Imagine this for a second: you’re a pretty successful person financially, you work hard, you save money, and you occasionally invest some of that cash in your hobbies. Your hobby for the purpose of this hypothetical situation is skydiving. You spend tens of thousands of dollars on a container, wing suit, helmet, camera equipment, automatic deployment device, as well as many hours of training. You buy the best equipment money can buy. Then you go into the closet, take an old king size bed sheet, and attach it to your suspension lines instead of a real parachute. You buy the best stuff money can purchase, except for one area where you for some reason insert an unmitigated piece of crap into your stable. I know this sounds preposterous, but gun people do the same thing all of the time. Cops, military, civilian shooters, no group is exempt.
At a recent training course I had what might have been the most enjoyable group of students so far. I wish every class could have the same group. No egos, no safety concerns, no complaining, no bad attitudes, I couldn’t have asked for a better group. Because of this, we were able to get a lot of stuff done, passing the usual scope of the class we were teaching. We could have done more except for the one little issue in the room: equipment issues cropping up regularly. We regularly had to take a little time to wrench on guns or optics, which held up the students individually as well as collectively in some cases. I can’t travel with a full tool kit but I have a Multitasker AR tool and a tube of loc-tite that usually takes care of any carbine issues I run across. We ditched two optics altogether and the shooters moved to iron sights, catching back up quickly. One NcStar brand ACOG knockoff was so cloudy you could not make out the silhouette target at out 50M zero distance. A $40 optic doesn’t really belong on $1200 duty rifles. All in all it’s no big deal on a range, but I hate to see people spend a lot of money and not be able to get as much out of it as possible due to a preventable circumstance. One of the common AAR comments by students at the conclusion of the course was to “stop being cheap” and “don’t buy shit scopes for nice rifles.”
Training and equipment is a significant purchase in today’s economy. A basic AR with a light and quality optic is going to run you around $1500 on the low side with suitable components for duty or defensive use. Chalk up another $500 for a handgun and $350 or more to miscellaneous holsters, mags, ammo carriers, eye and ear pro. Tack on $750 in ammo for a 3-day course. Then you pony up $400 in travel costs, $300 for a hotel, $150 for food, and a few days of vacation from work. Then throw on top of it the $675 for the course fee. For a guy starting out, it’s almost a $5,000 investment to get a gun and get trained on it. Off of the range, if you need to employ your firearms for self defense you want to make sure you’re not endangering your life or that of others by choosing non-functional equipment. Whether you’re a civilian, service member, or LEO we all want our tools to be ready for use when we need them.
That seems like a big number, because it is. That is not to say however, that you need to buy expensive equipment. You need to buy good equipment, some of which can easily be found at a bargain if you’re willing to look around, buy used, and be a little patient. Used Aimpoints can be found for $300-350, or $400 for a new PRO model with mount from the same manufacturer. Magazines are another item that gives us fits. Old USGI aluminum mags are throwaway items if they don’t work. They’re $8-12, buy 10 new ones and call it a day. For now at least, they’re available in large quantities for little money. It wouldn’t hurt to stock up on some whether you need them or not right now. Also, guns themselves are not created equally. Many larger brands come with a price tag that would indicate quality, but not necessarily with the specs to support that. Pay attention to the actual technical specifications, not what they look like. When in doubt, do the research to find out what you don’t know. You can Google any number of internet resources to explain these but as always, there’s no license needed to post on the net. Check out M4Carbine.net for a great source of firearms technical data. When you can get a Colt 6920 for under $1100 at Wal Mart now or a BCM carbine from many online retailers, there’s no need to buy a substandard rifle for more money. It’s not about name brands, but that’s how you know what you’re getting in a market where many products look the same, cost the same, but don’t have the same manufacturing processes to back it up.
Buy quality. There is any number of clichés you can ponder, “How much is your life worth” or “buy once cry once” kind of stuff, and it’s probably a good thing to do when you make a purchase in this business. If you’re going to rely on something for the purposes of duty or defense, make sure it’s up to the task. If you’re serious about it, make sure you are up to the task as well. Just spend the time money, that extra $200 or so or couple of hours of research won’t seem like much when you need it.
Jon Canipe served on Active Duty with the US Army as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant at 5th SFG(A) and was a Senior Instructor at the JFKSWCS, training SFQC students in planning, unconventional warfare, small unit tactics, CQB, and advanced marksmanship. He is a veteran of multiple combat tours, and still serves in the Army National Guard’s 20th SFG(A) in addition to working as an industry consultant and small arms instructor.
Tags: Canipe
Jon is right in the money as usual.
Listen to him and follow his direction. You won’t go wrong.
Ethically, as a retailer, it is so hard for me to spread the word to a larger audience regarding items and specific brands that have no place in the gear bag of a soldier, lawman, or prepared citizen.
Being stamped with an impressive sounding seal of approval does not keep your equipment from being crap.
I have had many customers toss out the piece of crap holster/optic/sling that the guy at the gunstore pushed on them because it was what they had in stock, only to spend some more coin on the item that they should have bought the first time.
