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NPR on the New Gun Owners

By
Keith Finch
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NPR is not known as a bastion of second amendment support. Many of their employees come off as actively hostile towards the notions of individual weapons ownership. Others just don’t appear to be able to mentally grasp the reasoning for a personal weapon. They try, they just aren’t able to walk the mile in the shoes.

It’s that case that seems to crop up with NPR’s coverage of the new Coronavirus gun owners.

Coronavirus Fears Have Produced A Lot Of New Gun Owners — And Safety Concerns

As the piece opens we get a look into their headspace, the perspective they are looking at this whole thing from.

As Americans flock to gun stores in the face of coronavirus fears, many gun dealers report an influx of new customers, taking home a deadly weapon for the first time. In response, long-time gun owners from across the U.S. are stepping up to help these newcomers get some safety training in the age of social distancing.

I’ve put the text in bold as I believe this is the crux of the perspective problem, or at least one of the pillars supporting it. A firearm is the only item they are consciously acknowledging as a deadly weapon. Now, it isn’t that they don’t believe these people have a knife block in their kitchen or didn’t drive to the gun store in a vehicle, both of which are lethal, it is the fact they do not consciously make the connection that those two items are deadly too. They aren’t assigning a proportiant risk factor to a knife or a car or any other device, in their minds the gun is inexplicably fundamentally different.

In the minds of aware and active firearm owners firearms are not different. They are different faces on the multi-faceted dice set we call risk. Nothing within ‘Risk’ gets assigned a special value (except Australia) and we see balancing risk with mitigation factors as part of what we do daily. The NPR author appears to give guns a special risk value, they are different.

What I cannot determine is why they are different, perhaps anymore than they can fathom why I want a firearm. My working theory is that because a gun is a deliberately built weapon it occupies that special risk value which is disproportionately magnified from its working societal risk value. Additionally, since other deliberately built weapons, like swords or crossbows, are used in far fewer crimes they get put into the novelty category and are assigned and disproportionately low risk value.

That’s my theory at least. They are not rationalizing and organizing risk the way that we are.

But back to the article. NPR then does a few paragraph highlight Chuck Rossi’s Open Source Defense and the various other online personalities who made content for new gun owners to find and learn. They highlight that gun owners feel an obligation to help new owners safely start their path toward proficiency.

We welcome all the new owners and ask them to please be cautious, but not nervous, ask questions. Ask lots of questions. The reason we have that perspective goes back to how we assign risk.

Next.. NPR brings in ‘The Skeptic’. The reasonable voice that doesn’t project the bafoonish antics of a Moms Demand Actioneer or ‘Ghost Gun’ Kevin de Leon (who are demonstrable morons.) No, they bring in Dr. Emmy Betz.

Dr. Betz studies injury research and she worries that having a gun in the home risks ‘escalating violent confrontations.’

“Specifically, in cases of domestic violence or when someone is suicidal — that having that gun present could turn a situation deadly,” Betz says.

Dr. Betz, I would assume, is not a gun owner. And despite her knowledge within the field of injury statistics I would guess she too cannot rationalize risk the way a firearm owner does. She puts firearms in the special category and assigns them values outside that which she does for other accessible objects.

“Specifically, in cases of domestic violence…” is a telling line here. As you and I well know, anyone with a domestic violence conviction is a prohibited person. No guns, unless they have gone through rigorous legal process of proving to a court of law enough proof they are no longer a risk and should have their right restored. So the risk Dr. Betz is highlighting is the notional risk coming from those with no conviction for domestic violence. She is highlighting the narrow sliver of alleged domestic abusers and using it to broadly advocate restriction or prohibition of firearms. It is a hell of a strawman argument. It could get her destroyed in a courtroom, using domestic violence as your prohibitor and then pointing at a group that has no history of domestic violence.

Am I suggesting unconvicted abusers do not exist? Not in the slightest. I am saying that these legal parameters cannot be vague and pointing to a group with no history of a crime and asking, “but what about that crime?” is about as vague, reaching, and projectionist as it gets.

Then there is the suicide statistic. We have a weird societal dissonance with suicide in which we seem to accept certain methods and reject others (Dr. assisted for example) and there are large swaths of the public morally and ethically opposed to suicide in any form while others see it as a tragedy to be avoided if possible and mourned if it occurs. Suicide is not an easy subject to quantify.

But we do have hard data on a few items, and suicide being independent of method is one we have quite a bit of data on. But how does NPR take on the suicide quandry?

Every year, tens of thousands of people die by firearm suicide or domestic violence homicide. Research has shown that the presence of a gun is associated with a higher risk for both.

Uh oh… a false equivalency. That statement is not untrue, but it certainly reads like domestic violence and suicide must have very similar numbers, right?

The death toll of combining firearm suicides (usually roughly double the homicide total: 21,175 suicides, 11,208 homicides – U.S. 2013 CDC) with domestic violence homicide numbers are in the tens of thousands. But suicide alone is in the tens of thousands. Intimate partner killings account for somewhere between 1500-2500 deaths depending upon the year, usually about 12-18% of the total homicides… which makes them 10% or less of the combined number and won’t move the total into the next 10’s bracket.

You wouldn’t get that distinction from the statement NPR made though, would you?

But do you want to know what item is in the next 10’s bracket? Vehicle deaths: 32,719 (NHTSA 2013). Which brings us back to our perspectives on risk and how we categorize it.

In the mind of someone like myself, an accidental death is an accidental death. In accidental deaths method matters because it was environmental factors and/or human error which caused the death(s). Knowledge of the method of injury/death allows us to build in mitigating safety precautions. It allows us to do that effectively because their was not a motive to cause the injury(s)/death(s).

When it is a deliberate death, to include deliberate acts of harm which result in death, method does not matter. If [Act] by [Individual(s)] could reasonably result in my death or the death of someone I am protecting I must act decisively to mitigate that. The risk is already at lethal. Gun, knife, tire iron, car, sword, explosive, are not the thing I need to mitigate, the person(s) using them are.

Suicides are their own category of deliberate death because victim and instigator are one in the same.

Guns, in the minds of people like Dr. Betz, seem to cross categories for the sole reason that a gun was involved. They get their special category because guns are deliberately built weapons. Part of my theory here includes the fundamental and irrational rejection of the necessity of weapons in society. They themselves, the individual, and those of like mind cannot foresee a need therefore there is no need. They cannot rationalize that others who see the need see it just as strongly as they do and on a base level they reject that point of view as naturally inferior and less rational to their own, data be damned.

Gun owners suffer perspective and confirmation bias just as much as anyone else, however it is my observation that informed gun owners are consistently looking at wider data pools and broader perspective ranges (to include that fact that not everyone rationalizes like they do) than the people staunchly opposed to owning guns. This comes with the conjoined conclusion that some of those rationalization perspective will be hostile. That, in turn, means that ‘right’, ‘wrong’, or somewhere between, a lethal threat to you and yours can only be mitigated by some manner of force equivalency.

