New Year's Eve…and Counting Down the Hours!

A "murder" of 9mms, including from the top the Angstadt Arms/Shockwave Brace pistol (Glock mags), IWI X95 bullpup in 9mm (Colt mags), "ole reliable" Spike's Tactical 9mm (Colt mags) and the newest, QC10/Dead Foot Arms (Glock mags). Note that, realistically, an X95 is not appreciably larger than an SBR'd AR pistol, and much less of a pain in the butt.

Ha! The miserable abortion of 2016 has one lousy day to go! Been a long time since I so passionately wanted a year to end!

Going to post more later, but I wanted to answer some comment/email questions. I also want to thank Greg Ellifritz for including me in his Weekend Knowledge Dump, a weekly must-read, for 30 Dec…and yes, I've asked Greg onto the shows, but no dice!

Build for the 9mm folding stock pistol was pretty straight-forward:

Upper: Quarter Circle 10 complete upper, 5.5-inch barrel
Lower: Quarter Circle 10 stripped lower, Glock mags, with mag release installed
Folding Stock: Dead Foot Arms Modified Cycle System; includes folding system, short buffer tube, proprietary bolt and dual spring system
Trigger: Timney, Targa 2-stage
Lower Parts Kit: Seekins Precision Build Kit, which includes a Seekins Enhanced ambi safety and enhanced bolt release. I opted to install the safety with a 60-degree, rather than a 90-degree throw.
Pistol Buffer Tube: Phase 5 Hex-2 hexagonal pistol buffer tube
Pistol Grip: Tyrant Designs; looks absolutely cool, but I am not necessarily sold on it yet. I must say that TriTech Tactical's pending pistol grip that holds a Glock magazine has some appeal. Use, they look wonky as all get-out (especially compared to the too-cool-for-skol Tyrant), but working with the RONI Glock SBR conversions, which carries a spare Glock mag in its vertical foregrip, proved to me how handy it is to have a spare magazine at hand. I've reached out to them, and will probably meet them at SHOT.
Sight: Aimpoint Micro H-1
Sight Mount: Daniel Defense Absolute Co-Witness
BUIS: TBD, probably Troy flip-ups
Magazines: Obviously Glock; I have noticed that the factory Glocks activate the QC10 bolt hold-open while the Magpuls do not. I have not tried any ETS mags yet.

Couple of points on the build:

• The MCS from Dead Foot changes the operating system for the AR, something you won't notice until you try to take the gun down. Instead of just popping the pins to pul the upper receiver, the MCS has a different sequence! You must first remove the dual springs from the shortened buffer — no big deal…you just unscrew the knurled back-end of the buffer tube. Then it's business as usual.

• Regarding the bolt hold-open, this has never been a huge deal for me. I've run AK, H-K and Israeli weapons without bolt hold-opens. I believe it's more of a training issue than anything else. I recall that Gabe Suarez wrote on this years ago (found it). In short, I won't go into conniption fits if the bolt hold-open doesn't, but that's just me.

Note that with the full-sized pistol buffer folded out, the QC10 is pretty close to the size of the X95. What can we learn from this? If you want an SBR-sized gun to use and shooting off your shoulder is important, go with the bullpup. If you can handle the "cheeking," go with the AR pistol…in both cases, lots less paperwork…as stated by my commenters, much better as an actual "using" guns.

• Two other components for the build are not listed, because I don't have them in place yet. I think a 5.5 inch-barrelled upper MUST have a hand stop, so Mr. Hand doesn't interface with Mr. Flash Hider, or, worse yet, Mr. Bullet. I've typically used Magpul here, but I think I'm going with the Troy Industries stop because it is small and light, more in keeping with the build. Not to mention, cheap. Given the length of the barrel, I've gone back to gripping with my week hand on the magazine well instead for the forward rail, which works fine (you're not slinging a lot of mass around with a 5.5-inch barrel). Accordingly, I've ordered some skaeboard grip tape to cut and fit to the forward and side parts of the magazine well on the receiver. Yes, you can get a grip on the foreend, but I'm not sure it buys you anything over a magazine well grip.

• I have no idea what to tell you about shouldering a buffer tube, except not to do it in front of an ATF agent. There are earlier episodes of SHOOTING GALLERY that show me running the Spike's Tactical 9mm pistol shouldered (shot great that way). This was well before the ATF began their yes-it-is no-it-isn't dueling letters on what constitutes a Short-Barrelled Rifle. I've actually been fiddling around with some old silhouette stances (quartered onto the target, weak arm folded in front of the strong hand and arm, with weak hand gripping the foam rubber part of the tube. The tube never touches the shoulder, and it is dead steady. I'll keep you informed. Once again, check out my earlier post one this whole mess.

On another topic, yes, I finally made a decision on the optic for my Galil ACE 7.62 Nato. After agonizing a bunch over scopes, I decided to keep it simple, stupid, and go with a Lucid P7 4X combat optic.

I like the reticle, and it is available in the STRELOK ballistics app on my iPhone. The Lucid HD-7 red dot has been a workhorse on my Tavor, and I totally support Lucid's mission to provide high qaulity optics at a price that require you to sell your car. The ACE will be fun to shoot 3-Gun Heavy Metal in matches where the long shots don't reach out to the stratosphere. You need to Galil clip-on cheekpiece (provided with the ACE) to get a good cheek weld, BTW.

Okay…gonna stop now and take some pictures, which I'll use to update this post…

Runs Like a Scalded Dog!

I need to get the Aimpoint on it, sight it in, and start putting rounds through it. It also needs BUIS, as light as possible.

What do you think? Should I SBR it????

The Future, Sort Of

So the big news going into SHOT is that Colt is…finally…resurrecting the Colt Cobra, truly one of the great snubbies of all time. Smith and Wesson is rolling out a 6.5 Creedmoor MP-10. Ruger has ditched the .243 in the superb Ruger Precision Rifle in favor of the new hottness, the 6mm Creedmoor (this is outside my pay grade…I'm very familiar with the 6.5 Creedmoor both for long distance shooting and hunting; zero experience with its 6mm cousin…read this from the Precision Rifle Blog, which will give you the facts from an expert). Plus the Ruger American Compact in .45 ACP; the military Glocks 17 and 19 on the near horizon; "boutique" manufacturers spinning out new 1911s, M1 Carbines, little tiny concealed carry pistols, fill in the blanks.

I think what is happening is that as the market moves toward normal times, manufacturers are going to be filling every conceivable niche…think of it as throwing "stuff" on the wall to see what sticks. To be sure, we all benefit from that. I've said before that we live in the "golden years" for firearms…if you want it, somebody is making it, from the very highest end (a nice, heavily engraved Wesley Richards 4-Bore to go with your Cabot Arms meteorite-made 1911) to the very lowest (concealed carry pistols in the sub-$300, even sub-$200 range that actually work).

You want retro? Pick your time period, from Kentucky long rifles to AVATAR-styled guns. FN's "military collector's series" is selling like crazy, especially their semiauto version of the SAW, which (according to my little cherubs, is selling at an incredible level); Inland Manufacturing is cranking out M1 Carbines at a level not seen since WWII. Concealed carry pistols? Take your pick from hundreds. Tactical rifles? Duh! Hunting rifles? An amazing assortment.

