Instructor: Larry Vickers with Grant (G&R Tactical) and Dave as AI's and Helpers
Location: ITI (G4S) Shacklefords, VA
Time: March 6-8, 2013
Class: 3 Day Home Defense with Pistol/Carbine
I had the great opportunity and fortune to be able to attend this 3-Day Home Defense Class taught by Larry Vickers himself. Larry needs no introduction as he's one of the premier most sought after firearms instructors in the world. He's a TV Show host (Tac TV), former SFOD-D Tier-1 Operator, Master 1911 Pistolsmith, one of the original founders of IDPA, and probably one of the most knowledgeable firearms historians in the world. I honestly don't think there's anyone in the world with a combination of firearms accomplishments and knowledge to rival Larry's.
Day 1:
We went through a quick safety brief in the morning, loaded up mags, and toured the shoothouse facility first. The weather was very cold and rainy on the first day. Larry explained to us that there are many reasons why one may have to clear one's own home. In addition, there are also reasons why one may have to leave or egress from one's home during a home invasion or robbery. While this may sound obvious, they were things that I hadn't even thought of before.
Larry explained to us that he normally would have us shoot on the flat range and get an evaluation of where the class was in terms of marksmanship fundamentals. However, since the weather was so bad, it'd be impossible to do the square range effectively in the morning. Thus, we went straight to the shoothouse doing dry runs and air-gunning.
Larry explained to us the importance of proper footwork, angles, and how to pie a room section by section. He also showed us and explained to us several concepts of threat levels and why which areas should be pied and scanned first. After answering some questions, the students got to go on several dry runs. We broke up into two groups with one group going with Larry, and the other going with Grant of G&R Tactical.
During the dry runs, both Larry and Grant gave lots of valuable feedback on both what we did wrong and what we did right. Also, there were times where a student may not technically do something wrong, but Larry would point out a better way to have done it. There was so much information that it was definitely like drinking from a garden hose the first day. There were many moments where I definitely got indecisive about which way to go or exactly what to do. After each group got done with their lanes, we switched stations, with those originally with Larry going to Grant and vice versa. Then we took a lunch break.
After lunch, the weather got even worse. It was sleeting and/or snowing. Larry decided that we still needed to shoot so he could see where the class was in terms of basic marksmanship. Thus, we took out 4 bullet traps in the shoothouse and lined them up at the end of the longest hallway in the shoothouse. We broke up into groups of 4 and shot at various close ranges from about 3 to maybe 15 yds on IPSCs with a B-8 Repair Center taped on. Larry is a big stickler for accuracy as he explained to us that all of our hits should be in the black. They should obviously be even tighter at distances like 3 and 6 yds. After shooting a few strings, we did a few trigger control drills to help eliminate the "el snatcho" and improve our trigger control. I think many people's accuracy improved after doing these drills.
Next, Larry was going to have us run a few lanes hot for the first time. Unfortunately though, the power went out, and we had to break for the day. The weather was getting pretty bad at that point, and it was getting late as well.
Day 2:
The weather was much nicer on Day 2. Even though it was still chilly, the precipitation abated, and the sun gradually came out. We started Day 2 on the square range. Larry had us shoot pistol and carbine at various distances to get us warmed up and dial us in. We did a few of his signature drills including his famous trigger reset drill, teaching us proper trigger reset. Larry explained to us the consequences of poor trigger reset and what often happens in the real world when people become too accustomed to holding their trigger back and not properly resetting the trigger. We also broke out barricades and shot both pistol and carbine working the barricades and treating them as cover. Larry showed us the importance of line of bore vs. line of sight with the carbine as well. He also taught us that it's generally not good to crowd and hug cover. We broke for lunch after working the square range for the morning.
After lunch, we went back in the shoothouse and did many runs with both pistol and carbine. As with the day before, one group went with Larry while another group went with Grant and Dave. After each person did their run, we switched off so that each shooter did both lanes. We shot at IPSC targets with a B-8 repair center taped on them. During the live runs, Larry made it perfectly clear that he expected good accuracy with hits in the black at all times. He explained to us that even the best shooters will see their groups double in size in a real world gunfight. Thus, it is of utmost importance to be accurate. During these live runs, many people saw accuracy take a nose dive. Just working different angles, less than ideal lighting conditions, and shooting from different positions caused most people's accuracy to go down at least somewhat. Dave, Grant, and Larry all gave extremely valuable feedback both during and after each run. It was a very informative throughout. When the last shooter finished the last run, we had a Q&A session before the end of Day 2.
Day 3:
Day 3 was spent entirely in the shoothouse. As with the previous days, we broke up into two lanes with one group going with Larry and the other going with Grant and Dave. We switched off after we got down with one lane so each shooter would run both lanes. On the third day, the targets were changed to actual humaniod targets on paper. In addition, mannequins were actually used as well. There were shoot/no shoot scenarios and targets. This was basically taking everything we learned in the two previous days and putting it all together. Despite using the humanoid targets, Larry kept up his high standard of accuracy, explaining that peripheral shots will oftentimes not end the fight, and that the best backstop in the house is the upper A-zone of the bad guy. After lunch, we did more runs, but this time low light was involved. Larry, Dave, and Grant all made suggestions with gear selection and gear placement. They explained the hows and whys of white lights, grips, sights, etc. During the last low light run, Larry, Grant, and Dave all gave feedback for each shooter on the same lane. When the last shooter was done, we all helped clean up the shoothouse before a final brief. At the end we had a final Q&A before hitting the road.
This was a great class for sure despite mother nature not wanting to cooperate on Day 1. Larry's instruction is obviously world class first rate. All of the students received lots of great feedback from Grant and Dave as well. If you use a firearm for home defense, you should definitely take this class. All the students learned alot both in terms of shooting and in terms of things to think about in a home defense scenario. First, I want to thank Larry for doing such a wonderful class and also Grant and Dave for being awesome AI's and their valuable feedback. Also, I'd like to thank ITI for being a great host. Their facility is top notch. If you have any reservations or were sitting on the fence about whether to take a Home Defense Class from Vickers Tactical, you should go ahead and take it. You'll be glad you did.
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Originally Posted by Ty_B
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