Matter of Facts: New Shooters on the Line

Welcome back to the Matter Facts Podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. We talk prepping guns and politics every week on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Go check out our content at mofpodcast.com on Facebook or Instagram. You can support us via Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners. I'm your host, Phil Ravele. Andrew and Nick are on the other side of the mic, and here's your show. Welcome back to Matter Facts Podcast. Phil's here, Nick's here. I see Raggle, Rachel, and Jim in the chat. Good evening to everybody. We got a little bit of admin work and then a topic. And before we get to the topic, I have to drop some really unfortunate news on everybody about one of our show sponsors slash affiliates. It's nothing I've been really looking forward to, but, you know, it bears pointing out. It must be done. Yes. But for a start, if you'd like to promote bad decisions by becoming a patron, that link's in the show description. And if you'd rather buy merch for the vibes from the Southern Gals, that link is also in the show description. And if you want to prevent war crimes with disaster coffee, use code MOF. And if you like bunker beans, if you're one of those customers who buys the green beans from disaster coffee, get your freaking orders in quickly. Because... Unfortunately, we are having a bit of an upset with our supplier, and we've been told that the bunker beans will be coming off of our store offerings. We were told Q1, so I'm assuming that means January 1st. Usually does, yeah. I mean, they might have some leftover, assuming they don't sell out of the product right away. There may be a limited stock. So the problem is not to get like too much into the back end of like disaster coffee because that's the business. The business management is a lot of been my end of the store. The what they're packaging is bunker beans is green beans. It's the little raw product that they roast to make all the different roasts that they have. So I don't think it's such as so much the fact that like they're going to run out, but they are discontinuing selling green beans. And therefore, we are no longer allowed to have it in our store because they are our supplier. So, it's unfortunate. It's a little frustrating. All the other roasts and everything we offer, best I'm aware, will continue on. But we are investigating whether or not we can find and get in place a Bunker Beans replacement. But that's up in the air. So, I would just say that if you buy Bunker Beans from Disaster Coffee regularly... get your orders in right now i plan on dropping several bags on the back shelf back there before they get pulled from the store that's wise yeah i mean the thing of it is is that outside of disaster coffee if there are other places that sell green beans it's not as if there's nowhere else to get that product but if you've been buying it from disaster coffee for this long because you like that quality of bean or you like supporting the company i just have to say like that product is getting ready to sunset Mm-hmm. Unfortunate. Yeah. A little bit of a bummer, but, you know, that's business. Mm-hmm. Anyway. So. Yeah. Two topic. Stuart actually asked me right before we went live what the topic was tonight, and. He does like an early sneak peek. I mean, he's Stuart, so he kind of deserves that. You know what I didn't get done, though? I did not get done the rules for the MOF Secret Santa. Balls. I will have to get that done this weekend. He is going to start hassling you. Oh, he's already started hassling me. He was trying to. I would call that a gentle prodding. Okay, he was gently prodding me to have it ready for this show, but that didn't happen, so probably next show. Which is good. Yeah, well, for the patrons who happen to be watching, and this has only been available to patrons, it's just the way it's always been. but the MOF Secret Santa has been a traditional Secret Santa with a bunch of your autistic prepping nerd friends. And it's a lot of fun. I mean, we do allow gag gifts, but the overarching rule is gag gifts are allowed, but it has to be something that can be open in front of spouses and children. Yes. That is a hard, fast rule with me. I am all about, you know, I'm all about spicy humor and off-color jokes, but like, There has to be a line where, like, if I'm uncomfortable with my wife or daughter being around it, it's not okay. Yeah. Well, we have to keep it at least somewhat tasteful and fun. Tasteful and fun. Two words that have never been used to describe me or this show. Okay, we'll go with that. I've been described as fun. By whom? My wife. At least three other guys. Sometimes when I've been lit on fire, I've been described as funny. That's type 2 fun. Well, yeah. I don't know. I never found being lit on fire to be all that bad. Although I was never lit on fire that much. It has happened a lot, but it's never been severely on fire. Nicholas, we're going to have to have a discussion. For... If you do any amount of welding for any amount of time, you will intermittently be lit on fire. It happens. Okay, while welding, that's a little bit of a different connotation than like, hey guys, watch this. Or while doing plumbing. Sometimes when you're sweating copper inside of a wet wall, sometimes other stuff gets lit on fire and you have to just sort of deal with that while you're wearing a cotton t-shirt. Jesus in heaven. Look, man. I absolutely can include my D & D group. My D & D group does enjoy that. Rachel says she watched you jump over a fire. It was the shortest distance between me and the beer. I was about to ask if you were intoxicated because... Oh, heavily. Okay. The rules change when you're heavily intoxicated. They do. Also when the cooler's on the other side of the fire pit. Fair. All right. Topic for tonight, new shooters on the line. So as we do occasionally, sometimes we have to pull a topic from like what's going on in the moment. And in the moment, sometimes it comes up and it's like, yeah, we ought to talk about that. Yeah. Well, I mean, especially given the the wonderful shellacking that the Republicans took in the Senate and the House recently, I don't think it's unfair to suggest that there might be some spicy extracurricular activities happening in and around gun rights and gun laws in the next several months, years, whatever. And I have. Literally 36 hours before they talked about bans. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that shocks exactly. At a national level. That shocks 0% of people with a functioning frontal lobe. I think it was under 12 hours before they started talking about impeachment. Okay, and how long before they started talking about gun laws after there's a mass shooting? 45 minutes? Usually before. My point is, I consider a part of Second Amendment advocacy, of which I encourage all of you to be advocates, because we have to advocate for what we believe in at this point. There is no sitting on the sidelines anymore. But part of that is bringing new shooters out to the range, introducing them to firearms, doing it in a way that is fun and safe and educational. And we teach them like how firearms function. We teach them how they don't function. They don't just go off all by themselves. We teach them safety. We teach them marksmanship. And we do all that in a way that's fun and makes them want to come back and do it some more. That's how we make a positive influence in the Second Amendment community as an individual, not as a person who sends money to GOA, not as a big organization, not as a law firm. But as you, an individual out there, you can make a positive difference if you introduce one more person to shooting. Because if every gun owner did that just once, we would literally double the gun public. Yep, we would. That's just how statistics work, guys. But on that front, I haven't been faced with this eventuality since my daughter started shooting. And she was, I think, I mean, she was about four years old the first time she pulled the trigger with me basically holding the rifle for her. Yeah, that's fair. And BB guns at about age six, seven, somewhere in there. And every step of the way was, like, enforcing, you know, like, trigger discipline, finger off the trigger, and safety rules. Like, in this house, there are no toy guns. There never have been. And in this house, BB guns get treated with the exact same reverence and safety of a real gun.. 22s get treated just like 5.56s. Because, to me, a firearm is a firearm. They are all deadly tools. And because of that, Piper has grown up in a household