Second Amendment Blog Bash

This concludes the gun blogger aggregation site for live blogging the Para USA Gun Blogger Summer Camp with Todd Jarrett at Blackwater. (Wow, say that 10 times fast.)

Hopefully you enjoyed the full coverage of the weekend and will check out a few new bloggers you may not have been reading regularly before.

I’d like to thank the bloggers who participated by contributing and covering their weekend with Para USA:

SayUncle
A Keyboard and a .45
Of Arms & the Law
GunTruth
The View from North Central Idaho
Call me Ahab
Sharp as a Marble
Smallest Minority
Snowflakes in Hell
View from the Porch

If you have any thoughts about how the coverage went, please feel free to email us at organizer -at- 2ablogbash -dot- com. We hope to provide the same kind of coverage during Blog Bash 2009.

Time to head back home.  After spending a weekend with Superman learning how to fly, it’s going to be awfully hard going back to being Clark Kent again.  Trip time is about 6 hours.  See you all when I get there.

This post was written by Sebastian and was originally posted on Snowflakes in Hell. Reposted with permission.

Woke up yesterday at 6:30AM (that’s 0630 in tacticalspeak) at Blackwater. Spent most of the day on the range, ’til about 3:30ish. Packed up, rode the rock star Blackhawk! bus back to where the Nazi slot car was parked. Mad props to Caleb, who noticed that the effects of the sunburn had me hanging on my chin strap and cancelled his flight to share the driving chores back to Indy. I stayed awake the whole trip on conversation, caffeine, and leftover adrenaline.

I have so, so, so much to blog about, but it’s going to have to wait ’til after I crash, y’all. More later…

This post was written by Tam and was originally posted on View from the Porch. Reposted with permission.

International Cartridge Corporation provided us with all of our ammunition.  It was frangible .45 ACP and 9mm.  I had heard bad things about frangible ammunition, but this stuff was pretty tip top.  No failures to chamber, no misfires, and it shot just as well as you would expect any good quality commercial ball ammo.  As a silhouette shooter who’s been stung by a few bits of jacket flying back from ball ammo, I would never think about blasting away at a steel plate from 5 feet away, but we did, repeatedly and fast  The bullets just turns to dust when it comes into contact with hardened steel.  Since they are non-toxic, lead free ammunition, this isn’t really a problem.  My club stopped doing Bowling Pin shooting because of ricochet fears, but I’m thinking this ammunition could be the solution to the problem of ricochet off bowling pins.  The bullet is made from a copper/tin mixture.  The only unfortunate thing is they don’t sell bullets for reloaders, since they said a normal reloading press will tend to crack the bullets.

Dan also brought us some .223 ball ammo, which I was told is not a catalog item, but since ICC’s law enforcement customers often have a hard time getting a hold of quality .223 ammo, and they have the equipment to make it, they will do runs of standard .223 to help out their law enforcement customers.  The brass they use looks to be pretty high quality stuff, so after we were done shooting the Para TTR I ran around and collected up all the brass to reload it (yay for free once fired brass!).  I might have to get some ICC .223 frangible, since it’s a great home defense round, and after seeing Dan’s ammo shoot, I would be willing to bet my life on it.

By the way, International Cartridge is a Pennsylvania company, located in Western Pennsylvania a few miles north of Punxsutawney.  But we definitely appreciate Dan Smith of ICC coming out to keep our guns well fed.  Anyone who brings down a whole truckload of ammo (literally) is OK with us.  Dan was a pretty good shooter too, but you know, I’d probably be a pretty good shooter too if I had my own ammo company.  I might have to see about visiting ICC’s facility one day, and writing more about them, since they are a Pennsylvania company.  They are making a pretty good product that could solve a lot of problems for the shooting community, especially for those of us being encroached upon by development, and under increasing pressure to deal with lead and minimize the risk of ricochet.

This post was written by Sebastian and was originally posted on Snowflakes in Hell. Reposted with permission.

Para and Todd Jarrett demonstrated the new TTR system, short for Tactical Target Rifle, slated for release in 2009.  Quite simply, it is made of awesome.  For an op-rod driven AR, the thing has no recoil.  It’s literally like shooting an airsoft gun.  Recoil on a 10/22 is greater.  An AR that shoots well that doesn’t get as dirty?  Where do I sign up?

