Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach

For the past eight years, I have been the instructor at my local club in a program of "Introduction to USPSA".  It was an opportunity to introduce new shooters to USPSA competition (which I have been active in since 1983), and gave me something to look forward to in every month.

I kept telling myself that I was donating my time as a way of "giving back to the sport".   In truth, since my eyesight has degraded over the years, it was a way of keeping my hand in it, since I was no longer able to see well enough to be competitive.

But last month, I slept through the beginning of my class.  I had to phone the range and tell them that I was unable to attend.

That was a personal disappointment to me, not only because I had several students who wondered where I was, but because it was one of the best parts of my month.   And I slept through it!

The club thought I was "giving back to the sport";  while I enjoyed meeting new shooters and sharing the insights of rules of safety which I had learned over 30+ years of Competition. I had an intrinsic interest in teaching new shooters how to be safe.  It was the best part of my month, and I always looked forward to it.

AS a consequence, I announced to my home club that I was retiring.  Because I was unable to even show up for a scheduled class, it was obvious that I was no longer competent and they should no longer schedule the class.  (I hope they found someone else to take over the class, but I haven't heard from them on that issue..)

It's disappointing to give up one of the few activities which allow me time on the range.   And it was embarrassing to read the emails from the scheduled attendees who asked me "WTF?"

But when it's time to retire ... you know it.  And I knew it.

The gun club was very understanding, and they even provided me an honorarium in the form of a gift card from WalMart.   I hadn't expected that, but it was touching to learn that they appreciated my small contribution to gun-safety at USPSA matches there.

I don't think anyone realized that I had donated eight years of once-a-month class instruction because it was the only way I could enjoy the sport in which I had participated for so many decades.  (In truth, while I was still able to compete, I wanted to ensure that the people  I was competing against had the best instruction on rules and safety ... but it it eventually became more important that I got to meet New Shooters, and none of them ever disappointed me by being an unsafe shooter!)

I'll miss the class, and the opportunity to meet new shooters.   But when your time is through, it's better to gracefully yield to the inevitable, than to fight against it.

It's all about safety, after all.

Michael Voigt

I note the recent passing of Michael Voigt, past president of USPSA.

I knew Mr. Voigt  well enough to say hello, in passing.  I saw him in several Major Matches over the years, but rarely had a speaking acquaintance with him.

Perhaps it sounds petty to mention that he never did me a wrong, but he served USPSA well as a President, and I cannot say as much for some other past presidents.  He was an excellent competitive shooter, and I was incidentally squaded with him at a couple of major matches over the years.

Watching him shoot was like watching a butterfly in field of nectar; he floated from one target to the next, and on stages which caused me problems he set the example.  Everyone who ever squaded with Mr. Voigt  wanted to be Just Like Him ... so we shot too fast, and never minded that we didn't get the A-zone hits as regularly as he did;  he Set The Bar higher than we could ever hope to match.




A Gentleman, he would chat with a lowly C-class shooter as readily as the Grand-Masters with whom he was accustomed to meet in his squad.

The competitive shooting world has diminished a bit with his passing.

Bad Holstering

I realize that this is parody, but you and I have seen people on the firing line who haven't been "significantly" less safe.

What IS "significant" is that the last time I checked, you can't DQ a competitor in IPSC/USPSA for 'sweeping" during drawing or holstering.  (I need to recheck that I am referencing the current edition of the rule book.  Or someone might check for me, and reply in comments.  I'd appreciate it.)

Which is, situationally, "cringe-worthy" because I've seen some people who are not practiced in competition use their 'off hand" to direct their pistol into their holster by placing their off-hand over the muzzle ... literally.  Rare, but not unknown.

The best you can do, as a "Range Officer" or "Safety Officer" (depending on your competition venue) is to quietly suggest that this is not normally considered a Safe Practice, and offer to work with them in the Safety Area to practice safer gun-handling techniques.

If they are unwilling to learn, they'll eventually perform some other "Unsafe Act" which is not protected by the rule book.  But then, you'll have another heart-stopping moment.  Cringe!

Getting back to the image, this breaks at lest three competition safety rules in several disciplines.  Which suggests that I have no sense of humor.

When it comes to range safety, I have no sense of humor.

