"Why didn't anybody just shoot him?"

OOCQOTD: "I didn't see much about the Florida yoga studio shooter because I was too busy practicing shooting f**kknuckles like him in the face at the time."

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) November 8, 2018

Very Tacticool...

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Also had the @fnh_usa #fn509tactical with the @surefire_llc #xh35 there this morning. Look for a review in an upcoming issue of @shooting_illustrated #indyarmsco #pewprofessional #igmilitia

A post shared by Tamara Keel (@tamarakeel) on Nov 7, 2018 at 12:21pm PST

The gun comes with one seventeen-round magazine and two 24-round ones. You can stuff a box of ammo into the mags in the box and still have room left over.

Automotif CXLX...

Parked up out front of the salon where the old Ford Falcon sometimes is parked, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this F100 belongs to the same person.

Looks to be a '73 or '74. I want to believe that there's a 390cid V-8 under that hood.


Photos snapped from across the street with the Samsung TL500. It's an absolutely brilliant little enthusiast's point-and-shoot. Fast glass, a 10MP 1/1.7" sensor, full PASM controls and RAW shooting... It's too bad Samsung decided to bail on the camera game.
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My weakness...

Be me.

Get email sale flier from KEH.

See that they have Canon EOS 40D's in BGN condition with battery and charger for $89.

Have fond memories of all the shooting you did with your old EOS 20D.

Very nearly do something dumb before sternly reminding yourself that you need a crop sensor Canon body like you need a hole in your head.

...

...

Still, though, that's a screaming deal on a solid prosumer body if someone wanted to dabble with a DSLR...
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That Time of Year

This morning is the morning that the cotton socks come out of the drawer and the wool socks go in. With this next load of laundry, the short-sleeve tees will come out of the dryer and go on hangers in the basement, to have their space in the drawer filled by long-sleeve ones. The long johns came out of hibernation for the New Mexico trip already, as did the warm and water-resistant Asolo boots, replacing the trail shoes of summer.

Late autumn, the time of falling leaves and cold rains and air that smells of woodsmoke, is my favorite season, but it's also the one most ate up with nostalgia and melancholy.
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The Only One Qualified Enough...

What's weird is that the police use cars and radios a lot more than they use guns, but the general public doesn't expect them to be automotive experts or broadcast engineers.

And yet "My Cousin, the Cop" is the most oft-quoted authority on any firearm-related topic.
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This sling is so fast it makes you blink faster!

OMG, these retardate paracord slings. JFC. FML. WTF. BBQ.

If you're sitting there thinking "I can use my paracord weaving skills to make revolutionary new rifle slings!", you should instead think about using them to make David Carradine cosplay kits, and then thoroughly test your merchandise.
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Plenty of learning occurred...

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I used the light-bearing variant of the @ravenconcealment Perun holster in the class. It worked well. Holstering while wearing a plate carrier is much better with a @taudevgroup #strikercontroldevice #alliancepolicetraining #surefirex300u #edcl2t #glock19x #taudevgroup

A post shared by Tamara Keel (@tamarakeel) on Nov 5, 2018 at 4:27am PST

Thank you to my Patreon patrons. Y'all's contributions paid for the Gen5 Gadgets from Tau Development Group, one of which went on the 19X that I used in class this weekend.

Holstering in a belt holster (as opposed to a drop holster on a war belt) while wearing a plate carrier is holstering blind, and having that Striker Control Device under the thumb is really reassuring. If you're blasé about holstering up a striker-fired gat in circumstances like that, you probably shouldn't be.

It was a long day yesterday.

Arrived on the range at 8:30AM, class started at 9AM, and we knocked off at 1:30AM, having gotten in two nighttime runs through the shoot house.

Even with the DST fairy giving back my missing hour, I am still caffeinating heavily this morning.
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One End to the Other

From one end of gun school to the other, I hear creative excuses from people why that particular thing doesn't apply to them and they shouldn't attend.

 "Entangled gunfights never happen!"

Do people ever get held up at arm's length, or do armed robbers generally square up at 21 feet and yell "Toss your wallet over here!"?

"I'm never going to need tactical fantasy band camp!"

Ignore the safety apparel; the plates and helmet in the shoot house are as necessary as eyes and ears on the square range. Do you think that moving in a structure and problem-solving with a gun in your hand is a skill that might someday be necessary?

Oh, well...

My new zig-zag clavicle...

This will be important in my writeup of some rifle plates here this weekend.
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Learn something new, every time...

Joe Weyer is a talented diagnostician. Also, I learned some new stuff about recoil mitigation...via a metaphor I hadn't heard before...that I'm looking forward to trying to implement.
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It's that time again...

Time to take all the lumens into the shoot house in Alliance, OH.
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Track Record...

Watching Brian Williams' late night news shown MSNBC last night, he interviewed a GOP dude who was explaining how Trump was screwing everything up for the midterms.

The GOP dude's credentials were that he was a former advisor to Romney, Jeb, and McCain. Hell of an electoral resume, bro. You ever advise anybody who won?
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I said I was never going to be That Gunwriter...

...and yet here we are.

The watch matches the pistol, if you know what time it is.

"Fool-shootin' guns are srs bzns. I'm never going to be one of those gunwriters that CCWs a different test gun every week. I'll test the test guns, but I'm only carrying my carry gun."

And then last weekend I needed to lend my own Glock 19 carry gun to a friend to use for the shooting portions of ECQC. In order to not be socially naked, I wound up carrying the 92 Elite LTT, because it and the P30 were the only guns I had brought holsters for, and the HK's holster was incompatible with the sole belt I'd brought on the trip.

I hate Illinois Nazis...

Bobbi does, too, apparently.
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Pressure Testing...

"Why is the Shivworks curriculum so heavy on BJJ and wrestling and other grappling stuff but no dim mak five finger death punch pocket sand stuff?"

After all, those are competitive sport martial arts and notably devoid of special killing punches and devastating blows.

A related question is "Why don't I just draw my gun and choot im?"

See, the thing is, if you're much inside about six feet from Sumdood and try and draw your gun, he's not going to just stand there and let you do it. He's gonna stuff your draw with one hand and start whaling on your noggin with the other, and now you have a real problem. To wit, it's no longer your gun, it's y'all's gun.

In a weapons-based environment, limb control and positional advantage mean a lot. You can't just let Sumdood have a limb flailing around, because that limb is likely to wind up with a knife or a gun in it and then you're boned. So you're working toward a position where you can tie the guy up and either exit the clinch safely, or deploy your own weapon without interference.

In the photo above, the guy on the left has used an arm tie to control both her arms long enough to get his sims gun out and start giving her the skittles.

Here, she's made a successful duck-under to take his back while maintaining a wrist tie on his right hand. Out comes the sims Glock...

...and *pop*pop*pop*!

This also illustrates the reason for the "thumb-pectoral index" or "shooting from 2" in an entangled situation. You know where the bullets are going because you have a good tactile index, and the downward angle helps keep you from scoring any own goals if the projectiles over-penetrate.

(Incidentally, the second and third photos are broadly similar to how I messed up my intercostals last year. I was probably smiling as they tore, too, because of the "Holy cow, this really works!" factor.)

Don't come any closer!

So, if a dude was going for a gun, would you consider that enough of a threat to warrant shooting him?

What if he's closing in on you, even knowing you have a gun and have told him to not come any closer? Is that also "going for a gun", albeit the one in your holster?

Could you articulate why dude warranted shooting? Would you wait until after he'd rung your bell pretty good with a big overhand right?

Nobody wants to wind up on the bottom of a FUT (f**ked-up tangle) wrestling over their own gun.

These are always interesting. Especially when they go down in such a way that, despite being observed by a dozen of the most pro-self-defense people you can imagine, about half of the observers wind up shaking their heads after an incident.

You'll usually wind up seeing a couple that would have been the next Zimmerman case.
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It was a busy weekend.

Monday was mostly recovery day.
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Back at it...

Another day on the range.

Sad to be sitting out this year, but I'm getting some great photos.

Stupid collarbone.
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