The Koch Brothers

They used to espouse all sorts of pro freedom pro liberty convictions they fervently believed.  You never hear about those positions any more.  You just hear about one thing they back whole hog.  So I guess they are just an open borders unlimited immigration inflow sort of organization now.  Pity.

Autumn Leafs

Ok, I gotta get this down so I can remember.

Of course, trial and error can do the same thing, but I still want a record.

If you have REALLY good hammer sear engagement, you can try this.  If you do not, don't.  You spring may be fixing some other thing.  Fair warning. 

The 1911 Leaf Spring.

It has three fingers.  Top to bottom

1. Sear finger
2. Disconnector, trigger-bow finger
3. Grip safety finger

Ok, we aren't going to mess with #3.  It does its job with the grip safety, bent back like that, as it, from the factory, usually.

If you want more of a roll trigger, bend the Sear finger back toward you and the Disconnector finger toward the muzzle end.

For crisp trigger, reverse it.  Stengthen the Sear finger by bending it forward, and the Disconnector finger back a bit.

For a VERY crisp trigger.  Bend both forward.

Bend them both back if you want super light bordering on too light.  I do not recommend.

I like more of the roll trigger, lately, but your preferences are your preferences

Party Time

"People tend to tailor their economic theories to partisan preference, not vice versa. "


BS!

I am a republican because of economics.   And them GOP types tend to trend libertarian, and are more pro-gun.  I am not a Republican first, and that party membership makes me a supply-sider.

Are they a perfect match?  No.  Why not be a Libertarian?  Because I don't like weed, and want effective non-crazy policy makers.

What would I be if the GOP was supply-siders and the Dems were frothing at the mouth Pro-Second-Amendment?  Ooo, that's a hard one.

Where has Training Lead Me?

So, Training Progress.

Lots of people drank the Jeff Cooper Kool Aid and went 1911.  Plenty of people without red-stained sugar drank lips and tongue also were fans of working with a 1911 and didn't know who Cooper was. 

Over time many folks have flopped over to the Plastics.  The platform matured since 1980.  The modern pistols have lots of advantages over the older design.  The more training a body got, the more folks grokked the whole problem, the more a body started leaning to the Glock and clones.  Plenty of advantages to go this route.  I totally see that. 

So, when do I switch?

One set of advantages is the inexpensiveness of the Plastic guns.  Both to acquire and to support.  If I were a Police Department armorer that liked to go home at a decent hour I'd PRAY for a switch over from a 1911.  It takes time money and skill to get one right and keep it right.  But I have those skills now, and I have the pistols already.  The sunk costs and already sunken.  So that Glock advantage applies less to me.  Plastic guns nowadays are more reliable out the factory door than the 1911.  That also doesn't apply to me, as my 1911 isn't just a craptastic run of the mill/factory gun.

What advantages for Plastic are left?  Capacity.  That's a big one.  And a primary one for people to switch.  9mm today isn't perceived the same way as Jeff Cooper wanted people to perceive it.  And if the 9mm Europellet bothers you, there are Plastics in .45.  With greater capacity than 1911s.

That's the one side's advantage.  What's on the other side.  Great trigger, obviously.  That still applies to me even with my training as much with a Glock platform as I practice with a 1911.  The difference in triggers is less important as I get better, but it's still there.  The 1911 is slimmer.  You can get a slimmer Plastic, but then you often have the same capacity as a 1911 with a less-good trigger.  And why do that. 

But I like the slimmer.  You can have Slim, or Capacity.  Generally.  A double stack 1911 is right out though.  I have one, and the reliability is not there.  Need to test those $120 magazines, but JEEZ.  That price tag even makes ME balk a bit.

So my impetus to evolve from 1911 to Modern isn't there yet. 

But I am glad I got over my issues with Glocks that I had before training, so I could switch if I wanted to.  That's huge.

---

But there's the thing.  I expected that change preferences away from the 1911 by now.  I follow the parades.  I am easily lead and swayed.  That's the way the parade it going.  Cooper has been gone a dozen years.  But I guess maybe it will still be a while before I take to a new path.  In the meantime, ima relax and just go with it.  I am happy and satisfied with wear I am, but not above changing if the need calls for it. 

A little skill...

... I wish I had.

I wish I could crack an egg into a pan or a bowl and not break the yolk.

What?  You thought it would be gunsmithing related? Shooting?  Sure, there are plenty of big skills like that I wish could be magically bestowed on me.

But I'll take the egg one.

Recently I have switched from cracking on the edge of something to cracking on a flat surface.  I don't think it helps.

