Guns

Rangemaster’s Defensive Shotgun – AAR

/ hsoi / 13 Comments

I spent yesterday as a student in Rangemaster’s Defensive Shotgun course, hosting at KR Training. This is my After Action Report (AAR).

Background

I’m mixed on the use of a shotgun for self/home/office defensive purposes. While there’s no questioning the brutality and lethality of a shotgun, there are numerous limitations of the platform. I still tend to lean towards an AR for home defense, but I’ve softened my stance towards the shotgun. Consequently, I’ve wanted to learn more about the “fighting shotgun”. I picked up Magpul’s Art of the Dynamic Shotgun. Last time Tom Givens was in town I picked up a copy of his new Defensive Shotgun DVD. Naturally, when I heard Tom was coming back to town to teach a shotgun course, I had to take the class. Not just because of the subject material, but I hate missing opportunities to train with Tom.

The Class

This is a “level 1” course. Everyone in the class was familiar with shooting to various levels, so there wasn’t a need to get rudimentary about all things shooting, but the class was focused on shotgun background and shotgun skillset foundations. Note: the skills presented were in the context of fighting shotgun use. This was not about sport, no clays, no skeet, no duck nor dove hunting. It’s important to understand that context.

The background part was quite useful. Tom covered history of the shotgun, different types of shotguns, different types of ammo, nomenclature, modifications and accessories. Tom’s been around and involved in so much for so long, and while he may not always focus on history, if you pay attention to the things he says and the experiences he tells about, you wind up with a greater understanding of how the gun world came to be what it is today. This is part of the reason why taking classes with Tom Givens is so worth the time and money. Sure this isn’t “tactical”, but it’s good and important to know.

The other main portion of the class was focused on basic skills of manipulation. We all know how to shoot a shotgun and make a hit, that’s not a problem. Where is the problem? Manipulating the shotgun. That was the focus of the skills portion of the class.

We worked dry for a while, on basics of stance, ready positions, moving from ready to a solid firing position. One of the biggest things we had to learn was how to deal with a pump-action shotgun. See, we’re all mostly handgunners, and whether you shoot a semi-automatic or a revolver, we press the trigger and the gun goes bang… then we don’t have to do anything to chamber the next round in order for us to make the gun go bang again. With a pump shotgun, we have work to do! So when we shoot, pressing the trigger is NOT the end of our work cycle, we must also pump the gun and THEN we’re done. The mantra for the day was “click-chunk-chunk” (or “boom-chunk-chunk”) — I named it the Tom Givens Waltz. That’s what has to happen every time you fire that pump-action shotgun: click-chunk-chunk, click-chunk-chunk, click-chunk-chunk. That must become habit. Chances are you won’t have to fire again, but then there’s a chance you might — you need to keep the gun running and ready for action.

Keeping the gun running is really what it’s all about. So we have to learn how to keep the gun well-fed since the magazine doesn’t hold much ammo. Shoot one? load one. Shoot two? load two. Techniques for keeping the gun loaded and ready to go were taught, and you do come to appreciate shell carriers on the shotgun (e.g. butt cuff, side saddle).

Tom had us run a great drill called “Rolling Thunder”. Groups of 4 or 5 people stepped up to the line, each loading 1 round in the chamber. On the go signal, the leftmost person started and shot one. As soon as that person shot, the person to their right shot, and so on down the line until reaching the last person. When the last person shot, we went back to the start of the line and now this person fired 2 shots, and so on down the line 2 shots each. Then 3 shots. Then 4 shots. Note, this meant as soon as you shot, you had to get your gun reloaded with the correct number of shells for the next go-round. The goal was to have a constant string of “boom” going off, so you had to not only pay attention to what was going on so you didn’t miss your cue, but then you had to hustle and get your gun reloaded in time to not break the string. That pressure really tells a great deal about how you need to work and function, what equipment can work under pressure, what what won’t. And if you’re going to fuck up, you’ll do it here. 🙂  A great drill for not only working all the basic skills, but pushing you and putting you, your equipment, and your techniques on trial.

