Jay870
10-20-09, 09:02
MDFI Carbine I
Took MDFI's Carbine I class on Saturday. MDFI (www.michigantrainer.com) is run by Steve Fisher. Carbine I is a one day class and cost $125. This is my first professional carbine training, and my first training with MDFI. All my previous professional training has been in handgun. Been wanting to take a carbine class since spring but up until this point they all conflicted with USPSA matches. I feel really comfortable & relatively proficient with a pistol and I think it was good for me to step "outside my box" and get that WTF, flustered feeling that comes the first time you run a new platform hard. I didn't take any pics but there were a few cameras out here and there, maybe if someone has some they will post them.
The class followed a pretty logical progression, although I may have mixed up the order of and/or omitted topics. Interspersed here and there throughout the class were various discussions on equipment selection & configuration and discussion of technique variations. The instructors were not at all dogmatic and were more interested in results than the fine details of how you got there, and a lot of things were simply left at "whatever works best for you." This was a little frustrating to me at the time because I have a black/white brain, but it has prodded me to put more thought into how I execute various techniques which is a good thing. Overall I was happy with the class although I thought there was opportunity to cover a little more material.
I won't go into tons of detail about the drills other than to point out noteworthy stuff or "lightbulb" type moments.
Admin & Safety
Confirm 50 yard zero - This "drill" consisted of simply shooting a 3 round group from prone at 50 yards to verify sight zero. I was amazed at the number of folks who were way off. I think the instructor had planned on two cycles, it ended up being more like 5 and took up A LOT of time.
Stance
Holdover at various distances
Scan & Assess
Admin/Tactical Reloads
Malfunction Clearance - Covered standard push, pull, rack & roll for basic failure to go bang. Also covered clearing more complex malfunctions like double feeds, and this is where I was deficient. Had a difficult time sequencing my hand placement for efficient execution of the necessary manipulation, and also had the bad habit of wanting to rotate the rifle ejection port up to see what was happening, rather than ejection port down, which would allow the problem cartridges to fall out.
Transitioning to secondary - The new technique I learned here is slinging the rifle ejection-port towards the body. With a two point sling this allows the sling to "trap" the rifle and hold it closer and tighter to the body than the ejection-port out method, which I had been practicing prior..
Shooting on the move
Speed Reloads
Pivots
Techniques I need to focus on:
- Taking a minute to assess after engaging before applying the safety and dropping to low ready.
- Manipulation during malfunction clearance. Clearing the more difficult malfunctions I really struggled with efficient hand placements and maintaining good leverage and control over the rifle. Always maintained good muzzle control but often looked at my hand position and said "WTF am I doing?".
- Snapping to a good sight picture. Often found myself hunting for the dot when coming up from low ready. Once I was on the dot I felt my accuracy & speed were decent.
My gear: Colt 6920 (DD Omega 7.0 rail, CTR stock), Aimpoint CompML3 w/ Larue mount, DD A1.5 rear BUIS, VCAS padded QD sling. I ran 30rd PMAGS with XM193. My secondary was a Glock 19 in a MS SSII. I carried all spare mags on my belt (2 Safariland 774 & 1 ReadyTac for the AR mags, 1 RCS for pistol mag), and used a MaxPed RolyPoly as a dump pouch.
Gear Issues:
-I was running my sling too tight. It carried well when slung and shouldered fine, but it didn't give me sufficient slack to get the buttstock down into the crook of my elbow for good leverage/support, especially when performing malfunction clearance.
- I need to download the mags in my pouches by a round or two. Way too many times push/pulling as part of a reload to find the mag not seated. Had to smack the piss out of the mags to get them seated on closed bolt. Not a big deal to do it once or twice but after dozen times it starts to feel like someone took a hammer to the heal of your palm.
- The cant adjustment on one of my 774 pouches loosened up and was not holding the mag vertical. Luckily it was the middle pouch so the pouch on either side prevented the mag from tilting too much in either direction. Got home and disassembled them and discovered there was a seperate set of holes in the belt mount for setting the mag up in a fixed vertical position, which is what I did.
