Some people are not sheep:
Humor (1):
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Humor (2):
Humor (3):
Earlier this week, TC published an article, “The Kardashian Butt Must Die” , obiviously this woman doesn’t have that problem.
BTW, what planet do women like this live on? For they certainly don’t exist in my world:
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My fiancé and I just bought and moved into a new to us house built in 1940, so I’m working on making the house harder to break into. This is a nice neighborhood, but bad things happen everywhere. Being on duty for 24 hour shifts means that if and when something bad happens I might not be there.
A quick inexpensive fix: on the left an old hinge screw, on the right the upgrade. There should be two 2x4’s in the door frame (the actual frame, not the decorative veneer) and these screws should get a good bite into both of them. Also changed the screws in the latch plate for the deadbolt. Also bought an old solid hardwood interior door (on Craigslist) to replace one that was in rough shape. If someone tries to break in now it’s going to take them time and they’re going to make a lot of noise.
If I’m home I’ll be ready for them.
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Not tactical, but I love these smoke detectors. They come with a battery you can’t change, which is good because the sensors are only good for so long. Most of the detectors in this house looked great, some even had good batteries but were all 15-20 years old.
Good move, lots of people don’t pay attention to exactly the place a scumbag might try to bust in. I had a similar upgrade after we moved into our house.
Now what I really want to do is get some Kevlar to put in a few places…
Motivational Monday: The Twin Towers
I lost two brothers that day. NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE
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Thought for the day: For all those who are battling Irma:
A brother and sister have already given their lives:
Oh hell now I won’t forget that shit!!!
And I do a (probably silly) thing to commemerate/remind in my personal life…from Sept 11 when it happened, till March 28 which marks the anniversary of my return stateside after the Storm, the beard grows…kinda just a silly little tribute to those two anniversaries, the first horrid, the second kinda pleasant.
Besides, I’m a country boy type and the beard just fits :)))
In re: to the hurricane, man what a mess! Guess that is pretty much by definition of the storm type, but doggone. It sucks for everyone affected, especially the weak and vulnerable, and does call the strong forward to the front line of that particular fight. Sadly not all people can be ready for such events and heroes are needed.
Several years back when there was a hurricane down that way, it brought high winds to my area in the MidWest and all we lost was power for 11 days. Not a huge problem, just inconvenient. But had there been flooding and high winds, along with the damage to go with it, that would have been a nightmare - the nightmare those currently affected are living.
I dunno, I just automatically think of the women, kids and elderly in that group, especially because a ton of people from here go there for winters or just move there when they retire. Hell, when my wife was a little girl she thought that was the state where retired people live, like nobody who wasn’t retired lived in Florida lol.
But back to the tactical part of this thread - this is a good reminder to keep things in order in case of natural disaster, like the basic food and water stuff, emergency gear, fire starting, etc. Fact is none of us ever know when something like that may go down. Further, it’s also a time when some scumbags will try to take advantage of people in duress, like some I read about impersonating federal officers telling folks they had to evacuate and when they did evacuate, looting their houses…even during a disaster scumbags remain, and often it presents a unique opportunity for prey…let’s not be their prey.
Peace ya all!
First post here. Just registering, as it’ll take me a few days to finish up this whole thread.
I’ve had a spell in Military Intelligence as a reservist, supply military equipment to governments as a profession, and have boxed off and on for the last 10 years, as well as having done some BJJ.
I work with some of the more elite police and military units internationally through my work, with a particular focus on tactical and operational readiness when identifying suitable equipment. I am fortunate to have some exposure to guys who really know their stuff, and to consider many as friends.
The nature of the work, and the people I come into contact with, are a significant motivator when it comes to my training.
Like Idaho, I have a fairly minimalist routine. What I’m trying to achieve through it is real world strength and athleticism, using items that I can easily transport with me/find on location. I have cut a lot of movements and tried to retain only the ones that improve my combative/‘functional’ ability. The purpose of my training is to be as capable as possible in combat situations and high stress environments, and also to appear credible to the people I deal with. Essentially, to be as hard to kill as possible.
