Sure Shots Magazine

ARCHIVE - ISSUE TEN - JANUARY 2015 COVER - FEATURED PICTORIAL - TRAINING - LIFESTYLE - REVIEWS ARCHIVE - ISSUE TEN - JANUARY 2015

Niki Jones
Editor-in-chief

Carrin Welch
Associate Editor
Web Designer

Jenna Johnson
Copy Editor

Nikki Raye
West Coast Correspondent

On the Cover,
Sure Shot Rachea is most deadly under the cover of night... See more pics from the cover photo shoot!

It’s no secret in the firearms industry that the SHOT Show (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show), held every January in Las Vegas, is huge. Ridiculously, overwhelmingly, awesomely enormous! With more than 1,600 exhibitors and 67,000 attendees in 2014, I noticed there was no shortage of women in what would have certainly been considered guys territory.

For SHOT Show 2015, I created an online networking group for women who planned to attend, so that we could get to know our fellow ladies of the industry and then match names and faces if we were lucky enough to cross paths on the floor or at events. I found myself wondering what each of the women did in the firearms industry, so I asked the question, and got an amazing response—one that showed the varied (and extremely interesting) scope of what all these ladies are adding to the firearms industry.

Sure Shots AR-15 Build Project

The Sure Shots AR-15 Build Project is an ongoing project where the ladies of the Sure Shots build our own rifles—basically, our "dream guns"!

We feature a rifle from the Sure Shots AR-15 Build Project in each issue.

Here's Sure Shot Carrin's build, named "Flo".

-Spikes Lower
-Bushmaster Upper Receiver & Barrel
-Yankee Hand Guards
-Rock River A2 Stock
-Magpul Angled Foregrip

-Go Gun Gas Pedal
-Hogue Grip
-Aimpoint CompML2
-Magpul BAD Lever
-R.R. 2 Stage Trigger
-Gore 15 Trigger Guard

Inspiration (and Fun) at the 2014 Bushnell GAP Grind Pro/Am
by Melissa Gilliland

The 2014 Bushnell GAP Grind Pro/Am was really the first match of its kind in the Precision rifle community. It was a brilliant idea because it opened the door for those who wanted to compete in a tactical precision rifle match, and was a great match to be a part of. The match directors, Shannon Kay, Bryan Morgan and George Gardner are all no strangers to this sport. All three men, respectively, have dominated this sport in one match or another (might I say several hundred matches!). Shannon Kay and Bryan Morgan own a facility in Baker Florida, K & M Shooting Center. This shooting center, located on approximately 80 acres+, is one of the most sought-after places to shoot. Matches and firearm training runs extremely smooth here. The Bushnell GAP Grind Pro/Am was no different as the match directors as well as all the ROs, made sure it was extremely smooth. Misty Morgan and Julie Kay, wives of two of the match Directors, were there and were doing a lot of behind the scenes, which I’m sure helped make this match be as smooth as possible. On Friday, the day before the match, the zero range was open as well as a few stages. It allowed you to do a little one on one with your amateur as well as make sure you had a good zero on your rifle. My competition rifle is my custom built Ashbury Precision Ordnance 6.5 Creedmoor. Jake, as I fondly named him, has a pinnacle series fluted barrel, AAC Blackout brake, Huber Concepts single stage trigger set at 2.5 lbs, Xtreme Titanium action all wrapped up in an APO Supersport alloy series chassis. I run the Bushnell Elite series XRS 4.5 x 30 with the G2 reticle. My scope is mounted in Spuhr mounts and is very sturdy. For shooting off barricades and protect the forend of my rifle, I have a Sniper Skid Plate (designed by Phil Hagoes of HTI). I use Wiebad bags to help me stabilize in awkward positions. These bags really help fill the gap between your elbow and knee, not to mention they help you be more stable when shooting off barricades. I also use the Armageddon Gear precision rifle sling. This helps me when shooting on other type barricades as well as sitting/kneeling position. I also utilize my sling when carrying my rifle from stage to stage.

This match was different from other matches that I have shot. This match was focused on the amateur. The way I felt coming into this was, this is their first introduction to a match of this caliber. Not only did I want my amateur to do well, but I wanted her to see the camaraderie among the competitors in this sport. Everyone is friendly and will bend over backwards to help you. It is less intimidating when you come to a match and are not afraid to ask questions. I wanted her to see that if she attended a match, anyone and everyone would be there to help her. No question is too small or stupid. We all had to start somewhere. I wanted Maxine to have a positive experience. The stages in this match still had time stressors, barricade shooting and a lot of moving. A lot of the stages the amateurs had to shoot first. Maxine got frustrated on some stages and would apologize profusely because she thought she took too long to get a comfortable shot or at times I would only have 10 seconds to shoot all my targets or we would time out. I assured her that it was okay that I was here for her. I didn’t want her rushing a shot, I wanted her to slow down and pull the trigger when she was ready. If she would’ve rushed her shots and then missed, all that does is get someone so flustered they wind up missing all other shots. As a Pro, you were there for your Amateur. Some Pro shooters got to engage more targets than other Pro shooters. That’s why at the end of the match I didn’t look to see where I placed, because it was an unfair assessment of me as an individual.

