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Green Ops Defensive Pistol 1 AAR November 7th, 2015
The course was on a rainy Saturday from 9:00AM until about 5:00PM located in a private range in Culpeper, Virginia. This was my second class I took with Green Ops, the first being the Defensive Carbine 1 class at the NRA Range in Fairfax, Virginia. Although both course are advertised as a level 1 course, I’d say that this course is not for shooters who have never shot before. It’s more along the lines of a 1.5 course. Brand new shooters will find themselves lagging behind the rest of the class if they do not know anything about grip, sight alignment, trigger press, reloads, or drawing from a holster. Much of that knowledge is expected before coming to the course.
The course size was 10 students with 3 main instructors throughout the day. Required equipment was a strong-side holster, ability to retain at least 1 spare magazine, and approximately 350 rounds of ammunition. My recommended equipment for this course is a kydex holster, 2 magazine holders, and at least 4 magazines. I brought 5 magazines and was never short on ammo before we stopped to reload magazines. The recommended 350 rounds of ammo was spot on, but many people brought extra.
The day started off signing a few papers, including the roster, a waiver saying we were allowed to own firearms, and then a waiver after our safety briefing. After a few signatures, the lead instructor went over a quick lecture on the legalities of using a firearm as a defensive tool. Topics were brought up that many people do not think of when considering carrying a firearm. I myself had heard the lecture during the Defensive Carbine 1 course, but hearing it again helped drive home the seriousness of using a firearm. Questions were asked and answered by the instructors to the best of their ability. After the lecture was over, they gave a safety briefing and it was off to the range.
The students were broken up into 2 groups of 5, designated Relay 1 and Relay 2. This allowed there to be 5 students shooting, with 3 instructors on the line. Throughout the class, everyone had hot guns. Students were allowed to keep their guns loaded as long as they were holstered and not handled. We were allowed to load magazines while the other Relay was shooting along with replace magazines in the firearm while it was still holstered. Each Relay shot for about 10 minutes before the next went on the line.
Because this was a day-long course, I’ll try to remember the order of events and briefly go over the drills we did.
We quickly went over proper grip, grip strength, and stance. Afterwards, we split into our 2 Relays and began shooting.
We started with drawing from the holster and slow firing at 3 yards. The emphasis was on accuracy. They stressed taking your time to get proper sight alignment, trigger press, and follow-through. The objective was to keep all shots within a 2x2” square.
Next we moved back to the 7 yard line and practiced drawing from from the holster. On a man sized target, we aimed for the center of mass or spinal column. At this time, they started using a shot timer to measure our time from draw to last shot. There we practiced 1 shot and 2 shot draws. Later we practiced failure to stop drills, or 2 to the center and 1 to the head. We also shot at multiple targets, firing 2 rounds and transitioning to the next one.
I’m not sure after which drill we took lunch, but it was bought and picked up by one of the staff from a local BBQ restaurant. At 12PM we took about an hour break to eat and recharge.
I don’t remember if we had lunch before or after this, but next we practiced reloads. We went over slide-lock reloads and tactical reloads. We drew from the holster, fired 1 shot, reloaded, and fired again.
Next were malfunctions. We discussed failure to fire, failure to extract, stovepipes, and double feeds. We practiced two methods to fix malfunctions. Tap-rack-bang, then lock the slide to the rear, strip the magazine, rack a few times, reload, then fire.
The last few things we went over were firing behind cover while standing and kneeling, practicing the Virginia State Police firearm qualification test, and even covering low light flashlight techniques after the sun had set.
Now that the overview of the course has been covered, my thoughts on the day. The course overall was well worth the money and time. The course instruction was great. 3 instructors for 5 students on the line shooting. It reinforced my good habits and helped nitpick tiny things that I overlook by shooting on a regular range day. This is a level 1 course, but even with shooting experience I was still able to get good practice and repetitions. Almost every single rep you fire, there is someone next to you watching your technique or within easy reach to ask a question. The drills were varied and gave everyone a chance to shoot, get personal instruction, then shoot again.
Again, this is not a course that brand new shooters should be taking. A lot of shooting basics are not covered in depth in this course. In fact, they’re mostly glossed over expecting the student to know how to handle their firearms and at least be able to group on a target from a minimum of 7 yards. That’s not to say the instructors don’t know what they’re doing. They have years of law enforcement or military experience, and know how to pass along that info on the firing line.
The furthest we shot from was 25 yards, definitely not a distance that a brand new shooter would be able to hit anything from. Drawing and shooting from a holster also reinforces that this is not a course for brand new shooters. Although the draw stroke was briefly covered at the beginning of the course, safe usage of drawing and holstering a firearm should not be something that is taught to someone looking to learn how to shoot. This is more along the lines of a level 1.5 course. I will say though, that if you are a relatively new shooter, this course will push your limits. The drills, shot timer, holster work, and distance will definitely lead to better ways to train and improve.
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