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Posts Tagged ‘BCM’

Activision/Infinity Ward Appropriates BCM/BPRE Promotional Imagery for Latest Call of Duty Release

Monday, September 23rd, 2019

Back in 2013, prior to the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts, a beta for the game featured a slightly-altered version of the Mil-Spec Monkey logo as an in-game player customization icon.

Needless to say, this was not an authorized use of that copyrighted material. And, it looks like Activision and Infinity Ward are at it again:

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This is a loading screen for the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

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And this is promotional imagery for BCM and BPRE. Strikingly similar, aren’t they?

For the curious, this image was featured in promotional materials for BCM’s line of .300 Blackout carbines, among other uses.

Not to excuse the use of this imagery, but it’s worth mentioning that the new Modern Warfare is currently in a pre-release state, and it’s possible that this is being used as placeholder art until the game launches later this year. Still, you’d figure that a big corporation like Activision would be a bit more cautious when it comes to potential intellectual property violations for their multi-billion dollar franchise.

Post by TacticalFanboy.com

Bravo Company – Colonel Folder Folding Knife

Wednesday, January 16th, 2019

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Designed by Al & Nico Salvitti of ColonelBlades, and made in Italy by Fox Knives, the Colonel Folder is an EDC knife designed specifically for combatives use. The blade is made of N690Co steel with a TOPSHIELD anti-wear ceramic coating, providing a high resistance to wear, scratching, and chemicals. The grip consists of G10 scales, which provide improved retention due to their coarse texture. The locking liners are made of stainless steel, and the Colonel Folder features a push button liner lock mechanism, with a second locking mechanism proprietary to Fox Knives.

www.bravocompanyusa.com/Colonel-Folder-w-Tactical-Pen-p/col-folder-blk

Bravo Company – Cold Harbor Assaulter Carbine

Thursday, November 29th, 2018

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From the pages of the Amazon best selling graphic novels Black Powder Red Earth® the Cold Harbor Assaulter Carbine, built by BCM®, features Cold Harbor laser marked upper and lower BCM receivers with either a KMR-A(KeyMod Modular Rail Alpha) or MCMR(MLOK Compatible Modular Rail) hand guard.

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The carbines include a BCM Mod 4 Gunfighter Grip, BCM PNT Trigger, FDE BCM Bolt Carrier and a full BCM polymer accessory package to include a Mod 3 Gunfighter Pistol Grip, Enhanced Trigger Guard, Rail Panel Kit and Mod 0 SOPMOD stock with all polymer hydro dipped in Multicam Black by Joint Force Enterprises.

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The weapon system ships with a choice of a 12.5” 5.56 or 11.5” 5.56 Factory Short Barreled Rifle or AR pistol with an SB Tactical Brace(pictured). All uppers are shipped suppressor ready with a Surefire War Comp capping a 1/7 twist 11595E barrel.

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Specced with the assistance of US Army Special Operations combat veterans from the BCM Gunfighter Program, the Cold Harbor Assaulter Carbine is the platform of choice for real-world urban and rural applications.

Available exclusively from Gun Gallery Jacksonville here:

Factory SBR
www.gungalleryjax.com/armory/pc/BCM-BPRE-Short-Barrel-Rifle-28p564.htm?fbclid=IwAR2t2W_5ne-FfQUl_3HQd-PU98dJTBe2YDmZIyJtK821E9Z03_aI-WDX61A

Pistol Variant
www.gungalleryjax.com/armory/pc/BCM-BPRE-Pistol-28p565.htm?fbclid=IwAR1rn8C5cUe-tFZGGvvpC_V3txjz5H4sRAj2uNT7fr15gvC9U38AwKbfYNs

Learn more about Black Powder Red Earth at www.BlackPowderRedEarth.com

Gunfighter Moment – Aaron Barruga

Saturday, August 18th, 2018

Modern Stress Shoots Are Injury Factories That Confuse Marksmanship Advancement

Two days into what was supposed to be a four day mission, my overwatch element was frantically scurrying down ridge lines to avoid being cutoff by Taliban forces that were coordinating an ambush. The hasty exfil lasted a few hours and at multiple points we sacrificed security for raw speed. During moments such as these, I was thankful for all that dumb Army training that served no other purpose than to teach me how to “embrace the suck.” Countless hours spent training under a rucksack paid dividends on days that demonstrated that sometimes grit is the most powerful weapon.

