What course should I take next and what is a Firearms Instructor Development Course?

Many new Instructors and students ask me “What course should I take next?” My answer is always the same, any course that enhances your skills as a “student of weapons-craft” and those that offer more than just a course of fire designed to make you a better shooter. The courses I am speaking about are those that teach you things like the importance of having good situational awareness, evaluating points of access and egress in each location you find yourself in, including an evaluation of transitional spaces and those that teach you a variety of force options or some kind of use of force continuum if you will. Additionally courses that teach you how to prepare yourself for the aftermath of a self-defense incident where you had to use non-lethal or heaven forbid, lethal force.

These courses should also emphasize that your first option should always be to avoid, evade and then if necessary counter your threat rather than going for the gun immediately. The gun should be a tool of the last resort, period.

I tend to go a little further in my answer by saying that one should have skills in non-lethal methods of engagement, such as OC or “pepper spray” and of course empty-hand Combatives, maybe even one or two of the various martial arts. My personal choices for many reasons, but mostly because I studied both of these extensively are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or “BJJ” and Jeet Kune Do or “JKD.”

For empty-hand Combatives I always recommend to find someone who was trained by the late Bill Underwood first, Bill is the father of empty hands Combatives. Right now the top Combatives trainer in the game, again, in my opinion, is Kelly McCann with Kembatives Brand, honestly, I do not know Kelly and I do not know who trained him, but his program of instruction is spot on and very similar to what I was taught by my mentor Mike Griffin, who was a personal friend of Bill Underwood.

Circling back to Instructor Development Courses…

The NRA’s Firearm Training Program is a true Instructor Development Program. Most people start by becoming an NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, and yes many people in the industry talk down the program, but truth be told in my intermediate and advanced level shooting courses the first drill I start with is the NRA Instructor Pistol Shooting course pre-course qualification and you’d be surprised how many people, (Even nationally known trainers) who have failed to shoot a 6″ group at 15 yards cold on demand. Yeah, they don’t know that first drill is actually the NRA’s Instructor Pistol Shooting course pre-course qualification, but when I tell them their collective “oh man, I suck” comments sound like an echo.

So what it an Instructor Development course? Is it a course where you listen to a bunch of lecture and then are driven out on the firing line to run a bunch of drills where you are the shooter and NEVER once do a teach-back of any kind on the material presented by the Instructor or even run a drill on the line with your fellow Instructor candidates? That is not an Instructor Development course, and how could it be? That is just a money grab from the Instructor, and some build little cults teaching like this, believe it.

Furthermore is taking a written test and passing a couple qualifications that are not that difficult an Instructor Development course evaluation? I don’t think so, it could be a good student level course.

Yep, that’s what happens in most of these so-called “Firearms Instructor Development” courses and it is ridiculous if you ask me. (I know you didn’t ask me, but this is my blog so you’ll get my qualified and educated opinion)

Recently I attended a three-day Instructor Development course and it was exactly what an Instructor Development course should be. What made this Instructor Development course stand out was the fact on TD1 the Chief Instructor and his staff, there were five (5) total staff instructors asked each individual candidate what they were there to learn. The Chief Instructor readily admitted that he doesn’t know what we know and wanted to make sure that each person got what they came for, that was a big takeaway for me, the Chief Instructor was fully engaged at all times and each candidate did a teach-back on the range selecting one of five or six different drills offered by the staff. During the teach-back the candidate was teaching a couple Staff Instructors with the rest of the candidates observing and then at the end there was an evaluation or the good, and of course the areas that needed to be improved.

This course was not a “Certification” it was all about development and that was refreshing in a world where people want to collect “Certifications” to list on their C/V or website.

Now, I have seen just about all of it, when you travel the country teaching classes as I do and having dinner with students on the road they give you feedback and most tell me that courses that do not pressure test the Instructor Candidates ability to deliver a block of instruction in a classroom environment and on the range with a range exercise are just a “Paper Credential” and I agree with them. So, are you into collecting paper or are you into getting coaching on how to be a teacher, trainer, coach, and mentor?

