But the thing is, we usually shoot from 5-500 yards. What do you do for an optic?

Many choose to use a simple 1-4x scope. Personally, I don’t like screwing around with a magnification ring during a stage, even with a “Cat-Tail” such as the MGM SwitchView. And I suck at shooting long-range targets, so the more magnification I can get, the better.

Dueck Defense RTS

Barry Dueck, champion 3-gunner, former Marine and head of the Suppressor division at Surefire, dreamed up the solution. Basically, he took a standard A2 sight, and CNC’ed it out of one piece of aluminum in a manor that’d mount at a 45º angle.

Now, angled sights are nothing new. Open Division 3-gunners had been mounting C-mores on JP forearms since they were invented. JP themselves sell a “Short Range Tactical Sight” to mount on the angled slots on their forearm. But until now, nobody’d thought of mounting a real rifle sight at an angle. The result is a sight that is just as accurate as shooting an iron-sighted A2-style rifle, as easy to transition to as flicking your wrist.

I’ve been running them since MultiGun nationals (October of last year), switched them out for a Burkett mount twice, and they’ve kept their zero. I now run them with a Burris Fullfield II 4.5-14x scope on top of the rifle. I shot a match with that setup yesterday and it worked great (I didn’t but the setup did). I shoot everything out to 75 yards with the Dueck sights, then use the Burris for anything farther. Anything from 75-100 yards I use the 4.5x setting, and farther out I go all the way to 14x.

Cons

As with anything, the Dueck sights have their drawbacks. Actually it has a drawback: price. The sights go for $239.00 from Brownell’s. And actually if you think about it, that’s not much compared to a comparable setup. A pair of offset mounts from costs around $55.00 and a set of fixed A2 sights will cost around $160. So for $210 you can get a set of offset sights that won’t be the same height above the bore as a regular rifle. Or pay $20.00 more and get the Dueck sights.

The real difference between the two is the cost. The top rifle MSRP’s for $1900, the bottom is $1400.

The top rifle (the Expert I) is totally optimized to be the perfect 3-Gun rifle, with the absolute best components. Starting from the front, a Surefire comp, that also serves as a QD suppressor mount. Colt 18” Match grade barrel with really neat Ball Endmill flutes (the most important part of the rifle, because of the CDI factor). Samson Evolution rifle-length free-float handguard. Very well-fitted upper/lower receivers, a Geisselle Super 3-Gun trigger, and a Magpul MIAD grip/CTR stock.

The bottom rifle (Expert II) is built using less expensive (but still excellent quality) components. The comp is a Miculek-style, just as effective as the Surefire. The barrel is still a Match Grade 18” barrel, but not fluted. The forearm is a Hogue free-floating aluminum tube, carbine-length (which means you won’t be able to get your arm out as far on the rifle). It uses the same receivers and Geiselle trigger. Hogue rubberized grip and Magpul MOE stock.

Another noteworthy feature of the new pony rifle is the gas block. It is a 24-position adjustable model, so you can limit the amount of gas flow to just what’s needed to work the bolt. To my knowledge, this is the only factory rifle (short of a JP) that has an adjustable gas block.

Front end of the Expert I. Note the gas adjustment know peeking out from under the handguard. Also note the barrel flutes, which increases accuracy by 0% but coolness by 200%.

Group shot with the new rifle. Colt guarantees sub-MOA groups, and includes a test group shot with YOUR rifle off the bench in each case. This group was shot with rack-grade 55 grain bullets. The 1-8” twist barrel stabilizes everything from 55 to 75 grain bullets.

Julie Golob and I at the S&W booth. She also signed a copy of her new book, Shoot!

Randi Rogers and I at the Glock booth.

Max Michel and I at Sig

Travis Tomasie demonstrates a good draw and reloads. This is him starting off slow (I’m not kidding!

Also has a left side charging handle, which comes in handy with less-lethal munitions that don’t cycle the action.

I’ve read all Ian Fleming’s James Bond books, but I haven’t seen Goldfinger. I thought this clip was pretty interesting because it shows how “gun people” were back then. Nobody really cared if you shot a pellet gun inside, you weren’t yelled at for saying something like “lady’s gun” on TV, and nobody had an aneurism when you shot at your cameraman with blanks (except maybe the cameraman).

I also chuckled when Mr. Boothroyd talked about the “armalite rifle”. Not the AR15, the AR-7. That Gene Stoner guy really was “with it”.

Side note: that was a reference to ”The A-Team”. Another post title considered was “Save up to 30% when you book your tactical training at Priceline!”

An jaw-dropping display of safety violations, and weird tactics/drills. What was that where the two guys did that weird spin thingy?!

H/T Caleb

Imagine cooking and eating on the Monolith from ”2001”.

The food is nothing too exotic, steaks, some seafood, chops. Oh, yeah, and it’s served raw on a 700-degree lava stone. I ordered a Pork Chop:

The idea is to cut a piece off, let it cook through, then eat it fresh off the ”rock”. But if you’re feeling less adventurous, you can have it cooked in the kitchen and served on a plate. Pricing ranges from $13.00 to $30.00, menu can be downloaded here. Oh, and for dessert they have some excellent chocolate fondues.

“Temporary Post Used For Theme Detection”. That’s because I recently set up an unused PC with Windows LiveWriter. I have previously used Ecto, MarsEdit and WordPress on a Mac, but I much prefer the LiveWriter software my Dad let me use to blog the SHOT show.

I also very much enjoy blogging on a 32’’ HDTV that was not used after a recent flood in the Nelson house.