Carbine 1 June 4 & 5 2010 San Jose CA

[Todd Nielsen]

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Well It looks like I will be starting the AAR on this. 

7 students total.  (8 on the 5th) 

Mostly AR-15 variants with one M1 and Sig 556

We got a little bit of heat going for our training session but all in all it was good prep for Customer Appreciation Weekend.  We even were able to get two more to sign up for it!

Good group of guys +1 Gal who had just gotten her rifle 18 hours before the class started.  Turns out one other rifle was being put together at 0300 the morning of the class. 

A outstanding effort was put forth by all the students involved.  Thank you to all of you.

Add your comments here.  MS and MS I expect your intros on the forum soon!

Pfaria & Blackviper I'm waiting....

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[pfaria]

This 2 day course was scheduled on a Friday and Saturday.   Due to work conflicts, I was only able to attend the Saturday portion of the class so this review will only cover the last day of the course.


Sustain

o Malfunction clearance drills.  For some reason, this class had the most carbine malfunctions that I’ve ever seen before.  Students were having double feeds and stuck casings in their chambers almost throughout the entire day.  I witnessed four of the students mortaring their carbines at the same time.

o Knowing how to shoot with iron sights.  One student shot with iron sights all day and his groupings were very good.  He has never used a red dot sight and seemed to like the Aimpoint when he borrowed a carbine with one mounted on it.  With all of his experience with using iron sights, he would have no problem if his red dot sight went down and had to switch over.  Know how to use both effectively.

o Dry practice pays for itself.  Emergency reloads and malfunction clearances were smoother for me during class (under “stress”) this time around.  This came to light during the final timed competition drill against steel.

o Individual and “team” competitions.  It’s a healthy way to push the students and allow them to gauge their abilities while competing against each other on the line or by breaking up the class into ad-hoc teams.  Couple that with the immediate feedback of steel and the students shared that they thought it was a lot of fun.


Improve

o Staying switched on.  Even though I was properly hydrated and snacking throughout the day, I had a minor brain fart during the first part of the side-stepping drill (everyone on the line takes 2 steps right, engage their target, etc).  Although folks found it “funny” when I took one step to the left, instead of the right, personally it really sunk in that if this wasn’t training and a real-world situation, that minor lack of attention to detail could’ve been costly in some manner.  Thinking back, I was mentally focused on the shooting portion and not focusing on the moving section which is why this happened.  Being switched on requires being fully engaged with everything that is going on.  I unfucked myself and got with the program immediately after that.

o Sunscreen.  Wear it.  Some students learned that if you don’t apply it then you’ll be feeling it on every part of your body that was exposed to the sunshine the previous day.

o The right tool for the job.  A good way to determine if your weapon and gear configuration works is to run it through a class.  You’ll quickly learn if that magazine pouch will work for you under stress, if your optic choices will work for close-range use and so on.  Some of the students struggled with what they had chosen to use in the class but all gained valuable lessons learned and will hopefully be making changes.
 

General Observations and Comments

o I used my M&P 15-22 in this class, putting another 300 rounds through it with no malfunctions.  After the course had completed, I noted another significant training difference between the .22LR and 5.56: follow-through after each shot.  Due to the reduced recoil of the .22LR, I could more easily re-acquire my sight picture and follow-through with the next shot.  This was evident during the final timed competition where I was able to quickly put two rounds on steel (hammer) with no muzzle rise (reduced sized IPSC steel at 40 yards).  Thinking about this further, the reduced recoil could potentially cause a shooter to get sloppy with his/her grip and control of the 5.56 carbine, effecting their ability to follow-through after each 5.56 shot is fired.

[BlackViper]

Due to heavy workload, I joined along with Pete for day 2 of this class.

My personal goals for the class were:
- Tune up the skills for this coming weekend
- Test out some recent gear changes / rifle changes
- Get in some left-handed work, depending on the class

The day started out with dropping to prone and sending two shots down range from the 50 yard line. I could be odd here, but prone has to be my least favorite shooting position. Not because I'm on the ground in the dirt - but because wearing a PC and having mags on my chest makes it very difficult to get a sight picture without canting my head back pretty hard. I have a bit of a bad neck in that direction so it's extremely uncomfortable. That said, you do at least project the most minimal target profile. For me I need to extend my stock all the way out too and remember to get my hat brim up out of the way, so it's always a good exercise. What I found when I got down there was that my EOTech had lost it's zero. I have a 553 with the quick release mount and this is the first time I've ever had it lose zero after removing it/cleaning/adding it back. What's interesting was that I had done a rough check with a laser boresighter in the back yard the night before and it showed the EOTech to be off but I didn't believe it. So a few quick adjustments there at the 50 and I was back in the bullseye. For shits and giggles I re-tested the laser boresighter vs. EOTech that night and now they are pretty much dead on, and in concert with my irons, so I think this method is worthwhile at least to do a rough check whenever you take off and re-attach hardware.

