Blake
05-07-09, 10:06
Collaborative AAR done between myself and a friend and fellow training buddy
Course Info: Randy Cain (Cumberland Tactics) Tactical Handgun 101
Location and dates: Wamego, KS @ Defense Midwest Range May 1st- 3rd
Mike and I attended the course (I was the course host). This was my first time to train with Randy; Mike’s second.
I will first touch on the facilities. I had contacted the range owner many months back while I was deployed. He graciously allowed the use of his range. The range, in my opinion, was damn good. It has a trailer for a classroom with “porcelain”. I never actually measured the distance of a range, but I would guess it is about a 100-150m range if you used all available area. I thought it was a great range, and one that I have no reservations to train at again.
Equipment:
I ran my M&P 9mm, with David Bowie "LX" trigger carried in an RCS Phantom holster. I shot Blazer 9mm 115 gr FMJ ammo. The M&P 9mm ran great. Used Surefire G2 light. I had 2 failure to fires. As I was running faster paced drills when both of these happened, I'm not sure of the cause. However, both were when I was firing 1 handed. One happened during the night fire, while using the Harries technique, the other was just a one handed shooting drill. I could have "limp-wristed", but I am just not 100% sure. I still have confidence in the weapon. It shot about 1400 flawless rounds before these issues. I had about 400 rounds through it in the class before the malfunction.
Mike shot his battery of 1911s, using a different one on each of the three training days. TD-1, he ran his Kimber Warrior which has been thorough an extensive work over by the SA Custom shop; TD-2, he ran a full up custom built pistol on a Caspian frame and slide, Kart NM barrel and bushing, CMC internals and Novak sights (Note that this pistol was built for Mike by a personal friend who is a serving US Army officer and who plans to work as a fulltime pistol smith after retirement). TD-3, he shot his 10-8 Performance/SA Custom Operator. All three pistols ran flawlessly, whether he fed them via Wilson Elite, 47 or CMC Power Mags. Mike shot GA Arms 230 hardball, “Canned Heat” and used Comp-Tac holsters and mag carriers. His choice of tactical light was the Surefire G2.
Day 1:
I did not write down copious notes throughout the course. The AAR is based more upon my thoughts based on specific topics and overall value of the course. The class started with some admin issues and a safety brief. Randy covered the original four safety rules. He was very adamant about his strict adherence to the safety rules. He was clear that people should stick to the initial four rules and quit trying to change them. I have listened to several safety briefs, and while there are variations in safety briefs, this one emphasized much of the same points.
The class moved out to the range. The class starts out on the lowest level. We began with Randy showing us how to load and unload the weapon properly and he also covered how to tactical reload. Randy stated that this might be too “basic” for some, but that he wanted to build good habits and fundamentals. We proceeded to cover what Randy calls the seven fundamentals of marksmanship. I will not try to list all these seven fundamentals, for fear of screwing one of them up, I do not want to say something that Randy did not. However, I can say they are an expanded version of the fundamentals of marksmanship, including grip, sight alignment, trigger control, follow through, trigger reset, and others. Many details were taken in to account as we went along, including stance. This led in to a Weaver vs. Isosceles discussion. Randy’s approach was very practical. He prefers to take the best aspects of both methods and apply them to the shooting position. I never noticed him pushing shooters toward one particular way. We spent a lot of time shooting one handed to emphasize not “hanging on to the gun” too tightly with the strong hand. This excellent drill demonstrated what happens when you grip the weapon too tightly to help anticipate and/or control recoil. We then conducted several other drills to emphasize marksmanship fundamentals.
The class was introduced to shooting on the move approximately mid-way through day one. Randy emphasized that there is not anything advanced about shooting on the move; you just have to execute the marksmanship fundamentals correctly, as you move. His approach was a light bulb moment for me. I still most definitely need to work on speeding it up, and getting more rounds on target, but only good hits count. The main thing that stuck out to me was Randy’s simplistic approach to teaching. He stated (I paraphrase), “…if you knew that I was going to start the class by showing you how to load and unload the weapon and clear it out, you would have said that class is too basic for me. If I would have told you that we would be making head shots on move at the end of the first day, you would have said the class was too advanced”. Advanced shooting is the basics applied correctly, consistently and efficiently.
