Month: August 2012

2012-08-06 dry fire practice

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 4, Day 1, basic routine

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  2. 5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
  4. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  5. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
  6. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO

I try to dry practice in the morning but that didn’t happen today.

I really like the emphasis TLG’s routine puts on one of the most core skills: the press out. This basic routine and the skills within are so fundamental, and the heavy emphasis on it is starting to pay off.

While practicing tonight something hit me. I do struggle with trigger slap as I go faster. I try to do things like lighten my trigger press, but it just doesn’t work. In order to overcome the trigger break, the trigger weight, and with speed, there’s just gotta be a particular amount of force applied. I mean, if F = ma, there’s just gotta be a particular amount of force, and if I go faster it’s going to apply more force… the trigger and my finger and everything is just going to hit the end of the trigger’s range of motion with a particular (or increasing) amount of force. And so, the front sight dips.

For some reason this evening I was very aware of my right hand’s grip pressure — the way the ring and pinky (and to some extent the middle) fingers were applying pressure to the frontstrap, such that I felt this particular pressure in the palm heel of my right hand. It wasn’t so much that I felt a crushing grip, or that I felt my palm heel pushing forward. I mean, technically it was a very strong crush grip all around, but mentally there was some emphasis of the feel of those fingers pressing back. And that seemed to make all the difference in the world. Even doing 1H shooting and WHO especially… that sort of grip and mental emphasis made a big difference in things remaining steady.

I’m going to keep focusing on this and see where it leads me.

2012-08-06 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, Cycle 12, Squat/Bench Press 3

/ hsoi

Not quite the PR’s I wanted, but PR’s nonetheless.

“Week 3”

  • 5/3/1 – Squat (working max: 280#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x5x140
    • 1x3x170
    • 1x5x215 (work)
    • 1x3x240
    • 1x3x270 (PR-tie)
  • 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max: 225#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x135
    • 1x5x170 (work)
    • 1x3x195
    • 1x6x215 (PR)
  • Asst. #1 – Shoulder-width pronated grip, lat pulldowns
    • 3 x 10 x 130
  • Asst. #2 – Back Raises (hands behind head)
    • 3 x 15 x BW
  • Asst. #3 – DB Bench Press
    • 3 x 10 x 120
  • Asst. #4 – Face Pulls
    • 3 x 12 x 70
  • Foam Rolling

On squat, I was hoping for 4 to set a true PR, but only got 3. Rep 3 was bowling-shoe ugly so there was no point in going for 4. Prior to this, my best ever on squat was 270 for 3, so I at least tied it. But frankly, I think this is a better one. First, it’s a clear-cut improvement over cycle 11 (260 for 3 reps). Second, my form is a lot better than it was some months ago. I’m certainly going below parallel… from time to time other guys in the gym watch me and comment on my depth. I’ve been making a bigger effort at going deeper, chest up, neck into the bar, etc., and so with better form and using technique to get the bar up instead of muscling it all up there…. well, I figure this technically ties my all-time PR but I know it’s better than the last time I hit this weight.

Bench was a rep PR. I’ve done more absolute weight (220 for 3), but last time I did 215 was for 3 reps. So I’ll take this, be happy, and be excited about next cycle.

Thinking towards the future, and I’ll only mention it briefly now, I am likely to change my routine in the coming months. I want to get my bench press working weight to 225, and that’s 2 cycles (6 weeks) away. That should also take the top working weight of press to 160, deadlift to 350, and squat to 290. Yeah, part of me kinda wants to keep going to get my squat to 315 (which will be one hell of an accomplishment given how much I don’t like squatting), but I need to change gears on my goals: I need to shed some fat. I want to see if I have the discipline enough to drop about 20# in 3 months. That is certainly do-able, if I’m smart and dedicated. I’m not 100% sure what my program will be, tho I know it’ll primarily be about diet. My present thinking keeps 5/3/1 as my core, dropping my last set back to prescribed reps (tho on 5/3/1 week I’ll do a triple), accepting that strength may plateau (but I’m OK with that; I can live with not progressing, but I don’t want to regress), and increasing conditioning work. I’ve not settled on anything yet. Heck, I even thought it might be interesting to change squats to do a 20 rep program… tho that’d probably be wrong on a restricted diet. But point being squat a lot to boost up conditioning.

Diet will have to really fall in line too. I’m already examining my current ingestion and seeing what I can do. I figure there’s no better time than now to start tightening things up. For example, one simple change is no more whey in milk… just water. This should make my True Nutrition sample exploration more interesting; tho given that I MIGHT have one or two in milk just for taste research, but then compensate elsewhere.

