Your rifle? Your conditioning? Or both?

[Lowdown3]

So a few weeks back I'm shooting with the family. The boy has been moved up to full size AK and 9mm G- lock, so that's been costing me more.

Both of them like "no frills" set ups on their rifles. The boy I wouldn't let him have an ACOG or anything right now, because he's been shooting for a few years, but he needs more experience with open sights before I'll let him have an optic on his rifle. Too often people try to choose the "easy way out" and that often manifests itself in sloppy marksmanship, fundamentals that aren't tight enough, etc. The wife on the other hand, shoots well for years now, and would benefit from an Acog or other optic and I've offered to buy one for her rifle on more than a few occasions. For her, it's a weight of the rifle issue. She actually decided to go to the gym partially because of this after a weekend of shooting last year.

So my AK has an ACOG and a DBAL-I2 infrared and visible laser on it, for use with the PVS14.

The family watches a lot of Duck Dynasty on DVD. So we get to the range and after a few minutes I'm getting ribbed with the "Dad's got a YUPPIE rifle" jibs. LOL.

Their is a fine line between what all we put on a rifle, it's "value" to what we are doing and it's limits it puts on use.

For every action their is an equal and opposite reaction type of deal.

A good way to see if you got too much crap on your rifle is this-

With a loaded mag but empty chamber, hold your rifle out in front of you like a pistol with your rifle arm. DO NOT lock your elbow. Watch the clock, you should be able to go at least a minute to begin with.

THEN

Do a PISTOL STYLE hand transfer and try the left for the same period of time.

2 minutes on one arm is the longest I've ever gone, it was murder :)

Now this will show you a couple things-
1. If you have too much crap on your rifle (it's gonna be different for everyone). Check the "balance" point of your rifle also.
2. Your conditioning, most can do a minute to begin with. Remember you can move your body around the gun as well as the gun around your body. This might be necessary to remove excess tension that builds in your back (depending on body type, etc.) Just keep your arm straight but you can move the rest of your body as needed.
3. Or both conditioning and too much crap on your rifle.

This is an easy thing to add into your dry fire drills AND any home PT you are doing.

[Not_Yet_Prepped]

I recently incorporated some things I found in Joe Noboby's book The Home Schooled Shootist . He has some really good and 'cheap' ideas. In the book he covers some "PT" type stuff for shooters. He also suggest adding "weight" to your rifle during your training drills to improve strength of those muscle used in holding your weapon in the way you will hold it during a fight. I thought it was full of good ideas and have used many already.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Home-Schooled-Shootist-ebook/dp/B009081B2Y

[610Alpha]

In BT I had the opportunity to do a LOT of lunges (stationary and walking) with my weapon above my head...it is harder than one thinks.

[Not_Yet_Prepped]

In BT I had the opportunity

LOL "had the opportunity"... Like you had a choice in the matter?

[610Alpha]

LOL "had the opportunity"... Like you had a choice in the matter?

I had a choice...although the other choice wouldn't have been very wise. My Platoon DI was an amateur body builder (his arms were so big he couldn't roll his sleeves up) that had more tabs than I had seen on any one soldier and he was an instructor for all of them too.

[motesjm]

It drove my dad crazy that I wouldn't buy my son a scope for his .22 until he could kill squirrels effectively with open sights. IMO, starting with glass is like not learning basic math because you have a calculator. You NEED to know basic math to understand what you are doing with the calculator. All my dad could see was me being a jerk to the boy.

On the weight thing, thats something I've struggled with with my M1A Loaded. Its a great shooting rifle, but its heavy to begin with. Add a scope mount, rings, scope, light, 20 rounds of ammo, ect...and you've got something I don't want to take for a walk. I haven't tried the minute thing yet, but I'm almost positive I couldn't hold it up that long.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Ya mean like this!?!



Good advice on the weight and exercising. I have run into many including some of my close family who are disabled and can not lift a rifle and are limited to a 22. That is fine by me cause i'd rather they have that than something I might end up having to tote later on top of my gear.