The Grinding Long March to 2017

With Santa in the rear view mirror, I'm spending most of this week doing a whole lot of nothing, which means finishing up a couple of projects that have cluttered my desk for months. Yesterday I worked toward finishing off the Dead Foot Arms/Quarter Circle 10 9mm/Glock magazines AR project. I'll finish it off this morning and put some rounds through it this afternoon. To be fair to me, this gun will be featured on the last SHOOTING GALLERY episode, which I cleverly put off until after the SHOT Show…I simply ran out of hours. Our 9mm AR show will feature this build, the super Angstadt Arms pistol (Glock mags) with the Shockwave Brace, the CMMG 9mm carbine (Colt mags), which has been built into a 3-Gun "trainer," my super accurate JP 9mm rifle (Glock mags) and my current fav favorite X95 in 9mm (Colt mags).

The reason I decided to dedicate an entire episode to the 9mm ARs is that I see this as an important rising niche for a bunch of reasons:

• Easy of shooting…like running a stapler
• Ammo costs
• Ability to train on pistol ranges

These 3 points taken together make the 9mm carbine/pistol a powerful tool for training, whether your "mission" for your primary AR(s) is self-defense or competition. I think the training aspect is very important…it seems that everyone has an AR, and I think the more training the better. Most of the high-end trainers I deal with welcome pistol caliber carbines in their classes. I fully expect to see pistol caliber carbine-specific classes, say for indoor or caliber-restrained ranges.

But wait! There's more!

• As a self-defense tool…the 9mm carbines and even the pistols are extremely easy to shoot, moreso than a handgun. Given the tremendous improvement in 9mm ammo, the reason the FBI and a flood of police agencies have gone back to the 9, a light, easy-to-shoot carbine/pistol without the ear-shattering noise and blast of the 5.56, loaded with 30+ rounds of, say, Corbon DPX, Hornady Critical Duty/Defense, or the new FBI load, the Speer Gold Dot G2s…tell me that's not effective for home defense.
• Competition…USPSA's Pistol Caliber Carbine class is a huge success, and I'm seeing carbine-style matches popping up all over. At the NRA Show, I reached out to Project Appleseed and urged them to change their national rules to allow 9mm carbines (right now, the rule is that rifles must be .22-8mm, .32, caliber; the last Appleseed I attended, I asked that since I already has a "Rifleman" patch, could I use my 9mm carbine? They said, "Of course." I shot the 3 highest scores of the day with the JP).

I haven't yet waded into the whole SBR issue. You can ready my (apparently endless) comments on the subject here. There additional issues in the comments, too.

I originally planned to include the other 9mm carbine platforms — the Sig Sauer MPX, the newest MP-5 clones, the CZ EVO, etc., but, as usual, I ran out of room. Maybe in a later episode, or on SGO. I got my first 9mm pistol I think a decade ago as a gift from Spike's Tactical. That gun has hundreds of rounds through it, is accurate and has never failed! I wish I could say that about all my guns!

On a totally different note, CJ wrote this comment on my last post on the Ruger Predator 6.5 Creedmoor:

Isn't the Predator a "hunting rifle"? One and a half inch groups at 100 yards with a hunting rifle seems perfectly adequate. No reason not to attempt better results, just as long as you understand you're trying to get Mclaren performance from a standard Ford motor.

 CJ, of course you're right. An inch-and-a-half at 100 yards is perfectly acceptable for hunting purposes. An inch is even better. If I got 2 inches at 100 off my pre-'64 Winchester 30-30, I would jump up and bark like a seal. I tend to bring high standards to a gun, especially a gun that I am going to use "in the field," either for hunting or self-defense. I believe we are in a golden age of firearms…modern firearms are just DAMN GOOD. I remember my father bragging to everyone that he finally created a reload that got him 1-inch groups at 100 yards from his Sako .264 Winchester Magnum, a round so hot that it would actually cook the little Tennessee whitetails as well as kill them. Nowadays, the idea of an MOA at 100 is the ante.

So I apologize…I believe I can get down to 3/4-inch at 100, and with a little luck down to the half-inch I want to see. But the rifle is fine as it is.

Merry Christmas from the Bunker!!!!

My Sweetie gave me a llama doormat so I could feel close to my chosen people!!

Merry Christmas!

May you never have to spit!

Bambi's Dad Takes the Big Sleep

At FTW Ranch in Texas earlier this week, as part of our annual hunting episode on SHOOTING GALLERY. That's a classic Hill Country buck, 11 points. I used a Ruger FTW Predator in 6.5 Creedmoor fitted with a Swaro X5(i) 3.5-18X, probably the best scope I've ever used. Ammo was Hornady Precision Hunter ELD-X 143-grains. Shot was 280 yards in late afternoon (why the picture is so dark…it took us a while to work our way down from the ridge where we were camped out). And yes, it was cold…I'm wearing, like, 20 layers…

Earlier in the week I'd been shooting out to 700 yards with that gun/scope combo, except with the Match 140-gr ELDs. One of the big points of this episode (which we may split into 2 parts) is to encourage hunters to challenge themselves to raise their skill levels. If you're steadily hitting at 600/700/800 yards, a 300-yard shot — and most hunting shots in North America fall inside 300 yards — becomes much easier.

To be completely truthful, I wasn't totally happy with the way the Predator was grouping with the Hornady Match, which I have had great luck with in other rifles. I was shooting 1 1/2 inch groups prone at 100 yards…I honestly expected 1 single hole at that distance. I figured I was just having a bad day, but 2 of the FTW instructors — 2 of the finest shots I've ever met — got the same results. We did all the "standard" things you do with a Ruger bolt gun…check the action mounting screws, make sure the scope was appropriately torqued, etc….to no avail. So we switched to the Precision Hunters, and the groups shrank to inside an MOA…still not what I expected, but acceptable.

I'm trying to decide how to go forward with the rifle. I love the way it handles…it's a little beefy at 8+ pounds, but with the 6.5 it has the recoil of a .22. Plus it's the same stock I use on my Ruger Guide Gun .300 Win Mag and my much-used Ruger Gunsite Scout. Yes, I am boringly consistent. My inclination is to give it an EXTREMELY good cleaning, run 100 rounds through it, a second cleaning, foul it and then shoot it for group. I'm also going to be running some other ammo through it to see if there's something sympatico that the rifle likes. I have a bunch of the Winchester 140-gr Match, and I have some American Eagle on order. I'll let you guys know how it works out (on SGO, match).

I can't say enough good things about the scope. I meab Swaro is Swaro (and, sadly, not a sponsor). The combination of 6.5 Creedmoor and 3.5-18X makes this a super combo for most North American hunting (and, no, I'm not talking about the big bears, jeez!). I got the scope with a 4W reticle:

The elevation is dialed, and it's got 2 MOA hold-offs for wind. The X5 has a revolution counter on the elevation turret, which keeps you from getting "lost" if you've dial around for a long shot. Go ahead and laugh, it has happened to me. The zero stop allows you to quickly dial back to your zero.Plus, the Swaro allows you to go "subzero," beyond the zero stop, if you need to. It does kinda take 2 friends and a monkey to initially zero the elevation, but once you get the hang of it, no problemo.

I'm a proponent of dialing the elevation. Like probably most of you who grew up hunting,  all I ever heard was "Kentucky windage," or "just hold up a little if he's way out there!" Of course, in west Tennessee an northeast Mississippi, 100 yards was a looooooooooong shot with that 30-30! Dialing the elevation is more accurate than that holdover, which is why I oped for the 4W reticle. Makes me do what I know is best.

