Guns

The importance of training, because everything isn’t a nail

/ hsoi

I respond with “THERE IS A GUY IN MY CAR AND I’M ABOUT TO SHOOT HIM!”.   The thought….. if this guy is conscious that may provoke response.  I’ve had experience rousting drunks and bums in a former life, and sometimes it takes a real push to get a reaction. They will often play dead just to be left alone

No response from Mr. Dark Lump Dude… except some twitching.

I shut the door, backed up to the porch, and engaged my light while keeping a hand close to my weapon.  A few moments looking, and it’s pretty clear what I am facing. A scruffy guy who was stumbling down the road, and took shelter in the car to sleep off whatever he’s on.  My guess, only slightly educated, would be heroin, alcohol, and weed.

Breath, and back down from Defcon 1 to Defcon 2.

Carteach0 shares with us a recent situation he was involved in. You will want to click through and read the whole thing.

Earlier this month, a friend of mine was in a similar situation. Friend was drifting off to sleep but then heard someone breaking into his truck. Gun was drawn, some yelling, dude took off. No shooting.

Both of these people are well-trained.

And it’s all their training that kept them from shooting. Or rather, that they understood there’s a time to shoot, and that time hadn’t come.

See, a lot of people think that just because people have guns that they will solve all of their problems by shooting. There’s some truth to that, because often when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. For sure I see lots of people who only understand things like “shooting”, and consider that the solution. Just read comment threads online and you’ll see this “solution” offered up quite often.

Shooting is certainly an answer, but it’s a very specific answer to a very specific problem.

This is where training comes in, and why training is so important.

Certainly, it’s important to have training in how to shoot. When the flag flies, there will be a lot happening in a little bit of time, and you must make decisive actions quickly. These decisions have massive gravity, and will likely affect the rest of your life and perhaps the lives of others. Thus, you need your brain free to work through those problems, so mechanical matters like “how to shoot (well)” should be something that you can “just do”. That takes training, that takes practice, that takes some level of dedication and discipline to acquire that ability.

Perhaps more importantly, you need to have training in how NOT to shoot. You need to understand how scenarios play out. You have to know the law. You should be aware of human psychology. Concepts like “verbal judo” and “managing unknown contacts” should be tools in your toolbox. You need to have more tools in your toolbox, so when a problem needs solving you don’t just start hammering nails.

What Carteach0 and my friend did, they were able to engage their brains. They disengaged “monkey brain” – “Ooo! Danger! Bash with rock!” – and worked to solve the problem. They were able to think, to consider, to assess the situation as it unfolded and took the best course of action that lead to the best possible outcome.

Without a doubt, this can be attributed to training.

So where can you get such training?

When it comes to legal, people like Massad Ayoob and Andrew Branca have classes and books on the matter.

Classes/material from William Aprill provides great insight into criminal mindset.

Craig “SouthNarc” Douglas is one of the best when it comes to skills like “managing unknown contacts”.

Scenario training (also known as “force-on-force” training) is invaluable at helping you see that everything isn’t a nail, you don’t always solve problems with a hammer, and giving you better insight into how things actually happen. You’ve probably heard how visualization is a powerful learning technique? Scenario training is visualization without the fantasy. There are many out there that provide this sort of training, and my boss-man, Karl Rehn, is one of the pioneers and best at this type of training.

The bottom line?

It’s not enough to purchase a piece of hardware.

It’s not enough to just go to the range or the back pasture and plink a few rounds now and again. Just because you can “drill the bullseye” out in the comfort of a causal range session doesn’t mean you can perform under pressure.

When the flag flies, you don’t rise up, you descend. Thus you need to ensure that even in this descent, you’re still at a high enough level to perform. The two situations above demonstrate that we do descend, but with enough training one can still keep their head above water.

So look at yourself right now and honestly assess yourself: are you at that (higher) level? Have you ever shot a higher-level skills course under time pressures (e.g. the “3M Test“, “3 Seconds or Less“, “Rangemaster Level 5“, FBI Qualification) and been able to pass it cold, on-demand, consistently? Have you found yourself in potentially bad situations during daily life and been at a loss as for how to solve the problem?  It’s not a time for ego or delusion folks – your life depends on honest answers. And if you’re not, start making your plans now to improve.

