96 SS
07-19-11, 17:52
Let me begin by stating that I am a shooting novice, and have never had anyone teach me anything related to guns beyond some bench rest time with my Father-in-law. I purchased my first rifle 5 years ago at the urging of my roommate. That Ex-PU Mosin is one sweet shooter to be sure. I purchased my first semi-auto (my AK-105 clone) about 3 years ago and shot primarily as a fun past time and put roughly 300 rounds through the AK until the fall last year when I had a major AK problem and had to have the AK rebuilt by Troy at In Range. Fast forward to this year, being an AK scope mount MFG and having a nice rebuilt AK. I contacted Jay Cunningham to see if they could squeeze me into the 9-10th weekend LAV class as a favor. He said they had so many applicants that they scheduled another class that I was able to join.
**Please bear with me as I am sure I will confuse not only the order of the drills I can remember, but also the days we did them. I was so jacked up excited that I am sure I messed all the details up**
The class began Monday morning at just after 8:30 AM with all 16 students, LAV and Tom Kelley guest hosting the class as Jay was called in to work. We began the class with a safety brief, LAV’s expectations, and a basic Q/A. For the duration of the class we had paper bull’s eyes stapled up to cardboard basic cutouts.
To begin LAV told us to bring our unloaded pistol to the line where we would work on some fundamentals. Mentally I was very grateful; because if there was anything I was not comfortable with even less than practical carbine shooting it was pistol shooting. I CCW an M&P9C and truthfully it is my only handgun, and therefore the perfect pistol to bring to the class, even if I admittedly shot it like a shotgun, and hated having to shoot groups because I was so embarrassed at my lack of abilities. So – being able to channel the 4th dimension LAV picked me out of the line to demonstrate the drill: Place an empty case or dime on your front site, pull the trigger. This is a pass/fail drill. If the case/dime falls off you fail and have to do 5 remedial dry-fire rotations, and repeat. My M&P9C has a mag lock and thus requires a seated mag for this drill. I had to unload a mag and then presented for the drill. I was amazingly able to accomplish the drill the first time I pulled the trigger. The second time I messed up and had to do 5 more in front of the assembled class. LAV also helped me with my hand/grip placement and stance that were mostly wrong.
After demonstrating I broke off with Chris and we repeated the drill for about 15 mins, switching off between my M&P9C and Chris’s USP. We both needed work on the drill, but I admired Chris’s ability to deal with both SA and DA, while I only had to worry about the striker snap and my shaking arms/hands. Amazing how even this much psychological influence can tweak you out. This type of influence would repeatedly be used in the class to influence at least my head. You WANT to shoot well, you are in front of your peers, and your male ego doesn’t want to be THAT GUY.
We followed with more pistol drills to bring our attention to the fact that as LAV puts it: “El Snatch-o” will ruin your shooting at the first chance if you do not understand that the fundamentals of shooting always revolve around your ability to properly squeeze the trigger. Just about everyone can point the gun in the proper direction with the sights lined up, but properly pulling the trigger is the hard part. Throughout the class I witnessed my own shooting begin to open up as I got excited /pressured, and had to re-focus on the front sight drill mentality.
We then began to make sure we were properly zero’d at 100 yards by simulated distance as we could only back up to about 45-50 meters from our targets. LAV explained the fundamentals of 100 meter zero and the reasons for most others and the advantages/disadvantages of each. My 12” 5.45x39mm AK was ready to go with irons, but I needed some time to zero my Primary Arms 30mm demonstration unit. After zero we began to work on basic manipulations and honestly I cannot remember exactly what we worked on for most of the morning. I was so busy trying to soak up every little bit of proper instruction that I cannot tell you exactly what it all was.
To facilitate drills for the remainder of the class we broke into three groups of 5 each and had to choose team names. Of course this meant choosing captains – and LAV chose captains based upon gun trivia. I won the second question by answering that the French invented DI gas systems. I forget who, but someone in our team chose the name “Team Casey Anthony, because pretty girls shouldn’t go to prison.” Luckily we performed at at least an acceptable level for LAV as we were the only team not renamed. The other two teams ended up with “Window Lickers” and “Short Bus.” The lickers and the bus both won more team trials than TCABPGSGTP – or Team Casey Anthony.
