I know it took getting shot to pieces to get the airtime they deserve, but that's not what's important. Today's high school kids seem to think they have a protective shield around their collective thought bubbles and the wit to match Einstein. Unfortunately, the have once again mistaken feelings for logic.
-Yes, you have the right to your opinion.
-No, it's not always right.
-No, it's not important to most people.
-No, you have no right to intercede in my life.
-No, I will not comply with your deluded whims.
Now that we have established a baseline, we can continue with your education. Every night my son comes to me and asks me questions about statements made by his socialist English teacher. It's a constant game of "deprogram the teenager". Gun owners and trump voters are Red Neck Hicks. Yeah, it's logical thoughts such as these that we must entertain. Such well thought out, eloquent arguments are hard to ignore!
Today's high school students are programmed little robots of the anti-liberty movement. They have no ability to deal with ideas that counter their belief system, no ability to discern fact from fiction. Yet they march, and protest, and soon enough..... They vote.
That, my fellow freedom lovers, is why I train in the facets I choose to master. Some day soon, these idiots without the ability to reason will take up arms and attempt to rid the world of bad think, AKA freedom.
Showing posts with label frustration.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frustration.. Show all posts
Monday, March 12, 2018
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
When Murphy Shows Up For Laughs
Ah yes, it's that brilliant time of year when business slows down and I can get some free time to get away with my boys. Unfortunately one of my boys is injured and couldn't make our last outing. He had an interesting interlude with an elliptical machine on New Years eve and is recuperating on crutches. The oldest man child is feeling just fine, so he and I decided to take a trip to our favorite patch of woods and scout some new camp areas and test some new equipment. The weather forecast was less than inviting with constant rain and cooling temps, but Momma wanted us out of the house for the weekend so we acquiesced.
Friday Morning I was perusing the weather forecast and seeing that if we left early on Sunday, we would be fine to miss the most inclement weather front of the year so far. A big Alberta Clipper is heading straight towards us. It looks like we were going to wake up to light wind and some flurries as the temperature dropped all day. Not a huge issue, but something to be aware of. We packed accordingly and layered in proper fashion for the temps and rain. We both chose to forego a rifle for hunting and instead packed a pistol in case a ferocious tree rat attacked or we tripped on a rabbit.
For shelter, he chose my old el cheapo backpacking tent and a jungle bag with and added fleece liner. I went with my standard Grand Trunk Skeeter Beeter hammock and Browning 20 degree sleeping bag. I also brought two SilNylon tarps. A large 14 x 12 for shelter in the rain and a 10 x 7 lightweight model for my Hammock cover. My son decided to upgrade his ground pad for the colder weather so he dropped his lightweight summer closed cell pad for an inflatable 1" thick pad. I used the Klymit Static V Lightweight inflatable pad that has been nothing short of brilliant for insulating the bottom of my hammock from the elements.
The trip consisted of a 1.5 hour commute that turned into 3 hours with construction, followed by a 3.5 mile backpack slog in the muddy terrain. We arrived at a camp we've been to before but never used. Being that the season is over we expected to be alone at the furthest marked camp from the entrance. Someone had done some upgrades to the seating and fire ring so we decided that this was the place to be. Our regular location was another 1.5 miles but the dark and wet muck made us decide to change venues.
We set up camp, got a great fire going and started processing wood with our new tools. My son struggles with making a fire so I helped him process and baton enough wood for a decent start. Everything was soaked so I started splitting a chunk of cedar I found for some decent fire starter. He started the fire all by himself and did a great job.This is the first outing for my new Husqvarna small forest sized axe and folding buck saw so we quickly made use of them for the task at hand. My son's headlamp went dead twice during this procedure and he was quickly out of batteries. It seems he forgot to charge them after his last outing. This brings us to our first issue of the trip. I offered him my last set of batteries and had one extra set for myself. We ate a small meal and turned in. Winter brings early bed and late mornings.
We both got up at dawn and immediately got the fire going again. Our processed wood from the night before was soaked from condensation and hanging fog. We split some new wood and processed it out to tinder and kindling so we could get breakfast going. What a glorious breakfast it was!
See that cedar on the bottom left? Cedar smoked applewood maple bacon. The 13 year old ate his weight in bacon and even downed a pop tart as well, I stuck with just bacon and English breakfast tea.
