[J.Boyette]

My AAR:
Background
Sometime around 1 Sept 2012 Neo and Soreshoulder approached Trace with wanting to do something unique for the club again. The last CSC event was on 16 June and they liked the turnout and the service provided from www.tracearmory.com for that event.

From that event Scott and I wanted to include a unique aspect to this one and what's better then turning off the lights? From that aspect we wanted to draw in all the resources of CSC and let as many Sponsors join in as wanted. We had a great response from many of them.

Because of this we had 24 CSC member slots, and slots for CSC staff and sponsors. This put the headcount above the public 24 student count.

Concept of Training
The idea behind our style of training is simple. We want to keep it moving and keep down time low. So we had to find drills that highlighted the core skills, also within this we had to find props and a facility to support the event and our needs.

Like many, our home range www.dprc.org does not support night fire, one of the few in the area that does is www.trigger-time.com To say it's a top shelf location is a understatement. It's a facility designed not around shooting but around training. Trigger Time is not a public range, it's a professional training location tucked behind some trees in central NC.

The format for training Scott and I worked on is a simple one. To break down the task as needed to the core fundamentals and to cover them as comprehensive, on-time and quickly as possible while focusing on safety and marksmanship.

The event:
When I think of night shooting, and the tasks needed, the pistol is the only firearm that has special considerations. Due to the fact that most day pistol operations are performed with both hands; in pistol night work most of it is done with single hand operation, when the other hand operates a light. Rifle is simple, day / night does not change the physical attributes of shooting because the light is weapon mounted. So no technique needs to be adjusted if day operation's is taught correctly.

For rifle and pistol tactics at night are both the same, turn on the light or use ambient lighting from a source to show target ID. Also to not be in the same place after the light goes white!! MOVE and engage!!! These are the fundamentals of white night fighting. (not the same as black night fighting)

Scott and I designed the most efficient set of drills we could for the amount of time.

EXAMPLE:
Pistol: We did not want to line up a firing order of 10-12 students and have them all draw a light, ID the target then draw the pistol and engage. This would not be very useful because of 10-12 lights on the berm. The targets would look the same as they did during the day time because of the amount of light used. So we decided that most efficient drill would be to have three lanes and three target packages and the students must draw light, ID the situation, then engage threats. This was a individual tasking and more was gained from it then all on line with lights and pistols.

Same is true with the rifle, we started at the 100yd line to show the students at night is just like day time the ZERO on the rifle is the same. Also when they use personal lights dust and ground reflection can come in to play of white light use. It's better to use someone else's light source and makes good tactical since.

Personal View's
Positive:
It means a lot to me when I see the same faces at classes. Let's be honest here, in firearms training you have options. For you to trust me and my company with getting you spun up to defend yourself and your family it means the world to me!!!! I honestly mean this. Thank you for allowing me to help you better prepare your self-defense.

No insurance claim!!! LOL

I had a great time.

One big note, I am hard on my student body as a whole. I run a tight, very tight firing line. I am of the military mindset all the time. When I have over 10 people it comes out and flows like water even more than normal. I get worried that the way I control a group of armed people, drive them and so forth, I will offend them on a personal level. I am sensitive to this after the event, during the event I put on my Instructor hat and run the firing line hard and fast. I am happy that no one that I know of is offended by the way a handle the group as a whole. (Notice for the students all was directed at the body of people, not an individual) Also I have heard this a big part of the ambiance of my events. ( hear from some of the old hands)

I heard positive comments from many on how fast the line was moving for the size of the group we had.

Everyone stepped up to the line and did their best every time, to me that's a big motivator.

Students have drills and skills to take home and work on and fine tune them.

Negatives:
Not as many new faces. I want to reach out and help more people to learn how to defend the family and their selves. This is not talking from a monetary point of view; I and Scott truly want people to better defend their family.

Did not get to work on as much marksmanship as I wished for. We did drills, the students learned a lot of new techniques or knocked off the rust, but due to time and the size of the group with only one range we could not dial in marksmanship as well as I would like. I will say we knew this from the start it's just part of the beast of large groups.

Lastly I feel we could have done a better job of providing distraction lighting. Next time I will bring out strobe lights and such to simulate things. Also we have some new products coming out for reaction to the threat I wished were available to us.

