Training

Some basic survival skills everyone should know

We live in a techno-centric age. Everything is at our fingertips. We have cell phones that can navigate our roads from point A-to-point B. Our phones also have GPS grid coordinates at the quick typing of an app, that can pinpoint your exact location. But what happens in the event of an emergency and you don’t have your cell phone, or it breaks or it just doesn’t get a signal out wherever you’re at.

And don’t say it can’t happen. It can, it does and all too frequently. So, unless you want to be a statistic, you should know at a minimum some basic survival skills if you are ever stuck out in the wilderness somewhere.

You don’t have to be a Green Beret or Navy SEAL and be a SERE School graduate but it certainly helps if you are comfortable out in the wilderness, far from home and have good outdoor survival skills.

So, if the unthinkable happens and you are just your average Joe, not all is lost here. You can survive, thrive even as long as you perfect a few basic outdoor skills and we’ll get to them in just a second, but first, if you ever find yourself in a survival situation, just remember the word Survival and that will help you plan your way to safety

S – Size up the situation

U – Undue Haste makes waste

R – Remember where you are

V – Vanquish fear and panic

I – Improvise

V – Value living

A – Act like the natives

L – Learn basic skills … simple no? Let’s move on.

We’re going to use the KISS Principle here, Keep it simple, stupid. And we’ll start with the first of the basic skills you should know how to do.

Remember “The Rule of Threes.” A person can survive for:
– 3 minutes without air
– 3 hours without a regulated body temperature – hypothermia (shelter)
– 3 days without water
– 3 weeks without food

With that in mind, it brings us to our very first and most important skill.

#1 Build a Survival Shelter: Are you alone or with another person or group? What kind of materials are at your disposal? Hypothermia can and will kill people quickly, long before they feel the effects of lack of food or water. So the first thing a person or group must do is to build a shelter, that will allow your body heat to keep you warm and dry during the night. Some basic consideration for building a shelter are:

Location – (just like real estate, location, location, location is very important) Don’t build a shelter in a low-lying area next to a river or stream. A flash flood can happen quickly, pick higher ground and preferably a spot that is protected from the wind.

Insulation – the ground can sap the warmth right from your body, ensure that bed that you lie on has four to six inches minimum of pine straw, leaves etc, that will insulate from the ground. Double or triple that for the sides of the shelter
Heating – is the shelter just body heated or is there a fire?
Personal or Group Shelter – if you’re in a small group, a group shelter although harder to construct, will keep everyone warmer, and don’t be shy, the closer you are to each other, the warmer you’ll stay.

The simplest design is a simple lean-to, building one isn’t particularly difficult. Just find a downed tree resting at an angle, or set a large branch securely against a standing tree. If you have cordage, you can secure it that way or use any vines in the area to lash it all together. Then stack smaller branches close together, weaving them together if possible. Then layer debris, like leaves, pine straw etc. until the walls are thick as well as wind and waterproof as you can make them.

#2 Starting a Fire: Having a fire is not only a tremendous tool for warming your body as well as your shelter but it can cook food, and boil water. Having a fire is also a big psychological boost for all involved. It provides a sense of security and safety.

A fire can also be used as a signaling device if an individual or group is being actively searched for in a rescue type of situation. A large smoky fire is easily visible from the air and can be seen from far away.

One should always carry field expedient fire starting devices but it is always a plus knowing the skills of starting a fire without matches, a lighter or flint. Use small tinder to start with and then add tiny sticks and twigs until you get a bed of coals going well enough to add some larger logs.

#3 Finding a Fresh Water Supply: If at possible, water should always be boiled before drinking. Depending upon your situation, that may not be possible. But finding a clean potable water supply is a must. If you’re in a winter survival situation, rain, snow or dew can be captured using a bandana or t-shirt and drank as it is more often than not in a purified state. Many vines will have water that can be wrung out as well as certain cacti.

#4 Finding Food: When it comes to a survival type of situation and food, the best rule of thumb is to think small. Unless you have a weapon of some kind, trying to trap or snare a large animal will waste more energy than it is worth. Become familiar with what edible plants are in your area. There are plenty of edible plant guides out there that will help you become more familiar with what it edible and what isn’t.

