AAR - Tactical Carbine M4/AR-15 Course 5/9/2009 in Virginia

Link to course announcement HERE.

This is the 3rd time I have taken this class and it will not be the last. I have written other AARs (Link-a-Roo and Link-a-Roo2) that cover the course content. I will go over lessons learned in no particular order.

•Shooting on the move:
oThis is tricky. Lesson learned, break the trigger while feet are planted.
o Use the “Groucho” walk moving forward, heel toe, heel toe.
oMoving backward was step back with your trailing foot and drag the front foot back. I also used the toe heel, toe heel. Both worked well for me.
oTunnel vision. When moving and looking through your sight to provide a constant rate of fire on a target it is easy to get tunnel vision and have navigation issues. I did much better this time but I still get sucked in to my sights. More practice.

•Kit:
oPractice positions with your kit on. I put my spare pistol mags in a different location and when I took a knee they got caught on other gear poking me in the ribs.
oElectronic ear pro is a must. Some students did not hear all of the range commands and this caused “confusion and delay” (my son is a Thomas the Tank Engine fan, you dad’s will recognize the quote).
oThis was the first time I used a holster with retention. I come from IPSC/USPSA/3 Gun shooting and a desired holster trait speed. When rolling on the ground with your carbine you need a holster with retention. I used a blade tech holster (belt mount) and it took some getting used to but I felt confident my side arm would not come out until I wanted it to. One student had a holster that would not work at all, one of the instructors lent him a thigh rig. Another student had his side are fall out when he went prone.
oI did not have a hydration system and I am recovering from Pneumonia (I was supposed to be on bed rest, but range time trumps nap time). I was able to hydrate on breaks to stoke mags. I will have a camel back for my next class.
oTicks are everywhere this year. I needed a bug repellant that would ward off ticks. I killed at least 20 ticks during the day. At dinner we were pulling ticks off again. I hate them.
oThere was one Sig 556 in class the rest were ARs. The only failures of the day were:
A wolf shell casing got stuck in a chamber and the rim ripped when trying to extract. A cleaning rod was needed to clear the casing and the chamber was giving a quick cleaning.
The Sig 556 had a feeding issue. Not sure as to what the cause was but once it was cleared there were no other issues.
oI observed no sidearm failures. Glocks, Sigs, and Berettas were what I saw.

•Transitions:
oAs soon as the primary weapon is down and I am with in side arm range I will transition. My skill is improving but I am far from mastering this skill.
oIt is difficult for me to slow down and focus on the front sight of my side arm after a transition. My hits are not what they would have been if I was just using my side arm. I need to practice more so I can determine why this is happening. I suspect that I am slapping the rifle trigger and it is carrying over to my sidearm. IPSC/USPSA/3 Gun scars!
oWhen re-holstering, I have a bad habit of looking at the holster. I need to practice this until I am confident in my new holster’s location.
oWhen I have transitioned and fought my way to cover I did not do a tactical reload of my sidearm. This was a mistake as if my primary went down I would transition again to a partial empty side arm. I need to think tactically and not in terms of speed.

•Rifle reloading:
oAfter a drill I did an administrative reload through out the day. While waiting in line I moved my full mags to my go to spot and moved depleted mags to the last position. This worked well for me.
oI relied too much on knowing my rifle was empty during a reload. I did not look to see if there was a miss-feed or other failure. I am relying too much on the “feel” of the bolt locking back. This was not an issue during the class as my rifle did not have any issues but it will bite me in the ass someday. More training scars.

•When shooting from cover:
oLine up your sights before you lean out.
oSwitch the safety off before you lean out.
oWhen standing, lean out from the hips so as to only expose the barrel and an eyeball.
oWhen kneeling, be sure if you are going to lean out to the right your right knee is down. You do not want to expose your femoral artery or your boys to incoming fire.
oWhen prone, line up your sights with both elbows on the ground behind cover, then lift the opposite elbow from the side you are going to lean out on. Right side lean lift you left elbow to lean out.
oLean out quickly, do not spend too much time exposed, if for what ever reason you do not make your shot lean back in, do not spend more time exposed than necessary.
oNever come out from the same position, if you lean out from a standing position once, the next time come out from a kneeling position then from prone.

•When breaking contact:
oWhen providing cover, keep you rate of fire constant and not too fast, you do not want to run dry while you partner is moving.
o To turn, scan to locate your partner providing cover fire, hold the rifle at high port (or high sally), and spin 180 degrees “like a stripper on a pole”. Never turn in the direction of your cover fire (if cover fire is coming from your left, spin to the right). You do not want to take a step in to cover fire.
oUse the verbal/visual communication with your partner.
oReload while you are moving, when you set in your next position you will most likely have to provide cover for your buddy and you better be ready.

