CK837
Amateur
Combat Shooting and Tactics
Tactical Pistol/Tactical Rifle Instructor
March 14-19, 2017
CSAT, Nacogdoches, TX
On March 13th, 2017, I drove down from the great brown state of Iowa to Texas to check a class off my bucket list. For several years I have been wanting to attend Paul Howe’s Tactical Pistol/Tactical Rifle Instructor course at CSAT. I arrived at the barracks around 6pm that evening and started getting settled in and meeting the other students. My class primarily consisted of other law enforcement officers, but we had two civilians as well. I don’t know if they felt intimidated being in a class heavily populated by cops, but they should not have. They can hold their own and shoot better than a vast majority of gun owners I know. That shouldn’t surprise me, because most people go to that class knowing what they’re getting into and tend to come prepared.
Day 1:
We started class the next morning with 10 hopeful instructors. After a 30 minute classroom talk, it was off to the range to start shooting. We started with a few warm up drills which correlated to the standards we were about to shoot to get the “blessing” to instruct. You can find the standards on CSAT’s website, combatshootingandtactics.com, but in a nutshell it consists of 10 different drills which you shoot on a shot timer. Each one requires a hit in either the chest box or head box of the CSAT targets. Shots outside of the box count as a miss. Combine that with the time constraints and it’s not an easy set of skills in my experience, but certainly attainable with a bit of effort. Instructors are required to shoot 8 out of 10 drills clean (No misses and under the time limit) to pass. Only 2 students passed the standard on the first run as I recall and were rewarded with a clipboard and timer. They then started learning how to run the line correctly and keep score. I let the the timer get to me and took 5 runs to pass, despite having shot and passed the standards on my own several times. It was a good lesson that pressure affects everyone and I need to learn to deal with it better.
By early afternoon all but maybe 3 of us had passed. Those who had passed learned to run timers and score sheets and coach the shooters who were still trying to pass. I can’t remember if it was day 1 or day 2, but all of the students who were going to pass, passed pretty early on. We finished out Day 1 with getting assigned live demos for Day 5. Day 5 and 6 of our class were Day 1 and 2 of a 2 day Tactical Pistol/Tactical Operator class that ran concurrently with our class. The goal was to assist Paul with running his class using the skills we just learned and see his training methodology in action. We were all assigned, rather volunteered, to shoot a specific drill from the pistol standards. We each partnered up with a “battle buddy” and one person would shoot and the other would explain the demo and run the timer for the shooter. Paul explained later in the course that the reason he uses battle buddies is to help the person demoing a drill have less to think about. I volunteered for the Rhythm Drill or Failure Drill. This consists of 5 shots to the body and 1 to the head in 3 seconds, but more on this later. Class was over by 4pm everyday, however, I stayed at the range most days until dark working on the demo or shooting rifles or long range etc.
Day 2:
Day 2 was more of the same, coaching and trying to get a couple more students through, and also what Paul calls modules. These consist of a specific skill set we could teach like barricades, vehicle bail outs, etc. Each module was self-contained, but they really build upon each other. For instance, you use the skills from the list of standards when you do barricades. You use barricade skill for vehicle bail outs and fire and maneuver and so on. It was pretty cool to see how everything was starting to come together as a complete package rather than separate, individual skills that are done “just because”. It was quickly apparent that Paul doesn’t have you do anything “just because”. Everything has a purpose. Every module centered around safety. Explain. Dry demo. Live fire. If the students can't do it safely dry, you don’t move on to live fire.
At the end of Day 2 we still had 2 students who had not passed the standards. We all took turns working with them and trying to get them where they needed to be, but it was evident they were getting discouraged. I can’t blame them. The pressure is intense until you pass and then it feels like someone just let the air back in the room. Even if it’s just for a day. The short story is they left midday of day 3. They weren’t told what they were getting into and were frankly unprepared. I have to give them props. They never gave up and kept striving to get better. Paul told us he talked to them and suggested they come back in May when they are more prepared. I hope they do go back. I would definitely want to go back and slay that dragon. They had the marks of shooters who have only been training through law enforcement channels. I should know. I was one of them once before I drove myself to improve after I realized the world is a much bigger place than my little slice of the shooting world.
