Triangle Tactical Podcast - Competitive Shooting, Mostly

Memes: If you haven't been following Triangle Tactical on social media, you've been missing out on all the shooting sports memes that I've been making. Carry Rig: I picked up a new carry rig. I've been rocking a Glock 19 for the longest time but I found myself wanting something smaller while doing dad stuff. The G19 was just getting too heavy and big while carrying the baby carrier, diaper bag, and everything else that goes along with having a little tyke. So, I picked up a Glock 43, and a RCS Morrigan holster to go with it. I'm a big fan. USPSA: New rulebook looks decent, and there's one thing in it that I really like: this USPSA approved ammo vendor program thing.  

This is the last episode for a while. I'm taking the summer off to get used to life with our new baby, planning to come back with Triangle Tactical Podcast "Season 2" around August or Septemberish. See you then, carry on.

This week I talk about some RO stuff, after reading about a DQ online that the RO may have not helped. Also, we've got a few First Match voicemails that are FANTASTIC.

This week I talk about cheating in the shooting sports, and what to do ab out it.

This is the 6 year anniversary episode of the Triangle Tactical Podcast! To celebrate we're going live and answering what is probably the best batch of questions I've had for a Q&A show ever.

I've become interested in hearing from people who are the best in the world in other sports recently, so I've been actively seeking out podcasts with people who are the best of the best in what they do.  I kept hearing references to an interview Joe Rogan did with an ultramarathoner named Courtney Dauwalter on his podcast. She won a race called the Moab 240, which is a 238 mile foot race through Moab Utah. She won the overall by something ridiculious like 11 hours or something. Later in the interview, Joe asks her about nutrition, and much to my surprise, she doesn't have a crazy diet, she said that she eats nachos, candy, and beer. She's a total outlier. It's amazing, but just because she does it, doesn't mean that I can keep eating nachos, candy, and beer and do what she does. The same goes for shooting. There might be someone who is REALLY good that doesn't practice like crazy, but they aren't you.

This week Jeff from NC Shooters Supply is on the podcast answering your reloading questions. We had a lot of y'all submit questions, so first and foremost thank you for sending them in! There's a TON of information in this episode, but please feel free to put any more questions you may have in the comments, and we'll get them answered in the future.

This week I had a local Production Master Travis Beal come on the podcast. Travis and I used to be close to the same level, and then all the sudden he rocketed past me and started really killing it as a shooter. As it stands now, he's going to become a Grand Master any time, and it's all because of the change of mindset he had after getting disqualified at a major match.

Chris asked on the Facebook group about competitive equity at matches: Ports - all ports being the same high or low height. Should they be mixed height? I'm taller than most shooters. Not the tallest guy on the range, but above average. Personally I don't have a problem with MD's mixing up the height of ports, as long as they aren't going too crazy with it. Tall shooters can get low, but short shooters can't get higher. I think there's a size and height of port that can work for every shooter, and then it's totally kosher to add in something like a low port here and there. I like low ports, mostly because I like to hear people grumble about them, and also because I like to see people really get tested on their prone handgun shooting skills, which is something that nobody practices, and a lot of people struggle with. Walking stages - should stages be open the day before for people that can travel? I had to ponder this one for a little bit, and while it's not completely fair that someone could walk the match the day before, and someone else couldn't, as long as the the range is open for everyone to have the opportunity to walk the match, I'm pretty much okay with it. Because if we close the stages off completely to everyone until match day, do the match staff that helped setup the match not have an advantage over everyone else? My thing is this: If the range is open to everyone to walk stages the day before, and you just can't get an early flight in to the match, that's not the concern of the match, that's your problem. What about Match Directors who setup stages that will be used at a future major match, at a local match ahead of time? Setting up exact stages seems shady. I haven't seen that before, at least that I can think of. However when the Carolina Cup was still the big IDPA match in my area every June, if you were to shoot at that range in the few months leading up to the match, you could definitely tell that the match director was working on different things to get ready for the match. Things like tweaking the speed of moving targets, engagement orders, different props, etc, but I don't think he really ever setup entire stages for everyone to shoot ahead of the match. Personally, the big competitive equity thing that I see is pepper poppers screwing people over. If I were king of the shooting sports, the first thing I would change would be to treat poppers the same as falling steel. If it's hit and doesn't fall, that should be a stage equipment malfunction, and the the shooter should get a re-shoot. Plug of the Week: Watch this episode of This Week Tonight, and tell me what you think about the messaging that they're countering. Is this the sort of messaging the pro-gun people should be putting out there?

I mentioned a theory on the podcast a couple weeks ago about how I expected that higher class shooters would probably pull away from lower class shooters on the shorter stages moreso than the longer stages, but gthat it was just a theory because I didn't want to do the math. Well, I got an email from Louis, and he pulled the data from the different stages at the 2017 Production Nationals and... I was totally wrong.  Louis broke down the stages from Nationals, then charted the median percentage by round count on a chart and it turns out that the median finish from each classification was about the same on all the different round count stages. Louis has been pulling the numbers on some other things with classifications and whatnot and if you want to see them, look in the shownotes for this episode and I'll have a link to his github page with the deets: https://lstange.github.io/uspsa/classification_vs_performance.html (By the way, if you didn't know this, you *should* be able to access all the links and stuff from the podcast shownotes in whatever podcast app you're using. I always tell you to go to triangletactical.net/280 or whatever, that's unnecessary for most of you, all the links should be right in your podcast app in the shownotes for this episode). Why do people quit shooting? Trying to think of people who I know who have actually just quit, vs those who have just not been to a match in a while for one reason or another, but have every intention to shoot again. I've "quit" twice over the years. - Ammo crunch after the 2012 Obama Election - Hardcore burnout after ROing way too much So, I emailed everyone on the Triangle Tactical email list and asked them if they've ever quit shooting, and why. I got a bunch of answers that are pretty wide ranging. (BTW, this is what I like to use the email list for, so if you're not on it, get on it!) Interestingly, a bunch of people emailed me back and mentioned that cost probably makes some people quit, but nobody specifically emailed me back and said that they've quit because of cost. Joe mentioned that he's in Michigan and the winters shut down most of the matches up there. Jason and Khan mentioned time away from family. Some matches take a LONG time to get through, so I can see that. With a baby on the way, balancing matches and practice and family time is going to be something I need to put more emphasis on going forward. Several folks mentioned jobs. Either job loss, or new jobs, or jobs taking up way too much time on the weekends. Aaron actually said that he quit a job because his days off were only during the week and he had to work every weekend so he changed it up to get his weekends off. Quitting because the match near you isn't challenging. Aaron mentioned that quit because a local match jsut wasn't pushing him the way it needed to, took some time off and came back as a USPSA shooter where he's being challenged a lot more, and that's making things better for him. Boring clubs. James mentioned a "looks the same every month" match that was near him years ago that drove him away. A couple folks talked about physical injuries. Things that come from practice like tennis elbow, as well as other injuries that just keep them from shooting. Surgeries, etc. So, with all this said, the reasons that people have quit shooting, lets talk for a minute about what's brought people back: Friends Needing a competitive outlet Something to do with kids as they've gotten older and need more man skills. Noticing that competition makes them want to be more athletic and get into better shape than they were previously. Q&A: "Why is there not a specific division for compact size firearms such as G19, CZ P01 or P07 etc?" Here's the thing: we don't need carve outs for every size of firearm. If we were to do that we wind up with way too many divisions, and things just get silly after a while.  In my opinion, the other reason for this is because most shooters don't want to shoot their little tiny guns in USPSA, at least not long term. 32rd stages with little guns that sometimes don't even hold 10 rounds doesn't really sound like a great time to me. I get that the guns mentioned all hold 10+ rounds, but if we're going to go down the tiny-gun rabbit hole, what about guns like the Shield, XDs, and others? So, with all this said, I think the reasoning here is that USPSA isn't really interested in doing what IDPA does. IDPA has a place for these little guns, and they work really well in that game, because of round count, and because of the concealed carry sort of design of that game.  All this isn't to day that USPSA doesn't have a place for the compact guns you mentioned though. All three guns you mentioned (Glock 19, CZ P01, and CZ P07) are specifically called out as legal on the USPSA Production list. There's nothing keeping these guns from being shot in Production, I see guys shoot Glock 19's in Production all the time.  "Should competitors be allowed to shoot two divisions in the same match? I'm starting to see this a lot locally where people are shooting both handgun and PCC during the match (and paying two entry fees)." No. We have a hard enough time getting shooters to help during the match, so letting someone shoot, then wander off to the safe area to bag a gun and un-bag another one, then come back to the stage, stuff mags full from the gun they just shot, check the gear for the gun that they're about to shoot, then shoot the second gun, then wander back to the safe area to switch back, stuff mags for the other gun, means that this person will NEVER run the timer or work the tablet. They'll NEVER paste target for more than a shooter or two per stage if we're lucky, and then they're taking up more time by shooting the second gun.  With that said, if there's a multi-day match and shooters can shoot different divisions on different days, no problem. There's also a local BUG match that allows multiple entries, and for that match it works really well. The stages are 5rds tops. No reloads, and no holster needed, so you can finish your first gun, bag it, and take your second gun out of it's bag when it's time to shoot. Easy peasy, and it works just fine because there isn't much pasting and resetting to do, so there is time for people to switch guns at that match. 

