Ran things a little different at KR Training this day. Normally classes run in sequence: one in the morning, one in the afternoon. But because of the nature of the classes today, and given summer is officially here and the temperatures are now nearing 100º well… if we don’t need to run in the afternoon, let’s not and avoid the sunburns and heat issues.

So we ran a Basic Pistol 2 and an AT-4. Karl and Greg did AT-4 on the big range, while Tom and I ran BP2 on the small range.

All I can say about AT-4 is at one point I had to go over to the large range. I had no idea what they were doing so what I heard was completely out of context. I hear Karl give the “Ready” command, and as soon as the timer beeped, I hear all these magazines hitting the ground. Completely out of context, it was the funniest sounding thing to hear “GO!” and then a sound like everything was falling apart instead of go-ing. 🙂  I’m sure it’s not as funny to read about, but hey… I have to get my giggles where I can. 🙂  That said, it sounds like the AT-4 went really well.

But I can speak to the BP2.

There’s really two things I want to talk about from how the class went.

1. Practice
2. Mentality

Practice

This is pretty simple. Practice what you learned. Dry work, and some live work too.

Looking at how everyone was at the start of class vs. how folks were at the end? There was improvement. But I could tell that most people were not happy with their performance. Do not take this as a bad thing! This is good! Why? Because it tells me you have set some high standards for yourself; that you want to be awesome. That’s great! Of course it’s going to take time – and work – to get there, but to see that you have set some high standards for yourself is a great sign.

Practice is what’s going to help you get there. What can you do? Start with things that we worked on in class: grip and stance, keeping that really firm and consistent grip, sight alignment, and then working that trigger. Try using the Wall Drill as a good starting point.

Work the Texas CHL test, and yes, you can work it dry. Set up a target in your house — and don’t worry about a B-27, just get something like a 6″ paper plate (or even smaller to replicate what the target would look like at 7 and 15 yards). You can find timer apps for your smartphone, set those par times, and try to work everything dry (from the ready position). Watch the front sight, make sure it doesn’t dip when you press the trigger.

Just 15 minutes of dry work every other day can do you a world of good.

If you have questions about specifics, feel free to drop us a line. Be happy to help and field any questions you might have.

Mentality

This was a big one from today.

We all have mental obstacles. Some students struggled with this today. But don’t think you’re anything odd, as I’ve been working at KR Training for about 7 years and I see this ALL the time. It’s totally normal. Shooting guns is something we have to learn to do, and because it generates a lot of noise, and the notion can be intimidating or scary for some, there can be things to overcome. Or simply, we might look at our own performance and not be happy with it; or that we’ll compare our performance to others.

Stop.

What you need to do at this point is compare yourself to yourself. Look at where you want to go, chart the course to get there. Look at where you started and how far you’ve progressed since then. Beating yourself up accomplishes nothing positive. Telling yourself what not to do actually backfires!

When you tell yourself “don’t slap the trigger, don’t slap the trigger”, what does your brain hear? Slap the trigger! And so what do you think you do? And then you beat yourself up more, and everything spirals downward.

Instead, acknowledge what you may have done “wrong”, then tell yourself what you need to do to make it better. It might be “focus on the front sight” or “slow smooth trigger press”. Whatever. Tell yourself what you need to do.

And focus on what you need to do RIGHT NOW. Yeah, the gun is going to go bang. Yeah it’s going to be loud. Yeah it’s going to recoil. Fine. Acknowledge that and know that it’s coming. But you can’t let the anticipation of that event drive you, because it will throw you off and you won’t focus on what’s going on RIGHT NOW. Right now you need to be focused on the front sight. Right now you need to be gripping the pistol hard and consistent. Right now you need to breathe. Right now you need to press the trigger slow and smooth. Right now you need to let the pistol recoil. Right now you need to reacquire your sight picture and reset the trigger. Right now is the moment to be in, what you need to do right now.

Because the context is… that dude is trying to kill you, and you can focus on what might happen later, or instead you can focus on what’s happening right now – and what you need to do right now – which gives you the ability to influence the outcome of later, y’know?

Be in the now.