Day 2:
Day started out with a review. Randy used his company targets on this day. He explained in detail how and why he designed the target the way he did. We went in to some vital zone info, and shot placement. These targets do a great job of keeping students from looking for hits. As Randy stated, looking for hits will cause shooters to misplace shots, and in a real gunfight, a shooter will most likely never see hits on a subject. A good portion of the day was spent on the draw stroke. Randy does a four-count stroke, which emphasizes a good firing grip, and putting the weapon in place if it becomes necessary to shoot from retention. This was a little different than I had done my draw-stroke previously. However, I think this is the way to go. Later in the course, we shot from retention, and this was yet again another light bulb moment for me. It will take some practice to get this techniques smoothed out, but I like it a lot. The draw stroke was practiced in steps and as a complete process in many different ways. The rest of the afternoon was spent covering reloads and malfunction drills. These were incorporated with all the other skills we had learned. Randy also covered rollover prone shooting positions and natural point of aim.
Night Fire:
We conducted a night fire portion of the class. Randy conducted a discussion before it got dark, and explained the most commonly used techniques and the pros and cons to each. We did quite a bit of firing during the 1 hour nigh fire portion. Randy still demanded strict accuracy standards even as visibility dropped. He conducted several different drills. He presented different ways to use the lights for an armed confrontation, and left it to us to find which one we preferred. I always enjoy the chance to train in low-light shooting. It does not happen often enough.
Day 3:
The day started with an abbreviated review of skills learned in the previous two days. We moved on to some drills that showed the importance of trigger control, by shooting from longer ranges. We moved on to shooting from retention. This was one of my favorite parts of the course. Randy showed his technique and thoughts for shooting from bad breath distance. It became apparent at this point why he taught the draw stroke the way he did. Retention shooting is not something I had trained on much previously. It is something that I can now incorporate in to my practice. We did several scenarios and drills that incorporated retention and getting off the line of attack. The class proceeded to cover more strong hand only shooting, support hand only shooting, and shooting on the move with strong and support hand only. This was a challenging drill, but much needed. The course was finished up with a discussion about firing multiple shots. Randy broke the multiple shots down in to three categories. Drills were conducted for each. Of course, this was a lot of fun, but also a chance to put all the fundamentals of marksmanship together. While groups most certainly open up, accuracy standards were enforced.
In summary, I truthfully cannot say enough about this course and as Randy Cain as an instructor. He is truly an expert in the art of tactical training. He knows his stuff; he is experienced, and is certainly a gifted instructor and teacher. I believe anyone that carries a gun, or just likes shooting no matter what skill level should take this course. It has a perfect combination of basics and more complex shooting situations and drills. I do not want to use the “advanced” term. I am in agreement with Randy, that advanced shooting is the mastery of the basics. I had a great time, and I have grown as a shooter. I will take this class again from Randy, as well as others. I’m looking forward to bringing him back.
Course Info: Randy Cain (Cumberland Tactics) Tactical Handgun 101
Location and dates: Wamego, KS @ Defense Midwest Range May 1st- 3rd
Mike and I attended the course (I was the course host). This was my first time to train with Randy; Mike’s second.
I will first touch on the facilities. I had contacted the range owner many months back while I was deployed. He graciously allowed the use of his range. The range, in my opinion, was damn good. It has a trailer for a classroom with “porcelain”. I never actually measured the distance of a range, but I would guess it is about a 100-150m range if you used all available area. I thought it was a great range, and one that I have no reservations to train at again.
Equipment:
I ran my M&P 9mm, with David Bowie "LX" trigger carried in an RCS Phantom holster. I shot Blazer 9mm 115 gr FMJ ammo. The M&P 9mm ran great. Used Surefire G2 light. I had 2 failure to fires. As I was running faster paced drills when both of these happened, I'm not sure of the cause. However, both were when I was firing 1 handed. One happened during the night fire, while using the Harries technique, the other was just a one handed shooting drill. I could have "limp-wristed", but I am just not 100% sure. I still have confidence in the weapon. It shot about 1400 flawless rounds before these issues. I had about 400 rounds through it in the class before the malfunction.
Mike shot his battery of 1911s, using a different one on each of the three training days. TD-1, he ran his Kimber Warrior which has been thorough an extensive work over by the SA Custom shop; TD-2, he ran a full up custom built pistol on a Caspian frame and slide, Kart NM barrel and bushing, CMC internals and Novak sights (Note that this pistol was built for Mike by a personal friend who is a serving US Army officer and who plans to work as a fulltime pistol smith after retirement). TD-3, he shot his 10-8 Performance/SA Custom Operator. All three pistols ran flawlessly, whether he fed them via Wilson Elite, 47 or CMC Power Mags. Mike shot GA Arms 230 hardball, “Canned Heat” and used Comp-Tac holsters and mag carriers. His choice of tactical light was the Surefire G2.
Day 1:
I did not write down copious notes throughout the course. The AAR is based more upon my thoughts based on specific topics and overall value of the course. The class started with some admin issues and a safety brief. Randy covered the original four safety rules. He was very adamant about his strict adherence to the safety rules. He was clear that people should stick to the initial four rules and quit trying to change them. I have listened to several safety briefs, and while there are variations in safety briefs, this one emphasized much of the same points.
