pdb

http://twitter.com/pdbactual

Since I seem to have difficulty updating a real blog, maybe I can do better with a toy one.

So from middle Tejas, Mr Kim opines upon the recent revocation of a Pennsylvania soccer mom’s carry permit because she dared open carry her G26 at a soccer game, while blatantly obeying the law.

It may surprise you to read that KdT, he who has previously advocated the hanging of Democrats and reporters from lamp posts, sides with the government, because that uppity woman shouldn’t have been scaring the white people.

Seriously:

It’s happening to you because you’re a moron.

Yeah, I know it’s legal to carry openly in Pennsylvania, but sheesh… to a kids’ soccer match? This chick needs to drink a tall glass of CommonsenseTM, shaken not stirred.

I know, I know: she broke no laws, technically speaking. But she did behave like an asshole—especially when carrying her Glock concealed would have made the whole issue nonexistent.

It’s people like this who really screw things up for the rest of us. Now some dickhead GFW politician is going to propose a law which makes carrying a gun (in any fashion) illegal when you’re at a youth sporting event, and we’re going to have to fight it, and blah blah blah. And all because our modern-day Annie Oakley wanted to Make A Statement.

(Reproduced here in case it goes down the memory hole).

I suppose the crux of his point is to think strategically, act tactically in the long term campaign for gun rights. And I don’t personally open carry for a lot of reasons, but I’m glad to live in an OC state and support the right of the people to do so.

But to excuse a clear abuse of state power just because it happens to fit your political goals is absolutely disgusting to me. This woman has been unlawfully disarmed by the state, and he blames her?

It’s bad enough when I see paranoid fools carrying holstered, loaded guns around at shooting events and ranges—like they’re in imminent danger of a mugging or a Nazi invasion at those places—but I have to tell you, I’m kinda with the Gummint in this case, if for no other reason than to teach a lesson to provocative morons like this one.

I find this attitude contemptible and dangerous. Empty guns aren’t ’safe’, they’re safety theater. I’ve been swept by more muzzles at a single gun show where all the weapons were zip-tied open than at all the training, practice and competition I’ve ever done, coincidentally mostly on hot ranges. Safety isn’t created by disarming people, safety is created by the safe actions of people. Creating the idea in the minds of shooters that guns are only safe when they’re unloaded or under the command of a range master is an invitation to future catastrophe. Learning to live safely with loaded weapons is a critical part in the evolution of a new shooter into a competent gun man.

You might think a supposed advocate of the right to personal armament would understand this.

I have had it up to here with the sterile gun theory of range safety. Both a local shop and a local indoor range have big “NO LOADED FIREARMS” signs on the doors. And if I’m bringing in a gun for them to look at, sure I’ll make sure it’s unloaded in the parking lot. But I’m not shedding my concealed G19 just to satisfy their concepts of safety.

I’m sick of “three seconds between shots”, no movement, no shooting from the draw, no reactive targets and other ridiculousness from our supposed side that takes all the fun and realism out of practice.

We are not children, we are adults. We are highly trained, quietly competent and skilled. Our guns are not safe because they are empty, but because we are controlling them. We go about our business armed to the teeth, putting none in danger save those who would prey on us. Going armed is our birthright as free citizens and our responsibility to our neighbors. We hone our craft and contemptuously brush aside the objections of the snide, the fearful and the ignorant.

We are Gun Men (and Women!).

As much as I enjoyed staying home and taking care of Lil’ Hickory, an unhappy flurry of bills and a desire to end my personal “no new guns ‘n gear” fast have resulted in my reentry into the vile world of magic elf box tending.

As before, my employer and events on the job will not be mined for blogfodder. It’s not like “Let me tell you this hilarious thing about my TPS reports…” would make for enjoyable posts anyway.

So I’ve finished my 2 weeks of lead in training and I expect to start watchen des blinkenlites on Sunday evening. This gig is superior to ones I’ve had in the past in some ways, namely the lack of end-user communication. But on the other hand the work is tremendously boring, amounting to a lot of rote checklist following punctuated by occasional bursts of panic.

Some times I’ve wondered why I’ve worked so hard to get jobs in a field I really don’t like any more. I tried to do something else once, and failed miserably. Is thirtymumble too late to try a third career? I don’t know, but I do know that life is too goddamned short to wish 40 hours a week of it go by quickly.

Having had several days to digest the class and what was learned, I keep coming back to a good question in comments: Why exactly would an ordinary slob like myself spend a significant amount of time, money, ammo, sweat and pain to learn a fighting discipline that he is highly unlikely to use? I always have my pistol on me, so logically I should be concentrating on that and my meager ground fighting skills. I’m also more likely to grab a shotgun than my AR if trouble comes knocking at home. I don’t foresee myself ever being employed in a position to require rifle skills. And if a person finds himself in a life threatening situation and has the time to equip himself with a carbine and has the elbow room to fully use it, maybe retreat would be the better option.

