AAR 10-32 Solutions/Milwaukee COPS Basic Carbine Operations, 10/26/13; RCLRC

[BC520]

This is the 10-32 Solutions portion of the AAR. Both Kevin of Milwaukee COPS and I both like to write AAR's, as we both see different things and have different perspectives. His is coming later tonight.

10-32 Solutions/Milwaukee COPS
Basic Defensive Carbine 10/26/2013, Racine County Line Rifle Club
Fourteen shooters entrusted us with their funds and time to attend our Basic Defensive Carbine course. We started at 0700 in order to have enough time to complete what we wanted to teach, as we only get the space until 1600. Admin stuff was thus done while it was still dark, and students had to confirm their zeros while staring into the sunrise.

Weather on Lake Michigan, especially in the fall months, can prove to be quite unpredictable. We were quite relieved to have a dry forecast and temps in the 40’s, although we dealt with up to 30 mph winds at times.

Shooters were from a variety of backgrounds, about half were former high-power rifle shooters, and we had one grandfather/grandson combination. Everyone had the same motivation of wanting the new challenge of seeing what they could do with carbine platforms. In the classes I’ve either attended or taught, students largely shot the direct-impingement AR platform, and some classes tended to have a specific manufacturer or two dominate the carbine types. This class is the first one I have ever been involved with where the DI AR/M4 was in the minority. There were 6 DI guns, three blowback Spike’s Rimfire conversions and one Colt brand rimfire, 3 different brand of piston AR’s, and one SCAR. The Pistons were a LWRC that the owner has run for quite a few years, a Sig Sauer 516, and a Huldra upper. Optics and equipment were varied, and we saw optics that ranged from inexpensive red dots to Aimpoints. There are quite a few Aimpoint PRO’s that are showing up, and this is one of the best dot optics you can buy for the money.

One of the challenges with this range is it faces due east. Confirming our zero was done into the sunrise, which meant some had some difficulties with their zero. A common occurrence was groups that were higher than normal, and the former military and high-power guys were reminded of back in the day of the phrase “Lights Up/Sights up”, meaning adjust your sights higher if facing into the light (Let me know if I misstated the phrase.). Everyone was told to confirm and ready their zero prior to class so that we could spend a minimum of time getting people dialed in, but some who had zeroed months ago under different lighting and weather conditions and thought they were zeroed in discovered that they were a lot further off than they thought. Every twenty-degrees of temperature change can lead to a change in your point of impact. Confirming your zero is something I would recommend doing at least quarterly for the citizen using their carbine for defense or practical or action competition.
There were very few malfunctions observed that were set up as part of the class. The LWRC had a Magpul magazine become so wedged in the magwell that it had to be very forcibly extracted. Nothing obvious jumped out as to the cause, but I am attributing it to the possible accumulation of dust between the well used mag and inside the carbine that just reached a point. The Sig 516 needed to be mortared at one point providing a good demonstration of the proper technique, but the cause was from the malfunction drills that we were inducing, and it required a little extra. The only other obvious malfunction was with one of the Spike’s conversions. The nose of the cartridge was catching on the feed ramp after a few hours of shooting. .22 LR’s are notoriously finicky and fickle at times with ammunition. Rather than waste time trying to diagnose the problem, I loaned him my S&W M&P 15/22 to allow him to continue training. To my knowledge, he didn’t have a single malfunction the remainder of the day.

Rimfires are excellent training tools. One of the students commented that for what he would have spent in ammunition, he got a rimfire trainer gun out of the deal. There is a lot to be said for using rimfires for various aspects of carbine training. I am very much an advocate, and have a SWAT article published on the testing I did of the M261 conversion kits. My experiences with those conversions, which I saw the students using the rimfire conversion kits and one other brand of rimfire carbine experience, are what led me to purchase one of the best investments I ever made with the S&W. The other brands and conversions have slight differences in the manual of arms and the manipulations those shooters had to do. They did not have bolt hold opens, or if they did lock back on the follower of the empty magazine, the bolt closed once the magazine was removed. We were unable to perform the double feed drills with those shooters, and double feed manipulations are at least something that can still be worked through to build familiarity with the M&P 1522. The other rimfire carbine was a Colt brand, and I was told it was a 2nd Generation. I saw that the safety is like a standard AR and no longer has to be manipulated 180-degrees to take off safe. However, it still needed an empty magazine to hold the bolt open, as the bolt catch/release was not functional.

