A friend’s son recently got married and moved out on his own. He’s 20 years old and ready to take on the world. He recently mentioned that he’d never shot anything other than a shotgun and the occasional airsoft gun. This was a situation that was crying out to be remedied. Fortunately I know just the person to do it. So we spent some time at home with an airsoft pistol – going through some basic gunhandling and safety fundamentals – then headed to the range. . .

I put an Advantage Arms .22 conversion slide on a G17, showed him how to load the magazine and the gun and handed it to him. We went over grip, front sight, slow trigger press and I let him go at it with the target set at three yards.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We corrected that backwards leaning stance a bit and let him shoot the .22 for a while. After 30 or 40 rounds, a respectable 3-inch grouping took shape on the target. Time to try a larger caliber.

Next, I popped a TSD Combat Systems 9mm slide on the pistol, and we loaded up some parabellum.  Here is video of his first two shots of 9mm ever. Be patient.

Click here to view the embedded video.

He really did a great job taking it slow and easy, just as we talked about. He didn’t know what to expect and I tend to talk too much.

The RMR simplified the sighting process, while making any trigger technique issues glaringly obvious. After a magazine, he’d produced a single 1.5 inch hole with just a couple flyers. Not bad at all for a first-time shooter. The “kid” learns quickly and we took down that target for him to take home.

Then let him shoot the G19 with open sights and finally we finished the day with the .45 cal G30sf:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Watching this last video, I think the confidence he gained handling the pistol throughout our session is obvious.

But here are a few things I learned in teaching a new shooter:
-Electronic hearing protection is really helpful in allowing communication when instructing.
-Hand-eye coordination is hand-eye coordination. This young man is a reasonably accomplished basketball player, and had no difficulty learning and implementing the fundamentals very quickly.
-Don’t forget eye protection! I usually just wear my prescription glasses, and had to borrow a pair of safety glasses for my student.
-Take someone shooting. This weekend. Today. We all know someone who’s curious about guns. It’s as fun for the teacher as it is for the student and it introduces another gun muggle to the shooting sports. I can’t think of a bigger win-win.

Now, if I had any really rich relatives, I’d probably own a sweet Blazer rifles or, in keeping with my namesake, a Barrett. Unfortunately, the madness has to stop somewhere, so my precision rifle had to be done on the cheap. Well sort of. Rather than blowing a wad of cash all at one time, I decided to see what I could do assembling a rifle from various parts, spending a little bit here, and a bit more there.

I decided to try and build something around the 300 Winchester Magnum cartridge. I initially chose the 300 WinMag for a very simple reason: it’s the cartridge around which the U.S. Army is building their XM2010 weapon system. While I don’t know very much about precisions ballistics, I figured the Army does and what’s good for them is probably a good place to start.

I considered the .338 Lapua, but at nearly $4 a bullet (unless you reload, which I don’t at present), it gets a bit costly to shoot a lot. I also considered the .50 BMG, but I was, well,  shot down by the same concerns around bullet cost. Besides, most of the ranges around me ban .50 cal rifles.

As I’ve learned more since getting into this project, the 300 WinMag isn’t prohibitively expensive. It also has a very flat trajectory, meaning that I don’t have to do serious compensation for bullet drop until I start getting a good ways away from my target.

After looking around and considering a number of systems, I decided to base my rifle on the Remington 700 platform. While there are cheaper options, the U.S. Army also uses the 700 action. If it’s good enough for government work, it’s good enough for me. So I got the project started by picking up a used Remington 700 SPS – no frills, just your basic rifle – for $500.

Of course, I wasn’t used to shooting powerful rifles and it had been a while since I’d last fired a 12 gauge. So I was rather unpleasantly surprised by the Remington 700′s kick. You do get used to it, but dump 20-30 rounds down range in a single session and you walk away with a sore shoulder.

At the end of last year, I decided to give myself a little Christmas present and replaced the stock with one made by Accuracy International. AI makes some serious sniper rifles with equally serious prices, but for just $800 you can purchase their AICS “chassis system” stock upgrade for the 700.

The stock couldn’t be easier to install. Simply remove two screws from the bottom of the rifle, pull the old stock off and drop the action and barrel into the AICS. The stock’s designed to self-bed, so none of that work is necessary. Additionally, it’s designed to permit a floating barrel, so you get that advantage over the stock Remington design as well.

