SURE SHOTS MAGAZINE


ARCHIVE - ISSUE TWELVE - MAY 2015                COVER   -   FEATURED PICTORIAL   -   TRAINING   -   LIFESTYLE   -   REVIEWS                ARCHIVE - ISSUE TWELVE - MAY 2015 
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Shooting Stance: Upper body

Many shooters have the tendency to tense up their upper body muscles as they shoot. Consciously or not, most shooters feel that by doing so they will have a better recoil control; actually, they end up shooting low and get more fatigued after just a few dozen rounds.

Another downside of tensing up your shoulders is that you will start anticipating every shot. Even if you consider yourself a good shooter, your rounds will land in the lower part of the bullseye or otherwise too low on the target.

Next time you go to the range, lift your arms without a firearm and feel how normal and comfortable your position feels. Then try to do this as you aim. If you find yourself tensing up your shoulders, put the gun down and try to relax your muscles.

Remember that tensing up your upper body give you a false sense of control and security but at the end hurts your shooting more than what it helps. Your shooting will improve if you keep your shoulders and upper back muscles firm but not too stiff. Trust me, it works better!


Gabby Franco
www.GabbyFranco.com
Read about Gabby’s book here.
Facebook: facebook.com/gabbyfrancotopshot
Twitter: @GabbyFrancoTS4

Gabby Franco is most widely known for being a contestant on the TV Show Top Shot Season Four and Top Shot All Stars. She has been involved in competition shooting for more than 20 years. She participated on the XXVII Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia (Sept. 2000). She has won gold and silver medals in many international shooting competitions. Today, Gabby teaches firearms classes and offers seminars around the country to civilians and Police Departments, but calls South Florida her home. In 2013 she published her first book, titled: “Troubleshooting: Mastering Your Pistol Marksmanship”.  In 2014 Gabby joined the NRA News team as a Commentator and became a member of the Remington Shooting Team.

MEET JESSICA WRIGHT: 
SURE SHOTS’ NEWEST SPONSORED SHOOTER

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My name is Jessica Wright and I am a sponsored 3-Gun shooter and an avid hunter.  A quick overview of myself, I began competing in 3-Gun at the beginning of 2014.  Years before that I had watched the infamous video of Katelyn Francis shooting the Fallen Brethren 3 gun match in Texas on YouTube.  Immediately I told my husband, I want to do that!  I started slowly by joining a local chapter of A Girl and A Gun club.  The final push that fed my addiction was when Lisa Marie Judy came up with the first all ladies 3 gun match, Brownell’s Lady 3 Gun Pro-am.  I signed up earlier that year for it and began to train until the match that fall.  After that I was hooked.  I started a Youtube channel, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram to share my journey in my 3-Gun endeavors.   Now I have been asked to write about my experiences, gear and training for Sure Shot Magazine and I couldn’t be happier to do so! 
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For this issue I will share my experience of my second major match, 3-Gun Nation’s Southwestern Regional match in Marble Falls, Tx.  From the beginning I was incredibly nervous.  At Brownell’s Lady 3-Gun Pro-am, I was amongst peers of my same level of classification.  At the regional match, I was running with the big dogs, the Pros.  The amount of nervousness I had didn’t resonate with me until I went to select a squad.  I went to seek advice from a fellow shooter who gave me the best advice, squad with the best so you can learn from the best.  So a friend and I went to squad with the Benelli 3-Gun team who was Dianna Liedorff, Jacob Betsworth, Lance Dingler, Heather Fitzhugh and Aaron Hayes.  Sadly Aaron was not on the squad as he chose to squad with his brother but we were able to be with the rest of the Benelli team.  After practice at local matches and practicing on my own time, the match was finally here.  I had met Dianna Liedorff at the 2014 A Girl and A Gun Annual Conference so I began with picking her brain.  First thing I said to her, “I’m nervous.”  In her great humility she said, “First off don’t be nervous.  Secondly, no one is watching you and thirdly, no one cares how you finish.”  This stuck with me as I was surely nervous not about my performance but at how others would see me, and this advice made me realize that.  My turn was up to run the first stage.  The range officer asked, “Shooter ready?  Shooter has indicated ready.  Standby!”  BEEP  I began shooting the long range targets that were approximately 300 yards out.  HIT, HIT.  Yeah, I can do this.  I haul butt to transition to the next set of long range targets that were approximately 250 yards out.  HIT, HIT.  I dump my rifle and move to my shotgun and knock down the poppers that engage the clays.  As I see the final clay go to pieces after I pull the trigger, I clear my shotgun, show the range officer clear and turn around to show I finished the stage.  As I turn around I hear Dianna, “WOOOOOOOOO!”  The amount of joy I felt for the encouragement helped me shoot through that stage.  As the rest of the day went on Jacob, Lance and Heather were not hesitant at giving advice and cheering everyone in the squad on.  This was so refreshing and reassuring that you don’t have to be a pro to shoot with the pros.

