February Cavalier IDPA

As I dressed for Sunday morning's IDPA match at Cavalier, I checked the weather app on my phone. The forecast was for cloudy skies, with temps in the upper 60's. Great, finally decent weather at a match. After a rainy match last month, followed by a wet and muddy Chesapeake Cup, and a match moved indoors, I was ready for some shooting on dry ground. Arriving at the range, it was quickly apparent that the prognosticators had once again gotten it wrong. Very wrong. The rain started about the time we began shooting and the temperature never made it out of the mid-50's. More than a few folks had not dressed for conditions, but at least I did have my rain jacket on hand.

The first stage we shot while seated under cover, but the targets were all protected by the dreaded plastic bags. Starting with the loaded gun and all reloads on the table, we engaged the six targets in priority order. I shot just one point down on the stage, that one penalty being on one of the closest targets.

To our delight the precipitation let up as the squads moved to their next stages, and the targets were uncovered. Our second stage began, for most, with a long run to the first point of cover. The shooter also had a choice to engage one target over a wall to begin the stage. From the first point of cover, a small shift exposed a lone more distant target, followed by another sprint back across the bay. From there, two points of cover with another small position shift between exposed the final four targets. It was a fun stage that tested settling quickly into a stable position after a quick run to position.

Our third stage started out with the shooter holding a tool bag in the strong side hand, which was dropped at the start signal. Three target arrays were to be shot from three shooting positions. There were some precariously place non-threats among the targets. Cover and target positioning added further to the challenge as shots required a pretty tight lean to the right side.

The last two stages we shot were combined on one bay and shooters alternated shooting. After shooting the first, you'd reload your magazines while the previous shooter shot the second, after which you'd shoot. We were up against the rain returning so the SO's kept us straight and moving quickly along.

The first stage of the pair started with the gun downloaded to six rounds. After emptying the gun on the first, up close target, we moved to two more positions in the course where we engaged a couple more target pairs. Adding to the challenge, there was a non-threat behind one of the targets. One had to be careful of the shot angle and placement, since shoot-through hits on the non-threat are also penalized.

For the final stage, our unloaded gun was set in an open gun safe, with our magazines on the table. Retrieving the gun, we loaded it and engaged two reduced area targets right in front us. Then grabbing a magazine, we advanced to either side of some barrels to find some close but hidden targets on either side. The targets were shot around the non-threats and between the barrels.

This stage could be shot fast, but still had to be shot carefully. While I didn't notice anyone getting hits on the non-threats, I saw a few shots go through the barrels as well as -1 hits on all the targets. Some shooters opted to empty their first magazine by firing five shots at each of the first two target, and even that didn't always guarantee a -0 score. I think the stage was deceptive in it's simplicity. I opted for aimed head shots on the opening two targets, and also finished the stage with zero points down.

We finished shooting and broke down the match before the next batch of rain came in force, though it did sprinkle a bit. The match provided five quite fun stages. They were challenging, with interesting  non-threat placement throughout. 

My shooting throughout the match, while accurate felt a little "rough" to me. It didn't seem, to my mind, that I was moving quickly or getting in smooth transitions. That said, I was still happy with my scores. While just 10th of 43 overall, I place well within my division and classification finishing 1st of 9 in SSP SS. But it's really all about the fun, and I certainly had that. Due to work and family obligations I hadn't been able to practice at all the week before. No dry fire, no live fire, and I didn't even handle the gun to clean it. I was certainly ready for some time spent shooting.

I'm looking forward to actually shooting under sunny skies some day soon.

More pics here.

A Saturday Feast

Last Saturday we hosted a feast for nine folks in our home for an afternoon of beer and food. This was the fruit of a donation to the annual fund raising event for our son's former elementary and middle school. Even though he's well into his college years, Colleen and I were asked to once again donate the popular event.

The lucky bidders were treated to eight courses, featuring interesting beers paired with delectable foods prepared by Colleen. The menu was as follows...

