Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why so much tactical stuff?

Well, alrighty!

My point is in line with lvmiker's post a couple after your last. There's a lot of younger types out there that love to strut and give little thought to doing that well with firearms. I dunno if tacticool gets their heart to racing or what, but I've not seen but one or two out maybe 500 over the last few years that could hit a bull in the ass with a bass fiddle....at any range. I have helped a few that were receptive get back on track and after the fact they were very much more enthused, knowing that a) their gun was reasonably zeroed and b) they could hit paper out to 100 yards with consistency. The benches at the range I visit now and again are close, maybe 6' spacing and I'm being generous with that estimate. The blast from a flash suppressor with knock paper, pencils and sometimes brass off the bench. They are clueless about what they are doing and I do on occasion return the favor. Maybe they learn something? Like you know, there's 50 benches and only 14 are occupied, mebbe they ought not park next to someone just because they can? I haven't done it often, but I have made my point with large bore guns because I'm working on load development or some other quasi important thing and don't need the distraction of someone trying to pretend they have a full auto gun.

I don't have anything that would qualify as tactical in my locker unless you want to include an old M1 Carbine and I don't shoot it often at all. That said, I don't object to the tacticool idea and if people want to bust caps with such things I say "Go Daddy, GO!".

The reason I don't feel the need is my history with the M16. I toted one during most of the course of 2.5 years in Nam, interspersed with forays with the CAR15 and M3. I shot them enough to recognize they were all top drawer combat arms, and beyond that I have no interest in ever pulling the trigger on one of them again. Year one was the most intense for my use of such things and I shot that one enough to make about 8" of rifling from the breech end of the barrel vanish.

Google up some history about the A Shau Valley or maybe Khe Sanh, they were my playground for the most part. Some of my buddies are still there and I remember them on days such as this.

30-40 Krag,

Apparently my tongue was too firmly in my cheek when I called my 1866 trapdoor .50-70 "tacticool."

But it was designed as a tactical rifle, chambered for the the first centerfire cartridge standardized for the the U.S.military, through a an exceptionally successful rebuilding of earlier rifles. It proved VERY tactical (and perhaps even tacticool) in the Wagon Box Fight of 1867, and afterward was one of the major factors in the military history of the American West. Maybe that does not fit the present definition of tacticool, but probably exceeds the requirements.

You would be amazed at the amount of young guys that think all of the guns used in "Call of Duty" are real.

dd some people are to stupid to understand

Hey, I just remembered that I have a flintlock...so I got maybe 2 tacticool guns. Sorta.

I shoot in a monthly rifle match where we shoot from various improvised field positions, sometimes under and around barriers, out to about 350 yards. Mostly steel targets, some moving, some not, and most people shoot AR's. It's timed, so you have to hit as many targets as you can as fast as you can. Definitely not bench shooting. There are some younger shooters in that match who shoot very well. So not all young AR shooters are just blasting away.

S A L U T E ! Dan

DOUBLE S A L U T E ! ! to your "BUDDIES" and ALL our VETS !!

A Sincere Heart Felt THANKS


Jerry

In all my years/seasons afield, I've seen exact two hunters (a pair) packing what most would call tactical arms. Now the local rifle range is a different story.

John,

No my tongue was embedded too deeply in my cheek!

I know about the 50/70 and 45/70 trapdoors and the role they played in the winning of the west-a greater role dare I say than that of either the Sharps or Winchester. The trapdoor was tactical-not tacticool. I think tacticool is a modern thing, brought about by movies, media, video games, and most of all by advertising. I was a cop and firearms instructor for 21 years and cannot believe how I took my life in hands by not wearing the latest tactical duds and having all the newest wonderful gewgaws hanging off my firearms. I believe the lack of hunting and interest in traditional shooting sports has fueled manufacturers in creating new markets. The biggest market has to be personal defense. I really didn't know that I could not defend hearth and home with anything less than a tricked out AR, and it has been oh, at least 3 or 4 weeks since I had to shoot my way out of the grocery store parking lot! I find it odd that so many folks nowadays think that if they can just buy enough junk they will become proficient rather than buckle down and learn to shoot but maybe it has always been like that to some extent.

