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Precision rifle zeroing | Basics done right by Ranger sniper team leader

I’ve seen some pretty talented shooters making the same basic mistakes at the range. Over and over again, I see (and have fallen victim to) brain farts that should elude all but the most basic shooter. Screws that weren’t properly torqued coming loose in scope rings, spending far too long (and too many rounds) trying to zero, or just failing to have adequately prepared for the range day.

Former Ranger sniper team leader, owner of RocketFFL.com, MaydaySafety.com and best-selling author of “Long Range Shooting Handbook” Ryan Cleckner is renowned for his ability to impart complex shooting knowledge in easily digestible chunks. His youtube videos produced with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) are extremely informative and offer a number of insights and shooting hacks. In the below video, Ryan walks us through a live range session while zeroing a precision rifle. Simple topic, lots of expensive wisdom being sent your way. Long video, worth the watch.

–Rex Nanorum

Ranger sniper discusses getting on the rifle

One of the best sayings I heard as a Ranger was, “the experts don’t have a bunch of secret knowledge, they’ve just mastered the basics”. Mastering your standard shooting positions, trigger control and sight alignment are the vast majority of what is needed to shoot precisely. Every now and then, former Ranger sniper team-leader Ryan Cleckner (and the National Shooting Sports Foundation) release a video covering one of the fundamental elements of shooting in great detail.

This lesson we’re covering walks us through getting set in the prone position. At its most simple, this is just laying down and snuggling up to the rifle, right? Cleckner has some tips regarding making your prone position the most comfortable, stable and consistent shooting platform possible.

For more information on Ryan Cleckner, try Cleckner.co, MaydaySafety.com or the Long Range Shooting Handbook.

–Rex Nanorum

@rexnanorum

Precision rifle zeroing | Basics done right by Ranger sniper team leader

–Rex Nanorum

NSSF Commends President, Congress on Gun and School Safety Laws

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industries, today commended President Donald Trump and Congress for signing into law the omnibus legislation containing Fix NICS and Stop School Violence provisions. Both legislative measures were called for by President Trump and supported by NSSF as measures to help ensure firearms remain beyond the reach of prohibited individuals while respecting the rights of law-abiding firearms owners and working to keep children safe.

“The legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump is a true achievement to making communities safer while respecting individual rights,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president for government and public affairs and general counsel. “This law will enable the FBI’s background check system to work as intended, a longstanding goal for the firearms industry, as well as providing resources to states to improve mental health and intervention services critical to enabling authorities to proactively address potential threats in their communities.”

NSSF thanks Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) for his leadership to reach across party lines and gain support from 77 senators to make true changes that make communities safer while respecting constitutional rights.

“Fixing the background check system will help save lives and reduce the likelihood of what occurred in Parkland and Sutherland Springs from happening again,” said Sen. Cornyn in a press release.

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) praised legislation for the measures to work with states to ensure all disqualifying mental health and criminal records are uploaded to the FBI and resources are available to intervene to prevent tragedies witnessed in Florida.

“This bill fixes and fully funds the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS), a critical step to keep guns out of the hands of people with a criminal history,” Speaker Ryan said in a press release. “It implements key provisions of the STOP School Violence Act to fund Department of Justice grant programs that help keep schools safe. Overall, the bill provides more than $2.3 billion in new funding for mental health, training, and school safety programs.”

NSSF launched the FixNICS^® campaign in 2013 and worked successfully to reform laws in 16 states, resulting in an increase in the number of disqualifying mental health records in NICS to nearly 5 million, from about 1.7 million, a 200 percent increase. NSSF previously endorsed S. 2135, the Fix NICS Act by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), which topped 77 cosponsors. NSSF also endorsed H.R. 4909, the Stop School Violence Act, which overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Both bills were merged with the omnibus legislation and are now law.

The legislation includes several other crucial provisions to important to hunters and recreational shooting. NSSF supported the inclusion of an additional $10 million for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to aide in reducing administrative backlogs. The legislation also affirms the policy that the Centers for Disease Control is enabled to study firearms, but that any study must adhere to longstanding restrictions of advocacy. Increased access to public lands for hunters and recreational shooters was included.

NSSF worked with Congress to include the Making Public Lands Public Act as a provision. This initiative ensures a portion of funds are permanently made available from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for land acquisition to ensure the public has access to the more than 38 million acres of isolated public lands either through ownership of private properties or geographic boundaries. NSSF is also proud to support the inclusion of the “Hunt Unrestricted on National Treasures” (HUNT) Act in the Omnibus, which would improve access to federal lands for hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation by directing federal public land management agencies to identify federal lands where hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation are permitted but where access is unavailable or significantly restricted.

About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 12,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org/.

