Guns

Why NOT birdshot

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

So as long as we’re talking shotguns, let me again dispel the “common wisdom” that you should use birdshot.

Here’s a video of protesters in Bahrain getting shot with birdshot. Sorry I can’t embed it since it’s on liveleak. (h/t Cornered Cat)

From the FB posting:

Greg Ellifritz writes: “For everyone who thinks 12 gauge birdshot is a good defensive round…

“Apparently, in Bahrain they use bird shot to disperse crowds like cops here use tear gas. They shot one protestor in the back and later you can see his friends attempting to remove the birdshot. None of it penetrated deeper than 1/2 inch into his body. A painful bunch of little wounds, no doubt, but nothing that will reliably cause the rapid blood loss needed to make the guy stop quickly.

“Caution for the weak-stomachs out there. This one is a little bloody.”

I did find this YouTube video:

which is a different video, but the results are the same. No, it’s not pretty getting shot with birdshot. But it doesn’t really stop much of anything. These guys are in for a lot of medical treatment, it’s going to be sore, it’s going to suck, you’ll have lots of little scars, but the attackers were hardly stopped. In fact, consider that the police are specifically using birdshot to disperse the crowd — that is, they are seeking an annoying but non-lethal solution.

Food for thought.

Some will still find a way to argue and justify their decision to use birdshot. And yes, you may have a legit reason (perhaps you’re dove hunting). But on the whole, birdshot is a poor choice for personal defense. In personal defense a primary goal is to stop the attacker, and birdshot doesn’t stop the attacker.

Carry a gun in National Parks? This is why.

/ hsoi

Authorities confirmed tonight it was a stranger who stabbed and sexually assaulted a woman in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park earlier today.

Full story. (h/t Unc)

There was much uproar a couple of years back when it became permissable to carry concealed weapons in national parks (so long as you still had credentials and obeyed the local laws).

Folks wondered why in the world would you need a gun in a national park?

Let’s ignore how much of our national parkland is used for the drug trade and wandering into a marijuana farmer’s camp is probably one of the most unexpected and undesirable things that you could do.

Let’s ignore the reality of wild animals and that your stumbling upon a baby bear will not elicit a warm hug from the momma bear.

And now, we have a stabbing and sexual-assault.

It wasn’t like the woman was in some remote area of the park either. She was on the Gatlinburg Trail, which is “frequently used by joggers, walkers, and bicyclists.”

“Things like this don’t happen everyday. It is definitely a rare incident,” Melissa Cobern with the Public Affairs Office of the National Park Service said.

That may be true. But just how much comfort should the victim take in being told “but it’s a rare event you were brutally stabbed and sexually assaulted”? Statistics are of little comfort when you’re the anomaly.

 

Shotgun Primer

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Over at The Art of Manliness, they have A Primer on the Shotgun.

It’s a nice introductory piece, done with the help of Mike Seeklander… so there’s no b.s. and just good solid advice.

There’s a lot more to shotgunning than what the article can present, but that’s the limits of the medium. But it is a nice starting point for those that have no idea about shotguns and are looking into them, especially for personal defense.

I’d also suggest you take a look at the shotgun ammo trials I did a little while back.

Once you’ve read the article, if you do buy a shotgun, consider getting some shotgun-specific training. Rangemaster’s Defensive Shotgun is a good start.

And then finally, consider that a few modifications to your shotgun can be useful and make the gun more shootable and more suitable to your needs.

 

Where I took Daughter today

/ hsoi

And so yes, today I took Daughter to the range.

I also took Oldest, Youngest, and Wife.

We went to KR Training. Karl had all the steel out and we shot .22’s all morning. Shot my iron sight Buck Mark, shot Karl’s Buck Mark with a red dot scope, an M&P 22 pistol, a Ruger 10/22 with a 4×32 scope, and another Ruger 10/22 with a red dot. Just lots of .22 fun, shooting at steel, listening to it go “ping”.

The kids liked all the guns, but I think they like the rifles and red dots more. I’m not totally sure why, nor they, but my guess? Easier to shoot and get successful hits. Makes sense.

Oldest tho… I think I’m going to have to get him his own 10/22 and let him customize it. He had WAY too much fun dumping 25-round magazines. Even with 25 rounds, they run out of ammo too quickly. 🙂

Wife even had fun.

After shooting, we went up the road to the Elm Creek Cafe. All this time and I’ve never been able to eat there for one reason or another… and boy I wish I had eaten there sooner. That’s some fantastic “home cookin'” type food. Just awesome. The salad bar was full of fresh veggies from the owner’s own garden. Youngest tried frog legs… I’ve never had them either, but I tried some and they aren’t bad. Oldest had quail, which I’ve only had a time or two before. Wife had their grilled chicken friend steak and boy, that was good. And we brought home one of their dewberry pies…. we’ll have that after supper tonight. 🙂  And great hospitality too. Just good folks there.