Let me circle back to this recent Instructor Development course, it was a wealth of knowledge on everything from basic fundamentals to moving while shooting, communication with partners/friendlies, proper use of cover and concealment, room clearing and even a block of instruction on tactical medical procedures and tourniquet application, along with starting a business and talking about things like range and firearms instructor liability insurance and so much more.

The block of instruction on tourniquet application is something that I added into my courses about three years ago and soon I will be requiring each individual student in my range intensive courses to bring their own tourniquet and have it on their person throughout the course, right now I have a fully-stocked trauma bag at each course and the range that I teach at full-time has a fully-functional AED or Automated External Defibrillator, when I am on the road I take my own AED with me.

Now let’s talk about certificate collectors, I have no problem with them, attending courses and getting more training is what we as trainers encourage our students to do. In fact, I encourage all of my students to take as many courses as their pocketbook will allow and from as many different trainers as they can. My binder of certificates include many you would recognize and I have taken multiple courses with people all across the country.

Earlier this year I was invited to attend an Instructor Development course as a guest to evaluate the POI or Program of Instruction and was even provided ammunition and a place to stay, all I had to come up with was travel expenses, rental car, and food. Several of my closest friends know about these offers and they also know that I am the type of person who will refuse the “freebies” and will pay the tuition because that gives me the ability to speak freely about the course and write about my experience(s) in this blog.

Oh, by the way, I was to evaluate a nationally known Law Enforcement Instructor Development course next week, unfortunately, the course was rescheduled due to a death and I will be doing that in September now.

Again, this is my qualified opinion based upon my years of education, training, and experience in this arena and as we know in order to have a qualified opinion on a particular subject you must have the education, training, and experience in that specialized field otherwise your opinion is just like that thing that you expel waste out of your body from while sitting on the crapper.

A Firearms Instructor Development course is one that as I say, pressure tests the candidate in a variety of situations, not just standing in cement on the firing line and mediocre course of fire then a couple qualifications and then take a written test. An Instructor Development course pressure tests each candidate to actually present assigned curriculum either on the range or in the classroom, I prefer a range drill myself so I can evaluate the Instructors ability to explain, demonstrate, imitate and coach his or her students through the exercise.

An Instructor should allow the student to run drills at 50% speed to get familiar with the drill and then allow them to gradually increase the speed until the point of failure or in our case “misses” and then evaluate with the student why they missed. I give a lot of one-on-one coaching as I walk my firing line in the courses I teach because it is important to give feedback to the student, that is what they crave, interaction with the trainer.

This going full-speed just to shoot fast is ridiculous, you must be able to shoot good first, speed will come over more and more repetition. A famous quote attributed to legendary lawman Wyatt Earp goes as follows, “Fast is fine, accuracy is final.”

An Instructor Development course should also include a short exit interview with each candidate, not just a certificate presentation ceremony full of pomp and circumstance and photos for social media. This exit interview should be conducted by the chief instructor and any assistant instructors. It should be used as a tool to help the Instructor candidate understand their strengths and weaknesses and give them an opportunity to give feedback on the course in a closed-door session so the candidate can speak candidly without his or her peers in the room. This exit interview should only last 5 or so minutes.

I will be offering a one-day and two-day Firearms Instructor Development course very shortly and soon my two-day course will be approved in Florida as a “State Certified” program eligible for those graduates to teach Firearms Safety Courses for Florida Concealed Weapons or Firearms License applicants, stay tuned, that will be coming.

Lastly, it is my recommendation that all Instructors take some kind of continuing education throughout the year. Yeah, I know many do not have an unlimited budget to travel the country and take courses, that’s why you must seek out not only Instructor level courses, but solid student level courses and try to increase your skills, that will make you a better trainer, teacher, coach and mentor to your students.

Thanks for checking in, and until next time, be vigilant be the best, and as always, live life abundantly!

Train hard so you can fight easy!

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The Trigger Control Dot Org 2018 Year in Review!

Over the past few days compiling the information for this posting from my various calendars, I have had time to reflect on where 2018 has taken me and my little training company, and of course how much I appreciate those who supported my company as well.

2018 started off with teaching commitments here in Florida and North Carolina then a trip to Las Vegas for SHOT Show where I was lucky enough to avoid “Patient Zero” and the very real “SHOT Show Crud.” However, not being accustomed to the dry desert heat that is Las Vegas I left with a dry scratchy throat that took a few days to get over.

Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to my good friend “Tactical Ed” better known as the “Tactical Plus Size Model.” If you are not following him on Facebook and Instagram you are really missing out, so get it done! I’ll tell you a secret, I was told by a very reliable source that Ed was in fact “Patient Zero” but I never saw him sick, and I never touched him, it was only after he got home that he told me he had the “SHOT Show Crud” so I hope that you avoid it this year my friend. Oh yeah, this is no secret, Ed stood me up as well, we were supposed to have some sliders at White Castle on the strip, but alas, he is just too “big time” for me these days. 😉

Also at SHOT Show I was able to reconnect with my friend Victor from Sierra Element and had a good time walking the show floor with him. If you are looking for firearms training in the greater Los Angeles and Ventura County area, Victor is the one you want to train with, he is “legit” as the hipsters say in this industry.

My other friends from “Smog City” Real Estate Mogul Scott and my buddy “Slo” showed up as well and I was treated to a great dinner at Bally’s by Scott and then hung out with them the following day all over the show floor. Scott, “Slo” and I met the year before at Ken Hackathorn’s course at Burro Canyon Shooting Park in the Angeles National Forest and both of them are brother’s from another mother. I look forward to seeing you both in 2019.

Since I don’t get to Vegas but once every few years I ended up doing some of the touristy things to do like seeing the world famous sign as you see in these photos, and I ended up spending a little time visiting some landmarks that are part of the history of “Sin City.” Oh, I wasn’t able to catch Chumley, Rick, the Old Man before he passed or Big Hoss at the Gold Miner, who knew that they don’t really work there and only show up when taping their show, Pawn Stars. Nice place, with some awesome merchandise inside, but it is not in the best area of town, just saying if you go, be carrying a gun.

By the way, speaking of carrying a gun, nobody and I mean absolutely nobody exercises their right to open carry a handgun or anything else for that matter in Las Vegas; however, when I drove down to Pahrump to visit my old friend Alex I saw dozens of open carry practitioners. To each their own, I will remain concealed everywhere I go.

February was a very busy month, teaching a total of eight courses, along with hosting a course that sold out nine months in advance for Gabe White. If you have a chance to train with Gabe I highly recommend it, he is a superior technical and tactical shooter and one of the hottest commodities in the firearms training industry these days. My lasting impressions from the course were that Gabe is highly organized and how he gave each of us individual attention all throughout the course.

Speaking of organization skills, Gabe’s course of fire is planned out to the cartridge, and for example, to stay on task I carry laminated 3×5 cards in my pocket and refer to them often on the range during the courses I teach, Gabe has his trusty clipboard with him to keep himself on task. Eight of the fourteen people who attended the course were personal friends of mine and I had either known or trained with the other five at least once in the course. As I said, the course had sold out nine months prior so I asked Gabe if he would come back in September and he did, more to follow below. If you’d like to train with him please visit his Eventbrite page to reserve your seat by clicking on the link below, there is one seat left in the April course.

Gabe White Pistol Shooting Solutions – Lakeland, Florida April 13-14, 2019

March started off hosting Pat McNamara for his Pistol, Carbine Combo course. The retired United States Army Sergeant Major has an impressive background as a United States Army Delta Force Operator and that combined with his highly technical and tactical skill with a handgun and a carbine or any weapon he grabs for that matter gives you the inspiration that you can also be a better shooter too, you just have to put in the work. If you follow Pat Mac on social media you will know that he practices what he preaches by doing just that, putting in the work each and every day not only on his shooting skills but on his “Combat Chassis.” If you would like to attend a course with Pat, you can find his open enrollment schedule on his website in the link below.

