AAR - Protective Shooting Concepts - Battle Rifle Workshop - Jan 31st, 2015

[Jay_Cunningham]

Protective Shooting Concepts
Battle Rifle Workshop

January 31st, 2015
8:00 am to 4:30 pm
The Beaver Valley Rifle & Pistol Club
Beaver Falls, PA

The battle rifle... historically, the main armament of the infantry, utilizing a full-sized cartridge: .30-06, .303 British, 7.62x54R, and eventually a 7.62x51mm weapon for NATO forces. Our Battle Rifle Workshop mixes elements of our Protective Carbine 1 & 2 with more traditional military rifle courses of fire. The temperature stayed in the 20s all day after starting in the single digits in the early morning. There was several inches of snow on the ground, clear skies, no wind, and bright sunshine. There were 11 shooters and three instructors. Weapons included multiple SCAR 17s, a PTR-91, a .308 Saiga AK, a 10" barrel FAL, an M1A Scout, a Knight's Armament APC, and an M1 Garand... along with some spares.








Shooter skill and experience levels ranged from very proficient, to unfamiliar with typical close range rifle manipulations. After the safety brief, the class was split into Chalk One and Chalk Two. Chalk One headed to the training range for drills while Chalk Two headed to the rifle range for zeroing and position shooting. After lunch, Chalk One and Chalk Two switched places. Shooters were run through fairly typical carbine drills on the training range, but with an emphasis on recoil control using an aggressive mount and body alignment behind the guns.











On the rifle range, shooters started off the bench at 50 yards to find if their rifles were roughly "in the zone" for a 200 yard zero. A known-zeroed rifle was used as a control, and POI was slightly high at 50 yards for a 200 yard zero. Once the guns were hitting in the center and slightly high at 50, we started hitting steel at 200 from the bench with a spotter calling out corrections. Once we knew the guns could hit, we took shooters off the bench and built solid prone positions. When shooters demonstrated that they could all hit at 200, they shifted their positions and shot at 300 yards. All shooters achieved this objective.








After lunch, Chalk One and Chalk Two swapped ranges and we ran through the same process with the new groups. After successfully completing our objectives, the class formed back up for a little bit of competitive shooting. We chose the VTAC 1-5 Drill at 15 yards utilizing PSC Scoring*.








After the drills, we turned to testing weapon effects on various common materials utilized as cover and concealment. Besides .308 rifles, we shot 300 BLK, 9mm, .45 acp, and 12 gauge (both 00 Flite Control and slug).


cinder block - no more than 3 hits to complete destruction
solid block - no more than two hits to complete destruction
solid core door - not cover from any caliber, but maintains integrity very well
glass block window - not cover, destroyed easily by one round of 9mm





End of Part 1, standby for Part 2...

[Jay_Cunningham]

After testing the more mundane objects, we turned our attention to the SUV. We attempted to be a little scientific, before all hell broke loose. This is what we tried at first:

• target in drivers seat
• target behind engine and front wheel
• target behind C Pillar

A car generally provides good cover. While all rounds of varying calibers - including pistol - penetrated the sheet metal of the car on one side, they did not pass cleanly through. Absent the use of an AP round, it is not realistic to expect the rounds to pass cleanly through both sides of the vehicle. There is enough "stuff" in cars such as interior panels, sound deadening, seat frames, etc., to deflect a round. Like most forms of cover, after absorbing multiple rounds in the same general area, penetration increased and rounds passed through both sides. As one would expect, shotgun slugs provided the greatest amounts of destruction, but as noted above did not initially penetrate cleanly through.





Throughout the demonstration, a silhouette was placed behind the engine block in line with the front tire and front axle. This position provided excellent cover, stopping all rounds (including AP) with the exception of rounds which were "skipped" off the hood. Firing into the windshield of the car provided some interesting observations. 9mm FMJ rounds easily penetrated the windshield and struck a silhouette placed in the passenger seat with little deflection. .308 rounds penetrated the windshield, front and rear seats, and existed the vehicle the rear sheet metal.





After all was said and done, at the end of the day we decided to let the boys have a little decompression time. PSC tries our best to avoid ballistic masturbation, but when we CHOOSE to perform ballistic masturbation we aim to do it right!


The Doomed SUV





general notes:

• PTR-91 broke in half
• SA58 OSW ran after multiple gas adjustments
• full size FAL broke a charging handle
• SCAR 17s ran well
• M1As and Garand ran well
• KAC guns needed a lot of immediate action
• .308 Saiga AK conversion had an AD moving selector from safe to fire

The cold weather was a good test of gear and durability for the firearms as we saw a number of malfunctions that were most likely induced by the cold weather, such as short stroking or the broken stock of the PTR.





*PSC Scoring utilizes the USPSA Target and Limited Vickers count: A Zone is -0, B Zone -0.5, C Zone -1.0, D Zone -3.0. This is full seconds, not "points".

[Jay_Cunningham]

Special thanks to PSC instructors Ashton Ray and Dan Stephenson for doing their usual great job, and also to National Armory for vendor support.

[John A Brown]

Good stuff Jay.

There's a time for hardcore learning and a time for fun.

Looks like there was plenty of both at this one.

I wish I could've stopped by.

John
www.3riverstraining.com

[JoshIronshaft]

Looks like fun, I would attend with my CETME and 1919A6 if you offer it again.

[Jay_Cunningham]

Good stuff Jay.

There's a time for hardcore learning and a time for fun.

Looks like there was plenty of both at this one.

I wish I could've stopped by.

John
www.3riverstraining.com

I agree John, we do a lot of hard work in our classes and this was a chance to incorporate a little more of the "fun" element back in while still building useful skills and learning practical lessons.

[Jay_Cunningham]

Looks like fun, I would attend with my CETME and 1919A6 if you offer it again.

I think this one is going to become a regular feature on the roster. More variety with the guns is better!

[Jay_Cunningham]

A representative from Knight's Armament read the AAR and asked to be put in contact with the two guys who were experiencing issues - pretty cool!

[Jay_Cunningham]

[John A Brown]

A representative from Knight's Armament read the AAR and asked to be put in contact with the two guys who were experiencing issues - pretty cool!

That's awesome Jay!

These AAR's are such a great way to share information and experiences.

Glad to hear KAC took action.

John
www.3riverstraining.com