Last post on Blogger

My new blog is over here:  http://johnshootspistols.wordpress.com/

Well, this will be my last post on Blogger. No, I haven't given up my 2nd Amendment rights and my firearms, and no, I haven't stopped shooting IDPA, although I am done for the summer until the weather cools. What I am done with is using Blogger which is a Google product. You see, Google has decided to censor guns, ammo, and accessories from it's shopping results when you do a Google search or "Google Shopping". This was a great help in finding some of the things I was specifically looking for in regards to IDPA shopping parts  for my competition gun. I was looking for the Apex Duty Carry kit also known as the DCAEK. Easily found with "Google Shopping" at many sites. Now I'll have to try and dig and find it. For those who haven't seen it, this was what one of the "vendors" received from Google in regards to their sale items:

Dear Merchant,

We're writing to let you know about some upcoming changes to the product listings you submit to Google. As we recently announced, we are starting to transition our shopping experience to a commercial model that builds on Product Listing Ads. This new shopping experience is called Google Shopping. As part of this transition, we'll begin to enforce a set of new policies for Google Shopping in the coming weeks. A new list of the allowed, restricted, and prohibited products on Google Shopping is available on our new policy page - http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/ApI7UWRj6OCZpd.

Based on a review of the products you're currently submitting, it appears that some of the content in your Merchant Center account, HamLund Tactical, will be affected by these policy changes. In particular we found that your products may violate the following policies:

Weapons

When we make this change, Google will disapprove all of the products identified as being in violation of policies. We ask that you make any necessary changes to your feeds and/or site to comply, so that your products can continue to appear on

Google Shopping.

To help you through this new set of policies and how to comply with them, we would like to give you some specific suggestions regarding the changes needed to keep your offers running on Google Shopping.

Weapons

As highlighted on our new policy page http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/ApI7UWRj6OCZpd, in order to comply with the Google Shopping policies you need to comply first with the AdWords policies http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/StQ08jAzM4fVtG. We do not allow the promotion or sale of weapons and any related products such as ammunitions or accessory kits on Google Shopping. In order to comply with our new policies, please remove any weapon-related products from your data feed and then re-submit your feed in the Merchant Center. For more information on this policy please visit http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/GbBNIGHOribLzf.

We're constantly reviewing our policies, and updating them when necessary, to ensure we're offering the best experience possible to our users. We've identified a set of policy principles to govern our policy efforts on Google Shopping in the U.S. These principles are:

1) Google Shopping should provide a positive experience to users. Showing users the right products at the right time can truly enhance a user's experience. When people trust us to deliver them to a destination that's relevant, original, and easy to navigate this creates a positive online experience to the benefit of both users and merchants.

2 ) Google Shopping should be safe for all users. User safety is everyone's business, and we can't do business with those who don't agree. Scams, phishing, viruses, and other malicious activities on the Internet damage the value of the Internet for everyone. Trying to get around policies or "game the system" is unfair to our users, and we can't allow that.

3) Google Shopping should comply with local laws and regulations. Many products and services are regulated by law, which can vary from country to country. All advertising, as well as the products and services being advertised, must clearly comply with all applicable laws and regulations. For the most part, our policies aren't designed to describe every law in every country. All advertisers bear their own responsibility for understanding the laws applicable to their business. Our policies are often more restrictive than the law, because we need to be sure we can offer services that are legal and safe for all users.

4) Google Shopping should be compatible with Google's brand decisions. Google Shopping must be compatible with company brand decisions. Our company has a strong culture and values, and we've chosen not to allow ads that promote products and services that are incompatible with these values. In addition, like all companies, Google sometimes makes decisions based on technical limitations, resource constraints, or requirements from our business partners. Our policies reflect these realities.

We've given much thought to our stance on this content, as well as the potential effect our policy decision could have on our Merchants, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Sincerely,

The Google Shopping Team

© 2012 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Merchant Center account.







So, there you have it. I know these posts don't reach a whole lot of folks, so this won't come as a great loss. I'll update this post with my new blog site once I'm up and running wherever that may be. Until then, just remember:


Shoot safe, shoot straight!

More range therapy - June 9,2012

Went to the range today to get some more therapy in. Put 150 rounds down range. Wanted to try some more of the Blazer Blaster aluminum case ammo for use in IDPA. I bought two boxes of that from Dicks Sporting Goods and ran that through my M&P.

