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THE ART Of WAR: PEVA! PHOTO TRIBUTE F.:SUREFIRE PRESENTS
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SALES & MARKETINGGeorge Atchley Vice President
Derek McDonald Marketing DirectorCameron Hopkins Communications
Dave Pasienski Sales ManagerMark Thompson Sales ManagerGabe Steinmann E-Commerce Coordinator
Dick Williams Press Relations CoordinatorBrian Puckett Special Projects
Kadra Pattison Public Relations AssistantMike Malsz International Sales
Mike Mayfield Operations Director
CHIEF- EXECUTIVESJohn W. Matthews, Phil
President and Chief Executive Officer
Gustav BonseVice President and Chief Operating Officer
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ADVERTISING SALESChris Agnes Publisher
Hutch Looney & Associates, Western Region818-990-9000 (Lel) 818-501-9787 (fax)
Phil Louridas, Los Angeles323-782-2298 (tell 323-782-2477 (fax)
ENGINEERING &PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Paul Kim Vice PresidentPeter Hauk, Ph.D. Research Et Development
Willie Hunt Special ProjectsCarl Buczek, Ph.D. Scientist
John McCrickerd, Ph.D. ScientistTim LaFrance Weapon Systems
!MANUFACTURING &ADVANCED ASSEMBLY
Daniel Fischer Production DirectorBernie Bjornsen Production Manager
Jim Russell Prototype Shop ManagerJamie Wiedcman Special Projects RED
Travis Mitchell Special Projects REID
TACTICAL SUPPORT DIVISIONWalter Seace Manager
John Standridge Tactical SpecialistRory MeGahan Tactical Specialist
SUREFIRE INSTITUTEWilliam Murphy Senior Instructor
SUPPRESSOR DIVISIONBarry Ducek Director
TACTICAL EAR PRO DIVISIONRichard Smith Director
EDGED WEAPON DIVISIONSteve Ryan Director
CUSTOM PUBLISHING DIVISIONlchiro Nagata Photography DirectorWestPub Inc. Design Direction
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0 pening introductions from magazine editors usually fall into two classes, irrelevant or bor-ing. Don't worry I'm not going to regurgitate a lot of useless tripe about what a great issue
this is, how great these writers are, what a great mix of stories, this great, that great. Instead, Ihave a confession.
Forgive me, for all is not as it seems. You see, this is not a normal newsstand magazine pub-lished by a media company This is a magazine edited by a SureFixe employee and featuring a fairnumber of SureFire products. Our agenda is straightforward— present you with an interesting,informative and provocative magazine about the latest guns, gear, weapons and tactics. And yes,
that includes some gear from SureFire._
LisTEN To A coNFEssioN rNeopto rtfluffsoiknue h'nodw ywoeud, ebvuetionpeewd sweorntehwy
, - Helmet Light.Arnagazine really only has one asset at the end of the day, its editorial integrity Now in its fifth
year, Combat Tactics would not be in your hands if we hadn't established a degree of credibility.We wouldn't be published in cooperation with the largest circulation gun
magazine, Guns & Amino, if we 'weren't the real deal.Sure, it's a purpose-driven magazine, but which one isn't?
, me a newsstand magazine that isn't influenced toe extent by its advertisers and I'll show you a publish-waiting to go bankrupt. At least we're upfront about it.
SureFire knows a thing or two about how to makefirst-class equipment, like our sound suppressorsand our Weaponlights, and with our staff of formerand current operators, we're actually better quali-fied to discuss tactical products and combativetechniques than most magazine writers. ManySureFire staffers have served in combat, walked abeat or otherwise "seen the elephant" as JeffCooper likes to say.
The bylines in these pages are among the mostauthoritative in the field, and the reputations of
those writers are worth far more than any one pay-check. A Gary Paul Johnston or a Massad Ayoob wouldever compromise his journalistic ethics just to shill ablight in a semi-annual magazine. Hell, I wouldn't frit-
• ay a masters degree in journalism to edit Combatas just some PR fluff piece. I didn't put 17 years in as
erican Handgunner just to throw it all away.So there's the confession out of the way. Now for an admission of guilt.
In the last issue, we erroneously noted in a story called "The Real World" that well-known tacti-cal trainer and firearms expert Ken Hackathorn was a Vietnam veteran. This was not accurate. Wehad assumed, given Ken's age and his service in the Special Forces, that he had done a tour or twoin Warn, but we were mistaken in that unverified assumption, and we apologize to all concerned.
The copy for that story was not shown to Ken prior to publication but as soon as he saw a copy,he called to bring the mistake to our attention and to request a correction, which is now given. Sothere you go— a bit of laundry airing and some crow eating, all in one boring and irrelevant edi-tor's statement. Enjoy the issue.
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Cameron Hopkinsdit I rial Director
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eal-world tac ti c al teams go into actionsuited up like modern t- -'.. : i nights, cov-ered in ballistic nylon .c-ii-,- l, cvlar armor,but when, they have to pierce the daik,
ness to face the bad guys, it's with handheld andweapon-mounted flashlights built by SureFire.lpIn the "reel" world, the heroes and even super- .rheroes on television aad movies turn to the -same place for their equipment.
- SureFire flashlightsETIDN ... LIGHTS! have been seen in
Hollywood big screen ,,k,..0.'fantasy adventures like Tom Cruise's MissionImpossible 3, Sigourney Weaver's AlienResurrection, and the triad of Keanu Reeves' "Matrix films.
Cinematic soldiers and cops rely on Suraf. weapon lights in such fare as the reality-base W,. rescue film Blackhawk Down and the politic.' thriller Clear And Present Danger. When, weapons laden SWAT teams
take down terrorists in films . '.' like Sean Connery's The Rock,,
in George Clooney's nuclearOil terror thriller The Peacemaker, ,
or even in the computer genet-- (ated world of Tom Clancy's X- .BOX Video game GlIOSt Recoil, .
Ell
OR111111111•111111111111111111111•1111111Colin Farrell (above) takes aim with LAPD issue kimber .45
and Surefire tact light in the hit action film SWAT.(inset) William Peterson and Marg Helgenbergerwould
be lost in the dark without their Surefireson Ns CSI: (RIME SCENE INVESTIGATIONS.
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Face the future with confidence. Discoverfor yourself the advanced technology thatcan only be found in the FN Five-seveN USG.
• 5.7x28 mm• 19 ounces empty• 4.75' 1 barrel length• 8.2" overall length• 20 round magazine capacity
M1913 accessory rail
MEM=
_
The defensive sidearm of the futureavailable today from FNH USA. Designedaround the innovative high performanc:.5.7x28 mm cartridge, the polymer framedFN Five-seveN USG offers military, specialoperations and law enforcement alight, compact, accurate and reliablesingle-action pistol combining low recoilwith blazing 2,130 f.p.s. muzzle velocityfor exceptional ballistic performance.*Adjustable sights, reversible magazine• • • • I ..• III I .
REAL WORLD PRODUCTS.REAL WORLD PERFORMANCE'
M1913 accessory rail and three magazines 3,EL. FNH ucAcome standard with every FN Five-seveN USG.
'Pill 5.7 x 28 mm restricted ammunition (armor piercing) is sold only to law enforcement and military agencies This ammunition is only re/eased andshipped from a U.S. Customs controlled custom bonded warehouse (Cf3W) upon AT FE and U S Customs approval.
Call 703-288-1292 or visit wwwinhusa.com for a list of FNH USA dealers and distributors or a full-line catalog.FNH USA • P.O. BOX 697 • McLEAN, VA 22101 USA • 0 FNH USA LLC, a subsidiary of FN HerstaL S.A. 2005.
their HK MP5s bear computer generatedWeaponLights taken straight from a SureFire catalog.
Who Makes it HappenThe hit action film S. WA. T starring Colin Ferrell and
Samuel Jackson was like a commercial for the fineSureFire product line, with a white light attached toevery Kimber .45 pistol and M4 rifle. But how did allthose SureFires get on all those blank-firing assaultrifles?
The process begins with a person known as the prop-erty master. "Props" are any item handled by a characterin a film or TV show, and "prop masters" are the peoplewho decide what that object will be.
When a film or television project begins preparation,the prop master reads the script and "breaks down" the
(above) Fill Agents Robert Davi, Ally Walkerand Julian McMahon hit the floor with
weapons and flashlights drawn inNBC's series THE PROFILER.
(left) A Computer generated KeiferSutherland leads a Surefire toting tactical
squad into action from the Videogameversion of the hit show 24.
(below) George (looney, Ice Cube and MarkWahlberg are three Desert Storm treasure
hunters in the 1999 film THREE KINGS.
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BATTLE PROVEN
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• SWAT is called in when Jason Lee's Earl gets- 111 out of control in TVs MY NAME IS EARL.
fright) Tom Cruise escapes an explosivemoment of his MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3.
(below) Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfusand the survivors of POSEIDON illuminate
a watery hazard,
prop needs for each scene. Once the list of props hasbeen generated and approved by the director, theProperty Department can either make them, buy them,or contract with a prop rental houses to supply them.
Because tactical lights are highly specialized equip-ment, the prop masters will often defer to the expertiseof prop rental companies like I.S.S., Independent StudioServices.
The California-based ISS is considered the "one stopprop shop" and has been one of Hollywood's topweapon and prop suppliers for over 25 years, providingeverything from football helmets to rnachineguns tobaby carriages. ISS partner Karl Weschta along withRoland Blietz from the company's weapons departmentwere kind enough to take time away from arming thelikes of Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp to take us on a tourof the ISS facility and give you a look behind the scenes.
1SS has literally hundreds of SureFire flashlights intheir inventory, as well as real and replica firearms andmilitary equipment from every time period. What theydon't have, they can fabricate in their on-site metal,plastics and electronics workshops, from the custom,futuristic pistols in last year's sci-fi film Serenity toSpiderrnan's enemies' weapons in the upcomingSpiderman 3.
Once the prop masters have contracted with ISS,Karl and his men have to be prepared to select the cor-
rect light, from a Defender for a solitary cop to a squad'sworth of M900 vertical forend lights to outfit an entireSWAT team. When the required equipment is deter-mined, the ISS staff heads to their enormous ware-house where rows of shelves holding props stretch tothe ceiling. SureFire police and military weapon lightsand accessories are stored in dozens of separatelymarked bins.
Every product in the SureFire line has been pressedinto cinematic duty Ron Periman's title character fromHeil Boy went searching the sewers for the un-killabledemons named the Hounds of Resurrection with hisSureFire Defender firmly in hand.
In his Gulf War action film Three Kings, GeorgeClooney used a SureFire with an infrared filter to see amap drawn in invisible ink, to which he refers in hisgreat line, "That's why we're Special Forces. We get thecool flashlights."
Fans of water filled terror and excitement were alsotreated to a trip through the SureFire catalog when theybought a ticket to the $200 mil/ion dollar Poseidon, lastyear's big budget remake of the 1970s disaster movieThe Poseidon Adventure. Replacing Gene Hackman inthe starring role, Kurt Russell led the survivors throughthe upside down cruise ship with the help of a dozenSureFire M4 Devastator flashlights, some paintedorange.
COMBAT TACTiCS FALL 2006 15
Ice Cube, George (looney and Mark Wahlberg try to getout of Kuwait in one piece in David O. Russell's THREE KINGS.
MP-5 toting ex-con Sean Cannery and Federal Agent HickCage try to defuse a terrorist bomb in THE ROCK.
At API
Was I the only one in the audience whocringed when that orange M4 was dropped togauge the depth of the water? As its strongxenon bulb sank into the murkiness, Icouldn't help hoping that when they called"cut" someone went down and recovered it!
Says ISS's Weschta, "I couldn't tell youexactly which SureFire WeaponLights werecarried by which actor— you'd have to freezeframe the DVD to pin that down— but! cantell you that our SureFire lights have gone outon every major action film made in the last 10years from Terminator 3 to Ocean's Twelve."
Small Screen FameAnd don't forget the small screen, which
isn't so small anymore considering how manypeople are investing in big screen TVs. ISSsupplies the SureFire flashlights that can beseen on the weekly action shows Bones andThe Unit. In the hands of Without A Trace'sSWAT backup, F/X's North Hollywoodshootout telefilm 44 Minutes, and mountedon the weapons displayed by U.S. troops por-trayed in network TV movies like NBC's Iraqido cu-drama Saving Jessica Lynch.
Along with tactical military and police per-sonnel, where would TV detectives bewithout their SureFires? David Caruso, BillPeterson, and Gary SilliSe and the other starsof "procedural" police shows like CSI and it'stwo spin offs CSI Miami and CSI New Yorkwould be lost in the dark without theirSureFire Centurions and Combat Lights.
Studio special effects men like Lee Stoneof CSI New York often fill the sound stage withan artificial mist so the powerful streams oflights can be clearly visible. Their M4Devastator's are as much a part of the cast asthe actors, and the CSI prop departments buyenough SureFire flashlights to qualify asSureFire dealers!
But while you expect to find SureFire'sflashlights on display in action shows like CBS'Navy NCIS, when the outrageous charactersthat populate comedy television series like
15 www.surefire.com
Fox's Malcolm In The Middle get out of line, accuratelyoutfitted SWAT or military characters make the scene.
In a recent episode of NBC's hit comedy My Name IsEarl, a tactical call out brought a Strike Team carryingM -16s with M500AB forendWeaponLights.
Tough Enough For Movies"SureFire WeaponLights are tough," Weschta
explained. "On a motion picture we need the most reli-able guns and equipment. Lost time on the set coststhousands of dollars and can ruin a scene."
In many cases, the demands of film production onthese flashlights can even exceed actual police andcombat use. When a stunt man or actor handles hisflashlight, it's going to be abused, taken on and off,thrown, kicked, and dropped. And then dropped, kicked
and thrown again in every "take" or repeated version ofthe shot.
Substandard lights will fail, as the 10 weeks of a fea-ture film schedule will put costumes and props througha year of normal use. "That's why we use SureFire.never fails. We buy more every day," -Wes chta added.
For the "reel" world of television and film produc-tion, just like the real world that faces our police andmilitary operators, SureFire is the best equipment outthere, hands down. So rest assured, if Hollywood gavean Oscar for "Best Lighting" it would go """•n
SW'to SureFire.
The author is a screenwriter; producer and directorwhose credits include Another 48 Hours, Darkness Falls,Stone Cold, Saving Jessica Lynch and Tombstone.
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loves guns, but gunswfl , ?-1 tt---`- • hate rust. The obnox-ious orange oxide is formed quite easily when iron isexposed to oxygen, and there's a good arnount of iron insteel. The whole rusting process in which iron becomes -iron oxide has a scientific term. It's called corrosion.
Rust needs a partner in crime, though, a thirdingredient to add its nefarious influence to its runningbuddies, oxygen andiron. That bad boy is water. Whenwater meets iron in the presence of oxygen, its likeputting three teenagers, a hot rod and the boulevardtogether on Friday night— trouble is brewing.
When water comes in contact with iron— be it inthe form of humidity, rain or a dunk in the ocean—two things begin to happen almost immediately. Thewater, a good electrolyte, orconductor, sees a potential TACTICAL SPRAY PAINTpartner and hooks up withcarbon dioxide to form a weak carbonic acid. The acidjust so happens to be an even better conductor thanplain water.
As the acid is formed, some iron molecules dissolveand some of the water breaks down into its compo-nents, hydrogen and oxygen. The free oxygen and dis-solved iron bond into iron oxide, that dreaded orangebrown mess we call rust.
Rust is the first and most obvious reason that youneed a protective finish on your gun. The secondreason is that we humans evolved an eyeball that isquick to detect shiny things. Shine is a bad thing in
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The multicam pattern on the FAL (right) blends into a lotof different surroundings. The digital Too (below) works
best in drab, gray backgrounds.
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combat. Better to be cammied up and concealed thansticking out, as I once heard a Marine sniper instructorsay to a boneheaded trainee, like a diamond in a pig's ass.
It is this need to be brown in brown places or green ingreen places or gray in gray places that gives you thesecond reason for a finish on your gun— camouflage.
If you've seen pictures from Iraq and Afghanistan,you've seen spray painted weapons. The best sellinggun finish in today's war zone is Krylon, with flat earthtones and dull tans being favorite colors. Spray paintinga gun with Krylon may not be suitable for a primo pre-64 Model 70, but it makes good sense on an M4.
I've cammied an AR myself with spray paint andfound that the most important thing is making sure thelittle hole is pointed at the gun and not your face. Theresults aren't exactly going to give Crye Precision a runfor their camo money, but at least my gun doesn't shine.
However, my spray paint job is mickey mouse com-pared to what a professional can do. A professional, youask, you mean there's such a thing as a professionalspray painter? Yes there is.
Meet Jesse Gorham, a cop H ying in northernCalifornia who has developed a skill to render anycamo pattern you can name with special spray paints.The new Army digital? No problem. British desert?
