1. TACTICSAND
PREPAREDNESS
.308 CARBINE | SMART DEVICE THREATS | LETHAL BATON STRIKES NOVEMBER 2016 ISSUE 37
TACTICSANDPREPAREDNESS.COM
S K I L L S A N D S U R V I V A L F O R A L L S I T U A T I O N S
On a warm winter day I walked into Jayson Keel’s
CrossFit Jackson in Jackson, Tennessee.
A
fter a few years of coordinating sched-
ules, I finally had the opportunity to at-
tend one ofTony Blauer’s training events.
Be Your Own Bodyguard (BYOB) is a
one day crash course in modes of criminal at-
tack and using your body as effectively as pos-
sible to prevail against one of these attacks.
The insights taught are compatible with any
viable fighting system and are intended to
augment (not replace) your preferred defen-
sive tactics.
The training started with a PowerPoint lec-
ture.Blauer stated that fear functions as either
a fuel for action or as an inhibiting weight.He
asserted that how you manage fear affects all
aspects of your life, from who you marry to
where you work. He pointed out that people
have to perform gun takeaways comparative-
ly rarely, but they are faced with managing
fears every day of their lives.
Blauer suggested that the concept of situ-
ational awareness must be rethought. Simply
telling someone to have or improve situ-
ational awareness is unreasonable. Honestly
acknowledging when and where your situ-
ational awareness is limited is critical. Blauer
also explained that self-de- continued on next page
BODYGUARD
BEYOUROWN
WITHTONYBLAUER'SSPEAR
A FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE
GOES DOWN FAST AND
HARD - LEARN TO USE
YOUR NATURAL REACTION
TO FLINCH AS A BASIS FOR
AN EFFECTIVE DEFENSE.
BY: CHRIS GRAHAM / PHOTOS COURTESY TONY BLAUER www.blauerspear.com

2. TACTICS & PREPAREDNESS NOVEMBER 2016www.tacticsandpreparedness.com8
The 7.62x51 NATO round is capable of engaging and
neutralizing targets from 0 to 1000 meters and farther
depending on the weapons platform delivering it.
L
et’s consider a carbine or AR10 type plat-
form specifically.A .308 or 7.62x51 in this
platform is devastatingly effective on ani-
mal, human and lightly armored targets out to
800 meters and beyond.The round possesses
external and terminal ballistics properties
with ample capability to deliver deadly ki-
netic energy to the target.There is, however, a
downside to this round when it comes to CQB
(close quarters battle.) Inside the house or tar-
get building you must be very cautious of pass
through and secondary effects and projectiles
and this caliber can easily cause hearing dam-
age in confined spaces. In soft walled struc-
tures it can produce a very significant threat to
friendly forces and bystanders. However, this
limitation can be minimized by the type of am-
munition used and the deliberate use of angles
when identifying and engaging targets.
Some attributes I would recommend for a
carbine set up to accomplish both CQB and
short to mid-range precision engagements are
as follows: I recommend a 16- to 18-inch bar-
rel carbine with a tight 1-9 / 1-8 twist. Given
this tight barrel twist I would also recommend
shooting a heavier grained bullet along the
lines of the 175 gr M118LR / AA11. This will
allow for the projectile to stabilize quickly and
maintain its stability at distance. The shorter
barrel will allow for more maneuverability in
close quarters with limited space.This shorter
barrel should also be equipped with a muzzle
break and removable suppressor.The weapon
should have a modular rail system and fully ad-
justable stock for both setting length of pull
and height of comb.This will allow the shooter
to custom fit the weapon system to his par-
ticular style of shooting, necessary accessories
and body type. Last but not least, the weapon
should be mounted with an optic.This optic
should be in the 1x8 variable power range
with the reticle on the first focal plane. This
will allow the shooter to reduce magnification
and increase field of view in a CQB scenario
while being able to increase the magnifica-
tion for long range applications. By having the
reticle on the first focal plane there will be no
deviation in the mil or MOA reticle at varying
magnifications.The shooter should also install
a backup set of iron sights in case the primary
optic is rendered unusable in the field. Once
BY: JOSEPH W. CHAMBLIN
PHOTOS BY: OLEG VOLK
www.a-human-right.com
CARBINE
TRAINING.3087.62X51
Primary Arms 1-8x FFP scope
with a proprietary ACSS reticle.