TMACS, Inc – Tactics Marksmanship Adventure Concepts Security – Pat McNamara

Staying in the month of March I taught another eight courses and made a thirty hour plus round trip drive from my home in Florida to North Little Rock, Arkansas. On that trip, I had a problem with my vehicle, an idle sensor went out and the engine would not idle properly. It was fortuitous that there was a Ford dealership right across the highway from my hotel, and so my AAA membership came in handy as they showed up and towed my vehicle to the dealership. My Escape was fixed and back on the road in short order. By the way, in 2018 I put just under 29,000 miles on my 2015 Ford Escape tied to my business and with just under 90,000 miles on the odometer it is the best vehicle that I have ever owned. The photo below is of yours truly with “Jolly Green” at DARC, the Direct Action Resource Center in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Now April was an interesting month, Southwest Airlines took me to four different states teaching nine courses and I was also able to attend two as a student. In April I only slept at home six nights out of thirty. The highlight was training in below freezing weather at SIG SAUER Academy in Epping, New Hampshire, that was a lot of fun, no really it was a lot of fun and a great experience. Even though I don’t spend too much time in cold weather these days, by attending a two-day 1,000 round course of fire in that brutal of weather, I was reminded of my days living in cold winter weather and trying to “dress around the gun” with a heavy winter jacket, not to mention making sure that I could press the trigger well enough to get hits using full-finger gloves etc… and oh, by the way, I now own a very nice SIG SAUER logo knit cap that might not get much use here during the 70+ degree Florida winters.

The month of May was very busy for me. It started off by attending the 147th NRA Annual Meetings in Dallas, Texas and I once again volunteered as a Firearms Examiner checking all the guns on the show floor to make sure their firing pins are shaved so they do not have the capability of fire a cartridge should one be loaded by the thousands of people that handle them over the three-day weekend.

Also a few weeks before the NRA Annual Meetings in Dallas, I was personally selected by the NRA Education and Training Department to attend one of the first two offerings of the NRA CCW Instructor course, see below.

More to follow on this brand new curriculum, we are told that it will be released in the first quarter of 2019, stay tuned!

A visit to Dallas would not be complete without seeing Dealy Plaza and the place where history unfolded on November 22nd, 1963, in a word it gave me goosebumps, especially standing on the exact spot where Abraham Zapruder took his home video of the assassination of President Kennedy. The photo below is me standing in the middle of the road on the X where the first shot hit the President looking back up Elm Street at the old Texas School Book Depository building and the sixth-floor window from where Lee Harvey Oswald was at with his Manlicher-Carcano chambered in 6.5x52mm.

Lastly, on Memorial Day I accomplished something that I am very proud of for the second time and that is completing “Memorial Day Murph” WOD. “Murph” is named after Lt. Michael Murphy, a United States Navy SEAL from Patchogue, New York. You may know his story, he was one of the heroes killed in action while serving our country during Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan in 2005.

I completed “Murph” RX or “as prescribed” and unfortunately injured myself in the process, but I still finished only slightly off my 2017 pace. Yep, already looking forward to the 2019 Memorial Day Murph WOD and training hard to improve my time. In case you don’t know what I am talking about this is a Crossfit Hero WOD and it is done all for an overall time while wearing a twenty-pound weighted vest or body armor. The WOD is listed on my morale patch pictured below.

June was a blockbuster month, I ended up teaching nine courses and on the 5th I was approached by two companies here in the greater Tampa Bay area to provide some Active Shooter Training for their employees. This partnership has snowballed into a training 427 of their employees so they can apply for their Florida Concealed Weapons or Firearms License.

It takes a lot of logistics to manage that volume of students; however, these companies stepped up and have allowed me to use their conference rooms for the classroom portions of the courses both on weekday afternoons and some weeknights. Then setting schedules for groups of ten to meet me at the range for the shooting portion of the course was easy, once again that was done on weeknights and select weekends. This has been an excellent partnership and it is really only proving to be the beginning as I have four other major employers through referrals from the C-Level Executives asking to schedule Active Shooter Training in 2019. This is an exponential growth opportunity for my small training company and I am very thankful for those who have helped make all of this happen because there is no way that I could do it by myself.

July is typically my month off for vacation; however, I ended up teaching three courses, and then in late July, I finally took a real vacation where I picked up a lot of yardage in the area of rest and relaxation. This year I am going to do the same by going someplace I have not been before on the planet, China and South Africa are on the list, so is another couple of places, but those two top the list and it will probably be one or the other.

