Sunday, November 24, 2013

Training


Everybody I know comes to me to talk guns and tactics. In my social circles, I'm that guy. However, they will heed my advice when it comes to what gear works, ways to utilize that gear, measures to help with their home defenses, and prep activities. The two areas that they don’t seem interested in are bugging out and training. The odd part to me is, I think these are two enthralling subjects and I stress them more than anything else yet it's the most ignored advice in those circles.

Obviously, I touched on bugging out last week. I'm going into more detail with that in the upcoming weeks. I started filming a bugout video for youtube. A buddy and I will be doing a bugout exercise in a couple of weeks that I'm going to include so that project has to wait until whitetail season is over.

That leaves training on the table. Guys will buy gun after gun, assuming that makes them more dangerous. Maybe to themselves and their comrades, but not to their enemy. It may have been Elmer Keith that said “ Do not fear the man with many guns, fear the man with one gun for he likely knows how to use it.” I know folks who count themselves among patriots who are not to be trifled with, and yet they own guns that have never been fired. I cant take that seriously. They give me the wink as they say “When the shit hits the fan, you and I will kick ass and take names” I try to be polite, but in short, if we haven't trained together I'm not real sure I want you around. If you haven't trained at all, I prefer you stay far, far away from me.

With all the quality trainers in the US right now, it's hard for me to imagine not going to some classes. On top of that, too many guys don’t practice anything. I can find a thousand videos from quality instructors with great advice on how to practice . Hell, I invite dozens of folks to come practice. Usually met by excuse after excuse. Back when I competed, I always had multiple shooters available to practice with. When it comes to defending ones self, there is LESS interest in practicing? I don’t get it.

I know that ammo is scarce at the moment, but the practice I see needed most doesn’t even require ammo. We could all be more accurate and fast shooters, but the area that is most neglected is weapon manipulation. Watch somebody, or even yourself handle your pistol. Does the draw look smooth? How about the reload? I see guys with 10 handguns and 15 rifles and when they load up a semi-auto pistol it looks like they have never racked the slide previously.

I ran a dry practice idea past a pal of mine that paid huge dividends. He followed all the standard dry practice rules and he did one drill, for 15 minutes a day and in under two weeks he handled his Glock like a pro. He had two magazines so we worked with that. 5 dollars later, he had 10 dummy rounds. Deal was load each mag with 5 dummies. The drill was to draw, aim in, and press the trigger. Giving him repetitions on his draw. Obviously there was no shot, so he could go right into a failure drill. Tap the mag, rotate it outboard an rack the slide. Immediately followed by getting the sights back on target. Trigger press at that point didn’t matter. Reholster and repeat. When the mag locked back on the last failure drill, it was time to reload the fresh mag. There were times that he reloaded to the fresh mag at random times as well. Now when he goes to the range to use up some precious ammo, he doesn’t fumble fuck his weapon handling and focuses on putting holes in the paper where he wants them to go. He got much better in a short amount of time with little to no cost. Why aren’t we all doing this? It's rhetorical , no need to answer.


FYI, for those of you who think that I must be the guy with dozens of guns in my closet, you would be wrong. I own 1 carbine, 1 full size handgun, one compact handgun, one pocket pistol. And 2 .22s (one rifle, one revolver) that have been passed down from family members. I don’t own a deer rifle, I don’t own a shotgun. No AK, FAL, no 30 caliber guns at all. The 22 will serve for small critter gathering, and I'm sure the carbine can handle larger critters. I spend the rest of my gun budget on ammo and training. A few years ago all that training and practice paid some dividends. I made IDPA master class in 2 divisions and won a state championship. I don't think that would have happened if I just would have plugged my budget into more 1911s and multiple AR15s.

Get in touch with me over on facebook if you want to practice. I haven't taught a class in awhile, but I think I'm going to put some more focus on that in the upcoming months. I certainly can point you towards some quality training if you are interested.

Podcasts are coming soon, I'll post them here when they are good to go. Be on the lookout for a youtube video on my everyday carry gear. If there is anything you'd like to know about, leave a comment or post it on facebook and I'll do my best.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Bug the Fuck Out!

It's not all political around here.

I'm not always on a soapbox about politics, but since I decided to start using this blog, it's been election time. Now that it's over I can ramble some other shit. But I did win the election that I ran for. Another Libertarian in the system. I view Libertarians as an antibiotic to very sick organization.

So, on to some other shit.

I am planning my next youtube video. A good friend of mine did a pretty cool video series. He filmed some preparedness videos and recently ran a bugout exercise and filmed the preparation and the bugout itself. I thought it was really cool and he urged me to do the same. (By urge, I mean ordered) So that’s what it's going to be. I'll do a video of whats in my bugout bag and follow up with a second video of the bugout. Since the weather is getting colder I'm at the point where I'll be swapping some things out of my bag. I'll get the swap done and as soon as deer season is over I'll do a bugout with a couple of friends.

So, since I'm talking about bugging out, how many of you have a plan for hauling ass? I don’t care if it's hauling ass to get home from work or school in case of an emergency, or hauling ass away from home in case there’s a disaster that will take your home from you. There are times when hunkering down is the best plan, but there are times when it's something else entirely. I think a person should have their vehicle prepped for a number of contingencies, including always having enough gas in the tank to get home or to your chosen escape location.

In my house, we have a 3 minute/30 minute plan. Every member of the house has a “go bag” that we could be dressed, have bag and EDC in hand and out the door. If were taking them to the truck, great, the truck is set up to supplement the bags. But it's designed to work on foot primarily. That's our 3 minute plan.

The 30 minute plan, is to execute the 3 minute plan, and spend the next 27 minutes to gather our second level of gear. I keep our normal camping gear packed and ready to go for the next camping trip. We camp frequently and as I use consumables from those bags, I replenish them as soon as we return, before I pack it all away. So we would pack the truck with our bagged up camping gear and gather all the dry food in the pantry. Also, this would provide the chance for a larger loadout of ammunition. We also have a dufflebag with about a weeks worth of clothes for all 5 of us in an old seabag siting in my bedroom.

If it were a slow coming issue, such as flood, I would use something like a 3 hour time frame to fill every single air pocket in my truck with the shit I wouldn't want to lose. Of course, where I live now, if I'm going to get flooded, we all have a much larger problem than me losing my stuff.

I get accused of being paranoid for having these contingencies. I don't mind. As a father, my primary duty is the safety of my children. My secondary duty is to prepare them for their lives without me there to provide for their safety. Obviously, by preparing I am increasing their safety levels. But I do my best to keep them involved in these preparations so I am also teaching them skills that may save them when I am no longer there to do it for them. I feel that my 16 year old is more prepared than most adults to not only survive a disaster scenario but thrive. She has the right mindset to not be a victim nor a refugee. So, I must be doing something right.

I implore you to do the same. I have a lot of friends out there reading this. I really care about my friends, but face it, you guys are a second level priority. Family first. I wont be the guy to take from my family to help a friend, and a friend would never ask me to. So the more prepared you are, the better off we'll both be. If your plan is to rely on me, you are sadly mistaken. At best I don’t look forward to disappointing you in your hour of need, at worst I'd hate to have to shoot you to keep my family safe. Nobody wants to shoot their buddies.

Get a plan, and work on preparing for it. If you need some pointers, hit me up over at facebook and I'll do my best to get you pointed in the right direction.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Happy Veterans Day

How refreshing this weekend is.

After a few weeks of pre-election ugliness, I experienced something really cool in my community. On Friday the JROTC at my daughters high school was having an event to honor veterans. The unit commander talked to me on Thursday to invite me to it. I went to work on Friday morning and my boss essentially kicked me out so that I could attend it. (Thanks Joe) I showed up a little after 8 and had coffee and donuts with some fellow vets. We chit chatted and told some war stories. A few fellow Sailors, an Airmman, and a Leatherneck joined a decent contingent from the Army, who was represented by Vets from WW2 up through recent kids who were in the JROTC program at the school before boot.

After a little while, they marched us to the auditorium. There was going to be a Q&A with the students. We walked in to the room and promptly received a standing ovation from hundreds of young men and women. I have to admit, I got goosebumps. The kids asked some thoughtful and sometimes funny questions. Afterwards we all hung around and got some photos with our kids. I have to admit, I enjoyed giving a glimpse of my brotherhood to my daughter.

I read a quote once that said " A Veteran Is Someone Who, at one point, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America’ for an amount of ‘up to and including their life.’ That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it."

These kids certainly understand. And on this Veterans Day, I'd like to thank the young men and women who showed a handful of grizzled old vets that they really were appreciated.


As a side note, it appears like the gear has been assembled to start doing some libertarian podcasts with That Libertarian Guy. I'll post them here once we get rolling. In addition, I've been refining some gear to  do some better Youtube videos. I'll post those here as well. And don't worry, next week, I'll be back to my customary, angry cursing self.



Sunday, November 3, 2013

Vote for fucks sake.

I had an entire different subject to discuss, but it can wait for a few days.

We're a couple days away from voting day 2013.
I hear folks all day/every day bitching about every level of their government. And I hear them in the same breath say, "I don't vote, my vote doesn't matter" I roll my fucking eyes. Yes, it is your right to complain (First Amendment and all) and no, there is no legal requirement to vote. However, it makes you a fucking crying bitch. Exactly like the welfare queen who wants to know who is going to pay to feed her kids. Well, I expect her to. Just like an asshat saying "my governments broke, who's going to fix it?" Well, YOU are. And when you make zero attempt at fixing it you become equally to blame as the politicians in charge. Full culpability.

As to the argument about ones vote not counting, I'm going to have to wave my bullshit flag high. The level of government that most affects ones daily life is their local government. Here we are in an odd year when we see nothing but local government on the ballot. Just in my town, we have a fucking shitbird for a mayor. He's got his lips squarely attached to mayor bloomburgs cock, sucking all corrupt manjuice he can get. That same mayor has a number of cronies on the city council giving him rimjobs at every council meeting. You know how many votes will win those open spots on Tuesday? About 600. There are 9,905 bodies in this town and 600 of them can sway the entire direction of their own government. Yeah, you mathematicians tell me again how your vote doesn't count.

These are the same commandos that will whisper in hushed tones "When the revolution comes, I'll be the one leading the charge" Ok, fuckface, you wont even get off your couch once a year to try to change things, but I'm to expect that when it all breaks down, you'll be full Rambo massacring the mobs of looters and defending liberty? I'll probably have to shoot you to get you off my porch when you come begging for me to protect you.

At any rate, my point is this....Go fucking vote for someone. They don't have to be perfect they just have to be better. Vote for a Libertarian every chance you get. If there isn't one, vote for some other third party candidate. If there isn't one of them, write in the name of the person you think would be the best for the job. If you don't know who that is, just vote against the incumbent. That doesn't always make the best choice, but when in doubt that will serve you well 80% of the time. If you cant find the effort to give now, there is no way you will risk your life later, you'll just be a pussy getting in the way of patriots.