5x5 Classifier Seems like the 5x5 classifier is causing some issues at IDPA matches. Something I hadn't thought of, but each shooter is putting 20 scored holes in the target with that drill, and that is a lot, especially with a bunch of shooters. Not sure how I feel about this. In USPSA rule 4.2.3 Paper targets must never be required to receive more than 12 hits before being scored and patched. I think that's a decent rule, because we get so used to only scoring 2 hits on the paper. Setting aside the idea of the shooters getting too used to only shooting 2 rounds only at targets, thinking only about scoring. We get too used to scoring the two best hits on a target. I've done it before on a stage that required more than 2 hits where I just went into default mode and scored the two best hits and ignored the others, and thankfully we had Practiscore to tell me that we hadn't scored enough hits on the target.  The other issue is that when you're shooting that many shots at one target, and then trying to score every one of them, it gets crowded. Especially after like 10 other shooters have shot at at and it's got pasters stuck all over it, pasters starting to peel, etc.  I can see it becoming a tough thing to score if the target isn't replaced every so many shooters. Which, since it's a classifier, maybe that's the right answer.  Clarification from Last Week: Wanted to clarify something I started talking about last week. Video podcasting would be an awesome alternative to YouTube, HOWEVER were not at a place where bandwidth is viable for doing good quality, decent videos just yet. As I was writing the notes for this, I was downloading a couple audio podcasts on works wifi and it was taking several minutes to get there. Had they been multiple gigabyte video files, my phone would have just died. USPSA RO Exam: The USPSA RO renewal exam used to be 10 questions, but it sounds like they've changed it to 20 questions to make each question carry less weight so that hopefully more people will pass the exam. Personally, I didn't have any trouble with the renewal last year. Here's a tip: have the .PDF rulebook pulled up, and use the search function to find what you need. Then, download the .PDF to your phone so you have it at matches, and you can use the search function right on the range to find the relevant rule quickly. You don't even really need a paper rulebook anymore. Mistakes experienced shooters make. 1. Not putting enough emphasis on live fire practice. I know a bunch of dudes who have been shooting for years who don't regularly live fire practice, or don't live fire practice in a place where they can actually get good practice for competitive shooting. For some reason, this has become a thing in the action shooting sports, but if we were to look at some of the other games, let's say long range PRS type stuff, I don't think anybody would expect to get good at those sorts of games without having a place to live fire regularly. 2. Sticking it out with junk gear for too long. I've been guilty of this a bunch over the years, and I've heard a couple friends talk about switching from a plastic fantastic to something that's more of a gamer gun talk about how they should have made the switch way sooner, and saw big gains from the move.  3. Not reading the rules. You'd think this was something that would apply to new shooters, but I see so many people who have been shooting for many years who still try to reference rules that haven't existed for several years, or they have a misunderstanding of basic rules that a simple reading of the rule book would clarify. That's not to say that I don't ever reference the rule book, I do it all the time, but reading the rulebook, and gaining an understanding of it will show you where to look when you have a question. I don't think if you're new you need to spend a bunch of time reading the rulebook cover to cover because if you've never shot a match you won't have a good understanding of what you're reading, but once you get serious about things, get a good understanding of things.  Q&A: Aaron: "So I have question in regards to coaching/ training. If there is range locally to you and were just getting going in shooting sports I've shot 2 indoor uspsa both 4 stages 1 qualifier each time. Do you think that it would be money a head to get a couple he of training in how to do things properly vs dry fire and live fire. I haven't had a lot said to me at either match besides I ran my gun dry on 32rd stage the ro came over and asked it it was first time." - I think if you feel like you need some additional training, you should probably get it. Especially in the beginning of your shooting career, there is SO much that you can learn and get a big boost from shooting.   A.J. "I'm shooting a little bit left on my new Glock 34. Is it bad gun handling or is there something about the gun that I'm not used to? And do you have any trigger upgrade recommendations for it as a production gun? Thanks!" - Probably gun handling. It's pretty normal for someone who is new to shooting Glocks to say that they're hitting left. I'd play around with your trigger finger either a little more or a little less and see if that doesn't get you straightened out. With that said though, my current Glock 34 got kind of messed up where it was legit shooting really far to the left. I was able to take the gun apart and could actually see where the locking block had wear on the left hand side which I suspect was causing the gun to shoot left. I replaced the locking block and slide lock (not the slide release) and it was good to go after that. Jake "Is shooting 1/2 scale steel targets for practice at 10 yards bad for competition I like the steel b/c I get results hearing it ring faster than walking up and looking at my hits and pasting. 2nd question is what power factor do I need or can have in production is there a minimum? Thanks Jake"Is shooting 1/2 scale steel targets for practice at 10 yards bad for competition I like the steel b/c I get results hearing it ring faster than walking up and looking at my hits and pasting. 2nd question is what power factor do I need or can have in production is there a minimum? Thanks Jake" - Shooting steel in practice can absolutely be beneficial, but if you're only shooting half scale targets at 10y in practice, I think you're leaving a lot on the table. Here's the downsides as I see them: - It's not a target that you'll ever see in a match. - They're not falling targets like you'll see in a match. - At 10y, static steel that doesn't fall, if it's all you shoot at, I think you could get into the habit of waiting to see your hit/hear the hit instead of calling your shot and moving on. If this is the only thin you're ever shooting at in practice, I think you could pick up some bad habits from it. With all that said though, I do bring static steel to practice. I've got a couple 8" plates, a 10" plate, and a MGM auto-popper that falls down and then resets itself that I use for practice instead of falling steel, because resetting falling plates in practice sucks. There was an episode of the Shoot Fast Podcast where they were talking about practice, and the guys mentioned not pasting between every run on a drill, but rather shooting the drill multiple times and looking for trends on where all the hits are. I haven't tried that yet, but it's a thing I want to try in the future. Power Factor: Power factor is pretty simple once you know what it is. It's the speed of your bullet in feet per second multiplied by the weight of the bullet in grains. So, if you're shooting 125gr bullets, and they're going 1000 feet per second, they would be 125,000 power factor (or just 125 power factor) Generally, I think most people load their Production ammo to around 130-135 power factor to account for environmental changes on match day, and to get a little more oomph on poppers which can screw over shooters at times. Power factor can be impacted by things like temperature and altitude depending on the powder you're loading with. Some are very sensitive to these things, and others aren't really all that sensitive at all. So, what happens is, when you go to a major match that has a Chronograph stage, they'll take some of your ammo, pull a bullet and weigh it, and shoot a few rounds over a chronograph. Then they'll do the math and figure out your power factor. If you're shooting Production you only have to make Minor power factor (because there isn't any Major power factor in Production). Plugs of the week: Latest episode of the Shannon Smith Shooting Show (Episode 35) - I enjoyed his talk with his RM buddy, and I liked hearing Shannon talk about match directing and rules and whatnot and not just shooting. The guy is a professional match director, so hearing him talk about that sort of stuff is great because he's such a wealth of knowledge on these sorts of topics (not that he's not good at talking about shooting, he is, but hearing him talk about match directing was really good too.)  

I've been dying from allergies all week so I didn't get much show-prep done, but I did get a bunch of good questions from the Triangle Tactical Podcast group that I answered on this weeks show.

There was a recent question in the Triangle Tactical Facebook group asking about what sort of things a Range Officer should bring when working a match.  I thought I'd put together a list of things that are nice to have and make them into an episode. Coincidentally, most of the things on the list are also helpful to have around in your practice sessions as well, so even if you're not a range officer, you might pick up a couple ideas for your personal use. Pistol grip thing that snaps onto paint cans: If you’re working a stage that has a lot of steel, you’ll thank me. It makes a TON of difference in the ease of painting. Duct Tape: If you’re really concerned about competitive equity (which you should be at every match, but at least at Level 2 and up matches) you can allow the target sticks on swingers and drop turners to soak up a few more bullets on these targets if you wrap the sticks in duct tape before stapling the targets to them. Swingers and drop turners are more apt to get bullets in the sticks since they're moving around, so it's a good idea to give them a good wrap of duct tape before hanging the targets. Some sort of brass squib stick. Not because you’ll be hammering out peoples squibs, but because it’s nice to be able to check if the barrel of a gun is clear right on the bay. You don't have to buy an actual squib stick, a 5/16" brass rod from Amazon will do the trick nicely. Your own stapler. Get one that throws really long staples. I like the ½” ones. Long staples are helpful for situations when you have something like a no-shoot target stapled on top of a regular target. Shorter staples have trouble getting through that much cardboard and reaching the target sticks, and you end up with no-shoots falling off, and poor competitive equity. A 9V battery or two. Sucks to have to find the MD or the Quartermaster to try and get a new battery if the one in your assigned timer goes dead. Having a spare in your range bag keeps the match moving. Overlays. I always misplace them in my range bag, so I started keeping two of them in my wallet. Actually bought a new wallet yesterday and found 4 overlays in it when swapping everything over to the new one. If you’re able to whip them out nice and quick when a shooter asks, you’ll be favored over being the RO that has to yell up range asking if anybody knows where an overlay is. A tarp. Good for several things. I’ve seen ROs at majors who are working a stage that’s mostly stationary put a tarp on the ground to catch brass. When I was working the 2015 Nc USPSA Sectional we used my tarp to put a wall on the side of the shelter we were under to keep our stuff dry. Also worked great. Tools. Basic stuff like a phillips screwdriver and a flat head, as well as a crescent wrench big enough to adjust poppers at your club, etc. Personally, I wouldn’t bring my nice tools to a match, it’s too easy for someone to borrow them for another bay and forget to bring them back. Just make a trip to Harbor Freight and get a few cheapies just for the RO box. Sharpie: So you can mark the sticks of any targets that need to be changed. Zip ties. Not necessarily for stage props or anything, but if you're working a multi day match there's always a chance you'll break something that can easily be remedied with a zip tie. Name tag. Especially if you're ROing a major and you're not wearing a shirt that has your name on it, having a name tag so shooters know who you are is a good thing.

I had a very frustrating practice session at the range on Monday. I burned about 500 rounds just shooting a plate rack because it's been something that has been really killing me at matches recently. Here's what happened: I could kill the plate rack at 10 yards. Anywhere between 3.1 and 3.5 seconds, no misses, no problems. At 15 yards, I was an absolute mess. I'd hit the first plate, then start missing all over the place with no obvious reason why. Then, at 20 yards, I was actually shooting better than I was shooting at 15 yards. I burned a bunch of ammo at the 15y plate rack and it was just a crap show. What I noticed though, was that I didn't really need much of a sight picture to shoot the plate rack at 10y. A flash of the red fiber optic inside the rear notch, and I was sending the shot and getting a hit. At 15y, I obviously needed more than that, and I wasn't getting it. At 20y, my brain was making my trigger finger wait for the sights before sending the round. I did some thinking, and decided I'd take a full magazine and shoot it into the berm, only pulling the trigger when the sight picture was acceptable. Then I immediately reloaded with another magazine and I was able to shoot the plate rack well at 15y for a few runs, and then my problem would come back. So, I burned a ton of ammo, and I didn't totally solve my problem, but I think I at least have it sort of figured out. I've been dryfiring since leaving the range on Monday without pulling the trigger at all. All my dryfire this week has consisted of just acceptable sight pictures, and no trigger pulls, and things feel pretty good. I'm certain this is something I'll have to practice for a while, but I'm determined to not suck at shooting steel going forward...

SERPA There was a post on the r/competitionshooting subreddit this last week from someone talking about how they were an IDPA match last weekend and a new shooter was drawing from his SERPA holster at the match and plugged himself with a round at the hip, which then travelled down to around his knee. I don’t really want to beat the SERPA horse anymore, but I’ll tell you that in my years of competition, I’ve seen 4 people AD while drawing their pistol, and all 4 were using a SERPA. Here's what happens: Buzzer goes off. Shooter attempts to draw the gun, but doesn't get the button pushed in all the way and the gun doesn't come out of the holster as expected. Shooter then jams the gun down into the holster, mashes the button super hard, and then rips it up out of the holster. Because the shooter is mashing the button super hard while ripping the gun upwards, the finger slips off the edge of the holster and hits the trigger. Sometimes the round discharges into the dirt, sometimes it hits the shooter. Cross draw Should be self explanatory, but maybe it’s not. You can’t really draw a cross draw holster without breaking the 180. Simple as that. Pocket holsters I’ve never heard of a match that would allow them.  Years ago actually, there was a "pocket carry" shooting league in my part of the country, and even in the pocket carry league, you couldn’t shoot from a pocket holster. I think it comes down to someone being able to put their hand on the gun where the RO can't see it.  Every BUG match I’ve ever been to, you start either holstered or at low ready, no pocket stuff. Gimmicky sights This is a frequent question from people who are interested in competition but don’t know anything about it. I had a guy ask me what type of ghost ring sights he should get for his pistol before his first match... You really want to have precision sights. I hear people talk about wanting to have a hig honking front sight that’s as bright as the sun so they can acquire it on the draw nice and fast, but… what about the rest of the shots in the stage? I get that it’s cool to hammer that fast draw, but it really is meaningless if you’re then hurting your performance on the rest of the shots that you have to take on the stage. The holster that came with your gun (generally) They’re usually super tight, and basically unusable. They get new shooters into trouble because when the holster is so tight, they end up reaching across their body, grabbing the holster with their weak hand to keep from giving themselves a wedgie, and then when they draw the gun they sweep their weak hand that’s holding the holster. Random Magazine pouches from the gun store. Don’t just go buy random mag pouches from the local gun store. They probably carry some selections from different brands that are probably more suited towards concealed carry or tacticoolness than actual competition use. Gear that Doesn't Suck: I tore open my Pocket Pro 2 shot timer this weekend because the screen was acting up, and I wanted to see if I could figure out where to get a new screen for it (turns out you can buy them straight from Competition Electronics), and I used my little screwdriver set to do it. If you don't have a little set like this for tearing into random things around the house from time to time, it's really handy. And it's like $8.

The USPSA Board of Directors announced some changes to several divisions in the BoD meeting notes from earlier this month, and in this episode I discuss the highlights and lowlights. I'd encourage you to go to the USPSA website, log-in, and actually read all of the changes. Far too many people have just been asking for the Cliffs Notes version of the new rules, instead of just reading the rules. Read. The. Rules.

