WARRIOR TALK NEWS

The Ultimate UZI SMG - From TSD Combat Systems

The more we work with the UZI, the more we appreciate it for close range semi-proactive applications, and for PDW duties.  And as we watch our various students operating the weapon, we identify those areas where it can be made better than it is.

Clearly, the first area is that of sights.  The iron sights are fine, but it is 2012 and the standard for all fighting weapons is in fact a red dot sight. 

We have seen UZI before with red dot sights, but quite frankly, the red dot sights that have been affixed to these Israeli weapons are abject trash suitable perhaps for an airsoft kid's toy, but not for a serious fighting tool.  When we were searching for a red dot that was strong enough for our pistol program we absolutely discounted all of the units on the market except for the Trijicon RMR.  Yet nobody had made a mount for this top shelf RDS....that has been remedied. 

This TSD Combat Systems UZI/RMR Top Cover Unit comes affixed to the UZI top cover, and provides complete cowitness capability through the rear sights.  It takes the Trijicon RMR, and only the Trijicon RMRs. The top cover and mount are welded together and then finished in black powdercoat.  This gives the UZI SMG/Carbine a capability heretofore unseen in a PDW.  Precise shots are possible beyond what was possible with iron sights only.  Read what the RDS application has done for the handgun, and then imagine what it is capable of with an additional two points of contact as provided by the UZI.

Another area we moved into is the charging handle.  Not an issue for many, but if the shooter is small in stature or lacking in physical strength...or even if they simply want a less cluttered sight picture, this TSD Combat Systems UZI Charging Handle is what they need.

Made of hardened steel, and black powdercoated, it is totally ambidextrous and can be mounted to the right or the left of the SMG.

It is contoured and scalloped in design to accomodate a finger, or two depending on hand size.  It is totally devoid of any sharp edges and as comfortable to use as possible.

Finally, the thing needed for the SMG is a modernized magazine.  Our TSD Combat Systems UZI Mag is a finished in black melonite.  Eqipped with new springs, the magazine also has a follower that is dehorned and finished in our prorietary AquaTerra finish, making the entire magazine impervious to any environmental conditions, but also equipped with a follower that has extremely lubrious properties, insuring reliability. 

Between the great UZI packages offered by One Source Tactical, and the exciting new products being brought out by TSD Combat Systems, there has never been a better time to move into the UZI platform.

UZI Packages Available At One Source Tactical

Terrorist/Active Shooter Interdiction with Jack Rumbaugh

By Chris Upchurch, Suarez International Staff Instructor

Last weekend I took the Terrorist/Active Shooter Interdiction class from Jack Rumbaugh. This class is a bit different from the standard S.I. fare: rather than focusing on fighting with a particular weapons system, it examines a particular sort of situation in depth: someone with a gun whose goal is to kill as many people as possible. This is a class I've been wanting to take for quite a while. This was the first time it's been taught by anyone other than Gabe.

For the live fire portion of the class, I brought a pair of Glock 17s: one with an RMR and one with iron sights. The RMRed gun got the lion's share of the use, since these sorts of situations are an area where it's advantages really shine. I carried them in a pair of Dale Fricke holsters, one on each hip. Along with a large quantity of G17 mags I also brought one with an Arredondo magazine extension, which increases mag capacity by about five rounds. I got this recently and have been playing with it a bit and I have to say I'm pretty impressed.

Most of the other students in the class brought Glocks, though there were a few M&Ps, an XD, Ruger SR9, and a HK USP. Two of the other students' guns had RMRs on them as well.

On the Force on Force side, I brought a pair of KWA airsoft Glock, along with the usual safety gear. I also brought a couple of Nok trainers for knife work. 

With the semester over, I was able to take a leisurely drive up here on the Blue Ridge Parkway over four days and visit with a friend in Northern Virginia on Thursday night. It was nice to arrive for the class feeling rather refreshed rather than the usual butt-numbing single day drive.

Saturday Morning

The class had a total of fifteen students, including a pair of S.I. Staff Instructors, myself and our newest addition: Dan Choi. One of the students referred to the pairing of Jack and Dan as 'The Green Hornet and Kato'. There were quite a few folks I recognized from the Trauma Care for the CCW Operator class here back in March, and even a couple who had been down to South Carolina for a class with Alex and I. After everyone arrived we started out with the usual administrative stuff: waivers, promising on video not to sue, the safety lecture, etc.

