Handling the Springfeld XDs

Springfield XDs

I had been wondering about what pistol my wife would like to use and wanted the decision to be hers since she is the only one who can say what gun actually fits her and helps her shoot well. We finally had a day to go to the range together and she was able to shoot my M&P Shield for the first time. She could get her smaller palms around it and hit what she was pointing at consistently. Something she couldn't do with her Ruger Mark III or with the Taurus PT809 of mine she had been using for a long time.

And with that I ceded my Shield to her and needed to figure out what to do for a new carry gun.
 
I knew the XDs had a good reputation and had plenty of good reviews. Many of the reviews I found put it up directly against the M&P Shield and nearly everyone found them equal other than personal preference. 

I knew the XDs was more expensive than just getting another Shield, but when I thought about some of the things I would do to my Shield to make it better for me to carry I realized that the XDs already had it: 

• Sights: I wanted a brighter front sight for my Shield and have a HiViz sight that I purchased but haven't installed yet. 

• Grip: I also wanted a more abrasive grip texture on the Shield since I personally find it slick to hold. Not good going into Maine winter when I am often wearing gloves. I tired some of the rubberized Talon Grips, which worked great for a while, but having the seam of the grip surface at the back of the grip instead of the front caused to to slowly slide over time, even after being fixed in place with proper instillation. I had thought about getting the grip stippled, but didn't like the idea of permanently altering the grip of the gun. Which would also make it illegal for use in IDPA if I ever wanted to use it for competition.

With those two considerations in mind I realized that the extra 100$ for the XDs wasn't that big of an expense. 

What I ended up with was a really nice looking FDE/black pistol that fits my hand really nice.

I didn't have any need to get the pistol in FDE, but for only an extra 10$ I was willing to treat myself.

The XDs is practically identical to the Shield in size in all three dimensions. The contour of the gun is more square however, and I find that actually fits my hand better.

  Just like the Shield, the XDs comes with a flush fit 7-round mag and an extended 8-round mag (aftermarket 9-round mags are available for the XDs, but not for the Shield).

The XD is actually slightly shorter with the flush-fit mag than the Shield is.

For me the grips actually feel the same length since the XDs has a deeper cut under the trigger guard for the finger compared to the Shield.

I really like the aggressive texture on the grip. My hand really sticks in place and doesn't move. It's much more positive a feeling and I know it won't move in my hand once it's in place.

The back-strap safety doesn't bother me at all and I like it better since it's passive compared to the Shields thumb safety. I figure that if I don't have a good grip I shouldn't be taking a shot at anything anyway.

One weird thing is that the mags are true single stack for the XDs instead of the stack-and-a-half that the Shield mags are. Which will make them slick sitting in the belt mounted Taco Pouch I use for daily carry. 

I've had a chance to take it to the range, not for many round, but enough that I know it will function well with ball and defensive ammo. I didn't want to start carrying it before I had a chance to run some ammo thru it. 

It does seem to recoil a little harder than my Shield, but it's not bad by any stretch. The trigger also seems to be a bit heavier, but I'll have to do some more practicing to see if it's just a difference in feeling or actually a heavier trigger since I don't have a trigger gauge to test with.

I have a Blade Tech Nano IWB holster on order which should arrive any day now. I've been wanting to try one for my Shield, but couldn't justify the expense when I already had a perfectly functional SHTF Gear holster. 

Holding A Carbine & The Need For A Lighter Rifle.

NOT LIKE THIS!!!

I decided to write this post because I took a really great carbine course this weekend with Frank from Stonewall Arms. This class was only the 3rd time I'd ever fired my carbine, or any carbine for that matter, in a meaningful way.

My excellent M&P-15 Sport.

We started the class with sighting in carbines at 50 yards, this started to get frustrating for me since I had shot it at closer ranges and thought it was already sighted in, but Frank did a great job of walking me thru the sigting process and reminded me that we all see a little different. Eventually I got all my shots in the black at 50 yards and on we went.

