JimConway
Instructor
This review way posted at defensivecarry.com
Gunsite Defensive Pistol Westford Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gunsite offsite Defensive Pistol 150
Westford MA July 20-22
Instuctor Name: Ken Tuttle (great guy)
Well here is my training experience below. Some of this was written at the time, some of it after the course. I hope it make some sense, I am sure no writer.
Day 1
Well I wait for weeks and weeks for this day with great anticipation, and wouldn’t you know it the day comes and I get a stomach bug, good ol’ Murphy’s Law at work. Well thankfully a bit of Immodium took care of Murphy.
I live about 1.5 hours from class and decided to drive each day and save some money on hotel, in hind site it perhaps would have been better not to drive each day as I was thoroughly tired each day and could have used the extra rest.
The class started with a lot of legal stuff to sign regarding injuries, lawsuits, etc. A bonus upon arrival was getting the book “Modern technique of the pistol” Cool.
All of the classmates are wonderful people, great fun so far.
A great day had a lot of fun. My primary difficulties were with keeping from straightening my elbows and not being relaxed, I was much too tense. I think I have overcome the elbow bending thing but still am a bit tense.
Another big problem I seem to be having is that darn grip safety. On several occasions I would draw and discover when I went to fire that I had not properly depressed the grip safety.
Whew are my hands sore, have a sore on my right thumb, near the web. Ordered some shooting gloves but they didn't arrive in time. Picked of some fingerless weight training gloves at target will see if they work out. Also picked plenty of band-aid, will be prepared this time.
The day started out with a short presentation on safety and such, then out to the range.
The first thing was to get our weaver stance and grip correct and proper use of the trigger, stressing the importance of follow thru and to only let the trigger out until it resets. I must say though I could only hear that trigger click with the earmuffs turned up to max and certainly couldn’t feels it. Still I think I got it right after some practice.
We went thru several drills designed to slowly develop our draw and fire stroke. Following that we built up to draw and fire 2 shots, sight fire sight fire sight and the other technique of sight and fire fire quickly. Despite the arm position and shoulder tension I did remarkably good, I was pleasantly surprised. Previous trips to the range and I was all over the target and couldn’t hit anything, this time was much different.
The really fun part was we had a couple of competitions, we would pair up and both shoot at a steel target, first one on target wins. It was great little fun competition to break up the drills.
Also practiced speed reloads, which I found surprisingly easy to master.
I still have a ways to got but have improved greatly in just one day, still need to work out that grip safety problem.
Day 2
---------
Well I am feeling much better today but very sore from all the shooting yesterday, about 250 rounds. The glove is working out ok and we have great weather. Still problems with that grip safety. Started out with some warm up drills of some stuff we learned yesterday.
We moved onto failure clearing drills, types 1, 2 and 3. I found types 1 and 2 very easy to take care of but types 3 (1 In chamber 1 trying to feed at same time) was very difficult. My main problem was the step that required locking back the slide, I found this difficult to do quickly.
Moved onto a new drill, 2 shots center of mass 1 shot to head. I was pretty bad at first but progressively got better, didn’t exactly hit the X but not too far off.
Next was Kneeling, 3 types. Down on 1 knee, one knee braced and double kneeling. Didn’t much care for the 1 knee but loved the double kneeling. It was very quick to get into and very stable. Several students found it difficult though or maybe just didn’t like it, not sure which.
Next we went though some drills where we are not facing the target and have too make some movements. Target is to our left or our right and we have to turn quickly with minimal movement of the feet so always have a stable platform and end up in weaver facing the target. It took a little practice but not too hard. Also turned 180 which was quick and easy and to hard to master. This would prove to be useful later in a very fun drill.
Next was a little competition. 2 shooters. 1 to large metal target, speed reload, 1 to small metal target. Very fun.
Day 3
-------
Couldn’t start shooting till after 1pm as today was Sunday, must be some kind of local rule. So we had some classroom time. We had some presentations on ballistics, a Jeff Cooper video on mindset, house clearing and use of lights. Didn’t really take notes here so not much to say. As far as house clearing he talked about being quiet, walking heel to toe (I’ve always done this, doesn’t everyone??), turn knob to close doors, be extremely careful of reflective surfaces, slicing the pie, and other things..
