Magpul Precision Rifle 1 Course Review

This is a review of the Magpul Precision Rifle 1 Course in Yakima, Washington January, 2013 hosted by Caylen Wojcik.
About the Instructor and Course
Caylen Wojcik's is a former USMC Scout/Sniper and Scout/Sniper instructor. He
has seen active combat in the Middle East and received the Purple Heart during his
tour. Caylen uses his experience in combat to teach real-world actualities of
deploying a rifle effectively.
This course was four days and covered the basics of precision rifle from 1001000+ yards. During this course we shot in winter conditions with temps ranging
from around 20F-35F during the day.
My Rifle
Accuracy International AW in .308
26" Barrel
Single Chamber Muzzle Brake
Nightforce F1 3.5-15X w/Mildot Reticle
USGI Synthetic Sling
AI or Harris Bipod (See why below)
My Reloads
I was using reloads and they shoot sub 0.3MOA from my rifles. Here is the recipe
and gear used to make them:
Lapua .308 Brass
175 Sierra Match King
43.5 grains Varget powder
CCI Benchrest Primers
2.80" COAL
Full length resize
Redding competition die and competition bullet seater
RCBS Rock Chucker
RCBS Charge Master
Nothing special is being done with these reloads. They are middle of the road in
terms of pressure and velocity and are loaded to spec in terms of brass size, bullet
seating depth, etc. I value consistency and reliability more than tweaking my loads
for max velocity and this load gives me great performance and great reliability in
my rifles.

Day 1 - Intro, Zeroes and Technique

It was about 21-22 degrees when I took off for the shooting area located on private
ranchland. The ranch is in the desert region and is sagebrush with large rolling
hills. The ranch is on 36,000 acres. That's not a typo!
There were five shooters, including myself, and two instructors. Caylen and the
other instructor would teach together the first day. The remaining three days it
would just be Caylen. But with only five of us this is an incredibly good teacher to
student ratio. Everyone received great personal attention.
First we went over a basic briefing of the course and received a data book from
impactdatabooks.com full of information and logging pages. We also received a
laminated card deck with information about shooting positions, mil to yards
conversions, blank elevation tables, etc. This card deck would be used throughout
the course not only as a field guide to proper shooting technique, but also for our
own elevation, windage, holdovers, etc.
Next, we went over the rifles, scopes, stocks, etc. that were present. This gave
everyone a chance to see different hardware. There were:
2 - Stock Remington 700Ps (or close variants)
1 - GA Precision custom 700 in McRee Chassis
1 - REPR Semi-Auto
1 - Accuracy International Arctic Warfare (AIAW)
All rifles were shooting .308 in either hand loads or Federal Gold Medal Match.
The class had all levels of experience from novice to a member of a regional Police
SWAT Sniper team.
Firing Positions -- Get Out of Prone!
After a brief intro into what we will cover over the next few days, we went out to
the 100-yard firing line. Here we went over the basics of firing positions,
breathing, etc. We started off in the prone position, but Caylen was careful to
inform us that the course would do more than prone position because he feels it is
not realistic with what shooters face in the field. In particular, he thinks prone is
good for a couple basic things: 1) Sighting in and 2) Load Development.

He has found that around 95% of the time your shot is not really from the prone
position. This is based on his military experience, but for civilian purposes it
applies directly to situations like hunting where going prone is often not possible
due to field obstacles and losing sight of your game when you drop to the ground.
We would use not just prone, but also shoot off obstacles, odd positions, etc.
Further, we would not be using shooter/spotter teams because that is also no longer
realistic for civilian long range (hunting) or for many police/military applications.
He would train us to spot our own bullet splashes and correct our own shots
rapidly.
How to Set Parallax and Focus a Scope
We got behind the rifles and the instructors checked our positions and made
adjustments. We were taught how to get straight back behind the rifle, good foot
position, and eye to scope alignment. My form was already pretty good in this
regard so it was more of a review. But for new shooters this adjustment phase is
very important to get a consistent position behind the rifle. Accuracy is all about
consistency.
The next order of business was to adjust parallax and focus our scopes. Caylen
explained parallax and how it can cause serious problems in accuracy as the reticle
and focal plane are not aligned. Many shooters have big problems correctly
adjusting their parallax and this leads to inaccurate results.
We aimed at a target 500 yards away. The first thing we did was adjust parallax so
that the reticle/target did not shift as we moved our head around behind the scope.
Once we adjusted so the reticle and target were not moving, we loosened our focus
rings and focused the reticle until it was clear. It's two simple steps:
1) Get rid of parallax at 500 yards.
2) Then focus the reticle.
When you do these things, you will have the target focal plane and reticle focal
plane aligned accurately.
My scope was already adjusted and didn't need any changing. But it's always a
good idea to double-check your gear from time to time to make sure nothing is out
of alignment.

