Rogue Elite

I would have to say that the vast majority of those that have anything more than a flashlight and optic on the M4 are probable putting something on our guns that we really don’t need, but just enjoy having on.   There’s nothing wrong with having an LWRCI upper with a quad rail or a MidWest quad rail if you think you can put it to use, but when we actually have to carry the Carbine for any real length of time, we’ll wish we could strip a few extra pounds of weight off the gun.  Many of our Staff have been attending competition shoots lately that have been really well run.   These events are everything from battle scenarios or even Zombie shoots.

Last  year in Pennsylvania we attended a Carbine shoot where the the attendees has to sign in at 8am and once they left the club house, they couldn’t drop off any gear and had to lug it all with them for the day.   All of the competitors were carrying M4 or AR15 variants and a few had AK rifles.    Ammunition loads were approximately 400rds of rifle and 100rds of handgun ammo.    I enjoy these events because we get too see some real hard use of tactical gear and tactical accessories.   We tend to not see things fail at these shoots because the competitors are in the higher class as far as skill and the types of firearms they use.   If you ever want to see what kind of optics work and which firearms and when things jam, go to a competition shoot at your gun club and sit back and watch.

I have to admit that I do read a lot of gun magazines, I guess it’s primarily to educate myself on what is out there as far as firearms and gear and see if there is anything ground breaking.   I remember when I could name about 5 or 6 good gun manufacturers, but now there are so many people making AR15 guns that I don’t think I could really say that I have a very good point of reference if I was going to give my critisism because not all of the direct impingement guns are the same.   There have been some productions with Springfield Armory XD guns when they first came out as well as a few others, but eventually the gun company gets it right.  I have never seen so many holster modifications done in the last 2yrs as I have before.   If you had a Sig 229 6yrs ago and get one now, and put a light on it, time for another gun holsters.

I guess the real question that we need to ask ourselves is do we want a tactical gun or a concealed carry gun?   Even that can become complicated if we start putting lasers on them which many are doing for small frame revolvers and semi-autos.   I took a training course using lasers and learned in the first 5 minutes that a laser has an extreme advantage over non laser guns with shooting around corners.   Anyone that has taken a defensive firearms course has learned to use cover, and limit the exposure when shooting around a corner, keep your feet behind cover and try to only move the barrel and your eyes around the corner.  With a laser, you can learn to keep your gun at one firing point and your head at another which gives your threat 2 things to think about if they want to return fire.

The .380 has now become one of the most popular CCW calibers.   I guess so many people are now being awakened to gun rights that gun manufacturers are catering to their desires for smaller concealeable weapons.   I’ve seen what the .380 caliber can do and in all honesty, the caliber is really a minimal caliber and you better do some real good thinking on how to effectively engage a target when you are carrying such a weapon.   It still amazes me that to this day, 90% of the people I know that carry a firearm have had ZERO formal training.   I would say that considering the fact that people are bigger today than they were 100yrs ago and that crack cocaine, PCP and other street drugs can make people bolder and stronger than ever, you better know that firing on a target until it’s down is something you better know about and not expect a one shot stop.   I’m sure I may be pissing off a few “experts” in CCW, but if I am going to carry such a weapon, I’ll have the gun unloaded on target A and expect to be moving and reloading for the expected follow up shots.

There was a shooting in the Phildelphia area in the last decade where a female police officer was killed by a bg with a .380, but it was a point blank direct hit to the head.  I hate to be so graphic, but that’s about what you’re going to have to expect this caliber to do.   I have heard of bullets not penetrating the cranium and a full magazine of .380 holding 6-7rds should be expect to be used on a target.   I’m starting to see some laser companies putting lasers on these small gun which IMHO may be a good idea to help in low light shooting.  Crimson trace laser grips makes them for Walther PPK pistols which are one of my favorite .380 guns.  I realize that many who carry a CCW may not consider themselves at high risk, but for anyone  in a high threat or high risk job, should seriously consider a larger caliber.    Depending on  your body size, Kahr and Kel-Tec make some nice pocket 9mm that are closer to what I would consider to be minimal calibers for defensive use.

