The GunDivas

National Take Your Daughter To The Range Day

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:29:00 +0000

The GunDivas are proud sponsors of NTYDTTRD - we've been following their progress from its inception back in January and fully support the idea.

Recently, it has come to our attention that there are several ranges promoting their own events and misrepresenting themselves as part of NTYDTTRD.

From the NTYDTTRD Facebook page:

Unfortunately, there are a few who are taking advantage and advertising events that are not part of NTYDTTRD. We have not charged participating ranges anything to participate and be listed. We do require a range agreement which spells out a minimum number of certified instructors and RSOs that must be present as this is an opportunity for new shooters to come into the shooting sports and SAFETY is the number one concern. The only OFFICIAL list of participating ranges, and we are up to 30, is listed on this site. Any range advertising an event but not listed, is not an officially participating range, they are infringing on the organization and we have no agreement with them.

Please, if you hear of an organization who claims to be joining in but is not listed, direct them to the official site so that they can become a "real" participating range. The date - June 9 - is rapidly approaching and new ranges are joining daily.

I have no respect for ranges who claim to be a part of NTYDTTRD, but are, in fact, not at all affiliated with the organization and fully believe that those ranges don't deserve our business in any way, shape or form.

Sheepdog Tip of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:35:00 +0000

If you have not "liked" Sheepdog Tip of the Day on Facebook, you really need to.

Each day, there is a pearl of wisdom from Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, of On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdog fame.

We've talked about mindset in the past, and I would venture to say all of us are Sheepdogs - we're out to protect the sheep, whether we like it or not. It's our nature. It's who we are, even if we didn't become soldiers or LEOs.

Firearms Training and Women

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:54:00 +0000

I saw this on Facebook yesterday and didn't have time to share it: ThePatriotNurse has made a wonderful video regarding firearms training. Take the time to watch it and share with all you know. I love the "personal security" is a "personal responsibility" standpoint.

I love her point about being a partner with "your man" and her point about the "momma bear" and, especially, her point about the gun not being a lucky charm (and choosing your own gun).

Hell, who am I kidding? I love all of her points.

Do yourselves a favor and take the eight minutes to watch this video.

1911 Edition

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:31:00 +0000

I'm lucky that my husband supports my shooting to the point that he designs shooting-based things for me. In fact, he designed my tattoo...

The gun is based on his M&P

If you read my other blog, Just another perfect day, you know that my husband, RCC, has a "thing" for my car, Ripley. He keeps buying her cool stuff; by far, my favorite is my 3rd brake light. I love to see the looks on people's faces when they realize what it says. The majority of people don't notice, but those who do end up with huge grins on their faces.

He's actually bought a ton of cool things for Ripley, far too many to list. But I've been eagerly awaiting his newest design: decals that show my love of 1911s. How lucky am I that they showed up on our anniversary?

Rule #1: Cardio

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:05:00 +0000

We spend a lot of time working on sight picture, trigger control and our groups, but how much time do we put into our fitness?

Heck, even I've joked, "I don't need to run, I've got a gun." But realistically, physical fitness, specifically cardio, plays a huge part in our ability to shoot well. We know about breath control. We know about controlling our heart rate. But without cardiovascular fitness, we can't effectively do either.

With increased fitness comes better reflexes; the time it takes to identify a threat and respond (or, in a competition situation, respond to the buzzer) decreases significantly. Our ability to focus and concentrate increases. In a competition situation, that ROCKS!

In a defense situation, it could save your life.

Not to mention, without fitness we can't fight. Guns are great equalizers - if you can get to them. Even if you've got it on your hip, you might need to fight to buy some space so that you can draw. You might - God forbid - have to fight for control of your gun. In a perfect world, no one would ever get close enough to have to fight off. But, hell, in a perfect world, we wouldn't need to protect ourselves from anybody or anything.

I'm certainly not in the best shape of my life. At one point about six years ago, I was working out 6 days a week, spending 1 1/2 hours in the gym doing strength training and cardio in addition to playing on four soccer teams; two indoor, two outdoor. I was FIT. And shooting-wise, I was at the top of my game. The best shooting I've ever done was while I was crazy fit.

My life changed, I quit working out so much, pretty much quit shooting and gained sixty pounds. And my shooting skills went down the toilet. I picked up shooting again a few months before RCC and I met and, holy cow, was I disappointed. In the past year, I've dropped twenty pounds and have seen an improvement in my shooting. With every pound I shed, I see a positive change in my shooting ability: my reflexes are faster, my concentration greater, and I'm not exhausted by the end of a match.

I hadn't realized just how far I'd let my physical fitness slide. But I'm thanking my lucky stars that I never had to fight during that time, that I never found myself in a situation that required it, because that whole "I don't need to run, I've got a gun" thing doesn't work for me anymore.

I want to be able to go hands-on if I have to.

I want to be able to buy myself some time and space if the situation requires it.

As much as I hate it, I have to spend more time running and doing strength training. I'll probably never go back to the insane workout schedule I had six years ago, but I don't think that some form of strenuous workout three or four times a week is going to kill me.

In fact, it might just save me.

What do you think? Is fitness necessary? If so, what kind of time do you put into your personal fitness?

Sublime Green

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:51:00 +0000

I wasn't quite ready to give up the color thing and admit defeat with my terrible eyes, so I went back to the drawing board. Way back when I first started noticing I was having trouble seeing my front sight, I complained to L at the shop about it. He suggested picking up some modeling paint and painting the front sight before dropping a bunch of money on different sights, so I did, and that's how I ended up with my red front sight.

