10 Years Later

10 years ago, I went to an Appleseed clinic. I wrote much about this - both pros and cons of the program.  But I didn't write nearly as much as some of their folks wrote in retort. Many tried to defend the cons in many ways.  Therefore, I was curious what, if any updates the program had made to its curriculum.

Back in the early part of the year, a friend had told me she and her family were thinking about attending an Appleseed and she asked my thoughts.  I told her to try it. I also said I'd go and shoot, as well. 

But, I needed a goal above and beyond just being there for a friend.   So, I made my personal goal to be this: I wanted to earn the Rifleman patch with my M16A4 rifle. With a government profile barrel and bulk ammo, my task would not be a guarantee. My technique would have to be true.

Gear
My rifle is free floated, so I attached the sling swivel to the Midwest Industries free float rail.  This would prevent POI shift. The rifle uses an ACOG optic.
Bulk Federal American Eagle 55 gr ammo.
USGI cotton sling. 
Shooting Jacket and a heavy glove.

Preparation
I took my rifle to the range and figured out where the Federal AE ammo was hitting.  I did not adjust my zero - instead, I memorized the holdover.  At 25 meters, the ammo was hitting just above the 400-yard hash mark.

Also - I did not practice use of the sling. By my figuring, it has been 7 or 8 years since I've used a sling for shooting. This was done on purpose.

The Clinic -

My "Hits Count" target. Clearly, the lack of practice with a sling hadn't hurt too much. I was the only shooter to clean it in the morning of the first day. 



We moved on to instruction, then zeroing the rifles:

My zero target. Yep, Bunny can shoot. By this point, the instructors were asking if I'd done this before.  I let them in on the secret and showed them my patch from 10 years prior.

We did not shoot an AQT on Day 1.  We almost exclusively did zeroing and getting folks to shooting better groups. At the end of Day 1, we shot another "Hits Count" target.  All told, we shot fewer than 100 rounds on Day 1.

Instruction was MUCH improved.  There was a new, detailed instructional on how to apply and put on the sling. Instructions on the prone position were also improved.  

Also - I finally got to hear the Appleseed  3 Strikes of the Match talk.  This had not been presented in the clinics I attended 3 years ago. Some of the material had been discussed, but not in this way or in this much detail.  While there are sources on the internet that suggest Appleseed's "3 Strikes" material may not be 100% factual, it is a close enough retelling of the events that I wouldn't complain. 

Moving on to Day 2, we reviewed all of the instruction, verified zeroes again with the black squares, and had instruction on sitting, kneeling, and standing positions.  4 more shooters joined us (we had 5 on Day 1) to chase their patches.

Then we moved to the first AQT -

First AQT of the day, and I did what I came to do - earned a patch using my AR15 and bulk ammo.  One of the folks who had come to just the second day to chase his patch also earned it on this AQT.  It was his 3rd Appleseed. 

Several more AQTs were shot. All four of the folks who just came for Day 2 eventually earned their patches. Three of them from a single family earned patches on their second Appleseed.  One of the guys who had been there on Day 1 also earned his patch - it was his 4th Appleseed.

I pulled my AR15 off the line and brought out an iron sighted .22 - and proceeded to shoot the score several more times. 

I also got a few pictures:

Also - one of the red hat instructors liked my AR15 so much he wanted to shoot it -

So what about my statements from yesteryear - how do they apply to this clinic?

Since my first Appleseed, the program has directly addressed most of my criticisms:
- Appleseed no longer claims that their program will get you ready for combat.
- Appleseed no longer claims "run what ya brung." In fact, they sent out an email two weeks before the class, in which they detailed the difficulties one would have with certain rifle types. 
- Sling use was taught to be "just tight" - with two fingers of space on the upper arm loop. No more purple hands. 
- It was acknowledged that the sling-shooting came from NRA Highpower and CMP shooting. 
- They make no mention of teaching "rack-grade iron-sight shooting at 500 yards" like they used to.  Scopes were on every rifle. 
- The AQT is now called the Appleseed Qualification Test, and not the "Army Qualification Test."
- They have, by all looks, admitted that they are more of a beginner course, and it shows. This is good!

Cons, still there:
- They still do 2 & 8 on rapid fire, like NRA Highpower.  The USMC dropped the mag change. 
- Shooting hand mag changes and rifle manipulation. This is sport-style, not combat style.  Again, the USMC changed the way they do theirs in an effort to not have to teach recruits two different styles. 

