Course Review: F2SConsulting Practical Carbine/Pistol Course - Dec 17/18, 2011

[Jay Cunningham]

F2SConsulting Practical Carbine/Pistol Course - Dec 17/18, 2011 - Beaver Falls, PA


This is a facilitated course review for the Jack Leuba/F2SConsulting (http://f2sconsulting.com/) Practical Carbine/Pistol Course conducted over the weekend of December 17/18, 2011 at the Beaver Valley Rifle and Pistol Club (http://www.bvrpc.org/).

As course host I received a free slot in this class, so it is only appropriate that I recuse myself from posting my own public review as this could be considered a conflict of interest. However, I will facilitate the review for the other shooters in the class by starting the thread, posting thoughts from students who are not active forum members, hosting pictures, etc. I'll also be happy to answer clarifying questions about the coursework and range facilities.

I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to my friend Jack Leuba.

[orionz06]

Pics can be found here. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkelley/sets/72157628507077723/)

I have a few more to filter through but this is the bulk of it. Piss poor lighting didn't help with taking any sort of action shots but it is what it is.

I'll post up some thoughts on the class in a bit.

[Jay Cunningham]

It's always interesting to see what cold and humid will do to guns and gear - our weather didn't disappoint. Eyepro and optics get fogged up, guns run sluggish, and weaponlight beams diffuse in the atmosphere. Fingers get numb and gear that allows for maximum usability during evolutions usually is not optimal for pure performance.

A couple of off-brand ARs went down, as well as an 18" M1A early on. Guns required lots of lube to keep running. Cold mud contributed to the good times as it worked its way into magazines. Proper cold weather gear was essential... not that it was super-cold, but TD1 we spent the better part of 12 hours outside in temps that ranged from the mid 30s to the mid 20s.

[orionz06]

I wanna thank Jack for his time, standing out in the cold, and being one of the most enthusiastic instructors I have had. So enthusiastic that him and a student were blasting at some targets in the dark and he took a dive, in the mud/much/snow to shoot from various roll over positions. My take aways from the class are enough to make me wanna get to the range ASAP, more so than after any other class.

Having had a decent amount of training in the past I wasn't too sure on what to expect. What I got out of both carbine and pistol was better ways, tweaks really, to how I was already doing things to improve speed/accuracy. Emphasis was placed on accuracy but there were a few different things used to push the limits of speed and accuracy and then bring it back and tie it together in a closing drill, per say, for that particular relay. The biggest thing I got out of the class was a few tweaks to my carbine stance that I think will allow me to be a great deal faster (will know when I time some stuff). I have also had a lingering issue with a Glock trigger that was finger placement related. I can shoot M&P's just fine with the pad but on a Glock I need more finger, something I have been agonizing over for a while.

One point I would also like to make is how fast some of the other students who had far less training were able to get up to speed. Jack was able to get shooting quite well very efficiently. I really liked the manner in which he presented a few of pistol topics (grip, stance, malfunction clearance) too. The techniques were often what I have seen before but they were presented very well.

I will definitely be seeking more training with Jack. I had a great time, improved upon a fair amount of my technique and am pretty convinced that I can maybe go a little further than I had previously thought.

[Failure2Stop]

First, I want to publicly thank Jay and the shooters.
It was a pleasure to have each and every one of them in the class.
There was a broad range of experience and varying backgrounds represented in the class, which was exactly what I wanted.

The shooters demonstrated exceptional determination, with temperatures in the low 30s for most of the class, those trigger fingers got pretty numb. Weather and environment played their part in adding to the joys of learning. An M1A went tits up pretty quickly, but it could have been attritable to antique ammo. The shooter was a competant marksman, but gear let him down, and he switched over to a home-made AR, which also had some issues. There was another carbine that had non-weather cycle issues that later revealed itself to be due to a loose gas key.

The most prominent pistols were Glocks, with a couple M&Ps and a 1911 for good measure. The 1911 excused itself from the line and was replaced by a Glock. We had a fiber optic rear Glock sight back its retaining screw out, lesson learned: loc-tite is a friend, amnd don't trust most armorers to know what is needed for a weapon that shoots more than 500 rounds per year.

I highly respect Jay's stance on AARs as a comp'ed shooter. He's in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" position. Should he give a glowing review it could be interpreted as him taking the free slot for a cake piece, and if he gave a less than favorable review it could be seen as him trying to garner more students for himself. I think that his decision is the best possible way to maintain everyone's credibility and professionalism.

This was my inaugural open enrollment class, and as such there were a few things that I will be changing in the future. There were some topics I did not cover and some that I was only able to lightly cover. This was a combination carbine and pistol class, and in the future this format will only be available in a 3-day class, with rifle or pistol classes in the traditional 2-day length. The combination of short winter days, skills testing, night shooting, and a newly reformatted schedule caused me to be keenly aware that to bring a class to the performance level that I want to attach my name to requires at least another day on the range.