So new comers to any shooting sport I say to you, don’t be afraid to ask for advice and guidance.  The 2nd Amendment community is the nicest group of people you will ever possibly meet.  The greatest advice I can give you though, don’t be nervous, no one is watching you and no one cares how you finish.  As always thank you to my sponsors Trop Gun Shop, Vigilance Tactical, WildEar Hearing Boosters, Rainier Ballistics, Legendary Arms Works, Dissident Arms, Nordic Components, Weapon Shield and ESS Eye Safety Solutions.  Without their constant support in the shooting industry none of this would be possible.

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Facebook: facebook.com/powerhousemouse
Twitter: @powerhousemouse
Instagram: powerhousemouse
YouTube: JessicaWrightpowerhousemouse
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ALIVE!: Pushing Myself Out of My Comfort Zone and Onto the Next Level With Force-on-Force Training  
by Becca Spinks

I still remember my first time. I was invited to an ALIVE! Gunfighting class by a friend and was intrigued by the description presented on their website: 
“ALIVE! is a fighting system that prioritizes the use of weapons for personal defense. Using a contextual training methodology that builds skill fast, ALIVE! asserts that to learn to fight effectively one must fight. Paper targets and shot timers are no substitute for live opponents.”
I cannot imagine a truer statement. I’d long desired to dive into the world of hand-to-hand combatives and learn how to incorporate my shooting skills into real world scenarios. In a perfect world I would always turn to my pistol, but the world is far from perfect.  I wanted to test my limits when all else fails, in the most realistic sense possible. I can train to shoot cardboard all day, but like Bruce Lee famously said, “boards don’t hit back”.

The ALIVE! system was founded in 2012 by Steve Miles.  ALIVE!'s unique approach to training comes from Steve's experiences both in the military and as a force-on-force facilitator for the Central Texas Combatives Training Group (CTCTG).  Force-on-force training provides an opportunity for students to learn and apply techniques while under pressure from fully resistant training partners. In this way, students begin to inoculate themselves to the stress of a true combative situation.  As I drove up to Salado for the class, I was admittedly a bit nervous. I relaxed a bit after meeting Steve and a few of the ALIVE! regulars. Meeting Rina, one of the female regulars, put me at ease a bit more. In a room full of men it is always refreshing to see another like-minded female, and I could see right away that Rina was one to look up to.

The class began with a force-on-force competition-style warmup. My weapon: A dummy gun. My opponent:  A random partner, playing the role of a “bad guy” with a dummy knife. My goal: To win at all costs. The warmup is a way to prepare students for the reality of a full-on struggle. It is organic, fast, and frighteningly real. The scenario is this: You are at the ATM, bus stop, gas station, etc. when a person approaches you. Maybe they want change, or directions, or to talk about their church, but whatever the case, your radar is telling you something isn’t right. At some point, this person pulls out a knife and attacks you at full speed. “Of course, I will go directly for my concealed handgun”, I thought to myself, leading to a fail of epic proportions. Each time I moved directly for my pistol, I got stabbed – sometimes multiple times – prior to accessing my weapon. I started to become frustrated, wondering if all those pistol competitions and concealed weapon training drills had been in vain. After all, every time I did those drills, staring at cardboard, never once was I afraid. Now, with a 200 lb man barreling down on me with a knife, I felt a sensation I’d never felt during static training. I felt the urge to cower, to cover my head, to helplessly fall to the ground in fetal position and yell, “Please stop stabbing me!”. For the first time in my training, I felt fear.

