The Great ‘Tactical Training’ Con

Yea, well, I had to fire this parting shot before heading off for the weekend up to WV to, primarily, dig a latrine hole.

The Great Tactical Training Con:

I was just reflecting and re-read this AAR HERE

Here is an extract:

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“Tactical” vs Tactical

While over the past few years there have been a lot of ‘tactical’ courses offered out there, I have never taken an interest in them. I can sum it up in two words to explain why: Square Range.

There is only so much that can be done on the square range. I cannot completely blame instructors as there is a fear of lawsuits and a lot of facilities are not setup for this level of training. I have noticed within the gun community (especially online) is the thought that attending these courses, or even a lot of them, transforms a shooter into an individual that can operate in the field as a soldier. I’m not saying that this is explicitly stated, but there is are a lot of implications made by those who attend courses and feel they are ‘all set.’

The square range can be good to teach fundamentals and get a shooter familiar with his weapon. Short of that, if you want to train in how to use your weapon in combat, you need to replicate that environment as close as possible. Jumping around the range, walking around barrels and shooting 1,000 or even 2,000 rounds in a weekend just creates noise and shreds paper. I think I expended at most 300 rounds of ammunition in his course. You are putting down accurate fire, not spraying rounds on rapid fire, marksmanship counts.

If you want to have any chance of surviving an exchange of gunfire you need a team. Not only do you need a team, you need a team that has been trained and knows what it is doing. It is certainly exemplified in Max’s course.

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So I’m deciding to break cover, at the expense of potentially taking incoming from some over this. But what the hell, so what? It needs to be said.

It’s something I think, and its why I deliberately designed my course the way I have, and why I purchased the pop-up targets and set them up in the way I have, in the woods in a realistic combat environment.

There is a great con out there. Its a tactical training con, as alluded to in the quoted passage above. It’s square range stuff where you are supposed to come away combat capable. Even at a basic level, how can you be so if you don’t even know how to use ground or cover correctly?

But its worse than that, its insidious: you can learn all you want how to run your gun super fast. Yes, I’ve seen the videos on YouTube. Yes, I’ve seen your snake oil salesman like gun trickery. But no, I’m about training my people to stay alive when the rounds are coming at them. I allude to this a little in this post: Combat Rifle – Solid Basics to keep you Alive

You can stand on a square range all you want, running your gun fast, reloading, hosing down targets. But you will be killed if you try that in a combat situation. If your ‘tactical training’ does not take account of a real environment and the need to TAKE COVER whenever possible, then you are barking up the wrong tree.

That’s probably upset a few. Go and get training from an actual combat trainer, someone with the right background, experience and instructional ability.

Rant complete.

MV Out.