Rifle Comparison

27 Aug 08

Rifle comparison, from a friend and Instructor:

"I have now run 2,000 rounds of Wolf and Chinese steel-case 223 through my Sig/556. Not a single hiccup! I mostly use MagPul's P-Mags. Utterly reliable. My 556 is equipped with Samson BUIS, as iron sights that come on the rifle are poor. Like you, I have removed the right-side lever of the ambidextrous manual safety.

This is a great rifle, but pricy. Total retail for rifle and accessories was $2,000.00, and, unlike you, I don't have an expensive optic, like a Micro-Aimpoint or EOTech!

For comparison, I purchased a Romanian Kalashnikov (7.62X39) with a half-dozen Chinese magazines. So far, I have 1,500 rounds of assorted, foreign, trash ammunition through it. The rifle effortlessly digested it all with no burps. It came with an sling that is not fancy, but surely adequate.

Rifle, plus magazines, cost $500.00!"

Comment: There are many wonderful choices in serious rifles, from relatively inexpensive to really expensive! Stick with good equipment, take reasonable care of it, and it will serve you well, even the lowly Kalashnikov!

Nearly every American can have a legitimate, functional, and reliable, fighting rifle. No reason not to!

/John

Taser Story!

27 Aug 08

"Less-Lethal" options, from an LEO friend and Instructor inNM:

"Last week, I Tased a domestic-abuse suspect when he declined to'play nicely with others.' We were confronting him in his girlfriend's house. Yes, he went to jail that night, but not before he stampeded me into some closet doors, while my Taser was connected to him, and running! The darts were anchored to his torso and separated by ten inches.

Sometime during his second, five-second ride, he finally decided that being Tased was sufficiently disagreeable to precipitate a surpassing behavioral change on his part. My partner and I then got him hooked up and transported without additional impedance.

As a result of his attempt to tackle me, I had to go in for a chest x-ray that evening. He was a beefy guy, and it felt like a truck when he hit me! As it turns out, nothing on me was broken; just a few bruises.

No doubt that, had I not used my Taser, we would have had to subdue this suspect with OC, baton strikes, or some combination thereof. It would likely have been much more unhappy, for all concerned. So, I'm not complaining about Tasers.

However, I discovered that night, that no 'less-lethal' weapon constitutes a miracle-cure! I was unprepared to believe that this suspect would be able to charge me while being Tased. Of course, even multiple impacts from handgun bullets often don't stop fights instantly either!

Most likely, a violent suspect will continue to do whatever he was doing prior to being Tased/shot/OC'ed/batoned/bean-baged, et al, until his mind finally catches up with what his body is experiencing! Sometimes the process takes longer, much longer, than promotional videos/literature would have us believe!"

Comment: Tasers work great, far better than most other less-lethal options. But, all of us who are armed with them need to avoid/shun naively unrealistic expectations! We need to use stand-off distance to our maximum advantage and be fully prepared to escalate to lethal back-up instantly, when required.

Violent suspects aren't scripted, and this isn't Disneyland!

/John