Taken almost word for word from my post on http://www.weapon-owners.com/newforum/index.php?topic=1694.0
http://www.minnesotaccw.com/progressive-pistolcraft-1.html
http://www.sureshottraining.com/advanced-training-classes.html
Review:
This training was held on the Police Range at Ahlman's in Morristown, home of the SHTF shoots and all sorts of awesome activities
Because of the fact that it is still difficult and kind of expensive to get ammo unless you are a dedicated reloader, the round count per day was brought down to 300 rounds and a Force on Force element with airsoft pistols and dummy weapons was added to bring our training together for the day to show us students what we have learned and what we need to work on. I brought along several pistols in case one broke down. For the first day I chose a Springfiled 1911 Milspec because I havent trained much with that pistol and wanted to be able to manipulate the gun in times of stress. Also because John Moses Christ Himself Browning!
Gear needed:
Pistol with OWB holster, at least 300 rounds of ammo, at least 4 mags, at least 2 mag pouches, a good belt, eye and ear protection, and clothing, suncreen, and bug spray dependant on the weather.
Each class started with a safety briefing, gear check and a overview of what the day would bring us.
Before every revolution, Craig would bring us together and explain specifically what would happen and let us top off our magazines as well as grab a drink of water.
*NOTE* classes like this it is CRUCIAL TO HYDRATE! ask me how I know later
The first part of instruction covers grip of the firearm and stance. Form my perspective being a pistol shootier that uses a thumbs forward grip chiefly with striker fired pistols, the grip I was using was just about perfect with my 1911. the only real tweak that I had to make was to make sure my right forward thumb sat above the safety when ready to fire. The training also went over the drawstroke from holsterd to the shooting positions and the hand work that goes along with them. I may make a quick youtube video later on showing the draw as taught to me by Craig & Tony. at first it feels super mechanical and awkward but as the weekend rolls on, it feels like second nature. Every step of the drawstroke ensures you don't sweep any part of your body if done correctly and more importantly will help you to clear clothing with your right thumb up to deflect your clothes and give you natural refrence points to bring the gun up
The next progression of this day was our first trigger time and should be a part of anyones training, and that is Dry Fire. Dry fire training helps you to really focus on press of the trigger to help ensure that gun does not move when you press the trigger. you may have a great sight picture, but you can wash that away in seconds if you jerk the trigger and the gun dives down or left or right.
Now we are getting somewhere, it's time to sling some lead!! the first thing the guys asked us to do is calibrate ourselves by shooting into a 3" x 3" box, to show both them and ourselves what we needed to work on as far as stance and grip as well as trigger press. then a little farther out with headshots. then, it was time to rapid fire for groups. all of this shooting was done from the draw. after that, there was a bit of competition with a bill drill. for those of you that don't know what that is, it is a drill done from the draw. you draw and fire 6 shots into a 8X10 square at around 5 yards as fast and as accurately as you can. I have done these before and theay are fun as heck, and better when you can do it from your holster rather than picking up your gun off the bench at the range!
Wait! what do you do if your gun decides to jam up on you?? It's time for malfunction drills! We were taught how to quickly and effectivly handle tap-rack-bang as well as rip-roll-rack-reload drills and scenarios under stress. This portion of the class is huge and here's why. What do you normally do at the range when you have a malfunction? You stop what you are doing and diagnose the malfunction because you have time to. If you are ever in a stuation where your firearm keeps you alive, you need to clear the malfunction and get the gun back into the fight 10 seconds ago!
The next items covered was retention shooting as well as single handed shooting with both strong and weak hands. Imagine if you will you are at the gas pump. Thug hassles you and the situation escalates to him or her drawing a weapon. This training teaches you how to create space and fire effectively if need be. We were also tought the "SUL" (south) position for retaining your handgun while moving through tight spaces like a hallway.
The next and last part of the class featured Force on Force and weapon retention as well as shoot/no shoot scenarios. This part of the class is easliy the most fun and informative. It really makes you look at yourself as a person and as someone who carries a gun and shows what you need to focus on. There were situations involving someone rushing you with threatning and non threatning objects, gun grabs, knife attacks and shooting from cover.
Final thoughts:
I learned so many great things about my shooting ability as well as a few thing I need to focus on from a defensive standpoint vs shooting for fun and accuracy. This has for me been the most fun I have had shooting in a couple years because I was challenged to learn something new and or improve on the things I have learned with every press of the trigger. I do feel this training class has made me a better shooter and sharpened my focus as protector of my family and because of that I give Craig and Tony a huge thumbs up for their attention to their class' safety and every minute detail of each student as far as manipulating new skills at each revolution and helping them bring it all together. If there was any questions, they had common sense answers with no mall ninja youtube/hollywood fluff and they really drove home the fact that "practice don't make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect."
If you are serious about carrying a pistol and protecting you and your loved ones, look these guys up. Stay tuned, a review for PPC2 is next!
http://www.minnesotaccw.com/progressive-pistolcraft-1.html
http://www.sureshottraining.com/advanced-training-classes.html
and for the facebookers
https://www.facebook.com/pages/SST-SureShot-Training/203064783092868
https://www.facebook.com/TacticalTrainingSolutions
check em out, give them a like and tell your friends!
