VIDEO: "Rappelling For The Prepared Citizen"

  

 VIDEO: "Rappelling for the Prepared Citizen - Introduction and Basics"
Echo Mike (46 min.)

VIDEO: Extreme Close Quarters Shooting

From the description: "firearms trainer Ralph Mroz takes a critical look at the most commonly taught contact-distance shooting techniques". 

 VIDEO: "Extreme Close Quarters Shooting: A Critical Analysis of Contact-Distance Shooting Tactics (1999)" - SUPERTAPE Video Archive (57 min.)

Tommy Moore: "Fight Like Your Grandad"

 A video teaching WWII style combatives.  

 VIDEO: "Fight Like Your Grandad DVD"
Tommy Moore: Bartitsu Lab, Boxing & Gutterfighting (1 hr. 47 min.)

Louis Awerbuck - Combat Shotgun

 Louis Awerbuck passed away in 2014. Massad Ayoob wrote about him: 

A master with pistol, revolver, and every kind of long gun, he was particularly noted for teaching the defensive use of the shotgun. His trademark was innovative shooting scenarios that duplicated real-world difficulties in which firearms had to be employed to protect the innocent. Awerbuck was one of the great trainers in his field, but more than that, he was a thinker. He understood better than most that in the word “gunfight,” the operative syllable was not “gun.” 

The video below is a training video from Awerbuck on using a shotgun for combat including an overview of shotguns and shotgun ammunition, using a shotgun with sling, transition to a handgun, range drills, ready positions, dealing with multiple targets, and more.  

 VIDEO: "Louis Awerbuck - Combat Shotgun"
LASER BEARD (1 hr. 35 min.)

Gun & Preppings News #90

 Some links that may be of interest: 

• "Pistols in America Across 250 Years"--Guns & Ammo. With the quote of the day: "Free men own guns, and there’s perhaps no better symbol than a handgun to distinguish an American from another person living elsewhere in the world."
• "Reducing Violent Crime Isn’t Complicated, You Just Have to Want to Do It"--Shooting News Weekly. The author mentions the general points: "Governments must make crime riskier by increasing arrests and convictions, imposing longer prison sentences, and allowing law-abiding citizens to defend themselves." But he also points out:

Nor is it a coincidence that the record influx of illegal immigrants during the Biden administration coincided with a sharp increase in violent crime. It is equally unsurprising that crime has fallen as deportations have increased. Deportation records show that 70 percent of illegal immigrants deported during the Trump administration had either criminal convictions or pending criminal charges in the United States. Even those who avoid arrest understand that any contact with law enforcement could lead to deportation, giving them a strong incentive to stay off the police’s radar and avoid committing additional crimes.

• "Holding Zero: A Case Study of Your Scope's Nemesis"--Rifleshooter Magazine. The author notes:

The inability to get a rifle sighted in can come from several sources. Your rifle could have a problem. Or it just may not like the loads you’re feeding it. It could—(shocking thought!)—even be you, the shooter, that’s inconsistent. However, scope and scope mounting-system issues are frequently the culprit, and that’s what we’re here to explore in this article. 

And:

    Good bases and rings do hold quality scopes precisely in place. Not just for a while, but as hundreds, even thousands of shots create mini earthquakes.

    However, some scopes just won’t hold zero, and some bases and rings just won’t hold tight. Usually, that’s because they’re either cheap (let’s call it what it is), or they’ve been improperly mounted. Either is extremely frustrating. Both must be resolved before the rifle can perform properly.

    What causes scopes, scope rings, or bases to come loose? There are a variety of possibilities, but the most common ones are recoil—when a scope is mounted improperly—and vibration. As in, vibration in the belly of an airplane, or the rifle case mounted to your ATV, or behind the seat of your pickup. 

• And on the topic of precision shooting: "AR-15 Precision Long Range Shooting Basics"--AR Build Junkie.  An interview of Former Army Ranger sniper team leader, Ryan Cleckner, who is also the author of Long Range Shooting Handbook. There are also links to a few videos on long range shooting. And for those interested into getting into precision shooting with an AR, Cleckner says: "With long-range ARs, I would only worry about the barrel and the trigger.  Even if you have a budget AR and you just want to upgrade some parts and you put a decent quality barrel on it and a nice trigger, you are going to be fine." He has some more advice on upgrading an AR, so be sure to read the whole thing.

• Something that may be of interest to those of you with military surplus rifles: "Barrel Harmonics: How Shooting With a Bayonet Attached Affects Accuracy"--Shooting News Weekly. The author explains:

    Any person with knowledge and experience shooting precision rifles — or just shooting rifles precisely — knows that when a shot is fired, the barrel flexes and then returns to its original state in a fraction of a second. That’s called “barrel harmonics.” There are plenty of super slo-mo videos online that demonstrate this. 

    During a precision rifle course our instructor had us deliberately take shots with our bolt-action precision rifles and then stick them through a section of chainlink fence with the barrels purposely resting on the fence to see if our point of impact changed. Spoiler alert, the impacts were off dramatically. Our ½-size steel silhouette targets were around 200 yards away if memory serves. 

He then tested the shift caused by mounting bayonets on an AR15 and an AK style rifle: specifically, a Springfield Armory SA-16 (a semi-auto clone of the M16A2) and a Century Arms BFT-556 (a 5.56mm AK 74 style rifle). With the bayonet mounted, the SA-16 went from a 0.68 inch 5-shot group at 25 meters to 2.3 inches; and the group printed about 3 inches above point of aim. The BFT-556 had a 2.36 inch group at 25 yards without the bayonet; and, according to the author, the group size showed only a 0.5 inch different with the bayonet mounted, and the group only moved 1.5 inches higher. The author concludes:

    When we do our rifle ballistics math and extrapolate how a one-inch group at 100 yards translates to 2 inches at 200, etc., a 3-inch rise in impact between 25 and 50 yards translates to 6 inches of rise at 100 and a full 12 inches at 200. Being 12 inches off at 200 yards could definitely translate to missed targets.

    To be fair, we wouldn’t likely fix bayonets if we knew we were engaging targets beyond 100 yards. The cold steel of a bayonet is intended for up close and personal work. In a close quarters battle environment like the jungle or a MOUT situation, we expect targets to easily be inside of 100 yards.

    It’s safe to say that adding bayonets to fighting rifles negatively affects accuracy in longer distance shooting. However, for CQB situations, having a chunk of lethal steel affixed to the end of your barrel wouldn’t have such a negative effect on accuracy as to preclude its use. Just be sure to take it off — or take it into account — before engaging anything at greater distances.  

