foxhound1
05-10-13, 14:00
AAR - May 8, 2013 - Private Carbine 1 class with Stephen Pineau, from M3 Strategies
Let me start off by saying that Stephen is an awesome guy and solid instructor. I took a handgun 1 course of his back in February and learned a ton from it. So I had been meaning to take one of his Carbine 1 courses once I was able to stock enough ammo due to the shortage everywhere. Once I had enough ready to go for a class there were no courses available, so I spoke with him about it and he throughout the idea of a 1-on-1 private class. Now I won’t say how much it was because it really depends on what all you are wanting to do in the lesson and for how long you want it to be, etc. A private class is expensive, but definitely worth it.
For me I’m the kind of person that can learn better from doing than just seeing, don’t get me wrong if someone shows it to me I will get the gist of it. But being able to manipulate and run the gun well requires those little intricacies to be done correctly. I have to have someone sitting there telling me to correct those one or two little things, I don’t realize I’m doing incorrectly, while running the gun. After they do it once or twice I will have it down. From that point it is just fine tuning and not having to figure out what the slight issues I’m having are. That is where the benefit of the private was so useful for me.
In classes it can be easy for the instructor to miss one little thing I may be doing that is impeding my ability to run the gun better, since there are generally 15+ people out there training. So the private allowed me to get it right sooner and allowed me to move much quicker through the sections of the lessons. I felt like I got the same amount of info and ‘quality’ repetitions with the 4-hour private than I probably would have with the all-day (10 hour) course. Now, I know from what Stephen has told me that the carbine 1 course offers more than what he can give me in the 4-hour private, especially since we did it in an indoor 15 yard range. I completely agree with him, because we couldn’t run or move the same, or take the rifle out to longer distance. But I feel the private tenured itself better to my learning style, learning by doing and being corrected on the fly, as opposed to seeing someone doing and just getting it right from there on out. Now don’t get me wrong, I will still take the regular courses, not only because they are less expensive, but there is more information and knowledge to be learned in those because they are longer. But for someone fairly new to the carbine, it was without a doubt very useful and allowed me a great platform to build my skills from in future classes.
Private Overview:
-Review of Safety brief
-Stance, Grip, Trigger Control
-Fundamentals assessment
-Review of anatomy, knowing the Timers and Switches of the body (Jumped ahead to this because I had already been through one of Stephen’s courses in the past)
-Mounting the gun from various ready positions
-Recoil Management
-Mag Reloads
-dot drills w/ reloads
-Malfunction clearances
-dot drills w/ malfunctions
If you have taken one of his classes most of this will look familiar. We were able to do this in 4-hours, in an indoor 15 yard range, with about 210 rounds, and on a weeknight. So I would definitely say it was a good quality lesson. We are able to move fast through the portions that I picked up quickly giving us time to work on issues I was having with other portions. Of course Stephen is EXTREMELY accuracy/fundamentals oriented and loves dot drills. It was hard, but overall not that bad. Until he started inducing malfunctions while I try to effectively fire a magazine on four dots in a figure ‘Z’ pattern. That was a workout, but very educating in learning what it feels like to clear real malfunctions on the fly. That was how we ended the lesson and it was an awesome close to the 1-on-1 private class. I definitely felt it fit my learning style much more effectively and I felt leaving range that night I was 100% more efficient and effective with my AR15. That was honestly the most fun I have ever had taking a course, especially for being indoors with a carbine. I have to owe it all that to Stephen and is teaching style. Whether in a course or a private class, he will make you a better shooter and you’ll gain a friend in the process.
Let me start off by saying that Stephen is an awesome guy and solid instructor. I took a handgun 1 course of his back in February and learned a ton from it. So I had been meaning to take one of his Carbine 1 courses once I was able to stock enough ammo due to the shortage everywhere. Once I had enough ready to go for a class there were no courses available, so I spoke with him about it and he throughout the idea of a 1-on-1 private class. Now I won’t say how much it was because it really depends on what all you are wanting to do in the lesson and for how long you want it to be, etc. A private class is expensive, but definitely worth it.
For me I’m the kind of person that can learn better from doing than just seeing, don’t get me wrong if someone shows it to me I will get the gist of it. But being able to manipulate and run the gun well requires those little intricacies to be done correctly. I have to have someone sitting there telling me to correct those one or two little things, I don’t realize I’m doing incorrectly, while running the gun. After they do it once or twice I will have it down. From that point it is just fine tuning and not having to figure out what the slight issues I’m having are. That is where the benefit of the private was so useful for me.
In classes it can be easy for the instructor to miss one little thing I may be doing that is impeding my ability to run the gun better, since there are generally 15+ people out there training. So the private allowed me to get it right sooner and allowed me to move much quicker through the sections of the lessons. I felt like I got the same amount of info and ‘quality’ repetitions with the 4-hour private than I probably would have with the all-day (10 hour) course. Now, I know from what Stephen has told me that the carbine 1 course offers more than what he can give me in the 4-hour private, especially since we did it in an indoor 15 yard range. I completely agree with him, because we couldn’t run or move the same, or take the rifle out to longer distance. But I feel the private tenured itself better to my learning style, learning by doing and being corrected on the fly, as opposed to seeing someone doing and just getting it right from there on out. Now don’t get me wrong, I will still take the regular courses, not only because they are less expensive, but there is more information and knowledge to be learned in those because they are longer. But for someone fairly new to the carbine, it was without a doubt very useful and allowed me a great platform to build my skills from in future classes.
Private Overview:
-Review of Safety brief
-Stance, Grip, Trigger Control
-Fundamentals assessment
-Review of anatomy, knowing the Timers and Switches of the body (Jumped ahead to this because I had already been through one of Stephen’s courses in the past)
-Mounting the gun from various ready positions
-Recoil Management
-Mag Reloads
-dot drills w/ reloads
-Malfunction clearances
-dot drills w/ malfunctions
If you have taken one of his classes most of this will look familiar. We were able to do this in 4-hours, in an indoor 15 yard range, with about 210 rounds, and on a weeknight. So I would definitely say it was a good quality lesson. We are able to move fast through the portions that I picked up quickly giving us time to work on issues I was having with other portions. Of course Stephen is EXTREMELY accuracy/fundamentals oriented and loves dot drills. It was hard, but overall not that bad. Until he started inducing malfunctions while I try to effectively fire a magazine on four dots in a figure ‘Z’ pattern. That was a workout, but very educating in learning what it feels like to clear real malfunctions on the fly. That was how we ended the lesson and it was an awesome close to the 1-on-1 private class. I definitely felt it fit my learning style much more effectively and I felt leaving range that night I was 100% more efficient and effective with my AR15. That was honestly the most fun I have ever had taking a course, especially for being indoors with a carbine. I have to owe it all that to Stephen and is teaching style. Whether in a course or a private class, he will make you a better shooter and you’ll gain a friend in the process.