A couple of common plants that can help sustain you in most areas include:

Cattails – The “super Wal-Mart” of the swamp, almost every piece of the cattail can be eaten, the roots, shoots and the pollen heads are all edible.
Conifers – Most evergreen, cone-bearing trees, with the exception of the Yew have a soft, pulpy inner bark that is called the cambium. It is full of calories and starches and will sustain you
Oak trees – Acorns from oak trees can be eaten once the bitter tannic acids are removed. Native Americans used to put a basket full of acorns in a fast moving stream where the water would leach the tannic acid out in a day or two. The other method is to boil them. Place the acorns in a pot and cover them with water, once the water boils and turns the color of tea, dump the water out and repeat the process until the water no longer turns brown.

Now as a word to the wise, these are survival foods and the taste isn’t going to make one want to give up prime rib for a diet of cattail, cambium, and acorns. But it will get you thru a tough situation if the need arises.

These are just a few of the skills that one should master if you ever find yourself in a survival type of situation. But the weapon you have at your disposal is your brain. To quote Tom Hanks, “that’s the lump three feet above your ass.” Keeping a positive mental outlook on things, keeping your wits about you at all times is imperative.

And by all means, take a course on outdoor survival. There are a plethora of them in all parts of the country. And there is no shortage of very good ones in every area. Do your homework and check them out.

One (unsolicited by the way) course you should check out is run by former Special Forces officer Mykel Hawke. Many of you may remember Hawke from his television show that he and his wife had called “Man, Woman, Wild” on the Travel Channel. He runs a couple of different survival courses including a Couples Survival Course. So bring your significant other and take an outdoor survival course and learn some new skills while bonding with your spouse. Then they’ll have a greater appreciation of what you do… Stay safe, be prepared and don’t quit.

Photo: Wikipedia

Courtesy of Special Operations.com

Op-Ed: Stop throwing gear at the things you suck at and train instead

“There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.” — Miyamoto Musashi, “The Book of Five Rings”

Getting “cool guy” gear and tricking out your firearm is awesome, I have several mods and bits of gear I swear by. I routinely trick out my firearms with parts that I feel give me a performance related edge. It is important to realize, however, that these modifications and accessories are not solutions to any shortcomings in technique though. If your skills are lacking in any area, stop attempting to compensate for those shortcomings by applying external additives. Instead train in the fundamentals and perfect the things that you suck through rigorous training.

If you suck at marksmanship, spend more time at the range shooting and practicing the fundamentals of marksmanship through dry-fire off the range. If you suck at reloads, do more reload drills. If you suck at drawing from a holster, practice drawing your gun more often. It all sounds so obvious but far too often people spend the money on equipment instead of training. You will get far better at shooting with a base model gun and 1000 rounds of ammo than you will with a tricked-out gun and 100 rounds. For a couple hundred dollars a month you can afford to shoot and improve consistently. For the cost of around $1000 a year, you could take a training course (should you feel that such a thing would benefit you). I’ve seen guys spend far more than that on an optic for a gun they shoot once a year. If you can afford to do both, go for it but the main thing is that experience and training are far more valuable.

High-speed gear and tricked out guns are cool as hell but you look like an asshole with all that expensive stuff if you suck at using it. If you’re like me, you don’t have a big budget. So, spend your money on improving your skills rather than attempting to buy skill by way of external additives. A Tapout shirt doesn’t make a fighter, gym clothes don’t make someone an athlete, and “operator” kit doesn’t make you a gunfighter. Train efficiently, safely, and often if you want to be a better shooter. The guy with a couple of simple guns and a whole lot of hours behind them will always be a dangerous customer.

Article written by Kurt T. for Newsrep

Featured image: The author’s kit while in Ukraine.

Rucking for the SOF Candidate: ‘Wear it Until You Love it’

Recently we have revisited some of the basics of Land Navigation, one of the trio of the biggest obstacles that Special Operations candidates will face in their individual Selection courses. And now we’ll move on to the next one, and one we always get a lot of questions about. Rucking.

