Fun fact: this gun actually ran better than a high dollar custom 9mm 1911. JHP and FMJ. It was quite the good little pistol!
The Ultimate Hi-Point
ONLY 4300 DOLLARS I NEED ONE RIGHT NOW
Well played, Dynamic Pie guys…well played.
What shooting sports and divisions are the most relevant to real world concealed carry?
This weekend, as I was sitting in dangerous gun free zone eating mediocre chicken wings and drinking mexican beer, I started to idly wonder to myself which shooting sport is most relevant to real world CCW. But as I went further down that rabbit trail, I realized that an even better question is which division of which sport is most relevant to the type of guns and way people carry them right now.
For the sake of this post, we’ll confine our discussion to the two major pistol only sports: USPSA and IDPA. The USPSA divisions up for consideration are Production, Limited, Limited-10, Single Stack, Revolver, and Open. IDPA divisions are Custom Defensive Pistol, Enhanced Service Pistol, Stock Service Pistol, Back Up Gun, Stock Service Revolver, and Enhanced Service Revolver. Right off the bat we can make a few obvious cuts: all of the revolver divisions are out. Sad to say it, but most people aren’t carrying wheelguns these days, and I’d wager that the preponderance of wheelguns that are carried fall under the BUG definition.
Up next, we can cut Single Stack and CDP from the list. Not because people don’t carry single stack guns, in fact a lot of people love 1911s. But again, what we’re looking for here is a division or divisions that are representative of what most people are carrying. For the same reason, we can cut Open out of this list. While red-dot guns are getting more and more common, they’re not carried by enough people to really be a huge market. The people who do carry them tend to be pretty serious shooters and invested in their training, but again, there’s not that many of them. I should ad that the number of people putting lights and lasers on their guns is also increasing, and if I revisit this post in five years, I may have a different conclusion on Open. Now we’ll turn to the Production/SSP conversation. I want to strike Production and SSP from the list for one reason: magazine capacity limits. Who actually owns a Glock 19 and only carries it with 10 rounds in the gun? No one. You load that sucker all the way up. For the same reason I’m going to kill ESP and L10, because if you’re talking about real world concealed carry, no one intentionally downloads their gun to 10 rounds.
So what are we left with? Well, we’re actually left with the two divisions I think represent concealed carry the best: USPSA Limited and IDPA BUG. When I watch trends in the shooting sports, I see two big pools of carry guns: small, pocketball guns in 9mm, .380 or .38 Special, and serious mid-to-full sized carry guns like M&Ps and Glock 19/17. IDPA’s BUG division really does represent what a lot of people carry every day, small, lightweight easily concealable guns like the M&P Shield or the Ruger LCP. Those are “real” carry guns, as evidenced by the sales numbers that you see reported by the companies that are making these little carry guns.
Limited makes sense for the same reason, but at the opposite end of the spectrum. These are the “serious” concealed carry/shooting people, they carry guns that are modified in ways that might make them illegal for Production, they load their mags all the way up, and more and more are turning to appendix carry. What division of the shooting sports lets you do all of that? USPSA Limited. If you want to shoot exactly what you carry, and you don’t want to download your gun or carry something that fits into a narrowly defined set of “Production” rules, you shoot Limited. You carry a Glock 22 AIWB with extended mags? Limited. Got your gun stippled a little too high? Limited. In fact, it’s even legal to shoot Limited with a light attached to your gun, so long as you pull the bulb, then it’s just “weight” which is also legal in…Limited.
It seems weird when you really think about it, but I really do believe that the two shooting sports divisions that best represent CCW are BUG and Limited. They’re at opposite ends of the spectrum for sure, but they’re the places where your real world carry gun and gear is most likely to find a home.
What it’s like to shoot revolver at the Area 3 Championship
It’s like that. Complete with the dramatic music. I may have slapped this together in iMovie while under the influence of brown water and giggling like the idiot that I am.
In all seriousness though, it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed shooting the match this year, the weather was great, I had a cool squad, and splitting that match into a two-day format instead of one day was definitely the way to go.
How to adjust a S&W revolver rear sight
I could have used this a few days ago at the range! S&W doesn’t put “turn this way for down” on their sights, so having a diagram is handy. Or you could use the completely idiotic mnemonic device “Clock-DAR” which stands for “clockwise down and right” because turning the adjustment screws clockwise will move your point of impact down or to the right, respectively.
BRB Area 3
I’m off to shoot a 400 round Area match this weekend! Area 3 has a reputation of being a pretty hardcore hosefest for Limited and Open Guns…so of course I’m bringing an 8-shot revolver! In all seriousness though, the stages look really fun, and having 8 rounds in the gun will make the match a lot more fun than if I was shooting a 625 and scoring major.
Taurus announces new CEO
(Miami, FL) – Taurus Holdings, Inc. announces Anthony Acitelli as their new President and CEO. Taurus Holdings encompasses the Taurus®, Rossi®, Heritage and Diamondback FirearmsTM product lines.
