Christmas Gift Card for any Firearms Safety Course that your loved ones will remember

Why not take a little step towards building safe and happy community for our loved ones this Christmas!

Instead of buying lose tangible gifts, get your friend or family a Christmas Gift Card to any Day one Gun Safety Course and show them how much your care and want them to be safe!

Take advantage of this two for one offer to any Day one course offered on the schedule in 2014 or 2015 at Aegis Academy facility located in San Diego. Day one Course are the Firearms Safety and Familiarization Course, the Pistol, Shotgun or Carbine One courses and the introduction to edged weapons. Confidence, experience, capability and independence are what this nation is built on.




Voucher Expires Dec 31, 2015. Attendee's must attend the course together, and each voucher is good for two course seats.

Click here to purchase 2014 Christmas Special Gift Voucher to any Day One Course!

Improving your trigger control one finger at a time

Earlier this year, I added yet another part of my aging body to the list of hurts and complaints. My wrists began to feel stiff and painful, and I had to admit that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome apparently is a real thing. I am already challenged by a set of appendages that are notoriously short with rather svelte paws. I have significantly damaged both hands in my career, my left hand goes numb regularly from scar tissue and the fingers can barely turn a key. My dominant hand was broken twice and I am sure a career playing piano is not going to be in my future. You may be asking yourself why is this relevant to firearms?

Our fingers, especially their ability to smoothly pull the trigger without disturbing the sights, are hugely important in becoming accurate shooters. Unless you’re a rock climber or practicing martial arts, chances are you do not actively work out your fingers. When I complained of stiffness and pain to my yoga teacher, she gave me some great suggestions that I found improved my trigger control. A few simple exercises can help increase dexterity and isolate each of the fingers from each other. A small advantage maybe, but any advantage you get in a gunfight is one to use. I am not discussing grip itself, hand position or trigger finger placement. All of which could be articles in themselves. The goal is to isolate the trigger finger itself from the whole.

Isolating our trigger finger from the rest is difficult. Our hands are poorly designed as tools for fine motor skill, especially under stress. Those who regularly practice complicated tasks like typing (at least for me) or playing instruments already have accomplished the same idea. A few processes are involved; one is the process of Myelination, the other is the tendon sheath keeping the tendons themselves lubricated and flexible. I am not a doctor, or even a manicurist, so my explanation focuses on how the tendons affect us. To read about Myelin and how it affects motor learning, click on the link. The tendons on the back of our hands all come together at the wrist in an area called the Carpal Tunnel, and in simple terms since they are bunched together, the signals telling you to move one finger cross over to the other digits.

We like to think that our fingers are precision tools, but only in certain ways. While they work in concert with the thumb individually to hold small objects, they are somewhat less precise with each other. When we move one finger, the signals cross and the other fingers move as well. Age, injury and lack of physical exercise can compound this. Often this is caused by inflammation of the tendon sheaths surrounding each tendon. The inflammation causes lack of lubrication on the tendon and restricts flexibility. Additionally, power is generated in the forearms so if we tense there it translates to the fingers. Try this for yourself, hold your hand vertical with all the fingers extended, but slightly relaxed, Try just curling your pointer or trigger finger and see how much the other fingers move. You can also feel your forearm flex. Read More >>

 

Posted by Aegis Academy Staff

Terminal Ballistics – Part II

Welcome back to the second and final installment in the Terminal Ballistics series, which will also complete the Ballistics Series. In Terminal Ballistics I, we covered key terminology and highlighted the common goal of hunters, law enforcement, and home defenders… to incapacitate game animals or felonious assailants with as few shots as possible. We also covered the two methods that bring about incapacitation: a well aimed shot to the Central Nervous System (Medulla Oblongata or the upper spinal cord) and severe blood loss. In this article, we will cover projectile characteristics, best practices, and conclude the series.

Terminal Ballistics in Hunting and Personal Defense

 

With a wide variety of options in caliber, construction, and velocity, which combination is best? That is certainly a loaded question… pun fully intended. Short of providing overwhelming destructive force, which does not serve the hunter very well and is not typically an option for the home defender, the problem lies in having many options to address an even wider variety of possible conditions. Within these options lie a number of trade-offs. I’ll explain below.
As we’ve covered in the previous article, the most reliable method to take-down a game animal or end a felonious assault is to place an incapacitating shot into the central nervous system. In order to do this, a projectile of any caliber must possess sufficient velocity to penetrate the skin (animal or human), pass through layers of muscle and tendon, and destroy or at least interrupt the vital organs. Although it is often dismissed as an effective cartride, even a small .22 caliber long rifle projectile can accomplish this desired effect. However, as we’ve discussed at length, the central nervous system represents a disproportionately small area of the body in which this incapacitating shot can be taken. All other shots rely on severe blood loss, skeletal immobility, and shock.

