The GunDivas

You Just Never Know

2012-02-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

I recently attended a State-wide Training for an event I've been volunteering for for several years (a non-gun-related event). I'm "out of the closet" as a shooter and have been for a very long time, I don't try to hide the fact I'm a shooter and I love my guns, so I wasn't suprised when one of the other women at the training couldn't wait to tell me her husband had bought her a gun of her very own.

What did surprise me, thought it shouldn't have, was the sheer number of women (all in their sixties or better) who surrounded us and threw in their two-cents' worth about their favorite guns. I was in gunnie heaven. Easily eighty percent of the women that attended the meeting were shooters and several were carrying.

The only people not participating in the conversation? The handful of men in the room. In fact, they looked decidedly uncomfortable to see a gaggle of women get so excited about the guns in their lives, their favorite places to shoot, and their favorite targets.

Just thinking about the State-wide training makes me smile.

Family Bonding

2012-02-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

Ashinator loading up her mags.

I got to spend the day with my daughter, Ashinator. We started our day by breaking the bank at the eye doctor's. Not exactly a fabulous way to start a fun day, but a necessary stop. Lunch, then off to the indoor range. I've only shot at one other indoor range, and that was years ago with Tara at Valhalla, just a couple of months before they closed. Since we had private lessons there, we didn't really get the whole "indoor range" experience. I've always shot outside, always with the ability to move. I couldn't quite wrap my head around standing in a shooting stall and not going anywhere and I didn't know what to expect.

We first met up with my brother, Junior, and my future SIL, M, for lunch and then headed to the range. We weren't the only ones who thought to spend the day at the range; when we got there, we were told there was an hour to an hour and a half wait. Oops, didn't plan that very well.

Since we had time, Ashinator and I ran over to have our brows waxed. Seems an odd combination for some - from the salon to the range - but it was a girls' day, so it worked for us. With our newly shaped eyebrows, we signed in and met Junior and M. The local indoor range has eight 25-yard lanes, which are $20/hr to rent or $30/hr for two people per lane. They also advertise rental guns, but since we own plenty of our own guns, I didn't explore the rental options.

We got dressed in the store - eyes and ears - before entering the airlock to the range. I expected eight lanes to take up a whole lot more space than it does. The range was much more open than I anticipated. I had built up a dark, dreary, cave-like facility in my mind - and I couldn't have been more wrong.

Junior and M were already on their range taking turns putting holes in their targets. M purchased her first handgun three weeks ago, an XDM in 9mm. She's only been shooting a couple of times, yet when I went with her to help her buy her gun, she hit the nail on the head...I asked if she was sure the gun she wanted was the right one and she said, "it feels like home".

I think that far too many women get pressured into buying or shooting a gun that someone else, with more so-called "knowledge", thinks is a good gun. M was absolutely correct in her statement. She had the opportunity to shoot several different handguns before buying hers, but when she picked it up, she knew it was the right one.

I think it's safe to say, not only does it feel like "home" to her, she can shoot it like nobody's business...

There are a whole lot of holes in that target.
This was M's fourth time shooting - first shooting HER gun.

Ash and I quickly set up on our lane and took turns. We did okay, not fabulous, for our first few targets.

Ashinator's first target:
Not bad,
not spectacular

My first target:
Not bad,
not spectacular

Ash wasn't thrilled with her groups and developed a bad flinch. We adjusted her grip and her finger position on the trigger and her groups came along nicely. The flinch, I couldn't do anything about. I thought it was anticipation causing the flinch, but when I watched her closely, she was flinching when the guy in the lane next to us fired off his long-gun. The sound and the resulting air disturbance was causing all of us to flinch. I just didn't realize it until I watched her closely. Only then did I realize I was flinching, too. When you're used to shooting outdoors and suddenly you're enclosed, it's a whole different feeling. With practice, she was able to overcome the flinch.

I'd say she overcame it pretty well,
wouldn't you?

Ashinator's a bad-ass.
Yup, that's my daughter :)

An hour at the range and six targets only cost us $36. I'm not counting ammo costs, because that would just be a downer and I want to end the day on a happy note.

I love that I can spend the day at the range with my daughter and I'm proud of the shooter she's becoming.

Retail Therapy

2012-02-16T22:02:00.000-08:00

I had a really crappy day at work. All one hour and forty-five minutes I was there before I decided to take a mental health day.

I don't know that the mental health day worked, but I at least didn't have to pretend I was happy to be at work.

So, what does GunDiva do when she's upset? One of two things: eat or shop. Since I'm trying to lose weight, I had to choose shopping. Not just any old kinda shopping either. I'm not really girly, so the "typical" shopping wasn't going to work for me. Nope. No shoes or clothes or make-up. None of that stuff.

Instead, this is what I bought...

Rocky, the bleeding zombie target

We'll see how well Rocky stands up to one of our marathon shooting days

I'm pretty excited about Rocky. He makes me smile. I've been eyeballing these "bleeding" zombie targets for a few months now, but I know he's only going to be good for one outing. That's fine, though, because RCC has his GoPro camera mounted on Medusa (his shotgun). I can't wait to see what the video shows.

Rocky made me feel better and then I saw this...

This can be used over and over again, all you have to do is replace the clays once you bust them out. Precision zombie shooting anyone?

Now I've just got to arrange a shooting day with my boys and Tara.

A New Project

2012-02-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine from Defensive Pistol contacted me about his tactical handgun course. He's been teaching basic pistol for a couple of years now, and has been holding his tactical class about once a quarter. But demand for his tactical class has gone up and he's looking to add instructors, so he contacted me.

I couldn't answer him fast enough! Hell yes, I will help him out and teach his tactical classes. We get to work on:

draws
point shooting
flash site pictures
reloads (administrative, tactical, and one-handed)
and outage drills

Essentially, he told me, anything that we've done at a Defensive Pistol match we'll be covering in class.

I'll be co-teaching his class first, in a couple of weeks, before I branch out on my own. Since it's a class of his own design, I want to make sure I'm teaching it the way he wants it taught, so there will be lots of note-taking on my part. Since I am a teacher in real life, I know how it feels to turn your "baby" over to another teacher. Because of that, I'll be diligent in making sure the class is taught the way it's designed.

I love doing new things and I think this teaching gig will be right up my alley!

Today's The Day...

2012-02-13T22:43:00.001-08:00

No, not Valentine's Day.

Today is the day the anti-gunners are boycotting Starbucks for refusing to refuse service to law-abiding, gun carrying citizens.

What does that mean?

It means that in order to show our appreciation for Starbucks not wanting to trample on our rights, they should be getting our business.

Check out North's short post and very cool picture about the Valentine's Day Buycott.

If I get off work before Starbucks closes, I'll strap on and go spend my money. Let's not let this anti-gunner boycott hurt their business one iota.

Blog Bling!

2012-02-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

I was pleasantly surprised last week when CG from Wren Loop Thoroughbreds left a message that she'd given us an award. Hopefully, you'll see this award continue to get passed around, as I plan on doing my share to spread the love.

There are some rules, but they're easy to follow:

1. Copy and paste the award on our blog. (Check)
2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award. (Check)
3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award. (In process)
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs.

Seeing as how we're a gun blog, I'm going to try to keep our five winning blogs gun-related, so welcome to our fellow GunDivas (and one GunDude)...

1. A Girl and Her Gun - A Girl has only been a fellow shooter for not even a year, but she's bravely chronicling her entry into the world of guns.

2. Country Tea at Girls With Guns entered the gun blogger world just four short months ago.

3. That Texas Lady, who I just found via Country Tea.

4. Lynne over at Female and Armed is heading up the National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day on June 9th.

5. Had to add a GunDude here, Shepherd K at Preachers and Horse Thieves. His blog isn't strictly a gun blog, but he is exceptionally smart when it comes to all things that go bang. His zombie gun lists always spark a lot of thought and conversation.

If I've listed a blog here that you've never visited, please stop on by their blogs to tell them hello.

Magazine Change - Weak-handed

2012-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Lynne at Female and Armed for the goodies that arrived in the mail yesterday! I got a button with her web logo on it, which will go on my range bag...

...and a coffee cup that says about the most true statement I've read (and have uttered many times myself)..."A Bad Day At The Range Beats A Good Day At The Office". All I can say to that is, AMEN!

Since last year, I've made it my mission to learn to shoot as well weak-handed as strong. Let me tell you, it has been a struggle, but I'm getting more and more comfortable with it.

Though the process is the same as for strong-hand mag changes, I did find that I had to adapt a couple of things.

First, I don't have an ambidextrous magazine release on my gun, so I had to work my way around that. I found that I could use the middle finger of my right hand to push the mag release and then pull the magazine out that way.

Sorry for the poor quality, had the wrong camera settings

Reloading the magazine is the same as doing it strong-handed for me, so that went well.

Still index the first round,
then slam the magazine home.

It took some thought, though, for me to regain a proper grip. For eight years, my right hand has been the one wrapped around the grip and my left has been supporting. I can think it through and know that my left hand is the one with gun contact and my right is my support, but getting those darn hands to do what I told them took some doing. It will be a lot more weak-handed practice for me.

Left hand is gun hand, left hand is gun hand,
left hand is gun hand...

I fumbled around and got my grip re-established, then brought my gun back up into my line of sight. I'm so used to using my slide lock release that it didn't occur to me to pull back the slide to release it (because the recoil spring is so heavy, it's very difficult to do). I finally used my left index finger to release the slide, which worked beautifully.

Moving my index finger from the slide lock release to the trigger
went a whole lot more smoothly than I anticipated.

Unless your gun is fully ambi, there will be some modifications that you'll have to make when shooting weak-handed, but I think it's a skill all shooters need to acquire.

Magazine Changes - Strong-handed

2012-02-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

I think, for every shooter, there are a few things that are a struggle and for me it was magazine changes. The guys at the shop had this very complicated "tactical" mag change/reload thing that involved juggling two magazines in one hand that I could never master. I tried, but it just didn't work for me.

Luckily, the Original Bad Boy had a much simpler way to do it and it has worked for me ever since. I know that dropping your magazine to the ground is all the rage with competition shooters, but it was drilled into me that my magazines should never hit the ground. You shouldn't leave a trail of magazines like bread crumbs - you never know when you'll need the magazines in a real-life situation. Makes sense to me, even if it takes a half a second longer to retain the magazine than to dump it. The other factor, for me, is magazines are expensive! I'm not just dumping $35 to $40 on the ground. No way, no how.

But just because I always retain my magazines doesn't mean you need to; it's my little quirk drilled into me by the OBB. I know other instructors who drill their students to just dump their magazines because it takes too long to retain them. Which ever method works for you is what you should do.

I thought I'd share with you a couple of things I've learned about mag changes; hopefully you'll find them helpful or can use the ideas as springboards to come up with your own methods.

#1 Loading your mag carrier

Always make sure that the round is facing forward
when loading up your mag carrier.

By loading your magazines into your mag carrier, or holster, with the round facing forward, you're allowing the natural rotation of your wrist/hand to properly position the magazine for insertion into the gun. As your elbow comes down, and your hand up, the magazine is facing the correct way - it essentially "flips" right side up just through the movement of your arm.

#2 Leave the first slot of your mag carrier open (if you retain your mags) - or load it up, but always remove the front mag first.

#3 At slide lock, bring your gun back into your body.

Bringing the gun back into your body allows you to manipulate your gun
without taking your eyes off the target

Having the gun close to your body makes it easier to control. If you try to change your magazines while your strong arm is extended, you will waste time and increase your frustration as you attempt to find the opening.

Because my hands are normal girl-sized hands, not man hands, I have to use the thumb of my left hand to release my magazine and strip it from the mag well.

I shoot with extended magazines,
so there's a lot of magazine to hold on to.

Since I retain my mags, the empty goes in the front
and my hand moves smoothly back to the next mag.

#4 "Index" the first round with your finger to ensure it's facing the right way.

I actually do this a couple of times, I've become OCD about it.
I index when I load up, before I step to the line, and as I load into my gun.

Keeping my index finger on the round, I can "feel" my way into the mag well.
This allows me to keep my eyes focused on the target.

I always give my magazines a good smack to make sure they're seated well.

#5 Once loaded, bring the gun back up into your line of sight.

Using the slide lock release ensures I'm not riding the slide.

A couple of notes: I have made a few modifications to my gun. It is not a race gun, nor is any of my gear set up for competition speed. My set up is purely defensive. First, I added an after-market magazine well, which makes it easier to find and feed the magazine into the gun. Also, I have added a heavy recoil spring at Boss Man's suggestion (I think it's 22#), which allows me to shoot hot defensive rounds quickly. I will say that the heavy recoil spring might be a touch too heavy, as it takes a lot of effort for me to lock the slide back manually and releasing the slide by cupping it and letting go is difficult. Should I change it? Probably. Will I? Probably not - it's a good workout.

Momma's Getting A New Gun!

2012-01-28T11:20:00.000-08:00

Well, a new-to-me gun. The gun itself is about six months old and belongs to my shooting buddy, Mez. He goes through cycles where he stocks up his gun cabinet(s) and then goes through and weeds out some guns, then doesn't like the emptiness of his gun cabinet and buys new guns. You know, like some women and shoes. Only the stuff in his closets is useful.

Being a wonderful shooting buddy, he offers me pretty much first dibs on any guns he's thinking of selling. And, boy, oh boy, I wish I'd had the money when he sold his AR-15. But I didn't and it went to a good home, I'm sure.

This time, when he emailed me that he was selling a gun I jumped right on it. Not only is the price right, but I've been looking for one just like it. It's a GSG (German Sporting Gun) 1911 chambered in .22. Yes, you read that right. A .22 caliber 1911. I didn't get the one pictured in the link, with the faux suppressor. Mine looks more like the one below:

Not my acutal gun, but one similar. Image from Google Images

Some of you may be wondering why on earth I would want a 1911 chambered in .22 for Pete's sake? Sounds a little odd, doesn't it? The reason is simple. My Para, though I love her to bits, is expensive to feed. Putting more than a couple of magazines through her is, well, sometimes cost prohibitive. Unless Mez is doing reloading for me, which he does frequently. But that's beside the point. With this little GSG I can practice 'til my little heart's content and not break the bank.

I can shoot the Steel Challenges with this gun for $20 instead of $100 (or more) to shoot the Para. I'll still shoot the Para for the Defensive Pistol matches, but will "train" with the GSG. I won't need any new accessories; since it's a 1911, it will fit in my holsters and I can practice my draws while at the range.

Additionally, I can now do my Fit Shot workouts at the range and not cringe about the money flying down range, when each workout requires something like 60 rounds. As much as I love Fit Shot, I couldn't afford to do a workout each time I was at the range before. Now I can :)

There are some .22 conversion kits that I could buy for my Para so that I could train with the gun I'm going to shoot, but they're a whole lot more expensive than this GSG (even a brand new one is only around $300) and with the GSG I get a complete gun, not just parts to change out in the Para.

I understand the argument about about training with the gun you're going to shoot, and I agree with it. However, training with a similar gun is better than not training at all and with the cost of ammo, similar is going to have to be good enough.

I've shot this gun and loved it. It's a great little plinker and just a whole bunch of fun to shoot.

Welcome New Followers and Lurkers

2012-01-23T09:32:00.000-08:00

According to Stat Counter, our views have jumped dramatically, so I want to take a minute to say "hi" and "welcome" to our little piece of the blogosphere.

I thought a little of our history and an orientation to our site might be helpful to new followers and lurkers.

The GunDivas started life as "Girls With Guns" back in April 2010, a joint venture between Mrs Mom and me. Two female gun nuts who found each other through the interwebs (actually through our respective horse blogs). Tara joined our ranks shortly thereafter. The whole point of the blog was to share our little bit of knowledge and experience with other female shooters - we knew there had to be more than just a few of us. Our bios are at the top of the screen - just click the tab for each of us to learn more about us individually.

Last January, GWG became The GunDivas when I wanted to buy the domain name for GWG and found out that not only had the domain name been purchased, but that it's essentially a T&A site. Yikes. All I can say is no wonder Tara and I got so much attention at SHOT Show last year when we told them which site we wrote for. Yeah, wrong site. Color me embarrassed.

Now, Country Tea runs her own Girls With Guns blog, which looks like she started last November and I've pretty much read the whole thing, which is well-written and doesn't have a single T&A mention. You should go check her out.

I've added a column to the right (lower part of the page), labeled "Fellow GunDivas' Blogs". As I find new female shooters' blogs, I'll be adding them to the column so make it easy to see what other females are doing around the nation. Please feel free to recommend new blogs to add to the list, but be aware that we reserve the right to choose which blogs to link to.

The word cloud (top right) lists our most common tags, though it's not an exhaustive list. To see all of the posts related to a tag, just click the tag and it'll bring up the posts for you to choose from. For example, when you click "Shooting Tips", you'll find posts on proper range attire, how to fit your pistol to your hand, proper grip, etc. If you click "Reviews", you'll get gun and parts reviews. I know Mrs Mom is currently working on a review of her 1911 after switching from a Glock.

We're also on Facebook! I don't Tweet and have no clue as to how to do one, but it's something we'll be looking into in the future (I think). To find us on Facebook, just click the picture on the right.

Again, WELCOME to our new followers and lurkers. Please feel free to leave comments or questions, we don't bite, and we love to get to know our readers.

Parts Review (warning: long and media heavy)

2012-01-22T15:59:00.000-08:00

Note: this is an unsolicited review of the shotgun parts my husband got me for Christmas. The opinions are mine and mine alone.

Last month, I wrote about the parts RCC got me for my shotgun and how easy they all were to install. Shortly after BAMF (yes, that's her new name) got put together, we arranged a range day with my boys, Mez and Z joining us. I was anxious to see how everything was going to work. On my previous shotgun, one similar to RCC's, I had a Breako mercury recoil reducer, which made shooting the 12 ga as comfortable as shooting a .22.

Blackhawk Knoxx Special Ops Adjustable Stock
This is advertised to reduce felt recoil by about 90%. Having been spoiled in the past with the Breako, I wasn't sure this one would even come close.
Here's what it looks like in real time...

Not too bad. The felt recoil is greatly reduced to the shoulder, almost as well as the Breako system. With this Knoxx system, the receiver actually moves back into the buttstock to help absorb some of the recoil. The springs in both the grip and the stock itself help dissipate the recoil before it gets to the shoulder, which is great. What is not so great is that when the receiver moved back to it's original position, it tended to smack me in the cheek. Ouch.

In slo-mo you can see the recoil move through the gun and my shoulder (and cheek)...it looks much worse than it really is.

RCC had been shooting his shotgun, which has the Breako system in it, so I asked him to shoot mine to compare them side-by-side. He says that they are pretty much the same, not enough difference to choose one over the other with respect to decrease in recoil.

Since he's eight inches taller and a few pounds heavier, I wanted to see what it looked like when he shot BAMF. Here's his video in real time...

And in slo-mo...

It looks horribly brutal in slo-mo, but it's not (other than the cheek slappy thing, which you can see in this video). I didn't get smacked every time I shot, just often enough to make it uncomfortable. Would it deter me from shooting a bad guy? No, but I did find myself reaching for RCC's shotgun more than my own.

Rating: 3/5. Yes, it does reduce recoil, but the ocassional literal slap in the face isn't worth it in my book.

PowerPak Modular Cheekpiece with Shell Carrier and Battery Holder
The high cheekpiece was a necessity for me, as the optic sat way too high on the receiver for me to use without it. It still wasn't quite high enough to effectively use the optic, which turned out to be okay in the long run.

The Shell Carrier, being on the right hand side of the gun, is convenient for a right-handed shooter. With the left hand stabilizing the gun, it should be fairly easy to grab a shell out of the carrier and insert it into the chamber. The only problem is that, brand new, it's awfuly tight and takes a lot of yanking to get the shell out of the carrier. In order to get my last shell into the carrier, I had to pry the space open with a screwdriver.

I don't know if it will loosen up or get easier with use, but I've loaded up the Shell Carrier with Snap Caps for practice. I did notice that it was a little easier to load the Snap Caps after I'd had shells already in the carrier, so I'm hopefull it will loosen up. I really like the ability to carry a variety of additional rounds.

