Showing posts with label Paramilitary guerrilla force. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paramilitary guerrilla force. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Messge to Patriots
This is a video message I think my fellow Patriots need to hear. We need to stand up, there is no other time but now, if we do not fix our nation, no one will!
More training videos
Now this is what I am talking about! This is the kind of training we all should be doing, along with other forms also. This is a really good example of some seriously effective training.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Guerrilla Warfare Information
I found these sites, and had to share them with you. These sites have tons of great information, and reference material that will help you improve your training, and give you some vital information you will need. Gain as much information from these sites as you can, take full advantage of what is available. Print everything you can so you can have a hard copy for when/if we no longer have access to electronic information.
Rural vs Urban Guerrilla
CIA Guerilla Warfare Manual
Guerilla Warfare Manual
Guerrilla
Guerrilla Warfare
By Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Here is a HOOYAA video for you guys. This is the attitude we all should have!
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Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store
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Rural vs Urban Guerrilla
CIA Guerilla Warfare Manual
Guerilla Warfare Manual
Guerrilla
Guerrilla Warfare
By Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Here is a HOOYAA video for you guys. This is the attitude we all should have!
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Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Night Operations
Max Velocity Forum Source
Let’s talk about night operations. This is a topic that often comes up, particularly with regards to modern night vision equipment. There was a string of comments about this in my recent post ‘Out In the woods’, which took on the form of a mini forum. There are multiple aspects to discuss about night operations, so my intent will be to give a broad brush of the various aspects in order to clarify, and then open it up to comment and discussion.
This blog is primarily concerned with the armed civilian in an SHTF environment. Thus, you will only have the equipment that you purchased or acquired. We can certainly take pointers from practices within the military, and that is part of the intent of this article, but we must also be realistic and realize that we are not going to be issued all the latest gear. The gear you have is often a function of what you can afford.
There is absolutely no reason why you cannot conduct effective night operations in a low tech manner. The flipside to this is if your enemy is equipped with high tech night vision equipment, then you may put yourselves at a disadvantage. So today I’m going to look at both low-tech and high-tech options. Remember, just because you have all the gear (and no idea), doesn’t mean you have it squared away. You can have a PVS 14 stuck to your eyeball, and a thermal imager in your pocket, but if you’re tactical moron blundering around the bush, then it really can’t help you. You can’t simply buy yourself safety!
‘Back in the day’ (like, the 90’s!) we used to patrol either without, or with minimal, night vision equipment. I have spent many an hour, or night, wandering around in the darkness either on training exercises or actual operations. It is entirely doable. The problem you may have is that when you are dealing with the challenges of operating in darkness, and someone else with night vision equipment is observing you do that, they have a clear advantage over you. Yes, we are not going to panic over the ‘all seeing eye of Mordor’ but have no doubt of the effectiveness of surveillance equipment when observing terrain at night. As your patrol moves in single file across the open hillside, cloaked in darkness, the OP a couple of miles away equipped with thermal surveillance equipment, will be watching you clear as day.
So let’s first look at some factors and considerations for operating at night without modern night vision equipment. Darkness is certainly a challenge: if you walk out of your brightly lit house into your backyard at night, it is hard to imagine operating in such darkness. However, natural night vision is a wonderful thing. It takes time to develop, anything from 45 minutes and improving over a couple of hours, and it can be lost in an instant of exposure to white light. On anything but a moonless, cloudy, and miserable night there is always light to see by. How much depends on the moon state and cloud cover; in fact just the other day out in the woods at my training site a half moon and clear sky was casting the shadows of the trees across the white snowy ground.
Natural night vision is something that you must develop and prize. As darkness falls you must allow the night vision to develop, without exposing it to white light. If you are planning on exposing yourself to light, such as flashlights, GPS screens and similar, then carefully guard the night vision in one eye by always keeping it closed when performing such tasks. The other thing about my vision is that due to the distribution of the rods and cones on the back of your eyeball, in darkness you will see better by looking slightly away from an object; your peripheral vision is better at night. Therefore, if you think you see something, resist the temptation of staring intently at it. This will actually mean that you see the object less clearly. Look slightly away from the object and you will get a better picture.
So, whether you are out in the woods in a patrol base, or in a building, as night falls you need to carefully guard your night vision. Consider, if you are based at a retreat location, only using low level red or green lights inside at night. Then, when you do go out on patrol you will find that you can actually see very well. You just need to gain the confidence, which will only come by practice, of walking around at night. I will add as an aside however, that the more exhausted you become the more you will tend to hallucinate at night. It is entirely possible to see things at night in the darkness that are simply not there, particularly if fear is playing on your mind. Be careful of this, and remain calm.
If you are operating low-tech, or perhaps you only have a couple of night vision devices to spread around, then this will have an effect on your patrol signals and formations at night. You will need to close up the distances, the spacing, between individuals in your patrol. At halts you will need to close up, usually into a herringbone formation (facing out alternately left and right), so each man touches the next man. This will not only aid with accountability, but if it is so dark that hand signals cannot be seen, you may have to pass signals by whispering into the next man’s ear. Bearing in mind that you may be observed by an enemy who is equipped with night vision devices, you don’t want to close up too much. Try to remain as spread out as you can while maintaining visibility with the patrol member in front of you. One of the great dangers when moving at night is splitting the patrol, and it is every man’s responsibility to ensure he does not lose either the man in front, or the man behind. Little techniques will aid with this, such as the use of glowing ‘Ranger eyes’ on the back of the cap, helmet, or equipment of the man in front.
Do not assume that darkness will mask your movement. At night you need to patrol as if it were daylight. The use of terrain, vegetation, and even weather masking, will help conceal your movement from those potentially observing you. Be wary of sky-lining yourself on ridges, silhouetting yourself, whether by following along the crest or by crossing over. Crawl over, breaking up shape using cover, if necessary. When using terrain masking, be careful: don’t simply follow the bottom of a ravine or defile. That will put you in ambush country. Better to contour somewhere between the bottom of the valley/draw and the ridge line: this will make your movement less obvious and also potentially place you in an awkward position for anyone that has set an ambush: you may either walk into the side/flank of the ambush, or just simply be further away than where they intended the killing area to be (i.e. the valley floor). It goes without saying that you should not use trails, even if they are easier to move along at night.
So there are challenges of moving at night when working low-tech. But it’s actually something that you can get used to after a little bit of practice. You can get very comfortable at it. You need to just take account of the difficulties the darkness presents, with the lower visibility, and compensate your patrol conduct as required. Your pace will be slower, in order to avoid excessive noise by blundering around in the trees. You will need to close up a little to take account of the reduced visibility. You’ll need to make extra efforts to ensure the patrol does not become split or separated. You will need to close up at halts in order to pass any hand signals, whispered messages, and to ensure accountability.
What happens if it goes hot? If you get into contact? Well, it’s really not that complicated. If it’s dark and you walk into a contact, then perform your contact drill as rehearsed, and fire at the enemy’s muzzle flashes. Remember that if tracer is involved, either by the enemy or by yourself, then it lights up at 100 meters from the muzzle (if the subdued NATO standard type). So it does not truly point both ways, which is why is designed to light up at 100 meters. If the contact is taking place at ranges greater than 100 meters then you can also use tracer as a means of target indication.
Consider the use of white light. If you are without night vision devices, then you definitely want to consider the use of parachute illumination rocket flares. Either the self-contained ones that come in a tube, or the ones fired from a flare gun. If you put up a parachute flare you can get anywhere between 30 to 60 seconds of illumination. It will move with the wind, and cause moving shadows on the ground. Note: if you are patrolling and one of these suddenly whooshes up, you should have time to hit the ground before it pops and illuminates the area. If you are caught by one actually bursting then it is often better to sink to the ground slowly with the moving shadows, rather than trying to bomb burst into cover. This is a different immediate action from that with the trip flare, which produces immediate light, and leaves you no choice but to bomb burst out of the illuminated area. Remember that if anyone puts up a rocket flare, it’s for a reason. Similarly, a trip flare or similar device will be positioned to cover an ingress route, and should be covered by enemy fire, as should all obstacles.
The sort of dim light produced by a rocket illumination flare is not really bright enough to completely destroy your night vision. Just don’t look directly at the flare. You can always close at least one eye, or maybe have some of your group close both, if you are acting covertly and the situation allows it.
If you have no night vision devices and need to illuminate an area, either for a hasty attack, raid, an ambush, or a defensive action, then consider the use of parachute illumination flares. This will allow those without night vision equipment to use iron sights or day optics to engage targets. It does not produce a full daylight effect. It produces a dusky world of moving shadows. A little bit of coordination will allow you to put up illumination as necessary, while coordinating the absence of it to cover movement. Note: I know of at least one incident where parachute illumination was used in an ambush, and due to the large smoke signal given off by firing a rocket illumination flare, the firer was killed by enemy return fire. Thus, if using rocket type illumination flares, fire from a flank and from cover.
You can also use powerful white light flashlights attached to your rifle. However, I would not recommend the use of such devices in the open. The use of white weapon lights is best confined to building and room clearance operations, where you are inside and using the white light to illuminate the room and clear it following dynamic entry. If you turn weapon lights on while out in the open, you are just inviting enemy fire. That is also an interesting practical point, the ‘negligent discharge’ of weapons mounted white light. Be careful of accidentally hitting the on/off switch on a weapon mounted flashlight. Such an action can not only compromise your patrol, perhaps your move into your assault position for a raid, but it also washes out everyone’s night vision. Best to remove or reverse the batteries until such time as you are definitely going to use them. Something to consider.
The use of rocket illumination parachute flares also bridges the gap nicely between complete unavailability of night vision devices and the partial availability of same. Perhaps you are occupying a defensive position and you only have a limited number of night vision or thermal devices available. Perhaps you have one device that is located in the OP (observation post), and is used to scan and observe your perimeter. If you get an incursion into your perimeter, and most of your team is just equipped with either iron sights or day optics, then once the enemy is detected you can put up parachute illumination in order to allow all of your team to effectively and accurately engage the enemy. This is a useful bridge use of optics and white light.
In a little bit I will move on to the actual use of night vision devices. What I want to say right now is use them appropriately. Even if you are fully equipped with high-tech night vision equipment, there is potential for the overuse of such equipment to have a negative effect. What do I mean by this? Well, perhaps you are conducting a raid, and perhaps part of the objective is a building. It’s a nighttime raid. In such circumstances it would be ideal for your fire support team to be equipped with night vision equipment in order to allow them to generate accurate fire, and also most importantly to be able to track your progress on the objective and avoid a friendly fire incident. However, if you are the assaulting group it may not be best at all times to go with equipment such as PVS 14. Part of a raid is the use of speed, aggression and surprise. It’s not some Delta force video-game. You may be better off putting up illumination rounds, whether that is rocket flares or mortar illumination, and going in hard. Maximum speed and aggression. That may also include the building, where you could clear it using weapon mounted flashlights once inside the building. It’s just something for you to consider, avoiding over-reliance on technology, which is one of the reasons why your PVS 7/PVS 14 will flip up on its helmet mount and allow you to get it out of the way when you don’t need it.
In fact, if we look at the Falkland’s War in 1982, it was indeed true that the Argentinean’s were equipped with night vision equipment where the British troops were not. The Brits went up the mountains using the basics of fire movement, and white light when necessary or available. They mainly fought up through the darkness using basic fire and movement, with fire support as they could get it. Many of the Argentinean commandos were equipped with night vision sights on their rifles. These were responsible for many of the British casualties. This highlights several things. Firstly, technology does not always triumph over morale, training and aggression. Secondly, the combined use on the battlefield of both old school and modern technology, albeit on opposite sides.
