ARCHIVE - ISSUE EIGHT - JUNE 2014               COVER   -   FEATURED PICTORIAL   -   TRAINING   -   LIFESTYLE   -   REVIEWS               ARCHIVE - ISSUE EIGHT - JUNE 2014

WORDS OF WISDOM
by Annette Palacios, owner of Austin Warrior Fitness and Defense, Palacios ATA Martial Arts, certified Krav Maga and Kali Instructor, 2013 TKD Times Person of Interest and 2014 Universal Martial Arts Hall of Fame Inductee, offers her Words of Wisdom when it comes to Finding Your Target.

It's all connected… discipline, self-control, self-esteem and the targeted goal - your best Self. Just like it's important to have everything aligned in order to shoot that difficult target on the range. it's important to have certain alignments of self in order to increase the likelihood of making your target in life. That seemingly elusive life target, your best self, isn’t an easy one to hit. This difficult shot takes discipline, self-control, and self-esteem.

Discipline – Good and Bad Habits
Discipline is a muscle we begin developing when we are young. It starts by learning to follow the rules of others. When we are young we learn to obey simple instructions such as "brush your teeth” or “turn your light off.” Our obedience in following these simple directives soon morphs into a routine of habits. With the consistent, and often unappreciated directives from our parents, we begin habitually heading to brush our teeth before bed, and turning the lights off when we leave a room. Without this expectation of obedience bad habits instead of the good habits can creep into the fabric of our design. As adults without consistent external directives, we are responsible for taking positive and healthy behaviors and making them into habits, for creating a series of internal directives by which to live. Just as children without guidance will go to bed without brushing their teeth, without creating internal directives guiding us toward the broccoli instead of the cheesecake, we won’t develop and maintain healthy habits, and, in the absence of healthy habits often the development and maintenance of unhealthy habits flourishes. Behaviors such as grabbing a cookie for breakfast, skipping lunch when we are busy, staying up too late, and procrastinating at work are all potentially unhealthy behaviors that can quickly become bad habits when repeated. Luckily, as mentioned earlier, discipline is a muscle and if yours has started to atrophy, you can start small to build it up again by beginning to set and follow your own positive internal directives. Make your own rules, a type of internal scope, and habitually follow them and begin to build momentum - get good at one or two positive things, be consistent, then tackle bigger things: going back to school, starting your own business, finishing that project that you started.

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Self-Control
Once you have set the rules, your internal scope, and you start making positive choices, you will begin to feel pretty good about the results you are seeing in your life and yourself. Just as children who learn the value of following the rules by being aware of the negative consequences, as adults we also know the consequences of repeating negative behaviors and patterns. If you are aware enough to have established the rule, you have the self-awareness that identifies you are about to break the rule and you also have the discipline (aka will power) to make the right choice. If you find self-control is an area in which you could grow, you can begin to increase your self-control by following the formula: Eat healthy, Sleep enough, Exercise, Quiet your mind (meditate or pray) and be Patient. If you do this, you will be in a better position to make good choices. Following this simple formula helps you begin to see a bigger picture and avoid staying trapped in an uncomfortable moment. These moments pass and when they do you will have made the "right" choice and you will feel very proud.

Self-esteem
It all comes back to you.

Do good things for yourself. Want the best for yourself. Know that you are worth it. Know that you deserve it. When this basic concept become the foundation of your being, making good choices, having discipline and relating to others from a universal perspective will offer an enriching joyful life experience. Loving others is important, but as with the oxygen masks on an airplane, we have to make sure we are in a good place before we can help and give to others. Once you begin to master feeling good about who you really are and who you truly believe you are meant to be, your best self will come into view.

The Target
Through discipline, self-control and healthy self-esteem you are on the road to hitting your target and becoming your best possible self. Just like when you are on the range - you have everything in place, your eye is on the target and you are ready to make the shot. Remember, being a sharp shooter isn’t always about hitting your target. You are a sharpshooter because you are able to find and make the shots you want to make, because you are prepared, you are skilled, you have all of the elements accounted for and in place. You are disciplined on and off the range, you show self-control in your actions and you have self-esteem - you are a sharpshooter, before you even shoot.

Long Range Clinic with Precision Rifle Enthusiast by Jessica R. Ewing

I was stoked to be invited to this class by Niki Jones, being an “honorary Sure Shot” displaced on the Gulf Coast. I had never taken a long range precision rifle course prior to this so, since I had something to prove to my husband and I wanted to add that to my list of badassery I was all over it!

Precision Rifle Enthusiast’s instructors offered a warm up class the day before for ladies who needed to zero their rifle and get some range time behind a platform that was new or unfamiliar. That was me. I drove to Austin late Friday night in order to be in a non zombie state for the 8am start time and found the Best of the West Shooting Sports range to be a wonderful sight.

I brought along an Accuracy International AX .308 with a 20” barrel, Schmidt & Bender MOA reticle, Lake City 175 grain SMK ammunition, and my trusty Moleskin notebook that I have been fortunate enough to remember for my last three classes. If you have never thought about jotting notes during classroom time I encourage you to do so.