Still, I think my time and money was spent wisely. If the conditions at hand favor the use of a rifle, then nothing else will do. No other arm legally available to the American citizen offers the power, capacity, range and sheer kick-assability that the military style autoloading carbine does. Sam Colt may have made individual men equal to other individual men, but Gene Stoner, John Garand, Mike Kalashnikov and Dieudonne Saive made a man equal to a whole gang of men.

The portability of pistols and short range shock power of shotguns makes them most useful for defense. The large capacity and power of the rifle make it also suited for defense, but its reach makes it mandatory for offense. Either a pistol or rifle will fend off evil when it comes to visit you, but if you need to go to evil and flush it out to defeat it, then you need a rifle. American law only recognizes reactive self defense as a justification for the use of lethal force, going and seeking out a fight is not legally protected in any way.

But I think it’s a capability that the American citizen should have.

Citizenship goes beyond voting and jury duty and paying taxes. For all of their cornball rhetoric, one thing the Appleseed people get right is recognizing the Western free citizen militia tradition that runs from ancient Greek hoplites to Frankish shock infantry to Colonial Minutemen. While I in no way want to suggest that I am at all equal in contribution to the citizens who wear a uniform to go into harm’s way, I do think of this class and the skills it has given me as my own small commitment to the idea of the well regulated but poorly organized militia.

My pistols and shotguns are for the defense of family and home. My rifle is for my country.

Ronin!

Go buy it, rent it, bittorrent it, iTunes it, whatever. Just have it ready for Thursday night!

9PM Eastern, irc.slashnet.org, #gunblogger_conspiracy !!

To my total surprise, the IRC channel has become a self sustaining entity, with as many as 20 people in at once and conversations going on at all hours of the day!

In order to probe further depths of geekery, we’ve decided to hold a movie night next Thursday. Starting at 9PM Eastern (time subject to change at popular request), we will all start the same movie and discuss it in channel!

What movie, you ask? Well, let’s settle that with a poll!

Remember, irc.slashnet.org, #gunblogger_conspiracy!

One year ago today I wrote this, and I really don’t have a lot to add to it.

I do sometimes doubt that our teevee soaked, entitlement culture will have the intestinal fortitude to prevail in this war.

But then I realize we’re still producing guys like THIS and I know we’ll pull through.

Day 1.

Day 2.

Guns ‘n Gear Notes.

Continue Reading »

Eerie resemblance or elaborate cover-up?

I report, you decide.

Carbines: The Stoner direct gas impingement system was overwhelmingly represented, with most students carrying 16″ flat tops with railed handguards, vertical foregrips and collapsible stocks. One guy ran a pretty stock 7.62×39 AK with a AK-74 folding stock, and another busted out his 9mm upper for the 2nd day. I don’t recall the manufacturer, but it used a Hahn dedicated mag block and Colt magazines and worked fine.

I rolled my MuttAR, a Bushmaster C7 upper with a Colt 20″ C MP barrel, an unknown bolt and carrier, on a “Dalphon” (who?) lower with an Armalite lower parts kit and telestock. Please feel free to express skepticism when I say that this unlikely combination ran for 1100 rounds of steel cased ammunition without non-operator induced failures. I did splash some water into the magwell during breaks to wash out any accumulated sand from dropped magazines, but I didn’t add any lube to the gun during either day, except for a preemptive squirt of CLP before the final test.

I did have two operator induced fails, both related to my inability to count. You can get 31 rounds of 5.56 into a 30 round Magpul Pmag. You cannot, however, convince the bolt to operate over the pressure of 31 rounds pushing against it. When this happened on the first day, I had slammed the magazine in and noted that it was pretty hard to get seated, but then the fire command was called out, and I didn’t investigate further. I fired one round, but the case didn’t eject fully. The type 2 drill worked fine, and I didn’t think about it again until I found myself unable to retract the bolt to do a chamber check after seating a full magazine on the 2nd day. I popped it out, noticed the round was on the wrong side compared to the others, stripped off the top round, put it into my pocket, and carried on.

Again, I’m no expert, but I think my AR ran despite crappy ammo because of the chrome lined bore and chamber, a properly dimensioned 5.56 NATO chamber, good magazines, lube, and a new extractor spring with a black spring insert nub. I also have a pet theory that the AR becomes more reliable the longer the gas system tube is. The gas pressure and impulse duration change nonlinearly when you monkey with the size and location of the gas port. It is my uninformed opinion that the closer the geometry is to the standard 20″ barrel, the more “friendly” the impulse is to reliable function. If you are considering a 16″ upper, I suggest getting a mid-length barrel instead of the extended M4 configuration. It’s what I plan on doing.

Students were cautioned to keep their guns lubricated. I used automotive lithium bearing grease to lightly coat the carrier bearing surfaces, carrier interior, and bolt lugs (being VERY careful to wipe off any excess!). I didn’t check everybody’s rifle, but it was easy to spot the guys squirting CLP into their rifles, because it leaked right out of the pin and selector holes in their lowers once their guns got hot. I’m not religious about what kind of lube you use, but do use something.

