Last weekend I attended a DMR/SPR class in St.Augustine, FL hosted by Jared Reston of Reston Group and intructed by ALex and Rudy from Ridgeline. Jared is a full time SWAT officer in Jacksonville, Alex and Rudy are both former Marines (one a Scout Sniper the other MARSOC) that transferred into Army SF where they finished their careers.
To start, the weather was garbage for Northern Florida for the entire time we were there. It is not as much the light rain that never really seemed to stop, but the Florida ground that felt more like a wet sponge when in a prone, kneeling or seated position. With that said it was a very good 2 Day class that could very easily been a 3 day class.
The principle of the DMR/SPR is the ability to quickly and effectively address threats from 0 to 600yds. The class was broken into 3 segments. First marksmanship. This is the baseline that everything is built off of. The better part of the first day was working on marksmanship both supported and unsupported. I really got a ton out of shooting in improvised positions. We also worked significantly on maximizing our proficiency with the "wobble". There were a couple of techniques that really helped to get real consistency even when shooting semi or unsupported. The second part of the class was spent on understanding your reticle, ranging target and getting effective hits. This was not a "sniper" course. This was a gunfighting course with a wider engagement range. The minimum ideal glass for this type of setup is a 1-6x or 1-8x variable optic. I have a 3.6-18x that I keep on my SPR gun that works out very well. I have a bit of previous experience with this type of shooting and was able to use this period to really dial in using the Tremor3 reitcle. The final segment of the class brought together the previous principles into use. rather than std flat range, targets were set at various ranges and had to be addressed in various orders bouncing between short and long. This took place from various stations that required the use of various shooting positions.
The only bad part of the entire weekend was that I was unable to participate actively past around noon on Sunday. I have a total hip replacement scheduled for mid Dec and the pain from the bad hip made mobility almost impossible. The Ridgeline guys are from NH where they have an absolutely beautiful facility. I will be taking this class again with them in March once I am healed up and have had a little bit of time to get back into shape.
My big take away from this class is process, process, process. This hold true whether shooting CQB, close range or out to 600. Build your fundamentals, establish your process for fast accurate fire and practice. Your processes are your positions, your,gun handling, your efficiency with your reticle. You will always be the most inaccurate part of the system (gun, ammo, glass) so it is up to you to make sure that you make that as little of a factor as possible. The more you bulid your processes and perfect them the less you need to think about them when the time to use them is there.
I am writing this while sitting here in pain counting the days til the surgery. If something didnt make sense or if it needs clarification just let me know. I hope this is informative for you all.
Chris
PS some had already asked. My SPR is a Noveske 18" proof barreled 5.56 with a Leupold Mk5 3.6-18x Tremmor3 and a Trijicon RM06 offset. I shot Magtech 77gr SMK