Rating: 4/5. The whole having to use the screwdriver to load up the carrier was irritating.

Mako Remington 870 Handguard with Three Rails
While I really like the idea of rails, I'm not in love with this handguard. The forward rails on both sides tore up my hand. I lost a chunk of thumbnail from the left-hand rail - hurt like a bitch - and a chunk of skin from my index finger from the right-hand rail. If I moved my hand back to the near end of the foreend, I didn't get smacked or lose any portions of my body.

I want to be able to place my hand anywhere on the foreend without worrying about getting bit. To say this pissed me off would be an understatement. The foreend (or handguard) is going to go. I'll go back to the standard Remington foreend until I can afford the SureFire foreend that I really want.

Rating: 1/5.

Mako Quick Release Ergonomic Vertical Foregrip
I originally didn't want to put this abomination on BAMF, but RCC talked me into it. It *does* look cool - very intimidating, at least - but I wasn't sure it was for me.

So, partway through our shooting day, I made good on my promise to RCC to at least give it a try and put it on the handguard. I ran a few rounds through the gun and noticed that I could cycle it so much faster, which I loved!

What I didn't love...the damn thing bit me. Now, remember, I'd already lost a chunk of thumbnail and a chunk of skin off of my fingers. Not to mention getting slapped upside the head by my recoil system. You can see in the video that I get a couple of rounds through and then look at my hand. I originally couldn't figure out why the base of my thumb hurt.

The vertical foregrip *did* solve the problem of getting smacked by the rails and losing skin, but there is a gap right at the top of the foregrip, where it attaches to the bottom rail and that's what was biting me. I think that a couple of strips of electrical tape might be just the fix for it. Of course, if I decide to keep it, that means I also have to keep the Mako handguard. It'll take another trip to the range for me to completely make up my mind about what I'm going to do.

Rating: 4/5. Even though I think it's kind of ugly, it did speed up my cycling of the gun. But it also bit me, which is the reason for the 4/5 rating.

UTG M87 Tactical Mount
Love it! Easy to install, looks bad ass. 'Nuff said.

Rating: 5/5

NcStar Red Dot Sight
I loved this. Yep, past tense. As I was dialing it in, it broke. As in the reticle disa-freaking-ppeared. I got about four rounds through, was just about sighted in, and then nothing. Nada. No more reticle.

I think that maybe it wasn't rated for a shotgun, though nothing in the literature says otherwise. I've got it boxed up and ready to ship back, so we'll see how the next one holds up. My thought is that it might be okay with a "normal" backward recoil, but because of the set-up of the Knoxx system, the spring, as it returns to its normal position, might cause the recoil to travel upward at a diagonal through the receiver, knocking the reticle around. Same thought as to why I get smacked with the cheekpiece on ocassion.

Rating: 1/5. While it was working, it freaking ROCKED! For four rounds.

Overall impression of the customization to BAMF? I'm luke warm about several of the components, but really like the gun changes overall. I think with tweaking things here and there, I'll get her exactly where I want her.

IPSC Shot Timer Andriod App Review

2012-01-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

Note: this is an unsolicited review of the free android app, IPSC Shot Timer.

I've been wanting a shot timer for a long time, but have been loathe to put out the money for one. I mean, really, I could buy a shot timer OR I could buy ammo. Guess which choice I made over and over again?

I believe that shot timers are an important tool for training; they make it easy for you to set a goal and objectively reach that goal. You can see your progress, or lack thereof, with a shot timer. Until I found the free app, the only time I used a timer was at the range during matches.

While watching one of Rob Pincus' Fit Shot videos, I saw that he had a timer of some sort on an iPad, and thought, "wow, I wonder if...". Yep, there was an app and it was free! I did a little middle-of-the-night happy dance when I searched the Android market and found the IPSC Shot Timer app, by Ivan Stoliarov.

There were a couple of things that I loved right off the bat, even without trying it out at the range. First, you have the option to email the results to yourself, and second, you can save the results for retrieval later. I don't know that any of the "real" shot timers have those two options. I find myself storing more and more information electronically, so having the ability to save to my computer or email to myself makes me very happy (and decreases the paper clutter in my house).

Some of the other functions that caught my eye:

easy calibration for dry- or live-fire
different timing modes: Comstock, Virginia, and Par time (not that I know what any of those are - if anyone knows the difference, please enlighten me)

It's very easy to use. The main screen looks like this...

Okay, it looks like this without the numbers.
Photo cred: Android market

A quick tap of the "Start" button and you're on your way. When finished with your string, press "Stop" and flick up the results table.

It gives your overall shooting time in the top box,
and your splits (time between shots) in the
results table.

With the results table open, you have a couple of options; email or save (XML in the picture above). The range that Tara and I shoot at doesn't have very good cell coverage, so I opted to save our strings and retrieve them later. You press the save (or XML) button and name the file.

Saving and emailing (when you have coverage)
is extremely easy.

I've tried out emailing results to me where I have cell coverage, and it works like a charm. The pop-up window asks for the email address, you type it in and hit send. It's that easy.

Saving the file is easy, too. The difficulty is in retrieving the file. I couldn't figure it out, so I sent an email to the developer, who emailed me within a week (he apologized for the delay, he'd been on vacation) telling me that the files were stored as .xml files. I'm not very tech-savvy, so when I asked him how to retrieve them, he very kindly told me I had to upload them from my phone to my computer. I got my answer within 24 hours. No complaints about customer service from me.

Shot Timer creates a file on your phone called, not surprisingly, Shot Timer and stores the files in there. To retrieve the files, you must upload them to your computer. I had a hard time opening the files using the Window-suggested program, but opened them without a problem in Wordpad or Notepad. Yes, it's an extra step to get the results, but without the ability to immediately email them to myself due to crappy cell coverage, I'm not too upset about it.

I ran into a couple of issues with the app; some of them were my issues, some due to my phone, but none due to the app itself.

Inability to email the results - phone/service issue, not the app's issue. I resolved it by saving the results and retrieving them later.
Inability to see the screen in bright daylight - phone issue, not the app's. Even with the screen shaded, it was hard to read. I did read a review on the Android Market website about this issue, and the reviewer seemed to think the developer could have worked around it, but I'm not so sure. I have a hard time reading my screen, period, in bright daylight. Once I used the timer a couple of times, I knew where on the screen each button was, so I didn't necessarily have to see the screen to work the timer.
Inaccurate split times - completely, 100% my fault. I didn't calibrate the timer. It's very easy to do and I neglected to do it, which resulted in the timer picking up additional noises (even speech). If I had taken the ten seconds (yes, that's all it takes) to properly calibrate the timer, I wouldn't have had these issues.

I give this app 5/5 stars.

The customer service has been good, the app functions better than I expected, and - extra bonus - it's free! I'm looking to upgrade my phone in the next month or so, at which time, I will purchase the ad-free version. I'm astounded that this is only a Beta version of the app and that it functions so well; that has not been the case with other Beta versions of apps I've used.

ODE TO COLORADO GUN WORKS

2012-01-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

By: Tara Janzen

Four years ago, one of the local newspapers interviewed a gun shop owner in our town. It was a great article, up until two-thirds of the way down, where the owner told a story about a woman coming into his shop, wanting to buy a gun. Problem was, she didn’t know anything about guns, but she wanted one. As the gun shop owner talked with the woman, he started getting the idea that she was a little nervous about buying and owning a firearm, so in her best interests, he said to the reporter, he advised her not to buy a gun. (insert dead silence here)

Right. Guns are for guys only. Or guns are only for people who already know about guns. WRONG, and doubly wrong because it was a woman who got turned away. Even nervous, she hauled herself down to the gun shop and into a situation where she knew she was in over her head – and she walked away with a pat on the head, and no gun.

The question in my mind has always been – “What made her think she needed a gun?” And the answer, 99.9 times out of a 100 with a woman who is not already a shooter, is – “She thought she needed to defend herself.” And if she thought she needed to defend herself, she DID need to defend herself. A situation in her life, or someone in her life, was making her feel threatened, and she instinctively knew, probably without being able to put it in these words, that NOTHING LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD LIKE A .45.

That woman made the right decision to go and buy a gun. Unfortunately, she went to the wrong gun shop. If she’d gone to Colorado Gun Works, she would have walked out with a lot of knowledge, suggestions for shooting classes, a few dozen stories about women the guys at the shop know who shoot a lot, and an introduction to those women, if she’d wanted it. She would have been shown a number of guns for her to buy, and been encouraged to handle those guns, and she would have been shown how to safely handle those guns. The guys would have made her feel right at home, right there in that bastion of firepower and testosterone – Colorado Gun Works. Most importantly, she would have walked out with a gun, the right gun, feeling darned confident about her decision to buy it, and she would know that if she had any questions later, she had a place to come and get answers.

When I walked into Colorado Gun Works the first time, I was there to do research. I had already written CRAZY HOT and CRAZY COOL and realized I needed to learn something about all these guns my characters were shooting. At the time I had never even seen a handgun, except in the movies, and had certainly never shot one.

Fast forward six years later, and I own one rifle with glass to make a grown man weep (yep, it’s that good), two shotguns, three revolvers, and three semi-automatic pistols – and I shoot all of those guns, and yes, I’ve got my eye on a couple more.

More importantly, I have a new mindset about self-defense, and it starts and stops with three words – WINNING THE FIGHT.

All of this is thanks to Colorado Gun Works. From the Boss Man, to the guys behind the counter, to the OBB, as the Diva calls him (I usually just go with BB, for Big Bad) everyone at CGW has had a profound effect on my life. I’ve shot a few 1000 yard matches, and won once – which made me intensely famous among a very small group of people. I have the score sheet and the cash winnings from that day on display in my office.

Now the Boss Man is leaving, taking the shop with him, and the sense of loss is huge and complicated. For a lot of folks, myself included, the shop has been a home away from home. Many of us practically lived there. The welcome was always warm, the gun talk always fascinating, even if sometimes so arcane I couldn’t figure out what in the world everybody was talking about. The Boss Man has an encyclopedic knowledge of guns, absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen him stumped no matter what comes through the front door. He also has a special way of creating community. The shop is the Boss Man, with a warm welcome, a warm smile, and easy conversation – though be warned, he can hear everything that’s being said in the room, even while he’s talking to somebody else, and sometimes when he asks questions, you are quickly reminded that he used to be a cop.

He’s going home, setting up shop in a place where he has deep roots, and from the bottom of my heart, I am wishing him and his family well, wishing him all the best of life. His old stomping grounds look like a great place to live, and I know he’s glad to be moving back.

But what are the rest of us going to do without our home base? Like the Diva said, mourn, spend more time on the range and less time sitting at the counter, take each other’s phone numbers and work at keeping in touch, and try, so help me God, not to spend too much time leaning up against the front door on the empty building and wishing like hell that we could still get inside.