FTW "doctrine," if you will, is to zero at 100 yards, then, in the field, dial to 200, which gives you a "dead on" shot from close up out to roughly 300 yards with the Creedmoor. When we got to the ridgeline where we were going to camp out and wait for dusk, I lasered what I thought might be my closest shot, 220 yards, and my farthest shot, right at 300 yards. Accordingly, I dialed up 250 yards on the Swaro, which worked perfectly for a 280 yard shot.

I know I said last year I was going to stick to strictly mil-dots, but…well, the best laid plans, etc. BTW, the X5(i) is not Swaro's latest entry in the tactical scope market…it is designed from the ground up as a hunting scope. Here's a great review from Jason Keim at Sniper's Hide that sums it up well:

Swarovski truly set out to design, build and deliver the ultimate long range shooting and hunting scope. Did they do it? Honestly, I think they might have, the scope is both optically and mechanically one of the best I’ve used. I personally will have one on my rifle come October when I’m shooting game at long ranges in Colorado this year.

We were working off range cards generated by FTW, and I found their numbers consistent with the Swaro ballistic app.

BTW, I am happy that both Producer John Carter's and my venison will be providing an excellent Christmas dinner for needy families in south Texas! Enjoy.

I'm back! I'm back!!!

The long run is finally over, and I'm…what do they call that place? Oh yeah…home!

Been a long few months, to be sure. Fun though…I put a lot of rounds downrange and learned a ton. I had a great class with LTC (Retired) Mikey Hartman from the IDF and his merry band of counterterrorism experts. What an honor and a privilege! Talk about superb instructors…I would class them among the best in the world, based on sheer Real World experience. And, to be sure, I've been around.

IDF does things differently, and everything is focused, well thought-out and efficient. I found it fascinating.

I also discovered the limits of snark. I've seen the C.A.A. RONI, essentially a chassis system for Glocks (and other pistols)that converts the pistol into — at least in the U.S.— an SBR. Here's what it looks like:

Note the Glock slipped into the underside. Now you've got a stock and a vertical foregrip (that also holds a spare magazine).  Of course you've also got a $200 tax stamp, but, hey. I saw the RONI at SHOT last year, but honestly didn't pay it any attention. Mikey Hartman had a simple way of dealing with my skepticism. "Shoot it," he said. "Make your decisions based on how it runs."

Reasonable…pretty much how I've approached every gun I've ever fired. So I shot it…a lot. Shot it for accuracy; shot it in drills, shot it on the move. Shot it for score (and yes, I passed the basic IDF Infantry shooting course, although I will never in face be a 28 year-old Israeli). Considering I've been putting A LOT of rounds downrange through 9mm carbines and AR-platform pistols, I had a pretty good baseline to work from.

My conclusions? The Mini-RONI is a wicked SBR, easily on par with the Micro-UZI set up as an SBR. I'd happily run it against a CZ Scorpion EVO, and I think it could hold its own against an SBR-ed Sig Sauer MPX, which has become the standard. We were running them with both irons and the Hartman MH-1 reflex sight (which is destined to become my go-to dot). The spare mag in the vertical foregrip makes for super-fast reloads, and you've got your Glock trigger. Given the preponderance of 33 round mags for

I've got a spare G19 around here, and considering the basic Mini-RONI is $250, the additional $200 is not that big a deal. C.A.A. also makes a pistol version with a stabilizer brace. Oddly enough, I shot it well, both cheeked and in single-handed shooting. Still, I don't think it outperformed the folding stock, vertical foregrip version.

The big advantage to me is that you can fill out the paperwork and continue to use your Glock pistol as a…well…Glock pistol until you get that stamp. I'm thinking it's worth doing…

I'll run down my trip to FTW Ranch for long=range training and an excellent Hill Country whitetail hunt tomorrow...

Traveling Constantly

Sorry sorry sorry….

Cheapest Yet!

$475

From Primary Arms this morning, an Anderson Arms AR in 5.56 with a match trigger and 1 magazine. If you've seen cheaper, let me know! If you don't have an AR (and I'm sure there are at least 2 or 3 of you out there), hey, always a good time to buy when so many outlets are trying to dump the Hillary-Is-Crowned-Queen inventory to make room for CCW  handguns.

Monday Morning Tease

Dead Foot Arms and Quarter Circle 10 9mm Glock mag pistol folder coming together at last! The buffer tube on there is a Rock River pistol tube...I have a shorter one on order, but the RR feels good and is NOT a brace, which means it doesn't fall under any ATF gray areas.

The Post-Thanksgiving Pre-SHOT Show Blues

What can I say? Thanksgiving is over, and tomorrow I start my annual sprint to the SHOT Show. I looked at my schedule this morning and it frightened me so badly I went back to bed.

Thanksgiving was pretty traditional…turkey smoked outdoors in our pizza oven, sage dressing, dumplings, brandy cranberry sauce and a delicious chocolate "pudding pie" from my Sweetie. All was wonderful! Christmas is going to be fish pie and other Scottish specialties, although I don't seem to be getting a lot of enthusiasm for haggis, which I actually like. What's so icky about a sheep's stomach, I ask you?

I'm going to keep lobbying. Had friends over on Saturday and everybody wanted to go down to the range and shoot. Made for a fun afternoon! 

I spent a lot of Friday tinkering with my competition Glocks and doing a little more work on the Dead Foot Arms/Quarter Circle 10 9mm AR soon-to-be SBR. I made the decision to move production of the last 2 episodes of SG into January after SHOT…not a decision I like to make, but I've just run out of days in this year. As it is, we're working almost straight through to Christmas Eve.

I'm kind interested in the new CZ P10 striker-fired pistol. They build superb guns, and I'm looking forward to trying this one. Whether it's a "G19 killer," as one website suggested…that would be the G19 adopted by the FBI, military Special Forces groups and a soon-to-be food of police departments…well, one never knows, does one (as Fats Waller would no doubt say).

We are FINALLY closer to the building of the on-property video studio for SGO. What a PAIN-IN-THE-ASS this whole process has been! Hopefully, the finished product will be worth it. Essentially, it's a purpose-built studio to facilitate on-line content.

Thanksgiving Week Chores...

I suspect a trip to the grocery store is in order, since it appears that Thanksgiving is on Thursday. This turned out to be a shock to me…I thought I had another full week before the week of Thanksgiving. I am at a loss to understand what happened to that week. I had a lot of working plans.

Oh well, tempus fugitted on me!

In between the podcast and advertising work I refitted the RMR on my competition Glock G19…as I suspected, one of the screws had worked loose, which allowed the battery box to bounce around a little bit. I meticulous re-Loc-Tited the sight, and I'll re-zero over the holiday weekend, since there are no matches.

Today after my Grocery Store Assault, I'm going to work on the magazines and make sure we're all on the same page, e.g. dropping free. I like the MagPuls, but if they're not going to drop I'll go back to the Glocks or ETS. I'm going to add a slightly longer magazine release, which is an allowed mod under USPSA Carry Optics rule, as long as the mag button remains the same size. Glock offers just such a part, and I ordered one from Midway USA.

Physically, I'm alternating the stationary bike with the water rowing machine, trying to build both strength and flex on especially my right leg without stressing it some much that I risk re-re-ripping the quad muscle loose from its precarious moorings. I've also, at the surgeon's recommendation, started wearing an elastic knee brace on the right knee, giving a tiny bit more stability in that leg.

