news/self defense

Maryville Church Shooting

Posted on by Caleb

If you’re just now turning on the news, you’ve by now probably heard about the shooting in Maryville, IL – where single man shot and killed the pastor of a local church before attacked and subdued by members of the church. According to the police reports, the man shot the pastor, then produced a knife and was set upon by parishioners.

Two items immediately jump out at me: 1) good job on the police and CNN for preserving the anti self-defense meme, by stating that the wounds inflicted on the shooter may have been “accidental” or “self-inflicted”. According to police, the suspect suffered “very serious” injuries, which one can only hope were given him by the parishioners with his own knife. The 2nd item that of course comes to mind is carry you gun, even in church. As we’ve said before, it is a lighter burden than regret.

Unfortunately for the citizens of Illinois, your leaders don’t think that you are worthy of the privilege which residents of more liberty minded states take for granted.

My deepest sympathies are with the family of the pastor who was murder, and my heartfelt thanks and gratitude are with the church goers who chose to not be victims, and chose instead to fight.

Uncategorized

Coming to Gun Nuts Radio

Posted on by Caleb

On March 24th, we’re going to have a very special guest joining us for Gun Nuts Radio. That evening, we’ll be joined by Julie Goloski (whose real name is now Julie Golob, post her marriage), one of the top shooters in the world, and a member of the Smith & Wesson Pro Team. I’m extremely excited to have Julie on the show with us, as she brings a unique insight on being a pro shooter as well as a woman in the shooting sports. This will probably be our best “Chicks and Guns” show ever, so don’t miss it. Mark you calendars now for Gun Nuts Radio on March 24th, with Julie Goloski!

shooting

Shooting Science: Core exercises

Posted on by Caleb

Yesterday, we discussed a key exercise for strengthening the lower body in your shooting stance. However, your lower body isn’t the only part of the body that gets a workout while you’re in your shooting stance – you also place strain on your “core muscles” and you back, chest, and shoulders.

For the upper body, the best, and most simple exercise to strengthen the muscles affected by shooting is the classic pushup. The routine in the video I linked is my training routing for pushups, which helps build both endurance and strength in the upper body of the shooter. Again, it’s important to remember to always maintain proper form – 2 reps with good form is always better than 5 reps with poor form. The push-up is my primary exercise for upper body condition, although I do mix in other stuff, at the initial level “all you need are pushups”.

Core strength training is a much more difficult animal to tackle, as proper core strength training covers multiple muscles, and multiple exercises. However, for a basic exercise to target core development, I recommend steam engines, an old boot camp classic. Steam engines, when done with proper form, can effectively target many of the “core” muscles, as balancing and performing the range of motion engages an even wider muscle group that you may think is being used.

So far, we’ve covered lunges, push-ups, and steam engines. For a beginner’s workout, I recommend doing all three exercises together, three times a week, allowing 1 day of rest between each work out day. With just those three exercises, you’ve created a short, 20 minute workout which will help you develop muscular strength and endurance that will make you a better shooter.

On Monday, we’re going to take a look at some intermediate level exercises to target skills like shooting on the move, grip strength, and even more strength and conditioning exercises.

humor

TFL: The Pwnening

Posted on by Caleb

So, over at TWHoSaV, some guy starts a thread about how his girlfriend is coming around on the gun issue, which should have been met with a resounding “YAY” from the forumites. However, a couple of guys, and one in particular, decide that they like the taste of their own feet, so they proceed to spend the next four pages of posts getting whacked around by my friends Tamara and Pax.

Misogyny is so cute, in a “look at the relic from the 1800s” sort of way. You go watching this idiot get his lunch fed to him by clicking on this link, but don’t do it if you don’t like watching someone who is clearly mentally challenged get his ass handed to him. As of this morning, the mods have locked the thread, which is almost too bad, because it really was fun watching this guy stick his foot in his mouth. He managed to get the last post, which is a doozy – it actually suggests that the reason women shooters beat male shooters in action shooting is that the men are distracted by how attractive the ladies are. Talk about dumb.

news

Up 17%

Posted on by Caleb

That’s how much gas increased in my local area yesterday morning. 17% overnight, which works out to $0.30. Just so we’re clear, since everyone blamed Bush when gas went over 2 bucks (which is where it is now), I get to blame Obama for this, right? Because now he’s killing our economy, right? I mean, that’s how it works. Blame the President for everything, even things he can’t control, and especially things he can’t control if you have an election to win. Which I do, in 2010.

revolvers

It's called double action for a reason

Posted on by Caleb

I concur!

Shooting double action offers several benefits. First and foremost, if one carries a revolver, chances are it will be used in double action if it is ever needed. The ability to get consistent hits with the long heavy trigger pull is important. Secondly, if a shooter can learn to shoot accurately with a double action revolver, then they can shoot almost any handgun accurately.

I never got shooting a DA revolver in single action mode, I mean – you paid extra for double action, you should use it!