Jump the Stack

Shooting left with a Glock, FAQ

2012-02-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

For a while after I got my Glock 17, I was shooting consistently about 2 inches to the left at 7 yards, with a decently small group. I had never had this problem with any other gun, including an XD, M&P, 1911, and SIG.

Q: Is it the sights?
A: Probably not. A right hander shooting left is a common issue with all handguns, but especially Glocks. And if you're noticeably off, like 2 inches at 7 yards, that's equivalent to about 8 or 9 inches at 25 yards. If the sights more or less look centered, there's no way you would be off that much. To check, shoot from a sandbag rest if possible. Also, shoot left handed and see if you now start shooting to the right.

Q: Should I drift my rear sight right to compensate, even though the sights aren't the problem?
A: I don't believe in drifting the sights over to the right to fix the issue. For one thing, if you ever had to shoot left handed, you'd shooting way off to the right due to both the sights being off and whatever the original problem is. Also, you're incentivising yourself to use whatever bad technique you're using. When you start doing the correct technique, you'll hit to the right, so you'll naturally try to avoid that.

Q: Should I use "Kentucky windage" by aiming to the right of the target?
A: This is not a good idea because under stress, you will be more likely to aim directly at your target. Also, you'd need to calculate how much to hold right at various distances. e.g. if you hold right 2 inches at 7 yards, you'd need to hold right about 4 inches at 15 yards.

Q: On the assumption that the trigger is the problem, should I monkey around with different connectors and trigger springs?
A: If that's your thing, it's fine, but I don't think it will fix it. I've tried a few various connectors and the NY trigger spring, and haven't found it to make any difference with regards to this problem. I don't think for most people that the length or weight of a Glock trigger pull is the real problem. The trigger is not terribly long or heavy. I think the reason that Glock users tend to have this problem more is the size and shape of the grip.

Q: Should I just shoot a ton of rounds and assume I'm going to get better?
A: This is probably a bad idea because you are doing something wrong now, so doing it more is just going to ingrain bad habits. I think it's important to actively try to find and fix the problem.

Q: What about the handgun correction chart that says the problem is "too little trigger finger"?
A: As I mentioned before, I don't think the handgun correction chart has that much benefit. There can definitely be more than one cause for this issue. This may certainly be one of the causes, and it's worth trying to put more of your trigger finger through the trigger guard.

Q: What are some other things to try?
A: Note: I would try isolating each one of these techniques to see if it makes any difference.
- Obviously getting a good instructor to try to diagnose you would be good if feasible.
- Use either closer to the tip of the finger, or closer to the knuckle to touch the trigger. Either way might help. One thing you can try to determine optimum trigger placement is to dry fire the gun, so the striker is down, then repeatedly press the trigger. You'll notice that the sights move in different directions depending on what part of the trigger finger you use.
- Use a harder or softer grip, with either or both hands. Your other fingers sympathetically 'milking' the grip along with your you trigger finger is used can move the gun left.
- Stiffen your shooting wrist, as though you were trying to prevent someone from bending it sideways. This is NOT the same as just gripping harder.
- Make sure you always take up the slack in the trigger before beginning your press. If you start with a heavy press while there's still slack in the trigger, it will smash through the slack with momentum and disturb the alignment of the gun.
- Don't let your finger come off the trigger during or after firing. Taking your finger off too fast after firing can disturb alignment of the gun.
- Don't hold the trigger all the way to the rear during or after firing. As soon as the trigger breaks, reset it forward while maintaining contact on it. Letting the trigger finger slam all the way to the rear with momentum can disturb the alignment of the gun.
- If the problem might be flinching, then ball and dummy drills, or just mixing in dry fire with live fire can help. For example, every time you throw a shot to the left, unload the gun and do 5 good dry fires.
- Think about pressing the trigger straight to the rear, and adjust your grip so that can be done to the extent possible. Your trigger finger can't actually move straight back since it describes a curve as it moves, but ideally the tangent to the curve would be straight back at the moment the trigger breaks.
- Try pressing back through the center of the trigger, i.e. through the trigger safety, instead of just contacting the whole trigger in general. Since the trigger face is rounded, it's possible to pull sideways through the trigger, which is obviously undesirable.

- I eventually fixed the problem by putting the Grip Force Adapter on it.
I don't know how to explain it, but my guess is that by increasing the trigger reach, it forced my hand into the right position to pull the trigger straight back. I'm not saying that this solution would be right for everyone, but with my hands, it solved the problem. In general if you didn't want to spend money to try this, you could try altering the size and shape of the grip, maybe with temporary methods like tape to see if it helps.

Some additional references:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/ayoob85.html
- Discusses trigger "milking"

http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=93671
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_5_13/99034_Glock_Shooting_Left_.html
http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?1525-Consistently-shooting-to-the-left-with-new-Gen4-G17

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNVYu3koF4o&feature=youtu.be
OpSpec training on using a looser grip to avoid this problem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCMrsFZDwF8
ssdsurf on shooting a Glock well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nlAmKLDT0E&feature=channel_video_title
ssdsurf on advanced trigger placement.

Safety glasses worn over prescription glasses for shooting

2012-01-01T22:35:00.000-08:00

I've always worn safety glasses over my prescription glasses for shooting. My prescription glasses are thin and don't provide much coverage, especially coming from underneath. Also, they cost a lot of money and I really don't want to deal with scratches on them due to getting hit by brass or jacket ricochets off of steel.

This link provides a good overview of the need for real safety glasses as opposed to cheap plastic sunglasses or glasses with glass lenses:
http://www.6mmbr.com/eyeprotection.html

An alternate option is to get prescription safety glasses, which I'm looking into, but from what I've seen in my searches, it's rare to find any that are made in my prescription, which is very nearsighted. Also they are expensive, and I'd need to get both clear and dark versions, or figure out some kind of clip on sunglasses system.

What I've been running so far:

Escort safety glasses:
http://www.amazon.com/Escort-Safety-Glasses-Prescription-Eyewear/dp/B001924G8K

They also make these with smoke colored lenses for bright outdoor shooting:
http://www.amazon.com/Escort-Glasses-Prescription-Matching-Sensitive/dp/B001922GRS/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_b

These glasses work well but the black frame obscures peripheral vision a little.

Another alternative that I've found to work well is Pyramex OTS safety glasses:
http://www.amazon.com/Pyramex-Safety-Eyewear-Clear-Temples/dp/B001FWVSYO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325487587&sr=8-1
which also come in clear or dark.

Both options above were comfortable, gave good coverage, and seemed optically clear to me. But I have been thinking that perhaps a more expensive set of safety glasses would have better optical clarity which could come in handy.
Cocoons Eyewear seems to fit the bill, although I have not tried them yet.
http://www.cocoonseyewear.com
Note that the lenses are not advertised as meeting any safety standard such as ANSI Z87.1.

Finally, a tip from experience: if you leave your safety glasses in your shooting bag, make sure to put them in a separate compartment, or in a bag or case. Left loose in the bag, they will get scratched up by other things in the bag, even though they're supposed to be tough and scratch resistant.

Firearms training class preparations

2011-11-28T22:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some things I do before going to a firearms training class. I just leave the small items in my range bag all the time.

- Verify functionality of the gun by shooting it for at least one session before the class. In other words, don't come to a class with a gun that I've never shot before, since the gun might be messed up.
- If I haven't run this set of gear before, try it on all together. For example, I try on my holster, mag pouches, belt, and pants that I'm going to be using. Even if you have experience running each individual piece, you need to make sure they all work together. You don't want to find out too late that your belt is too big for your belt loops on your pants, or the belt loops on your holster, or the belt loops on those particular pants are positioned poorly for the location that you want to run your holster or mag pouches.
- If I have adjustable sights, especially on a carbine, make sure they're zeroed before the class. Often the zeroing process on the first day of carbine class takes 2 hours or more, which is time that could have been spent learning. Bring the necessary tools to adjust the sights, even if they are already zeroed.
- Load all the magazines that I'm going to bring to full(check your local laws and make sure you're transporting them legally). It saves a lot of time when the class starts if you're already loaded and ready to go. I've never seen an instructor that minded the student coming in with loaded mags, although it is possible you may have to unload one or two for some drill that the instructor wants to do.
- Check that I have extra batteries for ear pro, optics, flashlights, etc. Check that the batteries currently in those accessories are not dead.
- Label everything, including mags, loading tools, ear pro, even your holster and mag pouches if they are common. I use a paint pen for this purpose. Certain gear, I engrave with a cheap hand engraving tool. If you do enough training, eventually someone will grab your stuff if you leave it on a table or in a common area, not because they were trying to steal it, but just because they thought it was theirs. Having labels settles the matter if there is any dispute. I have had this happen to my mags, Uplula, and ear pro. All mags are labeled with a number as well, to keep track of any mags that are malfunctioning.
- Check tightness on all screws/bolts, including any mounts on guns, lights, sidesaddle, optics, holster, mag pouches. I just kind of poke the screw with my finger in a turning motion, to save the effort of finding the appropriate bit for each screw, and to avoid breaking the Loctite if it was there.
- Pack an allen wrench set and a multitool which has needle nose pliers and flat head and philips screwdrivers just in case they come loose. I just leave these in my range bag all the time.
- Pack water and food if needed. Always more water than you think you need. Sweets like candy and cookies are good for a burst of energy.
- Pack an extra holster if I have one.
- Pack lube and spare parts for the gun. Generally a recoil spring and an extractor will solve most problems on a semi auto. For Glocks, a trigger spring would be good. For ARs, a full bolt carrier group would solve the vast majority of problems. If shooting a carbine, always bring a cleaning rod, not so you can clean it, but so you can knock out a stuck case from the chamber. A magazine makes a good hammer for this.
- Duct tape and zip ties can be useful for field rigging a fix for holsters, slings, etc.
- Pack a baseball style cap, even if shooting indoors where sun isn't a concern. This is mainly for keeping brass shells out of my face from the guy standing to my left.
- If it's going to be hot, don't wear a cotton shirt. One you get soaked in sweat, cotton gets very uncomfortable and takes a while to dry. If the temperature cools down as the sun drops, you can get cold very quickly. Synthetic UnderArmor type shirts, or merino wool shirts are preferred. Similarly, synthetic or wool socks are preferred over cotton socks.
- Consider bringing sunscreen and/or a shemagh or other neck scarf if it's going to be at an outdoor range. Sunburn is no fun and is distracting.
- Consider packing an extra gun if I have one, ideally the same caliber, and really ideally one that can use the same holster and mags. Note a G19 can use a G17's holster and mags, but not vice versa. Depending on logistics it might not be worth it to pack a totally different gun with its own holster, mag pouches, mags, and ammo.
- Consider bringing a folding chair. Depending on the range and class size, there may or may not be sufficient seating.
- Consider bringing a bucket for brass. Most classes will let students keep brass that they pick up at the end of the class. People who reload or who think they might get into reloading would be silly to miss the chance to save some money and get free brass.
- Consider packing allergy medication or taking it in the morning if it's at an outdoor range.
- Depending on the range facilities, if running water isn't available, some wet wipes would be handy for wiping your hands prior to eating or after using the porta potty.

Gear for carbine classes

2011-11-28T21:29:00.000-08:00

The purpose of this post is to describe how I set up my gear and why. Everybody's needs are different, so it's not to say that this is the best way to go, just what works for me.

I just took a class today using a VTAC Brokos Belt with VTAC Cobra belt for the inner belt, with 3 HSGI taco mag pouches on my left side and three handgun tacos attached to them, and an Atomic Dog holster on the right side, and a dump pouch in the back that I use to hold my gloves and empty mags. I think this setup is ideal for someone who doesn't need more than 4 rifle mags, and who doesn't wear armor. If extra mags are needed, they go in the left cargo pocket. It's relatively comfortable even with all the weight on the hips since the belt spreads the weight over a large area. And you can put on and take off the whole rig in about 1 second using the Cobra buckle. I don't have to change anything to switch to a different rifle system since the tacos can hold any rifle mag. This is very nice for me because I usually run an AK, but sometimes I run an AR. My dump pouch is a cheap 5.11 one. As far as I can see, there is no need for anything fancy in a dump pouch. The gloves I run are Mechanix MPact, which have been working well for me. I would recommend at least having gloves on you if you're going to run a carbine, since the handguard and barrel can get very hot after rapid fire. A quad rail AR handguard can be sharp, and an AK especially has lots of sharp edges all over it.

