Check this out!
Over at TacticalHuntingReview they’ve got a write-up from Bill Wilson (of Wilson Combat) on the new .30 Remington AR cartridge. Bill’s been playing with it and has some really cool findings.
Guns
How quickly it fades….
I’m always amazed at how hard it is to obtain something, but then how quickly we are able to lose it. I guess it’s a part of how the human body wants to be as efficient as possible, which means it will be hard to take on things until it can be determined worthwhile to take on, and of course the faster we can shed it the better.
Of course, the opposite seems to be the case for the fat around our middles. 😉
But I noticed it while I was very active in empty-hand martial arts. I’d work really hard to gain some skill or some level of endurance, then something caused me to drop off (e.g. injury) and how quickly I’d lose what I gained. I stopped formal empty-hand practice a little while ago and have only loosely been keeping up at home (many reasons), and I can feel it in my body. I’m itching to get back to regular formal classes and have recently started to assess how to rearrange my life to make time for that (still thinking about investigating aikido).
In the July 2010 Rangemaster newsletter, Tom Givens touches upon this in a brief article about skill atrophy:
Many times, I travel somewhere to conduct a 2-3 day handgun course, and have to spend the first half of the first day going over skills the shooters are supposed to already have. Since they have not practiced since their last class, they have lost a great deal of the skill they acquired in the last class. Motor skills involving eye/hand coordination, like shooting, require maintenance (practice). Fortunately, some of the primary skills, such as presenting the pistol from the holster, can be maintained through dry practice at home.
I forget the exact wording Mr. Givens used, but he made a clear point that it wasn’t so much the duration of your practice that mattered as it was the time relation of your practice to the time you need to put those skills into use. That is, an hour-long practice session is well and good, but if you only do it once a month is it really giving you what you need? What’s more important is the relation of your practice session to when you deploy the skills, so if you had to draw your weapon in a self-defense situation a day after that hour-long-once-a-month session, you’d likely perform well. But if it’s been 3 months since your last practice, that won’t bode well for you. Thus Tom recommended something to the effect of practicing at least 2-3 days a week thus you were never more than 2-3 days from your last practice thus things would be fairly fresh in your mind. Even if that session is just 5-10 minutes of draw and present, it was still something fresher in your mind and body than a few hours of draw and present a couple of months ago.
Of course, this is just steps to keep your level of skill from degrading. Increasing your level of skill takes even more work.
Rangemaster July 2010 Newsletter
I’m a little late in posting this, but the Rangemaster July 2010 Newsletter is up.
There’s a really cool article in this newsletter about the history/origin of the use of the compact, concealed handgun in law enforcement. It’s a pretty cool read.
Top Shot? I don’t care
So SaysUncle bemoans the Internet for spoiling the ending of the latest Top Shot episode. I’m sure he’s half-joking but also half-serious.
For me? I have no idea what happened or how it ended.
And I don’t care. Well, that’s not totally true. Fellow gunblogger Caleb Giddings was on that show and due to that I was mildly interested. Since someone in Uncle’s comments mentioned Caleb I wondered if he got eliminated. Seems he did. I watched his exit interview and I must say, Caleb left with class and grace.
I really don’t care for reality television and all the “reality competition” shows (a la “Survivor”). Oh sure, I thought this show might be nice for the mainstream to see that gun people can be normal folks, so I support it. And I did watch one episode a week or two ago just because I was flipping channels, it was on, so I figured I should finally see what all the hubbub was about.
And it just made me groan.
It’s the same old crap, with high school-level drama and childishness, because we need turmoil and conflict. Whine whine whine, cut to shot of a one-on-one interview of that person giving their “I don’t like the whiner” commentary to build conflicts. In-fighting. Backstabbing. Childishness. The biggest douchebags get the most TV time and the guys getting no camera time are probably just nice guys (but there’s no TV drama in being a nice guy). And of course, very little time was actually focused on shooting. Figures. I do think the shooting stuff was kinda cool… I liked the long bow work and then how they worked the elimination competition (with the crossbows), that was kinda cool. And I did also catch that one elimination where they did the shooting off the zip line. So the shooting events seem neat, but all the rest? feh. I’ve got better ways to spend my time than watching this “reality” stuff.
