Open source Education

Just another little comment on education…These intertubes things are useful for stuff beyond downloading terabytes of pron you know.  Things like Khan Academy and Youtube provide huge amount of instructional material right at your finger tips.  Both of my daughters are constantly looking stuff up and learning from videos.  For instance Audrey has become somewhat of an expert at doing nails and making stuff with the sewing machine her grandmother gave her.  Natalie comes up with strange science experiments.

The reason I mention this to you parents is this: think long and hard about the future and the education of your children.  The days of the school house that we went to are over.  The days of Colleges are numbered.  What will take its place hasn’t quite been formed up but you can see the outline already.

You get what you pay for

For the past few years I’ve been watching what is going on at Universities with a bit of bewilderment.  Costs have skyrocketed while the actual delivered product has not improved.  Based on things like political correctness, focus away from education (the whole ‘college experience’ thing), and a crap job market; I would argue the product has gone down in quality.  So reading something like this “The Master’s as the New Bachelor’s” has me laughing my ass off.

Let me get this straight mom and dad: You paid how much for Skippy to go off for 4 years to earn a degree in what? And what is Skippy doing now?  The basement you say?  How do you feel about your investment now?  Why did you let him spend that gold on a degree in History?  Did you think he was going to get a real job with it?  Why not just go straight out and get a degree in education?  You know that is the only actual avenue of employment for him?  Well, that or Starbucks.  And Starbucks doesn’t really like History majors, they’d prefer somebody from Devry who can actually learn to operate the espresso maker in under a day.

I have already told my girls what I’ll pay for: science, math, engineering, business or a technical area.  Anything that has a real job at the other end.  I’d prefer the first three because the other stuff can be picked up along the way.  If they want to take the gender studies, political science, history (as a major) or other crap they can pay for it on their own dime.  I see those areas as no different than me taking motorcycle racing classes or sniper training – fun entertainment, but not serious investments.  Actually, I can argue that the military type training can actually be turned in to a job for a lot less than a humanities degree and the Motorcycle stuff….If the zombies come and I run out of ammo at least I can get away.

Just one more reason

 

It cracks me up when some of my friend and coworkers look at me cross eyed in regard to self defense.  To a degree I get it, I used to have the same attitude.  I live in a nice neighborhood, I work in expensive office buildings with security.  What could possibly go wrong and who could hurt me or my family?  And so….

Guy is gassing up his car, thug starts talking with him (it is called an interview and doesn’t always involve direct contact from the BG).  At a certain point the thug decides the guy is defenseless and begins his assault.  This is when thug no 2 shows up and help thug no 1.  The guy manages to get in to his car, but the thugs still have him and are trying to drag him back out.  The guy manages to get to his 45 and shoots one of the thugs twice in the body.  At this point the other thug breaks off and the guy closes the door to his car and drives away while calling 911.

As an aside:  The way this would turn out for too many people (friend and family) I know is: thugs beat the shit out of the guy (or gal) overpowering him and basically take charge of the situation and decide the fate of the guy (or gal).  The end result being rape, death, or other unpleasant consequences.  The results for the BG?  None really.  They might get to go to Criminal U for a few years where they’ll earn their doctorate in badassery.  Upon graduation they’ll be back in your neighborhood for their post doctorate studies.

But what is pretty funny about this story? First, everything was caught on security camera.  Here you can see the news piece on it with commentary.  Pay attention to the names.  Hmm…….Who is this dribbling pile of filth?  Seems that Bruh Bruh got a boo boo which opens up another comment:

Those holes are from a 45 at extreme close range (notice burn marks around the hole).  Pistols simply suck.  Yeah, they’ll save your life but do not think it is like the movies where the bad guy is going to go flying across the parking lot.  Your 45 is a limp wristed sissy that probably only provides 8 rounds in the magazine (not a clip).  9mm is even more limp wristed but usually provides 12-16 rounds per magazine (16 in my case).  So please do civil society a favor: Practice shooting in the face for distances less than 10ft.  You simply do not want the BG having any chance of getting up.  Shots to the face tend to discourage that.

Just one more reason

 

It cracks me up when some of my friend and coworkers look at me cross eyed in regard to self defense.  To a degree I get it, I used to have the same attitude.  I live in a nice neighborhood, I work in expensive office buildings with security.  What could possibly go wrong and who could hurt me or my family?  And so….

