The America in which I grew up and lived my early adult life was a nation. Over the course of my life I have watched my country turn into a Tower of Babel. Homogeneity and shared values permitted us to understand one another. This doesn’t mean that there was uniformity or that things were perfect.
Police were helpful and didn’t burst into homes with guns blazing or rough you up on traffic stops. On important issues, compromises could be reached and reforms implemented. English was the language.
When whites become a minority, what is their fate when the new majority has been taught hatred of whites for decades?
We all know what the “far right” is—white people, which as a group are being recast as “white supremacists.” Far right is not a term ever applied to blacks or other races.
Identity Politics is the ideology that has been used to break America into disunited pieces.
Maybe it was only a passing quip that wasn’t intended to hint at anything, but it’s still a good time for me to put my own endorsement of Aesop’s sentiments out there. First off, CA just sort of offhandedly and without preamble or explanation put this out there:
Anything Left To Talk About?
Before WRSA turns into just another abandoned website, what else needs to be discussed?Open thread.
And no, not tomorrow.
But sooner rather than later.
Maybe blogs have some useful role to play as we stumble onward towards resolution of this conflict, I dunno. I guess we’re gonna find out, eh? In any event, I’m certainly glad our old friend CA is still out there beside me in the rhetorical trenches, for whatever our efforts might or might not be worth. Speaking strictly for myself, I’ve benefited a great deal from his work, and I hope he’ll keep on keepin’ on at least a little while longer yet.
Ahhhh, the combat AR carbine. Among AR lovers there exists a sort of balkanized hodge podge of factions and tribes. Some like this, others that. Arguments happen and sometimes friends part ways forever….OK I’m being a little dramatic.
The beauty of the platform of course is that it can be whatever you desire. Long range paper killer to house clearing cannon, it can meet whatever mission you need inside it’s inherent limits. It is modular and adaptable.
One recent discussion I was involved in was about zero. It seems that ideas abound and opinions vary (who knew?) About this topic. The thing is, no matter how you zero your carbine you need to understand its capabilities and limits.
Some like a 100 yard zero because that is how their 30-06 is set up. Some like the old 300 yard military zero. Some like the improved battle zero. Some have no idea.
To some of you, this will be rehashing basics, but I have encountered MANY newly awakened folks who do not know this stuff. Not knowing basics will get you killed.
The following is my opinion and I am not disparaging yours. You are welcome to do whatever you choose in zeroing your rifle, this is how I zero mine and suggest to new AR shooters to zero theirs. The military is using this now and many smart shooters, I don’t want to debate you, OK?
The vast majority of shots with a 5.56 carbine in a combat scenario are under 200 yards. Now I know Afghanistan had plenty beyond this, but it is the exception and not the rule. In fact, I believe in a real breakdown of civility in the US, most shots taken for real will be under 50 feet…yes feet.
For us civilians, the chance we would need to shoot at persons beyond 200 yards in a SHTF situation is pretty slim. The situations where such a long shot were to be taken that could be called self defense are very few. I am not naive enough to think that such a shot might not be necessary but let’s not get wrapped around the axle here. Now, I know I’ll get a comment from someone in Montana who has a 1000 yard line of sight from his porch. You are the exception brother and should probably be using .308 or Creedmoor.
*Edited to add* I know some consider the 5.56 to be a “poodle shooter”. If you are one of the magical people who can shoot your .308 as fast and as accurately as a 5.56 and believe it sucks the souls out of bad people I am absolutely good with it. The point of the post here is not to say you’re wrong, it is to help the new survivalist zero their carbine in a way that helps them be effective shooters.
John Mosby had the following to say about the 5.56
This conversation is not intended to instigate a debate on the merits of the Stoner platform versus anything else, nor is it intended to foment discussion on 5.56 versus 7.62. The first has been completely dispelled, in the realm of this blog at least, by the refusal of all those opposed on principle to Stoner’s design, to accept my standing challenge on the “Last Word” page. The second is simply not open to discussion here. I KNOW 5.56 kills people, dead. I know 7.62 kills people, dead. I choose 5.56 because it kills people, dead, plus I can carry more of it, meaning, when necessary, I can kill more people, dead. Additionally, because it has less felt recoil, I can kill them faster, because shot-to-shot recovery is faster. Are there guys out there that can recover from 7.62 as fast, or faster, than I can from 5.56? Perhaps, but those guys don’t need any advice on setting up their fighting rifle. Most guys can’t recover from 5.56 as fast as I can from 7.62. I choose 5.56 because it works, for me. I don’t moderate comments, but I WILL delete comments that hold no merit to the conversation, on this article, if the only thing you have to say is along the lines of “Stoner was stoned!” or “Mouseguns!” –J.M.
The military has adopted the improved battle zero and it goes like this. You zero at 50 yards (your near zero) and your shot is back dead on at around 225 or so (your far zero). This can vary with barrel length and whether 55 or 62 grain but it is close enough for what we are discussing.
The above means simply, your shots are in a 4″ circle from spitting distance to about 260 yards. No holding over required, center mass hold gets good hits.
