Evolution and FUDDS

 There's a little kerfluffle regarding Ken Hackathorn and his commentary on things like appendix carry, as well as "gadgets" we put on guns, such as optics and lights. The short summary is that Hackathorn doesn't allow AIWB in his classes, and he's not a proponent of optics and lights. 

To go into greater detail, Hackathorn said that any gun carried AIWB is officially a "decocker." Amusing because in the modern world of semi-autos, a lot of kids have never dealt with a DA/SA gun. (Tell me you're old without telling me you're old.) Further, he was very derisive of optics or lights unless you are military or police. That's pretty divisive right there.

Now most of you are probably at least passingly familiar with Ken Hackathorn. Quickly, he's a former US Army SF soldier, deputy sheriff, and has been a consultant for numerous companies that you've doubtless heard of, including Glock and HK. He contributed greatly to the world of competitive shooting, including being one of the original advisors to IDPA. He's trained thousands of people and he's an excellent shooter. To be completely dismissive of anything he says would be, at least in my opinion, a mistake. One of the east coast match directors I know referred to Ken Hackathorn as "the only guy in IDPA that gives a shit about the shooters."

All that said, Hackathorn is missing the mark when it comes to today's shooters. While appendix carry isn't universal, or even universally recommended, it works really well for a lot of shooters. And while lights on guns rarely see real world use, when you need it, it is really nice to have it. Optics are a game changer for a lot of shooters, but most especially shooters with aging eyes. (Of which, I am sure, Hackathorn is one!)

Now I'm not going to beat on Hackathorn, but I am going to observe that I think almost everybody hits a point in their life and/or career where they are less accepting of new developments. My grandparents wouldn't even entertain a cordless phone, much less a cell phone. I remember trying to get my grandpa to use a cordless phone, telling him that he could make or take phone calls from the living room, but his response, every time, was to point to the little table in the kitchen, and say, "that is where we make phone calls." Mental flexibility had simply fled the building.

So while I'm not calling Hackathorn old or out of date, I am questioning his mental flexibility. Not that he doesn't have anything to offer, because this man has decades of relevant experience when it comes to the employment of firearms in real world scenarios. I would still take a class with him any day of the week. I wouldn't call him for advice about appendix carry or pistol optics, however.

I suppose that if I draw the timeline out far enough, I'm going to fall into the same trap. One day something will change or there will be a new development, but I won't be able to wrap my mind around it. Hopefully I'll have enough presence of mind to recognize the disconnect. Hopefully that will be enough for me to recuse myself from that topic, discussion, or point of instruction. Hopefully.

All The Pistol Draw Mistakes

 Issues observed in recent weapon draw practice:

1. Ducking/turtling head

This one is obvious. The more the student moves their head, the less consistent their draw, slower speed to first aimed shot, and reduced accuracy downrange.

2. Scoop draws, various

I saw 3 different variants of scoop, to include one student scooping their hand low before ever getting to the holster. So I'd classify them as early scoop, mid scoop, and late scoop. None of them are efficient.

3. Two step holster retention

Several students using their thumb only to defeat retention with the remainder of their fingers nowhere near the grip.

4. Robotic movements

Students having hitches at various points in their draw, to include outright hesitations.

5. Hands coming together late (playing cymbals)

Rather than getting hands together at step 3, several students were getting the gun almost all the way out and then putting their support hand on the gun.

6. Adding extraneous motion(s)

If 4 steps to draw is good, 5, 6, or 7 must be better. Plus mo' tactical.

7. Low intensity of practice

Several were just going through the motions, i.e. I was told to do this and I'm doing it, with no real thought to why I'm doing it or that it could save my life.

8. Starting with hand already on gun

Apparently they're going to walk around all day with hand on gun rather than in field interview.

9. Slamming to a halt at the conclusion of the draw (punch that gun out!)

Nobody ever sees their sights or gets accurate shots if they slam to a halt at the end.

10. Changing stance/squatting during draw (poop stance)

Comedic and slow.

11. Fishing

I saw a lot less of this than I normally see, but there is always at least one representative of the fishing clan.

Training Junkies

 Lot of talk lately about training junkies when it comes to classes. I noted several years ago that any training company that isn't nationally known (Gunsite) is likely to have 150-250 students, and those same students keep showing up, class after class. This is probably why some instructors do a lot of traveling, otherwise they'd be dealing with the same group, and that group by its very nature won't typically be enough to sustain somebody who is dependent upon this for their sole source of income. This article isn't really about income levels and professional instruction, but I will note that it isn't easy to make tons of income in this space. The number of instructors you know that are making their entire living from this endeavor is small. (Many have pensions from LE, other revenue streams, etc.)

