Month: June 2011

A new toy for Hsoi

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

100 years ago, a child of John Moses Browning was formally adopted by the US Army. Given the centennial celebration, I figured it was time I filled a hole in my collection.

I bought my first 1911 — an STI Spartan.

It was an early birthday present for myself. And yes, you may be surprised to discover that it’s my first 1911, and my first gun in .45 ACP. Honestly, while I respect the 1911 design and find there to be many wonderful things about it (like the trigger setup), well… I’m a child of a more modern time and like my plastic guns just fine. The fact the 1911 design is still going strong today is a testimony to its design that you just can’t duplicate, but there’s no question that like all implements and technology, things evolve, things grow, designs improve. So I’ve really never had an interest to get a 1911 as a “working gun” but I have wanted one because it’s worth having at least 1 in the collection. Plus, as a firearms instructor it’s useful to have one for demonstration, for student use, and so on. So, not a bad thing to have purchased.

Why an STI Spartan? Because STI makes top-notch guns. Yes, the Spartan isn’t 100% in-house STI (I believe the frame is made in the Philippines), but everything else is done by STI and they stand behind it. STI is just up the road from me too, so it’s nice to support the locals. As well, for a first 1911 well… there’s a gazillion options out there and I won’t know just what I really want until I have something to play with. So, get something good but inexpensive and go from there. Thus, the Spartan.

In picking it up, blog reader, KRT student, and friend, Tim went with me. We picked up the gun then headed over to the new Best of the West Shooting Range.  First time for both of us to go there. It was expensive ($32 for both of us, but we got a huge action bay to ourselves). But it’s a really big facility and I can see they’re trying to make a good setup. I wish good things for them because it has a lot of potential to be a good facility. We went in, paid, and set up on our bay. Fun side note… someone a few bays down from us was blowing through a few thousand rounds in a fully-automatic something. The constant sound of full-auto gunfire was awesome. 🙂

My goal wasn’t necessary to do any sort of real training or practice, just blow a couple hundred rounds through the gun to see how it functions and start to break it in. The rear sight is adjustable for elevation and windage, so we took a few moments to get it dialed in. We tried just blazing away to see how that felt. We tried some precision stuff, one-handed, ran the F.A.S.T. drill, and just had some fun with it. Tim usually shoots a Glock and I shoot an XD, so shooting the 1911 was… different. Tim has a Kimber but he doesn’t shoot it that much, but it was nice to have another 1911 for comparison.

Here’s my impressions:

  • Handling the recoil is fine, but it sure makes accurate shooting a lot slower than shooting my 9. Tim and I both were having an interesting time… like on the F.A.S.T. drill with the 4 shots to the circle, we’d nail the first shot, drop the second, nail the third, drop the fourth. Not 100% sure why, but we were both doing it. Maybe a “good enough” sight picture needs to be “gooder” because there was a lot of front sight bouncing around just due to more recoil and well, I’m not sure just how much grip tension I need to properly manage the recoil so it comes right back to the same spot from before the shot.
  • There’s no front-strap checkering on the Spartan. Not a deal breaker, but shooting Tim’s Kimber with front strap checkering felt nicer.
  • I want a magwell. Not a big IPSC Open gun magwell, but just a little something more because there just isn’t much of one on the Spartan and trying to reload at speed is very easy to flub up.
  • I’m not sure about an ambi thumb safety. I guess I need to spend more time getting used to a thumb safety in the first place. 🙂
  • The Spartan frame is a little… rough. I was noticing after about 150 rounds that the webbing of my thumb was hurting. I thought maybe just the big beavertail, all that recoil force, and it was just pounding my hand in a way I wasn’t used to. But upon further inspection, the back edges of the grip and frame up around in that area are just not as smoothed and rounded as they could be. It’s not sharp, just not really smooth flowing. We compared it to Tim’s Kimber and that was much less of an angle, flowed better into the hand. So, after enough time, there’s some bite and after 200 rounds I had enough.
  • The factory sights are good. The front sight post is a little thick and I’d like either for it to be thinner or the rear sight’s notch to be wider. There is some air-space in the notch when properly lined up, but not as much as I’d like. Still not bad for what they are. I do like that you get fiber front and flat black “target” rear.
  • Field striping was a pain. The barrel bushing was in there TIGHT and it took some work to get it in and out. In fact, we noticed that the gun felt a little tighter overall than the Kimber.
  • The trigger is the typical short-travel 1911 trigger, but it broke kinda heavy. I recall doing some group shooting and working a slow smooth trigger press and thinking “GEEZ, break already!!”  I’m not sure if it’s just heavy in general or just needs to be broken in. I will try a pull weight gauge if I can get my hands on one because I am curious what the pull weight is.
  • 10 round Chip McCormick power mags are nice. 🙂
  • Monarch ammo at Academy is about the cheapest .45 ACP ammo I can find anywhere, even online (when you factor in shipping). Yes, collected all the brass from today so I can eventually reload .45.