After breakfast, we went on a great 3 mile hike to see some new camping spots I'd heard of but had never seen. They were breathtaking. Huge ridges overlooking the river and a few lakes. One in particular was very inviting with a single narrow entry point and sheer vertical drop offs on all other sides with the river directly below.
We returned to camp in the early afternoon and gathered wood for our evening meal and the expected rain and chill. We had barely began when the rain started. It was light at first but soon transformed into a monsoon like deluge. At the first sign of rain I set up the large tarp for shelter at the edge of the fire ring and covered the wood processing area as well. The large tarp was almost too large and was difficult to get set up right in close quarters where the seating was. The fog rolled in and made for a interesting accommodations.
My son begged me to let him sit in my hammock for a while to relax and I heard snoring shortly after dark, which is near 6 this time of year. I processed wood most of the night and found a rather large white pine that was perfectly seasoned and barely large enough for me to carry to the camp site. It had a lot of resin in it and kept me warm until 11pm when I kicked my son out of my hammock. I threw on a bunch of wood and watched the fire from inside my hammock. I set up my son's jackets to dry in the heat of the fire. At about 11:30 the wind shifted and sent our jackets into a large puddle near the tarp shelter. This was bad. Issue #2. We now had soaked jackets. Mine is a synthetic Carhartt, so not a big deal for me, but he had a cotton hoodie and a rain jacket. I had sent him to bed with my under armor cold gear base layer to keep him warm so that was the only up side.
Foggy and dark campsite. Our jackets are hanging on a stick under the tarp.
Fast forward to 3:30am. My feet are FREEZING! What the heck is on my feet? I kick up and feel the tarp has water or something in it and has stretched down into my hammock. Kick again and hear an odd sound. That's not water! It's SNOW! I look out of my shelter to see 3 inches of white stuff covering everything. Evidently, the weather forecast changed and my wife had sent me an update, but there is little to no service in the area I'm in. It's 20 degrees out and falling fast. All my equipment is soaked and frozen solid. My son's jackets are frozen solid. This is bad.
I kick his tent and wake him up. He's cold. He left his headlamp on and it's dead. I'm on my last set of batteries as well. The snow is blowing sideways. I start striking camp immediately. He's getting his things together in the tent and I tell him not to come out until he's all packed up in there. Everything is swelled up with ice and snow. My tarps don't fit back in their containers, my paracord knots are frozen solid and won't come undone so I start cutting them free. My knit hat is soaked but I keep a spare in my sleeping bag. I put it and a wide brimmed waterproof hat on and hand the Carhartt jacket and gloves to my son. His gloves were also soaked and frozen in his tent. I have my synthetic fleece base layer as a jacket. We get everything packed and head to the truck at 4am as the temperature steadily drops and the wind howls. This was the best decision I made the entire trip.
The wind, snow, water and ice has conspired to drop numerous trees onto the trail and fire road to further impede our progress in the 3" and counting snowfall. I kept a blistering pace to keep us both warm. My son is in an after school running club so he's having no issue keeping up. I'm carrying a pack that weighs close to 60 pounds due to the added weight of snow, water and ice covered gear. There is also flooding from the torrential rain the prior night. My son used my Phone to light his way and we made it easily but my hands were pretty cold from the wind with no gloves. We stripped off our wet tops and climbed into the truck. The 10 mile trip to the highway was the most eventful drive of my life. Trees were down in the road and we had to drive around and over them multiple times. My Phone was pretty spent, so no pictures of the snow or travel home.
Here's what the storm looked like after it passed my area. Joe lives north of me in the great white north, but the storm tracked right to his area.
When Murphy shows up, you better have a plan, because I know many people who would have hunkered down and gotten themselves in trouble in the same situation. It was 16 degrees when we returned to the truck and in the single digits that night with a -15 windchill. The only reason we didn't get in trouble was because we sped up when we were cold and slowed when we started sweating. This was the perfect situation to show that training and knowledge can be the difference between discomfort and disaster when things go wrong.
What went wrong?
Weather changed drastically.
Why did that impact us?
- Didn't take proper care of our equipment. Frozen jackets, hats and gloves.
-Not enough batteries.
