Training Courses Designated Marksman Course, North Springs Shooting Range, UT March 23-24th

[LRRPF52]

DA Security DM Course, 2-Day at the new North Springs Shooting complex South of Price, Utah.

Instructor backgrounds:

Primary Instructor: Background rooted in service with 3 different Scout Sniper Platoons & other reconnaissance units, to include several deployments in Asia, Central America, the Middle East, and continuing work with our NATO & coalition partners in relevant disciplines.

SOTIC MTT-trained by 1st Special Forces Group while stationed on the DMZ of Korea. I never left the military precision rifle skill set alone, and began competing upon entering the private sector from 10 years of active duty, mainly in international 2-man team military sniper competitions, to include placing 2nd at FinnSniper 2008. I also help run precision rifle clinics each year at BoomerShoot up in Idaho, with the former OIC of 1st SFG's SOTIC Committee, and truly enjoy sharing this discipline with new and experienced shooters alike.

I've been a huge proponent of the DM concept, and have developed several different Programs Of Instruction for DM training that caters to unique regional demands and constraints, with extremely satisfied clientele to-date.

Guest Instructor: Will be another highly-qualified long-range marksman to help spot hits, diagnose performance, and assist attendees while ensuring safety.

This course really focuses on hitting the two big areas of a DM with: 1) the enhanced situational awareness that magnified rifle optics can bring to your organization or even your hunt, as well as...2) increased likelihood for 1st-round hit probability and effective range with your lighter weight modern self-loading carbines/rifles.

The goal of the course is to take shooters who maybe haven't had any formal training in employing their weapons past 100 or 200yds, and having you leave the course with some very solid skills in basic and intermediate rifle marksmanship to the point that your confidence and proficiency at engaging targets at 200-600yds is improved dramatically, with visible and measurable results on-target.

Equipment Required:
AR15/SCAR/ACR/MSR, free-floated, with barrel capable of ideally 1.5~2 MOA
Quality Optic and Mounting System capable of tracking true and holding zero, with either an MOA or Milliradian-based reticle, or a fixed reticle with BDC
Quality brass-cased ammunition designed for longer range performance, 300rds (5.56/.223-75gr HPBT, 77gr SMK, 69gr SMK minimum)
Other calibers such as 6.5 Grendel, 6.8 SPC, and 7.62 NATO/.308 are perfectly fine as well. I will emphasize that a lighter gun will be your friend in this course.

Your firearm/optics/mount/ammunition system should be capable of around 1.5 MOA if you are to have good odds of making predictable hits at 600yds. If your system does not quite cut that edge, and will hold 2-3 MOA, you will still be able to engage targets quite well out to 400 & 500 yards, so don't be disappointed when pushing out to 600yds.

The range is at 6,600 feet Above Sea Level, in dry, arid foothills of Central Utah. Bring appropriate clothing and hydration for significant sun exposure, and rugged footwear. For the military, LE, and able-bodied who want to train with load bearing systems, feel free to bring your vests, harnesses, armor carriers, etc., keeping in mind that there is a lot of sand and loose dirt that we will be laying and moving in on Day 2, so covered mag pouches help keep dirt out of your weapon system better than open-top pouches that are more appropriate for short-duration CQB in urbanized environments.

There are excellent facilities at the North Springs Range, to include more steel targets than we could possibly shoot in a weekend, and year-round access gravel roads, high berms for the flat ranges, with a great staff.

Carbon County - North Springs Shooting Range

Some recommendations: In the type of terrain we have in this region, a compact 2.5-10x is probably one of the better scopes for this course, like the NightForce 2.5-10x24, Vortex 2.5-10x32 or x44, or one of the new Leupold Mk VI's, USO 1-8x, etc. When I have run this type of course in densely-forested regions with tighter range constraints (300m), the 1-4x variables have been fine, and those will work for this course, just not as well as something with 8 or preferably 10x magnification.

Also, you will need to have a good zero on your system before showing up. It's part of the homework assignments you will receive upon confirming attendance, in addition to study packages. While I like the 50/200yd zero for my general purpose carbines, I recommend zeroing the DMR at 100yds, because that will give us a reasonable baseline to work off of as we compensate for the likely altitude and barometric pressure shifts you will experience when coming to 6600ft ASL. Most of you will be traveling up to that altitude, where the air is thinner, and bullets fly flatter due to reduced atmospheric resistance.

Day 1 will be spent on the 600yd flat range, shooting 200yd-600yd steel targets until you have grasped a firm hold of compensating for trajectory and wind with your system. We will then move to alternate position shooting and find your maximum effective range from seated and kneeling positions, with different techniques thrown in to help you tighten your cone of error at distance, while applying the newly-gained skills of shooting at distance. Then we'll introduce time constraints, mental and physical stress, priority target engagement drills, and some other fun exercises to push your performance envelope.

Day 2 will be spent in a totally separate area of the range that is my favorite part about the complex, and I'll just leave it as a surprise as to why. I'm sure you'll feel the same way when you see it and shoot there. Target detection and engagement will be added on this day, and lots of fun will be had.