Yes, shooting can be very Zen. Ask Brian Enos

Coda

A fine day. Even tho it was getting hot out, it actually wasn’t too bad. We had some clouds here and there, a really good breeze all day. Really it was great to be outside.

A couple groups of good students.

A little gunpowder.

A fine day.

Thank you all for coming out and entrusting us with your education. We hope to see you back out on the range soon. 🙂

I like relaying good customer service stories, because I think we need more of them. Seems these days people prefer to just complain when things are bad and don’t acknowledge when things are good. So, let’s add some good to the world. 🙂

When engaging in shooting sports, hearing protection is vital. My hearing protection of choice is Pro Ears. I think they make a top-notch product that has excellent hearing protection as well as amplification that’s useful in situations like firearms classes. Being able to hear what you need to hear and not what you don’t, that’s important. 🙂

I own two pairs: the Stalker Gold and the Pro Tac Mag Gold

I have the Stalker version because of the slimmer cups. This is good for things like rifle or shotgun shooting. If I know I’ll be doing a lot of it, I’ll still put some ear plugs in as well as the Stalkers. This is because the slimmer cups of course mean a little less noise reduction, but also because it’s very easy to get that cheek-weld and then bump the muffs out of place. Having the plugs in adds some extra protection, and the amplification works to keep me able to hear.

The Pro Tac Mag Gold’s are what I normally wear when shooting by myself or in classes. What I like about these is not just the large cups and best noise reduction, but this particular model uses CR123A batteries, instead of things like “N” size batteries. I already have to have CR123’s because of my flashlights, and nothing else I own uses “N” batteries. So it’s nice to be able to simplify my battery needs. Supposedly angling the cups the way they are is to help with cheek welds, but I find it’s still a little too bulky for me.

Nevertheless, I’m happy with the products. They are expensive, but preserving what hearing I have left is worth it. Too many years of loud music, motorcycles, etc., so I’ve got some hearing loss. Preserving my hearing is important to me.

What makes me happier right now is their customer service.

The headband on my Stalker’s broke, so I went to their website and ordered another. I then received an email from their customer service people asking me some questions and saying I’d get a refund.

Eh?

Did I do something wrong? Or is there maybe some sort of warranty issue? Or was it just my lucky day and I won the Golden Ticket? I didn’t know what was up. Not that I’m complaining about things, but it was just a little odd. So when I asked, this is what I was told:

Golden ticket time.  Every once in a while I reach out to customers that purchase a replacement item to find out the cause.  In this case we had a couple of people order a replacement headband within a few days and I wanted to make sure it was not a production issue.  We want to reward your cooperation and loyalty.   Thanks again.    By the way, if you have the inclination and are happy with your Pro Ears we do appreciate a review on one of the major web sites such as Amazon, Optics Planet or Midway.   Have a great day.

Best Regards,

Gary Lemanski

Wow!

So check it out.

They keep an eye on what their customers are ordering.

They aren’t just looking at sales, but they are also looking at what they are ordering. They saw something that looked odd, so they investigated.

And there was no complaining, no arguing, no nothing. I’m not sure exactly what they saw, but it seems they identified something that was important enough to take care of.

They saw a customer needed something, and they did something about it… and I didn’t have to pay for it.

Does that mean there might be a known defect? I don’t know, and I’m not going to press the issue — I asked, and they responded as they did.

I had no problem paying for it — it was my order that triggered all of this. But to see how they are paying attention to their products, to their orders, to their customers — that’s really good to see.

And Gary asked for a review on those large sites. Well, I can’t give them since usually those require you to review/comment in regards to a purchase. But if that’s all they ask in exchange? I can certainly do so on my blog here.

So thank you, Gary, and Pro Ears. An example of good customer service — service that likely goes on all the time, without customers being aware, but certainly that yields a better product and business. 🙂

 

And yet, people will still keep debating this topic…

KR Training held it’s “Beyond the Basics: Pistol” class this past Saturday. We had a full class of good students. Here’s some quick hits from my observations.

Gear Matters

Shooting is a context where gear can help or hinder you. You can increase skill with the right gear, and you can hamper performance with the wrong gear.

