THE PRETTY PISTOLERA

Gun Loving John's Must Have Menu

I received a lot of feedback regarding the staples of a gun collection.  Just for grins and giggles, I asked John for his official list of "must haves."  He was tickled to provide it and it took him all of 30 seconds to pull it together.  Here is John's list in no particular order:

• Ruger 22 semi-auto pistol
  
• Ruger 10/22, with a Tactical Innovations 25 round magazine
• Glock 17
• Glock 19
• Glock  26 (for concealed carry)
• Ruger 77/22 by S & H Arms
• 50 BMG bolt action
• 308 bolt action
• A minimum of five AR 15's
• Single action revolver
• Bolt action 17HMR
• M1 Garand
• Lever action 22
• Lever action 30.30
• 1911 (so you appreciate your Glocks)
• 44 Magnum
  
• Glock 34
• Walther P22 with can adapter
• Dillon Reloader
• Savage 22 bolt action
• Thompson Center Contender
• Disclaimer: John reserves the right to add new firearms on a regular basis.

My comments are as follows:

• I am surprised the list is so long (I'm totally fibbing, no surprises here).  However, I will point out that my list of make-up must haves is not this long.
• I now completely understand why we have multiple gun safes and a gun room.  If the list of necessities almost totals 25, then how many do we really own?  (John, don't answer that.  I don't really want to know.  Wait, you don't have any idea, do you?)
• Five ARs?  Seriously?

Crazy People (Part Deux)

I vow to add the following items to my travel checklist:

• Pepper Spray - I plan to buy another Kimber Guardian Angel Pepper Blaster that is for travel only.

• Knife (one that is not too scary) -  And I'm going to learn how to use it. 

The new items will always be in my suitcase (along with my travel headlamp).  I always have to check my bag (too many lotions and potions) so there is no reason not to have something for self-defense.  I would prefer the Glock 26, but I have a feeling my paycheck supplier would frown upon it.  I can see it... "Hey Mr. Bossman, I'll meet you at the gate.  I need to declare my firearm." 

PS - I apologize upfront for beating a dead horse.  Notice a teasing brush is not on the list.

Crazy People

I was at a mall yesterday in the Southwest. I was standing outside a store digging in my handbag for Swedish Fish. One small child bumped into me as he was trying to catch up with his mother. Five seconds later I hear screaming from another child. The loud child was trying to catch up with the same mother. The screaming was deafening, therefore, looks of irritation and annoyance took my face hostage.

The next thing I know Bad Mama with Attitude says to me "don't look at him like that." I made eye contact with BMA and just stared at her. She then said " look at him like that again and I'll kick your ass."  She meant it. I continued to stare and then I just have her an apathetic shrug (one of my specialities in body language). Luckily she collected her offspring and moved on.

She was a big, nasty woman that made five of me. I have no doubt that she could have seriously hurt me. I immediately thought about what I had to use for self-defense. Absolutely nothing. I came here via the airport. No pepper spray. No knife. And especially, no firearm. I was a sitting duck.

New travel rules to come. I will not experience that feeling again.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Another Lesson Learned

What a weekend! The Oklahoma State IDPA match was great.  The attitude and spirit of the safety officers, staff, and shooters was truly refreshing.  I've been to several sanctioned matches with John (as a spectator) and never felt at ease as I did this weekend.  I was nervous about shooting such a big match so soon.  But, no one cared that I was new and shooting in my first big match. There were no snickers as I raced towards the record for the most points down.  I truly enjoyed myself. 

I have to give super-mega-kudos to the staff.  They were fabulous.  I did not hear one complaint.  I did not witness one bit of drama. Great job to Match Director Curt Nichols and his team for putting together a first-class match.

I am still wide-eyed over the facility (US Shooting Academy).  It  was unbelievable.  Check out the video of the place.  Wow. 

Looking at my score I totally sucked eggs.  However, I had a big ah-ha moment when John shared his infinite wisdom as we discussed the weekend:

Tracy:  I really had no business entering such a challenging match.   I can't believe everyone was so nice to me. 

John: Stop that.  You want to do a triathlon, right?

Tracy:  Yeah, why?

John:  Do you expect to win the triathlon?

Tracy:  (laughing)  Are you kidding?  I just want to finish!

John:  (Making "crazy face.")

Tracy:  Got it.

Bottom line... I had a great experience this weekend.  Videos to come later this week.  Stay tuned.

Go to Your Happy Place

John and I finally got a free night to go to the range together.  It was nice.  And, considering we are both shooting in the Oklahoma State IDPA Match this weekend, I desperately needed the practice.  Just for the record, I have no business shooting in a sanctioned IDPA match this soon in the season.  I did not practice very much this winter... bottom line, I still suck.  However, I am making progress.  My grip is good, my stance is consistent, sight alignment/sight picture is becoming second nature.  All good stuff. 

Here is a portion of my report card from the range last night.  Not bad for a girl that had her bifocal contacts in and not her special shooting contacts.  (If any of you bifocals-wearers had similar focusing problems like I did in the beginning... you know it can be rough. Thankfully, I have a super-cool optometrist that was knowledgeable about shooting sports.)

Warm up target.  Notice there was no anticipation of recoil.  Hip hip hooray for progress! 

