Some of these aren’t “new” in the sense that Colt’s never made them before, but rather represent the return of classic models from yesteryear that Market was asking for. Hit the jump to see the rest
New Colt pistols for 2015
2014 IDPA BUG Nationals
Okay, let me back that one up a bit. I shot the 2014 IDPA BUG Nationals this past weekend in Springfield, MA. As usual, the NE crew put on a great match, making the most that they could with the stage limitations for Back-Up Guns. BUG stages are limited to a max of five rounds per string, no reloads (which I do think is dumb), no drawing, etc. It’s hard to come up with multiple fun stages with those limitations, but the crew at the S&W matches do a great job.
To rewind a little further, prior to shooting this match my preparation consisted of sighting in my gun and making sure it was hitting where I wanted it to with my match ammo, the excellent Federal 148 grain full wadcutter. There are a lot of reasons I could offer as to why I didn’t prep for the match, but the truth is usually the best choice: I didn’t take this match seriously. Not because I dislike the match or anything like that, I just…didn’t really care how I shot. I knew that Jerry, Josh, and Joe would all be there in the revo category, and the odds of me beating all three of those guys to take the win even if I trained like a maniac are slim and none. Plus, I had sales meetings in the region which are actually important to me, so I wanted to focus on prepping for those.
As a result, I shot exactly like I trained: crappily. Oh sure, my base skill level is good enough to not get completely blown off the ball, but overall my shooting was pretty terrible. I dropped a ton of points, made stupid errors, didn’t trust my own vision, had procedurals, and even straight up drilled a couple of rounds into the hardcover of a target and didn’t bother to take a make-up shot when I had one available.
I could list my litany of mistakes, but the one thing I’m really not proud of is when I lost my cool for a second and barked at an SO. We were on our 3rd from the last stage, and I made a mistake that earned me a procedural and a couple of other penalties. I knew it the second I did it, and having already been on the range for 10 hours (more on that later) I just didn’t care to hear the explanation of my penalties, so when the SO started to explain in detail how I’d f***ed up, I just snapped and said “I know, I don’t care, just write ’em on my sheet and let’s get going.” It was rude, and I genuinely feel bad about that. I hope he reads this, because I don’t remember his name to formally apologize via email, but if you’re the SO I snapped at on Stage 5, I really am sorry. That was a dick thing to do.
My terrible performance had an interesting side effect on me. I had planned on BUG Nationals being my last major match before going on hiatus from majors for 2015, but I shot so bad that I don’t want my last major to be that. I just don’t. I’d rather go train hard for Indoor Nationals in Feb and shoot as best as I can, even if I get beat, than go out in a match where I half-assed it and didn’t care. Turns out what I needed to re-ignite the competitive spark was to get my ass kicked. Go figure.
One last thought on the match itself – this year had major stage flow issues. Two squads that were positioned well never encountered major backups, however the remaining squads ran into serious bottlenecking issues that were caused by having two pretty lengthy and involved bays running back-to-back. In fact, there were too many stages this year. 14 stages with an average of three stings per stage of 5 rounds takes too long; and the match could have been just as good if two of those stages had been deleted entirely. Yes, that would have lowered the round count to around 150, but who shows up to a BUG match expecting to blaze 300 rounds anyway?
At the end though, it was still a fun match. In a way, I’m glad I shot like garbage, because it reminded me that I do care about my performance at these things. I enjoyed shooting the stages, and thought that they were generally pretty creative and decent, I just could have used two or so fewer stages to get us off the range a little bit quicker.
Well there’s your problem
You see that frame? You see how it’s cracked like that? That crack is why I’m very, very suspect of using re-manufactured ammo from companies I’ve never heard of. Generally speaking, I’ll only use reman from the following companies: Atlanta Arms, Freedom Munitions and…yeah that’s pretty much it.
Photo of the day: Colt Lightweight Commander Rail Gun
New for 2015, Colt will be offering their excellent Rail Gun in lightweight versions, both Commander and Government sized.
Is physical fitness part of self-defense?
Last night I was feeling a little punchy, felt like stirring up some butthurt, so I posted this status on the Gun Nuts Radio fan page:
A thought: if you’re so overweight that it’s a health risk and you’re not doing anything about it, are you really serious about self defense?
Probably not.
