New Hats!

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I’m taking pre- orders on the new Black and Gold PARA hat. The hats include shipping so just 32 bucks and it’s yours.

The hat is a Flexfit Ultra Fiber Cap with Air Mesh Sides. No snaps on the back. The logo is embroidered. I have had the same hat and it is a very high quality hat. Pre order will be over on October 13th 2020.

Choose your size on this page.

44% Polyester / 42% Nylon / 7% Cotton / 7% PU S/M (6 3/4” – 7 1/4”)L/XL (7 1/8” – 7 5/8”)view size chart

Amplify your workout with the Flexfit® Ultrafibre & Airmesh cap. The Ultrafibre Technology allows for versatility of robust, lightweight and wind & water-resistant properties, and the stretch-fit technology and airmesh construction deliver enhanced comfort and breathability.

• Lightweight cap with airmesh side and rear panels
• Ultrafibre Technology
• Hard buckram. Structured
• Closed back. Stretch fitted
• Matching undervisor, 8-row stitching on visor

Size

Back to the Super Shoot with the 92.

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This past weekend I shot my favorite local match of the year, UDPL’s Super Shoot. This was my 6th time shooting the annual match, and my second time winning the Ten Round Max division (TRM). I didn’t take the match seriously until about 2014 when I shot the match with my Beretta 90-two. I took 4th that year in TRM, then 4th with a Glock 34 in 2015 and 1st in 2016 with my M&P pro. I have always wanted to win it with my favorite gun, the Beretta 92fs.

This year I took out a well used Beretta 92 fs Vertec and tried to get it ready for the match. It needed new sights that hit point of aim, and some more trigger work. Done and done. What I should have focused on was reloading some better ammo. But all is well that ends well. Here is the video of this fun match. You should come shoot it next year, with a Beretta.

A new year and a new division.

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Here is a video of my friend Steve Koski and myself shooting a IDPA match. This year I’m shooting in CCP with a Beretta PX4 Storm. We happened to win our divisions and have a blast in the process. The PX4 almost 2000 rds in has not produced any malfunctions or anything short of tremendous accuracy.

Practicing For The Fight

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Gun games will get you killed! Sure they will. It is sad to say that this is a common opinion held on the interwebs. Somehow going out on a Saturday or two a month and getting a high volume of rounds on multiple targets, on a flat range that has been made as dynamic as safety will allow isn’t worth anyone’s time. We hear that fights don’t have rules or courses of fire. By shooting matches we are screwing ourselves by building in so called “Training Scars”. Now I do agree that practical shooting is not fighting and competitions are not places to learn how to fight in a dynamic situations, but what I really don’t agree with is that fights don’t have rules.

You’re a good guy, a “law / rule abiding citizen”. Because you are not a lawless dirt bag your actions in a fight will be regulated by Ethics and Morals. Not to mention Geography, Architecture, Tools and the Law of the Land. Every fight brings along it’s own set of rules, even if it‘s only one of the contestants that abides by the rules of Morals, Laws and Ethics. LEOs and the Military have procedures, Rule of Engagement, tactics, and training to better understand and exploit these rules. So we should also train to have these rules factor in and even hinder our decisions and options, thus making us work harder to produce a better outcome. This is where the square range falls short.

The truth is unless we are participating in some sort of Force on Force training we are being cheated from the actual fight experience. Think about it. Even in our defensive firearms classes we have range rules, drills, administrative procedures, range limitations, logistics and time restrictions. In a lot of respects it sounds like a match where we are not keeping score. Are the skills taught in these classes vital for self defense training? Hell yes! Should we immerse ourselves in defensive firearms tactics and manipulations? Also a resounding Hell Yes! We have training limitations which put us behind the proverbial 8 ball. We can’t safely recreate the fight so we must break our defensive skills down into drills, in which we can use to improve and document our progress. Practical firearms matches serve as a venue to forcibly put some of those skills to test.

