ADVANCED EVERYDAY PISTOL, 3R OPERATIONS, INC.
NOVEMBER 2 & 3, 2019, KEENE NH
AAR
NOVEMBER 2 & 3, 2019, KEENE NH
AAR
Instructor: Brian A Sayers
Weather: Saturday: Sunny cold 25°- 45°, Sunday: mostly cloudy windy 28°- 42°
Location: Cheshire County Shooting Sports Education Foundation, Keene, NH
Class Size: 9 students Ages: 28-55. Seven men and two awesome ladies.
Round Count: 800 +/-
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This is going to be a hard review to write comprehensively. The drills and concepts we learned were advanced and without a competent instructor explaining them correctly it would be hard to understand the context in which these drills were done safety. I will say with 100% truth; at no time did I feel unsafe or any one of the four safety rules were broken. That being said, this was an advanced pistol fighting class and to take this class you need to have a basic proficiency of safe pistol manipulation. We spent less than fifteen minutes first thing on the line going over the basics of drawing, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger reset, proper follow-through, and the WYATT Protocol. You were expected to have these skills and were comfortable with safety drawing your pistol, shooting, reloading, scanning, and reholstering your pistol. This review will a very small sample of select drills and skills we learned in the two-day class. If you are interested in taking the class your experience will be MUCH larger than what you read here.
We were encouraged to bring a backup gun if we wore one (you should wear a second edc gun for many reasons) The weather was cold and I was wearing lots of layers. I normally carry a BUG on my ankle, but with a base layer, lined pants, and winter hiking boots with taller ankle portion I was not able to put an ankle holster on. I ran my BUG: SIG 365 IWB at 4:00, and my primary EDC S&W M&P2.0 appendix as I normally do. This presented some issues throughout the class, as I normally don’t run two guns IWB. I moved from 4:00 to appendix about 2 ½ years ago after carrying at the 3:30-4:00 for over twenty years. Under a little amount of stress and the feeling of having an IWB at 4:00, I would clear my cover garments on my side rather than in front of my primary gun in the appendix location. As it is just getting cold in the North East and I am out of practice with cold-weather carry I forgot the pocket holster that I normally would carry my BUG located in my winter coat pocket. LESSON LEARNED.
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We started off the class with an instructor and student intros: Brian told the class his professional and training background and we told each other who we were, our previous training and what we wanted to learn from this class. For me, it was bringing my pistol fighting skills to a higher competency level. I have taken many pistol classes and was ready to expand my pistol skillset to advanced concepts. I thought I had some idea what that meant before the class, but I had no concept of the things I did not know. Writing this after the class I realized what I thought we would learn in the class we did all of that before lunch on day one. The class was SO MUCH MORE than I could have ever imagined. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. As this was the advanced class there was very little information out on the internet on what to expect.
We had our safety and medical briefing. Brian goes over the same medical plan in ALL of his classes. We identified the students with medical training, setup protocols in case we had a training accident. Who was the primary caregiver, backup caregiver, and backup backup caregiver in case the primary was injured. The truck was backed up in the range, keys in the ignition, the closest hospital was programmed into the GPS, who was going to drive, who was going to make the call and what to say to emergency services. Again we went over the safety rules to ensure we would not have a training accident.
Brain made it very clear that each and every drill was optional if you chose not to participate in the drill for any reason it was cool. He made it VERY CLEAR if anyone in the class even made an eye-roll or a comment about someone not participating in a particular drill you were out of the class immediately! NO SECOND CHANCES... You are gone and not welcomed back. That was a little nerve-rattling, but as I write this after taking the class and doing all of the drills, NOT ONCE DID I FEEL UNSAFE OR ANY OF THE FOUR SAFETY RULE VOILTAED. Everyone did all of the drills or the drills were modified to get the skills if you were unable to get your body in a particular position. In my opinion, the most dangerous part of the class was reholstering the gun while making sure all of our layers of clothing were cleared out the way and we had a free and clear holster. We did that probably a hundred times plus in the two days. Brian repeatedly reiterated (and demonstrated how to) reholster as slowly as you needed to in order to do it properly.
We did a lot of one hand off-hand (weaker of the two hands) shooting, one-handed drawing and malfunction drills were practiced both days. Those were tough. Getting a double feed removed when your dominant hand is out of action while you are moving is not an easy skill to master. Trying to rack the slide off your belt through the layers was tough to get a 90-degree angle. You learned real fast if your holster placement and extra mags can be reached by your off-hand. Running appendix was a gift for these draws, however, I normally keep my extra mags in my pockets which can be an issue when you only have one hand you are trying to reload while on the move. I had some excellent learning moments.
We shot from positions on the ground that we may find ourselves in. Weird uncomfortable positions shooting with your dumb hand (non-dominate) was challenging and sometimes frustrating. I found out that my left hand is retarded, What comes naturally with both hands or just my right hand, I really had to methodically think about each step when doing things with just my left hand. It’s was interesting that I had no issue moving when preforming reloads with only my right hand, but performing reloads with only my left hand my feet didn’t seem to work.
We shot precision drills and refined our sight picture and trigger presses hitting small targets over and over while concentrating on our front sight. I found if I shot too slow my shots were off if I shot too fast my shots were off… I was the Goldilocks shooter of this drill. We did some drills where we really needed to pay attention to what was going on and really make sure our shots were hitting exactly where they needed to be. Some drills shot placement matters more than others. Brian reiterates the importance of a survival level of proficiency.
As this class was in November the days are getting shorter, the sun was down by 5:15ish, we cleaned up debriefed and went home for ibuprofen, hot shower, dinner and rest. Back on the range at 8:00 am for day two.
Day two started off with the medical briefing, safety briefing and our plan if someone got hurt. We warmed up with non-dominate handed malfunction drills. We learned different ways to solve the problem than we had learned on day one. It was just as difficult and frustrating that my left hand is dumb as rocks.
We did a ton of drills on day two, we learned how to defend a rear-naked choke, tips on how to get our bearings straight if we got clocked and our “bell rung”. How to shield ourselves from distractions when in close proximity to the evil f***er. How to protect and defend ourselves from being choked out from behind. We shot from the ground simulating ground fighting multiple bad guys.
We shot on the move at multiple targets while making sure we did not point our gun at anyone that did not need to be shot. (RULE NO.1) We learned how to get our gun out of our holster from kneeling or sitting while not crossing our own body (RULE NO.2) Each drill always ended with the WYATT PROTOCOL (F.A.S.T.) All really, really good stuff. I learned so many new things that I did not even know I did not know. Impressive day. There were just too many drills to go into detail in this review!
The sunset an hour earlier on day two due to Day Lights Savings Time ending so we cleaned up, debriefed, talked about something we learned, as always Brian offered a complete refund of your class tuition if you felt you did not get your monies worth of information and skill from the class. No student asked for their money back! We all felt we got WAY more from Brain than we paid him for. Certificates and hugs were given, and we were done. I was sad the class was over.
This was an amazing class, so many things I would like to say in this review but then I would rob you of the experience. If you want to bring your pistol fighting skills up this would be a great class to take.
Brian is a great instructor. He is patient, clear and uses small everyday words to explain what he wants. He tells you a few times what he wants and how he wants it done, he then shows you how he wants it done and tells you again what he wants… I like that.
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3R OPERATIONS INC.
Instructor Brian A. Sayers
Phone: (518) 929-4818
Email: [email protected]
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MY BULLETS RECOVERED AFTER A PARTICULAR DRILL
