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Showing posts from 2012

Last week's blizzard fun...

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Completed a back to back TC3/Austere Medicine and Gunfight Concepts Carbine course over four days last week. As I have stated before, you must train in the environment you live in.....so we trained in sometime blizzard conditions during the course. The students all took it like pros, everyone was safe and effective despite the severe conditions. My thanks to all the students, especially those that drove from out of state and trained for days on end far outside their comfort zones. We should be putting on another one of these the weekend after Christmas in the Willamette valley area. 

Classes this week...

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Okay, here we go.....sorry for all the delays. TC3/Austere Medicine class will be held 12-13 (Wednesday, Thursday) in central Oregon. Gunfight Concepts Carbine course will be held 14-15 (Friday, Saturday) at a private range in the same area. This is short notice so I am not asking for deposits. Courses are $200 a training day....if you are on a shoestring budget, talk to me and we will do our best to get you in one way or another. For those that have already reserved a spot, I will be sending travel, lodging and packing information presently. For everyone else, reserve your spot via the email button and I will send the details. It also bears mentioning......it is winter in the mountains.....dress accordingly, we will be training regardless of snow or rain. I will possibly be running this course again in the valley area later this month.....FYI.. See you on the range......

Yes, I'm still here...

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Been busy... I have spent the last month, since returning from overseas, playing husband, father and home builder......getting our off-grid cabin ready for the winter. I have about got things under control, so I will get back to posting and still plan on having at least two courses this December - a TC3/ Survival Medicine and a Gunfight Concepts course. I will get the dates and venues posted up shortly. If you are interested in either of those or would like to see them held in your particular area, email me and I will try to get a workable solution  hammered out.

Repost of TC3.....courses start next month...

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Teamwork for tactical units - Medical stuff Medical As we are focusing on being a Gunfighter and not just a "trigger-puller", we must include medical skills in the definition. The military and specifically SOCOM, began to realize this reality after the TF Ranger operation in Mogadishu.  This is what led to the TCCC/TC3 concept (Tactical Combat Casualty Care). This follows the logic of “every fighter a medic” insofar as lifesaving and stabilization skills are concerned.  This was a huge step forward from the former CLS (Combat Lifesaver) protocols as this addressed the most common lethal injuries on the battlefield and provided for a committee that would regularly evaluate and implement the latest innovations and lessons learned. To this day I still see organizations that go in harm’s way and only require CPR and sometimes basic first aid (Red Cross style)…..this is shameful to put it politely, especially considering that we have over a decade of combat operation

Re-post of spare parts.....

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Had a co-worker's Glock go down the other day. The culprit was a broken trigger spring, which I have only ever seen happen twice now, but it is a definite showstopper. Luckily, we had a spare spring available.....which got me thinking....a $1 part is the difference between a functioning weapon and an expensive blunt object. I would encourage all to stock up on replacement parts while it is easy and cheap to do so. I will be. You do realize that all those springs in all those various guns and bits of equipment you have, have a finite lifespan......right? Springs are cheap folks, buy extras now.....they may not be around later..... Will get some fresh posts up shortly.....overcoming my jetlag and getting my course schedules in order - stay tuned.

Pardon the re-post....currently in transit....

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"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks." -- Thomas Jefferson    As any of my former students can attest to, Jefferson's point is something I strive to integrate into all my shooting courses. Gunfights generally take place under less than ideal circumstances and I feel training must reflect that reality. It is a difficult thing to maintain an acceptable degree of marksmanship while cold, tired, wet, dirty or injured. A couple concepts to ponder... 1. You rapidly exit your helicopter on a hot LZ and immediately find yourself up to your knees in soft mud. The barrel of your rifle is now packed with mud....do you have the tools avai

Liberty double dose...

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"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." -- George Washington .....and while we're on the subject of liberty.... "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." -- Henry David Thoreau 

That my briefcase??

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If you will all forgive me for using a "movie" example, I think this scene from Collateral demonstrates some skills worth examining..... I remember thinking at the time that the gun-play in this film was better than I have come to expect from Hollywood, and after a little investigating,  found that the actor had spent a substantial amount of time receiving firearms training from SAS veteran Mick Gould. So what skills are we looking at here specifically? 1) Social engineering & positional assessment - As the badguys approach, goodguy chats them up and slips into a more passive profile, raising the hands slightly, wearing a faux "startled" look on his face.....this can all serve to have a disarming effect on the badguy. A little basic Sun Tzu prepping of the the battlespace if you will. As to position....instead of allowing himself to be centered equally between threats, he stayed in a position (granted the badguys kinda helped here) where he would have t

Took his task to heart...

