The Real World Speaks

A close friend, a few years younger than myself, recently returned from the sandbox. House to house fighting is dreadful and I was interested in hearing of his experiences.

First off, consider that he's one of the best shots I've ever known. Pistol or rifle. That's part of the problem when discussing war and tactics and armament. One man whose hand is fair-to-middlin' can have memories different than a bona fide expert. Dick is one of the few men I've ever met who could take out three or so of the fair to middlin' types while doubletapping them all. That's if two squeezes per was even necessary. An advantage he had was in using what our armed forces would consider to be "exotic" ammunition, and humble dude that he is, admitted that the days of slamming home two or three from a 9 mm, or one or two from a .45 are over.

Ball sucks. Especially from a handgun. But fortunate fighters need not use ball because a steady supply of the exotic stuff was made available to them.

"Score two hi-COM and move on. We all had our doubts but after taking enough of them down, were made believers."

Not that Dick carried a 9 mm Beretta. Senior NCO's, Special Forces types, and even run of the mill grunts often pack whatever heat they can feed, and Dick's sidearm of choice was a Glock 22 he "requisitioned" from the Iraqi police. Crawl through a tunnel, snake yourself down a rickety ladder into a cavernous basement and a handgun is often the best weapon to use while doing so.

"...Never saw any difference in the .40 against the .45," he said. This intrigued me. At bad breath range I'd have figured the big bore would have an advantage over the medium bore, but Dick said otherwise. Dropping a target with either became so commonplace that at distances under 20-25 yards he saw no winner between the 16, AK, or the G-22, except for the fact that the wounds looked far more horrendous when the full-size Glock was used to make them.

"Speers didn't suck but the Winchester's were ridiculous. Corpsmen stopped asking what in hell made those wounds and learned to dummy up..."

There was more I learned, but for now I'll pass along this recommendation.

Winchester Ranger T's are very, very good to use.