AAR
Sentinel Concepts
www.sentinelconcepts.com
Practical Urban Carbine
September 24 - September 25 2016
Alliance Police Department Range
TD1 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM
TD2 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Weather was great (I do mean to rub that in). TD1 Sunshine, light breeze good visibility , cool night, no overcast but visibility was poor due to other environmental factors. TD2 cool morning, and sunshine all day.
Gear: Scar 17s, Trijicon Vcog 1-6 segmented circle, Sure Fire P3X weapon mounted light, and magpul sling. Electronic ear pro, Project Rudy eye pro, cargo pants, shirt, and light jacket for the night shoot. I didn't get an exact round count but it was somewhere between 500-600. This class is appropriate to bring 100 rounds of high quality ammo for zeroing.
My Scar has been sitting in the safe for years, this was the first class that I brought it out for. I felt it would be an appropriate tool for the distances we would be working with. The Vcog was purchased this year for the rifle. All other gear is standard for me to use and wear in classes and day to day life. The Scar did not let me down, in fact a little piece of me died and went to heaven with every squeeze of the trigger. The setup was heavy, but I worked through it for the course of the weekend. I was very satisfied with the performance of the gear and tools I used throughout the weekend and will continue to familiarize myself with the Scar platform. I wasn't blown away by the P3X in comparison to the Scout Fury and I may switch back to save some rail space and weight. Project Rudy glasses were flawless in both day and night, even with temp and humidity changes I had zero issue with comfort and fogging.
From reading the class description I came into the weekend expecting to spend ample time on TD1 zeroing our guns, from there I expected to work on positional shooting and incorporating practical use of slings and use of structures for aiding longer distance accuracy. I hoped to get a good night run in to check the performance of the P3X in combination with the Scar and Vcog. TD2 I hoped that we would start working more distance and increase our confidence in our rifles. As always with a Fisher class an abundance of facts and knowledge were present and learning occured.
TD1 Actual: We started the day off with introductions of students, instructor, and discussed the course work. We discussed our safety brief, and the morning schedule. Once that was all wrapped up, we loaded up and started on the 50 yard line to begin the zero process. After 3 relays of fire and needed adjustments made we took our gear back to the 200 yard line. Due to the range layout we then broke out into 2 shooting relays. We all sent 5 round groups, walked down to look, made adjustments and went back and fired again. Once both relays had confirmed hard zeroes at 200 yards we went back down to the 50 yard to check them. Spot on.
After confirming zero was finished we moved back and began working on positional shooting and integrating the use of slings and packs with different positions. Prone, kneeling and standing were the positions we focused on. Slings play an important role to stabilizing the rifle, even in the prone position. I found that the sling too tight in the kneeling position for whatever reason caused more wobble for me, but in the standing position the tighter the sling the better. Running a 30 cal gun recoil management was another challenge I was faced with. Prone obviously is the easiest to not only keep the gun stable, but also absorb all the recoil and have better shot follow through. In the kneeling position I did get pushed back a bit more, but found that I recovered from the recoil in a controllable way, and as time went on I was able to get in a rhythm and send follow up shots faster. Though at 150 yards standing was by no means impossible, recovering from the recoil slowed me down a little bit. I made some sling adjustments, tightened it up a bit more and as we progressed I adjusted to better manage the shot follow through and recoil. After both relays had a good amount of reps in the shooting positions, each had our turn to shoot solo for Steve to see our technique and progress. Lunch Break.
Back from lunch the barricades came out. Vtac barricades were used, but for the purpose of this course work we only utilized the right and left side, no cut outs in the middle or bottom. They were set up in a way that the right side was the side that had the drop down cut outs and the left being flat. We worked from top to bottom left side and right side utilizing the barricade for support and working the different shooting positions from both sides of the body. After several relays and different iterations with use of the barricade we moved back to the 200 and ran through a similar series. We ran through a debrief and broke for dinner.
Back from dinner we were front loaded on how the darkness and environmental factors were going to change how we see through our optics, how our lights work, how our focus would change, and that we would actually see more hits. As we got back up on the line, darkness settled in and the fun began. We started the night off at the 150. We first started off discussing positional shooting and why in many ways the environment will dictate the positions that can be utilized. We ran through the different positions again utilizing slings. After we ran through our relays the barricades were brought back to the line and we began running similar drills from earlier in the day.
Next up back to the 200. Here the relays lined up and we each went individually from the kneeling position and had to hit a specified number of hits, and had to do this again standing. After this the barricades were utilized again and ran similar drills shooting from both shoulders, both sides of the barricades and all heights of the left and right sides. Once the class was hitting consistently we moved back to the 250. This is where we began to notice hit rates starting to fall off a bit. The cool night time was keeping the smoke from dissipating above and was in turn making our lights less effective allowing us to see less through our optics. We ended the night backing up to the 300. At this distance with almost all of the optics, cutting through the smoke and being able to acquire the targets was not happening. We were given the opportunity with 1 shot to try and hit the target. One student with an outstanding magnified optic was able to successfully cut through the environmental factors and make a hit from support. We debriefed and called it a night.