When we broke for lunch about noon I stuck around at the range and decided to switch mounts to run my Aimpoint T1 in a prototype mount. I wanted to check out both the optic itself and the mount. I have to say that after shooting with the T1 I don’t think I will ever go back to a 30mm if I have a choice. We ended that day with additional rifle manipulations including reload drills, and finally a walkback drill.
In the walk back we shot at a 10” steel round plate starting at roughly 50 meters. Each person in attendance got two shots to hit the target. I was amazed that I hit the target first time up, first shot. This is definitely a high five to LAV as I was about to shoot with all of the pressure of everyone looking at me, and being the only AK shooter – not to mention being a quasi SBR.
I then was able to hang with the rest of the group until there were only 4 of us left including LAV. We all shot from 150 meters and all missed both shots. This brings us to one key point that LAV brings up: Carbines are for 200 meter work. Sure people use them up close and far away, but as a general rule of thumb carbines are for 200 meters and in. Making a shot at a 10” plate at 150 meters with no magnification is a tough shot.
The day ended with lots of Q/A and me inviting LAV to dinner to pick his brain a bit more.
(and scrubbing my AK in the motel room – darn PA humidity and corrosive 5.45mm gave my booster a nice coating of rust)
Day two started with more pistol drills, and a modified version of the sight/case drill, but this time with loaded/unloaded pistols. You and your partner (Chris) work together to confuse each other as to if your pistol is loaded or not, and then proper shooting stance/pull/aim to bulls eye each shot. You hand your pistol to your partner and turn around. They either load a round or not, and prep the pistol for you to fire. You turn around and aim/squeeze – if you hit the X you pass, if not, or LAV see’s you have bad form/pull etc you get 5 remedial dry fire’s to practice.
Chris and I rotated on this drill and I was amazed to see how well I shot the drill.
Transitions were covered and drilled into us. Whenever we were inside approximately 25 meters we were to transition to our secondary (sidearm). This drill was pushed into our heads many times by doing limited ammo drills where we loaded 1-3 rounds in the carbine. The most important part when your rifle goes “CLICK” up close is to finish the situation off ASAP so you can diagnose why your rifle went click. This necessitates a transition to your sidearm – and a quick reaction to both stow your primary and get your backup shots off with your pistol. This pressure again works against your inherent ability to squeeze off the rounds in using the proper trigger discipline. Initially I was so jacked up I was pushing my pistol shots considerably, to the point where I was even off the paper bulls for a couple of my shots until I heard LAV’s voice in my head about “El Snacho” at which point my shots all returned to paper/black.
We worked on movement drills throughout the day including forward, backward, side to side and lastly figure 8’s. I really appreciated the back away’s and moving drills as I can see how they would be very applicable in real life situations. In many of these drills you were forced to transition based on artificial (short loaded mags) or natural (malf’s/out of ammo) conditions. Once I had to finish one drill using only my pistol. Amazingly one of the biggest psychological impediments to shooting accurately was the thought that “this one is the last, BANG, no – THIS one is the last, BANG, no THIS ONE, BANG. . .” you get so concerned that you are out or will be out you begin to rush the shots, push them or otherwise not pay attention. I had to constantly correct this behavior.
To end the day we threw all of our combined drills into several moving team drills and eventually LAV’s tree service. The area behind the range was to be cleared shortly of several trees that were covering some of the shooting area, so we took it upon ourselves to remove some of them. The surefire 60 in LAV’s gun ran like a champ and locked back each time it was emptied. We performed another walkback drill where I was eliminated roughly mid-pack, and we called it a day.
To finish LAV pulled us back together and had us flip around one of the cardboard backers we were using all day (keep in mind these were new that day). He flipped the cardboard and showed us that basically the entire center of the backer was gone. You could put your first through the lack of cardboard. He told us that this is the very reason he uses those type of bulls eye targets, and that if you are shooting properly you should be able to cover all of your shots from 25m with your fist, and from 50-100 with your hand. The target we looked at didnt even have a fist location any more and I would guess 95% of the shots were within a large hand radius. Nicely done whoever was 5/6.