I started off at 10 yards with 25 rounds at the down zero zone. All 25 rounds were clean, although I did drop one that just barely broke the line for scoring. After that, I ran 25 rounds at the head down zero zone from 10 yards. Out of those 25 rounds, 22 were down zero, 2 were down one, and one was a miss to the left. Not too bad. I'm using the smaller scoring zone of the head to try to focus my head shots when I have to take them at 7 yards. I figure if I can get my head shots at 10 yards, getting them at 7 yards should be easy. Seemed to work out pretty well the last couple of times at IDPA matches with only one miss.

After that 50 rounds, I moved the target up to 7 yards and worked 25 rounds strong hand and weak hand. Strong hand was much better this week with all 25 rounds in the down zero scoring zone. I did use the slightly bent/flexed strong arm technique this week and it definitely worked. After that, I send 25 rounds weak hand and didn't do quite as well as I hoped. Only placed 20 out of 25 in the down scoring zone with 3 close low and left, but pulled 2 real low and right almost down into the 3 zone. So still have a lot of work to do there. I can say that on those two that I pulled real low and right, I did try to pick the pace up and move a little faster. Probably a little to fast.

Well, that was my "IDPA" practice. After that, I broke out my PT-92 which I hadn't shot in a while and put up a "Right-hand" shooting chart and sent 50 rounds at it at 10 yards. Put 40 out of 50 rounds into the orange and white center circle. The other 10 rounds were 2 high and a bit right and 7 low and left. Not terrible for not shooting this gun for probably over 6 months. I actually may try shooting this gun at the bowling pin match later this month.

Oh, if anyone has an "IDPA" range training that they can suggest, I'm all ears. The problem that I'm running into is that none of the ranges that are close to me will let me draw from a holster and shoot, so at best, I'm going from low ready. What I've written here today, I've done the last couple of weeks. As I get better with strong and weak hand, I may get a different target with multiple small targets and work shooting between the targets, but this is pretty much what I have until the weather cools back off and I can get back into the monthly matches.

Well, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

June 4th 1942 - The Battle of Midway

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. I know, so what does the Battle of Midway have to do with me. Well, nothing directly, but I did serve in the Navy aboard the USS Yorktown, CG-48 which was the 5th ship to bear that name. It was during the Battle of Midway that the USS Yorktown, CV5 was lost due to a combination of bombs and torpedoes.

When I served onboard the "Battle-cruiser" as we called her, I didn't pay much attention to her previous namesakes. I knew they were there, but I didn't really know much other than there were a couple of aircraft carriers and one was lost during World War II. We even had a space onboard the ship called "Yorktown Square" which had a park bench and probably 50 or so pictures of the earlier versions of the Yorktown. I looked at them and there was a passing interest, but nothing major. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I started to read about the "Yorktowns" and the Battle of Midway. Just the fact the Yorktown made it to the battle was pretty remarkable itself. She was pretty well damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea and had expected to go to Bremerton, Washington for repairs after a brief stop in Pearl Harbor. Imagine the crews surprise when the ship was swarmed with yard workers who basically did a months work in roughly 72 hours and got her back out to sea. Without Yorktown to accompany Hornet and Enterprise, Midway may have turned out a lot different than it did.

As it was, Admiral Nimitz gave the yard workers 3 days to get Yorktown back at sea to meet up with Hornet and Enterprise to go against a huge Japanese battle fleet. By size comparison, it wasn't even close. For the United States side we had:
3 carriers
~25 support ships
233 carrier-based aircraft
127 land-based aircraft
Total: 28 ships

For the Japanese side, they had the following:

4 carriers
2 battleships
~15 support ships
248 carrier-based aircraft
16 floatplanes

Did not participate in battle:
2 light carriers
5 battleships
~41 support ships
116 other ships (including auxiliary and transport vessels)
Total: 185 ships

It was a crazy battle and the United States got lucky by losing formations. Our torpedo bombers were separated from our dive bombers and fighters. They were completely obliterated by the Japanese fighters and only one or two actually got to launch torpedoes. But the Japanese fighters lost focus and followed the bombers and lost altitude. This allowed almost a perfect clear sky for our dive bombers which caught the Japanese aircraft carriers in the midst of re-fueling and re-arming their own bombers. Their fighters had no chance to get back up and provide cover and three carriers were hit and severely damaged in quick succession. 

