AAR: Guerrilla Approach High Threat Environment: Vehicle (Pistol), Santa Barbara CA, Feb 24, 2017

Mark Davis

Newbie
School: Guerilla Approach
Course: High Threat Environment: Vehicle (Pistol) – 1 day
Instructor: Aaron Barruga
Date : 2/24/17
Location: Winchester Canyon Gun Club, Santa Barbara, CA
Cost: $275

My gear: H&K P2000 (LEM), Safariland ALS holster.

Class makeup: There were 18 students, primarily LE guys, a couple of private security dudes from Gavin De Becker’s firm, and handful of civilians like me. Some guys had travelled several hours to be there.

Course Description from Guerilla Approach Website:

“This 1-day pistol version of High Threat Environment Vehicle Tactics adapts our signature course for application among individuals that work as singletons. Whether a solo patrol officer, or independent civilian, the absence of immediate back-up in a close quarter fight changes your mindset for getting off the X."

The course started with a “Go/No go” diagnostic drill at 10 yards to ensure that all students had fundamental gun handling and safety skills. The drill wasn’t especially challenging, but the pressure was ramped up knowing that failure would mean sitting out the rest of the day.


After everyone got through the safety diagnostic, Aaron discussed points of cover on a vehicle and demonstrated the damage that can be done to a vehicle in a few seconds by a guy with a rifle and heavy trigger finger.

We then moved into shooting underneath vehicles from three different positions. Aaron provided explanations of the advantages and disadvantages of each position. They all have the major disadvantages of loss of mobility and situational awareness. There were three different vehicles, so we rotated through each vehicle, shooting underneath them on steel targets.

Shooting from inside the vehicle came next. Aaron demonstrated how much a windshield will deflect your rounds, and how deflection is effected by target range. He doesn’t advocate offsetting your POA to accommodate bullet deflection, stating that it’s too much to think about in a close quarters gun fight. Instead, he advocates “P for plenty”. He also discussed the limitations with creating a “port” to shoot through – mainly that your adversary will be moving so the port has limited value once your opponent moves beyond the edges of the port. We practiced shooting from inside the cabin, again rotating through the three different vehicles.

Next topic was bailing out of the vehicle. He had no special JSOC method to remove the seat belt – “just take off your seat belt - you’ve been doing it your whole life”. We dry practiced getting out of the vehicle, moving to hasty positions, and engaging targets. Then did the same thing with live ammo. Gun handling was really important here – we were moving, running, and shooting, so muzzle awareness was critical. The bail out drills got fairly complex, with multiple steel targets, a moving target, and quite a bit of movement to cover. Again, we used three different vehicles, each providing different challenges to bailing out and maneuver.

The class ended with a force-on force evolution. I wasn’t expecting FoF so this was welcome surprise. iCombat gear was provided by SB Tactical, including long guns, pistols, and stress belts which provided good tactile feedback when you were hit. (In other words, it gave you an electric shock). I won’t say much about the scenario, except that it incorporated many of the skills taught throughout the day. It was a really fun way to end the day.

Advertised round count is 500, but I only shot 141 rounds. Despite the low round count, we stayed pretty busy. The pace was constant, but not exhausting. The class started on time and we probably finished about 1700, as advertised. Lunch break was only 15 – 20 mins, which I liked. I’m took time off work to be there and payed my own money, so I hate slow starts, extended breaks, and quitting early.

This is not a complete description of the course, but covers the high points. My takeaways:

Aaron has an excellent teaching style. Perhaps he learned to teach in SF, or just has a knack for it, but he is a very good educator. He is confident and no bullshit, but he also doesn’t project an “I’m awesome” attitude. He obviously puts a lot of thought into his course work, and does a lot of prep work.

There were two other range safety officers/assistant instructors, so the drills moved pretty fast. The RSO/AI also provided some feedback and coaching when the wheels started to fall off.

Some of the steel targets were 25 – 30 yards away. I’ve been focusing on 3 – 10 yard drills, so the longer distances revealed weaknesses in my marksmanship.

All in all, I found the course to be excellent, offering good value for money. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and exposed some stuff I need to work on. The LEO guys seemed to get a lot out of it too, and several of the cops I spoke with had taken other classes with Aaron. I recommend the class if you’re interesting in firearm deployment in and around vehicles.
 

Darth Tater

Regular Member
The class started on time and we probably finished about 1700, as advertised. Lunch break was only 15 – 20 mins, which I liked. I’m took time off work to be there and payed my own money, so I hate slow starts, extended breaks, and quitting early.

