Joshua Rollins
Newbie
Location:
Trigger Time in Carthage N.C.
Introduction:
Currently I am a Police Officer in a large department. Prior to that I was in the U.S. Army Infantry for 8 years and served 38 months in the GWOT. I have attended multiple courses in the military, law enforcement, and in the civilian sector. Previously, in the civilian sector I have trained with Vickers, Hackathorn and others; some of which I would rather not admit too. This was my fourth course with DCNC.
Instructors:
Chris and Steve
Students:
Six total. One high school senior, one college student, one National Parks Federal LEO, at least one prior service .mil and others with a wide range of experience behind the rifle.
Guns, gear and , ammo that I used:
I used my Franken AR, the only AR that I still own that I personally built. It had a little over 4k rounds through it when I started the class. I took one of my BCM Recce rifles as a spare. However, it never came out of the case. I had no gun, gear, ammo, or magazine related issues or failures during the class.
I used PMC Bronze 55gr FMJ for the class. I shot a total of 327rd. I used Mag Pul Pmags for the class.
I wore my Ferro Concepts Slickster PC with Spiritus Systems Micro Fight Chest rig for ammo carriage. This is an efficient, low profile, adaptable, and very comfortable rig. Prior to the class I have been using on duty for patrol rifle deployments for a little less than 2 months, and have used it at my home range on multiple occasions. I have been using it as opposed to my Grey Ghost Minimalist Plate carrier for those two months as a test run. The Slickster is a little slower to get into. However, I feel that it offers more than the Minimalist. The Slickster is cut in such a way that allows more room for the rifle stock. The Minimalist isn’t bad in this regards, but the Slickster is better.
Gear used by other students:
I did not pay all that much attention but there was an assortment of various brands of ARs in the class. The only issue that I saw was one student who had multiple malfunctions related to Tangodown magazines. It appeared that students had their gear in order and we were not slowed down my gear and gun issues that is sometimes common in class.
Class time:
Class started with introductions, safety brief, and medical plan. Chris provided real world examples of the firearms safety rules and how they apply. Then Chris talked about the two camps in regards to SOM. The one camp that says you have been walking for “x” number of years, and shooting for “y” number of years; so just walk and shoot. The second camp being those that believe that there are things that can be done to make you more effective and efficient at shooting on the move such as the toe, heel, roll, bending your knees, etc. Chris then did an excellent job of explaining how SOM applied to .mil, LEO, and the competitive world.
I will be honest, at first I had thought to myself “ how can we train shooting on the move for 8 hours”? Well we did it. Pretty much all the drills and variations were first conducted dry and then ran live multiple times after that. I think more training companies and students could benefit from more dry runs on drills. It is rare in classes that I see training organizations do dry runs first. In my opinion this is the perfect type of class to do dry reps. You are still getting reps on the skills without wasting ammo. The various dry runs allowed us to make sure that we were doing all the things that were instructed on and it gave Chris and Steve the opportunity to fine tune things before going live. We did enough dry runs to get us familiar with the technique but not so many that it felt like they were wasting time. We also did enough live runs of each to hone the skills without wasting ammo or time.
We shot on the move forward, backwards, and laterally with different variations and twists on each method. The round counts and desired target area were changed up frequently. Once again I was pleased to see that DCNC’s accuracy standard did not change because this was a SOM course. Compared to others in the industry their accuracy standard is high, but not so high that it is unrealistic or marksmanship masturbation. Students were expected to make up shots that fell outside of the desired target areas. These target areas were the pelvic box, chest box, and T box of VTAC targets.
Chris did a great job of explaining offset after multiple students were consistently shooting low. Chris also went into a short discussion about the wobble zone, and working with the wobble zone to get acceptable hits on target. Once we played with the wobble zone a little and worked in it, we did a single shot on steel at 45 plus yards while on the move. Hits were obtained by multiple students.
The two forms of lateral movement that we used were the drag step which is basically moving from one shooting position to another and toes in the direction of travel (think like a tank). All shots were taken from the dominant shoulder and I am a right handed shooter so keep that in mind while I describe the next few points. With targets to the left hits were fast and easy. With targets to the right that were not directly beside you were not too hard to get hits on. Once the targets to the shooters right was directly beside or slightly behind, it was harder to get the sights and hits that were needed. This was due to the fact of not being able to turn the upper body very far when engaging targets on the right side and firing from the right shoulder. About half way through the second rep, I remembered a technique from a previous class which included canting the rifle inward slightly. However, before I could use it on the third rep, Chris discussed a way to get more range of motion without canting the rifle.
Chris demonstrated that you simply bend the knees more. Sure enough, that allowed for more range of motion and allowed shooters to engage targets to the right off of the right shoulder longer. Obviously, this technique would also work for left handed shooters, engaging targets on their left.
Obviously, a shoulder switch would have made it easier. However, in the context that we were using this technique, and the close proximity to the targets, a shoulder switch would take time that one would really not have. Therefore, the extra bend in the knees allowing for more range of motion was a great technique to apply in this and similar contexts.
The final drills of the day were shot on steel at 45 plus yards while on the move. Multiple barrels were set up and drills similar to a snake drill were conducted. The final drills put a lot of the techniques that we had learned and practiced during the day into one. It was a great way to end the course and the great day of training.
In closing:
Once again I was impressed with the level of instruction and the course material provided by Chris and Steve. This was a great class and I will be attending more training with DCNC in the near future.