• "Unbreakable? Not Quite: Common AK Failure Points"--The Firearm Blog. Not surprisingly, these include the extractor claw and spring, fire control group springs, recoil springs, firing pin issues, bolt wear, rivet problems, cracked trunnions, gas block wear, ejector wear, and corrosion. I will comment from experience that there are many nooks and crannies where water can collect in an AK which are hard to reach with a rag to absorb the water. I would recommend that when returning from the field using an air compressor and/or hair dryer to blow out the water and dry the weapon. 
• "A Reliable, Affordable AR-Style Shotgun: The Tokarev TT-12 PRO"--Shooting Wire. What caught my attention about this was the author's assertion that this shotgun was reliable. Oh, and the price: an MSRP of $399, but the author claims that the street price is running about $250. 
• "Concealed Carry Corner: Concealing On A Motorcycle"--The Firearm Blog.  An excerpt:

The big difference between carrying in a regular car and a motorcycle is the fact that you're exposed to the outside world and elements while on a motorcycle, so there aren't many places to just outright hide your handgun. Not only do you have to worry about keeping your handgun concealed, but you also have to keep in mind that moving around and leaning on your bike can cause different strain on your holster than what's typically normal for carrying concealed. When going at highway speed, it's common for shirts to ride up in the wind without a heavier vest to keep things in place. It's important to think about where your handgun is positioned and if there's a chance of it being exposed at higher speeds when on the highway. 

•  "Pocket Pistols Are Dead: Here's Why You're Wrong"--Handguns Magazine. The author notes:

As we have laid out, you have 4 extremely general categories of pistols to choose from for CCW. So, if you’re choosing one of the extremes in a pocket pistol, how is it relevant in 2026? Maybe your occupation doesn’t allow for a pistol on your waist - not necessarily in a legal sense - but potentially because you are in a trade like carpentry, plumbing, etc., where your waist already has a toolbelt taking up all of the real estate around your waist. So, you need to resort to more creative methods of carry like your pocket.

He also explains:

    The primary scenarios where a pocket pistol may be a good application for you would be formal attire, hot weather, or extenuating circumstances at your job. We have already painted the picture for your job. You might have a carpentry belt around your waist, work in an office where a hip-carried firearm could be accidentally brandished, or other instances that demand your pistol should reside in your pocket.

    Another opportunity to pocket carry is while donning a suit and tie. Professional wear is often tight-fitting and doesn’t take into account the possibility for concealed carry. So, if you force it, it can be tremendously uncomfortable as well as open the door for scaring your co-workers or friends who have delicate sensibilities.

    Finally, there are the oppressively hot times in the summer where you’re only wearing a thin T-shirt and shorts. This type of clothing gives you a cooling factor in hotter temps but doesn’t lend itself well to carrying a firearm.

• Speaking of pocket pistols: "Phlster Introduces Enigma Micro For Pocket Pistols"--The Firearm Blog.
• "Big Woods Bucks x Henry Repeating Arms Long Ranger Big Woods Carbine"--The Firearm Blog.  Henry has produced an 18.5" barrel version of their .308 Long Ranger lever action rifle intended for hunting in dense woods. It still uses a 4-round detachable box magazine. 
• Since these are a type of insurrection, I believe it is a topic to which preppers should pay attention: "The Scourge of Teen Takeovers"--City Journal.  Key point:

    Police officers, district attorneys, and sheriffs offer a different explanation for the teen takeovers: they are the consequence of a decades-long demonization of the criminal-justice system.

    Asked how the Chicago Police Department would have responded to a stampede on the Magnificent Mile before that demonization took hold, a recently retired officer with over 30 years on the force replied: “We would have cleared the streets, arrested those breaking windows, looting stores, and assaulting passersby. We would have used pepper spray, fists, and batons to restore order—all of which we did during the Bulls riots [in 1992], the Democratic National Convention in 1996, NATO, and other localized disturbances that didn’t make the news.”

    But then, he says, “the bottom fell out. Officers were cast as the enemy by eight years of Obama.” After the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, followed by those of Laquan McDonald in Chicago that same year and of Freddie Gray in Baltimore in 2015, “we were cleaning spit off our windshields on a daily basis. We were physically attacked more during those years than at any other point in our careers.” Officers feared being sued for lawful tactics that make for bad optics.

    The cops disengaged. “We drove by the dope sellers on the corner, asked no questions of the juveniles who were clearly up to no good, and ignored the cars running stop signs and weaving through traffic.” Better just to do your eight hours and go home.

    Another retired Chicago cop recalls asking his commanders in 2010 when mobs were storming downtown: Can we make arrests? He was told: just hold the line and move them around. Even were the officers to engage, the chance that the average detained teen would face serious consequences was already low.

    In the 1990s and early 2000s, officers had a protective attitude toward business; they took responsibility for the well-being of shopkeepers and their customers, says a Chicago sergeant still on the job. “It’s different now.”

    And then, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd died while restrained by a Minneapolis officer. The country’s elites proclaimed that systemic racism had killed Floyd. Politicians and business leaders rushed to explain the ensuing firebombing of police cars and stations, the attempted murder of police officers, and the destruction of businesses as an understandable, even justifiable, reaction to police oppression.

    The post-Floyd race-riot era is largely coterminous with the Covid era: lockdowns began in late March 2020, and the riots erupted at the end of May. That overlap has allowed policing skeptics to attribute the crime spike that began in 2020 to Covid rather than to de-policing and de-prosecution. Those same skeptics now apply the argument to teen takeovers as well.

    The rest of the world again provides a useful benchmark. Other countries did not experience a comparable surge in crime beginning in 2020, just as they did not experience a wave of teen takeovers. The United States experienced both because police and prosecutors shied away further from imposing consequences on antisocial behavior.

    The juvenile-justice system was similarly emasculated in the twenty-first century, for much the same reason as the adult system: to avoid disparate impact. The Obama administration sued school districts for disparities in school-discipline rates between black students and white students. Suspensions and expulsions plummeted. Rather than being punished, insubordinate pupils were directed to “peace circles” and other forms of restorative justice.

    Outside the school bureaucracy, cities and states loosened their already-permissive rules for holding juveniles accountable for crimes. From 2008, when Barack Obama was first elected president, through 2021, the rate at which black male juveniles received final dispositions for violent offenses fell 67 percent, according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice. It is unlikely that this decline in adjudications reflected a 67 percent drop in violent crime among black juveniles, given victimization data and the reports of police officers. Instead, budding criminals were increasingly kept out of the juvenile system altogether, whether their misconduct occurred in schools or on the streets. Those who did enter the system encountered increasingly permissive rules.

Recoil Management

There is a lot of advice out there on managing recoil, most dealing with the handgun. So, naturally, I will start off by recommending an article on managing recoil with a rifle. Why? Because marksmanship principles start with shooting a rifle. 

