Whats the round count generally?

It doesn't matter. Budget ammo and just fucking do it.

In all reality, 400 rifle and 150 pistol. I would have shot less rifle if I wouldn't have taken Chip's comment of when a buddy is reloading cover his target so literal.

Soooooo no Auroras??

I was a student of the class and here is my review. To be fully transparent, I was fully amped for this class and it did not disappoint. I have been waiting for this class to come anywhere remotely close to Texas again and it finally made it here.

-Being able to understand the basics, perform the basics, and perform the basics on-demand repeatedly day or night is the key to success.
-Accuracy is paramount. Cool, you can hit a man-sized piece of steel at 3-100 yards. Can you hit the lights off switch at night under nods at 25 on demand?
-Know both your optic and laser offsets. Sear it into your brain.
-Shooting shit in the dark with no visibility is fucking amazing.

Day1
Chip did the PowerPoint presentation and made it a no bullshit here is the info, here is the data, now it's time to use it.
An amazing dinner provided by a fellow classmate
Hunter/Hunted
Range Time

Hunter/hunted is a big ass game of flashlight tag derived from Bill's time at another training facility. Doesn't sound too fun as how hard could it be right? I will be the first to admit and fully disclose on the internet that I am a fucking idiot and would be dead in a real-world situation. Of the entire class, the hunter/hunted class yet again exposed my weakness that I have been told a few times before. Slow down, you are overrunning your headlights. You are about to go into a situation where you are going to need to process a million if-then/then that possibilities. Go ahead and run fast and think you can do this as fast as you see in Hollywood movies. Do that and you die. During the white light phase of hunter/hunted, the guy my teammate and I were hunting literally laying on the floor, in plain sight, blending in with a tarp on the floor. Not covered by it but laying next to it. I think I stepped over him twice....

When the nods phase starts, it forces you to slow down. You cant run through an area looking through a toilet paper tube or you will eat it. It forces you to slow down, take small bites of info and process it and do it efficiently. Finding the same guys was much easier because both my partner and I slowed down. Go figure...

Range time as always is a blast and I think we sent the first rounds after midnight. Zeroed the rifle laser and off we went.

Started with the basics/crawl/walk shooting stuff.

Chip's mount as I called it, aka FAST mount, is just cheating. It takes some practice getting used to the offsets but once you get it figured out it's an amazing piece of hardware. I came from a Larue 1/3 to this and its a godsend when you got all this shit on your head

Day2

Range time the entire night. Technical drills were introduced, different shooting positions introduced, followed with shooting steel and putting it all together at the end of the night.


Overall
Several t-shirt slogans were made in a span of 48hrs.
Getting to be around like-minded people, staying in the same facility as the instructors, and capturing all those little nuggets you wouldn't get otherwise is invaluable and worth the price of admission.
Stop hoarding ammo and shoot. Yea it hurts when you know you are sending a $1 bill down range every time you pull the trigger. Suck less and be more accurate so you don't "waste" ammo.
The entire TNVC crew is top-notch and if you ever get to meet these guys know you are in the company of guys who have been there and done that.
I wasted no time and I am already signed up for the Armed Professional in Ohio.

Thanks for posting the after actions.  Very nice to hear.

We’ll see what comes first. Either 9/11-12 will come and I’ll rent the gear for NF-101 or my $14.5k TNVC order will be here and I’ll get to learn how to use it. Either way, I win.

I can’t wait.

It was a great experience, and I'm glad I was able to attend. I really hope Bill, Chip, and Mike understand how much we appreciated them during the class and even when we were all just sitting around BS'ing during the day.

Badlands Tactical was an amazing host and everyone should take the time to get out there and enjoy their hospitality.

@pumbaajk hit the important points. As much as ammo prices suck right now, I would have been glad to shoot more during the class. Do nightvision! Thank you TNVC!

Oh... and for our boys in blue who like to keep a reload in their back pockets:



-Mark (Best Dad in the Galaxy)

Kinda curious to what the schedule looks like for the typical night.

Like 8am-4pm classroom stuff

break till 9pm then do night time stuff from like 10pm till 3-4am?



do you need a hotel room or are there sleeping quarters at the facility (alliance class)?

Theres a spot open in one of the classes at alliance and its only a 4 hour drive for me, but I have no carbine course prerequisite. seems like I remember one guy going to a class a day early to do a light carbine course the day before to get it out of the way.

Sorry I'm late to the party.

Was also in attendance and had a good time learning.

pumbaajk did a great job covering the AAR and I agree with his report completely. Oh and he was being kind by not outing me as his teammate during the hunter/hunted phase. If I hadn't caught a glimpse of shine off that guy's bald head we'd still be looking for his sneaky ass. Hiding in plain sight, damn it - lesson learned.

I think the number one thing that I took away was the requirement for accuracy. At night it's easy to get sloppy. A hit on steal is a hit kinda thing. The TNVC instructors really enforced the concept that the only rounds that count are the ones in the box. Yeah the others may screw up someones day, but they are probably still in the fight. The good hits turn the lights off at once or at least quickly. It seems easy to adhere to that standard during the day, but at night it's more time consuming to go down range and count the hits and analyze the misses. I'll be working that skill level until my passive and active offsets are completely natural, efficient, surgical and quick.

I even found a few bad habits I've developed. It says something about the instructors that are spotting even the small inadequacies during the low light hours. The instructors were knowledgeable, attentive and really seemed to be enjoying the process.  

The facilities and staff at Badlands Tactical were absolutely outstanding. I love my time there and wish I could visit every few weeks. It truly is a great place to learn from some of the best people on the planet!

From Friday morning to Monday night I think I got a grand total of about 6 hours sleep. I was wore the hell out for 3 days post class. It really sucks getting old...but it was worth it - every bit of it.

Thank you TNVC for the opportunity to get better!

I too was a student in the class at Badlands Tactical. To echo what others have said, pumbaajk nailed it with his AAR. I can't say enough about Chip, Bill and Mike. I have taken more shooting classes than I can recall and this is the most informative and fun class I have been in. Shooting in the dark is tops. They truley drive home accuracy and yes I learned that I have a few items on my kit that need to be addressed, specifically a taller optic for NVG shooting. the Hunter/Hunted was extremely eye opening. There could be a NV class just on this. We shot a lot but not to a point of shooting just to hear the guns go bang. Shooting steel is always fun, ad NVG and the dark and it is amazing. We had an intro to working with a partner under NV and that was something I didn't expect in the class.

Badlands Tactical facility is great. Access to the instructors in the common area make for great conversations and information exchange in the off hours. I would encourage everyone to take a class or two from Badlands, they have great instructors and are the real deal.


I would take this class again, it's just that much fun. I also will be looking for the Armed Professional class in the near future.


Thanks for a great class and experience, TNVC is top notch.  

Kelly B.

@kbokc

Welcome to the cluster fuck of arfcom!

LOL, thanks...longtime reader just never made an account. Cheers.