Doing this sort of conversion really changes the “mission profile” of this rifle. Equipped with the basic Remington stock, the 700 is very much a multipurpose rifle. You can always attach a bipod for some precision shooting, but it’s also relatively easy to sling one over your shoulder if hunting is your thing. The AICS stock, though, adds length and 5.75 pounds. That’s really not something you’ll want to lug over hill and dale chasing Bambi.

But the extra weight and grip positioning, along with a more substantial recoil pad, make for much lower felt recoil. Now, the only place that hurts after dumping three dozen rounds down range is the wallet. A $1,300 rifle can hardly be considered cheap, but it’s still half the price of many of equivalent alternatives and it has elevated my humble Remington 700 SPS into something else entirely in both the performance and appearance departments.

To economize a little, I’ve chosen a Simmons Whitetail Classic Rifle Scope with a 6.5 – 20x zoom that I picked up for less than $110 in one of Midway USA’s sales. Normally, this scope sells for about $250, still a relative bargain compared to some of the bigger names. I also added an Atlas Accuracy International Spigot and AAIS Bottom Rail, both from B&T Industries. What this does is to make use of the quick release bipod mount on the bottom of the AICS stock. The bottom rail is attached to the spigot and it enables the use of any bipod with a Picatinny mount. I’m using a cheap bipod right now, but will invest in a better one down the road.

I’ve started working with this rifle at my local range and hope to be able to get it to shoot very accurately out to 300 yards (the limit at my main range). Then I plan to take a class at the Sig Sauer Academy that will let me get out to 1,000 yards. A barrel replacement may be in the cards at that point, but we’ll see what the stock Remington can do first.  I suspect that it will be a while before my marksmanship skills exceed the capabilities of this rifle as it currently stands.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that many people who who get into pistols end up selling the first gun they buy within one year of purchasing it. Let me add a couple of caveats to that statement, though. First of all, this assumes that our new pistol aficionado has access to an easy means of selling or trading in their pistol. Secondly, it also assumes that you don’t have a friend or two who owns pistols of various types which gives you the opportunity to extensively test different models out before buying that first one.

In my case, my assertions and caveats are true.  I did not have the opportunity to try out a number of pistols extensively and do have access to a ready market to sell my used guns, which is why my so-recently beloved XDms are going on the block.

Let me step back for a minute and give you some background on myself as the new gun buyer back in March 2011 (yes, I am very much a newbie here).  Growing up, I knew that I wanted an automatic. My perceptions were initially shaped by the original Lethal Weapon movie in which Mel Gibson had a Beretta 92 and he mocked his partner’s old fashioned “wheel gun.”  The Beretta looked cool, Mel looked cool using it and I wanted one.

Flash forward a few years until I was in college and got a chance to see a Glock for the first time. This was the end of the 1980s and Glock had come on the scene pretty hard. I remember shooting a friend’s Glock and thinking, “meh.” I would not actually get around to purchasing a gun of my own until more than two decades later.

In those intervening years, I had the chance to shoot a few Glocks (as well as other guns from time to time) and thought that I was ready for a Glock of my own since they were everywhere and the universe of aftermarket Glock accessories was frankly amazing. But all that ended in March of 2011 when I accompanied my 82 year old father to a local Houston gun store to get himself his first automatic. He already owned a S&W.357 and a 12 gauge, but wanted an automatic too.

“Show us a Glock” was what I confidently told the salesman. He said that the Glock was indeed a very nice gun but suggested before committing to buying one that we compare it side by side with a Springfield Armory XD. He brought up the issue of grip angle on the Glock and I noticed this myself as did my father. We both discovered that  the angle of the grip on the Glock tends to initially point the gun too high to engage a target in front of you. Sure, if you use Glocks you quickly learn to compensate, but both my father and I preferred the angle of the XD grip and the accessory package that shipped with it was a definite plus.

My father would have bought the XD that day except that he no longer had the hand strength to rack the slide. With this in mind, the salesman suggested he look at the Beretta 92A1. He could work the slide on that one and that’s the gun that he took home that day.  We both worked with it using dummy loads, practiced breaking it down, loading and unloading it, etc.  It was a nice gun, but in my head, I was sold on what I thought was the superior XD.

When I returned home after my visit with my parents, I promptly went down to the store and bought my first gun, an XDm in .40 (okay, I was sold on the “upgrades” of the XDm platform – I am a sucker for that sort of thing). It wasn’t much more than the XD and I figured the extras were worth it for me. I went with the .40 because I felt that I wanted the extra stopping power of the more powerful .40 caliber round.

I soon learned that the difference in ammo prices made shooting the .40 a bit more expensive than I wanted over the long term, so my next purchase was an XDm in 9mm. I was happy as I knew nothing else.  That happiness was to change soon enough.

