Course: Redback One Combat Carbine
Date: May 18 and 19, 2013
Location: Birchwood Recreation and Shooting Park, Alaska
This class culminated a week of Redback One training in Alaska. Two full classes of one day Women’s Intro to Handgun courses, a two day Basic Pistol class, and then the two day Combat Carbine class I attended. Jason has been doing a great job of bringing quality training to Alaska.
This is my fourth Redback One class. I have attended Basic Pistol, Basic Carbine, Combat Pistol and now Combat Carbine. I have only received formal handgun and carbine training with Redback One.
Looking back on last year’s AAR for Redback One’s Basic Carbine class last October, I had to chuckle at the similarities. https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...&highlight=AAR This class began with a unseasonable 2” of snow the night before class and 27 degree temps. I was fully prepared for the worst and came prepared with proper clothing to train in that type of weather, as did the rest of the class. Kneepads abounded, I believe everyone brought theirs. They must have read my AAR about the Basic class. The weather improved substantially throughout the day and it actually turned out to be a pleasant day.
Once again, day one opened with class room time. This classroom time is essential to fill out the required hold harmless agreements, photography and video permission paperwork, and roll call. We had 14 students. Jason went through all the safety procedures. He defined the minor and major infractions and the related disciplinary actions that would result if you failed to follow any of them. This is an intermediate level class and the more advanced drills required utmost adherence to the safety rules. As this was an intermediate class, the classroom time was much shorter than the Basic Carbine class. We finished the classroom time with a lesson in Jason’s preferred 50yard zero for the carbine. This discussion was to get everyone on the same page for the class. We finished up in less than two hours and headed to the range to zero.
The zeroing process took about 20 minutes. Most of us were veterans of RB1 classes and had an established 50 yard zero. We fired one 3 round group to confirm and moved on. A couple students had new equipment that was quickly zeroed. It was nice to be in a group of more experienced shooters and not burning up time getting squared away.
As mentioned above, the students were well prepared for the class. We had several combat veteran soldiers, seasoned Alaskans, and a well prepared Hawaiian in the class. All had appropriate clothing for the class so there was no wasted time in trying to survive the poor weather. Redback One believes that you need to train as you fight. Bad weather is not a reason to go easy, it’s an opportunity to shake out your gear in hard conditions. Every student was running an AR of some sort. All were high quality carbines, but some ammo used by students was of questionable quality. Most stoppages, including my own, were ammo related.
Day one drills involved some dot torture to learn our holdovers at short ranges, learning to shoot off balance left and right, shooting around cover using strong side only left and right, cadence drills to build our speed, reload drills, and transitions from the carbine to pistol. We worked hard on getting the carbine back in action after finishing off your opponent with the handgun by reloading the carbine or solving the stoppage of the carbine. To do this we worked with every manner of carbine stoppage you can imagine and solved it the Redback One way.
Jason firmly believes in challenging you both mentally AND physically, often both at the same time. He wants you to think on your feet under stress. Throughout day one there were relay races that tested each block of skills we learned. We were split into two teams and that bred some healthy competition. Misses were treated with having to run penalty laps. Pretty soon you figured out a balance of running fast enough to get the job done, and taking the time to make your shots count. If you are a fat out of shape guy like me, you’d better shoot goodI did and didn’t run any penalty laps that day. Penalty laps were also doled out for dropping gear or not running the gun properly.
The end of day one saw a briefing on controlling bleeding in a shooting situation and the importance of tourniquets.
Day two dawned bright and sunny with temps that started at 30F and moved up to the mid 40’s.It was a beautiful day for training.
Day two started with more barrier shooting drills from the left and right sides. This progressed into learning strong side to weak side carbine transitions. Jason systematically taught us the process and we then progressed to using it while shooting from cover. It was amazing how tiring repetitive transitions on command are if the instructor doesn’t allow you to put the rifle down. We moved on to shooting more drills that taught us roll-over prone and shooting from cover in various positions in both strong side and weak side. When done with these drills you definitely could feel the burn, as it put us in some weird positions that you rarely come up with in your own training. We had more timed competitions that were challenging both physically and mentally. We finished the day working with a teammate against another team shooting from cover and, yes, more running.
We finished the training on day two with a drill on improvised tourniquets. Redback One really stresses the important skills of combat first aid.
We finished the course with awards for various races and funny moments in the class. Jason brought some good swag for the prizes and that was really nice.
I was very satisfied with this class. I learned a tremendous amount that I will integrate into my personal training. One of the biggest things I learned was that to be an effective fighter, physical conditioning is as important as your fighting skills. In fact, it’s hard to have good fighting skills without strength and balance. I came away from the class as tired and sore as I haven’t been in twenty years. This is not to say that the training is over the top, but for a guy that is 60 lbs over weight, it’s a challenge. With Redback One you have the option of opting out of any drill, so I wouldn’t be afraid of the training. You will just get more out of it if you are in shape. I’ve reached the point that my physical condition is holding me back from reaching the next step. I will say that the 30lbs I have lost since my Basic Carbine class made a HUGE difference. When I lose the other 60lbs I will be headed to the states to pick up an Advanced Carbine class with Jason (when I pass his standards). Oddly enough, on my two hour drive home, I came up with a workout that combines all of Jason’s shooting drills with a workout of sprinting, stretching and calisthenics. This might very well get me to work out by combining exercise with my interest in shooting.
Thank you to Jason and Giselle for running a top notch training company and bringing your talent to Alaska.
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Originally Posted by skd_tactical
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