Archive for the 'Weapons and Tactics' Category

Source.

“Even though (Wagner leader Yevgeny) Prigozhin acted out, yelling give me ammo, give me ammo, there was no actual ammo hunger,” says Ocherkhadzhiev. “The problem was, they used six times more ammo than is tactically and academically called for. They just buried the Ukrainians in shells. And in these conditions, the Ukrainians still defended.”

I don’t want the discussion thread to turn into a political one.  That’s not the point of the post.

But I find this remark utterly fascinating.  I know that when the Marines first joined the fight in Afghanistan, the Taliban were surprised at the fact that they (the Marines) could carry a half dozen magazines in a tactical vest and stretch the ammo out to cover a 24-hour fire fight under the supervision of good NCOs (the NCO corps in the U.S. military is entirely a product of Western culture and Eastern and Middle Eastern armies completely lack such a structure, focusing instead on commissioned officers, in the end making them less capable or efficient, something I’ve written on extensively).  The disciple of targeting, fire control, etc., surprised the enemy combatants.

Similarly, the practice of the Taliban was to bury U.S. troops in fire.  Seldom would they take the attack straight to U.S. forces except en masse (Battalion versus Company).  I’ve also written extensively on that subject in Massing of Forces.

This is a lengthy history of Weaver’s growing acquaintance with shooting and the grip, stance, and style that he developed over the years. It’s part biographical and includes interesting input from Jeff Cooper. An engaging piece if you’re mature or patient enough to read beyond sound bytes and blurbs.

In the beginning was point shooting. For those precious few who prepared themselves to use a pistol as a serious defensive weapon, it was fired from the hip, without the benefit of sights. For others, including target shooters and law enforcement officers alike, the pistol was fired at arm’s length, onehanded, and, often, very slowly. Either way, the pistol was a one-handed gun, and the unfortunate thing was neither the close-quick-dirty approach nor formal pistolcraft bore any real resemblance to the skills needed to survive a real-life shooting. And then in 1959, along came an L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy who held his pistol with both hands, hit what he aimed at, and did it faster than anyone else. His name was Jack Weaver, and as Jeff Cooper put it, “He showed us the way.”

Photo from the article: Weaver during his military days, with a single-action Colt Peacemaker. Note the high boots and the spurs — standard uniform for the mule pack to which he was assigned.

[…]

During this year of practice, however, he realized if he brought the pistol up a foot higher, and dropped his head just a bit, he could get a split-second look at his sights before pulling the trigger. Thus was born the Weaver Stance: two hands on the gun, with a flash sight picture and the offside foot placed a little forward. So in 1959, the trophy marked “Leatherslapping: Best Overall Gunfighter” went home with Jack H. Weaver’s name engraved on it. What made his win so sensational was no one had ever seen a pistol shot like Weaver was shooting his. “It looked kind of stupid,” he concedes. “Everybody was laughing at me, but it worked. I took the money.” Laugh though they might, he had found something that worked, and it worked consistently.

“They’re a stubborn bunch,” Jack says of the early combat shooters. “They kept laughing at me and thinking it was funny, and I thought, ‘that’s great!’” It got to the point the Weavers could get a hotel room and buy dinner, and count on paying for it with the winnings. After being beaten three years in a row, Jeff Cooper gave some careful thought to Weaver’s shooting position, finally announcing it was “Decisively superior” to anything else.

From his bully pulpit writing for Guns & Ammo, Cooper described the matches and the lessons learned, ultimately distilling them into the Modern Technique of the Pistol that formed the backbone of his teaching. In 1987, when Cooper was interviewed in Handgunner, he stated “Most of what I’ve done in my life has been eclectic — taking the best ideas of other people and putting them to use.” True to form, though he popularized it and taught it, he always gave Jack Weaver the credit for the stance. Indeed, it was Cooper who named it the “Weaver Stance.”

Honorable men and note, not an ounce of fat.

Also from the article: The early days: from left to right are Jack Weaver, Jeff Cooper, and Eldon Carl.

Here’s some of that old-fashioned American ‘never give up.’ When you know something is good keep at it; sooner or later, you’ll be recognized. Fortunately for Weaver and us, it wasn’t posthumously.

