Category: Tacticool

July 7, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

July 7, 2022 /

During the holiday weekend, I finally got some time to mess around with my chronograph. My initial test was not very favorable. I wasn’t able to get any readings the first time I messed with it (before vacation). But, I spent some time last Saturday to try and figure out what was wrong.

Today, I am going to talk about math again. I know, I know it is less fun than watching paint dry. I want to talk about looking at the dataset, calculating average with standard deviation and energy as a result of my velocity measurements. Should be fun.

A quick aside about math. We use math to describe physical behavior. I am not just solving problems for problem sake, like sudoku. I am looking at the data so that I can compare certain behaviors like 1) how consistent is the rifle 2) is a lighter faster pellet better than a heavier and slower pellet (when I look at the energy)? 3) Does pellet shape make a difference with the same weight?

Maybe it is the cold medicine talking but I came up with this idea this morning. Art and math are very similar. Both are attempting to describe life in different ways. One is by representation and the other is by description. One is subjective by interpretation and the other is deterministic, using concrete laws and methods. What I am trying to say is that you don’t have to know how to do math (like art) to appreciate what it does for us. Unlike art, I can show you how I got to my final numbers.

I went about this in a pseudo scientific way. I shot a bunch of times and recorded the data that I liked the best. In all seriousness, I need to spend more time with this device to understand what a good reading looks like. However, I had a lot of readings that were similar and some that were way off the reservation. I threw out those measurements as outliers. In science, those would have qualified reasons to be excluded. There are mathematical ways of proving those outliers, but that is super advanced math. That being said, I am just going to ignore them as bad measurements.

Here is the dataset I ended up with (feet per second or fps). I think you can see why excluded the results in the images above.

  1. 942
  2. 946
  3. 966
  4. 959
  5. 953
  6. 952
  7. 973
  8. 947
  9. 951
  10. 966

The first thing that we need to calculate is the mean. Another word for that is average.

What I have calculated is the average pellet velocity is 955.8 fps. We will need that number to calculate the standard deviation. It looks reasonable so far but I think that I will save that calculation for next week. Before I end, I will plug the average velocity into the energy calculation because that is the number I am looking for to compare everything in the future.

End Your Programming Routine: If I assume that the outlier measurements were problems measuring and not exactly irregularities firing the rifle, I am pretty impressed with the consistency of the velocities. I did ignore values that did not change after firing. Again, I don’t know if the velocities were the same, but I assume that the pellet did not measure. Give me some time with this device and I can have more confidence in the actual results.

June 30, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 30, 2022 /

I was being kind of indecisive on what to talk about today. Originally I was going to talk about the Supreme Court decision NEW YORK STATE RIFLE & PISTOL ASSOCIATION, INC., ET AL. v. BRUEN, SUPERINTENDENT OF NEW YORK STATE POLICE, ET AL and it’s potential implications. But, I decided to not do that because I really haven’t read the decision and have only heard a few other’s opinions on the matter.

So, what else would I talk about? How about firearms and Spain. This is another subject that I really don’t know much about but I got curious because my airgun pellets are from Spain. I also know that there is some kind of gun culture in Spain for manufacturing fine(r) shotguns.

One of the podcasts I listen to is the Orvis Hunting and Shooting Podcast. I didn’t re-listen to this but I am pretty sure the story went like this… Makers of shotguns were looking for a more inexpensive alternative manufacturing base. For instance, a Beretta Silver Pigeon is in the $3000 range. While most people probably could swing this, it isn’t super likely that is going to compete well against a $300 Remington 870.

There is a niche for sure, but makers started moving manufacturing to Spain to get shotguns down to a more appealing price range ($1000-2000). I seem to recall that this happened in the 1970s. That being said, most of the value shotguns are now made in Turkey which happened in the early 2000s as it is too expensive to make in Spain now.

So, there is a small culture of making in-between entry level and fine shotguns. Orvis was one of the companies that purchased and branded Spanish shotguns. There are some other Spanish brands like Star, Astra and Llama that ultimately succumbed the same industry collapse in the late 1990s. Although it seems like that CZ-Colt bought and is using the Llama brand as I can see items in stock at Sportsman’s Warehouse.

