Guns

You got a screw loose?

/ hsoi

For all you people who put your life in the hands of some sort of equipment… when was the last time you really checked it to ensure it was in working order? I mean, if you’re trusting your life to it, shouldn’t it be solid and ready to go?

For instance, if you carry a gun for personal defense well… maybe you check the gun out, certainly that’d be the first thing to concern yourself with. But what about your other equipment? How about your holster? Is it still sturdy? any screws or snaps still holding firm and solid? Is your flashlight still with a strong beam? do you have spare batteries on hand? Knife blade sharp? Everything free of lint and dust? Oiled up? Ready to go?

It’s important to check this stuff from time to time.

What spurred this for me was the other day when I was helping with a Basic Pistol 1 class I was letting students shoot my S&W 442 snub revolver. One student worked the cylinder latch and I noticed it didn’t act right but class was moving along so I just put it down and didn’t bother with it. When I got home and took the gun out, the latch wasn’t there! The little screw that held the latch in had fallen out. Nothing was lost, easily recovered, easily fixed. But still… somehow the screw worked loose.

Check your gear. All of your gear. Make sure it’s in working order.

Some lessons from the gun range

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

This past Saturday I was out at KR Training assisting with Basic Pistol 1 and Defensive Pistol Skills 2 classes. Overall it was a good day. I do think students were challenged and they all took home something to work and grow on. That’s good, it’s what school is all about.

I’ll just hit a few take-home points that are good for everyone, even you folks that didn’t take the classes.

  • Slow down. Yes, speed is important and this is stressed heavily in DPS2. However, throwing lead really fast downrange and hitting nothing of merit… that’s meaningless, that’s useless, and it could get you killed. If it takes you half a second more to get the sights aligned and press off a solid shot that goes exactly where you wanted it to? Then take that extra half second and do so. You will spend more time realizing your mistake and correcting it than it would have taken to just correct things the first time around. Meantime… there’s still someone shooting at you and you’ve been ineffective in stopping them. Shoot only as fast as YOU can shoot and make good hits.
  • When shooting a timed drill that you’re struggling to get 100% on, try shooting the drill with no time. Take all the time in the world and shoot the drill accurately and correctly. Clean it, and repeat it. Just shoot it without time pressures. If you can consistently clean the drill without time pressure, then you know you’ve got the skills needed to shoot the drill (if you can’t clean the drill, there’s likely another fundamental skill you need to work on first). Once you can clean the drill with no time pressure, shoot it again with a stopwatch. See how long it took you to shoot the drill at that “slow” speed. Original par time might be 3 seconds but it takes you 8. Fine. Now you know how long it takes you to do it cleanly. Now set a timer for your own par time and see if you can shoot it. You should be able to because you’ve already demonstrated you can, but the knowledge you’re shooting with a timer puts some different psychological stress on you. If you know that’s doing fine, now start to pare down the par time. Try 7.5 seconds and see how you do. Try 7.0, and so on. Make sure your technique and form doesn’t get sloppy. You do have to push yourself, but you need to be correct first, fast second.
  • Ball & Dummy drill is your friend.
  • When shooting one-handed, keep your other hand up on your chest.
  • It’s not a race to get the gun back in the holster. Reholster with the same amount of discipline as you draw; or perhaps, reholster with more discipline… but never less.

Karl had been working on a new skills assessment test for the end of class. There was some refinement of the test prior to class, but it turned out well and a good measure and challenge of things for the (DPS2) students. So yes guys… get ready for DPS3 in August. It’ll be tougher. 🙂

And finally…

It was a nice day. A little warm, a little humid, but we haven’t had rain in ages and things are dry and dusty. Then when you have 20-30 MPH winds all day long with dust blowing everywhere? Well…..

That’s my calf. No, that’s not a tan, that’s not a sunburn. The darker “skin”? That’s dust that built up over the course of the day. The picture doesn’t even do it justice as to how much was blowing around and collected everywhere. I have to clean out all my gear because there’s grit in everything. 🙂

Oh, and got to help Hogel sight in an EOTech on his Remington 870 shotgun. Ah… nothing like the feel of slug recoil. 🙂

A good day.