Another important skill we learned was dealing with “cruiser ready” as the proper mode for keeping a shotgun. It’s simple: shotguns are not drop-safe. Mossberg told me their shotguns are drop-safe, but I’m wary. Even if theirs are, others are not. Thus, storing a shotgun with one in the pipe is dangerous and should be avoided, so cruiser-ready is the way to go. We worked on how to set this up, how to get into action, and how to properly unload and restore cruiser-ready condition. Proper unloading technique isn’t as easy as you think.

We ran mostly birdshot because — birdshot is for birds. But it’s also good for practicing basic skills because it’s inexpensive. We did run some buckshot and even did Rolling Thunder once with buckshot so people could see how bad their stance was as the recoil pushed them backwards. 🙂  Oddly, we didn’t run slugs, tho we were supposed to bring some. Not sure why we didn’t.

One great thing about being in class with a lot of other people and guns was being able to see what worked and what didn’t and how other choices worked out. This was most evident when we spent time patterning buckshot, which I’ll talk more about later.

The skills presented were the fundamentals. No, we didn’t shoot tactical courses, we didn’t get all high-speed-low-drag. In fact, most of our shooting was done standing at the 5 yard line. What we did do was learn the foundational skills necessary to run the shotgun in a defensive context and run it well, to enable us to fight and to keep fighting. Upon these skills everything will be laid.

My Takeaway

I’m happy I took the course because it addressed the key thing that I needed: manipulation skills. Whenever I tried working with a shotgun, I struggled with one key thing: reloading technique. I mentioned in my review of the Magpul shotgun DVD that the best thing I liked about that DVD was learning good reloading techniques. I took some things from the Magpul approach (e.g. first 2 shells in my side-saddle were brass up, last 4 shells were brass down), then went with Tom’s approach. In the end, I’ll probably have a hybrid of the two. But again, this key bit of manipulation is so fundamental to fighting with the shotgun and keeping it (and you) in the fight.

Another thing that that I improved upon was my grip and stance. I’ve been putting my head on the comb of the stock. No, I should be bringing the comb to my cheek. Keeps my head up, straight, and I’m not banging my thumb knuckle into my face any more. I still need to work on keeping my thumb from wrapping around the grip (that’ll be a hard habit to break), but I may not break that habit since if we’re talking “commonality of technique” across firearms well.. I keep my thumb wrapped with my handgun, why break that habit? Keeping my head up and back, bringing the gun to my cheek instead of my head to the gun, seems to have made a big difference and enough to keep me from getting whacked in the face along with the other advantages of that technique.

My shotgun is mostly factory stock. It’s a Mossberg 500, thus 12 gauge, pump action. It’s a field model (i.e. wood furniture), so it came with a long barrel, but I replaced it with Mossberg’s factory 18.5″ “security” barrel, which has a fixed cylinder choke and a simple bead sight. I learned a bit more about how to use that bead sight correctly and my confidence in using it improved. Frankly, I think the bead is pretty darn fast, due to its simplicity. Now that I know better technique, I’d like to now check out how accurate I can be with slugs; I wouldn’t be surprised if this is why Jay and I had some accuracy problems with slugs during our shotgun ammo trials.

It did make me think a bit about gun modifications. The only “true mod” to my shotgun is putting a side-saddle AND a buttcuff on it (why both? because the only ammo you’re going to have is the ammo on the gun, and is there any such thing as too much ammo?). Tom talked about decreasing the length-of-pull, and we all got to try his shotgun with a 13″ LOP. Big improvement, especially in terms of mounting the shotgun from the high-ready position. I’m going to look into doing that. Do I want different sights on the gun? Not sure, and probably not. The bead is quite sufficient, so it seems. I still tinker with the idea of putting an Aimpoint T-1 on it, mostly so I can shoot with both eyes open. But I’m really not sure. Part of the appeal of a shotgun is that it’s an inexpensive solution. Almost everyone in class had “black tactical shotguns”, save for (fellow KRT asst. instructor) Tom Hogel and myself, who both had wood furniture (Brian Brown, another KRT asst. instructor, ribs us for our use of “grandpa guns”… tho since Tom’s has an EOTech on it, it’s a tactical grandpa gun 🙂 ). When you start down that road, it’s just more and more money. Is it worth it? Perhaps. But I can tell you based upon what I saw that my almost-factory wooden Mossy did quite well, and it’s more about the person running the gun than the gun itself.