I've also got some rifle work to do, dialing in the Swaro 3.5-18x on the Ruger FTW 6.5 Creedmoor with the Hornady ELD-X 143-gr hunting ammo for a filmed whitetail hunting trip in Texas in mid-December. I'll get it sighted in at 50 yards here at the Bunker, then move it to 100, 200 and 300 yards, the longest distance I have available to me.

Finally, I want to put the Quarter Circle 10 9mm pistol together over the holidays. I have the upper and most of the parts I need…I think. I'm thinking of a Tyrant CNC grip because it's trick. Or one of the Hogue G10s.

Slow Blogging Will Continue...

As usual for this time of year, I am absolutely swamped with getting SHOOTING GALLERY, THE BEST DEFENSE and SGO out the door. Something has to give, and, also as usual, it's my social media presence.

Sorry! I will try to do better…[YODA FLINCHES!]

Shot a USPSA match yesterday at Weld County Sportsmen Club. Those guys always do a great job with stages, and yesterday was an excellent example. Good stages, great squad, big fun.

And yes, I did terribly, scraping in on the bottom five! LOL! I always say that I learn something in every match, and what I learned in this match is that run and gun is hard when you can't run! Ah well, that will be getting better.

Am still not happy with my shooting, but I'm getting better. My hits were all there, but my fundamental skills — drawing, reloading, target sequencing — are still a bit rusty, which slows me down tremendously. I also have some equipment to dial in…some of my MagPul mags aren't dropping free…some judicious application of 600 grit sandpaper should fix that.

Forget Those Other Pussies...

You're safe with me!

One for Two on Matches...

I shot an IPSC-style match last Sunday and was pretty pleased with my performance. Today, not so much (29 out of 39 shooters). Today's match was excellent, straight-forward, no tricks, fun…I've been trying to think of an excuse, maybe excuses, since the match, but I keep coming up with, "the Force wasn't with me."

I know…lame.

Two big issues I need to address — I need to tighten up my "shooting platform," and I need to tighten up my head. The 2 are related…I don't yet have the edge that I need to consistently do well. At least I know how to work on that. I'll shoot again next weekend. I feel like I'm doing those "stress tests" on John Taffer's BAR RESCUE show…

The only issue I've had with the gun was the elevation on the RMR losing zero, which I "fixed" with an application of clear fingernail polish. Other than that, runs like a top.

My Safe Runneth Over!

Whoopee! Today was New Gun Day, with a Galil 7.62 NATO, my long-sought after 9mm X95, a Ruger American in .450 Bushmaster (BOOM!) and the newest iteration of the Lipsey's/Vickers Glock all arriving at my FFL dealer.

Now, if someone could arrange for me to have time to shoot them before, say, February, I'd really appreciate it. I already have a number of other guns queued up for reviews on both SHOOTING GALLERY and our online doppelganger SGO. I'll probably run the X95 tomorrow, 'cause I've got to make sure my competition Glock 19 is still dialed in before my next match. The Galil is for an episode of SHOOTING GALLERY.

I've also got a rifle to sight in for a mid-December filming, a Ruger FTW Predator in 6.5 Creedmoor with a Swaro 3.5-18x Z5(i). Shouldn't take too long, since I'm using the Hornady 143-gr ELD-X hunting loads, and it costs too damn much to launch a lot of it downrange during sight-in! LOL!

My New Kilt...

...in the appropriate Clan tartan. You'll see my legs at the "Michael Buys The Beer" party at the NRA Convention in Atlanta, which is going to be especially rowdy this year!

Veteran's Day 2016 — The Debt That Cannot Be Paid

Flag from Ft. Sumter, April 14 1861

"Thank you for your service" sounds so hollow for such a great debt. Every day should be Veteran's Day. Thank you.

I am thinking of Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods and Sean Stevens, whom we honored in the only way we could on Tuesday night. God bless you guys…your sacrifice changed America, as the sacrifice of so many others have preserved Her.

And, as always, my thoughts and my love to the late Robert R. Bane, USN, the Pacific.

It's time to bring them all home, President Trump.

Before "Kumbaya," a Few Points of Clarification

Both Democrats (predictably), the Republican establishment (also predictably) and the discredited MSM (because they don't have a clue) are giving their "mend a divided nation," peace love and flowers speech. Before we all sit down at the same drum circle, I'd like to clarify a few points:

1) We didn't elect Trump to "end the gridlock in Washington."

2) We didn't elect Trump to "reach across the aisle to get things done."

3) We didn't elect Trump to cozy up to the Democrats and see if they can find a "compromise" way to chip away at our rights.

We elected Trump — and I have been all-in for a long time — to END the "fundamental change" of America, to drag the "Obama legacy" into the sunlight, tie it to a post, execute it, then bury it in unhallowed ground. Only then can America move ahead.

A couple of more points of clarification, at least from my point of view (which is, parenthetically, the only one I am qualified to give):

1) I unconditionally respect the rights of other people to their own opinions. I respected it on Monday; I respected it on Wednesday. That doesn't mean I have to respect those opinions.

2) After the progressive far-left takeover of the Democrat party, those Democrat plotted — gleefully — how they were going to strip me of my rights as soon as they were in office. They made it a talking point. They did not give a damn that the vast majority of Americans were against them; rather, they operated on Barack Obama's coda of, "Elections have consequences."

3) Socialism, even in it's Democratic Party guise of "progressivism," is evil, a boot on the face forever, to paraphrase Orwell. Socialism is the handmaiden to totalitarianism. It has never worked; it will never work. If you as an individual would like to participate in a socialist experiment, move to Venezuela  or any number of African pest-holes. They would be happy to have you, and the money in your wallet. Bring your own food. I unconditionally oppose any compromise on moving America in that direction. I opposed it on Monday; I opposed it on Wednesday.

4) I see no difference between "progressives" and, say, violent anti-Semites or America Nazis — they hold opinions which I do not and can not countenance. Moreover, progressives are, as are their analog anti-Semites and virulent racists, evangelical in their zeal to spread their vile teachings. Compromise? What compromise is there with evil?

5) If you are a liberal, that is, you come with a different world view than mine, fine, we can talk, argue, maybe find some common ground. If, however, your liberalism extends to limiting my rights or exercising power over my life, there is no common ground to be found.

6) On Monday, I was a small "l" libertarian and a single-issue voter. Nothing changed on Wednesday morning.

7) I'm all for "civil," not so much on "compromise."

Before "Kumbaya," a Few Points of Clarification

Both Democrats (predictably), the Republican establishment (also predictably) and the discredited MSM (because they don't have a clue) are giving their "mend a divided nation," peace love and flowers speech. Before we all sit down at the same drum circle, I'd like to clarify a few points:

1) We didn't elect Trump to "end the gridlock in Washington."

2) We didn't elect Trump to "reach across the aisle to get things done."

3) We didn't elect Trump to cozy up to the Democrats and see if they can find a "compromise" want to chip away at our rights.

We elected Trump — and I have been all-in for a long time — to END the "fundamental change" of America, to drag the "Obama legacy" into the sunlight, tie it to a post, execute it, then bury it in unhallowed ground. Only then can America move ahead.