    The article to which I want to direct your attention is "Recoil Management" by Caylen Wojcik published at the Journal of Mountain Hunting. He explains:

    What is recoil management? Effective recoil management is using our bodies’ mass and bone structure to absorb the recoil energy of a rifle and transfer that energy throughout the body so that the shooter can easily re-acquire a second sight-picture after the process of recoil and follow-through is complete. More on that second sight-picture shortly. Of course, rifle setup is a very important factor here but plenty of people go about this process in the wrong way. First and foremost, the rifle scope’s eye-relief should be set for the shooter in a “middle-ground” shooting position as I like to think of it. What I mean by that is we can’t set optimal eye relief for just one shooting position if that rifle is meant to be used in a variety of positions.

The author warns about shooting too much gun, noting that if the rifle has so much recoil you don't want to shoot it, you will never be able to shoot it well. He continues: 

    The goal in any shooting position is to apply the seven factors common to all shooting positions (see below) and get the body square to the rifle so we can present as much mass as possible behind the rifle to absorb and spread that recoil energy. What this is doing is reducing the amount the rifle is going to move during the recoil process. I can’t stress how important this is in becoming an independent shooter. If, after you fire at your target and you recover from the recoil, your rifle is pointed at something 20-feet to the left of your target there’s no way you’re going to be able to process the vital information the bullet is telling you, especially if you’re solo and don’t have an observer. Besides, an observer should be looked at as an added bonus, only telling you what you already know. After all, whose perspective is going to be the most accurate? Yours, looking at what you just shot at, or theirs sitting a couple feet away?

    Another contributing factor to effective recoil management is a proper natural point of aim (NPOA) for that particular shooting position. If you have a solid NPOA, the rifle is going to go through the process of recoil, but it will ALWAYS recover to where the rifle naturally wants to point. It’s all interconnected, and there’s no getting away from applying ALL the fundamentals.

 In other words, we want to (a) get as much mass behind the rifle as possible to absorb recoil from (b) with a weapon set up to shoot from a variety or positions (or situations) and (c) with a natural point of aim (NPOA) such that the rifle will recover to where the rifle naturally wants to point, which should be aligned with your target.

    Moving on to the handgun, let's start with an article from the Shooter's Log by Bob Campbell entitled "How to Control Recoil When Shooting a Handgun." Similar to Wojcik, above, Campbell also warns about trying to start out with too much gun:

    Some calibers are just too much for the occasional shooter. Working people on a budget (in terms of time and money), should not jump into the .357 SIG, 10mm, or a lightweight magnum of any type. It is a process to learn to control recoil. Once you have thoroughly mastered the .38 or 9mm, you may wish to move up in caliber. But not before you have mastered the standard calibers.

    I have trained quite a few shooters and attended many classes as a student. Firing a pistol and hearing the report a few feet in front of your eyes isn’t a natural thing. Recoil control must be learned. Many focus more on recoil than on marksmanship. The greater the concentration on marksmanship the less you will notice recoil.

    Flinching, and failing to control recoil, kills accuracy. Failing to control recoil makes accurate follow-up shots impossible. In a defensive encounter — if you fire accurately— you will probably solve the problem without using the full gun load. However, chances are you will need more than one shot. Handguns just are not that impressive concerning wound potential. Likewise, there is the problem of multiple assailants. This means you must learn to control recoil effectively. 

With rifle shooting, the majority of the recoil energy will be through the weapon's stock into the shoulder. With the handgun, the majority of the recoil energy will go into the hand. The goal for proper recoil control is to take that energy going into the hand and transfer it somewhere else. 

    I had linked to a video not too long ago where the author showed how to let a handgun with a plow handle grip roll in the hand so that the firearm absorbed most of the recoil, even letting his arm rise with more powerful loads. And that is one way to transfer the recoil energy. And if you look at old photographs of shooters using revolvers, you will often see them shoot with the shooting arm bent, which allows the arm act somewhat like a spring also helping absorb recoil.

    Those methods will not work with semi-auto pistols. And allowing the revolver to roll upward in your hand won't even work with most modern revolver grips. 

    Instead, what we aim for is gripping the handgun in such a way that the recoil energy is transferred to the hand and up the arm to the shoulder, and the gun returns to a natural point of aim where it is still pointed at the target. This involves both grip and stance. 

    Starting with grip, Campbell states: "The hand should ride as high on the grip as possible with a self-loading pistol. The hand must ride high on a revolver backstrap as well — to offer good leverage for the finger to press the double-action revolver trigger, straight to the rear. But don’t override the revolver backstrap. This will result in what is called heeling." He goes on to discuss other points with your grip/stance, and includes a slide show at the bottom of the article to better explain some points. 

    Campbell's points work well for both revolver and semi-auto handguns. But the reality is that most people are using the semi-autos for self-defense and there are a few things that work well for semi-auto pistols that are not easily transferable to the revolver. So, next I would direct your attention to an article by "The Humble Marksman" at The Armory Life entitled "Practical Skills: Recoil Management for Speed and Accuracy."  And he begins by noting that recoil management involves "managing both muzzle climb and muzzle bounce (when the slide goes back into battery)." With that, he delves into the three parts of recoil management:

•     How you place your hands on the gun
•     How you hold your arms
•     How you stand (stance)

And this brings us to the NPOA issue raised as to rifles, but applying the concept to pistols. The Humble Marksman observes on this point:

    A good grip is going to reduce muzzle climb and speed up sight recovery — but there’s more to it than that. A good grip is also going to align your sights for you, so you don’t have to do it consciously (this is referred to as “index” or “natural point of aim”).

    The grip will cause your sights to behave predictably with a perfectly neutral rise and return. A good grip will make you more accurate because it stabilizes the gun through the trigger pull, making you more accurate.

    The sights lifting straight up is critically important for speed shooting. If you overpower the gun on the support side so that that sight or dot lifts up to your dominant side, when the slide closes it’s going to come down on the support side.

    Often hitting “low and left” when shooting fast is misdiagnosed as a trigger control problem when it is actually a grip-imbalance problem. The problem is it’s nearly impossible to see this on a set of iron sights.

The remainder of his article is on how to properly grip the pistol, so be sure to check it out. See also Michael Seeklander's article, "6 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Recoil Control With A Handgun" who also covers some finer points of a good grip; and Richard Nance's article at Handguns Magazine, "How To Properly Grip A Pistol: Step-By-Step Instructions"; and Dave Spaulding's Guns and Ammo article, "Proper Combative Pistol Grip (And A Whole Lot More)."

    Those of you that teach may find this PDF from NRA Online Training showing a two handed grip useful to hand out to your students although the revolver grip appears to be too low on the grip.  

    Finally, most of the articles I came across assumed a two handed grip on the weapon. But there are many situations where you might have to shoot a handgun with a single hand. Dan Abraham has an article and video at The Armory Life: "The Art of One-Handed Shooting." 

