AAR – Greer Group Training & Consulting – Vigilant 01
May 16-17,2020 TIMOTHY Clark WILLIS
AAR – Greer Group Training & Consulting – Vigilant 01
Location: Bolovia, NC
Date: May 16th and 17th 2020
Cost: $175
Equipment:
-AR Build: CMT receivers set, Sionics ERGP 11.5″ barrel, Geissele Mk4 10″, VLOTR Buffer, SBA 3, Saker 556k on Deadair Keymo.
– P320, PMM JTTC Comp/Barrel combo, Holosun 507c, Gun Grips Customs fried rice stipple on TXG module. X300u-b
– PHLster Floodlight
-Magpul PMags preloaded for course – Hornady Frontier
-21rd P320 mags preloaded for course – 115gr Federal Black BoxRelevant
Background at time of course: B-Class CO USPSA, Marine Corps (0111&2600), Attended various defense & competition courses with Greer Group Training and Consulting, Robert Vogel, Chad Thompson, Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics, Scott Jedlinski of Modern Samurai Project, Recondo Operations Group, Solo Defense and others.*Disclosure: I assist Greer with their website and social media. I was not charged for this course, but paid my range fee, provided my own ammo and attended strictly as a student*
Context of use by student: Home and Personal defense with a firearm.
Highlights – Solid 16 hrs of instruction. Encouraged and answered all questions thoroughly without losing time on learning and prac app. Amazing scenarios and culmination events. All drills were well thought out and useful in building skills specific to the course focus.
Lowlights – Pause for dinner was long on the first day and odd for some students. While Holdover (height over bore) was discussed, it was seemed to be a bit of an afterthought and there was not a dedicated block for covering it.
Student Demographics:
15 students. A bunch of Marines, 1 active LEO, 1 retired LEO, a Coastie, and 3 civilians. Of those, 10 had Competition backgrounds.
Details: Course started at 09:00, waivers were signed and we headed to the range for a qual course. Before qual we covered safety, medical and emergency response. Qual course was a high standard with a accuracy focus. After the qual shoot we all headed back to the classroom.In the classroom we covered intros, course overview and dived into some terminology and history relevant to the course curriculum. It was stressed that this is a thinking and problem solving course and that shooting will be critiqued where needed, but it is not the focus. Back on the range to build on pistol and get a feel for moving and shooting. Critique was on a case by case basis, and this block moved pretty fast as the students were all proficient and capable shooters.After lunch we came back and did a rifle qual and moved right into working structures. Good drills and good organization led to a lot of solid reps and 1 on 1 so instructors could critique every rep.Next we did work in the shoot house with rifles. No BCG, no ammo, no mags and instructor checks on every gun. Great period of instruction that laid groundwork for why and how we use specific techniques on doorways and hallways. This was built on for the rest of the course.Dinner was provided and networking promoted by instructors.We hit handheld light techniques and worked a small culmination event into the night that covered everything we had done during the day.We finished with a hot wash and instructors took note of the lessons learned by each student. A solid review of the long day.
Day 2: 0800 start, back on the range to hit another set of quals.After quals we got right back into working structures as 1-man and 2-man team and now we were using utms. We used the shoot house and the club house to get eyes on a variety of different rooms. Lots of great questions were asked and answered and the different backgrounds of students sparked some great discussions.After lunch we started in on scenario based FoF. These were well thought out and practical with great role players. The final culmination event was a scenario and was extremely intense, easily the most eye opening prac app I have ever done.We cleaned up packed up and did a review in the classroom. Every student was asking for the Vigilant 02 dates which I think is an indicator that it was a fantastic course.
Conclusion:
This course should be attended by any person that wants to grow their self-defense toolset. Current level of training is not that important IMO in the consideration of attending this course as long as the person is a safe shooter. It is a Defense Tactics course with focus on Home Defense and Conceal Carry. This course focuses on the thinking that goes on around the shooting and is not a performance shooting course, though the instructors maintain and promote a high standard of shooting performance.