AAR Tiger Valley @ Elm Fork 1-Day Pistol Tune Up 3/29/08

[LOKNLOD]

Last Saturday 3/29/08, I attended Tiger Valley's 1-day Pistol Tune-Up class at the Elm Fork range in Dallas. This was a "private" class put together as the daytime activities of a friend's bachelor party. Because it was at the Elm Fork range, the facilities were a bit limited so we didn't do the assault course/shoothouse/cover drills. At first thought we were a bit disappointed to not get that but the truth is that it's good we were able to stay focused on fundamentals. Weather was cool and cloudy, perfect really.

Dan C. was the instructor, and I thought he did a great job (I didn't get his full last name written down, and would only butcher it if I tried, so speak up if you're out there reading, Dan). He had no problem conveying info and techniques, and kept things interesting and moving along smoothly. Ben Wood was there also and was a big help. With a small class it was nice to have so much direct attention. Dan and Ben, if you're out there, thanks again for the great class. I was the guy with the blue shirt, red hair, and green G34.

It was the first training event for all 7 attendees. Experience ranged from me, who has always shot a lot but never had formal training, to one guy who didn't even own a gun and used my loaner. All in all, a very "green" bunch.

Pistols in use: Glock 34 (me), two Glock 17s, HK P30, Glock 27, Beretta PX4 9mm, and a railed commander-size stainless Kimber (Pro TLE/RL II I think). In roughly 700 rounds, no issues with the polymer crew. The P30 didn't see quite as many rounds because he only had two mags and couldn't find any more to buy (thanks HK!). The Kimber ran well most of the morning but started having some issues halfway through. He was a good sport considering we all relentlessly ragged on him all day (didn't help that it was his party). The guys with double-actions had a bit of a rude awakening in that Dan had them actually using the DA first pulls on the drills, but since carrying cocked and un-locked isn't very realistic, it was good experience.

I won't go into a lot of detail on the actual class materials -- we stuck to the fundamentals, starting with the most basic aspects and building on them as the day progressed. "Crawl, walk, run," as Dan said. Perfect class for first-time training. I feel adequately prepared to jump into a little more in-depth class now, although I could probably take this same class another 3 times and come away with something new each time. We all left shooting dramatically better than we had at the beginning of the day.

All in all a great class -- I'd recommend training with the Tiger Valley guys to anyone in driving range of either their Waco or Dallas locations, and the 1-day tune up would be a great place to start.

[LOKNLOD]

And to add some random observations/thoughts:

1. The pistol Maglula is the coolest thing since sliced bread.
2. Grip tape actually will retexture parts of your hand. I imagine a multi-day course would be a real bitch on the hands, but it's better than a slippery pistol.
3. Taking a few notes really helped me keep track - relatively simple class had a lot to process. By the end of the day I had to have the COF repeated at least once to keep track of what i was supposed to be doing.
4. Even if you're not using it as a dump pouch for mags, a good pouch is handy for all sorts of stuff. My CSM pouch was nice to have.
5. I need some quality electronic ears.