Day One: We started the day with a safety brief and conducted a verification or fix battle sight zero’s on Iron’s and Optics. After we completed this we paired up and started transition drills. The students engaged their targets with both their primary weapon and their secondary weapon systems, de-conflicting when necessary while covering their partner’s threats as well. The reason we start out with Transition | Check drills is to to build on primacy… Incorporating it from the beginning to give repetition through out the course. Working with someone else right off the bat makes you not get stuck in your little box and forces you to realize that there are other things in fight that you must be concerned about. Again working the mental side of target engagement instead of just the physical side.
“BSA Template” The next evolution is our timed “BSA” (Balance Speed & Accuracy) shooting template engaging targets from the 5 yard line out to the 50 (Range max) this template shows the shooters where they sit on their individual speed and accuracy at each yard line and forcing themselves to tighten up as the shooting cone narrows but not to tighten up so much where they don’t make the time and become combat ineffective.
Once that was done students started shooting from improvised shooting positions where we started working on weapon manipulation from the weapon side shoulder and switching it to the reaction side shoulder. We covered methods that would help in the ease of transitioning the primary weapon from one shoulder to another along with how to quickly pick up your sights.
Gear note: Every class we teach basic or advance, we have seen the same problem with slings just completely hindering the students ability to be efficient and effectively get rounds on the target in times allotted in a gunfight and that being consistent to the times we give on drills (Reality). I know this will cause some controversy however for those that have attended a Magpul Dynamics class understand that we don’t like gear set-ups to be the reason a student can’t perform a particular technique.
Those that were running a 2 point slings had a lot of limitations especially when we started conducting one handed drills with the primary like clearing a double feed or shooting urban prone weapon shoulder (Strong) and reaction shoulder (Support). We like 2 point slings for patrolling or for employing my long gun, SAW’s, 240’s etc… however for Direct Action, running and gunning, and especially Combative’s! I don’t want to have to move or touch my sling - pull a quick release in order to facilitate movement in any improvised shooting positions especially when under the dynamic stress of a “Time is life” situation. Basically there is a purpose for different types of sling set-ups that seems the shooting industry has very quickly forgotten about. YOU as a shooter need to break down the mechanics of WHAT WORKS WHEN YOU NEED IT TO. There’s gear that is efficient, and there’s gear that is effective…but do you have what is the perfect balance for both? Just ask yourself a simple question: What do I do the majority of the time and what will matter most under extreme stress?..
This is what we always get from shooters: “Well I use one because if I ever have to tow a down shooter or climb a wall then it comes in handy plus its more comfortable”
Answer: WTF? first off: How often are you climbing walls and towing down shooters? and during those two events you just mentioned… are you shooting? no…well then it doesn’t matter then dose it? but when your needing to employ for weapon in situations mentioned earlier then it dose matter doesn’t it? Again there is a obvious controversy here but our job is to point out when things go consistently wrong! And in this case the proof is in the pudding.
Back to training: We then ran a drill where the students started with their optics off, this drill started at the 10 yard line and progressed to the 50 yard line where students did a great job popping steal by shooting out of the tube. Students we given the pro’s and cons of whether to transition, flip up sights or keep engaging. This paid off for one student later in the class.
Barricades | Obstacle Drills and more Gear!: Students started with the normal standing, kneeling, firing through ports, urban prone, etc. However the students started transitioning their primary from one shoulder to another while running this drill. After this was done we ran a competition in the same format. During the competition since the clock can add some stress “Disadvantaged slings” showed themselves once again, students under stress just got into improvised shooing positions forgetting to pull their quick releases which would give them the extra slack they needed. Some 2 points that were slacked to much were being inserted into the mag well on reloads. After the drill was over everyone quickly started looking at their gear.
Shooting and moving drills: We then started with the normal forward, adverse angle etc. This is wear we ended just before we broke for dinner.
Night Shoot: How to use your primary weapons light, how to use a handheld light with your primary, how to use your primary weapons light while transitioning to your secondary weapon, how to use a handheld light with your primary while transitioning to your secondary weapon, and using your primary weapons light and transitioning to your secondary weapons mounted light for those that had one. These were just a few techniques we ran through. As you know its best to take a dedicated low light, “NO light” courses which would be one of our MAC course but all at night. After we ran through the list of lighting techniques we then started movement drills and barricade drills. The night ended with a shooting competition.
Day Two: Students started off with another timed shooting template. After that we then covered how to Tap rack bang with just your weapon hand and then your reaction hand. We then progressed to clearing a double feed weapon hand and reaction hand only. During these drills if your sling didn’t have a quick release getting the weapon off of you can be allot more complicated. The rest of the day was spent conducting shooting and moving drills, barricade drills and a two man shooting and moving drills, followed by one last competition.
Competition Winners earned: P mag’s, CTR’s, and UBR’s
I just wanted to thank the students for being very safe in their weapon manipulation drills, especially during the one handed double feed drills. I would also like to thank you for bringing an open mind to the class, I think you understand that Magpul Dynamics goal is to make you a more effective, and efficient problem solvers. The techniques we teach are based on lessons learned the hard way, our training scars. I think everyone knows that we wear our hearts on our sleeves, we put our pants on one leg at a time and in the end we want to make you a better shooter then we are… just in case you find yourselves in the shitty situations we have been in our lives.
I feel that you guys defiantly climbed yet another rung on the ladder of excellence during this two day course.
Reality | Efficiency | Consistency
Costa
