You need to sweat the small stuff...

The past week or so I've written and trashed about a dozen blog posts in addition to the other dozen or so blog posts I'm typically working on at any given point in time.  I didn't really have any interest in commenting on the evil doing in Aurora as the pro-gunners provided the usual excellent viewpoints that I agree with and the anti-gunners trotted out the usual fodder... and most folks didn't change their mind or modify their lives on either side.

We've been very busy, and fortunately my beautiful, sexy redheaded wife has been takin' care of business as I am still trudging through this surgery recovery which was topped off with my first kidney stone which still hasn't passed.  Nothing like a gal blowin' smoke with some diesel power to take care of yard work and such.  Dang, I'm blessed with a life better than I deserve.

You see, I'm one of the most anal retentive over-thinkers that probably can barely be tolerated by most sane folks.  You're not supposed to sweat the small stuff, but I do... and I think you probably should too.

Most people don't mess up on the big decisions or things in life, but they slowly drown with the small things they let go and don't attend to... like a frog slowly cooking in a pot of warming water.  Face it, you're careful picking out a spouse, a car, a house... you research that sixty-inch flat-screen like you were finding a cure for cancer.  On the other hand, most folks blow past those little decisions and things in life, not giving due diligence, until one day we drown in an ocean of meaningless manure that we've piled up over time.

We try to live life by design.  It's no accident how we live, where we live, why we live, where we work, what we do, and why we do it.  That's not to say we haven't made a lot of mistakes, but I can assure you that we have seen the fruits of our labor over time from all that small stuff and the big decisions.

Sometimes, folks just have their heads in the sand or just figure somehow it will all work out or someone, maybe something, will take care of the problems.  I guess I've become tired and callous to many folks problems that are of their own doing.  If you're household income is $84,000 a year and you're losing your $385,000 home and the government won't help you refinance... tough, downsize and live within your means with some buffer space.  So you can't afford a decent gun for self-defense, but your monthly cable or satellite bill is $69.95... well that's over $800 a year for guns and ammo folks.  Did you know that you can get your kid a Ruger 10/22 and a pile of ammo for the cost of an xBox or Playstation 3 set-up?  Wonder which will still be around and working when your kid has kids?

Sports and athletics are great, but if you're spending a thousand a year on game tickets and memorabilia for your favorite team and don't have five-hundred in savings while your credit cards are maxed out... get a clue.  I'm not impressed if your eleven year-old played ball in sixty-seven games and five tournaments in four different states this summer... can he or she swim? use a map? know what to do if they're alone and lost? make a fire or shelter? build something? help someone out? handle a gun? fight off an aggressor? cook dinner? work with common tools?

I really think this country is coming to a crossroads from which there will be no return.  It's not red and blue states, it's not Democrats or Republicans, it's not conservatives or liberals... I think it's more basic than that.  There's basically two kinds of  folks in my view... those that want to take care of themselves and those that want taken care of.  Unfortunately, even a lot of those in the conservative or Republican or red states want taken care of more than they will admit.

That is not to say I don't think there is a role for government.  I just think the government needs to stick to the big things outlined in the Constitution and let folks sweat the small stuff.  Military... yes.  Government backed loans for school or houses... no.  Fire and police departments... yes.  Government run or backed healthcare... no.  Courts and prisons... yes.  Taking away my tools or abilities to protect myself and my family... no.

You have to be proactive in the small stuff.  That local official you elect today may be your senator or governor in twenty years.  The letter you write your congressman instead of another Facebook post that gets a few dozen likes probably has more impact for your cause.  A few minutes of talking and a back rub for your spouse will cost you far less than a divorce that really resulted from a pile of little things that slipped by.  Setting up a tent and building a fire in the backyard will be a better time and memory than Batman returns for the umpteenth time.

Well, shooting range upgrades, varsity tennis practice, state fair archery, the urologist, and a busted dishwasher seem to be the pressing items this week.  I've been rambling on and while I'm sure you've got better things to do than read through my diatribe... though if you've actually gotten this far... I'm curious... how much would you pay to be unarmed in a dark room with a hundred plus strangers?  $7.50?  $11.00?

If you're not doing much, stop on by... we'll be setting up a tent and building a fire.  Oh, and maybe tomorrow, think about things that are troubling you or naggin' in the back or your mind... 'cause maybe... You need to sweat the small stuff...

Side-saddle shell shucking...

