R.I.H. (Rest in Hell)

Many of you know, I learned to shoot from someone who ended up becoming my stalker.

We had worked together for a couple of years, became friends, and then more-than-friends, and then hunted/hunter (as my children put it).

The stalking occurred for a couple of years, and ended when I threatened to kill him with one of the guns he bought me.  I didn't draw down on him, but when he showed up at my door one night like nothing had ever happened, I told him to get lost and the next time he showed up, I'd kill him without a second thought.

I meant it and he knew it.

It was the first time I realized that I could, in fact, take someone's life.  Before that, I thought I could if the danger was great enough, but when he showed up I knew I could.

Years of looking over my shoulder, of tires being slashed, of lies being told, and vague threats being made had me fed up.  I even had to interact with the FBI at one point because he was arrested on a weapons charge in another state and they called me a couple of times during their investigation.  I was done.  My kids didn't deserve feeling like they were being hunted.  It's one thing to make me uncomfortable and unsure of my safety, but to make my kids feel hunted?  Oh hell no.

Over the years, I knew when he was nearby, but he was careful not to be seen or to directly harass me, but I'd developed a sixth sense that I trusted. (Thank you Gavin deBecker!)

I haven't thought of him in a couple of years - he was gone and I was glad to have that behind me.  I was still vigilant about safety, I still kept an eye out, but after a year, then two of not "feeling" him around, I was feeling more comfortable.

Writing and publishing HUNTED LYON was very cathartic, so I credited some of my peace with exorcising the demon, so to speak.

A couple of weeks ago, my sister Nebalee and I were talking on the phone and she asked if I ever Googled him.  Not in years, honestly.  I didn't see any reason to if I didn't think he was around.  She cajoled me into looking him up.

There's a very good reason I hadn't felt him around for the last couple of years.

Bastard died August 9, 2011.

I really don't feel anything about it, other than the bastard got what he deserved.  It appears that he died alone in life and no one claimed him, from one of the obituaries I read.  I passed the news onto the kids and their sentiment was the same.  I spent a day or two worrying that maybe I was being too callous about someone's death and that maybe somehow I'd screwed my children up, too.

Then I realized, I didn't do that to my children, he did.

R.I.H. William F. Yeck

Initial Review/Range Report: Smith & Wesson M&P40 (/9/357Sig)

Cross Posted at Daddy Hawk's Toy Box

It's been a stressful few weeks. Between work, getting ready to be out of the office for work and personal travel, The Queen not feeling well, M&M needing her daily dose of Daddy Hawk, house work, cooking, shopping and generally failing badly at getting the sleep necessary to function as a normal member of the human race, I was getting ready to shoot something. Whether that something turned out to be an animate or inanimate object was rapidly becoming less of a concern to me. So, the other evening, I finally had a chance to sneak away from the house (actually, I just didn't return home as early as I otherwise would have) to visit the local range for the purpose of taking the new M&P out for its first official test spin.

So, before I dive into breathlessly describing how wonderful the M&P is or isn't, I'd like to issue my standard disclaimer and tell the FTC (who I hope are enjoying a restful Obamacation) that I paid my own hard earned, seriously value deflated dollars to buy this particular M&P. Smith & Wesson has no idea who I am and has not offered me any compensation or consideration for this review. So, go suck on your banana punk monkey. These opinions are 100% mine.

Alright, now that my libertarian tendencies have been mollified for a little while, let's get down to business.

Starting with the title of this review, you will notice that I am calling this the Smith & Wesson M&P 40/9/357Sig. The dirty little secret is that M&P saved a whole hoochie load of money developing this pistol by going big for commonality across the platform. The recoil spring is identical for all three calibers. Need proof? Go look up replacement recoil springs on Midway USA's website. Barrel dimensions are identical (a fact we will address in more detail in a bit) which means the slide dimensions are identical which in turn means that the frame dimensions have to be pretty darn close too. There may be (though I seriously doubt it) a tiny skosh bit of difference in the mag well on the 9 as opposed to the 40/357; however, the 40 mags are marked ".40S&W/.357Sig" (or vice versa depending on your perspective) meaning that the frame of those two calibers have the same freaking dimensions.

Now, reading the forums [for a?] (and even watching a few videos from manufacturer reps) you will find many a post that suggests that the slide on the 9 is not strong enough to hold up against the pressures generated by the .40. I've not come across any comment on the .40 slide not being strong enough for the .357Sig, but give it time. Someone will decide that the slides on the .357Sig MUST be stronger to contain the uber high specialness that is the chamber pressure of a .40 case necked to a 9mm bullet. Personally, I call el toro guano. I don't see Smith & Wesson making some slides "stronger" when they are toleranced to the same dimensions as other "weaker" slides when using the same (presumably...I'd be happy to hear a S&W rep confirm that) materials on the same manufacturing line. I'm no metallurgical expert, but I don't think it works like that.

Don't take my word for it though. Proceed at your own risk. Do your own research. I take no responsibility for your own stupidity for something you read on the internet from someone who is a self avowed non-expert in the field.

Here is my personal, anecdotal experience on the subject to close out this portion of the review. I bought the M&P40 as well as a 9mm replacement barrel. I can confirm for you that the 9mm replacement barrel was a perfect, drop in fit. 9mm ammo fed from the 40/357 mags without a hitch (including the last round despite what I've read from other noted internet experts on that point). The pistol fired and cycled the 9mm ammo without incident. I would not hesitate to attempt the same with a .357Sig replacement barrel. Your mileage may vary.

I'm not going to spend much time here on the aesthetics of the M&P. As polymer pistols go, I think it's a good looking pistol. The fish scale slide serrations are unique as well as functional. The black Melonite finish performs its intended function well enough and will serve as a good canvas for a custom coating should I ever decide to get around to doing something to set my M&P apart from the masses. The rounded grip is quite comfortable, and I had no problems hanging on to the gun even during moderately rapid fire (something between .5 and 1 second per shot). A texture job on the grips would certainly enhance that, but I don't see it as a necessity unless you were gifted with exceptionally sweaty palms.

As to safeties, Smith & Wesson wisely in my humble opinion took the “buffet” approach of offering a wide variety of options. Do you live behind the nanny state curtain? They have you covered with 10 round mags, magazine disconnects, thumb safeties and infernal (internal) locks. Do you live in free America where you are trusted to make decisions for yourself? They offer versions without the infernal lock, with or without the thumb safety, etc. My particular model is completely safety free (other than the odd trigger safety which is marginally okay). Call it a point and click model if you like.

From a concealability point of view, I have no problems hiding it in the appendix carry position under an untucked polo shirt. Bear in mind that I am 6'4" tall and heft about 240 pounds on the scale. So, petite folk may have a different perspective on this. Wearing it unloaded, "Mexican" style (as I have not found an AIWB holster for it yet that I like), The Queen did not notice the gun (she was not informed that there would be a CCW "printing" test) over the course of an hour or two. Even without a holster, the gun was comfortable (hardly noticeable in fact) and stayed put fairly well while performing normal household activity (I would try jumping jacks without a good holster). I have not tried it in the 4 o'clock IWB position yet; however, I don't foresee it being any more visible than in the AIWB position. In the 3 o'clock OWB position, I would expect it to bulge an untucked shirt just a bit. But, balance it with a mag carrier at 9 o'clock and it might not be an issue.

Function-wise, I only had time to run 70 rounds of .40S&W, 10 rounds of 9mm (including time for the barrel swap back and forth), and 47 rounds of .22 (through the Ruger 22/45 Mk III which was feeling all lonely neglected in the range bag). I had no failures to feed, fire or extract. The only function issue of any note was that the slide did not lock back after the last round consistently. As a matter of fact, it probably locked back less than 50% of the time. I didn't diligently keep track of the problem. So, I can't say how often for sure; however, it was definitely noticeable. Next range outing I try to see if grip firmness affects that or if there is a mag follower issue.

Speaking of the 47 rounds of .22 as a quick digression, it would have been 50 rounds but for these little treasures.

 

I've never seen anything like that in a box of factory ammo. Not even from a box of cheapo, Walmart, Remington bulk pack.

And, just for GunDiva, a picture of the target.

 

No, I didn't WANT to change the target. That's 47 rounds at 7 yards fired as quick as I could load mags and fire. It was *VERY* satisfying to use the .22 as a bullet hose. Not that I am suggesting that one should EVER skirt the range rules or anything. Fortunately, the dude in the next bay giving his girlfriend her first taste of semi auto (using a Ruger P94 in .40...after letting her shoot .22 and .38/.357 revolvers...with full power magnum rounds no less) and was going all bullet hose with his gat (he was nice enough…so, I won't call him nasty names here) giving me the cover necessary to have some fun unnoticed by the front desk.

Now, digression complete. Move along. Nothing to see here.

In an earlier post, I commented on the quality of the trigger pull. I believe I said something about broken glass. That issue is still there; BUT, I found it much less noticeable when actually focusing on the front sight with the intention of shooting something. Maybe I'm easily distracted. Who knows? That's not to say that I might not still have a trigger job done and/or splurge on an Apex trigger kit. I want at least 250 rounds (preferably 500 rounds) through it before I decide on any substantive changes like that.

