This was my 6th class with Pat in the last 4 years and as always I learned a great deal; not just about shooting but also about how to fight and my own abilities under pressure.
This was not my first experience in a shoot house (including the EAG Tactical 5 Day shoot house class in WV a few years ago) but possibly the best. I am a civilian and not a door kicker by profession. Most of my previous training was for 1 man room clears geared toward the proverbial “bump in the night” scenarios.
Cliché as it is- we don’t’ rise to the occasion, we default to our level of training.
I was fortunate to be partnered up with Drake O., a law enforcement academy instructor and part time gunsmith who was able to carry me through some of our runs. He is a rock solid professional and I am glad to have met him.
He brought up a point during Pat’s debrief of our first run which really hit home for me; we weren’t working as a team but as 2 individuals- over the next 3 days we were able to get in tune with each other and by the time we got to our last exercise I can say we were working as a team.
I came to this class unprepared. I was behind schedule on several things prior to class and ended up rushing to try and get ready for class so I repeated mistakes that I should’ve known better.
Examples? Showing up with an unfired, unzeroed carbine. Not having spare bulbs, batteries for the lights and sights. Not having a pistol mounted light despite knowing that I would be shooting in low light.
Class started with introductions and most of the 14 shooters in the class had previous training with Pat so the atmosphere was one of familiarity. The Alliance PD guys were a riot throughout the class and excellent hosts.
I spoke to a few of them and one point I brought up was that many classes will charge a range fee even if the “range” is a stretch of flat land with a berm at the end of it. Det. J stated that even with the square range and shoot house they would never ask for a range fee- all they ask is that if you’re going to use the range to bring something that adds training value, be it targets or extra furniture for the rooms. These guys are good people and I look forward to coming back to Alliance for future classes.
TD1- began with zeroing and square range drills for Pat & Mike to assess everybody and give folks a chance to tune up before going in to the shoot house. For those that have trained with Pat before, it was like a very compressed version of what is normally taught on TD2 and TD3 of the 3 Day COC with MEU/SOC type drills, pivots & turns, shooting on the move, transitions to pistol. We also shot a pistol qual course although not for score.
This was the only day that rained and though it was only a light drizzle it was enough to affect the paper targets so Pat moved everybody in to the shoot house for lecture and walk through of basic room clearing before taking us back out to the range once the rain let up.
Chappy and str8tshootr demoed a run through the house dry and it was impressive to watch two professionals do it right.
TD2- Partnered up with Pat or Mike for 1 run before teaming up with our shooting buddy for the week. Daylight and low light room clears.
TD3- Daylight and low light room clears
TD4- Daylight room clears
Without going in to the TTP’s too much here were some of my learning points:
Acquire, Identify and Engage target engagement sequence in daylight and low light.
Differences in incandescent vice LED lights
Placement of lights (more specifically- light activation switches)
Working in pairs:
Clearing corners (way beyond the basic pie-ing the corne for 1 man room clearing that I’ve previously been taught)
Clearing T-intersections and 4 way intersections
Moving down hallways
Who opens the door? Where to position yourself before opening the door and how deep do you penetrate the room once you’re through the door?
Movement inside of a room; dead checks, interacting with unknowns and hostages, clearing the room and how to set up for clearing/entering another hallway or room.
After the first run with my partner Pat had brought some points for me and I mentioned to my partner that I was probably over running my headlights a little bit and needed to slow down and be more deliberate on our next run. It helped and we continued to improve on each run as Pat, Mike and Chappy gave us feedback.
The untested upper with never before used ammunition created enough issues that I transitioned a lot including the instance of me using the tiny flashlight attached to the big carbine in order to fire my pistol. While I was able to make it work it did take more rounds to drop the first target and then having to swing over to the second target. That pistol now has a Surefire hanging off of it.
As Pat has stated this class gives students an opportunity to go outside their comfort zone. While I had no issues with shooting or running the gun (besides malfunctions) I did have some learning points regarding the targets.
Pat used drop targets that require you to shoot out a balloon (or two) in the thoracic or head zones for the target to fall. He also used red shirts or spray paint to identify the shoot targets.
This was my first exposure to the drop targets and I found that although I could “visualize” where in the target I wanted to hit, the red background made it hard for me to place the dot/reticle of my RDS for the correct holdover with the result of me firing a lot of NSR’s to the chest and head- sometimes with no effect.
Pat understands that in the real world 5 or 6 shots to the chin will have an effect on target but for training purposes this is the best compromise since we don’t have targets that can react to “partial” hits.
This also reinforced the value of tac-speed reloads, while 2 to the body and 1 to the head drills will work with flat targets, once you have to actually hit the balloon for the target to fall the round count goes up quickly. So instead of planning for 4 or 5 targets per 28 round magazine you may end up servicing 2-3 targets per 28 rounds.
After our first couple of rounds me and my partner made it a habit of tac-reloading every time before we left a room.
My gear issues outside of the malfunctioning upper/ammo and pistol light were minimal. I ran an Eagle plate carrier with a 2 cell BFG ten speed mag pouch that worked really well. I alternated between my Eagle duty belt with FB AR and Glock mag pouches and the new VTAC Brokos Belt (review in this thread).
I used an old CVC helmet since my previous experience trying to use the PASGT with Sordins didn’t work out too well. I liked it and the only modification I may do is to add some sort of aftermarket suspension to it.
Pat and Chappy gave a great lecture on armor and helmet selection and particularly useful for several in the class that were planning on buying those items in the future. Shooting in armor and helmet changes how your gun and gear “fit” and that by itself was a learning experience.
It was good to catch up with old friends and to make some new ones. I’d never met Chappy before but having seen him work I will definitely plan on taking one of his classes in Alliance next year.
Thanks to Larue, BCM, Slip 2000, Magpul and Mike G. of Austere Provisions for the support.
Thanks again to the Alliance PD for bringing these classes to the area and being such generous hosts, it is much appreciated.
And of course, thanks to Pat for continuing to pass along his knowledge and experience as well as Mike H. and Donna for keeping the trains running on time.
www.eagtactical.com
www.austereprovisions.com
www.lmsdefense.com