JSturr

HAGERMAN WINDFARMS

John Sturr — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 04:19:52 +0000

Yesterday we ventured to the wind farms of Hagerman, Idaho.
Hagerman is known for sportfishing on the Snake river and the production of Sturgeon Caviar.

Recently the potato fields in what is called the Bench have been abandoned and now those fields are populated by wind Turbines.

A TASTE OF FRONTSIGHT

John Sturr — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:56:09 +0000

FRONTSIGHT - DAY FOUR

John Sturr — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:26:24 +0000

The last day, Thursday, was brutal. The winds were strong and blowing sand swirled as we shot. It was a bit chilly also. Once again there were dry-fire drills, and practice drills and then the dry fire practice test.

But just before lunch - we had what was called man-on-man shootout. Steel targets with a hostage plate - and Ryan, Kurt's friend, took the title. I made it to the second round, Kurt the Third.

After lunch was the Practice test - and then the final test. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't difficult - and i was disappointed that I didn't shoot better and get Distinguished Graduate, as Kurt and Ryan did. I shot Graduate. Some rounds were thrown and I wasn't as precise as I should have been.

This is a highly recommended class -- there are some things I would like to see changed, but they have deemed their formula effective.

The Range Master Ciaccio is also highly recommended for his knowledge and teaching skill.

Range 1E, and 14
Range master: "Chachi" Ciaccio

The assistant instructors on our range were:

Wayne Walker
P. Walker
Spenser Moser
Dan Chomycia
Koop
Rover

FRONTSIGHT - DAY THREE

John Sturr — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:48:30 +0000

Through out this week of shooting at FrontSight - I'm surprised at the diversity of people here. I was expecting many of whom who would be former Military types but that could be anything from the truth as there were even some with limited firearms skills.

Today was more building of the previous days skills and new drills of drawing from concealment. I was mentally done at about 3pm today - but drove thru to the end.

Tomorrow is the final skills test and graduation.

FRONTSIGHT - DAY TWO

John Sturr — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:12:07 +0000

Day 2 - Started at 0800 with some review and dry-fire drills of yesterdays skill sets. The temps were in the mid 30's and once the Sun appeared quickly warmed to the 60's. Great weather for January !!

Half the day is all on the range - shooting, instruction, dry-fires and repeat.

Lunch is an hour and concludes with some kind of lecture of 30-45minutes.

After lunch and the lecture it's back to the range for the rest of the day until about 5pm. At 515 there is another day ending lecture.

My fingers are sore from loading mags - and a bit overloaded from trying to keep up with the malfunction drills to overcome.

And hopefully the guy on lane 14 - our neighbor pays some more attention and doesn't shoot himself or others.

We survived another day.

FrontSight - Day One

John Sturr — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:44:23 +0000

The first day started with an I.D'd check in and registration and a sign off of liability. The staff is professional and instruction everything is incremental.

There were many dry fire exercises which started at the grip and presenting the firearm to the threat - cullminating with a live fire. Morning and afternoon sessions saw about 200 rounds expended.

The take away -- the training is good - but so far I'm more impressed with the doctrine from the MagPul DVD's. I may be too quick to judge - as this is only day one.

LOAD OUT

John Sturr — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:28:13 +0000

Tomorrow is day one at FrontSight in Pahrump Nevada.

Nevada is a peculiar place and one of the only I've experienced where the hotel staff at the Saddle West offered "Rags", pronounced Regs, we are still getting used to some kind of accent, for firearms cleaning. Such a welcome takes you off guard.

Along with the non-existent "Clean-Air Act" in the casinos, a pack of smokes, and some guns - well… life isn't too bad.

Just kidding about the smokes.

The Disinter-mediation of Media

John Sturr — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:36:08 +0000

This a very well done piece - and very worth watching.

PressPausePlay from House of Radon on Vimeo.

OLYMPIC OVAL SLC

John Sturr — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:36:25 +0000

Yesterday's World-Cup speed-skating event at the SLC Olympic oval pushed the limits of the photographic skills.

I brought the gear not because I was thinking to get a special photo, but to refine the skills and work through problems. And it's a bit more interesting than chasing the cat around the house in January - although I did that also - more on that later.

Big fast lenses are the norm and I see why anything less than an f4.0 and light becomes a scarce resource. These athletes are not slow movers - and when I placed myself in the 3rd turn following them thru with 3-d tracking and the D3s said -- "whoa"..

What did I learn -- shooting this stuff is all percentages - I blew thru 300 frames and maybe have 2 good pics.
Know your equipment - the D3s chokes when it's trying to focus, expose, and capture while writing NEF - I thought about JPG - but I hate JPG.
Know your venue - press passes are scarce and mostly impossible, so get there early to scope out the best areas to shoot from.
Know your backgrounds - busy backgrounds make interesting photos.
Shoot what everyone isn't.

An explanation of SOPA

John Sturr — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:08:30 +0000