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Thread: Study Sessions

  1. #1
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    Got a good drill session in with member Gutshot John today.
    Last edited by Jay Cunningham; 10-28-09 at 16:40.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by The_Katar View Post
    Monday bump - got a good drill session in with member Gutshot John today.
    Indeed and thanks again for the time getting me ready for the Nightfighter class in November. I got a lot out of it and saw good improvement. I also appreciated the troubleshooting and the being pushed out of the normal comfort zone, especially shooting offhand.

    Gents, if you haven't taken TK up on his extremely generous offer for 1-on-1 time you'd be foolish not to. If you're new to this and you've never taken a formal class or if you're more experienced and need another set of eyes to make sure you're squared away. Either way you'd pay good money to get a private lesson for the cost of a little time and ammo.
    It is bad policy to fear the resentment of an enemy. -Ethan Allen

  3. #3
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    Got another session in with The_Katar and troubleshot issues as they came to light that I need to address in preparation for the upcoming Viking nightfighter class.

    Lessons Learned:

    1. I'm now running my sling as loose as I can, especially if mounting your sling to the buffer tube. Last time I had it mounted to the stock (CTR), but had problems with transitions. I switched it to the buffer tube and things showed a significant improvement. If you run a sling loose you can always tighten it up for accuracy, but for transitions to support or sidearm you really need a lot of play to be quick.
    2. A huge benefit I'm getting with T_K is addressing gear/setup issues. When you do a few transitions/reloads you quickly learn what setups work and what don't. In that vein, my reload pouch needed to change positions as I had some issues getting my hands wrapped around the mag and would subsequently fumble around. I'm also dumping the whole "shingle" idea in favor of a flap pouch as storage with an FB as my dedicated reload. Similarly I found the FB works great with a standard GI mag, but is slower using a PMAG.
    3. Using a TLR-2 on my Glock also brought issues to "light." I know you guys aren't going to believe me, but I was faster using just the illumination and sights than I was using the laser. A big lesson is that it's an advertising myth ("the guy with the laser lived") that handgun lasers substitute for practice (never mind sights) or compensate for stress. To use a laser effectively you have to put in the same amount of practice, and probably require more skill.
    4. TLG's "Dot-Torture" is an excellent tool/drill to practice transitions to pistol, in that vein another lesson learned is that when transitioning from an AR to pistol trigger it is very very easy to snatch the trigger on your first pistol shot after the transition. The change of trigger technique is quite discombobulating and while subsequent shots were on target, one really needs to slow down and think about presentation and trigger pull on that first shot. Take your time, do it right.


    Seriously guys, get out there with someone who knows what to look for. Training classes are all well and good, but an experienced set of eyes during a practice session works out a lot of the bugs in your technique.
    It is bad policy to fear the resentment of an enemy. -Ethan Allen

  4. #4
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    Did more Nightfighter prep with The_Katar today and I must say that there has been marked improvement over the last 3 weeks. It definitely helps that his home range allows for significant practice opportunities as the weather gets cooler/grayer with no one else around.

    Gear/kit issues have been sorted out. I'm pretty comfortable with the setup I've got. Pistol mag pouches need to be given more thought but I'm confident in the setup.

    We started with running the FAST test twice. The first was in tactical gear and was painfully slow with the transition and reload from a covered pouch, the second was shot from simple concealment and was more than twice as fast. Facing/movement was mostly review but it helped get kick off some rust "turn head - face body." Movement is something I've always been a bit more comfortable with and so I got caught "freelancing" during a snake drill.

    We reviewed facing, movement and then focused heavily on transitions. Starting with carbine (empty chamber) sight picture, safety off and finger on trigger at buzzer, pull the trigger and transition firing one shot. It was an excellent drill especially using limited ammo and by the end of a series of decreasing par times kinks had been worked out and transitions were much smoother as the par was more than cut in half.

    Fall in Western PA means excellent conditions for low-light/night shooting (if you just happen to know the club "pro" who might also moderate a certain m4 carbine forum). Drills were pretty straight-forward incorporating facing/movement with light including LAV's LIE as well as a snake drill using chair to simulate cover/no-shoot. Ironically accuracy seems to improve in lower light but everything was much smoother.

    Earlier on in the day I was a bit frustrated, but T_K in a "teachable moment" made it perfectly clear that it's not really training unless you're out of your comfort zone. You don't learn quickly by doing things right. Feedback is vital to learning how to shoot and you don't always get that in a class with 15-20 other people where you get the big things but as with anything else the devil is in the details. Those little things add up and effort needs to be invested to identify and correct them.

    Genuinely guys, once again, if I haven't made it perfectly clear, hint hint, nudge nudge. If you have access to an extra set of eyes with a bit of knowledge who's willing to spend some time with you to help you improve, check your ego at the door and get it done.
    It is bad policy to fear the resentment of an enemy. -Ethan Allen

  5. #5
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    GSJ and I have now hit the practice range three weeks running. Generally speaking I have facilitated the sessions in order to get GSJ up to speed for an upcoming course, but I have also demo'd the drills and participated in them.

    I have come to discover the *immense* value in this. Having someone who can operate a timer, watch manipulations and think up new variations on old drills makes shooting with a partner several times more effective than going to the range alone. As an added benefit, it makes it safer too (especially when they are EMT qualified )

    To borrow a term from stony275 and Ken Hackathorn, I intend on making this weekly "study group" a regular thing at my home range.



    Member Gutshot John preparing to shoot a modified Snake Drill.
    Last edited by Jay Cunningham; 11-06-09 at 12:09.

  6. #6
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    To follow up on what T_K said...

    The value of this type of session is really understated. More often than not a a dedicated 3 day carbine class you're getting a ton of information thrown at you. Even from the most qualified and gifted instructor "drinking from a firehose" is often the metaphor. Even a "locked-on" student cannot hope to master all the techniques they are being shown and so training, without subsequent practice, is less than ideal.

    Even with subsequent practice I've noticed that I'm not able to catch all the nuances and troubleshoot all the problems as I can't really see what I'm doing myself. At best progress is often slow (with occasional breakthroughs) and at worst one develops bad habits.

    As T_K states having a second pair of eyes adds "immense value" by not only identifying problems, but also allowing the time to figure out how to address it as well as reinforcing the fix by spending time on it. This "baby step" approach I think yields significant improvement in an informal training session rather than having to move on to another topic as you would in a formal class.

    What I genuinely love about shooting both in these informal sessions as well as in formal classes is that you have people who want to see you improve and are willing to lend their eye and support to see that you do.

    I'll see you next Thursday T_K.
    Last edited by Jay Cunningham; 10-28-09 at 15:51.
    It is bad policy to fear the resentment of an enemy. -Ethan Allen

  7. #7
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    GSJ and I will be shooting at FGSA this Wednesday around 3:30 pm.

  8. #8
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    I sure am jealous of the western side of Pa these days...

  9. #9
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    GSJ and I got some good study in yesterday. This session was a lot more free-form than some previous sessions, and we went wherever the conversation took us. We got into the specifics of tactical reloads, reloads with retention, emergency (a.k.a. slidelock) reloads and speed (a.k.a. gamer or IPSC) reloads and the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods.

    We performed some immediate malfunction clearances and remedial malfunction clearances, and discussed the hows and whys of dealing with a stovepipe malfunction.

    As always, shooting with movement is always great and shooting with movement is the dark is even better. I also got to try out a new belt configuration and new short Vickers gloves.

    Last edited by Jay Cunningham; 11-05-09 at 08:39.

  10. #10
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    I'm interested

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