Part of Frank's instruction during the sighting process was where to place my support hand on the front of the gun. I was going with a magwell hold since it kept my left arm close to my body and didn't stress out the injury in my shoulder very much. It feels natural and I can see why people do it. However, Frank had me reaching out on the stock of the gun. Not Chris Costa levels of reaching to the end of the carbine, but a more moderate place right in front of the magwell. It worked really well for me and also put me in a place where I can easily extend my arm out if needed, with little extra strain on my shoulder (Costa levels of extension are still too much for my shoulder to take however).

Do you even tactical beard bro?

Yesterday I came across a great post on the Jerking the Trigger blog about good physical reasons to have a light carbine and not just have people tell you to get stronger to carry a heavier rifle. This was a very timely find, considering the shoulder surgery I'll be having soon. I agree with the article and I am thinking about ways to make my carbine just a little lighter without breaking the bank. So far the easiest thing to do is to replace the furniture. 

I'm looking at getting a Battlelink Minimalist Stock. So far it's the lightest one I can find at 5.8oz, which is super light compared to the standard M4 style stock that weighs in at about 14oz.

I'm also looking the Magpul MOE SL hand guard which comes in at 6.7oz compared to the standard M4 handguard which I believe clocks in at 6.9 oz. It's not much of a drop, but anything helps and it gives me more options in the future.

As for sights, right now I'm just running plane jane irons, but I would like to get a simple red dot in the future. I'm thinking of a Bushnel TRS-25, which I've heard good things about. Seeing as how I'm just a weekend warrior when it comes to rifles and not a "TACTICAL DOOD!!! I think it will be fine. It's a little more weight but the extra 4 or so ounces is made up with with the drop in weight from the stock.

One Armed Man!

So, I have a messed up shoulder and will be going into surgery within the next few weeks. As a result of this I will have my left arm in a sling for the 6-weeks following. 

This is both good and bad. Good in that when everything is healed I will be able to use my left arm again. It has been tough recently to maintain my Karate training with a left shoulder that isn't able to do what it's supposed to. It is bad in that I will only be able to use my right arm for 6-weeks. Which has lead me to think about the lack of martial ability that such a situation causes.

As a shooter I occasionally shoot one handed with both my main and support hands. But with one entire arm out of commission I'm going to really have to focus on one-handed shooting and manipulation. It's really the manipulation part that I'm concerned about since I haven't done any formal training in one-handed mag changes and the like. 

So, some internet searching and practice is in store.  

I began with looking at videos at Full30.com, a great gun video site that is also not blocked by the filter at work like Youtube is. 

There I found this video from Reid Hendricks of Valor Ridge:

I like Reid's style and how he presents thing. But he was a professional teacher and is a professional firearm instructor, so I speak much of the same language. 

I also found a nice document from the Washington State Criminal Justice Academy on one handed pistol use. 

So I need to decide on one style of one handed pistol hold for reloads and need to figure out how to configure my EDC for one handed use.


As far as my Karate training during my recovery goes, I won't be able to do much. But It will be a chance for me to focus on some cardio for a while and I'll be in the dojo to take notes on the material being covered during the advanced class.

Practicing for the IDPA classifier

So this past weekend I attended my 2nd IDPA classifier. I don't think I did as well as I did my first time, but my first time I didn't have an IDPA number yet so my scores never got reported. I'm not too woried about it.

In any case, two weeks before I wanted to get a chance to re-familiarize myself with the course of fire for the thee stages and was trying to figure out what do for targets. Looking on Amazon I found some regular cardboard IDPA targets for sale at 80$ for a package of 100 (Ouch!). I couldn't justify spending that much on a bunch of cardboard. 

Looking further on Amazon I then found some paper versions of the IDPA targets for 37$. Much more reasonable. However, I wasn't sure if they would get here in time for me to practice with.

Being frugal and clever I decided to see if I could make my own and thought about grabbing a used target after the classifier that I could use as a template to make my own. 

But, if I did that I wouldn't have any targets to practice with before hand. I'll keep that one on the back burner. So I then did a search and found the specs on the IDPA targets. The head is a 6-inch box, while the center Down Zero area is an 8-inch circle, with a 3-inch gap between them.

The two Down Zero areas are really all I needed to practice with and once I realized this I opened up Microsoft Word and got to work. 

