TYR Tactical

Posts Tagged ‘Larry Vickers’

Canipe Correspondence – Behind the Scenes at Tac TV

Saturday, August 11th, 2012

Most shooters are familiar with Larry Vickers of Vickers Tactical. In addition to being a retired Army Special Forces soldier and member of our Nation’s most elite Special Operations unit for over 15 years, Larry is an extremely successful tactical trainer, industry consultant, product designer, firearms expert, and gunsmith.

Some readers may not be familiar with Larry’s latest project, Tac TV. Following the success of his previous show Tactical Arms, Tac TV is a 30-minute weekly show on The Sportsman Channel highlighting various weapons, tactics, and products relevant to the tactical professional or enthusiast. Recently, SSD was lucky enough to attend filming of a new episode of Tac TV in Apex, NC. LAV and guest host Clint Lynch were doing a special on the .300 AAC Blackout cartridge. With this round’s explosion in popularity (for good reason), Tac TV puts the .300BLK through it’s paces along side the venerable M4 and AK47. Look for this episode in October or November, just in time to decide on that new .300BLK rifle for Christmas.

Obviously LAV is the host and star of the show, but he is supported by a full production staff and special guest SMEs who come from varied backgrounds within the Special Operations community and tactical industry. On this season you can see decorated Navy SEAL and Centurion Arms founder Monty LeClaire, LAV’s fellow IDPA founders Ken Hackathorn and Bill Wilson, “Super” Dave Harrington, and numerous other experts passing their experience and expertise with viewers around the country.

Tac TV isn’t your usual YouTube firearms show in front of a webcam, it’s a fully staffed and supported television production for network TV. Filmed in HD on the same state-of-the-art equipment as major Hollywood titles, Silent R Productions its tremendous effort and skill into every scene, and it shows on screen. Tac TV makes full use of high-speed cameras, hi-tech audio capturing equipment, and Silent R’s tremendous production expertise to bring the best firearms show on TV.

If you have DISH network check out The Sportsman Channel, but if not, don’t fear. Tac TV recently went live with a fully featured web site allowing you to view all of Tac TV’s televised content as well. In addition to the televised episodes steaming on-demand, the web site offer additional content that is exclusive to the web site and opportunities to win thousands of dollars in prizes to include a custom Larry Vickers-built 1911 pistol. While you’re there, check out the Tac TV web store and Larry’s shooting challenge.

If you’re tired of watching shows about hacks building spray-painted AKs or shows about catty menopausal rich girls with your wife, check out Tac TV. You’ll be getting the best info out there from one of the most qualified experts in the industry. Special thanks to LAV, Eric, Cameron, Matt, and Jordan for having us out to check out the filming, and to Daniel Defense for providing all the ammo and rifles I burned up on the set.

www.tac-tv.com
www.vickerstactical.com
www.silentr.com

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.

Gunfighter Moment – Larry Vickers

Sunday, August 5th, 2012

“In your firearms training always have realistic accuracy standards. Remember that accuracy will generally suffer in the real world for reasons beyond your control as well as the unpredictable nature of most encounters. If you train for minimum accuracy standards on the range expect even less when bullets start going both ways.”

-Larry Vickers
MSG, US Army (Ret)

Larry Vickers is a decorated US Army Special Forces veteran and national pistol champion. Mr. Vickers has nearly two decades of special operations experience (1st SFOD-D), much of which was spent as his unit’s Primary Firearms Instructor. In addition to his special operations accomplishments, his competitive shooting has yielded a 10th and 9th place finish in the 1993 and 1994 USPSA Limited Nationals as well as a 1st place finish in CDP class at the 2001 IDPA Mid-Winter Nationals at Smith & Wesson. Mr. Vickers is a founding member of IDPA. In addition to being a highly experienced operator and national pistol champion, Mr. Vickers is also one of the premier 1911 pistolsmiths in the country and his work has been featured in several firearms publications and on the cover of American Handgunner. In addition to all this, Mr. Vickers has served as a consultant and technical expert to the firearms industry. Mr. Vickers is featured on two new firearms, tactics, and accessories focused T.V. shows called Tactical Impact and Tactical Arms.

www.VickersTactical.com

Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.

LAV on Cults of Personality

Thursday, June 7th, 2012

I’ve known Larry Vickers for quite awhile now. He’s a straight shooter (literally as well as figuratively) and he put out some great words of wisdom today on M4Carbine.net.

