tfltackdriver
10-26-11, 22:02
914 Consulting LLC-Vickers Shooting Method 1-Day Basic Handgun Class
Oct. 22, 2011, C2 Shooting Center, Virginia Beach, Va.
The morning started bright, early and cool with about a dozen shooters. The bulk had a couple of years' experience with a few very experienced shooters and one who had never shot a pistol before.
We started with a quick but thorough safety brief, then moved to the firing line at about 3 yards for a basic skills assessment shooting five (or in my case, six) shots at a 3x5 index card. We moved on to a few hours of trigger control exercises, including a very useful two-man ball-and-dummy drill and some dry-fire work shooting from the trigger reset.
From there we learned reload procedure (which I also screwed up the first time) and a five-step draw. We interspersed this with a couple of walk-back drills on a 12x12 inch piece of steel in which I'd say at least half of the class survived back to at least 50 yards in the first go-round. We didn't do quite as well under a 5-second timer from the draw the second time around. Of course, it's more than enough time to make the shot, but goes to show how that beeping little bastard can get into your head.
The second 2/3rds of our time was spent mostly in timed drills both drawing from the holster and shooting from the ready.
We also did some team drills on steel and some man-on-man (two guys side-by-side shooting at two pieces of steel from the holster at the beep of the timer -- first on steel wins). I enjoyed this portion of the course the most. Remarkably, we had shooters pinging steel from 10 yards from the draw under 2 seconds and a few instances where even the timer couldn't pick the winner.
The emphasis throughout the course was on accuracy through perfect trigger pull and smooth execution of draws and reloads.
Take-aways:
1. I have been shooting handguns of various makes for a decade now. I would say I easily fell into the lower third in terms of proficiency. This goes to show the value of learning things the right way early and not building bad habits. I unlearned a lot of those bad habits and came away with a lot of very useful drills that I will use to continue to improve. The shooters with the least experience were some of the best shots by the end of the day.
1a. I have taken two basic get-your-concealed-carry-permit courses with local PDs that focused on legalities and mindset with maybe 20 minutes combined live-fire. While you can't replace the mindset instilled by a police officer telling you that he's not going to be there to hold your hand when the doo-doo hits the fan and that you're responsible for your personal safety, I feel as if I might as well have lit that money on fire. Chris' course, on the other hand, was an exceptional value.
2. I will always endeavor to carry a reload. I have had a concealed carry permit for 3 1/2 years and almost never carried one. In class I was occasionally doing "tactical" reloads between drills, basically inserting a fresh magazine between them. Well, I failed to seat a magazine properly once. I drew and my magazine went flying out of my pistol. In a real-world scenario, this would have left me absolutely screwed. The good thing was that in only a few hours of exercises, I executed a reload without thinking about it.
3. Wraparound eye shields are the dorkiest thing ever, but they work. The shooter to my left on the line was a little shorter than me and using a .45. His hot baby food jars were hitting me in the left eye throughout the course. My ESS crossbows kept that brass out of my eye. My day would have been quite short if I had worn my regular glasses.
Chris is a solid instructor. The proof is in the results you will see at the end of the course. I look forward to taking a basic carbine course with him when he gets back up and running next year.
And man, I am sorry for your loss. I hope family, friends and faith will carry you through this.
Oct. 22, 2011, C2 Shooting Center, Virginia Beach, Va.
The morning started bright, early and cool with about a dozen shooters. The bulk had a couple of years' experience with a few very experienced shooters and one who had never shot a pistol before.
We started with a quick but thorough safety brief, then moved to the firing line at about 3 yards for a basic skills assessment shooting five (or in my case, six) shots at a 3x5 index card. We moved on to a few hours of trigger control exercises, including a very useful two-man ball-and-dummy drill and some dry-fire work shooting from the trigger reset.
From there we learned reload procedure (which I also screwed up the first time) and a five-step draw. We interspersed this with a couple of walk-back drills on a 12x12 inch piece of steel in which I'd say at least half of the class survived back to at least 50 yards in the first go-round. We didn't do quite as well under a 5-second timer from the draw the second time around. Of course, it's more than enough time to make the shot, but goes to show how that beeping little bastard can get into your head.
The second 2/3rds of our time was spent mostly in timed drills both drawing from the holster and shooting from the ready.
We also did some team drills on steel and some man-on-man (two guys side-by-side shooting at two pieces of steel from the holster at the beep of the timer -- first on steel wins). I enjoyed this portion of the course the most. Remarkably, we had shooters pinging steel from 10 yards from the draw under 2 seconds and a few instances where even the timer couldn't pick the winner.
The emphasis throughout the course was on accuracy through perfect trigger pull and smooth execution of draws and reloads.
Take-aways:
1. I have been shooting handguns of various makes for a decade now. I would say I easily fell into the lower third in terms of proficiency. This goes to show the value of learning things the right way early and not building bad habits. I unlearned a lot of those bad habits and came away with a lot of very useful drills that I will use to continue to improve. The shooters with the least experience were some of the best shots by the end of the day.
1a. I have taken two basic get-your-concealed-carry-permit courses with local PDs that focused on legalities and mindset with maybe 20 minutes combined live-fire. While you can't replace the mindset instilled by a police officer telling you that he's not going to be there to hold your hand when the doo-doo hits the fan and that you're responsible for your personal safety, I feel as if I might as well have lit that money on fire. Chris' course, on the other hand, was an exceptional value.
2. I will always endeavor to carry a reload. I have had a concealed carry permit for 3 1/2 years and almost never carried one. In class I was occasionally doing "tactical" reloads between drills, basically inserting a fresh magazine between them. Well, I failed to seat a magazine properly once. I drew and my magazine went flying out of my pistol. In a real-world scenario, this would have left me absolutely screwed. The good thing was that in only a few hours of exercises, I executed a reload without thinking about it.
3. Wraparound eye shields are the dorkiest thing ever, but they work. The shooter to my left on the line was a little shorter than me and using a .45. His hot baby food jars were hitting me in the left eye throughout the course. My ESS crossbows kept that brass out of my eye. My day would have been quite short if I had worn my regular glasses.
Chris is a solid instructor. The proof is in the results you will see at the end of the course. I look forward to taking a basic carbine course with him when he gets back up and running next year.
And man, I am sorry for your loss. I hope family, friends and faith will carry you through this.