I'm stealing a subject from another forum, but I think it's good. A lot of us here are active shooters. Generally, when you head out to the range, are you going to be shooting at an indoor range, or outdoors? For me, it's outdoors. In that way, I guess I'm a bit lucky to live in a State that is predominately owned by BLM. I very much prefer to keep my shooting conditions as "real world" as possible. With pistols, I head out walking with however many magazines in my pockets. As I go, I pick out targets like pieces of trash, or rocks at varying distances. If there's something to rest on nearby, sometimes I'll use it. My reasoning is that in a conflict, the ranges will be totally random, and the best place to hit, or maybe the only one available, won't be very large. With my rifles, I usually rest on the hood of my car. Very seldom, I'll shoot a longarm as I do the pistols. When I lived in a place where there were jack rabbits, it was ALL from the standing position. The exception these days is the AK. I can't find a way to rest that on bags as I do the rest of my long guns, so it's always free standing. I can't kneel, so that's out. It seems that every time I get to the prone position, the ground has a swell that gets between me and the target. How do you shoot?
Pistols 65% indoor range-35% outdoor (mainly weekly league matches from spring to fall) shotgun-100% outdoors save a few times patterning a home defense gun with buckshot indoors) rifles 80% outdoors-initial zeroing at 25 yards in the winter-indoors. 22 rifles 50/50
I'm a firearm self defense instructor and a competition shooter. I only shoot outdoors. However I train almost everyday at home doing many different dry fire training exercises. You don't need to actually shoot to improve draw speed, reloads, target acquisition, target transitions, keeping sights on target when on the move, and different starting positions. Everything that competitive shooters need to be good at.
It's a lot different for guys like you who shoot competitively and with a lot of like-minded friends and relatives. I've shot with groups before who made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. This because it was obvious that each person has to be in a high state of shooting safety discipline, and they ALL were! That's a huge part of what is conducive to camaraderie among shooters. We expect/demand a high level of performance from each other, and we share in the heightened quality of the experience. It's a measure that relatively few can pass.
it's simple to benchrest an AK. Just cut off one or two mag bodies and springs, to the point where they are just long enough to "rock" them into and out of the mag well. I did this with an M14 mag for my M1A, 40 years ago, when I was ignorant enough to own one. Such mags held 8 rds of 308.
I practice indoors with snap caps most of the time. When using live ammo, I go outside to a range. I've seen a relative leave his loaded .40 cal Glock out in the open in his bedroom during a busy family event. A young boy picked it up and pointed it 90 degrees away from me. Before I could speak, his dad reached around behind him and helped him aim the pistol. "This is how you do it---BLAM" The bullet exited several layers of the home before landing in the yard across the street. Assume makes an as..... Another reason I train outside only with live ammo.
You guys are beating me up here. OK. I have rested the AK as I do my other long guns, but it's so "different", because everything else has a scope. I rested it to get an idea of 100 yard accuracy. With Brown Bear JHP's, it came in at 5 MOA. Once I got the ArmaLite flat top HBAR, the AK became much less interesting, and never saw the bench again.
yes, if you want to do anything but spray and pray at 50m and less, neither the AK nor the typical 30 AK ball ammo are going to cut the mustard for you. I've seen a Valmet, in 223, deliever 1 MOA, so the AK design CAN be made to be accurate, but typically it's not and thru a nice, scoped bolt action, the typical military ammo is barely 3MOA. Naturally, match grade ammo CAN be made for it, but when the AR is just $600, why bother with something that's so obviously inferior? Yes, you can get an AK to use the longer range, lighter, cheaper .20 Ak rd, but then you've thrown away the ability to have a .22lr conversion unit, and both AK rds toss away your ability to use the ammo that's commonly found in the US, especially in NG and military arsenals. If shtf, those arsenals will be breeched, so the commonly found ammo is not going to be AK ammo.
the most accurate AK I ever owned was a Valmet 76 in 556 NATO (the Galil was based on this) and it shot under 1.25 inches at 100 yards. I sold it for 3X what I paid for during the Clinton scare since I couldn't get parts. The only gun I have sold that I regretted selling of the current stuff, I have a few Red Jacket (yeah the guy who was in all the news of late) AK 103s and I can get 2 MOA with federal ammo. not as good with the Bear or Wolf Stuff. I have three RJ AK-74 and with the Russian 545 about 2 MOA at best. My most accurate AK currently, an ARSENAL in 556 which is about as accurate as my Colt and RRA ARs. stuff like the WASRs 4-5 MOA
My AK is one of the CAI Yugo underfolders. It has a Green Mountain barrel, so it's probably able to shoot better than I shoot it. I don't like iron sights on a long gun. There came a day when I was shooting the ArmaLite against the AK, at a rock about 200 yards away. I was impressed with how much faster the 5.56 arrives on target, and how much elevation correction the AK required. The ArmaLite has a Nikon 6~18 Buckmasters scope, with a mil dot reticle. Compared to the AK, it's like the AR is George Jetsons' gun, and the AK belongs to a Cameroon freedom fighter. I kept picking more distant targets. At 300 yards, it becomes obvious that each gun is from a different era.
try TIMING yourself for the first hit, from low ready (as one actually carries a rifle, if the action takes longer than a very few minutes). with the standard safety, the AK is going to take you half a second longer to hit, even if you DO know to flick the safety down with 2 fingers of your firing hand (almost, but just almost) retainiing a firigng grip as you do so). If you're like most people, tho, the AK is going to be a full second slower than the AR for the first hit, unless you've got an ambidextrous thumb safety for your AK. With each enemy firing at you 4x per second, that "only one second' bs is going to seem really stupid to you (as you bleed out). Either this, or you walk around all the time with your safety disengaged, which is just as stupid.
Equally stupid is relying on a mechanical device to do your job for you, by instilling a false sense of security in your own recklessness.
Thank you, X. I don't know where you get these scenarios, G. I base my preparations on my own experiences. I have to be super tense to even carry with a round chambered. I normally don't, with rifles or pistols. If I'm out alone and shooting, I'll often have a round chambered because I switched mags, and left the last round in the gun, but that's just convenient. My defensive pistols are all 9mm Glocks. My defensive rifles are scoped. I've been fired upon in the past. Two of those times, I only had a Ruger P-85. I did carry chambered with that, because it had the decocker and fired double action on the first shot. Still, I paused long enough to decide what to do, which is long enough to cycle a Glock or AR. When I determined that these guys were gonna' keep shooting, I returned fire. Not to connect, but to see what they would do. Both times, they peed themselves and disappeared. Situation resolved. The IDF carries Glocks, with no round chambered. Good enough for me. I test myself though. While there is no round chambered, I still keep them all cocked. I want to do that for about a year, and see if I ever accidentally pull a trigger. It's been about 3 months so far, with no "AD".