Rule Number One:   Don't Frighten The Range Officer!!!!

This is a Tough Month for USPSA: MATT B.

First there was the incident where a competitor shot and killed himself in Vancouver

Now one of USPSA's Champion Shooters has been busted: Majorly!

This is the first time I've heard about this.

I'm shocked.

Feds: Scottsdale Shooting Champ, Gun Maker Matthew Burkett Busted for Meth | Phoenix New Times: Former national shooting champion and Scottsdale gun maker Matthew Burkett continues to blow up his career with legal troubles: This time, the feds say he's on meth. Burkett  was arrested in Arizona this week — and remains in federal detention — for testing positive for methamphetamine three times in the past month, court records show. He confessed to using meth after one of the three tests. As the Phoenix New Times reported last month, Burkett previously was accused of defrauding customers of his company, Predator Tactical.

Other sources:

The Firearms Blog
The Outdoor Hub

I'm not sure that these "other sources" have any more to add to the story, but that's where a quick Internet search found appropriate references.

No, I am not prepared to editorialize on this story.  I doubt I will be prepared in the near future.

Except that I will say this:

SWMBO and The General

POTD: Get A Free Clipazine With a Marlin Rifle? Come On Marlin, You Know Better - The Firearm Blog

We all know it's a magazine or a "mag". We know what "clips" are. When it comes down to slang usage, "clip" is interchangeable with magazine even though it is not technically correct. Just like when someone says bullets, we know he means cartridges or rounds.
If you try to argue with this statement, you are a pedantic prat and it makes you sound like the annoying kid in class who sits up in the front row who starts out every sentence with the phrase, "Well actually".

This reminds me of when my lady friend, "She ... Who Must Be Obeyed" (SWMBO) first started attending local USPSA matches with me.

One of the senior members (he was 70 years old) always wore one of the old-fashioned Marine Fatigue Caps (flat top, billed) and we called him "The General" because he seemed so .. military.

One day, The General  heard SWMBO referring to ammunition as "Bullets", and he could not resist the temptation to correct her speech.

He began his correction with "Young Lady...." (she was over 50 years old at the time) and ended with "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Yes, she know the difference between "Round" and "Bullet", and she deliberately used the term "BULLET" incorrectly ... it was something of a running gag between us, but our (new to her) mutual friend was determined to make her understand that incorrect usage was ... incorrect.

She was very patient and kind during the dialogue, and even though she eventually became a competitor she continued to use the "wrong term" for a 'round of ammunition'.

As in: "Honey, I'm running low on  .38 super bullets; do you have enough bullets for both of us to finish the match?"

And I would invariably respond something to the effect of: "Oh, sure I have lots of bullets left!"

Our friend would gnash his teeth and hold his tongue; he would not correct ME (I had already been competing for decades, and I was 'a guy'.).  We never resorted to this dialogue if he was not present in our squad, because what's the fun in that?)

Five years later, we attended his funeral and mourned him.  We shared this story with his widow, and she enjoyed it:  "Yes, he did tend to be a bit of a stickler; but I loved him."

We did, too.

Sadly, SWMBO is gone now, as is Our Friend.  And I never refer to ammunition as "Bullets" because ... oh, no good reason at all!

Now that I'm reminded, I believe I'll revert to using the therm "Bullets" inappropriately again, just because it's so fun to bait people.

And it reminds me of SWMBO and The General.

It's a smaller world without them.

Trigger Scale

I broke down and bought a Trigger Scale from Amazon last week.  I never owned one before, and I was curious about just how heavy the trigger pull was on my pistols.

I rather wish I had not.  The scale only measures to eight pounds ... most of them were way over the limit.   Which is okay for certain uses, I suppose, but not for any purpose for which I bought the pistols.    Even The Beloved Kimber, since I got the trigger replaced, now clocks in at "UGH!" pounds trigger pull.

I can understand it for DA-Only pistols, but even my SA pistols tend to over-do it.

The only exception is the STI Edge in 10mm, which still breaks at a crisp, clean 3-3/4 ounces.
Ah ... perfection!   Unfortunately, my eyes have degenerated so badly in the past few years that I'm unable to use it as well in competition as I use to.   I can't see the iron sights.