The Pro shooters were there for the amateurs, and I was proud to be a part of this. Going into the match, I was excited that I was paired up with another female. Maxine had never shot a “big” match of this caliber before. Though I feel that I am still learning the “how to” of these matches, I was excited to share my passion with Maxine and to hopefully inspire her to keep attending. Maxine is just full of life! She was a blast to be around and always had a big smile on her face. Over those two grueling days, we grew close as a team. And it turned out Maxine actually inspired me. You see, unaware at the time, I didn’t know the obstacles that Maxine had faced and conquered. Maxine suffers from Type II EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome). With her type of EDS, you bruise easily, joints become dislocated and your skin is fragile. In February 1996, she was involved in a serious automobile accident, which led to over a dozen surgeries. Maxine has had two spinal fusions of L3 to S1, a non-mechanical fusion and a mechanical fusion. Maxine was told she probably wouldn’t be able to walk after her mechanical fusion surgery. Her home was made handicap accessible, anticipating the use of a wheelchair. After the surgery, she demanded a walker so she could take a few steps, to prove to herself she would walk again. She had little non-pain sensation in her legs and was unable to function normally. Maxine has had multiple fall related and spinal cord stimulator surgeries. As Maxine says “I could not function without this miraculous device”. The Medtronic Spinal Cord Stimulator overrides the pain sensation in her legs caused by nerve damage. She went through 8 years physical therapy to improve her quality of life. As she tells me “I do not remember what it is like to wake up and not be in pain, or walk without thinking about each step. There was a time when I couldn’t brush my own hair” While Maxine was in the wheelchair she started to look for things that she could do, so she taught herself how to sew and shoot a .22, and she got pretty good at that! Maxine’s body cannot tolerate recoil, so she thought she was stuck shooting .22’s the rest of her life. Until her Husband had her shoot his 6mm. I love Maxine’s words on this “I was terrified! It was a revelation! I felt powerful for the first time in a long time” And then it began, Maxine’s love for long range shooting. She is quite the competitor and like I said before, Full of Life. You go into shooting a match thinking about each stage, your rifle, the mechanics, the setup, the wind… Maxine goes into it, thinking how lucky in life she is and that she is able to live another day, behind a rifle. I hope that we all can look deep down within ourselves, and find our inner Maxine.

Melissa Gilliland is a proud Army wife, sponsored competition tactical precision rifle shooter, co-host of TriggerTimeTV, and co-owner of Shadow 6 Consulting.

Shotgun at the ready!

Ride Out! by Niki Jones

Ever since I discovered reality TV show COPS in the late ‘80s, I've watched it obsessively and always wanted to see firsthand what riding along with a police officer on his shift would be like. Finally, I got my chance to ride out with the Austin Police Department one chilly Saturday night this past December.

"Are you hungry?!" was the second question I was asked when I showed up at the Springdale Road APD substation (the first question was "You here to ride out?"). Turns out I was riding along on the night the officers were enjoying their annual Officer Appreciation Holiday Dinner, and everyone was in a happy, festive mood (and trying to push food on me—"Eat!" "Want some mac 'n cheese?" "How 'bout pizza?" "Cupcakes?").

I was riding out with the "600s"—that's the 6:30pm-4:30am shift, in the East Austin sector known as Charlie. The city of Austin is divided up into nine sectors, each of which is further broken up into numbers (i.e.; Charlie 3):

Adam - North West
Baker - Central West
Charlie - Central East
David - South West
Edward - North East

Frank - South East
George - Downtown
Henry - South Central
Ida - North Central

Officer Kelly fills out an Affidavit for Warrant.

On this night's shift, there were nine officers, and I was assigned to ride with Officer Kevin Kelly. Kelly has been with APD for 12.5 years. He served in the US Army before that, and grew up in Houston. He says he knew from a very young age that he wanted to help people, which is why he chose a career in law enforcement. I liked him instantly. While his size is imposing, he has a very easygoing personality, and he does the best Napoleon Dynamite impression I've ever heard.

Kelly is also thorough. The first thing we did as we made our way out to the patrol vehicle to start the shift was calibrate the radar gun—he did this by hitting what looked like a tuning fork against a surface, and then clocking it with the radar gun. He explained the instrument vibrates at 30mph, so the radar gun must match it. It did, so we were good to go.

Next up was his inspection of the vehicle and all his gear, including the shotgun that is mounted inside the vehicle, between the seats. He checked the vehicle's controls, lights, and siren, making sure everything was working correctly before we started our shift.

Kelly explained to me the dispatch system APD uses, Visinet. The system, to me, seemed a bit outdated by today's technological standards, especially the interface. But the information is still effectively relayed in real time. The calls pop up on the screen with a number from 0-3 which corresponds with the priority level: 0 is the highest priority and is referred to as a "Hot Shot." 3 is the lowest priority. One of our first calls of the night was a Hot Shot (literally!):

10:31pm: Five different callers reported a man running through the low-income housing community called "Lakeside" firing a gun. Of course, all available units, including us, were on the scene in minutes, looking for the suspect (unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found). Here is an observation from that call: the group of officers who responded were focused, organized, and calm, while still taking the situation very seriously. Despite driving through what I now consider the scariest area I've ever seen in Austin with someone randomly firing a gun, I felt very safe with the team.