All in all, I like the gun. I can already see things I’d want to change and look for in my second 1911. 🙂

I’m still not 100% sure if I’ll do anything more with this gun, like would I want to trick it out just enough to do “single stack” USPSA shooting? We’ll see. For now, if I can just get to the range more often to shoot, I’ll be happy.

BTW Tim, you are a much better shot than you give yourself credit for. 🙂

2011-06-24 workout

/ hsoi

Here’s today’s workout.

Squats

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x70
  • 1x3x110
  • 1x2x145
  • 3x5x185 (work)

The bar speed was slow today. I’m not 100% sure what to attribute it to. My sleep has been horrible since the prior workout so I’m thinking I may not have recovered well enough. As well, I was at the gym almost an hour earlier than usual, and I did get a fair sleep last night. I had to go early because I have something time-sensitive to do today… could my body have not been fully awake and firing on all cylinders yet? Don’t know. But the weekend is here, so that’s an ‘extra’ day of rest, plus I plan on eating a shit-ton of protein over the weekend (took a couple of steaks out of the freezer this morning).

One thing that I focused on, beyond just hip drive, was overall form. I was flipping through the “Mean Old Mr. Gravity” book and there was something in there that resonated with me and reminded me about keeping my chest up. That helped.

Really tho, while things are getting heavier, I’m meeting every challenge and setting a new PR every day. Tis awesome.

Bench Press

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x65
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x2x120
  • 3x5x135

OK. A little male ego happiness here, to be doing my bench pressed with the 45# plates. 🙂  First time the bar went down, my peripheral vision caught the plates moving up and down and threw me off a bit — it’s a different visual landscape than the much-smaller 25# plates. But this feels cool. It’s just weight, but when you’ve spent most of your life only moving little weight around, it just feels nice to break through that barrier.

I felt very powerful on these, comparing to how I felt on the squats. Not sure why. Was there a bit of adrenaline happiness from using the big plates? Maybe my body and mind was woken up a bit better? Maybe I’m just not closing in on my limit like I am with squats? I don’t know. But whatever… things felt good and powerful here.

Earlier this week I started watching Dave Tate of EliteFTS “So You Think You Can Bench” series of videos. I worked on putting my weight on my traps, which really does require a “from the ground, up” working of your whole body. I don’t think I kept it there and didn’t keep my legs tight and so on, but it’s a first time and I’ll get there.

Pull-ups

  • 1x10xbodyweight
  • 1x8xbodyweight
  • 1x7xbodyweight

I only rest about 2 minutes between each set of these, and so long as I continue to improve, that’s fine, even if it’s only 1 total rep per workout. I admit that I’m considering switching up and just doing something like 5 sets of 1-3 reps of real pull-ups (instead of these inverted row things) and seeing how well that does for me… but no, I need to stick with how I want to get to 3×15 first.

Commentary

I didn’t feel so hot this workout. Sure, I had some good moments and there’s a lot of good things I can take… like even during the squat, there’s a lot of little things that I just can’t relay here but that are filed away in my head about movement and being explosive, driving, form, etc.. So, I do feel there’s constant improvement, so I’ll take it. Just need to rest up this weekend and hit the gym hard this Monday.

 

Got an air gun

/ hsoi

I was looking for an air gun.

After much helpful input (hooray Internet!) I ended up buying one: a Crosman American Classic Pump Pistol (1377C).

After much hum-hawing it was pretty simple: I had a particular role to fill, and this should fill it and didn’t cost me a lot of money. Plus, it seems there’s quite a healthy aftermarket for this particular air gun.

I took it to KR Training one morning and before classes spent a little time zeroing it in and also running it over a chronograph. Zeroing was frustrating because I discovered the front sight is bent slightly to the right. Ugh. Not a deal breaker and I wasn’t in the mood to fix it, but so long as you’re focusing on the tops of the sights you’ll get there… it just throws you off a bit since the post and the “airspace” within the rear notch won’t line up correctly. But, what do you expect for $50. I’m not sure I’ll bother fixing it, it’s certainly a least priority.

