AAR Vickers Tactical Home Defense / US Training Center (Moyock, NC) Nov 4-6th 2011

[Titleist]

Vickers Tactical
www.vickerstactical.com



Grey Group Training:
www.greygrouptraining.com





Vickers Tactical Home Defense
US Training Center
Moyock, NC

For those of you who haven’t attended the Derek Zoolander School for Kids who want to read good and want to do other stuff good too; this class was awesome. I classify this class as much an adventure as it was a great training opportunity. So for those brave souls that don’t mind a rather long and wordy documentation of said class I say turn back now.

Back in November of last year I remember getting a call from my buddy Patrick (D90KING) asking me if I wanted to participate in the Vickers Tactical Home Defense class. This was the same class, a year prior that Jon (M4Guru / Danger Close) asked me if I wanted to attend. Back when Jon asked me it was a situation of, “hey man, there’s a waiting list for this class, but if you want in I’ll let you know.” Of course a few weeks before class began he emails me, “We have a space, you want it?” 3 weeks to get the money together for class, buying frangible, airfare, hotel, rental car, etc, just wasn’t possible. I did however ask myself honestly if I was ready for a class with that kind of material. I thought to myself that I wasn’t ready; that I knew enough to know I didn’t know enough.

So when the opportunity came up again I jumped on it. And thus began 11 months of preparation for this class. I thought ahead and signed up for one of Larry’s 2-day Carbine classes (in Kansas City) in May, to provide me with insight into Larry’s teaching style and his expectations. I put much more of a focus during that time into handgun work, and low-light skill building. Essentially my goal was to spool up the skills I knew we’d be tapping for time spent in this class.

Fast forward 11 months and I found myself sitting in the Delta Terminal at Portland International Airport at close to midnight, nursing my third beer while waiting for my late flight to Atlanta. After struggling to get my giant Storm 2950 case under the 50lb limit and a conversation with the regional TSA manager I ended up carrying my armor plates through security. If you do a lot of flying you know that airports basically become ghost towns after 9-9:30pm. So here I am basically putting my shoes, toiletries, and armor plates in a plastic bin and shuffling them through the X-Ray machine. Since everyone was in a good mood they invited me behind the machine to actually look at the plates. This being the first time I’ve had the chance to verify through X-rays that they looked clean and good to go.

After getting to my gate, and finding that my flight is 2 hours delayed I decided that as long as I was sober enough to get into my seat then it was time to pound a few beers. The guy next to me took this to an extreme and drank so much that when the flight started boarding they couldn’t even wake him up.

8 hours later, with guns, fellow students, and gear in tow, we arrived at US Training Center. Due to some verbal miscommunication on the part of the Black Bear Inn, my friend Seth and I were stuck in the bunkhouse. Basically about the standards of a 2nd rate college dorm we were only greeted by one small roach, which was snuffed out before I even had the chance to say hello. Gear unpacking commenced, grub was rustled up, and we prepared for training.

Training Day 1: Pistol Skill Building



The weather in Moyock was a cruel joke, 70-degree weather all week up until Friday, and then as soon as class begins it’s raining, cold, and windy. You know what they say about raining in regards to class.

Just like Grant pointed out last year, everyone in attendance was a solid shooter, with a class count of around 18-20 shooters. With almost all of the students having gone through one of Larry’s classes beforehand, some even having taken the Home Defense class last year. With everyone rallying at Range T1, Larry greeted us, told us just to grab our handguns, and to line up on the 15yd line on the adjacent T2 range.



With bull’s-eye targets up, Larry had us fire 10 rounds at our own speed. This served just to see where the students were at skill-wise. Targets looked quite good, to which Larry then emphasized how 10 yds may have been our longest shot in the houses, and even at those distances due to the stress we would very likely shank shots into the white, and that getting our shit in order ON THE FLAT RANGE was critical before we risked ****ing up in the house.





To identify El Snatcho we broke into pairs and did the shell casing/dime on the front sight drill. Each time we dry fired, with a clean pull of the trigger resulting on the casing or dime not falling off the front sight. At this point I should mention I decided to be a retard and was shooting my Nighthawk FLX, “Holmes, you’re gonna really hate life when we get into the house with that fiber optic front sight…” “I’m sorry, Larry…”

Next was the Ball and Dummy drill, which we worked as partners, randomly loading each other’s guns to reveal when the shooter was anticipating recoil. If you snatched the trigger you did 5 clean dry fires, set the gun up again with a partner, and then swapped positions with your partner to assist them. With the refresher in trigger pull covered we split into two relays, and performed a modified group walkback drill. Starting at 5 yards, where we’d fire two shots, then 3, then 4, and then step back to 7yds, repeating the shot cadence, then back to 10yds, 15, and finally 20yds. The goal was to keep all shots within the 10 ring, again, as Larry said, because even up close we would be prone to throwing shots off the bull’s-eye just due to the situation if we weren’t careful.