So although Betz says it is “wonderful” that gun owners are stepping up to offer training, she worries that the combination of more guns plus coronavirus fear and anxiety could lead to more gun deaths.

“I’m skeptical,” Betz says, “that all of these new purchasers are getting the training that they need and getting the guidance around storage devices that they need.”

Dr. Betz, what do they need and what are you doing to help provide it? The gun owning community stepped up and into that need, what have you done?

NPR, are you looking to help these new owners or portray them as neo-barbarians too scared to recognize you don’t ‘need’ a weapon in ‘modern’ society? The false equivalency laced into the report and the line that you leave on with Dr. Betz gives me a pretty good idea of your answer, but I would like to be clear.

Machine Gun Maintenance: Oil Attraction

By
Anna Martinez
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The Concept

A M240L gas regulator with caked on carbon

The concept is quite simple. Don’t put lubricant on anything that comes into direct contact with the gas system in a machine gun.

The Machine Gun Gas System

A lot of these systems come with a gas system that has three simple parts you need to watch for problems. The gas regulator, gas cylinder, and piston. These parts are inherently important to keep free and clear of caked on carbon to allow proper gas pressure.

Parts to Keep Lubricant Off

The manual states NOT to put CLP (Cleaner, Lubricant, Preservative) on gas regulator, barrel gas port, piston, interior of gas cylinder, and bolt face.

If you do need to use CLP, let it soak for a bit before removing the carbon and be sure to use a dry cleaner after to dry the rest of the CLP off. I use dry cleaning solvent.

A piston with caked on carbon on the inside

Next Maintenance Article.. how to remove the carbon (and rust).

Scraping at carbon with the Multitasker Tools Series 3x

Disclaimer: I am referencing Mil approved CLP to all of these statements. It is known to pull up carbon as it is a CLEANER, lubricant, and preservative. If you are using a different lubricant it may work, but differently and with unknown long term effects. However if you are using a lube in relation to Mil CLP it may do these same things.

[Editor’s Note: This is a prudent thing to do for any gas piston system by the way. Machine guns just see a lot more rounds.]

Bundeswehr G36 with 9-Hole Reviews

By
Keith Finch
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The G36 was the reunited Germany’s NATO rifle, their admittance back into “the good guys” in full with a modernizing defense force. In the 90’s where it was developed it was a technological marvel, to nearly the same degree as the AR-15 was back in the 60’s with its extensive use of aluminum. The polymer construction and a profile fit for sci-fi didn’t hurt its appeal at all either.

The G36 has faults, all platforms do, but one fault it did not have was the hearsay that led to the 2015 decision to replace the rifle in German service. The rumor that the G36 rifle is ‘inaccurate’ when a couple magazines have been put through it. This has been disproven by multiple independent tests and several theories have been brought forward to explain the phenomenon that german troops claimed to have experienced within the anecdotal evidence. This didn’t change the G36’s fate, and maybe it was time for an update.. but the reason was false.

The anecdotal claims were used to deride the G36 until the Bundeswehr said they would “upgrade” their carbines. The problem they’ve found is that the G36 was built well enough that the new rifles aren’t outperforming the old one by that great a margin… and aren’t hitting a rather ludicrous accuracy requirement.

Where have we heard these things before?

These claims parallel similar motivated attacks against the M4 by Robert Scales, a retired US Army General. Scales led a vicious campaign against the M4 Carbine. I believe Scales was more ideologically motivated than the elements in Germany were, but that doesn’t change the fact that both sources were using suspect and faulty data to support canning the rifles.

Tests of both platforms have shown they work well.

The attack on the G36 was anecdotal accuracy while the attack on the M4 was anecdotal reliability. Scales famously and loudly proclaimed the M4 jamming caused the deaths of several soldiers under fire in Afghanistan. A review of the battle found that was simply an absurd claim, the weapons that went down during that prolonged firefight were belt-fed machine guns and the casualties taken by US forces were the result of effective enemy action, not equipment failures. Soldiers can get killed in firefights, just because a soldier had an M4 with a red dot on it instead of a SCAR with an LPVO doesn’t mean the conscript goat herder with the Mosin Nagant firing rounds in that soldier’s general direction can get a hit that misses the soldiers plates and wounds or kills them.

Now, all things being equal, there are rifles, like my favorite FN SCAR, that are academically more reliable, in the notorious “Dust Test” the M4 had a stoppage rate of 882/60,000 with 863 being soft stoppages that were easily cleared with continued function. That reported rate was also an outlier in the test and in other iterations the M4 performed much closer to the other rifles, magazine also accounted for a high rate of failures with 239 attributed.

The SCAR, in comparison had a stoppage rate of 226/60,000, which is roughly a 4 times improvement. But from a different perspective the M4, at its worst extreme outlier failure rate, was 98.5% effective while the SCAR was 99.6%. The SCAR, from this wider view, is only 1.1% more reliable and the H&K 416 about the same. The H&K XM8, a wild variant of the G36 for the US Army back in the early 2000’s, actually performed the best with 127/60,000 or 99.78% reliability.

In 1990 the standard for M4 reliability was 1:600 (99.83%) mean (average) rounds between failure given normal operating conditions (the dust test was an extreme operating condition) the standard in 2013 for the M4A1 was 1:1,691 (99.94%). In practical terms that meant a soldier would have to fire 3 full combat loads (210 rounds, 7 magazines, standard combat load) before likely experiencing 1 stoppage in a 1990’s M4, and today would have to fire 8 full combat loads.

We are magnitudes ahead of when auto-loading rifles first entered US hands as a standard, the M1 Garand’s rate was only 1:9 (87.2%) when it was chosen to replace the M1903 in 1940 (USMC). 80 years later we are at the razor’s edge of reliability where we are talking tenths and hundredths of a percentage difference.

What was probably most illustrative about all the the trials worldwide since the turn of the century is that we’ve largely maxed the 5.56x45mm cartridge and its competitors. All these designs work well when built well, AR, SCAR, AK, XCR, X95, G36, etc. The limits are largely imposed by where on the diminishing returns curve a particular group wants to sit. Does a 2 MOA or 1.75 MOA choice matter for a rifle that’s extreme range is 600 meters, practical is 300-400 meters, and is it worth $200, $400, $1,000 per unit cost to implement?

New Systems – NGSW

The new NGSW rifle system, to include optic, is supposed to push effective ranges of the fighting rifle to 1,000 meters. We had to change calibers to do that. But given some quick and dirty math the new rifles won’t be drastically more accurate than today’s rifles, they will just have a caliber that can reach the distance. The M110 is held to 1.1 MOA accuracy which should produce a roughly 12″ group at 1,000 meters if the .308 had the legs to get there consistently. The new 6.5 Creedmoor’s should make that much easier.