Running it over the chronograph of course depends on how much you pump it. Crosman says minimum 3 pumps to maximum 10 pumps. When I ran 3 pumps I got about 350 FPS out of it. When I ran 10 pumps, I got about 500 (if I remember correctly, this was done a couple of weeks ago). I ran about 5 shots at each and those were the rough averages. It’s advertised with velocities up to 600 FPS, so I assume you need some particular ammo and their marketing department’s range conditions to get that speed. 🙂  I don’t remember exactly what ammo I used, but I think it was a Gamo hunter pellet.

Accuracy was good enough. I am to understand pellet guns can be ammo sensitive, so it’s usually best to try every one you can until you find the one your gun likes then stick with it. I don’t have time to do that right now, but what I shot turned out decent given the sight problems.

I was sighting this in on the “small range” at KRT, which has steel targets. I shoot a few steel targets with the pistol and got a chuckle out of the tiny “ping” they made… almost couldn’t hear it. 🙂

All in all that seems fair enough for my needs. Fun little thing to shoot, the kids can operate it (tho it’s a little bit of work to pump it). Should fit the bill nicely… just remember to keep your thumb out of the way when pumping so you don’t pinch the pad skin and bleed everywhere. 🙂

You’re doing it wrong — what can we learn.

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

He meant well, but he’s doing it wrong:

[Ashley] Viola was driving his car on Third Avenue and witnessed a 57-year-old San Mateo woman being assaulted near San Mateo Drive and asked her if she was OK, police said.

She indicated she was OK and then told Viola that the assailant was running down the street, police said.

The Good Samaritan then allegedly caught up to the man, parked his car and confronted the assailant with a firearm.

A witness recounts:

Kiera McKernan, a manager at Edmond’s Plaza Florist at that intersection, said a customer came in screaming for her to call 911. She looked across the street and saw the confrontation happening in front of the U.S. Bank.

“An older gentleman was standing out there and a younger kid pulled a gun on him and was pointing it at him,” she said.

The older man was trying to hide behind a newspaper rack and the gunman was circling the rack trying to get to him, holding a silver gun, McKernan said.

“He was waving it and making it really known that he had a gun,” she said.

From the sounds of it, Mr. Viola was using the gun to detain or threaten or harass or “make a point” or apprehend or “teach a lesson to” or something to the woman’s attacker. It’s hard to say what he was doing, but from the sounds of it his own life was not in imminent danger thus he had no reason to draw his gun. Again, I’m armchairing this because I can only go based upon what the article says.

The key take home: it’s good to help people out. You might even decide on the “beer and tv scale” that to put up chase is worthwhile. Perhaps you can keep tabs on the attacker, get a description, get a picture. Heck, even if you are able to safely subdue and detain the attacker… that’s all up to you. But unless your life or the life of another (based upon your local laws) is in imminent danger, there’s no reason to pull the gun. And in fact, you can see that it might get you in bigger trouble.

Think through these things in your head beforehand. Be clear. Have your plan on how to handle situations figure out ahead of time. Know when it’s right and not right to draw your gun, to use force, to use deadly force. To have more than the one hammer in your toolbox so that every problem doesn’t look like a nail.

Reminder – stay aware

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Some events happened yesterday that serve as a reminder to everyone to stay alert and aware.

I went to bed early last night, but around 10 PM or so, I woke to the sound of Sasha barking. And barking. And barking.

Wife went to investigate. There was a lot of noise coming from outside. Looks like it was just teenagers up late and enjoying the brief respite of cool weather. All their noise-making and running around put Sasha on alert. Good dog. We went back to bed.

A short while later, Sasha woke us up again. I went to go look, but only saw my neighbor out with her dog and then some kid whiz by on his bike. I did think it was odd to see my neighbor up and out so late at night, but her Facebook status gave some reason why she was up late so I figured it was just more noise that was causing Sasha to stir. Eventually I got her calmed down enough and she finally sacked out for the night.

Unfortunately, I was wide awake. So I headed to my office to start working. I check email and lo… an email from my neighbor. She said she was just taking the dog out one last time before she went to bed and noticed some people she didn’t recognize hanging out a little too close a another neighbor’s garage, and eventually they slinked off. It was too dark to get a good description. That house is further away from me so I’m not surprised I didn’t notice anything when I scanned the neighborhood. It bothered my neighbor enough that she called Austin Police Department to have someone come through and check on things. Good move.

But a couple other things have happened recently that has moved us… well… we’re not in code orange, still code yellow but let’s say it’s a stronger yellow.

From what I can gather, it’s likely bored teenagers going crazy from the heat. Nevertheless, even simple petty thefts are a pain to deal with.

