mpx magazine
Courtesy Elaine D.

It’s been a minute since I’ve written anything for this here gun rag, but I’m back with what I hope will be the first installment of a regular series I’ve decided to call Stupid Gun Stories. I see so many “interesting” things at the range these days that I feel compelled to bring them up to people who don’t care, and TTAG generously decided to provide me an outlet.

A couple of months ago I had the dubious pleasure of being invited to go shooting with a fella who decided, after learning that I’d been trained byJeff Gonzales and Paul Howe along with a handful of experienced friends who shall not be named here, that I’d been “taught all wrong” and that he was therefore obligated to…help me out.

He proudly informed me that he was self-taught from YouTube and that his long experience with the super-secret technologies featured there meant he knew more about tactical shooting than anyone I’d ever trained with. Of course, he waited until we were actually at the range to let me know all of that valuable information.

Courtesy Elaine D.

That was fine. I think I wrote a piece back in 2018 about the guy with a homemade short barreled AK who carried around a bag of motor oil “because no other kind of lube will work” and didn’t believe me when I pointed out that his fore grip was mounted backward.

This wasn’t quite on that level of craziness, but I certainly learned a lot of interesting things about YouTube training, starting with the fact that the secret the YouTube squirrels apparently don’t believe in any type of isosceles stance. They also rack their slides by initiating the motion with their pelvises, resulting in a dance-like move that takes up a lot of time and transmits vaguely Patrick Swayze-esque vibes. Because that’s what you really want in tactical shooting.

Courtesy Elaine D.

Look, I got through the experience. I humored obliged him by doing it all wrong for one shooting session, because, you know, you can’t undo years of actual good training by indulging a pelvis rackmaster for one afternoon.

What I didn’t really expect were the 14 follow-up texts saying things like “I hope you learned some useful things and I expect to teach you again soon.”

It isn’t easy being ADHD, but I’m sure that “forgetting” to answer those texts will work out in the long run.

Til next time….

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71 COMMENTS

    • I’m not a YouTube operator but, while I’m not an isosceles denier, I prefer a modified Weaver stance. Isosceles may be better in competition, but at 3 feet I want more of a boxer’s stance and the ability to use my weak hand. Otherwise I’m just out plinking so it doesn’t matter a lick for that.

      • 100%

        Anyone who is telling you that their way is the only way is some kind of poser IMHO. I see this both from the subject AND the author of this piece. Par for the course here at TTAG.

      • Gov, totally agree with you. I’ve used the modified Weaver on the range for years and find it to be much more stable that the Isocsceles.

        • That would be an argument for Weaver since it’s a natural defensive posture with or without the gat.

    • That, exactly. In my military days, we had various people who did jobs – gunners, missilemen, boilermen, rifleman, machine gunner, electrician, mess management specialists, store keepers. Didn’t have no “operators”. The only operators I want anything to do with, is the sweet voiced lady who answers the phone when I dial “0”. Truckers have their owner-operators, and I’ll call one of those if I need something moved from hither to thither. The rest of them are just hopped up technicians at best, and I don’t want anything to do with them.

  3. There are some good things on YouTube. Same thing with TTAG.

    I wouldn’t rely too heavy on either one. If it’s on the internet then it must be true.

  4. Well, two things… First, you are a far more forgiving/tolerant than I am, a backward mounted foregrip would have been the absolute least of his problems, and of course you were correct in your observation that no one cares…

    • Hungarian and Romania AK’s have a foregrip that is the same as the pistol grip but mounted reversed. Maybe he had one of those.

  5. I generally dont do YouTube as a principle. It is owned by Google.
    I have been fortunate to be trained by one of the finest military fighting forces in the world, the USMC. I will take that and my experience in the sandbox over someone who has been trained by YouTube.

    • But – but – but – DIGITAL!! And, ELECTRONIC!! You’ll trust your lying eyes before you trust an INTARWEB PRODIGY?!?!?!

  6. I’ve learned a helluva lot from YouTube. On any range not so much. And no I don’t remember you at all Elaine. Been here 10 years🙄

  7. Abe Lincoln said that most of the shite on the interwebz was made up BS.

    I believe him. He won’t answer my e mails, either.

    • That’s because Abe (he now pronounces it as “Ahh-bay”) only uses MS Teams, dawg. Email and text is so yesterday. He keeps up with the tech.

    • Abe never actually posted anything on youtube because they wouldn’t allow him to get responses posted to his Gettysburg address. All that crap that Abe “said” on the internet was posted by someone that hijacked his handle.

  8. I’ve seen so many experts wilt when they got to the range. When I was shooting competition I shot with a friend that owned a LGS. Down the street was another LGS. Larger and a little different as they handled fishing gear, clothing, etc. One day there firearms department manager showed up to the match. This guy was one of those FOS guys that we all know. Monday there were people coming in all day saying this guy claimed to have the fastest time in the match. True. My friend would then ask if he told them he came in dead last. He didn’t neutralize a single target. No pepper poppers on the ground, not a hit on any mil-park target. He missed every shot! A couple of customers said they were going back to talk to him again. Never saw him at the range again.

  10. People who try to elevate themselves with the beavis and butthead misuse of ADHD, OCD, etc. have issues themselves.

  11. Leaving aside any super tactical tacticality afforded you during this educational experience, I think we can all agree that “Pelvis Rackmaster” would be a hell of a name for a character in a graphic novel, or superhero cartoon.