“Guys it is time for me to get on my soapbox and preach against the cult of personality problem I see in the training business – it has always been there, Lord knows the Jeff Cooper cult was off the chart at one time, but with the advent of the Internet and now TV it is reaching new heights

Everyone needs to remember that all of us instructors, including me, are just guys like you ; we are not perfect, we make mistakes, and we are simply doing the best we can – don’t look at us as some kind of Tactical Messiah and hang on our every word – or worse yet fall into that trap of my instructor is better than yours crap

The best piece of advice I can give everyone is educate yourself to the point you become your own teacher; meaning you have the knowledge base necessary to sort thru the pros and cons of a given situation or technique and decide what makes sense for you

Just my .02 cents”

LAV

MoH Warfighter – Vickers

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

Electronic Arts just announced Vickers Tactical as their latest partner for Medal of Honor Warfighter. LAV had this to say about the partnership.

I am proud to be onboard the Medal of Honor Warfighter development team – after getting some time to hang out with the crew I can tell you first hand they are not only committed to giving users a dynamite game but also to representing the Special Operations Warfighter in a positive way and giving back to the SOF community in the best way possible; supporting the families of the fallen. My hats off to the Danger Close team – keep the faith brothers!
– Larry Vickers

LAV also built a custom 1911 for the game.

The Vickers 1911 began life as a parts set from Wilson Combat, and in fact, they were instrumental in helping me get the gun built in a very short time frame. I essentially set the pistol up to what I felt a state of the art, serious use 1911 should be in the hands of a seasoned operator – a guy like me, who cut his teeth on the 1911, and wants a combat handgun with the latest improvements such as an integral light rail, night sights, and bulletproof components. I put some Vickers Tactical logos on it to help set it apart, including one on the custom VZ grips. With a durable matte black finish, the pistol turned out great!
– Larry Vickers

www.medalofhonor.com

TAC-TV Episode 4 Preview – MOH Warfighter

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Starting May 14, TAC-TV will air back to back episodes on the Sportsman Channel and extended versions on TAC-TV.com with an inside look at the new Medal of Honor Warfighter game. LAV takes the developers and creative team to the range to get hands on time with guns from the game. Then the TAC-TV crew gets a behind the scenes look at the work going into making this the most authentic military shooter ever made. Using Tier 1 operators as consultants and partnering with premium firearm industry partners like LBT, Mechanix Wear, McMillan, SureFire, Trijicon, and LaRue Tactical.

Vickers Tactical GLOCK Mag Floorplates Now Available

Thursday, April 12th, 2012

We’ve been talking these up for awhile now and they’re finally here. Manufactured by TangoDown for Vickers Tactical these replace the factory floorplate and give you a lip to help strip the mag away if it hangs up. They come in packs of 5 which dovetails right in with LAV’s advice, “A good rule of thumb for any serious fighting handgun is a minimum of 5 reliability-proven magazines.”

For GLOCK Magazine Calibers: 9x19mm, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, .45 GAP!

Available from TangoDown and NETTAC.

TAC-TV Launches

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

The long anticipated launch of TAC-TV has finally arrived. Hosted by US Army Special Operations Veteran Larry Vickers, TAC-TV not only provides access to the series of the same name in an extended format, but also includes the Daniel Defense Vickers Tactical training videos. All-in-all, there’s 10 hours of HD content. Additionally, they’re adding Hackathorn content and they’ve planned hours and hours of behind the scenes and other surprises as well as user submitted videos. My cable system hasn’t carried any of LAV’s previous series so it’s great to finally get access to full shows. One other thing I really like about the site is that registration is simple and you can even log in with your Facebook account.

And while access to the video content is pretty cool all on its own, there’s also the TAC-TV giveaway. In honor of the 1911 (One of Larry’s favorites) and its 101 years of service, TAC-TV is doing an unprecedented membership event. In the 101 days from launch they will be giving away a great deal of prizes as members progressively reaches certain levels. Everything from a DDM4 V7 to the ‘moon rock’; the 10,000th member will win a Custom Vickers 1911. TAC-TV they will film the making of the pistol and the winner will be presented the gun on television.

www.tac-tv.com

The very first prize is a DDM4 V7 for being the 100th person to sign up for a full year. Any bets as to how long it will take for that prize to be claimed?

After the jump, checkout the full giveaway list. It’s both impressive and extensive.

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The Story Behind the Vickers Combat Application Sling

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

While this video has been around for awhile, it is still a great story. Larry Vickers recounts how he met Blue Force Gear founder Ashley Burnsed and created the Vickers Combat Application Sling.

www.BlueForceGear.com