I'm sorely tempted to have it mounted with an AIMPOINT, and get back into the Pistol Game ... even if I do have to shoot in OPEN Division without a compensated barrel.

'Training Day'

'Training Day' Stunt Costs Florida Sheriff's Deputy His Job - NBC News:

 MAY 08 A Florida sheriff's deputy loses his job after he allegedly reenacted a scene from the 2001 movie "Training Day," starring Denzel Washington as a corrupt detective.

(Waving his gun, waving his arms, acting erratically ...)

... I've actually seen people doing this sort of shenanigans, during training session. It looks like they're playing "Octopus" and the don't have control of their gun.

I have called their attention to it, and their response is "Huh?  What do you mean?  I don't do that When do I do that?!"

Usually it's during the "Unload and Show Clear" phase of a stage. I don't know of they are trying to put some "Style" into their routine or they are really that disjointed from reality.    They look like a dude, shooting his cuffs to show off his French cuff-links after donning a too-tight Italian-cut suit.

All I want them to do is to remove their magazine, rack the slide to eject any chambered round, the point the gun safely down range and pull the trigger to drop the hammer.  That proves that there is no live round left in the chamber.

Then ... holster the damn gun!

Is that too much to ask?

Instead they point their gun toward the sky at shoulder height or higher, shift their grip so their thumb is above the trigger guard, waggle the muzzle a couple of times while they try to find the mag release, push the button and drop the magazine.

In the meantime, their muzzle is pointed about eighty degrees above horizontal.   broke the 180!

I honestly don't know where they learned this shit, but I can't break them of their bad habits in the less than a half-hour of personal training which is devoted to them, in a large class.

I suppose I could shame them, but Damn!  I've seen GrandMasters point their gun into the sky when loading and unloading.  (No, I didn't DQ them, either.)

(sigh)  I guess the only thing I can do is to actually go to the next match, get squadded with them, and the next time they pull this shit .. DQ them.

NOT the best solution; other than some bad habits (which I failed to break them of, although I did bring it to their attention);   I have long decided that the best thing was NOT to break their spririt; let them go to a match and allow the Range Officer on the first stage where they pull this shit to DQ them.

Then they will say: "Oh, I did the same thing on my INTRO TO USPSA class, and I didn't get DQ'ed.

Upon which opportunity, the RO will say:  I'm not trying to keep you in The Sport; I'm trying to run a safe range.  You're not safe, and you are SOOOOoooo out of here~!"

I'm not perfect.

Nobody is.

Well, except for the Range Officers during an actually match.

Two-Faced about Colorado Carry Bill, because USPSA!

I find myself ... to my amazement ... giving credence to  Liberal cautionary remarks.

Gun bill to allow "constitutional carry" passes GOP-led committee:

 “If you’re legally eligible to possess a firearm, you should be able to carry that weapon concealed for self-defense without begging for government’s permission,” said Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, the bill’s sponsor. He called it “common-sense legislation.”
 Mary Parker of Ken Caryl, who has a concealed-carry permit, opposed the bill. She said there’s not enough training required now to carry a gun, and allowing untrained people to walk around armed won’t end well.

I've been training people for six years now, and I've never rejected anyone from my "INTRODUCTION TO USPSA" class FOR THE SOLE REASON THAT they are a total incompetent.

That's why I'm there; to teach the "incompetents" to become competent.

Having said that, I admit that I've passed too many "Total Incompetents" through the training regimen.  Usually, they're just unfamiliar with the concept of "drawing from a holster" and it's obvious that they will improve with experience... so we treat that First Match as a "Training Experience" and allow them to continue.

If they're "irredeemably totally incompetent", they usually figure it out for themselves and they don't show up for the monthly matches (unless they have elicited some private/personal training; not a common thing.)

OTHER THAN THAT:

I've said it before, I'll say it again, here and now:

SOME PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO HANDLE A GUN!

What's in YOUR Range Bag? Is it enough?

Emergency On The Range: Are You Prepared? - The Firearm Blog:

My friend was at a USPSA match last Sunday when the worst case scenario happened. Someone got shot. From what I hear, the match has concrete dividers for the bays. Supposedly a projectile managed to go inbetween a crack between the concrete blocks used as dividers. A shooter was down range in one bay, pasting targets, while another shooter in the bay next door was shooting his stage.