Overall I was pretty happy with my gear setup. I think I will invest in a stubby VFG, and I am strong considering a brake, although I'd like to get better with the standard FH before I switch out. I was worried that the weight of carrying everything on my belt might wear on me over the course of the day but it didn't bother me one bit.
Malfunctions:
- 1 failure to feed. Occurred during a movement drill, after an admin reload on closed bolt. Push/pulled after the admin reload, it was seated. Started the drill, the chambered round fired, the next trigger pull clicked. Transitioned and finished the drill with the Glock. Inspected and found the chamber empty. Tugged the mag and it was still seated. Ejected the mag and everything looked fine. Re-inserted the mag, charged the rifle and everything ran fine.
- 1 failure to fire. Occurred during the speed reload drills if I remember right, it was later in the day at any rate. Middle of string & got a click... push, pull, rack & roll, ejected an unfired cartridge & finished the drill. Ton of unfired cartridges laying around so I didn't bother looking for the culprit.
Others Equipment: (didn't do a survey or anything, just what I noticed.)
Rifles: A bunch of ARs. 1 M1A SOCOM. 1 AUG (Microtech I think). 1 AR 9MM Carbine (RRA I think). There was a Sig 556 in the pile o'guns but I didn't see anyone shooting it.
Pistols: A bunch of Glocks, a bunch of M&Ps, at least 1 Sig, and at least 1 1911.
Optics: Aimpoints dominated, mostly CompM3/ML3 & T1s. A handful of EOTECH XPS. At least 1 ACOG, and 1 TR24 (on the 9MM Carbine).
Holsters: Lots of Raven Phantoms. Safariland 6004 & variants for those running drop legs. I was the only one I noticed carrying the secondary IWB.
Rigs: Most folks were running a chest rig or vest or some sort. There were a couple of molle "war belts", and only 2 or 3 of us running standard belt mounted gear.
Took MDFI's Carbine I class on Saturday. MDFI (www.michigantrainer.com) is run by Steve Fisher. Carbine I is a one day class and cost $125. This is my first professional carbine training, and my first training with MDFI. All my previous professional training has been in handgun. Been wanting to take a carbine class since spring but up until this point they all conflicted with USPSA matches. I feel really comfortable & relatively proficient with a pistol and I think it was good for me to step "outside my box" and get that WTF, flustered feeling that comes the first time you run a new platform hard. I didn't take any pics but there were a few cameras out here and there, maybe if someone has some they will post them.
The class followed a pretty logical progression, although I may have mixed up the order of and/or omitted topics. Interspersed here and there throughout the class were various discussions on equipment selection & configuration and discussion of technique variations. The instructors were not at all dogmatic and were more interested in results than the fine details of how you got there, and a lot of things were simply left at "whatever works best for you." This was a little frustrating to me at the time because I have a black/white brain, but it has prodded me to put more thought into how I execute various techniques which is a good thing. Overall I was happy with the class although I thought there was opportunity to cover a little more material.
I won't go into tons of detail about the drills other than to point out noteworthy stuff or "lightbulb" type moments.
Admin & Safety
Confirm 50 yard zero - This "drill" consisted of simply shooting a 3 round group from prone at 50 yards to verify sight zero. I was amazed at the number of folks who were way off. I think the instructor had planned on two cycles, it ended up being more like 5 and took up A LOT of time.
Stance
Holdover at various distances
Scan & Assess
Admin/Tactical Reloads
Malfunction Clearance - Covered standard push, pull, rack & roll for basic failure to go bang. Also covered clearing more complex malfunctions like double feeds, and this is where I was deficient. Had a difficult time sequencing my hand placement for efficient execution of the necessary manipulation, and also had the bad habit of wanting to rotate the rifle ejection port up to see what was happening, rather than ejection port down, which would allow the problem cartridges to fall out.