One guy managed to bust his telestock during a malfunction clearance drill, and I didn’t notice anybody fiddling with the length of their stocks despite everyone having an adjustable one. If you don’t need the slight decrease in size a telestock offers, a fixed stock is far more durable and comfortable to shoot. Even though it doesn’t look as cool. Also, there were a couple times when my telestock yanked whiskers out of my beard. That was distracting.

Carbine Accessories: Most guys ran either EOtechs or Aimpoints or clonepoints. None failed that I saw, but they can. I think iron sights are required on a serious carbine. I am not a fan of folding sights, and this was confirmed when one guy’s folding rear sight kept getting snagged on his chest rig and popping up, or worse, to a 45 degree angle between the detents! I strongly recommend the LaRue or Cavalry Arms fixed rear sights.

All students but me had 1 point slings attached. These are superior to 2 point carry straps for living with the gun all day, but they do require the shooter to climb into the sling and attach himself to the carbine. A carry strap is probably more useful if you do not anticipate having advance warning of needing your rifle. I was given an HSGI 3 point sling which worked quite well once I got it adjusted right. One of the instructors is a fan of the Blue Force Gear Vickers Sling, which is a quick adjusting 2 point. It looks like it might be a good comprimise, but I didn’t get to try it out.

Magpul Pmags seemed to be very popular, and they turned out to be quite durable in use, resisting sand, gravel, mud, getting stepped on and washed out with Gatorade, among other abuses. PMags might not drop free from your magwell if it’s tighter than spec, but I never trust a mag to drop free of a magwell, and I make a habit to always yank it out of there.

Aluminum GI 30s were also represented and worked well, but are not as durable. Load them with 28 rounds unless you think you will never have to reload your gun with a closed bolt!

If you have an AR or AK, buy a LULA NOW NOW NOW. These things are tits. Your thumbs will thank you!

Pistols: We had the usual assortment of Glocks, 2 XD45s, a S&W M&P, a 1911, and a stainless Beretta NineTwo which looked very sexay but had its owner cursing by the end of the class. All pistols seemed to run mechanically fine, but we only put about 250 rounds through them. However, my prejudices against traditional DA/SA pistols were borne out again, as during the “Meltdown” drill on day 2, the Beretta shooter found his trigger finger so fatigued by 30 straight pistol shots from DA that he could no longer accurately pull the trigger on the 2nd drill. Granted, you’re not likely to have to do that in a fight, but why make things more difficult on yourself when striker fired designs like the Glock or M&P or XD are perfectly safe if you are? The Beretta guy also had trouble with the slide mounted safety getting wiped on by his holster. I personally wouldn’t carry a gun that has a safety that isn’t deactivated as part of assuming the firing grip.

War Gear: The preferred method of carrying around a bunch of magazines at the class was the chest rig. One guy simply snapped an ALICE M16 mag pouch to his belt and ran with that. I was at first planning to run a manpurse with magazines, but I was concerned about that remaining comfortable for two days.

I ended up running a Tactical Tailor 2 piece MAV with the optional X-harness. I threaded 2 3 cell Cheaper Than Dirt M4 magazine pouches onto it. This combo worked great and was supremely comfy all weekend even with 6 loaded magazines in it. Before heading to school, I had a SAW pouch on one side and an admin/med pouch on the other, but realized I had nothing to put in them, so deleted them before leaving.

I did notice that slinging my AR around on a 3 point sling, it sometimes got hung up on the mag pouches. I quickly learned to run my hand the length of the sling as I brought the gun up to untangle it.

One thing to remember about wearing a chest rig is that unless it’s undercut or high riding like the MAV or the HSGI Popper, you will not be able to safely draw and holster your pistol from a typical concealed carry holster! One guy at a Gabe Suarez class managed to shoot himself in the leg this way, please please please test your stuff before running it live! If you’re wearing an all over plate carrier and want to take a pistol along, you will need a drop leg holster.

I generally liked the CTD open top pouches, with the caution that they are not as high quality as more expensive pouches. Getting a PMAG into them was also sometimes cumbersome, since they are dimensioned for USGI aluminum 30s, but this isn’t something that one would do under time pressure. The bungee straps held everything down without being too difficult to get out of the way. I do not like mag pouches with lids, but accept that some people might require them. I do question putting velcro and fastex buckles on the lids. This seems to me like a lot of unnecessary fiddling between you and life saving ammo, but what do I know?

Correctly orienting your magazines in their pouches is also important. Ideally, they should come out and be in your hand as you would need to put them in the gun without having to flip them around or adjust your hand position. Since I was running mag pouches on both sides of the MAV, the instructors suggested pointing the bullets in the magazines all towards my centerline. This worked fine for mags on my left, but I could not make it work with the mags on my right. I ended up pointing everything to the right. Also, the nice bevel on the Pmags baseplate made this easy to check.

