By misfiresadmin on 2/3/2012 8:38 AM

Attention, firearms companies and the shooting/hunting/outdoor industries in general: This is how the new media game is played.

Case Study #1

1. A post is made on a leading gunblog about a unique firearm, the .700 WTF rifle. Note that the video quality is horrid and the gun itself is of limited use to just about anybody, but it is something that very few people have seen before.

2. A follow-up post is made about an even larger rifle, the .900 JDJ. 

3. The follow up post is picked up by scores of other blogs, and eventually makes it's way to Glenn Beck's site (among others). 

This is what's called a meme, and it is the Holy Grail of social media marketing. What makes a good meme? 

Uniqueness. It has to be something new. Was Taurus's media campaign for the Judge successful because they're selling a moderately accurate revolver with a 143lb trigger pull, or was it successful because they were a major gun company that showed watermelons getting blowed up by their gun?  

Portability. No PDF has ever gone viral, nor has any non-embeddable video. If you want to play in your own sandbox, fine, but be prepared to play by yourself.

Humor. Shooting stuff is fun. People reacting to insane amounts of recoil is funny. Watermelons blowing up is funny. Most current firearms marketing? Not funny. 

Visuals. Specifically, video. Yes, there are viral emails (my Dad sends me them all the time, and I send him to Snopes right after that), but for generating buzz, nothing beats a funny video. 

Cats. Ok, not relevant to this discussion. And no, "shooting cats" is NOT funny. Don't even go there, people, I own two of the little beggars and they are cherished family pets. 

Video games. VERY relevant to this discussion. What do "Over 9000", "All Your Base Are Belong To Us", "Leroy Jenkins" and "Do A Barrel Roll" have in common? Video games. The sooner gun culture embraces gamers, the better off we'll be. 

Monday: How a gun store managed to hit one out of the park using social media. 

By misfiresadmin on 2/2/2012 7:45 AM

As of the end of this month, I'm out of a job. Again. 

So if you know of a full-time internet marketing gig out there, drop me a note, m'kay? 

Thanks.

By misfiresadmin on 2/1/2012 10:12 AM

Michael (hey, I broke bread with him, I can call him by his first name  ) makes a good point on this week's podcast re: gunblogs and the firearms industry, namely, that we gunbloggers are quite good at tearing things down, not building things up. 

It's definitely easier to write *against* something than it is to write *for* something, and I think that's a trap that many of my gunblogging brethren fall into. That negative view, though, has been largely vacant in "traditional" media for quite some time, though, and it's appearance in gun writing via blogs is something the industry needs to adjust to.

But.

That doesn't mean that we gunbloggers shouldn't up our game and look for what's good in the gun world and celebrate that. Yes, the gun companies need to embrace evangelism marketing, but there is a need for gunbloggers to find what's good in the gun world and celebrate it to the world. 

By misfiresadmin on 1/30/2012 2:30 PM

Not to flagellate an expired equine, but as an internet marketing dude and the person who left the comment over at Say Uncle that torched off the GunsAmerica vs. the Interwebz thing,I think a few thoughts are in order.

1. Paul's comparison of his compete.com score is for his SITE, not his blog. Other metrics are used to measure blog readership than Compete.com.

2. There is readership, and then there is influence. There are people inside traditional media whose numbers pale in comparison to, say, NBC. But when Spengler talks, people listen. This is true in the blog world as well. When Tam talks about S+W revolvers, I listen. When Caleb talks IDPA, I listen. When Jay talks about... wait, what DOES Jay talk about, anyways? :) You get the point.

3. The gun companies now have a clear NEGATIVE example of blog engagement. Some may say it was us bloggers turning on GunsAmerica, I say without Paul's comments, we would have gladly let sleeping dogs lie. Prick us, though, and we'll bleed all over you. 

4. The gun companies need a clear POSITIVE example. Para's Gunblogger thing was *almost* what was needed, but three years later, two of the ten bloggers invited ain't blogging no more.

Oops.

What's needed is evangelism marketing: Find the people who LOVE your products and get them to tell others about it. Ten random bloggers is good, but three bloggers who know and love your products and who like to spread the word is better (hint hint, CZ-USA). 

And if you're a gun company and want help doing that, my email inbox is always open.

By misfiresadmin on 1/28/2012 12:53 PM

Take one SURC, add in an M134, 4000 rounds and one SEAL team. 

Stir vigourously. 

Wait 1 minute and 38 seconds, and blammo, it's gone!

Via ENDO.

