ICORE Match recap
We did in fact have an ICORE match at Atlanta Conservation Club this past Saturday, despite the blustery weather. We managed to dodge the bulk of the rain, which is always a good thing for the cardboard targets – and the shooters I suppose.
Observations:
- The new fiber optic front sight post on my 625 is WAAAAAY higher than the original black post on the gun. I had to crank the rear sight up by quite a few clicks to get the gun back to where I had it sighted in for previously.
- My reloads are getting consistently better with the gun, which I owe to lots of practice.
- The moonclip holders from California Competition Works are awesome.
- I need a holster that puts the butt of the gun lower than it currently is. Right now I’m using my IDPA revolver holster (an excellent Safariland), but my hand hits the butt of the gun relatively high up my hip, and due to my T-rex arms makes getting it out of the holster a more difficult proposition.
- Shooting a DA revolver makes you better at shooting, period. If you manage the trigger on a DA revolver and get good hits, you can manage the trigger on anything.
Our next match at ACC is August 29th – come out, bring your wheelguns and shoot with us! You’ll have fun, I promise.
Russian IDPA
If you read the entire post, you’ll find out at the end that the guns in question were loaded with low powered rubber bullets (I had no idea such a thing existed, by the way) and as such weren’t a danger to the freakin’ boats and people on the other side of the river. The whole post about the Russian IDPA exhibition is here.
Look, I get that the Ruskies are generally crazy or something, because “low powered rubber bullets” or not, you wouldn’t catch me doing an IDPA demo out in the open in front of a river on an elevated position. Primarily you wouldn’t see me doing that here because there’s a 99.9% probability that it would be illegal in the States. I think this is probably the first time I’ve seen a public display of my sport that I’ve strongly disapproved of; shooting over open water like that just doesn’t present a positive image of gun owners.
I know Russia != America, but honestly – if you didn’t know those were from Russia, some idiot from the VPC could grab those images and say “OMFG LOOK AT HOW UNSAFE THESE MANIACS ARE”, because out of context (and hell, in context) that looks pretty unsafe. Basically, what I’m trying to say here is that don’t do things in front of a camera that can be easily manipulated into presenting a negative and unsafe image of gun owners.
Got an XD?
Want it pimped out by the best in the business? Send it to Springer Precision.
Shooting fitness
Back in February when I was laid off from my previous employer, I started working out on a fitness program called Crossfit. As someone who has always believed in exercise as a “good thing”, I figured that I’d give this program a go, since a lot of people online seemed to think it was neato-torpedo. Prior to starting the program, I thought I was in pretty good shape.
I was wrong. Crossfit has spent the last 6 months kicking my ass, and I have loved every minute of it. I can also attest to the fact that it works, and it works very well. If you follow the WOD (workouts of the day) and do the appropriate scalings for your size/strength/fitness level, you will get faster and stronger from Crossfit.
“Well that’s great, Caleb, but what does this have to do with shooting?” I am so very glad you asked me that. When you’re shooting, especially in the action pistol games, being faster and stronger are good things. Having a balanced, strong body means that you recover from recoil faster, transition to new targets quicker, and move to new shooting boxes faster. You also don’t get fatigued as quickly, which means that if you’re on a stage with a lot of long, tight shots it’s easier to hold the gun steady. Fitness can even benefit you in a relatively sedate game like Bianchi Cup, where being stronger and able to hold the gun steadier is never a bad thing.
As far as fitness programs go, I’m a big fan of Crossfit, but there are other programs out there that work. Admittedly though, Crossfit as an entity is also a big supporter of the military, naming WOD after soldiers who have given their lives in the line of duty and just in generally being tremendously supportive of the military and LE communities.
If you’re involved the action shooting sports, and you’re looking for an easy way to improve your scores a bit, add a little bit of physical activity to your practice. You don’t need to go crazy and do Crossfit (initially, anyway) but you can do something simple like run a kilometer and do some pushups and squats. Or just do the three-a-week exercises outlined at SimpleFit.org. Run a mile, do a pullup, but get active! Your scores and your body will thank you!
Dear Smith & Weson
I know that I have some readers from S&W that occassionally check in around these parts, so if any of you guys have influence over the creative process at S&W, I don’t suppose you could kick this brilliant idea into gear: “An M&P Pro in .40 S&W”. Right out of the box, that would be just the berries for Limited 10.
I’m just saying…
The gun buying process
I have been accused (and rightly so) of being pretty ADD when it comes to buying guns, mostly because there have been two or three guns in the past several years that once I bought them and shot them, I thought they were just the berries and kept them. But there is a logical process behind it, and here’s how it works and then gets derailed.
- Identify a need for a gun
For example, right now I’m shopping for another gun that I can shoot in Bianchi Cup production division – and this time I’m trying to constrain myself to mass market available plasticfantastic guns, like the XD(m), Glocks, and S&W M&P pistols.
- Shop around
I go and look for guns that fit the established criteria, and do price comparison so I can ensure I’m not getting gouged on price. This is also where the wheels can come off a little bit – in a perfect world, I’d proceed to step three.
- Identify and purchase “best fit” gun.
