Company: Ronin Combat Strategies
Class: Intermediate Rifle 2 day class
Date: 3/31 & 4/1
Location: Como, MS
Link: http://www.roninstrategies.com/
Pictures from the class: http://www.tacticalphotographer.com/p612180734

This is my first training AAR. These things appear to have a flow to them so I’ll pretty much stay on the same flow. A group of AR15 guys from the TN hometown forums got together for a GREAT day of training.

About Me:
Been a pistol guy all my life. Never really shot rifles except for after hunting with my uncle, we would go shoot water jugs. Hell that was the only reason I ever went hunting with him, so we could shoot after. At 21 I got into pistols. Took my first pistol class and have taken a bunch more since but all around a carry/self-defense mindset. From around 16 to 28ish I didn’t shoot any rifles. A little after my 28th birthday I bought my first AR, one of those things that I’d always wanted but never gotten. I didn’t do much with it for a few months till I got involved in some non-stressful 3 gun at a local club. Fast forward to March 30th and that’s all I’d done with the AR.

Day 1
We show up, with an open mind but not really sure what to expect. We all park, get out and talk for a bit while the instructors are doing setup. At 0800 we start some admin paper work and safety talks. We discuss some gear but again, nothing was pushed on us and for the most part, brands were kept out of it. It was more of “this is what we recommend should be on a rig, here is where we have found that running gear gets in the way, …”. The full staff made it clear many times that they borrow very heavily on other classes and have taken what they feel works and not use what they feel don’t. Again, A WAY, not THE WAY.

Shortly after the class we go towards some steel to get a base line on our pistol. The instructors made it clear, this isn’t a pistol class but as we are doing transitions and such we want to get a baseline on where you are with your pistol skills as well as to warm up a bit. In the short time we shot pistol, they had already thrown enough knowledge out there that made me want to take a pistol class. Keep in mind I’ve taken many pistol classes before, I’ve done a TON of dry fire and at one point go to be pretty damn good with the pistol. These guys showed me that they have a lot more training they can offer me in 1 hour of group pistol shooting than other full 8+ hour pistol classes I’d taken in the past. And again, this wasn’t even a pistol class.

On a side note, the pistol warm up was a great way to break the ice and for me it showed that I hadn’t done dry work or practice the way I used to. This was an eye opener. This is a gun I carry every day, and even though I still can shoot well and I still have my muscle memory down, why the hell am I not practicing on something that I may one day need to save my life. This is when I decided that I’d be taking more pistol training and starting my dry fire back up. With Ronin or not was still TBD at this point.

The pistol warm up is finished and we walk over to the rifle firing line. We start on some basic drills and after each drill they would begin to tell us things that some of us knew but forgot, and some never knew. Like the hold over @7 yards to make sure we get a center target hit and so forth. Some of the drills were done as a group, some were done as they walked down the line timing each person. No matter the drill type, there was an instructor within arms reach to walk over and give advice or pointers during the group drills or after the individual drills. They were also like a shark smelling blood if they sensed a failure or an issue with one of the drills. They made sure to provide their own flavor of stress while you are trying to unscrew whatever has brought your pistol/rifle down. This made many people in the class get flustered and reinforced why practice and training is so critical. Under stress we start to break down. If we break down this quick just under some yelling, imaging what kind of jelly we would turn into under life or death stress.

The course was very fast paced. We were broken up in to two squads. We would shoot, finish run back to our gear to punch mags and drink some water. By the time I barely got my mags loaded they would be yelling for the first squad to come back to the line. I had my rounds on stripper clips and barely got them loaded, I don’t know how in the hell the others loading by hand made it.

Each drill was demonstrated by an instructor to the class before we started. This helped greatly seeing someone do it right and not like some other classes of facing down range and them trying to verbally walk you through it. While they did talk you through it the first couple of times it was only after seeing it done. With each call up to the line, someone would have an issue, be it a malfunction, a fumble on a reload, or the dreaded dead man’s gun. Whenever one of these would happen, again it was a flood of instructors to provide their own motivation to resolve the issue quickly. This was the theme of both days. Any little messup wouldn’t go unnoticed. They watched us like a hawk. This was one of the key points where I knew I had spent my money well. This was not a class where they called out drills and had you fire a lot of shots, they were watching to make sure you were doing it exactly like you should.

After lunch we had a few more hours of close drills, malfunction drills, then moved back to bang steel for the rest of the day. After brief on the course of fire we started man on man bracket competitions. On top of the stress they would provide if something happened, you now knew you were going up against your fellow class member for bragging rights. A great way to end the day.

Day 2 expanded on the fundamentals from day one but it was a far cry from a repeat of day one. We continued to focus on drills and did another baseline to compare to day one. We learned to work as a team, shoot, communicate, move, and how to deploy the rifle faster and shoot with more accuracy. One thing from day one that was the exact same throughout day two was the instructor’s intensity. They really have a passion for this and it shows.

After lunch we moved back to the ~150 yard range and banged steel again for most of the day. 3 sets of man on man competitions and most of the day was gone. We shot from prone, kneeling, standing, and just about standing on our head to shoot through some of the barricades. They made sure to get you out of your comfortable shooting positions and get you comfortable shooting uncomfortably. Each time after you would shoot, there would be an instructor there to walk away with you giving you tips to help. Again, I never felt like I was just wasting rounds. I felt like almost every round I figured was being evaluated.

At the end of the day we had a chance to shoot for the “shooter tabs”. This contest is against yourself and the clock. You have a list of standards you shoot against and depending on your time grades where you rank. These times are no joke and they don’t make it easy. Each tab presented is earned.

Overall
High energy, fast paced, motivated, and passionate are only a few words to describe the awesome instructors. In the admin briefing they made it a point to tell the class they check their egos at the door, and that they did. They reinforced the basics at every turn. Master shooters have basically mastered the basics and can perform them on demand every single time. They also reinforced reality vs theory. Train for reality. One of the things that hit home the most is when they were discussing shooting as a perishable skill. This really was evident to me after not being able to deploy my pistol in a way I used to.

All in all it highlighted that I need to train more. I need more dry work, more live fire work, really just more. At the end of the class I made a decision, if I am going to train, and they offer the class, they will get my money. If you are looking for a great training session, at least give them a look, but I’d say give them a try.

Ronin Combat Strategies
Jason Redding: redding@roninstrategies.com
Jason "Jabo" Long: jabo@roninstrategies.com

Ronin Combat Strategies
P. O. Box 3635
Cordova, TN 38088-3635

Great job crawlin95.

The group photo at the end was a perfect way to finish your review.

Love me some AARs. Ronin has been on my radar lately. Seem like a good crew.