3 Gun/USPSA

Repetition

Posted on by Caleb

Type the words “Jerry Miculek wins” can get very boring sometimes, because anymore it’s news when he doesn’t win whatever match he’s entered in.  That being said, USPSA Multi-Gun is a different animal from revolver competition, but Jerry’s won lots of 3-gun titles before, and so his winning the USPSA Multi-Gun Nationals shouldn’t come as a shock.  Reading the press release, it sounds like this was a great match, as the lead changed hands several times before Jerry finally sealed the deal and then held off last year’s champion, Michael Voight through a tough match.

All kidding aside, congratulations to Jerry on his bajillionth National Championship!  He’s truly one of the legends of the sport, and if we had a Hall of Fame he’d be a lock for a first ballot induction.  Congratulations to everyone who shot this year’s multi-gun nationals and again congratulations to Jerry Miculek for his win for Team S&W!

revolvers

Things I don't get volume whatever

Posted on by Caleb

Safariland makes several flavor of speedloaders for revolvers, ranging from the smallest Comp-1 loader all the way to the “competition” oriented Comp-III loader.  The reason “competition” is in air quotes is because people say that the Comp-III is “too large” for concealed carry.  I don’t get that, and here’s why. On the left you have a Safariland Comp-III loaded with 6 rounds of Black Hills 125 grain +P JHPs.  On the right, a 17 round magazine for a Ruger SR9.  The Ruger mag is about the same size as pretty much any other pistol mag on the market, and it is much taller than the Comp-III.  The speedloader is a little bit wider than the pistol magazine, however not so much so that it magically becomes “too large” for concealed carry.  I would imagine that if I had a Glock 21 magazine for comparison, it would be as large or larger than the speedloader in every dimension.

Now, admittedly I would have to carry 2 extra speedloaders to have the same ammo on my person as a guy carrying a Glock 17 who had no spare magazines, but that’s not the point.  The point is that saying that the Comp-III is “too large” for concealed carry just doesn’t make sense.

Now, there are arguments against the Comp-III for concealed carry, such as if you carry it in your pocket with other items, the chance of something getting in the speedloader and causing it to dump the rounds in your pocket is decent enough that I’ve had it happen.  Obviously, the solution for that is to carry in a speedloader pouch or in a pocket that has nothing in it but the speedloader.  The other option as I’ve discussed before is to use HKS speedloaders for concealed carry, which I do.  The “twist” knob on the speedloader is less likely to let go in my pocket, and while it gives up some time to the Safariland loaders, I’m willing to make that trade in J-frames and small guns.

But there isn’t any logical reason that the Comp-III is too big for concealed carry.  It’s smaller than most pistol mags, and is lightweight and easily utilized.  Why wouldn’t you want to carry the most efficient tool for the job?

ammo

Ammo specials

Posted on by Caleb

Once again from our friends at Lucky Gunner, today we’re looking at Military Ballistics Industries re-manufactured ammo.  I shot several thousands rounds of their .45 ACP ammo my 625 last year, and it was very soft shooting and very accurate.  If you’re hurting for practice ammo, they have what you need.

124 grain 9mm FMJ  ammo, $200 for 1000 rounds.

147 grain FMJ 9mm ammo, $25 for 100 rounds – but if you buy 10 packs of 100 to get 1000 rounds the price drops to $23 per pack.

180 grain .40 S&W FMJ, $250 for 1000 rounds.  I have no personal experience with these reloads, however based on my use of other products from MBI, I have no qualms recommending them as practice ammo.

230 grain .45 ACP FMJ, $365 for 1000 rounds.  These I’ve personally shot a couple thousand through my S&W 625, again no issues or problems to report with one possible note – if you plan on running these in a wheelgun, the carbon fouling was a little excessive and I had to clean the cylinder more often than I would using factory ammo to guarantee smooth reloading.

.38 Special 125 grain FMJ, $278 for 1000 rounds.  If you’re like me, you like to practice with the same bullet weight that you use in your carry guns, and all my .38s are loaded with 125 grain +P JHP.  The MBI 125 grain FMJ is an economical practice option that gives you a generally consistent point of impact with your defensive ammo (with some variation for velocity).

And finally, this one is for Robb.  Look Robb, 10mm ammo for less than $1 per round!

I’ve done a lot of business with Lucky Gunner for the last year and a half, and yes, they are an advertiser and supporter of Gun Nuts, but they’re also a good company to work with.  I’ve been able to get ammo from them when I can’t find it anywhere else, and I’m happy that they’re out there supporting the shooting sports!

shooting

Monkey see, monkey shoot

Posted on by Caleb

Todd points out the interesting phenomenon of “Range Emulation“; where someone will see Todd shooting wicked fast and will also turn into a brass fountain…except lacking the ability to actually hit the target.  Tam looks at another facet of the same issue, namely how everyone’s range stories always seem to end with “and everyone was looking at me“.  It makes sense that people do this, I’ve seen it happen time and time again on indoor ranges as well where someone will start shooting rapid fire, then sure enough the guy in the lane next to him will similarly go cyclic and spray a magazine at a shaken, but relatively unscathed B27 target.

There’s a similar concept in action shooting, which I’ve taken to calling the GM Syndrome.  Take a relatively novice shooter, an IDPA Novice or a D-class USPSA shooter and squad them with a Grand Master or Master Class shooter – if the lower ranked shooter is still relatively new to the sport, there’s a reasonable chance they’re going to try and emulate the GM, even though they lack the skill level to do what the GM is doing.  It’s only natural after all – if we see a member of a group that is really awesome at something we also enjoy for us to want to be as awesome as they are.