After hauling out barricades we broke into a line, with 4 stations; a tall vertical barricade on the left, a stepped barricade in the middle, and another tall barricade on the right. Because of the nature of the class, and the caliber of students, we were expected to know how to deal with barricades already, specifically movement, footwork, and weapon handling. We ran this setup twice, once right-handed, then left-handed.



With our pistol refresher completed Larry brought us in to the entrance of Shoothouse T1. At this point Larry echoed some of the possible scenarios we might find ourselves in, such as entering a house alone, leaving a house alone, getting from one part of the house to another (getting to our kids, etc), and the practical and logistical challenges of moving and clearing each room.



Larry then split the groups in half, with Larry handling the group entering into to the hallways on the left side of the range, and Jon handling the group entering from the front. Immediately you get to the door and Larry just says, “okay, whenever you’re ready…” Whenever I’m ready? Okay, so I just open the door? That’s it?! This wasn’t a handholding class, which meant that Larry didn’t brief all of us as to how do clear a room step by step, but rather we figured it out as we went, and at any time we could stop, and ask Larry how best to approach the situation. However this meant that for a lot of us we would go through our runs, stop, and then ask, “Okay, so what did I **** up and how terrible was that, Larry?” Doors, even shit as simple as knobs you learned to open from the side closest to the knob. Students would reach across the entire doorway to hear LAV stop the student, “Holmes, you considered trying it from the other side?” “Uhhh…nope.”

Experience gained on even that first run was invaluable. Square range mentality is to move with pistols and rifles in the SUL position. But once you start to pie corners you find that you can’t do that, in fact what bit me on my first run was that I had the gun crunched up way too close to my face (“That shit is gonna come back and smack you in the head if you fire, Bro.”), and I was moving my head, and the gun wasn’t tracking with my eyes. This meant I would identify the target, bring the gun up to fire, make a controlled pair, and then search and assess. For most people movement and just treating each room like that chess was the biggest challenge to overcome. Each room was just a simple game of geometry. I need to go there, but there’s a door so I move left to a certain point, then swing right before making a judgment call. And not only that I need to move through the room in such a way that I don’t look like a geriatric retard. BUT don’t move so fast that I can’t process the room.



In addition to that you still need to put your rounds in the bulls. Which when you’re surprised by a ‘boogie man’ target (one that’s JUST around the corner) your shots can miss the black completely, and this was from just 2yds! The common thread for the class was “Yo, you’re moving too fast for your brain to process.” And that alone sums up the biggest hurdle, being smooth, perceiving the hand you’re dealt, and deciding on that plan of action, and executing it with as little wasted movement as possible.

Our group then moved to Jon’s side of the house to run another set of rooms. The biggest nugget for that first day came from the feedback given to me by Jon, when I was shooting around corners in a cramped up manner, “Isaac, just take a step back, okay, punch out. See how you’ve made full extension and you’re still getting the same view of the room? Do that.” This came into play when running a rifle over the next few days, especially in tight quarters. Another key point of thinking through the situation was that if you need to work a malfunction, or a reload, just step back behind cover. I, and other shooters, would sometimes just stand there rather than just taking one step over to square their shit away. My FLX double fed, okay, lock, strip, rack, re-insert, powerstroke, go, all while standing in the doorway like a dipshit. Okay, don’t do that again, learning occurred.



Back out and over to Larry’s side of the house, where we essentially started where the first run ended, by engaging targets at the bottom and top of stairs. These stairs were triple wide, and steep, as Jon later said, “Okay guys, these stairs are huge, so if your house has stairs this big call me, because I wanna move in with you!”







One of the things that go me was focusing on the target at the top of the stairs, but not scanning right above me to search for a possible landing or overhang. And to pie around the corners meant moving left and right, and up and down the staircase like a swoop, all of which required solid footwork and constant scanning.

At this point the question of optics came up, what was the best? “Aim ****ing Mother****ing Point!” – LAV.

Simple as that.