With the admin stuff out of the way, Jack started with some lecture on the context of what we were going to be learning. He began by asking us to list mass shooting incidents. Off the top of our heads the class was able to come up with fourteen incidents. The well publicized incidents like Columbine or Mumbai are only the tip of the iceberg, however. Jack had a fourteen page list of incidents going back to the '40s. The first five pages were dedicated to just school shootings.

We talked about some of the differences between your average robbery and an active shooter. Fundamentally, the active shooter is there to shoot people. He's not using violence as a means to and end in the way that a robber is (the end being your money), the violence is an end in itself. He's also very likely to be suicidal, or at least willing, or planning, to die in the course of events. This means strategies that involve dissuading or deescalating the situation are unlikely to work and we're more likely to have to achieve physical incapacitation, rather than relying on pain or fear.

From our point of view, an active shooter situation is much more likely to be a proactive gunfight than a simple case of self-defense would be. We'll probably be intervening in an ongoing situation, giving us the chance to initiate our action against the active shooter rather than waiting for the bad guy to initiate an action against us (or at least make his intent unambiguous). This makes certain skills, such as sighted fire and using cover, much more important and likely to be used. We're also likely to be taking longer ranged shots or having to shoot very precisely at whatever bit of bad guy presents itself from behind cover or around a hostage. This is far from your 'average' gunfight!

We warmed up with some simple precision shooting drills on 2" dots. Most folks had their fundamentals down, though a few had an area or two they needed to work on and some had sight issues (if you're coming to this class, verify your sights beforehand!). Then we moved on to some precision shots at relatively close range, starting with eyeball shots from 2-8 yards (this was convenient since we were running in two relays, one could shoot the target in the left eye, the other in the right). Further out, we switched from the eye socket to headshots more generally. Still, we tried to keep our shooting on the low side, below the eyebrows. The forehead is the thickest and toughest bone in the body, it can actually deflect bullets, depending on the angle of impact. We kept this up out to 20 yards, and everyone did pretty well. 

After lunch, we did some work shooting from cover. When we teach how to use cover and take corners in a CQB environment, we teach staying as far back from the cover as practicable. This makes it easier to take small slices when doing an angular search, and diminishes the chances of giving away your position, or your gun, by extending the muzzle beyond the corner. In the active shooter context, things may be different. If we know the shooters location and are engaging him at long range, we're better off using the cover as a shooting support than staying back from it. Jack demonstrated this, and I contributed a bit as well on using the knuckles and thumb of your support hand against cove to provide support. 

We started out at ten yards doing headshots, then backed it up a bit. By the time we got to 20 yards, there wasn't much visual feedback on where you were hitting. Jack had us redirect our fire to some steel plates up on the berm. These were a bit bigger than head sized, about 12" by 12", but they were about 40-45 yards away, making them pretty challenging to hit. Nevertheless, with a bit of work everyone was able to get on target. We backed it up a bit more to around 50 yards. At these ranges we started to discover some deficiencies in some people's sights. 

Next up was the hostage rescue shot. Unlike a lot of hostage targets where the hostage taker's head is fully exposed, Jack set this up with less than have of the bad guys head visible. The aiming point was his right eye. We started at two yards. At this distance, if you've got your fundamentals down, it's not too difficult. Gradually, we moved back in 2 yard increments to ten yards, which was quite challenging. Nevertheless, we only had one hit on a hostage in the entire class (only a flesh wound). Some excellent shooting.

When teaching reactive gunfighting, we at S.I. generally don't put a whole lot of stock in the 12 o'clock line (moving directly towards the opponent). The proactive situations that we're talking about in this class are a different story. When you are ahead of the curve moving in aggressively and overwhelming the opponent with a high volume of accurate fire is a valid tactic. We practiced this, drawing and advancing while pouring on the headshots as we closed in. During one of these drills, I ran my primary dry and drew my second gun to pile on another four rounds.

While the 40 yard shots on steel we'd done earlier were impressive, that was just touching the surface of the long range shooting portion of this class. Before we started stepping back, however, Jack went through some supported positions that we could use at these distances. Some are adaptations of rifle shooting positions, like kneeling, sitting, squatting and prone. Others are unique to pistols, such as the Creedmore and Keith positions (or as well call it, the centerfold position). Some of these positions are not for everybody, we had some folks with bad knees and one fellow with his foot in a brace, and they sat out on some positions. We worked through these dry, then did some live fire.

