I think this is my first class AAR so I'll try a bullet point format since so much was covered.
My student background:
- Civilan, shooting for over 15 years
- Train regularly with local club and have taken lots of training from guys like LMS Defense, Pannone, Defoor, Hackathorn and others
- New to NVG have been using since July this year and I came out from califirnia for this calss. Travel note NVG and Armor and OK for carryon - TSA was very cool!
My gear:
- BCM Lightweight 14.5 with KMR magnesium rail, Aimpoint T1 and DBAL A3 Civilan w/Green laser
- G17 with ALG Mounted T1
- TNVC Sentinel Dual Tubes, L3 Filmed tubes with good specs (~2200 photoresponse, 27 SNR, 64 resolution)
The instructor: http://www.greeneyetactical.com/
- Eric Dorenbush of Green Eye Tactical - "Unit" and 82nd airborne background - the man knows his stuff
- Eric is approachable and a good coach - his demeanor and reasonable way about things remind me of Mike Pannone
The training facility:
- Giant private ranch just outside DFW Texas. This ranch hosts 3gun matches, has many training bays, rifle ranges past 400 yards, shooting courses in wooded areas - fantastic place!
Training Day 1 - The Fundementals.
- Safety Brief
- Eric is big on training Fundementals first so we started out the day by zeroing - including running our guns through a chrongraph for real data!! Eric has the best module on zeroing your rifle I have ever seen and his logic makes sense and it made our long hits under NVG out to 250 and 300 yards using red dots much much easier. You can see more on zeroing here on Eric's youtube video series:
- We then spent some time refining our zero and grouping to work fundementaks like stance, natural point of aim and follow through at targets out to 100 yards
- Eric evluated student shooters for basic skills and safety and said we were good to go
- As darkness came Eric did a presentation and a video on NVG theory, history and applications followed by a discussion
- Next we reviewed NVG and helmet setup. Eric says NVGs should be run canted up slightly so you can look under them for white light situations and that helmet balance is critical for fatigue prevention and good mobility
- The simplest way to zero an IR laser is to point your rifle at a very distant object some hundreds of yards away and bring your laser to your dot. This gives a very slowly converging laser zero and you dont need fancy targets. It worked well.
- BIG SURPRISE NOW. Eric runs his optic as the primary aiming device under NVG instead of the laser and says this is common at his level. Stated advantages optic include stealth, precison vs bloomed laser particuary at mid ranges and up, less "dot" confusion and clutter with many shooters in CQB (think which shooter owns which laser dot?), and carryover from day training. Tech note: Eric prefers Eotech.
- We started NVG shooting on B/C steel targets at shorter range working on presentation and proper multiple target transitions and using both Optic and Laser - we pushed this back out to 80 yards
- Next we moved to the longer bay and shot more B/C steel and smaller poppers from 300, 250, 200, 150, 125 and 100. The distances and the low ambinet light of 13% exposed some limits of my filmed tubes and the ability of my Aimpoint T1 to transmit lots of light. Still I was amazed at how possible it was to make 200 yard hits even when standing on reasonable sized targets using the red dot and NVG. Pushing the distnace was a confidence builder. The optic seemed more accuaret than the laser. I have since bought an Aimpoint T2 for my rifle, I'm hoping its clearer glass and better dot shape under NVG will provide improved performance under NVG than the T1. I like th form fcator of teh Micro on for my skinny gun and want to maximize its potentiola with the T2.
- Sitting crosslegged with elbows inside the knees was a solid NVG shooting postion up to 250 yards. Prone shooting under NVG at distance is challenging becsue the optic is harder to present while the laser is less accurate. This needs work.
- Towards the end of TD1 we came across some wildlife which gave us an opportunity to track them with our NVG equipment from 50 yards to 150+ plus - this was good prcatical exercize. We did not shoot any animals!
Training Day 2 - Some Applications.
- I'm going to be a bit more brief here since ay two had us running several shooting courses of fire and I dont wnat to be repetive.
- We strated with grouping again in daylight and shot some steel at distance again to warm up.
- Under NVG we ran through some blind courses of fire - CQB/hostage rescue style. Eric provided solid feedbcak again on fundemnats and some on tactics as we began doing the runs.
- Eric briefly covered some more advanced techniques for CQB that were different than what I was previosly taught.
- We encountered some limitations of civilan IR illuminator and IR laser on My DBAL A3 in mixed light areas, however the giant illuminator on another students DBAL D2 worked like a champ.
- We also ran through some wooded courses of fire uncer canopy cover, this really pushed our gear and targert ID became more difficult in the shaded areas. MY DBAL A3 IR illuminator was helpful here in the woods when not fighting building lights.
- We had some opportunities to drive under NVG on the property. This was a good experinece.
Overall:
- Eric's background and real world shooting experience, his philosophy on building fundementals along with his ability to teach and explain things combined with the fantastic range facility made this class a big win for me and well worth the trip from California, the class tution and 900 rounds of ammo I shot. I went there for an NVG class to get to know my fancy new ninja gear and I got all that, but I also came away with better shooting fundemntals and a new way to zero all my rifles both of which I did not expect.
I never heard of Eric before finding this class on some forum but he fits in easily with the famous instructors and gives you much more attation with his smaller calss sizes. You should cehck out his very detailed videos too to gte a sense of his building blocks approcah: https://www.youtube.com/user/GreenEyeTactical
I'll end the AAR by relating a story Eric mentioned about how many people want exciting "Operator Training" but arent willing to put in the weeks of dry fire and month straight of tedious rifle shot grouping that guys who pass Unit selection find themselves doing in OTC.