I chose red first, because when we were trying out different colors at the shop, it seemed red was easier for me to pick up. Obviously, though, red was the wrong choice, so I thought back to the other colors of HiViz sights I'd seen and decided I'd go with one of the neon-ish colors. Off to the hobby store we went and I picked up a bottle of Sublime Green.

I had some microbrushes tucked away from painting my sight red, so I dug those out of my gun catch-all box. What I love about the microbrushes is that they fit inside the front sight exactly.

One little dab of Sublime Green on the front sight and viola! a whole new sight to try out.

I took the Para out to the range that afternoon with Tara and I was back on target despite the buffeting winds. My lousy right eye picked up the green every single time. My groups were about three inches, which isn't great, but taking into consideration that the wind was literally knocking us from side-to-side as we lined up our shots, I'm pleased.

I'm even more pleased that I've found at least a temporary work-around for my little half-blind problem. Seeing as how I just bought six month's worth of contacts, I wasn't thrilled about the possibility of having to change them.

The real test will be at the defensive pistol match next Sunday. Will I be able to pick it up while shooting on the move?

If you have trouble seeing your front sight, what kinds of things have you tried to work around the problem?

What I Learned At The Range

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:54:00 +0000

On Wednesday I had to deliver a shirt to Double Tap and, conveniently, the delivery spot was at a range. Since we were going to be there anyway, why not put some rounds downrange? I've really been strugging with accuracy lately, which had never been a problem in the past, so I wanted Double Tap to watch me shoot to see what the heck I was doing wrong. Having a friend who is both an experienced shooter and an experienced instructor is definitely a benefit.

I know about "the wheel" - a diagram that helps shooters figure out what they're doing wrong based on their shot placement. Here's a really good explanation of the wheel that's a little more in depth.

Google images

According the the wheel, I was tightening my grip while pulling the trigger. Only, I wasn't. I was sure of it. Maybe if I was a new shooter, or if it was a new gun, but nothing had changed other than I was shooting low and right. Double Tap watched carefully and agreed that I shouldn't be throwing my rounds. We checked my sights to see if they were loose or had drifted. The sights were still tight, so I had Double Tap shoot the Para. Dead freaking on. Every round.

Back to square one, it had to be something I was doing, so he watched me from several angles to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. After three or four rounds he asked, "Which eye are you shooting with?"

Suprised, I answered, "Right. Why?"

He asked if I could shoot with my left eye, so I did. Guess what? Dead freaking on. Every round.

I am strongly right eye dominant, so I was surprised that I was shooting better with my left eye. We picked out a different area on the target and I shot using my left eye to sight in, dead on. I lowered my gun to the low ready to check the target, brought it back up and threw the next round. Double Tap asked which eye I had used. I had to think about it for a second and realized that when I brought my gun back up on target I'd automatically switched to my "strong" eye.

I'd been complaining for a while about not being able to see my front sight, but I blamed it on the color I'd painted my sight. But I can see the sight with my left eye and can drill the hell out of one hole left eyed, so we ruled out the color being the problem. Before I spring for a new front sight, I want to try out several colors so I know which color to buy. Currently my sight is a bright red. That my right eye can't see! I'll try a neon green next. My intention is to buy a Hi-Viz or something similar, but for that kind of money, I want to make sure I can see the sight every time.

We ruled out a mechanical issue with my stance and grip.

We ruled out loose sights.

We ruled out the color.

That leaves me with crappy eyes. Well, one crappy eye.

Guess who is going to be heading back to the eye doctor in short order? And if she tells me one more time that it's because I'm "forty now", Ima punch her in the nose.

They're Here!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:52:00 +0000

RCC picked up the shirts this morning and they are beautimous!

Aren't they amazeballs? I love them very much. So much that I had to try all three of mine on.

Too bad this is the only AR I currently own :)

Aren't they loverly?

I know you want one for your very own! Or two or three. Only $20 each (includes shipping). Just email jayjaywilson51@yahoo.com with your shirt size, font color, quantity, and address. He'll provide you with the PayPal information at that time.

Thank you so very much, JWby Design, for designing these amazing shirts (though the printer may kill you - they weren't an easy task).

Look! It's Mrs Mom!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs Mom) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Yep. That's me. Mrs Mom, shooting my AR and LOVING it.

It's been a while- and I do mean a WHILE- since I posted here. GunDiva keeps sending me "gentle reminders" that this blog is here, and that she'd appreciate some support writing. Since there are so many new folks joining us, I figure it might be a good thing to re-introduce myself before I get into today's post.

Where to begin?

I'm a 41 year old Mother, wife, horsewoman, shooter, 2nd Amendment supporting, US Constitution believing, no bullsqueeze tolerating, Kimber and AR toting, bundle of joy. I hold NRA certifications in Pistol and Refuse To Be A Victim as well as Range Safety Officer. I've carried everything from Combat Tupperware (which I adore,) to my current love, a 1911. We also homeschool our sons, now six and seven years old.

A small part of the reason I've not had much time to post is because Dear Husband and I have been tied up in knots. No, it is NOT what you think. We've literally been tied up in knots. Or rather, tying up loads of knots. All KINDS of knots. Tons of knots. Lots and LOTS of knots.

Why?

Because we discovered the joys of creating items with cord and rope.

Things like rifle slings.

Custom colors with quick disconnect

Yes, that is my AR. No, it is NOT for sale! Only the pink sling is.

And GunDiva's Favorite Sling.. (NOT)

The Snake belly

(Want to see more? Hit Facebook- there is a whole page dedicated to Southern Winds Solutions. On it you'll find more items, such as equine equipment, more rifle sling styles, various bracelet styles, and color options along with ordering information.If you don't see what you'd like or what you need? Email me- we will work with you to create exactly what you need!)

