Women With Firepower

Fun at Front Sight

Melissa — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:00:38 +0000

As some of you know, I will become a parent very soon via domestic adoption. The hubby and I decided that we’d better get the trips done before our baby arrives, and one of the trips included a trip to Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. We decided to take the 4-day practical rifle course. I mainly wanted to take this course to become proficient with my AR-15, because I had very little experience with it. We flew out to Las Vegas on a Thursday. We’ve flown with guns many times, so we knew the drill. When we checked our rifles, we were escorted over to the TSA area where they x-rayed our rifle case. I could have sworn I heard one of the TSA agents mumble, “No way!” Bill (hubby) also heard this. When it came time for them to open the case, Bill told the guy, “Please don’t drool on the rifles.” At this, the TSA agent pretended to wipe the drool off his chin. When he opened the case, the agent actually giggled with delight! He couldn’t get over our awesome Magpuled out guns.
We arrived in Vegas with our 120 pounds of gear total. We stayed at the Marriott for the first few days. Front Sight is a good 45 minute drive from Las Vegas, but it’s worth staying there instead of Pahrump, since Pahrump has nothing to offer. Now granted, after spending the whole day at Front Sight in the sun training hard, when we got back to the hotel, we were not interested in doing anything except taking a shower to wash all the dust, gunpowder, and sweat off, eating something, and going to bed. But at least in Vegas you have a lot of options for food.
We were in a rifle class for returning students, which was great because everyone already knew the drills and the safety rules. We only had one STOP command on the range for the entire 4 days, and it was the instructor’s fault, not a student’s. The other students we had ranged from people like me who shoot mostly as a hobby, to full on special operators. One operator brought out his suppressed rifle. This was so cool because on the first day before we went on break for lunch, the instructor borrowed the rifle and gave a demonstration with it. He told us hearing protection was optional, so I took off my hearing protection since I’d never heard a suppressed weapon without protection before. The instructor fired the rifle at a steel target. I kid you not; the bullet hitting the steel was louder than the actual gunshot!
I’ve talked about the “hot brass boogie” before as being an uncomfortable situation to be in. However, I’ve discovered that I’d much rather take hot 9mm brass all day long before hot .223 brass. .223 brass is larger and much hotter. I took brass twice down the back of my shirt. I’ll tell you, it’s very hard to keep the muzzle of a rifle pointed down range while you are being subjected to 2nd degree burns, fortunately Bill was behind me to grab my rifle and the brass before it did any more damage. I’m writing this a week after the class and the burns are still healing.

One of the drills we learned was how to go from standing down to the prone position and fire a shot within six and a half seconds at 200 yards. We had knee and elbow pads and we were taught how to do it safely and quickly. I was on the second relay, so while we were waiting for the first relay to walk all the way down range, check their targets, and walk all the way back, I decided to practice getting into prone without my rifle. I did it about a dozen times before the first relay was back and it was our turn to shoot. Well, this was not my shining moment! I’d practiced without the rifle, so the moment I had the rifle in my hand and had to go into prone, the weight distribution was very different. The moment I hit the ground, the butt of my rifle came up and cracked me on the underside of my chin. I still got my shot off when I was supposed to, but it sure did rattle my teeth! I also got a pretty good bruise from it, but I had a lot of bruises by the time I was done.

The class was incredible. It was physically grueling, but very satisfying. By the fourth day, we were exhausted, but the moment the range master said we were going to have a steel competition, I perked right up. I love shooting steel, and I can get quite competitive. I beat my first opponent, but I lost in the second round. After the competition, we took our skills test for the entire class, and then while they were grading the tests, the range master asked if there were any grudges that needed to be settled. Well, after 4 days, there were quite a few grudges! I went up against my husband who beat me pretty soundly. The grudge match we were all looking forward to was these two men who had been best friends for 38 years. These two had been teasing each other throughout the entire class. While I was watching these two friends go up against each other, I noticed that the instructors were holding a gloved hand over the ejection port of their rifles, intentionally causing a malfunction! They were doing it to everyone to get back at us! That’s one of the things I love about Front Sight; the instructors are not drill sergeants, they have a great sense of humor.
The class was more than worth the trip. The only disappointment I had was that there were only 4 women in the class of over 40 students. In the handgun classes the number of women is much higher; sometimes almost half the class. Rifles can be very intimidating, and just the thought of taking 32 hours of training with one is a pretty daunting task. I was nervous about taking the class for the physical aspect of it, but Front Sight does everything they can to protect their students, but they also do not treat women any differently from the men. That is something I really respect of their program.