The HSGI tacos are expensive but really nice. They fit any rifle mags, the retention is adjustable, you can attach a pistol mag pouch to it, you can run bullets forward or backwards as you wish without changing anything, and they're fast since there's no retention device like a flap or bungee strap.

The Brokos belt is a lightly padded MOLLE belt that uses an inner belt to provide the tension around your waist and a buckle. It buckles around your waist over the top of your pants belt(which is not the same as the inner belt). The Brokos belt has the nice feature that you can expose the inner belt to the outside and use your existing OWB holster or other belt mounted accessories. It's also light and comfortable. The downside is that it isn't really anchored to your pants belt, so it can ride up a little bit. I found that it only rides up on my hips when I drop to prone, but then when I stood up, it automatically went back down to its normal position without me having to adjust it in any way. So it wasn't really a big deal.
On sizing: the inner belt should be a little bit longer than usual, since it has to go outside your pants waistband and your pants belt. The Brokos belt can be quite a big longer than usual, since that just means that the MOLLE extends closer to your centerline.
I wear 34 or 35 inch waistband pants, and I have the Brokos belt in XL, but the inner Cobra belt in Large. I originally tried the XL Cobra belt but it was too long and the excess was getting in the way of my holster. The Large Cobra belt is almost a little too small, but is workable. If I were to do it again I would probably go with the XL and just trim it down.

I don't like chest rigs because they can be uncomfortable when you go prone. Also, if you're training in the rain or cold, if you have a chest rig, you have to take it off and on when you want to add or remove layers of clothing. You may or may not need to do the same thing for the battle belt, but a battle belt comes off and on much easier.

I would avoid any double(meaning two mags in one compartment, like this: http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MOLLE940-1.html) mag pouches because if you take one of the mags out, then the other one is loose and can fall out, unless you remember to reapply the velcro or other retention device. Each mag should go in its own compartment that has its own retention.
Kydex mag pouches are great but if you have too many of them with fully loaded mags on your belt, the weight becomes uncomfortable and most designs don't have any way to attach pistol mag pouches.

Some people would say that you should 'train as you would fight'. I would agree with that, except for the fact that in my lifestyle, I wouldn't really ever use the carbine in a fight unless it was a serious SHTF where anything goes and more gear would be appropriate. I leave my carbines in the gun safe and I have a quick access lock box with a handgun in it for emergencies. That said, I do think that beginners to carbine training should keep their gear simple and inexpensive so they can look at what other people are running and get an idea of how it works.

For a relatively slick setup, I'd probably just go with one or two kydex Ready Tactical mag pouches and then run the rest out of pockets, and have one dump pouch for empties. The Ready Tactical pouches are relatively inexpensive and you can run your AR mags bullets pointing forward or to the rear. I prefer pointing to the rear, but that's something each individual has to decide for themselves. The LAPolicegear.com 'operator pants' have two pockets that are just the right size for AR mags and will fit AK mags too. They're the horizontal slits right below the plastic D-rings on the belt loops. http://www.lapolicegear.com/elastic-...ator-pant.html

California-specific:
For info on carbine legality in California, see http://www.tenpercentfirearms.com/index.php?main_page=ar15
Between featureless carbines and bullet button carbines, I would definitely go for featureless. Being able to use the mag release normally is well worth not having a flash hider or collapsible stock or the other evil features. On the negative side, I have found that not being able to wrap my thumb around the grip makes it harder to do rapid fire consistently. Also, on an AR, you're going to want to install an ambi safety if you're right handed, since your thumb will be on the right side of the rifle. Featureless rifles can also be used with legally owned pre-ban magazines, while bullet button rifles can not. I like the Solar tactical grip wraps, which bolt on to a normal pistol grip and therefore can be easily removed if you visit or move to a free state.
http://solartactical.com/SOLAR-TACTICAL-KYDEX-GRIP-WRAP-FEATURELESS-BUILDS_c19.htm

If you go the bullet button route, the gpik works reasonably well:
http://www.gpik.net/bullet-button-release-tool.aspx
You stick it on your middle finger and can use it to drop the mag. It does require you to be fairly precise to poke the bullet button in exactly the right place. One caveat: if you have to draw your pistol, it really messes with your grip.

If you are running 10 round magazines, I would recommend getting 10/30 magazines, which are 30 round magazines that have been internally blocked to only hold 10 rounds and then permanently fixed so they can't be disassembled. The reason I recommend 10/30 mags this is that they will fit in normal pouches, and you can get a much better grip on them for malfunction clearing and tactical reloads, compared to short 10 round magazines. Solar Tactical has 10/30 mags or the kits to make them. If you want to make them yourself, you'll need disassembled mag rebuild kits, which can be had from Solar Tactical, or http://www.copesdistributing.net, http://www.calegalmags.com/, or http://midwestpx.com/, among others.

Training scars: "Cruiser ready" with hammer down on a pump shotgun

2011-09-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

A lot of people advocate leaving one's pump action shotgun in 'cruiser ready' or 'cruiser safe', which means that the chamber is empty, the mag tube is fully loaded, and the trigger has been pulled, so that you can just rack the shotgun to get a round into the tube and fight.

In my opinion, the step of pulling the trigger while the mag tube is loaded is unsafe and unnecessary. It eventually could lead to a negligent discharge if a round somehow found its way into the chamber due to inattention.

Regardless of the potential safety issues, I think it's preferable to train always hitting the action release lever the first time that you rack the bolt. That way, the bolt will come back whether or not it was locked forward. It doesn't take any significant extra time and is more reliable.

I had long had this opinion, but I was reminded of it recently in a Magpul Dynamics shotgun class where Chris Costa said something to the same effect.

Quick and easy cleaning after shooting corrosive ammo

2011-09-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

I shoot a lot of Yugoslavian 7.62x39 ammo in my AK. It's corrosive, so I do make sure to clean the gun afterwards, but I think a lot of people spend way too much time and effort on it. The entire cleaning process shouldn't take longer than about 10 minutes.

Key concepts:
The primers in corrosive ammo contains salts that attract and hold water, causing rust. The salts are water soluble. The best way to get rid of them is to wash them away with water. The idea of 'neutralizing' the salts with ammonia or other chemicals is not necessary, and is dubious as to whether it works at all. Heating the water or adding soap would help in the cleaning but is more effort and is unnecessary. We want to make sure that the water we use to clean the gun doesn't get trapped in any nooks and crannies and cause rust itself. So we either displace it with WD-40 or use Ballistol which will protect the gun until after the water evaporates.

Ballistol is a gun oil that emulsifies in water. When you use Ballistol diluted with water, the water component can dissolve the corrosive salts, and then when/as it evaporates, the oil component is left behind to protect from rust.

I have 2 different procedures that I use, depending on how dirty it is.

Procedure 1, for when it's really dirty:
1) Field strip the gun, and spray everything dirty in the gun with water from a hose, including the bore. If you can get hot water to come out of your hose, that would be desirable, but if not, cold water is fine. If there are patches of crud that aren't coming off, brush them with a bronze brush while spraying them with water.
2) Run a boresnake through the bore a few times with a light coating of CLP or similar oil on the brush part. Wash the boresnake later with the hose to get rid of any residual salts.
3) Spray everywhere that water was sprayed with WD-40 to displace the remaining water. This does not include the bore, since the snake + oiling should have taken care of that.
4) Wipe everything down with paper towels.
5) On parts of the gun that need lubrication, add gun oil or grease. I wouldn't consider the WD-40 a good lube in itself.

Procedure 2, for when it's not that dirty:
1) Field strip the gun. With a spray bottle full of Ballistol diluted 1 part Ballistol to 9 parts water, spray everything dirty in the gun, including the bore.
2) Run a boresnake through the bore a few times with a light coating of CLP or similar oil on the brush part. Wash the boresnake later with the hose to get rid of any residual salts.
3) Wipe everything down with paper towels
4) Lubricate the gun as needed.

Neither procedure should take more than 10 minutes, and you can probably get it down to less than 5 with practice.

On an AK, the key parts to clean are the chamber and bore, the gas tube, the bolt and bolt carrier, the muzzle brake and the threads on the end of barrel.

I've run my AK during training days where shooting started around 9 am, it was raining the whole day, and I cleaned the gun at about 7 pm, with no rust or corrosion. I've shot about 1500 - 2000 rounds of the Yugo ammo total. I could probably get by with less cleaning, but this is a level of cleaning that I have found to be fast and effective.

Some other links that you might find useful and are sufficiently lazy for me:

Shooting and cleaning after corrosive ammo (Box of Truth)

Comment page for the list of San Francisco Bay Area firearms trainers

2011-09-09T21:44:00.001-07:00

This is a placeholder for comments about the trainer list which is at http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/p/san-francisco-bay-area-firearms.html

I made this because static pages can't receive comments, but blog posts can.

Training scars: no-look holstering

2011-09-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

This one is probably somewhat controversial. See http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/p/about-me-contact.html for a disclaimer on my qualifications or lack thereof.

A lot of trainers focus on always holstering without looking. I think this is overrated in terms of importance. Remember, you only holster once you are fairly certain the situation is over. One should always holster slowly and reluctantly, for safety purposes. So, it's a relatively safe time, when looking down for one second is not that big of a lapse in awareness.

It has happened before that a piece of someone's shirt or various straps or other pieces of gear get snagged on the trigger as a person goes to holster, causing an unintended discharge even though the person was keeping his finger straight and away from the trigger. This is especially likely with concealment holsters that hold the gun close to the body. Holstering slowly and carefully would also help prevent that, and the shooter should pause if he feels any resistance while holstering.
But taking a quick peek would certainly help prevent this issue as well.

Practicing holstering without looking is a useful skill that people should practice, that could be useful in some limited situations. But I think it is overemphasized sometimes.

Edit- FYI, I recently took a class from Kyle Defoor, who advocated looking at the holster as you holster, for pretty much the same reasons as above.

Training scars: fast scan and assess

2011-09-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

One common practice in firearms training is to scan and assess after finishing a firing string. The purpose is to break tunnel vision after focusing on the target, and to maintain awareness of your surroundings. This is a good idea, but in practice it's sometimes done in a way that's less than optimal.

A lot of people swivel their heads to the left and right really fast. The problem with this is that if you turn your head that fast, it's hard to actually see anything. It would be better to turn your head relatively slowly, enough that you can pick out distinct details. If you actually can see things while moving your head that fast, that's fine, but make sure you can. It's good to try to actually pick something to the side of or behind you that you see and take note of, just to force yourself to look for real.

Another common practice is to only look left and right. It would be better to make sure to look behind you as well.

There's also some small controversy over whether or not the muzzle should move with your eyes. I think that obviously if you're going to look to your sides or behind you, you can't keep the muzzle pointed in those directions, so it's better to keep it simple and keep the gun pointed at the original target or straight down while you look.

Center Mass Group on Habits of highly effective shooters

2011-09-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

Center Mass Group is run by retired Navy Seals, and they have an excellent blog. I especially like their series "Seven habits of highly effective shooters", which is about the fundamentals of marksmanship. Articles so far:

http://centermassgroup.com/2011/07/the-first-habit-of-highly-effective-shooters/
http://centermassgroup.com/2011/08/the-second-habit-of-highly-effective-shooters/
http://centermassgroup.com/2011/09/the-third-habit-of-highly-effective-shooters/
http://centermassgroup.com/2011/09/the-fourth-habit-of-highly-effective-shooters/

http://www.itstactical.com/warcom/firearms/you-want-me-to-do-what-with-my-finger/

handgun correction chart

2011-06-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

From time to time, on a forum someone will ask about shooting problems that they're having, and someone will post this chart, or one like it:

It's fine for what it is, but realize that

a) It was made for shooters shooting one handed bullseye style

b) There can be many causes for shooting errors in any given direction, so don't take the chart as gospel.

