Range Rats vs SF/BUDS Operators (Poseur Battallion)

h/t Tam
Tamara points to an old post regarding Mall Ninja, Tac-Tard Hi-Speed Lo-Drag Pseudo-Psycho WannaBe Warriors. Enjoyed reading the comments to that one. Brought up a couple memories of my own.
Gotta say I've never run into a "Stolen Valor" candidate. That's a Special Division of the Poseur Battalion. It takes  a Special Breed of man mouse self-hating flea to pose as ex-Mil hero in an effort to reap unearned respect. No ... I've run into the much more common PFC (Poseur F'n Civilian) type guy.

First one was at the ISRA range. It was a blustery raw day in the winter. My son and I were on the pistol range, taking a break between targets.  We were approached by a young kid ... maybe all of 21, looked like sixteen. His attempt at a mustache was desperate. His sideburns were in fuzzy competition with his acne. He approached, resplendent in his full head-to-toe Kmart Camo. His response to my "Howdy, how ya doin'?" was "I'm a Navy Seal!" "Is that right?!" I replied. "Yep! Home on leave" he says. Then he proceeded to struggle against the gusty 20 mph winds and gets the trash barrel full of discarded targets fired up with his Bic lighter.

"Now you guys can stay warm" he tells us, walking away,  as the wind begins spreading ash, embers and smoke downrange. "What a tool" says me boy, as we moved several lanes upwind from the helpful Seal Team Wanna-B. Ah-Yup.

More recently, Some Young New Guy shows up at the Midwest Range practice league. This Saturday Shootin' was open to shoot a few hours of combat pistol practice. The regular shooters there were composed of a group typical of guys and gals that you'll find at practically any range across the country. Blue collar, white collar, tradesmen, entrepreneurs, cops, mil, former mil, retirees, etc. A real cross-section. Open, accepting and encouraging, leaning conservative, wanting mostly to practice and safely share their love of shooty goodness. So, Some Young New Guy was encouraged to gear up and join the fun. His range bag was nicely made up of the latest digital camo fabric and emblazoned with U.S. Army logo. "My cousin gave it to me as a gift when I was discharged" was the answer when asked where he got the cool bag. His pistol was a nice semi auto in one of the trendiest hot calibers. He was watched closely, as all new shooters to the group are. His shooting was fine. Nothing spectacular. Well, actually, he did have a lot of trouble with failures to feed and other jams. But that's not uncommon with new shooters. This kind of shooting tends to bring out those equipment problems as well. As everyone one was packing it up for the day ... we all noticed that Some Young New Guy had in his range bag one piece of gear that nobody else had thought to bring.

A tacti-cool ninja-worthy folding grappling hook! Nought was said. But a quick look around spotted several cocked eyebrows.


 Anyhow ... Everything proceeds apace for a few weeks. Some Young New Guy has been showing up to shoot. He's just a bit odd. Something just doesn't add up. Some Young New Guy keeps to himself. His shooting hasn't improved at all. If anything, he's being watched closer than ever. While he hasn't committed an AD, he's been reminded of sloppy trigger discipline several times. After a couple of weeks one of the guys asks about the grappling hook still in his kit. "Just in case I need it" Ohhh-Kay.

One week we're working on shooting in the dark. The range master sets up the drills behind a curtain. One shooter at a time runs the drill with a flashlight with the range lights off. This leaves 20 or so shooters cooling their heels on the observation deck awaiting their turn. I find myself standing next to Some Young New Guy. I ask him "So, what branch of the service were you in?" "Army" he says. "Oh. Me too" I say. "What was your MOS?" "They never gave me one" SYNG replies. "Ohhhh" says I. Then I knew. SYNG was never in the Army. He was a poseur. It's those little things, y'know?
Nobody ever forgets their MOS. Never saw SYNG again. Mebbe he knew the gig was up.

My MOS as a 91C (Bedpan Shuffler) has been phased out, updated, commingled and morphed.
S'pose muleskinner was a MOS at one time too.

I guess, if yer gonna pretend ... nobody wants to pretend they were a Health Care Specialist.
The Big Green Machine is comprised of many parts. The long logistical tail and all that. What
the Poseurs don't seem to get is that its mostly NOT shooters 'n killers.

Note to self; if ya ever find yerself at a loss for blogtopic, fetch yerself to go meme-mining at Tams Bottomless Archive of Posts, All Topics Covered, Over 14 Million Served!