At the end of the day, I went home with bruised arms, bruised knees, and a massively bruised ego. I usually consider training events to be confidence builders for me, but this was the exception. I actually felt disempowered. Though admittedly, when I went to work the next day all beat up, I also felt proud. I had earned every scratch and bruise. Each one was both a battle scar and a learning experience. The lessons I learned extended far beyond the basic skills we had been taught, straight to the core of my self-confidence. As it turned out, I was not nearly as bad-ass as I would have guessed. And as for that seething feeling of disempowerment, I needed that! It was clear I had a lot to learn, and I knew I would be back for another class.

Fast forward to my second time. Vehicle gunfighting. Lowlight. Airsoft. How could I say no? There I stood, in a remote field among mostly strangers in the pitch blackness. Cow patties littered the ground like landmines. The occasional booms from nearby Ft. Hood echoed in the distance. The environment was surreal and exciting. A truck sat in the middle of the field, peppered with a couple of distinct bullet holes. We began the class with another force-on-force competition-style warmup. The lowlight made for a drastically different experience. After the warmup, we moved on to scenarios. I sat in the driver’s seat of Steve’s truck with my gun concealed, appendix style. He stood in front of the truck and without warning began to fire airsoft pellets at me. My goal was to successfully exit the vehicle and put myself in a position to engage. After we learned some strategies in the truck, we were instructed to try exiting our own vehicles. I should point out that when I travel, it may appear I live in my car. My passenger side was cluttered with a backpack, a bag of trash, and various other belongings. The goal of exiting through the passenger side door became quite a feat! After this drill we moved on to low-light flashlight work with airsoft. I honestly wasn’t expecting the airsoft pellets to sting as badly as they did. They stung just enough to ensure I tried my damnedest not to get shot! My strategy instantly changed from statically trying to engage a target with perfect grip and sight picture to desperately running while shooting at a moving target, one-handed, while getting out of dodge. Game. Changer. Another major opportunity for improvement! I drove home, my hands shaking from adrenaline. My hip was throbbing from barreling over a very unforgiving parking brake while trying to exit my car under stress. My mind was spinning a mile a minute, reflecting on the lessons I learned. I was drunk on the rush; I was officially hooked.

I poured over the ALIVE! website and Facebook page, eager to find out about future classes, and learned that they also held separate classes devoted to knife defense. Having been in an accident that resulted in a severe laceration to my inner forearm, I have always been terrified of knives. Once, I told Steve that I would rather be attacked with a gun than a knife. Steve looked me directly in the eye and said, “That’s a training deficiency”. Those words are stuck in my head to this day. After attending a few knife defense classes, I can affirm he was 100% right. I just needed some training, some fuel to get over my paralyzing fear of knives in order to learn to defend myself against one, and to learn how to use one to save my life should the situation arise. My learning curve for knives was much slower than for gunfighting, but I was pushing myself out of my comfort zone and was overcoming my biggest fear in the process. Knife defense continues to be a challenge for me and an area in which I hope to continue to improve.

