Category: Tacticool

April 16, 2020 – ‘non-Tacticool’ and Emotional Thursday

April 16, 2020 / Brandon

Sorry guys, I am not feeling it today. I can tell by stats that this is not my most popular subject heading as I get low views on Thursdays. But, this is a special one in many ways.

One year ago today, I walked away from a six figure and very stable job. This was my last day of work. I did this to find myself and maybe to save my life from potential self-destructive behavior. I have enjoyed my time so much and I have personally accomplished so many things this year. One of the commitments we made before I left my job was to host an exchange student for the year.

August 25, 2019 we welcomed Sergio at the airport an embarked on an adventure that you cant put a price on. It was supposed to be an academic year of sharing and nurture ending as these programs do with graduation, pomp and circumstance. But, the ending was not our destined path. This morning at 4AM PDT we said our final goodbyes to Sergio with a heavy heart.

We have had other exchange students, kids and guests in our lives. This adventure started as many others do. We did the whirlwind State Fair, trip to the beach, family meet and greets, etc. He was probably glad when school started a short two weeks after arrival to get some reprieve from our crushing tour of hospitality.

I would be remiss to not mention a super emotional beginning when our beloved Snowflake (English Retriever, ~7YO), suddenly died of heat exhaustion on a short stroll in the local woodland trail. We were bonded by trips to the veterinarian ER and euthanizing end. There was a lot of emotion from all of us, including someone that had only been with us a week. I think it galvanized this new unit from the beginning.

I can only imagine what life for him was like; a new country, a new school, a different language, no friends and the like. Life soon settled down into a routine of football games, school activities and new experiences. As we headed toward mid-year, Sergio found his stride and was very involved in the local theater production of ‘Modern Millie’. It was that event that he really found his direction.

As the play was wrapping up in late February, we started getting inklings that the situation would be turning in an un-anticipated direction. Washington was reporting the first cases of COVID-19. My sister is heavily embedded in the situation as she is a doctor in the public health department in Washington. I inquired about the severity of this because I knew that if it was happening there it would be here shortly.

It didn’t take long and the domino’s started falling. My wife’s office closed for six weeks and school was put on a two week hiatus. One of those weeks included Spring Break so not a huge deal. Toward the middle of Spring Break, April was removed from the school calendar. We started to see all of the other exchange students leaving and our program ended as well. We were urged to send Sergio home. We had the option to ride it out as long as school resumption was a possibility and had several conversations with his parents to make the right decision.

About one week ago, it was decided that school was done for the year. All seniors in good standing were dismissed and would receive a diploma for time spent. That meant that his visa was technically over and it was time to officially leave.

He was such a good influence on my kids. He was a playmate and responsible role model. He reinforced our rules and pitched in whenever asked, many times not even asking but understanding the expectations. I think that we all appreciated a different dynamic that this relationship brought.

In many ways, we had something we would have never had if this had been a normal year. We had a solid month of quality family time. We played games, planted flowers, taught lessons in cooking, watch movies and TV series, made videos and laughed. I suppose that the regrets of what we wanted to do to finish the year crept in and certainly the premature ending was abrupt. This was a journey bookended by emotional events with a lot of good stuff in between.

It is time for new beginnings for all of us. I have kept a lid on job searches so as to make sure that Sergio would finish his year with the family that made a commitment to him in January 2019. Now school is out until next fall, it is really time to make some different life choices for me and I can consider relocation if need be.

I am going to miss having him around.

April 9, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 9, 2020 / Brandon

I am not feeling super ‘tacticool’ today. I am getting buried in my remodeling project, school will no longer be in session this year and our exchange student’s year is done. He is making plans to leave within the next couple of weeks. This leaves a huge hole in our family dynamics. We knew the day would come, but we had planned on things going very differently.

Spring is a great time to get out the shotgun in a lot of southern and mid-western states in this country. It is, or will be the spring turkey season for hunting. Here in Oregon, we do have a spring season but it is a lottery draw. I would be inclined to try but truthfully we have a very sparse population in this area. I very rarely ever see a turkey.

Optics and shotguns… in areas where turkey hunting is popular, it has become common to use a red dot type sight. Choke patterns are very tight with turkey loads and you are looking for a head shot (precision) to kill a turkey so as not to spoil the meat like breast. Other reasons to add an optic to your shotgun are shotgun only deer hunting zones and the home defense setup.