A noobs guide to an F class match

Want to try some long range shooting? Have a rifle in .223? Maybe some variation of .30 caliber? Scope? Bipod or sandbags? Then you've already got almost everything you need for this league.

The second season of ISRA F-Class Shooting is off to a fine start.
Wednesday held a threat of rain almost all the way up to the 5:30 pm deadline for live fire.
Shortly before the season kick off, the wind settled down, the sky cleared, and the range gods smiled upon us.

As the group of shooters assembled, ISRA staff volunteers Mike and Pat shuffled paperwork, collected cash and squared away the logistics.

Pat weighs in the rifles

As part of the classification process, rifles are weighed. My AR HBAR with bipod and scope came in at 10.14 lbs. That puts me in the Target Rifle class with room to spare, the upper limit being 8.25 kg/18.18 lbs. Target class is also limited to .223/5.56x45 or 7.62x51 calibers, with an unmodified chamber ... I'm good there as well.

In short order, we were divvied up, 1st relay to the firing line, 2nd relay to the pits. Thankful to be on the 1st relay, I hustled to the firing line to begin setting up. You'll notice my set up in the foreground. Everyone uses a mat. The sod was fairly wet since the day before held an all day soaking rain. Shooters seemed evenly split between Target Class using bipod and a rear rest and the heavier Open class that can use front and rear rests.

Think we had a total of 20 shooters

Since I had some time to spare, I snapped this pic for ya'll that might be wondering what an eighteen inch bullseye looks like from 300 yards ...

Target #4 seen at 14x power magnification ... should be easy, right?

As the 5 minute prep time concludes, all the targets drop to half mast. The Line Boss calls out the commands;

1. The pits are ready, standby on the line.
2. Ready on the right?
3. Ready on the left?
4. All ready on the firing line ... for the second annual season of ISRA F Class matches ...
5. You may commence firing when your targets appear.

The targets rise to the full up position. The first string of fire is an 18 minute time block, course of fire is 2 sighters and 15 shots for score.  I notice that my rifle is the first to bark. Both sighters score low 8's, about 5:00 o'clock. I adjust my scope up 2 cliks, left 2 cliks. At 1/4 moa per click, that should be... ahhh ... up and left!  At that point I begin shooting for score.
My first shot scores another 8. Then I grab a string of 9's and a 10. I settle into a rhythm of chasing the spotter disk around the X ring. Just as I'm about to load my last round, the Line Boss bellows Cease Fire!
I run out of time and drop my last shot! (need a timer!)
I squander our 5 minute break. The second string of fire proceeds much as the first. The X ring on my target survived my best efforts to pierce it.
As I'm packing up to clear the line, I notice that my bipod has loosened to point of being ready to fall off. Note to self; spend the break between strings of fire to double check equipment!

Then we switched relays. It was our turn in the pits.
There's only one thing to remember in the pit. Service your target.
That primarily means, "watch the berm". Behind your target is the earthen berm. you'll notice a shot out portion. Watch for the "dirt splash" when a round impacts.
That's your clue that your target has a new hole in it and needs the spotter moved, maybe the scoring disc moved and the old bullet hole patched. If you miss that splash, cuz you're fiddling with pasters, or jawboning, that leaves your shooter waiting on the line, wondering whats going on. He's on the clock. Waiting for you. So, be attentive. Watch the berm!

When all the shooting is done, everybody meets in the pit area. We double check and sign scorecards.
Match directors record scores. Everybody compares notes of the days festivities. Excuses are made and high scorers are ribbed.

I'll conclude with sending a thank you down range aimed at the guys who've put together this league and are working hard to welcome us newbies. FYI; These matches are open to the public also. If you want to give it a try, come on out to the range.

See ya on the firing line.

Suicide Booth; It's Time has Come

h/t Tam; She who Snarks Supreme;
We need to accommodate those for whom this need is difficult to accomplish privately.

Affordable, Private and Convenient

It's time for the suicide booth. In every town. If you have the choice between Quick and Painless or Slow and Horrible, choose Slow and Horrible.

Good Choice!

Saturday Practice League

Another Saturday. Another round of practice.

Midwest Rod & Reel 'ait & Tackle

Good size crowd.
Twenty guys maybe?

Shot my Colt LW Commander. Serpa CQB holster. Hand rolled reloads, 200 gr Rainier FMJ RN over 4.5 grains of Titegroup.

