ROMPER
Amateur
AAR Sentinel Concepts Critical Carbine Employment
Big Springs Range owned by Brownells, Searsboro ,Iowa
Hosted by Central Iowa Training Group
22-24, July 2016
Weather Conditions
TX1 – 97 with a heat index in the upper 90’s. Slight breeze
TX2 – 90+ with a heat index around 112. Less breeze, very still
TX3 – 85 with heat index in the upper 90’s. Slight breeze
Basically, it was very hot and humid as you can imagine…….
Class breakdown of students
Four local LEOs plus myself. The other four LEOs are all assigned to various tactical units around the Des Moines metro. Two father/son teams were in the class, a few old friends who are also training junkies but on the CIV side of things, one of which came up from Texas to attend, another from the Southwest. One Shooter is in the NFA/SOT business. Fourteen shooters total for the class.
Instructor
Instruction was conducted by Steve “Yeti” Fisher of Sentinel Concepts. This was my first time training with Steve under the Sentinel Concepts banner, having met him a few years ago in a shoot house/TCCC class with Pat Rogers in Alliance, Ohio. I liked Steve’s no nonsense approach to things in the shoot house and wanted to see what he did with a carbine class, the timing was right so I jumped at the chance to bring him to Iowa.
Gear
There were a variety of carbines used in the class, both different manufacturers as well as setups. I know that Steve is a big variable powered optic shooter and there were 2 carbines set up this way. The usual mix of RDS, mostly Aimpoints with one Eotech……I have not actually seen an Eotech in a class for awhile (it had no issues), otherwise all optics observed were either Aimpoint Micros or the M or ML series Aimpoints.
As far as gun issues there were none observed in the class. Everyone seemed to be doing a pretty good job of keeping their guns lubed and themselves hydrated.
TX1
Training day 1 started out with a safety brief and preview of how the class would be conducted and what to expect on each day.
Shooters were started off with a check of zero at 50 yards, a few minor adjustments were made over the three runs for this. Normally I come to classes with my gun and zero squared away…but decided to shoot the gen 1 EAG carbine I got from Pat as a memorial to him. I had not shot the gun since October of 2014 when I ran through CSAT carbine/pistol instructor school with it. At the time I was running XM193 and my agency has switched to Federal .223 red box….so the verification of zero was welcomed.
Day 1 focused heavily on review of basics, stance, sling use, mounting the gun from both low and high ready and trigger manipulations for multiple shots. Having moved into more of an administrative roll at work from being “the range guy” I was a bit rusty…..the setup for TX1 was also welcomed. I have to admit that the rust was frustrating the hell out of me and over a break I switched back to my 12.5” KMR duty carbine……something I have never done in a class was switch guns….after lunch I started to settle in a bit and went back to the BCM/EAG gun.
Coming from a tactical team background, specifically the entry side of things low ready was my comfort zone……I had done the high ready, and didn’t ever care for it unless already pressing a barricade into service in which case it was needed. After rotating back and forth from high ready to low ready, I noticed that the rolling the gun into my shoulder pocket came much more natural to me from the low ready…..I did force myself out of the comfort zone……otherwise why go to classes……right?
Because of the extreme heat, lack of wind and sun Steve gave frequent breaks for water, jam mags, and recoup which was nice as we had no issues with heat related stress.
TX 1 was a relatively easy day, but a good refresher and gave me some time to effectively knock some rust off and settle into things. It was welcomed.
TX2
TX2 picked up the pace a bit, working both trigger and weapon manipulations from combat reloads, speed reloads, and tactical reloads. I like how Steve breaks things down and shows how to get rid of any extra motions that will slow you down. The use of the “speed load” has been a hot topic in these parts for the last year and a half…..I was against them as to me it never made sense to dump a partially loaded magazine on the deck. Steve made me re-think this with his explanation of tactical load if you have cover (teammates, ballistics, cover) and speed loading is used when you do not have these things but still need to manage your available ammunition supply. Steve focused on your visual focus, when to break with the eye on threat to working on getting your gun back up and when to shift focus back to threat.
Weapon malfunctions drills were also worked in the class, Steve gives credit to where he picked things up from which is refreshing. Steve did show one unique thing in regards to the double feed which I liked. Instead of going through the entire Lock, rip, rack-rack-rack, reload and re-acquire that I have seen in the past, he taught to lock, rip, and let gravity help the double feed clear on its own, forgoing the racking of the charging handle many times. More often than not in my personal experiences I have seen folks make a double feed worse by doing this, to the point of creating the often talked about but seldom seen brass porcupine. Lastly the bolt-over was shown. I first picked this up from TMACS and at the time it was earthmoving for me……hard to tell where this technique of pushing on the bolt lock, pulling the charging handle back, lowering the muzzle and then slapping the charging handle came from but I still enjoyed it.
