Background
About 12 years ago, when I was first getting interested in shooting, I read an article about training with Clint Smith at Thunder Ranch in Texas.  As my involvement in firearms training and competition deepened, I met many people that spoke highly of the training they had received there, as well as the positive, friendly attitudes exhibited by Clint and his staff.  In 2004 Thunder Ranch moved to Lakeview, Oregon, making a trip that would have previously been a cross-country flight for me into a long day’s drive.  This year all of the pieces finally fell into place and I was able to attend their Urban Rifle course.

Location
Lakeview is a town of approximately 2,500 people located in central Oregon, just north of the California/Nevada border.  There are several hotels in town; all students in my class stayed at the Fremont Inn, Thunder Ranch’s recommended location.  The inn provided complimentary breakfast each day, as well as an excellent bagged lunch on class days for a reasonable fee.  Thunder Ranch is a 10 minute drive from the center of town.



Instructors
Clint Smith instructed the majority of the lecture and shooting portions of the course.  Additional instruction, coaching, and safety officer duties were performed by his assistants Scott and Randy, and his wife Heidi.

Class Members
Student backgrounds were varied:

• 4 active law enforcement


• 2 active armed forces


• 2 computer software industry (myself included)


• 1 firearm industry


• 1 medical industry

All had received firearms training prior to attending the course.  Approximately half had previous training at Thunder Ranch.

Range Facilities
Thunder Ranch has been purpose-built for their shooting courses.  The main range consists of a rectangle approximately 50 yards wide x 100 yards long, with paper and steel targets on the north and east sides.  Additional steel targets are placed up the hillside at ranges out to 200 yards (not by coincidence, about 500 yards from the Smiths’ front porch).    Thunderville, a long structure with a variety of shooting ports and obstacles, runs along the west side of the range.  Terminator 3, the shoot house, stands at the south end of the range.  Lead-free, frangible ammo is required for all courses on the main range (the Smiths’ own the property and do not want to be burdened by lead cleanup regulations in the future).













Course Purpose & Emphasis

• Marksmanship using the trigger and sights.


• Techniques for manipulation, mechanics and applying them to shooting.


• Establish mental conditioning and a mindset to fight to defend yourself and others.

Marksmanship was heavily emphasized in this course.  Many exercises were designed to teach the importance of understanding your zero and the change in point of impact from 10-100 yards.  This was not a course to burn through ammo shooting 4-6 round Non-Standard Responses at 15 yards.  One student unfortunately chose to perform a mag dump on one of the steel targets towards the end of the course, and was emphatically verbally corrected.

Safety
A significant portion of the morning on Day 1 was spent on the 4 Universal Firearms Safety Rules, and they were reviewed each time we stepped onto the range thereafter.  First aid supplies and a land-line connection to 911 were also called out at the start of each session.  The shooting line often had 4 instructors for 10 students, and the student body was made up of experienced participants.  The range was run hot during all shooting sessions; firearms were cleared before lunch and at the end of the day.  Range commands and the steps necessary to complete exercises were clearly explained and usually repeated multiple times.  Level 2 body armor was provided for all activities within the shoot house.  You will not find any cameramen down range at Thunder Ranch.

Training: Day 1
Lecture: Purpose of course, Firearms Safety Rules, Range Etiquette, Problems Likely to Encounter, Deciding Factors in Confrontations, Urban Rifle Theory, Principles of Marksmanship, Firearm Manipulation, Other Considerations

Practical Exercises:

Prone:
25 yards, 3-shot groups on paper
50 yards, 3-shot groups on paper
75 yards, 3-shot groups on paper
100 yards, 5-shot groups on paper and steel



Offhand:
25 yards, 2-shot groups on paper



Round count (approx.): 80

Training: Day 2
Practical Exercises:

Braced Kneeling:
25 yards, 3-shot groups on paper
50 yards, 3-shot groups on paper
75 yards, 3-shot groups on paper
100 yards, 5-shot groups on paper and steel



Shooter’s Option (position that will allow you to get a sure center hit in the least amount of time):
50-10 yards in 10 yard intervals, 2 body/2 head on paper



Offhand:
15 yards, 1 hit head zone halves
15 yards, 1 hit head zone quarters
(Knowing your sight offset up close really helps!)
25 yards, 2 body/2 head on paper, 2 hits on uphill steel (approx. 40 yards)





Team Barricade Shooting:
2 hits on paper from each of 4 barricade heights, plus rollover prone
Forward and lateral movement with loaded firearms around other people (the world is not a square range)
Communication with partner

