Hanson does Blackwater USA: DAY 3

Buckeye Firearms Association Legislative Chair Ken Hanson recently attend Blackwater USA’s 5 day pistol/carbine class.

While attending class, Ken kept a blog of his experiences. Since most visitors to this site take training very seriously, we thought you would enjoy his ramblings.

Ken's five day experience will be published on this website on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the end of the month.

Click on 'Read More' for the third installment.

Day 3

Day started out interesting. I rolled out in my underwear and a t-shirt
about 6:30 to go to the bathroom, so of course my door locked behind me.
I've been shooting with guys all week, so we're a tight team, and the
first guy along said "wait there I'm going to go get my camera." I
borrowed a pair of shorts and went over to the admin building to get
housekeeping to unlock my door. A bunch of guys in black were there and
two were breachers, so one sat up with a grin and offered to open the
door for me. No thanks, I'll wait for the key.

We did typical pistol warm-up drills then shot the state department
qualification course twice. 50 shots on standard IDPA target from 25
yards down to three yards, all timed, throw in reloads, strong hand etc.
A zone was 5 points, B zone was 4, C zone was 3, miss was zero. I
scored a 242 and a 243, mostly because my gun croaked each time on the 2-shots-in-two-seconds-from-holster stage. Hard to draw and shoot through
a double action first shot at 15 yards then follow up when you throw in
a malfunction each time. 5 points down for each run through from gun
malfunction. Timed stages are different when the targets turn and turn back.

Wow. Full day, I was bushed last night. The Diplomatic Security qualification course
is actually somewhat challenging in the sense that I couldn't easily max
it even if I got to repeat it numerous times. It is shot on IDPA targets with center scored 5, next outer 4, outside zone 3, all else zero, including head shots. This is shot from 25 yards on in. My gun choking didn't help. But passing was 220 out of 250. On a good run with the gun functioning I could probably get a 247-248. First time I shot what I
would consider an "honest" qualification course set up by the
government. Both times through I had a jam on the “two rounds in two seconds” stage and couldn’t get the second shot off before the targets faced. So down 5 each run for the non-shot. Still scored 242 each time.

We did moving steel, they are set up so their plates move right to left and then left to right. Engaged both tracking and ambush methods. Tracking is clearly easier. He described the plate speed as "About as fast as your average Haji
runs." Which was about 5 mph, a very brisk walk.

The rifle stuff - wow. Where to start. Started rifle in the afternoon, 1.5 hours classroom, rest of the day zeroing rifles and then some basic drills.

We have a guy here who is a personal chef from LA, wants to start doing
PSD stuff because the restaurant business is croaking. We all kind of
feel sorry for him. He bought a 40 caliber Glock for the course and he
clearly isn't ready for it. Most guys here are shooting 9mm, 2 45s and
2 40s. I showed him how to take apart his Glock because some mall
ninja had said he needed to flip it upside down and kind of pinch it
with one hand while the other hits the takedown levers etc. He was
amazed you could just sit it down on the bench and take it apart like a
normal human being. Sigh. Then at lunch he starts talking about this
great deal he got on a light rifle for the class, said the guy who sold
it to him told him it was exactly what he needed for the class. If you
are thinking to yourself "please let it not be a KelTec" you are right. After the third time where he couldn't even fire 3 shots to zero the
rifle without it choking the instructor went down and said this was a
serious class and he needed to have a real gun if he wanted to continue. They took him to the armory and got him an AR. Another guy has a Galil
in 308. We said he needs to come to class tomorrow wearing pink flip
flops and a knock off Ralph Lauren shirt to complete the third world
imagery.

Classroom covered everything, ballistics, accessories, doo dads and bee
bobs. Quite a few companies send stuff to them as demo units so they
had a good variety of stuff to look at. They have some views that
clearly depart from doctrine.

The rifle should be zeroed for 100 yards. Battle sight zero is a
handicap. 15 years of battle experience clearly shows small arms shots
are zero to 100 yards for engagement distance, so with the most common
engagement distance being 100 yds why set your gun to hit 8 inches high
at that distance? Said they would rather have to aim high 6 inches for
a 300 yard shot that no one ever takes anyway. Anything out to 300
yards is getting air and ordnance called on it. Said the experience is
conclusive that the AR is a 0-200 yard system only for a rack rifle and
a foot solider rifleman. Also said the average service rifle gets more
wear from cleaning than from firing. ARs easily should go 2,000 rounds
without cleaning. Run them wet and they will go. Their rifle lube of
choice? Valvoline 15W50. No I am not kidding. Said the Aimpoint is
more reliable than the Eotech, but with the new generation of Eotech
they were each just issued one and that opinion might change. They
really like LaRue mounts. Said that over-travel screws have no business
in a gun being used for combat.

Shooting position is fairly square. They are split about down the
middle on vertical foregrips or standard ones. Most agree that
collapsible stocks are the standard, though a few old guys do like the
solid ones for durability.

Not much trigger time on the rifle today, 100 rounds. I expect that
will change tomorrow as we will be on the 100 yard range.

The highlight of today was going to a new range, you know you are on
a big facility when a range master car comes to lead your caravan to the
right range. They introduced it by saying we were now on the only range
at BW where someone had been shot. Great. Someone had done something
weird at one of the shoot houses and a bullet came into the bay by
ricochet and got a guy's leg with a slight wound, was training later
that day. That is something that has been fairly constant, you hear
bullets whining by overhead. Sounds really cool if you ignore the source
of the sound. Yesterday something big and automatic let lose and you
heard several "whoouuuzzz" overhead. The instructors just shrugged and
said "this is value added, we don't even charge extra for the realism." Great.

I brought out the Socom II because I had actually zeroed my AR prior to
class so it only took 2 strings to rezero it for 100 yards. Like kids
at Christmas, everyone came down after a while and fondled it. Two
offers on it, and another from an instructor. That thing is so smooth. I was shocked I could shoot it and have it feel so smooth and light in
recoil from the prone.

We went out to dinner in Chesapke for a guy's birthday. I felt like a
little kid, some of these guys are huge. One is a professional Muay
Thai fighter. He has muscles on his eyebrows. Watched Team America for
a while. My only lesson learned tonight is when going out in a convoy
of cars for dinner don't let the guys back on 2 weeks' furlough from
Iraq drive. Dear lord, 2 hours of driving and probably 3 turn signals
the whole time, going straight through intersections in the left turn
lane etc. Yelling at Haji to get out of the way.......................then they got lost down by the
docks......well, their beer was warm by the time we got home. As it was I got the teetotaler reputation because I was the one drinking pop all week.

Stay tuned for future installments of Ken's time at Blackwater USA, Tuesdays and Thursdays through December.