New Magpul Precision Rifle Target

Caylen put up the new (but not yet released) Magpul precision rifle targets to get
our zeroes. Here is a sample of one that has been shot already:

The target is still going through some modifications. But basically:

1) The triangles up top are for sighting. You aim at each point because it is easier to
be precise with aiming at a point than a big round/square blob.
2) The group of four inner pointing triangles is for a Natural Point of Aim drill that
I'll discuss.
3) The numbers on the outside are for various drills, but we also used them for a
NPA drill.

Zero Rifles
We sighted in the rifles. My final three shots did this (squares are 1 inch):

At this point I tightened the zero stop and turrets, but I left a couple clicks below
zero stop just in case I needed it later in the course. I don't want to have to pull the
turrets again because each time I do it there is I chance I mess things up or get
debris into the turret mechanicals.
Make Your Position, Then Break Your Position
After the sight in we went to a drill that helped us get into position and Natural
Point of Aim (NPA), then break it, then get back into it again.
It works like this:
1) Get into position and shoot for the center of number "1" target.
2) Cycle the bolt, put on safe, and back up to your knees behind the rifle.
3) Get back down behind the rifle and shoot for target "2."
4) Do this for all 16 targets.
The objective here is to shoot for the center of each numbered shape, but the
shapes do not really have a defined center and they are placed randomly on the
target. The purpose is to see if you can get into and out of position consistently and
put the bullet more or less in the center. If you are not doing it repeatedly, then the
bullet strikes will tell the instructors where you are going wrong (left, right, etc.).

You can see on the full size target I did OK, but miscounted and skipped #3 by
mistake! Oh well. The strikes I did have were all in the faint circle (you can't see it
from 100 yds.) for the most part.
Natural Point of Aim - Use the Force
This next drill we aligned our sights with the targets with four pointed in triangles.
Each one gets smaller from 4MOA to 3, 2, 1. But, we will do it with our eyes
closed.
The object here is to get NPA, close your eyes, open them, check for NPA again,
then close eyes and shoot! So these targets were shot with our eyes closed. If you
do it right the NPA takes care of the rest and you'll be accurate.
The shooting was done very safely in an environment where there is no chance a
bullet could go errant and hurt anyone. The ranch again is 36,000 acres with very
large hills as backstops behind the targets. With that said, I don't recommend doing
this drill unless you have proper instruction.
Let me also add that the difference between an average shooter and a great shooter
is their ability to get NPA consistently. It's not what gear you own, what rounds you
shoot, what videos you've watched or anything of the sort. It's about getting into a
good position, getting solid NPA, and pressing the trigger consistently each time. I
have done marksmanship instruction and we focused a lot on NPA as a basic skill.
Within an afternoon, you would see very average shooters who couldn't hold
4MOA at 100 yards go to 1MOA to sub-MOA shooters even with very modest
equipment. Technique trumps gear in almost every case. If you can't get NPA, you
will shoot poorly.

Now, here's a three shot group I did with my eyes closed at 100 yards. This is an
example of what good NPA can do. My other groups were acceptable (sub-MOA),
but I had two fliers simply because my finger was freezing staying on the steel AI
trigger with temps still in the 20s and no gloves!

Chronograph
After the NPA drill we chrono'd our rounds with a MagnetoSpeed. My rounds were
as follows from my 26" 1:12 twist barrel:
Max Velocity: 2683
Min Velocity: 2653
Average: 2670
Standard Deviation: 12
The standard deviation of 12 is pretty well in line with what I get with Federal
Gold Medal Match. It's perfectly fine for this kind of shooting. Velocity was within
margins as well. Varget powder is temperature stable and cold wasn't affecting it.

Rifle Cleaning
We next went inside to discuss: Rifle Cleaning! A subject steeped in much voodoo
and mystique.
Now I admit that I don't like cleaning my rifles until they show an accuracy drop
off. And when I do clean them, I will not strip copper out of the barrel. After all, I
figure the gun kind of wants it there anyway. Besides, being an engineer type I'm a
huge believer in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Over cleaning a rifle is far more
likely to cause damage and trouble than leaving it alone. IMO.
Caylen cleans out carbon and leaves the copper alone as well. His rifle has 6500
rounds through it and he has never removed the copper and it works great (and it
certainly shows in how it shoots).
The AIAW I was shooting is stainless so cleaning the barrel a lot is not very high
on my list and I clean my rifle very infrequently. I maybe clean the rifle every few
hundred rounds or so at most outside of wiping down the bolt and bolt face which I
do more frequently just to get the loose stuff off.
However, fouling can attract corrosion and cause pitting in carbon steel varieties
and you probably want to get it out with some milder cleaners using a nylon brush
and patches. You don't want to scrub the hell out of the thing and use stuff that will
peel skin off your fingers. A simple cleaning regimen is fine and it really is true
that "less is more" when it comes to cleaning a rifle.
I use Simple Green and a nylon bore brush to remove carbon fouling from time to
time and it will not affect your zero on the "clean bore" shot. I have tested this out
myself to confirm. The nylon brush is also soft enough to leave the copper alone
and not scratch areas of the chamber or crown that could affect accuracy. If you are
storing the rifle for a while, running a light oil, CLP, or other protectant down the
bore to prevent rust is a good idea.
While I have used Simple Green with great success, Caylen likes these products as
well:
MPro 7 (carbon cleaner, NOT the copper solvent version!)
Slip 2000

