Rifle Gunfighting Los Angeles Sept 19-20

[Uli Gebhard]

I just spent two days at Lytle Creek Range with a group of 8 students, teaching Rifle Gunfighting.

We had a good mix of people and gear. All rifles, except for one AR were Saigas. The experience level of the students ranged from "first firearm class" overall to highly experienced with multiple rifle classes under their belt.

First and foremost, the group was perfectly up to par with range safety. A big thank you to all students, since this made teaching the class very easy.

We did the full program, getting familiar with the capabilities of our rifles, snap shooting, getting off the X with the rifle, transitions to pistol and shooting from the various rifle shooting positions at distances out to 80 meters. One point that I got a lot of positive feedback on is the emphasis on ambidextrous weapon skills.

Here is a first set of pictures.


Our group at the end of day two


getting off the X - and hosing Hadji with a well-aimed volley of 7.62 x 39


Target check - we used ice-filled coffee containers for "visual feedback" on long-range precision shots. much nicer to see an ice fountain going up than having to spot a tiny hole in paper.

[CORINNA COPLIN]

Thanks for the AAR and photos Uli. Some familiar faces in the group and lots of grins too! I am interested to hear your impressions of using Lytle Creek range for classes.

I am certain the students had a great time and learned a lot.

[directorof1stimpressions]

That class sounds so fun. It is nice to see the pics, Thank you Uli for sharing. Looking forward to meeting you in a couple of months.

[Uli Gebhard]

[quote=CORINNA COPLIN;799026]Thanks for the AAR and photos Uli. Some familiar faces in the group and lots of grins too! I am interested to hear your impressions of using Lytle Creek range for classes.
[quote]

I let the grins speak for themselves ...

Lytle Creek has only one private range that they rent out. Full Depth of the range is ~100 meters. Hard to judge the width, but I'd say somewhere around 50+ meters there. Big plus of that range is that it's completely secluded from the public ranges - we barely heard the other shooters over there.
Another positive point was that we could leave targets and EZ-ups on the range at the end of day one, which reduced setup time the next morning.

The range manager is a good guy to deal with, very forthcoming with sign-in and similar items.
Only negative points are that the range opens at 8:00 and closes at 16:00 (meaning you have to be out of there by 16:00!) but that was adequately addressed by starting earlier.
Second issue was that we had to sign in and get wristbands on both days - minor issue.

Overall, very positive experience in regards to the range.

Originally Posted by CORINNA COPLIN

I am certain the students had a great time and learned a lot.

That was one of the comments that came up multiple times in the class debrief: That we covered a lot of ground in just two days. One student who has taken quite a few classes with SI and others estimated that most other places would require 4+ days to cover the same curriculum.

Originally Posted by directorof1stimpressions

It is nice to see the pics, Thank you Uli for sharing.

More to come... I ran out of time last night to resize and post some more. And I have a hunch that we will see pics from at least one of the students too.

[desertdog]

Great Class Uli! Excellent material and instruction.

[desertdog]

More Saiga action (and one AR).

[desertdog]

Still more!

[desertdog]

Once again, great class!

[Uli Gebhard]

Desertdog,

Thank you for posting the pics! It was great to have you and your wife back for another class!

I hope things work out as planned and I see both of you early next year in Bakersfield... .

[sabot7]

Thanks Uli and everyone else there present! This was my first firearm class ever. I haven't fired a quantity of ammo since rifle training in the Corps 20 years ago. I had corrective eye surgery in 1997 and was afraid I wouldn't be able to hit paper, but much to my surprise I was able to hit the target with decent groups (kinda cheated, I had the 20" Saiga ). After reading the forums I decided on using the sneakybag and it lived up to my expectations (especially when firing prone). It works really well and it's something I can carry around in downtown San Francisco and keep in the car without drawing extra attention to myself.

The hardest part for me was the right to left and left to right transitions. I was a little slow because I have no muscle memory of that movement. Dry fire practice will fix that. The fun part was at the end, when my rifle ran out of ammo, no mags left and I threw the rifle over my back and used the pistol without really even thinking about it. I could run that drill over and over again.

Everyone was friendly and I learned a lot about different gear and about some of the other classes. I'll add my vote to classes in Bakersfield and it's a good middle ground between LA and the Bay Area. Also let me know if the gunfighting class is created for lever action carbines. One of my fav childhood guns is my Marlin 1894s 44 mag. Just let me know way in advance so I can source some ammo or roll my own.

Thanks again and I look forward to taking more Suarez classes.

*kevin