Q_Sertorius
WKR
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2024
- Messages
- 4,626
At @B_Reynolds_AK request, I am reposting this from the S2H student section to the general firearms forum. This is based upon my experience at the S2H course from May 31 through June 6, 2026.
BLUF: the best firearms handling and shooting training I have ever attended. That includes initial rifle qualification at The Basic School in 2008 (yes, Form, I know that isn’t the gold standard
). This is training for adults whose time is valuable. I've been shooting for something like 42 years now and I still learned better techniques, had bad habits corrected, and got the "why" for everything. The instructors are awesome people and the instructor : student ratio was exceptional. The food was excellent.
For those of you who know me only through this forum, you probably understand that I am the Elephant's Child. I have "One million Hows, two million Wheres, and seven million Whys!" I went into each little school circle or post-class debrief session with another set of questions. All of them were answered.
Pre-arrival/arrival:
Show up as well-prepared as you can. Try to have the same mindset you would going on a real hunt. Life will happen. The range day you meant to take will disappear due to work, family, etc. Don’t kick the can down the road. Assume that you might see the salamander of a lifetime at the trailhead.
Due to life, I literally had to stop and load a hundred more rounds of ammo for my hunting rifle on the way to the course. I didn’t prioritize checking zero with it. I didn’t prioritize checking a load from early March in hot weather and field conditions. I didn’t arrive at the trailhead ready. My hunting rifle wasn't zeroed and my ammo wasn't reliable. But it’s not just about being unprepared in that regard. By the time I arrived, I was exhausted from fighting to preserve my vacation from all the other things in my life. That could easily happen on a hunt. I was a race car in the red when the course started.
On the night of June 6, after I left the course, I stopped in Sheridan, Wyoming for sleep. I was very, very tired, but I was not exhausted. If I could have stayed for another month, I would have done it. And I would be better for it. Before I had even left the course, I was trying to figure out how to get back to another iteration. Nothing has changed in the subsequent week. I am going to attend another S2H course, it's just a matter of how often and when.
A few lessons:
Success is not about gear, it is about having the right mindset. Under stress, you don’t rise to your expectations, you sink to the level of your training.
Bring your hunting rifle, training rifle, ammo, shooting matt, front and rear rest, a notepad (I forgot mine), a good attitude, and anything else you are told to bring. Be self reliant.
I thought really hard about switching to my Rokstok and not using the sporter stock on my trainer because the Rokstok is so clearly superior. But one of the instructors, a very large and wise man, pointed out that this was the wrong mindset. It was better to overcome the gear deficiency and get good with it - a la "one mind, any weapon" - than to simply go for the superior gear. That was excellent advice for the course. I'm still going to sell rifles to buy more Rokstoks in the future.
All the rifles I brought had issues. If this had been a real hunt, at least two weren’t really safe due to modified triggers [made by previous owners] and the other two had issues due to my poor reloading process. This is stuff that you might not learn until you really operate them under stress in field conditions.
I have used one of those rifles for 32 years. It’s killed hundreds of animals. It’s been through multiple barrels in its life. I liked the “light trigger” and always used it carefully, but didn’t realize it was masking poor technique. That rifle has been to three different “gunsmiths” in the last two years, but none of them said anything about the trigger. The look on Mike’s face when he saw it was enough to make me put it back into the case… but I decided to see if it was drop safe from a one-foot drop. It wasn’t. Maybe future classes will find pieces of the butt plate?
My Tikka T3 trainer had an aftermarket trigger spring on it when I got it. I bought a replacement spring for it, but didn’t put it in before coming. The crew showed me how to replace it and got it good and tight. Don’t use aftermarket trigger springs on Tikkas. The OEM triggers are great (and safe).
My trigger squeeze is way better now than it was when I started the course. I am safer and more effective in that regard.
