After Action Report: Falcon Operations Group Carbine Manipulation 1.5 Course

Last month I participated in the Carbine Manipulation 1.0 course taught by the Falcon Operations Group, and while it is a fine remedial course for novice shooters, I personally found it unfulfilling. So I took part in the FOG Carbine Manipulation 1.5 course this past weekend, which is a more advanced course, and it provided a far better shooting workout for me.

While the morning started with a zero confirmation, it quickly progressed to accuracy drills, DEA dot drills, and BSA drills.

Since the 1.5 course expects that students have participated in the 1.0 course, things are moving a lot quicker than 1.0, so there wasn’t much time wasted for people to catch on and catch up.

Granted, there were still points during the day’s class where we weren’t firing, but these were spaced out appropriately to provide rest as well as teach fundamental concepts efficiently.

While DEA Dot, BSA, and accuracy drills were shot in 1.0, 1.5 covered malfunction clearing, transitions from primary (rifle) to secondary (pistol), shooting while moving, and use of cover. Carbine Manipulation 1.5 also spent more time on live fire emergency reload exercises.

As mentioned in my Carbine Manipulation 1.0 after-action report, most students were using AR-15 rifles. There was one AK-47. Pistols varied from Glocks to 1911s to M&Ps.

There was a split on rigs. Most people ran magazines on belt holsters while a little less than half ran some sort of chest rig.

The class was very smooth with an excellent pace. Not snail pace slow like 1.0, but not excessively fast. There were 14 students that day which kept things sane, compared to the 25+ students in the 1.0 course. Not to mention that the 1.5 students were generally knowledgable, so it’s nice to have a smaller amount of ‘experienced’ shooters rather than twice as much less experienced to novice shooters.

If anyone is interested in taking a carbine course, but already has basic shooting skills and comprehension, I suggest contacting the Falcon Operations Group directly via email and see if you can skip the Carbine Manipulation 1.0 course and enroll directly in the 1.5 course. FOG states that the pre-requisite for all non-1.0 courses is the course that precedes it. Thus, to take 2.0, you need to take 1.5, but to take 1.5 you need to have taken 1.0.

But since 1.0 is so remedial for anyone with a decent shooting backgrounds (particularly military, law enforcement, or competitive).

Although, I understand why FOG would still require 1.0 for ‘experienced’ shooters: To teach methods such as stance, grip, and position that differ greatly from what is taught by the military or law enforcement academies, but are used throughout the duration of Falcon’s course tree.

Anyway, I definitely found the Carbine Manipulation 1.5 course to be far more enjoyable and rewarding than the Carbine Manipulation 1.0 course.