TX2Guns: Drillin’ with the Kalash

Originally appeared on The Tactical Hermit. I’ve got a Fighting Kalashnikov Course coming up in January. Come out and train! -NCS

Been hitting the range lately and wanted to drop a few notes.

This is a guideline. Find what works for you and build your own list.

1. Learning to control the weapon is key. Forget in front of the magazine hold (as seen above) Adapt a full front hand guard grip with a torqueing or twisting motion. Adapt a stance that spreads the recoil evenly.

2. On Reloads, forget retaining empty mags. Underneath charging is the most efficient but work with all of them. The environment, or better yet, how disruptive the environment is, will determine that.

3. Using fresh mags to work the mag release lever can deform mags over time, using your thumb in the same manner will work if you drill on it.

4. If using a Red Dot on your gun, work on “Snapping the Dot”, or learning how/when/where your gun settles (and thusly your optic settles) after the shot is broke. Learn how tension in your core muscle groups effects this as well.

5. “Work out” your red dot to 300 yds. Know hold overs for your load type and gun.

As a sidebar, make sure your irons are on at this range too so in a pinch you can fall back to them.

6. Drill on Clearing Malfunctions while on move.

Failure to Fire, Failure to Extract, Failure to Feed. If it cannot be fixed quickly, find cover and fix it. If situation does not allow, transition to pistol, eliminate threat, then fix it.

7. Transitions

This is made way too big a deal of IMO, but do it however is most efficient for you. I favor two point slings for this very reason. Drop the chunk of wood and sheet metal that is not working and go to something that is.

8. Positional Drills

Making yourself a smaller target can never be drilled on enough.

Learn to shoot from every possible position and be able to reload and clear malfunctions from these positions as well. Always consider in a dynamic fight, MOVEMENT IS KEY.

Never place yourself in a position you cannot spring out of QUICKLY.

Finally, I have been hearing the term “Massive Consistency” a lot lately and I wanted to say something on that.

Never get too tied up with accuracy (as it relates to consistent PATTERNS in combat training) There is no such thing as a “NICE GROUP” in combat!

Consistency should be how we set up on the target and our fundamentals; this will deliver the best results. Your drills should strive to balance these two things: SPEED and ACCURACY, but you must always remember, shooting is a continuum where sometimes one thing is more needed than the other, learning to balance the deviation is our goal.

Never strive to be fast or accurate but a nice mix of the two. In reality, the more accurate you need to be, the more time you will take. In your drills you will see this.

You are MUCH faster at 15 yds than 75yds because you have to be!

Execute the fundamentals Consistently.

 

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous.

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

36 Comments

  1. Anonymous December 5, 2020 at 05:56

    5

  2. Shadow Walker December 5, 2020 at 09:19

    Now those are awesome pearls of wisdom. See you in January.

  3. StormN December 5, 2020 at 10:13

    Great checklist! A keeper.

  4. Vulcan December 5, 2020 at 11:43

    The only thing I don’t quite understand is why you wouldn’t train to retain mags. Sure it looks cool to speed reload a weapon on the range, but I’ve never heard of anyone winning a gunfight because of his speed reload. And if you drop mags all over the place, eventually you are gonna run out of mags.

    • NC Scout December 5, 2020 at 13:18

      Yes. I disagree with this too- I train both speed reloads and admin reloads (with retention).

    • boss21- December 5, 2020 at 16:22

      Good points on the AK . . In Panama in JWTC they put us through a live fire jungle range with balloons and cardboard targets randomly placed. Mags were retained but with a squad firing the delay of mag retention didn’t slow down the level of fire much. That range was scarier than jumping at night. Our CO was convinced one of us was getting shot. One on one – mags are disposable I guess.

  5. Georgiaboy61 December 5, 2020 at 14:24

    If you are supplied by mil.gov, then mags are consumables, easily replaced. However, if one is not, then they are worth their weight in gold. Obviously, in extremis, if it is a choice between retaining a mag and getting zapped, lose the mag. But make every effort to retain them. Old-school method is to wear a belted tunic or battledress and toss the empties inside. Get a dedicated dump pouch worn on your off-side belt or LBE. Remember, if you lack mags, you’re just turned your modern SLR into a single-shot with a rate of fire inferior to a bolt-action of a century ago.

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 5, 2020 at 21:25

      True words right here. Dump pouches are great for all kinds of stuff. My one kit has three dump pouches on it for “reasons”.
      900 reasons.
      And you should have multiple ammo cans of loaded magazines ready to go. I like to mist the steel rounds with a little lube because the density of the steel can and ammo cools at a slow rate and condensates humidity. It also gases you out a little, when the lube evaporates from heat, but maybe goggles are better than eye pro after all…
      Buy it, and Try it.

