AAR Infinity Solutions / Cold Weather Carbine Operator (December 03, 2016)

[Wild Deuce]

AAR for Infinity Solutions / Cold Weather Carbine Operator
December 03, 2016
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CLASS DESCRIPTION

The focus of this class will be to employ the fundamentals of carbine and pistol work in the cold and at night. This class is intended for the dedicated shooter to push themselves and their gear in difficult environments. This is a one day (8 hour) course.

PREREQUISITES

• Carbine 1 or Carbine Mechanics AND Pistol 1 or Pistol Mechanics

GEAR REQUIREMENTS (as listed in the online course description)

• Eye protection
• Hearing protection (electronic recommended not required)
• Semi-auto rifle
• 500 rounds rifle ammunition
• 5 rifle magazines minimum
• 4 rifle magazine pouches
• Rifle sling
• Red dot (recommended not required)
• Defensive pistol / revolver
• 400 rounds pistol ammunition
• 3 pistol magazines / speed-loaders minimum
• 2 pistol magazine pouches
• Quality pistol holster (pistol must be secure within holster and holster must be secure on belt)
• Rigid mounting system for holsters. (Belt, War belt)

All appropriate lights! Weapon mounted, handheld, etc are absolutely required.

ANCILLARY (highly recommended)

• Extra clothes, especially socks
• Gloves
• Chair
• Water (Yes, you can dehydrate in the cold)
• Hat
• Appropriate clothing and footwear (NO OPEN TOE SHOES PLEASE)

LOCATION

Sand Burr Gun Ranch
Sand Burr Gun Ranch
2111 E. 350 N. Rochester, Indiana 46975

COST

$150 per student

CANCELLATION POLICY

A student has up to 8 days before a class to reschedule to take the same class. A voucher will be given to attend the same class at a later date. If a student cancels within 7 days of class start no refund or voucher will be given.

OVERVIEW OF TRAINING

There was one very good AAR written in the Infinity Solutions Alumni Facebook page (closed group) and a lot of very good follow up comments. In order to get this out faster than my last AAR for the Shotgun 1 class (at least a month after the fact), I will copy the AAR here (with the author's permission) and some of the follow-up comments. However, I will throw in a few thoughts here ...

In typical IS fashion, this was a a very well thought out, well prepared, and well presented class. The course title is a little misleading because it seemed the cold weather was only part of the challenge. The low light / no light portion was the main thrust of instruction. Students just had to deal with the cold while thinking through the given tasks and training. As mentioned in the Shotgun AAR, it would serve a student well to have all their gear sorted out and ready to go. This class will start to show you any deficiencies in your gear selection and that is expected. What you want to avoid is the missing screw, torn strap, dead battery, etc.

As in previous IS courses, a large portion of the initial instruction was geared toward the techniques and bringing everyone up to speed on things covered in the prerequisite classes. After the initial period of review and instruction, the pace picked up and we went "live." As noted below, the only fault I could find would be that we used a lot of "dark time" for dinner. It was discussed in the post-class debrief and the instructors made note of it.

The dark portions (and they were dark ... as in middle of the night, moonless Indiana dark) were a thorough application of all that had been taught throughout the day. I can't disclose more than that without ruining it for future attendees. I will say that the drills were designed to add a little bit of stress and make you think. They definitely showed me where I need practice.

Review from Zach Estes (some editing for grammar and clarity):

Class was 100% based on how to use a light hand held and weapons mounted, even during the day portion. Lots of techniques where taught then practiced using hand held lights with a pistol or weapon mounted with a pistol. Also weapon mounted rifle. It is not recommended to use a handheld with a rifle. From the beginning we were taught to illuminate the possible threat and identify it as such to avoid flagging a good guy if you used a WML you point at the base. There where drills with just pistol or just rifle once we had those basic techniques down we where expected to draw our pistol if our rifle went down and ONLY if it went down.

When it started to get dark we did more individual stuff / simulations more how it would be in real word. The best stuff was after the dinner break those drills really drove home everything we learned earlier. Some were really rushed however because the food at dinner took about an hour to get so we lost about an hour of darkness, the instructors already have plans on how this can go smoother.

Class called for 500 rifle rounds/ 400 pistol , I shot 150 rifle/ maybe 150 pistol.

I would recommend a handheld and a WML for your pistol ... any brand is fine. I used an Inforce, but Streamlight and Surefire were also popular, and a WML with a pressure pad instead of a click button for rifle with a long throw. I used a Night Stick Tac300b after dinner, it's only 180 lumens but the beam is rated at 190meters. Oh and have a backup light in your bag for your rifle. My Surefire G2 wasn't working right before dinner so during the break I switched. To me the long throw is more important than lumens for a rifle. Even if you only plan on doing CQB the spill on my light was plenty to identify multiple targets, so it will definitely light up a 12x16 room in a house. FYI, the handheld is your backup for your pistol. An important note while it's fun to run plates and chest rigs and feel like an "operator," I'm starting to go more towards putting mags in my pockets and running slick. Now if I were going to Iraq that's another story.

All on all I want to do this class again but I would call it Illumination 101.

Comment from another student:

It was several hours of teaching completly new information then several hours of of drills based off all the new stuff to help you figure out what works for you. Theres many low light techniques, many different light options and many different scenarios that require specific things. You have to put all that together and see how your gear works (or dosnt work) in all those situations.