Basically in theory, you are shooting in a 4″ tube out to 2.5 football fields distance with no muss or fuss, just hits. Add in the less than MOA performance of most bulk mil-spec ammo and your likely less than solid rest and this zero gets you on a paper plate or so out to 200 or a little better. This is EXCELLENT combat ready marksmanship if you can hold that steady. If you can shoot paper plates standing at 250 yards with your heart pounding and bullets coming back your way, you are GTG. See why opening up your circle with a farther far zero is problematic? Your mid trajectory is very high, with other factors added it can cause misses under stress.
What we are talking about here is the MPBR, max point blank range. This means we set a target size or maximum deviation from line of sight. If we choose 4” target size what we are wanting is the zero that would cause our projectile to never go more than 2” above or below our line of sight or point of aim. If you know your loads BC and real velocity you can calculate a more precise close and far zero. This calculator will do that for you.
http://www.shooterscalculator.com/point-blank-range.php
For me the best zero for a 4” target is exactly 51 yards. As you can see below, my 16” carbine with 1-4x will shoot inside a 4” circle out to 264 yards. No thinking about it, just hold and hit….which is in and of itself quite a feat in dire circumstances.
Open up the circle to a 6″ minimum and you could zero at 44 yards, be back dead on at 260 and be in the circle to 300. To me this is the max and could cause misses when your hold is less than perfect and the target was in the mid range of around 100 to 150 yards because you projectile will be traveling 3 inches above point of aim in this range (and that is in a perfect world with a perfect hold).
The problem with the old 300 yard zero that the military used to use is that you end up about 10” high at around 200 yards and to me that ends up being just too much of a varying POI for a carbine that will be used closer, rather than farther. See the graphic below, the 25 yard zero is the same as the old 300 yard marine zero. Add in the shakes, return fire and bulk ammo and you may now be shooting in a very big circle and that is simply too much deviation for a carbine. All shooting is precision shooting, sometimes the circumstances will require surgical shooting.
In my mind it is simpler to use the 50\200 and know that at 300 yards I need to hold about 1\2 mil high, about 1 mil high at 350 and about 1.5 mils high at 400. Everything inside 250-260 is a dead hold.
You may decide on something else. That’s OK. Just know how it works and understand how to utilize what you decide on. The military uses the 50\200 now and it has been proven as a solid concept.
I punched in some numbers to Strelok Ballistic Calculator and got the following. It assumes M193 55 grain at 3200 FPS in a 16″ barrel.
The chart can show you what we’re talking about here and what your holds with a mil based reticle will be to 500 yrds. Of course you can just dead hold to 250 and get solid hits.
With a 51 yard zero, you would hold .5 mils at 300, 1 mil at 350, 1.5 mils at 400, 2 mils at 450, 2.5 mils at 500. Pretty easy to memorize or have it on your rifle’s scope cover. If you are using irons or a dot it becomes much harder to judge those holds past about 300 yards but … you cannot identity a target with a 1x at this distance anyway. 1-?x scopes are king on a do-it-all carbine.
I have already posted about mil based reticles and how they are used.
Of course, open sights and red dot optics work with this concept and will allow you to shoot about as far as you possibly can unmagnified. With a magnified optic longer shots are as simple as using your reticle for holdover.
For my 10.5” AR pistols the velocity drops a good amount and the zero changes to a close zero of 43 yards MPBR. In this shorter barrel velocity drops to between 2650-2700. A 43 yard close zero means a dead hold, inside a 4” circle out to about 225 yards. This is about as good as I can hold standing with a 2 MOA dot anyway. I’m older and so are my eyes, gotta deal with it.
There are a good amount of BDC reticles out there for certain loads. I don’t like them myself as you are locked into one load. Again, if you like it, great. Just know how to use it.
Get out there and get this stuff figured out while you can. Actually shooting your rifle after inputting ballistic data into a calculator is mandatory. Different loads chrono at different velocities in different rifles and in different environmental conditions.
Don’t keep thinking about it, get out there and DO IT. Know your rifle and how it is setup and shoot it regularly. Time is short.
Tick Tock.
While I was sitting with my mother in her illness this past year, I have had a lot of time to ponder some things. To look deeply at myself. I asked myself some hard questions, examined what I believe and maybe more importantly, what I am unsure about. Short of you being the terminally ill party, nothing draws out your inner feelings like watching someone you love die.
Humanity seems poised to slide into global despotism. Tyranny and false worship of the collective and its goals seems to be more than just a fad here in 2019. Our system of representative government has utterly failed. What is worse than one royal tyrant? Thousands of them. Our public servants have become our masters, by force and by coercion.
The public at large seems more than willing to allow themselves to be completely enslaved in a system where they exchange their labor, and therefore their very lives, for the chains which will hold them. They actually demand it. Giving power to men and women who despise them and who will use every machination to keep that power. It indeed is like watering the tree that holds up the noose around our necks.
