AAR: Protective Shooting Concepts - Adv. Kalashnikov Clinic

Protective Shooting Concepts
Advanced Kalashnikov Clinic
October 19th, 2014
BVRPC in Beaver Falls, PA

Shooters:

1. Sean B; Polish Tantal 5.45
2. John C; Bulgarian SA M7 7.62
3. Steve C; Romanian WASR 7.62
4. John B; Yugoslav M70 7.62

It was chilly in the AM, but sunny; overall the weather was very nice. All shooters had gloves, which is a good idea for AKs. For most of the Clinic, we had two instructors for four students.


http://www.lowspeed-highdrag.com/images/john_c.jpg
John C getting ready to do some work from his support side with a 7.62x39mm milled receiver gun.


We began with our standard safety brief covering everything from minor injuries all the way to gunshot wounds from negligent discharges. We covered the cardinal safe gun-handling rules and ensured everyone was onboard with trigger finger and muzzle discipline.

We moved into the concept of risk; how to identify it, and how to mitigate it. We identified threat and non-threat environments and the differences between emergency and administrative gun handling.


http://www.lowspeed-highdrag.com/images/steve_c.jpg
Steve C settling in and finding his natural point of aim while seated; a very handsome man is providing him guidance in the background.


Administrative loading and unloading was demonstrated, and a reminder was given that the yet-to-be-covered emergency reload was a different animal than administrative loading. For the majority of AKs, yanking back the charging handle with the safety on is the best way to perform a loaded chamber verification, Yugo guns being a notable exception.

The AK does not have sights as high over the bore as the AR-15, but offset is still there and must be accounted for with proper holdover at close range. This can be a kick in the pants for people who put a straightline AR-15 stock on their AK and then wind up having to hunch down into the gun to find the sights. AK stocks drop down for a reason, folks.


http://www.lowspeed-highdrag.com/images/john_b.jpg
John B with a Yugo underfolder. John chose to run sans sling, so he administratively carried his AK accordingly.


At close ranges on high probability targets, we demonstrated that a crystal clear front sight focus wasn't necessary; one can look overtop of the rear sight and bracket the A Zone with the curved protective wings on the front sight... this technique can be highly effective inside 15m.

I am a big believer in operating manual safeties to one's benefit, not to one's detriment. Some guns have well-engineered manual safeties and some suck. The safety on the AK (actually the whole gun) almost seems like it was designed for a lefty - both the charging handle and the safety are outboard for a right-handed shooter.


http://www.lowspeed-highdrag.com/images/sean_b.jpg
Sean B rocking his modified Polish Tantal chambered in 5.45x39mm. Sean's marksmanship was outstanding throughout the day.


We teach a fairly conventional presentation swiping the safety off as the gun comes up, however some AK safeties are so tight that this is impractical. Our intent isn't to make *the threat* safer with the use of our safety, so common sense applies.

Protective Shooting Concepts emphasizes the ability to "flow" your long gun to your support side and back to your strong side as necessary in order to facilitate maneuvering in tight quarters and maximizing the use of cover/concealment. We devoted more time to support side shooting in this half-day Clinic than most others do in their full two-day carbine training.

Emergency reloads are notably different on the AK than the AR, therefore we devoted significant time to them to get a fair number of repetitions. We also made sure that shooters didn't stutter if they needed to reload their gun from the support side.

Since we worked in a lot of repetitions on support side transitions, shooting, and manipulations, it was time to put those skills to more practical use. We worked fighting from cover both strong and support side, including reloads and shoulder transitions behind cover.

We intentionally disallowed the wearing of a sidearm to force shooters to fix their long guns. Malfunction clearance for the AK is similar in concept but different in execution to the AR-15 family of weapons. Spent cases mixed into a magazine of live rounds were used to induce genuine malfunctions.

All of the above was covered, in addition to discussion on AK vs. AR, AK variants and magazines, and quality aftermarket accessories for the AK.

Additional notes:

- lube your gun
- optics are nice
- the zero you choose isn't as important as understanding where your gun hits
- magazines without metal or metal reinforced feed lips generally suck


http://www.lowspeed-highdrag.com/images/kneeling.jpg
Some original gangstas laying waste with Kalashnikovs, support side kneeling. BOOM

Thanks for the well written AAR.

Thank you. I'm preparing another AAR on our Protective Carbine 2 as I type this.

Out of all the drills we worked on, it was shooting around barricades that was most problematic for me. It's just not the same as when using a handgun. The need to lean out further, to engage targets, is a bit hard to get used too. It also requires me to shift my stance to compensate for the added weight being applied to my outboard leg.

And then, there is the issue of the sights being higher above the bore on an AK, than from a handgun. The need to lean out further is even greater, just to get the muzzle clear of said barricade. My sincere apologies to the barricade, may it rest in peace(s).

Another issue that kept cropping up for me, is the difference in the heigth of sights between an AK vs.the AR platform. Placing my thumb over the top of the forearm, like I do with an AR, was always blocking the front sight until the grip was rotated back down a bit.

Other than that, it was my usual stoopid brainfart type things. You know ... like not getting the gun up 'into my workspace' when performing a reload or malfunction drill. Coming off the trigger too quickly and going to low ready, without a complete final sight picture.