An observation on my grip

/ hsoi

During a recent dry practice session, I noticed something about my grip.

First, I’ve been working hard on ensuring a consistent and crushing grip during my dry work. Since there’s no recoil, it’s really easy to slack off, so I’m working to mitigate that by overly crushing the grip when I do dry work. That will build up my grip muscles/endurance, and when I’m not crushing it’s easier to notice and thus correct myself. Plus anything I can do to make a stronger grip will help with not just recoil control, but it sure does help offset when pressure ramps up and the trigger gets slapped/yanked. It’s not an excuse for poor trigger control, but when you do have a crushing grip it helps mitigate the effects.

During this particular dry session I switched from two-handed to one-handed work. As usual, my weak-hand work needed more work. I strove to really crush things and noticed something I was (and wasn’t) doing in my grip.

I need to back up a bit and explain some things about grip.

Grip the gun in a two-handed grip. Really try to determine the direction of your hand pressure. Sure, there’s a generalized, all-around crushing pressure, but at least in my grip I find that my strong-hand is applying more pressure “front to back”. That is, there’s more pressure coming in on the front-strap and back-strap of the grip than against the sides of the grip. That makes sense given how the hand is working and clamping — the fingers are bringing things together, not your tips and palm into each other. Then there’s the support-hand, which winds up applying more pressure against the sides of the grip (well, your strong-hand since the support-hand is overlapping it) than the front- and back- straps. Again, this is from the same directional clamping force that your fingers are giving (vs. tips and palm into each other).

So when you have both hands gripping, there is 360º of crush force: front-back by the strong-hand, side-side by the support-hand.

As well, because of your hand wrapping/overlapping, with proper technique you wind up with a lot of skin against grip – that contact, that friction plays a big part. Airspace between the grip and your hands gives “wiggle room” and doesn’t lead to the strongest grip. The best grip puts as much possible skin-to-grip contact over as much surface area as possible. That contact, that friction, helps to manage recoil because now there’s more friction (and other resistive forces) that the recoil must overcome.

So understanding that, what did I experience and observe?

While it’s there when I go strong-hand-only, it’s more pronounced in weak-/support-hand-only. That I am only getting 50% of that grip pressure — there’s only the pressure against the front- and back- straps. I’m crushing – or perhaps more descriptively, clamping – my grip against the front and back, but there’s really no pressure against the sides. There’s some light skin contact between sides and palm/tips, but not a lot of pressure into them. But more so, it’s just light contact – I could actually wiggle something (finger) up in there between my palm (specifically, at the metacarpophalangeal joints) and the grip. In light of the prior explanation, can you see how this is not an ideal grip?

So I worked to put more skin in FIRM contact with the grip, and work to try to make a grip that was giving more 360º pressure, than just the front-to-back-pressure, if you will. In a way, it was “collapsing the tent” created by my metacarpophalangeal joints as the hand wraps around the grip. It’s a little awkward, and it does cause some frame rub against my thumb’s metacarpophalangeal joint. I expect there will be some refinement of this, and I’ll have to see how it pans out in live fire. I expect my results will be greatly improved, tho I may wind up with a raw thumb joint.

Take a look at your grip.

Are you maximizing contact? Are you gripping it HARD? How does your grip change when you go 1-handed? Can you adjust your grip (1- or 2- handed) to improve contact and pressure?

Update

I wrote this earlier in the week. I then had a chance to go to the range and try it in live fire.

Results were not good. 🙂

I shot horribly.

Why? I’m not sure. It could be because the technique just sucked, or it could be because it was a change and I need to adapt to the change. There may be other side-effects from it that I have to work through.

Alas, that range session needed to be focused on other issues, so I didn’t investigate this grip work. I just reverted to my old way and everything was peachy. Perhaps something to learn from that as well.

Am I overanalyzing? Perhaps. Again, I went back to my old way and was just fine. But I’d like to think there’s something in this, at least for me. Because for sure as much crush/clamp grip as you can have the better, and for sure when you only have 1 hand you won’t have as strong a grip as 2 hands. So if there’s some way to improve my 1-hand grip through mechanical advantage (vs. just pure strength), why wouldn’t I want to explore that avenue?

Maybe next live-fire session I’ll get a chance to work on it. For sure in my present dry work, I’ll be doing more 1-handed work, and we’ll see where it goes.

2016-08-11 range log

/ hsoi

In about a month I’ll be a student in the Rangemaster Advanced Instructor Course.

Time to prepare.

Really, there’s only so much you can to do prepare. I’ve been through many classes with Tom Givens, and the best thing to do is not psyche yourself out. But that said, I know there are some things I want to do to get myself ready.

First, I’ve been working on a lot of things from a competition standpoint. I need to shift to a defensive standpoint. Really in most respects it’s the same stuff, but there are some differences in how you do things, how you approach things. Plus to also remember that this is Tom’s class and to do things Tom’s way. For example, he will want “ready position” to be a low ready (whereas I normally use a high-compressed ready). So it’s just getting into that mindset.

Second, I know there will be some skills that I’ll want to brush up on as much as I can. Only so much can be done in a month, but every bit helps.

What would those be?

15-25 yard shooting.

One-handed shooting, especially weak-hand.

Of course, “everything” matters, but I’m pretty sure in terms of my weak-points, those are what I need to work on (given what I know that’s coming…).

So with that, today was about shooting from a defensive standpoint. For example, using my carry gear (IWB holster) instead of competition gear. Shooting from concealment instead of open carry. And I wanted to run a bunch of drills as diagnostics to see what’s what.

Started with the “3M Test” (my favorite). Ran it in 7.88 seconds clean. Happy with that. I did look at the draw time, splits, reload, etc. and well, for sure I’m running slower, but it was still pretty solid. I know with time and improvement I’ll break the 7-seconds barrier.

Shot “3 Seconds or Less”. While I generally run this fine, I’ve been experimenting with grip changes on my one-handed shooting, but only in dry fire. This showed me that perhaps those changes didn’t work, or will need more work before I can bank on them. I dropped almost all the one-handed shots. For the rest of the session when I had to do one-handed work I reverted back to my old technique and was fine.

Did the “Rangemaster Instructor” qual. Blew a few things from rushing (e.g. got a bad grip), but very happy with my 15 and 25 yard performance

Then came the (new/2013) FBI qual. Did fine on that, and again happy with my 15/25 yard shooting.

Then I shot a couple drills that I wasn’t planning on, but Karl wanted me to shoot because he’s going to bring them into this weekend’s AT-4 class. One was Ken Hackathorn’s “The Wizard”, which is a very simple drill but sufficiently challenging. The other is LAV’s “The Test”, which is another very simple drill but sufficiently challenging. I had no problems with either drill, but I think they will make a good addition to AT-4 this weekend.

Each of these drills I shot 1 time. They were enough to get me into a mindset, and showed me things I needed.

First, I went slower than I had been — at least when shooting. Buzzer hit and I’d still move quickly to get the gun out of the holster and, from concealment, still broke sub-1.5 second draws many times. But I did find that overall my draws were slower, my splits a little increased. Why? Well, in “gaming mode” sometimes a fast-C is better than a slow-A. But here, it’s 5 seconds (or whatever) for the string — no extra points nor penalty points for using the full 5-seconds, but for sure you lose points if you hit outside the A-Zone. So I eased off the gas pedal a bit so I could ensure A-hits.

But I need to still go a little faster. Basically not as fast as competition stuff, but I feel like I’m settling into “my old habits”. I started to speed up on some of the later COFs, and it was like a middle ground: faster than before, slower than the comp stuff. I’m good with that. I’d rather be semi-fast and have consistent A-zone hits.

Second, I still need to work on mechanics, like reloading… and not flubbing that first shot after the reload.

Third, my distance shooting is better but still needs work.

One thing I haven’t documented but that I’ve been doing is ending my sessions with some group shooting. It’s been super helpful. No time limits, just shooting 5-shot groups from whatever distance.

So well, that’s what the rest of today turned into.

I set up an IPSC target. I put a 3″ “shoot-n-see” dot in the head box (which is 6″ x 6″ square). The goal was to put everything inside the 3″ dot (or better), but for sure everything at least had to be within the 6×6 box.

