Templar223
Member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2005
- Messages
- 309
I've always enjoyed reading Nomad's AARs from the various classes. I thought I'd share one on a class I took earlier this week.
After Action Report
John Farnam's Urban Rifle Class
May 16, 17
Showed up a little early to Sand Burr Gun Ranch (Rochester, IN) as I didn't get the official registration paperwork as a late registrant. Two hours early. Add an hour for the time change from IL and let's just say 6:00a.m. (back home in IL time) ready and rarin' to go is early. I got the forecast wrong... I don't know if it had changed or what but I expected highs around 70. Things were a good ten degrees colder at best. I turned my Izod fleece into a tactical fleece PDQ.
Not a bad range... has an authentic "ranch" aura about the place. It felt like a nice place. The owner of the place is a detective with the locals and his daughter pretty much runs the place. What a woman... likes her wheel gun in .44 mag and knows how to shoot and isn't afraid of hard work. They were all welcoming.
The staff came with good skills and impressive resumes, both in the shooting realm and the real world. Farnam is a major league instructor, as is his wife Vicki who I had a chance to chat with at length over dinner after the second day. Frank Sharpe is also top notch. There were also some others, including a(nother) John, Doc Gunn (a real ER doctor and a very good shooter), and Rick Perry (IIRC on the last name) who has been to Iraq three times working for consulting firms.
Class started with lectures on mindset, attitudes and the judicious use of deadly force with a rifle. Took a couple of breaks and then we were shown how to break down the rifles (FALs, AK/SKS, ARs and Mini-14). I found the tutorial on how to break down the AR's bolt assembly for cleaning and troubleshooting of common failures extremely useful.
Went outside and zeroed the rifles for 40 meters. "Why 40 meters?" you ask. Well, young sages, I'll tell ya... by zeroing at 40, your round will be no more than 2.5" either high or low out to about 260-280 meters. It will also be dead on at 40 & 240 meters, which, BTW, is well outside the rifle's optimum social usage range (about 150 meters) according to Farnam.
Once rifles were sighted in, we fired 100 rounds into the targets to recheck our sights and to see if the guns would give problems under intense use.
After lunch, we learned all sorts of stuff from how to hold the rifle on our shoulders to proper mounting and carry. It was a hot range from the get-go and we were expected to always have our rifles on our shoulders loaded (ditto with pistolas on our hips).
We engaged targets at a variety of ranges from all sorts of positions and while using cover.
Then we found out we were going to be there until at least 10pm. Whew!
Pizza arrived then we worked our way into the low-light shooting segment which turned into a "no ambient light" shooting segment after dark. Learned how effective EOTechs are - and they really shine near or after dark (pun intended). Tritium inserts, while not nearly as effective as EOTechs, would be lifesavers if you needed to shoot with your rifle at a target in low light (about 80% of deadly force encounters happen in low light). Found out those little $12 dealextreme.com CREE LED drop-in's for the Sure-Fire 6-series lights really do smoke anything else out there short of those custom monster lights. (Farnam and his staff had never seen them before).
Yeah, 950 lumens (from the Mag951 custom light) will light up targets 40 yards downrange like it's daytime. Only problem is your smokeless powder guns look like muzzle loaders when you fire... but you get that with any decent powered light. So, illuminate & shoot, move, illuminate & shoot, then move again.
All the while students were learning about what gear worked and what failed. The "happy family" as Doc put it. Everyone in the family... holster, belts, guns, slings, etc. must all be "happy" to work well. Personally, I found that Eagle's tac vest has a major problem if you're not wearing a thigh holster... those little dangling things you snug it up with really will fubar access to your handgun worn on the belt. I need to re-thread them from the bottom so dangling things don't reach my belt. And mags on your belt for your pistola will not play well with Eagle tactical slings (the sling will fall between mags, making a quick and slick presentation of the rifle impossible). Of course, if you're fully tac'd out, you eliminate these problems, but how many times are you going to be using a defensive rifle after spending a half-hour putting all that crap on? "It's a 'come as you are' fight," Farnam said.
The next day, we could sleep in after cleaning guns until almost midnight - and after drying our gear off as a downpour hit us just as we finished up the no-light shooting.
More lecture then hostage drills up close (do you KNOW where your rifle shoots up close?). All the students could easily make a brain stem hit with absolute confidence using the proper hold. Then engaging targets at various ranges from various positions with plenty of moving. Battlefield pick up drill (and while I shot pretty well, I missed both shots with my own rifle during this drill... while most everyone else scored hits with it! How humiliating.)
We then shot the "test", which I won't give away. Basically, Farnam gives you a task to complete in a fairly generous amount of time. It's up to you to formulate a plan and implement it. Requires all hits, no procedural errors and no safety violations. I passed after getting a procedural the first time (without even firing a shot!). The deal on this one is you must have a plan, you must concentrate and you must not be distracted with self-doubt. It's as much of a mind game as a practical shooting exercise. If you're calm and cool under stress, you'll do okay. But with each time you fail, the self-made stress goes up.