-Marginal sleeping gear
Consider a time when weather forecasting was non existent. People prepared for the worst all the times. We no longer think in those terms. The "known" trumps the unknown. Sometimes it can bite us. In 2 weeks I'll be camping near the same area and I plan to make some adjustments to my kit.
Friday Morning I was perusing the weather forecast and seeing that if we left early on Sunday, we would be fine to miss the most inclement weather front of the year so far. A big Alberta Clipper is heading straight towards us. It looks like we were going to wake up to light wind and some flurries as the temperature dropped all day. Not a huge issue, but something to be aware of. We packed accordingly and layered in proper fashion for the temps and rain. We both chose to forego a rifle for hunting and instead packed a pistol in case a ferocious tree rat attacked or we tripped on a rabbit.
For shelter, he chose my old el cheapo backpacking tent and a jungle bag with and added fleece liner. I went with my standard Grand Trunk Skeeter Beeter hammock and Browning 20 degree sleeping bag. I also brought two SilNylon tarps. A large 14 x 12 for shelter in the rain and a 10 x 7 lightweight model for my Hammock cover. My son decided to upgrade his ground pad for the colder weather so he dropped his lightweight summer closed cell pad for an inflatable 1" thick pad. I used the Klymit Static V Lightweight inflatable pad that has been nothing short of brilliant for insulating the bottom of my hammock from the elements.
The trip consisted of a 1.5 hour commute that turned into 3 hours with construction, followed by a 3.5 mile backpack slog in the muddy terrain. We arrived at a camp we've been to before but never used. Being that the season is over we expected to be alone at the furthest marked camp from the entrance. Someone had done some upgrades to the seating and fire ring so we decided that this was the place to be. Our regular location was another 1.5 miles but the dark and wet muck made us decide to change venues.
After breakfast, we went on a great 3 mile hike to see some new camping spots I'd heard of but had never seen. They were breathtaking. Huge ridges overlooking the river and a few lakes. One in particular was very inviting with a single narrow entry point and sheer vertical drop offs on all other sides with the river directly below.
We returned to camp in the early afternoon and gathered wood for our evening meal and the expected rain and chill. We had barely began when the rain started. It was light at first but soon transformed into a monsoon like deluge. At the first sign of rain I set up the large tarp for shelter at the edge of the fire ring and covered the wood processing area as well. The large tarp was almost too large and was difficult to get set up right in close quarters where the seating was. The fog rolled in and made for a interesting accommodations.
My son begged me to let him sit in my hammock for a while to relax and I heard snoring shortly after dark, which is near 6 this time of year. I processed wood most of the night and found a rather large white pine that was perfectly seasoned and barely large enough for me to carry to the camp site. It had a lot of resin in it and kept me warm until 11pm when I kicked my son out of my hammock. I threw on a bunch of wood and watched the fire from inside my hammock. I set up my son's jackets to dry in the heat of the fire. At about 11:30 the wind shifted and sent our jackets into a large puddle near the tarp shelter. This was bad. Issue #2. We now had soaked jackets. Mine is a synthetic Carhartt, so not a big deal for me, but he had a cotton hoodie and a rain jacket. I had sent him to bed with my under armor cold gear base layer to keep him warm so that was the only up side.
Fast forward to 3:30am. My feet are FREEZING! What the heck is on my feet? I kick up and feel the tarp has water or something in it and has stretched down into my hammock. Kick again and hear an odd sound. That's not water! It's SNOW! I look out of my shelter to see 3 inches of white stuff covering everything. Evidently, the weather forecast changed and my wife had sent me an update, but there is little to no service in the area I'm in. It's 20 degrees out and falling fast. All my equipment is soaked and frozen solid. My son's jackets are frozen solid. This is bad.
I kick his tent and wake him up. He's cold. He left his headlamp on and it's dead. I'm on my last set of batteries as well. The snow is blowing sideways. I start striking camp immediately. He's getting his things together in the tent and I tell him not to come out until he's all packed up in there. Everything is swelled up with ice and snow. My tarps don't fit back in their containers, my paracord knots are frozen solid and won't come undone so I start cutting them free. My knit hat is soaked but I keep a spare in my sleeping bag. I put it and a wide brimmed waterproof hat on and hand the Carhartt jacket and gloves to my son. His gloves were also soaked and frozen in his tent. I have my synthetic fleece base layer as a jacket. We get everything packed and head to the truck at 4am as the temperature steadily drops and the wind howls. This was the best decision I made the entire trip.