Given current combat rifle accuracy standards (maybe even pushing them a little because we can) we could ask for a 90% hit probability at 1,000 meters of the NGSW rifle. Target size is an 18″x30″ (torso) hit zone and we end up with a rifle and ammunition combination that we are asking… about 1.5-2 MOA out of.

[ The Dirty Math: 18″ is 90% of a 20″ hit zone. Set that 20″ hit zone at 1,093.6 yards/1,000 meters. Given the ‘1 MOA is 1″/100 yards’ we divide our 20″ hit zone (which would give an over 90% hit rate based on the 30″ vertical target area) by the 1,093.6 yards to get .0182″/yard or 1.82″/100 yards. 1.8 MOA, the round just has to be able to get down range that far without suffering too many environmental impacts to its accuracy. The two most drastic of those impacts in the control of shooter/user/manufacturer is when the round crosses from supersonic to subsonic and the ballistic coefficient of the projectile to mitigate atmospherics.]

So ultimately this is a situation we have already been able to consistently build as an industry in shorter legged calibers with proper projectiles. 77gr 5.56x45mm rifle/ammo combinations have routinely been able to offer shooters this performance envelope. I’m very interested to see where the NGSW program lands us and what performance rounds like the .277 Fury with an advanced optic suite like the NGSW-FC will actually allow an end user to do and how much more easily. With things like active range/cant reticle adjustment and active atmospherics reticle adjustment we should be vastly increasing first round hit probability… assuming the user can shoot worth half a damn.

Beretta APX RDO Review

By
Caleb Giddings
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Every time I get a new gun from Beretta to review I get excited, and the Beretta APX RDO review is no exception. This was one of the launch models for the APX when it came out, and it my opinion it’s the best.

Before we’ve reviewed the APX Centurion, and like the Centurion the APX RDO uses Beretta’s modular grip chassis, so that the serialized part is the trigger group. This means one trigger group can move from different size chassis to create a gun that fits you. During the Beretta APX RDO review I really ended up liking the full size frame that the gun came with.

First things first – the APX RDO comes with many mounts to fit different optic plates. That’s what the RDO stands for, after all. This model is fitted with a Trijicon RMR, which it’s still wearing right now. The RMR is still the gold standard for pistol optics, although other strong contenders like the offerings from Holosun are gaining popularity. During the Beretta APX RDO review I also sent the frame to Boresight Solutions to have it stippled to give me a better grip.

Like the Centurion, I like the slide serrations on the APX RDO. They’re large and functional, and give excellent surface contact area for slide manipulations. The stock trigger is pretty good, breaking crisply at 6 pounds, and installing Beretta’s competition striker drops that about a half pound to 5.5, with minimal take-up and a nice break. It’s the most 1911-esque trigger I’ve ever felt in a striker fired gun, so if you think that’s a good thing you’ll like the APX RDO.

Bottom line: we live in the golden age of striker fired semi-automatic pistols. I did the Beretta APX RDO review because I like Berettas and I’m close with the brand, but the truth is that you could toss an APX in a bag with a VP9, a Glock 19, a Walther PPQ, an M&P, and a Sig P320 then give that bag a good shake. Once it’s all jumbled up, reach in and grab whatever pistol comes out and you’ll be fine. It’s a good time to be alive and a good time to buy a Beretta.

New ASP Law Enforcement Agency Program Helps Address Urgent Need for Disposable Restraints

By
Keith Finch
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Appleton, WI, April, 2020—Armament Systems and Procedures (ASP), a leading manufacturer of law enforcement products, has announced a multi-tiered response to new guidelines and recommendations related to the use of disposable restraints. First, addressing the sudden surge in demand, the company has dramatically ramped up production of its Tri-Fold single-use restraints. Second, ASP is communicating the latest industry guidelines and potential equipment funding opportunities to agencies and the distributors who supply them. And finally, the company rapidly rolled out a program to make it fast and easy for agencies to deploy a turnkey disposable restraint solution. The program includes free equipment to help outfit officers, while reducing the overall cost to the agency.

“The health crisis obviously changed everything overnight,” says ASP CEO Kevin Parsons, “and urgently finding ways to protect the health of first responders became an immediate priority.” Parsons says that in addition to the need for things like masks and gloves, emphasis has been placed on minimizing the re-use of equipment like handcuffs, that might carry surface-borne pathogens. He points out that the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and others are specifically recommending that law enforcement officers use disposable restraints. “Based on the spike in demand and requests for large-scale availability, we have dramatically increased production of our Tri-Folds and we are currently manufacturing these restraints and related accessories around the clock,” says Parsons.

In conjunction with the spooled-up production, ASP quickly turned around a comprehensive communication and education effort, beginning with an informational video, and continuing with disseminating the latest industry recommendations, as well as information on a federal funding program that offers subsidies to help agencies acquire the equipment they need.

Finally, in the span of 24 hours, ASP put together and distributed an efficient, cost-saving product acquisition program for distributors and agencies. The Agency Set program offers a bulk pre-packed solution with everything needed to get disposable restraints in the field. Each set includes 300 Tri-Fold Restraints, 25 Scarab Safety Cutters, and 25 system carrying cases that can be worn on belts or vests. ASP is providing the cases at no cost, to help reduce the overall cost, while ensuring that officers have everything they need to carry and use the system.

“Officer safety has always been the cornerstone of everything we do,” says ASP’s Parsons. “The public health crisis has just expanded the definition of what it means to protect the people who protect us.”

The Masking of America – Or – Saving Civilization One Fabric Scrap at a Time

By
Dr LateBloomer
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Home sewn masks on the writer’s sewing table

Those whose prepping skills have heretofore consisted solely of collecting guns and ammo are having a rude awakening these days. The fatal flaw for those whose planning extended only to “I’ll use my guns to take whatever other supplies I need” is that they failed to plan for an “incomplete” apocalypse.

The “incomplete” apocalypse we are currently experiencing has law and order still in place (and no zombies, dammit) but does have shortages of essential supplies – from hand sanitizer to N-95 masks – that you can’t just go out and rob from your neighbors.

In the face of these widespread shortages of personal protective equipment due to COVID-19, and beyond all comprehension, the country has seen a resurgence of home sewing. Yes – as in your mom’s old Singer.

Commercial tailors and clothing companies started retooling for sewing masks too, but what we are now seeing is a veritable army of home seamstresses riding to the rescue of health systems large and small. These home sewing citizens are providing tens of thousands (if not millions) of masks of all descriptions to help prevent droplet spread in a society under quarantine. Some health systems are even accepting home sewn medical gowns that are washable and reusable. 

