Anyone else tired of the "tactical" garbage?

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There are far too many fruit loops out there waggling their junk around as if they took down bin Laden or are trying out for the leading role in Hollywood's next shoot-em-up.
Am I the only one who finds this annoying?

I'm a recreational shooter and have been since the late 80s. I don't hunt, am not a Fudd, and really enjoy spending time on the range.
Luckily, I am able to hit a private range where the vast majority of the shooters are older gents who have either grown out of the tacticrap or never went down that road in the first place.

Those times that I hit a public range I'm amazed at how many people have all these gadgets and crap hanging off their guns. Every AR platform has a a pile of rails making it look like a porcupine. Guys have lasers, dots, scopes, handles, broomsticks, washers, dryers, outboard motors, and all manner of other garbage hanging off their guns. It's like a competition to see who can roll their gun deepest into the Tapco catalog.

Yes, I own a couple gas guns. My little M1 carbine is a ton of fun to shoot and is dressed just like it was when it left the Inland plant so many years ago. The M1A is a little different. I deleted the flash suppressor/bayonet lug and replaced it with a muzzle brake. That makes the gun far more user friendly. As a bonus, I painted the stock a bright purple just to present a proud middle finger to the ItsGottaBeBlack crowd.

Speaking of colors, I was okay with the black, stainless, and other colors. Then, the baby poop green and dog doo brown hit the scene. Holy cow! They just brought about the modern interpretation of the 60s harvest gold and avocado green. Who would have thought that such ugly colors would be so popular?

Millions of guys have been in our armed forces. I salute them and their service. Some of those guys want to run guns similar to what they had when they were in or maybe they want something that approaches the tools carried by the guys they looked up to.

Non-military guys doing that fall straight into wannabe territory. It's like the fart pipe and double high rear wing equipped clapped out imported cars. That garbage doesn't do anything constructive but they gotta have it after watching the Fast and Furious movies. I could own a nice pair of revolvers for the money some guys have dropped on stuff to hang off their rifles.


Occasionally I will shoot with a Meetup.com group. For the most part they're a good group of people. Still, when a new shooter comes around they default to teaching a combat style shooting. The concentration is on posture and mid to lower body so the shooter looks like he/she is ready to run for cover.
HORSECRAP!
I casually wait for them to back off the shooter before approaching them. The concentration for a day 1 newbie should be on SHOOTING. Basic rules. Get them comfortable with the gun. Work on sight picture and control. After they become proficient with the operation of the firearm THEN they can work on all the crouching tiger hidden dragon runforyourlife garbage.

Sadly, not even bolt guns are not immune to this frenzy. If you don't have the latest bazillion dollar scope on your gun then you are outcast. That's like first base. If you want to round second it requires hacking off the bolt knob and threading a something on there. Third base is spray bombing the gun in the worst possible camo pattern so it looks like you're holding a dead tree limb. No doubt this will blend right in with the city streets. The only way to hit a home run and be a tacticool hero is to drape twelve kinds of camo netting over the gun so it has its own ghillie suit that, again, will look perfectly at home on a concrete bench at the range.

Years ago I was invited to take my black (came that way) rifle to a few tactical matches. The shooting events were fun. Luckily, they were strictly law enforcement and military personnel so the douche bags were avoided. Nobody there was surprised that my old bone-stock Sendero was hitting steel at 1000 yards with a cheap well worn 4-12 scope. They didn't bat an eye when I showed up in civilian dress. The only stages I ever had difficulty shooting were the fast fire bits were the long action required breaking the cheek weld. The glass was replaced once I had a little extra fun money but that low dollar rig still finished in 6th place out of 30 shooters. I had less money in the whole rig than some did in their scope or stock.

I've shot in a carbine match with my M1 carbine using standard 15 round magazines. I did just as well as the black rifle gadget guys. Some of them didn't know what kind of gun I had and thought it was shooting big bullets. Somehow, this old soldier was an alien artifact with it's wood stock and handguard. Sad.

This rant has gone on far longer than intended so I'll wrap it up.