A quick note on field stripping: it’s pretty simple. Remove the magazine, clear the chamber, use a tool to push or pull the lever in the mag well that disconnects the sear down, thumb the take down lever down, remove the slide from the frame, remove the recoil spring assembly and remove the barrel. Done. It’s as quick as stripping a Glock though the downside is that it’s not completely tool less unless you have a finger that can manipulate the sear disconnect lever (I don’t). Reassembly was equally unremarkable.

The sights are fine for their intended purpose. This is not a bullseye gun. The rear sight is drift adjustable for windage. For elevation, it’s either learn your hold overs/unders or get a different front sight post. Having said that, I’m 95% certain I will be replacing these sights with fiber optic replacements soon since my 40 something year old eyes don’t focus at arm’s length the way they used to.

Moving right along, let’s talk accuracy. My first shot at 3 yards was in the x ring which, let’s be honest, shouldn’t be that hard at that range. The remaining 4 shots out of my first string were inside the 10 ring (four in the x ring); however, the grouping is not as tight as I would expect of myself at that range. My next string of 15 (one full mag) at 7 yards was even less impressive.

 

I was aiming for the top 8. Other than that, I have no explanation for that pattern or the others that follow. I’d like to throw an alibi out, but I got nothing. It’s certainly minute of bad guy accuracy and will get the job done, but I’m just disappointed because I am used to getting most everything inside the 9 ring at that range.

Finally, the only thing left to talk about are some odds and ends. Recoil was quite manageable for me at least (especially after my recent experience with the S&W M325PD). The 147 grain subsonic 9MM ammo had less felt recoil than the 180 grain .40S&W ammo. Duh. No surprise there. It’s no .22 pistol, but you’re not going to have to worry about digging the rear sight out of your forehead either. No issues with the mag release. It did its job just fine. I was unable to remove the little frame mounted tool that lets you swap out the grip panels. I’m sure I was just not doing it right since I hadn’t bothered with reading the manual yet. The witness hole/loaded chamber indicator worked as advertised. No issues with the mags themselves other than the first round is sometimes a pain in the butt to get in if you’re not paying attention to the follower and the feed lips. Rounds 14 and 15 will be challenging for most people to load without the use of a mag loader which Smith & Wesson did not see fit to include. Some people swear by the Uplula’s, but I’m not sure that a stiff, thin piece of metal wouldn’t work just as good. I may just have to test that theory and report back.

 

So, to sum up, I like the gun. It fits my hand well with the medium grip insert, and I can shoot it adequately as is. There are things I would like to change and probably will. Is it as good as a Glock out of the box? Meh, maybe. Glocks have better triggers out of the box while the M&P has better sights and more options in addition to being better looking (IMHO). After typical modifications (triggers, sights, texturing), they are a wash from price point, reliability, and functionality standpoints. Glocks have a slight edge when you consider accessories and other ancillary items like the fact that there are carbines available that use Glock mags but none that I am aware of that use M&P mags.

First Match

I took My Favorite Student (I'm still looking for her shooter nick name) to her first action pistol match.  As you may recall, she had approached me a couple of months ago about shooting pistols in competition and I couldn't have been happier.  I asked some very knowledgeable shooters for training advice, and most of what I got ran along the same lines of, "keep it fun".  This advice turned out to be sage so I thought I'd share our journey to this point.

 My youngest (11 year old) daughter is a competitor, running cross country, 5K's, playing soccer, and competing for grades, and having fun is very high on her score card.   I coached her soccer team and I learned that kids like structure so like soccer practice, we set a time to go to the range for an hour a week, once a week.  She shot only bulls eye style targets and the focus of the range time was working the marksmanship fundamentals.  Sight alignment, trigger press was the order of the day.   I emphasized aiming as a two step process...1. sight alignment, 2. sight picture.   I placed the targets at different distances, but nothing too far out.   I know to keep her interested and excited she needed to feel successful, so we started close only about 10 feet away and moved the targets back to 25 feet as she mastered the closer targets, and we'll continue to push them out further as her skills develop.  In action pistol shooting it's pretty common to shoot targets from mere feet away up to 20 yards.   She would shoot about 100 rounds during the range time and if she appeared to be getting fatigued holding the gun I'd have her set it down for a few seconds.  She loaded her own magazines and became adept at managing her gun's safety. We were never be in a hurry and never got so wrapped up in the process that it took away from the fun.

