Accountability

An unintentional experiment has been going on in my world. I’m convinced it’s working.

After some discussion with a buddy on accountability and hitting the daily hard skills everyone should be doing if they are interested in either being harder to kill and more useful in general, or simply looking for physical fitness and performance, he related he was going to start a group chat with some of his local buddies to do check ins on what work they have been doing.

I have no idea how it’s going for his local crew, but unintentionally we started checking in daily ourselves on what we have been doing. It’s been working great for accountability on all fronts. It’s making us do what we say we are about.

Today for instance. I sent what work I had done in the gym. He hit back with his and then his dryfire routine. Besides myself, he’s the only one in our friend group who I know for a fact that has flipped the script and started to make dryfire a daily priority. Im not just talking draws and throwing the gun around. But actual useful stuff that will make you shoot better. Self diagnosing errors abd correcting them. Checking it live, recreating problems dry, fixing them, confirming live again. Rinse, repeat.

I digress.

After reading his routine, I hit back with, I hadn’t done my dry fire because I was tearing apart an exhaust leak on one of my rigs. I thought the priority of fixing the truck was justifying my lack of dryfire. But what did the accountability text do?

After I got cleaned up and even though it was past my bed time, I hit 5 minutes of dryfire. Yes, it was partly a place holder session. But the mere fact I had to tell my buddy I didn’t do my dry fire shamed me into being accountable and to just go get after it.

This is nothing new. Diet types have done thus forever. It’s the basis of weight watchers.

Give it a try. Hopefully you’ll find some people who actually want to do the work. It might be tough, but they exist.

Get after it.

Equipment and Performance, Again

The dead horse continues to be beaten.

We know 90% of the time equipment isn’t the limiting factor.

Mosby and myself had a multipart discussion on the cost / benefit of equipment selection, opportunity costs and whether higher performing / higher quality equipment can increase performance.

Ben Stoeger got a Staccatto XC. Essentially their race gun. In his circle, staccato’s have generally been mocked to atleast some extent due to their finnicky nature.

The 4000$ pistol choked at 500 rounds. And continued until a higher power recoil spring and proper lube was used.

Open guns have generally been known as race cars in the sense that you are constantly tweaking them to eek out that last ragged edge of performance, usually sacrificing reliability.

If equipment didn’t matter at all, all other things being equal such as skill, different divisions in competition wouldn’t exist.

Racy equipment being finicky is not really of interest to me, but performance is.

Stoeger commented that he was running standards drills as fast as he ever has and showed something like a 3.7 El Prez.

Take it as you will.

Do your own cost/benefit. But on the flip side, realize a 4000$ 2011 isn’t going to Fox your 12” low left push a 7 yards.

Low Level Decision Making 2: Group Standards

Avoiding low level decision making can be an important tool as discussed in part 1.

Turning training and practice of the hard skills into the same category as brushing your teeth can be really beneficial. It’s a daily hygiene. A journey not a destination.

Years back, when involved in what folks would call “preparedness group” events, and attempting to organize practice days, I learned alot about human dynamics. There was a pool of hundreds to invite. Less than 20 showed any real interest. Half that would show up on any given day, after months of heads up. After one or two, 5-6 might even show interest.

Within a preparedness type context, where the grid might of went down or things had gotten hinky, my thought process was those guys on the various teams should be regularly practicing the skills they had learned in the couple classes they had taken. This obviously applies to everyone.

I quickly learned while it was a feat to get people to even come to a class, it was 10x more to get them to come practice. They almost exclusively wasted 80%+ of their time even taking the class because they never became proficient with the material they learned.

The ulterior motive of the experiment was ultimately to see what guys commitment level was. I can see, 8-10 years later, there are about enough guys still standing from that clique that I can count them on one hand.

If guys cannot commit to coming to work on the hard skills or collective skills 4 times a year, let alone 1x per month, when things are relatively nice, do you think they are going to show up on your door at 2am when the ballon goes up? Hop in your truck when it’s time to do hood rat shit? Hell, they never practiced anything, so what are they even capable of?

