Gunsite 223 Defensive Carbine

I recently took the 223 Defensive Carbine class at Gunsite. This was my fourth Gunsite class, after taking Night Vision Pistol/Carbine and Night Vision Pistol Carbine II last spring and the 250 Defensive Pistol class in the fall.

Gear

My carbine for this class was a 12.5” Short Barreled Rifle with a Huxwrx suppressor. It’s topped with an Aimpoint CompM5 on a Unity FAST mount paired with a Unity 4x magnifier and an offset Trijicon RMR as a backup sight. For the night shooting portion of the class, it has a Modlite weapon-mounted light. Though it wouldn’t get used in this class, I also have a MAWL-C1+ IR laser/illuminator on it.

I brought my G19X for handgun transitions. It’s equipped with an RMR, Modlite PL350, and a KKM compensator.

For the first couple of days, we didn’t need the pistol, so I just ran a couple of belt-mounted mag pouches and a dump pouch. Once the pistol was in play, I switched over to my war belt setup. This includes a Safariland dropped and offset holster, trauma kit, dump pouch, and pistol and rifle mag pouches.

Every student in the class was running some sort of AR. Most were running red dots, with or without magnifiers, though a few had low-power variable optics.

Before the class

I made the drive down on Sunday, enjoying the Northern Arizona scenery on the way. I parked my little Escapod teardrop trailer in the Gunsite Campground and said hi to Monte, who would be one of the instructors this week. I’d met when I was out here for 250.

Day 1

We met at the classroom building and took care of some paperwork. Once that was out of the way, we met our three instructors: Freddie Blish, Monte Gould, and Dan Bilodeau. They introduced themselves, and then we heard from Gunsite CEO Ken Campbell.

The start of class lecture began with some information about the Gunsite facility, followed by a safety brief. There was some general material on the use of a carbine.

Out at the range, Freddie started with some lecture on carbine setup, including slings, stock length, and optic mounting position. This was followed by demonstrations of Gunsite’s carbine loading and unloading procedures, including a chance for students to practice these.

Our first shooting would be establishing our zeros at 25 yards. To help enable this, they talked the students through the prone supported position and the concept of natural point of aim. The preference is for a 200-yard zero for red dot guns and a 100-yard zero for guns with magnified optics with bullet drop compensating (BDC) reticles (they did accommodate a student who wanted to keep his 37-yard zero). All of these zeros should be a few inches low at 25, so this exercise was really just ensuring everyone was close enough to be in the ballpark at longer distances.

Once everyone had at least a rough zero, we moved back to 50 yards. Here, the red dot guns should be close to dead on, with the 100-yard zeros just a touch low.

After lunch, we stepped back to 100, where the folks with magnified optics should be dead on and the red dots just a bit high.

With that, we moved from prone precision shooting to discussing stance and grip in preparation for some standing work. Our first close-up drills were focused on mechanical offset at 5 and 10 yards. Once folks had a grasp of the concept, we applied it to headshots from 5 yards out to 15.

The instructors covered the tactical reload. They talked through three different techniques: the beer can (two mags side by side), the L-shape, and make a hole/fill a hole. They encouraged us to use whichever technique worked best for us.

Thus far we’d been doing all of our standing work from the low ready. They explained “close ready” (basically a variant of Sul with the muzzle pointed outboard of the support side foot) and high ready. We finished up the day working controlled pairs from these positions.

Day 2

After reviewing the rules of gun safety, we headed back out to the 100-yard line to verify our zeroes, then moved back to 200. Here, those of us with red dots had the rare opportunity to actually fine-tune our zeros out at the second intersection rather than just zeroing at 50 and assuming it would be close at 200.

Back at the 50, Freddie went through three different kneeling positions: speed kneeling (one knee down but not supporting the rifle), double kneeling, and supported kneeling (again, one knee, but supporting your support side elbow on the knee). We practiced these at 50 yards. Our last position before lunch was squatting for those with the flexibility to assume it.

After lunch, Freddie discussed various types of stoppages (he prefers that term to malfunction) and corrective action for each. They split the class in half, with one group going to an adjoining range for some practice doing speed reloads and assuming the different shooting positions. The other half practiced dealing with stoppages and learned about hammer pairs. Then, the two groups swapped.

After getting back together, our last range activity of the day was learning about failure to stop drills. We shot some of these, then adjourned to the classroom.

