Littlehendrick
Newbie
My Background:
Army Infantry guy, very little NOD work outside of walking around in the woods, with limited shooting time.
Other training:
Pat Mac, Ken Hackathorn, KC Eusebio, and a few pistol classes from local folks a few years ago.
Gear:
Borrowed a Team Wendy bump shell, Green filmed Sentinels, and BE Meyers MAWL C1+. (Awesome part of Greenline, is that you can rent gear for the class). Ran a belt with mags for both, along with on day 2 I ran my JPC with plates and HSP heavy on the front to have more mags to be able to bring more mags to the line.
Pistol: Ended up borrowing a Glock 19x with factory night sights, and dual illuminated RMR.
Rifle: Due to being stuck in California, I run a “featureless” rifle. Seekins lower with a KAC mod2 14.5 (pinned), Surefire DF scout. Running a Warden instead of my suppressor. I missed the noise and flash reduction, but it creates some sweet pictures (below).
This was my first course with Don, as well as his AI, Sam. Both are clearly passionate about shooting in the dark, with knowledge and lessons flowing freely between the two. The differences in personalities also made a good balance, making the class even more enjoyable.
The class started with the usual admin of signing in, meeting one another, etc. Due to the range not having a classroom, we zero’ed lasers first, then began the classroom section.
I was not aware that there was a classroom section to the class, but it ended up being a nice depth of information. The classroom portion included how night vision works, which I thought was super helpful. They also included some information on use, as this class is designed for folks new to night vision. The classroom finished up with information on what data sheets are, some of the important things to look at, and what they mean in plain English. Super helpful for those like myself looking to buy gear.
As it was finally dark, we transitioned to live fire. The first night would be rifles only. Don stated up front that this course is not about adjusting your shooting technique/reloads, but it is taking your foundation from previous training (a pre-req for the class), and teaching how the dark changes your ability and adaptations. Most of the first night was spent under 25 yards, as we started simple and progressed from there. Don and Sam did a great job building technique through increasing complexity in the drills. About halfway through, we took a 30 minute break to get some food/water in the system, sit, but did so in a group to continue the discussion and sharing lessons learned from one another. Drills incorporated multiple parts of night fighting, not just lasers, which I thought was a great addition. We finished with shooting steel from 50-75 yards, which is always fun. We finished around 0100 Friday into Saturday morning.
Day two started with a short classroom section, which covered pistols, and why red dots are the way to go (and #stopbeingpoor, lots of jokes about the cost of shooting in the dark). As I was one of those folks who haven’t jumped fully into the slide mounted red dot, I was fortunate to borrow a pistol with a dual illuminated RMR. It was part of the fun learning how the type of RMR can have a drastic impact on how shooting goes depending on the scenario. Most of Saturday it had been raining, and continued to rain off/on until about 2300, providing some good learning points there too. Once complete with the classroom, we jumped up to the range and started with the pistol to get more comfortable with how it looks/feels. Then drills began incorporating rifles/pistols, building once again. Then we moved back to conduct the x-box drill. This was a challenging and fun drill. This was done one at a time, but teaching points would be pointed out as others went, so it wasn’t time waisted. Then we learned about barricades, and conducted multiple drills there. The last drill was a competition called “tag” or something similar. Four barricades, four impacts per barricade, with one kneeling support side, one standing support side, one standing strong side, one kneeling strong side. After the first person completes their four impacts, they move to the next barricade and repeat, while the person behind them tries to catch them. Much like “around the world” with ping pong, but much more organized and safer. It was a fantastic drill adding stress of competition, but simple enough that it was easy to be safe. I ended up being the last student, as the other I was attempting to catch ran out of ammo before I got to him. I was smoked by the end of it for sure. The final drill of the night was a standing, unsupported walk back to demonstrate the capabilities of shooting in the dark. I had all three of my misses around the 275-300 mark, with the remaining two students finishing at the next position, around 350 yards. The shooting finished around 0100 again, then clean up/AAR.
Overall, I found it to be a fantastic class, even coming in with a small bit of experience with NODs. I ended up shooting about 850 rounds of rifle, 150 of pistol. I missed out on a few pistol drills, so I would expect that other students were over 200-225 mark for pistol. I had some cycling issues with the borrowed pistol (was nice and dirty), hence my lower round count. The only issue with rifle I had was my safety became almost nearly impossible to manipulate during the “tag” drill. I have pulled the lower apart and am now attempting to trouble shoot.
Don and Sam were both knowledgeable, and provided demonstrations appropriately. They also were providing individual feedback to students, so the people with more experience were still learning the next level of skill for them.
As I look back on the class, I ask would I take it again? I would not only take it if I had little/no NODs experience, but if the opportunity comes again, I will take it because there was so many little lessons throughout both nights, and would be money well spent.
Also, this class will cause you to want to spend copious amounts of money on quality gear. The capability increase not only over white light, but even a single PVS-14, is incredible.
Final tidbits:
1. Buy a MAWL
2. Flex on the poors (this class was filled with jokes and laughter, come with thick skin)
Thanks once again to Don and Sam of Greenline Tactical. Additionally, Teddy/TNVC was also super awesome. Also, all the students were great to learn with, and I hope to see many again at other classes.