What up until recently was considered a quaint and outdated home hobby, not even taught in schools anymore, is now proving that sewing skills and equipment are “essential” and should be included in the new prepper paradigm.

Healthcare organizations started running out of supplies back in March and were forced to figure out innovative ways to sanitize and reuse masks that were designed to be disposable. Some hospital workers were issued ONE N-95 a week, for a device which is supposed to be disposed of after each patient. Some workers were given a simple paper bag in which to store their mask in-between shifts. With sketchy compromises like that is it any wonder that the medical world started accepting any help it could get? 

The donated cloth masks, while not as effective as regular medical masks, are used by health workers not in direct patient care or even as covers for the regular masks as they are being reused.

Now that the general public has been told to cover up in public to help prevent droplet spread, the demand is even greater for face coverings of whatever sort. Do-it-yourself videos are all over the internet using everything from bandanas to socks, to army-issue skivy shirts.

Could any of us have imagined this scenario a year ago –  even preppers?

I bought some extra elastic in February thinking I might need to make a few masks for my own personal use in public, but I never imagined that the entire healthcare industry would virtually run out of personal protective equipment.

Fortunately, I’ve been a home sew-er ( as opposed to sewer – ha!) since I was a teenager, amassing a horde of fabric according to the cardinal rule of quilting – “She who dies with the most fabric, wins!” 

Think of a fabric stash as a bit like an ammo stash, only more colorful and more versatile. Last year I cleaned out scraps that were less than 3 inches square, but I’ve still got scores of yards of raw material to work with. ( I am not a hoarder, I am not a hoarder …)

I’m set for fabric, but I never imagined that certain widths of elastic would be sold out of every online retailer and even some warehouses – with a wait time of weeks to months. I never imagined that I would be scavenging elastic cording out of the bottom hems and hoods of my jackets. Then I never imagined that I’d be cutting up pairs of spandex tights to use as “jersey loops” instead of elastic. This commodity has gotten so scarce that I’ve also heard of people cutting up dollar store ace bandages for elastic.

I’m sewing masks for our office patient parents to wear so we can conserve our medical masks. Trying to determine which homemade online mask design was “best” was not something I trained for in medical school. Pleated? Shaped? Pockets for a filter? What kind? Furnace filter? Shop Towel? Vacuum bag? It’s mind-boggling, and genuinely useful studies are scarce. We are basically all making this up as we go along and hoping for the best.

I am purposely trying to avoid using tie strings instead of elastic ear loops, reasoning that young mommies with a baby on a hip can’t use two hands to tie on a mask. Also, being a pediatrician, I worry about strangulation hazards with long strings.

There are home sew-ers out there who are churning out hundreds of masks a week while they are stuck at home. In my opinion they are true home-bound heroes. I can’t begin to touch those numbers because I’m still working, but I’m well on my way to two hundred so far and am becoming more efficient as I go. Cutting out fabric on my office desk in-between patients is also something that I never imagined that I would be doing during this madness.

Am I the only one who finds a bit of irony in the fact that millennials who seemed perfectly willing to sacrifice their elders to this pandemic, are now having their butts saved by those same elders armed with home sewing machines? There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

So remember kids – prepping isn’t “only” about guns and ammo. Sometimes it’s about something as mundane as elastic and your mom’s old sewing machine.

A… K… Fiddy!

By
Keith Finch
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Brandon brings us the big bore AK update that the internet is craving.

Watching the prototyping and R&D processes that you can find online is nearly always a fun fantastically illustrative experience for we folks who have not done it. Watching as developers work with the most miniscule details that we would never think of as important and almost certainly overlook ourselves.

Like the ejector. The fact that the ejector design, probably among the least exciting parts in a rifle, needs such crucial thought and the reasons behind it all are fascinating. The fact that Brandon has reverted several earlier parts to more AK like designs and that he has discovered that the changes make work out better in many ways is process that is genuinely enjoyable to follow. The fact that material selection for both the final product and prototyping is so critical and cost controls are another topic that the end user never seems to be in a position to appreciate.

The fact that the AK-50 is reverting more and more into an AK in function and not just vaguely exterior form is a cool development that I’m glad Brandon has been able to push, even if it is just for his enjoyment as an AK enthusiast.

Closer and closer to a final product. And it is amusing to see that in many ways, “Nyet, Rifle was fine.” even when upscaled to so drastic a degree.

NEXT GENERATION SQUAD WEAPON FIRE CONTROL (NGSW-FC)

By
Keith Finch
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Even in the case of a battery power loss, soldiers are left with an uncompromised 1-8x, direct-view optic and glass-etched reticle exceeding current capability.

BARNEVELD, Wis. For the last 18 years, innovation has meant everything to Vortex Optics. It’s meant our emergence as a leader in the sport optics industry. It’s allowed us to provide our customers the tools they need to pursue and protect what matters most in their lives.

But starting today, our dedication to innovation means something even more.

We’re honored to announce that the US Army – PM Soldier Lethality awarded Vortex® an agreement to deliver the Next Generation Squad Weapon-Fire Control (NGSW-FC) Production Ready Prototypes for Soldier TouchPoint (STP) evaluations.
As a direct-view optic, the 1-8×30 Active Reticle™ Fire Control provides everything you’d expect from a variable-power, first focal plane riflescope. When augmented with an overlaid digital display, however, it provides features unheard of in a traditional small arms fire control.

“As a veteran-owned, non-traditional defense contractor, it’s very important to us that we listen to warfighters,” said Sam Hamilton, Chief Technical Officer at Vortex Optics. “When we learned of the soldier’s need for increased lethality out of their squad weapons—combined with the Small Arms Ammunition Configuration (SAAC) study, which proved that advancements in electro-optical fire control had the greatest potential to increase soldier’s lethality—we knew there was an important capability gap we could fill.”

The Vortex Optics 1-8×30 Active Reticle™ Fire Control is built around a revolutionary technology based on many years of internal research and development, along with multiple cooperative development efforts with the Army’s PM-Soldier Weapons group. The end result is Active Reticle™, which has been proven to increase hit percentage and decrease time to engage during US Army Soldier touchpoints over the last two years.

Hamilton said, “By combining a unity power 1-8x direct view optic utilizing a first focal plane, etched reticle, a 1km capable laser rangefinder, state of the art on-board ballistic engine, atmospheric sensor suite, and programmable active matrix micro-display overlaid onto the first focal plane, Active Reticle™ delivers a true multi-mission fire control enabling everything from CQB to designated marksmanship at the extents of the NGSW’s effective range.”

