self defense

Tales from a Pizza Hut

/ hsoi

Scumbag walks into a Pizza Hut in Statesville, North Carolina intent on robbing the place. Scumbag demands employee opent the safe, but employee can’t. Scumbag escalates things, drags the employee into the bathroom, held the gun up on the employee and fired but nothing happened.

The employee fought back.

The employee fought hard.

The employee came out on top, including taking control of the gun.

The scumbag begged for the gun back, because it wasn’t his. Uh…. OK?

‘You shouldn’t have been here trying to rob somebody who’s trying to make a living,’

And the ironic thing is? I bet the employee gets fired because Pizza Hut (like many other companies) would say this is against employee policy, the employee broke the rules by fighting back trying to save his life.

That would be a travesty of justice. I hope I’m wrong.

To the employee, Therman Martin, I say, good job. You did what was right. Let’s hope your employer recognizes that.

Footage of an attempted burglary

/ hsoi

A homeowner in South Austin has surveillance cameras on his house. He captured footage of someone trying to break into his house. You can view the footage here. Sorry, can’t embed it, but go to the article then click on the video link.

What I saw in the video:

  • It was the middle of the day, not the dead of night. Most home invasions happen between 10 AM and 3 PM. Why? Because people are at work. Less chance of someone being home, less chance of any neighbor seeing them.
  • The criminal was looking for easy access. He checked the front door to see if it was unlocked. Went around back and checked the back door. Looked like he was also checking windows. While wood doors, hardiplank and drywall, glass, and the simple locks on most houses aren’t going to stop a determined individual, they certainly can work. A lot of crime is crime of opportunity. If they can find an unlocked door, slip in, grab something, slip out, all the better. Trying to kick down a door risks attracting attention, which is the last thing the criminal wants. Lock your doors and windows.
  • As the footage was edited I’m not entirely sure about this, but it looked like when he checked the front door he was making an effort to verify if anyone was home. He looked through the door’s window, and it appeared like he was ringing the doorbell. If there’s a ring at the doorbell, remember that you are under no obligation to answer the door. Or if you do wish to answer it, you’re under no obligation to open the door (you can say “Who is it?” and have a brief conversation through a door just fine).

What did you take from watching the video?

Worthwhile quotes

/ hsoi

Joe Huffman has taken classes from InSights Training Center. I have too (and would love to take more if they weren’t so darn far away, or if they get back down to Texas).

Greg Hamilton and crew there have a lot of experience and wisdom to share, and Joe has rounded up a great selection. Go read.

DVD Review – ShivWorks’ Reverse Edge Methods, Volume 1

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

This is my 3rd of 4 reviews of the ShivWorks DVD series. I previously reviewed the Practical Unarmed Combat DVD and the Fighting Handgun Volume 1 DVD.

The intent of this DVD is to provide an introduction to ShivWorks’ reverse-edge knife skills, for use in extreme close quarters combat situations.

Continue reading →

MUC applied

/ hsoi

One of the best parts of SouthNarc’s curricum is MUC: Managing Unknown Contacts. Effective MUC can stop a situation before it has a chance to get ugly.

John Farnam just posted a quip that provides a pretty good example of MUC. I don’t know if this student was formally schooled in MUC, but it appears at least something similar.

Some key points from the quip:

  • She was aware of her surroundings. Not just observing a strange man and his behavior, but also being aware of the time of day and her location.
  • She kept up a monologue, not a conversation.
  • Her voice and demeanor were emphatic.

ShivWorks’ Practical Unarmed Combat DVD gives a good introduction to SouthNarc’s MUC material. Better is getting some training direct from SouthNarc.

My flashlight

/ hsoi / 21 Comments

I carry a flashlight with me wherever I go. Why? Because it’s useful.

