AAR – Modern Samurai Project’s – One Day Red Dot Fundamentals Workshop

Date: 1/14/18
Location: Gilbert’s Indoor Range in Rockville, MD
Lead Instructor: Scott “Jedi” Jedlinski
AIs: Dave Wampler and Doc Willoughby
Students: 16

Gear

• Glock 19 Gen3 cut up by ATEi w/ RMR06 v1, frame stippled by SweatyMuddyBloody, OverwatchPrecision DAT, Agency magwell, Ameriglo black suppressor sights, stock barrel and recoil assembly
• Phlster Classic IWB kydex holster, GCode IWB mag carrier, carried a couple extra mags in my pocket
• Stock Glock 19&17 mags
• Magtech 115gr 9mm
• ESS Crossbow Clear lens eye pro, MSA Sordin Supreme ProX

 

Intro
This class was essentially a crash course for the new RDS-equipped handgun shooter. Scott is an accomplished competition shooter, the only person to earn a FAST coin with an RDS-equipped handgun, has a plethora of tactics/combatives-based training under his belt, and also has a background in various legitimate martial arts; he takes his experience in all of these facets of life to give application to the shooting skills we were learning/honing. THIS WAS NOT A TACTICS CLASS, Scott was very adamant about making sure the students knew this, we were all there to learn how to effectively use our red dots, the application of these skills afterwards is a personal decision. Most of the students were entirely new to the sighting system (a few of the students had yet to fire their RDS-equipped pistols) and some of the other students were more familiar with the system and had obviously put in some repetitions; Scott was able to cater to the needs of all students without overloading the newbies or boring the more experienced shooters.

 

 

Play-by-play

• 0900: kicked off class with introductions: Scott, his wife Beverly, the AIs, and everyone attending.
• 0915: Scott covered the safety and medical brief and gave us some tips on mounting the dot, maintenance, and tricks to avoid issues with flickering and fogging
• 0935ish: discussed WHY we want to use the dot, focal planes, and some common pitfalls people find themselves in when using a dot that makes them slower
• 0945: everyone grabs their gear, heads out to the range, gasses up their blasters
• 0955: Scott demos a 10 yard zero, gives us the why, and then we all step up to the 10 yard line and follow in-suit. We shot in two relays of 8 since the range had 8-10 shooting lanes.
• 1015: confirmed zero at 25 yards and made adjustments if required
• 1040: discussion on draw stroke efficiency, recoil mitigation and structural support, relaxing what needs to be relaxed and not burning extra calories tightening muscles that don’t need to be. Enter the “Jedi Power Punch” and demos
• 1215-1245: Lunch
• 1250: back out on the range testing our draw strokes and finding the dot, Scott diagnosed and got his hands on every student to see where they could improve and do less instead of more
• 1320: discussed importance of the shot timer and video to self-diagnose and identify inefficiencies
• 1325: worked on tracking the dot through recoil and how to not lose the dot, mag-dumped into the burm (queue everyone losing their minds)
• 1400: shooting up close and being fast, using rough sighting indexes, confirming improvements with shot timer
• 1445: mini-match putting together all of the skills we covered while on the timer, demo
• 1520: clean up range, police brass, pack up gear
• 1525-1555: Hot wash, everyone’s thoughts/open discussion, take-aways and some philosophical stuff from Scott

Summary
Everyone there walked away with a handful of nuggets to go forward with in their red dot shooting, whether it be in a competitive setting or on a carry gun. I picked up four big knowledge-nuggets that really helped to improve my performance with the dot which I’m going to continue working on in my practice. An awesome overall class, Scott and his wife are great people, looking forward to training with Modern Samurai Project again.

Ill just leave this here…
SLOW IS SLOW, SMOOTH IS SMOOTH. FAST IS THE ECONOMY OF MOTION AND DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR SMOOTH OR SLOW 🙂