Patrol rifles are steadily becoming the mainstay of the modern police arsenal. From time to time, the conversation of chosing a police patrol rifle comes up. And some folks have some interesting thoughts on the modern police patrol rifle, and what should hang on it. Folks have all kinds of ideas ranging from a full auto rifle chambered in a piston driven 6.8, to hanging on a 2-16 Nightforce scope, two lights, a PEQ, weather vane, Iphone attachment (let’s face it EVERYTHING revolves around ITunes these days), gerbil ball, bipod, monopod grip in case the bipod fails, a suppressor, one of those window hanger thingies to hold a Monster Absolute Zero, and two Surefire 60 round magazines taped end to end for good measure.
Then you ask said officer to hold a perimeter after a check cashing place gets knocked over, and after about 20 seconds you see him looking for something to rest his rifle on. After a couple of minutes, you are lucky if he is paying attention to the perimeter at all.
My agency allows personally owned patrol rifles. In this day and age of budgetary concerns, it is beyond me why all agencies don’t. And the officers are given a pretty broad latitude on what they can purchase. And while latitude is good, sometimes it gives you the example I provided above. The same can be said with internet chat room conversations about home defense rifles. So the same basics apply. KISS.
A good quality patrol rifle, with a 16 inch barrel is a great start. I advocate semi-automatic only, as I just can’t see the use to where one would need full auto, liability being what it is and all. Stay away from “parts guns” or hobby grade rifles. Arguments can easily be made for 10.5 inch guns. I can see it both ways. But, honestly, personally the 10.5 is a bit easier to maneuver inside of vehicles, and I’m marginally faster target to target with the 10.5.
What do we need to hang on it?
A good sling. In a lot of cases, you need a place to hang the rifle.I like the two point slings made by Blue Force Gear and VTAC. Some people prefer a single point, over the two point, but I like the padded slings by the above vendors.
A white light. You have to be able to ID targets. Lots of good choices there. I’m the guy that is waiting for the technology to catch up to the small hand held light lumen rating to where when you light the suspect up, it makes him melt like the guy that looks into the Ark of the Covenant on “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. Ok, maybe just a really bad sun burn. Advice here? Don’t go cheap. Buy something in LED with a good track record of durability. I prefer a minimum of 200 lumens. I also suggest hanging the light in such a way that allows the shooter to turn the light on using the same forward grip he/she uses during the day, shooting from either shoulder.
Good quality Red Dot Sight- Another area not to skimp. I prefer the Aimpoint, especially the newer generations with the obscene battery life. I have the Aimpoint T1 on my work rifle. I have one rifle issued to me and it is my SWAT/Patrol rifle. (My work gun is the one on the far right in the above picture) I leave the Aimpoint on 24/7/365. I change out the batteries, whether I need to or not, once a year when I change my home smoke detector batteries in the Spring. I could probably easily go much longer, but batteries are cheap. Same goes with my home defense rifle. In a pinch, or when stressed, turning on the optic is one less decision I have to make. I set the rifle up to where all I have to do is chamber a round, double check the selector on safe and go.
This article is the first in a three part series on this topic. We’ll cover the “kinda nice things to have” a bit later.
In the next installment, we’ll examine the conditions of “Cruiser Carry” and how it also applies to the home defense rifle.
I don’t understand a comment made by the author. He referenced his “home defense rifle”. I watch the news every night & I have been told repeatedly that an AR style rifle is a horrible choice for a home defense weapon. I know you are a highly trained police officer but I’ll just stick with my rape whistle like I have been instructed by those smart guys on TV. Be safe.
The AR15 is an exclent home defense firearm. There are two reasons. First everyone can shoot a long gun (Ar15, Mini14, Shotgun, etc) better than that same person can shoot a handgun. Which relates to the next reason. Because of the ballistics of the 5.56 or .223 round the bullet will have less pentration through building materials than a handgun round (not counting specialty rounds like the Glaser, or Mag safe) The rounds also tend to stay inside the body of the person shot, and not go through and potentially endanger someone else. So if you must shoot a firearm in self defense you don’t want the bullet to go through a wall and into the house next door, you also want to be able to hit he subject so the bullets again don’t endanger anyone else, and the threat is stopped sooner. I should add that in recent years home invasions buy groups of criminals are becoming more common. The larger number of rounds carried buy the AR15 vs a pistol or shotgun give the home owner more ammo to deal with the threat until the police arrive.