For example, if we move away from the defensive position to a more patrol situation, then let’s imagine that we perhaps just have one or two items of night vision technology within that patrol. Perhaps you have one PVS 14? Perhaps you have a single FLIR thermal imager? There are several options here. Perhaps your lead scout is using the PVS 14 on a helmet mount? This still gives the option of flipping it up or down as necessary. Perhaps even the lead scout, or the patrol leader, have the FLIR on a cord around the neck? Having the FLIR, or the PVS 14, either bungeed around the neck or flipped up on a helmet mount allows you to patrol without them, but then utilize them to scan ground ahead before moving over it.
A little bit on the technology. Your standard night vision devices, such as the PVS 7 or PVS 14, are image intensifiers. This means that they amplify ambient light to produce the familiar green image. On a lighter night they were better, on a darker night not so good. These are passive devices, in that they do not generate anything that can be picked up by an observer. However they are often equipped with an IR flashlight, which can be used to covertly illuminate the area. However use of the IR flashlight device is an active measure which will be seen by anybody else using night vision equipment. Importantly, a night vision binocular or monocular is not a magical device. If you could hide from an observer with the naked eye, you can hide from an observer wearing a PVS 14. Also, it is important to note that if you use a binocular night vision goggle you will lose depth perception. This is why the monocular, such as the PVS 14, is preferable. It allows you to retain night vision in the unused eye, and allows you depth perception.
A thermal imager, or FLIR, uses a different part of the IR spectrum than an image intensifier, and detects heat emissions. Therefore the picture you see is made up of the heat differentials observed. In that sense a thermal imager is a little bit more magic than image intensifier. These devices are great for static observation. With a small handheld FLIR device, about the same size as a PVS 14, you are looking at a tiny little video screen. In my opinion, such a device is best used for periodic scanning in a static OP, or if out on patrol scanning from a static position over the ground ahead.
With both of these devices, the use of terrain, vegetation, and adverse weather conditions, to mask your movement, will be effective. Thermal imaging is a little bit harder to defeat because if you heat up objects around you, there is a chance that you will be seen.
If you are mobile, rather than in a static OP position, then in my strongly held opinion there is a best way to mount and use these devices. In a static OP there is no reason why you cannot use an image intensifier or thermal imager just like a set of binoculars, by having them around your neck and using them for routine scanning. You can also do this while on patrol. If you have image intensifier such as a PVS 14, then the best thing to do with it is mounted over your eye on something like a helmet. The helmet mount will allow it to be flipped up and out of the way as necessary. You don’t want your night vision device mounted as a sight on your rifle when on patrol, simply because you can only use it when aiming your rifle from the shoulder. If you want to patrol with the benefit of the PVS 14, then have this monocular device mounted over your eye so you can actually use it as you walk along.
If you also carrying a handheld FLIR thermal imager then I recommend you keep this to hand in a pouch or hung around your neck. You can then stop, flip up the PVS 14, and scan with the same eye using the FLIR. If it matters to you, this will also preserve night vision in the unused eye.
Of course, having a monocular night vision device mounted over your eye, most likely your dominant eye, will give you difficulties if trying to engage enemy with your rifle. The solution to this is a weapon mounted IR laser, zeroed to your weapon. This bridges the gap between what you can see through your monocular and the fact that you cannot use your sights. You can buy civilian legal versions of the military device, which will allow you the low power IR laser setting, which will give you effective engagement distances out to maybe 100 or 200 m, which is all you need. To engage, you simply turn on the laser with the switch mounted on your hand guard, point, picking up the laser dot through your PVS 14, and shoot.
The question often comes up of how to mount your night vision monocular to your head. The provided ‘skull crusher’ is not popular. The most effective way to mount this device is on a helmet. But no one wants to wear or carry a helmet. Well, I disagree. There are a couple of options: you can wear a ‘bump style’ ProTech or air soft knockoff tactical helmet which will comfortably mount the night vision equipment while being lightweight. If you want ballistic protection you can buy a MICH or ACH helmet off the Internet. You can also purchase lighter ballistic helmets such as the ops-core FAST helmet. Pretty high-speed looking! Only you can decide what you’re prepared to wear. Yes, I know that a ballistic helmet does not stop direct strike from high velocity rounds. But depending on the situation, if you’re going to carry a helmet for your night vision equipment, it may be worth carrying one that is also ballistic protected. You never know what it may stop. If you are doing covert stuff, then just carry a skull crusher and suck it up. Each to his own.
I will say this, in my opinion, it would be better to have one battle rifle equipped with an IR laser, have a PVS 14 mounted on a ballistic helmet, and a handheld FLIR thermal imager, than a safe full of rifles and no night vision capability. You don’t have to use this stuff all of the time, but if you have it you have the choice of using it. For example, if you are hidden out someplace with your family after the SHTF, it’s going to be dark out there keeping watch at night. With a PVS 14 and a FLIR you have the excellent capability of being able to scan your perimeter and pick up threats. You can even use these devices on ground domination activity patrols (GDA). Yes, I’ve told you that you can work out there at night, but the flipside is that without the equipment your visibility is seriously impeded, and without electric light it is very dark out there.
So now we get to the other end of the scale. You, and the rest of your tactical team, have invested in this equipment. This means that you are not at a disadvantage against any aggressors who are similarly equipped. You don’t have to patrol all might with your PVS 14 over your eye, you may not feel it is appropriate or that the threat is high enough at all times. But you have the ability to flip it down and see what’s out there. You also have the ability to pull out your FLIR thermal imager and scan the next phase or bound of your patrol movement. That’s a pretty convincing sales pitch for night vision equipment, right? Where’s my commission? LOL. I know that I want to be able to scan ahead of me and pick out that ambush force before I walk into it, if I have the chance to do so.
One of the big problems with night vision equipment and thermal, is the expense. I refer back to what I said above about the number of rifles you have. Sell some: how many rifles can one man carry anyway? Night vision and thermal equipment is such a game changer that I believe it is worth the sacrifice to invest in it. At the very least, you want one PVS 14 (or equivalent) and thermal imager for your family group. I refer you back to my comments on the use of white light and parachute illumination flares for situations when you need to engage but not everybody is equipped with night vision optics.
A little earlier when discussing raids, I touched on the dangers of fratricide. This is something that needs to be taken very seriously. Given that an assaulting force should properly be sweeping across the objective from the flank of the fire support group, it is necessary for the fire support group to know when to switch fire away from the assault element. It doesn’t want to happen too soon, but it doesn’t want to happen too late. There are various methods that can be used: you can use radios to report objectives reached or phase lines, or something along those lines. You can use other signals such as light or flares. However none of these are foolproof. You want to use pen flares to signal a switch fire? Well, when the tracer is winging both ways up and down the objective and ricocheting off in all different directions, then you may find it hard to spot that flare, even if it is a different color from the dominant tracer. Things have been tried such as attaching light sticks to the end guys in the assault group. Again it doesn’t work very well and it also opens them up to being seen by the enemy.
I’m not trying to paint a picture of doom and gloom, but clearly fratricide avoidance at night poses a challenge. If the fire support group is able to view the assault going in through night vision equipment, then we are in a better place. Oh, by the way, depending who you think your adversaries may be, you may want to get that IR glint tape off your equipment; It reflects back when lit up by active IR from Apaches, in order to determine friendly forces
In summary, if I found myself without any night vision equipment, I would not consider that sufficient reason to give up. I have spent enough time wandering around the darkness to know that it can be done. However, night vision and thermal equipment is a definite game changer. If there is any danger that your adversaries will have it, and there is because it is widely available, then you should also try and get hold of it too. However, if my adversaries have it and I don’t, then I know where I can find it, right?
Live Hard.
Die Free.
Max
With that posted by Max Velocity, a way to avoid fratricide is to limit the amount of shooting you do. Shoot less, overrun the enemy, and engage them in hand to hand combat, or use edged weapons. Or engage them initially, then fight a retreat battle, by drawing your adversary into your trap when they advance into your pre-determined killing areas. We need to remember that we will not be fighting as if we are in the US Army, we are going to be guerilla fighters, and thus will fight much differently than our adversary.
We will depend on night operations, they will become our bread and butter. So with that said, please take from this article what you can, but understand that everything might not apply to us.
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Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store
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Let’s talk about night operations. This is a topic that often comes up, particularly with regards to modern night vision equipment. There was a string of comments about this in my recent post ‘Out In the woods’, which took on the form of a mini forum. There are multiple aspects to discuss about night operations, so my intent will be to give a broad brush of the various aspects in order to clarify, and then open it up to comment and discussion.
This blog is primarily concerned with the armed civilian in an SHTF environment. Thus, you will only have the equipment that you purchased or acquired. We can certainly take pointers from practices within the military, and that is part of the intent of this article, but we must also be realistic and realize that we are not going to be issued all the latest gear. The gear you have is often a function of what you can afford.
There is absolutely no reason why you cannot conduct effective night operations in a low tech manner. The flipside to this is if your enemy is equipped with high tech night vision equipment, then you may put yourselves at a disadvantage. So today I’m going to look at both low-tech and high-tech options. Remember, just because you have all the gear (and no idea), doesn’t mean you have it squared away. You can have a PVS 14 stuck to your eyeball, and a thermal imager in your pocket, but if you’re tactical moron blundering around the bush, then it really can’t help you. You can’t simply buy yourself safety!
‘Back in the day’ (like, the 90’s!) we used to patrol either without, or with minimal, night vision equipment. I have spent many an hour, or night, wandering around in the darkness either on training exercises or actual operations. It is entirely doable. The problem you may have is that when you are dealing with the challenges of operating in darkness, and someone else with night vision equipment is observing you do that, they have a clear advantage over you. Yes, we are not going to panic over the ‘all seeing eye of Mordor’ but have no doubt of the effectiveness of surveillance equipment when observing terrain at night. As your patrol moves in single file across the open hillside, cloaked in darkness, the OP a couple of miles away equipped with thermal surveillance equipment, will be watching you clear as day.
So let’s first look at some factors and considerations for operating at night without modern night vision equipment. Darkness is certainly a challenge: if you walk out of your brightly lit house into your backyard at night, it is hard to imagine operating in such darkness. However, natural night vision is a wonderful thing. It takes time to develop, anything from 45 minutes and improving over a couple of hours, and it can be lost in an instant of exposure to white light. On anything but a moonless, cloudy, and miserable night there is always light to see by. How much depends on the moon state and cloud cover; in fact just the other day out in the woods at my training site a half moon and clear sky was casting the shadows of the trees across the white snowy ground.
Natural night vision is something that you must develop and prize. As darkness falls you must allow the night vision to develop, without exposing it to white light. If you are planning on exposing yourself to light, such as flashlights, GPS screens and similar, then carefully guard the night vision in one eye by always keeping it closed when performing such tasks. The other thing about my vision is that due to the distribution of the rods and cones on the back of your eyeball, in darkness you will see better by looking slightly away from an object; your peripheral vision is better at night. Therefore, if you think you see something, resist the temptation of staring intently at it. This will actually mean that you see the object less clearly. Look slightly away from the object and you will get a better picture.
So, whether you are out in the woods in a patrol base, or in a building, as night falls you need to carefully guard your night vision. Consider, if you are based at a retreat location, only using low level red or green lights inside at night. Then, when you do go out on patrol you will find that you can actually see very well. You just need to gain the confidence, which will only come by practice, of walking around at night. I will add as an aside however, that the more exhausted you become the more you will tend to hallucinate at night. It is entirely possible to see things at night in the darkness that are simply not there, particularly if fear is playing on your mind. Be careful of this, and remain calm.
If you are operating low-tech, or perhaps you only have a couple of night vision devices to spread around, then this will have an effect on your patrol signals and formations at night. You will need to close up the distances, the spacing, between individuals in your patrol. At halts you will need to close up, usually into a herringbone formation (facing out alternately left and right), so each man touches the next man. This will not only aid with accountability, but if it is so dark that hand signals cannot be seen, you may have to pass signals by whispering into the next man’s ear. Bearing in mind that you may be observed by an enemy who is equipped with night vision devices, you don’t want to close up too much. Try to remain as spread out as you can while maintaining visibility with the patrol member in front of you. One of the great dangers when moving at night is splitting the patrol, and it is every man’s responsibility to ensure he does not lose either the man in front, or the man behind. Little techniques will aid with this, such as the use of glowing ‘Ranger eyes’ on the back of the cap, helmet, or equipment of the man in front.