Gun & Prepping News #84

Some links that may be of interest:

• "Concealed Carry Permit Holders Remain Among America’s Most Law-Abiding Citizens"--Ammo Land.  The article notes that "[t]he arrest rate for concealed carry permit holders is about 1.7% of the arrest rate of the general population," and about 1/5 of the estimated arrest rate of police officers. 
• "CMP Doubles Lifetime Limit on Surplus 1911 Pistols"--Guns America.  CMP has been trickling out the military surplus 1911 and 1911A1 pistols, but I suppose that even with that the pistols must not have been selling as strongly as they hoped, because the lifetime limit has now increased from 2 to 4.
• "Century Arms’ Centurion 11: Can A $400 1911 Be A Good Buy?"--The Truth About Guns. The reviewer thought it was a pretty decent firearm for the price, but it comes with standard 1911A sights, so not easily adjusted. 
• "The Magnum Legend: Ruger Super Redhawk"--The Mag Life. The author relates:

The Ruger Super Redhawk is a large-bore revolver that hit the gun market in 1987, meaning it has nearly 40 years of use under its belt. That first model was released in .44 Magnum—understandably so—with later models including .480 Ruger and .454 Casull. The Super Redhawk came on the heels of the Redhawk, launched in 1979. Unlike the original Redhawk, which is designed more for carry and self-defense, the Super Redhawk is definitely a hunting handgun. There’s no denying it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to shoot in general, though, because it is.    

It is long barreled weapon designed to mount a pistol scope. I've shot the Redhawk (I know a guy that has one in .45 Colt/.45 ACP) but never the Super Redhawk. 

• "Concealed Carry Corner: Is The Glock 48 the New Standard?"--The Firearm Blog.  The author essentially is arguing that with the new higher capacity magazines available for the Glock 48, it will replace the Glock 19 as a default "do it all" self-defense, concealed carry weapon. He writes:

For over two decades now, the Glock 19 has been the golden child of concealed carry pistols, with what many call online the perfect blend of size, capacity, and weight to be an all-season carry gun compared to other options on the market. Combine that with the reliability that Glock is notorious for and there was a gold standard born. If you read online forums where people debate the best carry gun of all time or even read a Top 5 article about carry guns, the Glock 19 is almost always on the list, if not on top of the list. Being a mid-size option on the market with 15+1 capacity and being bulletproof reliable makes it a tough option to rule out for something to depend on to protect yourself day in and day out. 

 But, he adds:

[I]f we are looking at a direct comparison to the Glock 19, the Glock 48 has a number of similar features while being almost half the width. With the release of Glock’s factory 15-round slimline magazine, the Glock 48 becomes a slim variant of the Glock 19 with the same length and height but significantly thinner than the Glock 19, while offering the same capacity. The most important factor after overall weight when it comes to a carry gun is the overall thickness and size. The length of the Glock 48 doesn't affect concealability, but being a slimmer version of the Glock 19 makes carrying it all day, every day in hot weather much easier.  

• "The SIG P365 Family: Still the Benchmark for Everyday Carry"--Guns America.  I think the author of this piece may disagree with the author of the article just above this. This author claims: "The plain SIG P365 still earns its place as a daily carry pistol because it balances concealability, capacity, shootability, and trust better than almost anything in the micro-compact 9mm world." The author also states:

    The standard P365 is still the heart of the lineup and, for my money, still one of the best pure carry guns ever made. Mine wears a Wilson Combat grip module, a red dot, an aftermarket slide because my original slide is too old to be cut for an optic, and that is the extent of it. The Wilson grip improves the texture and the feel in my hand without changing the footprint, and the optic does what optics do, which is let me put rounds where I am looking faster and with less thought under stress.

    What I want to emphasize is that those two changes are preferences, not corrections. Out of the box, the P365 ships with steel tritium night sights, a usable trigger, and a degree of reliability that has been proven across millions of rounds in the field. I have never felt undergunned with it, and I have never felt the need to fix anything fundamental about it. It conceals so well that I genuinely forget it is there, which for an all-day, every-day carry gun is the whole point. This is the one I trust when the day is ordinary and when it is not.  

He also discussed the P365X, XL, and Fuse. Frankly, I wonder if the P365 or one of the larger variants will be the one to inherent the generalist pistol category from the Glock 19. 

• "Harry’s Holsters IWB Speedloader Carrier"--Revolver Guy. The article outlines the process the author went through with designing a product in conjunction with Harry's Holsters and some experimentation on where to carry such a speedloader carrier. As for placement, the author states: "I think the most promising place to carry a speedloader on the belt, when you’re carrying your gun AIWB, is to take advantage of the hollow created by the gun’s cylinder, immediately forward of the gun." As for the final product:

The Harry’s Holsters IWB Speedloader Carrier is composed of a tall and thin body with an IWB clip on the outside, and a leather backer on the inside. The body is 3-D printed, and sized to accept a specific model of speedloader. My two samples were for HKS J-frame and K-frame .38/.357 revolvers, but there are available carriers for 5-Star and Safariland loaders, and .32/.327 caliber options as well.

They are selling for about $90. The article also covers the author's testing of the product.

• "The MAC IX Review: An MP5 Alternative Most Shooters Can Actually Afford"--The Truth About Guns. It's almost $800 which is nice, but it is a direct blowback design, not a roller delayed like the MP5. About the only similarity is that it uses MP5 magazines. 
• Related: "Best MP5 Clone Buyer’s Guide [Field Tested]"--Gun Digest. This 2025 article covers some non-HK clones (although some are built on HK machinery).  But their prices, as of last summer, were also $1,300 or more (unless you wanted the .22LR version).
• "Best Ranch Rifles: A Modern Ranch Rifle Revival"--Recoil.  By "Ranch Rifle" the author is looking at something that is semi-auto with a traditional butt stock, using a detachable box magazine, and shooting .223 or an intermediate cartridge like .300 BLK or 7.62x39. Like Ruger's "Ranch Rifle" back in the day, which was simply a Mini-14 with the cuts necessary to mount scope rings. The rifles the author is comparing are the Ruger Mini-14, CMMG BR4 Dissent, Fox Trot Mike Ranch Rifle, and SIG Sauer MCX Regulator. The latter three are AR-15 derived weapons mating an AR style upper with a redesigned lower that could accept a traditional style stock. While the free-float barrels and skeletonized hand guards are great for attachments and help with accuracy, they lack the clean lines of the Mini-14 and look "tactical" rather than "ranch". 
• "How to Start Dry Fire Training (Without Overthinking It)" by Grace Torrence, The Firearm Blog. The author explains: 

    I define dry fire as the act of practicing firearm handling and shooting skills without live ammunition. It allows shooters to build repetition and consistency without having to make a range trip or spend large amounts of money on ammo. While I was in college and then in grad school, dry fire became crucial to my development as a competitive shooter, and I attribute much of my success to it.