With the fundamental skills in place, we started moving back to greater and greater distances. We started out with some 25 yard headshots. This was only a bit more challenging than some of the shooting we'd been doing earlier, but it helped get everyone dialed in. Jack had a J-frame and he took some shots with it at this distance. I popped off a couple as well, with a few hits. One fellow had a Kahr .380, which he was nice enough to let me fire. I managed a good hit, which would probably surprise some folks who don't think these sorts of keychain guns have that kind of range (it helped that the Kahr had better sights than a lot of these small .380s).

We stepped it back to about 60 yards and took some body shots. I shot offhand but at these distances some folks used some of the supported positions. Oddly enough, they usually got better results offhand than they did in the supported positions (probably because they have a lot more experience shooting offhand). More practice is clearly needed to really take advantage of some of these positions.

Finally we moved back to about 100 yards. At this distance, hitting a human sized target takes some skills. I managed 100% hits with my RMRed Glock. I pulled out my iron sighted gun and tried it as well, going 3 for 4. This is a lot better than I would have done before I got my RMRed Glock. As I've said before, an RMR really will make you a better shooter, even with an iron sighted gun. While it can be done with iron sights, you definitely have to work at it a lot more than with the RMR. The other folks in the class, most of whom had irons, all managed to get on target.

 

Jack broke out the J-frame again. He managed to ding the steel with his first shot. Not only is he a good shot, he also knows when to stop. He immediately offered it up for anyone else to try. I decided to take him up on the offer. At this distance, the J-frame's front sight appears considerably bigger than the target. There's some bullet drop involved too, so I held right at the bottom of the head. I held the gun as steady as I could, with the head poking up above the top of the front sight as I tried to roll that heavy double action trigger back as smoothly as possible. 'BANG! . . . ding!'. I decided to follow Jack's example and handed the gun off to the next shooter. 

After everyone had a chance to shoot with their guns I passed around my RMRed Glock to anyone who was interested. Everyone who tried it got some hits and most seemed favorably impressed (I really wish I got a commission on these).

With that we wrapped up, packed up, and headed out for a good nights' sleep, because we'd be back at this bright and early tomorrow morning.

Sunday

We reconvened on Sunday morning for another day of training. Once again, we started out with some lecture material. Jack talked a bit about the AK, including how to disable one if you have to. Basically you need to take or get rid of the bolt or bolt carrier, or to bend the barrel. I wouldn't have thought of the latter, but evidently it's doable if you have something solid to wedge it into and put some weight into it. Jack also talked about dealing with the police after an incident, which diverged into some of the moral aspects of intervening in these sorts of situations.

Moving on to the range, we did a drill comparing the time it takes to reload an AK to the time it takes for a shooter to draw and get on target. Essentially, what we're simulating is the bad guy running out of ammo, giving us the opportunity to pop up and hit him while he reloads. We had two shooters on the line, one with an AK and one with a pistol (in the holster, concealed). The AK shooter would fire a single shot at a steel target, then begin a reload. As soon as the AK shooter fires his first shot, the pistol shooter draws and engages a second steel target until the AK shooter finishes reloading and hits his target again. 

 

To demo it, Jack took the role of the rifle shooter while I had the pistol. At 50 yards I was able to get nine shots into the target before he finished his AK reload. At this distance almost everyone was able to get a hit on the target before the AK shooter completed the reload.

We stepped it back a bit to 100 yards. The drill was considerably more challenging at this distance. While everyone had managed to get hits at this distance yesterday, doing so on demand, and under time pressure, was more difficult. About half the class got at least one hit before the AK shooter reloaded. This is where the RMR really makes things faster, since there's much less need to refine the sight picture than with iron sights.

 

In a active shooter situation, if you decide to intervene one potential problem is that while you're heading towards the sound of guns, everybody else is heading the other way. We need to be able to move through a group of people headed in the opposite direction with our weapon at the ready. The latter can be accomplished using Sul, but it needs to be rock solid with the gun in a vertical position to avoid muzzling others in the crowd. To move through the crowd Jack taught using the support hand to thread our way through the crowd and move people out of the way. He likened this to a salmon swimming upstream. We did this dry first, to make sure everyone had their Sul down pat, then shot it live.

