Guns

Stand behind your product

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

It’s great when a company stands behind their product. It’s even better when the CEO and President literally stands behind their product… while being shot at with an AK-47. 🙂

Tx DPS Announces New Renewal Proces for CHL Instructors

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

This fall Texas Concealed Handgun Instructors are in various stages of renewing their instructor credentials. Some have completed their online application, others have taken the online exam, many have done both, and yet others are waiting. Everyone has been waiting to be told the details of how, with the new online renewal process in place, instructors would go about qualifying on a shooting range.

Soon all DPS-certified Texas Concealed Handgun Instructors will receive a packet of information with the detailed answer to this question and more. However, the really good news is that beginning with this year’s 2011 renewal group, instructors will demonstrate range proficiency every other renewal.

This means renewing instructors in good standing will not be required to demonstrate handgun proficiency this year. The few who might be required to demonstrate proficiency have recently lapsed credentials. These few will be notified seperately.

All questions about future range qualifications will be answered with materials in the packets. Don’t fret.

So Texas Instructors, get your online business taken care of.

DPS has two classes scheduled in October to certify new instructors as the program continues to grow. We currently have 2,680 active CHL instructors and 505,208 active Texas licensees.

The above comes direct from Alice Tripp of the TSRA.

I’m glad they finally got that straightened out. I’ve been waiting for months to find out what we CHL instructors need to do. Now we know (or soon will).

Also, it’s cool to see we have over a half a million CHL holders in Texas. The number keeps growing.

Aporkalypse Now!

/ hsoi

Oh yes. I would so love to do this.

For those quick to condem this, you’ve obviously never experienced the destructive power of feral hogs. Nor how tasty they are. 😉 Talk about your lean free-range organic meat.

LaRue Goodies!

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Lookie what Mr. UPS Man just dropped off!

All courtesy of LaRue Tactical.

I ordered their LT-104 scope mount. Of course, that’s cool, but what makes it fun is all the extra goodies LaRue throws in.

Being in Austin and LaRue just up the road in Leander, shipping was UPS but free! Then there’s the Dillo Dust, the Beverage Entry Tool (and this one is black, so it’s more tactical), the bumper stickers, the catalogs… that’s all nice. But what I liked most?

The copy of the U.S. Constitution.

The thing is, I reckon most anyone ordering from LaRue already has a copy, knows, and understands that document. So what to do with this one? Well, like the Gideon’s hand out Bible’s, I guess we can just pass this copy along to someone who needs it.

Unfortunately I don’t have 534 copies to send to all the voting members of the U.S. Congress (I’m guessing Ron Paul doesn’t need a copy). So since I only have one copy, I guess I’ll just send it to The White House. 😉

(and wordpress.com? once again, thank you for losing my entire post *sigh*)

Women, handguns, empowerment.

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Fewer women than men in the U.S. hold concealed handgun licenses and women who do carry them do so for self-defense and a need to feel empowered, according to a study by sociology graduate student Angela Stroud.

Stroud said her study, which involved 15 interviews with women who hold concealed handgun licenses, found that women seek the license to feel as powerful as men in a culture where women are taught to feel vulnerable.

Full story here. Including some quotes from local CHL instructor, Robert Greene.

I’m not sure how 15 interviews constitutes a representative sample, but here we are.

The main reason I wanted to comment on this article was this:

Starr-Renee Corbin, a manager for the Applied Research Laboratories who works with the Center for Women’s and Gender studies, said she carries her concealed handgun for self-defense, but does not carry it all the time.

“I leave the gun at home on a day-to-day basis and only bring it with me if I’m going on long drives through the state or feel there is an immediate threat,” Corbin said. “I wouldn’t agree that it gives you a sense of empowerment in every situation. It’s just something to have around just in case.”

But does not carry all the time. She only carries if she feels there’s a threat or on long drives.

You know, if we’re going to talk studies, data, and research… then she needs to carry her gun at all times… unless she has superpowers and can see the future. Data shows that most attacks happen in parking lots, going to/from your car to/from buildings (e.g. office, shopping mall, etc.). parking garages, etc.. Any time of day, not just in the middle of the night. These are your day-to-day activities! Why are you leaving yourself vulnerable during those very situations that have the higher likelihood of an attack occurring? Are you looking for an opportunity to say “damn, I really wish I had my gun right now!!”, or would you rather say “I’m so glad I had my gun on me!”? If you’d rather say the latter, the only way you can ensure it is to always carry.