Now I realize that everyone will have their own preferences and opinions, but the gals and I have multiple sets of three types of firearms at the ready for our home and personal defense... pistols, Ruger SR9 and SR9c... rifles, Ruger Mini-14... and shotguns, Mossberg 500.  We have many years of experience with these particular firearms and our guns have all been run fairly hard, well-maintained, and demonstrated excellent reliability.

While the guns are reliable and have different strengths depending on the situation, the gals and I need to practice regularly to be as reliable as our guns.  It's been a busy summer, the excavators are reconfiguring our shooting range out back, and I'm recovering from some significant surgery... so I've been doing a fair bit of dry-fire practice and reloading drills with dummy rounds.

Our home-defense Mossberg 500s have TacStar six-shell side-saddles for tactical reloads of 12-gauge buckshot or slugs.  There are various views, techniques, and opinions on tactical reloading with shotguns, but basically there are two primary methods most folks use involving keeping the shotgun up, shouldered, and in the fight with the strong-hand while the weak-hand loads additional shells.

The first method is done with the shotgun shells loaded in the side-saddle pointed down so the shooter removes a shell by pulling it up, then reaches over the top of the receiver and drops it into the open action through the ejection port.

The second method is with the shotgun shells pointing up in the side-saddle.  The shooter then pulls a shell down from the side-saddle, reaches under the gun and pushes a shell into the tube magazine with the thumb while the action is closed.

I've exaggerated the moves in the pictures so you can actually see the shotgun shell.  You'll also notice that in the final picture, for our standard set-up, we keep four additional shells of buckshot pointed down and two shells with slugs pointed up.  This allows for tactical loading of additional buckshot over the top of the receiver and what I might call "strategic" loading of slugs as needed from underneath into the tube magazine.

So if you decide to use or integrate a shotgun into your defensive plans... however you use or configure your shotgun for home or self-defense... they have limited round capacity... so practice tactical reloading and maybe consider some... Side-saddle shell shucking...

Update: I probably should have mentioned that the TacStar Side-Saddle shell carriers were easy to install and have held up well over time.  They come with all necessary hardware and screws... just use some medium thread-locker on the mounting screws... which I often do on most guns.

Practical Poetry...

I've always enjoyed good advice that sticks with me, good mnemonics can make for good memory.  I remember dad used to tell us kids as we drove along... no air conditioning in our cars except the windows in those days... "Don't stick your arm out too far, it may go home in another car."  I also remember, "If you're looking here, while walking there, you'll walk into a wall, totally unaware."  Good advice.

Little sayings like, "Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosy" kept me from bust knuckles or over-tightening bolts.  "Aim small, miss small" is something that iron sights and a distant target will prove correct.  Of course if you're old enough to have more than a few gray hairs, you may even recall the advice of the Burma Shave road signs...  

A guy
Who drives
A car wide open
Is not thinkin'
He's just hopin'
Burma-Shave 

Well, I don't have the eloquence or flow of terrific blog writers like Brigid... but about ten years ago I wrote a poem for my daughter... in preparation for her first gun when she was seven.  I hoped it would help her continue the safe practices she had been taught and might be a good memory for her.  This is the first time I've publicly shared her poem as her copy is framed and sits on an end-table in our home.

My Daughter’s First Gun

I thank the Lord above

For you, my daughter to love,

So heed these words I say

It may save a life someday,

Safely point your gun

Never at anyone,

Never let your finger

On the trigger linger,

Do not load ammunition

Until you’re in position,

Remember to always track

Beyond your target’s back,

Unload your gun then check

The chamber you should inspect,

Protect your eyes and ears,

So they last through the years,

Whether fun, sport, or defense

Always shoot with common sense.

With love, your Dad

Yeah, it's a bit cheesy, but I'm not a poet and she was seven at the time.  She learned early on about gun safety and handling... and she took it to heart.  From a dad to a daughter... some... Practical Poetry...

Random Violence: Attack at the County Fair!

There is a lot of talk these days, including blogs and info on the web, about training and techniques for self-defense, concealed carry, prepping, and survival yet I still meet a lot of folks who figure they're basically safe and nothing will happen to them because they don't go anywhere dangerous.  True safety and security can only be achieved by what you do, not by what someone else doesn't do... and even then bad things can happen to good folks.

Less than two weeks ago Greg Ellifritz, President of Active Response Training, wrote a terrific post about Random Violence.  Unfortunately, we had a young gal experience an act of random violence at our county fair this past Friday morning.  Truthfully, most prepared adults that I know couldn't have done any more to protect themselves than this young lady did... which was basically nothing.