For the soldier in the field, that means the freedom to devote their entire focus downrange. Hamilton said, “End-users will no longer need to leave their field of view to consult separate rangefinders or ballistic calculators, slowing them down and compromising their situational awareness.”
About Vortex Optics: American-owned, veteran-owned, Wisconsin-based Vortex Optics designs, engineers, produces, and distributes a complete line of premium sport optics, accessories, and apparel. Built on over 30 years of providing unrivaled customer service and exceptional quality, Vortex® has emerged as a leader in the optics market.

Rampage Killing in Nova Scotia, 16 Dead.

By
Keith Finch
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Image via Google Search... couldn't see across Huron today so...

Late Sunday, Canadian News outlets reported a spree killing in the rural community of Nova Scotia.

The police said the killing spree, which began in the town of Portapique on Saturday night, ended about 12 hours later at a gas station about 22 miles away in Enfield, north of Halifax, where the gunman died. The police would not elaborate on how he died, though witnesses told local news outlets that they heard gunfire leading up to his death. – NYT

It is one of the worst slayings in Canadian history and the details are still murky. Currently, the prevailing information seems to indicate that this started as a deliberate directed killing of one or more of the victims and then later became random.

One of the slain is a veteran RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Officer. A motive for the rampage shooting was not immediately clear. Officials said Mr. Wortman, a denturist from Nova Scotia, had a relationship to some of the victims and was not known to the police. They said one line of investigation would be whether the coronavirus pandemic had anything to do with the killing spree.

If COVID-19 stresses were a factor in the slaying it could be a dark precursor to other potential acts. As reserves run out and relief from the government proves too little or too late the potential for violence rises from its baseline.

Everyone’s potential, en masse, and equally so, everyone’s risk of victimization when an individual or group hits a tipping point and goes over it. Violence is a natural visceral reaction to induced stresses and even within civil societies it will happen. We cannot legislate it from existence or simply will that risk away, our mitigation must consist of civil efforts toward our fellows and realistic preparation and acknowledgement of the risks involved.

Politcos the world over (I should say ‘First World’ over) will argue this is a problem with people owning guns who shouldn’t. They won’t point to the fact that Mr. Wortman was, “not known to police” which equates to not having a criminal record or even a history of negative interactions with law enforcement.

That it is impossible to predict future behavior, only guess based on past behavior and assumed future stimuli is something they like to gloss over. If you’re thinking, “Keith, that’s a pretty sketchy guess.” you would be correct, far too many variables.

Conversely certain people will point to it as proof that weapons cannot be left in the hands of ordinary untrained citizens. Conveniently, this ignoring all the instances where government abused their monopoly on force. Even if such people acknowledge that governments have abused their authority, “in the past” they do so with a self assured arrogance that their government would never do such a thing… in the next breathe they may also call *insert least favorite politician* ” literally Hitler” so it baffles me which government they have this absolute faith in.

Chief Superintendent Chris Leather, the officer responsible for criminal investigations for the Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the episode began on Saturday night when the police were called to a home, where they discovered dead bodies inside and outside the residence.

He said a suspect was nowhere to be found. Over the next 12 hours, the police pursued Mr. Wortman across the province.

Commissioner Lucki said the crime scene stretched over a 50 kilometer, or 31-mile, area.

Chief Leather said Mr. Wortman appeared to be dressed as a police officer and was driving a vehicle made to resemble an R.C.M.P. car. The authorities said that Mr. Wortman then switched vehicles and was seen driving a silver Chevrolet Tracker in the Milford area. – NYT

The reports seem to indicate Wortman was using a deception, predicated on that force monopoly, to evade capture and continue his attack. This may indicate prior planning from before the current crisis, this may indicate it has nothing to do with the current global pandemic. This is, in partiality, evidence that supports a possible terrorist act.

However it also may just have been a convenient means of escape and evasion after the initial killings, those which were socially linked to him in some manner. The variables for a violence permutation are vast. It’s like a slot machine at a casino, but with even more reals and those reals can interact with other machines reals. There are a nearly endless series of combinations that result in nothing overt and that happens over, and over, and over again but someone still hits that sequence resulting in an event.

The chief said the bodies of victims were discovered in multiple locations and that several structures were set on fire.

Lee Bergerman, the assistant commissioner, appearing visibly shaken at a news conference on Sunday, said the killing spree would haunt Nova Scotia.

“Today is a devastating day for Nova Scotia and will remain etched in the minds of many for years to come,” she said. – NYT

When the combination of factors strikes and someone snaps it is tragic and terrifying, however we as first-worlders have a terrible tendency to apply a variation of NIMBY to traumatic and catastrophic events of every degree. Despite knowing, academically at least, that these events occur we still socially inoculate ourselves into a stupor of believing it is always on TV and ‘somewhere else.’

During the manhunt, the authorities warned residents that Mr. Wortman was armed and dangerous, and told them to stay inside.

Frightened residents locked their doors and many hid in their basements — and stayed there overnight — as news of the shooting spread through the close-knit community.

Did they take any other precautions, I wonder? Far be it from me to suggest that a governing authority figure actively endorse necessary force to prevent a man on a killing spree from adding you and your family to the body and injury count.

In July 2018, a man wielding a gun in Toronto walked down a busy street and randomly shot two people and injured 13, before killing himself.

One year earlier, in late January, Canada was deeply shaken when a political science student entered a mosque in Quebec City during prayers, killing six people and wounding many more.

One of the worst mass shootings in recent Canadian history occurred on Dec. 6, 1989: Fourteen women were killed in a violent anti-feminist attack at the École Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal. Fourteen others were injured, and the gunman killed himself.

But wait? Canadian style gun control efforts are supposedly so efficient that bad things only happen in the much more populous United States… that just so happens to have a lot of tightly packed urban spaces, a diverse group of cultures that don’t always get along, and an active market for certain illicit trades which reward organized crime with profit… but no, I’m sure because we only make people do a background check at gun stores and deny anyone with any felony, domestic violence, substance abuse, or mental illness from purchasing that is why bad things happen in the United States only.

Except all the other places bad things happen. NIMBY, right? Some weird form of denial NIMBY.

To the people of Nova Scotia, the community rocked by this event and who now must recover, we mourn with you.

To the politicians and groups who will use this to push farcical solutions, promises that, “we can do better” that you cannot deliver on and know it, and who will talk through the bodies to score political points by telling everyone how bad the bad thing was in order to drum up support for whichever pet snakeoil law that wouldn’t have stopped it to begin with…

Fuck you. Let the community grieve and bury their dead with dignity. Be honest, for once, and leave you empty unenforceable promises in the dust bin where they belong.

Why should you dry fire?

By
Caleb Giddings
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Dry fire, or dry practice as it’s sometimes called, is one of the best and most affordable ways to get better at shooting. Why you should dry fire is because there’s not better place to drill down on fundamental and complex shooting skills than in dry fire.