After lunch we started on some knife work. Unfortunately some places are NPEs where we really can't carry a gun. In many of these areas, however, we can get away with carrying a knife (or two). Jack taught some methods for this related to military sentry elimination techniques. Most of the were built around the same base: sneak up on the guy, stomp his knee, jam your fingers into his face and wrench his head around using his eyesockets or mouth like the finger holes and a bowling ball. This is accompanied by driving your knife into one or more of several targets, depending on what's handy depending on how you approach the shooter and what sort of grip your knife is in. For knife targets we talked about the kidney, neck, behind the jawbone, clavicular notch, sciatic nerve, bicep of his gun arm, belly, and under his chin (or as Jack called it, 'apple on a stick'), 

Of course, in some NPEs you might not even be able to have a knife with you. In these cases, you my have to acquire your weapons from the bad guy. We worked some basic pistol disarms. This wasn't as extensive as we do in 0-5, but it provided a quick overview of the basic concepts. Moving on to rifles, we practiced taking long guns away from people. Jack showed a couple of methods for doing this, but when he was using me as a demo dummy he had some trouble getting it away from a sasquatch sized guy like me. I was able to show him a technique I learned from Gabe where you drive the comb of the stock into the carotid artery. I don't care how big or strong he is, if you can jam the stock into his neck it's going to hurt.

We also worked on some empty hands versus knife drills. Going up against a knife armed adversary without any weapons is a pretty lousy situation, but there are things we can do that work better than curling up to die. Much like we do with knife versus knife disarms, we want to reduce the effectiveness of the adversary's knife arm. You do this by hitting it as you block, preferably in the soft spots where you can get muscles and tendons. Once the arm has been reduced then it's time to catch hold of it and get the knife loose. Jack showed several techniques for this, but given that I want to keep away from the blade if I can, I like the idea of yanking his knife arm to the ground and grinding it in.

Finally, we covered techniques for choking people out. Jack demonstrated the rear naked choke, as well as a variation that's slightly quicker to get into. We spent some time practicing these, *carefully*.

This finished up the technique training for the class. Jack capped things off with a series of scenarios. These scenarios represented a series of venues where active shooter or terrorist attacks might happen: a theater, bus, restaurant, mall, and parking lot. Jack picked one or two students to be the bad guys, and had them play through different possibilities: shooting randomly, kidnapping someone, taking hostages, etc. One or two students would be designated good guys who (unbeknownst to the bad guys) were armed. The rest of the class played sheep.

We ran these a bunch of times and I won't go though each of them in detail, but there were some interesting lessons. In one restaurant scenario, one of the good guys stood up while the other stayed seated. The good guy who stood up got shot quite a bit, the one who remained seated did not. Staying seated gives up some mobility, but it may also serve as a form of camouflage, at least for long enough to get some rounds on target. 

One scenario involved an aggressive panhandler who pulled out a gun and started shooting people. The student who was dealing with the panhandler let him get far too close and didn't keep his eyes on him, so we talked a bit about how to handle the initial stages of this. I demonstrated some of Randy's PESTS material, putting up 'the fence', saying, "I can't help you," moving off-line. When I kicked it up a notch and went to, "BACK OFF! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" the student quailed visibly. Jack turned this into a quick bit of lecture on command voice.

For the very last scenario Jack picked two bad guys and (unbeknownst to them) made everybody else armed good guys. They really got shot to hell.

With the scenarios done another great weekend of training was over. Jack handed out the certificates and everyone got packed up. 

Final Thoughts

This was really a great class. The material is top notch and Jack did a great job presenting it. Dan helped out ably and served as a demo dummy ('meat puppet, get over here') and I hope I contributed a bit as well. Much credit must also go to the students too. We had a very good group of folks for this class. Everyone was an experienced shooter with the shooting and gunhandling skills necessary for this class. It speaks well of Jack that he has such a dedicated, well trained student base to turn out for this class.

The curriculum was just fantastic. Gabe did a really great job laying this one out. It clearly distinguishes how and why active shooters and terrorist events are different from your average robbery and how these differences translate into different skills and different tactics. On Saturday we did a good job wringing out everybody's proactive, sighted-fire shooting skills. I think this shows that at S.I. we're not just radical point shooting people, it's all about the right technique for the context. Similarly the knife work we did on Sunday was somewhat different from the 'a guy pulls a blade on you on the street' sort of thing you get in an S.I. defensive knife class or an AMOK seminar. This is all about using a knife to ambush someone (or more frankly, assassinate them).

This is a class that really shows off the capability of the TSD RMRed Glocks. While it's possible to hit at 100 yards with iron sights (heck, Jack and I did it with a J-frame) the RMR makes it much easier. Importantly, it also makes it much faster, as the pistol vs. AK drill showed, since you don't have to spend time refining the iron sight picture. With the proper grasp of the fundamentals it's really possible to do some amazing things with these guns.

Jack Rumbaugh did an excellent job with this class. He had clearly mastered the material and could handle student questions and give more in-depth explanations of particular points with ease. He's got a great delivery and does a good job coaching students. This is the second class I've been involved in with him (after the TMCO class earlier this year) and I would not hesitate to take his classes or recommend them to anyone (and I'm not just saying that because he's my boss).