Within the air rifle category, Gamo is probably the biggest brand. Amongst the biggest brands Daisy/Crossman – American, Umarex – German and Gamo – Spanish. There were several models that I wanted to by before I ended up buying my Crossman. I made my decision more because I had a gift card to the place that I bought the rifle rather than the brand, but I was really looking for a Gamo first.

It would seem that it is possible to possess firearms in Spain. It does appear that there is some kind of licensing system with the federal government that depends on what you are trying to own and what you want to do with it. Here are some other global examples, so Spain doesn’t stand alone.

End Your Programming Routine: In a small way, the recent Supreme Court decision relates to owning firearms in Spain. If you recall my earlier definitions, rights are not granted, they supersede laws and the existence of government. In theory, we all have the same rights. It is a cultural matter if we collectively decide to defend those rights.

June 23, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 23, 2022 /

It’s probably a foregone conclusion that semi-automatic pistols are a superior design to revolvers (for the most part). It is the reason the the majority of the handgun’s sold are semi-auto. But, that doesn’t mean that revolvers don’t have a niche. The one area revolvers actually accel is in the cartridge selection for performance.

First we start with handgun versus rifle. Generally speaking, the rifle is always the more effective tool. So, a handgun is a compromise. We carry a handgun when carrying a rifle is not practical. If we are going to have any tool, then we have to understand the purpose of the tool.

An example of purpose is self defense. Fishing in the Alaska back country has a different set of potential risks than walking the dog at night. Revolvers are significantly stronger and fire cartridges that are higher pressure and have better terminal performance. This is a long way of saying revolvers can fire more potent cartridges which work better for hunting and stopping larger animals,

Semi-Automatic pistols are easier to shoot because the barrel and therefore the recoil is more in line with the hand and the arm. This means that the propensity of muzzle flip and controllability for follow up shots are easier. The design of the revolver lends itself to more muzzle flip.

In the picture above, I have illustrated the recoil force directly opposite to the path of a bullet. The design of the grip actually leads to a fulcrum effect, potentially causing the whole firearm to flip. This requires a firm grip and wrist to hold things in place. There are some other potential factors to control as well that I will talk about.

It is worth pointing out that different revolvers have different grip designs and overall positions. The one pictured above has probably the most exaggerated design for muzzle flip that I will talk about below. The higher the barrel is to the grip, the more likely control could be a problem.

One of the variables is cartridge. Light loads is translated to lighter bullets and lower velocities. You will remember from a few weeks ago that Energy = 1/2 * mass * velocity * velocity that I talked about. This also happens to be be Newton’s second law. Since we are talking about Newton, his third law paraphrases in recoil will be the same in opposite direction.

Recoil is a somewhat complicated and subjective subject. There are the physics of actual recoil and the perception of felt recoil. One of the known factors of felt recoil is the overall mass of the firearm helps the user ‘feel’ less recoil. I suspect that this is because true recoil is not exactly linear but conical. It is widely held that lighter revolvers are more punishing to shoot. I can say that the aluminum alloy .38 special is much more punishing than shooting out of a full size steel pistol.

It is not just the material the firearm is made of that adds mass but also the size. Standard revolvers are 2″, 3″, 4″, 5″ and 6″ barrels with 2, 4 and 6 being the most prevalent. This adds to more mass but the control is a little counter intuitive until you look at the lever again. The longer the barrel the more leverage on the fulcrum. So, when firing powerful cartridges, a shorter barrel is easier to control because there is less perceived recoil for a couple of factors.

Going back to the compromise again and barrel length. Factory cartridges are loaded to function in all scenarios (and devices). When you look at handgun cartridges, the longer the barrel, the more chance that the entire powder charge is consumed. The more powder consumed, the more velocity is created and that squares the energy calculation causing more recoil. Not only does the energy increase, but so does the leverage on the fulcrum. This is another way of saying that perceived recoil is compounded with longer barrels.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t write this to scare you or dissuade you from selecting or carrying the best tool but rather to explain the phenomenon of recoil. The good news is that you can practice with lighter loads, which help a lot. Practice will help tremendously with mastery and confidence. Those two properties will make you much more likely to have it with you and mitigate risks in the back country. Don’t forget, something that can stop a bear can also stop a bad guy too.

June 16, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 16, 2022 /

Last week I talked about how poorly I shot at sporting clays. When I lined my right eye with the barrel, everything is fine until I open the left eye. Then, I was looking at the side of the shotgun. That was weird, but I haven’t shot much from my shotgun in the last couple of years. So, I mounted the gun on the left and did the same thing (with same results) . Hmmm, I know that I am right eye dominant but something is wrong. Maybe it is gun fit? Watch the second video for some additional tips on how to deal with this problem.

Determining the dominant eye is one of the first things you should do as a shotgun shooter. Depending on which eye is dominant, then that should determine how you should actually shoot. Left eye dominant people should shoot left handed. Right eye dominant should shoot right handed.

The objective is to have the best sight picture. There is no way you can shoot accurately if you cannot sight down the barrel properly. It might be hard to switch shoulders but it is much better in the long run for accuracy.

I actually practice a little bit with both. It is a good exercise in case SHTF situations. I am pretty ambidextrous for the most part, but the sight picture is way off with long guns. That then leads to a pretty awkward position to see the sights properly. Handguns I noticed that it is a little easier to get a better sight picture, but my strength in the left hand is not nearly the same. Muscle memory will build though if you try.

End Your Programming Routine: As you know, I am enjoying my time in Spain right now so I am keeping it short. This is a very important part of long gun shooting. Start your kids off right or go ahead and make that shift if you need to. Your success rate will thank you.

June 9, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 9, 2022 /

It has been described as golf with a shotgun. This is the game called Sporting Clays. Every year, after the trap season is over, we do a fun shoot at a local facility.

Pretty good shooting from one of the coaches. At each station, there are two possibilities. One is called a report pair. The shooter says pull, the launcher fires one target and after the shooter shoots, the second target is launched and the shooter tries to shoot the second target. The second type is called a true pair. With that, two birds are launched at the same time.

The targets are different at each station. Sometimes they even come in behind you. It is a game that more closely mimics bird hunting where you don’t know where the target is going to come in. We shot fifty shots. That is like the nine hole golf equivalent. Official events would be 100.

It still took us three hours to finish. That was with five shooters and walking the whole time. So, you do have to allow some time, plus one hour there and back each. It is a commitment.

Most of us team members are not members at this particular range. I say this because 50 targets cost $26. Members get a better deal, but you do have to shoot quite a bit to break even because the membership is $125/year. One particular thing about this range is a pretty nice pro-shop. If you ever wanted to see a $20,000 shotgun they got them. You can rent shotguns too. I think if I was going to spend $3000 on a shotgun, I would want to see how it goes first. Rentals are $20-30 per session.

I shot very poorly. I did not get a good sight picture. Possibly something is going on with my eyes. I am right eye dominant and that doesn’t seem to be a problem with rifles. But, when I get a proper mount and open my left eye, I am no longer looking down the barrel, but the side of it. I need to do some experimentation with one eye. Or, it could be that I don’t have proper cheek relief.

I say this because I shoot my air rifle almost every day. And, I shoot with both eyes open. But, it does have a scope, so maybe that helps. I was trying to figure out what was going wrong as I was cleaning my shotgun yesterday and I figured out my sight picture was not what it is supposed to be. On Saturday, I thought that maybe my earmuffs were preventing my gun mount properly, but now I think something is not quite right with my eyesight. I will talk more about determining eye dominance next week.

End Your Programming Routine: I shot 5/50. That is pretty bad, My kids shot 15/50 ish and the best in our group shot around 25. I think last time I did this, I shot around 15 and I didn’t notice this problem. I had a lot of fun despite that and it is something to work on. So, looking forward to trying again. I think I will suggest it for a belated father’s day.

June 2, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

June 2, 2022 /

This came up in Trap a few weeks ago, that is the color of shooting glass lenses and the environmental conditions. This is helpful for shooting but it is also helpful in fishing as well. Different color of lenses can give you a tiny advantage with different light conditions.

When I first got my range membership, I thought I would treat myself to some new shooting glasses. I bought a multi lens pack that contained a range of different colors. On the package, there is a guide that helps select the right conditions for the right lens.

