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

A little while back I received an email from a listener who wished to remain nameless. He decided to get started in competitive shooting, and found a local club that hosted matches, checked out their website, and showed up to shoot his first match. When he arrived, he we met by an apologetic match director who informed him that the match was full, and since he hadn't pre-registered for the match, he unfortunately wouldn't be able to shoot. I don't think this is something that happens all the time (this is the first time I've ever heard of it happening, actually) but it is something that match officials should be aware of. At the very least, update your websites when match registration opens for the next match, or point people to the Facebook page or wherever that you're posting the registration links. (Also, note that Facebook won't show your post to everyone who likes your page unless you pay them, so only posting it to Facebook might not be the best plan.) I'm curious what everyone else things about this. W

Just a quick heads up, I tokk the weekend off from podcasting and didn't record a Triangle Tactical Podcast episode this week. The Triangle Tactical Q&A podcasts will release as normal this week.

Just a few things I've noticed that I thought I would point out. The first two things seem to be done mostly by newer shooters, and the second two seem to be mostly more-seasoned shooters. Know the rules. At least have a rudimentary understanding of the rules of the game you're shooting. I don't think you need to read the whole rulebook before your first match (actually, I don't think it would be very helpful, because without context much of it wouldn't make sense), but at least make an effort to know the safety rules, and then try to pick up something more each time you shoot. Not only will you help others, but most importantly knowing the rules you'll be able help yourself. Know your equipment. Know how to clear malfunctions and manipulate your gun. Also, know your support gear. If you can't holster and unholster your gun with one hand, you might need some more practice or different gear. Don't self deprecate yourself on the firing line. Telling people that you're planning for makeup shots and things like

The Triangle Tactical Q&A podcast turned a whole year old the other day, so I thought it might be fun to re-broadcast a few of my favorite Q&A podcast episodes during this week's show. I actually went through all of the back catalog of Q&A shows and picked out all of my favorites, and there was over 3 hours of audio, so I really had to pick and choose which ones to put in this show. I hope you enjoy. [powerpress] Q&A 121 - "Gear that Sucks" from Kenny in Idaho Q&A 57 - "What to look for when reviewing my match video" from Sadie in Raleigh Q&A 81 - "Should I watch my magazine, or my target during a reload?" from Jon in Florida If you're not subscribed to the Q&A podcast, you can find it here in iTunes, or here if you're on an Android device. Plug of the Week: I mentioned a few weeks back that I'd like to have some more competitive shooting podcasts to listen to, and that I was happy to help you get your show off the ground if you are looking to get a podcast started. Ryan Goold, a

I kind of ripped this topic off of something I heard my wife talk about in a speech she was preparing a couple weeks ago. She's a teacher and was talking about the difference between learning time and performance time with kids in school, and as soon as I heard it, I started wondering if this was something I should think more about in my practice as well. I've been trying the whole "get bored and let your body find the fastest way to do things" thing for a while, and I feel like I've kind of hit a block with that, so I'm going to try having deliberate learning time, and performance time in my practice. What do you think?   The Blue Bullets If you're a competitive shooter, or someone who trains a lot, you probably complain about the price of bullets. I've been loading The Blue Bullets since before they were a sponsor of the show, and they're just fantastic. They're coated lead bullets, and they're as accurate as anything else I've tried, they're some of the lowest priced bullets I've ever seen, and they're mad

Shownotes for this episode are pending. I didn't get the show recorded until late, so shownotes will be up mid-day on Monday 5/2. The News Oklahoma CCW instructors have their panties in a wad about Constitutional Carry. Harris Publications is shutting down. These folks are the publishers of a bunch of gun magazines (and a bunch of other magazines as well). An 11 year old kid in Talladega, Alabama shot a home invader with a 9mm pistol. Interestingly, the kid was able to get the news media to run a positive story about a defensive shooting, which is something that never happens. Good on him, I'm glad he was able to defend himself. Gear That Doesn't Suck I had some spring clamps in my trunk that saved my range trip on Sunday. I've had them in my trunk since the NC Sectional match last October, and when I lost my stapler, and the range stapler was empty, these suckers saved the day for holding my target to the target sticks. I wouldn't recommend using them exclusively for holding up your targets, but in a pinch,

Ever see the guys at a match who have the well rehearsed "tactical kata" but can't really shoot that well? What about the guy that tells you X product is better than Y because it has *more* features, even if those features aren't useful. What about the guys who buy a crappy gun, and then spend the next years trying to make it better, instead of just saving up for something that doesn't suck. All these people are wasting time on stuff that doesn't matter. If you want to get better, stop wasting your time, streamline, and get better. The News A Johnston county, NC school opened an indoor shooting range (for JROTC students to shoot pellet guns). Even though it's pellet guns, I think this is awesome. A DC police officer was instructed to walk into roll call with an unloaded pistol , and dryfire it pointed at another officer as part of a training exercise. This is frighteningly stupid. I can't believe it happened, and I can't believe he wasn't shot by all of the other officers in the room. CALM DOWN INTERNET! Have