The Japanese from the carrier Hiryu in turn hit Yorktown with 3 bomb hits which knocked out her boilers and left her dead in the water. However, with good damage control, she was back underway in a little over an hour. Thinking Yorktown sunk in the first raid, the Japanese went after her again assuming she was Enterprise and hit her with 2 torpedoes. Again Yorktown lost her boilers and steerage. Yorktown also took on a 26degree list. Eventually, abandon ship was called for the Yorktown due to the increasing list. However, planes from the Yorktown did assist with the location and destruction of the last Japanese carrier Hiryu by Enterprise planes.

Later, rescue and recovery teams went back aboard Yorktown to see if they could stabilize the ship. The destroyer Hammann was tied alongside to provide power and firefighting as necessary. The teams worked to alleviate the list by cutting away heavy sections of guns, weights, planes, and counter flooding. The teams made good progress and there seemed to be a good chance that the Yorktown might yet be saved even after taking such a heavy pummeling. Alas, the Japanese sub I-168 was able to elude a screen of destroyers and put two more torpedoes into the Yorktown. A third Torpedo hit the Hammann which broke her in two and killed 80 of her crew. The Yorktown finally slipped under the water shortly after 5am on June the 7th. 

Dead in the water

Listing

Rolled over

So many things could have changed the outcome of Midway. What would have happened if Yorktown hadn't made it to Midway? What would have happened if our formations had stayed together instead of getting separated? What would have happened had the Japanese not have been in the middle of switching from land attack to sea attack when our bombers hit? What would have happened if the Japanese had attacked another carrier instead of Yorktown a second time? What would have happened if the Japanese forces had stayed in closer contact instead of being so spread out? It brings up a lot of different and interesting scenarios. For me, it led to Yorktown, CV10 which had it's own illustrious career serving during World War 2, Korea, Viet Nam, the space programs, and then Yorktown, CG-48, the "Battle-Cruiser". Had I not been on her, I might not have taken the time to learn about the earlier Yorktowns and what they brought to the history of the Navy.

Going back to the original USS Yorktown, she was a 16-gun sloop of war and mostly served to interdict slave trade during the 1840's. She struck an un-charted reef off the northern coast of Maio Island of the Cape Verde Islands. She broke up incredibly fast, but the training of the crew ensured that no lives were lost. 

The 2nd USS Yorktown was PG-1 or patrol gunboat. She was a steam powered ship but was also rigged to use sails as well. Her biggest claim to fame was the first successful use of the telescopic gun-sight on Unalaska Island on September 22nd, 1892. 

Well, I guess that's it for my history lesson today. Didn't really know where I was going with this and can't really remember if I have it all right, but it should be fairly close. At 44, almost 45, the brain ain't quite what it used to be. 

That's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

Range Therapy - Sunday June 3rd, 2012

Ok, so no IDPA this weekend. Would have been a good weekend for it as it wasn't too hot, just nothing close by that I could have done. Allergies and sinuses have been really playing havoc, so I figured maybe some gunpowder therapy would be helpful. So, I headed off to Elite Training Academy in Monroe. My plan was to shoot about 50 rounds freestyle, with another 50 rounds strong and weak hand. I worked my first 25 rounds at 7 yards freestyle on a standard IDPA target and kept everything in the 0 scoring zone, just a little left. After that, I did 25 rounds strong hand, and another 25 rounds weak hand. Of those 75 rounds, I had 7 rounds drop out of the 0 zone. A couple dropped significantly as I was trying to figure out my grip for strong and weak hand. I found that on strong hand, if I don't fully extend my arm, my groups seem to be much better. I just kept it slightly bent. On weak hand, it was the opposite, I did better with a fully extended arm. Finished up with another 25 rounds at the head zone at 10 yards. Put 21 in the 0 scoring zone, with two low and left 1 scoring zone, one high off the target, and I had one round go off before I was fully sighted (I'm still struggling with the reset point on this gun after a year) which apparently completely missed the paper.

I didn't get any pictures of the head shots. After I was done with the pistol work, I broke out my rifle and did some .22 work at 25 yards getting the rifle sighted in. Anyway, the very low and right shots were a couple of my first weak hand shots where I had my arm partially bent like my strong hand. After seeing those shots way off, I went back to fully extended and locked for weak hand and my shots were much better. It's all a learning process.

