DevilDog
11-07-06, 10:26
Fighting Pistol - Pueblo CO - Oct 7-8
Fighting Rifle - Pueblo CO - Oct 9-10
Instructors: Aaron Little and Mike Starling
My background – I’ve been shooting rifles and pistols for 30+ years. I am not an armed professional and the only time I was ever armed as part of my job was during my time in the USMC in the 1980’s where I qualified expert on the M16 and M1911. My competitive shoot experience is in highpower rifle (classified Master). I’ve not taken any previous training that is worth comparing to these two classes.
These were two separate classes, but so much of my experience from the two classes are relevant, plus I’m lazy (which is why it is late too), so I am putting it all in one review.
We had about 20 students for the pistol class and almost as many for the rifle, and over ½ dozen of the students took both. I think less than one half of the students had taken a Tactical Response class before.
The quick-and-dirty: These were great classes and I highly recommend taking any Tactical Response classes that you can get into. I had been trying to get into their classes for a number of years and now really regret that I had not found a way to do it earlier. For the amount of training they manage to squeeze into a couple of days, you get a lot of training for your dollar.
After these classes I feel much more prepared to fight in defense of my life and my family. If you do or are considering ccw or are a carrying professional, Fighting Pistol is a must, and whenever possible, take it again as a refresher.
It was obvious to me from the instructors and the approach Tactical Response uses is that they do not teach the exact same way every course, every year. There is an emphasis on learning and growing their techniques and passing them on to their students. If you want to train with an outfit that claims to have figured it all out 20 years ago and have not changed a thing in how they train there students during that time, then Tactical response is not for you. But Tactical Response is the way to go if you want to train with an outfit that is committed to learning everything they can about winning a fight and conveying that to you.
Tactical Response does not advertise these as marksmanship classes, so appropriately we did not spend hours on sight alignment/sight picture. This was my preference as marksmanship training is more readily available than “how to win a fight” training. It is always a big plus when you get what was advertised and it does not turn out to be a bunch of marketing hoopla.
The instructors, Aaron Little and Mike starling were great – EVERY input/suggestion/criticism I received from them was spot-on. Not once did I think to my self “yeah, right…” and it’s rare that I can say that about an instructor, whatever the topic.
These courses were great for opening my eyes when it comes to a gunfight, much more than I ever thought a square range experience ever could. As I mentioned above, I am hardly a newb when it comes to shooting yet these classes really showed me my weak points and on what to focus my attention toward to prepare for a fight. My big lesson was how much more I need to prepare the equipment between my ears vs. worrying about the equipment I carry.
These courses really showed me how limiting, maybe even dangerous, typical square range training can be with respect to movement or lack of it on your normal shooting range. I did not expect this and Aaron and Mike did a great job of conveying its importance.
There was a strong emphasis on safety, but not on being safe while on a square shooting range, but being safe while in a fight and an emphasis on the big four rules and how they apply in a fight, especially with regards to your teammates. I can't emphasize enough the mental transition this was from typical shooting on a range.
We had some tough weather for parts of both classes. The second day of the pistol class was almost constant drizzle, cold, and very muddy and this mostly continued until halfway through the second day of the rifle class. This really put a test to equipment and the mindset of the students.
For drills we did dot drills, transition drills, all kinds of failure drills, off-hand/shoulder drills, movement (left, right, forward, back) drills, team drills, barricade drills (those plastic trash cans sure took some fire!), shooting for all kinds of positions (nothing like supine in the mud). All were done with an emphasis on mindset and tactics, so it didn’t feel like repetitive calisthenics with a firearm.
I knew from internet browsing that we would put a lot of rounds downrange, which we did, yet there was still a fair amount of lecture in the two classes, all of it very worthwhile.
It was a great group of students to train with and many did all they could to help others when the need arose. I would look forward to training with any of them again.
My #1 recommendation is now "get some trainging", my #2 is "get more training", and whenever possible, get it from Tactical Response (then worry about what caliber, what equipment or whatever).
On equipment - now I am not sure you know it works til you run it in the rain and the mud! :eek:
Special thanks to Jeff Carpenter for hosting the classes and all the work that it entails. Semper Fi bro.
