The Sisterhood of Shooting

While I don't avoid my identity as a woman shooter, it's not a perspective I've focused on here because I believe a lot of the beauty in shooting is not gendered. That said, this community is where I've found some of my best female friends and, indeed, sisterhood, which is why I invited my good friend, Tracy Hughes, to help capture what it is about getting together on the range that makes us want to get together off the range.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about "the Sisterhood" with regards to gals who enjoy shooting. The fact that I’m guest writing for Beauty Behind the Blast is, itself, a testimonial to "the Sisterhood.”

The Urban Dictionary defines “sisterhood” as “a bond between two or more girls, not always related by blood. They always tell the truth, honor each other, and love each other like sisters.”

Annette Evans (the Beauty) and I (the Therapist) couldn't be more different on the surface. We come from different cultural backgrounds, more than 20 years separate our ages, she’s petite and athletic and I’m, well….I’m neither of those and we are in very different stages of our lives. One thing, and one thing only pulled us together…shooting. But once we started talking about shooting, we discovered that there are entirely more similarities than there are differences between us like the love of the color purple and eclectic music choices on our MP3 players that range from Mozart to Slayer.

And so it is with the sisterhood of shooting. There is a bond between women that shoot that defies definition. The sisterhood is made up of different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities and viewpoints but get us on the range or in a discussion about guns and none of that seems to matter.

We Support Each Other in the Sport
Just like biological sisters, we support each other as sister shooters and competitors. We talk about competitions, new holsters, training and anything else gun related. We seem to know whether we should push each other or hold each other’s hand. And although many times, we face each other in competition, we celebrate each other in victory.

We Support Each Other in Life
It’s not all about the range or the guns. Although we bonded over the guns, we’ve taken the time to learn about each other. We check in to talk about families, jobs, illnesses and day to day challenges. Recently, when my mother passed away, girls from all over the country were text messaging me, emailing me or calling me just to let me know that they were thinking about me, praying for me and there for me if I needed a shoulder. Their messages held me up and really got me through a tough time.

I still haven’t been able to pinpoint why this sisterhood is so tight. It could be that we, as women, cannot always talk about our love of firearms or perhaps just don’t feel comfortable bringing that up in casual conversation. It could be that we have so many other things going on in our lives, like careers and kids and school. Shooting becomes the common recreational outlet and we don’t have to feel weird about enjoying it when we’re among friends who have the same kind of fun.

In addition to Annette, there are so many gals that I never would have had the honor of knowing had it not been for firearms and shooting. And now I can’t imagine life without them in it. Firearms have made us more than friends…we are a sisterhood!

I know a lot of people think about guns as just a violent tool, a "guy thing", or just a mysterious machine in some kind of vacuum. Firearms for me, though, have been a route to empowerment, enjoyment, fun, and friendship. Getting to know Tracy, and other women like her, is one of the best parts of going to the range!

The Purple Zebra

I've been shooting my beloved LWRC M6A2 AR-15 for many years in both CQB-type and longer-range events, but in the last year a number of factors combined so that I could build myself an all-custom AR. I call her the Purple Zebra because, well, you'll see in a moment. First, I'd like to thank the biggest supporters I had in putting together this beautiful rifle, in no particular order: the guys at Lanco Tactical were patient with helping me buy the pair of bare uppers and lowers that started the whole process, J.J. Schroeder at Brownells helped me with all of the fiddly detail parts I needed to finish the build; Brian Torkar of Full Bore Firearms did the fabulous custom paint job; and my husband, Mark, helped me with some of the research and some of the brute force I needed to get the rifle assembled (not to mention his patience with the final bill!).

The heart of my rifle is, of course, the matched stripped upper/lower. Last winter, Lanco did a limited run of aluminum receivers without anodizing or other finish. I picked up two pairs, with consecutive serial numbers. The one is what you see here; the other will be Mark's when he decides to build it out. After I purchased those parts, a few months apart from each other, I began looking for a Cerakote shop and found Full Bore Firearms. Around the same time, I picked up the last pieces to be painted: a Samson Evolution 7" handguard and a Rainier Arms Match barrel  in 10.5"/.223 Wylde with a 1:8 twist. I selected the Evolution because it is one of the lightest free float handguards available and I knew I'd be picking up weight elsewhere in the build. The barrel length was chosen because 10.5" is about the shortest it made sense for me in a rifle, and we picked the caliber to accommodate the widest range of .223/5.56 ammo possible. The Rainer Arms was both a nice quality barrel and in stock, and the twist will maximize longer range performance for the barrel length. Once I had these major parts, I gave the entire package to Full Bore Firearms.