I started at I think 10 or 15 yards and was sucking, so I moved in closer to 7 yards. Drilled that out just fine. So I moved back to 10. Things were a little wide, then I just kept shooting 5 shot groups until things got tight. Then I’d shoot a little more to ensure I wasn’t lucky, then move back. From 10 I went to 12.5 yards. From 12.5 I went to 15. I ended up staying at 15 for some time. I never got all 5 within the 3″ dot, but I’d get close (e.g. drop 1). Even tho it wasn’t meeting the standard, it’s HUGE improvement. I wanted to keep shooting so that I could learn “what to see”. For sure, even slight movements, slight deviations were enough to throw things off. Heck, it’s a little breezy out today, and I’d even find when the breeze picked up, it would be enough to move the gun and throw things off. Had to be patient.

When I moved back to 25 yards, I changed the goal. I put a 3″ dot in the middle of the 8″ IPDA -0 circle. The goal tho was similar: strive to group in the 3″ dot, but at least within the 8″ circle. What got me here? A few times I tried to “snatch” the shot – because you will move, there will be wobble, and trying to “snatch” the shot as the sight picture goes perfect? That’s a great way to wind up in the -3 zone…. :-\   But when I just let things happen, I actually did pretty well. I’d say never smaller than a 5″ group, but that’s a HUGE improvement over how I’ve been before at 25 yards.

And remember, when I was shooting a few of the drills earlier in the day, I’d be getting A-Zone hits at 25 yards. Probably still a “bad group” (couldn’t tell given all the other prior holes in the target), but at least I was getting in the A-Zone. So yeah, this is happy improvement for me.

I called it after this figuring to just end on the good note and the slower “Zen” moments of everything.

So, back to dry fire. What to work on there?

Continue to work on draws at 15 yards, but 1. from concealment, 2. occasionally work draws at closer distances too so I don’t get myself too locked into always needing an “ideal” sight picture.

Continue to work on reload mechanics, but again from concealment.

Focus on something like a 1″ dot but also just “blank wall” and work on trigger press mechanics and other “group shooting” and trigger-control sorts of things. Small targets, trigger presses, etc.  And even try using tiny targets like this and doing draws. Sure it might take me 2 seconds to break the shot, but fine. Just make sure it’s doing all the things right.

That should keep me busy enough for the next few weeks.

Does Sweden have the answer to America’s gun problem?

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

A friend of mine posted the following article on Facebook: “Sweden may have the answer to America’s gun problem”, from Vox.

As we face a firearm crisis in America today, it’s time for hunters to stop hiding behind the Second Amendment and claim the moral high ground as our nation’s responsible gun owners.

The nation demands some action, and we, more than 13 million gun owners who hunt, are in a unique position to lead the way. Firearm registration as part of our normal licensing process could both strengthen our hunting tradition and at the same time help break the national logjam of inaction.

I started writing a response and it got too big for Facebook. So, blog post it is. 🙂

So… many interesting things about this article.

First, the underlying premise of this article is about hunting. The thing is, the Second Amendment to the US Constitution has NOTHING to go with hunting. And trying to relate Sweden’s hunting culture to the US – where, frankly, hunting culture is fading away – and the article’s premise fails because the author really fails to understand the totality of the circumstance.

It’s speaks about how guns and hunting are a healthy part of Sweden’s culture. Great! But here in the US, hunting is still alive, but today’s social standing frames hunting as evil. I mean, look at how hunters are routinely vilified, doxxed, and generally their lives destroyed by the “social warriors” these days! That’s not a healthy Sweden-like culture. As well, for most people in the US, their ONLY exposure to guns is in the news, in movies, and video games – and those things RARELY present firearms in a healthy manner. So is it any wonder that so many in the US have the viewpoint they do? So how can you really compare this to Sweden? There’s a large cultural rift, and without that underlying cultural foundation, the author’s proposal really can’t work.

As an aside, I’m not sure the author understands his own gun laws. He makes statements saying “in Sweden you can’t own a gun if…” and implies that in the US you can. I wonder if he’s ever looked at a Form 4473 before. I digress.

But really, the key premise of the article is — registration and licensing.

What the author fails to demonstrate is how this will actually solve the problem.

Because we all know that Chicago gang members are into licensing and registration…. right?