I have had a lot of luck with pealable hard-boiled eggs by putting the eggs, gently, with a ladle like doohicky, into already boiling water, then ice bath for cooling when done.  You lose an egg or two to the heat shock, but that's ok.

What little skill do you wish YOU had?

I agree

I agree with this gentleman.




Capacity is low, yes.  And there is a high bar to clear in attention to the innards to be sure it goes out acting reliably.  Its gotta be right to start.  It's a good idea to know its ins and outs.  And don't run it dry for 500+ rounds.  Most don't have the time or the inclination or both to learn to get it right, and that is fine.

Check those boxes, and you have a great 8 shot pistol.  Or 10 shot pistol if 9mm.  But that's expensive and time consuming and a higher bar to clear, skill-wise, than a 17 shot 9mm (15 shot .45) pistol at more than half the market price.  And probably a 5th.  

Stahlgewittern

After WWI, a German named Remarque wrote a book about the war called All Quiet on the Western Front.  It has been an anti-war go-to literature ever since.

But not everyone came out of that war all broken and defeated and sad.  We won't talk about that Viennese guy that volunteered for a Bavarian unit that emerged from the war bitter, enraged, and murderously insane.  I'm talking around Ernst Jünger.  He wrote Storm of Steel soon after the war.

And the horrors he saw didn't turn him off war.  And he did see horrors.  He details the deaths of pretty much every comrade he saw fall around him.  He himself was wounded.  Lots.  So his love of the glory wasn't because he was some REMF, in the rear with the gear.  He saw some serious shit.  And was one of only 11 dog faces not of flag rank to get awarded the Pour le Mérite.  Only 700 were awarded in the whole war.  Mostly to General and pilots. 


Which is probably why this book is rarely assigned in high school like All Quiet on the Western Front was.

Do they still assign it?  I grew up soon after the draft ended, and that warmonger Reagan was in office, and he could start something at any time.  We gotta turn these Select Service cannon-fodder kids off of this stuff, man.  (Too many of my Teachers went to Woodstock, I know it.)

Jünger fought the whole war, beginning to end, pretty much.  Only absent from the front in brief staff stints and while convalescing. He missed the last 3 months after his worst wounding, shot through a lung.  He only died in 1998, aged 103.

The book doesn't notice much rifle fire in the first three years of the war.  Sure, people get shot, but it seems incidental.  More talk of grenade attack and artillery bombardments.  Jünger talks MUCH more about shooting in the final year.  I think a part of that is the extra detail toward the end is because he wrote his account soon after the way and the final year was fresher in his mind.  Recalling earlier stuff, the artillery and grenade assaults would have left a more vivid impression on me were I in his shoes.

Also, he's an officer in the end, he talks about himself shooting a pistol most, though the people around him have rifles 

Non Resident PA CCW

I have a CCW for Virginia, and I don't live in Virginia.  Hmmm.  Maybe I can get one for Pennsylvania, too.  Since PA doesn't recognize the VA non-resident permit.

How hard can it be?

Oh...


I gotta have a MD permit before PA will issue me a non-resident permit.  Drat.

And I would need a non-resident permit if I magically got a Maryland permit, too.  Neither state recognizes the other for reciprocity.  

Range 22 OCT

Continuing to test my built gun.  The T-Bolt Special?  Double Ought One?  Thunderstruck?  Jupiter's Gatt?  None of them fit.

Federal HST, 42
Magtech, 44
American Eagle, 22
8 yard range
Zero Malfs.
150 rounds total so far since I built the gun.

Target:

I'm heeling a bit, this time.  Making the shots go high.  With 3 magazine through each target one after another, though, you get time to correct your error in a string.  I shoot ok... start to heel, then correct.  The bad shots tend to be in the middle of a string.


One adjustment I have to make is...  there is some creep at the start of the trigger pull.  It's the disconnector.  The hole in the frame is a bit too big and you can feel that little give in the trigger pull.  What to do?  There is a tool on that same catalog page.  The disconnector staking tool.  A wack with that in the right spot will close up the hole in the frame, tightening it.  Simple, huh?  Boy I hope so. 

How to be the BEST Shooter in the World

Three things.  Three things only.

1. Relax.  This is the most important thing.  There are many tricks to accomplish this, to distract yourself.  To get out of your own way.  If you tense up that's a flinch right there all by itself.   If you can grip REALLY HARD without tensing up anything else then you are golden.  Otherwise you should just maybe just relax everything
2. Focus on the front sight.  This is the most important thing.  Sure you can get really good at point shooting.  I've seen it.  But the front sight is the Easy Button.  
3. Make the trigger go good. This is the most important thing.  Pressing that trigger back without misaligning the sight picture?  That's gold right there.  If you'd shot 1000 rounds you know what this is. You just gotta pull that trigger properly more than one time out of a thousand.  Like 900 sumthing out of a thousand.  More!  999!

