A Good Guy With A Gun

The only reason—the only reason—why any of us walked out of this thing: By the grace of God, one of the folks here had a weapon to fire back and give us a moment to find cover. Because we were inside the backstop and if we didn’t have that cover by a brave person who stood up and took a shot themselves, we would not have gotten out of there and every one of us would have been hit. Every single one of us.
--Michigan Representative Mike Bishop

That's all that needs to be said about that.

I suspect we'll see more like this. Carry your gun.

Father's Day Marketing

Happy Father's Day. Let discuss your death.

Smiles of First Time Shooters

Last week I received an email from a friend who was taking a father and son to the range for their first experience at shooting. They were also bringing along a foreign exchange student who had been staying with them. My friend asked if I would come along as another set of eyes and to assist. Of course, I happily agreed.

We met at the outdoor range after work on Friday. I knew the father and son already, and met the very pleasant Spanish exchange student. They had been given a talk on gun safety prior to coming out, but I did a quick review, for my own peace of mind. My friend was supplying the guns and ammo this trip. We took the three shooters to the line and allowed them to shoot, only one at a time at first. After starting them with .22 and 9mm pistols, we saw they were confident and safe. A .45 ACP gun was added to the mix, and all the newcomers rejected shooting the .22 any more. After about an hour of shooting, and tweaking stances and grips, we moved over to the rifle range.

A .22 rifle, an AK-47 and a .308 hunting rifle were on the list for this part of the introduction. Targets were set at 50 yards for the .22 and AK, and 100 yards for the .308. Now the smiles really started! We allowed all three to shoot at the same time as they rotated through the firearms. I think the AK-47 won the popularity contest. I even took a turn at shooting it, as well as the hunting rifle.

It was a joy to see the smiles on the faces of all the new shooters. The exchange student made sure he got copious photos and videos of his experiences. It's a good bet that it's not something he'll be able to easily repeat soon.

After we finished shooting, stopping only because the range does not allow shooting after 7:00pm, the dad had a lot of questions about firearms and self defense laws. We spent a lot of time talking about those subjects. Or, more precisely, I spent a lot of time talking. They found at just how passionate I am on the subject. I am happy I was able to share some of what I've learned over the years, as well as dispel some misconceptions.

I fully expect that I'll be doing another session with the father, as he's becoming very aware of the needs, and his rights, to protect his loved ones. I'm glad I could help a small bit in that awakening.

Fairfax IDPA Match

On Saturday I shot the monthly IDPA match at Fairfax Rod & Gun club. The club had five stages set up this month, with five large squads rotating through each. The event is growing in popularity and there's actually a waiting list for the monthly matches.

Our squad started on the standards stage. When I saw the set up, I thought "I got this." Two close targets weak hand only, two mid-range targets strong hand only, finishing with two head-only targets shot freestyle. Each target required a minimum of three hits. I've been practicing my one-handed shooting, and even working on head shots out to 15 yards. As I shot the final two targets I wasn't seeing the holes appearing in the targets. But the targets were shaded and I typically can't see the holes, even at the 10 yard distance anyway. I called the shots good and felt confident. But then came the scoring. One of the targets had a really nice group of three holes — right in the neck area. 15 points down right there, 20 down for the stage. Sometimes I wish that IDPA had "mulligans."

That wasn't a good start to my day, and I admittedly struggled mentally for a brief time. I was the second shooter on the stage so I had plenty of time to "get over it" while the rest of the squad shot. We had four more stages to shoot and I was there to have fun. Interestingly, for the rest of the day I was rotated to shooting first on every stage. 

The next stage was shot from a seated position. The gun with the mag inserted, but no round in the chamber, was placed in a box on the table. Six targets were set out in pairs to be shot near to far. This was a chance to push the speed a bit, especially on transitions, while still maintaining accuracy. Having to rack the slide before taking the first shot provided a bit of mental complexity, and I saw many shooters pull the trigger on an empty chamber at their first shot.

