[magazine pouch]

Try the Kydex mag pouches from Blade-Tech.  The hard, slick Kydex is very fast.  These pouches are totally IDPA legal, as well as appropriate for concealed carry.  AAMOF a Blade-Tech double mag pouch for a 1911 is what I carry every day.

[I Am A Bad American]

Actually there's stuff in there I don't agree with, and the "cops have the right to shoot your ass" thing was one of them. However I wanted to present this without my own worldview "tidying it up."

By the way, a nice rare piece of prime rib is the perfect food.

[Speed shooting - 45, 9mm or 9x21?]

"My predictable splits vary at best .04 of a sec. From .14 with a 1911 racegun to .16 with a Para DA only and .18 with a stock revolver. Granted we're talking extreme speed hosing here but the ability to pull the trigger at that speed proves that length doesn't count it's how you use it."

But Pat...

(a) a difference of .04 second, 1911 vs. revolver, doesn't sound like much until you realize that, compared to .14 second, that's a difference in performance of 23 percent.

( the Para "DAO" (**HACK! COUGH!**) is not exactly your typical double action trigger pull.  DAO, my ass. Only technically.

© on a double action revolver, assuming something resembling a stock spring set-up, the trigger return is much more powerful than on a DA auto.  Despite the much longer trigger travel, I find a DA revolver can be fired faster than a SIG, it's not just the length of trigger return that's important, but how fast and powerfully the trigger travels that distance. You've seen the trigger return spring on a SIG, or a Beretta 92, or a Browning Hi-Power. Wim-py!

[I Am A Bad American]

Okay!

[I Am A Bad American]

Moderator Edit: Falsely attributed to George Carlin. See replies for the lie debunked.

I Am Your Worst Nightmare. I am a BAD American. I am George Carlin.

I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some midlevel governmental functionary with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts squirting out babies.

I think owning a gun doesn't make you a killer.

I believe it's called the Boy Scouts for a reason.

I don't think being a minority makes you noble or victimized.

I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, you'd better do it in English.

I don't use the excuse "it's for the children" as a shield for unpopular opinions or actions.

I think fireworks should be legal on the 4th of July.

I think that being a student doesn't give you any more enlightenment than working at Blockbuster. In fact, if your parents are footing the bill to put your pansy ass through 4-7 years of college, you haven't begun to be enlightened.

I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God.

Hillary Clinton is a carpet-munching lesbian.

My heroes are John Wayne, the Simpsons, and whoever canceled Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.

I know wrestling is fake and I don't waste my time arguing about it.

I think global warming is a big lie. Where are all those experts now, when I am freezing my ass through a long winter?

I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I didn't wander forty years in the desert after getting chased out of Egypt, I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and neither have you, so shut-the-#$%!-up already.

I want to know which church is it exactly where the Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches. And where does he get his money. And why is he always part of the problem and not the solution.

I think the cops have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you're running from them.

I also think they have the right to pull your ass over if you are breaking the law, regardless of what color you are.

I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation the world for the next four years.

I hate those bastards standing in the intersections trying to sell me crap or trying to guilt me into making 'donations' to their cause. These people should be targets.

I think if you are in the passing lane, and not passing, your license should be revoked, and you should be forced to ride the bus until you promise to never delay the rest of us again.

I think beef jerky could quite possibly be the perfect food.

I believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes two parents.

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement.

I think Dr. Seuss was a genius.

I'm neither angry nor disenfranchised, no matter how desperately the mainstream media would like the world to believe otherwise.

I believe if she has her lips on your willie, it is sex, and it is sex for both of you. This even applies when you are President of the United States.

If that makes me a BAD American, then yes, I'm a BAD American.

If you too are a BAD American please forward this to everyone you know.

We need our country back!

[Speed shooting - 45, 9mm or 9x21?]

The problem with using the SIGs for speed shooting (aside from the lack of durability under immense round counts of the aluminum alloy frame) is that the trigger just has too long a reset to go up against a "short-trigger" 1911 unless the 1911 guy is a total bozo. Also, on the SIGs there's a fair amount of trigger slack you have to take up after you hit the reset point.

Not that I'm suggesting using a DA auto for speed shooting - there IS a reason almost all the really serious guys use 1911s - but if you absolutely wanted to, the basic S&W auto system would be a far better choice. Trigger reset is extremely short in these guns, and once you set the trigger reset there is NO slack, you can fire the gun again instantly.

Get a 1911.

[Visual exercise]

"I just added the last red bead….you improved the device. Also, thank you for sharing your alternative method…excellent!"

Oh blush.

[Visual exercise]

Travis,

I tried the exercise. Interesting! Since there wasn't much distance between the third (red) bead and the last (white) bead I found that while I had an easily perceptible half of the X up close I couldn't get much of the effect past the red bead. If that made any sense. Also since I was using a white wall as a background the last white bead tended to fade out against it which made the problem worse. Adding another red bead past the white bead (so now I've got FIVE beads - red, white, red, white, red) seemed to help a lot. With a longer distance between the middle red bead and the last bead in the string, the "bottom" half of the X is now much more apparent, and the red bead stands out against the white background much better, as well.

I found I can form the X almost instantly. What takes some time is shortening my focus back to the first bead afterwards, though even that speeds up immensely with just a bit of practice. This is a hell of an eye workout. I can actually feel the muscles in my eyes - mostly my left/master eye - moving as I switch my focus. The muscles seem to contract as I shorten my focus, and relax as I move it outwards. Once I had the "form an X, then move your focus back to the first bead, them back" thing fairly well down, I found it a lot of fun to try shifting my focus to every bead in line, fast, then on to the next one, from end to end of the string, back and forth, all down the line, and see how fast I can form the X.

I understand the ability to make swift focal changes is something people generally lose as they get older. It seems to me that exercises like this could not only develop this ability to a higher level, but stave off its eventual loss for quite a while. How often, and for how long per session, would you recommend doing this exercise to get the maximum benefit out of it?

(Edited by Duane Thomas at 7:38 pm on May 7, 2001)

(Edited by Duane Thomas at 7:40 pm on May 7, 2001)

[Duane Thomas]

Well, if the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise (as my dear, sainted Mother would say) in the next issue of Front Sight there'll be an article by me called "IPSC Classifiers:  Sandbagging & Grandbagging" that gives my thoughts on this topic. Briefly put, I don't think there's anything wrong with grandbagging as long as you're using it as a method to motivate swift improvement.  Think about it:  When you get moved up to the next higher class, there's going to be a time period where you're at the bottom of that class, skill-wise, and can't win anything.  Which means you need to get a lot better, real fast, so you can start winning things again.  All grandbaggers are ensuring is that they're going to be going through that process, of being at the bottom of their class and unable to win anything, fairly regularly.

[Visual exercise]

I guess I've just never understood the problem a lot of people have with "seeing double."  And I don't say that to put down the people who do, it seems to be a very common problem.  The short answer to your question would be, "Yes, it can be learned," at least I did.  Imagine that your mental energy is a river, then just pour that power river through your dominant eye.  You can actually feel the flow of power from your brain through the eye.  Just let the non-dominant eye go away.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that my particular eyesight might make that easier for me.  I'm cross-dominant, right-hand/left-eye, and my right eye is really weak, so letting it blur out isn't exactly a great challenge for me!

(Edited by Duane Thomas at 5:50 pm on May 4, 2001)