The victim had been stabilized, a tourniquet was applied to his left leg to stem a massive hemorrhage from the partial amputation that occurred during a motorcycle crash. The first responder on the scene had used a military-style first aid kit to treat the man’s wounds and prevent any more blood loss. That was the good news. Due to the remoteness of the area, the nearest ambulance crew were volunteer firefighters and EMT’s. The 9-1-1 dispatcher had advised that help would be on the way, estimated time of arrival was twenty to thirty minutes. Although he was no longer bleeding, the victim of the crash had lost a great deal of blood and was starting to go into shock; hypovolemic…
Guns & Gear Articles
First Time Gun Carrier: Gear Check List
This morning I had a meeting with a fellow business professional. In addition the business at hand, the topic turned to guns and concealed carry. My friend is a military veteran with some experience as a “Special Investigator” with a government agency, but he hasn’t carried a gun on a regular basis for nearly twenty years. The specifics of our discourse focused on concealed carry for himself and for his wife. We decided that they both needed to get into our next Armed Living class. Naturally, there were several follow up questions. “What kind of gun should I get for my wife? Where can I find eye and ear protection? What ammunition is best for self-defense?” As I make my…
Century AK63D: Classic Upgrade
If you have been paying attention the Kalashnikov world and the numerous configurations available, you should know that Century Arms has been building 100 percent Made in the USA AKs for several years. During the first year or so, the new Century guns with machined receivers were flying under the industry radar and did not really get the attention they deserved. Recently there was an infusion of fresh blood in the marketing department at Century and they have not only been promoting the guns heavily but they’ve done something almost unheard of in the gun world. Century put C39 rifles and pistols into the hands of hard corps firearms instructors and told them to run the gun hard and fast.…
5 Handguns Every Instructor Should Master
Every gun guy and girl has their favorite firearms. Some preferences are based upon sentiment, such as the .22 rifle your grandpa used to teach your how to shoot. Military veterans with either fall in love with the guns they carried or take with them a deep seated hatred. Don’t believe me? Have a conversation with a Vietnam vet who was first issued an M14 and then had to turn it in for a new M16. Regardless of your personal leanings, if you have taken the steps to become a firearms instructor, it is time to set your bias aside. There are tens of thousands of part-time or occasional firearms instructors in the United States. The natural tendency of humans…
Are you Prepared or Playing Dress Up With Your Gear?
Gut check time. Many of you folks went out during the last few years and spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on guns and gear. With a collective effort, you set the black rifle market on its ear and pushed sales and production to record levels. Gun shops and online dealers quickly ran out of AR-15 magazines soon to be followed by ammunition and AR parts and components. Ammunition sales spiked and most every common caliber was picked clean from the shelves. Innumerable articles and forum posts popped up bemoaning the lack of availability of every type and style of handgun and rifle ammo. Those who hesitated were lost and began to complain about “hoarders” and griped at ammo companies…
This Colt Rifle May be the Perfect Deployment Gun
For many decades, Military Contracting has been a valid option for the U.S. Government to augment their existing troops or to address a task for which conventional military personnel may not be best suited. However, the advent of the Global War on Terror has brought Military Contractors and the companies they work for into the limelight. Whatever your personal opinion about contractors (if that opinion comes from watching CNN tread lightly) they play a vital role. Contractors are often deployed with a particular mission in mind but when they arrive in country the mission changes. For instance, a team that originally had been deployed for close personal protection may end up on perimeter security. A mission that was supposed to…
AK Pistol Follow Up
We’d like to take a moment to follow up two previous articles “Best of Both Worlds” and “The Ultimate Truck Gun”. Both of these firearms are Kalashnikov style pistols available from Century Arms. The M85 PAP is imported from Serbia and the C39 is made in the USA. C39 After the original article was published we changed out the stock pistol grip for a new one from MagPul. The MagPul AK grip is hard plastic and has a small accessory or storage area inside of grip much just like their AR-15 grips. I was a bit disappointed that the hardware shipped with the MagPul grip did not include a lock washer as most do and the screw seemed to be…
Century Arms C39 AK Pistol: The Ultimate Truck Gun?
For many of you northeastern Yankees, “truck gun” may be a foreign term. Please allow a moment for elaboration and clarification. A truck gun, by loose definition, is a long gun kept at the ready in the cab of your pickup truck for general shooting chores. Depending on your locale, a truck gun may be primarily tasked with dispatching meddlesome groundhogs or prairie dogs. Texas ranchers may very well keep a truck gun handy to dispose of marauding feral hogs. Of course, the truck gun is also often viewed as a personal defense tool as protection from both two and four-legged predators. Truck Gun Check List The “truck gun” is viewed as a utility tool that is up to rough…
Wilson Combat: AR-10 Performance From an AR-15 Platform
“The 7.62×40 has no business performing as well as it does, but it does.” That quote from Bill Wilson, founder of Wilson Combat pretty much sums up lethal force of the new 7.62×40 Wilson Tactical round. “This project began when I started tinkering with the .300 Blackout cartridge. I wanted to get more out of the round than the factory ammo could give.” Wilson continued. “I was working in my reloading room and put together a .30 caliber round using a .223 Remington case. It occurred to me that this idea was so simple that surely someone else had already done it.” Bill did some research and found that a man named Kurt Buchert had previously worked up a similar…
Fighting Guns: Tools not Trophies
Every firearms instructor worth their salt will tell you that when it comes to choosing a defensive handgun, or any firearm for that matter, that function is the number one consideration. That advice is really is a no-brainer or a truism. We give constant lip service to the fact that the top quality of any firearm chosen for combat or fighting is reliability. However, the truth of the situation is that more than a few online tactical gurus and gun shop experts favor popular mythology over reality based on experience and fact. For instance, the non-stop drivel about the .45 ACP overshadowing the 9x19mm cartridge in the “stopping-power” arena still abounds. First of all, there is but a fraction of…