Also, muzzle brakes attract a ton of carbon buildup. They need to be cleaned as
well, but with great care to not damage the crown when you are doing it.
After this discussion on cleaning, he told the class to not clean their weapon for the
rest of the course. Part of this was as an experiment for the students to get away
from the overkill cleaning that many people want to do. Also, it was a practical
thing because we just spent the afternoon confirming our zeroes and he didn't want
anyone messing them up! Again: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This was fine by me
because I wasn't going to clean my rifle anyway.
Pre-Fire/Post-Fire Checklists
Finally, Caylen recommends a pre-fire/post-fire checklist:
1) Is everything tight? Put a co-witness mark on your bolts so you can see if they
moved (A dab of whiteout or red nail polish is what he recommends).
2) Anything cracked or wobbly?
3) Is the action smoothly operating?
4) Is your suppressor on tight? He sees a ton of accuracy problems from loose
suppressors.
5) Are your sling and bipod attachment points solid?
6) Etc.
Then there is a post-fire checklist:
1) Again is anything loose?
2) Re-torque all bolts every 500rds. with 308. Do it every 200-300 rds. for bigger
calibers like .338, etc.
To bring the point home, Caylen went to every rifle with a torque wrench and
personally checked the tightness of the sight mounts and other components. As an
instructor, he constantly sees rifles coming through with loose components that
destroy any chance of good accuracy.
Day 2 - Exterior Ballistics
Today we met at 0800 at a local diner for a class session to get out of the freezing
weather. The class was on exterior ballistics. We discussed G1 vs. G7 profiles,
bullet shape, air density as it relates to altitude, humidity, etc. and even spin drift.
We also discussed the flight path of a bullet from supersonic to transonic to
terminal velocity.

Long Range Data

We were given Android tablets to run the Applied Ballistics application using
Bryan Litz's data. We entered in our rifle, barrel, sight height over bore, barrel
twist, and results from yesterday's chrono session.
With this information, we hit the long-range targets today starting at 400 yards and
going out to 1030. The object was to use our ballistic computer to get our elevation
and dial it in to target. The ballistics program gave me numbers that closely
matched the data I already had on my rifle from previous engagements.
We shot each target spotting our own impacts and correcting. There was virtually
no wind. I had first round hits at 431, 495, 560, 611, 674 and 745 yards. I put five
rounds on each target.
I had a bare miss at 809 yards on first round and next four were center mass so
elevation from the computer was good. The wind picked up and I had to hold one
mil right after the first shot splash was seen. At 893 yards I had first round hit
center mass but was a little high so I brought it down 0.2 mils away from what the
computer told me. All follow-ups were center mass with good elevation.
At 955 yards the computer-generated elevation was too high. It said 10.2 mils and
it was more like 9.9 mils. I did my elevation correction plus I held off another 0.5mil right to get onto target. Follow-ups were hits.
At 1030 yards the computer said elevation should be 11.8, which seemed high to
me based on experience. But we were going with the data so I shot and of course it
was too high! So I dropped it down to 11.4 and hit to the left of the target with
good elevation. I corrected for the wind and put the other rounds on target.
A Competition and a Shoot-Off
After the long-range work we went back to the 100-yard line to recheck our zeroes.
We also did consistency drills where we shot 16 times breaking our position each
time just as before. But this time, we were playing for prizes...
We did the 16 shots and it was announced the person with the best score would win
a PMAG. A hit inside the center 1MOA circle on each colored shape was one
point. I had 16 points, a perfect score. One other shooter did the same. That means
we needed to have a shoot-off!

The shoot-off target was the smallest of the "Know your limits" dots at the bottom
of the Magpul Precision Rifle Target. I'd say it was about a little over 1/2MOA in
diameter.
The shoot-off was simple: We were to load our rifles with bolt back and stand
behind the guns. A buzzer would activate and we'd have to get into position and
fire two shots within 15 seconds at the smallest dot. The person with the best group
on the dot would win.
The buzzer sounded. I got down, slid the AI action closed, and established my
position. For some reason I felt my hand reach into the thumbhole stock which I
virtually never use! The AIAW feels very aggressive when using the thumbhole,
like it wants you to hold it and shoot the lights out. I aimed and fired. I then racked
the bolt, grabbed the thumbhole, aligned sights and fired again. I opened bolt and
made the gun safe. Then the buzzer sounded. I got up with the memory of how
awesome the AIAW felt in that grip. The AIAW is solid and all business as you can
see belowmaybe I should use the thumbhole more often?

