Howard

I am. . .

In Officer Candidate School Quantico, in one of the many long and boring classes, there was a little event to wake the students up. At a set point in one of these classes a group of Marines would run in wearing their 782 gear and firing blanks. They would run up on stage and one by one recite (loudly and enthusiastically) the following. The section below is typed as the handout was typed.

SQUAD LEADER

I am the squad leader, I carry out the orders of my Platoon Commander. I carry the M16A2 service rifle and M7 Bayonet. I am responsible for discipline, training, and welfare of my squad. In the event of combat I am responsible for the tactical employment of these motivated trained killers.

FIRETEAM LEADER

I am the fireteam leader, I carry out the orders of my motivated squad leader. I carry the M16A2 service rifle with M203 Grenade Launcher attached. I am responsible for the tactical employment of my fireteam, as well as my M203, and when you hear the “THUMP” of my 203 you will know death is in the house and HELL! is in session.

AUTOMATIC RIFLEMAN

I am the automatic rifleman, I carry the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, and K-Bar Killing Knife. I carry out the orders of my motivated fireteam leader. I am responsible for the care and effective tactical employment of my weapon, and when I open up, you will know that heavy metal thunder is about to rain down hot lead and fear on the enemy.

ASSISTANT AUTOMATIC RIFLEMAN

I am the assistant automatic rifleman. I carry the M16A2 service rifle and M7 bayonet. I also carry the spare barrel and ammunition for the Squad Automatic weapon. I am responsible to ensure that the Automatic Rifleman continues to put deadly rounds on the enemy. In the unlikely event that the SAW Gunner goes down I will continue to cause hate and discontent in the hearts of our enemies!!

RIFLEMAN

I am the rifleman, I am also trained as the Squad Scout. I carry the M16A2 service rifle and M7 bayonet. I carry out the orders of my Fireteam Leader, I am the master of detection as the pointman of my Squad. I am responsible to locate and close with the enemy and to ensure death and destruction rain down upon the enemy.

Night Vision PVS-14 Bridge Mounts

Night vision is expensive. Then, there are all sorts of options, but they are sold by competing dealers so it is hard to find fair comparisons about them. It is true force multiplier as every day we experience darkness and the vast majority would not have something like night vision. It is also something that people won’t be throwing together in their garage after a SHTF event. You either have it or you don’t.

Not that long ago a night vision salesman was pushing a product I was really interested in. Then he started making all sorts of impossible claims. Made me decide not to buy from him. It can be hard to sort through the marketing bullshit, especially if you have limited knowledge or experience with night vision.

NITEWALKER posted an excellent comparison video of various Dual PVS-14 bridge mounts. Not a whole lot of people would get the chance to have their variety of sub $1000 bridge mounts on hand. That why I am so grateful to see this sort of information shared. No way would I be buying all that stuff.

Russian Perst IR Lasers

I was chatting with some people about IR lasers and I found most did not know about the new PERST lasers on the market.

A few key points to start. In the US we have regulation on how powerful a laser sold to the commercial market is. Those limits do not apply to foreign made lasers. So these Russian lasers are full power. These PERST lasers I am listing also have adjustable power output. The tape switches have a dial so you can adjust the output to suit your environment. Some of these also have a pulsing option. But, they are Russian, marked in with the Russian language, and if you need some warranty work that may be a problem.

That said, for you night owls out there, these PERST lasers seem like a great deal. There are several models, I’ll just touch upon a couple of them.

  • The PERST-4+ is an aiming laser with a 18mw green laser and a slaved IR aiming laser. Price runs about $450. Think like a DBAL-i2, but MORE POWER.
  • PERST-3 has a 18mw green laser, 20mw slaved IR laser, and a 500mW IR illumination. Imagine a PEQ-15, where Tim “The Toolman” Taylor cranked up the power to 11. Price runs about $1,325
  • The PERST-2 is like a PEQ-16 where it includes a flash light built right into it. 18mw green laser, 20mw IR laser, 740 lumen light, and a 1200mw IR illuminator. A couple things to note is that this can run of a rechargeable 18650 battery. Price is about $1,760.

In the world of IR lasers, these are cheap. Compared to the civilian legal US offerings these lasers feel more like the death star. I think I’d rather have one of these than a DBAL-i2 or an old PEQ-2 due to the increase in functionality and smaller newer tech. That said, because these are Russian, imports of them might stop at any time and should you have an issue, it might be impossible to get it repaired.

But, there is a reason US lasers are limited. Our big bro government doesn’t want you destroying your eyes. The Russians don’t care about such things, so these lasers are dangerous. They can, and will, damage your eyes in an instant with out warning. So be safe with them if you use them. Treat your laser like the muzzle of your firearm.

A tale of two NDs

Over in the news, in North Carolina a woman shot her self while at a Ruby Tuesdays. She ended up dying from her wound. I suppose that is one way to get out of paying a bill. Or maybe Ruby Tuesdays was just that bad.

I dunno, but there is another story to share about someone shooting them selves.

There is a long write up by a man who shot him self in the leg with his shotgun. Now we could easily start working through his story and try and make our selves feel better by pointing out his mistakes and saying that we would never do that. Instead lets give it a serious read and let his suffering be a lesson for us. I can learn from my mistakes, but I’d rather learn from some one else’s screw ups.

How I Blew Off a Leg With a 12 Gauge Shotgun, Part One
Read this, all of it.

Never hurts to have a reminder of how bad we can screw up in an instant.

Caddo Mills Volunteer Fire Dept. Gun Raffle

There is always some sort of raffle, giveaway, or event going on and I’m always unsure if I should post those us on LooseRounds.com. I saw this one posted over on AR15.com, but it got scrubbed from there due to not being posted with the permission of AR15.com moderators. So I thought I’d share it here.

Caddo Mills Volunteer Fire Dept. is raffling off 30 guns. They are selling 300 tickets at $100 a piece, and you can win multiple times. Seems like it would be a good cause to support even if you don’t win.

I was never great at statistics, but if you have a 1/300 chance to win, and 30 tries. I think that ends up being a 10% chance to win anything over all. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Click the “read more” for more details.

Read moreCaddo Mills Volunteer Fire Dept. Gun Raffle