Bryan What is a good age to start a junior shooter? A lot of it probably has to do with maturity/responsibility. Start them with a pellet gun, BB gun, .22? Bryan My practice range is an indoor range, and can be rather loud at times; what is great practice drill to do that does not require a shot timer? Mark Hello Lucas. Thank you for your show. You've helped me get started in competitive shooting. As a middle-aged guy, my biggest challenge is my eye sight. I only use glasses for reading and computer work. I don't wear prescription glasses otherwise which includes shooting. This means the front sight is always fuzzy. I shoot fairly accurately, but I know this is holding me back. I've tried some of my own junk science by shooting with my reading glasses. This brings the front sight into focus, but it makes the target fuzzier than before. I've only done this on a limited basis since my reading glasses aren't safety glasses. My results have been mixed. What do other shooters do to overcome this? Chris Are there any benefits to shooting 40 Minor for production or Carry Optics? Edd When shooting competition, where/how do the different bullet weights come into play? 9mm/.40 Steve what movement drills do you practice most in dry fire? Mike I've been reviewing my match and practice videos and I've noticed something in common, I can get the gun on target fast, but then it looks like I just leave the gun hanging there forever or at least a good second before actually pulling the trigger all the way through, I assume that I'm letting the sights settle. I am using a revolver so every shot is double action and am currently trying to improve my accuracy so I don't just want to push myself to go faster and blaze my way through. Any drills you would suggest for improving accuracy while maintaining speed beyond 10 yards. Thanks Trey What do you use to keep up with your reloads a journal or software? Marty On a recent episode I heard you briefly mention your head position when doing turn and drawers. I am assuming you have your head turned to the Direction that your body will be moving when you have made ready. I hadn’t put much thought into it before, I usually just look straight forward and then turn my head and body on the beep. Do you have any evidence that having your head pre-turned makes a difference? Maybe A future junk science episode? Thanks! Marty in Massachusetts. Sarah I just wanted to let you know I enjoyed hearing you briefly talk about 'Stage Design' this week on the podcast. Anytime you could give pointers on this topic would be great. For instance, when you have limited room to move within a bay, how to you create options? Is there a place where you can find LOTS of stages already designed (I have found random websites with a few stages listed). Also, any information you can give on creating a stage plan before shooting would be helpful too. I know in the past you have mentioned this, but for new shooters like myself, I find it very difficult to walk up to the bay and figure out how to attack a large round count stage. What are the basics newbies like myself need to know? Thanks! Matthew How bad is the Glock 19 hurting me in USPSA? I know you are not big on gear but I have to ask if there are measurable advantages to having a larger gun? James Hi Lucas! Heard any rumors on what changes to Production are going to be discussed? Anything that has you particularly nervous??- thanks! Mike I have been shooting for about 5 years, but my have yet to shoot my first match. I have been doing a lot of the Stoeger dry fire drills and things seem to be going really well. I plan on shooting my first IDPA match in a month or so. My question is this: My offhand has a pretty significant tremor. When shooting offhand supported, everything is great, but when I shoot offhand only, unsupported, I won’t be able to hit the broadside of a barn; My hand shakes way too much. In fact, I’m concerned that under the pressure of being in a match my shots could go all over. Is there any kind of Accommodation that can be made for something like this? Could I just shoot with my strong hand and take a procedural or would that be totally devastating to my score? Take the MICs and move on? Thoughts?

Most folks out there can't afford to take a shooting class more than about once a year or so, and most people don't get instruction that much. Previous podcast episode on coaching here. I hear a lot of people talk about how they struggled for years doing things incorrectly. How they then changed something in their practice and saw improvement. People talk about how boring dryfire is because they're doing the same crap over and over and over, day after day, month after month and they're not really seeing improvement either. I was listening to a small business podcast today where a lady was being interviewed about the small business that she runs where she brings together these women who run businesses into these Mastermind groups. They pay her to be part of a group, and as part of the group they all counsel and support each other in their businesses with regular conference calls, etc. This got me thinking about the shooting sports. Why couldn't there be some sort of group coaching for shooters looking to improve their game? Check this out: It's 2018. There's a lot of technology out there today that allows for small groups of people to fire up a web cam, share files, and conference with each other that we simply couldn't do a few years ago. I'd like to see shooters get together with 3 or 4 other shooters that are like minded and similarly motivated and jump on Skype or Hangouts once a month or every other week and talk to each other about what's going on in there shooting. What's going well? What sucks? What feels like it sucks? I think that if people are honest with each other, that type of group coaching could prove to be really valuable for a lot of folks who are highly motivated, but aren't able to get instruction more than once a year or so. Connecting over the internet, watching each other's match video, or maybe even just the highlight and lowlight stages from each other's video and discussing it could prove valuable. I could be wrong, but I think having similar skill levels, and similar motivations would be really important. You don't want a situation where there's 3 C and B class shooters and a GM, because the GM probably isn't going to get a lot from the group, but will end up probably giving most of the advice. Plug of the week: Firearms Nation with USPSA President Mike Foley

Last week when I was on the range doing all the shooting for last weeks Junk Science show I noticed something that I’d never noticed before. When I was doing the step into the box draws, I could reliably shave a tenth of a second when I put my focus on the draw stroke, and not the step. If I just let the step happen, and put my focus on the draw, a pretty average draw was about .95, .96, .97, something like that. However, when I focused on the step, and let the draw stroke just happen, the time went up to about 1.06 or so. I’ve subscribed to the “get bored while you practice thing” and get in a lot of repetitions thing for a long time, but I kind of wonder how much better I’d be now, or how much more I’d enjoy practice if I were really focusing on things, and not allowing myself to get bored. Doing the shooting for last weeks show, I couldn’t allow myself to get bored. I had to keep focus. I didn’t get bored, and I actually got to where I could feel it when I’d shot a draw that was sub .9, and sub 1 second, and when I was greater than a second, it felt SLOW. Being able to perceive that sort of difference between different draws, when I’m human, was really interesting to me, but if I weren’t totally focused, they would have all felt relatively the same. Q&A: Drew: Hi Lucas. I've recently started helping with my IDPA club's Facebook page. That made me wonder, what do shooters want to see from a club's page? Just links to Practiscore? I've seen some clubs that post with a summary of the match calling out the winners of divisions. What would be fun or helpful without being annoying? Post interesting stuff. Sure, you want to post stuff about the IDPA club, and Practiscore links and things like that, but also drive some conversation with the shooters. Talk about proposed rule changes, both with IDPA, and things within the club. Get people out shooting at other clubs in your area, post match video, post interesting things from other pages, things like that. One thing I’ve learned about Facebook, is that if you’re constantly just posting links back to the same site (practiscore) Facebook will start showing those posts to less and less people, which isn’t what you want at all. Not sure how your club does it, but you could also use it to put out a call to action for match setup, and as a way to recognize those who help out. Evan: You've touched on about what makes a great match. But what about what makes a great stage? What tips would you give match directors and stage designers? What should they avoid doing? Options. Options make a good stage. For instance, the match I shot on Sunday was the Devil Dog USPSA match up in Oxford, NC. Almost every stage had several different ways that made sense to shoot it, and you really had to think about which was the most efficient way to do it. One stage in particular, you started in the far right corner of the shooting area. Most shooters started there, and then worked the stage from right to left, but if you were a Production shooter, that left you having to do a reload while working back up range to the last position, which is uncomfortable and slow. The other option was to step into the shooting area, drop one piece of steel, and the run all the way to the left most position (which I think was about 13 steps) and then shoot the stage from left to right. This saved a reload, and a whole position, BUT, you had to run 13 steps without shooting, and you ended up covering more ground than if you went the other way, but you avoided that awkward running up range reload. The last stage we shot was a 15ish round short course that was really interesting. You could conceivably work around a barricade either way, and have a good stage plan, so you really had to plan it around your abilities. The Production guys on my squad had a couple different ways to shoot it, each with their own risk/reward. That’s what makes a good stage.   And for the love of all things holy, please avoid the temptation to build a carnival stage at all costs. If you want to have a match with a bunch of props, spread them out through all the stages. Don’t build one stage with 7 different props. Things will break, things will not get re-set, and you’ll be re-shooting shooters all day long. Oh, and avoid freestanding no-shoots. They suck, because people forget to check them for hits, and then you end up with a 9mm shooter finishing the stage with a .40 caliber hole through a no-shoot, and nobody really knows who shot the no-shoot target. If you want to put in a no-shoot target, staple it over a regular target to make sure it gets checked for score. Plugs of the Week: The Shoot Fast Podcast. Its new, it's good, and you should subscribe to it. They just started, and came out of the gate swinging hammers. Also, I was interviewed on the Armed Lutheran Podcast this week, so you should go listen to that too. I had a lot of fun doing it.

For a long time I've wondered if the expensive race holsters that hold the gun just by the trigger guard are really worth the money, so that's what I've decided to find out for this episode. So, here's what I did: I setup a 10" steel plate at 10y. I tested both holsters with 50 draws in the following ways: Kydex - Stand and shoot 50 rounds. DAA Alpha X - Stand and shoot 50 rounds. Kydex - Step into the shooting area and shoot 50 rounds. DAA Alpha X - Step into the shooting area and shoot 50 rounds. The results were surprising, even to me.

Eric Lucas, I have a question for your Q&A if you would like. I know this touches on a subject you have talked about in the past. The closest USPSA club to me is an hour away. They shut down fairly early in the season. Last summer I still wanted to do some more matches and the next closest match is a 3 hour drive one way. Their website said that set up was at 3pm, shooting started at 6pm and should be done by 9pm. It seemed to imply that being present for set up was mandatory. I called them and explained that it was going to be 6 hours of driving for me and asked if set up was mandatory. This resulted in a fairly insulting lecture on how important volunteering is in this sport but the guy never gave me a definitive answer to my question. Now I get how important volunteering is but I’m not sue I want to make a 12 hour day out of this. My response was to skip it and spend the time and money practicing. I’ll spend my money going to some lvl 2 matches next year. I don’t know what kind of stress the guy was dealing with but I wouldn’t feel welcome if I wasn’t there 3 hours early. What’s your take, should I reconsider or drive past to the next one 4 hours away? Also, I am working on a first match type voice mail that I hope to send soon. T. C. TC from Ft. Mill, SC here, with a question for the Q&A Show. How do you see competition shooting benefitting those who carry for self-defense purposes? We have all long heard the arguments from the “tactical” community about how competition shooting will get you killed on the street. How the competition “spray and pray” model of running about, disregarding cover and flinging bullets all over hell to breakfast is a sure fire formula for death and disaster on the mean streets of Anytown, USA. My own experience of being a 20 year veteran of federal law enforcement and competitive shooting, as well as infantry combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has underscored just how valuable competition shooting is, for me, when things get loud. I have never understood the perspective of those who believe that being able to operate your firearms efficiently, to be able to shoot fast and accurately, as one must to be successful in competition, is not tactically desirable. I am, however, very curious as to your take on the topic. Do you see competitive shooting as helpful for those who carry for self-defense, as you do? If so, what are those advantages? Do you see any disadvantages, and if so, what are they? Thanks for what you do. Carry on. Austin I know you have talked about this before, but when you bring a new to competition shooter to a match how much should you focus on them verse trying to shoot well, do you just write the match off and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do? What are your thoughts? Brett I just started shooting USPSA in April. My wife and I both shoot and absolutely love the sport! My question is that I am now a high C with 58%. My last few classifiers had been in the mid 60% range. I would really like to end my first year as a B. I am shooting next week at Pitt County. The classifier is 99-22. Should I try to burn it down as fast as I can to try to get that high hit factor? Or play it conservatively to keep my high C? Of coarse when the buzzer goes off all plans go out the window! Anthony I was at a local USPSA club match a while back and a fellow shooter noticed I was dropping my head as I would address my sights. I didn't think much of it at the time when I was shooting my limited gun with iron sights. Now that I have decided to run carry optics it has became more obvious that I have been dropping my head to get a good sight picture. Is there any benefit to address sights without bringing your head down during the draw stroke and bringing sights up to your target focus area? Other than possible unproductive movement? Thanks. Ronald Should carry optic shooters be required to wear their underwear on their head? Ray What caliber and division would you start a new Jr shooter in, and what's the best way to get my daughter started? Drew Lucas, I went cheap to begin with on holsters and mag carriers to make sure I liked action pistol shooting. Now it's been about half a year and I'm more excited than ever. I'm shooting IDPA mostly, can you tell me what I should look for in better mag carriers? I'm using a double pouch now and have trouble indexing on the 2nd magazine. Kevin At what point on the draw do you put your finger on the trigger? Normally when I draw and shoot I have my trigger finger indexed on the side of the gun outside the trigger guard until I get close to on target and then I move my finger to the trigger. While dry firing I noticed I could speed up my shot time by getting my finger on the trigger sooner, prepping the trigger while still extending and getting a sight picture and then pressing the trigger the rest of the way once I had a good sight picture. I was worried I could DQ doing this for having my finger in the trigger guard on the draw if I put my finger in too soon, but 10.5.5.1 seems to say as long as I'm not sweeping myself with the finger in the trigger guard then it's not a rule infraction.  