My physical training looks like this in a typical week:
Day 1. Workout A
Sandbag (or odd object) shoulders - heavy
Weighted Chins (heavy) or Rope climbs (volume)
Barbell rows/bodyweight rows
Dumbell rows (if available)
Rollouts (supersetted in)
Finisher: loaded carry - burpees or sprints for each drop (12-15 mins)
Day 2. Workout B
HSPUs
Pushup variations (hard ones)
Dips
knuckle pushups
Finisher: Loaded carry - burpees or sprints for each drop (12-15 mins)
Day 3. Striking skills & hard conditioning - Heavy bag & sprawls, then usually some trail running in boots with the dog
Day 4. Workout A
Day 5. Workout B
Day 6. Striking skills & hard conditioning - Heavy bag & sprawls, then usually some trail running in boots with the dog
Day 7 - Off
On top of this I usually get to spend a few hours a week with a gun in my hands.
I hope to be able to contribute to this thread more specifically once I get caught up.
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Welcome to the Combat Forum. Anytime you wish to discuss the operational equipment, please do. With some many companies and innovations every day, it is hard to keep up, especially weeding out the toys and gadgets that only appeal to the “Tac-Cool” industry.
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Thought for the day:
Wise thoughts from Dave Spaulding:
Skills and Drills…not the same
SKILL: the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well with a high expectation of success.
DRILL: any methodical, repetitive, or mechanical training, instruction, or exercise. Proof of skill.
Skill is the ability to perform an activity with a high expectation of success cold. A drill…in our case a shooting drill… is intended to show proof that a skill(s) can be performed. Skills must be learned, understood, practiced, mastered and then anchored to a level of what the motor learning community calls automaticity or what many think of as “auto pilot” or “unconscious competence”.
In a gunfight…where we are fighting to save our life or the life of someone we care about… we can’t be thinking about how to perform the skills that will make us victorious, we need to be focusing on the fight itself, what our opponent is doing and what actions (based on our anchored skills) we can take to counter his/her moves. The shooting part of this conflict must be performed without conscious thought. If there were ever a time to perform a skill(s) to a high level of success COLD this would be it! What are the chances you just finished a 300 round practice session when your gunfight breaks out?
What part does shooting drills play in this process? Is shooting a drill the same as winning a gunfight? Should we be overly fascinated with popular shooting drill? To my way of thinking, a drill is nothing more than a test of a skill or skill sets. Emphasis should not be placed on shooting a successful drill, but on executing the needed skills at a high level so the drill will be a success…they are not the same thing.
Instead of practicing the drill over and over until success is achieved, the student of combative pistolcraft should practice the required skills for that drill! This includes the smooth and efficient “chunking” together of skills into one fluid motion. As a matter of fact, it is this “chunking” process that makes any drill important as a drill is not a fight…it is merely a practice method for the anchoring of skills so they can be performed together automatically.
To become a “slave” to any particular drill is just silly, but I see it all the time. Regularly, my students tell me “I’ve been practicing the 2x2x2 Drill almost every day” and I ask “why?” “So I can win the buckle” is the normal response. Wrong answer. While practice is certainly worthwhile, it is the wrong train of thought. The 2x2x2 Drill is meant to test the skills of a smooth draw (from the student’s normal mode of carry), the gun arriving where it is needed, a clean trigger depression and recoil control performed in conjunction with the restaging of the trigger for the second shot. In reality, there is a lot going on in a very short time frame. My response to these students? “Don’t practice the drill, practice the skills that will make the drill a success!” It’s all in how you think about the process…
Drills should reinforce the proper execution and application of skill sets…they should not become the central focus of the student’s practice regime. They should be the test of the skills practiced and nothing more. Yes, it is fun and challenging to shoot such drills, but they are a means to and end and not the end result! To my way of thinking, drills should be shot at the beginning of a practice session COLD so they can offer an indication of where you stand in regards to skill development. To shoot them over and over until success is achieved is just false expertise.
