Tri-Con Class, Combative Carbine Level II

Dealers/ Manufacturers/ Regional/ Info Huldra Arms
1

We just got done with a great Tri-Con Class, Combative Carbine Level II. First off Jeff Gonzalez is one cool dude. I am a little star struck by the whole Navy Seal thing. It makes me feel inadequate as an American.

It was a great three days. We did a high round count, somewhere in the 2,200 range. The 3 Huldra’s performed well, very well in fact. There were 3 LWRCs in class. It seems pistons are taking over. The only other rifle I am in love with after the Huldra Tactical Elite is The LWRC Tricon. So much so I may do a special Tactical Elite in the desert tan color scheme. Not sure yet.

Sour Grapes Alert: I Did Not Pass The Class

The way the scoring took place worked against me. During class while I was attempting to increase my skill set, trying new things that were described and demonstrated in class and pushing me out of my comfort zone. I think I got a little too aggressive in my experimentation.

I probably should have stuck to the same old, same old. I should have shot the best I could, using my same old bag of tricks through the entire class and not push myself into new territory, where I would make mistakes I could learn from. That may have been the best plan of attack, but I could have done that on my own range by myself.

Where I get the most out of any class is seeing what works for me and what doesn’t. I think that’s why I didn’t see a lot of folks trying to imitate Jeff’s stance (on the balls of your feet, squaring yourself to the target) was because they knew they were not going to be able to do it well, the first, second or third time and were going to be penalized for trying.

All three days there were “tests”; that we were not told would go to your final score. I assumed based on Combative Carbine I they were just skills assessments or benchmarks of how the class was doing. I was wrong. I was doing my best to get every learning experience from this class; I was experimenting with several different stances and balances, how and where I hold the rifle, whether I pull the rifle back into my shoulder more with my left hand than my right, “choking up on the trigger/grip”, what part of my trigger finger to use, how I squeeze, etc. I was experimenting, based on what I heard and saw demonstrated trying to make myself a better shooter. My goal was not trying to be “the best in the class” or impress anyone. When it came time for the Modified Navy Qualification, I was one of 4 that passed and earned the Combat Marksman Badge (which was super cool) and on the final I got a near perfect score, only one on or outside the line (that may have been the high score in class, correct me if I am wrong guys). But that was after I got a chance to try and fail, try and succeed and experiment as to what works for me and incorporate it into my skill set. Everyone has different physiology and Biomechanics; what will work for one person will not work exactly the same for another. It is just the reality of the physical universe and it takes trial and error to sort it all out.

I agree with the philosophy that “perfect practice makes perfect”… if you are shooting at 100% all the time. Don’t change anything if you are 100% all the time, every time, but if you are shooting at less than 100% doing the same thing over and over again won’t give you a better result. It is time to work outside your comfort zone, and fail; so you can ultimately succeed.

When Thomas Edison was interviewed by a reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure, perplexed, Edison replied, "Young man, why would I feel like a failure? I now know definitively over 3,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work.” And shortly after that Edison invented the light bulb.

"The electric light has caused me the greatest amount of study and has required the most elaborate experiments… Although I was never myself discouraged or hopeless of its success, I cannot say the same for my associates… Through all of the years of experimenting with it, I never once made an associated discovery. It was deductive… The results I achieved were the consequence of invention - pure and simple. I would construct and work along various lines until I found them untenable. When one theory was discarded, I developed another at once. I realized very early that this was the only possible way for me to work out all the problems.” -Thomas Edison

Bottom line my whiney excuse making aside: Jeff’s program is straight out of Navel Special Warfare, you can’t argue with their success or how awesome they are. Big thanks to Jeff for putting so much effort into making it a great class. Hope to see him again teaching a class around here soon so I can redeem myself.

Thanks,
Stewart Mills III
Mills Fleet Farm
Huldra Arms

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Awesome class and awesome rifles! I will do my best to get the Carbine 2 here again next year. I’m a little pissed that I didn’t do better on the scored portions of the diagnostic drills. I looked at all the targets and was shooting just as well as the top two guys. I just didn’t make it count on the third scored portion on the first day. DQed only once but it was enough to keep me out of the running. I walked away more skills to work on.

