ACOG Bloom

Something I learned while down in Texas.

If you find that the reticle in your ACOG blooms too much when shooting in direct sunlight, try using shooting glasses with polarized lenses. I was kind of amazed at how much it cut down on reticle bloom in my scope, as well as the bloom on the fiber optic front site of my pistol.

That said, if you don’t have polarized lenses in your shooting glasses and want to reduce the bloom caused by the fiber optic strip in the ACOG, you might pick up a Scope Fly. I’ve been using one of these for a couple of years now, and find it tremendously useful.

Video From The Texas Multigun Nationals

I’ve finally gotten around to rendering and uploading the video from the Texas Multigun Nationals.

Enjoy!

Incidentally, this marks the 100th shooting competition video that I’ve uploaded, and the first one that’s high-definition.

Music taken from Free Music Archive.

The USPSA Rule Book and Smart Phones

You know, it just occurred to me that my hard copy of the USPSA rule book is looking kind of ratty from being toted around in the bottom of my range bag.

It also occurred to me that the official rule book can be downloaded as a PDF, and that most smart phones nowadays have PDF readers on them.

Generally when I’m at a match, I’ll toss my phone in a pocket of my range bag. The thought that I’ll now have an indexed and searchable version of the official USPSA rules seems like a pretty handy thing.

Texas Multigun Championship

As some of you already know, I attended the Texas Multigun Championship last week. I’ll be working up a full on match review, as well as getting some Hi-Def video up on YouTube from the match.

First off, this match was incredible. Despite being the most heavily attended 3 Gun match I’ve ever shot, everything ran smoothly, the stages were fun (more on that in a bit), and Sheldon Carruth, the Match Director, did a phenomenal job of running everything. The prize table was also just outstanding, one of the best I’ve seen. LaRue Tactical, the major match sponsor really made their presence known, and the LaRue folks are just as cool in person as they are online or over the phone. The free brisket was a nice touch.

As for myself, well, what started off as something that I figured would be an easy match to own turned into one of the hardest matches I’ve ever shot, in part because the stages looked a lot easier than they actually were, and in part because it’s tremendously difficult to get a proper sight picture when you have your head planted firmly up your ass.

Also, there were equipment issues. I can say that for the first time ever, my AR had a malfunction that wasn’t ammunition related, and this resulted in my having to walk off a stage incomplete.

Still and all, despite massive failures on my part, I managed to come in 87th out of 289 shooters in Tactical Scope.

Why ‘Top Shot’ Is Important

Among the various gun forums, there have been a lot of discussions about Top Shot, with a lot of people yammering on about how they dislike the show because there’s too much drama, or the contestants suck (undoubtedly compared to the complaintant’s marksmanship skills via keyboard), or that it’s a reality show, or game show, or that the contestants are all jerks, or whatever.

I don’t consider Top Shot to be some of the greatest television ever made (right now, that would be Arrested Development, Firefly, or Deadwood), but it is, week after week, an engaging and entertaining skill-based reality show that caters to my interest in competitive shooting, and has some pretty boss slow-motion footage, too.

Myself and others have spent time defending Top Shot not because it’s brilliant story telling, but because it’s the first shooting-oriented tv show that actually has appeal to people other than shooters and gun owners.

So why this essay now?

Here’s why:
The AV Club Review of Top Shot

On the off chance that you aren’t familiar with The AV Club, it’s a spinoff website from The Onion that reviews and discusses pop culture, including film, music, and television shows. Demographically, the site skews heavily towards artsy urbanite twenty-something hipsters.

Still, and all, despite this, in reading the AV Club review of Top Shot, as well as the ensuing comments, there’s a fairly positive overall tone to the whole thing, along the lines of “hey, it’s neat to see a game show based on marksmanship competitions.”

This is the most important thing about Top Shot. It’s packaging and presenting shooting competitions in a way that is palatable to people who’ve never even shot a gun, and they’re coming away from the show with a positive impression of guns, competition, and the people on the show.

Consider it one small sign that this show is helping to break down the preconceived notions that all gun owners are a bunch of psychotic, backwards primitives. Hopefully at least a few viewers will have their political views changed by a show that isn’t political in the least.

Edited to add: Parts of this blog entry were inspired by a similar one written by Caleb Giddings of Gunnuts Media, which can be found on the Cheaper than Dirt website. I thought it was pretty cool to see validation of the points he made in wider media outside of shooting culture circles.

Another Blog from a Practical Shooter

I recently found this interesting shooting blog

Gunbot!

I found this via a search for “Tactical Rifle.” It’s interesting to see how matches vary by geography.

Check out his video, including some pretty boss slo-mo footage here:

Last Tactical Rifle Match of the Season.

New Addition to the Blogroll: Forgotten Weapons

I’ve added a new link to the blog roll, one that isn’t strictly 3 Gun related, but if you’ve got an interest in the history of firearms development, especially the rarely-explored, cobweb-covered corners of gun design, you should check out.

That website is called Forgotten Weapons. If you want to get a history lesson in small arms, check it out.