Open Arms Instruction

10/09/2026

More Galacticans

Galactions? I’m not really sure.

Before heading out to set-up and shoot today’s and tomorrow’s GPA matches, big thanks to Mel D. for letting me be a part of her Galactic Pistol Alliance article in the NRA Magazine. It was fun to talk about something that has been a safe, competitive and fun experience.
https://bit.ly/47G6495

If you haven’t tried it, let me know and I’ll go with you on the next one.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on the range!
-Adam

Galactic Pistol Alliance jettisons rule confusion and offers a much more relaxed model for newcomers to competition shooting, all while keeping cool shooting stages and an emphasis on safety.

10/07/2026

Undisclosed location

Ok, I can tell you. Last week I toured Lake Erie Arms in Milan, Ohio. It’s a 95,000 square foot range just south of Sandusky and the owner gave me and an unrelated investment team the full tour. We also had reps from Action Target Systems on hand to demo the target systems, backstops and air handlers I’ve been exploring.

The format and size is a lot different from what I’m looking at for a range here in VA, but there is always a lot to learn from an established business. I was glad to see that their focus on first time shooters- including more women- matched my vision as well. With all that square footage (it’s on a 17-acre plot in between corn fields) they have a full restaurant, cigar bar, ai***ft room and INDOOR s***t and trap. Yeah, that won’t fit in my available space…

Thanks to Jim, Jeff and the rest of the staff for hosting and Tyler and Wyatt for flying in to educate me on the range gear.

See you on the range!
-Adam

10/05/2026

Field Trip
I’ll have more information on Wednesday, but Friday I was on another one of my fact-finding missions. So mysterious…

Musing about the two matches, I’m sort of out of order. Usually I try to think Confidence, Skill then Gear, but the matches really showed me a lot about how my Gear affected the other two. To recap, last Saturday was a “Running 2-Gun” where we were jogging on the clock from stage to stage shooting pistol and r***e. Then Tuesday was the GPA match at the NRA.

My gear, including how I dress, is built for Galactic Pistol Alliance requirements. What does that mean? I don’t put any thought into carrying more than three pistol magazines, going prone for more than a shot or two every once in a while, and dropping mags whenever and wherever I choose. So, in 2-Gun, where I needed access to four or five pistol mags, went prone for the majority of r***e shots and had to retain dropped mags, I was short on options.

And that affected my Skills, which we’ll talk about next time.

I’ll see you on the range!
-Adam

(Pics are from Tuesday’s match. We had all that set up in about 45 minutes. What a team effort.)

09/30/2026

A Galaxy near you

Thanks to the range staff, safety volunteers and 50 shooters who came out to compete in the final Open Arms-run Galactic Pistol Alliance match of 2017. That’s a lot of people to run through and we managed to a few minutes early!

I’ve got a lot of thoughts about shooting two different matches four days apart, but that’s a story for another time. For now, I just appreciate the opportunity to compete with so many great people and can’t wait to do it again.

See you on the range!
-Adam

(Pic is the “tunnel” in the low light stage. Well, dim light. Well, sort of dim light.)

09/28/2026

Fun, fun, fun

I hope everyone had a great weekend. My first fun of this post was the 2-Gun match on Saturday. The weather held out and I learned a lot about my skills, training and gear. More on my thoughts later and thanks to the staff who put it on.

The next fun is the GPA match tomorrow at the NRA HQ Range. I put together four cool stages (with some help) and am looking forward to hosting a full house.

Finally, we’ve got Low Light Pistol fun on Sunday. Daylight savings- and 5p sundowns- are coming soon. Get ahead of your training.
https://bit.ly/4dqWPwQ

Hoping you make it for some fun- see you on the range!
-Adam

(Pics are of the first stage, which is the one I ran in the afternoon after I shot. You moved a tire, hit a target at 100 and 200 yards twice each, then moved another tire. Lots of work to move tires… but fun.)

09/25/2026

An old friend for dinner

Er, a match. The 2-gun tomorrow has a stage where you break down your pistol and reassemble it on the clock. Very 2-gun…

The Staccato HD is actually pretty easy to take apart, but not G***k easy and the recoil spring can get dropped in the grass and mud. Then there is the fun of putting the slide back on with the slide lock in the correct spot. Wait, actually it’s not fun.

So what’s a competitor to do? Get out his trusty PDP Steel Frame and go to work. Now I just gotta find those mag pouches.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on the range!
-Adam

(Same back-up PDP: steel frame, SRO, with a factory captured guide rod to handle the 124 Grain NATO Wi******er load. It’s hotter for use on the steel we’ll be shooting.)

09/23/2026

Upon further review

So I was cleaning my competition P4.5 HD, which is also an opportunity to take a look and inspect all the parts for damage or change. Well, there was a pretty big one as I realized my front sight had been knocked off! The sights are steel and made by Ameriglo, in this case with a serrated front. I probably banged it on my strongside holster as I’ve started using it for competition. The comp *might* have added to the situation by sending blast up towards the sight and weakening it.

But when? Well, must have been in the match in Annapolis, because in the video of stage 1 I have it and it’s gone by stage 9. Probably on stage 7, everything else went wrong on that stage!

Time to order a new one and pay closer attention to it next time.

See you on the range!
-Adam

(First pic is stage 1, front sight is on. Later, not so much...)

09/22/2026

Two party system

The first party was for my friend Damien, happy birthday my friend! Then on Wednesday I’m co-hosting a gathering at the range for Mike’s bachelor outing. Looking forward to it.

A week from tomorrow is the final Open Arms GPA Match of the year at the NRA HQ Range. We’ve got a full house at over 50 competitors; however the wait list is only a few deep and we always get a couple of cancellations.
Sign up here for the waitlist:
https://practiscore.com/open-arms-september-gpa-at-the-nra-hq-range/register

Then it’s Low Light Pistol again at the NRA on Sunday, October 4th. It’s an all new-look at the skills need to operate in the dark with and without lights. Loaners are available- sign up to get ahead of the long winter nights.
https://www.openarmsinstruction.com/event-details/low-light-pistol-class-2

See you on the range!
-Adam

(Pic is from Saturday. Always neat to try something new, in this case something old.)

09/18/2026

The “work” week

Today is the fifth day in a row that I get to work at the range. So far, I’ve taught a class for a ladies group, worked with a new shooter, run a shooting test to for a friend and hosted the Prince William County PD SWAT Snipers at the Club for their qualifications. Needless to say, I’ve learned a lot myself. What’s on the list?

First off is anytime in a structured or planned range trip is beneficial. You always come away with something you didn’t know before. Second off is that different settings reveal sides of a task you hadn’t considered before. Finally, there are some great people in this sport and the more you go, the more you meet.

Today I’m ending with a training session with friends. I have no doubt I’ll learn even more…

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on the range!
-Adam

(Pic is the LWRC I was practicing with yesterday in preparation for a 2-Gun match next weekend.)

09/16/2026

Lessons learned

I make a lot of pro football references when I teach my leadership classes as there are some great stories that apply to a lot of work situations. I heard a story about two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Jimmy Johnson, who would walk the field before games with his coordinators, seeing where the surface was good and where it was slippery. He called a play in a big game and the defender slipped on the exact spot they had identified during the walk through.

The mud at the match on Friday wasn’t too bad, but it did cause me to pick a different direction on at least one stage, on the advice of my friend Frank. When competing outdoors, put some thought into that when walking a stage. In a fight, we should assume we can fall at anytime since fights don’t get walkthroughs.

See you on the range!
-Adam

(Pic is from my friend Jeff, who set a professional camera up downrange throughout the day and got some GREAT shots. Thanks, Jeff.)