The High-power shooters got exposed to some of the different stances and weapon placement that practical and defensive carbine shooting require. While High-power rifle and hunting stances emphasize bladed stances and sometimes positions that use contorted limbs for bone support and sling tension, we teach stances that square up to provide recoil management, movement efficiency, and maximum use of armor. Everyone was a fast learner, and I was surprised as shooters that have shot a certain way for many years sometimes have difficulty adjusting and remembering these ways. It was a good bunch of guys, with good senses of humor, who listened and had open minds. There were no “That Guy’s” attending, and as I mentioned during the introductions these are the sorts of people that I love to teach. I told them that teaching law enforcement can be challenging, because a lot of cops will not come unless they are told to, paid, given what they need, and they still might have attitudes about being there. People like the students in our class wanted to be there, they had a motivation and attention, and it definitely showed in their continued progress during the day and weekend. It was actually a lot of fun to do and to watch the learning occur.

To close, I also want to mention Jacob #5. He was the 15-year old that attended with his grandfather. We continually razzed him by asking what number his target was after he accidently shot on the one next to his during zeroing. As a young man, he listened and did well, and it was great to see someone his age take part and have the maturity and mindset needed to handle carbines safely in this manner. I felt privileged to take part in providing proper foundations in training for one of our youth, and I hope he does well from here on out.



http://1032solutions.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/aar-10-32-solutions-milwaukee-cops-basic-carbine-operations-rclrc-10262013/

www.10-32solutions.com
www.milwaukeecops.com

[Kevin]

Milwaukee COPS and 10-32 Solutions
Basic Carbine Operations and The Defensive Carbine and Movement
October 26th & 27th , 2013

I’ve read Chad’s AAR and he covered just about everything I wanted to, so in the interest of brevity, I’ll just touch on those few points he didn’t.

First of all I’d like to thank our students, many of whom spent both days, and a good chunk of change, with us. We put a lot into these classes, and we hope it was worth your time and money.

Students were a mix from all over the world, and all walks of life. Two brothers, both former Army officers, both very experienced. Chad and I met these two characters at an EAG Tactical class in Dane County several years ago. They are a blast to be around and obviously have fun together. A grandfather/grandson team, one, an old-school high-power shooter, the other, in his first class. Two experienced big-city SWAT cops, who have known each other for years and have obviously worked together before. The Yellow Water, Inc. Tactical Assault Team, who brought an interesting perspective, and who have trained together before, as evidenced by the buffet lunch and a couple gallons of coffee to share with all. A retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer/IDPA shooter, a couple more high-power shooters, several groups of friends, and a team of in-laws rounded out the bunch.

A big Thank you to our helpers, Polymorpheous, Dustyvarmint and Dan Easterday. They all put in over 12 hours a day to help things run smoothly. You guys did a phenomenal job and we couldn’t have done it without you!

These were our 3rd and 4th classes instructing together, and from my perspective, things ran and flowed much more smoothly than previous classes. There were a couple hiccups, like always, but in the end, experience makes a difference.

The shooters’ experience level in this class ran the gamut from none to very, and this can be challenging for your instructors. What made it possible was the fact that everybody came to class ready to learn, and all were open and responsive to our suggestions. Everybody listened and paid attention. All of us are the “new guy” at some point. But what really makes me proud is when I see a student, who has previously been corrected, catch himself making a mistake, stop, and fix it. This happened with one shooter a couple times, and he never made the same mistake twice. I can’t say how happy I was to see this.

I came away convinced that running a 22LR in training is a viable option, with a couple caveats...
#1.) The manual of arms needs to be as close to the real thing as possible, or you will lose training value. How much you lose is dependent on how different the gun is. The Smith M&P 15/22 is, to my knowledge, the only 22LR that has the exact same manual of arms as its full-size cousin. As Chad already noted, some of our malfunction drills simply could not be done with some 22LR guns.
#2.) Every 22LR I’ve seen is ammo sensitive. Cleaning & lube helps alleviate this, but that takes time and time is money.

For me, I save enough shooting the 22LR over 5.56 that a little cleaning and oil is irrelevant. I’ll continue to use the rimfire for some, but not all, of my training. I usually start and finish using a true 5.56, and do a bunch of drills with an M&P 15 in the middle.

A fellow shooter much more experienced than myself told me years ago that every training session should start and end with accuracy. The theory being, accuracy is everything, and at the end of the day, accuracy will be the determining factor. Along those lines, we started and ended Saturday by shooting groups prone at 50 yards. At the end of the day everybody’s groups improved, but they moved, and the movement was consistent for the entire class. This is when the high power shooters introduced me to the “lights up/sights up” theory. See? Learning!

