Guns

A “Systems” Approach to Building a Profile

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

All this talk of Jeet Kune Do. Of studying various martial arts. Take what is useful and discard the rest. How do you determine what is useful and what to discard?

Over at ShivWorks there is an article “A ‘Systems’ Approach to Building a Profile” that discusses this.

What exactly is a System? A lexical definition of a system is “an arrangement of units that function together”. Following this line of logic, we would assume that when we call the data in our profile a “system” then all of it would function together. But does it by definition or even in reality?

[…]

For what you do to truly be a system, as per Webster, your “units” have to work together, or more importantly be common. The movements to deploy tools, strike, etc. need to be as close to one another in execution as they can efficiently be.

If you just take a bunch of things and mash them together, is that a system? According to the above, not unless they function together. It reminds me of my discussion of mantis blocks. Sure you could have various ways of blocking a punch or of putting up a fence or drawing your concealed handgun, but looking at the mantis technique it provides a system-like approach in that the movements are close to one another in execution; they are an arrangement of units that function together.

In the systems approach to building our combative profile, all skill sets are as similar as possible. Gun-handling is similar to knife work, knife work is similar to striking, and generally all footwork is the same. A good system should allow for the appropriate skill set to be utilized with essentially zero conscious thought, following a streamlined, learned, decision making process. With the proper system and the proper decision making process, one’s success in battle should be high.

The analogy of the system’s approach is to a well-trained unit versus a collection of individuals. A good unit, which works harmoniously, will always be more successful because everyone contributes their specific role to the overall success of the mission. Good team members in a unit compliment each other. They know their job and how it relates to their buddies’ responsibilities.

Likewise, a good system’s individual skill sets work in conjunction with one another to accomplish the overall objective of survival.

Bobbing a belly gun

/ hsoi

Cowtown Cop has a 3-part piece on bobbing the hammer off a snub nose revolver.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Excellent pictures and step-by-step instructions. Nice job!

As you readers know, I’ve been searching for a snubby to call my very own. As I’ve looked at everything that’s available in the world of snubs (that I’d be willing to shoot, vs. collector pieces), I want a few simple things:

  • All steel frame, because shooting these things isn’t fun to begin with. I want to practice with it, and having a gun that’s no fun to shoot isn’t conducive to practicing with it.
  • “Hammerless” design, preferring the “Centennial” style.

There are other things I’d like, but I’m finding the market doesn’t want to put those two things together. Every store I go into (even pawn shops), if it’s hammerless it’s a lightweight model (think S&W 642, 340, 442) or if it’s steel it’s got an exposed hammer with a spur. Yes some things exist like a S&W 640, but being chambered in .357 Magnum it’s likely to be a little bit wider and harder to conceal than say a steel-framed chambered for .38 Spc +P. I say “likely” because I don’t know for sure since I can’t find a single store that has one in stock! But everyone has 642’s.

*sigh*

So, it may wind up that I go the route Cowtown Cop shows here: getting the gun that’s what I want in most every way, then doing a mod job so it’s suitable for pocket carry. IMHO that’s still not ideal. For instance, if fired from within a pocket I could envision cloth moving in front of the pulled-back hammer and blocking a successful strike (thus the “Bodyguard” frame style that shrouds the hammer).

The quest continues.

I’ve got lemonade

/ hsoi

Over at 2AMusing, Exodus is making lemonade.

I spent today drinking of that lemonade.

He sold me his reloading setup and I got quite a deal. It’s been on my plate to start reloading, but a very low priority. Well, this came along and it was too good a deal to pass up. I’m not sure when I’ll actually start reloading, but obviously sooner rather than later. Cool!

Thing is, I intended this to be about a 3 hour effort: drive up, load up, drive home, unload, done. Instead, it turned into an all day affair. When I got there, we talked for a long time about all manner of things. One great thing was that Exodus has a history in martial arts, including western boxing. We spent a long time talking about that, or rather, him talking and me listening. I just soaked it up. I could tell from how he was talking that he is fond of it and has much information to share. I just soaked it all in. Good good stuff.