In one of the books I was reading at the time, the protagonists used the special forces H&K MK 23 in .45.  That looked like a cool gun and I did want to eventually get a .45.  At north of $2,000, the MK23 was bit out of my price range, but its smaller cousin, the USP Tactical .45 was a nice compromise as it, too had a threaded barrel so that I could one day fit a silencer (if I ever decide to go that way). Even better, the local gun shop had a used one in stock at a relatively decent price.

I really liked the H&K. As a true DA/SA pistol with an external hammer, I discovered that I very much liked having a hammer to cock for a couple of reasons. First of all, I had recently purchased a Laserlyte targeting system that projects a laser dot onto a laser-sensitive target when you pull the trigger.  It was much easier to practice with the H&K than with the XDm as the XDm required me to rack the slide after every shot whereas the H&K only needed the hammer cocked. Or I could simply pull the trigger in DA mode.

Secondly, and even more important, if I wanted to carry the gun with a round in the chamber, I had to carry the XDm “hot.” The striker was pulled back so all it required was a single action trigger pull to discharge the gun. Now, conceptually I know that striker fired guns are safe.

Many people carry XDs, Glocks, and other striker fired guns every day, but in the back of my mind, I still think that all of the built in safeties are only mechanical and mechanical things can fail (Yes, I know that I am being a bit of a wuss here, but there it is).  If there was even a chance that the striker might go forward on its own volition, I simply was not prepared to take the chance, which means that I would be consigned to carrying my XDm without a bullet locked and loaded which, in turn, meant that in an emergency, it would have to take an additional second or two to chamber a round. Not an ideal option either.

The DA/SA of the H&K allowed me to load a round in the chamber and then use the decocking lever to safely drop the hammer.  Now I could carry with a round in the chamber, but nothing was under tension waiting to release the hammer. I would simply have to contend with the heavier trigger pull for the first round, but I could live with that.

The H&K was nice, but let’s face it, even though it was smaller than the MK23, no one would ever call it a compact gun. It really was not a good choice for concealed carry.  For some reason, I got the Beretta back in my head again and a few weeks later, I became the proud owner of a 92A1, just like what my father had. As I used it, I became astounded at how good it was. I could shoot the Beretta very accurately and it had all of the features that I liked on my H&K.

Flash forward a few more months to when I took my first course at the Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. I’m fortunate in that I live less than an hour away from this amazing training facility. The class gave me the opportunity to study the Sigs in more detail in the pro shop and it soon became clear that a Sig Sauer was in my future.

One Sig became two, then three and as of today, I have four Sigs in my stable; a P238 Equinox, a P226 Tactical Ops, a P229 Equinox, and a P239. While Sig does offer different trigger options, all of my guns with the exception of the P238 are DA/SA. The Sigs shoot like a dream, are reliable and  ridiculously easy to take down for cleaning. Furthermore, I went on to take the Sig Armorer class and now am qualified to work on my Sigs without voiding warranties.

My .40 XDm has already been sold and the 9 mm XDm is currently on the block. Once I get rid of it, all of my guns will either be DA/SA or SA only in the case of my 1911 and P238.

The moral of the story is that, had I known then what I know now, I would never have bought a striker fired gun. I’m taking a bit of a bath to unload them, but better that than to have money tied up in guns I will never use. Many people will continue to swear by their Glocks. Price-wise they are certainly a bit better than the Beretta and a lot easier on the wallet than the Sigs. But for me, the peace of mind of the DA/SA is worth the extra cost.

I caution anyone who is about to start their own gun collection to consider carefully your needs and concerns and pick the best gun for the job rather than simply buying whatever is hot today. If you can, get to a range and rent any gun you think you want to buy. And ask the range owner to show you how to take the gun down for cleaning. Doing that before before plunking down the plastic will save you a lot of regret down the road.

January ended with more paperwork completed for my Texas CHL (Concealed Handgun License). But, truth be told, I’ve taken few practical steps towards my goal of armed self-defense. The longest journey starts with a single bullet; I’ve fired my fair share in the run-up to the mandatory instruction needed to perform my obligatory Wally walk (walking through Wal-Mart whilst carrying concealed). I’ve discovered that I don’t know what I don’t know, but I know that I don’t know a lot. You know? Well you probably do. As for me . . .

State Required CHL Class

First, I rescheduled for a family event. Then the instructor rescheduled for a family event. And then we rescheduled one more time for an unspecified reason. Nothing new to report other than the people at Amerishield are really easy to work with. I have no idea what their class is like, but the customer service has been amazing up to this point: patient and understanding  with just the right amount of kick-ass underneath.

