After a fun weekend away, I faced not only Monday, but a yard in need of mowing. Getting home from work I knocked out the grass, with still enough day left to get out to the range for a bit of practice. I had considered taking along some “terrorist tar…

I am not sure how we missed this place for so long. We’ve been visiting Blacksburg, VA regularly for several years, and had somehow never heard of Rising Silo Farm Brewery. The brewery is located just a couple miles from where we frequently stay, and a…

It’s been sixteen years. Memories fade. There’s a whole generation that doesn’t remember the reality of that day. The events of September 11, 2001 brought horrors to our shores that the world should never be allowed to forget.St. Michael the Archangel,…

A tradition initiated by the folks over at The Catholic Gentleman, “Buy a Priest a Beer Day” seems a worthy event.

On this festive day, faithful Catholics all over the world take their priests out for a beer and get to know them better. It’s a beautiful Catholic tradition that goes back to the time of St. Hopswald of Aleyard, the first man to take his priest out for a beer.

Okay, St. Hopswald wasn’t real, but your priest is real. Priests are people too, and they enjoy socializing over good food and drink as much as anyone. They also have a thankless and difficult job, a job that we couldn’t get to heaven without. Priests are the lifeblood of the Church, and they deserve some appreciation.

Even if you can’t do it today, most of the priests I know would appreciate the gesture any day.

When one is dedicated to an armed lifestyle, packing the suitcase for a weekend trip goes beyond just considerations of clothes personal items. It occurred to me recently how many more decisions I go through before leaving on even a short trip, and all…

I was plagued by out of town guests at work last week, which meant later days in the office, and therefore was unable to get to the practice range. Unfortunately, my weekend match plans were also scrapped due to inclement weather. Needless to say I was quite anxious to get in some range time, which I was finally able to do after work on Tuesday.

Based on my observations from the last few matches, my live-fire practice plans for the immediate future are to focus on sight alignment and that elusive smooth trigger press.

For this quick before dinner outing I brought just 100 rounds, and planned to shoot fifty with the SIG P320 Compact and the other half with the Full Size P320. The target distance was 10 yards.

The 50-shot routine was 10 rounds slow fire at the -0 body zone, 10 rounds slow fire to the head, 20 rounds in controlled pairs to the body, drawing from the holster between each pair, and the last 10 rounds at a slightly picked up pace at the -0 body zone.

Despite the low round count and the brevity of the session, it was a beneficial and enjoyable outing. I was pleased with the hits, though I noticed that on the controlled pairs I had a tendency to drop the second shot lower than the first. Next time I do this I’ll increase the number of multi-shot strings and work on that further. I was pleased to see no discernible difference in accuracy between the two guns, at the speed I was shooting.

Switching to the P320 Full Size after shooting the Compact showed another reason I’ve grown fond of the P320 platform — there was no need to change the holster or the magazine pouches between gun. That makes it even easier to pack for the range, which I hope to be doing again, very soon.

The Labor Day holiday marks the traditional end of Summer. And the cool, wet weather we’re having certainly emphasizes that. One thing I do like about this time of year is the appearances of the Oktoberfest beers. Oktoberfest doesn’t start until September 17 and Fall doesn’t officially start until September 22, but we’re kicking both off a little early.

I make an effort to try as many different Oktoberfest beers as I can each year. A dinner out at BJ’s Restaurant was the start of the 2017 Oktoberfest season for me.

BJ’s Oktoberfest pours a bright, transparent reddish-orange. The advertising glamor shot to the contrary, there was but a thin ring of head at the top of the glass. The beer itself is extremely low in carbonation with a flat mouthfeel. The flavor was a rich maltiness with very little bitterness.

I’d rank BJ’s Oktoberfest as average. Not bad, but not exceptional. Surely, it will be just the first of many Märzen style beers I enjoy in the next couple months.