Guy is gassing up his car, thug starts talking with him (it is called an interview and doesn’t always involve direct contact from the BG).  At a certain point the thug decides the guy is defenseless and begins his assault.  This is when thug no 2 shows up and help thug no 1.  The guy manages to get in to his car, but the thugs still have him and are trying to drag him back out.  The guy manages to get to his 45 and shoots one of the thugs twice in the body.  At this point the other thug breaks off and the guy closes the door to his car and drives away while calling 911.

As an aside:  The way this would turn out for too many people (friend and family) I know is: thugs beat the shit out of the guy (or gal) overpowering him and basically take charge of the situation and decide the fate of the guy (or gal).  The end result being rape, death, or other unpleasant consequences.  The results for the BG?  None really.  They might get to go to Criminal U for a few years where they’ll earn their doctorate in badassery.  Upon graduation they’ll be back in your neighborhood for their post doctorate studies.

But what is pretty funny about this story? First, everything was caught on security camera.  Here you can see the news piece on it with commentary.  Pay attention to the names.  Hmm…….Who is this dibbling pile of filth?  Seems that Bruh Bruh got a boo boo which opens up another comment:

Those holes are from a 45 at extreme close range (notice burn marks around the hole).  Pistols simply suck.  Yeah, they’ll save your life but do not think it is like the movies where the bad guy is going to go flying across the parking lot.  Your 45 is a limp wristed sissy that probably only provides 8 rounds in the magazine (not a clip).  9mm is even more limp wristed but usually provides 12-16 rounds per magazine (16 in my case).  So please do civil society a favor: Practice shooting in the face for distances less than 10ft.  You simply do not want the BG having any chance of getting up.  Shots to the face tend to discourage that.

Shooting Steel at Top Gun

I ordered a ½ IPSC steel plate from LETargets.com and it got here on Thursday. It really is ½ size, but big enough to get the job done. Today, I took it out to Top Gun in Leonard to try it out.

One cool new thing at Top Gun is that there are now spinner targets at 200 yards. The plates are about 3” square. When you hit them they’ll start swinging. If you time it right and hit the spinner on its way back you can get it to go all the way around. Hence the name spinner.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with myself. I was able to nock the target over without too much trouble at the 200 yard line. Biggest problem I have is that I need to get a really good zero on my scope (was about 4” high and 4” left at 200 yard when it should have be dead on). But once I had it corrected I was able to drill the target really well. Which brought up the next problem: the legs do a pretty good job of keeping the target up, but even at 200 yards a 308 hits pretty hard. After about 10 strikes the target would be leaning back enough that it was no longer safe b/c the bullet would go up instead of down.

I tried using a 2x4 with a slot cut in it to hold the target at a 10 degree down angle. Did I mention that 308 hits pretty hard? The 2x4 was snapped after a few shots. So I guess it is time for another RNE project to see if I can’t build something that will keep the target where I want it.

I also took some paper targets. Here is my best group:

We don’t need to dwell on the others. I already know I’m not Simo Hayha. But, if I can see it I can generally hit it. I might not make pretty clover leafs on the paper but for what I was taught to do – it’s good enough.

I’ll probably go back out again in June. Right now I have a bike to get ready for the track and a new project to get going. Oh and I need to get ready to head to Italy at the end of June, so not a lot of down time right now.

UPDATE – in case you are curious about the face: Google the name.  Not quite Bin-Laden, but bad enough.  There is also theory behind training using actual faces vs. just silhouettes or bulls eyes.  People in actual self defense situations will hesitate before shooting when presented with an actual human face.  In context this is a bad thing.  But it also says something good about the true nature of humans.

DMR AAR

From April 15 to 17 I had the opportunity to take Suarez International’s M4 Sniper - DMR Course in Coleman Texas (Hemphill Ranch). The focus of the class is learning to use a standard M4 rifle to engage targets at the rifle’s maximum effective range (~600 yards). The material of the class of based on the Army’s Designated Marksman training so you can get an idea of what our Joes are being taught.

Just in case you don’t know: I’m not using an M4 in the class.  I’m using a FN SCAR 17.  We actually had a variety of weapons from various M16/AR15/M4 variants, a FAL, and an AK being used by the photographer.