But you know, maybe it’s not too far off the mark. It does show people shooting, it does show some cool marksmanship stuff. And it does show that gunnies are normal folk: we’re just as subject to drama and childishness as everyone else. 🙂
Trigger Pull Weights
Every trigger of every firearm requires a certain amount of force to press/pull/activate it. Generally speaking, the lighter the pull, the easier the trigger is to manipulate and therefore you can operate the machine more effectively.
Buddy of mine lent me a trigger pull gauge over the weekend. I just measured a bunch of my guns and the results were surprising.
I measured a stock XD-9 vs. an XD-9 with a Springer Precision trigger parts kit vs. a XD-9 with a Springer Precision installed trigger job. As expected, the trigger pull weights went down respectively. The parts kit didn’t reduce the trigger pull weight as much as advertised but I’ll also say that I wasn’t able to measure this particular gun before and after the kit, only measuring a totally different but fully stock gun. Nevertheless, the kit is a huge improvement over the factory trigger (reduced take-up, reduced over-travel, reduced pull weight). The installed trigger job I was also surprised at because I asked for a particular weight but today measured a weight about a pound above what I had asked for. I’m not sure if I didn’t get the weight I wanted or if there’s discrepancy between how they measured vs. how I measured, or maybe something with the gauge. I’m going to chalk it up to user-error in the measuring process or something about the scale itself, and trust Springer Precision did everything right (they’re a stand-up company with a good reputation and I have no reason to doubt them).
The thing is, Savage advertises that their AccuTrigger can be adjusted down to 1.5# weight. I have one such trigger and it’s adjusted all the way down, but it measured 2.75#. So… there’s an extra pound in the measurement. Is it how I’m measuring? Is it something with this scale? If we chalk it up to one of those factors, then all the issues with the Springer triggers goes away and the numbers come out about right. Or of course, it could be the trigger is actually that weight. Don’t have enough ways to externally validate the numbers I’m seeing.
It was also interesting to see how other factors of the trigger contributed to the trigger feel. For instance, my snub’s trigger weight and the weight on a particular AR single-stage trigger were about the same, but the AR trigger feels much better and to my brain always felt lighter because it doesn’t travel as far as the snub’s trigger.
Overall, I don’t care that much about the specific numbers, more that it was interesting to see what the guns came in at and how they compared to each other and then how this all entered into the feel. Just a little fun with a pull weight gauge. 🙂
Updated: I did a little more playing with this. Consider a trigger is a lever and if you pull closer to the fulcrum (where the trigger pivots) it’s going to require more force than if you pull towards the tip of the trigger. If I try almost at the tip of the trigger of the XD with the trigger kit, I lost about a half-pound of pull from my previous measurements, so that brings the pull weight reduction more in line with their advertised reductions. Trying with the Springer-installed job and while I can get a hair lower than before it’s still not down where I asked for it to be.
BP1 & AT-6
Spent the day at KR Training.
I started out helping with the Basic Pistol 1 class. As always, the class was full. The demographics ran the gamut, as it tends to. I will say there were more women in today’s class than usual, including some younger women (mother-daughter combos, which was cool). The class ran well.
The afternoon was AT-6: Advanced Training Pistol Workout. There were only a few people signed up for the class, so Karl didn’t need any help with it. Instead, he suggested I shoot the drills, which was a good suggestion. I took AT-6 a few months ago, but there’s certainly no harm in extra trigger time. Some of the drills were the same, some were different. For instance, we started off shooting the FBI Qualification test, then moved on to 25 yard group shooting. A lot of strong-hand-only and weak-hand-only shooting. Shooting on the move. You end up working things that you may not like to work, but the only way to get to be the best and a well-rounded shooter is to not just practice the things you like, but to practice the things you don’t like and practice them until you like them (thank you, Brian Enos).
