Month: November 2010

Function Testing Long Guns (Part Two)

Posted on by Marketing Action Target

Written by Benjamin Kurata

*This is the second entry in a 2-part series on Long Gun Function Testing. The first entry was published two weeks earlier.

In a previous article, I covered function testing the AR-15 / M4 patrol rifle and variants. Now, let’s turn to that old standby of the police arsenal, the 12 gauge pump shotgun. It’s a common misconception that the 12 gauge pump shotgun is maintenance free. Certainly, the majority of shotguns I’ve seen were evidence of this misguided belief. The police shotgun has to be routinely cleaned, lubricated and function tested the same as any other duty weapon. One area that most shooters overlook when cleaning and lubricating the police shotgun is the magazine tube. The tube is made of steel, and the magazine spring and shell follower are made of steel. (If the shell follower in your shotgun is a thin plastic cap, discard it and get the steel one. If the plastic cap breaks inside the magazine tube, you’ll have to put the shotgun on to the workbench to get it to work again.) When the shotgun is carried in “cruiser carry” mode, the magazine spring is compressed against the interior of the magazine tube. Let some moisture get into the magazine tube, and corrosion of magazine spring can occur.

Whenever I disassemble, clean, lubricate and function test my shotgun, I push a bore brush and patches wet with solvent through the magazine tube until the patches come out clean. I finish up with a clean patch moistened with lubricant followed by a clean, dry patch. A wipe down of the magazine spring with some lubricant completes the maintenance on the magazine tube.

Function Testing of the Pump Shotgun:

  1. Make certain that there is no live ammunition in the magazine tube or chamber. With the bolt back, a quick physical check through the loading port by touching the magazine follower and the empty chamber gets the task done.
  2. Pump the fore end all the way forward. Try to pull the fore end back. The fore end and bolt should remain locked forward.
  3. Put the safety on “Safe”. Press the trigger, hard. Nothing should happen.
  4. Point the muzzle in a safe direction and press the trigger. You should feel / hear a normal hammer fall. Keep the trigger depressed.
  5. With the trigger depressed, roll the shotgun sideways so you can look through the ejection port. Slowly work the fore end all the way back and then forward. You should see the shell lifter rise up when you start the fore end forward. Continue to push the fore end all the way forward while keeping the trigger depressed.
  6. Slowly let the trigger forward until you feel and hear the disconnector reset. It won’t take much forward motion of the trigger, and the reset will be subtle. The reset on my personal Remington 870 feels about the same as my 1911A1 Colt. Yes, all modern pump shotguns since the model 1897 Winchester have disconnectors.
  7. Press the trigger again. You function test is now complete.

Function Testing the Police Semiautomatic Shotgun:

  1. Make certain that there is no live ammunition in the magazine tube or chamber. With the bolt back, a quick physical check through the loading port or the ejection port by touching the magazine follower and the empty chamber gets the task done.
  2. Let the bolt go forward by pressing the bolt release button. The bolt should move forward sharply and lock into the rear of the barrel.
  3. Point the muzzle in a safe direction and put the safety on “Safe”. Press the trigger, hard. Nothing should happen.
  4. Point the muzzle in a safe direction and press the trigger. You should feel / hear a normal hammer fall. Keep the trigger depressed.
  5. With the trigger depressed, roll the shotgun sideways so you can look through the ejection port. Slowly pull the charging handle to the rear with your non-dominant hand and ease it slowly forward. As the bolt starts forward, you should see the shell lifter rise up. Work the charging handle back and forth a few times. You shouldn’t feel any unusual binding, just slight resistance when the bolt unlocks and a slight “bump” as the bolt body passes over the hammer.
  6. Pull the charging handle all the way back and let it fly forward.
  7. Slowly let the trigger forward until you hear and feel the disconnector reset. Again, this won’t take much forward motion of the trigger and is subtle (compared to the disconnector reset on say, an AR-15).
  8. Press the trigger again. Your function test is now complete.

Tactical Breaching/Forced Entry

Posted on by Marketing Action Target

Who out there has actually breached a door? Most of our readers have breached many doors in the past. Most will have the opportunity to do it in the future as well. But, how many have actually trained over and over again within the same day? The truth is, not that many.

Action Target has developed a revolutionary Tactical Breaching Door™ that affords instructional staff the best option for consistent and realistic training. Our Breach Door adds a whole new dimension to training realism and eliminates the problems faced when training breaching techniques to students. The Tactical Breach Door uses advanced engineering which allows trainers to adjust the tension holding the door closed (shown below) and gives them complete control over the level of force required for a dynamic entry.