I look upon rucking just like any perishable skill in SOF. And a lot like shooting, it is one skill that requires a lot of practice and constant repetition to master. And it begins with a proper mindset. When wearing a rucksack, I think back to the film, “The Man in the Iron Mask” when King Louis XIV finds out he has a twin and places him in a prison wearing an iron mask so no one will realize there are two heirs to the throne. “Wear it until you love it,” Louis says… Sage advice

When it comes to rucking you will hear 100 different things from 100 different people. We all have our own tips of the trade and the vast majority of them are good. But I’ll share this; you have to find what works best for you. All that we’re doing here is just giving you the benefits of our own experiences and hopefully, these will be of value to you. But as a caveat, I’d be remiss in saying that what works for one man won’t necessarily work for everyone… So, with that in mind, let’s go.

Packing Your Ruck:

First up on the agenda is how your rucksack is packed. Sounds like a no-brainer…right? Not so fast. Like everything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. A common mistake that many young guys make is to put the heavy stuff on the bottom of your ruck and then put the lighter stuff on top of that. Don’t do it.

Now in preparation training for Selection, your ruck doesn’t have to have a packing list with all of your tactical needs. The weight, the correct weight is the important factor here. And a really, really, really good rule of thumb is to err on the side of caution.

If the cadre members tell you to have a 45-pound ruck without food and water, that’s exactly what that means and when I say err on the side of caution, the sword cuts both ways. 44 pounds and 15 ounces won’t cut it and that will be really frowned upon… Yes, that means, it could be a show-stopper. We always would add about 2-3 pounds extra just to be safe.

But just as being smart about adding a couple of extra pounds to be in the safe zone, there is such a phenomenon as “too much of a good thing.” If the cadre says “45-lbs”, while 50 is okay, going out there with 75-80 is not. Trust me, you won’t get Brownie points or extra credit for it. So, don’t go overboard with it. As always, be smart.

Your weight should be packed up high between the shoulder blades. If your ruck has radio pouch up high, that is where the sandbag or weight plates belongs. I prefer sandbags because it will mold to your pack and back and doesn’t have any sharp edges that can rub you on a ruck.

The guys over at GoRUCK sell these nice molded plates that will do the trick and they take all the guesswork out of it. I’ve used weighted plates in the past. And when the gym starts running short of 45-pound plates, someone will complain. But as I mentioned previously, I like to use sandbags.

We’ve talked boots in several different pieces before, in Selection, you will have to wear what the cadre allows, so the high-speed boots may have to take a backseat until you reach an operational unit. In the Army, that means boots that are compliant with AR-670-1. However, I recently acquired a new pair of boots and we’ll post a review of those ASAP.

Water and hydration are always very important even on days like the last couple where it is cloudy and cool and threatening rain. So, stay hydrated and force yourself to keep sipping while on the trail. Keep your hydration up in pre-training and it will be easier to keep going once you are in the course.

The trail we’ve been using in a power line cut so it was up-down without much flat terrain involved. When rucking it is best to lean forward and getting the arm swing going from side to side rather than a typical running type swing back and forth.

This spring, it seems the tick population has exploded. One can scarcely take a step without several of the buggers attaching themselves to you. Last night I took my dog on a quick jaunt down the trail. After only about 300 yards, she was covered. I pulled 10 off of her forelegs and cut things short. So, check yourself frequently.

But I digress, let’s talk about getting some speed going. When it comes to increasing speed, I don’t recommend that you run with a rucksack on your back while in training. They’ll be times in your selection course or the qualification course that you’ll have to make up time or want to pick your pace, especially on the downhill slopes. At those times, you’re going to have to do what you must, but for our training purposes don’t do it. Learn to increase your speed without running. Running with a ruck will hurt your knees and back…take it from the guy with two arthritic knees.

I like to lengthen my stride on the downhill slopes, some guys will tell you the exact opposite. Again, find out what works for you and stick to it. But the bottom line is don’t resort to running to increase your speed. You’re going to have to learn to ruck quickly without running sooner or later, and there’s no time like the present.