where, like, gun safety... has been enforced upon her since a young age. She goes to the range with me occasionally. She's a phenomenal, she's a wonderful shot and she's super safety conscious. Good. But now I'm being faced with doing that to a person who's not my child. And potentially only getting one bite at this apple, because I might only get one chance to bring this person out and make sure they have a good, fun, educational experience, teach them safety, and teach them all those things. And I thought it merited that discussion. In case anybody else has a different solution. Oh, absolutely. I probably run into that situation slightly more often than average. Probably about. I would say once a year to every other year, I'm taking out a brand new, never held a gun shooter to the range. Now, question. Do you think that is a difference in geography and demographics? Because down here in Louisiana, we have a very, very high proportion of firearm owners. Very high. It could be. It could be. It could also be just the group that I'm around. Like a lot of them lately have been my wife's family or interns at work. I take most of the, a lot of the interns at work shooting because, well, shooting is awesome. And they're exposed to me eight hours a day. They're going to, they're going to get some gun content, whether they want it or not. I mean, not to oversell it, but like, I think that like, getting bagging, bagging down a rifle and shooting in the prone is like some of the most fun you can have with your clothes on. It's literally, it's meditation with recoil. It is. You know, I, I think that part of it is the reason why I find so many new shooters or people that have never shot before might be just Illinois. That's what I, that's kind of why I was asking it the way I was with like, not, not say like there are no gun owners in Illinois. Cause I know better. there's quite a few, but it makes, it makes me wonder like it is, You wouldn't need, bear in mind that Illinois, I'm pretty sure, has a bigger population than Louisiana. You wouldn't need a huge disparity in the percentage that are gun owners to cause your incidences of first-time gun owners to well exceed mine. True. True. You really wouldn't. Just due to the more urban nature of at least my portion of Illinois, and due to the political disparity. Well, I mean, even me living in the suburbs, I mean, the rate of gun ownership in this parish is, I think, like 58% to 60% last I checked. I mean, it's higher than average, and the average in Louisiana is already fairly high. I believe if you get down by Cairo, Illinois is near that high, but it's definitely not in the northern half of the state. Cairo's more rural, I'm assuming? It's southern half of the state, yeah. It's down past Champaign or around about Champaign. No offense to those of you who love your home state, Nick, but the only thing I know about Illinois geography is to stay. Out of it. Essentially, what you can do is you can drive About seven hours from the border to the border and see mostly not but corn and NIU and U of I. That is all. Oh, solar, wind farms. You'll see some wind farms. And conversely, from where I am, if you drove with a purpose, you could drive... East to West across the fattest part of this state in about five hours. Okay. So I can get from where I live. I can get from where I live to Shreveport, which is damn near Arkansas in five hours. It is halfway to your house from my house before I leave Illinois. That's that's gross. That's almost as annoying as driving for a full for 24 hours and still being in Texas. Yes. Just about. At least Texas was awesome for a minute. Let's see here. Joe's saying better late than never. I'll be honest, man. There was a moment in time where I was very judgy about people that didn't grow up around firearms before I realized that that's not a them decision. That's their family decision. I've known more than a handful of people that didn't grow up around guns that wanted to get into shooting and everything, but They didn't have the exposure because they grew up in a house that guns were just not a thing. Yeah. You know, I guns existed in my family environment for two purposes. And one was dispatching livestock. The other one was hunting. Yeah. So other than that, they really weren't around. And the literal second I was legally able to sign for that card that I shouldn't have to sign for. I started buying and collecting guns in a way that terrified my mother. I think that's one of the, one of the parts of like gun ownership before we started getting into this topic, but like, that's one of the parts of gun ownership that's, that was very odd to me when I first got in, when I first started buying like my own firearms was I grew up in a house where like, yeah, my dad had a 22 and that was for plinking. We had BB guns and we use those for plinking. But like my dad had and still owns a Smith and Wesson model 39, nine millimeter gun. It's a 5906 at single stack, basically. For any of you that are not mid-90s Smith & Wesson nerds. Quality pistol. I have told my father on multiple occasions, there's only two firearms in his collection I desperately want when it comes time to will things down. That's one of them. Because it's my dad's gun. He's had it. Literally, he owned it for five years before I was born, if that tells you anything. But like, In the house I grew up in, guns, primary, not a secondary or tertiary or theoretical, but the primary purpose for having guns was home defense. Period. End discussion. I grew up with that mentality of you're supposed to have guns. You're supposed to have guns in your house in case you have to defend your family. And so whenever I encountered people that were like, oh, guns are just for hunting or guns are just for this or just for that, I was like, that's so foreign to me because I grew up with the idea that like, no, no. You have guns in case somebody kicks your door in the middle of the night and you need to smoke them. That was kind of baked into the gun ownership pie from the word go. Yeah, that kind of disappeared out of my family with my great grandparents that were on the farm. They kept guns around for home defense. And after that, it sort of petered out in a weird way. Not sure why. I mean, some of that could just be a downstream effect from the fact that year over year, violent crime has been decreasing in this country pretty reliably for the last 30 years. Well, pretty reliably on average. I have questions about those statistics, just like I have questions about how they can claim that the murder rate has gone down. when the only reason the murder rate has gone down is because medical technology is keeping people alive and it's becoming attempted murders instead of murders between cell phones. And isn't that the same argument you use for, um, for, um, the average lifespan getting greater and greater and greater. It's not because we're any healthier. It's because we've invented more shit to keep you alive. Yeah. Yeah. But I guess to the same point, it's really not better. It's just that you've shifted the issue slightly. Great. We have even more attempted murders than we ever had murders, mostly because now people are reporting it and can call an ambulance while they're bleeding out before they die. Hey, number go up. That is the most important part. Number go up. Or number go down. It depends on whatever makes politicians happy. Kyle makes a good point. Prison numbers are not declining. No, no. Even while prosecution rates are declining. What does that tell you? Yeah. Joe grew up in California. Only had shotguns for hunting. Home defense was never a thought. In Missouri now, guns are fine. Guns are fine. Guns should be fine. I hear grenade launchers are really fun, too. Well, if you're the shootee. Shooter? If you're the shooter. If you're the shootee, they're not as fun. From the person that's actually played with one? I mean, what they do downrange is hilarious. But just the act of shooting it is like shooting a 12-gauge. Literally feels just like it. That's what I've heard. Except instead of a bang noise, you just hear a thunk. Which just, that, I don't know, that sounds fun to me. Yeah, well, if I got an opportunity to play around with or have like a 37mm, I think. I would have to get one just for the fun. I would want to have one mounted as an underbarrel. Just for that. Speaking of underbarrel, someone recently was showing off a new single shot 12 gauge underbarrel. Oh, yeah, the real mini one, right? Yeah, I saw that. That was pretty cool. Yeah. It wouldn't be hard to make. No, it wouldn't. Why haven't you made one yet, Nick? Short-barreled