Trigger control

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

AAR: Louis Awerbuck Yavapai Firearms Academy 2 day shotgun

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

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

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.