The Cerakote is a custom zebra-stripe pattern in Bright Purple and Stone Grey for the upper/lower receivers and handguard. The barrel is plain Stone Grey. While these parts were with Full Bore Firearms, I began acquiring the other parts I'd need to finish the build. First up was an Adams Arms Carbine Length Lite piston system kit. My LWRC is also a piston-based gun, so I wanted to stick with it. Also, I don't like cleaning. And I may be slapping a suppressor on the Zebra one day.

As I got closer to the projected date when I would receive my NFA registration, I worked with J.J. on the laundry list of other items I would need. Since I already had and was comfortable with the Magpul CTR buttstock, that was a natural choice for this rifle: lightweight, adjustable, and a mechanism I am familiar with. Similarly, I picked out a Magpul MIAD grip (which you don't see in the pictures above as it is currently backordered). The MIAD with the smallest front and back straps fits my hand well, and the straps can get the Brilliant Backstraps treatment...again, just like what I already have. I also ordered a Norgon Ambi-Catch identical to what I installed on my LWRC many years ago. As a left-handed long gun shooter, parts like that are essential to any rifle I use regularly.

Some of the parts I picked were new to me, though. For my ambidextrous safety, I went with the BAD-ASS selector with a standard and short lever. The standard lever is installed on the right-hand side. I splurged on the trigger and got a Geissele Super SSA-E. Geissele is a local-to-me company that supports the shooting sports generously, and they have some of the best triggers on the market. It wasn't a difficult decision to pick Geissele - just which specific model. My lower parts kit otherwise doesn't have anything out of the ordinary. On the upper, the Adams Arms kit came with a bolt carrier. I added a WMD Nib-X bolt and standard firing pin/etc. I also picked out a BCM Gunfighter charging handle. I haven't felt the need for an ambi charging handle before, but figured this would be a good time to try. The rest of the upper parts are standard parts.

After my NFA stamp came back, I retrieved my upper, lower, barrel, and handguard and began assembling. Fortunately, I have generous friends who lent me the necessary vise blocks and wrenches to go with the regular gunsmithing tools we keep around the house. After assembly, I've popped up a generic muzzle brake I had in the parts bin to protect the threads while I decide what to do for a muzzle device, and for now, I have my SWFA SS 1-6x24 optic in an AD-RECON quick-detach mount on top. I'm also deciding if I want to add a Grip Stop or similar to prevent accidentally burning myself on the gas block.

Building my own AR has been an alternately fun and frustrating process. There're a lot of conflicting opinions out there on the 'best' parts to get, and actually assembling it can take a lot more mechanical aptitude than I usually am able to muster up. I'm glad I bought a complete AR first and learned to shoot and maintain it so that putting this one together was much more mentally manageable for me. Now that I'm done, though, the feeling of accomplishment is incredible. I can't wait to go to the range with this gun, and finish out the last details of the build!

On Dry Fire

I believe strongly in dry fire, more so in the last year or two than ever before. While I've improved steadily since picking up my first gun and slightly faster since I started shooting competitively, dry fire has made my gains come even more quickly and dramatically. Some of my dry fire routine is very focused, based on books and posts from various top shooters and working a particular set of techniques or par times. Some of it is more random - gun pickup and manipulation drills, for instance, or picking a single issue I want to work on. After setting up and making sure I'm following my safety rules, I almost always warm up with 5 (or 10, or 20 or 25...) draws to an IDPA or USPSA target set up against my dry fire backstop. Standard draw, surrender draw, draw from concealment, turn and draw, draw on the move...doesn't really matter, although I'll usually start from the simplest and move to the more complex. Some nights, that's all I do.

However, as you might have been able to tell from my sparse Facebook posts and my even sparser blog posts recently, I haven't been able to concentrate on dry fire or shooting in general as much as I'd like. I've been out at my regular monthly matches but haven't shown up at many extra matches this summer. Some of it is the ammo crisis, but some of it is also due to stress from my personal and professional life. While staying in practice is important from both a self-defense and a competition perspective, there are times when practice makes permanent in negative ways. When I'm sitting on the couch after work and can't summon the brainpower to decide on dinner, dry fire may not only be unsafe, but unproductive. It's not helpful to my shooting to put in dozens of repetitions of a sloppy draw or a bad sight picture. On some of those nights, I've consciously decided not to dry fire rather than set back my progress and increase my frustration.