Had dinner with the instructors and range folks and fellow students after the graduation benediction.
A good time.
Prolly fired 1000 .223s and 100+ 9mm.
Tips: Load at least 30 mags before coming to class - max. of 28 rounds (or 1/2 inch of available room to depress the top round) per. Why? You can take a moment to rest and relax while others are feverishly loading mags. 20rd mags aren't a problem, you'll just get better at doing mag changes.
I can't recommend tritium night sights for your rifle enough. Ditto for EOTechs. Not having them may be the difference between walking away and talking about it and not.
Come rested (I got in at almost 1am the morning of the class. 17ish hours out there the first day was tough and then I had guns to clean!).
Bring Windex and / or several pairs of shooting glasses. Trying to shoot through dirty glasses makes what is ordinarily difficult into something that's virtually impossible.
Beginner rifle shooters are welcome and it's tailored for them. Don't be intimidated because you're female or inexperienced. Just come with an open mind and plenty of ammo.
Bring a second, back-up rifle. We had three guns (of seven) "fail" or become effectively unusable. One was one of the new fancy HK rifles. Talk about a piece of crap... it had the sight radius of a 6" wheel gun and had minute of barnyard door effective accuracy. It's a $1500+ gun too. Someone should be fired at HK over that design. Another problem gun was a M1A "carbine" (one of the new Springfields) that had reliability issues out the wazoooo. We also had a rear sight break on an M1Carbine and a 4-prong flash suppressor on an AR become a 3-prong sorta-suppressor, but that rifle was still shootable.
No ARs went down, despite 1000+ rounds fired over two days. Having read some other AARs, I was worried about that, but my gun did well with but two misfires which were good primer strikes. I used some of that Southern Ammo they were selling last year for $105/K. It worked very well save those two misfires.
Bring cleaning gear. While you don't "need" to clean your rifle after each day, you will have less problems if you do.
Lastly:
How many guys do you know have several $500-$1500 pistols and rifles and a bunch of ammo but have never taken any training? Trust me, if they haven't checked their gear out and found out what works and what doesn't and learned how to use those expensive tools, they might as well as have a hundred dollar Hi-Point pistol.
If you fall into that category, spend some money on TRAINING and shoot some of that ammo stockpile you've got.
John
After Action Report
John Farnam's Urban Rifle Class
May 16, 17
Showed up a little early to Sand Burr Gun Ranch (Rochester, IN) as I didn't get the official registration paperwork as a late registrant. Two hours early. Add an hour for the time change from IL and let's just say 6:00a.m. (back home in IL time) ready and rarin' to go is early. I got the forecast wrong... I don't know if it had changed or what but I expected highs around 70. Things were a good ten degrees colder at best. I turned my Izod fleece into a tactical fleece PDQ.
Not a bad range... has an authentic "ranch" aura about the place. It felt like a nice place. The owner of the place is a detective with the locals and his daughter pretty much runs the place. What a woman... likes her wheel gun in .44 mag and knows how to shoot and isn't afraid of hard work. They were all welcoming.
The staff came with good skills and impressive resumes, both in the shooting realm and the real world. Farnam is a major league instructor, as is his wife Vicki who I had a chance to chat with at length over dinner after the second day. Frank Sharpe is also top notch. There were also some others, including a(nother) John, Doc Gunn (a real ER doctor and a very good shooter), and Rick Perry (IIRC on the last name) who has been to Iraq three times working for consulting firms.
Class started with lectures on mindset, attitudes and the judicious use of deadly force with a rifle. Took a couple of breaks and then we were shown how to break down the rifles (FALs, AK/SKS, ARs and Mini-14). I found the tutorial on how to break down the AR's bolt assembly for cleaning and troubleshooting of common failures extremely useful.
Went outside and zeroed the rifles for 40 meters. "Why 40 meters?" you ask. Well, young sages, I'll tell ya... by zeroing at 40, your round will be no more than 2.5" either high or low out to about 260-280 meters. It will also be dead on at 40 & 240 meters, which, BTW, is well outside the rifle's optimum social usage range (about 150 meters) according to Farnam.
Once rifles were sighted in, we fired 100 rounds into the targets to recheck our sights and to see if the guns would give problems under intense use.
After lunch, we learned all sorts of stuff from how to hold the rifle on our shoulders to proper mounting and carry. It was a hot range from the get-go and we were expected to always have our rifles on our shoulders loaded (ditto with pistolas on our hips).
We engaged targets at a variety of ranges from all sorts of positions and while using cover.
Then we found out we were going to be there until at least 10pm. Whew!