Random thoughts on the gym…

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Note… I haven’t yet gone to the gym. But I’ve been trying to think about how to manage a few things.

How am I going to carry? If I jog there and back well… I do have a SmartCarry. How well will that work out? How about a fanny pack? Will I be able to — or would I want to — carry while working out? Could it be an argument for getting something like a small Kahr like the MK-9 or the almost half-pound lighter PM-9? Again, if I’m moving around, jogging, etc. then heavier things are more apt to flap about unless I found the right holster for it that held it very tight and secure.

My iPhone. Am I going to want to listen to music? I’ll need some way to hold the phone. I’ve seen some of those armband things but I’d rather have it around my waist so I could put the earbud cord down my shirt so it’s out of the way. Hrm. Possible argument for the fanny pack? Yeah I might look stupid, but who cares. As long as it doesn’t break or pop off…. but then, if I start lifting heavier weight and need to wear a belt. Hrm.

I have thought about buying a small bag, something I could strap onto my back. It would allow me to jog to/from the gym and hold just some basics like a towel, water bottle, wallet, keys, etc.. Might be able to find something that can hold a gun. Then just as I move from station to station, just keep it with me on the floor.

I’ve been thinking about how to structure a workout. I found this article on “Gaining Muscle after 40“. I’m not over 40, but close. I still need to heed those things, like recovery and not pushing myself too hard. *sigh* My 18-year-old brain doesn’t want to do that. 🙂  Still, that was a good article and has been in line with the approach I’ve been thinking about for myself. I’ll probably do “whole body” workouts, mostly compound movements. Start with a light warmup set, then do 3 sets of 8-12 reps of everything… tho I do like this guy’s approach of only doing 2 sets of arm isolation stuff at the end, since the arms will get a lot of work during the other movements. This’ll be good to get me started.

I’m excited. I actually have been going to bed thinking about going to the gym the next morning. I haven’t done it because I can’t afford the soreness just yet. 🙂  But in a couple days I’ll be there!

Elitist politicians aren’t our friends

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

Texas HB 1463 – Relating to the application of certain concealed handgun license laws to statewide elected officials and certain current and former members of the legislature.

An attempt to exempt elected officials servants. Here’s what Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington, author of the bill said:

“This is not intended to be any type of elitist bill,” Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington, said Monday.

“We spend a disproportionate amount of our time with the public in these particular locations. And therefore it’s a safety factor,” said Kleinschmidt, the measure’s sponsor.

[…]

Under the state concealed-weapons law, citizens who take a course and pass a background check may carry concealed handguns in public but not in bars, schools, sporting events, hospitals, amusement parks and churches.

Kleinschmidt said those restrictions make it dangerous for politicians. He cited the shooting three months ago in Arizona in which a federal judge was killed and Giffords was severely wounded.

“There are so many places I’m scheduled to go where we don’t know the circumstances, but you’ve got to be there,” he said. “In some instances, you really don’t know what type of neighborhood, what type of risks you may be exposed to.”

We mere plebeians spend a lot of time with the public in these particular locations.

Those same restrictions make it dangerous for us lesser people too.

There are so many places that I have to go where I don’t know the circumstances, but I’ve got to be there. And in some of those instances, I don’t really know what type of neighborhood, what types of risks I may be exposed to.

So what makes you more important than me, Rep. Kleinschmidt? other than your perception of yourself and your importance, of course.

Bad? You keep using that word….

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

…. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Apparently an Apple Store in Chula Vista, California was being broken into. The mall security guard noticed (it was 7 AM, before the mall opened), gunfire was exchanged. Apparently one criminal is dead, two others in custody, one of them also wounded.

And this “journalist” says the holdup went bad?

Uh… no. I think the holdup went pretty good. And actually, this sounds like burglary, not robbery. Furthermore, how do you hold-up a store with no people in it? And to have the crime foiled… to prevent bad people from doing bad things… that’s… “going bad”? that’s “going sour”? Whose side are you on?

In other news…. since when did mall security carry guns?

Another article:

Despite some media reports, there were no AK-47s involved in the incident, police said.