If you haven’t, go back and read my prior post about a Personal Security Checklist. A lot of good things to keep in mind. To that, I’ll add a few things:

  • Don’t leave things in your car. Most car break-ins are looking for things that can be quickly and easily consumed (e.g. cigarettes, food), or things that can be quickly and easily sold (e.g. CD’s, electronics), and of course, money… even those few quarters in the console could be tempting enough. Don’t give them a reason to break in to your car.
  • Lock things. Lock the doors to your car. Lock the doors to your house. Lock the windows on your house. Keep doors and windows closed. When working in the yard, close your garage door unless you’re immediately involved with it (e.g. mowing the front yard, could be OK to keep it open… mowing the back yard, close the garage door). Many such crimes are simple crimes of opportunity. If they try the door and it’s unlocked, why not just open up, reach inside, swipe, and take off? Or if the garage door is open, just step in, grab a handful of tools, and off they go.
  • If you have lights on the exterior of your home, use them. Cockroaches don’t like light.
  • If the doggie starts barking, pay attention. Yeah it might just be a racoon in the yard, but it might not.
  • If you have an alarm system, use it.

The bottom line is that you cannot prevent all crime, but you can do what you can to make yourself less appealing. Nothing obvious nor easy to steal? Lights on? Everything locked? Alarm system? hrm… not as easy a target as that other house over there, in the dark with the open windows on the ground floor behind the shrubs.

2011-06-22 workout

/ hsoi

Squats

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x70
  • 1x3x105
  • 1x2x140
  • 3x5x175 (work)

The work set felt heavy. I say that each time, but this felt a lot heavier than usual. I’m not sure why. Could it simply be that weight is increasing? Or that it’s increasing and getting closer to the threshold my body is presently able to handle? Maybe lack of sleep, since my sleep has been a bit crappy lately — made worse last night by the thunderstorms, which were so welcome but after they woke me up I couldn’t get back to sleep because I was just enjoying the sound of the rain too much. 🙂 So I don’t know, but no real worries.

In fact, it was kinda nice to feel that heavy, because it really emphasized the need for the hip drive. Good thing!

Press

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x45
  • 1x3x55
  • 1x2x65
  • 3x5x80 (work)

All I have to say here is, the shrug at the top of the press is vital in keeping the bar balanced. 🙂 No, I didn’t drop it, but yes there was a little sway if I wasn’t shrugged/tight, and no problems if I was shrugged/tight.

Deadlift

  • 2x5x95 (warmup)
  • 1x3x95
  • 1x2x140
  • 1x5x165 (work)

I’d be lying if my brain and its love of statistics and numbers wasn’t a little bothered that my squat is outpacing my deadlift (generally speaking, deadlift weight should be greater than squat). But I look at it this way: deadlift is done once a week, squat three times. Squat is going up 10# each workout, deadlift 15#. So when you do the numbers game, of course deadlift is eventually going to lag, given where they both started. But I have to remind myself to not care about that, because it will even out and settle in. The 10# increments on squats probably won’t last through the end of the month, but I betcha deadlifts will keep up 15# increments; plus when I drop down I’ll drop to 5# increments on squats and 10# on deadlifts, so the gap will narrow. I am not focusing on it nor am obsessed with it, but hey… it’s there and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care. 🙂

That all said, these felt really good. I was able to watch the Staring Strength DVD again and am really minding my form, especially with regards to back and chest. As far as I can tell, the bar is being pulled straight up… lowering is a little off still, but improving.

Commentary

The workouts are starting to feel heavier. As I mentioned above, not sure if it’s simply a matter of yes the weights are increasing or the lack of sleep. But by the same token, I’m getting used to things. My body and neuromuscular system is getting used to the idea of lifting heavy stuff. It’s cool. I’m liking the results, both in terms of pure strength increases and also the evident muscular hypertrophy.

I really like this program. I like that there’s daily records and mini goal milestones being met each day. But I also like seeing the long haul, that it’s a program with vision and ultimately a goal of long-term results. Looking forward to seeing where I stand at the end of next week!

This is what denial can foster

/ hsoi

Last night I saw this tweet made by the City of Austin about a male suspect groping females in the area of the University of Texas.

 

A male subject has been groping females in the University of Texas area.

A White or Hispanic male suspect, typically on a bike has approached female victims in the West Campus area. The suspect rides by, parks his bike and then gropes or attempts to lift the skirts or dresses of the victims as they walk past him. In recent cases the suspect has been on foot when approaching victims and no bicycle has been seen.

The suspect is described as:

White or Hispanic male

5’7″ to 6′ tall

Thin build

The suspect sometimes wears a black shirt, black biker shorts, and a black and white bike helmet.

