AAR: Performance on Demand Carbine 1, 4/17/15 Waunakee, WI

[Chameleox]

On April 17, I attended Performance on Demand’s 1 day Carbine 1 course, held at the Dane County Law Enforcement Training Center. Before going any further, I should note that I have attended one of their courses before (Handgun Fundamentals, now “Pistol 1”), and I know the three instructors personally. I expected and received no compensation for this review, and I paid for the course out of my own pocket, attending on personal time.

The Owners/Instructors for POD Shooting bill their Carbine 1 course as:

… an in-depth review of the*fundamentals of basic rifle marksmanship and gun handling, laying a foundation of necessary skills any individual will need to progress as a combat shooter. This class will benefit the developing carbine shooter, and will serve as an excellent refresher in marksmanship and efficient gun handling for students with more experience behind the rifle.

It sounds basic, and the list of topics they cover in class might strike some as basic, but the method by which they teach, and the standards that they expect, make this course less of a “what end of the carbine do I put on my shoulder” course and more of a “brilliance in the basics” one. Its definitely not a course for someone who just picked up the gun, though the material and instruction methodology are still appropriate for newer shooters. Knowing from experience with their Handgun course, I knew that this course would have bother new and veteran students, and that everyone would walk away from it having learned something.

Instructors:
Mike, Pete, and Adrian are the principals of the company, as well as the three instructors. Barring scheduling issues, all three of them routinely show up for a class. Based on their experiences in attending courses, and their day jobs, they know how firearms training can be enjoyable and productive with multiple instructors working, and how it can be inefficient and wasteful at best, and unsafe at worst, with too high a student to instructor ratio. I believe they capped this class at 15 students, providing a 5:1 ratio, which meant that everyone got individual coaching.

Students and gear:
15 of us. A mixed bag of local LE, state government, and competition shooters (including a husband and wife 3 gun team). Carbine experience varied, but it seemed that for the most part no one was woefully out of their lane. ARs across the board, primarily BCMs and Colts, with at least one LWRC, one S&W, and the 3 gunners’ custom jobs. No iron sights; red dots all around, except for 2 low power variables.

A semi last minute change to the plan removed handguns from the necessary packing list. This was probably a good thing, since this was a 1 day course and time was limited. With the premium put on carbine accuracy, adding in handgun transitions might have been counterproductive and would have taken time away from an already packed schedule. Most of us ran light, with a couple mag pouches and maybe a dump pouch. A few shooters wore full belts, and a couple chest rigs. No one seemed to be fighting their gear.

Facility:
DCLETC is nice. Its easy to get to if you're in the southern portion of the state, close to I-90 and US-51. The ranges are in good shape, classroom/bathroom space is available, and its staffed by the local SO. For many years the range was LE only, but has recently started to let the public shoot there. Hopefully they'll be adding more open courses to their calendar. Nearby Waunakee, Sun Prairie, and Madison have lodging, food, and *ahem* liquid refreshment if you’re in the area for a while.

POD also has some classes lined up in other ranges in the region, including an LE only course in Janesville, and other courses at the Winnequah Gun Club (also an excellent facility, especially for the long range crowd).

Weather:
High 70s with few clouds. It got hot for a little while, and water/reload breaks were much welcomed. All of the ranges here have baffles over at least a small portion of them, which provided shade.

Course:
Started off with introductions all around; I like this, as its a great way to get to know the instructors and students, and what everyone hopes to get out of the class. The instructors made it clear that shooting is not only a profession for them, but a passion, and that they’re motivated by getting quality training and personal attention out there at a good price. Profits are very much a secondary or tertiary thing for them.

After a safety brief and a discussion about loading procedures and getting into a shooting mindset, we then worked on our zeros (which for some people took some time- to be expected) before moving on to positional shooting in the usual 25 yard increments. The instructors took turns teaching and demonstrating, relying on their personal experience in the military, LE, and competition worlds to convey the importance of the positions as well as the fundamentals inherent in each. This portion of the class culminated with a 400 point aggregate shoot, done twice, once for score and prizes.

Much of the afternoon was spent inside the 25 yard line, working on some speed (without sacrificing accuracy) and multiple shots on target. We also worked on reloads of various types. I should point out that this was the most comprehensive lesson I’ve received on in battery reloads, with or without retention, and the instructors hammered in the importance of being proficient with both methods for competition and real world usage.

We worked on a number of drills, both done as a whole line and individually with a timer next to the ear, that emphasized the lessons learned during the afternoon. Aggressive stance, multiple shots/rhythm, various reloads, etc. Even when we began to speed up our shooting, the instructors were very firm in their expectation that shots be kept in the A/-0 area of our targets. Accountability was constant.

The last portion of the class consisted of a quick lecture on common carbine malfunctions (great for students who don’t know how these happen and how to fix/prevent them), an introduction to barricade positional shooting, and a quick culmination CoF. We then policed our gear and the range, and said our goodbyes.

Observations:
As I said before, this is a “brilliance in the basics” type of course, where accuracy is rewarded, and speed is built upon one’s own ability to maintain the accuracy standard while incrementally improving. POD’s teaching methods, their ability to demonstrate their techniques, and the friendly non-intimidating environment they foster are great for the developing shooter, and make a great environment for more experienced shooters to refine their techniques or work on a weaker skill. They have a passion for shooting, and their collective experience in both LE and the competition realms (and the fact that they attend classes on their own, as students) mean they can speak well to a wide cross section of people who will attend their classes.