•Night shooting:
oWhen it was dusk and the targets were still visible although barley I would lose them once I aligned the reticle of my EOtech. The reticle was on a low setting but it was still brighter than the target and it overwhelmed my vision and I could not see the target. I had to turn the brightness way down.
oLights are a huge help at night but they are a double edged sword. When used the light is a big target lined up with your head. Use them quickly to take your shot, turn them off, and move. You will be the focus of any return fire as you position has been exposed.

I had another great day training with Tom. The class had 15 people signed up and only 8 people showed. Tom held the class anyway. Class act. As a result we did a lot more shooting, I went through over 600 rounds of 5.56 and 100 in 9mm. Shooting from instide a vehicle was interesting, going to have to do that again (no one shot the surburban this time). I love the one day class format. It is easier for me to get away for one day than an entire weekend (It takes me about 2 hours one way to get there). Tom packs a lot in the class, we cover what is essentially the same material in the 5 day Bushmaster course I took at BlackWater. Now that being said the class moves fast. New students will be pushed as far as the instructors are comfortable. We can only move as fast as the slowest learner. I recommend this course for any skillset. I will be back!

John

Great review, thanks.

Seems like a lot of material, with the potential for a n00b to become overwhelmed. I see there's another one scheduled as well as a 2-day course, too. Gotta get my ass in gear and git to one of these.

The class is designed to push you out of your comfort zone. The instructors expectations for each student is based on their skill level. A more seasoned shooter will get more nit picks as compared to a new shooter who is learning the fundamentals. I hope you go, training courses have made shooting more fun for me. I am now a much better shooter.

I rode down with John for this course. I was looking forward to it based on his last two AAR's, and the course definitely did not disappoint. Tom runs a great course.

The morning was about 3 hours of classroom, followed by 8 hours on the range. 11hours of training for $150 is a steal.

Tom was able to quickly gauge the experience level of each student, and push each one individually, based on their own comfort and skill level. Everyone was pushed out of their comfort zone, far enough to learn but not so far as to be overwhelmed. In this way, experienced students were still able to benefit and learn despite there being much less experienced students in the class.

Because there is so much material being crammed into a single day of training, there were some things that seemed a little rushed, to the point that it was ok if it was a review / refresher (which was the case for me) but might be a little too quick for a complete newbie. Not that said newbie wouldn't get through the class just fine, they just might not absorb 100% of the material being covered. One thing that comes to mind are Tac reloads. They were briefly discussed in the classroom, and demonstrated once, but there were no drills on the range specifically covering them. Which is not to say that there were not opportunities to do them on the range, but the teaching focus was on higher level skills. This is not a criticism of the class so much as it is a cautionary note to the new shooter preparing to go to this class: bone up on the basics before you get there, and if you feel like you're missing something, say something. Tom was very open to questions during the class.

Shooting on the move: Tom says on the class that "Motionless Operators Ventilate Easily (MOVE)." Shooting on the move is therefore and important skill, and there were two drills done to work on this skill: The Serpentine Drill, and the Box Drill. The biggest thing that I got out of these was the thought that I need to practice shooting on the move a lot more. I don't think anyone in the class, myself included, was really moving fast enough to be a harder target, but accuracy was still suffering by trying to shoot on the move.

I am going to disagree with John a little on the Groucho walk, though, as I found it easier to shoot while one foot was in the air. Personal preference. Just get into a rhythm and shoot when the sights are on the target.

That brings up another thing I like about the course. Tom is very non-doctrinal. He is teaching A way to do things, not THE way. If you find something that works better for you than what he is teaching, then by all means do it. This is much appreciated, as i have found that not everything works the same for everybody.

With the exception of checking zero on paper at the beginning of class, and the Speed Limit Drill (6 fast shots on a close paper silhouette followed by a shot on a small steel plate set farther away) all shooting was done on steel. I like this because steel gives you immediate feedback. You can shoot a bunch at a paper target and think you're doing great, but when you go look and see that your shots are missing, you have no idea what went wrong on which shots. On steel, you know immediately, for each shot, whether or not you're hitting the target, and if you're doing something wrong, the learning curve to correct it is much faster.

Plus, then you don't have to paste or replace paper, which means more shooting. I went through about 500 rifle and about 100 pistol during the course.

I really can't recommend this course enough. the one day format combined with the low cost make it extremely accessible. The new shooter can learn a lot in one day, and the experienced shooter can use it to stay fresh on skills they already have, and probably still learn something new at the same time. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

Peter (aka Bagman)

Another great AAR glock. Still trying to find a good weekend that I can make it out to one of these classes. I was pretty apprehensive when I first started looking at these classes, but with every AAR, I feel like I would be more comfortable there (will be my first, and is just a hobby (that I take very seriously) for me at this point).

Thanks. Writing the AAR is a another way for me to absorb the instruction and I will have a record. I hope to see you out there some day!

John

Copyright © 1996 - 2013 :: AR15.Com LLC :: All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.