Facilities

Hemphilll Ranch is an amazing location that provides the perfect environment for this type of training. We had no trouble setting up a 600yard range and could have gone further if time had permitted.

As a bonus they fed us! The first night they brought in smoked ribs, beans, salad, baked potatoes and garlic bread. For desert we had some kickass brownies and peanut butter cookies. Saturday night though was where they established themselves in a league all their own: steak! What they served was better than Del Frisco’s, Ruth’s or any other high end steak house. I have to find out where to get that meat and buy a few tons of it.  It was seriously the best steak I’ve had.  And I’ve had a lot of steak.

The bunk house we stayed in had internet access that was good enough to post pictures and do some surfing, but not good enough to let me actually work. In my opinion it was perfect b/c I did not want to get sucked in to the computer as I’m likely to do. I also did not have cell service (Verizon) at the bunk house. If I went out to the road or somewhere else I could get a call out. There is a phone at the bunk house though.  In my opinion this is a major feature of the location not a bug.  The last thing I needed was a client calling me while I was trying to relax and learning something… not everday useful.

In today’s environment of pillow biting political correctness, nanny state hyper vigilance and dooshbag attorneys suing over the slightest foul smelling fart: having access to a facility like this is a godsend. There is enough room out here and enough variation in terrain to allow us to do nearly anything imaginable. If you have the chance to go out there take it!

What could have gone better:

· Directions to the Ranch. Yeah it is right off of 283 with a big ole arch over the road, but having never been there before you have no idea whether or not you have gone far enough or too far and then arriving in the dark makes it even more fun. Then…Hemphill Ranch isn’t small so even after crossing over the cattle guard you still have a few miles to go with no idea where you are really going. No biggie, everybody eventually figured it out.

· More written material for preparation so we can spend more time in the field. There was a lot packed in to the 3 days, some of it could have been provided through a reading list. For instance:

o The 21st Century Sniper: A Complete Practical Guide

o Green Eyes and Black Rifles: Warriors Guide to the Combat Carbine

o Fry The Brain: The Art of Urban Sniping and its Role in Modern Guerrilla Warfare

And other books and the various military field manuals that are available

Specific things that would have been nice to add in this ‘pre-study’ package would be range estimation techniques (mil-dots, dead reckoning, flash to bang, etc.), gear setup considerations (ALICE, MOLLE, etc.), team movement, natural point of aim, trigger control, breathing and camouflage. Keep in mind this stuff was covered, but not in depth and what I’m suggesting is supplementing it before hand to allow the class to either go deeper in to it or get to the field faster.

· Assistant for the instructor. The class had a fast pace, but because the ranges were not setup beforehand we occasionally had to pause while we got the target frames setup. An assistant could have run ahead to setup the range(s) while the classroom work was being done. Again, this would have allowed us to either shoot even more (we went through a lot of ammo) or gone even deeper in to the content.

· I stink at shooting from offhand. I can rock it from prone or sitting. Offhand though....I’m not much of a threat. I’ll be working on that.

What went really well

· By Sunday morning I was shooting groups half the size at twice the distance as what I was shooting the weekend before (I’m now making groups smaller than 2.5” at 200 yards). Some of this was just lots of shooting over the weekend. But there was a lot of discussion and coaching on things like natural point of aim, breathing, and trigger control.

· At this point I’m absolutely certain that I can hit head size targets at 200 yards all day long even with strong winds. I’m also confident that I can make upper body hits at ~600 yards, again with strong winds.

· I have my gear nearly sorted out. I made changes to the pouches on my belt to allow me to get prone without jamming internal organs out of place. I also moved my knife from my pocket to a pouch on the harness where I can get at it easier and again not have something jamming in to me as I take a shooting position (especially sitting).

· I also discovered that my 4-16 power scope is not ideal for this type of work. During the entire class I never moved it from the 4 power setting. So I basically had a 2lbs telescope on my rifle that I had cranked all the way back. The scope itself worked great and I love the mil-dot reticle (more about it later) but it is too big and weighs too much for my rifle. Also, I had the scope custom built with adjustable turrets: big mistake! Transitioning from my rifle to handgun always caused at least one of the turrets to roll killing my zero. Not good. My ideal scope is probably a 4 power optic with a mil-dot reticle. This scope will go on a bolt action rifle I’ll get later.