All other things being equal (velocity, projectile construction, mass, etc.), penetration is essential to reach vital areas. This is where it can get confusing and the trade-offs take place. Since most projectiles are constructed with a combination of dense cores covered by softer metal jackets, small caliber projectiles will have a greater sectional density and thus require less velocity to penetrate. Robert Rinker equates this to comparing the force required to thrust both a small pin and a construction nail through remarkably pliable flesh. With greater sectional density and smaller diameter, the pin will require less force (momentum) to overcome the tensile resistance of the skin.

OK… so small calibers penetrate more easily. However, if it does not hit the small zone in which rapid incapacitation can occur, the small caliber projectile at high velocity can penetrate and pass through (often called over-penetration), leaving only a small permanent wound cavity which fosters only moderate blood loss. This can result in a lost game animal or an assailant who can continue the attack.

A projectile that expands on impact is beneficial since it creates a permanent wound cavity larger than the original caliber while maintaining the momentum of its original weight. However, rapid expansion hinders penetration.

So, both the hunter and home defender need to start with the terminal ballistic effect desired and work backward to develop a solution in terms of projectile construction, velocity, and firearm type. Hunters know their game type and relative distances from which they will be taking the shot. External Ballistics Part III introduced velocity measurements and how to calculate residual velocity at different ranges. Home defenders know that the majority of pistol shots will be taken at roughly 20-25 feet. My recent article on Handgun Velocity demonstrated the effects of barrel length and temperature on velocities.

Armed with this knowledge in mind, here are some of the differentiating characteristics of projectile construction. Read More >>

About Author - Howard Hall

 

Howard Hall "Range Master at Aegis Academy" - has served for nearly 20 years in the Marine Corps. He has served as a Platoon Commander, Company Commander, Battalion Executive Officer, Regimental Operations Officer, and Battalion Commander. He has multiple combat tours to include serving as a military transition team member in Fallujah. He is an NRA Certified handgun instructor and holds numerous Marine Corps training credentials. An active competitor in action pistol (United States Practical Shooting Association), long range rifle (NRA F-Class), and shotgun (Amateur Trapshooting Association, National Skeet Shooting Association), Howard has earned numerous accolades and medaled during DoD competitions with the 1911 platform in bulls-eye shooting.

Terminal Ballistics – Part I

Understanding Bullet Impacts

Terminal Ballistics - Part I is the first in a two-part series which will begin to conclude the Ballistics Series by introducing the principles within Terminal Ballistics and focus on the various aspects of projectile impacts on target and their immediate effects. Leveraging the key concepts of projectile flight and construction, momentum and kinetic energy introduced earlier in the ballistics series, this article will illuminate some scientific facts in regard to the terminal effect of firearm employment for hunting, law enforcement and personal defense while also debunking some commonly-held myths. In researching this topic, I've relied heavily on authoritative sources such as Robert Rinker's "Understanding Firearm Ballistics, 6th edition," and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 1989 report titled "Handgun Wounding Factors and Effectiveness."

Overview

Whether for recreation, competition, training, hunting or personal defense, this ballistic series has focused on the myriad of aspects that affect a projectile's flight to target in order to provide a better understanding and help you choose the right firearm/ammunition combination to safely and consistently place your shots on target and achieve the desired ballistic effects. From the mechanical interactions internal to the firearm to the atmospheric and physical conditions that affect projectile flight, this series has provided information necessary to harness mechanical precision into shooter accuracy. Now, we will discuss projectile impacts on target.

Since recreational and competitive shooters are primarily focused on measuring the effectiveness of their skill and technique by scoring shots on paper, cardboard, or interactive targets, terminal ballistics is simply a factor of hitting the target for score. For hunters, military/law enforcement, and personal defenders, on the other hand, the projectile's ultimate effect is eminently important since it is the sole reason for weapon employment. Although the conditions for weapon employment are much different in these latter cases, the desired result is the same… rapid incapacitation with as few shots fired as possible!

This rapid incapacitation is a factor of shot placement combined with velocity, kinetic energy, projectile weight, projectile shape and construction, caliber, and range to target as well as the nature of the target itself. In order to move forward with the discussion, we need to first discuss some terms and concepts common to both hunting and personal defense.

Terms and Concepts

• Caliber - diameter of a projectile
• Mass - in the most general terms, this is the weight of the projectile
• Velocity - this is the instantaneous speed at which the projectile is moving. Projectiles exit the firearm bore with an initial velocity which immediately begins to slow down due to air resistance and drag.
• Ballistic Coefficient - based on the shape and construction of the projectile, this number describes how well the projectile travels through the air and preserves its velocity. Read More »

About Author

Howard Hall - Range Master

Howard has served for nearly 20 years in the Marine Corps. He has served as a Platoon Commander, Company Commander, Battalion Executive Officer, Regimental Operations Officer, and Battalion Commander. He has multiple combat tours to include serving as a military transition team member in Fallujah. He is an NRA Certified handgun instructor and holds numerous Marine Corps training credentials. An active competitor in action pistol (United States Practical Shooting Association), long range rifle (NRA F-Class), and shotgun (Amateur Trapshooting Association, National Skeet Shooting Association), howard has earned numerous accolades and medaled during DoD competitions with the 1911 platform in bulls-eye shooting.