  6. Klaus December 5, 2020 at 14:46

    Curious, why isn’t that rifle slung in the header picture. Seems pointless to not be utilizing the sling.

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 5, 2020 at 21:08

      The real lesson is tying your rifle to you using 550 cord.
      Think that’s stupid? Try doing land navigation at night. You’ll leave your weapon behind.

    • vyt1az December 5, 2020 at 21:23

      Because people do funny things sometimes when they’re under pressure and trying to shoot.

  7. Johnny Paratrooper December 5, 2020 at 15:33

    Does anyone have a good Ballistics Chart/Trajectory Chart for 7.62×39 that they have tested?
    I’m gonna need to print a few of those out.

    • StormN December 6, 2020 at 12:35

      I’m just an old wannabe citizen-soldier. Here’s a ballistics calculator that I have NOT tested but enjoyed playing with a few years ago: https://jbmballistics.com/ballistics/calculators/calculators.shtml . The beauty is one can change a ton of parameters(temperature, bullet type, etc.) and printout more than one chart. It was very educational for me. From there I laminated a small range card that fits in the ‘storage’ space of my grip.

  8. SOG December 5, 2020 at 16:00

    its good to get the reps in and the muscle memory for speed, but you have time, dropping that mag and changing should at best be behind cover, drop pouches and cargo pockets exist for a reason. the speed reloads and transitions all super fast where you already know the rifle mag is going dry look good for shot timer youtube videos especially at stationary targets on a flat range.

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 5, 2020 at 21:20

      Contrary to popular belief; You can reload your weapon before your weapon goes dry. You can also have a magazine in your hand before you need it. If you aren’t ready for this, or don’t like it, that’s the wrong answer. WW1 Veterans used to have one(Or more) stripper clips in their hand while operating their weapon.
      106 year old tricks are probably a proven technique. What makes a 100 round drum better than 60 or 90 rounds on tap?
      Do you have an ammo can of loaded mags for your fighting position? Ammo cans are for the fox holes. The LBE is for your patrol, flank, break contact, tactical retreat, or clearing the objective.

      Be ready to reload. It’s eventually gonna happen. It is inevitable. I reload my guns all the time. And I’m not even in a gun fight.

      • StormN December 7, 2020 at 12:16

        ‘Contrary to popular belief; You can reload your weapon before your weapon goes dry’. I have heard of this. In combat, experienced soldiers that run out of ammo, will rummage around in their pouches for some almost empties. I’m thinking that if a shootist concentrates on training only speed loading by dropping mags when they’re empty, he’ll, therefore, regret the habit. I understand that in WWII, experienced Wehrmacht fireteams with their 5 round bolt action rifles would make short work of our boys with their Garands. They would deliberately fire just enough to cause our less-experienced boys to run out of ammo – which can be pretty fast in semi-auto-panic mode. A useful technique I’ll try to remember but hope to never use.

        • NC Scout December 7, 2020 at 14:54

          It’s called an admin reload. I teach this in class, as does any other firearms trainer worth a shit.

          • StormN December 8, 2020 at 01:45

            NC Scout, I read your chapter 17 on Comms in my copy of Lawson’s Civil Defense manuals. Comms is my weaker Achilles’ heel. I’ve had a General license for a few years now but still have too little air time. About how many miles are you located from Phoenix, AZ? It’s hard to find Elmers here that are worth a shit.

          • NC Scout December 8, 2020 at 07:51

            I’m in NC. I regularly travel for training. You’ll need at least ten for a class.

        • Johnny Paratrooper December 7, 2020 at 19:15

          Yes. The book “House to House” is full of soldiers reloading with half empty magazines. Rotating back and forth and attempting to top their magazines off manually in the field. While they have dysentary, parasites, and cholera. Excellent book. Easy read. Very, very Violent. I believe this is the craziest account of combat I have ever read. This, or “Blackjack-34”
          https://www.amazon.com/House-Soldiers-Sgt-David-Bellavia/dp/1416546979/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=House+to+House&qid=1607386348&sr=8-1

          A must read. If we are gonna dig communists and Jihadis out of our cities. This is what it’s gonna look like. Step by Step.

          • StormN December 8, 2020 at 00:11

            It’s now on my Amazon shopping list. I’ve never seen anything like this on Amazon or ReviewMeta: 4 and 5 stars equals 96% approval; ReviewMeta found no unnatural reviews among 1,295.

    • StormN December 7, 2020 at 12:21

      ‘ . . . dropping that mag and changing should at best be behind cover . . .’ I did a Search but couldn’t find the exact wording. Someone please correct:’If you’re not shooting, it’s because your reloading. If you’re not reloading, it’s because you’re running for cover. If you’re not running for cover, it’s because you’re dead’ Did I get that right?