Mr. Acitelli is a longstanding industry veteran and joins Taurus with over 20 years of experience in the firearms industry, spending the last year as Senior Vice President of Sales at Colt. He has a proven track record with manufacturers such as ATK where he progressed in the company to President of the Accessory Division. As part of Mr. Acitelli’s industry tenure, he served as VP of Sales for Tasco Worldwide and led the sales and marketing team at Federal Cartridge.
“Anthony will be a solid asset for Taurus with his ability to grow brands as well as his experience in leadership,” states Andre Balbi, President and CEO of Forjas Taurus. “We look forward to seeing Anthony’s direction as we continue to develop closer relationships with our distributors, retailers and consumers alike.”
Mr. Acitelli’s education runs deep with an MBA from Thunderbird Global Schools of Management, a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of South Florida, a general management certificate from Harvard Business School and has had executive management training at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
My love/hate relationship with Top Shot #tbt
Almost five years ago, I got an email from a friend of mine in the firearms industry. He told me about how History Channel was casting for a new TV show that was going to feature marksmen competing in various challenges to see who was the best “all-around” shooter in the country. At the time, I was an up-and-coming blogger, I’d attended the first ever industry/blogger event hosted by Crimson Trace, ParaUSA, Blackhawk, and Down Range TV at then Blackwater; I was starting to catch more freelance work from the “real” firearms media. I was also (and this is important) bored out of my mind in my daily life – I was working a decently paying but completely unfulfilling job as an insurance agent, commuting 30 minutes in traffic each day. I had become the very thing I swore I’d never be: a desk jockey with a mundane 9 to 5.
So of course I applied to be on Top Shot. I never imagined in a million years that they’d like me, or that I’d get flown out to California for an interview, or that the interview would go well and I’d end up with a slot on the show. The experience of being on a reality TV show was surreal – to me at least. Fun fact: for every minute of produced television that you see for shows like Top Shot, there are at least 400 minutes of footage that never made it in to the show. But it never really seemed real, because I was constantly aware of the presence of cameras. Even with that, I enjoyed my time. I was there for a bit over two weeks if memory serves, and I was the 5th person eliminated from the very first season of the show. My goal was simple: don’t do anything on TV that would upset my parents when they saw it, and I accomplished that goal.
Being on Top Shot was an instant boost for my career. There is absolutely no arguing that. The guys on Season 1 had an opportunity because we were the first to really reach out for that brass ring if we wanted it, and I wanted it bad. I didn’t want to be an insurance agent for the rest of my life, I wanted to make a name in the industry, doing what I loved, doing what I was and am still passionate about. It worked. I quit being an insurance agent, and got a contracting gig working for the NRA-ILA. Then, I became a sponsored shooter for Cheaper than Dirt, worked on a project for Down Range TV, and started writing even more. I eventually started working for a start-up company called GunUp, which I’m still with today. In the process I’ve met and lost friends, made and lost money, moved to South Dakota, and generally lived one hell of a great adventure. The past five years have been the five most interesting and exciting years of my life.
It’s safe to say that Top Shot was absolutely good for my career, and that’s why part of me will always love the show and its impact on my life. I’ll also always hate it just a little bit. It’s hard to explain – but there is a part of me, a caricature almost of me, that’s frozen in time, five years ago. This guy:
Good lord, look at that guy. I barely recognize that guy any more. He’s so young, he doesn’t even have a beard! It’s funny, because that guy…well, he’s really not me any more. He had different goals, a different outlook on life, lived in a different place, and was generally about as different from me today as he was different from me/us when I was 17. But for many people, that’s the only Caleb they’ll ever see – frozen in time as a 27 year old. That’s where the frustration comes from, because as thankful as I am for the doors the show opened for me, having been on a reality show can also taint legitimate accomplishments. The truth is that I’m prouder of making IDPA 5-Gun Master than I am of being on Top Shot, I’m more proud of making A-class in USPSA than being on TS, and I’m much prouder of the things I’ve accomplished in the industry. But Top Shot is always there, always a part of my past, just lurking around the corner for someone to grab at and say “he’s just a reality TV jerk.”
Also, just for a moment I want to address something that really annoys me: On my Top Shot bio, it says that “Other shooters call me the Little Giant.” The produces made that shit up out of whole cloth. I never told them that, and when they sprung it on me, I was like “what? No one ever said that about me.”
Maybe it’s true. Maybe I am just an attention whore who saw a chance to grab for the brass ring. But if that’s the case, then I’m just living the American dream. That’s the thing: if you were in my shoes, and saw a chance to do what you loved, what you’d always wanted to do, wouldn’t you try? Top Shot was great for my career, there’s no question. But the exposure I got from TS would have been worthless if I hadn’t been willing to put in the work to actually get to where I am now.
Handling guns under stress
One of the primary rules of firearms safety is to keep one’s finger off the trigger until aimed in on a target which they fully intend to shoot. It sure seems simple enough, and yet unintentional discharges with firearms still happen. Sure, some of these unintentional discharges happen because the person handling the gun is an idiot, but it’s not just idiots who have experienced an unintentional loud noise when handling a firearm. I’ve mentioned before that I have collected a number of anecdotes sharing personal experiences with unintentional discharges from names a lot of folks out there would recognize . These people are most certainly not idiots, but they are still human. Human beings are prone to lapses in attention due to fatigue and when under stress.