I end this with the following:

As we know, professionalism is rated in different ways, mostly it's prospective rated. The level of professionalism you experience is only as good or as bad as the last time you dealt with a person on a given task or subject. By this standard a person has a graded scale on how professionals rank top to middle to the bottom of the personal slide. This is how Instructors in this industry are rated, by the students prospective of the service provided and the quality of facility, ability to perform, and ability to have a safe event.

I hope Trace Armory Group is at the upper levels of my students scale.

John

 

[J.Boyette]

 

[J.Boyette]

tag for pic's

 

[jjwestbrook]

 

[jjwestbrook]

 

[jjwestbrook]

 

[C45P312]

Keeping this short and simple.

I had the opportunity to attend my first CSC Event with Trace Armory Group. Wahoo mentioned an upcoming course he was attending on another forum so I PM'd him to get more information. As luck would have it, there was one slot left so I jumped on it. Plus, Wahoo sent me a picture of him to entice me to attend.

I did not write anything down during the course so I'll just reference the course announcement.

Carolina Shooters Club and Trace Armory Group are hosting a 13.5 hour day and night course for Club Subscribers (first dibs) and non-members at Trigger Time in Carthage, North Carolina

- Definitely was a full day's worth of events from sun up to sun down and then some. Something you normally don't see in open enrollment courses just because most folks attending aren't use to carrying guns and gear, loading mags, standing, shooting, listening, practicing, moving, etc for 10+ hours.

Training Rate and Head Count:

With a discounted training rate of $135 for Club Subscribed Members or $175 for non-subscribers (Price includes 1 Year CSC Membership - $15 value). For your convenience we offer Check/ Cash or Paypal for payment options. A full payment will be required to lock in your slot for training. The maximum head count will be 24 students with an instructor to student ratio no bigger than 6:1 for day and 3:1 at night. Special Event T-shirts will be provided.

- Value for the course was really good considering what the tuition was.

- Though it said the maximum head count will be 24 students, we had a total of 36 students. I don't know why or how it got to 36 so I won't comment on it. If someone would have told me there would have been 36 students, I probably wouldn't have jumped on it as quickly as I did. This was the largest class I've ever taken but having the extra set of eyes was great. It's not like they had all the students go live at one time. Now if it was like 25 students with only one single instructor and all 25 students were shooting at once, I would be concerned about safety but that doesn't happen as much.

- Instructor to student ratio of 6:1 for day time live fire was pretty spot on. As for the 3:1 ratio for night time live fire, there was on time I remember where 10 people were on the firing line when there should of been a max of 9 with 3 instructors. Did I feel unsafe during this one instance? No. There were 36 students broken down into 3 groups of 12. I couldn't really keep track of who sat out and when during the night time live fire portions. So I say again, did I feel unsafe? No. If I did I would have brought it up then and there.

Lunch is provided by Start to Finish Consulting and dinner will be provided by DPRC Education Group. (Small cost more info soon)

- Oh god this was great! Nothing like hot food on site to keep things moving once food time was over.

The aim of this course is to cover fundamentals of marksmanship and to learn how to operate in low light situations. Each student will work during day light and night time hours on both firearms with the proven Building Block approach from Trace Armory Group. After dinner we will go back on the range and learn different techniques of white light use for target identification, distraction and disorientation to the threat with the rifle / carbine and pistol. You will learn and test different techniques and after the course you will know when and how to deploy each technique.

- Did some drills regarding fundamentals. Talked about stance and grip. Did a 5x5 Drill with the pistol where you dry fire 5 rounds, then shoot 1 round. Dry fire 5 rounds, then shoot 2 rounds. Dry fire 5 rounds, then shoot 3 rounds. ETC ETC

- Before dinner while we still had some day light, we went over different techniques of utilizing hand held flash lights with pistols. We were showed the different ways to do it. John showed us the way he preferred (FBI) and told us why. He had some valid points. We then went into live fire drills utilizing the fbi flashlight technique with a pistol. I don't think we did any carbine white light techniques during the day. I don't remember being able to try out the different techniques using a flash light with a pistol in live fire. Someone please correct me if wrong.

Fighting with a hand held white light during low light engagements sounds so simple. With a weapon mounted white light on a rifle, it's not hard to operate. But how do you reload a pistol with a hand holding the pistol and the other with a hand holding the flash light? How can you use the hand held light to distract, disorient and deceive an armed threat? Can you at this time operate a hand held light, pistol and hit your target with solid marksmanship? After this course, you will know the answers to these questions.

