Snowflakes in Hell

Downrange TV has their coverage of our weekend at Blackwater with Todd Jarrett.

Michael Bane makes some great observations and offers suggestiosn on saving the shooting sports.  I noticed a very good comment that made a very frightening observation:

The next generation is not oriented to shooting or hunting. They spend more time on their computers then outside. In my club of 250 members there are NO children. There is dam little shooting allowed in school programs. SCTP IMO is growing because it is held AWAY from school. If you tried to have indoor ranges for rifle or pistol (as did exist several decades ago) it would fall flat on its face.

My club is composed of 240 guys, 10 women, average age is 50. Not to mention there are almost no minorities. That is another area which is not confronted honestly. You do not see representative percentages of non-whites in the shooting sports. America in not to long, will have to deal with a majority non-white population. All the demographics point in the wrong direction.

What troubles me, is my observations of club demographics is similar.  This might surprise you, but the solution is to get more women into the shooting sports.  I think women are far more likely than men to get their kids into shooting, and keep them in shooting.  I’ve seen a lot of dads bring their kids to the range and do a good job of passing the tradition along.  I’ve also seen dads that are doing their best to make sure their kid absolutely grows up to hate shooting.  I’ve never seen a woman at a range with kids in tow not doing a good job with the kids.  They are far better teachers than men are.

UPDATE: Overall there’s excellent commentary on that post.  I can only read a little bit at a time because Michael’s color scheme is very harsh on the eyes.  I can still see the text lines burnt into my retina for a minute or so after taking a break.

I’m shooting a Garand match tomorrow, and I don’t have a sling for my Garand.  I do have an M1907 sling, but that’s on my AR, and since I’m also shooting the AR in the CMP match after the Garand match, I don’t want to transfer it.  A commie sling is just going to have to do.  The one that came with my PSL seems to work fine as a hasty sling on a Garand.  I took the Garand to the range today to make sure it was zeroed, and to try some strings standing slowfire.  Unlike with my AR, my groups are all to the right, and low more often than high.  I think need to shift my weight around differently for the Garand.  Next months for the CMP match at my club, I think I’ll slap the Ko-tonics (looks like they changed names) 6.8 upper on the AR and shoot that.

Well, I spent most of the day at the range today working through the Summer Rifle Match.  Just to give you some background on my high-power experience, next Sunday I will shoot my club’s Garand match.  This will be the first formal high-power match I will ever have shot.  So far the only shooting sports I even have a classification for are NRA and IHMSA Air Pistol Silhouette, IHMSA Smallbore and IHMSA Field Pistol.  My high-power shooting has been entirely the occasional fun afternoon at the range.

The rifle I used was an AR-15, an Armalite M15A4, with open sights.  It’s a production gun with no modifications other than me adding the bird cage flash suppressor and bayonet lug after the AWB expired.  Doesn’t add much to the rifle shooting wise, but it felt good leaving that piece of garbage law behind.

Ammunition was hand loaded.  55 grain Hornady FMJBT w/ cannelure powered by 21 grains of IMR-4198 with a CCI 400 small rifle primers, all held together with unfired Lake City NATO spec brass.

Result:

1. Standing Slow - 91 0X
2. Sitting Rapid - 91 0X
3. Prone Rapid - 94 1X
4. Prone Slow - 95 0X

Total 371 out 400, but it seems I can’t find the X ring very often.  Some observations which I may or may not be crazy about.  For one, I could swear that hand loaded ammunition ejects brass is a more consistent pattern than factory ammunition.  My brass was usually in a nice arrangement on the ground.  I often have to hunt down factory ammo because it gets ejected wildly.  Two, I could swear my point of impact was lowering with the use of the sling, but I find it hard to believe the sling could bend the barrel down enough to matter.

I’m proposing a minor rule revision to the rifle matches based on some of my experiences shooting the match today.  It was a busy day at the range, which taught me a few things about shooting a match with other people who are not.  I was seriously worried a few times I wasn’t going to finish before sunset.  Go see what you think.

This will be the last weekend to shoot the Gun Blog Rifle Match.  Don’t worry if you’re last minute, I’m going to be shooting this weekend too.  Entries are due by midnight on the 21st, but I’ll make you all a deal — as long as you get me your entries before I post the results (which will take a week or so), I will continue to count them.

For the fall match, I’m thinking of doing a three position Kalashnikov match at 50 yards, in addition to bringing the smallbore match in to 25 yards this fall to bring in some more shooters to that category.  But before I decide to do a Kalashnikov match, I thought I’d check with folks to make sure enough of you actually own one.  Any Kalashnikov will do.  Any AK-47, AK-74, PSL, or RPK variants you want to shoot are fine.  We’ll be able to use standard steel cased ammo, so no one has to reload if they don’t want to.

