IIRC, Trey Knight or someone noted that an Army study or publication somewhere noted that VFGs improved hit ratios for soldiers significantly. Does anyone have a link to this statement or article?
Much appreciated
It was in Small Arms Review magazine interview with Knight in the last few months. I am not sure which issue.
IIRC, Knight was quoting an Army officer who said that they spent millions on research on ways to improve the soldier’s ability to hit their targets and Knight’s VFG that Knight threw in for free with their rail did the most improvement.
Does anybody remember under which type of shooting conditions the superiority of the VFG was noted?
Were the improvements mostly at closer ranges? Was the main issue one of weapon control during rapid-fire semi, burst-fire, or full-auto? Was the improvement mostly from a standing position, or from all positions?
Although I used to feel that use of a VFG was mostly a matter of taste, I’m open to the possibility that a VFG can offer a real advantage. Still, it isn’t clear whether the VFG offers an advantage to all shooters under all conditions.
I would think VFG helps the most under rapid fire and multiple target transition type shooting exercises
The article is in the Feb 2009 issue of Small Arms Review. p.88:
“About two months later they came back to the colonel and he said ‘You know something? We have found that that $39 vertical pistol grip that we put on your gun increased the hit probability for every soldier type, experienced soldiers, non-experienced soldiers, all types of shooters, significantly more than the whole $32 million that we spent on the ACR program.’ The $39 piece that they added to the M4 and the M16 increased the hit probability more than all the training and testing they did with spending and development on the Advanced Combat Rifle.”
Later in article: “Gave a better than 20% improvement to hit probability, which was the goal of the ACR program.”
I know the latest rage is to take them off. of use the AFG from Magpul. But I have been using my Stubby VFG’s for years and still like them. Gives me excellent control. Helps me drive the gun and works well with a flashlight.
Thank you very, very much.