You can likely imagine the slew of butthurt that ensued following that, some of which I encouraged and actively trolled, because as I said I was feeling a little punchy. However, I did actually want to expand on the line of thought in the post, and I wanted to do it here, because Facebook is a terrible place for actual writing.
One of the things that every single angry commenter seems to have missed is the extremely important qualifier in the original statement: “if you’re not doing anything about it.” That’s important because it speaks to mindset, and how many times have we discussed the importance of mindset to self-defense? They also missed the part about “health risk”, but that’s less important. But first to be clear: I am not talking about people who are carrying some extra weight. I’m carrying some extra weight. Most people could stand to lose 5-15 pounds, that’s not the issue here. I’m talking about people with serious health risks because of their weight, who need to lose weight or they might literally die. You know, this guy:
Secondly, I’m not talking about people who are aware of their issue and trying to control it or correct it. That could be as little as going for walks and having salad once or twice a week. Giving up soda pop, whatever.
No, the people I’m talking about are the seriously overweight people who don’t care about their weight, but are obsessed with CCW and self defense. They spend all their time prepping for a fight that will likely never happen, a fight they’d likely lose anyway, while intentionally losing the fight to their own body. That person is likely going to lose any real self-defense encounter they get in because they’re not prepared to deal with the physical stress of a fight. In their head, they’ve constructed this imaginary self defense scenario where they whip out their Glock 19, and scare the black masked robber off.
It comes down to discipline. A person who chooses to be overweight and not doing anything about it lacks discipline. That discipline is an important part of being successful in a self defense situation, and is an even more important part of being a good shooter.
Now let’s take a look at some of the common excuses made by overweight people who don’t want to train.
1. I have a thyroid/glandular problem.
No you don’t. 70% of Americans are overweight. 70%! That’s insane. The “thyroid/gland/genetic” line is just a cop-out for lazy people. It takes a simple blood test to check for a thyroid disorder, and I’d be willing to bet a considerable amount of money that 99% of people who claim to have one, don’t.
Furthermore, let’s talk about genetics. Yes, your genes play a roll in your appearance. Some people will never have six-pack abs. God in His infinite wisdom decided to build me like a fire hydrant, short and squatty. Without radical diet and exercise, I won’t ever have a six pack. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be healthy, and it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t exercise just because of my body type.
2. “It’s my choice”
Yes, yes it is your choice. But I guess I missed the memo that we’d entered a world where we weren’t allowed to criticize people when they made stupid choices.
3. The gun is the great equalizer
I want to make this clear: I am not saying obese people shouldn’t carry. I’ve never said that. However, whenever I see the line about how “guns mean a 90 year old granny can defend herself against a 250 pound linebacker” I roll my eyes. Yes, of course that’s true. But that goes back to the fantasy-land self defense encounter. People have decided that when they do need a gun, it’s going to conform to the exact scenario they have set up in their head. What if the best defense is to run away, and you can’t? What if you’re in close and need to push someone off you, but you’re so weak you can’t even do a single push-up?
Fit people are harder to kill because their body is better prepared to handle injury. If this wasn’t true, the military wouldn’t bother with all the physical conditioning, and would just send soldiers into battle at 400 lbs because all that lard would soak up a lot of bullets.
To wrap all this up, I want repeat the very beginning of this article. If you’re dangerously overweight and not doing anything about it, you’re probably not really serious about self defense. You may think you are, but your gun is just a talisman. I’m not saying you need to be an Olympic athlete, hell you don’t even need to be as fit as me (and I’m not that fit) but you need to understand that self-defense is a lot more than just carrying a gun. It’s a mindset that extends to your entire life. You don’t have to walk around in condition orange searching and assessing all the time…but you do need to think.
And maybe have the salad this week.
IDPA dumps flatfooted reload rule and other news
Lost in the election news was a big announcement from IDPA. In an email blast to members, IDPA made several very big announcements. We’ll go through them in order with commentary.
1. Removal of the flatfooted reload
One of the new rules from the the New Rule Book was that shooters could not move while they reloaded, even if they were behind cover. The exception was if you were caught in the open with an empty gun, but for the most part the mobile reload was dead.
The backlash to this rule was staggering, as membership voiced multiple, vocal complaints through all channels. No one likes the rule and nearly everyone thought it was a bad rule for the sport.
