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Green Ops Defensive Shotgun, June 23, 2018, Culpeper Va.
I had the pleasure of being present for the inaugural Green Ops defensive shotgun class on Saturday.
Class was taught by Green Ops instructors Brett and Jay.
Class started with a safety brief, outlining a medical plan, and an emphasis on just how dangerous shotguns are. As I say in my own classes, there's no such thing as a minor wound with a shotgun at close range. The term "traumatic amputation" is the most apt description of what shotguns do at the kind of distances that go along with a class setting.
Brett and Jay took turns giving a lecture on the use and setup of the shotgun, and the class moved into dryfire with dummy rounds. Dryfire with dummies may not sound terribly sexy, but since the shotgun's manipulations are completely different than any other weapon we commonly use the time spent with dummies is incredibly beneficial. It's easier to learn a foreign platform when you don't have to contend with the blast and the big boom. It also gives the instructors the opportunity to provide individual coaching and feedback that will pay dividends when live fire starts.
Brett then put on a demonstration using a 9mm pistol loaded with JHP ammo, a 5.56 carbine with 69 grain JHP ammo, and then a 12 gauge with 9 pellet 00 buckshot and a 1 ounce slug. These were all used on some unfortunate cantaloupes that, while not equivalent to human flesh, still gave students a visceral picture of the power that shotguns bring to the table.
After that Brett had the students fire a few slugs so that the students had an idea where their payloads were hitting in regards to their sights. Surprisingly most students already had a pretty well zeroed gun. One gentleman had issues because his optic mount/side saddle combo worked loose in just those few rounds.
We transitioned to another part of the range to work on live fire. The instructors took turns explaining a concept and then a drill related to it, demonstrating it for the students (the instructors were always demonstrating on a clock) and then students were brought up in relays to work the skill. Each drill was worked a few times together as instructors gave feedback and coaching. Then the whole group ran the drill on a timer. Then after a couple of runs of that, each student was run through every drill twice on the timer.
I'm a fan of using the timer because it gives the students an idea of how to perform at the speed of the fight. Time pressure is a significant stressor in real fights and it's crucial that we teach people how to take advantage of the very limited window of time for useful defensive actions. Use of the timer also helps students measure their performance and get an idea of how different approaches to a task impact the time it takes to get something done. Comparing techniques in terms of technique A being technically faster but harder to pull off repeatably vs. technique B being a little bit slower but more repeatable and ultimately useful in a number of different situations is, I feel, an important part of helping students understand the "why" of things. Nothing I've seen from Green Ops is dogmatic...the students get the "why" of everything taught at Green Ops.
Tac loading (aka Feeding The Beast) was the primary focus in most drills. Emergency reloads were covered as well. All loading was ultimately performed on a timer by every student. Some of them got quite good at it very quickly. Students often forgot to "feed the beast" and found themselves running dry on a drill and having to perform an unexpected emergency reload. This underlined the point of keeping the gun loaded as much as possible and highlighted how quickly the shotgun can be brought back into action with sensible equipment setup and technique.
The instructors covered transitions with a focus on keeping the muzzle from covering innocents even when transitioning from one threat to another. Students had time to practice transitions and then were ultimately placed on the clock. By this point in the day some of them were getting the hang of it and turned in some excellent times.
Instruction transitioned to use of cover:
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...including use of the weak-side shoulder to minimize exposure around cover. The Green Ops presentation on this is excellent and the techniques taught on this are worth the price of admission alone.
After spending a significant amount of time working cover with makeshift barricades, the students patterned their guns and then shot a very demanding qualification.
So, my opinion on the course:
It’s a truly solid shotgun course put on by guys from the LE world (Brett and Jay) who have learned how the shotgun’s power can be incredibly useful for stopping the typical criminal threat that police and citizens contend with here in the United States.
A priority is placed on coaching and individual attention which sets Green Ops courses apart. I’ve been to sadly a number of classes that were little more than lightly supervised range time because the big name instructor wanted a big paycheck more than to provide real value and benefit to his students.
That hasn’t been my experience with Green Ops, which is why I was happy to assist with the class.
I consider Brett a friend, but objectively he’s a very thorough and serious instructor focused on delivering value to the people who spend money with him. I’ve seen the prep work and planning he puts into classes and it’s frankly amazing to see the guy’s work ethic. He has exceptionally high standards for himself and his staff and it shows.
If you are interested in the shotgun as a defensive tool, the Green Ops shotgun program is a damn fine option for getting you up to speed on it.