There are a lot of words that get thrown around in the firearm industry that are fairly broad.    Tactical clothing these days may sound like BDUs to one person and 5.11 tactical clothing to another.    Tactical gear can mean anything from a folding stock to a knife, or a $1500 rifle scope.    The word “tactical” doesn’t really tell you what something is going to be used for in the field.    I have some pretty dressed down AR15 rifles that to some people, just look like violent weapons and scare them, while most of us that are familiar with the accessorized M4 Carbine, will find a A2 style AR15 to be  pretty bland.

The so called tactical clothing and concealed carry markets seem to be new markets and these terms get thrown around a lot but don’t really tell us much.  To the trained individual, they can spot a knife in the pocket and 5.11 style pants from a mile away and loads of pockets full of tactical gear and usually that’s a dead giveaway that someone is carrying a firearm.   Think about what purpose your clothing is to serve and adapt to it.   There are more than a few good clothing companies that are making concealed carry friendly apparel.

The vast majority of M4 Carbines I see at the range have optics that are top of the line.    Aimpoint and Eotech along with the Trijicon ACOG are probable the top 3.   All of these are good for a certain purpose which is mostly for close up fighting.   The Trijicon ACOG is more of a medium range combat optic depending on the type of reticle you choose.   They do have a line of red dot or even green dot optic options, also.   If you are are a weekend warrior and new to defensive shooting and tactical gear, I would suggest you think about this next statement, whenever you attach an accessory to your Carbine, think about what you would do if that accessory mount broke or the actual item failed.

When you mount your rifle scope, please do some research on how to properly level and mount it.  A properly mounted combat optic should not be over torqued and should have loctite on the screws.  I have yet to see a mount come loose on a gun that used loctite.   When you go out an spend $1000 on a combat rifle scope, ask yourself, what will you do and how will you remove the scope and aim it if the optic goes down.   If one your Trijicon rifle scopes takes a bullet, are you going to be able to see through it and still be able to lay down effective fire if you can’t see through it?  Even if you have a rifle scope that does not allow for co-witness, would it be a good idea to still attach flip up sights to the gun if there is room for them?  Always have a backup plan for your defensive carbine.

There seems to be a new craze in competition shooting in recent years.   I’ve seen more high school boys coming home from class with Zombie survival guides, the recent 28 Days later type movies and the doomsday virus outbreaks.    I guess IDPA has lost some traction to the present generation, but I’ve attended a few Zombie survival competitions and they were very good training events.   The best thing about it was the amount of tactical gear that I watched fail, and the number of really novice mistakes people made.   Out of the 5 stages I attended, there was 1 stage that we saw about 18 firearms go down.   About half of those were AK variants and they were mostly magazine related.  Some guys never knew how hard it was to do a tactical reload on an AK if there was a round in the chamber and a fully loaded 30rd magazine.  People found out what happens after firing off the 1st round and the magazine falls out.

Do search for gun clubs and shooting ranges in your State to find out if anyone is holding a Zombie shoot.   They usually occur in the September to October months.   Having some good tactical clothing that will securely hold your gear.   The Eotac Style 201 pants are my favorite because they hold 6- 30rd PMAGS and they are easy to run in.   Tactical vests like the Style 101 are not heavy and don’t make you feel like you are wearing a flak jacket.   There is a time and a place for different types of tactical vests, but mobility is important.  You may want to try getting your magazines loaded up with all of your gear and then try running 100yds with it and see what it feels like and if stuff starts to fly out of your pockets.   Mobility is extremely important.

There are plenty of things I’d love to throw on an M4 that would be fun to try out, lasers, grenades, IR, night vision ect.  but the reality is I really don’t need those, and with how much battery usage I would be using, I don’t really want to have to tack on another accessory that is gonna fail on me when I should really just operate with out it.    Battery life can vary depending on the type you use, but there have been big improvements in the last couple years.   The problem I see with people using lasers outside of their homes is that the laser is set for where the POI is at a fixed range and people that are less trained don’t realize that it’s not really going to improve your accuracy.