Topics to be covered:

Safety
(Great safety brief. Went over the 4 cadinal rules and then some. John made some real world analogies and really drove the importance of safety home.)

Characteristics and accessories
(I don't remember doing this. Can't tell you if this was related to low light gear and accessories or rifle related gear and accessories)

Sight-in procedures
(We confirmed zero on steel at 100 yards. First relay went up, shot a couple rounds to confirm and that was it. Quick clean and easy since everyone should have rocked up with a zeroed carbine)

Shooting fundamentals
(Went over them. Stance and grip really stood out to me. Didn't really go in depth with all 7 fundamentals.)

Four ready positions
(I remember low and high ready. We started in one of these two positions during live fire drills. Couldn't tell you what the other 2 were)

Magazine changes (admin, tactical and emergency)
(So we had a total of 3 relays with about 12 shooters each. Relay 1 started on the firing line, relay 2 was at the 50 yard line with the 3rd instructor, and relay 3 was in the staging area jamming mags. It was round robin style with the 3 relays of shooters. At the 50 yard line starting with relay 2 (my relay), the instructor talked about tactical and emergency reloads with a carbine. I could not tell you what an admin reload with a carbine was. We did not do this with pistols. )

Shooting positions and transitioning to shooting positions
(Some of the shooting positions we did were uban prone, kneeling, and supine. We did all of them with a carbine but not a pistol. I don't think we should at wierd angles with the pistol unless shooting depth and width is considered in this subject)

Multiple shots and multiple targets
(This was fun. Did this with both carbine and pistol with different drills throughout the course.)

Sight management
(Couldn't tell you if we did this or not. Maybe one of the other students could chime in)

Shooting on the move
(Did this with the pistol. Don't think we did this with the carbine)

Barricades
(Didn't do this)

Low-light shooting
(Definitely did this!)

These 24 spots are first come, first paid to lock in your place for world class training!! Please ask John Boyette or Scott McClure for more details.

Please submit payment for $135.00 or $175 for non Club Subscribed Members to [email protected] via PayPal or send check to:

Carolina Shooters Club
6255 Towncenter Drive
Suite 657 A
Clemmons, NC 27012

CSC Night Fight Event Sponsor deals!

Need a light? Shop these deals with Brownells Use code DSR for FREE Shipping on orders over $99 Click the link below to see some nice lights:

http://www.carolinashootersclub.com...ownells-on-weapons-lights?p=870299#post870299

Freedom Munitions is going to offer free shipping on ammo purchases for the students. If you are going to take advantage of this, please let me know so I can email him a list.

but wait...there's more!

 

[soreshoulder]

What a great class!

John was right to get the group photo early in the morning, lol.

I am wiped out, but need to put down a few thoughts. It is very difficult to manage a large group of students and keep it interesting, but John, Scott, and Bob did a great job. We divided the students into three groups and while one group was shooting, another was reloading while the third was getting prepped for the next live fire drill. We covered a variety of carbine drills first. Shooting from prone, standing, kneeling, urban prone, and supine. Its one thing to watch this stuff on TV, but laying in the dirt eating dust kicked up from your brass brings it home.

We had an excellent hot lunch (Chili/ Cornbread/ cookies) from Susan and Shawn from Start to Finish consulting, which everyone appreciated.

The afternoon then shifted to pistol drills, including dry fire/ trigger reset instruction, followed by one handed, weak handed, and shooting while moving exercises. Safety and situational awareness were emphasized at all times.

When it began to get dark, we reviewed flashlight holds/ grips and various techniques to shoot while holding a flashlight, followed by an incredible Brunswick stew and hush puppies for dinner (Thanks to the DPRC folks!).

Everone really appreciated the hot food, and it was great getting to spend quality time over a meal with fellow members.

Once night fell, we practiced our flashlight/ pistol skills by simulating a blind encounter with hostage/ threat targets. This is where the instructor and student went alone downrange into an unknown threat scenario. The idea was to use the flashlight long enough to illuminate and eliminate the threat and then MOVE out of the same spot. This is an eye-opening drill, for sure.

Last but not least were some rifle and flashlight exercises. Shooting steel at 100 yards with just a rifle and chem-lite or a flashlight is amazing. It seems counter-intuitive, but with good night vision, there are a lot of times that using the light actually hurts your accuracy in the dark.

