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Fred's
Columns
10 Jan 02: RESOLUTIONS
re solve’ - to determine or decide; to settle, or settle on.
res’ o lu’ tion - act or process of resolving...It’s never too late to make ‘em. Resolutions work. Try this list:
1. Learn to shoot like a Rifleman.
2. Get your friends and neighbors into shooting.
3. Clean up your corner of the country. Make sure your family understands the importance of the Bill of Rights, freedom, and guns. Ban CNN/ABC/NBC/CBS propaganda. Get the Washington Times [800-363-9118]. Get people listening to Rush Limbaugh’s daily educational [& entertaining] news analysis program.
4. Write letters to your newspaper editor. The first one will be hard, but later ones will be easier.
5. Write “1-minute letters” to your reps. Educate them on the 2nd/Bill of Rights, using JPFO’s booklets. Do it often, to: Senator XYZ, US Senate, Wash, DC 20510 and Representative ABC, US House of Representative, Wash, DC 20515.
6. Start getting ready for the 2002 election. Get friends together to work as a team. Find out who to vote for, put up yard signs, sign up educated gunowners to vote, etc.
7. Donate to the COA media campaign [2118 Wilshire Blvd #447, Santa Monica, CA, 90403] - once a month, since you’ve got a lot of sleeping gun owners you have to carry the ball for - to get the positive pro-gun message out. Learn more at: www.citizensofamerica.org. Supporting them is part of cleaning up the country, not just your corner of it. The Founders, given this chance to win minds and avoid years of blood and suffering, would have jumped at the chance to donate bucks to COA’s airwaves program - so you’ll be in good company!
8. Become a Paul Revere. Paul didn’t hang around Boston on the night of April 18, 1775, cussing lazy ignorant Americans. Heck no, he rode out to sound the alarm, to wake them up to the threat, to educate them that tonight is the night, that the morning will see a new day. You can do that too.
“Whoa!” you say. “That’s a lot to pile on to an already crowded life.”
In that case, my friend, sweep your life free of what’s NOT important, so you have time for the important. Working more than 40 a week? Quit running away from life, and find another job. This is America: You don’t need to work more than 40 to support yourself and your family. The extra money is worthless when you lose your freedoms.
And, while you are at it, resolve that anyone who tries to diminish the freedoms in the Bill of Rights is an enemy. Yes, the liberals may be favorites of Lenin, those “useful idiots” he bragged on, but don’t give them any special consideration for that. They are deadly to you and your family’s future. And to this country. Be resolved, that they will not win. Be their enemy.
Get to be a rifleman. Maybe it’ll only take you “5 shots”, like the fellow on the RGC firing line last year, giving that answer when asked how long would it take for him to learn to be a rifleman! [An hour later, he was still trying to get sighted-in.] Get your friends and neighbors into shooting. Donate to the COA media campaign. Write/educate your reps. Get ready for the election. Make ‘em resolutions. And keep ‘em.
THE RIFLEMAN'S POP QUIZ
Taken from the latest edition of Fred’s “Guide to Becoming a Rifleman”, see if you can answer it:
23. The key to rapid fire is:
a. Attitude. b. Well-aimed shots.
c. Taking your time. d. None of the above.
The correct answer requires you to think - like a rifleman.
SOMETHING YOU DIDN'T KNOW
With the media love for the UN, you may not have heard the answer to this question (or even heard it asked):
The first Secretary General of the UN was a US citizen and also a:
a. movie star b. rodeo cowboy
c. Soviet spy d. war-hero pilot
Made your choice? Think you know the answer? Wonder why the media never mentions it?
The answer is c. Alger Hiss served as Secretary General at the UN’s founding. A key author of the UN Charter, in 1948 he was exposed as a Soviet spy. [Why liberals are so sensitive about “McCarthyism” is so many have guilty secrets in the past to hide.]
GOVERNMENT RIFLEMEN
God bless the US Marines, but the group who showed up to shoot recently at RGC could not score rifleman on the AQT. Granted, they were rear-echelon, and granted, they were shooting unfamiliar Garands, but the point of rifleman skills is to be able to expertly shoot any rifle. And the unofficial motto of the Marines is, or should be, every Marine a rifleman. One of the problems is that even if these guys were trained to rifleman standards, the military drops the ball. You can “qualify” with a rifle in the military with a score as low as 125/250 - not, most real shooters would think, a qualified shooter, much less a rifleman. It’s a way for Uncle Sam to sweep under the carpet the lack of shooting skills - and the lack of care about them - in the military. I bet there is a procedure to follow if a soldier fails to qualify annually - and I bet the procedure is ignored more often than not, because it would require additional training in marksmanship, and who’s got the time - or the interest?
HOW MANY ROUNDS?
How many rounds does it take to retain your shooting proficiency?
The surprising answer: very few, maybe none! Insofar as “firing the shot” skills go, little or no fall-off in skills over an extended time is typical. You can go a year without firing a shot, and get back out on the firing line, and be 95-99%, maybe even a 100%, of what you were before.
