But only because I’m looking at my blog.
WordPress.com has a cute little feature for blogs where you can turn on “snow” to fall on the blog pages.
It’s fun. Why not? Closest I’ll probably get to seeing falling snow this season. š
Month: December 2010
Winchester ballistic coefficients
When I bought all that reloading equipment off Dock, I got a bunch of components as well: lots of Winchester FMJ bullets. The trouble is, I have been having a dog of a time trying to find information about them for running numbers. You look at the Winchester website and while it lists the products, it doesn’t list information like their ballistic coefficients.
But I think I have found them. Winchester has their own ballistics calculator and it’s pretty neat. I haven’t used it much because the data in the app is purely Winchester products, so it’s not that generally applicable. However, it’s that very product-centric setup that yielded results! I just plugged in their products and this is what it yielded.
Winchester 30 caliber (.308″), 147 grain FMJ BT bullets (WB762147N) have a B.C. of 0.415. 0.421
Winchester 22 caliber (.224″) 55 grain FMJ bullets (WB556MC55) have a B.C. of 0.255. 0.267
So that’s what the app told me, and I can only assume it’s right, tho I may be making a small leap in determining all of this. But it seems about right given other bullets of those same profiles.
Just recording it here for posterity sake.
Updated: James Rummel reposted my search for information. Thanx, James!
The thing is, the best way to get this information is to go straight to the horse’s mouth. When I first did this well, I knew that was the right thing to do, but I just couldn’t find a phone number. After James’ post I figured I should try again.
After more Google work I was able to find the phone number for Winchester Ammunition (800-356-2666). I called, pressed “3” for technical questions, and left a message asking for the data. Ā When/if I receive a callback, I’ll update it here.
Updated 2: When I left a voice mail at Winchester it said I’d get a callback within a business day. I didn’t hear back today so I called again. This time the phone message changed to say they were out for Christmas vacation, back January 3. Well, that explains why I didn’t get the callback. š Ā Cool that they get 2 weeks off. Ā I’ll set a reminder for myself and call back first week of January.
Updated 3: It’s January 3, 2011 and I called Winchester at the above number. I asked for the B.C.’s of those 2 bullets and received them! I updated the above entry with strikthru’s and the proper numbers.
So, the B.C. listed in their little online calculator is for whatever bullet is in their loaded ammunition, which apparently is slightly different from the bullets they sell as components. I guess? Kinda curious how they’re different numbers, but there you go. I would have liked to discussed this further on the phone with the gentleman, but it was their first day back after 2 weeks vacation and they were VERY busy playing catch-up, so I got my information, wished him a Happy New Year, thanked him, and hung up. So, there you go.
Chia Christmas
Never owned a Chia Pet.
These days they seem to get heavily advertised around Christmastime.
Commercial was on TV last night and I thought… why not? Buy one for each of the kiddos. It could be fun.
Of course I know the end result is the cats will eat the plants, then throw up green whatever on the floor soon afterwards… and not just because they were eating from the Obama Chia. š
Maybe I should get the kids a mood ring or a pet rock.
On defensive shotgun and ammo choice
Tom Givens is coming back to KR Training in May 2011 to run a one-day shotgun course. I’ll be there.
I’m still a proponent of a rifle for home defense (e.g. AR-15/M4-gery in .223/5.56), but I’ve warmed up a bit to exploring shotguns in this context. Certainly it’s better than nothing and for some it’s the best or only choice. So it shotgun works best for your situation, fine. But what hurts me to hear is a lot of misinformation that continues to be preached as gospel about how to use a shotgun for home defense.
For instance, ammo selection. That birdshot is good. That you want a big spread of pellets. No and no.
Here’s a simple scenario. Someone breaks into your home and takes a hostage (your spouse, your child, etc.). The bad guy 15 yards away holding your loved one close and in front of them, such that you really only see the bad guy’s head over your loved one’s shoulder. You followed conventional wisdom and have birdshot and an open choke. Are you going to take that shot to save your loved one’s life? I wouldn’t.
Now change the scenario slightly. Instead of a shotgun you have an AR-15 with good ammo (e.g. Hornady TAP .223 Rem or 5.56x45mm NATO 75 grain) and a red dot scope. Now are you going to take that shot? I would.
