Gear Selection

Recently I have seen several posts on this an other boards discussing gear selection for students that are going to be attending a Carbine / Rifle course.

Students take classes for several reasons. Some students take classes because they are fun, others are interested in learning new skills, others to learn how to defend themselves with a firearm, and other students attend because the skills being taught will help them in the performance of their jobs (ie. Law Enforcement, Military, etc).

When it comes to rifles, things become much more complex. Maybe this is because there is so much more selection when it comes to gear and accessories. Maybe it's because the defensive role of the rifle is not well defined with many civilians (ie. in what situations and how they will deploy the rifle).

I have taken NUMEROUS tactical carbine and tactical pistol courses from many different trainers over the last 8 years. I have also taken a more than a few Patrol Rifle and SWAT carbine courses (over the last 9+ years). What follows are some things that I have learned in those course.

-Use quality USA made ammo, such as Federal, Winchester, etc. Do not take surplus, Wolf, etc. to a class. One of the worst mistakes I see are shooters spending good money on training and then showing up with cheap ammo, and they have nothing but ammo related malfunctions the entire class. An example of this is we had 4 guys that were shooting "Olympic" brand ammo, and their guns were jamming every couple of rounds the entire class, this slowed things down for the rest of us.

-MASTER YOUR IRON SIGHTS FIRST. No doubt that optics are beneficial and much faster than irons. But before you go an buy an ACOG, Aimpoint, EO Tech, or any other optic, master your iron sights FIRST. Once you have mastered the iron sights then master the optic of your choice. If you are already good to go on irons then by all means, use an optic of your liking.

-Use quality USGI magazines with the GREEN or new Magpul followers. Another thing that I do to my magazines is use the Wolff Gunsprings 10%+ mag springs in my mags. If you have the time take the mags to the range and make sure they work good. Nothing worse then showing up to class with crappy mags and having your gun malfunction on a constant basis due to bad magazines.

-Learn to properly clean and maintain your gun properly. I always recommend the US Army or USMC M16A2 manual to new shooters, these manuals will show you how to properly maintain and clean your AR15. On the first day of class make sure you show up with a properly cleaned and lubed carbine. Everyday after class properly field strip, clean, and lube your carbine. In most Tactical Carbine Courses you will shoot approximately 500 per day, everyday. The guys that don't properly clean and lube their carbines will be easy to spot......Their guns usually go "TITS UP" the second day of class prior to lunch. A USGI cleaning kit has everything that you need in it to properly clean, maintain, and lube your gun.....and make sure to use the chamber brush.

-Buy a quality rifle / carbine and don't try to build one. In the classes that I have been to approximately 90%+ of the "built" guns have gone tit's up. Last year in a carbine course, the instructor took a poll. Of over 20 students, 12 or so had "built" rifles (all AR-15's) and of those 12 rifles 100% of them went tits up during the class. The rest of the guys had factory built guns and none of the factory built guns went tits up. That is not to say that I haven't seen a factory gun go tit's up, it just happens a lot less than with a gun that is built from parts from different manufacturers.

-I always recommend having a gun that has 1,000 rounds through it prior to coming to class. If there are any problems (ie. loose gas key, etc) they will usually arise in the first 1,000 rounds. I have seen some guys show up to class with a brand new gun and put 1,000 rounds down range without a problem, and I have seen other brand new guns that have some teething problems the first day because they are brand new, but start settling down the second day. Along with this "break in" period, it also let's the shooter know what ammo and mags the gun does or doesn't like. If you shoot the first 1,000 rounds with Federal American Eagle .223 and 5 USGI mags with no problems, then take that same ammo and those same 5 magazines to the class.

-If *you* are *new to AR's* get a SIMPLE carbine and shoot it in the class.....Many times I have seen shooters show up to a class with all kinds of crap hanging off of their guns and all those accessories give them nothing but problems. Start off with a simple carbine, attend the Carbine Course, learn how to operate your gun proficiently, then add accessories as you *need* them. When you do decide to buy accessories, buy quality gear. Buy cheap and buy twice, as the saying goes.

-Make sure you have a good sling, my personal preference now is the outstanding Vickers sling by Blue Force gear and the new LaRue Tactical VTAC sling, but use what works best for you (single point, two point, or three point) because most likely you will be doing transition drills (transitioning from your carbine to your pistol)

-Remember keep it simple, take a good quality, factory made AR15 rifle or carbine (and use the IRON SIGHTS if you don't know how to already), good quality USA made ammo, good quality USGI mags, a quality sling, a USGI cleaning kit, knee pads, plenty of water, and an open mind!!!

For example, a civilian that shows up to class with more nylon gear than most special operation forces wear. In a real world situation when is a civilian going to have the time to don all that gear and deploy his rifle?

Outside of a situation like the '93 L.A. Riots or a Hurricane Katrina situation, generally speaking if a civilian is going to deploy his carbine, it will most likely be within the confines of his own home (home invasion or a burglary while the homeowner is at home).

In defense of your home, when the suspect is INSIDE your house, you are not going to have time to don any web gear. You are going to grab your rifle and address the situation.

In every training class and every match I have shot in I have learned at least one new lesson. So by wearing something to class that you would never wear in the real world, [b]you are depriving yourself of lessons that you could have learned.[/b]

If you are not going to carry your gun around on a daily basis in a tactical thigh holster, then don't wear it to training. Wear in training what you will use in real life!!!