Imagine... you're at the county fair... it's six-thirty in the morning... it's cool outside, the air is crisp... you're sitting outside your camper in the campground at the county fair... your sitting with three or four friends... less than ten feet from your folks in the camper... you're surrounded by other campers full of folks you know, you've been hanging out with them all week long, you're neighbors and fellow 4H'ers.

You see a younger man walking... he approaches and stops... he's ten to fifteen feet away... he looks at you... he asks, "Do you feel safe?"... you start to say, "What?"... but before you can even reply he's sprinted the distance between you and him... he knocks you out of your chair to the ground with a crushing punch from his fist to your face... he's on top of you... what do you do?

Fortunately, you're sitting with a friend... a teenager... a young man who will instantly prove himself in an adverse circumstance... a young man who leaps from his chair... tackles your assailant knocking him off you...  the attacker swings a wild punch at this young man... it goes wide and misses... then the attacker runs off.

Everything that has just occurred took place, not in minutes, but seconds.  From the initial observation of the man... to his strange question... to the attack... and finally to the assailant running off took a total of maybe less than ten, not more than fifteen seconds.  The sheriff's department was called... the young gal... all of sixteen... was taken to the hospital for treatment... and the assailant was caught... found lying on the ground under another camper not far away... apparently under the influence of drugs.

This is not an effort to find fault in the defensive or security practices, preparations, or abilities with anyone involved... I doubt that most folks I know could have done anything to prevent or avert this attack due to the rapid, explosive nature of it.  The primary lessons that can be taken away from this unfortunate incident is that you can't prepare for everything, you're not necessarily safe in numbers, and as a teenager, you're not necessarily safe when you're only ten feet from your parents.

Most folks have never suffered a devastating, dizzying blow to the face or head.  Most think they know what they'd do if attacked, but reality is different.  One thing is for sure... mindset matters and in a case like this... if there are not any friends to help after the attack... your mindset and training will matter... you'll need the will-power and ability to fight back.

This is what A Girl and her Gun has been talking about as she relates her story and training experiences.  If you haven't read her blog... go over and take a look.  Her reality is like that of these young folks at a county fair... forever altered by real, adverse circumstances.

While preparations likely would not have prevented the initial attack in this case... what about after the first hit?  Parents, are you preparing yourselves for self-defense and a mindset for survival?  Are you preparing your children?

Let's face it... you never know... you too could experience an act of... Random Violence: Attack at the County Fair!

Online version of newspaper article about the incident.

A fair week is always a good week...

Our county fair was held this past week.  In a rural county like ours, fair is kind of like a family reunion of sorts as you see family, friends, folks that you haven't seen since school was out or maybe you haven't even seen since last year's fair.

My main gal (wife) and I are both 4H Shooting Sports instructors.  Our shooting season begins in February each year, culminates in judging for the county fair, and ends the last weekend of July with our annual Top Gun/Top Shot competition or whatever we're calling it any particular year.

The 4H Shooting Sports kids range in age from eight to eighteen and participate in both interviews and shooting events during our county judging.

My little gal took first place in the Senior Archery division and will be heading to the Ohio State Fair in August to compete against the county winners from across the state.  She's won first place at the county level and outstanding of the day or first in class at state fair in pistol, rifle, shotgun, and archery over the years, so hopefully August will be a good opportunity for her again.

She entered the contest for the Clinton County Junior Fair Queen this year.  She was second-runner-up at the fair... but she's still my first place princess!  They kept her busy at various events like judging and sales.

Our 4H club had a nice display of our kids hard work and efforts... but no real firearms, bows, cartridges, cartridge parts, arrows or parts of arrows allowed on the fair grounds in these politically corrected times.  An empty shotgun shell on a display board is obviously a far more dangerous situation than a fifty-seven-pound eight-year-old in a show ring with an eighteen-hundred pound steer.

There were lots of good fair food and fixin's, but my recent surgery limited my time at the fair this year and definitely limited my eating opportunities.  I did see some of next year's bacon supply sleeping in pens over at the hog barn.

Darryl Worley entertained folks with his brand of country hits including the patriotic "Have you forgotten"... which sadly, many in this country have.  One thing about country folks and fair... you see folks stop and step aside or tip a hat out of respect for veterans and military men and women... and hats come off while hands cover hearts every time the "Star Spangled Banner" is played.

