Dogabutila
Ultimate Member
- Dec 21, 2010
- 2,359
Late, but myself and two friends took this 2 day in early November 2020 in TN, hosted by, but not attended by Tactical Response. Instructors were Don Edwards and Sam Houston.
Equipment: RNVG filmless WP tubes.
Rifle was equipped with Sandman-S/ PEQ-15 Atpial (full power). Unity Tactical Fast Aimpoint T2. M600 Scout. Glock 19 with a unity tactical atom / RM06 and x300.
I shot roughly 450 rounds rifle, 150 rounds pistol. I think the course description said 800-300. A lot of it is up to you as most strings are on command and while many other classes specify 1,2,5 or however many per string, Don prefers you to do 3-7 or your own judgement because we can't guarantee a target goes down in X number of rounds. Keep shooting until you get good hits, and keep getting good hits until you're satisfied.
TD1: Start 1500-2300 Clear weather, Partial moon.
Initially classroom instruction, basics of terms, how NVG (mostly I2 although thermal was briefly covered) works, and how to read spec sheets and what they mean. Discussion was had as to which specs are more important, and what is considered "good." We covered lasers for signaling, searching, and why passive options are good to have.
Later we went to the range to co-witness lasers to our optics at a range of roughly 80 yards. We had the whole discussion of converging vs parallel in the classroom, and my personal conclusion is that a long distance converging "zero" is probably best given the limitations on non-magnified I2 PID.
Brief demo of how smoke can still obscure vision and be effective against I2, but not thermal.
Shooting was done at close range, 5-7-10 yards on to paper targets. These are silhouette targets with IQ-esque smaller targets on the borders (different shapes / number). Initially we are learning offsets and holds from the laser POA to POI. After we move to shooting passively through optics (high mounts are a godsend), and then shooting passively with white light. Being able to discern the proper target showed how some tube stats matter more than others in practice.
Some time was also spent on shooting with handguns. RDS guns are best, and night sights under nods are blah. There's a focus issue with night sights. RDS handguns make it almost like a video game where the dot just appears in front of you on the target.
TD2 1800?-0200 Light rain part of the time, Obscured partial moon.
Group split into two for drills. Instructors had steel targets a little farther out, and in varying illumination. This is where we saw how important illuminators can be. The lighting conditions were worse than the first day, and with lower spec / contrast tubes it could be hard to see silhouettes without IR Illum. We shot the Xbox drill that Don Edwards likes, both with lasers and then passively.
Lastly we had a relay drill, where barricades are 80-100 yards and you have to land hits from standing and kneeling, right and left sides of the barricade (4 hits per barricade) on targets before moving to the next. There were 5-6 barricades. Once the first person gets to the second barricade, a second shooter starts at the first barricade. If anybody catches the person ahead, the person ahead is out until only one person remains. Wasn't me. It did demonstrate how certain illuminators performed much better than others. Night vision is good, but things can still be really dark under tree canopy and a good illuminator is a godsend.
And that's why I now have a MAWL. Also I'd suggest being able to do your manipulations eyes closed. You have night vision, but focusing issues again mean that if you can see the target you can't see close up and everything has to be done either by muscle memory or feel.
Equipment: RNVG filmless WP tubes.
Rifle was equipped with Sandman-S/ PEQ-15 Atpial (full power). Unity Tactical Fast Aimpoint T2. M600 Scout. Glock 19 with a unity tactical atom / RM06 and x300.
I shot roughly 450 rounds rifle, 150 rounds pistol. I think the course description said 800-300. A lot of it is up to you as most strings are on command and while many other classes specify 1,2,5 or however many per string, Don prefers you to do 3-7 or your own judgement because we can't guarantee a target goes down in X number of rounds. Keep shooting until you get good hits, and keep getting good hits until you're satisfied.
TD1: Start 1500-2300 Clear weather, Partial moon.
Initially classroom instruction, basics of terms, how NVG (mostly I2 although thermal was briefly covered) works, and how to read spec sheets and what they mean. Discussion was had as to which specs are more important, and what is considered "good." We covered lasers for signaling, searching, and why passive options are good to have.
Later we went to the range to co-witness lasers to our optics at a range of roughly 80 yards. We had the whole discussion of converging vs parallel in the classroom, and my personal conclusion is that a long distance converging "zero" is probably best given the limitations on non-magnified I2 PID.
Brief demo of how smoke can still obscure vision and be effective against I2, but not thermal.
Shooting was done at close range, 5-7-10 yards on to paper targets. These are silhouette targets with IQ-esque smaller targets on the borders (different shapes / number). Initially we are learning offsets and holds from the laser POA to POI. After we move to shooting passively through optics (high mounts are a godsend), and then shooting passively with white light. Being able to discern the proper target showed how some tube stats matter more than others in practice.
Some time was also spent on shooting with handguns. RDS guns are best, and night sights under nods are blah. There's a focus issue with night sights. RDS handguns make it almost like a video game where the dot just appears in front of you on the target.
TD2 1800?-0200 Light rain part of the time, Obscured partial moon.
Group split into two for drills. Instructors had steel targets a little farther out, and in varying illumination. This is where we saw how important illuminators can be. The lighting conditions were worse than the first day, and with lower spec / contrast tubes it could be hard to see silhouettes without IR Illum. We shot the Xbox drill that Don Edwards likes, both with lasers and then passively.
Lastly we had a relay drill, where barricades are 80-100 yards and you have to land hits from standing and kneeling, right and left sides of the barricade (4 hits per barricade) on targets before moving to the next. There were 5-6 barricades. Once the first person gets to the second barricade, a second shooter starts at the first barricade. If anybody catches the person ahead, the person ahead is out until only one person remains. Wasn't me. It did demonstrate how certain illuminators performed much better than others. Night vision is good, but things can still be really dark under tree canopy and a good illuminator is a godsend.
And that's why I now have a MAWL. Also I'd suggest being able to do your manipulations eyes closed. You have night vision, but focusing issues again mean that if you can see the target you can't see close up and everything has to be done either by muscle memory or feel.