That's it.  Be sure to concentrate on the most important one of the three.  

8 year ago

8 years ago I would have said I "use a modified weaver stance."  But all my training was from DVD and books, for the most part. 

For example, I learned the thumbs forward grip from Todd Jarrett  when he did the Blackwater Para Blog Shoot-a-rama.  August 2008, I think? 

But youtube videos are no substitute for in-person training sessions.  Still, that helped.  Better than a VHS tape from the 80s. 

I love Jeff Cooper

In a ballcap.

Range

Tam wanted to know what range my target was at.

8 yards.  Sorry.  I try to remember to put that in there.

I do shoot at 25 yards as well, sometimes, and if my 25 yard targets looked as good as those targets Tam asked about I'd be ECSTATIC.

This is a typical 8 and 25 yard target.

Why 8 and 25?  Why not 7?  Or 30?  The range I go to, 8 and 25 are the minimum and maximum ranges.  And they are actually measures in feet.  25 feet and 75 feet.  You are supposed to extend your target at least to the 25 foot line, and I don't like to get cross threaded with the range folks.

They know me, now.  By name.  They rarely inspect my firearms when I come in (if you have a loaded magazine in your gatt when you get to the counter?  that's a big no-no.)  And they know I am less likely to hit the target trolley, the wall, or the table in front of me with an errant round.

The typical range patron I see there is hitting that 25 yard pattern at 8 yards.  Or worse, of course.  Often much worse.  Another reason the range staff likes me.  I can stay in my lane, so to speak. 

You shoulda seen the scratches BEFORE

This is by me.

So... Crazy or Democrat?

I took a break

From building my from-scratch 1911.  It's had seven rounds through it. 

I was hoping for a "Finish Metalworking" class.  That class never came about.  Officially.  But I have been hanging out with the gunsmith in the last few months he will be in business and he has graciously shared his time and demonstrated some techniques.

I have finally gotten close enough in my sprucing up the gun to take out in public.

Good thing, too, as it was a dog's breakfast.

Now it is only a mid afternoon dog's snack.

Another reason I chose stainless steel.  No need for bluing or cerakote or ion-bond.  Two of those someone else would have to do, and it would tale more than a month of sundays to get decent at painting technique.  With stainless it is just blending and finish sanding out of shiny surfaces.

I could do some bead blasting but...  Maybe still will.

The hardest past is the back end of the pistol, where the slide meets the frame and you stare at all day at the range.  The extractor end is back there.  And mine was proud.  And black.   The firing ping stop was black.  And the ejector end is back there, too.  And that one doesn't stick out.  Oh well, can't be helped.

The back of the gun is made of compound curves.  It curves up and down and side to side.  It'd be a globe if it didn't have the reverse S-curve of the beavertail grip safety.  You gotta think about how the grip safety meets the frame where your hand goes.

I am glad I didn't try this myself, as there are some big pitfalls.  Lots of guys ruin their gun with a Dremel back here.  As many as ruin one dremelling the feed ramp.

Anyway, a bit of dremelling in the right places at complex curve angles far beyond my skill set, and then some buffing to see what scratches must be dealt with, then 400 grit wet-dry sandpaper on a dowel.  You do all this with a full assembled gun, minus the hammer and rear sight. 

Oooo, this is important.  Clean the gun VERY well. You put grit on a sensitive area, detail strip the gun and flush out that and the buffing compound really well.  Especially in the extractor and firing pin holes.

Re-assemble, lubricate, safety check, time for 250 round test firing.  I might hold off loctiting the grip screws to the frame to see how it shoots.

----

Annnnd....  Here is how is shoots.  35 rounds of AE, for a total of 42 without a malf so far.

Not shabby.  I shot well when I got out of my own way.  Safety check clean.

I am cautiously optimistic.  This was Thursday.  Prolly heading to the range this afternoon for 50 or more.

Online ads

Tam said there was a time she was seen riding in a Chrysler product with this kind of license plate on the front:

I googled Direct Connection to remind myself what that was.  Oh yeah. 

Now all the ads I see online are for Vedder holsters, still, but also Year One parts purveyor stuff.  That's it.  Just them two.  Errywhere.

Meh.  It could be worse.