As discussed in class, better sights and better trigger will certainly improve your performance. Beyond that discussion tho, things like the right holster and magazine pouches go a long way as well. While this class wasn’t a high-speed-low-drag class, it wasn’t a “draw from the holster” class, certainly performance was helped or hindered by such equipment.

For example, magazine pouches need to provide quick and unhampered access to the magazines. Covering flaps slow down access. Having the “pocket” be too deep, the sides of the pouch coming WAY up the side of the magazine, doesn’t allow you to get a proper grip on the magazine. Having double-pouches that don’t put enough space between the magazines can prevent you from getting a proper grip on the magazine. The magazine pouch needs to allow the magazine to pull free without any binding or need to withdraw the magazine in a special way (Karl was testing some new magazine pouches that were difficult to withdraw from). These things may not matter when you’re slowly plinking at the range, but when you need to move quickly, these little things matter.

Speaking of magazines….

Have More Magazines

Having a lot of magazines is useful in a class situation, because the more magazines you have, the more that are loaded, the more you can keep running drills uninterrupted. I like keeping 10 fully-loaded magazines in my range bag. Usually I only run 3-4 of them in the course of a class, but I like having 10. Why? With 16 rounds in each magazine, chances are high the class will have a greater than 160 round count, so I’m going to have to reload a magazine sooner or later. Thus whenever the rest of the class breaks to reload mags, I do too. But by having some spares I have a buffer, because sometimes there isn’t time to reload (e.g. have to run to the bathroom, have to move to the next station) so I can minimize downtime and delay by just grabbing another full mag from my bag. And with something like an UpLULA I can reload quickly. Seriously, I used to scoff at that thing, but now I love it. Saves your fingers, and once you learn the rhythm you can reload mags really fast.

But really what stood out to me regarding “more magazines” was I saw a few people prep for class by taking their carry gun, taking the magazine out, stripping out their carry ammo, then reloading with practice ammo. While this isn’t a horrible sin, it’s not an ideal thing.

Consider my posting from a few days ago about magazine springs. (Yes click through and read, or at least look at the picture in the article).

Magazines wear out. They are a likely point of failure (that’s why it’s a solid idea to carry a reload). I don’t like putting a lot of wear and tear on my carry mags because I’d prefer to keep them as far away from failure as possible. Yes, modern magazines can perform quite well, and even the “worn out” ones I was using were still chugging along just fine (and I’m sure will continue to do so on the practice range), but unless you have some particular need to do this, well… take the time to invest in a few more magazines. Let your carry mags be your carry mags, keep them well-cared for, and let your practice mags be used for practice. If you pick up one new magazine here and there, each time you go shopping, before you know it you’ll have a good supply.

Speed

Everyone wants to go faster, but you can’t go faster than you can go while still getting acceptable hits. Remember your performance at the end of class on the steel plates? It’s all about speed change-ups, right? Speed is relative, and being able to make “bang bang” noises really close together means nothing if you don’t make the hits.

But remember, you don’t just go faster by purely going faster. Efficiency of motion matters a great deal.

I’ve written on this before, so I’ll link to a few articles:

Explaining “Going Faster” without necessarily “Going Faster”

and

Equipment Matters, and more on Going Faster

and

Slow Down to Go Fast

These articles are specially useful because they contain videos that manifest everything that came out of the class (changing speeds, economy of motion, etc.). Yes, click through and watch.

Solidify Your Foundation

Ask yourself something.

What is your goal? What is your purpose? Why are you taking classes?

Is it to stroke your ego?

Or is it to improve your skills and abilities?

If it’s the former, I can’t help you.

If it’s the latter, realize that the former may have to take a hit. Yeah, I’m not always thrilled about being humbled and embarrassed, I’ve got an ego too, but we don’t improve if we don’t humble ourselves now and again.

Beyond the Basics addressed a particular skill area. Because of the limits of class we can’t work on perfecting things like grip-and-stance, drawstroke, etc.. But I did see numerous students that could benefit from some attention to those areas. Seek some instruction in those areas, of shooting fundamentals. A class like our Basic Pistol 2 is fantastic for the fundamentals of sights and trigger control. A class like Defensive Pistol Skills 1 builds upon that and introduces the drawing from concealment holsters.