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Thought this was worthy of a re-post. It was said Simo would hold snow or ice in his mouth to cut down on the telltale "steam" from his exhalation and that he stuck to iron sights in order to lower his profile. Ingenuity can carry you far folks....  I give you Simo Hayha ( The White Death, as he was known to the Soviets ) During the Soviet invasion of Finland circa 1939; this 5 foot 3 inch farmer served as a sniper in the Finnish militia. He conducted his duties alone in the harsh winter, armed primarily with an un-scoped Finnish variant Mosin-Nagant. Was this one man effective? 705 dead Soviet soldiers will endorse his efficacy. By the way; he accomplished this task in about three months time. The Soviet army was so terrorized by this small man and his little rifle, that they eventually tasked an entire battalion to hunt him down.....to no avail. That's an entire battalion tied up with one partisan......think about it. One could say he ended up being a one m

More on Crisis Hygiene...

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Someone asked in the comments of the recent "crisis hygiene" article, about the specific applications for cinnamon, cloves and charcoal. I wanted to address that question and bring up a couple other points as well. I also would add that this information, besides being backed by research, is based upon my own personal experiences with said items. Cinnamon, (Cinnamomum cassia or verum), has been shown to exhibit a strong antimicrobial effect on E. Coli, Salmonella, Listeria and Staphylococcus aureus, just to name a few bugs. I normally travel with a bottle of 500mg capsules. As a prophylaxis, you can take one capsule with each meal to avoid many food borne illnesses (this also can have a favorable affect on blood sugar modulation). As a treatment if illness sets in, you can take two to four capsules as needed. Be aware that overdosing (handfuls) can potentially irritate the liver and kidneys due to the coumarin content. Also, cinnamon can act as an anti-coagulant and woul

Can't get to the range? Try this...

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As most of my readers know, I am a strong advocate of the practice of “dry-firing/dry-practice”. Some of the particular techniques I like to employ are: 1) With empty pistol up on target, have a buddy balance a penny on your front sight post. Maintaining sight picture/sight alignment, press the trigger until release – repeat five times (if the penny falls during the cycle, it zeros you out and you start from scratch). 2) Conduct the above with strong hand with support grip, strong hand only and support hand only. 3) Walk while maintaining the sight picture/penny setup described above. Execute a smooth trigger press when your buddy calls it at random (while in motion). Same rules apply – drop the penny, start over. 4) From the holster, draw and maintain steady SP/SA while dry firing. The goal here is to be as fast as you can while maintaining zero movement in the SP/SA through the “firing” cycle. Follow the drawing principals of “Fast to the holster – deliberate to set

The wit of Mr. Clemens

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"The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet." -- Mark Twain ...Yeah, that was 1890, if only he could see it now.

Some thoughts on crisis hygiene...

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Sanitation & Hygiene in the field or a SHTF setting Selco had a good post the other day (HERE)  on survival hygiene that I wanted to attempt to flesh out a bit. Granted, this topic is not as thrilling as gunfights and multicam gear, but it is nonetheless a crucial aspect of survival, as improper sanitation & hygiene can kill you just as dead as gunfire. Let’s look a few different scenarios… 1) Suburban family sheltering in place due to grid-down/disaster situation. 2) Team at a camp/patrol base with a potential for enemy troops in the area. 3) A couple in a high rise apartment in a large city and the utilities cease to function. Suburbia…. Family awakens to no power or water. The family members continue to use the non-flushing toilet as they assume things will return to normal at any moment (normalcy bias at work). Luckily, they have a couple cases of bottled water on hand, as the misses hates the taste of the local tap water. Father heads into town to see wha

Evolution of field garments..

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Why wool has become my go-to gear for field use (or: How I learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Wool) Once upon a time, it was rather common to find wool in use by military units. From the Navy peacoat to the winter field pants (both axis and allied) circa WW2. Problem was; it was heavy and itchy. In more recent years we have seen an ever increasing amount of synthetics being fielded, such as fleece, under-armor type shirts and the much loved "smoking-jacket". While having a decent weight to insulation ratio and being fairly cost effective, they did have their shortcomings. Not the least of which was the tendency to exacerbate thermal injuries and the marked increase in various skin infections due to the microbe friendly environment created by operating for days on end in the field. ( If you have some time on your hands,  HERE  is an in depth piece on the subject of battlefield burns over the years). I began trying various Merino wool garments a couple years ago

Let's talk patriotism....