Course fee is $250 for the information, 2-days of range work, and post-course materials for each attendee. In the current ammo availability climate, the 300 round count is great combined with this type of course, because we are dealing with distance and precision.

I will have several of my carbines at the course, so attendees can compare the practical effective differences of a 16" 6.5 Grendel with 2.5-10x44 Vortex spitting 123gr .510 BC AMAX's on steel, to my 18" JP .224 Wylde with GRSC 1-4 CRS and 69-77gr SMK's.

You will leave with a unique set of performance assessment, improvement, and maintenance tools based on our diagnosis of your absorption of the training, that you can take to the range with you for all your personal training sessions throughout the year, and also use before and after attending any of the superb courses run by other instructors.

For reservations, contact me directly at: [email protected]

I was just down at North Springs today to coordinate for this course, and have shot the Utah 3-gun match down there before, and I am very much looking forward to this course, as it has range support and possibilities that you don't see at a lot of the ranges I have shot on in the US or overseas. I'm also looking forward to meeting some more Hide members. Thanks-LRRPF52

 

[LRRPF52]

The Assistant Instructor for this course has an extensive background as a sniper in 75th Ranger Regiment and as an instructor running Sniper Training and other marksmanship programs within SOCOM. Attendees will be given a unique set of instruction based on our combined experiences with this discipline.

Here are links to the Range, with maps and directions: http://www.carbon.utah.gov/nssr/maps.aspx

http://www.carbon.utah.gov/nssr/images/nssr SITE MAP.jpg

 

[LRRPF52]

March 23-24th Designated Marksman Course Review

Just finished the course this weekend. In short, it was a great time with a lot of knowledge shared. It was also great to meet some fellow hide members face-to-face, and spend a weekend training together.

Training


Biggest comment by all attendees was if they could go back to themselves 2 years ago and tell themselves something important, they would start attending professional training courses. You don't know what you don't know.

In order to maximize our range time, I sent out some study materials for the attendees so that the guest instructor and I wouldn't have to stand in a classroom and break the ice with the basics for Mils vs. MOA, trajectories, wind drift and wind-reading methods, appropriate scope/reticle considerations, and related concepts/terminology.

Day 1 involved going over some of this data to touch on it again, and our guest instructor went over a basic block that he uses for courses with the AR15/Stoner family of weapons to dispel some myths and pass on pertinent knowledge about the system. We were able to mitigate the extreme conditions with classroom time, so that we didn't freeze.

After double-tapping the basics of intermediate & long-range shooting, we did our safety briefing and hit the range to confirm zeros at 100yds. We then pushed onto the steel at 200-450yds, and provided wind calls for the attendees in the 20mph+ wind.

Seated Position Shooting

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Modified Kneeling Position

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We did a lot of position shooting, since the terrain in the real world rarely permits use of the prone position. The prone is basically for demonstrating to yourself what your system will do before you move onto shooting positions. The closest steel targets on the flat range were 200yds, with the furthest at 600yds. The 200yd is just to build confidence after confirming zeros on paper, and start out at with different positions before going to 250, 300, 350, 400, etc.

After about noon, the winds calmed down to 10-12mph, and we were able to get most attendees on steel at 500-550yds with the 5.56 guns if they had 69-75gr match. 55gr is really limited to 350, maybe 400yds for connecting on steel in those conditions.

Standing Supported

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Environment

We started out with some pretty extreme weather. Temps were at 17 degrees F, with 20mph winds and blustery. This was a great opportunity to see what the capabilities and limitations of the shooter/weapon/optic/mount/ammunition/accessory systems were. To many's surprise, attendees were able to make hits on 18" steel plates at distances they never have shot at before in these conditions, let alone calm spring day weather.

Day 2: Shooting in Real Terrain, Scenario-Based Training

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We were at 6600ft ASL, where the barometric pressure is much lower, climate is dry unless a snow flurry or blizzard comes through, and the sun takes its toll. Hydration is something you have to think about more than lower elevations.

There's a lot of wildlife out there, to include Mule deer, jack rabbits, predatory birds, lizards, mountain squirrels, etc.


Equipment
My little 16" Grendel is great for hitting an 18" steel plate at 600yds in full value 15-20mph winds with the 123gr A-MAX on top of CFE. Shooting the 300, 350, 400, 450yd targets was boring, even in terrible weather. When I confirmed my zero the day before, it was no higher than 17 degrees F, with winds so bad, range flags were straight out and blaring. It still shot sub-half MOA vertical, and 1 MOA horizontal spread, which I think was from the wind.

My philosophy towards the most appropriate weapon profile for a Designated Marksman was only reinforced, and that is this:

The term "Designated Marksman Rifle" is an oxymoron, and should be "Designated Marksman Carbine". Trying to hold anything over 16" steady from certain positions is often an exercise in futility, and you will not make hits reliably, especially if it has a medium-heavy profile barrel. Conversely, a lightweight carbine with a medium contour barrel and the right load is a very capable system. We had one attendee with a 16" Centurion-barreled .224 Wylde VLTOR upper with Troy/VTAC rifle-length handguard & Surefire Suppressor shooting 75gr A-MAX's deep-seated in the cases so they will mag-feed.

