Frugal Firearms Podcast – Part 2
The second part of my blathering on Frugal Firearms is up.
https://rss.com/podcasts/frugalfirearmspodcast/3228377/
The little Bauer .25 autoloader came up in the discussion. I haven’t shot mine in years so I broke it out and shot it yesterday. That was definitely a ‘gun whisperer’ exercise.
The Course of Fire I used was the New York State Concealed Carry License Live-Fire Proficiency Assessment.
The New York target is three sheets of paper in landscape mode stacked vertically. This is very similar in size to an FBI Q target. That seemed very generous to me so I used only one sheet of paper.
I managed to pass it several times. In fact, I never managed to fail it. Although many people will scoff at this Assessment as a marksmanship test, it is a workable Firing Solution for over 80% of the Armed Citizen incidents in my database. Oh, the horror!
Frugal Firearms Podcast – Part I
We had fun talking about Little Crappy Pistols, among other things, on Frugal Firearms.
There was a long list of topics and we ended up going much longer so the podcast is in two parts. Here’s Part I
https://rss.com/podcasts/frugalfirearmspodcast/3213813
When Part 2 is up, I’ll post the link.
Silhouette Torture
#22Tuesday
Decades ago, David Blinder created a 50 round drill for focused practice loosely based on Dot Drill 101 from the Brian Enos Forum. The late Todd Louis Green, who founded pistol-training.com, expanded on it, and codified it into a practice session containing most relevant defensive pistol marksmanship skills. He called it Dot Torture and put it up on the pistol-training forum.
ETA comment from Simon Golub of Pistol-Training
Dot Torture came to us as is. We simply photocopied the target and Todd liked it a lot, giving Blinder the correct credit on the target. –Simon
ETA 2 from the source, David Blinder, himself
I got shooting dots from John Shaw at Mid-South which I believe he got from IPSC. I am also the one who named it dot torture. Todd did some modifications and definitely popularized it.
I’ve made my own version of it using the target employed for the Swiss Concealed Carry License live fire test. Today was an opportunity to shoot it with my LCP II .22. It was fun. A .22 understudy for your carry pistol is a concept that can be very useful. Shooting .22s is inexpensive and has some benefits that centerfires don’t have, minimal recoil and Over Pressure Event being the principal ones.
The demanding nature of the target requires the shooter to know the zero of their pistol very well at whatever distance is being used. In the case of the LCP .22, at three yards the hold was about halfway up on the white circle in the chest of the silhouette.
I recently mounted a Ruger ReadyDot on my Taurus TX22 Compact. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2026/08/03/readydot-on-tx22-compact/ It zeroes quite well at both 10 and 20 yards.
Although I started to shoot Silhouette Torture with it today, rain set in and I wasn’t able to finish. I was able to shoot it enough to learn that the hold at five yards was on the head. The 15 MOA dot completely covers the head at that distance but it’s not hard to hold. Knowing your pistol’s zero at different ranges, whether using iron or Dot sights is useful.
The Silhouette Torture target is attached. Its instructions are on the 2nd page of the 2 page PDF.
My Red Dot Adventure series is available on my Patreon page for those who are interested in exploring what Dot Sights can and cannot do.
He Saved My Life!
#mousegunmonday #win
The victim of the robbery wouldn’t go on camera but said, “He saved my life!” Customer’s mousegun comes to the rescue. The surveillance video of this incident shows a customer in a Michigan convenience store react to an armed robbery of the store clerk.
The customer draws a pocket carried, probably laser equipped, mousegun from his pocket, activate the laser, and fire seven shots in three volleys at the robber. His initial volley of three shots is taken at the closer end of the Near Phase of Public Space, probably about 12-15 feet. He made at least three hits for the seven shots; a minimum of a 43% hit rate. The firing solution required him to shoot past the clerk who is downrange and in close proximity to the robber. He was able to do this despite shooting with his Primary Hand Only.
The robber was neutralized by the customer’s bullets and the clerk was unharmed. #WIN It wasn’t a 25 yard headshot but it was beyond “arm’s length.”
Legal post-mortem: The District Attorney ruled that the shooting was Justified as a Defense of Another Individual.
SELF-DEFENSE ACT (EXCERPT)
Act 309 of 2006
780.972 Use of deadly force by individual not engaged in commission of crime; conditions.
Sec. 2.
