acaixguard
07-23-11, 23:33
Just a recap of the VSM basic pistol class held today at the Guthsville Rod & Gun Club near Allentown, PA. The class was taught by Joe Riedy, who has over 20 years of law enforcement experience and has attended many classes with many of the nation's top trainers (Larry Vickers being the obvious one).
It was HOT today. I believe it was in the upper 90s, but it felt like 100+ at some points when standing directly under the sun. As a result, constant re-hydration breaks were necessary.
The class had 8 students total. 1 had showed up but couldn't participate due to an upper body injury sustained the prior night. The student offered Joe the money for the class, but Joe refused to accept it. I thought that was a stand up thing for him to do, needless to say. I believe there was also another student who turned out to be a no-show. IIRC, 3 of the students in the class were LEO's. Guns included 3 Glocks (4 if you count Joe's gun), 2 M&P's (1 compact, and 1 L model), 1 HK P30, 1 SIG, and 1 custom 1911. 2 of the LEO's ran their duty rigs, while the rest of us had Kydex rigs. Raven and Comp-Tac seemed to rule the day. To those in the class, sorry, I can't remember most names at this point, so any references to individuals will be made by the gun you shot.
A little about me. I have no formal firearms training experience. Been shooting recreationally since 1998. I used a Glock 19, in a Dale Fricke Gideon Elite holster, with his matching mag pouches. Oh, and for those who were in the class, I was the Asian guy.
Class began promptly at 9AM, starting with instructions on what to do in case of a medical emergency. Joe then went over the rules of firearms safety, and then talked about the core principles of Larry's teaching methods. In summary, accuracy is key. The basics of sight alignment was discussed, along with tracking the sight and how it's not ideal to fixate on whether you hit exactly where you aimed after each shot. Also handgun calibers all sort of suck and as such, you will likely need to fire several rounds to end a threat.
Once we were ready to walk to the firing line, Joe had us start with dry fire drills. This is where you partner up with someone, and your partner will place an empty casing or coin on your front sight, and you must dry fire without knocking the casing off. This drill set up the tone for the day, which is to emphasize trigger control.
Following the dry firing drills, we went over how to properly manipulate trigger reset. This drill is performed by having dry firing, and while keeping the trigger depressed, your partner will cycle the slide for you. The objective was to release the trigger just to the point of reset by the time the slide finished cycling.
Next up was the ball and dummy drills. As some of you know, this is where you hand your partner your pistol, and while you're not looking, he will either give you an empty chamber, or a live round in the chamber. If you get an empty chamber and you snatch the gun when it goes click, you must do 5 perfect dry fires, then repeat the drill. Again, another great way to emphasize proper trigger control. Joe also had a few humorous analogies on how trigger control is about finesse. I'll refrain from sharing those, but it makes perfect sense :)
After that, Joe went over the ready position. He told us there isn't one and only proper ready position, and showed us a few options. We then practiced by starting from ready, then on command, taking either 1, 2, or 3 shots. This was done from various distances between 5-25 yards. Like the previous drill, only accurate shots count, and for the sake of this class, a shot is considered good only if it's inside a 5" circle. Also emphasized was keeping your trigger off the trigger and pointed forward until you actually plan on firing.
Joe also went over the concept of following through after the shot, which is often overlooked. This entails keeping yourself and the gun ready to fire the same shot again if necessary, while assessing your surroundings.
Once we got more comfortable between starting from the ready position, we then went over techniques for drawing from the holster. The key point for this technique is to keep it simple, and maintain as straight a line as possible as your gun travels from the holster to the target. Also, the support hand should be ready to receive the strong hand as your gun goes on target. Re holstering was also covered.
Joe then covered reloading. He touched briefly on the tactical reload (topping off your gun with a full mag when you get a break in the shooting situation), but most of our practice was done by with a chambered round in the pistol, but empty mag. After the gun is empty, the reloading technique is to bring the gun into your "workspace" so that the gun is turned at a safe angle slightly upward, drop the empty mag, grip a new mag so that the index finger is parallel to the front of the magazine, with the tip of your finger near the top round, and using this as an index, guide the new mag into the pistol. This was finished by using the slide release if possible, and then getting back on target. Joe emphasized how the slide release is the optimal method for a fast reload. Even though some people consider it a fine motor skill compared to slingshotting the gun, a good trigger pull is also a fine motor skill too. The key is to practice over and over again. In general using the slide release will be faster for most people than to pull the slide back and release. The exception is if you are a left handed shooter, with a slide release that is not quickly accessible. For a right handed shooter, the ideal way to hit the slide release for some guns (ie. 1911) is actually with your support hand thumb.