By misfiresadmin on 1/27/2012 7:58 PM

Day Four is here

Day Three is here

Day Two is here

Day One is here

Wrap Up

A few random notes: 

On Wednesday, a shooter to my right picked up a live round off the ground and loaded into his gun. Unfortunately, it was a .40 and his 1911 used to shoot .45. Having a KABOOM right next to you was... interesting. 

The course description says 600 rounds are needed for the Four Day Handgun class. Bring at least 650. 

The pitch for Front Sight memberships was VERY low-key, less than the pitch for NRA membership at one of their classes. 

No, there were no pitches for Scientology. Tom Cruise didn't show up and jump on any couches. 

I did like the utter and complete lack of tacticool "Rex Kwan Do" talk at Front Sight. The instructors weren't there to turn us into Rapid Tactical Force reserve units, they talked about how to protect our lives and the lives of our loved ones. A big plus, and one of the reasons why the women in my class seemed to be so relaxed (and good shooters). 

The "tactics" part of the course dealt with primarily with securing your family in the event of a home invasion. A good idea, but why teach so much about concealed carry shooting if you're setting up for a home invasion? Better to teach shooting on the move or shooting from retention if it's a concealed carry course and teach home invasion defense as it's own subject.

Ok, was it worth it?

As I said at the outset, the reason why I did this is to see if the Front Sight Four Day Defensive Handgun class was a good value. 

The answer: Sorta.

If you're like me (and I know I am), it's not worth paying full price because I already know how to do a lot of what Front Sight teaches in this class. It was good as a refresher and good to learn Weaver and good to do some shooting drills and good to learn the malfunction drills, but as for actually stress training or tactical insights, I didn't really learn a lot. However, given where I am in my training, I might get more out of their practical rifle or tac shotgun classes.

However, there were a LOT of first-time shooters there this week, and their improvement from Day One to Day Four proves this this class is just peachy for getting such people up to speed quickly. 

But let's look at the cost. You can buy Four Day Handgun certificates on eBay for $100 or less. Figure in six days of hotel ($500 or so) and meals ($100-ish) and that's $700 bucks, without travel or ammo costs. Less than a GunSite class, but Front Sight ain't GunSite.

That $700 buys a LOT of training. That's every pistol course at my local indoor range, with $230 to spend on private lessons. And for stress-fire practice, well, that's what IDPA or USPSA is for. 

Or for that same $700, you can take an NRA Basic Pistol and both Personal Protection classes and have even more money left over for private lessons and do IDPA/USPSA for the stress fire. 

Frankly, if I were a first-time shooter, I'd go with the NRA classes and private instruction with a proven teacher. Front Sight's instruction was good, but their safety instruction, situational awareness training and after-action advice wasn't up to what was taught in an NRA Personal Protection class. Plus, with an NRA class, you get a certification that is recognized nation-wide. With a Front Sight class, you get a certification that's recognized in Pahrump, and bang for buck, I think an NRA class with a good teacher is the way to go. If you're a new shooter and don't know of a good NRA instructor in your area, then Front Sight is for you.

Front Sight has a good thing going, taking first-time gun owners and turning them into decent shooters and they certainly have a booming repeat business: Around half of the students in my class had a Front Sight membership of some kind or another. But are their Four Day Handgun Classes a good value for someone who already knows how to draw, shoot and hit center-mass twice in under two seconds?

In my opinion, no. But that's just my body Thetans talkin'. 

By misfiresadmin on 1/27/2012 9:04 AM

Ok, Robb, since you asked... 

Special bonus entry: An M134 Vulcan Air Defense System. Why? Do you have to ask? 

5. A Deagle. There's just something about owning Agent Smith's gun that I like. And not a gold, engraved one either, just a regular ol' Desert Eage.

4. Bren Ten. Don Johnson. Jeff Cooper. Josef and František Koucký. Need I say more? 

3. An HK53. I've liked these since before I graduated high school. Hating HK is cool now, but I still want one. Speaking of high school...

2. A Ruger AC556. No, not because of the A-Team. I wanted one since Dirk Benedict was Starbuck, not Face. 

1. A Beaumont-Adams revolver. The gun that won the West. The Canadian West, that is. 

By misfiresadmin on 1/26/2012 8:24 PM

Day One is here

Day Two is here

Day Three is here

Day Four

Picking up from where I dozed off yesterday, after lunch on Wednesday  it was more drills:  Controlled pairs into center-mass from 3, 5, 7, 10 and 15 yards, and headshots / failure to stop drills from 5 and 7 yards, all repeated at least three times. The capper of the was their "ragged hole" drill: Five shots from the holster at five yards into a 1 inch square. Didn't quite make it there myself, but I did pretty well. 