I know it's all about personal freedom. You drive a red car. I drive a blue car. You dress your gun and I'll dress mine. Same thing.

Hopefully, like the fart can Hondas, this trend will die down. Soon. Like yesterday. It has lured otherwise reasonable guys into a black plastic hardware war.
 
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Oh well - I hear you pain. Although, my Honda went for 256K miles and that was quite ok.

So:

1. It's what sells. I talked to an editor of a major gun magazine. When they have a technical cover about something, sales drop. Ultimate manstopper and tactical gun - sales go up.

2. Take a class - instructors pull their hair out when folks want to talk about the next killer ammo or gun as more important than how to have basic skills.

It's the free market. The TLC used to have shows on the history of the Roman Empire. Now it's some idiot catching snapping turtles with his ....
 
Most of that tactical stuff doesn't grab my fancy either but thankfully there are lots of other traditional choices available.

That said, it sells and honestly it might have introduced more people into the shooting sports and overall, that's a good thing. The more shooters and gun owners we have, even if it isn't with your Father's revolver, can only help us in the long run.
 
Hope you feel better after getting that out of your system. Now, go get a cookie and a glass of milk...it'll all be okay...

Why do you concern yourself with what other people do? Waste of energy, and a waste of time. Concentrate on what you're doing and make yourself better at something, find new information and become more knowledgeable on a subject that interests you. Much better use of your time and energy.
 
I have such a love/hate thing going with the forums. It's great to be able to discuss shooting related stuff with others but the knuckleheads kick in and take the fun away.
Try discussing 1911s without some moron tossing in glock this or that.

Try discussing a 9mm without a know it all blathering on about the superiority of a different round.

Today's rant started because I wanted to read about the Remington 700 but only found garbage like bolt knobs and silly cartridge arguements.
 
Really nice OP rant - I had to chuckle! I feel your pain & I noticed too that every gun magazine is full of black rifle stuff, usually including a big bad picture on the cover!...LOL

I was always a bolt action "snob" until I discovered the Ruger #1 single shot, my favorite rifle of choice! But out of curiosity, I am building my first AR-15. It is a fascinating rifle in form & function. One thing that perked my interest was that I discover a brand new gun/shooting sub-culture based on semi-auto black rifles, most specifically AR's & AK's. This sub-culture spans the spectrum from those that want to have a "mean looking rifle" to serious long range competitors. Some of the former have spent so much money hanging stuff on their rifles that they probably can't afford any ammo! The later have done some extraordinary target shooting & have pioneered long range .224 bullets & barrel technologies to match. There are many more in between, including some very serious hunters.

The funny thing is, when the anti's revived their treat to outlaw assault rifles, they actually achieved the opposite. They catapulted to black rifle sub-culture to stardom.

Thank you AR & AK shooters!

...bug :)
 
It doesn't really annoy me per se, but I do find it funny when people spend all kinds of money on stuff to "help them shoot better" instead of actually learning how to shoot better. On the flip side of that coin, nothing annoys me more than the guy next to me at the range shooting a revolver and judging me for shooting a "black" gun.

It is a very poor idea to judge someone so harshly based on what they are shooting, their age, or even previous experience.
 
I have such a love/hate thing going with the forums. It's great to be able to discuss shooting related stuff with others but the knuckleheads kick in and take the fun away.
Try discussing 1911s without some moron tossing in glock this or that.

Try discussing a 9mm without a know it all blathering on about the superiority of a different round.

Today's rant started because I wanted to read about the Remington 700 but only found garbage like bolt knobs and silly cartridge arguements.
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That's because forums have changed into a venue for posting your opinion as opposed to exchanging information on a subject.

If you find information based threads, they terminate after 3-4 posts (information is exchanged), or - they morph into people posting their opinions, which then get into attempting to "prove" who's opinion is right.

Look at the threads with if you had $XXXXXXX dollars, what would you buy? You'll find those with hundreds of posts because it allows people to give their opinion with no actual information needed.