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paints to be Mil Spec and very easyto use with a good choice of colors. Inormally use Krylon Clear MatteFinish to seal the paint once it'sbeen applied," Jesse added.
"If applied properly and sealedwith a clear coat, it makes a goodsemi-permanent camouflage finish.The finishes will last for years withgood care and an occasional touchup. If you want to change the paintscheme or remove it all together, it'sa simple process to do so."
The permanence issue is impor-tant. The purpose of camouflage is
Done that. German arctic? Send apicture, Jesse can duplicate it. He'seven done Japanese camo.
"I was first introduced to usingspray paint as a means of camou-flaging rifles back in 1995 when, as aSan Diego police officer, I had theopportunity to take a Combat RifleTactics course with the Marines atCamp Pendleton. We used OD tapeto cover the areas that we weregoing to paint, which was most ofthe rifle, and then we were providedwith various colors of Mil Spec flatspray paint," Jesse said.
"We were taught to apply a basecoat and then use vegetation as ashadow stencil while applying theother contrasting colors. It wascrude, but I was very impressedwith the effect the paint had on theconcealablity of the rifles during theexercises we ran throughout theweek. I found that the paint held uppretty well."
Jesse was so intrigued with thepracticality of the spray paintedrifles that he began experimentingwith duplicating established camopatterns. He finally made the ulti-mate commitment— paintingpublic property— when in 1999 hesprayed a department-owned preci-sion rifle.
"I looked at different paintbrands and I found Aervoe spray
26
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the Legacy
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change ammo types quickly, from say HornadyTAP to FM). The minus is that if you lose the
magazine, you've got a single shot rifle.
basically to hide in the open, to disguiseyourself into the natural terrain. Assumingyou're not always going to be in the sameplace, you need to be able to reapply a dif-ferent camo to your gun as your environ-ment changes. This is one of the best fea-tures of a "low tech" finish like spray paint.
"Products like Dura-Coat and KG Gun
Coat are epoxy based permanent finishes,"Jesse said. "I've never used them person-ally. I have an off-duty 1911 Officers ACPthat has a flat black KG Gun Coat finish. It'sa great finish, but like bluing or Parkerizingit does wear off with holster use."
"The reasons I don't currently usethese products are because they areexpensive and they require special toolsto apply. The upside is that these epoxypaints are permanent— if that's irnpor-tant to you— and they're unaffected by
www.hsprecision_corn 1301 Turbine OR, Rapid City, S0, 57703 605.341.3000
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Shown here with a plain-jane l424 IISMCsniper rifle (second from left) while
Gorham's talent for duplicating differentcamo patterns is evident on this array of
(left to right) Army digital, multicamand Japanese flecktorn.
solvents and normal handling.""The downsides are the cost—
$300 to $600 for a camo finish is outof the reach of most operators— andonce the finish is applied, you betternot change your mind becauseyou're stuck with what you have.Additionally quick, field expedientapplications are out of the question."
What about how well the paintadheres to different surfaces, likealuminum, steel and plastic? Jesse explained, "Flatspray enamel adheres well to a wide variety of clean sur-faces. It sticks to steel, aluminum, hard plastics, poly-mers and other synthetic materials that you would findin stocks and forearms. I have found that some softplastic or rubber materials won't take paint well. Forexample, Butler Creek scope caps won't hold paint. Toremedy this, I texturize the scope cap and then paint it."
As we all know, a finish lasts only as long as the gunstays warm and cozy in a rack; once you're out in the field,dings and scratches are inevitable. This is one of the ben-efits of spray paint because touch-ups are easy.
"Fixing nicks and scratches is as easy as making afemale paper stencil that matches your pattern,placing the stencil over the scratch and applying theappropriate color spray paint and then matte clear
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There's actually a good deal ofskill involved in spray painting
an exact camo pattern.
coat to seal it," Jesse said."A female stencil is where the shape has been cut out of your stencil mate-
rial and the painted pattern appears by spraying through the stencil. A malestencil is when you take the piece you cut out of the stencil material and useit to mask the spray paint to create the desired shape. It's really easy to do."
Jesse charges a very reasonable $95 to $185 to paint a rifle with scope and acouple of magazines. The price depends on the pattern difficulty. As far as dis-counts go, Jesse's pricing is, as he chuckles, "So low in terms of man-hours ofwork that my wife says that I run a non-profit organization," that he does notoffer an LE break. "However, I do bump cops' guns to the front of the line.Operational weapons get first priority."
"I will also provide a touch up stencil and paint sources to those whoask," Jesse added, although I can assure you that duplicating his resultswithout some practice is a lot harder than it appears. Trust me, I tried itand let's just say I invented a new pattern, "fishnet brown."
Jesse is not entirely opposed to the more expensive epoxy paint finishes. "Atsome point, if there is a demand, I would be open to adding Dura-Coat as anoption, but so far my niche has been affordable, high quality paint jobs foroperational weapons."
Turn-around time is not bad at all, three weeks on average. "That couldchange," Jesse noted prudently, "If I get inundated with work." Younever know, Jesse, Combat Tactics readers might do just that.
Jesse Gorham's website is www.threewolues.com . Examples of his camo pat-terns are found there along with an interesting bit of family histou and someof his thoughts on the modern day knight. His e-mail is [email protected]
32www.surefire.com
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the switch began en masse from servicerevolvers to duty pistols in the early1970s, Smith & Wesson was the domi-nant brand in American police holsters_Not only did S&W rule the revolvermarket, but also its double-action first-shot 9mixis— the single stack Model 39,adopted by the trend setting IllinoisState Police, and its high-capacitysister, the Model 59— were the mostpopular police autoloaders as well.
By the mid 1980s, though, that hadchanged. For the first time, the notori-ously conservative U.S. police estab-lishment had become comfortableadopting and issuing foreign-madehandguns. Smith St Wesson's domi-nance was eclipsed, first by the ItalianBeretta, then by the Swiss-designed,German-made S1G-Sauer, and finallyby the Austrian Glock.
Characterized by a minimalistdesign and polymer frame, the Glocksoon became the overwhelminglydominant presence in the collectiveU.S. police armory S&W tried desper-ately to claw its way back in the policemarket. With the adoption trend goingfirmly toward the light weight and low
The top of the slide retains the classicSmith & Wesson faceted cuts. Note the dovetail
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cost afforded by polymer, Smith got drastic and went for plastic.In 1993, a design team led by Kevin Foley created the Sigma pistol for Smith &
Wesson. Unabashedly derivative of the Glock— the takedown was identical, and aSigma .40 barrel and one from a Glock 22 would actually interchange— the Sigma differed in that its DA- only trigger was more "front loaded” as to weight of pull, andoffered a shorter trigger reach.
Litigation followed between Glock and S&W, which ended with an undisclosed set-tlement. The Sigma design was subtly changed, resulting in a distinctly heavier triggerpull. Early reliability glitches in the Sigma design were worked out in the normalcourse of product evolution, but by then, the Sigma had earned a less than enviable
reputation in law enforcement circles. S&Wreinvented the Sigma as a low-price-point "entrylevel" pistol for the civilian market, and it sellsvery well there today, but the gun was nowpretty much dead in the water as far as thepolice market was concerned.
When Smith & Wesson subsequently formed astrategic partnership with Germany's Walther—which, among other things, led to an improvedPPK that was and is the best of its long-livedbreed they entered into a collaboration inwhich the Walther P99 service pistol was "Smith
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&Wesson-ized," resulting in the SW99 pistol. ThisWalther series had pioneered interchangeablegrip backstraps to better fit varying hand sizes,and it had excellent pointing characteristics andinherent accuracy.
1*' "•—•Still, there were flies in the ointment. This
second polymer S&W had a decocking lever. better suited to the hand of an orangutan than a
human, and it was easy to forget to decock itwithout noticing. New Jersey State Policeannounced the intention of exchanging theirtrademark HK P7 pistols for 9mm SW99s, butwould later state that mechanical problemscaused them to renege on the deal. NISP woundup going with the SIG P228. While some indi-vidual officers have purchased SW99s and are-very happy with them, with the same being trueof a few departments, this second plastic Smithservice pistol was not a sales success.
It was time to start over, on that new sheet ofpaper that engineers like to talk about. The resultis the Military & Police pistol.
Clean Sheet DesignThe PUP sports an articulated trigger, itself a safety device,like the Gluck and XD. Jeff Cooper has said that putting The design team that created this latest S&W
a safety on a trigger is like printing the combination on police pistolwas led by Joe Bergeron, the talentedthe door of a safe, but there's no question it's young wunderkind who originally earned his
the ultimate "drop safety"
chops down the Gun Valley road at Colt's. Thethink-tank at Smith & Wesson had deeply ana-
-www.surefire.com
Looking at details of the M&P clockwise from top left, the magazine protrudes amida fixed ejector and the trigger linkage. Note the small steel "slide rail" tabs pressedinto the polymer housing. There's a full length recoil spring guide rod, peeking fromunder the muzzle. A tactile and visual loaded chamber indicator is the small tab atthe rear of the chamber. Lastly, the M&P has Picatinny slots on an integral frame rail.
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lyzed how the market they had once owned had becomethe province of Glock. They set about attacking everyperceived weakness of the Austrian design in hopes ofcreating a pistol that would appeal to Glock fans anddetractors alike.
For instance, some careless gun handlers had acci-dentally discharged Glocks during takedown becausethey had negligently left live cartridges in the chambers,and the Glock's takedown (and the Sigma's, for thatmatter) begins with a pull of the trigger. In a worldwhere some say, "Perception is reality," there are thosewho would prefer a gun whose trigger does not need tobe pulled to begin the disassembly process. Thus, theM&P was designed to take down without the triggerhaving to be touched.
The designers were aware that Robbie Barrkman hadcreated a small cottage industry "Robarizing" Glocks byfilling the frame hollow with epoxy and then grinding it
The frame is a modular design allowing for the replacement of the backstrap to fit different hand sizes. The exactcontours and shapes were arrived at after a lengthy ergonomics study into the human hand. At the end of it all,the engineers found that "medium" fits most hands, but you can change the backstraps for "small" or "large."
down to fit smaller hands and shorter fin-gers. S&W was already in possession of theresults of the company's $100,000ergonomics study of the human hand donefor the Sigma project in the early 1990s, andhad access to the exhaustive research cloneon the matter of hand size and trigger reachby Valerie Atkins at the Federal LawEnforcement Training Center.
As a result, the Military & Policeemerged with a pleasingly short triggerreach. A short index finger could get to the"bang switch" easily, and us old revolver-shooting dinosaurs who had learned toprefer placing the distal joint of that linger,instead of the pad, on the trigger could doso with the M&P auto.
Walther's earlier introduction of theinterchangeable backstrap had beenwidely copied in the industry, by SIG withthe SigPro and the later Beretta Px4, TheM&P would have that too, in spades. Noone in the industry had access to moreergonomics studies than Bergeron and hisstaff, and the results showed in the way theremovable backstraps were engineered forthe Military & Police.
In sizes small, medium, and large, they
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mith & Wesson's K-frame Military & Policerevolver is far and away the best seller in the morethan 150 year history of the firm. Archrival Colt .had beaten S&W to the market with a solid-frame,
swing-out cylinder revolver by about a decade, and hadsold their guns in copious quantity to Army, Navy, and lawenforcement Smith came back with a vengeance when
their first M&P debuted in the year 1899.First introduced in a .38 Long chambering to com-
pete with the Colt, the new solid frame S&W was soonoffered in a cartridge of the company's own design, the.38 S&W Special. This round's popularity helped assurethe new revolver's success, though the M&P would beoffered in many chamberings over the years.
, The new gun actually had two names: "HandEjector" and "Military & Police." The Hand Ejector
! appellation was for many years applied to all of the
: swing-out cylinder S&Ws, and many Smith & Wessoncollectors continue that practice today. However, "Hand
1 Ejector" wasn't the catchiest catch-phrase in the his-
tory of advertising. What they were trying to say was
1 = just as on the Colt before it, a push of an ejector
i
'. rod would simultaneously empty every single chamber.
' "Hand ejector" was a mushy way of saying that.If you think about it, the old Colt Peacemaker, from
which each spent shell was punched one at a time witha side mounted push rod, was a "hand ejector." Thus,the term fell by the wayside among the rank and file ofSmith & Wesson users. Curiously enough, the companyretained it for just one gun, the little I-frame .32 Long
revolver."Military & Police," on the other hand, was a name
with legs. The turn of the century was a time when themilitary as well as the police used revolvers. The M&P,roughly Parkerized as the Victory Model, was a main-stay of American sailors and flyers in World War II, andmany found their way to Vietnam. The Air Force wasusing a refined version of that .38 Special revolver, theModel 15 Combat Masterpiece, well into the latter
20th Century.The timeline for S&W M&P revolvers goes like this:
1999: The Military & Police .38 Hand Ejector is intro-
duced. As time goes by, it will be manufactured in .22
Long Rifle, .32 Long, .32-20, .38 Colt, .38 S&W, and .38Special, among its many calibers. Most will have fixedsights. An adjustable sight version will be offered, calledthe Military & Police Target, which after World War IIwill be refined and renamed "K-38 Masterpiece."
1940: Victory Model production begins, initially incaliber .38 Smith & Wesson for the British, who call
that caliber ".38/200," and subsequently in .38 Special
for U.S. forces.1950: The first aluminum alloy models- frame and
cylinder- are produced in prototype for the U.S. AirForce. Determined to be too fragile with aluminumcylinders, most of these Aircrewman revolvers aredestroyed, making surviving examples prime collector
pieces.1952: The Airweight version is introduced, in .38
Special only, with aluminum frame and steel cylinder.
1957: The decision is made at corporate headquar-
ters in Springfield to add model numbers to modelnames. The all steel traditional M&P becomes theModel 10, with the aluminum version becoming the
Model 12.1964: In answer to police complaints that .38
Special ammunition was inadequately powerful and.357 Magnum was overpenetrative, S&W introducesthe .41 Magnum cartridge along with Remington. Thepolice model, a big fixed-sight N-frame with 4" heavy
barrel, is named the Military a Police Model 58. lt will
be the only N-frame revolver to carry the M&P name.
1974: A chrome molybdenum steel M&P, function-ally identical to the heavy barrel Model 10, is intro-duced in .357 Magnum. It will be designated theModel 13. In the same year, a stainless Military &Police .357 Magnum is introduced, and dubbed the
Model 65.2098: Smith & Wesson introduces two new Military
& Police products. The M&P pistol debuts in caliber.40, while the M&P rifle is an AR1 5 clone in .223Remington. Oddly enough, the Military & Police is the
first semiautomatic Smith & Wesson pistol in modern
memory that is not designated in the catalog or in
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also have varying sizes and shapes of palm swells. The resultliterally sets a new standard of range of hand fit adaptationfor a semiautomatic pistol.
A few out of every 100 people who Robarize their Glocksdo so not because their hands are too small, but becausethey're too large and the bottom rear edge of the slidepainfully contacts the web of their hand. Robar's fix is to buildup a beavertail. Smith & Wesson built the Military & Policethat way to start with. A Rob ar job also imparts a rougher tex-ture to better enhance grip traction; that, too, was incorpo-rated into M&P design.
Best FeaturesThe Glock has far more good points to emulate than ques-
tionable points to compete against, or it would not be thedominant gun in its field right now. S&W obviously recog-nized that, and incorporated many of the Glock's best featuresin what they hoped would be their rnost successful design.
Glock's Tender finish is almost impervious to hostile envi-ronments of weather and moisture. The officers from aroundthe country who flocked to the New Orleans area in the wake 1
of Hurricane Katrina reported that the Glocks handled 1the humidity and other corrosion-produ
cing IN ..
ir--"-----elements of that environment better thananything else. S&W chose an analogousfinish, Melonite, already proven on earlier
1. if ' Sigma pistols., .
' _Some guns are only surface hardened
on critical steel parts. On the M&P, thosecomponents are "through-hardened," '
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giving more peace of mind.1 Glock's multi-piece trigger-with- a-safety-
- --- _ ,.... on-it has been hugely successful for its man-ufacturer, and for subsequent guns from -
-other sources, such as Springfield Armory's
ff. XD. It is incorporated in the M&P design.Hammerless, striker fired design? Check. Low
• bore a.xis to better control muzzle jump? Check. Conedbarrel that doesn't require a separate bushing? Check.
