JimT
04-06-10, 10:17
Stone Cobra Tactical Black Rifle Course 2.5 (http://stonecobratactical.com/index.html)
March 27 - 28, 2010 (0830 – 1600 PST)
Sacramento Valley Shooting Center, Sacramento CA
Lead Instructor: Jason Paletta
Assistant Instructor(s): Aaron Moe, Gordon Gray
The purpose of this AAR is to convey my perspective of the Black Rifle 2.5 course offered through Stone Cobra Tactical. This report will discuss curriculum, personal impressions and experience(s). Furthermore, this AAR will include my personal experience with a Primary Weapons Systems DC-16 upper assembly.
This AAR will not discuss the details of drills/exercises as I feel it is more important to describe skills learned/emphasized as well as how the curriculum was presented.
Core skills emphasized throughout class:
• Safety
• Mechanical Offset
• Reloads
o Emergency
o Tactical
• Remedial action of malfunctions
• Shooting Positions
o Prone
o Supine
o Kneeling
o SBU
o Shoot on the move
o Transition to secondary weapon
• Communication with teammates
• Threat identification and proper addressing
• De-escalation with search & assess
• Marksmanship
Personal Class Impression:
The majority of our shooting was performed between 7-25 yards with a good mix of intermediate ranges stretching out to 100 yards and beyond. These distances were a breath of fresh air as this was my first carbine course that I have attended where the instructors placed equal emphasis on intermediate as well as near-contact distances. The intermediate distances forced the students to act in an unnatural manner – slow down and implement the core fundamentals of marksmanship while under timed stress.
SCT incorporated exercises that involved competition to add an element of timed stress. These competitions were based around the core skills that were emphasized above. Students that have never taken a class before may be intimidated by competition, but that should not be a reason to avoid training altogether. From my experiences, students who attend classes leave their egos in the car and arrive with an open mind. The entire class encouraged their peers and the SCT staff kept a watchful eye to not only make sure that all students were safe but, to provide correction when necessary.
The class was fast paced and although there were students with weapon issues, they were quickly remedied which meant that no student impeded the class momentum. There were no major first or second line gear issues and by the end of training day 1 all students had sorted out most of their equipment. There is almost always an individual learning curve with regard to equipment, even the seasoned trainees will learn or confirm what does and does not work for them. This confirms my theory that students will continue to learn their gear and equipment as they appropriate more training certificates.
SCT added two man team movement and communication at the latter portion of training day 2 to advance student positions. Jason and company provided sample communication vocabulary as well as live demonstrations. There is no standardized vocabulary and there were moments when student teams stumbled over their words. However, through the rest of the day most students had de-conflicted with their teammates and the entire class ran smoothly. Overall, everyone seemed to be onboard with what everyone else was trying to say and did their jobs to make things “happen.” Furthermore, Jason and the SCT staff incorporated team bound over-watch and break-contact drills that were ridiculously fun. This built comradery amongst the teams and the class as a whole. All students were egging each other on to succeed.
Students were encouraged to react properly to weapons malfunctions. Most anyone can perform adequately when everything works correctly. However, the playing field widens when malfunctions are induced. This was stressed throughout the course. SCT coached students through the proper way to transition from primary to secondary and more importantly, when to transition. If within 25 yards, punch out with the secondary. However, implement cover (simulated in our case) if the opportunity presents itself to get the primary weapon back into the fight. These were big boy rules and it was on the individual student to react accordingly. Once students were familiar with their teammates and had established their communications, things became more interesting. At that point, students had to de-conflict with their teammates as to who will be bringing their primary and secondary weapons back online once the opportunity presents itself after properly addressing a threat.
Most students have never been put in an academic situation where they had to employ cognitive thought as to whether or not the proposed threat needs a few well placed shots COM. SCT brought proper threat identification and response exercises with shoot/no-shoot targets. Every proposed threat encouraged students to identify, determine the proper course of action and response. For the no-shoot targets, students had to verbally address the threat and determine if shots on target were warranted.
Jason did a great job of providing quality instruction to the class and put forth extra effort to provide real-world examples to support the methods and philosophies that SCT teaches. Jason as well as Aaron and Gordon have commanding voices which made it very easy for the entire class to listen during lecture. This was critical when there are 13-14 weapons sounding off. SCT practices big boy rules and employs a hot range.
