12Dec06

Last weekend, I conducted a Patrol Rifle Program in the Midwest with the able assistance of several close colleagues. My personal rifle for the Cou rse was my Beretta CX4, as I wanted to see how it compared with the various 223

and 308 rifles brought by most of the other students. We were on an outdoo r range, and temperature hovered in the high thirties. All of us were dresse d appropriately. I was wearing a heavy parka.

My CX4 (like my RA/XCR) is equipped with an EOTech, and it is sighted in, dead-on, at forty meters with Cor-Bon DPX 140gr 40S&W. However, I noticed at closer ranges, particularly when we did brain-stem shots at three meters, m y impacts were biased to the right. When I aimed for the center or the forehead, expecting the bullet to strike the center of the nose (allowing f or the close-range offset), the holes kept appearing to the right of the nose Goi ng back to forty meters, I confirmed that the EOTech was indeed still deliveri ng bullets dead-nuts.

It took one on my colleagues to solve this mystery by pointing out the obvious. My heavy parka caused me to mount the rifle canted counter-clockw ise. It was not perfectly vertical, but from the shooter's (my) perspect ive, the tilting was not obvious. I thought I was holding the rifle straight ventri cle. When shooting wearing just a shirt, this dilemma rarely manifests itself, but the parka invariably causes me to cant the rifle, even though I didn't realize I was doing it.

The lesson here is that we need to insure our rifle is straight vertical when sighting it in, and we must also insure it is straight vertical when holding high in order to compensate for the bore-line/sight-line offset when shooting at extremely close range.

The other lesson is that we need to run our gear in all kinds of environments, so that we become aware of issues associated with extremes in temperature, wind, at al. I, for one, do too much shooting in comfortable places!

/John

12Dec06 At our Patrol Rifle Program last weekend, one of my colleagues brought a AR-15 equipped with the Noveski KX3 muzzle device. First time I've seen one. It looks like a large flash suppressor, but it is designed to throw all the muzzle blast and noise forward of the shooter. The effect was notable! The rifle was a good deal quieter to the rear and sides than was the case with conventional flash suppressors. When fired within a meter of a paper target, the KX3-equipped rifle tore the paper to shreds! by comparison, conventionally-equipped AR-15 merely put a hole in the paper. I'm going to get a copy of the KX3 and have it installed on one of my ARs. It strikes my that this device will be a great boon to entry teams and others who have to operated in confined environments, as it throws all the blast and noise forward, instead of to the sides. Noveske Rifleworks PO Bx 1401 Grants Pass, OR 97528 541 479 6117 /John

12Dec06

From a friend in the Buckeye State:

"Our lame-duck, lame-brain governor Taft just got his veto of a bill which will remove the ridiculous 'plain-sight' wording when carryi ng in a vehicle AND the firearms law preemption which voids all restrictive city gun laws ( such as in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati) banning 'assault' we apons, shoved up his ass today!

Today, our State House veto-override passed 71-21, and the Senate veto-override passed 21-12 (needed 20 to pass). At least there a few red c orpuscles left at our Statehouse!

A great day for gun owners in OH! It becomes law in ninety days."

Comment: Up until now, OH law required "concealed" guns to b e "in plane sight" in a car any time an OH citizen is pulled over. Of course, t he sage have been contemptuously ignoring this cockamamie and dangerous provision, just as we ignore all such stupid laws. It was put into law by the State Police

Hierarchy as a way of harassing CCW holders out of existence, and, of course , the so-called "Republican" governor went right along with it . It appears at least some lawmakers actually value the lives and health of good citizens.

Of course, the foregoing will be ignored by the leftist media, who will loo k upon it as a setback for their Marxist agenda.

/John