In shooting there is always this haunting notion, this specter of “good enough”. As Claude Werner has pointed out over and over again untrained people have successfully defended themselves with firearms at rates that are impossible to ignore. That may seem an odd statement from a dude so into training to post on a blog about training but its true. I would contend if the problem doesn’t require skill than having skill won’t hurt, but if the problem does require skill then no amount of wishful thinking will do.
If you can shoot competitively then a simple shooting problem will offer you no challenge, but if you’ve only prepared for the easy problems a complex one will not stand still and allow you to catch up.
Shawn Lupka on Skill
October 28, 2019
Shooting Shawn Lupka Leave a comment
Boer Wars
October 17, 2019
Shooting SACRA in South Africa and CAFSAC in Canada afforded me the opportunity to visit the Anglo-Boer War Museum in Bloemfontein and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on different trips within a few months of each other.
Their difference in descriptions of the Boer Wars was… interesting. The lesson to be learned is that you’re wise to learn lessons from multiple sources and perspectives.
How to keep proper maintenance of your spotting scope
October 7, 2019
Shooting Marko Lewis Leave a comment
by Marko Lewis
If you want to ensure that your spotting scope is in working order, simply cleaning the lens from time to time will do the trick. However, if you want your spotting scope to retain its reliability and quality, you’ll need to put some extra effort into it.
In this article we’re going to talk about how to keep proper maintenance of your spotting scope, so without any further ado, let’s get straight to it.
Routine check-ups
Whenever you are using your spotting scope, there’s a chance that something didn’t ‘click’ right as it should have. Placing it on a rocky surface might result in tiny cracks appearing here and there, that time you dropped it and thought it wasn’t a big deal might’ve been actually. Performing regular routine check-ups is the easiest way to find out if anything’s gone awry.
You should inspect each component separately, both the interior and the exterior of your scope. If there’s even the slightest damage on your spotting scope, you should fix it before you even consider using it again (so as to prevent smaller damages ‘evolving’ into major ones).
Disassembling your scope
In most cases you will be able to tell if a part of your scope isn’t functioning properly. However, routine check-ups sometimes give off the impression that everything’s alright while in fact, it isn’t.
The best way to make sure every little piece of your scope is functioning in the way it should be is to disassemble it before you get to the cleaning part. Take off the screws (and don’t forget to count them so you can re-assemble the scope later), remove the tube from its axis and use the following tools to help make the disassembly process easier:
- Cotton swabs are pretty handy for dusty surfaces
- Soap or grease if some of the screws are screwed in too tightly
- Tongs go a long way for the tiniest screws
- Magnetic screwdriver for the smallest screws
Cleaning the lens
A spotting scope lens is rather delicate. The special type of glass used in spotting scopes might or might not be durable, but the fastest way to damage it even if it’s robust as can be is by using hard brushes.
Using soft brushes and dry cleaning cloths will make a big difference. Furthermore, the method by which you clean the lens will have a huge impact on whether you’ll damage it or not. If you start from the very center and spiralling towards the edges, you’re doing a good job.
Lastly, you should avoid applying too much pressure when you’re cleaning, even if there are some persistent stains on it. Exercise patience if you want to avoid damaging, or even breaking your spotting scope lens.
Cleaning the exterior surface
Cleaning the lens was the easy part. Cleaning the exterior surface is a bit trickier. There are so many small bits and pieces on your spotting scope, all of which are quite flimsy.
You will be able to spot lumps of debris, mud, and dirty, so you shouldn’t have any problems cleaning them with a piece of cloth. It’s highly recommended that you clean both interior and exterior of your scope before each use, but more importantly, make sure to clean it afterwards as well.
If you’ve been using a piece of cloth to clean the exterior of your spotting scope without much success, it’s most likely that heavier debris got stuck onto it. Again, if you want to avoid doing damage to your scope, you shouldn’t apply too much pressure, so how should you deal with the persistent debris then?
There are various specialized cleaning products which were specifically made and intended for spotting scopes. Most of these ‘special’ cleaning tools are in liquid form, so they will be able to dissolve the debris and dirt that’s stuck on the exterior of your scope.
Proper way to storage your spotting scope
Regardless how good of a job you did with disassembling, re-assembling and cleaning of your spotting scope, it would all go to waste if you don’t store it properly.
The spotting scope lens should be covered with a special type of cover (not too big, not too small), all the screws should be put back in place, and that’s about it as far as the mechanical parts are in question.
As for the ‘where should you store your spotting scope’, it mainly depends on your personal options. Some people don’t have a shed, others live in cramped apartments, so the general rule of the thumb would be to keep it in an area that’s dry and humid-free. Obviously, moisture tends to be the biggest enemy of a lens, but it could also potentially do damage to the exterior, screws, and such.
Metal Art Giveaway 2019
September 16, 2019
Freedom Cabinet Raffle
Metal Art of Wisconsin (MetalArtofWisconsin.com, 920/717-0635) is a family-owned business in Wisconsin offering metal forming, shaping, and plasma cutting. Their custom designed art pieces hang on the walls of numerous studios, banks, museums, churches, hospitals, cemeteries, and memorials all around the world. Metal Art also makes a number of practical designs with their artistic flair.
Their 2nd Amendment collection includes metal and carbon fiber Freedom Cabinets. Both decorative and functional, these American flag-shaped cabinets are available in matte or glossy black with stripes cut from 16 gauge, cold-rolled mild steel, and finished with three layers of clear coat. A number of locking systems secure each strongbox, including invisible RFID lock, key cards, and biometric scanners. Each Freedom Cabinet comes complete with a tough, high-density foam insert that can easily be configured to store guns, valuables, booze, dirty secrets, or anything you want to conceal. Encased in a steel, lockable frame, whatever you decide to store in it will be safely hidden behind Old Glory. Available in 2, 3 and 4 foot sizes.