Thunderville:
2 hits on steel from marked ports (approx. 60 yards)
2 hits on 200 yard steel (high-angle on hill)










Malfunctions:

Tap/Pull, Rack (most common problem is an empty or not fully seated magazine)
Unload/Reload (clears double-feeds and stovepipes)
Bullet Over Bolt: lock bolt back, use index & social finger to clear the action (no need for tools / “Hari Kari” clearing)

Transition to Pistol:
Recommended inside 25 yards or as situation dictates



Round count (approx.): 350

Training: Day 3

Moving Targets:

Ambush: hold on a fixed point and fire as target crosses path; preferred if target is moving in a predictable pattern – UNLIKELY
Lead: hold in front of target and keep gun moving at same speed as target; few LE or homeowner scenarios to justify shooting a target running laterally away from you
Follow: hold sights on center as well as possible; good trigger press is ESSENTIAL



Team Barricade Shooting:
Lateral and rearward movement around obstacles
Shoot/spot team communication to call hits on targets (50-100 yards)






Olympic Offhand:
Well-braced long shot; especially useful for getting over barricades or other high obstacles

Sitting:
Low and stable; get above grass/brush/garbage vs. prone; plunging fire down hillside
~1 meter loop of webbing = hasty support for knees for an indefinite amount of time; tether self to sold objects for further support (hillsides/rooftops)

Supine:
Keep knees DOWN and away from muzzle
Roll up > Sit up > Stand up
Roll laterally into rollover prone; wide field of view from left to right

Terminator 3:

Lecture and walk-through:
Room-clearing with a team is a really bad idea; one person exceptionally bad, BUT:

• Maximize distance from potential threats


• Pie to get majority of room – may need to go back to other side to clear odd pieces


• Stack the gun vertically to minimize sight offset problem


• Use edge of brightest spot to pie; splash light illuminates periphery


• Find back of wall with foot; don’t drag gear on walls


• Obstacles are fine; flow into/out of areas, have a line back to clear area with cover


• Don’t light up doors when opening (gap under interior doors)


• Find the mouse in the corner


• Last piece of room – foot even with door jam


• EXPECT TO FIND SOMETHING

Practical runs in full light and darkness with Clint as coach
Colt 9mm carbine w/ light provided for use in shoot house

Final Drill - Offhand:

15 yards, 1 hit, head zone, oddly-shaped quarters w/ forward, backward, and lateral movement

Wrap-Up and Certificate Ceremony

Round count (approx.): 350

Equipment

Firearms
I shot the entire course using my Rock River Arms M4-profile carbine with Aimpoint CompML2 (approx. 7 years old / 6,000 rounds fired prior to the course).  Magazines were a mixture of USGI aluminum, C Products stainless steel, and Magpul PMags.  My Viking Tactics padded sling was comfortable for the entire course and helped maintain a stable shooting position when used as designed.  

I shot suppressed all of Day 3 using my Gemtech G5.  My partner appreciated the noise reduction when I was shooting barricade drills next to him; it also helped with calling hits on steel targets.  I had 3 unplanned stoppages during the course, all occurring while using PMags in combination with the suppressor.  

I carried a Glock 34 as a sidearm, which was used for approximately 20 rounds on transition drills.

Most other students used an AR-15 variant with a 16” barrel and some kind of electronic sight (Aimpoint or EOTech).  There was at least one 20” AR-15, and one Armalite AR-180 (recent production).  Our gun dealer classmate used an Elcan SpecterDR 1x/4x scope, which was an advantage on the 200 yard portion of the course.  One student shot the entire course with an iron-sighted, scout-length M1A… bonus points for endurance.  Most of the other pistols were Glocks as well.

Ammunition
The requirement for lead-free, frangible ammunition created some headaches early on.  Several guns had problems with bullets breaking as they hit the feed ramp prior to chambering.  Bullets fired from rifles with fast twist barrels exhibited keyholing or bullets breaking up in flight (multiple small holes sprayed across the target from a range of only 25 yards).  The ultimate solution to these problems was to switch to a different gun.

There are differences in frangible bullet construction.  The Federal frangible ammunition that I used has a jacket over most of the bullet surface (much like soft-point hunting bullets), vs. the compressed copper surface of other brands.  I had no problems with this bullet construction combined with a 1/9 twist barrel.