The standard is a 15-minute mile pace to pass the courses, you should be aiming to go lower than that. We were keeping a 14:30 pace on one of our practical exercise videos, which means we’ll have to step it up as well. Back in the day, I used to maintain around a 13-minute per mile pace which would bring myself in with around 20-25 minutes to spare on a 12-miler. And I could keep that pace for a 20-miler.

On one certification 20-miler at Ft. Bragg, our team maintained a 13-minute mile pace for the entire length of the course and that was with two 7-8 minute breaks built in to change socks and catch a breather. Of course, since the movement wasn’t considered tactical and was mapped out along a road, our communications supervisor (18E) strapped a boom box atop his rucksack and we rocked to AC-DC and Metallica. Much better than the sound of boots scuffling for 20 miles. We ended up with the best time in the battalion that night…the staff when learning of the music…were not amused. Always look for an edge, right? And sometimes it is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.

If anyone ever has any questions, feel free to send them along to [email protected] and I’ll be glad to answer them and we may use it in our next article or video.

Photo courtesy of US Army

*Originally published on Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

Former Delta Force operator: Why the 1911 is still my favorite sidearm

I’m a gunslinger by background, or at least I fancy myself the sort. I still wear my pistols low these days, just not quite as low as in the day. l live, nonetheless, today as I have always lived—by the sword. And you know what living by the sword means. That’s right, it means being unable to sleep at night because of the loud, late parties the sword is always throwing.

Why I like the 1911 for taking care of business

Now, in the day, we often jokingly referred to any 9mm pistol as a ‘sub-caliber device’, we pompous barbarians, the gunslingers of Delta Force. Our primary choice for a secondary (backup) firearm was the M-1911 .45 caliber blazer, legacy of the venerable John Moses Browning.

Never in modern history of U.S. ordnance have weapons remained in DOD arsenals for so many consecutive years without major modification or attempt to compromise the weapon’s intended ballistic capabilities as those introduced by John M. Browning.

I am put in mind of world-renowned small-arms expert Larry Allen Vickers of Vicker’s Tactical as he admonished a class he was giving on the operation and maintenance of the revered M2HB heavy machine gun:

Men, if John Moses Browning were to walk through this door right now…well, first of all we’d shit ourselves because Browning has been dead for over a hundred years…but then he’d say ‘do you men have and clue at all what you are doing?’”

There was no option to train with another caliber of pistol in the Delta training course for new operators; this was standard issue and would be mastered to successfully pass the five-month course. Mind you, the 1911s in the unit are not issued as they are unpacked from depot; they are meticulously modified by The Unit’s armorers to recognized match-grade standards:

Sights of choice, typically Low-Light BoMar or comparable class
Trigger pull eased to two pounds
Flared magazine well for faster magazine changes
Ambidextrous thumb safety, slide lock, mag release
Extended slide lock and mag release to aid in speed of reloads as felt through combat contact gloves
Aggressive checkering in key locations to enhance purchase
Pistol grips of choice to enhance purchase
Modified buffer
Modified feed ramp

Yes, the M-1911 is the pistol of choice in Delta, where there is never any guilt of pretense for its killing/stopping power. Yea though it be a beast to control, the pay-forward of the gat is rewarding.

The effects of the .45 jacketed metal slug can be likened to one of two basic classes of explosives, that is a low explosive versus a high explosive (takes a deep breath as he attempts to explain it without losing his audience):

High explosives such as C4 ‘plastic explosive’ expand (explode) at a very high rate of 26,000 feet per second (FPS). It burns fast and hot and has tremendous cutting potential against metal and the like. I compare it to the M4 assault rifle’s cartridge that sails along at over 3,000 FPS. It is supersonic, tends to penetrate very easily, and when passing through the human body, renders a high-velocity rifle cartridge wound.

The much lower velocity .45 Automatic Colt Pistol (ACP) cartridge, at 825 FPS, is well under the realm of supersonic, doesn’t impart the same acute cutting properties, but delivers devastating knockdown power. This round can be compared to the low expanding velocity of dynamite, TNT, and ammonium nitrate. These create more of a pushing, fracturing force that is ideal for moving large volumes of earth—such as in mining operations.

