The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
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As an instructor, sometimes it is nice to just be one of the guys in a class. I try to take at least one class a year where I can just sit back, listen, learn and shoot. This was one of those classes. Full disclosure – I’m friends with the Gunset crew and hosted this class at my range. I’ve taken pistol, shotgun and medical classes from Gunset, but this has been my first opportunity to take one of their rifle classes.
The Lead Instructor for the class was Mike Kinsey. Assistant Instructors were Bobby Price and Frank Horvath. Mike has a passion for history (he could be called a history nerd), especially for U.S. history around the time period of our nation’s founding. Mike developed his rifle courses keeping in mind this nation’s “unique heritage of Liberty, Self-Reliance, and Responsibility through the mastery of long arms” and always has Revolutionary War heroes like Daniel Morgan and his legendary Riflemen on the tip of his tongue when he teaches any rifle class.
After doing the customary legal paperwork, class started with a review of firearm safety rules. I have been a firearms instructor for over 20 years. Over the last 10 years or so, I have taken an interest in how instructors review the safety rules. As any good instructor does, I have learned to adopt (with proper credit of course) certain terms or phrases I have learned from other instructors and use them in my own classes. Listening to Mike talk about the safety rules, he described Rule 2 in a way that I had never heard before. It resonated with me and I plan on using it in the future. Mike quoted rule #2 and then went on to explain that when he thinks of what a safe direction is, he thinks of it as “the direction of least consequence” should something go wrong. After going over the safety rules, we moved out to the 50 yard line where Mike conducted the medical portion of the safety brief.
After finishing the safety/medical briefings, we moved on to verify the zero of our rifles at 50 yards. Mike did a quick review of the fundamentals of shooting a rifle from the prone position and then demonstrated the proper technique he encouraged us to use.
My zero was off just a smidge to the right so I adjusted two clicks left. The 50 yard zero was important for those of us who were interested in shooting the Gunset Rifle Standards in an effort to get the Master patch. After verifying our zero, Mike discussed ways to adjust your aim to different targets from the prone position and had us shoot a bit transitioning from target to target. Mike also spent some time going over the proper way to quickly get into the prone position if need be.
The last thing we did before leaving the 50 yard line was to shoot the first of the Gunset Rifle Standards. We will discuss the standards more later, but the 50 yard standard is a single untimed shot into a 1.5×2” block from 50 yards. You get two attempts at each standard. This is to simulate a 250 yard head shot. Mike’s explanation for why he uses this as one of his standards takes you back to Daniel Morgan’s Riflemen during the Revolution, who were making shots into a 7” target (roughly head shaped) at 250 yards. I did say Mike’s a history nerd, remember?
After finishing up at 50 yards we moved up to the 7 yard line. From the 7 yard line we covered ready positions, transitions to pistol and turns. Mike explained all of these topics, then demonstrated them, then had us practicing each individual topic and then tied all of them together. Instead of us shooting at big silhouette targets, Bobby and Frank put up the Gunset Standards target over the IALEFI target we had been using and that was the target that we used for most of the rest of the day. The Gunset target is relatively correct, anatomically speaking, and provides two different “scoring” zones. For the pistol and rifle Master standards, the 3×5” box around the heart is all that matters.
After a break, we moved on to the fundamentals of shooting on the move (SOM). When I think of teaching someone how to shoot on the move, I immediately break that down into two separate “styles” of shooting on the move – competition and what I’ll call “real world”. In my world, I have used both styles for decades. As a competitive handgun/2 gun/3 gun/multi-gun shooter, I don’t worry about muzzling no-shoot targets as I move through a stage. And classes that revolve around competition focused SOM don’t usually teach the shooters to avoid muzzling no-shoot targets. As a law enforcement officer (or any John Q. Citizen who needs to SOM in a real world situation) I have to switch “styles” when I’m not at a match and keep in mind Rule #2 to avoid muzzling non-threat targets/people.