Ol' Jack ran variations on two scenarios. Here's an example of Stage 1.

Stage 1; artists rendering

Shooter stands ready, facing targets, at position "A", approximately 5 yards from target 1. Engage targets 1, 2 and 3 with two hits each. Mandatory reload anywhere during stage. Keeping muzzle pointed downrange move to position "B". Engage target 4 with two hits. Move to position "C" to engage targets 5 and 6 with two hits each.

Stage 1, position A; 3D temporal reality

Stage 1, position B; JR gettin' it done

Jack varied how we ran this stage each time. Second run, shooter had to backpedal while engaging targets 1-3. Targets 4-6 same as before. Third run, shooter started with back to targets,  turn 180º, engaging targets 1-3, strong hand only, 1 body shot, 1 head shot. Targets 4-6 same as before.

As usual, my times were abysmal. About double what most of the guys got.
I did manage to shoot one stage clean. Progress! The biggest lesson is that I ain't the deadeye tacticool combat shootin' hombre my massive, yet fragile ego would like to believe.

Interesting note; Just last week, I wrote about phone app shot timers. As guys were waiting and watchin', phones were drawn, apps were downloaded and tested as other guys shot. Carteach0 writes about his experience with phone apps here. I sense a meme.

Friday Range Run; There's an app for that!

Spent a couple hours on the pistol range last Friday. As always, it was an interesting outing.

Been trying to get at least one range run a month this summer. I know ...'tis pitiful. That's actually an increase from years past.

Wanted to run some FAST drills ... to get a baseline of where I'm at. I mean, I know I'm slow. But how slow? 

courtesy of pistol-training.com

When shooting at a club match, there's all kinds of perks you don't get when practicing solo. Like a Safety Officer, running a timer. A FAST drill without a timer is ... meaningless. 

I ain't gots me a timer. What to do? Wait. I've got an iphone. I KNOW there's a gotta be shot timer app, right? Sure enough ... there's a handful. Surefire has one fo' free!

So downloading and installing app went on the list for range run prep. That went off without a hitch. Cool. Print out copies of FAST target. Done. Collect guns, ammo, range pass, etc., etc., and we're off.

Range was fairly busy. There was still plenty of room available. As I was carrying gear to the line, there was one guy shooting near the sign-in shack. At the far end of the line, a foursome of older teens, under adult supervision, taking up four lanes. They appeared to be having a lot of fun. Watching them from a distance, gun handling habits appeared to be up to par, muzzles kept pointed downrange, actions open when on bench, etc. Good to see.

Pic confirms my refurbed Nikon Coolpix no longer focusses. !@$!#

The "Barrister o' the Berms" showed up. After some warm up targets, it was time to see if the shot timer actually worked. Since this was an informal test, I strayed from the FAST drill just a bit. We were already set up with targets at 10 yards. We left the targets there rather than call the range cold and pull the targets to the specified 7 yards. Drawing from the holster is allowed, as long as all other safety rules are being observed. However shooters unfamiliar with IPSC, or IDPA, tend to get a bit nervous. As a range courtesy, we elected to just pick the handgun up from the bench at the buzzer. We also shot a total of 5 shots/string vs. the usual 6. We did include the reload after 2 shots.

Looks slick ... but does it work?

 
Operation of the app is simple and straight forward. Hit the START button. You can adjust the mic sensitivity on the fly. This allows you to filter out unwanted shots from down the line.

Adjust settings, enter email address, etc.

 
The settings screen allows you to enter your email address. The app can send each strings results to your mailbox. You can tweak the start delay option, from 1 to 3 seconds, for solo training or enable the Par Time mode and try to beat the clock. Adjustments can be made to filter out unwanted shots, calibrate microphone, etc. Further instructions can be found at the "Help" screen.

Displays the elapsed time and the split time for every shot fired

Bo'b shot the FAST drill while I ran the timer. The first drill, I was picking up shots from all the shooters on the line. I was able to adjust the sensitivity easily to pick up only Bo'b's shots. We each ran the drill a half dozen times or so. After each string, I hit the "email results" button. Wasn't sure this was working til later.

emailed results!