    Many skills can be improved through dry fire, including trigger control, sight alignment and acquisition, draws and presentations, reloads, and target transitions. More advanced shooters can even train movement and firearm transitions. Dry fire is a great way to develop these skills at home while simultaneously building muscle memory.

    Although dry fire can never fully replace live fire, it can make live fire training more productive. As you develop new skills, the muscle memory you’ve built will help make the application of these skills to your live fire practice much easier. Dry fire can also help with skills maintenance for shooters who have limited range access. By using dry fire to routinely practice specific skills that don’t necessarily require ammo, like draws and reloads, you can free up your limited range time to focus on shooting-specific skills.

• "Can Civilians Buy Body Armor? Laws and Restrictions Explained"--The Tactical Gear Blog. Not something I have to worry about in Idaho, but something that might be an issue in some states or jurisdictions. 
• "Caches – Preps of Last Resort"--Gat Daily. The author explains: 

Caching is a concept that’s been around for a very long time. The basic idea is to stash gear and supplies in a hidden location so that they can serve as either a resupply point or a backup to your primary equipment. This presupposes that your cache remains undiscovered as well as undamaged between the time you place it and when you go to retrieve it.

He then goes on to discuss appropriate containers, contents, and what can go wrong. For instance, writing about containers, the author notes:

Traditionally, these sorts of caches are buried, so the container needs to be able to withstand the pressure and weight of the soil above and around it. While there are numerous ways to pull this off, one of the most common approaches is to use PVC pipe as the cache container. That’s what was recommended in Ragnar Benson’s book forty-odd years ago, and it’s still a workable solution today. 

One of problems that is too infrequently discussed is the difficulty in retrieving a buried container. If you have watched any videos of people trying to recover buried containers, what they often discover is the pressure of the earth packed around the outside of the cache makes it extremely difficult to remove the cache container from the earth, particularly if it is in a tube buried perpendicular to the ground surface. And it is problematic if you are having to quickly retrieve material from a cache but it is going to take hours to dig out the cache tube. The author suggests using two tubes: an outer tube into which a smaller tube (with the cached materials are stored) is inserted. Make sure you have a strong enough strap or handle attached, however, to lift the full tube out.

    Another great piece of advice: "The biggest rule of caching is never put anything in a cache that you’re not comfortable never seeing again. This isn’t the place for treasured family heirlooms or anything exceptionally valuable. Instead, think along the lines of you’re down to nothing, and you desperately need to resupply as you travel from Point A to Point B. What would you want or need?" 

• "Power Outage? What Size Generator for a Freezer (And How Long to Run It)"--Modern Survival Blog.  The author outlines the issue:

    A long power outage doesn’t just mean the lights go out. It can quietly wipe out hundreds of dollars of frozen food sitting in your freezer.

    Meat, garden harvests, bulk buys… all of it starts warming the moment the power stops. And the worst part? You often don’t realize how close you are to losing everything until it’s too late.

    The good news is that keeping a freezer (or refrigerator) cold during an outage is much easier than most people think. You don’t need a huge generator. You don’t need to run it 24/7. And you definitely don’t need to burn through fuel unnecessarily.

    That means even a small portable generator can prevent hundreds of dollars of food loss.

 He also notes:

You don’t need to run a generator continuously. A full chest freezer can stay frozen 24–48 hours without power. During an outage, many people run a generator about 1 hour every 8–12 hours to maintain safe freezer temperatures. Use a thermometer and keep food below 32°F (0°C).

The wattage you need will vary according to the size and type of freezer, with the author giving the numbers for a small chest freezer, a medium chest freezer, and a refrigerator/freezer combo. He also ran a test using his freezers. He has a lot more advice and tips on the difference between starting watts versus running watts, suggestions as to types of generators, how long to run the generator to keep the food frozen, and more, so be sure to read the whole thing.

• "An ancient solar storm left clues in tree rings and a famous poet's diary: 'Red lights in the northern sky'"--Space.com. From the lede:

The solar cycle was several years shorter and the sun was experiencing an unusually active phase at the beginning of the 13th century — at least, that's the story told by evidence left behind in tree rings and historical records that suggest a burst of protons and enhanced coronal mass ejections battered Earth between the years 1200 and 1204 CE. 

•  "The 2026 Hybrid Survival Kit: Smart Tech Gear With Analog Backups"--Survival Life. The author explains:

    A Hybrid Survival Kit is a deliberate pairing of modern, battery-powered technology with a mechanical, physics-based backup. It means building a loadout where your Plan A runs on microchips, but your Plan B runs on gravity, friction, and magnetism.

    For every digital tool in your bag, there is a low-tech, bombproof equivalent sitting right next to it. It is not about “buying more stuff” to be a gear collector; it is about building a Silicon-to-Steel Bridge. You use the silicon (chips) to buy you time and awareness, and you use the steel (analog tools) to ensure you don’t die when the chips fail.

An example: a GPS unit backed up with a map and compass; or a USB-rechargeable dual-arc plasma lighter backed up with a ferro rod. 

•  I had included this in a recent Weekend Reading post but thought I would include it here in case you missed it: "Government Food Confiscation Laws: How Private Food Stores Were Seized in History and What Legal Mechanisms Still Exist"--Preppers Will. The author begins:

    Most people assume that the food stockpiled in their pantry, freezer, or basement belongs to them unconditionally. Under normal circumstances, they are absolutely right. But history tells a far more complicated story, and the legal frameworks governing food supply, distribution, and access during emergencies reveal a side of government power that most people rarely think about until a crisis forces them to.

    Government food confiscation laws, whether formally codified or embedded within broader emergency statutes, have existed in various forms across nearly every major civilization. And in the modern United States, the legal infrastructure for federally directed food resource management remains very much intact, even if rarely invoked.

    Understanding the history of how governments have seized, rationed, and redistributed private food stores is not just an academic exercise. Whether you are a prepper planning for long-term food independence, a policy researcher, or simply a curious citizen, knowing how these laws work and where they come from gives you a clearer picture of the relationship between individual property rights and state power during crisis scenarios.

    From Stalin’s grain brigades to the U.S. Office of Price Administration during World War II, and from the Defense Production Act of 1950 to the FDA’s modern mandatory recall authority, the legal machinery behind food control has always been more extensive than most people realize.

While we generally think of OPSEC regarding food stores as necessary to prevent a mob of hungry people from showing up at our doors, the more likely scenario might well be police or other law enforcement showing up to confiscate your food items. You might also want to check out my post, "An Example of Why OPSEC is Important" for an example of the application of anti-hoarding laws in place during WWI which resulted in the prosecution of a couple living in Washington D.C. for hoarding. As I noted, "The 'offenders' were caught because they were informed on by a friend of the local 'Food Administrator.'" 

VIDEO: "Stop Racking The Slide"

Some advice for better dry-fire practice with your handgun--particularly striker-fired or single-action semi-auto pistols. 