"Adult diapers?  Why does Facebook think I need adult diapers.  I mean, I do.  Well I don't NEED them.  They are just so much more convenient.  But I don't want them in my face 24/7.  So to speak."

Professional Reading

My XO in the late 80s, early 90s was Colonel Tehan.  A no-shit combat veteran.  A man that took a few AK bullets, one that hit the trigger guard of the 1911 he was using, smashing it to his trigger finger.  When he woke up in the hospital after that it was still in his hand.  Or at least the frame was.  They took off as much as they could, and he had other injuries to worry about before they got around to cutting the pistol off his hand.

There was a big push around that time to do professional reading.  Colonel Tehan was already on board what the Commandant was laying down.  He told us a story about how his father only got so much structured schooling, but was constantly reading to better his mind.  This helped make the XO a voracious reader.

The Commandant wanted all his Marines to consume more professional reading.  And he had a reading list. This included Clausewitz and Tsun Tzu and Keegan's Face of Battle.  The Fleet Marine Force Manuals were a new thing at the time and REQUIRED.  But professional reading went beyond that. Not just tracts on strategy and tactics, dry theoreticals, but also stuff like:

The Washing of the Spears, a history of the Zulu when they built to their zenith.
Crane's Red Badge of Courage
C. S. Forester books like the Hornblower series, Rifleman Dodd, and The Good Shepherd.
Nowadays Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Card's Ender's Game is on the list.
I love The Defense of Duffer's Drift
All Quiet on the Western Front
Ready Player One
Moneyball 
A Message to Garcia
How to Win Friends and Influence People

All have been on the list at one time or another. 

You can absorb value from many things in your efforts to improve yourself as a leader.  Even things farther afield than stuff directly related to combat or your personal MOS.  And Colonel Tehan wanted us all to absord that lesson.  And I did.  I did whatever he told me.  Because he scared me to death.

I didn't need too much motivation tho.  I already enjoyed reading History stuff.   

NPR

Well, this was a refreshingly different bit from the Gummint Radio Station.  "The 'Young Black Man' Who Reluctantly Became An NRA-Certified Instructor."

"It'll really cheese off them NRA types that a black man is interested in exelling with firearms!"

Uhhhh...  Yeah, I don't think that the NRA types think like that, NPR.

At least the is the vibe I get when a lefty media org puts up one of these.  And I am genuinely interested in reading about his journey to get good, as I too am on a journey to get good.  Solid. And the dude sound like someone I wouldn't mind hanging out with. 

Suck it, Cornwallis

Charlie Chan

So I am reading Charlie Chan stories.  Because they are probably less racist than the Sax Rohmer Fu Manchu books.

For those not in the know.... In the 30s a white dude wanted to write a book series where the protagonist was a) Asian, and b) a little less stereotypical.  Remember, before this, Asians were generally the Inscrutable Orientals at best, and the Yellow Scourge at worst.  Charle Chan was a Honolulu police inspector of Chinese descent, and was quite skilled.  Several movies were made, most famously by Sidney Toler, a white actor in 'yellow face.'  In the 40s.  Despite a this little flavor of bigotry... just a whiff, really... Asian movie audiences took to Charlie Chan because he was the hero and that's the first time they had seen Asian heroes on the silver screen.

With modern sensibilities, and plenty of positive role models in Hollywood these days, Charlie Chan is less popular now.  But I enjoy reading these old stories as they are a window to their time, and I go in recognizing there.

But this first story I got is weird.  And it's the fifth of 6 books written about him.  But Charlie doesn't appear in the book except in a reminiscence until 54% of the way through the book! (thanks Kindle for keep track of that)  I found that odd, and slightly intriguing.  Charlie Chan Carries On.  A round the world trip stops in London, a murder happens in the travel party, and the Scotland Yard detective assigned to the care is a buddy of Chan's.  The have no distinct suspects so the police can't hold the party and it travels on.  More murders happen.  Eventually Scotland Yard, Charlie Chan, the Excursion, all end up in Honolulu on the last leg of the trip and Charlie can apply himself to the problem.  But he must solve it before Liner reaches San Francisco and the party scatters to their homes throughout the US.

Standard Drawing Room style police procedural, ala Poirot, Nero Wolfe, Lord Peter Whimsy, or Holmes. 

Gun Control is Such a Winning Issue

That Everytown for Gun Safety is spending its money on ads about abortion, healthcare, and my tax cuts.  Not commercials advocating firearms restrictions.

Gun ban laws just aren't that popular, I guess, and they don't help you win elections.   

