Magpul Industry P-Mags don’t have Magpuls?
Another Marine Battle.
BATTLE ERUPTS OVER MARINE CORPS TRAINING DOC THAT CITES ‘LACK OR LOSS OF SPIRITUAL FAITH’ AS POTENTIAL SUICIDE RISK FACTOR
Might not be a popular concept, but it pans out. The wicked taketh the truth to be hard.
Working with vets suffering from PTSD showed me very clearly that Servicemen who had faith, then went through the trauma and lost it – are truly at great risk. Having faith to begin with helps a great deal. Because there is a huge aspect of Self Worth for the individual soldier and faith helps one feel his self worth. Doesn’t matter what your faith is – You don’t have to be issued a religion. But a Belief is powerful here. I think a great many fall because The Adversary tears a marine’s or soldier’s faith down, then tears down their self worth… then he has them. If they keep the faith, then that armor protects them.
Now the Adversary wants to regulate the Faith out of the Soldiers and Marines. Which is only going to result in more suicides, more pharmaceutical treatments, more mental health cases that cause loss of gun rights and more institutionalization where all of it could have been taken care of with Faith.
Shooting fast
There is a tidal movement to shooting pistols as quickly as possible. Instructors and wannabe “Know It Alls” are using 9mm to accomplish this. More bullets, smaller and lighter… rapid fire. This movement was very slow at first. Then The Art Of The Dynamic Handgun video came out. Haley and Costa rocking those M&P’s like they were SMG’s looked cool. Then all the sudden everyone wanted to shoot like that. Who wouldn’t? Those guys look like rock stars doing it.
Some instructors I know have been teaching that stuff for some time, but MagPul videos really did open the flood gates.
I understand the arguments and theory surrounding the use of 9mm and shooting fast… and that’s all fine and well. I can shoot that way myself if I want to… Even with a .40. However, I find myself moving more and more to bigger and harder hitting rounds. Slower fire but well aimed. Heavier for caliber load selections, bigger bullets, make the shots count. Shooting the 9mm’s the other day… 9mm Just doesn’t do it for me. Oh, I know all about the Modern Ammo. You know what? That Modern Ammo is really good in bigger calibers too.
Yes, I know all about Ballistic Gel Penetration comparisons. However that isn’t the whole picture when it comes to wound trauma and terminal ballistics. It’s not the whole picture when it comes to barrier penetration and deflection. Those Gel numbers are engineered, people. The results are just what the ammo companies want you to see. To get those numbers some loads are hopped and the others are neutered. Some rounds open more and others slower so those penetration numbers look great in the gel tests. Again – these Gel results are engineered to show just those results. Why? To sell ammo of course. “See, our 9mm is just as good as the rest.”
Porsche does the same with their sports cars. Boxster, Caymen, 911. The Caymen being detuned to fall perfectly in between the two other cars… when it has all the potential to beat the 911. But that’s another story.
I remember an incident where 9mm pistols were being fired at a windshield… the bullets were glancing off. One round of .45 Auto, fired by a steady hand penetrated that windshield and ended the situation. There are also incidents of 9mm failing to really even jostle a maniac when it impacted. FBI Miami Dade, anyone? Bank of American LA, anyone? The search for Magic Bullets is now as it has always been, an attempt to find a Unicorn. Don’t glue a paper cone on the head of a goat and tell me that’s its a Unicorn. I’m not buying it. Not even if you run a whole herd of them past me as fast as possible. They still look like goats with paper cones on their heads.
As far as “Fast” goes, fast is good. But fast follow up shots are not as important in a gun fight as the first round. That first shot is the most important shot you will take in any engagement. It needs to be made fast. But not at the sacrifice of accuracy. Shot Placement remains critical. Using a smaller round that can be fired at a higher cadence, if that’s your beat, that’s fine. I’m more Heavy Metal than Techno. I’d rather have slower heavier beats. See, I hear so many guys say, yeah but I’m more accurate with 9mm. I call bullshit. I’ve seen many guys who advocate shooting as fast as possible… cant keep a group. Why? Because they are losing the front sight and jerking that trigger like a 14 year old with a Playboy… They are giving up the Fundamentals in favor of Rapid.
Bullets hitting tissue is a rather predictable science. The only variables are the vector through the anatomy and the barriers the projectile have to penetrate before hitting that anatomy. The bullets all pretty much have the same effect. Displacing fluid (like rocks hitting water) and tearing and pulverizing the permanent wound channel. Bigger heavier rocks displace more fluid. That’s just a fact. Try it out at your closest body of water. That water gets displaced and then it comes back. In water, you have some cavitation effect briefly and what is left is the permanent wound channel that allows blood to flow out. The bigger the whole, and the more torn up that wound channel is, the more blood is going to flow out. That’s just a fact. And ask any hunter, the more blood you have flowing out, the less you have to track that deer. You put that wound channel vectoring through a heart, or CNS… Winner Winner Venison Dinner. That is meat on the table. For a defensive situation, that’s a Resolved Problem.