That’s not to encourage you not to shoot. No sir! Since your skills improve every time you shoot, at least if you are a rifleman, then you should shoot frequently. You should also shoot frequently because you enjoy it and, I don’t care what anybody says, you need to have a good time once in a while. And you need to shoot frequently so you have the opportunity to take someone to the range with you, getting them into shooting. Teaching someone else to shoot is the best and fastest way to improve your own skills. [So don’t overlook the benefits to your skills of getting someone into shooting.]
The essence of the rifleman, at least so far as improving his shooting skills, is constant self-evaluation. The use of ‘ball and dummy’ to detect a flinch (or ‘bad’ ammo, if you are lucky enough to have any). The ‘one-shot’, ‘two-shot’, and ‘four-shot’ drills. Heck, the entire AQT itself is one 50-shot self-diagnostic tool. As we say, the rifleman fires every shot in an ‘improving skills’ mode, which means he is 1) firing every shot like it’s a sighter shot, 2) instantly analyzing the shot for instant feedback, and 3) using that information to fire the next shot - better!
During the course of acquiring your rifleman skills, the improvement gradient is steep. Once you reach the rifleman plateau, it levels out as your skills max out. From there on, you’re in cruise mode, and the skills you have acquired in reaching that level are yours forever. You can stay away from a rifle for years, then pick one up and astound its owner with your skill!
That’s why we say, once you reach rifleman level, reach a hand down and help someone else get up where you are. Heck, not only will you gain a friend, you may gain a saviour. And you’ll be glad you did!
JUST GOT AN M1A...
Fred, I am new to M1A's, I just purchased a used one several weeks ago (Springfield Armory made in 1991). I have also ordered a synthetic camo stock from you (along with some other goodies). I have shot the gun only once and I know that it will be a great gun to shoot. I am looking for someone to examine my gun and make recommendations on how to improve its performance, down to the ammunition used. There are lots of groups out there from Springfield Armory to Fulton Armory and private individuals. How do I choose? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...CS-W
C: Before I did anything, I would want to know how the rifle shoots now with various brands of surplus ammo. You can bench it and fire groups, but I would strongly recommend that you take cognizance of the fact that, in terms of wringing good performance out of your rifle, YOU are the biggest factor in the equation, and start on a program of learning how to shoot a rifle. It'll do you no good to have an moa rifle that can hit a quarter at 100 yards if - when you take it off the bench and try to shoot it yourself - you can't hit a washtub at the same distance.
Only after you have a baseline idea of how the rifle shoots, and after you acquire the skills to shoot it, do you start to ask "what should I do next?"
That answer will depend on what you WANT to do. If what you want to do is be able to hit a man-sized object at 500 yards (a worthy “rifleman” standard), then the rifle 'as-is' with any quality surplus ammo, and some skill on your part, is all that is needed. Save the bucks on the bells and whistles, and buy more ammo.
If, on the other hand, you set a tougher standard - say, to hit a man-sized object at 800/1000 yards - you'll need a bit more accuracy than 'issue'. To meet that goal, I would first switch over to match ammo, which means you'll have to learn how to "roll your own". Thereafter, I would upgrade the barrel (but be aware it's a two-edged sword - a match barrel gets you an increase in accuracy - at the expense of barrel life, compared to a standard GI chrome-lined barrel - and because of a tighter chamber and reloaded ammo, a decrease in reliability).
Cheap stuff you can do yourself, other than learning to shoot the rifle, is to make sure you have a GI synthetic stock which is strong and, more importantly, water- and humidity-proof.
So first, decide what standard of accuracy you anticipate you’ll need. At a minimum, start with the 500-yard “rifleman” standard. Then make sure YOUR skills are up to that level. If you don’t know where to start, get a set of our 25 meter targets along with our “Guide to Becoming a Rifleman”. If you later want to go further, always make sure YOUR skills pace the improvements to the rifle.
In the context of potential use under the 2nd Amendment, the ‘rifleman’ standard is all you need, and you’d be better off focusing your efforts, after meeting that standard, on getting some buddies to meet the standard, and getting new people into shooting, writing your reps, voting, etc. Win the ‘soft’ crisis, and we all win the war. Fred
RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM LAST YEAR...
The iron triangle of liberalism - liberal media, liberal politicians, liberal teachers turning out dumbed-down students happy with their self-esteem (full of themselves), but ignorant of freedom, and the Bill of Rights.
Why would anyone, on The Day, not show up with a rifle maximally capable of defending freedom? Why would anyone, given a choice, decide to show up with a second-rate rifle and second-rate skills, when it increases his risk of being killed?
If you think these guys [liberals] are kidding around, roll over and go back to sleep. They’ll certainly thank you for being stupid.
Just think, for eight years, from 1775 to 1783, it was not only legal to shoot them [liberals], but if you shot enough of them, you could be a hero! Sigh...the good ol’ days - sometimes, they really were good! |
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