As you have seen in previous postings, TNVC held this class in Victoria, Texas, on the grounds of Wild River Ranch’s tactical training facility. A hog hunt was also provided for the instructors, to prove a concept that will be considered for future courses. The idea is that we will offer a more advanced class, which involves training during the first 1-2 days of the event and then a night vision and thermal assisted hog hunt on the last day or days, providing the students with live targets, in order to apply their newly acquired skill set.
But, back to this class, this is my AAR, and also WRR’s welcome post to the Sniper’s Hide as a Forum sponsor! Look to this post for updates on next year’s TNVC Night Defender class, and announcements for other Wild River Ranch events, products and hunts. We have literally thousands of photos from the event and more will be posted as we sort through them.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Training Day 1</span>: Students assemble for classroom / power point presentation. This is the time to learn how these devices work, and the skills and mindset necessary to fight in the dark. Trainers discussed optics, human eye physiology and other such topics. A demo table was provided so students could familiarize themselves with multiple devices, both NV and thermal. Since this is a beginner's night vision class, we hope to save the new NOD buyer time in learning some of the vast array of techniques possible with the devices.
We also were privileged to have reps from FLIR, LDI and Wilcox, who demonstrated their gear to the students. Many thanks to them for traveling to the ranch, to help us with the experience.
TNVC’s Chip Lasky then gave a talk on how to set up a rifle for NOD use, lasers, white lights, mounts, etc. Near dark, the students traveled over to the range facility for a sumptuous barbecue, and then zeroing of weapons. We had a professional cooking team making smoked ribs, and checking the uniformity of the pit's temp with an M24 thermal! After zeroing, the students were asked to complete a series of common drills under the NOD’s. Here you see IR lasers used for aiming.
The students then shot behind the VTAC barricades using a variety of positions. One student, a wounded marine, shot this entire class from a wheelchair, and shot extremely well. Congrats, Paul.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Training Day 2</span>: Students started back at the classroom, then back to the range, at dusk, for dinner and the start of pistol training. Students learned to acquire night sights under NOD’s and also learned the superimposition technique. Most of the students picked this up quickly.
After pistol drills, the students moved to an obstacle course, which started with a rifle drill and a pistol transition drill. They navigated several obstacles, and then went back to the line to finish the drill with a few more shots on target, after working up their heart rates.
Once all the obstacles were completed the course was wrapped up with a brief meeting, and certificates were passed out. After night 2, instructors and WRR guide staff went out in the “Rat Patrol Truck,” looking for hogs. We stalked up to a few groups, using the M24, PVS-14’s, D-740's and LDI DBal lasers for aiming. The FLIR rep had a T-50 and we shot one pig, on the first stalk, with the new Cutting Edge Raptor bullet. After the first few stalks, we finally came upon a large group, at least 25 hogs.
After a countdown, we shot 3, and hit several others that were not recovered. Some of these were killed with the Raptor bullet, from 6.8 SBR's others with Silver State Armory’s factory 77 grain SMK’s in 5.56. One the way back to the cabin, we encountered 2 hogs that ran across the ranch road, and one of the instructors, popped up, and quickly dispatched the last “bonus hog” right at the gate!
This is the model for future events. TNVC and Wild River Ranch are together, forging a one-of- a-kind, educational shooting adventure. The tactical shooting will be handled by TNVC’s tactical training staff, led by Don Edwards, Kyle Harth and Mike Nelson. These trainers have also been training LE and military users of NOD’s for years via Telluric group, and their skills will now be combined with the hunting and guiding prowess of Wild River Ranch. The hunting and outdoors tactics will be handled by WRR guides, who have over 100 years of combined hunting, guiding, and shooting experience, ranging from waterfowl to whitetail deer hunting, to the latest craze, feral hog hunting using night vision, thermal and suppressed weapons. Together, we will help foster what we believe is a natural progression. That is, the marriage of the tactical, hunting and outdoors worlds. Never before has such an experienced team been put together, and nowhere else on planet Earth is such a class being offered.
