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Trip Report: Front Sight 4-day Practical Rifle

I just got back from (as the title says) a 4-day rifle course at Front Sight in Nevada. I’m a lifetime member from something like 6 years ago but I’ve only attended, and greatly enjoyed, one pistol class there. While I like to keep the focus of my training on skills with little focus on social or political discourse, I just like good training for a reasonable price. Front Sight most definitely has that good training at a good price.

Read my full post for pics and day-to-day descriptions of the course.

What I brought and actually used:

• Homebuilt AR15, 16″ gov’t profile 1/7 twist flat top upper, backup sights with a quick-release-mounted Aimpoint CompML2. Stock trigger, collapsible stock with a Magpul AFG
• 4 x 30rd PMAGs with windows
• Single-point tac sling
• 2 x Comp-Tac mag pouches
• Electronic ear protection

What I wish I brought:

• Shooter’s pouch, or something akin to a small shotshell pouch to mount on my belt for spare .223 rounds, also might consider one large enough to drop a mag into
• 5.11 or BDU-esque pants with large cargo pockets that stay open easily
• COMFORTABLE knee and elbow pads. I had some $20 knee pads that I never really tried out, and would pinch me on every prone shot so I discarded them. I bought some volleyball elbow pads at Walmart after day one that helped. THICK tacticool pants with reinforced knees work. But those mats chew you up fast.

What I did before traveling out to NV:

• Sighted in iron and red dot at 50 yards
• Function tested the hell out of my gun. You’d be surprised at how many people wasted the course or went to rentals due to malfunctions.

What I did every day:

• Skipped almost every lunch lecture (1 on Front Sight memberships, 1 on situatoinal awareness/conditions, some basic tactics, some legal/moral stuff, and equipment selection)
• Cleaned and lubed my AR each night with M-Pro solvent and Pro Shot oil, which is my definitive favorite combo
• Bought my lunch the night before at Albertson’s or Walmart in Pahrump and brought Gatorade packets to mix with their water

1st Day…

Front Sight is in the middle of nowhere, Nevada. Just east of California.

Arrived at 7:30am to check in. Handed my gun to a range officer who checked it for proper safety and trigger functioning as well as barrel obstruction. They used to frown upon homebuilt guns, going so far to say that collapsible stocks are useless – I was turned off by that sort of dogma 5 years ago but found none of it now. The instructors that I ran into kept saying “any rifle will do if you will do” or something to that effect.

After a brief lecture we headed to the range and started off slowly – instructor intros, safety drills, making sure we understood range commands, making sure we understood how to operate our rifles. The course is aimed at the 95% of people out there that own a gun and have never had formal training with one, so there was a lot of nodding my head, etc. But with the attitude of consciously remembering to forget everything I’d learned previously (which wasn’t much) I found the instruction good, simple, easy to follow, and effective. Learning was in small increments, small “ah ha!” moments. More on that later.

Getting set up at the range, first day

For anyone wanting to get on your guns, the 1st day was disappointing. Not a whole lot of shooting, and barely any changes in position. Lots of safety drills and ingraining range commands. Once we started shooting, there were single shots – no paired shots or anything quick. Not a lot of attention to trigger pull, yet. Not even sighted in.

2nd Day

Beginning sight-in procedures

Class started at 8am with sight-in procedures off cans/bean bags like above. Sighted in at 50yds for ARs, which the course is mostly bent towards. Some people were running AKs, there was a Mini 14 in there, a Marlin 30/30, and an AR10. Sighting at 50yds on an AR also gives you a 200yd zero. I was skeptical of this at first, but it works. Lots of attention to sight picture, trigger pull, trapping to the rear on pull, breathing, etc. I just used the Aimpoint the whole time and didn’t worry about the irons. Started at 50 yards prone, 3 x 3 shot groups.

Instructors came by if you had no idea what you were doing and started cranking on adjustments fast – no slow movement of your groups. 50 people had to get through this, so it ended up chewing up a bunch of time. We moved back to 100yds, checked and taped targets, then back to 200yds, still on cans/bags. I was surprised I was on paper, since at that distance the 4moa dot covers your entire target area.

Into malfunction drills: type 1 misfire, type 2 fail to eject, type 3 double-feed. Tactical reloads, swapping partial mag with full mag. Emergency reload, swapping empty mag with full mag and running the bolt.

First shots from 200 yards

3rd Day

First shots of the day were at 200yds. Good morning! After a few rounds of those, we moved back to 400yds (seen below while lying on the ground). Not timed, you get 5-6 attempts to hit steel for a confidence builder with spotting. After two shots my final 3 were on 1′x 1′ steel, with a dot that completely covers the target. ACOGs and such ruled here. The .308 was drilling them. Everyone was shooting well, and then one of the instructors stepped up with his H&K P7 9mm pistol and hit steel on the 3rd shot, standing…

At 400yds I was having a very hard time finding my target. A lot of people shot like this with iron sights.

