Patrol Carbine training day

Three years ago my department FINALLY decided that we might need a little bit of firepower above and beyond the usual handguns and shotguns. What ended up being approved is a Rock River LAR-15 in .223 (or 5.56 for my military readers). They decided that they would purchase and issue only guns with iron sights but gave us the option of purchasing our own and adding optics. Of course, Ol Cowtown Cop got into one of the first few classes to qualify and carry this fine piece of weaponry. I had a ball in the training class and looked forward to more.

When I heard that our fine firearms training folks were going to put on an intermediate carbine course I signed up right away. Who would pass up the opportunity to shoot free ammo and get good training and get paid as well? Not me.

So yesterday found me at the range in beautiful weather, lows in the fifties, highs in the eighties with a nice cool breeze all day long. I couldn't have picked a better day to be outside. We started shooting promptly at 0700 and shot until 1700 with a hour for lunch. I for one used most of my lunch break to reconfirm my zero as I was having a little bit of trouble. Here's why.

Our range was never intended to be used as a rifle range. It is 50 yards deep and the backstop is rated for pistol rounds. So we have to use this funny little blue bullet ammo that I despise. Its called SRTA which stands for short range training ammunition. Its a 3.6 grain plastic projectile that is traveling at 4350 fps at the muzzle. It requires you to use a straight blow back M2 training bolt in your AR. I hate it because it is greasy, dirty, leaves a lot of residue in your barrel and worst of all, it does not shoot to the same same point of aim as our duty ammo, Federal LE tactical 62 grain soft point. So when you are shooting the SRTA ammo you start doubting your sights and your zero because its hitting four to six inches off at fifty yards.
To make matters worse it's dove season here in Texas and I have been putting a lot of time in behind a shotgun. It seems like the more I shoot a shotgun, the more my rifle and pistol shooting skills suffer. It took me about half an hour to get back into the swing of shooting a rifle. After that I was fine.

After lunch we switched our bolts back to the real ones and shot Remington frangible ammo the rest of the day. I like this ammo. It is just as accurate as our duty rounds and is safe to beat up the steel plates at close range. You get an impressive cloud of dust and a satisfying CLANG when you hit the plates with this stuff. Our range has a lot of different steel targets and we shot them all.

We are lucky to have some very dedicated instructors in our department. My department, in a rare moment of sanity, sent a bunch of them to Blackwater to be trained as carbine instructors. They put on a great school for us. It was really nice to get away from my desk for the day.