And so begins Lent.
[ This content originated at Musings Over a Pint ]

Last Sunday I shot the monthly Cavalier IDPA match. Despite the 70° plus temperatures the day before, the thermometer on match day barely made it out of the mid-40’s. However the sun was shining and the bay berms blocked the wind, so all in all it was a most pleasant morning for shooting.

Four fun stages of shooting awaited us. The first stage consisted of two short strings of fire. The first had three targets, each requiring two body and one head shot each. The second string presented four targets, three shot in the open, the last around a wall. The tricky things about these short, close courses is they need to be shot fast, but it’s easy to go too fast and rack up points down.

Stage two was interesting, with two quite distinct options for completing the course of fire. One could take a few long, tight shots, and reduce the of movement or run a zig-zag course around a bunch of barrels to get to closer shooting positions. I didn’t see anyone opt for the long shots, although I did hear that someone on another squad did just that.

After navigating the barrels, there were a couple targets visible through some tires. At the next shooting position, a couple targets were visible around the right side of a wall. The final point of cover had three targets shot from the left of a wall.

Today, February 27, is the Feast Day of St. Gabriel Possenti.Legend holds that Gabriel Possenti was a Catholic seminarian in Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy. In 1860 he is said to have used his skills with the pistol to drive off a band of marauding soldie…

A musical interlude before we “dress up for Mass.”Happy Sunday.
[ This content originated at Musings Over a Pint ]

BadWolf Brewing is expanding even further. A press release from the City of Manassas Economic Development Department has the details.BadWolf Public House to open in Historic Downtown Manassas The owners of BadWolf Brewing Company and CJ Finz …

I brought along a flashlight during my weekly trip to the indoor range. I’ve been reading about various techniques for holding a flashlight while shooting a pistol, and have been trying them out in my dry fire practice. I found two options that seemed to work for me and now it was time to try them out with live fire.

The first flashlight technique I tried was holding the flashlight like a cigar between my first and second fingers of my support hand. The flashlight is pressed up under the trigger guard, while the support hand index finger goes in front of the trigger guard. I’ve seen this referred to as the Graham Technique. Except for that odd finger placement on the trigger guard, I found the technique very effective. The flashlight moved around a bit until I applied more pressure to pull it back into my hand on the pistol grip.

Next I tried the Harries Technique. In this, the flashlight is held in the support hand, which is crossed under the gun hand, and the back of your weak hand supports the gun hand. In dry fire practice, I thought this technique would be useful, but under live fire I found it woefully lacking in support and stability.

After devoting a few magazines to both techniques, I decided I would concentrate on the first technique, at least for this practice session. After a box of ammo downrange, I was pretty comfortable with holding the flashlight under the trigger and keeping it in place with repeated fire. Unfortunately, I can’t actually live fire in the dark with the flashlight. Any nighttime practice I get is limited to dry fire.

I finished up the practice with some close 5 yard precision shooting, which was surprisingly satisfying, followed by some 20 yards shots that were less so. In total, 150 rounds were put down range at this fun “lunch break.”

Happy feet!!!

To make up a lack of content, enjoy this meme that made me laugh out loud.Though I am not sure if my laugh was one of disgust, or fear.
[ This content originated at Musings Over a Pint ]

Once again, Governor McAuliffe shows his disdain for the Constitution, self defense and U.S. military personnel.  From a VCDL Alert…Governor McAuliffe just vetoed HB 1582, Delegate Campbell’s bill to allow active duty and honorably discharged mi…

The “No More Black Targets” Campaign is, apparently, a movement to eliminate the use of black targets at gun ranges. Or, I think it is. Honestly, I am not sure if this is a serious movement or an exceptionally well-played internet troll. From the website…

An academic study published by University of Illinois researchers drew together findings from 42 different studies on trigger bias to examine whether race affects how likely a target is to be shot.

“What we found is that it does,” Mekawi told NPR’s Arun Rath, who covered the story.

“In our study we found two main things: First, people were quicker to shoot black targets with a gun, relative to white targets with a gun. And … people were more trigger-happy when shooting black targets compared to shooting white targets.”

The claims of liberal snowflakes often border on the absurd, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard of race being applied to cardboard. If race is applicable to non-living objects, then we must take into account that most guns are black as well. It then follows that what we actually have is a black-on-black crime issue, rather than an issue of racism.

On the other hand…

On Saturday it was time once again to head over to Charlottesville for the monthly IDPA match held by the Rivanna Action Pistol club. Checking the weather the evening before, I saw there was a predicted 35° temperature swing during the time of the match. The morning started at 34° and the car thermometer read 72° at the end of the match — in February!

The Match Director set up four extremely challenging stages. The first stage had us seated at a table, with the loaded gun in a box, and spare magazines on the table. There were two rows of targets placed behind a row of non-threats. Copious leaning in the chair was required to see all targets. Head shots were not required, but for all intents and purposes, heads shots were the safest option to avoid the non-threat targets.

Stage 2 was an interesting stage with two moving targets. From the start position we faced three targets; an open target on the left, in the center an up-down target that popped up from behind a barrel and activated by a stomp plate, and on the left a paper target with a falling popper behind it. The popper activated a double swinger with a non-threat that we would shoot from the next position.

The up-down target come up and dropped back down very quickly, so you had to be ready to shoot it when you stepped on the activator. There were differing opinions on when to activate the double swinger. The targets were slow to separate, but as they slowed the targets would get back in sync. Continuing through the course we faced a target between two non-threats. At the final position, three more targets, two of which were also partially obscured by non-threats. Though not required, shooting head shots seemed the safest course of action.

Stage 3 started us facing up range, standing in front of a target stand, which we knocked over at the start before turning to engage three targets while on the move. Moving to cover, we found two more targets, with a non-threat placed to make head shots the way to go yet again. All the targets on this course of fire required a minimum of three hits each.

The fourth match stage, which was the first one our squad shot, consisted of just three, open targets. Magazines were downloaded to 6 rounds. We put two hits on each target, did a slide lock reload, then put two more hits on each. Simple? Not quite, the targets were set at 35 yards! It was quite the stage on which to warm up. We were warned that future matches would feature even longer shots.

The match was a lot of fun, and a bit frustrating at the same time. I hit three non-threats and dropped several head shots. Accuracy was extra important at this month’s match. Between long distance shots, fast movers, head shots, and lots of non-threats, it was quite the challenge. In total, the 68 shooters racked up 3,786 points down, 136 hits on non threats and 40 procedurals — in just four stages requiring about only 60 shots!

The Rivanna club is hosting the Commonwealth Cup in September, so I expect the monthly matches leading up to the sanctioned match this fall to be more demanding than usual. It’ll be good preparation, as well as a fun way to, hopefully, get better!

Now, back to the practice range, and more dry fire…