AAR: VT / Vermont Tactical International Tactical Carbine 1 & 2 April 24-25 LOTS OF

Training Training AAR's
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This is my brief AAR of VT Tactical International’s Carbine 1 and 2 course taught by the Master Firearms Trainer Gary Larue. As a little background on Gary I can say that he is great to work with and not only has the knowledge and teaching skills but a great temperament and maintains a fun and safe environment. Earlier in the month my girlfriend and I took the 2 day Defensive Handgun 1 course with Gary and we both enjoyed it so much that we decided to take the carbine course. The environment Gary creates and maintains combined with a solid pace allows people of all levels of experience and background to really shine, my girlfriend being a good example of this. While most carbine courses out there are 2 or more days, Gary broke these down into 1 and 2, one being a beginner class and 2 being a more dynamic and fast paced class for experienced shooters.

VT Tactical Carbine 1, April 24th
TC1 started out early Saturday morning, a few people bailed on the class so it was a total of 3 students, which I don’t mind since I feel like you can progress at a higher rate and get more from the instructor. We started out zeroing our rifles on the bench for a 50yd zero, I for one learned 2 things right off the bat, first is how much I dislike AK front sight posts (Troy front BUIS), and second, that drinking the largest cup of coffee I can buy isn’t the best thing to do first thing before a class. With only 3 of us we were able to zero and get on the line pretty fast. Unlike the Defensive Handgun 1 course, there is no classroom time, but once on the line Gary went through all features of the rifles (while not exclusionary, this is a de facto AR class only because all the students brought ARs, so all lessons procedures were on the AR platform). My girlfriend and I were both on SBRs mine with AFG and Aimpoint, hers being completely KISS apart from the POF lower, and the third student with a 16” build with an unthreaded barrel, this was the loudest .223 I have ever heard and really taught me the value of a FH, if not for the flash then just for communicating during drills. After a briefing on the rifles and proper stance, grip, the nomenclature for the class and the correlating actions, and safety we made sure we were all up to snuff on our secondary and did a couple rapidfire drills. After that the class really took off and drill after drill we got a little further, or a little more complicated. Gary covered all static shooting positions (prone, urban prone, all types of kneeling, non-dominant shooting and the transition) and soon we were on moving drills, first starting with turning to engage, then walking drills, moving to cover, reaction drills and more. I should also note that for this day speed reloads were acceptable and although tactical reloads were covered, they were hardly utilized. Pretty soon we were dipping into some of the drills for the next class, Gary covered sight-over-bore and manipulating the weapon to overcome this and best utilize cover. At the end of the day everything went well, nobody had any malfunctions or gear issues, and we went through an impressive number of drills.

Unfortunately I do not have many pics from day 1

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Tactical Carbine 2 was a very different setup, with 10 students (excluding the 2 no-shows) the class was pretty large and thus Gary brought on 2 additional range officers, Kathy and Morgan. The class was composed of all kinds of shooters, from Army, Marines, body guards, corrections officers, to just enthusiasts like me. The three of us from TC1 the day before were there and I am pretty sure that everybody had taken TC1 at some point, some over a year prior. For the first half everybody ran ARs, two of those being M&P .22s, and a variety of gear between chest rigs and vests. I myself stuck with the carbine pouch since that Is what I used in the day before and as a civilian I do not foresee myself utilizing a chest rig setup compared to a couple mag pouches, although I would like to train with one, just didnt want to start that day. Gary gave a very brief brush up everything and safety before we jumped into the drills. Being a larger class many of the drills (and all if they included movement) had the group broken into 2. We covered one hand shooting both dominant and non-dominant side, 1 hand reloads, and (my favorite) the 1 hand double-feed clearing which I unfortunately have no pictures of. I have to say, if I was a salesman, I could have sold a lot of BAD levers after both classes, whenever we drilled double feeds (i forgot to mention they were extensively covered the day before) and left hand reloads, the BAD shaved time off by half, I wasn’t sure about it before, but now I am in the process of updating all builds with one. After a good deal of non moving drills and covering transitions (for this day no matter the cause, reload or malf, you transition to your secondary) pairing up and getting into team work drills which involved communication. I was paired up with Dave from TC1 the day before (hence my comment on how loud his bare barrel was without a FH) and off we went into team drills, covering everything from reloads/malfunction clearing to movement always with communication. The class really picked up its pace (not that it was slow), but this is where we broke into some pretty demanding drills, and also where one of the M&P 22s went down. In one of my favorite drills we all learned the importance of sight-over-bore, first team put 4 shots about .5" below the hole, and my first shot with my shorty blew a chunk out, this drill went from different holes stressing sight over bore and weapon manipulation, moving to urban prone, then to different positions of cover around a vehicle all while communicating with your partner to move and reload. The day flew by, and because of that my only criticism to Gary was that I wished it was a 2 day class, for the reason that A) I would have loved to spend more time, not that I felt shorted, but that I just really didn’t want to end and B) the three of us that were there for TC1 the day earlier had an edge, and for the more engaging drills I think everybody would have benefited from the day before to build teamwork and get to know each other and encase they needed a refresher.