After malfunctions Steve pressed on the gas a bit working his versions of the failure drill (3 center mass followed by 2 head shots) and then reversal of 2 to the head followed by 3 center mass……I actually felt much smoother doing it this way.
Throughout the class, students were reminded to not let external stresses push them to the point where they were missing. It was a great reminder, as we had several different levels of shooters present. Two of which were very young (17 and 21) both did an excellent job in the class BTW.
Close to the end of TX2 Steve brought out his version of the 1-5 drill. I have to say that other than the barricade work this was my favorite part of the class. His version runs 3 magazines of 5 rounds, with the targets spaced out in a line so that the shooter can address all three with no movement. The targets are set out at 5, 10, and 15 yards. On the command to fire the shooter puts 1 round to the head of the 5 yard target, 2 rounds to the head of the 10 yard target, then initiates a standard failure drill on the 15 yard target, because of the magazine load out the shooter is forced to combat load their gun to finish the head shot on the 15 yard target, then place 4 rounds center mass on the 10 yard target, combat reload and 5 rounds center mass back up on the 5 yard target. This is all done for time, on the Sentinel Concepts target with acceptable scoring in the circle that runs top of eyebrows to upper lip and just outside of both eye sockets. The chest box is 5” wide and runs exact center mass of the chest approximately 8” long.
TX2 also brought the barricades out. A skill that I believe a lot of folks overlook. Coming from running our agencies patrol rifle program, the use of barricades and things like bounding were something I focused on because of the practical use as a patrolman who is equipped with a rifle responding to things from active shooters, barricaded suspects, robbery/burglary responses…….and the patrolman being readily available will without a doubt make good use of this in his/her career. This was only the second time in a training class that I have seen this incorporated into training other than being discussed.
I did notice one bit of gear failure on day 2……my feet were completely trashed. The Monday after the class I broke down and picked myself up some Solomon low cut boots……never again do I want to try and run on flats……..
TX3
Steve warned us that day 3 would be doing a lot of movement……he didn’t lie.
TX2 brought a warm-up of skills/drills from TX1 and 2. We did move into a few variations on things he does differently…..failure drills 3 center mass and 2 to the head, also reversed order. With what is going on in society right now this made perfect sense to me. I will be adding this along with a few other lessons learned to our agency programs.
For shooting on the move, Steve does this a little differently than some of the ways I have been shown…..I have been taught to be more upright more over the last few years, but lengthening my steps and finding the balance of running the trigger and emotional control to only press the shot when the dot is on what I want to hit was new and well received.
Steve ran another drill he called the “ladder drill”, which sucks….especially since I messed it up. Essentially wind sprints with a carbine. I liked the drill but because of old injuries, getting older, and the heat I was not firing on all pistons. It happens.
The last drill of day 2 was a “tag out” drill, with barricades set up about 60 yards out from steel targets. 6 barricades were set up across the range with 1 piece of steel up front (approx 60 yards), the shooter was to engage each piece of steel from both sides of the barricade before moving off to the next barricade, people were started behind you and if you missed and were in the position they were ready to fill then you were effectively tagged out. Shooters were only allowed to carry 3 magazines…….spotters were at each barricade and called your hit or miss so you could move on. If you ran dry they could take pitty and drop a mag or partial mag on the deck for you to pick up and use. We ran this in two relays. Nate and Cole ran one hell of a battle for 8 minutes……with the 17 year old Cole eventually running Nate down for the win. My relay, between bad feet, heat, I decided to pace myself and try and let the others wear themselves out. I held off Andy, one of the local LEOs for 2 minutes until he caught me and tagged me out.
This was a great class, lots of small detail things I picked up like how sling position can mess with you at close distances when it comes to mounting your carbine, foot positioning, visual focus and when to change it away from threat and back. Being a RDS guy exclusively…….my interest has been peaked in setting up a rifle around a variable powered optic…..next year’s project maybe. Steve Fisher is a great instructor, nothing flashy, no parlor tricks, simple basics mastered…..watching him manipulate the trigger is impressive, several times on demos I swear I only heard one shot and two or three where out. It is obvious to anyone who attends these classes when you are working with someone who actually cares that you are actually receiving the information they are putting out. Lots of individual attention was given throughout the class. New techniques were demoed, generally slower and then full speed.
I enjoyed the hell out of the class despite the heat/humidity….still will take a weekend at the range with a group of quality people like this being lead by a great instructor over my normal duties anytime.
I just wanted to thank all those who came to central Iowa to train, I got to see several good friends from out of state and a few from out of the Midwest, a few old students, some guys I work around, and met more good quality shooters.
