Reconfirmed Zero

Got my home rifle zeroing range cleaned up yesterday and got a pretty nice backstop made of oak stumps. I checked my zero on the EoTech XPS, G33 magnifier and the iron sights.

XPS holographic sight and the magnifier required no adjustments at all. Iron elevation and windage required two clicks and three clicks respectively. I use a 25m/300m zero. With the magnifier I can hit a 1cm circle at 25m.

Took about 20 rounds total, because the zeros were still close. Haven’t been able to shoot as much as I want to lately. But the family has some big news coming soon related to property purchase that will allow much more shooting than before, including a 300 meter range.

How is your zero? Still holding?

Train martial arts.

I trained in TaeKwonDo (like a lot of people) many years ago, and even got to the level of first degree black belt in my late teens, when I was in great physical shape for kickboxing. I admit the style has been commercialized for the Karens and Kaydens in America, and even back then it was to an extent, but I put in a lot of effort and was very good in comparison to my peers. I have not kept up with that training, but I have kept good flexibility and if I do say so myself, I have maintained a pretty mean side kick, a decent spinning back kick, and my roundhouse isn’t bad either.

In the Army I got to train in the Modern Army Combatives Program, and I got to level 3 out of 4. I feel lucky with that, since most soldiers don’t get the opportunity to even sign up for level 2. You get level 1 at basic training. I happened to be stationed in Korea, and we didn’t have much else to do. MACP including a little boxing, a few kicks, a few takedowns, and some of what I now recognize as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques.

About a year and a half ago I started training in wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It’s mostly BJJ with some wrestling moves thrown in. I highly recommend it. If you’ve got some kickboxing type of experience and some semblance of a ground game, you’re ahead of 95% of the population who are within 30 pounds of your weight or 20 years of your age.

I believe a full spectrum fight capability includes four elements: Boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and ground submissions. If you have some legitimate training in all of these four areas, you’re fairly well rounded, technique-wise.

We all pretty much know what boxing is. We’ve all seen it on TV so I don’t need to define it. You’re throwing jabs, straights (cross), lead hooks and rear hooks, lead and rear uppercuts, overhands, using footwork, head movement, coverups, etc. This is your ability to throw punches to the head and body of your opponents and avoid taking punches yourself.

Kickboxing has boxing in it, but obviously you’re adding kicks to the legs, body and head, you’re throwing elbows and knees, you’re fighting in the clinch and doing some basic trips. Karate and TaeKwonDo have great kickboxing elements to them, but the pinnacle of kickboxing really is Muay Thai style, or even Lethwei, if you want to headbutt folks. A headbutt can be very effective, especially if you’re wearing a helmet with a NVG mount. Ask me how I know.

Wrestling is extremely important to a well rounded fighter, because good wrestling means you get to choose where the fight takes place. On the feet or on the ground. Wrestling allows you to gain gain control of your opponent and take them to the ground. Or if your opponent tries to put you down, good wrestling will allow you to stuff that takedown, or if you are taken down, you can reverse the position and get yourself back to your feet.

The submission game is important for obvious reasons, and while you may not always be throwing Kimura arm locks and triangle chokes in a serious self-defense situation, learning these moves can be useful. You may very need to use a rear-naked choke or bulldog choke to defend yourself. If you’re interested in submissions, BJJ is the height of that game, though other styles like Sambo and Luta Livre do have submissions as well.

These submission styles paired with wrestling can get you into a good “ground and pound” position as well, although in a real world fight, you might want to use your ability to gain dominant positions as a way to make an escape. Obviously the best way to fight is to avoid a fight, or escape a fight. Having skills is important, but it only takes one bad punch or a bad fall to end someone’s life.

If you have to fight, be a fighter and win. If you have the chance to just get away at any point, take that option. And start training as soon as possible. No matter your age or physical ability, start training now and in six months, you’ll be better. And then in a year, you’ll be better than that, and so on. The goal is always to be better. Start now, and be glad later that you did instead of wishing that you did.

Draw from holster and fire quickly.

 

 

This is a photo of a shot I fired the other day at 7 yards. I drew from the holster, got sights on target, both eyes open, fired one shot, all in under one second. That silhouette is about half man-sized.

I find that just standing and firing round after round at the target, from time to time I have to stop myself and readjust and get back into the fundamentals, because at some point you start to get lazy if you don’t keep focusing on that. But with the quick draw and fire, a lot of my rounds end up close to where that one did. There’s no anticipating the recoil, no bad trigger squeezes, no bad sight pictures, etc. Of course not every shot lands in the X but you may notice that you’re shooting much better than you thought you would at that speed.

It’s important to develop this skill set. Your attacker may not give you more than one second, and certainly won’t give you the time to roll through your fundamentals and get yourself set right for a shot.