Saving Magazines………

It’s always a point of contention among instructors, students, and just about anyone who gets into training more involved than their CCW permit class.

My thoughts:
If it’s empty and you are doing a bolt/slide lock reload, dump it and try to retrieve it later if you have the ability.

If its a partial mag retain it.

My thought process:
If I’ve shot to bolt or slide lock getting more ammo in my gun is of more importance at the moment than retaining an empty magazine.

If I have a partial mag I’m changing, A. I’m behind cover/concealment and getting ready to move to a new position B. the fight is over. Both of those situations afford me some ability to slow down what I’m doing to save my partial magazine.
I would go as far as saying retain an empty if you’re in situation A. behind hard cover or C. if you’re 100% sure the fight is over.

In a fight your one mission is to stay alive. There are infinite number of scenarios I can think of where I would rather retain my mags, but most of them involve having a team to cover my downtime to reload and none of them involve having no cover or concealment.

Your thoughts?

We’re discussing it here

My one post to address the things being said………

Over the last couple of days I’ve had well over 200 messages from students, online friends and even people I don’t know and have never met. All of them were asking if what Gabe Suarez was saying was true.  In one word, no. I would like to leave it at one word, but I can’t abide by a grown man lying to try to minimize the damage to his wallet so to address one lie. Gabe knows exactly why I left his organization. Here is a copy of the reply I sent him on 14 November when he emailed and asked if he and I “had an issue”

———————————————————–full and complete email————————————————————————

Gabe I’ll tell you the same thing I told the countless people who have asked both in and out of class. I don’t have an issue or animosity with you or SI. You’ve treated me fairly. When someone isn’t happy or doesn’t agree with the direction something is going they have two choices complain about their situation or change it. I’m not one to complain to another man about his business so I changed my situation. The reasons I gave you were all very real and actually increasing since in the last two weeks my step dad has sunk into full blown Alzheimer’s. The reasons I didn’t give you were that I’m not an equipment salesman and I don’t care for the increasingly hard line marketing approach SI has shifted to with ever changing and new “best” gizmo. Why didn’t I give those out? Because I’ve seen others go down that road and the issues it caused. To me this is a business, but it’s not my life or livelihood. I tend to not be emotional about business or life. I do what I do and when I no longer enjoy something or I think something may lead me to choosing between my integrity and making a dollar, I always choose my integrity. It’s the one thing no one can take and only I can give it up. I have enjoyed what I’ve.done within SI, but I felt it was time to move on.

After a lot of years of dodging being blown up, internet squabbles and emotions just don’t rank very high on my list of important things in my life.

From one friend to another your recent actions the last several months have really turned a lot of people sour on SI. People who have been long time supporters and multiple class students. I have had many tell me during class that they were taking the class in spite of you, not because of you.

If that was too blunt, sorry, but though I may not complain I’ve been told that I sometimes answer direct questions too honestly and with little tact.

 

 

Take Care,

Don

 

Sent from Google Nexus phone

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He replied asking specifically what was pissing people off so I sent this one 4 hours later on 14 November.

 

————————————————–Full and complete email———————————————————————————-

Thanks, I just saw this.

The big thing people are uncomfortable with is the continually changing product line and bad mouthing the product line from last week. They are also not happy about the name calling and such of former vendors and staff. A lot of people were highly offended over Dale’s products being called sub-standard as one example. I get it that you’re trying to make money in a tough business, but eventually burning those bridges significantly reduces the paths you can take. For 2013 and even as 2012 was leaving us I would overhear students comments among themselves in class and they weren’t happy that the rifle/pistol/widget they bought based on SI’s recommendation was now junk according to the same person who sold it to them. As 2013 progressed the questions became more direct as to why you seemed to be going out of your way to insult customers. I totally understand where you want to go as far as being more upscale, but I think the question that needs to be answered is are there enough upscale customers to support everyone. I don’t see it. It would be great if those like Bae were the norm, but the reality is that the blue collar guy who saves for a few weeks or months and can either buy a new rifle or 2 classes seems to be the norm. Being proud of accomplishments is great and as it should be, but flaunting lavish purchases to the guy that just saved for two months to give you his money isn’t going to win any loyalty.

I’m off to my next class. This college schedule is kicking my ass this semester.

 

 

Take Care,

Don

———————————————————End of Email—————————————————————————————-

 

If Gabe wants to claim he knew nothing of why people are leaving it is a lie. I’ll be glad to forward the email chain to anyone who doesn’t believe the copy and paste, it’s here for the asking.  There are a total of three emails that day containing his questions and my replies. I may address the other lies at some point, but I really don’t like drama, so for now just this one.

The High Road and Telling My Story

Roger has said this about as well as anyone could; now it’s time to get to work.

The Fighting Rifle and it essentials…..

by Don Robison

Owner Dynamic Response Training

 

This is an article I posted elsewhere a few years ago, I have updated it to where I stand today.