Here we see police chasing a man who was driving dangerously enough for other motorists to have reported him. When the police rolled up behind him, he didn’t stop, running red lights and even zipping through a busy construction zone. A police officer involved in a chase is under fairly significant levels of stress. There are a myriad of reasons why someone might run from the police that range from something like hypoglycemic shock all the way up through multiple murder. Even if the car is stopped the danger isn’t really over, because the vehicle can still be used as a lethal weapon. The occupants in the vehicle can pull weapons and use them. When a police officer is in a chase he/she always has a scenario more like this on their mind than the person experiencing a medical emergency, and there’s enough dashcam footage of chases ending in shootouts to justify that concern.
It’s stressful, no question. When your mind is preoccupied with trying to manage a situation where your life is at stake, the amount of brain power you can dedicate to proper firearms handling practices goes down significantly. Prior to the unintentional discharge in the first video you can see that the officer actually “trigger checks”, meaning he put his finger on the trigger of his weapon probably without realizing it. Shortly after you can see his trigger finger noticeably go straight again. This is something people often do under unfamiliar levels of stress without any conscious awareness of it. Anyone who has run force-on-force scenarios for a while could probably fill a book with observations of trigger checking. People think they might need to shoot in the very near future and the trigger finger snaps right to the trigger without them even really knowing it’s happening. The possibility of shoot forms in their mind and their body responds to take the shot. I’ve caught myself doing the exact same thing. It’s natural. That’s why you have to train so carefully to stop it from happening.
The officer in the video switched his sidearm from his left hand back to his right, and it’s shortly after switching hands that the round was touched off. Under the influence of adrenaline he probably didn’t realize that his finger was on the trigger. Just as he was reaching to open the car door, he unintentionally discharges a round. Likely because he subconsciously tightened his grip on his sidearm…including tightening his trigger finger. Which was probably on the trigger without him even realizing it. There has been some controversy over the use of some types of tape switches for weapon mounted lights for precisely this reason. They usually work on grip pressure which is fine right up until the point where someone has their finger on the trigger of the firearm and squeezes their whole hand, including the trigger finger, when they intend to activate the light.
Most honest citizens, and indeed most police officers and even a sizeable chunk of military personnel, are not used to handling lethal weapons under very high levels of stress. Even training junkies who like to go to tactical courses become accustomed to the slightly enhanced levels of stress they initially experienced in such a course and don’t really realize their vulnerability to losing muzzle and trigger finger discipline under unfamiliar levels of stress. This is one of the reasons why elite LE and military units have such an emphasis on training, because it programs in the correct actions even under the most extreme circumstances imaginable.
A lot of people out there are going to make fun of the officer in this video because they believe he acted foolishly. I have a different take…I believe he acted naturally. Based on my experiences on the range learning from people much smarter than me and watching a lot of shooters ranging from beginners to members of elite military units who hunt and kill the worst bad guys on the planet, I believe just about all of us are capable of reproducing the exact same result in the same circumstances.
If we admit we’re vulnerable and make dedicated efforts to refine our handling habits and practices then when we’re running on autopilot under high levels of stress the right moves will show up instead of all the wrong ones. Training isn’t magic, but the right kind of training has proven time and time again that it produces the correct actions even under the worst circumstances. Nobody has ever achieved the proper actions under stress by assuming it couldn’t ever happen to them…and that’s what the ridicule does. Dismissing the possibility of your own weakness will never make you stronger.
This could happen to you or me. So let’s focus and ingrain proper handling habits to ensure that it doesn’t.
Training notes 07/30/2014
Dry fire training with S&W 929 9mm, draws and reloads.
Draw times were (in reverse order) 1.00, 1.25, 1.50, 1.75 and no time (warm up). Hit my goal of sub 1.00 second draw with the 929 and the Safariland holster, although I’m getting perilously close to using a “scoop” draw technique. The “scoop” draw is really fast, but runs the risk of dumping the gun on the ground resulting in a trip to DQ. Since Friday is the night before the match, I won’t set a training goal for that, just some general draws and reloads. Next training goal will be for Monday, try to get a 0.90. I’ll have to use a video camera to verify my times since my ability to tell when I’ve beat the timer or not starts to degrade sharply under 1.00 second.
Reload pars were 3.50, 3.00, 2.50, 2.25. I could get under 2.25 about 75% of the time, but the other 25 was rough – big bobbles and problem. I then spent some time chasing a sub 2.00 second load, which I never hit. I got close a couple of times, but at that speed, trying to load the gun in the hurry means there is a lot going on and I’m very out of practice with a wheelgun. I want to try and get that sub-2.25 down pat (8 loads) before I go any further trying to shrink my time. Once I can clean that, I’ll go for smaller increases, like .10 seconds as opposed to jumping all the way to a sub 2.00.
Had to move today’s live fire session to Thursday, too much “real job” to do.
Revolvers: they’re fun!