AAR - Magpul Dynamics Carbine 1

Class – Magpul Dynamics Carbine 1
Location – Red 6, 6010 Thomas Jefferson Dr, Forest VA
Date – October 15-17, 2012
Instructor – Jon Canipe


Day 1 –
I woke up this morning to see the bane of every firearms class. Rain. I arrived at the range and met Jon Canipe, the MD instructor. Jon introduced himself to the class and gave a brief description of his background. After the students did the same, Jon moved into the safety/medical briefs.

As the rain was really pouring down, we sat under a pavilion awning as Jon covered basic marksmanship with a rifle, rifle equipment (and more importantly what didn't need to be on one), personal gear, and equipment and gear placement on the rifle and person.

The rain finally moved out just as he was finishing up. We moved out to the 50 yard line to zero the rifles.

After lunch Jon covered rifle basics such as loading, unloading, mechanical offset, and positional shooting (standing, kneeling, seated and prone) On a side note, the chamber check and mag flip for the reload have been done away with, as have the super high reaction side elbow the former MD instructors employed.

We ran several drills to emphasis the points made, and ended the day with a small shooting competition employing the reloads and positional shooting. The course was at the 50 yard line. We had 4 mags, each with only 5 rounds in them. From a ready position the shooter, upon the timer buzz, shot 5 rounds standing, reloaded, 5 rounds kneeling, reloaded, 5 rounds seated, reloaded, and 5 rounds prone. We were scored by time, and penalized 2 seconds on that time for any shots outside the 8" blue circle in the center of the target. I went first and managed to win, winning the prize of a Magpul MS3 sling.


Jon's teaching style is very laid back. He is also direct and doesn't sugar coat or water down the instruction to make you feel better. It's been excellent so far, minus the rain, which of course no one can change.


Day 2 -
We started off today re-confirming our zero from 50 yards. From there, we moved to a block on the handgun. This included basic loading, unloading, reloading, as well as basic pistol marksmanship. We ran courses of fire from the 7, 10, 15, and 25 yard lines. Jon emphasized the importance of good, basic, fundamental skills in pistol handling, and how that translated into the rifle. After several drills to ensure we were up and running on our handguns, we started integrating them with our rifles. Jon demonstrated Transition drills moving from rifle to pistol and back. We also ran the transition drills from the 7, 15 and 25 yard lines. We culminated the morning with a small contest. Starting at the 25 yard line, each student shot 5 rounds at the main target, attempting to keep all rounds inside the 8" blue circle. The student then moved to the 15 yard line and engaged swinging steel with the pistol. 3 steel targets, shooting each one a single time, and doing that twice. The penalty's for missing the steel was made by having to take the time for follow up shots. Penalty's for hitting outside the circle, was 3 seconds added to the time. The prize was a Magpul MS3 sling. A Park Ranger from California won this one today.

After lunch we re-covered a few things on basic rifle/pistol transitions. Then we moved into Rifle malfunctions. Jon gave an excellent classroom presentation on how to clear various rifle malfunctions, then had us working on the different types of malfunctions on the rifles. He set up 5 different rifles, each with a different malfunction. Each student had to clear the malfunctions individually.

After a short dinner break, Jon offered a bonus to us! It was not required, but any student that wished to return that evening could also participate in a low-light rifle/pistol course. Using the Red 6 range’s MOUT facility, Jon started by showing us how difficult it was to see and ID targets in failing light without a light source. This stressed the importance of having a white light source on your rifle. Next Jon moved on to demonstrations of how your light can wash out a red dot optic against various backgrounds. Jon gave a great discussion and demonstration on light placement, as well as various ways to mount them. We then moved to the firing line and practiced firing low light drills with the rifles. Jon had us identifying a target, engaging, killing the light, and moving offline. Next Jon moved to different ways of using a rifle with a hand held light. He demonstrated several different ways and options, allowing us to try them and find the ones that worked best for us, individually. Next Jon showed how to use your rifle light source when the rifle goes down/empty's and you have to employ your handgun. As an ending to the night time low light course, Jon had us individually light up our targets from 7, 25, 50, and 100 yards. This really drove home the point about the need for a good white light source, as several students had older, lower lumen lights. My personal generic POS was fairly useless for identifying actual threat behavior outside of 25 yards, and at 100 was frankly laughable.