Yeah, let’s try not to do too much of that.

~~~~~
Don't forget about the give-away at A Girl and Her Gun.

FitShot, Take I

2012-01-07T16:43:00.000-08:00

I *finally* made it out to the range to try out FitShot with live fire. I've been substituting weights for my guns at the gym for a couple of weeks, keeping in mind the point was to be able to do it with something that went bang.

Tara and I went out to the range and I realized I'd have to modify what my plan was. Some idiot, who will remain unnamed, left her gun belt at home. Not a huge deal, as the holsters I packed were paddles, but I couldn't add my second mag carrier because it's a belt carrier.

It was a brisk 42* at the range, with no wind. That, right there, is a miracle. There's almost always wind at the range. The intro to FitShot calls for doing the sit-ups and squats with a carbine, but since I don't have one, I used my handgun instead. Also, I was supposed to do release push-ups, but without my belt on, my holster kept sliding around my waist, so that I would have been laying on it. I didn't want to grind dirt into my gun, so I went with regular push-ups instead of release ones.

Here's the modified workout:

20 full sit-ups; 10 shooting right, 10 shooting left
20 squats; 10 shooting right, 10 shooting left
5 push-ups, 5 rounds. 2 sets shooting right, 2 sets shooting left

I felt like I was moving fairly quickly through everything, but once I watch the video, I can see that I can shave off a whole lot of time by being more efficient in my movements. I got spoiled doing this in the gym; there, everything is nice and level and easy. Not easy at the uneven range, but a whole lot more fun!

Tara even had us running and shooting, but since we were both doing it, there's no video.

I would highly encourage everyone to try to incorporate some form of fitness into their shooting routine, because, let's face it, when the fecal matter hits the air circulating device, our hearts are going to be thumping and our fine motor skills are going to be shot all to Hades. Might as well doing something proactive to give us the advantage.

I forgot to post my target when this post went up, sorry. The target's not as gorgeous as it could be, but I'm not too upset, as this is a whole new exercise for me.

And don't forget about the give-away at A Girl and Her Gun.

A Great Opportunity

2012-01-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

You know, we here at The GunDivas, value gun education and empowering women shooters. A Girl and Her Gun is giving away $300 toward a gun education class of the winner's choice. Since she posted about it, several people have jumped on board and have offered other prizes - it looks like the winner will make out like a fat cat.

This give away is aimed primarily at new shooters, so if you have a potential GunDiva who would like to join the ranks of women shooters, please direct them to A Girl and Her Gun. It's an amazing opportunity.

Mourning My Gun Shop

2012-01-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest changes to come about for me in 2012 is the closing of "my" gun shop, Colorado Gun Works. Despite knowing that Boss Man *hates* Colorado and despite me telling him for years, "if you hate it so much, leave", now that he's actually doing it, I'm sad.

Boss Man is keeping the business open, "just relocating" to Southern Indiana. But I'm not relocating and my local store is closing, so what will I do on Fridays? Where will I go to hang out and get my gun/girl time with Tara?

There's a lot of whining I could do about missing my shop, but instead I thought I'd look at the positive side and share with everyone how the shop has impacted my life and helped me grow as a shooter. If you've read my profile (the tabs at the top of the page hold profiles for all of us contributers), you know that an old boyfriend of mine started me shooting. But it was more of a "how cute, my girlfriend can shoot" kind of thing with him.

Never once, not ever, did I get that kind of vibe from the boys at the shop. From the first time I walked in to look over their inventory, I was welcomed. Not only was Boss Man welcoming, he was willing to spend time talking to me. The shop was unlike anything I'd ever experienced; it had more of a coffee shop atmosphere. Come in, grab a stool at the counter, and talk about anything you'd like - religion and politics included. I spend a few months in and out of the shop, just talking, before I received my Glock 23 as a birthday present from my family. After that, I literally spent hours a couple of evenings a week hanging out at the shop.

Boss Man encouraged me to take a concealed carry course from The Original Bad Boy, a man who has truly "been there, done that". The Original Bad Boy is the only person I've seen disappear in a room full of people. If you've never met anyone with that ability, it's down right spooky. He just goes so still and draws no attention to himself. Next thing you know, he's gone. His favorite place to disappear was the couch by the coffee pot.

The money I spent on the class with The Original Bad Boy was worth every damn cent. I could have taken two other classes for the price of one of his, but I learned so much in the eight hours at the range with him that I would never have learned otherwise. We started with the basics - this is a gun, this is where the projectiles exit - and ended shooting on the move, from cover and concealment, learning how to think tactically.

About the time I'd taken the CCW class, I'd started shooting at the Defensive Pistol matches and spending even more time at the shop. When I started shooting Defensive Pistol, I was the only female shooter in a field of between twelve and fifteen shooters. Now, when I go, there are about ten female shooters out of a field of between thirty to forty shooters. It's a huge growth of women shooters.

Defensive pistol introduced me to even more people who would influence my shooting. Notably, Bud Bond, who was one of the fastest revolver shooters in the world. Think Jerry Miculek fast. Think fast enough that he actually beat Jerry in 2001. Bud took me under his wing, as he did many shooters, and I learned a ton from him. Imagine my happiness when I beat him in a head-to-head challenge at one of the Defensive Pistol matches. Of course, I was shooting my Glock and he was shooting his revolver. He fumbled a re-load - which rarely happened - but it gave me the edge. I never beat him again, but I thank the Shooting God for letting me feel that joy. And the confidence it gave me was unparallelled.

When Boss Man had an opening, he hired me for weekend work. I drew exactly *ONE* paycheck from the shop and it was for something like $38, before I learned the joy of a "shop account". I worked for Boss Man for almost two years and in that time I got to learn and do some amazing things.

I learned to build an 870 from the receiver up as my birthday present to myself in 2005. She was called, alternatively, my "12 guage flashlight" or my "flash 'n trash" shotgun. Tara calls it the "Skeeter Special" in her Steele Street series.

Boss Man found this old receiver and gave it to me as my starting point...

I'm supposed to build a shotgun out of this?!

The cure for an old, rusted receiver? Robar!

Once I got the receiver back from Robar, I added a new barrel and put on the pistol grip

Almost shootable

6 position AR-15 buttstock with mercury recoil system,
Hogue pistol grip,
Vang-Comp safety,
JP trigger group,
18 1/2" barrel with rifle sights,
extended mag tube,
...still missing a couple of things

Now it's complete!
SureFire foreend,
Side saddle shell carrier,
and Ballistic Resources sling.

I loved my shotgun so much, I built one for my brother Deejo for Christmas, too. His shotgun, similar to mine, but lacking the SureFire foreend, made an appearance as Red Dog's shotgun in one of Tara's books.

Looks good in black, too.

Our shotguns, side-by-side, shooting clays.
Yes, you can shoot clays with an 18 1/2" barrel,
but it ain't easy.

The guys at the shop became "my boys": Matt, Robbie, Mez, Z, Brad. They took me under their wing and helped my shooting grow exponentially. Even though I was a newer shooter, they never took the "how cute, she shoots" approach with me. They all treated me with respect and as an equal, which helped to increase my confidence.

Our marathon shooting days were stuff legends were made of. In the picture above, you'll see eight cases of clays. We shot them all. That day. And that was only the second half of the day; we'd started with pistols. An average shooting day for us lasted anywhere between 6-8 hours and literally included thousands of rounds each. God, I loved my store account.

Not only did the shop introduce me to my boys, I also met Tara through the shop. The Original Bad Boy asked me to co-teach one of his pistol classes, and the rest, as they say is history. Tara and I hit it off and we started shooting here and there together. As we shot more frequently, our friendship grew. We took a trip to Elk Mountain on the Western Slope of Colorado and took a day's worth of private classes from Valhalla. We've also competed together, using her Remington 700 .308, at 1,000 yard matches. From never shooting a gun to competing in long-range matches in just a few years, Tara's shooting skills have exploded.

At Valhalla

At Byers' 1,000 yard match

Together, Tara and I have introduced several women to shooting. The most memorable was an 80+ year old woman who wanted to learn to shoot. She was a spitfire; the little .22 rifle we had her shooting was almost as big as she was. I've not had a comparable experience since; she was so thrilled to be shooting that it was contagious.

In fact, our dream is to be able to do more to promote shooting among women. There are not nearly enough women-friendly places where one can feel immediately comfortable and be treated as an equal. Women shooters are being recognized as legitimate shooters, thanks to women like Julie Goloski Golob, one of my shooting heros, who are making the world take notice. But there's still a disconnect between retailers/instructors and women shooters.

I'm not man bashing here, but men are not women. Unless a woman stumbles into a situation like Tara and I did, it's difficult for women to be taken seriously as shooters.

Working at the shop not only introduced me to new people and skills, but allowed me the opportunity to shoot guns I'd never otherwise be able to shoot. I have the confidence to try new things because of the shop. Where else would I have gotten to shoot an actual elephant gun, a .458 Lott, or a .50 beowulf, or a .454 casull?

I was unbelievably lucky when I first walked into Colorado Gun Works. That store, and the people in it, the experiences I had, literally changed and shaped my life for the better. Not only am I going to miss you, Boss Man, but I'm going to miss the shop. There's a big ole hole in my heart right now.

Pseudo Fit Shot Workout

2011-12-27T21:22:00.000-08:00

Last week, I mentioned that I might have fallen in love with a new workout that combines working out and shooting. I've been dying to try it, but haven't been able to get out to the range to do so.

Since I can't get out to the range until this Friday, I figured out a way I could simulate the workouts at the gym without the risk of going to jail. I weighed the guns I would be shooting if I was at the range and substituted the appropriate weights for them. Also, since Fit Shot isn't really meant to be a workout-workout, I added in cardio and merged two of the sample workouts together so that I would have an hour's worth of exercise. Here's what my modified workout looked like:

15 minutes on the elliptical machine, level 7
5 release push-ups; in a push-up position, go all the way to the ground, contract your back to lift your hands off the floor, then put your hands back on the floor to complete the push-up
15 one-handed dumb bell clean and presses (10#); the other hand is extended as though shooting one handed (2.5#); switch arms and repeat
20 full sit-ups; I did this with a 2.5# weight to simulate my handgun and since I shoot Weaver, it added a level of difficulty by requiring me to engage my obliques. I did 10 holding the weight like I was shooting right handed, and 10 as though I was shooting left handed.
20 squats, again with a 2.5# weight; on the down portion of the squat, I lowered my "gun" to low ready, on the up portion I brought it on target. 10 right handed; 10 left handed. Next time, I'll do the squats on the Bosu ball to increase the difficulty.
20 box jumps, with two 5# weights to simulate a long gun. While on the ground I had my "gun" in the low ready position, double leg jumped onto the box, then went through the motion of shouldering my gun. I did 10 for right handed shooting, and 10 for left handed.
20 minutes on the bike, level 5
Repeat the weight exercises.

It certainly kept my interest throughout the entire workout and whetted my appetite for doing it at the range, when I can actually use my gun and shoot between each rep. I only burned 296 calories, so it was a fairly low intensity workout, but I can change that easily by adding intervals to my cardio next time around.

Shotgun Customization

2011-12-26T21:22:00.000-08:00

Since RCC gave me all of the parts to customize my shotgun, of course we had to stay up on Christmas Eve and put it together.

What I love about the Remington 870 (and though I don't own one, the Mossberg 500) is that is so easily customizable. Here's the thing - it doesn't take a gunsmith to do most of the modifications. The exception, for me, is the trigger. Could I buy a new trigger, read the instructions, and put it in? Probably. Would I? Hell no, that's why I have a gunsmith (who is moving away, but we're not talking about that right now).

Here's a picture of the base 870 I started with and the parts that RCC got me.

With all of these add-ons, I can pretty much configure my shotgun any way I want to.

Even though it has been probably five years since I built my last shotgun, I was confident that I could build this one without too much trouble. It took RCC and me about an hour to do the whole thing. I only had to glare at him once, for taking away my toys and wanting to build it himself. He got the hint and let me have the fun - and satisfaction - of doing it myself.

With the exception of the tac rail that mounts to the receiver, there were no special "gunsmithing" tools that were needed. My Gerber multi-tool and RCC's flathead screwdriver were the only tools we had to provide - all other tools were provided with the parts.

We started with the buttstock - two screws held on the recoil pad and one screw attached the stock to the receiver. It was off in a matter of a minute or two. The new stock took just a couple of minutes to screw on. It was really that easy.

Knoxx Blackhawk Special Ops Shotgun Stock

I've never used this kind of stock; it's supposed to reduce felt recoil by 90%. The diagram didn't explain to me how it was supposed to reduce the recoil, but Boss Man (my gunsmith) did. Apparently, when fired, the whole receiver moves back, compressing the spring, which absorbs the recoil. He doesn't seem to like this kind of set-up, but I'm excited to try it. I want to get video and super slo-mo it to see if I can see the compression happening.

The shot shell and battery carrier were the two most pain-in-the-ass pieces to assemble - not because it was difficult, but because it involved installing several screws in very tight spaces. If you have big fingers, this would be almost impossible. RCC did have the bright idea of starting the screws before attaching the shell carrier and battery carrier - that suggestion saved us a lot of aggravation. This portion of the project took us the longest to complete.

Blackhawk PowerPak modular cheek piece with shell carrier and battery holder.

To install the cheek piece, I had to remove the back portion of the stock. In theory, it should have been easy. In reality, it took both of us - one to pull down on the adjuster lever-thingy and the other to stabilize the gun while the back portion was pulled off. After that, it was as easy as slipping the cheek piece over the back portion of the stock, making sure it clicked into place, and sliding the butt back onto the stock.

Unfortunately, once I had it put back together, and shouldered the shotgun, I realized that I needed to install the high rest cheek piece, so we took it all apart and did it again. It went much faster the second time.

Taking off the fore-end was a breeze - remove the sling swivel, unscrew the magazine tube (watch out for the BOING! factor), pull off the barrel, release the action bars and slide the fore-end off. It sounds like a lot of steps if you've never done it before, but it's actually very simple. Well, it's simple if you remember to push the magic action bar release button inside the receiver. Otherwise, you'll just yank on the fore-end and curse - a lot - until you remember to push the magic button.

At this point, I had my new fore-end in one hand, and the old one, still attached to the action bars, etc., in the other hand and I drew a blank. I *know* I've installed new fore-ends before, but couldn't remember the next step. However, I keep all of the boxes and instructions for pretty much everything, so when the new part didn't have instructions, I pulled out my SureFire box and lo and behold, had not only instructions, but the very important super special fore-end nut removal tool. After that, it was a matter of removing the nut, taking off the old fore-end, and putting on the new one. Thirty - forty-five seconds, tops.

Mako Handguard with 3 rails and a Mako Quick Release Ergonomic Vertical Foregrip

To re-install the fore-end with the new handguard, it's simply a matter of reversing the steps. Unless you're me, in which case you must forget about the super secret action bar releases (there are two for re-assembly; one on the right, which must be pushed first, and one on the left), which will cause more cursing and aggravation. Oh, and almost breaking your toes several times when the slide block assembly jumps off the action bars and falls to the ground repeatedly. Eventually, though, if you're me, you'll look at the re-assembly instructions, smack yourself in the forehead for forgetting about the super secret action bar releases, and it will go back together easy-peasy.

The vertical foregrip slips right on the rail. I'm not completely sold on it, but RCC loves it and I did promise to give it an honest try. It does look pretty bad-ass in an over-the-top-even-for-a-tacticooled-gun kind of way.

The only thing we couldn't install was the receiver tac rail, because it required a punch to remove the trigger plate pins. I did put the red dot sight on the tac rail, so that when we went into the gun shop today, all I had to do was punch out the trigger plate pins, slip the rail over the top of the receiver and screw it on.

UTG M87 tactical mount and NcSTAR red dot sight with four different reticles.

There is a problem, though. Damn it.

Even with the higher cheek piece, the red dot rides too high on the receiver for me to actually use it. I'm either going to have to build up the cheek piece even more, or lose the tac rail and mount the red dot directly to the receiver.

Meet BAMF, completely assembled and ready to rock 'n roll

Friday is the day we've got planned for taking BAMF to the range to try her out. RCC is buying the shotgun I built for my brother, so I'll try to do a side-by-side comparison of how they shoot early next week.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T16:29:00.000-08:00

I hope all of my fellow GunDivas and GunDudes had as great a Christmas as I did!

My very own GunDude, RCC, bought me the parts to accessorize my Remington 870. You know, the one that I was going to customize "some day".

Some day was last night, as we stayed up far past our bedtime putting the darn thing together.

Pictures soon!

I Just Fell In Love

2011-12-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

...And surprisingly, it wasn't with a gun.

No, it was with Fit Shot, which combines a CrossFit-type workout with shooting exercises! Tara and I met Rob Pincus at Valhalla several years ago, and had a private day of instruction from one of his instructors. If I recall correctly, after they unloaded our gun bags, we were told that it looked like Soldier of Fortune puked all over their gun counter. We took it as a compliment. We had both of our tactical shotguns, Tara's long-range rifle, and our handguns. Not much, but more than they were expecting two women to have, I suppose.

Anyway, the Valhalla shooting center has closed, and Rob Pincus has moved on to I. C. E., where he teaches Combat Focus Shooting all over the world. He's also a Certified CrossFit instructor.

Do you see where this is headed? Fit Shot combines "Functional Fitness and Practical Shooting Skills". You know I love shooting from my Bosu, and I was pretty certain that was some cutting edge training right there. This stuff makes my Bosu shooting look like child's play.

Their Facebook page has a lot of sample workouts that aren't nearly as intense as the one in the video, but I really want to try it. I just have to figure out how to do something like this at the range, since I'm relatively certain that my gym won't let me work out with my gun on and dry fire at the wall. Pretty sure that would induce panic in the other patrons.

A Christmas Song for You

2011-12-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

Boy, I wish I'd thought of this.

Merry Christmas to All!

Feminine Protection

2011-11-26T11:29:00.000-08:00

My future SIL was spot-on with this one...

I don't know where she got it, or I'd give credit to the genius who came up with it. But it's beautiful. I love it.

SEAL of My Dreams

2011-11-10T19:03:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Veterans' Day, is the release of SEAL of My Dreams, a romance anthology that our very own NYT Bestselling GunDiva, Tara Janzen contributed her considerable talents to. I've read the excerpt for her short story and it is hot, hot, hot.

All proceeds from the book go to the Veterans' Research Corporation, which sponsors medical research to help our veterans and their families. You can buy the ebook version from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or a print version from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bell Bridge Books.

Go. Buy it. Let me know what you think. And be happy that by buying a copy, you're contributing to the health of our vets.

Kinsco Police Supply

2011-10-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

I love 5.11 gear. Love it. However, there is a draw-back. I had to order online and pray that I could fit into whatever it is I ordered. There wasn't a store nearby that I could try on the 5.11 clothes. All of the stores in my area that carried 5.11 only carried the men's line. Oh, I could have bought men's clothes, but there's this not-so-little issue of me being build like a girl. As they used to say, I got me some birthin' hips. In order to buy men's pants that would cover my birthin' hips, I would have had about a million inches of gap at the waist.

I grumbled and grumbled and last year at SHOT Show actually went to the 5.11 booth to see if I could try on some pants only to find out that they don't sell off the floor anymore.

I did some online searching for stores in the area that carried women's 5.11 clothing and was thrilled to find one less than 40 miles away. I love my 5.11 so much that I was willing to make the drive. Kinsco Police Supply is a 5.11 lover's dream. The store is amazing - wall-to-wall 5.11 gear in every color, shape and size. I was in heaven. I found a new pair of pants and got to try them on! What a treat that was. The sales lady was friendly and knowledgeable; she told us about their upcoming Black Friday sale, which RCC and I fully intend to attend.

That is definitely a store I will be returning to over and over again.

Zombie Hunt

2011-10-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

Seems they're crawling out of the wood work...I went zombie killing, Mrs Mom went zombie killing, and last night my family loaded up and went on a Zombie Hunt/Gather. Truly, this infestation is getting old.

But, we're getting lots of practice and that's got to count for something, right?

Contest Winner

2011-10-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

BK!!

Email me (thegundivas @ hotmail dot com) and I'll get your book on its way!

Thanks for playing along -

let us know what you think of the book.

Ready for a Giveaway?

2011-10-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

There are 15 million women like us - Chicks with Guns - in the United States. Photographer Lindsay McCrum recently released a book that brings female gun ownership to light through her artistic lens.

She has highlighted nearly eighty women in her book, each describing the roles guns play in their lives. We want to know...what roles do your guns play in your life?

We will be giving away a copy of Chicks with Guns. The contest will be open until Friday, October 21 at midnight MST. A winner will be chosen via Random Name Picker after the contest ends. One entry per comment.

To earn entries complete one, two or three of the following and leave a comment:

telling us about the role guns play in your life
that you've "liked" us on Facebook (The-GunDivas)
recommended us to other GunDivas (have them leave a comment telling us who sent them here)

ATF Form 4473 and Medical Marijuana

2011-10-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

On September 21, 2011 the BATFE issued an open letter to all Federal Firearms Licensees. It essentially states that anyone who lives in a state that recognizes medical marijuana use and who holds a "card" is an "...unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance...".

While individual states have decided to recognize the medicinal value of marijuana, the fact is that it's still a Class I controlled substance according to the Controlled Substances Act. Class I drugs have a high probability of abuse and have no medicinal use according to the CSA and are, therefore, illegal.

When answering the questions on the 4473, anyone holding a red or MMJ card is required to answer "yes" to question 11.e. The transaction stops right then and there.

According to the open letter, people who hold a "card" may not purchase nor possess firearms or ammunition.

Whether right or wrong, that's the way it is.

Zombie Killing Day 2011

2011-10-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

I love Zombie Killing Day! It's my favorite defensive pistol match of the year. I don't know what it is about it, but I get so excited about blowing their little rotted brains out.

This year, Mez and I designed a stage and incorporated the Bosu. Holy cow, people bitched and moaned about the Bosu. We didn't even have them standing on it - just shooting prone from it. After the match, though, I was stopped by a shooter from another squad who said that he really enjoyed the challenge of the Bosu. *Whew*

