Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Too Important To Ignore

Up until now I've kept CZ the day on the topic of firearms.

I'm not going to be breaking any news but rather than consign my thoughts on this story to comments on other blogs I wanted to post them here.

This original story begins at Talisman Gate. It is further explored at Hot Air, complete with video so simple even a liberal can understand it.

This is the story of a CBS reporter using footage that Al Qaeda claims as it's own. There is no mistake. Watch the video and you will see that the footage was shot by the same camera.

The footage did not air on network television. Instead it was orignally relegated to extra content on CBS News' web site. The reporter, Lara Logan, began a campaign to get the footage aired. She was the one who called this story "too important to ignore." She has spoken the truth, but not for the reasons she meant.

It is too important to ignore that a member of the U.S. press would accept any video shot by Al Qaeda as being from a reliable source. It is too important to ignore that she would try to conceal the source for the video. It is too important to ignore that she would include with this footage a masked person claiming that the battle was the fault of the United States.

The United States did not attack New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. That was Al Qaeda. I don't care whether Al Qaeda was in Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion. The fact is that they are there now and we can not afford to give up that fight on that battlefield.

CBS needs to decide which side they are going to be on in this fight. Either they are with the United States or they are with Al Qaeda. Having the enemy supply your reportage isn't truth. It isn't fairness. It isn't the way one wins a war.

You won't see 60 Minutes shoving microphones into Lara Logan's face asking her where this footage came from. You won't see Katie Couric doing an expose on how their reporter was acting with deliberate treason. The disgusting thing is you won't see the other networks tearing down CBS for this, either

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Fist-Fire 4

My last Sunday morning at the gun club for a bit. My new job has me working Sunday mornings.

After my success with the Fist-Fire grip I found myself falling out of form. The support shoulder HAS to be hunched or the wrist lock will not work. It was easy to tell that something was amiss. My sights didn't snap back onto target.

Time to study the rest of the information as I work to get muscle memory of the proper form so I don't drop out of it in the future.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Fist-Fire Attempt 3

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. Trying too hard.

I don't think I need to go into what I was doing wrong more than that. It occured to me in studying the illustrations that I had read too much into the roll over wrist lock. It was much more simple.

My firing today was, I think, a lot closer to Fist-Fire. Every shot with this technique brought the sights back into alignment. At one point I noticed that my sights were back on target before I heard the spent casing hit the floor.

I ran through several different 9mm for a box of 50 then switched to .40 S&W for another box of various makes and models. Even my XDSC .40 behaved. I did torque one of the 5 rounds off to the left but that's a big improvement for that pistol. 1 round out of 5 an inch to the left at 25 feet. Used to be 5 rounds 5 inches to the left of point of aim at that range.

This was still sighted fire. I haven't begun to experiment with the more advanced concepts. The basic building block of this system is in the grip and support hand.

Tomorrow I'm taking a basic NRA class. The instructor is a former SWAT instructor. I would prefer to take his intermediate course but that's not available until March and I want to get my CCW paperwork in. Better a very basic class I probably don't need and a CCW in my hands in April than paperwork for the CCW turned in by April.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Fist-Fire attempt 2

I got some range time in today.

I think I was close to getting the rollover wristlock right once, but I can't claim more than that. This is a crucial element for aimed fire and I haven't gotten it, yet.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Fist Fire attempt 1 - Impressions

I took my faithful and trusted CZ 75 with the Kadet Kit to my range this morning. We had our 5 th straight weekend of snow falling but I slip and slid and skidded my way to the range anyway.

For much of the past month and a half I've been working on my one-handed bullseye form. I haven't given up on bullseye but I've signed up for a CCW class on the same day as the next 2700 match so I will not be competing for another month.

I've also returned to going to the gym lately and just started a new phase to my program. Friday's workout was upper body and I was working it. It's not unusual for me to have day-after muscle soreness but I really blasted my upper body and have a second day's worth of chest, shoulder, arm and back soreness. I really felt it when trying the support hand wrist lock.

I now know why the "reverse Weaver" is the term for this. You can not get your wrist lock in position with the gun-hand elbow locked. You can have both bent, for "guard" or both partially extended for "partial" but full extension is support arm locked out and gun-arm bent.

I'm sure I still have a lot more to learn about this position before I can even think I'm close to doing it right but, yes, it DOES help reduce muzzle flip and gets your gun indexed for another well placed shot faster than what I had been doing. You don't need to try and squeeze the gun between the hands, either. The wrist lock acts to reduce muzzle flip by working at the other end of the 'lever'. The soft webbing of your hand absorbs more energy, too, than trying to line up the hand/wrist/arm bones when you properly index the gun in the firing hand.

Prior to this I would consider what I did a "shallow" grip. The backstrap was normally on or close to the bones of my thumb. Only recently in bullseye shooting with my S&W 41 had I worked into a deeper grip. Middlebrooks' use of indexing with the second finger is a key component to achieving a proper grip.

A side benefit of using this "deeper" grip is that my long fingers don't try to wrap through and around the trigger. The finger is better positioned to use the tip to activate the trigger which will help with trigger torque.

One aspect occured to me. It seemed to me that the steeper grip angle of a Glock would work better for someone learning Fist Fire. It's not required as Middlebrooks is shooting a Witness in DVD 1. There was another club member with a G17 and I held that with Fist Fire indexing and it felt better to me than the CZ 75 or the other two guns I fired, an XD Service 40 and a 1911 clone in .45 ACP.

I plan to get my G 17L and 23 out for the next test fire.

Free Wayne Fincher!

I am taking a break from my ongoing Fist Fire posts to announce that CZ the Day is joining the Free Wayne Webring.