How ‘slow’ does the ACP round travel? I can tell you that, in my experience, the round moves slow enough to see with the naked eye.

“Bull crap!” you bellow out at my reckless and ingenuous suggestion.

I stand before you today a man solemn and grim in my claims. You can, in fact, under many conditions, see the .45 ACP fly through the air from behind the gun. Even from a flanking observation point, you can glimpse the shiny copper jacket as it crosses a dark background. From behind the pistol, a well-seasoned shooter can actually see the bullet arc up slightly and slap the paper of the target downrange.

An even more seasoned shooter (I have never seen this) can detect tiny specks of brass where they explode out of the chamber when the weapon cycles its reload phase. I felt inadequate when my brother, Samuel Booth Foster, explained how he was aware of the ephemeral specks of brass. But that comes from a brother who could watch a spinning ceiling fan and fix his gaze on a single turning blade.

“Incredible that you can do that, Sam!”

“Weak genetics that you can’t do it, George.”

“I love you too, Sam.”

Over my years in Delta, I maintained a cartoon book, a book of quotable quotations, and a Delta sayings and ‘non-sayings’ book. The lattermost book was made up of two parts filled with things you never hear in Delta, and then things you only hear in Delta. Those include the following:

Things you only hear in Delta

“Hey, has anyone seen our machine gun lately?”

“Well, I don’t have my parachute altimeter…I guess that’s the same thing as having turned it in.”

“Ft. Bragg is getting an allocation of nine of the new Javelin anti-tank rockets. Our cut is…nine.”

“The post military police (MP) were bitching that we were using up way too much of Ft. Bragg’s allocation of .45 ACP. The MPs now carry Berettas.”

“We’re going to work through lunch and dinner so we can get off early tonight (and then never actually get off early or get lunch/dinner).”

Things you never hear in Delta

“We’re using blanks and practice grenades on the objective tonight.”

“I’m sorry, Sergeant. You can have either the mash potatoes or corn; you can’t have two starches.”

“Cease fire!”

“Clothing issue facility rejected my canteen cup again. Still dirty somehow…”

“Fall in!”

“You need to get that mop trimmed, stand a little closer to your razor, and get that lid in travel lock, Mister!”

“Get your hands out of your pockets!”

“In cadence, EXERCISE one-two-three ONE one-two-three TWO…”

“Hey, my pistol doesn’t work.”

That last one—“my pistol doesn’t work”—yeah…what actually does that mean anyway? OK, so I’m just going to be an elitist ass and say that my gat was where it was at. I had the same two 1911s for my entire 10 years in the unit. Students graduating to squadrons carried all of their weapons and kit from training branch to squadron—there was no ‘training only’ pool of anything there. Everything was live, full caliber, no nonsense, and ready to go to war.

Author with first Special Forces Group (Airborne) during range fire in AK, with his M-1911

Reliability: The only malfunctions I experienced with either of my pistols were intentionally induced for the sake of practice. Every time I pulled the trigger, it went BANG, and a hole nearly a half inch in diameter opened up somewhere bad.

Durability: I once had my pistol come out of its holster and fall five stories onto concrete. It did NOT discharge on collision, though there was a round chambered (of course). I fired it for a week after, then decided I should get a technical inspection (TI) of my pistols, as I had never had one done. I mean when do these gats ever wear out? The inspection revealed a hairline stress crack in the lower, not associated with the five-story fall, and a sloppy ejector (not extractor) that was associated with the fall. My lower was swapped out with a Caspian or Kimber lower, the ejector (not extractor) was re-seated, and I was out on Pat McNamara-style blaze ops the same day.

Author left and Senior Engineer Sergeant Dave Royer on range fire with M-1911 in AK.

Accuracy: Don’t get me started. What can I really say, right? I mean a match-grade gat, match ammo…how many excuses are left for not hitting your target? Yes, typically we did our combat pistol training at 25 meters. But on occasion, such as when world champions Jerry Barnhart and Rob Leatham came to train us, they would have us move back to 50 meters and try some outside-the-box drills. We would eventually move back to 100 meters or more, watching the shiny bullet arc up slightly, then rudely spank the steel target plate.

