I am attending a two day rifle/pistol class in a few months. I own plates and a carrier and wad kinda throwing around the idea of wearing them in the class.
The goal of doing so would be to see if I need to make any adjustments to my setup. I was curious if others do this? And what were the reactions of the trainers?
I’m just a guy who is a firearms enthusiast and don’t want to make a false impression that I’m a highly trained forces guy just based off what I wear.
There’s nothing wrong with it, especially if your mag pouches are on the carrier.
I think it’s a good idea, not just to check how your gear runs, but also to get used to wearing it for a period of time.
I say it depends on the class, your skill level, your athleticism, weather, and what you’re trying to get out of the class.
What’s the curriculum about? Is you being in armor going to slow down the class, whether it be due to fatigue or heat exhaustion? Will it take away from your ability to learn what you want from the class? If this is your first formal class, and you’ve little formal training, it may take away from your ability to learn about the raw shooting mechanics being taught in the class. Just things to consider; I’ve always run full kit in the few rifle classes I’ve taken, and have found a few small details on my kit I wanted to change. That being said, some good 2 gun matches can also show you issues in your kit, as would any structured training day with some more experienced folks.
I would say no, don’t wear it. You’re there to learn and build from there. So what’s going to be most conducive to learning what the instructor is teaching. If you start fighting your gear or getting tired too soon, you’ll lose focus on the instruction.
I’ve been to too many classes and matches and seen guys completely gassed because they’re trying to be at cool guy band camp.
Definitely bring it. If it’s an intro type class it might be too much. But running your rig makes sense. Better to have it than regret not bringing it. You can ditch it if it’s a burdon.
I’ve run into this issue in several classes. It’d be nice to wear it because if I’m ever fighting with a rifle, you’d better believe I’m going to try to have armor on, and a class can be as close to a real-world test as you can get without having the targets shoot back. But, it can get in the way, slow you down, and at the very least, make you look like you’re trying to be tacti-cool.
My personal solution is to bring your kit, and add to it over the course of the class if you feel confident in your abilities and think you won’t be taking away from what you can learn in the class, or bogging the class down. For example, I did a carbine class several years back where I started with just my battle belt and added the plate carrier later in the day when I had gotten comfortable with the carbine/other equipment set up. That way you have a firm baseline so you know if your first like equipment and carbine play well together, before adding other variables to the mix.
Thank you all for the excellent feedback.
To add some depth to the conversation it is the Gamut Resolutions Intro to Tactical Carbine and Pistol class (https://gamutresolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Gamut-Course-2Day-Intro-Tactical-Carbine-Pistol-2019.pdf)
I have taken fairly basic pistol and rifle classes before, but not together. I wanted to continue with a few more basic classes from different instructors before I move into advanced classes.
I have my belt set up how I am happy with it, so the only thing I would be fighting with would be the armor.
My athleticism can for sure use improvement.
I wouldn’t in an Intro class, you are there to learn the fundamentals not wrestle with body armor.
This. Learn the base first.
Practice at home, once you are comfortable, incorporate armor/other gear and build up to test function and long-term fit/function.
Its an unnecessary distraction for learning how to learn fundamentals… and thats not a typo.
Practice how you play. If you plan on wearing armor in real time than an intro class is good place to start. I wouldn’t wear it for the full class though. Depending on your level of fitness I would try to wear it for half the day. It does get rather tiring and cumbersome after that. And yes, will become a distraction. You’ll learn there’s a big difference shooting prone with or without body armor for example. Also try and have someone video you as you draw your pistol from your holster and conduct reloads. It’s a great way to see what’s working and not working. If you like pouches in certain locations etc. Years back I took a Paul Howe class and he videoed everyone on the draw and pistol manipulations. Was very beneficial.
In specific military shooter courses you will shoot for weeks (daily) “Clean,” with a minimum of equipment to get the basics of shooting down before adding gear.
Stuff is added in increments – Army practical training methodology is crawl-walk-run.
Three-day commercial classes (Friday - Sunday) really aren’t long enough for a decent shooter to require being “Jocked up” complete with armor and Dome of Obedience (especially in the summer). It may help for people to consider how they configure their stuff – where are my magazines, do pouches interfere with mounting the carbine, or stowing it for pistol transition.
