We will be teaching a 2 day Precision Rifle Class 15&16 Nov.
Free lodging in the Team Room
Our two day Precision Rifle course teaches the marksmanship principles necessary for precise hits at distance without the Sniper component of our full 5 day Sniper program. This course is taught by our cadre of seasoned active military and police snipers. We cover the skills required by anyone who wants to hit small targets at extended distances. Hunters, competitive target shooters, law enforcement marksman/observers and others who require sub-minute performance will all benefit greatly from the shooting techniques covered. We will cover known and unknown engagements out to 500 yards. We will teach you how to set up your weapon and gear, cover care and cleaning of equipment and ammo selection.
Equipment List:
• One (1) open mind
Reliable Scoped Rifle (zeroed for 100 yards)
300 rounds of ammo for rifle (match type ammo)
Bipod, tripod or sturdy shooting rest for rifle.
Sling
Rifle cleaning Gear
Notebook and pen
Hearing protection
Eye protection
Pistol with 50 rounds
Strong side holster (Sorry but we do not allow the Blackhawk “Serpa” Holster in our classes.)
Extra pistol magazine and magazine pouch
Water bottle/container for drinking
Recommended Equipment:
Spotting Scope or Binoculars
Rain gear (We shoot rain, shine, cold, or hot)
Insect repellent
Hat and sun block
Knee and Elbow pads
Originally posted here with some pics
Wow, what a class. Where to begin?
About myself. I'm 27, did 6 years in the TN NG with a 15 month deployment, 2 years of that on the State Rifle team (all on A2s). This is my second Tactical Response class (Fighting Pistol in mid-Sept). I've competed in F-class TR (600 and 1000 yds) several times this last year, but before that, no experience what-so-ever with a scoped rifle of any sort. I've read a lot here, Snipershide.com, Plaster's book, Lau's book, and talked with several experienced shooters about the idiosyncracies of a long range precision shooting. I thought I knew something about it. I was wrong.
My rifle started life as a Remington 700 PSS in .308. It has, over time, been dressed in a McMillan A5 sniper filled, adjustable cheek piece stock, rebarreled with a 26" Shilen, Harris 6-9" notched bipod with Phoenix Tactical Pod Claws for feet. Trued action and bolt face. Trigger is factory, adjusted to 3.5 lbs, breaks like a glass rod. Badger base and rings around a Leupold Mk IV 3.5-10x40mm Illum. TMR Reticle w/ sunshade. Badger M5 bottom metal, 5 round AICS detachable magazine. Sling is TIS Quick Cuff. Painted in a Multicam-ish Duracoat. Spotting scope was a Konus 20-60x80mm. Rifle case was Eagle drag bag in MC. Shooting mat was a Red Man Tactical rollable, as was rear bag and data book cover. Data book was US Tactical Supply. Ammo were my hand loads; 175 gr SMK in Lapua brass, with CCI BR2 primers and 45.0 gr of Varget powder. All equipment worked great and I highly recommend all of it. Don't assume my handload will work in your rifle.
Sean Rumaner and I arrived at the team room about 1800 Friday evening. As usual, it provided a unique atmosphere that has to be experienced to be appreciated. If you've trained at TR and never stayed in the team room, shame on you. If you plan on training with them, make use of this valuable option. Comraderie, good times, free lodging (make a donation to the fund), all make it awesome.
Saturday morning started off in the gear store/classroom. Several of us showed up early to peruse the store, with myself blowing through my budget quickly. Classroom lecture started at 0915 beginning with Kyle and his fundamentals class using a PABSt acronym for Position, Aim, Breath, Squeeze the trigger. This was a very easy to understand lecture that pounded home how you should position your body behind the rifle, heels down ideally, hand placement, head position and its importance, NPA, a proper sight picture through the scope, breathing pattern, and how to position your trigger finger on the trigger and the slow, steady, surprising sequence wanted when firing the weapon, and finally follow through and its importance, keeping the trigger to the rear through recoil, count to one, back on target, breath, release trigger, repeat PABSt. Outstanding in presentation and ease of understanding.
Next was MOA and MIL, what they are, what they aren't, how they compare to each other, and the difference in various scopes, turrets, reticles (not RECTICLES Nate!). This sounds like an easy thing to understand, but it was possibly the most eye openning for me. I've read a ton of information on this very subject trying to teach it to myself, but having an experience pair of instuctors explain it in layman's terms was amazing. It was like a switch was flicked and I couldn't believe I never really understood it. I could parrot information, but to explain it to a new shooter was beyond me. No longer.
The third lecture was on ballistics and the differences there of. We focused on External as that was what was prudent for the class, but internal and terminal were explained. A lot of information was presented, from how temperature affects the flight of the bullet and why, to the difference between line of sight, line of departure, gravities affect on the bullet, finishing with angle shooting and why you don't use the bullets distance to target and instead use the base of the simulated triangle for the range for your dope. Again, outstanding in presentation and information.
Jay Gibson (Hello sir) then gave a lecture on how to create your own data book, how to long information, call a shot, how wind affects the bullet both near and far, various ways to read the wind (grass, trees, flags, smoke/steam, mirage, etc), and forumla for estimating wind speed. He finished with Constants and the forumla for using them. Much was emphasized on this being an art and not a science. The only way to get proficient at reading wind and mirage is to go out and shoot, preferrably at distances beyond 100 or 200 yards.