That's about a 0.5MOA group shot in rapid fire in less than 15 seconds starting
from a standing position. As a result of this shooting, I won an AR-15 PMAG.
Next up we placed a "Guns and Coffee" sticker on our target. The drill is that all
shooters would have 25 seconds to start from standing, go their rifle at the 100yard line, and fire one shot. That one shot had to be at the star on the head of the
Mermaid. The shooter closest to the star won a prize.

I stood. The buzzer sounded. The AI bolt closed. I fired. We walked down range
and...I won an AR10 PMAG with this shot:

At this point it was getting dark and class was wrapping up. Tomorrow we were
told we will start shooting from barriers at unknown distances and computers are
no longer allowed. We will be milling and using our elevation data from non-prone
positions.
Day 3
Today was denoted by one thing: Fog. Visibility was about 150 yards this morning.
Here is the 100-yard range at 0800:

Let's just say this isn't optimal long-range rifle weather. With that in mind, Caylen
took us inside to do class instruction hoping to buy some time for the fog to burn
off. During this time we covered range estimation.

Mil Ranging, Reticles, and Wind Holds

Caylen went over his mill radian estimation card he gave us earlier. This is a little
chart with target sizes on X Axis and Mil size on Y Axis. You simply find where
they intersect and get your range solution. Simple. I wish I had come up with it
because it is so much handier than a calculator or slide rule.
We also reviewed the limitations with milling targets:
1) Must know exact size of target (either height or width).
2) Must be within 0.1 mils, especially at distance.
3) If you can't see hard lines on the target due to mirage or weather you won't get a
good reading.
4) Your reticle interpretation is subjective (was it 1.1 mils or 1.15?).
5) Is the target angled towards or away from you? Perspective of the target can
throw off milling results. BTW. Caylen deliberately angles targets to cause this
error for shooters!
With that said, there are conditions where lasers won't work. In that case, you
better know how to mil the target. No solution works all the time.
For wind, Caylen advises using mil holds. Because of the variability of wind, it is
too hard to adjust turrets unless the wind is constant. He sees a lot of errors with
wind turrets as users can forget to bring back to zero, or even lose track how many
turns they have on the turrets (no zero stop for L/R wind!). So for tactical shooting,
dial your elevation but hold off for your wind.
Barricades and Bipods
At this point we went outside to do some work on barricades. This was going to
have to be on the short 100-yard course as the fog was still all over the place.
Caylen warned me that I was going to seriously hate my AI bipod and I should put
on the Harris. We'll soon find out!
We setup the barricades and Caylen instructed us on how to properly use them.
Gone are the days of putting down a sand bag under you and firing. Now it's all
about driving the rifle bipod into the barricade for support. You do this by shoving
the bipod against the obstacle and then leaning onto the rifle so you are not using
muscles to hold yourself up, but the rifle. Shifting your feet up and down and left
and right achieves natural point of aim.

At this point I see why the AI bipod is no good for this. On the Harris you can
extend the legs but they are stopped from folding backwards. Because the legs
don't fold backwards, you can lean on them for support. Well the AI bipod folds
forwards and backwards. So if you lean on the AI bipod it folds back! It does not
work well at all for this kind of shooting. At this point I switched from my AI to
my Harris bipod. The Harris worked a lot better.
Given the above, I will say that I still love my AI bipod! It is built strong, swivels
so the legs don't bind up on uneven conditions, and it deploys quickly. You just
slap down the front and the legs pop into place. Plus, I like the spigot mount. It's
much stronger than the Harris pin mount, never comes loose, and the moment you
don't want the AI bipod on the rifle, it takes one second to depress the button and
pull it off and stow it. I have a solution to the AI bipod that I'll cover in the future.
I've not given up on it.
As for the Harris, the quick deploy feature is now solved with a new product from
Magpul called Combat Operator Response Device (C.O.R.D.). They are going to
sell the C.O.R.D. in various colors, including coyote brown and multicam. You
attach the C.O.R.D. between the legs of the Harris. A quick tug on the C.O.R.D.
when the Harris is folded forward and the legs instantly deploy into action. I have
photos below of the secret prototype:

Above you can see me using a special tactical grip to activate the C.O.R.D.