Here's our stage, "Saving Selene"...

Even though I shoot from the Bosu on a regular basis, this was hard.

We also had our take on Dancing with the Stars, Dancing with Zombies. I personally feel like the lady on the left looks a lot like a blow-up doll that's trying to get away from the zombie.

We had a team challenge in which each team member had to add a piece to the jack 'o lantern and color it in before engaging the zombies. Our poor jack 'o lantern was not very cute by the time everyone added their little artistic flair to it.

I've shot the Steel Challenge for the past two months. I would have thought that I'd gotten over my "thing" with steel. Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure that the steel they set up for the Pumpkin Shoot had a force field around them. No one shot the stage well. I think I expended thirty rounds before I managed to hit all eleven pieces of steel.

I hated that stage.

And then we got "home" to find that Hannibal had escaped and was in our house. Wearing weirdly shaped body armor that left his center mass exposed. Odd. But good for us, since we had to kill him over and over and over again. I'm not quite sure how he managed to be in so many places at once.

The best part about Hannibal's in the House was that I beat Mez by about five seconds on that stage. I very, very rarely beat Mez when we're shooting.

Mother/Son Bonding

2011-10-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

I love that shooting is something that I can do with my kids. The boys have been asking me to take them out for a while now, so I planned a range day with them. Digger was more than happy to get up and go, but Monster wasn't feeling well, so we left his sick butt at home and went without him.

It was a good day and I enjoyed some one-on-one shooting with my eldest.

He's a natural with the long guns.

Not proper range attire, but not one issue with hot brass today.

Proper range attire - but he did the hot brass dance twice today.

As a general rule, shooting is "my" time, but it's fun to spend some time with the family out at the range on occasion.

Is shooting a family sport for you, or is it something that is all yours?

Shooting with the Hubby

2011-09-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

RockCrawlinChef and I don't get to shoot together nearly often enough. In fact, I don't recall that the two of us have ever gone shooting just the two of us. We've shot matches together; we've gone out to the range with various family annd friends, but I don't think we've ever gone out alone.

Last weekend, we took a short roadtrip to Cabela's and two new rifles joined our family: a Remington 700 SPS .308 and a Henry Survival Rifle .22 LR. We've been anxiously awaiting today to try them out. We're headed to Nebraska in January with a group from the gun shop to hunt and "needed" a hunting rifle, so we managed to justify the .308. For the Steel Challenge, RCC wanted to shoot his AR-7, so I ordered extra magazines. Turns out the magazines are not interchangeable. The ones I bought fit the Henry, not the Armalite (which is the one he had at his parents' house). Well, darn, we now had five magazines and no rifle, which is why we "had" to buy the Henry.

I really love the new rifle, too bad I need a visit to the eye doctor.

Dang water bottle was hidden behind a very dangerous cactus.

Dancing an empty water bottle about 30 yards out.

RCC killing the reactive target at about 175 yards

I don't know, you think he likes the new rifle?

I had such a good time on my shooting date with my husband; I think I'll try it again tomorrow at the Steel Challenge.

Missing FATS

2011-09-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not able to go to Writers' Police Academy this year. Yes, I had planned on going and had even paid my registration. But, turns out, I can't afford to actually make the cross-country trek to WPA. I'm definitely depressed about it and in my fit of melancholy, dug through my posts from last year's WPA. I think the thing I'm going to miss most this year is FATS training - the FATS instructor had promised me the M4 for this year's training, so I'm pouting a little bit about not going. AnyGunDiva'sacrybaby, here's my post from last year's FATS training in case any of you missed it.

You know, with a nickname like GunDiva, people kinda expect me to know one end of a gun from the other and, you know, be able to shoot said gun(s). And I can. Unless it's FATS training and both Jeffery Deaver and Lee Lofland are in the room watching my group.

I can honestly say, though, that once the scenarios started I forgot they were there.

Everything Mrs Mom's DH (Anonymous) wrote in the comments section of yesterday's pop quiz is true.

The whole losing 50% of your fine motor skills. Check. Lost some fine motor skills.
The whole shooting until the threat is stopped. Check. Did that - of course, the scenario didn't end until the bad guy was neutralized.
The whole attitude is everything. Check. I can grip and present a gun with the best of them. Couldn't hit anything, but, man, if attitude would have taken down the bad guys, I wouldn't have ever needed to squeeze the trigger.

I've shot Defensive Pistol off and on for a long time; I've been under pressure from the clock and other competitors. But that didn't do much to prepare me for FATS. I had a hard time interacting with the screen - screaming alpha commands at it just wasn't working for me. Lucky for me, one of the girls in my group had that down pat. In Defensive Pistol, it's just one person killing all the bad guys. Makes for a bad team player when grouped with others. So, #1 and #4, I apologize for being a bit scattered.

I did okay with most scenarios, but there was one that raised my frustration level like you wouldn't believe. The scenario was that we were called to a wholesale warehouse (like Sam's Club or CostCo) where a man with a shotgun was confronting an employee. My frustration came when we couldn't get the person who called to shut up and get out of the way, then we were moved through the aisles until we came to the end of one. I found myself peeking around the corner just like I would in a match, but the camera took us into full view of the bad guy. #1 killed him dead; I followed a shot or two behind.

I was completely disoriented by the camera movement; in matches, we're expected to move around the course, standing still and being moved by the camera view was just plain weird. By the end of our eight million scenarios, I'd adapted to the camera movement and was doing better.

The other thing that frustrated me about FATS training was the lack of immediate feedback when firing. I squeezed the trigger and had no idea where my bullet went. I know that sounds horrible, and it was horrible. Any time a gun is fired, the shooter should know where the bullet went. I thought I had my sight picture lined up and I know I wasn't jerking the trigger, but I consistently was a little high on playback.

Despite my disorientation with the camera movement and my frustration with not knowing where my bullets were going, I loved FATS training. It was excellent for shoot/no shoot training and made me really analyze what I was doing and why. There were people that I didn't shoot (and correctly, it turns out) because they didn't feel like a threat, but I couldn't articulate why I chose not to shoot them. However, I can absolutely understand why people would shoot them; their actions could absolutely be interpreted as aggressive or dangerous.

In the half hour we had with FATS, we must have shot seven or eight scenarios. I can happily say that I did get better with every scenario and that I had an *amazing* head shot on a bad guy holding a baby in a car seat in one arm and swinging a machete with the other. I fired one round and killed him dead. I am also thrilled to say that no one in my group was killed or shot an innocent.

I thought we were going to get to see Jeffery Deaver shoot - apparently, he's quite the competitive shooter - but we moved onto the next round of simulation training, the VirTra simulator.

With the VirTra simulator, we all got to shoot individually and I LOVED IT! It may be that we got to start off shooting steel poppers. I love shooting steel poppers. Doing so gave me a chance to get to know my weapon and gain confidence. Again, I had trouble giving alpha commands to a screen, but I had a blast shooting the bad guys.

One scenario completely threw me for a loop. I was called to remove an employee who had been fired, but was refusing to leave the building. He was standing at his former desk, with a cardboard box of his belongings on the desk and he was flat-out refusing to leave the premises. The problem was that I was giggling because all I could think of was the movie "Office Space" - I just wanted to give him his red Swingline stapler and usher him out the door. Instead, he reached in the box and pulled out a Glock. I knew he was going to eat lead a split second before he did. I hesitated, not wanting to shoot him and be involved in a "suicide by cop" situation. In the moment of my hesitation, he shot himself. "Oh Shit," was all I could say. That scenario was set up for failure - either I shot him to neutralize the threat or I let him shoot himself - either way he ended up dead.

Lessons Learned

2011-09-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

Now that the euphoria of completing an entire match weak-handed has faded, I can take a look back at the videos and critique them.

First, my grip sucked. I should have re-read our post on proper grip. Being so right hand dominant, I can see that my discomfort with using my left hand impacted my grip. I did not hold it like I owned it and it showed with feed failures. I worked like crazy on getting the proper grip while in the holster and throughout my presentation (draw), which explains why I never had a feed failure while shooting my first magazine. However, I obviously didn't maintain that grip during/after magazine changes (or, in the case of Stage 1, after switching hands back and forth).

Because I didn't have a proper grip, I couldn't control my muzzle flip, which increased my time to get back on target.

Second, as a general rule, I shoot using a Weaver/Modified Weaver stance (the differences between the two are so subtle, most people can't distinguish them).

When I looked at the videos, though, I noticed that left-handed, I gravitated toward the Isosceles stance.

The debate over which is the superior stance is a post for a different day, but my point is that it's not a stance I normally use, which also played a part in my slow-as-molasses-ness in acquiring my sight picture.

I had intended to shoot the match and be done with shooting weak-handed. The problem is, I've got a lot of work to do. Am I confident I can hit what I'm aiming at weak-handed? You bet. But can I do it in a timely manner? Not so much. RCC pointed out last night, as he was watching the videos, that I need to work on speed. The bad guys would have killed me five or six times over by the time I got my first round off. He's right.

Questions for you: Do you work on specific skills when out at the range or do you just go out "to play"? Do you set shooting goals for yourself? If so, what are your shooting goals?

Defensive Pistol 9-4-11 (warning: long post, picture and video heavy)

2011-09-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

I've been talking about shooting an entire match weak-handed for a couple of months, but hadn't done it yet. The last month I planned on shooting weak-handed, the person I was going to borrow the holster from couldn't find one and I ended up shooting it strong-handed (I'm a righty). Then I was at HCR for the following month. This time, instead of planning on borrowing a left-handed holster, I just bought one. I've practiced with it exactly twice. Did I have a whole month to practice? Yep. Did I? Just twice. Have I mentioned I'm a procrastinator?

Nevertheless, this morning, I loaded up with my left-handed holster and left my right-handed ones at home. That way I couldn't chicken out at the last second and procrastinate again.

Stage 1
Starting position: seated in pickup, handgun loaded and holstered,hands on steering wheel, seatbelt on.
Course of fire: remove seatbelt, engage P1 & P2 from inside the pickup; engage T1 - T3 from across the truck bed and P3, P4 and T4 from the back bumper. 8 total targets.

Here's the video. Just a note, the gun wasn't malfunctioning - I was. Every time it didn't go into battery was because I was limp-wristing it. Totally my fault. It only happened once or twice (or three or four times). Each flipping stage.

Stage 2
Starting position: loaded, holstered handgun, standing in the shooting box, hands at side.
Course of fire: engage targets from either side in tactical order: right side standing behind cover; left side behind cover, shooting under the "wall". 8 total targets.

Here's the video. I'm pretty happy that I was able to hit the steel plates that were hidden behind the good guys without hitting the good guys.

Stage 3
Starting position: shooter in box A, handgun loaded and holstered, arms at side.
Course of fire: shooter steps into box b (pink outlined area), engages T1 - T11 in any order; do not shoot the good (white) guys. 11 total targets.

This stage scared the bejeezus out of me! Do you see how many good guys there are? Nine good guys, eleven bad guys. Yikes.

Stage 4
Starting position: shooter in shooting box, handgun loaded and holstered.
Course of fire: Three strings: 1) engage T1 & T2 in tactical sequence (one each and then clean up with a second round each), shooting free style; 2) engage T1 & T2 in tactical sequence, strong hand only; 3) engage T1 & T2 in tactical sequence from low-ready, weak hand only. 6 total targets.

This one looks (and felt backward) because my "strong" arm today is actually my weak arm in real life.

Stage 5
Starting position: shooter behind door, strong hand on door knob, handgun loaded and holstered.
Course of fire: open door with strong hand only, draw and engage visible targets in any order; targets hidden behind the "walls" must be shot in tactical order (slicing the pie). 11 total targets.

Yep, the limp wrist strikes again. I like the beginning of this run, but I can't seem to get the rhythm after the magazine change.

Side match: Rifle
Starting position: shooter behind the door, rifle loaded, muzzle in a safe position.
Course of fire: open door with strong hand only, draw and engage visible targets in any order; targets hidden behind the "walls" must be shot in tactical order (slicing the pie). 14 total targets.

This is a long video - I was going to edit it down, but I had too much fun shooting the stage to want to cut any of it out. Besides, I want everyone to see the beautiful head shot I had from the doorway and Mez video'd the scoring. I kinda forgot one target, though.

Working out with El Poquito Diablo really helped when I was having trouble with the rifle; I had the extra oompf I needed to manhandle the 9.25# rifle. After the stage, one of the other shooters told me that I was having problems because I was hitting my left forearm with the charging handle. I didn't feel it, but you can see where I had the charging handle flush against my left wrist.

Steel Challenge 8-27-11

2011-09-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

RockCrawlinChef, Mez and I shot the Steel Challenge last Saturday. It was the first time I'd ever done it and it was a blast! I've shot Defensive Pistol off and on for years, but hadn't bothered with the Steel Challenge. In the interest of broadening my shooting horizons for my next application to Top Shot, I'm shooting anything and everything.

During a Defensive Pistol match, it's not unusual to go through approximately two hundred rounds, so I didn't realize how tiring shooting the Steel Challenge would be. I shot it using my step-dad's Ruger MKII (.22 LR) and didn't think that two hundred plus rounds of .22 would be a big deal, since I normally shoot a .45 ACP.

The biggest difference, for me, is that the Steel Challenge feels like an endurance match. Shooting the same stage five times, one right after the other, takes a lot more stamina than shooting each stage one time like you do in Defensive Pistol.

I wasn't sure I'd like it, since the stages never change month to month, whereas in Defensive Pistol the stages are different every month. I can definitely see the advantage in being able to compare stage times each month - it's an easy way to measure improvement.

Another thing I learned is that I shoot better right to left than left to right. Odd, isn't it? If I hadn't shot the Challenge, I would have never known that. For some reason, it's easier for me to pick up my sight picture moving to the left than to the right.

Since I videotape pretty much *everything* when I'm shooting now (more application footage), I have a video of some of the stages...

I think I've got Tara Janzen talked into shooting it with us next month - it's a good segue into shooting matches, something she's been talking about doing, but hasn't quite gotten there yet.

I took the Bosu out to the match, though I didn't shoot off of it. When we were done with our stages, Mez and I asked if we could try to shoot the last stage from the Bosu. Unfortunately, I ran out of memory on the video camera before we hopped up on the Bosu. We both took a turn and decided that next month we'll be shooting from the Bosu, just to up the ante a bit.

Gun Powder Therapy - Pretty Much a Perfect Way to Spend a Sunday

2011-08-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

July/August was a disaster for me; I traveled for work and then went to Julie Goodnight's place for a week to film her TV show, Horse Master with Julie Goodnight, made an appearance at RomCon and then raced up to the High Country Rendezvous. The constant running around, even though it was only for about ten days, really cut into my range time, so it felt *fabulous* to be out on the range today.

Boss Man fixed my Para (it was the three-fingered spring - yay me for guessing that!) and I wanted to put a couple hundred rounds through it to make sure all of the ghosties are gone and that it'll be okay to take to the September match. I'm all about challenging myself, so I decided I'm going to shoot the September match completely weak-handed. I'm confident in my ability to shoot weak-handed, but I've never presented from a holster left-handed or changed magazines with my right hand. I picked up a cheap Kydex paddle holster the other day and spent some time today working on presentation. Holy cow, it was U-G-L-Y!

(Yes, Mez was nearby, just barely behind the firing line, but I was doing dry-fire practice with empty magazines.)

Throughout the day it got more smooth, but I've got just two weeks to get as comfortable as possible before I do it at the match. That means even more dry fire practice at the silhouette on my bedroom wall.

Mez brought out his new toy, which for the life of me I can't remember the manufacturer, a .308 carbine (essentially a FN FAL, but Austrian-made). That is a sweet shooting gun. We had an 8" steel plate about 60 yards out and I hit it with every round I shot right-handed from an off-hand (standing) position. My accuracy wasn't as great with my left hand; I only hit the plate about 50% of the time (but I did manage to shoot holes clean through the legs, which are much smaller than the plate, that ought to count for something, right?).

Of course, standing around plinking at paper's not a ton of fun, so we decided to add an extra degree of difficulty and set up our own carbine course.

Yep, pretty much a perfect way to spend a Sunday.

RomCon 2011

2011-08-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to be invited to be a "special guest" by Tara Janzen and Cindy Gerard during their 3-hour "Special Ops" presentation at this year's RomCon. RomCon is a romance readers convention; there are no writing workshops or agents to pitch to, just romance authors and their readers.

L to R: Cindy Gerard, Tara Janzen, Cullen, me

Cullen, our master gunsmith from Colorado Gun Works, did a presentation on the "toys" he and Tara brought, which included Kid's rifle and Skeeter's shotgun.

Kid's rifle: Remington 700P chambered in .308 with a Schmidt und Bender PMIIK scope.

Picture by Terry Odell

Skeeter's Shotgun: Remington 870 with too many toys/customizations to mention. (Though I could if you asked.)

Picture by Terry Odell

During the course of Cullen's presentation, he asked the crowd to guess how many weapons he had on him. The guesses ranged from three to thirty-some. They kept count as he pulled guns off of his ankle, out of a shoulder holster, out of a pocket and knives out of his tie, pockets and god-only-knows where else. All guesses were wrong. The right answer, and the one I hope everyone remembers is: ONE. He had one weapon with him, his brain; the rest were merely tools.

If you never remember anything else from this blog, please remember that your brain *is* your weapon. Use it.

During the course of the presentation, we were asked to demonstrate a Wingate maneuver, which both Tara's and Cindy's heroes have used in their books. Unfortunately, since I was busy being "killed", I don't have any pictures of the demonstration, though I do still sport the bruises from the rubber knife.

Spending three hours with Tara's and Cindy's fans was a good time - it was wonderful to see so many women take an interest in the weaponry and feel like they had a safe place to ask questions without being ridiculed.

For a participant's take on RomCon, click over to Terry's Place and see what she had to think about it. Terry's an author whose blog I've followed for a couple of years; I had the opportunity to hang out with her at Writers' Police Academy last year and was thrilled to see her at RomCon.

A Couple of Quickies

2011-07-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry for being behind. I've still got lots of posts in my little brain, but need to get them from my brain to my computer. In the meantime, I've been shooting as much as possible even though I didn't make the cut for Top Shot this time. I still plan on working out and shooting everything I can get my hands on to apply for the next season.

Anyway, I've got just a couple of quick videos to share from last time we went out. Deejo (my brother) finally made the move from Arizona to Colorado (yay, Deejo!) and I'll get to shoot with him more often now. But first we have to get him back into shooting shape. Mez's .45-70 kinda kicked his butt. Well, his shoulder. Take a look...

I fared much better in the shoulder department when I shot the rifle, but could not stay on the Bosu. I guess that means that I've got a lot more core abdominal work to do in order to stay up during the recoil. I also sort of made a mistake. We had a dueling tree out with us. It was out thirty-thirtyfive yards, a reach for the handguns, but just right for the rifle. Um. Yeah. The dueling tree lost. Big time.

In the video, when we're looking at the plates, you can hear me say, "I didn't do that". On playback, you can see that I very clearly did do that.

Anyone know where I can buy new plates for the dueling tree?

Why The Gun Is Civilization

2011-07-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

This was sent to me in an email from a fellow GunDiva...I thought I'd pass it on...

by: Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and

force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of

either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding

under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those

two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact

through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social

interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is

the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use

reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your

threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon

that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger,

a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger,

and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys

with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical

strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a

defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad

force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more

civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm

makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course,

is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed

either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most

of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the

banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and

the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A

mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a

society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal

that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is

fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are

won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on

the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't

constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings

and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun

makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker

defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is

level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an

octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply

wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal

and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight,

but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means

that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm

afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the

actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the

actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the

equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

No News Is...

2011-06-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

...Well, no news.

Actually, I think it's fairly safe to say that if I haven't heard from Top Shot yet, I didn't make it through the application phase. The next step is the Final Casting that begins this weekend in LA. Pretty certain if I had been chosen, I would have heard already.

It's kind of bittersweet. I really do want to compete on Top Shot, but I also know that my application and video weren't up to par. Tara's got me convinced to apply again and not be so rushed - take some time with my application and video instead of just slapping it together.