In addition, the drills should be difficult…a challenge! If the shooter can do the drill on demand without difficulty then the skills required are ether anchored or the drill is just something the shooter likes to do, is good at and is not really a challenge. The drill should also have meaning! I see many instructors use drills in courses they like or look good shooting, but what do they mean? How do they advance student skill?
For example, my Fifteen to the Third Drill requires the shooter to draw and fire five rounds at fifteen feet into a 3 x 5 card, move laterally fifteen feet, plant and shoot five more into a 3 x 5 card before moving laterally again to the original position for five more rounds.
What does it mean? The drill is used to get the student to chunk together the essential skills of drawing, shooting accurately (a 3 x 5 card is roughly the size of the heart and aorta), controlling recoil, moving explosively of the X to another position, planting, shooting accurately and then changing direction ASAP. It must be shot in 12 seconds to offer a sense or urgency. These are skills that have been used in actual gunfights time and again.
At Handgun Combatives, every drill we use in our courses is meant to reinforce a skill…or set of skills…that we feel is ESSENTIAL to prevailing in conflict and we always explain these reasons. We do not do arbitrary, random, trendy or the like. Our drills are challenging, meaningful and require regular practice in order to complete them successfully on demand. Even though they are drills of my creation I cannot do them successfully unless I have been practicing the required skills. Yep! I fail regularly…but I then know what I need to work on…something drills are really good at telling us.
Shoot drills by all means…but shoot them with purpose and do not let them control your practice sessions. Remember, practice is training and training is preparation…preparation is undertaken because you are smart enough to know you need it!
One last thing on 9/11 from SSD:
9/11 Remembered – The Toll
Reading the timeline each year is a sobering experience, but it doesn’t matter what time of year I look at the images from that day. They haunt me. There were 2996 immediate deaths on September 11th, 2001. There were people who cheered that day, celebrating an attack on America. But it wasn’t just an attack on us. It was an attack on the world, with victims from over 90 countries. And those countries came together in the wake of the attack to bring those behind the attack to justice.
9_/11 isn’t over. Victims and rescuers alike suffer life threatening medical conditions due to the exposure to toxins during the attacks and continue to succumb to these lingering wounds._
And then, there’s the war. It doesn’t end. In the ensuing 16 years we’ve definitely taken the fight to the enemy and even cut their head off a time or two. The names change, but they remain enemies of freedom. We must secure our future.
Even now, the world is faced with the threat of a resurgent Islamic fundamentalism that targets our ideals in both word and deed. We must oppose them in every case, lest our efforts thus far, be in vain.
Never Forgive, Never Forget
I knew allot of people who either died on 9/11
or got crushed mentally - PSTD grief unemployment depression etc it sucked
having my city look like a war zone scary business
I was not at home I was a Ship for work
an English ship for a trade show.
Lets say it wasn’t really possible for that English ship destined to Dock back in NYC 9/12 or 9/13 to be able to dock here in NYC.
took an additional day to get to boston
a chartered bus, a train or two and several taxis
I made it back to
my down town ( east village ) apartment
on 9/14
we had no power no electricity
the sky was still black
smoke soot and god knows what else was still clouding the air
people did not know what to do.
the fire house a few blocks away
when we walked by was draped in purple and black
it had a fire truck all scorched and banged up
crumpled blackened it was tough to see.
there is a Giant gaping hole in my city where two towers stood.
It was scary.
Years later- I did a baseball game at citi field - 10 year anniversary in 2011
they brought out the team from 2001 and a GIANT ASS american flag
the team and all the people bearing the flag had
the hats /helmets/ headgear of fallen
police , Firemen , military etc
never have I been so tearful
never had I been so moved to see our flag.
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For this, I gotta say that a good place for people who don’t know about Islam being a “subjugate them” religion is:
www.jihadwatch.org The guy in charge, Robert Spencer, is very knowledgeable and there are a crapload of YouTube videos about the jihad stuff as well.