I've been competing in USPSA (IPSC) matches since 1983, and I've never seen anyone suffer from any injury more damaging  than 'road rash' (when a running gunner falls down on pea-gravel), until a young shooter was faster on the trigger than he was on the draw about 6 years ago.

In that case, the gun "went off" as he was recovering from a prone start position and drawing his open gun; his first shot was faster than his draw.  The bullet hit a bunch of keys in his pocket, driving one into his leg.  His father drove him to the doctor for a treatment and a bandage, and they were back before the match ended.  It was a self-inflicted injury, and while we were all horrified to hear of it, the consequences were not as bad as they might have been.

In this section, nobody has (to my knowledge) since designed a stage with a prone starting position.   Bad JuJu!

So this is the first actual "Somebody Got Shot" incident I've heard about at an IPSC match.   And I have to say: it had to happen sometime, but I'm sorry it did.

And the problem, apparently, was due to poor range construction and poor stage design, which means it was preventable.   We probably definitely need to learn from this.

But when injuries are not prevented ... what can we do to minimize the outcome?

A couple of years ago, I started to expand my "First Aid Kit" which I carry in my range bag at matches.

At first it was just band-aids, ibuproven, and disinfectant (hydrogen peroxide, with some isopropyl alcohol as a backup, in my car).

Then I added some gauze, medical tape, petroleum jelly and cotton padding. When you have serious Road Rash, you need to clean the injury, remove foreign particles (tweezers!), and protect the wound.

Lately, I have added not one but THREE First Aid Kits which I keep in the "Go To" box in my car.  I'm 3 minutes away from semi-serious medical 'stuff', but it's not enough.

Next on my shopping list is WoundSeal .. which encourages rapid clotting and 'stops bleeding' (for certain values of  'stops bleeding'.)   I'm not certain, however, that this is The Real Deal, so if anyone has information about a better product, such as First Respondents/Medic might use and which is available for private citizens, I'm be grateful.

I think that ranges which promote competitive shooting should stock up on more advanced wound-treatment supplies, and make them immediately available in every bay on their range.  That's not going to happen, because the ranges where I compete they're semi-public and there's the risk that the first-aid packs which are typically stored in each shooting bay would be robbed by casual shooters.

Since the ranges can't provide adequate first-aid supplies, the responsibility falls upon the people who show up at the matches and HAVE THE TRAINING to know when and how to administer these advanced first-aid supplies and techniques.

For now, I think it's a good idea for every competitive shooter to acquire his own first aid supplies, those chosen to to address the specific problem of being injured by a bullet or a bullet fragment.

Know you have it, make sure that your friends and shooting partners are aware that you have the means to (minimally) stop the bleeding.  Talk it up when you're waiting for your turn to shoot.  Encourage your freinds to stock up on appropriate first aid supplies.

Don't count on the range to take responsibility for accidental wounds; they won't do that.  They can't insure the integrity of any first-aid pack they leave positioned on the individual shooting bays.

It's your job.

Do it.

Business As Usual; Thanks, Mac!

Yesterday I had posted (since deleted) that I was voluntarily discontinuing my instructor's position with my 'home' gun club, and I was disappointed that matters seemed to make this adviseable.  It was not a disagreement with management that caused me to make this difficult decision, but a matter of liability insurance.  

More than that, it was a missed communication because the dialogue was conducted by email, and misunderstandings were conveyed by everyone in the loop.   That's the problem with email; you don't have the 'personal touch', and it's too easy for misunderstandings to occur.  

MY concern was that I had asked about liability insurance, and the response was that the club and the directors were covered quite adequately.

Any participant at any range event is covered.

What I took from that was that instructors were not specifically covered by any liability insurance.   And so I backed away, with reluctance, from the position which I've filled for more than five years.

I wasn't afraid of getting shot; I've been shot at before and it doesn't hurt when they miss.
I was afraid of getting SUED!

This afternoon, "Mac" ... who pretty much runs the joint (until he retires at the end of the month,  and who is a past-president of the club and a current Board Director, as well as a personal friend) ... decided to enter the dialogue.

He did it the old fashion way:  he phoned me at home.