I appreciate this article, and the direction this comment thread could go…
I’ve said this to many people I’ve taught. My first talking point when it comes to CCW (work or defense) gear is your belt. I’ve seen $1000 gun kit on a $10 belt. I suggest to the group if you plan to carry ask for a gun belt whenever a specail occation comes up, birthday, Christmas.. Gun belts run somtimes $100. If this sounds like something you may try don’t ask for a brown riggers belt. Pick a dress belt that goes with normal clothes. I have gun belts for every style of dress 2x Suits (black, brown), 2x casual (Same), 2x training (brown, nylon).
It does kill me to see guys running a sixty dollar scope on a thousand dollar rifle. It’s ludicrous. I know I’m an exception and folks don’t have to do as I do but most of my rifles that have optics that cost more than the rifle itself. That of course is not nessasary but it seems for some reason people just won’t put money in glass. They’ll be wearing 500$ worth of multicam but still have that Chinese ACOG. Myself I love good glass whether it’s my scope, spotter or binoculars and especially my cameras.
Life has taught me there are very few exceptions to the rule of ‘You get what you pay for ‘ – if you let that guide you it is hard to go wrong
That’s the sentence we were looking for, exactly.
Unless you’re considering a Sig over a Glock…
The interesting thing about brands of equipment is that it is all about the name…or rather the reputation that name has earned. Brand names are how one product is more or less easily differentiated from another, so they’re important. Where it really matters is in knowing what a name brand truly means. Brand names mean quite a lot when your sources are good. If your sources of information are questionable, you’ll think that Bushamster, DPMS, Wyndham Armory are the same (“just as good as”) Colt, BCM, and Daniel Defense, et al. If you’re going to invest in getting set up with everything you need in the gun arena, spend your time digging for good sources of info. It won’t be time wasted.
Haji it’s not all about the name. It’s about quality or not. Take IOR Valdada for instance. They are one of my favorite glass manufacturers. They don’t command a Schmidt and Bender price but they meet Schmidt and Bender quality. What we see in the tactical market is over pricing to create a perceived value many times. It’s important to know what your buying not just the brand.
@Dude Man – I have to disagree with you on the IOR=S&B. That is just patently wrong. IOR does have very good glass, but not GREAT glass. S&B has GREAT glass. I shoot 1000 yard comps a few times a year and I own both IOR and S&B. At the same magnification, the S&B wins at every metric. S&B’s also have much better quality builds. Even things like the feel of the clicks on the knob on the S&B are better. Nice and sharp with excellent definition. IOR’s, not so much. Mushier, softer and more vague. IOR’s also feel *unnecessarily* over built…much like old Soviet gear…not very refined, just heavy.
However, that being said, I think the recent price increase of S&B scopes was a bit much but on the other side of that token, I think IOR’s are also a bit overpriced for their level of “refinement”. In both cases, I’m sure the weak US$ is primary to blame but who knows, I’m not privy to either companies ledgers.
This article hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, this “issue” goes beyond just junk optics. The vast expanse of pure garbage on the market is just pathetic. Junk vendors and uniformed buyers make for very, very bad decisions. I too have been to many carbine courses where people who up with optics/gear/accessories that just makes me shake my head.
I always bring a backup carbine or at least a complete upper. I also bring a full box of spares (we’re talking approximately 20+ LPK’s worth of lower parts & upper small parts including bolts, grips, etc.) and a full blown toolkit. Basically, I could build an entire AR on site if someone had the larger parts (barrel, upper, lower, stock, etc.) and a vise. There is not a single class where I didn’t have to break out tools and parts. I used to do it for free just to help people out but after a while, I started charging exorbitant rates for the labor and parts (and letting them know that I am doing such) because people have to learn. In a class setting, your junk AR/junk parts going tango uniform most likely won’t harm you, but if that was a real SHTF situation, you’d be f’d.
There is an old analogy used in the the safari industry in Africa.
You can tell the European hunter, because he has great glass and a cheap rifle. You can also tell the American hunter, because he has a great rifle and cheap glass…
The market has been swamped with cheap gear from China and low grade manufacturers. Ironically the one thing people try and go cheap on is Optics. Probably because they Optics of quality are not cheap! I would equate it to having a Ferrari with tons of power and speed, that you have a Geo Metro steering system on. How well do you think it will work?
I prefer to refer to a rifle or carbine setup as a System. If all the components are not working properly or are not of the same appropriate quality, it won’t run well when you need it.
Next time I may just ask a student to blindfold his dominant eye, and squint the other to show how critical it is to be able to properly “see” your target.
Great article!
Exactly or a Ferrari with Geo Metro wheels and tires.
I think suburbanites that are just interested in home defense can be prepared for much less money than that. The savings, from my way of thinking, is due to the fact that in the suburbs a handgun is the best home defense firearm. A rifle, even a carbine, would be a bad choice for working inside a house, and most suburbanites won’t have a yard big enough for a rifle. Most people won’t have to travel as far to find handgun training as they would for rifle training, and the ammo is cheaper for handguns, and optics are unnecessary, so these are some of the cost savings. A quick estimate for me for a suburbanite to purchase a handgun/ammo/kit and local training would be approximately $1500. I think the high costs get involved when you’re preparing for SHTF.
Good article John.