Author: James Cano

Just before exit 29 on 75, if you drive the speed limit like a responsible citizen, you may spot some of the ads we tossed up!

When I am setting up a new rifle, without fail choosing what I want to run for foregrip options is always one of the hardest choices. I always start with my go-to: BCM GUNFIGHTER MOD-3 M-LOK Vertical Grip.

I like it, it’s worked very well for me and always looks good but there is always that “maybe this would be better…” in the back of my mind. Now keep in mind that is just me, just my choices on what I like to run. You could hate them and that’s ok!

When I want to switch to something new it is usually something I like visually, then I toss one in and see how it feels. I recently built an 11.5 that I wanted to keep short and somewhat light for night vision use. I like the Emissary Handbrake Mini.

I was going to run this one but then I remembered we had another one I wanted to try out. This one was different than anything I tend to run, a finger stop/index point that would have kept the weight down and real estate used less. The Arisaka Index Mount.

I liked it, and I liked the look but I didn’t love how it felt because my hands are not big enough to clamp like you would need to do with this setup. I can do it but it’s just not comfy for me. So I moved back to the Emissary. It just feels right, especially with my grip and where the thumb sits in relation to the laser and light buttons.

Now again this is just me but are these two accomplishing anything different than each other? Kinda. Either way, you’re looking to improve your weapon manipulation, and there are multiple ways to do this but I think the main two hot ones right now are : vertical grips and handstops. Both options improve your rifle control, but it really will come down to a personal preference and how you want to use your rifle. How do you make a choice now? I think you gotta just toss an option on and feel it out but there are other factors that could help you choose.

Weight.

For weight savings, handstops are the clear winner. Super small and super light only adding minimal ounces to the setup. Vertical options add more weight but also give you the option for storage sometimes as well as bipods even. There are a couple models of vertical grips that have a deployable bipod inside but you are adding a lot more weight to do so.

Comfort/Controllability

Vertical foregrips offer a bigger real estate for your hand, should your grip be slightly off you can still find it when you need it. This factored into my decision when building a night vision build, reloading is hard when you can not see, and finding the small hand stop is not something I want to add to the mix.

Now going with a handstop you open up a whole bunch of grip options and hand positions to use. Comfort is going to vary from person to person, nobody but you can tell you what is best for you.

Now there is a little legal issue with verticals if you are running a “pistol” setup. You cannot do it on a pistol, if you have an SBR it’s not an issue. Hand stops do not have any impact on this rule along with angled foregrips. Safer to get a hand stop on there and be good to go.

It will always be a personal preference on what you go with, I cannot tell you what you like or what is comfortable with your body type. The best thing I think is to just toss one and see how it feels during dry fire. You may end up switching all your setups when you find something you love.

I can always think of a reason to add another rifle to the collection: maybe it’s Monday so I need a new one, I am an American I want one, It’s sunny outside so I need one. I can go on forever!

We have plenty of budget options in stock and I decided to grab what I thought would be the best buys at the moment. Check it out and then hit the website and toss one in your cart before they are all gone!

From our friends over at Sugar Creek Range:

• Saturday, September 27th 2024
• 8:00 PM  11:00 PM
• Sugar Creek Range1033 Perry Rogers Road Lancaster, KY,

We are stoked to offer another NV Demo to our community.

Here at Sugar Creek Range, we are offering members and non-members of all age’s the opportunity to see what true night vision is all about. You will have the opportunity to shoot some of our suppressed guns utilizing helmet-mounted night vision with a laser and/or a night vision clip-on unit mounted on a rifle.

You will also be given the opportunity to compete against others by time in our steel target competition we will be held at the event for prizes provided to us from our sponsors below.

Nocturnality Gear based out of Lexington and the team from AIM Surplus based out of Ohio will be with us at the event and are eager to meet you!

Guns, Ammo, and Equipment will be provided.

Please share with your family and friends. We look forward to seeing you here!

EVENT SPONSORS:

T.REX ARMS

AIM Surplus

Nocturnality Gear

We will have a booth with some cool stuff to play around with, including: Demo guns for the SCT barrel options. Ported, JTT, and Stock so you can get hands-on and feel the recoil reduction.

Some lasers from Holosun, Optics to see under IR light and much more!

This past weekend a couple of us took a class with someone we had not worked with before: Jon “Duffy” Dufresne. We have been eyeballing his NightVision Class and decided to jump into this class as it’s only a couple hours’ drive away. Handgun mechanics is a blended course. It is a blend between performance/practical shooting and defensive base shooting. It covers subjects like self-diagnostics, the importance of vision, and helps to push students to a higher level of performance no matter their level. This class is tailored to teach you how to use science, data, and experience to become a more efficient and consistent shooter.

It was a really fun class, great pace so you are constantly working on something or learning something. Lots of fun and joking around, so it’s not a cutthroat “let’s get better and work as hard as you can because if we don’t we die” class. It was a “let’s get better and have some fun while we do it”, a class for your more everyday shooters.

The first day was mostly static and getting some things established that would come into play day 2.

Day 2 was movements and transitions. I brought 1200 rounds and after all the shooting was done, I had only 130 rounds left. Now I did take a break to cool off on day 2 so I didn’t run a couple drills so I think I for sure would have shot all 1200. It was awesome. Duffy is the man. He made the class fun for everyone regardless of experience level. If you have taken pistol class and you are comfortable with it but you want to push it to the next level, this is the class to take.

I want to tell you more about the class but I do not want to give it all away, you gotta take the class yourself.

I’d like to start off by saying this is the first time I’ve ever taken a shooting course, so whether my opinion is valid on this subject is up to you. But during my time here at Aim Surplus I’ve gotten to talk with several co-workers who have taken classes and have been able to form expectations for myself. I recently got a chance to take the pistol essentials class at Impact Shooting Center, here are my thoughts. 

We started the first day off by working on the base fundamentals including Grip, Trigger, and sights; over the course of that day, I was able to improve greatly with my recoil management and trigger preparation due to Shane’s (one of the instructors) help. His biggest mantra was that every method he showed was “a way and not the way” and if he found that it wasn’t working for you he’d apply the attention and guidance to find what would. I can say that every student in my class including me had made a considerable improvement from the baseline we set that morning. 

On our second day we continued progressing the skills we learned by running some harder drills and even running a mock USPSA-style course, which was a blast. We got to participate in multiple challenges competing against each other for prizes provided by Aim Surplus and Make Ready Firearms adding some pressure to the drills.  

When I came into this I was a mediocre handgun shooter at best, I had a vague idea of the fundamentals with no clue on how to train properly or what I needed to work on. After taking this class I’ve gained a wealth of knowledge on both subjects that I can now apply on my trips to the range. This was all thanks to Shane and Brian, both were amazing instructors who had a massive amount of great information. During the running of this course, they gave very good demonstrations of drills giving everyone the chance to work on them until we moved on to a new section of the training. The class was a smaller one, giving both instructors the chance to work one on one with all the students and guaranteeing that everyone was able to improve. 

Near the end of the first day, we got to shoot Shanes standard which was 10 shots at 7 yards at a 3×5 card. The challenge consisted of breaking up the 10 shots into groups of 2 all from a draw, the goal was to get your 5 groups under 9 seconds combined and all clean of course. All of the students got a chance to take a crack at it and then we got to watch Shane and Brain attempt it. If you are able to complete it within the standards set you earned a black hat patch. 

In conclusion, I am very grateful to have been able to take this class. I was able to learn so much and I think everyone else who I took it with would say the same thing. I’d highly recommend this class to anyone of any skill level, I guarantee you will walk away with improvements and new skills to work on. I want to give a huge thanks to Brian and Shane for letting me participate, and if I get a chance to take this again I will in a heartbeat, it’s worth every dollar and more. 

Throughout my time working here at aimsurplus, I have had several amazing opportunities. I have had the chance to go to events like the NRA convention in Indianapolis, in which I got to learn a lot about the industry I work in (not to mention the Brazilian steakhouse). On top of that, I had the opportunity to take a SOLGW AR-15 Armorer course with Toren, in which I learned an in-depth understanding of the AR platform. My most recent experience was getting to take a pistol class down at Impact Shooting Center.

The class that we took was the Impact Essential Pistol class, and as the name would imply, this was a beginner-level class, with an emphasis on the basics. For some context, I have been “shooting” for a hot second. Over the past year, I have been dipping my toes in the competitive shooting scene. That being said, I was not necessarily going into the class blind, but I soon figured out that I still had a lot to learn.

Shooting with Shane was an experience unlike anything I have ever had before. I could tell immediately that this was not his first rodeo. Shane of course is a phenomenal shooter, but perhaps an even better teacher. Shane taught in a way that was so easy to understand. He was also a very humble teacher. He never made any statement implying that his way was the only way something could be done. He actually did the opposite. For pretty much every subject that we covered, we were introduced to a variety of different perspectives from some of his friends Donovan Moore with Point 1 Tactics &  Scott Jedlinski from Modern Samurai Project. It was super helpful to see all of the different thoughts and perspectives on things like target transitions, different training styles, and much more. 

Overall, It was a great refresher for me. I have been shooting for a bit now, but I left that class feeling a much deeper understanding of myself as a shooter. The problems that I need to work on, and how to identify new ones. Being able to look at my groups and break down why each shot landed the way it did, and what I need to do to fix it, is truly an amazing thing. I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to take this class, and super stoked that I got to meet some amazing people.