Shooting stages that push our skill sets in areas we don’t want to practice or don’t have the necessary equipment to train with will  only be to our benefit. Matches may require weak hand shooting, shooting on the move, maybe shooting moving and even running targets. Those are skills that need to be practiced and perfected. I have yet to attend a self defense course that did not emphasize Strong or Weak Hand shooting as a vital self defense skill. Same goes with shooting on the move. So when we compete let’s not shrug off our poor performance by saying “it’s just a game” . If we take that attitude we are fooling ourselves into thinking that when our life is on the line magically those skills will be there, sorry gang they won’t be.

We all want to feel tough. We all want to think we can handle the gun like a boss. Most of us have found out that just because we attended a class or two doesn’t make us John McLane or even Bob Vogel. In fact one of the unwanted side effects of classes is we can get a false self image of our actual ability. Thinking we are more competent than we actually are is more dangerous than having a realistic self image of our ability. Shooting against others on a even playing field can check our egos in a hurry. I would rather know what shots I can make on command with my pride on the line and not the lives of my family, friends or myself.

Just try to remember to take the reps where you can get them. Most gunfights are short, violent and chaotic, so our skills most be as sharp as possible to prevail. Remember every gunfight is a competition, there are winners and losers. There is a time limit in gunfights, it’s just a unknown par time. Hits matter a lot. Most winners hit first. I’ll wrap this up by saying get good gear. Discipline yourself and dry fire. Learn to manage your mind and take the lessons competition will teach you. Attend defensive firearms training classes to learn weapon manipulation and tactics. Apply all the above, then dominate the fight.

Stay safe and click at the wall,

Tom Nelson

Price of Admisson

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The Price of Admission

This Saturday I was invited to teach a women’s intro to competition class at our local club.

We had a small number of women signed up at the time of my invitation. However, by the start of class the number had more then doubled. With our numerous new students, we split the class into two groups and set off.

I had pleasure of teaching Handgun Fundamentals, and an IDPA introductions class. The students were mostly made up of club member’s wives (including mine) and family. All had some basic pistol training. Some even had a little match and training class experience. As with all my classes, I like to have a little fundamentals refresher. After our discussion about Stance, Grip, Sight Alignment and Trigger Control, I helped each student put a six shot group down. To their surprise, no five shot group was larger than three inches. One student’s group was smaller than two inches. Even after 30 warm-up rounds, the entire group only put three shots out of the down zero at 5 yards.

I see this type of success in almost all my students at the beginning of a class. While it comes as no surprise to me, the students are almost in disbelief with what is happening. In another class I taught, I had a student who went six for six on a 100 yard steel torso target with his Sig 226 then turn and ask me “How am I doing this?” The women at this class had a kind of “Yeah I did that attitude.”

Once we moved to our mock IDPA stage and gave a rundown of the rules, safety, and stage techniques, we had our time free runs. With the exception of a couple of misses on their first swinging target, all the women ran the stage safe and smoothly. My wife even managed to run the stage under 40 seconds with zero points down. I wish we had all the stage runs on video because the the ladies all looked comfortable running the stage. I overheard some of them mentioning they were having fun. I know we will be seeing most of the women at our club matches next year.

One problem most gun owners, and especially women have is, they think practical firearms competition are so far beyond their capabilities. Our mind tells us, “Since this is a competition, it is not a place for us to learn. Rather, it is a place for embarrassment and failure.” This fear will rob gun owners of some of the most enjoyable experiences they will ever have exercising their second amendment rights. It also steals supporting members of gun right organizations in our fight to keep that right.