I just tied C.O.R.D. on each end with a simple bowline knot. Make sure the loops
are under the spring mounts so it doesn't slide up when you pull on it (ask me how
I know).
This is a simple mod I encourage you to try out. My only concern with it is the
loop of cord could get caught up in things when maneuvering the rifle or possibly
tangled up in the bipod legs preventing deployment. I need to play with this more
in field conditions, but so far I like it.
No, Your Range Finder Won't Work in Fog
After the barricade work, the fog was clearing so we dashed out to the long range
to do some milling of targets. There were 10 targets setup, but we could only see
five due to very bad fog. It was so thick that even Caylen's awesome Terrapin
range finder wouldn't work. My Leica 1200 was only showing 58 yards as well!
The fog was blocking all ranging devices from other shooters also.
This fog is a perfect example on why milling targets as an art is not dead and never
will be. In this case it was the only way to get any sort of range to the unknown
distances. Laser devices would not work even though the targets were visible to the
naked eye or through a scope. I've had this same exact situation happen when using
range finders in snowstorms or rain as well. The lasers just don't work reliably in
those kinds of conditions. Even if you think you got a good read, it may still be
inaccurate but you just don't know it (until you fire).
I started milling through the thick fog and it was tough. The white painted targets
would fade into the fog very quickly. The three near targets were 6" discs and two
further ones we could see were 10" discs. I milled them with my riflescope, but the
lack of subtensions made it difficult. I was pretty close, but not good enough for 6"
plates at those distances. I switched to my spotting scope with milling reticle and
40X magnification. There I used the 0.2 mil subtensions to break out the targets to
double digits. I had mils of 0.6, 0.55, 0.45 for the 6" plates and 0.7, 0.65 and 0.55
for the 10" plates. Using Caylen's wiz-bang mil card I got:
1) 278 yds.
2) 303 yds.
3) 370 yds.
4) 397 yds.
5) 427 yds.
6) 505 yds.

These were approximate of course so the further I went out the more fudge factor I
left on my elevation to be sure of a hit. So for instance 505 I set for 500 because I
knew the danger zone would put me on steel at 10" just in case I was off a little.
Etc.
The students read off their estimates. Mine were different than the others for the
furthest targets. We then fired at the furthest target first and then inwards. On the
furthest target everyone missed except me where I got first round hit. Second target
the same thing happened. My milling and elevation were good. The third target
was hit by others and almost fell over, then I hit it and knocked it over. The two
closest targets were hits and knocked over by other shooters before I could shoot.

Oh SH*T, I Forgot My Bullets

At this point the fog was rolling in again! Very frustrating, but that's just how it
goes. We went back to the 100-yard line to do some stress shooting. This was a
speed drill. The name of the drill was "Oh sh*t, I forgot my bullets!"
The drill was simple:
1) Lay 16 rounds loose on the ground (off the dirt to keep your chamber clean) 25
yards away from you.
2) Stand near your rifle.
3) When the buzzer sounds, you have 7 minutes to run to pick up a round, run back
to your rifle, load it, fire at one of sixteen 2 MOA targets down range, unload and
run back for another round.
4) Repeat this 16 times.
This is all about stress. You have the running of course, plus the loading, plus
needing to get a good shot off all against the clock. Since you only have seven
minutes, you don't have time to wait around. You need to be moving.
The buzzer sounded and off we went. Each time I need to drop a round into the AI
action, but the AI has a bolt lock on empty magazine feature. That means I need to
press the round into the mag through the ejection port each time to depress the
magazine follower. This is more time consuming than other rifles where you can
just throw a round into the thing and close the bolt. I fumbled a couple times in the
AI, but it wasn't bad. I just need to focus on what I was doing. I did all 16 rounds

with about a minute to spare.

At the end of the round we went down range. I fired all 16 rounds and felt pretty
good about it, except I know I did a couple doubles on targets by mistake (that's the
stress part). We were using the "bad guy" silhouettes at the bottom of the Magpul
target I showed earlier. I had 13 out of 16 valid hits. Of the three I missed, one was
just a bad shot barely outside. The other two were doubles, but at least they were
hits! But, they didn't count. Overall it was pretty good shooting.
The above exercise may sound easy, but it's actually pretty exhausting running
back and forth 16 times 25 yards each way (400 yards total running) and shooting
under time pressure. Try it!
Off the Gun? Reset Your Zero.
Some of the shooters on the above exercise were too high. They forgot to reset
their zeroes. They were set at 300 yards from the previous course and were about 1
mil too high so they were all misses.
Something I had drilled into me from prior experience is whenever you come off
your rifle, reset your zero to where it normally is. I have been bitten by this same
error and now when I get off my rifle, I reset my zero.
More Stress Drills
Next up we went back to the colored numbers. This drill we would load four
magazines with four rounds each. When a color was called we would run up to the
barricades from about 20 yards back with our rifles loaded, but bolt back. We
would then engage each color from the barricade. We had 90 seconds to do it.
I shot each round and felt OK. Not great, but just OK. I knew I sent a round onto
the empty target next to me by mistake, but I couldn't do anything about it now. We
did 16 rounds and it was not nearly as exhausting as the "Oh sh*t" exercise.
I went downrange and my score was 10 out of 16. No good! The one I sent onto
the other target was a good "hit" but wrong target so I didn't get the 11. I had a
couple I pulled and knew I screwed them up because I was rushing. So I didn't win
this one. The winner got an 11. If I had just shot the right target we would have had
a shoot-off again! But, my NPA on this exercise was not very good as the barricade
shooting is still new to me. I needed more practice.

