The Low and Left Conundrum

 Every class I teach, I inevitably have this conversation prior to our range session:

Student: "Hey Sarge, got a question for you."

Me: "Go ahead."

Student: "When I shoot I keep hitting low and left, do you know how to fix that?"

This is usually with somebody who has spent some amount of time shooting with another instructor, and they haven't addressed this issue. The thing is, with just a few simple fixes, this is usually easily remedied. I wish that their instructors would talk about it right out of the gate, because it is something that instructors should be talking about up front due to how it affects people.

Got Made

 I was pumping gas and the guy on the other side of the pump asked: "What are you carrying?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Him: "Your gun, I saw that you're carrying one."

Me: "Glock 45."

Him: "My man! I got a Glock 22 in 40 cal!"

Me: "Is that a gen 5? They didn't release the gen 5s in 40 until more recently."

Him: "Yeah it is. I take it you're in law enforcement? You got that look."

Me: "Yeah, but even before I got into it people thought I was a cop."

Him: Laughing, "I can see that. Do you know anything about Desert Eagles? I want to buy one in .357!"

Me: "They're fun, but you're probably not going to carry that around, they weigh 5 lbs empty."

Him: "Maybe I will anyway, I'll probably walk funny!"

Me: "No doubt. Take it easy sir!"

I was wearing my official "sort of not at work but headed there or back" uniform which is to say khaki pants and an unbuttoned shirt hanging over my gun. It is not quite open carry, but it is not really concealed either. It probably keeps some Karens from seeing the gun but anybody with even half a clue will know that I've got a gun on. Oh well.

Find Your Excrement

There are about a million reasons to use a Bluetooth tracker. The simple and easy is stuff like finding your keys, your luggage, or anything that you need to keep track of. Obviously you should go out of your way to not misplace things, and my simple solution for that is to always have a place where things go when they aren't with you or on your person. But that said, sometimes excrement happens. And I fear that as we age, that excrement creeps in where you least expect it. Modern tracking technology helps a lot when it comes to keeping that at bay.

There are several different technologies out there that you may be interested in. I'll briefly discuss 3 of them: AirTag, SmartTag, and Tile. Let's talk about AirTag first.

AirTag is an iPhone/Apple only product. If you're an Android person, that lets you out right at the onset. AirTag only comes in one form factor, which means that you'll really need something to hold it if you want to use that technology. Fortunately there are several options from Apple as well as aftermarket vendors, to include keyrings and wallets. They have a replaceable battery which supposedly lasts for about a year. They are also water resistant, but I wouldn't take one scuba diving or put it in the laundry if you can help it.

AirTag's real advantage is that its find network is functionally infinite as long as anybody with an iPhone is near it. That means that probably any population center, airport, etc., will allow you to track your AirTag. The AirTag doesn't include GPS, it simply uses proximity to other Apple devices, so you can conceivably end up playing a game of hotter/colder to find your AirTag. Additionally, you can't reverse locate your phone with the AirTag, so if you lose your phone often, it would probably be better to go with the Tile or another similar technology that includes that functionality.

SmartTag is Samsung's answer to the AirTag. Similar functionality in most respects, but Samsung has two versions. If you opt for the SmartTag Plus it uses Ultra Wideband, which gives much more range, but is only usable with newer generation Samsung devices. The one feature that SmartTag has is the ability to use that SmartTag to turn on devices in your house by way of IoT style device control.

Tile doesn't have quite the ability to use any phone around it to give greater network access, only Tile app enabled phones. But what it lacks there it gains in the ability to use either Android or iPhone devices, as well as the ability to find your phone through it, which neither the AirTag or SmartTag will do. This may be the generalist in this category, but still quite useful for most people. Tile also comes in multiple form factors, from the original, to slim, to stickers which adhere to things and have a 3 year integrated battery.

No matter which one meets your needs the best, I find these to be quite useful. If for nothing else than for travel, because losing luggage is still sometimes a thing. I'd definitely throw one into a checked gun case at a minimum. And there's always the ability to add one into your wallet, keys, day planner, or any other thing that you cart around with you that is important.

