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DESIGNATED MARKSMAN CLASS
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AFTER ACTION REPORT
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Yesterday was ADC's first Designated Marksman Rifle class. This is a curriculum I have been toying with for a long time and finally made a reality. As with any first class, there are some things that need to be adjusted, but in general I would say it went according to plan.
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Most military designated marksman courses take place over several weeks. A one-day class is not intended (or able) to be a comprehensive designated marksman training. Instead, this class was intended to rapidly familiarize students with the capabilities of designated marksman-type rifles and present challenging range activities to improve speed and accuracy. I believe we accomplished that objective, or as much of that objective as we could cover in 8 hours.
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Safety is always paramount in our classes, and we completed the class without any injuries. Muzzle control and trigger control were observed very well by most of the participants. We saw some great shooting and an outstanding level of accuracy, with most of the shooters maintaining the 2-MOA standard out to 300 yards.
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We did have one interesting incident involving an out-of-battery discharge. I've been instructing for over 15 years and unintentional discharges are a VERY rare event in ADC classes. I've seen and experienced out-of-battery discharges before, but never in a class. So to see both happen simultaneously is a remote probability.
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The curriculum for each of the ADC classes is designed to set people up for success and safety procedures are "baked in" so to speak. That said, EVERY unintentional discharge I've ever witnessed occurred when the shooter was distracted - usually by their own gear. Whether it's fighting their sling or load bearing gear or trying to correct a malfunction; administrative gun handling and distraction is a recipe for an unintentional discharge. In this case, one particular shooter had a rifle issue that prevented their selector from moving to "safe." That was complicated by a rifle that locked up tight trying to go into battery - so tight I had difficulty "mortar-ing" the rifle open. We cleared it the first time and it was working the way it was supposed to until, in the process of trying to clear a subsequent malfunction, the shooter was manipulating the rifle and it went "bang." The shooter was maintaining downrange muzzle control - OK, but this wasn't an ordinary unintentional discharge (and I'm not calling it a "negligent" discharge because I can't say for sure that the shooter pulled the trigger), it was an unintentional "out of battery" discharge. "Out of battery" means the bolt wasn't completely closed so ~55,000 PSI of chamber pressure vented back into the receiver. This blew the magazine apart and blew it out of the rifle. The pressure split the bolt, and cracked the extractor. Remarkably, the upper receiver remained intact. The shooter was wearing eye and ear protection and there were no injuries from fragments. That's not the whole story though: after doing a safety check and incident debrief, the shooter grabbed his back-up rifle and we tried the drill again. Only one or 2 rounds later, that rifle locked up solid and couldn't be opened. Not wanting to risk another unintentional discharge, I gave the shooter one of my rifles, with factory ammo. On the second round, the third rifle locked up solid and couldn't be fired or opened!
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Earlier today, I disassembled the 3rd rifle. The bolt had to be hammered open. The cartridge case showed no overpressure signs and I couldn't find anything mechanically wrong with the rifle on the inside. It wasn't even all that dirty. I re-assembled it and it fired and functioned just fine. I can't explain what caused it to stop working, I really can't explain 3 identical malfunctions of 3 different rifles, with 3 different magazines, and 2 different makes of ammunition. This situation reminded me of an old German Proverb: "All skill is vain when an angel pees in the touch-hole of your musket."
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SCOPED RIFLE ELEMENTS
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August 31st, I will be holding our Scoped Rifle Elements Class in St. Anthony. This class is designed for bolt action precision rifles or heavy-barreled semi-autos with strong optics. The majority of this class will be fired from the prone position. Shooters will need match-grade ammunition and plenty of magnification. A scope in the 3-15X range or something similar is recommended.
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This class will cover more details on optics and ballistics. Precision rifle is a little bit different from pistol or carbine, there are a lot more details involved, but it is also very rewarding.
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WEBSITE CLASS REGISTRATION PROBLEMS
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A few weeks ago, the plugin I use for class registrations sent out an update and class registration hasn't worked on my website ever since. I'm going to try to make some modifications that will fix it, but if you try to register for a class on the website and it doesn't work, just send me an email and we'll get you signed up.
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WARRANTY WORK
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I haven't heard of any other issues with gas ports on Adaptive Defense Armory Rifles, my guess is it was limited to that one particular barrel on that one particular rifle. One other thing I have recently noticed, that would only affect a few ADA rifles with BLACK BUFFERS, is that the pins on these buffers *may* loosen and "walk" out of the buffer.
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The next time you clean your ADA rifle, check the buffer. If you have a gold-colored buffer, you have nothing to worry about. If you have a black buffer, take it out of the buffer tube and check it.
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If you have a black buffer body with a white or blue shock absorber, check the roll pin that holds the shock-absorber in place. If the pin is sticking out of the buffer body on either side, or if the buffer is badly "mushroomed," let me know. I will send you a new pin and polymer shock-absorber with installation instructions. Or, if you prefer, I will send you a new buffer assembly and a return label for the old one.
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I apologize for any inconvenience on this, I purchased the buffer assemblies from a reputable manufacturer, and I am just now noticing this issue on a rifle with over a thousand rounds through it. Out of an abundance of caution, I recommend checking this and getting it touch with me if you have a black buffer in your rifle.
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CURRENT EVENTS
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In my last newsletter I remarked that emotions in the US were running very high. This emotional engagement pushes people out of the logical parts of their brains into the fight-or-flight "monkey brain" which makes them more easily provoked to violence. The cowardly attack on a Former President and Presidential Candidate, and the follow-up remarks by many people (including politicians and other public figures), lamenting that the would-be assassin was unsuccessful, shows the level of desperation, hatred, and instability that is out there. Unfortunately, with the political differences in our population so inflamed, and the predictable increase in protection of public figures, some of that violence may be vented towards communities as we saw in the ..ahem..."mostly peaceful" riots in 2020 that involved over 600 acts of arson, over 2000 police officers injured, at least 36 people killed, and $8 billion in property damage. With President Biden dropping out of the race, the social and political dynamic of the upcoming election has changed. My recommendation is to hope for the best but prepare for the worst, because no matter who wins, we can expect rhetoric and policy changes that are going to make people angry. In addition, this election will have profound international impacts that will determine whether or not the war in Ukraine escalates, what happens at our southern border, and the USA's relationships with Russia, China, and North Korea. It is hard to predict specifically what threats to prepare for in this environment. but I would recommend you continue to prepare for any eventuality. Make sure you have a reasonable supply of the essentials: water, food, fuel, cash, ammunition, medical supplies, etc... Don't wait for trouble to hit your neighborhood before you begin your preparations.
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