I never carried a dedicated flashlight, even something like a cheap little keychain fob LED. A couple years ago I started to carry one, and now I can’t live without it. You just don’t realize the utility and cannot appreciate it until you have one on you. There are more than enough times you’ll find yourself out and about, in a low light situation, and you will find it useful to have a light. Our eyes tend to work better that way. 🙂

The flashlight I carry is a SureFire E2L Outdoorsman.

I know. It’s boring. It’s not some tacti-cool flashlight like their Z2 or G2Z or the E2D Defender or 6P Defender. That’s OK and how I wanted it. I didn’t want a flashlight that draws attention. I wanted a flashlight I could take onto an airplane and have no one think twice about. I wanted a flashlight that I could pull out at a Scout campout and no parent or BSA policy would freak out over. I wanted a flashlight I could use on a daily basis, but that I could also use in a self-defense situation if necessary. I think the E2L fits that bill.

Many of the “tactical” flashlights are designed around a very powerful beam of light. That’s great for blinding people, for flooding an area with light. But what if you’re working on something close up? What if you’re out camping, it’s nighttime, you need to read a map. Having 100+ lumens reflecting off the map back into your eyes is not enjoyable. The E2L has two settings: a low power with 3 lumens, and a high power with 60. The low power is actually still fairly bright: shine it in someone’s eyes and they will be blinded; I’ve had it reflect off some close-up materials and still mess up my vision. The high power may not be as bright as some other flashlights, but it’s still amazingly bright. I recall on one campout using my E2L as a floodlight, holding it at arms length above my head, to light the way for a bunch of Cub Scouts and it lit up the pathway some nearly 100′ out like daylight. Another parent was using one of their cheap-o $2 special flashlights and it didn’t illuminate much past the end of their feet. So the variable light output is a big part of why I like this flashlight, because it enables more practical daily use.

The clip on the flashlight is also helpful as a daily flashlight. Just attach it to something like a hat brim and you’ve got hands-free light.

To use the flashlight in a self-defense context, I’ve found the flashlight works fine. It provides ample light, even if all you get is the low beam. In fact, to quickly switch from low to high beam is a mini strobe effect which at least when I’ve surprised some friends doing a quick “from darkness, to low beam to high beam” flicker has proven to be a bit more disorienting than just flashing to a single beam. I have not struck anyone or anything with the flashlight, but I feel that it could work fine for such a thing. The bezel doesn’t have the extreme crenellation the “Defender” flashlights have nor the added strengths of say the Pyrex window, but there’s a mild crenellation and certainly if the flashlight doesn’t survive the encounter I’m not going to sweat it too much… I can always buy another one afterwards.

I’ve been quite happy with the flashlight. I’ve tried using a more dedicated “tactical light” as a carry flashlight, but how often do you need such a thing? If you’re a police officer, perhaps so. But for private citizen me, most of my portable light needs are just daily needs to help me see where I’m going or what lurks in some dark area. I feel the SureFire E2L Outdoorsman provides me with a flashlight that addresses daily needs quite well, and doesn’t leave me feeling at any sort of disadvantage in other possible use areas.

Note: I’m not affiliated with SureFire. No compensation or anything for this. This is just private me talking about the gear I use.

Buckshot for self-defense

/ hsoi / 15 Comments

Yesterday I posted how birdshot is for birds. The general maxim is, if you’re using a shotgun for self/home-defense, buckshot (generally 00) is the way to go.

I have heard some people recommend #1 buckshot as being better. For instance, arfcom, Chuck Hawks, the firearmstactical.com brief. There’s also some talk that #4 is better, like here and even Massad Ayoob.

Well, as luck would have it, just today on the InSights mailing list someone posed such a question about shotgun self-defense ammo and one of the instructors, Keven Kerkam, responded with the following:

The “standard” loadout for a self-defense shotgun is 00-buck in the tube and slugs on the side-saddle.

