AAR HVWM at San Bernardino Feb 2010

Dealers/ Manufacturers/ Regional/ Info Magpul CORE
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Magpul Dynamics H.V.W.M.

Hosted by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department February 17-19 and 22-24 of 2010

Course Description:

An advanced LEO course that equips students to successfully negotiate any active shooter situation and provide a template for training sustainment. Students will be driven to improve their shooting abilities, master their equipment and communicate with team mates in live fire training environments.

Topics covered in depth include:

•Carbine fundamentals and BZO
•Rapid threat analysis and acquisition in active shooter situations
•Balancing speed and precision
•Discussion of terminal ballistics and how it relates to shooting abilities during critical stress
•Shooting on the move
•Multiple target engagement
•Strong and reaction side shooting
•Weapon malfunctions
•Transitions to secondary weapon system
•Natural and improvised shooting positions
•Barricade and obstacle shooting
•Shooting from vehicles (vehicle response to engagement with an active shooter)
•Concealed shooting (off duty response to active shooter scenario)
•Low light shooting techniques and using light to your advantage
•Individual + team confidence enhancement shooting drills
•Individual + team shooting and cover techniques in active shooter situations
•Psychological + mindset training for the active shoot responder

AFTER ACTION REPORT
By R. KIRK

PREFACE

First off, a sincere thank you to all who showed up and ultimately made this possible. There were those who doubted we could get enough students to fill one class, however due to an overwhelming response we ended up scheduling and filling two classes… just awesome!!

We had a total of 42 participants over the duration of the two classes, three of which were factory representatives. Students included Local and Federal LEO, U.S. Border Patrol (these guys were IMPRESSIVE) and last but not least a Marine.

A quick Plug here… Our Marine (Andrew) who was in the second class, also came to the 1st class and is primarily responsible for many of the pictures taken during that class (over 1500!!). He also let me run his camera during the final part of Day 3 (2nd Class).

The Instructors:

Chris,

Travis,

Kerry and Drake,

The Ranges:

Range #2 (Day 1 and 2)(Andrew… our Marine with helmet on)

Dirt Range (Day 3)

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Sponsors

We had many businesses locally and throughout the community who generously donated to make the experience of this class that much better.

To start… HYDRATE or DIE!!! Our local food stores VONS, STATER BROTHERS and ALBERTSONS donated enough water to keep everbody going. This was a big help.

The following Manufactures and Dealers all donated to the cause (in the order of the $ amount donated):

  • Magpul (P-Mags and AFG’s for everyone)
  • Slip 2000 (cleaner and lube for all)
  • Noveske Rifle Works (to include a KX3 flash supressor)
  • Laserlyte (to include a very nice laser bore site kit)
  • OTIS ( to include a very nice L/E gun cleaning kit and a lens cleaning kit and hats)
  • Viking Tactics (Very nice light mounts)
  • Brownells (Pistol Case and lube samples)

Victor Di Cosola of Tactical Night Vision also showed up for the Day 2 of the first class. He brought with him many cool night toys and is of course one of our leading authorities on the subject. In addition to giving away some cool swag, he also shared his wealth of knowledge on the subject of night observation devices. There was I believe even a talk he gave on the subject, however I was too busy with admin duties to get to hear it… #$%@!

Every student got a P-Mag, AFG, patches and stickers from Magpul as well a welcome pack including Cleaner and Lube from SLIPP 2000 and a lube sample from Brownells. A raffle was held at the end of each Day three to give out many nice items donated above.

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Day 2

SAFETY BRIEF !!!

Day 2 is where things got a little different between the two classes. There were some early inquiries about doing some night shooting and this was incorporated into the original plan.

Come time for Day 2 of the first class, this sentiment had faded a little so instead of the originally planned 1200-2100 schedule, we opted for a 1000-1900 schedule and briefly covered basic white light techniques for a couple of hours once it got dark.

The thought of night shooting for the second class was abandoned and they did a standard 0800-1700 schedule.

Morning Evolutions:

More BSA drills (see “Day 1”)

The dollar shoot… every one put a dollar on the line for a single shot accuracy shoot, with the shot closest to the head being the winner of all bills posted. Chris had a little wrinkle to throw into this plan. The shoot was done from the 25 yard line, which meant that with rifles zero’d at 50 yds everyone had to know their individual compensation for “Sight over Bore”.

Next came drills and instruction on how best to transition from the primary weapon (rifle) to the secondary (pistol).

Now it was time to progress to the “Check Drills”. This is where we began to incorporate communications (“check”, “ok” and “ready”) in working out and de-conflicting reloads, malfunctions and transitions.

We got into transitions of the primary weapon from “strong” side to “reaction” side and back. This would become crucial when working around cover during later exercises.

Modified shooting positions to include “Urban Prone” from the strong and reaction sides were covered. These are important if shooting under cover (vehicles) or over low cover (such as when laying in the street and utilizing the curb for cover). We also did some “supine” shooting, in anticipation for the reality that we may all one day fall flat on our a$$ and need to shoot from that position to save our life.

*** LUNCH BREAK ***

Afternoon Evolutions:

After lunch there was a little sit down serious talk about “Combat Mindset”. The focus being that without the proper mindset, a shooter will be ineffectual and possibly even a liability.

Shooting drills now started taking on various elements of movement to include but not limited to:

  • Reaction Drills
  • Off Line of Attack
  • Shooting while moving (singly and in conjunction with partners)

For more details on these drills refer to the Magpul Dynamics Art of the Tactical Carbine II DVD series (plug… again!!!).

This rounded out the day with a lot of rounds down range and brass all over the place!

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Day 3

SAFTEY BRIEF

Day 3 was about puting everything from the first two days together and working it. Lots of running and gunning, huffing and puffing (for some) and plenty of fun this day.

The first focus was to make sure everyone was up an running with a lot of single person and team movement drills coupled with multiple threats. Phew… got winded just thinking about that sentence… LOL and as my Austrailian brothers would say “Good fun mate”.

Then it was on to putting all those modified shooting positions to work around the barricades. Most did pretty well on this with attention also paid to “sight over bore” issues. But there were a few to remain nameless who ensured the barricades had a nice used look to them before the end of the day… no worries mates its all good fun.

*** Lunch Break ***

After the lunch break Kerry did a nice Tac Med brief. Kerry has a long resume of field trauma work to include both military and civilian experience. The breif was not so much a class, as more of an overview of all the issues we might face and skills needed to deal with those emergencies. It is my understanding there may be good things coming from Magpul Dynamics in this area too. Looking forward to it…

The days shooting then gravitated to the “scenenario” shooting. The scenario of course involved many rounds fired from several different points of cover and shooting positions. Plenty of running in between. The last stage in the scenario involved a car… from which you had to engage multiple shoot targets without hitting equally multiple “friendlies”. For the second class we put some “unfriendlies” in the car, so as it was approached these threats had to be “reduced” before the car became safe cover.

Day 3 was ended on a positive note with words of engouragement and appreciation from the Magpul staff, a sentiment which of course was returned to them in full. There was a raffle to give away numerous items donated by the afformentioned donors. Many hesitant goodbyes rendered to newly made friends mixed with the frenzied packing of those who had to get back to life, and the class was over.

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Day 1

Morning Evolutions:

SAFETY BRIEF !!! always, at the begining of every day.

The morning of day one started with handgun fundamentals to include:

  • Grip / Stance
  • Seven Fundamentals of Shooting
  • The Draw
  • Tactical and Speed Reloads
  • Accuracy
  • The Balance of Speed and Accuracy
  • Malfunctions

For more details on these drills refer to the Magpul Dynamics Art of the Dynamic Handgun DVD series (plug!!!).

Before Lunch we then proceeded to verify Zero on the rifles, which everyone claimed were already dialed in… NOT!! LOL.

With all rifles finally zero’d it was off to lunch.

*** LUNCH BREAK ***

Afternooon Evolutions:

We started the afternoon straight off into the “BSA” (Balance of Speed and Accuracy) drills with the rifle. These focus on the concept that instead of shooting slow methodical tight groups, it is better to quickly put more rounds on target to the point where accuracy may suffer a little, but is still acceptable.

BSA drills continued, eventually incorporating kneeling, prone and combinations of shooting positions at various ranges from 7 yds to 50 yds.

Searching and assessing after each string of fire, or change of shooting position was also emphasized.

Reloads were covered this day. This included the Admin and Emergency reload, but most emphasized was the “Tac” reload. The concept being ammo management and always keeping guns topped off and never letting them run dry. “Getting the gun up into the work space” was also stressed for so many valid reasons.