Upon reflection, maybe some of us old Fudds ought to offer to help some of these new folks become proficient, rather than just noisy. A nation of people that would take the time and learn to shoot would be a really wonderful thing and something that not even politicians would mess with. I am proud that all my kids and my two sons-in-law like to shoot.

Oh well, someone has to keep the ammunition and doodad makers in business.

BTW, none of us are immune to the influence of the media. I bought a 1903 Colt in .32 ACP just because Bogart looked good with one. I may get me a repo Colt Paterson just to shoot zombie Comanches and a Roman short sword to fight off hordes of meth addicted Huns and Goths.

Good post

Tell me about it. Was at the range today and a younger guy shows up with his girlfriend. He's all decked out with a damn police/tactical vest 501 tactical pants and desert tan boots. Our RSO had to stop shooting and keep an eye on the youngster. Mother fuc ker stepped out when we were hot on the range and got yelled at by everyone, then he proceded to lay his loaded AR on the bench when we called cold range to go out and check targets. I guess the kid is a cadet and training to be a "police officer".... Said our guns were old. I was shooting my bolt guns today. He asked if any of us "old timers" had AR's... I laughed and said, sure bring your AR to one of our black rifle shoots next month.....

Mart - Don't go to Idaho. I am sure its a great place but you're an Alaskan through and through. You still can buy glocks, ARs and tactical stuff. But forego the movement to Idaho.

I'm in the Army 21yrs, getting ready to drop my retirement. So I been around m16a2 m4 carbine etc. I never had a use for one until last December I wanted to shoot out to a 1000 yds and what a better way than with a 223/5.56. I been collecting data/load development etc. I been shooting in 600yd matches and a EIC match as well.

I love nice guns.

Savage and Mossberg have built some nice looking guns.
So have Perazzi and Rigby.

But,

In some respects, the modern tactical rifles are superior.
They are an evolution of projectile launching tools.
As such, they are designed to take advantage of several hundred
years of accumulated knowledge, and be the best tools for the job.

Sorry if that hurts someones vagina, but our wood and steel rifles are
just high wheeled bicycles,
the taticool rifles,
they are modern motorcycles.

I'm with MD.
Flintlock to AR carbine, single-action to Glock.


I like guns. They make me a jolly good fellow,

I like guns, They help me unwind, and sometimes they make me feel mellow.

Sorry!

These conversations pop up here regularly. As others have suggested, what you are seeing is progress. In a few years, ARs will be disposed of by the military for another rifle.

I seriously doubt that a lot of people here like every gun type. I am unsure why some cannot accept ARs, and just keep shooting their levers, single shots or whatever. This goes for the AR lovers too. It's called live and let live.

Some of you might recall when ARs came in more colour options than calibres. I have always been torn between the functionality and toughness of polymers and the beauty and lines of a wood stock. As a retired armourer, I have seen far fewer plastic stocks damaged than wooden ones. I've said this before: Plastic is the new wood.



Some of you berate other gun owners in the same way the anti-gun people speak about hunters and shooters.

It's all good. I don't have to like everything available for my personal use to appreciate the excellent engineering involved. And, as I've noted in previous discussions, some of the tactical folks will drift over into the hunting camp. Might not be packing Mausers or lever actions when they do, but that's fine. The focus on LR shooting and equipment has resulted in some of us, anyway, becoming more capable marksmen as well.

I went back and looked at my original post, and the tactical stuff that uninterests me.
Well, I don't feel disgusted about it, just dulled by the trend that way and it might be a way for the industry to regain lost ground due to lessening hunting numbers. I don't know.
I do know that I don't them, won't need them but I like any advancements they provide for sporting rifles .
It does worry me that the trend seems to be less about a kid climbing the hill behind his house, his prized .22 single shot Cooey in hand and the borrowed stealth of the genius, mythical Big Game hunter we had just read about in Outdoor Life.
That innocence is all but gone, buried in our memories .
I can revive the thrill , however everytime I shoulder any rifle and climb any hill.

Miniguns work better at that distance than the 5.56. Just sayin'.

Comerade, you're saying stuff like this inspires are ya?







You appreciate fine art integrated with function?

Instead of tools?



Me too.....

But now and then tools are useful.

It's always nice to have helicopter support. But they are used on the ground as well. An older video here from Dillon. We called them "mini-tats" 7.62x51mm.