I like this one better: (seen on ar15.com at http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=5&f=13&t=109634

Larry Vickers on 1911s

2011-06-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

http://militarytimes.com/blogs/gearscout/2011/06/08/read-this-before-you-buy-your-first-1911/
Really interesting article by Vickers on choosing a 1911, and whether or not to choose a 1911.
See also
http://vickerstactical.com/faqs-with-larry-vickers/

List of holster makers I'm interested in

2011-05-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

This page is intended to be a reference of holster makers that I'm interested in. I always forget the names of some of the less popular ones. They are mostly custom makers of pancake style Kydex holsters of the type pioneered by Raven.

http://www.ravenconcealmentsystems.com/ Raven Concealment
http://www.calsentllc.com/page04.html Kaluban Cloak
http://www.shop.peterscustomholsters.com/ Peters Custom
http://www.psholsters.com/ Personal Security Systems
http://www.talontactical.com/ Talon Tactical
http://www.ntacholsters.com/store/Default.asp NTAC
http://www.caneandderby.com/ Cane & Derby
http://www.atomicdogholsters.com/Main.html Atomic Dog
http://www.pitbulltactical.com/ Pitbull Tactical
http://www.jmcustomkydex.com/
http://www.kolbesonleatherworks.com/

Training review: John Jardine 1911 Essentials

2011-04-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

I attended the first 1911 Essentials class taught by gunsmith John Jardine at Reed's Indoor Range in Santa Clara.

The blurb on Reed's site states:

John Jardine is a master pistolsmith who has enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for simply outstanding work. Firearms produced by Jardine's Custom are heirloom quality pieces of work. Made to be functional and reliable yet with attention to beauty and the fit and finish that customers expect in a truly custom-made firearm.

Jardine's 1911 Essentials
A 6 hour course designed to teach you cleaning, maintainance, diagnosis, performance, enhancements, and more. This class is sure to save anyone owning a 1911 pistol both time, and money. $200.00

The class covered detail stripping the 1911, cleaning and lubing it, checking the extractor tension and retensioning it, inspecting the pistol for common problems, and Jardine answered many questions, and took a look at students' 1911s and found various minor or major problems with most of the students' pistols, including several very expensive pistols from highly regarded makers. He repeatedly stated his opinion that the firearms industry as a whole cuts corners in terms of quality because most guns don't get shot enough for problems with them to become apparent. It was very clear that in his own work he considers it very important to take the time to do it right, even if it ends up costing more. He also noted repeatedly that the standard 5" government size 1911 in .45 ACP tends to be the most reliable, and that shortening the length of the slide makes it much more difficult to keep the gun running reliably.

He noticed some problems with the improperly fitted extractor on my 1911 and demonstrated the problems it was having holding proper tension even after fiddling with it for a while, and how it was rotating(clocking) slightly. I left it with him and picked it up the next day with a new extractor fitted and tensioned and with some other minor work he'd done after noticing problems during the extractor fitting process. He charged a very reasonable rate for the work and it was obvious that he cared about the students and their learning and making sure they were satisfied with the class and the work. Note: he did not in any way solicit gunsmithing business from the students. A few people, including me, approached him and asked about it.

The negative thing I would say about the class is that most students, including myself, had very little experience detail stripping and reassembling the 1911, so he had to come around to each person and help them out, which took a really long time. It would have been better if he had some assistants to help everybody, or if maybe he showed a video clip on the projector of how to do each step, so that only people who were having serious problems would need help.

I would say the class is well worth your time and money if you're a 1911 aficionado. The 1911 as a serious defensive use gun is best suited for those who are willing to take the time and effort to maintain it properly and check it regularly for problems. See http://vickerstactical.com/faqs-with-larry-vickers/

Hand loading dummy rounds for ball and dummy drill

2011-04-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

I was watching Hickock45's video on trigger control, which is pretty good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xa5JPLGIsU
My tip on trigger control is at http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/2010/12/trigger-control.html

and he mentions doing the ball and dummy drill, in which you load a number of live rounds and dummy rounds into a magazine in random order and detect flinching when you drop the hammer on a dummy round. That drill is very useful for detecting and correcting problems with your trigger control.

He mentioned that he hand loads some dummy rounds with no primer or powder for use in this drill, rather than using commercial snap caps. This is a great idea. I wouldn't want to use relatively expensive snap caps for this at the range because there's a good chance that they'll get lost. Also because commercial snap caps look and feel so different from real rounds that if I was loading the mag myself, I would know which ones they were.

I generally had not been interested in loading dummy rounds myself for use dry firing at home because I was afraid that I might accidentally load a live round and not know the difference. But for the purpose of this specific drill, the dummy rounds would only be used at the range while pointed at the backstop anyways. And when I load them into the mag, if I don't specifically look at the primer, I can't tell them from live rounds so they are more likely to surprise me and reveal my flinch. If you don't reload, an alternate option is to use snap caps but just mix live rounds and snap caps in multiple magazines and put the magazines in a bag and shuffle them and pick a random magazine.

S&W M&P vs Glock

2011-02-10T22:47:00.000-08:00

S&W M&P vs Glock
See also http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/2009/10/glock-vs-springfield-xd.html

M&P pros:
- Arguably more ergonomically contoured grip and adjustable backstraps (the gen 4 Glocks have adjustable backstraps. I haven't held one so I don't know how it feels, but I don't like the feel of the older Glocks)
- Can be field stripped without dry firing
- Comes with steel sights vs Glock's plastic sights
- Traditional rifling means you can shoot lead bullets through it, as opposed to the Glock's polygonal rifling
- Ambidextrous slide release
- Beavertail grip prevents hand bite.
- Traditional 1911 style grip angle provides similar feel to other guns

- Smith and Wesson is an American based company if that matters

Glock pros:
- Magazines less expensive
- Greater availability of spare factory or aftermarket parts / holsters
- Longer track record of service
- Shorter, more positive trigger reset (The Apex RAM for the M&P is an aftermarket part that can improve the M&P in this regard).
- Pisses off anti-gunners more
- I don't have direct experience, but I've read the Glock is easier to detail strip.

Arguable:
The M&P is available with an ambi thumb safety on some models.
The M&P comes with a magazine disconnect on most models, which some people may or may not like, but it's easily removable.
The M&P is more likely to auto-forward often when you slam a mag in while the slide is locked back. If you get the technique right, it will do it every time. This may or may not be desirable depending on preference.

DIY Kydex links

2011-02-10T21:23:00.000-08:00

I read a few forum threads about how easy it is to make custom Kydex holsters and mag pouches and such, and I purchased some gear from knifekits.com and will give it a try when it gets here.

It looks really easy and enjoyable, and you can save a lot of money and time spent waiting for commercial holster vendors to work through their backlog (Currently 16-18 weeks lead time for Raven Concealment, and Kaluban Cloak was about 8 weeks, for example). And you can choose a lot of different colors or camo patterns for the Kydex, and make gear for rare guns or gun/flashlight combinations that otherwise would be unattainable. For example, I'm thinking of making a sheath for my cheap Romanian AK bayonet, just for fun.

Some tips I've gleaned from reading a bunch of threads:
- Don't heat the kydex in the same oven you use for food. It can release toxic chemicals. Use a dedicated toaster oven.
- If making a holster for a gun with a weapon mounted light, you need to make a jig to cover the trigger guard area. If you didn't, then the kydex pressed in around the trigger guard would prevent the light from coming out.
- Buying a kydex press is a waste of money, but do get the nice 1 inch thick PVC or neoprene foam from a vendor like knifekits. Many sources said the sleeping mat foam was not as good.

M4carbine how to make a kydex holster picture tutorial
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=64714

http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?10608-Kydex-Press-My-Way

http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?1687-Building-a-Kydex-press-and-making-a-Kydex-Sheath-Tutorial

Kydex pouch for ar-15
http://www.migunowners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=87106

http://www.derekleewo.com/wp/2009/04/10/homemade-leatherkydex-tuckable-iwb-holster/

Another tuckable crossbreed ripoff
http://nicksfirearms.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/project-p11/

Forming kydex belt loops
http://www.paracordsecrets.com/articles/22/article.html

Holster tutorial
http://www.steyrclub.com/vb/threads/2602-Procedure-For-Forming-Kydex

Big Do it yourself kydex thread
http://www.ar15.com/FORUMS/topic.html?b=10&f=17&t=628104&page=1

Podcast on getting started with Kydex
http://www.gunfightercast.com/wordpress/2011/01/20/gc-038-getting-started-with-kydex/

Tactical preschool blog series

2011-01-02T23:12:00.000-08:00

http://tgace.wordpress.com/category/tactical-preschool/

A nice series of posts on an introduction to (mostly) room entry and clearing tactics, with helpful illustrations.

Steve Levitt on crack economics

2011-01-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_levitt_analyzes_crack_economics.html

Freakonomics author Steven Levitt presents new data on the finances of drug dealing. Contrary to popular myth, he says, being a street-corner crack dealer isn’t lucrative: It pays below minimum wage. And your boss can kill you.

...

From the transcript:

But then we asked the gang member, "Well, why is it you always get paid, and your workers don't always get paid?" His response is, "You got all these n[..] below you who want your job, you dig? If you start taking losses, they see you as weak and shit." And I thought about it, and I said, "CEOs often pay themselves million-dollar bonuses, even when companies are losing a lot of money. And it never would really occur to an economist that this idea of 'weak and shit' could really be important." But maybe -- maybe "weak and shit" -- maybe "weak and shit" is an important hypothesis that needs more analysis.

Trigger control

2010-12-17T22:09:00.000-08:00

For more technique tips: http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/search/label/shooting%20tips

The most difficult part of shooting any gun accurately is trigger control. Here is my step by step guide to proper trigger control. A lot of this material came from taking Louis Awerbuck classes, especially the follow through and trigger reset sections. Follow through and reset are the most underrated areas of trigger control, and learning them helped me a lot. Any part that you think is incorrect is probably from my interpretation of the material.

During this whole procedure, you should have a hard focus on the front sight. This is because you're trying to line up the rear sight, front sight, and target. By focusing on the middle object, you can best keep all three aligned.

1) Touch the trigger.
What part of your finger you use depends on both the gun that you're using, and your own body. You should pull the trigger somewhere between the tip of your trigger finger and your first knuckle. It doesn't need to be complicated, because you'll instinctively know what's right. But here is an analysis for those who like to think about things in detail. The part of the trigger finger that you use depends on:
a) The weight of the trigger pull and your own hand strength. Pulling the trigger with the part of your finger near the tip may have finer control, but it will be weaker. Pulling the trigger with your first knuckle will have a little less fine control, but have more strength. You'll want to match the strength of your pull with the weight of the trigger.
b) The distance between the trigger and the back of the grip, and the size of your hands. A long trigger like on a double action revolver may require you to touch the trigger with your finger closer to the tip, especially if you have small hands, which would be undesirable since the trigger pull would be heavy. (see http://www.personaldefensenetwork.com/articles/handguns/dealing-with-the-double-action-trigger/ for more on double action triggers). A gun with a short trigger and thin grip like on a 1911 would allow you to use any part of your finger that you choose.

2) Take up the slack
Press the trigger through the light section of the pull until you start to feel some resistance. If you just smash through the slack, then when you hit the firm part of the trigger, you'll have too much momentum and slap the trigger, pulling the gun off target. Thus this section has to be distinct from step 3.

3) Press the trigger directly to the rear until the gun goes bang
As you press the trigger it should be moving at a constant velocity. We don't want any stop and go. During this process, the sights will be wobbling a little on the target. Accept this, and don't try to hit perfectly. If you try to wait until the sights are perfectly aligned and then yank the trigger fast, you will pull the gun way off target.

