Hill fighting in Vietnam, especially for the majority of us “flatlanders,” was among the toughest terrain to trade bullets on. The enemy not only enjoys the high ground, but can be dug in and almost impervious to an array of supporting arms. Given lots of vegetation, the enemy is almost impossible to spot until you
The skills of our grandparents and great-grandparents are being forgotten and lost faster than they can be written down and memorialized. Many of our modern conveniences replace the need to have some of these old techniques. Yet some people are finding a way to meld old and new technologies, and these old skills and tools
Shooting on steel targets has advantages and disadvantages. The main advantages are instant feedback (if you hear the ding, you hit the thing) and longevity. The two biggest disadvantages are the cost of steel targets and, since they are heavy, transporting them and setting them up at the range. MGM Targets, an industry leader in
My father was a 30-year soldier, most of it serving as a paratrooper. He jumped at Normandy and Arnhem, fought at the Battle of the Bulge, earned a Distinguished Service Cross on a hill in Korea, and was an advisor in Vietnam in 1962. He earned eight Purple Hearts, a couple of Silver Stars, and
I noticed something a little different at the SHOT Show in January. Instead of rifles made of aluminum and plastic, there was a lot of interest in guns made from blue steel and wood. Maybe folks think they have bought enough AR-type rifles in the last few decades (hint: you can never have too many)
My first centerfire rifle was a Model 740 Remington Woodsmaster chambered in .308 Winchester handed down to me by my brother. I made my first successful deer hunt with it at the ripe old age of 13, using M80 ball ammo. Knowing what I know now, I would never consider using FMJ ammo on game,
While staring out an airplane window last week, I marveled at the multiple thicknesses of acrylic that protected me from the low pressure and frigid temperatures less than a paperback-book thickness away. While such idle fascination is the result of a bored mind sitting in one of those flying chicken coops we call ”air travel,”
There is no doubt the M4/M4A1 is the finest carbine in the world. From the streets of Baghdad to the mountains of Afghanistan, the M4 series carbine has proven to be fully capable of providing the lethal fire needed by our nation’s warfighters. But does that mean it has no room for improvement? The M4A1
I’ve written before about the advantages of a 20-gauge combat shotgun, and decided it was time to revisit the issue in this column. Up front, I’ll admit that the #3 Buckshot load normally used in the 20-gauge shotgun is not as devastating as the 00 Buckshot load standard in most 12-gauge fighting shotguns. However, that
Special Forces officer LTC Nick Rowe was one of the few U.S. POWs to escape from VC/NVA captivity during the Vietnam War. Based on his experiences, he helped establish the U.S. Army SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) training program in 1981 for special operations personnel as well as air crewmen who might be captured after