Well, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

Scores in from MWDS 5-26-2012 match

Scores are in and they're pretty much what I figured they would be. I am staying pretty consistent from what I'm seeing. My overall time was 214.69 with 56 points down. Out of 78 shooters, I was the 35 most accurate and the 58th in overall time. That's pretty much been what I've been doing the last 6-8 matches. My accuracy had usually been in or around the top third, but my speed has usually been in the bottom third. Of the 6 stages, I was 58th on stage one , 41st, on stage two, 59th on stage three, 70th on stage four, 70th on stage five, and 44th on stage six. Stages four and five killed me. Both were the one handed stages, so I guess I know where a lot of my time at the range will be spent this summer. Without that hit on the non-threat on stage 4, I move up five places.

Well, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

IDPA match at MWDS 5-26-2012

Had a great time at the IDPA match at Mecklenburg Wildlife Defensive Shooters yesterday. Good and challenging 6 stages. Bit of a warm day with a high of 92 which definitely affected me. I did wind up with a pretty nasty migraine which I was lucky enough to have my wife with me to drive home. I had hoped with the new medicine, that I'd be able to get by, but it looks like I'll be done with IDPA for the summer until the weather cools off. Anyway, off to the stages.

Stage 1 has you starting off facing downrange, at buzzer, you turn to your left and engage 3 targets in tactical sequence with 2 rounds while retreating. After that, you engage 4 more targets from around the end of the barrier. See video below:

Stage 2 had you engaging a total of 6 targets with 2 shots. Three targets you engage from a window while slicing the pie. After engaging those, you go to low cover and engage two more targets. After that, you go to the end of the barricade and engage the last target. Lots of folks went to their knees for low cover. I went to a crouch. I was afraid at my age and weight, if I went to my knees, I might not have been able to get back up. Pretty good crouch for a 44 year old pushing 280lbs. See video below:

Stage 3 had the first of our moving targets. The premise is that you are taking out the trash with the trash in your weak hand. At buzzer, you open the trash can with strong hand which activates a pop-up target which you engage with 2 rounds. From there, you move to the right and engage a series of 6 targets shooting furthest to nearest. This simulates a drug addled target closing in on you taking a lot of damage. Unlimited round count, so you'll see me make up a shot at the end. I wound up getting two shots out of three onto the pop-up in the 3 scoring zone low and just outside the 1. Getting better, but I'm still pretty bad with moving targets. See video below:

Stage 4 had us shooting strong handed. Bleh. I don't shoot near enough one handed and it showed. From the barricade with briefcase in weak hand, you draw and shoot the first target around the left side of the barricade, then, while moving to the right, you must shoot each of the next 4 targets while moving. Each target must receive at least one shot before you reach the next barricade or you must retreat back to the left side and reload. Once you reach the right side, you can set down the briefcase and shoot two more targets using both hands around the right side of the barricade. Unfortunately, I did get a shot through the non-threat  high on the left shoulder. I should have waited half a second longer to get more to the right before I took that shot. See video below:

Stage 5 had 6 targets, from the buzzer, you draw and shoot in any order, 1 shot to the body strong handed, 1 shot to the body weak handed, and 1 shot to the head free-style (two handed). I decided to go with the head shots first, then strong hand, then weak hand, this way I could do a standard reload after 11 rounds with the gun in my weak hand. Well that was the plan anyway. Slide didn't lock back after the 11th round, so it threw me off. Anyway, excuse the video, it stops filming while I'm doing my head shots and picks back up when I transition to strong hand and works fine from there. 

Stage 6 had multiple movers. From the buzzer, you move right and shoot one target with two shots, then two steel poppers, the first activates a swinging target and the second a clam-shell. You must shoot both steel before engaging any other paper, so after getting the steel down, I engaged the clam-shell. After the clam-shell, I shoot another target behind the barrels you can't see, then move to the left side of the barricade and shoot the near target, 3 shots at the swinger, and 2 shots at the last target behind the barrels. As I approached the first target I shot for scoring, I was baffled, I saw only one hole, I couldn't have missed that badly, but the safety officer pulled me in close and you could see the hole was elongated by two shots. I had key-holed the shot. It looked like a side-ways eight. That was pretty cool. Never done that before. Anyway, see video below.

No scores yet, but I'm not really competing with anyone but myself. Other than winding up with a crappy migraine, I had a great time and really enjoy hanging out with the folks who shoot IDPA. Well, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

Saturday at the range 5-19-2012

Decided to hit the range for some therapy yesterday. Worked at 10 yards and my first 5 shots told me how the day was going to go. First shot, dead x. Next four shots, slowly trending low and left. I never really did get all that comfortable yesterday. Not really sure why. I spent most of my ammo working on head shots at 10 yards at a standard IDPA target. Out of roughly 125 rounds at the head, I had 3 miss to the left and around 20 in the low left 1 scoring zone. Definitely not what I wanted to see. I can say that I was picking up my speed a little more, so that my have had me slapping the trigger a little more.