Day 3 -
We started day 3 by attempting to confirm our zero’s at 50 yards. Once again, Mother Nature was not working with us. Only now we had the opposite problem from Day 1. None of us could see the target due to the sun being directly in our eyes. Jon had us move to the 25 and shoot, reminding us our point of aim/point of impact would be slightly off an inch or so. With that done, Jon started the day with Failure to Stop drills. We did several drills on hitting targets other than center mass to defeat body armor. We shot the failure to stop drill for a while. We then moved to engaging multiple targets. Jon discussed different theories and schools of thought on engaging more than one target. We then did several drills incorporating multiple target engagements. To really drive this one home, Jon had us run a carbine standard, the 1-5 drill. We would see this one again this morning, with added pressure!

Next Jon moved on to shooting while moving. We ran several drills starting at the 25 yard line and moving to the 5 yard line. Jon then discussed shooting while moving backwards, again presenting several schools of thought on the techniques used to do so. After running drills moving backward, Jon went on to moving the side and engaging to the side while having to move forward. These drills, in the interest of safety, were run individually.

After we finished this, Jon had us set up for the big money round! That's right, friendly competition again! Today's prize was a Mapul STR stock. We had to load 3 magazines with a total of 15 rounds between them. How we loaded the 15 rounds was left up to us. Most of us simply loaded 5 rounds in each of our three magazines. We then had to trade mags with a classmate! Each student came to the line individually and had to shoot the 1-5 drill. Now we had to do so under pressure, with mag changes involved! Hits outside of the blue 8" circle were penalized an extra second. The first guy up was a civilian student with no military or LE background, but some firearms competition training. He ran an excellent time, and no one was able to best it. It was an excellent job!

After a short lunch, we discussed several ways of shooting around, over and through barricades. The host range at Red 6 has a couple of the VTAC type barricades made up for this purpose. Jon discussed various ways of getting the rifle to a stable position, maximizing cover, and minimizing the profile left by the shooter. We spent quite a while shooting around, under and through these barricade, utilizing some new and unique positions to most of us.

After the barricade we moved the ranges car out into the range area. Jon went over the differences between Cover/Concealment, and had us describe which parts of vehicle offered it. Jon spent time teaching us to shoot over, around, and under the vehicle. Again employing some excellent positions many of us had never used before. He had us train this section dry. It was quite an eye opening experience, as I've never had the opportunity to do this kind of training before. This concluded the training portion of the class.

The class ended with the necessary range cleaning and administrative work, such as AAR's, certificates, etc. Jon took pictures with those that wished to and made sure everyone had his business card or knew how to contact him if they had questions or comments later.


Conclusions -
Overall this was an excellent class! Jon Canipe is an excellent instructor, able to present the material in a concise, easily understood manner. His real world training and experience show through, even though he doesn't plague you with constant war stories as many do. His enthusiasm and lover for what he does is obvious, as is his genuine desire to see his students learn and excel. As a law enforcement veteran since 1993, I've been to a lot of schools, seen a lot of instructors, and taught classes myself, including Patrol Rifle and Academy Firearms classes. Taking Jon's class I learned a ton of new material, re-learned some great stuff I'd forgotten or passed off, better understood some of the stuff I've learned before, and found many new techniques of teaching and relaying information to a broad array of students. One particular point I really liked was that Jon would have several different techniques for just about ever section. He never tried to lock us into “his way” of thinking or training. This gave each student the option of finding one that fit their own body structure, and in some cases, departmental restraints or policies. Jon was also open to ideas and techniques students had seen or learned previously, discussing pro’s and con’s of each as presented. I would not hesitate to take this class, or any other Mr. Canipe teaches!