shotguns are not allowed in Illinois. But what if it's a firearm? I don't know. I don't know. Because because it's only a shotgun. It was designed to be shoulder to this very plainly is not meant to be shouldered. It's it's not a shotgun. I believe now I have seen for sale in Illinois those firearm shotguns. Maybe I'm fairly certain Pika does explicitly ban under barrel mounted shotguns. What about over barrel? That's a good point. I don't think they have banned over or I don't think they have banned left or right side shotguns either. Rachel, I apologize in advance. Well, now I wonder if I do you think it would be considered an under barrel shotgun if I put a shotgun on top of a shotgun? Well, one of them has to be the under barrel at that point. Is it, though? Well, if the firearm's on top, then the shotgun is definitely an underbarrel shotgun. But both of them have tops pointed towards each other, so they're both above the other's top. Then you just turn them sideways. Right. And now nothing's on top. That's a good point. I'll have to look at how that law is actually written, like the actual text of it, because if slightly to the left barreled shotguns Is not illegal. I am not a lawyer, and you should not take legal advice from me, now or ever. But if you need bad ideas, I've got plenty of those. That's actually a great idea. A slightly to the left shotgun. Oh, your wife is going to be so mad. And apparently you also have to make your niece a toy box. I do. Oh, but wait, you have to do Secret Santa for MOF. What about an over-barrel shotgun? No no no i am not doing that until i have thoroughly researched the way my state's laws work and it does need to be thorough because they're you ever like read a book written by a toddler in another language can't say i have but i've read plenty of laws and that's about the same thing it really is um No, but I am working on getting the lathe back up and functional. I had to take it completely apart, well, most of the way apart, to get it out of my basement and into my new garage workshop. The last of the. I. Had to get some new oil wicks. It's a fixed bronze bushing style system in that head. It's a very old lathe. And they require felt oil wicks to get oil to the bushings. So I had to get new ones of those because the originals that I pulled out of there crumbled apart into piles of dust. Oof-ta. It happens with 100-year-old film. It's fine. I got new ones on the way. They'll be here today or tomorrow. To be fair, it happens with 100-year-old almost everything. That's fair, except for the cast iron. The cast iron just seems to continue existing forever, unless you let it rust. That's because cast iron is, like, immaterium. Yeah, it's pretty amazing stuff. I mean, it's vibration dampening. It's impact resistant. It's not very tension resistant, but. Can't have everything. No. So I feel like the perfect place to start with new shooters is the four firearm safety rules. Oh, definitely. I like to do that before I take them to the range. I kind of plan on having this discussion, like, on the way to the range. Mm-hmm. Although I do have all-terrain tires and they're worn to the point where they start to make that noise at 70 miles an hour. That's a quality sound. Yeah, but it makes conversations with the backseat passenger trickier. It does. So that might have to wait until we get off the interstate, which still means we have like 10 minutes to get from off the interstate to the gun range because the gun range is in a wildlife management area all the way back past Egypt in the woods. Yeah, that makes sense. But by my recollection, the firearm safety rules are like, treat every gun like it's loaded. Keep your finger off the trigger. Know what is between you and your target and past your target. And fourth one. This one always escapes me for some reason. Don't let me cheat. I'm not giving it to you. Phil. Why am I drawing a blank on this? Loaded. Trigger. Target. Oh, don't point a gun at anything you're not willing to destroy. There you go. There you go. I was just going to let you hang yourself out there on that one. I mean, okay, but some of these, for me at least, are a little difficult to just recite off the top of my head because they were beat into me as a child and I don't have to recite. Them to know them. Yeah, at a certain point, It was recited to you so many times in so many different methods that the actual wording doesn't matter. The intent of the rules is what became what was in your mind. Yeah. And at least for me, like the only the only addendum I add to that is, is that I always give a person this visual of like, you know, imagine imagine if you will. There's like a stick poked into the end of your barrel and everywhere you point the stick waves around. You don't want to hit anybody with that stick. Like, to try to get in their head that, like, you know, if you need to move a firearm from here to here, you have to keep the muzzle pointed down the range or pointed up, but you don't sweep it across your buddy. Like, you know, for me it's a lot of common sense things, and for Piper it's a lot of common sense things, but for a brand new shooter, I expect the finger off the trigger to come to them fairly quickly. I imagine I'll have to remind them a few times. You know, I've found with new shooters, it's easier to get them in the habit of just finger off the trigger when you're not currently shooting than it is to get people that learned how to shoot wrong to do that. Because they don't have any bad habits built yet. That's a good point. You know, it's an awful lot easier to build a good habit than it is to break a bad one. Not only that, but it's specific to the whole trigger thing. What I like to encourage a person of is like, keep their finger on the side of the trigger guard. And then what I've personally coached people on is I'm like, before you put your finger on the trigger, touch the front of the trigger guard. Cause I'm trying to get it in their head of like, when the finger goes into the trigger guard, it doesn't go immediately to the trigger. It comes into the trigger guard off the trigger and then comes back to the trigger. Like, Yeah, it's not unreasonable. Yeah, and especially, like, when we get to the point where, like, we're touching much lighter triggers, much shorter triggers, potentially match triggers, you and I both know that it don't take a lot of pressure to set them off. I will not give my carry gun to an inexperienced shooter. I just will not. I'm sorry. My trigger is way too light for somebody that doesn't know how to run a gun already. But even something like my Ruger revolver, I mean, it's probably got about a five-pound trigger in single action. Mm-hmm. But you should not, if you draw that hammer back, immediately go and get your finger onto the trigger if you have what I keep in that. 357 Magnum, which is, I wouldn't say like screaming hide, but it'll burp a fireball about this big out the barrel, and you really don't want that to happen when you're not expecting it. Right. You want it to be controlled. Yeah. But like I said, I feel like starting off with the firearm safety rules is like, good place to start. I don't know that for a brand new shooter, I would like really hammer hard on like, you know, like marksmanship. I don't know that I'd hammer really hard on like, you know, breathing control. I do want to encourage, and I was explaining this to Piper, like I do want to encourage proper technique. I actually have found that a lot of when, if I'm taking a brand new person out to the range, never shot before at all. I will put them behind the most accurate rifle I have. That is not my 300 wind mag. Okay. Something that has a low to moderate recoil. That is very accurate because they seem to enjoy it more. If they can go out and ring that 300 yard gong on their first or second shot, they really seem to like that. You know, it, uh, before ARs were banned in Illinois, my AR, the way to set up with a match barrel, the trigger it's got, the ammo it had, you could hit headshots at 300 yards off a bench trivially easy. I could tell them the exact hold to do. And I'm like, and I would talk them through it. I would draw the target on a piece of paper. I'll draw the reticle of where it's supposed to be. And I'll talk them through the breathing procedure. I'll talk them through the trigger squeeze and then I'll let them do it. And most of the time they would hit that target the first shot. Now, I did almost all the work for them to make it easy for them to hit that first shot. And then I go through and I tell them like, OK, here's the other targets we've