The wind, snow, water and ice has conspired to drop numerous trees onto the trail and fire road to further impede our progress in the 3" and counting snowfall. I kept a blistering pace to keep us both warm. My son is in an after school running club so he's having no issue keeping up. I'm carrying a pack that weighs close to 60 pounds due to the added weight of snow, water and ice covered gear. There is also flooding from the torrential rain the prior night. My son used my Phone to light his way and we made it easily but my hands were pretty cold from the wind with no gloves. We stripped off our wet tops and climbed into the truck. The 10 mile trip to the highway was the most eventful drive of my life. Trees were down in the road and we had to drive around and over them multiple times. My Phone was pretty spent, so no pictures of the snow or travel home.
Here's what the storm looked like after it passed my area. Joe lives north of me in the great white north, but the storm tracked right to his area.
When Murphy shows up, you better have a plan, because I know many people who would have hunkered down and gotten themselves in trouble in the same situation. It was 16 degrees when we returned to the truck and in the single digits that night with a -15 windchill. The only reason we didn't get in trouble was because we sped up when we were cold and slowed when we started sweating. This was the perfect situation to show that training and knowledge can be the difference between discomfort and disaster when things go wrong.
What went wrong?
Weather changed drastically.
Why did that impact us?
- Didn't take proper care of our equipment. Frozen jackets, hats and gloves.
-Not enough batteries.
-Marginal sleeping gear
Consider a time when weather forecasting was non existent. People prepared for the worst all the times. We no longer think in those terms. The "known" trumps the unknown. Sometimes it can bite us. In 2 weeks I'll be camping near the same area and I plan to make some adjustments to my kit.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
My Year of Training
This winter, I was offered a chance to take an NRA instructors course through the BSA. I'm a decent shooter for being mostly self taught, so I figured, why not! It was a good class to take, very informative and useful for teaching scouts to shoot. All the age old basics are there, with the 1910 shooting positions and the like. It was dated, but had the basic knowledge and useful tips to refine the most basic of shooters.
After the class, I decided to up my game seriously. I read books, watched skills videos, talked to pros about it and decided that I'd like to forgo the competition circuit and just refine practical skills and combat techniques. I'm pretty lucky to run in a group of friends that has Avid shooters and professional soldiers and LEO SWAT shooters. I've had a great time learning how every shooter overcomes issues and trains to an optimum level. I've shot more this year than ever in my life. I'd venture to say I've shot as much ammo this year as I have the past 3 combined. It has really helped me become the shooter I always wanted to be.
Once I was feeling good about my shooting, what should I do to improve? Take some upper level training. I had an opportunity to preview a class with a new training co that is offering some next level classes like PSD and Vehicle ops as options past the basic Carbine and Pistol classes offered by most. The lead instructor has an impressive list of credentials, but Zero sell-ebrity appeal. I chose to take the vehicle class and see what it's all about.
Day 1
I got my rhythm immediately, but I wasn't prepared to go right into either Bounding in pairs or Bounding by pairs, I can't remember and there was a serious contention about the actual representation of this course of fire. This was my first sign that there was some tension between instructors. It was pretty light, and I wasn't worried about it. 2 of the three had their stuff wired tight and had everything pretty well squared away. It was the third guy that seemed to look for reasons to stir the pot and let everyone know what he thought, without regard for the course.
Day one was all basic work up. They made sure that I was squared away. Transitions, accuracy, muzzle discipline, volley fire and verbal commands. Everyone was 100% in the game, Even in 100 degree heat. We did some fun drills for time and it tested us very well. We wrapped up and cleaned up our mess.
My biggest issue was with my magazines. I was using Pmags for a class for the fist time in my life. I loaded them with stripper clips to top them off in a hurry between sets and every once in a while I'd load up 31 in a 30 round mag. It made mag changes interesting when the over filled mag would lock up my AR. Same goes for 40 rounders, they lock up at 41 just like the 30's do at 31. I was using my oldest ammo, some was a bit green and corroded, but I only had 3 misfires out of 1k rounds. My biggest failure was a split case on a 9mm round. It blew out the base and caused a squib round. 2 of the other shooters were using my ammo with zero failures so my QC process is working well. I was just shooting the stuff that was marginal, so I expected a failure or two, but not 4.