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"I have heard it argued that the Constitution and the principles of the Founding Fathers are outdated and inadequate for our new age of technological wizardry and terrorist ideologies. This is pure intellectual idiocy. The principles of freedom never expire. Individual liberty is inherent and eternal. It is the driving force of every great accomplishment in the history of mankind." Brandon Smith makes a solid and eloquent argument in his piece  HERE

The Three Man Team

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Combat effectiveness – a view from the outside in Years ago while still in uniform, I was selected to take part in a large training exercise as part of the OPFOR.   The exercise was to take place in a high desert setting, not unlike the Afghan mountain areas, and involved a battalion plus hunting down our 12 man “insurgent” unit. We were up against a battalion of infantry, augmented with a cav scout troop and a company of NATO soldiers. Their sole purpose was to find, capture and/or kill us. We broke our team into four, three-man cells. We also had a HQ element and two sets of 81mm mortars with organic crews attached.  Besides our indirect fire assets, we were armed only with M4 carbines and frag grenades. Ten days later we were being dressed down for the sin of rendering the battalion "combat ineffective" as well as destroying the TOC and killing most of the staff officers.  All in all I found it to be a useful learning experience.  Without violating any OPS

The Everyman

Wanted to share this essay written by a colleague of mine. I found it to be a thoughtful and well articulated piece.   *** The Third Way The meaning of the current heated debate in modern American political life can be extraordinarily difficult to decipher in light of the myriad conflicting assertions regarding the best direction for the country politically, ideologically, socially and economically.  Without a means of comparing and weighing each of these positions and claims, making sense of the debate can be an impossible task. Fortunately, there is a way of understanding and comparing each of these claims.  By reducing all of the competing assertions to their principles, by going to the philosophical foundation of each claim, clarity and an ethical dilemma begins to emerge.  This distilling and cutting away brings us to a singular issue underpinning every single one of the various ideologies clamoring for ascendancy.  Do we argue that the everyman is incapable of managin

Embrace the suck

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Really wish I could have made it to this event. With any luck, they will be doing it again next year. Check it out here.. C.D. 24 Hour Sniper Challenge Vuurwappen Blog has a good write up on the event here... 9 Lessons Learned

A moral people....an effective team

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As I watch current events in our nation unfold like a slow-motion train wreck, I can't help but be reminded of John Adam's warning..... “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  As we sink deeper and deeper into the collectivist quicksand, I have to wonder what Adam's reaction would be if he were able to peer through the ages and see our current state of affairs. Would he be shocked? Disappointed? Or perhaps he would just get that sickened feeling one has when a loved one, despite all admonishment,  foolishly meets their demise.  Individual responsibility goes hand in hand with individual liberty....... while collective responsibility (which really should read "it's not my problem") passes the buck to some conceptual entity (bureaucratic government) and ushers in all the Marxist principals that we currently see being established. For a mental exercise, lets frame this

The struggle for privacy

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The news is awash right now with stories of hackers, identity theft and state sponsored electronic snooping. Thought this might be a good time to address some of these issues. First off, I am not an IT professional.....I am a hobbyist; that being said, I would like to offer the following suggestions for those that value their privacy. Also, these are intended as a workable solution and not a purist solution. What I mean by that is, the purist solution requires a high degree of lifestyle change and discipline that most people are going to end up procrastinating on, thus rendering them less than useful. 1) Switch to a hardened browser such as Comodo's Dragon, as most exploits are browser based. Also make sure your firewall settings are elevated. 2) Stop using Google/Yahoo/Bing for searches. Instead use an encrypted, non-logging search engine like Startpage or DuckDuckGo. 3) Use a VPN service. Make sure it utilizes Openvpn encryption standards and has no logging. I know Wit

Promising concept

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Trijicon SRS Reflex battle sight Would like to get my hands on one of these for some testing. I love the concept.....AA battery (easy availability), runs off of built in solar panel while exposed to light - switches to battery when in darkness and huge field of view. Has a 1.75 MOA dot instead of that 4 MOA monster that Aimpoint employs. I still prefer the "dot in a donut" reticle that EOTech, Vortex and Bushnell employ, but a small dot is better than a big one in my book.  I would expect it has the same build quality that Trijicon has demonstrated with the ACOG over the years. Could be a good thing to have when electricity starts to become an issue. Specs are listed  HERE

Individual fitness levels and the team dynamic

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I have spoken on here before regarding the importance of parity amongst team members, usually in regard to weapons handling and other hard skill sets. I want to address another aspect of this today, namely - fitness levels. A couple other blogs have pointed out an article from a Denver CBS affiliate regarding the fitness standards, or lack thereof, within the Denver swat team. I think it is important to note that the fitness standards listed are not that difficult in the least.....especially when you consider that this is the department's "elite" tactical team. This brings me to the point - if you are part of any kind of tactical team, standards must be established and adhered to. Your slow, out of shape team mate will get the both of you killed. Get your people up to standard, or get them out of the field. 

Don't be the last optimist

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"When it all crashes down they'll scatter like rodents fleeing a dockside fire, enraged and demanding as only the formerly entitled can be. Life long leeches deprived of a patsy to supply their wants and nurse their delusions will be desperation itself, worse, to their mind an unsatiated want is an injustice, and injustice warrants revenge. You'll do. As looters go, this is the crowd to stay furthest from. Their onboard options are not extensive. They're opportunists, not planners. They self-sort-of-organize, act and disperse, then often as not attack each other." Must read article from Remus  HERE

Latest training fun...

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Put on your armor/plate carrier and 6-8 full mags. 1) Perform 20 pushups 2) 60 seconds heavy bag 3) 10 dips 4) barbel curl, press & squat x10 (80% max weight) 5) 10 or max pullups 6) dumbbell farmers walk 60 seconds 7) Fast rope climb Repeat 4 times Vary as necessary, but you get the gist. You can make a poor man's climbing rope by braiding three sections of half inch utility rope. 30 feet is a good height, but work with what you got. Can also improvise a heavy bag out of an old military duffel bag. This is not an all or nothing exercise.....max effort is what counts. Now....try performing this on your next range day. Add a shooting station after every third exercise. Unfortunately, gunfights happen when you are tired, stressed, hurting and shaking. This will make you strong, boost your stamina and improve your stress shooting techniques. Oh, and keep a log... I will be fielding a shooting course shortly built on this premise........ Sweat now - or blee

And there it is...

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Sorry for the light posting......I am overseas currently and as you can see from the news, things are "busy" right now. Sink your teeth into this startlingly honest interview with none other than uber globalist, Henry Kissinger... HERE ....the incredible hubris of these people! Might want to get your house in order... (By the way...that is Kissinger with Pinochet in the pic above) Edit: A reader pointed out that this story links to a satire site, something I should have checked on before linking, so enjoy it for what it is.........I really should just stick to guns, tactics and shiny things...

Useful Diversion #2

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If you have not seen the film " Max Manus: Man of War ", it would be worth your time to check it out. Inspiring true story of the Norwegian resistance during WW2.....

Sudden battle...

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"The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness." -- Robert Heinlein Lt. Heinlein seemed to have a firm grasp of the special relationship that liberty and firearms share.....

Urban living in a new world ?

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Author and former Navy SEAL Matt Bracken has a very interesting bit of reading -  HERE ....paints a rather dire, but wholly probable scenario.

True enough...

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" The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist." -- Winston Churchill

Go-Bag question and answer...

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This question was posed to me the other day and I thought I would address it here as it is a very relevant question. "If you could only have three small items in your Go-Bag/ Survival kit what would they be?" Easy..... 1) Poncho liner (or poncho depending on area) 2) Metal water bottle 3) Knife Why..... Apply the Rule Of Three's. You can survive 3 minutes without air - 3 hours without shelter - 3 days without water - 3 weeks without food. Of course there are variables....some guys in the dive community can go longer than 3 minutes without air....if you are in a nice 70 something degree climate 3 hours without shelter obviously will not kill you.....in a desert, you may not make it 3 days without water.....and so on.    A poncho liner compresses small, is durable, cheap and fairly effective at preserving warmth. I prefer a steel water bottle as I can boil water right in it for sterilization or cook up some chow. A quality medium size fixed-blade k

Logistics Primer...

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AmMerc has a great piece on logistics  HERE ".....are there any suspicious areas of inactivity?  People don't like to fight where they live if they can avoid it.  If the only difference between area A and area B is the level of conflict, it bears looking into.  This is where the military intelligence guys can come in handy, finding out what the scuttlebutt is on why neighborhood A is quiet." As Napoleon Bonaparte famously implied; logistics is the lifeblood of warfare.

TC3 Continued...

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Medical continued…… Tactical field care  Ok…..so, Joe’s bleeding leg has been brought under control via tourniquet and the enemy seems to have broken contact. A secure perimeter is established as everyone cross levels remaining ammunition. The QRF is still a ways off as you turn your attention back to Joe.     You see that Joe is struggling to breath…..that’s when you notice the blood pooling under him. You check the tourniquet on his leg, thinking that it must not be tight enough. You suspect he may have another wound and begin to check him when you see it; a bullet wound just below his right pec. You open up his shirt and can see the blood running out of the wound….you apply direct pressure with your hands and call for assistance. You calm yourself and recognize that this is a classic “sucking chest” wound and will need some kind of occlusive dressing to prohibit any air flow. Steve shows up with an aid bag and pulls out a chest seal dressing and slaps it on over the bloo

Item for your Bug-Out Bag...

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Stumbled across this the other day........"The PowerPot"... This clever item gives double-duty as a camp/field cook pot and as a power generator for small items such as cellphones, radios and GPS devices. Just add water or ice/snow and apply heat via camp stove or fire and it produces 5v DC using thermoelectric power principals. This may have earned a spot in my kit.... Website is  HERE

Russian Bear...

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Interesting article  here One has to wonder why the mainstream press has not really picked up on this......kinda merits a mention I would think. Coupled with the fact that Putin recently stated that they have stood up nuclear missiles in Cuba this May,  (HERE)  .....again the press is silent. Didn't we almost go to war over just this scenario once upon a time? Curious indeed...

Warnings from the past

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"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson ....if only....