And so time passed. Jack got a letter from the FBI National academy in 1982, letting him know they had adopted the Weaver stance. The Weaver Stance became the Modified Weaver, and became a part of the Modern Technique of the Pistol, as set forth in the Gregory Morrison book of the same title. Cooper, of course, went on to found Gunsite Academy, where the Weaver Stance remains part of their core doctrine. There’s even a framed photo of Jack Weaver hanging on the wall in the main classroom, alongside portraits of Thell Reed, Elden Carl, Ray Chapman and Bruce Nelson, all shooting from the Weaver stance. Gunwriters still never tire of arguing Weaver vs. Isoceles, although the Weaver is now so universal it even popped up by name in the movie Meet the Fokkers. While the stance became a part of the culture, the man behind it was almost forgotten — almost.

The article continues at the link and here’s a good representative photo; one man is point shooting, but Weaver is using his sights and wins.

Again from the article: Weaver, winning the 1959 Leatherslap. That’s Jeff Cooper crouched down between the hay bales.

Source:

What You Need

First and foremost, you will not only need a gun and holster, but you will be shooting from concealment! You’ll need a concealment holster. The Air Marshals carry a Gen 5 Glock 19, and it seems like the famed P229s are still in service as well. Generally, any gun that’s in that compact realm is a good way to go.

You need 30 rounds of ammo, so it’s not absurdly demanding in the ammo department. You’ll need at least two magazines and a concealable magazine carrier to make things happen. You’ll also need all the appropriate safety gear, including ears and eyes, as well as a shot timer to keep track of par times. Finally, you’ll be using the FBI QIT target, and you’ll need three of them.

There are many versions of the FBI QIT target, but most appear to be similar to this.

Scoring

Scoring is simple. You get five points for hits inside the bottle of the Q target and two points for hits that touch the edge of the inner and out bottle and shots inside the outer bottle but on the target. The maximum possible score is 150 points, and the minimum qualifying score is 135 points.

There is also an interesting way they score the times. You’ll shoot most of the drills twice, and your times for each drill are combined, and they cannot exceed a specific time. For example, the first drill is shot twice, and your two times have to equal less than 3.3 seconds total. If you shoot one string in 1.3 seconds and the second in 2.0 seconds, you pass.

Shooting Like an Air Marshal

All right, let’s stop talking and start shooting. This is shot cold without a warm-up, with concealment being used twice. Prepare and ensure you can safely draw your firearm from concealment. I won’t make fun of you for going OWB for safety’s sake or to follow range rules. This qual is shot entirely at seven yards, which makes plenty of sense for an Air Marshal. Planes can be big, but even in a big plane, the lines of sight are fairly short.

I have not shot this qual. Looks interesting. There are eight stages and clear. Check it out at the link.

Many Traditional Americans have bought an AR-15 recently but have used it little or not at all. (Ahem, you know who you are!) The first thing to do is read the whole manual that came with your weapon. The manual should have a parts list diagram. This will be important info providing proper terminology. Most say what to do next is to take it partially apart (field strip), clean it, and reassemble it, even before shooting. You should at least field strip it and wipe down the excess manufacturer’s oil.

There is a lot, and I mean a lot, of information about the AR-15 platform on the web. Most of it is useless. It’s super high-speed operators, the bulk of whom are total jerks, trying to impress and one-up each other, whose language and decorum are despicable, which doesn’t help the average family with their homesteading, church, or team-building needs.

The object should be to train with the AR platform to get beyond your hunting knowledge. Your women folk also need to learn to run the gun.

Get very familiar with the weapon platform, how it performs, its capabilities, and its uses. Training with an AR is different than hunting; the platform is designed primarily for defense. That’s why you bought it, right!?!

Well, you need practice in all phases; handling and manipulation, including loading/unloading/reloading mags, safety, sling, sights, how and when to use the “ping pong paddle” – bolt catch/release lever, safety positions, the six-position buttstock, learning/running drills, shooting static/moving targets, shooting while you’re moving, etc.