A couple of more points of clarification, at least from my point of view (which is, parenthetically, the only one I am qualified to give):

1) I unconditionally respect the rights of other people to their own opinions. I respected it on Monday; I respected it on Wednesday. That doesn't mean I have to respect those opinions.

2) After the progressive far-left takeover of the Democrat party, those Democrat plotted — gleefully — how they were going to strip me of my rights as soon as they were in office. They made it a talking point. They did not give a damn that the vast majority of Americans were against them; rather, they operated on Barack Obama's coda of, "Elections have consequences."

3) Socialism, even in it's Democratic Party guise of "progressivism," is a nightmare. It has never worked; it will never work. If you as an individual would like to participate in a socialist experiment, move to Venezuela  or any number of African pest-holes. They would be happy to have you, and the money in your wallet. Bring your own food. I unconditionally oppose any compromise on moving America in that direction. I opposed it on Monday; I opposed it on Wednesday.

4) I see no difference between "progressives" and, say, violent anti-Semites or America Nazis — they hold opinions which I do not and can not countenance. Moreover, progressives, as are their analog anti-Semites and virulent racists, evangelical in their zeal to spread their vile teachings. Compromise? What compromise is there with evil?

5)

DOWN RANGE Radio Podcast Postponed Until THURSDAY!

For obvious reasons.

We will have the podcast up first thing THURSDAY AM!

Monday Tick-Tock

So I've done everything I can…you're gonna vote or you're gonna not. Let's leave it at that.

It's been a long election cycle, and it has exposed the already existing fracture lines in American culture and the fundamental truths we all feared —the elites hate us, the system is rigged against us, every word  that comes out of politicians' mouth, whether it is a Republican or a Democratic mouth, is a lie.

The biggest "take-away" for all of us in the Gun Culture is how casually the Republicans, who have depended on our votes for at least 2 decades, will throw the Second Amendment under the bus. A good example is the weasels at NRO, so-called "Constitutional Conservatives" who pray for a Democratic victory so they can "consolidate" the "conservative movement," under their leadership. If it takes sacrificing the 2nd (and, what the hell, the 1st) to retain their dacha by the lake, well, so what? They do not own or use firearms, do not possess concealed carry permits nor know anyone who does. They do not participate in the shooting sports, collect classic firearms, dabble in home gunsmithing, turn out every autumn for dove or whitetail deer hunts, buy anything at all, ever, from Cabela's or Bass Pro (forget Midway USA!…they've never even heard of it), subscribe to OUTDOOR or SPORTSMAN'S CHANNEL, agonize over "9mm or .45."

They are the epitome of "not us," and they hold us in the same contempt as the most liberal progressive.

Tomorrow we'll start piecing things back together, with the sure and certain knowledge that no matter who wins, we are on our own, in uncharted waters. We have always been a fractious tribe, but in the clutch the tribal bonds we hold are stronger than the issues that divide us. There are going to be bruised feelings, anger, a lingering sense of betrayal...but we have fought together before, and we will fight together again.

I have said in talks and in the media that not only are we a different culture, we are a better culture. I truly believe that.

Who Shocked the Monkey?

As we all slouch toward the Apocalypse, my favorite headline of the week;

More Tampa Bay area residents report seeing mysterious monkey

Note to locals…"Tampa Bay" is a body of water. If the monkey is in Tampa Bay he/she is swimming, or perhaps sailing to Tampa. Anyway, I am concerned that this monkey is the beginning of some discount Florida "Yeti" mythology when the simple answer is that it's one of Hillary's surrogates, gotten loose from the circus.

Oddly, I discovered that in 2001, Peter Gabriel, who wrote "Shock the Monkey," spent some time at Georgia State University trying to teach 12 Bonobo apes to play keyboards. This explains much about the present state of popular music.

Instead of reasoned political analysis, I'm spending the morning watching the DeanMartin/Robert Mitchum barnburner "5 Card Stud" and tinkering with my match Glock, which I will put to use tomorrow. It's the G19 with the Suarez top end and RMR. Since I want to shoot this in USPSA Carry Optics, I pulled the Suarez trigger and put in a Vogel trigger from GlockTriggers that I had lying around the Bunker. The Vogel uses a stock Glock trigger and highly polished internals, so there is no exterior modification to the gun. Still an excellent trigger pull! Now, if I can just make myself shoot it as well as a 1911.

I managed to humiliate myself on camera last week with some really crappy shooting on close-in targets with a couple of Glock. Granted, I was filming, but there's no excuse for snatching that trigger the way I did, not once, but twice. Ironically, I changed to a box-stock 1911 Sig shooting .45 ball and everything went back to hunky-dory. Tom Yost, one of the best shooters I know (3rd in the IDPA Nationals, just behind Vogel and Seeklander…they don't keep HOA score that way, but there it is), says of course, all those hundreds of thousands of rounds through a 1911 over the years has a lingering effect.

Met with my orthopedic surgeon yesterday…not the news I hoped to hear, but not unequivocally bad. The 3rd surgery on my shattered right leg still hangs in the air like a malevolent moon, shedding a nasty light on 2017. Fingers crossed that I don't have to go there. He also ix-nayed any more weighted squats, which have kinda been my foundation exercise.

Busy weeks ahead, with filming for both SHOOTING GALLERY and SGO. Have some cool guns to feature on SGO, including the new Ruger American in .450 Bushmaster (there's a hig-buster for you! Damn, but I wish it was in .458 SOCOM, a caliber I reload!), the new Galil ACE in 7.62 X 51 (a gun I've shot a good bit and really like, BTW…as I think I mentioned on the podcast recently, I am considering making the Galil the "house carbine," because I live in a rural area…depends on if I ever get the .30 cal suppressor that's in the queue) and my choice for USPSA Pistol Caliber Carbine, an IWI X95 in 9mm! The Quarter Circle 10/Dead Foot Arms 9mm AR build is continuing apace.

I'll also finish my review of the Honor Defense 9mm, which I remain impressed with. It is a sold little gun that runs like a top. I would not hesitate to carry it. It's an ounce lighter than a G19, but you give up  some capacity (7+1 or 8+1 for the Honor Defense). I'm reaching out to Galco for one of their paddle holsters to give carrying the Honor Defense a try.

Finally, the inevitable political plug…for your own sake, for the sake of the Second Amendment:

VOTE! 

Still Trying to Survive the Election

Hopefully, I'll shoot a match Sunday…I'm really looking forward to it for sure. Shooting a Suarez G19/RMR set-up out of a Comp-Tac Flatline holster. Spent the day yesterday with my friends from Streamlight — yes, they are sponsors! — for an episode of SHOOTING GALLERY.

I'm amazed at how far lights have progressed...800 lumens seems a good baseline…my bedside light is a 2200 lumen Pro-Tac flame-thrower. I replaced the TLR2 on the house carbine, the Tavor, with one of the new TLRs for a quantum increase in light. Streamlight is a great company to work with, One of the lights I didn't get a chance to talk about on the show is the Siege lantern (along with the AA mini-Seige and the new Super Siege. Living off-grid, we have battery-powered lanterns strategically placed throughout the Bunker for power outages while we figure out WHAT THE HELL went wrong. My Sieges have been workhorses.

These are great lights, and I strongly recommend them to preppers and people who just want a solid secondary light source. If I could do a stand-up pitch for this light, I would be happy to do it! Now there's the Super Siege, which is a rechargeable and can recharge your cellphone, pad or othre Streamlight USB light. The AA mini-Siege is almost small enough to fit in a bug-out bag and definitely enough to have a place to live in your car.