Photo courtesy of Echo Arms.
Army Infantry guy, very little NOD work outside of walking around in the woods, with limited shooting time.
Other training:
Pat Mac, Ken Hackathorn, KC Eusebio, and a few pistol classes from local folks a few years ago.
Gear:
Borrowed a Team Wendy bump shell, Green filmed Sentinels, and BE Meyers MAWL C1+. (Awesome part of Greenline, is that you can rent gear for the class). Ran a belt with mags for both, along with on day 2 I ran my JPC with plates and HSP heavy on the front to have more mags to be able to bring more mags to the line.
Pistol: Ended up borrowing a Glock 19x with factory night sights, and dual illuminated RMR.
Rifle: Due to being stuck in California, I run a “featureless” rifle. Seekins lower with a KAC mod2 14.5 (pinned), Surefire DF scout. Running a Warden instead of my suppressor. I missed the noise and flash reduction, but it creates some sweet pictures (below).
This was my first course with Don, as well as his AI, Sam. Both are clearly passionate about shooting in the dark, with knowledge and lessons flowing freely between the two. The differences in personalities also made a good balance, making the class even more enjoyable.
The class started with the usual admin of signing in, meeting one another, etc. Due to the range not having a classroom, we zero’ed lasers first, then began the classroom section.
I was not aware that there was a classroom section to the class, but it ended up being a nice depth of information. The classroom portion included how night vision works, which I thought was super helpful. They also included some information on use, as this class is designed for folks new to night vision. The classroom finished up with information on what data sheets are, some of the important things to look at, and what they mean in plain English. Super helpful for those like myself looking to buy gear.
As it was finally dark, we transitioned to live fire. The first night would be rifles only. Don stated up front that this course is not about adjusting your shooting technique/reloads, but it is taking your foundation from previous training (a pre-req for the class), and teaching how the dark changes your ability and adaptations. Most of the first night was spent under 25 yards, as we started simple and progressed from there. Don and Sam did a great job building technique through increasing complexity in the drills. About halfway through, we took a 30 minute break to get some food/water in the system, sit, but did so in a group to continue the discussion and sharing lessons learned from one another. Drills incorporated multiple parts of night fighting, not just lasers, which I thought was a great addition. We finished with shooting steel from 50-75 yards, which is always fun. We finished around 0100 Friday into Saturday morning.
Day two started with a short classroom section, which covered pistols, and why red dots are the way to go (and #stopbeingpoor, lots of jokes about the cost of shooting in the dark). As I was one of those folks who haven’t jumped fully into the slide mounted red dot, I was fortunate to borrow a pistol with a dual illuminated RMR. It was part of the fun learning how the type of RMR can have a drastic impact on how shooting goes depending on the scenario. Most of Saturday it had been raining, and continued to rain off/on until about 2300, providing some good learning points there too. Once complete with the classroom, we jumped up to the range and started with the pistol to get more comfortable with how it looks/feels. Then drills began incorporating rifles/pistols, building once again. Then we moved back to conduct the x-box drill. This was a challenging and fun drill. This was done one at a time, but teaching points would be pointed out as others went, so it wasn’t time waisted. Then we learned about barricades, and conducted multiple drills there. The last drill was a competition called “tag” or something similar. Four barricades, four impacts per barricade, with one kneeling support side, one standing support side, one standing strong side, one kneeling strong side. After the first person completes their four impacts, they move to the next barricade and repeat, while the person behind them tries to catch them. Much like “around the world” with ping pong, but much more organized and safer. It was a fantastic drill adding stress of competition, but simple enough that it was easy to be safe. I ended up being the last student, as the other I was attempting to catch ran out of ammo before I got to him. I was smoked by the end of it for sure. The final drill of the night was a standing, unsupported walk back to demonstrate the capabilities of shooting in the dark. I had all three of my misses around the 275-300 mark, with the remaining two students finishing at the next position, around 350 yards. The shooting finished around 0100 again, then clean up/AAR.
Overall, I found it to be a fantastic class, even coming in with a small bit of experience with NODs. I ended up shooting about 850 rounds of rifle, 150 of pistol. I missed out on a few pistol drills, so I would expect that other students were over 200-225 mark for pistol. I had some cycling issues with the borrowed pistol (was nice and dirty), hence my lower round count. The only issue with rifle I had was my safety became almost nearly impossible to manipulate during the “tag” drill. I have pulled the lower apart and am now attempting to trouble shoot.
Don and Sam were both knowledgeable, and provided demonstrations appropriately. They also were providing individual feedback to students, so the people with more experience were still learning the next level of skill for them.
As I look back on the class, I ask would I take it again? I would not only take it if I had little/no NODs experience, but if the opportunity comes again, I will take it because there was so many little lessons throughout both nights, and would be money well spent.
Also, this class will cause you to want to spend copious amounts of money on quality gear. The capability increase not only over white light, but even a single PVS-14, is incredible.
Final tidbits:
1. Buy a MAWL
2. Flex on the poors (this class was filled with jokes and laughter, come with thick skin)
Thanks once again to Don and Sam of Greenline Tactical. Additionally, Teddy/TNVC was also super awesome. Also, all the students were great to learn with, and I hope to see many again at other classes.
Photo courtesy of Echo Arms.
