Range Day Drills- Handgun

Spend some time letting off some steam and getting the Glock 17 that I had coated running again. I'll never use the same person to coat a firearm for me, it's been a real pain to get the thing up and running. It was a semi auto for a long time, then after I ran some of my home brew Verboten 9mm Major through it in desperation, it's back to it's reliable self. 9mm Major is just hopped up 9mm that is way past pressure limits. One load I have is a 124g 9mm bullet traveling at 1480 fps. I wasn't running that load, more like a 124g +p+ was what I used. Winchester Ranger +p+ is almost identical to this load I used. The super hot load is marked 9mm Glock Killer just to make sure I don't grab it. The cases are also a different color.

I did some standard drills, working mostly on draw and fire. I use a bird's tweet as my "GO" for the exercise. Here are the exercises I did yesterday with about 300 rounds of fire.

Warm up- 1 round each at 4 2" circles from 7 yards. Slow fire at first, increase tempo slightly when you start back to the first circle. Reload from your belt at each start over. This expends 12 rounds and gets you a light warm up. You don't get a warm up for gun fights, so I limit mine severely.

Draw and fire- 10 pushups, 10 situps then set up 7 yards from target in the 12 O'clock position, facing the target. When I hear a bird cheep, tweet or caw, I deploy and fire 2 rounds center mass. Run to the target and mark your shots. Run back and set up in the 3 O'clock position for the same drill. You go through this drill running the 4 directions( 12, 3, 6, 9 O'clock). You should be wearing your normal attire for CCW. I had my SOE EDC belt, Bladetech Eclipse holster and Blade tech mag carrier. I was wearing a Tshirt and Blackhawk button down overshirt, unbuttoned. I recently purchased some Kuhl Renegade pants on special and was trying them out for the first time

I repeated this draw and fire exercise at 7 and 3 yards, setting the standard IDPA target up at 6'4" to the top to simulate the aggressor being significantly taller than me. Usually your adversary will choose a smaller target than themselves. I'm of medium height so I normally train for a larger opponent. I will do another set of 10 pushups and 10 sit ups between yardage change.

The wind was whipping pretty good and a couple times it pushed my shirt into my draw, causing a slight bobble. Good training for the real world. I don't top off mags, when they run dry, I do a mag change. I also run 10 round mags, just for more reloading. I repeated the drill 2x at 3 and 7 yards. This expends 32 rounds.

We are 44 rounds in, and you should be panting a bit from running and calisthenics.

Draw, Fire, Move, Fire- Set up in the 6 O'clock position, 7 yards away from the target. Wait for the bird, turn and fire 3 rounds center mass. Move to "cover" while covering the target. I use barrels that are set up at the range. I move it around to make the moving to cover the most difficult possible. Moving at 45 degrees away from the target while covering the target is about as hard as it gets. Once you reach cover, head shot. I'm usually 30-40 feet from the target for the head shot.

Move your "cover" each time you run this drill. I will also move my start position and direction from target. I ran this drill about 10 times. It's important to drill yourself that cover is life. Accuracy is king, so mark your shots after each drill to make you think about your hits. 30 rounds

Next is the fun.
Shooting to cover- Setup as last drill, except this time, draw and fire all the way to cover. Aimed fire, try not to lose any rounds off target. If you're losing rounds, slow down. Once I get to cover, I run two more rounds into center mass from cover. This expends 10-12 rounds per run.

Shoot to target. Start from behind cover and fire while advancing to the target. Setup in any direction you want, wait for the bird, advance while directing accurate fire on target. I usually start hitting center mass with the first rounds, then adjust fire to head and hips as I advance. Once you get good at this, move barrels or cones into your path, making you have to move side to side while advancing. One of the last things I do for this drill is to double stack barrels and run this course of fire while while having the target obstructed by the barrels. 12-14 rounds per run. This drill can be run Left to Right or Right to Left through the barrels, or you can do figure 8's around the barrel while firing. Whatever you like.

The object is to keep your pulse rate and breathing up while you practice your shooting skills. A standard square range is all that's needed. If you have a training partner, have them move things around on you while you are set up to keep you guessing.

I ran the last course of fire with the REPR twice, transitioning to the handgun for a 2 center/1 headshot when getting close to the target.

The new Ruger 10/22 take down was used today as well. Ran a couple runs shooting to cover with it. I also ran the Glock 22 from the Minuteman Cache #2 after installing Night Sights on it. It's now shooting 3 inches low at 7 yards. Ugh.

