes:

  • BP1 was probably the most female-heavy class I’ve participated in. 75% of the class was women, and I think that’s fantastic.
  • Most of the BP1 students had never fired a gun in their life, or at most perhaps shot a shotgun or rifle once as a child.
  • It’s great to see so many people so willing and so interested in personal protection. It also shows there are still people out in this world that care to take responsibility for themselves.
  • But yet while I see an increase in women in beginning classes, I don’t see so many in more advanced classes. For instance, in BtB:H there was only 1 female shooter. Not sure why that is. Intimidation factor? that is, feeling those classes are more “gung ho” and “testosterone oriented” in nature? I mean, you just don’t see a lot of women getting involved in Force-on-Force training, likely because perception is it’ll be some sort of UFC-like beatdown. Sure, sometimes it could be that, but typically it’s not… it’s just a lot of role-playing and isn’t all that physical — more mental than anything. Still, here we are. It’s a curious thing to think about and see how we can get more women involved at higher-levels of training.
  • Shooting is always more enjoyable when the weather is awesome. 🙂
  • I’m seeing a lot of XD(m)’s now. One guy had one of the new .45 ACP models. M&P’s are popular too, Glock’s are present. Other things are just waning. One guy shot BtB:H with a Kahr, which I thought was pretty cool. If it’s going to be your go-to gun, you should train with it.
  • Lots of guys were shooting with the XD gear that comes free with the guns. Admittedly, that gear is better than nothing, and fine for such a class. But yes, you have to move beyond that gear, especially if you’re going to carry. Yes, we have a Comp-Tac bias.
  • While BtB:H wasn’t about performing reloads, learning how to reload is an important skill. We teach reloading in other classes, so come on back for that instruction. 🙂
  • A few repeat students were back for BtB:H and they shot well. Testimony to Karl’s instruction, and the student’s hard work.

Really, a good day. Good classes. Good students. Good weather. Can’t get much better.

Wither, the ability to think

/ hsoi

Shopping at Target.

Total comes to $15.66.

Only bills I have are $20’s, but I do have a pocket full of change that I’d like to get rid of. If I can eliminate some change and get 1 $5 back instead of 4 $1’s and more change, I’d like to do that.

I hand the $20 to the young lady working the register and say “Hang on, I think I’ve got the 66¢”, but she already keyed $20.00 into the register and pressed Enter. Drawer pops open but I managed to get her to wait a moment while I counted out change from my pocket.

Alas, I had 2 quarters, 1 penny, and a couple of dimes, but no nickels… so I can’t make 66¢, but I can make 71¢.

“Well, I don’t have 66¢ but I do have 71¢” I tell the girl as I hand her the change.

She stares at me with a vacant look, unsure of what she’s supposed to do.

I sigh.

“I tell her, just give me back a $5 bill and a nickel.”

You can see she’s trying to wake up the hamster that powers her brain, but I can tell even if the hamster woke up it wouldn’t know how to run on the wheel.

“Just give me a 5 and a nickel.”

blank stare.

“A 5 and a nickel”.

She struggles to comprehend… I think it clicked that math is now involved. Math that the computer didn’t do for her, and she apparently cannot do in her head on her own.

“A 5 and a nickel.”

I can tell she gives up on trying to figure it out for herself and reluctantly trusts my math is correct. She proceeds to hand me 5 $1 bills and a nickel and says, “Sir, we’re not allowed to do this.” (implying “OK, I’ll do this just this once, but there’s company policy against us doing things like this.”  i.e. some weak attempt to save face).

Not allowed to do what? Make change?

Do math?

Think?

*sigh*

Glad to be home

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Spent the past few days in California on business.

The best thing about visiting California? Leaving. 😉

Actually, I think California is beautiful. I love driving 17 over the hill… lots of fun. One time my rental car ended up being a Ford Mustang, so the drive was even more fun. This time, my rental was a Chevy HHR, so the drive was not as much fun.

Speaking of the HHR…. well, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. So, I’ll be silent on this issue.

Was a good trip. Got much done. Exciting things ahead.

But now, back home, and back to a normal life…. tho I can tell, it’s been anything but normal here in Austin while I was away.

Back to .38

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Now that I’m done (for now) loading 9mm, I’m switching to reload .38 Special.

The caliber conversion on the Lock N Load press went pretty smoothly, thanx to the bushing system. I had loaded .38 previously on the press, so all of the dies were already sized and set in their bushings, so just remove the 9 dies, insert the .38 dies. Done!

Well, not quite.

That did take care of the resize/decapping die, bullet seater, and then crimping die. The powder cop die? I don’t have a second one so I had to readjust that, but that’s trivial to do once you have your powder set up. And that’s where things took a bit of work. While resetting the powder drop itself wasn’t too hard, it’s just all the tedium of getting it to drop just the right amount (3.5 grains of Titegroup). And it’s not even the adjusting of the drop, it’s using the beam scale.

Yes, for Christmas I’d like a digital scale, please. One that plugs into the wall, no batteries.

Apart from that, the caliber conversion went smoothly, and I started loading .38. Gosh, it feels so different under my fingers. Going from those short stubby 9mm cases to long .38 cases. From the small 115 grain bullets to larger 158 grain bullets (and these Berry’s 158 grain DS RN are seating and working just fine). The feel is so different, the rhythm is different. Even the sound the rounds make when dumping out of the press into the bucket is different.

But it also feels neat to be done with 9 and onto something else. 🙂

I’ll keep loading .38 until the Titegroup is gone. Then, rifle. I’m really looking forward to that endeavor.