A friend suggested I post this AAR here. I hope you all find it useful.
The weekend of 22-23March2014 I was fortunate enough to attend the above mentioned class in Grandview, TX. This will be light on pictures from the class as I was trying to not get sucked into messing with a camera and in that I was a little too successful! I tend to retain things better when I understand and can articulate not just the ‘what’ but also the ‘why’ driving it. Bear with me please if this gets a bit in-depth…
This AAR is for a two-day class instructed by Will Petty who is currently a police officer and an instructor with TTPOA at Hill College and Steve Fisher also known as the Yeti. I had met Steve previously at last year’s EAG Shoot House class in Alliance, OH and I was greatly impressed by his demeanor and his passion when teaching. Mr. Petty was equally passionate about his instructing and his willingness to translate his experiences and those he had come across to the students of this class. As a team they worked very well together. I understand they previously taught this same curriculum through TTPOA to a varied class of law enforcement. This particular class though was their first open enrollment course. While the class was mostly law enforcement, some from as far away as Illinois, there were a number of citizens present myself included.
The description of the course given on the website is thus:
This is a 16 hr low light shooting course designed for the student who carries a firearm and operates in and around vehicles. Since accuracy becomes extremely important in low light conditions this course will take the patrol officer through a series of nighttime drills which will give them a better understanding of how the darkness effects each shooter. The instructor will explain ocular anatomy and physiology effects on low light shooting and how to better train for nighttime tactics. The class will cover key features of utilizing different flashlights, holds, and weapon mounted systems. In addition to low light concepts, the Vehicle CQB portion will cover dynamic positional shooting as it relates to vehicles in the use of cover and concealment. Students will walk away with an understanding of ballistic principles as they apply to various mediums of cover such as glass, vehicle doors, engine blocks and wheels. Drills will incorporate adverse shooting platforms with dynamic weapons manipulations while engaging threats in, around, and under vehicles.The course is designed for 2 hour of classroom instruction followed by 14 hours of practical instruction on the range at night. Due to the requirement of low light the course will begin a 1600 hours and go til 0000 hours.
This was physically speaking a moderately intensive course with the purpose of teaching people how shooting at night can effect them, how to work around vehicles both within and without in an engagement and teach shooters how to work together safely around each other while doing all of the above. Points of instruction were laid as a logical and basic foundation. These were then added to or combined with other points of instruction during the daylight hours to build solid skills that could be used effectively once things got dark.
Gear used:
I attempted to keep my gear selection as close as possible to my normal EDC. I was using a Glock 19 strong side with a single pistol mag on the support side. I made the conscious choice to forego a weaponlight on my pistol. It’s something I no longer carry due to personal circumstances and I firmly believe that even with one in use a handheld light must be used in concert. Remember that I’m just a citizen at this time and your circumstances or needs may be different! When it came time to add the carbine I simply slung my Arsenal SLR-107UR and added an extra magazine for it with a Raven Concealment Moduloader to which a single rifle TACO pouch had been attached. The Krink has an 8.5" barrel and is still equipped with an Ultimak rail, Aimpoint T-1 in a LaRue low-mount and a Surefire Fury.
This is my BOOMstick.
Just prior to this class I upgraded my handheld light by replacing my well-worn LX2 with the new Surefire EB2. It is a fantastic light. Do note that it is the ‘tactical’ variant with no clicky tailcap. You push ‘through’ the low 5-lumens to get the the HIGH 500-lumens. I will NOT own a tap-alternating light again.
Tools of supposed face meltification…
Range and facilities:
The venue for this training event was the range of Special Operations Systems, LLC. Located immediately adjacent to I-35 between Alvarado and Grandview this range was well prepared to host this class and any number of others. We were using one of the berms and there were two others available on either side of us that I saw. The premises also had a UH-1 fuselage and a large number of shipping containers put together as buildings with windows and doors, some of them were even multi-level. The place is clean and well run. I’m sure they will do quite well! The rectangular range we were using was covered with gravel and caliche with a good backstop and side berms. Prior to the student’s arrival the hosts had acquired and distributed on the range four vehicles including a Volvo station wagon, two four-door sedans and a large ‘molester’ van. While the vehicles were obviously intended for salvage they were fully functional for our purposes, one of them even ran! Doors and their latches were functional and all side windows, rear windshields in front windshields were intact. Finally, the range classroom on the front side of the property was well furnished with plenty of tables and chairs, as well as actual bathrooms for both sexes. It was a comfortable and professional environment where much learning could easily occur.