Mike teaches this class from the “real world” perspective, so the ready positions we practiced earlier were incorporated into the movement aspect portion of the training. None of this was new for me, but I thought Mike did an excellent job of breaking things down and explaining/demonstrating the fundamentals of SOM to students who had never been exposed to those concepts. The drills we ran included forward/rearward/lateral movement and forced us to move to a different ready (or carry position, if you will) to navigate around non-threat targets.
After we finished the live fire portion of SOM, we took time to shoot the Gunset Rifle Standards. The Gunset Standards, whether they be pistol, rifle or shotgun, are designed to include many of the fundamental aspects of shooting beyond just pulling the trigger. As you can see from the picture, the Rifle Standards include long distance shooting, shooting from different ready positions, reloads and malfunction clearance. To pass the standards, you have to pass every standard. To earn a master class patch, all the shots must be within the 3” x 5” heart box of the standards target. Every shooter got two attempts at each standard. In the end, I was able to earn the green Gunset Rifle Standards patch.
So let’s talk about gear I saw/used in class. There was a little bit of everything, but most of us were rocking AR type rifles of some sort. There were a few gear related issues, but nothing too crazy. There were two things I noticed that I’ll address in this article. First, A few guys were running cans on their rifles, which resulted in some loooooong rifles because they were using a can on the end of a 16” or 18” rifle. This configuration can become cumbersome/unwieldy if you’re not out there training with it on a regular basis. I’m not much of a can guy, but I’ll say this – if you’re gonna run a can on a rifle you intend to use for defensive purposes, get yourself an SBR (or a pistol) and run a compact/micro sized can. While it is possible to navigate the hallways of residential homes with a suppressed 16” rifle, it is a whole lot easier with an SBR/AR pistol.
Second, I noticed quite a few of the students had rifles with various red dots on them, but no backup iron sights (BUIS). This is a dangerous trend I’ve also noticed in pistol classes I’ve attended/taught. I am a huge proponent of BUIS and I require them (or a secondary optic) on any gun I use for serious (i.e., self-defense) business. Here’s why – in 2013 I was on a SWAT op where a barricaded shooter decided it would be a good idea to shoot up the neighborhood. At the time I was running an Aimpoint T1 on my SBR. The T1 was, at the time, arguably the best optic around. In the middle of that mess, right after the bad guy decided to shoot up one of the armored vehicles we had on scene, the dot in my Aimpoint flared bright and died. No problem, probably just a bad battery right? Well, I put a new battery in and nothing. It was stone cold dead. So I finished the op with the BUIS I had. Aimpoint fixed it, but that’s beside the point. Too many people put too much faith in their optic and don’t plan for Mr. Murphy to show up.
A few years ago I took the Aimpoint off my SBR and replaced it with a Primary Arms SLX 1x prismatic scope. If you are familiar with prismatic scopes, they combine the best of both worlds – an etched reticle that doesn’t need batteries with the ability to illuminate the reticle in green or red. Mine is a green reticle. Battery die? No worries – you have the same reticle, just in black. Needless to say, I’m very happy with this option. As a backup optic, I added a Swampfox Kraken MRDS. Just in case. I’ve had good luck with Swampfox optics and use them on several of my pistols.
I shot Midwest Ammo during the class using a variety of MagPul, Daniel Defense and Lancer Systems and had zero issues with the ammo or magazines.
After the class, I sat down with Mike, Bobby and Frank to talk about the class. As any good instructor does, Mike wanted feedback about his performance and the class content. I told Mike the same thing I’ll say here – he did a fantastic job. Mike’s passion for teaching the use of America’s rifle comes through when he teaches. But I also pointed out a few things that he could omit/change to give the students a little more time shooting on the move. Which led to a great round table discussion about the difficulty involved in teaching SOM to a large class – the inevitable downtime involved. For safety reasons, only so many shooters can be moving and shooting at the same time. I think we came up with some good ideas for how he can minimize that downtime.
To wrap things up, this class was a great class for someone who has never been formally trained in shooting on the move. If you have a lot of experience in shooting on the move, you should still consider taking this class as a refresher and for the chance to listen to Mike talk about the history of the American Rifleman. You won’t be disappointed.
