Hey folks, extremely late to getting these reviews up - but I promised I would make one so here we are.

This is a general overview of both the Defensive Carbine and Defensive Shotgun courses taught by Green Ops in Culpeper, VA on January 27 2024 and March 2 2024, respectively.

Overall:

I really enjoy the guys over at Green Ops and their level of professionalism, balanced with a good sense of humor and comradery. The team I've worked with will do everything in their power to ensure the student is comfortable, prepared, and clear in what is expected of them - all without taking themselves too seriously or being overbearing. Luke and Josh are great guys, and are always happy to help you out. Both of these courses were 8 hours each at an outdoor range.

Carbine:

The class consisted of a safety brief and a quick zeroing prior to really diving in, multiple familiarization drills to break the ice, explaining PoA vs PoI (and in relation to height over bore), reloading drills, malfunction drills, and ended with a series of friendly competitions. One of the primary components of one of the competitions was manipulating your rifle around a barrier at various angles and stances, with an emphasis on engaging your safety between movements; this was a nice way to build muscle memory into quick and constant working of the safety and increasing your mental load when competing against another student.

Throughout this class we went through approximately 4-500 rounds of ammo, I'd recommend having at least 10 magazines loaded and ready for this course even though we did have breaks between drills in the event students needed to top-off.

Shotgun:

This class was setup in a very similar way to above, however included unique aspects of the Shotgun. We went over what load people prefer, what their differences are, and followed up with allowing us to shoot multiple different types of shot (my 14" 870 liked Hornady Black the best, with a consistent patterning up to 25 yards). Additionally, as is inherent with tube-fed shotguns, reloading was key and was absolutely paramount in striving in this class - especially as the second half of it primarily was filled with speed drills, movement drills, and more friendly competition. Overall, I absolutely loved this class and it certainly seemed to have a more fun/competitive spirit behind it (perhaps that's the sporting clays part of me talking).

This course was similar in regards to round count, at approximately 3-450 shells. Due to the high amount of reloading occurring, it was great to get experience with my side saddle (and Aridus Defense) and would definitely recommend a fanny pack or waist pouch of some kind just to keep extra shells on you! As someone who enjoys regularly going out to my sporting clays course/wobble trap - speeding up my loading and practicing double loading was a ton of fun.

Safety:

The Green Ops team took safety with the utmost seriousness, and any form of stray muzzles were quickly addressed prior to moving on. There was no funny business here, and as the carbine course was my first experience with this type of class I was greatly appreciative.

Bottom Line:

If you are in the Virginia area, and are looking for a new set of courses to take I would whole heartedly recommend Green Ops to anyone looking to improve their skills, learn about their firearm, and to enjoy their weekend.

Anytime spent shooting is better
than going to a soul-crushing job.

Seriously, that looks enjoyable.

Thanks for coming out and thanks for the AAR. Hope to see you on the range again soon!