My shooting wasn't as good as expected, but with the issues I had getting the 17 to run, plus the 22's sights being off, I only lost 3 rounds off target, usually when trying for the head shot. I was pretty beat by the last few runs, and it showed.

Try to fine a range that allows you to shoot and move. If you're standing still and shooting at the same target, in the same direction, from the same shooting position, you're plinking, not training.

Never a Dull Moment

So this morning my youngest wakes up with a fever and we keep him home. I really wish we just home schooled him, he's not bred for sitting in a classroom for 6 hours a day. He's meant to run wild on a farm and raise animals, dig in the dirt and get dirty. Much like myself, he was born a hundred years too late. He was really good and even helped the construction guys load tile, grout and a few other items into the house. He's a great kid when he's occupied and busy, but much like a young dog, he will do something, anything to entertain himself if left to his own devices. It's not always constructive.

I've been really busy with classes this week, and it seems that in today's society, it's perfectly OK for a student to blow off class and not have the instructor's time in mind when screwing them over. It's been happening fairly often recently, so it's going to be addressed in our next meeting. I personally wouldn't think of standing up an instructor that is giving me lifesaving instruction, but not everyone in society considers the big picture anymore.

The wife is once again considering a move to a socialist foreign country. It's one that speaks English, has good weather and its economy is very stable. The place is crime free and super clean. Crime is dealt with expediently and with brutal terms. There are very few repeat offenders, and drugs are a capital crime.

I would have to give up my guns and leave them here, but to be able to live the dream of doing one of my favorite pass times (SCUBA) year round would be a big plus.

Our house is in the middle of a renovation at the moment, and 4 rooms are getting work done. 2 are getting gutted, the utility room is getting swapped around and had an instant water heater installed, allowing room for a slop sink and water softener. The house will be totally repainted once the work is done. Glad the season is changing so we can finally get our HVAC system replaced as well. If she takes that job abroad, we might need to sell.

I'm just ready to go buy an abandoned farm somewhere out west. The trappings of modern society are boring to me. I'd prefer to live a simpler life that fills my soul more than my pocket book. We've been off cable TV for over 2 years now. It was a huge time sucker and did nothing but teach our kids consumerism and poor life choices.

My next big endeavor may be a book. I'm considering writing a survivalist fiction book based on some real life decisions I've had to make, as well as juxtaposing my experiences and imagination with what I believe will be the future of this country. I have a title, theme and settings, just need to develop some characters and actions.

When The Night Becomes Trecherous.

Last night I was teaching a class until 10pm and had my 13yo son with me. He assisted by moving equipment and helping the students get set up. We were getting ready to start moving gear out to the truck and when I opened the door, I noticed that a thick fog had settled in for the night. My son was fairly apprehensive about traveling in these conditions, even expressing that we should grab a hotel 25 miles from home. I calmed him a bit and told him we could take the back roads home.

Luckily for us, my class is a couple miles off the route to one of my retreat locations and I have a pretty good memory of the route. Visibility was down to 10 feet in some places and to calm my son down further, i handed him my phone with the GPS system activated. He could watch the road and be able to ready himself for cross roads and turns. It became a fun game for us, me telling him what was coming up and him telling me if I was right.

About the second or third cross road we came to, there is a stop sign. As I approached it, I watched a truck fly through it without even slowing down. My son was rattled a bit, and we approached every intersection with extreme caution. It took quite a while to make it home, but thanks to some pre planning, we were ready and didn't have to brave the traffic of the main highways or interstate.

The lesson being, make sure you know you AO well. I learned this lesson 12 years ago the hard way, when I was cut off from my house and child care by a tornado outbreak. It took me 4 hours to get the 3 miles from my house to the babysitter.

Home field advantage is huge when things go bad. Use it to your advantage as much as possible. Taking hikes and bike rides in your area will allow you to glean navigational data that can't be found on maps and GPS systems. Take special care to look at the railroad right of ways in your area, they can be helpful when everything else is packed solid. As a kid, we used to use railroad tracks to go between towns because they were straighter and faster than hiking the roads. We even talked our bus driver into dropping us a ways from our houses so we could walk home along the tracks instead of sitting on a bus for another 30 minutes.

You have some homework! It's warming up in our area, so I will be out in the sun as soon as I can get free from work!

Stay Frosty, my friends!