I look forward to training with Eric again.
My student background:
- Civilan, shooting for over 15 years
- Train regularly with local club and have taken lots of training from guys like LMS Defense, Pannone, Defoor, Hackathorn and others
- New to NVG have been using since July this year and I came out from califirnia for this calss. Travel note NVG and Armor and OK for carryon - TSA was very cool!
My gear:
- BCM Lightweight 14.5 with KMR magnesium rail, Aimpoint T1 and DBAL A3 Civilan w/Green laser
- G17 with ALG Mounted T1
- TNVC Sentinel Dual Tubes, L3 Filmed tubes with good specs (~2200 photoresponse, 27 SNR, 64 resolution)
The instructor: http://www.greeneyetactical.com/
- Eric Dorenbush of Green Eye Tactical - "Unit" and 82nd airborne background - the man knows his stuff
- Eric is approachable and a good coach - his demeanor and reasonable way about things remind me of Mike Pannone
The training facility:
- Giant private ranch just outside DFW Texas. This ranch hosts 3gun matches, has many training bays, rifle ranges past 400 yards, shooting courses in wooded areas - fantastic place!
Training Day 1 - The Fundementals.
- Safety Brief
- Eric is big on training Fundementals first so we started out the day by zeroing - including running our guns through a chrongraph for real data!! Eric has the best module on zeroing your rifle I have ever seen and his logic makes sense and it made our long hits under NVG out to 250 and 300 yards using red dots much much easier. You can see more on zeroing here on Eric's youtube video series:
- Eric evluated student shooters for basic skills and safety and said we were good to go
- As darkness came Eric did a presentation and a video on NVG theory, history and applications followed by a discussion
- Next we reviewed NVG and helmet setup. Eric says NVGs should be run canted up slightly so you can look under them for white light situations and that helmet balance is critical for fatigue prevention and good mobility
- The simplest way to zero an IR laser is to point your rifle at a very distant object some hundreds of yards away and bring your laser to your dot. This gives a very slowly converging laser zero and you dont need fancy targets. It worked well.
- BIG SURPRISE NOW. Eric runs his optic as the primary aiming device under NVG instead of the laser and says this is common at his level. Stated advantages optic include stealth, precison vs bloomed laser particuary at mid ranges and up, less "dot" confusion and clutter with many shooters in CQB (think which shooter owns which laser dot?), and carryover from day training. Tech note: Eric prefers Eotech.
- We started NVG shooting on B/C steel targets at shorter range working on presentation and proper multiple target transitions and using both Optic and Laser - we pushed this back out to 80 yards
- Next we moved to the longer bay and shot more B/C steel and smaller poppers from 300, 250, 200, 150, 125 and 100. The distances and the low ambinet light of 13% exposed some limits of my filmed tubes and the ability of my Aimpoint T1 to transmit lots of light. Still I was amazed at how possible it was to make 200 yard hits even when standing on reasonable sized targets using the red dot and NVG. Pushing the distnace was a confidence builder. The optic seemed more accuaret than the laser. I have since bought an Aimpoint T2 for my rifle, I'm hoping its clearer glass and better dot shape under NVG will provide improved performance under NVG than the T1. I like th form fcator of teh Micro on for my skinny gun and want to maximize its potentiola with the T2.
- Sitting crosslegged with elbows inside the knees was a solid NVG shooting postion up to 250 yards. Prone shooting under NVG at distance is challenging becsue the optic is harder to present while the laser is less accurate. This needs work.
- Towards the end of TD1 we came across some wildlife which gave us an opportunity to track them with our NVG equipment from 50 yards to 150+ plus - this was good prcatical exercize. We did not shoot any animals!
Training Day 2 - Some Applications.
- I'm going to be a bit more brief here since ay two had us running several shooting courses of fire and I dont wnat to be repetive.
- We strated with grouping again in daylight and shot some steel at distance again to warm up.
- Under NVG we ran through some blind courses of fire - CQB/hostage rescue style. Eric provided solid feedbcak again on fundemnats and some on tactics as we began doing the runs.
- Eric briefly covered some more advanced techniques for CQB that were different than what I was previosly taught.
- We encountered some limitations of civilan IR illuminator and IR laser on My DBAL A3 in mixed light areas, however the giant illuminator on another students DBAL D2 worked like a champ.
- We also ran through some wooded courses of fire uncer canopy cover, this really pushed our gear and targert ID became more difficult in the shaded areas. MY DBAL A3 IR illuminator was helpful here in the woods when not fighting building lights.
- We had some opportunities to drive under NVG on the property. This was a good experinece.
Overall:
- Eric's background and real world shooting experience, his philosophy on building fundementals along with his ability to teach and explain things combined with the fantastic range facility made this class a big win for me and well worth the trip from California, the class tution and 900 rounds of ammo I shot. I went there for an NVG class to get to know my fancy new ninja gear and I got all that, but I also came away with better shooting fundemntals and a new way to zero all my rifles both of which I did not expect.
I never heard of Eric before finding this class on some forum but he fits in easily with the famous instructors and gives you much more attation with his smaller calss sizes. You should cehck out his very detailed videos too to gte a sense of his building blocks approcah: https://www.youtube.com/user/GreenEyeTactical
I'll end the AAR by relating a story Eric mentioned about how many people want exciting "Operator Training" but arent willing to put in the weeks of dry fire and month straight of tedious rifle shot grouping that guys who pass Unit selection find themselves doing in OTC.
I look forward to training with Eric again.