NCPatrolAR
09-29-11, 07:01
On 25 September 2011, Larry Vickers taught his Basic Carbine class at the Trigger Time range located in Carthage, NC. There were approximately 20 shooters of varying skill levels in attendance and all seemed eager to learn.
The course started at 0830 with a short introduction by Larry Vickers, aka LAV, followed immediately by a detailed safety briefing. During the safety brief LAV covered his real world safety rules in great detail for the newer shooters that were in attendance. Once this was complete, students began the process of zeroing their carbines.
LAV began the zeroing process by discussing the pros and cons of zeroing at different distances. LAV is a firm advocate of the 100 yard zero for most shooters and this is what the students strove to achieve. Due to range limitations, students were only able to fire at a maximum distance of 50 yards after getting on paper at 25. The students were told that while their 50 yard groups should be close, it is essential to confirm their zeros at 100 as soon as possible.
After zeroing the guns, the students moved into dry fire work of the prone, seated, kneeling, and standing firing positions. Work in the prone position included use of a piece of brass on the barrel in order to maximize the importance of proper trigger control when shooting. Once dry fire work was done, the students then shot a drill that required 10 rounds fired on a bullseye target using the four firing positions with an ever-decreasing time limit. Once this was completed the shooters moved up to the seven yard line for some close-in work.
At the seven yard line, the height over bore issues of the AR series of rifles was discussed. With that, and the low ready position, covered the students began to shoot a series of shots at seven yards. After completing this, the students moved back to 10 yards and repeated the series of shots. The students moved back several more times until they were firing from low ready at 25 yards.
Following lunch, the topics of emergency reloads, alternating shots between the torso and head, and shooting on the move were covered. Virtually every block of instruction included a team drill that had the shooters shooting on a bullseye or piece of torso sized steel in order to keep the emphasis on accuracy.
Once the last drill was done, the students packed up and headed home.
Carbines and issues:
Most students used some form of AR though there were two Sig 550 series carbines used during the class. The only major issues that were encountered were with a large takedown pin equipped Colt and a privately built AR. At some point the pin on the Colt worked its way out of the receiver and was never recovered. The student borrowed one of the assistant instructors’ and continued on with the class.
The privately built gun initially had the trigger lock up on its owner during a drill. When he handed to me to look at, I noticed that his hammer spring had begun to walk its way out of the receiver. When I looked inside the gun I was able to determine that someone had installed the hammer spring incorrectly which was the cause of the pin walking. This is something I have seen occur multiple times with guns built, or worked on, by people inexperienced with the AR. After the spring was installed correctly and the pin put back in place the student didn’t have any more issues from the gun for the rest of the day.
The round count for the course was approximately 350 rounds.
The course started at 0830 with a short introduction by Larry Vickers, aka LAV, followed immediately by a detailed safety briefing. During the safety brief LAV covered his real world safety rules in great detail for the newer shooters that were in attendance. Once this was complete, students began the process of zeroing their carbines.
LAV began the zeroing process by discussing the pros and cons of zeroing at different distances. LAV is a firm advocate of the 100 yard zero for most shooters and this is what the students strove to achieve. Due to range limitations, students were only able to fire at a maximum distance of 50 yards after getting on paper at 25. The students were told that while their 50 yard groups should be close, it is essential to confirm their zeros at 100 as soon as possible.
After zeroing the guns, the students moved into dry fire work of the prone, seated, kneeling, and standing firing positions. Work in the prone position included use of a piece of brass on the barrel in order to maximize the importance of proper trigger control when shooting. Once dry fire work was done, the students then shot a drill that required 10 rounds fired on a bullseye target using the four firing positions with an ever-decreasing time limit. Once this was completed the shooters moved up to the seven yard line for some close-in work.
At the seven yard line, the height over bore issues of the AR series of rifles was discussed. With that, and the low ready position, covered the students began to shoot a series of shots at seven yards. After completing this, the students moved back to 10 yards and repeated the series of shots. The students moved back several more times until they were firing from low ready at 25 yards.
Following lunch, the topics of emergency reloads, alternating shots between the torso and head, and shooting on the move were covered. Virtually every block of instruction included a team drill that had the shooters shooting on a bullseye or piece of torso sized steel in order to keep the emphasis on accuracy.
Once the last drill was done, the students packed up and headed home.
Carbines and issues:
Most students used some form of AR though there were two Sig 550 series carbines used during the class. The only major issues that were encountered were with a large takedown pin equipped Colt and a privately built AR. At some point the pin on the Colt worked its way out of the receiver and was never recovered. The student borrowed one of the assistant instructors’ and continued on with the class.
The privately built gun initially had the trigger lock up on its owner during a drill. When he handed to me to look at, I noticed that his hammer spring had begun to walk its way out of the receiver. When I looked inside the gun I was able to determine that someone had installed the hammer spring incorrectly which was the cause of the pin walking. This is something I have seen occur multiple times with guns built, or worked on, by people inexperienced with the AR. After the spring was installed correctly and the pin put back in place the student didn’t have any more issues from the gun for the rest of the day.
The round count for the course was approximately 350 rounds.