I concluded Day 2 with more work on the range. Several of us went to the rifle range and checked our zero’s and practiced the standards for Day 3. We already knew day 3 would be rifle day and we knew that meant shooting the standards right out of the gate.
Day 3:
Day 3 started on the 100 yard rifle range with 5 warm up shots at 100 yards to verify zero and then right into shooting the standards. I dropped two of the drills and had to clean everything else or I would have to shoot again. I was doing great until the failure drill at 7 yards. My 4th body shot pushed my sights to the right as I was about to press the trigger and I knew my shot would have been out. I brought it back and finished the string of fire. Paul came close behind me and said, “You’re going to hate me.” I asked him why, but I already knew time was going to be close with that bobble. My time was 3.02 seconds on a 3 second drill. There are no, “close enough” times at CSAT. You have to make time and accuracy. It’s that simple.
Before anyone thinks he’s just being ridiculous or too hard on people, I personally like this standard. If I met someone on the street and they say they passed CSAT Instructor school, I know exactly what that means about their skill level. Unlike many other instructor certifications that I don’t really know what it means or how they got it, I know exactly what that person had to go through to get the CSAT blessing. Also, the sense of accomplishment when you pass the standards is very real and tasted that much better when I passed the rifle standard. By the end of day 3 all 8 of the remaining students had passed pistol and rifle standards and we were on the fast track to the weekend. We broke up demo assignments for rifle day, day 6, just like we did for the pistol side. Day 3 ended with more work on the range after hours.
Day 4:
We covered more modules like T-intersections, room clearing and target discrimination. We finished the morning before lunch with the Scrambler drill. If you have never heard of this, it’s a partner movement drill run for time. It essentially takes all the elements we had been working out like marksmanship, positional shooting and moving around people with hot guns and makes it a competitive teamwork drill. It was actually a lot more fun than I initially thought it would be. You run down sniper hill 250 yards or so engaging rifle and pistol targets and then back up the hill engaging targets on your way back. There are videos of it online so I won’t belabor the point, but it was really pretty fun. If we’d had more time I could see it getting very competitive.
We then broke for lunch and came back for a walk-through of Day 5. This was the time when Paul showed us where to park, where to have students park, how the line would be set up etc. It was also the time when our class team leaders assigned their people to a section of the line for the next day. Once everyone had a concept of what was going to happen the next day, we were done for the day. At least officially. I think everyone, including Paul, stayed at the range and worked on their demos for the next day. This was quite impressive to me. Paul definitely led by example and was not afraid to be seen as human in front of us when he was out practicing his demo, which was two shots stronghand, two shots weakhand. That is the drill I find to be the hardest in general, but instead of pushing it off onto the student instructors, he kept it himself. Having Paul on the line running drills right next to us also seemed to boost the determination a little. While I was loading my magazines, I would see some of the other students watch him shoot for a minute and then get after it themselves. In my LE world it is exceedingly rare to see an instructor live fire with or in front of those considered students. No one has ever told me a reason for it, but I have always suspected they don’t want to fail in front of those they are expected to teach. After I felt good about demos, I called it a day.
Day 5:
Day 5 started bright and early. So early it was still dark. I think we were all at the range around 7:15 am and did a few last minute warm-ups for the demos and setup the targets. Students rolled in by 8 am and we were underway. This was my first time formally coaching anyone to shoot. I found it to be absolutely true what Paul said all week: You give 80% to 1 person and 10% to the others. My responsibility was for 3 shooters, but I found myself spending most of my time with one. She was inexperienced, nervous and needed some help to make sure she was doing the drills correctly and all, but she was a quick learner and safe so it made my job easy. I actually found it more difficult to find things to help the most experienced shooter in my group because he was no stranger to Paul’s way of doing things. It took some work and I had to dig deep to find tweaks that would help him, but it made me work harder because I was determined not to let him leave class without taking something home that could help and I appreciated the challenge. Day 5 went smoothly and safely. No accidents. No near accidents. Everyone was safe on the line and seemed to progress well as I saw nothing but smiles by the end. Tired smiles, but smiles nonetheless.