I have been to many other training events with CTCTG since that first day. Among my favorites was the C.L.A.W.S Women’s Self Defense Clinic. C.L.A.W.S. stands for “Cut Like A Woman Should” and consists of situational awareness drills along with an introduction to knife defense as it relates to women. ALIVE! Gunfighting also holds Friday night sessions each week to go over basic drills before moving up to the Shoothouse. The Shoothouse is an attic above the studio with moveable walls which provides a great place to train for home defense and close quarters situations. You go up equipped with an airsoft gun and must clear the structure, where bad guys are lurking around every corner.  It plays out like a very realistic, very painful game of laser-tag. My first experience in the Shoothouse was that of being shot over and over again. With zero experience, I reverted to using methods I had seen in movies and video games like Die Hard and Call of Duty. With practice however, I learned how to move around corners while exposing as little of my body as possible, and I learned not to pop out in the same spot twice (Steve calls that “Whack-a-Mole”). Simple and effective tools such as these are fun to learn and help build confidence in my ability to adapt to a variety of dicey situations.
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I had already pitched the idea to Niki of promoting force-on-force training to other Sure Shots, and with a little planning ahead, we finally made it happen at the ALIVE! Gunfighting: Accessing While Under Attack clinic. I was thrilled to be able to share all of these eye-opening experiences with my Sure Shots ladies, even if it meant attacking them with airsoft pellets! There were plenty of laughs and cursing, and some pretty epic welts (or Glock pox, as they are affectionately called) the next day, but also plenty of distinctly memorable teaching moments. Specifically, this training class reinforced to everyone the idea of stress inoculation, where we learn to apply the skills we already have while under attack. I will certainly continue to promote future classes in the hopes of introducing more ladies to force-on-force training. 

They say life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Certainly, if we fail to adapt, we fail to thrive. Force-on-force training is an eye-opening, thrilling, and sometimes painful experience, but one I recommend to every woman who is interested in become more adept at self-defense. When I began migrating outside of my comfort zone, I went through several phases. The first phase was one of futility and distinct disempowerment; of realizing that although I knew a lot, I also knew nothing. In the second phase, I quit pouting over my shortcomings and came to understand that although I failed epically at my first class, I had pushed myself out of my comfort zone and had nowhere to go but up. The third phase is what Steve calls the “Aha!” moment, where I finally began to piece together what I needed to do to in order to succeed and began to build up specific skills. Now in the final phase, I begin to rebuild my shattered confidence. While I hope I never have to use any of the tactics I have learned in my training with CTCTG, having them in my toolbox certainly can’t hurt! In the end, I came to realize that all of my prior training shooting cardboard was not in vain at all, rather, it had given me the skills and techniques I needed to succeed at force-on-force. Thanks to all that I have learned from competition shooting and other defensive classes, I am now ready for the next level: learning to stay ALIVE!

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Becca Spinks is a certified instructor and is the leader of Sure Shots San Antonio. She is also a regular competitive shooter and 9-year-old competitive shooter Vanessa Aguilar’s coach.


VPRC by Regina Milkovich

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“Swing that mallet over your head woman!” is what I hear my husband shout as I’m trying my very best to smack a rubber pad hard enough to send a puck up towards the sky and ring a bell signifying that I could move on to shoot a target over 5 football fields away.  My weekend shooting the Vegas Precision Rifle Challenge, presented by Kelbly’s and hosted by the folks over at Sin City Precision really became fun.

This year, they held their match at a new location. Actually, it turned out to be two new locations. Their previous matches had been limited in range due to the confines of the rifle range where they held the competition. They’ve moved over to the Nellis Air Force Base Gun Club. In doing so, the possibilities for targets at distance increased considerably. The match in 2013 had a maximum target distance of 644 yards. The match held January 17th and 18th had a target at 1400 yards (that’s 14 football fields’ away folks!).

The Sin City Precision crew held a sight in/sign in day on Friday, January 16th. All competitors were given the opportunity to double check their 100 yard zero as well as smack some steel at 300 yards, 620 yards, and 990 yards. Most competitions allow a 100 yard sight in, but nothing more, so this was extraordinarily cool and the data confirmed ended up being pretty useful later in the match.

Saturday morning was the safety briefing with all of the competitors gathered bright and early. After all of the competitors were once again given an opportunity to confirm their rifle zero, the competitors were divided up with three squads going to Nellis AFB and the other three remaining at the Combat Arms Training and Maintenance (CATM) range for the day. Each range had multiple stages testing different skill sets but all of the stages looked like a lot of fun when we read them in the match booklet provided.

