Last month I attended Magpul's 3-day DMR class up in Ellensburg, WA. Caylen Wojcik was the instructor, and the class was held on a private range about 20 minutes N/W of town. There were a total of 10 shooters, including myself, with experience ranging from brand new shooters to pretty competent shooters. 5 students shot 7.62 and 5 shot 5.56. I was the only student with an SR-25, two guys were running LaRue's, one guy had a Scar 17, and the last guy was running a 14.5" Armalite/Noveske build. The 5.56 guns were all parts guns and I didn't really pay attention to them.

We started off every morning in the class room to go over topics before putting them to use on the range. The class was held on a private range in a gorgeous valley, and the weather was awesome for day 1 and day 2 with temps in the 70s-80s and some light variable winds for us to play in. Day 3 saw some light rain and heavy winds which really taxed our ability to hit the steel out at the longer ranges, but by the end of Day 3 everyone was making hits out to 700+. The range itself was set up with a 100 yard target board, and past the target board there were three steel "fields" set up like fan blades with targets all the way out to 1200. Depending on wind conditions, you could change which field you were shooting to get wind coming from right, left, or straight on. It was a fantastic place to shoot.







Day 1 had us in the classroom for the morning. We did some brief introductions and then jumped right into the fundamentals of precision shooting. Topics covered included the Circle of Components / Combat Triad, 7 Fundamentals of Body Positioning, Sights / Breathing / NPOA, and Trigger Control / Follow Through. Caylen then went through how to set up length-of-pull and eye relief, and discussed how to make ocular adjustments and eliminate parallax. Since a few students showed up to class with gear that was "not quite ready to go", we got a live demo on how to install, level, and torque a scope on a few rifles. Once it was time to go live, Caylen let us take our time getting a solid 100 yard zero established if we needed it. A few rifles needed to be boresighted in the field, so Caylen showed us his method for that too. Most shooters were able to zero within 20 rounds, and after everyone was squared away we moved into shooting a few drills. The first drill was a 16 round "consistency" drill. Shooters would set up behind the rifle and fire one round at 16 separate targets, dismounting from the rifle and going to their knees between each shot before re-establishing their shooting position for the next target. Goal of the drill was to illustrate how important it is to be consistent when mounting the rifle. After that drill we moved onto a NPA drill, 3 rounds on 4 difference circles of decreasing size, WITH OUR EYES CLOSED. Shooters were to mount the rifle, establish a NPA, close eyes and go through one breathing cycle, and then break the shot with eyes still closed. Following that drill, we broke out the Mangetospeeds and got everyone some useable velocity numbers and then headed back to the classroom to wrap up Day 1.

We used the top tip of the black triangles to zero, the large shapes on the left/right edge of the target for the consistency drill, and the blue/black circles for the NPA drill.




Day 2 began back in the classroom with a discussion on ballistics, B.C., atmospherics, and how they all interact with one another. We also covered wind, and Caylen gave us some useful wind hacks for 77gr and 175gr loads. We also covered ballistics calculators, and Caylen helped the students who didn't have their apps already set up for the rifles and ammo get caught up so everyone had useable data. We also had a brief discussion on ranging targets using .mils. The entire class centered around .mils, so the few that were running MOA reticles had to do some conversion math in their heads. After the classroom stuff it was back out to the range to pull some triggers! We shot another consistency drill on 1.5" dots, and then used shooter/spotter teams to verify our data out to 700 yards. We covered shooter/spotter communication out on the range and Caylen gave us some free time to bang away at the steel on our own. After lunch we did a range estimation drill, compared our estimations with what the targets lasered out to, and then wrapped the day up with a shooter/spotter "quasi-PRS" competition.










Day 3 started off back in the classroom talking about Maximum Point Blank Range and Danger Space. Everyone tweaked numbers in their ballistics program until they got a real-world MPBR zero and understood how Danger Space changes as the distance to target increases. Then back out to the range for another consistency drill and NPA drill. Following that we went back to the steel and did another range estimation drill and also sketched a field diagram. We then shot a course of fire using our estimated distances w/o verifying with a laser, and it was pretty eye opening how being slightly off on milling the target can have a big effect on estimated range. Following that we had a long session on barricade work, with Caylen demonstrating how to set up on barricades and establish a good NPA regardless of if the shooter is standing, kneeling, or sitting. The weather, which had been awesome for the first two days, started to turn sour, so we had a quick "free-range" session where everyone got to practice shooting from different barricaded positions, and then we went back out to shoot the steel from prone in the high winds, which were gusting at over 25 MPH. This was a big confidence builder for some students who had never shot in these conditions before, and everyone was able to make hits out past 700 yards. We wrapped up the last day by shooting a barricade relay drill and then a timed stress drill to put the students under some pressure. After that we had a short debrief in the classroom, handed out some prizes from the shooting comps, and then everyone headed home.

Everyone in the class got a Magpul Precision Rifle Data Book and set of Quick Reference Cards on Day 1, which we put to use throughout the course. I got to walk the "prize table" a couple times, and came home with an extra data book / card set, a new MS1 sling with Magpul's ridiculously awesome sling swivels, and some DAKA pouches.













Overall, I was extremely happy with the course content and how Caylen presented it. I drove 17 hours, up from Las Vegas, and I don't regret the trip or expense one bit. I ran my SR-25 ECC with a NF 2.5-10x24 (Mil-R) and Aimpoint T-2 and shot my own load of 42.6gr of Varget under a 175 Matchburner in LC brass. The gun ran fantastic, I had one stoppage on day two, a failure to feed, and one stoppage on day 3, a failure to extract due to the rim ripping off the case head. I blame the ammo in both cases, I should have used a small base die when resizing the brass prior to loading, as all the ammo was "sticky" when extracting live rounds. After returning home and running some brass through the SB die, the sticky problem went away and the gun went back to running like a raped ape. Lesson learned, from now on when I head to classes I'll shoot factory 118LR. Total round count was around 400, with the majority of it being on day 2 and 3.