The scenario for the next stage included a mocked up "car" from behind which we engaged seven targets placed from one to fifteen yards. We started holding a hammer and a yard sale sign in our hands, dropping them at the start. The first target was set right in front of the starting position, but was deceptive in its simplicity. If you shot straight at the target from the start position, the shot would pass through to a non-threat target placed at the back of the bay. The rest of the targets were hidden on either side of barrels, requiring some movement along the "car" to shoot them all.

As we headed for the last two two stages, the match director told us to "go shoot some clowns." And that's what we did. For the first of these, nine targets were decorated with clown noses and wigs. We engaged the targets behind cover from two shooting positions. The last course of fire was shot from a kneeling position. Four shots were required on a close clown target that had the center -0 cut out to save on target replacement. Then, leaning to either side we engaged two falling steel poppers. Even though it was an extremely quick stage, I walked away with a smile from the fast shooting. I did end up with the 3rd fastest time on that stage, 4.97 seconds. That was a great stage on which to finish the match.

Despite some disappointing shooting on my part, it was still a fun match. My overall finish was 13th of 60 overall and just 8th of 9 shooters in SSP SS; the poor shooting on the first stage having a significant negative impact on my score! However, all the stages were interesting, and I saw the benefit of some of my practice sessions, and certainly noted some things that I will focus on in upcoming range trips. Besides, any day shooting...

We finished shooting around 2:00 and I began my nearly 2 hour drive home — twice the time it took to drive TO the match. Despite this match being actually the closest of the local matches, the perils of traffic make it less convenient. The summer time congestion has yet to really build, but it will be a consideration for my match plans in the coming months.

More photos from the match here.

Shooting While Skydiving?

What ever happened to "know what's beyond your target?"

I'm sure all those rounds went into the orange ball. Nope, not impressed.

Bowman Distillery

Fredericksburg's A. Smith Bowman Distillery has been awarded the title of World's Best Bourbon by Whisky Magazine for the second year in a row. Here's a nice video introduction to the distillery.

I used to work in the same industrial park as the distillery. We brought a T3 circuit into our offices and the connection was in the basement of the bottling plant and I visited frequently. It smelled really nice on bottling days! One of these days I'll make it over for an official tour and tasting.

Five O'Clock Friday: A Near Perfect Store

Add beer and we're good.

Hope you find good shopping this weekend.

Range Time, Finally

This time the drive to the range went as hoped. No accidents and little traffic. I made it up to the indoor range to finally shoot the new P320 Compact. Since my last couple of range attempts didn’t work out, I added an extra 50 rounds to my bag for this trip. In addition to the Compact, I brought along the Full Size 320 as well.

Most of the other shooters were leaving as I arrived. A young couple was shooting at the far end of the range. I heard a lot of joyful giggles coming from her after she shot, but they appeared to be safe and attentive to what they were doing. My guess is a new shooting enthusiast was being born.

I started off with a quick 50 rounds through the new gun. For this initial run, I simply shot to see how the gun felt. It seems to me the Compact doesn’t shoot significantly different than the Full Size P320. Despite being slightly smaller and lighter, there’s little difference to be noticed. I’m very pleased with that; I can shoot either one without seeming like I’m jumping between different guns.

Next I did my usual 50 round Julie Golob drill at 10 yards. (I shoot this drill so often I think I’ll shorten its name to JG50.) I was pleased there, just a few low head shots — a failing which often plagues me when shooting this drill indoors. For the next 50 rounds I moved the target out to 15, then 20 yards and worked on trigger control. Again, no issues with keeping all the holes in the IDPA -0 zone.

My session wrapped up with another JG50 shooting the full size P320. This round I only had a couple high -1 shots from the WHO string.

It was good session and a pleasurable break from the work day. To add to the enjoyment, I spied a Bald Eagle circling the highway as I got back onto the dreaded interstate for the trip back to the office.