Never Stop Learning!

Random Shots

That is one of my “mantras”—NEVER STOP LEARNING, never stop challenging yourself. When we do, we stop caring about the future and are forever condemned to relive our past. In the later part of April and in early May I had two opportunities to learn and I want to take the time to share my ex-periences—and some lessons learned—with you.

In late April, firearms training legends John and Vicki Farnam (Defensive Training Insti-tute [DTI]) returned to southwestern Ohio. Once again, the training venue was provided by Defensive Training Solutions (DTS) in Tipp City and Troy, Ohio. My good friend and fellow Hojutsu practitioner, Bill Martin, was our host. This was the third class that I had taken with John and Vicki. Last year I took their trauma wound treatment class and

their Armed Response to a Terrorist Attack class. This time, John and Vicki offered their two-day DTI Instructor Development course—something they do not offer all that often, especially to average citizens. (They mostly provide this course to Federal and state law enforcement and military organiza-tions.)

In addition to John and Vicki, there were twelve students attending the class as well as a couple of assistant instructors. The stu-dents and instructors came from “far and wide” to attend. Four of us were from the local area here in Ohio and I have trained quite a bit with each of them before. Four came from Tennessee, two from Pennsylva-nia, one from Indiana, and one from far-off Bangkok, Thailand. One of the assistant instructors travelled from Minnesota, and another from Pennsylvania. John and Vicki drove from their home in Colorado. The course of instruction was what you would typically expect from a firearms instructor development course—lectures about the “do’s and don’ts” of teaching adults to han-dle and shoot a handgun, practical demon-strations of shooting drills, lectures by stu-dents, etc. What was somewhat unique—and one of the primary reasons I wanted to take this class—was the perspectives added by Vicki Farnam on how to teach women to shoot. (Vicki and her co-author, Diane Nicholl, wrote two books on this subject, one targeted at firearms instructors—Teaching Women to Shoot: A Law Enforcement Instructor’s Guide—and the other at women desiring to learn how to shoot—Women Learning to Shoot: A Guide for Law Enforcement Officers. Although specifically written from a law enforcement perspective, the two books

are very useful to anyone wanting to learn the unique aspects of teaching women shooters and both are currently available from Amazon and directly from DTI.)

I had obtained a copy of Teaching Women to Shoot a couple of years ago (and bought a copy of Women Learning to Shoot from Vicki while she was here this time) and have at-tempted to incorporate the techniques into my courses of instruction whenever I have a female student. According to Vicki (and others), women absorb new information in a very different manner than men typically do. To grasp something new, they need more detailed information (and more time to ab-sorb it), while men can learn new things based on much vaguer general concepts. The challenge for the firearms instructor is that when teaching mixed groups of men and women, the male students can easily get bored when the instructor provides the level of detail needed by the women students or, the female students can become over-whelmed and lost when the instructor limits the level of information needed to keep the men actively engaged in the class.

Vicki explained that, on average, men are very good at understanding spatial relation-ships—the ability to visualize objects, in-cluding their shape, size, positions, and rela-tionships to each other, in their mind—and can successfully carry out a task with just vague instructions. As an example of this, at one point while we were on the shooting range she asked four students—everyone taking the class was male—to arrange five targets in a circle. The task was successfully accomplished in less than a minute and without any verbal communications between

July/August 2018 Volume 8, Issue 4

Edited and Published by

Gary Evens, Rangemaster and

NRA Certified Firearms Instructor &

Range Safety Officer

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to

keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in Random Shots are those of the author(s), and

do not necessarily represent the positions of any other individual or

organization.

“A fighter does not spend valuable time looking for an excuse to lose. He spends his time finding a way to win!...You must decide what (if anything) in your life is worth fighting for.” — John S. Farnam

the individuals arranging the targets. Vicki then explained that women are generally verbal and had she asked four average fe-males to do the same thing they would have first had to discuss it to make sure they un-derstood what they were supposed to do, they would then have to discuss among themselves who would move which target and where they would place it to form the circle. They would also discuss how large they should make the circle, etc. And to accomplish the task it would have taken the women at least twice the amount of time than it took the men to do it.

Vicki went on to explain that she first began to investigate how women learn differently from men when she was approached by a male law enforcement firearms instructor that asked her why he had such difficulty teaching women how to shoot. This in-structor explained that given police officers of equal experience and training, males were able to pass their periodic firearms qualifica-tion training easily while the women general-ly failed. (It later turned out that one of the female police officers this instructor had to fail was his Chief of Police’s daughter.) This conversation launched Vicki’s effort to un-derstand the differences in learning and teaching techniques. Early in her research, Vicki asked a large group of female police officers to point out on a silhouette target where they would place their front sights to hit the center of the target with their bullets. To her surprise, Vicki said every single woman pointed to a spot just above the target’s shoulder if they wanted to hit the center of the target. They indicated that they had learned since their shots tended to go low and to the left that they needed to adjust their point of aim up and to the right to get the hits to go where they intended. None of them understood how they could adjust their grip and stance to enable them to aim their sights at the center of the target and get hits there. As Vicki expanded her research, she said she got the same response when she asked 85% of women shooters where they placed their sights. (She said she also got this answer from about 15% of male shooters.) Because of her work in this area, Vicki has provided specialized firearms instructor training to many of the “alphabet-soup” Federal agencies such as the FBI, DEA, the Secret Service, the Marine Corps, Special Operations Command, etc.

Women tend to take instructions literally and thus it is important for an instructor to

use precise terms when explaining how to do something. For instance, when explain-ing how to shoot a gun it is common to tell the student to align their sights with the target and press the trigger. Men generally understand that these tasks are supposed to be accomplished at the same time, while women understand them as entirely separate tasks that are not necessarily related. I have experienced this situation myself many times when trying to teach females to shoot. When any shooter is unable to hit their tar-get, even from close distances, or their hits are all over the target rather than in a rela-tively small group, I ask them to describe how they see their sights on their gun in relation to the target. Invariably they can describe how their sights should appear in relation to each other and the target just as I had previously described it during the class-room instruction. What they often do not understand it that their eye must be looking through the rear sight at the front sight and the target—quite often the female shooter (and some male shooters) are looking over the top of their gun’s sights at the target. (As a result, I now include a graphic in my classroom presentation that shows the prop-er alignment of the eyes behind the sights.) They also don’t necessarily understand that the act of pressing the trigger to the rear to fire the shot must occur simultaneously while keeping their gun’s sights aimed at the target.

