Guns

2012-07-24 dry fire practice

/ hsoi

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 1, Day 2, draws.

  1. 10 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  2. 20 reps of wall drill from holster 2H
  3. 5 reps of wall drill from holster, SHO
  4. 5 reps of wall drill from holster, WHO
  5. 10 reps draw & fire at 3/4 speed, 2H
  6. 10 reps draw & fire slow 2H

I’m trying to make the strings that don’t specify speed be at “full speed”. Granted, they aren’t as good as they could be, but I am seeing the sights and able to call my shots, which is still of use. But it just means on the 3/4 speed and slow speed to make them all perfect. From that will come the correctness.

Press

/ hsoi

This morning as I got into the shower after my workout, I looked in the mirror and realized my ass has gotten bigger.

All hail the mighty squat. 🙂

And I thought about how much I actually hate to squat. It’s always been the movement I liked the least. And I reckon it still is, relatively speaking. But I did realize that I don’t hate it as much as I used to. How to get good at what you hate? Keep doing it until you don’t hate it any more. You probably hate it because you suck at it, so keep doing it because that’s the only way you’ll stop sucking at it. It’s like shooting weak-hand-only… I still suck at it, but I don’t hate it so much because I practice it more and have gotten a lot better at it. And same with squats.

But then I started to think what my favorite lift is. I still think it’s deadlift, because there’s just something so basic about picking up heavy things. It’s probably also because it’s the lift I can move the most absolute weight with, but I really think it’s the visceral primitiveness of it all that appeals to me somewhere deep down inside.

So on that note, I was surprised to find that what came in a very close second was the Press.

Yes, Bench Press is relegated to 3rd place.

While The Almighty Bench is such a hallmark of weightroom manliness, I like the Press even more, probably because no one does it. And probably because it’s also got this visceral primitiveness… because once you pick something up, what’s a logical thing to do with it? Lift it over your head! (or maybe throw it). It’s hard to do. It’s a little scary. It’s intimidating. And you just can’t move a big number… it takes a while to work up to being able to put 45’s on and press it up for reps. It’s even more work to get to pressing your bodyweight. And so, it’s not as ego gratifying, and people are going to stay away from it because it’s hard.

And maybe that’s why I like it so much.

So by wonderful coincidence, this morning Mark Rippetoe publishes an article all about the Press.

Yes, this video is awesome:

And Mark is awesome:

But if the real reason you don’t want to press is the fact that you don’t want to confront a hole – likely a gaping-ass hole – in your strength, then the bar is right: you’re a pussy.

Lifting is hard. Lifting heavy weights is harder. Swallowing your ego and making yourself better is hardest.

2012-07-23 Dry Fire Practice

/ hsoi

Following the TLG 4-week sample dry fire routine.

Week 2, 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

Today felt like a bit of regression for some reason. I was in a hurry for sure. Was not a quality session. My own fault.

KR Training July 2012 Newsletter

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The KR Training July 2012 Newsletter is now available.

Carry a pocket gun or other small handgun? Our new Defensive Pistol Skills BUG (backup gun) class was designed specifically to train you with the small, difficult to shoot carry gun. It’s scheduled for July 28, registration is open now.

Just added: August 18th Beyond the Basics class, 8-12.

To see the entire 2012 schedule click this link
http://krtraining.com/schedule.html

Perspective on 1H Shooting

/ hsoi

Todd Louis Green has been on a roll lately with some top-notch articles. I’ve actually been meaning to write up my comments on his “1H Shooting” for a while now… better late than never I guess.

First, go read the original article. It stands alone just fine and I think Todd makes a great point about perspective. Is learning to shoot and manipulate your gun with one hand important? Yes. But how important depends upon your actual need and shouldn’t depend upon things like “well what if you’re injured in a fight?”  I mean, yes, that’s still a valid point to consider, but should it dictate that you spend all your time learning 1H shooting? Probably not. Yes you should know it and if you don’t know how to do 1H shooting and manipulations you really need to learn them. But I like Todd’s reasoning here:

But just keep in mind that the time you put into polishing your WHO double feed malfunction clearance technique is time you’re taking away from improving the skills you’re far more likely to need, like drawing and hitting at speed with two hands.

Very true. Our time and other resources are finite, so we have to keep that perspective.