After the students left I think we were all pretty drained, but we had a brief gathering of instructors to discuss procedure for the next day. The whole week had been getting progressively warmer each day so I knew that at the end of rifle day, Day 6, everyone would be pretty burned out. I tried to drink a lot of water that night to get a jump on hydration. Being from frosty Iowa, I have not yet adjusted to warm weather, but it was a nice change of pace.
Remember the Rhythm Drill I mentioned earlier? Well I had to live fire demo that right before we went to lunch. All the demos were explained, then slow fire demo, then standard speed, then slow again. The purpose is to show good mechanics to the students under slow fire. You then shoot it at the standard speed to prove it is possible and how good mechanics let you get the hits fast. Then you shoot slow again to leave the students with a good visual of perfect mechanics. I was fortunate and had a good run on my demo. I made all hits within my time. The constant practice throughout the week definitely paid off.
Day 6:
Day 6. The final day. This was the rifle portion of the class. We started with 100 yard zeros and then moved into shooting drills from 100 yard to 7 yards. It was fun to watch several students who really had little or no experience with a rifle pick it up and be successful immediately. This two day pistol and rifle operator course is just enough time to give students the basic skills and techniques they needed to be able to go home and practice on their own. Paul believes it is important to keep the students with the same instructors over the duration of the course so they aren’t being told one thing by one instructor and another by a different instructor. I have to agree with him. I’ve been in training course where that exact thing happens and it's super frustrating. I tried to keep this in mind throughout and be consistent with the students I was coaching.
As on day 1 of their class, they all did great work. I saw great improvement by afternoon and I hope they could too. One of the students I was coaching had some issues with the EOtech optic on her rifle. The reticle would not turn up bright enough to be seen in daylight, so I gave her my rifle to finish out the class. Something happened to that optic, maybe the batteries were dying, because it was bright and functional earlier in the day. Paul has loaner rifles students can borrow to use when there are equipment issues, but I thought it was important to keep her in a red dot sight of some sort since she had never used iron sights to my knowledge and I wanted to keep the day flowing smoothly for her. Her rifle had also been having some failures to feed earlier so I was probably for the best to get the most out of the day. It was a good reminder for me to always make sure I have backup gear in a class so I’m not slowed down by equipment problems.
At the conclusion of Day 6, the CSAT ProShop was open for everyone. The Operator class students went shopping while the instructors went back to the classroom for our last words and certificates. After this, we finished up our packing and surfing the ProShop. I hit the road for a few hours to make the next day’s trip more tolerable.
Gear:
I used my department issued Sig P320 in a .40 S&W. It’s the fullsize model. I bought a different grip module and had Fire 4 Effect do some grip work on it. They undercut the trigger guard and did a stippling that is similar to grip tape, but permanent. I believe they coat the grip with epoxy and then embed sandpaper grit into that. Either way, it's extremely aggressive and just what I like for a duty pistol. It helps me control the recoil of the .40 S&W well and the grip doesn’t shift in my hand. I have also replaced the magazine springs with extra power springs from Springer Precision. This is one of the first generations of the P320 and we’ve had many problems with failures to feed. The new springs have almost eliminated the issue, but not entirely. I had 2 failure to feed over the 800 or so rounds I shot during the course. I can’t verify this, but my understanding is the newer models of the P320 may have an update mag spring which has solved the problem. Other than that, the pistol is stock from the factory.
For my rifle I used a Smith and Wesson M&P15. It’s been worked over however. I have a BCM bolt carrier group in it, a Larue Tactical Stealth barrel and a Geissele G2S trigger in it. I used flip up irons during the class to prove I can, but typically prefer and red dot sight(RDS) or some sort of optic. My current RDS of choice is the Aimpoint Micro T2, but I did not personally use it on class. I didn’t clean my rifle at all during class and just added more lube. I can’t complain about it’s performance in any way.
I wore a First Spear battle belt with HSGI Taco pouches for everything and a Safariland 7TS ALS holster and a Dark Angel Medical D.A.R.K. kit. Everything was solid there, but the one thing I might change someday is the belt. It’s wide and super comfortable, but shooting rifles in the kneeling position proved uncomfortable when trying to smash that belt between my ribcage and leg. I’ll be looking into a slimmer version like an HSGI or the like.