Looks like PDB took a defensive carbine class at Defensive Concepts of North Carolina.  Here’s day two.

Sailorcurt has a pretty good illustrated guide to the modern isosceles stance that Todd Jarrett taught us at the Gun Blogger Summer Camp.  It also helped improve his speed shooting when he tried it.  Prior to Todd’s instruction, I shot a modified weaver stance.  It’ll take me a while to unlearn that.  Go have a look if you want to improve your speed shooting.

Speaking of speed shooting, I found a local IDPA match.  It’s not sanctioned, but it’ll do.  Still looking for a good steel match somewhere, and a USPSA match that’s not in fraking New Jersey.

I know Joe’s been working on this for a few days.  I think it turned out really well.

I’ve heard this particular criticism in more than a few quarters, and not just in regards to Appleseed:

The arrogance of thinking that any program that does not teach the way you do is “out of line” is just so bizarre, it is hard to fathom. Especially when we have such a high rate of success and happiness with the program.

I might poke fun at the people who are saying that Appleseed is a black helicopter program and is painfull,.. ouch!, or that we are fanatical and scary…or that we are not doing it right because we are not using their methods, but;

I would never diss another program for getting new shooters on the line, telling them about the history of their country and letting them know they are needed to help spread the 2A rights message.

How is this wrong by any stretch of the imagination? One or two guys maybe not completely thrilled, out of forty , with the rest really happy about their new rifle skills and willing to join in and defend the 2Amendment. This is a bad thing?

It’s not that there’s only one, true way to teach.  In fact, the vibe I initially got from Appleseed was quite a lot of the “one true way.”  That’s not what I’m saying at all.  But I am saying that it takes more than good intentions.  My original criticism centered around my initial belief that Appleseed was for newbie shooters.  A lot of people came on to tell me that I was wrong in this impression, and that it was intended for people who’ve already had exposure to firearms and the gun culture.  Fair enough.  But then I see people saying stuff like this:

For the host to say this is not for beginners is sadly laughable.  After half a day of instruction, my nephew is shooting in sitting position and scoring all shots on the 300 yard prone target, when he accidentally shot the wrong one.

I have no doubt that many will benefit from learning marksmanship.  But is it for newbie shooters, or for novice shooters that already have exposure to guns?  That’s a pretty key question.  If it’s for the latter, then a strenuous program I think is fine, but if it’s for the former, then I return to many of my original criticisms. I am not criticizing just for the sake of criticizing, or because I want to trivialize people’s hard work.  The ideas behind Appleseed; getting people into shooting, teaching marksmanship, and teaching history, are all worthwhile endeavors.  I don’t question the intention or the value of what’s behind it.  But I think results are more important than intentions.  I’m open to the idea that Appleseed is delivering those, but I don’t think that’s above question, nor above criticism. Does Appleseed hand out surveys to participants to gauge how they felt about the various aspects of the program, along with asking for suggestions on how it might possibly be improved?  If I were running a program, whether for newbie, novice, or expert shooters, I would certainly want this kind of feedback.  If that’s not being done, what would be the objection to doing it?

Getting new people into the community is vitally important.  Arguably the most important thing we can do.  I don’t blame anyone for wanting to get involved in something like that, and applaud them for doing so.  But I think it’s so important that those doing so be open to criticism and suggestion from the broader community, because ultimately this issue is about a lot more than just Appleseed, and it’s certainly about a lot more than “Fred”.  If we’re failing in a key aspect of outreach, we all suffer for that.  It’s important, critically important, to get it right.

The time for the summer gun blog rifle match is running low.  So far I only have two smallbore rifle entries.  I have a few high-power entries, and am hoping for more.  If you have some time before the 21st, when the match ends, feel free to head to the range and shoot the match.  There’s no such thing as a score that’s too embarrassing.  We’re all amateurs here.  I shot smallbore rifle yesterday with a production CZ-452 with its factory open sights.  Ammunition was Aguila Match Rifle ammunition:

1. 48-0X - Standing
2. 68-0X - Sitting
3. 83-2X - Prone

Total score is 199 out of 300.  So you can see that doesn’t even get me to NRA sharpshooter classification.  The smallbore match is only at 50 yards, so if you can find a place where you can shoot three position rifle, you can compete, and probably beat me.  The summer match ends the last day of summer.

Joe Huffman has his impressions of the training we went through last weekend with Todd Jarrett.  Joe has had a good bit more training than I have.  Before this, I had only taken basic pistol.

Looks like Langhorne Rod and Gun Club hosted a pretty interesting practical rifle match over the weekend.  I may have to look into joining this club, since it seems they do a lot of fun matches with rifles we’re told have no sporting use.