I am impressed with the rifles. I induced one malfunction partly because of jamming the mag in too hard causing a double feed. Other than that it ran flawlessly. I did the same thing last year with my DI LMT. Actually I did it twice last year!:mad:

The Huldra Tac Elite will be a keeper for sure! I’m looking forward to my next Huldra!

Check these rifles out the next time you are in a Mills Fleet Farm store in the Midwest!

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I forgot to mention that my Tac Elite is accurate too!

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I planned my work, worked my plan, and came up short, and the worst part was actually my plan was successful. My plan was one of trial and error, experimentation and pushing into areas that exceed my abilities to intentionally challenge me. I came away with a more solid skill set and the final shooting test proved it. I don’t know why I am so “wrapped around the axel” about it, but I am. There were 16 people in the class, only two passed; I have to keep that in perspective.

I did not clean my rifle; the first night I opened up the bolt to give it a look-see, but didn’t clean the rifle. The 2nd night I didn’t even bother with a visual inspection. Day three I got lazy and didn’t bother to put on lube. I included a picture of the receiver extension to demonstrate the lack of carrier tilt on the Huldra’s after a 2,200 round three day class. The rifle ran flawless.

For whatever reason that seems to be the biggest inquiry I get about the Huldra’s. It goes something like this: I know your piston system run cooler, cleaner and thus are more dependable theoretically, but the AR platform isn’t made for a piston… evidence of that is carrier tilt…” …Or something along those lines. It is interesting to see that Colt is coming out with a piston rifle, the 6940P. I have been following a few threads on that. It is causing all the bashers of AR-15 innovation (that attacked the Huldra team unmercifully, hurled personal insults and spread misinformation) to be quiet, or quietly change their position. There are folks that will have to start being honest with themselves that they have gun safes full of obsolete DI rifles.

Due to noise ordinances we got a late start two of the mornings of the class, so we hung out in the briefing room getting higher level information than was planned for on the syllabus. Here is my favorite Jeff Gonzales quotes from those briefings “Mil-spec is a revision to 1980’s technology, Mil-spec is antiquated.” Amen! “Chrome lining is nothing but antirust paint.” Amen.

The tide has turned. It is nice to know that Huldra is riding a big wave in. After that class I have a whole lot of respect for LWRC. That was what we were aiming for (pun intended) when we spec’ed the Tactical Elite, a rifle that would meet or exceed the LWRC M6, at a much lower price point. We did it, and with all respect due the M6-A3 and A2. I saw then and still see LWRC as our main competitor. The problems with variable gas system, the dependability in arctic (Minnesota) conditions and the astronomical price point of the HK-416 knocks HK out of the running. I am waiting for SHOT show to see if Colt is everything the hype is making out of it.

The more I think about it I am going to build a very limited edition Huldra very similar to Jeff’s new limited edition LWRC, sans the cork screw barrel. There aren’t many other than Jeff/ Tri-Con that have their gear together. Got love his style. That Arcteryxa Minotar half shell he was wearing that I thought was the bomb is like $400, ouch! I am sticking with my Fleet Farm Carhartt

Thanks,
Stewart Mills III
Mills Fleet Farm
Huldra Arms

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?p=1026121

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=89879

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Hi Guys,

I thought I would post on here as well. I echo what Stewart said about the class, a great three days of training, long days, hard work, tiring, but well worth it. The class was full of 16 great guys with various rifles, both DI and piston systems. I was a little surprised to see the number of piston rifles increasing as this year 6 of the shooters were using piston rifles, our Huldras and LWRC’s. I wanted to post more on the technical side of things. A common question we get is have your rifles been tested, or gone through any carbine classes. Well this week, we had three of us run Huldra’s in the class, each firing a little over 2000 rounds each. In the beginning of class we agreed that we would not clean the rifles and see how they run. All of us did lube the rifles in the beginning with Slip 2000 EWL. Stewart ran his gun the rest of the course with no additional lube, and Mike and I lubed once more in the middle of day 2 of the 3 day class. As far as performance, Stewart’s Tac Elite ran flawlessly no stoppages. Mike was also running a Tac Elite and had one double feed which he felt was a user error where he thought he hit a mag too hard during a mag change causing a round to pop out. I was running a special make up rifle, a Huldra 11.5" SBR. I was really excited to run this gun to see how the piston system ran the SBR, last year when I attended the class I ran a DI 10.5" SBR, so I was interested in comparing the two. My rifle ran awesome, only one slight stoppage which was all me.

