The October issue of GunUp the Magazine is out, and you can get it today by downloading the iOS app and subscribing for only 99 cents a month!
Photo of the day: Earl Harbinger gets an upgrade
Fans of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International series will know that the best character in the books, Earl Harbinger carries a Smith & Wesson 625 revolver as his go-to sidearm, usually accompanied by a Thompson SMG as his primary. I don’t know if Earl has Crimson Trace lasers on his 625…but he should.
Fun with the Umarex NXG-APX
Our friends at Umarex sent us a care package the other day, their new NXG-APX. It’s a pump-action air rifle that shoots pellets or BBs, and it harkens me back to my old Crossman Pumpmaster that I had when I was a child. Except now it’s all polymer and awesome looking, and made by the German wizards in Arnsberg. Nothing kills office productivity faster than a care package that you can safely shoot indoors.
First we shot some change. George got it the worst, with a perfect, dead center hit. Lincoln just can’t catch a break, getting shot in the back of the head…again.
Carrying a full size gun isn’t hard
There is a huge market for small guns, and it makes sense. There are entire sections of the internet dedicated to telling people how difficult it is to carry a full size gun. A few weeks ago, I decided to conduct a science experiment by carrying a full size Ruger GP100 with a four inch barrel in an OWB leather concealment holster.
The holster I chose is a Galco Fletch, which normally has a thumb break, but has been…”customized” by removing the thumb break and snap with a pair of kitchen shears. Classy, I know. I’ve had that holster for a long time, and I figured it would be a perfect choice for my experiment. After selecting the gun and the holster, it was time to select various concealment garments. Over the course of the experiment I used the following: t-shirts over the gun, zip-up hoodies over the gun, and my beloved (and now discontinued) Woolrich fleece tactical vest. All of these worked just fine. I was initially concerned with printing when concealing the whole holster under an untucked shirt, but after wearing that rig in the summer for a while, I remembered that NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION.
It was interesting, because to me, to the people in my office, the lumpy bulge under my shirt was Obviously a Gun. But to people walking down the street? I was just a dude in an ill-fitting t-shirt. Plus, I do live in a pretty permissive state when it comes to guns, so if the tip of my holster peeks out in the grocery store, no one is going to bat an eye.
One of the difficult things about carrying a full size gun was that it made dressing like an adult a little bit more difficult. Owning a business, I get to wear whatever I want, but I don’t always want to wear an untucked t-shirt. An un-tucked polo is a good choice, especially if it’s fitted correctly so that it’s tighter across the chest and shoulders and then baggier near the waist. I used that method to conceal a gun in an OWB holster. Probably the best concealment garment I’ve seen so far is a zip-up hooded sweatshirt. Zip-ups, for whatever reason, look nicer than regular hoodies, and don’t seem to scream “I’m going to the gym/I hate laundry” as much. For me they’re a great choice, especially with fall weather hitting us now in DTSF.
This week, I switched holsters. After carrying in a full size OWB holster, I’ve moved to an IWB. Also a Galco, this time a Summer Comfort which was featured on the blog yesterday. It’s even easier to conceal. The but of the gun rides high enough that with my arms hanging naturally at my sides it hides the gun effectively, and the bulge is even less pronounced than it was with the OWB. The biggest problem with the OWB rig is that the bottom of the holster would pop out pretty frequently. The IWB obviously solves that.
So, the moral of the story? You can carry a full size gun. People won’t notice. Of course, if you’re in an NPE or somewhere where people noticing would have big time negative consequences, make sure your concealment is on lock-down. No untucked t-shirts for NPEs.
The unbearable competence of being “tactical”
You’ve seen it before. A guy who only “trains” like he would fight. I used to be that guy after I left the Corps (Honorable, infantry for those interested). In a way, it’s easier to simply go take a carbine/handgun “tactical” class than it is to decipher UPSA/IDPA rules, match times, and more importantly to find a match local to you and to set aside the hours needed in order to attend a match and shoot for seconds.
There’s a lot of pluses to “tactical” training classes.
- You start off from zero. With a competent instructor, so long as you’re safe, you will learn.
- It’s a much better use of eight hours with regards to learning purposes. You will be shooting or learning in some form for eight hours a day, roughly.
- Although gun gamers deride “Tactical Timmys,” there’s something to be said for learning how to draw your weapon from concealment, use a white light for target ID properly (safely), and to how to shoot and move. Though we live in a fairly safe nation, being ready for home defense is a good thing
- You get to shake out your gear, see what works, and benefit from having an instructor there to guide you. Roughly akin to going to college as opposed to trying to self educate.
However (comma) here’s what I’ve seen trending amongst shooters in the “tactical” shooting community.