Thanks to Robb Allen for getting some video of me shooting at the shoot house, where Todd was training us on how to use a laser to make yourself a better shooter.  One of the major weaknesses in my shooting is breathing.  Locking my knees is a silhouette habit, where you’re more concerned with a stable shooting position than you are with recoil management.  But breathing is a problem.  It’s often I find myself missing a string of animals when I realize I’m laxing on my breathing discipline.  I’m totally amazed that Todd can see this just by looking at a laser.

I need to look into some Grecian Formula for Men or something, because I am pretty grey from the back.

Todd Jarrett has made me a better Silhouette shooter.  Tonight was our thursday airgun match.  I started out on chickens, doing about what I normally do, got into pigs, and then noticed I was moving the gun when I pulled the trigger.  I then remembered Todd saying “You have to increase your grip strength by 20%, at least.” so I tightened up on the grip until the gun started shaking.  I backed it off a bit until the excessive movement stopped, and holding a much firmer grip than I was used to, starting knocking down animal after animal.  I kept my game up until my hand got tired, and I started trailing off on the rams.  But damn, I shot a AAA score of 37.  That’s ten whole friggin animals better than I had shot at any previous Thursday airgun matches, and better than I shot at states.  It’s amazing such a simple thing can make such a difference.  Wow!

I’ve had a bit to say about why we don’t dominate the Olympics here, but Kim has some more, and I think he’s right about this:

The problem is that outside the Army Marksmanship Unit, there are no professional Olympic shooters in America—no sponsorships, no funding from any source—so therefore people cannot afford to train for 8-10 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, which is what’s required to win the Olympics, in any sport (ask Michael Phelps about the training required to win Olympic Gold).

So when we say that we “should” be winning Olympic gold medals in the shooting sports, because we are by golly the Land of the Second Amendment and the Nation of Riflemen, we forget that winning Olympic medals is not just raw talent, but dedication—and dedication not just from the participants, but from We The People.

If there is no public support for Olympic shooting, though, then we have no right to complain when our amateur shooters can’t compete against the professionals of other countries.

If we want to be winners, money has to flow into these sports, and right now, not enough is.

There seems to be a lot of passion for the Appleseed Project from instructors, and I feel like I’m doing a lot of nitpicking over problems I have with the program, that in the big picture, are relatively unimportant.  Defenders of Appleseeed have consitently stated that it is not for newbie shooters, which was a misperception I had of the program, and if that’s the case, would drop a lot of my objections to their training method and packaging.  I will reserve any further judgement until I’ve had a chance to attend one of these events.  Fair enough?

These aren’t from our weekend, but Peter has dug up some good ones.

I have never been a huge fan of laser sights.  Mostly because I’m a bit of a traditionalist, and believe that getting a clear sight picture on your target needs to be something instinctive, and it’s how folks should train.  When I found out our Para 1911s were going to be equipped with Crimson Trace Laser Grips, my reaction was mostly “Well, that’s cool Crimson Trace did that for us, but I don’t really use laser sights.”  But once I learned how to use them as a training tool, I was pretty enthusiastic about them.

The training use of laser sights is one thing that Todd Jarrett impressed on us at Blackwater.. This is not an angle I had ever considered before, and after seeing his technique demoed, I’m sold.  What the laser helps to do is to amplify movement, so you can immediately get useful feedback on grip, stance, trigger control, and follow through.  The fact that the lasers were activated by the grip safety made problems with grip pretty apparent when you would see the laser disappear, and you could easily see which shooters were thinking too much about their trigger pull.  Todd was pretty tuned in on what the various whisps and movements of the laser meant, and saw something in mine that indicated I was locking my knees.  But most problems were pretty obvious, and next time I take a novice shooter out on the range, I’m going to have to try using a laser sight and see what problems I can correct.  Should be interesting.

UPDATE: I should clarify that for beginners, I will still absolutely eschew the use of a laser to teach sight picture.  I still believe beginners need to know how to use open sights.  But for people who get that part, the laser is a great tool for helping make someone a better shooter.

Kevin Baker and I were on the show last night.  If you missed it, you can listen here.

There seems to be the general consensus that I absolutely need to try an Appleseed before I knock it, and until then, I am simply unqualified to question or comment.  Let me call bullshit on that.  Many thousands of years ago, human beings developed this thing called language, where we learned to relay and communicate experiences to others, so that they may benefit from knowledge without the need to have to experience things first hand.

