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Second Pistol Class
Down Range Firearms - Londonderry Fish & Game - October 2013
Combat Focus Shooting – 2 days
Round Count: 1000
I attended this course with 1 friends, I shot a 1911/Sig226 in 9MM, my friend shot a Glock 17.
Review:
This class was held outside on a Saturday-Sunday and both days were sunny, warm and beautiful outside. I started this class with a Smith & Wesson 1911 Performance Center and half way through the first day, switched to my Sig Sauer P226 in 9mm. We started this class with 3 instructors and approximately 10 students. We started this course by going over the safety rules, how to use the medic pack, how to call for help and standard commands that would be used throughout the course. We started at approx 5 feet from the target and performed various test to see where the various students were at skill wise. Our first real test was to draw and fire ~3 rounds center mask, this was a “balance of speed and precision” drill that taught something I had never heard before: any hit the very generous center mask hit box, is a good hit. Putting multiple bullets through the same whole is a BAD thing and more holes = more blood loss, and most people die from blood loss. We were taught to shoot faster as our groupings were too close together and shoot slower ONLY when we were not able to hit inside of the hit box. We also had a medium sized A and B box in the bottom left and right of the target that we also used to learn our balanced of speed and precision. After learning to shoot faster/slower and “only hits count” we then moved into shooting 6 small circles about three times the size of a quarter. There were 3 down the left side and 3 down the right. We started out by shooting the 1st circle and we were only allowed to proceed after a successfully hit until we got to the 6th circle. After two repetitions of this we then only got 6 bullets to hit 6 targets, we were of course competing against other members of the class so we shot as fast as we could guarantee hits. These drills were awesome and I did not miss the 6 small circles not once through 4 sets of the drill. The instructor was quick to let me know that meant 1: I was shooting too slow and 2: I wasn’t going to get anything out of the class if I didn’t push myself more until I learned my limits. In truth, I was shooting very quickly compared to most of the students but slower than 1-2 others. I of course did not want to miss or have people look at my target and judge me, this of course is not the correct mentality in a training course, I should only be competing against myself. By the end of the first day we had learned what happens to the body when something bad happens and how we can prepare to react to such events. We learned to turn, identify the target and then draw and fire on the target(s). We also learned its great to be fast out of the holster but not back into the holster. That means, we learned to turn, identify, draw and fire on target(s), go to high compressed ready and then assess – looking left-right-behind etc. Only once we were sure that all threats were dealt with, did we slowly return to our holster. We learned that its important to communicate after dealing with threats to ensure another lawful and responsible citizen does not confuse us for a “bad guy”. We also performed wind sprint drills followed up by the instructor calling out random targets to engage. We would have to turn, acquire and then engage 1 of 8 random targets all while out of breathe. This was awesome because its much harder to shoot when you do not have time to prepare and when you are out of breathe and with adrenaline surging their your veins. We also learned how to engage a target that is less than 2 feet in front of you and coming at you with some type of weapon, basically we turned and ran as fast as we could away from the target while drawing and engaging a target directly behind us in close pursuit. This was an interesting drill because most people would probably more naturally either try to disarm the person coming at them or try to get to their weapon faster than the person could close the distance (in our example – 2 feet). However running away while drawing seems to be much safer. We had one person that accidentally drew his loaded weapon and aimed it at both instructors while they were walking back and forth in front of us talking about the next drill. This person was given a stern talking to and was informed that if it happened again he would have to leave.
Positives:
Instructors were very knowledgeable and friendly
Instructors had opinions on equipment/firearms/gear
Instructors were very clear and disciplined with safety rules
Instructors spent time with all students helping us all improve
Instructors were fun and joked around
This class had so many fun drills, I would gladly take it again
Targets in this class are awesome and provide good training
Negatives:
None
Final Rating
Course: 10/10
Instructors: 10/10
Photos:
Down Range Firearms - Londonderry Fish & Game - October 2013
Combat Focus Shooting – 2 days
Round Count: 1000
I attended this course with 1 friends, I shot a 1911/Sig226 in 9MM, my friend shot a Glock 17.
Review:
This class was held outside on a Saturday-Sunday and both days were sunny, warm and beautiful outside. I started this class with a Smith & Wesson 1911 Performance Center and half way through the first day, switched to my Sig Sauer P226 in 9mm. We started this class with 3 instructors and approximately 10 students. We started this course by going over the safety rules, how to use the medic pack, how to call for help and standard commands that would be used throughout the course. We started at approx 5 feet from the target and performed various test to see where the various students were at skill wise. Our first real test was to draw and fire ~3 rounds center mask, this was a “balance of speed and precision” drill that taught something I had never heard before: any hit the very generous center mask hit box, is a good hit. Putting multiple bullets through the same whole is a BAD thing and more holes = more blood loss, and most people die from blood loss. We were taught to shoot faster as our groupings were too close together and shoot slower ONLY when we were not able to hit inside of the hit box. We also had a medium sized A and B box in the bottom left and right of the target that we also used to learn our balanced of speed and precision. After learning to shoot faster/slower and “only hits count” we then moved into shooting 6 small circles about three times the size of a quarter. There were 3 down the left side and 3 down the right. We started out by shooting the 1st circle and we were only allowed to proceed after a successfully hit until we got to the 6th circle. After two repetitions of this we then only got 6 bullets to hit 6 targets, we were of course competing against other members of the class so we shot as fast as we could guarantee hits. These drills were awesome and I did not miss the 6 small circles not once through 4 sets of the drill. The instructor was quick to let me know that meant 1: I was shooting too slow and 2: I wasn’t going to get anything out of the class if I didn’t push myself more until I learned my limits. In truth, I was shooting very quickly compared to most of the students but slower than 1-2 others. I of course did not want to miss or have people look at my target and judge me, this of course is not the correct mentality in a training course, I should only be competing against myself. By the end of the first day we had learned what happens to the body when something bad happens and how we can prepare to react to such events. We learned to turn, identify the target and then draw and fire on the target(s). We also learned its great to be fast out of the holster but not back into the holster. That means, we learned to turn, identify, draw and fire on target(s), go to high compressed ready and then assess – looking left-right-behind etc. Only once we were sure that all threats were dealt with, did we slowly return to our holster. We learned that its important to communicate after dealing with threats to ensure another lawful and responsible citizen does not confuse us for a “bad guy”. We also performed wind sprint drills followed up by the instructor calling out random targets to engage. We would have to turn, acquire and then engage 1 of 8 random targets all while out of breathe. This was awesome because its much harder to shoot when you do not have time to prepare and when you are out of breathe and with adrenaline surging their your veins. We also learned how to engage a target that is less than 2 feet in front of you and coming at you with some type of weapon, basically we turned and ran as fast as we could away from the target while drawing and engaging a target directly behind us in close pursuit. This was an interesting drill because most people would probably more naturally either try to disarm the person coming at them or try to get to their weapon faster than the person could close the distance (in our example – 2 feet). However running away while drawing seems to be much safer. We had one person that accidentally drew his loaded weapon and aimed it at both instructors while they were walking back and forth in front of us talking about the next drill. This person was given a stern talking to and was informed that if it happened again he would have to leave.
Positives:
Instructors were very knowledgeable and friendly
Instructors had opinions on equipment/firearms/gear
Instructors were very clear and disciplined with safety rules
Instructors spent time with all students helping us all improve
Instructors were fun and joked around
This class had so many fun drills, I would gladly take it again
Targets in this class are awesome and provide good training
Negatives:
None
Final Rating
Course: 10/10
Instructors: 10/10
Photos:
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