The Rifle Dynamics Red October Kalashnikov is a practical-style competition providing a fun opportunity to compete using the AK-pattern rifle in a style that is typically slanted towards more modern AR-style designs. This match is NOT intended to be a tactics and doctrine-based exercise, just a fun celebration of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s rifle for the masses, which has served billions and billions worldwide in both noble and ignoble pursuits.
ROK will be held from October 29, 2016 at 9:00 AM through October 30, 2016 at 5:00 PM at the Southern Utah Practical Shooting Range in St. George, UT. They are limiting the event to 200 shooters.
It will consist of 350 rounds over 10 Stages (two of which are nighttime low-light). Competitors will shoot four stages on Friday (either morning or afternoon), two night stages on Friday Night and four more stages on Saturday. They’ll run a “half-day” schedule with room for 200 shooters, which gives competitors time to peruse a vendor area that they intend to fill with AK-specific retailers, builders and parts makers, complete with live-fire demo areas.
There are four divisions:
-Kalash Heavy, for stock 7.62×39 and larger-caliber AKs/direct variants. Iron sights and 30 round (or smaller) mags only.
-Kalash Light, which is Kalash Heavy but for anything 5.45 or larger
-Open Kalash, where anything that’s an AK or variant and is chambered in 5.45 or larger is allowed! Optics, drum mags, anything you want so long as there’s an AK under there!
-ComBloc, which is for any rifle issued by a Warsaw Pact nation that ISN’T an AK (such as an SKS, Vz.58, StG-44 or any commie subgun like a PPSh-41)
NIGHT FIGHTER: Level 1 (2 Nights – Open Enrollment)
NIGHT FIGHTER: Level 1 is an open enrollment class for qualified civilian students and armed professionals. We are currently looking for hosts who would like to bring a unique training experience to their ranges.
NIGHT FIGHTER: Level 1 is designed to arm students with a solid understanding of the fundamentals of night vision operation and usage techniques. Beginning with gear choice and setup, the class provides students the tools for learning to safely / effectively move, shoot, and communicate in low-light / no-light environments. Students will participate in a variety of movement, stalking, and live-fire exercises aimed at producing a core competency with night vision goggles, lasers, and white light.
Don’t have night vision, but still want to train? No problem! We offer rental NVG’s, Helmets, Mounts, and Lasers for an additional fee. If you decide that you want to purchase the gear you rented during the class because it was so awesome and you realized what you’ve been missing, 100% of your rental fee for that item(s) will go towards the purchase of the new product.
Once a class has been set up, we will post it on our site so students can sign up. The host does not need to have a full class roster before coming to us.
NIGHT FIGHTER: Armed Professional (3 Nights – Restricted U.S. Government)
Let’s face it: a disproportionate amount of crime and combat takes place at night. Military, Law Enforcement, and Security Professionals need to be able to meet that threat in a manor that provides them unparalleled advantage to increase officer/public safety. NIGHT FIGHTER: Armed Professional is a restricted class for those going into harm’s way. This class can be private for an individual department, unit, or agency. Or, it can be open to representatives from multiple departments, units, or agencies. We are currently looking for departments that would like to host a class in their area.
NIGHT FIGHTER: Armed Professional provides advanced instruction to armed professionals who have already mastered the fundamentals of low-light / no-light operation. This class focuses on increasing the students’ night vision skill sets during real world operations. Students will participate in a variety of evolutions including team movement and communication, movement to target, stealth search to contact, target discrimination/engagement, vehicles, and CBRN integration.
In the past, we told you about the discontinued Master-at-Arms Badge. On a similar note is the Stalking merit badge which was one of the original 57 merit badges issued by the Boy Scouts of America in 1911. It replaced the 1910 Stalker “Badge of Merit”. The term “Stalking” should be familiar to SSD readers, a technique that I also referred to as tracking. The badge was temporarily reissued as “Tracking” under the 2010 Historic Merit Badge Program. Unfortunately it, along with the handful of other 2010 badges were only temporary.
These are the Stalking merit badge requirements from 1938 until it was discontinued in 1952.
-Demonstrate by means of a stalking game or otherwise, ability to stalk skillfully in shelter and wind, etc., showing how to proceed noiselessly and “freeze” when occasion demands.
-Know and recognize the tracks of ten different kinds of animals or birds in his vicinity, three of which may be domestic.
-Submit satisfactory evidence that he has trailed two different kinds of wild animals or birds on ordinary ground far enough to determine the direction in which they were going, and their gait or speed. Give names of animals or birds trailed, their direction of travel, and describe gait and speed; or submit satisfactory evidence that he has trailed six different kinds of wild animal or birds in snow, sand, dust, or mud, far enough to determine the direction in which they were going, and their gait or speed. Give names of animals or birds, their direction of travel, and describe gait and speed.
-Submit satisfactory evidence that he has tracked a human being and deduced from the trail whether it was a man or woman, young or old, the gait or speed, and also give any other information deduced.