The Tactical Breach Door is designed especially for use in Action Target’s Modular Armored Tactical Combat House (MATCH) shoothouse but it can also be used in a stand-alone frame or can be modified to fit into any existing shoothouse.

There is no better option available.

Here are some of our breaching door’s capabilities:

  • It can stand alone
  • It can be integrated into a shoot house
  • It can be integrated into our FlexTact system
  • It resets in seconds
  • It is reusable

Shotgun, ram or explosive entries can be exercised and the patented latch system allows an immediate re-set for multiple training sessions. No more replacing doors after each entry-simply close the door and reset the latch. This allows for instant correction of improper technique, multiple repetitions in shorter training sessions and a range of difficulty levels for various entries.

“Action Target’s Tactical Breach Door will advance training to a whole new level. For those of us who train, this innovation is a powerful and functional tool that will allow us to better prepare our teams to protect their own lives and the lives of those around them. Every law enforcement officer, special ops team and military recruit needs to be trained with this door so they can learn the techniques that will make building and room entries safer when breaching the fatal funnel.”
– Sergeant Daniel Gray – Firearms Instructor, Turlock Police Department

Take a look and you will see that our Tactical Breach Door will meet your training needs and can be used by itself with our free-standing option or integrate it into your MATCH or FlexTact® shoothouse.

You will not find a better option for forced entry training. As the industry leader, Action Target asks you to contact us today to learn how we and our Tactical Breaching Door can support your training needs. Enhance your forced entry training today with our technology. Contact Action Target today!

To learn more about Action Target and its full line of products, including the Tactical Breaching Door™, please visit www.actiontarget.com. For additional information on Tactical Breaching Door technology, please contact one of our Action Target Representatives.

Function Testing Long Guns (Part One)

Posted on by Marketing Action Target

Written by Benjamin Kurata

*This is the first entry in a 2-part series. The second installment will publish in coming issues.

12 gauge pump shotguns have been part of the Law Enforcement arsenal for a long time, and patrol rifles are becoming more commonplace, with the AR-15, M4 or some variant being the most common. It is no secret that I am a proponent of the patrol rifle, as anything a handgun can do, a rifle can do better, and from a longer distance. As more and more of America’s LE Officers are being confronted with rifles (the semiauto AK-47, SKS and variants being the most common), it’s time to rethink operational priorities. Early in my LE career, when the 12 gauge pump was the standard LE long gun, you could always tell the rookies (myself included) from the veterans. The rookies would go dashing off to the scene of a shots fired or man with a gun call, where the veterans would always take the few seconds to get to the trunk, take out the 12 gauge pump, and maybe grab a pocketful of extra buckshot or slugs. Therein lies a lesson:

Don’t take a handgun to a long gun fight.

Now, I can hear the cyber moaning and wailing already as I type this. “My department will never allow… My Chief will never go for…. The community will be in an uproar….”, etc., etc. All I can say is, I never thought I’d see the day when fully geared up NYPD ESU Officers would be visibly present at major infrastructure locations in Manhattan, wearing M4’s, full raid vests including a Kevlar lid, but that day is here. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. I’m not making light of any department’s struggles with getting a patrol rifle program accepted and funded, as I have assisted many departments with getting their programs off the ground and know how difficult it is. My point is, more and more of America’s finest are being gunned down with a rifle chambered in 7.62 X 39 COMBLOC. When facing a rifle with a 30 round box magazine attached, even your favorite high capacity 9mm / .357 SIG / .40 S&W / .45 ACP is not “enough gun”. You need a long gun.

Maximizing Patrol Rifle Reliability:

The AR-15 / M4 (or some variant) is the most common patrol rifle, so let’s focus on it first. First, the direct gas impingement system invented by Eugene Stoner is an inherently high maintenance system. Anyone who has spent the better part of an evening attempting to scrape the last bit of carbon fouling off the bolt tail or the corresponding recesses in the bolt carrier knows what I am talking about. Which brings up an operational question: How often / who will perform routine preventative maintenance on the issued rifles? The Stoner system also requires a fair amount of lubrication, particularly once you start firing it, as the gas blowing back onto the bolt has a tendency to burn off any lubrication on the bolt’s gas rings quickly. Here in the Southwest, where the air temperatures have been above 100 degrees F all week, the temperature inside a police cruiser’s trunk is hot enough to bake a pizza. Almost every patrol rifle that I have seen taken directly out of a cruiser’s trunk has been bone dry and badly in need of lubrication. Routine maintenance is critical if the rifle is going to function reliably.

