AAR #3: DEC 14/15 CRCD – D Close
D-Close: In the middle, above.
AAR “Operation Winter Palace”
14/15 Dec 2013
Those in the partisan/prepper training business must have some understanding of the fickle nature of their participants. They balance the needs of family, finances and liberty to obtain training that might possibly save their own lives and the lives of others. There is no retirement program, no health care. The government doesn’t provide their weapon or ammunition. Their logistics chain is linked to home and hearth. When the weather turns a less than optimal hue, it places stress on this organic support. Cancellations must be anticipated. At MVT 14/15 Dec CRCD class, in the face of mountainous winter conditions, we gained men! Tyranny, take note and despair!
Having participated in a summer session, there were marked differences due to weather and some more subtle, due to experience and refinement.
For those preparing for year round combat operational capability, one must attend training even during adverse environment conditions. Although not advertised as a requirement, West Virginia in December would certainly fit the bill as elevations of 1200-1500 ft MSL are common. Max communicated to our group that training was a go and winter clothing was required.
There are areas in which the self-reliant patriot (SRP) may try to “fly” Economy rather than First class. Winter clothing is not one of those areas. Max is big on the smock concept and it works for his loadout, to be sure. For myself, wearing a full set of level IV body armor, a carrier and attached MOLLE required a similar concept. With less access to the front of the smock, I went with the Blackhawk Warriorwear nylon shell over a fleece liner. My base layer consisted of Merino wool top and bottom, covered with a Multicam combat shirt as an extra layer. The long johns were pricey, $95 for the lower and $75 for the upper. They were fantastic. Next day I wore instead the USMC type poly base layer; It sucked.
Weight considerations: TAG plate carrier, plates, four loaded mags, BK2 knife, 2 smoke grenades, and a few other SMOLES items weighed in the neighborhood of 35 lbs. Rifle was 7.0 plus a Burris MTAC at 1.9 and a 30 round mag at 1.6. Throw a battle belt with dump pouch, BOK, PVS-14 and a Glock 22+1 mag in there and a grand total combat weight of…268ish. Now that is a bunch to be running around with in the snow, especially uphill, down to prone, breaking contact drills, assault a bunker, etc. Night of Day 1 was interesting from a pain management perspective.
So that segs into something that Max and many others have been talking about. Fitness is key. There is a requirement to remain fit throughout the combat effective life of the SRP. If this exercise had been longer term, illness comes into play. Your fitness level directly impacts your resistance level for disease prevention or injury.
Footing and infantry movement techniques (IMT) were certainly impacted by the weather. It directly impacted the speed for RTR and putting rounds on target. The snow is a double edged sword as it may help with concealment after the initial volley and soften the impact of the ground on your laden frame. React to contact meant that team members who had to advance up hill or down, needed to use care to avoid slipping and keeping weapons from eating snow and ice during a fall. Hint: KEEP A CLEANING ROD ON YOUR COMBAT LOAD OR ATTACHED TO YOUR RIFLE.
Malfunctions increased due to the conditions. Wet and icy seem to be tricky. I used a Bushmaster lower and an upper from ARD. I had a few “failure to extract” casings that needed a pull on the charging handle to get back in the fight. You experts out there can tell me why. Out of 671 rounds fired, this may have happened four times. The bottom line is that the SRP needs to be ready to clear a malfunction in a hurry, especially in a fight when team members are moving to cover and you are supposed to be laying down effective suppressive fire.
For those of you who are contemplating a second run through Max’s CRCD, the benefit is repitition of basic skills and the development of situational awareness during a fight. Another concern for the SRP is the use of IMT during RTR drills. One of my training goals was to utilize IMT during RTR to a greater extent and improve my survivability and lethality. As I became more familiar with the desired reaction during contact drills, my utilization of IMT became more effective and I was able to expand awareness of cover and concealment.
CRCD offers a safe and effective means of developing team combat skills. For those lucky patriots who can muster a fire team at home, this training is invaluable and difficult to reproduce on a local level. The use of remotely operated pop-up targets is effective in developing patrolling and react to contact drills. Working with our ad hoc fire teams of SRPs from places far and wide proves that like minded Americans can come together for common defense on short notice and perform effectively.
MVT CRCD has evolved into a highly efficient combat team tactics class. Tactical combat casualty care training was provided by a student with extensive experience in emergency trauma medicine. At the same time, Max was leading individual students on the “Jungle Walk” exercise. His patience level is amazing as he engages students with a wide range of ability.
The instructor steers away from basic weapon handling review. The SRD who attends this class must have basic knowledge on safety, marksmanship and malfunction clearing technique in order to achieve maximum benefit from the class. He must show up with a zeroed rifle and enough skill to engage targets and change mags from the prone position.
What level of capability does this training bestow? It certainly gives an intro to a basic infantry skill set that can be further developed and passed on to other team members. In a “without rule of law” (WROL) scenario, trained personnel working in teams should be capable of defending and if necessary, counter-attacking a similar sized enemy. If faced with a violent and numerically superior foe, the use of coordinated and effective fires by trained team members will prove effective in repulsing attacks against important targets. Logistics then becomes the limiting factor with the supply of ammunition, food, water and medical support key to winning the long term fight.
Ultimately, leadership will determine if battles are won or lost. Will SRPs develop an effective leadership cadre to engage threats throughout a range of scenarios? Will SRPs employ leaders who have mastered the combat skills necessary and can lead their teams through the agony of armed conflict? With basic blocks like CRCD and more advanced patrol classes, MVT and others like him make the development of effective small unit leaders possible so that self-reliant patriots can win the fight. To lead, you must first DO.
– D Close
Dave,
Great AAR.
KY, out
Thanks KY!
No one executes “dead dog prone” like you brother! Nice work my friend.