Lessons I learned:
1. Trigger pull, trigger pull, trigger pull.
2. Stance is critical, whether it be standing, kneeling, prone etc.
3. Slings can be too tight ( I had to loosen mine about 6 inches)
4. Gear must be appropriate for the conditions at hand.
5. AK’s can be VERY accurate if you shoot them well.
6. You CAN jam an AK if you try to demonstrate how to clear a double feed in an AK – LAV did this perfectly the first time demonstrating for the entire class. Removing the top cover clears this stuck case very quickly, and you can fire without the cover in place if needed. (Tom took some great pics of this sequence that will be hosted on my site soon)
7. I have a LOT more to learn.
**Please bear with me as I am sure I will confuse not only the order of the drills I can remember, but also the days we did them. I was so jacked up excited that I am sure I messed all the details up**
The class began Monday morning at just after 8:30 AM with all 16 students, LAV and Tom Kelley guest hosting the class as Jay was called in to work. We began the class with a safety brief, LAV’s expectations, and a basic Q/A. For the duration of the class we had paper bull’s eyes stapled up to cardboard basic cutouts.
To begin LAV told us to bring our unloaded pistol to the line where we would work on some fundamentals. Mentally I was very grateful; because if there was anything I was not comfortable with even less than practical carbine shooting it was pistol shooting. I CCW an M&P9C and truthfully it is my only handgun, and therefore the perfect pistol to bring to the class, even if I admittedly shot it like a shotgun, and hated having to shoot groups because I was so embarrassed at my lack of abilities. So – being able to channel the 4th dimension LAV picked me out of the line to demonstrate the drill: Place an empty case or dime on your front site, pull the trigger. This is a pass/fail drill. If the case/dime falls off you fail and have to do 5 remedial dry-fire rotations, and repeat. My M&P9C has a mag lock and thus requires a seated mag for this drill. I had to unload a mag and then presented for the drill. I was amazingly able to accomplish the drill the first time I pulled the trigger. The second time I messed up and had to do 5 more in front of the assembled class. LAV also helped me with my hand/grip placement and stance that were mostly wrong.
After demonstrating I broke off with Chris and we repeated the drill for about 15 mins, switching off between my M&P9C and Chris’s USP. We both needed work on the drill, but I admired Chris’s ability to deal with both SA and DA, while I only had to worry about the striker snap and my shaking arms/hands. Amazing how even this much psychological influence can tweak you out. This type of influence would repeatedly be used in the class to influence at least my head. You WANT to shoot well, you are in front of your peers, and your male ego doesn’t want to be THAT GUY.
We followed with more pistol drills to bring our attention to the fact that as LAV puts it: “El Snatch-o” will ruin your shooting at the first chance if you do not understand that the fundamentals of shooting always revolve around your ability to properly squeeze the trigger. Just about everyone can point the gun in the proper direction with the sights lined up, but properly pulling the trigger is the hard part. Throughout the class I witnessed my own shooting begin to open up as I got excited /pressured, and had to re-focus on the front sight drill mentality.
We then began to make sure we were properly zero’d at 100 yards by simulated distance as we could only back up to about 45-50 meters from our targets. LAV explained the fundamentals of 100 meter zero and the reasons for most others and the advantages/disadvantages of each. My 12” 5.45x39mm AK was ready to go with irons, but I needed some time to zero my Primary Arms 30mm demonstration unit. After zero we began to work on basic manipulations and honestly I cannot remember exactly what we worked on for most of the morning. I was so busy trying to soak up every little bit of proper instruction that I cannot tell you exactly what it all was.
To facilitate drills for the remainder of the class we broke into three groups of 5 each and had to choose team names. Of course this meant choosing captains – and LAV chose captains based upon gun trivia. I won the second question by answering that the French invented DI gas systems. I forget who, but someone in our team chose the name “Team Casey Anthony, because pretty girls shouldn’t go to prison.” Luckily we performed at at least an acceptable level for LAV as we were the only team not renamed. The other two teams ended up with “Window Lickers” and “Short Bus.” The lickers and the bus both won more team trials than TCABPGSGTP – or Team Casey Anthony.
When we broke for lunch about noon I stuck around at the range and decided to switch mounts to run my Aimpoint T1 in a prototype mount. I wanted to check out both the optic itself and the mount. I have to say that after shooting with the T1 I don’t think I will ever go back to a 30mm if I have a choice. We ended that day with additional rifle manipulations including reload drills, and finally a walkback drill.