The following are instances I noted where an instructor got something totally wrong:
- An instructor advocated doing a trigger job on the Ruger 10/22 and also an AR15 by removing metal via sanding.
DO NOT DO THIS!
DO NOT LET A GUNSMITH DO THIS!
Buy an aftermarket trigger of known quality. 
- An instructor advocated against use of a chicken wing while standing with the AR. 
Do not chicken wing when you are in a tactical situation. 
Do use a chicken wing for precision sport shooting.
- An instructor suggested that red dot sights are not for 100 yard shooting or 200 yard shooting.
In my classes, we take red dots out to 300 yards - I have multiple students who have qualified "Expert" at 300 yards with red dots. 
- A student was forced to use a bench rest due to medical conditions.  She was resting the barrel on the sandbag, not the stock.  I gave her the tip privately, and she asked the instructor, who said he forgot.   Fair, but this is something you should know.  


Summary
All in all, a good clinic.  My friends enjoyed it.  They want to go back and earn the patch.  I am very happy that the program no longer claims things that are not so.   I wish them well. 

In A Relationship

Seen on social media -

Just one problem -

Women are well known for having an entire make-believe world in their heads.  This includes being in relationships with men.  And being out of the relationships, as well.  So, as usual, there is no way for a man to correctly answer this.  

Presentation of the Rifle

Once you get your rifle zeroed, one of the best things you can do is work on your marksmanship. Being able to hit targets at distance - 100, 200, and even 300 yards is certainly attainable for any rifleman who has just a little bit of self-discipline.

Once your marksmanship is in order, the next thing you need to work on is what is called presentation. Presentation is the act of bringing the rifle to bear in a situation where there is an immediate threat. This can also be called an "up drill," or a "ready-up" drill.

Many instructors teach this from a "low ready," or "challenge" position. Although you are less likely to use the rifle in this manner, it is a great place to start. I'm more likely use would be from a "patrol ready" or muzzle down position.

These soldiers are patrolling with their muzzles down. Hence, it is sometimes called the "patrol ready" position. The rifle is slung, but not put away. Muzzles are pointed in a safe direction - down.

Naturally, presentation will take a little longer then it would form a low ready position. That's fine, because this is the most likely way you will deploy your rifle.

For training, start this drill at 7 yards. Work your way back to 25 and then 50 yards, eventually.
Also, incorporate turns.
Also, incorporate moving into other positions - kneeling and prone. 

Honesty in Sales

Recently, I received a call from a Yelp Account Executive.  His purpose was to sell me advertising for my martial arts studio.

I've received several such calls over the years. My studio has never - not once - had a prospect call that came from Yelp. If none call naturally, then paying extra probably won't generate much better results. I surmise that people do not venture to Yelp to find Martial Arts instruction in these parts. 

As a side note, Google and Facebook ads yield 8:1 returns on investment (ROI) and can be had for as little as $50. Yelp is far more expensive - $15 per day to start, from what I was quoted. 

All that said, Yelp does some things well. Particularly, if you wish to look up food places, Yelp is the place to go to do that.  Folks just don't go to Yelp to look up martial arts schools.

The account executive was relentless.  I like that.  He sent me via email an example of a success story.  He told me the success story was from a martial arts studio in my hometown of Chattanooga, TN. I asked if he would tell me the name of that studio - and if they would recommend Yelp advertising, I'd buy $600 in advertising "right this minute."

He declined to tell me the name of the studio - citing "privacy." Therefore, I ended the call. And I performed a Yelp search.

The graphs from the successful martial arts studio in Chattanooga. 









And then I performed the search -

Oh, wait, neither are martial arts studios!!!
One is a fitness trainer, the other is a place to do cycling, pilates, and yoga.  Quite different than martial arts. 


I wrote the account executive back and said,
Great talking to you.  The only paid advertisers on Yelp in the Chattanooga area are fitness studios - not martial arts.  100% total honesty is required for a long successful career in sales.  I wish you well.  

That's a guarantee I won't ever buy their advertising.

Co-Sleeping

The Transformed Wife  has an article out about the topic of co-sleeping. Co-sleeping is the act of children sharing the bed with Mom and Dad. The block author points out that this became popular in the US when a book about it was released in the 1970s.