After breaking for lunch at the famous Kody's, we set up our gear at the berm, targets at 100 yards, and proceeded to develop our zeros at 1330. Weather was in the upper 40s I'd guess, overcast, spots of rain through the day, wind in our face from 3-20 mph. Many comments were made on the various zeros we had and comparing them to what we were getting due to the difference in temp and elevation. We were able to see exactly what the instructors were teaching us from the first group fired. All zero groups were 5 rounds. When everyone was happy with 100, we moved back to 200, and finished up at 300 yards at about 1700, with daylight almost completely gone by the time we were pulling out.
On Sunday we were at the range at 0900. We started off with Jay giving a class on various shooting positions, starting with three forms of sitting, then moving to kneeling, finally with standing. He explained why you need to practice these positions and their importance. After the quick run down and demonstration, we practiced setting up in the positions, trying to find the one that was most stable to each shooter. I personally hate sitting, being more experience with kneeling, and having a gut, sitting was uncomfortable and unstable. Also, a prone stock might be great for competitions, but trying to set up in a seated position, it is most likely to long. My adjustable cheek piece on my McM A5 was also too high for any position other than prone and had to be adjusted.
When we were comfortable enough with the positions, we ran a drill involving all 3 positions. Starting from your selected sitting position and a topped off rifle, upon the "Fight!" command, fire five rounds into the bottom Shoot N See, rise, run/jog/trot to the next line (50 yards), reloading on the move if possible (not for me having a box mag and no other mags), fire 5 rounds at the middle Shoot N See from kneeling, repeat to the 25 yard line, fire five rounds from standing into the brain box of the target. It was a great drill to run and personally showed me how important it is to have some extra mags for my rifle, as well as the use of a sling to make for a nice, steady position. Also, shooting from standing with a 17 lbs rifle SUCKS. Arms shake and sight picture wabble is horrendous. I was happy with my initial kneeling group, being only slightly larger than a prone group, but in the drill, I screwed it all up and only hit about 2-3 out of 5 in each position.
Next we set up Iron maidens and Larue Sniper targets at UKD, some card board targets at 400 yards, and everyone got their dope for 400 yards. After that was a very concise lecture on how to mil a target for range estimation using a Mil-dot based reticle. Again, I have read a ton of material from several sources explaining this, but Kyle taught in 10 minutes; on a car trunk, the class sitting on card board targets around him behind the berm, what most people can't teach in an hour in a class room.
We moved to the berm and practiced ranging targets, some of us making range cards in our data books, then having Jay and Kyle hit the targets with a LRF and telling us which we were close or not so close on. Of the ones Bill Ledbetter (Doc) and I ranged, we were about 75% on, getting most within 10-15 yards, a couple with in 5 or less. We did, however, miss one or 2 by more than that, and I have to mark that up to inexperience with UKD on my part. This is why we train. Soon we were smacking steel with reckless abandon. There were Iron Maidens at 300, one at 330ish (this one had a heart/T-box swinger and was my favorite to hit when the other steel was getting old, if that was possible!), a line of 3 Larue's at 390-400, a Larue on the top of the cliff at 445-450, and another IM at 510 from the berm. Hearing all the shots boom....echo.....ding was extremely satisfying. Calling out corrections for your partner shooter through spotting scope, reading the wind via foliage, watching trace, seeing that heart box swinger flip up from a successful first shot on target after calling a last minute wind call, then to see the second shot from the shooter knock down the t-box at 330 was awesome (Nice shooting on that Doc). Knocking down the Larues as fast as you could was fun, as was trying to knock them down when you knew the shooter a couple of spots over was watching it too was fun. I don't think I've ever had that much fun with my rifle. Seeing all the smiling faces, the confidence rise in shooters and myself was exhilirating.
Eventually Jay called cease fire as I was taking up slack on my final head shot on the 510 yd IM. We trudged up to the ridge behind the berm and engaged a 715 yards IM (previously the 510 yarder). Having a 2 time Tactical Response Sniper class graduate call corrections for shooters made this exercise go fast for everyone except the AR with the Duplex reticle. I believe everyone else was hitting the target with a satisfying "Ding" within 2 or 3 rounds, with Jim hitting on the 1st shot. The sun faded at 1630 and the temperature was dropping again after a day of low 50's. We did a quick AAR, passed out certificates of completion, packed up, thanked everyone, and headed home.
I must say this was an outstanding class. I thought I was an experience LR shooter, but having known information presented in new ways was eye-openning, and reviews never hurt. The range time was great, learning abundant, and fun to go around. This is a great course for brand new shooters who have never shot past 100 yards and old shooters who think they know it all. Everyone will benefit from this class.
Sean, Bill, Adam, Chris, Nate, Joe, Al, Mike, Jim, you guys were great to train with and I wish you good shooting in the future. Jay and Kyle, you two were great instructors, patient and knowledgable. Thanks again for putting on such a great class. Finally, thanks to James and Rebecca for allowing us to stay in your home for the weekend. It is above customer service and allows guys like me to come train more.
So, in closing, if you're on the fence about training in any way with Tactical Response, get off your ass and sign up! You will not be disappointed.