One bug I quickly noticed, the app added a shot at the beginning of each string. It consistently added shot1 at 0.10 secs. Once added this at 0.29 secs. Not sure if this is a sensitivity issue, software bug or what. Further range runs will tell.
All in all, I liked shootin' with this app available. While it won't replace a dedicated timer, it fills the niche for a shooter that doesn't own one. After one use, I'd give it a B+. As a free app, I've got no complaints. The mysterious added shot is the only thing keeping it from being an A+. I'll keep ya posted on further use of this cool app. SureFire is offering the ShotTimer application free for a limited time ... if you don't have a dedicated timer, and have an iphone, grab it now!

On future drills, I'll adhere to the FAST drill parameters more accurately. To answer the question of "How slow am I?" ... umm ... 10+ seconds being the floor for Novice ... well ... whats below novice? Doofus?

Full disclosure: SureFire LLC provided zero remuneration or consideration for this blog post. Just thought I'd share my results of using this app. YMMV.

Saturday practice league

a target rich environment

So ... for the first time in months, I made it to Midwest's Saturday Session.
About 20 other shooters.

The skillz atrophy was readily apparent. Dropped 5 on my first string.

There were some interesting drills.
One of Jacks favorites ... the car-jacking scenario. Shooter must reach into vehicle seat to retrieve weapon.

With a group this size, there's alot of shoot 'n wait. Took us about 3 hours to run everybody through 5 drills. Some weeks, we go almost 150 rounds. Yesterdays went closer to half that.
Celebrity shooters got nothing to worry about from me. Felt like I'd just gotten warmed up.

Range Run Report, June Afternoon

Temps in the 80's. 100% sunshine. What's not to like?

I was surprised to see a large ... I mean very large tent still set up behind the pistol range. This puppy took up almost the entire parking area. Range Officer told me they were still squaring away the range after last weeks open house. He estimated attendance near 1,000 folks.

Pic from '05 Open House. Maybe 1/3 the size as this years cover

My friend, the Barrister of the Berm, rolled in and we proceeded to the sign-in shack.
Next to the shack was a Norman Rockwell-ish scene of Grandpa and Grandson taking a S&W M29 out for some fun. Out of 50 lanes, two (2!) were occupied. This was gonna be good. Plenty o' elbow room. This is why I try to make range runs in the middle of the week.

Target at 10 yards for some sort'a close work.

I had brought a S&W M36 to play with. @#$%@ autofocus fail.

Bo'B brought his SIG SAUER X-CHANGE Kit™ with the ability to switch out slide and barrel, from 9mm to .22lr ... a sweet set-up. The shooting commenced and was truly unremarkable. Meaning that everything worked as it was supposed to.  No surprises, no malf's, (well 1 failure to extract with the Sig). The Barrister of the Berm, who's a new-ish shooter, hadn't shot a snubbie before, so he took a turn at it.

No scootin', no runnin', no watermelons allowed ... just the basics.

After a leisurely hour and a half of working on basics, we headed over to the 100 meter range.

Oddly shaped bench in foreground is for handicapped accessibility

ISRA range has 100 YARDS and 100 METER ranges. We picked the 100m since there was only 1 other shooter there. As we set up, I half-jokingly remarked that I want my boys to spread my ashes here after I'm gone. Really. I love this place. On a Wednesday afternoon in June, we had, for all practical purposes, a private range. About an hours drive from Mordor on the Lake.

Meanwhile, an hours drive away ... no fun

Bo'B and I took turns firing the M1A from a sandbag on the bench. After my recent case separation snafu's, I just wanted to confirm the rifle was running right. So ... I brought some new, store bought ammo, as well as reloads. Again, I'm happy to report that the session was unremarkable. Factory ammo worked flawlessly. Reloaded ammo was some old stuff that I just wanted to burn off. Some of the soft point tips were slightly deformed from storing bullet point down (D'oh!). Didn't expect great accuracy from these, and that's exactly what I got.

We took our time at a sedate pace. Barrel stayed cool. Conversation was shared. Current events were discussed between shooters turns. Iced tea was poured, and cancer sticks burned.

Bottom line on the whole outing? Sometimes it's not about the guns. Sometimes it's not about how small the 5-shot group is on the target. Sometimes its about just relaxing, having fun and socializing.

Range Run Report

Tuesday brought a run to the ISRA range.
Just a quick "been too long" run.

Couple o' pistols. Couple o' rifles.
Son was pleased that he put a group exactly where he wanted.
Especially since he used "Kentucky windage" to put it there.

100 yards from bench

Won't set any records. Not bad at all for someone that hadn't touched this rifle for a couple years.