01/30-02/01 Defensive Pistol Skills--Crestview/Florala
Instructor: Randy Harris
Location: The Cow pasture(by the hay bales)
Weather: Cold and windy, but dry
First things first, the big lessons learned
1. Shooting is easy(most of us managed hits at 50 yards, and all of us at 25, and consistently managed hits at social distances)
2. Gunfighting is fighting(more on this later)
Some of my background, I'm career Airforce Enlisted(comm weenie) 12 years now. Been actively shooting and training for about a year now, and discovered WT while getting my CWP for Texas at a small range in Bradshaw just outside of Abilene. The instructor mentioned WT and Gabe and recommended I look into additional training opportunities, don't ask how I got from Tejas to Florida to South Carolina and then back to Crestview :).
Saturday morning we assembled at the range by way of Crackerbarrel Crestview. 14 all told, including 2 married couples. We started off with quite a bit on the fighting part. Situational awareness, conflict avoidance, conflict resolution, and some basic hands free tactics to get some distance, or positional advantage in order to protect the draw.
After several hours of pre and post fight preparation we got into the fight time, starting with Grip and press(remember shooting is easy). IIRC tickling a baby was the gesture we practiced.
Finally we grabbed our pistols and ensured they were unloaded
Ah but first the safety brief,
1. ALL guns are always loaded.
2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger
3. Until you are sure of your target and what is behind it
4. Never point your weapon at anything you are not prepared to destroy or kill
mostly Glocks, but there was also an XD and a pair of DA/SA Autos. We started slowly, working on grip, draw and press, with unloaded pistols and magwells empty.
Once Randy was confident of our grip draw and press we split in half and alternated doing 1 and 2 shot drills paying careful attention to grip and press with Randy making sure to correct and identify issues bringing our shots off target.
Quick break for lunch and we picked up with more drills. still only working on the round targets(we did battle with a bay city roller gone bad on day 2). Did some after action troubleshooting, review, homework and questions as the sun set.
Homework, dry work. dime on the FS for 10-15 minutes and some baby tickling practice.
Sunday morning we picked up where we left off, we did some multi shot drills, including some head work.
We moved on to a plate and some distance work, starting at 7 yards and working out to 50 and then back in. Over half the shooters managed 1st round hits at 25, and everyone hit at 25 on the way out. Nearly everyone managed to hit at 50 yards, and Everyone scored first round at 25, emphasizing that if we pay attention to technique and use appropriate speed, that once again, shooting is easy.
Then we took a shooting break for some discussion of movement, including a review of some of the "fight" physics that we had covered the first day. This being a basic class, Randy made it clear that we would not be doing any moving while shooting or vice versa. There was more Q&A time,more review, and a break for lunch.
After lunch we did some line dancing with guns. Working to get quicker with the grip, draw and press, but not at the cost of accuracy.
We finished up looking briefly at multiple attacker scenarios including one where we simulated killing my wife(hopefully she'll post with some details), using a shooting and a nonshooting exercise.
The day ended with critique, more Q&A and a quick query as to what classes we wanted Randy to bring next time he comes down..
Last edited by stanmann; 02-06-2009 at 10:01 AM.
Vegetarians eat Vegetables, Humanitarians frighten me.
You ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning.--Francisco d'Anconia--Ayn Rand
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