According to Vicki, women run everything through an emotional filter, while men just accept things as facts. As a result, they can get very emotional when shooting a firearm, even crying when they do it for the first time. Men typically interpret this as fear and rush to try to make the female feel better and to help. Vicki explained that sometimes it is fear, but more often it is just an emo-tional release because of doing something that is entirely new to them. Indeed, the men rushing in to help can often be a hin-derance to further learning rather than a help. When situations like this occur, rather than helping the female accomplish the task it is better if the instructor just explain what needs to be done in more detail, perhaps demonstrating what is to be done, but let the female work through it and accomplish the task themselves. It may be necessary to reduce “environmental distractions” before allowing the female student to continue—things like letting the rest of the class com-plete the shooting drills and then having the woman do it by themselves with individual

instruction and without the distraction of having others standing around and watching (trying to help).

Still another factor the instructor may need to consider is that women’s hearing, espe-cially with younger girls, is much more sen-sitive than it is for men. As a result, women shooters may need additional hearing pro-tection beyond just the normal ear muffs or plugs—they may need both.

To exercise our understanding of some of the challenges that women students have, while we were doing our instructor demon-strations—each of us had to provide a cou-ple of minutes of impromptu instruction on a firearms topic identified by John—Vicki would role play a female student, “Mabel”. “Mabel” had a lot of questions and really challenged each of us to adapt our training technique and the terms we used to address the unique aspects of providing the right information to a woman student.

Most of the class time was spent on the firing range. Altogether I fired about 500 rounds during the two days of instruction. The culmination of the range time was shooting the DTI instructor qualification course of fire. This consisted of shooting at a spinning metal target and getting it to completely rotate within 22 seconds. Of course, there was more to it than just that. We had to be moving when we drew our handguns from our con-cealed holsters, we could only fire four shots from any one position before having to move, whenever we moved we needed to make sure our fingers were off the trigger, and we had to remember to look around and behind us at least once at the start of the drill before we began shooting at our target. While most of the class was able to successfully complete the drill and received their instruc-tor pins, four of us were not and this is where I learned a lot about myself.

I think my main problem was having too many challenges to overcome. The first challenge, for me, was that this is only the second time that I have shot at a spinning

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metal target. They are simply not available on the shooting ranges that I have access to. (Even DTS does not have them—yet—so John and Vicki brought them with them from Colorado.) I probably had about 20 separate opportunities to shoot at this spin-ning target during the weekend. I only suc-cessfully did it once through a full 360° rota-tion—but got it to stop spinning a bunch of times. I did manage to win one “duel” with one that was positioned vertically rather than horizontally. I was able to get it to spin halfway against my “opponent” with just 3 shots when we had to shoot with our sup-port hand (my left hand) only. During the other two “duels” with my opponent—the student that came from Thailand—he beat me decisively by getting shots on target be-fore I could.

One of my challenges, in addition to my unfamiliarity with shooting at spinning tar-gets, is related to my vision. I wear correc-tive lenses to see properly. Because my vi-sion is different between my right eye and my left eye, I must keep one eye closed when shooting—otherwise my sights appear to jump around because I have shifting eye dominance issues. When using just one eye, my depth perception is adversely affected, and I had difficulty determining if the target I was aiming at on the spinner was coming towards me or moving away when it was in the optimal position to shoot at it. To be successful you need to hit the metal paddles on the arms of the spinner while they are moving away from you. If you hit them while they are coming towards you, the spinning will stop, and you must start it spinning all over again—something you cannot afford to do if you expect to get it to completely spin within the 22 second time limit.

Another challenge I faced was trying to ac-complish the various steps to engage the target in a different manner than I was used to. Whenever we do a repetitive task, after enough iterations of doing it we develop neural pathways in our brain resulting in being able to perform the individual steps in the task without consciously thinking about them. This leaves our mind free to concen-trate on other things. Driving a car is an example where we typically develop neural pathways to help us accomplish the task without really thinking about it. Shooting a firearm is another example of this. When we are asked to perform a task for which we have an already-established neural pathway

differently than we are used to doing it, we now need to consciously think about each of those steps as we accomplish them. This also means it will take us longer to do the task and our mind will have less focus on critical decisions that we may need to make while performing the task. I was asked to make several changes to my neural pathway regarding shooting my handgun. For in-stance, I had to move before I drew my pistol from my holster—which was con-cealed under a vest. This is a good habit to develop, but after dozens of firearms train-ing classes and many more range sessions where I was unable to move—either be-cause the range rules did not allow you to step to the side while drawing my gun or because the range firing lanes were too nar-row to allow movement, I had developed a neural pathway for drawing my pistol that did not involve stepping to the side first. This is definitely one of those “training scars” but I now had to consciously think about this while I drew my pistol rather than keeping all my mental focus on the target.

I also had to get use to the idea of shooting just four shots before having to move and taking my finger off the trigger while I moved. Other instructors that I have trained with teach that whenever your sights are on the target your finger should be on the trigger and whenever your sights come off the target you must get your finger off the trigger. In taking a simple side step, I’ve always been taught to keep my sights on the target and even to shoot while I was moving by some of these other instructors. I have come to do this automatically if I am only moving a short distance. Now I had to think about what I was doing and remember to get my finger off the trigger and then reacquire my sight picture once I stopped moving—this took time. Finally, there was the four-shot limit before moving. I have been taught to move after every few shots but was also taught that I should not “count rounds” to determine when I should move. Now I had to remember to count my shots, which also took time—and focus away from the target.

