I attended the class in VA. Here is my AAR. For more details and photos please take a look M4 Carbine AAR here.
We had a bunch of great people in the class. I wasn't the only "long distance" traveller. There were three guys from NY and three from PA with the rest being mostly from VA.
TD1 started with a safety brief followed by dry fire drills to overcome the "el snatcho". We did ball and dummy drills, and partner assisted drills dry fire drills as well.. Larry mentioned the importance of proper trigger reset. Following the ball and dummy drill we did some more pistol drills, finishing up with the walk back.
For the second part of TD1, Larry went over speed and tac loads and we did a few runs. Larry is a proponent of doing a proper tac-load instead of "reload with retention" as seen in IDPA. During all those drills we were expected to keep the shots in the black of the 25 yd NRA bull.
The beginning of TD2 was dedicated to the carbine. Larry mentioned the difference between point of aim and point of impact, and different zeroes that are possible with the carbine. He prefers 100m zero for a general purpose carbine due to the fairly flat bullet trajectory up to 100m. We then proceeded to the 25m line to zero the rifles. With zeroes established, we ran through a small competition. It involved a
timed course of fire from 50 yards in prone, sitting and kneeling, followed by a course of fire from 25 yards in standing position.
This is where the magnifier came in real handy. After the first two stages, myself and another student who was using a magnifier were tied for the first place. The magnifier is helpful
in keeping the dot in a consistent place on target from 50 yards. We ran a few more drills before the carbine walk back. I used the magnifier in the first attempt, but due to the time constraint, I felt rushed while
acquiring the target and missed my shot. After flipping the magnifier to the side, I was able to successfully hit the steel plate and continue with the walk back.
After lunch we did some transition work and ran a few transition drills - rifle goes "click", sling it and draw the pistol and engage the target. We also did some initial shooting on the move
drills and it wasn't pretty. This is the one thing that I tend to practice less on the square range drill, yet it is much harder to hit a moving than a stationary target. Larry also talked about transitions to
support shoulder and we drilled that for some time. We also did the FBI pistol instructor course of fire. Unfortunately, I did not pass it, but I have a new found respect for the instructors.
With the sun setting, it was time for the night fire portion of the class. Larry went over some common flashlight techniques. He doesn't like (perhaps not a strong enough word) the neck index. He used Harries for demonstrations and also mentioned Rogers and maybe one or two others I forgot. He then went over the flashbulb technique. Essentially you light up the target and move, since the light is a nice target indicator. After that we engaged the targets with rifles at first and then with pistols utilizing the flash bulb technique. One really cool part is that we demoed different muzzle attachments/ammo combinations at night. Both the Surefire MB556K break and FSC produced significantly more flash than the A2 flash hider (naturally). Wolf ammo also threw quiet a bit of sparks. The FS2000 flash hider performed just as well as the A2 on ARs. One of the students had a can and he put some rounds through it. I temporarily removed my hearing protection and the noise generated when firing with the can was still uncomfortable for my naked ears despite being lower than un suppressed. The muzzle flash was somewhat less visible too.
TD3 started with some team competitions involving shooting while moving in a M like pattern. I had to remember to elevate my dot since the targets were fairly close. We also did some off shoulder drills from the 25 yard line. After that we split into two groups for the scrambler and shooting on the move. We started the scrambler from 200 yards, and once again, my magnifier came in handy as it allowed me more precision in positioning my dot. However, I have a tendency to "take my time" while using it, despite the scrambler being run on a timer. Afterwards we ran through the "humbler" - a seven stage drill with the ability to turn atmosphere from festive to downright sad. Any drill where you can have shots that could land off an IDPA silhouette at 15 yards is serious business. Afterwards we did a few more rifle drills, including "El Presedente" variations with carbine and pistol before it was time for us to police the range and head back home.
Overall this was a great class. Larry places a great emphasis on marksmanship and the ability to effectively engage a target with a pistol from 25 yards in. As a result, the main focus of the class was on shooting drills. We didn't focus much on weapon manipulation drills, nor were there any drills for firing from the retention positions with pistol or carbine. Pistol manipulation while using a hand held flash light was briefly mentioned but not practiced to a great extent. Nor was one - handed pistol manipulation (drawing, reloading, etc...) covered.
Most of the rifles used in the class were AR variants(gas and piston) with the exception of FS2000, HK416 upper and an AK used briefly on TD3). I did not observe any mechanical issues with rifles used in the class.
FS2000 ran without a hitch and its owner was kind enough to give us a short presentation on its pros/cons. There was a gamut of pistol including Glocks, M&P, HK,Sigs, XD and a healthy number of 1911's including the elusive Vickers 1911.