This is usually the part of the review where I tell everyone to take this class, but in this case I won't, because it's not really a class for everyone. If you really want to get the most out of this class (particularly the Saturday material) you need to have a real mastery of the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship. Hitting with pistols out to 100 yards is not some black art, all it requires is doing certain things in a certain order. The catch is you have to do those things nigh perfectly. Lots and lots of dry practice and a lot of live fire practice will help you refine these skills. If you can, come to one of our Advanced Combat Pistol Marksmanship classes, it would make excellent preparation for Terrorist/Active Shooter Interdiction (and Alex and Ihappen to be teaching one this Saturday. We had a very well prepared group of students in this class and I'd hope to see the same in future classes.

I would put Terrorist/Active Shooter Interdiction up there with other 'graduate' classes that S.I. teaches, along with the likes of Advanced Rifle Gunfighting, Advanced Point Shooting Progressions, AK Force on Force, and 0-5 feet. These are classes that really push the envelope. They take skilled students and give them the chance to exercise those skills at very high level. They're a reward for dedicated students (and great fun for the instructors). As with some of the other 'graduate' classes, this is not taught very often, so practice your marksmanship and be ready to jump on it next time it's offered.

Discuss this class on Warriortalk.

Fear! and being the first man

I want to post a comment on this. FEAR! It is the life draining emotion. It is what keeps you from accomplishing and doing and starting. It is excessively protectful. It is how animals think...the kind of animals that get eaten.

Fear is destructive in that it prevents you from doing anything at all other than running away or hunkering in a fetal "down and cover".

Fear thrives on pessimism and complaining. The man that wakes every morning, walks outside and smiles at the bright sun and blue sky and cinches down the ruck, moving out to a day of promise with a straight back and head held high is neither pessimistic nor fearful.

Contrast that with the man who slouches in the couch watching one program after another advising him of the coming calamity of the day. He moves through is day defeated and almost mournful, neither noticing nor appreciating the beauty around him...nor the opportunities.

The first man makes sh*t happen...the second one watches as sh*t happens to him. Which are you? Which do you want to be? The choice is not in the circumstances, it is up to you.

I will tell you about my father Elio Suarez.  He lost everything he owned to communism in 1960...the year that I was born. Had he chosen to be the second man, and he had every right to be, he would have no doubt died of grief as so many Cubans his age did. Instead he chose to be the first man, in the sort of environment that few americans...even those who like to roll around naked on a bed of TEOTEWAWKI, could not imagine.

Think of depression era environment coupled with a Nazi Germany level of oppression. That was post revolution Cuba where a man who was suspected of being anti-Castro could find himself writing a goodbye note to his family while the firing squad got their rifles ready.

In that environment he became an outlaw. Yup...not a law abiding, sullen and defeated man, but a bright eyed, opportunity seeking black marketeer. Seeing the limits of the Cuban pond, he moved his entire family to the USA leaving his aging brothers and mother in Cuba (she died a couple of years later). He was 53.

He built a business and regained much of what he had lost because he was the first man and not the defeated complaining second man. My dad's kids, and wife never lacked a thing...never went hungry, never were homeless, or without education, resources or opportunity. And that through Communism, Lyndon Johnsonism, Nixonism, Carterism, and all the other isms that have come and gone, and come, and gone.

So you can see my disatisfaction with the incessant doom and gloom hopelessness that I am seeing discussed today from time to time. Good grief men....we have seen it all before.

If I was R.Lee Ermey I'd say something to the effect of "stop being a crybaby, grow a set of balls, and make some sh*t happen - TODAY".

But instead I will simply say "be the first man".

Gabe Suarez

Warrior Talk Blog
Tactical Gear For The Civilian Fighter
Training For The Martial Civilian

Leadership-Success Principles

1). Fire anyone who uses the word "can't" more than once in a conversation with you, or whose daily lexicon is filled with excuses.

2). Look for opportunity where others see despair...you will likely find it.

3). Nothing is impossible. Say that ten times every morning. Fire anyone that disagrees.

4). Surround yourself with tigers who make stuff happen rather than the complaining sloths who watch stuff happen.

5). Place yourself above the daily groanings and whimperings of common men.

6). Choose your objective and move towards it aggressively...others will follow.

7). Know when to quit. If after examining the battlefield, one door is too difficult, abandon it and find an easier door. But don't do that more than once a year.