Freedom Cabinet Giveaway
Metal Art is giving away one of their newest models in the 2nd Amendment collection, a Biometric Fingerprint Freedom Cabinet Slider. With outside dimensions of 23 x 15.5 x 3.5 and inside dimensions of 21 x 12.5, the flag is cut from 16 gauge, cold rolled, ground and polished mild steel, then covered in three layers of glossy clear coat. The steel is inlaid and flush with the surface of wood for a three dimensional look and is all secured with a high-tech biometric (finger print) locking system.
To enter this giveaway, host a small, local shooting event. An easy, quick, scored course of fire held during a local hunter sight-in is ideal but anywhere and any type of shooting event you choose works. Submit a picture of your event along with a short description to the Editor about your shoot and we’ll put you in for the drawing. Winner will be announced in December.
Event Ideas
Hunter Bullseye: This is an ideal event to be held at your next hunter sight-in day. One cheap paper target (sample for printing at home is included) on any 100-yard range.
Hunter Bullseye download
USAR Postal Match: Conducted by the U.S. Army Reserve Marksmanship Program, these events can be held on any 25-meter range.
U.S. Army Reserve Competitive Marksmanship Program Postal Match download
Any type of event is acceptable, these are just ideas. Have fun!
Trigger Pin?
July 10, 2019
From a fellow Team shooter:
I just gave the Army Training Circulars about small arms training a thorough read through. Bottom line, the TCs are very much like the same stuff we’ve been teaching all along. Very little I can arguably disagree with.
Not really happy about their take on trigger follow through. They almost encourage the “hot release”, repeatedly instructing to not hold back the trigger, stating: “the longer the trigger is held to the rear the longer the Soldier prevents the pistol from functioning and delays reengagement.”
I believe a shooter can’t shoot accurately any faster than he/she can recover from recoil, so there’s no need to get the trigger reset while the sights are off the target. Thoughts?
We’re in agreement. The new TCs are an overall improvement. Now just a matter of getting personnel to read them…
Concerning the “hot release” vs. trigger pin or hold/reset, this issue is a classic example of a useful attempt at a corrective by knowledgeable people being misinterpreted by parrots and creating problems.
Pinning the trigger is taught as a method to encourage followthrough. Feeling/hearing a click is a way to help someone with poor followthrough or recoil anticipation, pre-ignition push, flinch, or other unintended movement disrupting alignment. Used well, it’s a corrective that can help establish control in trigger manipulation.
Apparently, in some law enforcement circles pinning the trigger to rear after each shot became a version of “watch your breathing” in that cadre overemphasized it to the point of it overshadowing trigger control during the shot. I’ve seen videos of struggling LEO shooters being barked at by an “instructor” to emphasize a slow, deliberate trigger reset followed by a sharp, rearward jerk because that’s what someone emphasized to them as “important.” This also needlessly slows shot-to-shot speed. An example:
https://www.facebook.com/USCCA/videos/10155770725824371/
This is rather like someone long ago thought “trigger squeeze” was a useful way to convey the idea of a smoothly-controlled trigger pull and “trigger jerk” a way to describe unintended movement during shot release. The first is sometimes misinterpreted as squeezing with the whole hand as you’d normally do when, say, squeezing a lemon. The second is often misinterpreted by implying the “jerk” is mostly or solely due to the index finger on the trigger and not an unintended reaction from the rest of the shooter’s body.
Any of a number of correctives might be useful if they’re coming from someone knowledgeable enough to make the distinction. These same correctives can be potentially detrimental when overemphasized by personnel that don’t really understand what or why they’re emphasizing it.
As expected, a top shooter like Ernest Langdon is spot on. The error is “training” this reset as a required technique instead of using it to briefly emphasize followthrough for someone that isn’t otherwise getting it.
Dental Hygiene Level Effort
May 12, 2019
Shooting training, training effect Leave a comment
One of the most frustrating things I’ve encountered when trying to help shooters (military, law enforcement, and civilian/private gun owners alike) is that it wouldn’t take much effort to make a marked improvement.
My advice to LE students at the academy I instructed for was a simple dry practice routine:
Five careful “shots”
Five presentations from the duty holster
Do this in the locker/ready room at the start and end of each shift. The officers were gearing up/down and checking equipment anyway, so adding this only takes a minute or two. However, even for those skipping half the sessions would end up with well over a thousand quality “shots” and presentation reps before the end of their rookie year taking no real amount of time and costing nothing.
Everybody that bothered to do it reported their next qualification went notably better with a much improved score. Amazingly enough…
I refer to this as the dental hygiene level of effort. Dedicate about the same amount of time it takes to brush and floss your teeth every day to learning a new skill can yield long-term results.
The big problem was how few bothered to do so.
Sightless Shooting
May 1, 2019
Shooting John Veit, point shooting, point shooting training Leave a comment
Point shooters are a foolish lot… Good shooters are already good at point shooting. The reverse is rarely true.
Wanted to push the limits and see how well I could shoot a gun with absolutely no sights. Surprisingly it wasn’t as hard as you would think. Just really had to focus on trigger control. The times I missed were due to me trying to speed up my trigger pull.
The first drill is at 15yards with a plate 7yards to the side.
The second is at 10 yards.
The third is at 25 yards.
Give it a try and see if you can beat my times.