We set about teaching her to shoot handguns around Thanksgiving, rifles were something she's been shooting for about 2 years, and she had no problems transitioning to handguns.  We kept it simple, we went with a 22, low recoil, low noise and very accurate.   The original gun was a Ruger MK II, but we found it had two things working against it.  The most obvious to me was the weight of the gun and secondly was the European magazine release latch.  These two attributes were enough to abandon this gun in favor of a MK III light weight 22/45.   This gun gives her the same controls as center fire guns, and weighs in at 22 ounces, so the weight was something she can handle.   The Ruger MK III line has a reputation as being well built and durable, but having said that, find a brand of ammunition that is accurate, reliable and feeds well - then stick to it.   Much of the bulk ammo has issues with misfires and feeding, while this might augment training drills -  dealing with outages, it is an advanced skill set and not a basic skill.

We visited the range only 4 times before deciding on a match.  After deciding on the match we worked on some dry fire practice and she learned how to draw from holster.   We put a green magnet on a fling cabinet at the other end of the basement and she would draw, obtain a sight picture on that green magnet and then holster her gun.  I tried to stress efficiency of motion and she repeated this process for 10 minutes and was done.   She performed this practice for two days before the match, but this is part of her weekly practice.

A couple of notes for clarification, we're not shooting NRA Action Pistol, I'm using action pistol as a generic term.  The match we shot is run by a local club ( http://www.ncrgc.org/defensive-pistol ) and is not affiliated with IDPA, USPSA or IPSC.  I want her to learn the movement and basics and not worry about the rules at this point.   The organizations I mention above are fine groups, but for new shooters they often remove a lot of the fun from the match with the rule book.

The first video above shows stage 3 of the match.   On this stage, the shooter shoots each target 3 times, what you can't see is that the third target is all head shots while avoiding the "hostage".

The video just above is the first stage of the match and the shooter is to place one shot into the body of each target (6 targets), repeat the process for a second round of body shots, and last round is head shots, for a total of 18 rounds, no make up shots could be made.  The point of this stage is moving your muzzle and working transitions between targets.




On the right, me shooting the same stage.

I hope she finds the same love of this sport as I have.  Some items we are going continue to work on, she'll take responsibility for his/her own gear, I left her spare magazines at home and thus can be seen frantically reloading her mag in the middle of the course of fire.  She'll learn how to critically analyze her gear failure and learn to remedy those failures.  She'll sit in on a Basic class, and we'll go through the Tactical Skills shooting drills privately, each shooter cleans his/her own gun and gear and most importantly, we'll continue having fun.

Her Equipment list;
Ruger MK III Light  http://www.ruger.com/products/2245Lite/models.html
5.11 belt - http://www.nrastore.com/nrastore/ProductDetail.aspx?c=1&p=CM+681&ct=e
Black Dog holster - http://www.amazon.com/Black-Dog-Ruger-Series-Holster/dp/B005K7ZG0W/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_0
Mag carrier on order - http://www.lapolicegear.com/domapo.html

*Shooter nick name suggestions can be left in the comment section.

Hope to see you at the range soon,
Double Tap

I Am Done Hiding

For years, unconsciously, I 'caved' to the anti-gunners by defending my gun ownership under the guise of 'sporting'.  I'm certain I'm not the only gun owner who has opted out of the anti-gunners' arguments by not engaging in a discussion, by simply saying, "you know, I compete with my gun".

I've been open here on the blog about the reason why I own my guns, about the reason why I train the way I do.  But I haven't been so honest in my daily life, mostly because I don't want to be perceived as a "gun nut" or "paranoid".

You know what?

Screw that!

I'm a gun owner because it's my Constitutional right.

I'm a gun owner because shooting is fun.

I'm a gun owner because I am 5' 1/2", female, and not physically strong enough to overpower someone bigger and heavier than I am.

I compete with my gun, not for sport, but because it's the best way I know to practice with my gun.  Standing at a line and shooting in a bay at paper targets is not practice for self-defense. 

Defensive pistol matches - THOSE are excellent practice for self-defense.  Or as close as you can get for practice.  Moving, drawing from concealment, learning to use cover and concealment. Engaging multiple targets while not "killing" any good guys, learning to distinguish between shoot/no-shoot targets.  (The best practice ever would be to train regularly with simunitions, but that's difficult training to come by, at least in our area.)

So the next time, in real-life, someone asks why I own guns, they're going to get the honest answer, not the politically correct one: I use my guns in "sport" to practice for self-defense.

April Defensive Pistol

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

Sort of. 

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

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

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

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


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


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


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


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


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

March Defensive Pistol

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Defensive Pistol 3-4-2012

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

A New Project

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!

Zombie Killing Day 2011

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.

Lessons Learned

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)

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.

Defensive Pistol 6-5-11

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? 

Virtual Gunpowder Therapy

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!

"Die In The Parking Lot" by Tara Janzen

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.

It's Semi-Official

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.

Zombie Killing Day

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).

What I Learned From FATS

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.

Defensive Pistol 9/5/10

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.