I am so lucky to have sponsors like Streamlight!

Tuesday on Monday

Got back last night from Red Oktober, the very first all-AK championship match, in St. George, UT. The land around St. George is arguably some of the most spectacular on the planet…Zion, Monument Valley, the Virgin River Gorge. And it's familiar, thanks to John Ford and his most famous star, John Wayne. The Southern Utah Practical Shooting Range has grown by leaps and bounds since the last time I was there (filming COWBOYS, parenthetically) and is one of the best ranges for our style of shooting I've ever been on.

Name sponsor was Rifle Dynamics, probably the premier custom AK maker in the country, with a host of other AK suppliers on board, including Century Arms, K-VAR, Dead Air with their AK-specific suppressor aptly titled the Wolverine, M13 Industries and others. The match was the brainchild of my friend Brian Nelson, who served as Match Director. Brian and I (along with his dad, Ken) have shot both Cowboy and 3-Gun together…in fact, we were on the same squad at one of the Crimson Trace Midnight 3-Gun matches.

I thought the match was superbly designed. It wasn't a 3-Gun match, with extreme athleticism and long-range shots…this was an AK match after all…but the stages were innovative, fun and challenging without requiring 300-yard shots and shooting while you're strapped into a bondage device with a ball gag. My favorites included a stage based on ENEMY AT THE GATES, which had the shooter starting in ditch under a blown-up bridge. Another house-clearing stage had the shooter use a breeching shotgun to enter the house, followed by a flash-bang grenade. C'mon…that's FUN, which is what shooting is supposed to be! Ranges were out to 100+ yards on a couple of stages, and more than on new competitor discovered the Zen of Zeroing the hard way.

What struck me and Brian was the number of totally new competitors — people who have never competed in any kind of match. In the SHOOTING GALLERY episode (you should see it around the end of January 2017), I refer to the "Lost Tribe of the Kalashnikov." AKs were all the rage a few years back, but as ARs came to dominate the market —and thanks to the staggeringly large aftermarket, becoming both more versatile and more accurate — the AK slipped from its high point.

One of the highlights of filming this episode was meeting Jim Fuller, the founder of Rifle Dynamics and one of the 3 nicest people in the world. Jim has done something I think is unique, beyond building the best AKs in the world. The thrust of Jim's focus has been and continues to be building the AK's culture, the Lost Tribe of the Kalashnikov. He teaches classes in AK building, essentially training his own competitors. He worked with Sharp Bros., the manufacturers of some of the most…eclectic…high end AR lowers on the market, to create arguably the best milled AK lower in the world. It was great to spend some time with Jim, and I think you're going to be impressed.

A bottom line? I'm an AR guy and have been for decades. While I've shot many AK platform and various ComBloc guns, I don't think I've ever owned an AK. That said, the Rifle Dynamics AKs were superb, lightweight, fast-handling and accurate. The custom guns accentuate the AK's advantages — weight, a bullet-proof magazine, comfortable ergonomics, a couple of effective cartridges and reliability that is stone-cold legendary — while delivering what AR shooters have come to expect — accuracy, modularity and superb handling characteristics. Comes at a price, but what doesn't?

I plan to film an AK build with Jim at the Sharp Bros. facility in Nevada for SGO early next year.

BTW, I have ordered a sort-of AK, one of the new Galil ACEs in 7.62 X 51 NATO. I absolutely loved that gun when I first shot it over in Israel. It's handling characteristics are, at least to me, flawless. A lot of the issues with earlier Galil iterations have been corrected. Judicial use of polymers have gotten the .308 ACE under 9 pounds, roughly on par with the SCAR 7.62, the Colt 901 (without the quad rail) and the Ruger SR762 and only slightly heavier than the "lightweight" DPMS Gen II.

The ACE runs with the standard SR-25/PMag magazines, of which I have a ton or so around the Bunker. The charging handle is moved to the left side, which I like, and the stock is reasonably comfortable. Mine will be topped with a Trijicon MRO.

Can't wait to get mine!

Monday Frantically Trying to Catch Up

As requested, here's Asta-cat, 12 pounds of fury, sans tail. We almost lost him 2 years ago…he has a fragile digestive system, probably because of the Manx mutation, and the all-meat foods were literally too rich for him. We had to force-feed him until he was willing to eat again. He is a wonderful cat, as fierce as the McBain stone wildcats at the Clan memorial along Loch Ness.

The Clan motto, expressed in inexplicably hard Gaelic, roughly translates to, "Touch not the (wild)cat without a shield." So there.

Manxes are special cats. They hail from the Isle of Mann, and legend has it that they arrived late to Noah's Ark, and as the door closed it cut off their tails, now and forever. Asta is a "stumpy," with a short, vestigial tail. They are fearless hunters and tend to act more like dogs than cats. From an account by one Joseph Train in 1844:

"The hind legs are considerably longer than those of the common cat, and, in comparison with the fore legs, bear a marked similarity in proportion to those of the rabbit. Like this animal too, when about to fight, it springs from the ground and strikes with its fore and hind feet at the same time. The common cat strikes only with its fore paws, standing on its hind legs. The rumpy discharges its urine in a standing posture, like a rabbit, and can be carried by the ears apparently without pain. Like every species of the feline it is carnivorous and fond of fish and is an implacable enemy to rats and mice."

Asta and our beagle, Newt, engage in endless play battles, which generally the cat always wins.

I wouldn't trust Asta with a gun, even a small one…

Tomorrow we're staging a lovely riot for THE BEST DEFENSE, trapping a couple in their car. That should be big fun. I'm having lunch with Andrew Branca, author of The Law of Self-Defense (a truly indispensable guide!) and Dave Hartman from the 3Gun Show podcast. Ought to be interesting conversations. Andrew's been researching the legal perspectives of people caught in riots,and he's helping us out with this episode; Dave happened to be in town and always wanted to be in a riot, so we are happy to oblige!

BTW, all this talk about Asta-cat reminds me of an appropriate quote:

"Most of us are savages at heart. Deep down in the smug contentment of that hollow thing we call civilization there smolder the fires of our Berserker ancestry " 

-- Owen Letcher Thomas

The Bonds of Africa

Sigh...

Glad to be back home, first from vacation in Scotland, secondly from a visit to Streamlight in PA. Got so much work in front of me, it scares me to look at my calendar.

If you're around Loveland, CO, next Tuesday, we're looking for extras for our small riot Tuesday evening for THE BEST DEFENSE. We will only need 3 hours of your life, and you get to yell, scream and curse! Email flyingdragonhelp@aol.com and sign up!!!

Typical Saturday at the Bunker

This morning there was a cluster of pathetic-looking mules deers, still fat from the summer, staring through the deer fencing at what's left of the garden after a couple of mild freezes (carrots, eggplants, beans, a few tomatoes). Asta the Manx simply went ballistic. He launched himself at the window, the little stub in the place where a normal cat's tail would be vibrating, hit the window with his claws out and growling. Asta is a mean 12 pounds of cat. Big "mouse;" little mouse; all the same to him. If he weighed 100 pounds, he'd be dangerous.

I have to say, the eggplants and the tomatoes produced spectacularly. The carrots we got in late, and they're just ready to eat. Next year, we'll do better. We learned a lot from this year's expanded garden…Rule 1, get the deer fences in first!