I’m happy that Ms. Corbin has her CHL, I just wish she would carry it… always.

Shotgun modification

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

It was just supposed to be a simple replacement of a Side Saddle.

My old Side Saddle fell off the other week… I don’t know how it got into this state, but the holes of the mounting plate were loose… stripped. I have a few theories, but it doesn’t matter… it fell off, it had to be replaced.

So I start to apply the new plate to the side of my Mossberg 500 and I see that it doesn’t fit. That is, when the forend is slid to the rear position, the end of the forend comes in contact with the plate. Eh? I don’t recall this being a problem before? But sure enough… so I don’t know how she managed to work before, but here we are.

The solution is simple: the furniture is wood, so I took off the forend and applied a coping saw. 🙂  Took about an inch off the back end of the forend. Applied a little tung oil to seal the wood. Back together. Ah, much better.

But I got to thinking…. back in May when Tom Givens was out here for his Defensive Shotgun class, he promoted a shorter length of pull. There’s no question going from that long 14″-ish LOP down even just an inch to 13″ makes a HUGE difference in your ability to quickly mount the gun. So why not… I pulled off the 1″ thick recoil pad and tried mounting the gun. Yeah, that 1″ will do it. So why not… I taped off the buttstock, drew my lines, then applied circular saw and took an inch off the back of the buttstock. I put the original factory recoil pad back on… it overhangs a little bit, but that’s fine. I can grind or replace it later. While the factory pad isn’t the best (it’s no Limbsaver), I like that it’s got that “hard/slick” finish to it as opposed to the tack the Limbsavers have, so there’s no hang-up on clothing. Shaving off that inch makes a huge difference in the ability to quickly shoulder the gun.

And while I was at it, that elastic buttcuff to hold extra ammo? Applied a small wood screw at the base to keep the buttcuff from sliding around.

I don’t have a before picture since I didn’t plan on doing these mods, but you can see in the picture that the forend is quite clear of the side saddle, you can see the screw to hold the buttcuff, and if you look carefully at the butt you’ll see the recoil pad overhanging just a bit.

Some months ago I purchased an Aimpoint T-1 so I could put a red dot on the shotgun. When I bought the replacement Side Saddle I also found a bolt-on rail that would allow me to mount the scope atop the receiver. Well… as soon as I bolted on the rail I hated it. When I mount the gun my eye goes right down the top of the receiver and barrel, right to the brass bead front sight. With the rail, all I see is rail. Then throw that T-1 on there and I’m going to have to raise up a good deal to see things right and well. I recall checking out Tim’s shotgun when we picked up my STI Spartan… he’s got ghost rings on it and I just didn’t like how high I had to get. Oh sure, get a new stock, get a riser for the cheek weld, but that’s just more stuff to have to get, more money, more things to go wrong. You know, I ran the Givens course with the bead front sight and shot damn well. For the intended purpose of this gun? I’ll just stick with the bead because it works.

Yeah, the gun doesn’t look as pretty as it did before, yeah it was a couple of hours of redneck hacking. But it’s sure improved the shootability of the gun, and in the end, that’s far more important.

Press Release from Senator Glenn Hegar on SB 321 – Employer Parking Lot

/ hsoi
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                    

INFORMATION CONTACT

August 26, 2011                                                                                                        Craven  (512) 463-0118

Senator Hegar’s Senate Bill 321 Takes Effect, Law Abiding Texans Gain the Right to Store Firearms in their Cars While at Work

Understand your rights under the new law

 

Austin, Texas-State Senator Glenn Hegar (R, of Katy) is pleased to announce that as of September 1, Senate Bill 321 is now Texas law. The bill strengthens and protects the Second Amendment rights of hardworking Texas. As Texans readied for the new law, Senator Hegar’s office fielded some questions from employers and employees whose answers bear repeating.

Hegar’s new addition to state law prevents most employers from adopting policies that deny Second Amendment protections to their employees who wish to store legally owned firearms in their locked vehicles while at work. The bill responds to a number of instances across the state where employees have been denied the right to protect themselves while traveling to and from work because their employers have adopted overly restrictive policies. Texas joins neighboring Oklahoma and Louisiana and becomes the fourteenth state to enact a law of this type.

“It took three sessions to pass this bill, but it was worth all of the considerable effort it took,” said Senator Hegar, “Second Amendment rights are sacred in Texas, and this bill protects against the erosion of those rights. It is important that both employees and employers understand their rights under the new law, so I would encourage anyone with a question not answered here to contact my office immediately.”