Many students had not tested their ammo prior to the first day of the course.  Shipping costs and the hassles of flying with ammunition make having it shipped directly to the range seem advantageous, but this also slowed the first day down considerably.  I strongly recommend ordering your ammunition well in advance and testing it thoroughly in any guns you plan to shoot at the course.  If this proves to be impossible, bring at least 2 complete uppers of different configurations as insurance.

Protective Equipment / Environmental Concerns
The range deck is at approximately 5400” of elevation with little to no shade.  For the three days in mid-July that I attended, the temperatures ranged from 95-98° F.  A combination of long sleeve microfiber shirts, lightweight hiking pants, Nomex gloves, a baseball cap, shemagh, and SPF 50 sunscreen kept me “in the fight”.  



The only burn I incurred was on my face from pressing my cheek against the aluminum carbine stock tube after it had been baking in the sun for a while!  A piece of moleskin over this spot on the gun worked as a quick fix, although this does eliminate the ability to collapse the stock completely.





Having lived most of my life in the Seattle area, I am not particularly acclimated to high temperature environments.  The combination of sun protection and consistent hydration (2-3 liters of Gatorade each day) kept my body running well and my mind sharp at the end of the day.

Knee and elbow pads are an absolute requirement on the gravel surface of the range deck.  I used Blackhawk soft knee and elbow pads; by Day 2 I would have preferred hard knee and elbow pads with a more secure attachment system.

Electronic, noise-canceling hearing protection is an excellent investment for any training course, as it eases communication between you, the instructors, and your fellow students (helps with that whole “Shoot, Move, Communicate” thing).  

I used a new set of ESS Ice Tactical glasses with prescription inserts.  I rate them a C for comfort, but an A for protective value from ricochets off of steel  and brass from other shooters.  I also appreciated being able to quickly switch between dark lenses for outdoors and clear lenses for time in the shoot house.

Lessons Learned

• Hydrate!


• Test your ammunition in your guns before you go


• Don’t do any more fighting in confined spaces than is absolutely necessary to achieve your goal


• Good protective equipment is a worthwhile investment


• A decent sight picture and good trigger press makes good things happen


• A simple, lightweight rifle is entirely capable at all practical distances

Clint and Heidi Smith run an excellent facility and treat their students like family.  You would be hard pressed to find nicer people anywhere.



I enthusiastically recommend Thunder Ranch to anyone interested in learning the knowledge, skills and attitude necessary to use a rifle to defend themselves and those around them.

Your comments, questions and feedback on this AAR are appreciated, thanks!

Is the use of an AR15 a course requirement?

Nope.



I've heard reports of people shooting the class with lever-action guns...  "Run what ya brung," just as long as you can make the gun work for you and not be a burden on the rest of the class.

No.
I know a guy who took UR with a lever action Winchester.

But you must use lead-free frangible ammunition.

BTW, for those interested, I believe that the raffle to win an all-expenses paid trip to Thunder Ranch to attend Urban Rifle this autumn 2009 is still ongoing at:

RIGHTtoKeepAndBearArms.com.

Was under the General tab, pinned topic “Wanna stop a future AWB? Then get your butt in here now! (Update Page 1)”

Includes course fees, ammo, lodging, airfare. Inside info says that even rifle and equipment will be provided if you need it.

Great AAR.

Clint is ageless.  Bonus points for highlighting his little 'clint-isms'.

I've watched the Urban Rifle videos and Got a kick out of Clint's style.  I am proud to call him a fello Oregonian.  Would love to take his class but it in financially unfeasable.  Thanks for the right up.  Next best thing....

One of the best AAR I have read. Great Job!

Great write up!!

Do you know if the .mil folks were there on their own dime or uncle Sams?

Why lead free?

RIF.

Thanks!

Both if the .mil guys were there on their own.  The LEOs were paying for the course and ammo themselves, but were getting their normal salary for training days.

Not to mention the fact that after about 250K rounds of rifle and a 150K rounds of pistol they will have a few tons on pure copper to mine.

In todays market that's over $15000.

Hell just let it build up until they retire and they would have a little nest egg in back yard.....

Great AAR. I really hope I get to train with him before he retires. If I won the lottery, I'd spend a month or so with them.

A lot of people talk crap because his classes focus on the fundamentals and are not teaching people "super secret hi-speed operative" type courses.

TR TX used to have a month-long rifle course.

That's a lot of shooting, but the students shot GREAT by the end of the month.

What was taught over that entire month? Sights and trigger. That's it. Fundamentals will always win the day.