The Heckler & Koch 2000 series, the first auto to be factoryproduced with true ambidextrous slide lock levers, hadbecome a hit among left-handed shooters in part for that
; reason. Bergeron included ambi levers on the new S&W auto.Some police commanders and civil liability specialists feel
lr that a 5 lb. trigger pull may not be heavy enough for a defense
1pistol that does not have a manual safety. The M&P comes
j with a pull that will measure 6.5 to 7.0 lbs.The trigger pull was designed to deliver a firm degree of
1 resistance from the beginning of the movement, rather like a4I NewYork trigger system on a Glock. The result is a consistent,
i revolver-like pull in which the exact moment of sear re-set is
.i less distinct than on, say, a 1911 or a Glock.,l,,,
For decades, S&W's standard service autos have featured a
48
magazine disconnector safety, which renders the round in the chamber unshootable if the maghas been removed. Some experts hate this, theorizing that an officer might have to fire the singlechambered round if attacked while reloading or if the magazine is lost in the wilderness. Othersfeel that it is desirable, both for making the gun safe in certain environments and to create a "dis-able button" if an attacker is gaining control of the good guy's gun.
Smith & Wesson took the exquisitely logical step of offering the new pistol with or without themagazine disconnector feature. A person who bought the gun that way as it came from the fac-tory does not bear the onus in court of being someone so reckless that he removed a safetydevice from a lethal weapon.
More than a decade before, on their polymer framed US? pistol, H&K had pioneered anaccessory rail molded into the dust cover area of the frame to accept a white light or laser sightunit. Perhaps the most widely copied such innovation in the auto pistol industry, this soon mor-phed into a Picatinny rail. The Picatinny rail would be part and parcel of the new S&W auto, too.
After a late 2005 seminar for gun writers at the Springfield, Mass. factory, Smith &Wesson offi-cially debuted the Military gz Police pistolin early 2006. Heavy orders followed imme-diately. The first guns were chambered forthe .40 S&W cartridge, followed by 9mmParabellum. .357 SIG and .45 ACP modelsare in development at this writing.
The Experts'Response
Initial response from the experts wasmostly, but not entirely, favorable to theM&P In alphabetical order:
John Farnam insisted on ordering hisM&P .40 without the disconnector safetyor the internal gun lock, also an option.Both are features that Farnam absolutelyhates. He would have liked a sear re-setmore palpable to the trigger finger,because John emphasizes "riding the link"in his shooting courses. Other than that,however, he loved the M&P, and pro-nounced it a definite player in the market,a gun that could bring S&W back to itsformer dominance in this particular cornerof the firearms field.
Ken Hackathorn liked the M&P overall,but hated what he felt was a mushy triggerpull with too much backlash. He gave thegun an approval, but as much as said thathe preferred the Glock 22. (Hack is not anS&W basher. His favorite wheelguns areSmiths, and he has been known to shoot
Field stripping the M&P is not exactlyroutine. In fact, it's so complicated we
wouldn't even try to explain it other than tosay you need a tool (provided in the grip) andhave to push a lever in the frame and then...
forget it, read the owner's manual.
www.surefire.com
IDPA matches with the excellent Model 5906 PC from the S&W Performance Center, which has a crispand exquisite trigger re-set of only about a tenth of an inch, the sort of pull that Ken favors.)
Charles Petty simply fell in love with the M&P. He wrote about it glowingly in the first published articleon the new gun, which appeared in an equally new magazine, American Cop. He has given extremely
high marks to both the .40 and the 9rtim version, both of which he has worked with extensively.Paul Scarlata was most impressed with the Smith & Wesson M&P .40, so much so that he was using
one as his concealed carry pistol by the time he finished his article. Paul's was pressed into double duty,becoming his bedside home protection gun at the end of each day, with a detachable white light unit
affixed to its frame rail.
1V1&P In The FieldThe M&P gathered a great deal of interest, but that was only the first step. Police departments don't
buy new guns because they're interesting, they buy them because their own testing has told them thatthey'll work reliably and stand up over the long term. The new Smith &Wesson quickly went from thefirst stage of "interesting" into the second stage of "we're adopting these guns."
In August of 2006, Bergeron told me, "Over 20 law enforcement agencies have placed orders andbegun to convert to the M&P pistol. Over 35 departments have chosen the M&P and will be convertingsoon; these departments are waiting for funding."
One of those agencies is the Iowa State Patrol. ISP has a tong history with Smith &Wesson. In 1935,when the State Patrol was founded, the first issue service revolver was the Colt Official Police .38 Special.They switched to S&W after Worl dWar II and have remained loyal S&W purchasers ever since.When theywent from .357 Magnum revolvers to .40 caliber auto pistols, they chose the DA-only, all stainless steelSmith &Wesson Model 4046. They are now in the process of converting from those to the M&P .40, whichwill be carried in Safariland ALS security holsters and loaded with 180 grain Speer Gold Dot ammunition.
Sgt. Ken Paradise of ISP told me, "We have our first 70 M&Ps in the field, and we are progressingwith the transition for the entire agency. They are working out very well so far. We've found that themedium size grip insert seems to be the favoriteamong the troopers."
Max Mathews is firearms training director for theNorth Carolina Department of Corrections, which hasjust ordered some 5,700 M&Ps in caliber .40 S&W. Thisquantity will suffice for some 13,000 correctional offi-cers. The reason is that while handguns are perma-nently issued to some personnel such as dog hamdlers, escort personnel, and approximately 1,400 pro-bation officers, most other personnel authorized tocarry firearms do so situationally and draw them fromthe armory as needed.
Accordingly, those with their own permanent issueguns are authorized to fit them with whichever of thethree grip inserts furnished with every gun suits thembest. The "pool" guns kept in the armory are all fittedwith the size medium insert, in hopes of fitting a
CorBon's Pow'RBall defense ammo features a polymer"ball" inserted into the nose of a large hollow cavity.
The "ball" serves two functions. First, it gives the roundthe same feeding reliability as an FM) profile, also knownas ball ammunition. Secondly, the polymer ball is shoved
into the hollow cavity upon impact and facilitatesrapid expansion. Like all CorBon ammo,
it's a hot little number too.
COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2006
The "snake skin" cockingcuts look cool and workquite well. Just for therecord, since serpentineserrations are all the ragenow, please note that theoriginator was pistolsmithMarc Krebs. Today, Marcbuilds the slickest AKs outthere, if you're interested(wwvv.krebscustom.com).
48
majority of hand sizes.Director Mathews told me, "Everything is
going very well with the .40 M&P transition.We are just beginning our transition, and thefirst four pilot schools have gone fine. Thiswill be our standard pistol across the board.We're already seeing an improvement inqualification scores."
The Columbus (Ohio) Police Departmenthas bought 2,000 M&P .40s, which, loadedwith 180 grain Federal HST, will replace theS&W Model 4506 pistol that has been stan-dard there for more than a decade. The bigSmith .45 autos gave fine service, said OfficerRon Barker of the CPD firearms training unit,but the company no longer manufacturesthat model.
"The simple design of the M&P, with nodecocker or manual safety was a plus in itsselection," Barker added. "The ambidextrous
slide lever is friendly to our many left-handed officers, and the interchangeablegrip units are extremely user friendly for our wide range of hand sizes, particularlyour smaller female officers." The agency is just at this writing transitioning thetrainers to the new guns, as well as a class of 30 new rookies who will be issued .40M&Ps before they hit the street.
While most interest has been in the hugely popular .40 caliber, at least onedepartment of substantial size has opted for the 9mm. The Cincinnati PoliceDepartment has announced that it will order roughly 1,500 M&Ps in that caliber.
Back On The RangeSmith & Wesson employs two of the hest shooters on the practical pistol com-
petition circuit, and both are now shooting the M&P in 9rnm. Many-timenational IDPA Champion Ernest Langdon won the Carolina Cup with his, notonly winning the Stock Service Pistol class but posting the high overall score withhis M&P. And Julie Goloslci, says Joe proudly, used hers to capture the Ladies'Championship at the prestigious American Handgunner World Shoot-Off.
It's not just S&W employees who are taking M&Ps to matches. Bergeron tellsme that Todd Kennedy of FLETC won First Expert at the Carolina Cup with aMilitary & Police.
Though not engineered as a match target pistol, the M&P turns in impressiveaccuracy. Hackathorn is right when he says that the pistol has more backlash inits trigger than most shooters like, but so long as the trigger is being pulledstraight back and the gun is held firmly, that doesn't seem to matter a great deal.In benchrest testing for On Target magazine, this writer was able to get 25 yardgroups as tight as 1.50" for five shots with Federal Classic 155 grain .40 S&W JFIP.
No handgun has ever emerged absolutely perfect from the womb of a guncompany's R&D division. The M&P was not without its growing pains. What isimportant is that S&W has listened to feedback and immediateiy implementednecessary corrections.
In its first iteration, the ambi slide stop levers were very small pieces, dwellingin plastic niches to shield them from being unintentionally activated by theshooter. Unfortunately, this also shielded them from being intentionally acti-vated by the shooter. In practice, the slide had to be tugged to the rear to release
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it from lock-back. White this is the way many shootersand instructors prefer to do it anyway, it really irritatedthose who use the slide release to actually release theslide, gaining greater loading/reload
ing speed thereby.In any case, enough of us complained about it that a
redesigned pair of levers was quickly implemented(and can be retrofitted to first generation models). Itdoes not seem to activate accidentally, and worksmuch more efficiently.
Observed Sgt. Paradise of the Iowa State Patrol, "Ofour first three test guns, we had one that would occa-sionally fail to fire, with light striker hits on our CCIprimers. Smith &Wesson redesigned the striker after wereported this to them, and the problem disappeared."
My own early test sample had a tendency towardfeed stoppages when fired with a deliberately relaxedwrist, with virtually any .40 S&W ammo I put into it. Bythe time colleague Pat Sweeney got his, the problemhad been corrected: Pat deliberately tried to cause a
limp wrist malfunction in his later M&P, and couldn't.A company that listens to its customers and corrects
products based on their feedback is a company that'sgoing to succeed.
Bottom LineSmith & Wesson chose wisely in putting its most
time-honored product name, "Military & Police,"on this new semiautomatic pistol. Early reportsfrom the field, with thousands of these guns get-ting into law enforcement hands, has been enthu-siastically positive.
The M&P was scheduled at this writing to be avail-able in .357 SIG by the end of the year. Says Bergeron,"The initial test M&Ps with .357 SIG barrels have beenworking great." With a new military contract coming upfor .45 ACP pistols, that caliber is scheduled to be inproduction early in 2007. The prototypes are virtuallythe same size as the 9mm and .40 in some dimensions,and barely larger in others.
Meanwhile, sales are briskly rolling along. Bergeronsays that 70 percent of the guns are being sold withoutthe magazine disconnector safety, and 30 percentwith it.
John Farnam may well be proved correct. TheMilitary & Police Pistol could be Smith & Wesson'sticket back to prominence in law enforcementhandgun circles.
m 11 IL77:471101
• In the air, on the ground, in the water, the patented PistolLeash is peace of mind. Pistol Leash is the most secure lan-yard system to keep your sidearm safely with you. Designedby a firearm instructor, Pistol Leash easily attaches a hand-gun, knife, GPS or other gear to your belt or tactical vest.
The retractable rubber-covered steel cable stretches toaccommodate different firing positions. The patented "slidebar" allows for the deployment of the weapon withabsolutely no interference. Pistol Leash is the only lanyardwith this patented system.
11-131ST-0-LL LEASH
COMBAT TACTICS FALL 200645
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ver since American military commanders began to rely onvisual signals to convey orders, problems have remained.Written instructions can be misinterpreted and verbal direc-tion can be misheard, but sign language is ripe for mistakes.
The first attempt at military signals was the so-called"wigwag system" developed by Maj. Albert Myer, founder ofthe U.S. Army Signal Corps. Relying on a single waved flag to
spell out messages during the day and signal fires at night, the wigwagsystem was first employed in 1860 during an expedition against theNavajo. Ironically, it was the Navajo who taught the U.S. Army one of itsmost effective codes when the so-called "wind talkers" spoke in Navajoto confound Japanese code-breakers during the war in the Pacific.
Visual signals, be they hand
TACTIEAL HANDSIGNALS signals, burning fires and,nrau-ina fla gs_ have the plus of
being silent and instantaneous, but they give up confidentiality and
immediacy to the oldest method of military communication, themounted messenger. Whether it's the charge of the Light Brigade orPickett's Charge, many military mishaps came about from poorly com-municated orders.
While the technology of military messaging has changed over thecenturies, the essential purpose— to accurately convey the com-mander's orders— has remained the same. From high-bandwidth bursttransmissions to a simple Morse code, there are four essential compo-nents to a communications cycle.
Communications is about accurately conveying informa-tion. Any discussion of tactical comms, whether
, its tactical hand signals or encryptedradio transmissions, must concen-
trate on the principles of effectivecommunications in which four
things must happen; transmit,receive, decode or interpret,
and confirm the message
,to the sender. Failure tocomplete the cycle
guarantees, as CoolHand Luke knew alltoo well, a failure tocommunicate.Transmission
• seems obvious, but as a sender, you have anobligation to convey a clear, concise and explicit
order. If you're the point man and you signal back toyour team, "Booby trap ahead," that's not nearly as effective
as signaling, "Trip wire, eight yards, knee high."Receiving a communication also seems elementary, but you as the
recipient must be alert to an incoming message. If you're in a team, youneed to scan your teammates constantly to check for messages.
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he use of tactical signals predates the histor-ical record, a relatively newborn developmentin man's time of earth, only some 5,000 yearsold. Even before the written language was
developed by the Sumerians in the 33rd centuryB.C., communication with hand signals were in useto convey commands on the battlefield.
Hand signals probably originated when man wasa hunter-gatherer. Our ancestors quickly learnedthat hunting in a group was more effective thanhunting alone, just as lions and wolves hunt inprides and packs today. As soon as one hunter wasout of voice range of another, but remained withinsight, the need to find a way to communicate mani-fested itself. The first signals were likely waving andpointing, but probably soon developed into a vocab-ulary of their own to communicate more specificdirections.
It wasn't long before early bands of hunter-gath-
erers learned that certain foods could be planted andharvested and certain animals could be domesticated.The clans coalesced into villages, planting crops andforming a sedentary community. Pretty soon, manbeing man, one village looked over the way and saw thatthe other village had more crops, and decided to takethem. Organized warfare began.
When man first formed military units of more than afew men, a commander could no longer be heard overthe sting of battle by his men. This was the driving factorthat led to such visual signals such as smoke, flags, ban-ners and guidons, as well as more easily audible signalslike bugles, trumpets and drums.
Even when line-of-sight is available, visual signalssuch as flags only work when the recipients see andcomprehend the message. As we note in anothersidebar about the Charge Of The Light Brigade, misin-terpreted hand signals can be fatal.
Also, if you can see the signal, so can the enemy.
Under certain conditions, the enemy may have a betterview of the various signals than the intended recipients.For that reason, encrypted signals and codes weredeveloped. You have seen coded signals in a commonsetting, the ballpark. Managers flash signals to hittersand catchers sign to pitchers in an elaborate charadedesigned to keep the opposing team from "stealing" thesign for a hit-and-run.
When cavalry came onto the battlefield— heraldedby one of the most significant tactical products of alltime, the stirrup— mounted units had a more compli-cated communication problem. The speed of battleincreased dramatically, and with it the need to commu-nicate orders as the tide of battle shifted.
Flags and horns were the main means of communi-cation. The Greek and Roman cavalry troops developedthis into a fine art, permitting them to cohesivelymaneuver large forces. Along the way, one of the most
important tools of tactical communication emerged—the mounted messenger. The horseborne messengerremained the fastest, most secure and most detailedmeans of communication for over 2,000 years.
Communication at sea presented an even greaterproblem, as fleets needed to fight as a unit andmounted messengers were clearly not an option. Navalcommunications relied on flag signals. These began to
be secure in the 1800s when Admiral Lord Nelson senthis battle plan to his 70 ships at Trafalgar in encryptedcode. Flags and lights remained the primary means ofnaval communication until the advent of the radio.
Since the radio, tactical communications improve-ments have largely been incremental changes to tech-nology. Computers, lasers, and satellites haveimproved speed and reliability, but the basic mecha-nism of conveying commands electrically goes backto the Civil War. E-mail may be the latest iteration, butthe fundamental principle is the same as when ourancestors herded a wooly mammoth into a pit—person A conveys a message, person B must then reg-ister it and correctly understand it.
So why do we still use tactical hand signals?Because as long as we depend on electronic devices,there will be failures. There will be people trying tointercept our communications. And there will be situ-ations where we either cannot hear, or cannot speak,and we still need to communicate. This is where theprimitive, yet effective, hand and arm signals comeinto their own.
Like the most universal signal of them all— theupraised middle finger— tactical hand signs remaineloquently effective at conveying a point, just asthey have since the dawn of man.
UAL: ALE SUSPECT
inconvenient times. (Back to the comment abouplaying charades at the breach point!)
MI tactical units should develop some type ofsignals. When operating in close proximity to titadversary, even whispering into a throat mike isenough to compromise an operation. Whispers camforever, especially when you're trying to be quiet.
H&A signals make no noise, are not subject to radiointercept, require no batteries, and (when planned andpracticed) contribute to brevity, clarity, and speed ofcommunications.