I'm relieved because I feel like my life has been on hold - I couldn't make any summer plans because I didn't know what was in store. Honestly, I have great bosses who would not have had a problem with the time I would have needed to take off, but it's a lousy time for me to be gone. One of our medical instructors just got another job and is leaving next week; an adjunct instructor just informed us that she only wants to teach one class a mod and no directed studies; and the list goes on. It would have been doable for me to be gone next week, but it would have been tough.

Six weeks through August and September? Again, doable, but it would put an enormous strain on my co-workers and that's not fair.

The plan is to re-group, put together a dazzling application and submission video, and give it another go. I know I can go and compete well.

Want to improve your shooting?

2011-06-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

By: GunDiva

If you read my other blogs, you know that I have a serious love affair with the Bosu ball. My trainer has had me on it since February and I've seen a drastic change in my riding confidence (not to mention a 4" loss from my waist). From the first moment I laid eyes on the Bosu I've been dying to use it as a shooting platform. A strong core will make a world of difference in speed and accuracy when shooting.

So, for months I've been telling myself I was going to buy a Bosu. I'm gonna get one...I'm gonna get one...I'm gonna get one...

Well, finally, last week I got one and couldn't wait to try it out. Here's what I learned from shooting from the Bosu...

It's absolutely unforgiving. You get off balance and you pay for it. It can teach you a lot about your weaknesses. For instance, I didn't realize that when I reholstered, I was shifting my weight ever-so-slightly forward until I tried it on the Bosu and almost fell off. Shooting from the Bosu requires that you keep your knees soft and your core tight at all times.

I knew going in that I was going to love shooting from it, as I had already seen drastic results in my riding from it, so I dragged it out to the range and let Tara shoot from it. It's tough, but the grin on her face after just a couple of rounds was worth it. She agreed that it was a handy dandy training tool. We decided that the Bosu was going to be a part of our shooting gear.

Having made that decision, I hauled it out with me today to go shooting with Mez. It was the same story - some hesitation, followed by a huge grin. In fact, Mez got two rounds into it and declared that he was going to buy one for himself. It says a lot (to me at least) that two shooters I highly respect find it such a great training tool.

It is most definitely not for beginner shooters - anyone who wants to shoot from the Bosu should be comfortable with safe gun handling to the point that they practice it without thought. Both Tara and Mez came off the Bosu at one point this weekend, but they kept the guns pointed in a safe direction with their fingers off the trigger as they came off.

Defensive Pistol 6-5-11

2011-06-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a week late in getting this posted, I had hoped to post these videos much earlier.

Last week was the monthly defensive pistol match at Colorado Rod and Gun Club. It's pretty much the most fun you can have for $10 and 200 rounds of ammo. I was excited when we did the walk-through and found that we'd be shooting prone. While I've certainly shot from a prone position before, I don't recall doing it with a handgun. I love the challenge of doing new things (or doing old things in new ways).

The stages just got better and better and I got more and more excited to shoot.

Then we got to the bowling pins.

Bowling pins are my kryptonite.

(Unless you're from Top Shot and reading this. If that's the case, I love bowling pins. Oh, and you might want to skip this video.)

I only deflated a little bit at the bowling pins, because they had the Texas Star set up. There's no middle ground with the Texas Star - you either love it or hate it.

Once you hit one of the plates, it falls off and sets the star to spinning. It's fabulous and I love it - you can never shoot it the same way twice, as you can never predict how it's going to move. Of course, I got so excited about the Texas Star stage, I forgot to ask Mez to film it for me. I can tell you that I was the first in our group to shoot it clean and complete (and then, not to be shown up, Mez shot it clean with a damn five shot revolver).

I don't remember what this stage was named, but it was fun. We had to leave our gun in one area, our magazines in another and start while sitting at a table. I almost slipped and fell on my arse coming around the table, but recovered and managed not to make too big a fool of myself. Well, I mostly didn't make a fool of myself. I kinda shot a no-shoot target. Oops.

My Para's been acting up. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know she's kind of finicky and has had some temper tantrums, but I was able to keep her going with little office visits to the gun doctor. A hundred and forty-five or fifty rounds into the match, she gave up the ghost.

I broke her.

She didn't jam, she didn't booger, she didn't goober.

She broke.

I haven't taken her apart yet to look at the extent of the damage, but I can tell you that a free-swinging hammer is not a good sign. I can't say I didn't expect it, because I know she had parts that were wearing out and I was just being too cheap to buy new parts and have her overhauled. She does have something like 10k rounds through her.

However, because I knew she was on her last legs and might booger up on me, I threw RockCrawlinChef's gun in the car - just in case. It's a good thing I did. Once the Para went belly-up, I went to the car and swapped out guns. RCC shoots a S&W M&P 9mm. Lucky for me it's an M&P, because I easily swapped out the backstrap to the small size and it fit my hand beautifully.

So, off I went to shoot the last stage with a gun I'd never fired before. The shooting gods were with me on that stage, as I shot it well. I was more than a little pissed at the scoring, which you might hear on the video. I got penalized for a missed headshot, when, in actuality, the target didn't rebound in time to catch my second round.

I argued a bit, but decided to just go with being pissed. Whatever. I shot the stage well and did it with a gun I had never fired before. Guess I'll just have to be happy with that. There is a big difference between shooting a .45 and a 9mm, though. It's a lot harder to see the holes in the target, which is why I shot at the far target four times - I just couldn't see the holes in the cardboard.

So - a question for my fellow GunDivas (and GunDudes) - do you enjoy new challenges? What is the most challenging thing you have done shooting?

Range Day

2011-05-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

To prepare for Top Shot (see? Positive thinking), I'm getting as much range time as absolutely possible, learning new weapons, and re-familiarizing myself with guns I haven't shot in a while.

I have a plan. My plan is to practice everything ambidextrously. I figure it's just a matter of time before the folks who come up with the challenges will dream up weak-handed shooting. They got close in Season 2 with the Trick Shot Showdown, when the contestants had to shoot with both hands. Besides, if you have confidence in shooting with your weak hand, you can pretty much do anything.

I'm good with my pistol weak-handed. Slow, but good. It took a lot of practice, but I like having the confidence that I can do it if I have to. Honestly, it's a ton of fun to do, too.

One of my "boys" - one of my original shooting buddies - has stepped up to the plate and offered up his time and energy to help me out. Mez and I have put a lot of lead down range together. If I make it through the casting process, it will be because I've got a whole slew of people who believe in me and who are willing to help me out.

Before Saturday, I had never shot a long gun weak-handed, but I was determined to do so. I was also determined to shoot offhand, as it's the most unstable and therefore most difficult position to shoot from. I headed to the range with RockCrawlinChef (and his family) to meet Mez immediately after I finished a killer workout. I'll call it a win that I could hoist Mez's 9.5# with my jello arms.

Here's the AR15 footage. I shoot it like I shoot my pistol weak-handed - slow.

I'm surprised that my shaking arms weren't visible, but then even the slightest movement looks enormous when you're sighting down a barrel.

By comparison, the .45-70 was light-weight. What a rush shooting that was! I shot the shit outta that gun weak-handed. However, you'll see in the video that my core was weak and the recoil pushed me around more than it should have.

~~The Little Bastard...Gymnastics Boy~~...El Poquito Diablo, as my trainer now likes to be called, will be so disappointed in my lack of core strength. Guess it's time for more Bosu work. I'll be buying one within a week to practice shooting from. The next time I shoot this .45-70, it won't knock me around so much.

I had an issue while shooting my 870 weak-handed; I'm so used to racking the slide with my left hand that I'd fire, then try to move the pistol grip backward before I realized that I had to work the action with my right hand. The tactical 870 that I built for myself had a mercury recoil system that I put in and it weighed 12.5#, so the recoil - even from shooting heavy slugs - was minimal. I have yet to modify this shotgun and I'd gotten spoiled shooting one with next to no recoil. This new one kicks like a damn mule. The thing about shotgunning is that if you're not on your gun like you're supposed to be, it will tell you about it - often painfully.

I have just a couple of seconds of video of strong-hand shooting my 870, but I'm going to share it anyway because I *love* shooting my shotgun (even with the resulting mule kick).

I didn't get video of all of the guns I shot on Saturday, mostly because everyone else was shooting too! But here's a list of what I shot:

Lever action rifle (.45-70) - my bad, I don't remember the make/model
Long barrel AR-15 (.223)
Remington 870 (12ga)
Remington 700 (.223) - shot from prone just because I could; strong-hand only because the eye relief for my weak-hand was completely wrong, but I tried.
Glock (9mm)
Double action revolver (.38) - again, don't remember the make/model
Ruger Super Blackhawk (.44 mag) - strong-hand only; forgot to trade hands

I think that's a pretty complete list of my three hours of playing with the bangsticks. By the time we were done, not only were my arms completely toast, but my upper abs were en fuego. Maybe an hour at Body Bootcamp before three hours of shooting was a bit of overkill. But I'll do it again next week!

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

Mrs Mom posted this on her other blog.

I think you all should click on over.

Take a moment during your festivities to remember why it is we're celebrating.

Stay safe y'all.

What I Shoulda Said Part II

2011-05-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

I sat down and put together everything that I had to cut out of my Top Shot Interview and once it was done, I was happier with it than the video I submitted.

Dang it.

I suppose that's just a little taste of Murphy's Law.

Dang it.

Oh What A Night!

2011-05-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is an idea I really wish more ranges would consider and offer. It's simple- Ladies Night. How many new to shooting and firearms ladies are out there? LOTS. How many feel intimidated by being in a gun shop? Too Many. How many feel uncomfortable being the "only woman" in the shop, asking for help? Again, TOO MANY.

Fortunately, Patrick's Gun Range is NOT one of those establishments that allows staff to treat women as an after thought, giving them lip service and / or a pat on the head, insisting that a lady only needs a .22, because a bigger gun would scare her/ hurt her/ be too hard to operate.

I have been lucky enough to attend two events there now. For Ladies ONLY. Spouses may come- but they are "encouraged" to sit down and enjoy the flat screen TV in the comfortable seating area, or to watch from the outside of the glass. This program is quite literally for the ladies.

First time shooters, returning shooters, done it once but forever ago shooters- ALL are welcomed with open arms, quality education and an understanding staff. They go above and beyond making the ladies comfortable- from answering questions to hands on teaching on how to handle a firearm, every single lady that I spoke with (or helped) left with a better understanding of firearms and a desire to learn MORE.

Because sometimes, that is all it takes. One time, one caring, skilled experience can make a huge difference to new shooters.

The attending ladies learned that shooting is not just for self defense- although that is an excellent option. They also learn that shooting is great stress relief. It offers a new skill set. It offers a chance for you to escape and broaden your education.

Other areas of self defense are covered- batons, defense spray, tazers, stun guns- you name it, the staff will take the time to talk about it and help you gain a better understanding.

To any Range Masters out there, consider setting up a Ladies Night. Treat us right and I guarantee you will increase your business. And ladies, if your local range does NOT offer such a program, locate the manager and ask about it. It's well worth the effort!

Follow them on Facebook!

What I Should Have Said

2011-05-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

I got the application for Season 4 off last week, completed/edited the video over the weekend, and dug around until I found a recent picture of me without my baseball cap and shooting glasses on. Now that everything is off the the casting producer, I have time to obsess and think about What I Should Have Said.

1st, the application:
There was a section on the application for me to rate my skills with different types of weapons, it was a 1-5 scale, with 1 being no experience and 5 being expert. For the most part, I chose 4s across the board. I'm better than your average bear with most weapons, but I don't consider myself an expert. Why? Because even if I was an expert, I'd never consider myself one. The shooting sports are constantly evolving, there's always a new gun, a new techniques, a new gizmo out there. As a shooter, I have to continue to elvolve as well just to keep up.

There was also a section to list our our shooting achievements/education. Mine was pretty boring, in fact, I may have left that section empty. Of course, after I sent off the application I realized that I could have put down that I'm an NRA Instructor and that I've qualified for the NRA's Distinguished Expert (pistol). The thing is, there are thousands of people with those same qualifications, and truth be told, I didn't find the testing for the Distinguished Expert anything to brag about. Everyone in the shop qualified in an afternoon at the range. The most difficult part of the testing was controlling my shivering - it was about 20* outside the day we tested.

2nd, the video:
Oh Lord, where to start with this one...In real life, I'm a teacher. I lecture for four hours at a time. I can talk. I'm also on a prescription that really dehydrates me, so I usually have a piece of gum in my mouth. Except on the day we shot my submission video, I ran out of gum. I look like I've got Tourrette's on video, what with the constant swallowing trying to generate some saliva and lip-licking to keep my lips from sticking together.

Beyond that, though, talking to a camera is a whole lot different from talking to a class that can interact. Before I started, I actually thought I was going to throw up. Once I got started it wasn't so bad - not sure much of my personality came through, but I managed.

Three to five minutes sounds like a long time. Should have been plenty of time to answer all of the questions, throw in a personal story or two, and add some shooting clips. Riiiiiiiggghhhtttt... I cut about four minutes of talking out and could only squeeze in about 10 seconds of shooting. Most of what I cut out were my personal stories, where my personality really came through. So, personality is now on the cutting room floor due to time constraints. Maybe once the application process is closed, I'll do a montage of "outtakes" to put up here, just for fun.

The thing is, if I had a chance to do my video over again, I don't think I would change a whole lot about it. Maybe make sure I have some gum and water handy. Maybe run through a practice or two of what I wanted to say, but the instructions were specific about not reading cue cards or giving a presentation. I had a mental outline of what I wanted to say, but that was it.

3rd, the photo:
I've gained weight in the last few years. A lot of it. I'm working out religiously, watching what I eat, and the pounds are coming off oh, so slowly. I haven't spent a lot of time in front of a camera since I gained weight. I had to provide a recent picture in which my face was not obscured by a hat or glasses. I live in a baseball cap and/or my shooting glasses. It was unbelievably difficult to find a picture without them. After much digging, I found one from March that I sent in today.

Believe it or not, I almost forgot to send in a picture. Maybe it was subliminal :)

Creating a New(ish) GunDiva

2011-05-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Tara and I met up with Judy, a woman who had contacted me about wanting to refresh her shooting skills. It took a couple of months to come up with a good time for all of us to meet, but we managed.

While Judy had taken a basic pistol course and currently has a CCW, she felt like she needed more time to be comfortable with shooting. After reading how anal we are about gun handling, she felt comfortable enough to ask to shoot with us.

Our weather has been hit or miss, mostly miss, so we were extremely pleased to have a beautiful day to shoot - the first in a very long time. Even more surprising than the nice weather was that the range was pretty empty. Usually the nice weather brings people out in droves.

After a slight delay getting to the range, we finally got set up.

So, here's the thing...Judy didn't really need us. She had all of the basics down. A couple of minor adjustments and some lead downrange was all it took. Instead of buying targets, Tara and I use the small (6") paper plates and stick a 1" orange dot on them. Judy danced around the plate with her first round of five shots - had we been shooting at "real" targets she would have been on paper immediately.

The next five rounds were on paper and she never left it.

Judy's the kind of person who doesn't like to be a bother and was kind of hesitant to ask to shoot with us. I can understand that - I'm the same way. It's even harder to approach people you've only met online (and armed people to boot).

However, one of the main purposes of this blog is to help unite and support women shooters. To create a space that is comfortable for us; one where it's okay to ask the "dumb" questions and not worry about being ridiculed, where we don't have to watch our ps and qs - we don't have to worry about shocking each other when we "admit" we enjoy shooting - it's not taboo here.

Shooting with Judy was an honor and delight and I can't wait to do it again!

Welcome to the GunDivas, Judy.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

To all of our pistol packin' mommas!

(or rifle packin')

(or shotgun totin')

(or revolver shootin')

Have a great day.

Well, Well, Well...

2011-05-07T06:18:00.000-07:00

Back in March, I got a wild hair up my butt to look into applying for Top Shot. I don't remember why the thought ever crossed my mind, but I came across something that said if I was interested, I should shoot an email off to the casting agency to express my interest.

So, while I was still not in my right mind, I sat down and composed this lame-o email:

My name is GunDiva and I want to be the next Top Shot!

I am a third generation native of Fort Collins, Colorado (yes, home of Fat Tire beer). I started shooting seriously about eight years ago, competing in our local monthly defensive pistol matches, where I had the opportunity to shoot against Bud Bond (who bested Jerry Miculek in the 2001 World Shoot-off Championships). One day, when we were shooting head-to-head the shooting gods smiled upon me and allowed me to beat Bud not once, but twice. Truth be told, both times were flukes, but he took an interest in me and mentored me - as he did many Northern Colorado shooters - for a few months. I've been extremely lucky to have an excellent support system - from the guys at the gun shop, to my instructors, to my fellow shooters - that has always encouraged my shooting goals.

While I am by no means a professional or competitive shooter, I am enthusiastic and eager to learn about all types of weaponry.

Ugh. I was not thrilled with my email and had even asked Tara to write something on my behalf, but then I came to my senses and dropped it. You've all read the email - would you contact me? I wouldn't.

So I put it out of my mind, didn't spend another second thinking about it. They opened up the application process for Season Four, but I didn't apply. Like I said, I'd regained my senses.

Yesterday, a call came in from an unfamiliar number. Since I was at work, I let it go to voicemail. Imagine my surprise when I checked my voicemail and this is what I heard:

Hey, GunDiva, my name is Greg, I'm the casting producer for Top Shot on History Channel. I got your email and I want to follow up with you, so give me a call. Again, this is Greg from Top Shot.

Y'all, my heart stopped. Ashinator and Monster were in the store buying something to drink when I checked my messages, so I saved it and waited until they got back in the car. They knew something was up and I played them the message. They couldn't believe it either. I couldn't wait to get back to the house and share it with RCC.

I called Greg back and talked with him for a short bit. He asked several questions that I didn't have a coherent response for; I should have been thinking about the answers all along, but since I never expected anything to come of my email, I was caught flat-footed for several of the questions.

I'm not kidding myself, I know probably the only reason he contacted me was because I'm a female shooter and there probably aren't that many female applicants. I'm not a competitive shooter and I may not even fit the bill for a recreational shooter, but I am a female shooter who loves it and I want to share my love of shooting with, well, everyone.

The biggest question he asked me: "Can you win Top Shot?"

I hesitated while I thought about my answer - lots of thoughts were tumbling around my itty-bitty brain at that point. I was mentally replaying all of the episodes I'd watched and how many times I thought, I can do that. And I answered, "Yes, I believe I can."

I don't have all the fancy shooting credentials that even their amateurs have; I've only shot locally at our gun club, but damn it, why not me? Why shouldn't a nobody shooter from Colorado win? Heck, if I make it through all of the steps of the application/audition process, I've got just the same chance as everyone else who makes it through, so why not me?

At the end of our conversation, Greg asked me to submit an application and submission video. The timeframe is short - I only have until the 20th to get my video together and to him. Let's hope that working on the application and video tomorrow on Mother's Day brings me luck, because that's the only time I've really got to do it.

I've got so much to do - I don't want to be caught flat-footed again. I've got to work out harder and longer; I've got to get lead down range (lots and lots of lead); I've got to re-familiarize myself with guns I haven't handled in a while; I've got to get my hands on other types of weaponry so that I don't look like a total doofus; and I've got to convince my boss to let me have up to seven weeks off this year.

The phone call from Greg was one tiny step in the process. The next step is to make it through the application process.

Wish me luck.

I Like Guns

2011-04-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

Posting's been less than I desired lately - sorry about that. I've got a whole slew of posts in my brain, just have to have time to sit down and spit them out. In the meantime, here's a little song to make you smile...

*just pretend you don't see the poor gun handling in the first part of the video*

Accidental Discharge

2011-04-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Note: I recieved this email from Mrs. Mom whose husband had recieved it from a LEO friend. I have not verified it as true, but it does logically make sense.

“What the hell was that?!?” she said. It took me a half a second to realize that my gun had just gone off…on my hip…in its holster. My wife and I had just finished breakfast at our favorite café and got into the car.

Me being the passenger, I rotated my torso to the left to fasten my seatbelt like I always do. When I straightened again, my Glock 19 discharged, blowing a 9mm hole through my pants, under-wear, the leather seat and bottom of the car’s door frame.

The bullet nicked my hip, but the wound is nothing a bandage couldn’t cover. So what went wrong? Guns never go “Bang” all by themselves.

After ensuring I wasn’t hemorrhaging profusely and didn’t have to make a dash for the hospital, I stayed seated in the car as my wife came around to my door and opened it. I undid my belt and slid the Galco JAK202 Slide Belt Holster, with the gun still in it, off my belt. Why it went off was immediately apparent.

The trusty, comfortable, leather holster I had been using for a year and two weeks had done what a baseball glove does after lots of use; It got soft. This particular holster carries the pistol outside the waistband, but inside the belt. The belt slides through slots in the outer side of the holster.

The problem stemmed from the leather on the inner side of the holster getting soft. A crease formed, which eventually was large enough to extend beyond the trigger. Manipulate the gun in just the wrong manner and this crease is no different than a finger on the trigger.

Boom!

I can’t say I didn’t know the crease had been formed in the holster. I trained myself to be sure that when holstering, to make sure the gun was fully in the holster, with the trigger protected. On this day, did I forget to do that when I holstered up? Did the leather finally get so soft that a combination of body movements and interference by the cushy leather seat move the Glock enough to create a situation where the trigger was engaged by the holster?

I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure, but I’ll humbly admit to the former as the likely culprit.

However, if it was the latter, then those of you who use this type of holster need to be aware of its limitations and the possibility of experiencing what I did.

