AAR: VICKERS Pistol 1 Feb 4-5, College Station, TX

[BWW]

This is going to be more of a brief overviewthan a true AAR. This is the first chance I have had to sit down with the laptop and my notes are still not organized. Maybe some others can jump in add to this.
First off. THANKS to Mr. Hotaling and Grey Group for bringing some of the best instructors in the industry to the state of Texas. There are some great instructors allready here but, one thing that has been missing is a place to host the wealth of talent that Grey Group has to offer. Which is where I'm going next.
Second. THANKS to Mr. Struve the owner of Cawthon Cartridge Club. This is in my opinion a fantastic facility to host training. Check out there website and you will see all they have to offer.
Third. Mr. Vickers no intro's are needed here. Let me just say that the LAV showed up to class literally wearing the clothes on his back. As many of you know from watching the super bowl week. Texas was hammered with an ice storm. Mr. Vickers was rerouted several times flying in and he showed up one place and all his clothing and gear went somewhere else. He borrowed a loaner gun and marched on. I won't spend much time here on what drills and in what order, just remember this was an intro level class and all the basic's were covered. One thing I will say is the LAV has a high standard for accuracy. Some of his trigger control drills are a must.
The class was mostly civilians with a few L.E. Skill sets were ranging. The way the class was run nobody was slowing down someone else. Pistols I think were half glocks and all kinds of others. Something I will say about Mr. Vickers is his knowlege is off the charts and he has his opinions about things. You will be maid aware of these in short order. That alone is worth the price of admission.
The weather was in the 20's with a strong north wind on day 1 and about 2" of ice on the ground. Day 2 was a little warmer but, still very windy. The training room was a big benefit to have. If any of you have a chance to train with LAV do so. Also check out the Grey Group page to see else Mr Hotaling has scheduled for CCC. Great range and great training and good to make new friends.
Brad W.

[JJM]

Well, I’ll try to jump in and add to the comments that Brad started (the carbine guys have gotten way ahead of the pistol group on the AAR from last weekend’s course – which I suppose is to be expected on M4c). Anyway, let me start by echoing Brad’s thanks to Larry Vickers, Grey Group, and Cawthon Cartridge Club.

LAV made it to the class in spite of airline delays and re-routing that separated him from his gear, ultimately driving from San Antonio in time to beat the freezing rain and snow that hit Southeast Texas Thursday night. He was determined to drive-on despite the weather, which was a good thing because we had a full class of die-hard students who were prepared to overcome the weather and make the most of this world-class training opportunity.

Thanks also to Paul, Sarah, and the rest of the team at Grey Group for organizing the training and keeping everyone well informed every step of the way. Finally, thanks to Steve and Fred (CCC’s "volunteer-in-chief") for hosting this session. CCC is a great facility, and although still a work-in-progress in places, what they have in place makes for a great training venue. This relatively new private range is beginning to host a number of top-notch trainers and events and those of us in the Houston and Southeast Texas area are fortunate to have this high-quality venue so close to home.

TD1:

Now, on to the AAR … as I said, we had a full class in spite of the weather (I think there may have only been 1 or 2 that couldn’t make it due to the road conditions on the morning of TD1). Also, as the OP said, the class was predominately civilians, a couple of instructors working on their skill-set, and some active and former military. Although there was a range of skill levels as one would expect for an level 1 class, no one seemed to hold the group back, and LAV did a great job of focusing attention where necessary, managing pace, and maintaining a safe training environment. LAV delivered his trademark style which is manifest in several ways: (i) his high standards in terms of accuracy and safety, (ii) his depth of knowledge in so many areas and willingness to share opinions and techniques – each backed up by real world, proven, experience, and (iii) delivering all of the above with LAV’s unique and colorful humor. As other posters have noted, if you screw-up an exercise, Larry will always find unique and humorous way to call you out (though in a good-natured way) that will ensure the lesson sinks in and sticks with both you and the rest of the class. I can speak to this from personal experience.