With my learning style I find it a handy reference tool to reinforce my learning while I am still there and later to remind me of things I have forgotten.

There were only a few of us girls at the range on Saturday morning, but the instructors still had their hands full. I am always guilty of monopolizing an instructor’s time; constantly asking questions, taking notes and “just making sure”, but these guys took it in stride. I couldn’t have asked for any better laid back and hilarious instructors to learn from. Even on the first day I began to understand things about shooting position, alignment, breathing and making adjustments. And to that end, my rifle was zeroed at 100 yards.

Sunday was our official class day for Long Range Precision Rifle, the weather was fan-freaking-tastic and I got to spend it with an awesome bunch of Austin Sure Shots!

We sat a good amount of the morning inside the classroom of Best of the West and, in standard form, I took copious notes. . . .

Again we covered shooting positions from supported to unsupported, and in detail we learned MOA (minute of angle) vs. MIL (milliradian) and scopes, zeroing your rifle, focal plain, firing hands and trigger finger, natural POA (point of aim) and POI (point of impact) and convergence of the two, aiming, breathing, breaking the shot and factors affecting the shot, range estimation methods and calculations, and DOPE (data on previous engagements - for your rifle and your ammo), as well as helpful tools for long range precision shooters. 

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Jessica spots for her partner.

Then we went out to have some fun! We shared the range with other folks from 100 yards to 1,000 yards so we took turns and poor instructors began to be pulled in all directions in high demand. In the end this turned out to be a blessing because all of the  girls began trading off spotting for each other and shooting, reinforcing our classroom time by applying the corrective techniques we had just learned. And yes, I took more notes. Each of us began at 100 yards and once we could stack some hits we moved up the range from 100 to 250 to 500 to 750 and 1,000 yards. I loved seeing the smiles and the lightbulbs, especially mine! 

I feel so fortunate that Niki from Austin Sure Shots twisted the arms of the guys at Precision Rifle Enthusiast to get us a great price for this class, particularly since I was the only one driving an awful distance and staying in a hotel room. I appreciate the magnitude of knowledge that Wil and PRE have, and their desire to share what they know and make better shooters, and to put up with the ladies and me for two days. I walked away from this class saying: “I think I love rifles more than pistols” and meaning every word of it. The skill of precision rifle is calculated and takes a lot of thought before you break a single shot. It was right up my little OCD alley and I am thankful to have been a part of it.

Jessica was a happy shooter!

Visit them at the PRE website OR  facebook.com/PrecisionRifleEnthusiast

Combat Shotgun with Hex Tactical by Leia Mutchler

Rows of Sure Shots' shotguns!

Imagine it’s 2am, you’re asleep, the kids are asleep, significant other is out of town and the sound of glass breaking wakes you up. You reach for the shotgun; the one you were told is the best gun for defending your home. Is it loaded? How do you check? How do you load it? Thankfully, Sure Shots recently offered a Combat Shotgun Course, hosted by Hex Tactical Resources, which I was able to attend. The 8-hour course required a reliable semi-auto or pump action shotgun, chambered in 12 gauge, 125 birdshot, 15 slugs, 15 buckshot, as well as a pistol and 25 pistol rounds. This first-timer was excited, as were the other 13 Sure Shots taking the course with me!

First, the instructors gave us a general overview of shotguns, including pump vs. semi-auto. Then they went through loading/unloading techniques and stance, and we began to fire from the 7-yard line using buckshot. My first few shots I hit the target, yeah! However, I quickly realized my form was off—I had the butt of the shotgun too high on my collarbone (the way I shoot my carbine) instead of in the fleshy part of my shoulder. OUCH! With some help from my fellow Sure Shots and the Hex guys, my stance and grip improved greatly. In order to help with recoil we used a push/pull technique, with the strong hand pushing the gun toward the target and the weak hand pulling the gun back while in a forward-aggressive, squared-off stance.

Next, we patterned the guns, which was eye opening for me. The pattern from a distance of 7 yards was quite small, and as we moved back, the pattern got larger, which could mean stray pellets were now in the equation. The small patterning close-in still surprised me, because I’d always been told “you can’t miss with a shotgun!” Well, I found out that yes, you can, especially when shooting from a distance. 

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As we moved through the day, we practiced transition drills from shotgun to pistol, which I found very useful (and fun!). We also practiced clearing malfunctions, and “combat-loading” on the fly. As the day progressed, we all got faster and faster and loading and shooting became second nature.

I learned that one of the biggest considerations when using a shotgun for home defense is they can be picked up for relatively cheap. Plus the ammo is quite versatile—your average shot gun uses buckshot, birdshot or slugs which can begin at $7, depending on the brand. Before this Combat Shotgun course, the shotgun would not have been my go-to home defense gun, mostly because I felt like I would be knocked on my butt! Now that I have taken this course, I feel very confident in using a shotgun for home defense and showing my husband how we Sure Shots do it—and we have the shoulder bruises to prove it!  

Sure Shots on the firing line.

Leia scans and assesses during the course.

For more information on Hex Tactical, visit them at
Hex Tactical Resources OR  facebook.com/HexTacticalResources