We had a few suspicious vehicle reports, and pulled over one truck with its headlights off, and in all instances Officer Kelly was serious, thorough, incredibly personable, and then very fair—each instance was worked out without a ticket or arrest.

Throughout the night, on different calls, I observed the interaction of almost all the officers on that shift with the suspect they were dealing with, and I was struck by how patient and respectful they were of each and every one—and I mean EVERY one. Even the suspects with the worst attitude got treated with an unbelievable amount of respect, including the suspect on a domestic abuse call who literally spit at the officers while they wrestled him into the car. I thought for sure it would escalate, but the officers remained calm and deescalated the situation like the pros they are.

Kelly is especially great at this. He has an amazing way of dealing with suspects and witnesses that puts them at ease—he treats them as equals. For example, we were assisting a traffic stop where they were conducting a consensual search of a car for drugs . We held the suspect back at our vehicle while the search took place, and after gathering some more information about the suspect, Kelly asked what the suspect did for a living, which happened to be oil field work. Kelly engaged him in a 15-minute conversation on the subject, completely relating to the suspect as a person, and the suspect was clearly much more at ease than he could have been, given the circumstances. The outcome of the search was that all was clear, and the suspect was free to go. It made a huge impression on me that Officer Kelly most likely singlehandedly left a better impression of the entire APD with that person, and I think that's incredibly important.

While professionalism is the most important thing, the guys do have fun throughout the night, like when a caller reported he needed assistance with "Large, exotic lizards, possibly poisonous" running amok in his house. The call was redirected to Animal Control, and a while later, the call was canceled because the caller realized they were mice. So, the guys had a lot of fun with that, and the messages between them on their inter-vehicle email system about it were totally hilarious.

The night ended on a somber, upsetting note—at 3:47am we were dispatched to an accident where a car was struck as it sat at a red light. It was hit so hard the entire back end was compacted like a sardine can, and the impact launched it into the tree line, which compacted the front end as well. As we arrived, we were notified that the suspect had taken off, so Kelly and I gave chase in the direction he was reported to have gone. We didn't find the car, but luckily a witness arrived back at the scene and reported seeing the suspect running through a neighborhood, so Kelly and I headed that way, and we found the car! While other units covered ground trying to find the suspect, Kelly ran all the information on the vehicle and found out who the suspect was. As a wrecker arrived to take the car as evidence, I realized it was time to end the shift, and we headed back to the substation.

All in all, my ride out was eye-opening in that it wasn't like COPS—there was definitely crime, criminals, suspects, chases… but no drama. These APD guys know what they're doing. These aren't the good guys; they're the great guys.

Early morning hit and run.

SPO Kevin Kelly

Firearms Examiner by Tara O.

Job Description: Collect, identify, classify, and analyze physical evidence related to criminal investigations. Perform tests on weapons or substances, such as fiber, hair, and tissue to determine significance to investigation. May testify as expert witnesses on evidence or crime laboratory techniques. May serve as specialists in area of expertise, such as ballistics, fingerprinting, handwriting, or biochemistry.

When I first came to the University of North Texas, I had no clue what I wanted to major in. After taking several different classes in many different degree plans, I figured it out in the introduction to Criminalistics class. I had a wonderful teacher that seemed to be so passionate about what he did as a Firearms Examiner and that made me interested in the subject.

I continued my education in Graduate school focusing in Criminalistics while teaching the undergraduate labs for several Criminalistics and Crime Scene Investigation courses. The many directed studies I completed for my degree was Bullet Deflection on Human Tissue and Small Bone. So often investigators look past the possibility of deflection after a bullet passes through something. This becomes a problem when trying to reconstruct a scene because the possibility of deflection is very high, as you will see in the study I conducted.

After completing my Masters degree, I continued to work as a bartender while beginning the search for a career pertaining to my degree. Being such a specific field, the job hunt is difficult and tedious. Everyone wants experience, which is hard thing to come by when no one will hire you in order to get that experience. After about six months of hunting, I came to my old internship boss and discussed the possibility of continuing my training through him so I could get some experience to put down on my resume. I have worked for him since and the experience is paying off.

My Day-To-Day

As a Firearms Examiner for a private lab, there are a variety of tasks we complete everyday. We do everything from reading all case notes to full reconstructions of scenes. When we have evidence in the lab, there is a set of tests we conduct on each case. Some examples are: microscopic comparison of bullets and cartridge cases, firearm functionality tests, cartridge case ejection test, gunshot residue chemical tests, distance determination, etc.

The field of Firearms and Toolmark examination is a very interesting subject that requires great attention to detail. I truly love the subject and look forward to many years in the field.

To read Tara’s extensive study and report on Bullet Deflection off Tissue and Small Bones, click here.