The concept of quality gear isn’t new and there are always those looking to just get by or who for whatever reason are afraid of technology; when you’re talking about a piece of life saving equipment just getting by and not maximizing the resources available is the wrong approach.

The fighting rifle; there has been a lot written about the fighting rifle. What it is, what isn’t, what it should be, what it shouldn’t be. Here is my take on all of those opinions. A fighting rifle is the rifle you have right now; it’s the rifle you train with. It’s not the uber cool rifle you don’t have. What are the attributes of a fighting rifle for me? A fighting rifle must be as simple as you need it to be and as light as you prefer, but most importantly reliable. This is usually the point where the AR guys start pontificating about how light their rifle is and the AK guys do the same about the reliability of their rifle. Guess what; none of that matters if you don’t own the knowledge and skill to get the most out of your chosen platform. Me, I don’t care which one I use, but I do gravitate towards the AR platform because I have the most time and training with it. That said, I own both train with both and keep both as simple as I need them to be. The essentials of a fighting rifle for me are obviously the rifle (a quality rifle), reliable well-built magazines, simple two point sling, quality red dot sight and back up iron sight, and a quality light of at least 80 lumens., but more importantly than all of those things is the knowledge to get the most out of my equipment. Let’s talk about each of those components individually.

The rifle; quality costs money. In the AR platform affordable quality is defined in no particular order Bravo Company, Daniel Defense, LMT and Colt. Bushmaster, DPMS, and Olympic Arms, regardless of what your local gun shop guy says is not “just as good”. Most of them probably have never seen a quality built rifle. Much to the chagrin of some people; quality also costs in the AK platform. Quality is defined as Rifle Dynamics and Krebs. Century is not “just as good”. Does this mean that if you have a DPMS or Century that it can’t be reliable, functional or is total junk? No, what it means is that the law of averages is stacked in your favor if you have a weapon from a manufacturer known to build to a standard of quality.

Magazines; quality GI magazines with anti-tilt followers are the order of the day in the AR platform. U.S. Palm, Circle10 and surplus metal magazines can’t be beat in the AK platform. Tapco has no place in either rifle.

Slings; there are a lot of sling preferences. There are also a lot of slings being used because some cool guy uses it and is marketing it; not because it’s the best sling for the average user. My preferences in order non-adjustable two point sling, adjustable two point, single point. I make my own single point, non-adjustable two point slings and use Vicker’s adjustable two point slings.

Optics; Aimpoint for red dot sights, there are others, but none are as rugged or have the battery life of the Aimpoint sights. I will say the Trijicon adjustable RMR looks promising for a rifle mounted optic, but the jury is still out. In my opinion not enough of them have been mounted and run hard on rifles yet. For magnified optics; my choices are Trijicon TA33 ACOG, US Optics on the high end and Leupold or SWFA Super Sniper and Vortex for a lower cost quality optic. FWIW, Vortex makes some of the finest optics in their price point.

Backup Iron Sight; Don’t forget to add a BUIS. I prefer a fixed BUIS like the Daniel Defense or LaRue, but there are several quality folding sights from Troy, Knights Armament etc. Fixed or folding is a personal preference, but my rule of thumb is magnified optics get a folding BUIS non-magnified optics get a fixed BUIS. On the AK it’s hard to beat a Rifle Dynamics modified rear sight.

Lights; Surefire period. There are other manufacturers out there, but none with the quality and customer service equal to Surefire.

Now, let’s talk about stripping things off the rifle if I need to make choices.  Choices are never easy and are always situational dependent.  Given my list of essentials if I had to start getting rid of things on my rifle, here is what I would get rid of in order and the reason why.

1.  Sling; A sling is handy as well as needed for classes and to practice a “proper” transition to the handgun. However, at handgun transition distances I can engage with the pistol one handed with the rifle in the non-dominant hand if needed.

2. Weapon Mounted Light; I ran a rifle for a lot of years without one, I can do it again if needed, but since I don’t have three hands I would prefer a light mounted to my rifle.

3. Optic; We ran rifles for a lot of years before the advent of the red dot sight and viable low power variable optics, but given the technology advances it would be the last piece of gear I would strip off my rifle. It’s been said that a red dot is like cheating; I’ll take every bit of help I can get.

What I’m left with is a quality rifle using quality magazines with iron sights, a totally useful and functional package, but why would I limit myself if I don’t need to limit myself?  I challenge you to look at your gear and not figure out what you can do without, but instead, look at it and see what you can improve. This isn’t to say if you have all “the right gear” all is good; I’m saying that quality, well thought out gear will make your training progress to a higher level quicker because you’re not fighting your equipment. At the end of the day a well-trained shooter with average gear will be better equipped to deal with a situation than a poorly trained shooter with all of the best gear available. Finding a balance of the proper gear and training for your life situation and then using it to the best of your ability should be the goal.