Overall the day went great with beautiful weather, and despite having a lot of the class broken into two groups, the class moved so fast it never felt like you were standing around waiting. For gear, today we had 2 rifles down, unfortunately they both belonged to the same guy. I did not look at the M&P 22, but it went down and he brought out his SCAR that he was reserving for the team drills (not sure why), but the SCAR was a single shot, it did not fair more than 1 or two shots, If I were to guess it might have been a failed extractor.

I know I am forgetting some things, but I cannot stress how much stuff we were able to cover and still go at a pace where nobody was left behind and everybody was safe. I talked to Gary about a possible 4-day all encompassing advanced class which I will hopefully be attending. Working with Gary is great and being in the NE area is even better.

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IMHO, Second picture from the bottom is bad practice. It would suck to get shot through a window.

PJ

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this was a “pretend” armored obstacle kind of like the posterboard, in other drills where the car was a car we shot through the windows.

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Rgr that.

PJ

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Thanks for the AAR & pics. I like the pink ears!! Might have to do something like that for my daughter! :smiley:

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Great pics…looks like a great course.

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thanks, just realized I doubled on some of the pics, will try and fix with new shots later.

the course was great, I am really impressed with the amount covered within each class given the amount of time.

I should also add the round count was about 300 for TC1, and I think more for TC2, unfortunately It was hard to tell since i just brought my loaded mag bin.

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Nice write-up. I should get out more, I did not know this stuff was going on in my backyard.

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+1. I am right across the lake and had no idea this was going on in VT. It would be great if you can post a link next time, I would love to come out!

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that’s the reason I am doing the AAR, I had no idea we had these resources. They have a website which is constantly being updated with new classes, and when I find out more about the 4 day “patch class” I will definitely be posting something ahead of time.

I am hoping to get some more pictures, hopefully of some of the reaction drills, supine shooting, and other fun stuff.

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Outstanding!

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You can get on their mailing list guys. They send schedules out regularly.
I knew about it, and wanted to attend, but I don’t yet have my papers in order to cross the border with my equipment.

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What kind of time do you need to get your papers in order? The 4 day class they are working on sounds great, but I have no idea when it is going to be scheduled

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Oh, I think it’ll be a little while. I need a US state hunting licence before I can file my papers. I don’t hunt at present. I need to take a 4 day hunter safety course, which usually spans a weekend. The weekends on which I’m not working are pretty booked up. If I got off my ass right now, I think it’d take 6-10 weeks. I’m hopeful for mid-late summer/fall. I have access to similar training courses up here, which I take advantage of, so it’s easy to let this slide. I do want to meet some American shooters, buy a small piece of land in a gun friendly state, and just generally get established down there. We’ll see. My interest won’t die. If anyone in upstate NY or Vermont wants to invite me out to their range, I’d be happy to attend. I’m pretty close. I’ll buy ammo.

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Great AAR and those are some good prices too. What area did you train in was it Franklin, VT? I’m in Barre about a 2 hour haul.

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Yeah, we were up in Franklin, I think they are also working acquiring more land so hopefully a long distance/precision course sometime soon.

I heard they were branching out and doing stuff down your way and out of state.

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Good to hear, I will have to keep an eye on their website. Thanks again, great pictures and review.