I personally like clear for indoors, yellow for overcast or low light and grey/black for sunny days. I think that gives a lot of versatility. But there are many more variations. Not being a professional or a competitor, I could see how maybe any slight advantage might be helpful but I can get by with the three.

Since my son adopted my shooting glasses during trap season, I decided to see what was out there and upgrade. I recently bought a pair of WileyX WX Saints. You might say they are safety glasses or sunglasses but they have interchangeable lenses. The truth is, many sunglasses can also work as safety glasses. The important thing is that they are tested to ANSI Z87.1 standards. That is the impact test for worthwhile safety glasses.

For fishing, polarized glass is important. Not only do glasses protect your eyes for rays bouncing off the water but they also help you see fish. If you are a sight fisherman, then seeing fish is an advantage to catching them. And, the better you can match the color, the better you can see fish.

Another thing about sunglasses and safety, many sunglasses are more fashion accessories than safety gear. That is to say, the need to have full, wrap around capability to provide the best protection. Many of the blade styles (from Oakley) or the thick temple bands (like Costa and Oakley) provide full protection. I would definitely prefer plastic lenses for safety purposes as well.

One thing I find a pain is wearing glasses and muffs at the same time. After prolonged use, the muffs press the glasses into the head. The glasses also interfere with the muff seal and are less effective at stopping noise. I don’t think this conundrum can be avoided but it has got me thinking of investigating the earbud style hearing protection. Generally speaking, I don’t think they provide as good of protection as the muffs, but they would eliminate the headache of the glasses/muff squeeze. Maybe that is my next purchase.

End Your Programming Routine: As far as safety gear goes, to me glasses are the most important safety gear at the range. The reason being is that hearing protection is definitely a requirement at the line or inside but if you get 20 feet away (as long as you are behind the shooters) sound starts to dissipate. You never know when shrapnel can come back at you, even from other shooters on different bays. I have been shooting in one bay and heard stuff hit the roof from another shooter somewhere unknown. I don’t think it is worth the risk.

May 26, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

May 26, 2022 /

This is a rewrite. I already had this entire week written by Tuesday but unfortunately something came up and this was the best day to interrupt the flow. You all know what that something is… a school shooting in Texas where 19 children and two adults were killed. This is the biggest tragedy and eerily similar to Sandy Hook (2012).

I am going to spare the hard lines of party talking points today. I see all kinds of people talking out of their asses about the situation. I see a lot of people that have their own contingency of personal security using this event to push their personal agenda. I am talking about NBA coaches, TV hosts and US politicians.

With all things, what do you do with this? I want to say, I cant blame all people for being angry. Someone very close to me said yesterday that they wanted to get some training and start carrying. I think that is actually the proper response not because I want a militarization of our culture but because we are our own first responders.

I have said this before, if I knew that there was going to be a fight somewhere then I would not go to that place. It is just smart. That leaves us with being caught unaware anytime something like this happens. If you are unaware, then how prepared are you really going to be? And if you are not prepared, it is only luck that keeps you alive.

My kids had a band concert a couple nights ago. Oregon SB554 was passed in 2021 in direct response to 2011 appeals court dismissal of college’s ability to prohibit firearms. The reason for this is Oregon has a preemption clause in the constitution which means that only the legislature can make laws that contradict the Bill of Rights. Or in other words, administrative bodies cannot arbitrarily create rules that are in contradiction to the constitution. This is a long way of saying firearms are banned at all schools in our district.

Had that circumstance in Texas occurred in my town, the results would have likely been the same or worse. 1) This is not Texas with the same sense of individualism 2) we don’t have a bunch of border protection officers just hanging around town. The sheriff has two – six deputies on duty, municipal police have two on duty and the adjacent town has two on duty. State police are fifteen miles away at best.

If the ‘good guys’ are following the laws and the ‘bad guys’ are not, then what is the result? The result is a defenseless shooting gallery. Did you also know that Great Britain is implementing knife restrictions as a result of a huge rise in knife crime? On one hand, the firearm is a better tool for killing but you see from the data that the problem is not the tool. Nor is the problem a lack of laws. The problem is sick and deranged people.