Pizza arrived then we worked our way into the low-light shooting segment which turned into a "no ambient light" shooting segment after dark. Learned how effective EOTechs are - and they really shine near or after dark (pun intended). Tritium inserts, while not nearly as effective as EOTechs, would be lifesavers if you needed to shoot with your rifle at a target in low light (about 80% of deadly force encounters happen in low light). Found out those little $12 dealextreme.com CREE LED drop-in's for the Sure-Fire 6-series lights really do smoke anything else out there short of those custom monster lights. (Farnam and his staff had never seen them before).
Yeah, 950 lumens (from the Mag951 custom light) will light up targets 40 yards downrange like it's daytime. Only problem is your smokeless powder guns look like muzzle loaders when you fire... but you get that with any decent powered light. So, illuminate & shoot, move, illuminate & shoot, then move again.
All the while students were learning about what gear worked and what failed. The "happy family" as Doc put it. Everyone in the family... holster, belts, guns, slings, etc. must all be "happy" to work well. Personally, I found that Eagle's tac vest has a major problem if you're not wearing a thigh holster... those little dangling things you snug it up with really will fubar access to your handgun worn on the belt. I need to re-thread them from the bottom so dangling things don't reach my belt. And mags on your belt for your pistola will not play well with Eagle tactical slings (the sling will fall between mags, making a quick and slick presentation of the rifle impossible). Of course, if you're fully tac'd out, you eliminate these problems, but how many times are you going to be using a defensive rifle after spending a half-hour putting all that crap on? "It's a 'come as you are' fight," Farnam said.
The next day, we could sleep in after cleaning guns until almost midnight - and after drying our gear off as a downpour hit us just as we finished up the no-light shooting.
More lecture then hostage drills up close (do you KNOW where your rifle shoots up close?). All the students could easily make a brain stem hit with absolute confidence using the proper hold. Then engaging targets at various ranges from various positions with plenty of moving. Battlefield pick up drill (and while I shot pretty well, I missed both shots with my own rifle during this drill... while most everyone else scored hits with it! How humiliating.)
We then shot the "test", which I won't give away. Basically, Farnam gives you a task to complete in a fairly generous amount of time. It's up to you to formulate a plan and implement it. Requires all hits, no procedural errors and no safety violations. I passed after getting a procedural the first time (without even firing a shot!). The deal on this one is you must have a plan, you must concentrate and you must not be distracted with self-doubt. It's as much of a mind game as a practical shooting exercise. If you're calm and cool under stress, you'll do okay. But with each time you fail, the self-made stress goes up.
Had dinner with the instructors and range folks and fellow students after the graduation benediction.
A good time.
Prolly fired 1000 .223s and 100+ 9mm.
Tips: Load at least 30 mags before coming to class - max. of 28 rounds (or 1/2 inch of available room to depress the top round) per. Why? You can take a moment to rest and relax while others are feverishly loading mags. 20rd mags aren't a problem, you'll just get better at doing mag changes.
I can't recommend tritium night sights for your rifle enough. Ditto for EOTechs. Not having them may be the difference between walking away and talking about it and not.
Come rested (I got in at almost 1am the morning of the class. 17ish hours out there the first day was tough and then I had guns to clean!).
Bring Windex and / or several pairs of shooting glasses. Trying to shoot through dirty glasses makes what is ordinarily difficult into something that's virtually impossible.
Beginner rifle shooters are welcome and it's tailored for them. Don't be intimidated because you're female or inexperienced. Just come with an open mind and plenty of ammo.
Bring a second, back-up rifle. We had three guns (of seven) "fail" or become effectively unusable. One was one of the new fancy HK rifles. Talk about a piece of crap... it had the sight radius of a 6" wheel gun and had minute of barnyard door effective accuracy. It's a $1500+ gun too. Someone should be fired at HK over that design. Another problem gun was a M1A "carbine" (one of the new Springfields) that had reliability issues out the wazoooo. We also had a rear sight break on an M1Carbine and a 4-prong flash suppressor on an AR become a 3-prong sorta-suppressor, but that rifle was still shootable.
No ARs went down, despite 1000+ rounds fired over two days. Having read some other AARs, I was worried about that, but my gun did well with but two misfires which were good primer strikes. I used some of that Southern Ammo they were selling last year for $105/K. It worked very well save those two misfires.
Bring cleaning gear. While you don't "need" to clean your rifle after each day, you will have less problems if you do.
Lastly:
How many guys do you know have several $500-$1500 pistols and rifles and a bunch of ammo but have never taken any training? Trust me, if they haven't checked their gear out and found out what works and what doesn't and learned how to use those expensive tools, they might as well as have a hundred dollar Hi-Point pistol.
If you fall into that category, spend some money on TRAINING and shoot some of that ammo stockpile you've got.
John
