On 16 October Defensive Concepts North Carolina taught its Defensive Handgun course in Carthage, NC. While DCNC has taught this course many times over the past several years; this was the first run of the course with the Vickers Shooting Method principles being incorporated into the course material.

The class began with introductions and discussions of the medical plan and the primary safety rules of shooting. With this complete we hit the range. As with all of our courses we began the day with a discussion of trigger control and jumped into a series of dry fire drills that targeted this problem area and gave the students tools to eliminate the primary issue of snatching the trigger. We worked through these drills and slowly progressed into the live fire. After completing this we moved on to the issues of grip, stance, and working the draw.

Later in the day we covered the three methods of reloading the pistol. Each method was explained in detail and the shooters practiced each one. Once this was complete, the shot timer came out and each shooter was able to see which method was better for them. For the rest of the day the shooters would be given the option to use the method that worked best for them. Once reloads were covered we moved on to malfunction clearance.

Other areas that were covered throughout the day included types of stops, target areas, assessing threats, scanning for additional threats, and shooting on the move.

Regardless of which topic was being covered; a strong emphasis on accuracy was placed. Some shooters were able to achieve this at times, but everyone saw that they had a great deal of work to do in order to be at this level on a consistent basis.

Weapon used in the class included 2 Sig P226s, 1 Glock 17, 1 M&P9, and 1 CZ P01. The CZ was the only pistol that was taken off the line during the course. The shooter stated she was having issues with being able to fully press the trigger when firing the gun in DA. She stated the trigger would move most of the way through travel then reach a point where she was forced to snatch the trigger in order to make the gun discharge. She worked with the gun for about 2 hours before asking if she could try a different pistol. She was provided with a Glock 19 which she used for the rest of the day without incident.

The day ended with a brief discussion of the course and the various things the shooters liked and didn’t like about. We always ask students for their honest feedback about our courses and use it to help make our future classes better. With feedback noted; everyone said their good-byes and left the range with new skills to further their development as shooters.