The story is still being written on this. 2020 followed by 2021 were the biggest firearms sales years for a reason. The largest segment of that population were first time gun owners. People know when something is wrong, defund the police being one example. This country is literally disintegrating before our eyes and people don’t realize what is wrong, only that it doesn’t feel right.

Since this is a complicated problem and I don’t want to disrespect the situation with simple solutions, I can only offer my opinion. It is a shame that we should abdicate our children’s safety and quite frankly their minds to a system that is counter-intuitive and unnatural. Instead of learning critical thinking and problem solving, we are training safety by bureaucracy and administration.

The question is not “how is this prevented” but “how do I survive”. You see, that flips the script on me imposing my will on you to you taking responsibility for yourself. I don’t think it will ever be prevented, but I do believe that there are steps I can take to potentially mitigate the damage. In a hypothetical situation, whether I am killed because I am disarmed or I am killed because my opponent was a better/quicker shot the result is still the same. But which one provides better odds?

I am not going to say whether I obey the no guns in school policy. What I will say is that this is not my first day after a school shooting. And, I will also say that my human right to self preservation exceeds any kind of policy. That is the basis of civil disobedience. If I did have a weapon and I was in the situation, my first priority is to get out of harm, not stop the threat or even engage.

End Your Programming Routine: If Whoopi Goldberg wants to come here and try to punch me, then I would like to see her try. Quite frankly, assault is acceptable grounds for self defense. Mind you, I think it would be more lucrative to let her hit me and then I can take this to civil court for a nice, fat judgement. Despite all of that, I stand for her right to be an idiot and say whatever she wants on TV. That goes for everyone, I stand with your rights to think and speak. Don’t mess with mine.

May 19, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

May 19, 2022 /

The league trap season is over. There is the state tournament remaining, but unfortunately, we will be on our way home from Spain, so we will miss it. We have another sporting clays event for fun coming up in the next two weeks. I am pretty sure that I will talk about sporting clays after we do it but today I thought I would talk about my son’s first season.

I think it is starting to sink in. Getting the stock to fit was the foundation, coaching, experience and consistency were the building blocks. On the first day of practice, he shot a 2 and a 7 (out of 25). Yesterday, he shot two 17s. I think another season and he will be shooting in the 20s. That is a pretty good bench mark and will put him in the upper echelon of shooters at the state tournament.

The previous years, I was a parent and didn’t hear all of the coaching. This year, I paid attention to what they were saying to the kids and I learned quite a bit. I learned that body position at your station is important. For instance, you want your body positioned for hard lefts on station 1. That means your core is angled away even though your shotgun is positioned pointed at the left corner of the trap house.

I heard a podcast recently from a (Olympic level) shotgun shooter. It was her contention that trap shooting was relatively easy because there are only so many variables unlike skeet or sporting clays. She said, it is easier to make a good all around shooter a great trap shooter then to go the other way around. What was being encouraged is to shoot the other disciplines to get more experience.

To a large degree, I think all of that is true. Muscle memory is the number one factor for success. Further to that point, I can hear all of the coaching tips and tricks but if I don’t apply them, I don’t see the feedback. With that, they are already better shooters than me and probably always will be. Only having an interest and never any coaching, how could I possibly get better?

Two years ago, spring trap was cancelled (because of Covid). Last year, we had a total team size of seven shooters. Most of them are back this year. But, the daily average score started off around 10 and by the time the season ended it was more like 18. This year, I would say that we started off at 15 and now averaging 19. This is a total team composite, so some are averaging much higher, while others are much lower.

End Your Programming Routine: With everything else going on and the weather being poor all season I am glad that we are coming to the end. I really do enjoy the game and I find being a coach rewarding as well. That being said, the 10 weeks of commitment certainly cuts into the other things that I want to do. It’s difficult to sit around and watch week after week as well. We did usually get a chance to shoot each week, but we always had something more pressing to do. I am looking forward to go back to the rifle range as well.

May 12, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

May 12, 2022 /

I hate to start out this way, but I didn’t make much progress with my chronograph work. I did give it a shot, but I couldn’t get a viable reading. Mind you, I only shot some pellets in the basement.