That said, I still think about getting a more “tactical” gun mostly for the extra magazine capacity and more steel parts (and less plastic). But really… there’s lots of frills and trinkets out there, whose purpose is mostly to separate you from your money.

But in the end, I’m happy with the class. I’m happy with my gun. I’m happy with how I did, and what I got from the class. Lots of practice ahead, and thankfully just about all these skills can be practice dry at home with a good set of A-Zoom snap caps.

Observations

  • 18 people in the class. All male. Ages ranged from 20-ish to 60-ish.
  • About half the people in class I recognized.
  • 15 pumps, 3 semi-autos. I think most were Remington 870’s, then Mossberg’s of various pump flavors, at least one Benelli, a Winchester. I didn’t get to directly survey every gun out there.
  • Semi-autos are going to have problems, be ammo finicky. Manual of arms may be simpler, but everything else is much more complex than a pump. Pump may require more manipulation skills, but it’s a simpler machine and should run almost anything.
  • When choosing a pump, make sure when the forend is pulled all the way back it doesn’t cover the loading port. If it does, replace it.
  • It’s important to label shotguns in class, esp. when you have a whole bunch of black Remington 870’s on the line… whose is whose? But when you have a wood stock, you don’t need a label. 🙂
  • Side-saddles and butt-cuffs are important.
  • Sling? In this context, more of a liablity than a help.
  • Rifled shotgun barrels have one specific application context, and this isn’t it.
  • If it screws onto the gun, it will screw off the gun. There’s a lot of recoil going on.
  • When it comes to buckshot, Federal’s 00 buck with FLITECONTROL, low recoil (if it’ll cycle in your gun… again, pump no problem) is going to run amazingly well. While shotgun ammo patterns can vary from gun to gun, this stuff was amazingly consistent out of any gun it shot from. Really, when it comes to choosing buckshot for your shotgun, this is the place to start… and try both the 8 and 9 pellet versions to see which works better in your gun (Tom made a good case for 8 pellet and I’ll probably pick up some eventually and see how it does in my gun vs. the 9 pellet in my gun).
    • Read my post on Shotgun ammo and patterns, with a lot of buckshot pattern pictures. If this doesn’t convince you to use Federal with FLITECONTROL….
    • Also read the Addenda because it has some good links to things like ATK’s brochure on their shotgun ammo.
  • If you pick up Rangemaster’s Defensive Shotgun DVD, it will cover a lot of what we did in class, without the shooting or helpful instructors. It’s certainly a good place to start, but I’ll tell you… I watched that DVD before I took the class. It was good, but taking the class made it come alive — you just can’t beat actually training with Tom. The DVD will be quite useful now as a reference resource, and I know watching it now that I’ll “get it” a lot more. Point? Train with Tom if you get the chance.
  • Speaking of DVD’s, the class gave me a different perspective on the Magpul shotgun DVD. I think Tom’s a little more focused, a little more no-nonsense. I’m not going to say what’s in the Magpul stuff is bad (a lot was consistent with what Tom said), but it’s a matter of the presentation. Tom’s is very honed and focused on one topic. The Magpul attempts to be honed and focused, but it doesn’t quite succeed as it’s attempting to mostly be able fighting but there’s some gaming and other presentational aspects to it. I think both are good, and them along with live-instructor training would be useful for anyone interested in using a shotgun in a fighting context.
  • And I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it a hundred more… people, sunscreen is your friend. Use it.

A big thank you to Tom Givens and his crew for coming down here to teach us. Always a pleasure and always a highly educational experience. Plus hey… it’s a lot of fun. 🙂

Magazines in pockets

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

John Farnam has a quip about carrying spare magazines in pants pockets.

Last weekend, a student did just that, and, during a tactical drill involving movement, he was unable to complete a reload, despite repeated, enthusiastic attempts! The new magazine (when he, at long-last, finally fished it out of his pocket) refused to lock into place within the pistol.

