Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life

Shoot 'em Up (Fatherood) Friday

Hello there! You're just in time for Shoot 'em Up/Fatherhood Friday. If you are new to my blog, you might not be familiar with "Shoot 'em Up Friday (or, SEUF, as I call it for the sake of brevity), so let me explain: I work with guns. I am a Senior Firearms Instructor for a feder*al L#aw enfor*cem**ent agency. My job is demanding, but it's really a lot of fun... if you like guns, that is. SEUF is a semi-regular event here at my blog, but I haven't posted a Shoot 'em up in a while, so I thought that I would use Fatherhood Friday and sort of mash the two concepts together. Basically, SEUF consists of me talking about a certain aspect of fighting with guns or what ype of firearm or caliber of ammunition will do what against certain materials. If you have an interest, you may learn something... or you just might have a little fun. Go here, and here, to see just two examples ofwhat I am talking about with previous installments.

So... some of you dads (and the women that love us), might enjoy a little discussion about firearms, and today, I don't want to talk about a particular weapon, I want to talk about an accessory. Now, hang on a second, I'm not talking about some sort of fashion adornment here... I'm talking about the attachment of a piece of equipment that might help a police officer stay alive, while he/she holds the line against the forces of darkness.

Today, I want to talk about the GPS Grip Pod, which is a spring loaded tactical bi-pod for rifles that are equipped with Picatinny Pails on them. Not terribly long ago, I reviewed a rail mounted bi-pod system that I didn't like at all, but the Grip Pod is a great idea, and a thoroughly useful piece of equipment.

Have a look at this:

There you are: Fun with the M-4 rifle, and my first testing of the Grip pod bi-pod system! Now tell me that wasn't fun!

This is the target that I shot in the video.

Please note that these rounds were grouped just slightly lower than center mass. The reasoning for this intentional shot group, is that people tend to stop fighting you when their guts are being turned into hamburger, and tactically speaking, if your opponent is down and screaming or gurgling in their own blood (yeah, I know, gruesome), he/she is less likely to be trying to kill you.

Another desirable shot grouping is to place your rounds in the upper chest, slightly beneath the neck/throat, thereby interdicting the airway. Head shots are nice, but generally, unless we are talking about snipers, they are the stuff of badly made movies.

Even though headshots aren't always optimal, sometimes a headshot is all you have available to you. When that is the case, you've just got to do what you've got to do.

I hope that you have enjoyed this... the first amalgamation of Shoot 'em Up Friday, and Fatherhood Friday. I am almost certain that next week, Fatherhood Friday will be a stand alone effort, but... you just never know with me. What can I tell you?

Be nice to each other!

GF

Well, dads?, what say you?"

Shoot 'Em Up Friday - A Special Comment

This target was shot with the H&K MP5N, seen below.

The child I mentioned in the video was shot with a Micro Uzi:

Shoot 'Em Up Friday - The Home Improvement Edition

Yes, I know it's Saturday, but, what do you want me to do? Change the whole series?

Enjoy your weekend! GF

Shoot 'em up Friday - The Monday Edition

A little belated shoot 'em up for you, wherein I get rid of our old computer in good 'ol Gunfighter fashion.

Have a look.

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My CPU with the Remington 870 that I shot it with.

Where the projectiles entered the unit....

...and where they exited!

Enjoy that, did you? I'm sure you did!

Enjoy your weeek, friends!

GF

Tuesday: Guilt By Association

Shoot 'Em Up Friday - Mega Edition

Happy Friday, kids! You know? Sometimes being me can be loads of fun! Gf

Shoot 'Em Up Friday: A Preview

Yes, I know it's only Monday, but, I thought that I would give a brief preview of this week's shoot 'em up... which will be quite special. Oh Yeah! PS: My wee girl scored three goals in two soccer games this weekend! Whats a proud coach/dad to do?

Shoot 'Em Up Friday!!

Hi kids!