It was nice to hear from him, and within a few minutes he resolved the mixed understandings with his usual good humor and fine appreciation for 'the human touch'.  Yes, the club is fully covered, and as an official instructor I am personally covered both for liability as well as injury to a limit of ... well, more than I make all year.

Which means that next Saturday I get to go back to work at the best job I've ever had:  introducing "new shooters" to the gentle sport of Practical Pistol Shooting!   I feel much as I use to feel on the last day of the school year, way back in ... uh ... y'know.  Back then.    (vague wave 'thataway')

As the sun is now officially over the yardarm, it's time to raise a cup to the Peacemakers of the world,  and I don't mean a Colt Revolver.   I mean "A Man Named Mac".

PS to "The Hobo Brasser"   yes,  I will be taking in more matches, just as soon as I load enough 10mm to get me through a match, including all the 'misses' I have to make up.  I figure 250 rounds should get me through a 140-round match.

I hate spectator sports

Bryan Fumble Gumble doesn't think that Americans realize just how frail our Second Amendment Constitutional protections are under the current (and the expected "next") presidential Administration.

What he doesn't realize is, we don't care.  We know our rights.  We are willing and able to protect and defend ourselves, our country and our  Constitution;
,,, even if our elected "representatives" have lost track of their personal oaths of fealty.

Bryant Gumble, Streaming Video, and the Supreme Court:

 I still remember a trip to California early in 1994 , when the Clinton Gun Ban was being debated in congress. Each night on the local ABC station in Los Angeles, the anchor would update the progress of the bill that would limit magazine capacity to ten rounds.
And each night they aired B-Roll of some hapless IPSC shooter blazing away with his 21-round race-gun to illustrate how dangerous those big magazines were. Back then, there was no streaming, so that IPSC shooter had gotten into the file tape, likely during sports coverage of a local match.
But once in their system, ABC could do anything they wanted with the video.

Now, with bloggers posting i-phone video, and with the rush by Firearms manufacturers to post their video on YouTube, you need to know you’re offering the liberal media anything they want to take to make their anti-gun point. Before you prompt your techies to post that new video demo of your AR running smoothly, as it empties a 30 round mag, you need to ask if you’re going to be happy seeing that video in the next Bryant Gumble anti-gun special, or posted on the New York Times website. The Supremes have ruled the media can do anything they want with your copyrighted video. 

(emphasis added)

With all respect to Bryant Gumble and the Drunken Golf Junkie ... that's Bullshit!

IPSC IS NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST:
NOBODY competes in the shooting sports because they think it will make them popular, or that if people approve of what they do in their sport they will "grow the sport".   We're not here to popularize our sport, and we don't ask anyone to 'validate' our glee in enjoying the virtues of our Second Amendment rights.

We're just here to have fun.  Safely, under strict rules of safety and competition,  We're not celebrating the Second Amendment, we're just enjoying a small aspect of the consequences of the Inalienable Constitutional Right, and at the same time spending a lot of time and money to play a little "OneUpsman-ship with our friends and neighbors.   We like our "high-capacity magazines, although few of us use them any more.

And BTW B. some of them can hold up to 30 rounds of .38 super ammunition.  Pushing a 115 grain hollow-point bullet at up to 1400 feet per second, this load allows us to have the highest possible score on every target zone but the load still enables the shooter to get the rounds down-range in the quickest time.

Here's an example, which you may suppress at your leisure if you think it's going to undermind our Second Amendment Rights:

(In the past 30 years that I've been competing in IPSC/USPSA competition, nobody has ever died.  Bryant Gumble and Drunken Golf Junkie can't make the same claim about the VERY DANGEROUS sport of High-School Football!)

