Todd Nielsen was the instructor for the day and he is top notch. He kept us busy in every way. We definitely had to keep hydrated through out the course because we were always on the move. The only break we had during the day was a 20 minute lunch break otherwise we were loading our magazines and getting back into the action.
The overall theme of the course is how well can you maintain accuracy while under some type of stress. Be it timed, physical exertion, or verbally induced.
I think I can speak for everyone that at the end of each day we were exhausted and at the end of day two Todd had to go to work and do a full shift for the SJPD! That's saying a lot because everything he put the students through he did too!
Oh, and on day two I was hitting steel plates from 200 yards with my M&P9!
Day 1
Zeroed carbines at 25 and 50 yrds. Confidence building exercises and sorting out everyone.
Timed drills from standing, kneeling, sitting and prone. Set number of rounds at various targets. For example Two shots standing, two shots kneeling, two shot seated, two shots prone. Multiple target acquisition at various postions.
Stress drill from 50 and 100 yards. Shots on target, timed, double time to target to check accuracy and double time back. If a miss occurred on designated target then 5 push ups per miss. This was a great drill to see how induced stress affects accuracy most notably at 100 yrds! Everyone was suffering!
Strong side weak side transitions.
Various malfunction clearing drills including bolt-over, stove pipe, double feed and improperly seated magazine. Also covered "mortaring" which is banging the butt of the rifle on the ground while pulling the charging handle back to extract cartridges stuck in the chamber.
Todd had each student set up malfunctions in another students weapons and then we had to go ahead and figure out what the problem was and clear it when we got back to our own weapons.
Shooting on the move drills. Both strong hand weak side movements.
Rifle/pistol transitions.
Day 2
Accurate fire under timed stress engaging multiple targets.
Marksmanship at 100 and 200 yards including breath control, natural point of aim. This was an eye opening experience for me. I listened to Todd's explanation of natural point of aim and breath control and applied it not really believing him but having faith in the experience and instruction. Low and behold I was hitting the target every time. I'm was amazed and now I just need to incorporate the technique into muscle memory and speed it up! Managed sub 2MOA without magnification from 200 yards. From prone and kneeling positions.
Team tactics scrambling was fun. We scrambled to the targets and retreated as a team while putting to practical use the various positions we had learned previously and using existing cover and concealment of the range.
Conceal cover tactics for each student as we made our way done the range engaging the targets. As with every drill accuracy was stressed and we were never sending lead down range without it being accounted for.
Steel shooting... nice! We had some nice steel plates set up that would give out a gratifying ring when hit, especially at 200 yards.
Here are some pics from the event:
"One too many burgers in the mess hall" guard
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