Is it time for New Year’s Resolutions? I dunno…that tradition never particularly worked for me. It is, however, a logical time to look at the past year and forward to the new one.
The Evil Princess and I were lucky in a lot of ways last year. Health? She came down with a monster flu a bit less than a year ago that made us cancel our trip to the 2015 SHOT Show, but she recovered soon. I had a tenacious respiratory infection it took all summer to shake, but I came out of it OK. At our my age, I’m just glad nothing was worse.
2015 was a very heavy travel year for us. But we never got stranded in air travel, nor lost our luggage even briefly, and road travel problems were few and relatively minor. Given that we’ve had years where none of those things were true, we consider that an overall win.
Having taught outdoor shooting classes in tropical storms and horizontal sleet, we were blessed with the weather this year. The worst we experienced was Texas in May, just when the monster rains started that didn’t stop, and caused the massive flooding the Lone Star State experienced. We shot in horizontal rain and major mud, using iPhone apps to follow the weather and get our students safe before the lightning hit. A day or two after the Evil Princess and I drove east, the hotel we’d been staying at was wrecked by a tornado.
What we teach has potential for injury. I didn’t keep a total “round count” of live fire training, but there were weeks where we and our students put 20,000 bullets downrange. There were no gunshot injuries…par for the course. We only needed two ambulance runs: a wounded warrior’s wheelchair went out of control on the handicapped-accessible ramp and dumped him during a classroom break, and one young woman dislocated a knee during weapon retention training with dummy guns. Both students were in and out of the ER and swiftly back to class. We are grateful.
On this end, we have to occasionally had to re-schedule classes because they conflict with court dates. We had to do that twice in 2015, fortunately with enough advance notice that the students had no problem with it, though on our end we ended up losing a class or two that we could have done elsewhere. One trial ran longer than expected (again, par for the course) and my staff proved they don’t need me by teaching the first day of class superbly prior to my late arrival. Whew.
For us, the first part of the year is mostly sabbatical from training. For most folks, right after Christmas is a lousy time to be coughing up tuition and travel-for-training money, and on the police side, it’s when Academies are often starting and the instructors who take train-the-trainers programs can’t be spared. It allows us to get caught up on writing, bookkeeping, curriculum review, and “personal time.” My significant other and I enjoy competitive shooting, and just a few years ago, were able to log 24 matches in one year. In 2015, from mid-March to the end of the year, we were able to shoot exactly ONE match. Frankly, it’s not looking much better than that for 2016, but we ARE gonna hit at least four or five shooting tournaments during our first-quarter respite. That’s about as close to personal New Year’s Resolutions as we can get.
How about y’all? Feel free to chime in here on last year vis-à-vis this year, from YOUR personal perspective.
Always too many things to do and the desire to accomplish all of them. Only had a few opportunities to go to the range in 2015 but joined a new club in December that is close to home and will provide more opportunity for range time to keep the skills that Massad Ayoob and his instructors taught in MAG 40. However, was able to get in a few weeks of long distance motorcycling in 2015 including 14 days covering 6,000 miles from Chicago to Deadwood for the 75th Sturgis Rally, through the Cascade Mountains, down the Pacific Coast Highway then east from Coos Bay, OR back to Chicago.
The key to participating in activities is to make them fun for yourself.
Happy New Year and a great 2016 to Massad Ayoob, the Princess of Darkness and his instructors and students.
Take care of your self Sir! For my part, I’m going to continue tobteach firearms safety and tactics. I will build more custom rifles and finally finish off the .300 Blackout rifle I started in 2015. I will continue to fight for the Bill of Rights against those who believe in the State as their god. I will continue to obey the real God. I may start on my LLM in taxation and will continue to work toward my retirement dreams. Take care and stay safe and vigilant. Beware of religious fundamentalists and the open borders global government crowd and cling to your guns and bibles! Focus on that front sight, breath and press. Remember those who have died in the defense of liberty and Mas on!
My shooting has been curtailed since I developed congestive heart failure but in March 2015 I got a pacemaker and my energy is going up a wee bit at a time and I hope to get into a few matches this year and get embarrassed. This November, for the first time since moving south from NH I renewed my CCP for five years…I had concerns that I might not benefit from a longer than one year permit. Linda gave me a Smith M-22 for Christmas and I’m enjoying finding grips, holsters, and ammo for it and planning to send it to Ken Kelly for some minor work. My wife finally got interested enough in carrying that she retired her “once in a while” SP-101 in favor of her first new handgun, a 442. It’s light enough that she enjoys carrying it more. Her first trip to the range she was happy with the recoil.
I hope you have a happy year and find the time to do all you like.
A challenging year from a shooting perspective with all the threats from the left but on the positive side 22 ammo is a little easier to find and firearms availability was better than the year before. Thanks for all you do for the shooting sports.
Well, for the first half of the year, family health issues kept me from having enough free time and money to go to some of the classes I wanted to attend.
However things got enough better that I was able to attend the MAG Deadly Force Instructor class in July, Andrew Branca’s Law of Self Defense class in September, and Grant Cunningham’s Threat Centered Revolver class in December.
And, of course, I was able to close out the old year and ring in the new year with some very cool friends, on a road trip all the way across the country!
This will be the year to get back into some friendly, old fart steel match competition. My run was interrupted a while ago due to my “episode” (or so it is called by folks who have never had one). My local range is nothing short of a shooter’s dream, at least for me. It is nearby, very well maintained and run by an old LEO who has limitless patience for new shooters and zero tolerance for those who are unsafe or who “defile the property”. At this point, we do not label the top shooters as the winners but rather as the survivors. It’s going to be another great year for us survivors.
