Guns

A Girl and a Gun

/ hsoi

A local “a girl and a gun“, Julianna Crowder is featured in today’s (July 18,2012) issue of The Shooting Wire.

Founded in February of 2011 in Austin, Texas by Julianna Crowder, a female (obviously) firearms instructor, A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League was born out of Crowder’s desire to build a stronger community of women shooters.

Using a little marketing savvy and a variety of social media tools, including MeetUp.com, Crowder kicked off her A Girl & A Gun events, like Girl’s Night Out, Breakfast & Bullets, and “T” Time (the “T” is for “target” or “trigger”, natch), with just five or so participants.

And then it began to grow…and grow…and, grow faster.

This past February A Girl & A Gun celebrated its one year anniversary with 250 members. Today, they have approximately 470 members – a mere 88% growth in five months – with 11 chapters in Texas, one each in Colorado and Virginia, and chapters forming this year in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia.’

It’s been great watching Julianna work and her project grow as much as it has in such a short time.

But to author and editor Paul Erhardt, I do have to say:

A Girl & A Gun gives its members a fun, social atmosphere in which to learn about firearms, without the interference of what Michael Bane famously described as the “Little Lady Syndrome” where men are compelled to be the “experts” and end up coming across more condescending than chivalrous.

Sorry ladies. We can’t help it, it’s in our DNA.

Actually Paul, we CAN help being condescending.

Other than that, it’s a great article about Julianna’s efforts. Cheers!

Train to a higher standard

/ hsoi

There was a discussion on the Insights Training Center mailing list where someone posed a “what would you do in this scenario?” type of question. John Holschen posted some response, and this snippet in particular stood out to me:

If your question was really about the physiology of a hypothetical “hostage shot” that you have no choice but to take…
1. Anything other than a bullet in the brain or upper spine is unlikely to produce instant physiological incapacitation.
2. Not all bullets in the brain or spine will produce instant physiological incapacitation (especially from a handgun.) I.E. There are no guaranties.
On an additional note: I expect that most people in this situation would wish they were more competent in their firearms skills than they currently are (i.e. could more reliably deliver bullets to a smaller target area.)

It’s the last part that stands out.

It probably stands out to me because of this past Saturday’s Skill Builder class. We’re trying to get people to shoot to a higher standard. That B-27 target creates a horrible standard. Not just because it’s anatomically wrong, but on the TX CHL test if you get a hit within the 8 ring or higher, that’s a “good hit” earning the maximum 5 points. That 8 ring is HUGE. If you can only keep your shots within that 8 ring, you’re not doing too good. The reason is, under pressure your skills will degrade. If you can keep things in a 6″ circle even under the artificial pressure of class or competition, then when the flag flies you’ll be able to keep them i that 8-ring. If you can only keep them in that 12″ area when there’s no or very little pressure, when the flag flies you’re going to be making unacceptable hits.

I recently saw some pictures of some students that passed their TX CHL test, and the targets looked like they had been peppered by a shotgun blast (and one had a textbook case of trigger slapping/yanking). I am happy to see these folks seeking their CHL, and I hope they will seek further training to improve their skills.

In the Skill Builder, we shot at a 3″ dot and worked on groups in that 3″ dot. Then we worked to stay within the “-0″ ring of an IDPA target (8” circle) against the timer. Finally, we moved to the KRT-1 target, which has some rather small targets. The class ended with shooting the “3 Seconds or Less” drill on the A/B zones of the KRT-1, which is tougher than usual because the A/B zones on the KRT-1 are smaller than the corresponding zones on IDPA or IPSC targets.

Can you do this?

Can you do this on demand? Repeatedly?

Can you do this cold? because when you get attacked, you won’t have a chance to warm up.