Great write-up+analysis!! :)
F, thank you. I’ll see if Max will put out class email list. I’d like yours.
Same here : )
Thanks for the write-up. BTW, what ammo were you using? And has your chamber been mic’d to ensure it’s actually 5.56? If not I’d recommend doing so and getting it reamed out if necessary. (To use military 5.56 ammo you need a larger 5.56 chamber.) If the weather might have been a factor, consider keeping rifle cold as much as possible, and possibly looking at a winter lubricant? The old timers in Alaska used “Marvel Mystery Oil” in sub-zero temps. Maybe someone knows of something similar (Bergen?).
On your base layers, what did you think was the difference in being comfortable the first day, and then not so much the next? Was the wool that much superior to poly-pro? And/or did the exertion level go up the second day?
Interesting point about the snow slowing down your drill speed. Do you think anything could be added to the boots for better traction? I’m thinking about those crampon-like devices that are sold to keep you from busting your ass on ice n stuff (“Yak Traks”?)
Thanks again for the feed back.
Diz, great questions. Barrel is stamped 5.56. I used PMC 223A so you would think that was good right? I used a shitload of CLP after the first day and that seemed to help a bit. It wasn’t so cold but there was snow. Max didn’t seem to think it required a dry lube. On layers, my local Jedi master recommended the wool. I wish the poly worked as well for me but it didn’t. True, we were a tad slower paced day 2 but I noticed it more when moisture came into play. The poly just didn’t wick it away like wool. Better than nothing but not optimal. I wondered about the crampon route. I’ve never worn them so I’d be willing to research it and see if they are worth it. My Vibram treads fill up fast so it really slowed me down. It more than doubled my step count as I needed smaller, more rapid steps to get to where I needed to be without busting my ass.
Diz, I’m think the difference in 5.56 vs. .223 is a slight angle change in the shoulder. Both cartridges are dimensionally the same externally otherwise, i.e. to SAAMI specs.
The thicker case wall of 5.56 results in lesser volume inside the case, not an increase in diameter.
Another factor for a fail to extract/cycle is the ambient temp. Colder temps result in less pressure generated, ammo that cycled fine in warmer times might pass the threshold and become too weak in winter conditions. Couple this with lubricants becoming less viscous and it could all compound to the point where the weapon begins to fail to operate.
Did you ahev short cycling issues like the other guy?
Was the PMC, the “Bronze”?
The Bronze while an accurate round is a lot softer loaded than the PMC Xtac, which is thier 5.56 M193 equivalent
When you shoot both after each other u hear and see that.
Also too many folks are running “H” buffers when they shouldn’t.
Both things can contribute to short cycling…
Bronze…yes it was. Didn’t know that could happen. Not sure about the buffer. I haven’t touched it. Lifesaver F, thank you sir!
Often its a combination of factors that causes short cycling and alleviating just one of them may fix it.
The combination of soft Ammo, with cold temps, a H Buffer… maybe even a rifle spriing in carbine stock or a popular “M16 BCG” instead of the semiauto BCG will contribute.
All of them togetehr virtually gurantee short cycling..
One or two by themsleves may not be an issue.
(I once bought a used gun that turned out to have a rifle spring in a carbine stock and a M16 BCG AND a H2 Buffer…. suprisingly I dindnt bother to check since there never was a problem as long as I shot full powered rounds but when I switched to softer Ammo it was obvious.
Fixed it with a lighter BCG and a proper spring.
Never had a problem again.
My SHTF Ammo is all on the hotter side (Federal XM855, Federal M193, PMC XTac 5.56) so no matter which of my guns I shoot I avoid short cycling always.
I was worried a bit about it happening with my TulAmmo (which is loaded similiar to PMC Bronze 223) but luckily I didnt have the problem.
Some barrel makers cognizant that many civilian users use softer loaded ammo than the military does, make their gas holes on the bigger side which really helps.
I should have thought of offering you some of my M193 Ammo stash that I had with me for just such an eventuality…
Pretty good argument for keeping M193 or M855 in the loaded mags in ones warbelt or chest rig and saving the budget ammo for the range.
By the same token, it would probably be wise to use the same ammo you keep in ones go-to-war stockpile for training with Max or others so we know how it will perform under combat conditions.
Well,
we know the quality Ammo will perform well.
I see no problem with using cheaper ammo for training.
It can help us find some weakness in our gear sometimes and tnohing wrong with being forced to do some SPORTS on the range.
Its an addional training opportunity.
And most importantly the training isnt cheap for most and using the cheapest Ammo possible will help relieve some money pressure and so enable more folks to make it to training.
respectfully,
F .. : )
F:
It’s not so much for training, but for testing the reliability of your weapon under combat conditions…in other words, how long will your weapon go without malfunctioning using GI ammo and your “good” mags. I guess I’d rather focus on the drills than dicking around with my weapon (had enough of that training with blank ammo…) but there is certainly merit to what you suggest. We all have our own training goals, or should.
Thanks for a well written AAR. A note on winter clothing. I bought a pair of French Army Chemical pants from Sportsmans Guide. Central Euro pattern lined with charcoal. These are perfect as I got a B110 on order in same pattern. Advertised as used but I received an unissued pair. Tested them out this past week with some PT thru the deep snow and night time temps 5 to -5F. I was wearing only my 1970s army long john bottoms under I was warm and dry. They repelled the wet and the wind quite nicely. During my time over in Europe many moons ago we used to wear those chem suits with only shorts & t-shirts on winter alerts and lie in ditches for hours. I see you can pick them up pretty cheap on the web.
I like that idea.
I have switched to Mobil 1 as a lube for my rifle. It does well in the heat or cold, is designed for high heat environments, and helps with carbon buildup. Run ’em wet boys.