Another change that was suggested is that I should use a “thumbs-up” grip rather than a “thumbs-forward” grip. I adopted the “thumbs-forward” grip to lock my wrists and reduce muzzle flip when I shoot. By going to the “thumbs-up” grip I now must figure out some additional grip adjustments to minimize muzzle flip. This is not some-

thing you want to be doing in the middle of a shooting drill where you are being evaluat-ed! Similarly, it was suggested that I use more of a Weaver-style shooting stance ra-ther than the Isosceles stance that I was used to using. (Studies have shown that the vast majority of people automatically assume an Isosceles stance during real-world shoot-ing incidents even if they normally use a Weaver stance during training. This is the main reason that I had decided to use the Isosceles stance.) Again, this is not a change you want to make in the middle of an evalu-ation.

After a couple of attempts, I was able to successfully complete the drill with out mak-ing any of the mistakes that would “disqualify” me—forgetting to look around before drawing my gun, forgetting to move while I was drawing my gun, making sure I didn’t “sweep” my support hand while drawing my gun, making sure I only fired four shots before I moved, and making sure I took my finger off the trigger every time I moved. However, I was unsuccessful in accomplishing all of this while also making the target spin within the 22 second time limit. Having to focus so much of my atten-tion on not making any errors in my tech-nique took my attention away from my front sight and from my trigger control. Still, I consider being able to complete the drill without any “disqualifiers” to be a success for me. (Fortunately, John authorized Bill Martin to re-administer the shooting test to me and the others that failed to successfully complete it. Once we pass, Bill will inform him, and John will send us our instructor pins. I’m sure Bill will help me refine my technique and eliminate some of those little “glitches” that seem to plague me.)

For this class, I once again used my S&W M&P M2.0 9mm Compact pistol. It per-formed flawlessly, with only one malfunc-tion that I attribute to a faulty round of am-munition. I got a “click” when I attempted to fire a shot just as the buzzer sounded to end one of the drills. I performed a tap/rack to clear the faulty round, but it turned out that it was the last round in the maga-zine, so my slide locked back, and I accom-plished a speed reload. The assistant in-structor that was standing beside me also noticed the apparent malfunction, but we were not able to find the offending round in the mulch and spent brass cartridge cases that covered the surface of the range to con-firm our suspicion.

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In early May, Sensi Norm Hood returned to DTS to assess our progress in Hojutsu. Norm and his wife operate Defensive Solu-tions, LLC, in South Bend, IN and he has recently been certified as an assistant in-structor at Clint Smith’s Thunder Ranch firearms training school in Oregon. (Clint is another of those legendary firearms instruc-tors and he is also a Hojutsu practitioner.) Eleven students took the course and Norm was assisted by Bill and Billy Martin (from DTS) and Mark Weaver, who drove down with Norm from South Bend. Most of the students were from the local area and I had trained with many of them at DTS before. One student flew all the way from Orlando, FL to attend.

Norm introduced some of the techniques that Clint teaches at Thunder Ranch to us and asked for our inputs. (Norm intends to recommend some of these techniques be included in the Hojutsu method of shoot-ing.) Norm also introduced us to a new shooting target that he as developed. (I very much liked the new target, but for most of the class we used the normal Hojutsu tar-gets.) I liked the majority of the different techniques from Thunder Ranch as well.

One of the things that Norm did was gener-ally take away the “stressor” of trying to keep our shooting within the time limits set on the shot timer. Instead he would occa-sionally use the shot timer to start a drill or to give us a sense of how much time was allowed for the drill, but most of the time he just gave us a verbal instruction to begin shooting. This helped me a lot because just the idea of having to shoot within a time limit tends to make me rush my shots and my accuracy suffers as a result. By slowing

down, I was able to shoot much more accu-rately and managed to keep all my shots within the defined silhouette targets for the entire two days of training, thus avoiding any “disqualifications”.

Our shooting started with the “Dot Tor-ture” drill. This consists of shooting at ten 2-inch circles in a specific sequence from 3 yards. The goal is to keep all of your hits within the designated circle. I managed to do well on about half of the circles but had some challenges when it came to shooting alternating shot strings on two different circles or when shooting with just one hand. When shooting alternating targets, I tended to keep my shots in the first circle but would not keep them in the second circle where they went low and to the right.

There are three courses of fire that Hojutsu students must successfully shoot. On the “Short Course” I managed to score a 96% which is just between Second-Degree and Third-Degree Black Belt scores. (My target for this drill is shown here. The six hits in the “C” zone were all from 25 yards when my point of aim was at the line dividing the “A” zone and “C” zone.) On the “School Drills” my score was 84%, just below the First-Degree Brown Belt requirement. I was only able to com-plete a portion of the “PPC” because each of the students had to do an interview with a couple of the instructors and this hap-

pened for me while the first part of the PPC course was being shot. Still, by the end of the second day, I was promoted to a Third-Degree Brown Belt in Hojutsu-Ryu.

So, what are some of the “lessons learned” that I gleaned from this class. First, my accuracy improves considerably when I can control my trigger better by slowing down and shooting follow-up shots from “reset”—i.e. only allowing the trigger to only move forward enough to reset and not out to its full length of pull. This was espe-cially evident when I was trying to make headshots. If the first shot was at the “head” target area, I tended to shoot low by 2-3 inches. When my headshots were fol-low-ups that I shot from “reset” I was gen-erally able to keep my hits within the desig-nated area.

Another thing I discovered about my shoot-ing is that when performing a “failure to stop” drill—i.e. two shots to the center of mass followed by a headshot—I was trying to not rush my headshot by taking a breath while I transitioned my sights to the head area. However, I discovered that I was still exhaling when I fired the shot, and this was causing my shots to go low. Once I under-stood this, I was able to make an adjust-ment—by slowing down even more and holding my breath—I was able to more consistent hit within the intended target area.

By slowing down my rate of fire, I was able to focus more on the shooting fundamentals and improve my accuracy. Trigger control is the key element that I need to focus on. I’ve struggled with my shooting accuracy at distances of 15 yards and beyond. One drill Norm had us do was to fire a full magazine at a target from about 25 yards with no time pressure. I took my time, firing each shot after the first from “reset”.