And they all use deer hunting rifles and duck hunting shotguns too, after they’ve come back in from the field (I see all sorts of gangbangers wearing blaze orange saggy pants). So the author’s desire to “start with hunters” seems to be… curious. What WILL this accomplish, apart from perhaps someone feeling good like they are “doing something”? and are somehow then morally superior (the author makes it clear that moral superiority is a desired goal), while effecting little true improvement in the problem? I mean, the author spells out that the hunters registering their hunting rifles will be checked by the game wardens, and if it’s not registered they lose their hunting privileges. Gee… that really takes a bite out of that inner-city Chicago crime.

In fact, registration schemes such as this fail to do anything useful (witness Canada’s recently dismantled system). They do waste a lot of time and money tho.

Remember: ultimately we all want the same thing: peace. None of us want innocent people to die. Where we differ is in how to achieve that end. Me? I’d like us to consider solutions that might actually achieve something, instead of trotting out the same failed solutions or solutions that have no demonstrable ability to progress us towards the desired goal. Ideas like “registration” mean nothing because CRIMINALS – you know, the people that are actually doing all this killing – will NOT abide by registration and licensing. So how will such a scheme actually help? I mean, maybe it’s just the engineer in me, but when we have limited time, limited money, limited resources, I want to pursue ideas that actually could solve the problem. To pursue known failed solutions (that will just fail again), or solutions that have no reasonable ability to affect the problem, that’s just irresponsible – because while you chase these useless solutions, people are still dying. Please, stop.

However, one place I strongly agree with the author? that knowledge and demonstrable skill are important. Of course, I’ve spent the past 8 years of my life as a professional firearms instructor. I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours of training, many certifications, thousands of hours of teaching and thousands of students taught – so I deeply understand the value and importance of knowledge and skill. I see LOTS of people whose basic firearms handling skill scares the shit out of me (I’ve had many guns pointed at me, and no it’s never fun), and what’s worse is they all say the same thing “I haven’t shot anyone”… yeah… yet. They all think they are awesome and safe, but you know… Dunning-Kruger.

Name me one place in life where more education is a bad thing, where more knowledge is a bad thing, where more skill is a bad thing! I would LOVE people to get lots of training, demonstrate proficiency, etc. (and not because it would generate revenue for me, but because ignorance kills). And frankly, a lot do that. Here in Texas, to get your hunting license you must pass a hunter education course which covers lots of useful things AND has a shooting test for proficiency demonstration. And of course, here in Texas to get your Handgun License (to allow you to carry a handgun in public, openly or concealed), you must take a class that covers topics like the law, and non-violent dispute resolution, and again you must pass a shooting proficiency test and a background check (complete with much fingerprinting). So hey, these things do exist.

But it walks a tightrope, because self-defense is a human right. And when you start to do things like mandating training, mandating licensing, etc. you create a poll tax, and we determined long ago that’s a bad thing.

I’m all for the increased responsibility the author speaks about. But to do that, we’re going to need to revisit the underlying tone of his article – one of culture. If he thinks Sweden has the answer, then we need to get closer to a Swedish culture in this regard: one where hunting is respected and a part of everyday life. If education is to be so important, then we should do things like bring hunter safety and firearms safety into our K-12 schools. Help people understand how to be safe with firearms. It may not address the criminal aspects (that’s another topic), but if we want to fulfill the author’s premise, I think it’s going to have to start with a change in the US’s cultural outlook on guns, not as bad things, but just as things.

Everyone keeps expecting gun owners to compromise on this issue. Well, compromise involves both sides making concessions.

What are you willing to concede?

2016-08-04 range log

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

On the road to USPSA “B” class.

I’m pretty sure I’m solidly there.

In dry work I’ve been focusing on two main things:

  1. draws at 10 yards
  2. reloads

Again, I’m trying to focus on dry fire as the time where I put in the work, and live fire where I evaluate how the work is going and where work need to go next.

So live time today showed that in fact my 10 yard draw work is panning out. I’m still not as fast or consistent as I’d like to be. I smoked one in 1.2 seconds — one — but found myself more in the 1.7-1.8 range on a consistent basis. That’s still a strong improvement, but certainly a ways to go (I’d like to be CONSISTENTLY around 1.5).