My current operating theory is that the light is too dim and the projectile is too small to register. I understand this device to work with two optical sensors. I think that it sees the projectile pass over each sensor and then calculates the time difference. So, if it is not being seen then it doesn’t calculate.

There were some warnings about using it in low light, and this situation definitely fits. My particular model actually has LED lights on the background reflector (the white plastic strips). I think that the lights are an attempt to extend the useful light and projectile size. Yet they didn’t seem to work on my initial attempt.

I have plans to test my son’s nerf gun just to see if something will register before I get too carried away. If I can get some measurements, then I can experiment with the light conditions. There is also technical support because it is supposed to work with pellets.

End Your Programming Routine: Due to the fact that I am out of town this week, I am not going to make any progress while I am gone. I haven’t totally decided but this would be a good weekend to also go to the range. Likely, since I am just getting back I will need the time to do stuff around the house. But, I could probably squeeze in some trigger time outside, if the weather permits.

May 5, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

May 5, 2022 /

It’s been a while since I did some math. For those of you that don’t remember, don’t care or are not interested, that is fine. These are real experiments and real life applications of physics and mathematics. Guess what, they are pretty simple as things go too.

I picked up a chronograph this week. This is a tool that measures how fast a projectile is travelling. From that, I will be able to calculate energy and measure the consistency of my reloads. I think that I am going to get some interesting data from this. Energy is the real life equalizer when comparing different calibers like fast and light versus slow and heavy or bullet to bullet size.

Sir Isaac Newton figured it out a long time ago. The formula for kinetic energy is 1/2 mass * velocity * velocity. At the risk of being boring, mass and weight are not the same thing. Mass is really how much space something takes. Weight is mass plus gravity (really mass times gravity). So, when we measure something in pounds or grains, we need to divide by a constant of earth’s gravitational pull as well. If we were to use the metric system, we wouldn’t have to do this extra conversion.

This describes the energy calculation above.

Essentially, all I have to do is know my bullet weight in grains and measure my velocities and plug it into the formula above to calculate energy. I am going to demonstrate some more math later when I get more data but I will talk about it when I get there. I don’t want to get too heavy too quickly.

You don’t have to understand my math to use it, just plug in values into the formula and calculate. My math was proving that the formula for kinetic energy was applicable to my situation. The actual scientific unit for energy is a Joule. You will have to convert all those units to metric to look at it in that unit. That is a whole different post, but it can be done.

Here are some quick examples for perspective

  • 22LR – 130 ft lb
  • 9mm- 355 ft lb
  • 357 magnum – 583 ft lb
  • 30-06 – 2913 ft lb

The above are just examples with nominal weight bullets and velocities. Energy can change with different weight bullets and particularly more velocity (because it is a squared value). This mean shooting a 22lr from a handgun and a rifle are going to have dramatically different energy values because in theory, you are going to get a more efficient powder burn from a rifle and have significantly more velocity.

I do have some planned experiments in mind first. I want to measure velocities of my pellet rifle. The first thing I am interested in is how consistent are the velocities shot to shot. The second thing I am interested in are how much the velocities change with different pellets both weight and design. I am also interested in velocities at the muzzle vs the target or how much loss there is over distance.

I have some other experiments planned for my BB/Pellet rifle. It takes 10 pumps to get to full power. I want to see the velocity difference in each pump and the consistency of that particular rifle. Or said another way 1 pump = x fps, 2 pumps = y fps, 3 pumps = z fps. I plan to use that data to tell me how much difference there is (or isn’t) for follow-up shots and accuracy.

Finally, I want to do some checking of my reloads. I want to know how consistently I am making ammunition. I would be interested in checking factory loads and comparing my work to the published data. There is a ton on science and information that can be gained from this tool.

I definitely don’t see myself using this each time I go to the range. However, I do see myself using it until I get a comfort level of consistency. Once I establish a baseline that seems to be predictable, I will be an informed shooter with data rather than what I think I know.

End Your Programming Routine: It has been a long time since I tried to type math equations into a word processing program. I had to do it routinely in college, but I really haven’t had much use since then. Word has improved quite a bit in twenty-five years. I know, it is kind of hard to get excited about reading someone else doing math, but for me it is like reviving old brain cells. I wont have a data set this week, but soon.