Boomershoot is the most interesting precision rifle event in the entire world.
Michael Bane
Down Range Radio #158
April 27, 2010
[My ego is probably blocking thoughts of something far more interesting but at the moment I am inclined to agree with him.–Joe]
Earlier this month I posted about a free entry for the Washington State IDPA Championship. There was an error in that post. It should have said it was open to Marksmen classification or higher instead of Master. I have updated the post.
Sorry about the error.
I shot in a USPSA pistol match yesterday. I knew I did quit well in two of the stages (I thought I probably had won both but I only won one of them). But I figured I messed up some of the other stages bad enough to drop me down to fourth or fifth place overall.
It turns out I came in second overall–a close second to Master class shooter Adam who was having a really bad day:
Place Name USPSA Class Division PF Lady Mil Law For Age Points Stg %
1 ADAM A42720 M Limited Major N N N N 269.0633 100.00%
2 JOE TY29386 B Limited Major N N N N 255.2261 94.86%
3 KW L2847 C Limited 10 Major N N N N Senior 254.4007 94.55%
4 KEVIN L2544 C Open Major N N N N 250.8631 93.24%
5 MIKE A39993 A Limited 10 Major N N N N 245.9446 91.41%
6 DON TY25213 A Limited Major N N N N Senior 217.3348 80.77%
7 Roger U Revolver Major N N N N 207.5478 77.14%
8 Robert A67563 U Limited 10 Major N N N N 185.8986 69.09%
9 John A65903 D Limited Minor N N N N 174.7153 64.93%
10 Roger U Limited 10 Major N N N N Senior 165.1802 61.39%
11 Richard U Limited 10 Major N N N N 154.8904 57.57%
12 ADAM REENTRY A Revolver Major N N N N 142.7239 53.04%
13 DON REENTRY U Production Minor N N N N Senior 132.5499 49.26%
14 Bill A67422 U Limited Minor N N N N 118.3946 44.00%
15 Trent U Limited Minor N N N N 110.4684 41.06%
Individual stage results were:
Stage: 1 3-V
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 ADAM M Limited 64 0 8.72 7.3394 70.0000 100.00%
2 JOE B Limited 60 0 9.61 6.2435 59.5478 85.07%
3 MIKE A Limited 10 67 20 9.94 4.7284 45.0974 64.42%
4 Robert U Limited 10 66 0 14.26 4.6283 44.1427 63.06%
5 KW C Limited 10 62 20 9.94 4.2254 40.3000 57.57%
R6 DON U Production 66 0 16.46 4.0097 38.2428 54.63%
7 John D Limited 68 0 17.26 3.9397 37.5751 53.68%
8 Roger U Revolver 66 0 18.09 3.6484 34.7968 49.71%
9 KEVIN C Open 64 20 12.34 3.5656 34.0071 48.58%
10 Roger U Limited 10 64 0 18.18 3.5204 33.5760 47.97%
11 DON A Limited 60 10 14.53 3.4412 32.8207 46.89%
12 Bill U Limited 54 0 17.33 3.1160 29.7191 42.46%
R13 ADAM A Revolver 61 10 17.00 3.0000 28.6127 40.88%
14 Richard U Limited 10 70 0 24.37 2.8724 27.3957 39.14%
15 Trent U Limited 31 30 15.31 0.0653 0.6228 0.89%
Stage: 2 Paper Poppers
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 JOE B Limited 47 0 6.90 6.8116 50.0000 100.00%
2 MIKE A Limited 10 49 0 7.31 6.7031 49.2036 98.41%
3 KEVIN C Open 50 0 7.51 6.6578 48.8710 97.74%
4 DON A Limited 49 0 8.44 5.8057 42.6163 85.23%
5 Roger U Limited 10 49 0 9.21 5.3203 39.0532 78.11%
6 KW C Limited 10 44 0 9.71 4.5314 33.2624 66.52%
7 ADAM M Limited 39 10 6.52 4.4479 32.6495 65.30%