(1) An individual who has not or is not engaged in the commission of a crime at the time he or she uses deadly force may use deadly force against another individual anywhere he or she has the legal right to be with no duty to retreat if either of the following applies:
(a) The individual honestly and reasonably believes that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent the imminent death of or imminent great bodily harm to himself or herself or to another individual.
Note that some common taters to the video were outraged that charges would even be considered. In any use of deadly force against someone, a decision will have to be made about the legality of the use of force. The news story was published three weeks after the shooting and the decision had not yet been made, pending the completion of the POlice investigation. Anyone who shoots at someone else for any reason is going to have a period of sweating it out waiting for the decision about prosecution. Be ready for that.
The robber was arraigned for three charges including armed robbery. He could face up to life imprisonment because he’s a three-time loser.
I’ll do a more in-depth analysis of this incident on the Incidents and Walkbacks Tier of my Patreon page in a day or two.
Thoughts On ‘The Distance Issue’
#mousegunmonday
Rich Grassi of The Tactical Wire recently posted an article about distances at which Defensive Gun Uses can be successfully resolved. https://www.thetacticalwire.com/features/a45b09c4-5997-4cd2-b959-a15df74293ac
One of his comments is well put and bears remembering in all cases of personal protection. It applies regardless of the implement used, whether personal weapons, impact tools, or firearms.
“Anyone who tells you that ‘if you shoot beyond (whatever) distance, you’ll have a lot to explain,’ forgets to add, ‘if you ever use deadly force to stop an immediate deadly threat, you’ll have a lot to explain.’”
This is an interesting topic and bears some further testing. Here’s my unlocked Patreon post about it.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/thoughts-on-140908907
To quantify his questions a little further for myself, the LCP II .22 provided a good platform. The standard I chose was well established and very basic, no pun intended. The NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting standard is to put five hits out of five shots into a four inch circle. Coincidentally, four inches is also the size of the -0 head zone on the IDPA target. To apply this standard to the question of ‘maximum effective range,’ two circles were shot at 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 feet. The question was at what distance did I fail to meet the standard.
If you would like to read more in-depth information about shooting and personal protection, consider subscribing to my Patreon page.
LCP II Hogue Handall Grip Sleeve
#mousegunmonday
Many people comment that the LCP and LCP II are not particularly pleasant guns to shoot. Putting a Hogue HandALL® Hybrid Grip Sleeve on my LCP made it much more comfortable. I purchased (with my own money: FTC) a HandALL® Beavertail Grip Sleeve for my LCP II to see if the result was comparable.
The Handalls are rubber and much wider than the naked backstrap of the LCP. Consequently, they spread the recoil across a broader area and reduce its impact on the hand.
The instructions for installing the Grip Sleeve say to warm it with a hair dryer prior to the installation. I found this to be very helpful. As an experiment, I tried putting it on without warming. This didn’t work at all. Warming it with the hair dryer worked much better and I was able to get it on per the instructions.
Note also that the front sight of my LCP II is painted with orange model paint on top of a white undercoat. This makes the sight picture much improved and shooting more accurate.
At my local indoor range, I shot two different courses of fire. The ammo was a mixed bag of different types I wanted to shoot up and I didn’t bother keeping track of what I shot when. The total for the two CoF was 48 rounds, which is a decent practice session for a small pistol.
The first thing I shot was my Old West Shootist’s Challenge. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2025/02/05/shootists-challenge-the-final-word/ with a second string inspired by Marty Robbins’ song Big Iron. “There was 40 feet between them when they stopped to make their play.”
The Shootist’s Challenge now consists of two strings, one at 25 feet and the other at 40 feet.
1) Six shots, 10 paces (25 feet/8 yards), Primary Hand Only, Untimed. I shot this twice because I obviously need more practice.
2) Six shots, 40 feet/13 yards, Two Hands, Untimed.
The second Course of Fire I shot was a modified version of the Warshington State Basic Covert Carry/Off-Duty Proficiency Course. Because the range doesn’t permit drawing from a holster, I used a bench start for the strings that are specified as holster starts. I didn’t time it because other people were shooting and a shot timer would have been useless. Times for qual courses have never been an issue for me so I don’t worry about them. Unless the shooter is dawdling, I’m not convinced timing is as important as is generally regarded in the community.