You must understand that when the flag flies your skill and ability will degrade. Karl likes to bring up something Paul Ford said. Paul is ex-Austin PD and SWAT, been in a few gunfights, and Paul said something to the effect that in a gunfight you will do about 75% of your worst day at the range. So get that. It’s not your best day, it’s your worst day… and then you’ll do even worse than that. Think about your most recent bad day at the range when you just couldn’t hit shit, you just couldn’t perform. And now think about that being worse…. is that how you want to perform when your life or the life of someone you love is at stake? Or maybe you should do what it takes to ensure your worst day is at least better than most people’s best day. So that if you found yourself in that hypothetical situation that John Holschen spoke of, that you’ll have the confidence and knowledge that you can and will perform, instead of wishing you had trained harder.

2012-07-17 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

All draws from concealment, but no extra stuff involved like moving on the draw. Just focus on the draw, the press-out, and the trigger press.

I noticed I reverted to closing one eye. It’s something I have to be conscious and “fight”. But I can tell my brain isn’t totally ready to see that sort of visual input “at speed” just yet. It’ll have to get there, and the only way is subjecting it. I do need to keep this in mind next time I do live fire, so my brain can take in that visual input.

 

On small guns

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Too many people who carry a gun for personal protection choose to carry a small gun.

Why?

I reckon because they’re more concerned with daily comfort. I get a lot of fellow Texans going on about the summer heat, and how in the summer they’ll carry some tiny gun in their pocket because anything else is too hot or uncomfortable or hard to wear and conceal in summer clothing.

If that’s your choice, it is. But I myself and many others I know strap on a full-sized gun every day no problem, even in the Texas heat, and we don’t have to wear a trenchcoat to do it.

I was reading an interview with Tom Givens. I just adore Tom because he’s got so much knowledge, and is able to say everything so dead on. He’s one of the most credible sources in this area, given his personal background and that he’s had about 60 students involved in self-defense shootings. We know what he teaches works. We know he speaks from truly knowledge, not Internet Toughguy or “been around guns all my life” bravado.

I think the place where most people who carry a micro gun screw up is that they think the primary purpose of my pistol is to be comfortable and concealed. No, the primary purpose of your pistol is to fight for your life in a sudden, unforeseen crisis. So, when that crisis presents itself, that little, bitty gun is hard to grab in a hurry, it is hard to handle correctly, it’s hard to hit anything with, it doesn’t hold many bullets, and when you hit somebody with it, it doesn’t hurt much. It’s not the optimum thing to fight with. If a fight starts, I want the biggest gun I can get with the most bullets I can get in it and the biggest bullets I can stuff in it.

As an experiment, I tried carrying the M&P Shield for a while, but I gave up on it. I do believe that gun fits particular circumstances, and if it’s the biggest gun you can get then so be it. But if you can get bigger, why shouldn’t you? Tom continues:

But think about that, if you reach for a pistol only because there is a deadly threat to you or somebody you love, you better have a pistol you can fix it with. I’ve interviewed an awful lot of people after gun fights and I’ve never had anybody say to me, “You know, when the bullets started coming back this way, I wished I had a smaller, less powerful pistol with less ammo in it.”

So Caleb asks if you’re underpowered with a wheelgun:

…and as I sit here typing this am carrying a Kahr PM9. All of those guns are not my first choice, but they’re guns and that’s something.

If it’s not your first choice, then why did you choose it? Granted, circumstances may dictate, e.g. a need for very deep concealment. These things happen. But if you have the choice, why would you intentionally cripple yourself? Tom’s thoughts:

I think carrying a small, inadequate pistol may be better than nothing, but I’m not really sure about that. You might be better to just take off running instead of shooting somebody with a thoroughly inadequate gun.

In the end, it’s your life and your choice as to how you wish to value it. And yes, I’m with Tom on this one because well… a good way to help you on the road to success is to see what other successful people do and emulate them. You may not reach the same level of success as they do, or you may exceed it. But no matter exactly where you end up, your chances of succeeding due to following success tends to be greater than if you take some other path.

I’ll leave you with these words from Mr. Givens:

One of the things we do in training is reintroduce the reality of why we carry a gun, and to put a sense of urgency into it. Maybe you’ll never need it, but if you do need it, you are going to need it horribly and maybe it is going to be your life at stake.

