MORE RIFLE STUFF

I stopped by a local “Armory” yesterday to pick up another Magpul 30 round magazine for my M-4 Carbine in anticipation of attending a Law Enforcement Instructors course (NRA) for patrol rifle.  I really like these magazines. They are solidly made and totally reliable. Being polymer, dropping them doesn’t bang them up like it does aluminum G.I. types and they are lighter in weight. I’ve had a long association with the M-16 and yes let me tell you, you can tell a difference in the weight of various magazines outside of capacity of course. I was perusing the other merchandise when two gentlemen asked what rifle I was getting the magazines for and not knowing these fellas I just said “mine.” with my usual half assed grin. They told me at that point that they were sales reps for a well known tacticool equipment manufacturer/supplier and gave me a business card and coupon (which they both signed) for a substantial discount on their product line in store or on line. Conversation went to “tacticool” stuff. They said their business was “through the roof” and their corporate  HQ had had to expand. Cool….good for them. They reaffirmed what I had researched; that though sales of “tacticool” rifles was down at least 1/3rd across the board, accessories were up well over 150% from the previous year for them. Great. Lotsa AR’s are in home safes across the land. They asked what sling I use. I told em the one that came with the rifle. Of course, they had to show me their latest, greatest,” you can tow a 737 Jumbo Jet” single point sling. At this point I just said a sling is just a carrying strap and excused myself as their jaws dropped.

I learned in a very harsh environment that a sling is just a way to carry your weapon. Look, I realize there are some techniques of rifle marksmanship training that teach and have been taught since WWI how to use the standard G.I. issue (leather) rifle sling to steady your aim by wrapping it around your support hand. Great, but otherwise you use the damn thing to sling it over your shoulder. Just like the rubbers we got in our kit. You used them to put over the muzzle to keep rain and twigs and crap out of the barrel not  to prevent getting an STD from the Saigon B girls, and trust me; they were far more effective in the former role and rarely in the latter.

I see training videos with tape being placed over the muzzles. Try it. I can tell you that I have and it doesn’t work. The tape won’t stay on for more than a couple of minutes of being carried through brushy terrain or crawling through thorny vegetation or “come along vines” as we used to call them.

If you expose your rifle to any significant amount of time in the elements of Texas you’re gonna find that your strap will rot or fall apart relatively quickly from abrasion, humidity, sun exposure, sweat or all of the above. Few if any riflemen give their sling any kind of maintenance, and I doubt if any have ever read the instructions for care and cleaning when they bought it or took it out of the box.

If you have an M-4 with the standard collapsible stock; you can single point the sling you get or as I say “short 2 point” it by putting the thing on the mount holes at the rear top & bottom of the stock. A lot of so called “experts” say you should take a hammer and punch and get rid of the front sling swivel underneath the front sight on AR/M-4 rifles. Don’t!!!!! On any firearm, I don’t give a damn if it’s pistol, rifle, or anti-aircraft gun; DON’T REMOVE PARTS THAT WERE ORIGINAL TO THE DESIGN OF THE GUN!  If it ain’t broke…..don’t fix it.

When you start putting accessories on an M-4 carbine or AR-15 after-market; they will get heavy quickly. Optics/red dot sights (w/batteries), vertical grips, quad rails, lights, mounts and lasers when combined will up the weight by 3 or 4 pounds. Add a 30 round mags and two or three more and you’ve got a substantial load. Great if you’re a SWAT officer or Infantryman otherwise you’re just being “TACTICOOL” and man; where you carrying all those extra batteries you’ll need?

Hey it’s great that you can have all these things so get them and hang em on the guns while you still can. I’ll say again that these rifles are not the best in the house defense weapons. A shotgun is much better , but the hairs on the back of my neck are starting to pop up again over the whole “Gun Control” thing. The vaunted efforts of the NRA have won exactly SQUAT! In the two big cases “D.C. v Heller” and  “The City of Chicago v Mac Donald”  Even though the Courts ruled in favor of the Second Amendment right of individuals to have firearms it also left a typhoon sized grey area in the form of “reasonable regulations”….those regulations are in the form of incredible red tape, exorbitant fees, and registration requirements. If Da Prez-O-Dent gets elected again and his tilting of the Supreme Court takes hold, AND he keeps idiots like Holder, and Napolitano,et al in place, man we’re gonna get “phuq’d” as gun owners and prices are gonna skyrocket again and panic buying will show up again making lots of items very hard to get. Keep your eyes and ears open for the warning signs of the impending and I believe now, inevitable assault on the Second Amendment and private firearms ownership. A mass shooting by some “nut job” who twists off at a mall, school, or workplace, or some terrorist/homeland security, national security issue  will set them off screaming for more regulation by way of gun control on the law abiding citizen and certainly not on the dirt bag criminals who love gun control cause it makes their job that much easier. Beware! I think it’s coming.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR…   OUT