Been thinking a bit about practice, and where I should be spending my time in practice since I haven’t shot a match in about 4 months. What are the areas that I need to work on? Probably everything, and if that’s a thing, starting can seem overwhelming. I mentioned on the podcast last week that I suck at lifting weights, but because I suck at it, I’m seeing tons and tons of progress, and that’s really motivating to keep lifting weights. I can deal with the sore muscles and trouble walking up stairs because I’m seeing lots of progress. So, back to practice: Things that I suck really bad at, are the things that are motivating to practice. Hammering on table starts, and reloads from my rearmost couple pouches, etc, are things that I’m not good at, and I can spend 10 minutes practicing these things and see a LOT of progress. However, Is spending a bunch of time working on table starts, when I only see one every few months really the best way to spend my time? I got to thinking about this while listening to the most recent episode of the American Warrior Show this morning, where Mike Seeklander is interviewing John Correia from Active Self Protection. John watches videos of self defense scenarios. Thousands upon thousands of them. In the interview he talked about how there are a lot of things that people talk about needing for concealed carry, that he’s NEVER seen in one of the videos he’s watched: things like a CCWer actually doing a reload in a gunfight. Things like a CCWer needing to use some sort of flashlight or weapon mounted light in a gunfight. But yet, when we consult the tactical corners of the internet, there are tons and tons of people practicing and training on these sorts of things, so they will be more effective in a gunfight. That’s not necessarily bad, but how much more effective would they be if they were to spend their time on the things that are most likely to happen and not the things that are the most fun or the sexiest, or the best for Instagram. It was a great interview, and I think if you’re at all interested in carrying a gun for self defense it should be high on your list to listen to this week. What are the things that most stages require you to do: Shoot accurately - so if you suck at shooting accurately, you should remedy that immediately. I think if this is an area that you’re really struggling in, you should get instruction from someone locally who can shoot really accurately. In my opinion, it’s not worth it to blast thousands of rounds trying to learn accuracy. It’ll be cheaper to spend a hundred bucks on a session with someone local to you who can give you the adjustment you need to shoot accurately. Thing is, shooting accurately isn’t particularly sexy of fun to practice, but it’s necessary to scoring well. You can do everything else lighting fast, but if you’re hits aren’t there, you’re gonna lose. Movement - Almost every stage, USPSA, IDPA, 3-Gun, outlaw matches, etc require you to do some movement. So, being able to move efficiently, into and out of positions, keeping the gun up where it needs to be, is a HUGE part in being able to place well in matches. Movement can be fun to practice, but I’ll tell you as someone who walks 20,000+ steps in an average day, a hefty movement practice still makes me legs hurt like crazy the next day. So, that might not be the sexiest thing to practice, but it’s one of the things that you need in order to shoot well. Reloads - I can’t tell you how often I see dudes with legit 2+ second reloads, and it’s clear that they’ve never really put any thought into what they’re doing.If you don’t have any idea where to start with reloads, go on YouTube and look at what the really good guys are doing, then emulate it in front of a mirror or something. You might make some tweaks to make things work better for you, but it should get you in a good starting place. Obviously there’s a LOT more to practical shooting than these three things, but if we’re talking about the handful of things that you can pretty easily work on and get really good at, and see the most result from, these are three pillars that should give you a good starting point. Thing is though: They’re not sexy. They’re not necessarily fun to work on like some other things you can do, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, these are three things that will give you a lot of improvement in your game if you push hard on them. So, the next time you catch yourself dryfiring 4-aces for 30 minutes straight because it’s fun, maybe pause it, and work on some other things. Q&A: Thurmon: I have developed a strong interest in competitive shooting over the last year. I'm still working up to shooting my first match (Hope to have you a first match voicemail early in 2018). I've went and watched the November uspsa match at cggr and just this weekend went and watched the carbine only match there as well. I was wondering if you could maybe cover some of the terminology used so some of use newbies won't be so lost in the lingo. One I've heard a lot is the on deck, in the hole, and in the deep hole. What exactly does that mean? Other newbie things I think people would benefit from is the definitions of comstock and Virginia count. I know some of these can be found in the rule books but thought there may be other listeners who might benefit from a good explanation. Thanks for all that you do with the podcast and hopefully one day soon we might see each other at a local match. On Deck: That means you’re the next shooter In the hole: That means you’re the 2nd shooter In the deep hole: means you’re the 3rd shooter Official definition from the USPSA Rulebook: “Comstock” Rule number 9.2.2 "Unlimited time stops on the last shot, unlimited number of shots to be fired, stipulated number of hits per target to count for score." Basically, shoot as much as you want. “Virginia Count” Rule number: 9.2.3 "Unlimited time stops on the last shot, limited number of shots to be fired, stipulated number of hits per target to count for score." Shoot only the exact number of rounds that you're told you can shoot. Shooting more will incur penalties for extra shots and extra hits. I want to do a Q&A show next week, but to do it, I need your questions, I only have a few. So, if you’ve got a question like Thurmon, head over to triangletactical.net/question to submit your questions for next weeks Q&A show.

[powerpress] I’d like to see ALL of the major shooting sports stop fudging around with the rules all the time. We’ve been playing around with provisional divisions in USPSA for a couple years now, just make them official divisions. The USPSA part isn’t really a big deal, so lets talk about IDPA for a second. OMG. I literally can’t keep up. It’s like every couple months there’s either another rulebook, or another update, or something posted on a random blog at idpa.tech (that I’m still not sure is an official IDPA website, or if it’s just someone who’s a big fan that started a website?) but seriously, the rules have changed just too much in the last year. It was right around January 1, 2017 when the “new rulebook” came out, and it’s been a steady flow of new rules, and changes and clarifications since then. Then there’s 3-Gun. As someone who takes a LOT of questions from people who are interested in getting in all sorts of competitive shooting, not just IDPA and USPSA. The trouble in my opinion with the 3-gun world is the lack of a central governing body. Now, some folks will say that there are some matches that couldn’t happen under the rules of a central body, and that's fine, we have specialty matches in the pistol world too, but the issue here is that it’s hard to give new shooters good advice about what to expect at a local 3-gun match in their part of the world. In 2018 I’d like to see more ranges make the procedures for new shooters VERY obvious on their websites. This is one of those things that I run into from time to time that annoys the absolute crap out of me. I talk to a lot of people about getting started in competitive shooting. I get a lot of emails and messages with questions about getting started, and one thing that never really makes sense to me is that a certain range will have a specific procedure for new shooters (like, requiring a class that’s not at the time of the match, or having the buddy system where they pair up new shooters with someone experienced, etc) but THERE'S NOTHING ON THEIR WEBSITE ABOUT IT! It’s 2018. If it’s not on your website, it doesn’t exist. Put the millennial's in your club to work, make them write it up for the website if you don’t know how. Was your website made in 1998, and doesn't have the capability to add this sort of stuff easily? Get one of the millennial's to toss together a Wordpress site for next to nothing, and bam, you're in business. I want to see ALL the shooting sports make it easier to become a range officer. I really think asking people to pay for the class with their own money, stay in a hotel out of town, etc, etc just for the opportunity to volunteer MORE is the wrong model. I think this is an issue within all of the major shooting sports, not just one in particular. I’ve got more thoughts on it, but I’m not ready to talk about them just yet. Basically though, the system for getting people to become an RO just seems broken. Plug of the Week: #GUNGOSSIP https://youtu.be/MecoIijsvVE Fantastic YouTube channel. I'm a fan. 2018 Goals: Now's the time to lay out your competitive shooting goals for 2018 if you haven't already. I screwed up (or rather, setup a goal for 2017 that was a copout) and I have no idea if I was successful or not. Here in 2018 I have a very measurable goal: Make USPSA Production Master. I found this blog post about effective goal setting really good. Check it out.

I always like to do something different for the last episode of the year, so this year I had y'all ask me anything you wanted to ask.  So, thanks for a great 2017! 2018 is going to be great!

This week on the podcast I interviewed Marty Wood, the new NC USPSA Section Coordinator. We talked about everything from the future of USPSA in North Carolina, to announcing the date and location of the 2018 NC Sectional match.  I wanted to say a special thanks to Marty for driving to Raleigh to meet with me to talk about all of this, and I'm really excited about seeing what happens with him at the wheel as the section coordinator of NC USPSA. If you want to get ahold of Marty, his email address is uspsarm@gmail.com, or you can contact him through the NC Section website at www.ncsection.org.  

2018 Goals.  I'm writing it down here, throwing down the gauntlet for 2018: I will make USPSA Production Master before my birthday at the end of June.  I refused to make this goal last year, but 2018 is the time to make it happen. You read it here first folks.  What are your goals for 2018? How are you going to make them happen? What to do with junior shooters who don't help? This question came in from a long time listener who is noticing a trend of junior shooters who only shoot, and don't bother to help resetting and pasting and scoring. What should we do with them? I don't know, unfortunately. I do think that the shooting sports run on responsibility, and when people aren't helping, I don't think they're being responsible.  What targets do you bring to the range for practice? Major asks what targets I bring to the range when I'm practicing.  I have 3 target stands that I built with regular old 2x4's from Home Depot and a couple screws. All told, they cost me about $3 a piece, and they've been great.  I have a few pieces of steel that are all mismatched that I picked up here and there, and if I could do it over again, I would buy a few pieces of steel that were all the same so I could set them up like a static plate rack, or move them around however I wanted. Right now, with all the different pieces of steel I've got, I can't do that. Bring real targets. Don't skimp on the paper (like paper paper, not cardboard), get real deal cardboard targets. Also, bring pasters.  First Match: Russ in Pensacola sends in a voicemail about his first match... as a Match Director. That's awesome. 

Special Episode Coming Up! I always like to do something different for the last episode of the year, and this year I'm going to do an AMA (ask me anything). Here's the thing: for the last podcast of 2017, I'll answer any questions you have, that ARE NOT related to shooting. Go to http://triangletactical.net/AMA Enter your question in that form. Please don't ask your questions in the comments of this post, or on Facebook or anywhere else, as I will not be able to answer them (I can't track down a bunch of different questions in a bunch of different places...) That's it. Should be a lot of fun! Things that Matter I talk a lot on the podcast about things that don't matter. It doesn't matter if you have the coolest newest thing, or if you have a fancy shooting blouse, or even if you wear brightly colored shoes or have a sponsor, but, of course there are a lot of things in competitive shooting that do matter, let's talk about that. Accurate gun I don’t think you need to be able to shoot single hole groups at 50y with your pistol (but it helps), but I do think having a gun that is accurate, maybe even slightly above average accuracy is a good thing. I think one of the reasons the Tango Stock2 has become such a thing in Production division is that on top of being heavy, and reliable, it’s also got a thick bull barrel that’s very accurate. Most guns on the market are quite accurate. When I used to do gun reviews as a part time job, I really only found a couple guns that were inherently inaccurate from the factory. The one in particular that comes to mind was the Ruger SR9E, which was the value version of the SR9. Everything else that I reviewed was very accurate. Traction You don’t need the bright colored fancy shooting shoes, but you do need shoes with good traction. I used to kind of think that you didn’t really need anything special on the shoe front for practical shooting, but the better shooter I’ve become, the more I find the traction thing necessary. If you’re someone who is pushing to get better at shooting, and you’re pushing yourself, get some shoes that have some gnarly knobs on them for practical shooting. Accurate, consistent, reliable ammo For a lot of us who reload, we tend to obsess over the price per round when loading our ammo. Getting things as cheap as possible is definitely a thing, and there are certainly ways that you can save money and not impact accuracy and reliability, but don’t take it too far. You want laser accurate ammo. If you’re switching to a bullet that’s cheaper than what you’ve been loading, don’t sacrifice accuracy. If you’re not reloading yet, and you have not shot your first match, ignore everything I’m saying about ammo right now. You want to shoot whatever ammo you have that is 100% reliable in your gun. If you’re clearing malfunctions all through your first match, you’re gonna have a bad time. Also, if you’re a more experienced shooter who’s not reloading your ammo… yet, you need to worry less about the cheapest thing, and more about the most accurate, most reliable stuff. If that happens to be the cheapest stuff, awesome, but if not, you should get better ammo. Sights that don't suck I see a fair number of guys who are experienced shooters who still show up to matches with the stock sights on their gun. They might have two or three guns that are all set up for competition, but their gun still has the stock garbage sights on it. I’ll tell you, I’ve got the Dawson Precision adjustable sights on my G34 for competition, and I think at this point, they’re a requirement for me. If a new gun were to come out that didn’t have Dawson adjustable sights available (cough M&P cough) I wouldn’t buy one. Q&A: John: What similarities and differences have you noticed between tactical and competition training? If I generalize both communities down do what my observations are both online and in real life, here’s what I see: The tactical community tends to focus more on doing things right, while the competitive community tends to focus more on doing things fast. For instance, if you go over to Instagram right now and look at the hashtag #tacticaltraining you’ll see a lot of stuff that’s staged just for Instagram, but if you sort through it and find the guy that probably aren’t competition shooters, who are actually training to get better, you’ll dudes who could be a lot faster in the way they manipulate their guns, draw, move, etc, because they’re trying to do things a certain way, because someone told them to do it that specific way. Now, there may be a good reason for doing things that way, so don’t take this as me saying that in a tactical or defensive scenario everything is about the speed, because it’s probably not. BUUUUT, this sort of focus on “doing things right” in the tactical community has allowed for some folks who are total goobers to rise to in that community because they don’t ever have to back up what they’re telling people to do, they can just explain it away as #becausetacticool. In competition shooting, it’s different. Our shooting is dictated by the timer. Was your run on a stage/drill/whatever faster and more accurate? Yes? Then it’s better. No? Then it’s dumb. The trouble with the tactical community, when comparing it with the competition community is that there aren’t any rules in the tactical world. People can define things however they want things to be, because realistically almost nobody is going to end up in a gunfight, and those that do, almost none of them get it on film, and there’s no way to replay it to try different things, etc, etc.