Tinkering with making your own gear is interesting and it can be fun, but after spending a few years messing around with trying to squeeze every single penny out of my gear by making my own stuff all the time. I'd spend 3 or 4 hours making something to save $25, which comes out to like $8/hr. I don't know about you, but my practice time is worth a lot more to me than $8 an hour.  I don't think there's anything wrong with tinkering, but I think if you're a normal person with a family, job, part time job on top of your full time job, your practice time is limited. You need to make a decision whether or not to be a tinkerer or someone who wants to get better. If you're trying to get better, you'll be better served by just buying some gear that's good enough, and practicing.  The News USPSA has approved Pistol Caliber Carbine as a provisional division for all levels of competition. I'm still really skeptical about having people shooting rifles at a pistol match, but we'll see I guess. Ben and I also talked about

A month or so ago I was at the indoor shooting range, and there was a legit bullseye shooter in the lane next to me. I ran my target out next to his (25y), and tried to best his groups. The best I could muster were groups about double the size of his, and I was shooting with both hands, and he was only using one.  Ever since then I've been thinking that I could probably learn a thing or two from shooting a few Bullseye matches. The idea of being absolutely, crazily, laser accurate with a pistol is very interesting to me.  While looking into the more accuracy based competitions, I came across this old episode of the Power Factor Show with Caleb Giddings talking about Bianchi Cup. I've always kind of rolled my eyes at it as an "action" type shooter, but more and more I think it could be good for me to try something that's more accuracy based.  If you're an action type shooter that's shot a few Bullseye matches, I'd be interested to hear if you had any takeaways from it.  The News The North Marianias Islands had

If I were king of the shooting sports, I'd make some changes, across the board. I'd like to see the the shooting sports grow, and I think the best way to do that is to reach out to people who already own guns by hitting them up a gun shows and things like that. Almost all of the shooting sports could do a better job of making it easier for someone to find out exactly what they need to get started. I checked the IDPA, USPSA, 3 Gun Nation, and National Skeet Shooting Association websites looking for some sort of tutorial (like what I have written here) and none of them really had an actual primer article, however 3 Gun Nation did have a good section of videos on their site that give a good overview of the game. Plug of the Week I saw IDPA posting about this either on Facebook or Instagram the other day, and I thought it was pretty cool. It's a charity called "Aiming for Zero" that's designed to get competitive shooters to donate to causes around veteran suicide. Folks are setting up teams and making donations t

Today on the podcast I interview James Turnure, a NC shooter who just made USPSA Open Master. That's awesome, but what I didn't tell you is that he shot his first match just 12 months ago. In this interview he and I talk about how he did it, and what sets him apart from other shooters who start and frustratingly stuck in B class for an extended period of time. The News Idaho becomes the 9th permitless concealed carry state. Seems like this is picking up a lot of momentum. Gear that Doesn't Suck One thing that annoys the mess out of me is trying to staple up a no-shoot target on top of a shoot target, and having it not stay put very well. The solution to this is to have 1/2" staples and a stapler that will throw them. They're not expensive, and it's such a time/hassle saver for me that I'll never go back to using anything else. Check them out at triangletactical.net/doesntsuck Plug of the Week I found out this week that Mike Rowe has gotten into the podcasting thing, and I really like his new show. If you reme

Back during the USPSA Presidential election there was a lot of talk about the need to make USPSA TV friendly. As it sits right now, the use of targets with heads on them, walls that cameras can't see through, and championships that don't exactly make exciting TV the sport isn't really ready for it's own TV show. My question is this: Do we even want it to be TV friendly? What would the average shooter gain? A little more stuff on a prize table somewhere? Lets say the changes necessary were made, and USPSA became something that was featured regularly on TV shows, and thousands of people decided they wanted to get started. Could local club matches handle the big influx of new shooters? I don't think so. Around here matches open registration as far as 2 weeks out from the match, and they fill up withing days, or even hours. I'm not against putting the sport on TV. I've mentioned in the past that I remember my first exposure to USPSA being an episode of Shooting USA sometime in the early-mid 90's and I thought it

I sent Ben a message on Monday to ask if there was anything that he wanted to talk about on his last podcast episode, and he just told me he'd think about it. Fast forward to Saturday evening when we recorded this episode and he had the shownotes written for this episode to talk about all of the things that he's changed his mind on since he joined the podcast way back (over 3 years ago). The things that's coolest to me about this topic is that it's probably the most brutally honest hour of podcast you'll ever listen to. Some of the things he's changed his mind on: Classifiers Gamer gear Outlaw matches Just because "nobody uses it" doesn't mean it sucks You don't need to be accomplished to help people The News There's going to be a free seminar in Chapel Hill, NC about ATF 41F and how it effects gun trusts on April 4th. I don't know really much about who is putting it on or anything, I just got the tweet below about it and figured I'd pass it along. In Michigan there's a bill proposed to create an active sho

It must be the smell of spring in the air or the upcoming competitive shooting season being in the air that brings out all sorts of lame excuses from people about their poor/lack of performance. "There's not a division that exactly fits my one-off gun that I modified myself!" "I can't shoot exactly how I carry concealed, and I can only draw from my concealed holster ever because muscle memory." "This gun doesn't "fit my hand". (Unless you can't reach controls, you're just making a lame excuse.) The News West Virginia overrode the veto of the Governor and will have permit-less concealed carry in a couple months. That makes 9 states now with permit-less concealed carry.  Yes, we've seen the Keanu Reeves video. It's cool, but we wanted to clarify a few things about it. It's not at a 3-gun match, and he's probably not going to take up shooting competitively. It's still really cool though. Tip of the Week: Don't consciously control speed at a match. When you push yourself out of control, bad things ALWAYS happen

Sometimes shooting on the square range is a necessity. Whether you don't have access to a range with bays where you can set up stages and drills, or the weather just isn't cooperative, there are times when the square range is the only place you can go to get some trigger time.  A lot of people just shoot when they go to the square range. One target, and 200 rounds and then they pack up and go home. This isn't effective practice.  Hopefully your square range will allow you to draw from holster. I don't think we have any ranges in the Triangle area that don't allow it, but I've heard of ranges in other places that have that rule, it makes things a little harder.  Use some time pressure The best thing is to use a shot timer. If you don't have one, that's okay, there are still options. If your indoor range is really loud, you may have to use the par time function on your timer instead of actually having it hear your shots. I found my Pocket Pro 2 works really well inside Triangle Shooting Academy. Some ranges h

Shownotes at triangletactical.net/174

This last week on Instagram a trend got started where people were filming themselves dryfiring a reload, and then catching the magazine before it hits the ground. There were some really well made videos put out there, but at the end of the day practicing catching your magazine, and altering the way you do your reload practice probably isn't the best way to spend your practice time.  It's cool that this got some people out practicing, but at the end of the day, doing this probably wasn't real useful for actually getting better at shooting.  The News This video of Travis Haley swept the gun-ternet over the past couple weeks and we're just kind of over it. He was demonstrating why a technique was bad and prone to ND's and had an ND. Meh. A lot of local folks have their panties in a wad about this too, and it's really not a big deal. Most gun ranges have the same or similar rules so stop worrying about it.  Plug of the Week KevinC over at the Misfires and Lightstrikes blog is doing really good work these days. If

The difference between a really good match, and an average match isn't a lot of super crazy, hard to do things. It's simple really, and in this episode we talk about a few of the things that set some matches apart from others. Matches should have clearly labelled safe areas. It doesn't matter if the game happening at the range requires it or not, take the time and setup a clearly labelled safe area. All you need is a table facing a berm somewhere, and something labeling it as the designated safe area. A lot of ranges in our area just have people holster up at their car, and that's just not preferable. Clearly written stage descriptions. Often, Range Officers will walk through all of the stages before the match with the Match Director and be told how the stages are to be shot. Then, maybe 3 or 4 hours later, they finally arrive at a stage and are expected to remember exactly how the stage was supposed to be shot. Was it a loaded table start or unloaded? I know I've cried foul a couple times when I've noticed

This weeks episode is sort of a companion from this blog post that Ben wrote last week. You should go read it, it's really good. We've both seen good shooters, and shooters who have the potential to be good fall out of the sport due to burnout over the years. It's probably helpful to know what burnout is, and how to avoid it.  The News: Virginia was set to revoke concealed carry reciprocity with a bunch of other states on 2/1/2016 but it looks like the Governor has made an 11th hour deal with Republicans in the state to reverse course and keep all of the previous reciprocity agreements.  USPSA had a Board of Directors meeting right after SHOT show, and they made some changes to the Carry Optics division rules. Here are the approved changes from the USPSA Down Range email that went out last week: The changes for Carry Optics Division will make it truly unique from other divisions, and will include: Authorization for all levels of USPSA and Steel Challenge Expanded stippling, contouring and texturing of the g

SHOT show was last week, and some interesting products were announced there. It seems like most of the stuff this year was modifications to old products, and pistols with milling to allow red dot sights. Now, we weren't there, but this week on the podcast we talk about what looks interesting to us. Kimber K6 Revolver Glock 7 and Glock 19 MOS Sig Sauer P320 Target Caracal F .40 S&W XDs Apex trigger for Walther PPQ Avidity PD10 Raven Concealment Baylor Mount Agency Arms NOC Remington R51 A light switch that is on an AR trigger. Frightening. Colt Competition Pistol Kalashnikov AK Alpha Tyrant Designs AR Grip Cobalt Kinetics Rifles Federal Premium poly coated bullets News Proposed legislation in Tennessee that would give cause for a CHP holder injured in a business that disallows concealed carry to sue if injured while on that property. Gear That Doesn't Suck Eton crank radio. Just get one. I've had one for many years, and I forget I have it 364 days a year, but there's always one day when the power is out