I Hate Knobs on Adjustable Stocks

I had one minor rifle issue today. When the course started we were adjusting our
cheek risers, etc. for fit. Mine was OK, but I thought I might want to adjust it
during the course. So against my better judgment, I put in the AI quick adjust
thumbscrews for the riser in lieu of the simple allen bolts it normally uses. I never
used them before because I always felt they could snag on clothes, etc. or they
could come lose with shooting or accidental twisting.
Well I was walking to the firing line and my cheek piece fell out! Luckily, I saw it
happen and sure enough the thumbscrews had come loose just as I thought might
happen. I put the simple allen bolts back in and made sure they were tight. The
allen bolts have never come loose after thousands of rounds and will remain right
where they are going forward.
A Very Un-Tactical Sling
I had my standard USGI surplus sling mounted on my rifle. It's simple and I can
use it for sling-supported positions quickly or improvised supports as required. It
can be deployed in 10 seconds.
However, I brought my [Tactical Sling A] and [Tactical Sling B] slings. I was
thinking I was kind of a moron because I just didn't like them even though they got
great reviews. But the buckles, clamps, adjustments, etc. are too finicky, too slow,
too cumbersome and too uncomfortable for me. I kept using my USGI sling for the
simplicity and just had to accept how un-tactical it is.
Now the USGI sling is not perfect. The adjustment lock slider sometimes comes
loose, and the synthetic version is very slick when you use the arm cuff on a
synthetic shell. But overall it's simple, light, and quick to adjust and doesn't get in
the way. I think it blows most tactical slings out of the water in terms of function.
Frustrated with these other tactical slings, Caylen showed the new Magpul MS3
that looks a lot better than most because it is simple. It was very similar to the
USGI sling in appearance in fact. It has a simple fabric, simple quick adjustments,
and doesn't have a bunch of unneeded hardware hanging all over it. It looked good
and I'm going to try one out.

UPDATE: I did order the MS3 and it looks well made, but sadly the quick
attachment clamps do not fit my AIAW sling mount points. The clamp could
probably work if I put some swivel mounts in addition to the AIAW mount points,
but that just adds more hardware to go wrong that I don't feel like using. It may
work fine on other rifles though.
Day 4
Driving through fog I figured the day would be pretty bad, but when I came up the
valley it was all clear on the range. Today it was going to be all long-range steel
targets going out to 1030 yards.
On the longest range, we milled the targets to get non-laser distances. The plates
were mainly 18x24 in size and we attempted to mill both height and width to get
two numbers to verify. This took about 20 minutes and we read off our milled
distances to compare to what Caylen had obtained with his spotting scope. Most of
the students at this point had pretty close numbers, but at distance the milling
formula showed its weaknesses and errors became much larger and more
consequential. For instance, being off 50 yards at 300 yards means you'll probably
still hit steel. It may be high or low, but you'll be on the plate. But if you are off 50
yards at 600+ yards you're probably going to miss. At 800+ you are definitely out
of the game with the .308 caliber that we were all shooting.
Once we milled the targets, Caylen gave us actual numbers from the laser. Most of
my milled readings were pretty good. At distance there were a couple with big
enough errors that it might have been a miss, but close enough that seeing bullet
splash would be possible to adjust fire quickly for a second round hit.
At this point we got ready to do some live shooting, but this time we had wind
from 5-10MPH down range so we'd have to do our own wind calls as well. Each
person would call out their wind guess, do their wind hold, and fire. If they missed,
they were allowed three more shots to get on target. This exercise allowed the
students to practice their wind reading, but also learn how to spot their own bullet
splash and hold for corrections quickly in changing winds. We worked the line
from close in targets around 430 yards out to 1030 yards maximum. I did fine on
this drill and put most rounds on target either with the first or second shot max.

I Blew It
We next changed firing lines. The targets on the new line were anywhere from 6"
to 9" hanging discs. These sizes were much smaller than the other plates to test our
skills. Just as before, we milled them for height and width. And just like before we
called out our readings. We were given the actual readings and this time there were
more errors.
As targets shrink in size, the ability to mil them correctly goes down. For one, they
are just smaller and harder to see as you are playing with 0.05 mil readings needed
to be accurate. Secondly, the size of the target means errors are much more severe.
Being off as little as 25 yards could easily put you off the plate.
The twist here though is after the actual readings were given, we were told we had
to shoot with what we milled and not use the actual readings. We would have to
shoot, spot our splash, and then correct if our ranging was wrong. We also were
going to play for a prize again.
We went down the line and each time the person would call out their wind guess
and fire. You had four rounds on each target (10 targets total). The scoring was as
such:
10 Points for first round hit.
8 Points for second round hit.
6 Points for third round hit.
4 Points for fourth round hit.
0 Points for no hits.
Once you hit the target, it was the next shooter's turn.
We ran down the line and, frankly, I shot like crap. The wind was changing through
the valley going from almost zero to over 10 MPH. There was also lack of good
mirage and the grass was so dead that it hardly moved. It was very hard to call the
wind and it really bit me. I shot one target for instance and was 0.5 mils off the
plate. When I corrected and fired the wind had gusted to needing almost 1.5 mils
hold. The targets were so small that any error was fatal. One of the shooters though
did a great job calling the wind and scored many solid first round hits.