  12. You had me at “Beware of YouTube”…. you all do realize that while you’re watching the latest StupidHumanVideo that Google is happily data-mining your device down to the last packet of crumbs – ever hear of the Trojan Horse?

    • Never use the Youtube app. View the site.with a secure browser with adware/spyware enabled and cookies limited within sandboxed tabs. I like Brave Browser but there are other choices out there.

    • Let’s do a little experiment. Go to the top of this page and look at the masthead (the gray bar at the top with the TTAG logo and menus for “Gun Reviews,” “Gear Reviews,” etc.

      At the right side of that bar, do you see the little icons for Facebook, Instagram and X (the social media formerly known as Prince, er, I mean Twitter)? They’re a little F, a box with a circle in it for Instagram and the Twitter bird.

      You do? Well, congratulations. If you can see those icons, they’re tracking you. Oops.

      Additionally, in each article are icons for Whatsapp and Pinterest. They’re tracking you, too.

      Now, you may have your browser locked down so tight you can’t see those images, but then your browsing is a grueling, glitchy experience, because so many websites rely on the cookies and third party widgets to enhance the browsing experience.

      In fact, if you view the source on this webpage, there are 57 references to Google on it — Google api toolkits, Googlebot, Google Analytics, fonts, etc. All that means Google is tracking you as you view this page.

      There are 85 references to YouTube on this page. YouTube knows you’ve been here and what you did.

      Sorry, folks. You’re screwed.

  13. YouTube is suspect as well as every “Guntuber” on the platform. There is a lot of BS and self-promotion and aggrandizement. Because of the way videos are monetized and demonetized for controversial subjects such as firearms many of the Gtubers rely hugely on channel sponsorships. Because of the way the “gun industry” is organized the NSSF has a lot of pull so anyone who speaks Truth to their Fuddly Power is going to suffer a blacklisting by most of the industry that will destroy their funding. That’s why you will never see sny of them ever tell the Truth of what the NSSF is doing.

    • Got a hard on for the NSSF since they/it pissed in your Wheaties? You as worked up/verbose over the NFA or the GCA?

      NSSF is just trade organization.

      • Some people like diarrheabuttsex and pissedon wheaties.
        I’m kinda partial to Corn Flakes myself. Actually just corn, corn makes whiskey. With enough whiskey you either get really mad somebody pissed in your Wheaties when you were having diarrheabuttsex or your just to drunk to give a fck.
        Wheaties is wheat, you make beer out of wheat, and even though it’s a Cereal Malt beverage you cant use your food stamps to buy it. Isnt cereal and a malt food?
        What’s this world coming too?
        I’m writing President ShitshisPants and get this changed by gawd.

  14. I was in the tactical for several decades before the body quit. Even “operating”, which it wasn’t called back then, has changed greatly and not always for the better. The question is do you need to be operating?
    Then ask things like does this operation happen in the same environment? With a team? With the same equipment?
    In other words don’t let your panties fall off and free think for yourself.
    Also remember social medias are looking for the buck, the narcissism and all that jazz. They’ve no accountability should you get gunned down or gun down improperly.

    • I was in the tactical too, but figured I only had 896days left on the sentence and if I escaped and got caught I’d have to serve 9 more years.

  16. Red flags:
    1) You’re a woman so he assumed you were wrong.
    2) He wants to “train” you again because he’s hitting on you.
    Not complicated.

      • So is the hitting on her part.

        When I read “I think I wrote a piece back in 2018 about the guy with a homemade short barreled AK who carried around a bag of motor oil “because no other kind of lube will work” and didn’t believe me when I pointed out that his fore grip was mounted backward.” my first thought was “Are you married?”

        Then I remembered I am, so never mind.

        The point being that a woman who knows enough about guns to recognize a backward mounted foregrip, and has a deep understanding of lube, is pretty damn hot. And no doubt toobexpert is making a complete fool of himself trying and failing to impress her.

        I am not an operator. I have never operated. Not even operationally. I did not operate on TV. I did not operate in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

  18. transmits vaguely Patrick Swayze-esque vibes. Because that’s what you really want in tactical shooting.

    Would this be Roadhouse Patrick Swayze, Dirty Dancing Patrick Swayze, Point Break Patrick Swayze or, saints preserve us, Ghost Patrick Swayze? Because that matters a lot!

  19. Nice to see you back, Elaine.

    You certainly generated a *lot* of comments for TTAG back then… 🙂

  20. I listen to… advice. I earnestly try things their way. My finale is usually outperforming them using my practiced “wrong” techniques. This is even more fun when I outshoot them with their favorite gun, even more so if they add they shoot it better than anything they own. If it’s a gun unlike any I own, I shrug it off as beginner’s luck and smile. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t do this to instructors or experienced operators, just the gun buddies and try hards that are a bit too smug. One dude was proud of his hot handloads, some of which wouldn’t chamber in his revolver as they were bulged. I agreed to shoot, but requested factory loads so I didn’t get distracted by recoil, or his hand-cannon going off like a pipe bomb!

  23. I shoot my handgunm with one hand. Isosceles is a word I cant spell and it sounds like a Greek philosopher or somebody that made wax bird wings. Dennis Weaver always shot his gunm with one hand while limping on one leg. I just ain’t very accurate shuting and hopping on one leg. Need more practice.
    And welcome back ElaineD.

  24. I think an embedded video of Patrick doing his dance might be helpful so we can better all learn from this guru.

    • Is it information that could identify them personally? If so I certainly wouldn’t bother responding for quite some years to come as doxxing is a bit of a concern. If not guess it depends on the relevance of the topic.

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