TD1
After the usual admin work, safety brief and introductions among the students and the facility hosts we hit the range. We were given instructions to gear up, specifically including gloves as we should be wearing them as PPE for the whole course, and report to the line with pistols. The first order of business was shooting at small diagnostic targets from approximately 7 yards. The reasons behind this were two-fold. This was done both to gauge the shooters and also emphasize that folks should have their skills locked down prior to coming as this wasn’t a ‘shooting’ class per se. Yeti especially places a lot of emphasis on accuracy and precision for good reason. There are many obvious reasons for this but there were also some that pertained specifically to this course and defeating things like intermediate barriers which we would get in to later. From literally the first rounds down range a continual hard emphasis was made on building a solid follow through and post-engagement sequence; not just looking around but seeing your surroundings, checking to make sure your target is still down, looking for that target’s friends and building awareness of who’s around you. Shortly we moved on to doing much the same with the carbine as well as emphasizing height-over-bore offset. While we did several turns of switching shoulders, hands and fire control with the carbine we were also instructed on simply ‘bumping’ the stock to the opposite shoulder while keeping the support hand and fire control the same. This came in very handy later.
After several evolutions of this we moved into positional shooting doing things like kneeling, squatting, supine and urban prone. Another that was new to me is what Mr Petty aptly called ‘The Shrimp’ which was used for gaining as much cover as possible behind a wheel well while searching or engaging under a vehicle. We split into squads so that half the class could reload magazines while the other half shot. This also cut the number of students on the line in half which opened up a LOT of room to run through these positions safely and with greater freedom of movement.The instructors wanted to make sure that folks were at least familiar with getting into these positions and we began working through drills which had us changing positions constantly. Things with these positions were adjusted and fine-tuned such as kneeling on an unimproved surface without disabling yourself (foot and lower leg perpendicular to the deck, kneeling more on the side of the knee vs right on the patella…), properly getting into urban prone (high-side leg/hip forward, we need to square our torso with our weapon to build a solid platform to drive the gun). Two hard rules were in place during the course regarding any movement (of which we would be doing LOTS) and any positional changes. First, if the weapon system was not actively being used (sights on target with intent to put rounds into it) then the safety on guns so equipped would be ON and the trigger finger would be in register well outside of the trigger guard. Second, before coming up from any position (urban prone –> kneeling, ‘Shrimp’ –> squatting, etc) a shooter needed to specifically and attentively check not just what’s going on downrange but also what may be next to them and especially area behind them. The latter point was drilled into us both for the benefit (requirement?) of knowing where our partners were when we would be working our way through problems and moving around one another and the vehicles but also to find out if somebody else had joined the party without our knowing about it so to speak. For obvious reasons it would be pretty bad news to get decked by somebody on your side by unknowingly coming up into their line of sight. I could see this being especially applicable for the LE folks when a gunfight around a car or cars turns into a gaggle-**** of people.
Before we started working as pairs and moving around the range during the course of drills we downloaded to empty pistols and had a serious discussion on different ready positions and their utility or lack thereof in specific situations we would be seeing in the class. We began by talking about the potential deficiencies of both Low Ready and Sul and seeing first hand demos with SIRT pistols. Both positions work well for what they are intended to do but they involve the muzzle being oriented down to the ground within the immediate vicinity of the person holding the weapon and if used in the wrong context muzzles will probably get pointed at things they shouldn’t. This is unacceptable. When we start moving around others especially when moving aggressively our legs and knees can and probably will be get flagged if we are using Sul. There also may very well be people, either shooters or benign folks that don’t need a gun pointed at them, at a lower level than us in the horizontal plane in which we are moving. These folks could be kneeling, squatting, working under the same piece of cover we are, down behind cover reloading or even performing self-aid. At this point the instructors introduced us to the Temple Index.
