Thoughts on Gun Safety

I was doom scrolling my Facebook feed here a day or two ago when I landed on a post by an acquaintance I "met" here in blogger land who used to have a blog of her own. She has since taken it private and relegated most of her other musings to Facebook. She leans left of center politically, and her post was a photo of her nightstand upon which a revolver (Taurus snubbie in .38 or .357 by the look of it) was prominently displayed. She proceeded to state that she "hates guns a lot" and wanted "all the gun control". 

I chose not to comment on her post because I had more important tasks on my plate at the time, and I know the person well enough to know that no good would come of me opening that particular can of worms. For reasons that most of you will already guess, that post set my habitually firearm oriented mind spinning like a game of Russian Roulette.

Setting aside (for the moment) the irony of someone who hates guns and wants all the gun control leaving a revolver out unsecured on a nightstand, it got me to thinking about gun safety. Not the liberal left's view of of gun safety, but the actual-for realsies-don't shoot yourself in the face-gun safety. 

So, I thought I would share a little vignette from my deep past to illustrate the point which is guns, by themselves left to their onesome, cannot hurt a sole. For crying out loud, someone found a Winchester leaning against a tree in the woods after 130 years. The silly thing was rusted to Hell and gone, but it was sitting there for 130 years right where the original owner left it bothering nary a soul. 

Back to our story. Once upon a time in the early 1990s, I was a young lad getting back into the shooting sports after coming of age and having my own money to spend. At that time, semi autos still hadn't made the full transition to being the primary sidearm of choice for pretty much anyone beyond the military. Heck, this was a few short years after taking my driving test with a state trooper who was carrying a huge revolver. So, I was the proud owner of a 6 inch Taurus .357 revolver. This was back in the day when Taurus quality was a crap shoot, and I didn't have the money for a Ruger much less a Smith & Wesson. Colts were already discontinued by that point. So, that wasn't an option either. 

Small digression, I worked in the layaway department at Walmart for a time while in college back when Wally World still sold handguns and cool stuff like Marlin Camp Carbines. I was working the desk one night when one of our sporting goods guys (great guy named Bud who was a WWII/Korea fighter pilot who flew F2G2 Corsairs [the Goodyear version of the Vought F4U]) brought an attractive lady back to put a revolver on layaway. It was a monster 7.5" barreled Ruger Redhawk in .44 Magnum. I asked her what she intended to shoot with it. Her response: "Husbands". Priceless. 

On with the main part of our story here. There's a point in here. I promise. So, during college, I was dating this young woman. She had 3 sisters, the youngest of which had never shot guns before. I offered to take them both out shooting at what was then my grandmother's property. We load up the Taurus, my Remington 870, I think I had the Marlin 60 back then, as much ammo as I could scrounge, targets and set off for the back pasture. 

After a little warm up, I gave the Taurus to my lady friend for her to have a go. She took a couple of shots, and then proceeded to take a pose in which she rested her chin on the hand holding the gun with her other arm supporting the gun hand's elbow with the Taurus sticking out at about the 10 o'clock position WITH HER FINGER ON THE (please enjoy this soothing music while our author vents a spleen in colorful euphemisms using all permutations of the universal adjective) TRIGGER. Now, granted, she was unlikely to receive a .357 caliber Qtip out of the deal since the muzzle was pointed at the stratosphere instead of her dome, but she'd have had the potential to be deaf in one ear for life had I not gently reached over and secured the gun before catastrophe struck. Besides, I don't like cleaning blood spatter of guns; and, contrary to popular belief, stainless steel isn't stainless. Ask Number One Follower about his Colt Mustang II. 

The moral of the story is that gun's are not to be taken lightly. If you don't like them, don't get one. If you don't know what you're doing, get some training. If you like guns and want to keep them, start educating people about how to safely handle them. 

Thus endeth the sermon. 

GGGRRRRrrrrr......

Ladies and gentlemen, your humble Shepherd got seriously vexed last evening to the point of my tighty whiteys becoming uncomfortably twisted. I present the following, redacted, email exchange without further comment as a public service to shooting clubs everywhere.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Match Direction
Date:	Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:58:40 -0500
From:	[Shepherd K]
To:	President@[localidpaclub].com

Mr. [President],

I feel compelled to write to you regarding the match direction at this evening's match at [local gun range] in [nearby city]. Frankly, I was disappointed in the attitude displayed by the match director and more than a little offended.