But we don't always get to shoot matches or defend ourselves when we're feeling at our peak physical and mental condition, and we should allow for that in training. It's important not to stray into the trap of only practicing in ideal conditions. Practice is not a demonstration of perfection. It's working towards perfection. Perfect practice doesn't mean that every draw and every trigger press is flawless. It means that you're paying enough attention to know what you're doing wrong and what you need to do to improve, and to make those fixes as you work through your dry fire routine. That can mean just putting your head down and making it through only 5-10 minutes of slow-motion basics if that's all you can muster up the energy for at the end of a long day. On many of those blah evenings, I've consciously decided I must dry fire and scaled back my routine accordingly so that I wasn't overwhelmed with how much I planned to work on. Some mindful practice has been better than no practice at all, and it's made my mental game stronger because I am practicing getting my head into the game no matter what my mood is on the range. And just like a bit of live fire time can drain stress away, spending some quality time behind a dry gun can have the same calming effect.

On Classifications, Competitions and Winning

One of my early posts here was about shooting your own match and finding the "win" that matters most to you. At some point, moving up in classification or winning matches becomes important or at least interesting to many of us. I believe these are important goals even if we aren't interested in "being competitive" for the sake of bragging rights.

Classification is not just a way to compare yourself to other shooters. It can also be a tool to objectively measure progress and discover weak spots in your skills. The core of IDPA's classification system is based on each shooter's performance in a single specified course of fire. As your total time decreases, your classification increases from Novice through Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert and finally, Master. Trying to reach a specific classification is a tangible goal that can help keep you motivated to practice more, and actually making the class you're going after can create a great sense of accomplishment to reward your efforts. Even if you don't make a specific class goal, you can still see if your overall skillset is improving by tracking your classifier total, stage and string times.

In USPSA, the classification system pools shooters together to tell you where you are relative to others. In that sense, it is very much a ranking system. USPSA categorizes percentages into Grand Master, Master, and A through D classes, but you can track your percentage within each class. Due to the number of scores that are calculated into your classification, your percentage may only inch up over a season or even years but the trend of your scores over time and your results  in some types of classifiers over others can tell you quite a bit. You may not have made the bump into B yet, but moving from being a 45% C-class shooter to a 55% C-class shooter is still significant. And if your results are consistently lower in strong-hand-only stages or stages with required reloads, then you know what you need to work on next time you dry fire.

Similarly, trying to win matches isn't just about trophies and prizes. As you shoot with a community of competitors over time, you will get a sense of who is at about the same level as you are, and who you aspire to shoot like. Matches can be an outside measuring stick to help you and your friends continue to compare skills and to push each other. It's not about wanting to beat others and come out on top of the pile, but about benchmarking your progress against a standard - your friends' performances - that is more tangible than what shows up on a shot timer. I've found that through regular matches, my shooting buddies have improved as a group, making all of us more efficient and more accurate than any one of us training alone might have achieved.  This sort of friendly competition isn't mean-spirited and you can continue to celebrate each others' results even if you are disappointed with your own.

Classification and competition aren't always viewed positively. I don't agree that chasing classes and wins is necessarily a bad thing, though, because they can be proxies for understanding how your skills are developing and tools to encourage you to continually improve your abilities. You might not make Master and you might not win High Overall, but the journey of working towards those types of goals can help make you a stronger, more well-rounded shooter.

It's Not Enough To Take Just One Class

While I shoot year-round now, the "start" of my season is the same as for many other people - early spring. From my last post, you know that I kicked this year off with a (ahem) bang, at the A Girl & A Gun National Conference. Just a few weeks after, I had the fantastic opportunity to host and assist with a Cornered Cat Defensive Handgun for Women class. An interview published last year talks quite a bit about the class itself, so I wanted to offer a slightly different perspective.

Kathy Jackson's class wasn't the first time I've been in a defensive shooting class...or, for that matter, the first time I've taught defensive shooting skills. Competitive shooting is most of what I do with my time on the range, but I believe that quality training of any type is a good thing because every instructor will bring a different focus to the firing line. Focused rounds down range that refine technique and skill will always be a net positive in some way whether you want to win your next match, be able to use a firearm effectively in a defensive situation, or just have more fun at the range. Having that experience with an experienced instructor will give you an outside eye to objectively assess what you doing wrong (and right!) and provide you with new skills and drills. Some of you may be very disciplined when you go to the range in coming up with and practicing even the things you don't like or aren't good at, and using video and a critical eye to assess your shortcomings. For myself, I find being in classes are a good way to spot-check my progress and to push myself to do things I might not try or perfect otherwise (*cough* shooting with taped up sights...). And being able to do it in a training setting can be a good way to get comfortable with a skill before you are under increased stress from a timer or from an attacker. With the current difficulties in getting ammo, I also find that making my range time more intentional means that I don't feel like I'm just throwing money down the barrel.