· I don’t believe Mr. Chambers is a huge fan of mil-dot reticles, but I like them. In a lot of cases I actually use the mil-dots as my aim point by placing the dot on the target. However, in cases where you have wind (try 40mph swilling gusting wind) with a target 600 yards away so you have to hold over you won’t be a mil-dot. This is where my experience with racing motorcycles came in handy – reference points! If you are good at follow through after you break the shot you’ll see where your impact was so you can adjust. At 600 yards I observed that my shots were 1 mil-dot to the left and 4+ low. I compensate by moving up and to the right and observing what is there (say a bush) and fire again. If I’m on target then I’ll use the bush as my aim point, otherwise I adjust again finding another reference point to aim at.

· The instructor – John Chambers – was excellent. Getting to spend 3 days with him both in class and out was great. His knowledge and experience in this area of practice is formidable. Basically, if he suggests you try something: do it. He will not lead you wrong. He also has great stories to tell and they are worth listening to.

· The group of people that attended the class also made the experience what it was. I feel that I’ve made new friends who I hope to get to train with again in the near future (9/11 AK class!).

Summary

For personal reasons this weekend was exactly what I needed on a lot of different levels. Three solid days w/ very little cell service and just a few minutes of computer was great. The result of the class is that I’m a lot more accurate at shooting that I was before. If you are given the opportunity to take this class I highly recommend it. Especially if you can do it at Hemphill Ranch. I’m sure the other places are nice, but Hemphill really is that good.

Choosing your little friend

I’ve been asked a few times about how to pick a handgun caliber. Should I go with a 9mm or a 40 caliber? What about a 45? I want a one shot stop gun. Blah blah blah.

Let me start by saying handguns suck. Hitting something further than 25 yards is a crap shoot. For practical concealed carry at best you have 16 rounds before you need to reload. Even with a 45 you are not going to blow your assailant out of his shoes. The reason we carry handguns is because people lot at us kinda funny when we walk in to Starbucks carrying our 12gauge. Local and state authorities also discourage it. The point of the handgun is to let you get back to your car so you can drag out the 12 gauge to finish the conversation.

So we’re stuck with a handgun. So go big or go home right? Get a big old 44magum like Dirty Harry. You are going to conceal that where? Next to the 12 gauge in your trunk? It is not going inside your waist band. Worse you only have 4 or 5 shots in the magazine. Don’t bother.

The whole idea of stopping your assailant does not really have much to do with caliber. It is about the ammunition being used. Shoot a person with a full metal jacket round out of anything and they might not go down right away. They’ll be hurt, but not out. But shoot a person with a nice high quality hallow point even in a smaller caliber and it is a whole different story. Ballistic studies bear this out. The entire goal is to create as much shock as possible. That is why self-defense rounds ammunition is almost all based on a hallow point bullet.

So why do I carry a 9mm? First, I load it with high quality self-defense rounds (Hornady Critical Defense). Each magazine carries 16 rounds so I’m able to easily carry 32+ rounds on my person when I’m out. Because the 9mm has no real recoil I’m able to keep my front sight on my target for several rounds. I’m also able to transition between targets and move without getting off target.

Does this mean you should get a 9mm too? Nope. Go to the store and see what fits your hand. If there is a range that rents stuff out – go take advantage and see what you like. The important point on picking your friend is that you can use it and reliably hit your marks with it. The caliber is just an ego thing. 9mm might not be a big caliber, and people talk about the 1911 like it is Excalibur, but if you can’t use it effectively it might as well be a spork.

Once you have your weapon: practice with it, take some classes, burn up a few hundred dozen boxes of cheap ammo and keep some good stuff for around the house. After that maybe you look in to getting a CHL and consider the realities of the world we live in.

Fitness update

Food is such a huge pita.  In December I started tracking information about my weight, exercise and what I ate each day. 

I’m generally not worried about my weight.  I’m more interested in my fitness level and what I can do (run 3 miles in under 30 minutes, 20 pull ups, 80 sit ups in 2 minutes) than what I weigh.  In general meeting my fitness goals will cause me to weigh the correct amount necessary to meet those goals.  All that said: what I eat has a direct impact on my fitness.