AirTag wallet

AirTag

SmartTag

Tile Slim

Tile slim (square white thin)

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Reloading Spreadsheet

 For those of you who reload, or are intending to reload, this spreadsheet may be of use. Fill out your costs and you can figure out how much it is going to cost you per round, as well as how many rounds you'd need to make in order to break even with factory ammo.

The Spreadsheet

Let me know if this helps, and if you have any feedback to make it easier/more useful!

Streamlight Microstream USB

The video.

 I have been using the Streamlight Microstream USB for years now. I want to talk about it, but I need to give you some context about why I'm talking about it now.

There are a few major market forces I see currently. One is the popularity of the PHLSter Enigma. That seems to have struck a chord and demonstrated how many people want to carry a gun when they're wearing suits, dress clothes, or athletic wear. Being able to conceal a gun and carry it effectively without a monster tactical belt is a real game changer, and obviously that capability has resonated.

I also see Rhett Neumayer running a 22 caliber snub and it being received quite well. It puts a different spin on the old heads screaming about 45 acp and 1911s. Carrying a big full size duty gun is great if and when you can, but it isn't realistic for most people, most of the time. Firearms instructors, cops, and military get the ability to carry guns at work and nobody cares. Those individuals who come from those endeavors will likely advocate for full size weaponry and supporting equipment. But even if you CAN cart around a full bat belt of goodies, it doesn't always mean that you want to.

This is not about the PHLSter Enigma, 22 caliber snub nosed guns, or Rhett Neumayer. It is about finding a compromise that works quite well with an exceptionally small and lightweight package:

The Streamlight Microstream USB.

If size and weight aren't prime concerns, I'd probably steer you towards a Fenix PD36 TAC. But that TAC weighs 5.8 ounces, whereas the Streamlight Microstream USB weighs 1.2 ounces. The Streamlight is so light that you can easily forget that it is clipped to your pocket or waistband. You will never forget that Fenix is in your pocket.

The Streamlight Microstream is for normal people. It is for people that don't work as cops or military, or maybe even for them when not at work. It is a light that fits into any pocket or purse. It is also small and innocuous enough to avoid any negative attention, no matter what venue you are in. 

The Streamlight is still fairly bright for the amount of size it occupies. On low it puts out 50 lumens with a runtime of 3.5 hours, and on high it puts out 250 lumens with a runtime of 1.5 hours. My testing bears out those runtimes, if not the lumens, but Streamlight marketing doesn't tend to embellish numbers. If you will recall, it wasn't too long ago that we were being told that 60 lumens was blinding. While that claim may have been exaggerated, the Streamlight puts out enough usable light to work for tasks as small as looking for your keys, to looking further. While it won't cover football fields in light, I don't think it was ever designed with that in mind.

It will easily illuminate halls and rooms, as well as drawers and under car seats. Even if you aren't going out at night, you are one power outage away from a low light, or even a no light situation. 

In a pinch you can probably press it into a tactical backup, although it wouldn't be my first choice for that application. But in an imperfect world, we have to dance with the partner we brought, and this might be the one. It isn't so small that it gets completely swallowed by my hand, and therefore it is usable.

There are two negatives to this light. The first one is how long it takes to charge, and from zero to full it will take you approximately 4 hours to get a full charge onboard. The second is that this light is splash resistant, not fully waterproof. IPX 4 rating means that I wouldn't dump it into a sink, bathtub, swimming pool, or other body of water. It might survive it, but it wasn't designed to do so. This design has been out for years now, and almost unchanged from the original spec. You can get it in black or FDE, which may be the one update I'm aware of. 

Anyway, for those of you wearing yoga pants, dress pants, or basketball shorts when you go out and about, I think I've found the perfect flashlight for you. This is the flashlight that you carry when you don't want to carry a flashlight.

The Critic

 “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

—Theodore Roosevelt

Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

My video on The Good Samaritan Drill, what many others are calling the "Eli Dicken" drill, got a lot of views and feedback. I would expect no less given the confluence of it running on the heels of a serious event that got national attention, as well as the gracious linking to that video by two well known authors.

