DAY 2 – Close Quarter Battle (CQB)
Tuesday was a long day – we started out on the 100 yard firing line at 9am, broke for dinner at 4:30pm, came back at 7:30pm for low-light/flashlight drills, and worked until 10pm.
After confirming the zero on our rifles, we launched into shouldering our sling worn rifles.
Any good shooting class will have a segment on failure drills, and we did our share in Tactical Rifle I. Not the most fun part of course, but a necessity – resolving a failure and getting your rifle back in the fight as quickly as possible is key.
One of the more fun drills we did was a move & shoot “box drill.” Walk toward the targets firing, move sideways while firing, then walk backwards while firing:
Here’s a photo of myself (center) with my buddy John R. (left) and his father during a break.
In the afternoon TDI Instructor John Motil lead an interesting discussion regarding the choice of weapon mounted lights on the AR-15 platform. When making this choice it’s important to take into consideration the environment in which the weapon/light will be used. If you’ll be using it outdoors in a rural setting, then by all means get a weapon mounted light (WML) which has as much output as possible. But in an indoor/urban setting, a WML with an output of around 100 lumens is plenty. More output that that, and you risk the wash back reflected off of the typically white walls in most homes and buildings blinding the weapon operator. In either setting, think light-weight, and think simple operation. One mode of operation (instant on/instant off switch) is preferred for tactical use.
After this segment, TDI Instructor Clay Smith lead a segment on performing door way “drop outs” when clearing a room:
After the demonstration the students were given the opportunity to practice the maneuver:
At 4:30pm the class broke for dinner and returned for the low light/flashlight segment at about 7:00pm. Here’s a neat photo I took of the setting sun when we cam back from dinner and were beginning to set up:
My local outdoor range doesn’t allow shooting past sunset, so this was my first real experience with low light rifle shooting – I found it extremely valuable.
END OF DAY 2 – CLICK ON DROP DOWN BELOW TO GO TO PAGE 3
John B. Holbrook, II is a freelance writer, photographer, and author of ThruMyLens.org, as well as LuxuryTyme.com and TheSeamasterReferencePage.com.
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Thanks John, for another well written review of TDI, I hope to take several more classes there myself, and its nice to be able to preview them from a student’s perspective.
Have I mentioned yet just how jealous I am? Keep up the good work.
Thanks much Terry! I hope to see you at a TDI class!