A close examination revealed the issue: A single dime, that had been sharing the same pocket occupied by the spare magazine, had wedged itself between the top round and the feed-lips. How it found its way into that exact spot is a continuing source of mystery, but it somehow managed, and the anguished result was a magazine that adamantly refused to fully insert!

John’s conclusion is sound….

Don’t carry spare magazines in pockets, rattling around in the bottom of handbags, nor other inappropriate places, where coins, paper-clips, lint, and other objects that may be sharing the same place will find their way into the magazine in such a way as to make a hash of your next attempt at a rapid reload!

…. but I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say not to carry one in your pocket, period.

I will say the realities of pocket carry are true, thus you must carry accordingly. I would not carry a mag loose in my pocket. Instead, use a mag pouch made for pocket carry, like the DeSantis Mag-Packer. This protects the open end of the magazine, plus it holds the magazine in a known and stable position for a reliable draw. Furthermore, it breaks up the outline of the magazine in your pocket to aid in concealment.

The other part of the equation is your pocket must be dedicated to carrying the magazine (in its pouch). If you have anything else in the pocket, like coins, they can still find their way into things… and Murphy’s Law will be with you when you least need it. If you don’t have enough pockets to carry all your stuff, you’ll have to come up with another solution: more pockets (e.g. cargo shorts), carrying on your belt instead of the pocket, or even foregoing a reload (tho I’d consider this only as a last resort). I’m sure you can get creative with alternative methods, but be sure you practice with that method and work to find the faults and problems and debug the solution before your life depends upon it.

KR Training May 2011 Newsletter

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

The KR Training May 2011 newsletter is now available.

A few quick points:

This Saturday’s Ladies-only Pistol course with Lynn Givens had a few slots open up. Ladies, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to train with Lynn and Tom Givens!

And this Sunday’s Shotgun course with Tom Givens had one slot open up.

Otherwise, lots of good stuff in this newsletter, including a report from the 2011 Polite Society Conference. Karl came in 2nd place and Tim Meyers (blog reader and KRT student) came in 3rd. Awesome!

I also want to point out this article from Karl about group shooting. I know I need more work in that area myself.

Go read!

Guns in bars

/ hsoi

There are people who wonder why anyone would want to allow someone to carry a gun in a bar.

This past Friday I went to a local club to see a band play. I don’t know of the venue policy towards concealed carry, but having been there in the past I don’t recall seeing any prohibitive signs (e.g. 30.06, 51% or other signs that prohibit legal concealed carry in Texas), nor do I recall any sort of check done at the door (e.g. wands, frisking, bag searches). So I’m pretty sure I would have been fine to carry. If I did carry, I would have chosen a more restrictive means of carry, since being in tight crowds, people are going to bump into it, you will get jostled about if you’re near the mosh pit, and things could be revealed or loosened.

Nevertheless, just because the venue was one way before doesn’t mean it’s that way this time around (I’ve been to venues with changing behaviors), so I just equip myself with alternative but acceptable mechanisms and leave the carry gun at home.

What always bothers me about it is I know what goes on at shows — especially heavy metal shows. There’s beer, there’s pot, and there’s a lot of testosterone. Mix that up with aggressive music, and it could mean trouble. Granted, most of the time it does not mean trouble. In fact, the only trouble I saw at this show was some kid and his friend getting kicked out for underage drinking. I’ve been to hundreds of shows over my life, and most of the time it is not a problem. If someone does get a little too stupid, usually it’s someone drank too much and can’t handle their alcohol so their friends or the bouncers take care of things easily. I’ve seen the pit get ugly a couple of times, but the group usually clamps down on that because there’s an unwritten code to follow and malicious violence is not tolerated.

But I guess… the day Darrell Abbott, better known as “Dimebag Darrell” legendary guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan, was brutally murdered while performing on stage…. and then some other stories not too long after that (I recall one of someone getting knifed)…. it gives you pause.

Then you have stories like these.

So why would it be bad if I carried my gun in a bar/restaurant/venue? Under the license agreement, I cannot drink. In fact, I didn’t drink at the show anyways because 1. it’s expensive, 2. I prefer having my faculties about me, not just if something went down but I can enjoy the show a lot more if I’m sober.

