FBI

MantisX New Drill: FBI Qualification; Can you qualify for the Bureau?

According to the FBI, there are some basic qualifications you have to meet. These include U.S. citizenship, a valid drivers license, and a 4 year degree. We can’t help with any of those – but we can tell you if your shooting is up to scratch.

Head over to the range and try out the new FBI qualification course today! It’s live fire only, and to be done in a single shooting session.

Don’t have a MantisX yet? Join the tens of thousands who have taken their training to the next level. Get a MantisX today

FBI Qualification Course

Hanging out at the bottom of your drills page is a little section called courses. At the bottom of that, is the newest member of the family – the FBI Qualification. You’ve probably already completed the MantisX Introduction and the Basic Marksmanship course and sewed the badge onto your shirt. (If you haven’t yet, you better get on it.)

The FBI doesn’t recognize Mantis as an official administrator of the Qualification test, so you don’t automatically become an FBI agent when you pass the course.

At the time of writing this email, nobody’s passed yet. Yes, that’s a challenge.

You don’t get better unless you challenge yourself. So what are you waiting for? Grab your gear, and get over to your local range, and tell ’em you’re training to join the FBI!

*Featured photo courtesy of the FBI Official Facebook Page

Survival Shooting and Use of Cover: FBI Firearms Training Film 1974

Each year, U.S. law enforcement officers at the local, state, and federal level are killed or wounded in the line of duty, proof-positive that policing is a very dangerous profession. Even seemingly routine arrest warrant situations or domestic disturbance calls can turn deadly in an instant. With the safety of all officers in mind, the FBI designed its Law Enforcement Training for Safety and Survival (LETSS) Program in 1992.

The LETSS training is designed to give officers the skills and mindset required to identify and handle critical situations in high-risk environments. Basis survival techniques taught include hallway and stairway movement, room entry, clearing techniques, subject control, and handgun skills. Other sessions include: mental and physical preparation, arrest planning, ballistic shield deployment, low light operations, and use of motor vehicles in arrest situations.

This historic film depicts survival tactics taught to police officers. A basic rule for survival against hostile fire is to take cover. Defensive firearms training that includes technical skills and target practice survival skills for law enforcement agents. These fundamentals are timeless.

The FBI works to enhance the criminal justice system’s effectiveness and efficiency at all levels—national, state, county, and municipal. One of the key ways the FBI does this is by serving as a national focal point for criminal justice information by providing accurate and timely services to local, state, federal, and international law enforcement organizations, the private sector, academia, and other government agencies.

Since the mid-1930s, special agents have been authorized to carry firearms. Agents rarely fire their weapons in real-life situations, but they must be experts with firearms when they leave the Academy and must maintain their skills throughout their careers. Today, agents in training must qualify with a Bureau-issued handgun and shotgun. For the handgun, students must shoot a minimum of 80 percent or better on two of three record attempts on the qualification course. The cumulative score must average 80 percent or better on all three record attempts.

For the shotgun, trainees must shoot a minimum of 80 percent or better on one of two record attempts. The students must also demonstrate familiarity with the Bureau submachine gun and the Bureau carbine. Agent trainees fire approximately 3,900 rounds of ammunition during their 20 weeks at the Academy. They also participate in drills using simulated firearms training equipment—much like a sophisticated video game—that tests their ability to make split-second decisions in life-or-death situations.

This video is a re-upload of a previously uploaded film with improved video & sound. Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied. from http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/pub…

Homemade ballistics gel | Poor mans ballistic shop

While it’s great to read up on a specific round’s accuracy potential before a big purchase, (for purposes other than target shooting) it’s equally important to know what kind of terminal performance to expect the projectile to achieve as well. As I’m getting ready to spin up an article on some handgun ammo reviews I have my chronograph, zero targets and calipers handy. I’m able to measure the ammunition’s consistency and accuracy, but not its terminal effects on a target.

I could use milk jugs full of water (been there), or freezer burned meat that’s beyond salvage (done that), but the most consistent and applicable medium I can use is a ballistic gel. While homemade gel might not be the exacting industrial grade used by the FBI and ballistic laboratories, if made right, it’s an inexpensive and informative tool to add to your range day.

Here’s the best of the instructional videos I’ve found, with the directions I’m using to brew up my gel. Enjoy!