Skills Training

Karl Rehn from KR Training has been unbelievably generous sharing his expertise via email during the evenings. Between Karl and RF, I’m reminded almost daily that this will be a never-ending quest for perfection. Just about the time that I think I understand something, I get a harsh dose of reality. And because I’m a glutton for punishment, here is some video from my last trip to the range. Feel free to pick apart form and technique. RF has already busted me on standing and shooting instead of moving and shooting. Please pardon the vertical iPhone footage. My GoPro battery had already given up for the day.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ll be attending Karl’s Defensive Pistol class on February 18^th. To say I’m stoked would be like saying Miranda Kerr is a MILF. I’ll be running a M&P 9mm from Smith & Wesson’s T&A—I mean T&E department. Karl is spotting me a holster. We’re meeting up afterwards to cover some basics about gun selection, holster selection, strategy, techniques, etc. I’ll blog the KR training classes in my next update.

Places to train

Austin has this really nice set of indoor ranges that are open until 9:00pm. In an ideal world, I get practice there once a week. In the real world, it’ll be every other week, and sometimes every three weeks. Last weekend, I made the LONG trip up to Best of the West. For $16, I got my own private bay for a few hours to do whatever I wanted. Full mag dumps? Sure! Holster draws? You bet. Rapid fire? All day long! Want to practice shooting out of your vehicle? Go nuts!

Liberation! The first to say that the 100 or so rounds of .45 ACP that I sent down range were the most productive I’ve shot in the last year. There is simply no replacement for being able to get creative at the range (safely). With and without sunglasses, one-hand, off-hand, it’s all good. I’m lucky enough to live within a reasonable distance of some really stellar ranges. I wish the same for you.

Gun Selection:

I’m in a bit of a quagmire when it comes to gun selection. This may cause some debate, but the 1911 is out. During the holster draw exercises, I inadvertently clicked the safety on twice. I am completely positive that I could work out the kinks with enough practice. I could feel confident carrying the 1911. One day, I might be to that point. Right now, I want something deadnuts reliable in the “point and shoot” department. T minus 10 minutes until Ralph inserts a subtle nudge that I might want to look at S&W’s line of fine revolvers.

RF talked about the whole “don’t get married, just play the field” deal. And then we applied it to firearms (click here to read his post on the topic). At the moment, the Gen4 Glock, M&P, and XD(m) in a calibers TBD are on the table. I’ve looked at the SIGs and I’m warming up.

Conclusion

I’m keeping the faith. Having to keep reschedule my CHL class is definitely a setback, but I feel positive about my roster of gun gurus, including, of course, TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia.

The strangest thing happened the other day. I pulled the trigger on my XDm and nothing happened. Tap, rack, bang. Yes, but—the nine mil had never failed to fire. Never. Not once in over 7000 rounds (easy). The rest of the bullets in the mag went downrange like scalded cats. So I stopped and thought about it. And then it hit me: I’d short-stroked the gun. I hadn’t released the XDm’s trigger far enough towards the front of the firearm to reset the go-pedal. But I had released it far enough to think I was ready to shoot again. Uh-oh . . .

I found the failure deeply unsettling. Short-stroking a gun may not be the worst mistake I could make during a defensive gun use (DGU), but it certainly ranks in the top twenty on the list of “Things You Don’t Want to Happen When You’re Trying to Shoot Someone.”

Worse, I’d never short-stroked a handgun before. I couldn’t figure out why I’d done it. A random screw-up from a guy who writes about guns for a living, who spends more on ammo than the average American surrenders at their local grocery store on a weekly basis? Not good.

So I communed with the rabbi and conducted a few experiments at the range with the XDm and my carry piece (a Glock 30SF). I eventually sussed-out the cause of my failure to launch and discovered a pitfall all self-defense shooters should strive to avoid. Start with this . . .

You know the expression “Beware of the man with one gun”? According to this old adage, it’s better to get really, really good with a single weapon than to be so-so with a bunch of different guns. If you become extremely proficient with a single firearm you’ll run the gun without thinking and gain a strategic advantage (e.g., you’ll know your effective range).

Yes and no. Yes, there’s a direct correlation between firearms familiarity and the shooter’s lethality in combat—model-specific practice may not make perfect but it can get you close enough for government work. Unfortunately, you lose the ability to use other weapon systems effectively. In other words, I short-stroked the XD because I’d “over-practiced” with my Glock 30SF.

