By Alex Nieuwland, Suarez International Staff Instructor in South Carolina
As many are making their spending plans for the new year, I’d like to reflect on the search for the “Good Deal”. To quote gunsmith Mark Graham: “What made you think you were getting a $1000 battle rifle for $600?” I’d say ignorance and extrapolating from other experiences (like buying groceries) is the answer to that question, therefore this article.
When it comes to buying groceries, I’m a value shopper. Given the choice between spaghetti in a Mueller’s box and a Great Value box, I’ll take the Great Value box. Sure, the Muller’s spaghetti comes with a whole marketing spiel on the box extolling the natural origin and wholesomeness of the box’s contents, but that’s not what I’m buying. I’m buying spaghetti. The 25% premium I save by going with the Great Value brand represents more room in my ammo budget.
I’d like to define the true Good Deal as follows: Solving your problem for the smallest amount of money and aggravation. A solution that doesn’t solve your problem is NOT a Good Deal.
Great Value spaghetti is an excellent example of a Good Deal, because I happen to know that the only difference between Mueller’s and Great Value is the box. Both were made by AIPC in the same way from the same raw materials in the same plant. I’ve visited their plant in Columbia, SC and seen it with my own eyes: The ONLY difference is the box. As soon as I take the product out of the box, which I must do in order to cook it anyway, this difference disappears. By buying the Great Value spaghetti, I have therefore solved my problem (the need for spaghetti) for the smallest amount of money.
As you can see from this example, when it comes to buying groceries in American supermarkets today, you can be reasonably sure that even the “value” offerings are of a reasonable quality, and you risk little by trying them. When it comes to buying tactical gear and training, however, that is not the case. I have found that being a value shopper usually does not pay off.
I can speak from painful personal experience on this topic. When I bought my beautiful 16” FAL carbine, I had no idea of the risk I was taking by buying a rifle from this particular maker. Looking back, it’s clear that my $600 FAL was not a Good Deal, because it did not solve my need for a working battle rifle. Sure, it’s a battle rifle, it just doesn’t work acceptably. The maker’s warranty and customer service are even less than their prices. As it stands, they won’t even tell me which parts were American-made when they shipped the rifle so I can make an informed decision on what to do with it.
It’s the inconsistency of the “lower-tier” rifle makers like this one, and their refusal to stand behind their products that make them such a risky deal. By the time I'm done completely fixing it, my $600 FAL will have cost me more than $1000, plus a whole bunch of aggravation. I could have bought a $1,000 FAL from the get go, and been done with it.
I find myself in a similar situation with a small .380 pistol made by a relatively new manufacturer located in Florida. It was a jam-o-matic right out of the box, and I sent it to the manufacturer to be fixed. This was not entirely unexpected. It was, after all, a small .380 pistol that has not been in production very long. What was unexpected, was that it was still jamming just as badly when I got it back. I just sent it back to the manufacturer again. Even if they end up fixing or replacing their product, by the time I’m done with it, this pistol will have cost me more money and aggravation than my Glock 26 did, and the Glock 26 worked right out of the box. I’m not alone in my experience with this company. In other words, NOT a Good Deal to solve my need for a smaller gun.
Another example is the ammo can I have that is full of “308 Winchester Match Grade 168 gr boat tail hollow point (factory loaded)” sold by a reloading company from Georgia. It turns my bolt-action .308 into more of an area weapon than a precision weapon. At $0.64/round it sure costs less than Hornady A-Max (at $1.23/round), but the A-Max will hit whereas the supposedly match grade bullet from Georgia may randomly miss by about a foot at 200 yards. Comparing these two options, it’s clear to everyone that the A-Max is the Good Deal, right?
Net, we can see that there is definitely a difference between buying spaghetti, and buying tactical gear.
Now, let’s compare these companies and their offerings to the Suarez family of companies, and see how they stack up.
Last year, One Source Tactical purged their inventory of “value” offerings, focusing on higher quality (but higher price) offerings instead. I applaud them for that move, because when it comes to tactical gear it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between the “value” offering and the quality product until the “value” offering breaks or otherwise fails to live up to expectations. In this case, again, the higher quality (but higher price) offering is in fact the Good Deal because it solves your problem.
TSD Combat Systems is making high quality fighting gear for the well-informed, well-trained, warrior, and they stand behind their products. The Trijicon RMR sight I had TSD install on my primary Glock 19 has taken it to a whole new level. The CNC machines used by TSD guaranteed this to be a Good Deal. To get the most out of this high quality system, however, I still need to use high quality ammo.
As far as getting a Good Deal on your training goes, just go to Suarezinternational.com and sign up for the class that is closest to you and best solves your particular training need. Sure, you can get a day of training for less with other organizations, but their techniques either plain don’t work in a fight or don’t work as well as ours. On the other hand, you can pay more per day or travel to another school in a faraway state, and will still learn techniques that either plain don’t work in a fight or don’t work as well as ours. The proof is in the Force on Force training. I have trained at other places, and paid more per day, but it’s clear that SI training is the Good Deal when it comes to solving your training needs.
So, to sum it all up, if you’re getting all hot and bothered about a “sweet deal” on a lower-tier FAL, AK, AR, or G3 this year, consider the question from Mark Graham: “What makes you think you are getting a $1000 battle rifle for $600?”
If you’re considering signing up for a training course with Billy Bob and Mary Sue Tactical, whose heart is in the right place, but who realistically couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag and whose only teaching credentials are from an organization with shockingly low standards, consider this question: “What makes you think you are getting $400 worth of training for $250?”
If you’re considering signing up for a training course by former operators from Uncle Sugar’s Space Cowboys, consider this: “What does being a Space Cowboy have to do with your daily mission to protect you and yours, and what makes you think they are going to teach the really good Space Cowboy stuff to a pesky civilian like you, anyway?”
As you can see, there is a difference between buying spaghetti, and buying tactical gear and training.
Upcoming Suarez International courses in Columbia, South Carolina:
South Carolina Long Gun Long Weekend II (February 3-5, 2012)
Dynamics of the Shotgun (February 3, 2012)
Combat Rifle Marksmanship (February 4, 2012)
Advanced Combat Rifle Marksmanship (February 5, 2012)
Combat Pistol Marksmanship (February 11, 2012)
Close Range Gunfighting (March 17-18)
0-5 Feet Pistol Gunfighting (April 14-15, 2012)
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