Since then, a number of marriages have been ruined due to the wife's insistence on co-sleeping.

Co-sleeping is an integral part of attachment parenting. Yours, Truly, has so thoroughly thrashed attachment parenting in the past, that you can already guess where I'm going to go with my thoughts on the idea.

An anecdote that I can share comes from a family I know. Their eldest child was born just a few weeks before my own daughter was born. The mom decided to co-sleep with the baby. Fast forward a couple of years, and mom wanted another baby. The dad put his foot down and said that if she wanted that, then the eldest would have to learn to sleep on his own first. Evidently, they desire to become a mom again outweighed the desire to co-sleep. She taught her eldest to sleep in his own bed within a week!

Back to the article, The Transformed Wife approaches the subject very pragmatically. She advises that if the husband wishes to co-sleep, then do it. If the husband does not wish to co-sleep, then don't do it. Furthermore, she advises that there is not one verse in the Bible commanding parents to co-sleep with the children.

If you don't already, I would strongly advise you to follow The Transformed Wife blog. The blog is geared towards teaching women to fulfill their god-ordained duties as wives and mothers. And although she does not teach men, as that would not be scriptural, a lot of wisdom can be had by a man who can read the blog with a logical mind.

The Beard

On social media, I recently witnessed the friend of a friend state that clean shaven men are perceived as more trustworthy. Of course, he was in sales, and he felt that trustworthy equals a better salesman.

While it is true that people tend to buy from people they Trust, that does not mean that they do not trust people with beards. In fact, most of the successful sales people I know are men with beards.

So why the disconnect?

Simple. It is a faulty premise. Go online and you will see dozens of resources stating that women prefer men that are clean shaven.

The primary problem with those surveys is the fact that women don't know what they want.
A study by Meredith chivers conclusively proved two things - that a woman is not aroused by the sight of a man, shaven or unshaven; and, two, a woman is aroused most by watching bonobos mate. Now go and ask any woman on earth, and she will tell you that she is not attracted to bonobos mating. Women honestly don't know what they want, nor do they know what arouses them.

Moreover, the questions in the surveys can be slanted in one way or another.

The fact of the matter is men with facial hair get more job offers, and make more money.

Fair Trade

This is not a repo story, however there is quite a bit of humor.

Working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Memphis was an eye-opening experience, to be sure. One of my first days on the job at the largest location in the entire state at that time provided a bit of humor, as well as insight.

A female rental return a car, and had the audacity to ask if she could get $100 off for rental for flashing her breasts. A fellow employee grab the spare clipboard behind the counter and showed her the pre-printed page which read:

Want to trade "services" for all or part of your rental bill? *
Flash = $20
Feelski = $40
"The whole shebang" = $100
* Qualified applicants only.

Door Ding

This story was recounted to me -

I was in my first apartment. My wife and I have been married a short while. I come home one evening, and the apartment next door is hosting a party. This was not unusual.

However, I see my wife hearing out the blinds. She was not happy. When I walked in and asked her what the problem was, she told me that one of the partygoers had opened her car door into my wife's car door. Sure enough, there was a ding in my wife's car door.

At that time, I was having to work with my wife showing her how to handle many situations in life. She was too quiet to ever be considered confrontational, even to a fault. And this was one such situation. She had not confronted the person who dinged her car.

I decided to lessons would be learned.

Taking my wife by the hand, we went outside and confronted the young lady who had dinged my wife's car door. She didn't know what to say so she asked for help from a friend, whom she called "Mister." "Mister what," I don't know and would never learn. Nevertheless, this Mister kept trying to interject himself into the conversation between me and the young lady.

Several times, I brushed away mister, when he would try to interject. Finally, I turned towards him and asked flat out, "look, is this apartment yours? [No] Is this car yours? [No] Then butt out - because this conversation isn't yours, either."

Turning back to the young lady I put my plan into action. I asked how much her deductible was on her insurance - it was $500. I told her she owed me that $500 for the claim, that I had already written down her license plate number, and that if she did not pay me in cash, I would report her to the police for a hit and run. Surprisingly, she came up with the $500 cash within a day.

Naturally, I hired one of those dent removal places for about 25 bucks the next week.

Lessons Learned?
My wife learned to confront people who had wronged her.
The young partygoer learn to be more careful opening her car door in the future.
I don't think Mister learned anything.

On Fights

What Percent Of Fights End Up On The Ground [2019 Research]

This is a very interesting article.  Using videos of street fights, the author of the article calculated how many fights go to the ground.  It's not the 90%+ we have been told for years.  Roughly 30% of fights end up on the ground. 

This is not to say grappling and takedowns are useless - far from it.  Read the article and you'll find that when takedowns are employed, the takedown resulted in a major advantage 96% of the time.  However, more people fell down than initiated a takedown. This is probably due to the fact that there are just not many skilled grapplers as a percentage of the general population.

Most notable point of the article -


Most fights start with someone who’s unprepared getting punched in the face… even though there‘s lots of indicators it’s about to happen





The aggressor then gains the initiative with a flurry of punches… and often wins within seconds





Most losses were a result of not having a basic boxing protective stance or guard… and getting hit in the face by an unskilled opponent



Learn how to strike and defend strikes - no matter your martial art.  Learn how to read body language. 

On Chokes

Seen online -
I accidentally knocked out another white belt with a rear naked choke. He never tapped. He said he never felt it coming. 

This from a site where the white belt was asking for advice. It would seem the two white belts had less than one month of training each.  So here is some advice:

Two new white belts should never be training partners if it can be avoided.

The rear naked choke (RNC) does not hurt. Many people do not tap, because they do not feel pain.  There is a faint numbing feeling and most get a bit of tunnel vision as indicators.  A competent instructor will advise you of this. 

Getting choked unconscious like this is no big deal. 

More Bathroom Funny

 Pops would say this bathroom is bisexual.

QOTD

From Twitter -
I considered selling my weapons “back” to the government, but after a background check and thorough investigation into the buyer, I determined the buyer has a history of violence and is mentally unstable. Big risk to everyone around it.

Out of Touch

I have been debating whether to write a post on some silly things that Baby Boomers say. To be certain, I have received "advice" from Baby Boomers over the years that was exact opposite of what the truth was. Seeing this meme prompted me to go ahead and write down some memories.

Boomer advice - "stay with this company (to earn more)."
I was fresh out of college. I had taken my first job. It wasn't minimum wage, but it wasn't much more, either. Being a young man, and hearkening unto the wisdom of the Bible, I asked an elder for advice. This Boomer suggested that I stay with that company as long as I could, and that one day I "might be able to make enough to get by."

When I took a job just six weeks later, making nearly double, the Boomer looked very disappointed I have not stayed with the company. Of course these days I make almost triple what a manager with that company makes - which is commensurate with the experience, had I been there the whole 20 years.


Boomer advice - "hand-deliver resumes..."
Just like in the meme above, I was told to hand-deliver resumes in order to find employment. To be sure, the two jobs I just mentioned above I by hand delivering a resume, and filling out an application while I was there.

Every other job I've ever had required electronic application.


How about you? Any funny ones?

Buy Back

Beto O’Rourke vows mandatory buyback of assault weapons if elected president.

I only see a few problems with that:

1. Mine are not for sale. 
2. Neither are millions of others. 
3. To "buy back" indicates they once belonged to the government to begin with.  Not true. 
4. Use my tax money to disarm me? Nope.

Why Not Be Direct

From a social media post passive-aggressively attacking my classes (this is nearly 2 years old) -
"Respect is earned not given. You know who you are, not naming names, stop leading people along like you are giving value for their training, you are not. Your misgivings will get people killed or leave them in a bad way when survival needs come along.  Nothing, absolutely nothing is worthwhile if easily obtained."

Naturally, this individual had never taken a class with me - that's why he was too chicken to leave this review on my Facebook business page or my Google review page.   Of course, this person unfriended me right around the time he made this post. 

Not surprisingly, the person in question trains Krav Maga. Nothing wrong with that, per se; but I will quote  Ramsey Dewey here: "most Krav Maga practitioners I have met cannot fight their way out of a wet paper bag." This person also had attended two non-gun classes with constant statements to the effect of trying to disrupt the class.  Perhaps he was a plant from a group that was jealous?

Nevertheless, my most recent class was my best attended.  Have been blessed with more students this year than ever before.  Hit profitability early on in the year.   And the number of repeat clients grows every class.  Either we have people blindfolded, or they are learning real skills that will help them.