They're All Gonna Laugh At You

I have not written here for months, mainly because shooting is a very small part of my life now. I spend more time on my motorcycle, and writing about riding. My last deployment didn't sour me on shooting, I just don't have the time to go shoot anymore. But what has me back in the game is a series of videos I've seen on the ENDO blog, which I do visit regularly.

A while back, there was an advertisement for some supertacticool knife, which was intended to act in place of a gun for "international bodyguards" who couldn't have a firearm. This drew my ire for encouraging people to rely on a knife as a primary defensive tool.

Now there's a video from Cory and Erika of YouTube fame which shows the lovely Erika shooting and then beating on a punching bag. She was doing this "drill" at a James Yeager school. My issue is with the instructor, as most people don't have the "benefit" I've had of actually being in ground combat a number of times.

Gun schools have sprouted up everywhere, and to my mind, a lot of them are frauds who teach innocent people Hollywood-style tacticool garbage that stands an excellent chance of getting them arrested or killed. If your instructor tells you to punch with a gun (loaded or not), leave. If you are taught how awesome it is to fight with a knife, leave. Going "hands-on" with a pistol will always lead to you struggling with your attacker for control of the firearm. Always. And if you're a 95lb young lady like Erika, or a fat old retired Sergeant like me, odds are the crackhead will win the physical fight. Everyone loses a knife fight. You will be cut, and the crackhead will probably take your knife away and shank the shit out of you with it. Knives are cool, but at the end of the day, a poor tool for defense.

Real training is simple, to the point, and focuses on doing the basics better/faster/more accurately. Things like the examples above are just hooks to appeal to uneducated masses who do not know any better. I am not against training, since the average citizen does not get years of military training, or years of experience in combat. I fully endorse the Magpul videos that have been around for a while. They teach simple, fast techniques that build on military training. That's what you should look for, no matter what school you choose to attend. I don't recall Travis Haley telling people to use their pistols as a club, either.

And while I'm at it, I have no beef against James Yeager and his exploits in Iraq. I'll leave it to you to find the write-up that was done by a fairly impartial British outfit. What I pulled from the story was this: the team took 50% casualties in the first five seconds of the attack, and the "armored" car was being shredded by a PKM. The options I see in my mind are 1) stay in the car and become a casualty, or 2) get out and try to suppress the enemy so that the casualties can get to safety. I don't think he "ran away". I think he was making sure someone was still alive to return fire and tend to the casualties. And I've been in an ambush in 2004 in which we had only one armored truck. If you're in a light skinned vehicle and the road is blocked, you have to get out and fight. Yes, the team made mistakes, but they were mistakes of complacency (only taking small, comfortable-to-carry firearms) and failures to coordinate with coalition forces. The worst case is that they thought themselves so high-speed that they were too super secret squirrel to coordinate with lowly US infantry units in the area.

If you're seeking training and you're new to the game, please, for your sake, do plenty of research before you commit.

G&A Gets It Wrong Again

As I was checking my facetube account, I noticed an update from Guns&Ammo. They're still doing zombie-themed stuff, which I could live without, but they had a list of "great zombie calibers". There is no list of zombie calibers. There is only one zombie caliber: .22 Long Rifle. Only headshots count, so all the kinetic energy in the world is useless if it doesn't hit some grey matter. 

I'm pretty tired of zombie-themed things, but I have to set the record straight here. G&A lists the common handgun and rifle calibers, to include .308win, .223/5.56x45, 30-30, .270, 9x19mm, 45ACP, 44 Rem Mag, and .38Spl. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. Those of you who are also gun nuts, go get 100 rounds of any of G&A's calibers listed, then get 100 rounds of .22LR and tell me which one you'd be more mobile with. 

Additionally, you can get wildly accurate and anvil-reliable .22LR semi-auto rifles, chief of which is the venerable Ruger 10/22. You can also get equally reliable and accurate .22LR pistols like the Ruger MKII/III and Browning Buckmark. Conversions for 1911s and Glocks are also available. 

In every zombie movie, there is a horde that must be escaped or a building that must be defended. Well, in either case, each person in your surviving band could carry two or three thousand rounds of ammo. Additionally, the .22LR is so low pressure that guns chambered for it have a virtually unlimited service life with only the most basic maintenance. The old .22LR doesn't burn up barrels either, though leading can be a problem with softer projectiles. But that can be cured with a quick brush and rod or bore snake if time isn't available for a proper cleaning.

To my mind, the .22LR is a great solution for a number of real-world problems, as well as whatever imaginary ones we can come up with. But Hornady probably doesn't make Z-Max ammo in .22LR. 

I hit the range over the weekend. Managed to dust off my trusty Savage 10FCP HS Precision, crank about a million more rounds through my H&K MP5-22, and fall in love with a Glock 20. I'll start with the torrid love-affair first.

