tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22026692759230667222024-03-21T12:10:58.974-04:00Free Thinkers are DangerousVarious musings and such.Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-37281174413239060492023-06-05T16:03:00.000-04:002023-06-05T16:03:31.653-04:00Gun Guy Rant<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-2w_HPRWVfSk7b-y-ZU5FXo9k4Wup5yjBhzvWGQn6dWO_9ln8eRYNxBbn_4w6SFC0XXkRUwpwjfFoqV1AXwm9-inH9vsTWmn9lD3bIvmdvx0GGMwPzvqmUQ5Oa9sgZWuZs0G8S2JfyRLp1U6N9RNNLwBzyl09g8SZknrp-sD4WzwQkEFcFyg4z7G/s1111/American%20gun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="1111" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-2w_HPRWVfSk7b-y-ZU5FXo9k4Wup5yjBhzvWGQn6dWO_9ln8eRYNxBbn_4w6SFC0XXkRUwpwjfFoqV1AXwm9-inH9vsTWmn9lD3bIvmdvx0GGMwPzvqmUQ5Oa9sgZWuZs0G8S2JfyRLp1U6N9RNNLwBzyl09g8SZknrp-sD4WzwQkEFcFyg4z7G/w400-h225/American%20gun.jpg" title="Tremis Dynamics" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
Here in the good ole US of A, we have a thriving gun culture. Guns have been part of our DNA since the very first day of us being our own nation (See “<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=gun+confiscation+at+lexington+and+concord&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS907US907&sxsrf=APwXEdcDafZrdkdFfiblGUBpSuW-3OeN1w%3A1685994258058&ei=Ejt-ZP_-AvCp5NoP1fCJwA0&oq=gun+confiscation+at+lexington+and+concorde&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQARgAMgoIIxCwAhCwAxAnSgQIQRgBUABYAGDBCmgBcAB4AIABAIgBAJIBAJgBAMABAcgBAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#ip=1" target="_blank">Gun confiscation attempted</a>” in Lexington and Concord.)</span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-02bed341-7fff-3975-76ec-2559910efce3"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7t6SnnL15QQ0aBwnsl5zaZ1r2laqZ5dEEg9a6Lsb2OX_hBa9uvWDsDszgp2-vhQ47flK6iGFM2jOADPF9IXWWJL4icYupX-0NtTTLE7d0ngaK94eKaQJw0TxlPcPlGT9u-H8gGuvI2bDF6_YvQl1GfEDXShDTv6B1b04M1sbwwdr8iclCeU32HBWM/s1080/American%20gun%20religion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="1080" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7t6SnnL15QQ0aBwnsl5zaZ1r2laqZ5dEEg9a6Lsb2OX_hBa9uvWDsDszgp2-vhQ47flK6iGFM2jOADPF9IXWWJL4icYupX-0NtTTLE7d0ngaK94eKaQJw0TxlPcPlGT9u-H8gGuvI2bDF6_YvQl1GfEDXShDTv6B1b04M1sbwwdr8iclCeU32HBWM/w200-h131/American%20gun%20religion.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We, as a nation, nearly invented the Mandalorian religion. Our rugged history shows how we integrated the gun into daily life. In those formative years, it was common for a dude to be fully skilled prior to joining the Army and going to war. Even in the 20th century, many guys went to war knowing how to fight and shoot before they signed up to do so on foreign soil.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpK4QOKdEKnSs_KoT5X7rE5pYYRE-kYkfbIm7AvkOWPezd9S5n5zdFqys2ZUIK2qCD8XfY3GPmrjkh1daZoY2nrb4eMUPJf3Q345PGyH1R7cEl09Ud7KwMJ0aoBCqZuy80PqnFjDuZURJGWHh1J8Ap0K8FtkENJS3DVuKgaaQN1OB6djmah1_c5nu6/s825/ww1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="825" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpK4QOKdEKnSs_KoT5X7rE5pYYRE-kYkfbIm7AvkOWPezd9S5n5zdFqys2ZUIK2qCD8XfY3GPmrjkh1daZoY2nrb4eMUPJf3Q345PGyH1R7cEl09Ud7KwMJ0aoBCqZuy80PqnFjDuZURJGWHh1J8Ap0K8FtkENJS3DVuKgaaQN1OB6djmah1_c5nu6/s320/ww1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I don’t think, as a whole, we are that people any longer. Sure, the nation doesn't have a dangerous frontier any longer, and society has tried its damnedest to demonize guns, which have all had some effect. But there seems to have been a change inside the collective of “gun guys” as well.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t get me wrong, we have an unprecedented number of gun owners, shooters, hobbyists, and such. The disconnect from before is the amount of shooting vs. the amount of all the other stuff those before us would bring to the table. I’m uniquely positioned as a full-time trainer to see a larger swath of “gun guys.” Not the typical cat who looks for deals at his local gun shows and buys stuff because it looks cool and is cheap. Not the typical Fudd type. At $250 per training day, dudes who come to class are more serious than the typical gun owner. These “serious-er” gun guys are the ones that typically fill classes.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The part that surprises me most is the percentage of those guys who end their skillset on the range. They love guns; they have a lot of them, have a lot of ammo, and shoot a lot of ammo through those guns. A good portion of those cats can shoot. It makes the teaching part on Day 1 easy. But they are satisfied with that being their entire relationship with guns. The last time they were in the woods was with a 3 room tent pitched beside their station wagon in a commercial campground. Their iPhone is the only tool they can use to find that campground, and they didn't even bring a gun since they were going to be at the adjoining waterpark the entire time. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve had this discussion with colleagues and peers; we often discuss the “why” and come up with a multitude of possibilities. Economic success coupled with lower manufacturing costs kept cropping up, which I hadn’t necessarily thought about on my own, but in a moment, I’ll try to illustrate how that's a distinct possibility. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The US has been so prosperous for so long that it is not only more affordable to “get into” something, and generally, people have more income to do so. Of course, that’s a recipe for divided attention, but one of the aspects of 4 years ago vs. 40 years ago is the economy of shooting. Bullets are cheaper, and there’s more money to buy them. Hell, as a kid, I never saw a case of rifle ammo. I don't think I’ve purchased it in any size smaller than a case in the last decade. That makes it easy to spend a lot of time behind a trigger. And the alarming trend I see is that time comes at the expense of time spent getting good at the other things that matter. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCyuoyRwmhEqc5aCiVEE8WEaVLzJxazy9g9SkkeSMzUolrVhLNxQiJ_Tr2ib9EmbU579tpzg_wcsysV79L1zgXpo4W-WIuCc4-vGGZtScwMOd15McAkL3g4AaIBO_WNYmFn-aDg9zFxJ_Bo0FVu60PESk-SreP4Vr7Gktx3KBOigQgpnm21k0rbaWz/s590/Mad%20Dog%20color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="443" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCyuoyRwmhEqc5aCiVEE8WEaVLzJxazy9g9SkkeSMzUolrVhLNxQiJ_Tr2ib9EmbU579tpzg_wcsysV79L1zgXpo4W-WIuCc4-vGGZtScwMOd15McAkL3g4AaIBO_WNYmFn-aDg9zFxJ_Bo0FVu60PESk-SreP4Vr7Gktx3KBOigQgpnm21k0rbaWz/w150-h200/Mad%20Dog%20color.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Best ever in the woods.</td></tr></tbody></table>The sad part is that being a pretty good shooter isn't terribly difficult. In fact, it’s really simple, even if it’s not the absolute easiest of all things. But complex, it’s not. The allocated time spent to be “good in the woods,” as MACV-SOG would say, if taken completely from range time, would probably only result in a negligible degradation of shooting skill. From the personal data I have collected, there would be no noticeable difference. But the “gun guy” will fight it. So many of them can’t accept that a dude needs anything more than “tiny groups at a fast pace.” <br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve been following some dudes from a European country where gun ownership is a thing, but shooting a thousand rounds a week generally isn't. These dudes are humping those guns up in the mountains a few weekends every month. They plan and execute a trip with all the logistical requirements to navigate a dozen guys 15 miles away, sustain themselves while they are there, build fighting positions, and then return home. They do this year-round, in all the weather that keeps the average “gun guy” from even going to the range. These dudes, who are not fully immersed in a “gun culture,” would devour most dudes who like “tiny groups, machine gun pace” in most armed conflicts. Why do these cats do this? Because they don't have 5 different ranges within a half-hour drive. They don't buy ammo by the pallet to specialize in just one fraction of skills. When they do go shoot, they make it count and go with a plan for every round spent. In between, they train for free in skills that will make the fight. Gun guys here? “Aint got the time.”<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/pines_contingency_group/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="572" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQrOqdhQnpjFfJxWWZljj0R-f6MSBfRhPy-l4NjH50Txn6PjzGZM3Y5YW5M6gquODqi6BnGanfBm6mTpwGeSV_YEaHrp1DHzHeKavAbG2rp430qzCfGoMhx6XsISEdUO6XSVZdLCHQabloXQw_punY_LqHi1BLOrXrWfmWLoQF-ylzUMWdn4iFvyN/w320-h211/pines.jpg" title="Pines Contingency Group" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/pines_contingency_group/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">These aren't the dudes referenced, but you should follow them too.</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The part that surprises me the most is that ammo costs since the beginning of the Wuhan shutdowns have increased significantly. There was some incentive to train more economically. Barely made a blip on the radar. The fear of the world going to shit did have a huge effect. People embraced preparedness. I’ve seen many more people growing food, raising chickens, and stockpiling wheat for longer-term storage. Although the Wheat thing is surprising since most folks will need somebody else to help them figure out what to do with it. There was a proverbial “wolf at the door” (Tom Wolf here in PA), which got them to alter course. But it didn’t seem to alter their course when it comes to fighting skills that aren't “one ragged hole, at cyclic rate.” Now they have a lot of guns, a lot of ammo, and a lot of food and supplies. They still shoot well, and if their imaginary fight looks like the final scene of Young Guns, they will likely perform spectacularly. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we do live-fire study groups, we get 10-25 people to attend. They get their shoot on. Significant cost money for ammo, targets, and range rental, but they come out to blast away. We do some Land Nav for free, and we’ll get 8-10. We spend a night in the woods after doing some land nav/patrolling, and it’ll be 6. Just yesterday, we went out in the snow. Rucked a couple of miles and built an OP/LP. In the cold, hard work with shovels, picks, and saws netted us 4 participants. I intend to ask every student I have in class this year if they have ever built an OP/LP, and I’d wager that number will be pretty small, yet nobody came out to do that at no cost. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHjXZbU4QRAoqsqjwc2rp2GfZrDXMCDXLzZXC0VAs-Q6TPJJ9d4ASLMTLXWz3qx9X29c3_vUe_4ZROIWKi7yg03F8qfHINyCfS9f3PISOrZ8rvmPQVzmASI_PiEg7baySsq_d-GG6u_CXmvFv-pajj7KqxJny6m8NtUWWXxAlmoMEiVqUyirDLyVVu/s867/op%20lp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="867" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHjXZbU4QRAoqsqjwc2rp2GfZrDXMCDXLzZXC0VAs-Q6TPJJ9d4ASLMTLXWz3qx9X29c3_vUe_4ZROIWKi7yg03F8qfHINyCfS9f3PISOrZ8rvmPQVzmASI_PiEg7baySsq_d-GG6u_CXmvFv-pajj7KqxJny6m8NtUWWXxAlmoMEiVqUyirDLyVVu/w320-h180/op%20lp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of this, you may say, “ Garry, ok. But what’s your point?” I’d like to say I have a solution, but I don't, or I’d have better numbers in the previous paragraph. But Maybe just raising awareness is the point, and maybe somebody reading this will realize it’s them that I’m talking about.</span><p></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0Centralia, PA, USA40.8042541 -76.340503527.047130634874424 -93.9186285 54.561377565125582 -58.7623785tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-28559472326392938762022-04-18T13:27:00.002-04:002022-04-18T13:27:58.742-04:00The ideal Zero distance for your AR is.....<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijybH9-OVj0PaFPxtmziBb8XaWZYRwQlw0w109lM61r_XeYZ3RP9AI7Iapc5aEjEix_kAoocP3mbe8-XqTM0hgL3-RSw3Nil3Ddn3tM6iwuv59iedqUcrR9sZ3HJ015KDKpPu5Ll1p3kNyJhvRm03mxB-278EEsClwbwzwjPNVLlreBtBUt7glqm1b/s800/Header%20Zero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijybH9-OVj0PaFPxtmziBb8XaWZYRwQlw0w109lM61r_XeYZ3RP9AI7Iapc5aEjEix_kAoocP3mbe8-XqTM0hgL3-RSw3Nil3Ddn3tM6iwuv59iedqUcrR9sZ3HJ015KDKpPu5Ll1p3kNyJhvRm03mxB-278EEsClwbwzwjPNVLlreBtBUt7glqm1b/s320/Header%20Zero.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
Garry: “</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Hey bro, your rifle is totally not zeroed. You didn’t read the gear list?”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i> “Oh, it’s zeroed.”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garry: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“Dude, you’re more than a foot low”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“Well yeah, at 50 yards. It’s not zeroed for 50 yards.”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garry </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“I know.”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student:....
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garry:....
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student:....
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garry: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“What distance is it zeroed at?”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“7 yards, the average distance for shootings”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garry:....
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“What?”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garry: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“Can you see people at 300 yards?”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“uh, yeah.”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garry: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“ What’s your hold for that distance?”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student: </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“I dunno.”
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garry </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Me either.”</span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-388ecdba-7fff-4d98-792e-24726d6948b0"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That's a true interaction from a basic carbine class I was teaching for a former employer. I had to bust out a calculator to get him his answer because that's not the kind of info I would ever memorize. I’m not going to disclose what department this fella worked for as to save them the embarrassment, but this was from someone whose profession was to carry a gun.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now there’s not a lot of reason to rehash another article about the different zero options out there. Most of the time, it’s either somebody trying to reinvent the wheel so they have something to attach their name to ( The 77.25 Meter zero anybody?) or it’s simply someone looking for content and they nearly plagiarize someone else’s article. The only thing we really do differently than most at classes is the diagrams we use show where hits would be on a target at those different ranges as opposed to those side-view diagrams of a giant arc. We found that it’s a better learning experience for a student to see the result than a graphic rendition of the flight path.
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-O9GX6Tfb3LVfFUJyJSOigCifxMGD9vANPGO0IG3unxZySfDX0NfTyKWov4qneGWO0f2IP8MyVIen-VxpCtOE7Kh5P_E60kWB8La6bYtUaodDg7U8ILRkHvQMQ_wYmLAlueVtCjjCyyBIwP1D1J484MCwSOpjcoqk00UVaIVOLjeL4T2qT0BMq_xu/s706/SOF%20Arc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="706" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-O9GX6Tfb3LVfFUJyJSOigCifxMGD9vANPGO0IG3unxZySfDX0NfTyKWov4qneGWO0f2IP8MyVIen-VxpCtOE7Kh5P_E60kWB8La6bYtUaodDg7U8ILRkHvQMQ_wYmLAlueVtCjjCyyBIwP1D1J484MCwSOpjcoqk00UVaIVOLjeL4T2qT0BMq_xu/s320/SOF%20Arc.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I snagged this from a class I took. An SOF instructor called this bush-league drawing a proper training aid.</i></td></tr></tbody></table></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I learned this trick from a former coworker. He had made up a few of these for his old unit and would show them to civilian students. I had asked him once if he had something other than 62Grain (M855) out of a 14.5” barrel (~2800FPS) as this is far from the most common combination we see at class. He didn’t, so I set about making one. I had to borrow a chronograph to get some velocity data and shot some various weight ammo out of my Midwest Industries Recce Rifle with it’s 16” barrel. Once I had this data, I used a free online ballistic calculator to get some figures. Now here’s where we get some divergence from the data and real life. There are some things in those calculators that can be adjusted, but real life has more things going on than a free calculator has parameters for. So the data represents what happens in the bullets flight path extremely well, you probably won't get the same numbers if you try to recreate it on the range. The velocity is wildly affected by brand, line and lot of ammo. I ran Federal American Eagle for the 55 Grain,Lake City for the 62 grain, Black Hills for the 77 and Wolf for the 7.62 x39 out of my AK (Romanian kit). Switch to a different brand and you are going to see different velocities. Obviously, your barrel will yield different velocities and we’re not even taking into account any atmospheric considerations. But the point remains valid even if the real word numbers will vary.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6asuwd7Y68usMzzIQoqba_r-eLnQvCTGdRlvAgqWuPYX7jg4819dzmbKqAtsWn6zl3duP_7RYrKb7SyRZeBT0aZpeh2fY5Zgy9L3rzduzgbdZa-TqAd6iR1xHWnJn30zGako-IW5d5LMU3xHFgQIGQC4DRWreFwIgc0xmmrRaMDg4qiTI7dPCeMG_/s800/old%20templates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6asuwd7Y68usMzzIQoqba_r-eLnQvCTGdRlvAgqWuPYX7jg4819dzmbKqAtsWn6zl3duP_7RYrKb7SyRZeBT0aZpeh2fY5Zgy9L3rzduzgbdZa-TqAd6iR1xHWnJn30zGako-IW5d5LMU3xHFgQIGQC4DRWreFwIgc0xmmrRaMDg4qiTI7dPCeMG_/s320/old%20templates.jpg" width="294" /></a></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometime this summer we’re going to make a video showing this performed at the range and most likely with different ammo than I used to get velocity data from and while we will see different numbers, the poa/poi ratios will be strikingly similar so these cardboard aides we bring to class still tell the moral of the story.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When talking about zero’s, the reality is that your ability to use the zero is vastly more important than whatever zero option you choose. If you instinctively know your holdovers for various distances and then the second critical part, and that is knowing what range your target is at. This is where most folks fail. The ability to look at a dude and accurately tell the distance is not a skill many shooters excel at. The further away, the less accurate people are at rangefinding and also the more critical it is for us to be accurate in our estimation. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ffJiCZJGGa14bD4hN2eXMW0FlsXxW0C-0CJeTWb31WFLjOp8QxbrL-epct8hrJiGXMq9QOgu4M35F-Vm1IWY9jazY6rMcI1REGgdA-1zxF7JpTT930oCYYm4XpoiSVqlBs3kijDXh3N8Zio-Pe9-54iyAV9eNPV8bIWfX-TokAxoBmiq6avG6cpL/s1000/How%20far.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="1000" height="80" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ffJiCZJGGa14bD4hN2eXMW0FlsXxW0C-0CJeTWb31WFLjOp8QxbrL-epct8hrJiGXMq9QOgu4M35F-Vm1IWY9jazY6rMcI1REGgdA-1zxF7JpTT930oCYYm4XpoiSVqlBs3kijDXh3N8Zio-Pe9-54iyAV9eNPV8bIWfX-TokAxoBmiq6avG6cpL/w629-h80/How%20far.jpg" width="629" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How far away is this dude in each of the photos?</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I prefer to recommend that shooters use a zero that requires the fewest known holdovers as that allows them to just put the dot on the heart of the bad guy without having to be as precise on the range estimation. Here are some photos of a dude at various ranges out to 400 yards. For a lot of folks, that's about as far as they are going to see a dude without some level of magnification. If we’re using a magnified optic, such as an LPVO, the reticle is likely designed around a certain zero distance so we’re going to stick to non-magnified optics out to 400 yards.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I thought I would do a little different for this article was instead of using an old cardboard target marked up accordingly, I’d use a photo of a dude. The targets are easy to read and are cut down to fit in a pelican case along with a rifle while flying to classes, but this is the interwebs and we can pull off a little more with technology so we’re going photo realistic. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a point of aim, I used the heart. As opposed to a brain shot, the heart has much larger room for error and with a non-magnified optic. At some of these ranges, aiming for the brain box wouldn't be ideal, and for some it would be an unobtainable result. For the main description, We using that Federal 55grain ammo, out of a 16” barrel. I’ll include the data and photos for 62 and 77 as well. The spread will be different but the point is still the same. Were going to aim at the same spot on the badguy so the POA is no longer a variable. With a chosen zero, we will see where hits are (POI) at various ranges without moving the point of aim (POA). Well try out the 3 most common zero distances, but before we do, let's bust a couple of myths. 50/200 is not. Maybe with some weight bullet out of some length barrel is, but I can't recreate that with anything I own. 50 is very common, but it’s not 200. The next is the 25/300. That one is a farce of grand scale. It’s not remotely close to being the same at 300 as it is at 25, you’ll see. I don't consider a 25 yard zero a real zero so we’ll include it but as an afterthought not to be considered as an actual option for zero distance. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgElZcwWuGrfqYtGUbmooS4QdAfsJ7_xr6exEjkRgaeFUqXxker6OKhgvr2mnuZwg1Db76BzFsJRApv-rSCMC2GOehEljZ7C7iRDoQLL6Go2G2ZtC8hgcstbIUEuY4Tgo0gbnIpH14zD7-5rQQP6RKl42VOeSJALwAlLALJxsqNglhQtfeerLkgR71u/s1500/100%20yard%20human%201K.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgElZcwWuGrfqYtGUbmooS4QdAfsJ7_xr6exEjkRgaeFUqXxker6OKhgvr2mnuZwg1Db76BzFsJRApv-rSCMC2GOehEljZ7C7iRDoQLL6Go2G2ZtC8hgcstbIUEuY4Tgo0gbnIpH14zD7-5rQQP6RKl42VOeSJALwAlLALJxsqNglhQtfeerLkgR71u/s320/100%20yard%20human%201K.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">100Yard POI</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let's take a look at the 100 yard zero. It’s the most common zero distance I see with newer shooters. Our point of aim is the same, center of the heart. Like all choices, we are 2.5” low at point blank. Which leaves us with a solid hit in the heart. At 50, we’re 1.25” low and obviously at 100 we are dead on (pun intended). Out to 200 we’re about 2” low, which is a great hit in the old pump. Here’s where it starts to fall off. By 250 yards, we’re below the heart and have a better chance of hitting the less critical organs than the descending Aorta. By 300, yards we’re getting gut shots. Not a great location for making hits and then we multiply that by how bullets perform with their terminal ballistics (what they do inside the body) and we have fallen out of a desirable hit. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisr0vwhKbYOR9SidZrUSiwqBCUv65Jm9MLzBm_Wa2cZyyXVRLlHcKf2NfzQAyRmyYkEfgbyYEv0Yun9KCU1MEJVL5mC0BvwAVp49QXSQVrjIIdGuVJ_i_5Y6KZ_H2p7pmundwu5szF7V7Vt3YOWELq-oU8sYDQ26DlP-aXABp-U9NYYbawLdRkIYDN/s1500/50%20Yard%20Human%201K.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisr0vwhKbYOR9SidZrUSiwqBCUv65Jm9MLzBm_Wa2cZyyXVRLlHcKf2NfzQAyRmyYkEfgbyYEv0Yun9KCU1MEJVL5mC0BvwAVp49QXSQVrjIIdGuVJ_i_5Y6KZ_H2p7pmundwu5szF7V7Vt3YOWELq-oU8sYDQ26DlP-aXABp-U9NYYbawLdRkIYDN/s320/50%20Yard%20Human%201K.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">50Yard POI</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we switch to the 50 Yard Zero, which is the most common that I see from more experienced shooters. We obviously have the same point-blank distance, and at 50 we are dead on (same pun, it’s just less funny now). At 100, we’re an inch and half high, which is still in the heart, and at 150, we get up to about 2” high, also still in the heart. As we stretch out to 200 yards, we find our hits an inch low, which is still a great heart hit. We don't drop to the 5” low region until 300 yards. We essentially bought ourselves another 50 yards of distance for hitting a human heart without holding any differently. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgewJkyMXQiH2VzCZQKbptuIvBeD8HPrdRiIYT7jfRJYsvQC20ZPE2BpUNQEomOfzlb3cyYUfEG_MQuRnz1g9eDnmfHQ1YOxXPfukrLFa5KtgtiJx3JFKuJXK8X6fKTRENZexXDKhGHpbUBLyH5GXsOSkehq9SNHEyEV1SsYKpD39Gc-NoMyq2_7JR1/s1500/36%20Yard%20Human%201K.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgewJkyMXQiH2VzCZQKbptuIvBeD8HPrdRiIYT7jfRJYsvQC20ZPE2BpUNQEomOfzlb3cyYUfEG_MQuRnz1g9eDnmfHQ1YOxXPfukrLFa5KtgtiJx3JFKuJXK8X6fKTRENZexXDKhGHpbUBLyH5GXsOSkehq9SNHEyEV1SsYKpD39Gc-NoMyq2_7JR1/s320/36%20Yard%20Human%201K.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">36 Yard POI</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The newest one that I have seen is the 36 yard zero. I really don't see it often, but I do see it enough to talk about it. By now you know what the point-blank result is (2.5” low) and were making perfect hits at 36. At 50 we’re an inch high and right in the good part of the heart. By 100 we’re right at the sternal notch. Thats gonna end a badguys day as long as you’re windage is perfect. Once we get into neck hits, our chances of missing greatly increase since the neck is very thin compared to the torso. That's why we picked the heart as an aiming point. Even if we hook or slice the shot, we still hit some important body parts. By 150 yards we’re up top the Adams apple and we really need to start considering a holdunder. This of course is completely doable if you are aware of how low to hold and can rapidly estimate the difference of a bad guy between 100-150 yards. We don't get drop down to that 5”(ish) low mark until 350 yards. Essentially buying another 50 yards of distance without using a holdover but at the cost of needing a holdunder in the 100-150 yard ranges.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now out on the outside edge at 400 yards, where it is getting harder to see our bad guy, these three distances do have some significant differences. That 100-yard zero has us hitting a bad guy in the thigh. The 50-yard zero will be impacting in the belly and the 36 will be in the intestines. The thing to factor when deciding which zero is what sacrifices are made for what gains. None of those three are wrong, they just have different strengths and weaknesses. And then the hard part starts, learning to rapidly make precision hits at varying ranges with the zero that you chose.
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUFzqwcyQZ_SRtM8zBAwd6JqQh4FRB2jx5yeYvDYV4YBB6LI6yRFM5f2rQyuym_qIPYk6xX8l2yl6f94HeRR8QMeWjVFbV77OFAHwvnB0Ua3ZLNah5_j5ILSooRCmtWSPmr5JMDvOjS2-qBhZnRBivnm33xdqTvdIps6KYulH3IEF4mt0d2-4FFmjL/s1000/25%20Yard%20Human%201K.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="1000" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUFzqwcyQZ_SRtM8zBAwd6JqQh4FRB2jx5yeYvDYV4YBB6LI6yRFM5f2rQyuym_qIPYk6xX8l2yl6f94HeRR8QMeWjVFbV77OFAHwvnB0Ua3ZLNah5_j5ILSooRCmtWSPmr5JMDvOjS2-qBhZnRBivnm33xdqTvdIps6KYulH3IEF4mt0d2-4FFmjL/s320/25%20Yard%20Human%201K.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">25 Yard zero is stupid! Don't Fucking do this!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the way, the answer for that officer? 76” low is his holdunder. So yeah, he’d need to aim 6 feet low to make that hit.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><br />Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-19901989851366739412022-02-12T08:07:00.000-05:002022-02-12T08:07:18.162-05:00Ambi Charging Handles<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgKiqrTrjZVvrFRg7Z61KGisZkkpPLWWovsiNj62VrQqn3kV33Lxt3xsqJ-1nV-8LzQFJ1XPeuSEqhzKqwSMTe41f0wyOyesqO3BTJrkmC-fQxwbgns64vat_FS5-kP2wnfQ_AHCMOjOGKb6FpxWXld128yb5RPgC63uRpYYBijQWt7g2vFpaOs169v=s120" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="100" data-original-width="120" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgKiqrTrjZVvrFRg7Z61KGisZkkpPLWWovsiNj62VrQqn3kV33Lxt3xsqJ-1nV-8LzQFJ1XPeuSEqhzKqwSMTe41f0wyOyesqO3BTJrkmC-fQxwbgns64vat_FS5-kP2wnfQ_AHCMOjOGKb6FpxWXld128yb5RPgC63uRpYYBijQWt7g2vFpaOs169v" width="120" /></a></div><br /><br />It seems the trend of yesteryear to make an AR charging
handle as large as humanly possible has somewhat subsided. The idea that the
latch needed to be 900% larger than the stock design has dropped down to about
300%, but the current trend is to take all that mass off the left side and add
it back on the right side under the guise of making it "ambidextrous."
I put that in quotes as the factory charging handle is already ambidextrous;
allow me to explain.<br />
<br />
When we run the charging handle, for whatever reason, there's a pretty simple
set of steps.<br /><br /><b>
1: Rotate the rifle so that the ejection port is facing the earth.<br />
2: Grab the lever and sharply run the handle as far back as it will go.<br />
3: Leave go of the lever, allowing the rifle to work as intended.</b><br />
<br />
Notice the orientation of the factory charging handle lever at the end of step
one. It is facing upward. Notice how I never mentioned which hand is on the
grip and which hand is going to grab that lever that is now on top of the rifle
facing the sky? That's because it doesn't matter. We don't change any of those
three steps regardless of which had we are firing the rifle with. Once we point
the ejection port downward, allowing gravity to assist with every conceivable
function of that port, a stock charging handle is in the most prominent position
it could be in. Why would manufacturers find the need to add a second latch
hidden underneath the rifle? <br />
<br /><o:p></o:p><p></p><br /><p>Marketing. A simple way to get folks to spend money on gear instead of
training. They offer a gear solution to a "problem" that is solved on
the first day of any rifle class by demonstrating the proper technique. </p>Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-15285786535090248682020-11-30T20:15:00.005-05:002020-11-30T20:36:36.873-05:00The perfect class?!<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMDbpsDF0SbJKP53pYlKzqanAPfJO1sZ2ASnnMr84NSP7leyYDxsJAHp5U9YAhib9FhjunevrwEur_EBzu4_FRd-Cau4K4_1SgFmZYIeD_eK9eLlgyP7wPT1rlXTwSn5tBU6V2dhh-Ddc/s1184/Untitled-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Simple Marksmanship" border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="1104" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMDbpsDF0SbJKP53pYlKzqanAPfJO1sZ2ASnnMr84NSP7leyYDxsJAHp5U9YAhib9FhjunevrwEur_EBzu4_FRd-Cau4K4_1SgFmZYIeD_eK9eLlgyP7wPT1rlXTwSn5tBU6V2dhh-Ddc/w186-h200/Untitled-1.jpg" width="186" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I was asked over the weekend if I believed that Dynamic Carbine is the perfect rifle class.</div><br />"Nope" <br /><br />Neither you nor I have the time and/or money to take the perfect rifle class. I might not be the guy to detail out the perfect rifle class, but I can get the outline down rather well. Classes are always based on trying to get the best bang for the buck. Developing curriculum has a number of issues that need to be weighed, but time is always the most demanding need. There are X number of training hours and Y number of lessons. In case you were wondering Y is always larger than X by an order of magnitude. The perfect class would have boundless training hours.<br /><br />The perfect rifle class wouldn't likely even involve rifles for more than a week. Students might not shoot a live round until the second month of training. If we had all the time and money available, each block of instruction would be validated with Force on Force directly after each block was finished. If we start a class with marksmanship and then pressure test it, no matter how accurate the student can shoot, they will fail at lightspeed with a 100% rate of failure. But it always starts there. Why? Not because it is the basic building block, but because it's the easiest to teach. <br /><br />What if the class started with how to use Cover and Concealment and then transitioned onto Movement? We could pressure test and validate each block as we went. We could teach people how to survive even if they weren't armed. I could spend days teaching nothing but how to use a single piece of cover. There are nuances that can be explored near infinitely. And right away, that first block of instruction makes you harder to kill. I'd love to hear the rationalization of how marksmanship makes someone harder to kill anytime they are in danger from a ranged weapon.<i>(Hint: it only applies if you have a gun in your hands)</i><br /><br />What if we explored all the techniques that could be used on different types of cover? I've had people ask me "What do you mean different types of cover? Do you mean Cover and Concealment?" That tells me a lot about their level of understanding. It's like the old joke "I like both kinds of music, Rock AND Roll, har, har, har". <Insert Djent vs Thrash joke here> <br /><br />.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAqTNPSxrCfK27wJKH-NxUe7XuEzGJbJF-E3XZ37ur_uEGOkXuVuEInW88qJFLQG4AsgF-D61h2gqwZr_25RatdTBAHMMa77MEHFsexj23eFyiughYilsBZ1S52QRHh1_oHBM1Rx7GuEQ/s1263/Untitled-3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Outside Knee up or Knee down?" border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="1263" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAqTNPSxrCfK27wJKH-NxUe7XuEzGJbJF-E3XZ37ur_uEGOkXuVuEInW88qJFLQG4AsgF-D61h2gqwZr_25RatdTBAHMMa77MEHFsexj23eFyiughYilsBZ1S52QRHh1_oHBM1Rx7GuEQ/w320-h246/Untitled-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />I've never made a complete list of the different types of cover but I can tell you that there are at least 6 different qualities we can measure, with dozens of answer ranges for each quality, and we multiply those to get data on one single piece of cover that is being analyzed. This is without regard to that piece of cover's orientation to any additional pieces of cover. This can not be taught in a 15-minute block of instruction. Nor even in a single training day. But it would be the absolute basic foundation to not dying while facing lethal projectiles. Newsflash, if you are dead, you will never get a chance to think about how awesome your marksmanship is, let alone use it. Why is this never taught first?<br /><br />I can tell you why. It takes a lot of time. It can't be done with 20 students on a firing line. The investment is high. And that instructor still has his logistics to contend with. He has costs associated with range rental/upkeep, Insurance, business licensing, consumables, payroll, all the backend costs of running a website or storefront, and oh yeah, he'd like his business to be profitable as well. All of those things are making the tuition go up, and when we cut down the number of students because we're can't run 3 relays or have 40 students at once, that makes the individual cost climb wildly. In a perfect world, we'd validate each block with Force on Force, easily doubling the cost of running the class.<br /><br />Now that the altruistic reasons are out of the way, there's another seedy reason. Lots of instructors simply don't know what to teach in that regard. They know marksmanship, so they claim it's the #1 building block. If they would just bill their class as a Marksmanship class, an enlightened student would know that's a class to take, albeit later along the path than the first step.<br /><br />I've seen combat vets teach the thing that worked once for themselves. And on the surface, I am probably like everybody else, I say "aha! Validated". But it's been validated a small number of times (often only a single time) in one specific circumstance with one very specific set of variables. Then I come back down to earth and start to dig into the details. Pressure testing anything should involve a countless number of repetitions with small changes to the variables. The reality is, combat does not offer this opportunity. Exploration of the variables needs to include failure points. Each variable needs tested to the point where there will be guaranteed failure. Doing this against an armed enemy would result in everybody being dead just trying to explore a particular technique or skill. It needs to be explored with Force On Force.<div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFvZqNhAfvSbyE4rJR0Bj7zOSwAeht3RefokcOGp7HQfN6NtJqTcT2F4Oc123ianeADJfsN0-ig7uH7rt53HQ9RT3Ahh2kHkmjM3HnX5bKmwSkuYDcBSBE8pvulbGsw8JVJdBnqG2a5M/s1508/Untitled-2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1508" data-original-width="947" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFvZqNhAfvSbyE4rJR0Bj7zOSwAeht3RefokcOGp7HQfN6NtJqTcT2F4Oc123ianeADJfsN0-ig7uH7rt53HQ9RT3Ahh2kHkmjM3HnX5bKmwSkuYDcBSBE8pvulbGsw8JVJdBnqG2a5M/s320/Untitled-2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This drill was repeated dozens <br />of times changing one <br />variable at a time.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br />When I see schools do Force On Force, I get excited. Then I see their entire Force on Force course catalog is based on scenarios where the focus is on making decisions under stress. Sure, something a student did in their one run through the decision-making scenario might be great, or it might have luckily worked one time. With no opportunity to spar, over and over, there is little learning going on. The exercise is simply to test a student's decision making. While that is important, testing a student's ability to choose between different techniques when he hasn't tested any techniques is quite literally putting the cart before the horse.<br /><br />My personal view on looking for any type of training is to find an instructor who is constantly taking quality, civilian-run courses and then continuously develops their curriculum as the pressure testing continues. For each hour of instruction, the instructor should have 100 hours of pressure testing the topic. I'm not talking 100:1 training hours, I'm talking 100:1 pressure testing hours. People learn at different rates, so I'm not suggesting that it takes an instructor 100 hours of being a student to teach for an hour. I'm saying that the guy writing the instruction needs to have pressure tested that hour of instruction for many hours against a resisting opponent for it to have any validity at all.<br /><br />If I am learning about entering a corner fed room for CQB, I don't care how many hours of training my instructor has, I don't care how many live-fire reps he has. What I want to know is how many hours he has spent developing the techniques against a resisting opponent. And development isn't "It worked once, next" It's a thorough debrief after every single run with multiple attempts and then repeated while changing a single variable. And that needs to be done for every conceivable variable. That's how a technique is validated. <br /><br />So back to that perfect rifle class. Marksmanship is remarkably simple. If a student is expected to live long enough to execute it, there's a boatload of other skills and techniques that take precedence. Teaching those to students first will absolutely get the best results, but the danger is making it work logistically. It takes 10 times the output from a school to teach the non-marksmanship skills and techniques. It's easier on both the school and the student to teach a large group simple marksmanship training and then offering the more time and labor-consuming training to the smaller group that wants to go further down the path than it would to offer a class based on working cover to 5-6 students, getting 1 that will want to go further and doing that 20 consecutive times to be able to fill a marksmanship class. It just makes more sense to run those 20+ folks through an assembly line of marksmanship training and then taking the 5 that want to go further from that group and working on the more important tasks. <br /><br />Given the current cost of ammunition, it seems like a great time to work on those more important skills and techniques that wouldn't be simple range masturbation of shooting groups. But for some reason, I still see 3-day/1400 round live-fire classes quickly filling up and Force on Force classes being canceled for lack of signups. I couldn't use my own data in this observation as all of my 2020 classes were sold out, both live fire and FoF. But I have spoken with a number of my peers and that was a trend. I said trend, not a hard and fast rule, calm down Nancy.<br /><br />That perfect rifle class would start with the most important stuff first and constantly validate it against resisting opponents before progressing to the next topic. Instead, because of time and money, it's done backward. It's wrong, but it appears sustainable. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiueoAyR1lOcnIsg9l8BnKDvF3pMhv7KH5t5ayIeIkzPPVQT2YiJRgZuW5U_rEJTx1dTpDomWGMKqRVeknaLCOciTkfvHSU3Y_7DZvUdAETxj4chEfWfCe2Szka-SnXOgIPXmIh_jDKeKE/s1104/20200407_131409.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1104" data-original-width="1104" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiueoAyR1lOcnIsg9l8BnKDvF3pMhv7KH5t5ayIeIkzPPVQT2YiJRgZuW5U_rEJTx1dTpDomWGMKqRVeknaLCOciTkfvHSU3Y_7DZvUdAETxj4chEfWfCe2Szka-SnXOgIPXmIh_jDKeKE/s320/20200407_131409.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br />Dynamic Carbine? I'll sneak in as many of those important skills and techniques as I can while still getting some marksmanship in. Then I invite all of my students at the conclusion to attend Study Groups where we hammer that important stuff. The ones who take me up on that offer invariably become harder to kill than the average student. <br /><br /><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-17787706587810534762020-07-22T20:33:00.000-04:002020-07-22T20:33:07.843-04:00The R.O.P.E. Bag*<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8J7jV_kb7pvj5MmHMpPY0DsLdDegweDR7_5J-2MMtLdl7Y_XAR2c7I0RFDc6_phMEfEZ55gLok0HM-uHqHza8W8ZXGD94BVv7GxEt09-4Nsw8NNsrcwky_56acCOMzItz-Bc6WmADPo/s1600/Rope+Primary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8J7jV_kb7pvj5MmHMpPY0DsLdDegweDR7_5J-2MMtLdl7Y_XAR2c7I0RFDc6_phMEfEZ55gLok0HM-uHqHza8W8ZXGD94BVv7GxEt09-4Nsw8NNsrcwky_56acCOMzItz-Bc6WmADPo/s320/Rope+Primary.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiceqnJLz2SziCoRTf2Tircybjn0gOqDPPlIG7LFmpLXqLPxPLKtLLVgcA_6QP_jzzT1jBpWRKu3HoZFsUJeqN3TuifsgR7kV6yDV-bYMtWf93B1_twThIRyZzcdsG1dwWLxcAdqSGwvd4/s1600/Mag+Bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiceqnJLz2SziCoRTf2Tircybjn0gOqDPPlIG7LFmpLXqLPxPLKtLLVgcA_6QP_jzzT1jBpWRKu3HoZFsUJeqN3TuifsgR7kV6yDV-bYMtWf93B1_twThIRyZzcdsG1dwWLxcAdqSGwvd4/s1600/Mag+Bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiceqnJLz2SziCoRTf2Tircybjn0gOqDPPlIG7LFmpLXqLPxPLKtLLVgcA_6QP_jzzT1jBpWRKu3HoZFsUJeqN3TuifsgR7kV6yDV-bYMtWf93B1_twThIRyZzcdsG1dwWLxcAdqSGwvd4/s1600/Mag+Bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1247" data-original-width="1600" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiceqnJLz2SziCoRTf2Tircybjn0gOqDPPlIG7LFmpLXqLPxPLKtLLVgcA_6QP_jzzT1jBpWRKu3HoZFsUJeqN3TuifsgR7kV6yDV-bYMtWf93B1_twThIRyZzcdsG1dwWLxcAdqSGwvd4/s200/Mag+Bag.jpg" width="200" /></a>I have a pair of married students who have been gracious enough to give me a Yule gift every year for the last few years. Last year there was this squat little sling bag in the box. I kept it in my office for a while trying to figure out what to do with it.<br />
<br /><br />I normally keep a Deadpool-inspired duffel bag full of magazines handy for range trips. It will hold more than I want to carry. I took a few mags out one day to lighten my load and set them beside that slingbag inadvertently. When I came home and started refilling my empty mags I had a " You got chocolate in my peanut butter" moment. I might as well throw some mags in there.<br />
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Since I already had a bag with mags in it, I still needed a purpose. So I added a few more things and designated it as a kit for my friends, teammates, training partners, students etc. At a Study Group, we brainstormed an acronym.<br />
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<br /><b>R.O.P.E. - Replenishing Other Peoples Equipment.</b><br /><br /><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2FH7XyDIeRe4Bez-FaAS8TOf1pfrOGpLEGjTms9L7bOkHrXbhI8fVGP9R_6kV-WfotZI09RRGKAbrwhf-92Poy7yzXXdex-4UnGJj_p9zwlBsVh3_9Df1vV8TSbAc3D9Q_9fQFt2KJ8/s1600/Main+Compartment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="1600" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2FH7XyDIeRe4Bez-FaAS8TOf1pfrOGpLEGjTms9L7bOkHrXbhI8fVGP9R_6kV-WfotZI09RRGKAbrwhf-92Poy7yzXXdex-4UnGJj_p9zwlBsVh3_9Df1vV8TSbAc3D9Q_9fQFt2KJ8/s200/Main+Compartment.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The bag fits 7 AR mags in the main compartment. That was a pretty good start. I didn't want to go buy stuff to fill this bag, I just wanted to refill a buddy for stuff out of a single package. So I looked around my shelves and closets to see what I had extras of that dudes might need.<br /><br />I settled on a Patriot Smoke in the top, and a couple of Road Flares and some 123 batteries in the bottom. This isn't a bag of <i>"You may need this"</i> which is why there is no medical gear in it. It's a bag of <i>"since you used yours up, here's some more"</i> If a dude used all his med gear up, we need to be taking him, not giving him more bandages.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiceixsZi5P56jlJZUQmXEOlfnqHWOX6FuO5Jr2iEBVKrdSxqK5wN2LuOuAaF55YnxH6HpRg9UN2sZ_P09x1MMYnlovQ3rT7u0m1vA2baxlDsGWq4puTxtytJcruj1jwASn7J8oksXI2ho/s1600/Top+Pouch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="758" data-original-width="1600" height="94" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiceixsZi5P56jlJZUQmXEOlfnqHWOX6FuO5Jr2iEBVKrdSxqK5wN2LuOuAaF55YnxH6HpRg9UN2sZ_P09x1MMYnlovQ3rT7u0m1vA2baxlDsGWq4puTxtytJcruj1jwASn7J8oksXI2ho/s200/Top+Pouch.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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As I was going through my stuff, I found a couple of old AK mags full of Tula. I don't own a 7.62 AK any longer so they got shuffled behind some stuff for a long time. I put those in there too. We still get some die-hards for metric guns, so I can show them some love too. (I'm just funning with the AK dudes, relax). <br /><br /><br />
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I didn't put pistol mags in there for a couple of reasons. Since the most usable mag would be a G17 mag. It's the most popular caliber for the most popular brand that fits some of the most popular models. Problem One: the bag only has so much space and if a dude has gone through his pistol mags too, for sure he wants some more rifle mags. Problem Two: I only own a small handful of G17 mags, I didn't really have "extra" to stow in the ROPE bag.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCue3vAN3XOzCCib3rSd1dpNDAWdKY8hzBHa6YUCuqdqXqoEUvIjix7Kaco7spDMJBWF65R_Al_b2MYA_djja5jAQ5RpSF6UZo-CwfGLgrbZjVS4gZbUDdXrInG61tRWKPzGrIMQWzlM0/s1600/Contents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1268" data-original-width="1600" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCue3vAN3XOzCCib3rSd1dpNDAWdKY8hzBHa6YUCuqdqXqoEUvIjix7Kaco7spDMJBWF65R_Al_b2MYA_djja5jAQ5RpSF6UZo-CwfGLgrbZjVS4gZbUDdXrInG61tRWKPzGrIMQWzlM0/s320/Contents.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
So there you have it. A nifty little Yule gift that got turned into something pretty handy to have around. The ROPE bag.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9DWyjHea6Aa9Le5V2fzublnWr8VywrXgWYxSvNciL12RKVyqxI1kezuDadBUj2_qG8g4SRTKdRZfTSSUqoWBpzBWqI-tI_H5bJ2LHpRNAjZsgBKPID5PkCsVRxjrRuZhC7Zqelyb4-o/s1600/ROPE+title+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="893" data-original-width="1600" height="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9DWyjHea6Aa9Le5V2fzublnWr8VywrXgWYxSvNciL12RKVyqxI1kezuDadBUj2_qG8g4SRTKdRZfTSSUqoWBpzBWqI-tI_H5bJ2LHpRNAjZsgBKPID5PkCsVRxjrRuZhC7Zqelyb4-o/s640/ROPE+title+photo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /><br />* No actual rope is stowed in this bag.<br />
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<br />Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-77350801595399747432020-01-28T11:05:00.000-05:002020-01-28T11:34:55.945-05:00Twilight of the Red Dot? All hail the LPVO?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxjbI1plpudPFTDX3x71xJYuwX3v4wu6GPrs2oEX9LQ232hzdfo74-8Ce9IwwRuYREp2UWLcQ6yQ2nqgQ6ulQyNdU0c82_NDz03BZYunGML4SsbQJZr37ir0zqL4mg16VrcSNhyphenhyphenqwpbO4/s1600/RDO+finished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="1211" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxjbI1plpudPFTDX3x71xJYuwX3v4wu6GPrs2oEX9LQ232hzdfo74-8Ce9IwwRuYREp2UWLcQ6yQ2nqgQ6ulQyNdU0c82_NDz03BZYunGML4SsbQJZr37ir0zqL4mg16VrcSNhyphenhyphenqwpbO4/s320/RDO+finished.jpg" width="320" /></a>Are we in the era where the Red Dot Optic is falling out of serious use on a rifle?<br />
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There was a time, not too long ago that folks went to combat, en masse, with just iron sights. The Global War on Terror help usher in a change of optics on rifles across the board. Aimpoint Comp Series and EoTechs were mounted on top of shiploads of rifles headed to the Middle East. The venerable ACOG from Trijicon saw a lot of work as well with it's fixed low powered magnification as well. As if the brass finally made a decision to make America's Warfighter MORE lethal instead of the "business as usual" model of leadership.<br />
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This proliferation of Red Dot Optic (RDO) use helped us in the civilian world as well. Manufacturers started putting more into their R&D because there were large numbers being bought by the Military and that certainly trickled right over to the civilian market as well. Smaller players might not be able to get that elusive Military contract, but now we were seeing civilian contracts at the Department and Agency level sweeping into the market as well. Let's not discount the massive buying power of the average American gun owner. Quality AR15's were coming down in price which put a lot of rifles out there ready to accept the miracle of an RDO. With all of this, the RDO manufacturers were now competing with each other, not just on price, but quality and features as well. As a consumer, all of this is good news for us. The golden era of RDOs was here. We now have a plethora of RDO's to choose from. Along with the aforementioned brands, Trijicon knocked it out of the park with the MRO. Primary Arms, Vortex, Sig all make good and affordable RDOs and Holosun found a way to bridge the quality of the big names with the cost of the new school brands. The ones mentioned are just a sliver of the brand options available.<br />
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I remember reading about the Smidth and Bender Short Dot over on lightfighter before I had ever met somebody who had actually seen one. It sounded pretty cool, giving the user essentially an RDO and an ACOG all in one. at 1.1x it acted a lot like a typical RDO and it could sweep up to 4X and use a BDC for longer distances. It had some downsides. It was neither light nor small like an RDO, and it wasn' what you could call wallet-friendly. But like the RDO market, the concept was solid and soon there would be competition.<br />
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Right now there are almost as many companies in the Low Power Variable Optic (LPVO) market as there are in the RDO market. And like before, that is good news for us consumers. As models began flooding in, the prices came down and I decided to dip a little into the LPVO world and see what it was about. I liked what I saw. I got a great deal on a Trijicon Accupower 1-4 so that's what I started with. I really liked the optic. 4X made seeing things a LOT easier. It just so happened that it made shooting easier too. Most folks jump right to the assistance in making hits at longer distances. And while that is certainly true, I think the biggest advantage is being able to see things more clearly and further away. I found that most of my shooting was still done at the ranges that I typically use an RDO. I found it easier to be more precise with that 4X. Of course, I also managed to stretch out ranges to make longer hits. That particular LPVO had a BDC for 55grain 5.56 out of a 16" barrel. It was set up to go all the way out to 800 yards. I did not think that combo with me behind the trigger was going to work. I was proven wrong. I had a former Scout Sniper scoff at my doubts and he had me go prone and use a pack to rest the gun on. He read the wind and gave me where to hold laterally and I made that first round hit on an 18"x24" plate at 800 yards. I flipped the safety on, stood up and slung the rifle. I'm keeping that 100% hit rate.<br />
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A good friend of mine asked me about my thoughts on a 1-8X LPVO. I told him that while I had tried a few out on student's guns but I hadn't spent a lot of time as I didn't own one. So, he gave me a Primary Arms 1-8. I swapped that with the Trijicon and have been running it. It has the much-touted ACSS reticle. Let me tell you, I am impressed. The optic has not been babied as you can imagine with any gear I own. All of my optics are mounted in the <a href="https://www.midwestindustriesinc.com/category-s/356.htm" target="_blank">Midwest Industries</a> mounts and there has been no movement from mount to gun nor mount to the optic. The reticle is everything I hoped it would be and more. Now the glass isn't as clear as the Trijicon that it replaced, but it also has an MSRP of less than half of the price, so I knew there would be areas where the Trijicon comes out on top. I have been running that optic a fair amount and I like its efficacy at all the ranges I've been using it at. Including ones further away than I normally do. At any rate, all of this is the backstory to the real meat here.<br />
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Yesterday I was trying out a Weaver Laser Range Finder in my home town. In case you are wondering, it worked well and when I used google earth to get some verification, it seemed spot on. I spent most of the day walking around my town, ranging everything in sight. A little background on my town. It is solid suburbs. There is no urban core (thankfully) and no rural areas. We're sandwiched between a river, some creeks, and a highway. There are rural areas outside the water/highway quarantine. Farmers fields and swaths of forest in all directions, but not areas where one could just inadvertently stroll into. One would have to swim or cross the second-longest interstate highway to reach these, so it's usually an obvious choice to go there. All the spaces in between have been filled up with a typical small town. In fact, we are the only town in Pennsylvania. Sure we have some business, and little manufacturing, and a college. Downtown is lined with multi-story buildings, but we're talking about 3-4 floors. Up on the hill is the college, and it has the typical layout of a college. Everything else is just small-town neighborhoods. Technically they aren't separated so the entire town is like one small-town neighborhood.<br />
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With that little description, let me tell you what I found. Inside houses, obviously, we're looking at the typical CQB distances that are so popular to show on Instagram. I get it though, filming something that's watchable has a number of limitations. I make videos, I understand. However, with the hordes of short-range shooting on the interwebs, there are a lot of gun-owners that focus everything they do on replicating those videos both in their training/practice regimen and their gear purchases. I walked into many random yards, front yards, back yards, side yards. Yep, there are those CQB distances we see all over the gram. You know what else is there? A dozen available shots in the 200-400 yard ranges. In between every house, or garage or shed were a larger number of potential mid-range engagement distances than CQB distances. Given our town's lack of high buildings, we don't have those long narrow open areas one would find in an urban area. There were few areas to remain obscured like in the shadow of a skyscraper. In fact, the vast majority of places I hade my feet on terra-firma there were roughly 300 degrees of visibility to those low, multi-story homes and buildings. Those were mostly 3-600 yards away as shown on the range finder.<br />
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I started looking for longer and longer distances. From the high school to the airport I was getting 1100 yards with the town park, town pool and town skatepark in between them. So there certainly are those areas where a larger caliber gun with a higher power optic would be the ticket. But what I didn't find, was a plethora of those. Given the topography and the typical small-town road layout, I didn't find enough long streets that I would be thinking that a heavier 308 would be a better choice. I own an <a href="https://www.midwestindustriesinc.com/MI-18-Inch-308-Rifle-M-LOK-Compatible-p/mi-10f-18m.htm" target="_blank">MI10</a> with a 4-14 on top of it. If I were heading out of town where there are crop fields galore, that might be the primary choice, but not here in town.<br />
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Typically, my go-to rifle has been a 10.3" suppressed AR with an RDO on top. It shines indoors. The terminal ballistics from the velocities of an SBR aren't a concern at these distances. The volume of the gun becomes a concern that's been alleviated as well. The RDO is fast and forgiving at these ranges. At further ranges, I would just press it into doing what I need. The terminal ballistics change drastically but the real concern was simply seeing targets that far away. Now if we add in ID'ing that target we compound it further. So for me personally, it would seem my go-to rifle should be the rifle set up for these intermediate ranges and if need be, I can press it into urban/CQB ranges as well as reach out better if I need to press it into those longer/rural ranges.<br />
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Over in my alumni+ Facebook group, I posted this last night and it led to some great dialog. A few of my closer pals started texting me about it and I talked to a few friends who ran an LPVO deployed last year and buddies in the industry. It looks like we are past the "trend" of moving to LPVOs and we might be in a full-fledged movement. With a cursory search, I found LPVOs from known manufacturers from under 200 dollars up to 2K+. But the price range that got my attention are the choices between 300-500 dollars. This is the price point that has been dominated by the big name RDOs for quite some time. If I can get a quality LPVO in the same price range as a quality RDO, I'm hard-pressed to give the nod to the RDO. It marginally does better in the close ranges, has some drawbacks at those intermediate ranges and struggles at the longer ranges, if just from finding and ID'ing the target. At class, it used to be the outlier to have an LPVO, then we started seeing them regularly but no in the same numbers as an RDO. Many classes currently have been similar numbers between the two options. Everything from PA, Vortex, Burris, Sig, Trijicon, Kahles, Steiner, Leupold, EoTech, S&B, Nightforce have shown up in students' hands in front of me in the last year. Hell, there may have been others that I didn't either notice or am forgetting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkw21Xm7OJ69ff2HqB73YeaqTRcJDGoMFZKMBkZkAj-UlYOM5fT_HhDrRa4zuq1PyfWos3zHJHmIkN5PK9_-4gNLVevzZoqYdZwK1sHiLGO5k4cMIJD4qQiSqx86MUqa_0ePt3g-hIYw/s1600/LVPO+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="860" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkw21Xm7OJ69ff2HqB73YeaqTRcJDGoMFZKMBkZkAj-UlYOM5fT_HhDrRa4zuq1PyfWos3zHJHmIkN5PK9_-4gNLVevzZoqYdZwK1sHiLGO5k4cMIJD4qQiSqx86MUqa_0ePt3g-hIYw/s320/LVPO+2.jpg" width="320" /></a>Are we seeing the LPVO become the choice for the common man? At the prices I am seeing, I expect to see more and more LPVOs and fewer RDOs. They certainly fill the role of a "does most things pretty well" optic better than an RDO or a higher power magnified optic. I have a 3-10 scope here that I put on an AR once in a while for a few specific reasons. I use it to fill a niche. Most folks reading this wouldn't hesitate to say that that magnification range is meant for a specific purpose and it limited when pressed into other services. With the LPVO becoming so prolific are we seeing or going to see them push the RDO into niche service as well? We will see soon enough, but for this guys' needs, it sure looks like it might.<br />
