Michael Bane and Tupelo Flash in full zoot regalia. Some people love shooting sports that involve costuming. Some people think it’s a little too close to LARP.
We have one of those
There’s a Bonefish Grill in Indianapolis. I don’t eat there anyway because the food is mediocre, but now out of respect for my Tennessee CCW brethren, I’ll formally boycot Bonefish Grill.
Joe's getting published
In Italy. He’s also going to make Robb Allen’s hands famous in Italy. Not that Robb’s hands aren’t famous anyway, but for other reasons.
Lookin' good
Looks like today will be a great day to shoot – so I’m off to ACC for the ICORE match! Shooter’s meeting is at 0945, so you still have time to make it there for the match (coughTamcough).
Do it yourself grenade kit
Apparently, there are conversion kits out there to convert your Walther P22 to .17 Hornady Mach 2. No thanks.
Practicing in volume
Tam’s most recent gun school post (linked a couple of posts down) contains a really great piece of advice roughly paraphrased as “gun school is a bad time to find out your gun sucks”. For game shooters, replace “gun school” with “a match”. The point being that if you’re going to do any serious amount of shooting, you need to know that your gun and magazines can hold up to it.
Before I started competing, a “high volume” practice session was 150-200 rounds. When I started getting serious about improving my gun handling skills, 200 rounds became “the minimum practice session”. The point of shooting in volume is to reinforce training, but also to make sure you identify kinks in your gun before you go to gun school. The moral of the study is that more shooting is usually better than less shooting. As long as you’re not reinforcing bad habits, that is.
Witness the Bersa at Tam’s class. While it’s a reasonable defensive pistol, it’s not well know for its durability in extended practice sessions, making it a less than ideal gun for a medium round count class (500 rounds). Shoot your guns, people – train good habits and shoot as much as you can, as often as you can.
The XDM 9mm
I’ve been shooting my XDM in 9mm for a little over a month now, and I’ve put about 2k rounds through it in that time. A few thoughts on Friday:
- The trigger – well, it’s an XD trigger. It’s not great, but out of the box for a plastic gun, it’s not bad. I’ve managed to shoot it in a bit as well, which for a gun like this is my favorite kind of action job.
- The sights – actually, the sights are great. The XDM series comes from the factory with Springfield’s Heinie knock-offs, which mean that they present an excellent sight picture. I blacked out the two white dots on the rear sights, which gives me a “black-on-white” sight picture, perfect for action pistol.
- Slide stop/slide release – this is purely a “gamer” thing, but I love where this is located. I have smaller hands, and being able to drop the slide with my “shooting hand” without changing my grip means I can do slide lock mag changes a little bit faster.
- The magazine release – I don’t know if this is an issue with all the XD pistols, but holy cow is that mag release stiff. I have to WAIL on it to get the mag to release. I’ll probably have the button replaced with a larger, extended mag release so I can get at it easier.
Overall, I think it’s a great gun. It’s ideally suited for USPSA production, and out of the box the “M” requires few if any mods to get you shooting. It even carries well, as I’ve been lugging it around in my Blade-Tech Stingray Belt Holster whenever I’m not in dress clothes. The gun is a good, solid, flat shooting polymer pistol. Sadly, Springfield has never been able to pick up the LE market with the gun like Glock and S&W have, but it’s extremely popular for concealed carry, and enjoys moderate popularity on the USPSA circuit. I actually see more XDs of all the various flavors in IDPA, where they’re classified in Enhanced Service Pistol or Custom Defensive Pistol; I honestly believe this is because of the gun’s popularity as a CCW gun, and IDPA marketing itself as “the” CCW sport.
More Lessons from Gun School
Tam recounts on additional lessons from the Awebuck class she took. Remember, there are no magic swords, as even one of the Glock shooters was running into issues with his gun not working.
Shooting mat?
One of the items that I’m planning on acquiring as I “get serious” about Bianchi Cup is a shooting mat to practice going prone. At the event itself the mats are provided for you, but if I’m going to be practicing prone on the gravel at ACC, I need a mat.
The reason for going prone on The Practical and The Plates is twofold: 1) enhances accuracy, and 2) uses time. At the 20 and 25 yard stages of The Plates, you literally have all the time in the world to get six shots off, but I found myself shooting way faster than I needed to. Going prone eliminates some of that extra time.
The same is true on the 25 and 50 yard stages of The Practical, in that it enhances accuracy and helps maintain a steady shooting pace.
So, does anyone have any recommendations on a good shooting mat? I found one on Brownells for $175, but I just can’t bring myself to pay that for what is essentially an expensive, padded rug. Ideas in comments, if you have any.
Take Vet to Lunch
I support this cause. Little gestures go a long way.