Hackathorn Advanced Pistol Class Atlanta pics added

[mike benedict]

Ken Hackathorn Advanced Pistol Class Atlanta
May 24-25 2008
Pickens County Gun Club Jasper Georgia
Cost $350

I will be hosting Ken Hackathorn once again this Summer.
Ken is one of the finest pistol instructors in the country.
If you have not taken a class from Ken you need to.

Mike

[ygbsm]

Who else is going?

[Sam]

I'll be bringing Ken up Friday night. I'll be joining the class for dinner.

[The Dumb Gun Collector]

I'll be there!

[John_Wayne777]

I wish I could attend. Those of you who can actually attend a Hackathorn class would be foolish to miss the opportunity. You'll learn a LOT.

[ToddG]

Agree with JW777 completely. I first met Ken in '97 during a class and consider him a good friend. Every person I've ever met who has been to one of Ken's classes was glad they'd gone and wanted to take another.

They don't call him the Tactical Dalai Lama for nothing ...

[30 cal slut]

I wish I could attend. Those of you who can actually attend a Hackathorn class would be foolish to miss the opportunity. You'll learn a LOT.

+1,000 in a big way.

[mike benedict]

This turned out to be one of the best classes I have ever hosted.
The skill level of the class was off the charts.
Thanks to all of you that came out and shot with us I had a great time.

Mike

[Sam]

The class is history. Ken put on a helluva class. I wasn't a student, I was his driver from and to the airport. We made a side trip while we were at the airport and dropped by to visit a couple of buddies at the FAMS office. Mike had a bunch of great guys in the class, top notch shooters and Ken complimented them so. I met Greg Bell and he was nice enough to let fondle his Novak 1911 and shoot a few rounds through his HK45. Pretty slick gun that HK, kinda on the big side though. There were a variety of handguns used, a bunch of Glock 17s, 34s, HK45, Sig, 1911s (including a nice Chuck Rogers built gun). For those fruitbats at glocktalk, Ken shot a G17!
One student preferred to carry his pistol in the appendix position and shot really well with it. He brought a really unique 1911 to show Ken. It was a series 70 Colt built by John Miller at least 20 years ago and labeled the "Hackathorn Special", it was a limited run of guns that most people including myself have never seen.


Ken prepared to demonstrate the right turn.


Finished up the engagement after the turn.

There were the usual class dinners for those who chose to attend on Friday (Buffalo's Cafe), Saturday (Mexican) and the wrap up dinner on Sunday (2 Brothers BBQ).

I hope Greg comes in here and post his take on the class, I think everyone learned a few things and were able to put some knowledge into their tactical tool box.

[The Dumb Gun Collector]

Hey guys,

I spent this weekend up at Talon Tactical in North Georgia. They brought down Ken Hackathorn to teach an Advanced pistol class. This is the second time I have been able to train with Mr. Hackathorn, and I was glad to have the opportunity. Guys, if you have a chance to, sign up for one of his classes ASAP. He is getting older, and is clearly getting ready to hand over his “crown” to Larry Vickers, his protege. Don’t miss a chance to train with one of the legends of the craft. Hell, just listening to his stories alone are worth the $300.

This class was a 2 day package of skill drills. I won’t go over every last detail, as I consider that bad form since Ken has to make a living! That said, it really isn’t possible to fully translate hands-on training onto paper anyway. A few of the core practice drills that you might perform yourself if you have a range that is reasonable are as follows:

Starting at 21 feet draw and fire one round. ACCURACY. Draw and fire as fast as you can shoot accurately, but no faster. A fast miss is just screwing around. Accuracy, at all ranges, is a group that can be covered by your hand. If you are shooting tighter groups than this shoot faster.

Follow up with two shots from a draw. Next three. Then backup to 15 and then finally 20 yards repeating the same drill. Again, all shots should be in a hand sized group.

Next, do the same drills while walking forward and backwards. Draw and walk back and shoot. Then walk back while shooting. Make sure you draw and walk before you fire. Bend your knees!! They work as shock absorbers. Obviously, you can test this while dry-firing in your house. Ken really stresses how much you needn't worry about wobble. Test this by moving your gun in a circle or figure eight while shooting. Make sure to PRESS the trigger, not snatch it, and all your shots will land in the a-zone wobble or not. Nearly, to a man, by the time the two days of shooting on the move drills were over, most people shot nearly as well on the move as stationary.

Next, incorporate lateral movement. Hackathorn teaches a side step. Basically keep your whole body facing the threat but do not turn. Just side step but DO NOT cross your feet (as I did). He does not recommend turing you torso because, if you are wearing armor you will expose your side, and even if you aren’t a frontal hit is more survivable than a side hit.

A good lateral movement practice is an el-presidente while moving. Just line up three targets and shoot 2 into each while moving laterally.

