John Farnham writes [via ammoland.com]: Last weekend, a student brought an H&K MR762A1 Rifle to my Armed Response to a Terrorist Attack training course last weekend. It’s the commercial version of H&K’s 417, a gas-piston, autoloading, military rifle in 7.62×51 (308) with an “AR profile.” My student fitted his long gun with a 6x ACOG optic (6×48) mounted on the upper receiver.
Like all ACOG optics, the 6×48 is rugged and thoroughly militarized. It’s also bulky, heavy, and pricey ($2,500.00). The reticle is a glowing, orange triangle with assorted other aiming points, designed around the 308 round. Reticle illumination is self-powered, so the optic doesn’t require batteries.
I’m sure the combination of rifle and optic would turn-in a superb performance at 300m-600m, but we were shooting in heavy brush, in the rain, in low light, at targets from twenty to thirty meters. Targets were steel silhouettes, ensconced within fall foliage.
Guess what? My student could not find the targets in his scope!
To be sure, the task was challenging for Aimpoints and EOTechs too, not to mention the best iron sights. But the rest of my students (so equipped) were still able to do it with significant success. The second day, my student removed the 6×48 ACOG from his rifle, and ran with iron sights. He did slightly better. At least he could find targets.
High-magnification optics are convenient for making out downrange detail. As Jeff Cooper put it, they don’t improve your shooting, but they do enable you to see better than would be possible through iron sights or zero-magnification red-dots.
Through high-magnification optics, you get to see “a lot of a little.” For that privilege, you inherit considerable bulk and weight. Plus, all such optics are eye-relief-critical, and thus must be mounted so that they are just a few centimeters in front of your sighting eye.
Bottom line: the rifle and optic combination described above, wonderful though it was, proved itself unsuitable to the close, rapid, 100-meters-and-closer, low-light-in-the-cold-rain shooting that we did.
Red-dots did much better. And, for those with young eyes, iron sights run just fine also, be they Western-style or Soviet-style.
The lesson learned by all present was:
1. You have to run your gear, and yourself, under realistic, even harsh, circumstances, before you can be sure it will serve you adequately.
2. No one piece of gear, no matter the configuration, does everything well. You give-up some capabilities to get others.
3. When you can’t predict the challenge, high-specialized gear is usually contraindicated
I guess most would say it’s a lack of “live” targets, it seems people aren’t as enthusiastic as they once were. (sarc)
I guarantee many will say it’s the cost associated with and time needed (mileage/other responsibilities) to visit the range plus they are disappearing in some areas. With many living in urban/suburban locales which typically have ordinances against discharging firearms on your own property people just don’t have the opportunities to practice as much as they once had that is unless you own some acreage or reside in a rural area.
I agree with the sentement, but i would add that there are ways to practise around this particular problem, at least while in an offhand position.
Hold your left hand up at the ready, note what is behind the v between your thumb and the stock. Lift rifle straight up into shoulder. Observe where you see through your scope vs what was behind your thumb. If you are far enough out then you might need to pick a new spot, but with practise you can find your target fairly quickly.
Why isn’t this hand gun equipped with a safety ?
What a shock, Farnham has a negative story with an HK in it.
The Delica and Endura with the Emerson wave are the best “Emersons” without having to pay the price of an Emerson. While I love the Combat Commander I have, I tend to carry a $65 Spyderco Delica wave as it’s faster to draw than any automatic knife available, holds a great edge and are nigh indestructible.
I went with a 4x on my ar10 and I’m satisfied with it. Usually I run 1 to 2 x and rarely dial it to 4. I actually use the iron sights a lot, it’s imperative to be able to use iron sights in case your scope gets broke or you are in light to low to use it.
Nehemiah 4
New International Version (NIV)
Opposition to the Rebuilding
4 [a]When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”
4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of[b] the builders.
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. 9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.”
11 Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.”
12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”
13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.
16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah 17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.
19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. 20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!”
21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out. 22 At that time I also said to the people, “Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and as workers by day.” 23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.[c]
I tought I saw a puddy tat! I did! I did!
Sounds great for if a sudden ice age happens.
Some us work for a living unlike you worthless welfare queens. When you work 40+ hours a week it gives you 16 hours or less of real time off. Thats not a lot of time. Period.
Fake news! Sad!
Never have so many died for what has become so little.
I’m old-school and stick with iron sights (albeit target sights).
Don’t knock the guy just because he can afford nice gear. His magnified and heavy setup may not have been the best choice, and maybe he had 20 AR’s in his safe, so what, he wanted to run the MR+ACOG. At least he is out there exercising his equipment and taking training. There is no rule that requires mediocre equipment in order appease the other range commandos and KISS preaching instructors. I have run all kinds of “different” gear in training scenarios to learn what works and what doesn’t. I am sure the ACOG guy learned a few things too and that what training is all about.
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Hope that’s not a hair trigger!
My first Spyderco was plastic clip Delica. My wife carries it today. Then I started carrying Military. When my knife got too rough for EDC, it started second life as my work tool. I work in construction and the knife gets lots of heavy use. So far I’m on my third Military.
“Put the phone down, Johnny. I’ve got my gat trained right on you.”
“Not only that, you’re pointing a gun this way too!”
A Brazilian wax and some packing tape. No need for fancy and expensive holsters.
I still remember shooting to qualify with my M-4 just before my first deployment.
We were zeroing on the short range paper targets.
fired 3 rounds, waited. Range cold. Walk up to the target.
I got 6 holes in the paper.
Staff Sgt looks at me, I look back confused- “I shot 3 rounds!”
Butter Bar LT. next to me has an M-4 with:
EOTech holo sight.