There you have it. What the mysterious Mrs Mom has been up to and why I've been neglecting my co- writing duties at GunDivas. With any luck, you'll be able to read more from me in the coming days.

Happy Shooting y'all. Keep it center mass!

~Mrs Mom

5.11 Range Ready Bag Review

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 05:07:00 +0000

Let me give you a little history on my love affair with 5.11. In 2005, during my first trip to SHOT Show, the 5.11 tactical pants caught my eye. I was walking the floor and I noticed the coolest pants ever on a couple of guys. I'd never seen them before, so I stalked the guys until I could get close enough to see whose pants they were wearing - I wanted a pair!

After SHOT Show, I came home and ordered a pair and thus began my love affair with 5.11 apparel. I've got a couple of tactical pants, some training shorts, and shirts and I love them all.

I have been noticing that my current range bag was starting to show its age, which I bought at the 2005 SHOT Show and have been hauling it all over ever since. But little things were starting to not work so well. Mostly the shoulder strap will stay on if I bend the clip just right, and who really needs the feet on the bottom of the bag anyway?

I started looking for a new shooting bag, all the while keeping 5.11 in the back of my mind. I loved their clothes, why wouldn't I love their range bags? When the opportunity arose for me to review one of their bags, I jumped at it. It was like fate or something.

About a week and a half ago, the mailman brought me a very, very early Christmas present (or a very late one). I got home from work and a huge box was sitting on the couch. I opened it up and there inside was a magnificent bag, much larger than my old range bag.

5.11 Range Ready bag on the left,
old, beat up bag on the right.

Range Ready bag on the left,
old, beat up bag on the right.

I'm somewhat of a compartment freak. I love compartments, the more there are, the happier I am. The Range Ready bag made me positively giddy. There are two large compartments on the ends, a place for a water bottle, two large compartments along one side and a zip-down workspace along the other side. And all of that is on the outside of the bag, I haven't even gotten to the inside.

I love having a place to lay my guns.

I immediately started moving things from my old bag into this new one. Now, instead of having my cleaning stuff divided between two compartments, it all fits in one. My sunscreen now has its own area, as does my eye and hearing protection - it's not all jumbled together - and I still have a whole compartment I've purposely left empty for a small first aid kit and some QuikClot.

The inside of the bag is just as joyous. The large inner compartment (9x18x10) has padded side pockets to help protect pistols (they might be for pistols, but that's where my staple gun and extra staples ended up) and has what the website calls a "removable ammo tote and brass bag with two side zipper pockets". I call it genius! The removable portion of the bag is just right - the zippered pockets on each side are big enough to slip pistols down inside. There are handles for carrying just the "ammo tote" or you can take the shoulder strap off of the main bag and attach it to the D-rings at the ends of the ammo tote.

Inside the ammo tote I have: 100 rounds of .45 ACP,
my Para and paddle holster,
two magazine holders,
and six high-cap mags.
There was still room left over!

Another little bit of genius, and proof that the people at 5.11 pay attention to details, is the addition of a bag for brass that fits in the ammo tote. I love having a brass bag! It sure beats the grocery bags I've been using. Okay, that's a lie. I've been just dumping my brass into the bottom of my range bag because I kept forgetting to put a new grocery bag in. No matter, I *love* having a bag just for brass.

Though I am head-over-heels in love with this bag, I would be less than honest if I didn't mention two little drawbacks. Number one, it's a big bag, which means it would be very easy to overload and make too heavy to comfortably carry. If you are someone fun-sized like me, you should take that into consideration.

It does, however, detract from the size of my butt.

Number two, the very handy magazine pouches in the zip-down workspace don't fit my extended magazines.

Standard 1911 mags on the left,
extended mags on the right.

Seriously, those are the only two drawbacks I can think of and I've already got a solution: the Range Ready bag lives in my car. When I get home from the range, I simply pull out the ammo tote, which has my guns, ammo, and brass in it, and bring that into the house. For matches I'll do the same thing, only I'll add the shoulder strap to make it easier to move between stages. As for the extended mags not fitting in the magazine pouches, that's not a big deal, I've loaded them up with standard size magazines and my extended mags are now living in the ammo tote.

If you're looking for a great all-around, versatile range bag, this one is darn close to perfect. It's listed on 5.11's site for $119.99, which is a phenomenal deal for something that is going to last a very long time.

Disclaimer: I received the 5.11 Range Ready bag for purpose of review, but have receive no financial compensation. The opinions contained in this review are mine and have not been swayed by receipt of the product.

April Defensive Pistol

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Our Defensive Pistol matches are always the first Sunday of the month, which means I'm way behind on posting. However, the delay does mean that I now have access to the scores and can tell you that I *finally* beat Mez.

Sort of.

Ok, I take that back. The scores say I beat him, but I don't believe them simply because we were in a group where a new timer and scorer were being trained. There are always mistakes when training new scorers. For example, for the stage that I solidly "beat" Mez on (according to the scorer), the score sheet shows 60 seconds worth of penalties. Each penalty is worth 0.5 seconds, so that means in order for Mez to have 60 seconds worth, he would have had to amass 120 penalty points. That doesn't happen. Mez is one of the best shooters I've ever met. There's no way on earth he had 120 penalty points. Not even shooting blind-folded, weak-handed, hanging upside-down, drunk on a Sunday could he amass that number of penalties.

I finished eighth in my class (mag capacity of 10 rounds or less) of ten. Not great, not horrible. But solid shooting. I had a couple of stages that I was smokin'! And then I started thinking (or in one case, just stopped thinking) and completely screwed myself up. I also like to compare my scores to the other classes, specifically those with higher capacity magazines. In theory, shooters with higher cap magazines should have faster times because they don't have to reload as often. I "beat" six of the high cap folks.