First, a little background. I am new to [local IDPA club], and relatively new to IDPA competition. Tonight was to be my second match with [local IDPA club] (5th match overall), and I had intended to pay for my membership upon arrival. I arrived promptly at 6:00 (I was driving over from [a location about 40 miles away] and traffic delayed me) and went in to pay my range fee. The range employee asked a gentleman who was apparently with [local IDPA club] whether or not to take my range fee as there were 38 shooters already signed up. The gentleman told her to go ahead and take my money at which time I proceeded to the match area to pay the match fee and my membership. Before I was able to accomplish either of those tasks, the MD (whose name I did not get) came in and said abruptly that I could not shoot as there were too many signed up already. I explained that the other gentleman had indicated I could. The MD reiterated words to the effect that I could not shoot, turned and left.

I have two problems with the way this was handled. First, the [local IDPA club] website makes no mention of limits regarding the number of shooters, etc. I fully understand space and time limitations; however, if this is to be a club policy, it needs to be plainly stated on the website so that people such as myself are forewarned and can plan accordingly. Second, the MD made no effort whatsoever to be courteous, see to it that my range fee was refunded or make some sort of accommodation to insure that I could be given priority at a future match. Additionally, if the MD's decision on limitation of shooters was not based on club policy, he needed to communicate that to the range staff to avoid someone such as myself being hassled.

The majority of the people I have meet in the IDPA community have been extremely helpful, kind and friendly. I hope that I simply caught the MD on a bad night; however, I have to be honest and state that the manner in which tonight was handled has left a bad taste in my mouth. The first gentleman I encountered did assist me in getting a refund and was very apologetic. Unfortunately, it was too late to "unsour" the experience.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

[Shepherd K]

Sent from my iPad

-----------------------------------------------

From: [VPPresident@[localidpaclub].com]

Date: March 23, 2012 9:21:43 AM CDT

To: [Shepherd K]

Cc: [all other local IDPA club board of director members]

Subject: Re: Match Direction

[Shepherd K], 

Thank you for writing to [Local IDPA club President] to let us know of an issue you had at one of our matches.  At Local IDPA club we work hard to insure each shooter has the best IDPA experience in the DFW Metroplex. 

With that said, I am disappointed to read that we did not communicate with you clearly regarding our match capacity limits for the [local gun] range.  Furthermore that one of our MD's was not courteous when discussing the matter with you directly.  

As Vice President I am responsible for the management of each of the MDs in the club.  I apologize on behalf of Local IDPA club for any inconvenience you suffered. To rectify your particular situation the following actions will be taken today: 

1. A post will be made on the Local IDPA club forum regarding the [local] range sign in policies and capacity limits.
2. I will speak with the MD ([short guy with an attitude]) so this situation does not happen in the future. 
3. The remainder of the [Local IDPA club] BOD will be notified of this issue.
4. [Local IDPA club] will waive your match fee for the next two matches.  Please let me know when and where you wish to attend a match so I can notify the appropriate MD.

Should you have any questions or wish to discuss this matter further please do not hesitate to email me directly or call me at [XXX-XXX-XXXX].

[VP Local IDPA club]

------------------------------------

 

From: [Shepherd K]

Date: March 23, 2012 12:16:15 PM CDT

To: [VPPresident@[localidpaclub].com]

Cc: [all other local IDPA club board of director members]

Subject: Re: Match Direction

[Local IDPA Club VP], 

I really appreciate your prompt and thoughtful response. I also appreciate your offer to waive my next two match fees; however, that really is not necessary. Further and unfortunately, it will be the latter part of April before I will be able to make it to another [local IDPA club] match because of scheduling conflicts. 

I am more interested in trying to prevent a future recurrence by improving policy or procedure. In that vein, with the high turnout at matches (not just at [local IDPA club]), I would suggest that there be a mechanism to offer shooters who are turned away due to venue capacity issues a reservation or pre-sign in for a later match. I hope you would agree that such a mechanism would be a reasonable courtesy to members who come a long way through traffic but arrive a little too late to make the cut.

Again, I appreciate your response and willingness to address the issue. 