Check out the video at the top of this post. [Excuse my finger placement; I modified my grip to get my thumbs out of the way for the camera. As for the full trigger travel videos below, I know your finger should never lose contact with the trigger until you're done shooting.]

I’m shooting the Glock the way it’s supposed to be shot (IMHO). You pull the trigger, let it return to the reset point, and shoot again from there. Thanks to the Glock’s extremely loud and tactile reset point, you know exactly when the trigger’s going to break. You can “ride” the reset.

This Glocktastic reset point enables extremely rapid and accurate follow-up shots. Stupidly so; with just a flash sight picture, I can double tap a brace of .45s through the same hole at five yards. At ten yards, I can empty a [Massachusetts-compliant] 10-round magazine in under three seconds with combat accuracy. With enough time, I can hit a sheet of paper with all eleven shots at 25 yards.

Of course, that’s down to both the gun and the fact that I’ve had a LOT of practice. So much practice that I trained myself to let the trigger out so much after firing and no more—regardless of the gun in my hand. I’d programmed my trigger finger (i.e. subconscious mind) to expect Glock “perfection.” Hence I short-stroked the XDm.

To illustrate that point, check out the difference between riding the reset on an XDm [above] and letting the trigger out to its full length of travel [below].

The long and short of it: there’s isn’t much difference. The XDm’s trigger reset point is so close to the end of the trigger travel, and the reset’s so demure (especially compared to the Glock), that there’s no point trying to feel for it. You just pull the XDm’s trigger, let it return all the way and pull again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The Glock’s trigger isn’t inherently better than the XDm’s. The XDm’s trigger’s transition from “off” to “on” is wonderfully positive, smooth and easy. You sweep through the XDm’s break rather than punch through it, as you do with the Glock. It’s the difference between the accelerator pedal in a V12 Mercedes and a Porsche Turbo.

OK, so, let’s assume that I want to be able to shoot any gun well—not just my Glock. I have two options. First, I could change the way I shoot the Glock. I could retrain my brain according to a general rule that I will allow the trigger to move through its full range of motion between shots. That way, I won’t short-stroke any gun—at least in theory. Here’s the video of that action:

Problem. I don’t like letting the Glock trigger go. I’m sacrificing a smidgeon of speed and accuracy for what? The remote possibility that I may have to pick up a bad guy or cop’s gun and use it? Again, I LIKE riding the reset on the Glock. As far as I’m concerned, the Austrian gun’s click-bang-click-bang trigger reset sets the Glock apart from the competition. So . . . what to do?

Eddy at American Firearms School set me straight. “Don’t focus so much on your Glock,” he advised. “Shoot lots of guns. Get so you know how to work all kinds of different triggers.” Roger that. When I was shooting a wide variety of guns with all kinds of triggers—double-action only, double-action to single action, single-action only—I adapted my trigger finger to suit.

So I can still ride the reset on my EDC (Every Day Carry) Glock—as long as I train my brain to recognize the type of gun I’m shooting and react accordingly. Revolver? Long smooth pull. XDm? Same deal. Glock? BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.

More generally, I learned that the same rule that applies to female deer applies to handgun training: no rut, no problem. Or you could say beware of the man with one gun. Don’t let it be you.

In 1997, I purchased my first firearm: a compact 9mm Sigma made by Smith & Wesson. At the time, I thought I was taking a bold step in the direction of protecting myself. I’d never fired a weapon before, despite being raised in a family with uncles and grandparents that hunted deer for food. That said, I’ve never had an aversion to firearms. I believed that responsible owners should be allowed to have guns if they wanted them. It would take eleven years and seven guns before I’d realize that I was the worst type of gun owner: reluctant and resentful . . .

I bought my first gun because I was afraid, plain and simple. I’d had three stalkers in my life at that point. The first was an ex-boyfriend. The other two were random strangers who fixated on me for reasons I don’t understand to this day.

Fear is not the right motivation to purchase and carry a firearm. A commitment to doing what is necessary to protect yourself is the only proper motivation. As a fearful owner, I committed all of the cardinal sins of gun ownership:

• I went to the range exactly once when I bought the Sigma. The gun jammed on the first magazine and I never went back. I replaced the Sigma with a Smith & Wesson Airweight and never thought about it again. In the eleven years I owned firearms, I went to the range maybe five times in total.
• I didn’t practice routine gun safety. I never cleaned my weapons. I barely knew how to load and unload them. I took a basic handgun safety class strictly to acquire a concealed carry permit and that was it.
• Despite carrying the weapon everywhere, I never carried it in a fashion that would actually allow me to draw it properly if needs be. It usually lay somewhere on the bottom of my purse where I couldn’t even reach it.

By being afraid rather than committed, I resented the presence of my gun. It was a reminder of the danger I faced every time I set foot outside my house. As a result, I did as little as possible in terms of care and maintenance of the gun and did everything I could to handle it as little as possible.

In short, I was a danger to myself and to those around me. If a situation had ever arisen where I might actually need the gun, I was more likely to either shoot myself or be disarmed. It is this type of behavior that allows people to blame handguns and try to pass gun control laws limiting our citizens’ rights. In truth, I was the danger. Not the weapon.

Outside circumstances forced me to sell every weapon I owned. Given my mindset and complete lack of responsibility, it was just as well. And once my guns were gone, I was relieved. I felt as if a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

What did not go away, though, was the fear.

I became much less likely to leave my house without my husband. I have two large dogs. They became constant companions and protectors. Even to the extent of taking my dog with me to take out the trash. If I had to go out alone, I stayed on the phone with my husband the entire time I was gone.

Despite this constant fear, I steadfastly refused to even consider replacing my guns. I had an excuse at every turn. Finally, my husband just dropped the subject all together.

This went on for two years, until something happened that forced me to take a hard look at what I was doing.

I was out walking one of my dogs when two transients entered the parking lot of my apartment complex. My dog was behind a large rock that stands in the center of the courtyard, so they couldn’t see him. When I spotted them, I moved him out where he could be seen. They turned around and left quickly at that point.

Were they actually after me? Maybe, maybe not. But it scared the hell out of me. I ran inside and told my husband what had happened and told him that I wanted him on the phone when I took the dogs out. He looked at me and asked some very simple questions. “Exactly what do you think I would have been able to do? You would have been lucky if I could have even gotten out there before they did something to you. How were you going to protect yourself in the meantime?”

This left me dumbfounded. I had never considered him being too far away to respond in time. What became clear to me was that I had come to rely on him to take care of me rather than being responsible for myself. Not only was that unfair to him, it was unfair to me.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my safety after that and I came to realize that I have to take steps to protect myself. I’m a very small woman, 5’3” if I really stretch and about 115 pounds. I am going to be at a significant disadvantage up against a larger opponent.

Martial arts training is not an option due to physical limitations. I’ve carried knives in the past, but knives require you to be up close and personal with your attacker. Given my stature, I want to avoid being close to my attacker as possible. That led me to one conclusion: a gun would be my best second line of defense (after avoidance).

This was a radically different decision than the one I made in 1997. This time I made a reasoned and thoughtful decision to take on the responsibility of gun ownership.

Since making this decision, I’ve been reading up on various guns online and shopping around in person in my town. I’ve tried several weapons and even made a startling discovery. My fingers are so small that there are guns whose trigger I can’t squeeze.

In eleven years of gun ownership, I held the vast majority of my guns incorrectly. Returning to a Walther P22—a gun I carried at one point—I found that can’t squeeze that trigger when holding the gun in a proper grip; my fingertip doesn’t reach. The same limitation applies the Ruger SR9c and the LC9, the Bersa .380 and several others that I’ve tested in the shop.

The search continues. As part of my decision to return to the light of gun ownership, I’ve been reading gun reviews to get a better understanding of all the moving parts. I’ve identified a suitable concealed carry handbag and I’m looking at various holsters.

Fifteen years after I bought my first gun, I’m ready to be a gun owner again. I’m doing the necessary research. I’ve committed to regular range practice that will include working on drawing from the handbag and from the holster, not just picking it up off the counter at the range.

I’m no longer fearful and reluctant about guns. Now, instead, I’m confident that I am taking responsibility not just for my own safety, but for the safety of my family and those around me. As every gun owner should do.

I was able to spend a few hours at Gunsite again last week. I worked on close range scenarios involving both open hands and knife. By close range, I mean within 15 feet or so. My main takeaway: if someone decides to do violence to you at close range, by surprise, if they are determined in their attack, your concealed carry firearm probably won’t do you a  bit of good. I came away from the training feeling that I’m only beginning to know how much I don’t know about armed self-defense. Which is the first step toward avoiding or alleviating the problem of close-range contact . . .

The extremely close range fight is really the worst of situations for the defender.  If a criminal has gotten that close to you without alerting your “alarm systems,” you are likely distracted or deceived in some fashion. You are in a deep pit and it ain’t going to be pretty trying to climb back out of it. As such, simulated close encounters of the criminal kind are a great “worst case” situation for training.

