Review of Jim Crews Training 2004
Where to begin (take 2, the first one vanished into the ether)?
Police “Training” in MA (1978-1996, 2000):
Our PD provided its own training and qualification for its officers (as most did in those years), using MCJTC (our POST, now called MCJT or MPTC) Certified instructors and a state-Recommended (there are NO state “standards” for firearms qualification) course of fire (50 rounds at stationary B-27 targets from varying distances).
The distances on the MCJT course are:
10 Shots Standing 3 yards
10 Shots Standing 5 Yards
10 shots Standing 7 yards
10 Shots Standing 10 yards
10 Shots, 5 standing, 5 kneeling 15 yards
Until the mid-late 1990s, a score of 70% was required to pass. Later it was raised to a minimum score of 80%. All shooting was done either single or double-handed from fixed positions and we qualified 2x/year until my last few years with a new anti-gun chief we dropped to 1x/year. In the early years we also did semi-annual night shoots (flashlight, cruiser headlights, and no light), until numerous resident complaints about the gunfire at 8PM resulted in stopping all night shooting. All the regular, FT POs went thru exactly the same qualification/training as we did as Special Police. There was NO training, it was strictly laying out the course of fire and shooting. I “retired” from being a Special Police Officer in 1996.
In 1999 I was appointed as a Constable. We have full LE powers (although many POs will deny this) according to the MGLs, however in most cases all we do is serve court papers and make civil arrests based on said court papers (mostly “deadbeat dads”), simply because if we started giving out speeding tickets, etc. we would not get paid for doing that work! There are no training or qualification requirements (or curricula) for Constables, so in 2000 I made arrangements to qualify with MCJTC, taking a class that was full of FT POs. The “class” consisted of watching a video (actual footage taken by a news reporter on the scene) of a takedown of a murderer at a PA truck parts swap meet. I was aghast at the total disregard for the spectators (there were 100s) safety as the police on the scene shot at the perp from three directions (no hits) as he was throwing truck parts at them. After the video (which the instructor claimed the police did everything correctly . . . I was the only dissident present <g>), we headed for the range. MCJTC has gone “PC” and exchanged gray milk-bottle targets for the B-27s that we all knew and loved. Otherwise the qualification course was the same as I noted above from “the early years”.
We never had any safety training, sight picture, trigger control, etc. in all my years with the PD.
Now for the Jim Crews course:
I’m copying the description below the URL that described it. It was an intensive 3 day, 28 hours on the range course, focused on accuracy and the use of strictly defensive tactics.
http://www.neshooters.com/2004-schedule.html
“Jim Crews will present an Intermediate Defensive Pistol Course on June 25, 26, and 27, 2004 at the Tyngsboro Sportsmen's Club in Tyngsboro, MA. The course will focus on heavily on marksmanship, and include weapons manipulations (reloads, malfunction clearances, etc), casualty gun handling, moving targets, and three-dimensional targets. Also included in this course is a module on low-light shooting during the evening of the second day.”
“This course will also be suitable for beginning students with no previous training. By using two or more relays to separate those students with differing levels of experience, both beginning and intermediate students will receive the proper level of instruction.”
And here are some pictures from one part of our class and I’ll try to describe what we did based on the pictures and a lot of what is not in the pictures.
http://www.neshooters.com/gallery.html
- Numerous pictures show the situational scenario of a bad guy with an adult hostage and one baby hostage. It was rigged on pulleys so that both the hostages and bad guy moved. The objective was one hit on the bad guy without hitting the hostages.
- In the group picture, I’m the person on the far right and the person who organized the training (Jim Conway, the old guy <gd&rvvf>) is standing beside me. Jim Crews is the guy in the ball cap who has one foot on the resettable steel targets in the left, 2nd row of pictures.
- We practiced weapon malfunctions, tactical reloading, sight picture techniques, trigger reset, casualty gun handling, moving targets, shooting while moving, low-light shooting (those targets are camo and they blend in real well as the light gets low), double-taps, Mozambique, proper grip control, shooting thru one ragged hole, lying on your back and shooting between your legs, lying on your back and shooting over your head (gun is upside down . . . this kills your neck if you aren’t 20 years old anymore), etc.
- There was another situational event which we were all sworn to secrecy (by Jim Crews) so that we don’t spoil it for anyone lucky enough to take his classes in the future. In this case we were summoned to the range one at a time, given the info needed to resolve the situation, and we needed to take appropriate action.
- We did a lot of “one hole drills”! Believe it or not, this is quite possible on a consistent basis if we pay attention to the training and concentrate on doing it right.
- Shooting on the move is very practical for defensive shooting and we did it both in daylight and at night. [Wonder why we never did that for PD qualification?]
And here is the schedule of training coming up in 2005.
http://www.neshooters.com/2005-schedule.html
I learned more from Jim Crews in those three days than I had learned in 28 years of shooting and all the tips from target shooters combined! I can’t say enough good things about Jim as an instructor. More info on what he has to offer can be found at
www.marksmans.com
That’ll have to do for now so that I finally get to post something that I promised months ago.