It might have been a very different story had the incident happened while we were dining. That bullet ricocheting off the concrete floor could have done untold damage and just as easily killed somebody. Fortunately nobody got hurt and damage to the car was minimal. It will be an interesting conversation with the insurance company to see if they’ll cover the repairs.

Lessons Learned

Holstering your gun can be just as important as drawing it. Make sure you pay attention when doing so. If your leather is getting soft and worn, be sure that it won’t interfere with your trigger or just replace it.

The back of the slide and/or grip was being pushed downward into the leather holster…or the holster was being pushed upward with some force. My guess is the firearm was being pushed and the fold in the holster acted as a finger and depressed the Glock trigger safety.

This truly brings home the importance of taking care of your equipment and ensuring it’s in proper working order. Hopefully you can learn from my situation and prevent an accident like this from happening to you.

Lt. Michael R. Berry
Delaware State Police
Firearms Training Unit

My "Name" In Lights

2011-04-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

I knew RockCrawlinChef was up to something, but I had no idea what it was. He's been cagey for the last couple of days, but I had no idea why.

Tonight, he wandered outside for a few minutes and then told me to come out to see what he was working on.

I was perplexed when he told me to stand about five feet behind Ripley (my car). He reached in the car and put his hand on the brake pedal. This is what I saw...

Is that the coolest brake light ever? It's even better than personalized plates (and costs a whole heap less!).

I forgot...he got it here at SoulHamsters.com in the 3rd brake light section.

Hold It Like You Own It

2011-03-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest mistakes I see with women shooters, especially new ones, is a fear to take control of their gun. Having a gun that fits properly is just the first step; proper grip is the second. YouTube is full of videos mocking women shooters who have hit themselves in the head with whichever handgun their "friends" have given them to shoot. Those videos infuriate me for one reason - with proper instruction, no one would ever get tattoo'd by their handgun.

Proper grip will allow you to control the recoil and bring the gun back on target much more quickly, which means you can get your next shot off much more quickly.

Attitude is crucial when handling guns. If you are afraid of it, or of the recoil, it will bite you. Tara's favorite phrase when dealing with new shooter is, "Hold it like you own it, not like it owns you." You control the gun, not the other way around.

A good grip starts the same way you check for fit, with the gun snugged into the web between your thumb and first finger. Your index finger should rest along the frame of the gun, the other fingers wrapped comfortably around the grip. Your support hand should be wrapped around the gun, covering the fingers of your strong hand, both thumbs facing forward.

Having your support hand wrapped around your strong hand helps control muzzle flip - when the gun fires, the front end of the muzzle will "flip" up. Not controlling the muzzle flip is what caused all those women in the YouTube videos to smack themselves in the head.

It used to be popular to support the gun in a "tea cup" grip, with the support hand cupped underneath the gun, like a saucer under a tea cup. The problem is that the gun can flip up off of the "saucer", leaving the strong hand to control the gun and bring it back down on target. In order to avoid that from happening, people who use the tea cup grip will hold on tightly to their strong hand and pull down, which can cause their shots to dive.

Thumb position is very important when shooting a semi-automatic. Semi-automatics are designed so that when they fire, the slide is forced backward, ejecting the fired brass and reloading a new cartridge. If your support thumb is wrapped around the back of the gun the slide will take off skin when it cycles. It hurts. A lot. Trust me on this one. Keep those thumbs out of the way.

Having the gun tucked into the web of your hand will direct recoil back through your wrist, through your arm and into your body. Absorbing the recoil with your body instead of your thumb (as with a poorly fitting gun) will make shooting even the biggest gun a lot more fun.

Here's a slow-motion video of me shooting; watch the muzzle flip up and notice how my grip helps to bring the gun back down on target so I can get the next shot off. Thanks to my flabby, out of shape arms, you'll also be able to see the recoil travel from the gun to my body.

Now here's the same clip at "normal" speed. In slow-mo, the muzzle flipped looked huge, but in this clip it's minimal. You can also see how my support hand balances out the upward movement of the gun, simply by resisting the movement. I don't have to muscle it down like I would if I used a tea cup grip.

28 Hours of Hope Update

2011-03-11T07:17:00.001-08:00

...to everyone who linked up, re-posted, or donated to the 28 Hours of Hope. If you haven't donated and think you can make it through the day without your espresso, why don't you donate your coffee money for the day? Every little bit helps and together over $36000 was raised. There's still time to donate (about 45 minutes), so I'll leave the link in the sidebar.

Thank you all so much!

28 Hours of Hope

2011-03-10T07:44:00.001-08:00

In the three years or so since I've been blogging, I've seen bloggers who have never met face-to-face pull together to help little girls with cancer, mommies with cancer, people just having a rough time who need a shoulder to cry on and have seen the bloggers stand together, strong, through good times and bad.

I've been lucky enough to participate in the blogging community and have been blessed enough to help some of our fellow bloggers.

This time, I'm asking for help. Not for me, but for abused children in Larimer County. I was lucky enough growing up that my mom got us out of a potentially abusive environment. She took the beatings for us until she said, "enough!" and got out. She had a very wise counselor at the time who told her that she was going to get out of the marriage no matter what - she either gathered her courage and left, or she'd get out of it in a pine box. There were no options. He also explained that wife beaters don't stop with the wives - they move on to the pets and the children and when he killed her, who was going to protect the kids?

People knew about the beatings Mom was recieving, but what is there to do? Our close neighborhood friends knew, but, you know, what happens behind closed doors, how is it their business?

We kids knew. Hell, Dad would line us up on the couch in birth order and command us not to move when the beatings commenced. We knew, but we didn't say anything. It was our own dirty secret. If we told, we'd be the ones getting the beating. Selfish, I know, but we were kids. Dad was a big, strong firefighter. What chance did we have against him?

Silence was our enemy.

We didn't tell.

The neighbors didn't tell.

The teachers didn't tell.

Silence.

Thank God for Mom's counselor. I don't know if she told or if he figured it out. He was a smart man. Smart enough that he knew the patterns of abusers. When Dad started in on Junior, the youngest of the four of us, Mom realized her counselor was right and got out.

There are a lot of kids nationwide, not just in Larimer County, whose parents aren't as strong as Mom is. There are a lot of kids for whom Silence is their enemy.

They don't tell.

Their neighbors don't tell.

Their teachers don't tell.

Silence...

...it's killing our kids.

The Good Morning Guys at K99 sponsor the 28 Hours of Hope every year in an attempt to break the silence and raise money to help abused children in Larimer County. They will stay on the air for 28 consecutive hours, taking calls and pledges from the community and Country Music celebrities. They went on the air at 5:00 am this morning and will continue to be on the air until 9:00 am on March 11th. Jeez, and I complain about working fifteen hours straight - these guys will be working non-stop for twenty-eight hours for a cause they believe in.

RockCrawlinChef and I will be making a donation and I'd like to ask each of my followers to make one, too. It doesn't have to be a lot. Even $1.00 on your credit or debit card will help. The change in your car's ashtray or change jar will help. To donate, click here or on the picture in the sidebar, that will take you directly to the donation page. You can make a donation on-line, over the phone, or via mail.

If you can't afford to donate, then do something about the Silence. If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, tell someone. Break the cycle of Silence. All it takes is a phone call to break the cycle - either to the police department or social services.

And, please, please feel free to steal this post for your own blogs or link to it. The more exposure we can get, the more we can help the children and break the Silence.

Does Your Pistol Fit You?

2011-03-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

By: GunDiva

No one would wear clothes or shoes that are uncomfortable and don't fit on purpose, right? We know that we might squeeze into a pair of pants or shoes for a short period of time just to look good, but we'd rather not do it. If we had our druthers, we'd always wear comfortable clothes and shoes.

So why on earth would we women settle for shooting guns that don't fit? I'll tell you why - because most of us got our start shooting our dad's, brother's, or significant other's guns. They probably fit the males in our life, but most assuredly didn't fit us. I'll clarify my phrase probably - there are a lot of avid male shooters out there that don't know if their gun fits them either. From my experience, men are great about making sure their long guns fit them properly, but don't pay much attention to their pistol fit. Maybe that's because if a long gun doesn't fit properly, it tells you about it often and painfully. But if a pistol doesn't fit, it's only slightly uncomfortable.

Finding a gun with the proper fit will make all the difference in your shooting. Your accuracy will increase, your speed will increase, you'll flat-out have a lot more fun and be less fatigued at the end of the day.

To determine if a gun fits you, pick it up in your dominant hand (after ensuring that it has been properly unloaded), placing the back of the gun in the web between your thumb and fingers. The gun must fit snuggly into that webbed area; that way, when you fire, the recoil is allowed to move straight back into your wrist and arm. If the gun's not tucked in there properly, the recoil is typically moved back into your hooked thumb. Can you shoot that way? Yep. Is it uncomfortable? Yep. Will it fatigue your hand quickly? Yep. Most importantly, though, not having the gun tucked into the web of your hand will affect your accuracy.

Next, lay your trigger finger along the frame of the gun and look at the your finger in relation to the trigger. With the gun tucked properly into your hand, your index finger should extend beyond the curved end of the trigger. If it doesn't, then you'll end up making an unconscious adjustment to reach that trigger. The adjustment will be to "hook" the back of the gun with your thumb so you can reach. Remember that moving the gun out of the web between your thumb and fingers will redirect the recoil of the gun, allowing it to move into your thumb instead of your wrist and arm.

If your finger extends beyond the trigger without adjusting the position of the gun in your hand, move your finger onto the trigger. You should be able to place the middle of the pad on your index finger on the trigger, while flexing the second and third joint of your finger. If you have to keep your finger straight to touch the trigger, the pistol doesn't fit. There should be visible space between the gun and your flexed index finger.

A gun that fulfills those three simple things is a gun that fits you. Take a look at how my Para fits my hand:

Gun tucked securely into the webbing between my thumb and fingers: CHECK
Finger extends beyond the curved end of the trigger: CHECK

Middle of the pad of my index finger fits on the trigger, with the second and third joints of the finger flexed and the gun is still tucked into my hand properly: CHECK

Another view of my finger on the trigger, the middle of the pad is securely on the trigger without shifting the gun out of the webbing of my hand.

Now, take a look at this Sig that doesn't fit my hand at all:

Top Left: you can see that I'm having a hard time getting the gun tucked into my hand properly. I can't even lay my finger along the frame smoothly.

Top Right: my finger is attempting to reach the trigger. I can sort of hook it with the very tip of my finger.

Bottom Left: you can see that I had no chance of laying my finger on the trigger properly - it barely reaches the trigger.

Bottom Right: in order to even get this much of my finger on the trigger, I had to shift the gun so that I was hooking it with my thumb.

Next time you're out at the range, be sure to pay attention to how the gun your shooting fits you. If it means that you'll have to modify your gun or *gasp* buy one that actually fits, you won't regret doing so. Your shooting experience will improve dramatically, as will your control and accuracy.

What Does Your Gun Handling Say About You?

2011-02-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

I'll admit it, I've made snap decisions about people based on their gun handling. However, I think those snap decisions are safe ones. For example: if you're out at the range and you're sweeping everyone nearby with the muzzle of your gun, I'm going to assume that you don't understand the responsibility of safe gun handling. I'm going to immediately assume that A) you're a self-centered, lazy asshole, B) your a freaking idiot who couldn't be bothered to learn good gun handling (which is an awful lot like option A), or C) no one ever taught you any gun manners.

Sadly, my assumptions always come in that order: A, B, and then C. Those assumptions are generally based on experience. At one point in time, I would take the time to explain the range rules and tell the person how dangerous their actions were. With *one* exception (which lead to assumption C), the offenders were of the A or B category. I've found that pointing out the error of their ways, no matter how nicely I tried, was just wasted breath. Now, I just pack up and leave. It's not worth potentially getting shot because of a negligent discharge, nor is it worth getting into a verbal altercation.

There is basic gun etiquette that I expect all shooters to follow and I'll judge you on it. Just being honest folks.

The first thing: if you want to show me your gun, please point it in a safe direction and "make it safe", which means drop the magazine and clear the chamber, all the while keeping your finger OFF the trigger. Show me that the gun is clear before handing it over and hand it over without pointing the muzzle at me.

Understand that I am going to physically clear the gun myself. Don't be offended by it. It's just good gun handling etiquette. I promise that I won't point the gun at you while I'm clearing it either, and I'll be sure to keep my finger off the trigger.

Few things make me more nervous than someone wanting to show me their gun and just handing it over, or worse, leaving in its case and handing it over. I don't care if you tell me it's loaded or unloaded. I want the gun cleared before I get it, and I want to see you clear it.

When handling your gun, keep it pointed in a safe direction. Namely, away from me! I feel much better when someone turns away, keeping their body between me and their gun, to drop the magazine and clear the chamber. Don't worry, I'll peek over your shoulder (or under your arm) while you lock the slide back so that I can see the empty chamber for myself. And then I'll repeat the process on my own once I've got the gun in my hands.

When out at the range, PAY ATTENTION! You're not the only one out there. Never break the 180 degree rule. The muzzle of your gun should never break the firing line in either direction. In fact, the muzzle of your gun should be pointed down range AT ALL TIMES unless it's in your holster. Even when setting the gun down on the bench, keep the muzzle pointed down range. When loading and unloading your gun, keep the muzzle of the gun pointed down range. When clearing a jam, keep the muzzle of the gun pointed down range. When talking to your shooting buddy standing next to you, keep the muzzle of the gun pointed down range. See the pattern here?

Finger off the trigger, buddy. That trigger's not a convenient place to rest your tired booger hook. If your finger is so tired that you need to rest it, put the gun down (with the muzzle pointing down range). The only time it should be on the trigger is when you're fixing to press it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people at the range with their gun dangling from their hands by their sides and their fingers on the trigger while they talk to their shooting buddies.

I've seen some life-long shooters who have gotten complacent with their gun handling, because they've done the same thing a hundred times before without a bad outcome, so why would this time be any different? Just because they've gotten lucky that nothing bad has happened in the past is no guarantee that it won't happen in the future. Gun complacency is the reason why people get shot with "unloaded" guns. Those people have mishandled their guns so frequently that they've forgotten how dangerous they can be until they get a painful reminder. Kinda like this guy...

Now, on the other hand, someone who follows the basic gun etiquette and handles their gun as though they've got a brain in their head is someone I'll associate with. See, to me, good gun etiquette means that you give a damn about yourself and those around you; you don't needlessly or recklessly put yourself or others in danger. And I appreciate that.

Writers' Police Academy 2011

2011-02-25T18:43:00.000-08:00

By: GunDiva

This time last year, I was in a tizzy because I'd read about Lee Lofland's Writers' Police Academy and thought it sounded fun, so I gathered up my courage and paid my money. I felt a lot of guilt for spending that kind of money on something I'd never been to, in a state I'd never been to, not knowing if I would enjoy it or not.

Turns out, I loved every second of it. From check-in to debrief, we were moving the whole time. I have pages and pages of notes from the sessions I attended; sessions on profiling, autopsies, what makes killers tick, how bad guys get guns, FATS training, arson investigation. We even had a (mock) school shooting so that we could see how the police, fire, and EMS would respond in that situation.You name it, WPA has it. The only problem was that I didn't have enough time to do all of the sessions I wanted to. I missed jail searches, handcuffing, taking down bad guys.

Heck, I even ran into Sophie Littlefield, whose book, A BAD DAY FOR PRETTY, I reviewed and became a die-hard Stella Hardesty fan. Terry Odell, a romance author who had just re-located to Colorado, was there with her husband. I'd guest posted for Terry and have followed her blog for a couple of years.

Since I had such a great time last year, when registration opened up this year, I jumped right in and don't feel the least bit guilty about it. I'll again be doing the FATS training, as Jerry Cooper, the head FATS guru, has promised me that I'll get to shoot the M4 rifle that Jeffery Deaver got to shoot instead of the Glock I shot last year. There will definitely be pics (or video) of that. I do believe, though, that I'm going to spend some time learning to shoot a carbine before September so I don't make a fool of myself.

I should stress that this is NOT a writing conference; there won't be any agents to pitch ideas to or writing seminars. It's a gathering of writers who want to participate in a Police/EMS/Fire Academy to gain experiences that will make their writing come to life. This event really is a Must Attend event for any writer who wants to write accurately and not make glaring errors in their manuscript.

If you're interested in attending, click the WPA badge in our sidebar. And tell 'em GunDiva sent you!

Come Play With Us!

2011-02-23T14:48:00.000-08:00

By: GunDiva

I fumbled my non-techie fingers around and made us a Facebook page. Currently, we have more administrators than people who like our page. It's very sad.

I know there's a way to put a link somewhere on the blog, but that's waaaaaaaayyyyyyy beyond my technical capabilities. (But I'm open to instruction if there's anyone out there who has linked FB to their blog and can explain it in small, easy-to-understand words.)

So...to find us on Facebook, just type The GunDivas into the search bar and it should take you right to our page, where we've already got videos and pictures up. It's a great place for people to post their own GunDiva pictures/videos and start networking with others of us.

So what are you waiting for? Come play with us!

Virtual Gunpowder Therapy

2011-02-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

By: GunDiva

I haven't been to the range in the last few weeks and miss it terribly, so I was going through some of my old shooting videos and thought I'd share a couple of them with you. I'll apologize in advance for the poor quality - these videos were taken on my digital camera back in 2006 - they've improved a whole lot since then.

This one is a head-to-head competition between my brother, Junior, and I. There were two targets we had to neutralize. I took one target with a single shot to the head, the other with two to the chest. You'll see my draw was slower than Junior's, but I killed both targets with only three rounds - he ran through several more.

This other video is just of one of our stages. I shot it slow, but clean.

No, I was not wearing proper range attire, what with my tank top. Funny story about that tank top... one of our stages that day was to carry a phone from our starting shooting position to the next one. Lots of the guys were fumbling around, trying to find a pocket that wasn't stuffed with magazines to put the phone in so that they wouldn't have to shoot one-handed. Me? I dropped into my cleavage.

Okay, I'm almost done with my little video trip down memory lane. Just one last video. This one was from our Zombie shooting match in 2009. I hadn't shot my Para in a couple of years before this match (I'd sold it and then re-purchased it from the guy I sold it to), so I'm slow, but mostly clean.

Don't those videos make you want to hit the range?

Well, what are you waiting for?

Go load up and get some gunpowder therapy!

Shoot safe and straight!

Stop The Presses!

2011-02-18T09:14:00.000-08:00

Mr. Anonymous can apparently spam commenters. So unless you want him "commenting" on your blog, PLEASE don't comment on our previous post. It will show up in your inbox as coming from me or Mrs Mom. And, well, you very clearly know how Mrs Mom feels about him!

Pictures Wanted!

2011-02-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

By: GunDiva

One of the things I want to do with The GunDivas is to make a collage of all of us women shooters. If you have a favorite picture of yourself and your favorite gun, please send it to me in jpg format at thegundivas@hotmail.com. If you can't narrow it down to just one favorite picture, send me several. If you want to be identified in your picture, let me know. On the flip side of that, if you want to remain nameless, also let me know.

I'm working on a FB page for us as well, so as soon as I get it fleshed out, I'll let you know. That might also be an easy way to share photos.

Now, remember, we changed our name so we wouldn't be confused with the T&A site, so please make sure you're properly attired in your photos :)

2/18/11 Please, do not comment on this blog post; that's how Mr. I-Hate-American-Women is spreading his spam. We can discuss him in today's post without (I think) giving him the ability to spam our commenters' blogs.

There's A Change In The Air

2011-02-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

By: GunDiva

Some of you may have read my True Story Tuesday post last week about Mistaken Identity.

In an effort to break away from the lovely T&A site that is http://www.girlswithguns.com/, we're going to be changing our name. But we'll still be the same ole Mrs Mom and GunDiva that you know and love.

Over the next few weeks, our blog will start to look a little different, beginning with our new name, The GunDivas. I know it sounds kind of ego-centric, but there are a whole lot of GunDivas out there - Mrs Mom and I are just two of them.

Sometimes, change is good and I have a feeling that this will be a very good change.

Say What?

2011-02-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

Fear No Evil - Springfield Armory

Live By The Rules. Your Own. - Gerber knives

Shoot Like An Expert - ParaOrdinance GI Expert Series

Reliable - Refined - Respected - Remington

Unparalleled, Unprecedented and Unleashed - Camillus Cutlery

Ultimate Shooting Machine - Smith&Wesson M&P

Those taglines make you feel like you can take on the world and come out on top. Just walking through SHOT Show, seeing all of those taglines, is like a shot of adrenaline.

Strong.

Empowering.

Exactly what the manufacturers and their marketing people want.

The Softer Side of Shooting - Shooting for Women Alliance

What?

Excuse me while I regain my balance and catch my breath.

Really?

I am a woman shooter.

I am strong.

I am empowered.

I am NOT the softer side of shooting. There is *nothing* soft about shooting.

While, logically, I understand the marketing behind the SFWA's tagline - they want to encourage women to join the shooting sports - I angers me on a visceral level.

Shooters - especially women shooters - should be empowered, not coddled. Nothing makes me angrier than men who look at women shooters as "cute little thangs" who are just "playing" at shooting.

I'm deadly serious about my shooting, and any woman who takes it up for sport or defense needs to be as well.

In addition to being angered by the tagline, I feel betrayed by my own gender. Because it wasn't a male who came up with that tagline. Nope. It was a woman.

I agree that women shooters need to stand together; I agree that there needs to be a safe place for women who are shooters or women who are interested in shooting, which is why Mrs Mom and I came up with this blog. However, women should not buy into the implication that we are "soft".

If we don't take ourselves seriously as shooters, how can we expect anyone else to?

We are women shooters.

We are strong.

We are empowered.

We are NOT soft.