Birdshot is for birds. It’s made to be enough to hit a small flying object, but not blow that little dove to smithereens. So if it’s that “gentle” on a dove, how tough do you think it’s going to be on some bad guy? Buckshot is… for bucks, deer. They’re roughly man-sized and man-tough. Buckshot works better for this context.
Open chokes also good for birds… at least, low flying ones. You want just the right amount of pattern spread so the “pellet cloud” is wide enough to cover the area where the bird is, but still dense enough to have enough patterns in that area where the bird is. If the birds are going to be further away, you need tighter chokes so the pattern doesn’t spread too much before it gets to where the birds are. Same holds in home defense: you need to control where all those pellets go. If they spread too much before they reach their target, first that means less pellets on target, but it also means where are those other pellets going? they are most likely going to become unacceptable hits.
Furthermore, shotguns by nature cause pellets to spread no matter what ammo you choose or choke you select. Will you be able to properly gauge the spread and distance to take the shot you need to when you need to? Will the pattern be tight enough at 15 yards that you could take that shot? And the further the distance, the more the spread, the less chance you can take the shot. Yes home defense isn’t some 200 yard engagement (typically… those of you in rural areas, maybe), but you may have longer distances to account for than you think.
But let us consider… I’m talking about some contrived situation. What are the chances someone will break into my house and hold my Wife or Kiddos hostage? I don’t know what the chances are, but they aren’t zero.
You don’t get to choose what your situation will be. Luck favors the prepared, so wouldn’t it serve best to be prepared for as wide an array of scenarios as possible? Shotgun is good, but limited. Rifle gives you more options to address a wider set of possible scenarios. I won’t poo-poo the shotgun because it’s just another tool. With any tool you have to think realistically about the tool, know what it can do and what it cannot do. If that tool doesn’t work for your needs or perhaps if there’s a tool that can suit your needs better, don’t be reluctant to seek out better.
Home burglary foiled
Austin man foils a robbery attempt… in his own home.
Andrew King and his wife walked into their northeast Austin home Thursday afternoon to find an intruder standing on their staircase.
Afternoon. Thursday. Most home break-ins happen during the day on weekdays. Why? Because that’s the most likely time when people (and witness neighbors) will not be around.
They walked into their home and discovered the burglary in progress. So, all those “home defense guns” you have? or maybe just a baseball bat, or whatever it is you keep at home? Doesn’t do you much good when you’re walking into your home. But that gun you can keep strapped on your hip? It’s always where you need it when you need it.
They called 911 and it wasn’t picking up. Mrs. King also hit their alarm system call button. Still took the police at least 5 minutes to get there. Lots can happen in 5 minutes. It also demonstrates that the police cannot be there to protect you because they weren’t… they were only coming around to help clean up afterwards. What stopped the burglary was Mr. King getting directly involved.
It’s fortunate Mr. King is a skilled martial artist and was able to utilize those skills to hold the burglar at bay. It’s also fortunate the burglar didn’t have a gun. I applaud Mr. King’s mentality and resolve to fight and defend himself, his wife, and his home. Ultimately it’s that sort of mindset that wins the day.
Sunday Metal – Agony Column
Agony Column. God, Guns, & Guts!
Whatever happened to these guys?
testing testing
Finally hooking up the blog to my Facebook account so posts here link there… or something.
Let’s see if this works.
And instead of the usual “testing, ignore” statement… I’m going to request you lavish mountains of attention and affection upon me. kthxbye.
Another Day, Another Class
Well, classes. Two to be exact.
KR Training held two classes today: Defensive Pistol Skills 1, and Beyond the Basics: Handgun. What was different was the classes were held at the Austin Rifle Club instead of Karl’s A-Zone Range. Reason is simple: Karl doesn’t do live-fire there during deer hunting season so the rural neighbors can hunt without gunfire scaring all the deer out of the area.
Apart from the strong winds all day long, the classes went alright. I’m actually rather exhausted so I’m not all that motivated to type, but I’ll say a few things:
It’s great to see such diversity in students. Young people, old people, various ethnicities, various backgrounds. Guns aren’t just for old white rednecks, no matter what the stereotypes say. What made me especially happy was to see a few women attending these intermediate-level classes. For whatever reason (and I have my hypotheses), you see lots of women in beginner courses but so few in courses beyond that. I think it’s great to see anyone wanting to take their skills to a higher level, but it’s especially wonderful to see women wanting to become truly skilled shooters.