Yes… guns are bad. They bring nothing but horrible things to this world… you know, like families spending time together. We can’t have any more of that in this world. 😉

 

Ladies can pack in style

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

It is awesome to see more women accepting responsibility for themselves and their own safety.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the number of women who got their concealed handgun license grew by 65 percent between 2006 and 2010, the latest year that data was available.

But it always bugged me that their carry options were so…. crappy. Women have different contours than men (thankfully!), and many wish to dress differently too. Thus it changes what’s available to them. Off-body carry is always an option, but I know from my years of wearing a fanny pack (even before I carried a gun) that options out there suck.

And yes, I still have ideas for making better fanny packs… someday I’ll get on it.

But looking at purses available for women? Geez… they all were horrible. I mean, maybe they were functional, but they had almost zero fashion or style.

I’m happy to hear this is changing.

From the article:

Lucky Squashbuckler – I like these. Unique designs, and nothing “screams gun”. Cute stuff here.

Gun Supply Store – These look nice as well. I like the leather options. More subdued style than the Lucky Squashbuckler ones.

Woolstenhulme Designer Bags – seems like somewhere in between, with good fashion sense.

Really, this is a lot of variety of styles, designs, and appeal. I bet you’ll find something here to like and that’s functional. And I bet if you don’t, these companies all seem open to feedback so I’d say contact them if you don’t see something that quite fits your needs. What’s the harm in asking?

I’m just happy to see more options like this coming to market.

M&P Shield, and capacity

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

The first thing about the Shield is capacity.

Maybe it’s because I came about in the age of the Tupperware Wonder Nine (i.e. Glock, etc.), with double-stacked magazines and manufacturers constantly one-upping each other in the capacity race well… I guess I like having ammo. But it’s more than simple “more”. Do some math. When you start to look at crime and gunfight statistics, you bode well to have more ammo. For example, Tom Givens‘ student incidents have ranged from 1 to 11 shots fired, average of 3.4 (if memory serves). So sure, the average can be handled with a 5-shot snub revolver, but what if you’re that guy that needed 11 rounds? Or what if you get to be the trendsetter and need 12 or more? If you think having more ammo is a bad thing, then why don’t you choose to go around with just 1 round? Capacity is good. The whole “better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it”. Be prepared. You can’t go get more ammo in the middle of a fight. And so on.

And so, going from my 17+1 full-sized M&P down to a 7+1 Shield… I feel naked, I feel like I’m taking a chance, gambling, playing odds that I don’t know if I want to play. Rational or not, it’s the feeling I get. OK, I could use the “extended” magazine and get 8+1, but honestly, if you use the extended magazine and carry IWB, then you’re almost the same size as the full-sized so you might as well carry the full-sized. Or at least, that’s how things fall on my body. It’s not exactly the dimensions of the full-sized, in terms of what “sticks out” from my hip, but it is close enough for me that it just about negates the benefit. But that 7 round “flush” magazine and the gun disappears into my side.

Here’s the thing.

You can’t really load these magazines to capacity.

Oh sure you can, but then try seating the magazine. It’s hard, because there’s a lot of backpressure on the magazine spring. To make it worse, put one in the chamber, reload the magazine to capacity, and NOW try to seat the magazine (so you get your 7-8 + 1 capacity). It’s near impossible to seat the mag. I have to clamp down really hard in a non-standard way to get the magazine to seat, and I’ve almost had a finger slip into/onto the trigger a couple of times when doing this just because it’s such a struggle (and I’m not a weak guy). I then worry about the backpressure and spring tension and if I could expect the magazine catch to fail and the mag come flying out of the gun at a most inopportune moment.

But more than that? I worry about potentially needing to perform a reload under pressure, and if it’s THAT hard to seat the magazine, that I won’t get it seated under pressure because you really have to push (struggle?) HARD to get it there. Some might say to give it a hard slap, but that won’t even do it; furthermore, that’s complicated by the fact you may not get a flat hit on the magazine basepad because of the gun’s short grip and that your palm will likely be in the way.

The only remedy I can see? download the magazine by one. This is a standard operating procedure for magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds (e.g. I load my M&P9 mags to 16), but generally sub-10-round mags you should be able to load all the way up.

Nope. Just not so here.

So really, the Shield effectively becomes a 6+1 and 7+1.

Still better than a pointed stick.