Sad Day. Happy Day.

2011-02-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

Sad Day.

Someone didn't claim their SHOT Show swag.

Happy Day.

Someone else won the swag.

And the NEW winner is...

Reddunappy!
Please email me (tel835@hotmail.com) with your snail mail address; your swag is all packed and ready to go in the mail.For the rest of the winners - your presents will go out in the mail tomorrow. I have to tell you, I'm very jealous of whoever won the RSR bag. If I'd looked at it closely before, it may not have made the give-away pile. For Pete's sake, it's got a water bottle holder. Why, oh, why didn't I look at it more closely when I picked it up? I might have been tempted to pick up more than one of them.

I hope you all enjoy your goodies and find use for them.

Winners! We Have Winners!

2011-01-31T18:47:00.000-08:00

Whew! Lots of fast and furious commenting on both give-away blogs. Winners were drawn using Random Name Picker.

Drumroll please...

The seven winners of the SHOT Show swag are:

Colleen B
Ursula
Stephanie
Vaquerogirl
Midlife Mom
K. T. Sparks
Funder

The winner of a signed copy of LOOSE ENDS is:

Tori Lennox

Congratulations to all of our winners! Please email me by midnight Friday, February 4th with your snail mail address so I can get these out in the mail. I will re-gift any prize not claimed.

Drum Roll, Please.. We Have Another Guest!

2011-01-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

By: Mrs Mom

Ladies (and gents), it pleases me to no end to invite you all to read below, a guest post by the ever amazing Momma Fargo. What? You have not read anything by Momma Fargo? Don't mind me saying so, but I highly suggest you rectify that situation post haste! Momma Fargo- a one of a kind, witty, intelligent, talented writer is not just a Pistol Packin' Momma- oh no. Momma Fargo is also a law enforcement officer in the wilds of the north west. Her blog is filled with insight, humor, heartbreak and a birds eye view of what being a "girl" in law enforcement is about. Five star reading to be sure!

With out further ado, I present
Momma Fargo.

Enjoy! And be SURE to pay her a visit!

First, let me tell you what an honor it is to be a part of Girls With Guns! I’m so flattered I think I’m going to pee my pants! Stand by…

OK.*tap, tap* Is this thing on? Ok. I put my big girl panties on. No bladder problems…or at least I think I can, I think I can… But… I’m so excited! OOOOey and we get to talk about guns. ..and safety…and being a big girl in this world!

I was not always so excited about guns. Let me take you back to my experience. See…my dad was a tough guy…a man’s man. And well, I was the oldest. Although he wanted me to be a lady…I fished, I rode wild horses, I drove tractors, I got dirty. At 8…dad decided I was old enough to have my first gun. Mind you…I wasn’t thrilled. I mean, seriously…they didn’t even come in pink back then.

He had me open it up...all wrapped pretty…a shiny Remington .22 rifle. A brick of .22 shells to boot. Weak smile…”thanks, dad”…and in brown. At 8…PINK was my world. Oh…I was a tomboy..but I loved pink. Later, I would learn that brown and green are my favorite colors…such as in …camoflauge. YEAHUS!

Oh...it didn’t stop there. Dad took me to the haystack where he was so excited for me to shoot my first round. I imagine I had a trench from the house to the haystack where he shoved me in my boots all the way there, toting the .22 rilfe and tiny shiny bullets.

I remembered he put some tin cans up on some bales…Olympia beer type to be exact…his beer of choice which later turned into Miller. But that’s a different story. I digress. Back to the gun thingy. “A lady has to know how to defend herself”, he always said...”besides you can start practicin’ by shooting all those gophers that are playing hell with my irrigation ditches.” Call me a naysayer…but protect myself against gophers…prairie dogs…what? It was 1975 for Pete’s sake. ..not like the age of crime these days. What? Was the grain man going to rape me in the wood shed? I thought dad was on crack…although at 8 I didn’t even know what crack was…unless it was that stuff plumber’s were made out of.

So…days of Ward and June…you didn’t argue with your dad…or your mom who was always wielding a fly swatter as her weapon of choice next to flying her broom. You did as you were told. I did as I was told. I think I was sweating bullets.

All I really remember about that day after the first fire…was I fell down. Not from the kick of the gun mind you…afterall, it was just a .22 long gun. No kick. I was so scared that the big “boom!” …ok it was more like a pop…frightened me to the ground…causing me…to throw the gun forward like a hot potato. And it was the devil. Dad was none too proud of that one…but he laughed hysterically…and like a good father would…GIT BACK UP ON THAT HARSE! Damn the luck. I had to do it again and again and again. If I didn’t like it…I had better fake it that guns were a girls’ best friend. Dammit. Where’s my Barbies?

In fact…I still sit here today wondering when they are going to have a gun totin’ Barbie? Come on!

I had the best father in the world. Even though he was rough and tough like John Wayne, he had a heart of gold and taught me many valuable lessons in the world. He still is my voice of reason... although he has been gone since I was 21.

Sgt. Downtown Brown and I took out my first .22 rifle just the other day…oiled it up…and shot it off the back deck like a couple of hillbillies. It still works…like a charm. Oh…I’ve added a scope and a bigger magazine..a girl’s gotta have a little fun, right?

I have come more accustomed to shooting since I became a cop. I still have a lot to learn…and I can’t own enough guns or have too much ammunition. Thanks, Dad.

So with that…I would tell any woman out there who is thinking of carrying or shooting a gun…

(1) Do it at least once. If it scares you…get a good trainer and practice. Be familiar with it. Be comfortable…it might save your life one day. Be the gun!

(2) If you can’t like it or can’t get comfortable…don’t pack it. You are a danger to yourself and others. Get a dog. And make it a mean one and walk it. In public.

(3) Buy it in pink. Guns with sparkle farkle are cool. Trust me. My daughter has a pink .22 rifle. I tried to steal it… once. Just once. She squealed like a good girl should when someone tries to steal your gun.

(4) Take a safety course. Do it! Even if you don’t like guns or want one. (Are you crazy? Guns rock!) Actually, you might have to take it away from someone someday. Don’t be without knowledge.

(5) Don’t ever let your gun collect dust. Practice, practice.

(6) Clean it like you do your hoohah. Clean barrels make sharp shooters. Yes, I’m talking about the guns.

And that leads to safety awareness. PAY ATTENTION! Do I need to preach this? Don’t be distracted. Walk tall. Carry yourself with confidence. Scan your surroundings. Pack your heater (not a frickin’ Lennox stove) and know when you need to grab it or your pepper spray (not for cooking) or both. Take a self-defense class and a shooting class. Arm yourself with knowledge! And remember one thing….if the hairs on your neck go up…it’s for a reason…even if you don’t see a threat. Don’t ignore what is naturally born in us. Be a woman…and a strong woman…wherever you are.

Socker games are deadly, ladies! Trust me! Ok…maybe a little over the top on that one…but you never know…that was the point I was making.

Thank you to the GIRLS for letting me guest post. It has been a HUGE honor! Keep up the fantastic work!

Q&A with Tara Janzen

2011-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

By: GunDiva and Tara

Today is the big release of LOOSE ENDS, the final book in Tara's Steele Street series. We got the chance to ask Tara a few questions about her shooting habit. She's also generously donated a signed copy of LOOSE ENDS to one of our commenters. Just leave a comment between now and Sunday night at midnight CST and we'll choose a winner using a random name generator.

1) What influenced the decision to learn to shoot?

After writing the first two CRAZY books, CRAZY HOT and CRAZY COOL, I realized I really needed to at least hold a gun in my hand to see what it felt like. Here I was, writing about these super cool guys who drove hot cars and were weapons specialists, and I had never even held a handgun. So I went down to the greatest gun shop in the world, Colorado Gun Works, and the more questions I asked and the more answers I got, I realized I needed to do more than just hold a gun. I needed to actually shoot one.

2) What was the first gun you shot, and what did you think of it?

The first gun was a .22 pistol I used for the first pistol class I took. I wasn't very excited about shooting the .22, but I was there to learn, and I was learning some very important stuff, especially gun handling and safety issues - then I was offered a .45 - and everything changed for me. I was wary about pulling the trigger on the .45 for the first time, because I knew this was a much bigger gun, with a lot bigger bang, and I wasn't sure how that was going to work out for me. The first shot went better than I had expected. I was pretty jazzed and thought "well, I ought to shoot another round" - so I did, and out of the blue I got the biggest grin on my face. I was soooo hooked - and that hasn't changed. I've bought a lot of guns since then, and shot even more than I've bought, and I'm getting ready to buy another pistol next month. For me, there is something so inherently fascinating about shooting. I never get tired of it. A day at the range, kicking around in the dirt and sending rounds downrange, is a great, great day.

3) What is your absolute favorite firearm?

I have a rifle, an "accurized" Remington 700 .308 with a Schmidt und Bender PMIIK scope that'll take me out to 1000 meters and let me nail a 10 inch target. It is a thing of beauty and grace, of stillness and breath, and challenge.

4) What advice would you offer to women who were just learning to shoot, or who want to learn to shoot?

a). Take a class, take lots of classes - practice and train.

b). Do not let your husband or boyfriend teach you how to shoot. GunDiva and I see a lot of really pitiful, dangerous teaching going on out there on the range with significant others. Find qualified, certified, experienced firearms teachers.

c). Have a pistol that fits your hand. I'm not talking caliber. Your pistol can be a .45, or a .40, or a 9mm - just make sure the grip is right for your hand. This will save a lot of marksmanship problems.

d). Clean your guns after you shoot them, and clean the magazines - this is not optional. Do it.

5) Did you think when you started the Steele Street series that you'd end up being such a proponent of the shooting sports?

It never occurred to me for a minute. When I started the series, I was more excited about the cars, all that American muscle from the 60's and early 70's - but then along came the guns, and the more I learned, the cooler all the guns in the books got. GunDiva and I just got back from Shot Show, and at one of the booths, I got to hold one of the guns I'd written into CRAZY LOVE, a Heckler and Koch UMP - very very cool! And YES, I want one!

Don't forget to go here to enter the give-away for SHOT Show swag!

SHOT Show give-aways!

2011-01-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Me and Tara with R. Lee Ermey. Definitely worth the wait.

Tara and I brought back a lot of swag from Las Vegas and we thought we'd share. Of course, there are strings attached, but they should be fairly painless. Mrs Mom and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us to learn more about our followers, and for you to learn more about each other.

I'm going to make up seven grab-bags of swag. What you're going to do is leave a comment sharing with us a couple of things:

Tell us about your first gun memory; when did you learn to shoot, was it a positive experience, etc.
What drove you to learn to shoot (or for non-shooters, what makes you want to learn to shoot)?
What advice do you give new shooters or what advice do you wish you'd been given?

You'll have until midnight on January 29th to enter (one entry per commenter/follower), and I'll use a random name picker to choose the winners. This is the perfect time for you lurkers to comment *hint, hint*.

Presents! I Brought Presents!

2011-01-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

Lots and lots of swag at SHOT Show; as Tara and I were gathering them up, we decided they'd make great give-aways for the blog. So...just as soon as I figure out how I want to give all of it away, we'll do so.

Just a couple of quick notes from the show:

Perhaps one of the all-time best bonuses of being a woman at SHOT Show - no lines in the bathroom! Yep, you heard me right - no lines! It effing rocked!
R. Lee Ermey is a charming gentleman. We queued up about thirty feet from where he was going to be and waited and waited and waited. But it wasn't because he was late, but because he took the time to talk to everyone. The person (or people) in front of him got his full attention, and he spent time talking with everyone.
I fell in love. Okay, okay, I was at a gun tradeshow - falling in love was inevitable. I fell in love over and over again, but the gun that stole my heart was Para's new Slim Hawg. And that's despite the idiot contracted salesman. Please, Para-Ordinance, for next year's show, hire someone who knows the product, not some damn non-shooting contractor.
Steven at Springfield Armory was amazing - he took the time to sit and talk with Tara and me about the XDM. Tara's been looking for one and had some questions that he patiently answered (and gave us two of the coolest hats ever - no, those aren't up for the give-away, we already put our cooties on them).
If you ever get the chance to go to dinner with two former Border Patrol Agents - take it! It was a blast! Thank you for an amazing evening, J and K.
And a big shout out to the other women shooters we met and chatted with - Maddie and Diane - we both love meeting women of a like mind.

Booze and Guns Don't Mix - So What's Wrong With This Picture?

2011-01-16T19:51:00.000-08:00

Vertx Drink Ups - SHOT Show 2011

Each day at SHOT we'll be tapping kegs at 4pm. So stop by, grab a beer, meet some Operational Athletes and the Vertx team. Get there right at 4pm, as last year we kicked two kegs in less than an hour.

I'm sure some people will think I'm a big ole stick in the mud for this, but that open invitation to all attendees at SHOT Show really pisses me right the fuck off. Gun owners/enthusiasts have a hard enough time because of all of the idiots who do mix booze and guns. I find this extremely unprofessional and detrimental to the gun community.

No, I'm not against drinking.
No, I'm not against shooting sports.

I am, however, against supporting the stereotype that gun enthusiasts must mix the two in order to have a good time. So far the Vertx folk have 162 people RSVP'd to their little party. Now, that's only 1% of the anticipated attendees, but it still reinforces the stereotype and it pisses me off.

No wonder we have such a hard time against the vocal anti-gunners when our industry supports crap like this.

"Die In The Parking Lot" by Tara Janzen

2011-01-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Yep, that was my motto way back when, BG, Before Guns came into my life. It all came about because of a college girl in my town. She worked at a clothing store in the mall. One night, I went into her store with a little extra cash to buy the coolest new outfit in the latest style – layering. Remember back when it first became cool to wear two shirts at the same time? With the under one showing via rolled up sleeves and an extra unbuttoned button at the throat? It was all too cool, and I wanted two shirts to wear together. The clerk was marvelous, spending all the time in the world with me to make sure I had just the right two shirts. The underneath one was a hot pink T-shirt material, and the on top one was a purplish, bluish plaid. I looked so cool when I walked out of the mall that night, got in my car, and went home. Safely.

A few weeks later, that beautiful, wonderful, precious college girl who had helped me was dead. Her picture and story was front page news in our local newspaper. She’d been kidnapped leaving work one night while walking across the mall parking lot to her car. They found her body someplace else.

You know the awful details. We all do, and I have read similar stories too many times since, local stories about a girl who lived two blocks from good friends of mine, another girl who went to junior high school with my children, a woman whose home in our town was burglarized twice before she was killed by the thief on his third foray into her home.

At the time of the college girl’s death, I swore to myself that I would die in the parking lot before I let anybody take me anywhere. That I would fight to the death, either my attacker’s or mine, before I would let myself be terrorized, raped, burned, beaten, mutilated or anything else. The list of atrocities is endless. Death I could handle, but not the rest of it, not without a killing rage welling up inside myself that screamed “FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE OR DIE TRYING.”

Then along came the Steele Street boys. They had guns, lots of guns, and they knew how to use them. As the author of these operators, I figured I should get to know guns. I’d never even held a handgun, so I figured that would be a good place to start. I was right, and it was while shooting a Springfield 1911 that I had a life-altering epiphany: “There is nothing like a semi-automatic .45 caliber pistol to level the playing field. Any playing field.” To hell with dying in the parking lot.

Now, after years of shooting and training (TRAINING IS IMPORTANT!!!), I am still amazed that owning a gun and knowing how to use it for my own self-defense never crossed my mind before I started writing the Steele Street novels. The fact astounds me. Unless you really are Skeeter Bang or Red Dog, a woman is at a severe disadvantage in a physical struggle with an attacker. A .45 or a .38 or a 9mm changes the odds, drastically and in your favor, if you are willing to learn and train and step up. Let me repeat that last part: STEP UP. That’s right, step up and take responsibility for your personal safety.

A woman I know lives alone up in the mountains and thought maybe it would be a good idea if she got a gun, but her friends (friends????) convinced her that if someone broke into her home, they would only take her gun and use it against her. I could only stare, slack-jawed, at the mountain woman while she was telling me this story. When she finished, I said, “Well, they won’t take your gun and use it against you if you shoot the bastards first.” Duh. This is called Tactical Thinking, and I highly recommend it, especially when it comes to personal safety.

As for the woman who was killed by the thief, I still wonder why, in the very least, she didn’t get a big dog. The burglar only stole her underwear, which is so creepy, and ended up being deadly for her. She, of course, reported the incidents to the police, but even if you’re married to a policeman, he’s not going to be with you 24 hours a day. We all need to be responsible for our own safety – that’s the prime directive.

Until next time, GunDiva and I will be out there, practicing, practicing, practicing, putting those rounds downrange, armed and in charge.

Public Rampage Shooting Survival Guide

2011-01-10T13:31:00.000-08:00

In the aftermath of the latest shooting spree MANY people have wondered what to do if it ever happened to or near them. There are a few things that you can do to minimize this but NO ONE can predict when or where this kind of psychotic behavior will erupt. If it ever does there are a few tips that can improve your chances of not being a statistic.

The FIRST thing is to get off the cell phone, ignore the many texts and PAY ATTENTION to your surroundings. Look for the oddball , or the person who is in WAAAAYY too big of a hurry for a normal situation. Be aware of the guy/gal that is dead set on reaching a person or destination with no regard to anything else. Also watch for the loner off to the side that seems completely innocuos BUT also has no real reason to be in THAT certain place.

BEFORE the mayhem begins know the exits and places that provide COVER, not concealment. Cover will protect you from stray bullets or ricochets, concealment will only hide you from the psycho. Jumping behind a wooden desk might seem like a good idea but modern bullets usually cut through wood like butter. Look for concrete walls or steel columns. Things that can stop a bullet or seriously reduce it's velocity.

IF the shooting ever does occur close to you then having used the 2 steps above you will be in a better mindset to deal with it. If it is a "random" shooter...move to cover and stay there. Movement attracts the human eye and you will draw fire. If you find yourself in the open then move as quickly and erratically as you can. Move laterally (lateral movement actually increases distance exponentially faster than a straight line) away from the shooter to the closest cover available. Shooters typically look for as many victims as possible so stay still behind cover. When the shooter stops to reload or moves towards you THEN it is time to get the hell out of dodge. The Army calls it "drop and move". Run about 10-15 feet then hit the ground rolling. Roll laterally and do it over until you are clear (or in the next county whichever is closer).

The last thing is children. Have them move ahead of you or you tell the child to stay under cover and YOU draw the shooter away from your kid. Make noise or scream or simply throw something...ANYTHING to keep them worried about you and not your child.

Last and very much LEAST is attacking the shooter yourself. DO NOT DO IT unless you are trained or it is the very LAST option you have. I know it is controversial but I will be damned if I will just sit there and wait to die if cornered. You fight with any and every thing you can possibly find. Sticks, metal cans of foods, purse, your shoes or your bare hands but by God you fight. NEVER QUIT!!!!

You have a family that loves and needs you so if you can run and get away then DO IT! Leave the apprehension or take down to law enforcement or others that are trained for this situation. If you do decide that you are cornered or there is no other option then you fight like a mama bear defending her cubs. Accept that someone is likely to die and then make the OTHER guy do it. (Or as they say in the movies.."Somebody is going to get hurt and it ain't gonna be me".)

**My thanks to Dear Husband for providing this information. Let's face it folks, Your BRAIN is ALWAYS your best defense. PAY ATTENTION- ALWAYS! Situational awareness will save your life. Intelligence will keep you alive, and your children alive.

We've Got A Visitor A'Comin!

2011-01-07T17:38:00.000-08:00

My tall(er) blond friend and fellow GunDiva, Tara Janzen, will be joining us for a couple of guest posts. I've told the story before, I think, but we met while she was doing research for her CRAZY/LOOSE series of books. I was working at the gun shop and was asked to be a co-instructor for a family taking a basic handgun course from the Original Bad Boy.

I was beyond honored to be asked to co-instruct the class to begin with, but then I found out that the family included an award-winning author and since I've wanted to be a "real" author my whole life, I was beside myself. Tara had started a series of romance/action books based in Denver; the Steele Street boys, a group of reformed juvenile delinquents, are now a part of a super secret government team working to stop the bad guys. As part of her research, she took a basic handgun class.

I can't say that she was a natural with a handgun. In fact, she wouldn't say she was a natural with a handgun, but she persevered and conquered it. She is more than adequate with any of her handguns, but she comes alive with her rifle, a Remington 700 PSP topped with a Schmidt and Bender PM II.

Her newest book LOOSE ENDS is being released on the 25th and she will join us for a Q&A session on its release date. In the meantime, we'll be headed to SHOT Show and drooling over the guns. And, for her, it's a research trip - which means write off. I really need to get published - going to cool places and getting to write it off, is just about the coolest thing ever.

Join us on Wednesday, January 12th for Tara's Guest Post on why you should ALWAYS fight back (keeping with the Attitude theme).

SHOT Show

2010-12-26T10:51:00.000-08:00

In a mere 22 days, I am headed to SHOT Show with my dear friend and fellow GunDiva, Tara Janzen.

The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show and Conference (SHOT Show) is the largest and most comprehensive trade show for all professionals involved with the shooting sports and hunting industries. It is the world's premier exposition of combined firearms, ammunition, archery, cutlery, outdoor apparel, optics, camping and related products and services. The SHOT Show attracts buyers from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. The SHOT Show is owned and sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and is produced and managed by Reed Exhibitions. (NSSF, 2010)

Even though I no longer work for the gun shop, the owner is gracious enough to invite me to go every year. I went once as an employee (oh, boy, are there some stories from that Vegas trip) and had a blast. Haven't been back since, so when Tara and I were invited this time around, we jumped on the chance. We'll be going with Boss Man, Army Guy, and the Original Bad Boy. Might be able to get pics of Boss Man and Army Guy, but probably not the Original Bad Boy. Being camera shy has kept him alive a long time.
We'll take lots of pictures of the new products coming out and do some reviews of what we see. I'm also planning on getting my picture taken with R. Lee Ermey, aka "The Gunny".

I met him last time I went at the GLOCK booth, but this time he'll be with SOG Specialty Knives and Tools. He was super nice and not at all intimidating, but I wouldn't want to piss him off.

Also on the agenda is USMC Sniper legend Chuck Mawhinney at the Daniel Defense booth. Erik Estrada will also be at one of the booths, but he is not on the agenda.

The countdown begins...

Talk About Attitude

2010-12-16T16:39:00.000-08:00

Attitude is an on-going thing here at GWG.

Having a good dose of attitude at the right time can save your life.

Just ask this woman.

You'll Never Believe This!

2010-11-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

I'm watching STEVEN SEAGAL LAWMAN (I know, I know) and they're doing FATS training. He's doing some of the exact same scenarios that I did at WPA. Though I have to say, I did them better :)

