mayonaise
11-23-06, 23:52
AAR Super Dave Harrington Integrated Rifle/Pistol Atlanta 11/18-19/2006
For those that don’t know Super Dave Harrington here’s a little background. US Army Special Forces SFC (ret). Former firearms instructor at the JFK War Center, Ft. Bragg. Former member of Beretta’s pistol shooting team. Currently he shoots for Smith & Wesson and Corbon. FBI certified firearms instructor etc… Possibly one of the most well balanced shooters across many platforms that the Army has produced.
Thanks Dave for providing us with this opportunity to excel. Additional thanks go out to LaRue Tactical and Surefire for their contributions to this program. The class was held at South River Gun Club in Covington, GA about 30 minutes East of Atlanta.
This was most challenging training program I’ve taken to date. I have previously trained with Dave in pistol and rifle programs but this time he really has ramped it up. Let me first state that this class isn’t for the keyboard commandos or first timers. While Dave can certainly work with lower level shooters and raise them to levels beyond probably their own expectations those with self esteem or ego issues should look elsewhere for training before throwing in on this program. This class wasn’t posted as I pretty much had all the slots filled ahead of time (by design). I wanted to fill the slots with people I knew would be up to the task.
It was extremely mentally and sometimes physically challenging for all who attended which included civilians, several seasoned LEO’s, one active Army officer and two former Marines. A few shooters were behind the power curve especially when we moved into the more aggressive drills and teamwork portions but managed well as we were broken down to two man “buddy” teams. We were directed to team up with someone we didn’t know which threw a few of us off a bit but everyone seemed to manage and worked hard to help each other out. The program was a good mix of rifle, pistol and integrated weapons work. Minimum ammo load out was 1,500 rounds of each, rifle and pistol.
Georgia weather in November was great as we started day one bright and early (7:30 a.m.) in the cold clear morning that warmed up quickly. Dave brought a full array of 20 stab and shoot steel targets as well as an equal amount of target stands for the IPSC and IDPA cardboard targets that were intermixed with the steel.
After a very direct and pointed safety brief we loaded up and stayed that way while on the range. Directly from the Ken Hackathorn school of thought, we operated using “big boy rules”. The class was intentionally kept small so we wouldn’t have to work in relays. This actually may have cut into the ammo round count but I didn’t hear any complaints when we took breaks to jam mags, down fluids or give a sore back a break.
Dave, like nobody else I’ve trained with, creates a very stressful atmosphere for this program. You really have to check your ego at the range gate. You aren’t “spoon fed” and are expected to act safely. Free thinking is encouraged. Freelancing is not. During the training you are expected to be armed at all times. That means if you don’t have a gun in your hand, you aren’t armed. You also must maintain positive control of your weapon at all times. If you aren’t used to having a grip on your loaded rifle for 8+ hours a day like most of us aren’t remember this. Motrin is your friend. A loaded rifle dangling from a sling isn’t positive control. If the gun isn’t mounted to fire the safety is on. Period. Don’t test Dave’s eyesight. I swear he doesn’t miss a thing. Especially where safety is concerned.
More so than the first rifle program that I attended with Dave in April of 2003 this program was about fighting more than marksmanship. At this level he expects the students to already know how to run their guns. This program is about making decisions and doing what needs to be done under stress. Failure to act and get good hits will get you killed out in the world. He makes it crystal clear that it doesn’t matter whether you are an civilian, LEO or in the military in country. Make a decision. Always move “armed”, manage your ammo, stay in the fight, get your hits and keep your gun in action. Indecision equals dead.
Day one we worked mostly on rifles and mostly on steel. We worked from 25 yards (minimum safe distance for the steel) all the way out to 300 yards. A 200 (yd/m) zero was recommended. Thankfully everyone was zeroed prior to the start of the class. Getting bogged down with people not having a zeroed gun just wastes valuable time and won’t endear you to your classmates. While we shot at the 200 and 300 the majority of the work was done inside of 100yds. Unlike 3 years ago I had no problems calling my shots at 200 and 300 yards with my irons or optic.