VIDEO: "STOP RACKING THE SLIDE: A BETTER WAY TO DRY FIRE YOUR HANDGUN"
ConcealedCarry dot com (15 min.)

VIDEO: Baseline Assessment Drill Using The B8 Target

This video explains Tom Givens' baseline assessment drill which only uses 20 rounds, why it uses the B8 target, and demonstrates the drill and how to use it to identify weak areas in your shooting skills that you need to work at. For instance, in this video, the shooter did the worst shooting off-hand, so that would be an area that he needs to improve on. As the trainer in the video points out: "What people like to do is go to the range and make themselves feel better by working on what they're good at. No, we go to the range to work on what we're not good at. So that way we can short it up in case we get we have to use it in the fight."

 VIDEO: "This EDC test exposes everything when you do it cold."
Alston Trainings (10 min.)

VIDEO + Article: "What Effective Training Can Look Like With 100 Rounds"

The article is entitled "What Effective Training Can Look Like With 100 Rounds" from Achilles Heel Tactical. The article begins:

    I just got back from San Mateo County, California, where I was training some law enforcement, and one of the sergeants pulled me aside and pointed out a guy walking onto the range. He said, "Watch this, he's just going to mag dump." Sure enough, the guy ran three mags straight through the gun, back to back to back. The sergeant's question was fair: what training value is that guy actually getting?

    That's the conversation that led to the following video. If you've got 45 rounds on your belt and you're rotating ammo from duty to training, or you've got 100 rounds and a range day ahead of you, you might as well get something out of it. So I wanted to put together a session of 100 round pistol drills and show what you can actually accomplish with a restricted round count if you train with intent instead of just mag dumping. 

The video is embedded in the article, but I've also embedded and linked to it before. The article is the transcript of the video, so it allows you to better review some of the points raised in the video. But here is the gist:

    We ended up at 107 rounds across the whole session. Trigger control at speed, 50/50s and doubles, graduation drill at 7, progressive return at 25, two static and two moving in four directions, a movement drill with hit factor scoring, and the DOPE drill to close it out.

    These 100 round pistol drills deliver more training value than most cops know what to do with, more than most civilians know where to start, and more than the military is doing on any given range day. It doesn't cost a lot of time or money. If you're willing to be honest about what you're seeing and feeling behind the gun, and do something about it, 100 rounds goes a long way. 

 VIDEO: "What Effective Training Can Look Like With 100 Rounds Or Less"
Achilles Heel Tactical (35 min.)

VIDEO: How To Use A Sling

This video is for using a modern quick-adjust sling with an AR or other modern sporting rifle. It covers sling setup (i.e., where to attach the sling), ready positions, carry positions, sling positions (i.e., for carrying the rifle leaving your hands free and testing it with a plate carrier),  and sling supported shooting.

Watch it straight through and then practice.

The host doesn't go over selecting a sling or recommend any particular sling in this video because he has another video that covers that topic.   

 VIDEO: "Stop Using Your Rifle Sling Wrong"
Arms For Thought (17 min.)

Weekend Reading #53

Some longer and more involved reading for the weekend:

• Greg Ellifritz has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump posted at his Active Response Training blog. There are always a great selection of links to article and videos, but some of those that I particularly liked or found interesting this week included:
• An article on the weapons used by the Texas Rangers from 1820 through roughly 1900.
• An article entitled "Trust No One" which basically says that you cannot trust any firearms manufacturer to provide you with a dependable firearm out of the box. I'm old enough to remember when you had to put 100 to 200 rounds through a handgun before it operated reliably, and I don't think we are quite back to that stage. But I have also seen complaints of poor quality control go up over the past 10 years even as to major manufacturers (just read comments about S&W's revolvers). But the article is interesting as it describes the problems, which often seem to come down to (i) cost cutting and (ii) constantly tweaking parts and suppliers. 
• An article called the "First Shot Problem" which reminds us that the goal isn't to be the first to get off a shot but the first to get off a shot that strikes the target.
• There are a few articles on best and worst practices when carrying concealed or just plain bad self-defense advice. Read these to see how you rate?
• A drill called the Event Horizon drill which, consistent with its name, involves shooting at a solid black circle on a target.  
• I know that this might not sound exciting to some of you, but I really appreciated the article entitled "Making Targets Work For You" which has some tips for stapling targets so they aren't as easily torn off by the wind, maintaining your stapler, a product that might make your targets more resistant to rain, and emergency/DIY target supplies. 
• "I Spent a Decade Chasing the Deadliest Livestock Killer in Utah’s History" by Frank Miniter, Outdoor Life. The hunt for a willy mountain lion. The article begins:

    On July 26, 1992, Billie Worthen watched the western sky fade to stars before unloading her rifle and leaving a herd of 876 sheep grazing in Spring Canyon, 8,000 feet above sea level in Utah’s Fish Lake National Forest. The guard dogs had the night shift.

    When the sun came back around the other side, Worthen left her sheep house and rode her mare up to the herd. She was within a few hundred yards of the sheep when her horse began to spook. She soon discovered what was making her horse edgy — the smell of blood.

    Hours later federal hunters with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services had to place rocks on the carcasses as they counted the bodies, to be sure they didn’t count the same animal twice. It was the worst single stock-killing incident in Utah state history — 102 sheep dead.

    Bending down to look at a track of the culprit, Kelly Joe Wright, a predator specialist, saw that the animal responsible for the carnage was a single mountain lion. He didn’t know then that this was the beginning of the reign of a new king on the Old Woman Plateau.

•  And on a related note: "When Coyotes Threatened Livestock on Central Texas Ranches, the Solution Was to Unlock an Ancient Ability in Dogs"--Smithsonian Magazine. An excerpt:

    By 2016, it was clear to Grant that the status quo wouldn’t hold. He was losing as many as 20 percent of his lambs and kid goats to predators, and he knew things could get worse: On the Edwards Plateau, 50 percent and even 90 percent losses were not unheard of. Coyotes were driving some stockmen out of business, others to the brink of collapse, and generally threatening a way of life that is integral to Texan identity. “It’s like having an ever-increasing-size hole in your canoe, and you’re trying to bail out water,” Grant said. In desperation, he decided to go see a fellow rancher about a decade younger than his father who was reputed to have cultivated an ancient knowledge, largely neglected in the United States, that had allowed him to prosper while his neighbors flailed. His name was Bob Buchholz. He was a man who knew about dogs.  

    Other than hunting, protecting livestock may have been the first work assigned to domestic dogs. They probably got the job more than 5,000 years ago. The ancestors of modern livestock protection breeds, of which the white and downy Great Pyrenees is perhaps the best-known in America, are thought to have arrived in Europe in the sixth century B.C., accompanying shepherds from the Caucasus. Roman Farm Management: The Treatises of Cato and Varro, which compiles agricultural knowledge from the first and second centuries B.C., describes dogs as “of the greatest importance to us who feed the woolly flock, for the dog is the guardian of such [livestock] as lack the means to defend themselves, chiefly sheep and goats. For the wolf is wont to lie in wait for them, and we oppose our dogs to him as defenders.” 