I popped three primers in forty shots using my reloads in my Tikka .243. There were no other pressure signs at all. This was not a particularly hot load, but I was kissing the lands. The ammo was also hot from being in the sun. I should have checked those loads out on a hot day. Once I noticed that with the .243, I decided not to mess with the 6.5 CM I brought as a backup rifle since it was also kissing the lands. The .243 ammo was still accurate, it still fed reliably on the initial shot, but clearing an ejected primer out could have cost me a follow-up shot at a minimum and cannot be regarded as a symptom of safe reloading practices in any regard.
I have argued in the past about needing to carry in condition 1. I have been wrong about this my entire hunting life. I just wasn’t good enough at handling my rifle to understand that with enough skill, I can carry in a safer condition.
My bolt manipulation is way, way better now. I am fast enough now to carry in a safer condition and shoot faster than I could before.
Shooting is a perishable skill. I still suck at shooting, but I suck a lot less than I did when I started the course. It’s going to take a lot of self-discipline and effort to not slide back into old habits. But I am excited about that…
Quick Drop works.
Shooting sticks work.
Rokstoks work.
Tikkas work. I can’t even describe how fun it is sitting there with an assault bag full of .223, in the dust and sun, just shooting ammo by the handful. I fired about 1000 rounds of ADI 69-grain ammo. Not one malfunction. At one point, we dripped a little oil on the bolt because it was getting stiff and dry. The rifle just kept shooting. It was like having a belt-fed weapon.
SWFA’s work.
The Remnami (Remington Tsunami) is a thing.
I saw a ZeroTech S2H scope mounted on a rifle get thrown so hard that it snapped the wooden stock like a matchstick. They mounted the rifle in a new stock and it shot to within .1 mil of the original POI.
I personally didn’t get any trigger time with the ZeroTech S2H scope, but others did. I was doing other things and I didn’t want to fight someone for a chance to shoot it. Everyone who used it had a “you’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands” look on his face. Watch out for mild-mannered Canadian goat hunters and Coasties. I did get to handle it some and I am super excited to receive it.
I’ve argued with a lot of folks this past couple of years on here. I won’t say that everyone else was right about everything, but certain people have been right about everything.
A hearty thank you to my fellow classmates and instructors. It was a literal and figurative blast. Safe trails and happy hunting!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
BLUF: the best firearms handling and shooting training I have ever attended. That includes initial rifle qualification at The Basic School in 2008 (yes, Form, I know that isn’t the gold standard
). This is training for adults whose time is valuable. I've been shooting for something like 42 years now and I still learned better techniques, had bad habits corrected, and got the "why" for everything. The instructors are awesome people and the instructor : student ratio was exceptional. The food was excellent. For those of you who know me only through this forum, you probably understand that I am the Elephant's Child. I have "One million Hows, two million Wheres, and seven million Whys!" I went into each little school circle or post-class debrief session with another set of questions. All of them were answered.
Pre-arrival/arrival:
Show up as well-prepared as you can. Try to have the same mindset you would going on a real hunt. Life will happen. The range day you meant to take will disappear due to work, family, etc. Don’t kick the can down the road. Assume that you might see the salamander of a lifetime at the trailhead.
Due to life, I literally had to stop and load a hundred more rounds of ammo for my hunting rifle on the way to the course. I didn’t prioritize checking zero with it. I didn’t prioritize checking a load from early March in hot weather and field conditions. I didn’t arrive at the trailhead ready. My hunting rifle wasn't zeroed and my ammo wasn't reliable. But it’s not just about being unprepared in that regard. By the time I arrived, I was exhausted from fighting to preserve my vacation from all the other things in my life. That could easily happen on a hunt. I was a race car in the red when the course started.
On the night of June 6, after I left the course, I stopped in Sheridan, Wyoming for sleep. I was very, very tired, but I was not exhausted. If I could have stayed for another month, I would have done it. And I would be better for it. Before I had even left the course, I was trying to figure out how to get back to another iteration. Nothing has changed in the subsequent week. I am going to attend another S2H course, it's just a matter of how often and when.
A few lessons:
Success is not about gear, it is about having the right mindset. Under stress, you don’t rise to your expectations, you sink to the level of your training.