Dont worry about guys just "swinging guns around in the dark". IS are professionals. They didnt just have a bunch of guys running around in the dark shooting.

GEAR
I didn't plan on discussing gear but I added a note on gear in the closed group discussion. I thought would be worth sharing here since anyone planning on attending this class will have gear considerations. This is strictly about the gear I used.

RIFLE: Wilson Combat M4TAQ with a Trijicon TriPower and WC BUIS on top. Insight M6X mounted at the 6 O'clock position with a pressure pad on the right side. Magpul MS3 sling Gen2.

PISTOL: GLOCK 19 with Trijicon HD night sights and Surefire X300 Ultra.

HANDHELD: Olight M1X with O Ring

The TriPower on the rifle rocked all day. I didn't need the battery until after we returned from dinner. Just prior to dinner, the fiber optic was still gathering up enough light to make the reticle more than adequate. Of course, the tritium might have been adding a boost. BUIS stayed down all day and I never used them.

I chose to run my Insight M6X in spite of it being almost 10 years old. It has an Xenon filled incandescent bulb rated at 125 lumens. I was very surprised at the reach/throw that this tired old light had but I will say that the lumens were lacking. I was able to ID 2x4s at distance but not much else. Of course, I was also dealing with the other environmental issues alluded to earlier. The laser rocked. I loved it. However, I had removed the sight prior to class to install fresh batteries and was never able to rezero. I did the best I could at home with a boresighter but at distance, I think the shift was in effect.

The Surefire 300 Ultra was awesome but at 600 lumens it might be a bit much. I was able to manage it by being careful when and where to engage the light so I don't think I had an issue. If I had the right holster, I might have switched out the lights and put this one on the long gun.

The Trijicon HD sights were a non issue. The tritium never came into play and neither did the highlighted front sight. All I saw all day was the black outline of the front sight on the target.

The Olight M1X worked for me but I learned that I need a lot more time handling and manipulating this light. The output is awesome at 1k lumens and the strobe feature is useful. The key is being able to manage what you want and I think that is where the tail-cap switch falls short. When things got fast and stressful, I was blowing past the momentary and mashing the switch all the way to the on position. This was bad when I would have to go to pistol. I think I blinded myself (and everyone else around me) at least once ... maybe twice. The ring ... I love the ring. It's my precious. I need to practice some more but I was able to get it right more than a few times. I'm talking about illuminating and then being able to transition to a two hand pistol presentation. I did drop the light one time though so ... practice.

All the lights had sufficient spill for the task at hand and I didn't have any issues identifying targets (there were mental processing mistakes ... not the fault of the light).

Also ... I treated all my lights with chapstick. When I got home, I put a drop of Hoppes 9 on a tissue and all the carbon came off with one wipe.

Comment from another student (about gear):

Ok here is my take on everything light wise. You have to have the right gear for the purpose of the rifle because no setup does EVERYTHING well. That being said, it helps to know a little how lights work. Smooth reflectors throw further, orange peel reflectors spill more. The longer/deeper the reflector is, the further it throws. Think Surefire x300 compared to the x300 ultra. Put side by side, the ultra is longer. It was made with a deeper reflector to throw further.

That being said, what is the purpose of your rifle? I was running a shortened barrel 308 with an Aimpoint. That rifle was set up for CQB so I had the shortest reflectored light that was nothing but spill. Out to about 30 yards I lit up everything in front of me. Past that and I was pushing it.

Now if I was running something with some magnified glass on it that I was planning on running out further, I would have chose to run something with a longer, smooth reflector.

That all being said, I do not think there is such thing as "Too many lumens" as long as your light matches what you are doing.

Case in point, I was hitting a white target with 2500 (not a typo, 2500) lumens from like 7 feet away with a VERY floody light and since it was floody, I had no problem with splash off the target.

Now if i hit a target at 7 feet away with 2500 lumens of a long/smooth reflectored light built for throw, I would have blinded myself. Its all about application.

Keep throw lights on your long distance guns. Keep floody lights on your CQB guns.

This is just my opinion based on building custom flashlights for about a decade now and using them hard every day.

.02

SUMMARY
This was the most "fun" IS class I have attended and where a lot of what I have previously learned all came together. At the risk of sounding like a broken record ... Infinity Solutions is the best deal in town at the moment. You can not beat the level and quality of instruction that IS instructors are providing. I am afraid that the clock is ticking though. They will eventually have to raise their prices to match the product quality they offer. Stop making excuses and take a serious look at Infinity Solutions for your training options. They just put up a webpage so head over and take a look ... Infinity Solutions.

 

[JollyMon]

Do they have a schedule of classes? I checked their website and didnt see anything listed. I would love to do a cold weather carbine course or their low light carbine, but dont see any dates listed. Or do they only list them out of the book of face?

 

[Wild Deuce]

Prior to the webpage, yes ... they listed everything on Facebook.

Their webpage just went up this past week. I am sure they will incorporate their schedule as soon as they develop it for 2017. I know the Cold Weather Carbine class was the last one for 2016.

 

[nad63]

Sounds worth checking out. Thanks for posting up.

 

[Wild Deuce]

Sounds worth checking out. Thanks for posting up.

I would love to see some downstate visitors come up to see us.

Worth the drive ... especially once you start knocking out the prerequisite classes and can make a class like this one. They have a lot of interesting classes coming down the line. Keep on eye on the website.