On the first page I created a 6-inch box set 1.5 inches from the bottom edge of the page. On the second page I created an 8-inch circle set at 1.5 inches from the top edge of the page. I could then print these out and set them one on top of the other and have my own printable Down Zero targets that I could then photo-copy to my hearts content.

Download HERE

It's a simple solution, but it works, and is essentially free other than printer ink and copy paper.

Take a Deep Breath

http://s3.amazonaws.com/weighttraining.com/challenge_images/164/large.jpg?1311487379

Simply stated, breathing is important. Cause if you don't do it, you'll die.

All humor aside, breathing is one of those things that most people don't know how to do well or correctly. As a lifelong asthmatic, breathing is something that is really important to me and I have to keep in mind much of the time.

One of the things I read about a lot when looking for shooting drills or exercises is how to hold your breath. Here is an example from an article from US Carry. The though being that by holding your breath at the correct moment it keeps your chest and shoulders from moving and thereby interrupting your shot.

However, I feel a better way is to just breathe so that your chest and shoulders don't move to begin with.

In traditional and classical martial arts (at least the Okinawan arts I've studied and been exposed to) breathing is actually a skill that starts being taught from the time a students starts taking lessons. This breathing is often called Belly Breathing or Diaphragmatic Breathing. Here is good post on proper martial breathing from Turtle Press.

When doing proper Belly Breathing only the belly area expands and moves. This keeps the upper chest and shoulders stable and unmoving. Even sitting here as I write this I am belly breathing and my shoulders haven't moved from their place on the back of my chair the entire time, either up/down, or in/out. 

I Breathe this way while I shoot as well and I have never had to adjust beacuse of it since it doens't affect the way my upper torso moves for shot placement. I can especially see this when I shoot rifle.

Belly Breathing does take practice to do well and the training does take a lot of effort on the front end to accomplish. But once it is learned well it can be applied to any martial activity. 

As an asthmatic is also keeps me breathing better for longer if I have an attack since it bypasses the tightening muscles in my back and chest that also restrict my bronchial path.



 

Get a Grip!

I'm always amazed at the robustness of techniques found in classical martial arts. Lets take a look at the basic hand grip.


A Punch

The basic hand grip forms the foundation of making a fist for a punch (and other hand strikes). Making a fist first starts with the pinky finger and works it's way up to the index finger. 

Each finger is rolled down until the tip of the finger meets the base of the finger. When this is done for all fingers you actually have formed the hand for a half-fist punch or leopard-fist punch.

You then curl the fingers into form the core of the punch.

Finally adding the thumb locks the other fingers in place and forms your full punching fist.

Old School Weapon Grip

This proper fist formation is also used as the foundation for holding weapons. The proper weapon grip has the haft of the weapon held tight with the back three fingers. The index finger and the thumb are used last to help direct and move the weapon, but not as much for support of holding. Here I am, using the proper grip on the nunchaku (note: the grip on the nunchaku should be no more than two finger widths from the bottom, not near the top).

You can even see elements of this grip in medieval European sword arts.

How to Grip the Medieval Long Sword: Part 1 and Part 2


New School Weapon Grip

What is old is new again. The same grip works for other weapons like the tactical folder I keep in my pocket.

The same grip also forms the proper hold for a modern handgun.

The gun is held with those last three fingers. This leaves the index finger free to pull the trigger (or be on the frame if you're not going to be shooting) and leaves the thumb free to press the mag release, slide lock, or thumb safety if your pistol has one.

The best and most useful martial techniques have multiple uses. Techniques and movements that have only a limited or specific use rarely past the test of combat. I think that this grip with the ability to function for multiple uses and multiple weapons definitely fits the bill.

Welcome!

Welcome to the inaugural post of Martial Maine!

My name is Dru and this blog will be a place for my musings on all things martial that I come across and experience.

As for some background: I am a professional educator. I have 30 years of experience with traditional and classical martial arts. And I have been teaching myself defensive shooting, taking shootings classes when possible (and money allows), and have started competing in IDPA. I have also dabbled with medieval recreation, swordsmanship and fencing.

If you are reading this I hope that you will find value in what I have to say.

Kanpai!