Which is less likely to fail— a radio call or a discreteH&A signal to the sniper element in over-watch?
Because of the improved technologies and the wideravailability of tactical radios, the use of H&A signals byModern Military and police forces has declined. Guardand reserve units and hobbyists, primarily paint-bailers; do not have the resources of money and equip-ment nf the front line units, so they still rely on H&Asignals. This has caused a proliferation of elaborateand extravagant H&A signals. Some groups have evenpine so far as to encourage their members to learn anduse American signlanguage. This is gross overkill anddefeats the purpose of H&A signals.
When developing H&A signals, you should colleen-. 0,
[rate on minimalist requirements. Figure out the mostimportant orders or information that wilt have to becommunicated in close proximity to the enemy. Devisesimple, intuitive signals to cover those requirements.
Codify the signals into a communications standardoperating procedure, then teach the SOPs to every-body on your team and anybody who might have tosupport your team operationally, like snipers or EMTs.
Tactical communications must be clear, concise,and easily understood. Operators do not need a "secretlanguage" that only the chosen initiates can under-stancW(How could you quickly integrate somebodyattached to your team at the last minute?) Besides, ifyour opponents can see you passing signals, you prob-ably have more to worry about than compromisedcommunications.
What follows are a number of different hand signalsdemonstrated by members of a California-based SWATteam. Not all of these signals will be suitable foreveryone and some necessary signs might be missing,but the idea is to show you a representative samplingof what can be conveyed with hand signals.
Lastly, no communication is complete until theeecipient has echoed back his understanding Sf the message to the conveyor. Got that?
1.
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istory's most notorious "communica-tion breakdown" occurred at the Battleof Balaclava during the Crimean Warwhen a hurried hand signal left a hap-less English earl ordering his Light
Brigade to charge into an enemy's artillery position.Of the 637 men in the brigade, 247 were killed orwounded. The disaster happened like this:
The British forces faced their Russian enemy inhilly terrain. Awaiting orders in the valley belowwhere Lord Raglan's command post was set on a hill,the Earl of Cardigan did not have a vantage point tosee the enemy's position. Lord Raglan sent amounted messenger to deliver his order toCardigan's waiting Light Brigade.
Lord Cardigan's brigade was considered "lightcavalry," lancers and light dragoons, and their spe-cialty was quickly maneuvering OD the battlefield.The war horses fidgeted as the men anxiouslyawaited their orders.
The messenger, Capt. Lewis Nolan, gallopeddownhill with Lord Raglan's orders and handed them
•
3to Lord Lucan, one of Lord Cardigan's squadron leaders. A punctilious man,Lucan carefully read the orders. Nolan, an impatient sort, became frustrated atwhat he perceived was Lucan's infuriating slowness as he meticulously digestedthe orders.
Irritated beyond control, Capt. Nolan couldn't contain himself any longerand he blurted out, "Lord Raglan's orders are that the cavalry should attackimmediately!"
"Attack, sir! Attack what? The guns? What guns, sir? Where and what?" LordLucan replied.
"There, my Lord!" the impatient captain answered, sweeping his arm in thegeneral direction of the Russians. "There is your enemy! There are your guns!"And with that, the captain dug his spurs into his mount and thundered back toLord Raglan's command post, leaving Lord Lucan as muddled as before.
The trouble was that from his position in the valley, Lord Lucan could not seethe enemy. Neither could the captain when he gestured broadly and said,"There, my Lord."
Lord Lucan trotted over to his commander, the Earl of Cardigan, to convey theorders. The only guns in sight were at the far end of the north valley where a massof Russian cavalry was stationed. The captain's flamboyant gesture seemed tohave indicated them.
Lord Cardigan brusquely returned his squadron commander's salute and lis-tened as the orders were conveyed. "But the Russians have a battery in the valleyin our front and batteries on each flank," Cardigan replied.
"I know it," Lord Lucan said. "But Lord Raglan will have it."The Earl of Cardigan saluted and turned his horse, galloping to the front of the
brigade. He drew the troop up into two lines, the 13th Light Dragoons on theright, the 17th Lancers in the center and the 1 1 th Hussars on the left. The 4thLight Dragoons and the 8th Hussars formed the second line.
Stoically, Lord Cardigan stood up in his stirrups. He was in the lead, easilyseen by the front line as well as his staff. He paused for a moment, taking in theshine of his men's glimmering breast plates and the rattle of cavalry sabers andlances as the horses impatiently stamped their feet. The moment of battle.
"The brigade will advance," the commander said in a strangely quiet voice.From Lord Raglan's position on the hill, the advancing cavalry seemed to be
executing his orders, perhaps a little too far left, but nothing alarming. For thefirst 50 yards, the Light Brigade advanced at a trot, Lord Cardigan prominentlyvisible in his splendid blue and cherry colored uniform, its pelisse gold trimmedand swinging gently on his stiff shoulders.
The two lines of the brigade advanced in perfect alignment, precision andsymmetry in practiced motion. Suddenly the order of the formation was brokenas a mad man galloped to the front. It was the impatient Capt. Lucan, wildlywaving his saber and shouting hysterically. It appeared from the heights that hewas trying to warn Lord Cardigan that something was wrong, that perhaps hewas going in the wrong direction.
But no one heard his words for now the brigade had moved into range of theRussian guns and suddenly they opened fire, the boom of the cannons drowningout the captain's frantic pleas. Capt. Lucan's sword clattered to the ground as hedied in his saddle, cut down in the first wave of cannon fire.
From three sides, cannon raked into the brigade, grape shot blowing horse andman into bloody pieces. Gaping holes opened in the front line, quickly filled by
the second line. Musket fire crackled with the boom ofthe cannons as the Light Brigade rode on.
"Steady the 17th Lancers!" came Lord Cardigan'sorder over the din of battle. "Steady the line!"
Behind him, his lieutenants yelled orders like, "Dolook to your dressing on the left!" The troop was can-tering now, but still the cannon salvos cut great swathsthrough the line.
Terrified riderless horses charged out of the smoke,running blindly. With every 50 yards the Light Brigadeadvanced, the line grew more ragged as the holesopened wider and wider. Wounded men staggeredbehind the advancing troop, crawling across theblood soaked ground. Dying horses writhed in theirdeath throes.
Still, Lord Cardigan pressed ahead with the rem-nants of his brigade. Wounded in the leg, he seemed toshow complete indifference to the withering cannonfire and maintained his position in the lead, witnessessaid. By now what was left of the Light Brigade wasalmost on the guns. The officers had lost control of thewell-disciplined troop who were galloping wildly aheadin full charge.
Lord Cardigan saw the gaping mouths of the cannonahead, perhaps 100 yards off through the acrid smoke.He saw the belch of flame as the cannon fired their lastsalvo and he aimed at a gap between two orange flashes.Cardigan was almost blown off his horse as the last salvohit the decimated troop, but on the remnants rode, intothe Russian artillery.
Only 50 men remained in the front line and suddenlythey were amongst the Russian gunners, slashing withtheir cavalry sabers. In fury of the fighting, LordCardigan saw a Russian officer, Prince Radzivill, andrecognized him from a party in London. The Russiantoo recognized the earl and sent a squad of Cossacks tocapture him alive.
The Cossacks came forward, prodding Lord Cardiganwith their lances. He glared scornfully at the wretchedhorses the Cossacks rode and, keeping his sword inten-tionally downward, turned his horse disdainfully androde away.
The Cossacks stared in amazement as the soot-stained Earl just disappeared into the smoke. Later,Lord Cardigan said it was, "No part of a general's duty tofight the enemy among private soldiers." He clearly sawthe Cossacks as riffraff, beneath his station to engage inactual combat.
The 4th Light Dragoons fell on the Russian gunnerswith a savage excitement, slashing and hacking with
sharpened sabers. After they cut down the artillerymen,they turned to charge the waiting Russian cavalry, but asthey rode into the smoke, they were met by theretreating 11th Hussars, who were vastly outnumberedby the waiting Russians.
Confusion ensued. There were only 40 troopers left.Suddenly one of the men saw that their retreat had beencut off and a different brigade of Russian cavalry wascharging them from behind. An officer looked aroundfrantically for Lord Cardigan, but he had galloped offafter his confrontation with Cossacks and was no whereto be seen.
"We must go about," the officer decided. "And do thebest you can."
With that, the bedraggled remnants of the LightBrigade formed a line and charged the Russian cavalryto their front. The spectacle of this blood-splattered,soot-caked line coming at them, their uniforms torn,their horses wet with sweat, must have unnerved theRussians.
Perhaps the Russian commander was indecisive,perhaps he was taken aback by the bravery of the LightBrigade, but for whatever reason, the Russians pivotedas if to encircle the English cavalry but then allowedthem to gallop past, untouched.
And then came the stragglers on foot. Wounded,dragging themselves along, their horses limping, thesurvivors from the cannon slaughter shuffled past thewatching Russian cavalry. No one raised a swordagainst them.
By the time the last of troop returned to their lines,the Light Brigade had lost over a third of its men. Theremnants were scattered across the battlefield. TheEarl of Cardigan reported to Lord Raglan who wasinfuriated.
"What did you mean, sir? Attacking a battery from thefront? Why it is contrary to all the usages of warfare andthe customs of the service," Lord Raglan raged.
"My Lord," Cardigan replied evenly. "I hope you willnot blame me for I received an order to attack from mysuperior officer in front of my troop."
It was an unassailable defense. To receive an order infront of one's men...
When his temper cooled, Lord Raglan agreed that thebrigade commander was not to blame for carrying outan ill-conveyed order. And so it remains in history thatthe messenger's sweeping arm gesture in the generaldirection of the enemy— "There, my Lord."— made forat once one of the bravest display of Britishfortitude ever.., and also the stupidest.
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is not a five-cent cigar, but a 25-cent rifle cartridge. The5.56mm issue-cartridge is simply not getting the job done,which may well be a case of getting exactly what we paid for.
We're spending about 12-cents on our standard-issue rifle [, cartridge right now (military-issue 5.56mm ball sells for about
$120 per 1,000 rounds). We should be spending twice as much(military-issue 7.62mm sells for about $250 per 1,000 rounds).We'd be way ahead of the game, getting far better perform-ance with fewer rounds fired.
,Show me an Iraqi veteran who hasn't seen the 5.56ram fail,.,,,. as a manstopper in combat and I'll show you a cook.
When it comes time to shoot an insurgent, the rules of -,
' engagement have already given him every benefit of thedoubt— he must be an obvious and immediate threat. The
q enemy has every advantage. He gets to shoot first while you; have to respond, so when you do shoot, you want knockdown
power. These through-and-through little 5.56mm holes justaren't sufficing.
Insurgents are fleeting. They hide behind walls with TEDdetonators, run across roof tops with RPGs or pop out of win-dows to ambush a convoy The soldiers have a word for them:NEPUT — Non-Electrical Pop-Up Target.
www.surefire.com
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Heckler & Koch's 63, or 91 in civilian guisef, was in fact first made in Spain, ,__, ,.... _„,... ..0 „rt.,,,.,..,,i,...,,,,,,,,
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almost io years ago and sold the drawings and tooling to JO Enterprises in - - -_- s .,.„,,..,
New England. The experts saytirrs American-made 97 is the best yet.
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The 63 or gr works with a roller delayed blowback system, which is both simple and reliable. There is no gas system,like on most assault rifles like the AK and M16. The recoil spring is housed in the bolt carrier, inside the upper
receiver, so a folding or collapsible stock is easily affixed. You could argue forever over what's the all-time bestsystem for a battle rifle, but the 63's roller delayed blowback is certainly one of the finalists.
www.surefire.com74
You have to shoot fast and accurately to stay alive. The very least you should reason-ably expect is a reliable weapon firing a dependable cartridge that, if you do your part byaligning the sights and squeezing the trigger, can be counted on to knock the enemy out
of the fight.The 7.62x51mm, otherwise known as the .308 Win., carries just such a punch. The
.308's penetration through hard cover is orders of magnitude greater than that of the
.223. The .308's lethality is exponentially greater too, and the accuracy of the ballisticallysuperior .30 caliber is night and day better than that of a mousegun.
Better RiflesWhat's more, there are several outstanding battle rifles available that would be far
better suited for combat in the dust-choked towns and sand-blown countryside ofMesopotamia than the lubrication-sensitive M16/M4.
One of the best .308 battle rifles of all time, based on reliability, accuracy, stoppingpower and ease of accessorizing, is the Getvehr 3 or G3. With its German designation, theG3 (or HK91 in its civilian guise) is closely associated with Oberndorf, but Heckler &Koch in actual fact had nothing to do with the origin and development of the gun thatlaunched the company into the forefront of military small arms design.
It was a Spanish government arms consortium, CETME, that invented the G3 in theearly 1950s and then licensed the manufacture to HK in 1956 after the German gov-ernment elected notto adopt the Belgian FAL and to instead make a rifle in-country.
75COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2006
'
16
Perhaps the adoption of a "Spanish" rifle was politically palatable because the inventor •was actually a German who had worked at Mauser during World War II and then beenhired by CETME to perfect a battle rifle based on a Nazi assault rifle design. 1
HK no longer manufactures the G3 or the HK 91. This is good news in a sense becauseit opened the door for a small company in America to begin making a U.S. version of theHK9I in 1998 that's better than anything to ever come out of Bavaria. ILD Enterprisesbought the original tooling, drawings and specifications from HK and is today producingwhat many experts, including the Technical Staff of the National Rifle Association, considerthe best version of the 91 ever made.
ILD Enterprises is the culmination of a lifetime of shooting and gun collecting by RobertW D. Ball. An accomplished author and firearms expert whose works include MauserMilitar y Rifles of the World, Springfield Armoty Shoulder Weapons, 1795-1968 and RemingtonFirearms: The Golden Age of Collecting, Ball has also penned seven other collectibles books,
including two on military medals.As a youngster, Ball started his collection of
Mauser rifles with the purchase of an M71. Withthe end of World War II in Europe, he added tohis collection from the stock of captured enemy '-materials.
Following service in Korea and participationin the H-bomb experiment at Bikini Atoll in theMarshall Islands known as Operation Castle,Ball returned to civilian life and continued hislifelong passion for the collecting of militaryweapons and the quest for information and his-torical significance of many weapons systems.
His hobby finally became a business whenILD Enterprises acquired the rights to make
great battle rifle.
Clintonian assault rifle bill, the timingcouldn't have been better to resurrect this
the 1-1K 91 in 1998. With the sunsetting of the
The JLD 91
As an all-around battle rifle, it's hard to beatthe 91 on several counts. First, it's unique oper-ating mechanism, using a roller-delayed blow-back system, is inherently reliable in all environ-ments. Only the Belgian FAL and Kalasbnikov arein the same functional league as the G3.
Second, the 91 was designed from the
Dare we say that the 63's front sight is"Marine-proof"? You would really have to work
at it to break it. 110 upgraded the original designwith a laser cut front sight post, precisely fitted
into the protective steel ring.
www.suretire.cem
The roller block on the underside of the bolt delays unlocking until pressure drops, and thensimple blowback works the action. Note the beefy extractor, taking a big bite on the .308 case rim.
Note also the cut-out in the bolt for a fixed ejector to punch the empty case out.
ground-up to be easy and inexpensive to manufacture. Made primarily of metal stamp-ings, the 91 is a model of efficiency to make.
Third, the G3 is a versatile platform, easily transformed into alternate versions such asa short-barreled, collapsible-stocked paratrooper version or a belt-fed light rnachinegunversion. Additionally, the G3 can be fitted with an optical sight, bipod and, in the new ILDmodel, a Picatirmy forend for weapon-mounted lights or vertical foregrip.
The ability to accept an optical sight in a rugged mount that doesn't require a modi-fied stock to obtain a proper cheek weld— the biggest curse of the MIA— is a huge plusfor the 91 as a weapon for urban combat. The PAL has the same ergonomic shortcomingas the MIA, with the additional drawback of a rather dubious mounting platform on thereceiver's top cover.
Fourth, spare parts are available by the barrel for the 91. Zillions of German-made mil-itary surplus magazines can be had $5 a pop, 20-rounders in the grease.
Connecticut ConnectionJLD Enterprises may well be the best gun company you've never heard of. Starting
with those original HK drawings and tooling, JLD modernized the manufacturingprocess with CNC equipment. The Connecticut-based company added precision lasermeasuring devices and upgraded finishing.
The finish is a dual-process consisting of parkerizing, then specially coated with amatte process to reduce glare and provide excellent scratch and scuff resistance.
The manufacturing of the US-made JLD 91 is actually better than the original Germanguns. The diopter rear sight, for instance, has a new four-position mode for every 100yards out to 400, without an optic, all CNC machined from bar stock. The front sight islaser cut and threaded for an exact fit.