Once we got close to the "quiet time" We policed the range, did a thorough review of the class, received our certificates and departed at approximately 2230.

John, Scott, and Bob have a great mix of skills and approaches to training. Everyone is enthusiastic about making sure the students have fun and learn some skills that could possibly save your life.

Two thumbs way up for John Boyette, Scott & Bob McClure & Trace Armory Group for a great class.

 

[tsconver]

It was a great time, I did not shoot everything but got to do some. Susan was shooting a carbine for teh first time and did great in my opinion and was pretty good with the pistol considering she just had wrist surgery on her off hand 3 months ago.

Training as always was top notch and John, Scott, and Bob do a great job and is one of the reasons I am getting more invovled with them doing trainings at DPRC, Who knows I might be assisting at a future class they do for the club.

Wish my rifle had behaved in the evening but it appears a shell somehow either had the bullet come out or split and filled the chamber with powder which then prevented it from letting the bolt close completely. One of those wierd malfunctions, after cleaning it appears all is functionaly working other than having a lot of loose powder that I had to blow out.

Thanks for the compliments on the food, wish I could take credit but Susan (Gemini26) cooked almost all of it on thursday, I just loaded it and opened cans at the range,

 

[C45P312]

Carlo here. I'm your everyday civilian turned training junkie. After college I managed a Marine Corps range. That's where I started taking shooting seriously so I did some research about training facilities. With Blackwater only 20mins away from my home, I decided to take a 5-Day Tactical Pistol 1 course the summer of 2009. My instructors were Jason Falla running lead with Kyle Defoor backing him up. These guys have since left Blackwater and started their own training companies. I shoot local IDPA/USPSA/3-gun club matches. Nothing too serious. Currently ranked SSP Master in IDPA though that was circa 2010. I remember being told I couldn't hop down to expert. Some instructors on my training resume are as follows:

US Training Center
Redback One
Vickers Tactical
Pistol-training.com
Defensive Concepts North Carolina
Ken Hackathorn
FPF Training
Victory 1st
Aggressive Defensive Solutions
and now Trace Armory Group


We crammed a lot of instruction within this 10+ hour course. I would have liked to take out some stuff and focused more on stuff related to shooting at night. Was it bad? No. It just wasn't what I was expecting. Did I learn something? Of course I did. If any of the students say they didn't learn anything, I would call their BS. We had 9 hours of daylight before we could get to the meat and potatoes of the course. There are several things I wish we could have done during this time. I would have really liked to try out the different hand held flash light techniques during live fire to see which one works for me, which ones I didn't like, etc etc. Weapon manipulations with a flash light in hand like reloading, malfunction drills, etc. A Lecture on gear and accessories we use for night fighting would have been beneficial when it comes to choosing the right equipment (hand held light, weapon light, laser, night sights, pros and cons of each). Open forum would have been nice during lunch or during a dedicated time slot to talk about lights and lasers and how they react to rain, fog, snow, white walls in the house, etc.

After dinner, we didn't really run any drills or practice shooting at night. I think we went straight into the 3 scenario shoots with our pistols. Granted we did do live runs with the one hand held flash light technique during the day, but it would have been nice to do the same at night instead of jumping into scenario shooting. After the pistol night shoot was over with, we then started to jock up with our carbines. I didn't realize it till today, but I don't remember receiving any instruction on utilizing our flashlights mounted on our carbines regarding when, why, how we should deploy it. We basically lined up with our carbines in our relays, illuminated targets, and blasted away. We did various suppressive firing drills. Then we went into break contact drills. I found it odd that we started doing small unit tactics drills. I just rolled with it. I don't think this CSC Night Fighting course is an accurate depiction to what TAG has to offer regarding their normally scheduled Night Fighter courses. I think it was even mentioned that they wouldn't have this many students in the course to begin with. At the end of the day I had fun and I feel more confident when shooting at night or low-light.

John and the other instructors were very humble. John even reiterated a couple times that all he's teaching is a way and not "THE" way. He also encouraged us to attend other folks' training courses and to find out what works for you and what doesn't. He was open and always gave a why to the answer when we had questions regarding anything related to the training or not. I would recommend this course to others and hope to attend more in the future.

