Hollow Training Center is located in Mount Carroll, Illinois. It is fireamrs training facility with over 120 acres of training area to include multiple flat ranges, rappelling tower, dismounted course, and a fully ballistic shoot-house. It is owned by Pete Milionis, a retired Chicago Police officer with extensive SWAT and firearms training experience. HTC is offering a variety of training courses as well as hosting numerous events.
Panteao Productions introduces Make Ready with Michael Bane: Concealed Carry. Although best known for his highly rated original television series on Outdoor Channel — SHOOTING GALLERY, THE BEST DEFENSE, GUN STORIES, RAPID FIRE, COWBOYS — Michael Bane has been active in competitive shooting and training for decades. Michael walks you through the system of concealed carry and reviews various holsters, full size and compact firearms, pocket pistols, properly concealing firearms, off body carry, vehicles, home carry, stress inoculation, and range drills.
We’ve written about training plates in the past from a couple of manufacturers. They offer a great alternative to using real ballistic plates during training iterations that may result in damage to the plate. Now, Warrior Trail Consulting, LLC has introduced their version of training plates, training side plates and soft armor. That’s right, training ballistic insert panels which could come in VERY handy for MAROPS training or any other training that might result in damaged soft armor.
The soft armor inserts are IOTV shape and made from woven PVC fiber. They replicate the size and weight of armor panels. They are available in sizes X-small – X-large.
The plates are available in both E-SAPI in sizes Small – Large. The SAPI versions come in X-small and Medium and the ESBI side plates are one size.
These products are VERY cost effective when considering the cost of the loss of even one plate in training. But remember, these offer NO ballistic protection and are for training (non-ballistic event) only.
Travis Haley and Ron Avery cover the Triggerstripe Drill. They work on trigger pull and move on to cadence firing with consistent trigger pull.
You can download the Practical Shooting Academy target they are using here. It’s designed to provide biofeedback. By shooting along the line either faster or further away, the shooter can gauge his trigger control.
Visit haleystrategic.com for more drills.
If you are a Range Safety Officer or member of EMS / Fire then the newly introduced Red color for FirstSpear’s Sleeper soft armor carrier might be just the ticket.
Designed in conjunction with Crye Precision, the Sleeper SOCOM’s SPEAR BALCS soft armor as well as Hard Armor plates cut to SAPI/ESAPI/SPEAR as well as Swimmer cut. The Sleeper is also available in Black, Coyote, Ranger Green and MultiCam sizes Small – XLarge.
Magpul Dynamics has a new Director. Duane Liptak Jr is a former Marine Corps Major. According to a Magpul Dynamics press release he is a decorated combat veteran with experience in Tactical Aviation and Special Operations. He also brings a vast knowledge of the shooting industry as well as experience developing, managing, and executing training programs from his previous position at Brownells Inc, where he held the position of Director of Government Programs and Training
Duane’s military achievements include stints as a Squadron XO, FAC(A) (Forward Air Controller-Airborne) Instructor, Pilot and Flight Lead for a USMC F/A-18D Squadron deployed to Iraq, and Plank Owner in Marine Special Operations Command, where he stood up the first operational Marine Special Operations Company as Air Officer, Operations Officer, Team FAC, and Weapons, Lasers, Night Vision, and Communications subject matter expert.
The long anticipated launch of TAC-TV has finally arrived. Hosted by US Army Special Operations Veteran Larry Vickers, TAC-TV not only provides access to the series of the same name in an extended format, but also includes the Daniel Defense Vickers Tactical training videos. All-in-all, there’s 10 hours of HD content. Additionally, they’re adding Hackathorn content and they’ve planned hours and hours of behind the scenes and other surprises as well as user submitted videos. My cable system hasn’t carried any of LAV’s previous series so it’s great to finally get access to full shows. One other thing I really like about the site is that registration is simple and you can even log in with your Facebook account.
And while access to the video content is pretty cool all on its own, there’s also the TAC-TV giveaway. In honor of the 1911 (One of Larry’s favorites) and its 101 years of service, TAC-TV is doing an unprecedented membership event. In the 101 days from launch they will be giving away a great deal of prizes as members progressively reaches certain levels. Everything from a DDM4 V7 to the ‘moon rock’; the 10,000th member will win a Custom Vickers 1911. TAC-TV they will film the making of the pistol and the winner will be presented the gun on television.
The very first prize is a DDM4 V7 for being the 100th person to sign up for a full year. Any bets as to how long it will take for that prize to be claimed?
After the jump, checkout the full giveaway list. It’s both impressive and extensive.
In late January, Open Range Service Group coordinated the Military Mountain and Cold Weather Workshop, a two day round table workshop designed to bring together Military and DoD personnel with industry leaders in the area of military equipment for cold weather and mountainous operations. Held in Essex, Vermont the location is well known to those in military mountaineering circles. The forum of discussions provided insight on operational requirements based of lessons learned, current technology and future developments to support mission requirements and future needs. Topics covered ranged from advanced fiber technology and materials used for insulation in cold weather protection garments, individual mountain equipment to include stoves, sleep systems and lighting. A third day was dedicated to actual ice climbing training that utilized products discussed in the workshop briefings.
Denali Climb for the Fallen, 2nd Ranger BTN, Open Range Service Group from Marc Womack on Vimeo.
The conference kicked off with a presentation on the Denali Climb for the Fallen by members of the 2nd Ranger Bn and led by Open Range Service Group. This video is a synopsis of the ascent. The group summited Denali on Memorial Day of 2011. This key presentation really set off the tone of the entire event and while the climb was completed under training conditions, the environmental challenges faced by the crew were the same as in combat. This led to excellent observations on kit, nutrition, health and techniques. In later presentations, I was able to make direct correlations back to the initial address which was very helpful considering I had never undertaken a climbing expedition.
I attend a lot of seminars and trade shows and I have to say that this event was well worth my time. The subject matter was poignant and the speakers and attendees were a great mix. There was heavy attendance by military and industry personnel involved in mountain and cold weather ops. I was really impressed with the backgrounds of military and civilians alike and everyone added to the discussion but from different perspectives. While ultimately, everything is based on civilian climbing, different units adopt different techniques and gear at different speeds.
If you have the opportunity to attend one of ORSG’s events in the future, make sure you do it. I can’t think of many conferences where you can talk about new techniques and technologies and then try them out. If it’s even half as good as this one, you won’t be disappointed.
I want to give out a special thanks to my hosts Open Range Service Group and in particular, sponsor Primaloft.
Also, be sure to ask ORSG about their excellent performance t-shirts from New Balance commemorating the Denali Climb for the Fallen. Proceeds from sales of the shirts go to the Pointe du Hoc Foundation.