The other really nice thing about this system is you don’t get the annoying jack-in-the-box sound in your ear every time you pull the trigger.   I shot it, and I kid you not, there’s virtually no muzzle climb on the system.  I was hitting the reactive gongs out at 100 yards from standing with not too much trouble.  Here’s Todd explaining how the system works:

Looks like it’ll be a little harder to take apart than a normal AR-15, but hey, you should hardly have to clean it without the DI gas system blowing gunk back into the bolt and bolt carrier.

This post was written by Sebastian and was originally posted on Snowflakes in Hell. Reposted with permission.

Our time at Blackwater is at an end.  I am back in the hotel at Norfolk, Virginia.  I still have a few more posts to do on the experience, but I definitely want to send out a few really big thank yous for helping put this together:

• Kerby Smith, Director of Communications for ParaUSA, who put this all together, and shot with us, with great skill, I might add.
• Thanos Polyzos, CEO of ParaUSA, who supported our event, and was down there with us.
• Todd Jarrett, who put together and taught the course wonderfully.
• Michael Bane, who sent his film crew for DRTV and The Shooting Gallery.
• Patrick Harlan, Internet Marketing Specialist for Crimson Trace who supplied us with laser grips.
  
• All the folks at Blackwater USA, who were very good to us.  They run a world class training facility.
• All the folks at Blackhawk, who supplied us with SERPA holsters that worked great for us on our weekend, and various other goodies we used on the range, and who drove us to and from in their bitchin’ bus.
• Dan Smith of International Cartridge Corporation, who supplied us with all our ammunition needs, and is a great shooter, BTW.

Lots of other folks helped out, including Bitter, who didn’t make it.  Let’s also not forget the National Rifle Association, who by taking bloggers seriously, helped make the case for other folks taking us seriously.  I also want to thank Kerby and Michael specifically for creating a spot for the Blog Bash organizers, even though we didn’t make the voting.  I feel bad Bitter couldn’t make it.  I know Bitter feels bad she couldn’t make it.  And believe me, when I get back and talk to her about everything and how totally cool it was, she will definitely be sorry she couldn’t make it.

More to come about our weekend.

This post was written by Sebastian and was originally posted on Snowflakes in Hell. Reposted with permission.

I won the bet with Caleb today. Caleb
reported it live from the range. I won only because I made fewer mistakes
than he did. In a second run through the house with a different configuration I again
beat him by a slim margin because I made slightly fewer errors than he did. In both
runs through others beat us. My second run was good enough for second place
and I won a set of Crimson Trace laser sights.

This post was written by Joe Huffman and was originally posted on The View from North Central Idaho. Reposted with permission.

You have the potential to be a world class shooter.

Todd Jarrett
August 22, 2008
To me while on the Blackwater range. He was making a joke for the video being made
for Michael Bane’s television show.

This post was written by Joe Huffman and was originally posted on The View from North Central Idaho. Reposted with permission.

I Should Not be Allowed Out Without a Keeper

On Thursday evening I was picked up at the airport by Sailorcurt, who was accompanied by JR, Robb and Ahab. We went straight from the airport to a restaurant in the 15-passenger van Curt had borrowed from his church. When I got out of the van, I turned around to open the second door to let JR out of the back, and hooked a belt loop on the bug deflector of a pickup truck sitting in the parking slot next to the van, snapping off about a six-inch piece from the driver’s side.

Oh well. I picked up the piece and put it on the hood, figuring whoever owned it would come back to the restaurant looking for the group with the van when they found it. Later in the evening, Curt went out to the van for something and saw an obviously agitated couple writing down the information off the side of the church van. When he unlocked the door, the female of the couple came around and informed him that they’d called the police about the damage.

Curt came and got me, I gave them my contact information and told them to send me a bill. When we came back out a half-hour later, they were gone.

This morning I woke up at about 4:30, and then never really did get back to sleep before I finally got up at 6:15. After I showered I was brushing my teeth and I leaned over on the sink, just a little. (I swear!)

You know, I’m pretty sure that you’re not supposed to mount sinks, especially heavy ceramic ones, only with butterfly bolts through the drywall. You’re supposed to secure them to, you know, wood.

The funny thing was, I went out to the lobby to tell the desk attendant what I’d done, and brought her back to the room to show her. She looked at it for a second and said, “Do you need to finish?” I explained that the drain plumbing had snapped off, so running more water through the sink probably wasn’t advisable, so she informed me that a shower room was available down the hall where I could find a sink and shave.

I promised not to lean on that sink.

I shouldn’t be allowed out of my house without a keeper.