If anyone has any specific questions/comments, feel free to PM me. I'm having a hard time typing out what I'm trying to say with my lack of sleep. I know this is hard to follow. I just threw everything up in this post really. I think next time ill travel the day before to get a good nights rest and will take notes during the course. Sorry in advanced if anything is wrong. I'm drawing from memory and 7 hours of sleep between the last couple of days lol.

 

[J.Boyette]

Thank all of you for your HONEST reviews.

I love to read the good and the needs improvements.

Honestly everyone needs to hear both sides of the coin and I LOVE it.

My AAR is posted now, just put it in.

thanks a lot guys and gals for coming out to our first night event!!

John

 

[Qball50]

Sorry I missed it. The last six pics of J. Boyette's first post were Awesome.

 

[C45P312]

Great pictures! I can see many people changing profile pics lol

 

[Djstorm100]

First I have to thanks John, Ed (wahoo95), Scott for being patient with me as I asked ALOT of questions. Going in to this I didn't know what to expect, what type of atmosphere I was going to be in. I didn't want to be "THAT Guy" to hold up the class or what have you.

First thing John is a hard guy when it comes to training, he runs a tight firing line and makes sure everyone is SAFE! He also is funny as hell and kept me laughing/entertained through out the day with his stories. John and the crew with Trace are top notch guys, given this was my first class I have nothing to compare it to. They ran us hard, and stayed in control of everything while on the firing line and off. I learn tons of new material that I can pratice on my home range as well. Instead of standing stactic and pulling the trigger now I can do 5-5 drills or depth/width (which is a bitch if it's your first time doing it). Another important thing I learn is my gear does not run as well as I like it to. I know where I need to make the changes and now it just about making those changes and running another course. I'm very very happy I took the course, I ran camera on my ears and my friends/parents were amazed at what we did. I got my moneys worth and then some, something hard to come by in today's standards. John, Scott and the whole crew just awesome bunch of guys. At the firing line they are hard as hell, but off they are just average guys joking around and having fun.


Now the negative, other than the trying to run 24 students + CSC staff we didn't get as much as John would like to do. I would have like to get little more carbine and pistol shooting in, working the marksmenship) but thats understandable since we had 30+ people shooting, chalking up. The only other negative I could think of is I'm hooked and my wallet just got smaller. Time to get spam and crackers. I plan on taking John's class in Jan and March.

Thanks againg guys and CSC for putting on a great event. Really really enjoyed it, granted I'm sore as hell today at work. Great meeting everyone elese as well

-Dustin.

 

[jwangster]

Hi all, finally got my gear squared away and notes organized. The following are just some quick thoughts on the class. I am just a civilian that has gotten more serious about training in the past year and a half. This was my second class with John. I've also trained with TigerSwan and Defensive Concepts NC. At this point in my training career, I've come to realize that I need to practice way more than I do in order to get the most out of what is taught and so I have set aside more money for ammo and less for classes and gear (hard to do everything as a student!). I've been trying to focus the remaining part my training budget on skill sets that I haven't yet been exposed to, and this Nightfighter class was the first.

As has been mentioned in the posts above, the daylight portion of the class focused on general carbine and pistol manipulation, marksmanship, positions, and movement while the night portion of the class consisted on 3 unknown target packages with pistol and small unit tactics with rifles. Having no military or law enforcement background, the small unit tactics was an unexpected, but fun and instructive. Throughout the day, John and the other instructors provided a lot of good individual feedback to me.

This was my first experience shooting at night, and it was very informative. It was very enlightening for me how little I had to use my white light. Even away from streetlights, car lights, shop lights, and on a moonless night, I only needed my light for the longer range shots or to more positively ID a threat. Using a handheld light with pistol also made me realize that I need to practice SHO and WHO shooting a lot more. I do wish that there would have been more time during the day to cover and practice the other light techniques in addition to the FBI hold.

John and the other staff did a great job rotating students through the blocks of instruction, given how large the class was. At the feedback session at the end, there were several comments made that the flow could have been improved. My previous experience with John was in a much smaller group and he was very efficient in moving students through the drills, and I went through 1100 rounds (pistol and carbine combined) in one 8 hour day. I think that the pace we went at this time was reasonable to maintain a safe environment, especially once it got dark.