Reading my assessment of the first time I took the class, I’ve certainly improved. In fact, while I was shooting today I was generally pleased with myself. I was calling my shots and knew when I screwed up a shot. One thing I continue to have trouble with is my eyes at 25 yards and finding and holding that solid and repeated point of aim with each shot. My trigger control was alright (we did ball and dummy and I wasn’t seeing any dipping of the front sight when the ball went off), it’s my eyes and what I’m (not) seeing. Speaking of eyes and triggers, I’m still not getting on the trigger soon enough… rather, I distinctly found times where I should have been on the trigger sooner but instead was like: present, find front sight, OK it’s aligned, now press the trigger. But I’m feeling it and knowing what it is. It was only a few days ago that I worked the “fast shooting” to learn what a sight picture with 0.20 second splits would look like, so it’s all just not ingrained in my head… still need to work on learning that and allowing myself to do it. Overall, happy with how things went, I know what I need to continue to work on.
In related news… for today I used my XD-9 with the Springer Precision trigger kit in it. Probably 400-ish rounds today and the gun ran like a champ. It’s still not 100% like the other gun with the really tight trigger, but it’s rather close. I know my head was focused in part on the trigger wanting to see how it felt and how it worked, and I think it did fine; if anything, my focusing on the trigger took my focus away from shooting. It’s one of those “just shut up and shoot” things… “mind no mind” and so on. Just shoot, forget about the rest. And that works out well for me. I’m pleased with the results of the trigger kit. I’ll keep shooting this gun for a while.
Good day. No sunburn. Stayed hydrated. Got some good trigger time. Good day. 🙂
Compact Gun Oil
Check this out:
Good oil in a little bottle. The bottle is small enough to be stored in any little nook or cranny of your AR, so there’s no excuse to not have lubricant handy, and thus no excuse for your AR to not be adequately lubricated.
Neat concept!
Disclosure: I have no personal vested interest in this product or endeavor, but I’m acquainted with the guy behind the venture. It was a cool bit of inspiration he had (necessity being the mother of invention), and I’m happy to help and support him in this.
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Louisiana allows guns in churches. Of course, the usual suspects are saying the usual things.
Opponents argue it’s inappropriate to have concealed handguns in church.
OK, can we keep them out in the open?
“The question Louisiana residents need to be asking themselves is: Is someone who takes a single eight-hour class fit to defend themselves should a crisis situation arise in the church?,” said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “We would say no.”
And what gives you the expertise to draw such a conclusion? I recall Tom Givens relaying a story of a woman, an immigrant, working at a convenience store. Someone came in to rob the place, and she was able to successfully defend her life. I believe she had only taken the basic handgun course and otherwise had never touched a gun in her life. Granted, an anecdote, but it demonstrates that people can defend themselves after what some obviously consider to be inadequate training. Countless others have no training whatsoever and are able to defend themselves.
Everitt said violent crimes should be handled by police officers, who have extensive training with firearms. At a minimum, he added, the law should demand more extensive requirements of churchgoers.
“There are enough people with that level of training, that level of accountability,” he said. “We are seeing the NRA moving us to vigilante-type justice with little accountability.”
Mr. Everitt, if someone attacked you right now… right this very second, are you going to wait for a police officer to arrive to handle it and take care of you? Sounds like it. Are you willing to undergo my simple experiment? I doubt it, but maybe you ought to consider it and consider the folly of your statement (I know I did many years ago, thus why I am where I am today… there was no police officer around to defend my wife when she was sexually assaulted while pushing our infant son in a stroller on the sidewalk just outside our apartment complex in a good part of town).
Vigilante-type justice? Oh please. We have to follow the law and the law does not allow for vigilantism. If someone does that, they’re breaking the law just the same and ought to be prosecuted for it. Please spare us your ignorant hysterics.
“Legal Community Against Violence believes that loaded firearms have no place in a house of worship,” Laura Cutilletta, a senior staff attorney with the group said in a written statement to FoxNews.com. “Important research confirms the common sense conclusion that more guns create more opportunity for injury and death. Houses of worship should be places where families and others can worship in peace without worry that their safety will be jeopardized by the accidental, or intentional, use of a gun.”
