Know It All's

[tacticalcity]

This smells like a troll question to me. But I'll bite.

A lot of us carry or carried for a living. A lot of us are law enforcement, military, PMCs, etc. A lot of us are professional instructors or have extensive training under the tutelage of professional instructors. A lot of us have put a great deal of time and effort into mastering our firearms, tactics, and so on. A lot of us actually care if the guy next us on the range are actually safe and not putting themselves and us at risk. A lot of us want to make sure our buddies and neighbors are actually safe and not putting themselves or us at risk.

Are we not supposed to pass along the lessons we have learned when people ask? Why? Because you said so?

I catch a lot of crap from keyboard commandos who have never drawn from a holster, much less carried for a living. Guys who think it is about making a pretty target rather than training on how to survive. Guys that think my training to survive and win a gun fight automatically makes me a mall Ninja, regardless of my training and background. So what if some plinker is totally clueless and wants to give me a hard time because I see things differently than him. I could careless. That is not going to stop me from encouraging people to get proper training, or passing along hard earned lessons when asked. As far as I am concerned the more of us in the trained camp vs. the untrained camp the better. If even one person is encouraged to get professional training and adopt a defensive mindset toward their shooting, then I made a difference.

I get PM after PM from people thanking me for my posts. PMs from people who say they took their first course because of something I wrote, from people saying they joined Calguns because of something I wrote that showed up in an Internet search, and from people who say something I wrote was the tipping point that finally encouraged them to get into shooting and gun ownership in the first place. But I am not supposed to post my opinions because you disagree with them? I think not.

If it bugs you...don't read the post. Move on.

[pacifico23]

Yes I've shot plenty of people. I have shot one person 100 times before in a bet.
Mind you the various firearms ranged from rubber band guns, airsoft guns, paintball guns.


My childhood experience with toy firearms obviously makes me an expert in real firearms. My Xbox shooting experience only hones my awesome skills... Who needs a range when you have call of duty?


Duh....

[Untamed1972]

I know that this will kick up some dust, but every thread I read has pages of "expert" advice and what you should do is, or, I would do this and such and such...

Has anyone ever actually been in a life or death situation? Have you ever actually shot someone? Trust me, it's not like the xbox 360...Nothing glamorous about it at all, it's not a joke and you should hope you NEVER end up in that situation...Just keepin it real...

You can't have "real combat experience" till you've actually been in combat. Before that, all you can do is train as realistically as you can, listen to advice and experiences from those who have, and I believe there is some value in training the mind by just thinking your way thru hypothetical scenarios. Cuz if you do end up in a bad spot someday.....you're gonna have to do something right?

Plus...those first to call into question someone elses "expertise" are usually self-proclaimed experts themselves and like the competition.

[RickRyder]

I'm just a toy soldier or wannabe commando. The closest I came to was shooting my buddy square in the neck with an airsoft when he failed to surrender at an airsoft meet. In comparison, it sounds like you're the real thing. That said, please do share? What was your encounter or close encounter? I'm curious to hear from someone that has actually been in a "life or death situation". No sarcacism; I really want to know and thanks for sharing.

I'm going to assume you're being sarcastic, but just for the f**k of it, I'll go ahead and describe the incident.

I grew up in Oakland, one of the few white boys at my high school, etc...My mom was messed up on drugs so I found myself living on my own by 15 years old...By 17 the only place I could afford to live was this ghetto *** apartment that a friend of mine's sister had scored on a section 8 program. She charged me $100 a month for one of the rooms. It was on the corner of San Pablo and Athens, also known as Ghost Town in West Oakland. We had a "house gun" I dunno where it came from but it was in the apartment and everyone had access to it. It was some old beat up Interarms 9mm or something like that. Anyways, one morning really early in the day I was sleeping in my room and I was the only one home. I woke up to hear this weird screeching sound like rubber or something? My bed was against the wall and I looked up at the window and saw some nasty looking dirty man hands pushing on the window, I remember the palm prints. I was 17 at the time so I ain't gonna lie, I was SCARED. I rolled off the bed and crawled on the floor to get to the gun. As soon as I got it I racked the slide and turned back towards the window, the dude had the window open and was coming in, he was a crackhead for sure, so I just started squeezing and got off 4 or 5 rounds, I was in a panic. He spazed out and went flying down the stair case. There was this wooden stair case on the outside of the building that lead down to a back entrance into the alleyway. I know I hit him cuz I saw blood drops going down the stairs. I was HELLA scared. I closed the window and fixed the blinds and unloaded the gun and hid it expecting the cops to show up any minute. They never came and I never knew what happened to the dude. I moved out of there about a month after that and that was like 14 years ago. I remember when I lived there you would hear gun shots outside all the time and never hear or see a cop car. Once a guy got shot in the face across the street at the 1/4 pound burger and he was down for a long time before an ambulance finally showed up and a single cop car came after the ambulance with just it's lights on, no sirens...Oakland was a bad place to be back then, which is why I left...