Caylen was running two guns, a 5.56 from either Hodge or Archer, I can't remember, and then a SR-25 APC with the new Gen3 PRS Stock. I can't wait for that stock to be released, it was made to be put on the SR25. 5.56 gun had a NF 4-16 on it, and the SR-25 had a Mk6 3-18. I didn't feel under glassed with my 2.5-10 when shooting, but I wish I had more top-end magnification when I was ranging targets, so the 3-18 is on my short list of optics to pick up.

If anyone has any questions, post them up and I'll do my best to answer them.

RIFLE RUN DOWN

There were 10 shooters total, five 7.62 and five 5.56 guns. Here is what I remember of the rifles, and how it worked for them:

Noveske / Armalite 7.62 (14.5" barrel) - The gun seemed to run pretty well, I don't remember seeing any stoppages. Shooter was an ex-Ranger, I don't know what his specific MOS was though. He was running FGMM 175, and his velocity numbers were way down, mid 2300's if I remember correctly, so he was a little limited on shooting out long. Had a Vortex Razor Gen II on top, and his LaRue mount was shooting loose Day 1, so we took some time and watched Caylen demonstrate how to do a rough boresight in the field, and then he got his scope mounted and torqued properly. Thank god for Fix-It-Sticks!

LaRue PredatAR 7.62 (16" barrel) - Gun ran fine, but the scope mount kept shooting loose. He was running a Leupy Mk6 3-18 with a Horus reticle in a LaRue mount. Was an ex-Norweigan SF guy, I think over 30 years out of service, and I don't think he had done any of this type of shooting before. Super cool dude, and eventually he caught onto the stuff we were doing, but it was slow going at first. Ammo was FGMM 175 I believe.

LaRue PredatOBR 7.62 (18" barrel) - This fucking gun might as well have been a bolt gun, it was a single shot the entire class. Didn't matter what ammo, mags, or gas setting was used, it was constantly having bolt-over-base malfunctions. Bolt speed was way too fast, and when I chrono'd his gun it was 2620ish with FGMM 175, which I though was really hot for an 18" gasser. The rifle was accurate though on that first shot! Glass was a Vortex Razor Gen II 4.5-27 in a LaRue mount

Scar 17 7.62 (16" barrel) - Rifle ran 100%, which was expected. I didn't see any accuracy issues during prolonged strings of fire. Shooter was using a NF 2.5-10x42 with MOA reticle and turrets though, so that slowed him down a little when he had to do some conversion math. Ammo was PRVI 168 Match, and it seemed to be around 1.5MOA on paper. He had no problem banging steel.

SR-25 ECC 7.62 (16" barrel) - Gun ran good minus the two ammo issues I detailed in the first post. Totally my fault, I had set aside a batch of 1X LC brass for this class, but sized with a FL die instead of SB. The load I used was a 175 Barnes MatchBurner over 42.6gr of Varget, loaded out to max COAL allowed by the KAC mags. It chrono'd at 2540, and with the slightly higher BC of the Barnes bullet I was able to shoot a long ways out for a 16" gun. NF 2.5-10x24 optic worked great for shooting, but not so great for milling the targets. My estimations were close enough to get 1st round hits but after lazing the targets I learned that I was off by almost 50 yards on some of my estimations. Didn't ever get a change to transition to the T2 for close work. Used a Harris 6-9 and BFG sling.

The five 5.56 guns were all parts guns to one degree or another. My partner for the class was shooting a 16" Stainless BCM upper on a Rainier lower with a Vortex PST 2.5-10 FFP, and using BH 77gr SMK the gun shot lights out. He didn't miss a single round fired during the steel drills we shot, but I give a lot of the credit to the spot-on wind calls his spotter was feeding him!!! Another shooter was using a 100% garage-build parts gun that she completely assembled herself. I believe she said she had parts from over 20 different companies on her gun. 16" barrel length, but I don't remember what brand. Leupy Mk6 1-6 in a baller Spuhr mount, and once she got dialed in she was hitting as well as everyone else. Not a single function issue with her gun, I was really impressed, it was a nice stick. The last three 5.56 guns were shot by a group of three brothers, and they were "interesting" guns. One was a 20" with A-frame FSP and old school triangle hand guards!! I think one of them was an 18" barrel with SF comp, and the last one was a 16" Stainless JP barrel with a JP comp. They all shot the same ammo that one of the brothers loaded up, and the ammo was sub-standard for what we were doing. All three had Vortex Strike Eagle 1-6 optics also, which was a major handicap for them, but the made it work as best as they could. I didn't see any function issues, but the velocity and SD #s were all over the place. One guy was shooting mid-2700s with SD under 20, but another was running low 2400's with SD of almost 50. Same ammo, different barrels.

I wish I would have taken pictures of everyone's gear, but there wasn't a whole lot of time for that, we were too busy shooting or spotting. I was really impressed with the BCM upper'd rifle and the SCAR. That BCM was stacking rounds on top of one another past 600 with regularity, it was awesome to watch a new shooter do that. The SCAR just chugged along all class, kind of hiding in the background but making solid hits on steel and doing well on the paper drills. I still don't want to own one, but I'll give it a little bit more credit in the future.