Category: The Gun Thing

Not just the guns, but all the stuff that goes with them

New Same As Old

Military, The Gun Thing

I see that the U.S. Army’s new rifle is having some problems.

Okay, the XM7 per se  isn’t having problems, but its bells-‘n-whistles sighting system is.

The fiscal 2024 report on the Army’s Next-Generation Squad Weapon program from the Pentagon’s Director, Operational Test and Evaluation published last week indicates that the XM157 Fire Control smart scope that’s intended to augment the program’s XM7 Next Generation Rifle and XM250 Next Generation Automatic Rifle received negative ratings from soldiers during testing last year.
“The XM7 with mounted XM157 demonstrated a low probability of completing one 72-hour wartime mission without incurring a critical failure.”

On the positive side, the XM7 rifle itself, and its new ammo (6.8x51mm) was very much liked.  That’s good.  But a rifle without sights is useless (except at very close range).  But why isn’t the “Fire Control” system working?  I mean:

A 1-8×30 variable magnification direct view optic built by Vortex Optics subsidiary Sheltered Wings, the XM157 incorporates advanced technologies such as a laser rangefinder, aiming lasers, environmental sensors, ballistic solver, compass and a digital display overlay, all of which are designed to “increase the probability of hit and decrease the time to engage”.
The XM157 also features wireless connectivity that will purportedly allow it to integrate with heads-up displays like the Army’s current Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular, or ENVG-B, and future Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS, do-it-all goggles, allowing soldiers to survey the battlefield from cover using a live video feed from their weapon optic.

I’m just amazed there isn’t a coffee-making capability included.

Ah yes, the old “advanced technologies” bugaboo.  The more technologies involved, the greater the number of potential failure points.

Now I’m not suggesting that we go back to iron aperture sights (as good as they are), and by the way, I see that the XM7 has no provision for any kind of backup sights (which pleaseth me not).

I’m all for giving our boys the best gear possible to kill assholes I mean our country’s enemies.  But the shit’s gotta work, FFS.

So what’s the Army doing about it?

Despite the documented issues detailed in the DOT&E report, the Army is still plowing ahead with the system’s development. Indeed, the service released a sources sought notice in late January for “novel technologies or ongoing research that would be beneficial for the XM157 system as a module and/or software that provides enhanced capability.” 

Yeah, so instead of scaling back the complexity until we get something that works perfectly, and building it back up from that base, let’s make the system still more complicated than the (non-working) thing already is.  That’s a proven recipe for success, of course.

We were always drilled that there are three ways to do things:  the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way.

I’ll leave it to you to decide what’s happening here.

Birding

Good Stuff, Hunting

We interrupt this stream of all-politics-all-the-time posts to bring you some traditional recreation shooting, courtesy of Jonny at TGS Outdoors.

As always, action-packed shooting and tons of informative content, all delivered in his trademark aw-shucks overgrown-schoolboy manner (and terrible schoolboy haircut), and all whilst stuck in typical gloomy Britishland shooting weather.

(gottim)

Still, there are some perks…

And the results are important, too.

Lovely.

Breaking The Index

Self-Defense, The Gun Thing

I’m talking about yesterday’s post, and more specifically about this EwwChoob mini-video (which you should watch now if you haven’t already, because otherwise what follows may be incomprehensible).

As everyone here knows, I’ve spent most of my life shooting the 1911 pistol — most often the Government model, but a great deal of the Officer’s and Combat Commander model as well.  There’s also been quite a bit of IDPA shooting, less so of competition, but mostly as training because I’ve always thought that IDPA is quite good practice for what one might encounter in a truly bad self-defense situation.

I am of course therefore well acquainted with the concepts of “indexing” (keeping the gun aligned with the shooting arm) and “breaking the grip”, i.e. moving the gun out of the “proper” firing hold — in this case, to reload magazines.

Let’s talk about that reloading thing for a moment.

While I have fairly beefy hands, my fingers are not especially long.  So my shooting grip looks like this (please excuse the crappy photography):

As you can see, my thumb isn’t long enough to reach the mag release at all — which means that in order to drop the empty mag, I have to break the grip:

Not only has the grip been compromised, but the handgun is no longer indexed to my arm, being pointed both off to the side and upwards.

Is this important?  No, it absolutely is not — because the only reason for indexing the gun and having a proper grip would be if I were about to pull the trigger, which I’m not, because I’m busy reloading.

Once the fresh mag has been inserted, my left hand immediately comes up to assume the combat hold, and it forces the gun back into the proper indexed position relative to my arm, and the grip back into the locked position for firing.

I have practiced this action countless thousands of times, both “dry” (i.e. with an unloaded gun and mag) and “hot” (fully loaded, in the act of actual shooting), and the operation is as flowing and mechanical as changing gears in a car with a manual transmission.

In other words, I can’t see what all the fuss is about.  Of course all the approved positions are going to be compromised while I’m reloading, but who cares?  As long as it all gets back to the proper upright and locked position* in time to fire the gun, everything’s fine and dandy.

Or have I missed something?  (If I have, it’s probably too late to change anything anyway — some habits are just too ingrained to change.)

* even my shooting position is not in the “popular” manner;  instead of locking my arm straight, I have my elbow slightly bent, in the manner of Jeff Cooper:


…because I’ve found that it makes it easier to shoot from cover, and quicker to reacquire the target from recoil.   YMMV.  (Caveat:  it’s not for everyone, so adopt with caution.)

I probably sacrifice some accuracy thereby, but not enough to concern me — I’m shooting combat/IDPA, not Bullseye FFS.