The next issue was that I worked on my gun the night before I left, installing a Geissele SSA trigger from my REPR into it for the class. The pins kept walking out on me and I had to engage them further to get them to hold. My fault, totally. I know better than to take an untested gun into a class, but hey, what an adventure.
I installed an AM TAC muzzle brake that fits my GemTech can, and it worked flawlessly. Zero muzzle rise but with a bunch more blast. When we were working in close quarters, my team mates didn't care for the blast. There was also a noted reduction in flash.
This was also my first class with an urban ERT Sling. I've been using them for a while now and love them after transitioning from a single point. The only issue I had was when clearing a jam, the placement I had for the sling put the buckle right where it would catch between the edge of the stock and the charging handle. I just need to move the attachment point from the back plate to the stock.
My leg platform for the magazines proved to be too loose and would drop a mag when I ran. I got it up higher the second day and it worked like a charm.
The new bladetech holster was a total failure. It jammed up on me several times. If the gun was moved out of it's lowest position even 1mm, it would jam up the mechanism and I'd have to push it back down to release the back strap. I was rather unimpressed with my 150 dollar purchase. I'm usually pretty quick with a transition, but this seriously hampered my draw and sapped my confidence. I muddled through, but it really wasn't pleasant.
Day 2
The real fun begins. We learn how to react to contact from a vehicle. Getting your butt over the hump and out the drivers door from the passenger seat caused some serious damage to me and my kit. It was tough, and I learned to do it as easily as possible. I'm glad I'd foregone the use of my plate carrier and went strictly belt and drop legs. Both the heat and conditions dictated it. A seat belt is the enemy when you are trying to get out of your metal coffin in a hurry.
We attempted bounding in a 4 man team, and I have to tell you, it was a total goat rope. No matter what we did, it was wrong. I screwed up a few times with lines of fire, and we ended up with 3 instructors telling us to do three different things, and when we got done Lovely #3 always wanted to interject or stop the exercise to tell us what to do. I kept over thinking everything and just couldn't get it all down. It was like I was back in the kitchen at home with both mom and dad telling me what to do and neither would let me do it. #3 never just let us make decisions. He wanted to constantly control our tempo and direction. When we did it the way he wanted, the other instructors jumped us. Finally we just stopped and went to something else. I totally lost my cool when I was told to bound back and got counseled by #3 for doing so when the rest of my team pushed left. My angle of fire was close, but within tolerance for the exercise. Then he wanted to argue about that. The next go round, we all got together and decided on a plan for our extraction. We did it perfectly, and #3 wanted to tear it down and nit pick the fact that our cover was thin. Yes, it was thin. Yes, it wasn't perfect. Our execution was great and we were working towards a goal of a clean run, only to have everything we worked for thrown back into our faces. We were bleeding, sweaty and tired, but he just kept at it. Finally the lead instructor called it and we moved on before the 4 students decided to zip tie his ass to the rocking chair on the porch of the main building.
We took a break and hit the AC for some hydration and some time for the instructors to talk. After the talk, we went into another drill where we did dry run bump take downs and then drilled on block and stop take downs. After we put it all together, we did it in 2 man teams live fire with targets in the car. Everyone did this well and we did several runs in different configurations. It was a very dynamic environment with a lot of trust in your partner. We were shooting at targets in our zone with the other shooter on the opposite side of the car. It went well and we sped it up til it was fluid. #3 was pretty silent and didn't talk to me at all. I think the other instructors had a "Come To Jesus" meeting with him.
We started back in on the defense tactics on a downed vehicle. We only operated in pairs, and this worked out very well. My teammate and I were doing our thing and getting solid hits on our "aggressors" out past 300 yards. The lead instructor drove and we used his vehicle as cover and bounded out past the vehicle to get angles on the the shooters. We did this several times with different positioning and cover. Really fun drills, but very tiring and high stress when you're shooting past your instructor.
The last thing we did was shoot from a vehicle, through the windshield and check the hits. We did the break and rake on the windows and shot from different angles into the car to see what stops bullets and what doesn't. We finished on that and decided to have a little contest. See who could hit a LaRue target at 125 with a pistol. My Teammate won the contest, and I was the only other person to get a hit. Good times and great experiences.
