Review of The Tactical Rifle I Course From TDI

Day 3 of Tactical Rifle I is about putting together the skills learned over the prior two days in four different exercises which are designed challenge and test those skills.  I woke up early Sunday morning, cleaned my rifle, packed up and headed back out to TDI with some time to spare – I got this photo of the morning sun shining down on my car overlooking the ranges:

LIVE FIRE HOUSE 2 (LFH2)

My first exercise of the day began in LFH2 and was essentially a house clearing exercise.  The scenario was that I came to pick up my son from his friends house, and arrived to find the door kicked in, and two strange vehicles idling in the driveway, with reports of shots fired from inside the house.  My job was to go in and rescue my son.  I ended up not doing as well as I should have in the LFH2 exercise.  Room clearing with a rifle is just a different experience than doing so with a pistol.  I made several key mistakes, including shooting a unarmed photo target.  The only good thing I can say is that I successfully discovered the photo target of the hostage holding “my son” hostage, and placed two shots from down a long hallway into the cowardly bad guy’s head (including one shot in the ocular cavity…Osama Bin Laden style.  🙂

If you look closely, you can see the boy didn’t fair quite so well from the shooter who went before me….it wasn’t an easy shot.

THE FIELD

This next exercise really did a nice job combining and using everything we’d learned in the class.  First, there were two small metal targets on the left side you had to shoot from the 100 yard line unsupported.  You could shoot from any position you wanted, but it had to be an unsupported shot.  At least half our group was unable to make these shots (the TDI instructors would draw their pistols and give you an assist with hitting the targets if a student missed too many attempted shots).  In my case, I missed my first shot at the left side metal target, hit with my second, and hit my first shot on the right hand metal target.  One other in our group did better than myself and hit both metal targets on the first attempt.

  After making these first two shots, you had to head down range to the barrels, stopping at each and taking a different position to make the shots as instructed.

This student (a law enforcement officer) came all the way from Japan for this course. He’s accompanied by his translator and a TDI Instructor as he progresses through the exercise.

The student goes prone at the first barrel, and must kneel at the second.

After taking the rifle shots at the barrels, the student goes to the third and final station, and must draw their pistol and make a single, long, and obstructed shot.

I missed both of my prone shots here, but otherwise did well.  Overall, this may have been my favorite exercise of the day.

THE WALL

Perhaps the most physically demanding of Sunday’s exercises was the Wall.

The student begins on the left hand side of the wall and is assigned one of three shapes which respond to window cut outs all along the wall – square, rectangle, or triangle.  So for each section of the wall, the shooter will always shoot through the window shape which they’re assigned.  I was given “square” and always shot from the square window.  Down range, there are three body targets, along with one “hostage” with a small, almost 3×5 card like white section representing the hostage taker:

Also note the black line on each body target – only shots landed above that line counted.

You walk up stairs, across a platform, then down a ramp – the shape your assigned is randomly placed throughout each section, meaning you’ll likely have to contort your body into some non-conventional positions in order to make the shots (one each on the three body targets at every section) and maintain cover.

Randomly during the exercise the instructor would yell “hostage!” meaning you had to take a shot at the hostage taker target.

By the time you reach the end of the wall, the stress combined with constant sit, stand, squat, kneel activity required will have you considerably short of breath.  Unfortunately, you’re only half way done with the exercise at this point.  At the end of the wall, you must do a drop out, take your shots, then begin navigating a series of cover points downrange – shooting either on the move or from each cover point.

I went through about two 30-round magazines running this exercise.  I only missed four of my body target shots, but unfortunately both of my hostage taker shots fell right below the hostage taker and struck the hostage.  🙁  The instructor said that it was likely heavy breathing which caused both of the hostage taker misses….time to kick up the cardio in the gym!

THE JUNGLE WALK

The final exercise of the day was the one I performed the most poorly on.  The Jungle Walk takes place in a heavily wooded area of the TDI campus and the student is lead on a trail walk.  Around a dozen or so cardboard silhouette torso targets are interspersed throughout the trees and brush along the trail – the challenge is one of observation.

As my wife will attest, I’m simply not very observant and missed nearly half of the targets along the trail (from here out I’ve resolved to avoid all jungles containing concealed, armed combatants).  The Jungle Walk was a….humbling experience.  But, with the end of this exercise, so concluded my three days of Tactical Rifle I training at TDI and (God bless ’em) they did give me a certificate of completion.  But clearly I have a LOT to work on before I come back to TDI next month for the September Tactical Rifle II course.  🙂  But, I learned a great deal and highly recommend the course for anyone interested in gaining competency with a tactical carbine rifle.

My friend (pictured above with his father) John R. did a most excellent video on the course which I’m including here in my article: