Western Rifle Shooters Association

Do not give in to Evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Wyoming Rifleman Association

If you are within a day's drive of Wyoming and you are not shooting regularly with these folks, shame on you.

Great people, superb training, right thinking.

Doesn't get better than that.

Hie thee hence to their forum for the latest.

No fooling.

A Draft Curriculum

Here's what we are thinking about. Pistol courses are also in development.

Cardinal rules:

1) Practical, practical, practical. If it gets hits on steel, it stays. If not, it goes.

2) We know the meaning of the Second Amendment.

3) The more people who do, and can back up that belief with skills and mindset, the better.

Send us comments here or at westernshooters@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Basic Rifle I
- 25m zeroing/sights/optics
- Basic positions
- Sling use
- NPOA
- BRASS/Six steps


Basic Rifle II
- KD zeros to 400
- Position review/practice (including all stage 2 variants)
- Full distance practice/variety of targets
- Range estimation techniques
- Immediate action drills
- Wind introduction
- Intro to snaps/reactive targets
- Intro to the follow-up shot


Intermediate Rifle I
- Short range snaps/multiple targets/multiple shots
- Medium range snaps/multiple targets/multiple shots
- Moving safely with your rifle
- Position transitions
- Improvised rests/alternative positions
- Off-balance/weak side positions
- Slings for fun and travel
- Where's your optics/where's your irons transitions
- Improvisational skill-building (pistols, simulated malfunctions, multitasking, etc.)


Intermediate Rifle II
- Target detection/counterdetection
- KD zeros from 400 - 600
- Spotting skills
- Moving quietly with your rifle
- More range estimation
- More wind (depending on conditions)
- Reactive target practice
- Practical gear/equipment


Fieldcraft I
- Reading a map
- Topo maps and altimeter
- Map and Compass, declination
- Map and grid coordinates
- GPS
- Using the Night Sky
- Solar Navigation

Fieldcraft II
- Shelter: Finding or making, improving
- Fire: Starting (flint steel, friction techniques, batteries, optics)/Building/Maintaining
- Water: Obtaining and purifying
- Food: Obtaining and purifying/preparation (edible plants, foraging insects, fishing for survival and harvest, trapping/snares/deadfalls for survival, hunting, crafting garments from harvested hides/tanning)
- More land navigation
- Mindset considerations

Field Medical I
- Basic sanitation/personal hygiene: why important?
- Physical conditioning
- Patient physical assessment
- CPR
- Intro to hemorrhage care
- Cold and heat exposure
- Dehydration/nausea/vomiting/diarrhea
- Cleaning/closing/caring for minor lacerations
- Sprains/strains
- Care for closed fractures
- Care for open fractures
- Eye Injuries
- Antibiotics
- Intro to ethics

Field Medical II
- The Arrested Patient-Viable with Grid Up resources
- The Arrested Patient-Triage in Grid Down
- Care for defensive wounds
Stab Wounds
Gun shot wounds - limb
Chest
Abdomen
Head
- Other "medical" chest, abdominal, head issues
- More hemorrhage control
- Intro to IV theory
- More antibiotics
- Intro to pain relief/anesthesia
- Delivery of newborn and care in grid-down/austere environment
- Principles of operating in an austere environment
- Dental emergencies
- Emotional issues/counseling
- More ethics/intro to triage

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Welcome to the WRSA!

UPDATE 1/10/11: Welcome! Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the site. Be sure to check out the resources in the left margin, share our links, and drop by again tomorrow.

Another gun group?

Why?

Because the competent American shooter is an endangered species, headed on a fast track to extinction.

Practical rifle and pistol shooting, free from geegaws and the “equipment race”, is a dying art.

There are tens of millions of centerfire rifles in the United States. How many of their owners know how to use those tools to a fraction of their potential?

Answer – not many.

The Western Rifle Shooters Association is dedicated to fixing those problems, one shooter at a time.

We claim no extraordinary new insights. Each one of us is both a student and a teacher. Humility and hard work are our cardinal virtues.

And we are willing to work – in small groups and in large groups – at sharing what we know with other Americans.

As many shooters, as often as possible, and in as many places as possible – starting now.

Why the urgency?

Because time is short.

Look around at the folks attending the local gun show. How many teenagers there? How many young people? How many women?

Of the few other-than-old-white-guys that are there, how many are spending any money? Do those few really know how to use what they are buying?

Face it – if many more everyday Americans don’t become more involved in practical shooting very soon, that fine American tradition will be gone forever. Not tomorrow, not next month – but certainly within the next ten years.

And the extinction of practical shooting by citizens is no accident.

If you’re willing to face the hard facts, you need only to look at the ongoing struggle in this country over the renewed and expanded “assault weapon” ban. You know, the one that “has no chance of passing”, according to the mainstream gun sages.

Of course, the acts of a deranged killer at Virginia Tech will only accelerate the push for more gun control measures, even before Eisner and other MSM statists get their latest propaganda campaigns started.

Look outside our borders and note the progress towards complete registration and eventual total confiscation in formerly gun-friendly nations such as England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. That's the future, as our friend Habcan explained almost two years ago.

The cold, hard truth is that the domestic anti-gun forces and their international allies simply will not rest until all private gun ownership is completely banned. As an intermediate step towards that final objective, mandatory registration of all firearms and licensing of all firearms owners will be attempted wherever and whenever there is sufficient political support.

These guys have big money behind them (George Soros, anyone?), and they aren’t going away.

Sadly, despite the passage of concealed carry legislation in many states, the long-term future looks pretty bleak for gun owners today. The US Supreme Court hasn’t directly decided a Second Amendment case in almost seventy years, and with a number of justices using international precedent in deciding US constitutional issues, no rational gun owner should be counting on any help from that front. The recent passage of the Federal REAL ID statute will give Federal and state law enforcement agencies a greatly improved ability to link individuals and their firearms purchases. And as gun owners have learned from New York City with its confiscation of formerly legal semiautomatic rifles to the state of California with its recent ban on .50 caliber rifles, universal gun registration – whether it is explicit or, more likely, the product of database information mining by law enforcement agencies– is the immediate step prior to gun confiscation.

You don’t think they won’t come again for the “assault weapons”, especially your Glock “assault pistol” and those super-deadly “semiautomatic assault rifles” like your Garand?

Think again.

You don’t think they won’t come for the “long-range sniper rifles” (formerly known as your deer rifle), especially if equipped with a “military sniper scope” (that cheap imported scope you bought ten years ago at Wally World)?

Think again.

You don’t think that they won’t come for “unusual purchasers” of firearms, especially someone who purchases (the horror!) more than one gun in a month?

Think again.

You don’t think that government forces and private security mercenaries won’t go door-to-door to disarm law-abiding citizens due to a “public emergency”?

Think again, and remember New Orleans.

You don't think they won't come for "suspected domestic terrorists" who purchase more than 100 rounds of ammo at one time, especially if the purchase was the ultra-wicked "military full metal jacket ammunition capable of shooting right through one person and then killing another" as part of the always-newsworthy "weapons cache"?

Wake up while you still can.

Government forces and their lackeys around the world know, as did the American founders, that an armed, trained, and vigilant populace can never be enslaved.

That's why the statists work so hard to stupefy and disarm all citizens in their path.

It's not about shooting.

It's not about the tools.

It ain't about the gadgets.

It's about personal freedom and political liberty - do you have the tools, skills, and mindset to maintain freedom for you and your family?

If you do, and are willing to help, drop us a line at westernshooters@gmail.com. We aim to be friends with all right-thinking Americans.

If you don't, but are willing to learn, drop us a line as well.

And keep watching this space.