Table of contents for May/June 2016 in Recoil

Image Courtesy Ubisoft Situation: A pandemic of biblical proportions ravages the Big Apple. Within days of a viral spread, the entire United States falls into chaos. Special Ops Team Assigned: “The Division,” a group of agents trained to operate independently and save society. Coordinate with other team members to accomplish your mission. Effective: March 8, 2016 Mission Platform: Xbox One / PlayStation4 / Windows PC Mission Features: Tailor your skills to a specific role. MMO/RPG-style game playing. Communication with fellow players on voice chat recommended. Reputation in game evolves. Friendly fire may affect group status/performance. Mission Objective: Snake Plissken won’t be coming to help you because you aren’t looking to escape from New York — you’re looking to reclaim it. In Ubisoft Entertainment’s latest release, Tom Clancy’s The Division, your…

1 MAKE: Kershaw Knives MODEL: CQC-3K OAL: 6.5 inches BLADE LENGTH: 2.75 inches BLADE MATERIAL: 8Cr14Mov stainless steel WEIGHT: 3.8 ounces MSRP: $53 URL: www.kershawknives.com 2 MAKE: FOX Knives MODEL: The DART OAL: 7.38 inches BLADE LENGTH: 2.5 inches BLADE MATERIAL: N690Co stainless steel WEIGHT: 3.5 ounces MSRP: $179 URL: www.theultimateknife.com 3 MAKE: DPx Gear MODEL: HEST/F 2.0 OAL: 7.63 inches BLADE LENGTH: 3.1 inches BLADE MATERIAL: D2 tool steel WEIGHT: 5.1 ounces MSRP: $219 URL: www.dpxgear.com 4 MAKE: Browning Black Label MODEL: Speed Dial Pocket Deploy Knife OAL: 7.69 inches BLADE LENGTH: 3.63 inches BLADE MATERIAL: 8Cr13MoV stainless steel WEIGHT: 4.4 ounces MSRP: $55 URL: www.fullkittactical.com 5 MAKE: Emerson Knives MODEL: CQC-15 OAL: 8.9 inches BLADE LENGTH: 3.9 inches BLADE MATERIAL: 154CM stainless steel WEIGHT: 4.8 ounces MSRP: $250;…

The guys behind the MantisX training system chose their name carefully. The mantis shrimp has the most complex visual system of any creature on the planet. It can see things that might be invisible, it’s tiny and aggressive as hell. Some species of this pissed-off little guy have even been known to punch through aquarium glass. Seems like this motivator has the right qualities for a shooting coach, no? WHAT IS IT? MantisX is a two-part pistol shooting diagnostic system. It consists of a wireless, rail-mounted sensor and an application that resides on a smartphone. The 1-ounce sensor gathers movement data 1,000 times per second using a miniature three-axis gyroscope and three-axis accelerometer, streaming the raw data to the app using a low-power Bluetooth connection. The system relies on the…

There are life-changing moments when all choices are reevaluated. You can usually tell when someone’s reached this juncture by the look on his face. It’s a look of perplexity not unlike the way your dog looks at you when he doesn’t understand what’s going on, and it’s usually followed by a headshake. I had this exact look on my face when I decided to start shooting a shotgun in competition. My mind wandered and contemplated a multitude of other activities that I would be better suited to, narrowing it down to extreme ironing or competition mustache growing, ’cause either one had to be easier than sorting out a three-gun shotgun. Don’t get me wrong, the actual act of shooting a shotgun is awesome — hurling ounces of lead at high…

Overspeeding is the process of physical actions outpacing cognitive processing. Patience is the ability to train physical actions to follow cognitive processing without lose of speed or accuracy. THE OBSESSION WITH SPEED Since a very early age, we’ve been brainwashed into believing that speed wins. Even the well-known children’s fable of the turtle and the hare seems to have faded into disuse. As a society we’ve been carried along the wave of misinformation regarding the need for speed … no offense to the movie Top Gun. Society tends to view everything slow and methodical as if we were lazy, unmotivated, or unsure of ourselves. Everywhere we turn, marketing and advertising reinforces the concept that each of us needs to strive toward speed. We live in a world where the repeated mantra is…

