Howling Moose-
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OK,...when your weapon jams...or you're only 6 feet from the guy who's gonna decapitate you with a clever... and trying to pull your 1911 or AR15 just don't get it - what'cha gonna do??? Pull out your johnson and impress'em to death?
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I’m not convinced that, if you don’t have time to draw your sidearm, you'd have time to draw a knife. If my rifle “jams” and I'm 6 feet away from the enemy, I'm going to charge him and give him one heck of a poke to center mass with the muzzle of my rifle (or point of bayonet, if present) and proceed from there (maybe a vertical butt-stroke or a solid kick to the family jewels with my size-12 boondockers to buy me the second it takes to tap-rack-bang). Believe you me, a solid poke to the sternum with the muzzle end of a rifle is going to cause some discomfort to the recipient even without the bayonet, and you don’t need to deal with prying the weapon free from the badguy’s ribcage. I’m not about to drop my rifle, draw my knife and jump on the badguy; I don’t want to get into a knife fight with anyone.
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Well, well - you guys have it together. Dang, I thought the SEAL's and Rangers knew their business when it came to TACTICAL blades?
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Well, maybe, maybe not. SEALs aren’t the Rambo/Terminator-types that the movies make them out to be; their primary job is a form of reconnaissance, not getting into extended hand-to-hand combat (though they do have a Direct Action role and receive plenty of training in CQB). Some of the primary requirements for a SEAL blade would be totally superfluous for an urban combat blade (ex: made of nonconductive material, extreme corrosion resistance). As for Rangers, my Uncle was a Ranger in WWII and knew from personal experience how to stick a knife into people, but I think he got by just fine with a K-Bar-type knife, and didn’t need any fancy hi-tech knives.
Even assuming that SEALs and Rangers know everything there is to know about knife combat, I’m not convinced that their choice in blades says anything about the best knife for urban combat. In today’s infantry, a knife is primarily useful for opening MRE pouches and snapping the metal bands that hold ammo boxes shut, and may be needed to cut comm wire, dig a hole, serve as a prybar and pound in tent stakes, too. A K-Bar does just dandy for all of that, whereas a lot of the fancy-pants “tactical” knives aren’t as useful for these tasks.
Conformer –
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Anyway this is once agian fantasy talk for I hope and don't think anyone here will be in a urban situation.
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Well, there are numerous active duty and reserve Marines and soldiers who frequent this site, and urban combat is exactly the type of combat we anticipate being involved in our next significant conflict…
Semper fi,
Bruegger out.