We were lucky to have an enclosed, heated classroom right next to the training range. On the morning of TD1, LAV adapted to the ice, snow, wind, and temp in the 20's by using the classroom for his real world safety brief, and extended discussions of trigger control (as LAV stresses, this is the most important element of consistently accurate shooting), sight alignment, the pros and cons of various types of sights, and LAV's methods for reloads. The great thing about LAV's instruction is that except for a few areas such as safety or accuracy (since you’re accountable for every round you fire), he doesn’t take a "my way or the highway" approach, but instead explains why he teaches each technique the way that he does and what the real world implications are. Anyone taking a class from LAV owes it to themselves to give each of his techniques a serious try because they have often evolved from real world lessons-learned.

After the initial classroom work, we went out to the range and paired up to work on trigger control (balanced case drills), as well as various ball & dummy drills – both the conventional method as well as LAV’s own command fire and timed fire ball & dummy variations – each with remedial dry-fire required if "El Snatcho" made an appearance. While in pairs, we also worked on dry-fire trigger reset drills, followed by various live-fire strings to reinforce the lesson. (The trigger reset drills were particularly useful, with one of my own "a-ha" moments being to learn that the key is to relax the trigger finger DURING recoil and allow spring tension to cause the trigger to reset, rather than to consciously move the finger forward to achieve reset after recoil – which can be clumsy and slow.) Throughout the morning we took frequent breaks to warm-up and top-up in the classroom due to the weather. Following the initial drills, we broke up into teams and frequently incorporated team competitions into the various drills. As others have noted, the combination of both time pressure and team pressure do a lot to focus attention and reinforce the lesson that as in life, there are no "do-over's" – every single shot counts, and you don’t want to let your team-mates down.

Given the weather, and the fact that there were no nearby lunch options, we all agreed to push through lunch and wrap-up the day early at 2:00, with plans to pack-in a very full day for TD2 which was forecast for much better weather. IIRC, during the early afternoon on TD1 we had a discussion on the wobble zone – and overcoming your brain’s exaggeration of this wobble zone. This was followed by a demonstration from LAV showing that acceptance of one’s wobble zone, when coupled with proper trigger control, can still result excellent hits on target even if the wobble zone is wildly exaggerated (a factor that came into play on TD2 with shooting on the move drills). Then, again IIRC, we wrapped-up TD1 with “The Test” which in its baseline form requires 10 shots, at 10 yards, in 10 seconds from the ready to be delivered all in the black (using NRA B-8 replacement centers w/ 5.5" black bull). For those of us using single stack 1911’s w/ a total capacity of less than 10 rounds, the above was performed from the holster. We then ramped up the test by moving in to 5 yards, but reducing the time to 5 seconds – not everyone was able to get all 10 shots off in that time frame the first time around. The drill really emphasized the importance of trigger control, trigger reset, and comfort with an "acceptable sight picture" within and "acceptable wobble zone" given the time constraint. (BTW, as I review my notes, it’s possible that both the wobble zone demo and "the Test" were at the beginning of TD2, but my notes aren’t clear on where we ended TD1 and began TD2, so someone else may be able to clarify.)

Anyway, we finished TD1 a bit early, but had covered a lot of ground nonetheless. About half of us were able to meet up for a well-deserved early dinner of some good Texas BBQ that earned a thumbs-up from LAV.

TD2:

As hoped, TD2 was sunny and much warmer, though still somewhat windy. As another student had posted: "snow on day one; sunburn on day two". Also, for TD2 we’d all brought our lunch and planned to pack a lot into the day. We began with a recap of trigger control drills, but then quickly moved into a very busy day of malfunction drills and team drills. These included WHO and SHO drills at various distances, as well as multiple shot timed drills at various distances. We finished the morning with a walk-back competition on steel. I think about ½ the class made it through about 75 yards, but with trigger control a must and hold-points becoming a major factor, most of the remaining missed at 90 yards. The final two made it to about 115 yards – and then many of the other students gave it a try at that distance once they had a better understanding of their required hold-point. As one who took advantage of this rare do-over, I can say it’s pretty cool to shoot steel at that distance with a .45. It almost seems like a full 1-2 count between the shot and the hit, but it can be done – though you have to hold at or above the top edge of the plate. After the walk-back we took a break for lunch.