Governor Hogan bad for 2A

Well not bad.  Not good, though.  Had to sign a buncha anti gun bills I wish he'd have considered at least vetoing one or two

Whatever he is, his challenger Ben Jealous would be much worse.

I held my nose and vote for McCain back in 08.  And all he did right was pick Sarah and snarl charismatically.  I can vote for Larry Hogan.

Range 15 Oct

50 more hydra shoks, 9mm, out of the Hudson.

No malfunctions.

Trial complete.  390 rounds total in the gun, but 293 since last malfunction and corrective measure to solve that malfunction.  (Extractor tension was too fight, caused by a wire edge on the extractor hook.  Just cleaned up that arris with a single pass with a safe edge file)

For new to me guns I like to put 250 through it with no malfunction to sorta ensure it will run.  Increase my confidence in the gun.  Not a perfect system.  Perfect might be 500 or some other number.  But you gotta draw the line somewhere.  So, now I would carry it for CCW.  Am I?  Gonna carry it?  Naw.  Might make it the nightstand gun because it has a light rail and high capacity.

Now I may need to write a letter to Hudson to tell them I am pleased with their product and what I found with the extractor as my only real bother.  There are minor quibbles, but the extractor is the one worth mentioning.

Anyway, the target.   A bit better than before on the initial upper left.

And less favoring the right half.  

Man my stamina is awful. As I get tired it droops.  Gotta work on that too. 

DCA

The typical penalty for bringing your CCW up to the security line at Reagan National Airport?

A $3,900 fine.  But it could be up to $13,000.

Reagan National is IN Virginia.  So you can carry around the airport.  I wouldn't CCW inside, even if you don't intend to go through the line into the secure parts of the terminal.  Check your gun at the baggage counter if you are taking it with.  No holster.

One in the Chamber

Do you carry with one in the chamber?   Condition One?  Of course you do.  It's the conventional wisdom!  A well holstered pistol is perfectly fine that way.

But what about your nightstand gun?

Ok, this isn't an issue for folks that keep tomorrow pants by their bed.  Their pants with their holstered firearm there with it, ready to go.  You hear a bump you just grab your the grip of your holstered firearm.  No fuss no muss.  And it is still condition one, obviously.   I'm not talking that.

What if that isn't your habit?  Or like me, you aren't going anywhere in your state with a holstered firearm tomorrow because you live in Maryland or somesuch?

What condition is the nightstand gun?  Or the gun in the lock box on the nightstand because you have kids in the house and there is a chip in your ring that opens that box?  There is a different sort of fumble in the dark for that gun than the more-sure unholstering.

And this is a bump in the dark, not a jump on the street.  It is more common to need condition one when jumped than to find a prowler standing beside your bed looking down on you as you wake.  You generally have time to work the slide on the bedside nightstand gun.  Why NOT Concition 3?

Big plus, easier to make that gun ready for the range bag to go practice with it at the range.  Come home, put a magazine of self defense back ammo, and secure it in the bedside spot.

So, what condition for that kind of bedside gun?

Range 9 OCT

Had some holler points that I thought were Federal HST.  Nope.  Hydra Shok, 124gr.  Dang, why did I buy those?  Oh well, good for testing.

50 of those, 10 of AE 115gr to start.

1. What?  AGAIN?  Again with the flinchies?
2. Ok better.
3. Even better
4. Meh.
5. Ok. This one I am trying to relax and be careful.  If I get to careful I over think, but I think I did ok here.  Best yet.  
6. Not shabby, had to correct myself those two times, but I knew I did them.

Really have slipped a bit.  Revolver for a few sessions put me off my game.   I am confident I will get it all back, tho.

Wisdom

And this applies to more than just shooting or gunsmithing or related ephemera.

This applies to brewing beer, making a chest of drawers, wrangling 1's and 0's for a system administration job, driving a car, flying a plane, writing a book...

Everybody screws up.   Pobody's nerfect.

With some things, you screw up a lot.  Them 1's and 0's are hard to nail down and are unforgiving.  Believe me. 

When you get halfway good at something is when you start noticing and fixing the screwups before someone else notices and tells you to fix your screwups.  You are even better when you are fixing screwups on the fly, as you go.  Even BETTER is when you fix screwups and develop work efficiencies in the process that makes it seem like you went FASTER on a task than if you did it perfect and conventionally.

I've been screwing up at work a bunch, but catching myself and fixing it fast.  To my relief.  My boss has high standards but he also recognizes that people make mistakes.  He's never mad when he comes across someone fixing something, even if they mess it up.