4) Follow through
After the gun goes bang, the muzzle will rise a little. Maintain focus on the front sight. Do NOT look at the target to see where you hit. If you get in the habit of looking at the target immediately after shooting, you will sometimes lower the gun while shooting so you can see the target, and end up shooting low. After you pull the trigger, the sear releases, the striker/firing pin hits the primer, which ignites the powder, which creates expanding gases, propelling the bullet out the barrel. This all happens pretty fast, but you can mess it up before the bullet leaves the barrel.

5) Reset the trigger
Keeping your finger on the trigger, let the trigger out just until you hear and/or feel a click, indicating that the trigger has reset and the gun is ready to fire again. Do NOT chuck your finger off the trigger immediately after shooting. If you get in the habit of taking your finger off the trigger immediately, you will sometimes end up shooting left(as a right hander). For that reason, you should always reset the trigger before taking your finger off the trigger, even if you're only taking one shot.
However, if you're taking more than one shot, there is an additional benefit. When you only let the trigger out to reset, the next trigger pull will be as short and light as possible for that particular gun, which means you start about halfway through step 3 for your next shot.

Poor SIG Sauer customer service experience

2010-11-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

I bought my SIG P220 Equinox, and put about 600 rounds through it, with failures to feed or extract about once per 100 rounds. I sent it back to SIG and they polished the feed ramp and changed the extractor, and did their action enhancement package and short reset trigger (AEP and SRT) at my request, which I paid for. Reliability seemed to be improved, with about one malfunction in another 500 rounds.

I bought the .22LR conversion kit for the P220 when it was on sale last holiday season. From the start it had numerous failures, about 3 out of every 10 shots, with all different kinds of ammo. I eventually sent it back(the .22LR upper with the P220 frame). After 8 weeks I finally heard back: my frame was out of spec so it couldn't be repaired, and they wanted to send me a new gun. Where I live in CA, an out of state transfer on a new gun costs about 75 bucks, but they were not willing to reimburse me for the transfer fee. They were willing to throw in two .45 ACP P220 mags instead.
When I mentioned that I had the AEP and SRT done on the old gun, he said he couldn't find any record of it in the computer system, so he couldn't authorize having it done, but then I dug up the old RMA number and he then could check the record and then he authorized it.

So I said okay, and gave them the info for the FFL to send it to, and specifically requested that they let me know when it ships and send a tracking number.

About a month goes by and I haven't heard anything so I asked my FFL if it came in. He said yes, it had been there for two weeks. SIG had not included any contact info with the box indicating who it was for, so the FFL had no idea who to contact to let me know it was in. SIG had also not contacted me at all when it shipped. It came back with a new .45 upper on it. It came back in a different, smaller box than the factory box I sent it in. I'm not sure if it has the AEP and SRT, the trigger pull is smooth but seems to be heavier than I remember in double action. The reset is short but I can't remember how long it was originally to compare it to. It did not include the .22LR conversion kit. It did include the 2 spare .45 mags which I didn't need.

I called and asked where the .22 kit was. The customer service rep said that I had to send in the old .45 upper and then they would send me the .22 kit. Nobody had mentioned this to me before. So now I'm about to send it back and wait for that. Of course, we have no guarantees that the new gun won't have all the same plethora of problems the old gun has. The new gun they sent me is still in its 10 day California waiting period so I have no idea what problems it may have.

So basically my impression of SIG is that their quality is terrible and their customer service is not much better. The customer service is very disorganized and non responsive. Due to the crappy quality of their gun, which cost twice as much as a Glock btw, I've been without my gun for about 3 months, I'm out the transfer fee out of my own pocket, and I may or may not end up with a gun that runs properly, that remains to be seen. I would be very reluctant to buy any more SIG products.

On the plus side, they always paid for shipping both ways and they do seem willing to make things right.

Update: I finally received the new .22LR conversion kit. The barrel had some slight pitting spots that look like rust spots all over it. When I installed it on the P220, it wouldn't return to battery at all without forcefully pushing the slide forward. The movement of the slide felt very sticky. This was after cleaning and lubing it. I racked it by hand about 200 times, at which point the action was fairly smooth. When I shot it, it was pretty reliable with CCI Mini-mags, Winchester Super-X, and Federal bulk pack. There were some feeding problems with Wolf match ammo, but overall it's now performing as I would expect. The point of impact was a few inches above the point of aim at 7 yards, and I had to crank the adjustable rear sight down almost all the way before they were at the same point. Overall it's now at an acceptable state where I wouldn't really complain or try to return it.

I also shot about 100 factory rounds and 50 of my reloads through the P220 .45, with no malfunctions. I noticed that the sights were set up so that the point of impact coincides with the front sight dot, not the top edge of the front sight. This was the same setup that the old one had, and is not to my liking but is not that big of a deal I guess. To SIG's credit, in the end, I ended up with an apparently working gun and .22 conversion kit.

Ejection port loading vs magazine tube loading on a pump shotgun

2010-10-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

A lot of trainers teach that when your pump shotgun is empty, you should pull the bolt back, load a round into the ejection port, and push the bolt forward.

This is supposedly faster than loading from the magazine tube, but its speed is predicated on the assumption that you'd know exactly when you fired the last round, then pull the bolt back and leave it back.

That's a bad assumption. In a fight, it would be difficult to keep track of how many rounds you fired, especially if you're loading extra rounds into the mag any time you get a chance.

As a matter of training, every time you fire a pump action shotgun, you should automatically, without pausing, rack it completely, all the way to the rear and then forward. Your bolt should never be just sitting open to the rear during a fight. If your bolt is forward and you hear a click, the easiest thing to do would be to load a round in the mag tube, then rack the bolt completely back and forward to load the round. This has the advantage that you only need to practice one way of loading, which is a big advantage in keeping things simple.

Loading through the ejection port, you can load from the top, in which case you might have problems if you ever mounted an optic, or you can load from the bottom, which requires twisting your arm uncomfortably.

Loading through the ejection port, you turn the gun slightly inward to help the round fall in to the gun. Loading through the mag, you turn the gun slightly outward to give your support side hand access to the mag tube, which is consistent with the same direction you turn a handgun or a carbine when doing a speed reload.

Loading your first round through the ejection port when doing an administrative load is fine because the bolt starts out back because you started that way to show the gun was unloaded. But once the shooting starts, why would your bolt ever be back? This is perhaps a matter of training and preference, but I like to keep it simple.

Option 1:
Every time you fire, rack the bolt fully. Every time you hear a click, load through the mag(the same way you always load) and rack the bolt. When you get a chance, load more rounds through the mag.

Option 2:
Every time you fire, rack the bolt fully, except on the last shot where you only pull the bolt back You've been keeping track and you know exactly when you're on the last round, and you're not afraid of inducing a double feed if there indeed was one more round in the mag. Port load a round and push the bolt forward. When you get a chance, load more rounds through the mag.

For more technique tips: http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/search/label/shooting%20tips

Low light training

2010-09-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to take a training course with a low light component recently. Here are some thoughts.

If you are using a hand held flashlight, it's really really useful to have a lanyard on it that you can wrap around your wrist, for when you need to reload or clear a malfunction, you can just let the flashlight hang (after turning it off ideally).

I'm not a fan of flashlights where you push the tailcap switch gently for momentary use and click it hard to keep it on. Under stress, you'll pretty much always click it hard, which is undesirable because now you have to click it again to turn it off. This is assuming that your style is to turn the light off most of the time, which may be too complicated for some (possibly including me).

The ideal flashlight switch style would have different motions for momentary and permanent on.

The Crimson Trace Lasergrip on my Dan Wesson PM7 1911 fared pretty well. It held zero over about 500 rounds, and was very useful in fast shooting, especially on multiple targets. In near full darkness it actually also helped light up the target a little, enough to see features on the target. One downside to it, is that it's another switch to manipulate, especially if you want to have discipline about turning it off as soon as the shooting is done. To illustrate:

A target appears. You:
- light it up with the flashlight
- decide to shoot
- activate the laser
- switch off the safety
- pull the trigger several times
When the threat stops (but theoretically there may be other threats there so it might behoove you to turn the light off):
- click the safety on
- deactivate the laser
- deactivate the flashlight

That's a pretty complicated dance to do, and would be simplified with no laser and no safety lever. As always, it's a matter of training and doctrine. e.g., one could train to do this dance proficiently, or one could choose to just not turn the light/laser off or re-engage the safety at this point. When shooting normally I have no problem clicking the safety off and on without even thinking about it, but throwing in the light and laser was causing me to get my wires crossed a little.

The Dan Wesson PM7 did not fare so well. It was having some major malfunctions where there was a horizontal stovepipe and the slide would not move forward or back without a lot of fiddling with it. It's going to be on its way back to Dan Wesson pretty soon. Unlike most other companies, which email you a shipping label, Dan Wesson sends it to you physically, which is kind of weird. I'm hoping they can get to the bottom of it. It's apparently pretty unusual and only reproduced about once every hundred rounds.

On Pearce grip extensions

2010-06-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

Pearce grip extensions are very popular for subcompact handguns like the Glock 26/27 or Springfield XD subcompact. It's basically an extended piece of plastic that replaces your magazine's baseplate and gives your pinky a place to rest when gripping the gun.

I'm not a big fan. There's nothing wrong with them, but it's a solution in search of a problem (which happens to cost at least around 6 bucks per mag).

Try this: grab your left wrist with your right hand. Try using all five fingers gripping equally hard. It will actually feel somewhat weak and your hand will feel like it's getting tired fast. Take your index finger out of the picture by relaxing it. The grip will get much stronger. Then take your pinky finger out of the picture by relaxing it a little. It's still making contact but just not pulling hard compared to the other fingers. The grip will get stronger(at least it does for me). This is pretty common way of gripping when training wristlocks in martial arts.

Why does this work? To be strong, your grip needs to have good alignment, with all fingers besides the thumb pulling in more or less the same direction. Your index finger doesn't grip well with the others because it isn't aligned with the other three, so it's gripping on a different vector than they are. If you look at your knuckles, your middle finger, ring finger, and pinky knuckles are on a line, that the index knuckle is not on.

Your pinky finger is also not aligned with the middle and ring fingers relative to the thumb.
If you touch your pinky fingertip to your thumb tip, or otherwise pull your thumb and pinky towards each other, your hand is sort of folded in half, which is not a strong, natural position. If you touch your middle and ring fingertips to your thumb, it forms a natural O shape that is comfortable and strong.

I think that people who feel uncomfortable shooting a subcompact without grip extensions are trying to grip hard with their pinky, leading to discomfort when they can't get a firm grip with it. If you just relax your pinky, which is preferable, then it doesn't really matter either way.

For the record I have an XD 9 subcompact that I have shot with or without Pearce grip extensions and it makes no difference to me. Just my perspective, not saying I know anything about anything, or that what works for me is best for everyone.

When I took a handgun shooting course from Louis Awerbuck, he mentioned the same thing; he sees no need for grip extensions, and in fact they hinder people by tempting them to grip hard with the pinky.

Gunsmith Cats

2010-06-11T23:18:00.000-07:00

I was searching imfdb for CZ75s being used in media and one of the links was to a manga/anime called Gunsmith Cats, about a sexy female gunsmith/bounty hunter. What!? That's about ten kinds of awesome. It looks to be pretty authentic too with regards to the guns. I'm not sure where the cats come into it, and I'm not sure I approve of the heroine working with the ATF. But still, will check it out.

The CZ-75 was also used in the terrific one season wonder Space: Above and Beyond.

Gun safety and Rule #1

2010-06-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

Gabe Suarez has a blog post about 'combat gun safety' here:
http://www.warriortalknews.com/2010/05/true-combat-gun-safety.html

Rule One: Treat All guns as if they were loaded. Notice I did not say the traditional - All Guns Are Always Loaded, because truly they are not. Yet, guns are useless if they are not loaded. So we always begin with the assumption that they ARE loaded. When handling the piece in an administrative manner - we first check it to verify its condition and if necessary, we unload it. We always run a hot range. If you can't be trusted with a loaded gun why are you even in class?