Dave demo’s every drill he expects you to do. The man can drive guns and makes it look a lot easier than it is when it’s our turn. Humbling doesn’t even cover the feeling. We drove hard all day and opted to work through the dinner break (“food’s a crutch”) and prep for the night shoot portion of the program. A clear moonless night was good reducing the ambient light available. It was interesting to see how people’s gear showed or didn’t show up in low and no light conditions. Dave had also briefed us on use of weapons mounted lights and the obvious disadvantage of leaving the lense exposed until it was needed. Thus the benefit of creating pull tabs to reduce the chance of compromise by reflection or negligent white light discharges. There was pistol class running that evening on the other side of the range through the woods. The gun smoke drifted through the trees and when they broke for the night the headlights through the woods and the smoke was eerie as hell.
We had plenty of rain the few days prior to the class and I had some M196 training tracers in my kit. Dave gave me the green light to test them out. I’ll add here that it was so dark you couldn’t see the white painted steel targets at 200 yards. My Surefire M900 eliminated that problem and I went work on box of tracers getting good hits standing at 180 yards with no problem. That was cool. Each shooter then declared his ammo type and flash suppressor and proceeded to test for muzzle flash. Looked like the guys running Vortexes took the low flash honors. Though all the flash hiders did seem to do their jobs well. We moved up closer and worked on mounted flashlight tactics mainly with respect to rifle work. Rifle ammo on steel at 25 yards is a lot of fun. The hits producing cool firefly effects off the steel. Light reflected off the hanging gun smoke was an issue as well. Sometimes nearly blinding you. Just another thing to file away and think about. Things aren’t always going to be perfect in a fight. By 9pm everyone was pretty much toast. Cold and hungry we broke down fast and bolted for food, gear maintenance and hot showers and pain killers and the rack.
We had the option on day two to start off “slick”, sans chest and vest rigs. Some opted to while others stayed fully kitted minus rifles to concentrate on pistol work. Starting out with headshots on steel and paper at 25 yards. That’s a wake up call for some folks. I was happy with my pistol shooting for once. Even transitioning from driving a 1911 in IDPA all year. We did some challenging pistol work including drawing from awkward positions freestyle, strong hand and weak hand only. I can tell you that it’s not fast drawing a Glock 17 from a hooded Safariland 6004 holster weak handed facing up range and shooting down range without turning on your feet. Again, this is an advanced class stuff and was still off the chart for most of the shooters. But their previous experience helped them through these difficult drills. After lunch we got into some up close and personal pistol work that included strikes and shooting. I found that portion very interesting and wished we could have expanded on that portion more. Sounds like another class on it’s own. We moved on to partnering up with our teammates and moved into working together as teams for the rest of the afternoon consisting of many difficult and challenging drills using rifles and pistols again. The stress level was way high working as teams.
Dave constantly bombards you with information and questions. A lot of us had trouble digesting the info and grappled and struggled to understand the questions much less answer them. Having trained with Dave more than a few times I know that his style and delivery is by design. He didn’t think this stuff up yesterday. Hell, he knows what you’re thinking even when you don’t think you do. Sounds weird but I know it to be true. While we struggle for the right answer he knows that we already know what it is. But we’re fighting with our own brains for the hard answer when it’s usually the simple one yet we’re racking our brains looking like deer in the headlights trying guess at the answer. After a few hours you could see people starting to reach their saturation points, myself included. By 5pm on Sunday we were cooked. We voluntarily opted to bag second night shoot and call it a weekend.
As far as equipment goes. There were a number of high dollar tricked out weapons on hand as well as some older Colts and frankenguns. Dave was driving his S&W M&P rifle and his S&W PC1911’s which ran flawlessly. My Rock River TE with Aimpoint ML2 on a $12 mount, LaRue 7.0” rail, Hackthorn Boonie Packer sling, Eagle chest rig all worked out great. No problems at all. I made a point to get some good range and basement work time in with my gear so I wasn’t spending big bucks to shake out my kit during the class.
I didn’t see any one experience any major issues with rifles, optics and pistols. Except for a broken mount for a Aimpoint 3x optic during what I’ll call the “gut check” test everyone’s stuff ran for the duration.
I think I spend far more time absorbing info for days, even weeks, after Dave’s classes than I do during his class. It takes a fair amount of reflective thought to process what you’ve been exposed to over that short amount of time. You can tell Dave lives for this stuff. His passion for training and what he does is infectious.