“Too many people feel they need to be better than they currently are before they will come out to a match for the first time. Often, the hardest part of shooting competition is attending your first match. Once you arrive, you are surrounded by a group of shooters who will spend the entire day working to make sure you will have a fun, safe and memorable experience. They do this because they too were once new. Also, they love the sport and want to see it grow. Helping the newest shooters is a way to promote and grow the sport they love.” – Robert Wyatt

If you think there are a mountain sized pile of skills you need to master before you ever compete, you are wrong. If you can load, draw, move, reload, unload, holster, all while safely handling the firearm and maintaining a teachable state of mind, then you are ready. If you need work on those basic skills, seek training from a credible instructor. Also, buy some training videos and practice with a unloaded gun in a ammo free room until you feel confident in those necessary skills. The sooner the better.

I strongly encourage all those who own a firearm to at least give competition a try. Whether it be long range rifle, clay shooting sports, 3Gun, or your local pistol club, get out there with your loved ones and make some memories. Remember, if you never try you always fail.

Stay safe and click at the wall,

Tom Nelson

Match Debriefing

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My 2014 IDPA season is over with having competed in the Utah IDPA State Championship. Like all the matches hosted by UDPL it was well put together and the COFs were well planned and executed. Now I actually walked away from this state match feeling okay, which is a big difference from previous large matches I have shot. Last year’s Utah State Match I put on a poor performance which left me well in the rear of the top shooters competing that year. This year however with a ton of practice and a better mental game things turned out a little better.(Third Overall)

Critiquing your performance is essential to your improvement. This year I have kept all the results of the matches I have shot on my tablet to compare with the previous matches. Also the in-match notes and post match thoughts I write down. The GoPro has been awesome in documenting the stages and helping me remember what I was thinking via a first person view. I review all the data to build my training regiment. I use mainly the mistakes during the match and leave the positives behind. I don’t want to fall into a “I’m so great cycle” and end up just doing what I’m good at. So let me break down my match for you.

IDPA is a awesome practical pistol game because of it’s scoring system. You don’t need to win every stage you just need to be consistent in your stage execution. So I will spare you all the stage run times and so forth but I will give you my stage rank and the ranks of the shooter ahead of and behind me to prove this point.

Stage Ranks

1st place ESP shooter- 2,1,1,1,2,2,1,1,1,3. Now that kind of consistency will win you a lot of matches. Almost all the elite shooters in the sport put up runs like this.

Tom 2nd place ESP shooter- 4,2,4,1,3,3,4,7,4,13. This is what you call a controlled crash. Just like Arby’s, it’s not the best but it’s also not bad enough for you to stop coming.

3rd place ESP shooter-3,3,2,3,12,2,17,3,17. Where I lost to him the damage was minimal but his stage losses to me were catastrophic. I trailed 1st by 40 seconds and beat 3rd by 15 seconds. Now It was a mistake filled match on my part but I didn’t fall apart on large stages or make enormous mistakes. 3Rd’s loss to me was based on two stages alone. Consistent execution was the difference.

My plan was to to make the best use of my accuracy and be way more aggressive in my stage plan than I have ever been before, but not to the point where I was writing checks my hands couldn’t cash. If you want to improve your stage performance start with little rolls of the dice and not betting the house. The bets I lost on Saturday where procedural based or recovering from a violation so I would not receive a PE. But in most cases when I recovered from the error the cure was worse than the disease. I would spend more time correcting the error than what the penalty was worth. The points down came from getting ahead of myself on the stage plan and not focusing on delivering the shot that was at hand. A friend noticed that I fired a lot of extra shots throughout the match. When I examined the video I noticed after a stage where I had large amounts of Points Down I would make sure on the proceeding stage to fire extra shots at medium to difficult targets to ensure minimal points down. What it cost me was extra reloads on stages that didn’t need them, thus increasing my overall time. The final thing I need to address is my footwork when setting up into a position and when rounding cover.

