Words of Wisdom from The Top

One of my favorite customers has recently retired from the Army after 20 years and come to work for my employer. If you're on some of the tactical forums, his screen name is Matt E. That's not Eversmann, in case you were wondering. Matt E retired as a Company First Sergeant, and is a combat vet and Purple Heart recipient. He's also way squared away on shooting and similarly important things. He's just completed the 1911 Operator's Course with Larry Vickers. If you don't know who Larry Vickers is, you better find out or get the hell off my blog. Seriously; you don't know, get outa here. Go. Anyway, he's off to train on the M4 again this week, although I can't recall who its with. Its another high speed dude that lots of people wish they could train with.

All that to say, Top has a good base of information with which to work. A good base of knowledge gained from either being there or learning from the guys who were there. Because of this, he's got some interesting and poignant things to say about the defensive or combative use of firearms in the defense of self, loved ones, or one's country.

We recently had a very interesting discussion about carbines. My friend M4 Guru was there, too. Yeah, the name is not a fluke. He's an 18 Bravo and is a complete and total gun nut. Naturally, when the topic is AR-platform rifles, we get around to the oft-heard comment that "Colt is all name and no substance. My (insert third tier manufacturer or parts gun names here) is just as good as a Colt." Followed shortly by "My (Whatevergun) has shot 700 rounds without a problem." Well...experience tells different stories, and I've been asking a lot of people that go to a lot of classes and shoot for work (see the post below discussing Frankenguns), and those who train those guys what happens in those high round count classes. Trends become apparent. Certain manufacturers gain a track record of failure. That being the case, and it being documented all over the Intarweb, one thing becomes abundantly clear: "Just as good as"...isn't.

To put it into the words Top used: "You can have the 'as good as'...or you can have the 'as'." Think about that.