One other thing I noticed was some guys wearing their rigs adjusted loosely. Personally, I found the MAV to be more comfortable when it was adjusted on the snug side, so it wouldn’t slide around.

A downside to the MAV is that once it’s off, it’s a big tangle of straps and panels and kind of hard to get on correctly in a hurry. If you need something to grab and go, I think a magpurse like the LAPG bail out bag or the OST sneaky bag is the way to go. On the other hand, that single strap might get pretty uncomfortable after a day of walking around with it on. Choose your equipment for your anticipated situation, or, do the arfcom thing and get both!

No matter what ancillary gear you select, it is vitally important that you test it out in a safe environment like a class or a match or even a range trip before you need it for real. What looks cool in the catalog or works for someone else might be a big box of suck for you and your needs. Besides, shiny, unused gear looks awful, get it out there and wear it out!

Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 1 here.

Day 2 started off in the dirt again as we checked our zeroes from prone. Fortunately, nobodies sights had wandered around overnight, so we were ready to leave our rifles slung and get the pistols out.

We started with the instructors giving an abbreviated pistol refresher, including the draw stroke, trigger control and reloads. We were drilled in a similar manner to the rifles, performing controlled pairs, hammers or failure drills, with the caveat that unless specifically requested, all pistol shots needed to be in the 1×3″ ocular cavity box! Fortunately the range was only 7 yards, so it required the students to slow down just a hair.

Once all the monkeys were on the same branch, we incorporated our rifles into the drills. After practicing the transition drill dry a few times, we put some ammo in the guns and shot it live.

Except for me, everybody was running a single point. I still had on a simple 2 point carry strap, so my transition drill was to either flip the rifle over my shoulder, or draw the rifle in and hold it in my off hand while drawing my pistol. Both sucked. The single point guys had a different issue. It’s a bad idea to just let the rifle go and then draw your pistol, as his is an invitation to nail yourself in the beanbag, and the instructors confirmed that it had happened last class. Students were advised to guide, quickly guide, but guide, the rifle down before getting the pistol into action.

I got a big bag of suck during the next drill, called the Meltdown. It’s very simple. With your rifle at low ready, you sight in on your target and pop it once. Then you sling your rifle, draw your pistol, and pop it again. Then you holster your pistol, get your rifle back up, and pop it again. Repeat until the rifle magazine is empty. At least I didn’t bring a 1911. I decided to shoot it by alternating slinging the rifle and holding it in the offhand. During the first try, I managed to run my pistol dry while holding my rifle in the other hand! After contemplating the situation for a few moments, and wondering why the instructors weren’t yelling at me, I holstered my pistol, slung the rifle, drew the empty pistol, reloaded it and got back to work. At the end of the drill, I felt like my arms were going to fall off. Then we backed up to the 15 yard line and did it again!

We started to incorporate movement into our shoot drills. We spent some time working on adding a simple lateral side step and shouting verbal commands to the target before shooting at it. It might sound a little silly to holler “STOP!” at a sheet of cardboard before punching holes in it, but it’s a good habit to get into. If there are any witnesses, having them say “That man yelled ‘Stop!’ before shooting!” sure beats “He said ‘die motherfucker!’ and shot him!” Anyway, having a bunch of students yelling and stepping randomly before cranking off rounds may sound less than safe, but the instructors kept everybody from bumping into each other and nobody shot anything that didn’t need to be.

The next movement to master was fore and aft locomotion. This did present a bit of a safety hazard, so we all ran the drill 2 at a time with an instructor controlling our speed by hanging on to our shirt. This was the first time during the class that I really regretted not having an electronic sight like an Aimpoint or EoTech. Keeping the target, front sight and rear sight in some manner of alignment while walking was pretty damn hard. We didn’t have any moving targets to try, but I presume the problem would be just as difficult.

Once we had that down, we broke for lunch and the instructors got to plotting again. After we had filled our bellies and our magazines, we again had to shoot a target on the move, only this time, we had a hostage target to deal with. Again, the only hits the instructors would accept were in the eyes. From 7 yards. While moving backwards. Then forwards from the 15. This wasn’t so much a simulation exercise as much as to re-emphasize accuracy, even while on the move. The hostage got punched twice. It sucks to be a hostage, don’t let it happen to you!

Newly humbled, we were then introduced to shooting while moving laterally, which sucks in a variety of ways. First is the accuracy problem, it’s hard to make hits while moving. Then you also have to be mindful of your footwork, and avoid crossing up your feet. Thirdly, directionality is an issue. If you are a right handed shooter, imagine facing a line of targets, you are in front of the leftmost one, and you are to engage them all while walking to the right. Fairly simple, you just point your toes in the direction of travel, shoulder your rifle, turn at the waist and pop each one as you walk by. Great. Now try going the other way. Pretty awkward, huh?