But some might argue that it’s not much better than a snub revolver. Well, I would say it is. It’s still a bit more ammo. It’s got better sights. The trigger is going to be shorter and lighter, easier for those small/weak hand people (I’ve seen people who can’t work a snub trigger, even my improved snubs with their Verne Trester action work). But of course, YMMV.

So keep this in mind if you opt to use the Shield for carry. Sure you CAN load the magazines all the way up to the manufacturer’s stated capacity, but SHOULD you? I say no, because it’s hard to seat the magazines when they’re full. Download them by one, and just accept that’s how it goes.

Carrying the Shield

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

So I bought that S&W M&P Shield, but I haven’t carried it much. Oh sure, I wore it a bit in the beginning to get some initial impressions, but after that and a few range trips it’s mostly sat. I guess the novelty wore off. 😉

Truth be told, I bought the Shield for 2 reasons. First, I bought it for teaching. At KR Training we see a lot of students with small and/or weak hands, and I wondered if this might help those people. So far, it’s panning out well in the area, and I’m pleased. I’ll continue to bring it to classes like our Basic Pistol 1 & 2 to let people shoot and use as a loaner, if they fall into that “small and/or weak hands” niche. Second, I bought it because I thought I might have personal need, but so far that need hasn’t panned out.

The thing is, if you’ve got a choice, why choose the lesser? The Shield (in 9mm) has 7 round and 8 round magazines… so at best you get 8+1, whereas a full-sized M&P gets me (in theory) 17+1. Why would I choose 8 if I could have more than twice that? Of course, context and situation dictates, but like I said, if you CAN choose the greater, why wouldn’t you? And so, I’ve been carrying my full-sized M&P because I can.

That said, I think in the interest of science I’d do well, especially as a service to students, to carry it a bit more and see how it pans out. Or the real way to read this? I bought a holster and mag pouch from Comp-Tac and they’ve been sitting on my desk untouched for a month, so I need to finally do something with them. 😉

Of course, I’ll write about how things go. Stay tuned.

An ode to the snub

/ hsoi

Seen over at Unc’s place, a wonderful poem about the snub nose revolver.

Cute for sure. 🙂

But it does point out why revolvers, specifically snubs, still have a place in our modern “plastic gun” world. I still say that snubs are not beginner guns, but they have a place.

Speaking of which… the KR Training crew had some discussions about BUG training (since most of us carry one, typically a snub), and on July 28, 2012 will be offering our first “Defensive Pistol Skills – BUG” course. If you carry a BUG — and if you don’t, why not? — it’d be a course worth taking.

Class is done — Now what?

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

After students leave a KR Training class, of course we implore them to practice what they learned. The day after class, run through your notes, do some dry practice. This will help with immediate retention of class material. Then continue to run through it in the days after class to maximize retention, even if all you can do is read notes, memorize, and do a little dry work at home. Retention is important.

But once you manage that concrete retention, what do you do to apply those learned principles in your practice?

Claude Werner has a good article about how you should practice after training.

A general outline:

  • Gather information
  • Recreate incidents
  • Prepare a practice plan
    • Drills
    • Scenarios
  • Document your results and plan your next session

You must read the article for the full skinny, but I wanted to touch on a couple of points.

When it comes to drills, it is important to measure your skill. To measure, you must have a way to measure it and then a way to keep track of it. There are numerous ways to do this. You could pick up a book like Steve Anderson’s dry fire book. You could attend some of KR Training’s new Skill Builder courses. You could use the DR Performance Practice Deck for iOS (once the update with Scoring is released… soon, I promise!). Or just look at various handgun drills or handgun standards (3 Seconds or Less is good, or maybe your state’s CHL test). Get a timer. Get a log book. Shoot things that challenge you, and include coverage of skills you’re good at and skills you need work on (that’s more important). Shoot the drills and keep track of your progress so you know where you lie. As Claude wrote:

Test yourself on your baseline and measure your results. By setting a baseline and testing it each time, you get an idea of where you are in your state of training. As your skill progresses, you may find that you want to adjust your baseline, but without a baseline, you have no idea of where you are in your training. Many times people tell me that they’re “good with a pistol,” but when I ask them what that means, I get a vague response like “I can hit the target every time.” If you’re serious about personal defense, that’s not much of an answer.

But a bigger thing to take from Claude’s article isn’t just how to shoot drills, it’s how to apply those drills. Keep an eye on the crime that happens around you. Learn what you can, study it. The more you know, the better you can address the problem. Reading things like your local police blotter can be useful.

Class is a time to acquire new skills and information, but it’s up to you to utilize what you got from class after class is over.