Gear-wise, I rolled with 2 pistol and 2 AR kydex mag carriers on a belt. For me, this setup places the second AR mag too far back to reliably draw quickly. I think I will move back to only one AR mag on the belt and running a chest rig for additional mags. Most people in the class ran ARs for carbine and Glocks and M&Ps for pistol. It seems that most malfunctions were ammo or mag induced. I need to get a slightly larger notepad for the next class as well. I brought a small 3x6 pad so I could carry it to the line in my pocket, but it is a bit too small to write on without a surface.

All in all, it was a very instructive, fun 14 hours at the range. As always, the training highlighted many skills that I need to continue to work on and enlightened me to just how much I still have left to learn. Feel free to PM me for any specific questions/comments. Thank you to all the guys at CSC and TAG for putting this class together!

 

[Stick Man]

I'm not going to go in to what we did drill wise, as that's already been posted already, but just wanted to post up some comments.

This was my third Trace Armory class, and after each one I find myself wanting to do more and more TAG classes. Repeat customers says a lot about the training offered, and obviously I and many others feel like we're getting quality to want to train more and more with TAG, as I've seen some of the same faces in all three classes. I really like the way John teaches, and appreciate the way he explains the how's and why's of what he's showing you to do, and that it's just the way HE does things, but it's not the ONLY way. I learn a lot each and every time I step out there, whether it be from the instruction, or from me noticing and picking apart what Im doing to make it work better. I freakin loved the depth/width drill, and would really like in some future (ahem, ahem) TAG classes to be able to do some more familiar type drills as this. Another eye opener for me was the night/flashlight shooting. Flashing the light momentarily, identifying the threat/no threat targets, then moving and engaging really screwed with the OODA loop, as we we're told to not watch others that we're going before us so we wouldn't know "what/how" the scenario looked like, so it would be a surprise like a real life situation would be. And as others have said, John runs a tight firing line, and I for one damn sure appreciate the hardness and no BS approach on this. This is serious business out there, and it's our life on the line, and one mistake from grab assing around could end that, so you have to drill home the seriousness of safety and concentration to whats going on. We had a great bunch of people out there, and everyone did a great job from what I could tell. Im really glad/proud to be a part of the CSC community, and have met some great people through here. I would gladly train with any of you anytime. Thanks goes out for the food, man, how good was that! That was a very nice addition to the training, and I really appreciate the time taken to do that for us, as well as the set up of some items for sale. And how could one not really enjoy the marvel that was Justin. That made me choke up inside a little, as I had a cousin that went through the same thing about 20 years ago, but it seems just like yesterday. That kid was a little overwhelmed by the gift given to him, and Im glad I was there to see it, especially him blasting some rounds down range. All in all, a great freakin day/night. Special thanks to John, Scott, and Bob. You guys ran a tight ship, especially for as many as we had, and as always, the instruction was excellent. Looking forward to the next class.
Shane Hucks

 

[s.mcclure]

My AAR perspective,

When John told me that we were doing another event, I was excited, we immediately went to work. We wanted to put together a fun, yet challenging and most of all a safe event. The concept of doing a night training class quickly gained traction and the rest is in the history books.

Countless hours went into this course. We always strive to give you, the student the most value for your hard earned money, So I thought I would break the task down a little…..

We covered Grip, Stance, low ready and high ready and the reasons why, we worked on shooting positions (kneeling, urban prone, supine). We covered magazine changes (admin, tactical). Trigger reset was covered on both pistol and rifle.

We did some shooting while walking, we moved with the rifle in the high port. We worked on multiple shots and multiple targets while moving.

Your were introduced to the 5/5 drill, focusing on all the fundamentals(sight picture, sight alignment, grip etc). We covered drawing from your holster and presenting towards the target. We shot one handed both strong and weak hand, went over a couple techniques with your handheld light.

Then night set in, we started with pistol, you were presented with 3 different scenarios, all intended to identify unknown threats and problem solve on your own, this included shoot, not shoot targets.

We worked on Carbine low light, being able to work with someone next to you, seeing how marksmanship is marksmanship day or night, your zero doesn’t change, nor do the fundamentals.

I am sure that I have missed a few learning objectives, with the above 24 or so and the rate of $135 for the day, what was the best value for you?

Our goal is to always give our best to you, I thoroughly enjoyed each and everyone one that came out, we understand that you have a choice with who you train with and glad you chose us. You are a great bunch of guys and gals. CSC is truly a great place for all of us.