Same with shooting.  One of the satisfactions of training is the training I have gotten to do self-adjustments as I go when I start missing.  Fix myself.  

---

Do I need to mention that training is a LOT of fun?  I've said that before.  I have been lucky to find a relatively close decent trainer.  But now I am more likely to travel further to get more training.  The only thing bad about training, for some, is you have to put your ego in check.  Same with shooting competitions.  You probably aren't as good as that shooter you think you are in your head.  If you don't get wrapped around the axle on that you can have a lot of fun learning AND getting better.

(Well, I didn't have to put MY ego in check.  I knew I was rubbish going in. )

Try some, training.  It's good.  If it's not good the first time find someone else. 

Soup's On

It's fall, and when the air starts turning cold my thoughts turn to soup.

Now when I make soup soup, there are at least 5 portions.  Last year was been and barley.  I still have 2 portions, frozen, from LAST season.  This time, I am thinking split pea.  Which I make with lots of bacon.  For the first pot. 

Other styles I have been known to make:  Senate Bean Soup.  Also with lots of bacon.

Carrots, onions/shallots, and celert seed figures highly in my soup preparations.  Besides the bacon.  Also, some garlic.

For a second pot?  Chicken?  With rice and stars.  And carrots.

Shottie

A shotgun to keep bad guys from busting down my front door?  00 buck?  Even a whole handful of bad guys.

Yeah, you can't do much better than that.  And I agree.

But I have a problem.  And this is me.  Not you, necessarily.

Here in the suburbs there is a better chance of finding a place you can shoot a rifle than you can find to shoot a shotgun, sorta.  So I don't even own anything scattery of any halfway decent prowler stopping utility but antique Remingtons.  And none of those are a pump gun.   I can't operate a pump gun. Well, I have barely ever operated a pump gun.  Most of it is easy, yes, but there are little levers and switches and button and such for loading and unloading and locking this or that back...

I'd have to go far afield for familiarization, and further for training.  As my knowledge is woefully inadequate.

Total rounds I've fired in my short shooty lifetime is in the thousands.  But is is like 92% pistols, 7% rifles of all sorts, and 1% shotguns.  A tube of buckshot or a 30 round magazine of 5.56 are both almost certainly a better selection at 3AM for prowlers than a pistol.  Assuming all have a light.  But I should probably go with what I am most familiar with.

Ideally I take it upon myself to get better with a shotgun and get lots of training and practice, but I am getting old and slow. 

I told you Zombies were real

I dislike the Japanese.  First, the KILT MY GRAMPA.

And second they are infested with zombies.



Now  you know why I'll never guy a Toyota.  I don't care if they DO make them in Alabama

Push out

I was taught a new trick in sim training.

Let's say you are presented with a spree shooter.  And you shoot his pixels and put him down.  Now you want to look behind you, check your six, as you are pretty sure bad guy is down down, but you never know.

You want to look around, but you also want to be able to engage the bad guy if it turns out he has some fight in him.

How do?

One way is to draw the gun back into the Sul position and scan around you.  Here is a cop doing that.

And that's fine.  You can get your gun back up on target pretty quick that way.  It's a good idea if there are still good guys milling about or the bad guy has a sneak partner.

Or... and here is the trick, you can keep holding your pistol on the target strong hand only, bring your support hand into your chest, and look over your shoulder on the support hand side.

Ok, that's not the trick.

When you turn back to look at the target your gun isn't pointing where you were aiming before the head turn.  It will be if you push the gun OUT...  Extend your elbow...  As you look back.  Then when you face forward and bring your hands together on the pistol grip the gun draws back into your regular position, and... shazam!  It's pointing pretty much at the same place.  Same POA

When told, I thought there was NO way that would work.  But it do. 

Altamont

I'm a VZ Grips guy.  I like em.  So is the gunsmith.  He likes em.  Gonna to continue to be a customer in the future. 

But there are other really good grip makers besides VZ I might occasionally turn to or drool over.  One is Altamont.  Only discovered them recently.  They have some handsome grips.  I mean, LOOK at this Olivewood:

Snazzy.

Well crud

I was thinking of opening an account at Fifth Third bank when I retired to Cleveland.  I hope Key Bank doesn't go the same route.  Western Union is sending mixed signals.

Trigger Pull

Trigger pull.  Sometimes when my shooting goes off the rails and I get flinchy I have to trick myself.  Distract myself.  To get a better trigger pull.  This helps.  But I'd rather not need it.

I'd rather regularly shoot well week after week.  But it's a constant struggle to get better.  It's not like tying your shoes well.  So far.  Where once you are good at it you don't have to think about it.