EVERYBODY competes in the shooting sports for one or more of the following reasons:

1. They like to shoot, and shooting in competition provides them with an opportunity to shoot.
2. They like people who like to shoot, because they share a common interest AND because they share a common philosophy.   See #1.
3. An armed society is a polite society; you meet the nicest people there.
4. Shooting sports are loud and raucous, and at the same time extremely controlled and controlling.  Many shooters are (and this will come as a surprise to non-shooters) almost excessively disciplined; if they're not, they rapidly tire of the sport and go somewhere else on their Saturdays.   The rest of us get to make a lot of noise and spend a lot of money in the company of people whose common interest is to break out of our controlling shells.
5. We are the kind of people who want to see how we compare to other competitors.  Most of us win rarely.  Fortunately, the people who hold matches give awards (usually dirt-cheep pins or ribbons) to almost everyone, and those who go home with no cheap awards come back next month determined to spend $50 or more in the hopes of winning a fifty-cent ribbon.
6. Mostly, we don't care about what other people think of us.  If we did, we wouldn't be competing in a sport which openly involves "shooting at human shaped targets" and "teaching people to kill people".  (These are actual quotes from critics who know nothing about the sport.)
7. This sport is so not-politically-correct that several years ago the International Practical Shooting Confederation applied to the International Olympic Committee to make IPSC competition a "demonstration sport" for the Olympics.  Not trying to actually compete, you understand .. they just wanted to get into The Big Show.  The IOC turned IPSC/USPSA down flat.  Their justification was that they didn't want to "show people killing people" in the Olympics.  I wonder how they justified the Javelin competition, which was doing the same thing???  (Not that anyone was terribly disappointed .. leadership cadre keep trying to justify themselves in any sport, but the Hoi Polloi in this sport just want to be left alone.  Except for the professionals, of course.)
8. Perhaps the final reason for the wide interest in IPSC/USPSA competition is precisely because this sport is almost universally disapproved-of by the Makers&Shakers.  As Groucho Marx once said: "I wouldn't want to join any club which would have me as a member".  Shooting Ports members (except for various shotgun variations) aren't looking for "acceptance".  We just want to spend a day with our goofy friends and shoot a lot of ammunition at carboard and steel targets.  Is that too much to ask?

GROWING:

Over the past six years, I've taught hundreds of people who want to compete in this "outlaw" sport.

(I use the term "OUTLAW" thanks to the IOC .. bless their little narrow-visioned hearts!)

Of the people who care enough about joining the sport to take the course of instruction, there have been so few of the 'students' who were not able to learn safe gun-handling practices that I can count them on the fingers of both hands and feet.  

And as for the worries that America will frown upon Practical Pistol competitions (with the '30 round magazines' and all) .. what could be more reassuring than for the American public to see that there are legitimate competition venues where a "high capacity magazine" actually has a "Sporting Purpose"??

We don't need approval. We don't need approbation.  All WE want is to spend an enjoyable Saturday with our friends who share common interests.   

And there are many of them.

COMING TO AMERICA:

We have friends from Canada, who can't legally possess "high-round count magazines".  They come to American and acquire the equipment which qualifies them to compete in "OPEN DIVISION", and they leave the equipment (guns and magazines; often even ammunition) with their friends in Free America.  Then they sneak across the border to compete in matches with those physical items which are legal in America, but verboten in Canada.

Their friends could steal their expensive equipment without fear of reprisal from legal authorities, but they don't.  Because "An Armed Society Is A Polite Society", and friends who face the possibility of federal bans ... are the best friends in the world.

Next week our Canadian Friends might be holding our guns and magazines and ammunition for US. 

In our current political situation, where we can't trust our Government (and certainly not our PRESIDENT!) to guard and protect our Constitutional Rights, we form relationships with other people (who are willing to obey 'constitutional laws', but not 'arbitrary laws') so that we may enjoy our natural liberties.

But we still don't care what other people think about us.  We are certainly not Politically Correct, but we are safe, and sane, and Rule Number One is always:  "NOBODY BLEEDS!"

(Rule Number Two is: "Everybody Goes Home And Has Pizza And Beer!")

Now, that's MY idea of The Perfect Sport.

USPSA In The News

Alternative summer camp: where children learn to shoot assault rifles | US news | The Guardian:

A 15-year-old boy fires an assault rifle at human-shaped targets while walking through a desert shooting range. Whipping a pistol from a holster, another teen shoots rapidly at man-shaped targets that pop from behind barrels.

Oh, darn.

I don't know anybody who shoots at man-shaped targets.   Do you?




check it out here.