Lastly I would like to say that, a lot of us are hard on ourselves I for one am. I have high expectations for myself and my perception of my performance. I urge each and every one that came out to only look at themselves and your own improvement. Each one of us are at different levels, your goal should be self-improvement, making self-corrections on the line etc.

We had close to 40 individual out with different backgrounds, experiences etc with no issues, that truly says something about you guys!



BTW this is not the longest class that has been done by Trace Armory Group!! the longest one day course was from 6am till 1am shooting out to 600yards, whose ready to sign up!!





Thanks again
Scott

 

[citizen-defense-solutions]

In oder to set the stage properly, I feel the need to go back a few years. I've been involved with the Shooting / Military / LLEA community for the better part of 20 years now. To my dismay, I've been turned off to the all too familiar ego, chest pounding events that plauge this industry and all that surrounds it. These type of ego building shooters and subsequential events had caused me to "bow out" of the industry for quite some time.

In 2009 I decided to give it another go, with the hopes that there are still quality individuals out there who can check their egos at the door. I found such a crew when I entered in one of Boyette's sniper competitions. Needless to say, John and I have been friends ever since. I seize the moment to shoot with him and pick his brain every chance I get.

I am no stranger to firearms instruction as I do this for a living. However, I find the need to complete "continual training" if you will, as often as possible, and with that being said, I can count on John to provide a very welcome and refreshing perspective. In fact, there has NEVER been a time in which I have interacted with John and NOT taken away a new learning point or a trick to help make myself more proficient with a firearm. The quickest way to stop forward progression is the belief that there is nothing more to learn. On the flipside, the ability to stay "teachable" and check egos for some reason or another is the biggest hinderance of forward progression in this industry.

Moving forward, this is the first time I've taken a Carbine / Pistol class with John, and also the first time I've met all of you. I was extremely pleased with what I saw from both aspects. On a professional level, a class of over 30 is very stressful for the instructor staff. Couple that with the very diverse ability that was present makes for a challenging day (believe me I know from experience). The TAG Staff did an excellent job of maintaning a safe enviorment. This is paramount. Secondly, they did a great job keeping a steady flow, and maintaning control of such a large group.

The training itself was nothing I haven't seen or done a thousand times, but John has a unique way of incorporating his personal twist by taking a normally cut and dry drill and turning it into something that becomes unforgetable. The class was built perfectly for the experience that was on hand. It wasn't too over demanding for the lesser experenced, while it also kept the veterans engaged. Bravo! The ability to successfully manage the aforementioned topics is truly what seperates the men from the boys as far as training is concerned.

Lastly, I'd like to thank all of you for inviting me out there to shoot. I can't tell you how pleased I am to see how friendly you all were, and that translated into a positive experience on the range as well. I look forward to shooting with you all again, and possibly working with some / all of you on a professional level once my business, Citizen Defense Solutions, LLC gets off the ground sometime around Jan. 1

My passion for the industry has been rekindled and I thank you all for it!

Semper Fi

 

[ThatOakleyGirl]

I definitely don't have a well thought out response planned because to be perfectly honest...I don't know shit. But I can tell you about my day
I didn't know one thing to expect from this when Scott invited me, I just accepted, requested off work and showed up (slightly late but I showed up nonetheless.) After parking at the first range and receiving looks from a lot of mexicans that made me check to make sure there was nothing wrong with my face, I found my way to the CSC crowd. I walked into a group of men (and lady) that were triple my size and complete strangers, and turned to face a very intimidating man who was yelling things that made me wish I hadn't brought hot pink ear and eye protection for I would surely get smoked for it, even if I am just a small civilian girl. Anywho, I was unsure of everything the entire day including: what AR I was using, what pistol I was using, how the hell I was going to fit all those magazines on my person, how do I use this thing and what the hell did I agree to. 99.9% of the things we did in the course were brand new to me and I was nervous about most of them (especially since I stuck out like a sore thumb in my damn hot pink and lack of height.) Despite my ambiguity, I had a freaking BLAST and I would love to do it again. I learned so much and I have already seen improvements when I went to the range today to shoot my little beast of a .380 and KILLED IT because of what I learned on saturday. I got to experience a lot of different weapons which I otherwise would not have and I met a lot of great people who have also already helped me work through some things! I'm happy I blindly agreed to go to the course and I thought it was great!!!!

P.S.
John, you scare me...just sayin'.

 

[B00GER]

John scared me too at first...but if you rub his belly just right he softens up a bit.