Took the MDTS all day rifle course on Sunday 4/29/18. Overall had a great time and was accompanied by 14 safe shooters who had good fundamentals out the gate.
Showed up around 830am in the rain as the MDTS team set up for the day
Purpose built my rifle with the asst instructor Rob from the ground up with his input on features of a personal defensive rifle. The result was this almost beautiful rifle... but NY SAFE act screwed it over with crappy ergonomics. Chris Fry (head instructor and owner of MDTS) used my rifle in a few demos calling it a space gun. LOL well it is:
Once the basics of the class were discussed and range rules and safety was stressed we got down to work. Chris wanted us to have a 50 yard zero so we set up a firing line at 25 yards with the object to have a group 1" below the tactical boobs... I mean dots. My LPVO is set at 100 yard zero so I was concerned I'd have to adjust. Luckily it seems the 100 yard zero was really close to what he wanted so I didn't need to adjust my optic to accommodate the rest of the class. We shot from 2 different prones 1) Olympic prone and 2) NRA High Power prone which resulted in this (two 3 shot groups):
After that Chris went over supportive kneeling and we took 3 shots from that position at 25 yards:
not bad. Next we did a drill where you shoot from standing, supportive kneeling, and prone and the object was to keep it in the circle with a time limit of 25 seconds. Spoiler alert I crapped the bed on it. Final time was around 62 seconds. After standing and went to kneeling for some reason my eye relief changed and I was getting some crappy scope shadow and couldnt focus. By the time I rectified it I had wasted time out the ying yang. Things you find out when you start pressure testing things. Didn't occur the rest of the day as I was practicing my cheek weld on the side while the second relay went. oh and FWIW I only shot at 1x all day since we were shooting at CQB distances and that includes when we zeroed first thing in the class.
Then Chris stressed the height over bore regarding optics and iron sights at CQB distances and the issue with using cover/concealment. Due to the height of the sights over the bore at CQB distances you need to aim 1.5-2" higher over your intended target area to hit it otherwise you're gonna hit 2" low. With cover/concealment you need to make sure your muzzle clears the cover/concealment. Just cause you see the target with your sights doesn't mean your muzzle is clear from obstruction. We worked the targets to ensure the concept was understood:
Next we worked different rifle ready positions outside of high control (for administrative purposes) - low ready, high ready, indoor ready. Then we went to town on the MDTS targets based on Chris' commands from 7-15 yards. Turns were also introduced as well:
Next we worked on switching from strong side shoulder to supportive side shoulder. We shot at 7 yards switching shoulders with each shot - safety, magwell, shoulder, feet. All shots head shot again keeping in mind height over bore:
After lunch Chris discussed various malfunctions and how to clear and get the rifle up and running. My rifle was chosen to be the demonstration rifle and a was handed around to every savage in the congo to finger bang the trigger and rack her handle to identify a "dead" trigger and to quickly identify an awkward malfunction where the casing is lodged above the bolt and into the charging handle area. Then we did a malfunction junction where 8 rifles (two teams of 4 rifles malfunctioned) were set up and a round robin of WTF how do I clear this shit occurred. Yes, my rifle continued to get ravaged by the other miscreants.
Next we worked on different shooting positions - Standing, squatting, kneeling, double knee. After shooting from those positions we did an elevator drill. Standing, squatting, kneeling, double kneeling, switch to supportive shoulder with mag change, and work your way back up keeping the shots above the B but still in the zone. Chris also introduced some running to the line from 25 yards to 7 yards to spice some things up during the drill:
Finally, small introduction from shooting from concealment. We did it from a vertical concealment moving from left to right varying the shooting positions drilled and going from strong side to supportive side to put the whole class together. Got a little sloppy at the end cause I was trying to push myself a little faster with each transition to see where my failure point was plus the pressure of Chris calling out various commands and shooting positions, shapes, numbers, chest/head, etc:
Awesome class. Too bad the SAFE Act has crushed this class' attendance so he doesn't offer it as much. Hoping to jump on future classes going forward. Also hoping to finish up my AR-9 to hit the range to work on most of the drills at the indoor range.
Fun times. Learned a lot. Found a good amount of areas I need improvement on. I will address going forward.