My current eating plan cuts out most sugar.  Cutting out sugar generally has the affect of creating a low carb diet.  I also avoid, or try to avoid, bread type stuff – chips, donuts, bagels, buns, pasta, etc.  But it is not easy following this.  If you want convenience you are going to eat a lot of processed food which means sugars and lots of ‘cheap’ carbs. 

Worse, I friggin love sweets!  Give me a box of Jujifruits and a bag of twizzlers, jelly beans, and just about anything else on the candy isle and I’m good.  So I constantly fight the craving for sweets.  And to help out I have to kids that are every bit as bad as I am when it comes to candy.  My one indulgence: chocolate.  I buy dark chocolate mostly but occasionally some milk chocolate too.  It generally satisfies the candy cravings.  I also get blue bell no sugar added ice cream.  It still contains sugar, but if 1 cup of ice cream in the evening is going to prevent me from achieving my goals then I’m doing something seriously wrong.

Veggies are another problem.  I really don’t like veggies.  Carrots, broccoli, lettuce, and a few others are tolerable, but I have a rough time getting enough veggies in my diet.  The benefit of veggies is that they fill you up like a mofo.  I’ll usually microwave a bag of broccoli and eat that and be full for a long time afterward.

I’m just writing this stream of something or other.  No real plan.  Just thinking through how to get where I want to go.  Think I just need to buy more broccoli.  Maybe see if I can use canned Tuna more.  Me and the cats can eat together.

Government Spending = jobs?

 

That has got to be a punch line to a joke somewhere. Over the past decade our federal government has spend mind numbing amounts of money and made promises of more money (pensions for federal workers, healthcare, social security, etc) all while having to borrow money.  Even better: many states are well on their way to being bankrupt because of their prolific spending and promises (more pensions and other stuff).  All of which leads to me trolling through the news where I found this jewel by CBS news:  Obama's Conundrum: Matching Job Creation and Spending Cuts. The premise is that Government spending creates jobs (Keynesian economic model) and to a degree it does.  We now have a huge federal workforce doing all sorts of stuff.  Stuff they shouldn’t be doing.  Stuff that really should be done by the states, if the states (ie voters in those states) want it done.  Further, the cost of having these wonderful federal employees (or contractors) do their jobs is higher than the private sector.  And how does the federal government pay for all this wonderfulness?  By taking your money.  It also takes my money, and the money from businesses, and from entrepreneurial types that go out and create new businesses that employ people.  For instance: Wal-Mart – it got started as a small store and grew.  In the process of growing it created a huge number of very wealthy people who went out and started other businesses that grew and created more wealth.

The government on the other hand destroys wealth as it grows.  Worse, as it grows and takes more of our money it causes people who have money to look elsewhere.  Even worse many of those people are entrepreneurs who create the very jobs (and pay taxes) the government (Obama) says it wants created.

If The One wants to create jobs – cut spending.  Let people, businesses and entrepreneurs keep their money and spend it how they want.  That will do more to create jobs and get the economy going than any of those stupid stimulus bills, Obamacare, Cap and Trade, or anything else.

However, perhaps I’m not correctly understanding the topic.  When we say “matching job creation and spending cuts” nowhere does it specify the type of jobs being created.  So yeah, if we cut spending then ultimately we’ll end up with fewer federal government employees.  To me that is a feature.  But what do I know?  I’m just a dumb redneck that works 60 hours a week to pay down debt and save up to start my own business.

Fitness plans for the new year

[I really didn’t organize this, it’s a bit stream of consciousness]

Usually crap New Year’s resolutions – blah blah – eat better, exercise more so on and so forth.

Really could care less about all that. I think that focusing on weight is not a great idea. What purpose does your weight serve? Instead I’m focusing on some stuff I want to do that will require me to be in better athletic condition than I am now. If I happen to lose weight or look better as a result fine, but I’m really not concerned about that.

First event coming up is the Warrior Dash in April. However it sort of collides with the LaRue 3gun match in Austin so I might do that instead and go to the Warrior Dash in Conroe on March 19. We’ll see. I’m still picking out events that I want to attend this year. I want to get in to doing 3gun matches because the videos look like a lot of fun. For instance, last year they did a ‘drive by’ stage:

One of the main events I’m going to do is Tiger Valley’s Bug Out Drill. Some of my internet friends have done it and it is a lot of fun. Tough (a 15 mile hike while carrying gear) but a lot of fun (various challenges along the way). On top of all of this is that I’ll start doing track days in March. Riding a motorcycle ‘fast’ requires good physical conditioning.