8). Business is war and as soon as money is involved, you will realize that your "colleagues" are not your friends.

9). Secrecy of mission is essential. See #8 above.

10). It is not just about winning, because it is always about winning. How you win is up to you to define, but if you are not interested in that, stay home.

Gabe Suarez

Warrior Talk Blog
Tactical Gear For The Civilian Fighter
Training For The Martial Civilian

Rats, Shoemakers, and Lizards....

So the junior staff and I watched a documentary on Netflix titled Guns, Germs and Steel. It is a film version of the book by Jared Diamond. Diamond, I suspect is as liberal as a pair of skinny jeans, but his theory of how geography and circumstances shaped the flow and dominance of certain cultures is a good one. It is a hard read, but the documentary is an easy watch.

In any case, the junior staff asked about the same situations today...about what causes societies and cultures to fail. I answered immediately...rats, shoemakers, and lizards. Here is how it plays out...on the personal and national levels.

Rats are people that live off the charity of others...whether it is voluntary or government forced. These are the able-bodied that are on welfare, or living off the charity of some church when they could be working.

Rats are also the types that don't think anyone should excel over anyone else. Look at the hairy fleabags marching up and down Wall Street in the vain attempt to make anything happen. That is the typecast rat. There are governments that are rats as well....preying on their successful people to feed those who support them.

There are entire social levels and regions that have been "rat-ified" by generations of living off others and sticking it to whomever "the man" of the moment is. We would all do well to purge our lives and nations of the rat and his viral mentality.

Then there are "Shoemakers". This is a term coined by a friend of ours to define the sort that is not a rat, but that is shortsighted and unambitious. The shoemaker makes one pair of shoes at a time, working at a slow pace and he makes just enough shoes to keep beans on the table and the roof patched up. That is all he needs. The rat might consider that noble, but I consider it foolish.

Think of how well the shoemaker would live and eat, and what a good education his children would receive and what a full life he would have if instead of plodding along, he went out and hired a few more like him and make three times as many shoes...and then franchised the entire thing to other shoemakers. He would create an entire industry that would employ hundreds of people. People incidentally that would not turn into rats.

I know a man that makes shoes...one might say. He and his family (wife and two girls) live in a trailer. They eat Top Ramen and cereal. He is a smart man and could easily mobilize the many idle and unemployed people in his area to ramp up his production ten fold. But every time I bring that up to him there is some reason why it will not work....or it will be fishing season...or too hot...or too cold...or...something else.  He is and will remain a shoemaker and his family will do only as well as his one shoe a day pace will permit.

How many nations, and entire societies are limited by the shoemaker mentality?

Finally we have the lizard. The lizard is a type of person first written about by Seth Godin in his great books on business. The lizard is the life drainer...the idea killer...the one who lives and thrives on being afraid. He employs from the lizard brain. Tell him to build a house and he will list the reasons, quite fearfully, about why it cannot be done. The lizard is a carrier of the most dangerous disease known to man. The lizard does not carry smallpox...he carries fear. And lizard fear is quite contagious...specially to shoemakers.

With a society of rats, shoemakers, and lizards, we would never have crossed the ocean to conquer the New World, nor tamed the west, nor had the industrial revolution, nor defeated the Nazis, nor gone to the moon, nor...well, you get the idea.

Don't be any of these and do not make friends with any of these. If you have these in your family disown them. Clear your life and business and social circles of the rat, the shoemaker, and the lizard, and you will be astounded at what you can accomplish...whether as an individual, a business, or a nation.

Gabe Suarez

Warrior Talk Blog
Tactical Gear For The Civilian Fighter
Training For The Martial Civilian

Crossing At A Ford

Musashi wrote about Crossing At A Ford in his Book Of Five Rings. 

"Crossing at a ford" means, for example, crossing the sea at a strait, or crossing over a hundred miles of broad sea at a crossing place. (1)

I believe this "crossing at a ford" occurs often in a man's lifetime.

It means setting sail even though your friends stay in harbour, knowing the route, knowing the soundness of your ship and the favour of the day. When all the conditions are meet, and there is perhaps a favourable wind, or a tailwind, then set sail. If the wind changes within a few miles of your destination, you must row across the remaining distance without sail. (2)

If you attain this spirit, it applies to everyday life. You must always think of crossing at a ford.


- Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings

*****

The Book Of Five Rings, along with SunTzu, Mao, and Seth Godin, are required reading for our staff. I did my 3rd Dan dissertation on Musashi and how his work applies to today. There is no doubt Musashi was a killer (good for him), and exemplified the look of a street hobo much more than that of a splendid samurai. But there is alot of wisdom in that little book of his.