For those that don’t know Super Dave Harrington here’s a little background. US Army Special Forces SFC (ret). Former firearms instructor at the JFK War Center, Ft. Bragg. Former member of Beretta’s pistol shooting team. Currently he shoots for Smith & Wesson and Corbon. FBI certified firearms instructor etc… Possibly one of the most well balanced shooters across many platforms that the Army has produced.
Thanks Dave for providing us with this opportunity to excel. Additional thanks go out to LaRue Tactical and Surefire for their contributions to this program. The class was held at South River Gun Club in Covington, GA about 30 minutes East of Atlanta.
This was most challenging training program I’ve taken to date. I have previously trained with Dave in pistol and rifle programs but this time he really has ramped it up. Let me first state that this class isn’t for the keyboard commandos or first timers. While Dave can certainly work with lower level shooters and raise them to levels beyond probably their own expectations those with self esteem or ego issues should look elsewhere for training before throwing in on this program. This class wasn’t posted as I pretty much had all the slots filled ahead of time (by design). I wanted to fill the slots with people I knew would be up to the task.
It was extremely mentally and sometimes physically challenging for all who attended which included civilians, several seasoned LEO’s, one active Army officer and two former Marines. A few shooters were behind the power curve especially when we moved into the more aggressive drills and teamwork portions but managed well as we were broken down to two man “buddy” teams. We were directed to team up with someone we didn’t know which threw a few of us off a bit but everyone seemed to manage and worked hard to help each other out. The program was a good mix of rifle, pistol and integrated weapons work. Minimum ammo load out was 1,500 rounds of each, rifle and pistol.
Georgia weather in November was great as we started day one bright and early (7:30 a.m.) in the cold clear morning that warmed up quickly. Dave brought a full array of 20 stab and shoot steel targets as well as an equal amount of target stands for the IPSC and IDPA cardboard targets that were intermixed with the steel.
After a very direct and pointed safety brief we loaded up and stayed that way while on the range. Directly from the Ken Hackathorn school of thought, we operated using “big boy rules”. The class was intentionally kept small so we wouldn’t have to work in relays. This actually may have cut into the ammo round count but I didn’t hear any complaints when we took breaks to jam mags, down fluids or give a sore back a break.
Dave, like nobody else I’ve trained with, creates a very stressful atmosphere for this program. You really have to check your ego at the range gate. You aren’t “spoon fed” and are expected to act safely. Free thinking is encouraged. Freelancing is not. During the training you are expected to be armed at all times. That means if you don’t have a gun in your hand, you aren’t armed. You also must maintain positive control of your weapon at all times. If you aren’t used to having a grip on your loaded rifle for 8+ hours a day like most of us aren’t remember this. Motrin is your friend. A loaded rifle dangling from a sling isn’t positive control. If the gun isn’t mounted to fire the safety is on. Period. Don’t test Dave’s eyesight. I swear he doesn’t miss a thing. Especially where safety is concerned.
More so than the first rifle program that I attended with Dave in April of 2003 this program was about fighting more than marksmanship. At this level he expects the students to already know how to run their guns. This program is about making decisions and doing what needs to be done under stress. Failure to act and get good hits will get you killed out in the world. He makes it crystal clear that it doesn’t matter whether you are an civilian, LEO or in the military in country. Make a decision. Always move “armed”, manage your ammo, stay in the fight, get your hits and keep your gun in action. Indecision equals dead.
Day one we worked mostly on rifles and mostly on steel. We worked from 25 yards (minimum safe distance for the steel) all the way out to 300 yards. A 200 (yd/m) zero was recommended. Thankfully everyone was zeroed prior to the start of the class. Getting bogged down with people not having a zeroed gun just wastes valuable time and won’t endear you to your classmates. While we shot at the 200 and 300 the majority of the work was done inside of 100yds. Unlike 3 years ago I had no problems calling my shots at 200 and 300 yards with my irons or optic.