One alternative they mentioned is to gangsta the rifle 90 degrees to the left, slide the stock over your shoulder and shoot that way. I was skeptical, but it should be doable if speed isn’t an issue. You can also shuffle step along, which is pretty damn slow and hard to keep your legs from crossing over and tripping yourself up. I guess if you have to shoot somebody while traveling from right to left, circle around and come at him the other way. Or maybe sprint to where you’re trying to go and shoot him from there.

I know that John Farnam in particular isn’t a fan of shooting on the move, but I think that it’s a skill worth having, or at least, having an understanding of its limitations.

One of the students took pity upon me and donated his extra HSGI 3 point sling to me. I had previously played around with a 3 point sling on my AR and was unhappy with it, but I induced failure by attempting to use the bottom sling mounts instead of slinging them off the side. Once he got it properly rigged up, I was converted. I’m still somewhat skeptical of having to climb in and out of a rifle sling, and being pretty much tied to it, but the sling makes living with a rifle at hand a lot more comfortable. It’s an extremely well made sling, and despite only being made of 1″ wide material, it was comfortable to wear for the rest of the class.

The next movement drill brought everything together into the box drill. Four traffic cones were laid out in a 7 yard square facing 3 targets. While moving around the outside of the square, each student had to engage each target twice for each direction of travel. This means a minimum of 24 rounds and more than a few students ran dry trying to make up shots and had to go to their pistol, while on the move. This was a great drill in that it required the student to use all of their skill set while doing something.

We ran that drill again, then in reverse order, then again with the cones reoriented into a diamond (requiring movement at 45 degrees to the targets), then again in the diamond in reverse order.

The last movement drill we ran was a safer “Snake” drill. I believe Ken Hackathorn was the guy who started doing this, and people are either horrified or enthused by it. In our version, the instructors put 4 traffic cones in a line perpendicular to 2 targets. The shooter started on the right side at low ready, and at the shoot command, engaged the right hand target twice, went to sul, navigated around the cone, then engaged the left target twice, repeating to the end of the line. In the original version, the cones were replaced by live people. This is obviously a violation of a lot of range safety rules, but in the drill’s favor, nobody’s gotten shot while doing it, and having bullets whiz past you without actually being shot might be a useful experience. The thought of it still weirds me out, but I can see where both sides are coming from.

At this point, we had to take an hour break because of a wake being held close by, so us students got to police up our brass while the instructors devised the final test. This is my only gripe with the class, we didn’t get to practice shooting from around cover at all due to the length getting chopped by an hour. This isn’t a slight on the instructors, it was only sprung on them at the last minute.

Anyway, we ran the course one at a time so that it remained a surprise for everybody, and we were timed. I won’t give the whole thing away in case they decide to reuse portions in a future class, but one stage involved being faced with two identical targets, except one had his gun taped over. As far as I know, nobody noticed the body armor, and everyone shot both targets without hesitation. At first I felt like that was somewhat unfair, why, they’d used the exact same target, of course I was supposed to shoot them both! As I trudged back to the line, it dawned on me that they had used the same target on purpose. The only thing separating a justifiable homicide from manslaughter is the intent of the target, and by harshly demanding that we examine the details before shooting, they drove home that lesson more effectively than any lecture could. It’s not enough that we shoot accurately, but we must also think accurately, because you can’t call those bullets back.

Gear notes.

I always get a little frustrated with myself writing these things up, because I seem to spend more time talking about guns and gear than what was actually taught. But it is hard to convey in text what is easily demonstrated in person. It is also difficult to completely relay the sheer volume of information that you get from two days spent making mistakes, watching other people make mistakes, getting those mistakes corrected, and just plain doing things with your rifle and war gear all weekend.

But I’ll give it a try.

Background: This class was put on by Defensive Concepts of North Carolina at the Trigger Time Valley Range, which is an awesome facility and downright civilized. This is my 3rd shooting class with these guys, and I don’t keep coming back because they’re nice to me. I have previously taken their shotgun and pistol classes.

The instructors are all ex-military, and one is a cop with a very large metro NC police department. Two are former Tactical Response instructors, and interestingly enough, two are lefties.

The students were, surprisingly, all Ordinary Citizens(tm), no LE or current .mil. Two were ex-military. Most students were in reasonable physical shape, me and another guy made up the fatty brigade. Most students were shooting rail farm ARs with electrical sights and forward grips. We had one AK guy, and I was shooting a bare AR with A1 sights. Oh, crap, I’m talking about guns ‘n gear again! Moving on…

Day 1: We arrived at the range just as TS Hanna started blowing through, so we started in the shoot house instead of the outdoor range. The instructors cleared away the props so we had a good 15 yard range under shelter. We started off with a safety lecture and some introductions.

One of the things they emphasized early on is that they run a hot range. Unless the gun is to be left outside your control for a while, it remains loaded and chambered. This went for both rifles and pistols. Certain fruit-based disciplines might catch the vapors at this idea, claiming that letting a bunch of guys walk around with loaded rifles and pistols is OMG! UNSAFE! but fuck that. We are all adults and it was nice to be treated as such. Nothing emphasizes rule 1 like actually living it. I only witnessed one unsafe moment during class when a student was careless with his muzzle direction while running with his rifle slung, and those who noticed it quietly pointed it out to him when the drill was over, and it wasn’t repeated.