But then there is another problem. The fact of the matter is that no matter what school of thought you have – you remain legally liable for each and every round you fire. So I’m going to slow it down a notch. Fire a bigger and heavier bullet. And make sure those rounds go where I want them to go.
I know a few guys that can fire super fast, with accuracy. A few. And I’m not saying they should change… because that is working for them. But I’m just not feeling it myself using small calibers. I’m following Sun Tzu here. “Hit first, and hit so hard your enemy can’t hit back.
Sure, all handguns are less ideal than rifles or shotguns… but some are better than others. I’ll take my .40 calibers with my 180 grain loads. I’ll take my .45’s with 230 grain loads (when I used to prefer 185’s)
I think instead of drilling so much on Balance of Speed and Accuracy drills… I think more emphasis should be on the drills from the holster to the target from a Buzzer. Because that shot… that first shot right there is the key. You have to be fast on that shot. Before the threat can shoot you back or get to you with a knife, or cut the throat of a hostage or whatever reason you have that justifies the use of deadly force. I want to make the most of that first shot. I’m not looking at Gun Fight Averages here. Because most gun fights are 1 point something average or 2 point something. You know what they all have in common? That first shot.
Make the most of it.
Visited Academi (Blackwater)
Testing Guns
I hear and read the word “Testing” a lot in the gun community.
Stop it.
That word does not mean what you think it means.
You are not testing anything that hasn’t been tested already a million times over. “Trying it out” or “Plinking” or “Blowing shit up” are usually the more accurate terms rather than testing. They just don’t sound as self important. To some guys, every time they thumb a round into a magazine, they are “Testing”. No… No you are not. You are not applying any Scientific Method, recording results, or following any metric to make any comparison to anything else other than the last shot you fired, which was probably from a different stance with a different grip at a different empty Mt. Dew bottle.
Testing is boring. It is all about observation and control and measurement. Running your mags dry as rapidly as you can generally only turns money into noise and yields little scientific results.
Some guys hate the use of the word Clip. Well, we misuse the word Test a lot more and I’m starting to hate that too. I love how someone is doing an “Accuracy Test” yet only fire Remington UMC FMJ ammo. And then they do so free hand. You want to test accuracy? Really test accuracy? Read any article by Charles Petty. Look how he does it. He uses a Ransom Rest quite often, or when not available, sandbags the pistol in an effort to remove as much human error as possible. And then he fires controlled groups using 5 or more different loads. That is a test. That is boring as shit, but that is a test and that’s how you do it. As much as his articles are as thrilling as a Restaurant’s Menu, the information is good and solid because the man knows how to run a test.
I’ve read too many reviews from guys who should know better, who test accuracy and reliability with only 1 box of ammo. Just because your gun doesn’t like Remington UMC ammo doesn’t mean the gun is second rate. It only proves Remington UMC ammo is shit. I’ve had better consistency with Tula ammo. And don’t give me “Well if the gun can’t run UMC” line. Because crap ammo is crap ammo and has no bearing on the accuracy or reliability of the gun. Guns are Ammo dependent and are only as good as the ammo you run in them. In other words, if you are testing Crap, you are only running a Crap test.
This is why there are so many arguments on the Gun Forums about a gun. Because no one is Testing. Your experience with a Firearm and 1 box of ammo is too small of a sample size to base any judgement on. Don’t fool yourself. You have an Opinion based on a First Impression. Nothing more. Such a limited experience trying out the gun that belongs to a friend of a friend who let you run a Magazine or Two only gives you an impression based on whatever ammo he had in that caliber. And usually guys out shooting are not shooting “The Good Stuff”. But don’t tell everyone that you “tested” it. You got an Impression and nothing more.
Don’t get me wrong, guys. There are many suspicious Mt. Dew Bottles out there that need to be shot. That’s fine. Just don’t call it ”Testing”.
Differences…
There are differences between Utah and the East Coast.
1. Pretty Girls Riding Bicycles and Smiling. If you drive around Emerald Island, or pretty much anywhere along the East Coast that I’ve seen… you will see Pretty Girls riding bicycles. They are all over the place. And every one of them is smiling. At first I thought this was lovely, but the consistency has become disturbing. There is something Stepford’ish going on here. I don’t trust it. I stopped at a Stop Sign waiting for traffic when one of these Stepford Girls rode up and stopped next to me. She said “Hi” and smiled. She was gorgeous. I screamed and drove off in a cloud of tire smoke.