But, lest you permanently add a scope to your only shotgun because federal law does not allow any sort of optic for migratory bird hunting. Those would be ducks, geese or any upland bird like grouse. Turkeys are not federally managed and are treated more or less like big game. Additionally, optics are prohibited in most shotgun games like trap, skeet and sporting clays. If you only have one shotgun and specifically if it is a pump or semi-auto, consider the saddle mount.

The saddle mount attaches by removing two pins that hold the trigger group into the shotgun. The mount is slid over the receiver and two new bolts are put in place of the pin.

I take mine on and off for various reasons that I will discuss in the future. I have not noticed a point of impact change but that has also been tested for typical shotgun payloads like buckshot. It very well might be more subtle for slugs, that is one of the things I plan on testing at the range this year.

There you have it, an inexpensive and tool-less way to add a scope to a shotgun that is flexible so that you can use one tool in different applications.

April 2, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 2, 2020 / Brandon

There are several ways to spend time with firearms in during this quarantine. I am going to mention some ideas and focus on one in today’s post.

First and foremost, most indoor ranges are closed. Mine happens to have both an indoor and (mostly) outdoor component. The pro shop is closed, but as long as you stick to your personal space rules, you can shoot at the rifle range, shotgun range or one of the numerous private bays.

Then, there is dry fire practice. That is pulling the trigger on an empty firearm (please make sure it is unloaded!). There are a number of drills that you can do to practice trigger control. I have heard that professional shooters spend as much time dry firing as they do actually shooting. Try using your offhand, I bet you can use some strength training.

Something I like to do is reload ammunition. Unfortunately, I have loaded all of my spare brass. I will do a future post about this. So not to much more today. With kids, decorate paper plates to be later used as targets. You can make them up and put them away to be shot at later. They can keep them when they are done too. Clean your guns or inventory model and serial numbers for insurance are some other ideas.

Finally, I wanted to talk about air gun shooting. I suppose that you could also do Airsoft (I don’t have any) as well. Be mindful that in a lot of jurisdictions it is illegal to discharge an air rifle. In my mind, if you do this with some degree of discretion, it can be done safely and under the radar.

This trap I built during the summer. It holds two bags of rubber mulch and is constructed of 3/4″ plywood. Shooting pellets, I was shooting straight through 3/8″ plywood and BB’s were tearing up the rest of it. This rifle can kill a 20lb animal. My point is just because it is an air rifle doesn’t mean that you don’t have to wear safety glasses or treat this tool seriously.

My intent was to set this up and fire 10 shots or so a day. That hasn’t turned into reality, but my son and I occasionally set it up and fire a few shots. I think that I would like to eventually buy a better rifle because pumping 6-8 times gets to be a drag as well.

When my brother and I were young, we liked to setup catalogs along the fence line and shoot at them. Then we would thumb through them and be silly about how each shot would hit the different pages incidentally. We also liked to shoot at reactive targets (filled with water, etc) but that can get a little messy if you are doing this inside.

Its fun – Be Safe.

March 19, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 19, 2020 / Brandon

The good news is that everything is relatively orderly. People are being helpful, friendly and even kind. Stores are rationing high demand items to distribute them as widely as possible. The bad news is that if you weren’t ‘prepared’ before this it is a woeful time to do so.

One of the categories that is manic right now is firearms and ammunition. I went to a chain sporting goods store just to see the local scene today and there was literally a line to the gun counter, with lots of buyers, not just lookers. I am not sure what people are expecting to happen or why there is panic buying.

I remember the ‘good old days’. Before 2009, ammunition was always available, plentiful and generally pretty cheap. As soon as Obama took office, the shelves were bare. It took two years before a box of ammunition was seen on the shelves. The supply lasted for a year or so and then in 2012, the Sandy Hook tragedy occurred and 22LR was literally absent for four years.

I have talked about my typical consumption in previous posts. So, of course I want to make sure that I can pursue my hobby in the next four years. But, adopting a prepared lifestyle means that you purchase in times of plenty so that you can ride out the lean times. It means that you don’t stand in line or panic buy just because other people are doing it (kind of like paper products as well).

Whether building a pantry or pursuing your hobbies, the principles of preparedness are the same. Evaluate your long term usage, set your thresholds, replenish when convenient and plentiful and leave the panic buying to the tin foil hatters and less fortunate.

There are people out there that think they will take what they need/want because they have some weapons. This goes without saying, but that is a poor substitute to proper preparation and downright evil. They might get away with it for a while, but it is a good way to end up with a dirt nap.

I am speaking for myself but I watch out for my neighbors and they do likewise. Build community and redundancy in your life and we will get through this and whatever happens in the future.