Optimal Wit

Port City Brewing, Alexandria, Virginia

Paired with Pancake Bake with Cinnamon Streusel

Kölsch 151

Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, Virginia

Paired with Artichoke Dip and Tortilla Chips

Grateful Pale Ale

Star Hill Brewery, Crozet, Virginia

Paired with Buffalo Chicken Sliders

Sneak Attack

21st Amendment Brewery, San Francisco, California

Paired with Olivada and Mozzarella on French Bread Crostini

Get Bent Mountain IPA

Parkway Brewing, Salem, Virginia

India Pale Ale (7.2% ABV)

Paired with Salty-Sweet Bacon Panini

Woodbooger

Strangeways Brewing Company, Richmond & Fredericksburg, Virginia

Belgian-Style Brown Ale (6% ABV)

Paired with Parmesan Potatoes and Flank Steak

Curieux

Allagash Brewery, Portland, Maine

Oak Bourbon Barrel Aged Belgian Triple (11% ABV)

Paired with Blue Cheese, Sugared Walnuts and Pears

on Mixed Greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Blue Mountain Dark Hollow

Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, Virginia

Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (10% ABV)

Paired with Brownies and Ice Cream

To go along with the copious food and drink, the afternoon featured interesting, and often raucous conversation. The beers where new to the majority of the participants. I also think we've created a few new craft beer fans. All of the pairings worked well and served to illustrate the versatility of beer.

While preparing for the event, Colleen and I often thought "Why are we doing this?" But in the end, it was a lot of fun. And "it's for the children."

The ending reward for a hardworking chef.

St. Gabriel Possenti: Patron Saint of Handgunners

Today, February 27, is the Feast Day of St. Gabriel Possenti.

Legend holds that Gabriel Possenti was a Catholic seminarian in Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy. In 1860 he is said to have used his skills with the pistol to drive off a band of marauding soldiers who were terrorizing the town. Possenti faced the troublemakers after grabbing revolvers from two soldiers. As they laughed at the young student, he took aim and accurately shot a lizard that was running across the road. Impressed, the soldiers left the town, escorted by the seminarian, who had become the hero of the town.

Like many Saints, there's an unclear line between the facts of the Saint's life and the "tradition" associated with him. However, this story about Gabriel Possenti has led to him being promoted as the Patron Saint of Handgunners. The St. Gabriel Possenti Society was created for the purpose of promoting the Saint's cause. The society also promotes the study of the historical, philosophical and theological bases for the doctrine of self-defense.

A few years ago, our parish was presented with a relic of St. Gabriel Possenti, under the title St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. It was an exciting moment when I saw the blurb announcing the displayed relic in our weekly bulletin. Since then, I've enjoyed sharing the story of Gabriel Possenti with many parishioners. I dare say most of our Catholic friends who also enjoy shooting are now familiar with the Saint and his story.

In another interesting "coincidence," my Virginia Concealed Handgun permit was originally issued on February 27, the Feast Day of the Patron Saint of Handgunners!

St. Gabriel Possenti ora pro nobis!

Today would be a great day to hit the range. If that's not possible, maybe I'll buy some extra ammo instead.

NRA: Now More Than Ever

The basic human right to self defense and the Constitution are under attack. This assault on millions of innocent and responsible gun owners is being waged by the ignorant, the sentimental, and the willfully ignorant. Facts are anathema to those crying #BoycottNRA.

If any right can be limited, they all can be. History has proven it repeatedly. If you aren't a member of the NRA, now is the time to join.

Yes, I know some may disagree with the National Rifle Association's stance on certain matters on occasion, and that's your right. But ask yourself, is that disagreement really a hill you are prepared to die on?

Alcohol Beats Exercise

A long term study has deterred that regular moderate drinking does more for a long life than exercise.