Big Springs Range owned by Brownells, Searsboro ,Iowa
Hosted by Central Iowa Training Group
22-24, July 2016
Weather Conditions
TX1 – 97 with a heat index in the upper 90’s. Slight breeze
TX2 – 90+ with a heat index around 112. Less breeze, very still
TX3 – 85 with heat index in the upper 90’s. Slight breeze
Basically, it was very hot and humid as you can imagine…….
Class breakdown of students
Four local LEOs plus myself. The other four LEOs are all assigned to various tactical units around the Des Moines metro. Two father/son teams were in the class, a few old friends who are also training junkies but on the CIV side of things, one of which came up from Texas to attend, another from the Southwest. One Shooter is in the NFA/SOT business. Fourteen shooters total for the class.
Instructor
Instruction was conducted by Steve “Yeti” Fisher of Sentinel Concepts. This was my first time training with Steve under the Sentinel Concepts banner, having met him a few years ago in a shoot house/TCCC class with Pat Rogers in Alliance, Ohio. I liked Steve’s no nonsense approach to things in the shoot house and wanted to see what he did with a carbine class, the timing was right so I jumped at the chance to bring him to Iowa.
Gear
There were a variety of carbines used in the class, both different manufacturers as well as setups. I know that Steve is a big variable powered optic shooter and there were 2 carbines set up this way. The usual mix of RDS, mostly Aimpoints with one Eotech……I have not actually seen an Eotech in a class for awhile (it had no issues), otherwise all optics observed were either Aimpoint Micros or the M or ML series Aimpoints.
As far as gun issues there were none observed in the class. Everyone seemed to be doing a pretty good job of keeping their guns lubed and themselves hydrated.
TX1
Training day 1 started out with a safety brief and preview of how the class would be conducted and what to expect on each day.
Shooters were started off with a check of zero at 50 yards, a few minor adjustments were made over the three runs for this. Normally I come to classes with my gun and zero squared away…but decided to shoot the gen 1 EAG carbine I got from Pat as a memorial to him. I had not shot the gun since October of 2014 when I ran through CSAT carbine/pistol instructor school with it. At the time I was running XM193 and my agency has switched to Federal .223 red box….so the verification of zero was welcomed.
Day 1 focused heavily on review of basics, stance, sling use, mounting the gun from both low and high ready and trigger manipulations for multiple shots. Having moved into more of an administrative roll at work from being “the range guy” I was a bit rusty…..the setup for TX1 was also welcomed. I have to admit that the rust was frustrating the hell out of me and over a break I switched back to my 12.5” KMR duty carbine……something I have never done in a class was switch guns….after lunch I started to settle in a bit and went back to the BCM/EAG gun.
Coming from a tactical team background, specifically the entry side of things low ready was my comfort zone……I had done the high ready, and didn’t ever care for it unless already pressing a barricade into service in which case it was needed. After rotating back and forth from high ready to low ready, I noticed that the rolling the gun into my shoulder pocket came much more natural to me from the low ready…..I did force myself out of the comfort zone……otherwise why go to classes……right?
Because of the extreme heat, lack of wind and sun Steve gave frequent breaks for water, jam mags, and recoup which was nice as we had no issues with heat related stress.
TX 1 was a relatively easy day, but a good refresher and gave me some time to effectively knock some rust off and settle into things. It was welcomed.
TX2
TX2 picked up the pace a bit, working both trigger and weapon manipulations from combat reloads, speed reloads, and tactical reloads. I like how Steve breaks things down and shows how to get rid of any extra motions that will slow you down. The use of the “speed load” has been a hot topic in these parts for the last year and a half…..I was against them as to me it never made sense to dump a partially loaded magazine on the deck. Steve made me re-think this with his explanation of tactical load if you have cover (teammates, ballistics, cover) and speed loading is used when you do not have these things but still need to manage your available ammunition supply. Steve focused on your visual focus, when to break with the eye on threat to working on getting your gun back up and when to shift focus back to threat.
Weapon malfunctions drills were also worked in the class, Steve gives credit to where he picked things up from which is refreshing. Steve did show one unique thing in regards to the double feed which I liked. Instead of going through the entire Lock, rip, rack-rack-rack, reload and re-acquire that I have seen in the past, he taught to lock, rip, and let gravity help the double feed clear on its own, forgoing the racking of the charging handle many times. More often than not in my personal experiences I have seen folks make a double feed worse by doing this, to the point of creating the often talked about but seldom seen brass porcupine. Lastly the bolt-over was shown. I first picked this up from TMACS and at the time it was earthmoving for me……hard to tell where this technique of pushing on the bolt lock, pulling the charging handle back, lowering the muzzle and then slapping the charging handle came from but I still enjoyed it.
