A new bow brings new challenges to shooting

So a few weeks back I ordered a bow from a guy named Nate Steele of Bama Bows out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I went big with the thought of someday going to Africa to hunt big game. I selected the most basic model because I like minimalist bows and the price was right. I asked him to make a 100 pound draw longbow and it arrived some six weeks later. I recieved the new bow two days ago and have been actively shooting it as much as I am physically able.  Yesterday I took four shots with the bow and today I took about a dozen. The physical toll this takes on the muscles is amazing. The process is like a workout with shooting, two of my favorite things. Today I have taken about 30 shots in a series of two sessions. The accuracy is nothing to brag about but I can hit a four inch circle 4 out of 6 shots at ten yards. The penetration that this setup is achieving is incredible. From 15 to 20 inches into target backers is common with the two types of arrows I am using.

Something for the Revolver guys..

On the 16th of October Virginia and I were invited to attend the founders of Zombie Shooters Association's wedding match. I was working on a ship at the time so I had to request time off to go. We made it down to the ceremony and shared time with our good friends John and Melinda Zaczek. These two people rock! I've never seen two folks so excited to see us. I tried to take a video of the ceremony, but I messed it up with a double tap to the record button. So I offer my fast recovery video instead. I only missed the first few seconds.

The match that occurred afterward was something special also but pales in comparison. We took no video because we were both so rusty at the revolver game. The highlight of the match was that my HearthCo moonclips were proven bomb-proof or stomp-proof whichever you prefer. I was on a squad that was not revolver saavy and thus not revolver reloading device friendly. I had to straighten one of my Ranch Products clips after the match and that took some doing. Good news John! I hope you saved the bent .41 Mag clips.

Been a while...Part 2

Practice for me started out at 10yds and lasted two and a half hours. I shot to closing time at the local BPS and hardly realized it. The reason I had for shooting indoors were that it was temperature controlled and I would not have to deal with heat fatigue and that it was easier to recover my arrows, a big key to expediting progress. Having to search the ground for lost arrows flat out sucks. It takes time away from practicing and the grass/ground/leaves are hard on your fletchings. Over time I was able to keep more and more of my shots on the five spot target. Imagine a piece of paper with five 6 inch bullseyes on it say 12"x14". Now imagine a foam block 4'x4'. Now imagine missing both of those from ten yards at times. Indoors is the way to go if it's available. If it is cost prohibitive I recommend a large field where the grass is kept cut for a close second. So I guess a whole month or so rolled by before I even tried the twenty yard targets. As I came to shoot at the BPS more often a second advantage came to be realized: someone was always watching. Sometimes it was just employees, other times it was customers looking through the windows, and the best of all was other people coming to shoot their bows.  This was the first great thing to happen to my shooting ability, the ability to compete against other shooters. At first it was a given that everybody under the sun was better than I was, but then I started to get better and better. There is nothing like the feeling of shooting with another person and testing yourself against them and sharing the excitement and letdowns of the results downrange.

So it's been a while....Part 1

I appologize for taking so much time off from the blog. I have decided to lay down the semi-autos and revolvers for a while and get back to the basics . I have been devoting my time to the bow and practicing for the up coming archery deer season. After watching the two seasons of Top Shot and realizing that I was really lacking in this particular area of marksmanship it really bothered me. I have decided to forego the modern technological race with supercams and mechanical broadheads. I am using semi-traditional archery equipment this year opting for a modern minimalist longbow and carbon arrows. The arrows are at least feather fletched although I am pursuing a high Forward Of Center (FOC) setup where much of the weight is in the front of the arrow for increased penetration. The broadhead I have chosen weighs in at 250 grains. This is due to a mis-step on my part where I had my arrows cut to fit my draw length before considering how stiff that would make them. I ended lucking out in that this particular setup shoots very nicely off several of my bows and has tremendous hunting potential both on and off this continent.

Starting out, the road was not an easy one as I made many mistakes and had no guidance. I had owned the bow for 2 or 3 years but had not done anything serious with it and it rode the corner of the closet most times. I had taken it hunting once and missed by the slimmest of twigs a nice buck causing me to lean away from this platform altogether. I recently checked on the equipment and saw that almost all of my arrows needed to be refletched and that the shelf of the bow needed attention. I made a note of what I needed ventured into the local Bass Pro Shop(BPS) and ran into a guy named Dean. After a few questions, he told me what my options were and that refletching arrows was not difficult at all. I told him that I wasn't set up for it and that I spent most of my time reloading ammuntion. As luck would have it, he was in need of ammuntion for his handgun and I had just run into my new best friend. Having acquired a source to get my arrows refletched, I had conquered the biggest hurdle I had in archery so far. The next step was going to be the longest of the whole process...practicing.

My First Zombie All Gun Match at SVDFI

This past weekend I was priviledged to attend another exciting ZSA Zombie All Gun Match. This time the match was held at the Southern Virginia Defensive Firearms Institute in Nelson, Virginia. The match consisted of nine stages of pistol, rifle, and shotgun both combined and separate. The facilities were amazing and well constructed to endure high round count rifle stages. Mike Oberman, the owner and lead intstructor, did most of the course design and it was an amazing match. With a round count of around 200 pistol, 100 rifle and 75 shotgun, the ammo bag started out extremely heavy and finished light and all for the price of a local three gun match. I was highly impressed with the caliber of and effort that went into this match. I will be very excited to attend the next match at SVDFI and highly recommend it to any three gunner or pistol shooter. Yes, there is enough pistol in most of the stages for you to enjoy yourselves too.

Stage one was a nightmare for me with a horrible double feed occuring right in the middle of the stage and some trouble remembering where the targets all were. All in all it was a good stage I just came up to the line unprepared to take on this challenge. I really need to focus on small target shooting with my glock. This stage didn't do too much for my match standings for the get go.

Stage Two was your basic long standard for ZSA consisting of 3 infected targets at 25 yards and a possible 3 bonus zombies. The second string of this stage was at 10 yards strong hand only and consisted of three infected targets and four zombies. The third and final string was weakhand only from seven yards with the same array as the ten yard string. This was a limited round count stage of 38 rounds.

Stage Three was all set to be a breeze if I had just decided not to use the unproven 33rd magazine. I was going for no reload on the stage, but as you can see it did not happen that way. I ended up just blazing away to get out of the hole the big stick left me in.

Stage Four was a good recovery stage for me. I was off to a decent start finally. This was rifle and pistol and although not as fast as I had hoped, it was a solid stage for me. I also identified a mechanical issue with my pistol on this stage that would stay with me for the whole match: a rounded edge on the sear was causing a dead trigger on the first shot on an unloaded start. This has since been resolved.

Stage 5 was a 25 meter appleseed target shot standing, sitting and prone. It was a limited exercise of 33 rounds. Guess who shot 35?

Stage Six was a rifle only hose fest that I thoroughly enjoyed and had a strong performance on running it clean in fifty some odd seconds. 45 Rounds minimum.

Stage seven was where I gained my new nickname "Sexy Time," from the great Yousef Sansour and finally got to use my beast of a Benelli that holds 12 total rounds. No Yousef, I don't care if it's legal anywhere else.  It was a lot of fun with flying clays and a Cooper tunnel. Twenty rounds of shotgun and 9 rounds of pistol. Now if I could just learn to count the rounds in the shotgun.....

Stage Eight was by all rights the attack of the guarded Texas star. I changed to a tighter choke just so I wouldn't hit those darned clays. I liked this stage until I had to go to the pistol and try and hit all the little targets, which by this point in the match I was too tired to hit efficiently. Solution: Shell the whole thing.

Stage Nine was a welcome sight for us all because we were finishing the match up and all we had to use was the shotgun. I have always been comfortable with a shotgun and the ammo is easy to hold on to. A borrowed shell holder came off in my hand during a reload here and being tired I did not realize that I had more than enough to finish the stage. Lesson learned: Tekloks are a beautiful thing. So I fiddled with that thing for a minute...or so it seemed. I walked by one clay in this stage, but still came out pretty fast.

I would like to thank SVDFI, Mike Oberman, and ZSA for putting on such an incredible match this weekend. It will be hard to top this one next weekend at The Range!