2. If you buy Grits and the Grocery Store the Cashier doesn’t look at you funny.
3. They have Grits at the Grocery Store. The real stuff. Not Quaker Instant.
4. BBQ is a Serious thing and it’s not to be taken lightly. Do not – Do NOT – ask for Ketchup at a BBQ place. I witnessed this happen to a guy who had New Jersey plates on his car. The establishment’s Pit Master damn near jumped the counter. No, I mean he was half way over when other people in the kitchen caught him and dragged him back. I believe this is where the term “Ruckus” comes from. The New Jersey Guy was ordered to leave or he’d be thrown on the grill next. He left. Very quickly.
Also, going along with this… Don’t be from another region and try to boast that your region’s BBQ is better than the one you are in. You just eat your BBQ in the manner of the locals and shut your dirty heathen mouth.
5. People will Abide. In Utah, people are always in a rush. No matter where or when, they are always in a rush. No one just takes a moment to enjoy where they are at. If there isn’t something going on, their noses are in some Electronic Device. Here on the Coast, I’m seeing people just kicking back, taking in the awesomeness of their surroundings. I did this myself. Just sat on a bench by the docks, and watched the boats and people and the sea birds… You know what? I could do that every day for the rest of my life. It’s nice to just… Abide. Turn off the Cell Phone. Turn off the MP3 Player… and just be where you are. People will do that here. They don’t do that in Utah.
My next book’s Intro
As many of you know, I’m doing a series of books about getting into guns. This is the intro to the first one:
You are taking your first steps into a new world. Into “The Gun Culture”. Hopefully with a little coaching here those steps will turn into a run.
First off, we’ve got to define what that Gun Culture really is. Because the Mainstream Media will have you believe that the Gun Culture is full of banjo playing, illiterate racists. This is not the case. For the last (almost full) decade I’ve been selling guns at what is my favorite gun store in Utah. I’ve sold some guns to people that, yes, could be called banjo playing illiterate racists. But I’ve sold far more gun to people who can not be categorized and labeled so the Media can easily dismiss them.
The best defensive handguns in the world
1. Glock 23. .40 cal.
2. Caracal C .40 cal.
3. S&W M&P .40 Sub Compact.
4. Springfield XDM 3.8 Compact .40 cal.
5. Glock 19. 9mm.
6. S&W M&P Sub Compact 9mm.
7. Caracal C 9mm.
8. Glock 29 10mm.
9. Glock 30 .45 Auto.
10. Springfield XDM 3.8 Compact 9mm.
This list is going raise a few eyebrows. There are many popular guns that are absent. But this isn’t my tipping the hat to the popular. If I was to do that, then this list would have SIG’s, 1911’s, H&K… You know… the guns that are out dated, with cult like followings, premium pricing, and shortcomings for defensive use.
I’m looking at the best options for today and tomorrow. Feel free to disagree.
You’ll notice that I favor .40 cal over 9mm. I also favor the midsized options.
How’s that working out for you Prez?
If we elect Barack Obama as President the entire world will love us. That was basically the promise the DNC made America. Everyone in every nation around the world will love us.
Obama cottels, aides and abets Extreme Muslim groups around the world. Financing them and even giving them weapons. Because he’s Obama and they will love America then.
Now we are closing Embassies around the world.
Tucking our tails GLOBALLY. Obama is showing us his ass. Not just showing us his ass… But right there at eye level like a cat walking away… With a Press Conference. “LOOK AT MY ASS!”
People… His plan isn’t working. None of his plans have worked. The Democrats plans never work. Look at Chicago. Democrats Gun Free Utopia. Murder Zone USA. Look at Detroit. Bailout City! These plans don’t work. Liberal Ideology Doesn’t Work.
500 Times
Growing up as a “Gun Guy”, remember hearing Instructors – especially LEO Instructors – always say that you need to practice your Draw 500 times with your gun and your holster. They would continue to preach this for years. 500 Times. 500 Draws. And if you changed your gun or your holster, or changed where you wore your holster, you had to start over. 500 times again.
Later instructors were talking about “Muscle Memory”. Which is an incorrect term, but it illustrates the principle. Many people these days always like to point out that Muscles don’t have Memory. And as this has come about, the old idiom of 500 Draws has gone out the window. Why bother with the repetition if Muscles don’t remember? They say, “You are building a Habit, not a Memory. And you only need to do things 26 times to develop a habit.”
I think because of this, something is lost. The Shaolin Monks practiced repetition like Machines. This reminds me of a story.