After that we moved in closer to work on clearing some malfunctions, specifically double feeds. Per Pete's comment, my rifle has never once not been able to clear a case with just a simple rack of the CH (I probably have 5k rounds through it now). But for some reason, twice in a row with that drill I had to mortar it to get the empty case out of the chamber. A couple students had JP match rifles and had the same issue but that didn't really surprise me with a brand new match chamber. It was enough of an example for me to add a multi-piece cleaning rod somewhere on my kit. Hopefully I'll never need it but it's one of those things that if you do need - you *really* need it.

Next we did some trigger reset drills. This is a drill borrowed from the Magpul guys where you work to see how many shots you can accurately get off in 2 seconds. The key here being accuracy. The drill focuses you on getting a good address on your target, holding your rifle properly, good shooting stance, and good trigger reset. I was particularly pleased with my progress on this drill, to the point that with my "safety conscious" california 10 round magazine I was out of rounds within the 2 seconds. Todd tossed me one of his 30s to use, and after 2 runs he counted 6 rounds left in the mag, meaning I was getting off about 12 rounds in 2 seconds, all in a nice tight group in the center ring. I was very happy with that as it was the culmination of several changes I had made: I switched from a stubby VFG to the magpul AFG and now wrap my thumb over top of the handguard, I switched from a YHM FH to a PWS 556 FH/MB, and I switched out the standard buffer/spring to an enidyne hydraulic buffer and enhanced flat silicon steel spring. All those changes together with some trigger control on my part equaled weapon control that I was very happy with.

From here I think we introduced some of the new folks to shooting on the move. I was particularly happy about this because to me it's probably the most perishable skill we learn, and for me at least, hard to practice outside of class. Todd kept things nice and safe by only running 3 students at a time through the drill. This was good as it allowed people to see what it's like essentially doing 3 things at once: shooting, moving, and watching your wingmen. The best part to me was we started without shooting in one big line just trying to walk together. People were strolling along like they were walking down their driveway to get the newspaper. Then Todd introduced the shooting part and boy how things change, lol. All the students did quite well at this drill I thought for their first time. My trio was Pete, myself, and a 23 year marine veteran - so Todd was able to really push us along and get us moving really well which I appreciated.

We ended the day with some timed drills on steel that involved two shot groups with a mag change, rinse, repeat 2x. I love these drills because it compresses everything from working the safety, acquiring a sight picture, firing, dropping a mag, acquiring a mag, and seating the mag into a tiny little timeframe. You find out immediately if your gear is working for you or not. I think everyone had fun with the steel too and a little competition is always good.

My personal observations for the class:
- Fundamentals. I always find it striking that the difference between really good and really bad is just the speed/dexterity at which one can execute the fundamentals. I guess that's why they're called 'fundamentals'

- Trust your training. During the timed drill, it took Todd to tell me that I already had the skills to match Pete's time with his MP15-22 before I could "go for it" and just trust my training. It may sound simple to you folks who have done this for years but it felt like a big step for me. My fundamentals were in place and it was time to step it up a bit. Thanks Todd.

- Hydrate. It was a pretty warm day but nothing too extreme. I don't know if it was putting in 70hrs this week at work or what, but I was wiped out at the end of the day and only then did I realize I hadn't been drinking enough. I thought I was doing okay, but looking back I should have been in and out of the pisser a lot more that day and I wasn't. It was a good reminder before heading to the desert for the upcoming classes.

So I definitely managed to tune up my skills and I'm happy enough with my current gear setup, so bring on the customer appreciation weekend!

[pfaria]

- Trust your training. During the timed drill, it took Todd to tell me that I already had the skills to match Pete's time with his MP15-22 before I could "go for it" and just trust my training. It may sound simple to you folks who have done this for years but it felt like a big step for me. My fundamentals were in place and it was time to step it up a bit. Thanks Todd.

In my opinion, this is one of the main reasons why training with an experienced and competent instructor is important.  Many times the student won't realize their own capabilities, so the instructor will push him/her out of their comfort zone so that self-realization can take place.  Couple that with the student's desire to learn and you end up discovering what your true capabilities are versus what you originally perceived them to be.

[Todd Nielsen]

Thanks gents.  I try to push each individual student to their max.  Thanks for pushing yourself too.  Great AAR guys.  Lets try and get a days worth of fun shooting in soon.   

[Jim_KT]

Excellent AARs!

Blackviper - I wholeheartedly agree with SOTM as the most easily perishable skill, and is the heaviest impacted one if there are any body inuries.  I hurt my back about a year ago, and SOTM can be difficult for me at times.