If you’re local to me, listen up. If you’re not local to me, just bear with me or skip ahead 30 seconds or so. At the end of the year I’m killing the Triangle Tactical competitive shooting calendar on the website.  There are a couple of reasons for this: It costs more than a hundred bucks a year for the software to keep it running. Not a huge deal, but it’s a factor. The time to keep it running is substantial. I can’t seem to keep it accurate. Matches start and stop even when they’re super local to me, and I don’t find out about it, and I don’t want people to get sent to a match somewhere and not have there be a match that day. I received a good bit of feedback on last weeks podcast. A bunch of Match Directors contacting me saying “yes, Lucas, you’re almost exactly right!” So, I want to dig into this a little more in the near future. It’s basically the “off season”, or at least the slow season for most of the country right now and I think this is a good time of year for most matches to startt putting things in place to make changes if they need to, so I want to dig into this a bit more. Also, maybe I didn’t make it clear, but I don’t have any issue with for profit matches. I’m a big fan of free markets, and if someone can figure out a way to run good matches, keep shooters happy, and make some money, I’m all about it. Personally, I think getting paid a good salary to run matches would be a great way to avoid burnout on the behalf of the MD. If it were my full time gig to run matches, I think I could pull that off for a while without getting completely burned out. However, sometimes with a part time gig, you just get burned out to the point that you just don’t want to do it, even one more time. I used to literally get paid to shoot guns. Like, the coolest newest guns, as soon as they came out. Most of you are probably thinking that that sounds like a dream gig, and in the beginning it was. I named the rate that I wanted to get paid, and was given the new guns and a bunch of ammo, and sent off to the range to do my thing. However, after a while, shooting just became monotonous and boring.   I’m still unbelievably appreciative of the company for thinking of me when they wanted someone to do this for them, but it just became a thing that I got tired of, and I think that’s exactly the same thing that Match Directors can go through. Because it’s a part time thing, and because it’s not a major source of income, it can just become monotonous over time, and you just dread it. I also received exactly 3 messages from concerned listeners, and one Match Director regarding another thing that I think is worth addressing: “Jersey Wearing Complainers” It was brought to my attention that there’ a certain type of shooter that MD’s absolutely hate, to the point that some of them will just walk away and never run another match, solely because of a couple shooters: the jersey wearing complainers. This is really interesting to me, because it’s something that I don’t see. I wear a jersey (with my own business on it, mostly so listeners can find me at matches, and partially to promote what I do) but I’m not representing anyone with it, but myself. I am Triangle Tactical, and it’s just me. But, I do frequently shoot with a bunch of other shooters who wear jerseys, and I don’t really see this. It sounds like the jersey wearing complainer has become a rampant thing in the shooting sports, and it’s something that needs to be addressed. I don’t have the answers, so I’ll just say this: If you’re a shooter, and you’re not impressed with a match, absolutely deliver your feedback to the Match Director, but do it in a way that’s actually constructive. If you’re idea of delivering feedback about a match to someone is to make anonymous forum posts, or just being a dick, don’t bother. I don’t know about you, but if I’m unhappy enough about something at a match, my goal is to improve that thing so that it can suck less in the future, or at the very least figure out why it was done that way, so I’ll at least have a little more understanding as to why it is the way it is. I think if you’re unhappy with something, you should absolutely bring it up to the MD. If you’re unhappy with it, chances are other shooters are unhappy with it as well, and if nobody says anything about it, it won’t improve, registration for the match will start to fall off, and the match might go away completely. On the flip side, if you’re a dick about it, the MD could throw his hands in the air and quit too. There’s a balance here. Just don’t be a dick.

I'm not sure if it's because it's nearing the end of the traditional "shooting season" or what, but I've been talking to a few different people about how their match director is about to quit, or they themselves are a match director, and they don't know what to do because they're totally burned out, and they're not sure how to keep that burnout away.  So, on Sunday I released a survey trying to gather some data on what is killing matches.  First, I asked respondents to rank the health of their local match.  The average (mean) score was 7.6. This is exceptionally high, but remember this survey went to shooters, not just match directors. A lot of shooters may not be fully aware of all the things going on with their match. The second question was asking about the biggest issue effecting their local match.  I got answers from people in paragraph format, because I wanted them to really tell me what was really going on. Because of that, I did have to take some liberties when categorizing the comments, but here's what I came up with: 43% of people who responded to this question said that the biggest issue was that there weren't enough volunteers. 27% mentioned something about the host club either being hostile to matches, or something like that. 8% mentioned that they didn't have room to grow.  The third question was asking about what the biggest thing is that's helping your match thrive. 32% of answers mentioned having plenty of volunteers. 17.5% mentioned having a great host club. 35% mentioned something about great stage designs, or things like that (which, if I can make a reach, probably come from having a lot of volunteers...) Plug of the Week: A little piece on the USPSA Facebook page about using the correct range commands.  The Complete Privacy and Security Podcast. Definitely worth a listen.  Join the Super Squad! If you want to help me do more awesome stuff with Triangle Tactical, consider pledging a couple bucks a month, or becoming a Super Squad member at jointhesupersquad.com.

Before you enter into a handshake deal for some free stuff, there are a few things that you should consider. Go to the show notes for this episode and get my free .PDF with 10 things that you should think about and do before you pick up a sponsor.  Gear that Doesn't Suck Streamlight ProTac 2L It's the time of year when it's getting darker earlier, and staying dark longer. Having a dependable flashlight with you is a big help. I literally use mine every day. 

Tyler asks: "Hi Luke. I have a question for this weeks Q and A show. My buddy just got a shot timer, and we will be using it this week for the first time. We want to use it as effectively as possible so I'm putting together a spreadsheet to track how we do time wise. What should I track?  Splits?  Total time?  Time to first shot?  I honestly don't know where to start or what all the shot timer can do. I just want to know if I'm getting faster with my shots on that end and how that stacks up against how accurate I am." Yes. And No. I think what’s important is to get the data that you need from the timer, but you don’t need to record all of the data that the timer gives you. So, if your draws are slow as crap, you should (work on them in dryfire), and then put your dryfire to the test in live fire. But, if you’re working strictly on your draw, don’t go work a drill that has a whole bunch of other crap in it. If you’re working on a shot calling drill, you probably don’t want to obsess over your split times and try to work yourself into a cadence where you’re just shooting to try and make your splits go down, when you’re trying to work on not shooting until you see what you need to see. Does that make sense? Shot timers are great tools, but I do think sometimes folks fall into the paralysis by analysis with them from time to time. So, I always recommend the Pocket Pro 2 shot timer, because it’s the best timer out there for someone who practices a lot, and wants to use their timer in live fire, dryfire (in par time mode) and maybe as a backup in matches from time to time. However, inevitably, someone will come along and tell me that so and so makes a shot timer that’s better because it stores 14,000 drills in it, so you have all kinds of data that you can go back and look at. However, in my opinion, that data isn’t valuable. If I can go back in my timer after a practice session and see that on this one drill I had a few rockin .10 splits, is that useful? Am I going to remember if that drill was the one where I threw a few mikes, or am I going to just look at that number and inflate my ego a little bit? So, here’s what I do, generally: I whittle down what I’m working on to some pretty basic things. If I’m working on a turn and draw, I just do a turn and draw and fire one shot. If I’m working on an entrance, I just enter a position, and fire one shot, or a couple shots if needed. I see guys “practicing” where they’ve come up with this drill that works on draws, splits, entrances and exits, reloads, etc all in one drill and I find it hard to believe that they’re actually improving or really doing much more than going through the motions. I’ve found breaking a lot of things down into simple small drills that you can work on over and over and over again until your hands hurt, and then putting them together with other skills once they’re honed is a lot more valuable than trying to do everything at once. I like to look at my match video from my last several matches, and write down the things that sucked.   Did I miss a bunch of reloads?   Was I slow to get shooting when I moved into position?   Whiff a bunch on steel?   Post up to shoot when I could have been moving?   Those sorts of things. I take them, and then find or come up with drills that will force me to work on those things.

Matt asked in the Triangle Tactical Facebook group what to do when the matches in his area wind down for winter. Should he keep practicing and shooting all winter, or should he take the winter off? I think there are a few things to consider here: A lot of people will take the winter off. They'll have a bit of skill degradation, and they'll probably be a little less in shape come spring.  If you feel like you're learning and gaining something from your practice sessions, I say keep practicing. You'll be a step ahead of the other guys come spring time, and there's really not a down-side.  HOWEVER: If you start feeling the burnout creeping up on you, and you feel like you need to take some time off, make sure you set a date for when you're going to start again. Also, evaluate why you're getting burned out. Are you bored? If so, change something. Figure out what is making you get burned out and fix it. I think sometimes we act like it's normal to get burned out and need a multi-month break from practice, but I feel like that's not right.  Plug of the Week: This week's NewsBlast podcast over on Patreon has been getting a lot of good feedback. I talked about a shooter who was suspended for violating anti-doping laws, and some questionable rules at a "world championship"...  Head over here and become a Super Squad member to get access to that podcast.  

When is it time to replace gear, even if it isn’t an upgrade? I think everyones answer is going to be different to this question, but here’s my thoughts on it: I’ve got this old Glock 34 that I’ve been shooting forever. It has an unknown number of rounds through it, and I’ve replaced a bunch of parts in it over the years. At one point the gun started grouping really far to the left, and I could actually see wear on the locking block where it was starting to lock up off-center. No idea how or why that could happen, but it seemed like the lockup wearing the left side of the locking block was in-line with the gun suddenly grouping to the left. This wasn’t an issue of me not being able to pull ac Glock trigger and pulling the gun low and left, it was literally the gun wearing funny, and causing the barrel to lock up weirdly. So, I looked around a little on the internet, consulted with a listener who’s a Glock armorer guy at Glock, and then replaced the slide release (not the slide lock/slide stop) the slide release, as well as the locking block, and immediately the gun was shooting straight again. Then, I bought some Dawson Precision adjustable sights. A huge, fantastic upgrade, and I couldn’t zero the gun with them. Even maxing out the adjustment on them, I was still hitting something like 12” high at 20y. I called upo Dawson and they did the math, and sent me a front sight that’s as big as the sail on a pirate ship, but the gun is zeroed now. At that point in time, the gun was pretty easily shooting 2-3” groups at 20y, which was acceptable to me, and honestly about all I expect from a stock Glock shooting the cheapest mixed brass reloads I can possibly load. However, as time has went on, the gun is starting to lose that accuracy. I don’t know how many rounds it has through it now, a lot, but it’s to the point that I’m having a VERY hard time putting 10rds consecutively in the head box of a target at 20 yards. It used to be very easy, and now… it’s not. The thing is, I can’t see the difference. I like to think that I’m pretty good at noticing these things, and knowing when I’m pulling the trigger poorly, etc. I think it’s just the gun wearing, and losing some of it’s accuracy. So, I’m at (and have been at for a while) this crossroads of buying another new locking block and stuff and seeing if I can get the accuracy back, and then keeping shooting this gun, or buying a new gun. If I buy a new gun, do I just buy another Glock 34, toss a connector, grip plug, and set of Dawsons on it and have it be my match gun, and continue beating this one up in practice, or do I maybe see what the DA/SA thing is all about? David from the Humble Marksman YouTube channel keeps taunting me with his Shadow 2, and I’m kind of intrigued by a gun that is basically good to go right out of the box. But, at the same time, I REALLY like the idea of having two guns. Not really sure why I like that idea so much, considering I haven’t EVER needed a backup gun at a match, but I like the idea none the less. So, when do you buy new gear even if it isn’t an upgrade? When it’s time. I know that sounds like a cop-out answer, but I think everyone has their own tolerance for this, and I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong. A lot of guys would have left the range when they realized their Glock wasn’t as accurate anymore and went straight to the gun store and ordered a new one. I’m not that guy. A lot of folks wouldn’t have bothered replacing the locking block and other parts trying to get the accuracy back either. Some folks would have went to a completely different type of gun at this point and never looked back. I don’t think any of those things are the wrong answer. For me, it comes down to confidence. I’ve found that when I’m completely confident in my gear, I shoot a LOT better because it’s completely off my mind. Years ago, when I was shooting M&P’s I put together a bastardized M&P with the lower from one gun, and the slide from another and headed out the door to a match. Turned out the trigger parts from the two different guns didn’t play super well together, and the trigger was just awful. Horrendous. I got through a couple stages, realized how awful it was, and it broke me. I felt defeated because I knew in that instance that I couldn’t perform to the level I should because of that terrible trigger. So, I think when you lose confidence it might be a good time to move on to something new.  