I was assigned to squad 1. Our squad shot at Nellis on day 1 of the competition. I was fortunate (and more than a little excited) to be squadded with the other female competitor registered for the match, Christine Allen. This was her very first national level match so our entire squad made it our focus to make sure she had as much fun as possible. Like many shooting competitions, most of the PRS level competitions have some type of “no coaching” rule for competitors while they are on the clock shooting. Because of this, we each took some time to help out the newer shooters on our squad as they figured out how best to approach a course of fire.

While all of the stages we shot at the Nellis AFB Gun Club were fun, a couple really stood out. The first was a stage called “Like a BMW Soup Kitchen.” It was an 8-round stage that utilized a Humvee as the prop. We shot off the Humvee for most of the stage. The targets were around a hill side with ranges between 485 and 665 yards. I was nervous, as I always am on the first stage of the first day of a competition. Thankfully I was second up, so I had a few minutes to try to find the targets around the hill. Every target array was clearly marked with large signboards. I felt I knew where they all were, so I was ready! Into the Humvee I went, starting seated, facing forward holding my rifle. At the buzzer, I hopped out of the Humvee and placed my rifle across the middle console, identified my target: Yankee at 558 yards. After looking for anything to indicate wind, I took my two shots and managed hits with both shots! What a great way to start a match!  Through the port hole I went placing my rifle on the roof of the Humvee. I quickly found the X-ray target at 483 yards and took my shots. Next up was two shots off the hood of the Humvee at the Zebra target (665 yards). I hopped out of the Humvee, placed my rifle on the hood, looked through my scope and for the life of me, could not find that signboard. I searched and searched, finally realizing I was too far right. I looked over the top of my scope, located the Zebra signboard, closed my bolt, and the buzzer sounded. Ugh! Being unable to locate the target happens to everyone at some time or another in a rifle match. I made a mental note to be more aware of where the targets were from then on.

Next up:  “Don’t Leave Leeroy.” Short but doable time limit, multiple targets to engage, multiple props to shoot off of, and a dummy drag equaled a whole lot of fun for shooters from Arizona (we like more traditional run and gun stages quite a bit). Leeroy (the dummy) had to be used AS a prop at the first shooting area and then dragged along by the shooter for the rest of the stage. I shot off his belly, then dragged him to a rooftop where I threw him against the side, then pulled him to a dog house where I’m pretty sure I gave him a concussion from throwing him against the frame.

Back to that rubber mallet: The absolute most fun stage of the Nellis portion of the match was named “More Hamma.” Honestly, how many matches figure out how to involve a high striker circus/carnival prop into a stage? I love unlimited round count stages because, in my head, I always think I’ll be able to get through two full 10-round magazines. In reality, I’m usually lucky to get through one, but I digress. For this stage, the shooter started behind their rifle, looking at a small target at 515 yards. On the buzzer, the shooter engaged the target with two rounds, then got up, ran to the high striker and using a rubber mallet, rang the bell twice. The shooter repeated the process until they ran out of ammunition or 90 seconds had elapsed, whichever occurred first. A note placed in the match booklet said this: any obvious half-assed swings may result in the RO requiring a third swing. Further, we will point, laugh, and call you names…”  Our squad fully participated in the ribbing, shenanigans, hootin’-n-hollerin’, and carrying on.

The other stages we shot on day one included some standing shots, shooting from more rooftops, a tank trap and a barricade, another run and gun stage, off of a ladder, and making a target spin a full 360 degrees. All the Range Officers were helpful and professional, letting us know how many hits we made and encouraging our newer shooters.