It’s good for people to come to these classes and learn their gear sucks. Any gun is fine when you’re under no pressure, shooting at your leisure, and nothing important is on the line. But if you’re betting on this gun to save your life someday? It’s good to know if it can actually run. It’s good to know what gear is bad, what gear is good. It’s good to learn how crappy those double-action/single-action guns are (I’m looking at you, Sig)… when you have that long, heavy, first trigger pull and how difficult it is to get a good first hit ā especially when the first shot is the most important ā well… it’s just good to learn all of this stuff under the pressure of a safe classroom environment than when it may really matter. I tell people that while we have investment, financially and emotionally, in our gear, just weigh the costs here: if it’s a range toy, whatever; but if this is your life, what’s your life worth? If your gear sucks, abandon it and seek better gear. It may take you a while to shop around, lots of buying and selling, lots of trying, lots of asking questions. Do whatever it takes, because at least for me, while I might have a little emotional attachment to my choice in guns, I have a HUGE emotional attachment to Wife and Kiddos. I want a gun that works right and works best, so I can keep those emotional attachments that matter most.
But the best part? Seeing people improve. At the beginning of BtB:H oh… we had to do some serious reworking of fundamental skills of trigger control and sight alignment ā mostly trigger control. And while yes, everyone needs more practice, there’s no question there was substantial improvement by everyone in the class. I was pleased with what I saw.
Two biggest things to help? 1. Dry fire practice. 2. ball-and-dummy drill.
So, apart from being very wind-blown and weary, it was a good day. Everyone left with the same number of holes they came with. Looks like everyone learned something, and hopefully we’ll see these folks back again at future classes.
What to do… what to do….
This is one of those times where the blog is more for me… where I want to write something to help me think through it, to help me remember what I’m thinking. But if someone wants to comment, great.
I’ve got some things rolling around in my head. Trying to think about what to do.
Guns, specifically reloading
One gun thing that I’m not waffling about… I need to step back on my formal working and step up my informal working. That is, be it teaching classes or taking classes, I have to be selective and moderate here. I’ve been really diving into this because there’s so much I want to do, but it’s consuming too much time and I have to pull back. Because the flip side is, I have to get to the range more regularly. The trouble is going to the range is a massive time sink for me but you know… if the ONLY thing I can do is go to the local indoor range and do “abridged” work (e.g. can’t practice draw from concealment, but I can practice press-outs, I can practice 25 yard groups) well, so be it. Some live fire is better than none, and if my only recourse is the local indoor range well, so be it.
On the reloading front…. as you can see, I’m getting back on the ball with .38 Special. If I keep up with it, even if I slack off a day or two here and there, it should be done by the end of the month. So… rifle time. But, what? .223? 6.8? .308?
I recall when I did rifle last time (which was my first time ever with rifle reloading), I had a dog of a time and it just wasn’t happening. Why? Potentially numerous factors, but too difficult and costly (time and money) to nail down. But my thinking then was to just load cheap 55 grain .223 FMJ’s using well-establish recipes and see how that did. Work out any bugs in technique or gun issues or whatever, then go back to serious loads (e.g. hunting stuff). Since that time I’ve gotten into 6.8 SPC and really want to reload for that… but the main reason there? Because I want to use those Barnes 6.8 SPC 95 grain TTSX’s, which you can’t get in a factory load. The thing is tho, reloading 6.8 is just costly, period. Even trying to do “cheap plinking loads” isn’t cheap. And for whatever reason, a few days ago I got some itch to do .308.
Yes. My present leaning is to do .308 Win. Why? I’m not really sure, but I think it’s because .308 is such a great caliber and well.. it’d be cool to do something beefy. š Ā It’s kinda hard to do .308 wrong… so many people just say “yeah… 45 grains of Varget or 4895 and you’re good to go”. I’ve got a bunch of 147 grain FMJBT’s from Dock, I’ve got powder, I’ve got primers, I’ve got cases, I’ve got dies and shell holders and everything you need. Why not? My thinking? The new range up north has really long yardage. I’ve been toying with the idea of an elk hunt with my Dad. If I want to do that? I probably should be able to ring the gong on demand out to 500 yards. So… working up a .308 plinking load would be in my best interest. And once I can ring the gong like that, then get some Barnes 168 grain TTSX (or maybe 180 grain, if my rifle can handle it) and make a hunting load.