Much of that feedback was positive, but I did get a lot that fell into the following categories:

1. You did it wrong, somebody should be shooting at you while people are running around screaming.
2. You did it wrong, you should've been doing some level of PT or other exertion before/during.
3. You did it wrong, you should've done it with (insert whatever gun).

Interestingly enough, for the people telling me that I did it wrong, none of them provided any video or other specifics about what THEY were doing. Of course, anything that garners attention will get all sorts, both positive, negative, and neutral. I suppose neutral is the worst of all if you're trying to get some information out there.

But to speak to the specifics, I'm not going to do any drill where people are shooting at me with real guns, certainly not on purpose. And if we want to involve stacking tasks like other people moving, incoming fire, etc., then that is a good candidate for sims training or similar. And I participate in that on occasion, but you won't see me post it on any social media that I have. Some things are for me and the people I'm training, not for broader consumption.

If you want to PT and mix shooting in, I think that is a solid idea if properly structured. Watch some of JJ Racaza's videos for that. Nobody wants to see middle aged fat me doing PT, and that isn't the focus of my social media. There are several very solid experts on that, and I'm not going to try to emulate them.

For anybody telling me I should've used a little crappy pistol to shoot this drill, I got news for you. I don't carry a little crappy pistol. I carry one of the following 3 guns almost exclusively: Glock 17, Glock 19, Glock 45. And all 3 of 'em have optics on them. Any one of those is more than capable of the accuracy I produced in the video. Maybe instead of criticizing my pistol choices, they should re-think their own. I'm not saying that you have to carry a full size gun everywhere, but if you do and you have to use it, life will be a little easier than trying to score hits on a moving target at distance with a snubby.

I'm not saying I'm the fastest or the most accurate, because I am certainly neither of those. But what I am saying is that I'm going to go out and DO things. And while any feedback is useful in some way, shape, or form, what I really hope is that people reading this and/or watching my video will go out and practice some more. There are a very small percentage of people who do some amazing things with firearms, but those men and women are the minority. For the rest of us, some more work wouldn't hurt.

Police Shotguns: a lament

Shotguns fall further and further from favor with police agencies these days. It seems like more and more agencies are phasing them out entirely, relegating them to special use needs, or just not doing any real training or updating of their guns and policies.

I could throw bricks up in my glass house and blame the police administrators, but at the end of the day they're usually confronted with choices that are always a compromise. Right now the current batch of police candidates are typically not gun people, and many aren't military veterans. That means that a lot of police recruits will have no real firearms experience prior to arriving at the academy. 

Making things worse on the training front is that budgets aren't unlimited, so when you tell the administrator that the recruit needs training on multiple weapon systems, the usual retort is "why?" In the era of "defund the police" and inflation crushing fixed budgets, administrators are looking for more and more places and ways to cut costs.

Lastly for the agencies that do keep shotguns around, the incentive to outfit those shotguns with modern advances such as stocks of the correct length, good side saddles, lights, and optics just isn't there. If you tell the Captain that all of your shotguns need another $300 worth of items each, you'll likely get told about the outlay of similar expense for the patrol rifles. And if the patrol rifle has all of those goodies, why would you bother with the shotgun?

So when an administrator starts looking at time, money, ability to train/retain, and makes decisions, a lot of times the shotgun is the loser in that decision tree. A lot of agencies want to simplify as much as they can, where they can. 

It is a sad thing for sure, though. There are some times and places where the shotgun is king in the police world. The number one thing that comes to mind is high risk vehicle stops/takedowns. Shotguns have amazing penetration power when it comes to vehicle use, and shotgun rounds tend to go much straighter though things like windshield glass, as compared to pistol or rifle rounds. 

Even setting aside vehicle stops, shotguns have an 80-85% "one shot stop" percentage, at least the last time I checked. This is better than any pistol or rifle that is currently fielded by modern law enforcement agencies. When it comes to long gun employment, the shotgun definitely has some disadvantages, but stopping power is not one of them.

During my police career I've watched the shotgun go from something required at the Academy to an afterthought. Many of the agencies in this area don't issue or authorize shotguns for patrol any more. I wonder if one day there won't be any call for police shotgun training in this area due to them being completely gone from general use. If that does happen, it'll be a sad day.

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