fnfalguy
.308 Win
Short, ADHD version - Great time, amazingly great value, lots to learn and, just do it. More details below:
My wife and I spent a good portion of the day today at the range with Ben of Onsight Firearms Training (OFT). I had previously taken two classes with OFT, so I had some experience with him as an instructor. I saw he was offering a Carbine Course the weekend of 4/14, and wanted to potentially take that,(had a scheduling conflict so couldn't) but instead, I decided to opt for some private time with Ben. We set up a private class for myself and my wife in Cortland Manor, NY. The course went for most of the day and we asked to cover pistol, carbine and shotgun in the period of time we had.
There were a few challenges presented to Ben for this time. He had to work with 2 shooters with different skill sets (props to the wife for hitting more steel than I). Three different platforms to teach, one shooter new to a pistol with a RMR. One new to shooting from concealment and both newbies with carbines.
The first 30 mins or so (before range allows live fire) were spent having a safety briefing, and then a discussion of levels of experience and other training classes taken. The safety briefing was thorough without being painful (yea Ben).
We then started with pistols doing a variety of drills from concealment with a focus on repetitions, but it didn't seem like repetitions. It did not get boring or feel like it was time to move on. There were a couple of drills that we did that will definitely make it into our range sessions on our own. He identified some things in my wife's grip and stance for improvement and he also pointed out a few things in my grip that could be improved. His help with the RMR was great for me as I have many tens of thousands of reps of habits to break now that I run a RMR. We then did lunch and it was on to the carbines.
For both my wife and myself, our experience with carbines is relatively limited. For me, I have a basic understanding, and use to run 3 gun matches, but not with the AR platform. Prior to today's class, my wife's total AR experience was 10 rounds. Its more now. We initially shot from static positions and worked on basic skills. Apparently Ben felt slightly comfortable with the gun handling skills he saw, as we progressed to moving and shooting. I had experience with this before but the wife did not. I think it was a good eye opener for her and definitely something we will be working on in the future.
We ended the shooting portion of the day with shotguns and mostly worked on seeing what the guns patterned like with different types of buckshot. This was a request I had when scheduling the class as we have quite a few types of buckshot at the house, but haven't really spent the time at the range to see how differently they pattern in each of our shotguns. We did wrap up with a handful of slugs, but that was more than sufficient as I think both my wife and myself were running out of steam at that point. The day ended with policing up brass and then debriefing on things learned.
End of story is it was money well spent and I foresee some more private time with Ben in our futures. I wholeheartedly recommend OFT and do not know of a better training operation and resource in our region than OFT. He listened to what we wanted and created an entire curricula around that. He left us with some excellent drills to do at home and at the range.
My recommendation for folks is to occasionally step away from the keyboards, take training from someone who knows more than you, implement learning in your own practice at the range and then stress test it in competition.
My wife and I spent a good portion of the day today at the range with Ben of Onsight Firearms Training (OFT). I had previously taken two classes with OFT, so I had some experience with him as an instructor. I saw he was offering a Carbine Course the weekend of 4/14, and wanted to potentially take that,(had a scheduling conflict so couldn't) but instead, I decided to opt for some private time with Ben. We set up a private class for myself and my wife in Cortland Manor, NY. The course went for most of the day and we asked to cover pistol, carbine and shotgun in the period of time we had.
There were a few challenges presented to Ben for this time. He had to work with 2 shooters with different skill sets (props to the wife for hitting more steel than I). Three different platforms to teach, one shooter new to a pistol with a RMR. One new to shooting from concealment and both newbies with carbines.
The first 30 mins or so (before range allows live fire) were spent having a safety briefing, and then a discussion of levels of experience and other training classes taken. The safety briefing was thorough without being painful (yea Ben).
We then started with pistols doing a variety of drills from concealment with a focus on repetitions, but it didn't seem like repetitions. It did not get boring or feel like it was time to move on. There were a couple of drills that we did that will definitely make it into our range sessions on our own. He identified some things in my wife's grip and stance for improvement and he also pointed out a few things in my grip that could be improved. His help with the RMR was great for me as I have many tens of thousands of reps of habits to break now that I run a RMR. We then did lunch and it was on to the carbines.
For both my wife and myself, our experience with carbines is relatively limited. For me, I have a basic understanding, and use to run 3 gun matches, but not with the AR platform. Prior to today's class, my wife's total AR experience was 10 rounds. Its more now. We initially shot from static positions and worked on basic skills. Apparently Ben felt slightly comfortable with the gun handling skills he saw, as we progressed to moving and shooting. I had experience with this before but the wife did not. I think it was a good eye opener for her and definitely something we will be working on in the future.
We ended the shooting portion of the day with shotguns and mostly worked on seeing what the guns patterned like with different types of buckshot. This was a request I had when scheduling the class as we have quite a few types of buckshot at the house, but haven't really spent the time at the range to see how differently they pattern in each of our shotguns. We did wrap up with a handful of slugs, but that was more than sufficient as I think both my wife and myself were running out of steam at that point. The day ended with policing up brass and then debriefing on things learned.
End of story is it was money well spent and I foresee some more private time with Ben in our futures. I wholeheartedly recommend OFT and do not know of a better training operation and resource in our region than OFT. He listened to what we wanted and created an entire curricula around that. He left us with some excellent drills to do at home and at the range.
My recommendation for folks is to occasionally step away from the keyboards, take training from someone who knows more than you, implement learning in your own practice at the range and then stress test it in competition.