Special Thanks to the Combine Camera Task Force of Virginia, Russ at Wooddude.net , and Ken Kiesler for helping video this match!

Zombie All Gun This Weekend....

So this weekend was the great baptism of fire for my new AR.  I had so much fun that I all but forgot to video tape the match. My good buddy Ken Kiesler and I remembered to video tape our last stage which only included shotgun and pistol. Oh well. This match went exceedingly well for me until my pistol started to light strike. I was using a heavily modified glock 19 that I had like an idiot cut a few coils off of the striker spring. Note to the rest of the world: Don't do this. Ever. There are great aftermarket springs that will do the job and keep the gun going bang. So a few quick shots here and there and then a quick malfunction drill. I was actually surprised at how well I could do the malfunction drills since it was been at least 6 months since I touched the pistol.

Pre match gear selection was an easy process as I don't have a lot of options when it comes to 3 gun. The thought ran through my mind exactly like this: Gee, with this nice new AR and those big magazines it seems a shame to run a revolver on such a pistol heavy three gun match. I decided that since there are no specified power factors, I should run a 9mm and enjoy the high round count and low recoil. I chose my Glock 19 with HiViz sights, a stainless guiderod, reduced travel trigger, Arredondo +6 magazine extensions, and Dawson Precision super heavy magwell.

For my shotgun I elected to run my Mossberg 835 Ultimag with a 20" barrel(5+1) and a modified choke over the Benelli SBE1 due it already having a side saddle for extra shells. The Benelli would have held more rounds (7+1), but without a belt mounted shell caddy I would have been lost at the reload.

The rifle was my AR that I discussed in a previous post. I decided to run the Pmags exclusively for this match and selected the 30 rounder with the Ranger baseplates just in case. I did reload to a twenty round mag at one point also.

The minimum round count was 36 shotgun birdshot, 55 rifle and 91 pistol. The Range is not really all that well suited to a lot of rifle shooting as the berms are not that high or thick. There were seven stages and two of which were all long gun. I think it's very important to have a long gun only stage at a 3 gun match. It allows competitors to be tested on that skillset alone, or in some cases that weapon type alone. I thought stages 6 and 7 did this very well.  Stage 6 was a shotgun only stage where you started on the left hand side and engaged seven pieces of falling steel and then moved to your right while reloading for an additional six pieces of steel. My entire squad aced this stage with only a few footwork/angle issues for the beginners. Stage 7 was a very different story altogether. The appleseed rifle target was the focus of this stage with each of the ten targets to recieve three hits apiece. The big target was easy and just about everyone hit that one, however as the targets got progressively smaller they often eluded the bullets. The reason for this is that many people are unable to correct properly for their zero at closer ranges. My zero was off, as I discovered yesterday, causing many of my shots to hit lower than expected during the competition. I got throught the stage hitting five targets properly, the high man for my squad.

 Stage 1 consisted of a plate rack at 10 yards or so shot with the shotgun, and then 6 infected targets as you either backed up or ran back and engaged. I made two mistakes in this stage, a miss at the plate rack and a CAW, both of which I made up. Scan close targets if you are shooting an auto or you still have bullets in your Revo. It can make a difference, but only if you don't have to reload first. Remember to keep a count of roughly how many seconds it's been since your last shot...if it's more than 5 seconds you are wasting your time trying to make up shots except if the stage has multiple infected targets.

Stage three was the only stage that I got any video of and but for the one missed zombie, I think it ran pretty well. Need a little work on the shotgun reloads. We won't talk about the light strikes...man they were annoying! The duelist shot at the end sure didn't help things either. I guess I saw a bad target but it took a while to take that shot. Two hands doofus! TWO HANDS!

 And here's a video of Ken's run: 

Ken did well at the shotgun, but a little over confidence after the reload cost him on the steel. While he did not miss any Zombies, the infected targets in the back gave him some penalties. He's a relatively new shooter and this was his first three gun match. I believe that he will do well as his skill with the various weapons advances. 

Again a special thanks to Ken Keisler for videotaping and Worth Taylor for running the timer so we could videotape. Thanks Guys!

New Rifle: Zero and Field Test



Little Bear, the Second Amendment Cat, posing next to the AR.
(I placed it on the floor for this picture and she couldn't resist the
 opportunity to be near a firearm and later fell asleep on top of it.)



    So a little over ten days ago I came across a deal and joined Team Black Rifle. In other words I purchased an AR-15 more specifically a hybrid conglomeration of parts that I thought was cool enough to buy. The upper is a Ruger 556C which is the 16.12 inch model with a heavy fluted barrel and integral flash suppressor/compensator. The lower is a CMMG with a Rock River Arms National Match trigger group. The previous owner also added a Magpul M.I.A.D grip,  an Ace Socom M4 Buttstock(Long version) with an A2 buffer and buffer spring , Eotech 512 Holosight, Surefire 6PX Tactical flashlight with KZ offset mount,Troy modular vert grip. The gun came with 7 P Mags and 12 C Products magazines with Magpul floor plates. The price was right and I am glad I bought it. I really have to say that this thing is addictive to shoot. My friend Paul has a Rock River LAR-15 Entry Tactical and we have been doing a comparitive study by shooting both.  I have found that I enjoy the Pmags for their free fall ejection and their ability to be left loaded at capacity without taking a set. I went ahead and fitted an Arredondo Magwell to the gun not because it was difficult to change magazines, but because it made it fool proof and gave a decent grip surface to the front of the lower.  I also opted for a Magpul AFG first generation because it allows me a positive close range/fast transition grip while the Troy grip is perfectly positioned for steadying longer shots and operating the flashlight if/when needed.

   We decided that after we developed practical zeros on the rifles(we went with a 25 meter zero) we would put them to a real world test by hunting groundhogs in the adjacent bean fields next to our target range/gravel pit. Before anybody jumps on us for killing defenseless animals, this is a service we provide the farmer in exchange for the use of his gravel pit. It is also a practical test of the shooter's ability to make tight shots at various distances with time constraints. I believe that this is a great way to practice shooting and help out the farmer in production of food for our country.

Our first expedition was unsucessful and after waiting too long in order to show Paul what a groundhog looked like two rushed shots were taken and nothing accomplished.  Today's hunt was very different once I learned to stay within certain limitations. My first shot was presented at 120 meters at two groundhogs together. I chose the larger of the two for obvious reasons and took up a hasty prone position in the middle of a farm road and steadied as best I could for the shot. A clean squeeze and a clean miss. The little dot in the middle of the EOTech looked gigantic and seemed to cover the whole head of the groundhog at this distance. I waited some 20 minutes and was rewarded with another shot which I took from a carefully sandbagged position and missed again. I was now certain that this shooter did not have the ability to make consistent hits on this size of target at that distance. I abandoned this spot and went to another beanfield, where due to recent rain, I abandoned my truck and went on foot for some 800 meters through a cow pasture to reach the next beanfield. On approaching the beanfield I was greeted by an erect and alert groundhog at a distance of 181 meters. I figured given my recent performance the likelyhood of a successful shot at this distance would be slim and opted to take a less direct and longer route in the name of stealth. This gamble paid off and presented me with a shot on the same groundhog at a distance of about 60 meters. I say about because I located it through a brush divide between the fields, set up a decent offhand position and squeezed off a shot in short order. The stupid part is that I used the 6x optic of my laser range finder to verify the target without ranging it and did this several times during the hunt. The shot felt good and after a short period of let down and suspected miss anxiety I found the hole and its deceased occupant. Good technique resulted in a humane and instant kill. Being in the middle of the field I too a moment to scan my surroundings to learn if any other holes were nearby and attempt to gain some intelligence about the possible number of groundhogs in the area. I was shocked to find a hole some forty meters to my left (as I faced the position I had shot from) with what appeared to be part of a head sticking out of it. I took but a moment to study the object before executing a clean trigger press and a stable shot. I did not know it at the time, but I had just made a headshot on an exposed area of about 4 square inches.   

The first animal taken from about 60 meters offhand.

The second animal taken at approximately forty meters offhand partial head exposure.

The hunt was dually successful in that it provided great practice and great service and I am grateful for both opportunites.