You don’t have to receive your training from us, tho we would love to see you again. But do seek instruction. I think a couple students in class made a good case.

One student said he had watched lots of videos, read lots, and thought he had a lot of the concepts and techniques down (and he did). But that it took having an instructor there to be able to actually watch and give him live and direct feedback that made a big difference.

Another student? If I remember correctly, this was his third time taking Beyond the Basics. These are skills we all need to work on, and it’s great to see such acknowledgement and dedication to self-improvement.

Coda

Apart from the fact summer’s officially here and it’s getting pretty hot out, it was a good day. A good group of students, cooperative weather, lots of brass on the ground…. can’t ask for much more. 🙂

Thank you all for choosing KR Training and coming out to spend the day with us. Hope to see you back on the range soon!

Regular maintenance isn’t the most fun thing, but it’s an important thing.

By no means do I have a perfect track record here, and when I do maintain things it’s not always regular. But I do try to address things from time to time.

One thing I’m semi-regular about is rotating my carry ammo. Yes I know it’s expensive, but when the flag files the last thing you want is for things to not function. While self-defense ammo is of high quality, takes many factors into account to fend off the elements, all that sweat, humidity, and other factors of being on your hip for months on end… yeah, there’s no harm in putting in fresh ammo maybe every 6 months or so. How often? Everyone debates it endlessly, so just pick a reasonable schedule and try to stick to it.

But did you think about rotating your magazines?

A lot of people treat magazines like gold, and to some extent that’s understandable. But on the whole, magazines are disposable. They should be considered wear parts that need to be replaced every so often.

Case in point:

These are 2 magazine springs. They are both from a S&W M&P9 17-round magazine.

The shorter one came out of one of the magazines I’ve been carrying for a while (honestly, don’t recall how long but probably a few years). The longer one came out of a brand new, just-removed-from-box magazine. I wish I had a brand new spring that hadn’t even been inside a magazine yet for additional comparison, but alas that was at home in the closet.

Essentially the same thing, but you can see the great difference in the older magazine.

I don’t use my carry mags for anything other than carry. They only get used maybe every 6 months when I shoot the ammo I’ve been carrying and then refill them. They still worked, they still fed properly. But no question the older springs had lost a bit of tension. What actually spurred me to get fresh mags wasn’t anything with springs or feeding, but the magazine bodies – from being up against my skin all the time, they had started to take on a little rust. Nothing big, but it was enough to make me notice and figure new ones couldn’t hurt. If not for that, I probably would have just swapped in new springs and kept the bodies.

The old ones will go into my range bag to use in practice. Ran a few magazines through the new ones to ensure they functioned correctly, then loaded them up with Gold Dots and into service they go.

I started to make a practice of every time I’d go to the store or order something online, just throw another magazine into the cart. If you buy one here, one there, next thing you know you’ve got a good stockpile. Then when you need a new one, you’ve got one — there’s not always in stock when you need them.

 

The 2015 Texas Legislative Session ended, and so some new gun laws are going into effect. Biggest press goes to the Open Carry and Campus Carry laws, but there are others.

Here’s a link to the summary of the new laws from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

There are a bunch of laws going into effect that didn’t get much press. Pay attention to those as well.

Note that a lot of other laws went into effect. For example, a knife rights preemption will go into effect September 1, which should clean things up and not make simple pocket knives illegal in places like San Antonio.

One big thing for folks to realize. While traditionally new laws go into effect on September 1, that’s NOT the case with the 2 big gun laws.

Open Carry takes effect January 1, 2016.

Campus Carry takes effect August 1, 2016, and for public junior colleges August 1, 2017.

BE AWARE.

DON’T BE STUPID.

Oh, and it seems we have a new TLA. While we figured CHL (Concealed Handgun License) would become a HL (handgun license),  it seems it will now be an LTC – License To Carry.

We LTC Instructors are still waiting to get the full skinny from DPS, so you just gotta be patient like the rest of us. Once we know, we’ll let you know.