Fighting Rifle Skills course in Columbia, SC
Last weekend, I attended the Fighting Rifle Skills course taught by Chris Upchurch. It was such a great class that I just felt the need to share some of my observations.
First of all, I want to brag on my fellow SI instructor Chris Upchurch. To put it succinctly, Chris is an excellent instructor. His explanations were crystal clear, and he handled all of the “stump the instructor” moments that came up well. For example, during the malfunction drill demo the fired case became lodged in the chamber much more than was intended when setting up this drill. No problem. Chris knew the correct solution for that malfunction as well. We are fortunate to have Chris teaching these classes in SC.
Although I have been shooting rifles off and on for over half my life, I still (re)learned enough in this class that it was worth my while. For example….
- You can’t ever get too good at the fundamentals. No matter how stable and comfortable I am in the sitting or prone position, if I screw up the trigger pull the bullet is not going to do what I wanted it to do.
- I never thought I’d say this, but my AK has a better trigger pull than my Glock. This is due to the single hook Tapco G2 trigger kit I installed in my AK. This is great for my AK, but the flipside is that I need to practice the transition from AK to pistol more to get used to the sudden change in trigger pull.
- When doing a proactive reload, always, always, always rack the bolt.
- For this kind of work, relatively light rifles (AK, AR, Mini-14) rule
- Dress for the weather. If it’s going to be freezing when the class starts, dress warmly and bring a warm beverage in a thermos to help keep you warm.
- Kneepads need to be as flat as possible and not bunch up at the back of your knee.
- I still love shooting my AK
I’ll post some course pictures later.
