http://wethearmed.com/
In case you didn't get the memo... this forum is closing shop for the time being. We The Armed is the new joint.

One thing to note: The orgininal maker of the ammo has lost the contract. Fiochi I believe it was. New maker is going to be different. Don't know who yet.
.22 Overcrowded? Sure it is. But out of all the many cartridges out there the 5.7 really is unique.

That's a lot of hostility to load on a lovable little caliber Mat, I've run hundreds of rounds through my PS90 and think the only thing neater might be the same cartridge in a nicely made bolt gun.

-tom-the-impaler

Tom, I've done my fair share loading the 5.7 and I have experienced some of the pitfalls with this cartridge. The laquered cases is a big one as once it is removed enough it causes extraction problems as well as split case necks. The case capacity is small (6gr. of Power Pistol almost fills it up), so when you are wanting a variety of projectiles...or even the choices of them, problems will arise when it comes to not only performance but operation and safety as well. The round is what it is, but IMO the .22 caliber realm is saturated enough.

Do any episodes of that show not include an assault rifle that could replace the M16/M4? And how many turn out just to be an armalite type that shoots a different round, or a different design shooting the same light 5.56mm NATO bullet?

It's rumored that one did, but this is unconfirmed.

Did any of those survive long enough for the users to need to reload?

Basic marksmanship firt and foremost.
Reloads second.

After that, then speed.

-madogre

Right, forgot about the reloads. My IDPA partner had us practicing that, doing what I believe is called "El Presidente" with 3 targets, gun and all mags loaded with 2 rounds each. Engage T1 through T3 with 2 shots each from not very far away.

I feel the best thing I get out of it after marksmanship training/practice, is "muscle memory". Doing things over and over so that the mechanics of each thing, aiming, shooting, reloading, getting to cover, all that becomes doable without needing much conscious thought. I've read Army trainers talk about building "muscle memory" like this in repeated training exercises to teach soldiers how to respond immediately and correctly to various combat situations like ambushes. If you practice reacting properly, it won't take nearly so much thought to do it correctly on demand because your body will already know what it feels like, almost instinctively, to perform certain actions. I find as I get more familiar with certain IDPA situations that moving and shooting the stage does get faster for me, without consciously hurrying. (Unlike my first match or two where just a tiny bit of time pressure from the timer made me hurry up and accuracy went all to hell, even on easy shots).

I know IDPA is still a game and thus has to have certain artificial rules for safety and other reasons, but it's still fun and at least builds these kinds of things much better than the simple paper punching which is all many ranges can safely allow members to shoot.

Well, one more little sort-of gun related thing to mention from the USS Francis Scott Key... the Trident-I (C4) missile/weapons system, which was the Key's main battery.

If you're a good shooter, you can shoot maybe 1 MOA or so perhaps with a rifle? I'm not all that good with a rifle, but I can do maybe 1MOA with my rifle and a bipod at 100 yards. 1 MOA ~ 1 inch at 100 yards.

I'm not using the actual numbers here of course, these are order of magnitude estimates I've seen published in various open media places. But, consider the "group size" of the projectiles we would have been throwing at the USSR.

Ballpark accuracy per "projectile" (each missile carried a number of them, each of which could be sent to its own target), was say 100 yards at a range of 4000 miles (the real numbers are different of course, these are just open-source estimates). That's a group size of about 3600 inches at 4000 miles. (1 nautical mile = 2000 yards)
So, working it back to 100 yards, that comes out to a group size of 0.045 inches at 100 yards, or 0.045 MOA.

Pretty cool stuff considering the submarine was designed in the early 1960s with late 1950s technology, and the missile system was brought online in the late 1970s using late 1960s technology.

What would be ideal practice, and short of ideal, what kind of practice/drills etc do you do?

I got into IDPA a few months ago, and feel really lucky to belong to a club with an IDPA chapter and a set of action ranges that I can use for practice when they're not being used for matches. Another one of the members and I have started practicing drills and IDPA stuff together, and I feel lucky for that too because I get a lot more out of doing this stuff with someone else (almost like working out and having a spotter/partner vs doing it solo).

My practice partner went so far as to buy a timer, and between that and stuff we've managed to pull out of the trash after matches, we can setup and go through our own stages as much as we want. The club provides target stands, barricades and barrels, 1x2's for holding IDPA style targets, and a bunch of steel plate targets. We pulled a bunch of unused pasters and some not-too-badly- shotup targets from the trash, and we were set.

So, what kind of drills and practice do you or would you do if you could? For starters we've been doing the IDPA classifier stages and drills. What else are good skills to practice? In no particular order,...

-practice parts of the classifier :
-draw and doubletap followed by headshot
-practice "slicing the pie" around windows/barriers while engaging targets
-practice strong- and weak-hand only shooting at least once or twice per session

-dryfire exercise for wheeelguns: empty your revolver. Hold in strong hand, and place a quarter on the topstrap or on top of the barrel if there's room. Pull of 25 double-action trigger pulls, without dropping the quarter. After enough time (days/weeks) and your wrist strength has gotten better, replace the quarter with a dime. Repeat.

Any particular skills or drills you do or recommend for self-improvement?

That's exactly what we'll be voting on tomorrow.

Steady as she goes, maintain the country and economy...

OR

Let's fuck around and re-engineer society with a carbon tax... etc... and let's ban guns again, because that worked last time... LOL Just kidding. We know it doesn't work because its already been done. But it makes good press. So let's fake it again and spend a few MORE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON IT.

You know, it is amazing to me that for the first time the incumbent PM is an ACCREDITED ECONOMIST, and the opposition parties dare to suggest he doesn't understand the economy?

Phenomenal.

The long and the short of it is that you are right though.

Either it's going to be, "Ok, everything is normal, no need to rock the boat", or it's going to be, "Good morning, I am Stephan Dion, Prime Minister of Canada", and we will enter a new dark ages.