Too Lazy to Fail

My second night at the class was much more a mixed bag than my first night. We started the classroom portion with a hilariously bad DEA training video. The focus of the video was “having the will to survive” but that wasn’t why we watched it. When the video was over, Givens went over what was done well and poorly in the re-enactments of shootouts. I felt like there were a few nuggets of useful information in the DEA video, but they could have been presented more efficiently as stand-alone lessons, instead of a reward for sitting through a very long and awkward video.

Then it was announced that we were getting a civics lesson to accompany our self-defense training. Turns out Scandinavia had a much lower crime rate that its neighbors up until the advent of satelite TV. Apparently their terrain was so rugged that terrestrial television didn’t work. When television came to Scandinavia via satellite, so did higher crime rates. The point of this was that perception is reality. When you see things done incorrectly, whether those things are social interactions or firearms use, you’ll tend to emulate. So to put some “positive reinforcement” into our heads, we were shown a training video from Gunsite.

Kind of a stretch? I thought so as well.

The video was long. I should have timed it, but didn’t. It was easily 30 minutes to an hour. It covered things that were covered in Level II at Rangemaster. It covered malfunctions and the drills to correct them, which was interesting. It covered non-standing shooting positions and how to transition in and out of them. I thought that was informative, but without live demonstration and practice, it was pretty useless. The video gave all of 90 seconds to “Pivots and turns”, which I’ll note is one of the bullet points in the course description. Did we *learn* these movements? No, we saw a police officer execute them. Once.

By this time I was pretty frustrated, and I fear that my negative attitude about the evening up to that point impacted my performance in the range portion of the class. We did another scored course, and I probably scored lowest of all the participants. The instructors were understanding and helpful, but the problem was that I understood my errors but wasn’t able to correct them. It’s not the fault of anyone at Rangemaster, but mine for not getting in enough serious range time. Even Givens commented, “At least you know what you’re doing wrong, so you can fix it.” I was slightly shamed, but having been through the scored course that emphasized the differences between close and distant targets, I have a good idea of how I can set up my range time to get productive use from it.

I need to slow down and focus on getting good, consistent, slow hits instead of poor, scattered, fast hits. I even heard one of the instructors comment to another behind me: “I think he wants to be a gunslinger.” Don’t try to talk behind the back of a student wearing electronic hearing protection, guys! Still, it’s a valid criticism, and I’ll work on it.

In the last hour we had our “simulated gunfights” which were 1-on-1 IDPA-style scenarios. The course involved running up to the booth, knocking off an ammo box with your dominant hand (to ensure that nobody is drawing early), scoring 2-3 solid hits on a cardboard BG 6 feet away, then engaging a reactive target about 25 feet away which will only fall on good COM hits. We didn’t have time to do the entire ladder, but I went up twice and survived both times. Each round requires two points to win, and during my second round I lost my first one (my target started falling as my opponent’s hit the ground), tied the second one, won the first one (by a hair) and won the last one. It was pretty neat to hear folks laughing behind me when I missed the pop-up a few times, and grunt in approval as I slowed down and downed it. The competitive portion of the range time was a blast!

(Side note: If you’re going to be a purist and carry a 1911, please be proficient with it. At least if I screw up I’ve got a 15-round magazine, but more than one 1911 guy had to reload in the middle of the match, which was almost certain death.)

We closed the class by stepping in front out the booths and getting just a little instruction in movement. Nothing fancy, but it was neat to see Givens demonstrate some general principles for how to react in the opening stages of a fight.

It’s hard to summarize my feelings about this course. I guess my fear is that someone who was present will remember how poorly I performed on the range and think that I’m putting the rest of the course down in an effort to make it look like I don’t suck so terribly. But I can admit it, I did much worse on the shooting portions than I had any excuse for.

The range portion was good validation of practiced skills for some (and a humbling reminder that more practice is needed for me) but few new skills or techniques were presented. The classroom portion on the first evening was packed full of good information related to lessons learned from famous shootouts, but on the second night I felt like an elementary school kid on the last day of school, with the teacher showing video to the class to pass the time until everybody went home. The Gunsite video, for instance, was a good video, but I came under the impression that we would be taught in person by Rangemaster instructors in an interactive setting. If I wanted to watch a video from another school, I would order a DVD from their website.