Do not assume that darkness will mask your movement. At night you need to patrol as if it were daylight. The use of terrain, vegetation, and even weather masking, will help conceal your movement from those potentially observing you. Be wary of sky-lining yourself on ridges, silhouetting yourself, whether by following along the crest or by crossing over. Crawl over, breaking up shape using cover, if necessary. When using terrain masking, be careful: don’t simply follow the bottom of a ravine or defile. That will put you in ambush country. Better to contour somewhere between the bottom of the valley/draw and the ridge line: this will make your movement less obvious and also potentially place you in an awkward position for anyone that has set an ambush: you may either walk into the side/flank of the ambush, or just simply be further away than where they intended the killing area to be (i.e. the valley floor). It goes without saying that you should not use trails, even if they are easier to move along at night.
So there are challenges of moving at night when working low-tech. But it’s actually something that you can get used to after a little bit of practice. You can get very comfortable at it. You need to just take account of the difficulties the darkness presents, with the lower visibility, and compensate your patrol conduct as required. Your pace will be slower, in order to avoid excessive noise by blundering around in the trees. You will need to close up a little to take account of the reduced visibility. You’ll need to make extra efforts to ensure the patrol does not become split or separated. You will need to close up at halts in order to pass any hand signals, whispered messages, and to ensure accountability.
What happens if it goes hot? If you get into contact? Well, it’s really not that complicated. If it’s dark and you walk into a contact, then perform your contact drill as rehearsed, and fire at the enemy’s muzzle flashes. Remember that if tracer is involved, either by the enemy or by yourself, then it lights up at 100 meters from the muzzle (if the subdued NATO standard type). So it does not truly point both ways, which is why is designed to light up at 100 meters. If the contact is taking place at ranges greater than 100 meters then you can also use tracer as a means of target indication.
Consider the use of white light. If you are without night vision devices, then you definitely want to consider the use of parachute illumination rocket flares. Either the self-contained ones that come in a tube, or the ones fired from a flare gun. If you put up a parachute flare you can get anywhere between 30 to 60 seconds of illumination. It will move with the wind, and cause moving shadows on the ground. Note: if you are patrolling and one of these suddenly whooshes up, you should have time to hit the ground before it pops and illuminates the area. If you are caught by one actually bursting then it is often better to sink to the ground slowly with the moving shadows, rather than trying to bomb burst into cover. This is a different immediate action from that with the trip flare, which produces immediate light, and leaves you no choice but to bomb burst out of the illuminated area. Remember that if anyone puts up a rocket flare, it’s for a reason. Similarly, a trip flare or similar device will be positioned to cover an ingress route, and should be covered by enemy fire, as should all obstacles.
The sort of dim light produced by a rocket illumination flare is not really bright enough to completely destroy your night vision. Just don’t look directly at the flare. You can always close at least one eye, or maybe have some of your group close both, if you are acting covertly and the situation allows it.
If you have no night vision devices and need to illuminate an area, either for a hasty attack, raid, an ambush, or a defensive action, then consider the use of parachute illumination flares. This will allow those without night vision equipment to use iron sights or day optics to engage targets. It does not produce a full daylight effect. It produces a dusky world of moving shadows. A little bit of coordination will allow you to put up illumination as necessary, while coordinating the absence of it to cover movement. Note: I know of at least one incident where parachute illumination was used in an ambush, and due to the large smoke signal given off by firing a rocket illumination flare, the firer was killed by enemy return fire. Thus, if using rocket type illumination flares, fire from a flank and from cover.
You can also use powerful white light flashlights attached to your rifle. However, I would not recommend the use of such devices in the open. The use of white weapon lights is best confined to building and room clearance operations, where you are inside and using the white light to illuminate the room and clear it following dynamic entry. If you turn weapon lights on while out in the open, you are just inviting enemy fire. That is also an interesting practical point, the ‘negligent discharge’ of weapons mounted white light. Be careful of accidentally hitting the on/off switch on a weapon mounted flashlight. Such an action can not only compromise your patrol, perhaps your move into your assault position for a raid, but it also washes out everyone’s night vision. Best to remove or reverse the batteries until such time as you are definitely going to use them. Something to consider.
The use of rocket illumination parachute flares also bridges the gap nicely between complete unavailability of night vision devices and the partial availability of same. Perhaps you are occupying a defensive position and you only have a limited number of night vision or thermal devices available. Perhaps you have one device that is located in the OP (observation post), and is used to scan and observe your perimeter. If you get an incursion into your perimeter, and most of your team is just equipped with either iron sights or day optics, then once the enemy is detected you can put up parachute illumination in order to allow all of your team to effectively and accurately engage the enemy. This is a useful bridge use of optics and white light.
In a little bit I will move on to the actual use of night vision devices. What I want to say right now is use them appropriately. Even if you are fully equipped with high-tech night vision equipment, there is potential for the overuse of such equipment to have a negative effect. What do I mean by this? Well, perhaps you are conducting a raid, and perhaps part of the objective is a building. It’s a nighttime raid. In such circumstances it would be ideal for your fire support team to be equipped with night vision equipment in order to allow them to generate accurate fire, and also most importantly to be able to track your progress on the objective and avoid a friendly fire incident. However, if you are the assaulting group it may not be best at all times to go with equipment such as PVS 14. Part of a raid is the use of speed, aggression and surprise. It’s not some Delta force video-game. You may be better off putting up illumination rounds, whether that is rocket flares or mortar illumination, and going in hard. Maximum speed and aggression. That may also include the building, where you could clear it using weapon mounted flashlights once inside the building. It’s just something for you to consider, avoiding over-reliance on technology, which is one of the reasons why your PVS 7/PVS 14 will flip up on its helmet mount and allow you to get it out of the way when you don’t need it.
In fact, if we look at the Falkland’s War in 1982, it was indeed true that the Argentinean’s were equipped with night vision equipment where the British troops were not. The Brits went up the mountains using the basics of fire movement, and white light when necessary or available. They mainly fought up through the darkness using basic fire and movement, with fire support as they could get it. Many of the Argentinean commandos were equipped with night vision sights on their rifles. These were responsible for many of the British casualties. This highlights several things. Firstly, technology does not always triumph over morale, training and aggression. Secondly, the combined use on the battlefield of both old school and modern technology, albeit on opposite sides.
For example, if we move away from the defensive position to a more patrol situation, then let’s imagine that we perhaps just have one or two items of night vision technology within that patrol. Perhaps you have one PVS 14? Perhaps you have a single FLIR thermal imager? There are several options here. Perhaps your lead scout is using the PVS 14 on a helmet mount? This still gives the option of flipping it up or down as necessary. Perhaps even the lead scout, or the patrol leader, have the FLIR on a cord around the neck? Having the FLIR, or the PVS 14, either bungeed around the neck or flipped up on a helmet mount allows you to patrol without them, but then utilize them to scan ground ahead before moving over it.
A little bit on the technology. Your standard night vision devices, such as the PVS 7 or PVS 14, are image intensifiers. This means that they amplify ambient light to produce the familiar green image. On a lighter night they were better, on a darker night not so good. These are passive devices, in that they do not generate anything that can be picked up by an observer. However they are often equipped with an IR flashlight, which can be used to covertly illuminate the area. However use of the IR flashlight device is an active measure which will be seen by anybody else using night vision equipment. Importantly, a night vision binocular or monocular is not a magical device. If you could hide from an observer with the naked eye, you can hide from an observer wearing a PVS 14. Also, it is important to note that if you use a binocular night vision goggle you will lose depth perception. This is why the monocular, such as the PVS 14, is preferable. It allows you to retain night vision in the unused eye, and allows you depth perception.
A thermal imager, or FLIR, uses a different part of the IR spectrum than an image intensifier, and detects heat emissions. Therefore the picture you see is made up of the heat differentials observed. In that sense a thermal imager is a little bit more magic than image intensifier. These devices are great for static observation. With a small handheld FLIR device, about the same size as a PVS 14, you are looking at a tiny little video screen. In my opinion, such a device is best used for periodic scanning in a static OP, or if out on patrol scanning from a static position over the ground ahead.
With both of these devices, the use of terrain, vegetation, and adverse weather conditions, to mask your movement, will be effective. Thermal imaging is a little bit harder to defeat because if you heat up objects around you, there is a chance that you will be seen.
If you are mobile, rather than in a static OP position, then in my strongly held opinion there is a best way to mount and use these devices. In a static OP there is no reason why you cannot use an image intensifier or thermal imager just like a set of binoculars, by having them around your neck and using them for routine scanning. You can also do this while on patrol. If you have image intensifier such as a PVS 14, then the best thing to do with it is mounted over your eye on something like a helmet. The helmet mount will allow it to be flipped up and out of the way as necessary. You don’t want your night vision device mounted as a sight on your rifle when on patrol, simply because you can only use it when aiming your rifle from the shoulder. If you want to patrol with the benefit of the PVS 14, then have this monocular device mounted over your eye so you can actually use it as you walk along.
If you also carrying a handheld FLIR thermal imager then I recommend you keep this to hand in a pouch or hung around your neck. You can then stop, flip up the PVS 14, and scan with the same eye using the FLIR. If it matters to you, this will also preserve night vision in the unused eye.
Of course, having a monocular night vision device mounted over your eye, most likely your dominant eye, will give you difficulties if trying to engage enemy with your rifle. The solution to this is a weapon mounted IR laser, zeroed to your weapon. This bridges the gap between what you can see through your monocular and the fact that you cannot use your sights. You can buy civilian legal versions of the military device, which will allow you the low power IR laser setting, which will give you effective engagement distances out to maybe 100 or 200 m, which is all you need. To engage, you simply turn on the laser with the switch mounted on your hand guard, point, picking up the laser dot through your PVS 14, and shoot.
The question often comes up of how to mount your night vision monocular to your head. The provided ‘skull crusher’ is not popular. The most effective way to mount this device is on a helmet. But no one wants to wear or carry a helmet. Well, I disagree. There are a couple of options: you can wear a ‘bump style’ ProTech or air soft knockoff tactical helmet which will comfortably mount the night vision equipment while being lightweight. If you want ballistic protection you can buy a MICH or ACH helmet off the Internet. You can also purchase lighter ballistic helmets such as the ops-core FAST helmet. Pretty high-speed looking! Only you can decide what you’re prepared to wear. Yes, I know that a ballistic helmet does not stop direct strike from high velocity rounds. But depending on the situation, if you’re going to carry a helmet for your night vision equipment, it may be worth carrying one that is also ballistic protected. You never know what it may stop. If you are doing covert stuff, then just carry a skull crusher and suck it up. Each to his own.
I will say this, in my opinion, it would be better to have one battle rifle equipped with an IR laser, have a PVS 14 mounted on a ballistic helmet, and a handheld FLIR thermal imager, than a safe full of rifles and no night vision capability. You don’t have to use this stuff all of the time, but if you have it you have the choice of using it. For example, if you are hidden out someplace with your family after the SHTF, it’s going to be dark out there keeping watch at night. With a PVS 14 and a FLIR you have the excellent capability of being able to scan your perimeter and pick up threats. You can even use these devices on ground domination activity patrols (GDA). Yes, I’ve told you that you can work out there at night, but the flipside is that without the equipment your visibility is seriously impeded, and without electric light it is very dark out there.
So now we get to the other end of the scale. You, and the rest of your tactical team, have invested in this equipment. This means that you are not at a disadvantage against any aggressors who are similarly equipped. You don’t have to patrol all might with your PVS 14 over your eye, you may not feel it is appropriate or that the threat is high enough at all times. But you have the ability to flip it down and see what’s out there. You also have the ability to pull out your FLIR thermal imager and scan the next phase or bound of your patrol movement. That’s a pretty convincing sales pitch for night vision equipment, right? Where’s my commission? LOL. I know that I want to be able to scan ahead of me and pick out that ambush force before I walk into it, if I have the chance to do so.