Sincerely,

[Shepherd K]

Match Results - Take 2

So, GunDiva has chosen to bestow upon me the title of GunDude. With 37 out of 253 posts labeled “guns” in some form or fashion on this blog, I suppose I will have to be gracious and accept the moniker with all humility and endeavor to live up to expectations. What better way to do that than to report on the results of my second attempt at participating in an IDPA match?

A week ago today, I participated in my second ever IDPA match. This time at a very nice outdoor range here locally. This time, I invited Number One Follower and Cousin B to join me. NOF had to beg off due to work issues; however, Cousin B came out and brought a friend of his to boot. They both claimed they had a good time and cursed me for giving them more excuses to get out and turn money into smoke and noise, but that’s jumping ahead of the story a bit.

Before moving on, I have to tattle on myself. I had a sexist moment before the match. As we were all standing around waiting for people to pay their match fees, get their score sheets, etc., we turned around to find an attractive young lady standing in line wearing very fashionable platform, high heels. I raised an eyebrow and whispered while snickering under my breath to the person standing next to me (I can’t remember if it was Cousin B or someone else) that I really hoped she would shoot the match in those heels. Now, I am sure there are women how could shoot the match in those shoes and turn in a much better score than me in normal shoes, and it was really unfair of me to laugh and jest at her expense while making a prejudiced assessment of her abilities based on her choice in footwear. Shame on me. She and her husband appeared to be nice people from the limited interaction I had with them. However, she did have the good sense to change out of her hooker footwear before the match began, but don’t forget about her. She will resurface in our story a bit later.

The match consisted of four stages again.

The first stage went relatively well for me. I shot a 19.15 on 6 targets spaced from 3 to 15 yards using “tactical priority/tactical sequence” (meaning you fire one shot at each of the first 5 targets, give 3 shots to target 6 and return back giving two more shots each to targets 1 through 5). I did get a procedural here for shooting target three or four twice out of tactical sequence on the first pass through. I couldn’t help it. I got excited and double tapped the bang switch. I dropped two points down on targets 3, 4 and 5. So, accuracy wasn’t too shabby for this stage.

Then, the wheels came off in the second stage.

Stage 2 had a paper target, followed by two hanging metal gongs, followed by 6 falling steel plates, capped off by another paper target. Starting/shooting position was from behind a stack of barrels. Before I got up to shoot, the hanging gongs had to be removed as a shooter on the next bay over got hit by a frag coming off one of the gongs. From what I understand, he was alright, but it just goes to show that it’s all fun and games until someone gets fragged. A little more attention to stage set up will be used next time I’m sure. Anyway, I shot an abysmal 40.26 on this stage with two points down each on both paper targets. Where I ran into trouble was the falling steel plates. I got through the first four with one shot each at which time WARHAMMER ran dry. A sloppy mag change later, and I transitioned to the other side of the barrel (which, in hindsight, I really shouldn’t have done) to get the remaining targets. I shot steel number 5 in one or two shots before it fell. Then, I started in on steel number 6….which sat there….and mocked me. I swear that thing had a hole in it because, after the first couple of misses, I slowed way down, focused on sight alignment and trigger discipline…and still missed it. I could not tell where the rounds were going. ARRRGGGHHH!!!! I was almost to the point of walking up range and beating it with WARHAMMER when it finally fell allowing me to shoot paper target 2. The scorer had pity on me and didn’t charge me a procedural for not engaging paper target 2 before the remaining steels after transitioning sides of the barrel.

Stage three might as well have been a continuation of stage 2 for all the good it did me. Stage 3 had 6 paper targets more or less in a line abreast formation at about 15 yards. Course of fire was two center mass shots before moving to a second shooting position and putting 1 “head” shot on each target. I got procedural error here again for shooting a “head” shot from the wrong location. I also had a stove pipe malfunction. I am reasonably sure that resulted from limp wristing as it didn’t happen again the rest of the night. Just a couple of rounds later, I had a failure to feed from a nose down round in the second mag. 34 points down for incredibly bad accuracy. Raw time: 41.79 seconds.

Stage four saw a little bit of redemption. Same line abreast target set up. Starting position was gun on a barrel covered by a cloth with a number next to it. Don’t shoot the target corresponding to the number. Two shots to everything else. Simple enough. Raw time: 21.75 with 8 points down. There are worse ways to finish a match.