First, as for your important research, can you please show it to us? I’m sure Howard Nemerov would love to see your data.
As for being able to worship in peace, I agree. Just ask Jeanne Assam. She would also agree with you.
Just remember, good people, law-abiding people, are not the people you need to worry about. Guns in the hands of good people do good things (that’s why we grant police the ability to carry and use guns, isn’t it?). Guns in the hands of bad people do bad things. If you remove the guns, it’s still the same: good people do good things, bad people do bad things. And one of those bad things that bad people like to do is bring harm to good people, especially in places where good people can be at a disadvantage. Why should good people be put as victims to bad people, and have the force of law being what makes good people suffer? Where’s the “common sense” in that?
NPR on gun control — it doesn’t work
NPR… yes, NPR saying gun control doesn’t work (h/t Uncle)
Strict gun-control policies have failed to deliver on their essential promise: that denying law-abiding citizens access to the means of self-defense will somehow make them safer. This should come as no surprise, since gun control has always been about control, not guns.
NPR points out what created gun control: racism:
Racism created gun control in America. Confronted with the prospect of armed freedmen who could stand up for their rights, states across the South instituted gun-control regimes that took away the ability of blacks to defend themselves against the depravity of the Klan.
And of course, we must remember… that if it saves one life, then it’s worth it:
Advocates of gun control will not be swayed by the Supreme Court’s holding in McDonald. No matter the evidence, the rallying cry will continue: If gun control “saves just one life” it will be worth it. This plea ignores the irony of crusading for individual safety by disarming all of society. That logic can now be squarely turned on the advocates of gun control. If it saves just one life — or many, since jurisdictions with more legally owned (and carried) guns tend to have less violent crime — we should create a sensible legal framework for gun ownership that does not hamper the right of individuals to exercise self-defense.
Thus due to this:
Three times in the last month, Chicago residents have defended their homes or businesses with “illegal” guns. In the first, an 80-year-old Navy veteran killed a felon who broke into his home. In the second, a man shot and wounded a fugitive who burst into the man’s home while running from the police. In the third, the owner of a pawn shop killed one of three robbers in self-defense, sending the other two running.
That’s 3 lives saved… so allowing law-abiding citizens to posses and use guns must be really really really worth it.
Chronograph results & stats – 9mm plinking load, primer modifications
I was able to chronograph those primer modifications I made to my basic 9mm plinking load recipe. I had previously collected some performance data on that load, and that somewhat influenced how I did things on this go around.
Performance Data
General Information
I shot these the morning of 5 July 2010 @ the Austin Rifle Club. It was about 75º out, 94% humidity, altitude was 449′ above sea level, winds calm and the day generally pleasant.
I used a PACT MKIV XP timer/chronograph to record the data, with the chrono set about 10′ from the muzzle. All shots were off a heavy steel benchrest. I shot two guns: both Springfield XD-9’s, one with a 4″ barrel and one with a 5″ barrel. I did that because most of my previous data was out of the 4″ barrel and I wanted to get more data on what that extra inch of barrel would give me. I shot 10 rounds out of each gun over the chronograph screens, however not all strings recorded all 10 shots for whatever reason the chrono didn’t get it. Still, I feel enough shots went over the chrono to give me enough of an idea of how the load and modification performed.
Load Information
The point of this exercise was to test out primer modifications. The say every time you change a component you need to retest to ensure all is good, thus here we are. My basic recipe is: Berry’s 9mm TMJ RN 115 grain bullet; 4.5 grains Titegroup; mixed used brass cases; 1.135″ overall length; and Remington small pistol primers. Previously I tried out changing the bullet, and as expected there wasn’t much difference. This time around I have another bullet change (Precision Delta) but more importantly a primer change. So I ran 5 different loads:
- The base original recipe (with 11 secret herbs and spices)
- The base original recipe, but swapping a Precision Delta 115 grain FMJ ball copper jacket bullet.
