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AAR – Oct 26/27 2013 CRCD – Ben

AAR – Oct 26/27 CRCD


I arrived Friday night after driving most of the 2nd half of the day from South Carolina. Max met me there and showed me around the range and campground, after that he took off in his ranger to continue prepping for the long weekend ahead. By that time the sun had set and I had the entire mountain to myself, this was awesome! I usually backpack through the Smoky Mountains year round and am used to all kinds of weather and look forward to the more extreme conditions as it is a way to test my gear. I began to set up my hammock and the temperature was beginning to drop, the forecast was for a low of 28F around 3am. I was excited to try out some new kit for my hammock (down underquilt) to keep me warm during the colder months. It was about 9pm I had just finished some food, boiled some water in a stainless steel bottle using my Soto windmaster microstove, threw it in the bottom of my sleeping bag and climbed in the warm cozy hammock. I then racked the slide on my Glock 22, slipped it into the hammock side pocket then turned off my headlamp, I had a rain fly overhead which I rolled back and was greeted with a cloudless night and looked up at the stars which very quickly sent me to sleep.
The next morning I broke down the camp, it was cold! I was anxious for the students to arrive, but damn it was cold! Luckily Max had built a chin up bar next to the main shelter; I did a few sets of pull-ups and burpies which warmed me up quickly. A few minutes later the students began to arrive via the ranger, we all briefly chatted until Max was ready start…
In a nutshell, Max’s teaching style is geared well for this type of class. He keeps the training simple but effective for the goal in mind. There are many other cookie cutter “tactical” rifle/pistol classes which are being taught around the country. They all have the same thing in common…. weapons manipulation and to perfect the skill of hosing stationary targets while standing at 15yrds. As training good weapon’s manipulation is important for all mall ninja’s, Max’s class takes a completely different approach. Max begins the class by teaching reaction shooting at hidden targets in a wilderness environment. His hidden targets are dug into the terrain and are located at different elevations and distances with a 180 degree field of fire. To add another dimension to the training, they pop up on demand using a remote control at Max’s discretion. The most effective kind of reaction shooting is when you have no idea when or where a threat will come from. Max nailed this one on the head.
Once he gets the class proficient at reaction shooting and safety he then moves the group of patriots into a classroom setting. At this point Max breaks out the whiteboard and begins to teach small 4 man team tactics derived from the British SAS. Being a British Citizen myself (Bermuda) this brings me a little bit of pride. The rest of the first and second day the class went through multiple live fire reaction drills to different kinds of contact with team communication and movement, each revolution there was more information added and the skills were developed to a point where no more information would stick in that short period of time.
To ALL potential students who are interested in this class,
In order to obtain as much information from Max, get in shape so that your physical abilities do not hold back your learning potential. Also get very comfortable with your primary weapons system. Be comfortable with dealing with weapons manipulations (magazine changes, malfunctions, sight acquisitions) in all positions of fire (standing, kneeling, prone) you will be doing a lot of… “I’m up, he sees me, I’m down”… 90% of all your training of this kind can safely be done at home with dummy rounds. By practicing this way you will very quickly realize where your physical abilities are and where they need to be improved upon. You will also figure out where your gear placement should be on your BB/PC. If you can figure out most of this before your 1st CRCD class, you will be absorbing more information from Max during his instruction.
I will be returning for the patrol class and look forward to developing my skills further, I would highly recommend going to this class. Max has a wealth of information and I am thankful that he is sharing this with all of us. For the small community of patriots out there, this is the place to go.
Stay Safe,
Ben, South Carolina