Blackwater, Day 1

How do gun bloggers spend the evening after getting off of the range? Posting to their blogs of course.

All of the images I took today are still in my camera. I should have downloaded the appropriate software from home 'cause this Wifi is sloooow. So no images with this post, I will download the software while I sleep so we'll have images tomorrow.

The first place we stopped on the Blackhawk bus was, Blackhawk headquarters. We had the opportunity to learn a bit about Blackhawk history and their several different product lines. I did not know that Knoxx was a subsidiary of Blackhawk. If you are looking for a pistol grip for your 12 ga., the Breachers Grip just might be the ticket. The Blackhawk rep's demonstrated the Serpa holster and went over the various clothing lines. Blackhawk is bringing more and more manufacturing back to the United States. We left with a box of swag for use over the weekend, product reviews to follow.

Forty minutes or so down the road and we made Blackwater. I have to tell you that Blackwater is probably the most impressive training facility I have ever seen. 8000 acres to be used for pretty much any kind of training the customer might demand. Shot houses galore, an armory that would make some small armies jealous and then there are the ranges. It looked like every range we saw had steel of one sort or another.

After the site tour, we ate lunch (sliders, of course) then into the class room. Crimson Trace and International Cartridge Corporation are sponsors of this shindig and had their opportunity to go over their wares, and ParaUSA went over some company history and commented on their move to the United States. They also had the opportunity to extol the virtues of the LDA trigger system. They are very proud of this system, and make a good case for it's use. Finally Todd gives a briefing on the operation of the firearms we are going to use, a bit on range safety, and we were issued our pistols. I'm not going to talk more about our issue sidearm until I can post the images to do them justice. Let's just say ParaUSA outdid themselves for this event.

Finally, it is range time. First we put some holes in paper targets just to get a feel for the firearms and so Todd could get a feel for us. Next was knocking over plates, about my favorite thing to do. Before we started shooting, Todd performed a demonstration on just how frangible the frangible ammo of ICC really was. He emptied a magazine at a stationary plate from about 8 or 10 inches away. Nothing but dust. This is some good stuff for shooting against steel. 155 grains out the .45 at over 1100fps.

Speaking of ammo, it seems that ICC brought a bit more than 1500 rounds each, just in case. I am so ready to put much more of that down range.

After shooting, The Shooting Gallery guys started filming Todd with a couple of the bloggers and the rest of us compared notes and just enjoyed the gunnie goodness.

Tomorrow we start the serious stuff. Pictures tomorrow, I promise.