March 12, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 12, 2020 / Brandon

Where does the time go? I spent my first post project day at the range and really enjoyed it. The weather was great and time was productive.

This was nothing heavy duty, but I am working on the thousand round trigger job. These were eight or nine shot groups at 15 yards with a Rossi 92 rifle. My plans for next month are to go to the proper rifle range get those iron sights setup for 50 yards.

Based on all the information so far, what would you do? I have that and more, I think the sights are set low and to the left. If this were 50 yards, then there is some definite adjustment that needs to be done.

March 5, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

March 5, 2020 / Brandon

We have an exchange student for the year from Spain living with us. Unfortunately, part of his agreement to be here is that he cant participate in the things that are the most uniquely ‘American’. For instance, no shooting, no driving, no ‘high risk’ activities. We spend a fair amount of time enjoying those activities.

However, for Christmas, he purchased this book for me called ‘100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation’ by Clint Emerson. I have been slowly reading this over the last couple of weeks.

Now, I like to learn and I believe in the philosophy of preparation. Given the recent COVID-19 hysteria, I am noodling going quite a bit deeper into this next week. The title ‘Tacticool’ is denotes something that might look better on the surface than it really is as well as bring a little humor into my work.

Quite frankly, a lot of this book is mental masturbation such as how to ditch a plane, use a flight suit and swim into another country without detection. I learned a few things like cell phone cameras can pick up IR light or how to make a polymer from milk (casein). I think the value of this book is around the idea of situational awareness: where weak points in hotels could be or tactics around kidnapping and escape. Of course the likelihood of this ever happening is extremely small.

If you are a budding Mall Ninja or an untrained SEAL then this is a manual for you. Otherwise, it is primarily for fun. Remember that your brain is your biggest tool/weapon/asset and keep exercising it because you never know when you need recall the best technique to survive a grenade attack.

February 27, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

February 27, 2020 / Brandon

Last week’s entry was about functional fitness. I feel more like functional sickness lately. That being said, it was the monthly trap shoot last weekend. I took a picture of my range bag dump to show what I lug around to these things.

Starting at the bottom

The black thing (not a great picture) – that is a shell caddy to hold a box of shotgun shells and all the hulls if your firearm doesn’t fling them out.
100 rounds of ammunition – I take double what I plan to shoot, being that I am the only one that brings a 20 gauge, I can sell it all
Shooting muffs – I always carry extra
Stapler – that is for stapling targets, not trap
Safety glasses
Range finder – this is to get an accurate measurement of distance
A bag of binder clips, clothes pins, small bolts with wing nuts – this is for attaching targets to stands
Binoculars – these are for looking at targets, I frequently don’t carry a spotting scope unless I am doing rifle range work
Masking Tape – Also for putting targets on stands
Avid multi-tool – this has a choke wrench, pliers and bit drivers for that quick range adjustment
Range bag- for holding everything

I typically take another old shopping bag that holds targets, extra muffs, garbage and/or brass to take back home. I have experimented with taking cleaning supplies and other things before, but I have kind of settled on the fact that if something goes really wrong, I probably need to stop and fix it at home rather than keep going.

I have also found that all this gear starts to really add up in weight and bulk. There is the rest, weights, spotting scope, lights and more tools like a drill. It starts to get overwhelming just loading the car, so I try to keep it paired down when I can.

I would be interested in hearing what your essential gear is. Thanks for reading.

February 20, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

February 20, 2020 / Brandon

Earlier this week, I got a really cool invitation to hike the Timberline Trail in mid July. A typical hike is four days and three nights around the north side of Mount Hood. The trail is approximately 40 miles with about 9000 feet of elevation change.

I really haven’t discussed any of the details yet, but from what I have heard so far, the plan is to hike about 10 miles a day. “Oh no, what have I done?” I haven’t done anything like this since I was a teenager and in much better shape. From what I remember then, it was hard and my body was sore, especially my legs and shoulders.

In 2016, I ran a half marathon, but since that time, there has been a lot of beers down the hatch, not to mention 30 pounds and four years. The good news is that I have a lot of the gear still albeit I remember wearing jeans on the trail, my tent was probably seven pounds, etc. I have been using some of it from time to time time with the kids and scouting, but a lot of it wouldn’t be considered ultra-light.

What I wanted to talk about in this post really was functional fitness. I don’t think I am there. When I first left my job I started trying to run again, but I overdid it and had a lot of hamstring and hip pain, so I stopped to heal and never started again. But, if I am to survive this trip without injury I need to get started again. It seems like a good reason to start.

