Triangle Tactical - Uspsa | 3 Gun | Idpa | Competitive Shooting

Ever met someone who wasn't really into shooting, but more into just always having the coolest newest gun, and then all the sudden they're not around anymore? Recently I was listening to a couple different podcasts, The Joe Rogen Experience with Dan Bilzarian, and the recent Freakonomics podcast on Maintenence, and a common theme came up in both shows: The idea that once you have the best thing, you don't get the same enjoyment out of something that isn't quite as good.  In the Dan Bilzarian interview, he talked about how a lot of rich people aren't happy because they're able to buy whatever they want, and if they are only getting their enjoyment out of stuff, and not experiences, they run out of things to enjoy pretty quickly. I've seen this thing happen in the shooting sports a time or two, where someone isn't really into shooting, but into showing up to matches with the coolest newest thing. Eventually, they've got everything, and you stop seeing them as much when they move onto something else.  I think th

It seems like any time someone who's made a name for themselves on the internet opens their mouth and says that something is good, bad, or whatever, there's an army of fanboys who jump on board and claim whatever this person has said as gospel without even taking the time to verify what they were told. [powerpress] It happens with both technique, and gear related issues, and I don't think competitive shooters are any less susceptible to it and the tactical crowd. Here's the thing, we progress by standing on the shoulders of giants, building off of the things that those who came before us did. However, blinding following will make you fall in a hole. Stand on the shoulders of giants, but be skeptical. Test things, see what works for you. If something works, awesome. If it doesn't, and you can prove it doesn't then move on. The News A Sheriff was in the Cascades Mall when the mass shooting happened, but he was unarmed. Weird story. Some Michigan legislators think their constituents are idiots. They've introduce

If you carry concealed, you've probably been concerned about printing (having the outline of your gun showing through your clothes) at at least one time or another. Now that we're in 2016 and everyone and their brother has a giant cell phone on their hip, I don't think printing matters anymore. I spent about 12 hours this past weekend watching the general public (I was doing something else while the general public filtered past me) and I noticed some trends. Here's some "tells" I've been thinking about lately: It seems like there's a new "shoot me first vest" that's taken the form of a plaid shirt, khaki "outdoorsy" pants, and hiking boots. It's usually accompanied by dark, expensive sunglasses, and sometimes a hat with a patch on the front of it. One thing that I find myself doing all the time is hiking up my pants when I stand up while getting out of the car, or standing up from sitting. Something about the IWB holster I use that makes it tend to slide down a bit when sitting. Another habit that I tend to

Oh boy, there's been some drama on the world practical shooting stage this past week. The IPSC European Handgun Championship was last week, and at the match, the IPSC council met and passed some resolutions that have USPSA Mike Foley releasing a press release you can find here. We don't have anything specifically saying so, but it seems like these new rules are pointed at USPSA, because the organization began sanctioning USPSA matches in the Philippines earlier this year. The News I didn't know about this until just this week, but apparently the state of Florida passed a law allowing people to carry concealed without a permit while part of a mandatory evacuation. Interesting, especially for a state that still bans open carry. Gear that Doesn't Suck Before Hurricane Matthew arrived, I bought this portable cell phone charger to make sure we were able to keep in contact with family should we lose power. This sucker should have enough juice to keep both of our phones charged for about a week, so it might be somet

I’ve always really liked Cabela's as a company, and I’ve noticed more and more lately that I like them even more. Saturday night my wife and I were driving home from somewhere, and we were listening to the big local Top 40 radio station (she had control of the radio, married guys know). They were playing the big syndicated national all-request house party type show that they play every Saturday night. A Cabelas ad came on, advertising some big sale they’re having, the great deal they’re having on .223 and 5.56 ammo, as well as a deal that they were having for free shipping to the nearest Cabelas store when you buy a gun on their website. Let that sink in for a second. They were advertising .223/5.56 ammo, the most demonized ammo by the media, AND they were advertising online gun purchases (the most demonized type of gun purchase) on the radio. On the Top 40 station. During the Top 40 show on Saturday night, in one of the biggest radio markets in the country. I think that’s awesome. GunCulture 2.0 and all that

The 'Gunternet' would have you believe that shooting is a pastime that has strict rules about all sorts of things. You must carry this gun, in this caliber, in this position, with this many spare magazines, and when you're shooting that gun, you must hold it this way, stand this way, and wear these clothes. Fortunately, like a lot of things on the internet, a lot of this just isn't factual. Here's a few things that aren't a big deal, even though the internet will tell you they are: ### Your choice of carry gun. I think this is a trap most all of us fall into, but at the end of the day, what matters most is that you're carrying, not what you're carrying. If you like .45, great. If you like .380, great. If you've got a .22lr that works for you because you don't have a ton of hand strength, great. Any of the above guns are better than harsh words and a sharp stick. Just carry something reliable that you'll actually carry, and you'll be WAY ahead of most folks who have a permit, but don't carry much. (or only car

Over the weekend a USPSA/3-Gun shooter dispatched a scumbag terrorist in a Minnesota mall. For years now I've heard tons and tons of arguments from people who don't shoot competitively about why one shouldn't shoot competitively, and these arguments continue to amuse me. [powerpress] So, for this weeks episode, I thought I'd dispel a few of these terrible arguments against competitive shooting: Cold range - Apparently some folks think that having people stay unloaded between stages is a bad thing. It's not. It's a complete non issue, and one of the silliest arguments I've heard.  Competition isn't realistic because it's not a 360* environment - Where are you practicing that you're able to shoot 360*? Oh, that's right, that's just your excuse for not shooting. Targets don't shoot back - Yeah, duh. Neither do the targets when you're at a training class or anywhere else that isn't a force on force type class.  The News Some Taurus executives are in hot water for allegedly selling guns to an African arms traffi

EPISODE 200! Wow, you know, on some level I never thought this episode would happen, so the fact that it's here is really awesome.  Anyways, I don't really have a whole lot to say here in the shownotes for this episode, so, just go listen!

We're blessed in most of the US in regards to our rights, and with that blessing comes a large responsibility to secure it for future generations. I think one of the most important battles we fight in keeping our rights is the battle of public perception. I've talked extensively on the podcast and blog about how I've found just being a normal guy, who is open about guns tends to win the favor of most people when the topic comes up. People are quick to ask questions when you're just a normal guy who's not all "mah rights!" in their face all the time. Now, don't get me wrong, I love muh rights, but in the battle of public perception, it's seen as a bit of an extreme thing to lead with. If the conversation goes there, no worries, that's totally fine, but if someone asks you why you carry, and you respond "Because the 2A is my gun permit! They can take it from my cold dead hands!" you're not going to win them over to our side. Someone on the fence will put up a wall at that point. Here's some things you can do to

Back in July I shot several matches, and it seemed like at every match I was having to DQ people for safety violations. After the last match where a shooter reacted unpredictably after the disqualification, I decided to take a break for a little while.  A couple weeks went by, and I decided to just make this break my yearly off season from shooting. I started doing some Google searches from about taking an off season, and things to do during the off season. I came across this post that I thought had some interesting steps to take that relate to shooters as well as other athletes.  I've been doing the video watching, as well as kind of doing the "strength" thing. I'm not working out, but I am getting back on the Paleo thing, which I've totally fallen off the wagon on the past couple months. After a few months of considering my options, I've decided that this week will be the last week of Q&A podcast. We originally started the Q&A podcast because we had run out of room in the main podcast to answer list

Most common thing I heard from people who are somewhat interested in the idea of competitive shooting is that they aren't good enough. - If you can draw the gun, and walk around without pointing it at yourself or anyone else, and can do basic malfunction clearance, you have the skills needed to get started. That's not to say that you're "good enough" though. When you start, you're going to suck at it. It's that way with ANYTHING you do in life, so accept it. - When I started cycling way back when, I was awful. When I picked it up again last fall, I was awful again. I'm still not great, but the more time I spend on the bike the more I'm learning and honing my skills. - It was the same when I really took up shooting as a hobby. When I started I didn't have a clue what my sights looked like when the shot broke, and if I shot 10 rounds, and 5 of them were in the center of the target, and 5 were low and left, I couldn't tell you what was different on those shots. Now? I'll still pull a shot low/left now and then,

Full shownotes at triangletactical.net/196

There's a LOT of information in the shownotes for this episode, so go look at it all here.

There are certain things that a shooter can do at a match that might not be against the rules, but are certain to make the range officer nervous. As it happens, there are a few things that bother me, that don’t seem to bother other RO’s and there are a couple things that other ROs get bent out of shape about that don’t bother me at all. Things that are certain to make me nervous: Unpredictable shooters. Most of the time I can tell from a shooters walkthrough how they’re going to shoot a stage, and position myself accordingly, no big deal. Every now and then though, something either goes wrong with their stage plan, or they don’t give me any indication of what they’re going to do, or they just have a crazy stage plan where they’re running all over the place, so I might not be positioned optimally for that. Putting your hand on your gun before the Make Ready command. This makes me especially nervous on stages with table starts. I’ve seen a lot of DQ’s where the shooter plopped their gat down on the table for a

I recently asked my friends about where to send someone for training with a pistol and an AR-15. I received multiple messages saying that I should just bring whoever needs the training out to a match, and they'll figure out what works and what doesn't. I don't think this is the right answer. We should encourage folks to get training if they feel like they need it. Certainly there are people who train WAY too much, but I think they're in the minority. The News Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg put her foot in her mouth last week during an interview with the New York Times. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog picked up on it, and there's some interesting discussion about how she may now have to recuse herself from any 2A cases going forward since she wasn't impartial during the interview. Pokemon Go released this week. It's a video game that requires people to get up off their butt and actually do things, and go places to advance in the game. Mostly it has you go to public places, but the data set they ha

There are a few things that I've found that tend to confuse the crud out of new shooters when they're getting started in the shooting sports. You can shoot matches at clubs that you aren't a member at. This really seems to confuse people, because around here there really aren't any outdoor ranges that are open to the public for practice. Just about every place requires a membership, and most clubs have waiting lists that are literally years long. A lot of folks get confused thinking that they need to be a member at these ranges to shoot the match there. That's not the case if it's a sanctioned USPSA or IDPA match. Some clubs might have outlaw matches that are members only, so it it doesn't say IDPA or USPSA, check with the club. "I have all these "race" parts, why isn't my gun legal?" Yep, I've seen it several times where someone who hasn't ever shot a match builds a "race gun" that either isn't legal for ANY division in a game, or isn't competitive in the division. That Open Division gun you built out of yo

"Range Officers need to remember everybody is there to have fun." Is that a true statement? Maybe, but I think "fun" is defined very differently for different levels of shooters. Some folks get their fun by just showing up and shooting, and others have fun by playing the game within the rules (sometimes pushing them as far as they can) and others have fun by shooting to the best of their ability, and winning.  For me, it's changed over the years, and it's something that makes me appreciate a range officer who just enforces the rules, per the rulebook. I think some people are under the impression that some rules shouldn't be enforced/don't need to be enforced at a club match, and I don't agree with that at all.  Shirts! There's a new run of Triangle Tactical shirts going on right now at Teespring.com. I think this is the 4th time I've used Teespring, and I'm really excited about this newest run of shirts. They're available from today (7/4/2016) until 7/14/2016. If you want one, head over to Teespring.com to pl

Total honesty and transparency here: I was a little unprepared for this weeks podcast. I'm on vacation from work this week, and in my excitement for taking some time off, I neglected to prepare the podcast shownotes. Y'all came through for me though with some questions on Facebook which I answered in this episode. Gear that Doesn't Suck If you need some ideas of what to work on in practice, or ideas of how to work on a certain skill, Ben Stoeger's Skills and Drills book is really good for this. My copy lives in the side pocket of my range bag and I reference it regularly. I'd highly recommend it. Contact If you've got anything for me, hit the comment sections below, or shoot me an email at luke@triangletactical.net.

Tom in Ferguson sent in a question last week asking about some of my favorite shooting stories with my dad and Grandpa. Since today is Father's Day, and last week marked one year since Gramps passed, I thought I'd take this episode to tell a few of my favorite stories from growing up. Gear That Doesn't Suck I've become a lot more aware of chemicals that I'm exposed to as I've grown older and a (a little) more mature. When I'm at work, I'm super anal about wearing proper PPE, and I'm trying to be just as careful at home as well. I've started using these nitrile gloves while reloading and sorting brass to keep lead off my hands and (hopefully) out of my blood stream. I bought the black ones, because I think they're cooler looking than purple or green. Plug of the Week: There's two things I think you should read this week. Caleb is back at Gunnuts, and I think you should read his post "Not Like This." Also, this post by Greg Ellifritz.   Contact If you've got anything for me, shoot me an email at luke@trianglet

One of the most common misconceptions that I hear from folks who haven't shot competitively, is that competitive shooters shoot ammo that isn't powerful. That isn't really true. Factory 9mm that you'll get from the store is going to be pretty close to the 9mm minor power factor ammo that gets loaded for competition (and some of the folks making re-man ammo don't make it powerful enough to make power factor). I will say that a lot of the factory .40 and .45 ammo is actually quite hot, so it's going to be well and above what's needed for major power factor in competition, but the competition loads aren't light by any means. The News The push for permitless concealed carry has started right here in North Carolina. It's going to require a constitutional amendment, and it's going to be a fight, but we can do it. GRNC has the details here. Sponsor I recently got my hands on some of the "other guys" bullets in a trade with a friend. The difference in consistency between them and my Blue Bullets was surprisingly larg