Stay tuned to this and other posts as we evolve the world’s most advanced and unique tactical, shooting, hunting and outdoor field craft learning experience.
ETA: Night vision assisted pics taken by Chip Lasky. Additional photos taken by WRR staff.
But, back to this class, this is my AAR, and also WRR’s welcome post to the Sniper’s Hide as a Forum sponsor! Look to this post for updates on next year’s TNVC Night Defender class, and announcements for other Wild River Ranch events, products and hunts. We have literally thousands of photos from the event and more will be posted as we sort through them.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Training Day 1</span>: Students assemble for classroom / power point presentation. This is the time to learn how these devices work, and the skills and mindset necessary to fight in the dark. Trainers discussed optics, human eye physiology and other such topics. A demo table was provided so students could familiarize themselves with multiple devices, both NV and thermal. Since this is a beginner's night vision class, we hope to save the new NOD buyer time in learning some of the vast array of techniques possible with the devices.
We also were privileged to have reps from FLIR, LDI and Wilcox, who demonstrated their gear to the students. Many thanks to them for traveling to the ranch, to help us with the experience.
TNVC’s Chip Lasky then gave a talk on how to set up a rifle for NOD use, lasers, white lights, mounts, etc. Near dark, the students traveled over to the range facility for a sumptuous barbecue, and then zeroing of weapons. We had a professional cooking team making smoked ribs, and checking the uniformity of the pit's temp with an M24 thermal! After zeroing, the students were asked to complete a series of common drills under the NOD’s. Here you see IR lasers used for aiming.
The students then shot behind the VTAC barricades using a variety of positions. One student, a wounded marine, shot this entire class from a wheelchair, and shot extremely well. Congrats, Paul.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Training Day 2</span>: Students started back at the classroom, then back to the range, at dusk, for dinner and the start of pistol training. Students learned to acquire night sights under NOD’s and also learned the superimposition technique. Most of the students picked this up quickly.
After pistol drills, the students moved to an obstacle course, which started with a rifle drill and a pistol transition drill. They navigated several obstacles, and then went back to the line to finish the drill with a few more shots on target, after working up their heart rates.
Once all the obstacles were completed the course was wrapped up with a brief meeting, and certificates were passed out. After night 2, instructors and WRR guide staff went out in the “Rat Patrol Truck,” looking for hogs. We stalked up to a few groups, using the M24, PVS-14’s, D-740's and LDI DBal lasers for aiming. The FLIR rep had a T-50 and we shot one pig, on the first stalk, with the new Cutting Edge Raptor bullet. After the first few stalks, we finally came upon a large group, at least 25 hogs.
After a countdown, we shot 3, and hit several others that were not recovered. Some of these were killed with the Raptor bullet, from 6.8 SBR's others with Silver State Armory’s factory 77 grain SMK’s in 5.56. One the way back to the cabin, we encountered 2 hogs that ran across the ranch road, and one of the instructors, popped up, and quickly dispatched the last “bonus hog” right at the gate!
This is the model for future events. TNVC and Wild River Ranch are together, forging a one-of- a-kind, educational shooting adventure. The tactical shooting will be handled by TNVC’s tactical training staff, led by Don Edwards, Kyle Harth and Mike Nelson. These trainers have also been training LE and military users of NOD’s for years via Telluric group, and their skills will now be combined with the hunting and guiding prowess of Wild River Ranch. The hunting and outdoors tactics will be handled by WRR guides, who have over 100 years of combined hunting, guiding, and shooting experience, ranging from waterfowl to whitetail deer hunting, to the latest craze, feral hog hunting using night vision, thermal and suppressed weapons. Together, we will help foster what we believe is a natural progression. That is, the marriage of the tactical, hunting and outdoors worlds. Never before has such an experienced team been put together, and nowhere else on planet Earth is such a class being offered.
Stay tuned to this and other posts as we evolve the world’s most advanced and unique tactical, shooting, hunting and outdoor field craft learning experience.
ETA: Night vision assisted pics taken by Chip Lasky. Additional photos taken by WRR staff.
