All posts tagged M4 Carbine

Bans on gun stocks and accessories

I feel sorry for some of the people that are gun owners and are presently stepping into the word of AR15, AK or Mini 14 ownership for the first time and live in anti-gun States.  I have had some really bizarre conversations with friends in California and New Jersey that had to take AR15 or FAL gun magazines and have blocks welded into them so they couldn’t take more than 10rds.  To some people these sounds like a good thing, but the real problem is  you are taking something that is functional at a certain operating system and potentially messing the whole thing up.  Magazine capacity restrictions are like putting smaller gas tanks on cars to keep people from speeding.   The other problems that many in New Jersey or California and other States run into are gun accessories like flash hiders or folding stocks, these are all usually banned.

I find the whole issue about bans on gun accessories like bayonets and folding stocks to basically be about people trying to put band aids on your kids body parts where there is no bleeding expecting to stop another person from beating him or her up.    Nobody wants to talk about how most gun crime is from the drug trade which basically is a self inflicted problem due to our Federal Government getting involved.    Gun accessories like, bayonets, flash hiders, folding stocks,  collapsing rifle stocks have no bearing on reducing crime and putting people who are a threat to society in jail for long periods of time would have more impact on reducing crime than making law abiding citizens block 20rd magazines so they can only hold 10.

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5.45×39 upper receiver options

I recently got to witness the Smith & Wesson 5.45×39 in action a zombie shoot competition.   This upper has been on the market for a few years, but in all honesty I don’t know anyone that has actually put one to hard use.   I always thought that the direct impingement design didn’t lend itself very well to Russian ammo.  Many AR15 jam up and do not work very well with Wolf ammo and from my experience there are more FTF when mixing Russian ammo with American guns.    Not only do many of these guns fail to fire, the ammo is ditier and can cause failures to extract.  Sure you can always get around some of these issues by constantly cleaning,  but I wouldn’t expect my AR15 to be combat reliable with Russian ammo, especially when the round count gets up there.   We’ve sold a great many upper receivers in the 2010 and the Smith & Wesson 5.45×39 is the number one seller.

Smith & Wesson 556 guns were one of the best made guns in 2009 and many of my fellow firearms instructors will testify to this.   Even though there are still some issues with the DI type guns, the guns being made today are superior to the AR15 DI guns from 10yrs ago.   LWRCI has their own short stroke piston upper receivers in 5.45×39 , but from what I have seen in the firearms market, I don’t jump on the bandwagon with new guns until they’ve been out in the field for several years.   I saw changes to firearms from Rugers LCP and LCR  and even the Springfield XD guns were all slightly modified after being out for only a year.   Let the feedback from the end user determine which guns are better unless you want to be the beta tester.

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gun grips and bare hands

As we progress into the tactical accessories market, the more we realize that when we make  one change to a firearm there is a good chance we may have to make another.   For example, there are a lot of rifle scope and rifle stocks  out there, but one may feel too short in the summer when we are wearing a t-shirt, and the other may feel too long if we are wearing a heavy coat.   I still laugh when I hear people say that the AK was built for short people, when the reality was that it was designed for people wearing winter clothing, and that’s why the stocks are so short.

The M4 carbine stock is designed for people that are wearing body armor and may not fit into your shoulder very well if you are not wearing any.   These are minor things to think about, but just as we think about the type of holster we are wearing, we should think about what kind rifle stocks, and how we are going to be shouldering and using a Carbine or Rifle.   Anyone that has gone on any extensive hunting trip will gladly get rid of an extra 2-3 lbs of weight if they can which is why so many prefer a Mini 14 for hunting over a 5rd AR15 type of rifle.

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Some range observations about tactical gloves

I always had issues with using gloves with firearms which stems from my young adult hunting experiences.   The gloves you thought you needed for a hunting trip wouldn’t fit in the trigger guard.  Not only was this a safety issue, it was uncomfortableto hold the firearm because you actually had to squeeze harder just to get through the fluffy texture of the gloves.  The tactical gloves have different applications.  Some are full length which goes up the forearm, mid-lengths are a little shorter, and then there are shorter gloves that basically just cover the hand.   The thing you have to think about is these slight differences are about as relevant as wearing long pants, lightweight pants, and wearing shorts.

The only real difference that I find relevant to what type of tactical gloves to wear are fingerless or full coverage gloves.   Actually, there is one more thing to consider.   Many of the guys that work in tactical operations want the trigger finger glove cut off and this is something else to think about when selecting your gloves.  The Vickers tactical gloves have various cut off points for trigger fingers and will not split or tear beyond that point.   The A106 Duty gloves are only available in black, but the A107 are much a little heavier and give you more wrist coverage.  These will elimnate the need for changing out the trigger guard on your AR15 or M4 variant.

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gun cleaning on the road

I’m fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel and witness some hard core firearms training events.   I think it should be part of everyones training to know approximately how long people should go before doing gun maintenance because the reality hits you that you may be wasting your time if you are cleaning it too much.   There are many times when an instructor will just say that it’s time to lubricate your firearm, but not break it down.   I’ve heard from many of my fellow instructors that 80% of gun cleaning is unnecessary.   According to some posts I’ve read, some say that it can actually cause more wear and damge than not cleaning.