I couldn't agree more. I don't know how many times I've heard someone tell me some spiel about "All guns are always loaded period, and you need to know that it's always loaded in your heart" or "How can you tell if a gun is unloaded? Trick question! All guns are always loaded!"

I don't believe in trying to deceive myself, nor would that work on me.

Grant Cunningham has a similar view on rule 1
http://grantcunningham.com/blog_files/01cd852e1047ef52554640508d2bf118-258.html

While Rule #1 logically admits that there is such a thing as an unloaded gun, it asks us to pretend that it doesn't really exist. This is important, as the rule only makes sense if the state of being 'unloaded' exists, but it implores us to make believe that such a state doesn't really exist. This situation is called cognitive dissonance: holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously. It's a state of mind that humans don't tolerate all that well.

If one accepts the fallacy that an unloaded state doesn't exist, it becomes clear in the mind that the remaining three rules apply only to loaded guns. After all, the first rule says that there is no such thing as an unloaded gun; therefore, the other three rules can apply only to loaded guns, because - remember! - unloaded guns "don't exist."

[...] One of the best shooting instructors I know - Georges Rahbani - has done just that. He acknowledged the problem and dealt with the issue by eliminating what I'll call "Traditional Rule #1" from his curriculum. Instead, he teaches that any and all guns, loaded or unloaded, are treated to the same standards, which he calls The Three Commandments of Gun Safety

Welcome to Earf

2010-05-24T00:28:00.000-07:00

There are about 6300 results on Google for "welcome to earf"
http://www.google.com/search?q="welcome+to+earf" which people are claiming is what Will Smith said in Independence Day. This is despite the fact that in the movie he clearly articulated the 'th' at the end of Earth.

How did this start and get so widespread? It seems a little weird since Will Smith and other actors did plenty of dumb stuff in that movie to make fun of.

See also:
The Office Seagon 6 episode "Body Language"

Darryl: "That sounds alright"
Dwight: "It sounds a lot better than just 'aight.'"
Darryl: "I didn't say 'aight.'"

Wikipedia wanderings

2010-05-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_line_%28parades%29
->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_funeral
->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_K-Doe
->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother-in-Law_%28song%29

What a terrific song, a brutal rip on the singer's mother in law wrapped in a relatively upbeat song. There's an interesting and always fun kind of song where the lyrics are totally incongruous with the music. See also Nina Gordon's cover of Straight out of Compton

or

A good man is easy to kill by Beulah

On stance and skeletal alignment for shooting

2010-05-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

A lot of people say that shooting stance is a matter of personal preference, which is true, but at the same time there are certainly reasons why one stance might be objectively better than another, especially in specific contexts.

Thesis: If your goal is to shoot rapidly with minimal muzzle rise, then the ideal stance has your skeleton aligned to resist recoil, without needing to use a lot of muscle.

Recoil is something pushing you straight backwards away from the target. What would you do naturally if someone walked up to you and was about to shove you back, hard? You'd probably do something like a wrestler's stance. You'd lower your level by bending your knees, and square up to the person with your feet, knees, hips, shoulders, and head all facing them, and raise both arms up to about shoulder level with your hands facing them. You'd generally want one leg back so that your rear leg can give you a forward push.

Something like this:

This stance is ideal to resist a person pushing you, and it's similarly good to resist the effects of recoil.
That's because it has good skeletal alignment towards a target. Note: I'm not saying you would bend forward that much when shooting or otherwise look exactly like that; it's just to give you a general idea.

You are skeletally aligned if:
Your head, shoulders, hips, knees, and feet are all connected more or less in a straight line. You might be bent forward a little bit, but there should be no misalignment sideways.

Like this:

In addition, your feet, knees, hips, shoulders, and head should all be facing in the same direction, with bilateral symmetry. In other words, your body is not twisted or tilted in any way. Like this:

You are misaligned if these 2 things are not true.
Like this:

Misalignment due to the head being tilted to the side

Bilateral symmetry is broken because one shoulder is higher than the other

Bilateral symmetry is broken because the head is twisted to one side, not everything is facing the same direction.

When you have good skeletal alignment, resisting something pushing you back is relatively easy and you can stay relaxed. When you are misaligned, you can still do it, but it takes a lot more energy and requires you to get more tense.

Let's say you had to do a bench press. Would you keep your head, shoulders, hips, and knees facing up towards the ceiling, or would you turn your knees facing to the right and your head facing to the left? Now, maybe you could do the bench press while misaligned, but you'd have to use a lot more muscle, and get tired faster. And probably injure yourself if using any heavy weight. Why make it hard for yourself?

In wrestling or grappling, your goal is to always keep yourself aligned and to misalign your opponent. In gunfighting, your opponent probably is not going to be able to touch you, so the only reason you'd be misaligned is if you did it to yourself.

I'm not saying everything has to be perfectly aligned and bilateral. For example, you probably would want to have one foot back, which gives you a base to the rear so you can push forward, which is not bilateral. And your rear foot might naturally feel more comfortable pointed out 10 or 20 degrees. A little bit of slack is fine as long as there is a good reason for it, but the general principle of alignment holds true.

Quiz: which is more aligned? Which would be superior for shooting quickly while minimizing muzzle rise?

Notes:

Aside from the obvious twisting of your body when doing a bladed stance, also look at your shoulders. Often when you do a bladed stance, you end up with your shooting shoulder higher than your other shoulder, which is no good.

With isosceles your skeletal structure helps reduce the effects of recoil, so there's no need for the push-pull that Weaver requires. Having to do an isometric push-pull will cause your muscles to get tired prematurely, and is antithetical to being relaxed, which is required for optimum performance in any sport.

When using a rifle or shotgun, if you stand more square, you need a shorter stock. You should mount the stock a little more inboard towards your chest as opposed to out towards your arm, because you want to minimize the effect of having your shooting shoulder pushed back by recoil (which would reduce your bilateral symmetry).

When shooting any kind of gun, keeping your elbows pointed out sideways rather than down helps reduce muzzle rise, because when your elbows are pointing down, that naturally allows your arms to bend upwards (like doing a bicep curl). Some uber-tactical guys might complain that keeping your elbow out sideways makes it more likely to get shot off, and that may be true, but I wouldn't worry about it that much. You can always keep your elbow down when rolling out from behind a barricade.

When you mount a long gun you should always keep your head upright in a natural position without moving it, and raise the gun to your face, don't put your head down on the gun. Moving your head will usually end up with your head misaligned.

Other advantages of standing square vs bladed:
- If your body is bladed with your hips facing to the right, then you're going to have a harder time tracking a target moving to the left. This is because you're starting out with your upper body already twisted to the left, so if you twist more to the left it becomes really uncomfortable. If you start square, you can twist to either side a certain amount if you had to.
- If you're wearing body armor, standing square has obvious advantages.

- Another thing you can do to reduce muzzle rise is to put your support hand farther forward on the forearm of the long gun. This helps reduce muzzle rise and gives a bit finer control when moving the muzzle around(like how when you write with a pen, you hold the pen close to the tip). Holding the forearm farther out does have the disadvantage that it's a bit less stable, since it's farther away from you, the rifle feels heavier due to leverage. So for fighting, it's useful to stand square and hold your support hand near the muzzle for fine control of the muzzle and good control of recoil and muzzle rise for rapid shooting. For target shooting, it's better to stand sideways and hold the forearm very close to your body with your support arm, with your support elbow resting against your hip for stability, since you only care about stability and not about moving the muzzle from target to target, nor about muzzle rise.

- Standing bladed may make your body a smaller target, but any hit on the target will probably go through two or more vital organs. Standing square, a hit is probably going to go through one at most. I wouldn't say either square or bladed has an advantage in this regard.

For more technique tips: http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/search/label/shooting%20tips

New 10/22

2010-04-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

I just impulse-bought a Ruger 10/22 with funky green laminated stock. It looks like this(not the one I bought, but identical):

Some may call it gauche, but I like it. Planned upgrades: I want to make it a 'Liberty Training Rifle" for Appleseed shooting. Tech sights since I want a longer sight radius, and an auto bolt release and extended mag release, and a GI web sling. It's kind of fun to have a tinkering gun, that's not for defensive purposes so I don't mind potentially messing it up.

I want to get into precision shooting; when I took carbine courses before, my groups during the sighting-in period were dreadful.

Appleseed, here I come!

Well, after I get it out of 10-day California gun jail. :(

Raven Concealment holster review

2010-03-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

Raven Concealment is a maker of modular Kydex holsters.

They're fairly unique in terms of the different options; a holster can be converted between IWB and OWB, and use different types of clips and loops, e.g. to become tuckable.

I ordered a Phantom holster with IWB tuckable soft loops for my government sized Dan Wesson 1911. It fits well and the retention is good. When worn as an OWB, it's comfortable and is held very tight to the body, and conceals well for an OWB.

When worn as IWB with the loops, it conceals well and the tuckable feature works fine. I did find it to be a bit uncomfortable, with both the holster and the gun's grip poking me a little bit if I moved around. I do think it might be possible to move it around until I find a position that's comfortable, and get used to it.

For an OWB it's great, but for comfortable all day IWB, I think something leather, especially with a leather body shield like the Crossbreed SuperTuck or Comp-Tac MTAC would be better.

Firearms training review: Firearms training review: Louis Awerbuck Yavapai Firearms Academy 2 day shotgun

2010-01-24T00:16:00.000-08:00

This is a review for the Shotgun stage 2 class at Reed's Indoor Range in Santa Clara. Note: This is actually the first level shotgun class. The curriculum at classes at Reed's are slightly different from YFA classes at other ranges. See http://reedsindoorrange.com/training.html for more.

The ammo requirement on the paper handout I got when I registered said 200 buck, 50 slugs, but in the actual class, buck was only required for the initial patterning stage(maybe 10 rounds at most), then the rest of the class, birdshot was acceptable. I wish I had known that so I could have brought the much cheaper birdshot. Slings are mandatory for the class.

The first half of the first day was in the classroom where he discussed types of shotguns, accessories, ammo, and the importance of patterning shot for each combination of (barrel, choke, ammo, distance). It's important to know both the group size and shape, since you're responsible for every pellet that goes downrange, and if you miss the target a stray pellet may hit some grandma 100 yards away.   On the other hand, for some situations like a riot, you may prefer a wider pattern, but either way you should know ahead of time what the gun and ammo will do.   He said he prefers to just use slugs exclusively to avoid worrying about the pattern at different ranges and to avoid needing to mix different kinds of ammo if a longer range shot is needed.

There was a lot of diversity in the class in terms of experience levels, and at least 4 different models of guns, with many different sling systems. Four out of 12 were left handed.
A bunch of 870s, 3 Mossbergs, and 2 Benelli Super 90s, and 1 Benelli Nova.

He went over how to sling up, and how to load and unload and manipulate the safety, which took a while with all the different systems. When loading, he said for most people, it's preferable to just load through the magazine and not through the ejection port. For most people, it's too complicated to use two different ports for loading.   Ejection port loading is okay if you know you're empty and you're loading administratively, but while fighting, your bolt should always be forward since you always cycle the bolt after firing. It's easier to just load from the mag tube, and if the chamber happens to be empty, to just quickly rack the slide and fire.

We patterned with buck at a few different ranges and observed the patterns growing. Patterns varied greatly depending on gun and ammo used.   Federal buck with flite control wads had a very tight pattern.

We did the rolling thunder drill, where each person fires once, then twice, and so on, up to 5 shots per person. Later we did a different version with the order of firing and the number of shots fired at each step all scrambled up, so communication was important to indicate to the next person when it was their turn.

We did some shooting on negative targets, with a hole cut out of the chest of the target. You'd only hit the paper if you missed. After shooting 1-3 rounds we would reload immediately.