In this video, we go through a simple dry fire session where I work some basic skills in the comfort of my own home. When we’re looking at why you should dry fire, we first need to establish some basic safety rules. We need this because we’re handing guns and pulling the triggers on these guns. The first rule I have for dry fire is that I’m in a room with no live ammo whatsoever. I make sure that whatever setting I’m doing my training in has been sterilized of live ammo. The next rule I have is backstop – even though my gun “isn’t loaded” I still dry fire in a safe direction. Safe direction means one that will stop a bullet, or one where the bullet won’t hit anything. A good example of a safe direction is a brick fireplace, or if you live on a 300 acre ranch, your backyard.

Now that we’ve got some safety rules, let’s look at why you should dry fire. The foremost is that it’s the perfect place to build non-shooting skills. Things like drawing the gun into your eye line, the perfect stance, and reloads are all skills that are important to shooting, but aren’t specifically shooting skills. When I was training to win a FAST Coin, I spent a week practicing defeating the retention on my Safariland SLS holster. Dry practice is the perfect place to focus on tiny skills like that.

Another reason why you should dry fire is because in that sterile environment, it’s the only place where you can execute the fundamentals of marksmanship flawlessly. On the range, with the sun beating down on you and recoil existing, you’ll never do a perfect trigger pull. In dry fire, you can have the perfect trigger press and see its effect on your sights. You learn more about your trigger pull when the gun doesn’t move than you do during live fire.

These are a few of the reasons why you should dry practice. Suffice to say, it is one of the most important, and affordable ways to develop your performance based shooting skills.

245 Years Ago The British Empire Came For Them…

By
Keith Finch
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April 19th, 1775, is the date most widely regarded as the first official battle of the American Revolution. “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” a title not exclusive to the battle, fired in Concord, marked the first fight where the British were beaten.

Fighting had occured in Lexington earlier in the day, 8 Colonist Minutemen were killed for one British minor injury. The “shot” heard around the world wasn’t the first fired in anger, it was the first that set Imperial Great Britain back. It was an American Colonist victory and a British defeat.

Unexpected.

They were coming for our guns, so we shot them.

That’s a sentiment, unfortunately, not as far from the forefront of our minds as it comfortably should be… you know, since we Constitutionally Enshrined the bearing of weapons as a natural inalienable human right.

In a COVID-19 world where restrictions and recommendations from healthcare workers and the government vary from cautious to ridiculous, ‘don’t use a motorboat but a paddle boat or canoe is ok’ for example…

No, seriously.

Under the governor’s revised “Stay Home, Stay Safe” Executive Order 2020-42, physical outdoor activity, such as kayaking, canoeing and sailing, remains permissible. However, the use of a motorboat, jet ski or similar watercraft (includes gas and electric motors) is not permitted for the duration of the Executive Order, which is currently set to expire at 11:59 p.m. April 30. Prohibition on the use of motorized watercraft is reflected in the governor’s Frequently Asked Questions document that explains and interprets Executive Order 2020-42.

So staying away from each other on motorized watercraft, bad. You’ll get the Rona! Staying away from each other on non-motorized watercraft good because… physical activity?

Instead of writing something sensible like, ‘Outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, biking, boating, are permitted but not in a gathering of more than 10. Social distancing needs to be maintained between individuals and groups. Groups should remain as small as possible, keep distance, and anyone showing symptoms or who has a known exposure should not participate until their 14 day isolate quarantine is through for virus incubation and/or they have recovered. Please follow medical provider instructions.’

Nope, governments across the nation have taken it upon themselves to make lists of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ activities that don’t seem to stand up under scrutiny of any sort. They contain confusing and contradictory measures that often seem to slip into the realms of “social justice” best practices or whatever said governor feels they like.

They do not make efforts to be reasonable or minimally disruptive, which would also have the benefit of showing respect for individual rights and be clearer and understandable. That is half the problem with the current crop of restrictions, the double speak undermines their urgency.

In response people are… unhappy.

Image from Lansing via The Independent.

What happens when your instructions don’t make sense on top of severely hurting your small businesses and laid off workers? Who are having all kinds of trouble getting the promised relief out of the tax pool, the promised exchange for shutting down was that Government was footing brunt of the bill… something that might get interesting come 2020 tax season.

People get sick of it.

Now, Detroit area has a high infection rate (thanks New York, glad we could share), but what people have noticed is that instead of a measured and considered use of their emergency powers governments have used it to do all kinds of things.

Like gun control things. Remember all that noise in Virginia? Remember the sanctuary counties and boogaloo memes?

Governor Northam got through and signed them into law, to the adjulations of his Bloomberg funded congressional body. 7 of 8, including Universal Background Checks (which we know are anything but) and Extreme Risk Protection Orders. That’s right, you can be red flagged in Virginia now and extrajudicially punished and have your property seized. Way to go Commonwealth law makers, keep up that treading on during a national medical crisis. This is certainly the best time to push through such controversial and arguably constitutionally prohibited agenda items, while all the opposition is distracted in quarantine.

And now, with rumors that California may “indefinitely suspend” firearm sales there are serious legal fights on deck that we must be engaged in. If not, they aren’t going to stay legal fights… They didn’t 245 years ago.

Now, all things being fair. Let me address a quick word to the folks doing the civil disobedience thing. Key word is civil, don’t devolve into a roving pack of assholes to give the politicos who have their heads firmly lodged in their own any legitimate arguments. Even as we make our displeasure known and highlight that COVID-19 is not the only problem the states and nation are facing, be civil about it all.

Putting pressure on our representation to unjam critical relief, to clarify directives, and to balance the necessity of curbing a nasty virus with the other real threats of financial ruin. I am genuinely curious if enough data exists to determine the number of people who will be killed by the economic hault, I doubt it since we’re having a damn hard time getting COVID numbers right with sloppy record keeping. Sloppy data won’t help anyone in fighting another infection, it may even make it harder.

Happy Monday, Readers.

PMC 223 Bronze

By
Keith Finch
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PMC 223 Bronze is one of the most popular .223 Remington loads on the commercial market for good reason. It works. Widener’s, on behalf of PMC, reached out to ask if I wanted to do a review.

Obviously, I said yes, since here it is. But like I say in the video this was a puzzling review.

Now, I recognize that my knowledge and understanding in the world of firearms and related ancillaries is borderline encyclopedic (if those encyclopedias were scattered around on the table in the wrong order) but PMC is one of the most recognizable commercial ammunition sources in the nation. Their branding makes them stand out. They are recognizable by name, packaging color, and by consistent performance from their ammunition.

So I’ve just naturally assumed that PMC 223 Bronze is like… like unleaded gasoline, but leaded and for firearms. It isn’t fancy high performance fuel, it just works. It does what you want it to, makes your rifle run. The outside package claims 2900 fps and gives a trajectory chart. While that is all well and good, they don’t give atmospherics, or barrel length and twist rate, or optical height so… not super useful. But with the insane variety of rifles, carbines, firearms, and ‘pistols’ that take 5.56/.223 you would need a multi-page spreadsheet to begin to cover your bases.