This is the huge pet peeve of mine too. I'm glad to see that someone is being a good custodian of his customers' money.
 
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nate89

Guest
Thanks for the AAR. Just a couple of clarifying questions.

1-can you go into more detail on the go/no-go drill? I understand the utility of such a practice, especially when going beyond a flat range class, and into something with higher risk, especially to others. Did he talk at all about what would happen if someone was unable to pass? Can you explain what exactly the drill was? Did you feel like it was an effective go/no-go drill? (ie. not too simple or too difficult?)

2-like you said, round count isn't an indicator of class quality, but 141 rounds for an all day class is about the lowest I have heard of before in a class like this. It seems like you were pretty busy, and you said with the additional AIs that the pace was constant. Is the reason for the low round count due to running the drills dry first or having several dry reps first? Were the drills themselves very low round count?

Thanks in advance for the additional info.
 

Mark Davis

Newbie
Thanks for the AAR. Just a couple of clarifying questions.

1-can you go into more detail on the go/no-go drill? I understand the utility of such a practice, especially when going beyond a flat range class, and into something with higher risk, especially to others. Did he talk at all about what would happen if someone was unable to pass? Can you explain what exactly the drill was? Did you feel like it was an effective go/no-go drill? (ie. not too simple or too difficult?)

2-like you said, round count isn't an indicator of class quality, but 141 rounds for an all day class is about the lowest I have heard of before in a class like this. It seems like you were pretty busy, and you said with the additional AIs that the pace was constant. Is the reason for the low round count due to running the drills dry first or having several dry reps first? Were the drills themselves very low round count?

Thanks in advance for the additional info.

Nate - here's a description from Aaron's email to students (I doubt he'll mind me sharing it):

"We will conduct a marksmanship safety diagnostic prior to the start of the course. Course of fire is as follows:

Weapons status: loaded and holstered.
Round Count: 3 magazines loaded 5 rounds each (15 total rounds)
Time: Unlimited


1. From the holster, shooter engages BC zone steel down range at 10-yards with 3 shots.

2. Shooter proceeds ten yards to the right to firing position two where he takes up a static shooting position and engages the same BC zone steel with 3 shots. *Reloads are conducted from static position.

3. Shooter moves back to shooting position one and engages BC zone steel with 3 shots.

4. Shooter moves to shooting position two and engages BC zone steel with 3 shots.

5.Shooter moves to shooting position one and engages BC zone steel with 3 shots, course of fire ends.

There is no time limit for the safety diagnostic and it is the first go/no-go event that determines whether shooters will be admitted into the course.
Automatic fail/no-go criteria:
1. Shooter ND's
2. Shooter places finger on trigger when not actively engaging targets (strictly enforced)
3. Shooter does not keep muzzle oriented downrange while moving between shooting positions.
4. Shooter fails to activate safety safety during movement between shooting positions or de-cock to double action (if pistol has safety that can be activated or DA/SA de-cocker)."


Pretty basic but I think this was a valuable drill. Later in the day there was a lot of movement, including bodies and muzzles, in 360 degrees. So it was important to know that everyone had basic safety skills.

Yes, 140 rounds seem extremely low, right? It is quite possible I miscounted. If that's the case, the round count may have been 240, which still seems low. However there was a lot of dry practice. You'd run through the drill dry at least once (and sometimes more) before doing it with live fire. And the drills generally only required 5 - 20 rounds. Then it was to the back of the line while someone else did it. There were three drills running simultaneously, so the wait was seldom very long. There was also a FoF component, which obviously didn't require any live ammo. It was a busy, educational day, but we definitely weren't standing on the line blazing away all day. Hope this helps.
 
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nate89

Guest
Thanks for taking the time to respond, that is good info. I like the idea that the marksmanship side of the drill was fairly basic, but the gun handling (finger off the trigger, muzzle awareness and control, gun manipulations) was held to a very high standard.

I think running those sorts of drills dry, even a few times, is not a bad idea at all. Plus the FOF, if done correctly, can be of much greater return on investment at a class than live fire, so seems like it was a good value for the money.
 

Mark Davis

Newbie
... the FOF, if done correctly, can be of much greater return on investment at a class than live fire, so seems like it was a good value for the money.

Agreed. FoF is one of my main areas of interest, so I was extremely pleased to have it included in the course. Like I said earlier, Aaron puts a lot of thought into this class, and did a lot of prep.
 
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nate89

Guest
The first time I was OPFOR for the local POST academy, my eyes were really opened. I will take as many chances to get into FoF training as I can afford.
 
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