But then Todd goes on to say:

For someone who hasn’t yet learned the proper way to draw, reload, and clear malfunctions both SHO and WHO I’d recommend fixing that flaw, but in terms of sustaining those skills you need to look at your actual needs. For example, competition-oriented shooters will probably never have to perform WHO draws or one-handed reloads but SHO and WHO shooting is extremely common in both USPSA and IDPA. A K9 officer, on the other hand, is extremely likely to need strong hand only skills.

So again, it all comes down to YOUR needs. What are YOU training for? What does your context require? You shouldn’t neglect things, but just find perspective. I don’t NEED WHO shooting that much, but I need to practice it more because, as an instructor, I need to be able to demonstrate things to students. I’m expected to have a higher level of skill. That said, I still don’t kill myself to practice it to death tho. As you can see from my recent dry fire logs, I have other things that need my primary focus.

Learn to shoot one-handed. Learn to manipulate your gun one handed (and consider how hardware may matter, like Dawson Precision Charger rear sights). Practice these skills, but keep perspective relative to your context and needs.

 

2012-07-20 Dry Fire Practice

/ hsoi

Following the TLG 4-week sample dry fire routine.

Week 1, Day 5

Movement

  1. 10 reps of wall drill from press out 2H
  2. 10 draws stepping right, 3/4 speed, 2H
  3. 10 draws stepping left, 3/4 speed 2H
  4. 10 reloads stepping right (reload on the move), 3/4 speed 2H
  5. 10 reloads stepping left (reload on the move), 3/4/ speed 2H
  6. 10 reps wall drill from press out 2H

Karl responded to my question about the trigger, so that’s something for me to work on.

I also thought about something last night while standing on the back patio watching the dog frolic. And this is probably something that should have hit me a long time ago, but for whatever reason it opted to hit me now.

I work at 2 speeds. I work at dry fire speed. I work at live fire speed.

I find that in dry fire I work slower. Maybe it’s because I’m trying to trying to ensure everything is done right, or maybe it’s because I don’t feel the pressure and live feedback.

I find in live fire I work faster. There’s more pressure. There’s usually a timer and a set drill (whereas dry it’s just working some fundamental skill).

Yes sometimes I work with a timer dry and sometimes live is slow and no pressure. But it just hit me that I do this, and I think it may be causing me some leve of impasse.

I grant to some extent this is how things are and should be. That I should do some things slow in dry practice because that’s how you ingrain the right movements and motions. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast and all that stuff. But this should be a deliberate choice in practice. For example, how in steps 2-5 above they are done 3/4 speed, which TLG defines as “go at a pace you are doing things right and not fumbling”. So of course, that implies steps that don’t denote speed are done full speed.

But then I get to the range and I find I go faster, and it’s not always smoother or I find myself going “gee, I had no problems with this dry”. Well, it’s because I’m not doing it like I did in dry.

My challenge to myself. Work hard in dry to do it like I should do it live, but this means doing it more correct and 100% acceptable hits, not going faster than I can handle. But the bigger challenge? Next time I do it live, I need to do it exactly like I did it in dry… at least, as far as I can perceive and measure it to be the same pace. So it may feel slow, and if it does then it does. But I want to try striving to do it all the same (except where explicitly different, like 3/4 speed) and see how it goes.

Probably not articulated very well here, but I know what I mean. 🙂

The joys of controlled flight

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Or rather, the joys of FLITECONTROL.

I love Federal Premium’s FLITECONTROL wad in their shotgun loads. It allows you to deliver a tighter payload at longer distances. I know popular (faulty) knowledge is that you want to use a shotgun to spew forth a cloud of instant death, but really you don’t want that sort of pattern. You want as tight as possible for the application at hand.

I was happy to read the new Box O’ Truth #56 doing some tests with Federal FLITECONTROL in #1 buck.  You don’t see much #1 buck, but “Old Painless” makes a viable case for it. The thing is, patterns matter because pellets matter. You are accountable for every pellet that comes out of that gun. I recall hearing a story told by Tom Givens of some police action, but I admit my memory is fuzzy on this particular story. The key thing I remember was a shotgun was involved, buckshot was involved… and all the pellets hit the bad guy… well, all pellets but one, which hit the innocent hostage. That’s not what we desire. When you have more pellets coming out of the gun, you now have more bits of lead that you have only so much control over, but still all the responsibility for. So having 15 #1 pellets vs. say 8 00 pellets, the math says with 15 you have a better chance of one going where you didn’t want it.

But then, in comes FLITECONTROL. Look at the pictures Old Painless took. Very consistent with my shotgun ammo trials. This is why FLITECONTROL is a must-have for personal defense shotgun rounds. This isn’t to encourage taking long(er) distance shots, but more so that it helps to keep the payload on target. It improves your chances of taking care of the matter at hand, and reduces chances of undesired issues.

