TNVC & Telluric Group conducted at Night Defender 1 class on 7/8 February 2015 in Brunswick, GA.

This is a short course review not to serve as a replacement for training, but rather to give prospective students a better idea of what all the class offers.

Official Course announcement here.



Location:
Telluric Group info here.
Telluric Group is located right off of I-95. Plenty of lodging and food are close by, literally all within walking distance.

Class (DAY 1):
Class consisted of 6 students, they had a couple drop last minute.
Instructors were John Lovell (TG) and Eric Butler (TNVC)
Saturday class was about 50% classroom and 50% exercise/ range time

Classroom topics consisted of:

• Explanation that the Night Defender course is presented as a Foundational Course


• Presentation of Physiological/ Physiological effects of NV and fighting at night


• Discussion of off center viewing- specifically blind spots & where to look to optimize viewing through night vision devices


• Presentation of dark adaption factors


• Protecting night vision & optical effects such as depth perception


• Explanation of Boyd's OODA Loop


• Introduction to the technical aspects of NV systems


• Presentation of lowlight principles

Exercise/ Range:
We then moved to the shoot house for some basic familiarization and obstacle course.



The range portion of the first day we began with procedure on how to zero IR lasers. We used the most excellent Telluric Group IR Laser Zero Targets.
After we were zero'd we finished the day off with running drills on the 25 yd range at TG.






Class (DAY 2):
For the second day we jumped right back into the shoot house to run the obstacle course again- this time in full kit with rifle. We then jumped back into the range. Eric & John broke out the VTAC Barricades and we ran turn drills.










After midday we transitioned off to UTM conversions for our guns. See note below regarding UTM & Gun usage.We continued on the live range running UTM drills and finished off on the live fire range with a designed stress shoot. We then transitioned back to the shoothouse. Under John's & Eric's direction we individually ran the shoothouse with our UTM enabled carbines.







The UTM shoothouse portion completed the ND course. Students were presented with diplomas & swag.best swag I got at a class yet.





My gear:
Helmet Setup:
TW Exfil Carbon
TNV-14 CommSpec w/ Phokus Hoplite
INVG Mount
Inforce WML IR light
Princeton Tec MPLS Switch
ETA: The LOMF patches- I don't normally have two on there. the black one was swag from the class. :)






Carbine:
AAC MPW 12.5" .300 BLK w/ 90T Taper Brakeout 2.0
SR-7 Silencer
BFG Padded VCAS
Magpul ACS Stock
ATPIAL-C Laser/ Illuminator
SF M300V
Unity Tactical VFG
Aimpoint T1 in an LRP mount





Notes:
I have had prior NV experience over the past 3 years working various events partnered with TNVC. Throw in a couple additional low light classes where I wore NV once it went dark. But not a lot of operational use until the class.
My carbine set up originally ran a CQBL but I changed to the ATPIAL the day of the class and I am glad that I did. The laser and illuminator NEED to be on the same switch/ firing button.
.300 BLK continues to be a great solution for me and the type of shooting that I do.
The Phokus Hoplite was a great help in navigating obstacles and doing up close work.

UTM Notes:
For the UTM section you need at least a 5.56 upper. I was lucky enough to pull one off my truck carbine and move my laser over. the UTM bolt would have fit in the .300 BLK but no way that the cartridges would have chambered. One other student in class ran a 9mm carbine and ended up needing to borrow a gun. This is suboptimal. So if you're going to run anything but 5.56 bring a spare upper for UTM.
Make sure your gun is CLEAN before you run UTM. One student kept fighting malfunctions. he was running suppressed 5.56 for pretty much a full day. I think it was too dirty to run the UTM bolt.
UTM was the BOMB for running the shoothouse and several of the drills in the live fire range that would have been totally impossible with live rounds.

Overall Takeaway:
John and Eric were consummate professionals with honest real world experience. They were exceptional in their presentation of the course material and demonstrated all the skills and techniques of the class. I am very grateful to have been able to attend this class and am looking forward to attending additional TG/ TNVC classes.
All those that are serious about personal defense and own NV are doing a disservice to themselves by not taking this class. It was truly world class instruction and (coming directly from former military members at the class) better training than service members recieve when issued NV optics.

Great review.  This mirrors my review of the TNVC/Telluric class I took several years ago.  Definitely worth the money.  The facility here looks worth the price of admission alone.

http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=9&f=19&t=231826

Looks like a hell of a good time.

So was that one shooter trying to do a split in that one pic.

How do you like the ATPIAL other than the switch?  Is the illuminator strong?  How does it compare to the throw of a typical vampire head?

In a perfect world the fire switch would have been more to the back and able to be hit with a forward movement of the shooter's left thumb (like the Dbal D2). But honestly the Fire switch on top of the unit was not a detriment and I used the included pressure pad on all of the live fire. (for the UTM portion I used the Fire button as my switches were zip tied to my 300 BLK upper).

I will be buying another ATPIAL for my 5.56 gun. It's the best solution for me all around (illuminator/ laser/ weight/ mount/ switchology).

The illuminator is plenty strong for what we were doing (we shot out to 25yds). I can see the need to supplement with a M300V or Torch if you are hunting at 300+ yds.

It seems like a lot of you guys are rockin' a monocular.  Was there a preference for this during the classes?  Or just other random reasons?

Great photos!!  I like the white phosphor image.

All students ran a pvs-14. John told us it was really a personal preference.  It's easier to transition to the day optic and white light running the monocular.  We all ran monoculars on our non dominant eye. I'd like to run some of those same drills with duals next time see if I can determine a difference.

Awesome review. Looks like a ton of fun. I hope 2015 is the year for me to get into NV and start enjoying some training like this.

Great review. Thanks.

I am most appreciative of what I have learned though your collective experiences on this site. Thank you all for sharing. No doubt NV is an extremely unique and niche subset (I'll let you decide what that makes us). This site has been instrumental in allowing me to develop a broad foundation of knowledge in pursuit of a yet undefined skill level objective.

Learning something new requires a considerable time investment. Along the way, regardless of the new discipline, the wheat must be separated from the chaff.

I concur completely with the OP regarding the level of professionalism and training this course and these particular instructors provided. Unlike virtually any training program that requires taking a particular skill set to the next level it is all too often fraught with wasted time and well meaning but marginal instructors.

If you are looking to supercharge your NV skill, with no BS, while being challenged and pushed, this course is for you.

Think of it as opportunity cost of time versus dollars. We can learn through trial and error, or you can simply learn from those who have achieved a skill level that most of us will never emulate, or achieve, by lack of necessity or ability.

I have been fortunate and blessed in my life to be exposed to many unique experiences. From my perspective this course, taught by these instructors, has provided me with a stimulating and memorable experience I will not forget.

Two words: "Do It"

I ( guy doing the split in the photo above) whole-heartedly agree.  Best $600 I've ever spent.

Pics updated.

Anyone know why the ARFCOM image uploader will randomly rotate pics 90 degrees sometimes?

Thanks for the AAR!  Would love to attend one of these one day, though I don't think it'll happen this year.  

~Augee

Taken this class 3 times....there's a reason for that. I'm either real dumb or its so fantastic you crave more and more info.