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<br />Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-16214330701917534672019-09-15T12:40:00.000-04:002019-09-25T13:09:58.150-04:00Dry Practice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Dry Practice</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">We call it dry practice and not dry fire because there isn't going to be any firing. Words have</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">meanings and by calling it fire, we are in the beginnings of programming ourselves to expect</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> firing. Here’s the great thing about dry practice, the goal is to practice all the things in </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">between the shooting. Believe it or not, if you are at the point on your journey that you are</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> dedicating time to dry-practice you can probably press the trigger just fine. I’m willing to </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">wager that you do that better than all the other things we do with a gun.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I have students that the closest range doesn't let them move, or even draw from a holster.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Great, when at that range they can focus strictly on trigger presses and at home, they can </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">dry-practice that draw. When I dry-practice, after all of the safety considerations below, I </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">always start with drawing the gun. This is a perfect draw, slow and deliberate. I take at least</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> one giant sidestep but will do more depending on available space. At this point on my </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">journey, I’m programmed to start moving my feet anytime my hands move towards my gun,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> that's exactly where I want to be. The point of dry practice is to build that neural pathway so</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> I don't have to put any conscious thought into adding that step.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">On that same note, every single time I reholster my pistol, there is a full 360* scan </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">preceding it. The same thing, I have a neural pathway established at this point to get a full </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">picture of my surroundings before I put my gun away. I could easily do a 5-minute dry </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">practice session and do nothing but draw the gun and aim in. Then scan and reholster and</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> get good results on gun handling skills.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">One of my favorite things to practice is clearing malfunctions. This is actually one of the few</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> times I touch a trigger during dry-practice. I will load a few magazines up with dummy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> rounds and after the draw, I will aim in at my target and press the trigger without disturbing</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> the sight alignment. When I get a click, I move my feet and clear that malfunction. Often I’ll</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> set up different types of malfunctions, some with empty brass and practice those without the</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> draw. The reason behind that is I don't want to build a habit of drawing the gun and</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> expecting a click and instantly go to fixing a gun after the first press of the trigger. When I’m</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> actually shooting, starting immediate action after the first shot is counter to my goals.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’ll practice reloads, usually from a ready position (High-ready, Low-ready, Gun-Up,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> Gun-Down, Assess, Position 3) with the sear already tripped. I get that dead trigger/gun</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> empty feel and move my feet and reload my gun from my primary magazine location before</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> I get the sights on target. I will often press the trigger on this one to trip the sear. I can then</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> practice a tactical reload and have a dead trigger to set up the next emergency reload.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> 2 reload practices per rep.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The thing I focus on in these is to initiate movement at the beginning and as much as</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> possible during each rep. Many times that will be moving into a piece of simulated cover.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> I usually dry practice at my house and it is full of different sizes and shapes that I can use.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> The safety considerations below mention that you should have a backstop behind your</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> target that will stop bullets if you ignore all the other considerations. Folks will let a brick</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> wall or something similar define their dry practice location and not be able to utilize cover</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> or even movement. The simple solution is to make your target smaller than your plate</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> carrier and simply stick it on the front with a binder clip and then hang your plate carrier</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> wherever it works for you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Dry-practice probably has the largest ROI (Return On Investment) of any practice that you</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> could possibly do, but it can be overdone. Each rep should have 100% focus. After</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> removing all possible distractions, it’s still easy to burn yourself out and start cutting corners</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Corners cut in safety can be catastrophic, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">corners cut in execution will certainly cease</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> progress and most assuredly lead to regression. This is why I limit my sessions to a strict</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> time limit. For my self, it’s never more than 5 minutes at a time. You can pick whatever time</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> limit suits your ability to completely focus, but I suggest starting shorter than what you think</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> you can go. The good news is that you can do multiple sessions in a day after you’ve had a</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> chance to decompress. I think we all could see a large increase in gun handling abilities</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> with a small investment of our time. Let’s take a look at the actual procedure.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Procedure </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Follow all firearms safety rules while dry practicing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">If you are interupted during your dry-practice, (phone call, knock at the door, etc)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> Start over at step 1.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">1. Go into your dry practice area and remove all possible distractions (phones, Tv ect turned </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> off).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">2. Unload your gun.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">3. Do a three-point check to assure that it is empty ( Chamber, Breachface and Magwell should</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> be EMPTY). </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">4. Put live ammo outside the room and close the door behind you.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">5. Do another three-point check on your gun.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">6. Put up a target on a backdrop that will stop a bullet.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">7. Do another three-point check on your gun.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">8. Announce out loud “I am beginning dry practice”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">9. Perform a perfect draw, with movement. Continue on with whatever regimen you decided to</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> work on prior to starting. Even if you are not working on the draw (why not?), any time the</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> gun comes out of the holster it should be a perfect draw. Every time it goes back in the</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> holster it should only be done after a good scan. Practice each rep perfectly, never sacrificing</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> good form for speed. Like a musician, we need to get the notes perfect before we get them</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> up to speed. Nobody plays Holy Wars on their first day of guitar lessons.</span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-f9aa349e-7fff-5232-ad7f-e3554d93b5f0" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">10. Repeat these reps until your allotted time has passed. If you are losing focus or getting</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> sloppy, STOP. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">11. When you are finished, Take down your target and announce “I am done with dry-practice”.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> The verbalization will cement in your mind that it is over. Taking down the target reduces</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> the temptation to do “one more rep”.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">12. Unload the dummy rounds from your gun. Put away any dummy rounds.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">13. Open the door to your dry practice area and retrieve your live ammo on the way out.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> Charge your</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> gun and reholster it. (Did you scan?)</span></div>
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Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-29080705161639370802019-06-04T13:10:00.002-04:002019-06-04T14:33:15.384-04:00Professionalism in shooting (and some football lingo)<span id="docs-internal-guid-3234cbd8-7fff-82a2-7f06-c7881f147a25"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There’s a few different types of folks out there carrying guns frequently. I try to keep an </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">internal log </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">of their behaviors and their numbers. Below, I’ll give you my observations.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiwEnPsU4ayhjLmyZogWrWN8Otjv815yljSZ8ohKk8_V__R2NCQlLrjkN4RaTWv5wrGWEjGWOshbXz7IA3zFWJJoaQCU9OuGIEejcFPsecxFo8H1k2mNGYps7ZGaRJoJq_toeOx6KLEYM/s1600/pie+chart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="626" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiwEnPsU4ayhjLmyZogWrWN8Otjv815yljSZ8ohKk8_V__R2NCQlLrjkN4RaTWv5wrGWEjGWOshbXz7IA3zFWJJoaQCU9OuGIEejcFPsecxFo8H1k2mNGYps7ZGaRJoJq_toeOx6KLEYM/s320/pie+chart.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>not to scale</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The first group is people that get paid to use a gun frequently that should and do practice</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> their craft regularly (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Green</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">). We like to think of our mighty military as being these guys. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I wish they were. If I had a genie in a bottle, this is one of those things I’d task him with. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">However, even with the most powerful military force in the history of the universe, it’s rare</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> to find a truly impressive shooter working for the DOD. I know you are out there reading </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">this and said “SOCOM Motherfucker!” And I will absolutely agree that those cats, in </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">general, far exceed the rest of the Military. Having shot with some guys with funny hats </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and a few vanilla frogs I’m still not sold on the overall abilities of that “branch” taking their </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">job as shooters seriously enough. Too large of a portion of these guys, and the vast bulk </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of the rest of the Military machine fall into the second group.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This group is paid to use it infrequently yet often do not, and in large numbers, practice that </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">craft. (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: blue;">Blue</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">). These people are not professional, nor are the professionals. We see this in </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Law Enforcement with alarming regularity. People who, by job description, are much more</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> likely to use a gun to defend themselves yet treat it as an occupational obligation. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Something they are forced to carry but do not value having the skills to use it to even a </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">portion of its potential effectiveness.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Some people do not get paid to ever carry a gun, yet they hone their craft much more than</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> the second group sometimes more than the first group (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Orange</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">). These people are the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> practice squad in the NFL. They prepare as though they are going to play the Superbowl </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">with zero expectation of ever putting any of their skills to any measurable test. This </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">exemplifies professional behavior. These are the people we should admire. That Green </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">group meets our expectations, that Blue group miserably fails them, but that third group, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the Orange. They do more than is likely needed, certainly more than is ever asked, and </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">they relish the opportunity to push further. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Most people in that second group, carrying a gun is their job and they treat it like any of the</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> unpleasant parts of a typical job. They do as much as they have to to keep their job. The </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">first group, those are the all-stars, they are in the big game, they know when and where </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">they are playing and they prepare accordingly. I often wonder how many continue putting in </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the work once they become members of the third group. Or do they fall into the fourth </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">group? (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #ea9999;">Pink</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">). The people who own a gun and therefore they are prepared for everything. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Reliving the days long past, do they become the Al Bundy's of the world, talking about that </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">time their number was called back in the day, from the comfort of the couch? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’m going to have to say that the mindset that is to be most favorably viewed is that </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">third (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #b45f06; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Orange</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">) group. The ones who train like tomorrow is their Superbowl, knowing that the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">chances of being in the big game are as likely as riding their unicorn to the lotto office to cash </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the winning powerball ticket while they get struck by lightning. That’s the dedication and </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">professionalism that I like to celebrate since it’s so often overlooked.
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’m not knocking my word-champ, OBL-slaying Teamguy here, I’m just recognizing those </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">10 guys who didn't make the 53-man cut. They have a dedication that is difficult to replicate. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">They are the ones I put on a pedestal, and rightfully so. </span>Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-39280248822429819922019-05-21T19:12:00.001-04:002019-05-21T19:19:19.929-04:00Fucking Presschecks<span id="docs-internal-guid-e9eb0262-7fff-1823-0023-fbe27e9970fd"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The old presscheck. Why do them? That's a serious question. Why do we do them?</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you answered “ I like to hear the clickety-clack of the gun parts moving around”, I’m not going to argue with you. It’s dumb as fuck, but it is a factual way to accomplish the desired result. The rest of us just throw on that first Magpul DVD and get a cacophony of clickety’s and clakety’s.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you answered “I want to know the condition of my gun”, now we’re going to have a discussion. If we move the slide, just ever so much to take the gun out of battery, we might be able to see some brass. We just took a gun that might have been working and caused a malfunction. Yep, out of battery means the gun no worky. Sure, we’ll go ahead and palm strike the rear of the slide to put it back in battery, so it’ll be fine. I checked a lot of contemporary instructions on what to do to a gun that won't fire, and all of them said fuck-all about a palm strike to the rear. So now we’re gonna add yet another malfunction clearance method to our list of choices and I’m sure Bill Hick will roll his eyes from the afterlife at us, but what does that guy know, I mean he died 45 years ago, he can’t be too smart, right?</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s gonna be OK, because we’re not going to do that reactively, only diagnostically. That's what that armorer's class was for right? Diagnose the issue. Apply the proper remedy. Great, we justified making the gun not work and justified the one instance this remedy will be the one we use. So endeth lesson….right?</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, not so fast sport. We did some mental gymnastics to get here, but what did we learn? Well, we learned that maybe we saw something. I know, you’re saying “ what do you mean maybe?” Well, I mean we can see stuff when there's enough light to see stuff with. If it’s dark, breaking open the slide works as well as that silly witness hole in the top of my M&P slide. But, we can just run it back further until we can feel it, can't we? I don't have the fattest fingers in the world, but I have to pretty much extract the round to get my finger in there. Maybe some readers have dainty enough fingers to reach in there (as long as their acrylic press-on nails don't get in the way). </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But just like the ridiculous loaded chamber indicator on the top of an XD slide. (Don't get me started on how often the bits of XDs stop working). All that tells us is that there is brass in the chamber. Some of us are keenly aware that a piece of brass and a live round are not the same things. The last time the gun was fired, was there anything impeding the slide? If you remember the last round that was fired, I beg the question: Why are we doing this press check again? (Hint: the answer is that we like the clickety-clack.) </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me ask you, what will you do if you neither see nor feel that the chamber is loaded? That's also a serious question. What do you do next, after you diagnosed the problem?</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We all know that the remedy is to run the slide all the way to the rear in a sharp fashion and let it go, allowing the fully compressed spring to expand, flinging the slide forward with authority and strip a new round off the magazine on its way home. Odd that many of the sources I checked on fixing malfunctions included this particular step and not the palm strike, but what do those guys know? </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To recap this series of events, when we aren't sure if the gun is loaded, we induce a malfunction to check if we can see or feel what we hope is a live round. If we don't see or feel what we want, we then run the slide. This is akin to the old fallacy of tourniquet usage. Instead of doing a bunch of steps prior to doing the one that works, we could always just start with the one that works. We have abandoned the idea of direct pressure, elevation, pressure points and waiting for those to fail before applying a TQ, I’m perfectly happy with doing the same when learning the status of my gun. I know running the slide works, so if I am in doubt, I’m gonna do that. I don't care if a live round goes to the deck. If it’s a partial magazine and I’m not sure how many are in there, I should probably top off the gun. And you know what? That also includes running the slide. Notice I didn't include a palm strike nor any justification for doing one, I wonder why that is?</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you managed to make it this far, there's the lesson. If you don't know the status of your gun, run the slide. If you do it after inserting a fresh magazine, all the better.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#fuckpresschecks</span></span>Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-29138643152118804952018-11-01T19:35:00.001-04:002019-09-15T10:59:37.358-04:00Pistol Sights and How I Choose Them.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I am sure my journey is a lot like other folks who want to find the best tools to fight </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">someone with. Possibly we are on a different leg of this journey but be sure, most </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">folks are on an entirely different trip. On this journey, people will talk ad-nauseam </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">about what firearm is “best” and they know because they own 35 different ones. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">But that's not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the sights that go</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> on top of them, and specifically pistol sights.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">From my time plinking, into my first rudimentary military firearms training, to my foray </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">into competition shooting, on to my study of violence and into my career as an </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">instructor, I found a lot of my time consumed with looking through sights. At those </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">different points in my life, I evaluated all the different sights that passed in front of my </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">eyes (see what I did there?). It was more obvious when I didn't like something than </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">when I did. But I kept notes. A few years ago I finally settled on what features are </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">important on sights and found what products had those features.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">When I evaluate sights, there are a few things they must do and a few things it would </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">be nice if they did. The top priority for any sight is that it has to be reliable. Steel </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">construction without moving parts is all that will do. I’ve broken a fair amount of Bo-Mar</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> style sights. Enough to know that they don't belong on a fighting gun. I want front and </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">rear to fit in a dovetail. When I install them, I use Loctite and stake the dovetail to </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">prevent them from coming loose. The Glock style front or GI 1911 style front is a recipe</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> for being broken. Admittedly, these are a choice made by the gun manufacturer, not the </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">sight company, but that certainly influences what guns I buy.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">If we go on the assumption that we are only going to compare reliable sights, there is a </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">feature that stands above the rest. A highly visible front sight in variable lighting conditions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> By “variable”, I mean a little dark, a lot dark, super dark and potentially pitch black. Oh yeah, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and then daylight too. Two features dictate this: size and color. For size, it needs to be big. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">How big? Bigger. I haven't yet found a front too large, nor a rear with too wide of an opening</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> yet. I imagine that a front site can be made that obscures a person at a certain distance, but</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> the widest front sights I’ve seen are .191” wide and they don't cover a dude at 100 yards, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">which is a shot that is a tall order for most gun guys with a pistol. I have made that shot, with </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">that sight, in front of students, on a gun without a rear sight at all. So for those that are </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">screaming at their screen that it has to be super thin in a narrow notch, I don't know what </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">else I need to ask my sights to do.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Yrf3AE01552JQtHCAZHn8bg0SXqPMUSLyY8WQireO6Narhh0YpyxJ5aRxSp8bxCpj3UunEgmCgac73R6lHmRBsdO0I2t-g8nDekkvXfD5CbtupPa4DKbAYGB-b_hy4gVapMolRLzwtQ/s1600/dxt2+text.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Yrf3AE01552JQtHCAZHn8bg0SXqPMUSLyY8WQireO6Narhh0YpyxJ5aRxSp8bxCpj3UunEgmCgac73R6lHmRBsdO0I2t-g8nDekkvXfD5CbtupPa4DKbAYGB-b_hy4gVapMolRLzwtQ/s320/dxt2+text.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">So if it’s big, it’s easier to see. Like the front you chose to set your screen to read this. Why</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> would this be important? When you need your sights on a bad guy, like right fucking now, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">easier to find would be good. If we’re also watching that bad guy move, like they do, easier</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> to find would be good. If we are also moving (like we should be doing) and shits bouncing</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> everywhere, easier to find would be good. Big is the key to this in any lighting, but really</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> important in low lighting. I’ll get to that in the next paragraph.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Now let's talk color. Straight color with no energy source first. The human eye has rods and </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">cones. I know you learned it in 10th-grade health. The cones that are in the middle are great</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> at finding small stuff and focusing on it. They also see colors well. The rods around the </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">outside</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are what give us </span>low-light<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> vision. They don't focus like a cone and they are naturally</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">color-blind.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">So what's that mean in the dark? They have a hard time focussing on small things (I told you </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’d get tot hat) And all those fancy colors we like are just a shade of grey. You know what the</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> brightest shade of grey is? White. Yep, the color of the dots that came on the gun. Who</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">knew </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">that the gun companies would actually give us the highest visibility sight color when they</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> put the cheap sights on at the factory. I can hear the gnashing of teeth now. </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a5a91d4d-7fff-dffc-554b-26692bb697fe"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> People are saying “Garry, at the well-lit range, those orange, green, blue, purple sights are easy to see.” Yeah, they are. But so is plain black. I don't know what the percentages are, but I can point it out with simple words. Black sights are very easy to see in daylight. White dots are a smidgen easier to see. Some bright colors are even easier than that, but only by a little. In the dark, black sights are quite hard to see, those fancy colors AKA grey sights are a fair amount easier. The whites are really easy to see. Orders of magnitude easier than the various greys. If we remember the various lighting conditions I mentioned, daylight ranks dead last. Just because that's all the average gun dude shoots in, doesn't mean that what a martial gun handler should focus on.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what if we add an energy source? Something like tritium or photoluminescent dots. Tritium stores energy from the factory and slowly releases it, letting your sights glow 24/7. The only downside is that the tritium is usable in a very narrow set of circumstances. Often it is too bright to see the glow, or too dark to identify your target. But the downside? None. Photoluminescent is pretty neat. They store energy after you charge them. For some amount of time. There are a number of colors in the spectrum that can be made to glow after some outside source of light has been shined on them. They generally emit much more light than tritium does. The downside is that white is not currently one of those colors. So in darkness, prior to being exposed to a light source they are orange, green or yellow. Which is less than ideal as mentioned above. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I've talked to some leading scientists that study eyes. They tell me that there are colors that are easier to see in the dark than others. Some yellows and even some oranges that are closer to the yellow end of the spectrum are much closer to the visibility of white in human night vision. One of these colors in a photoluminescent might be a viable option. Fiber optic is another option that requires energy to work. The downside is that the energy is not stored at all. The energy source must be directed at it while being used. Generally, these require good lighting to make them more visible than the surrounding black sight. They shine awesomely in the daylight, but that's not what we’re looking for. Being a little bit better in ideal conditions is not an adequate trade-off for being the worst choice in common conditions. The last option for a sight that requires an energy source is a red dot. The energy is stored in a battery and is usually bright enough to be seen in all conditions. I haven't written an article about red dots on pistols yet, and this one isn't going to be it. But like anything that is battery powered, a mechanical backup is a priority and that backup should meet the above criteria.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Down my list after size and color, I look at the shape of the sight. I need the sights as I’m aiming to not be overly intricate. Lining up triangle inside of diamonds or any craziness in unwanted. Some way to grossly align the front to the rear and possibly a way to finely align them for precision shots. However, being able to hit a dude-sized target at 100 yards with no rear sight at all limits my belief in the importance of finely aligning sights. From a side profile, I like the rear sight to have a ledge that I can use to rack the slide with and not be so sharp I cut myself on them. If it doesn't, it’s ok. I own a file and can make a ledge and soften the edges.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond that, the sight needs to be made for all the pistols on my approved list. Not really a concern since currently, only 4 guns have managed to get on that list. That's the entirety of my requirements. When I try a new set of sights, the first thing I do is a bunch of dryfire in random parts of my house at night. The basement, the hallway with the nightlight in it. The Living room with a streetlight seeping in around the curtain, the kitchen with the blinking clock on the coffeepot. That's the lighting I’m focused on. If they look ok there, I’ll install them on a UTM gun and use it for force on force. The lighting covers all possibilities, and the target and I are always moving. That's it. No live-fire required at all to test sights. I heard one of the best pistol shooters in the world talk about sights. He said every single shooter he had seen, and he has seen all of them, shoots better with new sights. Not because the new sights are good, but because they focus more on the front sight when it's different than they are used to. In essence, live-fire testing of new sights is more likely to give us false-positive results than actual useful results. So I skip it. I urge you to do something similar. When you want to try new sights, get those sight pictures in the dark. Try them in as many different levels of dark that you can and then get in a shoothouse and try them in some force on force.
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Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-70024242338884334682018-06-08T19:03:00.002-04:002018-06-08T19:38:51.277-04:00Jump in the Pit, Force On Force Training.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguiKJtXQR8mD0zDnFFIB3y8liAPKXH5xeb1edMFqCOd9G0u1Ac5-iHyt5b6PV_Zsk5t-0v9UVtE2q5ixZV0HiEQaOgNOtdBpTlHK4zc-vGJgh3R98X3YELUd4i7tGKWXgZK5RqBo1pEaY/s1600/Foam+Pit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="772" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguiKJtXQR8mD0zDnFFIB3y8liAPKXH5xeb1edMFqCOd9G0u1Ac5-iHyt5b6PV_Zsk5t-0v9UVtE2q5ixZV0HiEQaOgNOtdBpTlHK4zc-vGJgh3R98X3YELUd4i7tGKWXgZK5RqBo1pEaY/s200/Foam+Pit.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I was a kid, I used to poorly do tricks on my BMX bike. My friends and I would hang out like typical kids but we’d roam around on our bikes and try to impress each other with the newest tricks we’d been practicing. Like most young men, approval of our peers was important, even if we didn't realize it then. Many years later, after getting out of the Navy and now a newly minted father, I’m watching some kids do some amazing stuff in the X-games. Damn, these dudes were not just on a different level, like the kids in the magazines when I was young, they were from a whole different realm. In one of those cool featurettes, ESPN went behind the scenes with these guys and showed their practice regimens. While they were showing PA’s own Woodward BMX camp (or whatever they call it nowadays) there was a giant foam pit. These dudes were doing insane tricks and landing in the pit. They could push their boundaries with the repercussions for failure almost eradicated. They could perfect their craft in relative safety. At first, I was jaded and called them cheaters, but after setting my ego aside, I realized it was genius and these guys used their brains to be able to push their abilities to the next level.</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-2b259e59-e182-7ca1-9acf-8cf45a5f3613"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmc0JoXMOnkSGj67gQpmIxR1sBD98X3feV7JFSOBP0Z006JcPKeROd9uWRMirqoGVQE4KDSFALp8ZWXZGfAkD5vK2dlWQxN_atVjtFKhfsiC2RsPSHiw6pmZ4Sr6PqJW3bLCbMQYykJo/s1600/FoF+action.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="656" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmc0JoXMOnkSGj67gQpmIxR1sBD98X3feV7JFSOBP0Z006JcPKeROd9uWRMirqoGVQE4KDSFALp8ZWXZGfAkD5vK2dlWQxN_atVjtFKhfsiC2RsPSHiw6pmZ4Sr6PqJW3bLCbMQYykJo/s320/FoF+action.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The first time I heard about Simunitions was in high school, in one of Dick Marcinko's books. I never gave it more thought than it “seemed like fun.” But years later when I had the opportunity to put my hands on a similar product (federal FX) it was like that foam pit had been dropped into my training world. Here was my way to work on tactics, with the repercussions of failure being just a few welts and a hit to my ego. Sure, I spend lots of time on the square range working on skills, probably like most of the people reading this, but there is very little room for practicing tactics. We can utilize cover, concealment, and barricades, but if we use them poorly or incorrectly? There is nothing to penalize us for doing so. The possibility of ingraining poor tactical habits is high on the flat range. Shooting competitions like IDPA and USPSA actually reward poor use of cover, so those arenas actually cause regression in most competitors in that area. But here, with a non-lethal round fired from proper gear, there was a golden opportunity to work out tactics against live opponents who are also practicing proper tactics. Like anything that we learn, proper repetitions are the key to growth, and here in front of me was nearly endless repetitions with the penalty for failure not being dead, which was how a lot of warriors throughout history learned. But how many were robbed from us by an action that could have been practiced safely prior to facing an opponent intent on killing you?</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I embraced this concept. And it has paid dividends. I have learned much more about my abilities and decision making from facing a live opponent than I ever did facing cardboard and steel. I’m not different than anybody reading this article. You and I both can line up sights and press a trigger without disturbing them pretty well, likely better than the vast majority of humans walking the earth. But if we don't get an opportunity to do those two things, it doesn't matter how well we can do them. That is why I tell my students, or anybody that will listen, “If you had to choose between live-fire and Force-On-Force (FoF), ALWAYS pick FoF!” It is that important.</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2b259e59-e182-7ca1-9acf-8cf45a5f3613"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There are a couple key components to having a quality Force-On-Force Experience. First, like any training, a competent Instructor is a must. You might already have found one that you prefer already that offers Force-On-Force classes, and that’s great. If not talk to your live fire Instructors about who they prefer. If they don't have one to recommend, they should get out more. If they recommend against FoF, you should find a new instructor to learn live fire from. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The next thing is quality, trained opponents. Often called “Role Players”, these folks need to be well versed in the lessons being taught. Their goal, like that of the instructor, is to have the student gain the most possible every time they gear up. It’s not a paintball game where both sides are trying to “win.” Winning is when the students learn the intended lesson. Don't get me wrong, the role players are also learning during these as well, they are just at a different point in their training and learning different lessons.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, but still immensely important is equipment. The gear has to be solid and robust. It needs to handle being treated like a real gun. If it can't be dropped, or thrown away from a downed bad guy, its garbage. This is where airsoft fails miserably. Tokyo Marui plastic is not the same as Glock plastic. The pot metal coming from Asia is vastly inferior to steel and aluminum. I’ve broken Airsoft guns just by racking the slide as a pistol is intended. If it needs to be manipulated gingerly to prevent breakage, chuck it. That is something too easily transferred into your live-fire manipulations. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There needs to have some negative reinforcement for fucking up. If getting shot doesn't hurt, it’s not a good training tool. Paintball guns excel here, they have more kinetic energy than any of the simulated rounds on the market. However, not a single manipulation is remotely the same. None of the controls get close to mimicking the controls on the tools you will save your life with. They are not training tools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWjVdtSxTyujBUkMdxrvzAtSLXisJweeKfZtQc0uslQ5LurRmrKPJjzyV1dEaZQmHkTdV7AFMYEcA-zXXEgrUXc8p3jYHTzMofa3ADhbJ58SZ_UaS3SPLTgPHSvUxb6h1kyEkYtfJNcfU/s1600/FoF+gear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWjVdtSxTyujBUkMdxrvzAtSLXisJweeKfZtQc0uslQ5LurRmrKPJjzyV1dEaZQmHkTdV7AFMYEcA-zXXEgrUXc8p3jYHTzMofa3ADhbJ58SZ_UaS3SPLTgPHSvUxb6h1kyEkYtfJNcfU/s320/FoF+gear.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There are two general types of quality Force-On-Force options. Simunitions and Federal FX rounds are grouped into the first category. These work out of Glock's factory G17T. The technology for these has been around for decades. They do everything that one needs for FoF training. I have used both, and they were acceptable. The design leaves something to be desired. The soft end of the projectile is easily disfigured during the chambering process, causing a jam that can only sometimes be cleared by the standard immediate action procedure for a pistol (Tap, rack/Unload, reload). The superior option is the new guy on the block, UTM (Ultimate Training Munitions). The modern design of these projectiles has a flexible plastic cage with the marking paint housed inside it. This makes feeding ten-fold more reliable. Another upside is that UTM slides are available for a number of different pistols, allowing students to use their own carry gear (holsters and mag pouches) without going and buying a duplicate set just to fit a schools sim guns. From a schools perspective, it is much easier to purchase UTM slides for civilian training than G17T’s from Glock. As in, Glock does not care if civilians ever receive FoF training and outright refuses to sell guns to schools that train civilians. I’m not alone in my preference for UTM over Sims/FX. The US Army has also transitioned to UTM and left Sims/FX. If the Federal Government can figure out that there is an improvement, it should be pretty obvious to the rest of us.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Just like the foam pit, this is your chance to fail in a safe environment. An opportunity to pressure test your Mindset, your skill, your gear and most importantly, your tactics. As often as your training schedule and budget allows, you should be looking for Force-On-Force training opportunities. Find a school with quality instructors, that use vetted, trained role players and have a stable of UTM gear (Sim/FX if need be) and sign up. I promise you, you will learn more about your abilities in one class than all of the live-fire training you’ve ever done. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOx1ZSZWyyLhj70Dh58JStv6KB9vKQj547T2Kz592dkj4ej4-0tSrT2Ot67QhTlH2rK8euF9m2Y8M-fyE3ozjEPSa78dDR5h_697Imy2GUxN-j62FMUdYGRarTICaa-z1s-i0SFfswYTA/s1600/FoF+excecution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="802" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOx1ZSZWyyLhj70Dh58JStv6KB9vKQj547T2Kz592dkj4ej4-0tSrT2Ot67QhTlH2rK8euF9m2Y8M-fyE3ozjEPSa78dDR5h_697Imy2GUxN-j62FMUdYGRarTICaa-z1s-i0SFfswYTA/s400/FoF+excecution.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-45863730801538022492018-05-15T21:08:00.001-04:002018-05-16T07:58:24.582-04:00The Search For Animal Chin<div style="text-align: center;">
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The Search for Animal Chin</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrfoKKGiLgyeYTTqWiuQ6cp_hNTYabw600MoyFxIGNssTJP_22iVn1gK-FxltTfSeIQclwjDfC5uNHhH2Jyp1XHSVNaEzbESH7UrhrMl31ezS5oJ-gEa6RUuXNeD7CGbjPxMYt1RH7mlQ/s1600/Animal+chin+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="595" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrfoKKGiLgyeYTTqWiuQ6cp_hNTYabw600MoyFxIGNssTJP_22iVn1gK-FxltTfSeIQclwjDfC5uNHhH2Jyp1XHSVNaEzbESH7UrhrMl31ezS5oJ-gEa6RUuXNeD7CGbjPxMYt1RH7mlQ/s320/Animal+chin+cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The wizened old guru, Won Ton “<i>Tactical</i> Animal” Chin is out there. Isn't he? Part of my misspent youth was taken up by this film, one of many movies that nobody ever watched, that I really liked. The plot is these young souls looking for the source of all the wisdom in their chosen field. <br />
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As a firearms instructor, there’s a certain fantasy about our own Animal Chin being out there. As someone on this path, should I be searching for him? I’ve had many long talks with the world’s greatest firearms instructor and he is the one who told me that out there somewhere is a guy teaching the best stuff to his students. The heart of gunfighting without all the flair that we see in the current training community. I’m also guilty of adding flair, I post photos and write little blurbs like this one. But those aren't teaching. Time spent doing that is not time spent pressure testing curriculum to find any deficiencies. But somewhere, that instructor is out there doing that. He doesn't update his website, because he didn't make one. He isn't posting on instagram, because that's not important to him. There’s not a bookface page we can follow his exploits on because he is too busy passing along his wisdom to his students. <br />
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I don't know who he is, because he has never talked about himself. And his students have not told me about him. Maybe because they assume I know who he is, or maybe they don't want to share this gem they have found. But his students, whomever they are, find him with word of mouth. Someone told them and they searched him out. Animal Chin might not even realize that he is this wise guru, he might think he’s just a dude teaching dudes good skills. Which makes the search all the more difficult.<br />
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I know this, his range has a berm. It does not have fancy reactive targets, nothing is remote controlled, I doubt there is running water. He doesn’t give a silly certificate at the end, and there is no swag shop in the trunk of his 87 Honda Civic. Just staplers and a stack of targets. You get a handshake and a “good job” at the end of class. But the actual reward is tenfold more than you get from the biggest, most famous schools.<br />
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I brought this idea up at a recent class I was at with another awesome instructor who certainly is not as well known as he should be. He concurred that Chin might be out there. Filling his classes with students because they tell their friends how great he is, not because he advertises. He doesn't even know he is the Animal Chin. He’s just doing his thing. He doesn't tell his students the history of a technique, he might not even use the name of the technique as the industry does. Because he doesn't care what it's called or who or when it was invented, he just cares that his students understand how to do it and why they are doing it.<br />
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I was not convinced that Chin existed. And frankly, I’m still not. But two of the most talented instructors to ever teach think he does. Is that reason to set off in search of him? Should it turn into a cheesy movie with a bunch of cool shooting action? I’m going to say "probably" to the first question and "no thank you" to the second. Not that it wouldn't be a fun film, but if that teacher is out there, it’s not my place to put him in a limelight that he did not choose. But if any of you have any leads, please point me in the directions of the Tactical Animal Chin. I may have to get this quest started.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10lCBSiF3L9qY_oTCVAIOYWuI2MDgwLG03hsBQQjkVjtZmu7SMyykQ6uSzy-3AX0HbJ6L7pByFLJRoGg6aaVLZ9vd26K0QDCOrGpWza3tU1n5d5kGRo4wp33-BywWqlrkKHseHbfld9I/s1600/gibson+chin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10lCBSiF3L9qY_oTCVAIOYWuI2MDgwLG03hsBQQjkVjtZmu7SMyykQ6uSzy-3AX0HbJ6L7pByFLJRoGg6aaVLZ9vd26K0QDCOrGpWza3tU1n5d5kGRo4wp33-BywWqlrkKHseHbfld9I/s320/gibson+chin.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-12197519178962473022018-05-01T09:30:00.003-04:002018-05-01T20:04:13.328-04:00Range Crap<span id="docs-internal-guid-5d5e38ed-1be5-064b-1151-3e9d0c6780f2"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I see a bunch of useless range crap peddled all the time to unsuspecting gun dudes.
