ss1
09-30-2008, 10:43 AM
There are a lot of instructors that offer defensive carbine, pistol and shotgun skill courses in South Florida. Some are based here, some are nationally reknowned instructors. Companies such as Magpul and Surefire have formed their own affilliate schools to teach skill necessary in "combat". In Florida, there's a fine line that civilians must not cross when training, as there are laws against militia or paramilitary training. It is perfectly legal to train with your carbine for defensive purposes and to learn close quarter combat techniques, but entry skills vs. house clearing skills can be construed as paramilitary training.
In any event, I wanted to talk about a school offering various classes - Bushido Tactical (www.bushidotactical.com).
The school is owned and operated by Wade Rorich, who served in the S. African military and was a Surefire Institute Instructor for some years. He began the school about a year ago and I have had the fortunate experience to take his Defensive Rifle/Carbine Readiness course at Pop Dean's range in Southwest Ranches ...... twice already.
REVIEW:
This is a two day course that starts in the morning going over introductions, range safety (this is extremely emphasized thru out the class - infractions are not tolerated), and other housekeepping. We then proceed to talk about zeroing in at either 25yrds, 50 yrds, or 100 yrds and the effects of required holdover at different ranges. I decided to zero my rifle in at 25 yrs based on the distance of the activities of the day. Once our optics are all sighted in, we do the same with our iron sights.
After everyone was sighted in, Wade had us do position drills to gauge where everyone was with their basic shooting skills at various shooting positions. One of the key areas was being able to shoot offhand (untrained side) and transition drills from common positions of high kneel, low kneel, prone, sitting, standing bladed/semi-bladed and then making our weapons safe and going over positions less commonly known such as modified prone, scuba prone, california kneeling, rollover prone, etc. This was particularly enjoyable as the emphasis was to show the class with a couple of student volunteers vs the instructor how you can transition from one position to another with efficiency in movement, maintaining rifle control, and doing it in a way to be able to transition on the fly without or minimizing putting your body into a committed direction or position.
Slings- This is been the hot topic of this class and has set much controversy. There are basically 3 types of popular slings. Single point, two point and three point slings. Wade took the time to explain the pros and cons of utilizing a sling in CQC situations and then showing us in live demonstrations how your own sling can be used against you in murphy law scenarios. His message is one of awareness and certainly emphasizes that his philosophy is by no means the right way but you can make your own informed decision. The first time I took the class, I used a Blueforce Vickers 2 point sling. The second time, I tried a Blackhawk singlepoint with a carabiner looking for equipment issues as you normally don't get to practically do movement drills with live fire on a normal range day. My personal takeaway was that slings for me are are holsters for my rifle. In many instances, I will disconnect or unsling depending on my environment/situation.
After dinner break, we talked about the use of weapons in low light or night situations. We practiced drills while there was still daylight but made practical use of the skills past dusk. Key to these drills is the focus on equipment. We can buy the coolest tactical gear, but its true value and test comes with these drills. You will quickly realize what works great on your strong side will not work on the support side or when your primary weapon fails, how accessible are your lights when you need to revert to your sidearm. We did a lot of drills requiring the transition to our sidearms at night while still using our carbine mounted lights. There are some pretty interesting ways to do this. We then capped the night off with a night shoot incorporating all of our position shooting skills. Working in two man teams and keeping safety at a very high level, we had a number of different barricades that we had to shoot from on both the strong side and the support side. This was extremely cool. We finished up around 10:00 pm.
8:15 AM - Day 2
After a refresher on safety again and what to do in an emergency, we started again to make sure we were happy with our zero and began with some more shooting positions and transition drills. This is a very physical class and the objective is to learn but to pace yourself to your own limitations. Over the course of the year, there has always been at least one student who was too sore to return to day 2. He has tweaked his class to emphasize no to do more than you are capable of and hydration was mandatory and nearly forced upon us. Our class in the hot September Everglades heat was brutal but everyone came back on day 2. There are two "events" that we do on day 2 that wraps up everything that we learned that tests both our endurance and skills learned. At his wish, I can't describe these two "events", but if you have a competitive spirit, you will find these two things incredibly challenging, yet fun and a great personal gauge for you. The class allows you to evaluate your gear, and make changes to it to best support you when you need it the most. Wade's professionalism and enthusiasm is second to none and I highly recommend any of his courses that are available for civillians.