If you are shooting a precision rifle, cleaning the barrel is of the utmost importance, but we have to realize that even though our AR15 rifles or handguns may be accurate, if we are taking real defensive or tactical training, we gotta treat them like the combat weapons that they are meant to be.   That way we have a good idea how long they can go so we can gain their trust.  When we are choosing gun cleaning supplies we should also look into the portability of the items we are brining and if we are just risking ruining our range bag because the bottles are not meant to be carried around.   Otis gun cleaning kits are probable your only real option in this category of gun cleaning unless you assemble your own.

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Ass kicking gear

Original SWAT has grown as a company and we’ve been told that production has been way up in the last year due to the demand.   Original SWAT boots are meant for those that are actually out in the streets even though they do have an Oxford dress boot for more office type environments.   The tactical boots are very comfortable and to be honest, the first thing I noticed about them was that they were not as heavy as I thought they would be.   One other thing I really liked about them was the ability to change the insoles out.   I’ve toted an M4 Carbine with about 20lbs of other gear an ammo and after about 6hrs of standing with it on, I could really feel my fit getting sore.   The people at Original SWAT knew that even if the boots don’t wear, the insoles do wear and it’s best to design the product around the ability to swap this part in and out.

When we were at the Atlantic City Police and Security expo, we did a lot of browsing for products we were  interested in carrying in our show room.   We are very happy with the Eotac tactical apparel line basically due to the improvements we saw over the previous product lines and due to our customer responses but we needed to add to it with Original Swat Boots product line.   The Wilderness makes a great belt that our customers love to wear and even our employees.   Eotac has their own logo on some of The Wilderness belts, too.    When it comes to footwear, quality control is extremely important to us.   We’ve seen some pretty bad knock off tactical pants that either fell apart after hard use or were not user friendly.   We did  a lot of research and testing and asked around to our customer base on what type of boots we should carry.  The Original SWAT boots were the winner.

 

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Tools and accessories and practicality

Once we out grow the arguments about which gun is better than the other and which caliber has more stopping power, the next bit of squabbling is usually about accesories and gizmos.   There are absolutely higher quality tactical scopes and combat reliable flashlights like Surefire and Streamlight, but there are still credible debates about how much of a white light you should have on a firearm.    If it’s too powerful, you’re more than likely going to be draining batteries for more than what you need and a light can easily get in the way and begin to snag on things especially if it’s too big.

Tactical gear like rifle stocks like VLTOR and Magpul have a very good reputation from users and those that sell them.   We have very few complaints about durability and even though the average weekend warrior can put one of these on their Bushmaster or DPMS AR15, these tactical rifle stocks will last the life of the firearm.  When you are trying to decide on what to put on your AR15, think about everything you expect to use the firearm for and leave yourself some room for future modifications without having to overhaul the stock. If you think  you’re going to be putting a laser or flashlight on the gun, get the appropriate rail configuration.  If you are looking for long range shooting, a red dot or Eotech may not be something to put on your gun, just leave it setup for iron sights until you find the right tactical rifle scope that your money can buy.

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Tools and accessories and practical uses

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.

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Aim, hold and squeeze only gets you so far

Everyone learns to shoot at different levels, and we all basically figure it out at some point, but the fundamentals for shooting will always be the fundamentals.    There always little add ons that we can do when trying to improve our shooting skills and for those familiar with competitive shooting, without using a sandbag or a bipod, a good rifle sling can give you far more stability than just a good grip.   You have to learn the positions you need to get into and how to adjust your sling to the correct length, but I have watched people improve their off the bench accuracy dramatically.    You will get very good windage control if you are setup properly.

 
A new era of rifles are upon us, the M4 Carbine is probable the most commonly accessorized rifle out there, but there are some really well thought gun slings for it.  Blue Force gear rifle slings are probable our biggest sellers and have lots of good references from those in the sandbox.I always suggest quick detach slings because being that the M4 Carbine is meant for CQB, you may get in a situation where you are getting snagged or someone gets a hold if you and detaching yourself from your gear may mean getting away.   You may have to do some slight modifications to your AR15 when  you switch your traditional rifle sling over to a different configuration.

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M4 Carbine setup for murphy’s law

I’m sure you’ve done plenty of research into combat optics, which is the toughest and which reticle is best for you,  but are you setup for a backup plan if your sighting system goes down?   Using loctite on all of the places that need to be locked down does wonders for reliability, but in combat, sometimes your optics can get smashed or even shot.    There have been several advertisements showing up about ACOGs getting hit by bullets and even surefire flashlights that took bullets and still worked, but sometimes a broken scope that is loctited to your gun will become a nightmare in a combat situation if it is broken.

I personally do not like the idea of fold down front sights because I never thought the permanent front sight obscured my targets if I hed the gun right, but some people really don’t like the front sights there when using red dots or Eotech gun sights.   Quick detach rifle scope and rifle sights are becoming more common because this is a reality of combat.   I think this is being a little too anal, but if it works for them, that’s their decision.   I do see some people operate Eotech gun sights with no backup sights and I think it’ll  be a matter of time before they show up a range with dead batteries and realise that their gun is going to be as accurate as a blunderbuss.   If you set your cowitness sights up, you can use them as primaries or backups at any point.   Using fold down front sights is an extra step to getting your Carbine backup if the primary optic goes down, but that’s just my opinion.

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