I gotta say I'm a little bit bored with outrage, more bored still since it seems to have invaded the training community. While I was in Scotland, I read the Facebook flame wars on metrics/no metrics, and there seems to be spatter still all over the place. Sigh. Just like there are no magic bullets, there is — at least to me — no magic training. I've learned from a lot of different people, many of whom I didn't, and in some cases still don't, agree with. I always fall back to Bruce Lee: “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own…”

Outrage is kind of a disease, somewhere on the continuum between nausea and diarrhea. It's a bogus emotion; in a world that includes Miley Cyrus, George Bush, Kanye West and Al Gore, true outrage is just plain out of reach. The most I can swing is revulsion, with maybe a touch of nausea.

Look, train how you want to train, with whom you want to train. The important thing is to keep training, keep getting better. I am and have always been a proponent of competition as an element of your training, because while competition may indeed be false stress, it is still stress. Because of y background in stupid shit, I am a strong believer in the concept of "stress inoculation," the old "cowpox protects you from smallpox" routine. Shooting under stress makes you a better shooter in numerous ways. Your gun-handling improves because you do it a lot, in front of strangers and some person with a timer. Your drawstroke improves because it is a fundamental skill in competition, so you have to do it a lot in both dry and live fire. This means that you have an index card for "draw" already in your head when you start working with your concealed carry gun…you don't have to start from zero. Ditto for marksmanship…it's a fundamental skill in all forms of shooting competition…sooner or later you've got to hit something at an uncomfortable distance…it's helpful to know what that distance is for you at this moment.

Anyway…I'm looking forward to tuning myself up after more than a year of rehab. We did a lot of walking in Scotland…not to mention A LOT of steps…castles apparently don't have elevators. All in all, it was great for me. I'm still a bit of a ways from "run and gun," but I feel like I've turned a corner on it. I have a meeting with my orthopedic surgeon end of the month and I'm hoping I get a decent verdict.

"Gunfighter Moment" from Soldier Systems...

You need to read this on Natural Instincts, by Aaron Barruga:

"The quality at which we perceive information determines whether we receive data that is actionable or just noise. Entering a crowded room, you can scan the environment by simply moving your eyes within their sockets. Moving your head left and right may be necessary to gather data at different angles, but if we jerk our heads too quickly, any information about our surroundings becomes a blur. Another gift passed on to us from our ancestors is our body’s preference for expending the least amount of effort possible to accomplish a task. Unnecessary movement expends precious energy, but can also signal to predators our location…"

BTW, read this, too, from ZeroGov, one of the most thoughtful training articles I've read in a while:

Lets cut to the chase. The Derp can be deafening at times. In an effort to help combat some of this and save a lot of folks a lot of heartache, I am tossing out a few tactical tidbits for those interested. (All while staying in my lane of course)

A Thought for the Day

"If you want to go off the grid, you've got to move out of your mother's house…"

— "Bernadette"

BIG BANG THEORY

I'm Back!!!

Vacation in the Scottish Highlands and the isle of Skye, with a sidetrip to Yorkshire to visit the Bronte sisters! And yes, there can be only one...but probably not me!

Expect Massively Slow Blogging

As we are in high season for SHOOTING GALLERY and THE BEST DEFENSE, with a little SHOOTOUT LANE and a lot of SGO on the side!

You would be AMAZED at how hard building the SGO Studio is proving to be. If I missed deadlines and flat out lied as much as the contractors bidding on what amounts to setting 6 concrete pylons and assembling a prefabricated building, I would be UNEMPLOYED! I'm not building Trump Towers, for God's sake.

Okey Dokey…I'm here...

Bombs away!

My Plans for MASS CASUALTY EVENT Wednesday!

Here's what I'm planning to do tonight...I promised you guys that I would be available during and after the airing of our special, THE BEST DEFENSE: MASS CASUALTY EVENT, which begins at 8PM ET.

I'm going to bounce back and forth between this blog (http://michaelbane.blogspot.com), 
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/michael.bane.395)  and DOWN RANGE TV's "The Best Defense" Forum (http://www.downrange.tv/forum/index.php?board=22.0).

If you have questions or comment or just want to express your venom, I'll be here! And I'll have a margarita, too.

TBD MASS CASUALTY EVENT @ 8PM Wednesday Nite on OC!

THE BEST DEFENSE: MASS CASUALTY EVENT TO PREMIER THIS WEDNESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER, ON OUTDOOR CHANNEL, 8:00 PM Eastern

Link to video teaser: https://www.facebook.com/downrangetv/videos/10157497065140635/?pnref=story

Masonville, CO — The two scariest words in the English language are “what it?” There have been a dozen terror attacks in the United States in 2016; “what if” you or your family are trapped in the worst case you can imagine?

Award-winning producers of THE BEST DEFENSE, Michael Bane and Jeff Murray, decided to tackle that question head on in a compelling, and terrifying, special premiering on OUTDOOR CHANNEL at 8:00 PM ET Wednesday, September 28, encoring November 2 (Time to be announced).

“‘What if’ is a simple question with a hellish answer,” said Bane. “Literally days before the San Bernardino attacks, Jeff and I began discussing an idea to create the most realistic terrorist attack simulation possible, then use the tools we’ve developed in THE BEST DEFENSE over multiple seasons to help people survive.”

The producers’ number one goal was to create a scenario so realistic that it was hard to turn away. Working from the basics of the Paris concert hall attacks, Bane and Murray reached out to both law enforcement and military counterterrorism experts and trainers who studied mass casualty events, THE BEST DEFENSE training team of Mike Seeklander and Michael Janich, paramedics specializing in first response and even renowned mental health experts to build the scenario and capture as much as possible the reality of being trapped in a mass casualty attack.

“We made the decision to use FX to make the scenario more realistic,” Bane said. “We were lucky enough to have the help of the Larimer County (CO) SWAT team and local paramedics. The Mass Casualty Event is certainly the most complex sim I’ve ever been involved with.”

A film team headed by award-winning documentarian Brandon Green shot the whole event in ultra-high resolution 4K. Green worked with the FX team to make every shot fired as realistic as possible.

“Essentially, this is the most ‘vetted’ scenario we could build. Every move, every action taken is based in reality and run through some of the most knowledgeable experts in the world,” Bane said. “Even the crowd reaction is based on cutting edge research from Dr. William Aprill…as each ‘extra’ arrived, that person was given a card explaining how he or she should react when the attack started. We were lucky enough to have Michael Janich’s highly trained cadre of martial arts experts to create an even more realistic sim. In fact, our main ‘terrorist’ served in the Israeli Defense Force as a sniper and Master Breacher, and is an expert in counterterrorism techniques.”

On-screen experts, in addition to the TBD Team of Seeklander and Janich, include Ken Hackathorn, considered one of the top firearms trainers in the world; Gabe Suarez, probably the most experienced trainer in studying and dissecting mass casualty events and teaching civilian response; Dr. Dan Olesnicky, SWAT team physician, a first responder in terrorist events and one of the leading trainers of tactical medicine; Dr. William Aprill of Aprill Risk Consulting, considered the national expert on criminal and terrorist mindset; former SEAL Jimmy Graham, who also served as Lead Instructor for elite Federal Government Protective details in high risk environments and presently heads up the Active Shooter Response Training Center in the Denver area.

