The One Weapon Approach

From the Brushbeater forum:

My training rifle is a box-stock Colt w/ 16” stainless barrel, Magpul furniture, Blue Force sling, and Magpul iron sights w/ Blitzkrieg fiber optic front post insert. Yes, I know it’s 2021 and optics and this and that. I completely agree (see advance rifle below). I’m a firm believer in learning the basics first, than adding on all the modern do dads.
My advance rifle, for after I get good w/ basics, is Aero upper and lower, Wilson Combat BCG and 18” stainless barrel, Magpul furniture, Blue Force sling, Vortex Viper LPVO in QD mount, and Magpul BUIS.

This is an interesting post. Not knocking the concept at all, but I will offer a bit of a rebuttal.
Are you a handgun shooter? Handgun shooters know that, generally speaking, we pick one platform and stay with it. Training, be it dry fire, live fire, and movement, all builds mastery through repetition and that’s only achieved through sameness across the board. Your training rifle should be your go-to-war rifle. When you pick that weapon up, it should be exactly what you expect- no surprises. You know how it feels when its running correctly and diagnosing issues on the fly becomes much simpler.
In the Carbine Classes I will normally have 2-3 students’ weapons experience repeated malfunctions. This comes from a lot of sources, usually magazine issues, but even still, I can diagnose it quickly and effectively. This is because of the sheer number of rounds I’ve got and the time on the range with the AR platform, but even still it amazes some. I don’t think its amazing at all. I think its vital knowledge to wholly understand one’s weapon.
Where I’m going with this is that I have many ARs, but only one I use in class and that’s the same one I’ll be carrying into combat should the need arise. (The same with the AK). I have many thousands of rounds down the tube, I know exactly how the carbine feels when the mag is about to run dry simply due to the sound the buffer spring is making (the impulse feels different as well) and can immediately tell if I’ve got a malfunction by the same.
Basically all of my weapons are set up the same with minor differences based on the role they play. Free floated, sling mount in the same place, optics and enablers mounted in the same places. This creates muscle memory so that I’m not changing up what I’m doing from gun to gun and having to re-familiarize myself with a whole new weapon.
My advice is to set both of your weapons up the exact same. There’s no reason to handicap one with irons (and yes, it is a handicap). You’re actually not doing yourself any real world favors because optics take time to learn and build that memory of use as well. It sounds like you’ve got quality components, so you owe it to yourself to make the most out of both.

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By Published On: May 25, 2021Categories: NC Scout, Weapons8 Comments on The One Weapon Approach

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

8 Comments

  1. Johnny Paratrooper May 25, 2021 at 08:24

    Thank You. I have a few friends who have blade triggers, and binary triggers, and mil-spec triggers, and hyperfine triggers.
    Can’t shoot anything worth a crap… for this EXACT reason. Plus they spent all their money on guns and cool guy stuff. But don’t have the money to practice.

    • M6a June 3, 2021 at 02:08

      My Opinion:
      The reason why those guys you mention who can’t shoot worth a crap is because they don’t train properly…
      It has absolutely NOTHING to do with divergent weapon setups or weapon systems, belief in such things is a mixture of “Fudd” & “Tac-Timmy/Tacitard” lore.
      The advice NC Scout gives is fine for total beginners (i.e. new shooters) with tight budgets, limited time, and/or unwilling to put in the time & effort to achieve high-level proficiency. For those who’ve mastered the basic fundamentals and are unwilling to accept their current mediocrity, they ought to focus on practical shooting training with an emphasis on “hit factor scoring” (i.e. speed is equally as important as accuracy) and attending shooting competitions…
      Most of the top level shooters (USPSA, IPSC, 3-Gun, PRS, and NLR) have multiple firearms with a multiple different setups. It’s lack of skill and ineffective training & weapon familiarity that prevents someone from being able to effectively switch systems seamlessly on the fly.

  2. Anonymous May 25, 2021 at 08:32

    5

  3. SOG May 25, 2021 at 08:55

    modern red dots co-witnessed you can still access the irons, so there is no loss there you can train with RDS and practice Iron sights fundamentals

  4. Mas Casa May 25, 2021 at 17:49

    I went to the local DNR range this past weekend. I saw a group of young soldiers or airmen (couldn’t tell which as we have both service’s bases locally) and a group of young guys blasting away as fast as they could at 25 meters with AKs and ARs. One guy told the others not to monopod the AR on the mag or the weapon will doublefeed. Same guy told his buddies later on that the AR could only fire four magazines before needing to cool down. Good Lord.
    One older gent was trying to sight in his AR with flip up irons that weren’t screwed down tight and he didn’t know how to adjust them. I was able to help a little but those sights were sloppy on the Pic rail even when tightened down.
    Buy decent kit, and make that practice count.

  5. KOBK May 25, 2021 at 21:17

    All my AR style rifles (15’s & 10’s) are purpose built, but all set up the same way.
    Same triggers, same grips, etc. Differences of course being for its intended purpose.
    Only one that has a “odd man out” feature is the short barrel guy with a short BCM gunfighter fore grip. It’s set at the same distance as all my other grip length markers (Magpul RSA … thanks for the idea Scout). But I often consider removing that fore grip to make them all identical in the hands.
    One has a red dot, one has an LVPO, a couple have prisms, one for night fighting, different barrel lengths … each for a different role. But they’re all set up and operate identically.
    My go to however gets the most training on because that’s the way it’s gotta be.
    Thanks for the reminder to keep it tight !
    in response to Mas Casa’s post …. makes you shake your head sometimes doesn’t it ? Recently a guy handed me his main AR he was so proud of and the scope was so canted I asked if he was shooting around corners with it or something ? It’s not that hard to get it together. And these days it’s absolutely necessary.

  6. KOBK May 25, 2021 at 22:33

    it’s always interesting looking at someones rifle (when they know what they’re doing).
    For instance, Scout’s rifle in the picture. If that were mine the scope would be back just a hair past the castle nut. All my rifle scopes have to be way back to work with my facial structure and eyes (must be my stunning jaw line… lol) . It’s always been that way. (Not inc. red dots of course).
    Sometimes a PITA to find just the right mount. For instance … no way in hell I could run an ACOG even all the way back in the last rail slot. I’d probably see half of the image and still be doing the goose neck bend. Thank goodness Larue make a cantilever mount to get it back where I need it.
    I swear, 9 times out of 10 I look at guys optics setups and think WTF ? How the heck does that work for them ? We’re all different when it comes to that aspect, that’s for sure.
    Another thing that is weird for me …. lower 1/3 co-witness just don’t like it, others do and some like it even higher ! Totally weird to me. And almost all manufactures make their mounts 1.5″ for absolute it seems, yet when I measure irons they’re all 1.4″ (at least all the ones I’ve checked). That .1″ difference drives me nuts because I can feel the difference in cheek weld and inconsistencies in fundamentals matter.
    I can make just about anything “work” that I have to, but prefer optics & irons at 1.4″. Seems like a small thing to fixate on, but that’s where it feels most comfortable to me in all positions so they’re all set the same.

  7. Anonymous June 3, 2021 at 02:14

    2.5

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