i've worked with Stoney a few years ago in NOLA. i was sent south to help spin up a few folks we had working security when i met Stoney he's a great guy and really knows his stuff i would not hesitate to recommend him or train with him.
i've worked with Stoney a few years ago in NOLA. i was sent south to help spin up a few folks we had working security when i met Stoney he's a great guy and really knows his stuff i would not hesitate to recommend him or train with him.
So my in-laws live in a little town SW of Pittsburgh and I've managed to schedule our annual trip in June.....which means I look forward to being in PA during the summer and taking Stoney's class!
The class is now tentatively full (still awaiting a few deposits), but we are accepting requests to be in a standby slot.
If you're willing to travel to Canton, Ohio (you can visit the football hall of fame), there will be a VSM Basic Pistol class on 25 June if you wanted to attend this one, but couldn't make it.
A student had a scheduling conflict, so there is now one open slot left.
I do believe I took the last slot. Pumped!
You are correct sir! I'm currently in Dubai on my way back to the USA from Baghdad. I'm really looking forward to training with you guys and running my first Vickers' Shooter Method Basic Pistol class in Pittsburgh.Quote:
Originally Posted by kjp442
I'm on the road extensively today, so an e-mail out the to the group will happen either late this evening or tomorrow morning, but so that the word starts getting out, show time for class is 0830 with the first rounds down range at 0900 or shortly thereafter.
I look forward to training with you all.
Awesome weather for Sunday - 74 and partly cloudy.
:cool:
Excited for this class... Rain or shine it should be a great day.
See ya all there.:meeting:
Paragon 6 VSM Basic Pistol – June 12, 2011
Class consisted of 12 students with experience ranging from people brand new to the shooting community and have never handled a pistol to a couple of LEO’s and guys that have had formal training.
As with any good class, the day started with safety brief.
From there we moved to the line for instruction on grip, sight picture, proper trigger press, obtaining a good grip when drawing, and reloading. Each phase was demonstrated by Stony and then performed by the class with Stony working the line to observe each student doing the drill.
The biggest thing stressed throughout the day (other than safety) was trigger press/control, to validate this, we did dry fire “Penny Drill”, where you work with a partner, the shooter assumes a firing stance with a pistol with an empty chamber and no magazine and the partner lays a penny on the front post of the shooters pistol. The shooter then pulls the trigger with the end goal of the press being smooth enough as to not disturb then penny from the post.
The Penny Drill was followed by the “Ball and Dummy” drill where the shooter would hand the partner his pistol and turn his back, the partner would then give the shooter back the pistol in one of 2 ways, a round in the chamber or an empty chamber. The shooter would then face down range and press the trigger, the shooter either got a bang or a click. The objective was once again clean trigger pull and to not anticipate or flinch the sight picture. If you disturbed the sight picture, it was back to the Penny Drill for 5 clean reps.
After the Penny and Ball & dummy drill we moved into proper grip when drawing from holster and the draw stroke. Stony made clear numerous times that speed was NOT the goal for this evolution. The correct mechanics were stressed to avoid “bowling”or “casting” when drawing from the holster. As with every drill, Stony worked his way down the line and observed each student execute the drill and correct or provide feedback when needed. As Stony likes to say, with each drill, “we just added another ingredient to the soup”.
At this point we took combined all the drills we had gone over to this point and put them to use by shooting. The next ingredient added to the soup was assess/scan/assess after putting rounds on target. Stony stressed that in real world you need to have situational awareness and make sure that your target is 1) indeed down and 2) another threat is appearing. That would be as Stony’s people say a “No Bueno” situation.
Another thing Stony drove home in this drill is to not just wildly swing your head from side to side when performing the assess, but to go slow enough to actually see and process any threats and not just do the motions of the assess. There were a few mental light bulbs going off and the “Oh, I get it” looks at this point.
We did a walk back drill Stony calls “The Chorus” from the 5 to the 20 yd mark a few times to get some rounds down range to see how everyone was progressing.
My round count for this class was 54. If you are looking for a high round count class, this is not the class for you. This class is about the fundamentals. I will take 54 good shots over 500 bad ones any day of the week. (Ok, not all 54 were perfect, but I know what I did wrong and what to work on the correct them) While I have had formal carbine training, I have not had any pistol training other than what I have picked up on my own. So starting on the “ground level” with a basic/intro class to unlearn any bad habits I have accrued (and after working w/ Stony, I confirmed that I had a few!) and build from there makes nothing but sense.
Since it was warm and humid, we had frequent hydro breaks to keep everyone’s fluids topped off which gave us a chance to pick Stony’s brains on a variety of topics.
I would highly recommend this class to new shooter or experienced shooters that want a refresher on fundamentals.
Stony is a solid dude. He presents in a manner that is easy to grasp and makes learning fun. I appreciate him sharing his knowledge and experience and look forward to taking more classes with Paragon6 in the future.
I definitely left class a better pistol shooter than when I arrived.