My favorite toy
We interrupt this stream of all-politics-all-the-time posts to bring you some traditional recreation shooting, courtesy of Jonny at TGS Outdoors.
As always, action-packed shooting and tons of informative content, all delivered in his trademark aw-shucks overgrown-schoolboy manner (and terrible schoolboy haircut), and all whilst stuck in typical gloomy Britishland shooting weather.
(gottim)
Still, there are some perks…
And the results are important, too.
Lovely.
Several people sent me this excellent news, thankee.
A man strode into a San Antonio barbershop looking for more than just a little off the sides and began waving a gun and demanding wallets and purses from the patrons in the establishment.
When one of the barbers, a 26-year-old man who was part owner of the business, didn’t comply quickly enough, the bandit began pistol whipping him. He then turned toward the other owner of the shop, a 51-year-old woman and showing he was full of tricks, pulled out a handful of zip ties.
The other owner may have been down, but he was far from out, and while he may have been slow to initially comply, he wasn’t about to hang out any longer and see what played out. He had already tried the peaceful approach and all it got him was pistol whipped. So, with that, he whipped out his own gun, took aim and went high and tight with multiple rounds into the man’s chest.
…with the desired conclusion: one dead goblin.
It’s San Antonio, TX so all the cops did was congratulate Our Hero on his grouping and take away the ventilated body.
The kids at GarandThumb have some fun shooting hollowpoints through heavy clothing to see if the old saying is true: that hollowpoints are “useless” (i.e. they don’t expand) when fired through thick winter clothing, because the hollowpoint cavity gets clogged up with material before entering the body.
My thoughts are below the fold.
I’m talking about yesterday’s post, and more specifically about this EwwChoob mini-video (which you should watch now if you haven’t already, because otherwise what follows may be incomprehensible).
As everyone here knows, I’ve spent most of my life shooting the 1911 pistol — most often the Government model, but a great deal of the Officer’s and Combat Commander model as well. There’s also been quite a bit of IDPA shooting, less so of competition, but mostly as training because I’ve always thought that IDPA is quite good practice for what one might encounter in a truly bad self-defense situation.
I am of course therefore well acquainted with the concepts of “indexing” (keeping the gun aligned with the shooting arm) and “breaking the grip”, i.e. moving the gun out of the “proper” firing hold — in this case, to reload magazines.
Let’s talk about that reloading thing for a moment.
While I have fairly beefy hands, my fingers are not especially long. So my shooting grip looks like this (please excuse the crappy photography):
As you can see, my thumb isn’t long enough to reach the mag release at all — which means that in order to drop the empty mag, I have to break the grip:
Not only has the grip been compromised, but the handgun is no longer indexed to my arm, being pointed both off to the side and upwards.
Is this important? No, it absolutely is not — because the only reason for indexing the gun and having a proper grip would be if I were about to pull the trigger, which I’m not, because I’m busy reloading.
Once the fresh mag has been inserted, my left hand immediately comes up to assume the combat hold, and it forces the gun back into the proper indexed position relative to my arm, and the grip back into the locked position for firing.
I have practiced this action countless thousands of times, both “dry” (i.e. with an unloaded gun and mag) and “hot” (fully loaded, in the act of actual shooting), and the operation is as flowing and mechanical as changing gears in a car with a manual transmission.
In other words, I can’t see what all the fuss is about. Of course all the approved positions are going to be compromised while I’m reloading, but who cares? As long as it all gets back to the proper upright and locked position* in time to fire the gun, everything’s fine and dandy.
Or have I missed something? (If I have, it’s probably too late to change anything anyway — some habits are just too ingrained to change.)
* even my shooting position is not in the “popular” manner; instead of locking my arm straight, I have my elbow slightly bent, in the manner of Jeff Cooper:
…because I’ve found that it makes it easier to shoot from cover, and quicker to reacquire the target from recoil. YMMV. (Caveat: it’s not for everyone, so adopt with caution.)
I probably sacrifice some accuracy thereby, but not enough to concern me — I’m shooting combat/IDPA, not Bullseye FFS.
I’m not sure that I agree with what this guy says, but rather than try to influence anyone, have a look for yourself and see what you think (it’s just a short video).
Responses in Comments, and I’ll post a followup tomorrow.
In this report about a kid caught driving at some ridiculous speed, the article’s author complains:
Sadly, authorities did not provide a photo of or details on the specific make and model Corvette, but the teenager ran for approximately 20 miles (or 10 minutes), according to a release issued by state police.
Yeah, we gunnies have the same problem. While we applaud and congratulate hero citizens for whacking some bad guy in the act of larceny, we are never told what gun was used to send the goblin to join the Choir Invisibule (/Monty Python).
Hell, all we are told is generic shit like “handgun” or occasionally “shotgun”, which is fine, but we would really like to know the important stuff like type of gun, caliber, ammo type (e.g. whether FMJ or hollowpoint), and even more accurately, what brand or type of bullet — Remington Gold Dot 200gr, Hornady Extreme Defense 185gr, SIG Elite V-Crown 124gr, etc. This is important information, because then we can see for ourselves how well or otherwise the boolets affect the ungodly, instead of just having to rely on the usual “ballistic gel” so beloved of ammo testers.
Equally important is where said goblin was ventilated, along with pictures of said wound. (Okay, maybe that’s a Pic Too Far, but you get my drift, right?)
If the Jackals Of The Press (JOTP) can’t be bothered to do any research, or even push the officials for details, what’s the point of even pretending to “inform” the public?