The ammo I shot was Speer Lawman 180gr .40 S&W and Federal TRU 55gr .223 REM. Both are used by my department for training so I’m familiar with them and their point of impact on the target. The Lawman ammo has been the most accurate I’ve tried out of the P320. The Federal TRU isn’t the most accurate ammo I’ve seen out of my gun, but my rifle was already zero’d for it so it seemed to make sense. One of the smartest things I did was load a bunch of rifle magazines before I left and put the rest of the ammo in stripper clips. Instead of standing there pressing one round in a magazine at a time I could jam mags full in a few short minutes and be back on the line ready to shoot. I highly recommend doing either or both of those things when going to a class.
I have changed a couple things after the class. I changed my sight aperture on my rifle to the CSAT aperture. It has a notch above the small aperture which allows you to shoot close to point of aim/point of impact at close distances. The idea is you can leave the small aperture up and shoot 25 yards and out or move inside 25 yard and use the notch. It’s pretty handy actually and not overly expensive. The second change is magazines. Paul said he likes the Lancer Systems magazines because they have metal feed lips as opposed to the Pmags which can crack and loosen over time. While I was in class I noticed that several of my Pmags were cracking down the back spine and I could see there being a problem down the road. So far they work fine, but I’ve ordered several Lancer mags to replace my work magazines.
Closing Thoughts:
If you’re thinking about going to CSAT for any class for any reason, do it! You won’t be disappointed. I don’t know of any other training company or program out there that can take someone from novice to a solid background in proven tactics and shooting skills like Paul Howe can. Paul’s demeanor is calm and patient and he doesn’t belittle or make fun of students. He is a true student of the art of teaching as well as tactics and firearms and this comes through in his methodology. If you take a class over 2 days in length, you can stay at the barracks for the same cost as tuition which really makes the trip very affordable in my opinion. In my opinion, Paul teaches the “why”, not just the “how”, which to me is what sets his training apart from any others I’ve taken. If you plan on taking his instructor courses, go prepared.
(This will also be cross posted on Lightfighter)
-CK837
Tactical Pistol/Tactical Rifle Instructor
March 14-19, 2017
CSAT, Nacogdoches, TX
On March 13th, 2017, I drove down from the great brown state of Iowa to Texas to check a class off my bucket list. For several years I have been wanting to attend Paul Howe’s Tactical Pistol/Tactical Rifle Instructor course at CSAT. I arrived at the barracks around 6pm that evening and started getting settled in and meeting the other students. My class primarily consisted of other law enforcement officers, but we had two civilians as well. I don’t know if they felt intimidated being in a class heavily populated by cops, but they should not have. They can hold their own and shoot better than a vast majority of gun owners I know. That shouldn’t surprise me, because most people go to that class knowing what they’re getting into and tend to come prepared.
Day 1:
We started class the next morning with 10 hopeful instructors. After a 30 minute classroom talk, it was off to the range to start shooting. We started with a few warm up drills which correlated to the standards we were about to shoot to get the “blessing” to instruct. You can find the standards on CSAT’s website, combatshootingandtactics.com, but in a nutshell it consists of 10 different drills which you shoot on a shot timer. Each one requires a hit in either the chest box or head box of the CSAT targets. Shots outside of the box count as a miss. Combine that with the time constraints and it’s not an easy set of skills in my experience, but certainly attainable with a bit of effort. Instructors are required to shoot 8 out of 10 drills clean (No misses and under the time limit) to pass. Only 2 students passed the standard on the first run as I recall and were rewarded with a clipboard and timer. They then started learning how to run the line correctly and keep score. I let the the timer get to me and took 5 runs to pass, despite having shot and passed the standards on my own several times. It was a good lesson that pressure affects everyone and I need to learn to deal with it better.