In training, running with a rucksack is one of the worst things a soldier can do because of the trauma it causes to the knees, shoulders, and lower back. Regardless, this doesn’t excuse a soldier from having to perform such a task in combat. Whether a forced march or carrying combined loads up to 200lbs in Assessment and Selection, a soldier must become accustomed to the discomfort caused by his equipment. However, it is important to differentiate between when a soldier is training to endure suffering, versus when he is perfecting a technical skill. As of late, confusion with whether harder is always better can be observed in contemporary stress shoots.

We need to make stress shoots simple again. What were once straightforward exercises that measured altered performance through an elevated heart rate, have become events that place more emphasis on Crossfiting with a gun than actually improving marksmanship abilities. Worse, the Type A personalities inherent with tactical professionals, combined with the sloppy design of stress shoots create an environment that is ripe for injury.

For example, olympic lifting in full kit is a terrible idea. Although impressive, performing such action unnecessarily exposes a shooter to career stalling bodily damage. The risk isn’t just that adding weight via kit causes an adjustment in form, it’s also that a shooter will attempt to perform an exercise as quickly as possible. Consequently, individuals will sacrifice the quality of their movement or form, so that they can “ugh” their way through to the next exercise to achieve a faster time.

From a marksmanship standpoint, sloppy stress shoots plateau development because a shooter will focus on the wrong aspects of his performance. Satisfaction results from completing a difficult task, not from actually testing skill. Whether flipping tires, carrying kettle bells, or running through an obstacle course, a tactical professional will inherently focus on and reward himself for accomplishing the anaerobic qualities of a stress shoot rather than assess how the event improved his marksmanship.

However, poor stress shoot design within training culture does not excuse tactical professionals from learning how to shoot with an elevated heart rate. Moreover, anaerobic activities such as flipping tires and heaving sandbags can be useful, so long as cadre differentiate between diminishing returns and skills progression. In order to be executed properly, stress shoots must be programmed through one of two methods.

The Sustainment Stress Shoot teaches the effects of shooting with an elevated heart rate through short bursts of aerobic or anaerobic activity. This can be accomplished through sprints or carrying weights, however, the physical exercise should never overshadow the marksmanship points of performance. Sustainment Stress Shoots are also shorter in duration to prevent the effects of diminishing returns and the unintended solidifying of sloppy technique.

Sustainment Stress Shoots should not just blindly throw shooters into an exercise. If the event requires the shooter to run, cadre must assess the shooter’s sprint mechanics and weapons handling efficiency. This is more than just cataloging the speed at which the shooter moves, and demands cadre observe explosive acceleration and deceleration sprint mechanics, muzzle orientation, and efficiency with prepping the weapon as a shooter prepares to fire. Similarly, if a shooter must carry weights the cadre should assess the shooter’s ability to rapidly stow and unstow a weapon for travel.

Although not primary to skills development, cadre must remain mindful with enforcing that weapons should be carried or stowed in a manner applicable to a combat environment. Crossfiting with a carbine has led lazy carrying positions in which shooters unnecessarily take their firing hands off their pistol grips and away from their safeties and triggers. Although not catastrophic during a stress shoot (because the shooter knows exactly where and when he will use his weapon) we’ve seen these techniques filter into tactical training events in which shooters are delayed with employing their weapons towards unexpected close quarter targets or in force on force scenarios. If, however, a shooter must move his firing hand away from his trigger and safety, it should because a physical task (e.g. casualty carry, climbing, jumping, etc.) allows for no other options.

Sustainment Stress Shoots also demand that cadre be engaged the entire time. They must be able to catalogue a shooter’s performance flaws and not simply state that a shooter missed because of fatigue.

Below is Throttle Control. It is designed as a Sustainment Stress Shoot that assesses sprint mechanics and marksmanship with an elevated heart rate.

throttel control

The second type of stress shoot is the Resiliency Stress Shoot. These events are meant to be smokers and reinforce just that, resiliency. However, their purpose is still to test skill, and not just reward a shooter for accomplishing something difficult. Because the Resiliency Stress Shoot will place a higher premium on aerobic and anaerobic tasks than marksmanship skill, they should only be performed after Sustainment Stress Shoots are executed as diagnostics. This ensures that a shooter is still learning, and not just running in place—physically and metaphorically—with regards to performance.

Collecting performance data during Resiliency Stress Shoots is more difficult because of the switch in exercises. For example, did Shooter X finish before Shooter Y because he climbed ropes quicker, or because he flipped tires the fastest? Ambiguity such as this is removed through strict penalties for marksmanship failure. This helps to level out the ranking system so that the worst shooter cannot win because he is in the best physical shape. An example of such design is adding a devastating time penalty (e.g. +10 seconds) for first round misses. This accountability encourages shooters to go for speed with sprints or kettle bell carries without allowing for sloppy marksmanship.

