This is a late-17th Century combination pistol-hatchet of Germanic origin.
Archive for 2012
Kinda Hard to Miss That Front Site
Monday, November 26th, 2012Kletterwerks Giveaway
Monday, November 26th, 2012From Kletterwerks, which is the son of the grandfather of Mystery Ranch, “In appreciation of winter, all of you, and this holiday season, we’re giving away a FREE Pack and a set of one-of-a-kind Wiss scissors signed by Dana!. Click on the link below for a chance to win. We will announce the winner this Friday.”
“(this pack, pictured above, was an original KW design from the 1970’s and this will be the FIRST pack delivered from the new production!) Also, we engraved Dana’s signature on a set of Wiss scissors that we’re throwing in for the lucky winner. One of a kind, signed set of tools that we’ve been using for decades… :
This is a Facebook-based contest so you’ll have to enter over there at www.facebook.com/Kletterwerks.
RuckPack
Monday, November 26th, 2012A friend emailed me the other day and said that he saw this cool energy supplement called RuckPack on last week’s “Shark Tank.” I went back and checked out the episode online. Turns out that the frontman for RuckPack is USMC Major Robert Dyer, an Aviator and current professor of Accounting at his alma mater the US Naval Academy.
You might notice two sets of wings on Maj Dyer. Not only is he an Aviator but also a parachutist and has served with 1st Force Reconnaissance as well as MARSOC. In fact, that’s where the idea for RuckPack came from. You see, RuckPack isn’t like your average energy supplement. It contains no caffeine, a prime ingredient in most others. The idea was that Marines were taking energy supplements along on missions to go along with their MREs. Unfortunately, traditionally, energy supplements raise you up and the send you crashing. It’s not as big a deal at home as it is on a battlefield.
So Maj Dyer set to work formulating a drink made from natural ingredients consisting of vitamins and a few other ingredients. So far they’ve sold out their initial run of shots and have an additional 80,000 inbound (including some with caffeine for those who want it).
By the way, Maj Dyer raised $150,000 in operating capital during his visit to the “Shark Tank.”
Thanks SM!
MATBOCK PTT Clamp
Monday, November 26th, 2012
Generally, members of SOF units are only issued one or two Push-to-Talks (PTTs) that have to be interchanged between three or four different sets of kit. On top of this you also have to deal with different camo patterns. And then, there’s the actual mounting based on operational preferences and unit SOP. Some guys like to wear their PTTs on the right or left side, some times with the buttons facing out and some times with the buttons facing in. Standard PTT clips don’t allow for all these variations nor do they make it easy to interchange the PTTs between different carriers so most guys end up with zip ties or rubber bands to get what you need out of their PTT.
MATBOCK’s patent pending “PTT Clamp” addresses these problems that confront one of the most important parts of combat, communication. The PTT Clamp was designed so that users can mount a clamp to every carrier, either by Velcro or MOLLE. The PTT Clamps are prepositioned on each carrier to eliminate tinkering with gear, allowing the Operator to simply and securely fit the Push-To-Talks into the Clamp on each set of gear and route the wires.
The Nexus PTT is very popular throughout a lot of SOF units, but these PTTs are prone to being inadvertently depressed. Consequently, MATBOCK designed the PTT Clamp – Nexus model with an “anti-hot mic” cage that will significantly reduce the chance for button being depressed.
Made in the USA, Hydrographic Kydex is available in Desert Digital, Woodland Digital and MultiCam.
Be advised orders will not ship until 15 Dec while MATBOCK builds inventory. However, they wanted to ensure this product was out before the end of November so customers could receive their exclusive Soldier Systems 10% discount. The 10% discount (code SSD10) will expire at 0001 EST Dec 1st 2012.
www.matbock.com/products/accessories/pttclamp
All Clearance Items at OP Tactical 50%
Monday, November 26th, 2012This isn’t a Black Friday gimmick. Until further notice, all clearance items at OP Tactical are 50% off! These guys are serious about clearance.