Once you have identified your match issues the next step is to work drills into your dry fire that put that issue into play. It doesn’t have to be the main focus of the drill but must be a noticeable step, then see how the cookie crumbles in match scenarios. Getting better in this sport depends on reps, confidence and strong mental discipline to put process at the top of the list when that buzzer goes off and not the plan. My goal is to deliver a perfect draw, then position myself, get a good sight picture, press the trigger without disturbing the sights and rinse and repeat until there is nothing left to shoot. Process is not shooting this stage faster than the previous guy. Process is speed math, not speed reading. Just work it one problem at a time.

Stay safe and click at the wall,

Tom Nelson

Cross Training

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Laying in my bed after a session of dry fire, I check the old YourFace and see some topics to write about. Robert Wyatt, who is a friend of mine and a great shooter suggested a inside joke topic of ” Why you should stick to shooting one gun for more than a month?”

I have been well know to swap between guns from match to match and even sad to say from stage to stage. To my credit I have stay consistent in my placement in club matches with my swapping ways. So tonight I will not answer Robert’s question but write about how this gun cross training can make you a better shooter.

This year alone I have shot these pistols  in matches local and even in Canada. CZ 75B Omega, Beretta 90-two, S&W M&P, Glock 17 and I have a FNH FNS Longslide on the way that I will shoot the year out with.
All these guns are similar and yet to the gunslinger are quite different,  cocked and locked 75b to the Double-Single 92, the striker fired Smith and the lower grip angle of the Glock. But really since the 1911 all modern pistol have the same layout, give or take a decocker here or a slide release there. Which really makes the jump between them minimal.

Now working with so many different guns can kick you in the ass, but only if you don’t put some work in before hand. Here are some of my reasons to cross train with multiple handguns.
1. Fundamentals are devoid of any firearm allegiance. Most casual shooters have picked up a friends gun and taken it for a spin only to come back and say “I can’t hit Sh!# with it”, or it “doesn’t fit me.” A good shooter regardless of firearm will be able to apply proper marksmanship skills and deliver a well placed shot. Shooting a new gun or a safe dweller will take what is now a unconscious effort and bring it to the forefront of your conscience mind. Thus reminding you of the what it feels and looks like to apply those marksmanship fundamentals.

2. Swinging the weighted bat. Now we all know of a few guns that are lacking in refinements, such as my Beretta 92. Long double action 11 pound trigger, 3 dot sights, a mag-well that is not beveled and just big enough to fit the magazine. It’s a lot of fun to watch your screaming fast reload come to a dead stop because you missed the dead center of the mag-well by a millimeter.

It sucks and is awesome all at the same time.

It sucks and is awesome all at the same time.

A tough gun to run is like a batter’s weighted bat in the on deck circle. It’s heavier thus slower to swing but makes the batter’s bat speed increase with his lighter game bat. That double action pull makes you get a better finger placement on the trigger. It makes you press evenly and smoothly, so you don’t pull the shot off target and you build grip strength.  That mag-well makes you work on indexing your mags correctly and helps you slow down at the critical points of your reload. Drawing a different gun can help you work on the angle and starting position of your grip. As soon as you go back to your  modern and lighter striker fired gun it will feel like a Ferrari 458 and not a Honda Odyssey.

3. Teaching others. Nothing is better than actual experience. It would be nice to help out that new shooter who was wrangled into that Sig 220 Super Combat Elite Dark Scorpion for his first gun and is putting the first round into the dirt at each stage, or those 4 out 5 women who walked out of the gun store with S&W Air Weight. Knowing how to pull that heavy and long DA trigger would be a boon to that shooter. The different ways the manufacturer zeros the sights on a  gun, where to hold the sights. Which aftermarket mags work and which are like being robbed 30 bucks at a time. Even if it is that super light striker spring that won’t set off that CCI primer, at least you can make difference and save that shooter a couple hundred bucks and a trip to the gunsmith.

Less never was better than more.  One trick ponies can’t win all the races and variety is the spice of life. So buy them all and let the learning  begin.

