Folks:

What follows is an after action report ("AAR") I prepared for a one ay (8 hour) carbine class I conducted in Bigfork Montana on Saturday 17-July-2021.

"SAC Tactical
By Bruce Cartwright
8 Hour Essential Carbine Skills Class, Bigfork MT
After Action Report
17-July-2021
Copyright July 2021

I conducted a one day (8 hour) Essential Carbine Skills Course on 17-July-2021 at the Bigfork Gun Club in Bigfork Montana. This is a public range located in the Flathead valley about 30 minutes south of Kalispell, Montana. Thanks to the Bigfork Gun Club (“BFGC”) for allowing me to teach a class at this facility (Link: “https://bigforkgunclub.com/”).

STUDENTS: The class consisted of eight students. All were civilians. As previously noted, I generally limit enrollment in my classes to ten students, unless I have a vetted assistant instructor assisting me. That said, I favor smaller classes because it allows me to assist more students and do so in an in-depth fashion. This class was a bit different in that most students were moderate to experienced handgun shooters but several were fairly new to carbine use. My students did an exemplary job doing the police call and breakdown of the range. That is emblematic of the quality of my students and something I deeply appreciate.

WEATHER: The weather was hot, dry, and overcast with temperatures in the mid-90s and low humidity. High summer temperatures came to western Montana early this year and it felt more like late August rather than July. There was significant smoke from the many forest fires this year. There were no heat injuries. I elected to include a greater number of breaks that were of shorter duration under cover of pop-up tents. This was well received by my students. Additionally, I arranged for the use of several pop-up tents.

RANGE: There were no issues related to using the BFGC Range. BFGC recently opened a 300-yard rifle rang which was the location for this class. This presented an interesting opportunity allowed students to do both close-range defensive type shooting and moderate range shooting with typical AR/M4 style carbines. BFGC has a very active practical shooting community that is supported by a great range facility. If you are in the Flathead Valley area of Montana, please support BFGC with a membership.

WEAPONS: As to hardware, seven shooters ran variants of the AR/M16 family of weapons and one repeat student running a Galil 308 AK style weapon. Calibers were 223 Remington/5.56 X 45 MM and 300 Blackout for the ARs and 308 for the Galil. The shooter using the 308 Galil acquitted himself very well during the course. As to handguns, there were several Glocks, a 1911, a traditional double action/single action Sig P228, and an FN. I do not recall any malfunctions with any of the handguns. One shooter switched guns and used 9mm variants during the class. None of the shooters used suppressors. Two shooters used some sort of brake on their rifles. They produced significant blast and noise. One carbine experienced a malfunction that precluded its use for the remainder of the class. We were able to clear the weapon of ammunition, but it will have to be disassembled for inspection and repair. It was surmised that there may have been some sort of bolt breakage that contributed to problem. This weapon was a high-end target grade weapon from a well-known manufacturer. It was relatively new and in reality, not broken in. This shooter wisely brought a spare rifle. I highly recommend bringing a spare weapon to class. I have had to lend a rifle to students whose weapons failed during class. You cannot always count on the instructor having a spare available for you, especially if they are required to fly to a class venue. Using a weapon in a class setting, especially during adverse conditions tends to let you gauge a weapons reliability. There were no other observed carbine malfunctions.

Several AR pistols were used by attendees. I was surprised how well these guns ran.

LUBICATION: For optimum reliability, I suggest a student lubricate carbines every four hours during class breaks etc. I suggest each shooter carry a small bottle of quality lubricant (My favorite is Slip 2000 Enhanced Weapons Lube) in their range bag.

SLINGS: This course covered the fighting use of a carbine; hence, a sling was necessary. As a general rule, for most applications, an adjustable two-point sling works the best. Typically, I see 90 plus percent of my students using two-point slings.

ZEROED WEAPONS: The one-day format of this class necessitates is that students bring a properly zeroed carbine. I typically recommend a 50 yard zero. ALL of the shooters in this class had zeroed their carbines. I really appreciate that. It is one less thing to have to deal with during a class. Zeros need to be established, maintained, and verified (at least annually). As a result of the venue, we were located on, students had the opportunity to shoot at extended distances. The fact that all of the shooters had zeroed carbines allowed us to focus on executing the fundamentals and achieving hits at distance.