Shot timer was introduced, shooting from the high and low ready as well as field ready. Head shots, hostage head shots, and 3yd thoracic cavity shots from the low ready / pointed in. You’re shooting a lot more now, you’re finding yourself wondering how good your mags are when you get called up to the line. You’re finding you’re dumping rounds into your pocket and reloading mags after almost every drill. It was roughly here that I learned to get my rifle off my sling for better handling.

Tactical simulation was introduced – there are three gulleys/canyons with targets in them. You head down and the instructor gives you the rules of engagement: black steel targets are engaging/shooting at you, black steel with white hands are no-shoot, paper targets need to be identified. The rangemaster strongly suggested taking this sim seriously – and I heeded the advice. Definitely the best part of the course! You start walking and targets come into view, sometimes several. You start moving laterally, shooting, finding cover. No single shots here, I was putting at least 2 rds on everything. When the instructor couldn’t call one of my ~75yd shots, I put 3 more on steel from kneeling so she could tell  Moving fast, tactical reload, more targets, scanning 270 degrees or so, heart rate *high*. That simulator was the reason why I’m coming back for advanced courses, definitely.

4th Day

Start off shooting the skills test: 5 single shots, 2.5 seconds (IIRC) from high ready, ready, and field ready at 15yds. 5 single head shots from the same positions. Repeat, with a little more time, at 25yds. Repeat 5 shots to the body at 50, 100, and with 6.5 seconds, 5 shots to the body at 200yds. Getting to prone fast is key at 200. Hostage heads shots at 7yds, single body shot at 3yds and you’re done shooting. Watch the 2nd relay of 25 shooters do this, then timed malfunction drills. Repeat one more time. After lunch, testing begins!

Everyone gets psyched up for the skills test – the instructor was adamant about how much he hates giving the test. People tend to lose focus on the course, looking to test out. Keep in mind that in order to take a precision rifle or advanced tactical rifle course, you need a Distinguished Graduate cert, and the rifle test is known as the hardest test at Front Sight, allowing you to miss only 12pts out of 120. On the target but just outside the 3×5″ headshot area, for example, is a 3pt deduction. Late shots and flubbing malfunctions count against you – but if you know you’re going to be late, take your time and make an excellent shot. You’re penalized less for late than for a miss. Your late can be as late as you want. Take. your. time.

Malfunction testing is much easier with no sling in the way (single point slings rule the day here) and getting rid of your optics. Totally cool to configure your weapon to your advantage for testing.

After everyone tested out (shooting, then two rounds of malunction drills) we all rehydrated and shrugged off the stress of the test. Final fun-shoot was teams of 3 on 3 steel targets. 1st one a hostage head shot flip target, followed by a ~15yd body steel and a ~40yd steel, shot in order. Our strategy: 1st man shoots the hostage head, 2nd and 1st man shoot at the middle target, 1st, 2nd, 3rd man shoot the final target for higher probability of hits. Made it to the last round!

At around 4:45pm, the certs were handed out. With the exception of the guy who’s already taken the course several times, I was pleased to learn that I was the only other person to graduate with distinction. What’s nicer is that it opens up the entire course catalog to me – rifle/pistol transition drills, cars/barricades, night shoots, precision rifle. Precision rifle is f’ing cool, out to 800yds or so on steel with spotters.

Final Thoughts

I hadn’t been out to FS in 6 years, and during that time I’ve let my feelings about the founder sort of get in the way of readily going back. Being notified of my eligibility for inclusion in a class-action lawsuit, for example, soured me a bit on the academy. A small subset of the lectures do lean a little too much into political preaching and stereotyping that I don’t care for. Whatever, I skipped the lectures, ate my lunch, and praticed my malfunction drills.

What I want to impress upon you is that the instructors are excellent. Excellent. They’re funny, personable, they don’t miss anything, they can tell when you’re slapping your trigger from 20ft away. They’re serious and safe, they’re not drill instructors. They do things by the book and it does seem like you get the Front Sight lingo ingrained in your head quickly – but that’s the point: consistency and muscle memory over having to think about the drill you’ve just been given. By the 2nd-3rd day, “FIRING DRILL” moves you into bringing up your gun to your workspace, inserting a mag and running the bolt, making sure you’re on safe and then chamber-checking and mag checking without thinking. Falling to prone with your eye on the #3 target 200yds out is instinctive. Soon, head shots at 15yds, where your sights do not line up and are off by 6″ or so become instinctive.

For what it’s worth, being previously hesitant to freely mention that I’m a Front Sight member, I had a blast and cannot wait to go back. Especially for the high-speed, low-drag stuff…

Tagged with: Front Sight, rifle, training

Categorised as: Shooting