Rifle offset on the AR15 is something that needs to burn into a novice shooters head.  I can’t think of too many other firearms that have an offset like that and for close range fighting, especially in a hostage situation, you can easily miss your opponent and hot the wrong person.  Laser Grips Laser usage at close ranges, that are adjusted for POI within close ranges can be a help if you are using your home defense weapon, but for using lasers outside of your home, the bullet won’t hit where the laser dot is and is really just a guide.

Whenever we run a novice student through a carbine course, one of the first things we teach them after the basic saftey and shooting techniques is barrel sight offset.   Since so many people are using AR15 type rifles, there is a considerable distance between the place where a scope points its crosshairs and where the bullet is going to impact at close ranges.   Something like a Trijicon ACOG gives you a good idea of what people mostly use and we show crosshairs pointing at a dot and where the bullet hits approx 2 inches below that.   This really only has a purpose in showing a shooter what could be applied is using a firearm in self defense in a hostage type situation.

Since lasers have been improving and prices are coming down, we see them showing up more and more on handguns.   While I suggest people take a look at the price they are paying for them and do a lot of research on the durability of the product, a whole new can of worms emerges when sighting in your crimson trace or lasermax laser sights.   Depending on how your laser is mounted, there will be a windage offset that needs to be known.  Crimson Trace laser grips on revolvers can project from right above the grip area or there is a newer style that projects next to where the barrel line is.   Each have their pros and cons, but there is still an offset.   With new tools, there are always slight changes that need to be made to insure an operator knows that with distance, bullet impacts change.

I have had an above average level of firearm training, but I am very much aware that I’m no expert.   I think anyone that claims to be an expert tends to have the wrong attitude and will eventually fall victim to complacency.  There is a pretty well known youtube video of an “expert” showing students about firearms as he ends up putting a bullet into his foot in front of a class of school kids.   One of the most important things I have learned about close and personal fighting with firearms is rifle and pistol sight differentiation.   On a rifle you can shoot a bullseye at 300yds with your ACOG, but at 6ft, you might end up putting a bullet 3 inches over a bad guys forehead due to the barrel and optic offsets.

Laser grips are no different when it comes to knowing that you will still have an offset. Most laser grips sit high above the grips and off to the right side of a pistol.   This will give you a windage offset and will be something you will have to put some serious thought into before you set your zero.  I’d recommend thinking about this while measuring rooms in your home and knowing the distances you may be defending yourself in, and then taking the firearm to a range for zeroing.    I personally prefer laser grips that turn off and on with a grip button and do not need to be switched off and on.    Like lights on a firearm, sometimes it’s a liability to always be projecting something from  a given position.

I was not a big fan of putting flashlights on rifles until I started working in the field and realized that having a light on a rifle was the most practical thing to have with a firearm after having bullets.   It may sound funny to hear such a simple observation, but it’s true.    How many times during the day do you think you’ll need to pull a firearm for defense in your home and how many times do you think you may need it at night?  Most criminal activity occurs in low light and not having a light means not identifying your target.

Lights and lasers as they say, can go both ways.   The bad guy can see them and you can see them.   I put a crimson trace laser grips on my S&W and I believe I have increased the effective range and accuracy of the firearm by atleast 25yds.  Heck, I may attempt to hit targets out to 100yds with it and see how well it does.   I don’t think I’d ever use a 38 special at that range, but it’s always nice to know that it’s possible, but let’s be realistic.    Many novice shooters may feel more confortable knowing that the little red or green dot is approximately where the bullet is going to go and giving them this comfort level as opposed to spending 20hrs or more to teach them to be a bullseye competitor.   There are times where someone needed to acquire a weapon for self defense and sending them for 20hrs of training wasn’t practical.