AN/PEQ-15 laser designator.
side rail mounted “tactical entry light” (Bright, and strobe light)
A fore grip mounted normal flashlight.
All told- his weapon takes 10 batteries!
And he shot MY target!!
Me? Flat top reciever with 3-9 power sight, and BUIS.
Staff SGT looks over, and puts a red sticker on Butter Bars’ target. “Aim for the red dot, sir.”
Lt. mopes back to firing line.
I’m trying REALLY hard not to laugh, because I just made Specialist……
Never carry a gun that uses more batteries than ammo!
And how are the guns to be seized if the owner objects? With force, of course. Deadly force is certainly on the table. So to protect someone who is suicidal, the state will kill him and celebrate the operatives who do it.
That reminds me of a certain village in Vietnam that the government had to destroy in order to save it. Same overreaching, vicious state; different day.
But as Alexander Solzhenitsyn once wrote: “What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?”
It might come to that.
No amount of “help” or prevention is going to stop a suicide, unless that person wants help and is willing to do what it takes to be helped. In the long run, the person who wants to die will do so, one way or another. And they have final ownership of their body and mind anyway.
In kalifornia, if a collector with many guns has a vindictive erpo filed and firearms siezed the authoritas will only return firearms at the rate of one a month with forms and NICS check for each gun. If you have a large collection it could take a lifetime to have it returned.
Further, I have seen atf confiscate guns based on a restraining order having been issued. The atfholes remove the guns from the boxes and cases and toss (throw) the guns into a barrel. The implied objective is ALWAYS to destroy or reduce the value of the weapons.
Politicians that have supported this type of legislation are TRAITORS. Period. and they lied when then took their oath to protect and uphold the constitution. Long past time to water the tree of liberty liberally
Looks a bit like Minecraft meets Skyrim.
The problem with “spot” is the minimum $150 a year subscription service. Ok if you use it a lot.
Otherwise gps and / or compass ( I also carry spare battery for gps) will get you home if you think about what you are doing.
Breaking news: RINO Okie tells Texans their business like he knows better.
In related news: today is a day ending in “y”.
Clackamas, well I will be,my sons a park ranger there. I’d call him up and ask him about it, but he voted for Sanders and I voted for Putin( write in). That little girl and the deer hunt was sweet, what a cool family, God bless. Getting lost, strangely in the wilderness it’s never happened to me, however I can walk in a large building ,high rise, hospital,ect , go to door 69 on the ate th floor and never find my way out
I never imagined that under there!
Nothing of substance will come of this latest frenzy of bloody shirt waving.
I correct myself. What will happen is more folk that don’t own a gun yet will buy one so that they can have a chance to protect themselves and their loved ones from the leftist loonies out there.
We rapidly approach the time when every home in America will have a gun.
Seems like Mr. Finley types with shotgun accuracy. I can see how that would be frustrating.
When I was a newbie licensee I went to a gun show and decided to buy the evil scary black rifle, an AR. While there, the guy selling it was insistent that my spelling and printing was perfectly filled out for record keeping purposes (this was on paper not electronic). He said the ATF prefers the forms to be well filled out. In the end I filled out the form probably 6 or 8 times making minor errors while trying to use my best hand writing. I think the guy at the show was more exasperated than I was honestly. In the end I managed to whip out a perfectly composed form with perfectly legible handwriting.
The life lesson I took away from that was to take my sweet time doing a 4473 and make sure it looks perfect. I never had a problem after that.
While some of them are indeed stupid, most are intelligent but just don’t want to deal with inconvenient facts. (“My mind’s made up, don’t confuse me with facts.”)
I recall a conversation I had recently with a couple of friends, one of whom is a fellow POTG and the other is a hyper-lib PhD research scientist. The conversation turned at one point to guns, and Friend #1 and I were discussing things like the relative merits of Glock v. 1911, pocket carry v. OWB, NFA trusts, Mozambique v. 2-2-1 FTS technique, etc. After a while Friend #2 (who’d been looking increasingly uncomfortable as the tenor of the conversation was making it pretty obvious two of us were probably armed), he interjected that he was really uncomfortable about guns, and that the more guns there were the more crime there was.
I asked him why he thought that, and he said, essentially, “well, it’s just obvious.” I said, “look, you’re a scientist. Doesn’t data matter to you?” — which he had to admit that it did. So, of course, I asked him that, if “more guns => more crime,” why has the crime rate since 1990 gone down by literally every metric, while during that same time the number of guns in circulation had increased dramatically? And, of course, during that same time period, the number of people carrying legally has also skyrocketed. So what’s the actual data for the proposition that in America, “more guns => more crime”? Needless to say, he had none.
Just to torture him a bit more, I asked him out of all the gun-related deaths in the US in the past few years, what category did he think accounted for the clear majority of them? (His guess: “domestic violence.”) I told him the suicides were far and away #1, followed by gang homicides (occurring disproportionately in Chicago, Detroit, DC, Baltimore), and that domestic violence was only a small fraction of the amount.
Ultimately, after a few minutes of being challenged (in a friendly way) in this fashion, he candidly admitted that he hadn’t ever seen (or looked for) any of the actual data . . . but that it didn’t really matter to him because he just didn’t like guns.
And that, of course, is what I think is really going on in the minds of most of the anti-gunners. They aren’t intrinsically stupid, they just have feelz that they don’t want contradicted.
i fucking hate games like this. i am so tired of the onslaught of “survival” games. i dont get how picking up weeds and berries for 10 hours is fun to some people.
OK, crack vial, crack lighter, *field notes*……so we know he’s legit.
That belt tho……..looks…….rather……’new’……