Freddie gave a lecture on external and terminal ballistics, and the on-site gunsmith discussed AR maintenance. That wrapped up the day.

Day 3

This morning, they split the class half again, with half going to the longer adjoining range while the other half stayed. On the adjacent range, we shot at 200 yards on paper, then shifted back to 300 yards to shoot on steel. When the groups swapped, we worked on bolt lock speed reloads and transitioning from rifle to pistol. I found my rifle somewhat reluctant to strip the top round from a mag on a bolt lock reload.

After both groups had done each activity, we split again, with half of us going to the battle rattle range. There, we had a series of five obstacles to use as support while shooting at long-range targets. These ranged from stumps and logs to manufactured items like fences and tank traps. Back on the main range, we did some work pieing around the edges of barricades to prepare us for the shoot house.

During lunch, I took advantage of the Gunsite cleaning area to do a more thorough cleaning than the quick wipe-down I’d done the previous night. This seemed to resolve my issue on reloads.

After lunch, we split the class again, with half going to one of the shoot houses while the rest of us stayed on the range to work on movement (limited to a few steps in this class) and turning to address targets behind you. They also introduced non-standard responses (NSRs), where rather than a pair or a failure drill, you fire four or more rounds at a target.

At the Playhouse, we recieved some instruction on room clearing and practiced using non-firing blue guns. For most of us, this finished up the day. Students who hadn’t previously taken the 250 Defensive Pistol class had a chance to watch a recording of Jeff Cooper’s mindset lecture.

Day 4

Back at it this morning, the class split into three groups. One stayed on the range. The second went to The Pit, another of Gunsite’s shoot houses. The third went to the Military Crest, a field shooting area.

My group stayed on the range. We practiced the Gunsite carbine school drill, which included headshots at various distances out to 25 yards and pairs to the upper chest out to 50.

Next, we worked on the carbine El Presidente. This is a 25-yard drill where you have to engage three targets with two shots each, reload, and then hit each with another pair. Par time for this is 12 seconds. I managed to shoot it right around par but dropped some of my shots out of the highest-scoring zone on each target.

We rotated over to The Pit. Since this is a one-at-a-time experience, there was quite a bit of waiting. The wait was worth it, though. This was the highlight of the class for me. I did all right, with only one or two issues on my run.

Our last experience before lunch was Military Crest. This was another field shooting area, much like Battle Rattle yesterday. We had to use designated positions to engage targets out at 2-300 yards.

After lunch we split the class in two again. The group I was in stayed on the range and practiced the school drill out to 50 yards. After getting quite a few runs in, we swapped with the other group and moved to the adjoining range to practice our position shooting on steel at 100 yards. I made some changes to my belt setup to make the sitting position easier.

We paused a bit earlier than our usual stopping time because we’d be back for the night shoot. A couple of students went into town to pick up pizza, and some of us chipped in and had them bring back some pies.

Night Shoot

Freddie started our evening instruction by discussing how to use a handheld flashlight with a carbine. He demonstrated two techniques, one based on the Harries position that we use with pistols and the other using the magazine well or VFG to activate the light. We still had a bit of light left to practice these before it got dark. As the light waned, we did some low-light shooting without any illumination, just the natural light of dusk and our optics.

While we waited for full darkness, Freddie discussed flashlight characteristics, including candela and lumens, and provided some background on tactical flashlight development.

We got to see a practical application of these concepts when Monte walked down range with a blue gun, and each student had a chance to illuminate him at various distances. This gave everyone an appreciation for their light’s performance and the opportunity to compare different lights. I’m sure all these lights to the face also took out Monte’s night vision for good.

Now that it was well and truly dark, we broke out the carbines and practiced illuminating the targets with the handheld lights, then bringing up the carbine to engage. Compared to a WML, it compromises both your shooting and your ability to coordinate the light and the firearm. Being able to use a handheld light with your carbine is a good skill to have, but it’s definitely not optimal. We did a few reps all together, then went down the line one at a time, so everyone got to see the performance with just their own light.

On that note, we put the handheld lights away and did some shooting with the weapon-mounted light (those without WMLs got more reps with the handheld). Again, we ran everyone at once, then one at a time.

We finished up around 7:30 and headed out for a well-deserved night’s sleep.

