I just attended this past weekend the Defensive Pistol class at SigSauer Academy up in Epping NH. I gather it’s a fairly advanced level class, taking the best bits from Sig’s 103, concealed carry and CQB classes and rolling into a 2 day intensive shooting class. I shot around ~800 rounds though my P229/9mm. Be warned, you will be exhausted, exhilarated and your hands will be all beat up after the class. I lost the skin on my thump from decocking after about 4 hours. Use the bandaids provided!
As always, Sig lets you use their handguns free of charge if you want. People were shooting P226, 229 and 239’s, and a lone Glock. There were 6 people in the class, all at about the same level, so the instructor attention was good and the class moved right along. Half the class used Sig provided pancake or kydex holsters, I used my Crossbreed IWB which worked great, although drawing and reholstering 10 gazillion times in 2 days beats up the hands even more.
Note this was classified as an advanced class, and there were some drills which would get you yelled at a beginner or intermediate class, and DQ’s at an IDPA match I previously completed the concealed carry class back in August, so this was the perfect step up and refresher.
As with most Sig classes, we started with 5-10 mins of wall drill dry firing and single hole drills at 3, 5 and 7 yds. The class was mostly in the <7yd range the whole time except for some barricade work out to 15 & 20yds. Only a couple times did we unload and run a drill using dryfiring first for safety, most of the 2 days was spent “hot”. You were expected to have a loaded and ready gun at all times. If you got caught with an empty gun at the start of a drill you owed Rance the instructor a beer
Highlights included strong and weak side only shooting, reloading and malfunction clearing. Learning how to clear a double feed jam using your knee, and then racking a loaded gun on your belt buckle made you very aware of your muzzle control
Muzzle and trigger discipline went to a whole new level for me. We were staging the trigger pretty much right after the draw from the holster and drive, so the shot went off almost as soon as the sights were on target. The instructor encouraged the use of the high sternum ready position (gun pointing nearly vertically down resting on back of left hand), permitting full 360 movement during our “searches”. That would be instant IDPA DQ. Not sure I’ll practice that at North Leominster either …
Lots of moving – from simply being a moving target during reloads and malfunction clearances, to shooting on the move back and forth, at angles, retreating to cover etc. Included moving targets (left to right and straight down your throat featured)
Ended the weekend with some CQB drills and IDPA like stages including low light.
Best Sig class I have taken by far, quality of instruction was excellent as usual (I’ve not had a bad instructor at Sig), and the class sized allowed us to accelerate the basic concepts and get into really shooting & learning. YMMV, but I like the Sig style. I would say it’s a little LEO focused (who of us would ever take a prone shot from behind a car at 20yds), but, to quote them, it’s about learning skills to win in a fight not just survive and a lot of the skills cross over from LEO I suppose.
Hope the review helps, a Sig class is a great Christmas list item
As always, Sig lets you use their handguns free of charge if you want. People were shooting P226, 229 and 239’s, and a lone Glock. There were 6 people in the class, all at about the same level, so the instructor attention was good and the class moved right along. Half the class used Sig provided pancake or kydex holsters, I used my Crossbreed IWB which worked great, although drawing and reholstering 10 gazillion times in 2 days beats up the hands even more.
Note this was classified as an advanced class, and there were some drills which would get you yelled at a beginner or intermediate class, and DQ’s at an IDPA match I previously completed the concealed carry class back in August, so this was the perfect step up and refresher.
As with most Sig classes, we started with 5-10 mins of wall drill dry firing and single hole drills at 3, 5 and 7 yds. The class was mostly in the <7yd range the whole time except for some barricade work out to 15 & 20yds. Only a couple times did we unload and run a drill using dryfiring first for safety, most of the 2 days was spent “hot”. You were expected to have a loaded and ready gun at all times. If you got caught with an empty gun at the start of a drill you owed Rance the instructor a beer
Highlights included strong and weak side only shooting, reloading and malfunction clearing. Learning how to clear a double feed jam using your knee, and then racking a loaded gun on your belt buckle made you very aware of your muzzle control
Muzzle and trigger discipline went to a whole new level for me. We were staging the trigger pretty much right after the draw from the holster and drive, so the shot went off almost as soon as the sights were on target. The instructor encouraged the use of the high sternum ready position (gun pointing nearly vertically down resting on back of left hand), permitting full 360 movement during our “searches”. That would be instant IDPA DQ. Not sure I’ll practice that at North Leominster either …
Lots of moving – from simply being a moving target during reloads and malfunction clearances, to shooting on the move back and forth, at angles, retreating to cover etc. Included moving targets (left to right and straight down your throat featured)
Ended the weekend with some CQB drills and IDPA like stages including low light.
Best Sig class I have taken by far, quality of instruction was excellent as usual (I’ve not had a bad instructor at Sig), and the class sized allowed us to accelerate the basic concepts and get into really shooting & learning. YMMV, but I like the Sig style. I would say it’s a little LEO focused (who of us would ever take a prone shot from behind a car at 20yds), but, to quote them, it’s about learning skills to win in a fight not just survive and a lot of the skills cross over from LEO I suppose.
Hope the review helps, a Sig class is a great Christmas list item