As I have eluded in the past, I believe that individualists are incapable by and large of herd mentality and are more solid in their principles. So we see in the comments at big sites like WRSA, and eloquently explained here…
So we probably will not ever come together like the collectivists do because their nature is the collective while ours is the individual (and then tribal).
Where does this leave us?
In reality, not really in such a bad place.
Read this from NC Scout about how perhaps lots and lots of individuals could really give collectivism a bad time.
Now to the man in the mirror.
What am I willing to do? What are you willing to do?
TL recently opined that the time for words is about done. That we are into nut cutting time. Are we? Are you?
Are you really good with it? It isn’t like the movies. I don’t think we will feel good, or inspired or even vindicated. I think we will feel hollow. I think our souls will ache and our hearts will dry up. If you enjoy it, what is to come, then I don’t want you around me and mine honestly.
We each should be examining ourselves, making peace with the requirements of our position. Hesitation will spell doom, the time for fleshing out your willingness is long before you are faced with opportunity.
Masks are coming down. It isn’t a matter of coexistence with these people. Like (i) slam and many other evils, it is come along or be killed.
They mean to convert you, to heal your thinking and if not… they will kill you or imprison you.
We seem to be waiting for a sign.
Tick Tock
Who remembers the old GI Joe public service announcements that featured short life lessons for young people? They would show a good little right and wrong story and at the end would say “now you know, and knowing is half the battle”.
I had decided early on that if I began to write again that I would leave the politics to others and try to focus on skills and tools that Survivalists and Preppers would appreciate. This does not mean that in my personal life I do not study what is happening in the world and use it in my efforts. The reason is that I have no desire to be just another blogger sounding alarms. You already know that things are bad and are going to get much worse or you would not be here. Others are already doing a great job of keeping us all informed and showing the nuances of today’s political landscape.
We all are painfully aware that there is a very large portion of the former united states which would go along rather easily with removing semi automatic weapons from legal status. Heck, there is a significant number who would remove all privately owned weapons from legal status. While we can discuss the various ways that this could or could not be accomplished, the facts are that we could very well be criminals for non compliance in the future. This is certainly possible since the House was taken by collectivists and the Senate is infected with deep state RINOs. Another way would be by states and cities enacting their own laws banning firearms and magazines which we see from several states and cities already.
This is not going to be a treatise on the “how” it could go or be done. It is not going to be an argument for any certain scenario or possibility. One thing I have seen in the last 20 or so years is that politics and politicians will get onerous things done by hook or crook and the courts nor our body of representation will attempt to block it.
What I want to say here is more about our psychology and our grit than about world leaders and Liberty killing law. More about knowing, and understanding yourself than your enemy. Knowing is half the battle, right?
I see it every day in different circles. Men beating their chests and crowing about how they will shoot gun grabbing LE and feds in the face if they announce a ban on ownership of certain firearms. I get it, I do, and I get incensed at the thought of some mealy mouthed politico deciding to decree that a right has been “rescinded”.
Let me tell you why you better have more of an actual plan than this. Surviving a stack on your doorstep is probably not how this will go. Having MRAPS rolling down Maple St. hauling jackboots who have orders to search every house is probably in the realm of fiction. While I have no doubt that targeted strikes would happen, mass confiscation via door to door is simply too monumental a task.
No, what will happen is that the penalties will be so heavy and the risk so great, people who do not turn weapons over to collection centers would simply be too afraid to ever let them see the light of day. A ban on owning semi auto rifles would not be as much about collecting them up as it would be about driving the use into the realm of contraband.
You will probably not be killed on the glorious field of battle facing the .mil or forces of evil……but you absolutely could be arrested and made an example because you slipped up and told someone you have a Bushmaster buried in the yard or a conscientious neighbor saw you carrying a blanket wrapped object to your barn that looked a lot like a rifle.
I really doubt that in the beginning there will be any battles. I believe it will be a further slip toward darkness, just like most other countries have seen, and people will simply be driven underground in their firearm ownership. We see this with the drug culture, we saw it with the bootleggers and we will see it with guns.
Where does this leave you?
Have you discussed with your spouse what you would do? Have you thought about it in detail? Have you any plan of action figured out beyond “I will not comply”?
I don’t have any specific answers for your specific circumstances. There are just too many variables for anyone to offer specifics. What I will offer is that you need to have some absolutes already decided and that your loved ones should know and understand what they are. You should be building tribe with people who share your ideals and they should share your convictions and logistical plan.
There are plenty of other places where you can get ideas about action. Being a guerrilla is all fun and games until it’s time to do guerrilla $%!+. I won’t detail how to hang traitors from lamp posts here or how easy it is to ruin some local communist’s mind with a quiet .22 solid. These things certainly will happen without any input from me. My point is that planning trumps reaction every time. Waiting around with Old Glory in one hand and your AK in the other is not a plan.
We are facing a dark future. One thing that is shown again and again is that people who are disarmed are at the whim of those who don’t. You as a gun owner/prepper/survivalist have to come to grips with what you are willing to do (and not do) and what you are willing to endure to see that you hold to your decisions. Simply deciding to not comply is just the first step. Now the real hard decisions come.