Training.... get some.
Water Monkey
Showed up around 830am in the rain as the MDTS team set up for the day
Purpose built my rifle with the asst instructor Rob from the ground up with his input on features of a personal defensive rifle. The result was this almost beautiful rifle... but NY SAFE act screwed it over with crappy ergonomics. Chris Fry (head instructor and owner of MDTS) used my rifle in a few demos calling it a space gun. LOL well it is:
Once the basics of the class were discussed and range rules and safety was stressed we got down to work. Chris wanted us to have a 50 yard zero so we set up a firing line at 25 yards with the object to have a group 1" below the tactical boobs... I mean dots. My LPVO is set at 100 yard zero so I was concerned I'd have to adjust. Luckily it seems the 100 yard zero was really close to what he wanted so I didn't need to adjust my optic to accommodate the rest of the class. We shot from 2 different prones 1) Olympic prone and 2) NRA High Power prone which resulted in this (two 3 shot groups):
After that Chris went over supportive kneeling and we took 3 shots from that position at 25 yards:
not bad. Next we did a drill where you shoot from standing, supportive kneeling, and prone and the object was to keep it in the circle with a time limit of 25 seconds. Spoiler alert I crapped the bed on it. Final time was around 62 seconds. After standing and went to kneeling for some reason my eye relief changed and I was getting some crappy scope shadow and couldnt focus. By the time I rectified it I had wasted time out the ying yang. Things you find out when you start pressure testing things. Didn't occur the rest of the day as I was practicing my cheek weld on the side while the second relay went. oh and FWIW I only shot at 1x all day since we were shooting at CQB distances and that includes when we zeroed first thing in the class.
Then Chris stressed the height over bore regarding optics and iron sights at CQB distances and the issue with using cover/concealment. Due to the height of the sights over the bore at CQB distances you need to aim 1.5-2" higher over your intended target area to hit it otherwise you're gonna hit 2" low. With cover/concealment you need to make sure your muzzle clears the cover/concealment. Just cause you see the target with your sights doesn't mean your muzzle is clear from obstruction. We worked the targets to ensure the concept was understood:
Next we worked different rifle ready positions outside of high control (for administrative purposes) - low ready, high ready, indoor ready. Then we went to town on the MDTS targets based on Chris' commands from 7-15 yards. Turns were also introduced as well:
Next we worked on switching from strong side shoulder to supportive side shoulder. We shot at 7 yards switching shoulders with each shot - safety, magwell, shoulder, feet. All shots head shot again keeping in mind height over bore:
After lunch Chris discussed various malfunctions and how to clear and get the rifle up and running. My rifle was chosen to be the demonstration rifle and a was handed around to every savage in the congo to finger bang the trigger and rack her handle to identify a "dead" trigger and to quickly identify an awkward malfunction where the casing is lodged above the bolt and into the charging handle area. Then we did a malfunction junction where 8 rifles (two teams of 4 rifles malfunctioned) were set up and a round robin of WTF how do I clear this shit occurred. Yes, my rifle continued to get ravaged by the other miscreants.
Next we worked on different shooting positions - Standing, squatting, kneeling, double knee. After shooting from those positions we did an elevator drill. Standing, squatting, kneeling, double kneeling, switch to supportive shoulder with mag change, and work your way back up keeping the shots above the B but still in the zone. Chris also introduced some running to the line from 25 yards to 7 yards to spice some things up during the drill:
Finally, small introduction from shooting from concealment. We did it from a vertical concealment moving from left to right varying the shooting positions drilled and going from strong side to supportive side to put the whole class together. Got a little sloppy at the end cause I was trying to push myself a little faster with each transition to see where my failure point was plus the pressure of Chris calling out various commands and shooting positions, shapes, numbers, chest/head, etc:
Awesome class. Too bad the SAFE Act has crushed this class' attendance so he doesn't offer it as much. Hoping to jump on future classes going forward. Also hoping to finish up my AR-9 to hit the range to work on most of the drills at the indoor range.
Fun times. Learned a lot. Found a good amount of areas I need improvement on. I will address going forward.
Training.... get some.
Water Monkey
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