CQC.45
10-25-10, 10:43
VSM Basic Pistol w/ Matt Schultz
This is my first AAR so bear with me:
Background: This was my first formal pistol class. I have been shooting since I was 5, and in recent years, have been trying to improve upon my pistol skills by learning what I can from those here on M4C. I try to hit the range at least once every other week (schedule is tight) and run some basic drill by myself. That said, I knew if I wanted to be serious it was time to start taking some classes by knowledgeable instructors/schools. I had been looking for the past years reading up on the big-name schools trying to see who would be around the MI area, but apparently its not one of the most popular places to hold classes. When the introduction of VSM came around it was a Godsend; lo and behold there was an instructor in MI! At this point I knew nothing of Matt, except that he had LAV’s approval and that was good enough for me.
Gear: I brought my M&P45 FS to this class. I own two others (another FS and a compact), that both have Bowie work (trigger, stipple, sights, etc.), but I wanted to bring this FS which only had Warren sights and grip tape so that I could drill/practice proper trigger control on a unmodified (i.e. more difficult) trigger. Holster and pouch were comp-tac. Other pistols there were all M&Ps of various calibers. All M&Ps functioned 100% (with the exception of Matt’s RDS that went out on his, but not the M&P’s fault).
The Class: This class was very small, as there were only three individuals: my father, my cousin, and myself. Thus, we received a lot of personalized attention from Matt. We started out with introductions and range safety and proceeded to fundamental drill.
SAFETY: Matt is a superb instructor and never at any point did I feel the slightest bit uncomfortable or unsafe. Matt kept an ever-persistent eye on everyone and everyone there practiced good muzzle and trigger-finger discipline; there were zero issues.
Speed is Fine. Accuracy is Final.
I’m sure this is familiar to many on this forum, and it did indeed set the standard for the class. All work done was focused on accuracy; speed would come later. We started out with dryfiring drills to focus trigger control. This is where we were first introduced to El Snatcho. Balancing an empty casing on the front sight while pulling the trigger is not as bad as it sounded, but when you did botch it you knew. After feeling comfortable doing this we did some basic bullseye shooting at various distances. It’s amazing how at around 10 –15 yards El Snatcho seems to consistently rear his ugly head. Accuracy being king, anything outside the black (~8” circle) was no-good. Trigger control is truly everything, and seeing it in these drills really drove that concept home. During these drills a shot timer was used. This was my first experience with a shot timer, and it was a whole new world. Putting the additional stress of timed performance on your drill drove home the second point that Matt made: shooting is much more mental than people realize. He also made sure that every time you are done shooting CHECK YOUR SURROUNDINGS before holstering your weapon. This was something that was drilled into us for the rest of the day for obvious reasons.
Matt waited until the first person ran dry to cover reloads. He went over the proper way to conduct both a tactical and speed reload (explaining, reasoning for each). Luckily, I was already pretty decent at my reloads, my biggest problem I found is that I need to SLOW DOWN. After my reload, I would hurry up to get the shot off and would result in a Snatched trigger. From this point on any time someone ran dry a speed-reload was MANDATORY. This enforced the habit of good reloads and added an extra dimension to the drills.
From there we talked about the wobble. This was one of biggest eye-openers to me. The wobble happens when trying to hold a gun perfectly steady while acquiring target, then pulling the trigger. However, wobble will exist no matter what, no one can completely eliminate it. So just accept it, and instead focus on trigger control . That statement blew my mind as I had always learned to try to hold the gun a steady as possible. Once again, Matt demonstrated his point. Making a figure 8 pattern (extremely exaggerated), he was able to make constant hits in the black from a variety of distances and even on the move. Amazed, it was our turn to try, as one would expect we were able to do the same. This was one of those “wow” moments where the class really paid off. Just focus on proper trigger control, accept the wobble.
Using our newly-acquired wobble epiphany we did some movement drills, both lateral and vertical movement was addressed and practiced. This really brought together everything we had learned thus far. Trigger, Trigger, Trigger. That’s what this is all about. Anytime I threw a shot, I knew it. The timer helped bring out El Snatcho so we could recognize it and fight it. Trying to go too fast was, again, my weakness. Slowing down I saw major improvement.
Around that time we broke for lunch. Now the previous week I had been watching the weather. They were predicting beautiful, typical Michigan weather (downpour, T-storms, gusting wind, high of 50 degrees, etc.)…so I geared up for Katrina brining raincoats, underarmour, 3 shirts, etc. Someone was smiling on us because the only rain we had was during lunch, by the time we went back out skies were sunny and 70 degrees.