August started with a four day trip to L.A., that’s Lower Alabama to you Yankees, my trip was to consult with a Church Security Team and give them three solid days of training. I did this for expenses only as I do for all parishes and I must say that even months later the hospitality of the folks who hosted me is overwhelming to think about. They gave me a furnished apartment all ready for my stay, and it was kind of like staying at home, bring your PJ’s, a toothbrush and you’re good to go. I would go back again and teach another course for my bare minimum expenses anytime.

For the rest of the month of August, I squeaked in a few more courses and it was another one of those months where I spent a lot of time working weeknights trying to put all these employees through basic firearm safety training as well.

September was an action-packed month, with trips around the state and one outside of the state as well. I once again hosted Gabe White at Firearms Training Club of America in Lakeland, Florida and had a great time. Massad Ayoob (Better known to us as Uncle Mas) and his bride Gail Pepin were students in the course, and we had a couple of the February attendees who returned a second time, and he will be back here in Florida teaching a third time this coming April and again in February 2020, as I said above, there is still one seat open for the April course.

October was in a word, normal, only teaching a few courses for a Security Guard/Executive Protection company based in Orlando and one in West Palm Beach. Mostly I was focused on keeping the students moving through our firearm safety courses throughout the month.

November was much the same, taught several courses here in Florida including three down in North Fort Myers for Tribe K Combat Arts and I was able to take some time to drive up to southern Georgia and attend a five-day Instructor course there. I was also able to lock in my 2019 schedule; however, the out of state schedule is still being tweaked by some out of the hosts and really doesn’t start in earnest until spring time anyway. Other than that, November was pedal to the metal.

December is never busy, and that is by design, with the holidays I only schedule one or two courses, I spent most of the month working on personal projects around my home and various rental properties.

The commitment that I made last January to get to the range on a weekly basis has paid off in a big way. I am pressing the trigger better than ever before and by my estimate, I fired just shy of 14,000 rounds for the year. I only say estimate, because I have ordered and had delivered 16,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition and I only have 2,000 and change left as of right now, this doesn’t include rifle, the .22LR and Magnum cartridges, my 5.7x28mm or shotgun shells of which there were many fired over the course of the year.

So, as it stands, my weekly dates with the acorn picker will continue and I am going to start putting my practice sessions and photos of my targets here in my blog so you can follow along and see exactly what skills I am working on and what I am testing myself on as well.

To sum up 2018, the 427 students that have dropped into my lap has skewed my numbers quite a bit; however, in total I taught 91 formal courses and trained 1,126 students in everything from a basic firearms safety course to a bunch of student and Instructor level courses for both the NRA and USCCA, those courses alone totaled well over 40.

2019 is shaping up rather nicely, and it all kicks off with a trip to Philadelphia to consult with a Parish Security Team there and then on to another destination for more training, I will be back home on Sunday and then it is off to South Florida next Monday and Tuesday. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Oh, I almost forgot, starting on Thursday, February 7th I will be teaching some mini-blocks of instruction every other week at a local gun range. These will be short 3-hour blocks on everything from classroom topics like situational awareness and other things to proper presentation of a handgun from a concealment holster. All blocks of instruction/coaching will be “post McCCW” course, so in order to attend, all participants must have had some basic instruction on safe gun handling at the very minimum and a concealed weapons license or permit. Keep watch for these courses to pop up online for registration. Tuition will be $99.00 and the program of instruction will give you work on the essential skills you need to possess as a responsibly armed citizen.

I’ll leave you with one last item. “Be a voice, not an echo” and above all else be a professional in your outward conduct and in both the written and spoken word, it will serve you well.

“There are no traffic jams on the high road in the firearms training industry.”

 

Thanks for checking in, and until next time, be vigilant, be the best and as always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!

 

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2018 Mid-Year Training Report

As of yesterday, July 1st, 2018, I have taught twenty-eight (28) NRA Approved Courses for both Students and Instructor Candidates; Eight (8) closed enrollment courses for Law Enforcement Officers; Six (6) open enrollment courses for responsibly armed citizens; Five (5) USCCA Student level courses, and One (1) USCCA Instructor Development Workshop. Adding everything up I am at a count of four hundred forty-eight (448) students trained, that is an average of just over nine (9) students per course. The last number is showing a trend that enrollments are dropping off slightly from the last couple years.

