Tactical Response Fighting Rifle Class

[redstategunnut]

I took Fighting Rifle from Tactical Response in Camden, Tennessee this week. This was my first private training class of any kind for any weapon platform.

First things first: Tactical Response runs a first rate organization, and I will return to Camden for additional courses. Go to Camden, take any course, I'm sure you will be pleased.

To my classmates, you guys (and lady) were great people to spend a few days getting to know. Stand up people, every one. Thanks for a good hang.

To the course itself: I ran a Saiga Arsenal AK47 on an SOE single point sling that I had picked up a few months ago from Outpost Armory. As an aside, if you haven't been to the Outpost Armory, get there, too. Great store, great selection, great food, great staff.

One thing I noticed early on in my stay in Camden is how many alumni return for further training. Repeat customers are a sign of satisfaction. It also has bred deep and sincere camaraderie that I was very pleased to experience. If you spend any time on this forum, when you get to Camden you'll start putting names to faces and before long you feel like you are with old friends. These are great people, and they care that you are there and that you have a good experience. This includes people who don't work directly for Tactical Response, like John Willis at SOE who makes the best rigs and belts and accessories, bar none. Great guy, too. He checked out my gear that I bought before I learned about SOE, remarked favorably on it without any static and offered to let me use some of his stuff to see how I liked it. Conveniently, SOE is located right next to the Gear Store, which is ground zero for Tactical Response. Likewise Jeremy Horton who makes the bomb diggity in blades. I hope I can get one - you hear me, Jeremy????

Others have covered the course thoroughly, and I echo their positive comments. The course starts with the basics and builds step-by-step in a logical, coherent and reinforcing fashion. The instructors (Jay Gibson, Allen Webb and Paul Gomez) were thorough, professional, and knowledgeable. Interaction with the students (including in this class several Tactical Response instructors taking the class as students) is constant and positive. These guys are the real deal, they don't need to tell you how great they are or preach gun school guru dogma to you like it was given from God. What they tell you makes sense and works and sells itself.

The weather was a factor. It was cold cold cold on day 1. Day 2, as noted above, was more remarkable for mud than cold, but it was still cold. I'm glad I had good gear and I was comfortable, and I'm glad I was able to test out my gear and run my guns under extreme conditions.

A couple of suggestions for people thinking about taking a Tactical Response class.

First, do it. You will not regret it, you will get your money's worth and you will go back.

Second, and this is coming from a guy with a bunch of 1911s, take two Glocks to class: one to run the course with and one to put in your holster for the ride home. My G19 was filthy after this class. It never malfunctioned, but it was dirty, inside and out. After class, I stuck my G26 in my holster and went on my way. I considered taking a 1911 to class, but after reading many course reviews I decided against it. I'm glad I took my Glock 19 and left my 1911s at home. The drills and the course beg for a high capacity, high reliability gun. I love a 1911, but you don't take a Porsche off road, you take a truck. Please, don't hate on me, just trust what I'm telling you, you'll get more out of the class.

Third, before you go to Camden, play dress up and do some dress rehearsals. Put on all your gear, loaded up like you will go to class. See if you can draw your pistol and reholster and secure it. I found out that my holster sucked, but it was too late. Take your rifle to the range and run it hard. Run a string of five or six magazines without stopping, because that is what you will do in class. If your gun can't do that, get it fixed or get a gun that can. I was the only one in a class of ten running an AK47 and I did not have a single hiccup, but most or maybe all of the ARs did have at least some problem, and there were some top shelf ARs in this class. The higher the round count, the more times the magazines hit the mud, the higher the rate of malfunctions. Again, don't hate on me, I'm just telling you what I saw.

Fourth, don't do what I did: I bought a lot of gear off the internet before I went thinking, "I'll need/want this and this and this." In retrospect, I wish I had waited until I got to Camden and the Gear Store. They have pretty much anything you might need, especially as far as chest rigs and web gear. You won't need a kit that will hold 12 magazines, and you won't want to be hauling all that around. One in the gun plus four magazines is about all you will need. You'll need gear that works, not gear that looks cool or has the name brand you think is cool.

Fifth, take at least two pairs of good gloves and practice shooting with gloves before you go. I wore out a pair of mechanic's gloves reloading my AK and had a backup pair, fortunately. What I had not done was shoot a lot with gloves on, and it showed until I got used to it. This goes for warm weather, too. As a wise man told me as I stood bleeding through my cut up gloves, "water is wet, gravity works and AKs are sharp."

Sixth, stow your ego and know that you don't know all that there is to know. Listen. Listen to your instructors, listen to your teammates. There is knowledge oozing out of every inch of Camden. The only time I wasn't learning something was when I was running my mouth or sleeping. Soak it up, breathe it in.

Like I said, I know I'm going back to Camden. Right now, I'm just hoping the other courses that I'm attending next month that I had already paid for before I went to Camden are half as good as what I experienced in Camden.

[Westwindmike]

Glad you had a good experience at TR. I have taken Fighting Pistol and Fighting Rifle there several years ago and also had a similar experience. I know there is a lot of hate here on this board for Tactical Response, but I'm still proud to be an alumni there.

[Smith]

Jesus Christ, can a guy not post a course review here without all the people that don't like Yeager coming out of the woodwork? I've taken 5 classes with them and NEVER trained with Yeager. His instructors are all top notch, and he's an ass. That doesn't stop me from getting good training.

Mark Larue is an ass, too. He still makes the best mounts on the market. Bet a lot of you do, too.

Good review, Redstate.

while I agree with you on the second half, I think this thread has been very restrained.

Edited February 28, 2010 by Smith

[Daniel]

No one has said anything negative to this point except for Paulie771.

[10Kilr]

Good review Red State, keep it up!

[Guest mustangdave]

I've only "trained" locally...with CIS...can't say I would drive all the way to Camden...When I can get the training I need here in my back yard. Any training is better than none at all...Good Review of Tactical Response...thanks for the report

[TGO David]

I know there is a lot of hate here on this board for Tactical Response, but I'm still proud to be an alumni there.

I really wish this stigma would just die, but it never will as long as people keep making comments like this. I had a chance to meet the TR guys at the last Guns & Gear Expo -- including James Yeager -- and found them all to be very professional and personable.

Training classes of almost any type, be it firearms, martial arts, automotive repair or pottery painting, will each have aspects that don't appeal to every student. It's incumbent upon each of us to take away from whatever class we attend the tools that "make sense" to us and leave behind the ones we don't care for.

Case in point: I've attended several CIS classes now and no one has caught me wearing Tactical Slippers yet.

[Guest Paulie771]

while I agree with you on the second half, I think this thread has been very restrained.

And I agree. I also didn't intend for anything I wrote to be construed as negative. James will tell you he's an ass, he even has it written in his avatar on GOTX (actually he says he's not an ass, he's a phallic object). He makes no bones about it. It is some of, if not THE, best training I've ever had. I know how these threads devolve and get locked quickly here, hence my original post. My point was to show that you can gain a lot from a company and not necessarily like the owner/CEO/whatever, IE Larue Tactical.

As I said, it was an excellent review of the course and I'm glad Red enjoyed it and learned something from it.