Steel Competition

Bill getting ready for his turn at the steel.

The Danger of Derringers

Melissa — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 20:57:15 +0000

I’ve noticed that a popular gun among women has been the derringer because of their small size and easy carry ability. Derringers are usually about the size of a person’s hand. I do not recommend most derringers to anyone except collectors. Most derringers do not have a trigger guard, making it very easy for anything to bump up against the trigger and setting the gun off.

Fortunately, a lot of derringer manufacturers have been making their guns with trigger guards. If you’re set on a derringer, look for one of these. However, these guns are so small that their ammunition capacity is anywhere from 2 to 5 rounds, and the ammunition sometimes is uncommon therefor hard to come by. The newer derringers come in more common calibers, but the antique ones can come in .41 or .32 caliber.

So if you’re looking for a small gun for personal protection, do yourself a favor and go to your local gun store (that you trust) and talk to the owner, or contact your local firearms instructor and see if you can try out some small guns. If you want to know what small gun I like, see my post on the Sig Sauer P238!

Why I Love my Country

Melissa — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:27:19 +0000

I am in school right now working towards my degree. I’m taking English Composition where we are studying arguments. This week’s assignment was to argue why you are a patriot. I had to think long and hard about this one, because even though I do love my country, I had to decide why and try to put it into words. I know I talk about our government a lot and what those in power do angers me often, but do know this: I love my country; there is no other country like this on Earth. The people of the United States of America may be divided on most of the issues that affect us, but when national tragedy strikes, we are no longer Republicans or Democrats, Northerners or Southerners, Coloradoans or New Yorkers; we are Americans and we are united. I love this country because our founding fathers gave us rights that many other countries dream about, many of which “shall not be infringed” (U.S. Const. amend. II). In many other countries, guns are banned. In many other countries, you could be killed in the street for just voicing your opinion. In many other countries, you are forced into an arranged marriage, or you must marry within your caste. This is not so in my country.
I also love this land. We have the opportunity to live in a country that has rocky beaches, sandy beaches, island paradises, mountains, rain forests, plains, and arctic tundras. Not many other countries can boast this many different landscapes in one country.
My country is not perfect. Those who are leading our country are certainly not perfect, and I would like to see many changes made in how this country is run. But this is my country, and I will do what I can to defend her and to assure her future for my children and grandchildren.

SHOT Show

Melissa — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:28:21 +0000

As expected, SHOT show was incredible. It’s very hard to try to describe to someone who hasn’t been there, but I’ll try! It started out with Media Day at the Range in Boulder City. Unfortunately, I missed it because of my 9 to 5 job. We flew in on Tuesday, which was the first day of the actual show. We went on Wednesday, which incidentally was the day the President announced his 23 executive orders for gun control. People asked me if the mood at the show was affected, and it really wasn’t. There was talk about it, of course, but it still was a very upbeat show. Everyone was thrilled to be with 60,000 other gun people, and the networking ability was great. We saw the Law Enforcement section first, which was a lot of fun, and not as overwhelming. We didn’t even realize how big the show was until we found the main room. The main room was unbelievable! The large manufacturers did not have a booth; they had a full store-sized display of their latest and greatest. I have to guess that Glock’s area alone was about 600 square feet, about the size of my old apartment! We did the ADD style of the SHOT show; “Oh look! Smith and Wesson! Lets go over there! Oh, we should go see 5.11! Let’s go see Remington’s new guns!” FYI, this is not a very efficient way to do SHOT! There were 12.5 miles of exhibits, and over 2 days, we probably saw 80% of them. On our second day, there were protesters outside the convention center. All three of them! It was actually pretty funny.
There were a lot of celebrities there as well. I got to meet a few of the Top Shot competitors, including Gabby Franco, Michelle Viscusi, Greg Littlejohn, Terry Vaughn, and Dustin Ellerman, who won season 4. They were all awesome, I got pictures with all of them. I also had the honor of meeting Kim Rhode, our olympic champion in skeet. She was wonderful, when I asked to get a picture with her, she immediately grabbed her London gold medal and put it around my neck and I got a picture with her and her medal.
Something that I was impressed with at the show was all the women who work for the manufacturers. Serious sales-women, not just women all dressed up in club-wear trying to lure men to their booths. There were a couple of those, of course, but not nearly as many as I expected. It gives me hope that the boys club that is the gun community is beginning to let more and more women in and we are starting to be treated as equals. There were also several female gun organizations represented, and after I do a little more research, I will give you some more information.
SHOT was amazing, the next time I go (and there WILL be a next time) I will definitely go to Media Day at the Range. Imagine all those new guns that were inside, but you actually get to shoot them!
Want to see pictures? Check out my Facebook page, I posted a lot of them there.