There’s a pain-in-the-ass cost to wearing stuff, and it can detract from training once it interferes with learning progression.
Where is the “like” button so I can stomp on it?
I personally don’t like to wear a bunch of gear in classes. But I’ve seen guys with deuce gear set ups that work great for them cuz they have a lot of their mags, etc. on them.
If you have been training with plates go for it. If they will be a distraction, I would skip them.
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For the OP, it’s kinda of all about the combo of you and the class.
Are you a real new shooter? Or kinda know what you’re doing and this class is more a skill enhancer/refresher?
How far away is the date of the class, and how new are you to setting up/wearing your tac gear? You may be able to gain some pre-familiarity by simply running dry drills around your house/yard, which will massively cut down any potential ‘blue screen’ moments in class. .
Long story short, if you want to wear your gear, wear it. Do NOT change it in any way for the class outside what you expect to wear it configured as, so you get true feedback for yourself. If anyone tries to ‘tactical timmy’ you, well, laugh and drive on. They’ll never get it.
WORST that can possibly happen, is you find out real fast where all your failure points are, or you see that it’s dragging down your skill progression in the class - you can always take it off later in the class, it’s not glued to you… :laugh:
IF it was my class, I’d never stop anyone from wearing their gear, as I understand that, without a “cool” range or private land, that may be the only time a student gets to wear their go-to kit for real. So I doubt you’ll have a problem from that end - it’s really all about you, and what you can deal with.
I also think a lot of folks really spend to much time overthinking the addition of extra gear to their shooting regimen, class attendance, whatev. Like, just do it. Stop thinking, and just do it. If it works first time, great, if not, now you know and can fix whatever the problem is.
A couple personal anecdotes-
My first “serious” class I’d never worn any LBE type gear to any other shooting event, and what I got was brand new guesswork about 2 months before the class. I only spent some time setting it up, adjusting, dry-running a few times before diving into the class. I had reasonable proficiency with shooting/reloads/malf clearance though. I really expected to have a hard time, given the much more advanced tactics in the class than I was used to, and unfamiliar gear. But everything went fine - I spent the the class having zero issues acclimating to the equipment addition, and wondering why about a 3rd of the rest of the class were sucking so hard, if my dumb ass had no problems getting my shit together.
I suspect my due diligence in actually ADJUSTING my new kit properly for me, and gaining some basic familiarity with how everything worked played a big part in that, VS some of the other attendees who it was VERY clear had never worn their kit before that day… I also had good shooting fundamentals gained at previous events, or by myself, without using gear.
However, the third class around was a different story - I thought I had a good level of proficiency going in, and I wore the same gear that had worked fine for me the previous few classes. However, the class material was covering things that I had zero familiarity with.
What. An. Absolute. Clusterf***.
Aside from the new class material that was essentially drinking from a firehose, I went into that weekend class tired from a bonkers week at work. I then discovered that my shooting skills were simply not up to par to meet the demands of tactics that required a completely new style of shooting (my gun was still set up fine, it was just me). On top of that, my gear, while set up fine for the previous classes, was now completely unsuitable for a total 180 swap in what my LBE needed to do during this class, and I spent the whole class fighting with that shit, along with everything else. It was dumb, and I felt dumb during the class because things weren’t working as expected (which probably further impacted my mental ability to absorb info by compounding exhaustion). I STILL learned plenty, but maybe I’d have learned more and bluescreened less, if I had gone into it more prepared, OR realized what was wrong during the class, which I didn’t because I was to focused on trying to take in the info and keep up.
So, like I said, it’s all up to YOU making a no-BS assessment of where you are, or maybe pushing the envelope a bit to find out. You never learn if you don’t push.
You’ve gotten some excellent guidance in this thread.
I’ll notee that unless the armor proves an operational impediment to you or the class, it never hurts to have armor on when a bunch of people are shooting guns around you.
Yes thank you all for your well thought responses. It has added a lot to consider and is much appreciated.
Thank you for asking this. I’m going to go to a few classes this year and had the same question. I just don’t want to look like an idiot if I were the only one their with lvl4 plates on
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If you feel you NEED to wear Level 4 armor because of the proficiency of others in your class I submit you probably need to find a different instructor.