There were four modifications added. The first was shooting Sequence 1 as a pair of 3 shot Failure Drills. Failure Drill, as I use the term, is as taught by Larry Mudgett and John Helms to the LAPD after returning from Gunsite. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2022/12/20/failure-drill/ Two shots to the chest, bring the pistol down to Low Ready at the target’s waist level, a pause to assess, and then a face shot. This Sequence was six shots as I did it.
Sequences 2 and 3 were shot as described in the Course of Fire, except using a bench start for Sequence 2. All the subsequent five shot Sequences were increased to six rounds. The six round Sequences were shot in three strings using 1 shot, then 2 shots, then 3 shots, as taught by Jim Cirillo. https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/jim-cirillo-s-1-2-3-6-drill/ For the 3 shot strings, I once again did them as Failure Drills and marked on the target where the face shot went for each Sequence.
The end result was that I met the standard for the Course of Fire.
Qualification Courses are structured to efficiently cycle numerous officers through as quickly as possible. We can use them as practice regimens but that doesn’t mean we have to blast long strings of fire that provide little in the way of marksmanship practice. Breaking longer strings down gives us more accountable practice on our sight picture and trigger manipulation.
I found 48 rounds through the Handall equipped LCP II to be much more pleasant than it would have been with the bare gun. It’s a worthy and inexpensive modification.
If you would like to read more in-depth information about shooting and personal protection, consider subscribing to my Patreon page.
Small Gun Accuracy
#mousegunmonday
The Washington State Basic Covert Carry/Off-Duty Proficiency Course for Law Enforcement Officers includes shots out to 15 yards. This is perfectly workable with small guns like a Ruger LCP, even though it has a double action trigger.
Here’s my YouTube video of the Course of Fire.
If you would like to read more in-depth information about shooting and personal protection, consider subscribing to my Patreon page.
Armed Citizen Scenarios
#scenariosunday
I was nostalgic today for older style IDPA Scenarios like we used to shoot in the sport’s early days. Twenty-five years ago, there wasn’t much reloading on the clock and stages often consisted of multiple strings having six shots or less. It’s a different sport now.
My nostalgia caused me to write a new stage and redesign an older one. One is based on an Armed Citizen incident and the other on an actual car burglary and murder. The stages are called the Chicargo Practical Event and Muffler Thieves.
I finished up with the Old West Shootist’s Challenge. My Little Crappy Pistol (LCP) did just fine.
It was a fun afternoon. I’m going to do it every month, as if it was my own private match.
If you are interested in more in-depth commentary about shooting and Personal Protection incident analysis, please consider subscribing to my Patreon page. https://www.patreon.com/c/TacticalProfessor
Pushing The Limits of Smaller Guns
#LCPproject
Pushing The Limits of Smaller Guns is my October 2024 article in Shooting Illustrated.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/pushing-the-limits-of-smaller-guns/
I shot the entire program with my Ruger LCP Max, which I bought with my own money. The gun is stock out of the box.
The results contradict the myth that smaller guns as being suitable for only “arm’s length” encounters. Pictures tell the story of the results of the three courses that were shot.
Kansas Concealed Carry License Qualification
Twenty-five hits out of 25 shots. Pass.
Shootist’s Challenge
All hits inside the square, two hits on the stamp. ‘Good’ by Wild Bill and fellow Shootists’ standard.
Bakersfield Police Qualification
Bakersfield Stage Times
- 2.01
- 2.27
- 6.96
- 2.78
Bakersfield Scores
- 10 point (A) zone – 7 70 points
- 9 point (C) zone – 2 18 points
- 6 point (D) zone – 1 6 points
94 points total – Pass
It’s only an “arm’s length gun” if you’re don’t know how to shoot it.
If you like my work, join me on Patreon where I post more in-depth articles about shooting, marksmanship, and incident analysis.
Practicing With Small Handguns
My latest article for Shooting Illustrated is up. This one has a good 50 round practice session for small guns such as the LCP and J frames.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/practicing-with-small-handguns/
If you like my work, join me on Patreon where I post more in-depth articles about shooting, marksmanship, and incident analysis.
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