Preliator
04-22-12, 19:12
The first time I visited M4C.net was to enter into a contest for a free rifle from BCM... something with a vickers endorsement I think.
I came back because I had been considering getting a Sig516 piston rifle as my new patrol rifle and had heard that there was a large amount of professional information available here. Was I ever disapointed with myself and a little embarrased at how little I knew - if any one should have known better it was me....
I grew up shooting guns and hunting, my dad started me with a Ruger 10/22 when I was 4 or 5 shooting pepsi cans. I hunted every year from age 10 until I left the house for the Marines when I was 18. I went to boot camp a few years before 9/11/2001 and trained as an infantryman. I always qualified expert on the rifle range and even got to shoot on the 1st Marine Regiment shooting team at Western Division Matches in 2002. I made several deployments to Iraq and earned some awards for valor. After 3 deployments in a row my "monitor" basically forced me to take a "B" billet - a break from the infantry.... I showed him by volunteering to be a combat instructor at the School of Infantry West. While teaching at SOI I taught new Marines infantry tactics and techniques at the Infantry Training Battalion and was hand selected to take over Machine Gun Leaders Course at Advanced Infantry Training Battalion. I held most of the primary infantry Ocuupational Specialties and taught them as well - 0311, 0331, 0341 and 0352 (sapper school was as close as I got to 0351).
After nearly 10 years in the infantry or teaching the infantry I left the Corps to raise a family - and became a police officer in AK.
The academy I attended was heavy on shooting, mostly the Glock - but we had a 40 hour patrol rifle course and a 40 hour shotgun course taught by our SWAT team instructors (most of the instructors were Gunsight graduates). I served several years as a patrol officer before jumping ship to a federal agency that makes lots of high risk arrests.
When I joined this forum I was just transitioning to my new job at the fed agency - I thought that I knew pretty much all there was to know about how to use a rifle and didn't think there was much out there that would challenge me.
BOY WAS I WRONG.
The single most important thing I have learned here is that you need to listen alot more than you talk about what you think you know - you need to challenge your own assumptions about the mechanics, techniques and tactics that drive our use of firearms. There is almost always some one who know more about any particular subject than you, and certainly more than one valid view point on many things.
I learned that there are civilians out there that not only knew a whole heck of alot more about certain tools of my trade than I did, but they were probably alot more proficient with them! (Rob S)
I learned to differentiat between junk because it is poorly made (bushmaster, DPMS, Olympic Arms) and junk because it is not needed for my mission.
I came to identify the things that were causing most of my head-aches when shooting (bad magazines) and how to remedy that problem (PMAG followers and what proper maintenance meant).
Lastly and arguably most importantly I developed a true understanding of how important training from different, quality venues is to the professional gunfighter. Between my fairly extensive (if basic) military training, the more directed and specific LE training and some good private sector training I have started to blossom as a true gunfighter.
I would like to hear from other folks where they have come from as a serious user of AR platform rifles and what lessons they have learned in M4C - for my purposes I would like to hear from folks that have been around the block a time or two and has learned to thrive in the 'tough love', professional atmosphere that is M4C.net
**by the way, I never did get that Sig516, I purchased a Colt 6920 and haven't looked back.
I came back because I had been considering getting a Sig516 piston rifle as my new patrol rifle and had heard that there was a large amount of professional information available here. Was I ever disapointed with myself and a little embarrased at how little I knew - if any one should have known better it was me....
I grew up shooting guns and hunting, my dad started me with a Ruger 10/22 when I was 4 or 5 shooting pepsi cans. I hunted every year from age 10 until I left the house for the Marines when I was 18. I went to boot camp a few years before 9/11/2001 and trained as an infantryman. I always qualified expert on the rifle range and even got to shoot on the 1st Marine Regiment shooting team at Western Division Matches in 2002. I made several deployments to Iraq and earned some awards for valor. After 3 deployments in a row my "monitor" basically forced me to take a "B" billet - a break from the infantry.... I showed him by volunteering to be a combat instructor at the School of Infantry West. While teaching at SOI I taught new Marines infantry tactics and techniques at the Infantry Training Battalion and was hand selected to take over Machine Gun Leaders Course at Advanced Infantry Training Battalion. I held most of the primary infantry Ocuupational Specialties and taught them as well - 0311, 0331, 0341 and 0352 (sapper school was as close as I got to 0351).
After nearly 10 years in the infantry or teaching the infantry I left the Corps to raise a family - and became a police officer in AK.
The academy I attended was heavy on shooting, mostly the Glock - but we had a 40 hour patrol rifle course and a 40 hour shotgun course taught by our SWAT team instructors (most of the instructors were Gunsight graduates). I served several years as a patrol officer before jumping ship to a federal agency that makes lots of high risk arrests.
When I joined this forum I was just transitioning to my new job at the fed agency - I thought that I knew pretty much all there was to know about how to use a rifle and didn't think there was much out there that would challenge me.
BOY WAS I WRONG.
The single most important thing I have learned here is that you need to listen alot more than you talk about what you think you know - you need to challenge your own assumptions about the mechanics, techniques and tactics that drive our use of firearms. There is almost always some one who know more about any particular subject than you, and certainly more than one valid view point on many things.
I learned that there are civilians out there that not only knew a whole heck of alot more about certain tools of my trade than I did, but they were probably alot more proficient with them! (Rob S)
I learned to differentiat between junk because it is poorly made (bushmaster, DPMS, Olympic Arms) and junk because it is not needed for my mission.
I came to identify the things that were causing most of my head-aches when shooting (bad magazines) and how to remedy that problem (PMAG followers and what proper maintenance meant).
Lastly and arguably most importantly I developed a true understanding of how important training from different, quality venues is to the professional gunfighter. Between my fairly extensive (if basic) military training, the more directed and specific LE training and some good private sector training I have started to blossom as a true gunfighter.
I would like to hear from other folks where they have come from as a serious user of AR platform rifles and what lessons they have learned in M4C - for my purposes I would like to hear from folks that have been around the block a time or two and has learned to thrive in the 'tough love', professional atmosphere that is M4C.net
**by the way, I never did get that Sig516, I purchased a Colt 6920 and haven't looked back.