Tuesday, July 05, 2005

What's Coming Up

Bullet points for the next couple of days:
• In USFS news, Senator Wayne Allard's office has stepped into the fray. We're discussing a series of remedies, including a Memorandum of Understanding with USFS regarding shooting areas.
• USFS brass are less then thrilled with Ranger Christine Walsh's comments on shooters and hunters. I spoke with one of the higher ups at the Whittington Center in New Mexico last week, and he was "distressed"to hear one of his Ranger administrators had instructed her Rangers not to even speak to "people with guns."
• CSSA is ramping up pressure on the USFS. I'll be talking to them today.
In other news:
• I bombed one of 12 stages at the HELL ON WHEELS cowboy regional in Cheyenne last weekend. Essentually, I unknowingly smacked the sights of my rifle against the guncart, then proceeded to drop four rifle shots on the stage. I'm thinking...I have a sight pictured! Well, I did. Let that be a lesson to me! Great match, though...wonderfully run!
• Holy Terror, a.k.a. Randi Rogers, whom you've met on COWBOYS won high overall at the match, becoming the first woman ever to win a regional level match in any of the handgun-based sports. An amazing performance! Congratulations, HT!!
• Heard from Remington Law Enforcement early this AM...they're swamped with positive calls about the SHOOTING GALLERY episode that premiered yesterday about the company's new pump action .223 carbine. Imagine an 870 that takes AR magazines. I decided to devote a whole show to the carbine (and slip in a bunch of GUNSITE's excellent carbine class!) because I thinkk it's a significant police gun. The pump shotgun has been a staple police gun since 1897, and the training programs tend to be excellent and debugged. Transitioning to the .223 pump carbine is easy and painless. I'm not dis'sing departments who've gone over to AR-15 in semi or M-4 full auto carbines, but I know from personal experience that semi or (especially) full auto training requires a wholesale revamp of the training procedures to avoid the "spray and pray" mentality that accompanied too much of the transition from revolvers to semiauto handguns decades ago. That show also featured Dave Spaulding, one of the finest law enforcement trainers in the country — thanks, Dave!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Saw the show. Are you saying one of the purposes of the 8715 (that right?) is that the pump slows down the rate of rifle fire, 'making' the user want to aim more/better? I understand the idea of having simular weapons allowing less training, but I'm assuming a car will have an 870 OR an 8715. I have to think about shotgun v rifle/carbine as an increased force response. Or, if the pistol won't hack it, which would I rather have?