Jason was not overbearing in any way and never said that you would have to do it the SCT way. The SCT staff would offer suggestions and provide demonstration where applicable as to why the method they teach might work better for you vs. other methods. The student was free to absorb this knowledge to see if it would work for his/herself. Students were encouraged to employ methods learned from other sources to complete the exercises as long as they were safe.
Jason Paletta and his staff are what I would call good instructors. They not only determine specifically what the student is doing wrong or right, but more importantly they coach students through issues to the point which the student understands and ensures that the information was processed correctly. The entire weekend focused on the “whys” instead of the “whats.”
Personal Experience(s) and Observation(s):
First and foremost, Jason and his staff provided a safe environment that was conducive to learning advanced concepts of how to fight with a carbine. Second, the SCT assistant instructors, Aaron and Gordon are natural born instructors as well. They not only performed range safety duties, but provided proper live fire demonstration of the exercises as well as correcting students when they mechanically broke down. Students received the luxury of three instructors as opposed to one. Third, all students to my knowledge attended with zeroed weapons. The students were just as eager to learn as the instructors were willing to teach. I would like to thank not only SCT, but the students for their preparedness. These combinations kept the class moving along and not lose momentum.
As mentioned, the intermediate distance exercises were a breath of fresh air. Many schools and instructors focus on the < 25 yard distances. A lot of students can rock at those distances, but the longer distances forced us to employ marksmanship fundamentals to achieve solid hits.
Threat engagement and proper addressing forced the class to do more than just pull a trigger and place solid hits on target – the shoot/no-shoot exercises introduced the element of cognitive thought. During these exercises the proposed threats were not always pointing a weapon at the student or even holding a weapon. Students had to challenge the threat which broke me out of the instinctual shoot mode to the “what am I really looking at” thought process. This was the most challenging portion of the class.
Students on the line:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_1920.jpg
Lead Instructor: Jason Paletta
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_1915.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_1715.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_1987.jpg
Yours truly testing a PWS DC-16 upper:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_2217.jpg
March 27 - 28, 2010 (0830 – 1600 PST)
Sacramento Valley Shooting Center, Sacramento CA
Lead Instructor: Jason Paletta
Assistant Instructor(s): Aaron Moe, Gordon Gray
The purpose of this AAR is to convey my perspective of the Black Rifle 2.5 course offered through Stone Cobra Tactical. This report will discuss curriculum, personal impressions and experience(s). Furthermore, this AAR will include my personal experience with a Primary Weapons Systems DC-16 upper assembly.
This AAR will not discuss the details of drills/exercises as I feel it is more important to describe skills learned/emphasized as well as how the curriculum was presented.
Core skills emphasized throughout class:
• Safety
• Mechanical Offset
• Reloads
o Emergency
o Tactical
• Remedial action of malfunctions
• Shooting Positions
o Prone
o Supine
o Kneeling
o SBU
o Shoot on the move
o Transition to secondary weapon
• Communication with teammates
• Threat identification and proper addressing
• De-escalation with search & assess
• Marksmanship
Personal Class Impression:
The majority of our shooting was performed between 7-25 yards with a good mix of intermediate ranges stretching out to 100 yards and beyond. These distances were a breath of fresh air as this was my first carbine course that I have attended where the instructors placed equal emphasis on intermediate as well as near-contact distances. The intermediate distances forced the students to act in an unnatural manner – slow down and implement the core fundamentals of marksmanship while under timed stress.
SCT incorporated exercises that involved competition to add an element of timed stress. These competitions were based around the core skills that were emphasized above. Students that have never taken a class before may be intimidated by competition, but that should not be a reason to avoid training altogether. From my experiences, students who attend classes leave their egos in the car and arrive with an open mind. The entire class encouraged their peers and the SCT staff kept a watchful eye to not only make sure that all students were safe but, to provide correction when necessary.
The class was fast paced and although there were students with weapon issues, they were quickly remedied which meant that no student impeded the class momentum. There were no major first or second line gear issues and by the end of training day 1 all students had sorted out most of their equipment. There is almost always an individual learning curve with regard to equipment, even the seasoned trainees will learn or confirm what does and does not work for them. This confirms my theory that students will continue to learn their gear and equipment as they appropriate more training certificates.