One of the big problems with night vision equipment and thermal, is the expense. I refer back to what I said above about the number of rifles you have. Sell some: how many rifles can one man carry anyway? Night vision and thermal equipment is such a game changer that I believe it is worth the sacrifice to invest in it. At the very least, you want one PVS 14 (or equivalent) and thermal imager for your family group. I refer you back to my comments on the use of white light and parachute illumination flares for situations when you need to engage but not everybody is equipped with night vision optics.
A little earlier when discussing raids, I touched on the dangers of fratricide. This is something that needs to be taken very seriously. Given that an assaulting force should properly be sweeping across the objective from the flank of the fire support group, it is necessary for the fire support group to know when to switch fire away from the assault element. It doesn’t want to happen too soon, but it doesn’t want to happen too late. There are various methods that can be used: you can use radios to report objectives reached or phase lines, or something along those lines. You can use other signals such as light or flares. However none of these are foolproof. You want to use pen flares to signal a switch fire? Well, when the tracer is winging both ways up and down the objective and ricocheting off in all different directions, then you may find it hard to spot that flare, even if it is a different color from the dominant tracer. Things have been tried such as attaching light sticks to the end guys in the assault group. Again it doesn’t work very well and it also opens them up to being seen by the enemy.
I’m not trying to paint a picture of doom and gloom, but clearly fratricide avoidance at night poses a challenge. If the fire support group is able to view the assault going in through night vision equipment, then we are in a better place. Oh, by the way, depending who you think your adversaries may be, you may want to get that IR glint tape off your equipment; It reflects back when lit up by active IR from Apaches, in order to determine friendly forces
In summary, if I found myself without any night vision equipment, I would not consider that sufficient reason to give up. I have spent enough time wandering around the darkness to know that it can be done. However, night vision and thermal equipment is a definite game changer. If there is any danger that your adversaries will have it, and there is because it is widely available, then you should also try and get hold of it too. However, if my adversaries have it and I don’t, then I know where I can find it, right?
Live Hard.
Die Free.
Max
With that posted by Max Velocity, a way to avoid fratricide is to limit the amount of shooting you do. Shoot less, overrun the enemy, and engage them in hand to hand combat, or use edged weapons. Or engage them initially, then fight a retreat battle, by drawing your adversary into your trap when they advance into your pre-determined killing areas. We need to remember that we will not be fighting as if we are in the US Army, we are going to be guerilla fighters, and thus will fight much differently than our adversary.
We will depend on night operations, they will become our bread and butter. So with that said, please take from this article what you can, but understand that everything might not apply to us.
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Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Training Plan Part 1a
Being Mindful
When you push to the point of making mistakes, then it’s time to stop and pay attention to what your failure point is, and start “being mindful” of how to fix the problem. I used to tell people to “slow down,” but found that simply telling them to “slow down,” didn’t fix anything. They still made the exact same mistake, they just did it slower. Instead, it’s about shifting your mental focus from “going fast” to “think about what you need to do.” Calling it “mindfulness” makes it sound like some sort of New Age, Zen, Hippie stuff, but it’s really not. Focus on the process, including the overarching reason for the process (killing someone before he kills you or someone else) and what you need to perform in order to achieve the purpose. It’s training for performance, rather than outcome. If you perform correctly, generally, you’ll achieve the outcome you are seeking.
Be In the Moment
This is closely tied to the mental-spiritual concepts we’ve talked about in some of my more recent articles. Sometimes, on your live-fire days, especially, you need to just relax, and shoot a scheduled drill without trying to push your limits. This is about just shooting the drill accurately, and seeing how you do. Don’t push yourself faster than what you feel you’re capable of doing flawlessly. Often, shooters—especially eager novices—feel like this is an utter waste of valuable, limited training time. There are two distinct reasons I believe that taking the time to just be in the moment is absolutely critical, though.The first is for your psychological resilience. Just like making advances in PT means occasionally backing off, lowering the weights, or slowing down your runs, to let your body recover, and avoid physical burn-out, your brain needs that rest from constantly pushing at its extreme limits occasionally too. This is why I cycle my training through the yearly quarters, and this is why we occasionally just chill out and shoot a drill to “see what we can do.”
The second reason is the “spiritual” part. When the time comes and it’s on you to “beat the bad guy,” you’re either going to be able to do so, or you’re not. Nothing you can do, in the moment, is going to change your skill level. You’ll either be good enough, or you won’t be good enough. If you’ve trained enough, and the other guy hasn’t trained as hard, or as smart, as you? You’ll probably be okay. Ultimately though, you’re going to have enough on your mind, ranging from “OH CRAP! THAT DUDE HAS A GUN AND IS SHOOTING PEOPLE!” to the cognitive process needed to process data and determine if you can take a shot or not, or if you need to move to take a shot, etc. Your body is going to receive the command to execute, and it’s going to do what it is capable of doing, predicated on your training up to that point, at its own pace. If you’ve let it do so in training, then two things result: A) you have mental confidence in your body’s ability to do what it needs to do, and you can focus on your information processing, and B) if you do feel yourself getting panicked into a rush, you can let yourself “be mindful” of the process, by focusing on performing, rather than worrying about the outcome. You really cannot miss fast enough to win. You can, however, miss fast enough to hit somebody’s six-year old kid nearby. Continuing to “push” yourself to push past the boundaries of your ability at that point will NOT fix the problem. You cannot fix the problem of smoking a kid by then shooting their playmates as well.
Speed
Drills come in two basic, distinct flavors, when it comes to time metrics. Some, like your marksmanship and core skills drills, will be set up in a specific way, and should generally always be set up the same way. These are drills designed to determine specific time and accuracy metrics, and this consistency in set-up allows you to assess improvements in your performance. In this article series, this type of drill will have very specific standards metrics, for both time and accuracy. The standards provided are all realistic, reasonable metrics, readily achievable in reasonable time frames; by anyone sufficiently motivated to train regularly (we’re talking like 10-20 minutes every day for dry-fire, and 45-60 minutes every week or every other week for live-fire range trips. Really, if you can’t slice 15 minutes out of your day to gain proficiency with your firearm, you have no business carrying a firearm any-damned-way!).
Many of the application skills drills however, are not designed to be set up in a specific way, and doing so actually detracts significantly from the value of the drill. This, of course, means that comparing time metrics from one set-up to another is largely pointless. For these, a general time frame of how long it should take competent shooters to complete the drill will be noted, but the best metric you can take note of on these are things like time to first shot/hit, split times between shots (how well are you managing recoil and driving your gun back on target?), and how clear your communications are between partners, or how correctly you executed your decision-making drills.
Conclusion
This is intended to be at least a four-part article series. Part Two will cover the drills I use for dry-fire and live-fire training to improve marksmanship, under the description provided in this Part One. Part Three will cover Core Skills and the drills I use for those. Part Four will cover Applications Skills and some of the drills I use for improving those. Part Five will be an actual layout of a quarterly training plan for pistol, carbine, or both (we’ll see how tired I am of writing this series by the time I get there…) In the meantime, I seriously urge you to consider some of the conceptual ideas covered in this Part of the series, as you go about whatever practice you are currently doing. I feel obligated to point out that being able to achieve a given task or skill component correctly, consistently, is a prerequisite to “pushing” your ability, however. If you can’t hit an eight-inch plate from the standing with your rifle at 100M, then there’s no point in trying to push to hit that eight-inch plate from the standing with your rifle at 100M, in <1.0 seconds. If you don’t have the basic motor pattern of your speed reload drilled in, so instead you fumble it regularly, then going faster is NOT going to fix it. Pushing can only come after you’re able to perform the skill on demand, under a time constraint. I’ll share one of my “Mosby’s Maxims:” “If you can’t do it on demand, then you can’t do it on demand.” So-called “game players” are an imaginary construct of people too lazy to show up and do the work. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store
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When you push to the point of making mistakes, then it’s time to stop and pay attention to what your failure point is, and start “being mindful” of how to fix the problem. I used to tell people to “slow down,” but found that simply telling them to “slow down,” didn’t fix anything. They still made the exact same mistake, they just did it slower. Instead, it’s about shifting your mental focus from “going fast” to “think about what you need to do.” Calling it “mindfulness” makes it sound like some sort of New Age, Zen, Hippie stuff, but it’s really not. Focus on the process, including the overarching reason for the process (killing someone before he kills you or someone else) and what you need to perform in order to achieve the purpose. It’s training for performance, rather than outcome. If you perform correctly, generally, you’ll achieve the outcome you are seeking.
Be In the Moment
This is closely tied to the mental-spiritual concepts we’ve talked about in some of my more recent articles. Sometimes, on your live-fire days, especially, you need to just relax, and shoot a scheduled drill without trying to push your limits. This is about just shooting the drill accurately, and seeing how you do. Don’t push yourself faster than what you feel you’re capable of doing flawlessly. Often, shooters—especially eager novices—feel like this is an utter waste of valuable, limited training time. There are two distinct reasons I believe that taking the time to just be in the moment is absolutely critical, though.The first is for your psychological resilience. Just like making advances in PT means occasionally backing off, lowering the weights, or slowing down your runs, to let your body recover, and avoid physical burn-out, your brain needs that rest from constantly pushing at its extreme limits occasionally too. This is why I cycle my training through the yearly quarters, and this is why we occasionally just chill out and shoot a drill to “see what we can do.”
The second reason is the “spiritual” part. When the time comes and it’s on you to “beat the bad guy,” you’re either going to be able to do so, or you’re not. Nothing you can do, in the moment, is going to change your skill level. You’ll either be good enough, or you won’t be good enough. If you’ve trained enough, and the other guy hasn’t trained as hard, or as smart, as you? You’ll probably be okay. Ultimately though, you’re going to have enough on your mind, ranging from “OH CRAP! THAT DUDE HAS A GUN AND IS SHOOTING PEOPLE!” to the cognitive process needed to process data and determine if you can take a shot or not, or if you need to move to take a shot, etc. Your body is going to receive the command to execute, and it’s going to do what it is capable of doing, predicated on your training up to that point, at its own pace. If you’ve let it do so in training, then two things result: A) you have mental confidence in your body’s ability to do what it needs to do, and you can focus on your information processing, and B) if you do feel yourself getting panicked into a rush, you can let yourself “be mindful” of the process, by focusing on performing, rather than worrying about the outcome. You really cannot miss fast enough to win. You can, however, miss fast enough to hit somebody’s six-year old kid nearby. Continuing to “push” yourself to push past the boundaries of your ability at that point will NOT fix the problem. You cannot fix the problem of smoking a kid by then shooting their playmates as well.
Speed
Drills come in two basic, distinct flavors, when it comes to time metrics. Some, like your marksmanship and core skills drills, will be set up in a specific way, and should generally always be set up the same way. These are drills designed to determine specific time and accuracy metrics, and this consistency in set-up allows you to assess improvements in your performance. In this article series, this type of drill will have very specific standards metrics, for both time and accuracy. The standards provided are all realistic, reasonable metrics, readily achievable in reasonable time frames; by anyone sufficiently motivated to train regularly (we’re talking like 10-20 minutes every day for dry-fire, and 45-60 minutes every week or every other week for live-fire range trips. Really, if you can’t slice 15 minutes out of your day to gain proficiency with your firearm, you have no business carrying a firearm any-damned-way!).
Many of the application skills drills however, are not designed to be set up in a specific way, and doing so actually detracts significantly from the value of the drill. This, of course, means that comparing time metrics from one set-up to another is largely pointless. For these, a general time frame of how long it should take competent shooters to complete the drill will be noted, but the best metric you can take note of on these are things like time to first shot/hit, split times between shots (how well are you managing recoil and driving your gun back on target?), and how clear your communications are between partners, or how correctly you executed your decision-making drills.
