Author: hsoi

Hoplophobia, alive and well

/ hsoi

Some Seattle police officer had a big slip-up, leaving his patrol rifle on the back of his patrol car and even driving off with it still there.

But what really stood out to me was the choice of words used in the article:

SEATTLE — The Seattle Police Department says they are “very embarrassed” after an assault rifle was left unattended on the back of a patrol car Monday night.

First published by The Stranger, Nick Gonzales snapped a picture of the menacing-looking rifle on the trunk of a Seattle Police car.

 

 

“Assault rifle”…. no, it’s just a rifle, and actually when an AR-15 is used by the police the politically correct term is “patrol rifle”. “Menacing-looking”. Only to you.

I’m not excusing what happened, but the bias of and fear within the author is evident.

Hoplophobia, alive and well.

Crippled printer… what to do?

/ hsoi

I own a Canon PIXMA iP4500 printer. It’s been one of the better printers I’ve owned in my lifetime.

Wife was printing some things and was getting new and interesting errors from the printer. I toyed around a bit, looked up the error code, and it seems the print head is kaput. I tried some tips I found online for cleaning it… figured there’d be no harm. No luck.

So I need a new one.

But I can’t get a new one.

I can’t find any for sale anywhere.

Reason? It appears all the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan have (naturally) destroyed the supply chain. There’s of course no telling when life in Japan will return to “normal”, and thus I could get a replacement part.

It seems I may have to buy a new printer, but… what prevents the same problem there?

Shows how fragile and interconnected we are, doesn’t it?

The standard for FoF training

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The Handgun World Show podcast episode 128 pays a compliment to my boss, Karl Rehn of KR Training. The episode is talking about choosing a good handgun trainer, they mention Tom Givens, but then go on to say around 1:19:54 in the podcast:

When you look at force-on-force stuff? Karl Rehn out of Texas is the standard, from KR Training. When you want to know how to do force-on-force and not have it turn into a giant (garbled) match, Karl is the man to go to.

Thanx to Tim for passing this along.

Austin Flash Mobs… not the good kind

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

Friend of mine that lives in North Austin sent me this:

We were both gone Saturday. Neighbors reported that around 2 pm we had a gang of between 8-10 “YUTES” arrive on foot and, starting at the beginning of my cul-de-sac on both sides of the street, were smashing car windows with bats and burglarizing whatever contents they could find. An APD unit responded in less than 5 minutes (I was told) and while this was still in progress, but the “YUTES” split up, ran in different directions, and disappeared into backyards and over fences.  I am not aware that anyone was either detained or arrested.

Coincidentally, just yesterday Gabe Suarez posted on the topic. It’s a rising problem, but for whatever reason the media and police aren’t reporting on it. Curious that….

I was wondering when this was going to start happening in Austin. I guess that question is now answered.

I do hate how the term “flash mob” has been co-opted and turned from something spontaneous and fun to something so malevolent. Nevertheless, the take home is things are getting uglier out there. The predators are traveling in bigger packs.

Stay alert… and carry your damn gun, people.

 

 

2011-06-27 workout

/ hsoi

Today’s workout was a little odd.

Squat

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x115
  • 1x2x155
  • 3x5x195 (work)

I struggled a bit on the first work set but got the 5 reps. Ensured a good 4-5 minute rest between the other work sets and actually felt more powerful and stronger in them. Not sure if I just needed a little more rest between warmup and first work set, or if perhaps it was just a neuromuscular adjustment/adaptation to the weight.

I’m kinda stoked tho. Next workout I do 205#… breaking the 200# mark is kinda cool. No it’s not grossly strong, it’s not even my bodyweight. But it’s just a cool milestone/barrier to pass. 🙂

I also think that it’s time to get a belt. I’m not sure I’ll start using it right now, most recommendations seem to be to wait on using a belt until you’re doing more than bodyweight. Nevertheless, I see no harm in getting it ordered now because it may take time to make, ship, and so on. Plus doing some manual break-in work. Might as well get the ball rolling so I’ll have it when I need it.

Press

  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x45
  • 1x3x55
  • 1x2x70
  • 3x5x85 (work)

Biggest thing I noticed here was I’m not pressing the bar up in a state where the bar is constantly parallel to the ground. It’s worse with lighter weights, so the fix is to lift heavier. 😉  Still, it’s there and something I’ll need to keep aware of.

Chin-ups

  • 1x9xbw
  • 1x6xbw
  • 1x5xbw

I noticed on my very first rep that my chest was going all the way to the bar, but subsequent reps did not… chin over the bar, but chest was dropping. That is not good. The chest needs to come to the bar to get a proper full range of motion, especially the back muscles squeezing at the top. I worked to combat that, tho it still wasn’t as ideal as it could be. So, reps didn’t go up, but form improved… but needs more.