During a timed drill, I went to insert a mag during a mag change. As I was going for the change and inserting the mag I must have bumped the mag along the way or on the mag well. When I looked down at the mag I noticed a round was partially coming out of the mag before I inserted it in the rifle. I thought I could still insert the mag, at the same time reseating the round in the mag. I was wrong and the round popped out and up. I looked in the ejection port saw the loose round and knew it was cause a double feed if I would have charged it, so I rolled the rifle, and got rid of the round, charged, and moved on. So not really a stoppage, more of a (face plant) user error that cost me a few seconds in the drill. I wanted to post that because we want to put everything out there, we aren’t trying to hide anything about how our rifles ran. I was impressed on how all of them ran, especially the SBR. It shot great too. Recoil was controllable, and I found it really no different then my DI SBR. The accuracy was great as well, while I wasn’t bench resting the gun, zero’ing with an Aimpoint M4 from prone proved the rifle was accurate for zero and class.

One other concern I had was the heat during rapid fire drills. The SBR I have is set up with the Samson Manufacturing Evolution light weight rail. I was concerned heat may be an issue in the high round count stages on the hand guard and support hand. To be able to observe the most accurately I didn’t wear gloves during the entire class. I brought them with in case the heat proved to be too much, but this wasn’t the case. I found the free float rail dissipated heat quickly and efficiently. Sure there was times the area around the gas block was warm, but never uncomfortable to shoot or caused me to change my grip. Overall I was very pleased with how the rifle performed and functioned.

Something we hear often is about the “cleaning” of pistons. Folks often say, “tell me something other then cleaning,” or “piston guns still get dirty, just in different places.” Well I wanted to explore this first hand, so after the class I detail stripped the rifle to see if they really are “cleaner running” rifles and where they do get dirty. Well the BCG area was wet from lube, a little dirty, but overall very clean for 2000+ rounds. To clean, all I did was wipe it down with a shop rag. I then pulled the gas block, rail, and barrel to see the dirt there. Our system exhausts the excess gas from the gas block area so I wanted to examine that up close. I was really impressed by what I saw. The barrel had some carbon residue but it was still much better then I would expect. I have cleaned many BCGs from DI guns with far less rounds and didn’t find that amount of carbon, powder, etc anywhere on the rifle. The piston parts (gas plug, drive rod) were also still very clean and were absent of any carbon or powder build up. I should note that when I got this rifle new I took the piston parts and baked them with Militec in my shop oven. I have read that many shooters often bake parts to “treat” them with Militec so the lube bonds with the surface. I wanted to try this myself as well and it appears it was worth it. The piston parts wiped clean with a rag, no solvents required. While checking the rail there was a little build up of carbon, but again, nothing I expected.

All in all, I am very impressed with the performance, and cleanliness of the rifle after the class. And, of course, I know my post is worthless without photos, so I took photos of the parts after they were immediately removed from the rifle before wiping down.






Any questions let me know.
Take care,
Dave

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Dave,

Great pics of the dirty portions of the gun and thanks for sharing them. Mine was equally dirty. I went the first day without gloves. I thought for sure with my Magpul grip I was going to get burned from the heat due to the fact I had the grip mounted in the farthest forward position. I did get burned a few times but it wasn’t from the gun. It was from hot brass on my neck, face and hands from the guy to the left of me. I put gloves on because of the nicks and cuts I was getting from mag changes and charging the gun.

As far as guys attending we had about half LEO’s and half civilians and probably a quarter of us with some sort of military background. All in all it was a great class.

I look forward to next years class.

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The course was indeed instructive. It was demoralizing shooting between Dave and Huldra128 for 3 days straight, though.

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Hmac,

You didn’t do too bad for a first timer through one of Tricons courses and being that it was a level 2 course. I hope to see you along with Tim and Mark again in these courses. I will keep everyone posted on the next one. I didn’t pass it either and I was very disappointed in myself. Anyhow it was great to have you in class.

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Demoralizing is such a harsh word :slight_smile: Hmac, you did great in the class, it was great having you there. Those classes wouldn’t be in the area if it wasn’t for guys like you. I got your email too, I’ll reply today but I would love to see and make some holsters in the shop.