A lot of skill is involved in doing this stuff. However, you don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to do it. The other stuff like the Dallas Mud Run and Merrell Down & Dirty Dallas requires a little bit of fitness, but again: not Olympic athlete fitness to do it. I’m just going to have some fun and have a reason to exercise. Otherwise, why bother?

How do I plan to get in shape? Nothing earth shattering. Simple stuff like pushups, sit ups, leg lifts, squats along with jogging roughly 2 miles each morning. I do about 5 miles on weekends. I’m also going to add some weight lifting to the routine. Probably twice a week. As for diet I’m not going to kill myself. First, and probably most effective, is to get back to planning menus in advance and sticking to them. That cuts out the impulse to have Chinese food or Pizza delivered. We’ll probably start back to the 30day cooking thing.

The benefit of 30 day cooking is that you have everything planned out and partially prepped ahead of time. This can make preparing dinner a snap when you are either in a rush or just don’t freaking feel like it. You can also change your mind about what you are having without having to order out.

For instance I buy these packets of chicken breast at CostCo. There are 12 breasts in 6 packets. I open half of them, season and grill them right away. I take the cooked chicken breasts, wrap them and put them in the freezer. Need a chicken Caesar salad? Just grab a breast out of the bag, thaw it, heat it up, chop it up and your good to go. Hamburger meat gets turned in to patties and frozen and some of it is seasoned (salt, pepper and garlic) and browned and then frozen. So hamburgers, tacos or chili is really easy to pull off.

Two reading resources I like are “4 Hour Body” by Tim Ferris and “Fit for Combat” by JD Johannes. Right now 4HB (roll eyes) is all the rage. Truth is Ferris really doesn’t introduce anything new, but I like his writing style and some of the crazy shit he does. A lot of people absolutely can’t stand him, which because so many people are complete morons, makes him more interesting. His other book “4 hour work week” has a lot of interesting ideas that are worth considering. However, be prepared that there are risks involved, but everything has risks. I’ve been JD Johannes blog for a long time and “Outside the Wire” is a good look in to what Iraq is like. In his case compared do your usual run of the mill journalist this guy actually got outside of the hotel to see what was going on in Iraq. Logging video gear while wearing body armor and running around with a bunch of crazy Marines takes both courage and fitness.

So basically in my opinion both authors have a certain amount of credibility. The first part of Ferris’s book focuses on diet. Nothing new: quit eating all the sugar and refined crap. This also includes the diet sodas (which is a damn lie!). This is basically what is called the Paleo diet. If it is or could be white: skip it. That means wheat, rice, corn, and sugar. You should also skip fruit b/c of the fructose content which doesn’t help. To build muscle up: eat lots protein. Muscle burns calories. More muscle burns more calories. Buy continuing to supply your body with protein it will use its fat stores to help meet your muscles needs. Fail to supply enough calories the body will use muscle to make up the difference and save the fat. Eat enough of the right type of calories (proteins mostly).

The goal in all of this is to be in a good enough condition to be able to do well in all of the events and be able to have fun with my friends. Ideally when I get home I’d like to not crash out and spend the next week recovering. We’ll see how I do.

Simple Math for Marksmanship

I like shooting with iron sights.  Unfortunately my eyes quickly get tired from trying to focus on small targets in the distance which makes progress difficult.  There are a few things involved:  distance, the size of the target and the color of the target and its background.

The range I usually go to has a 50 and 100 yard line to shoot from.  I want to use the 100 most of the time, but I can work on the 50 yard line longer before my eyes are too worn out.  To help myself I decided that I should change the target from the zeroing targets the range gives out to something easier on my eyes.  The problem is that I don’t want something huge (really easy to hit).  I want a target that will sit on top of my front post and be about as wide, I also want to be able to clearly see it.

So at 100 yards how big does the circle need to be to appear to be the width of my front post on my rifle?  Turns out the answer is about 9 inches.  But how did I get that?

