Rifle/Carbine Training

MOVING AND SHOOTING




What I love about this is the INTENTIONALITY of the movement and then stopping to shoot.  If you watch closely, he shoots in a very controlled and rhythmic-fashion.  Then, he turns, looks at the next location, and then runs.  Then he stops and turns AND THEN drives the gun out to shoot.  Where motions can be brought together, he does it, but the vast majority of the time, he breaks each part of the drill down so that he can make sure he puts each piece of the puzzle together smoothly.
- Carp



VARIOUS SHOOTING POSITIONS


HALEY AND COSTA - CARBINE DRILL

If you don't know Travis Haley and Chris Costa, I...I...I don't know what to say. These guys are beast. There is so much one can take away from just this short video (get The Art of the Tactical Carbine 1 and 2 for much more training like this - click here: MAGPUL). Anyhow, here are a few of the great fundamentals you can pull out of this video.

- COMMUNICATION. These guys talk. "Moving...move" is just the basic way they let one another know they are shifting positions. You hear "CONTACT!" as the video starts. There are tons of other commands to learn, but at the core, communication will be key for you to be effective with your weapon. If we are to use airsoft as a training tool, you have to learn to communicate to be not only effective, but safe as well. If you start moving and your fire buddy doesn't know you are moving, people are going to get hurt.

- MUZZLE CONTROL. Watch how when these guys move, they never sweep across the other guy with a muzzle. Guns are pointed at the ground so no one accidentally gets shot. This is a HUGE issue at airsoft ops. People are pointing barrels all over the place and one wrong trigger pull and again, people get hurt.

- RELOADING SPEED. Do you see how fast these guys get an empty mag out and another one back in? Those seconds add up so if you're going to stay in the fight, you need a mag with ammo in it.

Certainly there's so much more to take from this video and others by these guys, but more will come in the future. If operators could get communication, muzzle control, and reloading to a fine art, we are well on our way.

- Carp

AN AIRSOFT IMPRESSION OF TRAVIS HALEY AND CHRIS COSTA

OK, ok - I know. It's so easy to start ragging on these guys and talk about all the things they are doing wrong or different than the experts. But let's just pause to think about what they are doing right here. They are out there training - good. They are working on moving, communication, and reloading - good. They are out there - good. Oh wait, did I mention that already? Well, it's worth noting because so many airsoft critics are just chairsofters, bustin' everyone's chops but never getting away from the computer long enough to actually train, skirmish, or run in an OP. So the bottom-line is good to go for anyone (like these guys) who is actually out there and working on improving.

That said, here are a few of my observations.

First, you have to think about switching hands from time to time. I realize not all real-steel operators do that, but if you watch Costa at the last barricade, he does switch shoulder and shoot around the barricade from his left. Haley doesn't switch and that may be because he would lose time in the fire fight. But at least knowing how to do that would be helpful (a video on this coming in the future).

Another observation - one of the great axioms of training or practice is to train like it's the real thing. I notice that there is some mag dropping when these guys reload. In my world at least (and I think in most of our worlds) we can't afford to leave airsoft mags behind or even take the chance of losing one. If I were doing this, I'd be dropping mags into a dump pouch or back into a mag pouch. For realism based on a real firefight, this video gets points for dropping mags. For airsoft realism, I wouldn't be dropping mags.

Last one - good muzzle control - no one sweeping across their fire buddy.

Overall though, this is a great video to show some basics on how to train.

- Carp

COSTA SHOWS HOW SO SWITCH FROM RIGHT TO LEFT AND KEEP YOUR GUN IN THE FIGHT

Check out the entire vid, but for a clear look at changing sides and keeping your weapon up, start paying particular attention at the 50 second mark.  This takes time to learn, but I've found it very helpful, primarily because you are keeping your muzzle pointing at the opposition as your switch sides.

- Carp


TRAVIS HALEY TALKS AIRSOFT FOR TRAINING

DYNAMIC TRAINING WITH AIRSOFT




SPEED RELOAD BY A MARINE

For those of us who run a chest rig or LBV of-sorts, here's a great example of how quickly we can learn to swap mags out.