The article goes on to describe the breeds and use of dogs as the ranchers and sheep herders learned to use them to protect their livestock. The article ends:

It’s an oddity of livestock guardian dogs that their owners almost never observe them interact with a predator. Their art is practiced mostly unseen, in the low light of dusk and dawn, when their enemies are most active. The proof of their value is the simple absence of death. Misty, whom all the dogs like best, disembarked and poured some kibble. After a few cautious bites, George fled, running across the trail and into the trees. His sheep, Misty said, were getting too far away for his liking. Reba lingered a little while longer over her food. Then she, too, was gone.  

• "Every Where You Look: The Game"--Wilder, Wealthy & Wise.  John begins:

    Most posts aren’t connected, outside of they’re all written by me.  However, the last few have been following a theme that’s pretty old:  mistaking The Game for reality, even Plato wrote about it.  There are times we all get stuck in it.  It’s pretty seductive.  We mistake The Game for reality, often to our own detriment.

    What’s The Game?

    The Game is where life moves away from reality. ...

And the game includes fiat currency and interest. And the purpose of the game is to eliminate your rights and destroy your values. 

• "The Noose Tightens on ActBlue, And Democrats Have a Major Problem" by Rod Martin.  From the lede:

    I told you they were guilty.

    House Republicans have spent months digging into ActBlue, the premier Democrat fundraising machine that has raised over $16 billion for Democrat candidates and causes. What they’ve found is every bit as bad as I’ve told you. And ActBlue’s leaders felt the need to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination an incredible 146 times.

    The just-released interim staff report from the House Administration, Oversight, and Judiciary Committees lays out vast illegal foreign donations and money laundering — “election interference” — and illegal “straw donor” schemes, followed by a massive cover-up to prevent Congress and the DOJ from catching on.  

VIDEO: Basic Hand And Arm Signals

The video below goes over common or basic hand and arm signals for infantry. It shows the signals as presented in military manuals and then the host demonstrates the signals. 

VIDEO: "INFANTRYMAN'S GUIDE: Basic Hand & Arm Signals"
Brent0331 (13 min.)

VIDEOS: Breaking Contact

So the other day I had linked to a couple videos on ambushes. Today is a selection of videos from the other perspective: reacting to contact or breaking contact. A key point to remember is that movement without fire is suicide, and fire without movement is a waste of ammunition.  

 VIDEO: "INFANTRYMANS GUIDE: React to & avoid enemy ambush"
Brent0331 (11 min.)

 VIDEO: "How to Survive a Gunfight"--Echo Mike (12 min.)

 

 VIDEO: "Buddy Pair Fire & Movement: Break Contact (Front)"
Max Velocity Tactical (9 min.)

 

 VIDEO: "Why the 'Lone Wolf Operator' will Die (1): Breaking Contact"
Max Velocity Tactical (7 min.)

A Couple Videos On Ambushes

Here are a couple videos that address conducting ambushes from a military perspective. The first video goes over the general tactics involved in conducting a military ambush. The second video discusses whom to target in an attack (or even defense), but seems particularly appropriate to an ambush.

I would note as to the second video that the host's list is drawing from what is in military manuals and not from combat experience (in fact, he specifically disclaims any military experience). I would suggest that some provision needs to be made for a drone operator, if present, although I'm not sure of the priority for a drone operator. It seems that they should rank with a K9 operator or even a crew served weapon, though, since the drone(s) will either be to track or to deliver an explosive payload; but if they are controlling a drone already in the air, they should be given the top priority as they may be in communication with another unit or already tracking/targeting the ambushing party.  

 VIDEO: "Basic Fundamentals and Principles for Ambushing"
Brent0331 (37 min.)

 

 VIDEO: "MACV-SOG Priority Target Considerations : Who Should You Engage first?"
The Strapped Woodsman (8 min.)

Weekend Reading #50

 Some longer and more involved reading for weekend:

•  Jon Low has posted a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter. For those of you doing homeschooling or wanting additional resources for university/college courses, he begins by providing a link to OpenStax which has educational resources. Some additional items:
• He includes an email from Jeff L. Gonzales on situations you might encounter if you are caught up in an active shooter situation and valid responses to each. 
• Some points from Joe Shahoud on why you need indoor cameras in addition to or before investing in outdoor security cameras for your home. It all comes down to better quality images, more likely to capture the criminals' face, and better information on what the criminals took from your house.
• Some words of advice for armed defenders: "It's really important to obey the instructions of Law Enforcement Officers.  It's really important to never reach for a gun while being questioned by LEOs.  It really important to never point a gun at LEOs."
• If you have an opportunity to work on or improve your church's security, Jon has linked to several articles on the issue (a few are grouped together, but there are also others in different parts of the newsletter so do a word search for "church"). He also includes articles on how the Jewish community has organized volunteer defense forces for synagogues and schools. We have admitted too many Muslims willing to engage in violence and persecution; the Left is becoming more violent. We've seen trans killers target Christian schools. The persecution will only get worse. 
• Jon includes the following quote from Massad Ayoob: "Ineffective and potentially dangerous, point shooting should be avoided at all costs and aimed fire employed in any lethal-force scenario." Absolutes are rarely correct all of the time. Point shooting was taught and practiced for a long time because most handguns had poor sights that were slow and hard to use in the daytime, let alone in the dark. But it took a lot of training and practice to be any good at much more than arm's reach. We have much better sights (or even red dots now) so it much better to use those sights. Nevertheless, we can't assume that just because shooters in the past did something different from today that they were being stupid about it. 
• I'm not the only with some critique of some points made by Ayood, because Jon explains why Ayood is wrong about the "crush grip" on a handgun: basically, that most people don't have sufficient grip strength or endurance to use a crushing grip. Jon states that shooters "must push with the firing side hand and pull with the support side hand.  This means, they must use the Chapman modification of the Weaver position, because you can't get this push pull effect with the isosceles position." Ayoob selected the isosceles stance because it was easy to teach to police officers. It also has the advantage of centering body armor toward a potential threat. But as noted, it has its issues. My opinion on the "crush grip" is that it is mostly needed when a firearm doesn't fit your hand very well and so you must make up for the poor fit by an excessively strong grip. It was the solution to my issues with my Glock 43X and is probably the reason why Glocks have a reputation for shooting low and to the left for right handed shooters. The interchangeable backstraps can help if your Glock has that option. But it is the reason that I detest handguns with a straight backstrap--they don't fit my hands.  
• Another good tip:

     Farnam teaches to turn around in a circle when scanning.  After some study and experimentation, I have concluded that this technique is in fact better than the quick check that we learned at Front Sight, which was to turn to the right until you can see behind yourself and then turn to the left until you can see behind yourself without moving your feet.  Because if you have limited range of motion, you can miss several azimuthal degrees behind you.  You may have limited range of motion and not know it, especially in high stress situations.  