I especially like to think of classes and coaching as ways to keep filling my toolbox. For example, Kathy teaches a thumb over thumb grip technique that's not like one I've ever really used. I don't shoot a revolver (with the attendant potential problems of cylinder gap), and my hands aren't sized so that straight thumbs can extend past the muzzle on a micro-pistol, so I've generally ignored the grip as an option. Hearing her rationale behind it helped build it as a better tool in my toolbox. I may use it myself in the future, pass it on to one of my own students, or even just use that rationale to help me articulate why I'm not using it or recommending it in a specific situation. All of those outcomes are valuable, sometimes particularly the latter one. Not every technique or drill is right for every person or situation, but it's good not only to have options but to know and be able to justify why one is better than another at a specific combination of individual and moment. Becoming thoughtful about your shooting in this way will help you solidify your confidence in what you're doing behind the gun. And that self-confidence is what will make you a more beautiful, better shooter over time.

Working the Range

If you've shot or observed even one match, or watched some match video on YouTube, you're probably already aware of the most visible staff: Safety/Range Officers. While they're an important part of the shooting sports, they're part of a much larger team, including a team that isn't just there for match days. In an early post, I talked a bit about the work that goes into just one one-day event, but there's so much more...and sometimes, just saying thanks isn't enough. As we head into the warmer shooting season, I want to say a few words about range maintenance and work generally. While there are range facilities and shooting organizations with paid staff, many clubs and events run on the shoulders of passionate volunteers. You may not be aware of the many skills and the amount of grunt work that allow you to enjoy the shooting sports, or what you can offer to keep your club running on a day to day basis.

Last weekend, I was delighted to participate as an instructor at A Girl & A Gun Club's National Conference, where I taught a range of competitive shooting classes both on and off the range, as well as live fire sessions on target transitions and alternate shooting positions. With over 100 women attending from across the United States (and the UK!), plus speakers, instructors, staff, and vendors for the two and a half-day event, you can imagine the logistical nightmares involved in putting together what amounted to a combined professional conference and major match. It's easy to think of and appreciate the event planning and other "big" tasks that go into pulling off this type of three-ring circus, but it's also important not to forget the smaller things like putting together swag bags or stapling up targets. And while firearms-related skills are certainly an important part of this type of event and organization, it's not just that. You don't need to be a master-level shooter to be able to help with financial management, coordinate sponsors and vendors, design programs and swag, or make emergency runs to the store...and all of those things are just as necessary.

Special events aren't the only thing that need all hands on deck, though. My home club, like many shooting clubs, is almost entirely volunteer-run. As with a regular for-profit business, ranges need administrative work like managing bank accounts, reviewing membership applications, handling legal and insurance paperwork, and coordinating scheduling - along with physical upkeep and upgrades from the mundane work of keeping the clubhouse clean and the security system running to overseeing range safety improvements and target installation. We draw on the expertise of many members' "day jobs", including donated professional time, and it's always helpful when someone lets us know that they have knowledge, skills or access to resources that help in those areas. It's not just the white collar types of skills either. We've been very thankful in the past year or so for members with heavy equipment who are able to move the massive amounts of dirt required to expand and upgrade shooting bays. Don't be fooled into thinking that special skills are needed for all that needs to be done, though. The biggest tasks we tackled at the work day we had this weekend just needed people who could wield shovels, rakes, hammers, and drills - nothing more complicated than what you might need to do around your house. For those of us who have physical limitations, there are similarly important tasks needed year-round that can be as simple as stuffing envelopes for membership renewal letters.

Shooting is a lot of fun, but there's a lot of work that's necessary to keep our events and our ranges open. If we all kick in a few hours here and there, then we all get more time to get to the making loud noises part. How many non-shooting hours have you put into your range lately? What skills can you bring to your home club?