This pretty much rounded out the day with the stage set for much better things to come.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

First, I must profess a great deal of thanks to the Lord above for getting me through a task that became a little bigger than I originally imagined, and also for providing absolutely great weather over the course of BOTH classes.

Second, I must lay out a boat load of appreciation for all the help and support I received from my beautiful wife, whom those who attended were able to meet. She has been right behind me for the two years or so that this project was in the works.

Third, I must lay out a BIG thankyou to the guys from Magpul for coming out. They really came out in force and it was great to get the perspectives of not only Chris and Travis but the bonus of Drake and Kerry’s expertise. We truly were blessed in this.

I had high hopes for the outcome of this class, but I must say it exceeded my expectations. None of this would have been possible if it were not for all the dedicated people who signed up for these classes. I now have 40+ new brothers in arms (“Sheep Dogs”) whom I know will be there for our society if the “Wolves” come calling.

A special note of respect… We had several U.S. Border Patrol brothers in the second class. As I watched these guys work, I had many thoughts of admiration for them, but the two that I would state here are as follows.

  1. The statement by George Orwell, “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
  2. My own thought… Good Lord pity any Mexican cartel people who come accross our border and tangle with these guys.

Many thanks again to all, and it was great training with you! I would especially like to thank everyone for their high level of firearms safety, wherein we had ZERO incidents during a combined total of over 1000 hrs of live fire training.

Thoughts are already turning to next year and how things could be improved on, but to hope for much more might be unrealistic as this group of students and instructors set the bar pretty high this time.

STUDENT THOUGHTS:

“The material presented was solid in it’s fundamentals, which was surprising, given their “rock star” status. In particular, I thought their focus on stress innoculation was spot on, and a topic lacking in most TTPs. I also thought Kerry’s point about the IFAK for each patrol officer was important, especially for active shooter responders. I will be presenting this to the Advisory Council and seeing if we can get any traction with the department.” - Alex

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Wish i could have been there for this , live in florida now ,but lived in barstow.

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Standing by for AAR

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Hey Rob,

Thanks again for setting this class up.

It was one of the best training courses I have ever attended.

Great meeting you and it was awesome having such a good group of people for this class

-Erik

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Had a great time!

[ul]
[li]Great Course
[/li][li]Great Instructors
[/li][li]Great Host (and his better half)
[/li][li]Great Students
[/li][li]Great Facility
[/li][li]Great Camaraderie
[/li][li]Great Experience
[/li][/ul]
I’ll leave the AAR to Rob. We’ll be bringing plenty back to our troops…

Gotta make this an (at least) ANNUAL trip…

Thanks, Rob! Give my best to the guys!
Alan

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Discussions about next year already tendered… We will have to wait until sometime this summer before Magpul has any idea about availability in 2011.

Was indeed great to train with you guys and the second class (still in progress), and an HONOR to meet other dedicated “Sheep Dogs”.

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Rob,

You can count me in for next years class already! :smiley:

again, it was great training with you and look forward to reading your AAR and seeing some more pictures.

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As always this was another great class from Magpul Dynamics. Learned a ton, and met some damn fine people in the process. I have to commend Deputy Rob Kirk for being an outstanding host. He went above and beyond what was required of him to make it an even more enjoyable experience for everyone. I am still going through my pictures from the first class and am aiming to be done sorting through them soon. Looking to send them out sometime this week.

Here is a little teaser I sent to Chris as he needed some for his industry partners…

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Andrew… Thanx for the kind words… Didnt recognise your screen name initially, but then I saw the “Bugman” in the corner of the picture of Chris.

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Great pixs !! :smiley:

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How good were these guys? were the highly skilled? or what? im interested.

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VERY Good… There are many schools of thought and perspectives. Magpul Dynamics is all about efficiency and lethality up close, and in this area their methodology and training is top notch.

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Sorry wasnt clear I understand magpul dynamics and want to get in a class. I meant the border patrol guys. I know that have special trained units like BORTAC and BORSTAR. just wondering if you meant they were bad ass and why?

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Yes… I meant they were very good.

I would not however expound on why, or their strengths on an open forum which could be viewed by those (Mexican Cartel eg.) who might have an interest in exploiting such knowledge to their advantage. Lets just say as a 20+ year cop, I was impressed, and those mentioned above would do well to stay on their side of the fence.

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Cool.