In the blast to members, IDPA has announced that as of the next rule book revision, flatfooted reloads will be gone. This is the right decision, and I’m glad to see IDPA listening to their membership.
2. Addition of a new division
IDPA HQ also announced that they would be adding a new division from two candidates based on member feedback. The options are a CCP division for compact carry guns, which IDPA describes as Glock 19 or smaller; or a optic/laser division for pistols equipped with laser sights and slide mounted RDS.
Long time readers will know I’ve been advocated for IDPA to get on board the RDS game for a while now, and that is precisely the division I voted for in the poll. While I think that the CCP idea has merit, there is already a place for those guns to compete. There is nowhere right now for RDS and laser equipped guns to compete with each other on equal footing. Yes, they can compete in USPSA open, but a slide mounted RDS vs a compensated, fixed mount red dot really isn’t equal footing.
I think that offering a place for RDS and laser equipped guns gives IDPA a legitimate position as a thought leader in concealed carry, and since concealed carry is what the sport is all about, allowing these guns in only makes sense.
3. Goodbye, ESR
The email blast wasn’t all happy news. After several years, IDPA is removing ESR as a division. I’m sad to see it go because it’s where I got my start in the sport, but it does actually make sense. There just aren’t enough dedicated ESR shooters to make the division worth while, and with USPSA effectively killing the 625 for their matches, the number of 625 gunners was only going to dwindle further. There is talk about rolling ESR back into SSR and having one combined revolver division. If they did that, and could manage it in a way that didn’t give one gun an unfair advantage, I’d support it.
4. 2015 World Championship moved to Tulsa
Apparently there wasn’t enough demand from US shooter to travel to Puerto Rico for the 2015 World Shoot.
It’s too bad, but it makes sense. IDPA lacks the level of international participation that you see in IPSC, and that level of international involvement is exactly what you need to make a non-CONUS World Match work.
Final thoughts: despite the loss of ESR and the World Shoot moving, the email from IDPA is good news. It shows they’re listening to shooters and moving in the right direction. I hope that next year I’ll be able to run my RDS M&P at IDPA matches.
One of the real causes of violent crime
Whenever an act of violence makes the news…which happens usually because there’s some “narrative” that can be spun around it that serves the interests of those who believe themselves to have a patent on truth and justice…we’re always treated to mind-numbing conversations between talking heads where they solemnly adjust their hipster glasses and make a show of moral preening over America’s problem with violence. There is some variation in the exact culprits cited but it’s a safe bet that insufficient gun control will be one of the primary factors they blame.
In their little fantasy world, the fact that I can go down to the store today and purchase a handgun that holds ~ 15 rounds is the root cause of all manner of violence, like say an attempted gangland shooting in New York City. Well let’s test their theory…let’s look at an actual gang hit that took place in New York City and see if perhaps we can shed some light on why this sort of violence takes place.
You likely have not heard the name Francis Benjamin before. The people in the hipster glasses who like to talk about how to fix the world haven’t really mentioned Mr. Benjamin because, as it was with the case of Mr. Broadnax from a couple of weeks ago, it’s a pretty ho-hum crime without much they can really sink their teeth into. Back in April Mr. Benjamin rolled up on some dudes hanging out in East Flatbush at 3:20 AM and opened fire on a group of them, wounding 3. Mr. Benjamin is apparently a member of an organization known as the Crips and he decided to try and murder a group of people as a way of rising in the ranks of that organization. Within this organization, murder is apparently known as “putting in work.” Mr. Benjamin put in some “work” to the tune of firing 11 rounds at the group of men on that stoop. Accuracy didn’t seem to be high on the priority list for the “work” the Crips perform, as several of the rounds missed his intended targets and went on into occupied dwellings where women and children were sleeping.
In those 11 shots, Mr. Benjamin did a lot of “work”. In Virginia we have laws against shooting people, against using a firearm in the commission of a violent felony, against shooting into an occupied vehicle or dwelling, against use of a firearm in a reckless manner, against use of a firearm as a part of a criminal assault, and against participating in acts of violence as a part of an organized criminal enterprise like the Crips. New York has many of the same laws and on top of that has many more laws regulating the possession and use of a firearm to boot. The NYPD caught up with Mr. Benjamin rather quickly after his “work” was over and he pretty readily confessed to having broken all these laws.