Use 00 or 000 buck. We have observed a direct correlation between shot size (or number of pellets) and pattern size. Unlike what many people (uneducated people) say, you want *tight* pattern. You own each pellet that goes down range, so you want everything to hit the bad guy. We have found that the new(ish) Federal LE 132 00 load produces exceptionally tight patterns in nearly all guns. There is an older LE 132 load — this ok but not great — so look for LE 132 00 with the “flight-control wad” mentioned. Ammoman.com has it, btw.

I notice that there is now a LE 133 00 load that is an 8-pellet load as opposed to the 9-pellet 132 load. That *might* (no idea till we play with it) be even tighter than the already amazingly good LE 132 00 load. For now I am only recommending the LE 132 00 though.

For slugs, I recommend a reduced-recoil variety. The Foster-style works as good as any (most common type of slug on the market). The other common type is the Brenneke, but that one is usually marked “Brenneke” and mostly comes in “max” (i.e. high-power) loads. If it just says “slug” you’re getting the Foster type. Brand doesn’t matter, just make sure it is marked reduced/low-recoil or, sometimes, they’re called “tactical” which makes it even cooler because you’re not shooting a wimpy load that way. 🙂

Between my yesterday blog posting and the #1 buck being on my mind, I thought I’d ask for their input on the matter. John Holschen wrote:

For defensive shotgun use we need:

a.      No stray pellets (each one is a liability, without any positive effect.)

b.      Sufficient depth of penetration of each pellet to reach vital organs.

Detailed Criteria

a.      I would ideally like all pellets in the “A” zone at 25 yds. More realistic is all pellets on target at 25 yds. More pellets does not enhance performance in this criteria.

b.      OO buck is the lightest pellet that will reliably reach vital human organs through clothing at a distance.

Keven’s previous recommendations take into account both of these criteria.

Besides, it’s tough finding “smaller buckshot” at retail stores and even online retailers. Most of the time you’ll only find 00 buckshot, maybe 000 if you’re lucky.

Some important things that come from this as well:

  • Use tight(er) chokes.
  • Test your patterns
    • Before you go test, figure out the ranges at which you’ll be shooting. For instance, if it’s a home-defense shotgun, figure out the maximum distance you can shoot within your house.
  • Practice, and know the capabilities of your tool and yourself.

Updated: The original instructor, Keven Kerkam, added some additional information:

Yeah. A good number of years ago I did some pattern testing with all the different buckshot loads & sizes I could find (4, 1, 0, 00, 000) from Remington, Federal, and Winchester and found that the smaller the shot, the larger the pattern. Now with some of the more expensive rounds, you would get tighter patterns with 00 than 000, but if you kept things to the same type of construction/quality, 000 would shoot tighter than 00.

Granted, this was only with one gun, but I’d be willing to bet that 90% of the guns out there would show the same overall behavior, just different scale.

Other than a tight pattern for liability reasons, you want a tight pattern for wounding. When a pattern goes beyond a certain critical size, its effectiveness will drop off dramatically. Since #1 will spread faster than 00 which spreads faster than a good “tactical” 00 like the Federal LE 132 00, your effective range with #1 is significantly less than with a load like LE 132 00.

The typical argument for the #1 loads revolves around its reduced penetration through interior structures. This has some merit and is something that each individual has to work out for themselves and their unique circumstances: whether they want something with more wounding potential or less penetration through interior structures.

Some will argue that you have 16 pellets vs. 9, but if you hit a guy in the chest with a pattern that is, say 8″ (i.e. about 7-8 yards away — shot tends to spread around 1″ per yard give or take – more for lighter/more pellets less for larger/fewer), the majority of the pellets are going into the lungs and periphery (read: not immediately fight-stopping) and you get a few into the heart. But with pellets that are only .30/40.3gr, you may not do significant (read: fight-stopping) damage to the heart. And depending on the angle, positioning of other body parts, etc. you might not even get enough penetration to reach the heart at all. I mean, you’re still going to upset him but, you might be a bit disappointed in the immediate results.