Going back out we practiced presentation from holster. Matt explained that a new shooter should be able to present from 5 yards, shoot, hit (black of course) within a 3 seconds. Everyone, however should strive to do it within 2. My best time was 1.52 (or 1.5 something, cant remember). Matt stressed that knowing when to be fast (hand to pistol, draw) and when to slow down (grip pistol, trigger pull) was paramount. Thus, Matt demonstrating while yelling FAST-SLOW-FAST-SLOW, was entertaining yet informative.
FAST- Hand to grip
Slow – Aquire GOOD grip on pistol
FAST – Bring pistol up and punch out
Slow – TRIGGER CONTROL sans El Snatcho
After, we talked about point-shooting: were it was appropriate and where it was not. We taped up our sights and did some shooting from distance. It is amazing how much easier it is than many realize. In fact, I almost shot better without my sights! Of course, this is because it allows me to focuse more on my trigger control.
Then we started to bring together everything we had learned thus far in some triangle drills, box drills, and figure 8 drills. Incorporating lateral and vertical movement, reloads, wobble, all the while maintaining good trigger control is what really brought everything into focus. Watching everyone attempt not to trip over chairs and boxes was very amusing as people moved backwards and laterally, but it also demonstrated the need to be aware of your surroundings while engaging targets (NOTE: no one actually “tripped” and fell, and the range was NEVER unsafe at any point in time).
We wrapped up with the handing out of certificates and farewells.
Matt Schultz: Good shooters do not necessarily make good instructors. Luckily, Matt is both. The instructor is the single most important factor in taking a course, and Matt was exactly what I expected. His thorough knowledge of the material made it easy to understand not only how we were supposed to do something, but why. I think this a piece of the puzzle that gets lost sometimes in teaching. He was able to keep the class up-beat and fun, while still drilling home the importance of everything we did. He also proved that he was the real-deal, he demoed every drill we did (with about 10x speed and accuracy of us). Matt is a down-to-earth, stand-up guy and awesome instructor, I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone in the area. I want to thank him for having us out and sharing his knowledge with us. I will certainly be attending future classes with him again.
Sorry, no pictures…it was a small class and we were too busy shooting pistols to be shooting a camera. :cool:
This is my first AAR so bear with me:
Background: This was my first formal pistol class. I have been shooting since I was 5, and in recent years, have been trying to improve upon my pistol skills by learning what I can from those here on M4C. I try to hit the range at least once every other week (schedule is tight) and run some basic drill by myself. That said, I knew if I wanted to be serious it was time to start taking some classes by knowledgeable instructors/schools. I had been looking for the past years reading up on the big-name schools trying to see who would be around the MI area, but apparently its not one of the most popular places to hold classes. When the introduction of VSM came around it was a Godsend; lo and behold there was an instructor in MI! At this point I knew nothing of Matt, except that he had LAV’s approval and that was good enough for me.
Gear: I brought my M&P45 FS to this class. I own two others (another FS and a compact), that both have Bowie work (trigger, stipple, sights, etc.), but I wanted to bring this FS which only had Warren sights and grip tape so that I could drill/practice proper trigger control on a unmodified (i.e. more difficult) trigger. Holster and pouch were comp-tac. Other pistols there were all M&Ps of various calibers. All M&Ps functioned 100% (with the exception of Matt’s RDS that went out on his, but not the M&P’s fault).
The Class: This class was very small, as there were only three individuals: my father, my cousin, and myself. Thus, we received a lot of personalized attention from Matt. We started out with introductions and range safety and proceeded to fundamental drill.
SAFETY: Matt is a superb instructor and never at any point did I feel the slightest bit uncomfortable or unsafe. Matt kept an ever-persistent eye on everyone and everyone there practiced good muzzle and trigger-finger discipline; there were zero issues.
Speed is Fine. Accuracy is Final.
I’m sure this is familiar to many on this forum, and it did indeed set the standard for the class. All work done was focused on accuracy; speed would come later. We started out with dryfiring drills to focus trigger control. This is where we were first introduced to El Snatcho. Balancing an empty casing on the front sight while pulling the trigger is not as bad as it sounded, but when you did botch it you knew. After feeling comfortable doing this we did some basic bullseye shooting at various distances. It’s amazing how at around 10 –15 yards El Snatcho seems to consistently rear his ugly head. Accuracy being king, anything outside the black (~8” circle) was no-good. Trigger control is truly everything, and seeing it in these drills really drove that concept home. During these drills a shot timer was used. This was my first experience with a shot timer, and it was a whole new world. Putting the additional stress of timed performance on your drill drove home the second point that Matt made: shooting is much more mental than people realize. He also made sure that every time you are done shooting CHECK YOUR SURROUNDINGS before holstering your weapon. This was something that was drilled into us for the rest of the day for obvious reasons.