So the real conundrum as an instructor is how to coax the tons of firearms owners out there into classes. Not the junkies, but the other people. Depending on who you want to believe, somewhere around 17 million guns were sold in the USA in 2022 alone. Now obviously many of those guns were sold to people that already own guns, but even a small percentage of that number going to new owners means that the potential audience for firearms instruction isn't shrinking.

A lot of those new firearms owners do take one class: concealed carry. They aren't interested in any further instruction, and the only reason that they did the CC class was due to state requirements. In their mind no other instruction is wanted or needed. As a side note, I don't want anybody to have to take a class or training in order to exercise any right. But I do want them to pursue training because they desire to, not out of any requirement. If I've seen anything, it is that governments do love to heap requirements on people's ability to carry a gun, and at some point it becomes so difficult, time consuming, and expensive, that most won't bother. This disproportionately affects lower income individuals, and so those requirements are really an exceptional tax on the poor.

If there were some reliable way to convert the CC class attendee into a student of other classes, it would definitely stimulate the training economy. If you've figured that part out, you're definitely winning. If I have noted anything, it is that most shooters are getting their education about shooting from the online world. In some cases I've seen people really do well from that, but I have also seen people miss substantive things through an incomplete education in that venue.

I taught a private lesson to a family several months ago. They were avid shooters, but didn't have a lot of understanding about achieving accuracy with a pistol. One of the family members talked to me about learning from Garand Thumb. Not that GT doesn't know what he's doing, but 99% of his channel is really entertainment. He is the online version of "come to a show, be entertained, possibly get some info." There are several instructors out there that do the same thing in person. Cool stories, engaging personality, and you go shooting with them, but any reliable feedback on your skill and abilities is rare.

So, if you have figured out how to get more gun owners into classes, share! I know Maj Toure is doing it community activism style, and that seems to be working for him. I ask these questions completely selflessly, as I only do private lessons currently. Open enrollment classes don't have a lot of upside for me right now, and my day job is also firearms instruction, so that is enough for me. But I would like to see the training community grow beyond the same group of people who keep coming back. (No offense to you guys, and I enjoy seeing you at every class I attend, but some new faces would probably be good for us all!)

I know some of the hurdles already: fear of failure, fear of the unknown, remote training locations, austere training locations, cost, travel time, and I'm sure there are others. Solving a lot of these issues would require a substantive and ongoing investment that most instructors either can't or won't afford, which is why you see classes held out in a remote field with a porta-potty if you're lucky. Things like running water and HVAC are luxuries when it comes to this training community as it currently exists.

Did I mention that I'm open to ideas?

The Importance of the Pre Season

 Just like a sports team, when it comes to my training season, I do pre-season work to prepare for the hijinks.

Some of it is probably obvious, like going to the range and making sure that everything I demo is squared away. That's just the surface level stuff, though. I shoot often enough that I don't really need to do much of a run up, as I'm almost always at the range. I may take some detours into things I'm trying to improve on, like raw speed.

All of my lesson plans get reviewed at a minimum. Anything that needs to be changed, will obviously get changed. Some things get out of date quickly, and some things evolve. The lesson plans I'm using are nowhere near the same ones as even two years ago.

Power points also get reviewed and freshened up with new photos, graphics, and any changes that need to be made to properly reflect the lesson plans.

All of the equipment that I'm going to be using gets looked over and checked to make sure it is all in working order. Anything not meeting specifications gets repaired or replaced.

I also have to order consumables for the season. The biggest of which is targets. I don't want to tell you how many targets we go through, it is pretty crazy. I go out of my way to reduce waste, but some of it is unavoidable. Other consumables: gun cleaning stuff, spray glue, dummy rounds, binder clips, wooden stakes, and batteries.

Much more recently I've been going out of my way to physically prepare myself. Contrast that with years previously where I was just letting myself get fatter and more out of shape. I could get away with that at a younger age, but now that I'm more "senior," I need to be more proactive about my physical abilities. There's a lot to go into with this, but suffice it to say that I'm doing a lot of weights and supplemental cardio. I'm doing all of that more with an eye toward injury prevention. I don't need to go giving myself a case of rhabdomyolysis. (Been there, done that. Not fun.)

What do you do in order to prepare for your work? Do you find any similarities between that and me? I'm curious, let me know.

2024: It is going to get interesting!

 Election years are always difficult if you are a shooter, especially in terms of ammunition availability and pricing. Every election seems to generate the same sturm und drang: THE END OF DEMOCRACY and such. While I don't think that much hinges on a presidential election in the USA, they are certainly important, but this discussion isn't really about that.

What I'm concerned about really centers on the aforementioned inability to get bang bang fodder, but there are related issues. If we get riots, if there's another pandemic, if we have lockdowns, if the planets align a certain way, etc., things will get difficult in general, not just when it comes to trying to buy a few boxes (or cases) of 9mm. While I can't even begin to predict what can or will happen in the next 12 months, I suspect it'll be a bumpy ride.