-Submit evidence the he has scored at least 30 points from the following groups: [Group (f) and 4 of the 5 groups (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) must be represented in the score of 30 and at least 7 points must be scored from (a), (b), or (c)].
-Make a clear recognizable photograph of:
(a) Live bird away from nest 4 points each
(b) Live woodchuck or smaller wild animal 3 points each
(c) Live wild animal larger than woodchuck 4 points each
(d) Live bird on nest 3 points each
(e) Tracks of live wild animal or bird 2 points each
(f) Make satisfactory plaster cast of wild animal or bird tracks with identification imprint on back of cast 2 points each
Although you may not have heard of them, Tactical Tracking Operations School has been around for over 20 years. In fact, they were the only company for many years to provide specialized tracking instruction here in the US. The website has loads of information; 22 years worth, to be exact. There’s also info on their latest programs of instruction.
Earlier this evening, Haley Strategic Partners posted this statement on their Facebook page in response to the week old disclosure of video taken by Panteao Productions depicting Travis Haley discussing an AK. During that video, the weapon fired. Panteao Productions issued their statement on Monday of this week.
Press Release Feb 11, 2016:
On approximately Thursday February 4th 2016, Panteao Productions released a video through poor accountability and security with its servers by one of their instructors according to the owner of Panteao Productions. How and why this happened is still unclear, however assumptions can certainly be made.
This particular video was of me teaching a block of instruction on controversial Russian trigger finger/safety techniques, and why I personally don’t recommend them. During the filming, my AK was discharged inadvertently performing the demonstration. The range was set up for this demo, the weapon was intentionally off safe due to the block of instruction, and the barrel was oriented towards the target in the event the weapon fired as it did in this case.
Of course I take these matters seriously and if you know me or have been through any of our courses, you know our number one priority is safety. We pride ourselves on learning from our failure as it is our greatest opportunity and share those experiences with the people we serve.
There was also a communication issue with the inconsistent posts made on social media between the HSP team back in Scottsdale AZ and me being in Central America at the time the video was released. Now that I have seen the entire video (never seen by me before as it was in Panteao’s library), I have been able to review it and now share my thoughts. After reading a lot of comments, I think Pat Rogers said it best:
“One type causes injury/ death or comes close enough to warrant immediate measures to remove the person and his weapon. The other type is a down range ND, when the shot is discharged unintentionally, but into the target/ berm etc. These represent the majority of ND’s and this is where learning can occur. These are teaching/ learning points, and if handled correctly, will not likely happen again.” -Pat Rogers
I have had many failure points in my life (much greater than this)… I have ND’d. I have missed the mark countless times in my life even when it mattered most. I have zigged when I should have zagged. I’ve been impulsive and involved myself into fights without thinking of who’d it effect. My brothers have asked me for direction in combat and I was unable to answer. Hell, I have even taken life when it could have possibly been avoided… I have failed over and over in my life, yet I have been blessed with being accountable and educated by my shortcomings. This, in turn, allows my failures to continually become my greatest opportunities.
Panteao Productions has issued a statement to explain their involvement in NDGate, which swept social media over the weekend. Since the incident seems to have started with them, it seems appropriate that we share their statement.
But first, let’s catch everyone up who missed out. It all began Thursday evening when video surfaced showing tactical trainer Travis Haley appearing to have a negligent discharge of an AK rifle he was using for demonstration purposes. According to Panteao’s statement, they did not authorize the release of the video so they removed it from public access on YouTube, but by that time, the video clip was in the wild. Like we’ve said so many times, you can’t take the internet back. We posted an article which linked to an edited version of the video. Soon, that video was hit with a copyright claim by Panteao and was taken down. At that point, we figured they were in damage control mode and were playing whack-a-mole so there was no point in having an article up that relied on a missing video. Instead, we removed our article, with a decision to reengage once things settled down. However, the majority of the comments in our post were quite positive. They understood that NDs happen and that it was a valuable teaching tool.
For social media, comedy is the mother of invention, and over the weekend, dozens of remixes of the video appeared on Facebook and Instagram. Some were more amusing that others.
Eventually, Travis Haley chose to comment on the developing situation. Remember, that positive attitude that saw the situation as a teaching tool? Well, apparently Haley didn’t. Instead, he denied it had happened and claimed that Panteao was out to slander him. Granted, this whole situation would have been avoided had the video not made its way into the wild, but Haley’s response unfortunately had the effect of throwing gasoline on a fire. There’s a video below. When you finish reading this, make sure you watch the whole thing.
Some of Haley’s animosity toward Panteao may stem from this link on Panteao’s site: panteao.com/discontinued-video-titles. This move by Panteao was in response to Haley’s statement not long before on Facebook that the videos he had created while at Magpul Dynamics were no longer valid and that his fans should no longer purchase them. His position was that he had moved on to newer techniques. Magpul fans, and apparently Paneao Productions, took it as sour grapes. Perhaps concerned that he might eventually do the same to them, Panteao seems to have taken preemptive action. As you can see, this situation has been brewing for some time.