Temple Index may be more appropriate than something like Low Ready or Sul both to avoid flagging others and ourselves. With which ever hand is controlling the handgun the trigger finger is placed ‘in register’ along the frame and slide so that it is out of the trigger guard. If we can do so, getting that finger up into the ejection port area is ideal but not everybody has long noodle-digits that can do this. The handgun is oriented muzzle up and the knuckles of the fingers are literally placed against the temple of your head. This position has a few advantages over the High Ready with which I am already familiar and use quite a bit myself. First, it is consistent. When running it is very natural to pump your arms and as an extension of that arm the muzzle may go in different directions. Second, it is much more secure pinioned against a body part in light of the potential for a struggle over the gun or a combatitives scenario. In high ready the only leverage you have over a handgun is from the wrist. Third, this leaves the support hand, whichever one it may be, free to do support and things such as operating a handheld light, brace yourself should you lose your balance or need manipulate something or some one in the space around you. When the decision to present the gun is made it is very quick to acquire a sight picture from this position. The handgun is dropped down towards the centerline and from this position it becomes much like the final extension after a draw from the holster. After acquiring support hand’s grip if needed the handgun is punched out and the front sight is picked up. This position is obviously not ideal for every situation but it has a very important niche. Several dry runs with our buddies moving around one another, moving into and out of shooting positions really cemented the utility of this. Once the instructors were satisfied that we had this skillset down safely and properly we were briefed on which cars and car parts we were allowed to shoot (the answer was NONE) and then went live. Obviously this procedure doesn’t work for a long gun (Or not so long gun in my case! 
) and for that system we use a high ready with the butt stock tucked under the armpit and the muzzle oriented up perpendicular to the ground for the same reasons. After making a couple of live runs with both pistol and carbine we did a quick class debrief on what we had learned so far and then broke for dinner so that the sun could finish setting for the low-light segments.
Upon our return to the range we began in the classroom with discussions primarily focused on violent interactions revolving around vehicles. As it was the orientation of this class most of this information including the videos we watched were from law enforcement encounters. Following discussions of these presentations talk turned to gear for low light including handheld and weapon mounted lights. The subjects included such things as brand and model specific issues, methods of actuation, a “No, even 1000 lumens of ‘retina-searing-POWAH’ wont blind you in a tiny bathroom with white walls… See?” live demo and then stepping outside the classroom we were able to do live comparisons side by side of almost every light present (if it wasn’t attached to a weapon) picking out one of the instructors next to some trees at about 80yards distance. Being able do side-by-side comparisons of various lights, good or bad, puts a lot of things into perspective.
After setting up our gear and marking ourselves with chemlights we began shooting all of the same drills as before in the darkness under the close supervision of Will and Steve. With the onset of darkness a reemphasis of not just quickly scanning but using the light to learn more about your surroundings both downrange, uprange and laterally between points of cover/concealment quickly occurred. The importance of moving safely in close proximity to our partners and the utility of Temple Index with a pistol and High Ready with a carbine was again reinforced through repetition. After several runs we again had a quick review and broke for the night with plans to start an hour earlier than originally scheduled the next day.
TD2
Training Day Two started in the classroom with a presentation on ballistics and the effect on projectiles from things like glass and automotive bodies. Pictures from a previous ballistic lab were shown involving various calibers being shot into car doors, wheels and glass. Discussions regarding cover and concealment offered by vehicles are variable dependent on the project/caliber used, part of the vehicle in question and other factors. There were many eyes opened, especially my own, about how some rounds did or didn’t perform. This lead into the topic of shooting through automotive glass and bullet deflection by the same. We were given the following to keep in mind in regards to fighting around, from and into motor vehicles:
The principles of Vehicle CQB:
It’s still about the gun, not the vehicle.
Shooting around/above/under is always better than shooting through vehicles but not always possible.
Offset, both muzzle and lights.
In and out of positions… with a quickness.
Rounds skip off pavement, windshields, hoods and doors… but don’t let that hinder your work.
Make the drills realistic to your setup.
3400lbs vs 115gr? Don’t forget the vehicle is a weapon too.
Keep it simple.
What is really cover vs. concealment on a vehicle? VERY open ended question…
Glass… much to do about nothing? Projectile deflection and deformation occurs opposite of the rake of the windshield. Pick your point of aim and then, if possible, keep feeding successive rounds through the same place. The structural compromised area will cause much less of an issue for the follow-on rounds.