[Grand58742]

At one point in time I was highly guilty of slapping on every doodad and tactical bling I could onto my carbine. And eventually it got heavy and I decided to start looking at what I had and started dropping weight. At most these days, I go with a white light, Magpul AFG/foregrip, RDS and sling. If it came down to it, I could still drop the AFG/foregrip and move on, but the weight is negligible.

I suppose I have an advantage of carrying my carbine at work with almost the same setup I have at home so adding an extra pound here and there isn't as big a deal. But overall, if I wasn't doing it, I would probably have issues.

Bigger picture here is "what do I need" as opposed to "I really want this." Matt's picture for example is pretty funny, but I've seen some that looked close lol. Guy at work has an EOTech, 3X magnifier, NOD, laser, white light, grip-pod, visible laser, 60 round Surefire mag, sling...there's something I'm forgetting, but he wonders why it's heavy. And last summer on a pig hunting trip, started dropping gear like crazy off it. Thank the Lord for QD levers. But after several hours of lugging it around, it got heavy.

So while yes, you can load up a carbine with all sorts of goodies, work out and condition yourself to carrying said load. It's something else entirely to carry said load for several hours on end even with a sling. Something to consider before all is taking a 6.5 pound carbine and adding 16 pounds of extra gear to it and the logic in doing so.

[thedreamers]

my guns are plane jane for the most part. always found that keeping it simple worked better(being poor helps too)lol. on my long guns I have a scope, bipod n sling. bipod adds a little weight but helps me keep on target better. defense shot guns have just a light. my run around rifles have a sling n scope. I don't have none of the big fancy scopes just cross hair or mil dot.

[flatlander]

Use a T-1, VFG and a SF Fury on my carbines and that's about it. Noticed while on my last jaunt to the land that time forgot that age was catching up to me. At 54 I'm now in better shape than since I retired 10 years ago. Started out with a baseline and just went from there. You've got to be willing to start and commit to doing the best you can.
I've seen people with needless crap on weapons. A friend of mine says "Let the MISSION drive the gear train". Be realistic on what your mission will be.

Bob

[Grand58742]

I've seen people with needless crap on weapons. A friend of mine says "Let the MISSION drive the gear train". Be realistic on what your mission will be.

Bob

About the best advice I've seen

[protus]

luckily for me my Ak is not covered in rails and junk.
im kinda the KISS guy. do i want a red dot ..sure but wont because i hate being dependent on "stuff"..my AO doesnt have a ton of distance areas,,it does but were talking sub 100 yards at best. think jungle....thats were i live lol so that plays a big role in my gear/set up choices these days.
wish i had the funds for some nvg's....those would help a ton shtf here as there is hardly any lights now.

either way being able to hump your load is key. i recall going from mbr to ak and how much lighter it was to carry...then i recall how easy it was to do the hold the rifle for x mins deal but how much harder it was to do transitions to the weak side.....

motivation is key,,ive been on the low end of that lately but thats gonna change.

[Freebirde]

Like Protus, most of my hunting was at the +/- 100 yard range, except when spotlighting rabbits (statue of limitation has run out) where most affordable scopes then were useless. Had to remember to act innocent when using iron sights to outshoot people with scopes. Gun gear is often a compromise of trading weight and flexablity for capacity and enhancement.

[Grand58742]

I've known guys who walked most of the way across France carrying a 10 pound M1, all their personal gear, plus extra "stuff."
Some of those same guys were pulled from the line by Patton, loaded on trucks, driven 36 hours north, and went straight into battle at the Bulge to rescue the 101st at Bastogne.
The most important part of your body to condition is your mind.

Perspective from another member here. As I told him, my grandfather went into North Africa in 42, Sicily and Italy in 43 where he fought for the remainder of the war and (his words) "walked into Germany to get a ride back to the States" in 45. Now I'm pretty sure there were rides along the way and he didn't walk all the way across the Alps lol, but still, he was a foot slogging infantryman who didn't have the luxury of riding into battle.

Provided today's .mil members carry a metric crapton of gear, sometimes upwards of 80 lbs, nothing like remembering what our fathers and grandfathers went through and what gear they had to do it with.

[Grand58742]

i recall going from mbr to ak and how much lighter it was to carry

Now just think of how much more lighter an AR would be over an AK

And way cooler! :D