I'd like to see my times drop, but it's going to take a bit more time for me to trust the Para again. It had so many problems for so long that were blamed on my technique instead of anyone believing it was the gun, that I lost a lot of confidence with it. I don't think it's even been six months since I got her fixed up properly, so I'll just keep on with the slow and steady, knowing that speed will follow.

Stage 1
Raw time: 54:03 seconds; penalty seconds: 10; total time 64:03 seconds.

Stage 2
Raw time: 71.84; penalty seconds: 4.5 seconds; total time: 76:34 seconds

Stage 3
Raw time: 28:08 seconds; penalty seconds: 3.5; total time: 31.58

Stage 4
Raw time: 34:07 seconds; penalty seconds: zero; total time 34:07 seconds

Stage 5
Raw time: 93:49 seconds; penalty seconds: zero; total time: 93:49

Shotgun Side Match
I wasn't even going to post this one, I sucked so bad. But maybe other shooters can feel better based on my total and complete suckage. I decided the night before to take off my Blackhawk Knoxx buttstock that kept slapping me in the face and put on the stock buttstock. Only, I forgot that I'm fun-sized, not adult-sized and the whole reason for changing out the buttstock in the first place was because my shotgun's too big for me. I sucked. Badly. And then it got worse...I ran out of rounds, so I didn't even finish the stage due to my total cand complete suckage at the beginning. By the time I got me and my gun sorted out, it was too late. The writing was on the wall. Chalk this up to one big FAIL!

SEAL of My Dreams Update

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:33:00 +0000

I just heard from Tara that SEAL of My Dreams, a collection of short stories by famous romance writers nation-wide (including our own Tara Janzen), has now raised over $110,000 for the Veterans Research Corporation. In addition, it also won The Romance Review's highest honor of BEST BOOK OF 2011!

If you haven't read this fabulous book, you can still buy it and help contribute to the charity - it's a fun read and the proceeds are going to a good cause.

~~~~~
Don't forget to spread the word! When we hit 100 followers, we will be giving away prizes!

Self-Defense in the Home

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Brigid over at Home on the Range has an excellent post up about Self-Defense in the Home. My sibs and I were just talking about tactical mindset and how most anything can be used as a weapon, the primary one being our brain.

Do yourselves a favor and go read her post and put it into practice.

~~~~~~~
And don't forget, when we hit 100 followers, there will be a t-shirt give-away (and a little something extra - still deciding).

Winner! And a new give-away!

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:53:00 +0000

We have a Facebook winner! 100 likes on the GunDivas' Facebook page. Woo Hoo!!

Click on over to see if that winner was you.

Next up: let's see if we can get this blog to 100 followers! One follower (non-family followers, let me clarify) will be randomly chosen using a random name generator when we hit 100. The prize will be a GunDivas t-shirt and a little something extra (yet to be determined).

This and That

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:16:00 +0000

First things first...Happy Easter!

I received the 5.11 Range Ready bag for review last week; I'm super excited to get to try it out and review it. I'm an unabashed fan of 5.11 gear and was thrilled last year when I was approved to do reviews for them. Here are a couple of pictures from our "product photo shoot" yesterday (meaning, RCC, his artistic eye, and fancy camera along with the new bag).

5.11 bag on left, my old range bag on right

5.11 on left, old bag on right

I'm relatively certain that I could live out of the range bag or park a Smart car in it. I'll have the review up in a week or so, after I've had a chance to take it out to the range and not just play with it in the house.

I've had some questions about the Mossberg catastrophe...it was out of time, which Stein was able to fix. But, the trigger and safety are broken, which might have happened when we were having such a hard time with the receiver. It looks like the bolt was too long, so when we were tightening it down, we broke off the top of the trigger. The good news is that Stein can do the trigger (I won't touch them, they're too important) when I get the new parts in.

The shirts will be here next week, if you want to order one, please email jayjaywilson51@yahoo.com. The cost is $20 and you have your choice of size and font color: blue, red, or purple. If you want a chance to win one for free, listen close. You know the "Find us on Facebook" thing in the sidebar? Click it. Click "Like" when you do find us on Facebook. When we get to 100 likes, I'll randomly draw a winner from the likes (likers?).

Shirts!

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:37:00 +0000

I know she's wearing a long-sleeve, but we're getting short-sleeve.
It is summer(ish), afterall.

We're ordering the shirts on Thursday and I can't wait!!

We're ordering small, medium, and large in three different font colors: red, blue, and purple. If you would like a shirt in a size other than what we're ordering, please let me know ASAP. They are $20 US, which includes shipping. (Canadian GunDivas, the price will be the same, thanks to a little tip from Mrs. Mom on shipping.)

If you are interested in buying a shirt, please email your order to jayjaywilson51(at)yahoo(dot)com. Please include your size, font color and mailing address.

More Zombie Killing (A Semi-Review)

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

After a really gawdawful day at work in February, I found Zombie Industries online and did a little retail therapy. I ordered a bleeding zombie target, the zombie shooting gallery, and some Zomboom!.

I ordered the Rocky Zombie, but got a phone call the next day from Zombie Industries' customer service. Seems they were out of Rocky, so they offered a different zombie. I didn't really have my heart set on just one zombie, so I agreed to the change and in less than a week a box bearing the following warning showed up on my doorstep.

