Student Review: Combat Rifle 20-21 Sep: Mike Q

Aaron is an excellent instructor. He’s very knowledgeable, competent, and easy to learn from. He can be stern when safety violations occur but easily reverts back to calm; nor does he hold grudges against students when problems occur. However, woe be to anyone who brings pmags…(Max adds: what’s the deal, I love PMAGs?)

The sequence of the class itself falls in the same mantra as MVT’s standard; crawl, walk, run. Every exercise was first demonstrated by Aaron, then each student did at least two or three dry runs, then actually performed the exercise two or three times. Our class had eleven students so we split into two halves with one half working the exercise and the other half watching. Throughout each dry run and subsequent actions Aaron walked behind each student and offered suggestions, corrections, or encouragement as needed. The second half of the second day was run using only individuals or pairs of students depending on the exercise.

As the class went on I felt more and more comfortable. Each exercise built my confidence little by little. At no point in time did I feel rushed or not understand the exercise. Aaron promptly answered any question at any time. As others have said he really explains the why of each step so you can understand the theory.

For me the highlight of day one was the pressured malfunctions exercises. Running up the small hill to fire my weapon that a “friendly” fellow student had set up a malfunction on was great. Got my blood pumping, heart rate up, and then forced me to clear the rifle to get two shots down range. LOVED IT!

The highlight for the second day was the dual fire from cover exercise. We shot from both our strong side and support side. Support side shooting was a little odd at first but really got comfortable after a few iterations.

I’ve only taken one day of previous training before and I learned some from that class. This two day training greatly expanded on that and reinforced what I had learned previously and helped to identify other areas which need improving. Tactical mag changes are challenging for me. Slowing down is another one (taking that extra half second makes all the difference) A few small gear issues still need to be worked out. (Pmags – I simply can’t do a tactical mag change while standing using Pmags. Kneeling I can, but not standing.) I think as I progress through the classes (I’m going to go to CTT next, followed by Combat Patrol) my gear will be adjusted and dialed in a little more each class.

All in all I had an excellent time. I cannot wait to come back for the next round of training.

Thank you to Max for allowing me to come onto your property and add a few new holes in the berm!

Mike Q