Bring your hunting rifle, training rifle, ammo, shooting matt, front and rear rest, a notepad (I forgot mine), a good attitude, and anything else you are told to bring. Be self reliant.
I thought really hard about switching to my Rokstok and not using the sporter stock on my trainer because the Rokstok is so clearly superior. But one of the instructors, a very large and wise man, pointed out that this was the wrong mindset. It was better to overcome the gear deficiency and get good with it - a la "one mind, any weapon" - than to simply go for the superior gear. That was excellent advice for the course. I'm still going to sell rifles to buy more Rokstoks in the future.
All the rifles I brought had issues. If this had been a real hunt, at least two weren’t really safe due to modified triggers [made by previous owners] and the other two had issues due to my poor reloading process. This is stuff that you might not learn until you really operate them under stress in field conditions.
I have used one of those rifles for 32 years. It’s killed hundreds of animals. It’s been through multiple barrels in its life. I liked the “light trigger” and always used it carefully, but didn’t realize it was masking poor technique. That rifle has been to three different “gunsmiths” in the last two years, but none of them said anything about the trigger. The look on Mike’s face when he saw it was enough to make me put it back into the case… but I decided to see if it was drop safe from a one-foot drop. It wasn’t. Maybe future classes will find pieces of the butt plate?
My Tikka T3 trainer had an aftermarket trigger spring on it when I got it. I bought a replacement spring for it, but didn’t put it in before coming. The crew showed me how to replace it and got it good and tight. Don’t use aftermarket trigger springs on Tikkas. The OEM triggers are great (and safe).
My trigger squeeze is way better now than it was when I started the course. I am safer and more effective in that regard.
I popped three primers in forty shots using my reloads in my Tikka .243. There were no other pressure signs at all. This was not a particularly hot load, but I was kissing the lands. The ammo was also hot from being in the sun. I should have checked those loads out on a hot day. Once I noticed that with the .243, I decided not to mess with the 6.5 CM I brought as a backup rifle since it was also kissing the lands. The .243 ammo was still accurate, it still fed reliably on the initial shot, but clearing an ejected primer out could have cost me a follow-up shot at a minimum and cannot be regarded as a symptom of safe reloading practices in any regard.
I have argued in the past about needing to carry in condition 1. I have been wrong about this my entire hunting life. I just wasn’t good enough at handling my rifle to understand that with enough skill, I can carry in a safer condition.
My bolt manipulation is way, way better now. I am fast enough now to carry in a safer condition and shoot faster than I could before.
Shooting is a perishable skill. I still suck at shooting, but I suck a lot less than I did when I started the course. It’s going to take a lot of self-discipline and effort to not slide back into old habits. But I am excited about that…
Quick Drop works.
Shooting sticks work.
Rokstoks work.
Tikkas work. I can’t even describe how fun it is sitting there with an assault bag full of .223, in the dust and sun, just shooting ammo by the handful. I fired about 1000 rounds of ADI 69-grain ammo. Not one malfunction. At one point, we dripped a little oil on the bolt because it was getting stiff and dry. The rifle just kept shooting. It was like having a belt-fed weapon.
SWFA’s work.
The Remnami (Remington Tsunami) is a thing.
I saw a ZeroTech S2H scope mounted on a rifle get thrown so hard that it snapped the wooden stock like a matchstick. They mounted the rifle in a new stock and it shot to within .1 mil of the original POI.
I personally didn’t get any trigger time with the ZeroTech S2H scope, but others did. I was doing other things and I didn’t want to fight someone for a chance to shoot it. Everyone who used it had a “you’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands” look on his face. Watch out for mild-mannered Canadian goat hunters and Coasties. I did get to handle it some and I am super excited to receive it.
I’ve argued with a lot of folks this past couple of years on here. I won’t say that everyone else was right about everything, but certain people have been right about everything.
A hearty thank you to my fellow classmates and instructors. It was a literal and figurative blast. Safe trails and happy hunting!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