We wrapped up the morning by performing a test, but not to be officially recorded. At about 10 yards, fire 10 rounds in 10 seconds from the ready position. Only shots within the 5" bullseye of the NRA target count. The morning session actually ran to close to 1pm.
After lunch, we regrouped again for the walk back drill on steel plates. Since the range we were on is not 100 yards, we modified it, with attempts at various distances between 15 out to roughly 60 yards. Joe had mercy on us, and actually let us have 2 attempts to get a hit on the plate. Most people started dropping off after the 3rd round (roughly 40 yards?) At this point, I started missing my first shot, but I would get it on the 2nd try. By the time we got to the last distance out at about 60 yards, there was just me and the student with the 1911 left (as well as Joe). The 1911 shooter hit the plate on his first attempt at this distance, and I missed both shots. Joe was kind enough to let me just finish it off with a 3rd attempt, and with some encouragement from him, I actually managed to hit it. This was the first time I actually took a handgun shot beyond 25 yards, so it was definitely a good experience.
We then went over malfunction clearances. The two we covered was the basic malfunction (not a double feed), and then we went over the failure to extract, aka double feed. The double feed was practiced more since it was the more difficult situation. Joe taught the technique favored by Larry, which involves pulling the slide and locking it back, ripping out the mag, dropping the slide, reinserting the mag, then sharply cycle the slide and return on target.
During one of our water and reloading breaks, Joe went over proper weapons lubrication and maintenance. During our lunch break, it turned out that only one person applied some extra lube to his gun. This is a good habit to get into during any full day of training. Essentially, this isn't a topic you need to overthink, as long as you clean the gun regularly, and keep lube applied to any metal on metal contact points. Moral of the story is, a dirty wet gun beats a dry gun any day of the week.
We then went over shooting on the move. The proper method for walking towards and away from a target were covered (walk heel to toe when moving forward, and toe to heel when walking backwards, keeping feel square with the shoulders). This was practiced several times. Following this, Joe gave us a taste of how to shoot when moving laterally. The key to this is sidestepping without crossing your feet. I was pretty awkward doing the forward-backward stepping. I felt that I was putting too much focus on keeping a steady pace, that I ended up just walking funny. Joe gave me more positive feedback on the lateral movement, which felt more natural to me. I've been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for a few years, and when standing up, it's also a big no no to cross your feet when moving sideways, so this probably helped me here.
The day was coming to an end, so we did another timed drill, where you start with a chambered round and an empty mag, fire on to a steel plate, reload, then fire two more. The time between the first and 2nd shot should ideally be under 3 seconds. Amazingly, the part I thought would be the easiest, which is the first shot, I missed. I was able to reload quickly and get 2 good shots after though. Not sure how that happened, but I guess I overestimated myself after the draw and didn't take my time in obtaining proper sight picture and performing the proper trigger press.
We ended the day by shooting as tight a group as possible into the A zone of the IDPA target from either 3 or 5 yards. Joe made an interesting point, that you should never end a shooting session with any misses. Doing that will mess with your subconscious and will tell yourself that you didn't measure up to a particular shooting standards. This obviously does not help your confidence level with a gun, and if you carry a gun to be used defensively, you need to always have the confident mindset that you will be able to do so with skill.
It was a surprisingly tiring day for a basic class, and more likely than not, the heat probably contributed to this. I know I was dead tired by the time I got home. It's a wonder how I even bothered to finish cleaning my gun tonight. Aside from the weather, I had a great time. I learned a lot of little things that I hadn't put much thought into before, and for the first time, got to try drills that are otherwise impossible to do with live rounds at most ranges. I have read countless AARs on these courses, so I had an idea of what to expect already. It was really nice to finally put these things into play though.
Joe is an awesome instructor. He is a very clear verbal communicator that will give you the necessary feedback as he goes down the line to observe each student. He is also pretty damn funny in how he delivers some of the anecdotes, and why he thinks some techniques are great and others suck. Also, he shared a little bit about his personal experiences on the job, which is also great to hear about so that you know what the instructor teaches you is not stuff that is only based on theory.
