John Mosby/Mountain Guerrilla "General Prepardness Rifle"
Friday 09/24 and 25 I took John Mosby/Mountain Guerrilla's "general preparedness rifle" class in the Idaho Falls area. Class was 2 days long and started at 9 AM until about 6 PM with lunch and breaks.
My notes aren't the greatest. I'm hearing impaired and have to focus more on what people are saying and writing has me missing or mishearing data. What follows is to the best of my notes and my recollection.
The Instructor:
John was an excellent instructor, who paid good attention to his students. If there was a correction in behavior that needed to be addressed, John did not directly accost the student but rather addressed the group as a whole. His reason is that singling out an individual makes them shut down.
In my particular case, I was doing my standing-to-kneeling and wasn't standing up in-between reps. John's response? "Hey guys - make sure you're standing up between reps. Don't cheat yourself".
John answered all questions with good answers, even the ones that seemed (to me) excessively over-the-top nuanced. He would explain the reasons why behind everything and gave examples of having personally used what he was teaching.
Several times John would form a school circle and ask each individual if they had any questions. If someone couldn't come up with a question, he would go to the next person. Wouldn't wait for them to force out a question and did not make anyone feel poorly for not having a question to ask. He also stuck around during breaks/lunch and chatted with students.
I mentioned earlier that I had a hearing impairment and John did very well with keeping that in mind as he taught. As an example: I was writing down something in my notes when John was talking. He noticed and paused until I finished what I was writing. There was an older student in class, and he made it clear that it was OK to sit out a few reps.
The Class:
There were 10 students, all ran AR carbines. Some used LPVO, others used magnifiers. I used Colt lower and a BCM upper (16" with a VTAC rail), a Surefire M300C mounted via an Arisaka mount and a Burris MTAC on Larue rings I purchased used from a fella on the Northwest Firearms classifieds. Day 1 I used a Vickers Tactical sling, and day 2 I used a VTAC sling (I'll explain why I switched).
Day 1 was spent covering firearms handling, various zeros and why (John prefers a 50/200 meter zero), zeroing, and position shooting: standing to prone, standing to kneeling, standing to squat, and standing. We also practiced high ready/low ready and snap shots.
The position shooting was done at the 50-meter line (except for standing, which was 10 meters... I think - maybe 5). Ready positions and snap shooting were done at the 10 meter line (or 5 meter, which ever it is). All positions were practiced for 5 dry fire reps and 1 live fire rep. John calls this the 5-and-1 which, to be embarrassingly honest, was profound to me. In the past I've always been told "when you go home, dry fire..." or "when you dry fire at home...". Dry fire has always been associated with "home" for me, and I'd never thought of doing it at the range. Sure, I'll dry fire a rep or two on the range (usually after uncasing the firearm or about to put it away) , but I never practiced dry fire at the range, confirming with live fire.
Day 2 was spent learning how to do an emergency reload in all positions, a cadence drill to practice shooting quickly and accurately (with accessory drills to help hammer it home), transitions, shooting from behind a barricade, and a cognitive drill (and the same drill but with task switching thrown in).
John demoed all drills (on paper and on steel) and also demoed with different rifles when applicable (a 30-30 and an FAL).
Gear notes:
I don't like the Vickers sling, I never used the "quick adjust" and I find the webbing very abrasive on my neck. On day 2 I used the VTAC sling, but also wore a lightweight hoodie. I put my hood up to block the sunlight (I got sunburned pretty good on day 1) so I had fabric between my neck and the sling. Again, I never used the quick adjust feature (takes too much time, IMO).
No problems with my scope though the screws holding my Arisaka mount to the rail did loosen up a little.
3 of my classmates ran suppressors which was really nice - I'll have to get one ASAP, and two ran short barrel AR's which was hugely annoying (I shot next to a fella with a 11.5" - another student had a 7.5"). I saw one Surefire fall off a rifle and one student had a cartridge malfunction that required a cleaning rod to knock a cartridge out (steel case ammo - a chunk of the rim broke off where the extractor claw rests).
Closing Thoughts:
I'm hoping John comes back out to teach, as I learned a lot. I enjoy reading/watching/listening/learning about shooting, it's been my biggest hobby since I was 12. Over the years I've learned a few things here and there. But those 18 hours with John was one of the most profound learning experiences I've had over the years.
Resources:
Patreon: Mountain Guerrilla Blog is creating Concepts and Tools to Help You Thrive | Patreon
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Blog: MountainGuerrilla
John's books: Lulu I own all his books and highly recommend them all, starting with "Forging the Hero". A lot of the drills he covered in class can be found in his books , as well as some of his experiences he shared with us in class.