All in all, the class was great. I will not take another class if instructor #3 is there, but it seems that everyone felt the same way. The lead and second instructor are top notch. #2 was a bit of an acquired taste, but the man could do it. He was a shooter and without a doubt, had the ability to impart that knowledge in an appropriate manner. His mechanics were perfect. The lead instructor was a consummate professional. He knew the material and the best way to impart it. His issue was too many cooks in the kitchen. I believe the third instructor was pushed on him by the venue, but I'm not for certain.If #1 and #2 gave classes again, I'd be in line to hand them money. It's well worth the drive.
I don't regret driving 1100 miles each way to attend the class, it was well worth it. I was exposed to things I never planned to do or learn, it was more of a fun class for me. I did refine some skills and change some things in my standard kit and technique. I'm better for taking the class and anyone would be as well, with a caveat. If #3 is there, turn off your ear muffs when he's speaking. Listening will do nothing but frustrate you and inflate his misplaced ego.
After the class, I decided to up my game seriously. I read books, watched skills videos, talked to pros about it and decided that I'd like to forgo the competition circuit and just refine practical skills and combat techniques. I'm pretty lucky to run in a group of friends that has Avid shooters and professional soldiers and LEO SWAT shooters. I've had a great time learning how every shooter overcomes issues and trains to an optimum level. I've shot more this year than ever in my life. I'd venture to say I've shot as much ammo this year as I have the past 3 combined. It has really helped me become the shooter I always wanted to be.
Once I was feeling good about my shooting, what should I do to improve? Take some upper level training. I had an opportunity to preview a class with a new training co that is offering some next level classes like PSD and Vehicle ops as options past the basic Carbine and Pistol classes offered by most. The lead instructor has an impressive list of credentials, but Zero sell-ebrity appeal. I chose to take the vehicle class and see what it's all about.
Day 1
I got my rhythm immediately, but I wasn't prepared to go right into either Bounding in pairs or Bounding by pairs, I can't remember and there was a serious contention about the actual representation of this course of fire. This was my first sign that there was some tension between instructors. It was pretty light, and I wasn't worried about it. 2 of the three had their stuff wired tight and had everything pretty well squared away. It was the third guy that seemed to look for reasons to stir the pot and let everyone know what he thought, without regard for the course.
Day one was all basic work up. They made sure that I was squared away. Transitions, accuracy, muzzle discipline, volley fire and verbal commands. Everyone was 100% in the game, Even in 100 degree heat. We did some fun drills for time and it tested us very well. We wrapped up and cleaned up our mess.
My biggest issue was with my magazines. I was using Pmags for a class for the fist time in my life. I loaded them with stripper clips to top them off in a hurry between sets and every once in a while I'd load up 31 in a 30 round mag. It made mag changes interesting when the over filled mag would lock up my AR. Same goes for 40 rounders, they lock up at 41 just like the 30's do at 31. I was using my oldest ammo, some was a bit green and corroded, but I only had 3 misfires out of 1k rounds. My biggest failure was a split case on a 9mm round. It blew out the base and caused a squib round. 2 of the other shooters were using my ammo with zero failures so my QC process is working well. I was just shooting the stuff that was marginal, so I expected a failure or two, but not 4.
The next issue was that I worked on my gun the night before I left, installing a Geissele SSA trigger from my REPR into it for the class. The pins kept walking out on me and I had to engage them further to get them to hold. My fault, totally. I know better than to take an untested gun into a class, but hey, what an adventure.
I installed an AM TAC muzzle brake that fits my GemTech can, and it worked flawlessly. Zero muzzle rise but with a bunch more blast. When we were working in close quarters, my team mates didn't care for the blast. There was also a noted reduction in flash.
This was also my first class with an urban ERT Sling. I've been using them for a while now and love them after transitioning from a single point. The only issue I had was when clearing a jam, the placement I had for the sling put the buckle right where it would catch between the edge of the stock and the charging handle. I just need to move the attachment point from the back plate to the stock.
My leg platform for the magazines proved to be too loose and would drop a mag when I ran. I got it up higher the second day and it worked like a charm.