Last weekend there was a triathlon here in my little town, and we got to people watch a lot of folks cycling past our neighborhood. Cycling is my first love. Far and away above shooting, and I really cannot wait until I’m healed up enough to get back in the saddle. One guy in particular came riding by, and he stuck me as a little odd, and then I thought the things he was doing related well to a lot of the things people do in the shooting sports as well. Dude rides by. Full on triathlon kit. Not unusual. Tight lycra suit, bright colors, and a fancy Time Trial helmet. Not a regular bike helmet with the vents and stuff that everyone and their brother wears, but a TT helmet. You know, those helmets that are like tear drop shaped to make you more aero, and they stick way out past the back of your head like 12” for more aerodynamics? Again, not terribly unusual for someone to wear one at a high level of competition. However, he was riding a hybrid bicycle. If you’re not familiar with a hybrid, at a high level, they’re like a mountain bike, with skinnier road bike tires. They’re handy for transportation, but they don’t really excel at anything. They’re the Honda Civic of bicycles. He was also wearing tennis shoes and using flat pedals. As a cyclist, I can tell you, that being clipped into your pedals is one of the best things you can do for efficiency. This guy bought all the fancy “look fast” gear, but didn’t invest in any of the actual “go fast” gear. The money spent on the fancy helmet would have been far better spend on clip-less pedals and cycling shoes. I’m not gonna dog on the bike itself, because I always tell people to go compete with what they’ve got, and maybe this guy was doing just that, and that’s great. So, I give you this lesson on cycling to tell you about shooting. A while back I had a question from a newer shooter asking which type of holster to buy for his gun. He was shooting outlaw type matches, and wasn’t sure which type of race holster to buy. My advice was to just get a kydex rig from whoever because the holster wasn’t what was holding him back in his shooting, and he’d be better off spending $50 on a solid holster that’ll work for whatever game he decided to play instead of spending $200 on a holster that wouldn’t work if he decided to shoot Production or Carry Optics or IDPA in the future. I’m not sure what he bought, but per our emails, I suspect he went ahead and bought a $200 race holster... Mostly because that’s what he wanted all along. This isn’t a problem, you should shoot whatever you want, but don’t think that a piece of gear like this is really going to make you better. I think that he was under the impression that everyone, given the chance would shoot a race holster and not a kydex holster, but people just shoot the kydex rigs because they have to per division requirements. This is the case for a lot of people, but I also think a lot of people who shoot with race holsters do it because it’s the defacto standard for their division and most of them probably can’t tell you how much of an advantage they actually get from the holster. I also think most of them would have been better off putting that $150 they would have saved towards some instruction or ammo, or whatever. Again, I’m not against race holsters, and that’s not what this episode is about. My point here is that before you go spend a bunch of money on something, make sure that it’s a thing that you're actually going to get your pay value for. The guy in the triathlon would have been FAR better off with clipless pedals and good cycling shoes. Then lighter tires, and finally, a better bike. I used to be involved in the 4x4 scene a bit a decade or so ago, and it was the same thing. People wanted to buy the big lift kit, and the big tires, but nobody wanted to re-gear the axles, or add sway-bar disconnects. People wanted to add lift blocks instead of getting new springs, etc. The same thing happens with shooting. People want the lift kit and the big tires. They want the fancy race helmet, and the brightly colored shirt, because new sights aren’t sexy. Practice isn’t sexy. It’s hard work. It takes time and it’s expensive. However, if you don’t want to suck, it’s the road you’ve got to take. Join the Super Squad! Want more podcasts and bonus content? Consider joining the Super Squad. Q&A: Mike asked a question in last weeks Q&A show that I didn't get to during the live show.  "Any tips for shooting with a weapon mounted light?" Yes. There's not a lot to it, it's basically like shooting in the daylight, however, make sure you know how NOT to activate the strobe mode should your light have that, because turning it on accidentally during a night match will mess with you. Other than that, there's really not a lot to them. I like my Streamlight TLR-1, because as a right handed shooter I can use the switch kind of like a gas pedal for controlling recoil.  If you've got questions, shoot me an email at luke@triangletactical.net, and make sure to join me on Thursday nights at 9PM EST on Facebook live every week! Plugs of the Week: This episode of Firearms Nation Podcast with Shannon Smith was really good. I love Shannon's own podcast, but hearing him interviewed was great. They talk a lot about the IPSC World Shoot 2017.  This episode of the 3-Gun Show with Matt Martini was really good. I might have like it a *little bit* because it stroked my ego just a little when Matt talked about how if you can hang with the big dogs at matches here in the Carolinas, you can shoot with anybody. He also has some interesting thoughts on practice, and keeping track of his cold times on drills, as well as his fastest times. Good stuff, definitely worth a listen. 

There's a good chance you're reading this wondering to yourself "What is a drop step?" You're most certainly not alone. In the gif below, notice how I step out of the second box, and push off with my foot? That's a drop step. via GIPHY Some people say they’re okay in certain circumstances, others say that they’re never any good, and somewhat recently I came across an internet argument where people were making all sorts of claims (good and bad) about the drop step. So, naturally, I figured this would be a great junk science episode. I threw it out to the Patrons a week or so ago, and asked how I should test it. Initially, I thought I would only need to test it while making a short step into a box. Something with a starting position like “Standing with toes on marks, outside the shooting area”, then on the buzzer, I’d just take a single step into the box. However, the Patrons brought a great idea that I hadn’t thought about, and that was that it could also be beneficial on longer movement, as it might help you get up to speed faster, so I did another drill with two boxes, one 10’ in front of the other (about 4 steps), and tested the drop step vs. a regular step there too. Here's a link to my raw data if you want to nerd out on it. It's also my terrible chicken scratch, so good luck deciphering it. Step into box: Drop Step Average (mean): 1.2527 sec No Drop Step Average (mean): 1.2427 sec In this instance, not drop stepping is 1 hundredth of a second faster. Being that this is junk science, that's basically nothing.  4 Steps into box: Drop Step Average (mean): 2.1390 sec No Drop Step Average (mean): 2.1409 sec 2.139 vs. 2.14? Yeah, that's a wash too. Hard Left Lean: Drop Step Average (mean): 4.578 sec No Drop Step Average (mean): 4.448 sec Now this is interesting. 0.13 seconds faster by NOT using a drop step? Very interesting. I wonder if it'll show the same thing going the other direction? Hard Right Lean: Drop Step Average (mean): 4.5583 sec No Drop Step Average (mean): 4.4825 sec .07 faster again, NOT using a drop step. Conclusion: This is pretty interesting stuff. When doing the drop step in most every instance, they *felt* faster, but as we know things that feel fast aren't always fast. On this given day, with this given shooter (me) drop steps are basically a wash moving forward, and actually a bit slower on lateral movement. Have an Idea for a Junk Science episode? If so, shoot me an email to luke@triangletactical.net, and put the words Junk Science in the subject line.

On Friday, I shot the 2017 Carolina Classic USPSA match. It was hands down, the best run match I've ever been to. I was the first shooter on the first stage, and I started shooting at 12:54PM. We shot 9 stages, and I sent my wife a text saying that I was on my way home at 5:52PM.  9 stages + Chrono in less than 6 hours. Awesome.

Introduction to the Triangle Tactical Podcast Last week's podcast was episode 250, so I figured this would be a great time to re-introduce myself to the audience, and have a good place for people who are new to the podcast to get started. Every now and again I get a question from someone who'd just found the podcast asking where they should start since there are so many episodes in the back catalog that it can be difficult to know where to start, and understand my point of view on things. Triangle Tactical started after I got the idea that I was going to start blogging on my way home from a competition shooting match in early 2012. I got home, setup a Blogger account, and excitedly told my wife that I was going to start a blog. I think she thought that she would hear about it for another day or two, and then it wouldn't ever come up again. Well, it's been 5 and a half years at this point, and I'm going stronger than ever, so here we are! The Basics: I'm a little different than other "tactical" blogs out there in that I'm probably the least tactical "tactical" blogger/podcaster out there. I don't really care about gear, unless it solves a real problem for me. A lot of folks are quick to run out and buy the coolest-newest gear all the time, but I really, truly, don't care about it. I've been shooting the same competition gun for 3.5 years, and that's the newest gun I own. I believe that practice is the only way to get better. Nobody has ever bought a new gun, and suddenly become a Grand Master at shooting. It just doesn't matter that much. With that said, I do think a new piece of gear can help you, if your current gun is actually causing you a problem. (Ex. I dumped all my Gen3 Glocks for Gen4 guns when they came out because the beavertail on the Gen4 guns kept me from getting slide bite and bleeding all over myself when I shoot.) However, I switched from shooting an M&P Pro 5" to a Glock 34 5" gun and... my shooting didn't really change. At all. This is because both of those guns are good enough, and neither really offered an advantage over the other. I just like the Glock 34 more, and making the switch made me happy. I believe that competitive shooting is good for you. When I shot my first competitive match, I thought I was a hot dog. I'd been shooting all my life, and I really thought that I had a good chance at winning. I remember when a local Grand Master shot the same stage I had just shot and did it in about half the time, I was shocked. "How can he shoot that fast?" "There's no way he can see his sights" "He's just spraying bullets and hoping he hits something." LOL. Yeah, then I saw his hits. He hit everything. He was able to do that because he practices. Range/Trunk Med Kit On last weeks podcast I ran through all of the stuff that I keep in my range bag, but I neglected to talk about the stuff that I keep in my med kit for the range. I have one kit that stays in my trunk that has stuff for the range, as well as stuff for basic booboos and things that would be useful should I come across a car accident before first responders get there, etc. Nitrile gloves 2 CAT Tourniquets (I also own a SOF-T Wide tourniquet, but I prefer the CAT for self-aid. I feel like the hooks on the cats are far easier for securing the windlass with one hand than the little triangle thing on the SOF-T Wide.) Also of note here: If you're buying either of these tourniquets, buy them straight from the manufacturers website. DO NOT BUY ONE ON AMAZON! There are tons of fraudulent TQ's on Amazon and you really can't distinguish a fake one from a real one by their listing. The cost is the same, so go straight to the manufacturer. Kerlix gauze for wound packing SAM Splint - Foam covered aluminum splint for bracing broken bones, etc. Very handy to have around. In an easily accessible side pocket, I have a big box of Band-Aid Tough Strips band-aids. These are the best band-aids I've ever used. They stick, and stay stuck, they're fabric, and they're awesome. I don't buy anything else.