OPTICS: All shooters in this class used some sort of optic. The majority were Aimpoint red dot non magnified optics. As expected, there was no drama with Aimpoint sights. I often hear students talk about the expense of Aimpoint sights and want something “cheaper”. When you buy “cheaper” you usually get poorer performance. There were also several low powered, variable optics (“LPVO”). Shooters seem to do well with both. Usually, this class focuses on the use of a carbine at domestic fighting distances of 50 yards or less. I elected to add a long-range drill to this class. We were able to fire at distances up to 300 yards. The folks using LPVO scopes tended to get hits easier than their Aimpoint equipped colleagues at distances over 200 yards. That said, there was much less of a discrepancy between Aimpoint equipped folks and LPVO equipped folks. In fact, if someone knows how to run an Aimpoint, they give up very little at distances up to 400 yards. With my Aimpoint, I simply place the dot where I want the bullet to go and start pressing the trigger (Correcting for sight offset of course.). I like the simplicity of a non-magnified dot optic. As Pat Rogers corrected noted, the “The mission drives the gear train.”. I will say that the LPVO scopes that I have had the best success with have pretty simple reticles. I really like the Trijicon reticle that basically has “hash” marks along the vertical line of the reticle that are graduated for distances of 100 yards.

One of my students ran an AR pistol chambered in 300 Blackout that was equipped with an Aimpoint Comp M4. The pistol was equipped with a 10.5-inch-long barrel. The ammunition this shooter used consisted of a 147-grain full metal jacket 308-inch diameter bullet loaded to about 1,950 feet per second (“FPS”) when chronographed out of a 16-inch-long barrel. I am sure this ammunition lost some velocity in the shorter pistol barrel. That said this shooter acquitted herself very well at long range. After about 225 yards, she began to experience some difficulty using the Aimpoint. I suggested she reduce the intensity of the dot using the rheostat on the sight and that solved the problem for her. I am impressed with how well this AR pistol worked and how accurate the 300 Blackout is. One of my friends was an inveterate handloader and an engineer. He was meticulous about his handloading. He reported that real world velocities of 16 inch long 308 rifles were only about 400 FPS faster than 300 Blackout loads using the same 147 grain bullets. What this amounts to is that the 300 Blackout is probably 80 to 85 % of the way to a 308. The 300 Blackout is much nicer to shoot and in reality, gives up little to short barreled 308s.

MAGAZINES: I observed no magazine issues during class. That said, you should consider magazines to be expendable. I suggest owning a significant number of them. A good start would be 20 per carbine. Even during the current pandemic/rioting etc., you can still find reasonably priced AR magazines. I tend to favor 30 round magazines for just about all uses in the AR. I also suggest marking your magazines so you can identify them as yours as well as numbering them. Numbering magazines lets you identify any that begin to prove unreliable. Unreliable magazines should be destroyed. To quote Pat Rogers once again: “Don’t fall in love with your magazines.”

MAGAZINE POUCH PLACEMENT: I have written about this topic previously. The shooters in this class pretty much had magazine pouch placement figured out. One thing to note: While it is nice to show up to class and have everything work, this is the time and place for issues to crop up. It is my philosophy that it is better for issues to arise with gear in one of my classes as opposed to the real world two way shooting range. One last point: a dump pouch has a bunch of uses especially in carbine classes. I ran a dump pouch of my trouser belt and found it offered all the utility that it does on my war belt. Food for thought.

WHITE LIGHT PLACEMENT: This class did not cover low light carbine use but a number of shooters had white lights attached to their carbines. Placement was as varied as the shooters themselves. To observations: First, make sure that you can easily operate your light when you are firing your carbine. If something doesn’t work, change it. The only way you figure this stuff out is to get to the range and actually shoot your weapon a bit. Relying on some Youtube expert is a poor idea. Second, make sure your light (and any other attachments) is securely attached/bolted onto your rifle.

TACTICAL RELOAD: I have written about this before. I modified my class syllabus and required students to load their carbine a far greater number of times than I have previously. Likewise, I kept after students to conduct tactical reloads. The effort was worth it. By the end of the day, students were pretty accustomed to the process of properly loading their carbine and doing tactical reloads were becoming the rule, rather than the exception.

VALUE OF AAR: I see real value in preparing an AAR. Colonel Jeff Cooper opined that anything worth remembering should be written done, hence my practice of doing AARS. After I prepared the AAR for last year’s class, I made several changes to the syllabus for this class. I wanted students to 1) demonstrate a better level of gun handling, especially as it relates to the initial loading of their carbine, and 2) demonstrate proficiency at and understanding of the tactical reload. I believe we achieved these goals. I typically favor “hot” range rules. However, I modified that for this class and level of students and required the initial load of the carbine from a completely empty weapon. Likewise, the use of tactical reloads for the handgun was strictly enforced. Students performed measurably better. Another benefit of the AAR was the greater number of breaks in the afternoon. While the breaks were shorter, there were a greater number of them. This was well received by the students.

CONCLUSION: Many thanks to my students and my host range. I have been asked to return to BFGC with additional classes and am in the process of scheduling as I write this. Thanks to the folks at Milt Sparks Holsters and Slate Creek Tactical for making great holsters and magazine pouches."

Thanks for your attention to this AAR.

Bruce