Date: April 26-27, 2014
Location: Elkin, NC
Rounds fired: Approx. 800
Class Size: 18 students. All male, mix of civilian, military, and LE.
Firearms: The usual suspects. I used a Glock 19. No malfunctions. Other than two .45ACP 1911s, most everybody else was using “soul-less” striker fire 9mms.
Let me first admit to you that 6 months ago I had no idea who Ken Hackathorn was. I know now that he’s a living legend with a golden resume. He doesn’t have the marketing skills of a Pincus or Costa and that’s a good thing. He obviously has no interest in Facebook and Twitter and doesn’t feel the need to toot his own horn. I was looking on the Alias Training site for classes in my area and he was the only match for the month of April. I mainly went because I was desperate for a class, not because I was expecting anything great from it. I was concerned about his age. I was afraid he would be teaching dated tactics and techniques. My concerns were baseless and it ended up being an excellent class. I’m so glad I stumbled upon it. The class was chock-full of great lessons and there’s no way I have time to write about everything or even remember all I was shown. There really was a lot to take in. Here are a few of my memories that may help you in deciding whether to attend one of his classes:
PC: If you’re easily offended by coarse language and non-PC jokes, don’t attend. He speaks exactly how you’d expect a 70-year-old ex-officer to speak. There were sexist, racist, and homophobic jokes and comments. You don’t have to approve of it but if you’re too thin skinned for such talk, stay away. If you are OK with it, he’s a very friendly and approachable man. He spoke with confidence but there was no hint of arrogance and the “my way or the highway” mindset. To say he’s knowledgeable would be a vast understatement. I was thoroughly impressed with the depth and breadth of his knowledge in all things firearms. The term Walking Encyclopedia is appropriate here.
Large Class: If I’d known there would be 18 people in class I’m not sure I would have signed up. However, he was able to run the class extremely well despite the size. He managed this by dividing the class into 2. While one wave of 9 was shooting a drill the second wave stood back and watched. It was effective and allowed Ken to see everything better and give personal advice where necessary. Many times we’d need to shoot a drill alone and you’d get bits of one-on-one time with him then.
Advanced, not Flashy: The class is listed as an advanced class. The term advanced in firearms training conjures up images of high speed mag dumps, crazy firing positions, and chest rigs. It’s not that type of class and he showed disdain and amusement at the MAGPUL-style training that everybody is so crazy about. Felt it was more entertainment than anything. His idea of “advanced” is like Bruce Lee’s - the basics mastered. As long as you’re not a newbie, there’s something in this class for everyone. Low-light shooting, one hand shooting, many timed drills, shooting on the move, point shooting, shooting around barricades, and so on. He gave us enough to think about and take home to practice. Mastering these basics, doing them faster and more accurately is what being advanced is.
Trigger Manipulation is King: If there was an underlying theme to the class it’s this: trigger manipulation is more important than everything else combined. I knew that before the class but the 2 days of training impressed on me in a more concrete way just how critical trigger pull is. Although we practiced many drills they all seemed to point to that lesson and Hackathorn did a great job of hammering it home in a memorable way.
Accuracy First: Many of the drills were timed and he taught the importance of balancing speed and accuracy. He warned us against taking a time-first approach. Frequently, I rushed drills to get good times only see my accuracy suffer to an unacceptable degree. He kept telling me “Get your hits.” Now when I practice, that stays in my head and I focus on smooth movement and accuracy first. The speed will come as my movements become more efficient. You can’t shoot misses fast enough to win the fight.
Bill Drill: My favorite drill. I’m sure most of you know this one. 8” target, 7 yards, 6 shots, from the draw. Passing time is around 5 seconds. It’s a great drill to balance speed and accuracy. Misses are punished by adding 1 second to your time forcing you not to rush.
The Test: Ken said this was the best drill we could practice. He suggested it to Larry Vickers who still uses it. B8 target, 10 yards, 10 seconds, from the high ready. Score of 90 is passing. Highest score in class was a 97 and Ken shot in the high 90s. Teaches you to track the sights. Rewards accuracy but doesn’t let you take too long to aim each shot.
The Half Test: Same as The Test but you do it from 5 yards and only have 5 seconds. Pushes the speed and really helped me to track the front sight.
El Presidente Drill: Another classic most of you know. 3 targets 3 yards apart, 10 yards away. Turn around and draw. 2 shots on each, reload, 2 more shots on each. 20 sec is passing, 15 sec is good. 10 sec is excellent. Ken taught a slight variation on this by having someone else load our magazines so we didn’t know when the reload occurred.
