Training Courses Carbine Training

Marksman_92

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Dec 22, 2017
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Hello, I am looking into getting some training for carbine. I am not new to the system so I’m looking for something a little more advanced and not just your general run down of the rifle and how to clean it. I want dynamic environments with malfunction drills and everything of the like.

A few classes that have my interest are Baer Solutions, Warrior Poet Society, Kagwerks and a few others , however they are distant from me in southern Indiana. Is there any good courses in Indiana , Kentucky, Ohio that you recommend? Thanks.
 
Ive taken a lot of classes from sentinel concepts. Really recommend his practical urban carbine. Since your from around ohio I would definitely check out alliancepolicetraining.com. That range brings in a ton of top notch instructors for a variety of classes. Also for its size, is an amazing facility.
 
Ive taken a lot of classes from sentinel concepts. Really recommend his practical urban carbine. Since your from around ohio I would definitely check out alliancepolicetraining.com. That range brings in a ton of top notch instructors for a variety of classes. Also for its size, is an amazing facility.
How was the Urban carbine course? What kind of drills did you guys do? Any recommendations on what to take to class ? I know the website lists what you need but anything you thought they may have missed?
 
I was able to participate in a Premier training event with costa Lodi’s in Wyoming. I would highly reccomed going to a carbine class there. I was competent as an 11B4v, but Chris was able to take me to the next level with his instruction. It was a great time!
 
Hello, I am looking into getting some training for carbine. I am not new to the system so I’m looking for something a little more advanced and not just your general run down of the rifle and how to clean it. I want dynamic environments with malfunction drills and everything of the like.

A few classes that have my interest are Baer Solutions, Warrior Poet Society, Kagwerks and a few others , however they are distant from me in southern Indiana. Is there any good courses in Indiana , Kentucky, Ohio that you recommend? Thanks.
I’ve taken classes from Haley strategic, Viking tactics and bickers tactical. I would recommend all three although I don’t think VTaC is doing civilian courses these days
 
Classes with Clint from Thunder Ranch are always awesome, they are worth traveling for... and Jeff Hall is another awesome instructor I have had the privilege of training under.. and my experiences with him are nothing short of outstanding.
 
Tactical Rifleman has held a few courses in and around Louisville. I believe they have a carbine course coming up at Rockcastle shooting center.
 
How was the Urban carbine course? What kind of drills did you guys do? Any recommendations on what to take to class ? I know the website lists what you need but anything you thought they may have missed?

Knee pads are a must. For this class it's super handy for your carbine to have ambi controls for your light. A range finder is nice for the first day. Bring walking shoes because there is a lot of back and forth the first day. For drills there is some barricade work, and other positions work at medium range. Depending on what kind of shape your in, I started stretching a couple weeks before the class, and also worked on getting in and out of kneeling and double kneeling positions. Also it's helpful to work on running the gun with your offhand. Just being able to get behind it and find the reticle will be a huge help.
 
Knee pads are a must. For this class it's super handy for your carbine to have ambi controls for your light. A range finder is nice for the first day. Bring walking shoes because there is a lot of back and forth the first day. For drills there is some barricade work, and other positions work at medium range. Depending on what kind of shape your in, I started stretching a couple weeks before the class, and also worked on getting in and out of kneeling and double kneeling positions. Also it's helpful to work on running the gun with your offhand. Just being able to get behind it and find the reticle will be a huge help.
Thanks for the info.
 
I was able to participate in a Premier training event with costa Lodi’s in Wyoming. I would highly reccomed going to a carbine class there. I was competent as an 11B4v, but Chris was able to take me to the next level with his instruction. It was a great time!

Do you have any AAR's or any concept that you grasped from Chris Costa that made you next level? There was a guard guy that was shooting at governor's 20 competition and he bragged about how cool Chris was and how great the class was. The guy placed near last and I always wondered where all that money went.
 
I would just research thunder ranch . Then I would look into the history of gunsite , Clint Smith , and Jeff Cooper. Google those 3 things , YouTube it. Read and watch you’re life away. Many great options out there. None of those options have as many years instructing as Clint.
 
The carbine thery class I attended paid very little attenting to traditional positional shooting (off a bench, foxhole supported). Focus was on rapid, practical marksmanship. The focus was on safety, weapons manipulation in CQB or near CQB environments (0-100 yards on a flat range, 100-500 in practical exercises on the last day). After attending, I'm faster in running the rifle, better at reloads, and putting rounds on a silloute rapidly. His theorys are sound and his training for LEO and Millitary are top notch. I loved it and will go again to his courses for more experiences. I would highly reccomend the training he gives... and enjoyed the shit out of it!
 
Gunsite. Its the Harvard of shooting schools. I'm a graduate of both the 223 and 556 class. The 223 (basic) course is heavily focused on fundamentals including weapon manipulation, shooting from conventional and unconventional positions, indoor and outdoor simulators, and shooting from 0-400 yards. There is a fair amount of long range shooting, but you learn what the gun is capable of.

The advanced (556) course is focused on close range, CQB, tactics, thinking on your feet and advanced skills. We shot 14 simulators including indoor, outdoor, nightime indoor, nightime outdoor, the scrambler, urban scrambler, live (with simunitions and armed agressors), etc... This one covers just about everything including transitions, shooting on the move, extreme unconventional positions, shooting with your optic out, target discrimination, night tactics, and a whole lot of rapid shooting. However the advanced course also rewards thinking and target discrimination rather than just shooting anything you see. Only thing we did not focus on was team tactics.

The 556 course is probably the most fun I've had at a Gunsite course, but you need to master all the basics from 223 before you can shoot 556. For the 556 course we spent less than one day reviewing everything we learned in 223 and then went right into the sims. Any downtime between sims was spent teaching new advanced skills.

Get a light carbine - mine is around 6 lbs - because you will be carrying and shooting it all day every day. We had many people show up with heavy carbines with too many accessories, and they usually started shedding gear by day two. You don't need a heavy rifle. You can hit steel at 400 yards with a pencil barrel and red dot if you know what you are doing.
 
I would be very wary of any schoolhouse that has prerequisite courses and no provision for a waiver. That means it is interested in mostly making money instead of making money and teaching.
Check out Pat MacNamara. Check out Sig Academy with Kyle Lamb. Look for an instructor that has a long history of using the skills you are looking to acquire in an environment where it counts.
Larry Vickers
Ken Hackathorn
etc.

You might notice a common theme here.
 
We actually had a student show up for an advanced course at Gunsite who was "waivered" in after taking multiple courses at another big name shooting school. It was in fact one of the schools mentioned above.

He did not make it past day one. His "skills" were not up to Gunsite standards, and he was removed because he did not know how to properly handle and manipulate the gun in a safe manner. He was not ready to shoot the simulators in a safe way.

Now you may think Gunsite was too harsh, or out for money, but they then gave him the option of either receiving a full refund or getting one-on-one training for the rest of the week at no additional cost. He chose the latter, and in fact spent the rest of the week one-on-one with an instructor getting a personal class covering the material he would have learned in the basic course.

Based on this and similar experiences, I don't think Gunsite gives out many waivers anymore for their advanced courses. However I don't think based on what I observed that they are unfair or "in it for the money". They bend over backwards to make sure each student has a good experience, but also place a premium on safety - as they should.
 
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I'm also amazed at all the useless feedback for courses that are five/ten states away from the OP, who clearly said he lives in southern Indiana and wants courses he can drive to no more than one state away.

RTFQ