That ain't the only time I've been in a life or death situation, but that's the only time I've fired on someone. I have had guns pulled on me multiple times and twice in my life have have the barrel of a gun directly on me...One time a kid put a gun to my head that a friend I was hangin with had beef with and I had nothing to do with it, the other time was at like 7am at the Arco station on Park Blvd/Mac Arthur in Oakland, I was pumping gas and some ghetto *** all covered up in a ski jacket came up behind me and stuck a revolver to my ribs and jacked me for my wallet and cell phone, he got away too, cops didn't do sh*t...Even though it was in the gas station and I asked them to ask the owner for camera footage, they took a half assed report and that was it...

[Fadedline]

Trust me, it's not like the xbox 360...

Of course, that's why I play on a PC.

[RickRyder]

By the same token, neither does anyone else on this forum need to explain themselves to you, answer your questions or muse over their rhetorical significance.

[/B]

Then why are you?

[Lead Waster]

I know that this will kick up some dust, but every thread I read has pages of "expert" advice and what you should do is, or, I would do this and such and such...

Has anyone ever actually been in a life or death situation? Have you ever actually shot someone? Trust me, it's not like the xbox 360...Nothing glamorous about it at all, it's not a joke and you should hope you NEVER end up in that situation...Just keepin it real...

I'm guessing in all of Calguns membership, probably less than 20 have been in life and death situations with a pistol. Sure, lots of military guys, but I'm guessing you are talking about people who had to draw a pistol and shoot in self defense.

There are a lot of cops here, and they draw their pistols more than others in non-range situations, but probably not many needed to shoot.

Military guys are different too, they have their M-16s and 10 other guys sending lead in the same direction, plus they are trained to do that and that's their job, so the stress and stuff is probably controlled by training.

Even with guys who have been in life or death situations, that doesn't make them an expert, it means that they got unlucky.

ANd of course, this is a FORUM. You know, a place where people disuss stuff. People don't need to discuss well known facts. Are there forums where people discuss things like "knives are sharp" yeah, we know knives are sharp, it's a fact, no discussion needed. People join forums because they like to discuss stuff (look at my post count!).

If you want expert advice, go find and pay an expert. If you want to talk about guns and zombies and matches and calibers and more guns, then come here.

And I'm sure someone has said it already, but "the advice you get is worth the price you paid for it".

[monk]

[The Gleam]

Trust me, it's not like the xbox 360...Nothing glamorous about it at all, it's not a joke and you should hope you NEVER end up in that situation...Just keepin it real...

Huh. You sound like an expert, and you are asking me to trust you.

Tell us about how you kept it real and not like an xbox.

[DaveInOroValley]

One time I actually pointed my rifle at someone who was trying to break into my house and scared him off. Does that make me any more of an expert than someone else? No. Any situation where you have to defend yourself is a learning experience - that's it. Doesn't make you an expert if you don't learn anything from it or handled it poorly. Expertise comes from years of training, experience, and making mistakes; not from a single incident.

While many of us joke around and have fun on here. I have yet to meet anyone on Calguns who doesn't take shooting and self defense very seriously.

Last of all, there are lots of people on this forum who are experts in various aspects of shooting - collecting, competition, military, law enforcement, history, long range, etc. Some of them make a living doing this stuff, and have plenty of free advice to give. There are also a lot of hobbyists (like myself) who all have our little niches of knowledge that we like to share.

Best answer I've read. This is the type of thread that you can grab some popcorn and a beer and kick back and be entertained as well.

[Chontkleer]

Lol there are mall ninjas among us




A lot of people hear too spread FUD and claim is as a fact. Especially the whole .40 thing.

Ps
You don't need an apostrophe for "know it alls"

What's the .40 thing?

[Lead Waster]

my father in law (retired lb pd) has and he doesnt talk about it. idk anyone who would think its glamorous. i own guns to protect my family if needs be, i truly wish they are only shot at cardboard and bowling pins.

Excellent point here!

You hear a lot about vets who just don't want to talk about their experiences because only other vets would understand. Some DO want to talk about it. They have "been there and done that" The rest of us are lucky that our experience is limited to shooting ranges and competitions (and movies/tv).

So the "experts" you want to hear from are probably not going to want to talk about it.

One thing is for sure though ... practice makes perfect. I'm NOT a firearms expert, but I know that it gets easier to shoot straight if you practice, and that if you practice under someone who CAN shoot straight, they can help make your practice more useful.

[PandaLuv]

Pot, meet kettle.

[kb58]

Agreed, this thread's awesome, sitting back and watching.

[PandaLuv]

What's the .40 thing?

There were a lot of threads about .40 performance. People would argue about the size, recoil and stopping power. Most of those threads go full retard, kinda like Zimmerman/Martin threads.