Sunday started much the same as Saturday, with introductions and a safety lecture. We moved into a transition drill to ensure everybody was doing it safely, then a couple other drills for evaluation purposes.

After lunch, Chad gave a lecture on movement and two-man tactics. It’s easy to relate this all to LE and military, but Chad was able to come up with plausible scenarios for the lawfully armed citizen as well. We then moved into some decision making scenarios that involved movement, (far more than what most are used to,) communication, target discrimination, and a little bit of stress. I had to tell more than one student to “Breathe!” These drills were a real learning experience for all, as only a couple folks had used any kind of reactive target before. The downside to this is there is a LOT of downtime between runs. Our helpers and students quickly devised a system to minimize this, but it was still significant.

We used Action Targets reactive target, but I would have much rather used Tatiana’s ID Target Systems Target. (http://www.idtargetsystems.com/) I was introduced to these targets at the EAG Tactical Shoothouse in Alliance earlier this month, and they are very cool. I wish I had known about her targets when I bought the other ones as these are much more realistic and require much less storage room.

One of our helpers told me later that he learned more by watching the class than he has by shooting in some classes. This is an interesting thought, and somewhat similar to the thought process that we as instructors should always be learning while teaching.

The comments that have been made in regards to the weather are spot-on. Be prepared for every weather possibility, especially when training at RCLRC. Time of year doesn’t matter…be prepared for everything!

Good electronic hearing protection makes a difference. I have a pair of Peltor Tac Sports and while they’re nice, they don’t hold a candle to Dan’s TCI’s. While wearing these I almost forgot I had any hearing protection on at all.

All in all, this was two great days at the range, spending time with great people and hard-chargers.

[ptforever]

Company: Milwaukee Cops and 10-32 Solutions
Course: Basic Carbine Operators
Dates: 26 Oct 2013 (0700-1600)
Instructors: Kevin Eyre and Chad Halvorson
Location: Racine County Line Rifle Club – Racine, WI

This was my first 10-32 Solutions and Milwaukee Cops class that I’ve attended although I’ve trained with Kevin and Chad at a couple of EAG courses and a Trident Concept course.

Weather was excellent for late October in Wisconsin with low to mid 40’s, sunny for most of the day and 30+ MPH wind. If you’ve never been to this range it sits on the shores of Lake Michigan and it can be a very miserable experience with the weather changing numerous time in a span of 6 hours but as previously mentioned the weather gods were on the side of the shooters.

The class began with a short introduction by Kevin and Chad as well as each student introducing themselves, their experience with the carbine and where they were from. There were fourteen (14) total students in which 3 were experienced carbine shooters. There were three new shooters with the remainder being high power rifle shooters. The vast majority of weapons used were of the AR platform (4 .22 rim-fire carbines) and one AK. All the weapons were outfitted with red-dot optics with the vast majority being Aimpoints. Pistols were not required but a few (me included) carried them throughout the training. After the obligatory signing of release forms, class rosters and class introductions we began the training day.

As with every class a mandatory safety brief was conducted as well as range commands that would be used during the day of training. Lecture and demonstration of loading/unloading, push/pull (seating of the magazine), and reloading of the carbine. After this short but informative period of instruction we proceeded to zero weapons.

Zeroing was conducted from 50 yds. in the prone position: 5 shots center mass on a 4” circle; make appropriate correction to the optic and repeat until the optic was zeroed. It took a total of 20 rds. (4 iterations) to get everyone zeroed. For a beginner’s class it went relatively smoothly and took approximately 1.5 hrs. The initial challenge was getting the .22 rim-fire carbines zeroed but his went smoothly.

The class was divided into two relays for better control and a better instructor to student ratio. A quick lecture/demonstration/application from the 5 yd. line on sight over bore and then the class executed the drill 2 rds. center mass from the 5/10/15 yd. line.
During this drill it was noted that the shooting stance of many of the high power fire shooters needed adjustment since they were “bladed” (side) to the target. After demonstrating the correct fighting stance training resumed.
We next covered trigger control and trigger reset. Demonstrating what portion of the finger makes contact with the trigger as well as stressing that your trigger finger does not come of the trigger but eases slightly of listening for the audible click and feel of the trigger reset for the next shot. This was important for a few of the high power shooters.

Malfunctions were covered next with explanation and demonstration of a Type 1 (failure to feed) and Type 3 (double feed) malfunction. Upon completion each relay did 6-8 correct clearance procedures of the Type 1 and Type 3 malfunctions.