Stay safe and click at the wall,

Tom Nelson

Dry Fire Tips

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After spending a week with Massad Ayoob, his students, and the range staff for the Gun Dudes fourth MAG40 class and then shooting a GSSF match. In which prelims show I took first in Civilian class. I would like to relate some of my observations in regards to handgun training.

Mas handing over a signed $1 bill to Tom for tying his Qualifier score.

Mas handing over a signed $1 bill to Tom for tying his Qualifier score.

There were so many good shooters attending the class. All where safe and attentive and applied the techniques that where being taught. I wish I could of had more time one on one with them all but that wasn’t possible.
I had the opportunity to spend time dry firing in the motel with a student named Richard. He is a USPSA shooter that hails from Colorado, and is very competent with his Glock pistols. In that cramped room I was able to demonstrate how I dry fire with the help of Nate Osbourne demoing my methods and running a timer while I took a spin. While working with Richard I saw huge improvements in his draw, reloads and the way he approached making his par times. Seeing his rapid progress it reminded me of my journey since putting into practice a daily dry fire routine.In late 2013 I felt adrift in my practical shooting. I wasn’t improving fast enough to be really competitive in my IDPA club or state matches. I would  come in around the top but it was inconsistent. At the beginning of the year I started to regularly dry fire after work. Just working on my draw and reloads on some Shot Master Targets. Like many others my sessions lacked depth, so they got real boring, real quick.

The cure for my lost interest was crushing par times, moving drills and up to 9 target arrays to clean with 2 shots each in 6 seconds. What my practice needed was more failure. In our efforts to improve we sometimes take practice from trying to succeed and turn them into stroking our egos. So here are some tips to get you going again.

  What ever your par times are in live fire cut them in half for dry fire. Never  work on your draw as a stand alone drill, alway place it in a larger CoF. Movement drills will set you apart from the rest of the club. Back, forward and horizontal movement while shooting at  2″ targets will show you how to pace your movements and trigger. No more slow fire focus drills, shoot all targets to a par time, even if it is somewhat generous. Buy a camera that you can record your sessions, delete, save or share it with someone you respect for necessary correction. Weak hand shooting is vital, make a session out of it. The most important lesson is to just set apart a pair of up dry fire pants. Belt, holster pouches and dummy rounds. Just put them on and get your reps in.

Everyone else is getting better and you’re getting older. Don’t waste your time looking at the guns the pros shoot on the internet, when you could become the pro dry firing your own gun now.

Stay safe and click the gun at the wall,

Tom

Practical Handgun

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DSC_0802I have been asked “what is the difference between your pistol classes and all the others?” My answer is that PARA is about hard tangible skill building, not about  tactics  or mindset. We build a foundation of skill, then add the two later. In today’s pistol classes there is a tendency to train to a easier standard of accuracy saying “it’s good enough for that speed” or “that is combat accurate.” This is mainly due to instructors trying to get a lot of subject matter covered in a day and for most classes it is enough for what they want you to accomplish in that class. That kind of training still  leaves hard dependable accuracy being neglected. Solid accurate hits should be one of the training industry’s highest standards but it is not.  I hold myself to a high standard of accuracy and I will teach and hold my students in class to the same high standard.

Training in fundamentals sounds slow and boring but it is the opposite of that. Hitting targets at range or of a small perceptive size feels amazing, while hitting them at a fast pace makes you feel unstoppable. I want my students to be able to push the mechanical accuracy of their weapons, to feel confident in their ability to make timely and devastatingly accurate hits. Reload and move with smooth motions and manipulate the weapon like a professional. This smoothness comes from not only teaching how to perform but also how to practice it via live and dry fire.

I hear a lot of the balance between speed and accuracy in classes,  from articles and other shooters, I have no problem with this term but I prefer “accuracy at speed.” You either hit a target or not. Did I hit where I intended to? Why did my bullet impact there? Why was this motion so slow when we review it? How can I go faster? These are the question that I will answer.I will not pass on them and tell you it was good enough. This is the attitude of PARA and what sets us apart.