Now is a good time to start considering those potential issues, so if you haven't already, I'd buy a few extra cases of ammunition. It won't go bad, and it isn't like you won't use it! Whatever you usually buy for practice, buy some more. If you have the budget, I'd buy the whole year's worth right now, and then continue to supplement it as time and and cash flow allows. 

If you reload your own ammo, get primers and powder now. It is all available and while it isn't cheap, it is probably as cheap as it is going to be. (And that sucks, but this is reality, not "what should be.") And for that matter, if you don't reload, but you always wanted to start, DO IT NOW. I even put together a video about it, which you can watch here. 

There are obviously other considerations. In general, having 72 hours worth of shelf stable food and water in the house never hurt anybody. Make sure you have a decent first aid kit along with some trauma level stuff in the event of the worst. Know how to use it all.

Take care of you and your family, as I fear things will get weird. If you live in a major city, have a plan to bug in and bug out. I hope I'm wrong and that 2024 is a very uneventful year, but as things keep repeating, I doubt that it will.

Lastly, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Despite the fears that I have, I also have high hopes for us all. Be well!

Maine Shot Holmes' Target

 

A deceptively simple target, as well as a drill that is low in round count, for those of you trying to save your shekels. You can download it here.

America: We're fat and we're hurting

 Fat kid checking in here. I know, you've probably seen more recent photos and videos and said something like, "Hey, he isn't fat!" Well through a lot of effort and drugs, I'm currently not fat. But that said, I got a fat kid trapped in my body, and if he gets his way, he'll come out hard and fast, so I have to keep him contained. Trust me when I speak from the experience and perspective of being a fat kid.

My most recent weight loss has had several friends and acquaintances coming to talk to me privately about losing weight. I'm trying to help them as best as I can, but I know that I have some advantages and not everybody shares those.

But the mere fact that these people are coming to me tells me that there are a lot of people who are struggling with their weight. I know that there is a whole movement out there, "healthy at any weight," but some heavy people are neither healthy or happy with where they are at. And for every person coming to me, there have to be some uncounted number of people that I'm not aware of, that are just having real troubles.

The human body has evolved to feed itself. If we don't do that, we die, and so hunger is a strong drive. For the vast majority of our history, we've been under-fed, and it is just in the very recent time we live that calories are in wild surplus. Add in to that the "food" industry, kicking out engineered food like products that have very little nourishment, and we're in a really bad place when it comes to being able to stay lean. Bad calories are cheap and easy, and so the fight to eat decently is real. The other issue is that those engineered foods tend to not cause satiety, which means that you just want to keep eating way past what your caloric requirements are. Over time, eating like that will really cause hormonal issues, and that is where I found myself back in January of this year.

The good news, the wild hope, is the new spate of GLP-1 agonist class drugs, such as Semiglutide, Tirzepatide, and similar. Of course, they are quite new when it comes to drugs, and therefore long term use of them is an ongoing study. One of which I am voluntarily participating in, obviously. I talked to a doctor friend of mine, and he thinks these drugs are going to change the face of obesity, diabetes, and related mortality causes. Then again, due to their newness, they're experiencing shortages, and when they are available, they aren't cheap. If we're not careful, this could quite readily turn into a haves vs. have-nots, where the rich can easily stay thin and healthy, whereas the economically challenged have no such benefits. Generic versions of these drugs are years away, certainly because of how big pharma is making money hand over fist when it comes to obesity treatments.

I am sincerely hoping that by next year the availability of these drugs will go up and the cost will go down. With any luck those among us who can't afford these drugs now will be able to in short order. I'm hoping that these drugs will continue to work well for people and that there are no hidden gotchas. Of course, if there are any long-term gotchas, I'll probably be able to tell you, as I'm going to keep taking these drugs. Paraphrasing Charleton Heston, "you can take them from my cold dead hands."

I've lost over 40 lbs, largely due to Tirzepatide. Mrs. Graydog has lost over 50 lbs doing the same thing. Heck, she's the one who found out about this drug and showed me how well it worked. It has been life-changing for both of us. We were in really bad health before, and the difference is night and day. Tirzepatide kick started me eating a good diet, getting in real workouts, and actually giving a shit again about my health. I'm hoping and praying that even if Tirzepatide won't work for you, that there is a solution on the near horizon, especially if you're one of my silent and hurting friends.

And if you are hurting out there and you want to talk to me about it, please do. I won't judge, because duh, I've been there. But for certain drugs and other factors, I'd still be there. A change of life or circumstances, and I could go back. I'm 6 months into being healthier, but that also means I'm really only 6 months out from being just as bad as I was.

So there's good and bad news in this post. Even if you can't afford or don't want a drug, you have more power within you than you give yourself credit for. You can be better than you were, and if you do it every day for a while, you'll be really amazed with your results.