The receiver is manufactured from .059" stamped steel, to correct specifications. Therecesses for the engaging of the original scope claw mount have been CNC machined with
COMBAT TACTICS FALL 200517
the proper angles to accommodate a JLD ver-sion of HK's renowned claw mount system,the best military scope mount of its kind.
The cocking handle is one-piece forgedand precision CNC turned, then heat treated.The result is a more ergonomic handle thanthe German original, with greater ease-of-use. The cocking tube is also newly manufac-tured, not a surplus part.
The 18" barrels are US-made with match-grade rifling and the 91's distinctive flutedchamber for reliable extraction. Brass thrownfrom a 91 is easily recognized on the rangewith the black flutes in the case from thefluted chamber, which eliminates a "stuckcase" malfunction.
Function And DesignThe G3 is famous for its reliability making
it second only to the PAL as the weapon-of-choice for the zero-maintenance standardfound in Third World armies. The 91 has beenmade in large quantities in Spain, Germany,Greece and South America.
The G3 operating system uses a delayedroller locking system to retard a basic blow-back gas operation. A two-piece bolt is fittedwith dual rollers that delay the initialunlocking of the bolt when gas pressure inthe chamber is at its highest. Once the gaspressure drops, the rollers cam on an inclinedplane allowing the bolt to move rearward.
The bolt is attached to a cocking handle onthe left side of the barrel assembly. Thecocking handle fits into a notch at the rear ofthe barrel, allowing the operator to manuallymanipulate the bolt. There is no cockinghandle whatsoever on the M16/M4, making itimpossible to manually cycle the bolt. TheMI6's forward-bolt-assist was an after-thought to solve this problem.
Not that you really need to manually cyclethe highly reliable action. The G3 is largely aself-cleaning system, thanks in large measureto the chamber flutes.
Ergonomically, the G3 sports excellentcontrols. The safety/selector switch is oper-ated by the firing hand's thumb. The maga-zine release is positive, but there is no bolthold-open button like on an M16/M4. To lock
18 www.surefire.com
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,BIABAT TACTICS FALL 2006
With the recent release of the new XT switch module for the Surefire X200, the ultra-compact LED Weapontight nowcan accommodate a proper rifle forend pressure pad. The one shown here is also new, the SRo7, which clips onto
a Picatinny rail and houses both a momentary pressure switch and a click button for constant-on.The 90 degree angled tapeswitch shown on the dismounted XT switch module is a prototype.
the bolt open, simply retract the cocking handleand engage it into the hold-open cut. To close thebolt, slap the cocking handle downward.
The stock of the G3 allows a proper cheek weldwith either the excellent diopter iron sights or theoptical sight claw mount. JLD also offers a col-lapsible version in the traditional 91 slide-for-ward design.
ILD's forend is the best ever made with the 91.Of polymer construction with pre-positionedthreaded holes to accommodate the user's choiceof Picatinny rail sections, the forend is slim andlightweight. We found the Picatinny rail sections
to be ideal for tailoring the weapon to whateverconfiguration desired, using SureFireWeaponLights or other accessories like an IR illu-minator or laser targeter.
While it may be going a bit far to suggest that wewould abandon our beloved FN-FAL as Our all-timefavorite battle rifle, the 91 has a lot to recommendit. For its quality, price and performance, JLD's ver-sion of the classic HK G3 may be a betterchoice than a FAL... but I didn't say that.
JLD Enterprises may be found at www.jidentercomor by calling (860) 676-1776.
MY' P rAn NTactical employment of night vision
is an arcane subject, but one you best
ractice before the lights go out.
By Jeff Gonzales
Studio Photos by lchiro NagataCombat Photos by Dept Of Defense
COMBAT ACT1CS FALL 2006
MN
11
,. NiGH-E-operating devices (NODs) have been in service for well over
4, _ a half century in various forms. They allow the operator toshoot, move and communicate in total darkness giving hima decided advantage against "night blind" adversaries. NODs
usage is limited only by„ ARKNESS IS MY FRIEND the operator's imagina-:,,,
tion, skill level and situa-,
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The use of NODs has increased safety, operational effec-tiveness and situational awareness during night time oper-ations for those who properly employ them.
' • Night vision technology consists of two major areas: light* -' amplification (intensification) and thermal enhancement
(infrared). Most night vision devices are of the lightamplification type so we will focus on this type.
Light amplification technology takes the existing,* , , light and converts the light energy (photons) intoelectrical energy (electrons). The electrons pass
. ,through a thin disk that contains millions ofchannels. As it passes through this disk, itbounces off the channel's walls releasingthousands of more electrons. The multipliedelectrons are then bounced off a phospho-
• rous screen which converts the electrons0 —
back into photons. The result is an impres-sive night time view even when it's pitchblack to the naked eye.
•,_ , The level of performance is related to
..what's called "technology generation"with the higher generations being better.
,The difference in performance is largely..-4dependent on the amount of available
,light necessary to produce a clear image..Gen 0 and Gen 1 were prevalent in the...., _ .
1960s. They relied heavily on an IR lightsource to add to the ambient light to pro--duce an image. Large and cumbersome,
these Gen 1 optics were mounted on rifles,t Pf'. and known as "starlight scopes." This genera-
,.
tion is of poor quality with distorted imagesand short-lived image intensifier tubes. All that.•inexpensive Russian night vision is Gen 1.Gen 2 came around in the 1970's and relied
. -,...somewhat less on ambient light. It was marked by amicro channel plate, which multiplied the number of,
' ' it 4tikt electrons better than Gen l's intensifier. The image pro-
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duced was much clearer without as much distortion.Gen 3 came into the market in the 1980's and is the
most advanced technological units available to the gen-eral public today. A special coating allows for more effi-cient conversion of light to electrical energy inextremely low light levels.
Outside of the categorization by generation, NODscan be evaluated by their performance attributes, whichare divided into three main areas— sensitivity, signaland resolution. There will always be trade offs, but in
• general you want to select units with the best ratingsacross the board in a price range you can afford.
Sensitivity is the image tube's ability to detect avail-, able light and is usually measured in microamperes per
lumen (uA/1m). Signal is the unit's ability to transfer a• strong signal from input to output and it is usually ref-
erenced as a ratio, 19:1 for example.Resolution is the unit's ability to resolve detail in the
image. Resolution is measured in line pairs per millimeter(lp/mnt) and the higher they are, the clearer the image.
IR illuminators increase the unit's sensitivity per-formance in low light, so make sure that any unit you'reconsidering doesn't rely solely on IR illumination for a
• high sensitivity mark. Magnification can create theimpression of high resolution, so don't confuse a mag-nified rating for high resolution performance.
Operational LimitationsNODs have limitations as a result of design charac-
teristics, perceptual limitations and environmentalconditions. A small field of view is a common designlimitation. Most units have a 40° field of view comparedwith the approximate 190° view of your naked eyeballs.This can severely hamper your overall situationalawareness and requires sound scanning techniques tocontinuously monitor your surroundings.
Largely because of the cone like narrowing of thefield of view with binocular NODs, monocular units aremore popular because of the reduced perception of atunnel-like view. Freeing the non-monocular eye tomaintain as much unaided night vision capabilitiesgreatly increases the sense of depth perception andoverall situational awareness.
Another limitation in design characteristic is imageresolution. For accurate target discrimination, the °per-t ator must be able to discern potential threats, to iden-tify friend from foe. The solution here is to take advan-tage of the highest technology available which generallyproduces the best image resolution.
Perceptual limitations include a degradation of
a depth perception. This degradation affects the oper -
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Weaponlights fitted with IR filters,c-allee the ligoo vertical <grip and MU Systems shown' here, or th e Surefire Oil III amin.ator(by the PU57s). A , ood IR laser like a Surefire I i. ma -shooting so effective that, as one Iraq combat veteran says,"It's almost like it just ain't fair."
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ator's ability to navigate in cluttered terrain. It alsomakes it difficult to perform simple tasks thatrequire hand/eye coordination.
The ability to accurately estimate distance isanother perceptual limitation and again it affectsnavigation. High speed driving using NODsrequires the ability to accurately estimate distancesto objects or avenues.
Low illumination levels are an example of envi-ronmental conditions that affect the performanceof NODs. A low illumination level taxes the lowergenerations of NODs and lessens the operationaleffectiveness. Inclement weather conditions alsoadversely affect overall performance.
The low ambient light coupled with poor visi-
friendly and reasonably priced.First, there must be some instruction that covers
familiarization, donning, fitting, adjusting andfocusing the unit. The mechanical functions of thePVS-14 include the power switch, diopter adjust-ment, objective lens focus, gain control and, whenused with the head/helmet mount, the eye reliefadjustment.
The operator must be intimately familiar with thefunction controls location and purpose so he canquickly make any adjustments in adverse condi-tions. Take time to properly don and fit the completepackage because halfway through an operation isnot the time to try and make adjustments.
Once the unit is donned and fitted, it must be
bility due to rain, snow or fog make using NODsvery difficilt. These limitations may lead to mishapsand injuries due to overdependence on theenhanced visual imagery, lack of appreciation forthe image degradation due to the conditions andlack of experience employing NODs.
Basic TrainingA basic NODs training program can help avoid
certain mishaps and should consist of how tooperate the unit, target identification, effectivefiring with NODs, anti-fratricide procedures andmaintenance.
To help explain and keep everyone on the samesheet of music, we'll use the PVS-14 monocular asour model. This unit is extremely versatile, user-
adjusted so the operator can see through it with thebest field of view. The first time is by far the mostchallenging, especially when the operator must per-form these actions in low light settings, but withpractice comes proficiency.
Within the scope of training and use, the mostimportant aspect is focusing the unit for the indi-vidual operator. Lack of proper focus compromisesevery aspect of your night vision capability. Whilethere are very sophisticated devices for focusing theunit to the operator, they are cost prohibitive.
A simple alternative requires a darken room, aphotographic target and 7 yards. Place the targetacross the room and have the operator dial thefocus knob on the viewing tube until the target is asclear as possible.
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COMBAT TACTICS FALL 200501
The Green MileOne of the negative factors for night vision
devices is they don't produce a color image so targetdiscrimination can be problematic in high-stress,fast-paced situations. The world becomes a mono-chromatic green color and things like uniformcolors are indistinguishable. Operators unfamiliarwith the use of night vision devices should take extraprecautions. Absolute certainty of what the operatoris actually seeing is critical.
In order to help develop greater confidence anddecrease processing time, use a progressive systemthat gradually exposes the environment. Thisprocess begins with detection, discovering thepresence of a potential target indicator. Next comesrecognition, recognizing the object as a perceivedtarget indicator. Lastly comes identification, estab-lishing the positive identification of a target indi-cator, whether friend or foe.
To help protect friendly forces, anti-fratricide pro-cedures need to be addressed. Because we can easilydetect and recognize a human, the assumption is
that you can also quickly identify that human as a target.I am a big proponent for team uniformity when it
comes to dress and equipment selection. This is anextra recognition factor that can really help with quickidentification. In addition, identification markers arevery useful at preventing misidentification and fratri-cide. These markers are either passive (no power sourcerequired) or active (power source required).
Probably the best identification marker is the WarriorGloTape IR markers. These passive markers appear tothe naked eye as black duct tape in both texture andfinish without a visible reflective glow. When illumi-nated with an infrared source a bright reflective glowcan be seen at extremely long distances with a nightvision device. The GloTape markers can be affixed topersonnel, vehicles or structures making it very flexible.
A new product that's just on the market is SureFire'shelmet light, featuring an IR strobe to Identify Friendfrom Foe (IFF). The helmet light attaches to a standardMICH helmet and also comes with two sets of visibleLEDs, three white and two blue.
The bottom line is at close distances you may be able
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to identify the object of your focus, but at medium and wear the unit either directly in their line of sight or
longer ranges doing so without the aid of identification tilted up and out of the way. This configuration lends
makers can be questionable.itself to most of the tactical scenarios. Head andhelmet mounts will require the additional mounting
Tactical Employmenthardware and familiarity with mounting, dis-
Part of your basic training will be in tactical employ- mounting and adjusting the unit. The operator can
merit, which can be surveillance, searches and weapon use the unit to conduct surveillance, search for sus-deployment to name a few. The versatile PVS-14 pects or place accurate fire on a target.monocular can be used in one of three configurations: Basic Maintenancehandheld, weapon-mounted or head/helmet mounted.
Handheld usage is self-explanatory and requires no While most of the night vision Units are designed to
additional components. This configuration is primarily handle rough usage, there are some simple mainte-
for general purpose surveillance or searches. fiance and care issues you should consider. To maxi-Weapon-mounted usage has the unit attached mize the reliable service life of your unit and ensure
directly to the weapon, preferably a low recoiling operational readiness, consider storing the unit in
weapon system, so the operator can not only see in low some sort of hard case. Day to day abuse will eventu-
light conditions, but employ his iron sights or night ally take its toll, but a good case can save the unit from
vision compatible electronic optics. This configuration, accidental drops or heavy loads.
obviously, is limited to seeing only when your weapon is Avoid pointing the device at bright lights for
shouldered. It is the best way to shoot, but the most extended period. While most units have high auto
awkward way to observe.matic cut-offs to minimize potential damage,
Head or helmet mounted usage allow the operator to extended exposure can still damage the unit. Use a
' -.soft cloth or bristle brush to clean the exterior and invest in professional lens•
, .cleaning supplies to routinely clean the lens.Probably the best thing you can do is implement an inspection and
..,, function check before and after any tactical situation. This will ensurethe unit is functioning correctly before and that the unit was not dam-
aged during the operation.When performing these inspections, there are two types of-
4 ' defects you can encounter, operational defects and cosmetics. ,blemishes. An operational defect should render the unit non-
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- . Training for night operations should include unaided and aidedlow-light training, night navigation, night marksmanship and night
tactical operations. Unaided night training gets the operator corn-
> '-
fortable with working in low to no light settings with 1just the naked eye.
For unaided operations, a crucial concept tounderstand is how the human eye becomes darkadapted. Dark adaptation is the process where eacheye adjusts from normal daylight to a low light setting.While this varies from each individual, generally darkadaptation is 80 percent complete within 30 minutes.It takes at least 20 minutes to be operationally dark•adapted. Also, bear in mind that it takes less than asecond to lose dark adaptation. A bright light instantlyruins night adapted eyesight!
Aided night training consists of utilizing tacticalflashlights, ambient light and night vision devices. Itcenters on getting the operator proficient with inch-
/ vidual tactical skills. Focusing on the night visiondevices, the operator trains to use the NODs to theirfullest potential. The more the operator is wearing thegear, the more a part of him it becomes.
There should also be redundant or back-up sys-tems that consist of white light and emergency transi-tion drills to white light. Because artificial light is onlya light switch away, practice on transitioning to whitelight is necessary. If the lighting condition saturatesyour NODs, then go right to your white light.
While most NODs have sonic sort of IR source,accessing the source quickly to help navigate throughdifferent degrees of darkness can be cumbersome andthe output is often inadequate. Having an IR filter ona SureFire dedicated WeaponLight or a separate IRlight source are better alternatives.
SureFire weapon-mounted lights can be fitted withflip-up IR filters that allow the operator to simply flipopen and expose the white light. However, with the IRfilter in place, the IR light will aid the NODs to reachfurther in very dark settings.
Another idea is to have certain operators runningwhite lights only and others running IR as their pri-mary. If a threat is immediately encountered or theelement of surprise has been compromised, the whitelight operators may immediately illuminate and startto deal with the problem, while their teammates takethe time to transition to white light.
Moving in a cluttered environment is the norm,and operators need to train for real-world night navi-gation. Because of the degradation in depth percep-tion, it is important the operator gets use to climbingstairs, moving around furniture and avoiding obsta-cles. Slow methodical movements will help maintainyour balance and the element of surprise.
At first the goal is just to not fall over, but eventuallyyou want to be as stealthy as possible. Useful drills
Wearing a PVS7 binocular makes shooting impossiblewithout an IR laser on the rifle. Well, maybe not"impossible" but certainly not with any accuracy.
include a partner drill where a NOD equipped oper-ator has to guide a non-equipped operator. This drilldovetails with the emergency transition drills men-tioned earlier.
Looking for objects and targets tasks the indi-vidual to not just move, but search as well. This allculminates with force-on-force training using roleplayers as threats. If the operator is using his newlylearned skills and NODs, the advantage is decidedlyon his side.
Night marksmanship training gets the operatorone step closer to the final goal. It takes quite a bit ofquality time and some good instruction to becomeproficient with NOD supported marksmanshipskills. The initial range session should be sufficient toget the operator to a minimum level and then shouldbe sustained routinely along with all the other per-ishable skills.