8 Trent U Limited 44 0 10.44 4.2146 30.9369 61.87%
9 Roger U Revolver 46 0 11.06 4.1591 30.5295 61.06%
10 Bill U Limited 44 0 11.71 3.7575 27.5816 55.16%
11 Robert U Limited 10 47 0 12.65 3.7154 27.2726 54.55%
12 John D Limited 46 0 12.66 3.6335 26.6714 53.34%
R13 ADAM A Revolver 50 0 14.69 3.4037 24.9846 49.97%
14 Richard U Limited 10 50 0 16.77 2.9815 21.8855 43.77%
Stage: 3 Madness
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 KEVIN C Open 69 0 11.96 5.7692 70.0000 100.00%
2 JOE B Limited 66 10 9.98 5.6112 68.0829 97.26%
3 DON A Limited 65 0 12.45 5.2209 63.3473 90.50%
4 Bill U Limited 64 0 14.10 4.5390 55.0735 78.68%
5 Robert U Limited 10 67 0 16.43 4.0779 49.4788 70.68%
R6 DON U Production 62 10 13.66 3.8067 46.1882 65.98%
R7 ADAM A Revolver 64 0 17.03 3.7581 45.5985 65.14%
8 ADAM M Limited 62 20 11.27 3.7267 45.2175 64.60%
9 MIKE A Limited 10 59 20 11.66 3.3448 40.5838 57.98%
10 John D Limited 56 10 13.87 3.3165 40.2404 57.49%
11 Roger U Revolver 68 0 22.68 2.9982 36.3784 51.97%
12 KW C Limited 10 58 20 13.49 2.8169 34.1786 48.83%
13 Trent U Limited 59 20 14.44 2.7008 32.7699 46.81%
14 Richard U Limited 10 68 0 25.98 2.6174 31.7580 45.37%
15 Roger U Limited 10 62 30 18.76 1.7058 20.6972 29.57%
Stage: 4 Fluffy’s Revenge 1
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 ADAM M Limited 38 0 3.26 11.6564 40.0000 100.00%
2 KEVIN C Open 40 0 4.73 8.4567 29.0199 72.55%
3 KW C Limited 10 39 0 5.02 7.7689 26.6597 66.65%
4 Roger U Limited 10 38 0 5.21 7.2937 25.0290 62.57%
5 MIKE A Limited 10 37 0 5.18 7.1429 24.5115 61.28%
6 John D Limited 34 0 6.38 5.3292 18.2876 45.72%
R7 DON U Production 36 0 7.38 4.8780 16.7393 41.85%
8 Roger U Revolver 40 0 8.80 4.5455 15.5983 39.00%
9 Trent U Limited 38 10 6.74 4.1543 14.2559 35.64%
10 DON A Limited 34 20 4.96 2.8226 9.6860 24.22%
11 JOE B Limited 32 20 4.27 2.8103 9.6438 24.11%
12 Richard U Limited 10 34 20 6.87 2.0378 6.9929 17.48%
13 Bill U Limited 31 20 6.27 1.7544 6.0204 15.05%
14 Robert U Limited 10 39 10 18.84 1.5393 5.2822 13.21%
R15 ADAM A Revolver 33 20 9.97 1.3039 4.4745 11.19%
Stage: 5 4 Bill Drill
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 KW C Limited 10 105 0 30.37 3.4574 120.0000 100.00%
2 Roger U Revolver 100 0 38.46 2.6001 90.2447 75.20%
3 MIKE A Limited 10 88 20 27.27 2.4936 86.5483 72.12%
4 ADAM M Limited 81 30 21.80 2.3394 81.1963 67.66%
5 KEVIN C Open 112 60 26.17 1.9870 68.9651 57.47%
6 DON A Limited 80 30 25.20 1.9841 68.8645 57.39%
7 JOE B Limited 82 30 26.56 1.9578 67.9516 56.63%
8 Richard U Limited 10 100 20 41.53 1.9263 66.8583 55.72%
9 Robert U Limited 10 60 0 34.87 1.7207 59.7223 49.77%
10 John D Limited 82 20 41.43 1.4965 51.9408 43.28%
11 Roger U Limited 10 71 30 30.39 1.3491 46.8248 39.02%
R12 ADAM A Revolver 72 40 28.44 1.1252 39.0536 32.54%
13 Trent U Limited 59 30 31.57 0.9186 31.8829 26.57%
R14 DON U Production 76 40 39.82 0.9041 31.3796 26.15%
15 Bill U Limited 33 90 31.01 0.0000 0.0000 0.00%
Update: I just realized that if you remove Kevin, who was shooting an Open Division gun, I did win two stages.