We did shooting at multiple target drills.   With a pump-action, it's important to shoot, then as you run the bolt you are already transitioning to the next target, so you're ready to shoot by the time the muzzle gets to the next target. When you finish hitting your last target, swing the muzzle back to cover the first target, because he's the most likely that you need to deal with soon.

We zeroed with slugs. He demonstrated shooting from prone or sitting and we had to choose one.
For precision shots, manipulate the trigger more like handgun/rifle, with squeeze and follow through.   In order to follow through properly, don't run the bolt right away on a pump.

Snap shots with slugs.

Slug select drill: mag tube must be downloaded by one. Put slug in the mag tube and rack the slide to put it in the chamber. This may eject a live round from the chamber, which is acceptable.

We did some drills where we had to mix slugs and buck in the mag tube and it quickly became confusing, which is the point; don't do it.
There were a few more drills I think but this is all that I remember.

I thought it was a good class and I learned a lot. He mentioned that in a 2-day class, there isn't enough time to go over everything he'd want to, so he'd rather just cover certain things in depth than to try to cover everything briefly.   The class did not involve any shooting while moving, shooting a moving target, transitioning to handgun, or low light shooting.

Some other notes:
All defensive shotguns need, in order of importance:
- a well fitted stock (stock fitting for fighting is not necessarily the same as fitting for trap/skeet)
- a sling
- a white light (SureFire forends are the best)

Proper length of pull is a function of neck and forearm length, not so much overall height.

For most people 12.5 - 13 inch is a good fit. Generally the standard stock as it comes from the manufacturer is too long. With the stock on your bicep in the crook of your arm, the second knuckle from the fingertip should be on the trigger comfortably.
With a well fitted stock you can:
- reach the forend and rack the bolt comfortably
- mount the gun comfortably by raising it up to your face and not deviating your neck at all from its natural position.
- lean forward aggressively to control recoil
- stand more square with both hips facing the target.   If you have a more sideways stance with hips facing to the right, then you can't easily swivel to shoot a new target to the left. A sideways stance would also be more uncomfortable when moving around.
An overly long stock may interfere with these things.

Mossberg safety position is good, can keep trigger finger straight as on rifle/pistol, and keep the same firing grip through all manipulations.
A crossbolt safety requires you to keep your trigger finger crooked on the safety which happens to be near the trigger.
But he prefers the 870 anyways, because it's a very reliable, sturdy design that hasn't changed since the 50s or 60s.

Bead vs ghost ring:
He said he generally will leave whatever came on the gun, and has a few of both.   He mentioned a soldier who could get a cloverleaf group at 50 yards with slugs and a bead sight, so it is possible to be accurate with a bead, although of course rifle / ghost ring sights are generally better at distance. If you add sights to your barrel, you should always have the gunsmith use silver solder. Don't trust any claims of super space shuttle epoxy, with any glue, that sight will be flying off at some point.

Vang comp:
choke / backboring is useful, porting is not so useful.   If tight pattern is desired, that can be accomplished more cheaply by picking the right ammo.

When using a traditional stock (non full pistol grip), always shoot with your thumb of your firing hand on top of the receiver, not wrapped around the receiver. This is to avoid hitting yourself in the face with your thumb.

5.11 / Blade-Tech Revolution holster review

2010-01-23T22:42:00.000-08:00

The 5.11 / Blade-Tech Revolution holster is an inexpensive polymer holster made for a wide variety of handguns. It comes with attachments to use as a belt holster or as a paddle holster. I have one for a SIG P220 and one for a XD9 subcompact. I've used both of them for multiple day training classes with no problems. They retail for around $30, and occasionally LAPolicegear.com has them on clearance. I got one for my SIG P220 for 12 bucks.

I found them to be sturdy, comfortable, and easy to use. When you insert the gun it clicks audibly. It has good retention in the sense that I feel comfortable that the gun will not fall out even if I were to roll around on the ground. It doesn't have any kind of active retention like a Serpa or Safariland ALS, and it doesn't particularly conceal well. I think the best use for this holster would be for range training or open carry in situations where you're not worried about people grabbing your gun, e.g. if you carry at home around a farm or ranch or something.

Thumbs up if you need a holster fitting these parameters.

Review: Rio Royal low recoil 00 buckshot and Federal Tactical 00 buckshot

2010-01-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

I recently took a few defensive shotgun classes, which I'll review later.

I'll keep this one short and sweet:

The Federal Tactical Low recoil 00 buck had a very tight pattern:
Out of a stock 18.5 inch cylinder bore Mossberg 500 barrel it did
2 inches at 5 yards
3.25 inches at 15 yards
6.5 inches at 25 yards

It also functioned flawlessly. I bought it on http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/.

The Rio Royal low recoil 00 buck had a very wide pattern (I didn't measure it, but at 7 yards the pellets would be all over a human torso).   It also did not feed very well into my Mossberg 500's mag tube. About one out of every four rounds, the shell would stick a little bit as I was trying to shove it in, and I would have to wiggle it around a little to get it to go in.   It was usually sticking around where the brass entered the mag tube. Feeding from the mag tube to the chamber, and extraction and ejection from the chamber was flawless.

The feeding issue with the Rio Royal was a big problem to me, I don't necessarily mind a wide pattern for training, but difficulty loading the gun is a deal breaker. While it was significantly cheaper than other brands, I would not buy Rio Royal ammo again.   I think I bought it from http://www.cabelas.com.

Regarding feeding, Rio Royal is high brass while the Federal is low brass, but I don't think that was the problem. I have tried some Remington ammo that was high brass and it fed into the mag tube without problems. I think the Rio Royal brass was just slightly out of spec in its dimensions.

As an aside I should mention I also fired a bunch of Winchester Super-X birdshot, Winchester Super-X slugs, and Federal low recoil slugs.   All functioned perfectly.

AR-15 tip: homemade gapper to reduce chafing of finger on trigger guard

2009-12-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

Most AR-15 trigger guards have a gap near the pistol grip. When the top of your middle finger on your firing hand rubs against the gap, the metal edges of the gap scrape your finger painfully.

Some people stuff a foam earplug in there temporarily to reduce the issue. This is mentioned in the book Green Eyes and Black Rifles. I found it would inevitably fall out after a while.

There's also a product called the Gapper which is a foam piece specifically shaped to fit the gap.

A reviewer for the product on MidwayUSA mentioned that you can accomplish the same goal by using some hot glue from a hot glue gun in the gap to create your own gapper. I tried it and found it works great. The solid glue stays in the gap very well, and is not permanent; if you want you can actually remove it whole and use it in a different rifle.

Handgun grip technique

2009-12-16T22:57:00.000-08:00

These articles/videos say it better than I could.

http://www.handgunsmag.com/tactics_training/combatg_100306/

Good article by Duane Thomas with tips from Brian Enos and Dave Sevigny on gripping the handgun. While they have different nuances of their grip, they both use a thumbs forward, straight thumbs grip with the support wrist bent forward a little bit.

See also:
Magpul Dynamics on handgun grip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm9uG5bPubw

Springer Precision on handgun grip (check the 2 videos)
http://www.springerprecision.com/tip.asp

Maximizing the Combat Grip by Chris Fry
http://www.personaldefensenetwork.com/articles/handguns/maximizing-the-combat-grip/
Check the section about using grip tape to enhance the grip, and where the grip tape was applied

For more technique tips: http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/search/label/shooting%20tips

Blackhawk Knoxx CompStock for Mossberg 500 review

2009-12-11T21:19:00.000-08:00

My "Mossberg 500 Tactical" shotgun came from the factory with a ATI pistol grip stock with collapsible buttstock.
I wrote about pistol grip vs traditional before.

Mini-review on the ATI stock:
There was nothing particularly wrong with it, I found it comfortable and liked the ability to adjust the length.   Recoil was totally comfortable with birdshot, and noticeable but not too bad with buck and slugs. It came with a shell holder on the side of the stock, which I didn't much care for. A shell holder on the side of a stock prevents a cheek weld when shooting left handed, which one might need to do for whatever reason.

The ATI stock was okay, but I prefer a traditional style stock for the Mossberg; with the pistol grip on, you won't be able to manipulate the safety without taking your hand off the firing grip. With the traditional style stock you can very easily and quickly manipulate the safety and slide release without moving from a firing grip, which is one of the strengths of the Mossberg shotguns.   I chose the CompStock over a regular fixed polymer or wood stock because I intend to take a few defensive shotgun classes and shooting 250 rounds of buck and 50 slugs in 2 days is presumably tough on the shoulder.

The Knoxx CompStock for Mossberg 500 is a traditional style shotgun stock which uses a spring to reduce felt recoil. Knoxx was bought by Blackhawk, so you sometimes see it called the Blackhawk CompStock.   Note: the Knoxx Spec-ops stock has a comparable recoil reducing feature but is a pistol grip stock with adjustable length of pull.

When I got the stock, my first problem was that it doesn't come with a stock bolt.   The instructions mentioned something like "Mossberg owners should use their existing stock bolt".    The bolt that comes with the ATI stock is way too short to work with the CompStock, so I was out of luck.

I've read that if you call Mossberg, they will send you a stock bolt for free. Another option is to go to a hardware store and buy a 5/16" hex head bolt that's 5.5 inches long.
Note: 5/16" is the width of the bolt(the long threaded part).   The hex head is 1/2" and thus requires a 1/2" socket. When you look online about Mossberg stock bolts, sometimes you see people say 5/16, sometimes you see 1/2.   This is why.

You'll want one that's exactly 5.5 inches long. 5 inches is too short and 6 inches is too long. I know because I bought a variety of 5/16" bolts.    Stupidly, I tried installing the 6" one, and it was too long and went into the trigger group and broke something in the back of the trigger group. I was lucky that I went to Tabor's Shooter supply in San Bruno and Frank had a trigger group for the Mossberg 500 that he sold me for only $25 (he took my broken one in exchange to use for parts). This was a good deal because a new one costs about $70. I called Mossberg and they would have fixed/replaced it for free but I would have had to send my broken trigger group to them and the turn around time would have been about 3 weeks.

To install the stock bolt, you need a socket wrench, an extender(about 6 inches is sufficient), and a 1/2" hex socket. Obviously if you got some other kind of bolt besides a hex head, you might need some other kind of tool to install it, like a screwdriver or allen wrench.

I would recommend field stripping the shotgun and installing the stock bolt with the trigger group NOT installed. When you install the stock bolt, make sure that it stays in the threaded hole in the back of the receiver. If it protrudes at all into the inside of the receiver, it may interfere with the trigger or safety, and potentially cause a slam fire.

Aside from the stock bolt hassle, installation was very easy and straight forward. You will need a long thin Philips head screwdriver to install one screw. The screwdriver needs to go through a plastic hole and then go a few more inches before screwing in the screw.

The stock has a 13.5 inch length of pull, and you can separately buy a thicker pad that increases the LOP by an inch. It's comfortable to me as it is.

When I was researching this stock(and the Knoxx Spec-Ops), some reviewers said that they felt a cheek slap from the receiver moving back with recoil, and a lot of other reviewers did not mention it or said they didn't feel it.
The instructions say to make sure your firing hand is at least 2 inches away from your face to avoid hitting your face with your hand, and to put your head a bit further back on the stock to avoid cheek slap.
It also recommends keeping the thumb of your firing hand up along the top of the stock rather than wrapping around the narrow portion of the front of the stock, in order to avoid contacting your face with your thumb.

I got a chance to use it in a class where I shot about 150 buck and 40 slugs. The recoil reduction worked pretty well, I didn't really feel any recoil in my shoulder the whole time.   I did get cheek slapped a few times but after a while either I got used to it or figured out what cheek weld to use to avoid it, so after a while it wasn't an issue. Update: I took another class where I shot about 200 buck and 30 slugs. This time I had no cheek slap at all.   I think when people have a problem is when they incorrectly lower their face on top of the stock. You need to keep your head upright and lift the gun up to the side of your face. To tell if your mount is okay for not getting slapped, you can simply pull the stock back hard against your shoulder. The spring will compress a little bit just from the force of your pull.   If you're doing it right, it shouldn't hurt at all.   I do not need to do anything special with my mount for this gun that I wouldn't have done with a traditional solid stock.