He was making 1st-round hits in 20mph full value winds out to 450yds with my wind calls. His velocities were just under 2700fps with that load, which was 22.8gr of 8208 XBR at 2.250" COL.

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The 7.62 NATO and Grendel impact steel with authority compared to 5.56, however, the recoil & weight of the 7.62 NATO brings considerable penalties with it. The Grendel has the lightweight profile of a 5.56 AR15, with energy on-target much closer to 7.62, without the recoil.

Our guest instructor shot the Grendel for the 1st time, and made a 2nd-round connection on steel at 600yds within 1 second by watching the reticle and adjusting on-the-fly. As I was spotting for him, I opened my mouth to give him the correction, but he already was on the trigger and before I could say anything, I saw/heard impact on the 18" plate. The Grendel is a very forgiving cartridge in these wind conditions, and is just plain easy to shoot at intermediate range.

I won't say a lot about Day 2, because I want there to remain a certain level of problem-solving for future attendees, but it is a lot of fun.

If you didn't read through the OP and have questions about the Instructor bios, you are basically tapping into 2 instructors who are SOTIC-Trained, with 40+ years of combined experience with the AR15/Stoner family weapon system in field conditions, long-range shooting backgrounds, multiple overseas deployments, and a skill set that we both are committed to.

We really enjoyed running this course, and are making it a regular event. Next course will be May 17th-18th. Send notification of intent to attend to: [email protected]

 

[Graham]

Sounds like fun. Who are the instructors?

 

[LRRPF52]

Sounds like fun. Who are the instructors?

Myself with some background covered in the OP, and the Guest Instructor is covered in post #2. 2nd-to-last paragraph in post #3 summarizes our backgrounds pretty well.

 

[Graham]

Myself with some background covered in the OP, and the Guest Instructor is covered in post #2. 2nd-to-last paragraph in post #3 summarizes our backgrounds pretty well.

I saw the descriptions of the instructor backgrounds, that's why I asked who they are. Of course, if they (and you) are currently operational/deployed I understand the witholding of names.

 

[Graham]

Thanks for the PM. Sounds like a knowledgeable group of guys.

 

[LRRPF52]

I have only walked in one set of boots in this life, so I really like to have a guest instructor that is as experienced or more experienced than myself when possible. Pretty much every scenario and training technique for the Practical Exercises and drills is based off what it's like to get shot at for real, so this type of course looks a lot different than how we used to train in the Army.

We would go to the range, lay down our sleeping mats, set up sandbags or a Ghillie suit rolled up for frontal support, break out our sand socks, take out our dope books, get the spotter set up behind the shooter, do some grouping exercises at 400m, then start pushing out on the iron maidens and record all our shots, conditions, etc. That's great for determining what you and your system are capable of, but as we would work into live-fire stalk lanes, we realized that a lot of the time, the prone is just not an option, and you have way less time to resolve a firing solution.

Heavy-barreled M24's are a great target gun for the range, but they suck as a fighting tool, even by First World War standards due to the weight/imbalance of the system. Before I even joined, I was keeping up with the developments in the sniper/precision rifle community, and that was a time when the M21 system was being displaced in-favor of the M24. It made two camps of shooters: those who realized the importance of a gun you could fight with, and those who focused on having an accurate system that could predictably give us higher 1st-round hit probability out to 600m. The M24 won out, and we were stuck with a Palma rifle that had been "militarized" by making it black and giving it an "M" nomenclature.

The issues with accuracy and repeatability with the M21 were more than valid, but the M24 was not the answer. I hated carrying it, because I knew I was basically carrying a club around if contact was ever made, especially when we were working in 2-man teams and any self-respecting enemy decides to blast the spotter first, he having the more practical weapon system with the M16/M203 combo or M4/203.

SF was smart to start buying SR-25's around that same time frame, and the guns went through some teething issues, but the primary stick for instruction and issue was still the M24.

The Sniper School at Ft. Benning started using the M21's for stalk lanes, to keep the M24's from schoolhouse abuse class after class, even though the M24 is one of the toughest guns I have seen. The Marines went away from their handy M40's to the M40A3, which is a beast to carry, and after 9/11, the SR-25 pattern guns started to filter into both the Army and Marines with the M110 and Mk11. M14's had been re-introduced into service for the DM role, but the issues with that system made themselves known to the new generation of kids who had only heard about how mythically awesome the M14 was.

The Army and Marines started to savvy up to the Designated Marksman concept, and both services have actually put together a system where they are now TO&E slots in the Infantry Squad, giving the Squad the ability to employ the capabilities of a trained guy with a magnified optic, which increases 1st-round hit probability and effective range of select riflemen, and the situational awareness of the Squad with a trained guy behind a magnified optic.

I had been a big proponent of the DM concept, but figured it made too much sense to ever have a chance of being embraced by the Army. I think we're at a point now where as operational tempo has subsided, budgetary issues rule the day, and most veterans still on active duty are burned-out on deployment, that it is critical to retain this skill set, and continue to build our lessons-learned into the training that we do. This is really the foundation for why I run this course.