Let me give a brief overview.
Way back when, the Byzantine Empire had kicked out a bunch of Gnostics for heresy. They went south. Meanwhile, that empire was at war with Persia. They wore each other out.
So you have a bunch of people labeled heretics in a land mass and a common religion was needed to unite them. Here comes Islam, and what better way to solidify a country and go to conquering than to have a religion that teaches exactly those tenets?!
I’ve personally seen where the ruling class in Islamic countries has Sharia law enforced for the general population but do not abide by those laws themselves. Alcohol for instance, will secure you some jail time and lashes, yet I saw cases of whiskey being transported to royalty.
Lastly, I personally fail to see why we continue to grant Islam freedom of religion in America. It’s a hate group IMO, and just doesn’t qualify. May as well grant that to the KKK or whomever if we’re going to grant it to muslims (little “m” intentional to make a point.)
No I do not hate people who say they are muslim. I forgive them. But my definition of forgiveness means I don’t exact vengeance. Quick as they do their silliness, it all changes and I’ll respond with a Bush type "shock and awe’ action.
If people actually knew what the quran tells those people to do, there’d be no such term as “Islamaphobia.” Call it what it is - an imperialistic cult of control seeking to conquer the world into one caliphate, under sharia law, wherein non-believers have to pay a tax to show they are subdued, and as quick as they do anything against Islam, the contract, and their life is over.
We also have no way of telling which robe wearing raghead is strapped with explosives, so be aware when you see someone dressed in traditional muslim garb just like you would someone in loose fitting clothes acting suspicious. Hell, I’m suspicious of everyone regardless. If I don’t live with them, I don’t know them well enough to fully trust them, and that makes them go way up on the potential threat scale.
Peace Out!
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i dont get it. sorry. i mean “skill” is a virtual concept and what actually exists is “proof of skill” i.e. “drill”.
a properly designed set of drills should progress into something that will make the leap into actual combat situation doable.
but, i dont wish to go deeper into a discussion about semantics.
Wednesday’s Weapon: The classic H&K MP5.
Last Friday I had an unexpected reunion with an old friend. The H&K MP5. We were doing some drills when a German PSD team assigned to the German Embassy in Kabul, pulled into the dirt lot of the range asking for information. Several spoke English and naturally, we got to talking weapons. I mentioned I used to carry an MP5 as my primary assault weapon, and guess what, they had two they used for spares and (Hell Yeah!) they would let me run through a few magazines. God Bless their Bavarian souls.
The MP5 was my primary for several years and it always fit me like a pair of customs boots. Nothing fancy for this one, just a good trigger, open sights, and a heavy suppresser. I have carried a M4/M6 so long , I had forgotten what a sweet joy the MP5 is and made no mistake, in the right hands, a deadly killer. After four magazines, the Germans were getting worried I was going to run away with it, so, I reluctantly gave it back. A sweet weapon, for those who have never fired one, try to find a gun range that rents them and give it a try. You may have to have one.
A little background:
The Heckler & Koch MP5 (from German: Maschinenpistole 5, meaning Submachine gun 5) is a 9mm submachine gun of German design, developed in the 1960s by a team of engineers from the German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch GmbH (H&K) of Oberndorf am Neckar. There are over 100 variants of the MP5,[3] including some semi-automatic versions.
The MP5 is one of the most widely used submachine guns in the world,[4] having been adopted by 40 nations and numerous military, law enforcement, intelligence, and security organizations.[2] It is widely used by SWAT teams in North America.
In 1999, Heckler & Koch developed the Heckler & Koch UMP, the MP5’s successor;[5] both are available as of 2017.
YES!! I was wondering how long it would take for the trusty mp5 to make it into Wednesdays Weapons. I’m glad the answer was ‘not long!’
It’s actually the 1st weapon you have mentioned that I haven’t been able to shoot yet, but is definitely on the bucket list (along with a Barrett .50).
This has got to be the best thread on here, keep up the good work Idaho! Muchly appreciated!
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