The "Outbreak 'Face Off' Shooting Gallery" and the Zomboom! arrived the same day the bleeding zombie did, and they all arrived earlier than the estimated delivery date. Two thumbs up for their customer service and shipping department.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take the zombie out shooting until the end of March. After I finished customizing Junior's shotgun (I still have a headache from that cluster!), we decided to go out the next day to kill some zombies. The range was a disaster when we got there, but after a few minutes of clean-up I stopped twitching and cursing enough to unpack the zombie.

We carefully read the instructions,
just in case we'd missed something.

The Zombie Hunters: Junior, me, M

After we'd staked down the zombie via 1x2 wooden enema, we pulled out the shooting gallery and got it ready to shoot. Set up was unbelievably easy and quick. The most time consuming part was loading all of the clays into the holes. We were lucky in that it wasn't a windy day. As a general rule, the plains are exceptionally windy and this set-up would not have worked if we would have had wind.

Look closely, you can see that Junior had a bit of a zombie moment

We started the day with the shooting gallery, which is a whole lot harder than it looks. We were shooting from about 15 yards, not too far, but it still took some doing to shoot out all of their brains. I love the shooting gallery and I especially love that it's re-usable (as long as you or your friends don't miss too often). But I do have one complaint: the eight edge targets - four on the right and four on the left - are right in front of the poles that support it. I ended up having to throw my poles away at the end of the day because they were unusable from people shooting through the clays and hitting the poles. I don't know that there's a solution other than not loading up those eight zombie brains. I kept the cardboard cut-out and I figure I'll buy some dowel rods and plan on throwing them away after each shooting day. Other than that one complaint, this was definitely worth the $30 or so I spent on it.

We were all chomping at the bit to get to the bleeding zombie, so after warming up at the shooting gallery we moved on to our captive zombie. That wooden enema actually worked pretty well to keep him in one place (well, that and the fact that he had no legs).

I was surprised when I unpacked him at how lightweight he was and I wondered how on earth he could possibly be a bleeder when he weighed so little. I also noticed that Zombie Industries was kind enough to provide us with a couple of spaces for Zomboom! - one in the zombie's head and one in his chest. Because we've been under fire weather warnings, I chose to leave the Zomboom! at home and not risk starting a prairie fire. I'm thinking that the Zomboom! will be fun to have next winter in the snow.

We had a plan in mind for shooting the bleeder. We started with the smallest caliber we had (.22) and worked our way up. Being as how I bought the bleeder, I pulled rank and got to go first with my new GSG (which, BTW, I *love*). I know the rule for shooting zombies is "two to the head kills 'em dead" and I was shooting a .22, so all shots were headshots. It was hard to see him bleed through those little holes, but when I put enough holes in him, he started oozing pink. Did you know zombies bleed pink? Yeah, me either.

M pulled out her new XDM 9mm and went next while I loaded up RCC's new PX4 Storm with 9mm Golden Sabers. The nines made slightly bigger holes and we moved onto chest shots just for the bleeding factor. There wasn't much tissue damage difference between the round-nose 9mm and the Golden Sabers. I think that's because there really wasn't much "tissue" to 'activate' the Golden Sabers - they passed right on through.

Junior had his Taurus .45 loaded and ready after I gave the PX4 Storm a go. The .45s really started showing the destruction. I almost felt sorry for the zombie. Almost. I mean, really, chest shots weren't going to kill him and he was being kept upright by a 1x2 stick in his arse. Good thing I unloaded twenty or so .22 rounds into his nogger to put him out of his misery first.

After we'd worked our way up from .22 to .45, we went back and started all over again. I let The Girl, Deejo's daughter, unload a magazine or two from the GSG into the zombie and we all switched around guns for fun. Honestly, we probably could have put another couple of hundred rounds through the zombie, but seeing the destruction just whetted our appetite for more zombie destruction, so we pulled out the shotguns. Yeah, baby. Though I had slugs, I chose not to use them on the zombie, seeing as how there wasn't much of him left and I wasn't sure how far the slug would fly after passing through a tissue-less zombie.

I used RCC's shotgun, which has the GoPro mount on it and had set up the Flip camera earlier to record the destruction. We loaded up the shotguns and took our turns throwing #7.5 birdshot into the carcass. Was a blast!

I wish I'd set the Flip up closer than the firing line, I think we would have had much better footage. Next time, I'll take the tripod out and arrange the camera so that we can see every round (even the .22s) hit.

Two thumbs up for the bleeding zombie targets - I'll definitely be buying more in the near future. Easy to set up, fun to shoot, and they're biodegradable, so clean up is a breeze!

Shotgun Modification

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:27:00 +0000

I am not a gunsmith nor do I claim to be one. There's a whole heap about guns that I don't know and I've always taken mine to a gunsmith if anything ever needed to be done mechanically. Cosmetically, though, I've been known to play around, mostly with easy-to-do additions that look impressive but are actually very easy. I "built" a shotgun from the receiver up several years ago, but I left the important things, like trigger work to Boss Man.

I *loved* this shotgun, my 12 ga flashlight.
Sadly, I got broke and had to sell my baby.

I had so much fun, I built Deejo a shotgun.

Deejo's baby AKA Red Dog's shotgun

Last Christmas, I modified my Remington 870

B.A.M.F.

And over New Year's helped RCC modify his Remington 870.

Medusa

Essentially, everything I've done to an 870 has been plug-n-play. When Junior, my other brother, asked me to build his shotgun a few years ago, I said sure. For some reason, though, he had to buck the trend and buy a Mossberg 500 instead of a Remington 870. I bought the buttstock he wanted and then his build stalled out, meaning we were both too broke to buy the shotgun. For going on five years, he's held on to the buttstock I bought him hoping for 'someday' to come along. M, my future SIL, gave him 'someday' for his birthday this year and bought him his Mossberg. He has spend the last month finding and ordering the accessories he wanted. Finally, last week they all came in, which meant that I was on the hook for putting together his gun.