SCT added two man team movement and communication at the latter portion of training day 2 to advance student positions. Jason and company provided sample communication vocabulary as well as live demonstrations. There is no standardized vocabulary and there were moments when student teams stumbled over their words. However, through the rest of the day most students had de-conflicted with their teammates and the entire class ran smoothly. Overall, everyone seemed to be onboard with what everyone else was trying to say and did their jobs to make things “happen.” Furthermore, Jason and the SCT staff incorporated team bound over-watch and break-contact drills that were ridiculously fun. This built comradery amongst the teams and the class as a whole. All students were egging each other on to succeed.
Students were encouraged to react properly to weapons malfunctions. Most anyone can perform adequately when everything works correctly. However, the playing field widens when malfunctions are induced. This was stressed throughout the course. SCT coached students through the proper way to transition from primary to secondary and more importantly, when to transition. If within 25 yards, punch out with the secondary. However, implement cover (simulated in our case) if the opportunity presents itself to get the primary weapon back into the fight. These were big boy rules and it was on the individual student to react accordingly. Once students were familiar with their teammates and had established their communications, things became more interesting. At that point, students had to de-conflict with their teammates as to who will be bringing their primary and secondary weapons back online once the opportunity presents itself after properly addressing a threat.
Most students have never been put in an academic situation where they had to employ cognitive thought as to whether or not the proposed threat needs a few well placed shots COM. SCT brought proper threat identification and response exercises with shoot/no-shoot targets. Every proposed threat encouraged students to identify, determine the proper course of action and response. For the no-shoot targets, students had to verbally address the threat and determine if shots on target were warranted.
Jason did a great job of providing quality instruction to the class and put forth extra effort to provide real-world examples to support the methods and philosophies that SCT teaches. Jason as well as Aaron and Gordon have commanding voices which made it very easy for the entire class to listen during lecture. This was critical when there are 13-14 weapons sounding off. SCT practices big boy rules and employs a hot range.
Jason was not overbearing in any way and never said that you would have to do it the SCT way. The SCT staff would offer suggestions and provide demonstration where applicable as to why the method they teach might work better for you vs. other methods. The student was free to absorb this knowledge to see if it would work for his/herself. Students were encouraged to employ methods learned from other sources to complete the exercises as long as they were safe.
Jason Paletta and his staff are what I would call good instructors. They not only determine specifically what the student is doing wrong or right, but more importantly they coach students through issues to the point which the student understands and ensures that the information was processed correctly. The entire weekend focused on the “whys” instead of the “whats.”
Personal Experience(s) and Observation(s):
First and foremost, Jason and his staff provided a safe environment that was conducive to learning advanced concepts of how to fight with a carbine. Second, the SCT assistant instructors, Aaron and Gordon are natural born instructors as well. They not only performed range safety duties, but provided proper live fire demonstration of the exercises as well as correcting students when they mechanically broke down. Students received the luxury of three instructors as opposed to one. Third, all students to my knowledge attended with zeroed weapons. The students were just as eager to learn as the instructors were willing to teach. I would like to thank not only SCT, but the students for their preparedness. These combinations kept the class moving along and not lose momentum.
As mentioned, the intermediate distance exercises were a breath of fresh air. Many schools and instructors focus on the < 25 yard distances. A lot of students can rock at those distances, but the longer distances forced us to employ marksmanship fundamentals to achieve solid hits.
Threat engagement and proper addressing forced the class to do more than just pull a trigger and place solid hits on target – the shoot/no-shoot exercises introduced the element of cognitive thought. During these exercises the proposed threats were not always pointing a weapon at the student or even holding a weapon. Students had to challenge the threat which broke me out of the instinctual shoot mode to the “what am I really looking at” thought process. This was the most challenging portion of the class.
Students on the line:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_1920.jpg
Lead Instructor: Jason Paletta
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_1915.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_1715.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_1987.jpg
Yours truly testing a PWS DC-16 upper:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/forty5r/Tactical%20Carbine/IMG_2217.jpg