Stuff that “helps” them at the the range. Then there’s the list of regular stuff that dudes </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">tote to the range with them. Lots of it either doesn’t work, or it doesn’t work as well as </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">something else. I’m amazed at how often I see a guy struggling with his support gear, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and I’ll assume he just is caught up in the “always done it this way” and not looked for </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">an alternative. So I made a list:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Range bags without dual back straps.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There's a fair amount of stuff that usually comes along to the range. So the bags tend </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to get large. Then there's a single shoulder strap on this giant square duffelbag that likes </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to slip off the shoulder because it was designed poorly. It’s also often a lot of weight that </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">would better be distributed over both shoulders, and would free up one hand, as one is </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">always busy keeping that shoulder strap from coming off.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Range bags designed to hold ammo and guns. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">After the first entry, I’m already convinced that most range bags #1 purpose is to separate </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a gun owner from their money. But they build a duffel bag that costs over a hundred dollars </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and then assume the dude who bought it is going to bring his single pistol and 100 rounds </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of ammo to shoot. If a guy is buying a 199 dollar duffelbag, he probably is bringing his 5 </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">pistols and a thousand rounds of ammo to the range with him. And now he has a stupid
pistol </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">rug slot and a tiny spot for bullets built into his caddilac of range bags with no gear that
fits in it. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">I’m not even going to mention the 5 loops for magazines, I have no idea where the
other 20 </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">are supposed to go.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Paper Targets</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’ll start off by saying I mean big paper targets. Anything larger than an 8 ½ X 11 or a B8 </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">center. I used to buy IDPA silhouettes made of paper because they were much more</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> affordable than cardboard. But you know what I couldn't do with them? Staple them to </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">uprights. They would tear in the slightest breeze. So now I was buying cardboard targets </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to use as backers...And then I realized I could just shoot the actual cardboard targets. Some</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">paper targets are larger than a silhouette, but the problem then becomes the parts outside </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the cardboard backer blow all over the place and cannot be seen anyway. And sometimes</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">it rains, mostly every time I'm at the range. The melting targets are always a good time, and</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">no known method will keep them attached when they are saturated.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Pasters</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There are companies that make a living from making precut pieces of tape at exorbitant </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">prices because people are too lazy to rip their own piece of tape from a roll. Or folks like to</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">spend money on stuff because its designated as shooting tape instead of the 88 cent roll </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of masking tape they </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">buy at wally world.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">2X4 uprights</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The big overbuilt concept is one I often admire. Sometimes, like this one, it's a hindrance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">While it </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">does offer more resilience to getting shot (why are we shooting the edge of the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">target again?), it has </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">some down sides. It might need power tools to be replaced. It’s often </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">screwed into the base and </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">the 8 foot replacement piece needs a saw to get cut down into </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">a usable length. Now the </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">aforementioned range bag needs a battery powered saw and </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">screwgun. 1 X 2 firring strips cost less </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">and are easier to: transport, cut, install, replace. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">Plus they offer a unique advantage of using binder </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">clips to attach targets to them.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Spray Glue</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">It has a single use. To attach a paper target to some type of backer. It will not hold a real
target up (cardboard) and depending on the brand, a 5 dollar can will not last past one relay
of students in a class. The area I like it is attaching a smaller target to my used IPSC target,
like a small dot drill, a B8 center, a business or index card, etc. But you know what else
works there? That 88 cent roll of masking tape.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tiny cheap staplers.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The el cheapo stapler that we buy for putting up christmas lights was not designed to put in
300 staples a day, 2 days a week, 40+ weeks a year. Big and robust, and it should be front
loading, no more of this "pull out the thing, drop em in, put the thing back in"…..that thing
always gets lost. Big staples that go through a cardboard targets and possibly into a knot of
wood and a stapler that will reliably deliver them.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">
At some point, I’ll likely make a video about a range bag and the gear that goes in it, but it</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">wont </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">be for awhile. So in the meantime, I called out the stuff that makes baby </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Jesús weep </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in sorrow.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></div>
Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com2Pennsylvania, USA41.2033216 -77.19452469999998838.141316100000004 -82.358098699999985 44.2653271 -72.030950699999991tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-39797605835904482322018-03-05T14:25:00.002-05:002018-03-05T15:02:43.897-05:00Are Standards just the standard way of cheating ourselves?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are Standards just the standard way of cheating?</b></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-d1f4f70a-f78b-d09b-05d9-993f5ffc8461"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Standards exist to measure one’s proficiency. Technically, a standard is a set of rules that one must adhere to. The standard is either met, or it is not. In that vein, repeatedly practicing a standard drill does not mark true skill level. It marks one’s ability to meet a very narrow set of parameters. The core element of these standards is that if a shooter has attained a certain level of proficiency, he will be ably to call upon the few skills in his vast library of skills to pass the standard. When reality hits us, the standard has been published long before a student has attempted to pass it. The shortcut that we, as humans, will do is to only practice that tiny sliver of skills to maximize our ability to meet the standard. At no point is there a motivator to even begin to amass a large library of skills, we already know which ones will be needed. The problem is, in our shooting world, the standard being tested is just a small representation of a larger skillset one is assumed to have.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn5zlpSqZAN0LnDJmFe5igwaamWgzIieCy95XogdOdWtNuyaJRqEHlddtYtzuRev7qgDUMhpwI323n5UyQXMALjphgjAQDybLwz73eJqEaF2QnHB8z9uNX_MmClB1jpQMVlr4eYCCNgZ8/s1600/14917267_1399742083379891_7854198960075434972_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn5zlpSqZAN0LnDJmFe5igwaamWgzIieCy95XogdOdWtNuyaJRqEHlddtYtzuRev7qgDUMhpwI323n5UyQXMALjphgjAQDybLwz73eJqEaF2QnHB8z9uNX_MmClB1jpQMVlr4eYCCNgZ8/s200/14917267_1399742083379891_7854198960075434972_o.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Precision Skills on display</td></tr>
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</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes we perform this standard to show others that we meet the required skill level. The assumption on their part is all of the unused skills for that standard are at a similar level. However, shooters often game the system by focusing only on the ones they know they will be tested on. Now they are selling a false bill of goods. I see no reason why a student should know the specifics of a standard they will be performing beforehand. Sure, tell them that we are going to be doing some testing with pistols on Wednesday. Bring a guns, bullets and rig to wear it. And here’s the most important thing to bring...all the skills you have. Now, of the three-hundred thousand things a dude can do with a pistol in his hand, we can select a few and test him on those with a much better sense of his overall proficiency level. We certainly don’t have time to test him on all of them on Wednesday, so this will give us a coarse picture of where he is and then we can decide if he is suited for whatever task we are testing him for, or to if he warrants making it to a further round of testing where we add more and more skills to the required tests.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What about when we are testing ourselves? I hope you all record your results when you practice the things you learned at training. This is how we measure our progress. If we learn some techniques at training, we should be practicing them. At some point we will test ourselves and measure that to prior results. Over time, this tells us if our practice regimen is working. Whether we pass or fail the published standard, it can be used as a yardstick.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, if we know we’re going to time our El Pres the first weekend of every month, what to stop us from only practicing the 3 things an El pres measures? This is exactly why I can make a novice shooter an IDPA master class shooter in a weekend. He will lock up last place in every match he goes to because matches test an array of skills, but I can make him real good at the few needed for the classifier in a relatively short period of time. We might run the actual standard at the very beginning and at the beginning of day two to measure progress, but with the published requirements well known, it would be a cakewalk to pass it by the end of a quality 16 hours of instruction in doing so.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_7H_NrzMKvf6KBjCJtMJrUzFexTm04yzLFnnXy7Mn3R-3rAijO8m7ak6H4U7BHKpMertPGY8fZ5uuXRRwpuyzlHtPybnUtzLuGua_FDYCfVft4iV5OcL-E-j6am_bZaTlg6gcZNkWf4/s1600/3+targets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="978" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_7H_NrzMKvf6KBjCJtMJrUzFexTm04yzLFnnXy7Mn3R-3rAijO8m7ak6H4U7BHKpMertPGY8fZ5uuXRRwpuyzlHtPybnUtzLuGua_FDYCfVft4iV5OcL-E-j6am_bZaTlg6gcZNkWf4/s200/3+targets.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's not quite an El Pres homie.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are professional schools that train people to pass the Navy qual. Every block of instruction is focused around getting a student to pass it. When it’s over they are pretty damn good at a tiny number of things, and they often easily pass the qual. But is that a true measure of how overall proficient they are?</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a catalog of standards that are randomly chosen on our test date? Standards that test a wide variety of shooting skills. We go to the range 4 times a month (I picked that randomly). We practice the things we wrote down before we left the house. A few hours later, before we leave. We bust out one of those standards and perform it to our ability. We record that. That is our yardstick. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a vast array of standards, we could easily choose a random one weekly so that in a moderate amount of range visits, we are back to ones we’ve already done and can track our progress. Assuming there are published requirement for pass/fail for these standards, we can even compare ourselves to those. If a student can pass that standard, cold, on-demand, with no advanced time to prep for those specific circumstances, then we can finally assume that he has a proficiency level equal to what we are asking him to perform on any given standard.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBfIHNKR-ygmlmjBefQGt0fd0skFW3TU3gM7khyHl5E9xictvNLPYxVOXTaAG5HfkqJO_Ut40AFJKkDp_fjPpNrPrNa5i9ToFUcRMfP1akwFDrv6Fu2zFKIiFBTXGbH9cpX7bTqUhjjo/s1600/bill+drill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBfIHNKR-ygmlmjBefQGt0fd0skFW3TU3gM7khyHl5E9xictvNLPYxVOXTaAG5HfkqJO_Ut40AFJKkDp_fjPpNrPrNa5i9ToFUcRMfP1akwFDrv6Fu2zFKIiFBTXGbH9cpX7bTqUhjjo/s320/bill+drill.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your Bill Drill has a Mike</td></tr>
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</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></span>Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-89464055837383083192017-07-05T11:41:00.001-04:002021-10-06T12:52:47.571-04:00Too Much Fundamentals?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The best instructors in the industry stress the firearms fundamentals as being the key to good shooting. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. It’s drilled over and over, even in the most advanced classes. Is it really that important?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yep, sure is. There are a fair amount of advanced classes out there. The underlying theme of those? Different situations that apply the fundamentals of shooting. The most advanced classes simply refine all of the things that happen before and after applying those fundamentals. They are the foundry of everything else. Fundamentals are simply the underlying principles of making hits. Regardless of what techniques are applied to accomplish these principles.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can you get too much of the fundamentals? Not likely. Can you get too many fundamentals? Maybe, let's take a look at it.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How many fundamentals are too many? Thats depends. How many are there? I had somebody once list me 11 fundamentals of shooting. I thought it was some type of parody. Similar to that video of the 21 step draw procedure. I saw an Army list of 8 fundamentals. Is that a bit excessive? I think so. Navy? 7. NRA? 5. Still a bit much. I’ve looked at these lists with a critical eye. Which of these is really a fundamental of shooting. At a recent class, Pat Mcnamara asked “ Is stance a fundamental of shooting?, I dunno. But you should probably stand” I smiled widely. We certainly agreed there. But do we need to stand to get hits? Of course not. While standing has some obvious benefits in a fight, we certainly don’t need to even be standing let alone any particular stance to get hits.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before a bunch of competition guys talk about how a certain stance allows for better recoil management and faster follow up shots, I’m going to go back to what I was taught years ago by Jay Gibson: That is a technique that allows you to apply the fundamentals in a more rapid manner. Important? Probably. Awesome? Sure. Fundamental?...nah. You don't HAVE to do it to get hits.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a number of years, I subscribed to a very common list of 4 fundamentals. Sight Alignment, Sight Picture, Trigger Press and Follow Through. OK, those made sense to me. Do those 4 things, good hit every time. I went “all in“ on these. Then Rob Leatham said something that shook my faith in the system. The gist of what he said was “Grip the gun strong enough and your trigger press doesn’t matter” Holy shit! He was right. If I clamp a gun in a table vice, I can press the trigger with the full swing of a broom handle and the bullet will hit where it was aimed. So is grip a fundamental and not trigger press? Before I answer, let me say that I have made perfect repeatable bullesyes holding a gun with 2 fingers, upside down and pressing the trigger smoothly with an ink pen. Is it either/or? Grip or trigger press? Seems like doing at least one of the two is important. But what then is the underlying principle? I had to think on how I wanted to word that. Dont worry, I will before this is over.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s take a look at the first couple on my original list. Sight Alignment and Sight Picture. These two are very closely related. Some people inadvertently lump them together. I’m going to do just that, on purpose, shortly. Barring some sort of mechanical error, the sights come from the factory already aligned on your pistol. Rifles may need to be zeroed, but then they too are mechanically aligned. So let’s just go ahead and assume that the front and rear sights are mechanically aligned. We certainly won’t be out there turning knobs and drifting sights in dovetails between each shot. So we are essentially taking these two mechanically aligned points and aligning them to a third point, our pupil. Lining up these three things is considered “aligning our sights”. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our sight picture is taking these three aligned points and aligning them with our fourth point: the target. So we are still aligning, we just add a fourth point to the mix. Ok, I’m down with that. But what if we are using a red dot sight? Are we no longer doing any sight alignment? Or is the alignment of the sight , the target and our eye the alignment AND the picture? I dunno how one wants to describe it, but now we have different fundamentals depending on the gear? Since a fundamental is an underlying principle to making hits, did the principle change with the gear? Or did we change the technique used to adhere to the principle? These were the questions I had to ask of my faith in my 4 chosen fundamentals.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What about Follow Through? Any disturbance of the orientation of the muzzle towards the target while the bullet is still in the barrel has a negative effect on accuracy. What about afterwards? Does excessive muzzle movement afterwards do anything other than make follow up shots slower? How do we know exactly when the bullet has left the muzzle? The easy answer is this: Keep the sights on the target before, during, and after the shot. If they move off the target, drive them back to the target. But if they move off, isn’t it already too late? Maybe. But in an effort to have a sight picture before, during and after the shot, we have a better chance of actually having an acceptable sight picture during, and that will affect accuracy. Sure, having one after is great for those follow up shots, but the crux of that is that the human mind cannot react fast enough to be able to determine the split moment that the we transgress from “during” to “after” the shot. By focusing on the before and after, we inadvertently sweep up the “during” as well. So the search was on to define exactly what the underlying principle was.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead of trying to rearrange words to get these thoughts to fit my predetermined fundamentals, I started from scratch. I approached the principles of making hits with a completely open mind. I decided that the underlying principles would be what I would call the fundamentals of shooting.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To the first two, I found the underlying principle was that we wanted to put the sights where we want the bullet to go. Sounds very simple and dare I say...fundamental. Literally that one phrase encompasses the entire principle behind aligning the pair of sights to our eye and the target, or even the singular sight to our eye and the target. It was that simple, put the sight(s) where you want the bullets to go. Eureka! I was happy with that and could move on to the rest of the principles to getting hits.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Down to three, I had to figure out whether it was grip or trigger press. Does it matter? No. Personally, I do both. Or at least I attempt to. So what was the message here? I am trying not to disturb the sights before the shot goes off. That was it, don’t disturb the sights before the shot goes off, but don't I also want to not disturb them during the shot as well? I can help accomplish that by focusing on a before and after “sight picture” but doesn’t that underlying principle directly tie in with not disturbing the sights? I believe so. I am also not so naive as to believe I can eliminate moving the sights before and during the shot. My principle is to minimize moving the sights, while shooting. No need to differentiate, the before, during and the after. My eye/mind is incapable of differentiating the moment it slips from “during” to the “after”. So it boils down to “while shooting” and that’s what I was trying to do, boil them down to the underlying principles. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-41a25cbd-1315-5b45-05f6-585a583925bd"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I had the other two of the traditional 4 fundamentals of shooting boiled down to one underlying principle. So that was it, I had started over with looking for the underlying principles of making hits on a target. Any target, doesn't matter what it is. You are only limited to size by your ability to apply these principles. These …..fundamentals. So that was it, The TWO fundamentals of shooting:</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1- Put the sights where you want the bullets to go.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2- Minimize the movement of the sights while shooting.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do those two things and you will get a hit, every single time.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Want to know how to do that? Well there are scores of techniques to help you apply these two basic principles. Take a class. You could come out to one that I’m teaching or any of a bunch of other great instructors. They may word it differently, they may break these down to the techniques they recommend and mistakenly call that a fundamental. That's cool, just go out there get your learn on and don’t get too caught up in the semantics. Whether there are 3,4,5,7,8 or 11 fundamentals, we’re all trying to get the student to understand and apply these two principles.</span></span></div>
Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-46919206079871759502016-11-06T15:11:00.001-05:002021-10-06T12:58:08.423-04:00Armed At Home or Home Arsenal?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was having a discussion with some friends about the merits of always carrying a gun. Everywhere. All the time. No Metal Detector = carrying a gun. And I was hit with the following question….”What about at home?” At first, I was confused, do people have metal detectors in their houses? But the more we talked the more I realized that some people take their guns off when they get home. “Whew! Thankfully that is over” was the mindset I was dealing with. I can't say that is a mindset that is beneficial to survival at all. I asked them this question, and I pose it to you as well; where do 100% of home invasions take place? Yes, you are correct, the home.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we discussed contingency plans for a home invasion there were three general schools of thought.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: I’m home and I’m safe. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: I have guns all over my house, there's always one within reach. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C: I carry a gun, at home.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A” is a simple fallacy. If you believe this, you are wrong. I can't stress this enough. Outside of the </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“home invasion” scenario, which should be plenty of reason to be armed, 29% of all violent crime is performed by a household member. (US DOJ stats) </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“B” certainly has some merit, but I find that most people seem to think having a handgun in their biometric safe in the nightstand counts as having a gun within reach. Which is partially true when one is in bed. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“C” is a great choice, but like “B” it usually isn't as true as people believe it is. Going to the bathroom at 0300 is a time when most people don't grab their smokewagon on the way out of their bedroom.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There's only so much I can do from behind a keyboard to help, but maybe explaining what I do will spark some thought on things you can do to maintain being armed at home. It might not be the answer for everybody, but I found what works for me.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My first line is to carry my gun at home. Thanks to the awesome guys at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stevensconcealment/?hl=en" style="font-size: 14.6667px;" target="_blank">Stevens Concealment</a> and <a href="http://www.yetitac.com/" target="_blank">Yeti Tac</a>, my daily carry gear is comfortable and easy to carry all day long. If anybody reading this struggles with finding a suitable holster give those guys a look. <a href="http://www.greenforcetactical.com/" target="_blank">Green Force Tactical</a> and <a href="http://www.galcogunleather.com/" target="_blank">Galco</a> make some fine choices as well. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjfDfOK47hKgPc6qPBfofLNXuVt0AgdR7y-YFsJYZrR-_sHsBvNX8fy_3_mDiFFtx5WUjR2ie-JmpcS0KtKlp_K0GVlRS0CtiSpoXcLIX0yDFAbxyZ7JHbKSmpW4dMgpRD2HaRUY6YhI/s1600/holsters.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjfDfOK47hKgPc6qPBfofLNXuVt0AgdR7y-YFsJYZrR-_sHsBvNX8fy_3_mDiFFtx5WUjR2ie-JmpcS0KtKlp_K0GVlRS0CtiSpoXcLIX0yDFAbxyZ7JHbKSmpW4dMgpRD2HaRUY6YhI/s1600/holsters.jpg" title="use TREMIS for a discount at NSR" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A pile of awesomeness.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The upside of carrying your gun at the house is that I don’t need to plan further. If I am in the basement doing laundry, I have a gun handy. If I walk out front to check the mail, I have a gun on me. Mowing the grass? Already have a gun on me. It’s easy to see that we need to exert no extra effort, regardless of what is going on at the house to be armed. I have talked to many folks out in town that normally are armed that admit that after de-gunning when they went inside had neglected to re-arm before they ran to pick up some milk, or bacon, or beer. I don't want that to be me, I didn’t want it to be them, and I don’t want it to be you. The simplest way to assure you are armed is to remain that way all day.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can hear what you are thinking. You aren’t going to sleep wearing your gun, or shower with it. I get it. That's where we supplement our “Armed at Home” with the “Home Arsenal.” Like most people, I sleep in something other than what I wore all day. Shorts and a t-shirt are not the most conducive to carrying the same way I do normally. What I prefer to do is keep my carry gun handy beside the bed. But the devil is in the details. Instead of placing my pistol on the nightstand or one of those bedside holsters, I take off my pants and put them on the floor beside the bed. Very similar to how a fireman has his turnout gear staged. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilKXqTkxkhpIAJdGNIPe-nL0-gbnbSNCkND5i0fDAIoCXVCAQNpp6W0nkk573HxEvBr-IxlCrUE2P-PmgAtwOyCEcwhugCG9Ilo77jkzPvofK6dCit4-YZ1dis4qeqM3aNNpGNRK8sVb8/s1600/Pants.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilKXqTkxkhpIAJdGNIPe-nL0-gbnbSNCkND5i0fDAIoCXVCAQNpp6W0nkk573HxEvBr-IxlCrUE2P-PmgAtwOyCEcwhugCG9Ilo77jkzPvofK6dCit4-YZ1dis4qeqM3aNNpGNRK8sVb8/s320/Pants.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
I was once awoken to the sound of a car accident outside. There was screeching, the crashing. I immediately put my pants on and had a pistol, spare mag, flashlight, fixed and folding blade knives, car keys, and most importantly medical gear. The only thing missing from my EDC was my phone since it had to charge at some point. I did grab it on the way out. I find this much better than dumping my pockets and then scrambling to get it all in an emergency. In the morning I will empty the pants to put the stuff in the new pants I’ll be wearing that day. If there happens to be a “noise in the house” and I just want the gun/light it’s no more difficult to get it from my holster on the floor than it is in a drawer beside my bed. My first course of action, in this case, is to grab the rifle from beside my bed. There is a suppressed SBR with a light and constant-on red dot between my bed and my nightstand. With a redi-mag, I have 60 rather quiet rifle rounds at my disposal with a light attached. Far superior to a pistol in every aspect. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNGPKrVeUwBbDvgwKGrD1P4RVEQqEK4tV-SijA2aRwtX5xOOGstARtZPa7wkpT7dKpdhzeWSxxZcelEgbRWVRyxnckztDpTIEpSEeUHWh-71KzENv5fBlXFIIlx0MQjpA277gF2N4p3gk/s1600/Gannicus3.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNGPKrVeUwBbDvgwKGrD1P4RVEQqEK4tV-SijA2aRwtX5xOOGstARtZPa7wkpT7dKpdhzeWSxxZcelEgbRWVRyxnckztDpTIEpSEeUHWh-71KzENv5fBlXFIIlx0MQjpA277gF2N4p3gk/s320/Gannicus3.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gannicus</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That leaves me with one glaring omission, the bathroom. Normally, if we are armed our gun will be with us in there. Even showering, if we take our clothes off in the bathroom, our pistol will likely be in its holster on the floor somewhere. “But Garry, I change in my bedroom, not the bathroom” OK, that’s fine. This next idea works for that. It also works for those middle-of-the-night trips to the head. Personally, I’m trying to find the bathroom without turning on any lights or stepping on a lego. I always ignore both the rifle and the holstered pistol. So my solution to that was a shotgun in the bathroom.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCp7xiyZQApxMdcuT0vyCbZmC9hN3O1NAox0CgTAWLITWPkdcUOHHfM486t99arfPURTEXO2UogLzHx60ptrOZFBKU4VCMmSC6kpDfwUrmmL1BqWxzvzU2nkvaNjT1YsvtVoR3WjJORTE/s1600/bathroom+shotty.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCp7xiyZQApxMdcuT0vyCbZmC9hN3O1NAox0CgTAWLITWPkdcUOHHfM486t99arfPURTEXO2UogLzHx60ptrOZFBKU4VCMmSC6kpDfwUrmmL1BqWxzvzU2nkvaNjT1YsvtVoR3WjJORTE/s1600/bathroom+shotty.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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Brian at <a href="http://www.tcgng.com/" target="_blank">Tacticool Guns and Gear</a> hooked me up with a Mossberg 590 Mariner. I chose this model in particular. The 590 and the Remington 870 are reliable workhorses. I prefer the 590 to the 870. The Mariner is designed to be exposed to moisture. There is no exposed carbon steel. All nickel plated or replaced by polymer parts. I felt confident that in a room that is constantly humid, the gun would function normally. It has been doing this for a couple years with no issue. This is the same shotgun I train with, so it gets frequent checks and tests to see if it holds up. I used to have some roommates that kept an S&W J-frame in the shower. The gun didn’t seem to be affected by the constant wetness, but the ammo was frequently a dud. They now keep an AK in the bathroom. While it does show some signs of surface rust, true to an AK, it keeps running.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These are the things that I do to keep my home better prepared. They may not work for everybody, but maybe we can get thinking about the things that will work for us at home. Not only should you approach how to be armed at home you should get some training on how to effectively do so. Get your family on board with your emergency plan and practice it. You will likely have mere moments to put your plan into action while help is many minutes away.</span>Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com3Bloomsburg, PA 17815, USA41.003698 -76.454945740.955764 -76.5356267 41.051632 -76.3742647tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-43513304721916407892016-07-12T16:08:00.000-04:002016-07-12T16:08:27.279-04:00EDC Seminar - Vehicle EDC<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vehicle EDC</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the beginning of July I was invited by Jared Ross of Rockwell Tactical to speak at a conference he had arranged. The topic of the conference? Every Day Carry. My sliver to cover was EDC in a vehicle. I don't feel as though I was any more qualified than the other speakers for this particular subject, but it was all mine.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The day of the seminar my throat was about as sore as I have ever had , so of course I muscled through it. Its a good thing I had a microphone because my voice was giving out about 15 seconds into it. I cut short the time I was given because I didn't think my voice would hold out for long. I think I cut it down to 15 minutes or so. I told the participants I would put a list of things one should keep in a vehicle on the internets so they could at least see what is on my list even if they couldn't hear it. So without further ado, here is my list/notes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vehicle has 2 major advantages</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Storage</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mobility</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of this is dependent on what vehicle you have, what type of storage is available.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Storage</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- how will we utilize the extra storage to supplement our normal EDC?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Water</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gallons from wally world, or a case of bottles , probably everybody here is not properly hydrated. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">AMMO</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There is a tiny chance you will ever need it to save yourself. It’s just not a necessity. Of course, I have 3K in there right now. Unlikely you will need it, but it does make for a great opportunity for an unplanned range trip</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Med Gear</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">EDC should include med gear. The vehicle offers a chance to carry medical gear for yourself or more advanced medical care. More blunt trauma gear instead of bleeding gear. You don’t need to know how to use it, someone else might. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You will have a much better chance of being a hero with some medical gear than a gun.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rifle</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? - #1 question. Should I , shouldn't I ? Personal choice. I cant answer that for you. Not everybody even wants to, but I carry a pistol when there is a 0.00% of a gunfight. If I feel it gets up to 1%, I’m bringing a long gun. If you are someone inclined to keep a rifle or any gun in your car LOCK IT UP! I keep an AK and a chest rig locked under the rear seat.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bug Out Bag/ Get Home Bag</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - That’s a whole different class, but keeping a backpack in the car in case you need to travel on foot is free. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Comms </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- A CB radio or a HAM, cell phone chargers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">General Purpose</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gloves</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flashlight/ headlamp (lithium batts)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lighter</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Toilet paper</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shop towels</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Garbage Bag and or tarp</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Road Atlas</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wool blanket or similar/ space blanket</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Change of clothes (BOB) footwear for business and women</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cordage (paracord)/ bungee</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sunscreen and DEET</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cash</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mobility</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is usually the reason we even own a vehicle. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>We need to carry the stuff to keep it mobile</u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Biggest thing here is fuel. I don't recommend carrying a gas can inside a vehicle. A pickup truck has some advantage here. But don't run your car until empty. A good rule of thumb is to fill it at the halfway mark. You could opt to carry an empty tank in the trunk.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jumper cables</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I shouldn't have to point this out we have all been on one end of a jump start.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fluids </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- if your vehicle uses more trany fluid or oil, keep some in it. (Like a Chevy) Otherwise, you are likely fine</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spare tire</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and tools, check them and make sure they all work. Upgrade the jack and wrench if you like. When you air your 4 tires up, check the spare at the same time.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tire repair kit, fix a flat.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A 12V air pump to go with that kit.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Duct tape</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Extra fuses (especially for a VW)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow chains</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tools</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - A small toolbag with some open end/closed end wrenches, a pair of adjustables , screw drivers, pliers and a socket set would be a great start. Going further to a 3 lb hammer, some high temp liquid gasket and a variety of hose clamps. Like medical gear, you may not know what to do, but somebody else might.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emergency</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fire extinguisher!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Road flares, signage.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tow strap- for someone to tow YOU out</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seat belt cutter/ glass breaker, resQme central or individual.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most importantly is get training in how to use the things you are carrying. Sure I said some things you might not know how to use but somebody else will. But that’s no excuse to ignore getting those skills. Put that stuff on your list of shit to learn.</span></div>
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Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-62589011608038054762016-01-09T11:30:00.001-05:002016-01-09T19:52:25.338-05:00Trijicon MRO - Best on the Market?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiae2Swv4yyn2toEbYf8Qwr5FbZzc60REbaJnBKe8fBYLjQIb9USJaRMQCmaDmdnyYZouGZqrEaEOOICb-07i84T7mzfC1BE3T5xVYJZwWCK4ZRHewkDlXQfgutB-ROHabvdq4f-DfpdAs/s1600/MRO+sideshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiae2Swv4yyn2toEbYf8Qwr5FbZzc60REbaJnBKe8fBYLjQIb9USJaRMQCmaDmdnyYZouGZqrEaEOOICb-07i84T7mzfC1BE3T5xVYJZwWCK4ZRHewkDlXQfgutB-ROHabvdq4f-DfpdAs/s320/MRO+sideshot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was asked after I put up my video on this optic if I thought it was an Aimpoint killer. I chose not to answer simply because I believe Aimpoint is the Aimpoint killer. My experiences with the PRO left me wanting a different optic before I knew what one I was going to get. Now mind you, I have a T1 on my AK that runs fine so I’m not here to trash them as a whole, I just haven’t had the same experience that many others have had. </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-8e66e65a-2736-14e3-0dfb-d70b9d6c92b8"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Back in September I was at a Sentinel Concepts class hosted by MIdwest Industries and Steve Fisher had an MRO on his demo gun. I had seen the Travis Haley video announcing it, but that was all of the prior knowledge I had. So Steve let me check out the sight and I was sold. I had to get me one. They were just starting to trickle in to some local gun shops but not in large numbers. A Tactical Response Alumnus contacted me and told me his buddy just got a pair of them in at his shop. A few phone calls later and it was a done deal and he was bringing it to class that weekend.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">My initial impression was very good. I only had the really really low mount that comes from the factory. I was surprised, that it actually was usable on an AR. Far from ideal but usable. At that time mounts were difficult to locate but my good friend Brian at Tacticool Guns and Gear sourced a couple of ADM mounts and graciously hooked me up. I had also talked to Pete at Midwest Industries and he told me that their first batch of mounts were finishing up in a few days. After using both of them, I prefer the throw lever on the Midwest mount, its much lower profile. Otherwise both mounts are rock solid and either will perform as expected.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">As for the optic itself, let’s look into the things that set it apart. First the front lens is larger than the rear lens. This is brilliant (pun intended). When we look at things, the further away they are the smaller they are. So anytime you look through a tube, the hole in the far end appears smaller than the close end. Obviously the longer the tube the more pronounced this is. With the shape of the MRO, which certainly fits in with the style of an ACOG, this effect is nonexistent. One of the first comments I hear when I hand it to others to check out is “Wow, the field of view is huge”. When comparing the field of view to a more traditional tubed 30mm red dot, this sight seems much more clutter free even though it has a 25mm front lens and a 20mm rear lens. The engineers at Trijicon had a few other tricks up their sleeve to facilitate this as well. The main brightness control and battery compartment was moved to the top of the sight, moving out of the shooters lateral field of vision. In addition this makes the control ambidextrous which is always a plus. The next thing they did to make the body of the sight less obtrusive was to use a different type of adjustment for zeroing. The adjuster are flush and internally sealed, This removes the need for protruding caps to keep the watertight integrity.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP5mdjyEwINvK2bc8aRr7H_u-K8XysNnVJtPGKjSKgsJbFggT8JnvoBTZup_-_kH4hQ_-i6_0BkXY7fTiMz1FWP_N8ZmpXjyZe2SBauJIlh4ixjpuoC81mI0lO2phgZv8yIOkGB1j6e7A/s1600/mro2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP5mdjyEwINvK2bc8aRr7H_u-K8XysNnVJtPGKjSKgsJbFggT8JnvoBTZup_-_kH4hQ_-i6_0BkXY7fTiMz1FWP_N8ZmpXjyZe2SBauJIlh4ixjpuoC81mI0lO2phgZv8yIOkGB1j6e7A/s320/mro2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As long as I am talking about those features, let's look into them with a little more detail. With the brightness control there are fewer options for brightness than I am accustomed to. But this has yet to present me with any issues. the control knob goes OFF, n, N, 1, 2, OFF, 3, 4, 5, 6. The addition of the OFF position in the middle is very clever. If for some reason you like to turn your optic off this keeps you one click from a usable setting as opposed to running it through all of the low ones to get to the one you want. Personally I use setting 2 at night when I go to bed, it works fine in a dark room. 3 is usable for outside although depending on the lighting conditions, I use 4 often as well. I found this refreshing as I had been using my Aimpoint PRO and it just never got bright enough on a sunny day to pick it up quickly.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The adjusters, as mentioned, are flush and have no caps. The integrally sealed unit mens we are not relying on the O-rings in the cap to maintain waterproof qualities. It also means my dumb-ass won't lose the caps. Trust me, it's a known issue with me. They are your typical ½ MOA adjustment that is the industry standard. Any flat item can be used to make adjustments. A screwdriver, of course, a coin or a rim of a shell case all work great. This holds true for the battery cap as well.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s move on to the part that sold me on this optic. The dot. It’s a rather standard size of 2MOA. But where it really shines (yet another pun) is its roundness and crispness. For years I bemoaned the dot on the micro series. I always wanted to know what sacrifices were made when Aimpoint made the micro series. I have seen a whole host of shapes for those dots, oval being the most prevalent, all the way to jellybean. The comp series doesn’t seem to exhibit this. Although I will say that Trijicon sure did close the gap to EOTech when it comes to crispness. This was one of the areas that L3 far exceeded the Swedes and it looks like another American company did the same.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The stated battery life is listed in years. I can’t vouch for this since I’ve only had it for a few months. It has outlasted my last PRO so it’s certainly on the right track. They do say on setting 6 it will last for about a month. Note to self: if I’m shooting at the sun (the only place I’d need to turn it up that far) it will not last but a handful of weeks. With all the talk of battery life, in my limited experience, the big players are all close enough that I pay it no heed.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After I released my video, I got some questions about my comments on magnification. I wasn’t sure if it had it or not and I managed to convince myself that it both did and didn’t. All I could determine was that it was not 1.1 like a Nightforce. With some further digging, I find that Trijicon has it listed as 1.05 magnification. They say the optical engineers did this to make the dot the most crisp and obtain a better focused image through the lens. That’s all above my head but that's what they get paid for. As I am told by sources in the industry, this level of magnification is standard in a non magnified optic. Aimpoint does the same thing, it has been reported that the micro series is 1.025 so the numbers to seem to support this claim. All in all, any talk of this minor magnification is irrelevant in my eyes, it’s a non-issue.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<br />Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-76376247647769615562015-12-25T07:07:00.003-05:002015-12-25T07:22:12.052-05:00It's been a year already?So it looks like I haven't actually posted anything in a year or more. Thats a shame really. I know I got all caught up in doing the youtubes but I have to admit, personally I read 10 times as many articles on the internets than I do watching videos. I detest having earbuds in my head, so watching anything that has audio is out of the question almost all day long. The only time I would not be a nuisance to someone else with audio playing is during my short commutes, but watching a video and driving is not the brightest idea. So in short, I tend to read a lot more than I watch. The weird part is, when I am making content I do almost exclusively video with a little instagram and facebook mixed in.<br />