got. These are the different ranges. These are the holds. Now we'll put a magazine in there. It's got a couple of rounds in it. Fire a couple of rounds. Try it. Then we can throw a full mag in it and try it. Now I've gone to my 22, actually. That 22 I brought out to Kentucky. That thing is a laser. It is annoyingly accurate. It's too much fun. Boringly accurate. It's got an inch and an eighth bull barrel on the 10-22. Yeah, it's... It is kind of like putting a race car engine into a go-kart, but... Oh, it is, but for what I use it for, I'm actually getting back into 22 leagues, hopefully this summer. I missed last summer's, but this summer I should be getting into that again. Adulting does kind of get in the way occasionally. It does. Joe's saying grip stance and front sight for handguns. So kind of what I was thinking, honestly, was... I really want to focus mostly on like proper stance, proper grip. Sure. And like proper operation of the guns. I really want to, I really want to, what I'm looking for initially is like, my intent is to start at the 22 range because like we're talking about no recoil, no blast, nothing to cause a flinch. It's a perfect place. The 22 range is only 25 yards and there are, there are little steel poppers that are rated for 22 and, Those were a ton of fun. As close as, I think, like seven yards. Oh, okay. And all the way out to 25. So it's a nice little shooting gallery where a new shooter can have things that are kind of like light lift, easy hits, and then they can stretch out a little bit as they gain more confidence. I know that that Marlin 990 that we're going to bring out tomorrow, even though I still have an intermittent issue with a stovepipe I'm trying to figure out, But when it shoots, it shoots extraordinarily accurately. So I'm thinking that's going to be like the perfect get your feet wet in rifles. And then from there, probably transition over to my CZ Scorpion. Because again, 9mm, fairly heavy, blowback, not very intimidating at all. Recoil in that thing is trivially manageable. Yeah. But the big thing to me is like, I am a believer that proper stance, proper grip, proper technique does more for recoil mitigation than a severely lopsided amount of weight or strength. Oh, absolutely. I've seen very small stature people that can handle 3x7 magnums, and I've seen very large people that like a. 37 or a. 44 is jumping all over the place on them because they don't have a proper grip. So I think if I can instill that early, I think this new shooter would probably respond to it very, very well and wouldn't be intimidated by stepping up to a higher recoiling firearm because the basics are already built in. The benefits to proper biomechanical form in any activity, lifting boxes, shooting a firearm, shooting a bow, walking. Everybody walks. How many people walk comfortably for any length of time? If you're not doing it correctly, if you're not using your body in the proper way, it's going to be less comfortable and more difficult. Yeah. And then after that... My plan is to head to the rifle range, bring my AR, the one with the scope, the 18-inch barrel, the one I brought to summer camp. That's a quality rifle. Yeah. I'm still cycling through some of the 77 grain Match Kings that I loaded up with CFE 223, which is a fine bulk powder. Really, I'm not convinced. It's an accuracy powder. I've got like 200 rounds loaded with 2520 that did like, I'll take a 1.1-inch group at 100, which I wasn't upset about. No, that's not bad. I think your rifle's capable of better than that with a different load. Because, look, I've had rack-grade ARs with similar barrel profiles to yours, and I've had them zing in half-inch groups. The only thing of it is that... I think you. Just gotta find the node at the right velocity. I'm in a node? Yeah, you are. The debate I have with myself is, can I go up to the next node Before I start spitting primers out of the back of the cartridge. Because, I mean... Your velocity wasn't that high. It wasn't that high, but the problem is 2520 is... It's the eternal battle of the burn rate of the powder being faster means I make pressure faster. I could probably get more speed out of it with a slower powder, and Lord knows I've got. Probably a little bit more room in the case if I had a smaller, slower powder. I don't know. I might play with it a bit more. The 25-20 really seems to be doing okay work. I think the biggest thing for me is wanting to, once I get a couple of tools, like bullet comparator and everything else, probably play with overall length. But even then, I'm staying in the magazine, so there's only so much I can play around with it. Yeah, I mean, it's a semi-automatic firearm. I mean, you get to a point of diminishing returns for your efforts, but that's a topic for a different episode. It is a topic for a different episode. But like I said, my intent is to bring that, because I know that it's scoped, it's got a bipod on it, it's a very fun little rifle to shoot. I can bring just my rear bag so that, you know, they can make it nice and stable. And I'm going to bring, um, my SKS. That's just fun to shoot. It is just fun to shoot. I've got a, I've got literally a whole frigging ammo can. And then some of seven, six by 39, that is not like breaking case of emergency ammunition. It's literally just take it out to the range and just burn it up, have fun with it. Ammunition. So we can afford to shoot it. It's a, I mean, it's an SKS. It's fairly accurate for what it is. They usually are reasonably accurate. The open sights on it are not bad at all. Vixen to buy my first gun tomorrow. Super Duty. Caleb BM24. I don't recognize your handle. You must be new here. Not sure what he means by Super Duty. I'm not sure either. But maybe he'll comment more. That'd be great. But if you're going to buy your first gun, welcome to the club. I would love to say, I'll just tell you, go slow because buying your first gun is the most difficult part. Going from 1 to 5 and 5 to 20 and 20 to 100, that can happen very quickly. I'm out of room in my safe again. I'm also out of room in my safe. I think I'm just going to give a second safe. Well, I think what I decided was that instead of getting another safe or a bigger safe, because that leads to other problems I don't want to have, like more gun purchases. I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to get this precision bolt action that I'm building. I'm going to buy a hard case just for it, and it's going to get a padlock thrown on it. That's going to be how I secure it, and I can have the gun, the friggin'... I'll probably like carve out some space for like the spotting scope in there and like put together one box. And that is all the stuff I've got room for, for boxes of bullets and you know, the whole nine yards. Geissele, Geissele super duty primary arms. You will not be upset with that. You will not be upset with that at all. If you're gonna, I mean, if you're going to buy your first gun, might as well get something decent. Yeah. I think my first gun was a, Ruger American and 30 out six. My first gun was my Kimber. Yeah. I sold that Ruger American pretty quickly. Uh, but regular does bring up a good point. Phil, depending on the foam, especially given your area in the ambient humidity, do not store your firearm on not properly oiled and open cell phone. I will just say that, um, I oil the piss out of all my guns. And, uh, This is a buddy of mine, by the way, saying I concur. I took him gun shopping for his first gun. And I don't know how many he owns at this point. It's good. It's more than a couple. It's more than a couple. Well, it's easy to do because there's such, there's such a variety of them and they're each their own unique mechanical creation. And for some of us, that's just, we just, we just like that. Yeah. Anyway, So, yeah, like that's kind of my rough plan to introduce this new shooter. But now I have a couple of things. Save that one for last. So let's cover the what to bring. Brand new. I mean, anytime I'm going to the gun range, even I bring it like my wife and my daughter, they've been before. I have to discipline myself to bring extra hearing protection, extra eye protection, because in my brain, I only keep one set of each. in my range bag. Cause it's usually just me going. Um, I would say that it pays to have at least one extra set of active hearing protection. Yes. Absolutely. Makes a huge difference for a new shooter so they can have protection, but they can hear you loud and clear. It's so much of a nicer experience than dealing with earplugs, especially if you get the walkers or the Howard lights with the gel cups. So