New CCW holders and training
Even though I would have to acknowledge that I am above average in training, I would rather spend my afternoon working with a new shooter or a new CCW holder than train with fellow SWAT Team students all day. There is something more that I get from seeing a Civilian learn responsible ways of handing a firearm and basic defensive shooting skills. In some Countries like Israel and South Korea, there is mandatory military service and every young man and women gets training to understand that there are threats against their Country and that it’s up to them to pass on the information they learned to every succeeding generation.
I have seen some really bad instructors in all of my years of sitting in on classes and most of them were overzealous in teaching. I don’t think it’s good instruction to freak people out when they are new to handling firearm in certain situations and being a CCW holder doesn’t mean you need to train to storm the beaches of Normandy with your Blackhawk Serpa gun holsters. Learning how to move away from an attacker or barricade yourself in your bedroom with a firearm and knowing where the safest postions are can be life saving training that every adult family member should know.
When getting asked the question how many guns we own, the question should be asked “what do I not own?” After several years of dealing with the high speed, low drag weapon systems, and after watching the 2008 election results, there was huge jumps in ammo prices. I thought to myself when 5.56 ammo was hitting close to the $700 per 1000rds range, that maybe ammo was going to be worth more than gold soon. After putting a little thought into why the ammo prices were going up, I pretty much guessed that they won’t stay up that long in a bad economy, because nobody in their right mind would spend money on something that was 200-300% over inflated. I decided that if It was reloaded ammo, I wasn’t going to touch any factory ammo, and it was now time for a 22lr bolt action rifle.
There is another consideration in choosing a holster that you may not be that concerned about at first. Many in the CCW world may frown on having any kind of thumb break or locking system, but there are good reasons for thinking about this. I would have to say that many of the thumbreak holsters that I have used in the past were nylon and although they worked very well for their intended purposes, I would never recommend them for CCW. I am also going to state that I am not going to tell you which holster you should use because that is a personal choice and you should put some thought and research into selecting for yourself. I have trained with 1911 pistols and although they are my favorite 45acp pistol, I have missed the thumb safety too many times during self defense training that I do not consider it for CCW. I’m also aware that putting a thumbreak on the holster may compound the problem for such a firearm.
There have been many changes in the materials being used in modern sidearms. Many of the polymer firearms have a huge advantage over their previous counterparts primarily due to their corrosion resistance. Along with corrosion resistance, many of these firearms also depend on lubrication far less. Gun holsters have progessed as far as being made in materials that can handle sweat and dirt resistance. I’ve heard plenty of stories about people ruining the finish on various blued firearms just from one or two harsh weather environments and people not getting around to cleaning them in time. I’ve personally seen a few revolvers end up being horrible pitted after an operator sweat up a storm and never bothered to clean the sidearm.
Most of us alreayd know that when we buy a new gun we usually get some sort of factory gun case. These gun cases are nice for transporting the gun it is intended for and possible can hold a few magazines. I’ve got a pile of them in my storage room, but I never use them for range trips. I own a few range bags since I tend to actually use them for more than just packing up guns. After having several experiences with forgeting to bring ammo, magazines, targets or staplers, I’ve learned to pack up my stuff and leave it in a bag that always comes to the range with me.
I remember the days when I was learning how to shoot and always tried to put each round in the same hole at 100yds regardless of which type of rifle I was shooting. My novice approach to shooting exposed my nieve goals of trying to make an SKS rifle a tack driver. Instead of compensating my aiming for eveyr hit, I should have just aimed the center X and tried to get withing 4 inches and then call it a day. Each rifle is capable of shooting a certain group, but sometimes we do exceed a rifles potential and it’s time to move on to something better.
With the advent of the accessorized rifle or carbine, people are putting so many things on rifles these days that need to be screwed on, locked in, and battery operated that Murphys law has some really cold things to say about this. Every screw on your carbine is going to come loose at some point and every battery operated device will fail at some point. I’ve seen a lot of accessories that fit in the pistol grip, buttstock or other areas and this is nice for some purposes, but any of those operators were spending more than a day with their setup, they find that they aren’t carrying enough tools sand gear on their guns to get through 48hrs of hard use.