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That's going to change for 2016. I am going to do my best to focus on writing my thoughts out on a subject, maybe add some photos and make content that I would prefer to see. First things first, this place needs a facelift. I'll get on that and then start figuring out whats going to go on this page.<br /><br />In the meantime, a Good Yule to you all!<br /><br />Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-64316482990872161962014-02-20T22:34:00.000-05:002014-02-20T22:56:16.078-05:00Fuck the NSA<br /><br />So, I'm taking this class from the <a href="http://www.learnliberty.org/academy/">Learn Liberty Academy</a>. It isn't super involved but it's very enlightening. I surely recommend you take a look at the classes they offer.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm partway through the class <a href="http://www.learnliberty.org/course_details/government-power-vs-individual-rights/">government power vs individual rights</a>. The general gist is "Are the NSA activities legal/constitutional?" Of course if you are reading this, most likely you agree with my point of view of "Fuck no, that shit isn't legal nor constitutional!" Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but mine has been popped too.<br /><br /><br /> It really looks like everything that they do is legal. Now, I sure as fuck still am against them, but suing them wont accomplish squat. They appear to have their bases covered. Now the constitutionality of those laws is dubious. They use some pretty thin precedents that have not made it to a point where we can expect an opinion on them. To the common man, we would call it sleazy. But considering the sleaze that is in DC, I doubt anybody there would take issue with it. The anointed ones in black robes certainly cant be trusted to issue their opinion strictly based on the constitution given their recent history.<br /><br /><br /> Since they appear to be well within the law, and those laws aren't likely to be found unconstitutional, there are fewer choices left to combat this scourge. First off, vote some fuckers in that will fight for you. Lets get some new legislation. See my previous post about voting <a href="http://tremisdynamics.blogspot.com/2013/11/vote-for-fucks-sake.html">HERE</a>.<br /><br /><br /> Second, lets support the states that want to screw them over. I think it's funny when states and communities want to shut off the water or shut off the power. Of course I'm a bit demented with my sense of humor. We know the endgame, the feds will use violence to take the water or the electricity. I say good. If they prefer using violence on us, lets get it out in the open. Will that be the song we start the prom with? I dunno, but I sure am curious to know the answer. Lets stop the beating around the bush. If they are looking for that result, lets just get this dance started.<br /><br /><br /> Lastly, well I guess we got to that already. There will come a point when it might be time to vote from the rooftops. My only advice then is remember the words of Tecumseh "When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."<br /><br />I'm positive I took this in a direction that the great folks who are putting on the class didn't expect it to go. But we live in a cold, hard world with no limit to the capacity for violence. I'm just calling it how I see it. Neither side to this issue is filled with people full of righteousness and one side is prone to use violence first and try diplomacy only as a last resort. That can be avoided, and this isn't likely the thing to set the powder keg off. But it's another step down that road. Without the rose colored glasses on, it sure does seem like we're picking up speed as we take this trip.<br /><br />At any rate, catch me over on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tremisfans">bookface</a> to chat about this, or just comment here. Don't forget that I have a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tremis25/videos">youtube channel</a> with some new stuff on it, and some more stuff on its way. Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-73675856975509722632014-02-03T07:35:00.000-05:002014-02-03T07:35:08.503-05:00GearI haven't been posting much lately. I'm currently taking three online classes from The University of Washington, Yale, and The University of Maryland. In addition to having a family and work, I've also been doing some filming for youtube videos. (Mostly gear reviews lately) All that has just left me with very little time.<br />
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As I was talking to folks over on bookface about what gear reviews they'd like to see, I got to do some thinking. There is some gear that I don't think I could do a proper video review for but still would like folks to know that I support a product or company. So I thought I'd do a few short reviews here on this blog.You can be sure this will be about the last gear review I do over here. I'm going to stick with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tremis25/videos" target="_blank">youtube</a> for that. I refuse to let my blog be about gear.<br />
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<b>Blue Force Gear</b>-<br />
They make some cool shit. I absolutely love their ten speed pouches. Those are genius. But the thing they do better than all others is slings. There is no other brand of sling that even compares to the excellence that is BFG. I'm currently running a convertible, padded Vickers sling (VCAS). This is the Rolls Royce of slings. I compared it directly to a Viking Tactical VTAC last week, and the Viking seemed like a Renault in comparison. The Viking is a fine piece of gear, but the BFG completely blows it out of the water in all categories.<br /><br /><b>Magpul-</b><br />Really, everybody knows Magpul. They have the best fucking magazines made, period. For that matter, if there is a piece of gear that they make, there is a high likelihood that it's the best piece of gear made.<br />Before you go all "What about the MBUS?" on me, let me ask you who makes a better plastic sight? Even the AFG, which I hate. It's likely the best angled foregrip on the market. The only area that they let me down was on their sling. The convertible idea was fucking awesome. I run a convertible too. I didn't like the webbing, but with the newest rendition, they appear to have changed it and are more in line with BFG there. But lets get back to the mags. I will base gun purchases around compatibility with Pmags. I can think of three rather high profile, bad ass boomsticks that dont like Pmags......HK416s, LWRC REPRs, and the FN SCAR heavy. You know what? I would own any of those. You could give me one and I'd trade it on something else, the P-mags stay.<br /><br /><b>Daniel Defense-</b><br />There are other companies that make rails, a lot of them suck. DD is the Rolls Royce. Sure, Larue is good. Geisselle is good....Ok, my list is done. And so far, they haven't done that gay fucking keymod shit. Keymod was so high tech in the early 20th century. And I'm pretty sure, that if you go flying down a stairwell at top speed and hit your flashlight on a door frame, you'll push those two little bolts back to the large opening and off she'll come. At least HK put the holes on the right way so you couldn't push your rail mounted stuff off by using it as a shooting brace. But, enough of keymod shit, back to DD......Sure great rails, The bolt up system is stronger than the host gun and for the most part, they come in lighter than comparable rails. On top of the rail situation, they make full guns that are top notch. They are one of three companies that I recommend to folks buying a complete gun.<br /><br /><b>Special Operations Equipment - </b><br />
John Motherfucking Willis is the man! His gear is absolutely the strongest, best built gear that money can buy. You might not be able to solely use SOE gear since they don't make every piece of gear, but they make a lot and it's all good. It may not be the latest, lightweight, but it will last longer and you wont find better sewing on anything. I have had John make me custom stuff, I use regular stock items, and he even sent me free gear when paypal was unhappy with me using them for gun purchases rendering me without a way to pay him. On top of that, if you follow him on bookface, you will be entertained.<br /><br />That's my list. There are a lot of other companies that make good gear. Hell, I own a lot of other companies gear. But these are the ones that stand above their competitors. The ones I have faith in their products to be the absolute best. I'll still do gear reviews on individual pieces of gear over on my <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tremis25/videos" target="_blank">youtube</a> channel, but I wanted to put in writing somewhere how strongly I feel about the above companies. Keep tuning in, I'll try to get more blogging in between all the other stuff.<br /><br />Stop by my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tremisfans" target="_blank">bookface</a> if you want to hear the daily ramblings or have some more interaction.Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-35102633467554647862014-01-03T07:50:00.001-05:002014-01-03T07:50:21.384-05:00Get offended much?So over on my personal facebook page, I ran a little experiment. There was all this backlash against the duck tv show guy saying he didn't approve of some peoples choices and there was a line of people waiting to jail him, lynch him, torture him etc.<br /><br />So I decided to make my own list of people who I didn't approve of. Took me a over a week to put them all out there. My list is in the MILLIONS. Much larger than the duck guy. And while nobody called for my death (yet) unlike the duck guy, people actually were offended. What the fuck? If you meet someone, and they say, "ya know, after finding out what you did, I don't think we can be friends" Why the fuck would you whine and complain, stomp your feet and scream "You must like me, we must be friends"? Who the hell want to be friends with someone that doesn't like them?<br /><br />Now, out of my list. there wasn't one recorded instance of me harming any of those people in any way. I never once did anything negative to them. I believe in "Live and Let Live". That's exactly what I do, all day, every day. But I had to field complaints that I'm an asshole because while I don't approve of peoples choices, I don't act on that at all. I'm not sure what people want from me. If they expect me to be friends with everybody, too fucking bad.<br /><br />I have pretty high standards to be in my inner circle. If you aren't in that circle, you are out of it. No varying levels, in or out. And you know what? If you aren't in it, I'll still interact with you and treat you the same as everybody else. But to expect me to just let everybody in that circle is ridiculous! There is no participation award, I don't give out a trophy just for playing. You earn the right to be my friend, or we aren't friends. That doesn't make us enemies, we just aren't friends. Maybe we will become friends, maybe not, who knows.<br /><br />According to the internets, because there are people out there that I don't like based solely off of their choices, I'm either A: a racist, B: an asshole, or C: a racist asshole. I'm still not sure how so many people can decide your a racist if you don't like the things other people do. But I guess it's the default, love everybody or you're a racist. So at any rate, according to the internets, you should stop reading these blogs.<br /><br />Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-89260526840821909452013-12-21T20:59:00.000-05:002013-12-21T21:08:18.135-05:00Nobody gets out alive.As far back as I can remember, at least for my entire adulthood, I have been very "matter of fact" about death. It happens to every one of us. Face it, we have 100% mortality rate. A friend of mine that I respect greatly likes to remind people that your birth certificate came with an expiration date, you just don't know what it is. A long time ago, I decided it was nothing to concern myself with since I couldn't change it. Many of my friends thought I was "a bit off" but seeing people be so afraid of death was appalling to me. I didn't want to be them, so I simply chose not to be. I read a quote a long time ago attributed to Genghis Khan: "I had no place to hide from thunder, so, I am not afraid of it anymore." I liked that and it continues to influence me to this day.<br />
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A bit later in life I decided I wanted a good death. That could mean something different to different people. For a Spartan it might have meant being defeated on the field of battle by an overwhelming opponent, while making him suffer as well. And I have to admit, the romantic in me says that would be a pretty cool fucking way to go. Hoards of barbarians storming the walls, making your final stand. At least it would make a good book. Now in essence, what I mean by a good death, is one I experience. I do not want to go in my sleep. Dying is something we are likely to only do once. I don't want to sleep through it. I don't want to miss it for any reason. If I only get one chance to experience it, I want to actually experience it.<br />
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Now to the interesting part.... Recently, I have seen an article or three about what our mind does when we die. It didnt sound like mad science. When we experience something new, our brain instantly searches its memory banks for a similar experience so it can apply a reaction that will likely lead to self preservation. We see that happen very frequently as a normal part of life. When the brain cant find something similar it expands its search in our memory banks to find anything that might be useful. People who say they saw their entire life play out before their eyes in a near death encounter recollect this often. Science has shown that everything we have ever done is stored in there. Now the newer things I read just happened to be news feeds that popped up on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tremisfans" target="_blank">bookface</a> or the random stories that show up on my news app on my phone, but they all seemed to drop in the last few weeks. What they showed was that when the brain activity flatlined, showing that the cortex ceased functioning, that the hippocampus activity went off the charts. The hippocampus controls memories. This led scientists to believe that when the brain was experiencing death (certainly a new activity) memories came flooding into the mind to find a way to stop it. One of the reports mentioned that the activity in the hippocampus was <b>30 TIMES </b>greater than ever recorded during consciousness. This lasted for up to a minute after death. Nothing sounds ridiculous to my ears with this theory.<br />
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So now I'm looking at, sure we all have to die. I hope it's doing something cool, but I really want to know when it's happening. And when it does, I may spend a moment with a vivid, filmed in technicolor, replay of all of my memories laid out in front of me like a giant panoramic view of my life. Doesn't really sound like a reason to be afraid at all. Being that I'm nearly 40 (pay attention to that number, it'll be important in a minute) there are a LOT of memories that are now hazy and faded. Ones that I try daily to recall in greater detail. Mostly of my grandparents when I was a child. For my last act on earth to be recalling those in rich detail seems like a swell way to go. Almost like a gift from the Force, or God or whomever one happens to believe in.<br />
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Now, this kinda shit runs through my head at random times throughout my entire life. Sometimes I feel like my mind works like a woman with the remote to the TV, constantly flipping from one thing to the next. So this channel gets tuned in randomly just like everything else. But why did I choose to jot it down? Well ever since I was in grade school I had this eerie premonition that I would die when I'm 40. Not "before I turn forty" not "In my forties" but during the time that I was 40 years old. Now, if it turns out to be true, whatever, it's not like I can or will be doing anything about it. But in 2 months if this blog suddenly stops cause I bite the dust, at least you'll know where my head was on the subject. Is there an afterlife? Hell I don't know, and I'm not going to worry about that either. But if so, hey, I'll get to be with loved ones that I miss. But if there isn't, it still seems like I'm going to get to spend a little more quality time with my Pap before I become maggot food. So all in all, I still cant find a reason to fear the inevitable, there might even be an upside to it.<br />
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BTW, If I make it to 41, I'll be sure to make an "I made it!" blog.<br />
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And as usual, come on over to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tremisfans" target="_blank">facebook</a> if you want to chat. Or swing by my <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tremis25/videos" target="_blank">youtube channel</a>, as there is a few new ones in the works. Dont forget podcasts with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/That-Libertarian-Guy/165129493643547" target="_blank">That Libertarian Guy</a>. And there is still a chance to vote on <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/decide-the-fate-of-the-beard" target="_blank">Decide the Fate of the Beard</a> contest.<br />
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Next time, I'll fill you all in on my really cool Yule celebration.<br />
<br />Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-23077813108728351182013-12-08T13:56:00.001-05:002013-12-08T13:56:13.406-05:00Time well spent.<br />I was in the woods for a few days. Went out on opening day with the eldest Daughter. Saw one buck but had a really good day. We put about 8-9 miles in some really cool historic spots. A little chilly, but overall a great time.<br /><br />Spent yesterday in a new spot with the younger daughter. Fresh snow on the ground was great for tracking. We put in about 15 miles. 6 of which weren't really planned on. She was awesome and never complained once, even after her feet got wet (and cold). We literally stepped out of the woods, 4 miles from our rendezvous, at the very last sliver of light.<br /><br />Now, the guys we went hunting with were a bit concerned, but the two of us and our hunting buddy, Nate, weren't concerned at all. I don't take a full blown bugout bag when I go hunting, but a small assault pack from <a href="http://www.greyghostgear.com/packs/lightweight-assault-pack-litelok" target="_blank">Grey Ghost Gear</a> always goes along. Not only was I confident that we'd be back in civilization promptly, I wasn't really concerned if some weird shit went down and we'd need to hangout in the woods for a night. I've spent a night or two in the woods with much less gear. But having a bag full of essentials was beyond comforting. I know that Mindset is drastically more important than Skills, Tactics, and Gear. But, what I've noticed, is that when a person has confidence in their gear, when they have practiced their skills, and when they have tried their tactics, you just cant help from having a great mindset. I always thought of those 4 things in a linear fashion, but they really do affect each other, they are quite intertwined.<br /><br />Speaking of gear and mindset, I was inspired by some of my gear. Ok, maybe not inspired but "impressed" just doesn't have the same level of importance. I want to rave about a bit of gear. I am convinced that the now discontinued <a href="http://soldiersystems.net/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/bootistan_brown_black.jpg" target="_blank">OTB Bootisatn</a> is the worlds best cold weather/ hunting/ mountaineering style boot. New Balance really fucked that up. They bought a great company and then promptly stopped making those products. They didn't even do it to kill the competition since NB doesn't even make military boots. At any rate, I ditched the ortholite footbeds and dropped in some <a href="http://www.powersteps.com/product-pages/protech-full" target="_blank">Powerstep Protech Orthotics</a> in there as I have been battling plantar fasciitis for a decade and these work as well as my $600 prescription orthotics. Inside that I wore issue Navy Ski Socks. They are plain heavy wool socks. I could walk till I drop in this combination and never have a foot issue. I just cant stress highly enough how important quality footwear is.<br /><br />At any rate, the bugout video is a work in progress, the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9imsqp1mj8" target="_blank">Every Day Carry video</a> has been live for awhile. The first podcast with That Libertarian Guy is up and were recording #2 later today. Feel free to vote in the <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/decide-the-fate-of-the-beard" target="_blank">fate of the beard contest.</a> And check in on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tremisfans" target="_blank">facebook</a> if you want to sound off about something.Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2202669275923066722.post-3951792308466022422013-11-24T09:41:00.000-05:002013-11-24T09:41:17.165-05:00Training<br />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.<br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tremis25/videos" target="_blank">youtube</a>. 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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br />Get in touch with me over on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tremisfans" target="_blank">facebook</a> 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.
<br /><br />Podcasts are coming soon, I'll post them here when they are
good to go. Be on the lookout for a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tremis25/videos" target="_blank">youtube</a> video on my everyday
carry gear. If there is anything you'd like to know about, leave a
comment or post it on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tremisfans" target="_blank">facebook</a> and I'll do my best.<br /><br />
Tremishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12543198268219765340noreply@blogger.com0