it's just more comfortable. Like, all of that goes towards making it a nicer, more pleasant first time experience versus, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the goggles are scratched the hell back. You can barely see out of, and the earplugs that fall out every three seconds. Like, you know, if I am going. To take a new shooter to the rifle range and we're going to be shooting something bigger than like a five, five, six, or even a five, five, six with like a muzzle brake on it. Cause it's, A lot of my guns have muzzle brakes on them. Double up. I will bring, yep. I will bring foamies and I will bring active noise canceling ear protection for them. And I will insist they double up until they get a little comfortable. I mean, that's not unfair at all. Well, cause some people like, look, when I, I have had my AR with the direct, with the land tack dragon on it, questioned a number of times by RSOs that work at a gun range. trying to verify that I am not shooting something bigger than a 308 because that was the limit for their range. Nope. It's a five, five, six. It's just louder than hell and flat as hell. Yes. So some stuff gets really loud. I had a Mosin cart jungle carbine for a hot minute. And Phil, have you ever shot one of those? No, but I can already, I can already imagine in a half inch barrel. I was about to say, I can already imagine in my head what a free and seven 62 by five, Not by 54. 54 is like out of a short barrel. It's a fun time if you don't like the things near you. Or if you don't like having functional eyeballs or ears. Yeah, I mean, it makes a heck of a crack, especially if you have the Mosin Compensator on it, which it is. No, Raggle, I will not try an Obrez. I will not. I hate them. I hate them. I would try it at least once. But then again, I don't think I've ever seen a gun that I was just like, oh, I want nothing to do with that. I mean, I might feel that way after I shoot it once, but I've never felt that way the first time. It's just so, they're just so shit. They're so obnoxious. They're so shit. They're obnoxious. You can make so much better pistols. Or it was a pretty okay rifle. Wait. Why did you just have to take pretty okay and make it shit? Did you just call a Mosin fairly okay? It's fairly pretty okay. Fairly pretty okay. You didn't kill a guy. So will a brick. Yes, but a Mosin will do it farther away than a brick. I mean, I've had Mosins. I've had, well, at one point I owned 10 because I bought a case of them because it was So cheap you couldn't, I mean, buy just one. You had to buy a case. Some of them shot amazing. Some of them shot horrible. Some of them were literal hot garbage that I sold the first second I got an offer for it. It's not a Mauser. So James is recounting the first time I took him shooting. i have to read i have to read this for the audio listeners phil made me feel so welcome the first time i went with him even though i felt played with my one little nine millimeter in a small box when he brought what seemed like the whole armory but he let me shoot all his so i felt less played so james to be fair i went to uh summer camp with nick and a bunch of our friends this past. Year twas an armory to be sure well every okay I was, like, probably the least armed person on the line. Mm-hmm. And definitely had, like, the least cool toys. Agreed. Yeah, I was in the same boat, mostly because of the distance we had to go and the lack of room in the car. Yeah, but some of our friends that lived closer, God almighty, they emptied the safes out. It was stupid. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Other than iPro, EarPro... water, water. If you have a coffee drinker on your line, bring coffee or stop and pick up coffee, granola bars, something, something to eat. Like I like protein bars, but granola bars. Something, any kind of snacky treats, trail mix, something, something, something you can ideally eat that you don't have to touch with your hands because powder lead, it's just. Not great for you. Don't do that. But the big thing, the big thing for me is like, you're, you're, You have to treat this a bit like, yes, you're going to the gun range, but you're also trying to make sure this person is, like, comfortable so that there's no incentive, like, oh, damn, I'm hungry, I'm ready to leave, or, oh, I'm thirsty, I'm ready to leave, or, oh, my ears hurt, I'm ready to leave. Like, you're trying to increase comfort, because with comfort chairs, in the case of my range, that will not be an issue, because there are actually, like, picnic benches on every single firing line out there oh. That's nice my range they have ample chairs in the rifle and pistol bay but if i but if i'm going to shoot down like at our concealed carry bay at the private range where other people can't shoot bring a chair because i'm going to be there for. A few minutes rachel's saying appropriate clothing something i've already covered with my daughter i told her it is going to be 53 degrees that morning So y'all both need to bring like a sweater or a lighter jacket. She means because of brass band branding. Oh, I mean, that's that goes without saying. But yeah, proper clothing is a thing. Well, it goes without saying, but not for new shooters. Not for people that haven't caught brass down their shirt before. That's a thing. Mm hmm. Although, you know, if you do get a brass hickey, that's kind of the cost of doing business sometimes. It is a little bit the cost of doing business, but still a brand new shooter is not going to enjoy a steaming hot piece of brass, regardless of the caliber drop in somewhere sensitive. Yeah. Ladies, don't do the swoopy v-neck chirp that shows off all the assets and everything. That's a really bad idea for the gun range. Recently, my wife learned her, and what she's talking about here that she might have finally learned her lesson, was she was wearing low top socks. Oh. Shoes. That were just slightly open at the top and a piece of 22 brass went down between the tongue of her shoe on the top on her ankle. Yep. That's a pretty, pretty good burn. This is the reason why I told my daughter, you and your friend, long pants. Long pants, shoes, wearing long pants. Really? And she still managed to get one. Low top shoes, lower socks, pants that ended just above the shoes it went it just happened to drop down in that tiny. Little gap yeah that that wasn't even a like address to whom it may concern that piece of brass was after her ass. Oh yeah oh yeah that one was coming for her for sure that was that was final destination shit i've never seen brass getting a spot that small before but if it can. It will yeah The only other thing I can think of to tell people to bring for your brand new shooter is load as many freaking magazines as humanly possible before you get out to the range. That's fair. Or mag loaders. Like the little press blocks. Mag loaders are fine, but I still say load your mags at home. Because time you have to spend on the line with a brand new shooter loading magazines, it slows things down. It's a buzzkill. The goal here is, is to do everything humanly possible to facilitate them shooting. That way, if they take a break, it's because they want to take a break, not because we've got to sit here and do the thumb yoga and smack magazines. Yeah, I mean, while my new shooter is shooting, I will be topping off whatever mag they have just emptied. So I have a, matter of fact, it was my Secret Santa gift from last year, It was one of those MTM ammo crates. It's about the height of an ammo box, but it's about yay wide. I've been stacking loaded magazines of that thing, just kind of going around the shelf like, grab these, grab those, grab those, throw them in there. Because my goal is I want to go out to the range with everything as loaded as possible and then have some extra ammo in case something needs to get topped off. but I want to go out there with mags loaded so that we can put it on the line. We can shoot. If anybody has to kill time, load mags at a BB while somebody else is shooting. Not, okay, we got to take a break and load mags. That's a buzzkill. Another thing I will tend to bring for people, especially if it's an outdoor range, sunscreen and bug spray. Yes. Because somebody's always going to forget to put sunscreen on. Like I tend to wear when I go to the range, I wear like the Huck fishing shirts or the Bass Pro fishing shirts. Hell, Sam's Club has them for like 19 bucks in the spring. The Mossy Oak brand ones. They just do a good job of keeping you from getting sunburned and they're cool enough. You can wear them on a hundred degree day, but somebody always