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View Full Version : AAR: VSM 1 Day Carbine August 21st



kwelz
08-25-11, 20:32
VSM 1 Day Basic Carbine Class
June 26th 2011
http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=84496

This is the second day of 2 days of training:
The first day can be found here.
http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=87533


Instructors: Joe Barnsfather assisted by Barry Foster
Location: Knob Creek shooting range.

Total in attendance: 21 + instructors

Range conditions:
Pretty nice overall is a bit hot in the afternoon. The hear really started to wear on some of us as the day went on.


Equipment:
Mainly ARs as usual, Most of them were high quality with the majority of them seeming to be Noveske. I was using my 14.5 Daniel Defense. I shot part of the day with my Suppressor and part without. One student had a Sig 552 and one of the AIs was using an Arsenal AK. There were a couple issues that came up but I will cover that in a bit.


Class and Drills:

Once again this class was graced by a number of Prizes from Tactical Tailor. We can not thank them enough for the support. Prizes ranged from hats and shirts up to range bags and nice double rifle bags.

The class was fairly standard fare for a VSM class. In other words difficult but impossible. Focus was put on accuracy over everything else. It is better to take longer and make the shot than to rush and miss.

The crowded firing line made things pretty interesting. I know during Zeroing I accidentally shot another persons target. I don't have the best eyes and at 50 Yards with the targets so close together.... Well yeah. I still felt like an Ass.

Overall this was a low round count class. The focus was on making each shot count and challenging us mentally more than putting as much lead down range as possible. In addition with a larger class like this an even heavier emphasis than normal was put on safety.

One thing I feel the instructors do really well is push each student to their own limits. A lot more is expected of experienced students than the more green ones. We are all doing the same drills but they can still tailor it for each of us.

Like the first day each drill was ended with a chance to win some of the Tactical Tailor swag. This was not made easy on us. Usually we would start a drill at the 5 meter line and end up around 30-40.

Overall the class was very smooth with minimal malfunctions. Ironically enough during Malfunction clearing drills one gun got very jacked up. While trying to clear a basic double feed the shooter ended up with a Bolt override malfunction. A couple people had magazine induced problems but overall equipment issues were minimal. My TA44 went tits up halfway through the day. It worked fine int he AM but when I came back after lunch the reticle was no longer fully illuminate and would move around a bit. This made the rest of class interesting to say the least.

Overall I feel I took a lot away from this class. There are some things I really need to work on. Most of them are mental more than anything. Trigger control seems to be my biggest issue. Which of course is a huge issue. I know that if I had shot like this 6 Months ago I would have though I was on top. But now I considered it barely acceptable.