The reality? I’m sure there were people packing guns and other weapons at the show, likely illegally. You know… gang members don’t really care about laws. Even if the venue had signs prohibiting it, do you think they would have cared? Obviously no signs nor fences nor bouncers or lack of ticket nor much of anything deterred Nathan Gale.

Yes, statistics show that things are generally safe. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have gone in the first place. But statistics are of little comfort to Rita Haney and Vinnie Paul.

Cover YOUR bases

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KR Training instructors were having a small discussion about less than leathal options, force disparity, and so on.

My personal take? We never know what we’ll be faced with, so it’s good to have the bases covered. Immediate thought is that we don’t all have the time and trouble for this… do we carry a gun, pepper spray, baton, need to get empty hand training, and start to look like Deputy Jay as we walk around? That’s not feasible for most of us.

My take is you need to be able to handle the situations relevant to you.

If you’re a bouncer at a bar, you’re more likely to deal with drunks that need to either be told to leave, be made to leave, and need to sober up. Gun isn’t viable in most of your daily work, but empty hand skills (especially locks and controlling techniques) along with perhaps some pepper spray are good for your needs.

A police officer? They interact with a wide array of circumstances and people and need to be prepared accordingly.

A private citizen… well, we all deal with vastly different circumstances. So what do YOU need? If you don’t know, ask  yourself. Consider what you do on a daily basis, where you go, what you deal with, how you live your life, what you encounter, etc.. If you haven’t played the “what if” game, now’s a good time to start. You can start to ask “OK, what if this happened right here right now? how would I respond?” Maybe what you need are good verbal skills (e.g. a SouthNarc “Managing Unknown Contacts” skillset) and a good set of running shoes! If drunk Uncle Joe comes around a lot, knowing a few wrist locks might be useful to escort him to the bedroom to sleep it off. If you work the night shift, carrying a good flashlight at all times. I rarely have desire for pepper spray, except perhaps for dogs. And my desire for spray has upped because my dog doesn’t always play well with other dogs, and other dogs like to approach my dog. Point being, what was once my plan has changed, and I’m willing to let my plans change, evolve, or even be thrown out should my circumstances change. If you have a hole in your coverage, fill it.

Exactly what you need depends upon you and your situation. No one can give you a set list. The key, in my mind, is to ensure you have YOUR bases covered as best you can. If you don’t know what that is, figure it out now while you have time to think and formulate a plan, instead of later when you wish you had a plan.

For them, but not us.

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Yesterday, the Texas Senate overwhelming and very quickly passed a bill that would allow THEM to carry concealed handguns where normal citizens could not.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said the measure that would allow legislators, statewide elected officials, some former legislators and some state employees to carry their concealed weapons in bars, churches and hospitals and at sporting events and other places they are currently prohibited — including businesses that post signs outside saying concealed handguns are prohibited.

“This bill is really about logistics,” Patrick said earlier, when the bill was approved by a Senate committee. “We go from one place to another — maybe five or six places in one evening for functions and events — and we may be faced with either leaving (guns) in the car or taking them inside and violating the law.

“This bill is just to solve that problem.”

It’s not like us mere peasants could ever face that problem… no. How nice of them to grant themselves privilege. Meantime, campus carry struggles in the legislature.

I did see Wentworth voted against this: good for him.

The linked-to article was also updated with this:

Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, just released the following statement on why he voted against allowing lawmakers to carry their concealed weapons in additional places:

“Today, I voted against the Committee Substitute to Senate Bill 905. As a strong proponent of Second Amendment rights, I could not in good conscience grant myself a privilege that I had failed to first grant law-abiding citizens. Concealed handgun license holders are allowed to carry almost everywhere they go. In my judgment, if we are going to expand when and where Texans can legally carry a concealed firearm, we should start with our citizens — not our lawmakers.”

Good for him.

Texas Senate passes Concealed Carry on Campus

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

It looks like the Texas Senate has passed concealed carry on campus.

Or maybe not.