[Titleist]

Day 2: Carbine Skill Building



We were spared rain, but given constant gusting wind. Tom and Michael from Raven Concealment also joined us on Day 2. This being the third class I’ve had the chance to hang with them, and besides making a great product they’re involvement with the shooting community is fantastic.



With everyone kitted up we assembled on T2, and began working on rifle fundamentals, transitions, and barricades. Shoulder switching was also a covered topic, as bringing the gun around the target without exposing more of your body then needed, is an essential tactic. I’m in the lucky few who can shoot weakside with both eyes open, “If you can do this, go out and buy a few lotto tickets.” Some folks just could not easily get their brain and eyes to handle this kind of aiming.





Another thing that bit me on the range, and then bit me bad in the house, was safety selector manipulation. I wasn’t being unsafe, in fact I was being TOO safe to throw that lever back to SAFE. “Who taught you how to work the safety?” “I don’t know, Larry” “Stop doing that” “Yes, Larry, sorry, Larry.” Instead of throwing the safety back on right after the controlled pair the gun should have been on fire, finger straight and off the trigger, while scanning down range, once I was certain no more bad guys, THEN throw the safety back on.



After a few specific carbine drills related to close quarters we busted out the frangible ammunition to verify it would feed and cycle. The last thing you want is ball ammo making its way into your gun in a shoothouse. Because that bullet trap aint gonna trap shit.

“Trust me, guys, you shoot me by accident and I’ll shoot back” – Jon.





After lunch we broke off into two groups. One would head down to Range T11 with Larry, and the other would stay at T1 with Jon. Our group stayed at T1, and we were run through T1 with carbines. As I come up to the door, I’m amped, cautious but amped. I grab the handle, kick the door open with my foot, and pie around the corner. BAD GUY! CLICK! CLICK? “SAFETY IS ON, DUMBASS!” I tell myself. Safety off, controlled pair right in the black. Safety back on, pie around the corner, another bad guy, CLICK! “GOD DAMNIT!” Safety off, controlled pair! Shit! Jon would later mention that this is one of the most common mistakes, just over-running the gun and not thinking through how you’d normally shoot the gun in any other situation. Again, learning point, that’s the last time that problem cropped up.





All in all I think for the 3 days we only did 6-7 runs through the houses. However the real information to be gained was by observing how other shooters were moving through the houses. To see how they were tackling the geometry of each room. Given that the best time spent was climbing up into the catwalks to follow each shooter around. For me it was to grab photos, but just sitting there and observing was completely invaluable time spent.





After our group finished up Larry’s group queued up behind us, and our group shuffled down to T11. T11 is a large, one story shoothouse, with a large central catwalk running down the top. Both ranges present unique challenges. T1 is completely contained, so lights can be dialed up, down, or off, it’s multi-level with tight and wide staircases, and presents the most realistic representation of what most homes would feel like (sans furniture). T11 to me feels most like moving through a condo, office, etc, and with it’s wide hallways and large rooms, creates massive zones where you can wander into spots where you can get zipped from two directions if you’re not careful.





I want to single out my friend Jim Carter for a second. Throughout the weekend he was struggling with two mindsets. As a Marine he hard charges through a room, and a few times pie’d right around a corner to engage a target, only to expose himself unknowingly to another target. “You’re used to having 3 other guys covering you, right?” “Yeah, I am.” So for Jim there was a certain switching of mentalities that had to happen, one that involved slowing down to realize it was just himself, and not with the support of other shooters. This in a nutshell summed up how shitty it is to do a one man clear. There’s righter ways to move through a situations, but there is no definitive RIGHT way. As such doing so is a slow, deliberate slog through your knowns, and unknowns in the room. Once you engage a target, get in to that room in a responsive manner, but as one man you need to SLOW DOWN.





One of the changes on T11 was that we were no longer using bullseye targets, but had moved to humanoid photos. This meant that shot placement became critical. A headshot took on new value as hitting a target in the jaw, hand, or gun, wasn’t good enough. Mechanical Offset also dinged quite a few shooters, as under stress shots were low into the mouth, or down below the pumper. “You’re coming into that room, focus on the hairline, or top of the clavicle.”

To introduce transitions Larry had all of us hand our mags over to another student, who then proceeded to load between 5-12 rounds. This would force an empty gun, requiring us to continue with our handguns only.





Once you start going through a tight hallway you quickly realize that one of the best weapons is still your handgun, purely for the maneuverability it provides. Given that the next best thing is a short barreled rifle with a good Red Dot Optic…again that being an Aimpoint. Even at 11.5 inches, plus a suppressor, that setup starts feeling huge as hell in a hallway that’s 4-5’ wide.