And I know this puts off my longer term goals of getting into the 1000# club, but 1. I’ll be lighter and just as strong, and I’ll take the better ratio, 2. my greater goal is my health, not how much I bench, so I must work towards that end.

AAR – BP1 @ KR Training 4 Aug 2012

/ hsoi

With the Texas summer settling into full swing, classes are still being held but with an eye on the heat. So this past Saturday KR Training held only a Basic Pistol 1 class.

A highlight for me was seeing the TXGunGeek and misbeHaven, whom I haven’t seen in a while. Was good to see them.

Class was full and demographics were varied. About half the class was women. Ages ranged from a teenager there was his father, on up. Various ethnicities and backgrounds too. Some may choose to stereotype gun-owners as old, white, redneck men — they only show their ignorance when doing so.

Class ran well, tho shuffled around a bit in an effort to get folks out on the range before it got too hot. I didn’t see how long we were out there, but it felt like it went on longer than usual. A good thing tho, helping people try a bunch of different guns.

I found myself speaking a great deal about gun fit, and had an interesting observation at my station. I had a different set of guns: Glock 19, Glock 22, Springfield XD-9 5″, M&P-9 full-sized, M&P9 Shield, M&P-22, and a J-frame. On the one hand, I felt like I was shilling for Smith & Wesson. But the more interesting thing was showing off gun fit to the students. I’d look at the size of their hands and length of their fingers and put them on a particular gun, then have them pick up another one and compare. There were a lot of people with hands of just the right size that the Glock would be too big, so I’d put them onto the Shield and it would fit but might be almost too small. Then put them onto the M&P (medium backstrap) and it would be a “just right” fit. Not only do I hope this impressed upon students that if you pick a Glock or an XD or an M&P, they’re mostly going to wind up being the same in terms of reliability, capacity, etc., but fine details of ergonomics can often end up being the final and important factor in your choice.

Further reinforcing this, TXGunGeek has big hands and the XD fits him a lot better. While the XD is generally alright for me, the way the frame is cut is, for lack of a better term, just a hair more angular and brick-like. Due to the way I’m constructed, my trigger finger would rub the frame just enough to push everything left. But without changing a thing in my shooting style, the M&P doesn’t exhibit the problem because the frame has just a slight enough contour difference that my finger doesn’t rub. Little things like this end up mattering, and you cannot be afraid to keep working at it to seek the equipment that’s right and works best for you. Buy a gun, if it doesn’t work, sell it, try another. But then, once you settle upon your equipment, move beyond it — it’s just stuff, nothing to get too ego-attached to. Then begins the work to build skill, and onwards up the pyramid.

The day was short but significant. And I got to have lunch at the Elm Creek Cafe just up TX-21 from the range. Folks, that’s some good home cookin’, and a great way to round things off.

Look! Data!

/ hsoi

I saw this graphic floating around the Int3rw3bs the past few days:

I didn’t have time to look further into it to know if there was anything actually sound behind that data or was just someone with access to Photoshop and an agenda.

Turns out someone actually did the math.

The average number of people killed in mass shootings when stopped by police is 14.3

The average number of people killed in a mass shooting when stopped by a civilian is 2.3.

That’s pretty telling on many levels. And you should go read the article backing up the statistic because it appears he did his best to take a proper sample. I admit I don’t have the time to replicate his study, so I’m just trusting the guy.

The big take-home is you cannot rely upon the police to protect you. All LEO’s I personally know do believe in “to protect and serve”, but none of them (or any of Austin PD or Travis Co. Sheriff or Texas State Troopers) are here right now to protect or serve me. I’ve seen APD response time at best to be about 5 minutes, and while that’s awesome response time, 5 minutes is a VERY long time when bad things are happening to you.

But who is here right now that can do something about it? You are.

Look at the recent story of Samuel Williams, the 71-year old man that drew his concealed handgun when two thugs came to rob an Internet cafe. Where were the police? Who was the first responder? Samuel Williams.

How about Kelvedon Hatch, the convenience store in Essex that foiled a robbery attempt of his store by throwing cases of beer at the robber? There were no police, and there was no successful robbery either.

This isn’t so much about guns as it is about accepting that putting the responsibility for  your own safety into someone else’s hands may be acceptable in some particular circumstances, but ultimately only you can and must be responsible for your safety. When people are willing to be thusly responsible, look at how much better things turn out? Sure, bad things start to happen, but they get cut off before they can become horrible events. When good people are legally crippled, when good people don’t do anything for themselves or their fellow man, look how bad things can become.

