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OpticsPlanet.com and Crimson Trace are giving shooters a chance to visit the nation’s premier training academy.
November 18, 2013
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There is an old saying, repeated often enough to be a cliché, which says “Practice makes Perfect.” On the face of it, this might seem to apply to learning the skills of gunhandling and marksmanship. But when you think about the consequences of errors in handling a gun and using it skillfully under stress, then maybe it’s time to refine the cliché’d just a little. How about adding a word, making it “Perfect Practice makes Perfect?” In essence, this simply means that you must execute every aspect of a training regimen to perfection before additional repetitions will produce a beneficial effect. It has been pretty well established that you must do something on the order of 5,000 reps of a physical act before muscle memory takes over and it becomes habit. That’s a tall order.
May 16, 2013
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Little guns can be effective self-defense tools, but they require extra commitment.
April 23, 2013
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It’s fun to play off the title of a great book by Robert Ruark—“Use Enough Gun.” Ruark was writing about Africa and dangerous game hunting, and when you are facing some humongous beast that can kill you in an instant, it is wise to use all the gun you can manage. Most people never get to fire one of those big .470 doubles, so they nod wisely at the title and agree. The key element in the equation is “all the gun you can manage.” I believe that most defense shooters never really determine what they can handle. Further, I’m guessing that they can probably use a lot more gun than they realize. Guns are mysterious things to most people, having been formed by the chronic mis-use of firearms on TV and in the movies. Most new shooters choose a firearm for personal defense on the basis of a brief conversation with an enthusiastic young man at a gun store counter. While it is logistically difficult to pull off, a beginner really needs to shoot a variety of calibers, styles and models of guns before choosing. Unfortunately, this is probably not going to happen.
June 25, 2012
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Every time I do class at Gunsite with a pistol, the top-notch instructors repeat the techniques of performing both speed and tactical reloads. For the uninitiated, a speed load is when the shooter in an ongoing gunfight has fired several rounds, ejects the magazine onto the deck and inserts a fully loaded replacement. Contrast that with the tactical reload, where the shooter drops the partially expended magazine into the palm, then inserts another with the same hand. The partially expended one goes into a designated pocket or pouch.
June 06, 2012
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The above photo is a Federal Hydra-Shok hollow point.
May 29, 2012
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In my blog on light discipline, a reader commented that advising someone to search with a light is wrong and unsafe, and in many situations he is right. However, I personally think that each person must make that decision for himself. I cannot tell someone exactly how to protect his or her family and home because I don’t have enough information about the person’s home or skill level. My job is to provide hints, strategies and training tips to make you think so you can survive a deadly encounter.
August 24, 2011
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I’ve often wondered why the TV self-defense experts always rack the slide when performing a speed reload on a semi-auto handgun rather than releasing the slide via the slide stop. I always though it was to provide that extra eighth-of-an-inch of spring power to ensure the gun went fully into battery.
June 06, 2011
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In between all of the training, the recent attendees at Gunsite had some time to shoot a few rounds into ballistic gel for fun and to view the effectiveness of DoubleTap ammunition.
May 19, 2011
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After the sun went down, the Crimson Trace Lightquards came out, but not before we conducted several shooting strings without lights or lasers in fairly dark conditions. Considering my abysmal night vision—there is a reason why I always carry a flashlight—I discovered that I am a much better shot in low-light situations than I ever would have thought. Even though I couldn’t use the sights and could only see an outline of the target, I was able to keep the majority of my shots in the center-of-mass ring at 7 yards.
May 16, 2011
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The first lesson I learned about Gunsite is that it does not teach shooting or marksmanship. Gunsite is a fighting training academy. Everything the instructors teach is as if you are defending your life against an assailant.
May 10, 2011
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Morning comes early in the Arizona desert, especially if you’re on D.C. time. Well, it gives me time to reflect on the upcoming day’s events.
May 09, 2011
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I don’t know if it was luck or fate, but my last blog on lights was a fitting topic since I will soon be heading to Gunsite to attend a low-light training class with Crimson Trace and Smith & Wesson.
May 05, 2011
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The famous marksmanship academy celebrated the long-standing pistol design with a Centennial Pistol class, focusing exclusively on the 1911.
April 04, 2011
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This Ruger rendition of Col. Jeff Cooper's concept rifle was designed in conjunction with the head instructor of one of America's most respected shooting academies.
January 03, 2011
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