Transitioning to secondary - The new technique I learned here is slinging the rifle ejection-port towards the body. With a two point sling this allows the sling to "trap" the rifle and hold it closer and tighter to the body than the ejection-port out method, which I had been practicing prior..
Shooting on the move
Speed Reloads
Pivots
Techniques I need to focus on:
- Taking a minute to assess after engaging before applying the safety and dropping to low ready.
- Manipulation during malfunction clearance. Clearing the more difficult malfunctions I really struggled with efficient hand placements and maintaining good leverage and control over the rifle. Always maintained good muzzle control but often looked at my hand position and said "WTF am I doing?".
- Snapping to a good sight picture. Often found myself hunting for the dot when coming up from low ready. Once I was on the dot I felt my accuracy & speed were decent.
My gear: Colt 6920 (DD Omega 7.0 rail, CTR stock), Aimpoint CompML3 w/ Larue mount, DD A1.5 rear BUIS, VCAS padded QD sling. I ran 30rd PMAGS with XM193. My secondary was a Glock 19 in a MS SSII. I carried all spare mags on my belt (2 Safariland 774 & 1 ReadyTac for the AR mags, 1 RCS for pistol mag), and used a MaxPed RolyPoly as a dump pouch.
Gear Issues:
-I was running my sling too tight. It carried well when slung and shouldered fine, but it didn't give me sufficient slack to get the buttstock down into the crook of my elbow for good leverage/support, especially when performing malfunction clearance.
- I need to download the mags in my pouches by a round or two. Way too many times push/pulling as part of a reload to find the mag not seated. Had to smack the piss out of the mags to get them seated on closed bolt. Not a big deal to do it once or twice but after dozen times it starts to feel like someone took a hammer to the heal of your palm.
- The cant adjustment on one of my 774 pouches loosened up and was not holding the mag vertical. Luckily it was the middle pouch so the pouch on either side prevented the mag from tilting too much in either direction. Got home and disassembled them and discovered there was a seperate set of holes in the belt mount for setting the mag up in a fixed vertical position, which is what I did.
Overall I was pretty happy with my gear setup. I think I will invest in a stubby VFG, and I am strong considering a brake, although I'd like to get better with the standard FH before I switch out. I was worried that the weight of carrying everything on my belt might wear on me over the course of the day but it didn't bother me one bit.
Malfunctions:
- 1 failure to feed. Occurred during a movement drill, after an admin reload on closed bolt. Push/pulled after the admin reload, it was seated. Started the drill, the chambered round fired, the next trigger pull clicked. Transitioned and finished the drill with the Glock. Inspected and found the chamber empty. Tugged the mag and it was still seated. Ejected the mag and everything looked fine. Re-inserted the mag, charged the rifle and everything ran fine.
- 1 failure to fire. Occurred during the speed reload drills if I remember right, it was later in the day at any rate. Middle of string & got a click... push, pull, rack & roll, ejected an unfired cartridge & finished the drill. Ton of unfired cartridges laying around so I didn't bother looking for the culprit.
Others Equipment: (didn't do a survey or anything, just what I noticed.)
Rifles: A bunch of ARs. 1 M1A SOCOM. 1 AUG (Microtech I think). 1 AR 9MM Carbine (RRA I think). There was a Sig 556 in the pile o'guns but I didn't see anyone shooting it.
Pistols: A bunch of Glocks, a bunch of M&Ps, at least 1 Sig, and at least 1 1911.
Optics: Aimpoints dominated, mostly CompM3/ML3 & T1s. A handful of EOTECH XPS. At least 1 ACOG, and 1 TR24 (on the 9MM Carbine).
Holsters: Lots of Raven Phantoms. Safariland 6004 & variants for those running drop legs. I was the only one I noticed carrying the secondary IWB.
Rigs: Most folks were running a chest rig or vest or some sort. There were a couple of molle "war belts", and only 2 or 3 of us running standard belt mounted gear.