Reloads were better as well. Whereas I’d be hitting in the mid-3’s, I was hitting in the low-2’s, and that’d be at 7-10 yard distances. I did some “4 Aces” work at 3 yards and was hitting 1.7-ish reloads there. So all in all my reloads have improved strongly, but still a WAYS to go. I can tell for sure this is about smooth mechanics because I’d be trying to move quickly and be “jittery”, and just not being smooth with it all — a little bump trying to get it into the mag well, a little hesitation getting back on the gun, a little pause to reacquire the sights and ensure a settled in shot, etc.. Smoothing things out and being reliable and consistent here should take me where I want to be.

And while I wasn’t working on it, split times were getting better too at closer distances. For example, on the “4 Aces” runs I’d hit .15 splits. At around 5-7 yards .25-ish. But back at 10+ yards, because I’d be more worried about accuracy, I’d be maybe 0.4-ish. So again, improvement, but a ways to go still.

One cool thing was a drill I ran at 10 yards really became all about “calling your shots”. Having that front sight crystal sharp, tracking it, and based on what I saw THERE knowing what happened (or what I need to do) and knowing from that where to go. It was a bit of a magical moment. As I let myself go and trusted my sight picture more, things really improved. I still suck in the grand scheme, but today was some pretty cool improvement.

As for what to work on next, I think it’s the same: keep working on my 10 yard draws and my reload mechanics. Work on my eyes being properly focused where they need to be, so even in dry work I’m calling my shots more.

That said, I’ve also got some classes coming up soon, so I’m probably going to shift gears a little bit in both dry and live work to prep for class. Get out of the competition mindset and more into the defensive mindset.

Good stuff. Good stuff.

Red Dots for Carry?

/ hsoi

Massad Ayoob writing about red dot optics on carry guns.

Includes a summary of my boss-man, Karl Rehn’s study on carry optics. The study isn’t published yet, but you can get an idea of the findings in Mas’ article.

Ballistic Radio – Episode 172 – Lone Star Medics (and a little KR Training love)

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The Ballistic Radio Season 4 Episode 172 from July 31, 2016 is yet another good one.

The guest is our friend, Caleb Causey of Lone Star Medics. Goodness abounds.

And included in that goodness, Caleb drops a knowledge bomb from boss-man, Karl Rehn of KR Training.

Yeah – go listen.

Two arguments

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Whenever a violent tragedy occurs, two arguments emerge – one side says that everyone should be made equally harmless, while the other side says that everyone should have the choice to become equally capable.

Guess which argument I prefer…

– Phil Wong

Campus carry in Texas starts today

/ hsoi

Today (August 1, 2016), law-abiding citizens licensed to carry a handgun are able to do so in a concealed manner on certain Texas college/university campuses.

Text of the law.

Please – everyone – keep the dumbassery to a minimum.

This goes for folks carrying handguns, and also for folks carrying dildos.

There’s no reason to get hysterical.

There’s no reason to start strutting around demonstrating what a (ignorant and irresponsible) jackass you can be.

Keep it in your pants (be it a Glock or a cock).

Smile.

Be polite.

Be friendly.

Be empathic.

Texas AG files lawsuit against the City of Austin

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Official copy of the lawsuit can be found here.

It’s simple.

The City of Austin continues to violate state law.

They were asked, they were warned. The city officials obviously know the law, yet they continue to defy the law, so now the city is being sued.

Look — you don’t have to like the particulars of the law, but the law is the law. Who does this hurt? Not just the law abiding citizens of Texas, but it hurts the citizens of Austin because where do these fines come from? Where does the money come from to handle this lawsuit? The taxpayers.

We’re taxed enough.

The city’s budget is strapped enough.

It’s a flagrant disregard not just for the rule of law, but for responsible stewardship of city resources because this was entirely preventable by just obeying the law.

I mean, we plebeians are expected to obey the law. And if we don’t, we are held accountable. I’m not sure why the Mayor and City Council think they can disregard the law. Not being a very good role model for the children… 🙂

Let’s see if the City opts to be responsible and resolve this quickly, or if they’re going to stretch this out, fight a losing battle, and cost the city thousands upon thousands of dollars. Again, you don’t have to like the law. Heck, expect them to use the money not on fines for disobeying but perhaps towards getting the law changed! That’d be a more responsible use of the money.

Bottom line: Austin taxpayers should be upset that their Mayor and City Council show a flagrant disrespect for the law they are supposed to execute, and in doing so are going to cost the city thousands upon thousands of dollars.