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What are the requirements for your defensive carbine?

I wanted to circle back to this idea of requirements as you start the year off. The majority of our readers are men, and as such we can have a bad tendency of letting our male egos run roughshod over our critical thinking…sometimes. For most men it does not approach Dunning Kruger levels of incompetence, but egos can still get in the way when it comes to the traditional American male endeavors. Men will consider themselves experts at firearms, fightin’, four wheelin’ and a couple of other things that complete this alliterative list. The “I know what I’m doing” is all well and good, but not when it comes to an unwillingness to consider other solutions. This tendency has hit pandemic levels with anything relating to firearms, it is enough to make a sane man rage quit any firearms focused social media or online forums. There are plenty of opportunities for social media madness with regard to shooting, gun maintenance, general knowledge, and selecting a proper optics setup for actual requirements.

Carl (one of our guest authors from time to time) recently sent me a video of a shooting competition / course that generated a great conversation between us about carbine optics that fits this discussion. Over the years we have both seen exponential improvements for AR pattern carbine optics. From a Colt 4x carry handle mount to current LPVOs and electronic sights. There are near countless optic choices for a modern consumer to wade through; and it is easy to burn a thousand (or two) dollars on one optic and mount system. A budget-consuming poor choice can really throw a man off track.

It is OK to say you don’t know how to do something or don’t have the expertise to make a selection - but you can’t completely offload the decision responsibility. Unless you are issued an unchangeable carbine setup from the arms room YOU are the ultimate decision authority. It doesn’t make you less of a man to consult a trusted source or take extra time to truly research and think through your problem set; don’t be afraid to ask for help or advice. But always remember at the end of the day you are deciding for you, not for them.

An Appeal to Authority

This is a great way to waste money, chase trends, and end up not meeting your requirements. What is it? An appeal to authority (argumentum ad verecundiam) is a logical fallacy. It is a discussion argument when the person producing a claim references the opinion of an authority as evidence to support an argument. How many times have you seen this play out in this electronically connected community? Daily. How many times have you chosen something or chased a fad because the groupthink members get behind a solution after an authority has declared it to be the way? Shut up and take my money for an item because Jimmy told you “Super Badger Seven Actual” teaches it in class. This is a great way to build something that doesn’t actually work for you. Even worse, the referenced authority may not even have related experience. Slick camera work and a large youtube presence can elevate inexperience to seemingly authoritative levels. Only through the modern miracle of social media did they become reference material. Be cautious, do not hand over your firearm setup decisions (especially expensive optics decisions) to the cult-like followers of the loudest voice or slickest videos in the community. While we shouldn’t be hyper critical or dismissive of industry personalities without reason, guard your thoughts and remind yourself of your IPB based defensive carbine requirements. Seek true expert advice and figure out how to cut through the fog of the community.

How to determine what you really need.

Requirements and Capabilities. Always start with a well-defined Requirement. This assessment will determine what you truly need (require). As you apply critical thinking to the requirement you may not arrive at the answer you first thought to be correct. The result of meeting a requirement is a Capability. A capability is the combination of proper application (through training) with an appropriate solution (in this case an optic that helps us use the firearm). In general terms the Requirement is the problem you need to solve, and the Capability is the solution.

What is your overall requirement for a defensive carbine and how do you define it? Here is “A” way of doing so. For arguments sake let’s say during your terrain assessment and IPB you must be able to hit an IPSC size silhouette at 350 meters with your AR pattern carbine if things go horribly bad on a national scale. Your actual requirement may be different, remember this is just a way / an example. What sighting system do you need to meet this requirement? Iron sights are the simple answer. But is that all there is to your requirement, just hit an IPSC at 350? The step diagram below is an example of how your thought process might progress. As you think through the problem set you can see the requirement is more complex than just a single daytime shooting engagement. Note that a well-defined requirement does not call out or specify a solution, it only defines the problem for you. This keeps the process insulated from bias and prevents optimizing for a single use case. The best example of this single use case mistake is optimizing a gun for a shooting class. Hey, don’t laugh, I’ve seen guys do it. They know the lesson plan and drills will be a particular set of conditions so they will set a gun up specifically for that class. His die hard heavy “go-to war” LPVO and bipod setup suddenly becomes an EoTech and SBR for the next 48 hours. Which is cool and all, but shooters who do this only hurt themselves by not running their actual SHTF carbine setup. If your go-to setup doesn’t work for the class you either a. have an inadequate setup, or b. wasted your money and time on a shooting class that is irrelevant to you.

Just tell me what I need

Red dot, HWS, LPVO - what is the right answer? The hell with it, go irons. Ok, probably not. What will allow you to meet your requirements? The aforementioned shooting competition video Carl shared took shooters through a series of engagements (really well done) with a good dose of realism. Everything from close in room clearing engagements to shots taken over several hundred yards. Shooters discovered their optics that may have provided an advantage under one set of conditions became a significant disadvantage under others. It is a balancing act; you will never have the perfect solution. The 1-6 LPVO may shine during the 400-yard daytime engagement, but let the sun go down and use it at 50 yards under passive NV. Ok, you sold me, LPVOs are stupid. I’m gonna’ go with a high mount T2 Aimpoint for that one. Sun is back up and another 400-yard engagement, but now with the unmagnified T2. It just got difficult again. Now I got it, I’ll go with an LPVO and piggyback mini RDS. Damn, is that thing ever heavy. Ok maybe, maybe not.

It is easy to see the frustration of optimizing an optic setup for every situation - it is frustrating because it is impossible. There are no unicorns, there is no perfect answer. Carl and I were laughing about building the “perfect” imaginary unobtanium optic that combined features and attributes from available technology. Extreme battery life, holdover reticles, magnification, perfect 1x window, NV capable. Nothing like that exists, and odds are it never will. The only way around this is to develop a set of requirements first and stick to them to build the solution (the gun). If you discover your requirements don’t apply or are incorrect you must go back and revisit your requirements.

The takeaway is always use a deliberate requirements-based approach, this is the best way to decide what optic setup you need. It may guide your decision to an unpopular solution, or it may put you squarely with the current optic trend. It doesn’t matter as long as it works for you, is proven, and makes tactical sense. Part two is you must validate it works for you by doing plenty of training and practice with your setup. Always consider the holistic / full set of requirements, not just one piece of it. You will have to make tradeoffs to save weight, money, and adjust for other factors; it is critical you ensure these tradeoffs are a conscious decision made without emotion or undue influence.

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