In the walk back we shot at a 10” steel round plate starting at roughly 50 meters. Each person in attendance got two shots to hit the target. I was amazed that I hit the target first time up, first shot. This is definitely a high five to LAV as I was about to shoot with all of the pressure of everyone looking at me, and being the only AK shooter – not to mention being a quasi SBR.
I then was able to hang with the rest of the group until there were only 4 of us left including LAV. We all shot from 150 meters and all missed both shots. This brings us to one key point that LAV brings up: Carbines are for 200 meter work. Sure people use them up close and far away, but as a general rule of thumb carbines are for 200 meters and in. Making a shot at a 10” plate at 150 meters with no magnification is a tough shot.
The day ended with lots of Q/A and me inviting LAV to dinner to pick his brain a bit more.
(and scrubbing my AK in the motel room – darn PA humidity and corrosive 5.45mm gave my booster a nice coating of rust)
Day two started with more pistol drills, and a modified version of the sight/case drill, but this time with loaded/unloaded pistols. You and your partner (Chris) work together to confuse each other as to if your pistol is loaded or not, and then proper shooting stance/pull/aim to bulls eye each shot. You hand your pistol to your partner and turn around. They either load a round or not, and prep the pistol for you to fire. You turn around and aim/squeeze – if you hit the X you pass, if not, or LAV see’s you have bad form/pull etc you get 5 remedial dry fire’s to practice.
Chris and I rotated on this drill and I was amazed to see how well I shot the drill.
Transitions were covered and drilled into us. Whenever we were inside approximately 25 meters we were to transition to our secondary (sidearm). This drill was pushed into our heads many times by doing limited ammo drills where we loaded 1-3 rounds in the carbine. The most important part when your rifle goes “CLICK” up close is to finish the situation off ASAP so you can diagnose why your rifle went click. This necessitates a transition to your sidearm – and a quick reaction to both stow your primary and get your backup shots off with your pistol. This pressure again works against your inherent ability to squeeze off the rounds in using the proper trigger discipline. Initially I was so jacked up I was pushing my pistol shots considerably, to the point where I was even off the paper bulls for a couple of my shots until I heard LAV’s voice in my head about “El Snacho” at which point my shots all returned to paper/black.
We worked on movement drills throughout the day including forward, backward, side to side and lastly figure 8’s. I really appreciated the back away’s and moving drills as I can see how they would be very applicable in real life situations. In many of these drills you were forced to transition based on artificial (short loaded mags) or natural (malf’s/out of ammo) conditions. Once I had to finish one drill using only my pistol. Amazingly one of the biggest psychological impediments to shooting accurately was the thought that “this one is the last, BANG, no – THIS one is the last, BANG, no THIS ONE, BANG. . .” you get so concerned that you are out or will be out you begin to rush the shots, push them or otherwise not pay attention. I had to constantly correct this behavior.
To end the day we threw all of our combined drills into several moving team drills and eventually LAV’s tree service. The area behind the range was to be cleared shortly of several trees that were covering some of the shooting area, so we took it upon ourselves to remove some of them. The surefire 60 in LAV’s gun ran like a champ and locked back each time it was emptied. We performed another walkback drill where I was eliminated roughly mid-pack, and we called it a day.
To finish LAV pulled us back together and had us flip around one of the cardboard backers we were using all day (keep in mind these were new that day). He flipped the cardboard and showed us that basically the entire center of the backer was gone. You could put your first through the lack of cardboard. He told us that this is the very reason he uses those type of bulls eye targets, and that if you are shooting properly you should be able to cover all of your shots from 25m with your fist, and from 50-100 with your hand. The target we looked at didnt even have a fist location any more and I would guess 95% of the shots were within a large hand radius. Nicely done whoever was 5/6.
Lessons I learned:
1. Trigger pull, trigger pull, trigger pull.
2. Stance is critical, whether it be standing, kneeling, prone etc.
3. Slings can be too tight ( I had to loosen mine about 6 inches)
4. Gear must be appropriate for the conditions at hand.
5. AK’s can be VERY accurate if you shoot them well.
6. You CAN jam an AK if you try to demonstrate how to clear a double feed in an AK – LAV did this perfectly the first time demonstrating for the entire class. Removing the top cover clears this stuck case very quickly, and you can fire without the cover in place if needed. (Tom took some great pics of this sequence that will be hosted on my site soon)
7. I have a LOT more to learn.