Looking for a white light?
If you have ever taken a course at Thunder Ranch, one of the things you will hear from an instructor is to put a white light on your gun. I think there are valid arguments about how to use lasers and lights on a firearm, but there are mostly liabilities in not having a light available in defensive situations, especially in your own home. Why would anyone not put a light on a firearm in there house? Police are trained to move and turn lights off and on as they move white pretty much voids the argument that it gives the bad guys a place to aim, well, if the guy with the light spots the guy in the dark first, his gun is probable already pointed in the right direction.
If you wanted to, you can use duct tape on a lever action or a double barrel shotgun and use your grandfathers Radio Shack flashlights and it may do the trick, but for only another $25-$30 you can get a white light from Streamlight flashlights that won’t burn a hole in your pocket, and given modern advancements in battery and bulb science, you will save money on batteries in a very short time period, The new Streamlight flashlights called the Polytac have a C4 LED that are 2-3x brighter than other LED. I’ve done side by sider comparisons with my Surefire G2 and I do see the difference. These flashlights are easily attached to most modern flashlights and can be used on Combat rifles without problems.
The jacket may look heavier than it really is. I would suggest that you wear this in the Fall or Spring and use it as a surface layer and just add on base layer clothing is the temperatures get colder. We are discounting the Lizard patter jackets and the lizard patter Field Vest which also has similiar pocket designs. We have had virtually zero complaints about the fit of this jacket as long as the user reads our sizing guide and measure themselves properly. You will easily be able to carry fully loaded double stack magazines as well as flashlights and knives comfortable and not have to worry about printing. You will be able to carry small autos or j-frame guns in the outer pockets but I am not really a fan of carrying guns in coats, jackets or vests.
I first stepped into the world of tactical carbines after years of toting around an M16A2 for close to 10yrs. We basically had to clean and maintain our firearms daily when deployed and I often wondered what we might have been able to do during the day if we didn’t have such a high maintenance rifle. Looking back, I realized there wasn’t much else to do and this was something that we did to just occupy time. The M16A2 is not a very clean running firearm, but it can go for hundreds if not thousands of rounds without cleaning if it was lubed correctly from the beginning. In all of my years of service with the M16A2, and the years standing next to operators with AR15 rifles, I’d say 90% of malfunctions were bad magazines or improperly loaded, and bad ammo. The next was improper lubrication. It’s been a few years since I’ve been on the range during hunting season, but It was about 5yrs ago that I ran into an AR15 owner that said the key to running an AR15 reliable is to run it dry. Well, if you own an AR15 and you think this is true, I can’t help you.
When getting asked the question how many guns we own, the question should be asked “what do I not own?” After several years of dealing with the high speed, low drag weapon systems, and after watching the 2008 election results, there was huge jumps in ammo prices. I thought to myself when 5.56 ammo was hitting close to the $700 per 1000rds range, that maybe ammo was going to be worth more than gold soon. After putting a little thought into why the ammo prices were going up, I pretty much guessed that they won’t stay up that long in a bad economy, because nobody in their right mind would spend money on something that was 200-300% over inflated. I decided that if It was reloaded ammo, I wasn’t going to touch any factory ammo, and it was now time for a 22lr bolt action rifle.
I believe in having a holster for every handgun and a rifle case for every rifle. When people are putting $1000 Trijicon ACOGs on their rifles they are considered to be tough for combat, but sometimes things get slammed around in cars and unwanted dents and dings occur. SKB rifle cases are on the heavy side, but if you have a bigger sized vehicle, these are very easy to stow in and get out and it’s sturdy enough to not worry about damage if you have to bury it with other gear. You may even be able to keep most of the rifle magazines and accessories in the case as well as some othe range gear. Drag bags are another great rifle case, but they may be a bit of an overkill when it comes to using them for something as small as a Carbine.
SKB and Pelican make gun storage units that will protect your guns if they get knocked around. The foam pads can always be customized for specific guns and gear and I highly recommend doing so. I strongly believe in buying gun cases that are for specific firearms and especially so for rifles. You will be able to fit varying sizes of handguns in the pistol cases depeding on which way you place them, but rifles will get tricky and since most of them will have optics, you gotta be careful how much you pack them. There are even some rifle cases that can hold your magazines, pistol, and pistol magazines.
Here in Pennsylvania the laws for hunting with a crossbow have opened up new territory for hunters. Many people have stayed away from archery season for physical reasons. It takes more energy to bull a bow back and fire it, and hit what you are aiming at than simply bringing your Winchester Model 70 30/06 and taking a 100-600yd shot and then taking a sip from your coffee mug. I have to admit that I have found Archery to be fun if you have someone to help set you up, but it takes far more patience than some people have to be efficient. The only real drawback I have even seen to archery is that there are more bad shots in archery than I see with rifles and it’s not pretty to watch a wounded animal walk off and die and sometimes not be recovered. Pennsyvania has a deer problem. As a matter of fact, it has a huge problem. There are a declining number of people going out and hunting every year, but the number of car accidents has been inceasing.
When I shot my first Sig 229 in .357 Sig the thing that impressed me the most was the flat shooting trajectory. One of the biggest issues I’ve had shooting 45acp was the adjustments I had to make in bullet trajectory when shooting with my fixed 1911 sights. Bullet impact may not be something to worry about in close home situations for some people, but for my shooting styles, I want to know exactly where my bullets are going to go from 10-50yds. I know that bullet weights can make a difference, but I’ve always thought that 230gr FMJ was the proper thing to send downrange from a 1911. Although I love my 45acp guns, I don’t use them as defensive weapons. The .357 Sig always seemed to be a step up from the 45acp in certain aspects, like penetration and trajectory. For Law Enforcement, running into bad guns with body armor is become more and more common and the only thing around that these days is a more powerful firearm.
There are firearms that are going to need a lot of attention when it comes to changing parts or doing upgrades on them. I think it’s a good idea to drop off the gun and the parts with a gun smith unless you know for sure that the part you have is a “drop in”. From my experience, most gun parts and accessories will need some fitting. This is where people tend to break rifle stocks or rails because they start forcing things when they really should be filing something. I know several gun shops that get tired of people calling them up and claiming that a firegrip or rifle stock was broken, when the gunsmith knows how it really happened. I did several AK stock changes and every one of them was different. I even found areas that need to be filed down where on similiar guns, it just snapped right in.