It was disappointing to see those words jump out at me from my inbox. I was looking forward to the road trip with a friend tomorrow to shoot the September IDPA match at Sanner’s Lake in Maryland. But alas, inclement weather has brought those plans to a…

From the Code of Virginia…

§ 18.2-422. Prohibition of wearing of masks in certain places; exceptions.It shall be unlawful for any person over 16 years of age to, with the intent to conceal his identity, wear any mask, hood or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered so as to conceal the identity of the wearer, to be or appear in any public place, or upon any private property in this Commonwealth without first having obtained from the owner or tenant thereof consent to do so in writing. However, the provisions of this section shall not apply to persons (i) wearing traditional holiday costumes; (ii) engaged in professions, trades, employment or other activities and wearing protective masks which are deemed necessary for the physical safety of the wearer or other persons; (iii) engaged in any bona fide theatrical production or masquerade ball; or (iv) wearing a mask, hood or other device for bona fide medical reasons upon (a) the advice of a licensed physician or osteopath and carrying on his person an affidavit from the physician or osteopath specifying the medical necessity for wearing the device and the date on which the wearing of the device will no longer be necessary and providing a brief description of the device, or (b) the declaration of a disaster or state of emergency by the Governor in response to a public health emergency where the emergency declaration expressly waives this section, defines the mask appropriate for the emergency, and provides for the duration of the waiver. The violation of any provisions of this section is a Class 6 felony.

The recent events in Charlottesville and other places around Virginia have made it abundantly clear, Attorney General Mark Herring has no intent to enforce the laws he swore to uphold.

Yet the cops around here will not hesitate to ticket you if your car window tint is too dark. Apparently the Virginia State Police find that holiday DUI checkpoints are better revenue generators.

For last Sunday’s IDPA match at Cavalier, I decided to shoot in the Compact Carry division. I used the SIG P320 Compact in an IWB holster. I’ve only put about 700 rounds through the gun, all while standing at the “square range.” I figured it was time to run it in a match.

The weather was very pleasant as we shot the three stages. We started the first stage standing at the center of a wall. Moving to either side, we engaged three paper and two steel targets. Moving then to the opposite side of the stage, we found a mirrored target set up. The four center targets were partially blocked by non-threats. I shot much too fast on the stage, and my shots were not well placed. As a friend noted, “You can’t shoot as fast as you do with the 5″ guns.”

The second stage consisted of two strings. For the first string our unload gun was staged in a box, sitting on a barrel, along with the magazines. We started out seated on the other side of the wall. Running back to our gun, we loaded and engaged four targets from cover. Grabbing a reload from the barrel we then dropped to a knee to shoot under a wall at two more targets. It was a quick, fun run.

For the second string, we started with the gun loaded and holstered. Progressing through the course of fire, we maneuvered around walls shooting targets from cover. Arriving at the final position we faced two steel poppers that were narrowly exposed between steel hardcover and a barrel before hitting the final two targets. After I finished the SO tapped me on the shoulder, pointing a still standing popper, “That ping you heard was a hit on hard cover.” My brain heard the hit and registered a hit on target, but I had instead hit the hard cover steel and didn’t even notice the target steel hadn’t fallen. Well, they say call your hits, don’t watch for them. Oh well.

The final stage saw the use of a somewhat creepy prop, we called Chuckie, which we cradled lovingly in our off hand for the start. We had to carry the “baby” with us as we moved through the course of fire. It was our option to shoot one-handed holding the baby, or set him on barrels that were placed at each of four shooting positions. I chose, as most shooters did, to set the doll down each time and shoot two handed. Fortunately we were only required to hold him in a caring manner at the start.

After that last stage I felt as if I was finally finding my groove. As I reloaded my mags, I was looking forward to the next stage. It wasn’t until the last shooter in the squad finished that I realized that the match was over — there were no more stages on which to play!

I shot no where near as well as I would have liked. I made a few mental errors, but most of my trouble was, frankly, shooting too fast. If I look at where the four CCP shooters fell overall, it doesn’t feel as bad, but frankly I know I can do better. Despite that, I had a great time shooting the smaller gun. Interestingly, I didn’t experience any issues drawing from the inside the waistband holster rather than my usual competition, OWB holster. Despite a poor finish over, it was fun morning spent shooting interesting stages with good people. That’s what it’s really about after all. I have plans to shoot the compact gun in the CCP division in the future, but perhaps a little more practice is in order first…

More match pics here.