But, if say, you hit him with a tight-shooting load like the LE 132 00, where we’ve seen patterns at 4″ or even <2″ (!!!) inches at 7-ish yards, virtually all of the load will hit the heart (assuming a well-placed shot of course) and the BG will have to be a lot more motivated to continue and physics will dictate that he’s only going for a max of 10-15 seconds more because his pump is no longer running.

Also, lighter shot will not penetrate heavy clothing as effectively. A good number of years ago, a Bellevue police officer used a 12ga shotgun to defend himself against bad guy who was seated in a car and drawing a handgun. The BG was wearing a leather jacket. I don’t remember if he was using #4, #1 or #0, but it was not 00. Where the leather jacket covered the BGs hand/arm that was hit, there was little damage. Only the uncovered portions were severely damaged. The loose leather jacket sucked most of the energy out of the shot.

IMHO, pretty compelling argument to stick with 00 buckshot. And if you can, to get some of the LEO-specific 00 buckshot.

Combined Skills Course Weekend- The Review

/ hsoi / 12 Comments

I spent the weekend of September 12-13, 2009 in a Combined Skills class.

The premise of the class is to provide students with skills that can help you stay alive: skills to avoid violent confrontations in the first place, skills to deal with a violent confrontation should it be necessary. The reason it’s “combined skills” is because a lot of such classes are geared towards a single issue: tactics/mentality, gun handing skills, or empty-hand combatives. This class, as the name implies, combines these things into a single lengthy, advanced-level course. This is not a class for beginners.

Read on for my perspective on the class. I’ll cover who did it, what we did, how I did, what I learned. Yes, it’s a long read, but it’s a good one chock full of information. Note this is all coming from memory after two hard and exhausting days of working, so most should be correct but I may have a detail about a statistic wrong or a quote incorrect. If I do have something wrong, I hope someone will correct me. But you’ll not be able to correct me if you don’t read it all, plus if you skip any of it you might miss the awesome pictures. 🙂

Continue reading →

Combined Skills – halfway there

/ hsoi

It’s late… I need to get to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a full day in the Combined Skills class. I shall have a full review of the class afterwards.

A few quick things.

  • Tom Givens is a no bullshit guy. He’s funny, but he runs a no bullshit and serious class. He’s trying to put you in the mindset of fighting for your life, and there’s no room for bullshit in that. I can appreciate that.
  • You will fight like you train. This is training for fighting.
  • SouthNarc has some wicked strong forearms.
  • Rain is wonderful. Kinda screws with plans a bit, but on the whole I’m thankful we’re getting it because we need it so badly.
  • I can draw from concealment and get 2 hits in the proper target zone (between collarbone and diaphragm, between the nipples) at 5-ish yards (forgot exactly how far we were from the targets) in about 2.3 seconds… draw in 2. That’s pretty good, but I need to do better. I know I can do better.
  • Even when he’s not 100%, Karl Rehn is still a damn fast shot.
  • Dry fire is essential, but you still gotta get to the range and throw some lead downrange now and again. Curse this ammo shortage.
  • SouthNarc’s tactical stuff is solid work. Managing Unknown Contacts (MUC) is something everyone needs to know.
  • Simplicity. It’s where it’s at.
  • To borrow an old Kuk Sool thing, “I need more practice, sir.”

More later….

DVD Review – ShivWorks’ Fighting Handgun, Volume 1

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ShivWorks has produced 4 DVD’s. Previously I reviewed the Practical Unarmed Combat DVD. Now I’d like to review the Fighting Handgun Volume 1 DVD (note: as of this writing there is only the 1 volume; hopefully volume 2 will come someday). Note that I have no connection to SouthNarc or ShivWorks… I’m just some guy that happened to buy the DVD out of my own personal interest.

