Dispatch 004: Driving the Dot: Increase Your Lethality

I am going to resurrect the Village Praxis series I had a on a previous website I ran. This will be devoted to practical tactical notions on increasing your lethality and preparing for hard times.

Publisher’s Note: In other news, I am honored to have been appointed the Smedley D. Butler Fellow at the Libertarian Institute.

Welcome to the fourth installment of the CG Dispatch, an essay series.

I am going to use this opportunity to explore some of the more contemporary topics and on occasion use fictional narratives to drive the speculation. Low cost resistance to tyranny is emblematic throughout history.

Bill Whittle has been doing Odin’s work with his history of Communism and it is splendid.

I am currently reading “Sand and Steel: The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France” by Peter Caddick-Adams, highly recommended.

This post will inaugurate of the Village Praxis occasional reflections on the practical aspects of preparing for hard times.

Those who know me personally know guns are a lifestyle choice for me and I am constantly trying to increase my mastery and I am always a student of my own failures.

If you haven’t used the new wave in optics, your ability to be abetter gunmen is compromised.

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Some housekeeping:

I have taken a break from Gab and Twitter; I returned to Twitter after years away to help promote the podcast and I have had to tame the vampire by severely restricting the time I spend on it. I will surface to periscope depth on both social media accounts on Sunday mornings but not between to better focus on projects I am tackling. Please use the messaging function on those if you wish to chat.

And I am leveraging the Notes feature here at Substack to post my brain-zephyrs occasionally.

I wanted to personally thank my sixteen paid subscribers: RW, BB, Craig B, Kurt K, Pete, Will, John, John H, GS65, GW, R5, KK, V1Z, DC, PO and OLM.

I wanted to thank my personal correspondents who reach out to me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

I encourage everyone to use the comments function here at substack to tease out the conversation.

Like the podcast, let me know via gentlemanly correspondence if there is an issue you’d like for me to ponder or make recommendations for improvements or episodes. -BB

Optics.

Between eyes and hand mechanics, no two organic items on your body allow you to optimize delivery of that tiny projectile to its destination better than those. Fortunately, there is no shortage of available optics on the spectrum for rifles and pistols (if you are relying on a shotgun, you have not thought any of this through).

For rifle, Low Power Variable Optics (LPVO) or red dots? Well, that depends. If shooting past 300m, the former can give value added but if shooting below that threshold, then a red dot with a 3x magnifier is just the ticket. And, yes, I still employ Backup Iron Sights (BUIS) but I am becoming convinced with the bulletproof nature of evolving red dot technology and reliability that if weight is a concern, don’t mount them.

I run the gamut in optic expenses on my cosmetically offensive rifles from the high dollar Vortex Razor Gen II-E 1-6×24 and Gen III 1-10x24 to the Aimpoint PRO with a Vortex magnifier. I even have one on my Garand (Fulton Armory rail forward of the action) but I have not moved to put these on bolt guns which makes an assumption on the deliberate shot sorties I will have with a dedicated long distance long arm. The future may portend otherwise.

A preamble that applies to both rifle and pistol, irons require one clear and focused focal plane of the three we service on a target, the front sight. Human eyes can only clearly focus on one of the three vertical planes (rear sight, front sight and target) and conventional wisdom makes that the front sight. This wisdom also dictated that you closed one eye.

Learn to shoot with both eyes open.

You will still have a dominant eye that tracks precisely. Don’t know your dominant eye? Cheap trick: with both eyes open take your dominant hand and index finger and place it on that light switch or door knob three to five meters in front of you. Close your left eye and if you are right hand/right eye, that tip of your index finger should be right on the object. Converse for left-handed. Are you cross-dominant with right/left or left/right? Then both eyes open will be even easier for you. By the way, this index also allows you to service targets at approximately five meters and closer with no irons or sights at all by simply pointing your index finger along the frame of the weapon in your dominant hand and striking an eight-inch pie-plate with minimal practice.

With that out of the way, I cut my teeth on irons because that is essentially all we had. As a member of the Pacific Regional Highpower rifle team in the Navy in the early 80s, we had nothing else and engaged out to 600m. I love irons but technology now makes me five times faster mounting a pistol to service targets with a red dot system.

Five times.

I have been running red dots on the Glock armada and with after-market barrels, I can put ten rounds in the same hole at seven meters [this is not bragging but simply the resulst of the joys of dry fire]; I would suggest that with sufficient range time, you can do the same. Can I do that with irons? The blossom is a little bigger but the speed is not there. Plaid the Impaler did a superlative video three years ago on recoil control that I commend everyone’s attention to. Red dots and recoil management in a pistol is making speed and accuracy with a pistol so much more attainable for the average shooter. This is a paradigmatic shift in rounds on target.

On pistols, I used to run Trijicon RMRs with an adjustable 3.25 MOA red dot and no longer because their durability is questionable and just terrible customer service. I now run Holosuns and some Swampfox optics. All of my slide cuts and mods are done by the good folks at Boogeyman Customs in Tucson, AZ.

The secret to mastering pistol red dot gunnery is to practice and perfect the same draw from the holster through repetitions and drills during dry fire and live fire coming to rest with both eyes open on the target (the third focal plane). Combined with high grip, thumb over thumb, recoil management and follow-through, you can drive your pistol much like you drive your rifle. The reduction of variance in the way you employ your weapons makes sure that once in Condition Black or Red, your battle drills and unconscious competence.

I’d also like to hail and praise the great Bob Keller of Gamut Resolutions with whom we have had private courses with mysekf and my sons for increasing our ability to engage fast and accurately. We have transitioned to DoD three inch target sheets exclusively and the “aim small, miss small” discipline has proven out.

The web-verse is chock-full of all kinds of data, analysis and reviews of red dot equipment, I simply wanted to provide a brief overview by exception of my thoughts.

A note on reviews and manufacturers: I buy all my own kit and have no sponsors so I will let you know if something is shit.

Remember, you can drive a rifle or ride a rail car.