12 July 04

War and Pistols:

I have received much comment with regard to our recent training of Marines to handle and use pistols correctly. One that stands out is:

"Get serious. Pistols don't win wars. Pistol training for soldiers and Marines is largely a waste of time."

I agree! On the grand, strategic scale, pistols probably don't contribute much one way or another. Pistols are instrumental only in saving individual lives, and are thus considered unimportant by those who have never had to risk theirs.

I'm old fashioned enough to still believe that the greatest moral responsibility of any military commander is to the safety and welfare of his men. Some may consider their lives "unimportant," but they are extremely important to their families. Everything we can reasonably do to insure they come home from the war in one piece, we should be doing, in spades.

At the top of that list is competent pistol training!

/John

12 July 04

It had to happen!

With its new 500S&W Magnum revolver, S&W has been back ordered since its introduction. Of scant interest to concealed pistol carriers, the pistol h as still garnered the attention of handgun hunters and nimrods alike, not to mention CNN! The big revolver is now even available with a four-inch barre l, in addition to the standard, artillery model. Cor-Bon is the company that invented the cartridge, at S&W's behest, and is still the sole manu facturer of the round, although others will probably chime in as the market expands.

Predictably, legion have been the comments about recoil. So, Cor-Bon has now introduced the 500 S&W "Special" cartridge. Slightly sh orter than the 500 S&W Magnum, the "Special" will still pack a wallop, but reco il will be noticeably reduced. Much as is the case with the 38Spl and the 357Mg, the "Special" will become the standard, "carry" round.

I love this Country!

/John

12 July 04

Leather holsters:

At an Advanced Defensive Handgun course last weekend in WY, a student used a Colt Commander (45ACP) in a "Cozy Partner" leather IWB holster. Prior to the class, he had been practicing his draw from this holster, and all seemed to be fine.

However, once he started sweating and moving, the leather flap that sits between the rear part of the slide and the body (sweat barrier) became progressively soft, and started flopping over the top of the holster, blocki ng the entryway, and making rapid reholstering impossible. This caused consistent delay in his moving off the line. In a real fight, such delay in reholster ing could be harmful.

On serious holsters, a sweat barrier must be:

(1) Stiff enough so as not to fold over and block the entryway, as describe d in the foregoing.

(2) Broad enough so that there is no possibility it could inadvertently enter the trigger guard of a pistol (as the pistol is holstered) and put pr essure on the trigger.

This is why concealed-carry holsters, and all other serious equipment, must be carefully and knowledgeably selected and then realistically and thoroughl y tested. Design flaws, such as described above, will escape notice otherwis e.

/John

12 July 04

From a friend and colleague:

"We put on a Patrol Rifle class last week. In one drill, we used Act ion Target's three-dimensional cardboard targets, suspended on strings. Balloo ns were placed in the head, or torso, or groin, or in combination. Of course, the balloons are inside the target and not visible to the shooter, but breaking all of them will cause the target to fall. Ranges were six to fifty meters . The exercise was timed

Here is what we saw:

(1) Rushing your shots will cause you to miss

(2) Being simultaneously:

(a) Anxious

(b) Out of breath will also cause you to miss

(3) Diffusion of focus (trying to think about the clock, and your front sight, at the same time) will also cause you to miss

(4) Confusion, such as when the target doesn't do what you thought it would do, or was supposed to do, will (if you let it):

(a) Disrupt your plan

(b) Send you into confusion

(c) Cause you to dither... and miss

Several of my exasperated, and less inspired, students complained:

(1) Balloons should all be the same size.

(2) The exercise shouldn't be timed, as timers generate stress

(3) All targets should fall instantly when hit

That would make the exercise more 'fair' they insisted

My response:

(1) Since when is 'fairness' an indispensable ingredient in training exercises?

(2) How does 'uniform target reaction' prepare you for real fighting?

(3) Don't you think you ought to be learning here, in training, how to deal with stress, anxiety, fatigue, confusion, sensory overload, and frustration? How smooth and manageable do you think your next real gunfight will be?

(4) If you were already perfect, what would be the point of you being here?

(5) Why is 'making yourself look good' the only thing you ever seem to think about?

They nodded in embarrassed agreement, and we all went back to work.

Frail egos, fear of failure, fear of success, and immaturity are all speed bumps we instructors face every day, eh?"

Comment:

"Good timber does not grow in ease.

The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.

The farther the sky the greater length,

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snows,

In trees and men, good timber grows."

/John

13 July 04

In an effort to imitate S&W, at least from the barrel down, Ruger has made a stab at increased user friendliness with the new P345. Ruger still has no trigger system to rival Glock's or the SIG DAK (the Ruger pistol still uses a two-stage, slide-mounted,manual decocking lever), but they have obviously gotten serious about selling guns to American police, something at which they have been, up until now, notably unsuccessful.

Unhappily, they also imitated the one thing that needs to be discarded forever, the "magazine safety." Equipped with a magazine safety, the pistol is useless unless there is a magazine to go with it. Also, pistols with magazine safeties temp the owner to simply remove the magazine instead of unloading and storing the weapon correctly. I won't own a pistol equipped with one.

Unhappily, Ruger's new pistol also has a "loaded chamber indicator," another "feature" of dubious value. Pistols equipped with such a device tempt the owner to depend upon it, instead of performing a legitimate chamber check.

I'm sure Ruger's lawyers think magazine safeties and loaded chamber indicators are great ideas. They are- for lawyers! For those of us who have to actually use this equipment is serious circumstances, they represent a significant step backward.

/John