I also used my 4-inch S&W M&P9 M2.0 Compact pistol for the Hojutsu class and once again it performed flawlessly with zero malfunctions. Altogether I shot between 500 and 600 rounds during the two days of instruction. Between this class and the DTI instructor development class, I’ve fired well over 1,000 rounds through this gun without cleaning it. I cannot recommend this gun highly enough to you.

One of the things that I did for this Hojutsu class was bring along my replica 1865 Spen-cer Carbine and let some of the other stu-dents and instructors shoot it. The Spencer

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is one of the guns Hojutsu students need to be knowl-edgeable about to properly answer one of the written ques-tions that must be answered. Everyone seemed to enjoy the opportunity and I may bring along other applicable historical firearms that I have in

my collection to allow students and instruc-tors to further their understanding of the development of firearms.

If you are the least bit interested in learning more about the Hojutsu integrated fighting method—and if you are concerned about your self-defense, you should be—I recom-mend you contact Bill Martin at DTS and arrange to attend a training session. Train-ing time is divided between the “dojo” and the shooting range, with every other week spent in one location or the other. Sessions are currently held on Tuesday (in the Dojo) and Wednesdays (at the shooting range) starting at 6PM and lasting until about 8PM. No prior martial arts or shooting experience is needed to attend. The cost is very reason-able!

-- G.R. Evens

First Impressions

It wasn’t quite ready for the 2018 SHOT Show, but a few weeks later Smith & Wes-son announced the latest edition in their M&P Shield line of semi-automatic pis-tols—the 380EZ. This new pistol is pro-portioned more closely to the full-size M&P 9 M2.0 than it is to the rest of the Shield models but shares their sub-4-inch barrel length. In effect it is more like an 85% scale model of the full-size M&P pistol. One big difference with the rest of the semi-auto pistols in the M&P family is that the 380EZ is not a striker-fired gun. Instead its action

is based on an internal hammer. Another departure from the M&P design is the incor-poration of a grip safety.

The M&P380 ShieldTM EZTM is chambered for the .380 ACP cartridge. It comes with two 8-round, single stack magazines, giving the gun an 8+1 round capacity. The maga-zines incorporate an “easy load” button, like those found on many .22 caliber pistols to make loading ammunition into them easier. The barrel is 3.675 inches in length and the gun’s overall length is 6.7 inches. It is equipped with the same 3-dot white sight design as the other M&P pistols, with the rear sight being adjustable for windage. The slide and barrel are made of stainless steel and finished in S&W’s Armornite®. The frame is made of polymer. The gun weighs in at 18.5 ounces without ammunition. A small section of Picatinny rail is located in front of the trigger guard, allowing lights and/or lasers to be installed on the gun. Grip texturing is similar to that found on the new M2.0 pistols, but less aggressive because a lot of texturing is not needed to handle the recoil of the .380 cartridge. Like the other Shield models, the 380EZ does not have replaceable grip backstraps. It does incorporate a tactile loaded chamber indicator on the top of the slide reminiscent of the one found on the Ruger SR9/40 pis-tols.

S&W introduced the 380EZ to accommo-date those shooters with reduced hand strength. By chambering it for the .380 ACP cartridge, they could lighten the recoil spring, making it easier to rack the slide. They also incorporated slight extensions on each side of the rear of the slide to aid in getting a solid grip on it. It comes in two models, one with and the other without an ambidextrous manual thumb safety. The magazine release can be reversed to accom-modate left-handed shooters. Unlike the striker-fired models, the trigger on the 380EZ is one piece. Trigger pull weight is about 5 pounds.

I had an opportunity to shoot the 380EZ following a Second Amendment Foundation Training Division (SAFTD) Handgun Skill-builder Level II class that I took in late March. I was amazed—as were the others that shot the new pistol—at how light the recoil was. Indeed, my overall impression of this pistol is that it is very lightweight and comfortable to operate and shoot. As I normally do, I only fired 5 shots from the little pistol for my quick evaluation of its

performance. Once it was in my hand you could not tell that it had a grip safety. It depressed without effort. Recoil was straight back with little or no muzzle flip noticeable. My five-shot group measured about an inch in diameter on a target placed about 5 yards down range.

I think this new M&P380 Shield EZ will be a hit among those that have reduced hand strength or that are recoil sensitive. There are smaller pistols on the market, but this one is sized just right for the new shooter. While some doubt the viability of the .380 ACP as a self-defense cartridge, it has bene-fitted from the same improvements made to other semi-auto pistol bullet designs. As a result, when loaded with premium ammuni-tion, the 380 is a viable self-defense car-tridge. The MSRP for the gun is $399, but you should be able to find one cheaper.

-- G.R. Evens

The primary advantage of a handgun is that they are small enough that you can keep one in your possession and if you have a place to carry it you can keep your hands free to perform other tasks. There are many places where you

can carry a handgun—a pocket, tucked into your belt, or in a holster. However you car-ry it, keeping control of your handgun is critical if you intend to use it to protect yourself and others.

Over the past couple of centuries, holsters have become a primary means of keeping control of a handgun while it is on your person, but not in your hands. A holster is little more than a “pocket” that came into use when handguns were still a little too large to fit into a pocket in your clothing. Of course, for a holster to be of any use, it must be able to retain your handgun. That means it must hold your handgun securely so that it does not fall out as you go about your daily activities and at the same time positions your handgun so you can readily access it

There are really two aspects of retention when considering a holster. The first is how securely the holster holds your handgun.

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The second is how securely the holster is attached to your body.

Originally, holsters were made from leather, a tough and flexible material, to make them durable and so they could be sized to fit the gun better. To hold the gun securely, flaps or straps were attached to the holster. However, the use of a flap or strap means it takes a little longer to draw the gun out of it. A friction fit could be used in circumstances where there is not a lot of movement that would cause the handgun to fall out. One way of creating a friction fit with a leather holster was to wet the leather with the gun in it and let the leather dry to the shape of the gun. This works well but you must do something to protect the gun from the moisture while the leather is drying. In the past some sort of grease or thick oil was used. In more recent times, wrapping the gun in plastic to keep the moisture out works well.

More recently, leather has been supplement-ed with plastics and nylon as the materials to make holsters. Leather remains popular, but plastic, especially Kydex, is increasingly pop-ular as it enables the holster to retain its shape whether the gun is in it or not. This is an important feature when it comes time to reholster a handgun. However, it also means that a holster is custom-fit to a par-ticular gun and not “generic” so that differ-ent models of handguns fit into it. This makes things more complex for holster manufacturers.

The introduction of plastic holsters has ena-bled manufacturers to incorporate additional means of securing the gun in the holster. While straps are still available, more com-monly plastic holsters rely on friction or levers/latches to hold the gun in them. The Blackhawk SERPA holster is a commonly encountered one because of Blackhawk’s widespread distribution network. It is a “retention holster” because it has an internal latch that holds the gun securely in place. A button on the outside of the holster must be pushed to release the latch and allow the gun to be drawn out. (NOTE: There are con-cerns about the SERPA design because of several inadvertent discharges that have occurred when users improperly activate the release button while drawing their handguns. There are other holster designs that place the release button in different places to alleviate this prob-lem.)

The other common retention technique used with plastic holsters is the friction fit. This means the plastic is heated so that it can be molded to the contours of the hand-gun. The biggest challenge with a friction fit is getting it adjusted just right to provide the necessary amount of friction to hold the gun securely, but also allows you to easily and quickly draw it out of the holster. Some manufacturers incorporate a screw in the design that can be tightened or loosened to adjust the amount of friction holding the gun. In other cases, the user can heat up the plastic to adjust the amount of friction, but this must be done carefully so the holster doesn’t melt to the point that it loses its shape.

Just as important as holding the gun secure-ly, it is also important that the holster is held securely to your body. This is typically done by attaching the holster to a belt that is worn around the user’s waist. Some designs included straps at the bottom edge of the holster that would hold it securely to the wearer’s leg, but sometimes this was a disad-vantage such as when you sit down or are running. The higher on the belt the holster is positioned, the less the holster will move.

While some holsters were designed to per-manently attach to the belt, in more recent times holsters are designed to slip on and off the belt. This is done by attaching a couple of loops to the holster that the belt is inserted through. A more recent innovation is to attach the holster to a “paddle” or clip that fits over a belt at the user’s waist with the projection on the clip or paddle that catches the bottom edge of the wearer’s belt. This allows the holster to be more easily put on or taken off without having to unfasten the belt and slide the holster off the loops. Shown here is a paddle on a Blackhawk SERPA holster. The paddle is made of the same Kydex plastic as the holster is. (Paddles made of stiff leather are often made for leather holsters.)

Metal or plastic clips are often found on holsters designed to fit inside the user’s waistband. These clips hook over the belt to keep the holster in place while the gun is being drawn from it. One problem with these clips is that they are designed to be used with a good quality belt. Some individ-uals think that no belt is required but they

will soon discover that when they attempt to quickly draw the handgun, the holster will remain attached to it and must be removed once the gun is out of the waistband—something that will definitely increase the time required to bring the gun into use dur-ing an emergency. One problem with these clips is that they wear out over time and thus provide less retention to hold the hol-ster in place.

Inside the waistband holsters have become increasingly popular as a means of carrying a concealed handgun. A challenge with such a holster made out of plastic is that they can become uncomfortable the longer you wear it. To overcome this, some manufacturers are making “hybrid” holsters that combine the use of leather as a backing material placed against the wearer’s skin and Kydex to provide a friction fit for the gun. The Kydex is typically attached to the leather backing with rivets or screws.

Some experts argue that any means of at-taching a holster to the user’s body that does not involve the use of loops is a problem. They feel only the loop-style holster pro-vides enough durability to keep the holster attached to the wearer’s body during a rough and tumble struggle when an opponent is trying to take your gun away from you. While this might be true for law enforce-ment and some military applications, this is not that much of a concern for an armed citizen that is carrying their handgun con-cealed.

So, when selecting a holster to carry your handgun in, you need to be concerned about how securely it will hold your handgun and how securely the holster can be attached to your body. You also need to consider how comfortable your holster is to wear. If it is not comfortable, you will not wear it and thus you won’t have your gun with you when you need it. The biggest thing you can do to increase your comfort in wearing a holster is to pair it with a good quality gun belt!

-- G.R. Evens

Page 6 Random Shots Volume 8, I ssue 4

In 2015, SIG Sauer introduced their MPX, a modernized submachinegun similar to the famous H&K MP5. SIG’s version is cham-bered in 9mm Luger (with future offerings in .40 S&W and .357 SIG promised). It features an 8-inch barrel, telescoping/collapsible or folding buttstock, 30-round detachable box magazine—20-round and 10-round magazines are also available, and—unlike the MP5—it fires from a closed bolt. It uses a short-stroke gas pushrod system. Controls on the MPX are like those found on the AR-15/M-16 platform and are ambi-dextrous, making it easy to use for both right and left-handed shooters. The MPX weighs 6.5 lbs. (without the magazine), the overall length is 24 inches (18.1 inches with the adjustable stock collapsed). The trigger pull weight is approximately 7.6 lbs., and somewhat “gritty” when new. A full-length Picitanny Rail runs along the top of the gun. Flip-up front and rear signs are available and other optics such as red-dot sights can be mounted to the top rail. The handguard is aluminum and set up for bolt-on Picatinny rails sections (1st Generation only) or the KeyMod design (2nd Generation models only). One of the selling points of the MPX is that it can be easily converted to other calibers by changing the barrel and bolt.

The MPX submachinegun is only available to military and law enforcement agencies in the United States. For the civilian market SIG offers the MPX in a semi-automatic pistol version, as a semi-automatic carbine version (with a 16-inch barrel), and as a semi-automatic Short Barrel Rifle (SBR) with either an 8-inch or 4.5-inch barrel. The SBR version can be owned by civilians, but only after they comply with the requirements of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. This means filling out the required BATFE paperwork, paying a $200 transfer tax, and

then waiting a few months while your appli-cation is processed and approved.

The SBR version of the MPX intrigues me. It is available in this configuration from SIG at an MSRP of $1,957 (plus sales tax), bring-ing the total price, including the transfer tax, to about $2,157 (plus sales tax). I’ve seen it priced a couple of hundred less than that on the Internet. The MPX SBR’s compact size would be ideal in the close confines inside of a building, making it an ideal home de-fense gun. It could also easily be fitted with a sound suppressor and with its added length it would still be easy to maneuver with it in confined spaces. Of course, ob-taining a sound suppressor means going through the NFA process again, paying an-other $200 transfer tax, and waiting for ap-proval.

One option is to purchase an MPX in the pistol configuration and then go through the BATEF NFA process to convert it into an SBR. In the pistol configuration, the MPX does not have a buttstock (and it is illegal to attach one until the approval is received to convert it to an SBR). The pistol version has an MSRP of $1,500 (plus sales tax), low-er at some retail and on-line Internet loca-tions. The transfer tax to convert it into an SBR is $200, bringing the total price to $1,700 (plus sales tax). A telescoping, col-lapsible, or folding buttstock can be pur-chased from SIG for an additional $200-$300, bringing the total price to between $1,900-$2,000. Going this route enables you to take immediate possession of the MPX and using it in the pistol configuration until all the BATFE approvals come through.

There are a couple of challenges with own-ing an SBR. One is that you must keep it in your possession—i.e. you cannot lend it to someone else to use. Another is that you

must receive advanced permission from the BATFE if you want to take your SBR across state lines. It also must be legal to possess an SBR in the states where you live and where you are traveling to. This is complex and thus it would make sense to originally start with a “pistol” configuration and then converting it to an SBR. That way when you decided to travel with it to another state, you could convert it back to a pistol by removing the buttstock. You would not want to have the removed buttstock in your vehicle or re-attach one once you reach your destination, but that is just my opinion, not a legal interpretation.

More recently another option has presented itself. SB Tactical has introduced a new “arm brace” (seen on the left in the above photo) for the SIG MPX that closely resem-bles SIG’s telescoping buttstock (seen on the right in the accompanying photo). They are virtually the same except where the SIG buttstock is solid at the rear, the SB Tactical brace is made of rubber and is open rather than having a solid buttpad. Installing the SB Tacti-cal “arm brace” does not result in the MPX becoming an SBR, nor does “incidentally” shouldering it according to the latest BAT-FE interpretation of the NFA. Thus, an MPX configured with the SB Tactical brace has all the advantages of an SBR but none of the disadvantages associated with pos-sessing an NFA-controlled firearm. The cost of the new arm brace is about the same as the cost of SIG’s telescoping buttstock.

This option intrigued me enough that I de-cided to get an MPX in this configuration and add it to my collection. I took advantage of the discount SIG (and other firearms

Page 7 Random Shots Volume 8, I ssue 4

manufacturers) offer to NRA-certified fire-arms instructors to get my MPX at a good savings off of the retail price.

At the range, the MPX was a joy to shoot, but did present me with some initial chal-lenges. It would jam every 2-3 rounds at first. I thought this might be an issue of using a Gen 1 magazine rather than the Gen 2 magazine that came with the gun—it ships with just a single magazine. I had read that some users had encountered problems with using Gen 1 magazines in a Gen 2 MPX. (SIG MPX magazines are expensive running about $60 each, no matter what the capacity is. The packaging they are sold in does not always distinguish whether the magazine is a Gen 1 or Gen 2 and the differences are very subtle when looking at the magazines them-selves—a different colored magazine follow-er and a slight change in the metal magazine feed lips. The Gen 1 magazine is shown on the right and the Gen 2 magazine on the left in the photo below.) I solved the jamming problem by switching magazines. Later I went back to using the first magazine and had no problems with it. I’ll have to do some more experimenting with it. It could be there was a slight burr on the feed ramp and firing a few rounds were needed to wear it off. The other possibility is that the Gen 1 magazines may perform more reliably if they are “downloaded” a few rounds rather than loaded to their full capacity.

Accuracy with the MPX was excellent and recoil was negligible. I did all of my shoot-ing from 5-15 yards. My hits on the target were about 4-6 inches below my point of aim because of the mechanical off-set of the sights above the bore-line of the barrel, sim-ilar to what you encounter when shooting an AR-15 at close range. My groups were 1-1½ inches and centered nicely. For this range session I was using SIG’s flip-up iron back-up sights (purchased separately since

SIG no longer ships them with the MPX) attached to the top Picatinny rail. I suspect a red-dot optic could improve accuracy and I intend to install one and sight it in at 25 yards. I’ll still have to remember the me-chanical off-set when shooting at closer distances.

A few others at the range also shot my MPX and enjoyed it. Their hits on the target were comparable to what I had experienced. Altogether we fired about 60 rounds through the new gun. The “gritty” trigger was not noticeable and will smooth up with continued use.

Yes, the SIG MPX is pricey, but for some it might be the ideal solution, especially in those situations where a more stable shoot-ing platform is needed than a handgun can provide and more powerful options firing the 5.56mm/.223 or larger cartridge are just not viable.

-- G.R. Evens

The Logic of the Ignorant

A neighbor of mine has a sign in their yard that reads, “You can’t ban anger, ban AR-15s”. Needless to say, the people that live there are very liberal, probably socialist as they were supporters of Bernie Sanders lead-ing up to the 2016 Presidential election. For some reason, the sign bothers me.

A lot of the laws that have been enacted over the years have dealt with “anger”. While not banning it, they are certainly fo-cused on controlling it—i.e. setting limits on what is acceptable and unacceptable for an angry person to do. The laws are designed to serve as a deterrent so when someone becomes angry they consider the conse-quences of their actions, especially if they result in hurting others or damaging proper-ty. But, those laws don’t seem to have been much of a deterrent to those individuals that

have carried out mass murders in recent years. They don’t care about the long-term impacts of their actions, only the immediate gratification that comes from carrying out the act itself. Most of them don’t even sur-vive the event. But, liberals and socialists don’t seem to recognize the realities of hu-man nature. Instead they view the world like they would like it to be, not as it is...and they formulate their policies (and laws) ac-cordingly

Angry people have used many things to carry out their acts of violence against other people (and property). They have used oth-er types of guns, not just AR-15s—consider the recent school shooting in Santa Fe, Tex-as—, they have used knives, screwdrivers, hammers, baseball bats, bricks, rocks, their bare hands, automobiles, and even fertilizer (that is what was used to create the bomb used in Oklahoma City in 1995). Why isn’t my neighbor proposing that those items get band as well? Of course, I know the an-swer—those other things (besides guns) cannot easily be vilified as they are com-monly used and were designed for purposes other than hurting people. If my neighbor would just take the time to gain a little knowledge, they would learn that rifles, not just the AR-15, are rarely used outside of a military or law enforcement context to harm or kill people. But that is the problem with many liberals/socialists—they simply don’t want to learn because it might call into ques-tion their basic beliefs. As a result, they have decided to be willfully ignorant. (Someone is “ignorant” when they lack knowledge about something; someone is “willfully ignorant” when they chose not to seek knowledge.)

Beliefs are our internal assumptions about the world. They lay the foundation for every-thing we do and say. When beliefs are very important to us—i.e. they are deeply planted and not conscious to our thinking at all—they become values. Our morals are our “gut-level” feelings about what is right or wrong and are derived from our values. Our ethics are the general rules that we use to put our morals into words. Ethics limit our behav-ior.

Generally, disagreements over ethics are friendly and we may be willing to change our ethics. On the other hand, disagree-ments involving our beliefs are viewed as attacks on our identity. It is very difficult for us to change our beliefs.

Page 8 Random Shots Volume 8, I ssue 4

Socialists and many liberals have come to believe that eliminating guns will result in a much more peaceful world. They refuse to believe that some people are intent on doing violent things to other people. These liber-als and socialists have gained strength within the Democrat Party and now gun control is a key element of the Democrats’ party plat-form and their policy proposals.

It wasn’t always this way. Indeed, it wasn’t until the late 1960’s that gun control gained much attention from the public at all. How-ever, the Vietnam War had a profound ef-fect on liberal/socialist thinking in the Unit-ed States. Symbols of violence became rally-ing points for liberal/socialist protestors. When the war ended, their activism moved on to other things, most recently climate control, illegal aliens, social justice (injustice), economic equality, and gun con-trol. Basically, for political advantage, these activists oppose anything that their oppo-nents (i.e. Republicans and conservatives) are in favor of—even if those ideas and proposals are good things for everyone.

So, despite our strong desire to reason with those individuals that want to ban guns, trying to do so is probably a waste of time. They are unwilling to learn facts that might cause their beliefs to come into question. By remaining ignorant they do not have to confront thoughts of being wrong about something. And of course, they could care less about what our beliefs regarding the importance of freedom, self-defense, and the 2nd Amendment are. The only thing that matters to them is their beliefs.

-- G.R. Evens

Defensive Training Solutions

I’ve mentioned them before, including earli-er in this edition of Random Shots: Defensive

Training Solutions (DTS) is a family-owned small business located in Troy and Tipp City, Ohio. The Martin family provides a complete range of firearms training. As t h e i r w e b s i t e ( h t t p s : / /defensivetrainingsolutions.com/) states, “we specialize in Personal Protection & Safety Strategies for the entire family”. I have tak-en several classes at DTS and I continue to train in Hojutsu-Ryu regularly with them.

William “Bill” Martin is the lead instructor at DTS. He has quite an impressive array of qualifications and certifications. He is a National Rifle Association (NRA)/Winchester Marksmanship program Distin-guished Expert in Pistol, Defensive Pistol 1, and Defensive Pistol 2. He is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor, NRA-certified range safety officer, and an NRA-certified training counsellor (that means he can train others to be NRA-certified instructors). In addition, Bill is a Rangemaster-certified fire-arms instructor, and an affiliate Defensive Training Institute (that’s John and Vicki Farnam’s company) pistol instructor. He is a School Attacker Response Course (SARC)-certified instructor, and SABRE-certified pepper spray instructor. He is a certified firearms instructor for the Second Amend-ment Foundation Training Division (SAFTD) and one of only four SAFTD National Master Instructors. He is certified by SAFTD to train other SAFTD firearms instructors and he helps develop firearms training classes for that organization. He holds a black belt in Hojutsu-Ryu and a green belt in Tae Ryu Do.

Bill’s wife Caryl, son Billy (also a Hojutsu-Ryu black belt), and daughter Rebecca help with the business, and are certified as fire-arms instructors or associate instructors. Other firearms instructors that are affiliated with DTS include Kyle Yount, a police of-ficer in a small, western-Ohio community and owner of Surprise Break Firearms Training; Joe Ivancic, one of the coaches of the Cedarville University Pistol Club and a Hojutsu-Ryu black belt; and Charlie Binga-mon.

DTS offers a full range of self-defense courses including concealed carry; basic and advanced pistol, rifle, and shotgun courses; pepper-spray training; women-only classes; Hojutsu-Ryu integrated defense course, oth-er courses, and private lessons. Bill has been able to attract some of the top firearms trainers in the country to come to his facility to provide training. These include firearms

training legends John and Vicki Farnam, Robert Vogel (one of the top handgun com-petitors in the world), Melody Lauer and John Johnson. DTS is the exclusive fire-arms training provider for one of the oldest and best gun stores in western Ohio, Olde English Outfitters in Tipp City.

In addition to providing firearms training, Bill Martin also makes handgun holsters, magazine pouches, and other similar acces-sories. (I have two of Bill’s holsters, a con-cealed carry style that can be configured for inside or outside the belt/waist carry, and a competition-style offset one.)

If you are in need of a holster for your handgun or training in how to protect your-self and your family, you certainly can’t go wrong with DTS. You can contract them through their website, visit their training facility in Troy (2855 Stone Circle Drive) by appointment only, or call them at (937) 335-2998.

-- G.R. Evens

Random Shots Reading List

I have mixed feelings about this next author and firearms instructor. Rob Pincus is a very knowledgeable and able instructor. However, at times he seems to be more interested in the business side of firearms instruction than he is in actually teaching people how to be effective in their own self-defense. Many of his critics accuse him of being a “self-promoter” and arrogant. He routinely appears on television on many self-defense related programs as an expert. He has also started several initiatives designed to benefit individuals seeking to gain knowledge of self-defense—things like the School Attacker Response Course (SARC) and the Association of Defensive Shooting Instructors—but quickly loses interest in them when they do not produce the results that he desires from them. His current initi-ative is the Personal Defense Network (PDN), a series of training courses taught by him in person and by video/DVD that he sells. He is the owner of the I.C.E. Training Company.

For a couple of years, Rob’s base of opera-tions was out of the Columbus, Ohio area. He has since moved on to other places around the country.

Page 9 Random Shots Volume 8, I ssue 4

I have been a student of Rob’s, having taken his SARC Instructor Course. I did find his teaching style to be somewhat abrupt, but he went on to explain that he comes across this way because he thinks it is vital to get out the essential information within the first two sentences while he is speaking or writ-ing about a particular topic. (He also said that he easily gets distracted and often finds himself going down “rabbit holes” and los-ing track of what he was talking about.) Once I understood this, I didn’t find his teaching style to be a problem.

Rob has been a police officer and executive protection agent. He has also served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He is the creator of the Combat Focus® Shooting program. He is also an author, having writ-ten articles for SWAT Magazine and others, and several books, two of which I have read.

I was not impressed with his Combat Focus Shooting: The Science of Intuitive Shooting Skill Development—Evolution 2010 (2010, I.C.E. LLC Publishing Company, Virginia Beach, VA). It was so full of typographical er-rors—mis-spelled words, incomplete sen-tences/paragraphs, etc.—that I was unable to focus on the lessons he was trying to present in the book. It appears that this book was rushed off to the printer without undergoing a quality control review.

The other book of his that I read was Coun-ter Ambush: The Science of Training for the Unex-pected Defensive Shooting. I found this book to be well-written and informa-tive. It deals specifically with how you need to respond to a surprise attack that you do not expect. Being prepared for the unexpected attack is vital if you hope to survive the encounter. As Rob says, “Violent Criminals don’t want to give you any time to formulate your counter attack and they take full advantage of the element of surprise. Knowing the keys to developing a Counter Ambush Response through your training is the key to being able to protect yourself and your loved ones in a worst case scenario.” This book does just that.

One of the most meaningful quotes I have found from this book is the following re-garding concealed carry qualification train-ing:

When the system is set up to imply that the required training is all that one needs to do, it creates the illu-sion of preparation and instills a false sense of confidence in many people who simply do not realize the vast chasm of knowledge and practice that stands between their CCW Qualification Course and actual preparation to deal with a worst case scenario situation.

I whole-heartedly agree with this and I have found it to be true based on my own train-ing experiences. I simply did not know what I didn’t know and thus still needed to learn after I completed my initial handgun training course(s).

Reading List:

1. Deadly Force: Understanding Your Right to Self Defense, by Massad Ayoob, ISBN-13: 978-1-4402-4061-2, ©2014

2. The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide for the Armed Citizen, 3rd Ed., by Andrew Branca, ISBN-13: 978-1943809141, ©2016

3. gunFIGHT!: An Integrated Approach to Shooting and Fighting in Close Quarters, by Richard Nance, ISBN-13: 978-1-6088-5140-9, ©2016

4. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learn-ing to Kill in War and Society, by Lt Col (Retired) Dave Grossman, ISBN 0-316-33000-0, ©1996

5. On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and Peace, 3rd Edi-tion, by Lt Col (Retired) Dave Gross-man with Loren Christensen, ISBN 978-0-9649205-4-5, ©2004, 2007, & 2008

6. Left of Bang: How the Marine Corp’s Com-bat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life, by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley, ISBN 978-1-936891-30-6, ©2014

7. Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unex-pected, by Rory Miller, ISBN 978-1-59439-213-9, ©2011

8. Counter Ambush: The Science of Training for the Unexpected Defen-sive Shooting, by Rob Pincus, ISBN 978-0-9791508-8-3, ©2012

-- G.R. Evens

Upcoming Classes

LongMeadows Shooting School

Dave is still teaching the Ohio Concealed Carry Course, but it is by appointment only. Contact LongMeadows Shooting School if you want to schedule a time to attend.

Defensive Training Solutions

DTS offers a full range of firearms and self-defense instruction. Upcoming classes in-clude:

⬧ 7 Jul—Skillbuilder for Alternative Methods of Carry

⬧ 9 Jul—Pepper Spray

⬧ 16 Jul—Skillbuilder 2

⬧ 22 Jul—Defensive Handgun 1

⬧ 28 Jul (AM)—Skillbuilder 1

⬧ 28 Jul (PM)—Skillbuilder 2

⬧ 30 Jul—Skillbuilder 1

⬧ 11 Aug—Ohio CCW (Ladies Only)

⬧ 13 Aug—Pepper Spray

⬧ 18 Aug—Ohio CCW

⬧ 19 Aug—Defensive Carbine 1

⬧ 27 Aug—Skillbuilder 1

⬧ 8-9 Sep—Contextual Handgun: The Armed Parent/Guardian with Melody Lauer & John Johnson

NOTE: DTS classes are taught at either DTS’s training facility in Troy or at Olde English Outfit-ters in Tipp City. See the DTS website for details (i.e. times, location, costs, course requirements, etc.) and to sign-up.

Page 10 Random Shots Volume 8, I ssue 4

LongMeadows Shooting School

4910 State Route 201

Tipp City, Ohio 45371

(937) 478-8201

www.facebook.com/LongMeadows-

Shooting-School

2855 Stone Circle Drive

Troy, OH 45373

(937) 335-2998

https://defensivetrainingsolutions.com