Tripod Mount Shooting

We next reviewed tripod use with a precision rifle as an instructor demo only.
Caylen is using a carbon fiber Manfrotto tripod and a LaRue picatinny to tripod
head mounting adapter. The LaRue piece attaches to the picatinny rail he had
specially mounted on his Whiskey 3 chassis just forward of the magazine well. He
uses this setup when hunting so he always has a stable platform in case he needs it
for longer shots. He demoed sitting and standing positions with the tripod and
sling. I'm going to make up some kind of tripod support after seeing his demo.

Long Range Barricade Shooting

After lunch, we went back to the long-range steel course going out to 1030 yards.
We brought over the barricades and setup to do some training with standing
barricade long-range drills. We went over sling use again while standing, proper
bracing, and the all-important NPA.
Students were given practice time to work up the targets from nearest (430) to
furthest (1030). This was the time to work out kinks in the brace position, stance,
and, of course, NPA.
I worked the targets from nearest to furthest and felt really solid. I was learning
how to get my NPA on the barricade and it was really settling in. I had good first
round hits all the way up to over 900 yards before the firing line was taken cold for
the next task.
Just as this morning, we would have four rounds of 10, 8, 6, 4, and 0 points
depending whether you hit the target with the first, second, third, fourth or no
rounds. Once a target was hit, or rounds used, the next student was to engage the
target. We would engage the target from a standing barricade position.
I got into position and reset my elevation to the nearest target at 430 yards. I made
a wind call of around 5MPH from 3 o'clock. My wind dope for that range was
around 0.2Mil and went up from there. Firing, I made a first round impact. Target
two at 495, same. Target three at 570, same. Target four at 610, same. Target five at
673 I made a bad wind call and didn't hold my windage correctly and just went off

the right edge. Second round hit though. Target six at 746, first round impact.
Target seven at 809...miss. I pulled the shot but knew I had done it. Second round
hit though. Target eight at 893 first round hit. Target nine at 956 first round hit.
Target ten, at 1033 yards, first round hit from standing barricade position!
I finished this round with a score of 96/100. I was very happy with the result
because I had not done barricade shooting long range before. It felt really good to
do it and Caylen's coaching was a big help as he personally instructed each shooter.
I won another PMAG and some patches.
Finally, we moved the barricades over to the cursed small steel range that wrecked
me this morning. Our challenge here was to practice kneeling position off the
barricade. This position was the hardest for me. You'd think it would be more
stable than standing, but the barricade height is very dependent on each person and
I just couldn't get comfortable and set up good NPA. And again, without NPA you
are going to miss. And miss I did. The first five targets were disasters as I kept
adjusting positions, trying sling, no sling, knees, no knees, etc. I couldn't get a
good position down.
We all shot poorly in this part of the class. Seems kneeling was hard for everyone.
In fact, we didn't even keep competing at this point. Caylen instead spent a lot of
time working with each person as he opened up the course of fire to allow us
instead to work on our form individually. By target six I finally got settled in and
started hitting steel. I made first round hits on two 9" rectangular targets at 542 and
570 yds. from kneeling. Again, Caylen's direct instruction really allowed me to
settle down on my form and improve quickly. Caylen is always full of good tips
and is very patient working with students.
At the end of this exercise we packed up the barricades and went in for a short
debrief. After the fog the previous two days it was good to get in a solid day of
long range shooting. The fact that we did almost all of it not from the prone
position was a great new skill to acquire.
In the end, it was a really valuable course. I have taken courses from Caylen before
and he has continuously updated the curriculum with new tactics, techniques, and
training methods. If you get a chance to train with him it will definitely take your
precision rifle skills up many notches. I highly recommend his course.