No problem, I thought. I'd always been told that the Mossbergs were as easy to customize as the Remingtons - how difficult could it be? He only wanted a couple of things added: a heat shield, a tac rail, a side saddle,and his buttstock. I insisted on the mercury recoil system and he willingly agreed.

I guessed it would take about forty-five minutes to do the whole thing. Two screws to take off the butt plate, one screw holding the stock to the receiver, a couple of screws for the tac rail and the side saddle, pull the barrel off to slide the heat shield on. Seriously, forty-five minutes to put it together. The mercury recoil system wouldn't take long to install, but it would take eight hours for the acrylic to cure.

Holy Mother of God was I wrong! My projected forty-five minutes (and I thought I was way overestimating my time) turned into five hours.

Five.

Hours.

So not kidding. I wish I was.

About the only thing that went right was taking the two screws out of the butt plate. Yep, that went well. And then the entire thing went to shit. The bolt, screw, whatevertheeffitis, that holds the buttstock to the receiver cross-threaded and we spent an hour trying to back it out.

An hour.
Doing this.

The screw was destroyed and the threads were stripped out. Junior made a run to the hardware store and got some new screws. We managed to find one that worked only to realize that the adapter that came with the stock was too short. Luckily, the stock also came with adapters for a Remington. The Remington adapter was too long and the Mossberg one was too short. No problem. Junior cut the Remington one down to the correct length and after a very long afternoon we were able to attach the stock to the receiver. Hallelujah!

The side saddle went on without a hitch. A miracle!

The tac rail went on without a hitch. Two for two!

The heat shield. Mother Effer. I knew it was too good to be true.

I got it on, but couldn't get the front end to clamp down enough to thread the screws, so I handed it over to Junior. He couldn't get it to work either. Thank God RCC was available, because after about forty-five minutes of creative swearing and doing everything I could think of, I was ready to throw the whole gun out the window. RCC managed to work some magic with a C clamp, a pair of pliers and an allen wrench. Whew! Heat shield - done.

I had Junior secure the shotgun vertically so I could pour acrylic into the stock to suspend the mercury recoil system. At the shop we had these wonderful bench vices that we could adjust to make sure that everything was level - I tell you, I really missed those vices a lot while putting this gun together. I mixed the acrylic and Junior figured out a way to support the shotgun that would keep it secure over night while the acrylic cured.

Worked like a charm.

In order to suspend the recoil system in the acrylic, Junior found an old metal plate that he could put a screw through and attached the recoil system. We let it sit over night to cure. In the morning, all he had to do was remove the screw and re-attach the butt plate.

I have to admit, it is a pretty gun...

Only took five years to build,
but at least it's done.

Too bad the damn thing doesn't go bang.

Okay, okay. It goes bang. Once. If you directly load the chamber.

I panicked a little bit, thinking I'd done something to completely screw up my brother's gun. But we didn't do a darn thing that would have impacted its ability to cycle. Come to find out, he'd been having trouble with it cycling ever since he bought it. Boss Man is now in Indiana, I can't just run it by the shop and have him look at it. However, one of "my boys", Stein, apprenticed under Boss Man for several years so I called him. Thankfully, Stein speaks GunDiva so when I was explaining about the thingy on the inside of the receiver that releases the round from the magazine so the other thingy can pick it up and load it into the chamber, he knew what I was talking about. And better yet, he can fix it.

You know what I learned from this experience?

I hate Mossberg 500s. I'll stick with my 870s, thankyouverymuch.

Range Rant

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:21:00 +0000

Today, I went out to one of the few shooting areas that is still open to the public and was appalled to find one of the areas looking like this:

I know it looks like they had a lot of fun, but they forgot a couple of very important things. First, clean your shit up! As we started cleaning up, we found out that they also forgot that guns and booze don't mix!

You know, it only took about three minutes of this...

To make it look like this...

Seriously. Three minutes and five plastic bags that we managed to scrounge up from our cars. Didn't take hardly any time at all, certainly the drunk bastards who left the mess weren't in such a big hurry that they couldn't spare three minutes to clean up after themselves.

It's because of idiots like the ones who left the mess that we're losing our places to shoot.

I feel like not only is it important to teach our children about gun safety, but how to be good stewards of the land. If we allow our children to grow up to treat our public shooting lands the way these idiots did, we won't have any public shooting lands left.

Guest Post: A Girl and Her Gun

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:24:00 +0000

A week or so ago, I read one of AGirl's posts about her training and I was struck by how amazing her training has been. I tell you, when AGirl makes up her mind to do something, she does it right. I thought that the training she did was too important to just link to, so I asked her to guest blog here. If you don't already follow her, you certainly need to. And if you've clicked over from A Girl and Her Gun, welcome.

About a year ago I was mugged walking out of a grocery store parking lot. Unfortunately for me, I ended up on the ground with a not nice man on top of me. After that experience I decided it was time that I got a gun and learned how to use.

I have spent the last year taking a variety of different classes and spending an awful lot of time educating myself on the best ways to stay safe.

While I still have an awful lot to learn, I feel very comfortable that I have a good solid foundation with my firearms training, but recently I have wanted to step it up a bit.