Candidly, I’m pretty lucky in the fact that there are five locations that are both indoor and outdoor range facilities with fixed classrooms within an hours drive of me where I can teach and pass on knowledge, skills, and experience to my tribe of Students and Instructors.

As for my personal training schedule, 2018 is not even close to being on pace with 2017; however, this schedule still has me adding between 200 and 220 hours of continuing education. Remember that the importance of being a student can never be discounted, not to collect certificates, but to gather transferrable knowledge for students and instructor candidates is what it is all about for me. Listed below is where I have been and where I plan to go the rest of the year.

The weekend of February 10th and 11th, we hosted Gabe White and his Pistol Shooting Solutions course at Firearms Training Club of America in Lakeland, Florida. When I first had contacted Gabe in early 2017 we set up the date and then had the course sold out ten (10) months in advance on phone calls, mostly to the Rangemaster tribe. If you’d like to train with Gabe you can find Gabe’s open enrollment training schedule in the link below.

http://www.gabewhitetraining.com/pistol-shooting-solutions/

On March 3rd and 4th, we hosted Patrick McNamara for his T.A.P.S. Pistol/Carbine Combo course, again at Firearms Training Club of America. If you follow this blog you know that I attended Pat’s Sentinal course in South Carolina last December at Panteao Productions, a course review was posted here and is linked below. You can also find Pat’s open enrollment courses in the second link below.

T.M.A.C.S., Inc Sentinal Course Review South Carolina

http://www.tmacsinc.com/

In mid-March, I drove thirty hours round trip to North Little Rock, Arkansas to attend Tom and Lynn Givens 20th Anniversary Rangemaster Tactical Conference at the Direct Action Resource Center, better known as DARC. Although I had to leave early on Saturday afternoon, #TACCON2018 allowed me to sit in on a few blocks of instruction and also shoot in the Polite Society Pistol Match. There were over twenty-five people who shot a perfect score in the match to get into the shoot-off that was won by Gabe White, I wasn’t one of them; however, my 199/200 was respectable. If you are planning on attending in 2019 you had better get on the stick now, this event sells out each year in mid to late October and Mr. Givens recently said that it is currently half full. A link for 2019 registration is below.

Rangemaster #TACCON2019

On April 7th and 8th, Tom Givens presented his Rangemaster Combative Pistol course at Firearms Training Club of America for about a dozen students. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend TD1, if you follow this blog, you would know that this course kicked off my personal training schedule in 2017, it got me back to the basics and it was an excellent tune-up for the other courses that I was fortunate enough to attend last year. A full course review on my Rangemaster Combative Pistol experience is published in the link below.

Rangemaster Combative Pistol April 1-2, 2017

On April 9th through the 12th it was back in God’s country at SIG SAUER Academy for Dynamic Performance Pistol and Skill Builder Red Dot Defensive Pistol. Truth be told, I skipped the second course because the weather was freezing, 28° each day and even though the temperature rose to 40° on the thermometer the wind chill factor never let it get above freezing, just too damn cold for this Florida boy. I spent the two extra days in Boston with some close friends and saw a Yankees vs. Red Sox game complete with a bench-clearing brawl. Nothing was quite as exciting as that, even sat atop the “green monstah” in Fenway Park, an experience of a lifetime. By the way, a course review of the Dynamic Performance Pistol course in this blog, you will find it in the link below.

SIG SAUER Dynamic Performance Pistol Course Review

www.sigsaueracademy.com

On April 21st and 22nd, it was on to Watkinsville, Georgia attending Dave Spaulding’s Handgun Combatives, Adaptive Combat Pistol course. Let me tell you, I really enjoy Dave’s teaching style, and if you don’t follow him on social media you are seriously missing out on plenty of knowledge bombs that come from a man with a lifetime of experience in teaching the combative application of the handgun. 2018 will be Dave’s last year teaching a full schedule, in 2019 he will be only teaching about a half schedule. To find his complete course schedule click on the link below and then click on “Upcoming Classes” at the top of the homepage.

http://www.handguncombatives.com/

The weekend of May 4th, 5th, and 6th it was to Dallas, Texas for the NRA Annual Meetings. Having been to Dallas only once before and on that trip, I wasn’t able to see Dealy Plaza, the grassy knoll, and of course the Six Floor Museum at what was the Texas School Book Depository building, you can bet that I didn’t miss out on that opportunity this time around. Once again, I volunteered at the #NRAAM as a Firearms Examiner and will continue to do so each year. On Saturday afternoon my colleague David Matthews and I hosted the first ever NRA Training Counselor Forum and Networking event thanks to NRA Education & Training Department Deputy Director, John Howard.