- Plateaus. Folks hit a certain plateau and stay there. I’ve been to my fair share of “tactical carbine” classes and I’ve learned at least three different versions of where to place my legs when shooting from barricades. I didn’t really get better at doing this. The carbine classes where I got better involved being held accountable for times on drills and accuracy. In other words, if your instructor isn’t sporting something like this, you may be attending a “bro fest” or “entertrainment” (hat tip to Mr Vickers for coining that term) where you won’t progress as a shooter. If you’re not improving over the years, you might be wasting your time and ammo.
- Stagnation. Seems similar to “plateaus” but if you see the same guy only attending “tactical” classes for literally years, it’s a safe bet he can scan and assess like a mofo’ while wearing his carefully chosen multicam but won’t be placing well in an environment where the drills are “stages” designed by someone else, and his peers or competitors are shooting these stages with a wide variety of weapons types, concealment (or not) gear, and sights. My first USPSA match was bewildering. There was no set way to do anything. I had to think, I had to try different things in order to succeed (not that well either, but I’m still learning this whole “competition” thing). It may be time to try something different when you see the same circle of people doing the same thing for literally years.
“Tactical” classes enjoyed a huge boom in popularity shortly after the invasion of Iraq. Veterans were coming home with money in their pockets, ready to buy a nice rifle and to enjoy shooting it. Troops were heading to Iraq and Afghanistan and the more savvy ones realized that the standard weapons training was woefully inadequate (the private sector is nowhere near as stagnant as the military in this regard except for a few certain military units). The great PMC boom began (private military contractors) and folks knew they needed the best training they could afford.
Nowadays, it’s not quite as popular. Trainers can be seen scrambling to fill classes (the true pros rose to the top and still don’t have a problem filling classes) . Truly awful trainers often out themselves on YouTube and the worst part is that they don’t know what they’re doing wrong until AR15.com General Discussion gets a hold of them and thoroughly chews them up. That being said, we should endeavor to get more gun owners trained. Trained gun owners are good gun owners. The best place to start off at is…..a two day handgun class. Good pistol shooters can become good rifle shooters very quickly. The inverse is not true. So, go take that pistol class. Then….(after you get your carry permit if possible in your locale), go check out the local competitive shooting match. Tell them you’re new and want to learn. Don’t stagnate like I did! I’d recommend USPSA but whatever catches your fancy be it trap shooting, carbine (3 gun or 2 gun), or IDPA. Get out there and be pushed to excel as a shooter.
So, inevitably you’ll hear “I won in combat.” OK, what does that mean? Have you found a reason for a plateau for the rest of your life? In twenty years when the rest of the world might be say, using phased energy weapons with projected sight pictures in your smart glasses, will you be chanting that “real guns shoot lead” ala the “real guns shoot .45 and 30 cal and are made of wood and steel” set of shooters we see today? Does it mean you learned something unattainable in combat that no competitive shooter can learn? Do you plan quantify your combat experience or does everyone hit by enemy fire instinctively know something that no competitive shooter could hope to learn? What I’m getting it that “seeing the elephant” is indeed something unquantifiable but….I can name many, many combat vets who didn’t go on to plateau and stagnate and weren’t too good for “gun games.”
- Jeff Cooper honed his pistol skills in competitive matches in California after he saw combat.
- Combat veteran Ernest Langdon bought a Sig P220 and used it to make history against very expensive 1911s, being the first person to win IDPA Nationals in the Custom Defensive Pistol division with a double/single-action pistol (SIG P220). He also has a habit of winning 3 gun matches.
- Personal friend and stellar carbine trainer Jack Leuba knows a thing or two about combat. That doesn’t keep him from getting out there and competing with a carbine and a pistol. This year, he did something crazy and competed in a carbine match with a 7.62 AR. The only person who beat him (in the complete match, using a much easier to shoot AR15 no less) was Jerry Barnhart. Match results here. Folks, that is beyond amazing shooting.
So, if you want to progress as a shooter…don’t get hung up on being tactical. It’s OK to have fun shooting. It really is. I know that serious folks like serious training but I’m the self deprecating type so I’ll go out and get my ass kicked at USPSA. I’ll follow that up with another Pat Rogers class. Why another tactical class? Because I go to where the great instructors are. I’ll happily admit that the tactical and competitive shooting worlds can overlap. Also….Pat Rogers classes are fun. Some of the students are serious people doing serious training but the instructor (Pat) somehow makes being professional yet humorous and positive a better way of learning how to be a better tactical shooter.
One real world example is the infamous “Rangetime with Cory and Ericka” debacle. Cliffnotes: Cory and his wife Ericka had a nice little business providing “tactical” style training with pistols and carbines. Cory lied and said he was an 11B (Army infantry rifleman). He was disproven of this very publicly (never made it through Basic). Now both of their names are mud and rightly so. Imagine if Cory had withstood the allure of camouflage, being tactical, and so on; perhaps focused on say…..shooting. He might be in a very different place today as say, a 3-gun or pistol champion with no pretensions and no lies to his name.