A good program I have used before is the “Couch to 5k” or “Couch to half marathon”. It is a metered approach to getting cardiovascular fit. As someone that has attempted this recently and noticed the effects of aging, I am just going to do the best that I can. I do want to practice carrying weight as well.

Functional fitness is about being prepared to handle life’s adversities. Can you walk 10 miles or carry three days worth of gear (or even touch your toes) if you had to? If you were stuck somewhere, can you physically walk home? If you were trapped by something, do you have the strength to move it? Do you have the ability to climb a tree to stay out of harms way? Being in shape and healthy are good ways to live a cheaper and more fulfilling life as you age and take advantage of opportunities when they occur.

It is definitely something I know, but haven’t practicing, so its time to get started. I would like to hear your ideas on this as well.

February 13, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

February 13, 2020 / Brandon

I feel really lucky that I have a shooting range membership. It could be considered a little pricey at $150/year but it makes me want to get out there and get my money’s worth. Before I got the membership as a gift, it was pretty hit and miss getting any sort of trigger time – in some cases years in between time.

As a natural planner one thing I like to do is set some annual goals. One of those came from an idea that I first heard of from Bob Mayne https://www.handgunworld.com/about/ called the ‘1,000 round trigger job’. The idea is that you need to spend some quality time with your firearm to get familiar with its intricacies.

So what does that really mean? In my interpretation it means testing the durability of your firearm, how it functions with many brands and types of ammunition, what is best for accuracy, how your clothing and the season hinder motion and felt recoil, practice reloading and off hand use and so on.

My tastes can be eclectic and it can be expensive to perform the ‘1000 round trigger job’ so for that reason, it usually plan to shoot 100 rounds per range visit per firearm. I also try to get to the range once a month. So, it can take nearly a year to to do accomplish this if you do it with intention on a new firearm. If it was a used firearm, I would tend to treat the round counter as zero because I haven’t learned the intricacies of the particular weapon yet. Yes, I do keep track (roughly) of the total round count for each firearm.

One side benefiit is that I reload, so saving all of my brass gets me a great stockpile of material to reload and cuts down on future costs. What I have learned over the years is that 1) it is fun 2) it motivates me to keep my shooting skills fresh 3) I am not a great handgun shot 4) devising tests is part of the fun. If you like to shoot, try the ‘1000 round trigger job’.

February 6, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

February 6, 2020 / Brandon

Maybe I am obsessive/compulsive but some things I just cant let go. I like to think that there is a good reason for it, but maybe I am just trying to justify my behavior.

I am talking about cleaning firearms after each use. I just cant put them away dirty. My reasons are

My storage environment is less than ideal. So getting the crud off and getting a layer of protective oil on helps prevent corrosion.
A clean firearm is likely a better running firearm as long as you are not gumming it up with excessive solvents or oils.
Cleaning each time eliminates the heavy duty cleaning sessions that are sometimes required.
It builds familiarity with your firearms, how to take them apart and keeps an eye on wear items.
I like to do it.

I have heard the various points to justify less cleaning. These include causing excessive wear on your barrel or cleaning can change a bullets point of impact. But, I have been a victim of dirty firearm function and corrosion in the past so I don’t buy into those arguments.

In this article, I am not going to tell you how to do this or what products to use. The reason is I just don’t know. I have been using one solvent for my whole life, and I don’t think it works that well. I have tried other products and sort of feel the same way. Internet warriors will swear by one company or another and I guess that I am just skeptical based on my own experiences.

Here are some things that work for me

I have three rods so that I don’t have to switch tips for the various parts of the process
I have a dedicated space and tools that allow me to take my time, not run around and find supplies and spread out.
I have an inventory of cleaning supplies so that I don’t feel like I don’t have what I need to do the job when I want to do it.
The more I age, the more I value adequate lighting. I have a shoplight over my bench, a bore light for inspection and flashlight for small things that may get dropped.
Do you have old cotton around? I makes the best rags for cleaning and wipe down. I hate to throw away old towels, t-shirts when they can have one more life as a rag (as long as it is 100% cotton).

There are lots of YouTube videos out there on how to do this if you need an idea. Most of the ones I have seen I would categorize as OK and the information is reasonably accurate. Some firearms are easier to take apart than others, so refer to your manual or a video. Be careful with springs and small parts, especially if it is your first time. Most of all, be safe. Triple check chambers and magazines and keep your ammunition away from your firearms while handling.

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