Shot-Force Pro Brings Innovation to AR500 Targets
Several members of the GunLink team have spent at least some portion of their lives in southern Ohio, so the area has a place in our hearts. Although most of us have since spread throughout the country, we were happy to discover Nelsonville-based Shot-Force Pro while wandering the SHOT Show dungeon this past January. It is always nice to run in to someone from “back home” when travelling.
In addition to catching up on Ohio news and being introduced to company founder Steve Davis and his team while visiting their booth in Las Vegas, we were also introduced to some of their innovative targets. On a recent trip back to our old AO, we had the opportunity to stop by and visit the Shot Force facility and see where the magic happens. While there, we also got to put rounds on just about every kind of target that they currently produce as well as getting a behind the scenes look at some of the new target systems that are still in the R&D phase.
After a lively discussion on guns and politics, we got to take a look at the Shot Force production area, including stacks upon stacks of hardened steel plates, the plasma cutting table that transforms them from generic plates into their various shapes, and finished products – clad in brightly colored powder coating – waiting to be shipped out. Continue reading
Meet Yuri Sivitski – The Soviet-Born Shooting Enthusiast with Muscular Dystrophy
How One Disabled USSR-Born Shooting Enthusiast is Chasing the American Dream
If you are surfing GunLink, then chances are good that you are a shooting enthusiast or, at least, have some interest in self defense, hunting, plinking, or other shooting sports. For many of us, picking up a firearm and hitting the range is a perfect way to spend a weekend. For others, however, as enjoyable as it sounds, that is not a possibility. Such is the case for Yuri Sivitski.
We recently made the online acquaintance of Yuri through Twitter. Yuri was born and grew up in the Soviet Union – in the Belorussian Soviet Socialistic Republic, now known as the Republic of Belarus. There, he was diagnosed at a very young age with muscular dystrophy – a disease without specific treatment or cure that weakens the musculoskeletal system and hampers movement. You can see how this would be problematic for someone interested in the shooting sports. Yuri has shared more of his story here on the GunLink Forums, where he has opened himself for an Ask Me Anything (within reason) Q&A session.
Yuri notes the irony of being a 46 year old man who is still working with “the rest of the same muscles I was born with” – which continue to deteriorate. Although he has never been able to walk, and could never lift objects weighing much more than one pound, he has a great interest in firearms and the shooting sports.
I cannot remember, how it started, but everything about firearms has always been one of top interest in my life. As you can imagine, in the Soviet Union access to guns for citizens was, let’s put it softly, restricted.
Given the nature of the Soviets’ harsh restrictions on firearm ownership by the general public and Mr. Sivitski’s condition, he did not have much opportunity to enjoy the shooting sports that he dreamed of, or even to go to a library to learn more about the subject that he loved. For years, a meager selection of a few books and magazines were his only source of information on the topic, so he read and re-read them over and over. And then… the internet came. With this nearly limitless supply of information and knowledge now available to him via the internet through the use of assistive technologies, Yuri described himself as a “dimensionless sponge” to soak up information. He was finally able to pursue knowledge about his passion, even if he was not able to put it into practice on the firing line. Continue reading
Just What the Heck is MOA and Why Should I Care?
Zen and the Art of Better Shooting Through Understanding Minutes of Arc (a.k.a. Minutes of Angle)
Look straight out, toward the horizon. Now look straight up. You don’t have to be a rocket surgeon or remember every word your geometry teacher said to know that the two spots you just looked at are about 90° apart. There’s a pretty big swath of the universe between those two points – roughly half of everything that the Earth isn’t blocking your view of.
Now let’s pretend that you are looking down range at your blue target stand 100 yards away and it occupies, say, 1º of your field of view. There is an aerial view of this at right. Using the math that we all, of course, remember from trigonometry class, we can figure out that if the red line (distance to target stand) is 3600 inches (100y) and the brown angle (half of the portion of your field of view occupied by the target stand) is 0.5º, then the pink line (half the width of the target stand) is 31.41 inches wide (3600*tan 0.5º). Therefore, the blue target stand that occupies 1º of your field of view at 100 yards is 62.83 inches wide. Don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz on this part.
So, why do we care about this and what does trig class have to do with shooting? Because most shooters have heard of MOA (minutes of arc, or minutes of angle) and some of them even have a basic idea of what it means or, at least, pretend to when clicking around the adjustment knobs on their scopes. One minute of arc is 1/60th of one degree. If your blue target stand at 100 yards in the diagram takes up 1º of your view, then it is 60 MOA wide. If you can keep all of your shots in a 63″ circle at 100 yards, you and your firearm are capable of 60 MOA shooting. Congratulations, dead-eye! Continue reading
Get a Grip – How to Keep Your Pistol Under Control
A Review of TALON Grips on GLOCK and KelTec Pistols
As any pistol shooter knows, having the proper grip on your firearm is important. An improper hold can not only lead to missing your mark but can also allow the pistol to move around, requiring a grip adjustment between shots, slide bite on your hand, or even jams – the last thing you want if you ever need to use your firearm in a defensive situation.
The goal of providing a solid purchase on a handgun is nothing new. Wood grips with checkering or other texturing have been around nearly as long as modern handguns themselves and the evolution of polymer framed pistols has seen (often unsuccessful) changes in the molded texture of the factory grip. However, given the properties of the materials from which the frames are made, there is only so much grip that texture can provide, and it is often a compromise between grip and comfort while carrying or shooting. Continue reading
Shooting for Survival – An FBI Training Film From the 1970s
“Shooting For Survival” is an FBI training film produced by the US Department of Justice circa mid-1970s. This short film presents basic rules for survival against hostile fire including taking cover, shooting from cover and several defensive firearms techniques as they were taught to law enforcement personnel 40 years ago.
2014 NRA National Matches Scheduled for July 6 Through Mid-August
“World Series of Shooting” Returns to Camp Perry
The National Rifle & Pistol Championships, AKA The National Matches, is a shooting tradition that has been around since 1903 and has been hosted at Camp Perry, Ohio, for 107 of those 111 years. That tradition continues this summer as the 2014 National matches – conducted jointly by the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), NRA and Ohio National Guard – return starting July 6.
During the event, the nation’s top civilian and military marksmen will face off in various categories of competition. The National Matches include the CMP National Trophy Rifle and Pistol Matches, the Pistol and Rifle Small Arms Firing Schools, CMP Games rifle events and the NRA National Pistol, Smallbore Rifle and Highpower Rifle Championships.
Things kick off with the Junior Small Bore Rifle Camp, continuing with various banquets, pistol and rifle championship matches and awards ceremonies, all wrapping up in the second week of August. The full calendar is available online and additional information is available on the NRA Competitive Shooting website.
Online registration for the National Matches is available here. If you won’t be shooting but you would still like to get involved with the 2014 National Matches, the application to volunteer is available here.