I feel bad being so critical, because I like Givens and the other instructors. I learned a ton from them in Level II, and so I can’t help but feel like I’m not being fair to Rangemaster in this review. Still, came away from the course feeling like I didn’t quite get my money’s worth this time around.

I’m still planning to take more courses from Rangemaster. In particular, I’m looking at the Back-Up Gun course, Defensive Shotgun, Vehicle Defense, and Urban Defense Carbine. But maybe it’s time that for pistol instruction I take a look at other schools and instructors, as well as spending more time on my own getting my proficiency with a handgun up to an acceptable level.

I did have a great time in the competitive portion of the class, however. I’m going to give some thought to going once or twice a month to the Friday night shooting league they host.

I picked up a copy of their Defensive Shotgun DVD. I’m eager to watch it, but wanted to get this review out of my head first so I had a clean slate. Expect a review soon.

I’m doing now what I should have done when I took the Level II course at Rangemaster, and that is to record my thoughts soon after the class instead of letting myself put things off until I had forgotten enough to keep the venture from being worthwhile. I may post this tonight and may not, but want to at least get my raw thoughts on paper while I still have the session fresh in my mind.

I met Squeaky across the street at Chili’s we ate and talked for a while about school and family and other mostly non-shooty stuff. Jesse joined us toward the end to finish off the last of Squeaky’s food, and we left in our three-vehicle caravan for Rangemaster a few miles away. Thank heavens: It meant I didn’t have to navigate.

They shot for a while and I read for a while on one of the couches in an attempt to fight off the nervousness that I knew would wear me out if I let it continue. They finished shooting and sat with me for a little while. Soon Givens announced that since everyone was there, we could get started early.

We started off with some discussion about the Newhall Massacre, with special emphasis given to mistakes that were made by the CHP officers due to poor training.

The range masters in their department didn’t like having to clean up brass, and so officers were required to empty their revolvers into their hands, then put the empty brass into their pockets before loading fresh rounds into the weapon. Officers had serious trouble reloading their revolvers (without the aid of speed-loaders), and Givens reported that one officer was still trying to put his empty brass into his pocket and had just started digging for fresh rounds when one of the suspects walked around the car and shot him point-blank.

The officers trained with their .357 revolvers by shooting the lower-power (and cheaper) .38 special cartridge. Never having fired a full-load .357 before, one of the officers must have thought that his gun had blown up, because witnesses say that he dropped it and stared at it in horror after experiencing the recoil, noise, and blast.

Newhall lessons learned: You will fight the same way you practice. Things like taking the magazine out and finding a pocket to put it in while reloading will get you killed. Magazines are cheap. Life is expensive. Let them drop. Likewise, substituting low-power ammo or shooting airguns, while both can be enjoyable, will cause you trouble if you don’t stay familiar and proficient with the actual ammo and equipment you carry. This will make me reconsider the purchase of a .22 upper for my Glock.

Next came discussion about the 1986 shootout between two bank robbery suspects and multiple FBI agents. Between the discussion, viewing the FBI re-enactment and analysis of the events, and more discussion, we spent almost two hours on this one event and the ramifications on Law Enforcement firearms training and equipment. This was a great example case because it involved a series of individual engagements at varied distances with varied equipment. Among the salient points from my perspective:

