wedgehead30
11-08-10, 00:53
This weekend B.L. Farley of Outdoor Specialties http://www.odspec.com/indexa.html hosted a two day home defense / shoot-house class at the Ft. Harmar rifle club http://www.fortharmar.com/. The class was instructed by two true professionals, Ken Hackathorn and Lynn Freshly. The instruction was centered mainly around the shoot house at the club, with some flat-range work also.
I'd been fired up for this class since B.L. told me about it several months back. Because of some last minute deployments we had a small class of nine private citizens from various walks of life. We had folks from as far away as NY, MI and PA and skill levels varied from novice to advanced.
At this point I must make a humble confession. I went into the class with an open mind knowing I'd pick up some good stuff from Ken and Lynn. But I was a wee bit arrogant in thinking that I would be ahead of the curve on the shoot house tactics given my twenty years of law enforcement experience and training. Ha ha, little did I know. As we all know, when one gets a little too full of themselves life has a way of bitch slapping us back to reality. In my case reality came in the form of a tall lanky dude with size 11 booger hooks and a funny mustache. As I started my first run through the house I knew I had screwed the pooch. When I got done Ken was nice enough to tell me how bad I "sucked', in excruciating detail no less.... Would you like a little salt with that humble pie Lt. ? ....Suffice to say I un****ed myself, got squared away and learned a lot.
Training day 1 started at 0900 with a quick intro, safety brief and overview of the facilities. We all moved to one of the square ranges and did some relevant pistol drills to see where everyone was at. After that we moved over to the shoot-house for some blue gun runs. There was so much info that I couldn't begin to chronicle it all here. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all the information I was presented with. The phrase "drinking from a fire hose" comes to mind. After the blue gun runs we broke into two groups. One staying at the house with Ken and the other going with Lynn on the adjacent range.
I have to give props to Lynn who is an excellent instructor. He is very thoughtful and precise in his instruction. His drills and tactics reinforced what Ken was teaching in the house. If you need someone to carry a conversation don't call Lynn. But if you want well thought out, reasoned, reality based tactics and direction, he's you man. He doesn't say a whole lot but when he does you're well advised to pay attention.
For the rest of the morning we worked back and forth in the house and range. All of the work was done with pistols. The class had a nice mix of Glocks, M&P's and a HK USP. Most everyone was working out of some type of tactical belt rig. I was using a rig which mirrored my duty gear with my Glock 19 equipped with a surefire X-300, DG switch and old style Crimson Trace laser grip. This combination has worked well for me the past few years and proved itself again and again over the weekend.
We took a break for lunch and then got right back at it. Ken threw a lot of information our way. But he keep reinforcing the main point, at least the one that is burned into my neanderthal brain, MINIMAL EXPOSURE. Give your adversary as little as possible to shoot at. While at the same time getting sights on him. Unfortunately I earned myself the nickname of "El Zoro". For my reoccurring penchant to square up on my adversary and slug it out duelist style.
We worked until dinner and then took a break. After chow we worked the house in the dark. And by dark I mean can't see your hand in front of your face dark. There's no ambient light in those hills and the banjo playing over the ridge was a little spooky. Suffice to say weapon mounted lights and lasers ruled the night. Props to Lee Roy for making some great runs with a handheld flashlight and his crew served USP. :D We also did some eye opening drills on the flat range with night vision gear and IR lasers. I think we left the range around 2230. It was a long day but well worth it.
Training Day 2 kicked off at 0900 with an extra hour of sleep under our belts. We worked the shoot house with pistol caliber carbines. There was a nice mix of Colt 9mm's full and semi, HK, and Beretta Storms. Again, weapon mounted lights are a "must have" for long guns. And as my wife is fond of saying, length is an issue. We worked up to lunch and took a quick break. After lunch we made runs from the back of the house pushing out towards home invaders while at the same time securing the "kids" rooms. We finished the day with the Sunday Study Group on range 5 shooting various rifle and pistol drills. I think I finally headed out around 1730.
You'll have to forgive my haphazard write up but my brain is fried as I type. There was so much good information presented and I only documented a tiny bit of the two day experience.
Here's the bottom line. I've been to a ton of schools/classes/seminars over the course of a twenty year career. I've seen many different types of instructors good and bad. There's not to many as polished and knowledgeable as Ken. His ability to present and convey information is phenomenal. The dude is definitely the "Master" in my mind. If he can get my dumb ass to the finish line then he is truly blessed with mythical abilities.
So my overall recommendations:
Two thumbs up to B.L., Ken and Lynn for some top notch hosting and instruction. Thanks guys! If you get a chance to work with these dudes, jump on it before they decide to call it a career and go fishing permanently. Trust me the one liners alone are worth the price of admission. ;)
I know I'm forgetting a lot. Perhaps some of the other folks will jump in and fill the gaps.
Sorry I only have one crappy picture. We had a guy with a camera but all he did was basically hang around and get in the way. Quite frankly his photography skills seemed pretty flat. Given the way photos and videos of this shoot-house have gone recently it's probably just as well.