Bringing in an additional instructor or two means lower profits per instructor, and time out of their professional and personal schedules. This speaks to their priority of delivering safe, personalized training, vs profits. Their coursework is also a living breathing thing; they refine their material, and look for ways to improve it, as well as their delivery methods.

Cost/value-wise, this class is great. POD generally keeps their costs per student to $100 per day, plus range costs which they roll into the registration for the students’ convenience. Ammo counts are also reasonable. They advertised this class at 350 rounds of carbine; I brought 400 just in case, and ended up shooting around 300.

Before I forget, a big Thank You is due to Paul B. and the folks at Bravo Company. BCM has been supportive of these guys for a while, and POD was able to secure some gift bags for the students. Everyone received a BCM hat, 3 AR mags (including a Tangodown ARC), a mag loader, and stickers. The instructors handed this out at the start of class so the students could use the mags if needed, and the hat came in handy when it got sunny.

Personal Observations:
Sustain-
+BRM Prone, Standing, Kneeling. Having left the SWAT/precision rifle world last year, my opportunity to work on longer range shooting has diminished, as has its priority for training. I’m glad to see that it hasn’t diminished completely, though I can still use some work. A recent change in my workout regimen has improved my flexibility, which helped out in kneeling and seated positional shooting.
+Rifle manipulations. No problems here, though one of the instructors did identify an opportunity to improve my efficiency on reloads. Much appreciated.

Improve-
-BRM Sitting. Had trouble here. I was throwing shots off to my strong side while in a cross legged seated position. Odd, since I was about dead on if shooting from prone at this distance or farther away. Flexibility improved as well as mobility, so getting into and out of position isn't as difficult as it used to be.
-Rhythm. I’ve improved on avoiding breaking down extended strings of fire into pairs of 2 or three. Having said that, my rhythm did break down on one string, when I felt my accuracy slip and my muzzle rise. Still, I’m better at this with my carbine than my handgun. Was interesting to see how others did this as well.
-Class preparation. Check the weather. Bring a hat. Bring more water. I brought my range bag instead of my backpack, not wanting to be That Guy, but it would have let me bring more water.

All in all, Performance on Demand has a good program with grounded, solid course material. they shoot well, they teach well, and they’re friendly guys. If you’re in Wisconsin or near the border, I’d encourage you to make the trip to train with them.

Relevant links:
www.podshooting.com

www.bravocompanyusa.com
no-brainer

[mikem]

Performance on Demand held its Carbine 1 last Friday at the Dane County Law Enforcement Training Center. This was an open enrollment course and was populated by 9 civilians and 5 LEOs. It is nice to get LEO’s and competition shooters together as they bring vastly different skill and experience levels.

Chameleox did an extremely thorough job of explaining the class so I will not spend much time on the course specifics.

This class was unique for us as the student experience level was more greatly varied than we have had in the past. We had several long time students with a great deal of training from EAG, TMACS, Southnarc, etc to several attending their first formal training. In fact one student was there with a loaner carbine and only 3 weeks of handling a carbine.

Equipment was varied but everyone was running an optic of some sort. This was Jeff22’s first course with a red dot. He ran it very well. He was also running one of his agency’s new BCM rifles. They selected 16” barrels with a 15” KMR, an Insight light, Frank Proctor sling and a Vortex Strikefire. The Vortex isn’t my 1st or even 2nd choice but they are local and when they have problems Vortex will replace them. The 3-gunner husband and wife team both ran Burris 1-4 scopes and some pretty big comps on the end. Comps are huge in that community but really rattle the line when shooting in groups. They both shot very well. We had very limited issues with equipment but overall round count was only about 300 so it was not very high.

We had a first in this class. After lunch one of our less experienced students was beginning to show signs of overload. His groups, which had been good all morning, started to really open up at 10 yards. He started to not complete drills as described and looked frustrated at the end of each drill. As we went to break for water and to jam mags he made a decision that I was happy to see. He put his rifle away and decided to just watch for the rest of the day. He told me “I am full.” He recognized that his ability to process information was no longer happening. He pulled himself at about the same time I was going to suggest he sit the next drill out and let his brain catch up. His ability to recognize this impressed me and I have a feeling he will come to another class once he is more experienced with the platform,

As always it is tough to narrow down the material for a one-day training event. We spend a lot of time on accuracy. We stress upon the shooters that you need to build everything off of a clean sight picture and a straight trigger press. As the day progresses we start to push speed while still holding everyone accountable for the accuracy. This helps our later afternoon training when we move to B/C steel at 75-100 yards and get good return on the investment. We can focus on the barricade positions and other training objectives while still holding people accountable for their accuracy and we get instant feedback allowing us to cover this fairly rapidly.

We had a great time with this class. We were thrilled to have some unexpected support from Paul over at BCM. We have known Paul for close to a decade now and he has been extremely supportive of our company. He sent a nice grab bag for each student in this class and they all left with a new hat and some magazines. Paul and his folks at BCM are top notch!