Allow me to commit a cultural faux-pas in modern day tacticool America; I absolutely adore my Mossberg 590. It’s by far my favorite gun in my personal arsenal. I love it far more than my bells-and-whistles AR-15, more than my conceal-carry Glock, and even more so than any of my Commie-era guns. There’s just nothing like the smooth cycling of the forend after each shot, the audible feedback, and the unmatched power.of a 12-gauge. I’m a simp for a sexy pump-action shotgun. Thus, I want to deepen my shotgun fetish skillset even more.
But how specifically do I want to go about manifesting my love of the pump-action, you ask? I want to learn how to shoot clay pigeons. Admittedly, this is going to take some leg-work on my part to unearth. There aren’t as many venues that offer that as there are indoor ranges. However, becoming good at this skill will undoubtedly have carry-over effects.
“Dan, what makes you say that?” I’m glad you asked! As we’ve seen numerous times in leaked battlefield footage of current conflicts, drone warfare isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, this guy in Ukraine demonstrated exactly why I want to hone this skill. Political pundits have been pushing the narrative of an oncoming civil war for quite a few years now, which is only adding fuel to the fire. Let’s be honest, only a fool says that could never happen to me, thus preparing counter-drone skills could be useful. I’d rather not I’d prefer my first attempt at this task to not be when my life is on the line.
And make no mistake; the drones being used by Vladimir/Hamas/The Houthi’s/ impoverished domestic radicals aren’t exactly the marvels of engineering that President Obama fell in love with a decade ago. Nope, these are the cheap remote-controlled toys that anyone with access to Amazon can pick up for under $150. So needless to say, don’t expect them to be armored or to be able to fly particularly fast. Soft and slow; it’s almost like America is brimming full of ammunition specifically designed to take out fleshy-feathered versions of those adjectives…
To be clear, I only intend to deploy this skillset in a strictly defensive context. Drunk Uncle Sam just came stumbling into the room and vomited into the trash can. “Dan, you can’t do that. It’s against my made-up regulations!” Ahh, yes, the regulations from the FAA. Funny thing about regulations is that they have zero congressional backing. They can simply be un-done by the stroke of a pen, should the holder of the pen (be it the Head of the FAA or the POTUS) deems it so.
But I’ll humor Drunk Uncle Sam and meet the bumbling fool at his level. The FAA also requires that anybody flying a drone beyond line-of-sight hold a pilot’s license to do so. The FAA also requires that anybody flying a drone beyond line-of-sight to hold a pilot’s license to do so. And since we’re in the worst pilot shortage in decades, I highly doubt that some loser behind the controls has the necessary licensure to fly over domestic terrorists. So, if one were to hypothetically dose a drone with some birdshot, what legal recourse does the drone owner have? They’re not going to call the FAA and report it. That would be akin to telling the cops Somebody slashed my tires when I was drunk-driving! It would take a special type of dumbass to confess to a crime while making an accusation.
Hopefully the pundits are wrong-and they frequently are-there is still another reason to become good at this skill. The low, yet non-zero risk of America being invaded by a foreign entity. At that point, expect cheap drones to be used in the conflict.as strained supply lines inhibit the enemy. Furthermore, the Second Amendment’s passage of being necessary to the security of a free state would be pretty handy justification for taking out Vladimir’s physical-bots.
I’ll also occasionally browse upcoming course offerings from my local range and one particular session caught my eye. Soon I’ll have the chance to go through an advanced rifle class, which will have elements of using an open-carry pistol as a backup. It simply as tactical as fuck written all over it. it also has the added benefit of imparting some skills as well…
After I got holster-certified, I started regularly participating in some local competitive shooting meets. They were a lot of fun, despite the fact that I didn’t score nearly as high as some of my peers (holy fuck, those guys can shoot!). Getting some two-gun training underneath my belt also opens the door to some competitive rifle meets, which look fun as hell (at least from an outsider’s perspective). There’s also the same aspect listed above; transferable skills. While admittedly not one-to-one, I’d rather be good at these skills in case of emergency versus being a passive victim.
And hey, learning’s just fun, right?
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