forgets. And on an outdoor range, sometimes the mosquitoes will drive you out if you're not prepared. That can be a thing, especially given the fact that this particular gun range is within spitting distance of the Pearl River. Mm hmm. Yeah. So now on the other side of things, what to do? We've already talked about how like my intention is to like brief the fire safety rules on the way out there to start laying groundwork. I kind of have a I kind of have a progression of moving like through fires and through ranges to where we go from. Least recoil, least intimidating, and we slowly ratchet up until we're shooting centerfire rifle at 100 yards. And my expectation is that if I build the skills and build the basics and build in those good habits, if we build in good sight alignment at 6 yards over the 22, that does translate to 100 yards with a scope. Absolutely. The skill set builds on itself. Other than that, the big thing that I was kind of expecting to do was use my daughter to almost be like a junior instructor kind of thing. She's grown up around firearms, and I know that she's comfortable enough that she will watch out for her friend and make sure that we don't get into a situation where someone's safe is happening, which will allow me to split my attention between prepping a gun or loading a magazine and not have to be like 100% laser focus on the new shooter the whole time which is what I did when it was which is what I did when it was when it was. Piper yeah so on your range Phil do you when you go into that range are you assigned a spot by the RSOs no not. Typically unless the line is like really really packed yeah but there are designated like the 22 range is separate from everything. Else One thing I like to do when I'm bringing a new shooter, if I have the luxury of choosing my shooting lane, if I have a new shooter, I will pick the farthest shooting lane from whoever else is shooting just to give them a little bit of space and a little bit of distance, especially say like if I'm up on the pistol range and I got a guy ripping 44 mags, I'm not going to stick the new shooter shooting a 22 next to the guy shooting 44 mag. I mean, that's fair. Yeah, you know, just because, let's be fair, especially to new shooters and some of us experienced shooters, gunshots can be alarming. They can surprise you. They can cause you to jump and flinch. I'll be the first to admit, I've been out on that line before at the. 22 range or at the pistol range, and someone had something very big and aggressive at the rifle range, and the noise was enough to cut through all the. 556 and even the. 308s, and like, I I jumped because it was a different noise. Yeah. I don't know. Some of those boys like to play with really spicy stuff. Just go and buy the sound of it. Yeah. You know, I ran into an individual at the local indoor range one day that had a. 50 BMG with him. At an indoor range? At an indoor range. That's crazy. They specifically, when they opened, would allow you to bring a. 50 BMG to their 50-yard indoor rifle range. So in the name of full disclosure, I went to an indoor range years ago. It's while I was on, I was deployed for my current job for a few weeks. And while I was up there, I intentionally brought a couple of guns for obvious reasons. And I brought some extra ammo because I knew that there was an indoor range like two miles away from the hotel. And I was like, I mean, I got to be up here for a weekend. I might as well go shoot on the weekend. I got nothing better to do. Yeah, other than that, it's sit in your hotel room. Yeah, and unlike most of my coworkers, I wasn't trying to go to the casino or go shopping or any of this silly shit. I was there to make money and go home, not spend money. Yeah, this is not a vacation. No. But I went to the indoor range and got there, got to talking, and the guy asked, he's like, do you have an AR or a rifle or something? And I was like, no, I just brought some handguns. And he was like, oh, well, shoot wherever you want. And that's where the trouble started. So I had brought my. 357 Magnum with a fairly spicy hand load and my 9mm. And I get out there to the indoor range, and I am right between what appears to be a boyfriend and girlfriend or maybe a husband and wife, younger couple, looks like a pair of 9mm. And what I'm assuming was a mother, father, and a teenage daughter and another 9mm and a. 38mm. And I start shooting my 9mm, and everything's fine. And then I put the 9mm down, pull the. 37 out, put six shots of burn the house down into it, pop the first one off. The entire range lights up. The fireball this big burps out of the friggin' barrel. I hear the people to my right say, holy shit. I hear the people to my left say, what the F was that? No one on the range was happy after that. Yeah. Look, indoor ranges are rough because all of that noise is contained and it's echoing around the range. I have firearms that I will not shoot at indoor ranges. I just won't because I don't feel it's polite to the other shooters because they're too aggressive for an indoor range. Well, here's the thing. I was told handguns are fine, right? Handguns are fine. Shoot whatever you want. So when I got, that was the instructions I got. So when I was getting ready to leave, The owner of the place was like, was that you in there making all the noise? And I was like, yeah, I think so. And he was like, pretty sure he was like, what were you shooting? You just said you had a pair of handguns. I'm like, yeah, I have my nine mil and I had a 357 Magnum. He was like, oh, if I'd have known you had a Magnum, I'd have put you at the end of the range where I put the guys with ARs. Fair point, sir. Next time I will clarify. I very sheepishly said, my bad. Yeah, my bad. I don't think I had H110 back then. I think I was loading 125s with Accurate 9, which if you're not... It's still poppy. Oh, didn't I show you the picture of me shooting my. 37 Magnum and there's a fireball of this big come out the barrel and you could see fire rolling down both sides of the friggin' cylinder? It was that. It's poppy. It was that. I mean.... I don't know. Every now and then, like, total depart, total sidebar, but, like, I think about loading up some more of that stuff to help with Accurate 9, because I've got, like, a pound and a half. Of it still. See how much you can make it go. The thing of it is that Accurate 9, it's on the fast side for a Magnum revolver. Like, H110 Win 296 really is about the Goldilocks powder for. 307 Magnum. But that Accurate 9... It's right there. It sounds weird, and I don't know if it's just in my head or not, but it's a very different recoil impulse. Like. 357 Magnum, 5-pound revolver, H110, you know, it's a good, hardy shove. Accurate 9 is a snap. I think it has a lot to do with the speed of burn of the powder. Well, and it could also be the fact that in a four inch barrel, that accurate, more than accurate nine is burning. Yeah. Yeah, it is. I mean, a slower burning powder in a revolver with a short barrel, you're going to get a lot of flash burn on the outside. But when you get that much flash burn on the outside, even with a faster powder. That's snappy. I also loaded some 125s with Hodgson Universal. Oh, that'd be fun. Um, well, I mean, that's the same powder and everything I love for 38 special. I just used like double it, all of it. Yeah. Twice. And, and you'll case pack it down. And universal is a very, very fast powder for a Magnum. It's it's burn rate is like about perfect for like 45 ACP. Um, it wasn't carried away with the, um, the performance I was getting out of it. And in the Magnum, very, very big cartridge, um, Didn't care for it much. But the Acura 9 was fun. Yeah, I would imagine so. Anyway. I sidebarred. So now the eternal question. When you and I were first getting into shooting, what did we not get that would have been helpful in hindsight from like, you know, 35 plus years later? A well-sealed tube of Loctite. As a new shooter? Yep. Explain. Three different occasions that when I was first learning how to shoot ARs, I had the sights come off the gun. No shit. Three different occasions I had them vibrate off the gun. Three times in a row. What sights? Three different range trips. One was a set of Magpul backup iron sights. Really? Before I got my red dot. I have never had a set of those vibrate off a gun. I have. I torqued them exactly to spec. I'm a toolmaker, Phil. I have torque wrenches. They were torqued precisely to spec. But that's just so weird. I mean, I. Had a Vortex Spitfire 1X or Strikefire, whichever one's the prismatic. I had that vibrate off my gun and I had the Nikon Pro Staff low power variable vibrate loose. That's so weird. Every single one of them was torqued to the exact inch-pound torque rating that is required and recommended for those screws. You know that I've never once had a sight vibrate off a gun before? The only thing I've had happen so far, two things. I did somehow manage to make one of the M-blocks on my light mount on my shotgun. It turned itself 90 degrees all by itself. 