It's been a while since the last Shoot 'Em Up Friday, so I thought that I would show you a little somp'n somp'n to whet your appetites for next week's edition, which will be the mother of all shoot 'em ups!

As you might remember from several weeks ago, while I was on vacation, I had the misfortune (stupidity, really) to toss my gym shorts in the wash... with my lovely little ipod in the pocket.  Well, so it goes, but, what does one do with a now totally defunct ipod?  Should I throw it in the trash?  Surely it'll never work again, right?  What's a Gunfighter to do?

Wait!  I'm a blogger!  I'm a blogger with a digital camera and guns!  I'm a blogger with a slightly off-center readership that enjoys when I shoot things to pieces.

An idea is born.

I took my ipod to the range shortly after our vacation and, along with my new pistol, Goliath, proceeded to put two rounds of .40 jacketed hollowpoint rounds through it.  The results?  Well, as you might imagine, the ipod didn't fare so well.

Have a look.

As you can see, the first round went through the upper left portion of the control wheel.  The next round was the one that went through the casing and the lower section of the screen.

It may not surprise you to know that the bullets didn't slow down appreciably as they made their way through this rather thin item.

Shall we have a look at the other side, then?

This is the other side of the unit. 

This photo shows us the "exit wounds"... pretty grim, eh?

For the new folks who haven't seen the shoot 'em up Friday  before, I usually try to have some sort of teaching point for my demonstrations, but today.... well, not so much.  This was just a fitting end to the saga of my poor wrecked ipod.

In the meantime, I have purchased a new mp3 player... but it isn't an ipod.  As well as it works, I have to tell you the truth, I plan to purchase another ipod (since they just came out with yet another new model), in the near future.  Maybe if a certain Mrs Gunfighter reads this, it might give her an idea for my birthday... not that I am hinting or anything.

For those of you that missed the naming contest for my new pistol, here is a picture of the Sig model P-229.

 

Have a good weekend... and be nice to someone, ok?

GF

Shoot 'Em Up Friday: Therapy Edition

Have you ever thought to yourself that you would like to commit an act of violence?  Do you ever think that just once, it would be nice to really let go and hit, punch, kick or smash something?

Of course you have.

We're humans... and most of you are Americans, and as such, we are violent.  No, not in a criminal way (for most of us) but we are from a violent country, that has a violent culture... a country born out of violent acts.  We like things getting smashed, don't we?  That's why our television shows and sporting events are so full of physical force and violence.

Well, I'm not giving a lecture on violence today other than to say that I, like you, want to act out, physically, from time to time.  Lucky me... I get to actually make good on my feelings.

Here is where you come in.

You have a cel phone (a Mobile for you Brits, Ozzies, Kiwis, & South Africans), right?  Odds are, you have had several in the past few years.  Odds are that at some point since you started using cellular telephones, these little gems of convenience have pissed you off some way or another.

For my part, I have had many cellular phones, and the usually irritate the crap out of me.  So, I have decided to take matters in hand, and deal with my anger, frustration, and irritation with these modern marvels of communication.  Not because I am angry mind you, but because YOU are angry.  That's right, I am doing this for your therapy, Gentle reader.  Why?  Because I care about you.  Yeah. 

Here are two likely candidates.  Both of these phones have been sitting around for some time.  Of no further use to me, I have decided that since I won't be using them to talk anymore, I should make one last use of them as blog fodder.

The phone on the left was one of the first cel phones that I ever had.  The second was one of those God-awful Nextel phones... you know them, right? they are the ones with the "direct-Connect" walkie-talkie feature?  Well, I really hated those things... here in the DC area, they lose calls all of the times... especially if you are driving anywhere near The Pentagon.

So.  I decided it was time for these telephones to make their last calls.

Many of you already know that when I do a Shoot 'em Up Friday post, I tend to use shotguns or rifles, but today, the firearm of choice is the Sig-Sauer Model P-229 in caliber .357... this was mainly because there is no real point in shooting a cel phone with a shotgun.  I mean, you'll just make a mess of perfectly good traffic cones, right?