It’s no coincidence that this issue of RECOIL features a pair of guns suited to the competition scene — after all, we’re almost into the thick of the three-gun circuit after the northern part of the country shakes off the winter blahs. For those of you contemplating making a foray into competitive shooting, well, what are you waiting for? There’s no downside risk to honing your skills in a competitive environment and the old bullshit argument of, “gamer skills will get you killed” has long been put to rest by the likes of Pannone, McNamara, Proctor, and Seeklander. There’s a reason they’re RECOIL contributors, top-level competitors, hugely respected tactical trainers, and pipe-hitting mofos. And their credentials extend just a little bit beyond the anthill of YouTube. Elsewhere, we take an…

Silicon Valley, in Northern California, is known for it’s mild weather, through the roof real-estate prices, and hundreds of global tech companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook. This place doesn’t quite scream firearms or firearms museum, yet that is exactly what you will find, an hour drive south of San Francisco to the Winchester Gun Museum. Ironically, the history of the Winchester rifles starts with Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, who later founded Smith & Wesson. In 1855, the partners established the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company with their largest investor being a clothing manufacturer, Oliver Winchester. Winchester and a partner purchased the Volcanic Company when it went belly up and renamed it the New Haven Arms Company in 1857. In 1866 the company was again reorganized into what is known…

Upon entering the world of NFA firearms, the typical firearm owner notices two things: It’s expensive, and it can become an addiction. With machinegun prices soaring every year, the common thought process is “Get one while you can; they’ll only increase in value.” This is a result of an unconstitutional law being passed in 1986 that restricts current civilian ownership to those machineguns manufactured prior to May 1986. In the realm of silencers, the expense is somewhat different. Silencers are still manufactured and can be owned by residents of 39 states. There’s the cost of the silencer, which can range anywhere from $199 for a budget .22 LR model all the way up to $2,000 if you want to attempt to tame the sound signature on a rifle chambered in…

You might think you’ve done a lot of cool stuff in your life, but you probably can’t touch Jeff Benrud, a retired sergeant major with 25 years of service with the Army, nearly all of it in either the Ranger Battalion or in the Army’s special operations unit.. Jeff trained all over the world, deployed nearly 20 times to Iraq and Afghanistan, and even trained as a helicopter pilot. As if that weren’t enough adventure for one lifetime, Jeff formed American Offroad with racing legend Ricky Johnson to pass their extensive mobility experience onto elite military units and government agencies. You’d think a guy who had beaten his body up for the better part of three decades in special operations would shy away from extreme endurance challenges in his retirement…

Defensive shooters are often preoccupied with guns and gear, but what’s commonly neglected is sound training in defensive shooting tactics. After all, guns and gear are only as effective as the person using them. For those who do invest time and resources into training, many don’t realize that if their footwork isn’t solid, they won’t have a good shooting platform — especially in extreme close-quarters battle (CQB). The dynamic footwork from Pekiti Tirsia Kali (PTK) can help in this regard. This martial art from the Philippines often involves the use of sticks, knives, and machetes in tight spaces — and it’s the effective stances and rapid footwork that allow a PTK practitioner to thrive. In 2004, while working as a use-of-force instructor for the Salt Lake City Police Department, I…

TACTICAL TRAINING TOOL OR FITNESS FAD? WARNING! The exercises and content expressed in this column are for illustrative purposes only. Consult your physician before trying any physical activity or nutritional plan. RECOIL and its contributors are not responsible for any harm or injuries sustained while attempting these techniques. The Muscle Mount is a brand-new training tool that claims to improve your shooting. Is it state-of-the-art equipment that can truly make you a better shooter, or just another fitness fad that will fade away like the Thigh-Master, Ab Rocker, or Shake Weight? Read on to find out. THE 411 The Muscle Mount System is a bandresistance training tool that overloads the muscles involved in shooting. Slide the Muscle Mount onto the rail of any training gun, then attach the band to…

Don’t teach your family members how to shoot. Wait, what? Let’s back up here and I’ll explain. I’ve been blessed over the last three or four years not just to train with some of the most highly regarded instructors in the industry, but perhaps more importantly, to put my spawn and other minions in front of them. If you think about it, that’s an astonishing job perk very few people get in their benefits package. The first formal class my oldest niece attended was taught by Matt Jacques of Victory First. Her second, Matt Graham of Graham Combat. That one was, not coincidentally, my son’s first formal class. Both of them have been on the range with Kerry Davis of Dark Angel Medical, Stephen Pineau of M-3 Strategies, and Daryl…