Ah, the media and their love of those Glock ultra-automagic AK-47 semi-assault revolvers with extended high-capacity dethklok clips.

“That’s crazy. That’s so scary. This is supposed to be a really upscale, comfortable neighborhood and for stuff like this to happen is just scary,” said resident Janae Sergio.

Bad things can and do happen anywhere and everywhere. Upscale, comfortable neighborhoods full of rich white people aren’t immune from anything. Welcome to the real world where there aren’t protective bubbles or… since we’re talking Apple here…. reality distortion fields to protect you.

Wilson Combat 6.8 SPC factory ammo… using Barnes 95gr TTSX

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

Whoa!

I just caught on TacticalGunReview.com’s Facebook feed that Wilson Combat is now making a 6.8 SPC load using the Barnes 95gr TTSX bullet!

Buy yours here.

It’s reporting 2850 FPS out of a 16″ barrel. That’s amazing.

See, the Barnes 95 grain TTSX was purpose-built for 6.8 SPC (i.e. it’s not just another .277″ caliber bullet). In fact, Bill Wilson had a fair hand in the testing and development of that round (see here). Until now the bullet has only been available for handloaders, and folks at the 68forums were getting some good stuff out of them. But not everyone handloads so people want factory ammo. Silver State Armory makes and sells one but it only gets 2580 fps. Charles @ TGR told me the reasons why it’s not that hot, but the exact reason escapes me. It’s a shame because it’s THE bullet. But now Bill Wilson has made a load. It’s advertised at 300 fps faster, which is quite significant. What did Bill achieve? Or could it suffer the problems and may end up being finicky? Don’t know. Curious tho!

I’ve got a ballistics app on my iPhone and I ran some numbers. I plugged in numbers from Wilson Combat’s 95gr TTSX load and their 110gr TSX load, and since they don’t make a 85 grain I used SSA’s numbers from their 85 grain tac-load (since SSA’s 110gr tac-load gave similar numbers to Wilson’s, I figure this is as close to apples-to-apples as I can get). When you compare the 85 grain TSX vs. the 95 grain TTSX, the trajectories are very similar: out to 200 yards the paths are almost similar with the 95 grain being only about 1/3″ lower at 200 yards and about 3/4″ lower at 300 yards. But when you compare energy at same distances, the 95gr has more energy (over 100 ft-lbs more at 300 yards). And even tho the 85 grain starts at a higher velocity at the muzzle, by 300 yards they’re doing about the same speed.  Now comparing the 95 TTSX to the 110 TSX, the heavier and slower 110 of course drops faster and more significantly. Of course, at longer distances the 110gr still has more energy.

To me, between the 85 TSX and 95 TTSX? I’ll take the 95 TTSX. On paper, the 85 does have a flatter trajectory, but the 95’s isn’t off by much at all. It has more energy, and the TTSX expands better. What’s not to like? Between the 95 TTSX and the 110 TSX well, that’s harder to determine because there’s no question the 110 will pack more punch, but you’ll have to do a little more work to get it there. But then if it gets there, how well will it expand? But still, I think I’d go for the 95 because it’s a TTSX with improved expansion, especially at lower velocities. This isn’t to say the other bullets are totally obsolete and should be taken off the market, far from it, because they still have purpose and roles. But if I can only have my rifle zeroed with one load, to have one load to take into the field for deer or hogs or whatever… that 95 TTSX is going to be the best all around. And now that Wilson Combat is making a load for it well… eventually I’d still like to do my own loads to see if I can do even better, but until I can get to loading myself well, I think I know what ammo I’d like to use. 🙂

Updated: found some info about it at the 68forums. One message in particular:

This ammo is based on extensive reloading experience of the WC staff, and has proven to be accurate, effective, and safe in SPECII chambers. It is loaded with Reloader 10x powder, SSA small primer brass, and premium projectiles. I do not have any pressure data that I can share.

Posted from Wilson Combat themselves. R10x powder. Nice! But interesting, since supposedly R7x is the “preferred” powder for this bullet. We’ll see how the thread progresses.

Kel-Tec PMR-30?