It’s amazing how far away the ACP can still be accurate, how high above the head of the target you have to hold off, and how long the slow-moving ACP takes to get to its target. Just when you think you have missed, CLANG!

Satisfaction: Immeasurable. There is a peace of mind unmatched knowing that you have one of the most powerful handguns in the world for the last 100 years holstered at your side. One that you know can come out very fast, is sure to send rounds down range every time, and has unprecedented knockdown power.

I’m a gunslinging man, yes I am. I wear my pistols low these days, just not as low as in the day. That’s how I fancy myself.

Lest I die in jest, I remain,
Geo sends

(This piece is dedicated to Mr. Rob Garrett)

How To Improve Your Ability to Hit a Moving Target

One of the best lines about SOF I ever heard when I first made it into CSOR was from the RSM (Regimental Sergeant Major) when someone asked if us new guys would be on probation. “You’re on probation your entire career here.” That always stuck with me, that just because I had made it, didn’t mean I could stop training and looking for an edge like I had to when preparing for selection. You never stop innovating, tearing TTP’s apart and putting them back together. You may find a great fitness program that works, but you never stop looking for a better one.

For the most part you’re merely polishing your techniques, making them slightly better, and occasionally adding a new capability or skill to your training regime. Discovering sports vision training was a huge game changer for me. Rarely do you find something so fundamental that it makes almost everything you do better. Physical fitness is one, vision training, as I discovered, is another.

When I went through sniper course the importance of vision was really driven home. I’ve written previously on the difference between vision and eyesight, but it bears repeating. Eyesight is what your eyes sense, but vision encompasses the brain processing what the eyes see, as well as whether the eyes are working in sync, aka binocularity (Tavel, 2009). But I realized it wasn’t just judging distance, “spotting the swirl”, or resolving the target in my reticle where my vision needed to be sharp. In fact, in many ways it was easier as a sniper since these were slow, deliberate tasks where you’re consciously focusing your vision.

CQB is every bit as vision dependent, but the environment is much more dynamic. Your visual system has to be well-oiled, quick, and accurate. It is almost completely unconscious, constantly scanning the environment for threats, bringing your weapon up to engage them, and then spotting and transitioning to new threats. Visual acuity, the clarity and sharpness of our focus, is key (Wikipedia, 2016).

If our eyes can’t quickly focus and resolve the image our brain must do it, and this takes time. We constantly practice the gross motor skills of weapons handling, but not the finer motor skills of visual acuity. In my book I have a host of different drills to warm up and improve the visual system for shooting, but I will go over one simple and fundamental warm-up here. If you suspect you’re having eyesight problems don’t hesitate to make an appointment to see a medic and/or get a referral to see an optometrist.

Push-ups are everyone’s favorite staple exercise, and they come in a variety of types and flavors. There is even on for our eyes, called “pencil push-ups”. No, not what you feel like doing when you get stuck in a dry lecture theater in December listening to the eighth lecture in a row about how drinking is driving is bad (spoiler alert: Yes, it is. There, I just saved you three hours). No, pencil push-ups help warm up your visual system for focusing on close objects like your weapon sights, and then quickly transitioning to objects further out.

This is more important than you might think. Even if you find it fairly easy, it is a different matter under pressure, such a combat scenario. In a state of high arousal or alarm, it is difficult for the eyes to focus on near objects like your weapon sights (Godnig, 2004). Training can help combat this effect.

The purpose of the pencil push-up is to train both eyes to work together to keep a moving object in focus as it moves toward and away from you. With a pencil in hand, assume your shooting stance and hold a pencil at full arms’ length centered between your eyes. Focus on the tip of the pencil, and keep it in focus throughout the drill. Follow the pencil as you bring it toward you, keeping it centered. The goal is to bring it all the way to your nose without the image splitting in two. If this happens, stop, reacquire your focus and then follow it as you return to the start point. Complete 1-2 sets of 3-5 reps, with 20 seconds of rest in between.