PDB has made some solid, and I think well founded criticisms of the program.  I questioned whether the packaging was really conducive to keeping shooters interested and getting them to want to come back to shooting.  People have provided antecdotal evidence that it’s a wonderful program, and everyone has a great time and folks come back again and again to get themselves out of the kitchen, so to speak.  I have no doubt that many people enjoy it, because shooting is pretty fun, after all.  But does everyone?  What about the people that walk away thinking this isn’t for them?  Would they have enjoyed themselves in a better, more carefully crafted training program?  I also question where all the money is going.  Pulling their form 990s, they are spending almost a quarter of their 80k a year budget on travel.  That’s not necessarily wrong, but it does raise some questions in my mind about what a 23k a year travel budget is accomplishing for the organization.  Most of their budget, about half, is going into the bank.  That’s not unusual for a non-proifit just starting out, but what projects or purpose are they saving nearly half the yearly budget for?

Egregious Charles says in the comments:

I know they’re doing it wrong and I haven’t been there.  How do I know?  Because I’m interested in bettering my rifle skills, have spent thousands on rifle training (much of that was actually for the travel and ammo), and looked at Appleseed material online and thought I’d rather not go there.

It’s an unconcious phenomenon you see all the time in martial arts schools.  They pick a fairly unusual and specific technique: in this case, the sling, now abandoned by the world’s best military.  Then they say that anyone who does not know this technique is not a real maritial artist: in this case, is a ‘cook’ not a ‘rifleman’.  This enables them to feel exclusive and vastly superior to everyone else, and requires of them only a relatively small investment in practice.  It’s a psychological trap.  I predict getting others involved will become more and more a cover for an unconcious goal of demonstrating their superiority to the cooks.

Note that this criticism is totally unconnected to whether the sling is a good and valuable technique.  I bet it is.  I’d certainly like to learn it.  It is connected to whether the sling is an essential requirement.  Modern militaries clearly demonstrate that it is not.  Appleseed says what do they know?  They’re all cooks!

Also a fair criticism.

UPDATE: I should probably point out that I’m not at all criticizing the idea that it’s a great good to bring new shooters into the sport.  Or that it’s a great idea to teach people rifle marksmanship.  I’m not even going to heavily criticize teaching use of a sling.  But I will take issue with selling it as the one true path to being a rifleman in the tradition of the revolutionary war soldier, whatever that means.

Not much commentary, just a compilation of video I took at Blackwater:

That’s pretty much all of the video I have that’s worth sharing, except for the one where Robb showed up on the range with no pants.

Now that I am home, I might just have to price out how much it would cost to buy a bit of land, and construct my own 360 degree shoot house.  Sure, it’ll cost a good bit, but that’s the most fun I’ve had with a gun.  Here’s a video of Dave Hardy getting his run started:

Dave had a big shit eating grin on his face when he came out of the house, and said “That was fun!”  On my first run through it, I got that adrenaline going and ended up popping a hostage.  Second run I went through, shot it well, except for missing a target Todd had placed off to the side.  The more experienced USPSA shooters managed to get it find it, and so did people that had to do a reload in that room.  Caleb and I darted right by it.

Thanks to Kevin Baker for taking this video of me shooting one of our stages along with Dave Hardy.  Todd Jarrett is the guy coaching me through, and Dan Smith of ICC is the guy coaching Dave.

This was a tough stage.  You can to shoot three shots at the steel plate directly in front, then move toward the plates on the side, then six shots in the last plate.  If the movers came into view, you had to double tap them.

Our time at Blackwater is at an end.  I am back in the hotel at Norfolk, Virginia.  I still have a few more posts to do on the experience, but I definitely want to send out a few really big thank yous for helping put this together:

• Kerby Smith, Director of Communications for ParaUSA, who put this all together, and shot with us, with great skill, I might add.
• Thanos Polyzos, CEO of ParaUSA, who supported our event, and was down there with us.
• Todd Jarrett, who put together and taught the course wonderfully.
• Michael Bane, who sent his film crew for DRTV and The Shooting Gallery.
• Patrick Harlan, Internet Marketing Specialist for Crimson Trace who supplied us with laser grips.
  
• All the folks at Blackwater USA, who were very good to us.  They run a world class training facility.
• All the folks at Blackhawk, who supplied us with SERPA holsters that worked great for us on our weekend, and various other goodies we used on the range, and who drove us to and from in their bitchin’ bus.
• Dan Smith of International Cartridge Corporation, who supplied us with all our ammunition needs, and is a great shooter, BTW.

Lots of other folks helped out, including Bitter, who didn’t make it.  Let’s also not forget the National Rifle Association, who by taking bloggers seriously, helped make the case for other folks taking us seriously.  I also want to thank Kerby and Michael specifically for creating a spot for the Blog Bash organizers, even though we didn’t make the voting.  I feel bad Bitter couldn’t make it.  I know Bitter feels bad she couldn’t make it.  And believe me, when I get back and talk to her about everything and how totally cool it was, she will definitely be sorry she couldn’t make it.

More to come about our weekend.