Snowflakes in Hell

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.

This is your last chance to vote in the contest between Joe Huffman and Caleb at Blackwater. The odds have gone from 100% in Joe’s favor at the beginning, hovering between 75% and 85% most of the time, now dropping to 70% as we approach the last day.

As soon as I see a post about the results, I’ll remove the poll.

UPDATE: The poll is now closed. Joe Huffman beat Caleb both in the poll and on the range.

I have been very impressed with Todd’s instruction.  Todd is mostly concentrating on tips and techniques that will make us better shooters.  I have never done shooting on the move before, and never shot at anything that moved except for clay birds.  I thought I did pretty decently on both, doing my best to follow some of Todd’s advise.  The cool thing about what Todd has taught us, is that I think I could come back and show other people his tips.  Here are some pictures below of Todd Jarrett at work.  Click on the pictures to see descriptions of what you’re seeing.

Now I just have to go home and practice, practice, practice everything Todd has taught.

There’s nothing gun bloggers like better than Blackwater provided transportation of a shot up car.  Blackwater is the largest single buyer of used cars in the State of North Carolina.  They buy them for everything from stunt driving to their own version of Smash Up Derby, usually involving a lot of breaking through barricades, and often firepower.

The really great thing was that I managed to fish about 40 once fired Lake City brass out of the vehicle.  The really funny thing is, the radio in the vehicle still worked just fine.  I guess the Blackwater mechanics have their priorities in order.  Thanks to Blackwater for telling us “Hey, if you need some help getting to and from your range, the keys are in the ignition of those shot up cars, feel free to use them.”

This morning we got our hands marked up by Todd Jarrett to teach us a proper grip. Let me tell you, it works. My speed and accuracy improved markedly. I still have some difficulty with the draw, but there’s nothing that will correct that except for repetition.

Todd also had us shoot a silhouette target at 25 yards. I did respectably, but let me tell you, Caleb got all of his hits in the kill zone. I had to shoot low and right to find the bullseye.

Here’s some video of a few familiar bloggers shooting plates with Todd Jarrett with us today at ParaUSA Gun Blogger Summer Camp.  Caleb is looking pretty sharp.  It’s going to be an interesting settling of this bet.

Tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun.

On Blackhawk:

These guys are making and designing a lot of cool gear.  SayUncle and I were particularly interested in their upcoming tactical stocks for the Ruger 10/22.  We saw a prototype version, and they say the final production version will be better, which is good because I thought the prototype was pretty sharp.  Blackhawk has been absolutely great to us as bloggers, giving us two different holsters that work with the 1911s we’re using.

On Blackwater:

As Tam and Kevin said, it’s like Disneyland for gun nuts.  It’s a really impressive facility.  Blackwater has been completely open with us, gave us a pretty thorough tour of the facility, and let us drive around their track in the Blackhawk Bus.  If Blackwater has a reputation for being creepy mercinaries, I’ve gotten none of that impression so far.  So far, my only impression is of a world class training facility.  Though, they do have black helicopters.

On Todd Jarrett:

Todd is a true professional.  I’ve very much enjoyed the instruction so far, and have discovered shooting steel is about the most fun you can have and still keep your clothes on.  Plus, excuse my jumping up and down like a little girl (which Caleb is), but Todd Jarrett complimented my shooting!  Tomorrow is definitely going to be fun, and I don’t care how hot it is out.  He’s corrected a few things I was doing, and I’m going to do my best to stick with his instructions.

On the Para LDA:

It’s a little too early to draw a final conclusion, but for this Glock shooter I find the LDA trigger to be very familiar and comfortable.  Keep in mind I do not own a 1911 currently, so I am not, by any means, a 1911 critic, but I can compare it to what I’m familiar with.  The operation is similar to a Glock trigger, in that you have take up, and then a point where it breaks, but the action is a bit lighter than with the Glock, and I shoot a little better with it.

More pictures and impressions to come along later.