Tag: Para weekend

. . . goes to Joe Huffman, who caught me in full recoil, brass freshly ejected, with the pistol about halfway back into battery when I was shooting the 8″ plates at 35 yards. And I’m using the proper grip!

Many more good photos at the link.

I’m gonna build one of THESE:

That’s the shoot house we played in on Sunday. AR500 plate walls, movable interior walls also lined with AR500 plate with a plywood skin on the surface, hollow-core doors, and portable bullet traps:

These are constructed of AR500 plate with a piece of what looks like rubber conveyor belt over the open side of the box that traps the splashed particles of the bullet after it penetrates.

If I had unlimited wealth, I would have a shoot house on my property.

This is Gunsite’s logo, right?

Well, up in a tree a couple hundred yards from the shoot house was a fairly large bird:

That then did this for about ten minutes:

I suspect Ninjas were involved . . .

. . . as to who was wearing sandals at the range:

I just realized I hadn’t done so. My mother would be appalled. So, copying Sebastian, I’d like to thank everyone involved in getting us to Blackwater to shoot Para-USA’s guns and IPCC’s ammo:

Thanos Polyzos, CEO of Para-USA – the guy who signed off on the idea and had his factory build us a run of really cool pistols. We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy! But we’re very appreciative!

Kerby Smith, Director of Communications for ParaUSA. Sorry about the t-shirt joke, Kerby!

Todd Jarrett, who put together and taught the course. He even tried to get us time on the Blackwater track driving their cars, but I told him it was OK that hadn’t worked out. If he’d pulled that off, I’d have to worship him as a God.

Michael Bane, who sent his film crew for DRTV and The Shooting Gallery, and who was, I think, responsible for the idea in the first place.

Patrick Harlan, Internet Marketing Specialist for Crimson Trace who supplied us with laser grips. Seriously – buy some Crimson Trace grips. You will be AMAZED. They’ll do a lot to teach you what you do wrong.

All the folks at Blackwater USA. Sorry about the sink. And next time, do you think you could open the Pro Shop for us? I just want to see what Blackwater sells in their Pro Shop. Shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles? Backpack Ninjas? Sharks with frikken laser beams on their heads?

All the folks at Blackhawk, who supplied us with SERPA holsters and rigger’s belts, shirts and goodies, and the bus that took us to and from Blackwater. You’ll be getting a knife order from me soon, and possibly an order for another SERPA holster.

Dan Smith of International Cartridge Corporation, who supplied us with all our ammunition needs. I’m sorely disappointed that we sent him home with some full cases. But mostly I’m just sore.

On Thursday evening I was picked up at the airport by Sailorcurt, who was accompanied by JR, Robb and Ahab. We went straight from the airport to a restaurant in the 15-passenger van Curt had borrowed from his church. When I got out of the van, I turned around to open the second door to let JR out of the back, and hooked a belt loop on the bug deflector of a pickup truck sitting in the parking slot next to the van, snapping off about a six-inch piece from the driver’s side.

Oh well. I picked up the piece and put it on the hood, figuring whoever owned it would come back to the restaurant looking for the group with the van when they found it. Later in the evening, Curt went out to the van for something and saw an obviously agitated couple writing down the information off the side of the church van. When he unlocked the door, the female of the couple came around and informed him that they’d called the police about the damage.

Curt came and got me, I gave them my contact information and told them to send me a bill. When we came back out a half-hour later, they were gone.

This morning I woke up at about 4:30, and then never really did get back to sleep before I finally got up at 6:15. After I showered I was brushing my teeth and I leaned over on the sink, just a little. (I swear!)

You know, I’m pretty sure that you’re not supposed to mount sinks, especially heavy ceramic ones, only with butterfly bolts through the drywall. You’re supposed to secure them to, you know, wood.

The funny thing was, I went out to the lobby to tell the desk attendant what I’d done, and brought her back to the room to show her. She looked at it for a second and said, “Do you need to finish?” I explained that the drain plumbing had snapped off, so running more water through the sink probably wasn’t advisable, so she informed me that a shower room was available down the hall where I could find a sink and shave.

I promised not to lean on that sink.

I shouldn’t be allowed out of my house without a keeper.

I’m back at the Black Bear Inn after a full (and I mean full) day at the range. We started out the morning with Todd Jarrett checking and correcting our grip on our pistols. Now, I’m not one much for tattoos, but I’m giving serious consideration to having the witness marks he put on our hands with a sharpie permanently replicated in subcutaneous ink. By merely altering my grip and teaching the isosceles stance I firmly believe he has reduced my shot-to-shot recovery time by about half. I have complained before about my split times when shooting controlled pairs. That slowness is due to the fact that I have a hard time reacquiring the front sight after the first shot.

Not today. Each and every time the front sight was RIGHT THERE after each and every shot.

When I did it right.

Now I just have to practice that grip, because I’ve been shooting with a different (and wrong) grip for so long I instinctively use it. And go slow.

As always, it’s practice, practice, practice!

The Para ran almost flawlessly for me today. We gunked it up pretty bad. They told us we’d be shooting like 500 to 1,000 rounds a day. I’d say I did at least 500. Towards the end of the day the slide stopped locking back on some of the magazines.

Whoopee.

There is one fly in the ointment, however. Joe Huffman discovered that it was possible to manipulate the controls on his pistol in such a way as to cause the sear to release without first cocking the hammer on the trigger pull. This resulted in essentially the same condition as a misfire – the round in the chamber had to be ejected to re-cock the action. To duplicate the fault, you have to pull the trigger with the thumb safety engaged, then disengage the thumb safety with the trigger partially depressed. You have to do it just right, but Joe, being the analytical type, was able to duplicate the malfunction on his pistol, and on mine, and on a couple of others. He was not able to get SayUncle’s to fail, however. I was then able to do it – unintentionally – on the range.

Solution: Don’t use the thumb safety. It’s not necessary, anyway. The grip safety and the long trigger pull are safety enough. Not encouraging, really, but I still like the pistol. A lot. I WOULD use it as a carry piece.

We shot paper, we shot steel. We shot standing and we shot moving. We shot moving steel, while standing and while moving.

We had a helluva lot of fun. My hands hurt. My face hurts from smiling. My legs hurt from standing all day. And I’ve got some sunburn despite borrowing some of Armed Schoolteacher‘s SPF55 sunscreen. I forgot to put any on the sides of my face.

Tomorrow morning we get to shoot in a shoothouse.

This trip is made of awesome.