12 gauges do things. See, this is one of the reasons why I am hesitant to put too much shit on my 12 gauge because 12 gauges like to unscrew things. Yeah, well, they're very well known for taking whatever you bolted onto your gun and just yard sailing it wherever it feels. Like I this one didn't yard sale, but I did notice it because, you know, you know that because of my aviation background, things like retorquing and torque checking are just kind of like religious activities. Like in white pen indexing every screw. I don't go that far anymore. Although I do have a tube of torque stripes still in my toolbox for nostalgia. Any of you who are aviation nerds or maybe motorcycle nerds, you probably know what torque stripe is. Whiteout works just about as well. But anyway, I have, you know, Joe James brings up that he's never seen it either. Never seen it happen. I have on, let's see, how many classes have I ended up with my Loctite being used on somebody else's gun? Six? Six different classes I have been to where either a red dot was coming off a pistol, a red dot was coming off an AR, flashlights were coming loose off of people's guns. It happens a lot. So I have to ask, what kind of Loctite? Blue. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever use red on firearm screws. Don't do it. The torque rating on those screws is so low anyway that blue is more than enough for what you need. Red is far too much. And if you use red, that head is going to let go a lot faster than the Loctite will, and you will hate yourself substantially. Well, at least with red, you can, you can thermally displace it a little bit without destroying most firearms. Assuming it's made of metal. If it's made of plastic, don't. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe I've just had bad luck with screws, but man, I keep a weed tube of Loctite in my range bag. Just the blue Loctite along with my torque, my inch pound torque wrench, uh, torque driver, I guess not a wrench. It's technically a torque screwdriver. Um, a torque screwdriver is a good one. I know some new shooters don't have them and they just strip the shit out of their screws. I know what I wish I would have had when I first got started. Hmm. I wish, and I would suspect most people would benefit from having a very affordable gun range within a reasonable drive of them. Because when I, that can be hard because when I very first started shooting, you know, we lived in Southeast Texas and, And to give you all an idea of where I lived, I wouldn't say it was in a large city because it wasn't, but it was a tri-city area where you had these three, four, five small cities all clustered around each other. I lived half a block from the only hospital that serviced that entire county. So lots of traffic, lots of ambulances running back and forth. really not a lot of good opportunities to go to a gun range i think there might have been some indoor ranges around but certainly nothing like what we have access to now with a very hospitable very open very affordable outdoor range yeah i got very lucky if i had the ability to like go to a place like honey island on the regular whenever the hell i wanted it when we were younger I imagine I would have probably gotten into shooting a lot more, a lot younger because prior to like, other than that, my tutelage with firearms prior to the military really happened. Like over the summers, we'd go to my great grandmother. She lived in a very rural part of Louisiana and we would literally shoot off of her back porch because it was like an old farmland. Like there was no one in any direction for like two miles, uh, So you could literally like throw aluminum cans off the back porch and just plink out of all afternoon. It wasn't going to hurt anything. But other than that, that was like the most time I got spent shooting was over the summers. I was fortunate enough that just one town over from where I was living at the time. So about a 20 minute drive from me was a $ 10 an hour brand new indoor range. It's now $ 43 an hour. Oofta. Yeah. So I joined a range that was like a couple hundred bucks for the year. I would do that. And my wife gets to shoot for free. Done. So Honey Island is, has gone up on their rate twice in the last several years, which kind of hard to hold against them given the escalating cost of everything. But they're 10 bucks for all day. That's not bad. Tell me that it's not a screaming deal. You wouldn't believe. That's a pretty good deal. You wouldn't believe that. And like, shameless promotion for that range. It's run by an all is run by a group of volunteers. The guys out there do not draw paychecks. They enjoy what they do. They believe in teaching young people to shoot and inviting people out, inviting people into the gun community and they volunteer their time. It's a lot of retired guys. I mean, I'm 44 and I'm one of the youngest guys out there. But I've noticed that with my outdoor range as well. It is trending younger. But I think that's largely due to the attrition of the older crowd. I will say this much. The thing that I've noticed in the gun community, and I guess part of the reason why I wanted to have this topic this afternoon, is you and I have talked about the fact that in the last, I don't know, 10, maybe 15 years, we've watched the gun community go through this complete demographic shift. It's shifting towards... being more of a co-ed activity instead of being exclusively male. Co-ed action sports. Yes. At my range, at the range I belong to now, there is a women's group that shoots there that they are all IDPA IPSec competitors, and some of them are very good. And even for the ones that don't compete, just the ones who do it as like a self-defense activity. Mm-hmm. That has increased a lot as well, which is fantastic. The old stereotype of guns are for old white men, that was a stereotype for a lot of years. And I hate to say it, but a lot of stereotypes are usually based on a little bit of truth. Yeah, they are. And we've seen that shit. And I'm seeing more people on the gun range today that I never would have expected before. People with pride flags, people with nose rings, people that I can't tell what friggin' gender they are, pink hair, blue hair, no hair, hair on their face, hair on their back, doesn't matter. I'm seeing more people coming out to the range that are bucking every stereotype I grew up with of what gun owners look like. And it's been fun to watch. Because I've always said that I do believe everybody should– every law-abiding citizen– I don't even like that term anymore. I'm going to get it out of my lexicon. Every peace-loving person has a right to self-preservation. I don't like saying law-abiding anymore because I don't think the law should be abided by sometimes. But that's another show. You and I have talked about that recently, how– It's it's getting very difficult for me to self justify being a law abiding citizen when I watch every single one of our politicians. Well, maybe not every single one, but the vast majority of them lie, cheat, steal, fraud. And no one ever seems to get punished for it. But you and I sure would. Does it really matter? Do we really need to play by those rules? Heck, look at all the fraud with the welfare system right now. Look at all the fraud with the leering centers and the child daycares and the medical fraud. And that fraud is just the tip of the iceberg that has been drifting through the sea of bullshit. For hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in fraud. and no one's ever punished. Yeah. But like you said, it does make it kind of difficult to justify. We have a load-bearing pedophile ring that keeps the country functional according to our government. And they have said out loud that they couldn't bring all those people to justice because it would collapse the government and the economy. Their terms are acceptable. I kind of feel that way, to be perfectly honest. Like, If the government would fall and burn because we arrested literal pedophiles, then I'm not... I'm not mad. Let's go. I mean, like, do y'all need help? I got a pack of zip ties and some duct tape. I can... All it needs are dresses. Not even addresses. Give me names. We'll figure it