I'm still using the stock trigger on the M&P 9mm which most people will tell you is about the worst thing about the gun. Smith and Wesson did a great job designing and building the gun, but left a lot to be desired on the trigger. Finding the reset of the stock trigger is probably even worst then the break of the trigger itself. One of these days, I may break down and get the Apex  Action Enhancement Kit, either duty or competition. I'd like to try them out first to see how they feel. I'm just worried about a sub three pound trigger pull of the competition kit. If I do the Apex kit, I'm definitely getting the Reset Assist Mechanism as well. That is one of the things I miss about the Glock 19 I had. The Glock had a very tactile reset. You could feel it and almost hear the reset. With the M&P, the reset is very mushy. The Apex RAM kit is supposed to fix that as well.

Anyway, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

Scores in for CCSC 5-12-2012 match

Well, it was pretty much as ugly as I thought. Total match time was 129.83 seconds which was the worst of the stock service pistol marksman shooters. Raw time was 111.83 with 26 points down. I lost 21 points down on the first two stages which had all the movers. What this tells me is that my static work at the range is helping with my accuracy, but I have no real way to work on moving targets or shooting on the move at this point other than to keep shooting matches. I'm still following the advice of Morgan Allen which is to take my time and work on my accuracy and let the speed come with experience.

For stages 3-1, 3-2, and stage 4, I was only down a total of 5 points. Overall, it was pretty much what I expected. I was pretty slow on my times being the 41st out of 51 in overall time. As to accuracy I was the tied for 21st most accurate with 3 other shooters. Still, had a great time. Couldn't ask for better weather and as always, the people are the best thing about the sport. While they may be competing with you, they love to see you excel and get better.

Well, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

IDPA match at CCSC 5-12-2012

Had a great time at Central Carolinas Shooting Club down in Edgemoor, South Carolina. Pretty challenging stages. Had another two firsts today, one of which I froze on, and one I did ok on, but could have done better. I didn't keep track of my times or scores and they're not posted yet, so I'll update them when they become available, but after stage 1 where I started, let's just say I won't be competing with anyone for winning any trophies anytime soon. I did meet some new people, one of which was Tony Hill who is also a member of the North Carolina Gun Owners website. It's nice to meet people in real life that you've seen postings from on a website. I also finally joined CCSC. I've been shooting there for a little over a year now and I've been meaning to join for a while, guess when I hurt my shoulder, I put everything on hold wondering if I was going to have to have surgery or not. Still not 100%, but I'd say I'm about 98%. Gets a little sore every now and again, but maybe that's just me getting a little bit older. I am working out with weights a little bit more and it seems like I don't get as sore with free weights as I do with the machines, so maybe I'll stay with those. So, I guess we can move on to the stages.

We did four bays yesterday with bay 3 having stages on it. Please excuse the videos, they again are done with my android phone and stage 2 was done from distance so you could see the double charger with the drop turner at the end. 

Stage 1: You started close up between two targets with one a little further away, at buzzer, you draw, and from retention(from the hip) shoot the two nearest targets in tactical sequence (each of the targets must be engaged with 1 shot before any target gets a second shot, commonly known as 1-2-1 for shooting the two targets). Then while retreating, engage the further target with two shots (if you don't shoot the target while retreating, you get a procedural penalty). After that, you withdraw back down the "hallway" being careful to keep your muzzle pointed downrange, look around the corner, engage target with two shots, move forward to next corner, engage steel popper which activate a killer clamshell (engaged target pops up, then a non threat covers it)and double-drop turner simultaneously. After those, you turn the corner and engage two more static targets. I did great on everything except the clamshell and double-drop turner. First shot on clamshell was a 0, second hit the non-threat, just way too fast and truth be told, I wasn't prepared for how fast it was, nor did I shoot it correctly. I waited for the target to come all the way up. I should have been shooting at it as it was rising. By the time I fired my second shot, the double-drop turner was already on it's second turn, so no chance to even shoot that. In any event, not a great way to start the day, but still a lot of fun. Here's the video of someone shooting it. He had a lot of problems with his gun, but did fine once he got it cleared.