Dave demo’s every drill he expects you to do. The man can drive guns and makes it look a lot easier than it is when it’s our turn. Humbling doesn’t even cover the feeling. We drove hard all day and opted to work through the dinner break (“food’s a crutch”) and prep for the night shoot portion of the program. A clear moonless night was good reducing the ambient light available. It was interesting to see how people’s gear showed or didn’t show up in low and no light conditions. Dave had also briefed us on use of weapons mounted lights and the obvious disadvantage of leaving the lense exposed until it was needed. Thus the benefit of creating pull tabs to reduce the chance of compromise by reflection or negligent white light discharges. There was pistol class running that evening on the other side of the range through the woods. The gun smoke drifted through the trees and when they broke for the night the headlights through the woods and the smoke was eerie as hell.
We had plenty of rain the few days prior to the class and I had some M196 training tracers in my kit. Dave gave me the green light to test them out. I’ll add here that it was so dark you couldn’t see the white painted steel targets at 200 yards. My Surefire M900 eliminated that problem and I went work on box of tracers getting good hits standing at 180 yards with no problem. That was cool. Each shooter then declared his ammo type and flash suppressor and proceeded to test for muzzle flash. Looked like the guys running Vortexes took the low flash honors. Though all the flash hiders did seem to do their jobs well. We moved up closer and worked on mounted flashlight tactics mainly with respect to rifle work. Rifle ammo on steel at 25 yards is a lot of fun. The hits producing cool firefly effects off the steel. Light reflected off the hanging gun smoke was an issue as well. Sometimes nearly blinding you. Just another thing to file away and think about. Things aren’t always going to be perfect in a fight. By 9pm everyone was pretty much toast. Cold and hungry we broke down fast and bolted for food, gear maintenance and hot showers and pain killers and the rack.
We had the option on day two to start off “slick”, sans chest and vest rigs. Some opted to while others stayed fully kitted minus rifles to concentrate on pistol work. Starting out with headshots on steel and paper at 25 yards. That’s a wake up call for some folks. I was happy with my pistol shooting for once. Even transitioning from driving a 1911 in IDPA all year. We did some challenging pistol work including drawing from awkward positions freestyle, strong hand and weak hand only. I can tell you that it’s not fast drawing a Glock 17 from a hooded Safariland 6004 holster weak handed facing up range and shooting down range without turning on your feet. Again, this is an advanced class stuff and was still off the chart for most of the shooters. But their previous experience helped them through these difficult drills. After lunch we got into some up close and personal pistol work that included strikes and shooting. I found that portion very interesting and wished we could have expanded on that portion more. Sounds like another class on it’s own. We moved on to partnering up with our teammates and moved into working together as teams for the rest of the afternoon consisting of many difficult and challenging drills using rifles and pistols again. The stress level was way high working as teams.
Dave constantly bombards you with information and questions. A lot of us had trouble digesting the info and grappled and struggled to understand the questions much less answer them. Having trained with Dave more than a few times I know that his style and delivery is by design. He didn’t think this stuff up yesterday. Hell, he knows what you’re thinking even when you don’t think you do. Sounds weird but I know it to be true. While we struggle for the right answer he knows that we already know what it is. But we’re fighting with our own brains for the hard answer when it’s usually the simple one yet we’re racking our brains looking like deer in the headlights trying guess at the answer. After a few hours you could see people starting to reach their saturation points, myself included. By 5pm on Sunday we were cooked. We voluntarily opted to bag second night shoot and call it a weekend.
As far as equipment goes. There were a number of high dollar tricked out weapons on hand as well as some older Colts and frankenguns. Dave was driving his S&W M&P rifle and his S&W PC1911’s which ran flawlessly. My Rock River TE with Aimpoint ML2 on a $12 mount, LaRue 7.0” rail, Hackthorn Boonie Packer sling, Eagle chest rig all worked out great. No problems at all. I made a point to get some good range and basement work time in with my gear so I wasn’t spending big bucks to shake out my kit during the class.
I didn’t see any one experience any major issues with rifles, optics and pistols. Except for a broken mount for a Aimpoint 3x optic during what I’ll call the “gut check” test everyone’s stuff ran for the duration.
I think I spend far more time absorbing info for days, even weeks, after Dave’s classes than I do during his class. It takes a fair amount of reflective thought to process what you’ve been exposed to over that short amount of time. You can tell Dave lives for this stuff. His passion for training and what he does is infectious.