Another area to look at closely is the patrol rifle’s magazines. I covered magazine function checks in a previous article, but suffice it to say that just previous to the last national high capacity magazine ban, anybody with aluminum sheet metal and a spot welder was cranking out AR-15 magazines. Even the original mil-spec magazines were intended to be used just a few times, then discarded. I personally run only stainless steel mags with a military phosphate or nitride finish. If a rifle magazine is not feeding properly due to a split back seam (common) or bent feed lips, take it out of inventory and destroy it.

Patrol Rifle Function Test:

Make certain that there is no live ammunition in the rifle or associated magazines. Again, I find a physical chamber check going up through the mag well faster and more accurate than a visual check.

  1. Let the bolt go forward.
  2. Insert a mag and lock it into the mag well.
  3. Pull back smartly on the charging handle. The bolt should lock to the rear. If it does not, check the orientation of the magazine springs. Unlike most pistol magazines, the spring in most AR-15 mil-spec mags is attached to the follower and is difficult to orient backward. But, if it is humanly possible…
  4. Push the charging handle forward into the locked position.
  5. Push the magazine release button. The magazine should fall free under its own weight. If it does not, it could be due to either a bent magazine tube OR the magazine release catch has been screwed too far into the mag well. If you have the same problem with all of your mags, try backing off the catch arm one full turn and repeat the test.
  6. Slap the bolt release. The bolt should fly forward sharply and lock up into the rear of the barrel.
  7. Point the muzzle in a safe direction and put the safety on “Safe”. Pull the trigger, hard. Nothing should happen.
  8. Put the safety on “Fire”. Press the trigger. You should have a normal trigger press and hammer fall. Keep the trigger depressed.
  9. Rack the charging handle.
  10. Let the trigger go forward slowly until you hear and feel the very loud disconnector reset.
  11. Press the trigger again.
  12. Attempt to put the safety on “Safe”. With the hammer down on an AR-15 and variants, the safety cannot be put on safe.
  13. Repeat for all remaining magazines.

*This is the first entry in a 2-part series. The second installment will publish in coming issues.

Reactive Steel Shooting – Bobber X-treme™

Posted on by Marketing Action Target

Reactive shooting is the skill a police officer must rely on when confronted with a suddenly hazardous situation. It is a critical skill that can save officers’ lives, and it is the result of conditioned hand-eye coordination developed by training on Action Target air-powered reactive steel systems.

As we learn more and more about the human dynamics involved in armed confrontations, we understand that physical skills that require conscious thought or intellectual processing tend to break down rapidly under high levels of stress. If defensive skills and responses are not programmed in at a subconscious level, the sudden stress may cause us to fumble, freeze or panic. It is in this environment that reactive shooting skills are needed. Such reflexive shooting skills can be taught through the use of extremely short time limits, thus pushing the shooter to function at the limits of reaction and response time. This can be compared to learning how to hit a fast moving ball with a bat or racket, or developing the reflexes to block a punch or kick at full speed. Reactive steel targets provide the instant feedback required to program an officer’s reflexive shooting skills effectively and efficiently.

Over the next several months, we will be showcasing our entire Reactive Steel line of targets. First one to be discussed is our Bobber X-treme™:

Bobber X-treme ™

  • Reactive steel with automated reset – Independent target control
  • Multiple AR500 steel target plates – Variable exposure times
  • Choose knock-down or “flop” heads – Computerized scenarios

The basic function of the Bobber X-treme™ will probably sound familiar. A steel plate is presented to the shooter from behind cover. This plate can be hit at any time while it is exposed, and a computer interface is used to control the frequency and duration of the target exposures.

Speed – The exposure times with the Bobber X-treme™ can be as short as a ½ second, so speed is of the essence. The whole idea behind reactive shooting is to train the body to automatically carry out the complex action of firing a gun without having to process the whole sequence with your conscious mind.

Accuracy – Not only is missing the intended target inefficient and ineffective, it is a staggering liability during an actual armed conflict. Because the 8-inch target plates on the Bobber X-treme™ jump up from and retreat behind total cover, only accurately placed shots will have any effect. Painting the chest plate and assuming it to be an innocent bystander or hostage increases the pressure for accuracy even more.

Judgment – Split-second judgment and threat analysis may be the most important elements of the training triangle. The revolutionary Bobber X-treme™ addresses this issue by presenting the shooter with two separate target plates, one directly behind the other. One plate is an 8-inch circle, and the other is an 8-inch octagon. Depending on your training scenario, you can classify all the circle plates as hostile, and all the octagon plates as friendly. When one of the plates jumps up from behind cover, the shooter must quickly determine whether the plate is hostile or friendly and then take the appropriate action. The circles and octagons look enough alike to force the shooter to be sure.

If you would like some more information about the Bobber X-treme™ or other Reactive Steel products, please contact the Territory Manager for your region.