Rapid fire target.  Emptying magazines as fast as I could just for grins and giggles.  There were big grins and lots of giggles. 

Please note the following:

• Trigger time is happy time
• Splatter targets rock

Class Notes

Here is my recap of the NRA Instructor Certification class I took over the weekend:

• Had a 1.25 hour commute each way
• Had to explain how to clean a pistol.  Guess how many I've actually cleaned in my lifetime?
• Got a speeding ticket on the way to the range Sunday morning.  
• Only got to shoot 15 rounds.  Big disappointment.
• Had to complete and present a budgeting exercise.
  
• The class was scolded because the trainer felt our notes were sub-standard.  He collected our notes and had the stones to make negative comments on our note-taking abilities. 
• I was the only student to score 100% on both tests. Who had crappy notes?

It was a very long weekend.  Why did I do this, you ask?  Sometimes John needs a lovely assistant to help out with his bigger classes.  Now I can help.  However, I will not be training anyone on how to clean a Glock.

It Feels Like the First Time

Caution:  Regression in Progress.

I shot IDPA tonight for the first time in almost two months.  When I took up shooting (and actually practiced), I never got "good" at it.  I just got "better."  Well, after a short shooting hiatus, I suck again.  Big time. 

And, I committed to go to a major match in March. 

March is officially 11 days away.

Ugh.

PS - give yourself extra points if you caught the cheezy hair band reference.  (Foreigner still rocks). 

Scores...

The scores...  Subject switcheroo:  What do we call the final results in competitive shooting?  Scores? Times? Results? Ranking?  I haven't a clue....  Anyway, the scores are up!

I was close in predicting my total time - 285.51 with 72 points down.  Average time was 203.13 and the average points down was 47.  Eeeeek!  My points down really hurt me.  I realize now that I was not moving as deliberately as I needed in order to concentrate on my accuracy.  Next time I will be more focused on accuracy and less distracted by the moving, disappearing, dropping, and swinging fun stuff. Lesson learned!

Pretty Pistolera Shoots a .38 (Finally!)

One more note regarding Sunday's match...

Firing a .38 snub-nose revolver shouldn't be revolutionary news, but it is to me!  The match allowed (actually, forced) me to shoot one.  Stage 4 started with a .38 on a table.  The shooter had to engage two targets with the .38 while retreating.  Then, the shooter had to pick up their own firearm to finish the stage.  You can see the video of me shooting stage 4 on the Pretty Pistolera YouTube Channel.  You can see John's video there, too. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the weight, recoil, and easy handling of the .38.  I assumed it would be heavy and abusive. And, I was convinced it would kick like a mule. I have no idea where I got these crazy, pre-conceived notions, but now I see why so many people choose a .38 as their carry gun.  

My commentary on Sunday's match is now over.  I promise to find a new topic.

Pretty Pistolera's Weekend Update

I have been on the road for almost two weeks. Two weeks!  I am so happy, happy, happy to be home. By the way, I have travel stories to share later (American Airlines, you suck!). 

I have not been to the range for over two weeks and, quite frankly, was terrified that some of the progress I've made would evaporate.  This morning John and I shot an IDPA match - five stages and about 90 rounds.  I was nervous, but I still forced myself to slow down and move with intention. This approach has helped me improve my accuracy over the past month... and today it paid off! 

Today's trigger time was truly happy time.  I had many small victories.  Let's review:

Yippee #1:   No procedural errors.  I usually do not get a lot of these, but today there was a lot of running and gunning.  I usually do better when I don't have to move much.  For example, I had to shoot in tactical sequence and retreat at the same time.  The stages that require simultaneous walking and chewing bubble gum can sometimes rock my world.

Yippee #2:   No "hit on a non-threat" penalties.  Normally my bullets are attracted to the no-shoot targets like a moth to a flame. There were lots of tricky target arrangements at each stage (thank you, nutty Match Director). These pesky penalties add five (FIVE!) whole seconds to the total time.  I usually rack up at least two or three during a match. Not today! 

Yippee #3:  No "failure to neutralize" penalties.  This is huge!  In IDPA at least one round must hit in either the zero or -1 part of the target for it to be considered properly "neutralized."  I've been fighting a nasty habit of trigger jerking for a while now... with this habit the bullets hit low and left.  I am so sick of hearing "down six with a failure" I could hurl.  Ninety rounds and not one FTN!  These pesky penalties add five whole seconds to the overall time, too.  Between yippee point #2 and yippee point #3 it is obvious why I come in last.

Yippee #4:  Points down were way down.  I normally have the most points down in any given match (I actually hold a record). Today, I was above average!  Above average!  The average points down for the match was 42.6.  Please do not snicker at my geeky analysis.  My total points down for the match were 38!  Hot doggies!

Yippee #5:  I did not come in last!  Granted, I was the tortoise in today's match, but because my accuracy improved and my pesky penalties were zilch I made up some overall time. 

After a subtle post-match happy dance, I shot the IDPA classifier.  John and I are headed to Michigan for their state match next month and I needed an official classification... another 90 rounds of trigger happy time.    

Final Yippee:  I am no longer a novice... I'm now a marksman! 

I am so excited about my progress! After two weeks of trigger deprivation and exhausting travel I am tickled pink to be home, and also to be on the right track with this new hobby!

Now, I just need to figure out how I can get marks-chick put on my classification card.