The training program should start with staticmarksmanship training emphasizing marksmanshipover speed, then progress to weapons manipulationssuch as clearing malfunctions and reloading.Gradually speed should increase. When speed and
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marksmanship can be maintained, add movement, nor movement drills. Have the teams converge onto anStart the movement drills as individuals and then as object or location, then put role players out there topartners. By this point the operator should have a keep them honest. Once they feel comfortable movinggood feeling for wearing and using NODs while in an exterior setting, take them inside and go back toconducting live fire shooting drills, shooter pairs.
Night tactical training now puts all the pieces of Now that they don't have the luxury of ambient light,the puzzle together. Just like everything else, it they will have to rely on their IR source to help themshould be progressive. Starting small, in two man search and move. Here the use of over-watch illumina-shooting pairs, conduct IR only exterior movement tion is introduced. As one operator moves in a "lightsdrills. Get the shooters used to moving and corn- out" mode, his partner illuminates the area with is IRmunicating in stealth mode. They learn quickly that light. A useful technique, and one that emphasizes teamwithout the use of verbal commands and the brill- work more than anything.tations of the NODs, their movement will be slow Once the training staff feels comfortable with theand short in order to maintain control. team's performance they can then conduct emergency
Next, move to a four man crew conducting exte- transition drills, much like gas drills, creating the simu-
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lated scenario of flash blindness.NODs provide us with a huge technological leg up on
our adversaries. They allow operators to see clearly inlow light conditions while remaining partially maskedby the darkened conditions. They allow us to observe orsurvey areas of low-light while maintaining the elementof surprise.
While these devices are expensive, they provide a tac-tical edge that is difficult to quantify in a dollar amount.They are clearly not for everyone or team, but as theygain in popularity you will see them become morecommon in tactical settings. Relying on technology as acrutch will only get people hurt, but employing ?"--nSAFtechnology within its limitations can save lives.
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U\OBTANIUM
The guns of pistolsmith Richard Heinie are pure classics,and the great master is backlogged past his 7Dth birthday.
Soon, there will be no more Heinle Colts. Enjoy it while you can.By Cameron Hopkins
1111
Photos by lchiro Nagata
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W
hen a pistolsmith like Richard Heinie works on a gun, theclock should stop. When a thing of such eternal brilliance asa fully customized Colt Government Model is being cre-ated, there ought to be a heavenly tirneout. Heinie shouldnot be docked for these hours, he should be given a celes-
tial warning ticket, a bye on time, a pardon of the hourglass. While he's working,Richard Heinie should be exempt from the inexorable winding down of hismortal coil. He deserves a Get-Out-Of-Time free card.
Why? Because there are only so many masterpieces that he can make in hislife, and his life is in its final quarter. In fact, the time is already over to order a
1 fiill-hnuse Heinie like thic rnacfnifirpnt nro_cprinc 70
THE LI NOBTAINIUM HILT 1 commercial Colt shown here. Too bad. Surely the lawsI of Newtonian physics could relent and show mercy,
just long enough to let the master build one more, by hand, individually, theway he always has. Just one more...
But no. E equals MC squared and the time-space continuum is what it is.The universe just doesn't give a black hole whether or not Richard Heinie hasenough years left to lovingly craft just one more of his masterpiece 1911s.
If you own a Heinle, keep it and pass it down. If you don't, at least enjoy andappreciate what you see here, the work of one of the best 1911 pistolsmiths to
ever lay hands on a Government Model. Look andadmire and know that you are seeing a gun that'sas good as it gets.
Right now, Heinie is 63-years-old and hiswaiting list for delivery of one of the precious fewhandbuilt combat pistols that he makes annuallyis almost eight years. In eight years he will be 71.There are not too many people who commit towork into their eighth decade. That is when thelast 1911 will ever be stamped "R. Heinie" in sharpcapitals, just below the serial number.
"I'm in the first stage of my retirement," thegrandfather of four acknowledged. "I've alreadygot arthritis in my fingers and hands from eight to
• -slo0mhoettlimrsea day of working on guns. I've got to stop
Even with a reduced workload of custom pis-tols, the Illinois-based pistoismith is hardly
The muzzle of a BarSto stainless barrel (left) ishandfitted to a match bushing. Note the subtle
radiusing of the edges of the bushing. This is attentionto detail; this is Heinie at his meticulous best. The same
degree of detailing is evident on the slide stop pin(opposite page) where the edges are again rounded byhand with a file and emery stick. The signature featureof Heinle pistol, though, is the squared trigger guard,
welded and then filed to shape, handcheckered at40 !pi. Note the smoothly polished steel frame with
the Colt factory tooling marks burnished away.
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spending his afternoons lazily on a river bank with a flyrod and a grandkid. Heinie's eponymous sights areselling faster than bottled water in Baghdad. "Clocksights are number one by a big margin. I can't makethem fast enough. It's amazing. I don't know where theyall go," said the former Pistolsmith Of The Year and sightdesigner.
Heinie's sights are machined from solid bar stock, cutby a CNC mill into their distinctive shape. There's theoriginal Heinie, a straight blade curving up sharply froma solid dovetail base, serrated fully across the black face,fast and sure to pick up from a speed draw.
Popular demand brought about an angled version,low and sloped and smooth, the SlantPro. Heinie then
added an interesting twist on night sights and called itthe Straight 8 with a single tritium capsule beneath therear notch and another in the serrated ramp front sight,making for a figure-eight sight picture in low light.
"A lot of the other [brands of] sights are cast orHeinie said, referring to the lost-wax invest-
ment casting and metal injection molded methods ofmanufacturing. "But the two top brands— Novak's andmine— are machined from bar stock."
The manufacture and sale of his sights consumesome 80 percent of Heinie's time. While his output ofcustom pistols has never been what you would callprodigious— even in his prime in the '80s and '90s,Heinie never made more than one or two a month--
COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2006 91
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that output is curtailed now. "If its an old customer, Imight be talked into doing a trigger job or fitting a set ofsights. But no more complete guns. I just can't take anymore new work," Heinie explained.
The Long Wait
Heinie's mag funnel is a hallmark of welding and blendingperfection. Most of the work is done by hand with files. Notethe smooth transition into the lanyard mainspring housing(from Alex Zimmerman) and the custom fitted Hogue coco
bolo grips running to the bottom of the mag funnel.
It must have been three years ago, perhaps four,maybe five; you lose track of time when the conclusionis so far away. The gun was special, secreted away in adark, corner of a Cannon safe, awaiting a special calling.
I rummaged in the back of the safe for the slightlyfaded brown box with a faux wood pattern on the card-board. The unassuming box bore the rearing stallionlogo of what was and always will be the greatest makerof handguns, Colt.
It was not a collectible Colt, but certainly it was com-paratively rare, a pre-Series 70. Colts may not be thebest of 1911s in terms of intrinsic quality, as Heinlegrumpily admits, but they are certainly the greatest interms of historic desirability This box contained justsuch a Colt.
Inside was a pristine C-series Colt GovernmentModel. Dubbed "commercial" to distinguish them frommilitary production guns, the C-series guns were actu-ally rejects from Colt's government contracts to build,yes, Government Model .45s. Unbelievable as it maysound, "good enough for government work" back thenactually meant the pick of the litter. The castoffs went tocommercial sales.
Commercial Colts weren't all bad, although theirquality varied considerably. Usually it was a fumble-fin-gered polisher who had blemished the gun or buffed itunevenly. Perhaps a chattering cutter had left crudemarks on the frame. It might have been a slightly off-center pin hole or misaligned slide rails. They were gunsthat simply didn't pass the contract's specifications tobe marked "U.S. Property" and instead drew a C-stamp,consigned to the commercial trade.
I had horded this old Colt for eventual customizing,but only if the right opportunity came along. One day Iwas chatting to Heinie, an old friend, about the remark-able resurgence of interest in everyday carry pistols andhow prescient he had been when he had formulated theSingle Stack Society some 10 years previously and withit a match so popular that it filled early and turned awaylatecomers, the Single Stack Classic. Today Heinie'smatch is a USPSA national championship event and hisrules have been accepted as definitive, an unthinkableaccomplishment.
It was then that the conversation turned interestingas Heinie unassumingly offered an idle afterthought."You ought to send me a gun," he remarked noncha-lantly. "I'm still building classic single stacks the way Iused to."
The C-series Colt immediately popped to mind andthe wheels were set in motion. Nothing could be morebefitting for the venerable gun from Hartford than a trip
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to Quincy. Indeed, its royal blue pedigree would be enhanced.
The Master's BenchHeinle is, as his name implies, of German extraction and perhaps it's a Teutonic penchant for
perfectionism that made him work so hard. Or maybe it's his background as a tool and die makerthat gave him such skills. Of course it all started with his fascination with the Government Modeland love of shooting a basic five-inch gun in combat matches.
Everything Heinle does to the 1911, he does to make it better. HIST and foremost, more reliable
with improved extractors, ejectors, feed ramps and safeties. Second, more shootable with bettersights, barrels, grips, and triggers. Lastly, he makes it cosmetically and aesthetically perfect with
serrations, borders, polishing and bluing.The C-series Colt that I sent was typical. The front strap had been buffed unevenly with a heavy
hand, making it marginally too thin. Checkering it would be a challenge, but nothing Heinle hadn'thandled before. The slide to frame fit was poor and of course too loose. All the component partsneeded replacing, everything from the springs to the mainspring housing.
Heinie knows what works and there is very little choice in what parts he will agree to use. Forthe fire control system, he insists on a hammer, sear and disconnector from the Cylinder & SlideShop. The trigger itself is usually an aluminum one made for him specially by Bob Greider, light-ened the way he used to make them himself from a Videki trigger.
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Heinie's fixed rear sight is fullyserrated for an unobtrusive sight
picture. The rear notch on this onewas opened to .125" to give more
daylight on either side of the .115"
front sight. Heinle also makes atritium version of the sight in his
unique Straight Eight configuration.
CARAT TACTICS FALL 2006
Blue steel '3,000Stainless steel '3,150Aluminum alloy '3,250Titanium frame '3,050
HEINIE Tactical Carry PackageHaving it your way may be fine for hamburgers and
Starbucks, but 1911 fighting pistols really should have certainbasic features. If you don't know what they are, Richard Heiniedoes. His Tactical Carry Package has everything you need. Ifyou want to add the bells and whistles, he has those too,
"l put this package together because it's what I know
works and it has what most people want," Heinie said. "Byadding the options you can get a full-house pistol loadedup with about everything that I offer."
Heinie's Tactical Carry Package is based on a Series70 Colt or Springfield Mil-Spec pistol supplied by thecustomer. From there, the following work is performed:
• Hand-lapped slide-to-frame relationship• Heinie SlantPro Straight Eight sights• Flatten and serrate top of slide 40 Ipi• Serrate rear of slide 40 lpi• Install beavertail grip safety
(Brown or SEA, depending on brand of pistol)• Custom bevel mag well• Checker front strap, high-cut and trued
(20, 25, or 30 Ipi)• Flat mainspring housing checkered to match front strap• Lower, flare and open ejection port• STI carbonfiber or Heinie aluminum trigger• cas hammer, sear and disconnector• Crisp trigger job at 3.75 to 4 lbs.• Hand-fitted ambi thumb safety
(Brown Tactical, all edges rounded)• Install oversize match barrel and bushing
(Bar-Sto r Nowlin, or Brown)• Throat barrel and polish feed ramp
41VAILANI OPTIONS• Scallop front strap and mainspring housing ....... $65 (deduct)• Single side combat safety ................................. $60 (deduct)• Install Heinie premium mag well ................................. $265• Machine French border on slide ................................... $100• Install flush lanyard loop in flat mainspring housing ........ $90• Shorten slide stop pin and dimple frame ......................... $90• Black "T" Finish ................................... price at time of order• Hardchrome ........................................price at time of order• Parkerize ........................................... price at time of order• Aluma-Grips ............................................................... $55
• Custom cut notch width in Heinie sights (.140")
IINOOTAINIIIM OPTIONS • Custom lanyard attachment• Hand polished and welded mag well(Reserved for special customers)• Royal bluing with very fine glass bead-blasted flats• Hand fitted ivory grips
• Adjust extractor• Furnish and adjust an extra extractor• Brown Tactical rnag release• Install LOW firing pin stop• Round and bevel all sharp corners and edges• Straighten lines and remove factory tool marks• Install Wolff recoil spring and hammer spring• Supply two extra 8-round stainless magazines• Checkered coco-bolo grips• Hex head grip screws• Deep hot blue finish• Heinle DOJ Holster (black)• SureFire E2L tactical light• Heinle embroidered nylon pistol case
I.
Barrels are vitally important and on this Colt Heinie used a stainless steel matchbarrel from the BarSto Precision. Now under the direction of Ir
y Stone III, son of
BarSto founder Iry Stone Jr., BarSto continues to make one of the best barrels in the
business, according to Heinle. Other brands he likes are Nowlin and, somewhat sur-
prisingly, Storm Lake.For sights, this Colt and most of the guns Heinie builds use his own
_ sight, fixed
with either a black blade or the unique Straight 8 night sights. He can and will installBo-Mars for those wanting adjustable sights but, Heinle reports, hardly anyoneorders adjustable sights anymore. "Don't know why not," he muses. "Maybe becauseIDPA is all such close range shooting and carry
guns are so popular now."Wolff springs are used throughout and deeply
figured Hogue grips are custom cut to blend evenlywith Heinie's own mag funnel that's welded inplace and then hand-blende
d to the frame and.
mainspring housing with a file. - ,
Heinie's rnag funnel is second only to hissquared and checkered trigger guard as a signature
- -
feature. I don't know who first squared an 0-frame,.
trigger guard— was it Bob Chow? Frank Pachmayr?Armand Swenson?— but Heinie has certainlymade the steel right-angle his distinctive silhou-ette and trademark. Custom built with a weldingtorch and file, the classic tools to square a triggerguard, it remains a hallmark of a Heinie Custom. \,' \
Beauty On The insideDave Williams, another very good pistolsmith,
in fact another Pistolsmith Of The Year, onceremarked to me that the real beauty of a Heinie-built gun is on the inside. You canfeel it as well as see it, how the slide glides so effortlessly on the frame rails, the dis-connector notch subtly radiused, the trigger bow rails polished from the inside.
That and all the other little things, like the barrel bushing's fit to the slide, tight butnot too tight. The slide stop hole radiused and the nose of the slide stop cut square.The positive snick of the thumb safety. The full contact of the sear with the hammerhooks, yet with a crisp 4 lb. trigger that feels like two. The tuned extractors, plural,because every Heinle Custom comes with a spare, checkered to match the rear of theslide. And then there are the more obvious external embellishments. The hand pol-ishing on fine buffing wheels, then painstakingly brought to a mirror sheen with jew-eler's grade sand paper. The total absence of factory tool marks, again polished out by
hand, evenly and uniformly.The checkering is flawless, to use an over-used adjective. The front strap is done
by machine and then hand finished, while the rear of the slide and front of the trigger
guard are cut by hand.The top of the slide is serrated and then a dovetail is cut for a front sight, set per-
fectly centered. On some guns the edges of the slide are trimmed with a Frenchborder, purely for show. That's not a throw-it-in-the-j
ig deal either, as a lot of guns
like these C-series Colts had asymmetrical slides.
Add it all up, and you have one of the finest custom Government Models
obtainable. Or unobtainable.
COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2006
There is no guide rod ina Heinle Colt for a goodreason: if MB did not
design a guide rod intohis pistol, then it does
not need one.
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TACTICAL HATCHETS
1 njoying a resurgence of sorts11since its heyday as a battlefield
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skull crusher during the MiddleAges, the combat axe has found 4
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new life as a breaching tool. Theaili axe is by no means innovative—
the tomahawk in one form or another hasbeen around for millennia— but the genrehas been revitalized with some interestingbreakthroughs in metallurgy and materials. - 3
-------4. ,The lightweight-yet rugged axe is here.
Designed not as a fighting implement, but '''''as a forcible entry tool, the tactical axe is the q,
latest development from custom knife- - I
makers who specialize in hard use designs.The tactical environment has changed
too, with an increasing importance on get-ting in and out of tight places. From i dsmashing through a barricaded portal to Ibreaking out of the mangled remains of anIED-hit vehicle, today's operator needs apersonal breaching device. The tactical axeis the answer.
We found three innovative compa-nies that developed dedicated tools • -t:',_-
to breach doors, smash walls andjust generally break stuff. We'll take alook at these three makers and highlight what their tactical axes offer in terms of fea-tures, performance, materials and work-manship.
11Our trio of tactical axes each has some- 11
thing different to offer. Like most tacticalgear, one design might be better at certain
itasks than another, part of the mission-spe-cific work that individual requirementsoften demand. -
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Th e LM AXThe LMAX features a milled aluminum handle with
the same MilSpec Type III hard anodized finish used onanother rugged tactical tool, a SureFire CombatLiglit.The grooves in the milled handle are useful with gloves.
