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Plinker
Following, for your consideration, is my AAR from the Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle Course. For a description of course description and gear requirements, please see Armed Dynamics website.
I ran a suppressed ACR in 5.56 shooting russkie ammo for all the day fire and then used a Bushmaster M4 for nightfire just to switch it up. For pistol work, a Glock 19. No equipment failures or malfunctions.
BLUF: To the person contemplating taking Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle: Armed Dynamics delivered their material in a no-pressure, non-competitive, friendly atmosphere. I would highly recommend Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle to any novice shooter. Armed Dynamics is one of the few schools to give you more than what you pay for. I look forward to training with Jeff Bloovman and Armed Dynamics in the future and so should you. – SSG John Garrett, US ARMY INFANTRY
AAR Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle
Bluffton, IN – March 2012
Sustains
1. Instruction time – This is a long day. I felt like I definitely got my money’s worth for the amount of time spent training. I have been to courses where the training day lasts 8 – 9 hours and I felt like I got my money’s worth, but with this class, I felt like the length of time was more valuable than the price of admission. That is not always the case.
2. Materials – For a basic course, you covered a LOT of basic material. Good material. Focusing on front sight and trigger reset is an important component of marksmanship with the rifle as well as the pistol, and felt like you focused on that well. Although I didn’t take the pistol class, I’ll put this in my AAR: the drill with the ropes was outstanding. Very innovative and applicable. I like drills that can be done without actually firing a weapon because I can take these drills to my Soldiers and train when we have down time or
waiting our turn on the range.
It was all SOLID material. This is not a ninja class. No one is going to take this course and suddenly be granted 007 status. The information was very basic, but very solid. I believe the class taught everything that a novice shooter needs to know to defend themselves and their loved ones. Additionally, while the information presented was fundamental to me, I truly enjoyed Armed Dynamics presentation and the skill with which the course was instructed.
3. Location – I’m glad that AD traveled to my location for the class. But more than that, the range was superb. As you well know, ranges with roads in the background that require 4x4 vehicles to navigate, and require the range to go cold for travel would make a poor range. I believe it to be critical to have a good facility (not a fancy one) to maximize the training experience.
4. Student to Instructor Ratio – I was pleased with the class size. One of my greatest pet peeves in going to a class is when the student to instructor ratio is so far tilted that I never interact with the instructor. To me, the point of taking a class is not to sit there and do drills. I can learn new drills by watching youtube videos and God knows I think of enough drills on my own. It is the instructor’s job to teach those drills and correct student errors. If I go through an entire course and am never corrected, then one of three things happened: a) I did every drill perfectly (unlikely) b) the instructor never paid enough attention to my attempts to find a flaw because he doesn’t know or care enough to correct/tweak those flaws or, c) the instructor was too
consumed with students with poorer execution than myself (poor ratio). Either way I look at it, I feel cheated.
5. Dueling Long Guns – Having one instructor on the M4 and one on the AK platform is a stroke of brilliance not every school offers.
Improves
1. Advance work – when you’re coming from out of town, it’s doubly important. Do advance work. Know a few nearby places for students to eat and get back to the range quickly. Or have them pack boxed lunches with them for the day. I have an A-Team lunch pail I’m dying to use anyhow.
2. The class should arrive with magazines loaded and ready to go to work. From the time we walked out of the lecture, I stood around on Sunday morning for nearly 45 minutes before we went loud. Students were breaking down ammo and jamming magazines and instructors were hanging targets. I know from experience that it’s hard to do, but if at all possible, I would try to
have the range ready to go before students arrive. Maybe that means one instructor is hanging targets while the other is lecturing. The students should not have to wait for the instructor to get their stuff together. Like I said, hard to do, but still important. At a lesser class, that 45 minutes of downtime would have really upset me.
3. Helping the good shooter improve – God this is going to sound so narcissistic that I hate to even write it, but it bears mentioning; the classes were so well done that there are few things that I saw that I can really come up with an idea to help you improve. I’m not going to tell you to improve something without offering a way to improve it.
I wasn’t extremely challenged by the material. I wasn’t corrected very often. I think twice (which is twice more than at a recent pistol class I took with 14 other students). If I’m getting the concept and doing the drill correctly, still take some time to help me improve. Nitpick my stance; point out a better way to shift my grip on the reload; there has to be something everyone can improve. I know I’m sounding like an egomaniac, but I’m not one. I know I have a lot of room for improvement. If I’m doing well, I’m glad, but help me improve. No good student pays for a class just for the range time.
To the person contemplating taking Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle: Armed Dynamics delivered their material in a no-pressure, non-competitive, friendly atmosphere. I would highly recommend Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle to any novice shooter. Armed Dynamics is one of the few schools to give you more than what you pay for. I look forward to training with Jeff Bloovman and Armed Dynamics in the future and so should you. – SSG John Garrett, US ARMY INFANTRY
I ran a suppressed ACR in 5.56 shooting russkie ammo for all the day fire and then used a Bushmaster M4 for nightfire just to switch it up. For pistol work, a Glock 19. No equipment failures or malfunctions.