In the end, the tool may enable and enhance a person’s ability to perform work, but it’s still ultimately about the person. None of us want to see tragic events happen, but we must consider careful what roads will help us minimize the chances of these events happening, and when they do happen, minimizing the damage done. Knee-jerk reactions based upon fear and emotion are not sound ways to make policy. Look at facts, look at data. Truth always comes out, and we suffer less the sooner we accept it.

 

2012-08-03 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 3, Day 5, shooter’s choice.

I can do whatever I want today (other than nothing). Given my recent increase in shooting my BUG and seeing what I’m seeing there, I opted to do the basic routine but with my S&W 442.

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  2. 5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
  4. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  5. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
  6. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO

The main focus was getting on the trigger faster.

All in all, not hard to do… I think it’s a mental thing as to why I’m going slow. That I know it’s harder to press the trigger: heavier, longer trigger; lighter gun; smaller, harder to grip gun. So the press of that trigger is going to be harder to do, so go slower to ensure the sights aren’t disturbed and the trigger not slapped.  But even just letting myself go “at speed” today, I’m still not sure if It was good enough because the sights are bad enough and the grip angle is just slightly different (more downward cant needed). So… hard to tell. What might be good for me to try tomorrow is some live fire with the snub and just press it out fast and get on the trigger fast and see what I see. If what I see live matches what I see dry, and of course I’m getting acceptable hits, then I’ll know what to keep looking for in dry practice as acceptable visual feedback.

2012-08-02 workout – Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 12, Deadlift/Press 2

/ hsoi

Go in. Set PRs. Leave. And it’s only week 2.

“Week 2”

  • 3 reps – Deadlift (working max: 345#)
    • 1x5x140 (warmup)
    • 1x5x175
    • 1x3x210
    • 1x3x245 (work)
    • 1x3x280
    • 1x7x315 (rep PR)
  • 3 reps – Press (working max: 155#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x65
    • 1x5x80
    • 1x3x95
    • 1x3x110 (work)
    • 1x3x125
    • 1x7x140 (rep PR)

Today ended up being a jack-shit day. Why? Because.

I went in and hit my main lifts. I set rep PR’s, and it’s only week two.

I did try doing some pronated-grip pullups, but I did one, shoulder said “no”, and that was the end of that. I was hoping I could do 3 sets of pull-/chin-ups, but nope. Oh well.

2012-08-02 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 3, Day 4 (basic routine)

  1. 20 reps of wall drill from extension 2H
  2. 5 reps of wall drill from extension SHO
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from extension WHO
  4. 20 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  5. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out SHO
  6. 5 reps of wall drill from press-out WHO

This session went really well. I’m focusing on maintaining “the string” of the eye-target line and bringing the gun and sights right up into it. It’s a fine-tuned change that’s difficult to convey here, but I know what I’m after. Plus as always, working on getting on the trigger sooner, faster, and without slapping it. All strings were done “at speed”, and I can see some improvement… or maybe today was just a good day. 😉

For me the bottom line is having the discipline to do this every day. I don’t recall the exact statistic but it’s something like to just maintain your level of skill you have to practice a couple of times a week. If you want to improve, you have to practice more. If you practice less, expect your skills to degrade. I know I’ve been at a plateau for some time, so I expect with dry practice 5x a week and getting more regular range time (due to the structure of KRT classes this summer), I expect things should be well and in order.

Hey…. Tom Givens is coming back to the area in March 2013, and I want to be awesome.

2012-08-01 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 3, Day 3, retention

  1. 10 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  2. 10 reps draw and fire from retention, slow
  3. 10 reps draw and fire from retention, 3/4 speed
  4. 5 reps draw and fire from retention while stepping L, 3/4 speed
  5. 5 reps draw and fire from retention while stepping R, 3/4 speed
  6. 10 reps beginning at full extension, draw back to retention, and fire, 3/4 speed, 2H
  7. 10 reps wall drill from press-out 2H (not standard part of TLG’s routine)
  8. 10 reps wall drill from press-out 2H 3/4 speed (not standard part of TLG’s routine)

It was good to work retention. We do a retention drill at the end of Defensive Pistol Skills 1 and it’s good to get practice on that drill. #6 is a new one on me tho.

I added some more wall drills at the end because that’s a fundamental skill and I think one good to end on. I am trying to pick up my speed without sacrificing good hits… watch that front sight, no dipping! I’m really working on trying to work at faster speeds and not slapping the trigger… but I still get more front sight dips that I care for. It’s a combination of loose/inconsistent grip, and too much trigger finger. I’m also playing a bit with my finger placement, but I think that may be a red herring… that I’m trying to fine-tune something that isn’t a relevant part of the present equation. Hard to say at this point tho.