Shame on Knoxx for not including a stock bolt(which cost 80 cents at Home Depot). It was a huge hassle to figure out what kind of bolt I needed to get and how to install it.

Was it worth over 100 bucks? I'm still undecided. While it is effective in reducing recoil, I'm not sure how much anyone actually needs recoil reduction equipment vs proper technique to reduce felt recoil.

Resource conservation tips

2009-12-01T22:35:00.000-08:00

1) When you drink bottled water, save the bottles and fill them up with tap water. Put them in the freezer. They displace air and hold the cold better, saving energy in the freezer. Plus they can be used for drinking water in an emergency. If the freezer gets full, just take them out and set them aside, and put them back in later.

2) Unplug unused appliances. Many of them use electricity even when powered off. There are other fancy devices you can buy to optimize further without leaving them unplugged all the time. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power

3) If it takes a long time for the water in your shower to get hot, save the cold water in a bucket. Use it to flush the toilet(flush the toilet then pour the bucket in the tank).

Good SIG customer service experience

2009-11-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

I posted this previously on Sigforum at
http://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/430601935/m/330102671?r=330102671#330102671

Posted October 17, 2009 08:58 PM

I'm just letting you all know about my experience with SIG CS, which was very good.

Since I bought my new P220 Equinox, it had been having malfunctions(mostly failure to feed, a few double feeds), at a rate of about 1 or 2 every 100 rounds. After about 600 rounds of this, I decided to contact SIG customer service.

When I described the issue on the phone, the customer service rep immediately offered to have me send it back to be fixed.

They emailed me a prepaid UPS shipping label. I was told that I would get it back about 10-12 business days from when they received it. I sent it in on a Friday. I received it back the following Thursday, so there was very quick turnaround that beat the estimate by quite a bit.

Since it was going in for service anyways I decided to get the SRT and trigger job (Action Enhancement Package), which I paid for.

To fix the malfunction issue, the gunsmith polished the feed ramp and replaced the extractor, and test fired 50 rounds with no failures. I just put 150 rounds through it with 0 malfunctions, so it seems to have worked.

I'm really happy with the Action Enhancement Package. The pull on double action feels significantly lighter and smoother. I wasn't unhappy with the factory double action trigger, it was comparable to DA on other guns that I've tried. But after the AEP, it's much better. Single action feels a little better but it was always quite good on single action.

The short reset trigger does make the trigger reset noticeably shorter. It doesn't seem to make much difference for me since I don't usually do a lot of rapid fire, but it does what it's supposed to do, and I'll probably appreciate it more if I take some classes with more rapid fire.

The only thing I didn't like about the whole process was that they shipped it back without letting me know or sending a tracking number, so I wasn't able to be home to receive it and had to go pick it up at the shipping hub.

My customer service rep was Jason and the gunsmith was James.

It's pretty lame that my $1k gun even needed to be sent in, and I only got one mag with it when I bought it. So I still have some healthy SIG resentment. But in terms of customer service I'm happy. And as of now I'm very happy with the gun assuming it stays reliable through a few hundred more rounds.

Update - see http://jumpthestack.blogspot.com/2010/11/poor-sig-sauer-customer-service.html
for an update on my SIG CS woes.

About me

2009-11-21T23:20:00.000-08:00

Just a note about me:
In the articles I write, I take an authoritative tone for simplicity, but I don't want to give the impression that I think I'm an authority.
I do not claim to be an expert in anything or to have any qualifications whatsoever. Everything on this blog is a matter of my opinion which may or may not be worth anything.

The name jumpthestack comes from a technique(now long obsolete) in computer security for exploiting a stack buffer overflow vulnerability.

Firearms training review: LMS Defense one day carbine clinic

2009-11-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

See
http://www.lmsdefense.com/lms/home/coursesbycategory/8
for more.

This review is for LMS Defense's one day carbine clinic which was taught by Todd Nielsen and took place at the Metcalf range in San Jose.

This course is intended as a basic introduction to carbine shooting.
We spent a lot of time zeroing the carbines, with both iron sights and optics. He also covered:
- field stripping and cleaning an AR-15 (good tip: turn your charging handle upside down and use it as a tray to hold all the other little pieces that come out of the bolt carrier group)
- speed and tactical reloads,
- shooting and basic marksmanship while prone, kneeling, and standing,
- shooting up close and compensating for sight over bore offset.
- shooting while moving forward
- failure to stop drill; transitioning from shooting at the body to the head or pelvis

It was a good introductory class and I intend to try the Carbine 1 2-day course if I get a chance.

Firearms training review: 2 day defensive pistol by Brian Normandy at Jackson Arms

2009-11-08T22:08:00.000-08:00

See
http://jacksonarms.com/Classes.htm
for more.

This is a review of the 2 day pistol class at Jackson Arms in South San Francisco, CA.
The details aren't on the website but you can call the range for details, they have a variety of defensive shooting classes from time to time.

This course assumes you already know how to operate your weapon and that you know the basics of marksmanship. Marksmanship wasn't really covered at all. The course covered a wide variety of topics, including:
- drawing from the holster(you'd better yell Stop!) and reholstering(always reload very slowly in case you need to use the gun again for some reason, and also to prevent possible unintentional discharges).
- after action drill in which you sidestep, scan the area and check your six, and reholster slowly.
- legal issues related to shooting someone in self defense, taught by Brian's brother Alan, who is a LEO.
- shooting from very close contact range
- shooting around a barricade, slicing the pie and rolling out
- night shooting with a flash light
- clearing malfunctions (and also notably what all the possible causes for each malfunction are, in order to better understand the weapon and how each cause is fixed).
- shooting while moving in a V-pattern
- shooting multiple targets quickly
- moving through hallways/doorways
- communication while shooting (for example asking for cover while reloading, acknowledging the request, and then signaling that you're ready)
- shooting while kneeling and prone
- Zombie Apocalypse drill (you'll have to take the class to find out about that one)

I found it to be a very interesting and worthwhile course.

Firearms training review: Louis Awerbuck Yavapai Firearms Academy stage 1 and 2

2009-11-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

See

http://www.reedsindoorrange.com/training.html
for more.

Louis Awerbuck is a nationally known firearms instructor who has been teaching for many years, including at Gunsite.
I took both the stage 1 and 2 classes at Reed's indoor range in Santa Clara CA. Note: the curriculum for YFA handgun stage 1 and 2 are slightly different at Reed's than at other facilities.

Both classes require that you already own a firearm and a holster and mag pouch, and that you're familiar with its basic operation. Note: for both classes you should either bring a lunch or have a plan to go somewhere in Santa Clara for lunch. There is a one hour lunch break in the middle of the day.

The stage 1 one-day class focused mostly on marksmanship, with Awerbuck going into deep detail in the classroom, then diagnosing everybody's problems on the range. His ability to see and correct people's mistakes is uncanny.   Near the end of the class, he had everybody shoot at a small ammo box from about 15 yards away, and everybody hit it or almost hit it within 2 shots. One fundamental of shooting that he focuses on a lot that many people had a problem with is follow through and trigger reset. When you shoot, you should pull the trigger fully to the rear and hold it there for a moment, and then slowly let it out until it retreats and no further, while keeping the sights aligned on target.    When people shoot and then take their finger off the trigger quickly, it can misalign the sights even though the bullet has no fully left the barrel.   This doesn't get emphasized enough by most instructors.   He went over safety, drawing from a holster and tactical reloads, but otherwise it was not really a 'tactical' or defensive course. The description on Reed's site mentions coverage of handgun and use of force laws, but there wasn't really any of that.

The stage 2 class started with a review of safety and asking if anyone was having any shooting problems. On the range, we warmed up with a review of the things that were covered in the first class until everyone was shooting satisfactorily.   Once that was done, they set up 3 dimensional curved paper targets, which changes the game somewhat. For example, if the target is standing somewhat sideways to you, you don't want to shoot in the middle of the chest (between his nipples) because that will not damage as much tissue as hitting somewhere on the side of his body that's closest to you. So in other words as the target turns, you need to hit at the center of the target relative to you, and not keep aiming at the same spot on the target. The targets were also tilted from 45 to 90 degrees sideways, which again presented challenges in terms of deciding where to shoot on the target.

Later, shooting on the move was added, including moving sideways and forward and back.   Movement is important both to help make yourself harder to hit, and also to gain the best angle to hit the target with a stopping hit.
Finally, no-shoot targets were added. Now movement was even more important in order to find the right angle to hit the target without hitting the no-shoot target, which could be in front of or behind the target.
At the end there was a very cool drill while Awerbuck set up a set of mannequins that were moving on pulleys and you were supposed to head shot one of them without hitting the others. Everybody was able to do it within 2 or 3 shots, and many within 1 shot.

During the class he also covered tactical reloads, speed reloads, shooting from kneeling and clearing malfunctions.

Note: for both classes, students were allowed to pick up the brass off the range at the end of the class, which may be useful to know if you reload.   It would definitely also be useful to bring brass sorting trays since a lot of different calibers were being shot.

After completing the stage 2 course, you get a card which entitles you to shoot on the right hand side range at Reed's, which includes the privilege to shoot from the holster and to rapid fire. I think you have to stay 'current' which means shooting there at least once a month.

Both classes were well worth while, and I would say especially the stage 1 is very worthwhile if you have any problems with your shooting. The stage 2 was very good, but just make sure you understand what you're getting, which is an intermediate level shooting class. Again I felt like there wasn't so much of defensive, gunfighting material.   I would say actually from the perspective of all-around defensive firearms training, the 2-day pistol class taught by Brian Normandy at Jackson Arms was a lot more well rounded.

Firearms training review: Coyote Valley Clays "Experience Package"

2009-11-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

See
http://www.coyoteclays.com/Instruction.htm for more details.

Coyote Valley sporting clays in Morgan Hill CA has a very nice sporting clays facility, and I believe it's the only sporting clays facility in the Bay Area. (Sporting Clays refers to a specific sport, as opposed to trap or skeet).

The experience package is a relatively inexpensive package where if you get a group of 3 or more people, you can get one instructor per 5 people, 50 targets, 50 rounds of ammo, rental of a shotgun, and eye and ear protection.   It's a good way to get introduced to sporting clays.   You have to book it at least a week in advance, and I found that Saturdays are often unavailable, with Sundays and weekdays being available pretty reliably.

I did the experience package twice, with two different instructors. Both times, the instructor got there late. The instructors went briefly over safety and the operation of the shotgun.   They explained basically how to shoot the clays and what to look for, but I felt that they were not really 'instructors' so much as shooters who did not necessarily have a lot of experience teaching how to do it in a detailed way or diagnosing problems. The first time I went, we used a 20 gauge over/under, and the second time we used a 12 gauge over/under.   They were selected by the instructor, so I guess it's up to the instructor's preference.

At each station, they explained the trajectory of the clays and the basic strategy for hitting them, and we shot 10 rounds at each station, for 5 stations total.   Since the facility has 16 stations, you only get to hit 5 out of the 16, which is just enough to get a taste of it.

I feel like the instructors were not that good, but they were certainly adequate for just giving a basic idea of how it works and having a fun afternoon shooting. I intend to try their full day seminar some time in the future.

Firearms Training review: Bill Tidwell NRA pistol and shotgun first steps classes

2009-11-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

The first 2 firearms classes I ever took were NRA first steps pistol and NRA first steps shotgun taught by Bill Tidwell at Reed's Indoor Range in Santa Clara, CA.
See
http://train2besafe.com/courseschedule.html
and
http://www.reedsindoorrange.com/training.html
for more.