Oh, and if you spent the money to attend a quality class, please invest into electronic hearing protection - you know who you are
.
We had a bunch of great people in the class. I wasn't the only "long distance" traveller. There were three guys from NY and three from PA with the rest being mostly from VA.
TD1 started with a safety brief followed by dry fire drills to overcome the "el snatcho". We did ball and dummy drills, and partner assisted drills dry fire drills as well.. Larry mentioned the importance of proper trigger reset. Following the ball and dummy drill we did some more pistol drills, finishing up with the walk back.
For the second part of TD1, Larry went over speed and tac loads and we did a few runs. Larry is a proponent of doing a proper tac-load instead of "reload with retention" as seen in IDPA. During all those drills we were expected to keep the shots in the black of the 25 yd NRA bull.
The beginning of TD2 was dedicated to the carbine. Larry mentioned the difference between point of aim and point of impact, and different zeroes that are possible with the carbine. He prefers 100m zero for a general purpose carbine due to the fairly flat bullet trajectory up to 100m. We then proceeded to the 25m line to zero the rifles. With zeroes established, we ran through a small competition. It involved a
timed course of fire from 50 yards in prone, sitting and kneeling, followed by a course of fire from 25 yards in standing position.
This is where the magnifier came in real handy. After the first two stages, myself and another student who was using a magnifier were tied for the first place. The magnifier is helpful
in keeping the dot in a consistent place on target from 50 yards. We ran a few more drills before the carbine walk back. I used the magnifier in the first attempt, but due to the time constraint, I felt rushed while
acquiring the target and missed my shot. After flipping the magnifier to the side, I was able to successfully hit the steel plate and continue with the walk back.
After lunch we did some transition work and ran a few transition drills - rifle goes "click", sling it and draw the pistol and engage the target. We also did some initial shooting on the move
drills and it wasn't pretty. This is the one thing that I tend to practice less on the square range drill, yet it is much harder to hit a moving than a stationary target. Larry also talked about transitions to
support shoulder and we drilled that for some time. We also did the FBI pistol instructor course of fire. Unfortunately, I did not pass it, but I have a new found respect for the instructors.
With the sun setting, it was time for the night fire portion of the class. Larry went over some common flashlight techniques. He doesn't like (perhaps not a strong enough word) the neck index. He used Harries for demonstrations and also mentioned Rogers and maybe one or two others I forgot. He then went over the flashbulb technique. Essentially you light up the target and move, since the light is a nice target indicator. After that we engaged the targets with rifles at first and then with pistols utilizing the flash bulb technique. One really cool part is that we demoed different muzzle attachments/ammo combinations at night. Both the Surefire MB556K break and FSC produced significantly more flash than the A2 flash hider (naturally). Wolf ammo also threw quiet a bit of sparks. The FS2000 flash hider performed just as well as the A2 on ARs. One of the students had a can and he put some rounds through it. I temporarily removed my hearing protection and the noise generated when firing with the can was still uncomfortable for my naked ears despite being lower than un suppressed. The muzzle flash was somewhat less visible too.
TD3 started with some team competitions involving shooting while moving in a M like pattern. I had to remember to elevate my dot since the targets were fairly close. We also did some off shoulder drills from the 25 yard line. After that we split into two groups for the scrambler and shooting on the move. We started the scrambler from 200 yards, and once again, my magnifier came in handy as it allowed me more precision in positioning my dot. However, I have a tendency to "take my time" while using it, despite the scrambler being run on a timer. Afterwards we ran through the "humbler" - a seven stage drill with the ability to turn atmosphere from festive to downright sad. Any drill where you can have shots that could land off an IDPA silhouette at 15 yards is serious business. Afterwards we did a few more rifle drills, including "El Presedente" variations with carbine and pistol before it was time for us to police the range and head back home.
Overall this was a great class. Larry places a great emphasis on marksmanship and the ability to effectively engage a target with a pistol from 25 yards in. As a result, the main focus of the class was on shooting drills. We didn't focus much on weapon manipulation drills, nor were there any drills for firing from the retention positions with pistol or carbine. Pistol manipulation while using a hand held flash light was briefly mentioned but not practiced to a great extent. Nor was one - handed pistol manipulation (drawing, reloading, etc...) covered.
Most of the rifles used in the class were AR variants(gas and piston) with the exception of FS2000, HK416 upper and an AK used briefly on TD3). I did not observe any mechanical issues with rifles used in the class.
FS2000 ran without a hitch and its owner was kind enough to give us a short presentation on its pros/cons. There was a gamut of pistol including Glocks, M&P, HK,Sigs, XD and a healthy number of 1911's including the elusive Vickers 1911.
Oh, and if you spent the money to attend a quality class, please invest into electronic hearing protection - you know who you are
.