But they never malfunction, right?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

With all the gun-related and concealed-carry-related chatter going on recently, I’ve been seeing more of the old debate about revolver vs. semi-auto. And it’s the same old reasons dragged out to justify “my choice is superior”.

Some of the typical ones to justify the revolver have to do with the bulletproof (pardon the pun) reliability of a revolver.

O RLY?

At the recent Defensive Pistol Skills BUG class, Karl was shooting his Charter Arms snub. Karl bought the Charter a couple years ago for Claude Werner’s snub class. It was an experiment to see how well the inexpensive Charter would hold up. It’s not as good as a S&W, but it’s been a pretty good gun for the price. Karl uses it as a BUG, so naturally it was the gun he used for demos during the class. Karl was shooting some of my .38 reloads and at one point asked me what primers I was using because he was shooting and getting a click instead of a bang. This particular batch was made using Wolf SPP, and while a lot of people are down on Wolf quality I only opted to use Wolf because so many people on the Brian Enos forum highly recommended them. Plus, my snubs have all had work done and need slightly “softer/more sensitive” primers, and all the rounds go bang for me so it was curious why they wouldn’t go bang out of his stock gun. But it’s natural to suspect the ammo. Karl tried some factory Speer Lawman, but had similar results of too many clicks when there should have been bangs. Some rounds took 2-3 strikes before they would go off, and I think one didn’t go off at all.

As of this writing I’m not sure what exactly is wrong, but all signs point to the gun malfunctioning.

Of course some will say, this is precisely why the revolver is so great, because if you get a click, just press the trigger again. Yeah, but now your 5-shot snub has become a 4-shot-or-less snub. If you saw how this went down, it was a lot of clicks before we’d get a bang, and it was a lot of time wasted with nothing useful going on. Imagine you were in a life-or-death situation and only kept getting clicks? What if only 2 of the 5 rounds went off at all? Plus consider a natural response will be to press harder/faster, meaning when one finally does go off you likely will have yanked the trigger and won’t get an acceptable hit with what little functioning ammo you had! Is that really a comforting feeling? It was disconcerting enough on the practice range, I’m sure it would be horrifying if I needed the gun to fire right now and it didn’t.

Plus, “just press the trigger again” only works if you can press the trigger at all.

After a class like that, I like to dry fire to reinforce and remember what I need. So the day after class I pulled out my 442 to do some dry practice. I unloaded it, but something didn’t feel right as I tried to move the cylinder. I locked the cylinder back into the frame and tried pressing the trigger and it was like pulling against a rock… it would barely budge! I unlocked the cylinder and tried to manually rotate it. It was like someone left the parking brake on and it would barely budge. I got scared that attempting to use the gun would break some small part from pulling so darn hard on the thing. *sigh*

Ultimately what wasn’t working was the cylinder wasn’t spinning freely. I removed the crane retention screw, but couldn’t get the crane to easily remove from the frame. After some work it came out. Then I tried to remove the cylinder from the crane, and while that should normally just slide out, it wasn’t going to come so easily. After more work I managed to remove it… and all over the sleeve was this brown something or other. I couldn’t tell if it was rust? Was it dirt and crud (the soil in Lee County is sandy loam, emphasis on the sandy)? I couldn’t really tell, but I spent a good deal of time cleaning and scrubbing it clean, lubing things up, and back together it went. It functioned fine after that.

What surprised me was how the gun ran just fine the day before, no problems in class. But the first trigger press after class was a failure and wasn’t going to happen.  That wasn’t a comforting feeling.

What caused both of these? Some might say the guns needed more cleaning. That’s probably true, but I can ignore my semi-auto (my XD-9 or my M&P-9) for many many cleanings. Look at how much the pistol-training.com torture tests specifically avoid cleaning, and those guns run and run. But if a purported reason (myth?) for the superiority of revolvers is they “just work”, well… they didn’t. Two instances of revolver fail. Myth busted.

Realize, I’m not a semi-auto nor a revolver guy — I’m both. I’ll have an M&P 9 as a primary and the 442 as a BUG. I appreciate both systems for what they provide and offer. Both have advantages, both have disadvantages. The key is to remember that both are mechanical. Both designs have been around for over a century, but in the time since then improvements have been made to tweak the system. Modern semi-autos are extremely reliable. They can malfunction in simple ways that are easy to remedy, they can malfunction in ways that require you to see a gunsmith. Modern revolvers are extremely reliable. They can malfunction in simple ways, they can malfunction in ways that get Wife upset because you now have a gun disassembled on the bed. 🙂  Neither is without risk of failure, and when either fails they can fail in simple ways or fail in difficult ways. Let’s put those justification myths aside, shall we?