By early afternoon all but maybe 3 of us had passed. Those who had passed learned to run timers and score sheets and coach the shooters who were still trying to pass. I can’t remember if it was day 1 or day 2, but all of the students who were going to pass, passed pretty early on. We finished out Day 1 with getting assigned live demos for Day 5. Day 5 and 6 of our class were Day 1 and 2 of a 2 day Tactical Pistol/Tactical Operator class that ran concurrently with our class. The goal was to assist Paul with running his class using the skills we just learned and see his training methodology in action. We were all assigned, rather volunteered, to shoot a specific drill from the pistol standards. We each partnered up with a “battle buddy” and one person would shoot and the other would explain the demo and run the timer for the shooter. Paul explained later in the course that the reason he uses battle buddies is to help the person demoing a drill have less to think about. I volunteered for the Rhythm Drill or Failure Drill. This consists of 5 shots to the body and 1 to the head in 3 seconds, but more on this later. Class was over by 4pm everyday, however, I stayed at the range most days until dark working on the demo or shooting rifles or long range etc.
Day 2:
Day 2 was more of the same, coaching and trying to get a couple more students through, and also what Paul calls modules. These consist of a specific skill set we could teach like barricades, vehicle bail outs, etc. Each module was self-contained, but they really build upon each other. For instance, you use the skills from the list of standards when you do barricades. You use barricade skill for vehicle bail outs and fire and maneuver and so on. It was pretty cool to see how everything was starting to come together as a complete package rather than separate, individual skills that are done “just because”. It was quickly apparent that Paul doesn’t have you do anything “just because”. Everything has a purpose. Every module centered around safety. Explain. Dry demo. Live fire. If the students can't do it safely dry, you don’t move on to live fire.
At the end of Day 2 we still had 2 students who had not passed the standards. We all took turns working with them and trying to get them where they needed to be, but it was evident they were getting discouraged. I can’t blame them. The pressure is intense until you pass and then it feels like someone just let the air back in the room. Even if it’s just for a day. The short story is they left midday of day 3. They weren’t told what they were getting into and were frankly unprepared. I have to give them props. They never gave up and kept striving to get better. Paul told us he talked to them and suggested they come back in May when they are more prepared. I hope they do go back. I would definitely want to go back and slay that dragon. They had the marks of shooters who have only been training through law enforcement channels. I should know. I was one of them once before I drove myself to improve after I realized the world is a much bigger place than my little slice of the shooting world.
I concluded Day 2 with more work on the range. Several of us went to the rifle range and checked our zero’s and practiced the standards for Day 3. We already knew day 3 would be rifle day and we knew that meant shooting the standards right out of the gate.
Day 3:
Day 3 started on the 100 yard rifle range with 5 warm up shots at 100 yards to verify zero and then right into shooting the standards. I dropped two of the drills and had to clean everything else or I would have to shoot again. I was doing great until the failure drill at 7 yards. My 4th body shot pushed my sights to the right as I was about to press the trigger and I knew my shot would have been out. I brought it back and finished the string of fire. Paul came close behind me and said, “You’re going to hate me.” I asked him why, but I already knew time was going to be close with that bobble. My time was 3.02 seconds on a 3 second drill. There are no, “close enough” times at CSAT. You have to make time and accuracy. It’s that simple.
Before anyone thinks he’s just being ridiculous or too hard on people, I personally like this standard. If I met someone on the street and they say they passed CSAT Instructor school, I know exactly what that means about their skill level. Unlike many other instructor certifications that I don’t really know what it means or how they got it, I know exactly what that person had to go through to get the CSAT blessing. Also, the sense of accomplishment when you pass the standards is very real and tasted that much better when I passed the rifle standard. By the end of day 3 all 8 of the remaining students had passed pistol and rifle standards and we were on the fast track to the weekend. We broke up demo assignments for rifle day, day 6, just like we did for the pistol side. Day 3 ended with more work on the range after hours.
Day 4:
We covered more modules like T-intersections, room clearing and target discrimination. We finished the morning before lunch with the Scrambler drill. If you have never heard of this, it’s a partner movement drill run for time. It essentially takes all the elements we had been working out like marksmanship, positional shooting and moving around people with hot guns and makes it a competitive teamwork drill. It was actually a lot more fun than I initially thought it would be. You run down sniper hill 250 yards or so engaging rifle and pistol targets and then back up the hill engaging targets on your way back. There are videos of it online so I won’t belabor the point, but it was really pretty fun. If we’d had more time I could see it getting very competitive.
