Month: June 2012

First veggies, now beef

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

For over a year now we’ve been a member of Johnson’s Backyard Garden, getting our weekly CSA boxes of locally grown veggies. It appealed to us for numerous reasons: locally grown, seasonal, variety of diet, fresher and better tasting, more nutritious, less time at the grocery store, less processing and preservatives, closer to how it came from the Earth, and many other reasons. But one of the biggest was being able to know where your food came from.

So much of the problem with modern food is we don’t know where it came from, and then we’re shocked when we find out what’s really behind it. Consider the meat you eat. On second thought, maybe you shouldn’t because you’d probably be appalled and swear off meat.

For the past couple years we have bought sides of beef from our local butcher. We knew where the meat was coming from, and we could get it processed just like we wanted it. Aged as we wanted it, cut as thick as we wanted, whatever. Yes, once you try it this way you really don’t want to go back to buying cuts as needed at the grocery store. Alas, I found out our butcher doesn’t do sides any more. Lamenting my loss, schnookiemuffin told me about her friends at Sand Creek Farm. After a little discussion, a calf was bought (and a lamb too), and away we went.

I just returned from picking it up.

The freezer is full.

Ben and Alysha Godfrey, the farmers, run a neat operation. Consider how they run their operation. They care and manage everything from the ground up, literally. That sort of care and concern goes a long way. Plus there’s a great deal they do to strive for and maintain high standards of quality. I’m most impressed. Plus they’re some of the nicest folks I’ve met. It’s a shame we couldn’t stay longer, but we had to get our meat and hustle back home to tend to prior engagements. But we will be back!

Anyways, I’ll write more about the meat… and the milk…. because I’ve already tried some, and, it’s an experience.

It’s nice to know where your food came from, and to know you’re feeding your body and the bodies of your family with truly good food.

M&P Shield, and capacity

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

The first thing about the Shield is capacity.

Maybe it’s because I came about in the age of the Tupperware Wonder Nine (i.e. Glock, etc.), with double-stacked magazines and manufacturers constantly one-upping each other in the capacity race well… I guess I like having ammo. But it’s more than simple “more”. Do some math. When you start to look at crime and gunfight statistics, you bode well to have more ammo. For example, Tom Givens‘ student incidents have ranged from 1 to 11 shots fired, average of 3.4 (if memory serves). So sure, the average can be handled with a 5-shot snub revolver, but what if you’re that guy that needed 11 rounds? Or what if you get to be the trendsetter and need 12 or more? If you think having more ammo is a bad thing, then why don’t you choose to go around with just 1 round? Capacity is good. The whole “better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it”. Be prepared. You can’t go get more ammo in the middle of a fight. And so on.

And so, going from my 17+1 full-sized M&P down to a 7+1 Shield… I feel naked, I feel like I’m taking a chance, gambling, playing odds that I don’t know if I want to play. Rational or not, it’s the feeling I get. OK, I could use the “extended” magazine and get 8+1, but honestly, if you use the extended magazine and carry IWB, then you’re almost the same size as the full-sized so you might as well carry the full-sized. Or at least, that’s how things fall on my body. It’s not exactly the dimensions of the full-sized, in terms of what “sticks out” from my hip, but it is close enough for me that it just about negates the benefit. But that 7 round “flush” magazine and the gun disappears into my side.

Here’s the thing.

You can’t really load these magazines to capacity.

Oh sure you can, but then try seating the magazine. It’s hard, because there’s a lot of backpressure on the magazine spring. To make it worse, put one in the chamber, reload the magazine to capacity, and NOW try to seat the magazine (so you get your 7-8 + 1 capacity). It’s near impossible to seat the mag. I have to clamp down really hard in a non-standard way to get the magazine to seat, and I’ve almost had a finger slip into/onto the trigger a couple of times when doing this just because it’s such a struggle (and I’m not a weak guy). I then worry about the backpressure and spring tension and if I could expect the magazine catch to fail and the mag come flying out of the gun at a most inopportune moment.

But more than that? I worry about potentially needing to perform a reload under pressure, and if it’s THAT hard to seat the magazine, that I won’t get it seated under pressure because you really have to push (struggle?) HARD to get it there. Some might say to give it a hard slap, but that won’t even do it; furthermore, that’s complicated by the fact you may not get a flat hit on the magazine basepad because of the gun’s short grip and that your palm will likely be in the way.