I saw a tagline the other day on an Internet forum that I thought was just incredibly bright. It said, “It’s not the odds. It’s the stakes.” And boy, there’s a lot of wisdom in that statement.

We don’t carry the gun because of the odds we’re going to need it today. We carry it because the stakes are our own life or the life of a loved one. That is what we are literally betting. So if you go out unarmed or you go out inadequately armed, you are betting your life, you are betting your children’s lives, you are betting your spouse’s life. I am not willing to bet the lives of the people I love on some tiny, little pocket rocket.

2012-07-16 Dry Fire Practice

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Following the TLG 4-week sample dry fire routine.

Week 1, 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

Simple enough.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I’ve finally hit a breakthrough with my eyes and am able to shoot both eyes open — I still see “double” but my brain is able to cut the path and know the right visual input. I shot the dry routine this way, and will keep shooting all my dry routines this way, because obviously shooting this way is NOT ingrained in me because as far as I can recall my life-fire is still closing one eye.

Shot with my full-sized M&P9, racking the slide for a proper trigger break every time. Of course, couldn’t practice reset. If someone can make a trainer in the M&P form factor that can simulate reset with a good ApexTactical-like trigger, oh, I would buy that in a heartbeat. I will generally practice this way, unless noted otherwise.

Also noticed a strong desire to firm up my grip, especially the ring and pinky fingers on both hands… which causes a lot of “pull” and tension in the wrist flexors. But that really helps me prevent any movement in the front sight as I work the trigger. Tight tight tight… and if you think you’re tight, you probably aren’t.

 

Dry Fire routine

/ hsoi

I document my weightlifting because if you want to know progress, you need to measure it, and to measure it you need to record it.

I also think that the fact I post here somehow keeps me accountable.

So… I’m going to see about doing that with dry fire practice.

And like my lifting, it’s good to start with an established program. It gets you off the ground, it gets you working on things, and it can then help you see where you are strong and where you need more work. I know of some places I could use more work:

  • snub in general, but especially on the press-out ensuring I can get the timing for taking up all that long, heavy trigger press
  • longer-distance shooting, like 15-25 yards. Group shooting, shooting against the clock.
  • WHO
  • shooting more standards, more classifiers and qualifiers. Pushing myself and again, measuring myself.

and the list could go on, but I need to write writing and get to my point. 🙂

So I’m going to try embarking on a more regular and established dry fire routine, and document it here.

Where to start? I’m going to start with Todd Louis Green’s blog post that presents a 4-week dry fire routine. I think that’s a reasonable place for me to start. It keeps the individual practice sessions short, but the frequency is high and in many regards that’s more important. The routine focuses on all the fundamental skills, including one-handed shooting. I think it will make a good starting point.

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, but there’d always be some reason to not do it. Well, that shit stops now, and this shit starts now. 🙂

And so with that, off I go.

AAR – BP2 & Skill Builder @ KR Training, 14 July 2012

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Saturday July 14, 2012 was a bit of a different day for me at KR Training. The morning was a Basic Pistol 2 class and the afternoon was Skill Builder. It’s the Skill Builder that made things different, for me at least.

I thought BP2 ran well, and was fairly standard for what a BP2 is. People come to realize how vital trigger control is towards ensuring acceptable hits. They get their first taste of shooting to higher standards, such as trying to get all hits into a 6″ circle, shooting under the pressure of a timer, and realizing that yes, they can do it… they may need some practice, but they can do it.

But one thing dawned on me during this particular class (and note, this was just something that hit me; it is no commentary on the students). This is probably one of the hardest classes we provide. It’s not that the skills a particularly difficult. Rather, it’s a huge mental shift for most people. If they’ve shot guns before, they’ve never shot them like this. We bring a particular focus, a particular discipline. It’s not just plinking tin cans off the fence post, it’s not just aimlessly poking holes in paper until the box of ammo is empty. There’s now a focus, a point, a purpose, a direction. That everything done, every motion, every action, the way to grip, the way to hold, where to hold, how to hold, how to look, how to do, every little movement is intentional, thought out, and with meaning and purpose. Everything is geared towards making you efficient and effective at getting acceptable hits. And it’s a big shift from how people have shot guns in their past. Making that mental shift is difficult.

