M14 Forum

lurker01

Today I present to you a review of the Magpul Dynamics series' video course entitled "Art of the Precision Rifle." For those of you unfamiliar with Magpul, they have kind of become the poster boy company for all that is tacticool. They produce a line of kit aimed at military shooters, although they have been a big hit in the civilian sector. They also have started a shooting school that teaches carbine, pistol, and shotgun operations. They have released several DVD series on those weapons types, and they have sold very well. It is worth noting that I have used many of their products, I run their magazine loops on my EBR, and had a set for my M-4. I own their first carbine course, as well as the handgun course. These courses have been very effective in helping me shoot better, and I've even introduced some of the techniques on the carbine to the training for my platoon. These courses are great for people like me want to be an effective shooter, and learn new techniques without spending thousands of dollars to attend an in-person session at Gunsight or Blackwater, or other schools. I know there are plenty of people who consider these just another product for tacticool wannabes, but I absolutely disagree. Like any other piece of kit, owning doesn't make you better, but applying the lessons and drills into your training makes it worth it.

I was anticipating the release of "Art of the Precision Rife" for over a year. I ordered it early this week along with the new 2012 magpul hotties calender. It showed up on my doorstep in a couple days well boxed, and sealed with magpul custom shipping tape. Nobody loves magpul more than magpul. The DVD course is a five disc set, with the first two disks containing the meat of the course. The rest of the disks contain equipment discussions, interviews with instructors on mindset, and other odds and ends. The whole set totals about ten hours of material.

The instructors from the previous dynamics courses return in "Precision Rifle" along with a couple other magpul dynamics staff. For this course they defer to Todd Hodnett of Accuracy First. Todd is a well know consultant in military precision, and runs courses from his ranch in Texas. Todd teaches a very "no nonsense" style in his lessons, and I was very impressed that everything he taught was in the field on un-improved ranges. All the shots were taken from different angles, in varying wind conditions. Not one flat range is used during the whole course.

The first disk starts with the standard safety brief, nothing special there. From there Todd starts with some basics including body position, rifle setup, and trigger control. Todd instructs, while the Magpul guys shoot and receive instruction. The rifles they use are a combination of bolt and semi auto rifles with a few calibers and scopes. They are high dollar military style weapons. The first disk also has a very good breakdown of the various reticles, from the standard hunting rifle duplex all the way the high tech Horrus Vision. I was really interested to learn about a method to use the traditional duplex reticle to make accurate adjustments to distance. The rest of disk one is spent zeroing and going over an extensive truing procedure. Disk two is mostly live fire, starting with broken scope field zero and going into windage and ending with the one mile shot. Every shooter makes the one miler, including a shooter with a 7.62 AR platform.

Todd is very knowledgable, and the Magpul guys ask excellent questions to clarify points and expand on lessons. Todd's methods are as simple as possible, very grounded and fairly easy to understand. The math problems have been simplified over some of the more traditional sniper math being used out in the field, but the theory is proven throughout the course. While not doing so much instructing themselves, the Magpul staff brings a lot to the table, with various skillsets and training. Todd goes over a lot of the old military and shooter dogma and considers shortcomings and truths in each.

The other three DVDs cover a mass of topics, gear choice being a big one. Weapons, scopes, stocks, supports, and many others are all discussed. They also go over mindset, unconventional shooting positions, drills shown at speed and slow motion, keeping a data book, trajectory, and a few others.

Overall, the whole course is well filmed. They show the shooters, as well as the bullet on the way to the target during live fire. The shots of the bullet's trace all the way to the target is really impressive. For many of the windage corrected firing solutions they show video of the target and place a reticle on screen to illustrate what the shooter is doing.

I certainly felt that buying this DVD was worth it. I don't have the disposable income to attend a high dollar shooting school, which is what this course would be if attended in person. I liked the real world methods of Todd Hodnett and the Magpul guys. Much of what is taught in this course will not be applicable if you don't own a scope that has a mil-dot setup or some other sniper type optic. However, the fundamentals and techniques taught are useful for any shooter trying to get past 200 yards. I run an ACOG or a simple duplex, and I still feel that I learned a considerable amount. Everything taught is shown in a live fire drill, and is shown to work. This video is aimed at anyone from a big game hunter to a military sniper, with a bit of emphasis on the tactical side of things. I really enjoyed this course, and I look forward to hitting the range and applying what I learned.

NoExpert

Excellent write up. Makes me want to order it now. A lot nicer to learn and practice from the comfort of your home before going to the range and burning ammo learning.

1KPerDay

Thanks for the report.

TraverZulu3

Very nice review, thank you!

DocBach

Watching it right now. Really dig Todd's wind formula, a lot simpler than the wind system I was taught. Makes me wish I had the cash for a Horus reticle'd optic.

I got selected by my Battalion to go to Caylen Wojcik's Magpul Dynamic SPR/DMR class in April, I imagine they'll do a lot of the lessons from the discs hands on - can't wait!

f1fanatic

I own a lot of Magpul stuff for my AR and M14. I also own "Art of the Tactical Carbine." I enjoy watching these videos and incorporating what I can into my own training at the range or dry training at home in the basement. Like much in life, you don't have to buy everything "hook line and sinker," or be a "fan-boy" to extract useful tools and knowledge from such things.
Magpul has certainly made big business out of tactical accessories and brought it to mainstream from marketing, logo and all the way down to their packaging. Many times, when a company becomes successful to such a degree there is almost a mass aversion to the success because of it. One can think of many products like this. IMO, Magpul puts out quality gear and just so happens to get the rest right as well. If anything, I think this has been a good thing because they have brought the coolness of firearm ownership to the forefront and help build the armory of US Citizens.
On a side note: Anyone who owns an Android type phone there is a Ballistic Calculator App called Strelok that works really well. Since we are talking about firing solution math.

DocBach

I'll look into it. I got Knight's Armaments Bullet Flight and I don't really care for the interface very much.

tx200

Hey,

Not sure if this is the right thread, but, could anyone help with this question?

What is the best book out there on the history of the M14 (something that would include the XM21 also)?

Thanks!