But then I drove home (stopped at foo.c‘s place to get my cooler and give him a bunch of .45 ACP bullets; he gave me a bunch of 9mm and .308 brass and whenever I set up the reloading stuff he’ll be coming down to help), unloaded, and realized I was missing a box of stuff. So, I called him back and lo… yes one box got moved behind some stuff so we didn’t see it. I had to drive all the way back to his place (about 45-60 minutes) to pick up the box. But that was OK. I got to learn a new route that will be handy for getting to that area in the future. Plus, he took me to this little tamale place near his house. OMG!!!11!11!1!111  $8 for a dozen, and they are huge, probably twice the size of the typical tamales you get. Bought 3 dozen (pork, beef barbacoa, chicken with green chilies) to bring home to the family.

Got home, ate some tamales, had a beer, life is good.

Exodus is a great guy. Just a joy talking with him, and if we didn’t have things to do I’m sure we’d have kept talking for hours. So the day didn’t quite turn out as I wanted, in terms of time spent, but like Exodus is doing… let’s make lemonade. I got to talk with him for a while, which was great. Got to get some excellent tamales. All in all, life’s good. Exodus is about to embark on a new leg of his life journey, and I wish him well in it. I think he’ll do great.

Snubby ammo

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Ooo….

In my continuing quest for a snub nose revolver, I come across this useful gem from New Jovian Thunderbolt discussing ammo for snubbies. It points to this article on some Speer Gold Dots, but I took have heard about using the .38 Special +P semi-wadcutters because they’ll be rather effective for contact and close-range shots, which is more likely what you’d be doing with a snub.

On fear

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Last night I finished reading Col. Jeff Cooper‘s book To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth.

An interesting and enlightening book. Cooper, no question has his mind set in particular ways. You may not agree with him, but without question he’s been a major influence on the craft of shooting. The book comes across as a series of “talks” or stories on a topic. Some remembering past hunting trips, told as if you were sitting around a campfire having a beer and sharing with your mates. Some passages were Cooper’s take on pistols or rifles and how to use them properly. Certainly there was a dose of his philosophy, politics, and view on life and the world.

A common question from the hoplophobes (Cooper’s term) regarding gun ownership  is “What are you afraid of?”. Questions about your mental state and your level of paranoia inevitably arise. This passage from Cooper’s book struck me in this regard:

Danger, to be appreciated, must be known. Our lives were all forfeit when we were born, but the hour of our peril is not always apparent to us. As you read this you may be seconds away from a fatal heart attack, but you are not in danger – so to speak – since you do not know that you are. Danger, in this sense, is the awareness of the possibility of imminent death. It is always a shocking experience but it need not be terrifying – and it absolutely must not be allowed to become incapacitating.

“Fear” and “terror” are words too often used in the Age of the Common Man. When I was a lad they were not admissible. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan, for example, said, “I do not know what you mean by ‘fear’. I do not want to die, if that is what you mean, but you speak as if there were something more to it than that.” Fear that nullifies a man’s ability to cope with the danger which gives rise to the fear is an unacceptable emotion. The awareness of peril, however, is not the same thing at all, because in properly organized personalities it heightens perceptivity, sets the heart and mind to greater activity, and stimulates the entire consciousness in a way not otherwise realized.

I like Cooper’s distinction here on the effects of fear. That is, if fear paralyzes you, that’s not good. If instead you are aware, accept, and acknowledge peril exists and it motivates you to greater things, that’s good.

I don’t think the world is as horrible as the mainstream media paints for us and taints our perception. I don’t think there is evil lurking around every corner waiting to pounce on me, my wife, my children. But I do know evil is out there, and it only takes one incident to be too many. I work to make myself aware of peril and allow it to motivate my heart and mind to greater activity. Denying it exists doesn’t make it not exist, it merely puts you in a state of denial. Not being prepared puts you at a disadvantage, regardless of context or situation.

Some people find it odd that I study defensive pistolcraft and martial arts, but yet my sincere hope is to never use them in contexts beyond training, practice, and recreation. Why study them if you intend to never (truly) use them? We study language because we wish to communicate with others. We study math because we wish to engage in commerce. We tend to study and learn things specifically because we wish to directly use them. But this martial stuff…. that’s one of those “I’d rather have it (the knowledge and skill) and not need it, than need it and not have it” sort of things.

How they stand, what it tells you.

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Former Texas State Representative Suzanna Gratia-Hupp:

How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual… as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.

Rather an interesting litmus test, and it holds up.

Rangemaster July 2009 Newsletter

/ hsoi

The Rangemaster July 2009 Newsletter has been posted.