Production quality is good. Menus available to skip around. Sections are titled so it’s easy to navigate. About 1 hour and 40 minutes of content. Skills are progressive and repeated. That is, a topic is introduced then broken down into component parts. Each component part is discussed and explained (a lot of “why” in addition to “how”). The component skill is then demonstrated, often from various camera angles (both SouthNarc turning different directions and repeating the skill and use of multiple cameras to get different angles including close-ups), and repeated numerous times. The next component is introduced and the sequence repeated. At the end, all the components are put together and the sequence repeated. Next skill is introduced, and this skill builds upon the prior skill. All things are progressive, well organized, well presented.

The DVD starts out covering the combative handgun drawstroke. Many of you may be familiar with the 4-count drawstroke, so this may seem like a waste of time for you. It is not. First, I’ve seen the drawstroke performed in slightly different ways by many people. Understanding how SouthNarc does his 4-count drawstroke is important as a foundation for the other skills he lays out (all later skills on the DVD build upon former skills). Furthermore, there are subtle details and differences in how he does his drawstroke that I found improve the drawstroke over what I had originally learned. For instance, flagging the grip thumb during parts 1 and 2 of the draw, the importance of drawing/indexing high in part 2 and not dropping the shoulder in part 3 to allow faster acquisition of the sights as you go from 3 to 4. It’s subtle refinements, but they make quite a difference. These little details come into play as the DVD’s skills are introduced and build upon each other.

After covering the drawstroke, SouthNarc moves to the gun range to demonstrate live fire from the #2 position. This is an important step towards using your gun in an extreme close quarters (ECQ) fight. Note that practicing this in a live fire situation is dangerous and risky. SouthNarc presents a series of progressive drills to help practice the skill in a safe manner (so long as you have access to a gun range where you can practice this; if not, dry fire is better than nothing).

With basic gunhandling covered, SouthNarc then adds in some hand skills. One thing I did not like about his horizontal elbow was indexing your thumb at your tracheal notch. I did not like having my thumb hanging out, and especially pressed into my trachea. If my elbow/arm got pushed back into me (very likely, given how the horizontal elbow is used), my thumb goes right into my trachea. That does not appeal to me. However, the technique can be modified to avoid that and otherwise the technique is fine. The hand skills start with fences and there’s some discussion about the F.U.T. (fouled/fucked-up tangle — think clinch only more chaotic, like a non-sporting fight could be) and how to deal with that empty-hand so that you can transition to your handgun. Some discussion of dealing with ground-based combatives are presented as well. But even as he talks about fighting on the ground, the concepts presented earlier in the DVD are ultimately what you’re using.

One thing I like about SouthNarc (and all the trainers that I tend to prefer) is how he strives for true simplicity. He works to come up with as few moves as possible, but moves that work in many situations. The less you have to remember, the better. The less (quantity) you have to practice, the more you can practice and get very good at those few things (quality). Everything SouthNarc presents is aimed towards true simplicity.

Furthermore, while SouthNarc demonstrates specific skills, it’s evident what’s more important is addressing concepts. That yes, there might be some specific way to do something and he’ll show you his way, but more important is the underlying concept and how you work to apply that in dynamic combat. You can see SouthNarc’s Filipino martial arts background showing through here.

The DVD isn’t perfect. A lot of the shots have the microphone and/or mic boom in the shot, but that’s not really a big deal (they were dealing with a lot of wind on the gun range and it would blow the mic into the shot). Sometimes SouthNarc rambles a bit or talks to the camera in ways that don’t matter (e.g. you could have not said that, or it could have been edited out to keep focus). But these are all minor issues that in no way detract from the quality concepts and material that SouthNarc presents in this DVD.

While DVD’s are good ways to get information, nothing beats formal instruction with a good teacher. If you cannot receive instruction from SouthNarc himself, some of the skills covered in this DVD I’ve experienced before in KR Training’s Defensive Pistol class. It’s slightly different material, slightly different presentation, but still good stuff.

I think ShivWorks’ Fighting Handgun Volume 1 is a solid DVD, good introduction to the concepts. It’s not for beginner fighters/shooters, but it does provide a good foundation to the skills that SouthNarc teaches. I do hope he comes out with a Volume 2 someday.