So I don’t know. I may well change my mind again. But I picked up 1000 CCI #200 large rifle primers today, and my present leaning is .308 Win, just cuz. š
Empty Hand Martial Arts
I stopped Kuk Sool practice for 2 main reasons: tired of the political bullshit and greed, tired of the lame-ass training approach. The art is sound, and while it has things I don’t care about (e.g. sword), it’s rather solid in its foundations so long as it’s taught and trained in a practical way.
That’s part of why I went to Kali, Silat, Muay Thai, JKD, boxing: practicalness. I wanted to focus (thus why I didn’t add BJJ to the mix), I wanted more practical, where people did spar and go to town. Where a takedown was performed and you went to the mat because you were put there, not because you said “ok, and now I cooperatively fall to the ground”. The only real reason I stopped this was a practical one: just couldn’t make classes.
So I’ve been out of the formal mix for some months and want to get back to it. I have been thinking about Aikido and even paid a brief visit to a local dojo. Been talking to an old friend about it, reading up. And while there’s something about Aikido that interests me, for some reason I just can’t pull the trigger on it. Yes the philosophical notions are interesting to me to explore, but they conflict with my own philosophy. Furthermore, let’s just be frank ā I like hitting things. š Ā There’s really no striking in Aikido (yes there isĀ atemi, but certainly nothing like say Muay Thai). Plus you have to find the right school, because Aikido spans so much and risks being watered down and too new-agey-touchy-feely; old-school Aikido I could be cool with.
So I found this one school, “Martial Arts Center of Austin“. I know the location and well, while the website doesn’t strictly say, I know that was Brian Duffy‘s place. Brian Duffy’s a legit guy in the world of Ed Parker’s American Kenpo. I even recall my old Kuk Sool teacher, Dewain Perry, telling me how he and guys from Duffy’s school would get together and full-contact spar all the time, only having to stop because they were getting too hurt from going too rough (they liked to “go”). š Thing is, last few times I drove by that place I don’t think I saw Duffy’s name on it. And if you look at this MACA website, they are really devoid of any idea of who is running the place… no instructor names, no instructor bios. But I do see Kenpo on the schedule. The schedule tho… it’s got a ton of stuff, seems an eclectic place. Not 100% sure what to make of it. Then over here, this guy reviews all the Aikido-related places around Austin and spoke highly of MACA. I’m not sure what to make of the place
But the real kicker? Watching the videos of that school rekindled a desire for particular training. Yeah, I kinda like traditional arts, formal but not uptight. In the end, the body only moves in so many ways, and heck, if we want to talk aboutĀ Aikijujitsu lineages then Kuk Sool eventually falls from that tree (look at the Hapkido bridge). So really, what’s the difference? Ā I have had thoughts about rejoining Kuk Sool, because I didn’t get to leave it under the circumstances I wanted to. Especially now that Master Lee has broken off from WKSA gosh… he’s a great guy, worthy of respect because of who he is, not what he is. I know if I joined up that way, there’d be no real political b.s. to have to deal with. But what about training? As much as I love Master Les and know HE can be a pretty hardcore guy, the way he runs his school is very family oriented and NOT hardcore at all.
While out shopping I ran into an old training buddy, Ricky. We got our 1st degree black belts together, and were testing together for 2nd, so we were “classmates”. Of course, I left, but he stayed on because it’s been his dream to have his own school. Well, when Master Lee broke off, he did too, and started his own school. Running into him today was purely by chance, but it was really cool to see him and his wife and talk about things. He extended an open invitation for me to work out at his school any time and I may just take him up on it…. dust off the dobok and see how much I’ve forgotten. š Ā The cool thing? Talking to Ricky about how they train there. They are of similar philosophy to me, which is good. But also slightly different, for Ricky and the old school stable of friends well… they’re all at least 10 years younger and me and with slightly different motivations and goals than I have (e.g. I just can’t do the gymnastics they like doing). Will it mesh? Will it work? I’m not sure. Plus, could I have the long-term growth that I want? The freedom to explore and work “outside the box”? I’m not sure. But that this happened is good as it gives me more options.
So I don’t know. There’s a lot swirling around and perhaps there’s a reason I haven’t been able to pull the trigger on things. That I bumped into Ricky was odd, but perhaps part of the bigger picture. Don’t know, we’ll see.
But I think I might dust off my dobok and see how much I remember. š
HA!
I wonder if future generations of children will play āTSA Agentā instead of āDoctorā.
Stuff From Hsoi 