But that’s not what PMC 223 Bronze is for. PMC 223 Bronze is a high volume working round. It’s meant to be shot a lot, enmass, in just about any 5.56/.223 platform, and for high round count training and practice.

Is it “accurate?” Yes, but not match grade. That isn’t it’s job.

Is it consistent? Yes, plenty consistent for that high volume training. I have not nor will I go out and batch/lot test it for mean, median, and extreme high/low velocities or grouping. That isn’t it’s job. It’s job is to be training fuel and its good at that job. Buying into a quality training ammunition, or a few quality training ammunition(s) that deliver enough of everything to fuel good training is crucial to building and maintaining the shooting skills. PMC 223 Bronze has always delivered that.

PMC Bronze 223 ammo from Wideners

Beretta 92 Compact Review

By
Caleb Giddings
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Today we’re keeping it simple with a Beretta 92 Compact review. This is one of my favorite carry guns, and one I used to win the Missouri State IDPA Carry Gun championship in 2019. There are a lot of things to like about this gun, and not much to dislike. It’s accurate, reliable, easy to carry, and with some mods it is super easy to shoot well.

I have to admit right off the bat that this Beretta 92 Compact review isn’t unbiased. It’s a well-known fact that I like Berettas, especially the 92 series guns, so it’s no surprise I like the 92 Compact as well. It’s like someone took a 92FS and put it in the dryer on hot and it shrunk down to a reasonably sized carry gun. I can still get a full firing grip on it, but the slightly shorter barrel and slightly shorter grip do make it easier to conceal.

Some recommended changes to make the gun even better for carry: slim grips and a bobbed hammer. I did both of those mods to this gun, and also changed out some internal springs in favor of Wilson Combat springs. The advantage to the Wilson Combat springs is they reduce the trigger pull while maintaining reliability in the gun. During the Beretta 92 Compact review, I discovered that it was very accurate with Federal 147gr FMJ.

If I had one complaint about the Beretta 92 Compact, it’s that Beretta doesn’t make them often enough. They’re imported from Italy, and they do limited runs each year, so once they’re gone for a year, they’re hard to find. But the good news is that Beretta’s new 92X lineup has a Compact. You can get it with or without a rail, and the new guns have a replaceable front sight, more ergonomic grip, and they got rid of the stupid pinkie extension magazines.

Once the Beretta 92 Compact review was wrapped up, my final verdict on the pistol shouldn’t a surprise. I think it’s great, I think everyone should buy one, and regularly used mine as a carry gun.

The 590 Retrograde – Trench Gun 2020

By
Travis Pike
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You can’t beat a classic. A shotgun outfitted with wood furniture is a real American classic, I mean, as long as it’s made in America. Mossberg must have realized the market for tactical shotguns outfitted with black polymer furniture is big but crowded. Last year they released the Retrograde series, which took the Mossberg 590A1 and Mossberg 500 and released them in more classic configurations. This year they expanded the line with the gun we got now, a standard Mossberg 590 Retrograde.

The 590A1 is a sweet gun for sure, but it’s a heavy gun, and the 590A1 is an expensive gun too. The Mossberg 500 Retrograde is also a sweet gun, its light and small, but is a plain jane five-shot shotgun. If you want to Goldilocks it and want a gun that’s just right, the Mossberg 590 Retrograde might be the sweet spot for you.

The 590 Retrograde lacks the heavy-walled barrel and ghost ring iron sights and goes with a standard profile barrel and a bead front sight. It keeps the eight-shot tube, the heat shield, and a bayonet mount. It’s a little lighter, especially on the front side of the weapon. It’s also a good bit cheaper with a $573 MSRP versus the 590A1’s $900+ MSRP.

The 590 Retrograde – 2020’s Social Distancing 12 Gauge

Topping off the 590 Retrograde with a bayonet makes it well suited for the trenches of 2020. Speaking of trenches, what does a shotgun with wood furniture, a heat shield, and a bayonet remind you of? If you said Winchester 1897, then you and I are on the same page.

Unfortunately, it has a disconnector, so you can’t pump lead into the Kaiser’s troopers at a pump-action cyclic rate. You can beat them to death with an American made walnut stock. Speaking of, the furniture is gorgeous. It looks fantastic and is finished with a dark coating that’s gorgeous.

The stock has a checkered pistol grip, and the pump is a honeycomb style design that reeks of classic American shotgun.

The gun has a matte blue, which is also a new finish for the Retrograde series. The 590A1 is parkerized, and the Mossberg 500 is a rich blueing. The heat shield is parkerized but matches the look well. The finish seems a bit weak, especially on the magazine tube. It’s already beginning to rub away where the pump moves.

Retro Ergos

The Mossberg 590 Retrograde changes no controls because the Mossberg 500 series controls have always been the same. It’s inherently retro, and the reason it’s never changed is that it never needed to.

The safety is Mossberg’s always brilliant tang design that’s ambidextrous and placed absolutely perfectly for quick and easy use. The action release is situated right behind the trigger guard is easy to reach for both left and right-handed shooters.

The length of pull is an excellent 13.87 inches. Mossberg makes some models with these crazy 14.5-inch LOP stocks that are ridiculous even for my massive frame. 13.87 inches is likely going to be a bit long for some smaller shooters. You should know that before you go with a Retrograde shotgun because changing the stock defeats the purpose.

A big reason why a lot of shooters like Remington’s over Mossbergs is due to the Mossberg pump slop. It admittedly moves and wiggles a bit more than necessary. The action itself is a little gritty and bumps and jumps along the way. That’s the standard Mossberg pump, and it’s a minor complaint that in no way affects the function of the shotgun.

Retro Shotgun, Modern Shooting

The Mossberg 590 Retrograde is a fun gun to shoot. All shotguns are fun, but the wood, the heat shield, and the bayonet you must add to the end of the weapon give it a classic look and feel. It’s like LARPing with a tactical rifle, except your gun is from the 1970s at the earliest.

The 590 Retrograde is a defensive or tactical shotgun, and I shot it that way. The gun is quite light for a combat shotgun, and it can be driven between each target without you the shooter getting a shoulder workout. It weighs 7.25 pounds and balances well with the thinner barrel.

The 20-inch barrel is a little long, and an 18.5-inch model exists. That extra 1.5 inches of barrel does give you the eight-shot tube, though. The bead sight is ideally suited for speed and buckshot. It’s a bright gold thats quick and easy to see and get on target. Speed is a necessity with a shotgun, and a bead means speed.

