Red Oktober is a competition very unique in the regard that it caters specifically to the Kalashnikov platform. Debuted in 2016 at a range in southern Utah, it attracted a significant number of collectors, shooters, and builders throughout the country, even coming so far as Alaska or jumping through the hurdles of traveling from California with restricted rifles. In my opinion, the entire scene was something to really behold just due to the dedicated folk that are drawn to the platform. Unlike the AR15, it is much harder to become proficient or even get into one of the Kalashnikov derivatives due to the lesser availability of quality components, the lack of common knowledge and popularity, but most importantly the much more intricate procedures of completing an AK build. Those willing to go down this forbidding path and are serious about it have an adherence to the AK unlike most any you will probably encounter in the AR world.

Asian Defense News recently published a compilation of high-quality photographs lifted from various Mandarin news sources such as Ifeng and Nownews of Chinese Military Police competing in a skill of arms competition, in Yunnan Province. The literal Mandarin translation of the description was for the chance to become the “Gun King” of the Military Police units involved. Sponsored by the PLA, Wu-jing (Military Police) soldiers used rifles and handguns in a combat marksmanship shoot, in addition to precision rifles shooting at distance and incorporating various tactical exercises. It incorporated load bearing equipment and physical fitness as a stress element. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any video material of the event to have surfaced yet, so we can’t fully comprehend the drills used just from the photographs.

Go Outdoors Products is a Chino, California-based gear company that focuses on the shooting accessories and gear that make range trips that much more enjoyable and hassle free. The company has been around for a little while now, and much of their line of products has been out on the market, online, and in numerous gun stores across the nation and possible internationally too. So although they aren’t the next new awesome device or brand, they make products that in my opinion are very well thought out at the budget price you are getting them at.

I will preface this article, I have only shot 980 yards before and that was a single mag in a SAKO rifle at Shot Show Range day last year. The gun was all ready set and dialed in so it was relatively easy to hit steel with that gun. My personal best with my own gun was 650 yard steel with my SCAR17S. Shooting 1,000 yards was completely new territory for me.

We previously covered 2nd Mar Div’s Combat Camera productions  involving Gunner Wade and suppressor Fact or Fiction series, but the 2nd Marine Division Gunner is back at it again, this time he is covering how to properly boresight a service rifle and RCO using an issued collimator (although he is using his personal rifle in the video). The process is extremely simple, but if done incorrectly, can result in a very long day of zeroing. After inserting the device in the muzzle of an M16A4, M4, or M27, essentially there is that little diagram inside the collimator, that lines up within the RCO or SDO, and Marines have to match up the 100 meter marker that is the tip of the red chevron (“tip of the d**k” as we say in the Infantry) to the proper diagram within the collimator. However, the video is somewhat misconstrued because this is truly only half the process of zero. The other half involves actually shooting 10 rounds (2 groups of 3, then 1 group of 4 to confirm) at 25 meters to get the RCO or SDO zeroed properly, then another group at 100 meters to get the 100-meter confirmation.

Remember those Russian teens taking turns field stripping and reassembling an AK47?

Lucien Black is the man behind Voda Consulting. We posted about him in the past and his questionable approach to demonstrating firearm manipulation by pointing an actual gun into a student’s chest. He and the student let it slide in the fact that the gun was “empty” and it is all safe. Click here to refresh your memory.

Thanks to Miles for sharing this.

Paul Van Dunk Jr. is a brand ambassador for Agency Arms. Paul also runs a shooting school, Pace Performance Consulting. Here is a video I saw on his Instagram page that shows how to grip a handgun. At face value, holding a handgun seems simple and yet it is the basic foundation to mastering a pistol. There are many iterations and interpretations on how to achieve a good hand hold on a pistol. Paul boils it down and demonstrates it very clearly and succinctly with a pair of sticks.

Coming across this video of female Indian Army soldiers making excellent time with disassembling their INSAS rifles better with one hand than I could with two was very exciting to watch. I’m not a stranger to seeing or attempting a one-handed weapon disassembly, probably the most impressive demonstration I’ve seen was with a Marine Machine Gun Instructor who took apart a Browning M2 single-handedly to show that it could be done with some practice. Looking up on Youtube you’ll find a number of videos of the practice, many of which I’ll share below.

This photo was used for NRA’s Carry Guard. I cannot find it on their website now but take a good look at the photo. What is James Jarrett doing? Why is his index finger on the trigger as he is drawing his pistol?

The LASR App training software allows you to get the data you need to get the most out of your dry fire practice for a fraction of what other guys are charging.

I was watching Star Wars Rogue One yesterday and noticed this. Odd I did not see it when I saw the movie in the theater. Although it is only used for a brief second. The scene is from when the rebels free Jyn Erso from the Turbo Tank. The first guy into the confined space is clearly using a thumb over bore grip technique, more commonly referred to as the Costa Grip.

Buzzfeed sent two people to Taran Tactical to train just like Keanu Reeves did for John Wick 2.

Note- This article is the second portion of an earlier article that contiues the discussion of the dynamics of being a member of a Marine Scout Sniper platoon. To read that article, please click here.

Earlier I covered the topic of the failure rates at the Marine Corps Scout Sniper Basic Course and what the Marines wanted to do to mitigate the failures. I disagreed with the solution to the problem for a number of reasons. In this article I would like to provide some in-depth discussion surrounding the Scout Sniper platoons in the active duty operational component of the Marine Corps, the Fleet. Throughout the years there has been much information dispensed surrounding the platoons and the Scout Snipers within them, some of it true, some of it false, and a number of it just plain rumor. I hope this can clear things up a bit.