As I mentioned, it was a HOT day, and I'm physically and mentally wiped out now, so I'm sure I forgot some details. Heck, I'm not even positive I got the order of events completely correct above, but it should be close enough. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures, but one person in the class did, and was told they will come my way soon. If I get them, I'll post them up.
It was HOT today. I believe it was in the upper 90s, but it felt like 100+ at some points when standing directly under the sun. As a result, constant re-hydration breaks were necessary.
The class had 8 students total. 1 had showed up but couldn't participate due to an upper body injury sustained the prior night. The student offered Joe the money for the class, but Joe refused to accept it. I thought that was a stand up thing for him to do, needless to say. I believe there was also another student who turned out to be a no-show. IIRC, 3 of the students in the class were LEO's. Guns included 3 Glocks (4 if you count Joe's gun), 2 M&P's (1 compact, and 1 L model), 1 HK P30, 1 SIG, and 1 custom 1911. 2 of the LEO's ran their duty rigs, while the rest of us had Kydex rigs. Raven and Comp-Tac seemed to rule the day. To those in the class, sorry, I can't remember most names at this point, so any references to individuals will be made by the gun you shot.
A little about me. I have no formal firearms training experience. Been shooting recreationally since 1998. I used a Glock 19, in a Dale Fricke Gideon Elite holster, with his matching mag pouches. Oh, and for those who were in the class, I was the Asian guy.
Class began promptly at 9AM, starting with instructions on what to do in case of a medical emergency. Joe then went over the rules of firearms safety, and then talked about the core principles of Larry's teaching methods. In summary, accuracy is key. The basics of sight alignment was discussed, along with tracking the sight and how it's not ideal to fixate on whether you hit exactly where you aimed after each shot. Also handgun calibers all sort of suck and as such, you will likely need to fire several rounds to end a threat.
Once we were ready to walk to the firing line, Joe had us start with dry fire drills. This is where you partner up with someone, and your partner will place an empty casing or coin on your front sight, and you must dry fire without knocking the casing off. This drill set up the tone for the day, which is to emphasize trigger control.
Following the dry firing drills, we went over how to properly manipulate trigger reset. This drill is performed by having dry firing, and while keeping the trigger depressed, your partner will cycle the slide for you. The objective was to release the trigger just to the point of reset by the time the slide finished cycling.
Next up was the ball and dummy drills. As some of you know, this is where you hand your partner your pistol, and while you're not looking, he will either give you an empty chamber, or a live round in the chamber. If you get an empty chamber and you snatch the gun when it goes click, you must do 5 perfect dry fires, then repeat the drill. Again, another great way to emphasize proper trigger control. Joe also had a few humorous analogies on how trigger control is about finesse. I'll refrain from sharing those, but it makes perfect sense :)
After that, Joe went over the ready position. He told us there isn't one and only proper ready position, and showed us a few options. We then practiced by starting from ready, then on command, taking either 1, 2, or 3 shots. This was done from various distances between 5-25 yards. Like the previous drill, only accurate shots count, and for the sake of this class, a shot is considered good only if it's inside a 5" circle. Also emphasized was keeping your trigger off the trigger and pointed forward until you actually plan on firing.
Joe also went over the concept of following through after the shot, which is often overlooked. This entails keeping yourself and the gun ready to fire the same shot again if necessary, while assessing your surroundings.
Once we got more comfortable between starting from the ready position, we then went over techniques for drawing from the holster. The key point for this technique is to keep it simple, and maintain as straight a line as possible as your gun travels from the holster to the target. Also, the support hand should be ready to receive the strong hand as your gun goes on target. Re holstering was also covered.
Joe then covered reloading. He touched briefly on the tactical reload (topping off your gun with a full mag when you get a break in the shooting situation), but most of our practice was done by with a chambered round in the pistol, but empty mag. After the gun is empty, the reloading technique is to bring the gun into your "workspace" so that the gun is turned at a safe angle slightly upward, drop the empty mag, grip a new mag so that the index finger is parallel to the front of the magazine, with the tip of your finger near the top round, and using this as an index, guide the new mag into the pistol. This was finished by using the slide release if possible, and then getting back on target. Joe emphasized how the slide release is the optimal method for a fast reload. Even though some people consider it a fine motor skill compared to slingshotting the gun, a good trigger pull is also a fine motor skill too. The key is to practice over and over again. In general using the slide release will be faster for most people than to pull the slide back and release. The exception is if you are a left handed shooter, with a slide release that is not quickly accessible. For a right handed shooter, the ideal way to hit the slide release for some guns (ie. 1911) is actually with your support hand thumb.
