Via Insty comes this report:
In Finland, adolescent males report for a short and intense period of military training, followed by shorter refreshers for most of their adult life. The training is not, as in the Israeli model, a few years of dedicated service. Nor does it emphasize military discipline, such as keeping one’s bunk tidy and shoes polished, or the Prussian-style transformation of citizen-recruit into fighting machine. Instead, it prepares civilians to be ready to join their unit and harass and kill invaders. A country of Finland’s size can rapidly field nearly 1 million trained soldiers.
And they’re doing this right now. One of my Loyal Readers has a spy at Sako, who tells him that we’re not going to be getting new Sako rifles in the U.S. anytime soon, because their entire production is being directed towards “local consumption”. As I posted earlier:
Insty’s final comment on the report is absolutely on the nail, by the way:
“America should do this too.”
I’ve been trying… A Nation Of Riflemen, remember?
Recall that the White Death did all of his work with a Moisin and open sights, reminding us that its the shooter and not the fancy tacticool toys.
I went to the range yesterday, and got reminded about how shooting skills drop off if you have too big of a no-practice gap.
I also got reminded that a cheap bipod is worse than no bipod at longer ranges. I wasted a couple of boxes of ammo before I took the damned thing off the rifle.
I only use bipods on my scoped rimfire rifles. On larger calibers, they bounce too much off the bench for my liking.
Now if you’re shooting from prone off the ground, bipods work fine, especially if the ground is soft. Otherwise, I’d rather use shooting sticks.
Kim,
You’re absolutely right. We should go back to the days in England when it was Church in the morning then archery practice in the afternoon. Skip Church if you want but don’t skip rifle practice or someone will force you to join their church, and worse.
JQ