Over this past weekend I hosted Don Edwards from Greenline Tactical for a one day Intro Combat Carbine/ Rifle fundamentals class.

We utilized the awesome facilities of American tactical arms Center shooting range in St. Augustine FL to conduct the class.
First off Don spent his younger years as a green faced Ranger in the 3/75th and jumped into Panama. Then switched gears and retired as a 18 alphabet from the 3/20th SFG.  He Worked at AWG after his retirement and was a FLETC use of force instructor for 5 years as well.To say the man is a quiet professional doesn't come close. He's humble honest friendly and a stand up guy willing and able to impart a lot of knowledge in an easy to understand kind of way.

We had 12 shooters, ranging from Active duty mil, reserves, LEO, military contractors, and regular folks who take firearms serious and want to learn serious things about them.

The day started with classroom time for the newer shooters this was invaluable as topics such as firearms safety, zeroing procedures and types of zeros, ballistics, function, gear selection, optics, and marksmanship fundamentals were covered. Several good questions and stories from some of the students were answered and talked about.

We next moved to the range, where we set up both Steel and Paper Targets and commenced the zeroing of our rifles.
After that was accomplished we worked on close in target engagement and Don talked about Bore offset/height over bore issues that can arise in these cases.
Several strings of fire we conducted between the 3-50 yard line. Reloads were also briefed and shown.
We then shot the famous Mod Navy Qual and students learned to engage targets from the three primary positions while utilizing reloads and the fundamentals learned. Both at the 25 and 50 yard lines.
We then contended with the weather as a brief but wet morning shower rolled through the area making the ground no less wet than it was from the previous nights rain, but what's rain to a tough crowd such as us.

We then switched gears and conducted a walk back drill from the 100-300 yard line so Don could emphasize the fundamentals of marksmanship to the student body. There were some surprises but generally folks with optics faired better than folks with just irons. Another reason running optics IMO is a good idea.
We broke for lunch and on the side talked about the function, components, and maintenance of the AR-15 as we had some newer shooters.

After lunch it was back to the 5 yard line for multiple target engagements, Non standard responses, all the while utilizing what we had learned previously.
Next it was onto utilizing cover and shooting from Barricades. Using them for stability, or sacrificing it for more cover was also talked about. Finally with daylight fading malfunctions were covered and demonstrated. At the end we tested ourselves with a "Scambler" drill.

One day doesn't come close to being enough training but with tight budgets and time constraints by the student body Don did what he could with what he had, and by God was it a good class. Even for a fairly progressed shooter like myself I always enjoy going back to basics, because mastering those is what makes you a master.

Each student shot appox 400 rounds from ranges of 1-300 yards.
For the money you probably couldn't beat the value of this class due to the great range, the great material covered by Don and the proximity to where most of us reside.



Photos courtesy of Erez Wolf, as seen in LWRC's catalog.

I've heard good things abt his class as well. The Firstcoastfirearms boys down there in St Augustine put on an incredible class as well. 1 is a former contractor and competition shooter and the  other is a retired Marine with lots of down range time under his belt.First rate across the board.

This was my first formal rifle class and a huge eye opener as to the dynamics of the AR-15. From zeroing, to height over bore drill, utilizing cover and different manners in which to employ this platform, the amount of knowledge I've gained is astronomical. After watching all the big names in AR training DVDs I can honestly say this guy covered 99% of what I took from those and threw me into actually applying those skills. I feel like I walked away with ten times the training and knowledge that I paid for. Don is not only extremely well versed in this arena but approachable in every sense of the term and eager to help you learn. When the chance arises again, I'll be taking any Class Greenline Tactical will offer.