The striking head is constructed from S7 tool steel,which is coincidently used on the Strider axe as well. S7is a great material for a breaching tool in that it is thesame tool steel used for jack hammer bits. It's heattreated to a slightly lower Rockwell (56) to allow it not tochip, but still transfer an incredible amount of energy tothe object it is hitting.
With a hatchet-like front blade, the point on the backspine is designed to break hard objects such as bricks orcinder blocks. An interesting feature is that by undoingthe two bolts holding the head to the handle, you can
actually rotate the head 90 0 to use the LMAX as a sharp-
ened pry bar.The sharp edge is nice because it allows it to be
wedged into a tight crack to work the maximum amountof leverage on the target. Much like a Boy Scout hatchet,the sharp edge works just as well at splitting firewood astearing through a metal drum.
The Lightweight Modular Axe (LMAX) is unique inthat it actually isn't a knife maker who primarilydesigned this particular axe, although Joel Pirella hasmany years of working with some of the top knife-makers in the custom knife business and is well quali-fied. Co-designer Jeff Hall had a substantial amount ofinput into the final design,
The LMAX represents a hybrid of sorts, a combina-tion hatchet and breaching tool. For more information,check out www.nemesis-knives.com .
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petite, but it's actually a very usable size. The nameKestral is taken from the smallest of the falcon family.Like its raptor namesake, the Kestral may be of diminu-tive stature, but it's a formidable foe.
This axe was the brainchild of an employee of theU.S. embassy in Cairo who wanted something moreeffective than a knife when he was outside of theembassy compound because he was unable to carry a
sidearm.Also, feedback from soldiers in Iraq came back that
the first WI design was a little to big to use to exit fromTIED-hit vehicles. Thus the Kestral came into being as amore compact axe.
The Kestral is only 12" overall and the blade is forged
out of 4440 steel which is differentially heat treated to 58Rockwell at the edge and 35 Rockwell at the shaft.
The thing that's immediately noticeable whenhefting the axe for the first time is that it feels very solidand comfortable. It's hard to describe, but the Kestraljust feels usable.
More of a hatchet than a breaching tool, the Kestralworks great as a simple camp axe as well as an excellentlight breaching tool. Currently the axe is being usedoverseas by a lot of pilots and drivers. The small size andrelatively lightweight allows you to swing it with greatforce inside a confined area. Although it's small, it cantear through light sheet metal as well as doors.
In short, for those of you wanting a compact axe thatdoesn't take up too much space but can do a variety ofdifferent jobs, the Kestrel is your axe. The website of themaker is www.rmjforge.com .
Strider CRThe Strider CR breaching axe is no different
from the rest of the offerings from the pair offormer military operators who run the California-based business of making "high speed tools forhard core individuals."
The Strider CR is built like a tank, clearly made totake abuse. Like the LMAX, it also uses S7 tool steel forthe head, but that's about where the similarities end.The head is attached via bolts to a titanium shaftwhich is wrapped in a Delrin handle filled with epoxy.
When hefting the Strider axe, you immediatelynotice two things. First, it isn't sharp at all. The headis more of a prying wedge than a sharpened axehead.Second, the head and spike wobble back and forth.
The reason is that the Strider axe truly wasdesigned as a breaching tool. The Strider boys didn'twant an edge that could roll or slip. They wanted astriking head that had enough of a point to transferthe impact energy to a specific point, but not to dis-
sipate it on cutting. They wanted to impart max-imum blunt trauma to the object.
Now the explanation for the loose heads is a littlebit more involved. It's something called a "cantileversystem" which simply allows the head to rotate a bitwhen an object is struck, thus delaying the transferof energy. Theoretically, the energy then carriesthrough the blade to the back where the bit againmoves to absorb more energy
What this means practically is that you can hitbricks or concrete and your hand doesn't sting likehitting a fastball on the wrong part of the bat. The"loose" heads act like a cushion to create a "sweetspot" on the axe handle, thus minimizing shocktraveling back to your hand. Needless to say this is agreat feature.
Where the Strider axe really shines is hammeringon hard obstacles. Breaking apart concrete orsmashing cinder blocks is just a riot. Strider can sle,be found online at www.striderknives.corn.
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-\\LShad called the MI Garand the greatest battle rifle ever made
and at the time, during World War II, he was probabl y light.- However, during that same conflict, Americans had taken
note of the German Sturmgewehr, and seen the handwritingon the wall. So did the Russians, who faced far moreSturmgewehrs than the Yanks.
The German concept of an assault weapon with highTHE MAGNIFICENT M14 round count and rate of fire with a cartridge slightly less pow-
erful than that of a true battle rifle made sense to theRussians, and it was not too long after the war that they began fielding the now-ubiquitousAvtomat Kalashnikov, the AK47, chambered for the 7.62x39mm Russian round.
In true American fashion, however, our side wanted it all: more bullets, the full-auto option, and
•
,the raw power of a long-range battle rifle. It was this irrationally high list of demands thatled to eventually perceived dissatisfaction with the Garand and the eventual adoption of
: the superb MI4 battle rifle.It is not too much of an oversimplification to describe the MI4 as an advanced,
improved M1 Garand. The similarity is obvious to anyone who has compared the two bysight, by feel, or by fire. The Mrs en bloc clip of eight rounds of .30-06, was replaced by a20-round box magazine of 7.62mm, NATO.
This moved weight to the rear. So, to a degree, did the redesign of the gas system. Someweight less than a pound, was saved in the transition from M1 to MI4, and it helped tocompensate for the ammo weight gain that came with the inure than doubled cartridgecapacity The Garand averaged about 9.5 lbs. unloaded, varying with stock density, and the
: M14, about 8.75 lbs.Some felt that the M14 was also inherently more accurate than the Ml, although that's a
matter of debate among seasoned riflemen to this day. In the classic Small Arms of the
World, the authoritative F. C. Ezell wrote, "The M14 is an evolution of the MI rifle; in thedesign of the MI4 many of the shortcomings of the M1 have been eradicated. The basicaction of the MI remains, but the troublesome en bloc clip has gone.
"The hanging of the gas cylinder on the end of the MI rifle's barrel gave some accuracydifficulties; these have been overcome in the MI4 by moving the gas port and gas cylinderback about eight inches from the muzzle. The gas cutoff and expansion system used on theMI4 lends itself to better accuracy because its action is not as abrupt as that of the Mi .Various other changes were made to give the Army a basically better weapon than the Mr
.
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In the case of the M14, it was not as bad as some other transitions of American smallarms. Typical was the response of Henry M. Stebbins, a noted firearms authority of theFifties, who wrote his excellent book Rifles: A Modern Encyclopedia in 1958. Sniffed
Stebbins, "Most civilian riflemen would choose the M-1 sooner than the M-14 of 1957, ifonly for its appearance. It looks like a rifle."
For the most part, the M14 was praised by faint damns. The troops liked it. For the manabout to head into battle, 20 cartridges at the tip of the trigger finger instead of eight wassomething of a deal-closer. Though the metal butt-plate of the Garand was retained, thegun still seemed to "kick" a little less than its predecessor.
Few fans of the M1 could cite much except a sense of history for their argument thatolder was better. Perhaps they did not realize that John Garand himself had done somedesign work on the "improved Ml" that would become the M14. There is, after all, more
"Garand" than anything else in the M14's design.Different historical accounts date the MI4 variously to both 1957 and 1958. The reason
probably is, the M14 was adopted in 1957, based on testing of prototype and pre-produc-
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tion guns, but mass production did not really get under way until 1958.The adoption was the result of two years of intensive testing in which the FN FAL and the gun that
would be the M14 were the finalists. The FN, designated T48 by government testers, performed well,and so did the T44, the homegrown rifle. There was definitely a home court advantage for the made inUSA gun. Forever after, fans of the Belgian FN would cry, "NIB!" They were correct to a degree: thereprobably was some "Not Invented Here" syndrome in play.
That said, the M14 proved itself to be an outstanding semiautomatic battle rifle. But it was unrealis-tically expected to be something else. As a result, once in service it drew more criticism than it ever hadreceived in its planning and announcement stages.
A Big FanOne of the M14's great fans was William B. Huger, Sr., perhaps the premier American firearms
designer of the latter half of the 20th century. Huger paid it the ultimate homage by designing not onebut two of his own rifles after the M14. One is the Mini 14 and the other was the XG1, which was littlemore than an updated version of the M14 itself, in the same caliber.
I knew the late Huger, and he told inc that his failure to get the XG1 accurate enough to satisfy himthat it was ready for production, was always one of the most bitter disappointments of his professionalcareer. The other homage, of course, was the scaled down .223 version of the M14 that he called, appro-priately, the Mini-14. Unlike its larger caliber brother that was stillborn, this little Huger was one of thecompany's bestsellers, and remains so to this day.
Bill Huger had this to say to his biographer, Larry Wilson. "I have often said and I know I am cor-rect here— if we had brought the Mini-14 out five years earlier it would have become the standard Army
111
COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2006
-
rifle. I used to hand it to some old Marines I knew and they'd pick it up, bang, bang, just like it wasthe M14 and slap it open, slap it shut. You could shoot it alt day long."
Ruger continued, "Of course, that was the fatal flaw of the M14: The Army was looking for afull-power fully automatic weapon. They really wanted it to do everything, which it just couldn'tdo. They didn't see that. I saw them demonstrating that M14 when it first came out, at an ArmyOrdnance meeting in Springfield. We went out to Quabhin Reservoir for a major demonstration.
"Here's the poor bastard trying to shoot an M14, with all kinds of strange stocks they weretrying, in order to reduce that heavy recoil. On full automatic, one burst at 700 rounds a minute
em ploying a 20-shot magazine knocked him all over, and the barrel ended up pointing straightup! If you have a light rifle and a heavy recoil impulse, you're not going to be able to control the
gun. That was so simple."Ruger had pretty much nailed the problem. The US military had asked for the impossible: a
battle rifle that could function also as a squad automatic weapon if it was just put on a bipod.The Browning Automatic Rifle had deservedly become one of the most beloved infantryweapons of World War 11 and Korea, and the M14 had been conceived by Ordnance as a half-
weight "BAR for Everyman."Unfortunately, that wistful hope ignored the laws of physics. The M14 was half the weight of a
BAR, firing a cartridge of comparable power, and at too fast a rate. Talk to any old BAR man, andhe'll tell yOu that he usually kept his rate of fire selector at the slow setting, where the gun wentchug, chug, chug like a Bren gun, instead of ratatatat. Too light a weight and too fast a firing cyclecaused the M14 to go out of control in the hands of any but a master machineguriner, as BillRuger so eloquently recounted from personal observation.
This was the fault of inflated expectation, and not the fault of the M14 rifle. The U.S. military
learned to first instruct troops to fire semi-auto only, and then went so far as to remove the selectorswitches from most, rendering the rifles strictly semiautomatic.
Elsewhere in the world, other armed forces were doing the same thing with selective fire7.62mm NATO battle rifles. From Great Britain to the Republic of South Africa, troops were orderedto fire one shot at a time, or were issued semi-auto version of the FAL, known as SLR. The FusilAutomatique Leger, or Light Automatic Rifle had become the Self Loading Rifle, Other countrieslearned the exact same lesson as we had. They just didn't blame their rifles.
Almost a million and a half M14 rifles were produced. Manufacturers included the government'sown Springfield arsenal, Winchester, Harrington & Richardson, and TRW. Variations included aNational Match grade, which earned fame at Camp Perry, and the X11421 sniper rifle, its name latershortened to simply M21.
Manufacture of the military MI4 rifle ceased in 1965. ft would be replaced by the MI6.
www.surefire.com
During the early days of the war, whenAmerican losses were mounting and battle vic-tories scarce, posters reminded the public whytheir work at home was so important to thefight on the battlefield. The messages wereshockingly frank "God help me if this is adud," says a soldier throwing a grenade.
The basic message was to urge Americans towork hard and work well. Do not produceshoddy goods because a soldier's life coulddepend on your workmanship. Meet your dead-lines, get the job done, hustle, hustle, hustle.
Motivational posters tugged on the emo-tions, intentionally. "Miles of hell to Tokyo"Showed a wounded soldier crawling forward,barely gripping his rifle, head bowed.Americans felt a strong sense of duty to workhard to produce the very best guns, ammuni-tion and explosives to give "our fighting boys"the tools they needed to win the war.
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COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2005 145
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When America entered the war, some American manu-facturing companies were already on a wartime footing,having converted to build various equipment for theAllies. However, when we declared war, men quit theirjobs to join the fight by quite literally the millions.America's women were ready to step into the breachand take over.
However, there was some cultural reluctance forwomen to work in what was considered a man's world.Remember, the country had just come out of theDepression and many people were against womenworking because they thought women would be takingjobs from unemployed men. Also, women had onlyrecently gained the right to vote and were still consid-ered somewhat less capable than men.
The war changed all that. The Office of WarInformation created a fictional worker, Rosie TheRiveter, as the ideal woman worker: loyal, efficient,patriotic, and pretty. Norman Rockwell's image on thecover of the Saturday Evening Post in May, 1943 was thefirst widely publicized pictorial representation of thenew "perfect woman." This led to many other Rosieimages. The most famous Rosie appeared in a posterwith the headline, "We Can Do It."
Do it they did. By 1943, over a half-million womenhad entered the workforce to labor in factories besidemen, all working to win the war. /2
141COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2006
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Your Fair ShareConserving and rationing became a way of life forAmericans as factories diverted the production ofconsumer goods to war materiel. Factories makingeverything from chrome bumpers for automobiles tosewing machines switched to wartime production.In fact, a 1911 pistol with a Singer Sewing Machinestamp is highly collectible today.
By February, 1942 production of automobilesceased entirely as car makers geared up to producevehicles, tanks and other armaments for the war. Thelist of consumer goods that vanished by 1942 includedcars, trucks, metal office furniture, radios, phono-graphs, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washingmachines, sewing machines, irons, water heaters,lawn mowers, waffle irons, toasters, percolators andfood mixers. Posters urged Americans to make do withless as a patriotic sacrifice for the war effort.
Gasoline and tire shortages led to rationing, fol-lowed by ration cards for many other goods such assugar, butter, cheese, canned goods, and meat. Tires,tin, kitchen fat, grease, silk and other scarce mate-rials were saved and recycled for the war effort.Books and pamphlets were printed on lighter-weightpaper with smaller type and narrower margins toconserve paper. "Victory gardens" became popularin the cities as another way Americans could con-tribute to the war effort.
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Buy BondsAmerica entered the war after Pearl Harbor and bythe spring of 1942 a mobilized United States wasspending about $100 million a day to support the wareffort. At home, Americans were asked to finance thewar not only by paying their taxes, but also by buyingwar bonds.
"To build factories, and buy the materials, and paythe labor, and provide the transportation, and equipand feed and house the soldiers, sailors, and marines,and to do all the thousands of things necessary in awar— all cost money, more money than has ever beenspent by any nation at any time in the history of theworld," declared President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Posters urged Americans to invest 10 percent oftheir earnings in bonds. The Treasury Department'sWar Finance Division was the most prolific producerof war bond posters, and sales of bonds grew dra-matically during the war. Between May and July of1942 the monthly goal increased from $400 million to$1 billion a month. Americans contributed gener-ously out of a sense of patriotism and duty. •
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Our All; - INTeeclLong before America entered the war formallyafter Pearl Harbor, we contributed money andmateriel to our friends and allies, most notablyEngland. An isolationist foreign policy keptAmerica from openly supporting the allied wareffort, however, the Lend-Lease Act and otherprivately funded "charities" sent much-neededsupplies and funds to England.
Posters were used to sharpen the public'sawareness of the need for contributing to theallied war effort.
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A Gallup poll in December,1941 found that half of the American population had afear of bombing attacks. Civilian volunteers watched theskies for enemy planes and rounded up neighborhoodsafety patrols.
By the summer of 1942 more than 10 million peoplevolunteered to help with defending the home front. Allcitizens, particularly those who worked in war-related
industries, were constantly
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4. ., .1k4r . :. front for fear that enemy syrnpa-' - ',;thizers or spies would relay thatvital information to the enemy.Posters everywhere reminded
FOR MURDER citizens that "loose lips sinkships" and that "careless words
i4'et cross tali CM'S fiva,create needless losses." •
- =---God Bless AmericaStoking the fires of patriotism, the Office of War Informationpublished a number of posters with jingoistic messagesdesigned to inflame the public's pride in America. Thesemessages struck a resonate note, especially when it's remem-bered that America had just climbed out of the Depressionand our sense of national unity was strong.