Thanks to Zak Smith for posting pics:
http://demigod.org/~zak/DigiCam/TR-FP-2006/
http://demigod.org/~zak/DigiCam/TR-FR-2006/
Fighting Rifle - Pueblo CO - Oct 9-10
Instructors: Aaron Little and Mike Starling
My background – I’ve been shooting rifles and pistols for 30+ years. I am not an armed professional and the only time I was ever armed as part of my job was during my time in the USMC in the 1980’s where I qualified expert on the M16 and M1911. My competitive shoot experience is in highpower rifle (classified Master). I’ve not taken any previous training that is worth comparing to these two classes.
These were two separate classes, but so much of my experience from the two classes are relevant, plus I’m lazy (which is why it is late too), so I am putting it all in one review.
We had about 20 students for the pistol class and almost as many for the rifle, and over ½ dozen of the students took both. I think less than one half of the students had taken a Tactical Response class before.
The quick-and-dirty: These were great classes and I highly recommend taking any Tactical Response classes that you can get into. I had been trying to get into their classes for a number of years and now really regret that I had not found a way to do it earlier. For the amount of training they manage to squeeze into a couple of days, you get a lot of training for your dollar.
After these classes I feel much more prepared to fight in defense of my life and my family. If you do or are considering ccw or are a carrying professional, Fighting Pistol is a must, and whenever possible, take it again as a refresher.
It was obvious to me from the instructors and the approach Tactical Response uses is that they do not teach the exact same way every course, every year. There is an emphasis on learning and growing their techniques and passing them on to their students. If you want to train with an outfit that claims to have figured it all out 20 years ago and have not changed a thing in how they train there students during that time, then Tactical response is not for you. But Tactical Response is the way to go if you want to train with an outfit that is committed to learning everything they can about winning a fight and conveying that to you.
Tactical Response does not advertise these as marksmanship classes, so appropriately we did not spend hours on sight alignment/sight picture. This was my preference as marksmanship training is more readily available than “how to win a fight” training. It is always a big plus when you get what was advertised and it does not turn out to be a bunch of marketing hoopla.
The instructors, Aaron Little and Mike starling were great – EVERY input/suggestion/criticism I received from them was spot-on. Not once did I think to my self “yeah, right…” and it’s rare that I can say that about an instructor, whatever the topic.
These courses were great for opening my eyes when it comes to a gunfight, much more than I ever thought a square range experience ever could. As I mentioned above, I am hardly a newb when it comes to shooting yet these classes really showed me my weak points and on what to focus my attention toward to prepare for a fight. My big lesson was how much more I need to prepare the equipment between my ears vs. worrying about the equipment I carry.
These courses really showed me how limiting, maybe even dangerous, typical square range training can be with respect to movement or lack of it on your normal shooting range. I did not expect this and Aaron and Mike did a great job of conveying its importance.
There was a strong emphasis on safety, but not on being safe while on a square shooting range, but being safe while in a fight and an emphasis on the big four rules and how they apply in a fight, especially with regards to your teammates. I can't emphasize enough the mental transition this was from typical shooting on a range.
We had some tough weather for parts of both classes. The second day of the pistol class was almost constant drizzle, cold, and very muddy and this mostly continued until halfway through the second day of the rifle class. This really put a test to equipment and the mindset of the students.
For drills we did dot drills, transition drills, all kinds of failure drills, off-hand/shoulder drills, movement (left, right, forward, back) drills, team drills, barricade drills (those plastic trash cans sure took some fire!), shooting for all kinds of positions (nothing like supine in the mud). All were done with an emphasis on mindset and tactics, so it didn’t feel like repetitive calisthenics with a firearm.
I knew from internet browsing that we would put a lot of rounds downrange, which we did, yet there was still a fair amount of lecture in the two classes, all of it very worthwhile.
It was a great group of students to train with and many did all they could to help others when the need arose. I would look forward to training with any of them again.
My #1 recommendation is now "get some trainging", my #2 is "get more training", and whenever possible, get it from Tactical Response (then worry about what caliber, what equipment or whatever).
On equipment - now I am not sure you know it works til you run it in the rain and the mud! :eek:
Special thanks to Jeff Carpenter for hosting the classes and all the work that it entails. Semper Fi bro.
Thanks to Zak Smith for posting pics:
http://demigod.org/~zak/DigiCam/TR-FP-2006/
http://demigod.org/~zak/DigiCam/TR-FR-2006/