The first stage of day two was another chance to check our 100-yard zeros, this time for score. The Match Director, Roy Drew, told us all that we had 3 minutes to shoot as many sighters as we wanted. Sighters are rounds sent to verify your rifle is shooting where you want it to impact. At the end of the 3 minutes, each squad was given 25 seconds to shoot 5 targets for score. The goal was to hit the black dot in the center of several rings. I have a tendency to yank shots a little bit during these quick stages, especially when there are multiple shooters bunched up together. I was shooting slightly high so I took off a little elevation from scope. Afterwards, we had a few seconds to look at our targets before the next squad shot. I had 4 in the centers of the black dots, and one just low enough to decrease the point value from 2 points to 1, giving me a total of 9 points for the stage. In a match with only 189 points available, that’s a huge difference in the standings. 

There were nine stages at the CATM range, broken up between three sets of Range Officers. One, the “Hummer” stage was a 3 minute long run and gun stage that had shooters starting seated in the passenger seat of the hummer. On the buzzer, the shooter grabbed their prepped rifle and took three shots, standing, at three separate tiny IPSC sized targets at 100 yards. Once those three targets were engaged, the shooter ran about 25 yards to a sandbag bunker and shot through the port and engaged 6 skinny targets at 280 yards. After those shots were taken, the shooter had to hustle another 25-30 yards to a conex box, then climb a ladder. Once at the top of the ladder, the shooter took two shots per target (416 and 565 yards away) from the top of the box.  As I’ve mentioned, I love run and gun stages, so this was another that made it to the top of my Favorite Stages of the Match list.

Another favorite stage of mine utilized target cameras. Nevada is a lot like Arizona with heavy mirage on sunny days. That mirage makes it challenging to clearly see impacts on targets so far away. As a solution, Sin City Precision had a crew from TargetCam.net assist with spotting duties from targets between 980-1400 yards. When I wasn’t shooting, I was watching the cameras to see how they work. It’s incredibly cool to see the impacts on the screen, especially because the targets appear so much bigger. I was shooting a 6mmXC at the match and was a little nervous about whether the spotters would actually see impacts on those far targets. After seeing the technology, I had no doubt they’d spot a hit or miss with significant accuracy. Precision rifle shooters tend to stay in their scopes to see their impact because most of our information comes from the previous shot. With a target 1400 yards away, the feedback takes a while. Thankfully, the desert sand was dry. If you hit, you saw the target move. If you missed, you had your next wind call thanks to the dust that rose after the projectile impacted in the dirt. 
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The entire match tested the shooters ability to: adjust quickly to switching wind, shoot in unconventional positions as well as prone, and know their personal limits. You swear you’ll be ready physically by the time the next match rolls around but most realize too late that they aren’t. 

Many sponsors stepped up and donated to the prize table, which allowed every shooter the opportunity to grab something they could use in the future (I have to apologize publicly to Josh Pipes – I was supposed to grab something for him and got distracted). Several of those same sponsors participated in the match, whether as a competitor or as range staff. That is another reason I love this sport so very much. 

Sin City Precision worked with a media company, Contingency X, to interview many of the competitors and sponsors for a video in the future. Frank Galli from Sniper’s Hide was also on hand with Scout Network, doing interviews with competitors for “shooter spotlights.” Fellow precision rifle shooters 6.5 Guys also provided stage to stage match coverage and interviews. Look for these videos in the near future! Many thanks to the Sin City Precision crew for making sure everyone had a great time. I’m looking forward to March, when I’ll be on the other end of the buzzer as a Range Officer at the 2015 Tactical Precision Rifle Challenge presented by Patriot Ordnance Factory. 
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Regina Milkovich has been the top lady in tactical precision rifle shooting since she started shooting in 2009. She recently signed on with Vortex Optics, but her sponsor list also includes Spartan Precision Rifles, Manners Composite Stocks, Stiller’s Precision Firearms, JEC Customs, Brux Barrels, Short Action Precision, Original SWAT, Patriot Cases, Rifles Only, Voodoo Tactical, Timney Triggers, Storm Tactical Databooks, WieBad, and Froglube. When she’s not shooting, she’s supervising dispatchers at a police department near her home in Arizona. She enjoys reloading her own ammo, coloring between the lines, smoking a perfect brisket, and other hobbies that embrace her out of control OCD.
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