The Retro Bead

A bead also means your long-range slug shooting capability will suffer. Past 50 yards and your slug accuracy will be questionable. The 590 receiver is tapped for an optic’s rail if you want to add a high tech option to a Retrograde shotgun.

The texture of the pistol grip and honeycomb pump is excellent for using the Rob Haught push-pull method for recoil control. You can dig in deep to both the pump and stock and fight the recoil very well. I like to work the pump using the recoil from the last round, and the honeycomb stock also gives you positive control over the pump when running it rearwards.

The 590 Retrograde comes with a built-in recoil pad that gives you a little cushion for recoil control. The recoil pad is very soft and does an excellent job of soaking up recoil. It’s also very well textured and sticks to the shoulder very well.

It’s an American made pump-action shotgun so yeah its damn reliable. The shotgun serves up buckshot brilliantly. It has a cylinder choke bore and gives a decent defensive spread. Of course, different ammo patterns differently. Basic buckshot gives you an approximate 10 to 12-inch pattern on average at 15 yards. FliteControl and Hornady Black produce a much tighter pattern that’s about the size of a fist at 15 yards.

Who is the 590 Retrograde for?

It’s most certainly for shotgun nerds like me. It’s also for the tactical hipster, which I also am. This 590 is a solid defensive shotgun that offers you a novel look and feel. The wood furniture may not be tactical, but it doesn’t have to be. If you want Magpul furniture, then buy the Magpul model and tac it out. If you appreciate a classic shotgun with a classic look and feel, but also want a good defensive shotgun, then this is a gun for you.

Should you want a shotgun for defensive purposes but want one to play with, then the Retrograde is also a perfect gun. It’s stylish, funs to shoot, and gives you that boomstick feel.

Some Notes on Offset Aiming Systems

By
Keith Finch
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SCAR rifles heavily kitted with optic and rail upgrades
SCAR 16 and 17 Rifles wearing SIG Tango6T Optics

You’ve seen them on competition guns. You’ve seen them in video games. And now we’re starting to see them on general issue systems for the U.S Military (M110A1 SDMR).

Offset aiming systems are a natural extension of “backup” aiming systems, like BUIS. It’s an extension from top mounted dots too, those have been seen on optics like Marine Corps SDO’s and a variety of precision optic systems. The option has become so well regarded that several replacement ring pieces exist to hard mount the popular microdots to the mounts.

The advantages of an offset dot or irons, over BUIS or a top mounted dot, center partially around the optic height over bore offset. An offset aiming solution, whether irons or dot, can be given a nearly identical height from the barrel that the primary optic has. This means that your eye can find the offset aiming system at roughly the same height off of the stock that it finds the primary optic. Finding your aiming systems on the same “plane” greatly simplifies the body mechanics involved with using them, you don’t have two ‘levels’ to learn for placing your head and eye.

Now, with the mechanics advantages established for offset aiming systems, let’s a look at the principle operational consideration. I will call it Off Axis Barrel Optical Alignment.

Off Axis Barrel Optical Alignment

A rifle barrel is designed to operate, ideally, on a level plane and with its aiming system directly vertically above it. This configuration works with the slight upward angle built into firearm barrels, done for centuries at this point, to give them greater range and an advantageous ballistic trajectory.

In short, the sights (all conventional top mounted sights and optics) look across the path of the barrel so the bullet breaks the sight plane twice. Once on the way up and shortly out of the barrel, close to the shooter, and once on the way back down as gravity pulls the round down in its trajectory arc.

This advantageous exploitation of physics works best when the rifle is held vertically aligned and perpendicular to the earth, the rifle isn’t tilted left or right and is on a flat range. If the rifle is tilted forward (down) or backward (up) the effective range/trajectory arc is influenced. This is most notable at greater distances and extreme angles, however the shot will still break the sight plane twice.

Now we are using an optical system that isn’t vertically aligned to the barrel. This means that the barrels angle, which the primary optic is taking advantage of, is not aligned to the secondary aiming system. This will mean the shot you take, any shot, will only break the sight plane once. The second time the round would break the sight plane, it will be off axis from the sights. If you tilt the rifle left (like I do) for your offset dot or iron sights, the shot will drift further and further left the further down range it goes.

Add to this, most offset optics are purposely zeroed at extreme short distances, 10-15 yards/meters. Taking advantage of the offset optic’s noninterference with the primary optic it can be actively used with the primary optic instead of as a backup only if the primary fails. This short zero distance increases the severity of the angles involved.

The result…

3x 5 shot groups. A zeroing group, a confirmation group, and a group fired with the offset RMR (top left) that has a 15 yard zero.

Notice in the picture, my primary optic is zeroed for point of aim/point of impact at 50 yards. My offset Trijicon HRS RMR is zeroed for point of aim/point of impact at 15 yards, a very short distance and one that puts the SCAR 16’s barrel at a very sharp (relatively speaking) angle both upward and left at a 35 degree angle with the Arisaka mount.

When I use the HRS at 50 yards with its 15 yard zero there is a notable displacement of my rounds. This displacement, especially leftward since gravity will bring the round back down, is going to increase as the range does.

It’s something a user needs to be aware of. But someone behind the rifle must also be aware of using the primary optic at an angle too, so this “problem” isn’t actually a problem since we know we are inducing it and can account for it. We’ve been doing similar things since WWII when off center optics were added to a variety of rifle systems, there would always be a point where the line of sight and the trajectory crossed only once with these.

But illustratively, the offset optic works incredibly well and has acceptable practical displacement with a short range zero. Especially when the primary optic is specifically zeroed to take over at 50 yards and beyond. The offset can be used further out, but a shooter would do well to actively shoot at distance and gain a physical appreciation for those distances and their displacement.

But the offset shown in the image is the maximum I will experience 0-50 yards, more than effective enough for rapid center mass shots at those close distances.

Offset is the best of all things “backup”

  • They can be used without removing the primary optic. This means in the event of a catastrophic failure of the primary optic. The user doesn’t have to strip the primary with tools or QD mount lever systems to bring the other optic into use. Just tilt the rifle.
  • They allow for a close POA/POI zero separate from the primary optic, making it effectively part of the primary optic suite for extremely close shots as well as being a ready backup optical system to take over if a primary fails. It is more easily useable and more actively useable than any other backup sight system. This adds the crucial aspect that it can be trained with as part of the whole rifle system without compromising the primary optic’s zero.

Is it necessary?

No.

It is useful, though. Very useful.

With the reliability of modern high grade optics, LPVO’s, ACOGs, and red dots alike, the need for backup systems is in an actively arguable state. I’m a firm believer in backup irons and I don’t believe that will change. My SCARs both have 3 sight systems right now, a primary, an close zero offset, and the factory irons as the final backup.

Anyone who enjoys redundant and overlapping useful systems, this fits the niche nicely.

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