See also the official results on the USPSA website.
I’ve also known people who became pretty good shooters because they were motivated by fear. But, love always exceeds fear like light exceeds darkness.
Sam
July 31, 2009
A comment on the forum topic of Defining “Natural Athlete” vs. “Technical Athlete”
[This explains why we win in terms of membership in organizations like the NRA, SAF, CCRBA, JPFO, USPSA, IPDA, etc. (many millions) versus Brady Campaign, Violence Policy Center, etc. (a few hundred thousand if you squint at the numbers just right). And of course the same applies in the intellectual debate. We who have some love for the study of the topics know our stuff so much better than those who try to debate the issue end up making fools of themselves.–Joe]
Linoge claims one of the pictures of private Boomershoot party for Ian is “photo of the year”.
I’m not entirely comfortable with that claim. But it is nice that he did say that.
It was a pretty ordinary day and event in a lot of ways. What of the days when we have 120 shooters connecting with 1 MOA reactive targets out to 700 yards? I think of those pictures as more awe inspiring to me and are probably PSH inspiring to the anti-gun people. And what of the other private parties such as this one with Shobana? (BTW, she is planning on attending another private party soon.) She is from a country that has just as restrictive laws, if not more so, than Canada. And also, the year is young still.
But it’s an opinion thing. Linoge’s opinion is probably just as good as mine in this case.
In any event I have uploaded the original, unedited, high resolution photo for your viewing pleasure here (just shy of 5 Mbytes).
Update: I added the link to his post. Sorry about forgetting that.
Via our professional photographer daughter Xenia who took the picture at Boomershoot last year:
Notice the target rich enviornment in the distance? Each of those little white dots is another pound or two of high explosives. The white “smoke” is actually almost all water vapor from the explosions. Yes, we try to make Boomershoot a “green” event. The daffodils? Those were planted by my grandmother and her sisters about 90 years ago.
T-shirts, cups, etc. will be available at Cafepress in a day or three.
Via email from Daniel:
Cheaper Than Dirt! has one free entry into the Northwest Practical Pistol Association sponsored 2010 Washington State IDPA Championship being held August 21st at the Renton Fish & Game Club in Renton, Washington.
Established in 1933, the Renton Fish & Game Club has been open and serving the community for more than 50 years. They are one of the oldest and the largest shooting ranges in King county. For over a half century the Renton Fish & Game Club has been providing a safe place to shoot as well as learn and practice the safe use of firearms through various training programs.
Cheaper Than Dirt! is looking for a blogger or person on Facebook or Twitter who would like to compete in the IDPA Championship and blog or tweet about their experience. Qualified individuals must be a current IDPA member with a
MasterMarksman classification or higher. Novice class shooters are not permitted to compete. Preference will be given to shooters with an existing blog or public Twitter or Facebook account.
If you don’t currently have an IDPA classification but are capable of obtaining one by the match date, we will consider those entries as well. Novice shooters will have difficulty making the classification by the deadline, so please limit entries to experienced shooters only.
If you meet the requirements and would like to compete in the 2010 Washington State IDPA Championship, send an email with your information and why you would like to attend to daniels@cheaperthandirt.com. We will select one person to receive a free entry to the match. Selection will be made by July 1st, so please send in your emails no later than midnight May 31st.
As I have previously reported Ian is an intern at Microsoft from Canada. I took him shooting once and he enjoyed it a great deal.
Last Friday after work he and I left Redmond and headed east to Idaho where we could have some real fun. Idaho is less repressive in a number of ways than Washington. In particular the explosives law are a pain in Washington.
