Guns

2016-08-04 range log

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

On the road to USPSA “B” class.

I’m pretty sure I’m solidly there.

In dry work I’ve been focusing on two main things:

  1. draws at 10 yards
  2. reloads

Again, I’m trying to focus on dry fire as the time where I put in the work, and live fire where I evaluate how the work is going and where work need to go next.

So live time today showed that in fact my 10 yard draw work is panning out. I’m still not as fast or consistent as I’d like to be. I smoked one in 1.2 seconds — one — but found myself more in the 1.7-1.8 range on a consistent basis. That’s still a strong improvement, but certainly a ways to go (I’d like to be CONSISTENTLY around 1.5).

Reloads were better as well. Whereas I’d be hitting in the mid-3’s, I was hitting in the low-2’s, and that’d be at 7-10 yard distances. I did some “4 Aces” work at 3 yards and was hitting 1.7-ish reloads there. So all in all my reloads have improved strongly, but still a WAYS to go. I can tell for sure this is about smooth mechanics because I’d be trying to move quickly and be “jittery”, and just not being smooth with it all — a little bump trying to get it into the mag well, a little hesitation getting back on the gun, a little pause to reacquire the sights and ensure a settled in shot, etc.. Smoothing things out and being reliable and consistent here should take me where I want to be.

And while I wasn’t working on it, split times were getting better too at closer distances. For example, on the “4 Aces” runs I’d hit .15 splits. At around 5-7 yards .25-ish. But back at 10+ yards, because I’d be more worried about accuracy, I’d be maybe 0.4-ish. So again, improvement, but a ways to go still.

One cool thing was a drill I ran at 10 yards really became all about “calling your shots”. Having that front sight crystal sharp, tracking it, and based on what I saw THERE knowing what happened (or what I need to do) and knowing from that where to go. It was a bit of a magical moment. As I let myself go and trusted my sight picture more, things really improved. I still suck in the grand scheme, but today was some pretty cool improvement.

As for what to work on next, I think it’s the same: keep working on my 10 yard draws and my reload mechanics. Work on my eyes being properly focused where they need to be, so even in dry work I’m calling my shots more.

That said, I’ve also got some classes coming up soon, so I’m probably going to shift gears a little bit in both dry and live work to prep for class. Get out of the competition mindset and more into the defensive mindset.

Good stuff. Good stuff.

Red Dots for Carry?

/ hsoi

Massad Ayoob writing about red dot optics on carry guns.

Includes a summary of my boss-man, Karl Rehn’s study on carry optics. The study isn’t published yet, but you can get an idea of the findings in Mas’ article.

Ballistic Radio – Episode 172 – Lone Star Medics (and a little KR Training love)

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The Ballistic Radio Season 4 Episode 172 from July 31, 2016 is yet another good one.

The guest is our friend, Caleb Causey of Lone Star Medics. Goodness abounds.

And included in that goodness, Caleb drops a knowledge bomb from boss-man, Karl Rehn of KR Training.

Yeah – go listen.

Two arguments

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Whenever a violent tragedy occurs, two arguments emerge – one side says that everyone should be made equally harmless, while the other side says that everyone should have the choice to become equally capable.

Guess which argument I prefer…

– Phil Wong

Campus carry in Texas starts today

/ hsoi

Today (August 1, 2016), law-abiding citizens licensed to carry a handgun are able to do so in a concealed manner on certain Texas college/university campuses.

Text of the law.

Please – everyone – keep the dumbassery to a minimum.

This goes for folks carrying handguns, and also for folks carrying dildos.

There’s no reason to get hysterical.

There’s no reason to start strutting around demonstrating what a (ignorant and irresponsible) jackass you can be.

Keep it in your pants (be it a Glock or a cock).

Smile.

Be polite.

Be friendly.

Be empathic.

Texas AG files lawsuit against the City of Austin

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Official copy of the lawsuit can be found here.

It’s simple.

The City of Austin continues to violate state law.

They were asked, they were warned. The city officials obviously know the law, yet they continue to defy the law, so now the city is being sued.

Look — you don’t have to like the particulars of the law, but the law is the law. Who does this hurt? Not just the law abiding citizens of Texas, but it hurts the citizens of Austin because where do these fines come from? Where does the money come from to handle this lawsuit? The taxpayers.

We’re taxed enough.

The city’s budget is strapped enough.

It’s a flagrant disregard not just for the rule of law, but for responsible stewardship of city resources because this was entirely preventable by just obeying the law.

I mean, we plebeians are expected to obey the law. And if we don’t, we are held accountable. I’m not sure why the Mayor and City Council think they can disregard the law. Not being a very good role model for the children… 🙂

Let’s see if the City opts to be responsible and resolve this quickly, or if they’re going to stretch this out, fight a losing battle, and cost the city thousands upon thousands of dollars. Again, you don’t have to like the law. Heck, expect them to use the money not on fines for disobeying but perhaps towards getting the law changed! That’d be a more responsible use of the money.

Bottom line: Austin taxpayers should be upset that their Mayor and City Council show a flagrant disrespect for the law they are supposed to execute, and in doing so are going to cost the city thousands upon thousands of dollars.

 

The Cost

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…our priorities should always be:

  1. Avoid,
  2. Escape,
  3. Confront,
  4. Resist

When we jump to Confront and Resist before we absolutely need to, we’re being emotionally hijacked by the situation, our pasts, our current influences, and our egos. Allowing an emotional hijacking is no more a recipe for success than going along with any other kidnapping attempt. There’s always going to be a very high cost.

Internet common-taters take note; it’s not you who will pay the cost, so STFU.

Claude Werner once again nails it. There’s a cost involved in killing someone – and it goes far deeper than you may have ever considered.

The cost is not only borne by the individual who does the shooting but also by their family. At some point their children are going to go to school and one of their classmates is going to taunt them with ‘my daddy says your daddy is a murderer!’ No matter how justifiable the shooting may be, someone in the community who feels that self-defense is an unacceptable concept will express their feelings to their children and the children will pass it on to your children.

Yup.

There are legal costs. There are financial costs. But there are also personal, emotional, psychological, reputation, jobs, social, relationships… there are many costs.

Going to guns should be the last resort. We should do all we can to avoid, deter, deescalate, escape. When you truly consider the costs, those are all far cheaper options.

Perception is not reality

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There is half as much crime in the US right now as there was about 25 years ago. Both violent and property crime have declined pretty steadily since the early 1990s.

But Americans are more concerned about crime now than they have been since 2001.

[…]

But the massive disconnect between what crime rates actually are and what many Americans think they are shows two things. One is that in general, Americans think large societal issues are getting way worse than they actually are.

Full story (from Vox) h/t Seth Anderson Bailey.

So the reality is crime is down, and pretty much at an all-time low. Crime still happens in great numbers, but nowhere near as much as you think.

But yet, people think things are worse.

Why might that be?

Could it be due to the news media? The 24/7 need for blood in the headlines? When one thing happens in some remote part of the world, someone decides it’s “newsworthy” and suddenly it’s the story dominating all media outlets for the next week?

Hooray Internet.

Hooray the “always connected” lifestyle.

Hooray for the fear-mongers.

Hooray for those that profit from all of this.

Perception is not reality.

Look beyond the headlines. Look at the Truth.

Don’t believe the hype.

 

The importance of being honest with yourself (and setting ego aside)

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Had a long weekend at KR Training: July 16 was a Basic Pistol 2 and Defensive Pistol 1, and July 17 was a Basic Pistol 2… yes again. Classes have been selling pretty well.

I want to depart from my usual “class AAR”. I mean, what we see out of these classes from a skills perspective tends to be the same thing every time. So if you were in one of these classes and are curious about skills, just hit the Search field and read what you find.

What I want to talk about is – self-assessment.

It is vital in life to be (brutally) honestly aware of yourself, your skills, your abilities, your level, your capabilities, your limits, your strengths, your weaknesses. It’s the only way to truly achieve your goals.

We had a couple people in the BP2 class that were scheduled to stay for the DPS1 class. As BP2 progressed, it was evident that DPS1 was not going to happen for them: just too much to handle. We gave them feedback, but they also took a step back and looked at themselves and opted to skip DPS1 and come back later. I’m not sure what they will do exactly (maybe take BP2 again, maybe take some private lessons), but I am proud of them for making an honest self-assessment and doing the right thing. They set ego aside and made an honest and wise choice. In the long run, this is going to pay dividends.

There’s another gentleman that’s been around for some time. He’s taken many classes with us, and BP2/DPS1 are “below him”. But he still takes them (again) because he knows he has things to work on, skills to learn, and that he can improve – and that these classes will help him get there. His honesty, his humility, that serves him well towards progress and improvement.

Don’t feel you need to always move on to the next class, just because you’re supposed to, or especially because you just want to. If you take a class before you’re ready, you’ll just be frustrated and won’t learn. There is nothing wrong with taking the same class again; in fact, now that you’ll know the material, you’ll be able to focus on other aspects of the class, including putting more effort into the drills and really letting the material sink in. Remember the maxim: redundancy fosters learning. Taking a class multiple times, that’s redundancy, and it will lead to (improved) learning.

After you finish a class, let things digest. Take a step back. Self-assess where you are. See where you are now relative to where you were: both where you really were and where you thought you were. Now look where you want to go. Will taking the next class be the way to get there? or could taking 1-2 steps back serve you better in the long run towards achieving your goal? It all depends upon your goals, of course. But the more honest you are in your self-assessment, the willingness to put ego aside, THAT is what will help you achieve your goals in the long run.

Train hard, train smart.

2016-07-21 range log

/ hsoi

Not only did I hit the gym this morning, but I also hit the range for some practice.

While I enjoy live fire work, I have to remember that the work comes in dry-fire practice and all live fire is is validation. Where am I doing well? Where am I improving? Where do I still suck? Where do I need work? It’s also a time to explore, experiment, and push.

Karl’s been pushing me towards getting my USPSA classification (finally). I’m on the road to “B” class, and I must admit it’s been showing me a lot of things where I just suck and have room to improve.  The particular things Karl’s had me working on have certainly improved my skills already, but much of that’s been doing stuff from a gaming rig (holster, pouches, etc.). Today, I wanted to see how well those skills were translating back to my carry gear.

This past Sunday before class I had a little time so I went to the steel range and worked on my drawstroke. I set up on a 12″ steel plate at 10 yards, set the timer to a random start, and off I went. I was consistently getting 1.4 second draws from IWB holster and concealment (rip up my shirt). I could push and get 1.2 or 1.3 draws, but inconsistent. Sometimes I missed my grip, so while the index then was good, the gun was out of alignment and I’d miss. Or the converse, that I’d realize the gun was off, take the moment to adjust, and then get a 1.5-1.6 draw. And sometimes I just went faster than my eyes would handle it. But really, I’m happy with this because that sort of draw time is something I’ve been striving for — at any distance, on any size target — and just haven’t been consistent in nailing. So I’m getting there. A large part of it is certainly due to working from the gaming rig and getting those 0.9-1.0 second draws at 3-5 yards to the A-Zone. So I’m pleased.

So coming into today’s session, I wanted to shoot drills where points and time affected score. So things like Comstock or Vickers count, etc..

Started with the 3M Test, which is a favorite diagnostic. I actually did pretty crappy here. I was getting OK draws (e.g. 1.6-ish), about .25 splits, about 1.75-ish on the malfunction, but then the reloads would run 3-4 seconds. BLAH. I can do this drill in 8 seconds, but was not doing it today. I spent some time looking at what one could shoot this in, and rough numbers… a 6? I only did rough figuring, but point is that one can do this much faster. Granted, according to Tom’s scoring, shooting it clean in 10.5 seconds (125 score) is “very high skill”, so I’m exceeding the top-end scoring here… but still, I’d like to work on getting this drill down to 7 seconds. While I certainly can work on shaving time off on the draw, the splits, etc., the biggest time-sink for me is the reload.

There will be a theme.

I switched to shoot the Gila Hayes 5×5 drill just to give me some perspective. That was fine, and I did it with the Claude Werner “and do it 5 times”.

I then went on to the Rangemaster Core Skills. I scored a 98 on it (par is 100). But this is a big improvement over the last time I shot it (80). I ran into similar issues here, that I can pick up a little time here and there by getting my draw and splits down a little bit (e.g. I was creeping up on 0.4-0.5 splits as the distance increased, and about 1 second splits at 15 and 25). But more than these little things, it’s some bigger things, like the reload. As well, drawing at longer distances, because I’d take too long to set up at 15 and 25 yards.

Before I called it a day, I shot the Rangemaster Instructor Qualification. Got a 240 out of 250 (25 yards – my nemesis).

So, much to take from this in terms of what to work on:

  • Continue to work on my drawstroke. At shorter distances, continue to reinforce the mental picture of what an acceptable sight picture is. Work more at longer distances to find that sight picture. While I should work some at 25 yards and such, I think right now focusing 7, 10, and 15 yards is enough.
  • As well in the drawstroke, work on nailing the grip, maintaining a crushing grip throughout. When I did the SHO and WHO shooting, I was crushing the hell out of the gun, and while I was a little slow (because I was focusing hard on ensuring sights and trigger), I only dropped 1 WHO shot — grip grip grip. Crush hard.
  • Do more 25 yard group shooting.
  • Reloads. Reloads. Reloads. If there’s any place I could make a dramatic improvement in my times, it’s here.

So in terms of dry work, I think the next couple weeks will focus on draw on various size targets, especially those simulating 7-15 yards. And reloads, reloads, reloads.

BTW I should say, what’s my goal in all of this?

I’d like to get to USPSA “A” class. I could be wrong in this — and please correct me if I am — but my assessment feels like “A” class is pretty good for my situation. What then comes for “M” and “GM” is being able to be consistent, and consistent in playing the game. That is, “A” class has really good skills overall. But now you need to apply them within the context of the game: stage planning, and other “gaming” aspects. Plus the time and dedication to put into developing and progressing towards this very specific end. Nothing against those things, but it’s not my interest right now. Of course I say this and who knows — I get to “A” and then I may just feel the thirst for “M”. I mean, I wasn’t motivated to get my classification at all, but now that I’m on the road for it and seeing what I’m learning from it… gee if I ain’t anything but motivated to get there. 🙂 Either way, gotta get to “A” first, so first things first.