Simple: similar triangles.  First, lets set up the parts we need to know:

The values we are working with are:

• Size
• Distance
• Angle

In the first triangle we will use the rifle so the values are:

• Size=.05 inches for the front sight post (your post might be different – go measure it)
• Distance = 20 inches from the eye to the front post (your rifle might be different – go measure from your cheek weld to the front post)

We need to find the angle.  To get the angle we divide size by distance. So the angle of the triangle is .14 degrees (small).

Now for the bigger triangle we know the Distance and Angle.  To find the size of a target that will sit on top of the front post we multiply the tangent of the angle by the distance (tan(angle)*distance):

• Distance = 3600 inches (100 yards)
• Angle = .14

So a target that is the size of the front post at 100 yards (3600 inches) will be 9 inches in diameter (if it is a circle). 

So if I want it to be roughly half the size of the front post a 4.5 inch circle will work.  I should mention that as you do this for yourself you need to keep your units the same.  So if you want to make a target for 300 yards you’ll have to convert yards to inches (10800).

The next question is what color?  Black on a white background would be great, unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to see where I hit.  Red, green or blue might also work.  I’m not sure about yellow?  I’ll have to experiment to see.

I can probably buy a book of targets that are already the right size.  But what fun would that be?  A program like Publisher or PaintShop will let me make whatever I want.  I can customize it to my heart’s content – grid lines, faces, shapes, different colors, etc.  We’ll give it a try this weekend and see what happens.

SCARlet goes to the range

I got to take SCARlet to an indoor range on Thursday.  We got an initial zero done at 25 yards.  But I got out again today... so I went and tested myself at the 100yard range:

The top 3 shots were the first group.  The 3 shots on the diamond were after dropping the front post 8 clicks.  That was done using the stock iron sights and a sand bag.  Unsupported, at best I can do 2" groups using irons.  It's not my hands, it’s the eyes.  I can’t maintain focus for very long, even on the front post. Going to have to give up and get a good optic.

Moving on to the actual shooting, the only complaint I have for the SCAR's irons is that there isn't a 100 yard setting for the rear sight.  It goes from 200 to 600.  They’re really nice sights though. They are folding sights. The rear sight rides on the rail and the front site sits on the gas block.

To adjust the rear sight you turn the post until the number is lined up with the white line. The windage is adjusted using the knobs on the side. The front site is works just like the M4. To go up or down you use a sight adjusting tool to turn it. I suspect for CQB stuff you could get away with just putting the target inside the circle (assuming man size targets inside 25 yards):

Shooting the SCAR isn’t really any different than the M4. Actually, it’s more comfortable because of the SCAR’s adjustable cheek rest. However, I highly recommend finding a place to park your thumb if you leave the charging handle on the left side (you should unless you are shooting left handed). I smacked my thumb twice because I had it in the charging handle’s way. Didn’t hurt me but I could see how you could get hurt doing that.

One thing that did surprise me is that the recoil from the SCAR is really mild. Not much different than my M4. However, it is loud! It was pretty funny because when I took my first shot I heard several people comment ‘What the %!#%$@# was that???’. Perhaps the muzzle break has something to do with it:

I realize I didn’t provide anything for reference, but it is nearly 3” long. At the indoor range that I went to earlier in the week it provides a very nice fire ball once it has warmed up. Good for cookouts.

Basically, my impression is this: with practice I could stack bullets on top of each other at 100 yards. Invest in a decent optic and I bet it would let me stack them at 500 yards too if the rifle was supported.

Now for the fun part: Disassembly!

Breaking down the SCAR couldn’t be easier: pop the takedown pin loose, slide the lower forward and out, pull the stock down, pop out the rod, slide the BCG (bolt carrier group) back, take out the charging handle and then take the CBG out and you’re almost home. On the BCG you just pop out another take down pin, drop the firing pin out, pull the cam out of the bolt and then pull the bolt out of the carrier. Viola, you’re ready to scrubba dub dub.

Take down pin:

Three easy to carry pieces:

The charging handle (you can move it to the other side if you want):

The BCG:

The upper after everything is out:

Until I learn differently: I’ll run my SCAR wet like I do my M4. A friend of mine commented that my M4 leaked more oil than his motorcycle. Just call me British Petroleum.

That’s it. What else can be said by me? It’s a bit expensive. But for the price you get one hell of a rifle. It’s accurate, it’s loud, it throws a big friggin bullet, its sights are really good. I think FN did a kick ass job making this thing. I’m glad I get to own one.