Musings

I recently appeared with Ilya on his live stream over at the Dark Lord of Optics. It started with a question about recent and future developments in the optics trade, but being a long stream with lots of Q&A, we covered quite a bit of ground in other places, too.

I feel like it’s been time for a change up, what about you? We’ve all set goals for ourselves over the last year, some have done well and others haven’t. Maybe, like me, it’s been mixed.

Well, it’s time for a shock to the system and a kick in the pants. This is what I’m doing.

The theme of the month for members of our little tribe is “Back to Basics.” I know that means different things to different people, so allow me to give a quick take. The previous month was about red teaming and identifying where you have blindspots. This month is about adopting a beginner mindset and starting to solve for those weaknesses.

I have many weaknesses and blindspots, too many to tackle in a single month or year. So let’s talk about one of those and what I’m doing about it- because this affects you.

I don’t’ write typical “blog posts” very often, but this is one of those days. We’re well into the panic of COVID-19, and things don’t show any signs of slowing down. I wanted to take a moment to share some of my observations and lessons learned so far in this mess.

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “Gun Show?” I think your reaction is very culturally dependent on where you grew up, the circles you run in, and the kinds of things you take an interest to. It’s been a long time since the last one I attended, so I took an opportunity to hit a local one over the weekend. Here are some of my notes.

During a recent match, I was surprised about the rules they laid out for using safeties during movement. But it got me thinking: how standard is it, really? So I wanted to ask you what you think.

Recently, I started asking around for some input. One of the recurring topics that you guys latched onto was the concept of standards. To be honest, I’m all about objective performance measurements for accuracy, speed, and other elements. As part of a broader goal, I want to make that a recurring element of our community.

For this edition of the conversation starter series, I want to know what you’re currently working on. What questions do you have floating around that you’d like to get answered?

Colonel Townsend Whelen is a legend among marksmen and outdoorsmen alike. His exploits spanned the Spanish American war to the Canadian wilderness, to even running the Frankford Arsenal.

It’s really a shame that more people don’t know of him. So let’s fix that.

In Q2, I wanted to start competing in local matches. As a point of commitment, I registered for a match about an hour away. My equipment probably isn’t up to snuff, and my skills are certainly rusty, but that’s ok.

Let’s talk about my match and what you might have coming up.

We last left off from this tale in 1955, where Gerald Gustafson and William Davis had their funding cut off for any further research into small-caliber high-velocity (SCHV) cartridges. The Army Ordnance Board, responsible for developing new small arms, was well down the path to adopting the 7.62 NATO and M-14 rifle. The AR-15 seemed dead, and it might have been if not for the Army Infantry Board.

By the mid-1950s, Gerald Gustafson and William Davis had taken up as champions of the little .22 cartridge. They were involved in D.L. Hall’s earlier work, and now they wanted to continue proving to the Army that this research path was a worthy contender for an infantry rifle.