We began shooting at 7 yards, and this immediately demonstrated to us the problem of close range sight offset. The sight plane on a common AR or AK is a good 2″ above the barrel bore line. When most people shoot their ARs, they do so at targets 25 yards away or further, and this isn’t an issue. But get into conversational range, and if you aim at someone’s head, you’ll hit them in the neck. We got used to aiming a couple inches above what we wanted to hit. Then moved back to 15 yards, and everybody hit high. This was intentional abuse from the instructors, and reinforced keeping in mind your ranges.

We moved back and forth between the 7 and 15 yard line while the rain kept falling, shooting various patterns on command, such as controlled pairs, hammers, failure drill, and the dreaded “Non standard response”, which is a $5 tacticool phrase meaning “Fill it full of holes FAST!”

We were shooting at the “Riposte-1″ target which broadly resembles the old IPSC target with a compressed torso A-zone. The instructors took this one step further and said that only hits in the upper half of the A-zone would count as a body hit, and only hits in the 1×3″ ocular box area would count as a head hit. If we missed getting a hit in those areas, we were required to keep shooting until we produced it. Accuracy was heavily stressed from the very beginning and constantly repeated.

Administrative, tactical and emergency reloads were then evolved in. Once again I was relieved that they were not religious about any one particular method, as long as you give it an honest shot their way first. In particular, I have never been able to really do the “two mags in the hand” tactical reload. I understand the thinking on it, to get a fully charged weapon as soon as possible. However, the way I see it, if I have the time to reload at my leisure, then I’ve got the time to do it methodically and do a chamber check. One of the instructors pointed out that even if you drop the partial, it’s still not as bad an outcome as getting caught with an empty gun. Thinking on it, I believe that only handling one mag at a time reduces the odds of me dropping either of them, and I’ll continue making a hole and filling a hole.

This gave the opportunity to teach about properly seating the magazine, especially after a few students chambered air and sent a few magazines tumbling to the ground. The AR is a military rifle, don’t baby it. Smack that sucker then tug it to make sure! Even though those who failed to properly smack and tug their mags were ridden hard by the instructors, we had droppers all weekend. Also, the AK design doesn’t avoid this. The AK guy chambered air more than a few times. The great thing about an AK is that you can fully practice your reloads at home with an empty rifle and empty mags. Do it!

Speaking of mags on the ground, DCNC also drummed into us to discard our empty mags. For the vast majority of situations that I could see myself in, this would probably be fine and spare the shooter some valuable time. But if things are so bad that I’m running around with a rifle and multiple mags on my body, maybe FedEx won’t be delivering for a while. I think I’ll be adding a dump pouch to my setup.

The shot timer then made an appearance and we were each timed on shooting one round from sul, then two rounds from sul. The times were very close and the lesson was hammered home: the longest part of the engagement is getting the sights on the target, and this is where the most cheap gains can be had. And it’s something you can practice at home.

At about 10:30 the rain stopped, so we took a break to move our stuff to the 50 yard range and get set up there. We started at the 25 yard line by verifying our zeroes from prone. What I thought was a good 50 yard zero in a poorly lit indoor range off the bench (about an inch and a half low at 25) turned out to be about 4″ low at 25 in bright sunlight from prone! If you’re running iron sights as your primary sighting system, check your zero under different lighting conditions and positions, I guess. It took us a few iterations to get everybody happy, then we moved on to different positions.

I had forgotten my knee pads and gloves at home, and while I hadn’t missed my gloves up to that point, I was dreading the kneeling and prone portions which came after lunch. Fortunately, the rain had turned the sand under the gravel soft, which was rather comfortable after you brushed some of the gravel away. Anyway, we incorporated going down to kneeling or prone in the shooting command, then coming back up. Let me tell you, a dozen repetitions of that kicked my ass. Every time I do one of these classes I swear I’ll get into better shape. Maybe this time I’ll actually do it!

Another drill that wore me out but I liked a lot was the Navy drill. Starting from standing at low ready, with 3 magazines loaded with 5 rounds, shoot 5 rounds from standing, reload and shoot 5 rounds from kneeling, then reload and shoot 5 rounds from prone. We shot that a few times to reinforce the positions, then moved on.

Then we started incorporating a post-shoot scan and reload into every shooting command, completing the FAST acronym of the Wyatt protocol. Breaking out of tunnel vision and examining the world behind you is a very important habit to get into. Also, the numerous reloads required the students to become acquainted with all of their mag pouch locations. I’ll make a separate post on guns and gear I think, but I did note that a few guys’ rigs got progressively less encumbered as the weekend wore on.