Also T-intersections suck. Big time. For reals. We then wrapped up the day, dropped gear off, and then packed our way in for a class dinner.

[Titleist]

Day 3: Low-Light / Two Man Clears.



With an extra hour of sleep gained from daylights savings time, and some respectable weather, we started the third and final day. The class again split into two, with Larry’s group again heading down to T11. Jon ran our group at T1, this time with pistols only, in low-light. So now we’d have to do target identification, but also still move smoothly, and make solid hits. It’s my turn, I step through the room, go up to the door, and activate my DG switch on my M&P. Nothing. “Dumbass,” I again tell myself. I swapped the batteries around during transit. I pull out my Surefire LX2, open the door, and start making deliberate burst of light to identify what’s in the room. Bad guys! I roll out around the door jam, controlled pair, good hits. I then slowly work my way into the room, and get bunched up at the door, which is deliberately crowded with something in the doorway. Instead of opening up the door to the hallway to make a shot I instead lean over the obstruction, and in a totally bizarre lean make my shots. Controlled pair, rounds are almost touching…about an inch outside the black. Crap. Jon calls stop, and walks me back around to show me how just by manipulating the situation I could create an avenue of fire, and a better POV of what can be seen down the hallway.



Jon then kicked us out of the house, re-shuffled the layout, and then took us through a small hallway that would force us through a closed room, and then a tight staircase. This one was tough, but tied together everything we’d learned the past few days. Immediately on opening the door was staged a no-shoot target, you’d then pie to the right, engage a target, and then proceed up a very tight set of stairs. As a realistic but challenging, “**** you,” was a target on the top of the landing, the stairs would then snake around with another target at the top. Surprisingly not a single person shot the no-shoot, affectionately nick-named Menudo.





While all of this was taking place, those students not shooting were being given a white-board session of how two man-clears work. Specifically regarding sectors of fire, button hooking, strong-walling, red-zones, verbal commands, and the difference between entering a center-fed room, versus a corner-fed room.



I cannot stress this fact enough, but this portion of the class, purely to educate us while we were waiting, was by far some of the most impressive information given. We were lucky enough to have a few guest instructors supporting Larry, and the combined operational experience being presented to us was staggering. As D90King said to me at lunch, “The combination of WHO is teaching this information is almost once in a lifetime.” These instructors, guest if you will, were constantly observing us from catwalks, and when Larry or Jon would give their feedback they’d be able to just look up and ask, “you got any more observations for him?” Being able to have more than one set of eyes on you allowed for a massive increase in improvements you could make, what you did right, and what you did wrong. Your brain is processing so much information, to do it safely, and to hit your targets. That stepping back, and self-diagnosing what you think you did wrong or right became tremendously tough. Without these other instructors each person would be at a loss.





After lunch Larry offered us a choice. We could either stay at T1 with Larry to continue single man clears, or head down to T11 with Jon for two-man clears. I opted for doing two-man clears. Gathering up our gear we caravanned down to T11. Unloaded our rifles, and stacked into the main room outside the central interior of the one-story shoothouse. We were paired off, and ran the room with dry weapons, focusing on the communication, and understanding the sectors we were responsible for that we learned back on the whiteboard.





The shoothouse was then reshuffled and we did it live. Communication was king in this situation. Specially when entering into your teammates sector, calling shots, requesting and permitting movement, etc. Simple things like your teammate not going far enough down their strong-side wall can cause you to bind up because that leaves you exposed. It was also related to us that if the first man in the stack gets tagged that the second man has a 90 percent chance of getting tagged as well. This put it in perspective how important it was for both people to get into the room in a smooth and deliberate manner, taking the corners while gun turreting to cover their sectors, all while NOT stopping to focus on a target. Unless that threat is right in that doorway you get to your corner and do your job.







We were run through the two-man clears twice. Then we hit 1500 on the clock, cleaned up our house, and headed back at T1 for a final class gathering before shaking hands, packing up gear, and heading home.

Conclusions:

A lot of this is going to sound familiar to Grant’s AAR from last year, and for good reason. This is hard material; it requires a mental aptitude for looking at situations and reacting to them accordingly, quickly, but most importantly smoothly. Things directly learned:

- Don’t crowd cover, take a step back, don’t be a crumpled up retard.
- Don’t work your malfunctions in a doorway.
- Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Fast is awesome, if you’re a marine, and have buddies!
- Never give up what you just fought to control!
- Stairs are bullshit.
- Landings on top of stairways are super bullshit!
- Be smooth and deliberate on your safety selector.
- There’s no prize for fastest one man clear, slow down and THINK!
- Short Barreled Rifles are awesome.
- Muzzle Brakes indoors are the quickest way to give Larry and Jon headaches.
- If you start shooting at the range before Larry gets his earpro on be prepared to piss him the **** off.