Advice to new Competitors

Don't go buy a bunch of stuff before your first IDPA or USPSA match | Triangle Tactical:

Oh, internet. You so special. I’ve seen a bunch of people recommending new shooters who are interested, but haven’t shot their first match yet go buy a bunch of gear before they’re first match. What a lie. Just go shoot your first match, you probably have a “good enough” holster, and if not I bet you can borrow one.

Good advice, and I entirely support the premise.

I've been training new USPSA shooters for 6 -7 years, and I've seen a lot of shooters who were initially enthusiastic about competition ... but soon tired of it.

A REAL-LIFE CASE IN POINT:

Mr. and Mrs. "X" came to te class and seemed to do just fine, except that Mrs. X couldn't seem to keep her finger off the trigger when reloading during a match.  She came back for a 'refresher' class, then went to a match and still was Disqualified at the next match.  They never came back. Pity; they both had potential but were discouraged.

 In the meantime, they spent about $1,000 on new equipment; belts, holsters, etc.

Often people go through the class just to compare their skills with others; other people value the training for safety purposes (although my home club offers other classes to develop those skills).

But these people had sometimes spent hundreds of dollars on equipment which was specifically designed and marketed for competition purposes, even though they would have done as well with the generic gear they had at the first class.

At least 50% of the people who take the training never even attend the FIRST match, let alone work past a DQ and keep coming back until they have demonstrated the level of proficiency which they wish to attain.

I ALWAYS caution New Shooters to NOT spend money on new equipment until they have experienced at LEAST one match. Their perceptions may change as they get more experience.

EXPECTATIONS NOT MET:

THERE WAS A TIME ...

There was a time when we use to do these bizarre drills in USPSA/IPSC matches.

You know; when you had to perform some kind of meaningless task which had NOTHING to do with the target-engagement; but it made the Course Of Fire more demanding?

As I age, I'm glad that I don't have to do that shit any more.

But I suspect it's just because I don't think I CAN do that shit any more!



I know I'm getting old and feeble, but unfortunately I also think that USPSA (or the local practitioners there-of) may be getting old and feeble, too.

Lately, I've noticed that there are very few physical challenges in USPSA Courses of Fire.

I've come a long way from where I was five or ten years ago, when I complained that match stages seemed to be "too much" focusing on physical capabilities.  You know, like the ability to run 100 yards down range to a shooting position, and then engage a plethora of targets .. sometimes in shooting positions which are uncomfortable?

That sort of thing.  The physical tests, to make the shooting tests more  (dare I say it?) "PRACTICAL"!

I think the current version of the sport is becoming overly yuppified.   They're all "Stand And Shoot", or perhaps "Move And Shoot" stage designs. The worst challenge is often whether you can successfully engage targets from an "awkward" shooting position.

Run and shoot? Or just shoot? (It's a GAME, Folks!)

Run and shoot? Or just shoot? | The View From North Central Idaho:

Frequently at USPSA matches there are stages that can be shot many different ways. It’s a thinking game almost as much as a shooting game. What is the best way to shoot this stage? And the best way frequently depends on the shooter too

I've been enjoying Joe Huffman's continuing story of his "Introduction to USPSA Competition", because so many of the issues he describes are typical of competitors ... both new to the sport and those who have been around a while and are just thinking about how they could be more competitive.

In his latest contribution, Joe brings up one issue (1: how to be competitive using your own personal skill set) and a comment on the article brings up another issue (2: whether the techniques we learn in competition would be counter-indicated in a Defensive situation).

I'd like to use this opportunity to address both issues ... and especially point out that they are individual and not at all related:

Le Morte de le Beloved Kimber: A Toy Story

I broke my Kimber Custom 1911 in .45acp pistol at the match today.

After 17 years (I bought it for under $300 in 1998) and untold thousands of rounds punched through the gun ... I broke it.

I was at an IPSC [USPSA] match at the Albany gun club, and not doing all that well because I haven't been attending many matches lately I'm out of practice. when I found myself on the Third Stage with a gun that wouldn't allow me to reload a new magazine.

Let me be a bit clearer:

I tried to do a reload, but the magazine would only go halfway in.  I tried everything; I even leaned over and whispered softly:  "I promise I'll still respect you in the morning" but that didn't work.

So I quit the stage with one magazine fired in what I had expected to be a three-magazine problem (8-round magazines), and took a zero on the stage.