First we spent some time in a classroom with a blue gun and a knife trainer. Dave emphasized that self defense needs to be focused on the problem. The problem is the person, not the knife, or the gun, or the punch. Our response should concentrate less on the bad guy’s weapon as regaining the initiative in the fight.

After discussing various scenarios, Trainer Dave took a couple runs at me with the knife, directing me to draw on him (classic Tueller drill stuff). It was a revelation: watching myself backpedaling, getting stabbed repeatedly as I struggled to get my gun into the fight. I was just like the cops in this video. A determined, real-world attacker would have put me on the ground and sewing-machined my skin.

We discussed our natural instinct to back-up and draw. That strategy fails badly because a determined attacker can run forward faster than a defender can run backward. At close range, you have to do something to create space (and time) to access your weapon. Gunsite counsels movement (if possible) to the side/flank, assuming a solid stance, and protecting the head/neck while viciously counter attacking. In theory, your counter attack gains you the space/time necessary to get out of Dodge, or access your weapon.

I realized I need to supplement my startle response with an attack response. It’s essential to respond to close range violence counter-intuitively, with an immediate and sudden escalation in violence.

I need to move and or get set into a protective stance, take the initial hit/stab from the best position possible and strike back in a way that takes my opponent’s vision, thinking or breathing away. Then continue to attack until I’m able to disengage and access my gun. Or simply disengage completely. Going for the gun at these distances simply will not work with a committed attacker.

It was a lot of info to process in a short time, but it made me realize that I am nearly useless right now against any sort of unarmed combatives. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but it gives me something to work on.

After the classroom time we headed to the range to work on shooting from retention, moving laterally and forward and backward while shooting. I felt more comfortable out here as most of the shooting stuff is review other than shooting from a high retention position.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In retention, essentially, you’re leaning a bit forward with a bent waist, support arm up and protecting you head, pistol drawn, and locked into the ribs on a bit of an angle so the slide does not foul on clothing.

We were about three feet from the target. Amazingly (and educationally) my first round missed. You can not see the pistol at all and are relying completely on indexing. Body indexing sucks. This is why some sort of visual reference to the gun is so essential while shooting. My round would have hit if I was in contact with another person which is the point of this exercise anyway.

Shooting from this retention position is a little freaky because parts of my body, including my face are forward of the muzzle. The blast, ejecta and heat coming from the muzzle (never mind the bullet) are disconcerting—to say the least.

All in all, it was a good half day of training and I learned a lot about myself and the dynamics of a fight. My take-home lesson: be fight-focused, not tool focused. The person is the problem. Deal with the person.

Tyler Kee writes to RF and me:

What gives guys? Both of you carry OWB. How do you keep things tucked away and hidden from view?

Let me in on the secret.

Okay.

The first handgun that I ever carried concealed was a CZ-75 that my friend let me borrow for a night. I had just applied for and received my Pennsylvania License to Carry Firearms that morning without ever having fired more than eight rounds from a handgun and receiving no training whatsoever, and I wanted to take my new license for a spin. So Nick let me borrow his CZ-75 and IWB holster and off to Wal Mart we went.

Walking around with a loaded handgun for the first time is an interesting experience. Even though it was the dead of winter and I had on a Soviet greatcoat for warmth, I was constantly thinking that people were noticing that bulge in my waistline. That constant fear of being singled out and identified as carrying a firearm was the biggest thing on my mind, so much so that I left without the box of Pop Tarts I had gone in to get (I was in college, cut me some slack on the food choice).

After that experience I decided that the deeper I can conceal my gun the happier I will be, and that IWB carry was comfortable enough to work while providing the proper ease of access and level of concealment.

The first handgun I purchased was a SIG SAUER P226, a monster of a handgun that was once accurately described as a boat anchor. I wanted something primarily for competition shooting and wasn’t thinking about concealment or comfort at all when I bought it. But naturally since I already had the permit I wanted to carry the P226 as well. I purchased an IWB holster with a thumb break snap from Cocnealco, stuffed it in my pants and carried like that for months. During that time I learned a few things about carrying IWB.

The first thing I learned is that carrying a handgun around inside your pants is generally uncomfortable. You have to remember that you’re adding an inch or two to your waistband when you pop a gun in there, so any pants you have now that are close fitting will be even tighter and your belts need to be able to go a notch looser or else you risk cutting off some blood supply to your legs. I fixed that issue by losing some weight, but for the lankier variety of humans that might not be possible.