You can see how this is definitively not a bolt gun and not like hunting! The time to learn your AR isn’t when your family is in trouble but before.

Some background reading is here: The AR15 as the Rifleman’s Weapon.

This video is pretty good at showing terminology and the basics of manipulation.

Next: how to field strip and clean your AR-15.

John Lovell at Warrior Poet Society is the rare exception. Instead of being a rude, know-it-all tough guy, he’s an experienced action guy with the heart of a teacher. Here’s his How To Shoot an AR-15/M-4 Carbine video, including some step-by-step written instructions.

In this video, we learn a wonderful beginner’s shooting drill. The reason for three shots is, again, defense, not hunting. I like that he teaches to get the hits on target first and, with practice, increase the rapidity with which you can run the drill. When proficient, increase the distance from the target. Later, add mag reload. This is also a fantastic handgun basic training practice. Found at this channel with other good vids.

I’m a proponent of the idea that every adult, 12 years and up, should have at least basic proficiency with every weapon type in your household. A father can determine if children are mature enough to begin serious training, but they should be training in their youth, boys, and girls.

Readers, please weigh in with beginner to helpful intermediate knowledge, books, channels, links and etc. Thanks.

Military.com.

The new guns and ammunition the Army just married and is expected to issue to combat arms units within the next decade will require soldiers to carry an even heavier load.

But information on how those weapons should outperform the guns they’re replacing — the justification for troops to shoulder extra weight on top of mountains of gear already injuring soldiers — is classified.

In April, the Army announced that Sig Sauer will produce replacements for the M4 rifle and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW, starting with a trial run of about 40 new guns late next year. Production is expected to ramp up when the Army opens a new ammo plant to produce the new 6.8mm rounds for those weapons around 2026.

Army officials have touted that the new XM5, the M4’s replacement, and XM250, set to replace the SAW, pack a much harder punch and will improve the combat performance of ground troops. But thus far, the service has declined to disclose evidence that those weapons outperform the M4 and SAW, including how far they can shoot accurately. And it’s unclear whether the Army has verified the ranges at which those new weapons can engage an enemy before committing to a multimillion-dollar contract.

[ … ]

The M4, the Army’s current standard-issue rifle used in the post-9/11 wars, can effectively engage targets at 500 meters. The SAW can suppress targets at around 800 meters.

For comparison, the standard-issue rifle for the Chinese military is the QBZ-95, which has a maximum effective range of 400 meters for a target.

Carrying weightier ammunition and less of it is a defeater for the notion of an area suppression weapon to begin with.  It verges on having another medium machine gun (the M240 as opposed to the light machine gun, the M249).

I suppose I should modify the statements above with the observation that the light machine gun is usually used by a single infantry fighter regardless of the fact that it is considered a “crew served weapon,” and the medium machine gun is in actual fact a crew served weapon.

I predict this won’t change a thing regarding the lethality of the armed forces, and that they should have focused on military and physical training rather than diversity.

They’re trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

If they really wanted to return to increased lethality, perhaps they should consider a legitimate role for grenadier in each squad again using the M79 rather than the shorter under-the-barrel design.

Via WiscoDave.

I’ve seen an awful lot of AK variants, mostly with iron sights.  This American is carrying one.

We’ve also seen that the AR-15 is in use.

But I haven’t seen one of these.  It’s a Ukrainian weapon called IPI Malyuk.

Source.

It could be shooting the 7.62×39 round, or the 5.56×45 round, or the 5.45×39 round.  It was built for all three (of course, not at the same time).

It’s a bullpup design.  For the life of me I just can’t seem to like the bullpup design.

I know it has its advantages like longer barrel for field shooting combined with maneuverability in confined spaces.  But I just don’t like the idea of the explosion being that close to my face.

When an ejection port is too close you get blowback into the face, especially with over-gassed systems.

The Hill.

Billions of dollars of U.S. weapons are now in the hands of the Taliban following the quick collapse of Afghan security forces that were trained to use the military equipment.

Among the items seized by the Taliban are Black Hawk helicopters and A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft.