COMMENTS:
Excellent write-up, very detailed, and a lot of great points. While doing our
preliminary course work with another instructor, who has a ton of realworld experience in this discipline as well, I sarcastically asked him, "How
often do you ever get to take a shot from the prone?"
"Never..." Was his response. The terrain just doesn't support it.
I found the blind NPA shooting very interesting, because I use the same
technique in my Concealed Carry Courses for the retention position at close
range. Your 100yd closed-eye drill is simply amazing.
There are a lot of lessons-learned in this post-course review.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Prone is great and I've done a lot of it. But as a civilian I see the limits even
in situations like hunting where getting prone is frequently not possible or
desirable due to the terrain or shot options. In this course Caylen also
pointed out the limits for military and police as well.
At the range I still do prone for things like load development, sighting in,
and F-Class practice. But I also am sure to work in kneeling, sitting and
offhand positions. Now that I know barricade work, I'm working that in as
well.
Caylen strongly recommends getting away from shooting groups at the
range and moving to drills that encourage you to break you position and try
new things. For instance, I like the Sniper's Hide Dot Drill because it forces
you to break NPA each time to make the shot or you'll hit outside the dot. It
would be a very good challenge to clean an entire Sniper's Hide Dot Drill.
So if anyone reading this is doing lots of prone, I would simply suggest
getting away from shooting groups and use targets that force you to move
and re-establish your position between shots and work on positions that
aren't bipod supported prone. It is a good way to practice even if you don't
have access to long ranges.
Thanks for the compliment on the NPA drill. It's a fun exercise. Being able to
get natural point of aim is critical for accuracy.

Originally Posted by scimitar2

A co-worker and I are taking the same class May 28-June 2 and are very
much looking forward to it. Any tips on lodging, equipment you suggest to
bring, other stuff I should be aware of? Thanks!
You will learn a lot. Just listen to what Caylen has to say and ask questions.
He will answer them all.
As for equipment, I have opinions based on my experiences in these kinds of
courses and also teaching marksmanship courses to others.
Basically it boils down to this: Keep it simple.
The shooting conditions in these courses are fast paced and will work your
gear hard at times. They will involve dirt, water, wide temps, odd ball
shooting positions, and various other things that will make marginal gear
break and super tweaked out gear and ammo have problems.
The area of Yakima is desert. It can be hot, dry and dusty during the day and
cold at night. It also can rain for no particular reason in very serious ways
and make mud. That kind of environment will break things quickly. It will
break marginal equipment or equipment that is super tweaked out. Think
broken bolt handles, broken triggers, scopes going down, etc. You should
bring things that are built with tolerances to work in less than ideal
conditions. So I would not bring the super tight chambered benchrest/target
guns. I would not bring the target trigger set to very light pull weight (or
any target trigger at all). I would not bring the Uncle Bubba's secret double
load hot ammo with maximum overall length and fire formed tight tolerance
brass. You may want to consider bringing factory ammo over reloads if you
are not sure of your ability to make reliable match grade accuracy ammo.
Even experienced reloaders mess this up, especially when they are running
really tweaked out stuff trying to be tricky. I recommend not trying to be
tricky with your gear and you'll be a lot happier.

Here is my short list of what you need in the course:

1) A reliable rifle and solidly attached bipod.
2) Detachable magazines (4X if you have them).
3) Reliable ammo where you aren't doing anything tricky. Ditto for the
trigger. Don't tweak it out.
4) A variable max 15X scope with mil/mil turrets and reticle (or moa/moa,
just make sure they match).
5) Reticle with hash marks at least every 0.5 mil.
6) A simple sling. You won't need/want one with buckles and adjustments all
over it.
7) An insulated mat (and thick enough so when you put it on tough thorns it
won't poke through).
8) Don't hang a bunch of stuff all over your rifle and keep the stock simple.
9) A spotting scope (optional).
10) A laser range finder (optional).
11) Wind meter (optional).
12) Clothing for any and all conditions.
Note that the electronics are optional for me. I think trying to mil targets
when you can is good practice because we all know the laser can do it
faster. But when the laser isn't working you'll be glad you know how to mil.
The spotting scope is also optional because you likely will be spotting your
own impacts with your rifle scope and doing milling of targets from it. I used
mine occasionally in this course, but mostly it's a matter of using your rifle
scope.
Wind meters are optional for me. IMO, they are limited use at times because
they only show you wind at your position which is just one part of the
problem. You will learn to read the wind at near, mid, and far range to make
a total wind call. The wind meter can help learn this, but ultimately it's kind
of a black art that just needs practice and experience.
As for lodging, contact Magpul because they have a preferred hotel with
reasonable rates and a Magpul discount for students.
Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by 123Nick

Would having a higher power riflescope, lets say~25X, be more helpful?
No. I've never had to use high power shooting steel even out to 1200 yards
(in. .308 - bigger bore would be different at longer ranges). At high power
mirage becomes an issue and usually you have to dial it down. Higher
power is useful for more benchrest style/F-class shooting though. But on
steel targets center mass is fine and since you are under time pressure and
need to acquire the target quickly the higher power's narrow field of view is
a potential problem as well.
What higher power could be good for is milling targets and reading mirage
for wind calls though. I may try a 25X scope one day, but the extra size and
weight is kind of keeping me away from them right now. Most of the time I
find that at 15X I may dial down to 8-10X for some kinds of shooting, not
wanting to dial up.
http://forum.snipershide.com/training-classes/178351-magpul-dynamicsprecision-rifle-i-course-review.html
Loaded 09 Feb 2014