I’m not sure I’ll adopt this #1 buck, even with the FLITECONTROL. It’s new, relatively speaking, and I’m not going to rush out and deal with this. 00 buck is pretty standard and established. In fact, I’ve desired to move from the 9 pellet to 8 pellet loads (Federal Premium Tactical FLITECONTROL 8 pellet 00 buck, reduced recoil — ATK catalog # LE133 00). But what’s cool to see from TBOT is more demonstration of FLITECONTROL and why it’s the solid (only?) choice if you’re going to use a shotgun for personal defense.

2012-07-19 Dry Fire Practice

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Following the TLG 4-week sample dry fire routine.

Week 1, 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

I need to ask Karl about something with trigger work during dry fire. Because we don’t have reset and because I’m so conditioned to “the break” and then other artifacts of dry fire, like holding the trigger back, manually cycling the slide, then reset and fire again, I notice that I always hold the trigger back. I started instead pressing the trigger, click, then releasing the trigger to about where the reset point is. So basically, working the trigger like you really would, tho there’s no reset. I think that’s better and more correct, and creates less training artifacts. But could it have any other side-effects? Hrm.

Anyways, I did that through most of the practice, and I noticed my front sight moving less. I think when I hold the trigger back I end up holding the trigger back. Coupled with my grip, it basically forms a big tight squeeze and my brain is basically thinking to clench the hell out of the gun… which causes front sight to dip, which is no good. But when I just press and release, like a real trigger press should be, dip goes away. Hrm.

Maybe I’ve been doing my dry practice wrong all this time? *sigh*

My brain hurts

/ hsoi

TLG posts about yet another SERPA ban.

And reading all the comments defending the SERPA make my brain hurt. Because all the problems are due to poor training and lack of practice, and all we need is more training and more practice and we’ll never have any problems. Or at least, I’ve never had any problems and my data set of 1 (or maybe a few more people, like my friends) never had any problems. And so my point is proven.

*sigh*

I don’t know. Maybe it’s the engineer in me that says things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.

The SERPA is not as simple as possible.

It’s design intentionally plays into what your trigger finger is otherwise trained to do — thus now your trigger finger must learn to do two things, not one, thus things are more complicated. But really, your finger is doing the same thing in both instances, and that’s why people shoot themselves with this holster. So if you want to keep from injuring yourself, you now must learn two things instead of one. By definition that’s not simpler.

More dohickies and parts means more things that can break and more things that can go wrong. I know you have ninja-like skills and will never end up on the ground, and you take meticulous care of your gear such that a pebble or grit will never ever enter the release mechanism and cause it to jam. I know it will never happen to you. But it’s happened…. just not to you. Simpler holsters don’t have this problem.

The design of such holsters fails from an engineering perspective. It is unnecessarily complex. Let’s ignore the fact more people have shot themselves in use of this holster. Let’s ignore why non-LEO’s even need retention holsters in the first place. Let’s ignore these don’t conceal very well. Let’s skip the fact that even after tons of training and practice we can still revert to lizard brain when the pressure is on, especially if things don’t go as smoothly as we always fantasized it would. Let’s ignore that someone might have a critical need to use their tools before they had the 10,000 repetitions to ingrain the new skill. Let’s just look at it from a pure engineering perspective and ask why? What problem is this solving, and is this really the best way to solve that problem? is there really nothing better? can we be willing to admit failure, if it means we can improve? and if the solution isn’t here today, then why aren’t we working on something better?

But in the end, my brain just hurts reading endless comment from the defenders. Their reasons don’t hold up. It comes off as nothing more than emotional appeals to defend their personal choices. Which to an extent makes sense… it’s how we humans work. But what are you interested in? Defending your ego, or defending your life?

2012-07-18 dry fire practice

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Following TLG’s sample dry fire routine.

Week 1, Day 3, reloads

  1. 10 reps of wall drill from press-out 2H
  2. 20 reps reload from slidelock, slow, 2H
  3. 20 reps reload from slidelock, 3/4 speed, 2H
  4. 10 reps reload from slidelock, slow, 2H
  5. 10 reps of wall drill form press-out, 2H

I need to get another set of weighted practice magazines, but I wish I didn’t have to buy through RINGS given my prior poor experiences with them. Well, I don’t need, but it does help to have magazines of full weight and that can also allow the slide to be cycled without locking.