AAR: Talon Defense, Basic Carbine Manipulations.
As I've stated before, I'm not a rifle guy, I just enjoy shooting handguns much more. However, I think that if you are even remotely concerned with self defense, you should know at least the basics of running one. With that in mind, I've been wanting to take a basic carbine class for some time now, this past weekend I was able to do that.
Just like the other classes that I've taken, this one was a Talon Defense class, taught by Chase Jenkins (with assistance by his friends Chris and John).
We started the day (at Double Tap Training Grounds in Calera, AL.) with a little over an hour of classroom time. Class started out with introductions all-round and then moved on to the material we were going to be covering. First was the "safety" part, not only general safe gun handling, but also the mechanical safety on the carbine, how and when to apply it (any time the "Eyes/Target/Sights" trifecta is broken). Next we went over the rifle itself, all of the bits, bobs, and doo-dads commonly found on them, how they worked and how to work them...optics, different stocks, different forearms, grips, slings, etc... As with the other classes that I've taken with Chase, he showed us how he runs HIS stuff, then multiple different ways that may or may not work better for different people or situations. Before we wrapped up the classroom portion we went over what I would soon discover was going to present a very pesky problem for me....mechanical offset, what it is, how to overcome it, and at what ranges it comes into play. During the classroom time Chase welcomed questions and answered any that came up, with both the hows (and more importantly) the whys of whatever the student was asking.
The first thing we did when we got out on the range was to obtain a (fifty yard) zero on the optics. I, as well as four other students needed to zero our carbines, everyone else was smart enough to do that beforehand. Moving to the actual range portion of the class, we started out on the three yard line. We started out with administrative loading and unloading of the carbine as well as a review of safe gun handling and when the safety goes on/comes off.
The actual shooting part started with mechanical offset. We started out on the three yard line and gradually moved back to the forty, shooting from the three, seven, ten, twenty five, and forty, each time we moved to a different yardage, we got to observe the differences in the offset, where it starts to diminish, and how much.
From offset, we moved on to reloads...how to index the mag from different types of pouches and positions ...I was running a belt mounted double decker HSGI Taco, others were using battle belts, leg rigs, or chest rigs... different ways of getting the gun back into battery, and something that I'd never really thought of before, how to manipulate feeding the gun while also contending with the sling.
From reloads we took the next logical step and moved to malfunction reductions. Malfunctions are actually pretty simple (when not under stress that is).....get the bad stuff out and get good stuff back in. We went over how to fix the basic type one, type two, and type three malfunctions as well as the really fun stuff like a case over bolt malfunction. In between learning about each type of malfunction, they were set up in our carbines and we got to clear them multiple times. The "final exam" for the malfunction portion of the class was that all of the students walked back to the forty yard line while the teachers set up random malfunctions in a rifle that they made sure wasn't yours, that was laying on the five yard line. On their command you had to run to the rifle, engage the target, determine whether or not the gun was working (they all had something wrong with them), if it weren't, you had to find out why and fix it, re-engage the target and put "X" amount of rounds on "X/Y" location on the target.
The final portion of the class was moving with the gun. While a defensive rifle, for most of us, is a "take cover and wait" weapon it was pointed out that there might be some situations in which we needed to move with the rifle, amongst folks that really didn't need to be shot. Both "high" and "low" methods were demonstrated, as well as situations in which using them would be appropriate. The teachers had all of the students hang out under the awning (very back of the range) while taking three students at a time (one student per teacher)... on the "down" command, the students would run downrange while keeping the muzzle of the rifle pointed down (in a manner that didn't flag themselves or anyone else), when the "hit it" command was called, the students would stop running and engage a certain target with a certain amount of rounds that corresponded to the "down" command. When "up" was called the student would safely move the rifle to the high position (basically temple index with a carbine) and retreat back towards the forty yard line. Once again when the "hit it" command was called, the student would stop running, face the target, bring the rifle to bear, and engage a certain section of the target with a predetermined amount of rounds that corresponded to the "up" command.
I thought the final drill was really great, not only did we have to contend with keeping the gun in a safe direction with the added stress of running and remembering how many rounds to fire and where to fire them depending on if we were going up or down, we also had to deal with offset as we moved closer, reloads as we ran out of ammo, and in a couple of cases, even malfunctions. It was a really cool way to tie in everything that we'd gone over throughout the day.
Throughout the day between each drill, we had a "huddle" where everyone went around and told what they thought the most important thing that they'd picked up so far was, it was discussed, and any questions were answered. I learned a lot and will definitely be putting the stuff I learned into practice when I do take my rifle to the range.
(Photos courtesy of Chase Jenkins)
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...elfi/tdbc6.jpg
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...elfi/tdbc4.jpg
The rifle that I ended up with when we were doing the "final exam" part of the malfunction drill.....and EoTech equipped rifle with a type three malfunction......at least it was nice weather out.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...elfi/tdbc7.jpg
Y'all know that I had to rep PT.com, I don't have an actual PT shirt, but figured the BR, Jason Harwood shirt was a really good alternative.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/e...elfi/tdbc5.jpg
Some of the things that I have to work on...
Accuracy. I shoot a rifle about as well as I do a pistol. While I do okay with a handgun, I'm pretty damned abysmal when it comes to the carbine....have to work on that.
Sling. I have to tweak my sling just a little. It's attached in the right spots, but I need to shorten my rear attachment (para-cord) by a couple of inches.
OFFSET. This was my arch nemesis throughout the day. I just have to shoot more to get it ingrained in my noggin.
Being a fatass. That's sort of a "duh", but was really brought forth on the kneeling and prone stages of the class. Fat people don't do the whole "getting down and back up" thing very well. Another testament to TD was them working with me during those drills to make sure everything was kept completely safe.
Once again, I can't recommend Talon Defense enough.
I don't get paid to say that, as a matter of fact, over the last couple of years TD has cost me thousands of dollars in both tuition, ammo, and gear. I originally attended one of Chase's pistol courses because it was local to me........even if it wasn't local, it's still well worth the drive. If you want to take a top rate class at a really good price, check them out, I promise that you won't be disappointed.
https://www.facebook.com/TalonDefense.org/events