Crossing at a ford.

Note #1. Crossing at a ford means seeing the opening...the opportunity, and seizing it hard, taking it before it is gone. A true warrior does not have other warriors as enemies...his only enemy is time. Hesitation may kill in combat but it will leave you behind in business. The wide chasm from poverty to riches may be crossed easily and quickly (relatively) by those who recognize and take advantage of the ford.

Note #2. There will be those that are with you that do not want to make the crossing, fearful of the exertion, the sharks in the water, and fearful of even what lay on the other side. These people are allergic to success and thus averse to the steps needed to reach it.

As you recognize those fords in life there will be those that want to pull you away from them, back into the dry land that is safe for them in their quest for safe mediocrity. Some of these people may be lifelong friends...maybe even family members. If you allow them to keep you from crossing at the ford, you will never cross any fords, as fear and failure is a learned and habit-forming act.

Musashi writes, "even though you friends stay in harbour".

Indeed.

Often times you must force them to stay in harbor if you know that bringing them along in YOUR boat is undeserved by them, having contributed absolutely nothing to its construction and knowing that they will take up an inordinate amount of space with drama, emotions and complaining. At such times...it is best to cross alone.

As Musashi often said..."You must learn and study these things."

Data Book Basics,

by Suarez International Scott Vandiver 
What is a data book and Why do I need one?I get asked this question on a regular basis during precision rifle and Guerrilla sniper classes. The short answer is a note book with information about how to use a weapon system to get hits in different weather conditions. The second part of the question is the simple fact that nobody can remember all the information needed to get the first round hits. Now this is not about hitting a 24” target at 100 yards; if that is all you expect out of your rifle don’t waste your time with a data book. If you have set higher goals for you and your rifle then get ready to learn a few things about keeping a data book.
There are many ways to keep the data you gather about your rifle. I have seen some elaborate data books and some guys use index cards. In the last few years computer programs have come out. Now they have apps for smart phone that can handle plenty of data storage. I am not an IT wiz so I will only say the 2 programs I have used are ATRAG and the SHOOTER programs both do what they claim. The ATRAG system has a feature called Truing that allows a shooter to True the program to his weapon system. Shooter is a program that calculates the settings base on use input but can’t be trued like the ATRAG can.
To get started with the data book is not hard. The first option is to just buy a small notebook and start writing down information. The second option is to buy an inexpensive data book like the one from VooDoo tactical. The third option is to get a small binder type data book that you can customize to your mission. I like the Modular Sniper Data Book by US Tactical Supply. One thing I like about this book is it comes with 20+ pages of preloaded information. This information includes ballistic tables for standard military rounds, target sizes for ranging. Also included are Mil-dot information, formulas for wind, temperature, altitude, and angle fire. A rules page and conversions for just about everything a shooter needs. There are different types of pages for gathering data for your rifle and mission as well. A zero page, alpha data sheets, stationary target, unknown distance, moving target, target dimension, barrel logs are also included.
At the Guerilla Sniper class last May I used the information in my data book to help Gabe set up the 50 bmg he brought for the class to shoot. Since he had just received the rifle, we bore sighted it at a 500 yard target. I then referenced the data book for information on the correct adjustments to hit a target at 1100+ yards. Since we were shooting at the side of a mountain behind the backstop the first round was low. After a few corrections students were nailing the target. I did not have any specific data on his rifle or ammunition, nor did I have data from my own 50BMG. I used the data printed in the book to get on target. Who knows you may get an opportunity to shoot some ones really nice rifle and the additional data printed in the book helped that day.
To start your own data book you need to track or keep up with what you are doing.First things to enter in your log are the rifle sight/scope and ammo you are using. If you can get a ballistic table from the ammo manufacture get one and put in in the notebook. Now record the date and time of the shooting session. Record the weather conditions, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and wind speed and direction as well as lighting conditions. Write down the altitude since it can affect the bullets trajectory. This is the base line for the days training or practice session. If the weather changes, keep a record of it.  I have seen the temperature, humidity and pressure all change drastically when a weather front rolls in. Combined they can change the trajectory of a bullet 3 MOA or more. At the 600 yard mark 3moa is 18 inches; that is enough to miss a target completely.The first step is to verify/ check your zero against the previous zero. Document the location of the called shot and the location of the actual hit. The first shot of the day should be documented as a cold bore shot. Also document if the bore was clean or if it was fouled.  If you have any type of muzzle device on the gun document it as well. I’m talking about flash hider, muzzle brakes or suppressors, especially if you shoot the rifle with and without a “device”. This information can be important in making a first round hit for a Guerrilla Sniper.