Distraction methods.

• Make the gun wobble.  Random figure eights all over the place. 
• Pin the trigger back and catch the reset, either after the gun settles (meh) or during the recoil.  I'd love to one day be able to dispense with this one.
• Some folks sing a song.  Girl from Ipanema.  In your head or out loud.  
• My favorite is telling myself "F it!  Just SHOOT it, you been here before."

Is this a cheat, a crutch?  Oh, yes.  What's it doing?  Causing the surprise break.  But it's not ideal.  You have to change methods as you get used to the latest.  I'd rather just have the trigger come naturally.

And it probably won't.  Not ever.  I don't have that talent.   I will pursue it, yes.  I may be able to quickly correct a trigger pull on the fly.  But never will I be perfect.

It all goes to the SAME landfill

If my local trashman ever gives me guff over the recycling ima start dumping everything in the creek.

Just take my garbage. 

MAYBE the aluminum actually gets recycled.  There is money in that.  I've seen you dump the rest of that stuff in the same truck.  To go to the same dump.  All mixed together. 

Bad Dream

In my dream I no longer had the strength to do Left Shoulder, Arms, from Order Arms, to Right Shoulder Arms with a Garand.  Left arm too weak.  Then I tried it with an 03.  No luck there either.

I learned the manual of arms in college.

Which is an odd worry as my right upper body is the side that has had occasional weakness because of neck disks pushing on the spinal cord on that side.

To have a weakened left is fresh news to me, even in dreamland.

The problem was worse in the transition from the left shoulder to the right as you have to pop out the rifle hold the butt in the left hand, with your forearm more or less parallel to the deck.  Bicep and hand work.  And here it just faded to failure.

I hate getting old. But a heckuva thing to come up with in a dream. Rifle drill? At least milsurp rifles are widely available in my dreams.

 

Rent a Mob

For Kavenaugh, Soros had Rent a Mobs out in full force.  Poor Jeff Flake is a bit jumpy in a good day.

But if Justice Breyer or Ruth Bader Ginsburg choke to death on the walnut stuffing this Thanksgiving... and assuming the president's allies retain control of the Senate...  It will be Rent a Riots.  I'm guessing.

So, I live in Maryland.  So there are lots of restrictions.  But even in the most permissible states there are still no-go areas. Every Post Office, for one.  When the violence breaks out when do you start carrying routinely where you are forbidden to?  Assuming there isn't a controlled entryway.

Well, it depends.  It depends on the Riots.  Me carry in Maryland or you carry in a Post Office?  Yeah, that depends on what kind of nationwide violence we are seeing.

There can be some serious neo-Commie white folks just killing people left and right downtown.  Worst riots since the Civil War when the draft was instate, let's say.  Scary.  It still might be obvious with some rational thought that that riot won't touch me when I grocery shop and commute to and from work.

Where else do I go, these days?  To the gunsmith and to the range?  I won't be trapped out without a carry piece in no-carry MD in those time, as those are sanction 'firearms in the car' time here.

So... at work... 20 mile from home... and widespread violence and I wish I was carrying even if it is super illegal?  That violence better be more widespread than I can conceive.  I just don't travel through areas where that is a likely issue.  Sparse areas.  Non residential areas.  Highways...

And if it does happen and I am caught out on my commute? I have other weapons.  One being the truck.

But that level of violence takes some time to cook up.  I don't know why I'd be away from home the 48 hours before it got to that. 

Pistol Sights

Pistol sights.  My preferences have changed and I have progressed and gotten better at shooting.

I am now: Black read sigh with a rounded bottom, and a front sight with a contrasting color or fiber, but now glow in the dark tritium necessary.  10-8 offers this, if you want to see or what I am talking about, but here is a pic from them:

Someone is focusing on the front sight.

My gunsmith convinced me on that.  And I get good results with that.

When I started this blog and shooting I was a 3-dot guy.  Preferably tritium.

But maybe those are too busy and distracting.  If only for a micro second.  They are fine, and I train in the simulator with a variety of sight configuration, I just now prefer the top for my own stuff.  Back in the day I imagined the tritium 3-dot would make night time repel-prowler situations in my dark house batter, but I'd prolly be better served with a flashlight for that.  My thinking has evolved

There was a time when this is the way I rolled:

XS-Sights.  With the BIG honking front sight.  Tam said something like, "you can't hit anything beyond 7 yard with that.  What if your bad guy is shooting at you from 30 yards away?  Yer F-ed!"  I was already F-ed, as I couldn't, then, hit something that far away anyhow.  So we were both right.   But I don't run XS sights now.  

