AAR-MCS Intro to Tactical Carbine

[mercop]

The class was great. We covered lots of ground in four hours.

Selection (rifle & support gear)
Carry (to sling or not to sling that was the question)
Deployment (when you are going to have time and opportunity to use the gun)
Use

Loading/unloading
Mounting the rifle
Stance
Pivoting
Incorporated safety use
Shooting weak handed
Malfunction dills (Type I, Type II, and catastrophic)
Reloads (have to vs want to)

First we started off in the classroom with discussions on the selection of the rifle and support gear. Then we moved to the conference room and worked on all the drills doing dry fire. During this time we touched limited penetration room clearing.

One on the range all drills were done life fire. Including what I call the "smoker". Basically you have two 20 round magazines, on in the gun and one where you would carry your primary reload. On the command of threat you fire one round, do a save magazine change and fire another round. This is repeated 20 times. By the end you are starting to build muscle memory to do the most complicated of mag changes and for most very advanced weapons handling.

One topic that came up throughout the night was slings. Most people who buy a rifle see the sling as something that is just a must have. Before the War on Terror, slings were just a strap for hanging your rifle on your shoulder, not hanging it down the middle in a ready position.

In my opinion over reliance on slings, and misuse, leads to poor weapons handling. This is usually in the form of the shooter only having one hand on the rifle, instead of two hand positive control.

The citizen is not likely to have to stand or walk for 10-12 hrs wearing a rifle in full gear. My opinion and popular consensus by the students at the end of the night is that a sling can often be more of a hindered than a help. This conclusion based on having to switch hands to shoot, and work corners, as well as weapons manipulation. Having said this, I use the SL ONE Sling from Advanced Outfitters. A simple two point sling with a fast thumb loop.

As happens with every class, people showed up with all kinds of stuff bolted to their guns. Here is my purchasing advice after buying your rifle-

8 mags
Ammo
Training
Light
Good iron sights (do not run a rifle with optics and no B/U sights)

Hopefully some of the students will chime in, but overall it was a great class, with motivated open minded students. Get ready for Advanced Tactical Carbine in early 2012.

Next Intro to Tactical Carbine Class is THU 17NOV11 from 6-10 PM at Freestate Gun Range

[Shawn.L]

You know normally students write reviews of classes..........

I wouldn't trust any company to give me a review of their own product, nothing against you personally.

Arent there all kinds of threads/posts on here about you poo-poo'ing carbine training ?
Why have you decided to suddenly start instructing it ?

[vicious]

Shawn, I understand your point, but I've trained with (not under) mercop as a fellow student. He's good people and knows what he's talking about.

I don't see an issue with an AAR from the course instructor. This seems to be a simple overview of what was covered in the course. While I would like to see an evaluation from some of his students as well, I seeing what the instructor thought his students got from the class is, to me, also an important bit of information.

Minor self-promotion at worst.

Without having read many of mercop's posts on this forum, I'm guessing his objection to other carbine training is the way tactical carbine classes are frequently tought to civillians. Often times the focus ends up being more geared towards military and law enforcement operations and equipment specific to those goals.

[mercop]

Shawn, I am not sure exactly why you have such a hard on for me. Can you please explain? Please do it here in an open forum.

I think carbine training is important. My problem is with people getting all dolled up in multicam and chest rigs like they are going to fast rope off the space shuttle and whack tangos. During my classes (unless training the military and police) students are required to work with two magazines. One in the gun and one in their back pocket or a mag pouch on their belt. This is what the average citizen or for that matter a patrolman is going to have to work with.- George

[synergy]

Shawn, I am not sure exactly why you have such a hard on for me. Can you please explain? Please do it here in an open forum.

I think carbine training is important. My problem is with people getting all dolled up in multicam and chest rigs like they are going to fast rope off the space shuttle and whack tangos. During my classes (unless training the military and police) students are required to work with two magazines. One in the gun and one in their back pocket or a mag pouch on their belt. This is what the average citizen or for that matter a patrolman is going to have to work with.- George

You say that with a lot of conviction. What makes you say that?

What experiences have you had in this subject area?

[Jay_Cunningham]

You know normally students write reviews of classes..........

I wouldn't trust any company to give me a review of their own product, nothing against you personally.

Arent there all kinds of threads/posts on here about you poo-poo'ing carbine training ?
Why have you decided to suddenly start instructing it ?

Shawn,

While I tend to agree with you that an instructor posting his own AAR is a bit, um, tacky, shall we say... is it better or worse (or equivalent to) a person posting a glowing AAR of an instructor who they acted as host for - and also for a class they got a free slot in?

[mercop]

You say that with a lot of conviction. What makes you say that?

What experiences have you had in this subject area?

My other ol pal Synergy.

I hope we can agree that you will probably have at least one magazine in the gun. Then unless you can put on a full combat load out in reaction to a bump in the night you will most likely grab a spare magazine. That is why we work with worst case scenarios.- George

[Shawn.L]

Shawn,

While I tend to agree with you that an instructor posting his own AAR is a bit, um, tacky, shall we say... is it better or worse (or equivalent to) a person posting a glowing AAR of an instructor who they acted as host for - and also for a class they got a free slot in?

I found your review of ECQC to be useful , informative , honest , and it fit with all the other info out there on southnarc. It , along with the first hand accounts of students I know personally helped me solidify my decision to travel to NC for that class this year rather than wait for it here in Pittsburgh next October .

We can always question motives .
How much do you see about MCS out there beyond his own self promotional posts ? Can we compare it to aar from other students ?
You know well what the basics entails . He's reviewing himself for a 4 hour class . Whats that tell you when you look at the topics covered ?

[synergy]

My other ol pal Synergy.

I hope we can agree that you will probably have at least one magazine in the gun. Then unless you can put on a full combat load out in reaction to a bump in the night you will most likely grab a spare magazine. That is why we work with worst case scenarios.- George

I can agree that this would be the most likely scenario, sure. I don't agree that its the only one, which is partially why I see no point in prohibiting someone from having more ammo on them. I personally don't see how it hurts, nor does the color of their clothing impact their interest in learning... But you seem to feel strongly about those things.

I simply don't understand what experiences you have had that have made you believe what you do.

[vicious]

Generally, if you catch me at a carbine class I'm running my spare mags 1 of 2 ways.

1) From a shoulder bag like a maxpedition versipak or a modified less tactical looking messenger bag which is as quick to deploy as stuffing an extra mag in your back pocket.

2) From an SOE Micro rig, which is the fastest deploying chest rig i have ever seen and does not wrap around your body so it doesn't interfere with a concealed IWB handgun. It can also hide under a heavy jacket and remain pretty inconspicuous

These are practical gear solutions for an armed civilian and they both hold not only spare magazines but a small trauma kit.

I don't restrict what gear my students wear when i instruct (with a few exceptions for safety reasons), but I do always push them to evaluate what they need for their purposes. In that regard, I think myself and George are coming from the same sort of mindset.