One important point to first understand is that the bill applies to all employees legally in possession of a firearm.  Some have read the bill to apply only to Concealed Handgun Licensees, an interpretation easily invalidated by a quick read of the bill.  The only exception is for a small group of clearly defined hazardous chemical facilities.  Those facilities may limit firearm storage in their parking areas to those employees that possess a Concealed Handgun License.

The only employers not covered by the bill, who will retain the ability to adopt policies forbidding the storage of employee firearms in employer provided parking areas are public and private elementary, middle, and high schools, and private landowners leasing oil, gas, or mineral rights on their property.

As the bill approached becoming law, some employers announced an intention to require their employees wishing to exercise their right under the bill to disclose that intent, and in some cases, other information to human resources.  That proposal was brought forth and rejected by Senator Hegar as the bill made its way through the legislative session.  While employees will need to make their own decision, no state or federal law requires an employee to provide such notice to their employer.

Hegar’s bill balances the rights of employer and employee. Under the new law, employees regain their express right to store legally owned firearms and ammunition at their place of work, and with it, the ability to protect themselves as they travel to and from their jobs. Employers will be protected from any lawsuit resulting from the use of a firearm stored on their property, and they can still forbid an employee from carrying a firearm in company owned vehicles. Under his new law, employers will also retain the right to prohibit firearms in their offices.

“Responsible and law-abiding gun owners should never have been forced to choose between personal protection and protecting their jobs,” said Hegar, “Thankfully, no hardworking Texan will again face that difficult and unfair choice,” he concluded.

-30-

Senator Hegar served two terms in the Texas House of Representatives and now represents Senate District 18 in the Texas Senate.  He isa sixth generation Texan, and earns a living farming land that has been in his family since the mid 1800’s. He currently resides in Katy, Texas with his wife Dara, and their three children, Claire, Julia, and Jonah.

(h/t to Alice Tripp @ TSRA)

Weapon Shock Simulator

/ hsoi

Courtesy of NicTaylor00, the Weapon Shock Simulator from Ascendant Engineering Solutions.

It’s a company located here in Austin and Nathan got to tour their facility. The WSS simulates the recoil of an M4 thus reducing overall cost for testing optics (no need for live fire). Pretty cool.

There’s a video on their product page, along with a spec sheet. They need to make a YouTube version to help people share it, but still… the video’s kinda cool. Go watch. 🙂

Scaling targets

/ hsoi

Sometimes you want to practice shooting at X distance but your facilities limit you to shooting at less than X distances. What can you do? You can scale your target to simulate the distance.

The formula looks like this:

(PTH / ATH) * DTS = DfPT

PTH – printed target height, inches

ATH – actual target height, inches

DTS – distance to simulate, yards

DfPT – distance from printed target, yards.

I became interested in how to do this because I have limited space in which to perform dry fire practice. Where I have things set up, I have at at most 2 yards physically from where I can hang a target. I wanted to practice things like shooting the head A-zone on an ISPC target at 15 yards… but what did that look like? Sure I could guess and just make a tiny target (aim small, miss small, right?), but I wanted something fairly accurate to scale because there’s utility in that. So I found this formula.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say I wanted to scale down an IDPA target, which is 30.75″ tall (30″ shootable area, but we’ll account for the border too). So that means the ATH is 30.75. I only have 2 physical yards in which to work, so my DfPT is 2. Let’s say I wanted to simulate shooting the target at 7 yards, so my DTS is 7. That means my PTH is 8.79″. What that allows me to do is go into a graphics app, scale down an IDPA target to 8.79″ tall (and we maintain proportions), and print it up with my inkjet printer on 8.5″x11″ paper at the correct height to simulate my situation.

Given this, you likely want the formula in this format:

(DfPT / DTS) * ATH = PTH

where you calculate for the printed height. Given my recent work with the F.A.S.T. drill and desire to work on the press out, I wanted to print up a scaled target. A little bit of math later, and I printed up a target that was scaled to 4″ high ( (2/7)*14). Simple!

No, it’s not perfect. There’s still some spatial issues that will mess with your eyes, and when it comes to longer distance shooting you lose factors like effects of wind, gravity and velocity loss (e.g. simulating 1000 yards at 100 yards just isn’t the same as really shooting at 1000 yards). But sometimes simulation is the best you can do.