This post was written by Kevin and was originally posted on The Smallest Minority. Reposted with permission.

We finally wrapped up our shooting this morning, then had time to grab a quick shower and gather up our gear to catch the Blackhawk bus back to Norfolk. Right now, I’m sitting in the lobby of the Hampton Inn, passing the time until 7:00 when we have a dinner reservation up the road. After that, I’ll be staying over with someone local and heading for home first thing in the morning.

This morning, we did a few drills in a shoot house, then Todd set up a stage for us to run the house with our lasers. The winner received their choice of any Crimson Trace laser grips. I came in second, mostly due to a fumbled re-load.

After we finished, we headed off to chow, but again we had a little more time than expected, so Todd said he would reset the house and we could run a new scenario. This time they offered three prizes - Crimson Trace laser grips for 1st, a case of ammo for 2nd, and half a case for 3rd (actually Todd said only 499 rounds - he took one).

I elected to run first, and while I still botched two re-loads, my time held up to be the best of the second run. There was also a ‘bad guy’ who was mostly obscured by a door when passing through, and some shooters missed it, which cost them a time penalty.

Joe Huffman came in second, and since I don’t really have a use for the laser (they’re included on the gun I bought) I asked if he’d be interested in a trade. Since he’s a re-loader, the trade was amicable for both of us and we walked away happy with our winnings. Now I just have to wait for the gun to get here so I can start burning up some of that ammo!

I hope to get some more thorough reviews up for the products I used after I get back home and things settle down just a bit.

This post was written by armed_citizen and was originally posted on Gun Truth. Reposted with permission.

I may not have been the most stellar pistol shot of the weekend, but I redeemed myself okay when we got to fam-fire Para’s new carbine.

We weren’t keeping score, but I think I gave a bit of schooling.

More later…

PS: Sun poisoning sucks. Big rocks up off the ground.

This post was written by Tam and was originally posted on View from the Porch. Reposted with permission.

So much for the bet. I shot a raw time of about 46 seconds which would have been fast enough to beat Joe who shot a raw time of 49.89. Except for the part where i tagged a no shoot… and was smacked with a 5-second penalty. So joe wins the bet, and i owe him some 40. Of course it ended up not mattering in the grand scheme of things, because Robb shot a freaking 39 second run and absolutely destroyed all of us.
Well done Robb good job!

This post was written by Caleb and was originally posted on Call Me Ahab. Reposted with permission.

I have closed the poll for reader predictions on the bet between Joe Huffman and Caleb from Call Me Ahab. I just received word that in the end, 67% of you predicted correctly that Joe Huffman would win!

Report from the range:

Joe was 49.89. caleb was 51.31. Caleb got a 5 sec penalty for shooting a good guy.

This is your last chance to vote in the contest between Joe Huffman and Caleb at Blackwater. The odds have gone from 100% in Joe’s favor at the beginning, hovering between 75% and 85% most of the time, now dropping to 70% as we approach the last day.

As soon as I see a post about the results, I’ll remove the poll.

UPDATE: The poll is now closed. Joe Huffman beat Caleb both in the poll and on the range.

This post was written by Sebastian and was originally posted on Snowflakes in Hell. Reposted with permission.

…and not because I’m Todd Jarrett’s “Special Ed” pupil, but because I typed on this very blog the words “Sunscreen? Check.“

Yeah. Well…

SPF nine jillion doesn’t work when it’s still in the bottle, unless you, like, tape the bottle to your face to block the sun’s rays or something. Whereas if you forget it in your room and don’t bother to borrow anybody else’s, you just get cooked.

This post was written by Tam and was originally posted on View from the Porch. Reposted with permission.

I have been very impressed with Todd’s instruction.  Todd is mostly concentrating on tips and techniques that will make us better shooters.  I have never done shooting on the move before, and never shot at anything that moved except for clay birds.  I thought I did pretty decently on both, doing my best to follow some of Todd’s advise.  The cool thing about what Todd has taught us, is that I think I could come back and show other people his tips.  Here are some pictures below of Todd Jarrett at work.  Click on the pictures to see descriptions of what you’re seeing.

Now I just have to go home and practice, practice, practice everything Todd has taught.

This post was written by Sebastian and was originally posted on Snowflakes in Hell. Reposted with permission.

I burned more powder today than I have at one time in a long time. We started early in the morning with some simple drills, picking up from where we left off yesterday with sight picture, a good firm grip, sight picture, trigger control, and sight picture. From there, it was time to work from the holster.