While some in the blogosphere debate the validity of the term sheepdog, there's no question about it at the fair, because if you're alert... you'll see that sheepdogs are at the dog show two barns over... this is the sheep show.

Tractors pulled, diesel trucks smoked, daisy dukes badonkadonked, and folks had fun.  A fair week is always a good week...

Practicing with dummies...

There's been a lot of posts and information out there in the blogoshere about practice, drills, dry-firing, and other options or requirements by various folks for training minimums and routines.  While I think everyone should practice and train with their firearms regularly, I know a lot of folks who shoot fairly often, but rarely take the time to practice clearing pistol, rifle, or shotgun malfunctions.

If you're relying on a gun for self-defense, you need to know how to get it back into the fight as quickly as possible after a malfunction.  Most folks who follow this blog know I'm partial to Rugers and often my daily carry gun is a Ruger SR9c.  I've had good success with reliability for our numerous Ruger SR9's and SR9c's... but I've still had malfunctions... mostly due to ammunition problems.

I practice resolving pistol malfunctions using dummy rounds on the range at least monthly, and I practice clearing pistol malfunctions at least once a week during dry-fire exercises.  There are a lot of dummy rounds... dummies as I call'em... out there and I've tried several brands, but for regular use in practice... you can't beat the A-Zoom Precision Snap Caps.  They hold up well with a lot of use and abuse.

When I practice my tap-rack-bang process at the range, I often toss in a half-dozen or so dummies in a box of ammunition, load my magazines and then randomly shuffle the mags so I'm "surprised" when the failure to fire malfunction occurs.  I'll also use dummies to set-up "stove-pipes" and "double-feeds" to practice clearing other types of malfunctions that might require other than a tap-rack-bang.

I also will sometimes press the magazine release button while my gun is still holstered so I can practice drawing with a released magazine which causes a failure to feed after firing the first round.  You'll find that if this is the case, when you draw your gun... your magazine may not remain just unseated, but may actually fall out of the gun... fire your shot, reload with another magazine (don't go for the one on the ground unless that's all ya brung)... tap-rack-bang.

One word of caution... as an instructor... make sure your dummy rounds are clearly distinguishable by color... and that will help you pick'em up at the range... and even with dummies... treat every gun as if it were loaded following the safety rules.

So if you're not doing it already, maybe it's time for you to be... Practicing with dummies...

The best back-up gun you ever bought...

A guy who took my NRA Basic Pistol/Ohio Concealed Carry course a while back recently asked me about my recommendation for a back-up gun.  His Smith & Wesson M&P9 9mm is currently his only handgun and some folks might think I should recommend a S&W M&P9 Compact... or maybe a Shield or Bodyguard.

Well, I told him that the best back-up gun for him might be a .22 pistol... and in his particular case... a Smith & Wesson M&P 22 would be a good choice if the budget isn't too tight.  Yeah, I know some of you think I've lost my mind... or maybe you think I just don't know jack.  Well, I do know Jack... he lives up the road a piece.

This particular fella I'm speakin' about took my class almost two years ago and probably hasn't put two boxes of ammo through his carry gun since because money is tight... which in his particular case really means I'd rather spend my money on something else.  He's married to a nice gal who doesn't even want a gun in the house or around the kids.  In situations like this, a good recommendation is a .22 pistol.

Here's some reasons why:

Inexpensive to shoot:  A .22 pistol is easy on the budget when it comes to ammo costs.  That means you'll hopefully practice more and eventually save enough for that back-up gun in a larger caliber... but by then, you're other half will likely want their own gun.

Let's you focus on the fundamentals:  Many folks need to practice and work on the fundamentals of shooting, and you can do that with a .22...  Keepin' your sight alignment and your sight picture while you're squeezin' the trigger.

Similar operation: These days, it's very easy to find a .22 pistol that is similar, if not the same, as your regular carry gun.  The Ruger LCR can be had in .38 Special +P and .22, the M&P also offers a .22, and you can get 1911 conversion kits or 1911s in .22.

Introducing new shooters: You will find relatives, friends, kids, and even your better half will have a much more pleasant and successful shooting experience which will encourage them to try it again.

Now I know this doesn't apply to everyone's situation, but if you've only got one handgun and your budget is tight or your family isn't too accepting... I'd encourage you to consider a .22...

...it may be... The best back-up gun you ever bought...

So what do you think?