In the realm of tactical training there are a few hallowed names such as Jeff Cooper and Massad Ayoob; but with the advent of the Global War on Terrorism a slew of new names have come on the tactical training market including Travis Haley, Jason Falla, and Chris Costa.
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| Costa on the Range. |
Chris Costa, affectionately called the beard, is a 12 year coast guard law enforcement veteran who conducted counter-drug operations and special missions in Europe, the
Middle East, and South America. With his operational experience the Coast Guard brought him on-board to instruct with their International
Training Division (ITD) then later on at the Maritime Law Enforcement Academy.
Upon leaving the Coast Guard he spent the next seven years with applied maritime technologies preforming vulnerability assessments on locations Homeland Security deemed vital to the infrastructure of the United States. He then founded Magpul dynamics and his status in the tactical training world took off with the release of The Art of the Tactical carbine DVD, co starring Travis Haley. This DVD went on to be the best selling Tactical shooting DVD to date, and i have to admit it is pretty damn good. You broke's out there can find it free on youtube right now.
Costa left Magpul to start "Costa Ludus", his own consulting and training firm. His firm runs many different weapons manipulation courses and other specific military and law enforcement classes such as maritime interdiction and active shooter. The word on the streets is that the classes are excellent, fairly priced (665.00 each), and that he is a great instructor. Weapons manufacturers and custom shops seem to think just as highly of him as now he has not one, not two, but three completely separate weapon systems that have the Costa touch applied to them; Not to mention that this asshat has his own action figure. Do i sound jealous? who me? Your god damn right i do. This guy left the coast guard right after 9/11 to join the private sector and has not deployed once to help fight the GWOT. That only matters to the select few of us though because to the many his word is God, one man went so far as wanting to know what kind of socks Chris had on while filming Magpuls DVD so that he could be just as high speed as Costa. Socks? how high speed do you need to be with socks? two words Smart Wool.
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| New design in drop leg platforms....Why? |
Costa Ludus has just recently come out with a new drop leg ammo platform that is capable of fitting two M4 mags and three pistol mags. There have been many similar rigs on the market but few can touch the $140.00 price tag Costa put on his; and oh yeah the first 100 of these sold out in less than 1
hour. This must of been designed for the Tactical Timmy's in mind because no one uses these in actual combat situations, who in the hell wants more shit bouncing around on your legs when you are running. He states that it can also be used for range practice ??????? Hello mr. tactical training guru how about you train like you fight! If i am pulling a mag from your roofing shingle mounted to my leg while on the range then muscle memory is going to dictate that i will reach for it there when i am in combat; WHEN I WONT BE WEARING IT!
I gotta give it to the guy, he is a self promoting machine; especially when you consider he has never been on the two way gun range before nor has he been on any military, law enforcement, or PMC team since 9/11. I would love to take a class from him though as I am sure I would learn a few things and supposedly hes funny as hell but i just have a really hard time thinking this guy is a good as everyone else does because in essence what he teaches are his own unproven theories and hypothesis about what works best in a gun fight; but how in the hell would he know?
There are men and women out there who have multiple GWOT deployments under their belt; who come back to the states and teach a class or two passing on the knowledge of what worked for them and what didn't. You may not ever see their faces on a DVD or read about them in a gun mag but you can spot them on a range....Dirty concealment vest, well worn and stained 5.11 style pants, only pouches they will have will be for mags, no grenade or flashlight or dildo pouches anywhere around them, and no Drop leg platforms unless it is a holster.
I seem to be one of the few people who care about this as Costa Ludas sales records speaks for themselves. After he released his Nighthawk 1911 pistol, they were sold out in 5 minutes
and before that Costa bought out 125 custom LaRue OBR's that sold out in less
than 24 hours, at a cost of $2800 a piece. Jesus I am in the wrong business.
Shot Over
-Jak
BTW: Happy BDAY to the man from the emerald isle running the school house...see you in a few months brother!
More Lovin' from the Dutch Oven: "Blame can be delegated as easily as responsibility" Spoken like a true sailor DR.