I have 2 range bags. One that I call my practice bag, and another that I call my match bag, although they both go with me to both. Match Bag This is an old backpack, actually the bag that I took to college with me… 14 years ago. Gun rug fits well in the laptop sleeve, easy to carry between stages, etc. Gun, mags, outer belt, inner belt, ammo, etc. Also keep my eyes/ears/extra eyes/squib stick and gun parts box in this bag. I try to keep it fairly lightweight so I’m not trying to drag a huge bag from bay to bay at a match. It’s rare that I need more than the above stuff at a match, so I leave everything else in my practice bag in my trunk. If I have something more catastrophic happen, I can always walk to my car and get what I need from the practice bag. Gun parts: All springs Extra striker assembly, not because I think I’ll need it, but because for some reason I have one. Extra fiber-optic for my front sight. Don’t buy this stuff from a gun store, or any gun type place online. Measure the diameter of the F/O rod that your front sight takes with a pair of calipers, and then order like 5’ of it from fiberopticproducts.com for like a ridiculously cheap amount of money. I think I’ve got a front sight tool, and a spare front sight. Again, not something I’d necessarily go out and buy, but it takes up no space, I’ve got it, so why not? Practice bag  This is a big, almost too big, MidwayUSA range bag. This bag has a lot of RO type stuff: Copy of Ben Stoeger’s Skills and Drills. Big book of live fire range drills and stuff that’s nice to have when you’re on the range. A couple cans of the cheapest white paint I can get my hands on. I use it for painting steel targets, and it can be handy for marking shooting areas on the ground, etc. Practice magazines - I replaced all my magazines at the beginning of this shooting season, so all my old ones are in my practice bag. The reason for this is, the range that I’m a member of has the finest, siltiest sand that really does a number on magazines, even Glock mags. Since I’m not someone who likes to spend a bunch of time cleaning guns and magazines, I use all my old ones at my practice range and let them get filthy, and then use my new mags for matches at other ranges that don’t have the same dusty sand. Mechanix Gloves, these are great for setup and tear down. They keep your hands from getting torn up by random staples on target sticks, etc. Staple gun, and I keep it loaded with the longest, heaviest duty staples that it will take. I think they’re ½” I like the long staples because they go through enough two targets easily, and still have plenty of staple to get into the target stick, so you don’t have to worry about your no-shoots falling off in the middle of practice, etc. Cheap duct tape is a recent addition to my range bag. I’ve started wrapping all of my steel target sticks in duct tape to hold them together a little more when they catch a stray bullet in practice. Speedo goggle anti-fog stuff. Works great to smear a little on your shooting glasses to make sure they don’t fog up on you at a match. It’s just a little bottle of a couple ounces, but I’ve probably had mine for 6 or 7 years and it’s still mostly full. I only use it every couple months, and just a couple drops at a time. Several sheets of dots. Ben Stoeger has a .PDF of dots that you can print out and I have a bunch of the sheets in my range bag. It’s a good drill that will humble the heck out of you if you start getting too cocky. Pasters and target tape. If you’re not pasting targets in practice, you’re totally wrong. Sometimes if I’m shooting some bill-drills or something I’ll conserve pasters and only paste holes outside of the A-zone, but otherwise mostly I paste everything, ever run. Sunblock Big ugly wide brimmed hat Shooting shoes, and socks for them. I tend to find myself at the range with flip-flops on, so having these in my range bag is good for me. 9v batteries for my timer and chronograph. I hate buying these things because they’re expensive. I change the batteries in all my smoke detectors every 6 months, then I save the old batteries and use them up in my chronograph and shot timer. I NEVER have to buy batteries specifically for them anymore. Pocket Pro 2 Shot Timer. Just get one of these, and don't get anything else. Triangle Tactical Podcast Facebook Group Here's where to find the new Triangle Tactical Facebook group. I want this to be a place where we can all share things about matches, practice, what's going well, things you need help with, etc.  I think it will allow you to interact more with other podcast listeners in a way that the regular Facebook page doesn't really allow for. 

Experienced shooters have a duty to help new shooters at their first match.  Before the stage brief is read on your first stage, ask if there are any new shooters on your squad. Once everyone knows who the brand new shooters are, and eliminates the concern about giving advice to someone who's been shooting for 10 years, and just hasn't really made any progress.  Match Directors could start a sort of "ambassador" program, where shooters volunteer right in Practiscore to be an ambassador for new shooters, and then maybe they get $5 off their match fee for taking a new shooter under their wing for the day.  It’s important to “coach” new shooters before their run on the stage about any 180 traps, some pointers about how to move through certain areas, minding their muzzle on reloads when moving right to left, because DQing new shooters sucks.  I don’t think this needs to, or even should rest solely on the RO. The RO has a lot more going on trying to run shooters, score targets, etc, and I think there's a lot of time on a stage for a more experienced shooter to help out while the RO is doing his thing without distraction. IPSC World Shoot: So the IPSC World Shoot starts on Sunday in France. There are about 5ish people that I know of who are regular podcast listeners who are competing in the World Shoot, and I wanted to wish all of you the best of luck, and those of you on Team USA just a little more luck than the rest...  Make us proud!  Patreon: I've had a few listeners express concern about Patreon, and how there have been headlines recently about how they're "banning conservatives", etc. I like to do my due diligence on things, so I've read a bunch on what happened with the people they have banned, and the thing that really made me feel most comfortable about keeping Patreon as a support model for the show was this episode of the Reuben Report, where he interviews the CEO of Patreon, and actually asks the hard questions. I was satisfied with the answers he received, and it's what really swayed me about keeping the Patreon page active. https://youtu.be/ofpbDgCj9rw If you haven't checked out the Triangle Tactical Patreon, I've been doing a VLOG over there about everything I'm doing to get ready for the NC State Championship in a couple weeks, in addition to the NewsBlast Podcast check them out on Patreon.   

What's the right balance between practice and matches? I'm not exactly sure what the *right* balance is, but in an ideal world, I think my practice schedule would look like this: Dryfire every day Livefire weekly 2 Matches a month I like this for two reasons: It's fairly realistic with a little planning and dedication. It's enough practice to really see decent improvement if you're actually doing it. Gear that Doesn't Suck: If you're reloading your own ammo, and you're shooting matches that are above the level of a club match, you should really have a chronograph so you KNOW how fast your bullets are going, and what your power-factor is. I've got one of these Caldwell Precision Chronographs, and I love it. It's inexpensive, and works great.

This episode is based on an email I got from Mike, who is helping to get a new USPSA match started at Low Country Preserve in Tabor City, NC. What advice would you give to a new match director to make a local match really fun and interesting? Honestly I think you should lose the focus on fun. Now, don't take that the wrong way, here's what I mean: USPSA shooters have the most fun at USPSA match. Stick to the rules, build good stages and stick to the rules. Did I mention that you should stick to the rules? Nothing will keep the serious USPSA shooters away from your match, like a match that sacrifices the rules in the name of perceived fun. What are some of the things you have seen done at local matches to make them run more smoothly? Balance your stages. We've got some local matches that used to be known for getting all backed up, and people remember that, and don't shoot because of it. If you've got props that aren't 100%, don't use them. Crappy steel that falls out of adjustment all the time, falling steel that has trouble staying on posts, carnival props that take forever to reset, and cause reshoots, etc. What are some of the things that make one local match better than another? Submit classifiers asap. We've got some clubs in the area that submit classifiers the next day, and we've got some that might get around to it before their next match next month. Shooters notice, and they talk about it. A lot. I'm still waiting on an 80% classifier from June to be submitted. I think it's gone forever, unfortunately. We’ve got one match in the area that built a reputation for having stages that were all 8 shots through a port, to 8 shots through a port to 8 shots through a port, etc. Avoid that. Decent tablets. This is personal, but nooks suck. iPads are the Cadillac of tablets for scoring, and they really do perform better than anything else. They’re expensive though, so don’t sweat it if you cant afford them right away. I would say think about making them a part of your growth plan. Match bucks. It's not much for the range to give away, gives the shooter something to actually win, and gives them an incentive to come back. Next match free for division winners, ten bucks off for class winners, something like that. Are there any "little things" you like to see at a match that make it better for the shooter (ex. water on every stage)? Shade. If you don't have shade, find a way to make it. I think more than water, more than snacks or whatever, having shade for shooters is definitely valued. Well marked safe areas that are easy to get to. IE, I don’t want to walk halfway across the range to find the safe area. Have spare timer batteries in the range box, Don’t make us run all over the range looking for the RangeMaster when my timer dies, or have to use someone’s awful CED7K from their range bag. Leave the tablets on each stage, instead of having each squad take the same tablet to each stage. If the tablet stays on a stage all day, and it breaks or something, and you lose all the scores on that tablet, you lose that stage for everyone, but if each squad is taking their tablets from stage to stage, and one breaks, you lose EVERYTHING for that squad, and that's terrible.

During the live chat for last week's Triangle Tactical Q&A Live show Austin asked a question about what to do when a Range Officer isn't doing his job? Austin asked (I'm paraphrasing here) but basically, what do you do when the RO on your squad lets a shooter slide for breaking the 180? Apparently a shooter drew before turning on a turn-and-draw, and the shooters on the squad were jumping out of the way when he did it. In this instance, the Range Officer didn't stop or disqualify the shooter, but instead let the shooter keep shooting, and had a talk with the shooter after the fact. This is a HUGE problem.  Listen, if you're a Range Officer, and you can't hand down a DQ for a blatant safety violation, you shouldn't be running the timer. There are several reasons why, but here's a few of them: What happens when the shooter does the same thing on another stage, and shoots someone? You're going to have a bad time when it comes out that the shooter did the same thing earlier in the day, and you didn't stop it. What happens when that shooter gets used to being allowed a little wiggle room on the safety rules, and then he goes to shoot at another club, or at a State Championship, or even an Area match or Nationals, and gets disqualified. You're not doing him any favors. Think about the perspective of all of the other shooters on the squad, who were jumping out of the way when this guy broke the 180. Want to lose all of their respect? Listen, DQing shooters sucks. It sucks even more when they're your friends, and exponentially more when they're brand new. However, the shooting sports are EXTREMELY safe, because we have these safety rules. If you can't do it, don't pick up the timer. Patreon: Become a Patron! The Triangle Tactical Patreon is the biggest thing that's supporting what I'm doing with Triangle Tactical. Becoming a Patron at the $5/month level gets you access to the Triangle Tactical NewsBlast podcast and bonus content like the occasional Match Video Diagnosis video (just added one to the Patreon page recently), etc.  So, if you want to help me do more awesome stuff, click the Patreon button and check it out, I'd certainly appreciate it.

Every week I put together the Patreon Only NewsBlast Podcast, and it seems like every week I get a really great article from the Grand Island Independent in  Grand Island, Nebraska about a shooting competition that's taking place in Grand Island. It's always about different shooting sports that are taking place in that area, and they've all been cool, and I'd never heard of most of them. This got me excited because the local newspaper is going positive stories on the shooting sports in a regular basis.  I want to do more to get exposure for the shooting sports in my area, and I think you should too. Post your videos in places that aren't gun-centric. Let people in your area know that there are matches in the area, and help them get started, and keep the politics out of it.  Gear that Doesn't Suck Have a cooler so you can have COLD water on the hottest match days. I think it's silly to spend a ton of money on the "cooler de-jour" that everyone and their brother has, but I've got one of thee regular old Coleman coolers and it works great. It's got wheels so you can roll it from stage to stage if you like, and it keeps your drinks cold all day. Will it keep stuff cold for a week? I have no idea, I've never needed to keep stuff cold that long in a cooler. So, in all honesty, it's probably cheaper to buy a cooler locally, than to pay shipping from Amazon, but if you're buying anything on Amazon, I'd certainly appreciate you clicking any of the Amazon links on this website, and I'll get a commission from Amazon for sending you.  Drill of the Week: Practice moving and keeping both hands on the gun, and moving with dismounting the gun with your weak hand. See what distances it makes sense to dismount the gun, and what distances it makes sense to stay on it.  I think everyone is going to be a little different depending on skill level, etc, so you've gotta figure it out yourself.  Holsters for Competition Beginners: Everything you need here.