Stay safe*,
Scott Denniss
*Extra large print so the senior citizens can read it....You know who you are. :p
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/2028/sdc15960.jpg
I'd been fired up for this class since B.L. told me about it several months back. Because of some last minute deployments we had a small class of nine private citizens from various walks of life. We had folks from as far away as NY, MI and PA and skill levels varied from novice to advanced.
At this point I must make a humble confession. I went into the class with an open mind knowing I'd pick up some good stuff from Ken and Lynn. But I was a wee bit arrogant in thinking that I would be ahead of the curve on the shoot house tactics given my twenty years of law enforcement experience and training. Ha ha, little did I know. As we all know, when one gets a little too full of themselves life has a way of bitch slapping us back to reality. In my case reality came in the form of a tall lanky dude with size 11 booger hooks and a funny mustache. As I started my first run through the house I knew I had screwed the pooch. When I got done Ken was nice enough to tell me how bad I "sucked', in excruciating detail no less.... Would you like a little salt with that humble pie Lt. ? ....Suffice to say I un****ed myself, got squared away and learned a lot.
Training day 1 started at 0900 with a quick intro, safety brief and overview of the facilities. We all moved to one of the square ranges and did some relevant pistol drills to see where everyone was at. After that we moved over to the shoot-house for some blue gun runs. There was so much info that I couldn't begin to chronicle it all here. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all the information I was presented with. The phrase "drinking from a fire hose" comes to mind. After the blue gun runs we broke into two groups. One staying at the house with Ken and the other going with Lynn on the adjacent range.
I have to give props to Lynn who is an excellent instructor. He is very thoughtful and precise in his instruction. His drills and tactics reinforced what Ken was teaching in the house. If you need someone to carry a conversation don't call Lynn. But if you want well thought out, reasoned, reality based tactics and direction, he's you man. He doesn't say a whole lot but when he does you're well advised to pay attention.
For the rest of the morning we worked back and forth in the house and range. All of the work was done with pistols. The class had a nice mix of Glocks, M&P's and a HK USP. Most everyone was working out of some type of tactical belt rig. I was using a rig which mirrored my duty gear with my Glock 19 equipped with a surefire X-300, DG switch and old style Crimson Trace laser grip. This combination has worked well for me the past few years and proved itself again and again over the weekend.
We took a break for lunch and then got right back at it. Ken threw a lot of information our way. But he keep reinforcing the main point, at least the one that is burned into my neanderthal brain, MINIMAL EXPOSURE. Give your adversary as little as possible to shoot at. While at the same time getting sights on him. Unfortunately I earned myself the nickname of "El Zoro". For my reoccurring penchant to square up on my adversary and slug it out duelist style.
We worked until dinner and then took a break. After chow we worked the house in the dark. And by dark I mean can't see your hand in front of your face dark. There's no ambient light in those hills and the banjo playing over the ridge was a little spooky. Suffice to say weapon mounted lights and lasers ruled the night. Props to Lee Roy for making some great runs with a handheld flashlight and his crew served USP. :D We also did some eye opening drills on the flat range with night vision gear and IR lasers. I think we left the range around 2230. It was a long day but well worth it.
Training Day 2 kicked off at 0900 with an extra hour of sleep under our belts. We worked the shoot house with pistol caliber carbines. There was a nice mix of Colt 9mm's full and semi, HK, and Beretta Storms. Again, weapon mounted lights are a "must have" for long guns. And as my wife is fond of saying, length is an issue. We worked up to lunch and took a quick break. After lunch we made runs from the back of the house pushing out towards home invaders while at the same time securing the "kids" rooms. We finished the day with the Sunday Study Group on range 5 shooting various rifle and pistol drills. I think I finally headed out around 1730.
You'll have to forgive my haphazard write up but my brain is fried as I type. There was so much good information presented and I only documented a tiny bit of the two day experience.
Here's the bottom line. I've been to a ton of schools/classes/seminars over the course of a twenty year career. I've seen many different types of instructors good and bad. There's not to many as polished and knowledgeable as Ken. His ability to present and convey information is phenomenal. The dude is definitely the "Master" in my mind. If he can get my dumb ass to the finish line then he is truly blessed with mythical abilities.
So my overall recommendations:
Two thumbs up to B.L., Ken and Lynn for some top notch hosting and instruction. Thanks guys! If you get a chance to work with these dudes, jump on it before they decide to call it a career and go fishing permanently. Trust me the one liners alone are worth the price of admission. ;)
I know I'm forgetting a lot. Perhaps some of the other folks will jump in and fill the gaps.
Sorry I only have one crappy picture. We had a guy with a camera but all he did was basically hang around and get in the way. Quite frankly his photography skills seemed pretty flat. Given the way photos and videos of this shoot-house have gone recently it's probably just as well.
Stay safe*,
Scott Denniss
*Extra large print so the senior citizens can read it....You know who you are. :p
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/2028/sdc15960.jpg