Of all the things that most shooters do when they go the range that sabotage their efforts to improve, one of the ones that’s been really bugging me recently is the use of bullseye targets. I think most people do it just because it’s what everyone expects or it seems like the right thing to do (so you can grade your accuracy?), but they just suck. I used to be a big fan of the …

I celebrated the New Year today by… going to the range. I’ve decided it’s time for the quasi-annual switch to go shoot my 1911 in USPSA Single Stack and CDP for a while, and since I’ve improved as a shooter since last May (you have too, right?) I wanted to take it out and shoot some 20 yard head boxes just to make sure I knew where it was hitting and be confident in my …

Watching shooting videos as much as I do, you see it fairly commonly: people shooting a USPSA stage get to the end and, especially in low-cap divisions like Production, end up at slide lock with one more shot left to go on the stage. Rather than reload and shoot the last shot, they just take the miss assuming that another shot on the clock will just hurt their score less than shooting again. But regardless …

I’ve always appreciated the underlying rationale in IDPA for doing all reloads from slide lock given the narrative frame of self-defense integral to the sport. It’s known beyond doubt that in a self-defense situation you’ll pull the trigger until the threat stops or the gun surprises you by running dry. You won’t be counting shots and be able to plan reloads in real life. But on the day of the match, you’ll see it. A …

A few weeks ago, I spent an hour with Sean Sorrentino, walking him through three basic dry fire drills to help him hone what seemed to me to be the three basic skills of IDPA: drawing (from concealment), reloading (from concealment), and shooting around cover. He just shot his first match since starting to practice with them, and posted a quite positive progress report. I don’t want to overemphasize the results of a single match, …

Last night was the second Wake Action Pistol match for November and so it was the second time we were shooting these stages. It was a chilly night on the range and we had to spend about half an hour after the safety brief figuring out what went wrong with Practiscore, the match scoring software we were using. Once all the issues were solved, I was in gear to get the match rolling, and I …

When I bought my first gun in 2011, I wanted a manual safety. How do I know it won’t accidentally go off without that? When I first started carrying concealed in 2012, I was nervous about carrying one in the chamber. I’d shot competition enough and spent enough time around holstered handguns to know that they don’t just go off on their own, and yet the fear lingered. I know that nothing can reach in …

Yesterday, two parents of a victim of the Aurora, Colorado shooting, represented by lawyers from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence filed suit against a number of online retailers including Lucky Gunner and Sportsman’s Guide alleging that they should have known that the Aurora shooter (who will remain nameless) was dangerous and mentally unstable and refused to sell him thousands of rounds of ammo, various magazines, body armor, and tear gas. The actual legal …

So because Ruger did a stupid (making the Scout rifle in 5.56 which will sell like hotcakes despite not fitting the original criteria) and Col. Cooper failed to anticipate the invention, thirty years ago, of the Aimpoint T-1, the scout rifle is dead? Nah, I think it’s more alive than it ever was. Just update the specs a little to include red dots. The point of the scout rifle spec was to dream and encourage …

Any good Star Wars fan knows that Han shot first, right? That’s the way it was when the movie was released, and the Special Editions changed that by having Greedo shoot first, taking Han from being a cold-hearted killer to a simpleton reacting to Greedo’s aggression. And a debate emerged between the original gunslinging cowboy and the new watered-down Han. But what if they were both wrong? What if Han did shoot first, and even …