Ranger Sniper Discusses Milliradians

If you’ve read my review of Ryan Cleckner’s Long Range Shooting Handbook: A Beginners Guide you will know how highly I thought of Ryan’s ability to translate complex knowledge into caveman speak. Before he was a published author, he appeared as a guest instructor on tv’s Top Shot and put out a number of instructional YouTube videos for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Most of these deal with the proper setup of a long-range precision rifle. A couple in particular focus on the difference between a mil (milliradians) and an moa (minute of angle). Having spent the first 14 years of my shooting life working in moa’s, I was hesitant to learn a new system. Once I had done a bit of reading on the subject and watched Ryan’s videos, I felt confident that Mils would be a better fit for me. I was right in making the jump. Mils are a much better fit for me and having changed over my scope to a mil/mil setup. My long-range shooting confidence and abilities have improved significantly. Take a look at the video below and let me know if you also think Ryan’s got a knack for teaching.

Featured image courtesy of Ryan Cleckner

SHOT Show 2017 | A Writer’s Highlights

Well, SHOT show 2017 is in the books and as I could tell, a major success. Range day was a blast (pun intended) and afforded a huge number of firearms and ammunition manufacturers the opportunity to have clients, distributors and the media put hands on the products they want to get out the door. The show itself is a massive affair every year with 2017 being no exception. Despite having days upon days to tour the booths, I found myself still having a number of shops on my list I hadn’t been able to visit. I did however get to stop by plenty of stalls and meet up with some really enthusiastic professionals who did a great job marketing their wares. Below are just a few of the highlights I saw.

Industry Range Day:

What surprised me the most wasn’t the number of manufacturers who are putting out suppressors these days, it was the quality. With the Hearing Protection Act having a decent chance of being enacted into law, it makes sense that everyone with the capability to make suppressors would want to have em ready to go in the event that the law does indeed pass. With my basis of reference being what AAC, YHM and SAS were putting out 5-6 years ago when I was running a class III (sot) gun store; the cans (essentially EVERY can) being put out at this year’s SHOT show that I was able to test far outpaced those cans in reduction, tone and reduced blowback.

The stars in the suppressor world were YHM with the Turbo and Nitro 30, Gemtech with the Integra upper and the Lunar 45 silencer and Blackhawk with their “Gas Can”.

The one industry range day stop that was all I expected and more, was that of Q. The Kevin Brittingham founded company might have its most famous star in the Honey Badger 2.0, but believe me when I say before long you’ll know just how kick-ass the rest of their line-up is. The HB 2.0 was everything I’d hoped it would be: soft shooting, incredibly light and very accurate. I wasn’t prepared for “The Fix” though. This modular rifle with quick caliber swap capability, The Fix innovates a number of improvements to the standard bolt-action rifle design; the trigger on this thing is out of this world smooth.

Pound-for-pound the most fun I had at the range day was with CMMG. Their full-auto 7.62×39 “Mutant” was a blast (again with the puns) and was entirely reliable which wasn’t what I expected with this caliber in this platform. One-upping the Mutant was their Anvil. Firing the beastly .458 Socom, this mid-sized rifle had less recoil than I’d expected but tons of authority downrange.

SHOT Show Booths

I’m a lucky guy to have even attended SHOT, this I know. Even better was having an editor line up some killer meetings for a first year guy who was over his head on day 1. I met some great people and was able to put faces on names from companies I’ve worked with via email so far. Below are some brief high points.

Best New Direction

5.11 Tactical. 5.11 has long led the way in comfortable, durable tactical every-day wear. My only gripe was how successful they were in doing so! It seemed like every time I hit the range, there were 4-5 guys who arrived separately all wearing tacti-khakis. Now, 5.11 is leading the charge into “Gray man gear”. With their Defender jeans, Dart pack and line of CCW ready purses, 5.11 is wholeheartedly embracing the low visibility lifestyle.

Best in Blades

Kershaw and Spyderco both managed to impress with their lineups this year. Kershaw (and Zero Tolerance knives, their premium brand) showed some blades with smooth lines and shockingly light weights. Spyderco wowed me with a few vicious defensive blade designs.

Put on your boots, boots, boots

Danner and Bates are two very well-known names in the boot world. Products from the two have combined to provide probably 80% of the boot-miles I’ve trekked in the last 15 years. Both had a wide variety of foowear available: Danner’s Tachyon (26oz, like a sneaker) and Bates’ Ranger II (very comfortable, hot weather boot) were two of the standouts.

Most full featured booth

I have to give this one to Safariland. The sheer variety of gear they had on display was only trumped by how many times it made me drop expletives under my breath. New holsters, an innovative new thigh rig design, ear pro (both active and passive) and the creme de la creme, their Hardwire body armor. The soft Hardwire plates are level IIIA protection at a mere .19″ thick. You read that right. It weighs about as much as my wallet (a handful of business cards and a Ranger coin, no money).

Special mentions

Just a few special mentions before I blow too far past 800 words and turn this article into a George R. R. Martin novel:

The gals from V7: I’m very enthused to help bring attention to what you’re bringing to market in 2017, Shane Meisel at Leupold, Walter Keller at Safety Harbor Firearms, Jason at Pantac for a great display of an impressive CCW pack, and of course my bosses; Scott Witner (editor of Loadout Room) and Brandon Webb (CEO of Hurricane Group). Hell of a show, looking forward to SHOT 2018.