He mentioned something about the Blackhawk Gladius light that has a strobe blue light that is supposed to induce nausea?
After this and some lunch it was back to the range for my all time favorite drill, The El Presidente.
In this drill there are three targets in this case about 6 feet apart. The shooter starts facing directly away from the targets. At the sound of the buzzer turn around draw and fire two shots center mass into each target then do a speed reload and again two shots each target. Total possible points for hits on target is 60.
The drill is timed, Par time is 10 seconds, each second over 10 is a deduction of 5 points.
My first time with the drill 14 seconds for a final score of 23 pts, second time was 11 seconds with a score of 35 pts.
Next was more movement and shoot drills. This time was move toward the target at a 45 degree angle and place two shots center of mass.
Bleeping grip safety really starting to annoy me at this point. Took off the glove which helped a tad, but not much.
Third and final El Presidente Drill I did in par time 10 seconds for a score of 36 pts. If I recall the instructor said any score above 40 was impressive. So considering I came so close I felt very good about my performance, just need to improve my accuracy a tad. Best score of the students was 48 pts in 9 seconds.
Final drill was shooting from retention. Which basically is draw the gun keep it next to your body above the holster but forward a tad and fire from there. The other arm you place the elbow up high on your target. I must say this one scared me at first shooting the gun so close to me. It really was quite easy though and the instructor did a great job of carefully walking us through it.
Well that is about it, there was no grading in this course as there is in the 250 course at gunsite. However the instructor did score us few times and I did pretty good. At the end of the course I got a certificate of completion. The instructor told us he was going to teach us as much of the 250 material as he could manage in the limited 3 day period. Also I am told that this course qualifies me to take more advanced course without 250, but I think I would rather take 250 anyway and get a chance to get a real grade and partake of the simulators.
All in all I had I great time and am looking forward to additional training in the future. As far as the gun I am thinking new grips (no checkering) and am considering replacing the grip safety. The Kimber Custom shop has a service where they will install an Ed Brown Grip safety which should correct the problems I was having.
Kirk
Gunsite Defensive Pistol Westford Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gunsite offsite Defensive Pistol 150
Westford MA July 20-22
Instuctor Name: Ken Tuttle (great guy)
Well here is my training experience below. Some of this was written at the time, some of it after the course. I hope it make some sense, I am sure no writer.
Day 1
Well I wait for weeks and weeks for this day with great anticipation, and wouldn’t you know it the day comes and I get a stomach bug, good ol’ Murphy’s Law at work. Well thankfully a bit of Immodium took care of Murphy.
I live about 1.5 hours from class and decided to drive each day and save some money on hotel, in hind site it perhaps would have been better not to drive each day as I was thoroughly tired each day and could have used the extra rest.
The class started with a lot of legal stuff to sign regarding injuries, lawsuits, etc. A bonus upon arrival was getting the book “Modern technique of the pistol” Cool.
All of the classmates are wonderful people, great fun so far.
A great day had a lot of fun. My primary difficulties were with keeping from straightening my elbows and not being relaxed, I was much too tense. I think I have overcome the elbow bending thing but still am a bit tense.
Another big problem I seem to be having is that darn grip safety. On several occasions I would draw and discover when I went to fire that I had not properly depressed the grip safety.
Whew are my hands sore, have a sore on my right thumb, near the web. Ordered some shooting gloves but they didn't arrive in time. Picked of some fingerless weight training gloves at target will see if they work out. Also picked plenty of band-aid, will be prepared this time.
The day started out with a short presentation on safety and such, then out to the range.
The first thing was to get our weaver stance and grip correct and proper use of the trigger, stressing the importance of follow thru and to only let the trigger out until it resets. I must say though I could only hear that trigger click with the earmuffs turned up to max and certainly couldn’t feels it. Still I think I got it right after some practice.
We went thru several drills designed to slowly develop our draw and fire stroke. Following that we built up to draw and fire 2 shots, sight fire sight fire sight and the other technique of sight and fire fire quickly. Despite the arm position and shoulder tension I did remarkably good, I was pleasantly surprised. Previous trips to the range and I was all over the target and couldn’t hit anything, this time was much different.
