So this weekend I took the Combat Carbine Teamwork course with Rob Shepard (Shep) and his assistant Darren something (Jump) out in Jefferson on a badass private range.
The course description is as follows:
All drills will be running as 2-man teams, with some of the drills towards the end of the day being composed of larger teams.
Topics covered will include, but may not be limited to:
Shooting while moving
Team communications
Covered movement
Fire & maneuver
Cover drills when dealing with reloads, malfunctions or weapon transitions
Proper uses of cover/concealment with multiple operators
Break contact
"Man down" drills
Reaction to vehicle ambush
__________________REVIEW_____________________
Instructors:
So to start my absolute favorite part was Shep's mindset. His mindset is a real world do not get yourself killed, fuck all the rules and put bad guys in the dirt, PERIOD. He specifically talked about what other instructors teach and how they tell you to shoot exactly X amount of rounds and stand or kneel in exactly a certain way, while Shep says that leaves training scars. He insists on you doing what you need to do to LIVE whether that means kneeling the way you're told or how youre going to place rounds in the bad guy the fastest and most accurately, and also shoot the bad guy until hes in the dirt whether that takes two bullets or a mag full... I liked that mindset a lot.
Class:
The class was relatively small, 14 of the 20 showed, so we got a reasonable amount of attention and shoot time in. I felt like the rules and safety guidelines were clearly expressed before we got started. I was a little weary of a few people there but never felt in danger or anything. When the time came for the instructors to step in they did, and not in a way to embarrass anyone, but rather a nudge one way or the other if they were getting to a point of doing something unsafe. They also would screw with us to make us handle issues while trying to put rounds down range. For instance theyd click your mag release, take your optic off your gun, turn your optic off, or even put a round backwards in your mag lol. I liked that drill because we had to deal with something wrong, and we all pretty much always expect our gear to work perfectly. I feel that both instructors did a great job overall.
Location:
A private range in Jefferson was sued that was super nice. It was on 180 acres and was just big rolling green hills with a nice big lake and all. The target area and berm were nice and in good shape. They also provided two large tents and some tables for shade and seating which was nice.
Knowledge:
Shep and Jump seemed VERY comfortable together as a team and clearly had done a lot of training (or real life) work together. Apparently they both have 20 plus years in service including tours and are contracted out by the military, FBI and Police to do trainings, as well as being police officers for years as well. They had great insight about most everything. Once thing that stuck out to me was when each team of two was shooting from behind vertical cover, and they said to get close and personal with your partner, to the point of whoever was standing had their knee int he persons kneeling's back. This was interesting because the kneeler knew their partner was shooting right above their head and even if they did try and stand up under stress or whatever they wouldnt be standing up into the muzzle of the person standing. Just little things like this made me realize they had actually done this kind of thing enough times to really know about good little tidbits that make a difference. The stories they had also sounded like they have had a lot of actual action, not just a couple dry tours overseas or passing out speeding tickets...
Value:
At $200 for a full one day course, I felt the price was very reasonable. Competing courses are typically $450-500 for two days, so its less than most others I have seen.
Cons:
I wish we would have shot more. I didnt even shoot 500 rounds and we were told to bring 650, or more if we are trigger happy. I feel like we sat around talking a lot, but not course specific stuff, just kind of people shooting the shit, but not shooting their guns. We also never shot past like 25 ish yards, which was disappointing.
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The course description is as follows:
All drills will be running as 2-man teams, with some of the drills towards the end of the day being composed of larger teams.
Topics covered will include, but may not be limited to:
Shooting while moving
Team communications
Covered movement
Fire & maneuver
Cover drills when dealing with reloads, malfunctions or weapon transitions
Proper uses of cover/concealment with multiple operators
Break contact
"Man down" drills
Reaction to vehicle ambush
__________________REVIEW_____________________
Instructors:
So to start my absolute favorite part was Shep's mindset. His mindset is a real world do not get yourself killed, fuck all the rules and put bad guys in the dirt, PERIOD. He specifically talked about what other instructors teach and how they tell you to shoot exactly X amount of rounds and stand or kneel in exactly a certain way, while Shep says that leaves training scars. He insists on you doing what you need to do to LIVE whether that means kneeling the way you're told or how youre going to place rounds in the bad guy the fastest and most accurately, and also shoot the bad guy until hes in the dirt whether that takes two bullets or a mag full... I liked that mindset a lot.
Class:
The class was relatively small, 14 of the 20 showed, so we got a reasonable amount of attention and shoot time in. I felt like the rules and safety guidelines were clearly expressed before we got started. I was a little weary of a few people there but never felt in danger or anything. When the time came for the instructors to step in they did, and not in a way to embarrass anyone, but rather a nudge one way or the other if they were getting to a point of doing something unsafe. They also would screw with us to make us handle issues while trying to put rounds down range. For instance theyd click your mag release, take your optic off your gun, turn your optic off, or even put a round backwards in your mag lol. I liked that drill because we had to deal with something wrong, and we all pretty much always expect our gear to work perfectly. I feel that both instructors did a great job overall.
Location:
A private range in Jefferson was sued that was super nice. It was on 180 acres and was just big rolling green hills with a nice big lake and all. The target area and berm were nice and in good shape. They also provided two large tents and some tables for shade and seating which was nice.
Knowledge:
Shep and Jump seemed VERY comfortable together as a team and clearly had done a lot of training (or real life) work together. Apparently they both have 20 plus years in service including tours and are contracted out by the military, FBI and Police to do trainings, as well as being police officers for years as well. They had great insight about most everything. Once thing that stuck out to me was when each team of two was shooting from behind vertical cover, and they said to get close and personal with your partner, to the point of whoever was standing had their knee int he persons kneeling's back. This was interesting because the kneeler knew their partner was shooting right above their head and even if they did try and stand up under stress or whatever they wouldnt be standing up into the muzzle of the person standing. Just little things like this made me realize they had actually done this kind of thing enough times to really know about good little tidbits that make a difference. The stories they had also sounded like they have had a lot of actual action, not just a couple dry tours overseas or passing out speeding tickets...
Value:
At $200 for a full one day course, I felt the price was very reasonable. Competing courses are typically $450-500 for two days, so its less than most others I have seen.
Cons:
I wish we would have shot more. I didnt even shoot 500 rounds and we were told to bring 650, or more if we are trigger happy. I feel like we sat around talking a lot, but not course specific stuff, just kind of people shooting the shit, but not shooting their guns. We also never shot past like 25 ish yards, which was disappointing.
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