I cover this exercise in greater detail in my book as well as more advanced techniques and trouble-shooting (like what to do if you find your eyes aren’t working together). If you find you aren’t totally convinced of the value of sports vision training try out the exercise, and pay attention to your visual system as it works its magic. Is it holding you back from getting rounds down range faster? Are you quicker acquiring and reacting to threats on your left or right side? Are you quicker on the range than in the house? These are the questions I asked myself when I first discovered vision training. I also wondered if it really was something I could train although I really shouldn’t have. Like physical fitness it’s all about building up stronger muscles and neural networks for stronger, quicker, and more accurate reactions. It’s now a staple part of my training and I continue to look for the next edge.

Works Cited

Godnig, E. (2004). The Police Policy Studies Council. Retrieved from Vision and Shooting: http://www.theppsc.org/Staff_Views/Godnig/vision_and_shooting.htm

Tavel, D. (2009, August 12). Dr Tavel. Retrieved from The Difference Between Eyesight and Vision: http://www.drtavel.com/blog/eye-health/the-difference-between-sight-vision/

Wikipedia. (2016, August 23). Wikipedia. Retrieved from Visual Acuity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity

(featured image courtesy: borongaja.com)

Wish I was kidding: Hi-Point set to release their new ‘Yeet Cannon’ later this year

HiPoint’s C9 9mm pistol is already a favorite among drug dealers and that fat guy you know that wears a load bearing vest to the grocery store. When I say that it’s a terrible pistol, I want to assure you that I’m not just jumping on the internet hate bandwagon. I actually bought an old C9 used (it still sits locked in an old tool box in my office to this day) in an effort to see if it was possible to have fun with a pistol I scooped up for less than a good bottle of whiskey.

And to be fair, I have had fun with this pistol… but really only in the ways you have fun re-watching a bad movie. My buddies and I still occasionally put our decent-to-good firearms down from time to time to take turns reveling in just how bad a pistol this old C9 really is. Rather than relaying it all to you anew, here’s a section from a review of the C9 I wrote for SOFREP years ago:

That is, of course, assuming the magazine stays in the gun, which in my experience is fairly unlikely. The magazine release isn’t in the way and it easy enough to avoid, but the weight of the magazine when fully loaded with eight rounds, combined with the recoil and jostling of occasionally actually firing, followed by me yelling “tap, rack, bang” at the pistol like it’s a lance corporal who works for me and trying to make it seat another one, almost always makes the magazine just…fall out of the pistol.”

From top to bottom: 1911 magazine, Hi-Point C9 magazine, Glock 19 magazine. Guess which one is so “heavy” it just falls out?

It’s not just unreliable though. It’s also heavy as hell. Despite being a single stack 9mm, this thing is bigger and heavier than my Glock 19x, thanks in no small part to how thick they had to make the cheap “pot metal” slide just to keep it from exploding. The result is a painfully bad shooter that often drops mags at random intervals but is heavy enough to use as a club if you’re so inclined.

Hi-Point can’t be deaf to the complaints of the shooting community, they just know their market. They aren’t going to compete with Glock or more expensive offerings from Sig and the like. Nor are they going to reshape their reputation with a new cheap pistol. Instead (and I think admirably), they chose to lean into how they’re perceived and left it up to the internet to decide what they’d call their newest C9.

And the internet didn’t disappoint. In the tradition of “Boaty McBoatface,” the online voters chose a seemingly silly name… that honestly is probably the most appropriate one that could have been chosen for a new Hi-Point: Yeet Cannon.

If you can’t wait to get your hands on a Yeet Cannon, they’ll be out later this year, but Hi-Point is already selling their old C9s with “Yeet Cannon” engraved on the slides just in case you’re the type of guy that would settle for an even crappier version of what’s sure to be a crappy gun. I’ll level with you, I actually think this was a good decision on behalf of Hi-Point. After all, here we are talking about them…

The OG C9 with Yeet Cannon engraving next to the new Yeet Cannon. (I’m embarrassed to have typed that sentence)

I’m no gun shamer and I’ve spent more than $200 on some pretty dumb things before, so if you’re jumping on the Yeet Cannon waiting list (either for ironic laughs or because you just like bad guns), I say good for you. Do what what makes you happy.

I’d just prefer you weren’t watching my back with it.