Once you get the zero write in in the log book so you can return the scope or sights to your base zero. If you have turrets than can be reset now is the time to rest them to zero and write down the exact hash mark so you can return to zero at any time. For Iron sights many shooters put a witness mark on the sight drum so they have a “zero point” Whether you zero at 100 or 200 depends on the distance you are most likely to shoot. In the US most police use a 100 yard zero since the average police sniper shot is around 75 yards. The military use 200 yards normally, but some guys use 500 yards. There are new scopes out now that are designed to zero at 100 and use the specially designed reticle to hold over and never dial the elevation. Regardless of your equipment writing down the zero information in the data book is important for future reference.
Once the initial zero is obtained, start moving back and increasing the distance to target. Depending on time I would start gathering data at 50 yard increments from 100 yards back. Check the factory data for a starting place then verify with live fire and record exactly what adjustments you made to get a good hit. All adjustments should be made from your base zero every time. When you change position return to zero and start over. This prevents staking adjustments on top of each other. An example would be when you set the rifle for 300 yards and then move to 600 yards and add the 600 yard elevation to the 300 yard elevation already on the rifle. Since the bullet drop is an increasing curve adding 300 yard dope and 600 yard dope will not be the same as 900 yard dope. Write down how many clicks it took to come up from zero to get a hit at your current distance then write down the reading on the scope dial and be sure to include any full revolutions. Complete the data collection back as far as the weapon system will stay supersonic. Once the round becomes transonic it will start losing stability. Once that happens; data collection is worthless because the trajectory is not consistent. This is where a scope with numbers and revolution marks pays off. Economy scopes save a few dollars by eliminating these marks on the scopes. That may be ok for a brush gun or a 22 but not for a precision rifle. 
Wind correction and data books are a different beast. The ammo manufactures ballistic tables normally don’t include wind corrections. For this information there are ballistic calculators online. I try to get data for the distances I have in 5mph and 10mph winds.This will allow me to add the info to get 15 or 20 mph info. Just like elevation data you will need wind data for different ammo and different calibers. Wind effects bullets differently than gravity. Gravity is a constant force but wind is variable from shot to shot.Another problem with wind is judging how hard it is blowing; not just where you are but all along the bullets path.  Reading the wind at the shooters position alone is just as bad as only reading the wind at the target. If you only read the wind at one location read it at 3/4 the distance to the target. This is wind has most of the effect on the bullet path since the bullet has slowed down. In a linear sense the wind closest to the shooter would affect the trajectory the most. However things that happen effect the bullet path more, the first thing is the wind effect is not liner but a cumulative effect more like an decreasing radius curve. Adding to the curve is the fact that the bullet is slowing down as it travels.Shooting in the wind can be a nightmare when there are 2 different crosswinds or the trajectory takes the bullet 120 inches in the air. I was making 900 yard shots on a flat range, the wind was dead calm at our location and the grass was not moving anywhere between me and the target. I fired the first round and missed 1 mil right. The spotter could see bullet trace and the wind was pushing the bullet at the top of the arc of flight.Reading wind takes years of practice and the best way to learn is to shoot in the wind.There are a few tricks like reading the terrain and looking in different directions to pick up the wind angle, watching the trace see what the bullet is doing. Another thing that helped me learn some wind calling was to work with a experienced spotter shooter team.I was on the spotting scope watching the same wind and I made a call then listened to see what the professionals called. Remember to take good notes on wind effects and wind calling, include this in your data book.
Once I have several range visits in my data book I put the info into an computerized spreadsheet this lets me keep up with the info and compare the impact shifts when the weather changes or if I change ammo. If I change guns I can see that difference as well.Having the info on a spread sheet also allows me to customize a range card to the load or the weather. Having multiple methods of storing data is important. I use a Smart phone a data book, a wrist band, a computer and info taped to the gun. So I will always have the info I need. I have memorized some of the elevation adjustment just in case.
It takes time, energy and money to gather the information to compile a data book. If you want to continue learning a data book will definitely help improve the learning curve.Professional shooters of all types use data books so they don’t have to relearn or estimate what the rifle will do. They refer to the data book make the adjustments and make the shot. Remember hits are more exciting than misses and nobody can miss fast enough to win.

 
Scott Vandiver,  SI Instructor Atlanta

www.centerfiretraining.com