Call me Ahab

posted by Caleb on Aug 19

I swear to Buddha, we just did this 1911 thing like two weeks ago, but because The Breda shot one and liked it, all the cultists are all “OMG 1911 is TEH 1337SOCKS” or something a little less hyperbolic. Now, most folks who know me should know that I believe that your choice of a defensive pistol is a personal choice, and as such you should make the choice which best suites your defensive needs, which is ultimately why I get torqued off when people refer to 1911s like they’re the be all and end all of the defensive handgun platform.

If you have a 1911 and love it, more power to you, but just because it’s a great pistol for you doesn’t mean that someone else might be better served by a Glock, or a Beretta, or a wheelgun or whatever. You should shoot what you like, and be happy with that - but don’t discourage someone from buying a different gun because it’s not The Holy 1911, for pete’s sake.

Honestly, you guys should all strive to be like Tam. She loves the 1911 hard, but in all the times I’ve talked to her about which gun to buy for this or that, she has never once said “don’t get X, get a 1911 because it’s the 1337haxxors of pistols”. I think my fundamental issue is that I don’t understand gun fanboyism, or gun cults or whatever. I certainly prefer quality handguns to cheap ones, but beyond that, it’s a tool. Just like with my hammer or weedwhacker, I like the one that works the best for me to get whatever job I want it to do done.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Just because I have a closet full of Berettas doesn’t mean it’s the best gun, it just means that it’s a gun that works for me, that I’m very comfortable shooting. I’ll never tell someone to not buy a 1911 just because I’m unimpressed by them when compared to any other pistol.

posted by Caleb on Aug 19

Head over to the official Gun Nuts: The Next Generation blog for coverage of the 2008 Steel Challenge World Championships, where KC Eusebio won his 2nd Steel Challenge title in 5 years.

Congratulations again to KC on his fine showing!

posted by Caleb on Aug 18

I didn’t shoot at all this weekend, marking the first weekend I’ve taken off from shooting since I found out I’d be going to the ParaUSA summer camp.  Honestly, I was sitting at my desk this morning thinking about “what to blog” and was looking around for match photos when I realized I hadn’t shot at all, which is why I didn’t have any match photos.

Luckily, Tracy did shoot some IDPA this weekend, so if you’re hankering for a little fix of IDPA, you can check out her blog.

As a part of that, I’ve sort of remembered just how addicting this “competitive shooting” stuff is; I was itching to pick up a gun this weekend, even though I really enjoyed not having to haul myself out of bed at the asscrack on dawn on a Saturday, I kind of sat around the house going “ho-hum, wish I was shooting instead of watching equestrian olympics”.

Plus, I’m already thinking about what guns I’m going to buy if I don’t end up liking the Para enough to buy it - I really want another DA/SA 9mm for USPSA Production/IDPA SSP division, plus I want to get a non-ported barrel for my .40 S&W Glock so I can shoot that in Limited instead of Open.

posted by Caleb on Aug 15

The local ABC affiliate in Ventura County (I love Ventura) has some pretty positive coverage of the Steel Challenge championship!

Alicia Setting and Molly Smith are both 11 years old and are among the world’s best pistol shooters. They are two girls who say they enjoy guns over dolls.

Alicia can fire a pistol at five targets, hitting the bull’s-eye on each of them in a blistering four seconds. Molly is just as fast. They are both competing in the preteen division in the Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championship.

Not only is it good coverage, but they manage to portray young girls shooting as a positive thing.  I’m actually a little surprised that this came from an MSM outlet - normally this sort of coverage would be full of PSH about children and guns.  ABC 7 from Ventura gets a “bravo zulu” for this.

Now, to talk a bit about Steel Challenge World Championships - if you haven’t seen one of these before, you really should.  I’m sure that Shooting USA or Shooting Gallery will have an episode about this match, but it really is the fastest shooting sport ever.  They run a set of predefined stages, and man do this men and women run those guns fast.

The best part about Steel Challenge is how “all inclusive” it is - even though it was recently purchased by USPSA, Steel Challenge matches included competitive categories for everyone from IDPA shooters, rimfire shooters, and even Cowboy Action Shooters.  That’s right, you can go to the Steel Challenge World Championships to see if you’re literally “the fastest gun in the west”.

Awesome.

posted by Caleb on Aug 14

Kim Rhode, the most decorated American shooter, has picked up another medal to add to her already impressive collection.