Snake Drill: This is an infamous drill that got him into trouble with the NRA. I still don’t know how I feel about it. He spoke with disgust about how ranges now have become safety nannies. I couldn’t agree more. The range I’m a member of is full of these safety Nazis. Of course safety should be the number one priority but I believe it gets carried too far, too often. The drill is difficult for me to describe. It involves weaving between people and firing at targets about 7 yards away. It helps demonstrate the usefulness of the SUL position and makes you hyper aware of your shots. It’s a controversial drill because when you’re firing at the targets there are people off to the side between you and the target. You fire 2 shots from 3 positions. When you fire your first shot, the target is at 12 o’ clock and 7 yards away. There’s also someone at 10 o’ clock and 1 yard away from you and two more people behind him. The last person in line is a couple of yards in front of the target and 1 yard beside it. It focuses you on the target and pushes you out of your comfort zone. When it’s your turn to stand in line, you experience the gun blast from the “business end” of the gun. Nobody rushed this drill. Everybody was slower and much more deliberate. Looking back, I’m glad I did it. I didn’t feel in danger. Everybody in class was plenty proficient with a gun. However, I’m not sure the small risk was worth the smaller lesson learned. You can opt out if uncomfortable.
Night Fire: After dinner on the first day we came back to the range at sunset to do a few drills in the dark with our lights. Ken likes weapon mounted-lights but showed us how to use a handheld as well. He recommended two techniques for it: Rogers Technique for when you need the light on your left and the Harries Technique for when you need it on your right. I found both of these techniques very difficult as I’d never practiced them. I’m sure in time I can get proficient. I much preferred my mounted X300. He taught us to use the momentary switch. Turn on, fire, turn off, and move. My handheld was a Surefire 500 lumens. While easy to handle I found the light far too bright. It was blinding when I shone it on the targets to view my results. The 200 lumens from my X300 seemed about right. To end the class, he let each of us fire our self-defense ammo to see how the flash was. I can’t remember which ones were good other than the best by far was somebody's hand load and the worst was my cheap Federal American Eagle (I forgot to bring my self defense round).
Point Shooting: Under 10 yards, point shooting is often a viable option. You can have your sights grossly misaligned and still get effective hits. Ken had us do a drill to prove how unimportant the sights were at close range. He set up 5 targets about 10 yards apart about 7 yard away. We taped up our sights and got in line. One at a time, point shooting, we shot at each target once or twice (I can’t remember how many) and quickly ran to the next one until we’d shot at all 5. After the whole class had run through this we went and looked at each target and counted the number of shots out of the A zone. There were around 20. We then ran the drill again, sprinting from target to target but this time we had our sights untaped and could use them. After this second wave we went down and found that we’d actuality performed worse with the sights. Ken says this is typical. The lesson is sights are over-rated in this run-and-gun short-range situation and it’s trigger manipulation that is king.
No Videos: Although he said we were fine to take photos and write AARs (if honest) he gave us a stern warning at the beginning of class: no videos or he was going to ask us to leave. I don’t know if this was due to the controversy of the Snake Drill or he just wants to protect his curriculum. Either way, that’s why there are so few videos of him on YouTube.
Gear Opinions: Some random thoughts on gear from him:
• Red dots on pistols are the wave of the future but the technology isn’t there yet. They have serious issues in the rain or dirt.
• Ken is a serious 1911 aficionado. Probably 100 times he called it, "the best close quarters combat handgun in the world, and king of the feed way stoppage.” He spoke very highly of the soul-less (as he called them) Glocks and other striker fire pistols. His bedside gun is a Glock 34.
• He liked the Raven holsters but thought they used too much kydex. I can’t remember the brand of kydex holster he thought was best. I believe it started with a “J.”
• He said weapons mounted lights were the wave of the future. Some complain that they’re dangerous because you sweep people. Ken thinks this fear is overblown. 500 lumens are too much and it’s just a marketing gimmick. You just need to identify the threat not give it a sun tan.
• Don’t use those light trigger springs in Glocks. They may make the trigger pull lighter but they hurt reliability too much. There were two in class that had the light trigger springs in their Glocks and they both experienced an unusually high number of malfunctions. I experienced the same on my Glock before class and I’m glad I switched back to the normal spring for class.
Overall, I highly recommend this class as long as you’re at an intermediate skill level. Unfortunately, Ken is on his way to retirement and doesn’t teach much anymore. If he’s in your area, do yourself a favor and go. How many opportunities do you get to learn from a legend?
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Originally Posted by lenny_quick
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