Day 5

Once again, the day started by splitting the class into two groups. We stayed on the range while the other went to the Scrambler. On the range we did the full school drill for score. This involves headshots at 25, body shots at 50, and shooting from the kneeling and seated positions at 75 and prone at 100. We had time to get a couple of shots at this. I was a bit frustrated with my performance, but I did improve the second time around.

We swapped to give the other half of the class a chance to shoot the school drill while we did the Scrambler. This is a timed course of seven field shooting positions, engaging targets around 100-200 yards. I’d shot the scrambler before in the night vision class, but we hadn’t done it for time (doing it with NVGs is more of a target recognition exercise anyway). I had a pretty solid run the first time through, hitting every target and getting a decent time. We had one younger shooter who managed 50 seconds, one of the fastest times the instructors had seen in many years.

Back at the range, half the class did the El Presidente drill for score while the rest shot the Vlei. Again, I managed to hit the par time but dropped some shots outside the maximum scoring ring.

The Vlei is a field shooting exercise. However, unlike Battle Rattle or Military Crest, all of the shooting is done offhand. The targets are a bit closer, in the 100-200-yard range, but they’re still challenging. I mostly managed first-round hits. At the last shooting position, the instructors offered a “bonus target,” which was quite small and difficult to hit, and we’d only get one shot at it. When I pointed in, I found my wobble zone was much larger than the target, even after getting as steady as possible. Rather than press the shot and hope, I ran my stock all the way out, bladed my body, and assumed more of a National Match-style standing position. This wasn’t something they’d covered in the class (indeed, they spent a lot of time telling students not to blade their body while shooting), but it proved effective in this case. I was able to make the hit.

After lunch, we had the shoot-off. Pairs of students had to shoot from standing, kneeling, and prone, with reloads between each position. The fastest student wins the bout. We did six bouts each (with randomly determined matchups). At the end of the process, there were two students left undefeated (I was one of four students who only had one loss). The two undefeated students had a shoot-off to determine the winner.

With that, we wrapped up and headed back to the classroom. We filled out our course evaluations and Ken Campbell gave us a parting message. As the instructors handed out certificates, they mentioned that I’d come in second in the combined score of the school drill and El Presidente, which I felt pretty good about. The student who took first also got that 50-second score on the Scrambler and came first in the shoot-off. He’s a hell of a shooter, so I don’t feel bad coming second behind him.

Conclusions

Compared to 250, this class had fewer truly novice shooters (though one student hadn’t shot a rifle or pistol before the “Day 0” carbine class Gunsite offers the day before 223). However, it seemed like many of the students hadn’t previously shot a carbine the way Gunsite teaches it: as a fighting tool. The instructors did a great job bringing these students along and turning them from recreational shooters into budding carbine gunfighters.

This was a great class, going from the very basics of shooting with a carbine to pushing students on their speed and accuracy out to several hundred yards.

From the perspective of a more experienced student, things really started to heat up around Day 3, as we pushed back to longer distances and got off the square range.

Perhaps even more than 250, 223 takes advantage of Gunsite’s expansive facilities. We shot out to 300 yards on the square range, did a live fire shoot house, did field firing courses like Battle Rattle, Military Crest, the Scrambler, and the Vlei, and took advantage of turning targets for timed drills. Few other carbine classes can boast equivalents to one of these, much less all of them.

One difference I noticed from 250 was that I saw many more students struggling with equipment in this class. While almost any compact or full-size handgun is suitable for 250, not every AR is suitable for 223. Some student guns had long A2-style fixed stocks that forced students to take a bladed stance rather than the more squared-off stance instructors were teaching. Some had long, heavy barrels that inhibited keeping the gun up during reloads and long strings of fire. Others had tight chambers that led to reliability issues (and gave students lots of practice clearing malfunctions). The on-site gunsmith was able to remedy some of these issues, replacing fixed stocks with adjustable ones and even reaming out one student’s chamber.

The ideal carbine for a class like this is something light and handy, no longer than 16”, with a barrel no heavier than government profile. It should have the more generously sized 5.56 chamber rather than .223. The only necessary accessories are a weapon-mounted light and an optic. On the optic front, both red dots with magnifiers and low-power variable scopes seemed to do well. Red dots without a magnifier struggled on some of the more distant targets.

Overall, it’s an excellent class. I’d recommend it to anyone, whether they’re a novice who wants to get started with the carbine or an experienced shooter who wants to go beyond the square range.