     Rotating in a circle ensures you can see all the way around yourself.  Though it does require you to move your feet.   

 I'm okay with moving the feet. Being rooted to one spot can get you killed. 

•  An a link to "LVNR (Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint)" by John Farnam. Basically, how to choke out someone. 
• And on the same topic of unarmed defense, Jon has summarized comments in an lengthy email from  Tim Larkin on quickly disabling an opponent.

There is a lot more, so check it out.  

•  Next up, Greg Ellifritz at Active Response Training has a new "Weekend Knowledge Dump". Some notable links:
• "how to tell if men will attack you on the street." This is by a woman who Ellifritz describes as " a social scientist, researcher, and sex worker" where she lists some things she looks for to gauge whether the area where she is walking is generally safe. This is obviously directed toward women readers, but the points she raises are generally applicable to men as well.
• "Turn Practice Into Performance: A Practical Guide to Shot Timers." A guide to how to use a shot timer as part of your practice and training.
• Speaking of practice: "Your practice is producing rehearsal actors, not competitors." As Greg notes, this article is intended for sports generally but has application to shooting. Basically, it warns of building skill in practicing a drill because the drill does not necessarily transfer to real life (in the context of the article, an actual game meet or tournament; but in our context, a defensive encounter on the street). It has tips on improving your practice. 
• "INTEGRATED COMBATIVES | Why You Should Always Bring a Knife to a Gunfight." An article about ... you guessed it ... integrating knives into your defensive gun training. 
• "What is the Perfect Height Red Dot Mount?" Some advice on how high to mount an optic if you are primarily going to be shooting offhand (i.e., standing) or if using night vision goggles.  
• "Organized Street Crime in Plain Sight". This is a piece by a guy who ran down a thief who had broken the window of an SUV to steal some stuff. A good way to get stabbed, but the author lucked out. He chased the thief down and recovered the property. The 911 operator told him to let the guy go, so he did so, but still trailed the thief to see what happened. The next bit I found interesting:

... But we kept following from a distance so we could continue updating 911 with his location. And once I was no longer right on top of him, the thief stopped sprinting and started operating. That is the part most people do not understand. People imagine smash-and-grabs as chaotic, impulsive crimes, one desperate guy, one reckless decision, one lucky escape. What I witnessed was not chaos. It was choreography. He took off his shoes. Took off his shirt. Cut his jeans into shorts. Within thirty seconds, he looked like a different person. That is not panic. That is a practiced move. That is someone who has done this enough times to have a system.

But that is where things started to get dicey because the thief was not working alone: an enforcer showed up and threatened the author and his friend and told them to stop following; moments later, two seemingly homeless people threw a blanket over the thief; then after calling 911 again to give an update, two other people showed up and attacked them and tried to knock the phone out of their hands; and when the thief suddenly started running again, 5 people surrounded him in order for him to blend in. It reminds me of a similar incident several years ago in Seattle with a guy similarly trying to run down a thief who had stolen a laptop from a car and had a similar series of people intervene and interfere until the thief finally hopped into a vehicle and was whisked away. 

 There is more, so read the whole thing. 

VIDEO: Individual Movement Techniques

 Back to basics.  

VIDEO: "INFANTRYMAN'S GUIDE: Individual Movement Techniques (IMTs)"
Brent0331 (10 min.)

Jeff Cooper's Defensive Pistolcraft Videos

I don't know if you have seen this, but a YouTube channel calling itself the Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation has published a couple videos that are from a 1987 video tape series called "Defensive Pistolcraft" which was split into 4 volumes.  Each of the YouTube videos is about an hour and 48 minutes long. I haven't had time to watch them yet (they were only posted a couple days ago) but it looks like the first video has Volumes 1 & 2 and the second video has Volumes 3 & 4.  

 VIDEO: "Jeff Cooper's Defensive Pistolcraft Tape Series - Disk 1"
Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation (1 hr. 47 min.) 

 

 VIDEO: "Jeff Cooper's Defensive Pistolcraft Tape Series - Disk 2"
Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation (1 hr. 49 min.)

VIDEO: Individual Skills For Reacting To Contact

This video goes over the individual skills and actions for reacting to contact as well as an introduction to what a team leader would do. By individual skills, the video is discussing things such as how you should move, taking cover or at least getting low to the ground, different types of fire, etc. 

 VIDEO: "How to Survive a Gunfight"
Echo Mike (12 min.)

Rifle Setup And Use

Modern Tactical Shooting's video on "Best AR15 setup and Tactical Loadout for the prepared civilian" recently popped up on my YouTube recommendations. The video is from the perspective of civilian self-defense against two-legged predators or, if you live in a rural setting, protecting livestock. In other words, a defensive rifle, not a hunting rifle or "survival" rifle. Which makes sense since the author's background is special operations during the global war on terror (GWOT). 

    The host's focus is on the AR15 in 5.56 NATO/.223 since that is the most popular rifle for defensive use. He opens by discussing the best barrel length. His pick is a 14.5" (with a pin and welded muzzle device to bring it up to the legal 16") which he believes gives you the best balance between maneuverability and muzzle velocity. He does not believe you need more than 16" (i.e., a 20-inch) because it is becomes too unwieldy; and he believes that the shorter 10.5 or 11.5 inch barrels are more problematic both from legal reasons (it either must be an SBR or in a pistol configuration) and due to blast (he recommends not using these shorter lengths unless you have a suppressor). Nevertheless, he admits that most of the rifles he shoots have 16-inch barrels. 

    He also discusses bullet weights with his conclusion being that you should shoot what you can afford even if it is 55-grain (although he gives a nod to the 62-grain green tip because of its better ability to penetrate automobiles).  

     He also provides some thoughts on optics including a discussion of a realistic distances for self-defense and the distances at which you are practicing, with his final conclusion being that most people are going to be fine using a red-dot. He also gives some tips on using a red dot out to 500 yards. 

    He then goes into a discussion of plate carriers and chest rigs and why some of the setups he used in GWOT didn't work so well for his work as a civilian contractor and probably would not be the best choice for the home defender. He has some recommendations for something low-key.  

    The host was inspired to make his video after watching "How to use your Rifle In Combat" from the Echo Mike YouTube channel, which I've also embedded below.   

VIDEO: "Best AR15 setup and Tactical Loadout for the prepared civilian."
Modern Tactical Shooting (26 min.)

 

VIDEO: "How to use your Rifle In Combat"
Echo Mike (34 min.)