The emulation syndrome isn’t entirely negative, however.  While the guy blazing away at his 5 yard B27 is relatively harmless, he’s not learning anything.  However, take that same shooter and make him aware of his skill level and limitations, and then the desire to emulate can become an excellent learning tool.  Back to that hypothetical D-class shooter squadded with a GM.  Mr. D-class knows he can’t shoot as well as Dave Sevigny, and he’s okay with that.  But he still wants to push his envelope and try to improve his skills, and so being squadded with a GM he tries to emulate the GM to the best of his skill level without getting out of control.  All of a sudden, that dash of self-awareness has changed the emulation from a waste of money and time in to a valuable training tool.

A personal example – when I was out in Virgina at the end of the July, I had the opportunity to shoot with Todd.  Todd is a much better shooter than I am; but because I’m a competitive animal I wanted to push my limits and see how fast I could go on some of the drills we were doing.  The difference again though is that I didn’t push myself to the point where I wasn’t learning.  The awareness of your own skill level can turn the desire to emulate someone awesome into a learning tool.  Of course, for it to work the shooter has to have that awareness of their skill level coupled with a desire to improve.  Some people are perfectly happy making loud noises fast with their gun and not really accomplishing anything; but hopefully the gun nuts reading this are the kind of people who are aware of their particular skill level, and when they see the Todd Green’s of this world they try to emulate what they can within their skills.

Uncategorized

The leg blaster

Posted on by Caleb

Uncle found the bit on Tactical Response’s website on why the don’t allow SERPA holsters in their class.  The gist of TR’s “no-SERPA” policy is that under stress people will tend to punch the SERPA button with the tip of their index finger instead of pressing it with the inside of their finger as it’s intended to be used.  I had this same discussion with Kathy Jackson from the Cornered Cat a few weeks ago – I’ve used the SERPA holster in competition before and have done quite a few presentations from the holster (not as many as Todd Jarrett though) and I’ve never had an issue.  She maintained that under even higher levels of stress such as a force-on-force class, the muscle control would break down and I’d end up punching the button.  At the very beginning of this video (highlighting one of the most fun things I’ve ever done with a gun) I actually don’t hit the SERPA button hard enough; and if you watch closely I do actually “punch” the button a little bit as evidenced by the slight bend in my index finger.  Now, that video is over 2 years old, and I’ve gotten a lot better at shooting guns since then so I’d be interested to see how I react under stress now while using the SERPA.  I haven’t used one in competition for a while, because I switched to faster, retention free holsters for IDPA and USPSA competition.

I think some sort of objective test is in order, don’t you?

Uncategorized

Link dump

Posted on by Caleb

Firearms and Training from Gun Blogger Rendezvous – lots off pics.

.500 S&W bump fire.  Interesting phenomenon – the gun recoils so violently that your trigger finger can be forced off the trigger enough to allow it to reset, but because your brain is screaming at your hand “OMG HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE” the squeeze causes your finger to contract on the trigger guard and fire a second shot.

Crimson Trace Defense awarded contract for LaserGuard for HK45C. I am routinely amazed when people buy lasers from companies other than Crimson Trace.  Not only are the leader in product innovation, but they also have great customer service, and quite simply a product that flat works.

.45 Colt blows right the hell up.  Reloading is an inherently dangerous activity and requires EXTREME attention to detail.  The .45 Colt is a very high volume case, and a light load can cause weird pressure spikes; it’s also easy to overcharge the .45 Colt case if using smokeless powder.  Combine that with an old Colt revolver, and you have a recipe for tears.

And finally, there are no magic swords.  Guns break.  Even good guns.  The difference between a good gun and a crappy gun can be anything from how long it takes to break to how easy it is to fix; but when you shoot a gun enough something bad is eventually going to happen.  Of interest to me are the failures of the optical sights on some of the guns during the carbine class.

Steel Challenge

From Gun Blogger Rendezvous

Posted on by Caleb

By all accounts, the recent GBR was a smashing success, literally thousands of dollars were raised to support ValorIT, machine guns were shot, Steel Challenge was shot, and generally a good time was had by all.  And just to make you feel good about the future of the shooting sports, here’s 14 year old Molly Smith who is sponsored by Team S&W tearing up Smoke & Hope.

Uncategorized

Auction Arms ditches GPal

Posted on by Caleb

The sad saga of GPal continues.  Even without visiting CalGuns, which has become the clearing house for GPal woes, you can find a lot of info on the web about GPal.  Robb has thoughts, Sailorcurt does as well, and a google search for GPal Fraud or something along those lines will lead you to hours and hours of entertaining reading.  The latest development is that they’re hiring “additional tech support”, which is great and all except tech support doesn’t cut checks.  That’s what you need a temp accounting firm for – you hand them a book of names that you owe money to, and say “cut these people checks most rickey-tick”.

I personally have had 1 interaction with GPal.  When they first showed up as “GunPal”, I rolled my eyes and thought the name was stupid, when they changed over to GPal I figured I’d try and register.  What a nightmare that was.  Like most auto-deposit systems, they send two small deposits to your checking account for verification purposes.  Except that GPal sent 6 small deposits, and then locked my account.  So I figured if they can’t get that right, there was no way I was letting them at my cash.

Bottom line?  Right now, something is rotten in Denmark.  GPal continues to dodge and evade – instead of cutting checks and getting people the thousands of dollars they’re owed, they’re hiring tech support?  In the words of my people: “that dog don’t hunt”.