Note-This post is a continuation of the earlier post that began, talking about some of the issues that are inherent with chopping the current Scout Sniper Basic Course in two. To read part one, please click here.

iVUE is an eyewear company that produces sunglasses that have an integrated camera system in the bridge of the frame and can record 1080p footage at the press of a button. The company has been around for several years now and customer videos using their products have been on Youtube in that time as well. Although I’m singling out iVUE because they are the only eyewear camera product that has seen extensive usage in the shooting sports, there are a multitude of eyewear products out there that can do the same, if not a better job of capturing what appears to be the best “First Person” angle footage we have seen. Previously this sort of footage is reserved to helmet cameras such as the Contour, GoPro head kits, and even body cameras as worn by many Law Enforcement officers these days. All of these are good pieces of kit, but sometimes they don’t get that true first person footage that we are constantly striving for, to see pretty much what that person was seeing while they were taking the footage.

Range Systems is known for designing and building shooting ranges. Recently a video has been going around social media of a new ballistic rubber lining that can take pistol and rifle rounds at point blank distances.

The Marine Corps Times (not associated with the Marines) has highlighted an issue that hasn’t entered the public domain in firearms news as of yet, but has really been smoldering at the surface for many years now. The basic premise of the issue is this: The operational active-duty infantry battalions in the Fleet Marine Force aren’t getting enough school trained Scout Snipers and it is hurting their ability to maintain peak effectiveness within the FMFScout Sniper platoons. Reasoning behind this? Not enough Marines are passing Sniper School while there are plenty of Marines that enter it. The problem? The majority of candidates in the school are failing the Scout Sniper Basic Courses taught at Camp Geiger, NC, Camp Pendleton, CA, and Quantico in northern Virginia. Currently, the rate at which classes are passing is 44 percent, which means essentially half of each Basic Course class is dismissed before going on to the advanced stages.

Recently my local gun shop in Bloomington, IN allowed me to sit in on one of the shop’s new AR build courses being offered. I didn’t build a rifle there myself, just simply watched the course intently and took a large number of notes and photographs of what was going on. Because I wasn’t an actual student involved in the course, this won’t be an article detailing the intricacies of putting together an AR15 but is simply more a reflective perspective of what I learned. If you are interested in a rather in-depth critique of putting together an AR15, take a look at Patrick R’s writings. In addition, I know I’ll get some particular facts here wrong, so please take this as an outsider’s perspective on a very detailed aspect of the AR15, instead of a true testimony.

Meet William Larson of Semper Paratus Arms. Think of him as a doughnut-fueled AR-15 Yoda with near three decades of experience building and diagnosing the AR-15 platform. He has much knowledge, and you want to possess it.

Earlier on TFB we reported on the South Korean Military’s insistence on picking up every single brass cartridge fired while conducting live fire training. Soon after, we received an Indian reader that emailed us with these photographs showing the brass catching practice is alive and well within the Indian Army’s INSAS and Kalashnikov rifles in training. However with the Indian Army, possibly due to funds soldiers have to improvise their own brass catchers out of bottles and wire meshes that fit over their rifles. Some of them are even painted to match the rifle they are attached to. One of the biggest problems with this brass catching phenomena is that the brass catcher can induce malfunctions on the rifle by rounds falling back into the action.

The U.S. Army Fort Lee posted the following quoted text on its Facebook page, and the shares and comments started spreading like wildfire:

Let’s take “gaming” to a whole new level, shall we. Loke Uei Tan, a self proclaimed geek and USPSA shooter, spent a few months developing a virtual reality shooting simulator for the Oculus Rift. Dubbed the ‘Practisim VR’ the software’s goal is to provide competitive shooters with the ability to stay sharp in the off months when weather may make it impractical to train on a hot range

Keith Russell uses an electric wheel chair to get around. I do not know what his disability is, but it doesn’t matter. This guy can shoot! He appears to be using an M&P9L CORE

Haley Strategic shows a pistol caliber SMG can get combat effective hits out to 300 yards. The 300 yard hits are a bit of a stretch but it can be done.

Haley Strategic shows a pistol caliber SMG can get combat effective hits out to 300 yards. The 300 yard hits are a bit of a stretch but it can be done.

Haley Strategic shows a pistol caliber SMG can get combat effective hits out to 300 yards. The 300 yard hits are a bit of a stretch but it can be done.

An odd product that has appeared on Republic of Korea (ROK) Army K1A and K2 rifles in recent years is this brass catcher. Outside of a few dedicated reloaders in the United States, brass catchers are very seldom used at all anywhere else in the world. However in the ROK army, spent brass has a much higher importance than in most other militaries. Soldiers are required to turn in every piece of brass that they fired during a training  regime or else face severe consequences. The reasoning behind this is the army’s strict control over ammunition consumption and reloading ammunition. Behind that regulation has to do with serious problems the ROK Army has with hazing, suicide rates, and soldiers making off with rounds for criminal activities. Thus, ROK soldiers have to turn in every single casing fired while on a live fire range, confirming it by also counting every single one. Many of us in the Military or LE are used to long lines of “Police Call”, where we would line up after a training event, sweeping the grounds for brass, collecting it and turning it back in. However the difference was that we didn’t count every single case when we turned them, it was enough to make the range reasonably cleaner than when we arrived at it.