So, where did I fall in the standings? Second to dead last out of 34 shooters. Dead last in my division. Guess who I beat? Yes, that’s right. The nice young lady in the footwear of questionable morality who was shooting an M&P 9 and taking her sweet time on each target.

God was shaming me for my arrogance I am sure. Nothing like a lesson in humility to bring me back to reality.

Next match and opportunity for redemption and improvement is this Sunday.

Match Results

As promised, the match results are in. I think I did fairly well considering this was my first time, and I had no basis for comparison. 

My total match score was 109.92 based on a total raw time of 107.42 and a total of 5 points down (meaning I hit the -1 section of a target five different times over the course of the match resulting in a half second penalty for each point down) for a 2.5 second penalty. Considering that there were 24 total targets among the four stages and I only missed the prime target area five times, I think that's pretty darn good for a newbie. 

My times were good enough for 32nd out of 40 shooters overall. I was 4th of 6 in the CDP (custom defensive pistol) division; however, I was the top unclassified shooter in my division. The other two UCs in CDP came in with scores of 132.21 and 148.35. I missed third place in the division by enough that it wasn't close (91.56 from a marksman ranked shooter). As I suspected, ESE#1 was the top shooter in CDP and second place overall with a score of 56.34. He's classified as expert. So, he should be shooting better than me. 

Top score overall was turned in by a stock service pistol shooter at 53.42. So, if I can cut my time in half, I've to a chance at winning. 

Maybe next time...yeah, right. 

Let The Games Begin

Let The Games Begin

Before we begin today's regular programming of assorted insanity and mayhem, please allow me to take a moment to welcome our new follower, Auntie J. Auntie J appears to have found her way here from DaddyBear's Den (thanks again for the link DB).  According to her comment on a recent post, Auntie J appears to be in the throws of the foster parent/adoption process. So, I'm sure she won't mind a few extra prayers from the congregation. Auntie J, thanks for stopping by and joining our happy band of misfits and sinners. There's always room for one more. 

Anywho, I am inspired to write this afternoon to relate my experiences of yesterday evening. As mentioned in previous posts, I have had a burning desire to engage in some form of competitive shooting for some time now. I've watched from the sidelines as others have too much fun for too long. No more. So, last night, I took the plunge and shot my first IDPA match. 

Where to begin?

First, the people. I can not say enough about how nice the people involved in organizing the match were. The match was put on by the Dallas Action Pistol Shooters, and a nicer bunch of folks does not exist in my opinion. They were very welcoming and helpful to the handful of new shooters there last night including myself. I showed up by myself, not knowing a soul, spotted a guy in a "shoot me first" vest at the door to the range and got brief but accurate instructions on where to go and who to see to get registered. 

I found the person I was to supposed to see about registering and was immediately greeted with a warm handshake and a "Hi, my name is___." as soon as I announced first time, new shooter, several other people leaned in to introduce themselves. They were all very patient with me ignorance. 

Nice lady helping with registration: "What division are you going to shoot?"
Me: "I don't know. I have a SIG 1911."
Experienced Shooter Eavesdropping: "What caliber?"
Me: ".45."
ESE#1 to another ESE: "Hey Artie, he's shooting man bullets too." (I later found out that ESE#1 and Artie had a good natured rivalry going. ESE#1 was also shooting a .45 1911 while Artie was running a 9mm Glock.)
Nice lady: "You'll be in CDP."
Me: "Uh...."
Nice lady: "Don't worry about it. The safe area is through that door, new shooter safety briefing starts in about 10 minutes. They'll help you get geared up and pointed in the right direction."

And, so, it began. 

ESE#1, in addition to being one of the match safety officers, turned out to be a great resource since we were shooting the same equipment and division. He helped me get a mag pouch and belt picked out and set up since I arrived sans both. He also let me borrow an extra magazine from him since I came to the match one short of the minimum. 

During the new shooter briefing, it became apparent that what I thought was going to happen wasn't going to happen. I was under the impression that I would have to shoot the classifier round before shooting a match. During the briefing, I learned that, no, in fact, we were all going to shoot the full match. I raised my hand to ask about the round count, and I was rewarded with "Excellent question. It depends." I allowed as how I just wanted to make sure that I had brought enough ammo. He confirmed that what I had on hand was sufficient. 