The illuminated BDC scale
allows holdovers for windage
and drop up to 800 yards.
Keltec RFB .308 bullpup with
SFA 1-4x FFP scope.

3. NOVEMBER 2016 TACTICS & PREPAREDNESS www.tacticsandpreparedness.com 9
you have decided on the weapon system you
feel will accomplish your desired range of mis-
sions you must master it.
Mastering a weapon system takes time and
practice on and off the range. All of the high
speed gadgetry in the world is useless if you
do not know how to use it and you have not
mastered the basics.It has been my experience
that when teaching or instructing people on
the use and application of firearms it is always
best to take the crawl, walk and run approach.
In other words, there must be mastery of the
basics before you will be able to effectively
train to a higher standard and take on more
complex scenarios.Let’s look at some CQB and
long range engagement considerations.
The first step in building this foundation is
done by spending time on what is primarily re-
ferred to as a flat range.A range 25 to 50 meters
in length is sufficient to learn proper weapons
handling, presentation, manipulations and last
but not least, safety.This range is sufficient to
effectively engage targets,conduct tactical and
speed reloads and clear weapons malfunc-
tions. Communication between shooters and
how to pick up each other’s targets and pro-
vide support when a teammate’s weapon goes
down can be practiced here. Once you have
built proficiency with these basic engagement
scenarios and varying distances, then you can
incorporate pivots or facing drills and shoot-
ing on the move.Once you have mastered this
during the daylight, do it at night.You can dry
fire the exercises until you know your ammo
won’t be wasted.
Now that you have the basic foundation in
place take it to the house for dry runs. Do dry
runs until you feel like your brain is going to
bleed and everyone knows their role and the
role of the men to their left and right. Once
you have accomplished this you can run it
live. Remember with both the dry runs and
the live exercises to start small. Start with ba-
sic two-man entry and move up from there.
Try different techniques and see which work
best for you with your specific weapons sys-
tem and mission. Once you have figured out
what works for you, do it over and over and
over and then, guess what, do it all over again
in the dark.
One of the best ways to build muscle memo-
ry and fundamentals is presentation drills with
a single, well-aimed shot as quickly as you can
accurately engage the threat or target starting
from a ready position or patrol position.This
can be done at varying yard lines, but I feel
it is more effective when you start close and
work your way back.This should be done on
command or on order however, the command
should vary between a few set voice com-
mands and/or audible or visual indicators. If
you have automated targetry capable of facing,
it is ideal since the threat itself is presented.A
variation on this is to have shooters fill each
other’s magazines with varying round counts
requiring magazine changes or transition exer-
cises.Another good exercise is to have the line
official call out the type of drill for the shooter
to execute ie. Controlled Pair, Double Tap, Fail-
ure Drill,Box Drill.These courses of fire should
be long enough for the shooter to be forced to
conduct speed and tactical reloads along with
transition drills.Another good practice is to in-
troduce barricades and or cover for the shoot-
ers to incorporate along with movement if
possible.These can be set up for the shooter to
enter them “blind” requiring him or her to re-
act as the scenario unfolds.This will also help
to incorporate a certain amount of uncertainty
and stress.The introduction of hostile/non-hos-
tile or shoot/don’t shoot targets intermixed in
the course of fire is another step to add.
When you are ready to take your
.308/7.62x51 to longer ranges,it’s a good time
to reconfirm your zero. Get an accurate zero
at 100 meters or yards,whichever unit of mea-
sure you prefer.This needs to be done in what
ALLOFTHEHIGHSPEEDGADGETRYINTHEWORLDISUSELESS
if you do not know how to use it and you have not mastered the basics.
Select-fire compact FAL with
1.5x ACOG scope.

4. TACTICS & PREPAREDNESS NOVEMBER 2016www.tacticsandpreparedness.com10
.308 / 7.62x51 CARBINE TRAINING
is referred to as the “perfect world prone” on
a stable bipod or shooting support. Normally
this is done by shooting three round groups
until you achieve point of aim,point of impact
on target. All of this information should be
recorded in your data book along with all of
the atmospheric conditions.This will give you
your base line for that specific weapon and am-
munition under specific weather conditions.
With an understanding of ballistics,this can be
used to calculate your DOPE on any given day
in any given condition.