The new bladetech holster was a total failure. It jammed up on me several times. If the gun was moved out of it's lowest position even 1mm, it would jam up the mechanism and I'd have to push it back down to release the back strap. I was rather unimpressed with my 150 dollar purchase. I'm usually pretty quick with a transition, but this seriously hampered my draw and sapped my confidence. I muddled through, but it really wasn't pleasant.
Day 2
The real fun begins. We learn how to react to contact from a vehicle. Getting your butt over the hump and out the drivers door from the passenger seat caused some serious damage to me and my kit. It was tough, and I learned to do it as easily as possible. I'm glad I'd foregone the use of my plate carrier and went strictly belt and drop legs. Both the heat and conditions dictated it. A seat belt is the enemy when you are trying to get out of your metal coffin in a hurry.
We attempted bounding in a 4 man team, and I have to tell you, it was a total goat rope. No matter what we did, it was wrong. I screwed up a few times with lines of fire, and we ended up with 3 instructors telling us to do three different things, and when we got done Lovely #3 always wanted to interject or stop the exercise to tell us what to do. I kept over thinking everything and just couldn't get it all down. It was like I was back in the kitchen at home with both mom and dad telling me what to do and neither would let me do it. #3 never just let us make decisions. He wanted to constantly control our tempo and direction. When we did it the way he wanted, the other instructors jumped us. Finally we just stopped and went to something else. I totally lost my cool when I was told to bound back and got counseled by #3 for doing so when the rest of my team pushed left. My angle of fire was close, but within tolerance for the exercise. Then he wanted to argue about that. The next go round, we all got together and decided on a plan for our extraction. We did it perfectly, and #3 wanted to tear it down and nit pick the fact that our cover was thin. Yes, it was thin. Yes, it wasn't perfect. Our execution was great and we were working towards a goal of a clean run, only to have everything we worked for thrown back into our faces. We were bleeding, sweaty and tired, but he just kept at it. Finally the lead instructor called it and we moved on before the 4 students decided to zip tie his ass to the rocking chair on the porch of the main building.
We took a break and hit the AC for some hydration and some time for the instructors to talk. After the talk, we went into another drill where we did dry run bump take downs and then drilled on block and stop take downs. After we put it all together, we did it in 2 man teams live fire with targets in the car. Everyone did this well and we did several runs in different configurations. It was a very dynamic environment with a lot of trust in your partner. We were shooting at targets in our zone with the other shooter on the opposite side of the car. It went well and we sped it up til it was fluid. #3 was pretty silent and didn't talk to me at all. I think the other instructors had a "Come To Jesus" meeting with him.
We started back in on the defense tactics on a downed vehicle. We only operated in pairs, and this worked out very well. My teammate and I were doing our thing and getting solid hits on our "aggressors" out past 300 yards. The lead instructor drove and we used his vehicle as cover and bounded out past the vehicle to get angles on the the shooters. We did this several times with different positioning and cover. Really fun drills, but very tiring and high stress when you're shooting past your instructor.
The last thing we did was shoot from a vehicle, through the windshield and check the hits. We did the break and rake on the windows and shot from different angles into the car to see what stops bullets and what doesn't. We finished on that and decided to have a little contest. See who could hit a LaRue target at 125 with a pistol. My Teammate won the contest, and I was the only other person to get a hit. Good times and great experiences.
All in all, the class was great. I will not take another class if instructor #3 is there, but it seems that everyone felt the same way. The lead and second instructor are top notch. #2 was a bit of an acquired taste, but the man could do it. He was a shooter and without a doubt, had the ability to impart that knowledge in an appropriate manner. His mechanics were perfect. The lead instructor was a consummate professional. He knew the material and the best way to impart it. His issue was too many cooks in the kitchen. I believe the third instructor was pushed on him by the venue, but I'm not for certain.If #1 and #2 gave classes again, I'd be in line to hand them money. It's well worth the drive.
I don't regret driving 1100 miles each way to attend the class, it was well worth it. I was exposed to things I never planned to do or learn, it was more of a fun class for me. I did refine some skills and change some things in my standard kit and technique. I'm better for taking the class and anyone would be as well, with a caveat. If #3 is there, turn off your ear muffs when he's speaking. Listening will do nothing but frustrate you and inflate his misplaced ego.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)