Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Variations on a Theme: It's Killin' Me. Again!

Both the readers of my blog probably remember me complaining that it was talking too long to get to go to SHOT. Well, it's happening again, except this time, it's training that's doing it to me.

I'm going to the Carbine Operator's Course with Pat Rogers in the middle of next month. I'm very much looking forward to it, as I have no formal training in carbine shooting. I've done drills with several good rifle shooters, so I'm not a novice. I just don't have a real world mission for a carbine. I have a pistol with me literally every day, so that's where most of my training time goes. Spend all that time with a pistol, and running a carbine become comparatively easier.

I've picked up a LOT of info from Matt E. and Paul J., who are both pretty scary good with carbines. They were both Infantry Bubbas. Paul's back home in NC workin' the farm as a hunting guide and field hand, and going to college. Matt works for Surfire, so both have reasons to have rifles in their hands regularly. Since I don't, I'm several levels below those guys. I don't expect that to change, except that my manipulations will get a lot better. I'm also going to be practicing that some before I go.

I went shooting with some Soldier friends last weekend, including Pat Alumni Joe. What we found was that gear and set ups had to be tweaked a bit to get one thing out of the way of another. I found I needed to put even more slack in my sling, as I was running a variation of the chest rig I'll be taking to Pat's class. I don't need a ton more slack, but I do need a little more to keep the sling from hanging up on the chest rig I'll be running.

I'll be taking some stuff that's new for ATS. We've done up a 500D Low Profile Chest Harness and I'll be running our new prototype hydration cover. I don't expect any surprises, but this will be the first time that the hydro carrier for our chest rigs will be run. I think we've solved the problems we were having with it, now it's time to verify.

I'm not even scheduled to start jamming mags until next week. Holy cow, this is taking too long!

2 comments:

walrus61 said...

Hope you'll put up somme AAR on your blog after the course.
What kind of sling are you using? two point, single point?
Have a great time at the course!

Haji said...

Yup, an AAR will be coming. I have a few ideas to take that in a little different direction than the typical AAR. That may end up being a few different posts, too. I'll see how it goes.

I'll be using the same sling I've been running for a couple years now: a Viking Tactics VTAC two point adjustable. I'm running it off the buttstock and on the rail up by the FSB with an Ace 1.5" sling loop.