After malfunctions Steve pressed on the gas a bit working his versions of the failure drill (3 center mass followed by 2 head shots) and then reversal of 2 to the head followed by 3 center mass……I actually felt much smoother doing it this way.
Throughout the class, students were reminded to not let external stresses push them to the point where they were missing. It was a great reminder, as we had several different levels of shooters present. Two of which were very young (17 and 21) both did an excellent job in the class BTW.
Close to the end of TX2 Steve brought out his version of the 1-5 drill. I have to say that other than the barricade work this was my favorite part of the class. His version runs 3 magazines of 5 rounds, with the targets spaced out in a line so that the shooter can address all three with no movement. The targets are set out at 5, 10, and 15 yards. On the command to fire the shooter puts 1 round to the head of the 5 yard target, 2 rounds to the head of the 10 yard target, then initiates a standard failure drill on the 15 yard target, because of the magazine load out the shooter is forced to combat load their gun to finish the head shot on the 15 yard target, then place 4 rounds center mass on the 10 yard target, combat reload and 5 rounds center mass back up on the 5 yard target. This is all done for time, on the Sentinel Concepts target with acceptable scoring in the circle that runs top of eyebrows to upper lip and just outside of both eye sockets. The chest box is 5” wide and runs exact center mass of the chest approximately 8” long.
TX2 also brought the barricades out. A skill that I believe a lot of folks overlook. Coming from running our agencies patrol rifle program, the use of barricades and things like bounding were something I focused on because of the practical use as a patrolman who is equipped with a rifle responding to things from active shooters, barricaded suspects, robbery/burglary responses…….and the patrolman being readily available will without a doubt make good use of this in his/her career. This was only the second time in a training class that I have seen this incorporated into training other than being discussed.
I did notice one bit of gear failure on day 2……my feet were completely trashed. The Monday after the class I broke down and picked myself up some Solomon low cut boots……never again do I want to try and run on flats……..
TX3
Steve warned us that day 3 would be doing a lot of movement……he didn’t lie.
TX2 brought a warm-up of skills/drills from TX1 and 2. We did move into a few variations on things he does differently…..failure drills 3 center mass and 2 to the head, also reversed order. With what is going on in society right now this made perfect sense to me. I will be adding this along with a few other lessons learned to our agency programs.
For shooting on the move, Steve does this a little differently than some of the ways I have been shown…..I have been taught to be more upright more over the last few years, but lengthening my steps and finding the balance of running the trigger and emotional control to only press the shot when the dot is on what I want to hit was new and well received.
Steve ran another drill he called the “ladder drill”, which sucks….especially since I messed it up. Essentially wind sprints with a carbine. I liked the drill but because of old injuries, getting older, and the heat I was not firing on all pistons. It happens.
The last drill of day 2 was a “tag out” drill, with barricades set up about 60 yards out from steel targets. 6 barricades were set up across the range with 1 piece of steel up front (approx 60 yards), the shooter was to engage each piece of steel from both sides of the barricade before moving off to the next barricade, people were started behind you and if you missed and were in the position they were ready to fill then you were effectively tagged out. Shooters were only allowed to carry 3 magazines…….spotters were at each barricade and called your hit or miss so you could move on. If you ran dry they could take pitty and drop a mag or partial mag on the deck for you to pick up and use. We ran this in two relays. Nate and Cole ran one hell of a battle for 8 minutes……with the 17 year old Cole eventually running Nate down for the win. My relay, between bad feet, heat, I decided to pace myself and try and let the others wear themselves out. I held off Andy, one of the local LEOs for 2 minutes until he caught me and tagged me out.
This was a great class, lots of small detail things I picked up like how sling position can mess with you at close distances when it comes to mounting your carbine, foot positioning, visual focus and when to change it away from threat and back. Being a RDS guy exclusively…….my interest has been peaked in setting up a rifle around a variable powered optic…..next year’s project maybe. Steve Fisher is a great instructor, nothing flashy, no parlor tricks, simple basics mastered…..watching him manipulate the trigger is impressive, several times on demos I swear I only heard one shot and two or three where out. It is obvious to anyone who attends these classes when you are working with someone who actually cares that you are actually receiving the information they are putting out. Lots of individual attention was given throughout the class. New techniques were demoed, generally slower and then full speed.
I enjoyed the hell out of the class despite the heat/humidity….still will take a weekend at the range with a group of quality people like this being lead by a great instructor over my normal duties anytime.
I just wanted to thank all those who came to central Iowa to train, I got to see several good friends from out of state and a few from out of the Midwest, a few old students, some guys I work around, and met more good quality shooters.