Then it was time to hit the range. We were shooting at an indoor range that had three separate bays set up for four stages. The group of about 40 or 50 shooters was divided into two squads. I was assigned to the squad with ESE#1, Artie, and the majority of the new shooters including two father/daughter teams which I thought was cool. 

I was pretty far down in the rotation which I appreciated as it gave me ample opportunity to study procedures, etc. Finally, my name was called. ESE#1 was the safety officer on my shoot. He asked me to describe what I was going to do. Apparently, what I said made sense to him as he let me give it a try. 

The first stage involved three sets of targets separated by barrels stacked as barricades. Staring position was hands on a barrel with two targets about 3 yards forward of the barrel. At the buzzer, I was to draw and fire a "Mozambique" (two shots center mass and one shot to the "head") at both targets. From there, I had to back up slightly and move to the stacked barrels on my left to engage three targets with two shots each from cover by "slicing the pie." 

Since I only started with 9 rounds in the gun, this is where I was forced to reload. I lost a bit of time here due to inexperience in rapid reloading, but I managed to get the fresh mag from the carrier and insert it into the magwell without dropping it or trying to put in backwards. 

After clearing this part of the stage, it was another shuffle/lurch to another barrel barricade to the left for the final two targets for two shots each. One of these targets had a "hostage" no shoot target attached to the front reducing the available scoring target area. 

I managed to get through the stage with no major malfunctions, runs, drips or errors. The stage required a minimum of 16 rounds for successful completion, and that is the number of shots I fired. I hit all my targets and did not shoot the no shoot. 

At this point, I do not remember what my time was or how many points down I got, if any. I'll have to do another post when the scores are released on the club website. When another newbie asked me how I did, I responded "I got a time. That's all I know." 

And that's pretty much how the whole match went. Total minimum round count for all four stages was 56. Number of rounds I fired: 56. I committed no errors or procedurals. I didn't shoot myself or anyone else. Daddy Hawk's WARHAMMER! functioned flawlessly. I know I came in 32nd overall out of at least 40 shooters. I have no clue about my rank within the CDP division, but I can pretty much guarantee that ESE#1 took top honors there. 

Perhaps the best compliment I had all night was at the end of stage four when Artie said, "Man, you are accurate as Hell." I'll take that with a smile for my first attempt. 

Range Report

I’ve been needing some recoil therapy for a while now. Apparently, Number One Follower (“NOF” from this point forward) has been needing some too. We’ve been trying to put a range trip together for a couple of weeks now, but one thing or another kept getting in the way. First, it was some unexpected expenses that ate into the range budget on our first scheduled attempt a while back. Then it was an ice and snow storm that struck most of the freaking country this past week including the Dallas Fort Worth area late Monday/early Tuesday that whacked our plan to get together on Wednesday after work.

To anyone out there in my readership who is a global warming fanatic, I have two words for you:

BITE ME!!!!

Anyway, NOF and I postponed the plan until today when the forecast indicated we should have some above freezing temps and the ability to actually drive on the roads without the potential for sacrificing paid for cars on the altar of stupid drivers.

First up on the agenda, lunch. We met at the greatest Tex Mex restaurant on the planet: Chuy’s in the Arlington Highlands (other locations conveniently located around the state to serve you). We both had the Elvis Presley Memorial Combo which is three enchiladas (1 each of beef, chicken and cheese), a beef taco, queso dipped tostadas, beans and rice. If you have never eaten at a Chuy’s, you must come to Texas to partake of this culinary goodness. And be sure to order the Creamy Jalapeno Ranch to go with your chips and salsa. It’s like crack for adults.

After we were fat, dumb and happy, it was off to an indoor gun range in East Fort Worth. I brought The Queen’s Marlin Model 60 .22 rifle and the previously pictured Ruger MkIII .22 pistol. I also took the opportunity to rent a Springfield Armory Mil Spec 1911. In the comments on my post about my desire for a 1911, a few of you recommended the SA. I thought I’d give it a whirl and see what all the hubbub was about. 

I’ll get to my thoughts about the SA Mil Spec in a minute.