The prosecutors in Brooklyn tried Mr. Benjamin for two counts of attempted murder, as well as a myriad of other charges including his violation of NY’s rather insane gun laws. Despite the confession and the fact that he was quite literally found with the smoking gun, Mr. Benjamin was acquitted of the attempted murder charges by the judge at his trial. The judge found Mr. Benjamin guilty on an assault and some of the gun charges which can carry quite a hefty sentence, over 20 years in prison. The judge apparently felt that this was too harsh a sentence for someone who carried out a gangland hit for profit, and instead sentenced Mr. Benjamin to 3 years in prison. With good behavior in prison, Mr. Benjamin can be out in as little as 18 months.
So let’s do the math: We have a gang-affiliated dude who tries to murder four rivals in an effort to advance his fortunes within his gang, who confesses to the crime and his motive, who is caught red handed with the weapon used to commit the crimes, and the added bonus of having endangered a bunch of other innocent people in addition to the ones he did intend to kill…and he’s going to be out on the street again in a year and a half.
The reasoning of Judge Michael Gary is…well…read it for yourself:
“You turned to a gang for family support, for support in your life. And that is where we are failing as a society…You are a nobody in terms of that gang. You are literally an instrument of somebody who has far more power than you…Mr. Benjamin, as I said, is a boy, not a man yet.”
I should point out at this point that Mr. Benjamin is, in fact, 22 years old. There are 22 year old men and women carrying the weight of American foreign policy on their shoulders while dodging IED’s and sniper’s bullets in all sorts of places in this world…but somehow in the judge’s estimation Mr. Benjamin despite fitting every legal requirement for adulthood isn’t judged to be an adult and isn’t held culpable for trying to murder people for profit.
I’m going to propose a radical idea:
Perhaps the fact that I, a law abiding citizen who has committed no offense greater than speeding, can go to Colonial Shooting Academy today and purchase a firearm that I will take home and use responsibly for recreation and perhaps under the most dire of circumstances personal defense, isn’t really the reason why there are gangland shootings in Brooklyn. Maybe…and I know this is a stretch, but stick with me…maybe the reason why there are gangland shootings in Brooklyn is because the criminal justice system keeps letting the guys who pull gangland shootings off the hook.
You see, it’s not just this one case. Our criminal justice system routinely allows bad men to get away with all manner of violent crimes. Sometimes it’s because evidence is scarce and witnesses are intimidated. Sometimes it’s because prosecutors generally prefer cheaper and easier plea agreements to the risks and expense of a trial, so they downgrade charges in plea deals. In fact, the majority of criminal prosecutions are resolved by those kinds of deals rather than by trials. Sometimes it’s because they don’t even bother with the prosecution in the first place:
“The districts that contain Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City ranked last in terms of federal gun law enforcement in 2012, according to a new report from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks federal data…The districts of Eastern New York, Central California, and Northern Illinois ranked 88th, 89th and 90th, respectively, out of 90 districts, in prosecutions of federal weapons crimes per capita last year, but it wasn’t always this way. All three districts fell lower on the list than they had been in years past. In 2010, for example, Chicago was 78th in federal weapons prosecutions.”
Note how some of the most violent places in America, the places the professionally outraged are always citing as evidence of society’s failure to do enough and reasons why we need to have more gun laws, don’t actually make much of an effort to prosecute violations of existing gun laws. Gee whiz, fellas…you think maybe there’s a pattern here? Like maybe the willingness to just not bother prosecuting violations of law that carry serious time behind them, a habit of downgrading charges on serious crimes, and jurists who seem to insist on treating 22 year old gangbangers who shoot up neighborhoods like a misbehaving 7 year old could have some correlation to the level of violence taking place in these areas?
Perhaps if as a society we agreed that when someone reveals themselves as the sort of person who will murder others for profit we locked them in a cage for a few decades or so then maybe the south side of Chicago wouldn’t be a damn war zone.
I’m sorry. It’s unfair of me to compare the rate of violence in Chicago with a war zone like Afghanistan because fewer Americans are killed in Afghanistan than in Chicago.
Am I attacking our criminal justice system? You better believe it. We live in an absurd tangle of indefensible nonsense where government entities will move mountains to stop somebody from being able to travel with antique bagpipes his grandfather played for the queen or perform raids to protect society from the dangers posed by insufficiently documented Land Rovers, and yet some of the very same government entities won’t bother to prosecute violent felons who are committing all manner of violent acts with stolen or otherwise illegally obtained weapons.