How to make bacon more awesome!

Melissa — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 04:27:22 +0000

I found wonderful things at SHOT Show!

Bacon is already awesome, and what is the only way to make it more awesome? Make it tactical!

Stay tuned for a couple of posts about SHOT Show, and check out my Facebook page for more pictures from Las Vegas.

Gun Control Means Having a Good Grip

Melissa — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:00:49 +0000

I wanted to take a moment and put in my two cents on the major shift in the anti-gun rhetoric since the tragedy in Connecticut. Unfortunately our country has become divided in yet another issue. Obviously I am widely against more gun control; more gun control will not stop these senseless shootings. Do you really think these psychopaths that are killing innocent and unarmed people will stop if there are more gun laws? Do you think they won’t be able to get guns illegally? Even if (and this is a big if) criminals couldn’t get guns anymore, they would find another way to spread chaos. The same day as the shooting in Connecticut, a man walked into a school in China with a knife and stabbed 20 children.

I actually do agree with one gun control law that should be passed. I feel that the gun show loop-hole needs to be closed. For those of you who don’t know what that is, the gun show loop-hole means anyone can walk into a gun show with a gun slung on his or her back with a sign that says “for sale.” Someone can walk up and buy the gun without a background check. Now as a responsible gun owner, I will not sell a gun to anyone without a background check, unless I know the person and trust that person. Not all gun owners feel that way though, and many guns get sold without background checks. By closing the gun show loop-hole, it could stop people who are ineligible to own guns from easily buying guns at a gun show.

At this point, the liberal media has whipped the anti-gun rhetoric into a frenzy. It is very rare that you hear about a gun saving a life in the national news. Did you hear that an undercover police officer in San Antonio stopped another possible movie theater shooting? Probably not. The main thing fueling the fire within the media and Washington DC is fear. People fear what they don’t understand. The liberal media and the anti-gunners in Washington don’t understand the gun community whatsoever and have no interest in sitting down and learning a little something. They think that a concealed weapons permit holder is liable to just whip out their gun whenever they are in a small altercation because they are pissed off. They also don’t understand the guns themselves. Have you seen some of the things Dianne Feinstein wants to ban? The one that I really don’t understand is front pistol grips on the AR-15. Because by having a front pistol grip, you can kill a lot more people if you don’t have one. Oh wait, that’s right, a front grip has nothing to do with the power of the rifle! It’s ergonomically more comfortable for people who prefer it, and can actually give you more control over your firearm. Doesn’t more control mean it would be safer? So to Senator Feinstein and all the others who want to ban our guns, please take the time to learn about the equipment you are trying to ban, but most of all, talk to the people it would affect the most: the American people.

No Words to Express my Sorrow

Melissa — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 02:24:12 +0000

My heart is broken over the senseless tragedy that happened in Connetticut today. Whenever there is a school shooting, people automatically try to go after our guns, in fact, the night before my own governor went to our state legislature to ask them to consider discussing more gun control in Colorado. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know how I feel about this.

What I wanted to share with you today is my nephew started his own blog, 17andpolitical.com. He spoke very eloquently on the shooting. Please check him out. I myself don’t have any children, but for those of you who do, please hug them a little tighter (as if I had to ask.)

My Review of the Sig Sauer P238

Melissa — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:52:09 +0000

I’d heard a lot of good things about the P238 lately, so my husband and I decided to check one out. When I handled one at the gun store, I was really impressed with how easy it is to pull back the slide. I could literally do it with two fingers, this from a woman who has always had trouble with semi-automatic pistols. I was intrigued to say the least! I looked at some reviews online, and discovered very little complaints, with the exception of some stove-pipe issues. (Stove-pipe is a type of malfunction that after firing a round, the gun fails to eject the spent casing hard enough and it gets stuck in the ejection port, jamming the gun.) I had been interested in a gun I could carry concealed, and the P238 was looking like a good option. I really wanted to shoot it before I bought it, since it came with a pretty hefty price tag of $635. I called up a range in Denver where you can rent guns and shoot them on their range. Unfortunately, they don’t have guns less than 9mm to rent, and the P238 is a .380.

So I decided to take a chance. I was able to sell a gun I had, but didn’t like all that much in order to put some money towards my new toy. Once I sold my Springfield, I went over to the Shootin’ Den in Colorado Springs to get my P238, which I named Rosie due to the rosewood grips, and also after Rosie the Riveter.