Conclusion
This is intended to be at least a four-part article series. Part Two will cover the drills I use for dry-fire and live-fire training to improve marksmanship, under the description provided in this Part One. Part Three will cover Core Skills and the drills I use for those. Part Four will cover Applications Skills and some of the drills I use for improving those. Part Five will be an actual layout of a quarterly training plan for pistol, carbine, or both (we’ll see how tired I am of writing this series by the time I get there…) In the meantime, I seriously urge you to consider some of the conceptual ideas covered in this Part of the series, as you go about whatever practice you are currently doing. I feel obligated to point out that being able to achieve a given task or skill component correctly, consistently, is a prerequisite to “pushing” your ability, however. If you can’t hit an eight-inch plate from the standing with your rifle at 100M, then there’s no point in trying to push to hit that eight-inch plate from the standing with your rifle at 100M, in <1.0 seconds. If you don’t have the basic motor pattern of your speed reload drilled in, so instead you fumble it regularly, then going faster is NOT going to fix it. Pushing can only come after you’re able to perform the skill on demand, under a time constraint. I’ll share one of my “Mosby’s Maxims:” “If you can’t do it on demand, then you can’t do it on demand.” So-called “game players” are an imaginary construct of people too lazy to show up and do the work. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store
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Training Plan Part 1
Developing a Practice Plan, Part One, By John Mosby
(One of the most frequent questions I get asked in classes is, “How do we practice this stuff when we go home?” The short, easy answer, of course is simply to follow the appropriate POI course outlines in the appendices of Volumes One and Two of The Reluctant Partisan. They are laid out in a manner that allows you to use each block of instruction as a practice session. If you lay out the fundamental skills needed to complete each block, and use them for dry-fire practice, then when you go to the live-fire range, you can simply shoot the table of fire for that particular block. In a couple of months, you’ve worked through the entire program, and—hopefully—seen some impressive improvements in your skill set.
During the last block of classes however, I was asked at least once, in each individual class, to post an article specifically on how I set up my annual training plan and break it into cycles….This is the first installment of a Five-Part series on the subject. –JM)In short, I divide the year into four quarters of three months each, and then I work through a three-block cycle, with each month dedicated to a particular training block. The quarterly training cycle includes three basic training blocks that, for the sake of convenience, I will label “marksmanship,” “core skills,” and “application skills.” Most of my regular training is my daily training focused on dry-fire training in the marksmanship and core skills blocks. That is because these are the foundation of skill, and if those two blocks are dialed in, the application is cake.
A typical live-fire training session will be composed of shooting 2-3 repetitions each of 2-4 specific drills designed to focus on elements of the current block of emphasis. An efficient training session, of course, should be set up in such a way that requires minimal shifting of the range set-up. A) this saves time, making my training more time efficient, and B) especially on public ranges, the less trips I need to make downrange to change the set-up, the safer I am from some knucklehead trying to show off for his wife or girlfriend shooting me out of stupidity. I’ve got a lot of stuff on my plate, and I want my range trips to be effective, but I also need them to be efficient, so I make a concerted effort, if it’s a “working” range day, to be done in 45-60 minutes, at the outside (A “working” range day is when I’m there focused on my personal skills. A “non-working” range day is when I’m teaching the wife—although I generally try to maintain the same time constraints then—or when I’m at the range with friends and we’re just shooting different drills for fun and to spend time together, building frith (Fellowship/Comradarie/Team)
Every shooter with any length of experience is aware of some famous drills, has likely shot some of them, and probably has a favorite or two. It’s critical to understand however, that it is not this drill or that drill which is important. A properly designed practice drill is not about recreating specific combat situations. Instead, it is designed to achieve a specific training purpose. Generally, this is to measure your current level of skill and test your training progression, or to improve your skill. If a drill—no matter how well-loved—is not achieving that for your particular training focus, it’s pointless for anything beyond ego gratification.
Marksmanship
This block should focus on your ability to make progressively more difficult shots, at progressively faster speeds. Many shooters fall prey to the lazy hubris of believing since they can shoot an “acceptable” group, at a given distance, they are “good enough.” A popular one in “prepper” circles is the 4MOA standard of The Appleseed Project (Meanwhile, at the last rifle course, in AZ, I was publicly berating myself for shooting a 2” group at 50M, from the squatting position…until I realized we were actually shooting at the 100M line for that iteration). That’s just not an acceptable mindset in the real world of gunfighting. You should ALWAYS be striving to improve your accuracy and speed. Speaking objectively, there is no such thing as “accurate enough” or “fast enough.”
The balance between accuracy and speed is always going to be contextually subjective (that’s non-military speak for METT-TC dependent, by the way…).It’s subject to range, target presentation, and—above all—the limits of your personal skill and ability. This is why so much of your training time should emphasize making “impossible” shots in “impossible” times (Miss S, did you catch that?).
Core Skills
Core skills are those fundamental gunhandling and shooting skills that—along with marksmanship—are…wait for it…core to effectively prosecuting a fight with a firearm. This includes things like your drawstroke, or the presentation from ready with your rifle, reloading and other malfunction clearances, target transitions, and the other skills that will allow you to make each shot you fire a conscious action that occurs in a deliberate manner, but fast enough to solve the problem you are confronted with.
Application Skills
Application skills are those skills that allow you to translate your marksmanship and core skills into actual gunfight problem solving skills. This includes things like movement, use of cover and/or concealment, effective communication for working with a partner, safeguarding a principal like a non-combatant bystander or family member, while prosecuting the fight, and—the single most important skill in all of the gunfighting world—discrimination shooting with good, solid, accurate, rapid-fire thinking and decision-making under duress.
Critical Training Concepts
Perhaps the most critical training concept that you need to understand is that you’re going to mess up. That’s WHY we practice! Lots of shooters—and I’ve had a lot of them in classes—have this ridiculous notion that if they mess up in training and practice, that they’re a failure. It’s as if they mess up, such as blowing a shot, or even shooting a “no shoot,” in practice, that they are somehow indelibly imprinting training scars into their neural motor pathways. Incorrect! You ARE going to make mistakes. Even the experts make mistakes. THAT’S WHY WE PRACTICE!!!!!!
Make your mistake. Then, analyze why the mistake happened, and determine how to fix the deficiency, and then move on. That’s the point, people. Seriously. The first two times I fired for qualification in the Army, I failed to qualify and had to shoot it again (actually, the second time was as a private in the Ranger Regiment, and I had to shoot the qualification table FIVE TIMES that day before I finally managed to meet the standard!) Fortunately, I had good mentors who taught me to take the time to analyze the problems, and figure out how to fix them. Over the course of the rest of my career, I managed to never shoot less than Expert, and honestly? I’m ten times or more a better marksman and all-around shooter now than I was when I was a soldier.
Pushing Your Limits
Your dry-fire and live-fire practice should be about getting better. That means you generally have to push yourself to perform any given drill harder than you feel comfortable. If you’re not pushing out of your comfort margins, you’re simply not going to improve. When you push, you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to blow some shots. You’re going to fumble and drop magazines during reloads. You’re going to trip, fall, and face plant in front of people (don’t ask…). You’re going to shoot “no shoots” as you push to go faster on discrimination shooting drills. The point is to push yourself to your failure point, and then to fix whatever deficiency created the failure. The majority of your training, both dry- and live-fire, should be of this type. It’s critical to understand though, that it’s not just a matter of “go faster!” You’re trying to determine when and how to move faster, but you’re also trying to determine how to modify your techniques to allow you to make the shots you need to make, in the times you need to make them.
It may be about accepting a “good enough” sight picture to get the shot you need to make. It may be a matter of changing where or how your reload magazine is carried to improve the efficiency of your biomechanics.
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Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store
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(One of the most frequent questions I get asked in classes is, “How do we practice this stuff when we go home?” The short, easy answer, of course is simply to follow the appropriate POI course outlines in the appendices of Volumes One and Two of The Reluctant Partisan. They are laid out in a manner that allows you to use each block of instruction as a practice session. If you lay out the fundamental skills needed to complete each block, and use them for dry-fire practice, then when you go to the live-fire range, you can simply shoot the table of fire for that particular block. In a couple of months, you’ve worked through the entire program, and—hopefully—seen some impressive improvements in your skill set.
During the last block of classes however, I was asked at least once, in each individual class, to post an article specifically on how I set up my annual training plan and break it into cycles….This is the first installment of a Five-Part series on the subject. –JM)In short, I divide the year into four quarters of three months each, and then I work through a three-block cycle, with each month dedicated to a particular training block. The quarterly training cycle includes three basic training blocks that, for the sake of convenience, I will label “marksmanship,” “core skills,” and “application skills.” Most of my regular training is my daily training focused on dry-fire training in the marksmanship and core skills blocks. That is because these are the foundation of skill, and if those two blocks are dialed in, the application is cake.
A typical live-fire training session will be composed of shooting 2-3 repetitions each of 2-4 specific drills designed to focus on elements of the current block of emphasis. An efficient training session, of course, should be set up in such a way that requires minimal shifting of the range set-up. A) this saves time, making my training more time efficient, and B) especially on public ranges, the less trips I need to make downrange to change the set-up, the safer I am from some knucklehead trying to show off for his wife or girlfriend shooting me out of stupidity. I’ve got a lot of stuff on my plate, and I want my range trips to be effective, but I also need them to be efficient, so I make a concerted effort, if it’s a “working” range day, to be done in 45-60 minutes, at the outside (A “working” range day is when I’m there focused on my personal skills. A “non-working” range day is when I’m teaching the wife—although I generally try to maintain the same time constraints then—or when I’m at the range with friends and we’re just shooting different drills for fun and to spend time together, building frith (Fellowship/Comradarie/Team)
Every shooter with any length of experience is aware of some famous drills, has likely shot some of them, and probably has a favorite or two. It’s critical to understand however, that it is not this drill or that drill which is important. A properly designed practice drill is not about recreating specific combat situations. Instead, it is designed to achieve a specific training purpose. Generally, this is to measure your current level of skill and test your training progression, or to improve your skill. If a drill—no matter how well-loved—is not achieving that for your particular training focus, it’s pointless for anything beyond ego gratification.
Marksmanship
This block should focus on your ability to make progressively more difficult shots, at progressively faster speeds. Many shooters fall prey to the lazy hubris of believing since they can shoot an “acceptable” group, at a given distance, they are “good enough.” A popular one in “prepper” circles is the 4MOA standard of The Appleseed Project (Meanwhile, at the last rifle course, in AZ, I was publicly berating myself for shooting a 2” group at 50M, from the squatting position…until I realized we were actually shooting at the 100M line for that iteration). That’s just not an acceptable mindset in the real world of gunfighting. You should ALWAYS be striving to improve your accuracy and speed. Speaking objectively, there is no such thing as “accurate enough” or “fast enough.”
The balance between accuracy and speed is always going to be contextually subjective (that’s non-military speak for METT-TC dependent, by the way…).It’s subject to range, target presentation, and—above all—the limits of your personal skill and ability. This is why so much of your training time should emphasize making “impossible” shots in “impossible” times (Miss S, did you catch that?).
Core Skills
Core skills are those fundamental gunhandling and shooting skills that—along with marksmanship—are…wait for it…core to effectively prosecuting a fight with a firearm. This includes things like your drawstroke, or the presentation from ready with your rifle, reloading and other malfunction clearances, target transitions, and the other skills that will allow you to make each shot you fire a conscious action that occurs in a deliberate manner, but fast enough to solve the problem you are confronted with.
Application Skills
Application skills are those skills that allow you to translate your marksmanship and core skills into actual gunfight problem solving skills. This includes things like movement, use of cover and/or concealment, effective communication for working with a partner, safeguarding a principal like a non-combatant bystander or family member, while prosecuting the fight, and—the single most important skill in all of the gunfighting world—discrimination shooting with good, solid, accurate, rapid-fire thinking and decision-making under duress.
Critical Training Concepts
Perhaps the most critical training concept that you need to understand is that you’re going to mess up. That’s WHY we practice! Lots of shooters—and I’ve had a lot of them in classes—have this ridiculous notion that if they mess up in training and practice, that they’re a failure. It’s as if they mess up, such as blowing a shot, or even shooting a “no shoot,” in practice, that they are somehow indelibly imprinting training scars into their neural motor pathways. Incorrect! You ARE going to make mistakes. Even the experts make mistakes. THAT’S WHY WE PRACTICE!!!!!!
Make your mistake. Then, analyze why the mistake happened, and determine how to fix the deficiency, and then move on. That’s the point, people. Seriously. The first two times I fired for qualification in the Army, I failed to qualify and had to shoot it again (actually, the second time was as a private in the Ranger Regiment, and I had to shoot the qualification table FIVE TIMES that day before I finally managed to meet the standard!) Fortunately, I had good mentors who taught me to take the time to analyze the problems, and figure out how to fix them. Over the course of the rest of my career, I managed to never shoot less than Expert, and honestly? I’m ten times or more a better marksman and all-around shooter now than I was when I was a soldier.
Pushing Your Limits
Your dry-fire and live-fire practice should be about getting better. That means you generally have to push yourself to perform any given drill harder than you feel comfortable. If you’re not pushing out of your comfort margins, you’re simply not going to improve. When you push, you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to blow some shots. You’re going to fumble and drop magazines during reloads. You’re going to trip, fall, and face plant in front of people (don’t ask…). You’re going to shoot “no shoots” as you push to go faster on discrimination shooting drills. The point is to push yourself to your failure point, and then to fix whatever deficiency created the failure. The majority of your training, both dry- and live-fire, should be of this type. It’s critical to understand though, that it’s not just a matter of “go faster!” You’re trying to determine when and how to move faster, but you’re also trying to determine how to modify your techniques to allow you to make the shots you need to make, in the times you need to make them.
It may be about accepting a “good enough” sight picture to get the shot you need to make. It may be a matter of changing where or how your reload magazine is carried to improve the efficiency of your biomechanics.
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Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store
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Thursday, February 18, 2016
Product Review: FLIR Scout PS24 Thermal Imager
Thermal optics are the ultimate force multiplier for members of the patriot movement. In the environment we will need to be engaged in, thermal optics will give us the greatest edge in our abilities than any other single item in our kit. I highly recommend getting a thermal optic of some type, this review covers one option. This is not necessarily the best option, but it is one. Also I did not write this article, I got it from here: https://survivalblog.com/product_review_flir_scout_ps24_thermal_imager_by_kip_r/
by Kip R.
The price of thermal imaging has dropped to the range of Gen III night vision – about $2,000. My bug out location has a valley with a stream at bottom and a wooded hillside, plus surrounding pastures and woods. I wanted the tactical advantage to be able to tell if predators (particularly 2 legged) were in the trees at night. I purchased an FLIR PS24 handheld from Sportsman’s Guide, member price $1979.97, and shipping is often free if you wait for a coupon code sale. After waiting about five weeks, it shipped factory direct from FLIR. My darling wife asked: said “How much did you pay for that?!” I had to make it my only Christmas gift this year…
The unit is hand-sized, 12 ounces, pretty rugged and advertised watertight (although I did not try to submerge it). It has lighted push keys for On/Off, Display Brightness, Display color select, and 2X zoom/Freeze frame. The color selection is White on black background, black on white, and white on black with varying levels of red highlight. I like the first “red” setting, called “I1“. There’s an eyepiece focus tab for +- 2 diopters. The unit has an internal Lithium battery, and a USB-Firewire cable with an AC power supply for charging. When off, the brightness button toggles an LED for use as a flashlight. There is an auto-shutdown after 5 minutes if no buttons are pushed, and a 4 second boot-up when turned on. When it first arrives, you need to charge it about 5 hours before use. An LED indicator lights yellow when charging, and green when fully charged. It comes with a wrist lanyard, soft rubber tethered lens cap, and black soft pouch. A MOLLE belt carry pouch is available via mail order. The manual says its range of operation is -4 degrees to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The unit can be tripod mounted. The manual says that a man is detectable at 350 yards.
Performance is amazing! While the screen resolution is not a crisp as a GEN III NV, the thermal response is fantastic. With it, I was able to determine that my stream has a contributing spring on my property – the water showed a warm underground inflow as bright white. After standing on the deck for about one minute, step back and your boot prints are clearly visible on the deck, as is your hand print on the railing. You can pick up thermal leaks on your cabin doors and walls – where calking or insulation is needed. Retained heat from stone walls is evident, as well as septic tank covers – even when buried under a couple inches of soil, IF there’s no snow cover. You can see a thrown cigar butt in the grass long after red ash fades. The advantage to a hunter seeing game come in range during low light would be considerable. Finding a downed deer in brush would be much easier. The retained warmth from mechanical equipment like cars or electrical equipment like camera pods show up clearly. I’d expect you could also find “warm” electrical junction boxes with the unit, thus potentially saving yourself from a home fire risk. There is no difference in the unit operation daylight vs. night, but of course cold weather makes the thermal contrasts sharper.
Wildlife shows up white hot, easily visible 150 yards away. Closer, animals show tinges of red in the eyes, head and chest. I could immediately see five deer in the pasture, and when nine deer then collected in the trees I could see them move off single file up through the trees across the valley, 200 yards away. Note that with a GEN III ITT monocular I could not see any identifiable shapes or movement in the trees, but with thermal the deer were easily visible.
Detractors
You can hide from thermal imaging. I found that glass acts as a mirror; a white-hot candelabra bulb is not visible through a double pane window standing only 2 feet away – all you see is your reflection in the window. Thermal images reflect off still water as well. I’d expect a space blanket “hide” to shield a thermal signature about the same. I found that the soft rubber eyecup is easily dislodged – I almost lost it in the grass – I’d recommend that you use black electrical tape to secure it to the unit. Battery life is good, about 4 weeks of use 10 minutes per night. The manual states that the unit has to be returned to the factory for battery replacement. Fog or falling snow does decrease the sharpness of the thermal contrast on the screen. I was not able to test the effect of smoke by the time of this review.
If I could have only one, either the GEN III NV or the FLIR thermal, I’d go with the GEN III but only if it was weapon-mountable and [used in conjunction with] a good NV compatible red dot scope. But as a hand-held only unit, the FLIR is superior, especially if you need to know where anything warm-blooded is at night. I called my darling wife out to the deck the night the deer were playing ‘follow-the-leader’, and she spent a while observing them. Afterward, she asked, “Do you think we should buy a second one of these?”
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Equip yourself for the troubled times ahead: The Tactical Patriot Store
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by Kip R.
The price of thermal imaging has dropped to the range of Gen III night vision – about $2,000. My bug out location has a valley with a stream at bottom and a wooded hillside, plus surrounding pastures and woods. I wanted the tactical advantage to be able to tell if predators (particularly 2 legged) were in the trees at night. I purchased an FLIR PS24 handheld from Sportsman’s Guide, member price $1979.97, and shipping is often free if you wait for a coupon code sale. After waiting about five weeks, it shipped factory direct from FLIR. My darling wife asked: said “How much did you pay for that?!” I had to make it my only Christmas gift this year…
The unit is hand-sized, 12 ounces, pretty rugged and advertised watertight (although I did not try to submerge it). It has lighted push keys for On/Off, Display Brightness, Display color select, and 2X zoom/Freeze frame. The color selection is White on black background, black on white, and white on black with varying levels of red highlight. I like the first “red” setting, called “I1“. There’s an eyepiece focus tab for +- 2 diopters. The unit has an internal Lithium battery, and a USB-Firewire cable with an AC power supply for charging. When off, the brightness button toggles an LED for use as a flashlight. There is an auto-shutdown after 5 minutes if no buttons are pushed, and a 4 second boot-up when turned on. When it first arrives, you need to charge it about 5 hours before use. An LED indicator lights yellow when charging, and green when fully charged. It comes with a wrist lanyard, soft rubber tethered lens cap, and black soft pouch. A MOLLE belt carry pouch is available via mail order. The manual says its range of operation is -4 degrees to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The unit can be tripod mounted. The manual says that a man is detectable at 350 yards.
Performance is amazing! While the screen resolution is not a crisp as a GEN III NV, the thermal response is fantastic. With it, I was able to determine that my stream has a contributing spring on my property – the water showed a warm underground inflow as bright white. After standing on the deck for about one minute, step back and your boot prints are clearly visible on the deck, as is your hand print on the railing. You can pick up thermal leaks on your cabin doors and walls – where calking or insulation is needed. Retained heat from stone walls is evident, as well as septic tank covers – even when buried under a couple inches of soil, IF there’s no snow cover. You can see a thrown cigar butt in the grass long after red ash fades. The advantage to a hunter seeing game come in range during low light would be considerable. Finding a downed deer in brush would be much easier. The retained warmth from mechanical equipment like cars or electrical equipment like camera pods show up clearly. I’d expect you could also find “warm” electrical junction boxes with the unit, thus potentially saving yourself from a home fire risk. There is no difference in the unit operation daylight vs. night, but of course cold weather makes the thermal contrasts sharper.
Wildlife shows up white hot, easily visible 150 yards away. Closer, animals show tinges of red in the eyes, head and chest. I could immediately see five deer in the pasture, and when nine deer then collected in the trees I could see them move off single file up through the trees across the valley, 200 yards away. Note that with a GEN III ITT monocular I could not see any identifiable shapes or movement in the trees, but with thermal the deer were easily visible.
Detractors
You can hide from thermal imaging. I found that glass acts as a mirror; a white-hot candelabra bulb is not visible through a double pane window standing only 2 feet away – all you see is your reflection in the window. Thermal images reflect off still water as well. I’d expect a space blanket “hide” to shield a thermal signature about the same. I found that the soft rubber eyecup is easily dislodged – I almost lost it in the grass – I’d recommend that you use black electrical tape to secure it to the unit. Battery life is good, about 4 weeks of use 10 minutes per night. The manual states that the unit has to be returned to the factory for battery replacement. Fog or falling snow does decrease the sharpness of the thermal contrast on the screen. I was not able to test the effect of smoke by the time of this review.
If I could have only one, either the GEN III NV or the FLIR thermal, I’d go with the GEN III but only if it was weapon-mountable and [used in conjunction with] a good NV compatible red dot scope. But as a hand-held only unit, the FLIR is superior, especially if you need to know where anything warm-blooded is at night. I called my darling wife out to the deck the night the deer were playing ‘follow-the-leader’, and she spent a while observing them. Afterward, she asked, “Do you think we should buy a second one of these?”
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Thursday, January 28, 2016
Magazine Test/Review
Praxis: Gun Tests Magazine - May 2014 Issue - AR-15 mags by brand with torture testing results."
Received this via email from a faithful reader and supporter. with the note: "All mags they rated below an 'A' have been edited from this post."
"Troy Industries Battlemag Magazine AR-15 30-Round Polymer, $14.29 (MidwayUSA.com #859891) The Troy Industries Battlemag is an advanced polymer 30-round magazine. The polymers used in the magazine are chemical, biological and impact resistant. The feed lips have been reinforced and the mag uses an anti-tilt follower. The mag body features a aggressive scale texture that provides a sure grip but will also extract from magazine pouches easily. The spine of the magazine is designed to prevent over-insertion common with some polymer mags. The floor plate features a shock absorbing pull tab, or can be used with the flush locking plate. Functions with all M4, M16, AR-15, HK416, and FN SCAR rifles.
The Troy magazine made it to the top of the list just below the NHMTG, PMag and OKAY magazines. This is based upon the fact that the Troy Mag lost more average rounds — a total of 9 — during drop testing. It did not crack, however and remained functional. It lost no rounds during the vehicle testing. Having passed all other testing and surviving until the firing test, the Troy Mag is a robust and reliable magazine. Gun Tests Grade: A-
OKAY Industries USGI 30-Round Mag, $8.99 (Gunsamerica.com) The OKAY magazines gave excellent results. They were tied with the NHMGT magazines, and the Brownells in practical terms was no better. The only slight mark against the OKAY was that in corrosion testing, these magazines picked up a light dusting of red rust the others did not, but function wasn’t affected. The OKAY magazines may have been older than the others tested. Gun Tests Grade: A-
NHMTG AR-15/M16 30-Round Magazine MA02L, $19.99 (Brownells.com, #100-012-166WB) We tested both 20-round and 30-round NHMTG magazines, both of which made it to the end of the test. However, by the time this issue came out, the 20-round versions were no longer available from Brownells. Function was good and so was durability. These magazines, the OKAY magazine, and the PMag tied for second place by a narrow margin, based on the aggregate number of rounds they lost during various phases of testing. Gun Tests Grade: A
Magpul AR-15/M16 PMag Gen M3 MAG557BLK, $14.20 (Brownells.com #100-011-220WB) The PMag was the top performer among the polymer magazines. Ease of disassembly and general handling were a big plus. Gun Tests Grade: A
Magpul PMag 30 AR/M4 Window Gen M3 MAG556BLK, $17.05 (Brownells.com #100-011-219WB) Despite the use of a slide window, which theoretically weakens the magazine body according to some opinions, the PMag with window actually performed slightly better than the standard PMag, losing fewer total rounds during the test program. When run over by vehicles, this unit and the window did not crack. Gun Tests Grade: A
Brownells 30-Round Gray AR-15/M16 Magazine w/SS Spring 200200, $9.99(Brownells.com #078-000-113WB) These magazines are very similar to the models that Brownells supplies to the US Military. All components are made of mil-spec materials and are manufactured under strict, ISO quality control standards. The heat-treated, welded aluminum body is hard-anodized for superior corrosion resistance, then given a tough, dry-lube coating to eliminate the need for additional lubricants that would attract dust, sand, or dirt. The latest military-type, glass-fiber reinforced composite follower further guarantees flawless feeding in the harshest tactical conditions. We tested the mil-spec stainless-steel spring, but a version with a high lubricity dry-lube-coated chrome silicon spring is also available. They are affordable, well made, and reliable. Gun Tests Grade: A
Our Team Said: "Test 12 was the final test we ran, taking the winners through the first 11 rounds and leaving them fully loaded for a month at full compression. Then we ran more shooting function tests and found there were no feed or fire issues with any of the remaining magazines."
"In our view, the Brownells, NHMTG, and OKAY magazines are excellent examples of aluminum magazines. All of them were easy to maintain, proven to be reliable, and are competitively priced."
"If you prefer polymer bodies, the PMags were both top choices, with the cartridge-counter window option giving that model the edge over the regular PMag. The Troy was also a good choice. If we were buying AR-15 magazines, we would decide whether we wanted aluminum or polymer bodies, then shop the top-ranked items for the best price."
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Check out this site for all your tactical needs: The Tactical Patriot Store
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Received this via email from a faithful reader and supporter. with the note: "All mags they rated below an 'A' have been edited from this post."
"Troy Industries Battlemag Magazine AR-15 30-Round Polymer, $14.29 (MidwayUSA.com #859891) The Troy Industries Battlemag is an advanced polymer 30-round magazine. The polymers used in the magazine are chemical, biological and impact resistant. The feed lips have been reinforced and the mag uses an anti-tilt follower. The mag body features a aggressive scale texture that provides a sure grip but will also extract from magazine pouches easily. The spine of the magazine is designed to prevent over-insertion common with some polymer mags. The floor plate features a shock absorbing pull tab, or can be used with the flush locking plate. Functions with all M4, M16, AR-15, HK416, and FN SCAR rifles.
The Troy magazine made it to the top of the list just below the NHMTG, PMag and OKAY magazines. This is based upon the fact that the Troy Mag lost more average rounds — a total of 9 — during drop testing. It did not crack, however and remained functional. It lost no rounds during the vehicle testing. Having passed all other testing and surviving until the firing test, the Troy Mag is a robust and reliable magazine. Gun Tests Grade: A-
OKAY Industries USGI 30-Round Mag, $8.99 (Gunsamerica.com) The OKAY magazines gave excellent results. They were tied with the NHMGT magazines, and the Brownells in practical terms was no better. The only slight mark against the OKAY was that in corrosion testing, these magazines picked up a light dusting of red rust the others did not, but function wasn’t affected. The OKAY magazines may have been older than the others tested. Gun Tests Grade: A-
NHMTG AR-15/M16 30-Round Magazine MA02L, $19.99 (Brownells.com, #100-012-166WB) We tested both 20-round and 30-round NHMTG magazines, both of which made it to the end of the test. However, by the time this issue came out, the 20-round versions were no longer available from Brownells. Function was good and so was durability. These magazines, the OKAY magazine, and the PMag tied for second place by a narrow margin, based on the aggregate number of rounds they lost during various phases of testing. Gun Tests Grade: A
Magpul AR-15/M16 PMag Gen M3 MAG557BLK, $14.20 (Brownells.com #100-011-220WB) The PMag was the top performer among the polymer magazines. Ease of disassembly and general handling were a big plus. Gun Tests Grade: A
Magpul PMag 30 AR/M4 Window Gen M3 MAG556BLK, $17.05 (Brownells.com #100-011-219WB) Despite the use of a slide window, which theoretically weakens the magazine body according to some opinions, the PMag with window actually performed slightly better than the standard PMag, losing fewer total rounds during the test program. When run over by vehicles, this unit and the window did not crack. Gun Tests Grade: A
Brownells 30-Round Gray AR-15/M16 Magazine w/SS Spring 200200, $9.99(Brownells.com #078-000-113WB) These magazines are very similar to the models that Brownells supplies to the US Military. All components are made of mil-spec materials and are manufactured under strict, ISO quality control standards. The heat-treated, welded aluminum body is hard-anodized for superior corrosion resistance, then given a tough, dry-lube coating to eliminate the need for additional lubricants that would attract dust, sand, or dirt. The latest military-type, glass-fiber reinforced composite follower further guarantees flawless feeding in the harshest tactical conditions. We tested the mil-spec stainless-steel spring, but a version with a high lubricity dry-lube-coated chrome silicon spring is also available. They are affordable, well made, and reliable. Gun Tests Grade: A
Our Team Said: "Test 12 was the final test we ran, taking the winners through the first 11 rounds and leaving them fully loaded for a month at full compression. Then we ran more shooting function tests and found there were no feed or fire issues with any of the remaining magazines."
"In our view, the Brownells, NHMTG, and OKAY magazines are excellent examples of aluminum magazines. All of them were easy to maintain, proven to be reliable, and are competitively priced."
"If you prefer polymer bodies, the PMags were both top choices, with the cartridge-counter window option giving that model the edge over the regular PMag. The Troy was also a good choice. If we were buying AR-15 magazines, we would decide whether we wanted aluminum or polymer bodies, then shop the top-ranked items for the best price."
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Check out this site for all your tactical needs: The Tactical Patriot Store
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Wednesday, January 6, 2016
The Formation and Organization of Resistance Movements, Part Two
Here is the second part in the two part series by John Mosby, like I said at the beginning of part one, this is vital information that we need to start performing now. We need to be organized and ready to go before it is too late. We need to be part of the solution, not the problem. If we as patriots do not perform the necessary actions needed to be ready to perform our part this nation will cease to exist as a Constitutional Republic (which it really does not resemble any more).
The Formation and Organization of Resistance Movements, Part Two
John Mosby
This is part two of a two-part series.
There are three necessary components to a successful insurgency. The subversive underground is always present and is the first component of the resistance to form and begin active operations. The strategic goals of the resistance movement will determine the level of development for all three components:
The subversive underground
The support auxiliary
The paramilitary guerrilla force
The subversive underground.
The subversive underground is a cellular organization within the resistance movement that has the ability to conduct operations in areas that are practicably inaccessible to the paramilitary guerrilla force, such as populated areas that are under tight control of the regime’s security forces. The underground maintains the ability to operate in these denied areas because it operates clandestinely, returning to innocuous “day jobs” when not performing missions.
Typical tasks for the subversive underground include, but may not be limited to:
-Gathering intelligence and the development of intelligence networks.
-The development and operation of subversive “pirate” broadcast systems that control the dissemination of propaganda through radio, newspaper and leaflet distribution, and/or internet communications and web page development.
-The fabrication of special materials, such as false identification, weapons, and munitions.
-Black market networks and safe houses for transport of personnel and logistics.
-Sabotage by individuals and/or small units in urban centers.
-Operation of clandestine medical facilities to treat injured/wounded resistance personnel.
Members of the underground are normally active, productive members of their community, and their ability to function as part of the resistance is a product of their daily life and/or position within the community. They operate by maintaining a strict compartmentalization and delegating most risk to their auxiliary workers. The functions of the subversive underground are what allow the resistance to have a noticeable effect within urban or built-up areas.
The underground operational cell should typically be comprised of a leader and a few cell members who operate directly as a unit to conduct direct-action missions for the underground. The intelligence cell is different in that the cell leader should seldom, if ever, be in direct contact with the subordinate members of his cell, and the members of the cell are rarely in contact with one another. All communications of the intelligence cell would typically be conducted through dead-drop and other covert/clandestine methods of tradecraft.
It is imperative for the potential future guerrilla fighter to understand that, until he sees and recognizes these actions being undertaken by unknown parties, there is little point to “going to guns.” Doing so will only accelerate the actions of the regime to hunt down such “extremist” outlaws. Since the security forces will not be forced to deal with hunting down members of the subversive underground at the same time, there will be little to prevent them from focusing extensive assets to hunting down the “bandits hiding out in the woods.” If you have friends, whom you trust enough to discuss these matters and potential future issues with, who are not outspoken and openly critical of the current demise, educate them on the need for future subversives. They need to remain quiet and simply prepare for the day they need to wire a couple cans of ether to some douchebag’s engine manifold…(I’ve actually never tried it, but I’m pretty well convinced that it would be an extremely effective anti-vehicle/anti-personnel device to be utilized by a mechanic who happens to secretly support the resistance. If anyone has a junk vehicle that will still run, they should try it and let me know how it works out…Don’t run out and try it on a local police cruiser, please. I am not saying do it now. I’m saying consider such possible weapons in case they are needed in the future.
The auxiliary.
This term refers to members of the population who provide very limited clandestine support to the subversive underground and/or the paramilitary guerrilla force. Very seldom will they be “active” members of the movement and, as such, offer little intelligence value to the regime if compromised. Functions of the auxiliary may take the form of logistics, labor, or intelligence collection. Auxiliary members may not know any more than how to perform their specific function or service that supports the network. They may not even realize they are actively supporting the resistance. They should certainly never be asked to perform a job by a valuable member of the subversive underground cadre, face-to-face. Even in the modern environment of credit card payments and billing services, there are ways to accomplish such chores remotely. Until they are trusted, they do not learn the names or identities of the resistance.
In many ways however, the auxiliary personnel are at the greatest risk of compromise (thus the importance of their not offering intelligence value to the regime if compromised). Typical functions of the auxiliary include:
-Logistics procurement (either through stealing from a workplace, or purchasing on the black market, or open market, if it can be done without compromising their security or that of the movement.)
-Logistics distribution (transporting goods and dropping them in pre-determined cache locations for later pick-up by resistance forces.)
-Labor for special material fabrication (in some instances, the fabrication will be conducted in assembly-line fashion, to preclude any one group of auxiliaries from recognizing what they are manufacturing).
-Security and early warning for underground facilities and guerrilla bases (obviously, this is a task that must be reserved for well-trusted and very secure members of the auxiliary…cooks in regime mess halls/dining facilities who may overhear conversations regarding upcoming operations, mechanics who notice an increase in the request for pre-mission checks on vehicles, etc…)
-Intelligence collection (intentional or otherwise)
-Recruitment (obviously, in this case, the auxiliary member knows his part, but can still be compartmentalized to reduce risk to the actual underground or guerrilla force).