TD2 Actual: The day started off reconfirming our zero from both the 50 and 200 to see if anything had changed with either us or the gun. Most students experienced no change and after the relays and adjustments were complete we moved to the 200 with barricades. There were 4 barricades and for the rest of the day they were set up so they were opposite, meaning 1 barricade the left side had the step downs, and the other barricade the step downs were to the right. As we worked through the barricade drills all shooting on the left side of the barricade was done from the left should and the right shoulder on the right side. As we worked through the different positions and sides we would then proceed to the other barricade to perform the same drills only with the barricade on the opposite side. As the classes confidence built we moved back to the 250, repeated the drills, and finally moved back to the 300. The barricade drills at the 300 was our last series of drills for the day. At the 300 the positions, sides, etc were at our discretion. We were even able to go prone and be able to acquire the targets and get some practice in from the prone positions. Though the overall hits decreased a bit, the class was still making good hits with speed from different positions. Class debriefed, policed the range and called it a day.
My takeaways: Steve Fisher is an awesome instructor and I have learned so much from him over the years. His teaching methods work well with how I learn, and he provides information that is relevant to the real world for citizens. The Practical Urban Carbine coursework is something I have been searching out for some time now. If you own a carbine, it is not good enough to zero it at 50 yards and call it done. This is something that has bothered me for some time, and I now know what the rifles are capable of 300 yards and in, when properly zeroed. He worked with me teaching me ways to better manage the 30 cal gun, calling out incorrect form in turn improving recoil management, and helped me better understand the reticle on my magnified optic.
This class was a learning experience that I have been searching for. I do not have a long distance range within reasonable access to me, therefore taking a rifle and zeroing at 200 yards is very difficult. What this has left me with is a lot of guessing and wondering. I was thrilled that we spent almost half of TD1 confirming zero on our rifles. Once I consistently saw my groups were zeroed at 200 yards I no longer had to sit there, guess and wonder where my shots were going to land. After zero confirmation for the remainder of the class I was able to focus on what was being taught. I was able to see the target, get in a rhythm, time the wobble, squeeze the trigger, follow through the shots, and make hits with confidence. Magnified optics were a game changer for me. During zero confirmation I could see the target in detail, which is something I could never do with a 2 moa red dot. This is not to say you can't be proficient and accurate with a red dot or iron sights at distance, but they have never worked for me in a manner that the magnified optic has. Moving forward anything that goes on my rifles will be a 1-4/1-6/1-8 powered optic. This is my personal choice, and I believe this is what works best for me. During positional shooting, obviously I was able to shoot my best in prone, but I did like the kneeling position as well, and was able to make good shots at distance. I did find that sinking low, sitting on top of my right leg and resting my support arm on the left knee was important in order for that position to work well for me. If shooting left handed the leg position needed to be switched as well in order for me to pick up the reticle properly. Whether standing or kneeling it was very important that I pay attention to my stance when switching from one shoulder to the other and shooting off hand. I feel I need to work more with slings. The biggest setback for me and utilizing the sling during the class was that I hadn't established and marked 3 good tension locations to be utilized for standing, kneeling, and prone. This is definitely something I need to set up at home so it's right. When utilizing barricades no matter if it was from my right or left shoulder I was able to follow through my shots, manage recoil, and send follow up shots much better. We tried to use the barricades the best we could in a way that would carry over into the real world such as a car bumper, grocery shelves, trees, and really just about anything else that we may be able to get to and utilize. Night time shooting did expose some weakness mostly related to my lack of experience with my light and optic combo. Eye fatigue had set in and I was having trouble finding the correct lens focus in conjunction with the available light be it ambient or from my weapon mounted light. I had a great time shooting the Scar 17. No, 30 cal guns are absolutely not necessary to be effective at the distances we were working through this class. I will absolutely continue to work with the Scar to become more effective with recoil management and simply handling the weight difference. The gun ran great, and it was a lot of fun squeezing off rounds. I ran Privi 145 gr 7.62x51, Privi 145 gr 308, Wolf 308 steel case, and old surplus 7.62x51 ammo with zero problems at all.
I had a great time with the class and all the people who attended. There were some great shooters, and I watched a lot of confidence amongst the class grow through the course work including my own. I was so damn happy by the end of the class, I finally had the feeling that all the practice, the classes, reading, dry fire, etc is starting to fall in to place. I left the class TRUSTING my rifle, and better trusting my ability to utilize my rifle at distance from many different positions, even shooting off hand at an effective speed. This will be a class that I attend in 2017 and I highly recommend you the reader make time to attend this coursework.