First, a couple of photos of targets (yes, GunDiva, I changed targets every 10 to 25 rounds just for you). For reference, the black dots on the 3 x 5 note cards are just a smidge under 1 inch in diameter.

The top target is self explanatory. The bottom target is 10 rounds through the Ruger MkIII at 3 yards. 

Now, back to my thoughts about the SA. In short, I didn’t like it. To be fair to SA, it may not have been their fault as this was a rental gun.

The rental gun had some issues (which I reported to range management) not the least of which was that it had  not been cleaned in a while…maybe ever. The slide stop did not want to hold the slide back; and, when it did lock back, it had a tendency to drop the slide forward unannounced and without assistance. Also, whether by design or malfunction, the magazine follower was not engaging the slide stop after the last round. Most annoyingly, shooting 230 grain FMJ round nose ball ammo for which the gun was originally designed no less, there were several (at least three that I recall clearly) instances of failure to feed and/or to go fully into battery. For instance, the first round out of the first mag hung up on the feed ramp. Fortunately, there were no stovepipes or failures to extract.

The trigger was okay but not great. I may have to give SA the benefit of the doubt on this as, after the first magazine, I attempted to clean the crap off the feed ramp with a gun cleaning wipe only to be rewarded with the slide dropping on my trigger finger without warning. That’ll smart especially if you’re not expecting it.

The sights were of the Mil Spec, three dot, non-adjustable, blade and post variety. They’re adequate for blasting away, but not exactly precision shot placement material. If it were me paying hard earned cash to own one, I’d probably opt for Novak adjustable three dot sights with a fiber optic front sight (my eyes have gotten to the point through excess computer use that I need something that glows brightly) as a good balance between Bomar target sights and the blade and post. Accuracy was minute of bad guy out to 15 yards. I know I can shoot better than that (as proved on other guns later in the range outing); however, the target suggests that I might have been jerking the trigger some and/or breaking the wrist down. I really need to get out to the range more. 

After shooting through 50 rounds of .45 ACP and approximately 200 rounds of .22, I got fatigued. While NOF was shooting off the last of some 9mm he had with him for his Glock 19, I stuck my nose over the shoulders of the gents in the lanes next to NOF. One guy had a lovely brace of 5 1911 including an SA, 2 Kimbers, and two Taurus’. One of the Taurus’ belonged to this guys friend and had been customized with an 5 ½ to 6 inch compensated barrel. He was a real nice guy who had been a Colonel in the army by the markings on his biker jacket, but he REALLY needed some more target practice. His target at 7 yards looked more like it had been hit with a couple loads of buckshot instead of aimed fire from a 1911.

The other guy was shooting a .45 Long Colt Peacemaker clone of one sort or another. When I got to talking to his buddy about the 1911s, Peacemaker guy offered to let me shoot a mag through his Firestorm Commander sized 1911. Never one to turn down a friendly offer at the range, I accepted.

A quick aside here, just before making the offer to shoot the Firestorm, Peacemaker guy shot a mag through it. When he was done, I noticed that the slide didn’t lock back after the last round. Given that the SA Mil Spec had not been locking the slide back after the last round, it didn’t automatically register to me that the gun might still be hot. He was pointing it at the ceiling in the general direction of his buddy and NOF, finger off the trigger and pulled the empty mag. He passed it to me to handle; and, employing the corollaries to Rule Number 1, I pulled the slide back at which time we discovered that there was still a live round in the chamber.

Oops. Nothing like a little friendly reminder to always, always, always personally check every firearm to insure that it’s not loaded.

The Firestorm had the Novak three dot sights, beavertail safety, skeletonized hammer, lightweight adjustable trigger, etc. I have to say I was impressed with how it handled and shot for what is basically a budget priced 1911. I was able to hold a 2 to 3 inch group at 7 yards with no trouble at all.

If I had to choose between the Firestorm and the SA as the only two choices I had based on my experiences shooting them both “side by side” so to speak, I’d have to give the nod to the Firestorm. I’m sure some of SA’s higher end products are nice; and, if anyone wants to give me one, I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. However, since I can’t afford their higher end stuff, I won’t be plunking my hard earned cash down for the Mil Spec.

Any day I get to shoot something is a good day. Hopefully, NOF and I can make this a more regular occurrence. I know I need it.