This also goes for carrying your spare magazines for your carbine. If you are going to carry an extra spare magazine or two in your rear support side pants pocket, or in the cargo pocket of your Old Navy cargo pants....then when you attend training, store your spare magazines in the same place.

A Narcotics Sgt. that works on my Dept. went to a 3 gun match and he was watching another shooter. The shooter's AR15 had been working fine all day, then came up to a stage that required a magazine change. The shooter shot the course of fire and retrieved a magazine from his support side rear pocket, inserted it into the AR15, shot and the gun jammed. The shooter cleared the jam, fired another round and the gun jammed again. This happened for several rounds and the shooter had to stop and fix his gun. After examining the gun the shooter had realized that he had a gum wrapper in his pocket and this some how got attached to the feed lip of the magazine, when the shooter inserted the mag and the first round chambered, it carried the gum wrapper into the action of the AR15, thus causing his AR15 to malfunction.

The Sgt. told me that many times he and his crew run out of the office to go serve a small warrant and instead of wearing all his tactical gear he just wears his vest and puts an extra magazine or two in his back pocket. After seeing what happened at this match, the Sgt now makes sure that his pocket is free of any debris PRIOR to putting a magazine in his pants pocket. This is a great thing to learn in training, but would SUCK in a very bad way to have to learn when the bullets were flying both ways. In short train like you will fight.

This is the type of lesson that you could learn in a training class or a match if you use the same gear in the class that you will use in real life. Had this shooter taken a training class using a chest rig / belt mounted mag pouch / thigh mounted mag pouch / etc, he would have never learned this lesson.

Each piece of gear (weather it's a chest rig or a cargo pocket) has it's own specific learning curve. It's better to learn the pros and cons and the do's and don'ts in class than in a real world situaton.

The reason I say this is many shooter's mindsets are in the wrong place. They show up to class with gear they would NEVER use in the real world. And most will admit that the gear they show up with, they will never use.

There is a time and a place for uber cool gear and accessories and there is a time an place to learn lessons in training so you don't have to learn if / them when bullets are flying both ways.

Many shooter are more worried about looking cool or justifying a purchase (guns, gear, etc) than learning to run their gun and gear in the same manner that they will use it in a real world defense situation.

If your CCW rig is a kydex in the waist band (IBW) holster that you wear on your strong side (for arguments sake, let's say you are right handed). So your pistol is going to be on your right side in a IBW holster and your mags are going to be on your left side.

You take a 2 tactical pistol class where you will fire 1,500 to 2,000 rounds in two days and draw your pistol from the holster and access spare magazines from your mag pouch well in the excess of 100+ times.

Knowing that you are going to carry daily in a strong side (right side) IBW holster, does it make any sense to show up to class wearing a Miami Vice style shoulder holster? For 2 days and thousands of rounds and countless draws from the holster, you are going to draw your pistol from the area of your left armpit and you will access your mags from the area of your right armpit (remember for the class you are wearing a Miami Vice style shoulder holster).

There is an entirely different draw stroke, set of body mechanics, holster issues, clothing issues, reholstering, accessing magazines, etc. that go with a shoulder holster than with a strong side belt mounted IBW holster.

Now you have spent 2 days training, your "muscle memory" has gotten to the point that you (almost without thinking) go directly to your left armpit to draw your gun (because that is where the gun sits on your body when in a shoulder holster).

The class is finished and you put the Miami Vice style shoulder holster in the closet and start carrying with your IBW belt mounted holster WITHOUT EVERY TRAINING WITH IT.

The following week you find yourself at the wrong end of a deadly force encounter with a man how is intent on killing you. You need your pistol and you need it now, your body and brain go into an auto pilot like mode, you grab for your pistol under your left arm, but it's not there (but that's where it was located for hundreds of draw stokes in training when you were wearing your Miami Vice style shoulder holster.....but today you are wearing a strong side belt holster).....

Then you realize "Oh shit, my pistol is located on my belt on my right side," you grab for the gun, start to draw the pistol gets caught up on your shirt (you are wearing a loose shirt because you liked the color, and because you never trained with your IBW holster you never realized that wearing loose fitting shirts could cause a problem when drawing from an IBW holster).

Now you have lost valuable seconds, you are even more upset and more stressed than you would have been if you could have located and easily drawn your pistol immediately and "gotten into the fight". Could a situation like this cost you your life? Something to think about.

And we all think "It can't happen to me". I was watching one of the new reality SWAT shows on TV a couple weeks ago, Texas SWAT, Dallas SWAT, or one of them. One of the SWAT cops was wearing a 6004 holster. He attempted to draw his pistol from the belt TWICE before realizing that he wasn't wearing his belt holster and his pistol was located further down on his thigh. I have admittedly made similar mistakes......It's something called a "training issue" and can happen to any of us.

I use the analogy with the pistol and different style holsters because students can relate to them much better for some unknown reason. Take the same lessons learned with different pistol holsters and apply those lessons to a carbine and carbine related gear.

If you are going to access your AR15 magazine from your rear left side pants pocket there is a certain learning curve involved in that (an example of this can be seen in my first post). So if you are training for self defense, doesn't it make sense to truly "Train like you will fight"?

When wearing a chest rig in a class you are teaching yourself to access extra ammo from your chest. Is this where you will carry ammo in a real world defensive situation? If not, maybe it's time to reevaluate your mindset and the way you do things.

Every evolution I have every been on where we deviate from what we have done in training, and everything goes to shit, quickly. Training the way you will fight may save your life someday.