I have friends who think the “odds” are against being attacked and even if a person is attacked it’s rarely that bad, so carrying a gun is overkill. I also know people who carry guns, but think basic shooting skills are plenty because they think the chances of needing an extra magazine or force on force train is so rare that it is just a waste of time and money. Since I have already been face to face with a bad guy and ended up on my back while my daughter watched, I do not have the luxury to live in that fantasy world. Most people think they are safe as long as they don’t go into “bad” neighborhoods or go out at night. I agree with them, that there are plenty of things we can all do, to make ourselves less of a target, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. For me, it was broad daylight, in a ‘good’ neighborhood. I was with a small child, and I wasn’t causing any trouble. Most people would assume, I would be safe, and like me, they would be wrong. I think part of the reason I didn’t react and leave when I saw the guy approach me is that my brain just didn’t think anyone would be that bold. I knew he was a bad guy, but it had been ingrained in me that people don’t attack people in a parking lot in the day time, but that proved to be incorrect.

I think anything one does to make themselves less of a target is great and I think the more one can do to avoid a violent encounter is fabulous and I do believe that there is much we can do to avoid ever having to use deadly force, but I am not leaving my life in the hands of the odds makers. For me, I don’t train for the events that are mostly likely to happen; I train for the least likely.

A couple of weeks ago, I headed out with my husband and some friends and we did some out of the box training.

One of the first things we did was, we learned how to access the gun if we found ourselves on our backs. John, the instructor and owner of the range, simulated pushing us down. We would fall, then kick, kick, kick, then spin on our backs until we faced the target, then we drew and shot. We each did this several times and I cannot tell you how many things I learned about positioning my body, equipment failure, and mindset with this one drill. Just being conscious of how the body falls and practicing how I want to fall, if I can, so it becomes more automatic, is extremely valuable. It reinforced trigger placement and how important it is to NOT put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot. If any of us had done so prior to muzzle on target, we could have blown a hole right through one of our legs. This is not a good thing to have happen in a gun fight, or ever really.

All photos courtesy of A Girl and Her Gun

I felt pretty good about this drill, but something interesting happened when the next person did the same drill. I call this woman Mrs. Awesome and her husband Mr. Awesome, cuz they are, you know, awesome. Both Mrs. and Mr. Awesome carry in the Remora holster. They love it and so do I. OK, time for the drill. John pushed her down, she kicks, spins, goes to draw her gun and it's not there. It is not in the holster. She does well, she feels for it, finds it and shoots, but we were all kind of like, "Not good!" She was wearing the model with the reinforced top, so I said let's try it with the collapsed version. I had mine in my range bag. She did. She falls, spins, draws and the gun was there, but when she drew the whole thing came out, holster and all. Here are 4 people that use this holster daily and it failed, big time. Not a good feeling. Lots of chit chat, trouble shooting talk. Mrs. Awesome does not wear a belt, so Mr. Awesome tosses out the idea that maybe that is the issue. Mr. Awesome is wearing a belt, so he steps up to the line and does the drill. Falls, kicks, kicks, kicks, draws and all goes well. We might be onto something. John happens to have an extra belt, so Mrs. Awesome puts her regular carry gear on with the belt and runs the drill. Fall, kick, kick, kick, draws, perfect! Looking good, but let’s do that a few more times just to be sure. She does not have any more problems.

I see a lot of people go to a training with an OWB holster that is big and clunky and it is not the one they were everyday. Not a good plan. The place to find out your equipment doesn’t work, is on the range, not in a parking lot somewhere. To be fair, this really wasn’t an equipment failure as it was a learning of how the equipment works best which is when a belt is worn. As an update to this story, John went to a force on force kind of training this past weekend where he wore the Remora while rolling around on the ground, kicking, fighting, and being very aggressive. He reported having zero trouble as long as he had a good quality belt on.

Next we did ground work. We completely disarmed. Nothing, not even a flashlight on us. Did the TSA groping drill to be sure no one had forgot anything, then used a blue gun.

We took turns lying on our back, bad guy on top, grab, pop hip, shove off, grab gun, shoot. This is where I got bruised. My hips are boney and tossing someone off of me, made my hips black and blue and sore. I also had a large bruises on my thigh and I am clueless as to how I got them, but he technique is so important it’s worth any amount of marks left behind. Repetition is vital, for skill building and mindset. If you do end up on the ground it's not good to just lie there and say, “well, I am toast”. It is crucial that no matter what, you tell yourself again and again, you will make it out. Being on the ground is not where you want to find yourself and it puts you at a great disadvantage which is why, it is important to train from that position.

We did a drill shooting from retention. I want to say position 1, but I think I am making that up. So, you draw, the gun is at your side, low, no extension and you start shooting from there as you move up to the full two handed, extended position. I think the drill is called "The Zipper" Another fabulous lesson. I am rather well endowed, so when I drew my gun and pulled the trigger the slide hit my breast and did not have room to fully go back, so my gun jammed. I did do tap rack, bang, which only made it worse and instead of taking care of it, I stopped. This is not like me. I am very good at dealing with malfunctions and finishing up, but my mind was not on and I noticed everyone else had stopped shooting, so I did too. NOT the right thing to do. Anyway, it was a good thing to have happen because it made me aware of an issue and let me know what I personal needed to work on based off of my skills and body. I needed to make an adjustment to my draw. I did and did not have any more problems. I will practice that drill a lot in dry fire.

We did some drills where we were pushed up against the wall and the bad was choking us. We learned to drop the knees to get slack and push the arms out, run, grab gun etc. We ended with some basic marksmanship type drills.

The exact moves are not important and it doesn’t matter if you do exactly what I do, but it is important to start thinking about ways that you can expand your training beyond just standing in front of a paper target that doesn’t move. Marksmanship is important, but it really is just the beginning.

I Found Her!

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 03:23:00 +0000

Who?

Mrs Mom! Our long-lost co-founder. Seems she's been too busy with her new business, The Asylum Creations, to do much writing for us. What is The Asylum Creations, you ask?