Cainero, Rhode and Germany’s Christine Brinker were tied with 93 points each, an Olympic record, after the final round of the women’s skeet. The Italian won the shoot-off for gold in the rainy conditions, hitting both skeets while Rhode and Brinker hit 1-of-2.

Rhode then hit both targets in the second shoot-off to pick up silver and Brinker settled for third after connecting on just 1-of-2 skeets.

Congrats to Kim - it’s nice after the initial events to see US shooters picking up medals, first Glenn Eller won double trap, and now Kim picks up a silver in women’s skeet.

As a side note, I did not know that the word for the clays was actually “skeets” - I always just called them “clays” or “birds”.  The more you know, I suppose.

posted by Caleb on Aug 13

After last night’s show, I wanted to circle back to the topic of Action Airgun and focus on some of the cooler things that came out of the interview and the show.

Obviously, I was impressed with the potential training value of Action Airgun, which is completely separate in my mind from its value as a shooting sport. As a shooting sport, it carries the value of being able to introduce new shooters to the sport, to break down the barriers that some people may have towards competitive shooting, and to provide a reasonable level of entry from and equipment standpoint into the shooting sports. Like Collins said, it’s a “gateway sport”.

But I also really, really like it’s value as a training tool. I’m a big believer in dry firing as a practice exercise, because it builds trigger discipline, which is in my opinion the most important part of shooting well. What it adds that you can get from just dry firing is the additional practice of having to re-acquire your sight picture after each shot. Sure, the airsoft pistol doesn’t have the recoil of a real 1911, even a 9mm one, but the fact that the slide still moves and forces you to pick up that sight picture again is extremely valuable as a training tool for action shooters; and for defensive shooting as well.

The other topic that I wished I had spent more time on was the support that NSSF is giving to Action Airgun. I really like to see that, since introducing new shooters to the shooting sports is sort of NSSF’s bread and butter, and I honestly haven’t seen a shooting sport come along that was quite this conducive to that in a while. Ultimately, that’s the biggest appeal of this to me - the ability to recruit new shooters and get them shooting real guns.

Airsoft is wildly popular, which means this sport starts with a built in user base. Secondly, children have notoriously short attention spans, so the kid who thinks that plinking with a .22 is boring may be interested by the plastic equivalent of “clang-’n-bang”, specifically because it’s fast paced and interesting. Finally, it encourages group activity - forming a “fireteam” and shooting with your friends is going to be a lot more fun than running through the course all by yourself.

Personally, I’m actually really excited about this sport - I’m definitely going to be in on the inaugural season, one way or another.

posted by Caleb on Aug 13

I’m a big fan of innovative and creative stage design for action shooting, so when I was cruising the Down Range Blog this morning, you’ve got to understand the jaw-drop I had when I saw this CAS stage from the Washington State SASS championship.

The shooter starts shooting 2 pistols, then he have to turn the boat, pick up the rifle and shoot through the paddle wheel. He finishes the stage by getting off the boat, runs to a horse nearby, mounts it and finishes with the shotgun.

You have to click the link and watch the video to really grok the stage though - the shooter literally has to turn a boat, that’s not a figure of speech in this case.   Stages like this really make me want to get back into cowboy shooting - because I really need to be shooting another match every month.

posted by Caleb on Aug 13

Click the link to listen to yesterday’s show - we covered Action Airgun with an interview with Collins White, the president of the newest shooting sport to hit the ground, as well as some coverage and commentary on the Olympics.

 

 Action Airgun Interview [44:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I really should add that if you’re not in the online chat session found at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts you’re missing out - a lot of great show (and otherwise) related conversation is happing in there, in real time.  Bonnie and I take a lot of cues from those people, and it’s one of the easist ways to get in touch with us during the show.

Back to the topic of Action Airgun; the opportunity to talk to Collins about the development and future of the sport was a lot of fun for me - I personally think that this sport could really take off, all it needs is the right sponsor or big name to tie itself to, and off you go.  At the very least, I’ll be there for the innagural season come hell or highwater.

Again, you can check out show for the evening at the Gun Nuts: The Next Generation - Action Airguns link or by visiting the Gun Nuts blog and clicking the player in the upper right hand.

posted by Caleb on Aug 12

Glenn Eller from Texas won the Olympic Double Trap competition, and broke two Olympic records in so doing!

Glenn is a member of the Army Marksmanship Unit, congratulations on your excellent performance.

posted by Caleb on Aug 12

Check out the Gun Nuts Radio Blog for details on tonight’s show, featuring an interview with the president of the newest international shooting sport, Action Airgun.

Tonight at 11pm Eastern time, www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts.