Training For Reality: Why Carry a Rifle?

[Failure2Stop]

The environment you live in will determine everything. Know how to use the tools you have. Do not assume that your conditions will mirror anyone else's. There is no such thing as an "average collapse of society". All past lessons serve to educate and guide, none are all-inclusive. There are a ton of things that one needs to be proficient in for long term survival, and any hole in your skillset or material preparation can put you behind the curve.


Typos brought to you via Tapatalk and autocorrect.

[KevinB]

I
He lists fitness as his number one priority, because it's so important in a hand to hand fight (which is his mostly likely SD scenario). I'd say fitness should be number one for most of us since we are more likely to die of a heart attack in the next five years than live through a Mad Max-style post-apocalypse.

While I do think that most ignore fitness as part of the training environment - I will disagree with Kyle in the fact that fitness is number 1 do to a HTH fight.
The will to kill and the skills to do it quick are the #1 requirement in any fight. A fat out of shape guy can kill you just as easily as someone who is in good physical shape - in some cases easier due to increase body mass. I am a MF'ing dirty fighter - I will bite, eye gouge, ear rip, junk punch, I'll tear off a scrotum if I need to - then I'm probably going to stab or shoot your repeatedly as soon as I have stunned/disabled you enough I can bring those to a fight. This was learned over 20 years ago, when an off-duty incident went badly overseas. However in the 20 years 2 months and a few days since that night, I have still killed only that 1 person in a hand to hand incident (and 0 with a pistol).

As far as the relative Societal Unrest issues go, Is a rifle important? -- you bet, I firmly believe that EVERY American should own an AR style weapon and be able to use it to engage human targets out to at least 300m, but your particular atmospherics will make it more or less relevant.
Me I like to kill folks as far away from me as I can, why, because in close even clowns are dangerous -- it take a lot less skill to hit someone with a rifle inside 50m than it does at 500m, or 1100m. I live in rural Virginia - West enough that walking my property line with a rifle is not an issue (so far)- but also that a 300m shot to my rear fence-line is a possibility - as well as rifles kill folks so much more efficiently either in close or at range than a pistol.

But I stated in my OP on Training for Reality -- what is your largest percentage likelihood for use of force issue, and where do you think the most bang for your buck in a training regime comes from? For me the pistol trumps the rifle, and while I still do rifle training, the majority of my efforts are working on CCW applications for the pistol.


Other than occasional daydreams I don't expect the TEOTWAKI aspect to happen in the USA - at least where I live, some of the folks in cities - well your up a creek...

[walkin' trails]

I was sent up to LA during the riots and parltrolled South Central. I was impressed enough with the devistation to the business community that I bought my first AR15 when I got home. I was living near the border with Mexico, and there was enough potential for natural disaster (earthquake and flooding) to make me realize that law enforcement and border security would be degraded by probably two thirds in the first 24-48 hours or more. Opportunists on both sides of the border sous take to looting and other criminal activity on the US side rather than stay home and clean up.

I also agree that every household occupied my responsible people should have at least one AR, or some other type of rifle with an ample supply of ammo at hand. Not just for the ling range shots, but for close quarters and multiple aggressors.

Even though this is a pistol training website, who can argue that having an AR with a standard capacity magazine nearby would not be comforting?

Jeff Cooper's "The Art of the Rifle" should be required reading for anyone who owns a gun. It isn't going to offer pointers to make you shoot better, but it's going to explain to you why you should strive to be proficient with a rifle.

[Suvorov]

Jeff Cooper's "The Art of the Rifle" should be required reading for anyone who owns a gun. It isn't going to offer pointers to make you shoot better, but it's going to explain to you why you should strive to be proficient with a rifle.

Well said. I forgot about "The Art of the Rifle." It sits on my book shelf next to "A Book of Five Rings." I consider to be companions to one another separated by 500 years. Cooper lays it out, that it is every patriotic American's duty to be proficient with a rifle.

[David Armstrong]

Also consider the defenses that farmers in Rhodesia had to put up against goons that roved the land in packs looking for reparations (and either allowed to operate with impunity or outright support by Mugabe's government).

When it was Rhodesia we didn't have that crap. That nonsense is under the Zimbabwe banner. When it was Rhodesia farm defenses were generally pretty good and attacks were quickly and strongly responded to by the government.

[Suvorov]

When it was Rhodesia we didn't have that crap. That nonsense is under the Zimbabwe banner. When it was Rhodesia farm defenses were generally pretty good and attacks were quickly and strongly responded to by the government.

OK, point taken. I should have stated Former Rhodesia.

[Dropkick]

While I do think that most ignore fitness as part of the training environment - I will disagree with Kyle in the fact that fitness is number 1 do to a HTH fight.
The will to kill and the skills to do it quick are the #1 requirement in any fight. A fat out of shape guy can kill you just as easily as someone who is in good physical shape - in some cases easier due to increase body mass.

Your personal experiences aside, I'd put my money on the "fit & in shape" guy to win an unarmed fight over the "fat & out of shape" guy, any day of the week, regardless of willingness and skill.

But I don't even know how or why this came up in a thread about Rifles...

[ST911]

The mental skill set is critical. For everything else, the fight is what it is. It will require what it does. To my left is a densely packed subdivision and school. To my right, open fields that stretch for miles line of sight. The direction I turn or the fight emerges from will make many of my decisions for me.

Be well-rounded in resources and the skill sets required to bring them to bear.

[KevinB]

Be well-rounded in resources and the skill sets required to bring them to bear.

Or be the worlds fastest runner...



Dropkick - I simply mentioned it as a disagreement with what was posted above. I respect KD, but I believe the WILL to WIN (or NOT DIE BADLY) is the key aspect. Sadly I no longer have a job that pays me to run, go the gym, swim etc, and with two little children in the home at 43 years old, this guy does not have the time to stay in active shape. I watch what I eat and practice where and when I can, but 2+hours of PT are an impossibility for me - and since I carry a gun, any physical altercation I get in become a fight with a gun (and I try to avoid those), and in a fight with a gun odds are someone is not going home.

[LittleLebowski]

When it was Rhodesia we didn't have that crap. That nonsense is under the Zimbabwe banner. When it was Rhodesia farm defenses were generally pretty good and attacks were quickly and strongly responded to by the government.

I'd love to hear more on this in a separate thread.