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Observations from recent carbine courses I've taught.....
- Thread starter cmshoot
- Start date
For training use I personally use just about any brass-cased 55grn ammo, mainly cuz that is what my optic is set for and I don't have to do constant re-zeroing. I have 55grn ball ammo from at least 4 different manufacturers in the basement right now; Lake City, Federal XM193, some contractor overrun stuff that I can't remember who made it, and PMC 55grn .223. The PMC is loaded quite a bit softer than the rest, but functions perfectly for me.
I have a few thousand rounds of M855 in the basement that was traded to me from a N Georgia SWAT Team in return for conducting some training. I'll eventually use it for training ammo.......I hate M855 for anti-personnel use, I'd rather use M193.
For a "serious" load I use Georgia Arms 60grn V-Max.....basically a Georgia Arms copy of one of the Hornady TAP loads. One of the things I like about this load is that it shoots to the same POA/POI as 55grn M193, so my training ammo and this shoots the same. No adjusting my Aimpoint back-and-forth.
I have a few thousand rounds of M855 in the basement that was traded to me from a N Georgia SWAT Team in return for conducting some training. I'll eventually use it for training ammo.......I hate M855 for anti-personnel use, I'd rather use M193.
For a "serious" load I use Georgia Arms 60grn V-Max.....basically a Georgia Arms copy of one of the Hornady TAP loads. One of the things I like about this load is that it shoots to the same POA/POI as 55grn M193, so my training ammo and this shoots the same. No adjusting my Aimpoint back-and-forth.
dondon48, thanks!
10thmountain, y'all were in Mogadishu at the same time as me. Before that I did some training with 10th Mountain in Bridgeport CA/Ft McCoy WI/Norway-Finland. Good cold weather fighters........much better than me! I hate cold weather.......which is anything under 55 degrees! LOL
10thmountain, y'all were in Mogadishu at the same time as me. Before that I did some training with 10th Mountain in Bridgeport CA/Ft McCoy WI/Norway-Finland. Good cold weather fighters........much better than me! I hate cold weather.......which is anything under 55 degrees! LOL
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Love PMC ammo.
Let me guess, you had a M14 in Nam, then when to the M16... well it wasnt the rifles fault.. The Goverment changed the powder for the ammo, and it lead to fowling and jammed up the rifle. Now appx. 50 years later it is one of the, ( if not the ) best weapons platform's on the planet. Try running a modern carbine course w/ a M14 -vs- a modern M4, then you'll be a believer...
BTW OP, I hope to get w/ you to take a course sometime soon.
the army, in its infinite wisdom, not only changed the powder (causing fouling issues) but also forgot to send cleaning kits so they just told the troops the spaceage new rifle was self-cleaning...
I've yet to find the "perfect battle carbine" and I can't think of many viable contenders that I haven't ran. In many cases I trained with foreign military/LE with those weapons that have been running them hard for years......in other words, experts with that system.
Every system has good and bad points. It's funny.....when you train with foreign militaries, they think their system is a POS and they all want M16's/M4's. At this moment, some Israeli Corporal is sitting in the Negev cussing out his Tavor and wanting his M4 back!
So, why do I prefer the M4? It is as reliable and as accurate as any other quality carbine in the world and, most importantly, I can run one in my sleep. If there was a system out there that I found to be eminently superior, I'd switch and learn how to run it equally well. Since I ain't found that yet, I'll continue to run what I'm used to.
If you prefer the AK/SCAR/Tavor/Galil/Valmet/SIG556/ACR, those are all excellent weapon systems that I would trust my life to.......keep running them.
The purpose of this post wasn't to get people to switch to AR's, or any other agenda. It was merely observations from running thousands of students through my courses with a wide array of AR-variants. I figured folks could learn a few things.
If you don't own an AR, hate them and have no intention of ever buying one, this website has several hundred other threads you can read. Nothing myself or anyone else will say is gonna change your mind.
Every system has good and bad points. It's funny.....when you train with foreign militaries, they think their system is a POS and they all want M16's/M4's. At this moment, some Israeli Corporal is sitting in the Negev cussing out his Tavor and wanting his M4 back!
So, why do I prefer the M4? It is as reliable and as accurate as any other quality carbine in the world and, most importantly, I can run one in my sleep. If there was a system out there that I found to be eminently superior, I'd switch and learn how to run it equally well. Since I ain't found that yet, I'll continue to run what I'm used to.
If you prefer the AK/SCAR/Tavor/Galil/Valmet/SIG556/ACR, those are all excellent weapon systems that I would trust my life to.......keep running them.
The purpose of this post wasn't to get people to switch to AR's, or any other agenda. It was merely observations from running thousands of students through my courses with a wide array of AR-variants. I figured folks could learn a few things.
If you don't own an AR, hate them and have no intention of ever buying one, this website has several hundred other threads you can read. Nothing myself or anyone else will say is gonna change your mind.
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The "Never-ending hunt for Excalibur..."
It makes me laugh how often people will over-analyze aspects of either AR's or AK's related to reliability when both rifles were designed for BATTLE & average civilian use won't even begin to test the limits of either.
Just buy a good quality gun, outfit it with simple proven accessories i.e. Quality red-dot optic, good sling, etc. & take some classes in its use from a professional like the O.P.