1 EOTech’s stepping out of its holographic comfort zone and into the precision rifle scope market. Its all new, three-scope Vudu line includes a 1-6x, 2.5-10x, and 3.5-18x. All the scopes feature a lit reticle in the first focal plane, anti-reflective lens coatings, aircraft-grade aluminum bodies, a lifetime guarantee, and aggressive pricing. Our favorite is the 1-6x, shown below. It looks at home on an AR used for competition or hunting. The 24mm objective lens makes for a big, bright image, and the first focal plane reticle translates well across its zoom range — the familiar EOTech dot and circle reference at 1x disappears as you zoom up to 6x, where a standard reticle shows 1-mil stadia lines. The 1-6x is also available with fast reading 5.56mm and 7.62mm BDC…

DEVOLRO DIABLO CURRENT MODEL TOYOTA TUNDRA 5.7L SUPERCHARGED iFORCE V-8 4WD SIX-SPEED AUTOMATIC WWW.DEVOLRO.COM While perusing a random web search for “bug-out vehicles” one day, we came across an image of this truck. That alone was enough to warrant further investigation of the website. What we found was a company in Miami called Devolro that began around 2000 after founder Ed Orlov received offers to buy a truck he’d bought and modified for hunting expeditions. Then, he decided to see if he could generate the same interest by making more. And he did. What does Devolro mean? It’s actually Orlov Ed spelled backward. The company offers several models of trucks built on the most recent Toyota Tundra platforms since they felt it offered the best quality to carry the company’s…

Do we embrace change, or do we get comfortable with uniformity? Making big changes in life is not always easy. Change tends to be more of a gradual force rather than the on/off-switch approach most people assume, and the firearms industry is no different — especially when it comes to AR-15s. The consensus has been to stick with what works well enough, then sell a ton of them. Think back to grade school where you didn’t want to be different or the oddball, unless you liked getting beat up at recess. Now fast-forward a few years (OK, maybe decades) where the AR market is the new playground. The few different ideas that have come about were initially treated like a third grader with cooties. The horizon is changing. Companies are…

The AR’s linear piston system is one of the weapon’s greatest assets, in that it makes for a smooth, soft-shooting carbine. It’s also a liability in confined spaces, as the buffer tube sticking out the back of the receiver means it can neither accept a folding stock, nor compress down tightly to reduce its overall length. One of the new products that debuted at this year’s SHOT Show in Vegas came from Troy Industries, and it manages to shrink the AR to minute proportions. In fact, an NFA-compliant carbine featuring a 14.5-inch barrel with a pinned and welded flash hider winds up shorter than an 11.5-inch barreled SBR equipped with a regular M4 stock, when both are fully collapsed. Which we think is pretty neat. It manages to achieve this…

Legal moonshine sounds like an oxymoron, but there’s more to the authentic version than just a label. Moonshine is a misunderstood, and oftentimes, misrepresented distilled spirit that helped mold America. As consumers, we want to believe the products we buy are exactly how companies represent them. Marketing gurus employed by firms whose products we desire do such a remarkable job that we want them to just shut up and take our money. Every industry has smoke and mirrors, and the alcohol industry is not immune to creating a good-looking façade. Read on to learn about important points of moonshine and why you should give the legal stuff a try. WHAT IS MOONSHINE? Who you ask will determine the answer you’ll receive. The purest definition of moonshine is that it’s illegally…

Footwork — it’s an aspect of shooting that is significantly overlooked, but once mastered can distinguish a good shooter from a great one. Proper footwork has allowed me to attack field courses aggressively, and has given me the confidence to maintain full control in relation to my gun as I present it to the target. After years of developing my footwork, I can now make rapid minute adjustments without thinking about the mechanics: exactly where to place my feet, how to twist my hips, or where to shift my weight so I can be in the most explosive position for the next area of attack. I do all of this subconsciously while maintaining stability to execute a steady sight picture and pull off a good shot. Here are a few…

When times get hard, so should the drinks. During the Great Depression people would often go to great extremes to escape the generally shitty reality surrounding them, and since they didn’t have Netflix or unusual Japanese porn, they turned to the next best thing — liquor distilled in someone’s shed. Now, it isn’t difficult to make safe and very palatable spirits in the comfort of one’s home, but in case you hadn’t noticed, there are idiots almost completely surrounding us. If the distillation process isn’t done correctly you could die, mainly by fire or explosion and/or poisoning. So to keep the lawyers off our backs, let’s just say the following is for information purposes only and at no point should you ever attempt to distill your own sweet nectar of…