The Winter of My 1911

Many shooters, competitive and recreational, take a break during the colder and shorter days of winter. Even for those of us who don't shoot at outdoor ranges, the holidays and other obligations often make it tougher to get out to the range between October and March. While I don't shoot as much over the winter as I do in the spring and fall, the match I co-direct does run year-round as do several other local matches. I also try to take advantage of my extra free weekends to get in some off-season practice and to fit in a few more private students than I usually have the time to take on during my competition/training season. I also like to use winter as a time to set my shooting goals for the upcoming year. One of my most popular posts has been about shooting your own match, and this quiet time is a good time to consider what that means to you moving forward.

As I ended last season, I was concerned that my improvement was starting to plateau. In order to combat that, and to give myself an opportunity to broaden my skill set generally, I decided to switch competition platforms. I committed to spend the winter months shooting a 9mm 1911, with a plan to go after classification in both USPSA Single Stack and IDPA Enhanced Service Pistol in the spring classifier matches that traditionally run in my region. Even with the slightly slower pace of matches, I thought this and consistent dry-fire practice would force me to learn enough about shooting this gun to be able to make a more informed decision about its positives and negatives, both in my hands and generally. My 1911 is a Commander-sized model with an extended magazine release, a slightly over-sized ambidextrous safety, and a beavertail. It also has a larger and beveled magazine well than is normally standard, and aggressive checkering on front and backstrap and under the trigger guard. Mine happened to come with these features stock from the factory, but it's a pretty complete collection of common modifications I've seen to the platform. About a month into the winter, I also switched to a pair of VZ Grips Slim Gator Back grips generously lent to me by a friend.

This winter, I learned that while single-stack guns like the 1911 are often recommended for shooters with small hands, they still may not present the best fit. Even with slim grips and an extended magazine release, I do have some issues reaching the controls and finding the mag release for reloads. I'll be getting slim grips with a "scoop" or "super scoop" to help combat that problem. I also have had to work hard on some very subtle aspects of my trigger press, as the slide trigger on the 1911 is a bit different from the hinged trigger on my M&P. Because the geometry of the grip is such that I do have to reach to get to my standard trigger, I have to be very careful not to nudge the gun as the trigger breaks. A short trigger may fix the issue, but in the meantime I've been doing a lot of wall drills and my personal variations on the dime/washer drill - something that will certainly benefit me when I return to my M&P.

My 1911 has been a return to 3-dot sights for me, which I'd left behind over the summer when I switched to a red fiber front/straight black rear sight set on my M&P. The front sight blade on my 1911 is also quite a bit fatter than on my M&P, and fills more of the gap between the rear sights. All of the lessons I've had in focusing on the front sight, and really seeing the perfect sight alignment became even more important with these 3-dot tritiums. Just lining up the dots isn't enough, especially with distance shots....a lesson I fully intend to transfer back to every other gun I shoot.

One of my initial concerns had been whether or not I could adjust to using a manual safety, since this is my only non-.22lr target pistol with a manual safety. It was almost entirely a non-issue. Over a handful of nights in dry-fire, I made a minor adjustment to my right thumb during the grip acquisition phase of my draw stroke. By pointing it a bit higher as my hand came down on the grip, my thumb naturally ended up on top of the safety, clicked it off as my hand rotated the gun towards the target, and stayed in place to ride the safety. I don't find that the slight change in where my right thumb starts on the grip acquisition to affect my draw of a gun without a manual safety. As a bonus, it's trained my right hand to really get high up on the grip, which has improved my recoil control.

When I discuss gun choice with new shooters, I often steer them away from the 1911 as a first gun, partially because they have more complex maintenance requirements than many more modern designs. While my 1911 was reliable all winter, I was forcefully reminded me of this when it more or less screeched to a grinding halt functionally, with no warning. I shot it last Monday for a short IDPA match and had no problems. On Saturday, my planned USPSA Classifier Match [pdf], I had an odd feed issue with one magazine in the 4-magazine field stage I started with. I then proceeded to shoot 6 classifier stages with malfunctions in every single stage ranging from simple stovepipes to doublefeeds to the unique - and as far as I know, unnamed - experience of looking down and seeing a round in the chamber, a round trying to feed, AND a casing stuck on the extractor. Not the best thing that's ever happened to my classifier scores, and the type of problem that's not easy or fast to diagnose and fix on the range during a match. It certainly gave me a lot of practice with my mental game, though.

I've learned a lot about 9mm 1911s in the past few months. And while I respect and appreciate the platform more now than I did, I'm also pretty sure that I don't like it as a long-term option for me. I think I'll still return to it occasionally for fun though, or to work again on the skills it's made me focus on. And I'd definitely recommend trying something new for a few months or a year to anyone looking to break a plateau. What will you try?