He has occasionally been seen riding a mountain bike.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Austin Police Department Sex Crimes Unit at 512-974-5230 or the Sex Crimes Unit Tip line at 512-974-5095 or Crime Stoppers at 512-472-8477.

Date: 3:52:34 PM 06/21/2011 EDT

 

 

If you have information, please submit it.

As well, submit this to every person, be they in the Texas legislature, or just a private citizen, that thinks crime cannot happen on college campuses. That thinks there’s wisdom is denying the citizenry the ability to protect themselves by their preferred means. That somehow keeping guns off college campuses means people are safer.

Oh but you say, this guy is just lifting a skirt or grabbing a boob… what’s the big deal? Is that really worth shooting someone over? Well, why don’t you ask the women he’s victimized? How about asking my wife, who was sexually assaulted… sure, it was just a boob grab, but her attacker escalated and not too soon after his assault on my wife, he went on to rape a woman.

Tell me you want to deny women the ability to defend themselves.

 

The afternoon, so far…

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Allow me to recap.

First, I found a dead snake on my car’s rear view mirror. I have no idea how it got there but either 1. someone thought it’d be an interesting prank, 2. some prey bird was flying and dropped it, 3. some other third thing. I can’t rule out #1, but #2 seems more likely. The snake seemed “freshly dead”, and so we removed it and put it back in the greenbelt to either feed some other critter or the soil. Either way, there’s nothing that gives you a bit of a startle like seeing a snake draped across your rear view mirror… not a typical place for them.

Second, went to The Apple Store to buy Daughter her iPod Touch. She has been working hard and saving her money for it for geez… many moons, so many I’ve lost count. She finally got enough money and has been hounding me to take her, so I had a couple of hours and did so. She actually didn’t have quite enough once we factored in AppleCare and a case, but I was planning to pay for those anyways (she actually did account for tax). What makes me proud is her ethic. She worked hard, she took on babysitting jobs, she didn’t give into temptation to buy other things just to satisfy that urge to “get something”. She made her goal, she stayed focused on it, and she made it happen. It was a long term goal, and to a kid, many many months of work and waiting is an eternity… I know it was really hard for her to do this, but damn if I’m not proud of her. This is the sort of ethic that will carry her far in life.

Of course now, I don’t expect to ever see her out of her room. She’s got a couple of friends and family members that also have iPod Touches… and I know there will be FaceTime sessions. 🙂

Third, I have put Oldest in charge of the TV researching. I think that will be good for him. Some research work, having to learn about the technology, having to present it all to me, and the pressure that if we get a crappy TV it’s all on him. 😉  I think it’ll be a good project for him, something to grow on, something to expand his horizons in a few ways, and it helps the family out. We’ll see what happens, and hopefully he’ll follow through.

Fourth, there is no fourth thing… yet.

Purchases

/ hsoi / 29 Comments

Looks like our tube TV is dying and so finally it’ll be time to jump into the world of flat-screens. I pretty much ignored everything in that world because if I wasn’t buying, why pay attention? it would only change faster than I could keep up (and sure enough it has). Of course, it’s still a confusing array of stuff.

Coincidentally, Unc is also looking so I can just take some of the advice given to him. A friend pointed me to a couple of sites: http://www.consumersearch.com/lcd-tv and http://reviews.cnet.com/best-hdtvs/. Happened to go to Costco yesterday for some groceries and detoured through the TV section. I think one of the 40-ish inch models will suffice for our setup. Prices aren’t too horrendous.

Anyone have anything to add? We have Time-Warner Cable and already have one of their HD cable boxes. I don’t have any sort of stereo home theater system, nor do I really want to buy one at this time… just use what the TV provides, and perhaps down the line we can fill in the gaps. We do hook up the Wii and the old PS2, and I’m sure any future consoles will get hooked up there too. Don’t need any built-in stuff like Internet or Wi-Fi or other “gimmicks” like that, that I can tell. The room is fairly well-lit, between sunlight and lamps.

And what else might we need to buy in addition to the TV itself? brackets? stands? cables?

In non-electronic news….

I’m also looking at buying my first 1911 as a birthday present to myself. I honestly have no real desire for a 1911, being quite happy with my plastic guns. But, a 1911 is one of those guns that you just need to have in your collection. Plus, being the 100 year anniversary, I figure this makes a nice time to buy. I’m going to get an STI Spartan because it’s about the best value for the money. STI’s are solid, and it’s a good price and package for a first 1911. I’ll have pics and a “break-in” range report once I get it.