So my hetero-lifepartner is a 10mm cultist and has a Glock 20 and 29 (as well as a Delta Elite) that he took with us to a very nice range in the western reaches of the flatlands. I hung up a 100-yard rifle zero target at about 20 yards and my friend handed me his prized G20 and a 15-round magazine of PRVI Partisan 180gr JHPs. I took the first three shots slowly, analyzing my technique and carefully aiming. I lowered the muzzle and saw that a chunk of the bright red bullseye was gone. Happy with myself, I let five more go. More rapidly this time. Again, I lowered the muzzle and the red bullseye was almost gone, and the 9 ring had been pierced as well. I finished the mag as fast as I could get the front sight back on target and I was pleasantly surprised. That thing was stunningly accurate. Of course, my much-missed G17 was plenty accurate and took a number of rabbits and other unlucky vermin.

Now, while I respect and admire the 10mm round, if I get a full size Glock, it will be a 21 because I am lazy and don't want to load for yet another caliber. Yes, the 10mm is much more powerful, but I can slap a Storm Lake barrel in the G21 and shoot the same reloads I put through my faithful Para LTC. Although I like the idea of loading my own 40cal 180gr XTPs at 1250fps and launching them through a Storm Lake barreled G20.

My old reliable 10FCP put up two 3/4" groups at 200 yards with my excellent Sierra Matchking loads. I prefer the 168gr projectile, though I have used 175s with similar results. Basically I shoot 168s because thats the load I have the most proven data on for my rifle and I'm too lazy to re-zero and work up a new data book for my rifle.

That reminds me. If you're into accuracy, keep a log book on your rifle. I started doing it this weekend and it really did help me to think about each and every round that was launched. I also sketch out where on the paper each round hit and make any necessary comments. The most common comment in my book is "shooter error. No change to call." but it does keep me from dialing when not necessary, and I now know *exactly* where my 200 yard zero is, and *exactly* where my 100 yard zero is. When I finally get to a 300 or 400 yard range, I can extrapolate calls to get me on paper and dial it precisely from there. It's super tedious if you're not into details, but I'm a nerd, so I like it. Also, the reason I don't have pictures of my two half-MOA groups is that my target is also in my log book. If I get around to it, I'll put up pics later this week.

And I'm off to watch MNF. Until next time!

White Collar White Lighting

So while I'm off topic, I'd like to mention a new whiskey I just tried. It's from an Iowa distillery, and it's called "Cedar Ridge Unaged Whiskey". And it is one of the best things ever created by humans. Here's a festive picture of the bottle:

I'm drinking it neat at room temperature, and it's pretty awesome. The first note is like really good vodka or sake', which is to say, it doesn't have much flavor at first. But it goes down with a whisper of whiskey flavor, and very little heat. Very little heat, even though it is 100 proof. Be CAREFUL with this stuff.

I don't always drink unaged whiskey, but when I do, I drink Cedar Ridge.

Oh, and it's about the same price as Jack Daniels, only this stuff is good.

FLGN Goes Political For A Minute

Whenever I read about police brutality, or incompetent use of deadly force, it really makes me sick. It makes me doubly sick to read about young veterans of the current wars being cut down by trigger happy and incompetent police. See the link here. A US Marine in  Arizona was gunned down by a SWAT team some time ago, and the shooting has been cleared, as has the phony baloney warrant used to do a dynamic entry into the home of a person suspected of being suspicious. From the information that Yahoo! so graciously provides, it looks like the police had little more than circumstantial evidence to suspect Jose Ortiz.

I've been a cop. In a small town, where our intelligence service was whatever we could pick up through the grapevine and substantiate through first-hand witnesses. Then came due process, where I would write a search warrant and get a judge to review it and see if I had done my due diligence. Most of the time, I had. Then, with warrant in hand, I would rally my superiors and we would make a plan. Our plan was ALWAYS a knock warrant, but with sufficient back-up to save us if someone decided to get crazy. Maybe I'm a hopeless libertarian. Maybe I'm an idealist. But my bosses and I, and the county and state police who backed up my warrants would always go in with the Road House mantra in mind: Be nice until it's time to stop being nice. 

I served warrants on real drug dealers. Meth houses. Guys who pulled guns on a whim. Most of them would give up when they saw me and my boss on their doorstep. In my opinion, SWAT teams should not serve warrants. SWAT should only be used for emergencies. And I don't have too many nice things to say about SWAT cops. Many of the ones I have met have been dumb jocks who didn't have the balls to join the military. A few have served, and a few are great fellas, but by and large, they just want to play Army and would relish the idea to "kill a bad guy". 

I have no doubt that Jose Ortiz answered the door with an AR15 upon hearing a loud boom and seeing men in masks clad in black swarming toward his house. I would probably arrive at my door with my Para LTC in hand if I heard a flashbang or shotgun blast and saw people in black outfits heading toward my door. Why it was necessary at all to use SWAT to serve this warrant is beyond me. If you have such strong evidence, then why not arrest Jose on his way to work and then serve the search warrant? If he really was a drug dealer, why were no drugs found on his property? If he really was a bad guy, where is the evidence? The only thing the story proves is that Jose Ortiz was killed in his home in front of his family on suspicion of being suspicious. 

And to top it all off, the team dumped 71 rounds into the man's house with his wife and child inside. What a shame. For the 2nd Amendment crowd, for the police community, and veterans everywhere. I hope Pima County makes this right. Someone needs to lose a badge, and maybe a few years of freedom. 