We then broke for lunch and came back for a walk-through of Day 5. This was the time when Paul showed us where to park, where to have students park, how the line would be set up etc. It was also the time when our class team leaders assigned their people to a section of the line for the next day. Once everyone had a concept of what was going to happen the next day, we were done for the day. At least officially. I think everyone, including Paul, stayed at the range and worked on their demos for the next day. This was quite impressive to me. Paul definitely led by example and was not afraid to be seen as human in front of us when he was out practicing his demo, which was two shots stronghand, two shots weakhand. That is the drill I find to be the hardest in general, but instead of pushing it off onto the student instructors, he kept it himself. Having Paul on the line running drills right next to us also seemed to boost the determination a little. While I was loading my magazines, I would see some of the other students watch him shoot for a minute and then get after it themselves. In my LE world it is exceedingly rare to see an instructor live fire with or in front of those considered students. No one has ever told me a reason for it, but I have always suspected they don’t want to fail in front of those they are expected to teach. After I felt good about demos, I called it a day.
Day 5:
Day 5 started bright and early. So early it was still dark. I think we were all at the range around 7:15 am and did a few last minute warm-ups for the demos and setup the targets. Students rolled in by 8 am and we were underway. This was my first time formally coaching anyone to shoot. I found it to be absolutely true what Paul said all week: You give 80% to 1 person and 10% to the others. My responsibility was for 3 shooters, but I found myself spending most of my time with one. She was inexperienced, nervous and needed some help to make sure she was doing the drills correctly and all, but she was a quick learner and safe so it made my job easy. I actually found it more difficult to find things to help the most experienced shooter in my group because he was no stranger to Paul’s way of doing things. It took some work and I had to dig deep to find tweaks that would help him, but it made me work harder because I was determined not to let him leave class without taking something home that could help and I appreciated the challenge. Day 5 went smoothly and safely. No accidents. No near accidents. Everyone was safe on the line and seemed to progress well as I saw nothing but smiles by the end. Tired smiles, but smiles nonetheless.
After the students left I think we were all pretty drained, but we had a brief gathering of instructors to discuss procedure for the next day. The whole week had been getting progressively warmer each day so I knew that at the end of rifle day, Day 6, everyone would be pretty burned out. I tried to drink a lot of water that night to get a jump on hydration. Being from frosty Iowa, I have not yet adjusted to warm weather, but it was a nice change of pace.
Remember the Rhythm Drill I mentioned earlier? Well I had to live fire demo that right before we went to lunch. All the demos were explained, then slow fire demo, then standard speed, then slow again. The purpose is to show good mechanics to the students under slow fire. You then shoot it at the standard speed to prove it is possible and how good mechanics let you get the hits fast. Then you shoot slow again to leave the students with a good visual of perfect mechanics. I was fortunate and had a good run on my demo. I made all hits within my time. The constant practice throughout the week definitely paid off.
Day 6:
Day 6. The final day. This was the rifle portion of the class. We started with 100 yard zeros and then moved into shooting drills from 100 yard to 7 yards. It was fun to watch several students who really had little or no experience with a rifle pick it up and be successful immediately. This two day pistol and rifle operator course is just enough time to give students the basic skills and techniques they needed to be able to go home and practice on their own. Paul believes it is important to keep the students with the same instructors over the duration of the course so they aren’t being told one thing by one instructor and another by a different instructor. I have to agree with him. I’ve been in training course where that exact thing happens and it's super frustrating. I tried to keep this in mind throughout and be consistent with the students I was coaching.
As on day 1 of their class, they all did great work. I saw great improvement by afternoon and I hope they could too. One of the students I was coaching had some issues with the EOtech optic on her rifle. The reticle would not turn up bright enough to be seen in daylight, so I gave her my rifle to finish out the class. Something happened to that optic, maybe the batteries were dying, because it was bright and functional earlier in the day. Paul has loaner rifles students can borrow to use when there are equipment issues, but I thought it was important to keep her in a red dot sight of some sort since she had never used iron sights to my knowledge and I wanted to keep the day flowing smoothly for her. Her rifle had also been having some failures to feed earlier so I was probably for the best to get the most out of the day. It was a good reminder for me to always make sure I have backup gear in a class so I’m not slowed down by equipment problems.