The research, led by University of California neurologist Claudia Kawas, tracked 1,700 nonagenarians enrolled in the 90+ Study that began in 2003 to explore impacts of daily habits on longevity.

Researchers discovered that subjects who drank about two glasses of beer or wine a day were 18 percent less likely to experience a premature death, the Independent reports.

Meanwhile, participants who exercised 15 to 45 minutes a day, cut the same risk by 11 percent.

“I have no explanation for it, but I do firmly believe that modest drinking improves longevity,” Kawas stated over the weekend at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Austin, Texas.

Of course, we already knew that didn't we?

See "Study: For those over 90, alcohol better than exercise for longevity."

VCDL ALERT: Well Funded Attack On Gun Rights Leaders

I'm posting this alert from VCDL in its entirety. Forewarned is forewarned. Ignorance, hysteria and outright lying is part and parcel of the leftist psyche, and the "gun control" actors have it down to a science.

February 20, 2018

Last weekend, while doing what seemed to be a regular interview, I discovered that a movie is being made with the intent to discredit gun-rights leaders across the country.

No, this is not a joke, it is real and we need to get the word out to other gun-rights organizations, gun-rights leaders, and prominent firearms trainers across the country and we need to do this FAST.

Back in 2014, alleged Hollywood sexual predator Harvey Weinstein said he was going to make a movie “that would make the NRA wish they weren’t alive.”  (All gun organizations are the NRA in his mind.)  And he was dead serious.  Michael Moore has been attempting to discredit gun owners and leaders for years by tricking people and using creative editing techniques to make them look foolish or idiotic.

Who’s behind this effort isn’t clear, but they are EXTREMELY WELL FUNDED PROFESSIONALS.  For example, to reel me in and to try to make me feel beholden to them, they laid out the red carpet, by providing luxury accommodations, limousine service, and providing a generous monetary allowance to cover meals and other expenses for two days.

They use psychological manipulation, as well as lies and tricks to put their victim into comedic situations that subject them to public shame, embarrassment, and ridicule.  I believe the intent is to destroy reputations and even lives.

I did some detective work in the days immediately following the “interview,” and I managed to find out they had targeted at least one nationally known firearms trainer and I know there are more.  They appear to be setting up near gun shows.  I also found out they covered their tracks carefully to avoid revealing their true identity.

It started when VCDL received an email last week from a company called “First Freedom Television” to do an interview with an “Israeli security expert” on the “shared security interests of like-minded countries, such as the U.S. and Israel.”  It went on, “Unlike the misguided position of American liberals, who aim to eradicate guns altogether, Israel has proven that universal gun training and widespread gun ownership actually leads to a safer society.”

I do interviews all the time, and this one didn’t seem to be all that much out of the ordinary.

On Sunday, February 11, 2018, I did the interview in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  About 5 minutes into the interview, my radar turned on big time when the interviewer was making claims about Israeli schools training selected children to use firearms from age 17 down to age 4 (!) as a last ditch effort in stopping a terrorist attack on a school if the teachers and security staff had been killed.  The children would have codes to unlock secured firearms in such a case.

When I balked at 4-year-olds being able to do that, he showed me an alleged newscast video on his iPad.  The text was in Hebrew, but with an English-speaking narration, talking about how a 4-year-old boy had indeed stopped a terrorist attack at his school.  The newscast said that he killed two terrorists using his dad’s gun, which he had brought to school in his backpack to show a friend, in violation of school rules.  Israeli Premier Netanyahu was touting him as a hero in the video.

While I’ve never been to Israel, I do know they have some serious terrorism concerns, especially at schools and other public gatherings.  The way they handle some of their security can be very different from what we have in the U.S.  But that news story just didn’t look right, and 4-year-olds can hold a gun and fire it with supervision, but not take on terrorists, and especially manage to shoot and kill two of them.

Because of this and various other odd things I noticed during the interview, I was now convinced that something wasn’t right.  This wasn’t real and probably some sort of a set up.