A young boy in China left his poor village in the country to apply to become a monk at the famed Shaolin Temple. After the long and arduous journey he was turned away at the gates of the temple. Knowing that his perseverance and patience would be tested, he sat outside the gates. Days went by and then weeks until at last one of the older monks let him in. He was interviewed and tested by the senior monk and was finally accepted as a junior monk. He was elated, and when word got back to his village everyone there was elated. The Shaolin monks were famous for their skills at martial arts, and no one from any nearby village had ever been so honored as to be accepted at the temple.
His first night at the temple the boy could hardly contain his excitement. He dreamed of learning fabulous sword forms and acrobatics…he couldn’t wait for his first lesson the next day. When the next day finally arrived, he was ordered by the chief instructor to carry a large wooden pail down the mountainside to a stream, fill it with water, and bring it back up to the temple. The boy did as instructed, but it was a huge struggle for him to drag the heavy bucket all the way back to the temple.
When he arrived much of the water had splashed out. The instructor poured out the remaining water and ordered the boy to return, this time with the bucket full. The boy again filled the bucket and managed to get most of the water back to the temple.
“Good,” said the instructor. “Now stand beside the bucket and with your palm slap the surface of the water. Repeat that until there is no water left.”
The boy again did as instructed. He felt perhaps he was being punished for spilling the water, or further tested to see if he had the perseverance and discipline to train as a Shaolin monk. After just a few minutes his palm was red and burning from slapping the water but he continued until all the water was gone.
“Good,” said the instructor. “Now go get another bucket of water and do it again.”
This went on all day, and to the boy’s horror the next day, too. Then the next day, and the next… and soon weeks and months were going by and all the boy did was carry the big bucket of water and slap all the water out of it. Often the boy felt he was being made a fool of, sure that he had done something terribly wrong to make the instructor hate him so much. But there was no one to complain too – all the older monks were busy practicing their fancy spear forms and sword forms and acrobatics.
After a year the Buddhist holidays arrived and the head monk called the young boy into his office.
“Young man, you’ve been here for a year. Now I want you to take a break and visit your family for the holidays. I’ve notified them that you’re coming, and I’ll expect you back here in two weeks to resume your training.” When the villagers got word that the young Shaolin monk was returning they were overjoyed and decided to hold a big celebration in his honor. When the boy arrived at his village he discovered a huge banner over the main road welcoming him home, and he found that the villagers had roped off an area in the village square for a celebration in his honor. His pride at returning as a Shaolin monk quickly faded as he realized they wanted him to demonstrate his martial arts skills in the roped off area.
He told the excited villagers that he preferred not to but they insisted and wouldn’t take no for an answer. The humiliation grew in the young boy. Indeed he had been made a fool of by the head instructor. In a whole year he hadn’t learned any martial arts at all. Now he was about to lose face in front of his entire village.
The villagers dragged him to the head table and yelled and shouted and urged him to show them some real Shaolin kungfu. He stood motionless with tears welling in his eyes and his face reddening, ashamed to tell the villagers that he had learned nothing. Finally the frustration grew to be too much.
“Leave me be,” screamed the boy as he slammed his hand down on the table. Everyone stood silent and wide-eyed for several moments… and then they all broke out into a loud applause. When he slammed his hand down, he had broken the thick stone table right in half!
And then the boy and everyone in the village knew the power of the Shaolin.
There is something to this story for us today. Patience in training is no longer the vogue. Few classes want to spend time in the actual repetitions required in many of our techniques. The Draw. The Speed Reload. The Malfunction Clearing. The Reholstering. I see few people at the Range ever just practice their draws and reloads. You don’t want to spend 200 to 800 dollars for a class from a big named trainer just to stand there and repeatedly draw and reload and reholster without firing a shot. But perhaps we should.
Each one of these things requires massive amounts of repetition to develop into a smooth movement that you don’t have to think about it. It’s become a force of habit. Instructors used to say “500 Times”. How many times did the little Shaolin Boy slap the water?
So many Shooters want to be so Ninja that they practice the “high speed, low drag” things and argue the merits of where to put your support hand on your rifle or where to position your thumbs. But they do not talk about how many times you need to practice the core fundamentals of your draw, punching out to the target, reloading, and reholstering. This stuff isn’t Ninja enough. No. It’s more Shaolin. We need to be more Shaolin. We need more patience. The more we learn, the more we know we need to learn more.
A new student has his first private meeting with the master. The student asks, “Master, how long will it take me to learn your wonderful art?”
The master gives some vague answer, so the student presses further.
“Can’t you give me some idea of how long I will need to train?’
To quiet the student, the master replies, “Ten years.”
The student reflects on this a moment, and then says, “I’m very smart and talented, and I’m going to be the hardest working, most disciplined student you have ever had. In that case how long will it take?”
The master replies, “Twenty years.”
Never Stop Training.