Medium Iron

One of the first handguns I ever fired was a 1911, and I've had a soft spot for the old warhorse ever since. I have a Springfield GI 1911 that I customized and spends most of its time as a .22LR with a Ceiner slide. I also have a Para LTC that is getting back into my concealed carry rotation, but spends most of its time as my woods companion or at the range. 

So over the Thanksgiving holiday, I went to the family farm and proceeded to bust a few caps in the Para. I put  a hundred of my handloaded 200 grain hardcast LSWCs (powered by a near max load of HP38) and 50 rounds of Federal 230gr FMJs. I've always been pretty decent with a 1911, but I threw in the wrinkle of talking to a friend on my cell phone (by wedging it under my ear muffs) and shooting for group at 20 yards. Things turned out okay. 

Said 20 yard cell phone group.

I've had the LTC for about a year now, but with the deployment, I haven't spent much time with it. But I do have a few observations. First, the black finish on the slide is not very durable. While I haven't yet had a battle with rust, the finish wears off at an alarming rate. A hundred rounds will usually result in a new scratch near the ejection port. That's annoying on a $700 gun. Next year I will probably pay a guy I know to refinish the slide with CeraKote. But it shouldn't be necessary on such a high dollar piece. Also, both Para 8 round mags failed. They were prone to double-feed. I had a bunch of GI 7 round mags, and that's what I prefer to use. I may pick up a Mec-Gar 8 rounder later and see how that works out.

Scratches from ejection/holster wear.

Holster wear from my Fobus scabbard.

That said, my Para is very accurate and totally reliable with Winchester Supreme Elite 230gr JHPs, 200gr LSWC handloads,  and 230gr ball of several makes. I think I've put a few Winchester Silvertip 185gr rounds through it too, but not enough to form a conclusion about their reliability through my pistol.

The 1911 has always been controversial. In the early days it was too dangerous, having only a single action trigger. Now it is dangerous because it has a thumb safety and some internet heroes will tell you that it's impossible to remember to flick the safety off under stress (you mean like soldiers do every day on their M4s?). Capacity is relatively low now compared to the M&Ps and Glocks of the world. And it weighs a lot more, which is an issue for all day carry.

25 yards just plinkin'.

I shot a mag transitioning from left dot to right dot quickly.

I will always have a soft spot for big, heavy, metal guns with great triggers. I have fond memories of learning to shoot with a 1911, and doing a few shooting matches as a teen. I will probably always have a 1911, and I believe it will always be king of the target range, though detractors constantly declare it obsolete. 

Reality Bites

Two things make me want to pull my remaining hair out when it comes to firearms training. #1- Training to snatch a pistol from an assailant's hands. #2- Training to clear your house when you hear a noise at night or to confront an intruder. These things are absurd and will probably kill you, but they are a neat "hook" to get people into martial arts and firearms schools. Now sit back while I blow off some steam.

First, the Jackie Chan pistol-takeaway. There are dozens of different schools and techniques, but they pretty much all involve you taking a pistol from an attacker. The thought is that if an attacker gets too close, it would afford you the opportunity to disarm them. Well, I agree with the principle that you should go out fighting, but this is an absolute last-ditch effort and a motivated attacker isn't going to let loose of that gun. You should  accept the fact that you're getting shot in the effort, whether it works or not. Don't believe me? Buy an airsoft pistol and have a friend point it at you (wear appropriate protective gear) and try to take it from them. I would bet you get shot 80 or 90% of the time and the gun goes off every time--regardless of outcome. The pistol-takeaway is a neat trick, but I would spend most of my time training for something else and doing my best to avoid this situation. Those of you out there who are not spies or convenience store clerks will probably not have to worry about this scenario. Ever. 

Second, clearing your house. Let me start by saying that at this point I've been in the infantry for over nine years. I've done two deployments to Eastern Trashcanistan, and served as both team and squad leader for real-life operations where we had to clear houses. If you get online and download a Warrior Task Manual, you will find that the task "Enter and Clear a Room" is listed as a fire-team level task. That means that you never clear a room with less than three people. Clearing a house is generally a platoon level task at least. That means to clear your house properly, you need about 27 people. Granted, part of that platoon will be providing support from outside, but no less than 15 would be assigned as entry teams. 

My advice is to have a plan for things that go "bump" in the night, and that plan is to hold one room with everyone inside while one adult holds a gun on the(locked) door and another dials 9-1-1. Again, if you want to test my logic, buy a pair of airsoft pistols and try your luck against a buddy. My suggestion is to tell your friend (the "invader") to pick a spot and stay there. I think you will be surprised how hard it is to clear a room even against a static target. 

That said, I don't think it's silly to learn how to clear rooms. It's really fun and a buddy and I bought .22LR clones of classic "tactical" weapons just so we can relive our glory days without being shot. Learning to clear rooms is great and you should always seek more training if you want it, but don't let it go to your head. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. 

Well, thanks for tuning in for my little rant. I'm heading to the family farm for the weekend. Probably going to play with the MP-5 while I'm there. Maybe that will generate a new post. Maybe not. Keep your stick on the ice!