BLUF: To the person contemplating taking Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle: Armed Dynamics delivered their material in a no-pressure, non-competitive, friendly atmosphere. I would highly recommend Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle to any novice shooter. Armed Dynamics is one of the few schools to give you more than what you pay for. I look forward to training with Jeff Bloovman and Armed Dynamics in the future and so should you. – SSG John Garrett, US ARMY INFANTRY
AAR Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle
Bluffton, IN – March 2012
Sustains
1. Instruction time – This is a long day. I felt like I definitely got my money’s worth for the amount of time spent training. I have been to courses where the training day lasts 8 – 9 hours and I felt like I got my money’s worth, but with this class, I felt like the length of time was more valuable than the price of admission. That is not always the case.
2. Materials – For a basic course, you covered a LOT of basic material. Good material. Focusing on front sight and trigger reset is an important component of marksmanship with the rifle as well as the pistol, and felt like you focused on that well. Although I didn’t take the pistol class, I’ll put this in my AAR: the drill with the ropes was outstanding. Very innovative and applicable. I like drills that can be done without actually firing a weapon because I can take these drills to my Soldiers and train when we have down time or
waiting our turn on the range.
It was all SOLID material. This is not a ninja class. No one is going to take this course and suddenly be granted 007 status. The information was very basic, but very solid. I believe the class taught everything that a novice shooter needs to know to defend themselves and their loved ones. Additionally, while the information presented was fundamental to me, I truly enjoyed Armed Dynamics presentation and the skill with which the course was instructed.
3. Location – I’m glad that AD traveled to my location for the class. But more than that, the range was superb. As you well know, ranges with roads in the background that require 4x4 vehicles to navigate, and require the range to go cold for travel would make a poor range. I believe it to be critical to have a good facility (not a fancy one) to maximize the training experience.
4. Student to Instructor Ratio – I was pleased with the class size. One of my greatest pet peeves in going to a class is when the student to instructor ratio is so far tilted that I never interact with the instructor. To me, the point of taking a class is not to sit there and do drills. I can learn new drills by watching youtube videos and God knows I think of enough drills on my own. It is the instructor’s job to teach those drills and correct student errors. If I go through an entire course and am never corrected, then one of three things happened: a) I did every drill perfectly (unlikely) b) the instructor never paid enough attention to my attempts to find a flaw because he doesn’t know or care enough to correct/tweak those flaws or, c) the instructor was too
consumed with students with poorer execution than myself (poor ratio). Either way I look at it, I feel cheated.
5. Dueling Long Guns – Having one instructor on the M4 and one on the AK platform is a stroke of brilliance not every school offers.
Improves
1. Advance work – when you’re coming from out of town, it’s doubly important. Do advance work. Know a few nearby places for students to eat and get back to the range quickly. Or have them pack boxed lunches with them for the day. I have an A-Team lunch pail I’m dying to use anyhow.
2. The class should arrive with magazines loaded and ready to go to work. From the time we walked out of the lecture, I stood around on Sunday morning for nearly 45 minutes before we went loud. Students were breaking down ammo and jamming magazines and instructors were hanging targets. I know from experience that it’s hard to do, but if at all possible, I would try to
have the range ready to go before students arrive. Maybe that means one instructor is hanging targets while the other is lecturing. The students should not have to wait for the instructor to get their stuff together. Like I said, hard to do, but still important. At a lesser class, that 45 minutes of downtime would have really upset me.
3. Helping the good shooter improve – God this is going to sound so narcissistic that I hate to even write it, but it bears mentioning; the classes were so well done that there are few things that I saw that I can really come up with an idea to help you improve. I’m not going to tell you to improve something without offering a way to improve it.
I wasn’t extremely challenged by the material. I wasn’t corrected very often. I think twice (which is twice more than at a recent pistol class I took with 14 other students). If I’m getting the concept and doing the drill correctly, still take some time to help me improve. Nitpick my stance; point out a better way to shift my grip on the reload; there has to be something everyone can improve. I know I’m sounding like an egomaniac, but I’m not one. I know I have a lot of room for improvement. If I’m doing well, I’m glad, but help me improve. No good student pays for a class just for the range time.
To the person contemplating taking Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle: Armed Dynamics delivered their material in a no-pressure, non-competitive, friendly atmosphere. I would highly recommend Armed Dynamics Defensive Rifle to any novice shooter. Armed Dynamics is one of the few schools to give you more than what you pay for. I look forward to training with Jeff Bloovman and Armed Dynamics in the future and so should you. – SSG John Garrett, US ARMY INFANTRY
