AIWB carry in Green Eye Tactical classes

AIWB carry in Green Eye Tactical classes.

TL/DR: AIWB is allowed and instructed in relevant Green Eye Tactical training courses.

            The last month or so has seen a great deal of buzz in the industry about Appendix Carry. It started off with an ill-informed article in an NRA publication and now a number of well-known instructors are banning or restricting Appendix Carry in their concealed classes. These instructors have well established track records for courses and their rationale for making these decisions, based on their class format, should not be questioned. The primary job of every firearms instructor is the safety of his or her clients.

            Now, since I've noticed a lot of angry (and uninformed) comments about these posts- I've decided to make a very detailed post about the "why". I'm not writing a wall of words to argue one way or the other. I'm going to post the full methodology I use (and I was taught with) so that when you're looking at attending other training courses, you have some information to evaluate the content with. I'm not talking about the instructors that made the decision to ban or restrict- they are all top-notch. I'm more talking about the ones that will have you AIWB on hour 1, day 1 while rolling on the ground and shooting between your legs.

Why do you allow it?

            Because I teach it, I don't "drill" the technique, I use a building block approach to all techniques I cover and crawl, walk, run is always in effect. If you are looking for run-n-gun training courses, keep looking- you're in the wrong place. If you're looking for elitist training, where you can brag that you were one of the few that could attend based on the high course pre-requisites, keep looking- you're in the wrong place. If you judge a course by how high the round count is, well....you get the idea. Now, just because I allow it, doesn't mean you get to do it. The point of building block training is to build a solid base. I'm not going to let anyone live-fire a technique that they can't competently and consistently demonstrate in a dry-fire capacity. (I do keep a pair of airsoft rifles and pistols on hand for courses for use in extreme cases). 

Types of Carry

            There is no one-carry method that works well in all environments and situations. If you fall into the crowd that identifies as: "I carry (insert AIWB or other method here)", then you need to reevaluate what you are doing. AIWB does have a number of benefits. It keeps the holstered firearm near our "working area", which lends itself well to accessibility, retention, and deployment if engaged hand to hand. It also is generally, but not always, the more concealed method for carry. The downside is comfort, especially if you are in a seated position for long periods of time. Individuals with large waistlines may have more difficulty accessing the firearm as well. This is why there are other methods of carry, and none of them should be looked down on. If you are wearing a suit, it may be better to carry on the side or slightly rear, or even in a shoulder holster (go ahead and gasp!). The point is- you should be doing a mission analysis of what you are doing to determine your requirements. Once you determine your requirements, then determine the mode of carry, holster, and pistol that best fits those requirements. If you're mode of carry and equipment doesn't change fairly regularly, you may not be using the most efficient techniques.

Progression

           

            There is a general progression to pistol draw work. Generally, and arguably, it is more ideal to start teaching a new student from a drop leg holster. It is much easier to manage, has better anatomical index points, and the draw is much less compressed with regards to arm angle. Once the basics of the draw and re-holstering (which is the most important with regards to safety), we have a base to work from. From there, it goes to the belt. With each new carry position, we start with the pistol unconcealed and uncluttered. Each position gets dry-fired before going live. Then you conceal and dry fire again, then you progress to live fire. Notice a pattern? Once the belt draw is good, we move to IWB and the same skill progression is followed.

            As you may have figured out- this means a lot of dry fire. How much dry fire depends on the class and if the key safety tasks for the skill are being executed properly. I do not run high round count courses. While a course may list 850 rounds for a 2-day course: that is based off of a best case, everyone is squared away, all I'm doing is blowing the whistle after giving instruction with minor feedback. That pretty much never happens . I make 0 guarantees that you won't be driving home with 50% of your ammo still left. I also make 0 guarantees that you get all the way to the more difficult technique. But, then again- what were you doing coming to my course if you equate success to shooting all your ammo?

            What is the point of this? Repetition alone is not training. Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice and error free repetition make perfect. 

Equipment

            You need to make sure that you are using the proper equipment for any training you are doing. When we talk holsters for concealed work- at a minimum we are talking hard leather, ideally- we want Kydex. The holster should be shaped so that there are no snag hazards during re-holstering, it should completely cover the trigger guard and the safety (if present), and it should firmly hold the weapon in position. As for the pistol, it should be carry safe. Really, this isn't unique to concealed work. The training industry has a lot of competition creep into it. People attend training courses with modified weapons that wouldn't be safe for the tactical application they are training for in the first place. For pistols this means a trigger weight of 4-4.5lbs MINIMUM. It needs to be drop-safe. All modifications should be carefully planned, based from your mission analysis, and performed by a qualified and reputable gunsmith. It should be in good working order and pass a functions check (you do know how to perform a functions check your pistol, right?) before training.