As interesting and informative as a presentation like this is it pales in comparison to seeing things first-hand. Once on the range that’s exactly what we did. An informal ballistic demo was set up with Steve Fisher running various projectiles and calibers from inside one of the 4-door sedans at target along the vehicle’s front bumper. A second blank target was placed about four feet further down range and immediately behind the first target. With Will Petty MC-ing the proceedings the Yeti shot to a specific aiming point on the target so that deflection through this particular windshield could be gauged. From the students the following rounds/calibers were sourced and shot through the windshield with each getting the most undisturbed piece of windshield possible:
[1] 9mm Ball
[2] 124gr Gold Dot +P+
[3] 124gr +P HST
[4] 127gr +P+ Ranger
[5] 124gr Ranger Bonded
[6] 180gr .40cal Ranger T-series
[7] 230gr .45acp Gold Dot
[8] 200gr 10mm Auto TAP
[9] 123gr 7.62x39 SST
[10] 60gr Partition .223 Win
[11] 62gr Federal ‘Tactical Bonded’ .223
Ongoing ballistic lab. Pistol rounds complete, moving to rifles. Note second witness paper behind target.
Of these rounds the 124gr HST shot very nearly POA/POI. I was sincerely impressed. The 230gr Gold Dot was quite close and I believe the 62gr Federal load was as well. Most everything else on the list showed pretty significant deflection. Of particular interest to me were numbers 4 and 9. The 127gr +P+ is the load I chose for my pistols some time back. It was also one of the most deflected projectiles through the windshield which was very disappointing. The 123gr SST actually showed what appeared to be a separation of the core and jacket in the initial target, their impacts were a couple of inches apart. The second witness target beyond showed the impacts of both pieces but only barely… they were headed in drastically different directions only four feet further down range. Good info to know.
A similar demo was shown using an open car door with a target behind it and 9mm ball and, later in the night, another for shooting back-to-front through both windshields of another car. A door or other body panel could be burned through with precision shooting but the two windshields back-to-front stopped everything cold, including ball 7.62x39 and some Winchester Ranger 1oz Low Recoil LE Slugs I remembered having in my pickup. A few preconceived notions were shattered this day.
Following the ballistic labs we downloaded to safe (empty) pistols and began working in the vehicle interiors. Trin from ID Target Systems was in the class with us and graciously brought a suite of her company’s targets for us to use. We set up several of these in front of the vehicles for later use and then began practicing our weapons access while in a vehicle, and more importantly, deconflicting yourself from the seatbelt in preparation to smoothly and safely exit the vehicle without getting hung up. Multiple dry runs in various vehicles had us doing mock engagements by pairs through the windshield prior to exiting to the rear at a position of cover and then switch positions between ‘driver’ and ‘passenger’. Temple Index again came in very handy in this situation. Again this was building the skills in the daylight for later execution at night. Once satisfied that we had this we began again doing live runs through the vehicles by pairs with the goal of using as many positions as possible while searching under/ around/ over vehicles or engaging while doing the same. The priority here was not on the shooting but to smooth out communication between buddies, movement between vehicles and working through the positions in preparation for the culmination that night. The 3-D targets were eery in the fact that they could actually present a side profile or angular shot and you had to adjust your sight picture accordingly to account for this.
Several runs later the instructors called everyone to the line for a talk. It was asked, very pointedly, why we were shooting targets that didn’t need to be shot. Between the runs two of the eight targets arrayed had been re-pasted with one the nifty IDTS chest patches. The detail is that these had a cellphone in hand in leu of the previously visible handgun. Those targets got dosed by almost everyone in the class. That this point was driven was evident by listening to and watching successive runs. We all throttled back and became very meticulous in our actions and observations following this; it was evident that learning had occurred.
After a dinner break onsite and sunset we moved again into low-light shooting. We started working live from within the vehicles engaging through the windshield. Our earlier dry work on this paid dividends. Following one last ballistic lab we did our culmination run as buddy pairs. Every vehicle save one, the volvo, was fair game if there was a shot that we could take through an intermediate barrier. The volvo was being saved for a later LE precision rifle course and needed to be kept intact.
