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I was recently invited to attend the MFS judgemental shooting course on August 20th. The owner, Steve Hathaway, offered me a free slot as a thank you for replacing a couple of Glock firing pins (his simulators are hard on the pins), so consider than when evaluating my review 
The location and facilities:
MFS is located in an office building in Framingham in what would generally considered Class B (bordering on Class C) office space housing various business such as a driving school and a small law office. That doesn't sound impressive, but when you consider that most gun club classrooms would be "Class D" at best (if there was a class D), it's pretty good. The classroom is a single room with plenty of space for at least a dozen students in a lecture only class, plus an open area to set up their simulator. The place was clean and the A/C worked - what else can one really ask for?
The simulator
The simulator projects scenarios on the wall, and the participant uses a Glock outfitted with a non-visible laser and pneumatic system to power the slide. This works fairly well, although noise and recoil are below that of real ammo and you don't get that nice burnt gunpowder smell. The subjects react when shot, and the instructor can playback the scenario showing exactly where and when each virtual round went. If you are tall (6'), stand a foot or two to the left of center - the system will work just as well as when you stand in the center of the screen but you won't see your shadow in the projection.
The scenarios
The scenarios are pretty good, and present interesting challenges - but you can obviously only run through a scenario once since the surprise factor is what makes it work. The system is marketed primarily to LE agencies, so the most of the scenarios are oriented towards police situations. A few of the "off duty" scenario simulated situations with a more civilian flavor. The weakness of some of the simulations is that one is always in "engage" mode, and you'll find yourself in simulated situations you would have headed away from, rather than towards.
The system provides some very interesting learning opportunities. No one in the class put in an error-free performance, and everyone learned something.
The library of scenarios is large enough that everyone was able to watch all attendees shoot their scenarios, but no scenario was repeated - so everyone got the surprise factor.
The instructor
I categories shooting school instructors into three categories:
MFS Scenarios
Steve mentioned that they will probably be filming their own additions to the simulator library. This will be a definite enhancement, as it will enable him to offer scenarios that are more in tune with the type of situation non-police could encounter. I just hope I get an invite to be an character in some of these once he starts filming.
The location and facilities:
MFS is located in an office building in Framingham in what would generally considered Class B (bordering on Class C) office space housing various business such as a driving school and a small law office. That doesn't sound impressive, but when you consider that most gun club classrooms would be "Class D" at best (if there was a class D), it's pretty good. The classroom is a single room with plenty of space for at least a dozen students in a lecture only class, plus an open area to set up their simulator. The place was clean and the A/C worked - what else can one really ask for?
The simulator
The simulator projects scenarios on the wall, and the participant uses a Glock outfitted with a non-visible laser and pneumatic system to power the slide. This works fairly well, although noise and recoil are below that of real ammo and you don't get that nice burnt gunpowder smell. The subjects react when shot, and the instructor can playback the scenario showing exactly where and when each virtual round went. If you are tall (6'), stand a foot or two to the left of center - the system will work just as well as when you stand in the center of the screen but you won't see your shadow in the projection.
The scenarios
The scenarios are pretty good, and present interesting challenges - but you can obviously only run through a scenario once since the surprise factor is what makes it work. The system is marketed primarily to LE agencies, so the most of the scenarios are oriented towards police situations. A few of the "off duty" scenario simulated situations with a more civilian flavor. The weakness of some of the simulations is that one is always in "engage" mode, and you'll find yourself in simulated situations you would have headed away from, rather than towards.
The system provides some very interesting learning opportunities. No one in the class put in an error-free performance, and everyone learned something.
The library of scenarios is large enough that everyone was able to watch all attendees shoot their scenarios, but no scenario was repeated - so everyone got the surprise factor.
The instructor
I categories shooting school instructors into three categories:
- Experienced operators, also known as grizzled veterans of the mean streets. These folks have, at minimum, been paid to carry a gun in either a police or military context.
- Pseudo-operators: People who present the persona of a tactical operator, are vague about their background and imply they are some sort of operator, but when you press find out they have no real-world tactical experience. Even so, some of these people are excellent instructors and have much to offer provided you don't require "war stories" as part of the classroom experience.
- Non-operators who do not make any effort to present the image of a been there, done that combat/swat operator.
MFS Scenarios
Steve mentioned that they will probably be filming their own additions to the simulator library. This will be a definite enhancement, as it will enable him to offer scenarios that are more in tune with the type of situation non-police could encounter. I just hope I get an invite to be an character in some of these once he starts filming.
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