• You’re never too close to miss. One agent was six feet away from the suspects at the begining of the fight, emptied his six-shot revolver, and only made a single ineffective hit. Use that front sight. Had the agent taken two careful shots instead of just emptying his gun in the suspect’s direction, he could have announced, “It’s Miller time, boys. Let’s go home.”
• The agents had access to long guns and body armor, but did not make use of them because they figured finding Platt and Matix was a long shot, so they didn’t expect to get into a fight that day. Never go looking for trouble with a handgun! “Handguns are what you carry when you are absolutely positive that you will not be in a fight that day.”
• Two agents lost their unholstered pistols because they were laying on the seat of their respective cars when the flag flew. One of them was able to engage with an inferior back-up weapon, and the other, now unarmed, ran away and had to watch his friends get killed from a distance.  The gun you don’t have on your person will not be useful in the timeframe of a defensive shooting.
• Never give up. Platt was hit with what Givens calls “a ****ing remarkable shot” from 30 feet with a 9mm round that passed through his arm, penetrating his ribs, one lobe of his liver, and a lung, stopping just short of his heart. It was a mortal wound in the truest sense, with examiners later stating that he would not have lived even with immediate care. Still, with his lung filling to the top with 1300 ml of blood, Platt fought on for four minutes. Givens: “Dying is damn-near voluntary.” If you are awake enough to be aware that you’re hurt, you’re awake enough to fight. Keep going. What have you got to lose?
• Platt dominated most of the engagement, though despite heavy FBI casualties he was eventually stopped. Platt and Matix were both highly skilled, competant, motivated indivuduals who were sober and goal-oriented, and this combined with Platt’s superior equipment (Ruger Mini-14) allowed him to be the most dreadful of the combatants. Lesson: We like to think of our potential adversary as a stupid, unskilled thug who is high on drugs and armed with a stolen .25 pistol. There exist hard, cold people in this world who are trained and equiped as well as any police officer. Prepare and plan accordingly. Rifles are the ideal tool for interpersonal conflict resolution, if you can have one handy.
• Platt was hit in the forehead from close range with a .38 +P slug fired from a long-barrelled .357. It went under his scalp, skidded around against his skull, and exited, doing almost no damage. The lesson is that the thick, armored skull is a terrible choice of targets if you’ve got a handgun. (I won’t comment on whether this is consistent with Rangemaster’s recent statement that a similar incident involving a .380 proves that the round is completely inadequate for self-defense.) The other lesson: Hit well, hit repeatedly! Sounds familiar.
• We’ve been told repeatedly that when the crap hits the fan, we do not rise to the occassion, but sink to and below our level of training. If you are not doing your homework, you will most likely “suck out loud”. You might get lucky, but at that point you’ve had the luck of getting in a gunfight, so what kind of odds on a fortunate shot are you willing to take?
• The stakeout had been up and down a long stretch of busy road, and when the flag flew only 8/14 of the agents were able to engage in time. The other six arrived just in time to see the final shots and start cleaning up the mess. Those six, of course, were the SWAT officers with shotguns and hard armor. Lesson: The cavalry will not arrive in time to help you, so you’ve got to be ready to deal with a problem with the skills in your noggin and the equipment on your person.

As you can see from the ginormous list (which is just the stuff that stood out to me), there was a lot to absorb.

Next came the shooting portion of the class. My presentations from concealment were excellent because of time spent in dry practice, but I suspect that my shooting “sucked out loud” because all of my range trips in the last six months have been “fun trips” with friends instead of time spent practicing a serious skill. I will resolve to work on that.

My shooting improved somewhat as the night drew to a close, but we’ll see if any of it sticks for tonight.

The good: The computer is about the size of the plastic covers that Disney used to ship their VHS tapes in, or the size of a small hardback book. The power supply is small. 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1G of RAM, 120G hard drive, 9″ 1024×600 screen for $350.

The bad: Screen and keyboard are small, which is fine for me, but for my wife the touch-typist makes the computer nearly unusable. 3-cell 2200mAh battery is lacking and can only power the device about two hours. There’s a little fan noise. The shiny case is a finger-grease magnet.

Other thoughts: It’s exactly what I wanted and didn’t get with traditional 12″ laptops: The ability to carry a computer with me everywhere in my Tactical Man Purse. Great for times like these where I’m stuck someplace for an hour or two with nothing to do.

I’m actually typing this from a Wendy’s in Memphis. I’m set to meet Squeaky at 3:00 across the street, but my famously poor navigational skills cause me to show up way to early for everything out of fear of getting lost. Did you know that fast food places will let you camp out basically forever as long as you buy something? Mmm. Lemonade.

Expensive, but shoots better than a gun that size has any right to shoot.

Full review Monday.

EDIT: Did I say Monday? I mean next Monday. The pistol is currently in a secure, undisclosed location, and I want to include pictures of some internal parts of the gun that I’d like to talk about.

Previously, on Too Lazy to Fail…

This is a new Ruger 10/22 rifle after about 70 rounds of bulk-pack ammunition.

Looks like the ejected brass wore off the paint on the receiver.

Ruger sent me a UPS sticker, and I shipped the receiver and trigger assembly back to them. What I received back was not right:

They didn’t bother to remove the screws before painting.

The finish is very thick and bubbly. The extra-soft rounded corners are visible here:

As you can see, the new finish is so thick that it almost obscures the lettering on the receiver. I actually had trouble seeing the serial number well enough to read it to the lady on the phone.

The worst part of it is that they didn’t bother to protect the barrel hole from their work, so that when I put the normally-freely-insertable barrel in there, I had to squeeze it in and now it’s stuck about 5 degrees off center.

I sat on the ruined rifle for a couple of weeks, because it made me sick every time I thought about dealing with it. All I want is my money back for a new rifle, not for Ruger to screw it up more. It’ll never be “right” again, so I’d rather just start over.

So I called today and spoke to a very sympathetic lady in service. She said that they will be happy to “make it right” but that she’ll have to call me Monday. Apparently they don’t send out UPS stickers anymore, but rather have some sort of arrangement with UPS stores for drop-off, and her manager (the only one who knows the new system) has already gone home, it being 3:00 on a Friday and all.

Updates when I know more.

Level I - Basic Personal Protection Course The Basic Personal Protection Course may be the most useful and exciting class you’ll ever take. This introductory course provides hands-on training to ensure that our students become competent, law-abiding handgun-owners. The class is especially suited for men and women who are new shooters, but can be very informative to veteran shooters as well. Instruction includes:

• Informed handgun selection
• Basic handgun usage
• Firearm concealment
• Proper maintenance
• Safe storage
• Legal responsibilities
• Awareness tools
• Protective tactics

Upon completion of this course you’ll receive the Certificate of Handgun Training required by the Tennessee Department of Safety as part of your application for your handgun carry permit.

Includes certificate, workbook, ammunition, range session, testing, safety glasses, hearing protection, and use of one of our firearms, if necessary.

Course Fee: $99. Eight hours of training - conducted over two four-hour sessions on consecutive days and once a month in a single block.

I’ve long desired to get some additional handgun training at Rangemaster, but money was tight when I was unemployed and I couldn’t justify the expense. I’ve now been gainfully employed for nine months, but haven’t gotten around to signing up. Turns out that I have to audit (for free) the Basic Personal Protection Course (basically a TN concealed-carry handgun safety course) before I can take the next level, Tactical Pistol. Tracie wanted to get some basic education about the use of a handgun, as did another couple, who I’ll refer to as Bob and Jill for the sake of their privacy.

We left Jackson at about 7:15, thinking we were giving ourselves enough time to get to Rangemaster in Memphis. Unfortunately, half a dozen wrecks in the area plus heavy rain caused traffic along 40 and 240 to grind to a halt. We called the range about 10 minutes before the start of the class to let them know that the four of us were planning to be there, but were snarled in traffic. We arrived about 20 minutes after the class was supposed to start, and were rushed into the classroom where the other 17 students and Tom Givens were waiting for us. Givens was visibly frustrated that the class was already behind schedule. I felt pretty awful about it, but there wasn’t much I could have done. The next classes are in the evening, so leaving earlier shouldn’t be a problem.

About six of the eight hours we were there were spent in the classroom. The course seemed to follow the description for the most part, but little or no time was given to “Awareness tools” or “Protective tactics”. Givens told me while we were alone during a break that he figures most folks absorb less than 25% of the information presented the first time they go through the class, the implication being that I should be learning new things this time around from sitting in the back. I didn’t contradict him, but the fact was that I didn’t learn much anything new from the class, though it was very good to hear it from a different perspective and to learn that most of my thought processes in carrying a weapon were on the right track. I imagine that I was a special case, having been so interested in firearms and tactics from early on that I sat riveted during my class and devoured as much reading material as I could on the topics.

Givens told us throughout the class that completing this course, though it will technically qualify you to receive a TN handgun carry permit, will in no way even begin to prepare you for the realities of the use of that handgun. Practically, I can agree that training is essential and something every responsible adult should undertake before carrying a weapon. Idealistically, though, I hate the idea that the state says we have to come sit in a classroom or fill out a bunch of paperwork to exercise what should be recognized as a natural right to self-protection.

Givens is opinionated and abrasive, and his language is not always family-friendly. I was not present for the range time, being only someone who had to sit through the class, not qualify with my pistol; my weapon never left the holster that day. I was told that on the range the no-nonsense by Givens and the other instructors was a source of frustration for new shooters who were having trouble with the basics, and that a little more patience and understanding might have gone a long way toward making some more comfortable. Perhaps so, but with most police, military, and civilian “gun types” being of the type-A leaning, I imagine that abrasiveness and impatience are the best ways to get results when someone is “doin it wrong”. The roughness may work great on those types of students, but most of the folks in this class were newbies. Nine of the twenty folks there for the class (not counting my audit) were female.

During the initial range time, my wife and friends observed one young man in a purple shirt repeatedly failing to follow safety instructions, firing after ceasefires were called, and asking irrelevant questions of the instructors while they were dealing with other students. Givens eventually had seen enough, and ordered the man to sit down and sit out the rest of the shooting for that session. During the actual qualification shoot after lunch, purple-shirt and an older lady were sent out to sit in the lobby, and together we waited for the others to finish. Blue-shirt was a nice fellow, but seemed to not be all there. The problems with following instructions didn’t seem to stem from an attitude problem, but from a lack of capacity to understand what was being required of him. The lady was as nice a person as you would ever meet, but didn’t really want to be there. Apparently her son, fearing for the safety of his mother living alone in Memphis (Mogadishu on the Mississippi, as Givens called it), paid the $99 for her and convinced her to come. Further, she thought it was only a half-day course, and was missing appointments at work as the class drug on into the afternoon. She said that she knew that she should probably take more care to protect herself, but that she was having trouble following along with the fast-paced instruction, and a lack of understanding about the terminology had caused her to have trouble keeping up with instructions on the range.

I did my best to encourage her, saying that she shouldn’t worry too much about the attitudes of Givens and the other instructors, that they probably weren’t mad at her, just very direct because they were trying to keep 20 students shooting safely in a limited amount of time. After the qualifications one of the assistant instructors took her and purple-shirt back for one-on-one instruction and qualification. They both came back into the classroom after we resumed, smiling and holding qualifying targets. The lady told me that if I hadn’t talked to her, she would have walked out of the course.

After two more hours of instructions on the legal considerations of carrying a weapon in TN, it was time for the written test. Givens seemed to have loosened up as the day drew to a close, talking with me and the other instructor about the rising crime rate in Jackson while the other 20 folks did their written test. When time was up, the students swapped the tests amongst themselves and graded the work of their peers.

I don’t know what the passing score is supposed to be, but my wife graded purple-shirt’s test and he made an 82, missing every one of the questions about the four rules of gun safety. He got his safety certificate. The lady that I had encouraged earlier and another man apparently scored too low on the test, as an assistant asked them to come with him out of the classroom. She left muttering that she never should have wasted her day there in the first place. I wish I could have caught her and talked to her after the class, but by the time the certificates were printed and we were released from the room, she was long gone.

Overall, I highly recommend the class, but understand that it is not for the meek at heart. The instruction is absolutely excellent, but the instructors do not leave time for any foolishness. I don’t seem to be the only one who liked it, though: both my wife and “Jill” decided to sign up for Tactical Pistol on the spot. I take the course on the 16th and 17th this month, so I’ll post my thoughts over that weekend I’m sure. The ladies will have to get together to decide when they can both get available to go.

This is a new Ruger 10/22 rifle after about 70 rounds of bulk-pack ammunition.

Looks like the ejected brass wore off the paint on the receiver.

And it’s not just there. The handle is apparently enough to wear it off as well.

The paint around the worn spots comes off with a fingernail. I didn’t pick at it after I discovered that. If Ruger screws me, I want to make it to go as long as it can before the flaking off spreads to the rest of the receiver.

I bought this over the blued version because I wanted a rifle that I wouldn’t have to worry as much about. Turns out the receiver is just aluminum with some paint slapped on it. The store won’t accept it for a return, so Ruger will have to take care of me. I don’t know what they could possibly do, but even the unlikely best-case scenarios will result in lots of wasted time and effort for me.

Way to go, Ruger.

The good: Reliable plinker out of the box. Cute as a button. Lightweight and easy to handle. Cheap at $214 plus tax and fees.

The bad: The barrel is stainless steel, but the receiver itself is some other metal with a silver paint. After fewer than 100 rounds, the paint around the ejection port is chipping away rapidly.

Also, would it have killed you to include a picture or diagram for disassembly, Ruger? I pressed the wrong pin out while I was trying to clean the thing, and managed to bork up the trigger assembly. The good news is that thanks to the interweb, I’m now an expert on every single freaking pin and moving part in the rifle.

Also, the sights are accurate but very hard to see.

Rating: 6/10 because I would have expected better finish quality from Ruger. I’m going to see about returning it Monday for a blued version. I don’t like the wood stock, but it’s trivial and cheap to replace it.

I’m into preparedness, which means almost by definition that I’m at least a little bit of a flashlight geek. Last time our power went out for an evening, I found that I had trouble doing anything really productive because of the need to carry my flashlight or candle around with me. Even the lantern-style flashlights in the house were a pain if I wanted to wash the dishes or clean a gun or do any other hands-on task. I’ve been on the lookout for head-mounted lights, but most of the ones I’ve found operate on AAA batteries. I keep deep stockpiles of AA batteries, which I find reasonably priced, but I keep a bare minimum of AAA cells because they’re way too expensive both in terms of cost and capacity for the tiny bit of space they save.

This River Rock headlamp from Target runs on three AA batteries, and switches between three modes: high (30 hours, supposedly), medium (50 hours), low (70) and a bright strobe (30). I find the bright mode to be bright enough to clearly illuminate large rooms and my yard, and the low mode was more light than I needed for reading, washing dishes, etc. The beam is vertically adjustable, so I can turn it down for doing things on a table with my hands, turn it up a little bit for walking around the house, or turn it such that it points slightly above me, which would be useful in the crawlspace under the house.

Two downsides:

- You look like a dork, especially since the battery pack is on the back of your head. I wouldn’t go jogging in one.
- It’s $25 at Target, making it expensive for something you’ll likely use a couple of times per year.

Rating: 8/10.

After a couple of dissappinting failures in my search for the perfect caffinated candy, I’ve hit paydirt: Icebreakers Energy Mints. With 10 mg of caffeine each, it would take a dozen to equal one strong cup of coffee, the upside being that you can moderate or spread out your dose.

And unlike the gum or the candy bar, you can’t taste the drug, because the mint is almost as strong as an Altoid. They’re actually very tasty.

Bonus! The top-opening tin is perfect for holding odds and ends in my Tactical Man-Purse.

Rating: 9/10. It would get a 10 if each mint contained 20 mg.

Mars has jumped in on the Energy Drink/Food/Soap craze by injecting 80 mg of caffeine into a candy bar. When I saw them for 50 cents, I figured they were worth a try for the earlier-waking portions of my insane work schedule.

The problem with a lot of caffeine-added foods is that you can taste the bitterness of the drug through the taste of the food. This was the case with the energy gum I reviewed a while back and it’s the case with Snickers Charged. This wouldn’t be such a turn-off except that it seems they injected the caffeine into the middle of the bar instead of mixing it with one of the ingredients. The result is a Snickers bar that tastes like a Snickers bar for the first bite, but by the third tastes like you’re biting into a bunch of Goody’s headache remedy. Blegh.

But at 80 mg, the candy bar matches the caffeine content of a Red Bull or a weak cup of brewed coffee. When you haven’t had many caffeinated drinks (I’ve been drinking mainly diet Kroger-brand Sprite), it will wake you right up.

Rating: 5/10

Costs $1.39 for ten pieces. Each piece has the caffeine content of half a cup of coffee.

The Citrus taste is pleasant. Tasty, even. I greatly enjoyed those 30 seconds.

Afterwards, the bitterness of the caffeine shines through.

I was hoping for something to give me a boost when I need to get going early after a hard night, but the taste of this is bad enough that I’d dread it too much to use it.

And I didn’t bring anything with me to wash out the caffeine taste. Blegh.

3/10