I spent this weekend in the wilds of north central Pennsylvania taking a low light, night vision class facilitated by
Lodestone Training and Consulting. This was a private class organized by a good friend of
Unchainedpreppers. Several students were in fact
Unchainedpreppers regulars.
I had two reasons for attending this class,
> Learn to use my night vision NOG’s in low light situations, and
> I had heard a lot of good things about
Lodestone Training and Consulting and wanted to check them out.
For the most part, there are no training companies in the mid-Atlantic region. This is in part due to unfriendly firearms states along with the availability of land to run classes with live fire. In essence the class I attended would not have been allowed to be run in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, or others.
Due to the remoteness of the training facility and day one being a workday for many, two groups met at different times to be convoyed up to the training facility. I was part of the first group and like others I was camping at the facility. The closest hotel was about one hour away and besides I never mind camping out and trying out new equipment. A bonus to this training was a representative from
NVD Night Vision Devices was attending the training to give a lecture on night vision and to share with the students the latest and greatest.
Day 1 started at about 1800 hrs. with introductions, safety protocols, the class schedule, and a great discussion by the
NVD Night Vision Devices representative. Once that was accomplished, we loaded into trucks and off to the shooting range.
By this time dusk was upon us and we ran several exercises using ambient light then as the night sky descended, we moved to exercises using weapon mounted flashlights. When your hand was barely visible before your eyes, we moved to exercises using NOD’s and IR lasers.
Day two found us broken into two groups. One group went off to work on very specific NOG and IR laser drills while the other group went off to an area to do several runs at a “jungle walk” using different low light drills.
After three or so hours, the two groups switched roles.
Using your NOG’s in actual battlefield situations verses walking around your neighborhood gave me the advantage of working the bugs out of my gear. The two instructors worked with all the students on a one-on-one bases to do this. When I was done with the class my NOG’s setup had improved greatly which was one benefit of the class. The other was the ability to fight and manipulate my firearm under low light and absolute darkness.
The two instructors were retired Green Berets who were natural trainers as befits the role of that class of warrior. They worked with each student on a one-on-one basis as needed by each student. They were lighthearted yet with a sense of no-nonsense purpose.
Last, I want to highlight the great group of students I had the opportunity to attend the training with. They like the instructors were very serious yet lighthearted enough to chuckle when they made a mistake. The discussions about past, current, and perceived future events was well worth the cost alone of the class.
In conclusion, I highly recommend taking classes from
Lodestone Training and Consulting. I certainly will be back for more.
