victran
Amateur
LMS Defense Practical NVG
20200228-20200229, LMS Defense "The Ranch" training facility and property. Instructor: Josh Jackson, 20 year active Law Enforcement officer with extensive experience in rural to urban operations in patrol to SWAT capacity. Preface: This was my third long term outing and use with NODs...
primaryandsecondary.com
(AAR for 2020 class experience)
20210205-20210206 offsite range Hollister, CA
Instructor: Josh Jackson, 20 year active Law Enforcement officer with extensive experience in rural to urban operations in patrol to SWAT capacity.
Preface: second time taking LMS Defense Practical NVG class. Since the last class, I have taken everything that was taught and experienced and applied it to my overall system.
Equipment: PVS14 L3 white phosphor filmless 18UA tube, BE Meyers MAWL C1+, Team Wendy non ballistic "bump" helmet, Wilcox G24 w/ Articulating J Arm 2.0
Night 1: due to extreme weather circumstances, the original facility became inaccessible so the class was brought to a private range. Range was restricted to only 50 yards and surrounding terrain for us to use.
Class began with safety/medical debrief and immediately went into equipment selection and set up. The class was all private citizens and about half-half for dual tubes and monocular night vision devices.
We went live with a few students confirming zeroes on their day optics and Josh introduced utilizing a Converging Zero for our laser devices where we move our laser pointers to the same zero as our day optic. We went onto the 25 yard line and practiced ready ups, immediate action drills, and positional shooting.
As the darkness came in, we then practiced the repetitions under visible laser and stowed our carbines. Josh then explained the nomenclature of our NODs and lead us onto a walk over the terrain. At this point is where students to get acclimated with their devices and understand focusing their NODs for varying observation distances and tasks.
We then lined up and paired up to play catch with one another. Starting with a beach ball to hand ball. The emphasis on this exercise was to demonstrate how simple day time tasks are truly limited when only looking through NODs.
We closed out Night 1 with more flat range repetitions of shooting mechanics.
Night 2: we immediately go onto the flat range and work malfunction clearances. Josh then set up a scrambler type course relay that involved scaling a ladder and positional shooting. A lot of students noticing their kits and sling work deficiencies during this event.
Once darkness came on, we worked on more flat range repetitions and shooting on the move. Again, more students faced adversities of being limited within their NODs. Shooting on the move to malfunction clearances. We ran the scrambler course of fire again with only NODs.
Josh then explained the factors of photonic barriers by having a fire pit blaze and multiple truck headlights shine onto the range. This is where IR illuminator outputs really shined, DBAL D2, MAWL C1+, and full power lasers were able to cut through the smoke and visible light. It was a great demonstration of blending individual NODs to IR devices for the students.
We finished up the range portion with passive aiming (if setup correctly) and distance shoot via 4x4 vehicle driving. Josh closed his thoughts and observations of the class, on how we can continously practice to be acclimated with our NODs with simple tasks such as playing catch to lacing up our shoes. Class certificates were passed out and we had our goodbyes, index.
Closing/Final Thoughts: I was going into this class knowing the curriculum set forth. I wanted to apply and validate all the changes I had made over the last year going into this class and I will say that I had accomplished a majority of those things. Also given that this time around, there was a lot more flat range shooting, I have done much more weapons manipulations than last year. Last year's class I was becoming more familiar on how to use my NOD and what to seek in getting into NODs. Overall, I felt extremely comfortable with my setup of kit this year. No issues of being unable to see due to lower spec tube or lack of IR illumination to defeat photonic barriers. My kit was scaled down significantly which did not cause any unnecessary fatigue or snagging. I felt fully capable with every task given to me by the instructor.
My recommendation for future students to this class; come prepared. Apart from NOD integration to individual systems, students should be very proficient in their weapons handling skills. Loading, unloading, sling management, malfunction clearances, shooting on the move, are all crucial when there is no light and the focus on the NOD is no help in visually seeing what happened to you weapon or system. Especially when this time around, there was much more shooting that was done than the previous class. Aside from the weapons proficiency, coming into the class fresh acquired NODs is all fine, this is where I feel that people will truly get their feet wet.
Josh explaining his experience with NODs in the early 2000s, quite mirrors a vast majority of end users in LE/DoD. A lot of growing pains and experiences to be had due to the lack of actual Subject Matter Experts like Josh Jackson readily available for the masses are only far and few in between. Truly a niche community and capability, but extremely necessary in such occupations or personal investment.
Thank you again Josh for the wisdom and insight and time put into this class.