The night ended with range/gear pickup, certificates, networking with other students and goodbyes.
Things to be improved upon:
This is a LOT of material and stuff to accomplish. Due to the strange hours and most folk’s travel/time constraints in was condensed as much as possible into two days. We did not get cover dealing with threats in vehicles.
Administratively, the website and the registration emails all specified 300 rounds of rifle ammunition and the same for pistol. This was supposed to be 500 rounds of each. By the end of the first night most of us were looking at our ammo cans and counting the remaining contents with concern. As a result we shot a little less the following day. It’s hard right now to just ditty-bop down to the store and pick up several hundred rounds of anything. If you multiply that by the number of students that went by the provided info whatever might available will be cleaned out with a quickness.
I would like to extend my thanks to the instructors Will Petty and Steve Fisher. Their instruction and insight was invaluable as is their commitment to making better fighters.
Don Adams and his cohorts at Special Operations Systems went the extra mile in setting us up and making sure things went smoothly for a lot of folks converging on central Texas from all points within the states.
Trin of ID Target Systems was a real pleasure to talk to and she is a professional shooter! Her products speak for themselves.
My shooting partner Victor was a serious student and I believe our working together helped us get that much more value out of the class. The value of a good training partner cannot be overestimated.
Thank you to Christian Vasquez for his work taking photos on the second night! The long-exposure shots he got of folks moving through the line of vehicles were extremely neat. Also, credit goes to him where it is due for the class photo below.
I am sincerely grateful to both the training group and the venue that hosted them for making this open enrollment class happen. There are too few opportunities for attaining functional skills like this that are open to citizens, even well trained ones, for whatever reasons.
Seriously GOOD folks are to be found at classes like this.
Pre-class/post-AAR thoughts:
One thing I was asked by several folks prior to taking this class was some variation of “Why do you need this training?” It is very rare to find an open enrollment course covering these specific topics from a reputable group. The fact is that American life revolves around motorvehicles. After spending four years of my life literally living out of my truck and seedy motels on the road during my roadie construction gig this became immediately apparent. I’ve been seeking out a class on this for some time and I think the last one I could’ve attended was up in WA state last year (run by LMS if I recall correctly?). First, ranges on which to shoot in the hours of darkness are not terribly common. Second, ranges which can (and are willing to) support vehicles on the firing line as both targets and obstacles are rare. These two limitations further constrain the list of available venues even before the factor ‘no civilians’ is added. I understand why some classes may be closed and that it’s not typically done without reason. It was also mentioned that there was some pushback on the instructors for offering this as an open enrollment class. I am most thankful that this class was open to citizens and I hope to see that trend continue.
Take aways, observations and further questions:
‘Bumping’ a rifle to the opposite shoulder keeping hands/fire control the same.
While I have done and continue to train for this with an AR it never even occurred to me to do this with a Kalashnikov. It’s ideal, really, for a short term need as the Kalashnikov is essentially a right-hander only weapon from the stand point of efficiency and safety manipulation. Simply ‘bumping’ the weapon’s stock to the opposite shoulder lets me get down to the task at hand in leu of doing a bunch of fumble-****ery to first switch hands, remount the gun on the opposing shoulder and then find a way to disengage the safety (usually by the new support hand).
Strong side urban prone
‘Stupid side’ urban prone, bumped to ‘stupid side’ shoulder
I’ve been shooting AKs primarily since the ammo market went stupid a year or so ago. They’re challenging fun and in addition to still being affordable to shoot I could actually find the ammo. That said I’ve not been specifically trained in regards to the AK. Here are some things I’ve found out:
AK mags should also be downloaded to 28rds. I haven’t noticed this to be an issue with metal military mags but aftermarket polymers, specifically the US Palm mags, have little or no room for additional compression of the ammunition column within the magazine. That ammunition column will need be compressed by rocking and locking the magazine into the gun and it will need to be compressed further still by the retraction of the bolt to charge the weapon. I’ve had several instances now of an AK that couldn’t be charged on a fully loaded Palm mag without truly excessive force and I believe this may be what caused my one carbine malfunction on the line when we first started working them on TD1. After downloading to 28 no further issues were noted.
I love the 20-round Hungarian ‘tanker’ magazines for their combination of size, weight and utility. Problem is that the hate train runs out of steam waaaayyyy too quickly with these.
Twice I tac-loaded behind cover mid run and immediately got a ‘click’ instead of the expected ‘BANG’. This is the downside to a system that does not hold the bolt open after the last round… Solution: add a cycling of the bolt to the end of a Kalashnikov tac-load to make certain there is a round in the chamber.
Forward mounted optics suck. Yeti again expounded on something he got me thinking about at the shoot house last year: getting the optic further to the rear makes things more efficient. I don’t have much of a choice with the Krink-format gun. As I don’t want something on the side rail occluding the folding of the stock my only real option is the Ultimak. Funny enough my partner was also running a forward-mounted Bushnell Holosight on his SBR AR’s 12 o’clock rail (the horror!); I believe this was because he had a fixed carry handle. Some times you just have to make things work.
“Hey, a red laser from a SIRT pistol can be seen on target through a windshield in the daylight?! I bet my green SIRT laser would show even better. I wonder what deflection of the beam is caused by the glass?” (Thoughts for working through some of these skills on my own later. Need to look into this…)
Statement from instructor: “Being closer to the glass (windshield) will lessen the deflection of the round.” The example given was seeing more deflection from the POA when shooting from the back seat through the front windshield vs. the front seat. Why is this? Mr. Petty admitted he didn’t know the cause but that they had seen it enough to consider it a quantifiable event that should be mentioned. I can think of nothing ballistically that would cause it, not that my lack of knowledge on this matter means anything. Could this be a matter of visual distortion through the glass increasing with distance?
Temple Index, HUGE take away. If in an applicable situation it just makes sense.
When intermediate barriers and projectiles intersect the results are predictably unpredictable.
Regarding ammunition selection: HST > Winchester Ranger.
This one kinda ticks me off. I had thought the 127gr +P+ SXT’s from Winchester to be a great all-around load with consideration for auto glass and car bodies but I evidently didn’t do enough research. Plus, a nice bonus is that the Federal HST is easily available whereas Winchester actively restricts further sales to dealers who sell to us ‘dirty civilians’. Ergo, **** Winchester. “But Kanigit, why would a civilian need to shoot at somebody in or around a car?” Twice in the past while locking up the range I still work at periodically our crew has encountered a ghetto-sled full of ne’er do wells tearing into the parking lot while they were locking up the building at night. While I wasn’t there for either of these events it made an impression. At least one of us will typically bring a long gun and this was actually my specific reasoning behind wanting a 7.62x39 VSBR. I thought that caliber would do great against cars and any juicy bits of meat inside or behind them. That myth was thoroughly shattered for me.
Equipment notes:
Lights
I managed previously to break the Surefire FURY on this shorty-AK. It was not recoil-related and probably had to do more with the muzzle blast after I did a bit of shooting without the ‘trash can’ booster on the front. This device is what Mr. Noveske copied to make the pig which they sell. It is very effective at focusing most of the blast down range. After an RMA and trip to Surefire it was eventually determined that there was a broken connection in the head. The light was repaired and returned to me. Caveat: the FURY is not a weaponlight… it’s just commonly understood to be and used as one. I had no issues with it during this course.
Gear
Arc’teryx knee caps are awesome. They stay in place and there’s just enough there to do the job.
Kuhl pants are SUPER comfortable and light weight. They have a cord loop on the back belt loop for hanging a carabiner while climbing (perfect for chemlight attachment at a night shoot!!) but they are thin. They do not like rolling and scooting around on caliche with kalashnikov mags in the back pocket and very few of their offerings have good cargo pockets. I nearly lost my wallet before figuring out my back pockets were totally shredded from time on the ground!
The Raven Concealment Moduloader is very durable and stupidly secure. It was the clip-on version and once on it was nearly a two-handed operation to remove. It wasn’t until I was stowing my stuff at the end of TD2 back at the hotel that I noticed my TACO got broken by all the ground work. It still worked but now needs replaced.
Dirty gear is happy gear!!
I like good leather gear (belts, holsters, mag pouches) but I need to quit wearing it to these classes and tearing it up unnecessarily. :moil:
Ek