Amongst other things, it contains an article about child abductions. If you’re a parent and/or work with children, take the time to read this article. It gives a better perspective about abductions. Teach your children well.

Another hog hunt

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Man, it’s been hot the past some days… 100+ degree temperatures. But that didn’t stop me from wanting to go hunting and put some more piggy parts in the freezer.

Earlier this week I called DB Hunting Ranch again, just on a whim, to see if I could do another walk/stalk hunt. They called me back and I was able to go almost immediately, so I booked something and was ready to go. A few hours later I got a callback saying that a friend of mine, Charles, called and wanted to book a walk/stalk hunt too. In the call my name was mentioned, and so they called me back mentioning this and asking if I wanted to change my date so we could hunt together. Sure! This was a complete coincidence because while Charles and I had been exchanging some emails talking about hunting, neither of us knew the other was calling DB. We both just got an itch and decided to individually scratch it, and it came together like it did. Glad it did too, because it was most fun.

So we headed back out and once again Jake was our guide. He’s got an eye and did a great job at spotting. On this hunt I saw a lot more variety than I did on the prior hunt to DB. Saw a lot of whitetail, a couple axis does, black buck, aoudad, rams. Jake kept trying to offer us some of the rams at a reasonable price, but while it would have been a quick and simple kill I didn’t see the point. I’m not going to eat the rams. I’m here for meat, not trophies. Still, it did sow a seed for the future. In fact, during the hunt we were talking about future plans for DB, things that were coming in, and it sure gets me itching for future hunts. Jake knows how to keep business rolling, which is good for him. 🙂

We did see a couple trophy hogs on the hunt. One was sleeping under a pile of brush and Charles was able to get maybe 10 feet from him before the hog took off. At that time we weren’t going to shoot the trophy hogs because of the cost. But later on as I was looking for my second pig, I was riding in the bed of Jake’s pickup leaning on the roof and Charles riding in the passenger seat (he had gotten 2 already). Jake stopped the truck and down a road were 3 pigs: 2 small ones and 1 trophy. I shouldered my new hunting rifle and tried to get a bead on the pigs but because I was so high up in the air a tree branch was obscuring any sort of shot. Damn it. Charles had leaned out the truck window and said he had a perfect bead on them but was giving me the shot. Unfortunately the pigs moved and that was that. Thing was by that point, we had decided that we’d go ahead and take a trophy pig if the opportunity gave itself again (it didn’t) and just split the cost and the meat.

In the end, we each got 2 pigs. The new Savage hunting rifle performed great and I’m pleased with it. The Federal Premium Vital-Shok .308 Winchester 165 grain Barnes Triple-Shock X-Bullet (load P308H) bullet is simply devastating. Charles was shooting a similar Federal load but in .223 55 grain Barnes bullet and had similar results. I put the crosshairs on the shoulders, hit ’em where I was aiming. So the hardware portion of the hunt was better than last time. Since I have more confidence in both my hunting skills and the hardware, I’ll go for the “behind the ear” shots in the future to help preserve the shoulder meat better.

One thing I learned from this hunt is that I need to spend more time on my rifle skills. I spend most of my time focused on handguns, and when I do spend time on rifle it tends to be more slow paced stuff often because that’s all the gun ranges will allow (e.g. shooting rifles from the bench). With these hogs, you do have to be able to move quickly. They are always on the move and you may only have a window of a couple seconds to take the shot. I need to work on that, being able to shoulder the rifle and peel off a “bullseye shot” within 2-3 seconds. I obviously shot fine, but finding ways to practice with a little more speed would be good.

Only real question this morning is what to do with all the meat. Smoke it as is, take it to Johnny G’s to make sausage. Throw a ham in the crock pot. So many choices. 🙂

Good time had. Got another hog hunt booked for next month. This one will be a night hunt.

Updated: Charles posted a write-up and a picture.

Smaller mag, bigger capacity

/ hsoi

I just learned that Springfield Armory is selling factory 13-round magazines for their XD-9 Subcompact. Clicky. I don’t know how long they’ve been selling them, but I only just learned about it.

When I bought my XD-9 SC it only had 10-rounders that would fit flush. I had seen some things online about how you could modify magazines to fit more… I think it was take the XD-40 SC magazines, fiddle with the feed lips, and viola, a couple more rounds, but I never wanted to trust that. Range maybe, but for carry and betting your life on it? I wasn’t so sure.

But now Springfield is selling them from the factory. Awesome.