Mark and Patricia McCloskey

[Ninurta]

No expert on firearms here ... but, I'd guess crazy eyes there is carrying a Walther PPK, caliber .380, because rich (and a James Bond fan).

My biggest problem with these yahoos is that neither of them (apparently) is wearing hearing protection.  One of the worst things in the world, is to find yourself in a situation without it.  My muffs are nicely tucked onto my stock.  Since they enhance my hearing ... I really want them to be on.  Best case scenario I'd have my in-the-ear plugs in too and my shooting glasses since they enhance my visual acuity.  These things take seconds to don.  Let me get my gloves on too, dammit.

And, you be careful with them long magazines, big brother.  If you have to get into the prone position, your mag choice may limit your ability to aim.  Another thing about relying on magazine capacity, is that it doesn't promote training for magazine changes.  Highest probable cause of a weapon malfunction is the magazine.  The more you have around you to change out, the lower the likelihood of shooting in single-shot mode.

Let's keep this info between friends.  Don't need to be teaching our potential foes.

My biggest problem is that big assed concrete or marble railing behind her, and that big old solid finial on it - she should have been behind it, not the bass-ackwards way around. Neither was making very good use of cover or concealment.

I don't generally use sights on handguns.

I had a great uncle (my grandpa's big brother) who ran away when he was 14 or so, and went out to Montana to pursue his fortune. he wound up cowboying it, and made a life there. This was in the first quarter of the 1900's, about a hundred years ago or thereabouts. When I was a kid, I've seen him flip a coin into the air with his right hand, and then draw his pistol and shoot that same coin out of the air. It was quite a sight. I asked him about it, and he passed the secret on.

I used to have to qualify yearly with my sidearm. We shot a modified FBI course, half day, half night. I regularly shot a 94% in the daylight, and a 96% in the dark. Paradoxically, I actually shot better in the dark, by a little bit. I chalk that up to not being distracted by the sights. My Great Uncle's lesson apparently took.

Back when I was training on the M16A1, there was a course of instruction called "Quick-Fire". It was for close up, rapid shooting (not long range of course), and they actually taped the sights to keep you from using them, forcing you to learn alignment awareness. The Russians do, or did, a similar thing, but instead of taping the sights they just rotated their AKs 90 degrees and took the sights out of the picture altogether. I mention this by way of explanation that a long mag in my pistol will be no barrier to going prone - I'll just crank the gun to the side until it fits. If your barrel orientation is right, the bullet will go where you want it to, with or without sights.

I did, however, get a 20 round Magpul mag for my AR to keep it from going all monopod on me in the prone. I detest Magpul magazines, but that was the only brand they had available, so you take what you can get - I just won't use it all that much, and only for emergencies - or for bench shooting at the range. I don't like Magpuls because they have plastic feed lips and a weak base plate that will dump all your carefully stacked ammo to the ground with just the right tap on the base. I personally think it would be pretty annoying for your mag lips to melt off due to a hot action - and AR actions get pretty hot - so I only use Lancer AWM magazines, because they have steel feed lips and so far have fed flawlessly. I also have a couple of Bulgarian AR magazines (MWC company) that have steel feed lips with a plastic coating over them, like a Bulgarian Circle 10 AK mag. I got those because they are 40 round, and I use them as ambush mags to give me 10 more rounds of obnoxiousness to find cover before I have to change magazines.

I might do a thread on magazine selection one day.

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