Anvil Rock Range- Alderson, WV
Bear in mind all these notes were written at end of day in the hotel room so it may be out of sequence or missing certain key points.
I realized after my last class with Pat that quite a bit of information goes over my head so I made a point of taking better notes.
In the spirit of Col. Bob Young’s (USMC Ret.) directive to “take something back to the Lance Corporals” after a class I figured the best way is to actually try and understand the POI in addition to being able to execute it.
It was an awesome class, I got to do a lot of things that I normally don’t. Working with a partner adds a different element to things and changes your perspective on how to solve the problem.
Thanks to Pat, Mike H., Pat Goodale for letting us use his facility, Johnnie Hurst and Mike M. for keeping the water running.
I also had some excellent partners when running the 2 man house- J. and HT, thanks to you both.
Day 1
Lecture:
- Fighting Stance
- Point in
- Low ready
- Indoor ready
- Prone- Military and Competition
- Range commands (make ready, up/kill, assault)
- Loading- running charging handle (claw & knife edge of hand)
- Tac reload, speed reload
Discussion of different manufacturers:
Magazines
Optics
Slings
50 yard zeroing: 5 shot groups from prone
Intermediate positions:
Braced kneeling
Unsupported kneeling
Speed kneeling aka Monica
5 shots brain- braced kneeling 25 yards
Unsupported kneeling to the body: 2 neutral 2 high 2 low 2 strong side 2 support side
Speed kneeling: same as above
Trigger press drill: point of aim with 3 rounds, aim, press, ease to reset, press emphasis on second sight picture and trigger control
- Controlled pairs to body (1 sight picture per shot)
- Hammers to body (1 sight picture per 2 shots)
- Failure drills 2 to body + 1 to brain
- Roadhouse rules: 1 to body A, 2 to body B, 1 to brain B, 1 to brain A
- Box drill: hammer A, hammer B, brain B, brain A
- NSR’s (7 rounds) to body
Transitions: Load 1 round to carbine and failure drill with pistol
Target engagement sequence: acquire, identify, engage
Lecture in shoot house:
- Pieing
- Typical doors in US: residential open in, commercial open out
- Typical room size in US: 10 x 12 ft.
- Typical construction: corner doors to maximize space long side (wall) vs. short side primary danger area, secondary danger area, tertiary danger area
- Hinge side vs. striker (knob) side Knobs open with clockwise or counter- clockwise turns?
- Light swictch locations
- Search areas- closets, sinks, refrigerators
Movement in house, pieing, clearing rooms, hallways, corners
Day 2
Confirm zero
Shooting with speed reloads 2 shots standing, speed reload, 2 shots intermediate position Same; to prone Reloading from different positions
Turns, failure drill NSR
Dyanmic turns Turn to shooting on the move
Pistol work Breakdown of drawstroke/presentation 5 count:
- remove rentention device and acquire firing grip
- pistol comes straight out of holster
- muzzle comes up and is indexed against body
- pistol comes forward and meets with support hand
- pistol all the way out and sights on target On paper On steel silhouettes On plate rack
- Two handed Strong hand only
- Support hand only draw
- Support hand only pairs
Shooting from retention (positon 3 on drawstroke) strong hand only
Shooting from rentention 2 handed
From contact distance: palm stike, step back, draw and shoot target
From contact distance: hand stays out (holding target) and shoot from retention position
Longer range carbine on steel
More drills with reloads while transitioning to different positions
Re-emphasis on assessing before coming up from prone or intermediate positions
More square range work 50 prone, 5 shots to body 25 standing, shots to brain 15 standing, shots to body
Re-emphasis on proper follow through after shots fired (calling left or right target during post shot assessment).
More shooting on the move- failure drill, NSR
More turns
Emphasis on correct holdover as distances change
Shoot house:
Singleton room clearing- Not MOUT 101, Not SWAT101, not Hostage Rescue
Shoot/No shoot targets; default is a failure drill
Emphasis on making use of all your resources
Emphasis on being controlled and safe
Emphasis on thinking through the clearing as a single:
- Where are you?
- Where is/are the bad guy(s)?
- What happens if they come out right now?
- Where would you retreat to?
- What are your danger areas? Primary? Secondary?
- How would you search that area?
- How would you open that door?
Notes: Pat doesn’t say you did something wrong, everything you do is the right way
Once you commit- you are committed all the way. He’ll ask questions for you to think about your options or demonstrates a different way you could do something.
First target confusing- did not shoot until Pat pretty much said that’s a bad guy while holding his knife out.
Had target through 2-3 inch (length of a door knob) sliver missed during initial pie of sliver
Pat: “could you shoot him from here?”
Me: “yes”
Pat: “Would you?”
Me: I wouldn’t- and didn’t, I prefer to be aggressive and in the room if shooting- if I can move so can the bad guy. I don’t have enough knowledge or experience to know if I can defeat wooden doorjamb and still hit target 20 feet away if I miss sliver.
I used white light in the last room (covered by roof and dimmer)- maybe I should have used white light in all rooms to blind targets?
Debrief on house run
- Sustain: aggressive, shooting on the move
- Improve: tighten shot groups, maybe a little more deliberate when entering
Previous shooter follows (along w/Pat) as observer for next shooter
From my previous (minimal) training in room clearing, the instructors would correct everything you did “wrong” as you did it- which slowed everything down to a frustrating level. Pat will let you do it so long as you’re not doing anything unsafe and will occasionally stop you to emphasize a teaching point but everything moves along quickly.
Notes: on next shooter- Marine Officer- much more deliberate, prefers to plant before shooting, very good shot groups, used white light on all targets, same house, same targets but he approached it differently- interesting to watch and a good learning experience.