Once you have a solid zero on the weapon
system, we now need to collect data. There
are numerous ballistic programs that can help
with this and can give you an excellent base-
line from which to work. However, there is
no replacement for actual data collected from
your weapon system and ammo. It has also
been my experience that the enemy will nev-
er give you the opportunity to pull out all of
your whiz bang gadgets when it comes time to
take the shot. Primarily data is collected from
stationary positions at varying distances, 100,
200, 300 etc.When conducting these types of
ranges it is very important to make sure you,
your weapon and your ammo are shooting
up to your capabilities. For example, if your
gun is a 1 MOA gun your groups at each yard
line should fall within these parameters. If the
shots do not fall into this parameter, you need
to analyze yourself. If you’re working in two-
man teams this can be done very easily and
will allow for more efficient data collection.
Also,a good coach or instructor on the line can
be very helpful for this. After you have gath-
ered data from the 100-1000 meter/yard lines
you now have your baseline. I would recom-
mend doing this multiple times under varying
atmospheric conditions and on different rang-
es if possible shooting at least 5-10 well placed
shots per yard line.From here we can progress
to realistic scenarios.
In order to become a truly well rounded
long range marksman one must be adaptable
and able to take shots on various targets under
different circumstances and in different situa-
tions often under a great amount of stress.This
is accomplished by realistic training in a build-
ing block based curriculum. Once the shooter
has a baseline of data and has mastered basic
long range marksmanship skills he needs to
build on this by incorporating alternate shoot-
ing positions, moving targets and multiple tar-
get scenarios. This can be done on the same
known distance range and/or on an unknown
distance range which will also allow the indi-
vidual to hone his range estimation skills and
wind calling ability.Once the shooter has mas-
tered these more advanced skills, stress needs
to be introduced.Stress is best and most easily
introduced by physical fatigue and competi-
tion.This can be done stationary on the firing
line or in movement during more complex
training scenarios. Real life engagements are
never low stress events and you should do this
training at night as well.
One drill that will help the shooter hone ba-
sic fundamentals is the color dot drill.This can
be done at 100 and 200 yards utilizing a check-
er board set of 1-inch or 2-inch dots respective
to the yard line.The line official will call out a
color and direction in which the targets should
be engaged. For example, the line official may
call out “Blue Left to right.” On command, the
shooter engages all of the blue dots left to
right as quickly as possible.A good exercise to
strengthen shooter-observer dialogue and rap-
id target engagement is to put targets out with
varying characteristics at random ranges on a
cluttered or busy range.The range should be
set up without the observer and shooter being
able to see the range before they are brought
to the firing line.The line official will give the
target or targets to engage to the observer only
and on command the observer will talk the
shooter on to the target and convey the proper
elevation and windage to apply via a hold on
the shooter’s reticle.Adding stress into this is
easy, simply make the shooter do calisthenics
while you brief the observer or vice versa.An-
other great exercise to build fundamentals is to
conduct cold bore shots at various yard lines
in a relaxed environment and then add stress
into the equation.A cold bore shot is the first
shot out of the rifle after it has been cleaned,
not the first shot out of the rifle after the barrel
cools down.This is very important since your
first round out of a clean rifle will vary from
the rounds shot once fouling and copper or
lead particles have been introduced into the
chamber and rifling.
Regardless of the weapon system or caliber,
the only way to master yourself and the weap-
on system you carry is to train.Train not just
to meet your unit or department’s minimum
standards, but to a level that will ensure your
superiority at the decisive moment. The .308
/ 7.62x51 NATO round is an amazingly versa-
tile round and can be employed effectively in
almost all ground combat scenarios. In many
cases you shouldn’t spend 3,800 dollars on
a rifle. You will likely be better off spending
$800 on the rifle and $3,000 on training.When
it comes to firearms training, like most things
in life,you get out of it what you are willing to
put into it. 3
BIO
Joseph W.Chamblin is a former Marine Scout
Sniper and instructor.He has completed mul-
tiple deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and
other locations. Mr. Chamblin is business
owner, instructor, and he is the author of
Into Infamy: A Marine Sniper’s War.
PWS .308 AR10 WITH LEUPOLD 1-6X SCOPE AND A GEMTECH SUPPRESSOR.
ALTHOUGH SUPPRESSORS DO A GOOD JOB OF REDUCING FLASH, THEIR CAPACITY
CAN BE OVERTAXED BY RAPID FIRE, RESULTING IN AN OCCASIONAL FIREBALL.