Stage 2: You start in a doorway and flip on a light switch, in front of you is a low non-threat target about 3-4ft tall, the light switch activates a double charging target, when this reaches the end, it activates the drop turner. From there, you can go right or left, doesn't matter, I went left, through the window is a non-threat with two targets behind it, you have to shoot the two targets, slicing the pie as they become visible through the window. After that, move to the right, and shoot two targets, one low right and on it's side and cut out like a dog, and one between two barrels. Here is a video of one of our better shooters engaging the course of fire. Again, it's from a distance so you can see the chargers and the drop turner. 

Stage 3: The two "strings" on stage 3 were designed to be revolver friendly. There aren't many revolver shooters out there, but we do have a couple of dedicated revolver shooters and CCSC does a good job trying to set at least one stage that is revolver friendly. The first string on stage 3 has 3 targets, one is upright, one is at about 60 degrees, and on is on it's side on the ground. At buzzer, you draw, shoot two to the body of targets 1 and 2 and one to the head of target 3. For semi-auto shooters, our mags were down-loaded to 6 rounds. We could reload if we missed, but it wasn't really necessary. I don't think we had anyone that missed and I think only one person took an extra shot and only because they weren't sure their headshot was a good score. See video below:

Stage3 - String 2: Standing behind 3 barrels, gun in box, magazine loaded, no round in chamber, at buzzer, you draw, engage two nearest targets around the non-threat with 1 body shot, 1 head shot, then kneel and place two body shots to far target which was about 20 yards I guess. Again, a revolver friendly stage. Minimum round count was 6 and that is what most people did. Poor Damon in the video. Well, you'll see. He's a great shooter and he did excellent for what happened.

Stage 4: Nothing really major here, just a lot of movement. Only thing is at start, you are looking perpendicular to down range. At buzzer, draw and shoot the first two targets in tactical sequence (1-2-1), turn 180, shoot third target that is perpendicular to down range. Come to corner, shoot fourth target that is WAY down range (25 yards was my guess). Move forward, shoot fifth target on the right while moving. Stop before corner on left, and shoot sixth target to left around corner. Turn left down hallway to right corner and shoot seventh and eighth targets behind non-threat. Sounds easy, right? Description doesn't do it justice. I took two videos. One of a shooter running the course, and then a walk-through. See both below.

Well, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

IDPA match at Mecklenburg Wildlife Defensive Shooters 4-28-2012

Finally got back on the horse and shot an IDPA match. I haven't shot an IDPA match since the February match at MWDS which was the classifier. Between weather and being sick most of the last 4-5 weeks, I just haven't much felt like getting outside and shooting. Anyway, it was another quality match put together by Bruce Hurt. It was six stages which had some interesting situations and a steel plate rack which I've never shot before and as bad as I shot it, hope I never have to shoot it again. I only got video of the first five stages and didn't get my times and scores. For the most part, my shooting was decent and I think my times were ok. I was mostly just wanting to get back out there and throw some lead down range and not break any safety rules. This was important as we had two people disqualified on the very first stage.

Stage 1 you are sitting facing uprange, your gun in a box, with 10 rounds in the mag, no rounds in the chamber and your mags on a table. At signal, you get up, go to the table, stow your mags, chamber a round and engage two targets from the table. From there, you move up, and engage three targets in the first room, then two targets in the second room, and finally one target in the last room. Sounds easy, right? Well, I brain farted this course of fire. I did everything right up to the first room. Shot the first two targets just fine and forgot about the third target. Moved on and finished the course of fire. So, procedural penalty, -10 for completely missing the target, and a failure to neutralize. Nice way to start the day. Anyway, here is a video of one of our revolver shooters running the stage. He did a really nice job.

Stage 2 was just a bunch of targets behind hard cover that you had to shoot from behind cover. Differing amounts of each target was available to shoot. Didn't have too much of an issue with this course of fire. I was all zero's and one's with one score of two on this course of fire. I had been working on my head shots at the range last week, so I think that really helped out here. See the video. I think I may have cut off a bit short, but you'll get the basic idea.

Stage 3 had you again facing up range, you turned, drew your weapon and fired at three targets in sequence 1-1-2-1-1, each target gets one shot before any target gets a second shot. From there, you move to cover and shoot each of three more targets from cover with two shots each. Sorry about the video. Lots of people moving around.