Sentinel Concepts
www.sentinelconcepts.com
Practical Urban Carbine
September 24 - September 25 2016
Alliance Police Department Range
TD1 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM
TD2 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Weather was great (I do mean to rub that in). TD1 Sunshine, light breeze good visibility , cool night, no overcast but visibility was poor due to other environmental factors. TD2 cool morning, and sunshine all day.
Gear: Scar 17s, Trijicon Vcog 1-6 segmented circle, Sure Fire P3X weapon mounted light, and magpul sling. Electronic ear pro, Project Rudy eye pro, cargo pants, shirt, and light jacket for the night shoot. I didn't get an exact round count but it was somewhere between 500-600. This class is appropriate to bring 100 rounds of high quality ammo for zeroing.
My Scar has been sitting in the safe for years, this was the first class that I brought it out for. I felt it would be an appropriate tool for the distances we would be working with. The Vcog was purchased this year for the rifle. All other gear is standard for me to use and wear in classes and day to day life. The Scar did not let me down, in fact a little piece of me died and went to heaven with every squeeze of the trigger. The setup was heavy, but I worked through it for the course of the weekend. I was very satisfied with the performance of the gear and tools I used throughout the weekend and will continue to familiarize myself with the Scar platform. I wasn't blown away by the P3X in comparison to the Scout Fury and I may switch back to save some rail space and weight. Project Rudy glasses were flawless in both day and night, even with temp and humidity changes I had zero issue with comfort and fogging.
From reading the class description I came into the weekend expecting to spend ample time on TD1 zeroing our guns, from there I expected to work on positional shooting and incorporating practical use of slings and use of structures for aiding longer distance accuracy. I hoped to get a good night run in to check the performance of the P3X in combination with the Scar and Vcog. TD2 I hoped that we would start working more distance and increase our confidence in our rifles. As always with a Fisher class an abundance of facts and knowledge were present and learning occured.
TD1 Actual: We started the day off with introductions of students, instructor, and discussed the course work. We discussed our safety brief, and the morning schedule. Once that was all wrapped up, we loaded up and started on the 50 yard line to begin the zero process. After 3 relays of fire and needed adjustments made we took our gear back to the 200 yard line. Due to the range layout we then broke out into 2 shooting relays. We all sent 5 round groups, walked down to look, made adjustments and went back and fired again. Once both relays had confirmed hard zeroes at 200 yards we went back down to the 50 yard to check them. Spot on.
After confirming zero was finished we moved back and began working on positional shooting and integrating the use of slings and packs with different positions. Prone, kneeling and standing were the positions we focused on. Slings play an important role to stabilizing the rifle, even in the prone position. I found that the sling too tight in the kneeling position for whatever reason caused more wobble for me, but in the standing position the tighter the sling the better. Running a 30 cal gun recoil management was another challenge I was faced with. Prone obviously is the easiest to not only keep the gun stable, but also absorb all the recoil and have better shot follow through. In the kneeling position I did get pushed back a bit more, but found that I recovered from the recoil in a controllable way, and as time went on I was able to get in a rhythm and send follow up shots faster. Though at 150 yards standing was by no means impossible, recovering from the recoil slowed me down a little bit. I made some sling adjustments, tightened it up a bit more and as we progressed I adjusted to better manage the shot follow through and recoil. After both relays had a good amount of reps in the shooting positions, each had our turn to shoot solo for Steve to see our technique and progress. Lunch Break.
Back from lunch the barricades came out. Vtac barricades were used, but for the purpose of this course work we only utilized the right and left side, no cut outs in the middle or bottom. They were set up in a way that the right side was the side that had the drop down cut outs and the left being flat. We worked from top to bottom left side and right side utilizing the barricade for support and working the different shooting positions from both sides of the body. After several relays and different iterations with use of the barricade we moved back to the 200 and ran through a similar series. We ran through a debrief and broke for dinner.
Back from dinner we were front loaded on how the darkness and environmental factors were going to change how we see through our optics, how our lights work, how our focus would change, and that we would actually see more hits. As we got back up on the line, darkness settled in and the fun began. We started the night off at the 150. We first started off discussing positional shooting and why in many ways the environment will dictate the positions that can be utilized. We ran through the different positions again utilizing slings. After we ran through our relays the barricades were brought back to the line and we began running similar drills from earlier in the day.
Next up back to the 200. Here the relays lined up and we each went individually from the kneeling position and had to hit a specified number of hits, and had to do this again standing. After this the barricades were utilized again and ran similar drills shooting from both shoulders, both sides of the barricades and all heights of the left and right sides. Once the class was hitting consistently we moved back to the 250. This is where we began to notice hit rates starting to fall off a bit. The cool night time was keeping the smoke from dissipating above and was in turn making our lights less effective allowing us to see less through our optics. We ended the night backing up to the 300. At this distance with almost all of the optics, cutting through the smoke and being able to acquire the targets was not happening. We were given the opportunity with 1 shot to try and hit the target. One student with an outstanding magnified optic was able to successfully cut through the environmental factors and make a hit from support. We debriefed and called it a night.