America in the early '40s was still a nation of God and theidea of banning a Christmas nativity scene or prohibitingthe Lord's prayer in schools would have been not just repug-nant, but treasonous. Vice President Henry Wallace said in aspeech, "Strong in the strength of the Lord, we who fight inthe people's cause will never stop until that cause is won."His inspirational words were captured on a poster that waseventually enlarged and hung from the ceiling of UnionStation in Washington, D.C. •
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Corporate America responded to the war effort by trans-forming factories to a wartime footing, building tanksinstead of tractors, naachinegun belts instead of gardenhoses. At the same time, companies adapted the power ofadvertising to convey a patriotic sales message. A vintageNorge ad for household appliances showed amachinegun turret built into a dishwasher. WesternElectric and the Liberty Motor Co. used their militaryproducts as a way to build their brands in the consumermarket. Today, we rarely see this sort of approach,although a recent Boeing ad featuring fighter jets comesto mind as a not dissimilar marketing approach. But in atime when the country was still reeling from theDepression, companies advertised their goods as part ofan overall effort to reinforce positive images of business,workers and management, and American capitalism.
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The Right To ProtestVoltaire captured it best, the right to voice unpopular ideas:"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the deathyour right to say it." Anti-war protests have accompanied lit-erally every war America has ever fought, perhaps none moreso than our first war, the War of Independence, whenLoyalists welcomed British troops and openly worked toundermine the "rebels" led by General Washington.
Vietnam was the watershed of anti-war protesting inmodern times, fueled in no small part by a captivating newinvention, television. Today the war in Iraq is popularly sup-ported by Americans for much the same reason thatAmericans supported World War II— we had been shame-lessly attacked.
Even so, there are war protests today, and the use ofposters and images is every bit as useful to thoseopposed to the war as to those who support it.
151COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2006
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This SureFire rechargeable flashlight is owned by veteran officer MikeDaniel of the Boulder . City Police Department, Nevada It stopped a bulletfired by a convicted felon wanted.tor attempted murder. Officer Danielgot back on his feet, returned fire and stopped the felon who was tryingto murder his partner. After being shot the flashlight still operated.
SureFire flashlights are built for combat They're so bright they cantemporarily blind a threat. They're guaranteed for life This guaranteeincludes incoming fire. Officer Daniel received a free replacement.
Hats off to Medal of Valor recipients; Officers Mike Daniel, Mike Barthand Scott Pastore for their courage and actions under fire.
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4t, Trixon TA 55 ACOGwww.trijicon.com
NOTHIN6 has changed the face of combat arms in the last decade like the wide-spread acceptance of optical sights. Along with highly efficient white
lights, the "red dot" sight has become de rigueur on any well-equipped AR or M16 weapon.Foremost among them is Trijicon's Advanced Combat Optical Gun (ACOG) sight, self-illumi-nating sight that has proven itself rugged and reliable in combat.
VVe've been using ACOGs in a variety of configurations since they were first introduced, andthe fiber optically lit, tritium reserved sight is still one of our favorite sights. There's no ques-tion that an ACOG increases a rifleman's efficiency in the field with much better hit probabilityat distance than with iron sights.
Most of our experience has been with the 3.5x and 4x models. Recently, with the increasedusage of accurized .223 rifles like the SPR, the 5.5x ACOG has come into its own as a greatoptic for these more accurate weapons systems.
Like the lower power versions, the 1A55 ACOG utilizes a tritium and fiber optic combinationto light a chevron style reticle that allows the shooter to make precision shots with the tip ofthe chevron, or utilizing the entire chevron, fast shooting in close quarters. The shooter can alsouse various drop points on the reticle to compensate for both elevation and range finding.
Thanks to a whole system of optical science that Trijicon summarizes rather succinctly withthe term "Bindon aiming principle," ACOGs can easily be shot with both eyes open whichenhances your ability to rapidly pick up and track moving targets. Somehow— and this is theoptical science at work— the magnification of the ACOG is not distracting and allows you tofocus on the target without losing perspective on the non -magnified peripheral area. TheBindon system is both fast and efficient.
We found some great uses for the increased magnification of the 5.5x ACOG. By utilizingthis scope on an SPR, you now have enough magnification to wring the accuracy potential outof these match-barreled, tuned weapons. We also found that when used in conjunction withhigh-powered 9 and 12 volt SureFire WeaponsLights, you can identify and engage targets atwell over 100 yards in total darkness.
One of our staffers was working patrol with an M4 Devastator "Leopard Light" mounted onhis AR along with a 5.5xACOG when things wentsouth. A barricaded suspectdecided not to cooperate,but the M4 lit him right upwith the glowing redchevron clearly superim-posed on his melon. As ourman said in his understatedway, "That ACOG and an M4is a real force-multiplier."
(The incident endedwithout gunfire, by theway, with the bad guy sur-rendering, oblivious to thefact that he had been anACOG's breath away frombeing DRTI
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BDS Tactical Stacker Plate Carrier ww.bdstacticalgear.com
RSONAr body armor has improved dramatically since the desert dustup began,, and so have the tactical plate carriers that hold the modern knight's
armor. Early plate carriers were more or less floppy nylon sacks, but today's better versionsare ergonomically tailored to cinch snugly to the soldier's torso.
BDS Tactical, formerly Special Operations Equipment, now under new ownership and man-agement, is at the forefront of plate carrier design with their Stacker plate carrier. Utilizinga cummerbund waist belt, the plate carrier can be adjusted for tightness and comfort. This isthe key— you want a snug fit so your gear isn't flopping around.
With seven rows of PALS webbing front and back, the Tactical Stacker can be individuallyconfigured with a variety of mag pouches, blow-out kits, knife and flashlight pouches,CarnelBaks or any assortment of "kit" you choose. There's a heavy-duty drag handle sewnsecurely onto the carrier as well.
The cummerbund is removable,although it's the key to the comfortof the Stacker, so we don't knowwhy you'd want to take it off. Thereare three more rows of PALS web-bing on the cummerbund for addi-tional mag pouches.
The plate compartments areVelcro® closed and come with anextra layer of padding in betweenthe Cordurao 1000 denier nylonsheaths. Any standard or large sizeplate fits the BDS Stacker.
The shoulder straps areadjustable, so you can position theplates correctly. There's a Velcropatch on the upper front for a namepatch, flag or IR reflective panel. Weput a "Fun Meter" patch on ours.
The Stacker is extremely wellmade. The PALS webbing is bartacked, box-X stitches are usedwhere needed and the materials areall first-rate. We actually stopped bythe new BDS factory outside of CampPendelton and can attest firsthandthat their gear is Made In The USA. itcomes with a lifetime guarantee.
The Stacker with the cummer-bund system retails for $265 which,in our opinion, is a damn good pricefor a piece of gear this good. Checkout the assortment of MOLLEpouches that BDS makes.
154www.suretire.com
Southwest MotorsportsMaxGrip NT Gloves
www.southwestmotorsports-com
vv r once met an interesting character in a hunting camp in the central African rainL forest named Sinnossa. She was a two-year-old chimp, playful, affectionate and
four handfuls of fun. We tried wrestling with her and quickly discovered that was not agood idea. Her feet have opposing digits making her literally all thumbs. She grabs you withall four "hands" and is stronger than most men, even though she only weighs about 35pounds. Come to think of it, with all those thumbs she could shoot a gun with her feet.
We would have trouble with that trick. Effectively returning fire without the use of yourhands is something only Simossa should try. That's why our hands are so important.
Serious shooters understand the need to protect their hands at all times. Those whohave used any sort of glove with regularity understand the never ending battle to find aglove with the perfect balance between protection, dexterity, and longevity.
Gloves with heavy protection typically lack the dexterity required for trigger manipulation,while lightweight gloves lack the durability and protective qualities necessary for the job.
Enter the Southwest Motorsports MaxGrip NT Glove. These offer increased friction,abrasion and cut protection over the ven-erable Nomex flight glove while main-taining excellent dexterity at the finger-tips. The MaxGrip NT Glove is constructedwith high quality leather, fire resistantNomex, and stitched with Kevlar threadfor increased strength and durability.
The Nomex-covered extendedsleeve has an elastic cuff which helpskeep out foreign objects and debris. Thecuff is adjustable via a velcro pull tab. Thesleeve is snug without being excessivelytight, and can be tucked into a shirtsleeveif desired.
All exposed leather is treated with aproprietary digital texturing whichimproves grip, dexterity and durabilitywithout adding thickness to the material.This digitally textured leather protects theknuckles, palm and fingertips.
Overall construction of the gloves isexcellent, and brings a word to mind:overbuilt. High density stitching coversthe glove and all high stress areas aredouble stitched for durability. Colorsavailable are black, olive drab, and tan.Military and law enforcement shouldinquire for special pricing; retail is $79.95.
After wearing our gloves on the rangeand in the field, we have permanentlyretired the trusty old Nomex flight gloves.We don't leave home without a pair ofthese in our kit bag, and neither shouldyou. Unless of course you're a chimpnamed Simossa.
MOAT TACTICS FALL 2006 155
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Glock Reference Bookwww.lonewolfdist.com
tur tend to be 1911-centric but we're realistic enough to know that Glocks are here toilif L stay. Love 'em or hate 'em, tactical Tupperware is an important part of the handgun
world today.Some of our crew are police officers who carry Clocks on-duty. Several of our trainers at
The SureFire Institute carry Clocks as their weapons-of-choice both on- and off-duty. There'sjust no accounting for some people's taste...
Given that Glocks are, as Ken Hackathorn says, the lawnmowers of handguns— capable ofworking reliably with absolutely no maintenance— we can't help but be enamored with oneparticular reference manual for working on the Austrian pistols. The Complete ClockReference Guide by Ptocima Publications is a great thing to have on your armorer's bench.
This reference not only provides a good history of the gun, but also detailed descrip-tions and photos on complete serv-icing and stripping. Several of ourbuds are multiple graduates of theGlock Arrrorers School, and eventhey all learned a new trick or twofrom this book.
While the reference materials inthe book are great, the torturetesting section is worth the pricealone. The authors fired a Clock outof a homemade mortar, ran itthrough a cement mixer and evenallowed a Navy SEAL to shoot it—really an interesting chapter.
There's a chapter on shootingtechniques that's pretty basic.There's also a chapter on how Kydexholsters are made that's actuallyquite interesting as well. Other thanthose digressive chapters, the rest ofthe book is very useful and devoted
to how Clocks run, parts and modeireferences, modifications, and otheroutstanding technical information.
If you own a Clock or are justplain interested in how handgunswork, then the The Complete GlockReference Guide is worth the $29.95
retail price.
15Bwww.surefire.com
Magpul Precision Rifle Stockwww.magpuLcom
FIRSTit was the 1911, now • t's the AR15. Thanks to our marvelous cottage industry ofinnovators and entrepreneurs, these two weapons have been extensively improved
by a growing plethora of accessories. VVhile most of the 1911 add-ons came to the fore in the'80s and '90s, it's only been recently that the AR15 has taken its turn in the limelight.
Most of the improvements and upgrades have come in the area of barrels, free-float hand-guards, grips, mounts, triggers, optics and lights. But rear stock selections have not exactly beenwide. Our friends at Vltor make a slick replacement for a CAR collapsible stock, but there'snothing out there for the fixed stock aficionado... until now.
Magpul recently released their Precision Rifle Stock (PRS) rear stock and, we're here to tellyou, it's an excellent piece of gear. The PRS is adjustable for both length-of-pull and cheek pieceelevation. It's rugged and easily adjustable in the field.
Often the length-of-pull needed for perfect positioning and eye relief changes with theshooting position and your load out. Body armor adds at least an inch to your chest, but nowyou can adjust your rifle for a perfect fit with no tools or complex operations.
You merely turn an adjustment wheel while in position, the buttplate moving as you turnthe dial. The same happens with the easy to move cheek piece. This elevation adjustmentallows you to perfectly align your eye with the center of your chosen optic, all while keepinga good cheek weld.
In the past, tactical marksmen have suffered from headaches, eye strain, neck cramps andother annoying distractions from lying scrunched over a scoped AR for several hours with a fac-tory rear stock. No more chiropractors after a Magpul PRS is fitted.
The entire stock is ambidextrous and has several options for sling mounting. Our only com-plaint is that the toe of the stock is a little short for getting a hand under it for support in theprone position when shooting off a rucksack or a bipod. This is not critical if you carry a smallbag to place under the rear stock. We would love to see Magpul build a small, simple monopodas an accessory for this stock.
We have recently changed optics, and a couple turns on the adjustment wheels on the PRSand all is well. Magpul has several other great products to their line of accessories, so have yourcredit card handy when you hit their site. The PRS, incidentally, retails for $255.
157COMBAT TACTICS FALL 2006
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1/Ifilson Tactical Lanyardww.combatelite.cam
Fesix bucks, the price of a Guinness draught in an Irish pub, you can buy something hand-
'made with a tactical application that will last longer than a pint of the emerald isle'sbest export, although it certainly won't taste as good. We've used this cool piece of gear to goodeffect on knives, cell phones, key chains and ruck sacks.
Its a Wilson Tactical lanyard, and it's function is to give a short grab handle to things like zip-pers. We tied one on our BlackBerry and now we can instantly retrieve the little ringing rascal outof a pocket. We threaded one onto our Chris Reeve Sabenza, still a favorite everyday carry knife,and now the titanium liner lock folder also has a handy pull cord.
If the name of the maker is familiar, it should be. Wilson Tactical is the namesake of RyanWilson, the skilled knifemaker and son of master pistolsmith Bill Wilson. Add a third Wilson intothe mix, Ryan's lovely wife Christine, and you have the lanyard connection. Christine braids thetactical lanyards by hand.
Each one is sort of square, braided into a brick-like pattern that's harder to describe than itis to ask you to just look atthe accompanying photo.The material is the outersheath from 550 cord, orparachute cord, with thosethin little inner white nylonstrings pulled out. Wilson'slanyards come in a variety ofcolor combinationS— likecoyote and OD or tan andblack. They come with coollittle plastic skulls in theloop end, adding a JohnnyDepp dash of yo-ho-ho.They're priced at $5.99.
We told Ryan that heshould sell them by thedozen. They're that handy.We tied them onto the zip-pers of a backpack and usedone for a key chain. Theywork great on the zippers ofan Eagle soft gun case aswell. We went through six ofthem in no time.
Now you know what tobuy your co-worker forChristmas. It's perfect. Whereelse can you buy a handmadeitem, with a major namebrand, that's "tactical," ishandy as hell and only costssix friggin' bucks? Well, okay,a pint of Guinness.
158 www.surefire.com
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Fr Germany with love comes the latest tactical upgrade from Schmidt Et Bender, ther- • optics company that just keeping making scopes better and better. Their original
COB Short Dot is widely considered the best low powered variable tactical scope available, sohow could they improve on perfection? Simple. By responding to the requests of the tacticalcommunity.
The new Short Dot II, also known as the 1.1-4x24 Zenith LE3, incorporates specific featuresrequested by law enforcement and military users. The first thing you'll notice is the larger24mm objective, which was not available when the original Short Dot was designed with a20mm objective. The larger objective increases light transmission and provides a noticeablylarger field of view.
The reticle has been moved to the second focal plane, which allows the reticle to be easilyseen at any power without being too coarse for precision use at full magnification. Some usershad complained that the reticle of the original Short Dot was too fine to see at 1.1 power,which was problematic if the red dot was turned off.
The difference between first and second focal plane reticles is that when the aiming refer-ence is on the first plane, like most European scopes, the crosshairs "grow" as the magnifica-tion increases. On the second plane, like most American scopes, the crosshairs appear to staythe same size, in effect "shrinking" as the magnification is dialed up.
And speaking of the red dot, it is now approx 1.5 MOA at full magnification, instead of the5.5 MOA of the original scope. The smaller dot obscures less of the target for those longer dis-tance shots.
The locking windage turret has been replaced with a standard protective cap, as windageadjustments on the fly are rarely needed in a scope such as this. Inside the protective cap is aspare battery compartment which houses a extra CR2032 lithium cell, doubling the 110 hourprojected battery life.
The elevation turret is still the locking variety, which protects your zero from being shiftedwhen involved in, shall we say, vigorous activities. Ballistic Drop Compensators are available forM855 and M118LR ammunition.
Like the original Short Dot, the Short Dot II is best used with the purpose-built LaRueTactical SPR mount, utilizing LaRue's ingenious Adjustable Speed Levers and made specificallyfor the SEIB scope.
Now for the bad news. The Schmidt and Bender tactical glass retails for $2,149.
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Th P Nx7.‘. ^jam to have is a double feed.The extractor pulls off the case rim leaving
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Cycles and tries to feed a new round behindthe stuck case. Only Para's Power E
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revents double feeds.During research and dev
elopment of the ParaPXT, we took a barrel and machined rings in thech
amber so that when a round was fired the casecould not come out. When the pistol was
fired,the Para® PXT r" did not pull off the lodged case,instead it ripped right through the rim. If the case
had been a normal stuck case, it would have comeout of the chamber, pre
venting a double feed. Don'trisk a double feed. Get a Para PXT 1911 today.
The claw of thePXT is 50%larger than astandard extractor,and ripped throughthe rim nfmmiwilminimmaiin lodged case.
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