I’m glad you’re feeling better, Mas. I feel like right now is a very exciting time to be a firearms trainer. There are so many new shooters coming on board. My classes are about 40% female and a lot of younger people (in their 20s) are getting serious about learning to shoot handguns. I’m teaching about 200 people a month right here in my neck of the woods. Happy New Year!
Well, let me just say, this is the final year of the Obama administration, ruling over this country. Our Lord only knows what the future may hold. We have a congressional leader, I had hopes for, but he blew the budget, by giving more money to this administration, than asked for.
Is there going to be any light at the end of this tunnel?
I’ll soon be 72, with two weak knees and a bad back. I expect to shoot 2 or 3 matches in 2016. The good news is we will be taking our lifetime dream vacation, a 12 day land/sea tour of Alaska.
Do a friend a favor. Direct them to one of Mas’s classes.
I’m just glad to be in fairly decent health and make enough dough to pay my bills on time, most of them anyway. Also very happy I’ve been able to stay off the FBI’s ten most wanted list. Being #11 isn’t so bad since there’s less public pressure to look for me ;-).
Held a good number of training classes last year, and watched guns go flying off the shelves the last three months or so, reminding me of the beginning of 2013. This year is looking to be just as interesting, just got done with the first Concealed Carry class of 2016, and lots of people are nervous and apprehensive about the future. More new shooters, men and women, young and old, coming into the shooting world.
No one is looking for play guns; it’s all about finding good defensive carry guns and getting training beyond the CCW requirements. They’re realizing that they will probably be on their own when trouble comes. The more trained people out there the better!
I’ve got my personal training plan this year laid out. Mainly Instructor Development courses from Tom Givens and this other guy with a funny sounding name… 🙂
Happy New Year to you and Gail!
Classes with Mas are always worth it. Period. I will never forget how to disarm someone using those methods. It works.
Mas, even though I dislocated my knee in class, I still managed to shoot four entries at our local GSSF match in August. I shaved off 200 seconds from my time 2 years ago in the subcompact division.
I finished physical therapy in October and I am looking forward to my knee continuing to get stronger, along with my gun skills.
Mas and Gail, keep up the great work!
I’d just really enjoy more range time….like usual.
Enjoy your slow first quarter, you may not be able to slow down the other three.
It was a busy year for us also in training citizens on how to effectively defend themselves against evil. The one item I am proud to have checked off my bucket list is finally being able to take a class from Massad and I wasn’t disappointed. Many points he spoke about reinforce what I have already been saying but there was a lot more I took away to think about and work into future classes. I hope to have time to take more Massad classes in the future.
For myself, I don’t know how 2016 could be any better than 2015! It began with the birth of our 1st grandchild – a beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed little girl on January 21st. AND, she lives only 1/2 block away, enabling us to have sleepovers every weekend since week #3 – it is simply life the way it’s supposed to be, my friends! My niece welcomed a new daughter two months later and all are doing well throughout my family. “If ya got your health….”
On the firearms front, I was able to buy and sell my way to what is for me, THE best pistol I have ever owned – a Sig Sauer P320C, chambered in .45 ACP (just can’t get away from those big bullets!). I further enhanced it with TRUGLO TFX PRO sights, which everyone should at least check out. Terrific product.
We must do more this next year than we ever have before if we hope to keep our freedoms. It’s sad, but we have no choice.
Please stay safe, Mas, Gail – all those who read and post here.
On Saturday I shot one box of ammo (50 rds.) through one of my two, stainless-steel, Smith & Wesson Model 60 revolvers. I fired two-handed both right and left hands, and single-handed both right and left hands. Still, for the next two days my right hand was tired and weak. I guess it is time to go from shooting .357 Magnum through those little guns to .38 Special (and .38 Spl.+P).
Darn, I was hoping to make it into my 60s before scaling it back. I felt macho shooting .357 Magnum out of those little guns, and it’s fun to see fire come a foot out of the barrel even in broad daylight. Oh well, shooting .38 Spl. will now be a pleasure.
It’s tough to go against the law of physics. I guess for me it will be big calibers out of big, heavy guns, and small calibers out of small guns from now on.
For me, 2015 was a bitter sweet year…my wife passed away on Feb 24th from stage 4 bone cancer…after 28 years, 8 months and two days of being married, and only
68 yrs old.
However, my loss, is Gods gain…” For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
The sweeter part of 2015 was the week before Christmas, I discovered and joined the “Cowboy Fast Draw Association”, and bought a New Ruger Vaquero .45 to compete with.
So I am looking forward to lots of safe, friendly and fun shooting ahead !! ( my alias is.. ” Not-So-Fast”) ” Happy Trails” to you and yours, everybody!!
Jim, deepest condolences on your loss.
Always look forward to the words of wisdom that you put down in the magazines, shows, and videos! Didn’t get much shooting done in the last year and half but with the addition of the Sig Sauer P320C and the newest member of the family, a Ruger American Pistol in 9mm I am anxious to get out and revive my training/practice and possibly some more local IDPA meets in ’16. Other projects are screaming for my time but I am resolved to get in more trigger time this year!
Gene, you’re a step ahead of me: I haven’t got my hands on a Ruger American pistol yet, hope to tonight. Let us know what you think of it once you’ve wrung it out.
God bless America! I survived yet another year. Was a Deputy Sheriff in NC from 78 to 86 … went to law school…26 years in private practice….now have a jig as a Sheriff’s Attorney. I am blessed to have come full circle and enjoy doing legal updates and required instruction for training and standards in NC. I have enjoyed reading and following you, Mas, since I bought “In the Gravest Extreme” back in 1980 or 81. I look forward to reading your Articles in the Backwoods Homes magazine. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for all of us. Much appreciated!
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