out. Immunity would be nice. Yeah. Immunity would be nice. You ain't gonna get that. No. It just... You know, I... I used to really like to say, well, you know, I do what I can to be law abiding. Because for a while there, I really did think that abiding by the law was important. But gosh, it just sure doesn't seem to be at all anymore. I used to use the term law abiding citizen when I still equated abiding by the law with morality. Oh, that is so far gone. I was... You know, Nick, at one point in my life, I was very idealistic and naive. I was very idealistic and naive. And it seems like, you know, the longer time has gone on, the grumpier and the more pessimistic I've gotten. But anyway, that's another show. That's a complete other show. But anyway, I do appreciate everybody coming along for the ride with me as I figure out how I'm going to pull off this introduction to the gun community successfully and safely and in a fun way. But at the end of the day, like my goal is I want this young person to come away from this like hopping up and down, happy and excited and jumping about. When do I get to come back? When do I get to go again? Like that's. That's always the goal. That's that's like the goal other than safety. Yeah, I mean, you know, like I will probably eschew the conversations I've had with my daughter about her father's viewpoint on the reason for having guns. And, you know, we'll save some of the more political ideological discussions about like, you know, how this also. Probably save mag dumping 12 gauge till they're a little bit more used to things. I'm kind of thinking, and that's also part of the reason why I'm bringing what I am, because probably the most unruly gun I'm bringing is my Ruger. And I intend to bring, I actually have a. 30 cal ammo can that I took a chunk of a license plate and folded it and riveted it in place to make a divider. That's fantastic. I love that. Oh, it gets better. I have some vinyl tubing that I split and like use it on the top so that, you know, it would kind of guard that sharp edge. Yeah, that's clever. It's the most redneck looking bullshit on earth, but it works. Perfect. But I made a 30 cal ammo can that is half split between three, seven and 38 special. So I can bring that one can and we can, I can load the ladies up with 38 special and out of that heavy ass revolver, it'll feel like a 22. It has no recoil. It has no muzzle report. And then if they decide they want to ride the lightning, I'll give them a cylinder full of. 37. I've already told my daughter. Like, she's her big thing, and I've encouraged her to shoot the revolver before the semi-autos just because the grip is a bit narrower and as small as her hands are, I think she'd have an easier time holding on to that than a double-stack 9mm. That can be an issue, yeah. Yeah. Not to mention when it comes to thumbing the hammer back, I have always trained to thumb the hammer back with my non-shooting hand, which is a weird technique for most. But for me, the problem is that my fingers are so short. I'm a dwarf. We all know this. Big body, short legs, short fingers. It's just a thing. But my thumb struggles with a firing grip to reach the top of that hammer spur. So I find it much easier to just maintain a good solid grip on my revolver with my shooting hand, and then with my non-shooting hand, I can break a little bit, reach up there, and snake the hammer back. And then as I thumb the hammer back, I come right back into a good shooting grip. It's the way I've learned. It's probably the way I'll teach her. But I've told her before, like, I think she can shoot that with. 307 Magnum just fine. She's just got to learn proper grip. And just ride the gun. It's going to come up a little bit. Just let it. It is. I mean, look, I'm a pretty strong guy. There are very few guns that I can fight the recoil out of a gun. It's going to recoil. The key is to have your biomechanics set up so that your arms just snap back down onto target because that's where the tension is loaded. You're not going to. The force distribution curve is so steep and so short that you're not going to overpower it. You're just not. So don't try to. No. No, but that all comes to, you know, just proper technique. And I think they'll have a good time. Good. And I'll pack a couple of monsters so the little goblins are awake and caffeinated. That'll help. Hmm. Caffeine awake is generally good with firearms. It's not really a great place to nap on the range. Oh, there, there won't be any napping on this range. I promise you that. Good. All right. Anything else? Chuck in here at the very end, last minute advice for taking a brand new shooter out. To the range. Don't forget the targets. I probably should have made a whole list, but part of my intellectual dead spot is they sell targets at this range, and I bring targets anyway in my range bag. My range has free targets. I bring 30 every time I go either way. I think the advice I give for this episode would be different if I were telling a new shooter who's going out to the range by themselves versus an experienced shooter who's taking somebody out to the range, because to me it's like, if you've been doing this for a while, you ought to, you ought to know better. We all have brain farts, man. I have made it to the range and not had any targets with me. We've all done it. Yeah. You know what you do? You go down to little Caesars, you get yourself a $ 5 pizza. You got two targets right there. And James, top of the box, bottom of the. Box, buddy. No plus one on this trip, but I will reach out to you the next time I'm heading out. Cause, um, Nick knows I'm starting a new project in the near future. He will need an associate. Yeah, I mean, frankly, I'll need somebody that's willing to come out to the rifle range and spend like two hours just sitting there BSing with me because I have to fire form 50 pieces of. 308 Winchester, and my shoulder's going to hurt after a while. Yeah, a little bit. It won't be that bad. It's only. 308. It's going to be a hundred freaking rounds, dude. And? I bruise easy. You do. It's okay. I mean, I'm only this brown on the outside. Under the shirt, I'm freaking Irish. That's all right. All right. Matter of fact, this podcast is going to go out the door. Wish me luck that this endeavor goes as well as I hope it does. And hopefully we'll indoctrinate a new shooter. And with indoctrinating a new shooter comes an opportunity to add to the ranks of people who are going to call bullshit the next time a politician starts talking about anti-gun laws. Because if you're not a gun owner and if you're not a shooter, you don't have any skin in that game. And it's really easy to agree with things that don't affect you. Or at the very least ignore them. Or, and ignoring is as good as agreeing with in today's world. But if that law affects you and you directly, you just might... be on the side of all the crazy people with all the guns and be like, I don't want my gun taken from me. Yep. So this is why I've been saying for years, we don't have a choice not to be advocates. We don't have a choice not to speak our mind. And we don't have a choice to exclude people from gun ownership just because we don't like them. Those days are past. It is time to accept the fact that if we want to win this fight or even have a fighting chance at this fight, we're going to have to get all of our allies together and make friends with people that otherwise we might not want to. We're all going to sink or swim together, boys and girls. All right. Matter of fact, it's out the door. Good night, everybody. Stay out of trouble. And if you get into trouble, then call somebody for bail money. Can't be me. I'm all tapped out. Bye. Bye. Bye. clouds are heavy on the county line signs are flashing reading in the time protecting the home locking down the block music Raising values while we watch the clock. Turn the dial, cut through the tricks. Welcome to Matter of Facts. Well, we talk prepping for the storm ahead. The iron in the hand, the words they said. Guns, politics, and the lines they drew. We uncover what they hide from you. Yeah, lay it down. No spin, no tricks. This is matter of fact. Static screams through the midnight air. A lot of folks talking, but nobody cares. For the M.O.F. standing on the track. We look at the truth and we don't look back. Well, we talk prepping for the storm ahead. The iron in the hand, the words they said. Guns, politics, and the lines they drew. We uncover what they hide from you. Yeah, lay it down. No spin, no tricks. This is a matter of facts. No spin, no tricks. Shout out to the MOFers. This is a matter of facts. Bye.