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Resiliency Stress Shoots should always reinforce that grit, determination and heart are more important than any piece of equipment. The hardest thing to teach a tactical shooter is that he, not his gear, is more important than any piece of performance junk the tactical industry—and its Instagram influencers—will attempt to sell him.

Resiliency Stress Shoots should only be performed after multiple Sustainment Stress Shoots are executed as a diagnostic. Failure to do so ensures that a shooter will plateau with regards to performance because the purpose of the event lacks clarity. This results in a shooter assuming that because he accomplishes something hard that his skill is increasing. Although his skill might improve, it is likely in areas associated with weight lifting instead of marksmanship.

If possible, Resiliency Stress Shoot exercises should also attempt to replicate real world obstacles that the shooter can expect to navigate such as urban climbing, carrying a casualty, or breaching a door.

In summary, this article critiques sloppy stress shoot design and its effects on marksmanship progression. However, it is not intended to pardon tactical professionals from learning to shoot in full kit and with an elevated heart rate. Instead, it demands that we perform such actions through more purposeful methods. This can require shooters to actually perform entire training sessions absent of kit and with just their weapons. Furthermore, tactical professionals are also not excused from performing tasks in which the only learning objective is endured suffering. We simply need to be smarter about an event’s goals, and whether we’re unnecessarily risking injury and performance plateau.

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Aaron Barruga is Special Forces veteran with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Pacific Theater of Operations. He has trained foreign commandos, police officers, and militia fighters. He is the founder at Guerrilla Approach LLC, where he consults law enforcement officers on counter-terrorism and vehicle tactics.

www.guerrillaapproach.com

www.facebook.com/guerrillaapproach

www.instagram.com/guerrilla_approach

Gunfighter Moment – Aaron Barruga

Saturday, July 21st, 2018

Aaron encourages shooters to keep their foots on the gas pedal with the “T-Drill” speed exercise.

Aaron Barruga is Special Forces veteran with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Pacific Theater of Operations. He has trained foreign commandos, police officers, and militia fighters. He is the founder at Guerrilla Approach LLC, where he consults law enforcement officers on counter-terrorism and vehicle tactics.

www.guerrillaapproach.com

www.facebook.com/guerrillaapproach

www.instagram.com/guerrilla_approach

Gunfighter Moment is a feature brought to you by Bravo Company USA.Bravo Company is home of the Gunfighters, and they bring us a different trainer to offer some words of wisdom.

American Gunfighter Episode 8 – Mike Glover – Presented By BCM

Wednesday, July 11th, 2018

July 11, 2018- BCM presents: American Gunfighter Episode 8, featuring Mike Glover of Fieldcraft Survival. Mike Glover spent 20 years in the US Army in various positions to include Weapons Sergeant, Sniper, Assaulter, JTAC, Freefall Jump Master, Sniper Team Sergeant, and Operations Sergeant Major in US Army Special Operations.

As a US Government Contractor Mike served in austere environments at the tip of the spear in both Counter Terrorism and Special Operations. Glover has used his experience in war and in austere environments to teach civilians the lessons he learned and techniques that facilitated his survival.

Visit FieldCraft Survival website https://fieldcraftsurvival.us/

Interact with FieldCraft Survival on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fieldcraftsurvival/

Directed and produced by Jon Chang, American Gunfighter is an ongoing series produced by BCM featuring elite law enforcement and military personnel sharing their thoughts and stories about their profession and craft.

www.bravocompanymfg.com/american_gunfighter

Gunfighter Moment – Aaron Barruga

Saturday, July 7th, 2018

Aaron introduces the Carbine Consistency Target and explains why shooters develop either competent or sloppy speed.

Aaron Barruga is Special Forces veteran with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Pacific Theater of Operations. He has trained foreign commandos, police officers, and militia fighters. He is the founder at Guerrilla Approach LLC, where he consults law enforcement officers on counter-terrorism and vehicle tactics.

www.guerrillaapproach.com

www.facebook.com/guerrillaapproach

www.instagram.com/guerrilla_approach

Gunfighter Moment is a feature brought to you by Bravo Company USA. Bravo Company is home of the Gunfighters, and they bring us a different trainer to offer some words of wisdom.

BCM Training Tip – From the Range to the Real World

Thursday, July 5th, 2018

Bravo Company brings some great info from Larry Vickers.