It might be hard to grok, but this stud’s relevance to the “group” (in the tactical/defensive/offensive sense) is probably zero. That doesn’t mean they might not be “a good dude,” there head just isn’t in the game you are supposedly training for.

This is intended to be rhetorical.

When is it time to call a spade a spade?

I know this is tough. But the fantasy the prepper porn crowd trains for is gonna be beyond tough.

When does the time come to enforce a standard on the group? Show up or get cut? Show up or quit wasting our time?

Some groups may have a training pipe line. A stacking model that progressively stacks more things on top of each other each meeting. If no one is showing up every single time and moving forward, you are falling behind. The guy who skipped 3 months has no idea what the other guys are doing because he’s behind.

When does lack of lack of performance enter the equation?

I was relistening to an old podcast recently. It detailed a recently retired crew of tier 1 operators who started training law enforcement and doing cqb contracts.

One SWAT team essentially sent them packing and they left, when they decided to get black paster tape out to paste targets between runs to show them they are not putting rounds where they need to go. They didn’t want accountability. They wanted enterTRAINment.

Folks either understand the need to over develop skills and techniques, practice, hit the PT, and get after it, or they don’t.

When does the “team” hold folks accountable? Why don’t you have a standard in place? Even if it’s that you get 100 misses on CQB runs per week, document it and track it. Why are guys who have been training for 10 years not getting any better?
Mostly because they don’t do the work. Or aren’t doing the right work, in the correct manner.

Why aren’t guys supposedly training for these bad ass prepper missions not holding themselves accountable to their peers? Because no one wants to be accountable. Why are folks not religiously doing the work to be better for their team? Why are they working on writing operations orders when they are low left Charlie? All the tactics in the world merely deliver you to a shooting problem. You have to deliver on demand. You owe it to your “team.” Shouldn’t your team also hold you accountable to the standard?

If this truly is about the situations they dream up, why isn’t the training being taken more seriously? This isn’t everyone gets a participation trophy type stuff. When will a standard be enforced?

If the team isn’t holding its self to a standard, what’s the point? If it’s just man camp, that’s fine. EnterTRAINment is popular. Call it what it is. If it’s for real, you better show up. You better be consistent.

A mentor once said consistency is the art of showing up when there isn’t a cheering section. If your “why” is doomsday-ism tactical team preparedness, you’ll probably have to be serious. Be hard. Get serious with the skills. Get to high levels of proficiency with fundamentals be layering on multitudes of bs that merely cloud the goal.

Maintain the standard, even if you end up by yourself in pursuit of the goal. The reality is, the context a lot of guys get lost in, is very unlikely. But even after all the logical discourse, if it still is the focus, and if you aren’t prepared to deliver the goods when called upon it won’t go well for you. If folks can’t commit to the practice of even the hard skills on their own, without the social aspect or cheering section, how do you expect folks to rise to the occasion of some complex scenario when it’s game time? If you can’t commit to the lifestyle of constant improvement and dedication to the craft, this shit probably isn’t for you.

“Never convert, only recruit”. – Matt Pranka

Low Level Decision Making and Proactive Apathy

“If you want look good in front of thousands, you have to outwork thousands in front of nobody.”

Mosby over at Mountain Guerrilla recently made a post about the discipline to show up train when you don’t want to. 

This essentially is avoiding low level decision making. It’s powerful. It’s often a large part of success. 

Getting up early to go to work, day in and out, regardless of how you feel or how tired you are. Going to the gym after work is the same. Hitting 10 min of dry fire before bed. These disciplines also have a theme of avoiding low level decision making. You’ve made the decision to do these things so just do them no matter what. You don’t have to think about it. It’s just who you are. 

In Mosby’s patreon post, he talked about place holder work outs. I do this somewhat often. Especially as I’m getting older and my body is more beat up, I might find myself doing less squat work than I normally woukd due to injury or extreme fatigue. But I’m still showing up and doing work.

There’s a lot to say about showing up. But the work has to be done correctly and in the right areas otherwise it’s time wasted. 

I’ve written extensively over at Zerogov.com about doer’s vs. talkers. I’ve been at odds with lots of friends and acquaintances because I’ve seen through their bullshit fairly quick that they just want to talk about doing instead of doing. 

Which brings us to something that I have been seeing lately in the prepper space. An acceptance you can really only do so much, and you just have to live your life. I think most folks with a brain come to this conclusion. 

Which brings us to the next point. Leisure. Or “living your life.” What exactly is “living your life?”

For me, I don’t go on extravagant vacations, ride a Harley or go to the lake. I shoot, I train, I hike and backpack, and I live a rural lifestyle. “Training” is just what I do.

We often see prepper groups and range buddy’s spending lots of time on the conraderie part of the equation. You know, come over, bring the family, have some food, watch us drink beer, etc. If you look at the end of the year, and you are being honest, you’ll probably see the amount of hours spent talking, hanging out, drinking, etc are a greater percentage than your training. 

I’ve spent years on that. Years of wasted time. Mostly because no one wanted to commit to train even remotely close to my training pace. It was all social.

A lot of range trips and “training days” often turn into 75% talking about training and 25% training. 

The talking is usually billed as “community building.” I think it’s the opposite. Community building is done by doing hard shit with hard people. Why not “build community” while running range drills? 

Over the last 10 years, I’ve held to something I call proactive apathy. I’m aware of what’s going on in the system, but it’s not my focus. I control what I can control. I’ve heard all the problems for 20+ years. It’s still all happening like a broken record. The answer is always in the work and yourself.

Back to this leisure stuff.

I was chatting with a buddy recently and he put forth the notion that every Alpha type has an opinion or agenda about what training is the most important. And that’s a fact. 

The thing is much of this can be definitive or objective. The problem mainly comes with folks not lining out their actual use case/mission or application.

The experienced “tactical” guy might say “we need to be looking at EDC pistol work!” And the Doomsdayer is gonna only be talking about Red Dawn. And everyone just talks past one another.

Define the actual mission/application and those with common sense, experience, relevance and currency, can easily come to a consensus about what to train. It’s almost objective.

Which is honestly why guys make such good jokes about the LARPer’s. (On the flip, all training is LARPing, till it ain’t…)

I’m of the opinion lately, that most of this “preparedness” stuff is a hobby first and foremost. It might be driven originally by a fear of the unknown or a sense to prepare to be more self reliant, but in end there is preference involved. 

Bushcrafters gonna bushcraft. Shooters gonna shoot. Commo guys gonna commo. Of course there’s overlap, but let’s not forget the focus often time reflects our interests. Especially with a lack of understanding of basic mission planning.

The PrepperPorn crowd illustrates this pretty well, if they can even define their actual mission context in the first place. We often hear abstract aptitudes like “I’m doing this to defend my family” or “self defense.”

They then proceed to ignore all the current, likely and probable threats, and proceed to work on skills they’ll use in their prepper fiction dream that has a .0000001% chance of happening. 

Be honest. If one is training current TTP’s they learned off Garand Thumb from the war in the Ukraine, and they live in CONUS, that’s great. But just be honest and say it’s tactical fantasy band camp. It has nothing to do with the daily interpersonal violence that happens daily in America. Just amend your mission statement. No use pretending it’s something it’s not.

I have a real interest in tactics. How high level folks solve problems and what tactics are employed in certain missions. It’s an interest. Like history. I don’t really fantasize that I’m gonna be running raids with the goons next week.

Stepping further away, you can see if one does indeed train for things like “Ukraine,” but they can’t deliver the basic hard skills or possess the skills to defend themselves from daily threats, the priorities are wrong. In fact they might actually be full of shit.

Some can easily point out it’s unlikely I’ll ever need a sub 2.0 Bill or need to make a 675 yd head shot. But, I’m unsure where training relevant skills to CCW/EDC or hunting, and over developing those skills is a negative. If I can hit a 6” plate at 675y, a 8” vital zone if an animal at 300y is gravy. Has anyone in a fight ever said “damn I wish I didn’t spend all that time training!” Or “man, I woulda done so much better at this match if I just wouldn’t have dry fired so much.”

I train shooting because I like it first and foremost. It’s who I am. Originally motivated by the EDC / Sheep Dog mantra’s, I’ve come to realize it’s way more than that. I’m not pretending I’m in the Ukraine sniping Russians at 700 when I shoot SPR’s. To me it’s about performance. About getting better at something I like. Being harder to kill and more useful in general is a side benefit.

For most of the punisher skull crowd, it’s about standing around talking about being a bad ass instead of being a bad ass.

I’ve hosted classes locally for years and still do to some extent. Nationally known instructors and lesser know for atleast the past 7-8 years. I had some interest in my friend group early on. It soon dwindled to virtually zero after a couple years. I over grossly over estimated the interest level in a fairly large and broad group of preparedness minded folks locally.

I started hosting classes so I didn’t have to drive 6 hours for a class. It took away a large portion of travel time, allowing me to train more often.

If anything within 2 hours of me happened in the shooting world, I was there. Very rarely were the guys from the preparedness circles.

Around 10 years ago, there was an unofficial study out that roughly said there about 5000 serious shooting students across the country who take multiple classes a year. It’s prob many more than that, but the comparison is still useful. Say 10k serious shooting students out of 10’s of millions of gun owners.

Of the very small percentage that shows up to train, probably 10% or less of them actually do the work outside of the class.

For many this is purely a social thing. A collectivist activity. “Training.” In reality, most of the people doing the real work are suffering in silence. They show up every day. You have to be relentless. Nobody cares about your problems. If you’re training for self defense, your opponent sure doesn’t care. The same is true of competition. You don’t really need to talk about it, but the results need to speak for themselves. Do the work and everyone will know without you saying a words.

I’d urge folks to stop focusing on this outlandishness and talking. Avoid low level decision making. Show up for the work and don’t give yourself an excuse.

To be continued…

Range Rants or “You Can’t Trust a Patriot”

Kurt Saxon has been deemed the father of the Survival Movement. You know, the Poor Man’s James Bond guy.

One of his more interesting essays is called “You Can’t Trust a Patriot.” It details the silliness of much of the movement.

As I was re-reading it the other day, it got me to thinking about some of the “patriots” you see at the range.

The movement these days is more like the tight T shirt punisher skull crowd or the “only trains tactics but can’t hit the target crowd.” Instead of the Mark Koernke conspiracy crowd selling scratchy vhs conspiracy tapes about the UN take over and black helicopters.

Some of these guys are very entitled. For laying claim to American Individualism they sure are needy.

Several car loads pulled up one day and stood in disgust at the end of the bay I was shooting in. After pacing around quite a bit between bays, and mumbling about target stands, I finally heard the obvious leader say, “ha well I guess we can’t shoot, everyone’s got all the stands.”

They left.

The funny part? The 5 stands I was using were my own.

Another day, a retired disabled Bro Vet stood at the end of my bay. “Hey man you got any extra targets and a staple gun?”

“Sorry man, I just got this blown out target right there. I don’t have a staple gun.”

I should start using a line from a guy I used to work with. Any time someone would ask him to borrow a tool, he’d say “they sell em at Lowe’s!” Or “the Snap On guy sells em…”

These people show up to the range, to “train” without anything to train with. Most barely have any concept in even how train in the first place.

The Patriot welfare queen class. Needing hand outs. Entitled to everything while denouncing the Left for the same thing. Man up, dudes. Take responsibility for yourself. The punisher skulls won’t help you. Maybe Saxon was onto something.

Skills vs. Drills

I’m guilty.

A long time ago heard the late Ron Avery say that he thought it was sort of silly that guys swap drills like kids swap baseball cards. It kind of got logged in the Rolodex, while I still found myself collecting every shooting drill I could find.

I kept running .doc files of every drill I could find. My main motivation on this was not nefarious. It was always about getting better. Secondarily it was about having something to do on the range particularly with a group of people.

I found on these group range days, (I’m generally more of a loner) I got two outcomes without a plan. It either degraded to school kids yucking it up shooting tv’s or standing around saying “well what are we gonna shoot?!” For an hour.

So I vowed to always have a plan.

After training regularly for a number of years at this point, I’ve come to the conclusion that the actual drills themselves aren’t necessarily as important as what you are focusing on skill wise.

It took a while to grok, but many years ago and having trained with him a half dozen times since, Frank Proctor always talked about shooting exercises not drills. Drills tend to be more along the lines of being outcome focused. Exercises are more like going to the gym and working on the bench. Using sets and reps that support the goal. Identifying weaknessses and turning them into strength’s. Process driven.

When starting practice sessions, determine the skill or technique you want to focus on. Set up exercises to get reps on that. Most time is spent on the repetition phase of training. And in your exercises, there are limitless concepts to focus on. Working transitions? Regardless of set up, you can focus on moving the gun to those small spots on the target. If shooting a compound exercise, you can focus on the movement part, like rolling out of position or having the gun up on entry ready to shoot as soon as the sight flashes onto that spot in the target. Any exercise, you can focus on target focus. Things like this.

Running certain outcome focused drills is great, but the drill itself matters less than the skills you are focusing on.

Pistol RDS

Last weekend I did a lot of shooting. A buddy came up and we shot pistol one day.

I wasn’t shooting as good as I would have liked. I noticed about halfway through the day, I was not getting hits. Rounds were all of a sudden going to the 10 -11 o’ clock on nearly everything I was doing. I was watching my dot the entire time and it was staying where it was aimed. I wasn’t pushing into the gun or pressing the trigger with my whole hand.

After doing some reps at distance with my favorite trigger control exercise and with less than stellar results I noticed my RDS was loose again.

Well atleast it wasn’t me.

After wearing out an SRO after about 18,000-20,000 rounds, ever since I replaced the original steel mounting plate with an aluminum model when I warrantied the optic, about every 500-1000 rounds the screws would loosen. This time after about 1500 rounds with red loctite.

Shortly after my buddy’s RMR shit the bed. Ironically his screws were rusted in from carry with no loctite.

It’s been the nature of the beast.

Red dot sights on pistols, even the best models out, are relatively new technology. They just still haven’t figured out how to build them to handle the reciprocating mass of a handgun slide.

Type 1 RMR’s barely made it past 10,000 rounds. Newer models run on average from 15,000-40,000. Better but still not great. Cheaper models can die from installation to much lower round counts.

It was said with race type guns, you have to do more maintenance. More tinkering and tweaking. And it’s sort of true.

Running a more race type set up, I have yet to have any reliability issues. But you have to clean behind the extractor every 10-15,000. Springs wear out but I haven’t replace any yet.

There are batteries to replace on RDS’s. Mounting plates are less robust than direct milling but on certain guns there is no other option.

I’ve had issues with irons. Different height sights to get the gun zeroed. I’ve seen the sights fly off at classes.

At the end of the day, I still think the performance I get from a dot gun by far outweighs the other issues.

All Gun Laws are Infringements?

Want to see both the Right and Left lose their minds?

A federal judge just ruled that an illegal immigrant has a right to possess a gun.

The Left’s hypocrisy is they believe no one should have guns but are all about an illegal having Constitutional rights.

The Right claims all gun laws are infringements. I guess as long as people are subjects of the US gov.

I got to admit, the “Patriots” never cease to amaze me. If no one has rights unless Fedgov gives them, where exactly did their 1776 ancestors get that right?

What is “citizenship” other than being under the jurisdiction of the criminal gang in DC and paying taxes?

Which is it folks? Rights are inalienable or given by the State?

A Quick Note on Rain Gear

It’s common in bushcraft, prepper and the tactical community to either disregard or skimp on rain gear.

You don’t know how many classes or training events I’ve shown up to where people in attendance purchased frog toggs on the way in and are soaked before the class even really gets going.

A common refrain is “oh you’ll get wet anyway, so I won’t own any.”

Most folks who say this usually have limited experience with rain gear of any quality. I’ve ran a bunch and here are a couple cheat codes.

In hot weather, yes, if you don’t get wet from soaked through rain gear, you’ll be drenched in sweat. So sometimes you have to weigh the options. For me, good rain gear shines in the above freezing t0 70 degree range. I also frequently wear it when temps are below freezing in snow and freezing rain to keep my warm gear dry.

If you buy shit, you’ll get shit. I won’t even look at rain gear unless it’s 3 layer goretex. Single or 2 layer will soak through. This is generally where folks get the “it’ll ajways soak through!” Mantra.

Quality 3 layer goretex is great. I’ve sat in tree stands in rain all day and been dry on the inside. I’ve been in classes all day in the rain in this stuff and been dry. I’ve been in classes where it rained all day with single and dual layer set ups and gotten wet from soaking through.

Don’t forget the pants. Running into a store with just a jacket is fine, but for prolong outdoor activities, the water sheets off the jacket and will soak your pants if you aren’t in goretex.

One issue with rain gear however is while you will remain dry, in lower temps, the water on the jacket will make you feel colder.

You need pit zips to vent.

You are going to pay. Think 450-800$ per piece. It will also wear out within 5-10 years depending on use. Keep the DWR fresh and keep it clean and it will last much longer. But consider it a consumable like shoes or boots.

Look for sales from the hiker outlets. Arcteryx leaf is now restricted to mil only, but it couldn’t be beat. Beyond clothing is a good American made runner up, and the blow out older styles frequently.

Civilian backpacker gear is probably the go to for most people. As with most purchases like this, I wait on the REI and backcountry.com blow out sales, 20% off coupons and always use my yearly REI dividends on gear. Avoid paying retail if you can. REI has that 1 year satisfaction warranty. (It used to be lifetime but now is 1 year) You can replace at any time in that period for new. Rain gear is prob a good option to buy with that warranty.

There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear.

Range Equipment Selection

I’ve always been a gear-do, but not a collector. My interest in tools, equipment, gear, and the like has always been about getting the job done. Increasing performance or making it easier or more enjoyable. Being more efficient and increasing productivity. It’s about having equipment that will do what you demand of it and not turning a job into a fiasco.

It’s never been a show and tell kind of thing. Or flexing on the poors as they say.

When Black Friday occurred last year, it dawned on me that I’m not exactly your average gun guy. Most folks who are tossing around cash are impulse buying gear. Buying another pistol just to say you own one.

If I’m building a gun or need to replace some worn out parts, I’m not scared of a Black Friday deal.

Buddies were sending me deals on half price triggers and doodads while I was buying boxes of USPSA targets at a steep discount. Pasters. Ammo. Stuff that aids your practice in pursuing performance vs. the 5th Glock trigger you are gonna try to stop your 12” pre-ignition push.

Everyone wants to talk about guns or what to carry in their “load out.”

These same guys who go over minute details of what to carry for Red Dawn then they’ll go put a shoot a greasy pizza box leaned up against something for their “practice.”

I’ve been a fan of having a solid range set up for quite some time. If you try to pursue excellence so to speak, in targetry, stands, and the like, it tends to set you up for success in my experience.

I’m much more interested in properly resourced training than safe queens.

Having been around a LOT of shooting in my day, I’ve probably seen it all. A shoot and see on back of a beer box. Hanging cardboard from electric fence wire.

Belonging to a couple different ranges over the past decade I’ve noticed nearly no one has any type of target stands for instance. Most won’t even have targets. I’ve seen entire groups of people leave the range because someone was using the 2-3 on-site target stands. What do you think this is, the Soviet Union? Got a right to a target stand at the range? Why not, get your own stuff.

I’m going to list suggested equipment and a brief description of rec’s of consumables as well as what works and what doesn’t. Context is practical type pistol and carbine training.

Targets and Stands:

Most guys getting after it for performance are generally using USPSA silhouettes. They work for general shooting, gamer stuff and self defense.

Paper targets like VTAC are popular. Also keep a supply of 3×5” cards, 4×6” cards ave copy paper.

I dig USPSA cardboard also for the ability to use it as a backer for printed targets like B8’s and other similar targets.

It’s popular for “tactical” focused ranges or instructors to rely on a rope type system for their line work. It works decent. The draw back is, you are glued to that set up. A much better system is to pony up the cash for USPSA type target stands that you can move wherever you want. Moveable stands are a must for arranging targets laterally, but more importantly for putting targets at different depth.

Roll your own if you are able or just purchase premade. Getting stands for both 1×2’s and 2×3 or 2×4 poles for hanging steel kills two birds with one stone.

Which brings us to targets. If you are using USPSA cardboard you’ll need 18” stands. VTAC and similar targets will require a 24×35” backer, therefore a 24” stand. Some things to consider.

I personally have mostly 18” stands, some that accept 18” and 24”. There are also adjustable stands. Most serious shooters today generally are using USPSA targets. In detective work we call this a clue.

How many? 3 to start minimum. With 5 you are about able to do anything you want for the style of shooting I do. Ideal? 10. If you shoot with people, host classes, or instruct, I’d be looking at 15 minimum.

To accompany your stands, you’ll need a supply of 1×2’s, cut about 5’ works great. They fit into vehicles better and any longer length is never used. In packs of 6, you can batch cut while still banded with one pass of a skilsaw.

Keep plenty on hand to mark fault lines and shooting positions.

You’ll be replacing them regularly.

Fasten cardboard targets to the sticks preferably with large binder clips. They are consumable and they are expensive compared to staples. (Which also work.)

Day to day shooting I prefer clips. If it’s some group range day or a class I usually go with staples to save clips. You will however have to deal with staple jaggers in your sticks.

Target repair:

You’ll need a steady supply of both paster tape and square pasters for USPSA targets. Buy in bulk. Tape works great, but takes longer. Paster guns will change your life. They will speed up your target repair therefore maximizing use of your valuable time.

Black pasters and tape serve as aiming and zeroing points. Black tape can double as marking off out of play areas in shoot house stuff, for example. Black is also needed for B-8’s and black targets like VTAC’s. Beige standard masking tape can serve the same purpose.

3M 77 spray adhesive is the only way to roll for glueing paper targets to backers. It’s the red can, the green can is over kill.

Small orange cones from the Walmart sports section are great for marking yard lines or shooting spots.

Moving to steel targets. I love steel but recognize its drawbacks.

It’s common for guys to skimp on steel target hangers. They’ll go the T post mount route. That’s great in my experience for distance targets that aren’t moved. They are also probably the least maintenance.

The drawback is (unless you aren’t really training) they are very hard to move. Which is a must for any serious training,

I recall one big “group” range day. The guy said he had the steel covered and he would use T post mounts. I said fine, but you’ll have to be pulling and driving stakes all day. After a half a day of that, he told me I was right about the moveable stand.

I recommend hangers that fit into a 2×4 and fit into your USPSA stands by way of a rectangular tubing post slot.

You can also use shorter or higher poles to have elevation changes in your transition game.

For the steel it’s self, AR500/550 obviously. Bare minimum? 1 C zone. 1- 6 or 8” circle and 1 – 8×11”. A “good” set up? Same as above, but go for 3-5 total of the 8×11-ish size. You can do a lot with just these sizes.
Add in several 6, 8 and 10” rounds, and a mini popper or two.

Plate racks, Texas stars, etc are fun, but not necessary. If budget allows, go for it.

Avoid full size IPSC/Iron Maiden’s unless shooting at distance, 300+ yards.

Drums or blue barrels are a necessity for vision barriers. I tend to use them more for this than to represent cover. 55 gal variety. Light, cheap and often times free if you find the right source.

A nice to have is some 2×4 or 1×2 poles on either some type of signs or light weight panels approximately 3×6’ or so to provide walls or barriers. The same set up can be had with orange highway mesh fencing. Put the poles in a target stand and you can create walls or ports, or things such as walls and door thresh holds for CQB.

In your range crate, keep gloves for moving steel and stands around, they’ll get jaggers all over. You do not want spall in your hands. Also keep tools, wrenches, extra hardware, nuts, and bolts to fix hangers.

A box of sharpie markers is necessary for scoring, marking targets, aiming references, notes, etc.

Lastly don’t forget spray paint for refreshing steel, adding water lines, etc. White and black minimum. I also suggest reds, blues, greens , etc for processing exercises or labeling targets.

This should get you started. Step up your range set up and equipment. I can guarantee getting a little more serious than the election sign or the scrap steel from the junk yard will help to motivate you to get better and make the experience more enjoyable.