I could only think of Hollywood’s threat.  At a minimum, it could be a comedy which would play only in Israel, but it could be a more damaging attempt to make a “mocumentary,” by someone like Michael Moore, or, even worse, a Sacha Baron Cohen-esq “Borat”-type of shock comedy meant to be devastatingly embarrassing and humiliating to the victim in the crosshairs.

As the 15-minute interview terminated, the interviewer asked me if I, as an English-speaking firearms trainer, would help him make a “gun safety” training video for children of various ages.  This had to be the “kicker,” I thought.

For better or for worse, I decided that I would play along with the scheme so I could find out who was behind this and where this was going.   I figured if I was right about this being a set up, I could blow the whistle and get a warning out to the gun-rights community across the country to protect as many people as possible and maybe derail this attack.  If it turned out to be nothing, then no harm, no foul.

We recorded for almost 3 hours using Airsoft guns as props.  They even had a teleprompter!

I was right – it was a set up - and it was much worse than I could have imagined.  If you’ve seen the 70’s movie, “The Sting,” it was much like that.  It was a well-orchestrated, well-choreographed, psychological manipulation, with a production cast of at least 10 people, to slowly lead a person down the primrose path.

We went step-by-step with a ready, and seemingly logical, answer every time I balked at some crazy part of the training.  They seemed to have thought of every thing that a person might question.  All I can say is that these people were extremely good at deception and manipulation.  And no matter how stupid the things the interviewer and I were doing (we were side-by-side the whole time), no one else cracked a smile or laughed once, and I was watching.  The professional actors were keeping up the appearance that this was a serious project.

The end goal was to get the victim to make a “training film” teaching 3 and 4-year-olds how to shoot guns hidden in toy animals at  “bad” people, to sing little songs and make gun noises during the training to make it “fun for children,” and even teach little kids how to shoot a rocket-propelled-grenade or a squad automatic weapon at an approaching suicide bomber vehicle!  

It all sounds unbelievable.  But everything was elaborately and expensively staged; every contingency planned for, with explanations that make unbelievable things seem plausible (fake documents and videos about how Israel handles security in their schools, for example). The interview moved along at a pace, designed not to give the “mark” time to reflect on where things are going.  The craziness factor very gradually got more extreme, like cooking a frog by slowly heating up the water so he doesn’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late.  It’s a con game, a sting, plain and simple.

I don’t know if they have other scenarios or they will use other company names to continue concealing their identity, but anyone doing an interview dealing with gun rights where they sense something odd should terminate that interview.  Or, better, bring a recorder and tell the other party you are going to make your own recording of the interview.  If they say “no,” then walk out.  I am going to make that my own policy going forward to protect against any future fake interviews.  BTW, they had me leave my cellphone in an office “because it might interfere with the recording devices,” but I think it was so I couldn’t take any photos of them or make any video or audio recordings on that phone.

In the end we played each other and I confirmed what I feared this was all about.  Sadly for me, I’m sure I’m going to be in whatever crazy film finally comes out, looking really stupid and, just as sadly, I’ll probably be in good company.  A few of us will no doubt get hammered, but if we can get the word out IMMEDIATELY, we might be able to save the reputations of many other good people. 

Finally, looking at the possibilities and what I saw while making the “training film,” I’m betting this is going to end up being a “Borat”-style film and it’s going to be vicious on the victims.

Please share this alert far and wide.

Philip Van Cleave
President
Virginia Citizens Defense League

Reports from other freedom advocates are starting to come in as well. If you have access to Facebook, read Rob Pincus' account here.

Rivanna Indoor IDPA Match

It's been five months since I was able to get to the monthly IDPA match at the Rivanna range in Charlottesville, and I was looking forward to enjoying another fun match at the club. Saturday's weather outlook called for a rainy winter day, however Rivanna moves the matches indoors during inclement weather. It would just be a matter of hoping the frozen precipitation held off until after the drive home.