The Training We Hate: Part #4 Combatives/Handgun Deployment

Monderno Pelvic Region Targeting Article

This is a great article for people who train often. It shows a couple of strategies that have been proven false or unreliable. In the civilian world, we train for situations that we expect to fall in to. That means close quarters fighting and in most cases, powder burns will be prevalent. Some trainers will say to shoot your way up the body in a close altercation, some preach Thoracic cavity and others the 2 in the body/on in the head approach. Overwhelming violence of action will always be the best option, and shot placement is king. Body armor is becoming more and more common and affordable for the masses, I believe it will be a matter of time before we see thugs using it commonly. Center of mass will have limited success, and the heads and hips strategy will be your only option. Dropping an entire mag into the chest of an assailant, only to find them armored is a worst case scenario.

Ryan over at http://www.totalsurvivalist.com/ just purchased an LCP, one of my favorite deep cover guns. It's limited capacity would be a huge hindrance should an assailant be armored. I carry my LCP more than any other weapon, and I've trained with a blue gun in a combatives class trying to pull and utilize it and a full size weapon while being attacked. It's far more difficult than I had ever imagined. The instructor slapped me on the head a few times and stunned me before I could bring the weapon on target, and I was ready for him. Forget the idea that you will be able to pull off the perfect draw stroke and aim in a fight. Not going to happen. Like all things survival, be prepared for the worst.

The pictures in this article show a person training to fight at point blank range, which is where you may find yourself. In my classes, I only teach grip and stance to beginners, because once you develop the fundamentals of your shooting technique, you will rarely find yourself at standoff distance with an assailant unless you are a badge or military. I'm a huge proponent of fighting to cover and shooting and moving. Stance means you are standing still, which is what soon to be dead people do.

I suggest you get some training in lethal, non lethal and improvised weapon combat. When properly trained, you will be able to create distance and be able to utilize your weapon more easily, or better yet, get away from the altercation all together.I hear all to often the false adage that if you have a gun, you don't need to learn to fight hand to hand. I disagree. Go pay your money to someone to slap you around a bit and learn to deal with close in threats.

My last thought is to make sure your situational awareness is engaged all the time. This will make you a hard target and will more than likely keep you from getting tangled up in a bad situation that was chosen by your opponent.

Knife Review: Blackhawk TaTang 13.5"

A few years back, I was intrigued by the look and utility of this knife for a dual purpose. I needed a knife that would cut like a bushcraft knife, chop like a machete, and can be used as a last ditch fighting knife. All these options seemed to be addressed with this particular blade. The MSRP on this knife is near 100 bucks, but is available at a price point of 75 on several sites.

There were several options out there but the price point of the Blackhawk was too hard to pass up. I received the knife and immediately noted that the sheath for the unit was not going to work in the least. It was a cloth/cordura mix that is both hard to sheath and will not stand up to undue abuse. It looks as though they have updated the knife with a new sheath of thin thermoplastic, but at the time of purchase, mine was still fabric. I contacted a local Kydex Wizard to come up with a sheath that is MOLLE compatible and made to take some serious abuse. His creation is magnificent. Perfect spacing for MOLLE webbing.

The knife itself comes extremely sharp from the factory. The blade is two sided and comes to a rather fragile looking spear point. The top of the blade is ridged and flat for the first three inches and is then ground for the top edge from there. The grips are a little small for my liking, but sufficient for regular use. They used 3 screws to hold the thermoplastic scales in place on the full tang. the fitment of the scales is slightly off, but not enough to impair use. The grip is angled down at the rear with another ridged section at the top of the tang. There is a hole for a lanyard at the rear of the pommel. The rear of the full sized tang is exposed for use as a striking surface. The steel is advertised as 1085c High Carbon Tool Steel.

1085 is a simple carbon steel that has for years been used in many bushcraft knives, farm implements and an array of locations where heat treating is required for hardness and form retention is sought. This is the steel that was used before modern alloys created blades that were both hard and slightly flexible. Edge retention should be fairly good and with this steel and it is well served as a chopper. The main drawback with this steel is it's corrosion resistance isn't as good as I would like. I'm a bit OCD about my knives and like them to remain unmarked. This knife doesn't rust heavily, buy it does grey or turn a ruddy color depending on what it is used for. The D2 tool steel modern blade to the left is my HK Epidemic EDC knife that is reviewed Here.

Mine has gone along on several camping trips, a few training sessions and one hunting trip. I don't normally use a large knife for many things, but on occasion is comes in handy. This last trip I used it to chop my way into a rather dense section of brambles to recover game. It worked magnificently for this due to it's wide blade, sharp edge and forward balance. Having a 2 sided blade allowed me to cut going both directions, speeding up the task. When skinning a small animal, I can't recommend using this large of a knife, but for the sake of posterity I did so on one animal. It worked well enough, but the 2 sided blade becomes a hindrance at that point. Hunting and bushcraft isn't what the blade was designed for, but it will work for such in a pinch.