Stage 4 had 9 targets and was shot under Vickers scoring. What this means is that you can ONLY shoot the prescribed number of shots per target. No makeup shots. Basically, 3 targets right, 3 targets left, and 3 targets further downrange. You draw and shoot in any order, but 3 targets to either side have to be strong hand only, weak hand only, and the 3 targets downrange are free-style (two handed). I did ok here except for my last shot weak hand. I pulled it right and off the target for a miss. Was really my only bad shot all day except for not shooting that target on stage one. I really need to work on my one handed shooting. Anyway, here is a video of stage 4. Kinda hard to get in all the targets, so sorry for the quality.

Stage 5 had a first for me. It was a steel plate rack with 6 steel plates. After shooting those, you step on an activator panel which releases a swinging no shoot, move to cover and shoot 3 targets while slicing the pie with the no shoot swinging in front of them. What should, if you are a good shot, take you 12 rounds to shoot took me 21 rounds. I missed the first steel plate with 4 rounds. Seems I was high and left with is completely out of character for me. If I miss, 99.999% it's low left. I'm "Grand-Master Flinch" which causes you to pull low left. Anyway, I got through it. It was ugly, but I got through it. Not sure the distance, but I'd guess it was between 12-15 yards for the plates. Guess I need to work those distances a bit more. 

Finally, there was stage 6. Stage 6 was 9 targets. All of which must have been shot from cover. Unfortunately, I don't have video for you, but the first 5 targets are shot from the starting area with four of them at around 7-10 yards and one of them probably 20-25 yards. Reload, move up to cover spot two, shoot 3 more targets in various levels of cover, one of which only gave you basically the head and shoulders to shoot at, and finally, move forward and left to shoot at one more target at basically arms length around a barricade. So, nine, targets, 18 round minimum. I shot 21 rounds total. I know I shot 3 at the long distance target, and 3 at the head of the head and shoulders target because I wasn't sure I had hit it twice. Can't remember where the third extra round went. I'm checking with my friends on North Carolina Gun Owners to see if anyone else has video of stage 6. If they do, I'll update this post and add it. 

Well, that's it for me. Had a great time again at Mecklenburg Wildlife Defensive Shooters. They  put on another great match as usual. 

Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

Sunday at the range

Decided to do a little shooting today with my youngest son. He was a little let down today as he expected to pickup a new video game today, but alas, it releases on Tuesday, so to pick him up, I decided to break out the CMMG M4 with conversion and let him shoot that while I worked on head shots with my M&P 9mm.

We set the target out to 10 yards and I let him blast away with the rifle. I put 59 out of 60 rounds into the head area of a standard IDPA target with one just low and outside of scoring. After that, we moved the target out to 15 yards and continued our shooting. I fired off another 50 rounds at the head and well, the results weren't nearly as good. I only had 34 out of 50 in the head box. Out of the 16 that missed though, 7 were just outside of scoring but on target, seven would have been total misses of the target, and two were dropped well low, but on target. Of those total miss 7, 5 were high, but within 2-3 inches of scoring, 1 was left within 2 inches of scoring and 1 was a Scott Norwood "Wide Right" Superbowl miss by about 4 inches.

Overall, while not happy with the 15 yards shooting, I wasn't un-pleased. I could feel the tension coming up as I took longer and longer to try to line up the shots and my sights would get more fuzzy. I'm hoping that by focusing on a smaller target at a longer distance, it will help me focus on the center mass at shorter distances and make the target seem larger. Well, psychologically speaking, that's the hope :)

That's it for me! Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

2011 IDPA World shoot dominated by Glock and S&W

I kinda figured they would be the predominant firearms used in the 2011 IDPA World Championship and it's true. Turns out that 67% of the competitors used Glock and Smith and Wesson firearms in the competition. You can find a total break down on the IDPA blog site here: http://www.idpa.com/blog/post/2012/04/20/Glock-and-SW-Make-Up-67-of-IDPA-World-Shoot-Guns.aspx

That's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

Wow, it's been a while

Guess it's been a while since I posted. Not much going on. I haven't done an IDPA match since my last qualifier. This time of year, I always wind up with allergies, sinus infections, strep throat, thrush, etc and this year is no different. I should know some time on Monday if I have strep throat or not once the results come back from the lab. I think it's thrust (trench mouth) which I had been dealing with and almost had gotten rid of and then it came back with a vengeance. Don't know why.