Go to a tractor forum and they're arguing over John Deere vs Kubota and some guy will post that his Jinma is every bit as good. On a gun forum you get Les Baer vs Ed Brown and somebody posts that his Tisas Classic is every bit as good.

It's the Internet, and that's the depth of conversation that's popular in most any type of forum you'll find.
 
It only annoys me when the 'tacticool' guys try to force their crap on everyone else. (Like religious zealots trying to force their opinions.)

But, when they leave me alone, and let me sit back and laugh... all is well.
You want 4 flashlights, a 'breaching' muzzle break, 4 different backup optics, 3 sets of backup iron sights, 3 choices of fore grips, 2 bipods, and a trapdoor stock to store your tactical lunch? Go for it. ;)
 
I think Frankenmauser has it right. For the most part, the "Tacticool" crowd doesn't bother me, to each his own. I do however think it's sad that some people are more interested in having the baddest looking weapons with all of the latest gadgets flashlights and lasers, than they are about learning the basic fundamentals of shooting.
 
It only annoys me when the 'tacticool' guys try to force their crap on everyone else. (Like religious zealots trying to force their opinions.)
Click to expand...

Hmmmm....I'm surprised you didn't use Glock fan-boys as your example....I just tell the door-to-door religion salesmen, "I'm busy putting lard on the cat's boil" - they usually turn around and rapidly leave.
 
I want an AR-15 with some nice wood furniture. I think it looks nice, and I have no need for more than 1 short rail on the top of the rifle. If the length of pull is good for me, why would I need an adjustable stock and 4 more rails on a rifle I don't plan to attach 20 lbs of crap to?
 
Is this thread still about m1 carbines? Mine is a D-Day commemorative. Does it count,or is it a sin like my M-forgery? What caliber rant is appropriate?
 
I don't care who you are, that's funny right there, even if it is a rant.

I posted something like this on another forum and was called out by a moderator mostly for saying that you don't need optics for a SD carbine. I think I really riled the guy up because he happened to be someone who owns/uses an AR with a ton of tactical stuff hung on it like most people.

I say to each his own but like you I don't understand it. I don't have optics, rails, bi-pods, lights, adjustable stocks, or muzzle breaks on anything I own, not because I don't like them, but because I've never found a real use for them. I've had a few rifles with scopes but I didn't punch a lot of paper with them, they were deer rifles. If I still hunted I would have optics on a rifle but I still maintain that unless you are going to shoot at 100 yds, which most people do when they punch paper with an AR, you don't need it. But I'm old school as I cut my teeth on ghost rings in the last century.

The tactical stuff is trendy, cool and sells so if you feel a need for that stuff I say spend the money. Personally, with the cost of ammo these days I would rather put the money into powder, primers and bullets for my Inland carbine. Any upgrade for that likely would be just a new barrel.
 
This reminds me of a young fellow that was next to me at the range.
He had a brand new Colt AR with a bi-pod, an optical scope over open sights, an angled dot scope, long rail for more stuff he must have left in the car, 30 rd mags, and probably something else.
He was slow fire bench rest shooting at 25 yds the entire time.
Coulda' done that with a WW1 bolt action and no sights, at all..
But I never said a disparaging word - not one.
What the hey, he was enjoying himself and not hurting anything.
 
I admit that the tacticool thing bothers me a bit, but mostly when it's someone that I know is totally clueless about rifles, hunting, and shooting. If the person happens to be an old jarhead, well...that's different.
 
I do agree that it is overdone but to each their own and some of it does have an actual purpose, live and let live. Isn't that what most of you wish our current administration would do right now?
 
Holy hannah, i laughed till i cried at that! We have a friend at the gunsmithing school here in MN who's nickname is "tacti-butthole" for that reason. His sporter barrel AR weighs 11 pounds....i mean come on!

~TGG
 
As you get older, you see fads come and go....

Crew cut haircuts and Butch Wax, then mop tops, and guys wearing Farrah Faucet hair do's....now it's earings, tatoos, and fluorescent hair color and the Kojack chrome dome.

Tacticool is just another fad....someday we'll look back and laugh.:)
 
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