The only remedy I can see? download the magazine by one. This is a standard operating procedure for magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds (e.g. I load my M&P9 mags to 16), but generally sub-10-round mags you should be able to load all the way up.

Nope. Just not so here.

So really, the Shield effectively becomes a 6+1 and 7+1.

Still better than a pointed stick.

But some might argue that it’s not much better than a snub revolver. Well, I would say it is. It’s still a bit more ammo. It’s got better sights. The trigger is going to be shorter and lighter, easier for those small/weak hand people (I’ve seen people who can’t work a snub trigger, even my improved snubs with their Verne Trester action work). But of course, YMMV.

So keep this in mind if you opt to use the Shield for carry. Sure you CAN load the magazines all the way up to the manufacturer’s stated capacity, but SHOULD you? I say no, because it’s hard to seat the magazines when they’re full. Download them by one, and just accept that’s how it goes.

2012-06-01 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 10, Deadlift/Press 1

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Does almost throwing up measure a good workout? 🙂

“Week 1”

  • 5 reps – Deadlift (working max: 325#)
    • 1x5x135 (warmup)
    • 1x5x165
    • 1x3x195
    • 1x5x215 (work)
    • 1x5x245
    • 1x8x280
  • 5 Reps – Press (working max: 145#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x60
    • 1x5x75
    • 1x3x90
    • 1x5x95 (work)
    • 1x5x110
    • 1x8x125
  • Asst. #1 – DB Rows (superset with Press warmup sets)
    • 3 x 10 x 70
  • Asst. #2 – Hanging Leg Raises
    • 3 x 10/7/5 x BW
  • Asst. #3 – Dips (superset with Leg Raises)
    • 3 x 4/3/3 x BW
  • Asst. #4 – DB Hammer Curls
    • 3 x 8/8/6 x 35
  • Foam Rolling

You know… I can still wonder if I’m getting enough volume, but I don’t need to wonder if I’m getting enough intensity. Yes, I felt pretty nauseous by the end of the workout. I attribute it to pushing hard, not just during the sets themselves, but also in between. There wasn’t much rest between sets, nor between exercises. So weights may not have gone up, but less rest and more push-push-push and sure enough the intensity of the overall workout was up.

I really do have to push things if I want to get done in time. So, all good I suppose. But the long-term will really decide how good and fruitful this approach is for me.

I am happy to have pushed a little further than last deadlift (my cycle 9-2 false start). And while my Press did the same as the prior Press, it felt easier.

I’m not thrilled that I only got a few dips per set, but I am making them full range (upper arms go parallel) plus I did them right after the pressing with maybe 45 seconds of rest? So I’ll cut myself some slack. I also wonder if it was just not being used to things, because by set 3 I actually felt like I could have done more, but I’m sore enough and will be sore enough. Ease into it… I’m not a young buck any more.

But I think I might like this 2 days a week thing.

Carrying the Shield

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

So I bought that S&W M&P Shield, but I haven’t carried it much. Oh sure, I wore it a bit in the beginning to get some initial impressions, but after that and a few range trips it’s mostly sat. I guess the novelty wore off. 😉

Truth be told, I bought the Shield for 2 reasons. First, I bought it for teaching. At KR Training we see a lot of students with small and/or weak hands, and I wondered if this might help those people. So far, it’s panning out well in the area, and I’m pleased. I’ll continue to bring it to classes like our Basic Pistol 1 & 2 to let people shoot and use as a loaner, if they fall into that “small and/or weak hands” niche. Second, I bought it because I thought I might have personal need, but so far that need hasn’t panned out.

The thing is, if you’ve got a choice, why choose the lesser? The Shield (in 9mm) has 7 round and 8 round magazines… so at best you get 8+1, whereas a full-sized M&P gets me (in theory) 17+1. Why would I choose 8 if I could have more than twice that? Of course, context and situation dictates, but like I said, if you CAN choose the greater, why wouldn’t you? And so, I’ve been carrying my full-sized M&P because I can.

That said, I think in the interest of science I’d do well, especially as a service to students, to carry it a bit more and see how it pans out. Or the real way to read this? I bought a holster and mag pouch from Comp-Tac and they’ve been sitting on my desk untouched for a month, so I need to finally do something with them. 😉

Of course, I’ll write about how things go. Stay tuned.