The afternoon training consisted of shot types (hammer pair, controlled pair, and failure drill) with demonstration. Students then proceeded to execute between 6-8 iterations of each. Instructors concentrated on correct stance, trigger control and off set. All drills were conducted from the 10/15 yd line.

Upon completion of the different shot types reloading was covered specifically, tactical reload and speed reload. Once again each reload was demonstrated with an explanation of the upcoming drill and how to set it up. Additionally, three different techniques were demonstrated for the tactical reload. It was encouraged that each student tries each one to find the one that best works for them. As with previous drills each student executed 6-8 (more if needed) repetitions of each reload to demonstrate proficiency.

Following the reload drills an explanation and demonstration was given on the non-specific response or NSR. It was explained that this response is used when a threat needs to be stopped right now. The drill consisted of students firing 7-10 rds center mass into a threat from 5 yds. This drill enabled the instructors to assess proper stance/body alignment, trigger control, optic off-set and tactical reloads. Each student conducted 4 repetitions if the NSR with instructors giving one-on-one guidance as needed.

The final exercise of the day was to re-confirm 50 yd zero.

Overall Assessment

Both Chad and Kevin are excellent instructors each has the ability to impart their acquired knowledge to the student in a clear understandable manner. The course of instruction was geared to the beginner and the curriculum emphasized that fact. The level of learning demonstrated by the students was exceptional. This was clearly evident in the high power shooters specifically in their fighting stance (body position) and clearly demonstrated in their groups during the NSR drills. Additionally, the training value that students received for the money was noteworthy. Important basic concepts were covered in a low-stress, low cost environment that will encourage them to hopefully enroll in further training in a more fast paced class with other more experienced shooters. These students will now be a better position to learn more advanced techniques as well as hone their basic carbine skills.

I would definitely take another course from Chad and Kevin I like their teaching style and the knowledge they have regarding shooting.

[ptforever]

Company: Milwaukee Cops and 10-32 Solutions
Course: Defensive Carbine and Movement
Dates: 27 Oct 2013 (0700-1600 but the course actually went until 1730)
Instructors: Kevin Eyre and Chad Halvorson
Location: Racine County Line Rifle Club – Racine, WI

This was my second (the first being on 26 Oct) 10-32 Solutions and Milwaukee Cops class so I knew what to expect and what was expected.

Once again the weather was excellent for late October in Wisconsin with low to mid 40’s, sunny for most of the day and 10-20 mph winds (better than Saturday).

Morning
As on Saturday the class began with a short introduction and mandatory safety brief by Kevin and Chad as well as each student introducing themselves, their experience with the carbine and where they were from. There were 17 total students who had varying degrees of experience (all the students did have experience there were no new shooters). There were a mixed of weapons in the class, rifles included 1 Israeli TABOR, 1 SIG, 1 SCAR and one Romanian AK with the remainder being AR type platforms. Other than the AK all the other weapons were chambered for 5.56 mm. All carbines were outfitted with red-dot optics with the vast majority being Aimpoints and a few EOTechs. Pistols from what I observed were 9mm Glocks and M&P with one 1911 .45. Personal weapons and gear consisted of a LWRC M6A2 carbine with a T-1 Aimpoint sight and VTAC sling, Glock 34 w/ a RME red dot sight. Chest rig was a BUSH BOAR split front with 6 PMAGS and 3 pistol mags. I’ve run this set-up for the last 3-4 years and it works well for me.

Once again after the obligatory signing of release forms, class rosters and class introductions we began the training day.

Zeroing was conducted from 50 yds in the prone position: 5 shots center mass on a 4” circle; make appropriate correction to the optic and repeat until the optic was zeroed. It took a total of 15 rds. (3 iterations) to get everyone zeroed (this went very quickly less than an hour).

The class was divided into two relays for better control and a better instructor to student ratio. A quick lecture/demonstration from the 15 yd line on trigger finger placement, positioning of the carbine in the shoulder (since one of the students asked), reloads (tactical and speed) and transitioning from the rifle to the pistol. The class (both relays) then spent better than an hour doing rifle to pistol transition drills (load 1-2 rds in the carbine shoot to slide lock and transition to the pistol for 2 to 3 rds) and tactical reloading the pistol then setting up the drill gain. Each relay executed 8-10 transition drills.

Malfunctions were briefly covered with explanation and demonstration of a Type 1 (failure to feed) and Type 3 (double feed) malfunction.