Todd made sure everyone could work safely from the leather plastic, and from there we went to shooting on the move, both moving towards and away from the target, as well as laterally along the firing line. Ironically, shooting on the move can be easier than you think, because you’re generally zoned in on the front sight and what surplus attention you have is on your footwork and that doesn’t leave enough brainpower to overthink your trigger pull and botch your shot.

Awesome Mad Max rental car. Spent Simunitions included.

After a ride in the totally rad Blackwater taxi to the chow hall for lunch, stages got more complicated, mixing movement and barricades and moving targets.

More later…

This post was written by Tam and was originally posted on View from the Porch. Reposted with permission.

I ache all over. Eight hours of shooting. Shooting while moving toward, away from, or parallel to the target, shooting at moving targets, shooting while moving at moving targets. I don’t know how many hundred rounds. My right hand feels as if it were sandpapered. Another shooter has a blister on his palm.

I’m coming to like the Para LDA trigger. I’ve always shot single action 1911s, never once shot a double action auto, so it takes getting used to. It’s indeed a light pull compared to what I expected in a DA. As one shooter said, a Glock-like trigger on a 1911 chassis. Chuckle–the Glock shooters took to it readily, but had no idea of how to take it apart, and the 1911 shooters had the reverse situation.

Para-Ord handguns may become collectibles, soon. The company is changing its name to Para USA and relocating its manufacturing from Canada to North Carolina.

Amusing note: To shuttle all the people around, Blackwater lent us two Suburbans. They were vehicles used in their ramming exercises. One is minus front bumper, grille and one headlight, plus two windows, with windshield heavily cracked. Both had been badly sideswiped, and one has bullet holes. They are full of expended or live simulated ammunition (firing tiny paint balls). They’re so badly beat up that one had a fender portion fall off while parked outside the cafeteria. They are, of course, great fun to ride in.

This post was written by David Hardy and was originally posted on Of Arms & The Law. Reposted with permission.

Check out the Gun Nuts Radio Blog to view our day at ParaUSA, in beautiful pictures.

This post was written by Caleb and was originally posted on Call Me Ahab. Reposted with permission.

Is better than a great day at work. And I proved that today.

I learned a valuable lesson today. I suck. I suck bad. I need to really practice a lot more. In fact, I’d venture to say I was near the worst shooter here.

It turns out, shooting at static targets using the weaver stance at the indoor range doesn’t translate well into the kinds of shooting I did today. I didn’t do too bad when I moved and shot, in fact I did well in that phase, but I couldn’t hit the Earth shooting at 25 yards.

Todd Jarrett was very patient with me. The man is a machine and a great teacher. I used to use a weaver stance, but I’ve seen the light. Isosceles (a word which my spell check tried to correct as Missiles Assholes Disposables Snowshoes) is how I roll from now on.

And the man had a magic marker - two sets of marks on our hands to show how to hold the pistol and where to grip it. And the shit worked like a charm. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a natural feel, and the tendons in my hands and arms are paying the price for my lack of vision, but it was amazing how quickly your front sight popped back on your target.

I also learned that ‘riding the trigger’ hurts you more than it helps. On the Glock, I’ve been trying to release the trigger just right until I felt the detent release. Not gonna do that any more.

Finally, I have to admit that I need to pay a hell of a lot less attention to the trigger and focus on my front sight. When I listened to everything Todd told me and let the trigger break without me knowing it, I hit exactly where the sight was. This is also why I did better shooting on the move - I didn’t have time to pay attention to the trigger.

I made one hell of a mistake this morning. I pointed my muzzle completely to my left, and got an earful from Mr. Jarrett. It took me a while to forgive myself for such a stupid mistake, but eventually I did. Firearms safety is something I take very seriously and to make such a monumental goof was embarrassing. Luckily, it was nothing more than an empty pistol, but luck isn’t something you can rely on to keep everyone safe.

Today wasn’t a day of great shooting. But it was a great day of shooting for sure. I learned a lot, realized I’m not as good of a shooter outside of my comfortable little indoor range, and that it’s time to do more competitive shooting to get better.

In fact, today, even as I sit here sore of muscles and blistered of hands, I would easily go through it all again. I learned more today in how to shoot a gun than probably the whole of my life teaching myself.

And I’ve pulled a muscle smiling from it.

This post was written by Robb Allen and was originally posted on Sharp as a Marble. Reposted with permission.