Uncategorized

Semper Paratus

Posted on by Caleb

Happy Birthday, USCG.  Founded on August 4th, 1790, you’re 218 years young today – and are still the nation’s oldest continuously sea-going service.

The Coast Guard was originally founded as The Revenue Cutter Service by Alexander Hamilton as part of the Department of the Treasury.  From 1790 to 1798, they were the only naval force in the United States, as the US Navy would not be reformed until 1798 having been disbanded after the Revolution.

In 1915, the RCS was merged with the US Life-Saving Service, and the name was changed to the US Coast Guard.  In 1967, the Coast Guard was moved to the Department of Transportation, and then in 2003 they were moved to Department of Homeland Security to serve as the “flagship” organization in the new department.

For 218 years, millions of lives saved, service in every war that our nation has been involved in, the Coast Guard has maintained their motto of Semper Paratus, “Always Ready”.

handguns/IDPA/shooting/sports

IDPA Match – Atlanta Conservation Club

Posted on by Caleb

I had mentioned last week that I was going to shoot IDPA for the first time in about 6 or 7 this weekend, and lo and behold I actually did make it out to Atlanta Conservation Club in northern BFE to shoot the match. Having not shot at Atlanta before, nor having shot IDPA since before I left the Coast Guard, I honestly had no idea what to expect.

The first thing that happened when I got to the range was I immediately wished I had brought a hat.  For some (stupid) reason, I was expecting the range to be somewhat shaded – like my usual haunt at Marion County Fish & Game.  Hoo boy was I ever wrong – we were right out in the beating hot sun all day.  Next time I shoot one of these, I’m bringing a damn hat.

I think the easiest way to coalesce the experience in to a readable format is to give you a list of pros and cons – because honestly none of the stuff is worthy of its own paragraph, but it is worthy of at least a line item.  Plus, I love bulleted lists.

Pros

  • Course design –  The courses of fire were both creative and challenging.  I would look at a course of fire and think “I can shoot this clean, no problem” and then the next thing I know I’d be looking at places where I dropped hits out of the A zone and wondering how the hell I did that.
  • My favorite course was one that required just two rounds if you shot it clean – from the seated position, stand, turn and draw and then take cover behind the chair and fire one shot at each target – with the hit zone only being about 3 inches wide and 6 inches tall to simulate a spine shot.
  • The range itself is great, lots of bays allow quite a few squads to rotate through the courses of fire, the actual facility is very nice as far as ranges go.
  • Intangibles – this is the “gut feeling” part of the match, and ultimately what I base my decision on whether or not I would go back to another match and whether I’d recommend friends.  My gut feeling is that I would go back, and I would bring friends with me to shoot.

Cons

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all milk and honey, as there were a few things that were kind of “huh?” moments for me during the match.

  • Rules Lawyering – I think this is more a problem with the IDPA format than anything else, but it seemed like there was an excessive amount of “is that a procedural penalty or not” discussion going on.  That’s the sort of thing that makes the sport less friendly to new shooters and harder for them to get excited.  As I said, I think that’s more a problem with the IDPA format than anything.  While some of the penalties are clear (like using cover) some of the others seemed a little obtuse which lead to the aforementioned rules lawyering.
  •  “User friendly” environment – this sort of goes hand in hand with the above, and again I think it’s more of an indictment of IDPA, but the format didn’t seem very user friendly to me.  If I was a new shooter and was just looking for a place to get some more involved practice with my home defense or carry gun, I would have been 1) confused, and 2) turned off to the sport because I was confused.

I don’t want people to think I’m getting down on IDPA or Atlanta Conservation Club – I did have a lot of fun and the match was run in a safe, organized fashion.  I think my concerns come from taking myself out of my shoes, and putting myself in say, my wife or The Breda’s shoes.  Remember, one of my biggest interests in shooting competitively and blogging is attracting new shooters to our sport, and I think that part of doing that means that the sport must be easily understood by new shooters, and challenging enough for skilled veterans.

I feel that IDPA does meet both those criteria, but in my personal opinion (note: my opinion and my opinion only) it is on the hairy edge of being overly complicated for newbies to shoot.

However, with that being said, I do plan on going back to Atlanta and shooting another IDPA match there in September.  I had a lot of fun, I learned that I tend to jerk the trigger on my DAO Beretta on follow-up shots, and I realized that there are few things that are more fun than playing outside with friendly people, good shooters, and a hot gun.  All the above criticisms aside, I didn’t see or do anything that would make me not want to go back and keep shooting matches there – I had a blast, and I think that a lot of other people will have a blast as well.

Uncategorized

August E-Postal match: Faster!

Posted on by Caleb

I had completely forgotten that I was hosting the August E-Postal match until I got an email from Mr. Completely today reminding me of that very same fact. Luckily, I actually did have something prepared, although it may seem kind of easy at first I assure you it’s a little harder than you’d think.