Saturday morning daughter Kim, Ian and I loaded up the van and went to the Boomershoot site. Barron, Janelle, and Ryan were already there when we arrived. We were going to put on a private party for Ian and do a few experiments to test out some ideas for a new target deployment method.
Some of the pictures are below see also the fireball demo pictures here.
Ian about to shoot his first boomer.
This was just after detonation. Notice the streak of something headed to the left in the tree.
Ian preparing for the blast of debris.
Ian realizing he is going to live.
Ian realizing that was fun (debris still falling).
Ian realizing that was really fun (debris still falling).
Ian, Ryan, and Janelle (only her shadow is visible on the far right) do a miniature High Intensity Event.
Ian shooting still more boomers.
Ian seems to like this too.
Ryan brought an old laptop in need of an Idaho Stress Test.
Ryan preparing to initiate the stress test.
The test is complete in a few microseconds.
Ryan was very happy with the test results even if he did have to pick up all the pieces.
Ian, Kim, and I took the scenic route back to Moscow, picked up Barb just as she got off from work and went to VJs BBQ (there was a reason for chosing this particular place) for dinner. They have a Gadsden flag and the Declaration of Independence on the wall if that gives you a hint.
What I wonder is what the anti-freedom people in this country have to offer interns who visit. It’s not like they have anti-gun ranges to go have fun at.
Update: Linoge linked to this post and claimed one of the pictures of Ian above is “Photo of the year“. In the interests of completeness I have uploaded the original, untouched, photo here.
Some forms of therapy are not covered under Obamacare.
Joe Huffman
March 27, 2010
[This is going to be the slogan on the Boomershoot 2010 t-shirts.
Photos by daughter Kim yesterday.
In the last picture, yes, it was raining debris from the explosion.–Joe]
We have had several positions open up. I will formally make the positions available at 18:00 on Wednesday March 24th. Until then existing participants will be able to trade their current positions for one of the open ones. So the currently open positions may not be available on Wednesday.
You will be able to sign up at http://entry.boomershoot.org/
The positions becoming available are:
In case you have forgotten or didn’t hear, Michael Bane will be attending and filming for his T.V. show on the Outdoor Channel. He will also be the speaker at the dinner on Saturday night.
Update: The positions available now are:
Nice! Free gun training at Front Sight Training Institute for Starbucks employees:
Front Sight Firearms Training Institute is ranked among the best places in the world to receive firearms training and self defense training.
In support of Starbucks for not buckling to the hand-wringing gun-grabbers with the Brady campaign, Washington ceasefire and the million mom march, the Founder of Front Sight, Dr. Ignatius Piazza, has decided to award the employees at Starbucks a $2,000, four day defensive handgun course!
What can the Brady Campaign offer in return?
Gun owners have all the carrots. The Brady Campaign only has a stick.
Slightly off topic is that I have a similar deal (see the link in the right column?) that I need to take cash in on sometime. Any Starbucks employees or blog readers/writers want to attend the same class at the same time?
Ry and I went to range today. We had some problems with some CCI Mini-Mag ammo. Ry has pictures.
He also told me of going to a party last night. The most memorable things he said were, “Drunk artists have poor muzzle control” and that he had to sign a waiver before being allowed in the door. Pictures from last night are here.
That’s fire and brimstone. This is pure gun geekery, and even for gun geeks its nerdy because it’s about percussion guns of the 1800s. You’ve been warned.
Saturday, Nephew and I tried some heavy loads for the repro 1858 Remington revolver. I’d been using a 28 grain powder charge and a round ball with decent results, but wanted to try something with more pep. Civil War era military loads ranged from very light, to as much powder and lead as could be stuffed in the cylinder. To start, we tried round ball (~140 grains) over a charge of 39 grains of 3F Goex with a greased felt wad in between. That load filled the chambers completely and delivered an average of 925 fps at 10 feet with an extreme spread of 46. Not too bad. The 29 grain charge was yielding a velocity of about 850 fps.
It’s like pulling teeth to find acceptable “conical” bullets (“bullet shaped” as opposed to a round ball) for these “.44” percussion revolvers unless you cast your own, which I don’t. I did find some Buffalo Bullets 180 grain jobs that fit the chambers nicely, and ordered 100 of them to try. Since the bullet takes up more room in the chamber, the most powder I could get in and still seat the bullet below the cylinder face was 30 grains. But, wow. Average velocity was 1047 fps. That’s a tad better than a .40 S&W, and matches the V of a .45 Auto load in the Speer manual for their 185 gr GDHP. Extreme spread was 67, with a standard deviation of 21.
That was with two different people doing the loading. I’m going to guess that with the same person loading all the rounds, the charge weight and ramming pressure would be a little more consistent, and so too the velocity. Groups with this load opened up slightly from last week’s all-ball venture, but not enough to be sure. This time was in direct sunlight, which makes aiming a little more difficult.
The extra pressure it takes to move the heavier bullet, which also has more friction surface against the bore, I will assume ramps up the powder’s burn rate. More velocity with less powder and a heavier bullet. Neat. We’ve found a performance, or efficiency, zone. More pressure equals more heat, equals a faster, more complete burn inside the bore, equals yet more pressure.
This is how guns (and sometimes chemical factories, engines, etc.) blow up– things look great as you increase the pressure and temp a little. The reaction speeds up, a little bit more, things are doing fine, a little bit more and, Boom!. A threshold is reached and a runaway reaction takes place. You shear some bolt lugs, or burst a cylinder, etc. and maybe you go home with slightly fewer or slightly misshapen body parts. That can be embarrassing.
I wasn’t worried about this load in a modern repro made with modern steel. When these revolvers were designed and built originally, metallurgy wasn’t anything like it is today, and even back then they were known to stuff the chambers full on a regular basis. Further, it makes no sense to build a cylinder that will take more powder than it can handle with the commonly used “44-100” bullets of up to 250 grains. That would take more material and make the gun bigger and heavier, for no other reason than to encourage over-pressure loads. I’m also running on some faith that they wouldn’t have done that (though the much longer 1847 .44 Colt “Walker” cylinder was known to occasionally let go). Remember that back then there was only black powder, not the wide spectrum of nitro powders we have now. All they had to control the powder’s burn rate were different granulations of the same mixture (though brand and lot inconsistency would likely have thrown in some degree of uncertainty). With smokeless propellants you can get into a LOT MORE TROUBLE making your own loads.
Here’s Nephew torching off one of the heavy loads. The bullet has been on its way for about a millisecond, as the gun is still in firing position and the hot gas (I mean hot– this is in direct sunlight) has traveled a foot or so out from the muzzle;
Below is the same shot in full recoil a fraction of a second later. Forget about quick follow-up shots. You can’t see the target until the smoke clears. By then you’re re-cocked and ready to go. A side wind would be a big help in this case;
Today’s rapid fire guns wouldn’t be worth as much if they had to run on black powder. For one thing you wouldn’t be able to see squat. It is “interesting” to take a shot, and find that your target has simply disappeared after the smoke has cleared. There’s that moment of uncertainty.
I like the slow, frame-by-frame animations as below. You can see the mechanics of the recoil (though a high speed camera would be nice). You can watch the force wave travel from his wrist, into the arm, the shoulder, and whole torso. Nephew’s grip is fairly relaxed, which isn’t a problem with a medium weight 44 revolver. Some people hate animated gifs on a web page. I’m one of them, but this is for science;
You shouldn’t haul off and max out your charcoal burner just because I did. I’m not saying it’s the thing to do. What I can say is; I still, for the moment, have all my body parts (and gun parts) and all are operating satisfactorily, thank you. I have a load that’s within the range of those used in the 1860s for the Remington New Model Army revolver and 1860 Colt Army, and it matches some of the .45 ACP loads for a ~180 grain bullet.
Now here’s a puzzler. I’ve had barrel leading in modern revolvers and autos firing bare lead, hard-cast or swaged bullets. Using pure, soft lead bullets in the ’58 Remington and ’51 Colts, no leading has been observed, even with these loads that achieve modern handgun KE levels. I don’t know why. Is it the grease? But we’re told in no uncertain terms never to lubricate a modern gun bore, while black powder guns are greased all to hell. Is it the propellant temp? But the KE is the same.
Say Uncle linked to a small, light suppressor for a 300 WM.
People often say my 300 WM is extremely loud and I frequently wear both plugs and muffs when shooting it. I have sometimes thought of getting a suppressor for it but the extra weight at the end of the barrel didn’t seem like a good idea. The threads holding the barrel to the receiver have enough stress on them with the heavy barrel I have. But this suppressor weighs just 13.9 ounces and is only nine inches long!
My first thought was “I have to have one!”
Then I looked at the price: MSRP $1800.
I’d have to save up my birthday money for something like the next 30 years to be able to afford that.
This sort of thing appears with some regularity on the forums, product reviews, etc., so I can only assume there is a significant number of people who don’t quite understand how a shot group on a target is measured. What I recently read on an ammo review is that, since the bullet is x diameter, your group size cannot be less than x.
That’s not how it works. (Boomershooters bear with me, I’m pretty sure you all know this) For the size of your group on the target, you’re measuring the center-to-center distance between hits. If your holes were clean enough to allow such precise measurements, it is in theory possible to have half-inch diameter bullets and a group size of a hundredth of an inch or less. You could just as well, theoretically, have an eighteen inch Navy ship’s gun that shoots a group of 1″ (all rounds through the same hole, to within one inch of center). Actually getting a gun and several projectiles to do that is of course another matter, but it wouldn’t violate the simple theory of taking a distance measurement on your target.
This isn’t rocket science. Well, maybe some aspects of shooting are in fact rocket science, but measuring the distance between centers of a few holes isn’t complicated, and has nothing to do with the diameter of the holes. Any carpenter, machinist or cabinet maker, etc. knows this, and it is often learned by farm mechanics in early childhood.
As others have noted Michael Bane has announced he and his film crew will be attending Boomershoot 2010. I’ve known about it since mid-October when he sent me an email that said, in part:
I want to give you a heads up…I would like to film Boomershoot 2010, if it works for you. It would either be for my flagship, SHOOTING GALLERY, or for a new show I have in the works under the working title of AMERICA SHOOTS! You’d rather have it be AMERICA SHOOTS! because it will be hosted by the hysterically funny an spectacularly beautiful Katie Rowe, a professional stuntwoman and obsessive shooter.
Again, if it works for you, I’d like to put together some live coverage on DOWN RANGE (www.downrange.tv).
I held back on announcing it because I wanted to the plans to be a little more firm.
I don’t know his exact schedule yet but I’m hoping he will cover the target making on Saturday too.
I’ve had an 1858 Remington New Model Army revolver for a while, but was never able to get decent accuracy from it. Maybe it was the wrong grip fit for my hands. Maybe it was the extra weight and maybe it was the very long creep in the trigger. Don’t know, but it had been sitting for a long time, such that the grease was getting stiff, so I took it out alone for some exercise yesterday.
I’d been experimenting with bird shot loads in handguns because I’m interested in handgun trap shooting. Turns out the rifling pretty well renders that a losing proposition (I could get a spare barrel for the 1851 Colt repro, and ream out the rifling. we’ll see). Anyway, I ended up with a selection of fiber wads and cards for the .44 Remington, and since my current charge of 28 grains 3F Goex takes up little room in the chambers, and since everyone says the projectile should be close to the forcing cone for best accuracy, I added a quarter inch fiber wad on top of the powder, with a felt wad on top of that.
Now the revolver shoots OK. Don’t know if it was the extra spacing, or that I’d been handling the gun a lot more, but I was able to match my long standing 25 yard grouping (previously held by the 1851 Colt) several times that day, with this gun. It may not be anything to brag about, but it’s better than I’ve done with any automatic so far. That’s 25 yards, standing, two hands, unsupported. I’m sure there are people who can do a whole lot better, but as the saying goes, “This is my group. There are many like it, but this one is mine.”
That’s the way it went several times– four shots in a decent group, with one flier. It didn’t matter whether the group was fired from one cylinder, the other cylinder, or a combination of the two. I shot a smaller group that day, but this one gives me hope that those four in the middle better represent the gun’s potential.
There was zero wind that day, such that when I was all done, there was a layer of white smoke that covered the whole 5 to 7 acre range. Cool. It also means that you have to learn to aim through a cloud of smoke.
Several shooter have written about this other phenomenon; I found myself contentedly driving under the speed limit on the way home, which is something I practically never do. I’m usually irritated by people who drive under the limit, the lot of serene bastards. It seems that shooting can have a pronounced relaxing effect that can last for several hours after the fact.
Via email from veteran Boomershooter (he was at the FIRST Boomershoot in 1998) Steve M. and the author of the article, Jack Lewis, I found out the March 2010 issue of Motorcyclist magazine has an article about a trip to Boomershoot 2009 from the Seattle area on a motorcycle with a sidecar–a 2WD Ural Safari.
It includes a lot of photos (by Shasta Wilson) and is a great story. It includes typical Boomershoot experiences like:
Bundling Pretty Wife into fuzzy blankets, I tossed two cased rifles across her chest and we were off.
“Don’t worry, ” I bellowed, “It won’t rain in the mountains!”
It didn’t rain. It snowed.
I bought out the entire supply of the issue at the newsstand in the lobby of the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue, WA and they said they are unlikely to get any more in. The Barnes and Noble next door only had a couple of February issues when I checked on Sunday evening but if you check there now they might have one.
The article starts on page 70.
Via email from co-worker Chet.
Although I haven’t heard any trainers directly address this it has been hinted at by some:
Scientists discovered that people move faster when reacting to something than when they perform “planned actions”.
In an experimental “duel”, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, they studied the speed of these two types of movement.
…
Pairs of participants were put in a button-pressing competition with each other. Each was secretly given instructions of how long to wait before pushing a row of buttons.
“There was no ‘go’ signal,” said Dr Andrew Welchman from the University of Birmingham, who led the research.
“All they had to go by was either their own intention to move or a reaction to their opponent – just like in the gunslingers legend.”
Those who reacted to their opponent were on average 21 milliseconds faster than those who initiated the movement.
During one or more of the classes I took from Insights Greg Hamilton told the students to “use your startle reflex” when the buzzer goes off to decrease your draw time. It works.
You can actually see it other shooters. New shooters take a lot longer to start moving their hand toward the gun and it moves slower when it does move. Tell them to use their “startle reflex” and after a few repetitions you will see their hands jerk into motion and reduce the amount of time required to get their gun deployed.
Apparently we have different pathways in the brain and we can consciously reroute the signals to decrease the time.
This strengthens the wisdom taught in NRA Personal Protection courses about “drawing a line”. The students are told they must have a mental threshold past which they will take some sort of action. It might be something like “the door opens” when someone is trying to break into your safe room. Or “they come around the corner of the counter” when the bad guy is advancing at you with a knife. You are reacting to something the bad guy did. In addition to increasing the speed of your response to a threat you are less likely to suffer from a “boiled frog” situation where the situation escalates and you keep postponing your response because “it’s not that bad” yet.
Update: See also the Scientific American podcast via Say Uncle.
Are you out of work and looking for a job. Would something gun related make it more fun to go to work each day?
The Brady Campaign is looking for someone.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and its legislative and grassroots affiliate, the Brady Campaign and its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, is the nation’s largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence. We are devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities. We are searching for spring interns to assist us in our Research and Messaging and Marketing Departments.Interns with the Research Department choose a specific research project to complete during the course of the internship in addition to pitching in on administrative tasks related to research, public affairs, or fund-raising.
Examples of research projects include summarizing research for our website and for our monthly Brady Research Update, short reports (2-3 pages) that are part of our Gun Laws Make A Difference series, e. g. explaining the impacts of gun control laws in California, New York City, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada and other projects.
Oh, there is something you should know–it’s an unpaid position. I guess working to infringe a specific enumerated right and risking prosecution for violation of 18 USC 241 doesn’t pay as well as working toward preserving and enhancing that right.
But you could have some fun with it. Check out the projects you could work on. I have some pointers to help you get started. There is even a picture of a Glasgow Smile you can use.