But it’s great to see so many people willing to make the shift. 🙂

Then came Skill Builder.

I’ve been looking forward to SB for a while. It’s something that Karl’s been working on for a while, and it’s still evolving. I’ve been looking forward to seeing and experiencing the class, given some prior discussed plans for SB’s ultimate direction. But even what I saw was different from what had been discussed, but when Karl explained his reasoning for the refined direction, it made a lot of sense. Read: KR Training doesn’t teach static courses based on 20-year-old material; constant evolution, constant improvement. It also shows why it’s important for you to keep up with your training, because things change.

Another different thing? I shot the class, instead of being full-time assistant. Oh sure, I assisted and did whatever needed to be done, but I was up on the line shooting the drills.

And I shot it with my snub. 🙂

I’ve wanted some more work with my snub, one reason being the Defensive Pistol Skills BUG class coming up in a couple of weeks. But also because I thought it’d just be fun to shoot it this way.

I shot with my S&W 442 as long as I could. That gun is set up with the DeSantis Clip Grip. That means: airweight gun, pinky dangle, and my hand gets to soak up all that recoil. I was using my .38 Special plinking reloads, but even still… the hand got tender after a bit. I’m glad I brought my S&W 640 as well. That means, all steel gun, factory grip which is full sized and rubber, and that means my hand absorbs a lot less of the recoil. I got through probably 40% of the class with the 442 and did the rest with the 640.

I shot respectably. I’m generally pleased with my shooting, given the limitations. However, I had more than a few times where I dropped the hell out of a shot. Even with the improved triggers in my snubs, that’s still a long heavy trigger press. The sights are crappy, and the grip angle is a little more “downward” than is comfortable and typical with my semi-autos, so it’s some adjustment. What it means is: more practice. Especially practice on the trigger press during the press out — given the trigger, it’s a VERY different timing than the press-out with a semi-auto. I admit, most practice I do with my snubs has been dry fire, and that just doesn’t give the same feedback. So again, I’m glad I shot the course and did so with my snub. Still, I can work on improving the timing of my press out in dry practice.

That said, SB is certainly more geared towards semi-autos, and that makes sense given 99.99% of students use semi-autos. I actually can’t remember the last time a student in a regular class used a revolver. But the COF’s ran generally fine, generally organized in a manner that worked with varying capacities, and tho I missed the tail end of a few drills due to low-capacity and slow revolver reloading and given a few drills are really geared towards semi-autos, I really liked what Karl put into the course. I like the evolution, and I think SB is really worthwhile. It’s tough, but it’s tough because it focuses on those key fundamentals that everyone needs, and presents it in a manner that will test you, help you practice, and show you where you need more practice.

Other than coming home totally exhausted and a little sunburned (stupid me didn’t put on sunscreen), it was a fine day.

City of Austin crime data

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

I was reading an article interviewing Tom Givens, and Tom is a data man. He doesn’t teach what he teaches because of something he read on the Internet or because he wants to be a tough guy. No, Tom likes looking at hard facts and evidence. Granted, Tom lives in Memphis, TN, one of the most crime-infested cities in America. In the interview Tom said:

All you have to do is go to the Bureau of Justice Statistics or the Uniform Crime Reporting system and look to see what actually happens. Look at the crime tallies for your own area, break it down by population and see what the actual threat level is.

In my city, you have about a one in eighty chance of being the victim of an aggravated assault this year alone. There are 7,500 of those, a couple thousand rapes, and five or six thousand armed robberies, so when you break it all down, you have a one in twenty chance of being involved in a violent crime this year in my city; about one in fifty in the country as a whole.

So I wondered… what about Austin?

Let’s look at a few things.

I looked at the FBI 2010 Uniform Crime Report. I looked for Austin. Note that as of this writing, 2010 was the latest data; 2011 data was starting to be reported but didn’t yet have the Austin breakdown. It reports Austin with a population of 796,310 and lists “violent crime” (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault)  at 3,790. That’s about 0.48%, or about 1 in 210. Property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson) is 45,826, or 5.75% or about 1 in 17. Austin may not be as violent as Memphis, but it’s sure not crime free.

Here’s another Austin crime data analysis I found, that looks at the 2009 data and projects 2012 data. I’m not sure how they’re making their projections, but they are projecting an increase. Now, I’m not totally sure about this because they looked at 2009 data and skipped over 2010, which I briefly looked at above and by comparison, violent crime went down in 2010 (2009 – 4,024 reported incidents, 2010 – 3,790), and property crime too (2009 – 48,026, 2010 – 45,826); population was lower in 2009 (768,970 in 2009, 796,310 in 2010). So is the trend really upwards? Hard to say based on 2 years of data. But, they did have some relative numbers too:

The city violent crime rate for Austin in 2009 was higher than the national violent crime rate average by 21.86% and the city property crime rate in Austin was higher than the national property crime rate average by 106.12%.

In 2009 the city violent crime rate in Austin was higher than the violent crime rate in Texas by 6.59% and the city property crime rate in Austin was higher than the property crime rate in Texas by 55.84%.

So according to their data gathering, Austin is higher than both the national average and state average in both violent crime and property crime. I must admit, seeing the property crime numbers surprised me. I knew property crime was a problem, but didn’t realize how it compared.

And again remember, this is only reported crime. Lots of crime happens that goes unreported. Furthermore, I reckon this is only looking at Austin proper, and likely leaves out areas that we like to consider Austin but aren’t, like Westlake or Rollingwood, Lakeway, and even “greater Austin area” like Buda, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Dripping Springs, Bastrop, etc..

I looked at the Trulia crime map for Austin. It only listed data “from 6/7 to 6/14”. I wish there was a way to list more data, say all of 2012 so far, but if there is a way I couldn’t find it. Just looking at that one week of data, I saw a few interesting things:

  • Crime trends by day was pretty steady. 6/14 had a big dropoff and I’m not sure if that was because it was Thursday or maybe they didn’t have full data for the 14th? But every other day was pretty steady.
  • Crime trends by hour? Most happened in daylight, tho certainly into the early night as well. It seemed from about 10 AM through midnight, with peaking in the afternoon (3 to 6 PM). 4-6 AM seemed to be rather unpopular.
  • Crime was most prevalent downtown and in the University area. Neither are too surprising. East Austin wasn’t as crime-riddled as stereotypes would suggest, tho 78741 around Riverside/Oltorf/South Pleasant Valley was pretty heavy. More crime in north Austin than south Austin.
  • When you look at individual crimes, one thing to observe is the scattershot pattern — it’s all over the map. Basically, there’s no “safe place” in Austin. Crime can and will happen anywhere and everywhere. Yes some areas may be more prone, but no where is immune.
  • Robbery’s tend to happen in the afternoon.
  • Assault happens any time, but seems to be moreso at lunch, dinner, and generally in the evening. Alcohol involvement perhaps?
  • Burglary hourly trend was not a surprise to me: strong during the day, from about 10 AM to about 3-4 PM. Again, this is because most people aren’t home during the day, so that’s the prime time to strike.
  • Theft runs an hourly pattern similar to burglary, tho runs a bit longer into the night.

I bet I could spend a lot of time in krimelabb and find more interesting data. And City of Austin has their CrimeViewer, but it’s too limited for what I’m trying to do. Both are good resources, but neither gives me just a flat out list of data.

Take this data for what it is. And I caution against using this data as a way to “fine-tune” your behavior, like to think that walking around outside at 5 AM means you don’t need to carry your gun. Austin may not be the most dangerous city to live in, but it’s certainly got danger. Shit happens, folks. It’s up to you how you want to handle things when the flag flies.

A bad day hunting…

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

… is just a good day. 🙂

Went out for a 24-hour hunt with Charles of TacticalGunReview.com.

Feral hogs were the target.

We headed out to his place after work Friday afternoon. Headed out to the field and sat over a stock tank for a while. Lots of deer, turkey, and cows moving and feeding, but no hogs. Charles headed off to another location. I sat and continued to watch, hopeful for hogs, but alas never saw any. I did however see lots of calves running around, charging towards the stock tank at full speed… just like any child. Even thankful for a moment that I did not decide to climb down from the stand and sit behind this one fallen stand. It would have been a better vantage point, but at one point a calf ran up to it and started bashing it with his head. If I had been down there, I would have gotten bonked pretty bad. 🙂

Just before it was totally dark, I heard a shot ring out… and squealing. Charles got something. I was hoping if there was a good sized sounder that they’d come running my way, but nothing. Went and picked Charles and his hog up. About 80#, which makes for good eating.

Cleaned the pig, relaxed with a couple cold ones, and hit the sack around midnight. Went back out around 5 AM but didn’t see much of anything. The most excitement I got was playing “will he bust me?” with a spike, and “what’s that rustling in the leaves? oh just an armadillo…”.

I didn’t “bring home the bacon”, tho Charles was kind and gave me half his pig. Thank you, my friend.

I did realize tho…. this was just what I needed. I was able to get my brain thinking about something else. Something other than computers, programming, iPhones, marketing, sales, business, teaching, whatever, anything and everything that makes up my usual go around. I got to think about the woods. I got to think about the wind. About movement patterns. Looking for signs. The hunt. Pursuit. The sounds of birds. The beauty of nature. It was just a wonderful break for my head to think about something else.

But now, I shall think about something else again: cooking. Specifically, throwing the pig in the smoker tomorrow. 🙂

Various things from the June and July 2012 Rangemaster Newsletters

/ hsoi

I totally forgot to read the June and July 2012 Rangemaster newsletters.

June 2012

Tom talks about The Drawstroke. What I really appreciate isn’t just the talk about the 4-count drawstroke, but also talking about putting the gun back in the holster. I emphasize this all the time, that you should put the gun back in the holster with the same motion (tho in reverse) and discipline as the drawstroke. The gun goes slowly back into the holster in a 4-3-2-1 direction. When we slack off is the time when Bad Things™ can happen (e.g. finger gets left on the trigger or in the trigger guard), so having discipline on both the draw and reholster are important.

Tom also writes a short piece about Barnes Bullets. I’ve been a fan of Barnes Bullets for many years, but I haven’t considered it for handgun carry ammo because of the lack of availability. But Tom and Lynn use CORBON DPX, and they give some performance data of their carry loads. What was most interesting to me was Tom shooting some of the DPX 110 grain .38 Special. It compared well to the Gold Dot 135 grain:

Another .38 Special load we tried was the Speer Gold Dot 135 grain .38 Special load, designed expressly for snubby revolvers. This load pretty much duplicated the performance of the .38 DPX load, but at the price of sharply increased recoil and blast. To me, the .38 DPX load is much more controllable in an aluminum framed snub-nose and it shoots very accurately in all three Cobra’s I have tried it in.

Interesting. I’ve shot some DPX before but I can’t recall how the recoil compares to the GoldDot. I may have to try again and see. The Gold Dot 135 is my current carry load in my S&W 442.

July 2012

This issue contains a few articles that you just have to read. This is a newsletter worth showing to people either new to guns, or maybe thinking about getting their concealed carry permit but just aren’t sure if they need it. It talks not only about various mindset issues, but has a pretty good primer on carry issues like choosing a gun and carry equipment.

Tom also presents some crime data. One that stood out to me was from the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2006. It dispels the myth that violent crime takes place in the wee hours after midnight.

6 am-6 pm 52.4%
6 pm-midnight 32.8%
midnight-6 am 10.9%

I knew this, but it’s nice to see hard numbers backing it up… for the doubters.

And for people that think we live in a safe world:

Total Violent Crime Incidents for 2006 = 5,685,620 (1 for every 54 people)

Yes on the whole we live in a safer world, but we are not immune.