TD2 Actual: The day started off reconfirming our zero from both the 50 and 200 to see if anything had changed with either us or the gun. Most students experienced no change and after the relays and adjustments were complete we moved to the 200 with barricades. There were 4 barricades and for the rest of the day they were set up so they were opposite, meaning 1 barricade the left side had the step downs, and the other barricade the step downs were to the right. As we worked through the barricade drills all shooting on the left side of the barricade was done from the left should and the right shoulder on the right side. As we worked through the different positions and sides we would then proceed to the other barricade to perform the same drills only with the barricade on the opposite side. As the classes confidence built we moved back to the 250, repeated the drills, and finally moved back to the 300. The barricade drills at the 300 was our last series of drills for the day. At the 300 the positions, sides, etc were at our discretion. We were even able to go prone and be able to acquire the targets and get some practice in from the prone positions. Though the overall hits decreased a bit, the class was still making good hits with speed from different positions. Class debriefed, policed the range and called it a day.
My takeaways: Steve Fisher is an awesome instructor and I have learned so much from him over the years. His teaching methods work well with how I learn, and he provides information that is relevant to the real world for citizens. The Practical Urban Carbine coursework is something I have been searching out for some time now. If you own a carbine, it is not good enough to zero it at 50 yards and call it done. This is something that has bothered me for some time, and I now know what the rifles are capable of 300 yards and in, when properly zeroed. He worked with me teaching me ways to better manage the 30 cal gun, calling out incorrect form in turn improving recoil management, and helped me better understand the reticle on my magnified optic.
This class was a learning experience that I have been searching for. I do not have a long distance range within reasonable access to me, therefore taking a rifle and zeroing at 200 yards is very difficult. What this has left me with is a lot of guessing and wondering. I was thrilled that we spent almost half of TD1 confirming zero on our rifles. Once I consistently saw my groups were zeroed at 200 yards I no longer had to sit there, guess and wonder where my shots were going to land. After zero confirmation for the remainder of the class I was able to focus on what was being taught. I was able to see the target, get in a rhythm, time the wobble, squeeze the trigger, follow through the shots, and make hits with confidence. Magnified optics were a game changer for me. During zero confirmation I could see the target in detail, which is something I could never do with a 2 moa red dot. This is not to say you can't be proficient and accurate with a red dot or iron sights at distance, but they have never worked for me in a manner that the magnified optic has. Moving forward anything that goes on my rifles will be a 1-4/1-6/1-8 powered optic. This is my personal choice, and I believe this is what works best for me. During positional shooting, obviously I was able to shoot my best in prone, but I did like the kneeling position as well, and was able to make good shots at distance. I did find that sinking low, sitting on top of my right leg and resting my support arm on the left knee was important in order for that position to work well for me. If shooting left handed the leg position needed to be switched as well in order for me to pick up the reticle properly. Whether standing or kneeling it was very important that I pay attention to my stance when switching from one shoulder to the other and shooting off hand. I feel I need to work more with slings. The biggest setback for me and utilizing the sling during the class was that I hadn't established and marked 3 good tension locations to be utilized for standing, kneeling, and prone. This is definitely something I need to set up at home so it's right. When utilizing barricades no matter if it was from my right or left shoulder I was able to follow through my shots, manage recoil, and send follow up shots much better. We tried to use the barricades the best we could in a way that would carry over into the real world such as a car bumper, grocery shelves, trees, and really just about anything else that we may be able to get to and utilize. Night time shooting did expose some weakness mostly related to my lack of experience with my light and optic combo. Eye fatigue had set in and I was having trouble finding the correct lens focus in conjunction with the available light be it ambient or from my weapon mounted light. I had a great time shooting the Scar 17. No, 30 cal guns are absolutely not necessary to be effective at the distances we were working through this class. I will absolutely continue to work with the Scar to become more effective with recoil management and simply handling the weight difference. The gun ran great, and it was a lot of fun squeezing off rounds. I ran Privi 145 gr 7.62x51, Privi 145 gr 308, Wolf 308 steel case, and old surplus 7.62x51 ammo with zero problems at all.
I had a great time with the class and all the people who attended. There were some great shooters, and I watched a lot of confidence amongst the class grow through the course work including my own. I was so damn happy by the end of the class, I finally had the feeling that all the practice, the classes, reading, dry fire, etc is starting to fall in to place. I left the class TRUSTING my rifle, and better trusting my ability to utilize my rifle at distance from many different positions, even shooting off hand at an effective speed. This will be a class that I attend in 2017 and I highly recommend you the reader make time to attend this coursework.