[NOTE:  I had a GREAT time:  about 11 seconds on a 30-second stage, but I got a zero score of course because I ONLY SHOT EIGHT ROUNDS.]

After I signed the score sheet, I took my broke-dick gun to the safety table to get a good look at it.  After I field-stripped it and found some strong sunlight, I could look down at the magazine well through the top of the frame, and the right-hand side of the trigger yoke was protruding into the magazine well a good eighth of an inch.  It didn't look as if it had broken (at least in that part I could see), but it was at least bent.  Into the magazine well.  

And here I always thought I had a delicate finger on the trigger!

Which explained why I couldn't even drop the hammer to clear the stage: by IPSC rules, the gun didn't leave the stage "loaded" but I wasn't "clear" in the strictest sense.

I gave The Beloved Kimber to my friend, The Hobo Brasser (THB), to do the mechanical stuff involved in removing the old trigger.  I'll be ordering a replacement trigger from Brownell's (I guess), and have it delivered to THB.

 I have as much mechanical ingenuity as a hog in a sty, except perhaps not as much manual dexterity.

(I once tried to replace the floater bulb in an old-style toilet:  I broke the porcelain tank in the process.  I ended up having to buy a new toilet and hiring a plumber to install it.  THAT is how much of a mechanic I am!)

TO CONTINUE:
My friend THB said "I've got a back-up 1911 in the car, you can finish the match with that", which generous offer I gratefully accepted.  I finished the match with a gun that felt a LOT different (it was a Taurus, and the grip safety ... unlike The Beloved Kimber ... had not been pinned).

But wait: there's more!

The Competitive Shooter Community

I usually cringe when I hear "politically correct speech" terms such as "community".   It's like a buzz-word, and has connotations of people sitting around doing macrame' while singing Kumbaya.   Which is okay in its place, but I've never been much into quilting bees and such.

Which is why I realized that an IPSC match is very much like a quilting bee ... only, like, more competititive than "a communal effort".

Competition is either a team effort or an individual effort.  Never having enjoyed spectator sports (what's the attraction in watching someone else play???) and having been a skinny kid, I never went in for team sports.

Oh, I was on the Shooting Teams in Junior High, High School and College.   And some in post-war adulthood.   But that's still the accumulation of individual efforts.  Essentially, the people on the "team" from one match to the next (this was gallery rifle and outdoor small-bore competition) were those who had fared best in previous matches, many of which were postal matches.

Change-Up:
Today I attended an IPSC (USPSA) match, for the first time in about a year.  For various reasons, I have not been competing for the past couple of years.  Those times I did show up for a match, I often quit early.

STI DVC series

STI Introduces Two New Competition Pistols With The DVC Series | Shooting Illustrated:

Designed around the concept of Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas, the motto of the I.P.S.C (International Practical Shooting Confederation) – meaning Accuracy, Power, Speed, the new STI DVC Limited and Open competition pistols are designed to win matches right out of the box.

(H/T: THEGUNFEED)

Kids 'n Guns ... Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Watch How Network Reporter Acts as 10-Year-Old Handles Her Favorite Guns — Then Wait for the Girl’s Response | Video | TheBlaze.com:
(December 03, 201)

The ABC News profile of ten-year-old Shyanne Roberts, a young firearms enthusiast, seemingly raised the blood pressure of the reporter covering the story.

I teach people how to compete in "Run and Gun" competition:  IPSC/USPSA.

I'll teach anyone.  If they can handle the gun safely and responsibility, I'll encourage them to try competition.  If they can't .. they can't I won't.

Security breach at USPSA

Email to members from USPSA:

We have become aware of a security breach r

USPSA.org Security issue We have become aware of a security breach that happened on USPSA.org within the last 24 hours. The USPSA login database was compromised and at least a partial list of usernames and passwords were exposed. USPSA staff has taken steps to address the vulnerability and we have changed the system to ensure this type of attack will not be effective in the future. Members are encouraged to change their passwords on USPSA.ORG and any other web site for which they used the same password.  It is important to note that the breach did not involve the credit card processing system or any financial data.  All credit card processing is done using a separate industry standard secure vendor - no credit card information is stored on the USPSA server. We will keep the membership updated as more information is available.

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