The next training evolution consisted of shot types (controlled pair, failure drill and NSR) with lecture and demonstration. Students then proceeded to execute between 6-8 iterations of each. Instructors concentrated on correct stance, trigger control and off set. All drills were conducted from the 10/15 yd line. Sight off-set and trigger control were stressed since proficient execution would determine success on the scenario based exercises in the afternoon.

Afternoon
The afternoon training began with a lecture based on movement and 2 man tactics. The advantages/disadvantages of 2 man operations and how clear and concise communication is the key to success. These tactics were to be demonstrated in three separated decision making scenarios. These scenarios can be easily tailored to the military and LE but Chad and Kevin were able to effective relate these to the lawfully armed citizen. The class was then divided into 8-2 man teams for the afternoon training. Additionally, Chad made references to the physiological aspects of rounds on target, i.e., bleed out, the loss of blood pressure and its relationship to the nature of the threat. When explaining the reasoning behind the NSR, the purpose became clear that, even if the threat was high on drugs, emotion or ideology, maximum rounds-on-target would eventually stop the threat due to blood loss and this would become evident during the scenarios.

Scenario 1
The first scenario was an attempted robbery of you and your partner while you were at the range by of 4 suspected meth users in a car in rural environment. You and your partner (I was teamed up with brother) were just leaving the range when you accosted these individuals attempting to rob you and then started shooting at you. You and your partner needed to effectively communicate and move to and utilize the cover provided (barricades); engage the threat and support each other’s movement either my over-watch or bounding over-watch utilizing available cover. At no time should a team member be moving without covering fire from his partner. During this scenario teams moved laterally to three separate simulated barricades. Teams needed to work out movement commands, covering, reloading and target acquisition language to effectively neutralize the threat encountered. The threat targets were 3D cardboard reactive targets purchased from Action Targets and designed by Clint Smith. These targets have balloons in them that are attached to stings. When the balloon or balloons are popped the target falls, simulating target neutralized. Two teams did very well on their movement and command’s; 2 Milwaukee SWAT officers who work together on a daily basis and my brother and I. We are both retired military, infantry and served in the same unit so terminology was consistent and we’re brothers so we have familiarity with each other. The other six teams initially were shaky on their movement commands but this was quick rectified. A weakness in all the teams in my opinion was the effective use of the cover provided. All the teams consistently exposed body parts (legs, torso, and arms) during threat engagement.


Scenario 2
The second scenario consisted of you and your partner doing a check of your property because of problems that you’ve recently experienced from the local gangs. As you and your partner came upon an abandoned tin shack on the property you began receiving fire from inside the shack. An unknown or unarmed friend or someone that didn’t have a weapon of the gang was also in the shack. Law enforcement was 30 minutes away and you as a lawfully armed citizen decided to act. You and your partner started to receive fire from a window in the shack. Movement was north/south to three barricades engaging the threat as it presented itself.
Once again movement between Matt and I were by bounding over-watch while utilizing plain clear and concise commo. During this scenario the use of cover was not the big of an issue since the threat was neutralized quite quickly.

Scenario 3
The third and final scenario (which took the most time to run and re-set up) was situated in a rural environment specifically an office building with the parking lot being disputed over two MC gangs with your simulated wife and child being in the crossfire. You and your partner react and engage multiple threats. Communication and target designation was paramount in achieving success during this exercise since there were approximately 8-10 threat targets spread over an area approximately 25m x 50m and arrayed in depth. Sight off-set, the failure drill and the NSR were all needed as well as transitioning to the pistol to neutralize the threat. This scenario ate up quite a bit of ammo and forced student’s transition to their secondary weapons system sometimes sooner than they would have like to.
In assessing my own performance I need to better utilize the available cover (barricades). I found myself reloading in the open instead of behind cover I also found myself engaging targets in the open and not from cover. Additionally, while in close proximity to a threat (less than 10m) when my primary wps system went to slide lock I reloaded instead of transitioning to my secondary. This is something I really need to work on. On the positive side my brother and I moved well covering each other during movement to successive cover. During reloads and transitions we covered each to ensure constant fire down range. We used plain language for communications which enabled us to continuously assess the situation and adjust to the threat as required.

Overall Assessment

The scenarios were an excellent training device for students to utilize the training they received in the morning as well as from the previous scenarios. I feel that each scenario built on each other with the final scenario being a culmination of the overall days training. Once again for the training value received for the money was outstanding. It has been previously mentioned that crs should be extended for another day and yes I will have to agree. I look forward to training with Chad and Kevin in the future as well with any or of all students in the class.