-Communications networks staff such as couriers and/or messengers.
-Propaganda distribution.
-Safe house management.
-Logistics and personnel transport (if functioning as part of the black market, the auxiliary member may never realize he is actively supporting the resistance).
The paramilitary guerrilla force.
The paramilitary guerrilla force is the overt military arm of the resistance. As individuals who actively engage the conventional military in combat operations, guerrillas have traditionally held a significant disadvantage in terms of training, equipment, and firepower (it should be noted that, in the event of an U.S. resistance movement, these would not necessarily be the case. That’s the purpose, after all, of this blog). For all their disadvantages, however, the guerrilla force has one distinct advantage that can offset any unfavorable balance – the initiative. In any operational planning, the guerrilla leader must strive to maintain and exploit this advantage.
The guerrilla element only attacks when it can develop and maintain a relative, if temporary, state of superiority of force. The element avoids any sort of decisive engagement, thus denying the conventional force military of the regime the opportunity to recover, regain their superiority, and use it against the guerrilla force (the application of conventional small-unit tactics, such as raids and ambushes, in an unconventional manner, such as an IED/EFP-initiated ambush, followed by selective targeting of personnel, then an exfiltration, or a rapid, snatch-and-grab raid to kidnap a key enemy leader, are the definition of guerrilla warfare tactics). The guerrilla element is only capable of generating this type of tactical success in areas where they possess a significant familiarity with the terrain and a connection to the local civilian population that allows them to harness clandestine support for security and intelligence-gathering purposes. Don’t ever allow yourself or your unit to suffer the terminal disease of testosterone poisoning and think you’re going to survive, let alone win, a toe-to-toe slugfest with a conventional force rifle platoon. You might have better riflemen, and even bigger numbers, but they have indirect-fire support, close air support, and a faster Quick Reaction Force (QRF) to call on for reinforcements.
Depending on the degree of control over the local area, a guerrilla force element may range in size from fire-team size all the way up to a brigade-level force. In the initial stages of a resistance, the guerrilla force, regardless of size, will generally be limited to stand-off attacks that we typically think of as “guerrilla warfare.” This may include the aforementioned raids and ambushes, albeit on a slightly larger scale. As the guerrilla force grows, however, so should its ability to engage the regime’s conventional military forces on a larger scale, allowing some degree of parity with the enemy. In these cases, formerly isolated bands of guerrillas may be able to connect and coalesce, forming liberated territory that allows for the development of a larger, more conventional military force to face the regime’s conventional force.
It is critical to delineate the difference between a true resistance guerrilla fighter, and other small-unit, irregular force operatives that may appear similar but in fact, are drastically different, such as militias (although the local militia may operate as a part of the guerrilla force in liberated territories), mercenaries, and criminal/narco-terrorist gangs. The militia’s only intent should be to provide security for the local community and its residents. Mercenaries and criminal/narco-terrorist gangs will seldom hold themselves to any sort of moral construct similar to that of the resistance-force guerrilla. It is critical for the guerrilla force insurgent to recognize that only uniformed personnel of the enemy regime are legitimate targets for the guerrilla force. Key political personnel, civilian population sympathizers and informants, etc, must be dealt with solely by the subversive underground. This is critical to the PSYOP campaign for the resistance, since conduct of assassinations/kidnappings, etc., by the underground can be plausibly blamed on the regime’s security apparatus if it is not conducted by organized paramilitary forces of the guerrilla.
Nous Defion,
John Mosby
Somewhere in the mountains
John Mosby is a former Army Ranger and Green Beret, and the author of the Mountain Guerrilla blog.
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Click here for all your prepping/tactical needs: The Tactical Patriot Store
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The Formation and Organization of Resistance Movements, Part Two
John Mosby
This is part two of a two-part series.
There are three necessary components to a successful insurgency. The subversive underground is always present and is the first component of the resistance to form and begin active operations. The strategic goals of the resistance movement will determine the level of development for all three components:
The subversive underground
The support auxiliary
The paramilitary guerrilla force
The subversive underground.
The subversive underground is a cellular organization within the resistance movement that has the ability to conduct operations in areas that are practicably inaccessible to the paramilitary guerrilla force, such as populated areas that are under tight control of the regime’s security forces. The underground maintains the ability to operate in these denied areas because it operates clandestinely, returning to innocuous “day jobs” when not performing missions.
Typical tasks for the subversive underground include, but may not be limited to:
-Gathering intelligence and the development of intelligence networks.
-The development and operation of subversive “pirate” broadcast systems that control the dissemination of propaganda through radio, newspaper and leaflet distribution, and/or internet communications and web page development.
-The fabrication of special materials, such as false identification, weapons, and munitions.
-Black market networks and safe houses for transport of personnel and logistics.
-Sabotage by individuals and/or small units in urban centers.
-Operation of clandestine medical facilities to treat injured/wounded resistance personnel.
Members of the underground are normally active, productive members of their community, and their ability to function as part of the resistance is a product of their daily life and/or position within the community. They operate by maintaining a strict compartmentalization and delegating most risk to their auxiliary workers. The functions of the subversive underground are what allow the resistance to have a noticeable effect within urban or built-up areas.
The underground operational cell should typically be comprised of a leader and a few cell members who operate directly as a unit to conduct direct-action missions for the underground. The intelligence cell is different in that the cell leader should seldom, if ever, be in direct contact with the subordinate members of his cell, and the members of the cell are rarely in contact with one another. All communications of the intelligence cell would typically be conducted through dead-drop and other covert/clandestine methods of tradecraft.
It is imperative for the potential future guerrilla fighter to understand that, until he sees and recognizes these actions being undertaken by unknown parties, there is little point to “going to guns.” Doing so will only accelerate the actions of the regime to hunt down such “extremist” outlaws. Since the security forces will not be forced to deal with hunting down members of the subversive underground at the same time, there will be little to prevent them from focusing extensive assets to hunting down the “bandits hiding out in the woods.” If you have friends, whom you trust enough to discuss these matters and potential future issues with, who are not outspoken and openly critical of the current demise, educate them on the need for future subversives. They need to remain quiet and simply prepare for the day they need to wire a couple cans of ether to some douchebag’s engine manifold…(I’ve actually never tried it, but I’m pretty well convinced that it would be an extremely effective anti-vehicle/anti-personnel device to be utilized by a mechanic who happens to secretly support the resistance. If anyone has a junk vehicle that will still run, they should try it and let me know how it works out…Don’t run out and try it on a local police cruiser, please. I am not saying do it now. I’m saying consider such possible weapons in case they are needed in the future.
The auxiliary.
This term refers to members of the population who provide very limited clandestine support to the subversive underground and/or the paramilitary guerrilla force. Very seldom will they be “active” members of the movement and, as such, offer little intelligence value to the regime if compromised. Functions of the auxiliary may take the form of logistics, labor, or intelligence collection. Auxiliary members may not know any more than how to perform their specific function or service that supports the network. They may not even realize they are actively supporting the resistance. They should certainly never be asked to perform a job by a valuable member of the subversive underground cadre, face-to-face. Even in the modern environment of credit card payments and billing services, there are ways to accomplish such chores remotely. Until they are trusted, they do not learn the names or identities of the resistance.
In many ways however, the auxiliary personnel are at the greatest risk of compromise (thus the importance of their not offering intelligence value to the regime if compromised). Typical functions of the auxiliary include:
-Logistics procurement (either through stealing from a workplace, or purchasing on the black market, or open market, if it can be done without compromising their security or that of the movement.)
-Logistics distribution (transporting goods and dropping them in pre-determined cache locations for later pick-up by resistance forces.)
-Labor for special material fabrication (in some instances, the fabrication will be conducted in assembly-line fashion, to preclude any one group of auxiliaries from recognizing what they are manufacturing).
-Security and early warning for underground facilities and guerrilla bases (obviously, this is a task that must be reserved for well-trusted and very secure members of the auxiliary…cooks in regime mess halls/dining facilities who may overhear conversations regarding upcoming operations, mechanics who notice an increase in the request for pre-mission checks on vehicles, etc…)
-Intelligence collection (intentional or otherwise)
-Recruitment (obviously, in this case, the auxiliary member knows his part, but can still be compartmentalized to reduce risk to the actual underground or guerrilla force).
-Communications networks staff such as couriers and/or messengers.
-Propaganda distribution.
-Safe house management.
-Logistics and personnel transport (if functioning as part of the black market, the auxiliary member may never realize he is actively supporting the resistance).
The paramilitary guerrilla force.
The paramilitary guerrilla force is the overt military arm of the resistance. As individuals who actively engage the conventional military in combat operations, guerrillas have traditionally held a significant disadvantage in terms of training, equipment, and firepower (it should be noted that, in the event of an U.S. resistance movement, these would not necessarily be the case. That’s the purpose, after all, of this blog). For all their disadvantages, however, the guerrilla force has one distinct advantage that can offset any unfavorable balance – the initiative. In any operational planning, the guerrilla leader must strive to maintain and exploit this advantage.
The guerrilla element only attacks when it can develop and maintain a relative, if temporary, state of superiority of force. The element avoids any sort of decisive engagement, thus denying the conventional force military of the regime the opportunity to recover, regain their superiority, and use it against the guerrilla force (the application of conventional small-unit tactics, such as raids and ambushes, in an unconventional manner, such as an IED/EFP-initiated ambush, followed by selective targeting of personnel, then an exfiltration, or a rapid, snatch-and-grab raid to kidnap a key enemy leader, are the definition of guerrilla warfare tactics). The guerrilla element is only capable of generating this type of tactical success in areas where they possess a significant familiarity with the terrain and a connection to the local civilian population that allows them to harness clandestine support for security and intelligence-gathering purposes. Don’t ever allow yourself or your unit to suffer the terminal disease of testosterone poisoning and think you’re going to survive, let alone win, a toe-to-toe slugfest with a conventional force rifle platoon. You might have better riflemen, and even bigger numbers, but they have indirect-fire support, close air support, and a faster Quick Reaction Force (QRF) to call on for reinforcements.
Depending on the degree of control over the local area, a guerrilla force element may range in size from fire-team size all the way up to a brigade-level force. In the initial stages of a resistance, the guerrilla force, regardless of size, will generally be limited to stand-off attacks that we typically think of as “guerrilla warfare.” This may include the aforementioned raids and ambushes, albeit on a slightly larger scale. As the guerrilla force grows, however, so should its ability to engage the regime’s conventional military forces on a larger scale, allowing some degree of parity with the enemy. In these cases, formerly isolated bands of guerrillas may be able to connect and coalesce, forming liberated territory that allows for the development of a larger, more conventional military force to face the regime’s conventional force.
It is critical to delineate the difference between a true resistance guerrilla fighter, and other small-unit, irregular force operatives that may appear similar but in fact, are drastically different, such as militias (although the local militia may operate as a part of the guerrilla force in liberated territories), mercenaries, and criminal/narco-terrorist gangs. The militia’s only intent should be to provide security for the local community and its residents. Mercenaries and criminal/narco-terrorist gangs will seldom hold themselves to any sort of moral construct similar to that of the resistance-force guerrilla. It is critical for the guerrilla force insurgent to recognize that only uniformed personnel of the enemy regime are legitimate targets for the guerrilla force. Key political personnel, civilian population sympathizers and informants, etc, must be dealt with solely by the subversive underground. This is critical to the PSYOP campaign for the resistance, since conduct of assassinations/kidnappings, etc., by the underground can be plausibly blamed on the regime’s security apparatus if it is not conducted by organized paramilitary forces of the guerrilla.
Nous Defion,
John Mosby
Somewhere in the mountains
John Mosby is a former Army Ranger and Green Beret, and the author of the Mountain Guerrilla blog.
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Click here for all your prepping/tactical needs: The Tactical Patriot Store
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