Mrs Mom is now doing custom creations, using paracord, to suit any outdoor need. For most people outdoors, having emergency cordage is invaluable. Not only does she make a wicked rope halter (in any color you want), but she makes a wicked rifle sling. I used Double Tap's rifle at the last match and got to play with the sling.

Go ahead - click on over to her other blog and check out all of the cool stuff she's doing, it's pretty amazing. I'll be ordering my shotgun sling in the near future.

How Many Is Too Many?

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:13:00 +0000

So, the other day I was talking to one of Digger's friends, a kid from Texas who now lives in Wyoming and works with my son. RCC was showing Digger his new gun and Digger says, "they've got a lot of guns".

I told them both, "we really don't have that many guns, just two 870s, a .223, a .308, the Henry Survival Rifle, the GSG 1911-22, the Para, an M&P, and a PX4 Storm. Not really that many."

The poor kid's eyeballs 'bout fell out of his head.

Imagine what he's going to think when we round out our gun collection.

It's more guns than I've owned in a long time, but it's still really only two pistols and a shotgun apiece. The .223 was a wedding present (thanks, Mez). The .308 and the Henry are supposed to be "ours", but they're really RCC's. I'll have to get my own .308 with my own scope mounted for hunting. I can use RCC's, but the eye relief just isn't quite right.

I still need a back up gun; RCC and I still need to build our ARs. And then there are the "want" guns, which are too many to list.

I don't know, what do you think? Nine guns between two adults doesn't seem like too many to me.

We've Got Company Coming!

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 06:10:00 +0000

It's been a while since we've had a guest blogger. Over a year, I think, so I'm really excited that we're going to have company next week! AGirl from A Girl and Her Gun is going to visit and share some training tips. I tell you, I've been shooting for eight years or so, and some of the training that AGirl has done in the year she's been shooting has me quite jealous.

March Defensive Pistol

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:43:00 +0000

On Sunday, I shot in Double Tap's group instead of with Mez, like I normally do. Because of this, I didn't have anyone to video me. Or so I thought. Double Tap has some fancy shooting glasses with a camera built in and since I'm vertically challenged, he was able to video my stage by merely standing behind me. I haven't decided if that's a good or bad thing, though.

It was a slow stage. I made the conscious effort to reload multiple times instead of running to slide lock. The reasons for that were the swingers and poppers. I had just enough rounds loaded to activate them, but even with my extended 10-round mags, I wouldn't have had enough rounds to engage the targets.

I shot the left hand side of the stage mostly weak-handed, which I think is good practice, so I'm not too terribly disappointed in scoring an eight on the swinger.

I shot the right side of the stage strong-handed and I think the transition between shooting weak- and strong-handed is becoming easier. Of course, it's always much more comfortable to shoot strong-handed, but switching back and forth between them is becoming much smoother. If for some reason my dominant arm was injured, I'm confident that I could make the switch to weak-handed shooting without even thinking about it.

Does anyone else practice weak-handed shooting? How about switching between the two? What are your feelings on it?

Update: Scores are in. I came in second to last in my class (mags with 10 rounds or less). We had only eight shooters in my class; the top four or five were decided by tenths of seconds. Not too surprising, actually. The 1911 shooters are REALLY good. Really, really good.

However, when I compared the overall scores, I beat nine of the high-cap shooters. Which means that even with more required magazine changes than they had, I shot faster and cleaner. I'm okay with that, since on average their magazines hold seven more rounds than mine do.

Also, the side match with borrowing Double Tap's AR and having problems with unslinging and the stupid magazine release was surprising to me. I did not come in dead last. You could have knocked me over when I saw that on the score sheet. My raw score was competitive, but once my penalties were added in, it dropped me to seventh out of ten.

Defensive Pistol 3-4-2012

noreply@blogger.com (GunDiva) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 04:37:00 +0000

I haven't shot Defensive Pistol in a few months, because... well, there really isn't any excuse other than I've become a fair-weather shooter. There was a point in time that I'd shoot no matter what, and I agree that for training, you should shoot in all kinds of weather. But I'm getting old and I really like climate control.

The proceeds from today's match were donated to Avon's Breast Cancer Walk, so I had planned on going no matter the weather. I just lucked out that the weather was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. So beautiful I got a sunburn and it feels wonderful. No Vitamin D deficiency for this girl (we'll just overlook the skin cancer thing today).

I don't have the videos yet from the stages, but I do have the video from the carbine side match. Each month, after we've shot all of the match stages, we do a side match, which is entirely optional. I don't own a carbine (yet), so I borrowed Double Tap's. Here's a little tip: when borrowing a gun, be sure to spend the two or three seconds it takes to familiarize yourself with it. Had I taken just two seconds to remind myself that the magazine release is on the right side of the gun, I would have shaved almost eight seconds off my time.

This is the AR I got to shoot;
it has one of Mrs Mom's custom slings.

Mrs Mom's recently gotten into making things out of paracord and this sling is one of her designs. It's pretty cool and since I got to try it out, I know what I want when I order BAMF's sling.

The stage included five pistol rounds, transition to rifle and twenty-five rifle rounds. I'm not overly thrilled with how I shot it, but I'm not ashamed of how I shot it either. I did miss the pop-up target - never even got a round off at it - because of poor planning on my part. I should have completely shouldered the weapon, made sure I had a good sight picture, and then activated the pop-up. Lesson learned.

Despite the fact that I didn't shoot the side match well, I feel pretty good about the day.

And why wouldn't I feel good about it? I got to spend the day outside at the range, blowing holes in targets AND we raised over $1000 for the Breast Cancer Walk.