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.
ICC Frangible Ammunition
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.
UPDATE: Looks like Dave Hardy thought pretty highly of the ammunition too.
Para TTR AR-15
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:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrFu67eW4Oo[/youtube]
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.
All Good Things Must End
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.
Last Day to Vote!
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.
Todd Jarrett at Work
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.
Para LDA 1911, The Good and the Bad
Overall, my experience with the LDA, after a day of shooting hundreds of rounds of ammunition, have been pretty favorable. The LDA trigger is nicer and smoother than the one on my Glock, and shoot pretty decently with it. My main complaint about the platform is the fact that it even has a safety. I know, I know, a Glock user complaining about a manual safety, big shocker. But I think, given the similarity in operation to a Glock renders the manual safety superfluous. More than a few times, I ended up actuating the manual safety when I was shooting, causing the gun not to fire. Not a big deal on the range, but in a life and death situation that could be lethal.
The platform itself is reliable, however. A few people had issues with it, mostly people who were used to shooting standard single action 1911s, but I had only one FTF, and it was my fault for fumbling my grip. I also deliberately eschewed oil and cleaning throughout the day to see if it could take it without failing. It did.
Para has offered us a pretty good price to buy the guns and have them shipped to our local FFL, and I plan to take them up on the offer. I have enjoyed shooting the gun. I will still remain a Glock guy for my carry piece, because I’ve put thousands of rounds through it with no failure, but if I start shooting IPSC, steel plate or bowling pin shooting, I think the Para LDA would work better for me. The LDA 1911 makes a great competition platform for shooters who carry a Glock as their self-defense piece. The feel of shooting it is similar enough that your shooting technique for one won’t interfere with the other.
Tomorrow we get to try the grips that Crimson Trace provided for us in Blackwater’s shoot house. I will offer my opinion on that after tomorrow.
Our Gun Nutty Blackwater Transportation
There’s nothing gun bloggers like better than Blackwater provided transportation of a shot up car. Blackwater is the largest single buyer of used cars in the State of North Carolina. They buy them for everything from stunt driving to their own version of Smash Up Derby, usually involving a lot of breaking through barricades, and often firepower.
The really great thing was that I managed to fish about 40 once fired Lake City brass out of the vehicle. The really funny thing is, the radio in the vehicle still worked just fine. I guess the Blackwater mechanics have their priorities in order. Thanks to Blackwater for telling us “Hey, if you need some help getting to and from your range, the keys are in the ignition of those shot up cars, feel free to use them.”
Morning Shooting at Para Summer Camp
This morning we got our hands marked up by Todd Jarrett to teach us a proper grip. Let me tell you, it works. My speed and accuracy improved markedly. I still have some difficulty with the draw, but there’s nothing that will correct that except for repetition.
Todd also had us shoot a silhouette target at 25 yards. I did respectably, but let me tell you, Caleb got all of his hits in the kill zone. I had to shoot low and right to find the bullseye.
Obama’s Other Anti-Gun Running Mate
So the Obama/Bayh bumper stickers were a leak to distract folks. It looks like it’s Joe Biden. So, like I did with Bayh, let’s look at Biden’s record. We don’t have to go far. Remember the YouTube debates where he said a gun owner was not “mentally qualified” to own guns for simply asking a question.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9aIb-IplqY[/youtube]
- He takes pride in writing gun bans.
- He’s F-rated with NRA – the worst among almost all of the most talked about candidates.
- NRA highlights his recent threats to gun owners via his work on his Senate committee:
NRA has been tracking the U.N.`s gun-ban activities for well over a decade, and thanks to the Bush administration`s appointees to the U.N., the U.S. position on any global gun-ban treaty has been consistent and uncompromising: Hands off the Second Amendment rights of American citizens!
However, all that could change, now that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee–which approves or rejects our U.N. representatives and assesses international treaties for possible ratification–is chaired by anti-gun U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.
Like Schumer, Biden is rated “F” by the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) for his countless votes against firearm freedom. Like Schumer, Biden voted to expose the lawful firearm industry to crippling lawsuits; to extend and expand the Clinton gun bans; to allow a ban on most hunting-rifle ammunition; and to deny the free-speech rights of groups like the NRA during elections.
Now, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden can use his power to sabotage pro-freedom nominees for U.N. ambassador–as he did with Second Amendment defender John Bolton–and bully fellow senators into accepting whatever gun-ban treaty the U.N. concocts in the name of fighting international terrorism.
- Needless to say, he didn’t sign on to the Heller brief and doesn’t support efforts to reform DC’s gun laws.
Biden is bad news all around for any gun owner. Pair him with Obama, and it’s a far left gun ban ticket.