-Rex Nanorum

Copper is king for G2 Research ammunition

Special thanks to American Shooters Clarksville for making special range accommodations at their first-class facility. And thanks to Clear Ballistics for providing a ballistics gel block for me to use.

G2 Research is an American company that produces a range of ammunition for handguns, rifles and shotguns. They precision machine each round using copper instead of lead. Copper bullets generally hold their profile better than lead upon impact, have better penetration and don’t have the toxicity of lead. Their R.I.P. and Telos ammunition is designed with “trocars” that fragment upon impact to inflict shallow tissue damage while the solid base of the round penetrates further. Their Civic Duty ammunition is similarly designed, but instead of fragmenting will simply peel back to increase the size of the wound channel.

After reading a few skeptical reviews of G2 Research ammunition over the past few years, I decided it was time to take a look for myself. Most of the negative reviews seemed to focus on what I perceive as nitpicking over small variances in ballistic data provided by G2R compared to stats from those doing the reviews. Virtually all concluded by begrudgingly admitting that G2R ammunition met or exceeded FBI (or some other organizations’) standards—the only legitimate gripe being about the high cost ($40+) for a 20-round box compared to other hollow points on the market, along with a few feed issues.

For my no-frills testing I took three types of G2R ammunition and two different pistols to the range. I focused on three things—does it feed, does it fire and is it accurate. I also did some basic ballistics testing which I will cover below. If in-depth ballistics data is something you crave, there is footage of many independent tests for G2R ammunition.

R.I.P.

Telos

Civic Duty

Here are my results with G2 Research’s Civic Duty, R.I.P. and Telos (+P) ammunition. My pistols for testing were a Sig P320 RX Compact (9mm) for ballistics testing and grouping and a Ruger American (9mm) for grouping only. I used a 10% FBI ballistic gel block from Clear Ballistics (16x6x6). I also fired one Federal HST round into the gel block to compare performance to the G2 Research rounds.

Results

Grouping at 10 yards with all 3 G2R round types. Head shots with Ruger. Body shots with Sig.

Civic Duty 9mm (94 grain)

Sig P320 (3.9″ barrel): 8″ penetration

· 1 round did not eject properly in my Sig P320

· No failure to fire

Advertised Features:

· Extreme Expansion

· 9-10″ Penetration

· Solid Copper / Lead Free projectile

R.I.P. 9mm (92 grain)

Sig P320 (3.9″ barrel): 13 1/2″ penetration for base of round; 4-6″ penetration for trocars

· No feed issues

· No failures to fire

Advertised Features:

· 14-16″ Penetration

· Up to 6″ diameter spread

· 2″ grouping at 25 yds.

· 9 Separate Wound Channels

· Precision Machined

· Solid Copper / Lead Free

Telos +P 9mm (92 grain)

Sig P320 (3.9″ barrel): 11 1/2″ penetration for base of round; 4-6″ penetration for trocars

· No feed issues

· No failure to fire

Advertised Features:

· Solid Copper/Lead-free projectile

· 10″+ of Penetration

· 7 Separate Wound Channels

· 3″+ Diameter Spread

· Precision Machined

· Controlled Fragmentation

· Patent Pending

American Shooters Clarksville

R.I.P.

Civic Duty

Telos

Left to right: Federal HST and Civic Duty

Conclusion

For personal defense ammunition, things like over-penetration or under-penetration matter, but when you’re dealing with a variance of an inch or so I couldn’t care less. That being said, I did feel the Civic Duty fell a bit short with the failure to eject I experienced and less than optimal penetration. I think the real winner from the G2 Research options were R.I.P. followed closely by Telos due to penetration results. I must also add that the advertised 6″ diameter spread of the trocars for those rounds were right on the money. As for the Federal HST round, it had 15 1/2″ of penetration while costing half the price of the rounds from G2 Research.

While I certainly wouldn’t say that G2 Research has the best performance on the market compared to the HST and others, it certainly is an effective round. Bottom line—if you’re willing to pay the premium price for a box of G2R ammo, then do it. Make sure you try it in a small quantity first to ensure that you won’t encounter feed issues, but I fully trust this ammunition to get the job done when you need it.