Well, apparently, we shouldn’t have taken a break for lunch, b/c most of the class came back to the line after lunch and shot the first team drill like a bunch of incompetent zombies. However, after some well-deserved chiding from LAV, we snapped out of it, and got back on track. After a few more drills, we spent the remainder of the afternoon working on a range of shoot-on-the-move exercises ranging from turning drills (to left, to right, to rear - from both sides) as well as walking and turning drills on command, culminating on various moving to the front, and moving to the rear while shooting – and shooting accurately. These drills really allowed everyone to put together each of the skills refined earlier in the course and clearly demonstrated their importance when the shooting becomes more dynamic. The final drills were done in relays and culminated in a final team drill shooting on the move both to the front and to the rear for score.

Conclusion:

LAV's class was an excellent experience, and it was a pleasure to train with a good group of switched-on shooters. Most importantly, it was an honor to train with Larry Vickers, and I’d encourage anyone who has the chance to do so to jump on it. Aside from the excellent on-range instruction and drills, LAV's nuggets of information and history about firearms, gear, and techniques; as well as his candid insights are themselves worth the price of admission. Although I’m a life-long shooter with extensive small-bore precision pistol experience many years ago, and more recent sporting clays training and competition, LAV's class was my first opportunity to train in more practical pistol skills. I learned a ton and think LAV's class has provided a strong base that I can build on with diligent practice. I’m looking forward to more classes with Larry Vickers and hope that he includes Texas in his regular training rotation going forward.

Finally, I wish that I had pictures to post, but the fact is, it was too damn cold to mess with my camera on TD1 and on TD2 we were too busy. I think that a few people got some shots that can be posted, but I doubt we’ll have anything that compares with the photos posted for the carbine and AK classes that followed.

Thanks again to LAV, GG, and CCC; and I enjoyed meeting and shooting with a great group of guys. Hope to see you all at future sessions.

Regards,
JJM (aka "Mr. Math" / "Back In Black" team leader)

[BWW]

That is a great AAR from JJM. And YES you are a math wizard Sir. one thing that I found out for myself is shooting pistol with gloves is very difficult. Now I've dry fired and even practiced a little on nice days but, when its in the 20's with a strong north wind things are different. Once you have a master grip and break the shot its OK but, wearing them all day in class and doing all the manipulations you find out quickly the differences. It was great training with you JJM.
Brad W

[JJM]

You're absolutely right about the gloves. At the last minute I'd thrown a pair of lightweight leather shotgun gloves into my range bag and they were enough to cut the wind. I also had some of the Vickers gloves from EOTAC, but I felt that trying to adjust to operating my pistol with the thicker gloves would be added complexity that I didn't need to deal with in a level 1 course.

[bprice01]

Nice write-up JJM.

One thing I'll throw in there is the number of malfunctions we saw on the first day of class. There were numerous failures to fire from several different pistols. I think most of the malfunctions came from guys shooting WWB, but I'm not positive.

My full size M&P 9mm had 2 failures to fire shooting WWB. My buddy's CZ P-07 wouldn't even function in double action. That might say more about the CZ than anything else. I know some other guys had some issues, as well.

After it warmed up I didn't have any other problems. The CZ had a couple of failures to eject.

[bprice01]

One other thing I noticed is that there was only 1 other M&P shooter in the pistol class but there were several in the carbine class. I don't know why.

[JJM]

I was one of those who had a few failures to fire w/ WWB. I was shooting a WC .45 that I'd cleaned and lubed w/ Wilson's light oil anticipating the cold weather, so I really don't think it was grit or goo in the firing pin tunnel. The failures were random and in middle of multiple shot strings when they happened. It was 2 on TD1 and one on TD2. I think LAV was ready to classify them off as examples of the challenges of a 1911, but if anything I think it was either related to the WWB, or the cold, or both. BTW, those were the only malfunctions of any kind that I suffered, so from a training perspective I used them as an opportunity to practice my tap/rack/bang reaction.

[NotDylan]

Thanks for the report, I'll be attending the same class in April. What was the total round count?

[Watrdawg]

I'll be in the same April class. Interested in the round count also. Actually I'm taking the Basic class in NC in March then the Level 1 Class at the same place in April. Will be nice to take the 2 classes basically back to back.

[BWW]

I shot only 500 rounds. Keep in mind that alot of day 1 was in the classroom due to terrible weather conditions. Also I remember Mr. Vickers saying that if your really concentrating on accuracy your head will be fried by 300 rounds in one day. Brad W.