We wrapped up the morning by performing a test, but not to be officially recorded. At about 10 yards, fire 10 rounds in 10 seconds from the ready position. Only shots within the 5" bullseye of the NRA target count. The morning session actually ran to close to 1pm.
After lunch, we regrouped again for the walk back drill on steel plates. Since the range we were on is not 100 yards, we modified it, with attempts at various distances between 15 out to roughly 60 yards. Joe had mercy on us, and actually let us have 2 attempts to get a hit on the plate. Most people started dropping off after the 3rd round (roughly 40 yards?) At this point, I started missing my first shot, but I would get it on the 2nd try. By the time we got to the last distance out at about 60 yards, there was just me and the student with the 1911 left (as well as Joe). The 1911 shooter hit the plate on his first attempt at this distance, and I missed both shots. Joe was kind enough to let me just finish it off with a 3rd attempt, and with some encouragement from him, I actually managed to hit it. This was the first time I actually took a handgun shot beyond 25 yards, so it was definitely a good experience.
We then went over malfunction clearances. The two we covered was the basic malfunction (not a double feed), and then we went over the failure to extract, aka double feed. The double feed was practiced more since it was the more difficult situation. Joe taught the technique favored by Larry, which involves pulling the slide and locking it back, ripping out the mag, dropping the slide, reinserting the mag, then sharply cycle the slide and return on target.
During one of our water and reloading breaks, Joe went over proper weapons lubrication and maintenance. During our lunch break, it turned out that only one person applied some extra lube to his gun. This is a good habit to get into during any full day of training. Essentially, this isn't a topic you need to overthink, as long as you clean the gun regularly, and keep lube applied to any metal on metal contact points. Moral of the story is, a dirty wet gun beats a dry gun any day of the week.
We then went over shooting on the move. The proper method for walking towards and away from a target were covered (walk heel to toe when moving forward, and toe to heel when walking backwards, keeping feel square with the shoulders). This was practiced several times. Following this, Joe gave us a taste of how to shoot when moving laterally. The key to this is sidestepping without crossing your feet. I was pretty awkward doing the forward-backward stepping. I felt that I was putting too much focus on keeping a steady pace, that I ended up just walking funny. Joe gave me more positive feedback on the lateral movement, which felt more natural to me. I've been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for a few years, and when standing up, it's also a big no no to cross your feet when moving sideways, so this probably helped me here.
The day was coming to an end, so we did another timed drill, where you start with a chambered round and an empty mag, fire on to a steel plate, reload, then fire two more. The time between the first and 2nd shot should ideally be under 3 seconds. Amazingly, the part I thought would be the easiest, which is the first shot, I missed. I was able to reload quickly and get 2 good shots after though. Not sure how that happened, but I guess I overestimated myself after the draw and didn't take my time in obtaining proper sight picture and performing the proper trigger press.
We ended the day by shooting as tight a group as possible into the A zone of the IDPA target from either 3 or 5 yards. Joe made an interesting point, that you should never end a shooting session with any misses. Doing that will mess with your subconscious and will tell yourself that you didn't measure up to a particular shooting standards. This obviously does not help your confidence level with a gun, and if you carry a gun to be used defensively, you need to always have the confident mindset that you will be able to do so with skill.
It was a surprisingly tiring day for a basic class, and more likely than not, the heat probably contributed to this. I know I was dead tired by the time I got home. It's a wonder how I even bothered to finish cleaning my gun tonight. Aside from the weather, I had a great time. I learned a lot of little things that I hadn't put much thought into before, and for the first time, got to try drills that are otherwise impossible to do with live rounds at most ranges. I have read countless AARs on these courses, so I had an idea of what to expect already. It was really nice to finally put these things into play though.
Joe is an awesome instructor. He is a very clear verbal communicator that will give you the necessary feedback as he goes down the line to observe each student. He is also pretty damn funny in how he delivers some of the anecdotes, and why he thinks some techniques are great and others suck. Also, he shared a little bit about his personal experiences on the job, which is also great to hear about so that you know what the instructor teaches you is not stuff that is only based on theory.
As I mentioned, it was a HOT day, and I'm physically and mentally wiped out now, so I'm sure I forgot some details. Heck, I'm not even positive I got the order of events completely correct above, but it should be close enough. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures, but one person in the class did, and was told they will come my way soon. If I get them, I'll post them up.