There wasn't a lot of ritual involved in today's exercise (well, yesterday's to tell you the truth.  I blasted these phones around 6 A.M. on Thursday, but you get the picture right?  Hey.  "Get The Picture?!" Funny, right?), so I got them set up on their cones and gave them the business.

Each phone only took one bullet.  As you can see, your cel phone isn't going to go very far in saving your life should it come between you and incoming fore, so be warned!  The next time some late-night infomercial tries to convince you to purchase some new-fangled body armor made out of old cel phones... Don't Do It!

Ahem.  The first picture in this post are my phones... This is my phones on .357 hollow-points.

Any questions?

There.  Don't you feel better now?  I do.  So, the next time your phone bothers you, don't swear at it.  don't throw it across the room.  Let ME have it, and I'll get your revenge for you, because I'm a giver... and that's what friends do.  Yeah!

I hope you enjoyed Shoot 'Em Up Friday, and I hope that you enjoy your weekend. 

GF

Shoot 'em up Friday (or, GF Does A Favor)

The idea for today's shoot, came from a fellow DC area blogger, whom I met at a blogger event almost two weeks ago. As it turns out, this blogger is a former federal lawman lawwoman lawperson, and she and I have at least one mutual acquaintance (small world, innit?),but more about that later.

Today, I will be using a slug round from a shotgun (actually, I'll be using two slugs and two buckshot rounds) to shoot up a book. Not just any book, mind you, but a really crappy book by a really crappy writer, who is also a television talking head.

I happen to know that there are some bloggers who read this who are probably laugh themselves silly, or who will cheer because of what I am about to show you For them, I am particularly pleased. I share your joy, trust me.

DISCLAIMER: If you are one of this commentator's fans, please note that there are no real or implied physical threats to the author of the book (lawyer friends, back me up here. I'm on solid ground, aren't I?) I just hated his book so bad that I felt that I had to dispose of it in an appropriate manner. After all, just throwing it in the trash, where it belongs, just isn't enough.

Moving on.

I already told you that I would be using a rifled slug to shoot the book, but I am fairly certain that there may be some folks who don't know what a shotgun slug (or a buckshot round) is, so here is a quick breakdown:

A shotgun shell used for police work is a self-contained cartridge (unit) loaded with buckshot (pellets) or a slug (a solid lead mass, about the same size as a musket ball) designed to be fired from a shotgun. In the main, shotgun shells are designed like this:



In the case of a buckshot round... this is what a dissected shell looks like. You can see the shell itself (the red plastic cylinder), the wad, the cup, the buckshot (nine .32 caliber pellets... each roughly the size of an M&M):




Here is a close up of the buckshot:






This shot shell differs from a slug in that a slug is a solid mass, so instead of nine buckshot pellets, you have this (Sorry, couldn't get a picture large enough).

OK, how is that for an explanation? Sure, I know, it was probably more than you wanted to know about ammunition, but hey, let me geek it up every once in a while, ok?

Alright, enough for now, it's video time... we'll finish up afterwards, OK?









Well! That was fun!

Here are your results:





As you can see here, neither the buckshot nor the slugs had any problem going straight through the book... or the 1/2 in plywood that it was glued to. Nice, eh?



Well, kids, I am afraid that this is the end of today's installment of Shoot 'em up Friday. I'll be back soon with more.

Oh, and this post is a great segue into next week's blogging theme. Next week, I will be blogging about Man Movies. I plan to review several of my favorite "films made just for guys"

Have a nice weekend,

GF

Shoot 'em Up Friday

You didn't really think that I would let you all down just because I spent most of this afternoon on the flat, nice, warm, cozy beach?

It's is still Shoot 'em Up Friday, kids, and I filmed this last week, just for you return readers.

In 10 minutes, we are going out to dinner, but I want you to enjoy this.



Love, and seawater flavored kisses!

GF