At this point, we took a break to allow the inventor of a new gas piston AR demo his design to us. I would do another post on it, but I’m not really that knowledgeable about the whole gas piston AR scene, and I only fired one mag through a prototype and took it apart, which really isn’t enough to formulate a useful opinion. But my useless opinion is that it looks like a simple, well thought out design, but will go absolutely nowhere until a major manufacturer gets behind it. It also will only be available as a rail farm upper, as the system isn’t compatible with comfortable hand guards.

We started on malfunction clearance afterwards, and the suck came out to play. Several times we set up a type 1, 2 or 3 malfunction (failure to fire, failure to extract, double feed) in our rifles and had to clear it under time pressure. Let me say for the record that trying to clear a type 3 malfunction in an AR while danger is close by is supreme folly. Throw your gun at the target and either hoof it or get your pistol out. Maybe both.

This is where we had the first firearm casualty of the day, as a shooter managed to break his CAR stock in two while banging it on the ground trying to get a stuck case out of the chamber. Fortunately, another student brought a spare rifle and donated his Magpul stock to the cause.

The next drill was something the instructors lovingly called “fuck up your buddy”. We set up a random malfunction in our rifle, grounded them on the 15 yard line, went back to the 50 yard line, then at the shoot command, had to run to another guy’s rifle, clear the jam, and engage the target. I was particularly proud of one malfunction I set up, where I rubbed enough mud in the magwell to hold the mag in place without it being latched. And sure enough, it dropped out as soon as the guy thought he had it fixed. Oh, and I knocked two guys over to get to the SBR’d AR with an Eotech.

To wrap up the first day, we grounded our carbines and went over to the steel plates to warm up with our pistols. I was so damn tired and sore that I was pleased I could ding the steel at all, but a 1911 guy won the shootoff and he was pretty goddamn smug about it. But I’d be pretty smug too if I could afford a $2k sidearm.

We closed for business at about 6pm, and I drove to my hotel room with my back aching and legs burning, but in a good way. I had a shower, ate some dinner, cleaned my AR and was asleep by 9:30.

Day Two!

Gear Notes.

Near the end of carbine class, we were all sitting around chatting while the instructors set up the diabolical final shoot. The topic of employment came up, and I came right out and said “Stay at home mom.”

This was met with unanimous envy.

More on the class shortly after I’ve had a chance to collect my thoughts, and maybe try to recall some of the more quotable moments.

But for now, consider this: We had one guy who had bought his first AR two weeks before attending class, and he’d only put 30 rounds through it. He had some mismatched gear hanging off a floppy department store belt and in the words of one of the instructors, was pretty well fucked up when he showed up on day 1.

But guess who won the last day’s shoot off? That’s right.

I’d like y’all who have been putting off coming to a class like this to give that some thought.

Anyway, here’s some of those quotable moments:

Language Warning!

Continue Reading »

As much for my use as your amusement…

(Bold - have and packed, plain - have, Italics - need)

- Rifle
- Pistol
- Rifle magazines (11 Pmags)
- Pistol magazines (6)
- LULA mag loader
- Pistol mag loader
- Rifle sling
- Pistol holster
- Pistol mag pouch
- Pistol belt
- Rifle mag carrying rig (TT 2 piece MAV with X-harness and 2x 3 cell Cheaper Than Dirt mag shingles)
- Screwdriver set
- Pliers
- Scissors
- Duct tape
- Electrical tape
- 5.56 broken shell extractor (can’t find it, but it’s gotta be here somewhere…)
- Spare rifle parts: 2x firing pins, 2x extractors, 1x complete bolt, 4x extractor springs with black insert nubs, 1x cam pin, 4x cotter pins
- Rifle ammo (1300 rounds in an ammo can and loaded into mags)
- Pistol ammo (500 rounds in an ammo can)
- Box to put pistol carry ammo in temporarily
- Can of lithium bearing grease
- Spray can of CLP
- Squirt bottle of CLP
- Spray can of brake cleaner, x2
- One piece cleaning rod
- Bag of cleaning patches
- Chamber brush
- Eye protection, x2
- Ear protection, x2
- Bug spray
- Sunscreen
- Hand sanitizer
- Motrins
- Ball cap, x3
- Lightweight rain coat
- Knee pads
- Elbow pads
- Gatorade, a bunch
- Bottled water, a bunch
- Lunches, x2
- GORP
- Laptop
- Camera
- Clothes
- Boots
- Shoes

Hmmm. You guys see anything I’m missing?

I want to thank everyone who stopped by and participated in our little gun-nerd support group yesterday. We had people in there discussing everything from hunting Iceland ptarmigan to computing history to Blackhawk! tactical tourniquet pants. “Liveblogging” the Palin speech with a half dozen like minded individuals was a hoot.

At one time during the day, we had 14 people in at once, which may not sound like much until you realize they were all typing at the same time. And it was about 13 more people than I expected.

We’re keeping the channel open for business, as it were. Connect to “irc.slashnet.org” and join #gunblogger_conspiracy! If you do not know what these words mean, contact me for instructions. You do not need to be a blogger or even a gun owner to participate. Just bring spare time.

Just to see if my stupid idea has any merit to it, I’ve started a channel called #gunblogger_conspiracy on irc.slashnet.org. If it catches on, maybe we’ll see about staking out a more permanent claim.

Here’s how to work it. If you’re using pidgin, hit Accounts -> Manage, then add a new account with the IRC protocol selected. Put in your preferred nickname, and in the server field put in “irc.slashnet.org”. Hit Save and make sure the checkmark is checked next to it in the Accounts list, it should connect. Then hit Buddies -> Join A Chat, dropdown the Account box to show your IRC account, and put in the channel name, which is #gunblogger_conspiracy. Please email me or crank up your IMer to pdb27127 on either AIM or Yahoo! if you need additional help.

I picked slashnet because that was the first network I found where pdb was available as a nick. I must find these other pdbs and destroy them.

So, come out and idle with us! Well, me.

[update! 8 people including the Breda! This is the happening new old thing here, folks. You can also use the java client HERE if you don’t want to or cannot download and install an IRC client on your computer box. After you put in your nick and hit “join”, when it connects, type in “/join #gunblogger_conspiracy”.]

[update, again!

(11:27:32 AM) alan: Hey!
(11:27:45 AM) Unix-Jedi: Damn. How many people *actually read pdb*?
(11:27:46 AM) PaulSimer: o/
(11:27:49 AM) Unix-Jedi: :)
(11:27:53 AM) PaulSimer: Scary, huh?
(11:27:59 AM) alan: at least 3
(11:28:21 AM) pdb: at least 3 that damn well do what I say

See what you’re missing out on?]

That was a fun hour, as usual. I hope people with pull at Appleseed were listening tonight, they would have got some useful and fair feedback!

As enjoyable as the hosts and special guest stars were, my favorite part of every week is the chatroom. Gun Nuts seems to always attract a fun and interesting crowd.

How much interest would there be in a permanent gunblogger chatroom type deal? I’m thinking like a dedicated IRC server, or some kind of java app or something. How many of you whippersnappers even know what IRC is?

I will be, and you should be, tuning in to the Ahab & Squeaky show tonight to hear Breda talk about her Appleseed shoot.

I don’t plan on calling in, but I should be in the chatroom.

I are it!

[Oh, for $DEITY’s sake, calm down people. The cap’s still on. See that woman in the background about to offer me the bottle opener?]

[Update!

Stay thirsty my friends. Stay thirsty. — ht unix_jedi. As usual.]

…the unix_jedi. I do not know what is going on in this picture, but I support it wholeheartedly.

For peace and trust can win the day, despite of all the Democrats losing.

I am so impressed by the selection of Sarah Palin for the R vice presidency spot that for the first time in my life, I will slap a political sticker on my car!

Let’s take a look at the Veep candidate, shall we?

She took on the corrupt Alaska boys club, and won: “When it came to that Bridge to Nowhere, I said ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ If we need a bridge, we’ll build it ourselves.”

Disgusted by the previous Governor’s use of taxpayer money to buy a business jet, she sold that fucker on eBay days into her administration (the jet, not the Governor).

Her hubby is a champion snowmobile racer.

She owns her own float plane, and she ice fishes.

They have five kids, one of whom is in Iraq.

Her favorite food is MOOSE STEW, that she hunts HERSELF.

Obama may talk change, but Palin delivered it. Palin succeeded in politics by fighting corruption, Obama is a product of it.

I have gone from mildly apathetic to borderline enthusiastic!

I guess you could say, I’ve got some … hope!

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.

If it wasn’t for the references to John McCain and other contemporary remarks, that speech could have been delivered by any Democrat post JFK (who by comparison, was a tax cuttin’, unilateral war mongerin’, terrorist rifle lovin’ neocon mofo).

CONTENT WARNING Continue Reading »

So in response to pointing out some problems with the Appleseed syllabus, here’s pretty much the answers I got:

• “It’s an advanced course and really isn’t for the beginning shooter.”
• “It’s a beginner’s course and doesn’t need to cover advanced subjects like cover and improvised positions.”
• “It doesn’t matter that the instructors sometimes suck, they’re all volunteers.”
• “It doesn’t matter that some shooters leave the program less confident, our intentions are good. Besides, we only ever hear back from the guys who liked the program, so what could possibly be wrong with it?”
• “Shun the nonbeliever! Shun! ShunnnnnnnNN!“

I guess that if you only want to your rifle to shoot at motionless, easily visible targets at known distances that won’t shoot back, the Appleseed program might be a good fit for you, if you can get a good instructor. But I think that if you anticipate having to use your rifle to defend yourself or others, you definitely want to leave the training to the professionals.

And when selecting professional training, please think critically about what you’re offered. Seek out both positive and negative testimonials. Attend with an open mind, store what is valuable, and discard what is not.