- Base + PD bullet + Winchester small pistol primer (WSP)
- Base + PD bullet + Federal small pistol primer (#100)
- Base + PD bullet + Wolf small pistol primers
I also wanted a baseline factory load that was closer to the sort of load I was going for, so I ran some good old Winchester White Box (9mm 115 grain FMJ’s) for that purpose. And since I had some carry ammo that I needed to cycle out, I ran some Gold Dots over the chrono just because I could.
The Data
Winchester White Box
4″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1160.9 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 18.285 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 1.575% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 13.45 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 1.159% |
5″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1217.04 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 17.934 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 1.474% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 14.392 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 1.183% |
Base Recipe
4″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1149.689 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 14.842 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 1.291% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 12.104 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 1.053% |
5″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1201.45 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 13.585 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 1.131% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 9.97 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 0.83% |
Base Recipe + PD Bullet
4″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1137.97 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 14.824 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 1.303% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 11.79 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 1.036% |
5″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1193.012 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 9.917 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 0.831% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 7.562 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 0.634% |
Base + PD Bullet + Winchester Primer
4″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1149.967 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 11.041 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 0.96% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 9.17 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 0.797% |
5″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1199.289 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 9.996 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 0.833% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 8.452 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 0.705% |
Base Recipe + PD Bullet + Federal Primer
4″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1135.66 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 10.05 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 0.885% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 8.412 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 0.741% |
5″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1189.257 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 9.769 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 0.821% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 6.661 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 0.56% |
Base Recipe + PD Bullet + Wolf Primer
4″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1134.871 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 15.973 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 1.407% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 13.147 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 1.158% |
5″ gun
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1187.511 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 9.92 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 0.835% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 8.057 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 0.678% |
Speer Gold Dot 9mm 124 grain +P
5″ gun (15 rounds)
| Avg. Velocity (mean) | 1248.571 fps |
| Standard Deviation | 13.74 |
| Std Dev Coefficient of Variation | 1.1% |
| Mean Absolute Deviation | 11.89 |
| MAD Coefficient of Variation | 0.952% |
Analysis
I’m quite pleased with the results.
Last time I did tests, the only factory load I had to compare to was 124 grain American Eagle, which due to the bullet weight difference wasn’t apples-to-apples comparison. But based upon what I saw then I figured that my load just a hair under a factory load and the above data bears that out. I’m fine with that, it’s close enough.
The 5″ barrel gives about 50 fps more than the 4″ barrel. Due to this consistent behavior, in the future I’ll just test with one gun and do a little math if I really want to know how the other barrel will do.
Overall, the results were as I expected they would be: the changes didn’t amount to much.
Changing to the Precision Delta bullet didn’t change much, which is good. I’ve got a lot of PD bullets to use, and given that they’ve been running well and load well (compared to the troubles I’ve had with the Berry’s bullets) and are about the least expensive bullets to buy (especially in bulk), I’m sure I’ll stick with PD bullets for the foreseeable future. Consider my plinking load recipe officially changed. 🙂 One thing to consider on that front is I explicitly was trying to stay under 1200 fps because of the limits of the Berry’s bullets; but now that I’ll be using not-Berry’s bullets, I could start to change the load up for more velocity… but given the purpose of what this load is for? I see little reason to do that right now. This load is working well so why mess with it?
Changing primers didn’t seem to amount to much. One could argue the Federal primers gave me the most consistency, but this is such a small data set (20 rounds with each primer, 10 of each out of each gun) that I’m not ready to say “Federal primers are more consistent” as a general statement. I will say that now that I’m out of Remington primers I’ll probably use the Federal primers because the box they come in is HUGE and I wouldn’t mind reclaiming some shelf space. 😉
It was nice to see the load, on the whole, performed very consistently (look at the MAD CV), even more consistent than the factory loads. It’s also interesting to note that out of the 5″ barrel there was even more consistency. I’ve been wanting to move to the 5″ gun in general, and this just nudges me further in that direction.
Accuracy was acceptable for the guns and the intended purpose of the gun and these loads. Nothing here is “match grade”, I don’t expect to put ’em through the same hole at 25 yards. It was all good enough for the intent.
All in all, I’m pleased with the results. Onward!
Stuff From Hsoi 