I’m thinking about perhaps dropping the reps and trying to go uber-strict on form, because I cannot see how I’ll work my way to full-on proper chins if the final bit of the concentric motion isn’t there and is weaker than the rest of the movement.

Commentary

This workout was good and bad.

Good: tickling the 200# mark with squats. That every workout I think damn this weight is going to be crazy, and nailing it every time. It’s really cool. Seeing progress is motivating.

Bad: distraction.

Instead of the usual rock music over the stereo, the gym was playing… NPR. WTF? The thing is, music is something I can tune into the background. But the sound of people talking distracts me. The people in the gym I can usually tune out because their conversations are usually chit-chat and something I don’t care much about. But when you hear news, inevitably you’ll hear a trigger word that keys something in you, some issue or some news topic that perks your interest. And try as I might to filter it out, I can’t. So, my brain wanders… the hard part being that then I’ll recognize I’m losing focus and then actively try to filter things out, but that’s still a problem because now I’m focused on being focused, not on lifting. *sigh*

So it threw me a bit, and is perhaps one reason why my lifts felt a little off. Nevertheless, you adjust, you deal with it, and you still get your work done and get out of the gym.

I’m not sure I want to put the iPod earbuds in. We’ll see.

Anyways, I still feel overall good and am enjoying the progress on this program. This marks week 4 of following this “Starting Strength”-inspired program. I’ll reflect back on my first month come Friday.

Sunday Metal – Ignitor

/ hsoi

I get an email saying that Ignitor is now following me on Twitter. OK… who the heck is that?

A little Google and I find this video for “Construct of Destruction”.

As soon as I see and hear the singer it’s like… oh shit! That’s Jason McMaster! Bad ass.

And so, they get a Sunday Metal entry. 🙂

Looks like they’re finishing up a new album. Preview here.

To the man at the gun counter that kept pointing guns at me….

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

Dear Customer at the Academy Gun Counter:

Your gun handling sucks.

You have almost no awareness of where that muzzle is pointed, or maybe you intended to point it in every possible direction in 3-D space — including yourself; I don’t know. I say “almost no awareness” because when you decided it was time to point the gun in some direction so you could look at the sight picture, you did seem to care about where the muzzle was pointed… but you still pointed it in less than optimal directions, because tho you can’t see anyone in that aisle now, it doesn’t take but a blink for someone to come around that endcap. Furthermore, all that cardboard and thin shelving steel isn’t going to stop a bullet — safe direction doesn’t stop where your line of sight does, safe direction means where the bullet will come to rest. The safest direction would have been at those huge gun safes behind the counter, which no bullet would penetrate and while it might cause a little lead splatter, that’s certainly more acceptable because the bullet would stop and we would know where it would stop.

I tried to step out of the line of the muzzle, but you kept flipping the guns in every direction possible, and apparently invented a few new directions. I’m not one of those little Chinese contortionist girls so I just couldn’t move well enough to avoid how you flashed that muzzle about.

It didn’t help that your finger was constantly on the trigger.

I so wanted to engage you and correct you and enlighten you about your poor gun handling skills. But I know how the conversation would have went.

Me: Excuse me sir, please keep that gun pointed in a safe direction.

Customer: (Defensively) It’s OK. It’s unloaded.

Me: Col. Cooper would disagree with you.

And I would repeat both Col. Cooper’s 4 rules and the NRA’s 3 rules, whichever set you follow you are egregiously violating. I would attempt to politely educate about better skills… but it wouldn’t work. Your ego would be bruised, you would become defensive for being publicly corrected, and I’ll admit… why would you take any correction from me? There’s nothing you could perceive that puts me in a position of authority on the matter; I just look like some young long-haired dude that’s correcting you. Your lengthy conversation with the employee demonstrates you read a lot of gun magazines, so hey… you’ve got all the knowledge you need, and I don’t appear to be anyone worth listening to.

Granted, I could be assuming too much and maybe you would be willing to learn and improve. If that’s the case, show up at KR Training; there are lots of classes and I’d recommend you start at Basic Pistol 2. There’s a class on July 9, still open for enrollment. If you do show up there, I’ll gladly shake your hand, look you in the eye, apologize for being wrong, and thank you for coming out.

Sincerely,

John Daub, who is tired of having guns pointed at him.

P.S.: Mr. Employee behind the Academy Gun Counter: you suck for not being any better with your gun handling safety, thus I can’t expect you to have done anything about Mr. Customer’s failure.

P.P.S.: Mr. Employee, you think internal locks are a worthwhile feature? *sigh*

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.