Matt waited until the first person ran dry to cover reloads. He went over the proper way to conduct both a tactical and speed reload (explaining, reasoning for each). Luckily, I was already pretty decent at my reloads, my biggest problem I found is that I need to SLOW DOWN. After my reload, I would hurry up to get the shot off and would result in a Snatched trigger. From this point on any time someone ran dry a speed-reload was MANDATORY. This enforced the habit of good reloads and added an extra dimension to the drills.
From there we talked about the wobble. This was one of biggest eye-openers to me. The wobble happens when trying to hold a gun perfectly steady while acquiring target, then pulling the trigger. However, wobble will exist no matter what, no one can completely eliminate it. So just accept it, and instead focus on trigger control . That statement blew my mind as I had always learned to try to hold the gun a steady as possible. Once again, Matt demonstrated his point. Making a figure 8 pattern (extremely exaggerated), he was able to make constant hits in the black from a variety of distances and even on the move. Amazed, it was our turn to try, as one would expect we were able to do the same. This was one of those “wow” moments where the class really paid off. Just focus on proper trigger control, accept the wobble.
Using our newly-acquired wobble epiphany we did some movement drills, both lateral and vertical movement was addressed and practiced. This really brought together everything we had learned thus far. Trigger, Trigger, Trigger. That’s what this is all about. Anytime I threw a shot, I knew it. The timer helped bring out El Snatcho so we could recognize it and fight it. Trying to go too fast was, again, my weakness. Slowing down I saw major improvement.
Around that time we broke for lunch. Now the previous week I had been watching the weather. They were predicting beautiful, typical Michigan weather (downpour, T-storms, gusting wind, high of 50 degrees, etc.)…so I geared up for Katrina brining raincoats, underarmour, 3 shirts, etc. Someone was smiling on us because the only rain we had was during lunch, by the time we went back out skies were sunny and 70 degrees.
Going back out we practiced presentation from holster. Matt explained that a new shooter should be able to present from 5 yards, shoot, hit (black of course) within a 3 seconds. Everyone, however should strive to do it within 2. My best time was 1.52 (or 1.5 something, cant remember). Matt stressed that knowing when to be fast (hand to pistol, draw) and when to slow down (grip pistol, trigger pull) was paramount. Thus, Matt demonstrating while yelling FAST-SLOW-FAST-SLOW, was entertaining yet informative.
FAST- Hand to grip
Slow – Aquire GOOD grip on pistol
FAST – Bring pistol up and punch out
Slow – TRIGGER CONTROL sans El Snatcho
After, we talked about point-shooting: were it was appropriate and where it was not. We taped up our sights and did some shooting from distance. It is amazing how much easier it is than many realize. In fact, I almost shot better without my sights! Of course, this is because it allows me to focuse more on my trigger control.
Then we started to bring together everything we had learned thus far in some triangle drills, box drills, and figure 8 drills. Incorporating lateral and vertical movement, reloads, wobble, all the while maintaining good trigger control is what really brought everything into focus. Watching everyone attempt not to trip over chairs and boxes was very amusing as people moved backwards and laterally, but it also demonstrated the need to be aware of your surroundings while engaging targets (NOTE: no one actually “tripped” and fell, and the range was NEVER unsafe at any point in time).
We wrapped up with the handing out of certificates and farewells.
Matt Schultz: Good shooters do not necessarily make good instructors. Luckily, Matt is both. The instructor is the single most important factor in taking a course, and Matt was exactly what I expected. His thorough knowledge of the material made it easy to understand not only how we were supposed to do something, but why. I think this a piece of the puzzle that gets lost sometimes in teaching. He was able to keep the class up-beat and fun, while still drilling home the importance of everything we did. He also proved that he was the real-deal, he demoed every drill we did (with about 10x speed and accuracy of us). Matt is a down-to-earth, stand-up guy and awesome instructor, I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone in the area. I want to thank him for having us out and sharing his knowledge with us. I will certainly be attending future classes with him again.
Sorry, no pictures…it was a small class and we were too busy shooting pistols to be shooting a camera. :cool: