During a five day period in June, OpSpec Training instructors visited both SIG SAUER Academy in New Hampshire and New Holland Rifle & Pistol Club in Gap, Pa. for two Practical Fundamentals classes.
Forty-six students enrolled in the two-day program.
I first met Tom Allen at the SHOT show seven or eight years ago. At the time, Tom had a small-ish firearms/accessory business in Chesterland, Ohio. Tom and I made some small talk and he told me if I ever needed any SIG Sauer® related stuff to give him a shout.
I got home and needed a set of sights a few weeks later, and went onto the Top Gun Supply website and ordered a set of Meprolight Night Sights for a P220. I remember I ordered the sights on Monday. They got to my door on Wednesday. Whoa. That was quick.
Over the years, I’ve watched Top Gun Supply grow into the largest supplier of SIG Sauer parts and accessories. Tom and Michelle have dedicated much to the SIG Sauer line of products.
Their growth seems to be linked to three things. A great selection, fair prices, and world class customer service. Over the years, as I have ordered more stuff from them, I’ve noticed that the trend that anything I order ships within hours, not days. I’ve ordered stuff on the weekend, and it has shipped before I roll out of bed at the crack of 0830. On the rare occasion I have needed customer service, they are always easy to communicate with, and fair. They also seem to genuinely want to stock the things that shooters want all under one roof.
An interesting factoid that Tom shared with me was that during the great boom on 2013, Top Gun actually did not experience growth in profit. It is the side affect of those who refused to raise their prices and gouge. Wait, wut? Top Gun didn’t raise their prices to gouging levels like many businesses did (IE the $100 PMags that some dirt people advertised and sold). Once their products were sold, Top Gun ran into the same resupply issues that everyone else in the business did at the time. While it was a good month or two, the rest of the year was not all that until supply evened back out. The businesses who charged $100 for a PMag, or $60 for a box of 9mm ball don’t deserve our business. Places like Top Gun do.
Top Gun Supply is an amazing organization. Tom and Michelle started it as a small business, and now they have 17 employees and are looking at expanding to more stores.
If you are looking for an expansive line of products at good pricing, check out Top Gun Supply.
Meet Frank. Frank was a homeless, abused police trade in P229. I rescued Frank this morning from a shelter. Frank has been abused by his previous owner.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to share with you a trick that the “BIG SCHOOLS” don’t want you to know.
If you don’t want to shoot better like a NAVY SEAL in just two hours, please leave this blog now. This is for those who are serious, for those who want instant improvement in their practice. This one “Weird Trick” discovered by a stay at home mom wanting to learn to defend herself from the upcoming zombie apocalypse. Please, stay until the end of this blog if you are serious.
This one “weird” trick is called PRACTICE. There are no slick fixes. There are no pills, no potions that will take a D class shooter, and make them a Master class.
It seems the “ONE WEIRD TRICK” “HOW TO LOSE BELLY FAT WHILE EATING PIZZA THREE MEALS A DAY” or “FIND OUT THE REAL REASON OBAMA WANTS YOUR GUNS” meme has started to lurk into the firearms community. The sideshow barker lures you in with an instant cure for diabetes from an ad showing a Jelly Doughnut. Or warns you that “For those not serious about defending your family with the tricks of real world special forces operators need to leave this video now” all the while showing a bearded, multicam clad meat eater with his face blacked out.
I get that the firearms community has been hawking stuff for years with the claim of making us better and faster. Variations of the sights that I call the “Alien versus Predator” sights that claim that it makes you faster on target. Yet, every special ops unit and top tier competitor I know is using standard sights. Some with a fiber optic front, some with a standard front blade. If these huge, colorful sights that come together making an homage to the pharaohs were so good, you’d think they’d be on every gun in USPSA,, and CAG would order 500 sets of them. Apparently, these folks haven’t discovered how fast these sights make you.
There is no magic fix other than practice. The more you dry fire, the more you practice, the better you will become. Say it with me, the faster you will become. Recently, I had a buddy of mine who is just getting back into shooting USPSA after a lay off come to me with a question. At his last match, he won his division by a hair. He said that he sucked, but everyone just sucked a little more than he did that day. He was concerned that some of the younger guys were faster than him. He was sure that he was too slow, and wanted help putting a plan together to get faster. I asked him when the last time he devoted 15 minutes to dry firing and he replied “Oh, I have not practiced in months”. There your problem, you’ve got mud in your tires.
We as a nation seemed to be fixated on quick fixes. Time and practice makes us better.
The one “WEIRD TIP” is the same that it has been for decades. Practice. Train with a plan. Dry fire. You’ll like the results.
This post was originally published at Modern Service Weapons.
Give it a try.
I think that most all police officers, and some armed citizens to a point, are carrying back up guns as a norm. Back in the day, most carried Walther PPK’s and Smith and Wesson J-frames as a back up gun. When the Glock 26/27 debuted, the world was set on its ear. The compatibility alone made sense for the agencies that issued the G17/22 to add the “baby” Glocks as back ups.
Something I have noticed in my little slice of the world is that no one really trains with their back up gun as it is carried on a daily basis. I’m guilty of this as well. I train obsessively in dry fire and live fire with my duty pistol in duty gear, my off duty carry with the pistol concealed, but rarely if ever train the back up guns.
I think the modern training world agrees that your subconscious assists us in times of stress. I think we’ve all either seen it or been there. At the end of a vehicle pursuit, we get out of the car, and somehow the gun winds up in our hands. We give the suspect loud verbal commands, the polyester pile ensues, and the guy gets cuffed and placed in the back of a cruiser. Somewhere along the way (hopefully) the gun was magically reholstered and the retention devices were engaged. At some point, the subconscious drew the pistol when we thought “Huh, might need a gun here,” and holstered it back when we were done. This action is the direct result of lots of dry draws, and lots of time on the range.
Based upon the above that we know is true, what is going to happen when we need the back up gun, but we only practice getting it out of a pocket or an ankle holster the one time per year when we qualify with it?
Training time is at a premium. I get that. But, let us dedicate some time to work the back up gun. A few more reps of drawing it might help us out when we need it.
This post original published at Modern Service Weapons.
Howdy! Roy and I each obtained fullsize P320 9mm pistols to R&D around with. We’ve come up with a killer trigger system for it based on an idea Roy pursued, but that’s a subject for another time.
Obviously, we are accuracy-oriented shooters, and we have our sights set on the NRA Bianchi Cup next year. So, a first step in determining whether the new P320 might be competitive in Production is to see how the stock pistol groups with our standard NRA Action accuracy loads.
To that end, I fired 12 groups from Roy’s gun at fifty yards off bags today, using both 115 and 124 grain Hornady XTP’s. Interestingly, Roy’s pistol consistently dumps the first manually cycled round WAY low and right, about 5″ out of the core group. This indicates some lockup and slide to frame fit issues we’ll deal with when we build these up.
Excluding those first-round flyers, the worst group I got was also my first, at 3.8″. Once I changed glasses and settled down behind the gun, everything started to fall in. The best group was my last, and ran just under 2.4″ for all six rounds.
The average was about 3″. That’s for a mechanically stock P320 with substantial rattle in the slide fit and lockup. I can’t wait to see what these will do once fitted properly.
-Bruce
Happy Father’s Day from the Gang at OpSpec Training!!!
Stay tuned, friends. We have a couple of announcements coming that we think you’re going to like!