And before I forget, here's a pic from yesterday. This is the "Monsters Inc." range, for practicing tactical movement. 

More on that, and their "tactical" teaching in general in Friday's wrap-up. 

Today started off with more drills: Controlled pairs into center-mass from 3, 5, 7, 10 and 15 yards, and headshots / failure to stop drills from 5 and 7 yards. 

And then it was time for the head-to-head matchup. The course of fire was pretty easy: Headshot at a hostage-taker target at 10 yards, then one shot each at two torso-size plates at 15 yards.

I did ok on this: I got into the third round, but my first shot on the next round went into the "hostage" target" and that meant it was over for me. 

After lunch, it was more drills, and then the final test. I never did know the time we had for each shot, but it wasn't short. C-Class shooter that I am, with my dead-stock CZ P07 and a Supertuck, I was able to ace the shooting part of the test, dropping only two shots out of 25 out of center mass / center-head. 

The malfunction drills are where I blew it, though. Not THAT big of a surprise considering this was the part of the class where I had the least experience. I'm sure if I shot a 1911, I'd have more practice with them. 

I kid. I jest. Mostly. :) 

And that was that. I ended up at the "Graduate" level, one of 17 of our class of 32 who did so, which was apparently quite good, We had one person hit "Distinguished Graduate", and I was kinda bummed it wasn't me (durn my competitive nature!). 

And the sunset on the last day wasn't bad either. Here's the view from "Sniper's Point".

Final thoughts, and an answer to the big question (Was it worth it?) tomorrow.

By misfiresadmin on 1/25/2012 7:47 PM

Day One is here

Day Two is here

Day Three 

Today started out on one of the ranges in "Phase Two" of Front Sight, and you begin to get an idea of how big this place is. They have two 200 yard rifle ranges, plus  an arroyo dedicated to shotgun and another dedicated to rifle, plus "Snipers Point", an overlook with stell targets set out along a wash. We on Range 14, but we soon left it for "Monsters, Inc.", a bay with nothing but a few dozen doors set up to practice door entry with blue guns, and then it was of to the simulation bay for a live-fire "Shoot house" run. 

And you know what? I'm tired and I still need to do some dry-fire practice, so I'll leave what was in the shoot house and the rest of today for tomorrow. 

By misfiresadmin on 1/24/2012 8:50 PM

Day One Report is here. 

Day Two 

Finally, some training! The first day was a lot of safety drills, a lot of theory and some shooting. Plus the weather sucked, and that made me grumpy. 

Day Two started off with (finally) drawing from a holster, then it was on to malfunction drills:

Type 1: Misfires and Light Strikes (hmmn, where have I heard that before...)
Type 2: Stovepipes and failures to extract (FTE).
Type 3: Double-feeds or faiure to feed (FTF).

I really liked the malf-clearing drills I learned today. They were simple, consistent and yet way beyond "Tap, Rack, Bang.) 

Then it was on to reloding your gun (tactical reloads, slide lock reloads, etc.) and then Failure To Stop Drills, aka two to center-mass, assess, the one to the center-head. Again, simple stuff, but it started to ramp up the stress a bit. 

After lunch, the photo-realistic targets came out. This was interesting for me because due to range rules, competition rules and NRA rules, I've never shot at a "realistic" human target before. 

We then progressed into voice commands and one-shot Failure Drills, aka the hostage-taker shot, and I was please that I only dropped two shots out of the whole day's shooting that wasn''t either in center-mass or in the center head.

I can dig it.

Speaking of shooting, Front Sight uses a "Shooter/Coach" method on the line: One guy is shooting and the other is keeping him safe and offering tips for improvement. The shooter I was paired with today had SERIOUS flinching/trigger mash issues, and I was pleased to see him improve as the day goes one. If the defintion of a good school is one that improves the shooting of it's students, Front Sight is passing (so far). 

And now for some pictures. 

This is the view outside the classroom. There's five pistol ranges clustered around, and they're very nice, with a western/pueblo exterior, gravel-lined bays and shade.

Not bad. 

This, unfortunately, is what the rest of the buildings on the range look like. Oh well. 

One of the 100 yard rifle/shotgun ranges. 

The gates open at 7:30 (6:30 on the first day), and there's always a line of cars waiting to get in each morning. 

There's ten minutes of optional instructor-supervised "dry practice" (aka dry-fire) drills before each class. 

Instruction is usually given right on the range, then drills and shooting practice follow. 

More to come tomorrow.