      • Johnny Paratrooper December 7, 2020 at 19:08

        Basically. But you want to stay on line with your team to maximize the interlocking sectors of fire. The “frontline” of a gunfight is not obvious. You can run into an enemy element or LPOP from any direction on the O’clock. That works both ways. Don’t assume you ran into the enemy head on. You could have flanked them by accident…

        Which is why the Jungle Patrol Manuals state you should “March for 20 minutes, and Stop, Smell, Look, and Listen for ten minutes”

        Important tactics. I caught a 4 man SOF Opfor detail tailing me once using these techniques. They were only 50 yards behind me. All I could do was discharge my weapon and alert my team to their presence and general area. They were hand railing the road for stealth and melted into the brush when I heard them. We never found them, but we did tighten up that flank and force them into a ravine. Which resulted in a MILSIM slaughter for both teams. Fun, but difficult.

        When both sides know what their doing, life is hard. WHOMP WHOMP.
        My best advice? Keep your head up, and make sure you scan far, wide, and on the horizon.
        The number one mistake everyone makes is staring at their feet when they break brush. IMHO.

      • SOG December 9, 2020 at 07:11

        the quote is close,i think its a Clint Smith from thunder ranch,or Jeff Cooper cant remember ,the issue as NC pointed out is shooting fast at stationary targets doing speed reloads standing still as a giant target is nice for cool youtube and instagram videos but you have time to get next mag up, these gun celebs already know the mag is dry cause they are doing basically shoot one load one drills.

        • NC Scout December 9, 2020 at 08:56

          Yup- well said. I’ve heard Clint say it too. Shooting fast at stationary targets is great if you’re a child posing as an operator for all the other e-celebs.

  9. SOG December 5, 2020 at 20:22

    https://rileydefense.com/

    North Carolina Made Ak’s

    • NC Scout December 5, 2020 at 20:48

      They’re never in stock and don’t answer their email.

      • wwes December 6, 2020 at 08:27

        One of the local shops did keep a couple all the time up until less than a month ago, and they looked pretty good. The price was reasonable too. The guys that had bought them said they were happy with them. I haven’t seen a Palmetto AK in person, but I would have loved to compare the two.

        • NC Scout December 6, 2020 at 08:30

          You’ll see one soon. ;)

          • wwes December 6, 2020 at 09:24

            Sounds good to me, I’m looking forward to it 👍

      • SOG December 7, 2020 at 08:41

        A NC company not answering the NC Scout! shame shame shame,
        i got mine used.
        I can say i have had zero problems with the RD RAK47 MFT
        with an ALG AKT trigger, SF flash hider mounted less bass and blast than stock muzzle devices, you still can find these rifles on atlantic firearms and classic firearms competitively priced

        https://atlanticfirearms.com/products?q=riley&qt=all_words

  10. Jesse December 6, 2020 at 17:51

    I attended a couple of AK platform classes years ago that also incorporated the shotgun. It was mainly a CQB class.

    I posted two write -ups on my old website around 12 years ago.

    https://www.gunandgame.com/threads/tom-bullins-ak47-shotgun-class-review.38267/#post-317565

    https://www.gunandgame.com/threads/trigger-time-valley-shotgun-ak47-level-2.46217/#post-413371

    Jesse
    Tradehawker LLC
    Jn. 17:17

    • NC Scout December 6, 2020 at 19:54

      If you get a chance, send me an email.

  11. Odysseus Jones December 6, 2020 at 18:00

    Because of the design of an AK and the differences in head spacing, the best thing to do is to dope each and every AK you own.

    At an AK class I took, we had an Arsenal, a Rifle Dynamics, a WASR, a Romanian underfolder, a milled AK, several Occam Defense rifles, and a few other AKs. We all got to shoot each other’s rifles but we also doped our guns on both days. First day to 200 yards. The second day to 300 yards. All of us shot either wolf, Tula, or Red Army steel case. What we learned was there was a wide variance between some rifles. Those ODS-1775 were MUCH more consistent and patterned differently than the more traditional AKs.

    So the way my WASR and the more traditional AKs patterned while maintaining the same POA was such: 25 yards – center mass (all touching). At 50 yards it climbed to upper chest and spread out. At 100 yards, POI was all head shots. At 200, it dropped back to center mass. At 300, that dang red dot nearly covers the target so it became more difficult but seemed to be more in the lower abdomen. This should give you the rough ballistics you need, but again I stress that you should dope your own rifles.

    BTW, this is why the Russians taught to aim at the belt buckle. It covered the bullet rise from close quarters to its decline at about 300 meters.

    • NC Scout December 6, 2020 at 19:53

      Yup.

    • Johnny Paratrooper December 7, 2020 at 19:19

      Roger that.
      I didn’t know that AK’s can be picky like that. Good thing we bought so many rounds from the same lot.
      Buy once, cry once.
      Comments like this are NEVER in the main article, or comment section, on other websites. KDR here we come.

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