Then I’d be done. But what often happens is something else entirely. See, for example say I was looking for a 1911 in 9mm to serve as a redundancy blaster for my Para LTC. So I’d go beebopping off to GunBroker to compare prices on 1911s in 9mm. Then, I’d see a 1911 in .38 Super at a great price. All of a sudden, I’d start thinking about reasons to get a 1911 in .38 Super, which would be STUPID because it doesn’t share accessories or ammo with any of the other guns in my safe. But, that’s how my mind works sometimes – I get easily distracted.
So I’ve added a new step to my gun buying process:
- Get mocked by Gunblogger_Conspiracy.
There are a couple of guys in there whose opinion on firearms I trust, because they’re generally not stupid – so when I’m having a stupid idea like buying a perfectly good 686 and having it converted to .38 Super, I just tell them and get called dumb, and then that idea is gone.
Of course, the point of all of this is to try and help out people like me. See, my problem isn’t that I’m easily distracted when it comes to guns. It’s that I really, really, really like guns. And I like shooting guns, so a lot of the time I’ll buy a gun for the experience of shooting it, and then when that doesn’t turn out to be what I had hoped for, I sell it off. However, if it is, then I keep it – reference my S&W 625 which I absolutely love.
Just remember this, fellow gunspaz sufferers. If you feel a compelling need to “stand out” from the crowd of shooters, don’t worry about your gear making you stand out. Buy a gun you like and shoot well, and then shoot it so much that it’s the quality of your shooting that makes you stand out.
This post is dedicated to pdb, who keeps me in line.
Bersa Thunder Pro 9mm
I tell you, you learn something new every day. I was in Goose Hill the other day killing time, and I saw a Bersa Thunder Pro 9mm which prompted an immediate “huh?” from me. I knew Bersa made a full sized 9mm and .40, but I didn’t know they had come out with a new and improved version. Now, I’m generally a fan of Bersa pistols for they are – cost effective carry guns that tend to actually go bang when you press the trigger. My first carry gun was a Bersa Thunder .380, which I had for years until I sold it in a fit of gunspaz. Breda carries a Bersa, and Tam also thinks that they don’t suck. High praise indeed.
One thing I never thought of the Bersa as though was a competition gun. That lasted until today, when I typed “Bersa Thunder Pro 9mm” into the googlebot, and was rewarded with this YouTube video of Team Bersa’s Daniel Zoppi whacking an IPSC stage in Argentina with a Bersa Thunder 9mm.
Apparently, the Thunder Pro comes with a reinforced firing pin, which ameliorates one of the problems of the standard Thunder series guns, which was the firing pin breaking during dry fire practice. Priced right around $400 bucks, it would make a pretty great entry level gun for IPSC/IDPA competition in SSP or Production Division. I have a deep and abiding love affair for guns that do two things: 1) run, 2) are priced right. Assuming this Bersa runs like my old .380 did, then for the price you’re not going to go wrong.
Ammo for snubbies
Hsoi got himself a snubbie, and now is looking for BBs for it. He’s tried the usual LSWCHP 158 grain rounds, and gone through the internet recommendations. I am a big fan of Hornady’s Critical Defense ammo, which is a polymer filled hollowpoint round inspired by their LeverRevolution ammo.
The idea behind the Critical Defense ammo is that it will reliably expand at low velocity, or when fired through heavy clothing, because the tissue acts on the polymer tip and drives it into the body of the projectile, causing reliable and predictable expansion.
In fact, I’m such a big fan of it and the concept in general, that one of my HD guns is stocked with the .45 Colt LeverRev rounds, and I just ordered two boxes of the 9mm Critical Defense ammo from MidwayUSA to feed in my carry 9mm.
Why I don't carry pepper spray
Brillianter has been talking about pepper spray for a few days now, and has made a good case for why he thinks people should carry an OC/pepper spray. Looking at the title of this post, you’ve probably figured out by now that I’m going to go ahead and go in the opposite direction of those posts. I actually had a really long and drawn post written for this, but then I realized that it could be pretty easily summarized in a few points.
- I’ve been pepper sprayed. It’s unpleasant, but it didn’t take me out of the fight, and I’m not a hardened street criminal.
- 99% of the situations in which I would want or need pepper spray can be avoided by being situationally aware. Keep your head up in the garage and you’ll see the guy behind the car.
- It’s awkward. The pocket or belt space taken up by pepper spray would be better utilized by carrying a proper tactical flashlight with a strike cap (more on that later).
- If I’m in a fight that could not be avoided by being smart and aware, my day has taken a rather statistical unlikely turn, and there is a better than fair probability I’m fighting for my life. If I’m fighting for my life, I don’t want to give someone a skin rash.
Back to the flashlight for a second – I’d recommend a flashlight as a defensive tool before pepper spray. A good tactical flashlight can give you stand off capability by temporarily blinding and disorienting your attacker, allowing you to get away. If you fight closes to to close range, the flashlight with a proper strike cap provides you with a better close-in weapon than your fist. A very simple “swim motion” strike technique can be taught to most people in 10 minutes, allowing them to deliver effective blows with the light. The final reason I’d rather have a flashlight than a can of pepper spray is because if I spray someone and the fight closes to hand to hand, I am now in danger of my own spray getting on me and imparing my ability to fight.
Brillianter makes some good points, but ultimately I disagree about the effectiveness of pepper spray. You’re better served by a good flashlight, situational awareness, and carrying a spare magazine for your heater than you are with pepper spray.