Also have an update on the migraine front. For those who may have been reading for a while, you know I'm a chronic migraine sufferer and definitely get them when outside in the heat and sun. Well, a month ago, I had a migraine every day for almost a week and a half and I had had it at that point. I went to the doctor and we decided to try one more medication before going to a neurologist. I'm not taking the generic version of Topamax twice a day and it is definitely making a huge difference. I have kept a migraine log for the last four weeks and I usually need to take about 8-12 migraine pills over a 4 week period. This period, I've needed 6, and 4 of those were in the first two week and were for 2 migraines. Success! I even get workout induced migraines and have been pushing my workouts harder. I did get a migraine after my last kick butt workout, but was able to manage it with regular pain reliever, relaxing meditation music and just cool air and some darkness. Much better than in the past where I would have been popping $15 pills and curling up in the fetal position wanting to die.

So, now, back on to what this blog is all about, which is shooting and yes, while I haven't been shooting IDPA matches, I have  been shooting. I've shot every weekend for the last month, just working on my fundamentals and for fun, did shoot my first bowling pin match. That was a lot of fun. I actually won the "B" group of the shooters there. Had a clean first run under 7 seconds (6.7), but pretty much fumbled after that. Still, had a great time with the folks over at Elite Training Academy in Indian Trail.

I also decided to trade in my Glock 19. It's not that I didn't like the Glock 19, I did, but sometimes it felt like when you hit a lamppost with an aluminum baseball bat. My hands would ring after shooting it quickly. I also felt that the transition from my IDPA weapon which is a full size Smith and Wesson M&P 9mm to the Glock 19 left a little bit to be desired, so I found a fellow shooter over on the North Carolina Gun Onwers website and we swapped firearms. He got the Glock 19 and I got his M&P9c. I now carry the 9c regularly. I did get some X-grip adapters so I can use the full size mags in her which gives me 17 rounds. Also seemed to balance it out a bit for me to. I shot both today switching between them at the range. Other than the sight radius being different and the center of gravity being a bit off, they both shoot fairly similarly.

Well, the plan is to shoot next Saturday at the IDPA match at Central Carolinas Shooting Club down in Rock Hill next weekend. Hopefully I'll have an update for you after that.

That's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

Saturday at the range.

Went to Elite Training yesterday to do some shooting. As I didn't do very well the last classifier with my M&P, I thought I'd work on my Glock 19 to see how it did. I also dragged my wife along with me. If you've been keeping up with my story, you know my wife did some shooting with me very early in our relationship, so she's not a stranger to shooting, she just doesn't do it very often.

So, yesterday, we went with my Glock and my friends Ruger Security Six .357 revolver. I had my M&P along as well. We shot between 5-10 yards for the day. Using a standard B-27 target, I shot the head while my wife shot the body. She took her time and put all 50 .38 special rounds onto target, with the bulk being in the 8-X rings. Pretty awesome shooting for someone who hasn't picked up a gun since this time last year. I also had her shoot my M&P with the smallest grip adapter installed and the Glock 19 (third gen). The revolver didn't bother her shooting in single action, but the double action pull was tough for me to try, so I didn't even have her try it. The pistols though both her the web of her hand and her thumb. Seems they're just too wide for her. It's tough finding a pistol that fits her as she's only 4'11" and has small hands. I'd like to find a 9mm for her to shoot that fits well enough as .38 special ammo is not the cheapest stuff around.

As to my shooting, I put roughly 75 out of 80 rounds into the head of the target with semi-rapid shooting. I may have broken the rules a bit by shooting more than 1 round per second, but at most I did 3 rounds every 2 seconds. So, I guess I'll try the Glock at my next classifier. I may go and shoot another 100 rounds today just to get some more trigger time behind it.

Well, that is it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!

Classifier at MWDS - 2-25-2012

Oh well, it did not go as well as I had hoped. They had the classifier as part of a match which wasn't a problem, but I got stuck on a squad which started off on the 20 yard part of the classifier (hardest stage). It started bad and went downhill from there. I was the third shooter and the only words for the day were ugly, ugly, ugly. There ain't no alibi, it was ugly.

Based on what I scored and timed, I think I finished about 7 seconds slower than my last classifier. Still well within the Marksman class, but rough anyway.

I have another chance at the classifier at CCSC in two weeks. Think I'll give the M&P a break for a while and warm up my Glock 19, just to see how it feels to shoot.

Guess I can't complain too much, a bad day at a competition still beats a good day at work.

Anyway, that's it for me. Remember, shoot safe, shoot straight!