The really fun part was we had a couple of competitions, we would pair up and both shoot at a steel target, first one on target wins. It was great little fun competition to break up the drills.
Also practiced speed reloads, which I found surprisingly easy to master.
I still have a ways to got but have improved greatly in just one day, still need to work out that grip safety problem.
Day 2
---------
Well I am feeling much better today but very sore from all the shooting yesterday, about 250 rounds. The glove is working out ok and we have great weather. Still problems with that grip safety. Started out with some warm up drills of some stuff we learned yesterday.
We moved onto failure clearing drills, types 1, 2 and 3. I found types 1 and 2 very easy to take care of but types 3 (1 In chamber 1 trying to feed at same time) was very difficult. My main problem was the step that required locking back the slide, I found this difficult to do quickly.
Moved onto a new drill, 2 shots center of mass 1 shot to head. I was pretty bad at first but progressively got better, didn’t exactly hit the X but not too far off.
Next was Kneeling, 3 types. Down on 1 knee, one knee braced and double kneeling. Didn’t much care for the 1 knee but loved the double kneeling. It was very quick to get into and very stable. Several students found it difficult though or maybe just didn’t like it, not sure which.
Next we went though some drills where we are not facing the target and have too make some movements. Target is to our left or our right and we have to turn quickly with minimal movement of the feet so always have a stable platform and end up in weaver facing the target. It took a little practice but not too hard. Also turned 180 which was quick and easy and to hard to master. This would prove to be useful later in a very fun drill.
Next was a little competition. 2 shooters. 1 to large metal target, speed reload, 1 to small metal target. Very fun.
Day 3
-------
Couldn’t start shooting till after 1pm as today was Sunday, must be some kind of local rule. So we had some classroom time. We had some presentations on ballistics, a Jeff Cooper video on mindset, house clearing and use of lights. Didn’t really take notes here so not much to say. As far as house clearing he talked about being quiet, walking heel to toe (I’ve always done this, doesn’t everyone??), turn knob to close doors, be extremely careful of reflective surfaces, slicing the pie, and other things..
He mentioned something about the Blackhawk Gladius light that has a strobe blue light that is supposed to induce nausea?
After this and some lunch it was back to the range for my all time favorite drill, The El Presidente.
In this drill there are three targets in this case about 6 feet apart. The shooter starts facing directly away from the targets. At the sound of the buzzer turn around draw and fire two shots center mass into each target then do a speed reload and again two shots each target. Total possible points for hits on target is 60.
The drill is timed, Par time is 10 seconds, each second over 10 is a deduction of 5 points.
My first time with the drill 14 seconds for a final score of 23 pts, second time was 11 seconds with a score of 35 pts.
Next was more movement and shoot drills. This time was move toward the target at a 45 degree angle and place two shots center of mass.
Bleeping grip safety really starting to annoy me at this point. Took off the glove which helped a tad, but not much.
Third and final El Presidente Drill I did in par time 10 seconds for a score of 36 pts. If I recall the instructor said any score above 40 was impressive. So considering I came so close I felt very good about my performance, just need to improve my accuracy a tad. Best score of the students was 48 pts in 9 seconds.
Final drill was shooting from retention. Which basically is draw the gun keep it next to your body above the holster but forward a tad and fire from there. The other arm you place the elbow up high on your target. I must say this one scared me at first shooting the gun so close to me. It really was quite easy though and the instructor did a great job of carefully walking us through it.
Well that is about it, there was no grading in this course as there is in the 250 course at gunsite. However the instructor did score us few times and I did pretty good. At the end of the course I got a certificate of completion. The instructor told us he was going to teach us as much of the 250 material as he could manage in the limited 3 day period. Also I am told that this course qualifies me to take more advanced course without 250, but I think I would rather take 250 anyway and get a chance to get a real grade and partake of the simulators.
All in all I had I great time and am looking forward to additional training in the future. As far as the gun I am thinking new grips (no checkering) and am considering replacing the grip safety. The Kimber Custom shop has a service where they will install an Ed Brown Grip safety which should correct the problems I was having.
Kirk
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