Speaking of comfort, there’s nothing quite as uncomfortable as trying to drive a car with the muzzle of a SIG P226 digging into your leg and some hard gun leather rubbing against your skin. With an OWB holster you might be able to preposition the gun, but when carrying IWB you’re more or less stuck with the position you started the day.

The second thing I learned is that normal people don’t really go around and actively look at people’s waistbands to check to see if they have a gun. I do, but the average American doesn’t. I was shopping at a Target in Virginia one day and passed a guy with a Ruger SP101 open carrying through the store and had to point it out to my (ex) girlfriend when we passed him for the third time. She hadn’t noticed, and neither had anyone else. He just strode around confidently and no one seemed to notice.

But the most important thing I learned is that drawing from and holstering to a leather IWB holster is downright impossible to do quickly for me. The thumb snap wasn’t the issue — getting all of the clothing out of the way was.

When I got my hands on the Wilson Combat 1911 I started carrying OWB (Outside the WaistBand). Not because I made a conscious change (at first), but because the holster that came with it was an OWB leather holster. I had never really spent much time carrying concealed with an OWB holster, so I started carrying only when wearing heavy coats. And then light coats. And then sweatshirts. And then loose dress shirts. And now I’m down to t-shirts.

What I realized is that in this age of cell phones and pagers and blackberries, whenever someone sees something in black leather attached to your belt the first though is “tech” and not “gun.” And while I still try to keep myself from printing in public as much as possible, I’m comforted by the knowledge that even if a little of the holster protrudes from the bottom of my shirt the chance of someone seeing and the police being called are pretty darn slim.

Having done both, OWB carry makes a lot more sense to me than IWB carry. You can reposition your holster if needed to make it more comfortable to carry, you can draw a lot faster than typical IWB holsters and you don’t usually need to go fishing around in your pants to holster your gun.

The only downside is that it’s a lot harder to carry firearms with longer barrels if you’re carrying OWB. That’s where IWB shines and the only situation where I would prefer it — concealing longer barreled firearms. For every other situation OWB seems like the better option for me, especially with my snubby 1911. Comfort is why I started but speed is why I keep doing it.

If you have a topic you want to see covered in a future “Ask Foghorn” segment, email guntruth@me.com.

To browse previous Ask Foghorn segments visit http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/category/askfoghorn/.

In my first post in this series on obtaining a Texas Concealed Handgun License (CHL), I decided I wanted a 1911 as my carry gun. Then I realized that my brain turns to goo when I have to pick between 1% and 2% milk at the store. Adding a thumb safety to an already stressful situation struck me as an invitation to disaster. Farago also pointed out that I shoot a lot of different guns. If I exclusively carried and practiced with a 1911, it would be a fine carry weapon. But given the amount of different guns I get to cycle through, I could undo a lot of mission critical muscle memory with each draw and trigger squeeze of my non-carry gun. So right now it’s a tie between . . .

The Springfield XD(m) Compact and the Smith & Wesson M&P45c. After putting my meaty paws on a Gen4 Glock the other day, I briefly considered purchasing Gaston’s handiwork. Unfortunately, my fiancée’s not cool with me carrying something that doesn’t have some sort of safety. Say what you will about whips and nether regions; fighting my partner on this is not an option.

I know what you’re thinking: a grip safety’s a safety only if you drop the damn thing. In fact, there’s a school of thought that says a grip safety can prevent you from firing the gun from an “awkward” position. You can buy an M&P with an external safety, but no. I’m not going there. And let’s keep this to ourselves, OK?

XD. M&P. XD. M&P. I’m so confused. RF sings the praises of the XD’s trigger—but says the M&P’s go pedal’s better with an Apex trigger swap. Both guns are reliable and comfortable. Both guns will git ‘er done, especially in my caliber of choice (.45). Which reminds me (now that Springfield has done the right thing): full-size or compact?

Here are videos of me shooting both full-size guns (rentals) at my local range. I fed both pistols 25 rounds of ammo apiece. I did all my shooting at seven yards as fast at the RO would let me shoot. I’ve cut the videos down a bit so you don’t have to watch me reload and look bored.

Let’s start with my 1911. Simulated failures courtesy of snap caps.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Springfield Smith & Wesson M&P45

Click here to view the embedded video.

Admittedly, I have zero formal training when it comes to pistols or self-defense. But if you were sitting in my shoes and had these videos and targets for reference, which direction would you go?

Does it matter? I assume I’d get better with either gun over thousands of rounds. What else should I be considering in my choice? Customer service? Accessories? Help!