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

My buddy Charles over at TacticalGunReview.com was telling me he’s supposed to get a Kel-Tec PMR-30 for testing. Hasn’t arrived yet, but since then I’ve read two articles on the gun. One at GunBlast, and the other just came through from The Box O’Truth (Ed Zone #123).

That prompted me to write.

It sounds like this gun is actually pretty positive. That it’s light but workable, good factory trigger. It uses .22 Magnum rounds (30 of them!), and TBOT did some penetration testing.

It got me wondering.

Could this be an effective pistol for self-defense?

I don’t think it would be as optimal as more traditional pistols, like those chambered in 9mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, or .45 ACP. But when some gun is better than no gun, could this gun be good for people that are recoil sensitive? The hard factor there, that I can’t judge until I can hold one in my hands, is that often if someone is going to be recoil sensitive they may also not be able to handle a long and/or heavy trigger or a large grip. It sounds like the trigger here isn’t heavy, but is it long? And just how big is that grip to be able to hold 30 rounds of .22 Magnum?

I’m not saying I’m advocating anything… at least at this point.  But there’s enough about this gun that make me wonder if it could fill a niche beyond plinking and small varmint control.

Kel-Tec…. if you’re reading this, I can give you my FFL’s address. 🙂

Is roller derby a professional sporting event?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Is roller derby a professional sporting event?

Before I attended my first Texas Roller Girls roller derby bout, I had to spend a good deal of time trying to figure out if I, as a concealed handgun license holder, could legally carry at the bout.

I spent time re-reading the Texas legal code. Specifically, PC §46.035 (b) (2) says:

(b) A license holder commits an offense if the license holder intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries a handgun under the authority of Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, regardless of whether the handgun is concealed, on or about the license holder’s person:

(2) on the premises where a high school, collegiate, or professional sporting event or interscholastic event is taking place, unless the license holder is a participant in the event and a handgun is used in the event;

So… is roller derby a professional sporting event? Does this apply to me?

I asked some people, one of whom even asked a lawyer. I spent a lot of time in Google searching around trying to see if the question had been answered. Maybe the Austin Convention Center had 30.06 signs (it didn’t, from what I could see). Could there be security restrictions in place at the entrance such as metal detectors (no), bag checks (no), frisking (no), or any other such measures (nope, nothing really, but there were some DPS troopers present along with venue “security”). But I had no idea if there would be or not, and if I could and then there was a metal detector would they allow me through (regardless, setting off the detectors gives you a Scarlet A for the rest of the night); would I have to go back to the car and store my gun… but that’s just a recipe for a break-in and my gun ending up becoming an instrument of crime (as well as all the hassle and hell of dealing with repairs and insurance paperwork).

So more searching to try to determine what is a “professional sporting event”. Can’t find anywhere in the Texas law code that defines it, so I guess we turn to what “reasonable people” would define it as. Competition, ticket sales, money involved especially the players and participants being paid. Hrm. Texas Rollergirls are a registered non-profit and lots of things point to the ladies NOT getting paid… but with all the ticket sales, merch, concessions, sponsorships, where is all that money going? maybe they get some sort of stipend or allowance to help pay for some things? I don’t know. How can I know? In fact if anything, I keep seeing conflicting messages if it is a professional sporting event or not. Sporting event sure, but professional? I’m not meaning any disrespect to the ladies involved, merely trying to interpret and understand the law.

And the list goes on and on and on and on. So many things to consider, but in the end, no one seems to be willing to become the court precedent. That’s a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of risk. Furthermore, this is only this one event. Any time and any where I go, I have to think about these things, consider these things, research these things. That adds up to a lot of time, money, and effort spent.

But you know what’s sad?

Bad guys don’t care.

I’m spending all sorts of time and effort to try to ensure I follow the law. Bad guys, by definition, don’t care about the law. They won’t spend any time on this. They don’t care. So what does that do? It means bad guys have the free reign to go anywhere and do anything they want. Good guys don’t.

Does that seem right to you? Does it seem right to burden good people? To put good people at a legally mandated disadvantage? The law is supposed to abridge bad people, to make the burden so great that people wouldn’t want to do bad things. But all I see here is making a large burden for good people trying to do good things. How is that right?