The class moved out to the range. The class starts out on the lowest level. We began with Randy showing us how to load and unload the weapon properly and he also covered how to tactical reload. Randy stated that this might be too “basic” for some, but that he wanted to build good habits and fundamentals. We proceeded to cover what Randy calls the seven fundamentals of marksmanship. I will not try to list all these seven fundamentals, for fear of screwing one of them up, I do not want to say something that Randy did not. However, I can say they are an expanded version of the fundamentals of marksmanship, including grip, sight alignment, trigger control, follow through, trigger reset, and others. Many details were taken in to account as we went along, including stance. This led in to a Weaver vs. Isosceles discussion. Randy’s approach was very practical. He prefers to take the best aspects of both methods and apply them to the shooting position. I never noticed him pushing shooters toward one particular way. We spent a lot of time shooting one handed to emphasize not “hanging on to the gun” too tightly with the strong hand. This excellent drill demonstrated what happens when you grip the weapon too tightly to help anticipate and/or control recoil. We then conducted several other drills to emphasize marksmanship fundamentals.
The class was introduced to shooting on the move approximately mid-way through day one. Randy emphasized that there is not anything advanced about shooting on the move; you just have to execute the marksmanship fundamentals correctly, as you move. His approach was a light bulb moment for me. I still most definitely need to work on speeding it up, and getting more rounds on target, but only good hits count. The main thing that stuck out to me was Randy’s simplistic approach to teaching. He stated (I paraphrase), “…if you knew that I was going to start the class by showing you how to load and unload the weapon and clear it out, you would have said that class is too basic for me. If I would have told you that we would be making head shots on move at the end of the first day, you would have said the class was too advanced”. Advanced shooting is the basics applied correctly, consistently and efficiently.
Day 2:
Day started out with a review. Randy used his company targets on this day. He explained in detail how and why he designed the target the way he did. We went in to some vital zone info, and shot placement. These targets do a great job of keeping students from looking for hits. As Randy stated, looking for hits will cause shooters to misplace shots, and in a real gunfight, a shooter will most likely never see hits on a subject. A good portion of the day was spent on the draw stroke. Randy does a four-count stroke, which emphasizes a good firing grip, and putting the weapon in place if it becomes necessary to shoot from retention. This was a little different than I had done my draw-stroke previously. However, I think this is the way to go. Later in the course, we shot from retention, and this was yet again another light bulb moment for me. It will take some practice to get this techniques smoothed out, but I like it a lot. The draw stroke was practiced in steps and as a complete process in many different ways. The rest of the afternoon was spent covering reloads and malfunction drills. These were incorporated with all the other skills we had learned. Randy also covered rollover prone shooting positions and natural point of aim.
Night Fire:
We conducted a night fire portion of the class. Randy conducted a discussion before it got dark, and explained the most commonly used techniques and the pros and cons to each. We did quite a bit of firing during the 1 hour nigh fire portion. Randy still demanded strict accuracy standards even as visibility dropped. He conducted several different drills. He presented different ways to use the lights for an armed confrontation, and left it to us to find which one we preferred. I always enjoy the chance to train in low-light shooting. It does not happen often enough.
Day 3:
The day started with an abbreviated review of skills learned in the previous two days. We moved on to some drills that showed the importance of trigger control, by shooting from longer ranges. We moved on to shooting from retention. This was one of my favorite parts of the course. Randy showed his technique and thoughts for shooting from bad breath distance. It became apparent at this point why he taught the draw stroke the way he did. Retention shooting is not something I had trained on much previously. It is something that I can now incorporate in to my practice. We did several scenarios and drills that incorporated retention and getting off the line of attack. The class proceeded to cover more strong hand only shooting, support hand only shooting, and shooting on the move with strong and support hand only. This was a challenging drill, but much needed. The course was finished up with a discussion about firing multiple shots. Randy broke the multiple shots down in to three categories. Drills were conducted for each. Of course, this was a lot of fun, but also a chance to put all the fundamentals of marksmanship together. While groups most certainly open up, accuracy standards were enforced.
In summary, I truthfully cannot say enough about this course and as Randy Cain as an instructor. He is truly an expert in the art of tactical training. He knows his stuff; he is experienced, and is certainly a gifted instructor and teacher. I believe anyone that carries a gun, or just likes shooting no matter what skill level should take this course. It has a perfect combination of basics and more complex shooting situations and drills. I do not want to use the “advanced” term. I am in agreement with Randy, that advanced shooting is the mastery of the basics. I had a great time, and I have grown as a shooter. I will take this class again from Randy, as well as others. I’m looking forward to bringing him back.