Navy SEAL handgun training

[JimConway]

Over the holidays I was asked to work with a young Navy Seal to improve his handgun skills which I did
The SEAL, who I will call "Bill", is an impressive young man. He is very squared away. If I had a son, I could only hope that he was as good a nam. In case you have not got my point yet, I was and am impressed.
In the course of working with him we discussed how the SEALs are now being taught to use handguns. From what I learned, I have to conclude that their training is very good and up to date.
A lot of his questions were about why they were taught to do certain things.
I think that his question is valid and we at Neshooters will include more explanations of the why and where of each technique that we teach. BTW, some of the classes that I have attended clearly covered the how of a technique, but rarely the why or where.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Bill and to say that I enjoyed it would be a gigantic understatement

 

[Darkwood Arms]

Thanks for sharing that experience. Can you elaborate on how the SEAL's are being taught to use their handguns now?

 

[JimConway]

There is a lot that I do not want to or should not share
With that said, there are some things that I will comment on.
They are trained to keep their bodies square to the target and seem like
the isosceles position. Their method gripping the handgun is not mandated.
It was said on a couple of occasions that if they get the hits no one will
say much about how they do it.

 

[oneton]

do you know this man personally? team members get aLOT of weapons training with there team, i dont think that a member of a team would find the need to go through a course out side of the training that he has done with his own team.

this young seal might have fed you a line of B.S. for what ever reason. i hope im wrong but ive seen it before. regular joes telling war stories to sound like there somebody looking for more attention then they deserve.
sorry if you do know this man personally and know his background and im wrong. and the man has told you the truth.


again if you know the mans story is a 100% then disregard my last

 

[cricco]

do you know this man personally? team members get aLOT of weapons training with there team, i dont think that a member of a team would find the need to go through a course out side of the training that he has done with his own team.

this young seal might have fed you a line of B.S. for what ever reason. i hope im wrong but ive seen it before. regular joes telling war stories to sound like there somebody looking for more attention then they deserve.
sorry if you do know this man personally and know his background and im wrong. and the man has told you the truth.


again if you know the mans story is a 100% then disregard my last

I concur. I don't know the OP, but I find it difficult to believe that the world's most elite fighting men are "outsourcing" handgun training.

 

[terraformer]

I concur. I don't know the OP, but I find it difficult to believe that the world's most elite fighting men are "outsourcing" handgun training.

Or it could be the sailor was on leave and he or a family member/friend recommended he do this and talked with Jim. He may have been having trouble making the grade and sought out some outside tutoring outside the normal military training environment. If he is a new entrant he may have no time to work on his own amidst the 1000 other things they are cramming into his brain right now. The typical SEAL spends 18-24 months in training BEFORE ever joining his team and then there is another year of training interspersed with deployment and leave. These are some of the highest trained soldiers in the world and their training costs millions of dollars.

 

[oldsoldier29]

Jim, first off, congrats on getting to work with an active warrior-and getting to learn from him, as I am sure he learned from you. It was surely a memorable day at the range.
My buddy in SF used to teach advanced pistol courses for the SF facility, I think it was called SFOC, or something like that. They cycled everyone through-SF, Rangers, SEALs, Recon-anyone who was part of JSOC, and fell under SOCOM. He was just visiting over the holidays, and we are going to go shooting when he comes back after school-sometime in April. So, I get to be on the OTHER end of it.
The quality of instruction the operators receive is second to none. They have both the formal military schools, as well as numerous course available to them through their teams. I am not 100% sure how the SEAL teams appropriate their budget, but for the Special Forces guys, they can usually afford to get some guys through the "civilian" courses. And, a lot of tghe guys pay out of pocket for them too. Most of the courses are the same ones most of us here are familiar with. They are usually run by ex-mil or LEO folks, and most of them are pretty intense. For the operators, thats their lifeblood-when all hell breaks loose, you need to shoot. Investment in that job skill ensures your survival, so I would assume they put the time & training into that.

 

[M1911]

I concur. I don't know the OP, but I find it difficult to believe that the world's most elite fighting men are "outsourcing" handgun training.

Pat Rogers has been called in to train different military units.

 

[JimConway]

I know the SEAL's father and he is very real
As someone suggested, he was on leave.
All that he asked for was to be able to shoot better.
I spent three days with him
I will be doing it again, the next time he returns

 

[GSG]

And keep in mind, Navy SEAL or not, he'd need to take a Mass. specific firearms safety course if he wanted his Mass. LTC.

 

[ochmude]

I concur. I don't know the OP, but I find it difficult to believe that the world's most elite fighting men are "outsourcing" handgun training.

I know precisely jack about the specifics of SEAL training, but I find it very believable that they might outsource some of their training. The entirety of the foreign weapons familiarization training that my battalion received prior to deployment was provided by Gunsite instructors.

 

[GSG]

I know precisely jack about the specifics of SEAL training, but I find it very believable that they might outsource some of their training. The entirety of the foreign weapons familiarization training that my battalion received prior to deployment was provided by Gunsite instructors.

I've heard of families sending soldiers to these type of courses as a gift (albeit a potentially lifesaving one) pre-deployment.

 

[TheWookie]

No offense to SEAL's out there, but just because they're SEAL's doesn't mean that they're the greatest shooters. Most of them are, but most get good over time with MANY rounds at their disposal. Don't get me wrong -- They are the best operators out there, or one of the best -- but not every SEAL is the best at everything -- right out of the box. Physically speaking, they are. But, while one operator might be the "team shooter", another operator might not be at that same level.

I went to a school (actually two) with a couple of SEAL's and one SEAL shooter barely made it. SEAL teams are funded and authorized to attend some of the best shooting schools (or any training/school out there for that matter), in the world. They have no budget when it comes to training. I've seen them on the range working pistol drills, they grab full ammo cans, per man, and start shooting.

Overall, my experience working around/near/with them is that they are better then average when it comes to their marksmanship ability. However, keep in mind that they get a massive number of rounds to get there.....

 

[weekendracer]

Considering the stakes of what they do, getting additional info can never hurt. Even seeing bad techniques can teach you what NOT to do.

I've studied martial arts since I was 15, 24 years into it I still learn new stuff all the time. I still wear a white belt when I go to a new school unless the instuctor asks me to wear my worn out brown belt one of my instructors forced on me 10 years ago.

 

[ChevyGuy91]

Not that this is what happened, but the Navy outsources training, specifically firearms training, all the time. Almost all of the firearms training I received in 6 years was mainly from civilian contracted organizations. The explanation I got was that it was more cost effective then to use military personnel full time.

The only down side I saw was listening to all these civi-commando's tell use how they had seen the shit.