This is a fighting knife, made for slashing and jabbing at point blank range. For this purpose it works very well due to its design as a small Balisong. I carry it pointing down on the right side of my assault pack so it's readily available for use as a machete. My assault pack attaches to the back of my ruck so even when rucking, it's available for quick use. This knife can also be made into a spear for hunting if you are desperate. Should you ever need to go Rambo on a some wild bacon, this is a great option!

The blade coating has held up much better than anticipated, and the blade is displaying some mottling on both edges. I am very impressed for being a Taiwanese manufactured product. It's a great knife for it's purpose. Well designed and properly manufactured for the purpose of close quarters combat. Personally, I'd like a slightly larger tang and scales for better grip, but it works as it is. Another small issue I have is the screws that hold the scales in place rust easily. Over time I can see this causing some issues, but will still give many years of service for most users. Only the extreme users and those that spend considerable time in the field in moist conditions will notice the corrosion. The greatest detractor to the item is the sheath. It's  of little use for anyone that intends to use the knife regularly. If you choose to use this knife as a bushcrafting knife, the point will more than likely break at some point. You will also have issues splitting wood with it due to the double edge design.

If you are looking for a fighting knife, this one is hard to beat at it's price point. The durable steel and rugged edge will serve you well. If you are looking for a buchcrafting knife or a hunting knife, look elsewhere. This design is less than optimal for that use. I've had this knife for around 4 years now and it's been great! I see no reason to replace it for use on my assault pack/Ruck, it's does exactly what it needs to do for that use.

Other designs to look at if you want a multipurpose knife in a larger size:
1) ESEE Junglas
2) Ka Bar Black Fighter
3) Becker Magnum Camp
4) Buck Hoodlum
5) Cold Steel Marauder

Big day today- Daylight saving time events.

Today is the day we cut the bottom off our blankets and sew it to the top to make them longer....

That also indicates that it's time to do plenty of other things. Here's a list of those things in order of importance.

1. Rotate food stock, check lists for expiring products. Sunday
2. Pull bags and swap out winter gear. -Complete
3. Replace batteries in emergency gear and recharge any drained ones.-Complete
4. Inventory bags. -Complete
5. Test cylinders and stoves. -Complete
6. Check firearms and wipe down. Sunday
7. Store winter gear. -Complete
8. Get the camping bags updated. -Complete


I've got a few empty buckets to fill as well. I consolidated some things this winter and need to fill in the calories we used. We used a few things this winter when the wifester was working 12-18 hour days at home while I was off conquering the universe. It was a better option for her to raid our stores than braving the weather. My wife isn't best best driver under normal circumstances, let alone when exhausted. She's handling European based clients on their schedule, so she regularly gets up at 2-3 am for calls. Makes it tough to get out on a regular basis for grocery runs. She is currently taking my youngest to his Parkour class and will be hitting the warehouse store on the way back. Manchild #1 will be helping with bags once he gets his chores done.

All Caches are good to go. Need to toss some gear into the Grey Man cache, but other than that, they can be left be until fall. Cahce #2 will go back to it's regular location after spring break.

Planning a camping trip with the boys at the beginning of summer, so we need to get manchild #2 outfitted a bit better than he is now. His current backpack is a cheapo ACU unit that was bought a few years ago to hold his gear in one place conveniently. It was never meant to be used as a backpacking unit. If we have enough time today, I'd like to go hike our equipment a few miles and work the kinks out. #1 hasn't hiked in a long time and if we plan to do the hike I want to this spring, he's going to need the practice.

It's the little things.

So after a long day of dealing with a drywall contractor on our house, I'm getting ready to leave to teach a class. Jump in the truck to head out and..... Nothing. Doesn't start. Had this been an emergency, I'd have been in deep stuff. I've been procrastinating installing new batteries due to the oppressive weather and my schedule not being the best to get it done. It's a real pain to get to them in my diesel so I've put it off. That bird's come home to roost now, so I must overcome and get it done.

At least they lasted past my Florida trip over the weekend. That trip taught me that I'm no longer in my 30's. I used to do the trip at least once a month. Drive down Friday evening at 6pm and get to my dive site at 5 am. I would sometimes get a 2 hour nap at the Huntsville, AL rest stop and delay my arrival. I'd dive for 2 days solid then head back at 4-5pm on Sunday. It's been a year since the last time I did this and it wasn't as easy as it used to be.

That little voice in the back of my head was yelling at me all night for not getting those batteries changed. Sometimes you need to listen to the voice and handle your business.