In any event, I wanted to talk about a school offering various classes - Bushido Tactical (www.bushidotactical.com).
The school is owned and operated by Wade Rorich, who served in the S. African military and was a Surefire Institute Instructor for some years. He began the school about a year ago and I have had the fortunate experience to take his Defensive Rifle/Carbine Readiness course at Pop Dean's range in Southwest Ranches ...... twice already.
REVIEW:
This is a two day course that starts in the morning going over introductions, range safety (this is extremely emphasized thru out the class - infractions are not tolerated), and other housekeepping. We then proceed to talk about zeroing in at either 25yrds, 50 yrds, or 100 yrds and the effects of required holdover at different ranges. I decided to zero my rifle in at 25 yrs based on the distance of the activities of the day. Once our optics are all sighted in, we do the same with our iron sights.
After everyone was sighted in, Wade had us do position drills to gauge where everyone was with their basic shooting skills at various shooting positions. One of the key areas was being able to shoot offhand (untrained side) and transition drills from common positions of high kneel, low kneel, prone, sitting, standing bladed/semi-bladed and then making our weapons safe and going over positions less commonly known such as modified prone, scuba prone, california kneeling, rollover prone, etc. This was particularly enjoyable as the emphasis was to show the class with a couple of student volunteers vs the instructor how you can transition from one position to another with efficiency in movement, maintaining rifle control, and doing it in a way to be able to transition on the fly without or minimizing putting your body into a committed direction or position.
Slings- This is been the hot topic of this class and has set much controversy. There are basically 3 types of popular slings. Single point, two point and three point slings. Wade took the time to explain the pros and cons of utilizing a sling in CQC situations and then showing us in live demonstrations how your own sling can be used against you in murphy law scenarios. His message is one of awareness and certainly emphasizes that his philosophy is by no means the right way but you can make your own informed decision. The first time I took the class, I used a Blueforce Vickers 2 point sling. The second time, I tried a Blackhawk singlepoint with a carabiner looking for equipment issues as you normally don't get to practically do movement drills with live fire on a normal range day. My personal takeaway was that slings for me are are holsters for my rifle. In many instances, I will disconnect or unsling depending on my environment/situation.
After dinner break, we talked about the use of weapons in low light or night situations. We practiced drills while there was still daylight but made practical use of the skills past dusk. Key to these drills is the focus on equipment. We can buy the coolest tactical gear, but its true value and test comes with these drills. You will quickly realize what works great on your strong side will not work on the support side or when your primary weapon fails, how accessible are your lights when you need to revert to your sidearm. We did a lot of drills requiring the transition to our sidearms at night while still using our carbine mounted lights. There are some pretty interesting ways to do this. We then capped the night off with a night shoot incorporating all of our position shooting skills. Working in two man teams and keeping safety at a very high level, we had a number of different barricades that we had to shoot from on both the strong side and the support side. This was extremely cool. We finished up around 10:00 pm.
8:15 AM - Day 2
After a refresher on safety again and what to do in an emergency, we started again to make sure we were happy with our zero and began with some more shooting positions and transition drills. This is a very physical class and the objective is to learn but to pace yourself to your own limitations. Over the course of the year, there has always been at least one student who was too sore to return to day 2. He has tweaked his class to emphasize no to do more than you are capable of and hydration was mandatory and nearly forced upon us. Our class in the hot September Everglades heat was brutal but everyone came back on day 2. There are two "events" that we do on day 2 that wraps up everything that we learned that tests both our endurance and skills learned. At his wish, I can't describe these two "events", but if you have a competitive spirit, you will find these two things incredibly challenging, yet fun and a great personal gauge for you. The class allows you to evaluate your gear, and make changes to it to best support you when you need it the most. Wade's professionalism and enthusiasm is second to none and I highly recommend any of his courses that are available for civillians.