“Our team is tremendously proud of this effort, and we thank OUTDOOR CHANNEL for putting this information in front of so many people,” Bane said. “Since we began planning for this special, there have been 12 terrorism events in the United States and literally one a day around the world. We believe this information is critical, and we hope our viewers never have to use it.”

FLYING DRAGON LTD currently produces or co-produces SHOOTING GALLERY, THE BEST DEFENSE, SHOOTOUT LANE and GUN STORIES WITH JOE MANTEGNA exclusively on OUTDOOR CHANNEL.

The Hour is Late...

From Facebook…

DEF-CON 1, everybody! There are three absolute certainties in DEF-CON 1:

-- The government always lies.
-- Systems always fail.
-- YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!

Below are some points to think about, things we've learned from similar situations, things I've learned from my own experiences, our research from THE BEST DEFENSE, etc. None of this was handed down on a marble tablets from a big scary cloud hovering over a mountain, so to borrow a phrase from Bruce Lee, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own."

1) Secure your home! We've talked about this for years on THE BEST DEFENSE.

2) Consider being armed while you are in your home — that's the great strength of pocket pistols. If you have a gun in your pocket (or your EDC), you do not have to answer the question, "How far am I from the gun?"

3) Be armed EVERY SINGLE TIME you go out of your house, even if you're just running down to the Stop And Rob for a quart of milk. Carry extra ammo. Guns jam, and sometimes you have to strip the magazine and reload.

4) Know what is going on in your community in your community, your city, your state. And assume the worst…what may look like a perfectly legitimate police shooting can trigger major rioting. For instance, if you hear on the radio that there has been a violent "incident" near your office, if might be an excellent day to come down with a bad cold. I have extensive experience in urban riots, and trust me, you do NOT want to be caught in one.

5) Always err on the side of caution…do you have alternative routes to your place of work and back home, to your children's schools, to your friends' homes? Routes that may be longer but keep you away from city centers, questionable neighborhoods, locales in your neighborhood that have been the sites of other protests?

6) DO NOT DRIVE, WALK, CRAWL, BICYCLE, ROLLERBLADE, RIDE HORSEBACK, whatever into an active "protest!" You have no idea how quickly a peaceful protest can turn into a lethal riot, and you have no idea how quickly you can be "it." Get the hell out of Dodge!

7) If you are trapped in "peaceful protest," think in terms of going to ground. Get off the street…into an office building, a commercial establishment, a restaurant. Make sure you immediately identify all entrances and exits…in the event of a Molotov cocktail, you want to know which way to run…and don't inadvertanty back yourself into a corner. I hid under a restaurant table once as the violence passed over me. Call me a coward, but I didn't want to pull my Combat Commander and turn what was essentially a fistfight into a bloodbath.

8) Keep your gun holstered until it's time to bring it into play. Do not brandish your gun — assuming no one else, especially one of the bad guys, is armed is a fool's game. Brandish your gun, and you become Target #1. One of the lessons I have learned from numeorus sims and F-on-F training is that if I can arrange myself where the gun remains hidden and, if I have to use it, the aggressor literally isn't sure where the shot came from, I (and those under my protection) become less of a bullet magnet from return fire from the aggressor or her BFFs.

9) We have increasingly seen violent protests seeking to block traffic on main arteries like interstate and state highways. My inclination is to NOT STOP! Notice I didn't say attempt to run down protestors or cause any injuries, but blocking roadways is a crime. I want to keep moving because I want to get as far away from the violence as I can….the violence may likely get worse. A moving, even a slowly moving, big steel box is compelling safety. I just saw on television where the police chief in Charlotte said if you encountered just such an event as I described that you stop, lock the doors and wait, because help is on the way. I refer you back to my three certainties — help is not on the way, or, at least, not on the way in any sane timeframe. Help arriving tomorrow does you no good today. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once noted, "When skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed."

10) If you are trapped in your car, DO NOT EXIT THE CAR UNLESS YOU SEE MOLOTOV COCKTAILS BEING USED! I once dove under a car to get clear of flying debris when the car next to the one I was hiding under caught a Molotov cocktail…Michael considered wetting himself and moved very quickly to a different point of cover.

11) If you are in the car and the car is attacked by aggressors with bricks, concrete blocks, pipes or clubs that can shatter the windshield, allowing you to be pulled out of the car or pummeled to death in the car, or you see someone approaching your car with a Molotov cocktail, you are now in a lethal threat situation. Remember, the aggressor with the weapon — concrete block, pipe, Molotov cocktail, firearm — is the lethal threat. Other people might be cheering the aggressor on, but they do not necessarily represent the lethal threat. Your target is the armed aggressor who is threatening your or your family's lives…it's not a case of "spray and pray." In any case you WILL have dialed 911, given them your exact location, that you are under attack and notify them that you are armed, right?

12) If you have to, consider how you will exit the car and how you will remain in contact with your family/friends as you move through the crowd. We have an episode of SHOOTING GALLERY on that specific subject coming up in January…yeah, I know…but the key point is your family, especially children need to remain in physical contact with the adults (holding onto belt, etc.). The person with the gun leads. Do not brandish, or in any way wave around, the gun…I would suggest a compressed ready position, muzzle slightly down. If you stick your arm out, someone WILL grab it. With the gun in a compressed ready position, the gun is more protected and still ready to fire.

13) Your biggest challenge will be STAYING TOGETHER. I cannot emphasize to you how chaotic a full blown riot is and how easy it is to get separated from someone,..it is the equivalent of a human riptide. Your initial movement is to GET SOMETHING SOLID BEHIND YOU! You and yours do not want to be in the middle of a 360-degree ring of chaos. I always moved toward walls, business fronts, even park equipment in one case, because I wanted to limit my exposure to the panicked people running around. Be careful not to get trapped, but your worst position in in the center. If possible (and it probably won't be) have one adult stay in contact with 911 updating them on your position.

14) Try to get to a position where you can catch your breath and PLAN YOUR MOVEMENT! A riot is fluid, and it doesn't make much sense to move in the direction of the larger mass of people. THINK, then move!

15) In a terrorism situation, you're going to have to consider what has happened. If it is an explosion as what happened in New York City recently yoju need to get as far from the scene as you can as quickly as you can. Ideally, don't run with with crowds…as an Israeli counterterrorist expert once told me, the Israeli word for "Crowd" is "Target." The bomber will likely be in the vicinity, and the explosion may be signal to begin a larger attack with firearms or additional explosives.

16) If you do not have people in your care, the decision to render aid is yours. My first overwhelming responsibility is to get the people under my care out of the kill zone and to safety.

17) If it is a shooting situation — terrorist or active shooter — your response must be SPEED TO COVER. Your next response will depend on whether you have people in your care or are alone. If you have family, children people in your care with you. you need to plan your moves from cover to cover to get the people in your charge to safety, clear of the killing zone. If you must run in the open, RUN, ZIG ZAG, don't provide the aggressor with an easy target. Always remember that all cover comes with a timer — the minute you arrive at cover, the clock is running. Immediately plan your next move.

18) If you are alone and choose to respond, as was the case in the recent mall slashing attack, I refer you to Jeff Cooper's PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL DEFENSE, specifically Decisiveness, Speed, Coolness, Ruthlessness and Surprise. A clean head shot to the back of an aggressor's head before he/she even knew you were in the fight solves many problems. This isn't a game, and there are no points for fairness.

19) Practice practice practice…the balloon has already gone up; the hour is late.