ARCHIVE - ISSUE TWO - JUNE 2013 - FEATURE PICTORIAL - TRAINING - LIFESTYLE - ARCHIVE - ISSUE TWO - JUNE 2013
• Golden State Guns
• Women & Training • AR-15 Build Project • Conceal & Carry • Cover Photo Shoot • My First Time • X-14 Drum Mag Review • Gia Rocco, Superstar 
On the Cover,
Sure Shot Denise has recently fallen in love with the Sig Sauer P238 Pearl. For her Sure Shot Magazine photo spread she's aiming a Colt Diamondback .22LR right at you! See more pics from the cover photo shoot! 
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California Über Alles!
by Nikki Raye
Orange County, California…. home of celebrities, The Real Housewives, world famous beaches, beautiful weather, and Disneyland. Rarely does one consider the OC, let alone any part of California, a pro-gun community, especially when we are home to none other than Diane Feinstein herself. Surprisingly enough, Orange County is home to an entire pro-gun underground community that is thriving and bigger than you would ever imagine, despite the political setbacks we have to face here. I was born and raised in Los Angeles and now live in Orange County. I wasn’t always a part of the gun community we have here, nor was I ever aware it existed! Growing up, my father always had a gun in the house (a Ruger P85). It stayed locked in the safe, tucked away high up in his closet. It was very rare if I ever saw him take it out of the safe and even rarer if he went to the range. My little sister and I knew where it was, and we knew damn well that we weren’t supposed to go near it. The gun was out of sight and out of mind. Although many of my family members and friend’s parents were in Law Enforcement, guns and shooting was never even a topic of conversation. But, now as an adult, looking back I realize that there was this group community of gun owner hiding in plain sight. Personally, my interest in guns didn’t start until I was 19 and went to work for a local police department. With intentions of becoming a police officer at the age of 21, I took it upon myself to get involved with my department’s range program. It is here that I shot a gun for the very first time. It was love at first shot! And in-lieu of a stereotypical 21st birthday party I chose to get a Glock 23. I am fortunate to have gone down a path that brought people into my life who had strong firearm backgrounds. It was these same people who took me under their wings and enlightened me. Most aren’t so lucky. The gun culture in Orange County, California is very much an underground society. Although Orange County is the largest Republican pocket in the state, gun owners tend to stay in the closet. When asked what we do for a living or as a hobby, I find that most dance around the topic, including myself. In fact, the few times I have come right out and announced I work in this industry, I am instantly labeled as nut job, an outcast, or a bad parent; and I get the feeling from others that I should be ashamed of the very thing that I love, even though I know I am not alone. [Read more] Gia Rocco: Future Olympic Shooter by Niki Jones
It was fated. The Sure Shots just happened to have a table at the local gun show, and there just happened to be a rough-looking tattooed guy who stopped by our table and asked, cynically, "An 8-year-old would be too young to shoot with you, right?" "Nope!" we replied, "Bring her to our next practice." So, Adolfo Galella did, and the 8-year-old he brought was his super cool daughter Gia Rocco. Gia had expressed an interest in shooting three years prior, when Adolfo bought her a Red Ryder BB gun that she'd shoot in their yard. Not your typical girlie-girl, Gia shot Barbie dolls off the fence instead of playing with them. Maybe it was because she started off with such tiny targets, or maybe she just is a natural, but Gia can shoot. 
Gia became a regular at Sure Shots practices, and she continued to improve very quickly. She soon expressed interest in shooting IDPA matches with us, so I offered to work one-on-one with her to get her ready. The most important thing about competing in a match is the ability be SAFE while moving and shooting, and while manipulating your gun. Gia had already shown a propensity for extremely safe gun handling well beyond her 8 years. To this day, Gia is one of the most consistently safe shooters I know.
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The Girl Can't Help It
by P. Petersen
Publicly, no one wants to cross the line into political incorrectness. In private, whispered conversations, firearms instructors will tell the truth… Training a female is just different. People, firearms instructors included, are so hell bent these days on treating men and women equally that they are doing their female students a disservice during training sessions. Having been a law enforcement firearms instructor since 2001, I have had the opportunity to train many men and women on a gun range. Within the first few courses, I began to notice that female officers had, what I thought, to be a completely different approach while on the firing line. While listening to a group of female officers one day, it hit me. They ARE different! Now, over a decade later, I celebrate the differences and a have learned to tailor my training to meet the needs of each student I train in both the law enforcement and civilian courses that I teach. The differences between a man and a woman on a gun range are simply the same differences between the two off a gun range. Some big differences, some small. One of the first differences that I observed, which should come as no surprise, was that new female shooters are much easier to train than their male counterparts. What you don’t bring to the table is sometimes as important than what you do bring to the table. Ego and preconceived notions are the bane of any instructor’s existence when it comes to a classroom full of new shooters. Speaking in generalities, females do not have the ego that males do when it comes to firearms. They show up to class without an ounce of the same arrogance that many males take with them whenever they are around a firearm. The same can be said of most females when it comes to having a predisposition to ideas of how to shoot or handle firearms, tactics, et cetera. Another blatantly obvious difference between men and women is the emotional element that women bring with them to a course. There is no easy or PC way to say this: women are more emotional than men. They’re more in tune with their own emotions as well as the emotions of those around them. [Read more] Sure Shots Magazine on
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It Ain't Heavy, It's My Drum Mag by Niki Jones
X Products X-14 50-Round Drum Mag for the M1A
I first became familiar with X Products' 50-round drum mags when Rich Wyatt from 'American Guns' handed me one, filled with 50 rounds of .308, to load in the the new AR-10 they'd just built me. Soon after, X Products sent me their .223 version for me and the girls of the Sure Shots AR-15 Build Project to test and evaluate in our rifles (we loved it). Recently, X Products sent me their X-14 .308 50-Round Drum Mag to try out in a M1A. The X-14 is great for two main reasons. One, it holds 2.5 times the amount of a regular 20-round mag. Two, its compact design looks pretty badass—not bulky or obtrusive, and its flat black ceramic finish goes with virtually any style weapon. I'm an aesthetics kind of a girl. Those who know me know I will opt for 6" heels over sneakers any day. The same thing applies when it comes to my guns. When I assembled my infamous Snow Queen AR-15, I chose a relatively heavy rail (POF-USA Monolithic Modular Railed Receiver), because I fell in love with the look of it. Unless I'm focusing on the weight of it to prove a point or to compare to another rifle, I forget about weight immediately when it's time to run it. Which brings me to the point of the X-14's added weight: To ensure its durability, the X-14 is constructed entirely of aluminum; no plastic parts are used. This adds weight, naturally. So does having 30 more rounds in your mag. Of course, "heavy" is a relative term. X Products states the X-14 weighs 4.9lbs when fully loaded, and while we certainly didn't take a scale to the range, I can tell you I did not notice the increased weight once I started shooting, and I'm happy to accept some weight for such a solid product. I can also accept the retail price of $285, simply due to the combination of cool-factor and durability.
Loading the ammo is pretty simple; you just turn the front hand wheel, which feels solid and is nice and big, but I found it a bit difficult for one person to load—I had to brace it against my torso. Smaller hands may have some difficulty with this. The mag seated easily enough, once I figured out the angle it clicked right into place. The first round chambered with no issues, and the mag just ran like it was supposed to. Because of the cost of ammo, and how fun the X-14 makes it to tear through a full drum, we opted not to shoot all 50rds, and instead shot about 20rds with no problems. When we were finished, the mag ejected easily enough. I wasn't surprised. X Products knows what they're doing! |