This was hands down the most amazing training experience I’ve had in the last 3 years of firearms training. Between the location, quality of students, material, just the pure volume of operational experience that was being shared with us, and used to keep us safe, was tremendously humbling. The fact that people like Larry, Jon, and others, were willing to share this information with us tremendously appreciated. Whether you were LE, MIL, or civilian, the information was applicable because we all live in houses, apartments, etc, and that slight shift in perceiving your surroundings immediately makes you change how you view where you live.

I want to thank Larry for once again being a great instructor. Grey Group, Paul Hotaling, and Jon for organizing these classes to begin with. Tom and Michael for spending their time at the class, as well as bring all the students a set of brand new 12ga shotgun panels (called ModuLoaders), and for putting up with my shitty attempt to cut bread (sorry). US Training Center, for your occasional roach, powdered eggs, yet amazing facility that is open to us civilians.

Finally, I want to thank the students, for defining the tempo of the class right from the get-go. From experience I know classes can be a slog, or they can be a sprint, and what separates the two is the quality of the students. When people are at the level, you can go full tilt into the material. We certainly did that. Thank you all for the great weekend, for keeping it safe, and keeping it fun.

I plan to re-take this class next year, 3 days was like trying to drink water from a fire hose.

Gear:

For this class I ran the 11.5” upper that Grant put together for me a few years back, which is an 11.5 barreled upper with a Knights URXII, with Knights Triple Tap brake. I used this in conjunction with my Knights QDSS suppressor running Federal 5.56 XM193 and Black Hills 55gr MPG frangible ammo. On day 1 I ran my Nighthawk 9mm FLX, and then transitioned to my M&P Pro, which sat in my Raven Concealment Phantom LC.

Armor was BAE/Ceradyne SAPI-Style Level 4 plates in a Blue Force Gear LMAC carrier, with pistol/rifle mags being carried in a RCS ‘Sonny’ rig on my ARES Gear Ranger Belt.

Photos:
Day 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/isaac_m...7627954656275/
Day 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/isaac_m...7628080400488/
Day 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/isaac_m...7627955201895/

[SeriousStudent]

Isaac, thank you very much for this AAR. I have been looking forward to reading it with great interest. I particularly liked the point you made about the right time to re-apply the safety.

Excellent photography, by the way.

[Ironman8]

To say this class was awesome would be the understatement of the year. Thanks for the AAR, Titleist! I know I learned more than I will be able to remember that's for sure.

[TOrrock]

Outstanding.

[Vinh]

As always, thanks to Larry and Paul for a fantastic class.

Special thanks to the guest instructors for providing plenty of useful feedback.

Thanks to Titleist for the nice photos.

[glock_forty5]

Great AAR. I always admire students that take the time to put their gear down and take pictures (I am always to busy drinking from the fire-hose).

I will add to this thread my big take away. After you pie the door from the outside you still need to look in each corner. Peripheral vision cannot be trusted. Larry corrected me on this and I understood what he meant but did not see what I did until I got on the cat walk and watched others do the same. That was a light bulb moment. The other thing that trapped me was on the 2 man drill, I was first man in and as soon as I saw a target, I stopped, in the door way and engaged. My teammate was stuck behind me. Big mistake. Entering a room with a bad guy, running past him to my sector, and then engaging him will take some practice. In the graphic below I did not do what shooter number 1 does, well on my first time through anyway.



This was a great class with outstanding instruction. Larry and his special guest instructors delivered big time. I absorbed a lot of lessons and now I must master them. My wife thinks I am crazy the way I walk around clearing the house. Hell, I pie-ed the doorway to the conference room at work yesterday! Got to practice where I can. Also to be stated was the level of skill of all the students. Never once did I have pause for concern. This was the key to get the most out of this class. Plus no one stepped on my toe shoes despite the temptation! Thanks goes to Paul and Grey Group for putting all this together.

JT

PS- I am not sure what is in a Cracker Barrel Country Fried Steak but it was good.

[30 cal slut]

great aar Isaac!

[NCPatrolAR]

Great AAR. I need to get out to one of these classes some day.