Trigger Time in Carthage N.C.
Introduction:
Currently I am a Police Officer in a large department. Prior to that I was in the U.S. Army Infantry for 8 years and served 38 months in the GWOT. I have attended multiple courses in the military, law enforcement, and in the civilian sector. Previously, in the civilian sector I have trained with Vickers, Hackathorn and others; some of which I would rather not admit too. This was my fourth course with DCNC.
Instructors:
Chris and Steve
Students:
Six total. One high school senior, one college student, one National Parks Federal LEO, at least one prior service .mil and others with a wide range of experience behind the rifle.
Guns, gear and , ammo that I used:
I used my Franken AR, the only AR that I still own that I personally built. It had a little over 4k rounds through it when I started the class. I took one of my BCM Recce rifles as a spare. However, it never came out of the case. I had no gun, gear, ammo, or magazine related issues or failures during the class.
I used PMC Bronze 55gr FMJ for the class. I shot a total of 327rd. I used Mag Pul Pmags for the class.
I wore my Ferro Concepts Slickster PC with Spiritus Systems Micro Fight Chest rig for ammo carriage. This is an efficient, low profile, adaptable, and very comfortable rig. Prior to the class I have been using on duty for patrol rifle deployments for a little less than 2 months, and have used it at my home range on multiple occasions. I have been using it as opposed to my Grey Ghost Minimalist Plate carrier for those two months as a test run. The Slickster is a little slower to get into. However, I feel that it offers more than the Minimalist. The Slickster is cut in such a way that allows more room for the rifle stock. The Minimalist isn’t bad in this regards, but the Slickster is better.
Gear used by other students:
I did not pay all that much attention but there was an assortment of various brands of ARs in the class. The only issue that I saw was one student who had multiple malfunctions related to Tangodown magazines. It appeared that students had their gear in order and we were not slowed down my gear and gun issues that is sometimes common in class.
Class time:
Class started with introductions, safety brief, and medical plan. Chris provided real world examples of the firearms safety rules and how they apply. Then Chris talked about the two camps in regards to SOM. The one camp that says you have been walking for “x” number of years, and shooting for “y” number of years; so just walk and shoot. The second camp being those that believe that there are things that can be done to make you more effective and efficient at shooting on the move such as the toe, heel, roll, bending your knees, etc. Chris then did an excellent job of explaining how SOM applied to .mil, LEO, and the competitive world.
I will be honest, at first I had thought to myself “ how can we train shooting on the move for 8 hours”? Well we did it. Pretty much all the drills and variations were first conducted dry and then ran live multiple times after that. I think more training companies and students could benefit from more dry runs on drills. It is rare in classes that I see training organizations do dry runs first. In my opinion this is the perfect type of class to do dry reps. You are still getting reps on the skills without wasting ammo. The various dry runs allowed us to make sure that we were doing all the things that were instructed on and it gave Chris and Steve the opportunity to fine tune things before going live. We did enough dry runs to get us familiar with the technique but not so many that it felt like they were wasting time. We also did enough live runs of each to hone the skills without wasting ammo or time.
We shot on the move forward, backwards, and laterally with different variations and twists on each method. The round counts and desired target area were changed up frequently. Once again I was pleased to see that DCNC’s accuracy standard did not change because this was a SOM course. Compared to others in the industry their accuracy standard is high, but not so high that it is unrealistic or marksmanship masturbation. Students were expected to make up shots that fell outside of the desired target areas. These target areas were the pelvic box, chest box, and T box of VTAC targets.
Chris did a great job of explaining offset after multiple students were consistently shooting low. Chris also went into a short discussion about the wobble zone, and working with the wobble zone to get acceptable hits on target. Once we played with the wobble zone a little and worked in it, we did a single shot on steel at 45 plus yards while on the move. Hits were obtained by multiple students.
The two forms of lateral movement that we used were the drag step which is basically moving from one shooting position to another and toes in the direction of travel (think like a tank). All shots were taken from the dominant shoulder and I am a right handed shooter so keep that in mind while I describe the next few points. With targets to the left hits were fast and easy. With targets to the right that were not directly beside you were not too hard to get hits on. Once the targets to the shooters right was directly beside or slightly behind, it was harder to get the sights and hits that were needed. This was due to the fact of not being able to turn the upper body very far when engaging targets on the right side and firing from the right shoulder. About half way through the second rep, I remembered a technique from a previous class which included canting the rifle inward slightly. However, before I could use it on the third rep, Chris discussed a way to get more range of motion without canting the rifle.
Chris demonstrated that you simply bend the knees more. Sure enough, that allowed for more range of motion and allowed shooters to engage targets to the right off of the right shoulder longer. Obviously, this technique would also work for left handed shooters, engaging targets on their left.
Obviously, a shoulder switch would have made it easier. However, in the context that we were using this technique, and the close proximity to the targets, a shoulder switch would take time that one would really not have. Therefore, the extra bend in the knees allowing for more range of motion was a great technique to apply in this and similar contexts.
The final drills of the day were shot on steel at 45 plus yards while on the move. Multiple barrels were set up and drills similar to a snake drill were conducted. The final drills put a lot of the techniques that we had learned and practiced during the day into one. It was a great way to end the course and the great day of training.
In closing:
Once again I was impressed with the level of instruction and the course material provided by Chris and Steve. This was a great class and I will be attending more training with DCNC in the near future.