Day 3
Still working with split relays:
Warm ups:
Pistol- shooting on the move failure drills, NSR, single shots to brain, hammers, multiple target engagement
Carbine warm up: review of previous drills shooting from prone and kneeling positions
House run: 2 person team w/Pat as partner (“I feel serendipitous!”- Pat Rogers)
Emphasis on: communication sequence of movement roles of #1 man and #2 man moving to point of domination/controlling corners fields of fire dead checks keeping the gun running
More carbine and pistol work
Low light lecture:
Different techniques for hand held lights
- Harries- back of hand to back of hand with light hand on outside of shooting hand.
- Neck index- light wrapped in fist with either knuckles or fingers pressed against neck or face.
- FBI- support hand all the way extended away from body
Maintain light discipline until contact- from there lights stay on
Brief discussion on pros and cons- e.g. turning light off and moving, using one person to hold light on target while partner maneuvers to different position, strobing.
What not to do with lights: firefly tracing up to target tracing back from target
Low light pistol drills
Same as daylight drills
Use of other person’s light to illuminate your target (half of relay uses light, other half doesn’t, whole relay shoots)
Low light carbine drills- Same as above
Day 4
Pistol warm up Carbine warm up
Engaging all odd # targets (out of 10) while moving diagonally toward right side Two man teams with 1st shooter engaging all even # targets and 2nd shooter engaging odd # targets. Two man teams starting in middle shooting while moving, splitting targets left/right 4 man teams starting in middle and shooting while moving Carbine drills:
Move up from 50-25, stop and engage
Move up from 25 to 10, stop and engage
Line walks forward while engaging once “threat” is called:
First done from distance marker to distance marker then continuouos movement from 25 to 3 with multiple threats called by instructor.
2 man house runs:
Move smoothly and efficiently together communicate #1 man is always right signaling covering sectors not going too deep in to the room- partner may not be able to support you if you block the shot 1 meter rule commit- once you decide to do something (e.g. open a door), do it all the way don’t over-communicate- no meetings in the house all gestures should be done with support hand not necessary to look at each other while talking 2 man team can do 90% of what a 3 man team can do when clearing a room
At night:
Different environment
- White lights cause shadowing which affects perception
- Need to be more thorough while scanning/searching due to low light
- Once lights get turned on- they stay on tendency is to move too fast
- Wagon wheel for dealing with corners
Approaching the structure from the outside could be its own block of instruction
Day 5
Shoot COF based on MEU(SOC) Qual course.
100 rounds pistol 100 rounds carbine
Once for practice Once for record
LA Drill on steel: Single file moves forward, shot fired, first shooter stops and engages, following shooters break left or right and come on line to first shooter and begin engaging until all shooters are on line and cease fire is called.
Peel Drill on steel: Single file moves forward,first shooter engages with five round string (in reality it would be a whole magazine on select fire), takes a deep step to left, pivots and moves to end of the stack while next shooter comes up and does the same.
Key points:
- Muzzle and trigger discipline
- Proximity to target dictates precision/rate of fire
- Maintain continuity of fire
- If malfunction occurs immediately turn and pivot out of the way and allow following shooter to engage.
- If carbine is down (malfunction or out of ammo) get out of the file and start directing traffic.
Equipment issues:
There was one LEO with a Colt Commando that had problems- Pat referenced a bad recoil spring but old leftover ammo may have been a contributing factor as well.
Steve Sheldon’s T&E Eotech went down almost immediately and required Mike H.’s technical wizardry to salvage it (there is definitely a market for an “Eotech enhanced reliability kit”).
I tried using an Aimpoint 3x magnifier; all the way from the 50 to the 3 yard line. I think it has potential but running it in a Larue LT-602 mount was awkward. Another shooter had one mounted on his backup carbine, a 16″ middy with an Eotech and a Samson flip mount- I think that mount may be a more viable system.
My CMT/Stag ran fine but for a minor problem on the last day with the bolt locking up on me when I switched from 62 grain green tip to XM193 ball. Suspect a dirty chamber was preventing the ball ammo from cycling properly. That was the diagnosis from Mike M.
The only gear issues that I know of are a few people had a hard time accessing their holsters when doing the support hand only pistol drills. This was either because of their holster design or their chest rigs were in the way. De-conflicting gear is a never ending issue.
Admin issues:
Fairfield Inn in Beckley, WV is nice. $60 at the Gov Rate along with Hi Speed Internet and Nextel service. Only downside is the extra 30 minutes of driving each way. On the plus side there are a lot more dining options and Wal Mart is 24 hours. Security may be a bit lax as someone set off a fire extinguisher and pulled the fire alarm at 0400 on Friday which caused everyone to be evacuated while the men in the BRT’s cleared the hotel. Nothing like being out in the parking lot full of people in their PJ’s while lugging a pelican case…
Training thoughts:
I asked Pat about shooting the carbine from the support side and although he thinks it may be worth it if you train it he does not teach it. I may take one of his 3 day classes next year as a lefty to see if it’s viable.
I’d also be curious to see how Pat teaches use of cover from behind barricades, vehicles, etc. The PFT range is set up for it and I think it could help work out issues with the intermediate shooting positions regarding stability vs. mobility (I shot all but one of my targets in the shoot house from standing- the one target underneath a table I defaulted to unsupported kneeling while leaning to strong side).
I left with a lot more skills and an appreciation of some of the things I need to get better at. Lot of reps and Pat will move things along as fast as the class can process it.
Looking forward to the next one.
Tags: AR training, Carbine training, CQB, EAG Tactical, M4 training, Pat Goodale, Pat Rogers, PGPFT, Rifle training, Room clearing, Shoot House