Also, the box-drill is best for practicing all at once. Set up 4 markers in a square pattern, maybe 10-15 feet apart. Set up a target (s). Start wherever you want walk to the next marker while shooting. When you get to that marker start shooting while moving in the other direction, etc, until you walk around the square. Again, concentrate on good hits until you can cover the target with your hand---then speed up.


Mr. H does not recommend the step to the side and yell stuff that other schools teach. He says that one step to the side isn’t going to do much other than slow your shot. If the other guy has a bead, you will still get hit in all likelihood. He teaches that you keep moving at all times (if possible).

A great skill builder is the 1-5(6?) count drill. Basically, incorporate counting at a definite pace (a timer with a metronome might do well) into any of the above drills to make sure you fire at a good pace, and that you get used to firing whether you are “ready” or not. As Ken points out, it is the bad guy who chooses your shots, not you.

Also, get a couple of barrels or trash cans and get used to walking forward or backing up in a figure 8 while shooting at various points. Although we didn’t do this, I figure it would be awesome to do this with a 1-6 count or while having a buddy announce when you are to fire. Put the barrels maybe three feet apart. Practice with them lined up for a while, then side to side.

Some other of Hackathorn’s insights and humorous anecdotes...

1.Weak handed drills are absurdly over-stressed by gamers and some other trainers. He spent about 20 minutes on a few drills, but said it was basically something you practice for 10 or 20 rounds every once in a while, or dry-fire.

2.Mozambique drills (a fav of mine) are almost a waste of time unless that is what you train to do every time(as, he pointed out, some foreign SF units do). He says, under stress, you won’t process that your body shots didn’t work and transition to the head. He says you will just keep pounding away. By the way, that is his advice, shoot until the are down. Gamers who shoot only to confirm a hit and then look to the next target and shift their gun their are not training for the real world.

3.Glocks are the only gun that come out of the box with zero pride of ownership. He made this joke when everybody had to toss their guns in the sand for some pick-up/weak-handed drills. People with Glocks didn’t care about scratches, while the 1911 people generally ran off to get a something to pillow their guns on. FYI, I just tossed the Hk on the ground. Old Erna doesn’t give a crap.

4.A LOT of the big names (NOT KEN) don’t even carry. Ken thinks they are nuts and related a story of a good friend of his (NOT LARRY VICKERS!) go caught up in a store robber in flip-flops and a FBI academy t-shirt! No gun!

5.European SF, for the most part, suck. Back in the late-70s-80s they were way out ahead of our guys (especially the Germans), but have since stagnated. Ken says that the dying gun-culture and lack of serious threats in recent years have retarded their development. He credits the war on terror and “throwing money at the problem” for our guys being so far ahead of the rest of the world in tactics and training. He said that these days, some of the German SEK units were better trained than the GSG-9, which has seriously degraded.

6.U.S. infantry small-arms training is woefully inadequate, and so obsessed with safety that it is unsafe.



7.He had been over to train various Israeli units and they were awful. Just terrible. They simply did not maintain their weapons and the weapons showed it. He says if you want to see Glocks and ARs (and Jericos) jamming then watch the Israelis. He described how their soldiers would often just throw their weapons on the ground when they dismounted from vehicles, rather than handing them down. He said the Israelis were mistaken to switch from the Galil to the M-16, which he said were basically thrown at them.

8.He restressed that an AK-47 is, on balance, a superior fighting rifle to the competition. This is a view that Larry and a lot of other guys from the SF community share, especially with experiences drawn from the recent unpleasantness.

9. HK’s barrels are the best in the world. They pride themselves on it. However, when Ken was at HK he noticed the “Made in France” stickers on the barrel blanks. He said that when he pointed that out the HK supervisor he looked a little depressed and said, “you saw that eh?”


There were TONS of other drills. Suffice it to say, the two major things he stressed are :

1 TRIGGER CONTROL above all. Everything else is a distant second. He proved this buy making us point shoot on the move with our sights taped. All of us were able to easily tear up the targets by simply indexing the gun while focusing on the target.

2.Practice outside your comfort zone. He pointed out, once you get the fundamentals down, static training is masturbation. He stressed constantly varying your drills, principally with various movements. Again, if your groups get tighter than hand sized, SPEED UP!



Finally, let me say what an amazing resource Talon Tactical is. Nestled up in the mountains of north Georgia is a serious training school! Folks in the South East should make sure they come. Mike Benedict, who is a fantastic shooter basically brings down the greats like Hackathorn, Vickers and Harrington to teach us country-bumpikins at a reasonable rate. I hope Mike doesn't realize he could jack-up his rates and make more money! As far as I can tell, he isn't making any cash, he just runs the school as a scam to get the best shooters down to train with him!!