That, I would submit, is one of the primary reasons why there are problems with violent crime in some areas of the United States. It’s not a lack of laws because Lord knows we’ve got way more of those regulating every conceivable aspect of our existence than anyone could possibly hope to fully comprehend. It’s a lack of leadership…and I’m not talking about politicians. I’m talking about We The People who keep voting in feckless idiots who allow this state of affairs to exist. Politics will never offer us perfect choices but perhaps in the future we can, at a minimum, insist that those who would hold public office focus on actually putting violent career criminals in a cage where they belong.
The new political reality
Two things happened last night that will affect gun owners in America. The first is relatively good news. The GOP regained control of the Senate, meaning that both houses of Congress are under Republican control. That means that any new gun control legislation is pretty much DOA. That’s good, and I won’t spend a lot of time talking about that.
Here’s the bad news. In Washington, I-594 passed. The first thing I want to do is show you a map of how the counties in Washington voted on 594:
All of those green counties on the west coast of Washington are where most of the state’s population live. They are reliably blue counties in elections. The only real surprise on the map are that Whitman and Asotin county in Eastern WA voted yes on 594. I can only assume that Washington State University is responsible for Whitman, and I have no real theory about Asotin.
But allow me to return to the point. The reason why 594 passing is bad news for gun owners everywhere is because it validates Bloomberg’s strategy. This is a new kind of gun control game, they’re smarter than the Brady Campaign and they have functionally unlimited resources. Yes, they played it smart in Washington. They picked an issue that’s easy to misrepresent in universal background checks; they played that issue to a strong blue voter base, and then they spent a ton of money on marketing and GOTV. That’s textbook “Winning Ballot Questions 101” and it’s really hard to fight against.
I would expect to see a lot more ballot question fights in the near future, and I’d expect them to be over things like background checks. It is by far the toughest fight for us, because defeating their argument requires low information blue voters to actually care about facts, and that right there is why we lost in WA. Gun rights had all the facts on their side, and they still lost.
Sure, gun control at the national level is dead for at least two years. But buckle up Sally, because at the state level things could be getting rodeo pretty quick.
BUG Nationals this week
One of my favorite matches on the calendar is this weekend, the IDPA BUG (Back-Up Gun) Nationals. I really like the BUG match because generally speaking, it’s the one place where people shoot their actual carry guns. Yes, some folks game it out and shoot with 3-inch K-frames or other guns designed to push the limits of IDPA’s BUG category, but that’s fine. Last year’s match had lots of shooters running actual j-frames, LCPs, and the sort of small guns that people actually carry.
I’m bringing two guns with me this year, and I haven’t yet decided which one to shoot. On the one hand, I have my Ruger SP101 WC, which is probably the best option for a cheater-gun without being too much of a cheater. It’s heavy, has a steel frame, and is easy to shoot well. On the other hand, I have a Colt Cobra, which is a Colt Cobra, and would cause me to win the Style Points Division (this is not a real division). So I’m torn. I actually did an old vs. new comparison of the two guns in this month’s issue of GunUp the Magazine, which you should totally download and subscribe to on your iPad.
The Colt has a slightly better trigger than the SP101, but the Ruger has better sights; that’s important especially in the conditions that we usually see at S&W Indoor matches. There are going to be low-light and no-light stages, and the brass bead on the SP101 will pick up contrast from my flashlight a lot better than the gutter sights and black post on the Colt. But the Colt has a pony on the side of it, and says “Colt” on it. So there’s that.
What I’m really trying to do here is justify shooting the Colt because it’s awesome in every conceivable way, but the part of me that wants to do well at the match says “no, shoot the Ruger, it maximizes your chances of winning.” That’s furthered by the fact that this is my last major match until at least October of next year, and I want to go out with a bang. I want to do well, and I want to go into my planned hiatus with a good feeling about my performance. But also, I have a Colt…and that’s awesome.
Screw it, I’m going to shoot the Colt. I’ll bring the SP101 in case the Colt goes down, but come on. How many times in my life will I get the chance to rock a legitimate Colt revolver at a National Championship level match? Probably not that many, so I should do it when it counts.
Today’s post is brought to you by the letter N
Left to right: 625 in .45 ACP, 929 in 9mm, and 629 in .44 Magnum.