I finally found some time that Rosie and I could get to know each other better. The weather was in the 50′s, and I convinced my husband to go to the range with me to try the two new additions to our family. Did I forget to mention that we also are the proud new owners of a Thompson semi-automatic rifle? To those of you who like 30′s gangster movies and shows, that’s a Tommy gun!! It’s not a fully automatic one from the 30′s; those cost about $20k. Ours is a reproduction in semi-auto. We got out to the range, and I could hardly contain myself. I hadn’t gone shooting in quite a while, and I was excited to shoot the P238 and the Tommy gun. My husband had some trouble at first with the Tommy, because one of the magazines was a little damaged, but once he figured that out and used the other magazine he had, he started having a blast (literally!).

Anyway, back to Rosie. The Sig P238 has a 6 round magazine that was very easy to load. No painful thumbs here. I had dry fired it before we went to the range, and the trigger pull is so much lighter than some other .380′s that I’ve shot. Once I started firing it, I was amazed at how low the recoil is on this gun. It’s a small gun, perfect for concealment, but it has a steel frame, which makes it heavy enough to absorb the recoil. I knew after the first 6 rounds that I was in love and had absolutely no buyers remorse. I let my husband try it out as well, and he really liked it too. Between the two of us, we shot a little less than 100 rounds, and I only had one stove-pipe malfunction. I would say compared to any other gun I’ve shot, that is not abnormal. The only complaint I had about this gun is the ambidextrous safety mechanism. It’s very easy to disengage, but to engage the safety, I have to break my grip on the gun.

In my opinion, this gun is perfect for women who have trouble with semi-automatic handguns. It’s small, has a very easy slide, light trigger pull, and low recoil. I will be recommending this gun to any of my female students, or any man who asks me what handgun is best for women.

I Need to go Shooting!

Melissa — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 02:53:15 +0000

So I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ve had a lot going on in my life lately. I’ve gone back to school! I didn’t graduate from college, so I decided since I work for an awesome company that pays for me to get my degree, there’s no time like the present. I’m very excited about it, but it has taken up a lot of my free time, which means not a lot of free time for shooting.
The interesting thing about going to college is that every time I go through the doors, is that I’m faced with the “no handguns” sign. But when I first enrolled, I got a copy of the school’s handbook. In the handbook, it talks about the school’s gun policy, and mainly it does say no. However, it does say if a student is a concealed carry permit holder (which I am, of course!), if the student has a good reason for wanting to carry on school property (the 2nd amendment is a good reason, isn’t it?) then the student can ask the dean for permission to carry on campus. I haven’t had the chance to ask yet, but I will.
I was just about to start going through gun powder withdrawals, but this weekend I’m going to see my dad, who owns 60 acres in the middle of the Colorado plains which has a perfect natural berm on the property. We’ll be taking out all kinds of guns for my dad, step-mother, husband, and myself to shoot. I can’t wait, it will be great!

Oh, by the way, did I mention I’m going to SHOT show in January??? Full report to come then!

The Corner Shot

Melissa — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:13:16 +0000

My husband is an NRA Training Couselor, so he teaches instructor workshops to teach people who want to become an NRA Certified Instructor. It’s a two day class, and it includes range time. Since I’m a Range Safety Officer, he usually asks me if I can come and keep an eye on his students on the range. Last week he had a class, and I asked him if he wanted my help. He said sure, he then told me that one of his students is a Corner Shot instructor, I said I’ll definitely be there!
What is the Corner Shot? It is an amazing rifle developed in Israel that allows a shooter to be safely behind a barrier and engage your target without putting the shooter in the line of fire. I say rifle, but it’s not exactly a rifle. It’s really in a category of its own. It’s a device that holds a Glock 17 and a camera on the front and a small monitor near the rear. The front pivots left or right. Instead of looking down iron sights or optics, you look at the monitor, which is surprisingly accurate.
It was a once in a lifetime experience to shoot this firearm that is only used by military and law enforcement. It was very awkward at first, because when the Corner Shot is angled and you fire it, the recoil is not up and to the rear. It’s up and to the side, so it torques you a little bit. But it makes up for the strange recoil in the fact that you’re only technically shooting a 40 cal Glock pistol, so it has very little recoil. After firing a few rounds, it became very front heavy. The device itself is not that heavy, but then add the Glock 17 with a high-capacity magazine to the front, and that’s where most of the weight is. A traditional rifle is weighted so most of the weight in over your hands, so it’s balanced very well. The Corner Shot isn’t balanced well, mainly because it’s function over comfort. Which is fine, because if I was going into battle, I would definitely want this firearm so that I don’t have to be in the line of fire!