Now...I have to tell you that Steven Seagal has terrible trigger control. I don't know who taught him how to shoot, but you use the pad of your index finger, you DO NOT wrap your big monkey finger through the trigger guard and use the second joint of your index finger to push your bang button.

Sheepdogs

2010-10-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

I try to cycle this through my blogs at least once a year. It's an article by Lt. Dave Grossman and highly regarded by both the military and law enforcement. Please take the time to read it. Even if you don't agree with the message, it will give you a better understanding of why sheepdogs do what they do.

It's Semi-Official

2010-10-09T22:25:00.000-07:00

I took, and passed, my NRA Instructor's classes for Basic Instructor Training, Home Safety and Basic Pistol. The reason it's semi-official? It'll be four to six weeks before I actually get my stuff from the NRA and can start teaching.

My friend Tara and I have been talking about getting instructor certified for a while now so that we can teach classes to women. Not that we couldn't without the credentials, but people really want that piece of paper saying that we know what we're doing.

Besides, the classes were a good excuse to take a couple of days off work and go to the range.

Only In Shooting Sports...

2010-10-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

...can you say things like:

limp-wrist
short-stroke
swinger
bobber
popper
half-cock
full-cock
negligent discharge
accidental discharge
mount
pump

And not be a total pervert (*cough* Mr. Daddy *coughcough*)

Zombie Killing Day

2010-10-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

I love the Defensive Pistol matches, but have been known to skip them now and again. Okay, okay, so I went almost a full year without attending a monthly match. But there is one match that I try my darnedest to never miss and it's the Zombie match. I love killing Zombies. There's something very satisfying about blasting them in the head (Rule #2 when dealing with Zombies). You know, "two to the head makes them dead(er)".

So, for you viewing pleasure are a couple of Zombie-killing clips (even if one does have a clear violation of Rule #4).

Maybe for the next video, we need to add a new rule, Rule #33 (did you know there were already 32 other rules?). Anyway, Rule #33: Don't short-stroke the shotgun.

Here's a shooting buddy of mine protecting the little trick-or-treaters...

And I killed all those Zombies without chipping my nail polish (had to get dressed up for Zombie Killing Day).

I'm Not Crazy Afterall

2010-10-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

It was subtle.

A hesitation here.

A snag there.

Then nothing for a while.

Again, a hesitation.

"Honey, here, shoot this, it's not right."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Babe, there's nothing wrong with it."

Okay, maybe I'm crazy.

But...

A hesitation.

A snag.

Then, nothing. A perfect run through ten rounds.

Suddenly, she quits going into battery.

Slam! The base of my palm hits the back of her slide and she chambers the round.

Bang! Bang!

Slam! Again, the base of my palm hits the back of her slide and she chambers the round.

More frequent. Bang! Slam! Bang! Slam! Bang! Slam! Slam! "Damn!" Slam! Bang!

Finally.

"Maybe it's your magazines."

"How long's it been since you cleaned your gun?"

"Maybe it's your recoil spring."

"Maybe you're limp-wristing it."

Maybe...maybe...maybe...

So I cleaned my magazines.

And I cleaned my gun.

Still...a hesitation.

A snag.

She won't chamber a round. Can't be the magazines - they're spit-shined.

Can't be she's dirty - she's been spit-shined.

Off to the gunsmith we go. Maybe a new recoil spring. Who knows?

"Boss, she's not playing nice."

"How's she not playing nice."

"She won't go into battery. I've cleaned the magazines. I've cleaned her. She still won't go into battery. She's not playing nice."

"Let me see." A quick function test. A grimace. "Who's been in your gun?"

"No one."

"Your trigger's all jacked up. Where's your sear?"

"What do you mean, where's my sear?"

"Didn't you notice it was missing when you were resetting your trigger?"

"I thought I was imagining it."

"No. It's not there."

"I'm not imagining it?"

"No. It's not there."

A wave of relief. It wasn't my imagination. She has been acting up.

Off to the ~~operating table~~ bench. Slowly, piece by piece, Boss Man takes her apart.

Exploratory surgery reveals a lot of little problems. A hook on the extractor - file it off. Sear spring out of shape - re-shape it. Compressed spring here - replace it. Nasty crud there - scrape it off. Boss Man's big hands moving smoothly and surely, nip and tuck. Pretty soon she's reassembled and sparkling clean.

Boss Man, "How's this feel?"

"A little heavy."

"Want me to lighten it up?"

"Yeah, she was set to 2 3/4 pounds before. This is heavier."

Measured out to be over three pounds. Still a light trigger, but heavier that she used to be.

A quick adjustment, "try this."

"Love it."

Into the trap...Bang! Bang! Bang! *Big grin* Bang! Bang! Bang!

No hesitations.

No snags.

No slapping the rear of the slide.

Bang-bang! Bang-bang!

I love my gun.

What I Learned From FATS

2010-09-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

You know, with a nickname like GunDiva, people kinda expect me to know one end of a gun from the other and, you know, be able to shoot said gun(s). And I can. Unless it's FATS training and both Jeffery Deaver and Lee Lofland are in the room watching my group.

I can honestly say, though, that once the scenarios started I forgot they were there.

Everything Mrs Mom's DH (Anonymous) wrote in the comments section of yesterday's pop quiz is true.

The whole losing 50% of your fine motor skills. Check. Lost some fine motor skills.
The whole shooting until the threat is stopped. Check. Did that - of course, the scenario didn't end until the bad guy was neutralized.
The whole attitude is everything. Check. I can grip and present a gun with the best of them. Couldn't hit anything, but, man, if attitude would have taken down the bad guys, I wouldn't have ever needed to squeeze the trigger.

F.A.T.S. Training

2010-09-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

In less than two weeks, I'm headed to the Writer's Police Academy in North Carolina. One of the additional things I signed up for was FATS Training (Firearms Training Simulator). Friday, I received this in my inbox...

Greetings, Recruits GunDiva and OtherRecruit. You have been assigned to a violent crimes task force. The officer in charge of this assignment is Commander JC, a certified Firearms Training Simulator instructor.

You both are commanded to appear at the entrance to the FATS training room (GTCC campus) on Saturday September 25, 2010 at precisely 10:15 a.m. You must present your FATS pass to the officer guarding the perimeter before entering (passes are included in the WPA registration packet). No pass, no entry. You will remain on deck as an observer of the preceding team until your shoot time of 11:00 a.m.

Remember, all suspects inside the FATS training area are considered armed and extremely dangerous, and they are not afraid of law enforcement. You are authorized to use deadly force to save your life and/or the life of others. The decisions are yours to make, but please spare the innocent. Not everyone is a bad guy! You'll have a split second to decide to shoot, or not, so use that time wisely.

--Lee Lofland

Being the GunDiva, I saw the FATS training as an option when I registered and signed up without even knowing what it is. I saw the words "firearms training" and immediately thought simmunitions training (NLTA - non-lethal training ammunition); it wasn't until I got the email that it dawned on me that the last word was "simulator".

I looked up FATS and it is, indeed, simulation utilizing a giant screen and real guns loaded with computer chips that interact with the software. At first I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to "really" shoot someone with NLTA, but then I breathed a sigh of relief, because it also meant that even if the bad guy shoots at me, I'm not going to end up with welts and ouchies from the impact of the round. I think I'm going to have a ball with FATS.

Has anyone ever utilized FATS training, and if so, what did you think about it?

Tribute- Never Forget

2010-09-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

Some have forgotten.

I never will.

Neither will my family.

To the memory of my brother and sister fire fighters with FDNY.
To the memory of my brother and sister EMTs.
To the memory of my brother and sisters with NYPD.

To the memory of those lost.

Live Free Or Die, Americans.

Mrs Mom
III

Defensive Pistol 9/5/10

2010-09-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

I have had the greatest weekend so far! Went shooting with Tara on Friday, rode with Monster yesterday, and shot Defensive Pistol today!

I'm a bad, bad, bad GunDiva and didn't clean my gun or magazines after shooting Friday. I only ran through about twenty rounds, so I didn't think that I really needed to clean the Para. I also didn't think about cleaning my magazines, because I have to do it so rarely. Funny thing, if you never let them hit the ground, you don't have to worry about dirt build-up. Except...when I did the magazine change video, I put them all on the ground. And then didn't clean them.

I'm not sure which contributed to the problems I had at the range today - the dirty gun or the dirty magazines - but I had issues with my gun not going into battery, so I had to smack the back of the slide more times than I should have to get it to go into battery.

That said, here are the videos - critique away. I know which errors I made (not cleaning my gun/magazines being the biggest), but I'm interested to hear from some other shooters.

The first stage is "Twinkle twinkle" because of the Texas star at the end. We started in position one and had to "slice the pie" from cover, hitting all of our targets with at least two rounds, then move to position two. Since I was shooting from the left, I switched hands and shot left-handed as I sliced the pie. (I'm comfortable shooting either right or left, but that took lots of practice.) After clearing all of the bad guys from the right and left, we had to move to position three, the Texas star. I usually do okay with the star - I don't know anyone who does really well with the star - but chose to take the time penalty instead of wasting time chasing the last arm of the star.

In this stage, we had to start from a semi-surrender position (true surrender position would have us facing away from the first target, pivoting and then drawing), shoot the first target from a retention position - just means one handed - as we moved back to cover, then slice the pie to shoot the other targets. Then I had to move to the other side of cover (yes, I switched hands again), shoot the "tires" off of the car and put two in the driver's head. I got a miss because I only put one in his head. Bummer.

Magazine Practice

2010-09-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the day I'd planned on working on my magazine changes and, oh boy, did I need the practice.

Tara was kind enough to film my practice. I almost didn't post this because it's so ugly. But, you know, things just don't always go right and you just need to work through them.

With a match coming up tomorrow, I know that I need all of the magazine changing practice I can get between now and 9:30 am. I loaded each magazine with just one round (cartridge, if you read Thursday's post), fired the round and changed the magazine over and over again. One of my magazines did not like only one round, which caused me some fits, but I worked through it as well as I could. You'll also notice that I initially tried to retain my magazines, which is how I was trained, but then gave up and started dumping them on the ground. Trust me, it's a conscious effort to allow my magazines to hit the ground - I never just dump my magazines on the ground. Ever.

What surprised me the most was that I was concentrating so hard on my magazine changes that I wasn't really paying attention to my target. What a pleasant surprise this was...

I threw one round to the right, but am pretty darn pleased with the rest :)

Know Your Weapons

2010-09-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

Lee Lofland, author of the Graveyard Shift, has graciously allowed me to link to his post about Cops and Guns.

Though his post is aimed at writer's, he's got good basic information that all gun owners and users should know. Pop on over to his post and let him know GunDiva sent you :)

Dry Fire Practice

2010-08-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, are you seeing a theme with my posts? Practice this, practice that. I know, it's getting old, but I cannot emphasize how important practice is.

Today's practice is all about dry firing. There are people who will scream about how bad dry firing is on the gun. It's true you should not dry fire a rim-fire gun (such as a .22), as hypothetically you can damage the gun if the firing pin hits the frame. It is permissible and acceptable practice to dry fire center-fire guns. If you're really worried about damaging your guns with dry fire, there are "snap caps" that you can purchase specially designed to absorb the force of the firing pin.

Why is dry fire practice so important?

It allows you to learn to comfortably and safely handle your gun (remember to treat all guns as though they are loaded - there are no exceptions to that rule), practice loading and unloading, practice magazine changes and identify any issues with trigger control you might have.

Here's a video of Tara dry firing her new revolver. A great thing to do when dry firing is to have someone watch for flinching (very noticeable without recoil). What the observer is looking for is smooth movement throughout the trigger pull, with no movement in the muzzle of the gun.

You'll notice that she's got a good grip on her weapon, both thumbs are pointing at the target (shows she's a semi-auto shooter typically - revolver shooters tend to wrap the thumb of their support hand around the back of the gun) and her trigger pull is smooth the whole way through the act of firing. She's "shooting" slowly and methodically without lifting her trigger finger off the trigger - she maintains contact with the bang button at all times. Lifting her finger off of the bang button can lead to "slapping" the trigger (very, very bad).

This week at the range, we'll be working on magazine changes as I've got a match coming up on Sunday and I'm rusty on my mag changes. More practice, practice and practice.

Range Practice

2010-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things that Tara and I do out at the range is practice presenting from the holster. A wise man (well, actually a couple) drilled it into my head that the first step in proper grip begins while the gun is still holstered. Getting a good hold on the gun while it's still holsters ensures that you won't have to do any last minute juggling while trying to find your sight picture.

You'll notice in the videos that both Tara and I keep our off hands close to our bodies while drawing from the holster. The reason for that is so that we don't inadvertently cross ourselves with the muzzle.

Also, you'll see in my video that there's what looks like a slight hesitation before I bring my gun up. What I'm doing at that time is verifying my target before I bring the gun up into my line of sight. In competition you can hardly notice the hesitation and my draw looks more fluid, but it's pretty pronounced during practice time when I'm trying to be slow and methodical.

Tara's draw is smoother, without the hesitation (well, it's there, it's just much less noticeable than mine). However, you'll notice right at the very end of the video that the gun doesn't fit her hand very well and she has to readjust her off hand. This is her son's gun and his hands are slightly bigger than hers. That being said, she shot the feces out of this gun. For a gun that doesn't fit her hand, she can really drill holes with it.

Here's our mental checklist for presenting from the holster:

Right hand to gun, get a good grip
Left hand to body
Pull gun straight out of the holster
Rotate the muzzle so that it's parallel to the ground
Add left hand to right on the grip
Safety off with right hand, thumb settles on top of left thumb, both thumbs pointing at the target
As gun comes up into the line of sight*, the booger hook slips off the frame of the gun into the trigger guard and we're ready to push the bang button.

*Bring the gun up into the line of sight, you should be looking at your target and your gun should come up into your vision. Don't drop your head down to look for your gun. You know where your arms are on your body. You know your gun is securely in your hands. Therefore if you raise your arms, with the gun in your hands, you will bring the gun up into your sight picture and won't have to go looking for it.

You Asked For It

2010-08-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here's the video y'all were clammoring for. There have been some comments about how Tara should wear her purse and whether or not a purse carry is appropriate. The point of the video (and the practice) is get competent with presenting her weapon from the position in which she carries it. How she carries her gun is her choice (just as it's any of our choice).

What I'm impressed with, besides how smooth she is, is that she's taking the time to ensure that she's competent with it and that she didn't just throw her gun in her purse "just in case" like so many women do.

We were out practicing with multiple weapons that day, so no comments from the peanut galley about why she didn't draw from her hip :)

Practice, Practice, Practice Part II

2010-08-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

Last week, after I had an abysmal day at the range, I put up a post about practice.

Friday, my friend Tara (aka GunDiva II) and I went to the range for some of that desperately needed practice.

She has a little five-shot revolver that she now carries in her purse and we decided that she needed practice drawing and firing from her purse. While I'm a big proponent of strapping your gun to your side, so that you always have control over it, there are a lot of women who are much more comfortable carrying in their purse. That's fine as long as you spend the time learning how to draw and fire from your purse, just like you do learning to draw and fire from a holster. You can't buy a gun (or take the one your well-meaning significant other gives you), throw it in your purse and expect to be able to find and use it when the feces hits the air circulating device.

The first thing we did was take a look at how she normally carries her purse. She carries it over her left shoulder, hanging straight down. She's a right-handed shooter, so in order for her to draw from her purse, she had to perform a cross draw. Luckily, the zipper on her purse had two pulls, so we arranged them so that one pull was secured to her strap and only the other pull would work to open her purse.

Once we had it arranged the way we thought we wanted it, she practiced holding her front strap with her right hand, while pulling open the zipper with her left. With her left hand out of the way, and her purse open, she then slipped her right hand into her purse and grasped her gun. She was careful to never cross herself with the muzzle of the gun while she drew from her purse.

Now this is where attitude comes in. Without even realizing it, the moment her hand closed over her gun, her whole demeanor changed. She took a step forward as she presented her gun and continued to move forward as she squeezed off all five rounds. No matter how big you are; if you're a predator hunting what looks like easy prey and that prey attacks back, you're going to re-think your choice.

Over and over, Tara practiced presenting from her purse and dry-firing at the target until she felt comfortable to go live. Her first run-through from beginning to end took less than three seconds. That's three seconds to secure and unzip her purse, get a good grip on the gun, present and squeeze off all five rounds while moving forward. Were all five rounds in a nice half-inch circle? Nope. Were all five rounds in center mass? You betcha.

Next week when we go to the range, I'll be sure to take my video camera. Until then, keep on practicing.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

2010-08-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

Girls, do yourselves a favor.

Don't ever pass up the opportunity to go to the range. Shooting is a perishable skill and takes constant re-inforcement. Muscle memory is all well and good, but there is nothing like putting lead down range.

I, myself, have been remiss in partaking in much-needed practice. When I was shooting regularly a couple of years ago, I finished in the top ten (often top five) in our monthly Defensive Pistol competitions. At one point, my instructor said that I could draw almost faster than the eye can see. I was good. There wasn't a gun that I wouldn't shoot and I was always first to the line to try something new. The key word in those preceding sentences: was.

I went to out with RockCrawlinChef and his work buddies today for a day of shooting. It was fabulous - eventually. I limp-wristed my pistol and had some feed problems; I slapped the trigger and threw my rounds; I second guessed my sight picture; I made mistakes I haven't made in years. And why? Not enough range time. Lack of confidence. Used to be, I *knew* that I was one of the best at the range. I know, that even without range time, I can kill whatever I point my gun at. However, I'd like to do it with only one or two rounds, not one or two magazines.

Last year for a wedding present, one of my shooting buddies gave us a Remington 700 in .223. It lay dormant under our bed until today. Last year for my birthday, RCC gave me a 12 gauge Remington 870. It stood dormant in the closet until today. The GunDiva of old would never have allowed two perfectly good guns to go neglected for a year.

I don't know what happened to the old GunDiva, but I'm ready to have her back. I'll be making a point to get to the range as often as possible - at least once a week between now and September because I'm headed back to Defensive Pistol competition and that's going to take a lot of trigger time (and, sadly, some knuckle push-ups to get my wrist strength back) to not embarrass myself.

So here's today's lesson: Practice, Practice, Practice.

Time to get my booger hook out of my nose and onto my bang button.

Call Me Paranoid If You Want.... But At Least I'm Not Shot

2010-07-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

We all like to think that we're *safe* when we are at home. We can kick back, relax, get nekkid, and just veg out on the couch watching Stupid Movie Saturday on the tube. Or we can crash in bed after working a long, tough twenty four hour shift.

Paramedic Pru thought she was safe at home on Thursday night, too. She lived in a "safe" part of town, where there had not been any "crime" to speak of in over twenty years. No break ins, no car theft, no shootings, no stabbings, no drug dealers on the corner.. nothing. In many ways, the neighborhood appeared to be a Haven.

Looks can be deceiving, folks.

Paramedic Pru was resting up, after her long shift. She heard the doorbell ring several times, and got up to answer it. Apparently, who ever was on the other side had no clue Pru was home, as he reflexively shot her- in the face- as he was fleeing. Lucky for Pru, the bullet went in one cheek, broke her jaw and took out all of her top teeth, and exited the other cheek.

Paramedic Pru will heal physically. She's tough as nails. Got balls made of titanium. But that did not stop some jagoff from shooting her.

Home invasion. Be aware folks. Don't get complacent. Don't "assume" that you are "safe" just because you live in a "safe" area. Look before you open the door. If you don't know who it is, back off and make a plan. Don't just open the door anymore. Have your phone in reach, in your hand, in a pocket, somewhere, and have your WITS about you. LISTEN to your gut. A gun in hand would not have saved Pru, unless she was willing to shoot first and ask questions later. (Which by the way-- Castle Doctrine would apply [in our state] had the Bad Guy broken into Pru's home. Then she sure could have smeared him all over Kingdom Come. KNOW YOUR STATE LAWS-- not just for carry-- but for home defense!)

So the next time someone sneers at me, and asks why I feel the need to carry, or if I'm a badass, or any of their other little snide remarks, my answer will be thus:
"Why? You got a problem with a woman who is ready, willing, and ABLE to defend herself using deadly force? Seems kind of odd to me- what are YOU planning?"

SA so you can CYA, y'all.
~MM

Just a little tip...

2010-07-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

Boys, if you're gonna go into a gun shop and try to impress the people working there, please, please, please know the name of the gun you're trying to brag on. Coming into the shop and bragging about how well you shoot your "Smith and Western" will get you plum laughed out of the shop.

Weapon Presentation (Test Video)

2010-07-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Husband has agreed to be our teacher. This first video is a test, for me to learn how to accomplish this complicated task.

Do Your Magazines A Favor...

2010-06-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

...clean them.

I spent a good hour today cleaning a gun I'd borrowed from a friend of mine. With the help of one of the guys at the gun shop, I gave it a deep cleaning, which I'd never done before.

I love BoreSnakes - they are amazing for field cleaning your weapons at the end of the day. Because I'd used the BoreSnake after I went shooting, the deep cleaning wasn't half as bad as it could have been. The drawback to using a BoreSnake is that you have to have one for each caliber you shoot, but it works so well, I don't mind owning one per caliber.

In addition to cleaning my friend's gun, I tore apart his magazines and cleaned those, too. Here's a big, BIG tip for magazines. Don't over lubricate them and then drop them on the ground, as a lot of IPSC shooters do. The oil attracts the dirt, which gums up the magazine spring and can cause feed problems. And it's just plain gross. One of the mags that I cleaned today had a furry black spring that looked like a coiled up caterpiller (I forgot to take pictures, I was so grossed out).

As long as you don't make a habit of dropping your magazines on the ground (one of my pet peeves, just put the damn thing in a pocket or back in the mag carrier), you shouldn't have to clean you magazines very often, but be sure to do it on a fairly regular basis. The last thing you want is a preventable mis-feed in an emergency.