Both were pretty good. Both assume no prior knowledge, and all gear such as eye/ear protection, guns and ammo are provided. In both classes, they went over safety, basics of marksmanship (stance, grip, sight alignment and sight picture, trigger control, etc.)
In the pistol class they covered the operation of semi-auto pistols and revolvers. On the second night of class there was live fire with Ruger MKIIIs and Smith and Wesson .22LR revolvers. On the second night there was also the opportunity to take the California Handgun Safety Certificate test for an additional $25.

I highly recommend taking the optional third night class for the pistol class. In that class you get a chance to shoot a wide variety of handguns in different calibers. I vaguely recall at least:
Revolver in .38 special
.40 S&W Beretta 92
9mm Glock (I think model 19)
Walther PPK in .380 ACP
.45 ACP 1911
revolver in .44 Magnum

All the fundamentals of shooting were taught correctly, however I was having some problems with my trigger control which they were unable to fix(and which were later fixed in a Louis Awerbuck stage 1 handgun class which I'll review later). So I would say that Bill and his helpers may not necessarily have the best ability to diagnose and correct shooting errors.

In the shotgun class we used pump action, semi-auto, over-under, side-by-side, and single shot break open shotguns, with buckshot, slugs, and mostly birdshot. There were 12 and 20 gauge shotguns. Due to the fact that I took the class at Reed's indoor range, it was all shooting at stationary paper targets, which doesn't help you much if you want to shoot flying clays, but is certainly useful for a basic understanding of operating a shotgun for home defense. They do teach the same course in Livermore at a range with clays. By the way, also check out Coyote Valley Sporting Clays if you want to try clay shooting.

Overall both classes were well worth the time and money, and a great way to try out shooting without needing to own any guns or shooting gear. They satisfactorily answered any questions about choosing and buying guns, and legal issues, and covered safely storing and maintaining guns.

Sling vs no sling for home defense shotgun or carbine

2009-10-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

A semi-common debate is whether or not one should attach a sling to one's home defense shotgun or rifle.

Sling pros:
You might need hands free to transition to a handgun, manipulate a flashlight or light switches on the wall, open or close doors, deal with children or other family members, or operate a phone or alarm panel.

If someone manages to grapple with you while you're slung it will make it harder for them to get the gun away from you, and you'll be able to use your hands to some degree to fight.

Sling cons:
The sling has the potential of snagging on things, and it takes some small amount of time to sling the weapon on your body.
Some would say it's not needed since home defense engagements tend to be short and you would want the gun in your hands the whole time anyways.
Adds cost, since you need to buy a sling and potentially mounting hardware. This wouldn't apply if you would have bought a sling anyways for field / class use, just not for home defense.
Most slings will prevent you from easily transitioning the gun to your support side, e.g. if you wanted to go around a corner to the left.

Verdict:
Having a sling on a long gun for home defense is worthwhile. A well adjusted sling should not snag on anything and should be very quick to put on your body. The ability to use your hands without putting the gun may be tactically valuable for a number of reasons. A sling on a long gun is equivalent to a holster for a handgun, except it's even more convenient because it stays attached to the gun.

AR-15 cleaning tip

2009-10-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

AR-15 cleaning tip:
After taking the charging handle out of the receiver, lay it on your bench and turn it upside down. Use it as a tray for all the little pins and pieces from the bolt carrier group. It's very handy because everything will fit inside it, and it's the first thing that comes out when you field strip, and the last thing that goes back in when you reassemble it.

Tactical shotgun: pistol grip stock vs standard stock

2009-10-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

Pistol grip stock vs standard stock for tactical shotgun:

Note: Pistol grip stock means a stock that comes with a pistol grip. I'm not talking about shotguns with a pistol grip only.   Those are not recommended because they are generally designed to be shot from the hip, are hard to shoot accurately, and put a lot of recoil in your hand.

Pistol grip stock pros:
Many of them are collapsible M4 style stocks with adjustable length of pull, making them easier to store, and making them easily adjustable for different shooters.
Some, like the Knoxx Spec-Ops stock have recoil reduction buffers.
If you shoot AR-15 / M-16 rifles or other rifles with a pistol grip, the ergonomics are similar.
You can keep your elbows lower and tighter with a pistol grip, which is safer for going around corners without getting your elbows shot off.   With a standard stock you have to have your firing arm's elbow cocked up like a chicken wing.

Standard stock pros:
With a Mossberg, it's a lot easier to manipulate the safety which is mounted at the top of the receiver.   If you have a pistol grip Mossberg, you have to release your firing grip to use your thumb to manipulate the safety. I do NOT like the pistol grip on a Mossberg, it makes manipulating the safety very slow and uncomfortable.
Generally sturdier with fewer pieces to break.
You can carry the shotgun held muzzle up in your hands(with a pistol grip stock, it's very uncomfortable to carry muzzle up). Not sure how much of a pro this is since I think carrying muzzle up is a bad idea for safety reasons.
Less expensive.
You can hit someone with the buttstock easily(not that I think this is a good idea). With a pistol grip stock it's pretty much impossible.

Overall I prefer the pistol grip stock, assuming a crossbolt safety(e.g. Remington 870).   If the gun has a tang mounted safety(e.g. Mossberg) then a standard stock is much preferred.

Glock vs Springfield XD

2009-10-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

This debate has been done to death, but I'll give my thoughts.

Glock pros:
Better reputation for durable finish and reliability. Note: The XD has been through some torture tests as well and is considered very durable and reliable as well. The pre-2006 XDs used an inferior "Bruniral" finish, but now uses Melonite which is basically the same as the Glock's Tenifer finish.
Glock has a wider availability of aftermarket parts including holsters, sights, etc. It's generally harder to find parts for the XD, as well as gunsmiths who know how to fix them, and most people probably just send it back to Springfield if something needs fixing.
Glocks generally weigh less than comparable XDs.
The Glock has a quite shorter trigger reset which means it's easier to shoot rapidly. Note: The XD-M has a much improved trigger reset which is supposedly even shorter than the Glock's. I haven't tried it yet.

XD pros:
It comes with a mag pouch, crappy holster and mag loading tool. The holster and loading tool are pretty useless. I found the holster to have way too tight retention even when the retention screw was totally backed out. The loading tool was awkward to use and much slower than loading by hand or using the Uplula. The mag pouch is okay, although the fact that it holds the mags in a V shape is ergonomically weird and probably not optimal.
The XD has a fully supported chamber, which means it's less likely to have a "kaboom" type issue, especially with overly hot reloads. On the other hand, the Glock's less supported chamber supposedly reduces the chance of feeding failures.
The XD's barrel has traditional rifling, while the Glock's has polygonal rifling. Shooting unjacketed lead bullets through a stock Glock barrel isn't recommended.
The XD comes with metal sights, while the Glock comes with plastic, less durable sights. Note this doesn't apply if you are going to get night sights on your Glock anyways because the night sights are metal. The XD uses metal magazines while the Glock uses plastic mags. I don't think it necessarily matters but some might say the metal mags are more durable and more likely to drop free.
The XD has a 1911-style grip angle, which many shooters prefer.
The XD grip is considered more comfortable by most people, including me. The Glock grip is a bit wider and blockier.
The XD's trigger is a little crisper and less mushy.

The XD has a significant downside: the XD's slide can only be pulled back while the grip safety is depressed. That means that certain one handed malfunction clearing maneuvers may be made more difficult. It also means that if the grip safety mechanism breaks, there's a chance that the gun could be totally locked up, possibly with a live round in the chamber.

Debatable:
The XD has a grip safety, which some people like and some don't. I like the grip safety in concept, but the issues mentioned above regarding pulling the slide back make the XD's implementation of the grip safety very unattractive, unlike on the 1911, where you can pull the slide back without depressing the grip safety.
The XD has a loaded chamber indicator and cocking indicator. Note: Newer Glocks also have a LCI, and you can tell if it's cocked because the trigger is to the rear.
Both companies generally have excellent customer service. I believe the Glock warranty is one year, but they will generally fix your gun for free at any time. The XD's warranty is lifetime. I believe neither company cares if you're the original buyer.

Note:
The XD-M, Ruger SR-9, and S&W M&P are all somewhat newer designs in the same class that are worth considering. For example, they all have adjustable backstraps and none of them require dry firing to field strip. I'm not very familiar with them, so we'll leave it at that.

Viking tactics (VTAC) 2 point sling vs Vickers Combat Application Sling (VCAS) 2 point sling.

2009-10-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

I bought a VTAC sling a while ago, and I wanted to get another one but at this time pretty much every retailer seemed to be out of stock, so I purchased a VCAS.

I got the padded VCAS with acetal adjuster(which just means the buckles are made of plastic, which seems to be pretty tough). It was 50$. I wanted to get padding because my VTAC was chafing my neck a little bit when I used it for a carbine class while wearing just a T-shirt. If you're wearing a vest or something, padding may be unnecessary, but I think it's worth it.   It's also more comfortable if you're using a heavier long gun like a shotgun or a bigger rifle. A potential downside to the padding is that you can't adjust the length of the sling as much since the padded part of the sling can't be adjusted.

I like both of them pretty well and I don't regret buying either.

VTAC pros:
I feel that the quick-adjust works smoother, with a little less friction, especially in the 'tightening' direction.
The VTAC's quick-adjust portion is longer which means the quick-adjust can make more difference. The VTAC can be quick-adjusted much tighter than the VCAS can.
Depending on where you buy, but the VTAC will generally be a little less expensive than the VCAS for comparable models.

VCAS pros:
The VTAC has a tail which sort of dangles. You can tuck it into a little sleeve up to a certain point. The VCAS does not have a dangling tail. The tail on the VTAC doesn't really bother me anyways.
The VCAS uses the same pull tab for both tightening and loosening the sling.   The VTAC uses 2 separate pull points, which is a little more complicated.

Debatable:
The VCAS is longer.   This means that it can fit more comfortably over armor and will be more comfortable for a longer barreled gun. That said, it also means when wearing no armor, and using a shorter barrel M4-style rifle, it can feel a little loose, especially if you attach it on the receiver as opposed to at the very front and back of the gun. The VCAS is designed so that even on its tightest setting you can still shoulder and aim it.   The VTAC, on its tightest setting will be held very tightly to your body, too close to shoulder it, which also makes it more secure.

Were I to buy either of them now, I would get the padded version, which really makes a difference in comfort for all day carry during a carbine class(or real world use but I wouldn't know about that).

2011 update: The more I think about it, the more I think the VCAS has an edge. The fact that you only have one pull tab makes things a lot simpler. The fact that it won't go so tight that you can't shoulder it makes it simpler, since in any given situation if you were surprised you could still shoulder the gun and fire it. Securing it very tight is not that necessary in most situations that I would personally be in. Also the dangling tail on the VTAC adds more complication and the potential that it might go somewhere it's not supposed to. I read about a few people having it go up in the mag well during reloads. The velcro keeper can mitigate that somewhat, but now you have yet another gizmo to mess around with on it.

All this being said I'm now mostly a fan of single points for ARs.

Safariland 6377 holster for Sig P220R

2009-10-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

I really like the Safariland 6377 for Sig P220R. Note that there are different models for the railed and non-railed versions of the P220. It's a belt holster that has an active retention lock. It's comparable to the Blackhawk Serpa, but it's (IMO) better because the release button is activated by the thumb rather than the trigger finger. So there's arguably a smaller chance of having a negligent discharge, and I find after a little practice, drawing is very smooth and just as fast as an open top holster with no retention.

The lock seems very secure. I tried pulling very hard on the grip of the gun but I couldn't get it to come out, or anything to break. A notable feature is that the inside of the holster is suede lined to ease wear on the gun.

The holster sits comfortably on the belt and is fairly low profile as far as outside the waistband holsters go. It
would conceal well with a jacket or vest, but not with anything less. Note: the model 6378 is the same thing but as a paddle holster rather than a belt holster. The paddle would make it stick out a little more, but may be more comfortable and presumably allows for easy on/off(I haven't actually seen it but generally paddle holsters have that option.

Thumbs up for a comfortable and secure range or open carry holster.