Assault Plate Carrier in Kryptek Highlander
Monday, November 26th, 2012
Check out this prototype Assault Plate Carrier in Kryptek Highlander produced by Velocity Systems. Kryptek is one of four finalists in the US Army Camouflage Improvement Effort and Highlander is their transitional pattern. The APC is a Mayflower Research & Consulting design, but don’t worry. Mayflower and Velocity work together on a wide variety of projects. Although this is a one-off, I’d hazard that it’s safe to say that this is a portent of things to come.
Steve Reichert on the 2815 Meter Shot
Monday, November 26th, 2012Former Marine Steve Reichert posted his take on the recent claims that two Australian Snipers made a 2815 meter shot within seconds of each other on his Facebook wall. He isn’t saying it was impossible, but rather letting the science speak.
I recently came across a news article stating that two Australian Defense Force snipers had killed a Taliban “commander” at a distance of 2815 meters. They were using a Barrett M82A1. I thought the story was a little fishy; after all trying to get positive ID on a person at said distance is extremely hard with conventional optical devices. The question stuck in my mind… was the shot even possible? Let’s look at the math involved, after all physics don’t lie.
•Rifle: M82A1
•Ammunition: Unknown, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and use a plug in a match grade 750 grain Lapua @ say 2700fps
•Scope: Unknown, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and use a S&B 5-25×56 PM II/LP/MTC/LT
•Scope base: Unknown, let’s give them the advantage and use a base with 30 MOA built in
•Zero Distance: Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and use 900 meters
•Altitude: Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and use 5000ft MSL
If the rifle didn’t have a 30 MOA base, and was zeroed at 100m like most sniper rifles are, then you would need a total come-up of 67.85 mils (233.25 MOA). That’s a lot of mils, and most scopes do not have half that adjustment range. Suppose that they did have a 30 MOA base on the rifle… and they were only interested in making an extremely long shot, so they zeroed at 900 meters. Doing this would drop the total come-up’s required to hit at 2815m by a little over 7 mils, to 60.29 mils (207.26 MOA). Now subtract the 30 MOA ramp angle and you get the actual remaining, real scope come-up of 51.56 mils (177.26 MOA). This is still outside the available travel of most scopes. The S&B 5-25×56 lists only 26 mils of total elevation travel, so it would most likely be impossible to dial on enough elevation to make a shot at 2815m. This would mean they would have to hold…. But in order to see the target they would have to power the scope down. The FOV specification for the S&B is 5.3 meters at 100 meters with the scope at minimum magnification and 1.5 meters at 100 meters with it at maximum magnification. Field of view is all the way across the scope, so the maximum hold you can accomplish optically; going all the way from center to the rim is half of these values. So, at minimum magnification we can hold up to 0.5 x 5.3 / 100 = 0.0265 radian or 26.5 mils all the way to the rim. At maximum magnification this is 0.5 x 1.5 / 100 = 0.0075 radian or 7.5 mils. As stated earlier, since the scope has a maximum vertical adjustment of 26 mils and the shot requires a total of 67.85 mils, the optical hold required would be 41.85 mils. Even at minimum magnification, the available field of view would only allow about 63 percent of the required hold. At maximum magnification, it would only allow about 18 percent of the required angle.
Bottom line: Using the gear they more than likely had, and assuming they had smoking hot match grade rounds, the best optics and ramped scope bases… it’s highly unlikely this shot was pulled off…
Special thanks to Dr Lyman R. Hazelton at Empyreal Sciences for his contribution to this article.
Semper Fi
Steve
Word Notebooks
Sunday, November 25th, 2012
These pocket sized Word Notebooks feature 48 lined pages and come in packs of three. They also incorporate the Word Bullet Point System seen below.
They come in six colors including three camo prints. As you can see (from right to left) there is Duck Hunter which they refer to as “Tan”, a Swedish print and a MultiCamesque pattern that Word Notebooks calls “Traditional Camo.” I’m sure Crye will be impressed with that one. Made in the USA.
wordnotebooks.com/products/word-notebook