Photos have also circulated of Taliban fighters clutching U.S.-made M4 carbines and M16 rifles instead of their iconic AK-47s. And the militants have been spotted with U.S. Humvees and mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles.

And that’s not all.

Between 2002 and 2017, the United States gave the Afghan military an estimated $28 billion in weaponry, including guns, rockets, night-vision goggles and even small drones for intelligence gathering.

[ … ]

Since 2003 the United States has provided Afghan forces with at least 600,000 infantry weapons including M16 assault rifles, 162,000 pieces of communication equipment, and 16,000 night-vision goggle devices.

Do you know how much you would have to invest in a PEQ-15, NODS and a ballistic helmet to hold the NODS?  Yes, a lot of money.  I know, but I’ll let the reader be shocked on his own.

You cannot even send that sort of equipment overseas – it’s all controlled (except for the helmet) under export control regulations.

The FedGov just gave it all to Pakistan, Iran and China.

Congratulations!  Your tax dollars at work.

The Taliban have now captured Kandahar.  Kabul won’t be long behind.

This is their booty.

The last quarter’s most valuable items included six EMB 314 Super Tucano light attack aircraft, 174 Humvees, almost 100,000 2.75 inch air-to-ground rockets, 60,000 40mm high-explosive rounds, and more than 2 million 7.62 mm cartridges.

[ … ]

The air force flies at least nine Sikorsky-made UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters—of the original 159 ordered at a cost of between $5.75 billion and $7 billion—and 68 McDonnell Douglas-made MD530F light helicopters, part of a deal for 150 aircraft at a cost of $1.4 billion.

Among the ANA’s armored vehicles are hundreds of American-made platforms. Kabul signed a deal for 8,500 Humvees, at least hundreds of which are already believed to have been captured by the Taliban.

The ANA also agreed on deals to receive more than 200 Mine-Resistant Armored Vehicles (MRAPs) from the U.S., plus 634 M117 Strike Force Vehicles at a cost of $661.3 million.

ANA armored vehicles are supported by a range of artillery pieces, both American and Soviet. The ANA has more than 20 U.S-made M114 155mm howitzers.

Hey, how about sending some of that armament this way.  We paid for it.

Via Wirecutter, the M79.

I would remark that the older tactical / weapons configuration of the U.S. military (in Vietnam) made much heavier use of grenadiers.

At that time they used the M79, and today that has been replaced with the M203.  But the M79 has greater accuracy and distance than the M203.  I’ve often wondered if it wouldn’t be better to return to heavier use of grenadiers, even though they must carry a sidearm.

The current technology seems to be replacement of the M203 with the M320.

Comments from Danny.

Riffing off the NPT theme, you will not defeat the horde standing in front of your domicile. Members of a NPT can operate in unison, one or two from different angles with high lumen spots to blind (especially if the spots have a strobe function) while other members of the team engage with weapons (as an obvious last resort) or with our own lasers. But blind with spots and lasers briefly and then move. Blind again from a different vantage point and move again, from the flank, the rear, etc. The goal is to spook the mob and sow fear and uncertainty. Just throwing it out there, how about blanks fired, again to sow uncertainty and hopefully a stampede of the mob. We should all have a considerable advantage regarding terrain, cover, lanes of ingress/egress in our own neighborhoods. I am not not could play a bona fide operator on TV. But I do have a very thorough knowledge of my AO in daylight or dark, can maneuver undetected, understand camo have NV and thermal to assist. Certainly YMMV and simply posit the above as a thought experiment hopefully with refinement from folks with more practical experience in hostile situations.

Oh, and pop up flares could be used as well. Much easier to launch w/o ones position being detected. Can we not also throw frozen water bottles, fireworks, wrist rocket projectiles arrows with small game tips instead of broadheads from the cover or darkness to sow fear and confusion? PCP air rifles might be a tactic when plunking them off the ANTIFA shields or helmets or vehicles (some of the recent reports of the incursions have mention support vehicles for the mob). Tire bang strips to disable the mob support vehicles? Paint balls on the windshields to limit visibility? All part of sowing doubt that your neighbor is the place to cause mayhem?

Questions, comments, observations and remarks?