In the live chat for the last Triangle Tactical Q&A show, Austin asked "What's the difference between IDPA and USPSA?" I didn't have time to get to it in the Live Q&A show, so I thought I'd talk about it here on the main podcast.  Here's the rundown: Concealment: IDPA requires you to have your gun concealed. You'll generally see people using a vest to conceal their gun, but a vest is not required. USPSA does not require your gun to be concealed. Divisions: For the most part, the different divisions in each game are somewhat similar-ish.  In USPSA there are 7 divisions. This is really high level, but here's the breakdown: Production - This is the division I shoot. You'll want to shoot 9mm in Production. You're limited to 10rds in a magazine, and in this division you'll see a lot of Glocks, M&P's, CZ's and Tanfoglio pistols.  Carry Optics - This division is for pistols that have slide-ride optics. My advice here is to buy an optic with a GREAT warranty. I've seen a LOT of them break, and they're expensive. Pistol Caliber Carbine - Pretty self explanatory. You're generally going to see 9mm AR's, that sort of thing. Single Stack - This is a division for 1911 pattern pistols. Limited - You can basically do whatever you want to your pistol in Limited, except for have a compensator, optic, or weapon-light. You'll generally see .40S&W 2011 pistols in this division. Open - This is the division you probably think of when you think of a race-gun. 2011 pattern pistol, red-dot optic, compensator, chambered in .38Super or 9mm major.  IDPA has a few less divisions: Stock Service Pistol - Pretty similar to USPSA's Production division. Guns like the Glock 34, Glock 17, M&P, etc. will shoot in this division without many modifications.  Enhanced Service Pistol - ESP allows some more modifications than SSP, as well as single-action pistols. Custom Defensive Pistol - This is basically the 1911 division, but you can shoot other .45ACP pistols here too. Compact Carry Pistol - A division for the smaller guns that people actually carry concealed. It's basically for your S&W Shield sized guns, up to about the Glock 19 sized guns.  Back-up Gun - This is or the teeny tiny guns like the Ruger LCP, etc.  Stages: USPSA stages can have up to 32 required rounds. This means you'll need to make sure you've got enough magazines to shoot all that.  IDPA stages are limited to 18 rounds per stage, which means you need a little less ammo, and other gear to get started.  In USPSA, you're basically presented with a problem, and it's up to you to come up with a stage plan, and solve the problem yourself.  In IDPA, you'll be told a bit more about how to shoot each stage. "Start here, shoot these targets from here, those targets from there, etc." USPSA Classifier Updates Also in the live chat for the last Triangle Tactical Q&A show I had a few people asking me about my thoughts on the announced USPSA classifier updates. I read the entire thread over on Doodie Project, and honestly, I think the whole thing is a big nothing-burger. I think they should be updated frequently, and I don't really have an issue with how it's being done.  Plug of the Week: Jessica Nietzel wrote a FANTASTIC article over on the Shooters Mindset blog about subjectivity in RO calls in USPSA.  DQing new shooter SUCKS.  DQing you friends SUCKS.  But, sometimes it needs to be done. Go read it. 

If you're looking to buy a gun for competitive shooting, one thing you may notice is that a lot of gun reviews really aren't helpful beyond telling you what the features of the gun are.  A bunch of people doing gun reviews just open a box, and fire up the camera. This can be useful for letting you know about features and whatnot, but if you're buying a gun for competition, you're probably going to want to know a lot more than that, especially if you haven't shot your first match yet.  I'd really love to see a competitive shooting focused gun review channel on YouTube where they actually shoot the absolute mess out of the guns, interview some folks who've been shooting them long term, talk about parts that break (because parts break, it happens), and things that are relevant for competitive shooting from people who are somewhat knowledgeable on the subject.  I dunno, I spent a bunch of time over the weekend just watching YouTube gun reviews, and I noticed a bunch of stuff in them that just isn't useful to me at all. People tossing guns against things... because... science? "Torture testing", etc. None of it's useful to me at all.  Podcast Awards: So, the 2017 Podcast Awards Nominations are open. If you think I'm doing a good job, and want to head over to podcastawards.com, sign up, and nominate me for a podcast award, I'd certainly be grateful. Make sure you confirm your email address, otherwise your vote won't count.

I give a lot of advice here on the podcast, and talk about things as I see them in the shooting sports, but I've found that my perspective isn't always the same as everyone elses, and that's why I love these call-in episodes where you send in your thoughts on a topic. There's been a lot of talk in the shooting sports world about on-ramps to competitive shooting, and how there's not a great way for new people to get started, especially if they don't already have a friend who is involved. So, for this weeks podcast, I asked the question: "What's the ONE piece of advice you wish you had received before you shot your first match?" There is a BUNCH of great information in this episode, everything from what gear you should buy, how you should prepare for matches, and who you should shoot with.

5 things: The things that you do when you're not shooting can have a profound affect on your shooting. Here's where to get the details on all 5 things.  Tip of the Week: Even if you're wearing a giant, ugly, dork hat like me on a hot sunny day on the range, you should still put some sunblock on your face. Apparently the UV rays can reflect off the ground and burn your face anyways... ask me how I know... I left Sunday's match with a sunburned face, even after wearing my ugly dork hat. Yeesh. Plug of the Week: I was on the Firearms Nation Podcast this week, and it was a lot of fun. Check it out. 

The turn and draw is a pretty standard start position for competitive shooting matches. Generally in a turn and draw, you'll start facing up range, wrists above shoulders, and then on the buzzer you'll turn then draw your pistol once it's inside the 180*, and start engaging targets.  The conventional wisdom about the turn and draw is that you should always turn towards the gun, because the gun then has less movement to make to get on the target. I seemingly makes sense on the surface, but I'm skeptical that the movement of the gun is the important metric.  So, here's what I did: I went to the range, and setup my MGM 10" Steel Challenge plate at about 13 yards. I wanted to be able to score the shooting hit/no hit, and I wanted to make sure that I actually had to use my sights a bit so I didn't just get into the habit of draw-fire-ding without seeing my sights, and about 13 yards seemed to be the right distance for that.  Before I get into the data, here's some of the things I heard about the turn and draw: The gun get's inside the 180* faster by turning one way over the other. You're less likely to break the 180* by turning towards the gun. Less gun movement is better So, if the gun is facing directly up range in the holster, it's got to rotate more than 90* before it can come out of the holster, either direction.  After doing this a bunch, I'm not sure that the movement of the gun is the important metric to measure, because I can't shoot until my eyes are on the target, and they've got to rotate 180* regardless.  So, here's the data: Conclusions: So, after 212 turn and draws (because I'm bad at making spreadsheets) I concluded that I'm probably going to continue turning toward the gun, but that the direction that you turn doesn't really make as big of a difference as people act like it does. Average (mean) time for turning away from the gun: 1.49 seconds Average (mean) time for turning towards the gun: 1.46 seconds Keep in mind, I've practiced literally thousands of toward-the-gun turn and draws over the years, and I've done slightly more than 100 away from the gun, so I think it's possible that that contributed to the 3% difference in the times between the two. Plug of the Week: I've got two plugs for other podcasts this week that I think you should listen to: Ballistic Radio on "Big Boy Rules" and how some trainers go out of their way to make things more dangerous for their students because it somehow makes things better for learning? Yeah, it's dumb, and it's a mentality I see with competitors from time to time as well.  This episode of Down Range Radio with Michael Bane is excellent as well. He talks a lot about barriers to entry in the shooting sports, and why 3-gun seems to be stagnating, etc. Lots of good stuff here. (H/T Manuel)

If you're new to the shooting sports, don't settle on whatever shooting sport you decide to shoot first is. Go shoot a bunch of different disciplines.  The shooting sports are like high school cliques. If you go to IDPA, you'll hear people talk junk about those USPSA gamers. If you shoot USPSA, someone will talk junk about the tacti-fools at IDPA. If you shoot 3-gun, you'll hear someone talk junk about the guys that only shoot one match.  Here's the thing though, and I mean this: Each game has it's own merits. In IDPA, I like that I can be competitive with my concealed carry gun should I decide to shoot it. It's also got smaller gear requirements, shorter stages generally, and the rules allow for some interesting things that you can't really do in USPSA.  In USPSA, I like that it doesn't pretend to be anything but shooting fast and accurate. I'm really motivated by the classification system where after each match, I can see how it's impacted my overall classification score etc. At least in my part of the world, the talent pool tends to be a bit deeper at the USPSA matches too.  So, go dip your toes into a bunch of different types of matches, and draw your own conclusion. Know how guys who shoot Glocks tell you to shoot a Glock, and guys who shoot 1911's tell you to buy a 1911? It's exactly the same with the different matches out there too.  Call in Show: For a little while now I've been doing the occasional call-in show where I get your voicemails answering one question and make that into an episode. Well, I want to do another one: "What's the one piece of advice you wish you had been given before you shot your first match?" So, here's how to do it: Open your phone and find the voice recorder app (You might have to download one) Answer my question. Email the file to luke@triangletactical.net. Put the word "advice" in the subject line, so I can organize all of the emails better in my inbox. That's it. I'll play them all in a future episode, and I'm quite excited to see what y'all have to say. Q&A The Q&A question this week is about where your support hand index finger lands on the trigger guard when you're shooting. If you check out the picture above this post (which was taken by Bradley @Trigger_Pull on Instagram, go follow him) my index finger lands a bit further forward on the trigger guard.  However, I don't think it really matters. So much of the minutia of grip has to do with the size of the gun, the size of your hands, etc, I don't think you should look at the very exact finger placement of someone else and try to duplicate it. I'm no super ninja shooter, but I think the important things are getting your hands high on the gun, and gripping it as hard as you can without disturbing the sight picture. That's my $0.02. 

[powerpress] Long story short, I believe the biggest barrier that we face to advancing gun rights isn't politicians, but swaying the vast majority of the general public who are indifferent, or on the fence about guns.  What I've found is, if you're just a normal person who likes to shoot, and talks about it in a normal way, most folks are pretty receptive.  However, if you're rocking a "Hillary for Prison" shirt and whatnot (i.e. dressed in a way that automatically politicizes a conversation) the general public is going to be much less receptive to your message. If you want to make something "normal" you've got to be normal.  Shirts! Check out this shirt I'm selling over on Teespring. I think it's pretty great, and I'm quite excited about it.  First Match Voicemail: Matt in Indiana sent in a great first match voicemail for this episode, and it made me want to remind everyone out there that I'm here to help.  If you want to get started in competitive shooting, and have questions, hit me up. Shoot me an email at luke@triangletactical.net, read the How to Get Started in Competitive Shooting series here, and if that's not enough, sign up for my newsletter to get my .PDF with 9 more resources for getting started. You can get subscribed right here. Plug of the Week: Check out this episode of The Art of Manliness with Mike Rowe. Mike is a guy that really resonates with me, in that he tells people that they don't have to go to college and get deeply in debt to be successful. I'm the guy that he warns you about. I went to college because I thought I had to, then I dropped out, and don't have a diploma, but I've still got all the debt.  I'm also someone who used to work a desk job, and hated every minute of it. I quit, got a job where I'm up and moving, working with my hands, and getting dirty, and I couldn't be happier. Turns out, I like being challenged, and I like doing things that require me to think.  Just The Tip: Here's my best practices for using a tablet to score people at matches with Practiscore: Leave the tablets on the stages that they start on. (Don't take them from stage to stage) This way, if a tablet breaks or hiccups and loses the scores that have been entered into it, you only lose the one stage for everyone. If you take the same tablet from stage to stage, and it breaks, you lose all of the scores for every stage for that entire squad, and that sucks.  Alphabetize by first name to get your first stage shooting order. Then, on the next stage, drop down as many shooters as it takes to make it all the way around during the match (If you have 12 people on the squad, and 6 stages, drop by 2 shooters each stage.) This way, everyone gets a chance to shoot at the top of the order, and at the bottom of the order, and nobody has to go first on every stage.  The reason you go by first name, is because it's repeatable from tablet to tablet, and generally splits up family members who have the same last name that might want to film each other and but then not have enough time to prepare to go next if you were to sort by last name.

Being the 5th week of the month, and a holiday weekend, I'd usually take a week off from the podcast, but I had some things from this weeks practice session and Sunday's USPSA match that I wanted to talk about. So, on this weeks show, I move away from the usual podcast format, and just give you some top of mind things from this last week.  Patreon If you haven't checked out the Triangle Tactical Patreon yet, you're missing out. The 4th episode of the Triangle Tactical News Blast podcast just released over there this week, and in my opinion, it's pretty good. Patreon is allowing me to do a lot more awesome stuff, so if you can contribute, I'd certainly appreciate it! Patreon.com/triangletactical