Here is the target for this month’s match, you’ll need two of them. It’s just a four inch black circle on a white background. The course of fire is as follows:

  • At 7 yards or 25 feet (whichever is available) affix two of the above targets side by side to your backer. Rimfire pistols: if you are shooting a rimfire pistol move the target to 10 yards/30 feet.
  • If your range allows for it, you should start with the pistol holstered – if not start from low ready.
  • Engage each target with 5 rounds each (total of 10 rounds) in whichever order you like shooting as fast as you can with control.  (note: think two double-taps and a follow-up shot). This is to simulate an action pistol match. Now, there’s no way to regulate that, so it’s honor system that you guys will be hosing bullets at these targets.
  • Without setting down the pistol, reload and engage the same targets again with 5 rounds each, in whatever you like, for a total of 10 rounds. Note: for revolvers, reload as necessary.
  • The total stage round count should be 20 rounds, with 10 on each paper.

Again, you should engage the targets in a defensive mindset, so you’re shooting as fast as you can put the sights on the target for 20 straight rounds. Just don’t shoot 10 on one and then reload and shoot 10 on the other, it’s got to be 5 and 5, reload, then another 5 and 5.

Shooting Categories

  1. Rimfire Iron: Rimfire pistols with iron sights
  2. Rimfire open: rimfire pistols with optical sights
  3. Centerfire iron: Non-compensated centerfire pistols with iron sights.
  4. Centerfire open: Centerfire pistols with either a compensator oroptical sights – that means an iron sighted compensated gun shoots in Centerfire open.

Scoring

Only hits on the black score points – each hit on the black is worth 5 points. A hit on the white that does not touch the black is scored as a miss and is worth zero points. Only hits on the black count. 20 rounds at 5 points a round gives a maximum match score of 100 points.

Match is open until August 30th – once you shoot your targets just email them to me (my email is in the “contact info”) with the subject line “E-Postal match” and I’ll post the results.

Remember, shoot Faster!

rifles

Do Want

Posted on by Caleb

The other day I was browsing through Gander Mountain (because I love paying egregiously inflated prices for guns and ammo) just kind of chilling and perusing their rifle racks, when I saw something that made me almost defenestrate my plan for saving my gun money for the Para LTC in case I love it.  Sitting on the rack at Gander Mountain was nothing other than a Puma rifle in .45 Colt, a Winchester ’92 clone with a 16 inch barrel, saddle ring, and large loop cocking lever.

Oh my goodness.  So pretty.  Do want.  Being the guy that I am, I of course picked it up and shouldered it in the store – that 16 inch barrel snapped the sights right up to my line of sight like it was meant for my shoulder.

Needless to say, that did not make my decision to not purchase the rifle any easier.  Discipline is a good virtue, and I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy any more guns until after Blackwater – just in case I love the Para LTC and decide to buy that.  But if I don’t…helloooo Puma.

gun control

H.R. 6691

Posted on by Caleb

HR 6691 was introduced into the House yesterday by a bi-partisan group of Congressman.  The aim of this bill is to put an end to the District of Columbia’s efforts to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling in DC vs. Heller.  Read the NRA press release on the bill here.  The highlights of the bill are below:

  • Repeal the District’s ban on semi-automatic handguns.  Semi-automatic pistols have been the most commonly purchased handguns in the United States over the last 20 years, and therefore a ban on those firearms is unconstitutional as decided by Heller;

 

  • Restore the right of self-defense by repealing the requirement that firearms be disassembled or secured with a trigger lock in the home;

 

  • Repeal the current D.C. registration system that requires multiple visits to police headquarters; ballistics testing; passing a written test on D.C. gun laws; fingerprinting; and limiting registration to one handgun per 90 days.  The current system is unduly burdensome and serves as a vehicle for even more onerous restrictions; and

 

  • Create a limited exemption to the federal ban on interstate handgun sales by allowing D.C. residents to purchase handguns in Virginia and Maryland.  Currently there are no firearms dealers in the District of Columbia, and the federal ban prohibits residents from purchasing handguns outside of the District; therefore, District residents have no means of purchasing handguns.

There has been some talk of this bill being a “compromise” bill, because it was introduce with bi-partisan support.  I have got to say that I think that’s kind of well, dumb – having Rep. Dingel on the bill makes it that much harder for Nancy Pelosi to have her attack dogs shoot this bill down.

Take a look again at the list of things that this bill does for residents of the District – this goes a long way towards restoring their right to keep and bear arms by granting them access to functional defensive firearms that are widely available to all law abiding citizens.

I’m contacting my member of the House today to urge him to support H.R. 6691 and hope that you will do the same for your members of the house.  You can locate and write your elected officials by using this link from NRA.

gun control

Heller 2: Electric Boogaloo

Posted on by Caleb

I’m staying with Electric Boogaloo to reference Heller Round 2 because it drives Squeaks nuts, and that makes me laugh.

Here’s the NRA Press release on Heller 2.

On June 26, 2008, the U. S. Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller, that “the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense.” The Supreme Court explicitly articulated that handguns are constitutionally-protected arms because they are in common use at this time, are typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, are considered by the American people to be the quintessential self-defense weapon, are the most popular weapon chosen by Americans for self-defense in the home, and are the most preferred firearm in the nation to keep and use for protection of one’s home and family.

Pushing back gun control restrictions one at time – this is winning.