Originally published on SOFREP and written by NICK COFFMAN

Recommended reading | Sheep No More: The Art of Awareness and Attack Survival

Over the last several months, tragedy has struck seemingly more times than can be kept up with. And now, with MGM/Mandalay Bay facing lawsuits alleging culpability in the October massacre, the questions remain: How can we stay safe, and what responsibility do we have to foresee the unthinkable?

Former Navy SEAL and FBI Special Agent Jonathan T. Gilliam offers a method of preparedness in his new book, Sheep No More: The Art of Awareness and Attack Survival.

Mr. Gilliam details how to gather information so that you can assess dangers in your life, by approaching your surroundings from an attacker’s point of view.

Why Threat Levels and Known Threats are different
How to assess critical attack areas at home and in the community
Attacker’s Avenues of Approach
Types of Attacks, and More

Jonathan T. Gilliam wants all Americans to be more aware, avoid attacks, and survive if they are ever confronted with the reality of an imminent violent attack.

Excerpt from the book:

Sheep No More is the awareness bible that allows you, the reader, to radically change your perception of the world around you, by teaching you proven techniques to discover the key criticalities of awareness in and around your surroundings. After reading this book, you will be able to make educated predictions about who and why you could be attacked, where and when attacks could happen, and how an attack could be carried out against you.

The key factor in this book is the technique of “Attack and Defend,” which is based on a combination of tactics, techniques, and procedures I learned in the SEALTeams and various law-enforcement agencies in which I served, combined with the simple “what if” game you might have played as a child. The secret to gaining defensive awareness is first understanding how an attacker views potential targets. Without the knowledge of how an attacker thinks or a complete understanding of an attacker’s target package, your ability to set up proper defenses is reduced to a guessing game. As you will see, the technique of Attack and Defend is dependent on a crawl, walk, run approach to gaining knowledge, then understanding, followed by experience in going back and forth between the attacker and defender mindset. In doing this, you reinforce your ability to combine the attacker and defender mindsets into one set of techniques so you can make educated decisions about your specific defensive critical areas, critical times, and vulnerabilities that make you susceptible to attack.

The chapters in Sheep No More are organized to guide you through a similar learning process as military and government targeting experts. First, you will learn the steps to build a target package. Next, you will learn how to analyze your life and its critical areas, critical times, vulnerabilities, and any avenues of approach, all from the attacker’s point of view. This book will guide you through the various ways to collect information about yourself and your surroundings so you have a greater historical knowledge to defend against the different people and groups that might attack you, how their methods of attack have evolved, where their attacks have occurred, and when you are most likely to be attacked in your daily life.

Available for purchase on Amazon

*Photo and excerpt used with permission from Post Hill Press

FBI Awards Hornady a Contract for Its Critical Duty Ammunition

Originally published on Tactical Life

Photo courtesy of Hornady

It’s time to pop the champagne over at Hornady: the FBI has officially awarded the Nebraska-based outfit a contract for its Critical Duty 40 S&W 175 gr. FlexLock ammunition.

RELATED STORY: 9mm or 45 ACP? How the Age-Old Debate Should Really Be Approached

“Critical Duty ammunition is the culmination of many years of hard work, research and development and dedication,” company vp Jason Hornady said in a statement. “We are thrilled to obtain this contract from our nation’s highest law enforcement agency as it gives credence to the performance and reliability of this product.”

The contract is a Fixed Price Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) agreement, meaning Hornady will deliver an indefinite quantity of its Critical Duty ammo during a fixed period. The specific dollar amount isn’t listed in the press release.

Designed for LEOs, Hornady says its Critical Duty Ammo performed “consistently” in the FBI’s tactical handgun ammo tests. The ammo features the patented Flex Tip, which eliminates clogging and helps bullet expansion. Meanwhile, a mechanical jacket-to-core InterLock band keep the bullet and core from separating for “maximum weight retention, excellent expansion, consistent penetration and terminal performance through all FBI test barriers,” the press release says.

Hornady Critical Duty also includes nickel-plated cases, which make chamber checks easier in low-light conditions; and low-flash, clean burning propellants. This preserves night vision in low-light firing.

RELATED STORY — .45 ACP vs 9 mm: 14 Experts Give Their Answers

“At Hornady, we’re honored to provide ammunition to the American heroes who put their lives on the line to protect us and our neighbors every day,” company president Steve Hornady said. “This contract is an important part of our corporate history, and it’s a distinct pleasure to fulfill this need for the FBI.”