Now, on to Panteao’s statement (and accompanying video) on the situation:
February 7, 2016
This will be the first and last time we comment publicly on this incident. Given the firestorm surrounding the video which was recently released without our authorization, we felt it necessary to publicly state our position regarding the matter:
The relationship between Panteao Productions and Travis Haley ended over a year ago because of a disagreement over whether or not training should have an expiration date. Much to the disappointment of those who primarily use the internet to create and feed off of other people’s drama, and despite our past differences in opinion, we have nothing but respect for Travis’ accomplishments, and wish him the best in his future endeavors.
The video in question was not posted by Panteao for public consumption, and more importantly, was never intended to be seen externally. It was unlisted on our YouTube Channel, and was designated for in-house training purposes. It was intended to be a humorous reminder shared with crew members and collaborating instructors of what we don’t want to have happen during filming. It had been forgotten about until the link was shared publicly by one of the instructors we had been working with up until this point. At this time we are still unsure why they (the other instructor) felt the need to share the link publicly, regardless, once we became aware of the developing situation we deleted the video from our YouTube channel and had it removed wherever we came across it. There was nothing derogatory/defamatory intended by the video, or its description.
Anyone that has spent any serious amount of time doing this at the professional level knows that NO ONE IS ABOVE MAKING A MISTAKE. We have multiple layers of safety in place to prevent them, but at the end of the day there is absolutely nothing we are able to do that can entirely remove the human element from the equation. We decided to utilize the video as a tool to show our crew members that no matter someone’s level of past experience, background, or accomplishment that the possibility for an accident always exists. It served as a reminder to us; always wear eyes and ears on set, confirm the condition of any firearms the talent may be using to demonstrate techniques with, and to watch our position in relation to the muzzle whether or not a segment was intended to be live fired. Unfortunately individuals from the Haley Strategic camp have started spreading inaccurate statements about how the video was published intentionally to hurt Travis and that it was not a Negligent Discharge in the first place.
It is disheartening that Travis has failed to acknowledge what took place. We don’t care to speculate why someone with his abilities and background feels the need to deny their own fallibility, common to all of us, so vehemently. He handled the situation as best as anyone could at the time and pressed on during filming, as one would expect from a professional. Internally, we saw the opportunity the video represented for us, and utilized it to illustrate things that WE could do better on set.
The big question now is “was this really a negligent discharge?” or something staged or edited to look like one. The scene in question was not intended to be live fired, thus none of the crew had their hearing protection on, neither did Travis. It was strictly a demo of different Russian techniques. There were MULTIPLE individuals standing in close proximity to Travis, any of whom who would have reminded him to put his ears on if live fire was intended. In the crystal clear light of hindsight, one of the errors that occurred was having a hot gun for this particular scene. As the ones ultimately responsible for the safety of the production, that particular error falls on us, and it was one of the many lessons we took away from the incident. When the rifle discharged into the side berm, ears were ringing and as is common in these situations, everyone took a moment to look at each other and inspect for new holes. Travis summed it up best in the video “That didn’t work.”
So let’s talk about what works:
1. All Guns Are Always Loaded.
2. Never Let The Muzzle Cover Anything You Are Not Willing To Destroy.
3. Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger (And Out Of The Trigger Guard) Until Your Sights Are On
Target.
4. Be Sure Of Your Target.
Most importantly, do not allow yourself to become complacent. Familiarity breeds contempt, and contempt breeds complacency. In this business, complacency kills. We are saddened that this has become such a public incident, but since the cat is out of the bag, let’s all utilize it for the learning tool it is. We are all human, we all make mistakes, and there is nothing wrong in acknowledging that.
If you have any doubts as to what happened, watch the whole uncut sequence. At the end of the clip we’ve also included two additional references to the incident that Travis made later that same day during shooting. As we have maintained throughout this entire incident, we have nothing but respect for Travis and his past accomplishments, and we wish him the best. However, we are not able to condone someone attempting to rewrite their personal history to save themselves a little embarrassment, especially when in doing so our own reputation and professionalism is called into question. Let’s all spend our energy on more productive endeavors, and move on from this incident having learned an important lesson.
I saw the Dry-Fire ProTimer at SHOT Show. It was created by a Veteran of the 75th Ranger Regiment in order to facilitate dry fire practice with a pistol. In particular, it’s very good at working on draw and presentation. It utilizes a replacement barrel, training cartridge and timer app. One important note is that the training barrel won’t chamber a live round in the proper caliber (of course, smaller rounds will fit).
The Dry Fire Pro-Timer training device (Patent pend. #) allows the user to receive immediate timing feedback when practicing shooting drills such as draw stroke, magazine changes, clearing malfunctions, and transitioning from a primary to secondary weapon system without having to fire live rounds. The recorded times are accurate down to one-thousandths of a second, and stored on a smartphone (through a downloadable App, included with purchase) enabling the user to compare speed and efficiency while utilizing different techniques and equipment.
