Friday, October 26, 2012

One handed shooting

Do you practice it? How about one handed off hand shooting? You never know when an angry cow is going to break your arm, wrist and thumb and you may have to operate one handed. When it happens is not the time to learn. It should just be reinforcement of why it's a good idea to practice those skills. Just a helpfull int from your drugged up uncle John. I'd post the x-rays but they're really not all that impressive.


Monday, October 22, 2012

Stuffings for your mags

See it every class. People stuff as many rounds as they can into a mag then stuff one more. Middle of a drill, they reload, press the trigger and while the gun fires, the mag decides to exit stage bottom. Usually we see this with double stack standard capacity mags. This past Saturday we had someone with an EMP that if the mags were filled to capacity they would not seat unless you sat on the mag with the gun on the bench underneath it. Loading one round down did the trick. Before discovering that, they had basically beat their palm senseless trying to seat mags during class.

So, if your mad holds 11-20 rounds, load one down, if it holds 21+ load two rounds down. This will save you much grief and embarrassment and who knows, it could even save your life some day.

Next minor gripe, know your gun. practice with it enough to know if it has quirks. Don't buy something new and expect it and you to perform flawlessly together right out of the box.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

What a weekend

The weekend started early as some moron called in a bomb threat to TAMU. the response was a prudent evacuation of the entire campus. The UPD, CSPD and BPD along with bomb squads and other outside experts did their very best to clear the campus and get people back to their normal routine. Normal, that's a laugh. This weekend was A&M vs LSA football game. Tailgaters from not onlu TAMU but also folks form LSU were streaming into town for the game and pregame festivities. Huge crowds and LSU were just evacuated last month when they and UT both got bomb threats. So, they strolled into town just in time for the threat and evacuation.

As was pointed out to me late Friday,"Terrorists don't call in threats ahead of time!"

We ended up back on campus late Friday night to get into MisbeHavens lab so she could secure DNA samples that were left out on the lab bench as she was herding students out of the building under the evacuation order.

That bit was after going to the Odyssey Academy fundraiser. These folks are doing a fantastic job educating our future engineers and scientists. They deserve all the assistance that we can give them and I was more than happy to help out in my own small way.

After that long Friday, Saturday was a a long day out at KRTraining. We started the day with Defensive Pistol Skills 2. This is all about equipping students with the skills they need to survive and win a gunfight on the streets. We then played through the afternoon with AT-2 Scenarios. This is what really separates KRTraining form all the other trainers in armed citizen self defense. We have been trying our best to take students form HOW to shoot and move them to WHEN and WHY to shoot as well as developing the mindset or "what else should / could I be doing instead of shooting." This is the closest you can get to being in a gunfight without actually being exposed to possibly dieing. Or at least this is a brief introduction to the beginnings of starting to develop this mindset and thought process. While I really get a tickle out of Basic Pistol 1 classes where we introduce new shooters to the world of handguns and have them try a huge variety of handguns (some good, some bad) so they can gain their own understanding of gun fit and function so as to make a sound and informed decision about purchasing a handgun for themselves, the joy of seeing the light go on for people who actually think about self defense in this way for the first time is what keeps me coming back for these loooonnnnggggg days of work. The "First time shooter grin" is a massively powerful motivation. If you have never experienced it, you should go out and introduce someone to safe shooting. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Seeing a first time shooter turn around grinning and giggling is more addictive than any drug. Now take that feeling and turn it up to 11. When people who have chosen to take their defense and the defense of their loved ones seriously enough to come out and go through scenarios to get a better understanding of what they should and should not be doing and add an extremely important mental skill of learning to think on their feet and plan ahead before the fur flies, the point where the light goes on and they finally click to seeing how important this is and how much sense it makes to think this way is a really satisfying experience. When stressed under scenarios, peoples brains will overload sometimes adn they will realize afterwards that thinking about having a plan and thinking through situations before they happen puts them well ahead of the curve when it come to defending themselve. Better to screwup here where the only injury is to your pride than to screw up on the street where the consequences could be much graver.
We rounded out the night with AT-1A Low Light Shooting. Most if not all of the students that come out for this class have never before shot in the dark. This is a fantastic chance for them to experience everything from low light and ambient light shooting to pitch black shooting and more importantly, positive target identification, while using a flashlight and protecting themselves. We also throw in a night scenario to again get them into the habit of thinking things quickly before applying their ballistic hammer to the problems at hand.

5AM to midnight makes for a long day on the range.

This morning MisbeHaven got a surprise call from a long time friend who she hadn't seen in a couple years that is in town. So she has a visitor for the day. meanwhile, whatever bug has been stewing around in my sinus's' decided to take advantage of me being tired to flare up and kick my butt.

Still a good weekend. We shall see how things play out after some good rest and lots of hot tea. Of course the tea is made with extra Love, that's what makes it so powerful.


Friday, October 19, 2012

EVACUATE!

So, now Texas A&M is under evacuation orders for a bomb threat. great!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Selective Reporting?

The old adage, If it isn't written down, it didn't happen has been carried to its illogical conclusion. If there isn't video, it didn't happen. Saturday evening HWY 30 outside College Station had a massive law enforcement presence. Bunch of vehicles with their overheads on and then others from three different agencies parked in various places along two roads, blacked out. Local TeeWee station didn't even mention it even after being asked about it. This morning the radio station had the story. A TPWD officer checking fishing licenses ran one that the owner came back as wanted on an outstanding warrant for Parole violations. He bolted as the officer got out the handcuffs. County Sheriffs officers, Texas DPS units and College Station PD units all converged on the scene. Those where what slowed and or shut down traffic in the area. Yet no mention on the local news. If only they had camera's in the officers cars, or maybe if the TV station had actually called any one of the four agencies involved to ask what happened.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Todays random aircraft sightings

So today we got a visit from an old Beach 18 transport.

And an experimental Eurocopter BK117.

Talk about old and new.