Four stages were set up on the two indoor bays. Our squad began the day facing a line of six targets, all of which were partially obscured by non-threats. Each of the targets required two body shots, followed by a head shot on each. During the stage I could tell I was shooting a little fast, and not getting a settled sight picture. As I got to the head shots I slowed down a bit, but given my aging eyes and the lower light conditions, I could see none of my hits. I called the head shots good and waited for the score. I was pleased to not have any misses, but was still -8 for the stage.

The next stage had us engaging three targets with three hits each from the shooting box, then retreating up range, around a barrel and back down range to find three more targets. Despite the simplicity of the stage, there were strategic decisions to be made; the right shooting box offered closer shots to start, but a longer run backwards; did one use time to take extra shots on the first group in order to save time by reloading on the move? I opted to reload on the move, and start on the left side for a shorter backwards run. I finished just -3 points, but lost my cadence in my shooting at the second position and shot much more slowly than I would have liked.

The longest shots of the match were found on the next stage, which also required the most careful aiming. Six targets, requiring three hits each where shot from cover, three from each side of a barrel. The placement of non-threats were such that no more than half, or less, of each target was visible. I took my time shooting, and felt pretty good when I had finished. There were a couple shots I didn't feel great about, but was also confident I had hit no "good guys." Right or wrong, I opted not to take any extra shots, avoiding additional risks of hitting a non-threat. Despite being -16 points down, I still finished well for the stage overall. 

Now finished with that challenging stage, I was relieved to know I had avoided all the non-threats in the match, as the final stage featured open and close targets. However the stage also required strong and weak hand only shooting, all while seated. The unloaded gun was placed in box and all magazines loaded with just 6 rounds on the table. The course of fire required loading the gun, shooting all targets freestyle, reload, shoot all targets SHO, another reload and six more shots WHO. I was pleased to hear the SO call out "clean" when I was finished. Shooting the stage -0 was a great way to conclude the match. As it turned out, this was my best stage finish; a 3rd overall.

Despite the limits imposed by an indoor range, the seemingly simple stages provided interesting challenges and plenty of fun. Unlike the last two matches I've shot, at least we were not shooting in the rain, although was quite cool inside the range. The match ran quickly and I was on the way home by about 12:15. I was thankful to get on the road before the predicted winter precipitation began in earnest, although I did drive through a bit of light snow and sleet.

I was happy to have no misses and no hits on non-threats, despite their preponderance in the match. While I often have trouble seeing the holes on the targets beyond 10 yards, even in the bright sun, the lower light indoor conditions made for an additional challenge. To my frustration, I don't think I saw any of my target holes the entire match, and therefore took no make up shots. On the bright side, that does force me to have confidence in calling the shots. Of course, that in turn calls for more dry fire and more range time to build that confidence. While I noted some things to work on for the future, I truly left the match feeling pleased and looking forward to my next practice sessions, both dry and live fire. I ended up 8th of 47 overall and 1st of 9 shooters in SSP SS. All in all, it was a good day!

More pics here.

After Work Range Time

After work on Thursday, Colleen and I, joined by our friend "Checkered Flag," made a run down to Winding Brook Indoor Range for a bit of stress release. We signed up for three separate lanes so everyone was able to do their own thing.

For my practice session, I drilled on multi-shot strings, concentrating on getting the gun back on target quickly for rapid follow up shots. Starting at 7 yards, and gradually increasing the distance out to 15 yards, I was generally happy with the hits. I find that creating a patch of holes in the center of the target at closer distances helps to give me an aiming point for more consistent hits at the further distances.

Quickly running through a box of ammo while making use of the turning feature of the target system, I very rapidly burned through my supply. Since the rest of the group was working more on slow, precision fire, I spent the last few minutes watching my wife shoot. As much as I enjoy watching loved ones shoot well, perhaps I'll bring along an extra box of ammo for myself next time.