Lastly and what really inspired this long winded, scattershot piece; I saw a conversation on the evil book of faces regarding that Jerry Miculek is a fast shooter but he would “never survive a shoot house with (insert tactical trainer’s names here) that can shoot people’s faces like it’s going out of style.”
Well…..personally, I’d hate to go up against Miculek with slingshots. I dared to say “ante up and let’s see what happens.” I was banned off of that person’s Facebook account post haste. Given the current trends in tactical shooting forums, Miculek will have no credit unless he’s heard and seen enemy gunfire. OK, that’s hard to make happen. However, I’ll bet money Miculek will take a “shoot house challenge” against anyone. Who’s going to ante up, tactical shooters/instructors? Who’s going to have a third party set up a shoot house and run through it against Jerry Miculek for score? GunNuts can very likely make this happen if you’re willing to put your cards on the table and everyone would enjoy reading about it. Good fun could be had.
Ante up.
The new Ruger LCR 9mm
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE-RGR) announces the introduction of the 9mm LCR®, the newest variation of the revolutionary Lightweight Compact Revolver (LCR).
“Since its introduction in 2009, the LCR has become extremely popular with conceal carry customers seeking the simplicity of a revolver,” said Chris Killoy, Ruger President and Chief Operating Officer. “Customers have been asking for a 9mm version due to ammo availability and compatibility with pistols. We were listening and have added a 9mm version of the LCR,” he concluded.
The newest LCR retains all the features of the critically acclaimed original LCR. Its double-action-only trigger pull is uniquely engineered with a patented Ruger® friction reducing cam fire control system. The trigger pull force on the LCR builds gradually and peaks later in the trigger stroke, resulting in a trigger pull that feels much lighter than it actually is. This results in more controllable double-action shooting, even among those who find traditional double-action-only triggers difficult to operate. The LCR is elegantly designed with three main components: a polymer fire control housing, monolithic frame, and an extensively fluted stainless steel cylinder. When originally introduced, the Ruger LCR revolver was one of the most significant new revolver designs in over a century and it has since been awarded three patents.
In addition to 9mm Luger, the LCR double-action-only model also is available in .38 Spl. +P, .357 Mag., .22 WMR. and .22 LR. The exposed hammer LCRx™, which can be fired in double- or single-action modes, is available in .38 Spl. +P. All LCR models feature replaceable ramp front sights with white bar, and a fixed U-notch rear sight. Some models are available with Crimson Trace® Lasergrips® instead of the Hogue® Tamer™ Monogrip®, which comes standard.
Just old man things
Ruger GP100 in .357 Magnum, wood stocks, Galco Summer Comfort IWB holster. A self defense combo that’s been around for 30 years, and works just as well today as it did in the 1985.
The surprise break vs the command break
Over on pistol-forum, there is a thread discussing the concept of the “command shot/break” with regard to pistol shooting. This is based around the idea that there are times when you want to make the gun go off RIGHT NOW as opposed to the more classic “surprise break.” An example of this would be shooting a swinger in USPSA, there will be a point where the target has an optimal presentation, and you need to shoot it when it’s there.
The surprise break is one of the fundamental concepts of marksmanship – it’s how we teach new shooters to shoot without a flinch, for example. It works best with SFA or SAO pistols, but can be able to TDA and DAO guns as well. The idea is that you pull the trigger with constant, steady pressure until the gun goes off. There shouldn’t be a conscious decision to shoot RIGHT NOW with a surprise break, as with most new shooters this is the sort of the thing that will induce flinch and trigger jerk.
But what about more advanced shooters? The idea of a command break, where you do want to shoot the gun right freakin’ now is actually valuable, and it’s an important skill to develop. It builds on the fundamentals of the surprise break, in that you’ve ideally gotten to the point where you can pull a trigger smoothly without disturbing the sights. The big difference between a surprise break and a command break is that you’re making a choice to fire the pistol immediately at an available target, and must pull the trigger as quickly as possible to the rear, without disturbing the sights.
This is a skill that can be practiced extensively in dry fire, and is especially important if you’re shooting a DA revolver, for example. The drill to practice this is simple: aim the unloaded gun at a target of fixed size. Pull the trigger as fast as you can without disturbing the sights off the target zone. Do that same speed for five reps. Now do it faster for five more reps. Repeat until awesomeness achieved. It’s also fairly easy to work on at the range. I don’t normally advocate shooting on a cadence, but for this drill it helps to count in your head: “1…2…3…shoot…1…2…3…shoot” based on whatever pace you’re looking for.
Mastering command fire is an important skill for competition shooters and self-defense shooters alike. I’ve had many situations in matches where I’ve needed to hit a target before it went away; as I’ve gotten better at this drill my ability to make those shots has increased. Give a try at the range and in dry fire when you can.
The changing face of the target shooter
The NSSF has produced an infographic that looks at the changing face of the American target shooter. Click the image to go full size:
How to fix a broken speedloader
I like to fix speedloaders the same way I fix broken magazines.