I am not against glow in the dark sights now.  Just not the MONDO huge ones.  The only thing wrong with them is price and they are hard to remove if you used red loctite on them.  The torch work to break the loctite causes your gun to turn into a radioactive Superfund site in some situations.  Anyhoo, I got better.

My H9 came with a pretty big trijicon front sight, so I swapped it.  If I were Hudson I might offer a choice for that. 

Yup

I was promised National Reciprocity and the Hearing Protection Act.
I got a bumpstock ban.

Friday Bupkis

It's a new thing.  Not having Friday material.  The post below snuck in while I was editting it unnoticed, yesterday.

Topics I been thinking about:

• Pistol sights. 
• Trigger pull.
• Rent a mob now, rent a riot next time.

CDC data

Crap, this got posted for most of yesterday and it wasn't even finished!  I ruin EVERYTHING.  Fine.

The Center for Disease Control said gun injuries are up 37% 2015 to 2016.

Even honest liberals say this is whore's shit. 

They also handwave and admit their statistical sampling may be flawed.  Since EVERYONE else shows a steady decline.

So they admit that maybe you shouldn't trust their numbers.

Of course the anti-gunners crow about the erroneous highs, anyway, ignoring the caveat.

THIS is why we never trusted the CDC on guns and got laws passed to keep them out of anti-gun advocacy.

Range, 1 Oct

New sights on the Hudson, but I arrived a bit too flinchy.  AGAIN.  Gotta work on that.

Ok, new sights on the H9, gotta test that.  .210 instead of .220.  So I shouldn't shoot low...

CRAP!

Ok, change the point of aim a bit and try again.  In case that was just very old bad habits.

POA circled.  Ok, much better.  That first one wasn't the sight.  It was me. 

Then the rest.

Still some 'dropped' shots.  The last set, the three circled, were all called flinches, and the other are more relaxed and a bit better.  Initial shots were generally nearer the bull and the group creeped toward 6 o'clock. 

It's been a while since I shot a not-revolver.  I bet next time there is less vertical variance. 

115 grain, American Eagle, 60 shots.  280 total for gun, 183 since last malfunction or lube.  No cleaning.  Trying to get 250 in a row, no malf.  If I were gonna carry it, I'd not carry it til then.  Gonna have to mix in some holler points in the break-in test. 

Heavy Ads

Been seeing a LOT of adds for Vedder holsters recently.  LOTS. 

Dunno why.


More than usual after I have shopped for holster online and the internet ad disease senses my interest and blitzes me on every platform.  Shot of a shirt on Duluth's Trading Company's website directly and now Facebook AND google and serving up Ballroom Underwear ads. 

But all three of those are biggish companies.


Why is Vedder, a company I had never heard of 3 months ago going for a big ad buy?  Or, not big, but somehow targeting me and a few other very specifically?

They look sorta middling, quality wise.  Based in Florida.  I dunno if I'd get one, but they look to be a bit better than Fobus, Blackhawk!, and Uncle Mike's.  Maybe?  The OWB holster look to be a little lacking.

If a new shooter got one I'd be pleased.  I recommend to all new shooter to order a decent holster in the one-week waiting period.  They haven't convinced me to use their company by name, yet.

You all been seeing these, like, everywhere?

No Answers?

Yup.

The screwiest thing about the Vegas Shooting is that we still don't have any answers.

I heard on the news last month that the shooter still only 'reportedly' used bump stocks.  Like we still aren't sure.

Are authorities not sharing info because they HAVE no info to disseminate?  They should say that.  Saying nothing is just kind of odd.

Fitted some more sights

Got my fresh build 1911 kitted up.  Just cosmetic stuff now, mostly with the grip safety.

Swapped out the wrong sized sight on the Hudson too.

To avoid marring the finish on the Hudson I used an aluminium (sic) punch or drift.  You get maybe two uses with it, then the tip is all munged up.  And it leaves aluminum marks on stuff that looks AWFUL, but it doesn't scratch the finish so much.

So I asked a man of experience how to get the ugly silvery marks off my nearly new gun.

"Oil and a Q-Tip"

Hey!  That works.

Now, the aluminum punch.  You CAN refurbish that, easily enough.  A few times.  Use a sander.  Do NOT ever touch aluminum (no sic) to a grinding wheel. The metal will fill the pores of the stone unevenly, taking the wheel out of balance.  The next time someone uses it it will wobble and maybe fracture apart.  Danger danger. 

Disk or belt sander.  Please.