The following is the Inclusion statement of the Free Wayne Webring.

Free Wayne Webring Inclusion Statement:
We support the right of all peaceable people to keep and bear arms. Your age, race, sex, religion, political party, sexual orientation, or national origin are of no concern to us. Anyone who requires you to disarm is not your friend, and not our friend. Only when all peaceable citizens can freely exercise their inalienable right to self defense, and their right to keep and bear arms, will we attain the ultimate safeguard for our mutual protection, as individuals, as members of a community, and as citizens of the Republic. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness extends to all human beings, and all who support the right to keep and bear arms are welcome here, period.

Update:
1/22/07 0014 hours
I went to the Webring website just now and found that I'm one of twenty. I look forward to that list growing in the days to come.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Fist Fire DVD 2 "How We Do What We Do"

This is the meat of 'how-to' as far as available DVDs from Tactical Shooting Academy.

Middlebrooks is back with a lesson in the history of handgun holds from someone who was there to see it. Why is this important? It's important to disucss the evolution of Fist Fire. Fits has mentioned on his blog about the "reverse Weaver" and this introduction teaches where this is coming from.

Instruction begins with lessons in physics, the strong hand grip, and intruction of the offhand wrist lock. From what I've seen here Middlebrooks has put a LOT more thought into this than other instructors I've read/seen/been taught in person.

The second DVD in this series is much more a "how-to" than the first and as such contains elements that the viewer can practice. Rather than continue this review I think I need to pause and attempt to internalize some of the lessons learned so far on grip and wrist lock as these are a departure from what I do right now.

Good thing I'm going shooting tomorrow.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Tactical Shooting Academy's Fist Fire DVD 1

Recently Fits over at Shooting the Messenger had posted a link to a video trailer for Tactical Shooting Academy's Fist Fire DVDs.

The system looked very interesting. Using a pistol with the sights taken off D. R. Middlebrooks
showed how he was able to engage multiple reactive targets accurately at speed.

After watching that trailer and some others on Google Video from Tactical Shooting Academy I wanted to see what all the hub-bub was. I placed my order for both DVDs and the book.

Let me say first and foremost, the shipping was rapid. Let me say secondly that at no point in this blog will I try to teach what Fist Fire is. If you want to learn how to shoot yourself this guy is your role model and the only instructor I recommend for that training.

The first video “What we do and why we do it" is an introduction to what Fist Fire has to offer. Shooting from "Guard", "Partial Extension", and "Full Extension" are demonstrated to show that combat accuracy can be attained without resorting to the use of sights. Using the same gun with repeated zoom-ins to show that sights have not been introduced to the gun the demonstration continues engaging at ranges of 25, 50, 75 and 100 yards with combat accuracy.

You get to watch Middlebrooks and his wife execute very impressive shooting on multiple targets, moving targets and even while walking backwards on moving targets. They repeatedly demonstrate that the gun they are using has no sights.

The actual grip used is discussed, a little in the early part of the first DVD but without going into great detail.

Next Middlebrooks demonstrates his "Moon Walk", his method of moving backwards. This is a bit different from other methods I've read or seen demonstrated. What is somewhat impressive is seeing him engaging targets while moving backwards over obstacles that happen to be on his range (2x4 shooting box frames, for instance).

I am left with no doubt that this method of shooting is effective.

From movement to reloading. Middlebrooks has again re-thought Old School with an eye toward what happens on the street. He has some very good points and talks about how his developments in this respect have assisted him in winning in competition. His slide release is part of a combination move that re-indexes the pistol in the hand as opposed to a sling-shot move.

Using the Fist Fire technique with Carbine and with a flashlight are discussed. The Sentry position is demonstrated and the Tactical Shooting Association is discussed.

Will you learn how to do Fist Fire with this DVD? No, not with this DVD alone. This DVD will show what Fist Fire is and why you would want to learn it, just as the title promises.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

An Example




Okay, so now I have an example of what I'm shooting like at 50' with the 41.

This was shot using some of the last 2 bricks I have of Winchester T22. As you probably know you can't get this round any more. It was good and it was cheap so naturally it had to be eliminated from production!

I'm sure no one is threatened by this sort of shooting except people who don't like private citizens owning weapons at all.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Bullseye!


After many months of concentrating on firing from a two handed stance I've taken an interest in bullseye shooting.

Yes, I know. It's about as far from defensive shooting as you are going to get and still have a gun in your hand. It's slow. Methodical. It uses loads that are likely to stop before penetrating all the pages of a copy of The American Rifleman.

And it's FUN!

Or at least it is when you have an accurate gun that works for you. I'd picked up several pistols that didn't suit me for shooting this way. The Ruger Mk III Hunter, the Beretta U22 NEOS were two such. Long barrels, yes, but I couldn't hold them well enough to group very well.

A friend from my gun club had always remarked "you know you are going to do it so you should just go and get a Smith & Wesson 41 and be done with it!"

Last month one got posted to one of the local classifieds I check regularly and it was priced very reasonably. I e-mailed for contact and before I knew it I was drawing cash from the bank and driving to meet the seller.

I have had NO reason to regret it. My regret is not doing this in the first place. Even one of the newer ones would have been better than my attempts to make the other pistols work for me.

As it turns out I have a low-round count 70's vintage 41 with a wonderful trigger that functions very, very well. Today I sold the Ruger and the Beretta to the guy who sold me the 41. I'm firing the 41 at 41 feet and keeping almost all the rounds in the 5.5" Orange Peel circle. That's WAY better than I was doing with the Ruger or Beretta.

Hope to have some images of my pistol and its work later on this week.
 

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