I’m not sure about the news report. It says:

The issue was attached to SB 1581 , a bill intended to collect about $30 million in fee adjustments out of education.

Debate between Sen. Jeff Wentworth , D-San Antonio, and the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Judith Zaffirini , D-Laredo, went back and forth.

But, the SB 1581 sponsored by Zaffirini was out of the 79th Legislative session. We’re in the 82nd, and THAT SB 1581 was sponsored by Ogden.

So… I’m trying to verify. It’s still too early and the legislature’s website isn’t fully updated yet.

Updated: I’d say it’s verified. See here. Seen a couple other reports. I think KXAN needs to improve their reporting.

Personally, it’s a tainted win. I don’t like this sort of “passed via amendment” process. We all hate it when crap we don’t like gets through because of this sort of thing (here, tack it onto a bill we know no one will vote against!), and just because this is something we like doesn’t mean it justifies how it got through.

It also looks like our “benevolent leaders” have spoken that they feel they are somehow better and more important than the rest of us lowly citizens, and are trying to exempt themselves from places one is prohibited to carry.

A day at the range – why you need it.

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

This past Saturday I was out at KR Training helping with Defensive Pistol Skills 1 and a relatively new course called Personal Tactics Skills.

DPS1 went about as expected, tho I could see Karl continues to make small evolutionary tweaks to the approach and curriculum. I like that he’s never static with material. Sure, the core concepts and focus remain the same, but the approach to teaching them is always refined in an attempt to find the best way to convey and ensure students pick up on the concepts.

Personal Tactics Skills was different. This was my first time helping with that course, and only the second time the course has been taught. The material comes from numerous sources and really isn’t new, just the format of presenting it all. There is no live-fire in this class. It’s all about discussion, role playing, demonstration. It’s no-stress, no real physical exertion, but it’s a LOT of mental work.

And that’s so important.

We all love throwing lead downrange. It’s fun. But is throwing lead going to keep you out of trouble? Well, if you get to the point of having to throw lead, you’re already in deep trouble. What would be better is if you could have avoided the situation in the first place, if you could have kept things from getting to the point of having to throw lead.

That’s what PTS is all about.

Karl wrote a good article titled “Scenario Based Training – Why You Need It“. Read it. Yeah, you might think that because we’re instructors that there’s bias because we’re trying to drum up business for ourselves. Here’s the reality. Do you think Michael Phelps won all those Olympic gold medals by only getting his feet wet in the kiddie pool? No, he had to get into the pool and swim and work in the context he chose to excel in. If you want to be a champion fighter, MMA, boxing, whatever… you have to get in the ring and spar. So if you want to be good at winning a gunfight well… you don’t really want to get into a gunfight because that’d be hard to train. 🙂 But you can simulate it, you can replicate it. You can put yourself into those situations. They allow you to figure out what you need to do, how you can react. It’s so much better to figure these things out now and not when the flag flies. Especially consider that now, you will probably fail, you will probably make mistakes. Better to make them now when it costs you nothing but a learning experience, than when it could cost you something much more expensive.

I mentioned to students in class a good DVD that complements what was taught. It’s called “Practical Unarmed Combat” from SouthNarc of ShivWorks. I have a review of the DVD here.

A good day at the range.

Remember your sunblock, folks.

Got to start breaking in my S&W 640. I like it. While I bought it primarily for the extra weight to help with recoil management, the grip ended up helping a lot more because those small “boot grips” on my 442 leave the top corner of the backstrap exposed and it bites into the web of my hand, whereas the 640’s factory grip covers it just enough to keep it from biting. I do want to try out the boot grips on the 640 for comparison. Next range trip I guess.

Oh, and again… dumping 20-round mags of .308 out of an AR-10 has a high giggle factor. 🙂

High giggle factor

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Got to shoot Tom’s AR-10 today.

Boy that thing has a high giggle factor.

Nothing like rapidly emptying a 20-round magazine of .308 at 25 yards to put a smile on your face that you just can’t wipe off. 🙂  Makes me want to pull out my M1A and trick it out.

Back from a day at KR Training. Tired. It’s late. Mother’s Day tomorrow… I’ll have to write things up later.