Training vs. Entertainment

            This isn't the first time I've brought this up. There is a constant battle in the instruction industry to fill slots. Every instructor is vying for the attention of the "industry" and the "industry" is fickle. The temptation is always there to do some training that some nutjob thinks is cool, like shoot with a plastic bag over your head, to generate more interest. Some cave to this. To some extent, your clients do have to have a good time, and you will need to make small compromises- but it shouldn't compromise content or safety. When I went through OTC at the Unit, we dry-fired at a piece of tape on the wall for a week straight, with instructors immediately correcting the most microscopic mistake or inefficiency. People say they want "real Operator training" but, I suspect that if I listed a 5 day course where the students were going to do nothing but dry fire at a piece of tape- the booking results would be predictable. Think about that the next time you consider your training.

Modern Spartan Systems Accuracy Oil Review

Modern Spartan Systems

Accuracy Oil Review

          A little while ago, Modern Spartan Systems shot me an email about their products. Before speaking on the phone, I did my due diligence and dug into them. I'll admit, some of the claims they were making threw up some red flags for me, mainly the claim that it tightens shot groups. I didn't see any really convincing test data to properly back up the claim. I kept digging around and watched their videos. The closest thing to a scientific test I saw was their video of the Timken Bearing Test. The test was pretty impressive, but I was still a bit wary of the accuracy claims. So, when I finally spoke to them on the phone, I agreed to properly test the claim in an upcoming Basic Tactical Rifle course. The Basic Tactical Rifle course I teach was a great fit for the testing, because we spend time on the chronograph and grouping- so measuring results would be easy.

            I'm not a bench rest shooter, and I did not feel in our application, that measuring shot group size would be an honest metric. The shot group size would naturally decrease throughout the course as we worked on skills. Grouping size contained too many non-deterministic variables to reliably test. For this reason, I focused on provable data. While more consistent velocity alone doesn't necessarily mean better accuracy, consistent velocity is a key deterministic variable of external ballistics and does directly translate to bullet (gravity) drop when combined with other deterministic variables. Just wanted to throw that in there before the peanut gallery chimes in.

Setup

I asked all the students to clean their bores before they showed up so we could get clean results. I used an Oehler 35p chronograph. The Oehler 35p is an industry standard chronograph, which has 2 stop screen channels and compared velocities between the two to ensure there is not an error.

            Day 1:

            We shot a string through the Oehler, without the oil, to establish velocity numbers and select a good zero distance on each rifle. We continued our training for the rest of the day without issues (we did find one rifle's T-1 sight had the worst parallax movement I have ever seen past 50yds in a red dot sight, but that is another story) Students were told to clean their bores again that night and show up clean the next day.

            Day 2:

            Early that morning I was notified we were -1 student as one got a sectional cleaning rod and multiple patches stuck. (Stop using Otis origami patches, use one square in your caliber and pull, don't push from chamber to barrel. If it takes more effort than you can exert without spilling your beer (don't judge- you know you do this), stop and lightly tap it out the way it came with a mallet).

            On arrival, we followed the initial treatment protocol.

1.     We ran a patch wet with Accuracy Oil through each bore a few times.

2.     We then fired a 10 round group @ 100yds.

3.     After checking targets, we re-treated all barrels, running a patch wet with Accuracy oil through each bore a few times.

4.     We then fired a 10 round group @ 100yds.

5.     After checking targets, we re-treated all barrels, running a patch wet with Accuracy oil through each bore a few times.

6.     We then fired a 10 round group @ 100yds.

7.     After checking targets, we re-treated all barrels, running a patch wet with Accuracy oil through each bore a few times.

8.     We then fired a 10 round group @ 100yds.

9.     After checking targets, we re-treated all barrels, running a patch wet with Accuracy oil through each bore a few times.

10. We then fired a final 10 round group @ 100yds.

11. All rifles were then chronographed.

            To summarize- we cleaned, then treated, then fired 5 x 10rd groups, treating between each group, then recorded data.

Results

  

            Everyone in the class was pretty amazed by the results. Every shooter gained velocity, decreased their standard deviation, and drastically decreased their extreme velocity spread.

           

Definitions

            Just in case you may not be familiar with chronograph data or it's meaning, let me define the terms as the Oehler 35p captures them:

            Highest Velocity- simply, the fastest value collected.

            Lowest Velocity- simply, the lowest value collected.

            Extreme Velocity Spread- this is the simple difference between the highest and lowest value collected.

            Mean Velocity- This is the average of the data collected.

            Standard Deviation- this value describes the uniformity. The value is represented like this: +/- 18fps. This value means that, based on the data collected, at least 2/3^rd of the rounds you fire will be within 18fps of the average velocity (the actual math behind calculating this will make your head hurt, just trust me here).

THE HARD NUMBERS

Now, Let's have a look at the equipment used. Below is a chart of the rifles and the ammo they used, each ammo type was from the same lot, respectively (I apologize in advance, I'm not a spreadsheet pro- deal with the lack of aesthetics):

           

            I liked that we had a good spread of brands and ammo, so we could rule out values only being consistent to one type or brand.

           

            Here is the weather condition from the two days at the time of measurement for each day. No huge differences that would drastically alter the results:

             Now, let's get down to it. Here is Gun #1's results and I'll break down the numbers:

          The Clean Bore column represents the data from Day 1, which was untreated with the Accuracy Oil, the Treated Bore is from Day 2 after the treatment steps were finished.

-       We can see right away that the Highest Velocity and the Lowest Velocity both increased.

-       We also see that the Extreme spread decreased, which is great.

-       The Mean Velocity increased.

-       The Standard Deviation decreased.

            All of these numbers are improvements, indicating the Accuracy Oil works. -4 on a standard deviation may not sound like much, but it is.

          Now that we've broken down the results, let's look at the other 4 rifles:   

          Yep, you're seeing that right and we were just as impressed when we saw the results print out. Every single rifle registered improvements across the board- regardless of rifle manufacturer and ammo type.

            Some rifles recorded results that were FAR more drastic than others, but that could also be explained by barrel condition. The manufacturer claims the oil bonds with the inside of the barrel, creating a smoother surface- decreasing friction. So, if that is correct, then a barrel with more imperfections could show more improvements than a barrel in better condition. The results on Gun #3 are an example of this.

          Now, let's see an average of all the guns:    

          Fairly impressive results, but how does that translate to accuracy? As I stated before, velocity data is one of the key deterministic variables of external ballistics. They will compound with other variables to produce your shot group. Many shooters in the industry blow this off, because they don't think it matters much. But, then they spent $1,200 on a sub MOA rifle, and another $600-$1,200 on quality optics, because it doesn't matter, right? EVERYTHING MATTERS. Remember, change in drop from velocity will compound with the accuracy of the barrel, consistency of your sight placement, marksmanship fundamentals, and other external ballistics variables to produce your shot group. Don't let your equipment add unnecessarily to the error you will induce to your shot group the second you wrap your meat-grippers around that rifle.

     Here are some more aesthetically pleasing charts of the average changes in FPS and %:  

  

          Here is a chart, referencing Gun #2 and translating the velocities to inches of drop at 300yds.    

          What this is showing is that this shooter's lowest point of impact raised by 1.3" and his average point of impact by 1". This means that his rifle is now shooting flatter out to 300yds. If you customize your zero distance, that 1.3" gain can help a lot in balancing how high your round is above your line of sight between 100-200yds and how low it is at 300yds.

            The Extreme Velocity Spread section shows the difference, in inches, of the high and low velocity rounds. This translates to a difference in shot group size (yes, other external ballistic factors will affect this as well). So, untreated we had a 1.8" size and treated we had a 1.2" size- a change of  -.6" or 33.33%.

            Gun #2 had fairly average results in our group, here's Gun #3:

          So, Gun #3 had its lowest drop pushed up 1.7" and its average drop pushed up .9". The big story with this rifle is the extreme spread. Before treatment, the velocities indicated a drop spread of 2.9", after treatment it shrunk to 1". I would take a decrease in shot group size due to drop spread of 1.9" any day.

CONCLUSIONS

            The product works with regards to its muzzle velocity claims, get this stuff in your barrel now.  I still want to see better and more extensive testing. If this oil is decreasing friction to this extent, we should see a very noticeable increase in barrel life- I want to see numbers on that. I'd like to see how many rounds this treatment lasts, and see a treatment schedule recommended. I would like to see some testing on how it performs in the upper receiver beyond "it feels great". Until that happens, I can't recommend that guys who pull triggers doing jobs where their lives depend on it put this on their bolt.  But, I will absolutely recommend getting this oil in your barrel today.

            On a side note, before this course I used their Carbon Destroyer on my bolt. I had a decent amount of carbon plating on it. I let the product soak in it while I cleaned my bore. Almost all the carbon came off with an all-purpose brush. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the before and after, but give it a try yourself.