At the conclusion of Day 6, the CSAT ProShop was open for everyone. The Operator class students went shopping while the instructors went back to the classroom for our last words and certificates. After this, we finished up our packing and surfing the ProShop. I hit the road for a few hours to make the next day’s trip more tolerable.
Gear:
I used my department issued Sig P320 in a .40 S&W. It’s the fullsize model. I bought a different grip module and had Fire 4 Effect do some grip work on it. They undercut the trigger guard and did a stippling that is similar to grip tape, but permanent. I believe they coat the grip with epoxy and then embed sandpaper grit into that. Either way, it's extremely aggressive and just what I like for a duty pistol. It helps me control the recoil of the .40 S&W well and the grip doesn’t shift in my hand. I have also replaced the magazine springs with extra power springs from Springer Precision. This is one of the first generations of the P320 and we’ve had many problems with failures to feed. The new springs have almost eliminated the issue, but not entirely. I had 2 failure to feed over the 800 or so rounds I shot during the course. I can’t verify this, but my understanding is the newer models of the P320 may have an update mag spring which has solved the problem. Other than that, the pistol is stock from the factory.
For my rifle I used a Smith and Wesson M&P15. It’s been worked over however. I have a BCM bolt carrier group in it, a Larue Tactical Stealth barrel and a Geissele G2S trigger in it. I used flip up irons during the class to prove I can, but typically prefer and red dot sight(RDS) or some sort of optic. My current RDS of choice is the Aimpoint Micro T2, but I did not personally use it on class. I didn’t clean my rifle at all during class and just added more lube. I can’t complain about it’s performance in any way.
I wore a First Spear battle belt with HSGI Taco pouches for everything and a Safariland 7TS ALS holster and a Dark Angel Medical D.A.R.K. kit. Everything was solid there, but the one thing I might change someday is the belt. It’s wide and super comfortable, but shooting rifles in the kneeling position proved uncomfortable when trying to smash that belt between my ribcage and leg. I’ll be looking into a slimmer version like an HSGI or the like.
The ammo I shot was Speer Lawman 180gr .40 S&W and Federal TRU 55gr .223 REM. Both are used by my department for training so I’m familiar with them and their point of impact on the target. The Lawman ammo has been the most accurate I’ve tried out of the P320. The Federal TRU isn’t the most accurate ammo I’ve seen out of my gun, but my rifle was already zero’d for it so it seemed to make sense. One of the smartest things I did was load a bunch of rifle magazines before I left and put the rest of the ammo in stripper clips. Instead of standing there pressing one round in a magazine at a time I could jam mags full in a few short minutes and be back on the line ready to shoot. I highly recommend doing either or both of those things when going to a class.
I have changed a couple things after the class. I changed my sight aperture on my rifle to the CSAT aperture. It has a notch above the small aperture which allows you to shoot close to point of aim/point of impact at close distances. The idea is you can leave the small aperture up and shoot 25 yards and out or move inside 25 yard and use the notch. It’s pretty handy actually and not overly expensive. The second change is magazines. Paul said he likes the Lancer Systems magazines because they have metal feed lips as opposed to the Pmags which can crack and loosen over time. While I was in class I noticed that several of my Pmags were cracking down the back spine and I could see there being a problem down the road. So far they work fine, but I’ve ordered several Lancer mags to replace my work magazines.
Closing Thoughts:
If you’re thinking about going to CSAT for any class for any reason, do it! You won’t be disappointed. I don’t know of any other training company or program out there that can take someone from novice to a solid background in proven tactics and shooting skills like Paul Howe can. Paul’s demeanor is calm and patient and he doesn’t belittle or make fun of students. He is a true student of the art of teaching as well as tactics and firearms and this comes through in his methodology. If you take a class over 2 days in length, you can stay at the barracks for the same cost as tuition which really makes the trip very affordable in my opinion. In my opinion, Paul teaches the “why”, not just the “how”, which to me is what sets his training apart from any others I’ve taken. If you plan on taking his instructor courses, go prepared.
(This will also be cross posted on Lightfighter)
-CK837
