VT Hackathorn/Vickers Low Light Class #1 AAR

[VA_Dinger]

These guys are heading home so it's time to start the class #1 AAR thread. Considering it's a low light class I'm not really expecting many photos, but you never know.

[Sam]

Maybe someone had one of those fancy night vision camera

I'll have to call Ken for the AAR from the instructors' point of view, I'll let him sleep tonight though.

[C4IGrant]

Just got back and settled in. Will post some info later about the class, but all I can say is that it was hands down, one of the best training classes I have ever attended!




C4

[Eric Rice]

Just got back and settled in. Will post some info later about the class, but all I can say is that it was hands down, one of the best training classes I have ever attended!

C4

ROGER THAT, Brother!

"I don't care if you have to whore out your wife..." Dudes, take this class.

[subzero]

Just got home. Good class. Eye opener.

[John_Wayne777]

I'm eager to hear some feedback. I'm scheduled to take this class in September.

[KevinB]

damn,

But for one insurgent ambush screwing everying my original leave dates would have been during this....

I need one in Mid Oct-Mid Nov period.
PLEASE.
I'm begging.

[subzero]

To sum it up in as few words as possible, fighting at night sucks. It’s an environment that turns easy tasks hard, and hard tasks nearly impossible. The “reptilian brain” or “caveman brain” is what’s controlling a lot of what you do. Remaining switched on enough to think is tough, even when the bad guys aren’t shooting back.

I don’t think this class was appropriate for everyone. I thought it and heard it a few times over the weekend: I can’t believe this class didn’t require some kind of prerequisite to get in. NO time was spent on the basics like marksmanship or zeroing. If you didn’t show up ready to go with a decent skill set already at your disposal, this class would have left you in the dust at dusk on day one. I was yanked out of my comfort zone within one hour of starting on the first day. It was nerve racking and intense. So intense, that I turned down the opportunity to shoot an FA Colt SMG, because the situation we were in was already intense enough, I didn’t want the added pressure of shooting a long gun that I wasn’t intimately familiar with.

This class was unique in that Vickers and Hackathorn actually acted as two lead instructors, one teaching carbine stuff, the other teaching pistol stuff. This was my third (I think) class with LAV, and I’m familiar and comfortable with how he goes about instructing. I can only hope the “short bus crew” doesn’t find themselves to greatly offended to realize that LAV was only helping them out by getting on them the way he did. It was my first time training with Ken Hackathorn, and it seems as though he and LAV are cut from the same cloth.

Highlights:

- Since we didn’t get started until 3pm on the first day, Chris and I found ourselves with a bit of time to spare in Parkersburg West VA. Guess what’s in Parkersburg? If you guessed Novak’s Gun Shop, you are correct. We took a quick tour of the place and saw lots and lots of neat stuff if you’re a 1911 freakazoid.

- As previously mentioned, once we got started I got yanked out of my comfort zone pretty quick. After a quick warmup, you’re doing stuff most of us don’t get the chance to do on our square ranges at home.

- Shooting an M&P 45 (with manual safety) and H&K 45 back to back was neat. Once again, H&K manages to disappoint. The M&P 45 shot okay at speed but felt like it needed a trigger job in slow fire. The manual safety pulled my right thumb up away from the slide release just like a 1911. Yeah buddy. The H&K’s safety/decocker lever is something I’ve never been a fan of and within one magazine it bit me (pulled trigger all the way to the rear with no bang because my thumb was pulling down on the safety/decocker). I swear H&K doesn’t design guns for humans. The M&P is the clear winner between the two. The M&P is destined to end up on my hip at some point or another.

- The classes that I have taken to this point underscore certain fundamentals about marksmanship. It became alarmingly clear why the focus is there during this class. The nice little groups I was doing at speed during the day doubled in size at night. Continually striving for better accuracy seems to be a must, because everything you do past standing at 25 yards shooting bullseyes can and will degrade your accuracy, and thus your potential to deliver a fight-ending shot.

- I can’t imagine shooting that class without CT Lasergrips on the handgun. They supplement your own ability to quickly and accurately get shots on target in low/no light (especially since most of it was strong hand only) like nothing else on the market. Simon’s quote from a few classes back holds true: “Not having these on your handgun is like not having a red dot on your rifle.”

- The only equipment malfunction I experienced was a broken cross bolt on my Knight’s rear BUIS. Had to break out the backup carbine just before it got dark, which could have been bad but ended up not being an issue at all.

- Two rifle magazines plus one in the gun, 4-5 1911 mags plus one in the gun seemed to be enough to not hold up the rest of the group. Chris and I have evolved towards a minimalist approach to gear in these classes, and I think it’s working out pretty well. Of course, many people felt differently and were decked out with so much stuff I thought they were about to invade France. I think there’s merit to both approaches.

- The evening meal on Saturday was so good it seemed a shame we had to get up and start doing stuff again.

- Round count by my estimation was about 650 rifle and 600 handgun. In speaking with Chris afterwards, we couldn’t think of a place where they could have worked in more rounds without them starting to lose a bit of training value.

- I’ve seen a few night fire demos before in talking about flash, but I had never shot my 45 carry ammo at night. I knew the TAP 9mm in my Glock puts out a bit of flash, but the fireball coming out of a 45 shooting 230gr Golden Saber is retarded. I’m switching to Ranger SXTs as soon as I can.


That's all for now. I'm sure other folks will have more interesting stuff to say.

[Aubrey]

subzero,
Very nice AAR. Thanks for taking the time.

I'm curious to hear lessons learned from all attending on weapon-mounted lights as well as tertiary/hand-held lights (i.e., what worked well and why, what sucked and why...). Many thanks in advance.

[Eric Rice]

subzero,

I'm curious to hear lessons learned from all attending on weapon-mounted lights as well as tertiary/hand-held lights (i.e., what worked well and why, what sucked and why...). Many thanks in advance.

As always, it pays to have both weapon-mounted, and hand-held. I rarely used the light on my sidearm. I was faster with the hand-held and the pistol.

An X200A died (and separately the DG switch) that's been on the pistol for less than 900 rds. Switched to TLR-1 and rolled on...