Looking for Beginner Carbine Drills

[Corpral_Agarn]

Hello THR,

I have been presented with a really cool opportunity to host a "Carbine Drills Class" for some newer carbine shooters (college students).
By carbine, I mean AR's, AK's, and Mini 14's.

The range we have available is 25yrds, indoors.
I have already required that everyone where both ear plugs and ear muffs.

Of course we will be covering all of the safety (I am a stickler for safety) and basic functions of the equipment and guns.

Drills I had come up with at the top of my head where pistol drills just shot with carbines:
Bill Drill
FAST Drill
Practicing muzzle offset awareness
Lots of "up" drills from low and high ready
Emergency Reloads
Target transition from a 8.5x11 paper to a 3x5 card

I was hoping that the THR might have some other drills that could be shot from a static line and still be fun and relevant at <=25yrds

A lot of these guys are interested in 2/3 gun competition and "Tactical" applications.

So... What does THR think?

 

[z7]

Sounds like a great thing to do. I would mix in some malfunction drills. if you have the ability to handload, and are willing, load up some ammo with no primer/powder and sneak it into their ammo supply to make them go through the Tap-rack-bang sequence.
load one round in a magazine and force the speed reload.
load three rounds, two targets needing two shots each

put BIG numbers on 3 or 4 targets down range and call out a the targets by number in a sequence. you can also label the targets 1,2,3,4,5 in big letters, but actually call them a,b,c,d,e, to make them think, like a milder version of these

if you can set up multiple targets, try to get a few USPSA style targets up and have them engage multiples against a clock, then retrieve and score the targets.

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

Sounds like a great thing to do. I would mix in some malfunction drills. if you have the ability to handload, and are willing, load up some ammo with no primer/powder and sneak it into their ammo supply to make them go through the Tap-rack-bang sequence.
load one round in a magazine and force the speed reload.
load three rounds, two targets needing two shots each

put BIG numbers on 3 or 4 targets down range and call out a the targets by number in a sequence. you can also label the targets 1,2,3,4,5 in big letters, but actually call them a,b,c,d,e, to make them think, like a milder version of these

if you can set up multiple targets, try to get a few USPSA style targets up and have them engage multiples against a clock, then retrieve and score the targets.

Failure drills are a great idea.

I think I have some snap caps lying around that we could use.

I run a pistil drills class once a month and I use the 6 2" circles on a piece of paper numbered 1-6. We have a lot of fun with that one.

I am a big believer in using shot timers. Will include that as well.

thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Jeff White]

I've attached some files with the outlines of the carbine and patrol rifle classes I taught. PM or email me if you need any of them explained. Good luck!

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

I've attached some files with the outlines of the carbine and patrol rifle classes I taught. PM or email me if you need any of them explained. Good luck!

Thank you, Sir.

 

[FL-NC]

Kyle Lamb of viking tactics has some really good drills that are simple to explain and very effective from a tactical standpoint. I think many of them are on youtube, unless they have been removed.

 

[Chuck R.]

IF it's truly a basic course I'd also add some rationale for how to set up a carbine, sling, optic etc. I see guys show up to classes that have had to make adjustments on the fly because not a lot of thought went into the "why" they set up their chit the way they did.

Depending on how they're doing with the basic stuff up drills etc. add working cover, shoulder transitions and pistol transitions. Both the shoulder and pistol transitions well get back to carbine set up.

Last 2 classes I took were big on accuracy (to include offset) and cognitive drills: colors, numbers, pictures (with nicknames fro people)and varying round counts. The last class with Jason Long (last month) was very big on accuracy, very small tgts that also worked offsets at different distances.

Don't know how you're set for props, but we also used the heck out of VTAC barricades, to shoot from the different ports, right and left sides. We had 4 of them available so towards the end a pretty challenging course of fire was used to practice hitting the "right" tgt from the "right" position which included lateral movement. Run on a timer, it was also a lot of fun as a culmination exercise. Pic of one of my VTACs:

 

[z7]

A good point was brought up regarding a beginners course. try to go through a short-ish discussion and demonstration of some fundamentals of marksmanship. discuss trigger control and how to break clean shots, where to place the trigger finger, what makes a good standing position, one for aimed fire and another for those "snap shots" at shorter distances that still require a bit of marksmanship

i see so many people with really poor mechanics at the ranges blasting away and enjoying it, but often they look at a small group with amazement,

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

IF it's truly a basic course I'd also add some rationale for how to set up a carbine, sling, optic etc. I see guys show up to classes that have had to make adjustments on the fly because not a lot of thought went into the "why" they set up their chit the way they did.

While I agree, that may be a little outside the scope of the event. if they have questions, I would gladly answer them, but I am trying to get them to shoot and have fun then run another course later with "what you should think about when setting up your rig".

Depending on how they're doing with the basic stuff up drills etc. add working cover, shoulder transitions and pistol transitions. Both the shoulder and pistol transitions well get back to carbine set up.

Awesome idea ,but Carbine/Pistol is slated for further down the road.
These are college students just barely dipping their toe into shooting beyond a bench or at the range shooting one shot per second.

Last 2 classes I took were big on accuracy (to include offset) and cognitive drills: colors, numbers, pictures (with nicknames fro people)and varying round counts. The last class with Jason Long (last month) was very big on accuracy, very small tgts that also worked offsets at different distances.

Awesome.
I like to mix the accuracy and speed elements to give people a feel for their "gas pedal".
Need to know how fast (or how much time) you need to make the shot you are trying to make.

Don't know how you're set for props, but we also used the heck out of VTAC barricades, to shoot from the different ports, right and left sides. We had 4 of them available so towards the end a pretty challenging course of fire was used to practice hitting the "right" tgt from the "right" position which included lateral movement. Run on a timer, it was also a lot of fun as a culmination exercise. Pic of one of my VTACs:

I need to make one of those.
No props this time, but I will be looking to include stuff like that in more advanced classes.


If these students come away being reasonably proficient at getting the rig on target and putting rounds where they belong combined with safely being able to reload and clear malfunctions, I will be ecstatic.

Thanks for the reply!