Also as part of the #NRAAM on Friday, May 4th I was invited to attend the first offering of the NRA CCW Instructor course. This course is highly recommended to those teaching Concealed Carry, it has court defensible curriculum and can be tailored to fit any state statutory requirement for training. It also has its own qualification course of fire and of course allows for the substitution of a state-mandated qualification if need be. Currently, the NRA Education & Training Department is rolling this course out nationwide to Training Counselors and they expect to release it to those of us who have been trained and certified so we can start offering it to Certified Instructors later this year. You can find out more about the NRA Annual Meetings in the link below, see you in Indianapolis next April 26th, 27th, and 28th.

https://www.nraam.org/

Which brings us to June and “NRA Instructor Immersion Weeks.” This was the fifth offering of the program, it has become very popular with my students and instructor candidates as they can attend multiple courses over a few short weeks. 2019 Instructor Immersion Weeks is already in the planning stages, it will probably be more of an “NRA Instructor Immersion Month,” more details to follow in October when my 2019 is announced.

The rest of the summer will be primarily teaching on the road and very little here at home due to our summer weather. In August my travels take me to Alabama, North Carolina, and Kansas and then to both South Carolina and Virginia in order to attend a couple courses as both a student and instructor candidate. The entire month of August I will sleep six or seven nights in my own bed.

Then there is the month of September and another trip to God’s country and the SIG SAUER Academy. This will be my fifth trip up there and I am just as excited for number five as I was a year ago for trip number one. If you have not trained at this world-class facility you should ask yourself why not? You can find all of their course listings in the link below.

www.sigsaueracademy.com

The last weekend of September Gabe White will return for a second course that sold out several months ago. It’s hard not to be excited to train with Gabe, he is a Grand Master level shooter that has the ability to transfer knowledge in a thought-provoking manner that is rare in this industry. Once again, you can find his training schedule on his website linked below.

http://www.gabewhitetraining.com/pistol-shooting-solutions/

In October and November, my plan is to attend a few closed enrollment training courses and hopefully, the Rangemaster Defensive Shotgun Instructor Development Course the weekend of November 16th, 17th, and 18th. Back in October 2016 myself and over twenty others attended the first offering of this course, it was outstanding. Tom preaches the gospel of the gauge well, bring your semi-auto or pump gun and don’t forget the Federal FliteControl® 8-pellet 00BK (LE13300), you can thank me later for the suggestion and register in the link below.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/defensive-shotgun-instructor-course-3-day-tickets-39454107297?aff=ehomecard

December presents a few forty hour courses that are under consideration; however, I can only attend one or two and won’t be able to make a final decision on those until September or early October.

So, as you can see, 2018’s schedule is nowhere near the nineteen (19) courses that I attended in 2017; however, the amount and frequency of training commitments have me busier than I have ever been in my life. No complaints here…

Question for you; with the year half over, are you on track to reach your training goals?

 

Until next time, be vigilant, be the best…

As always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!

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2018 NRA Instructor Immersion Weeks (Florida)

On July 1st, 2018 one of the many changes in the most recent update to the NRA Training Counselor Guide will take effect. In pertinent point, the NRA’s Education and Training Department has changed its policies and procedures requiring all Instructor Candidates to attend and pass the corresponding basic level course prior to attending an Instructor course in any discipline. Currently, only Pistol Instructor and Personal Protection Outside the Home require this, I am unsure about the Muzzleloading and both Reloading disciplines because I am not certified to teach those courses and there have been a lot of changes since I became a Training Counselor to the Muzzleloading disciplines.

So, the 2018 version of Instructor Immersion Weeks here in Florida will be the last of its kind and I see 2019 being Instructor Immersion Month, and in fact, I have already scheduled it on my long-range planning calendar for June 2019.

This mandate by the NRA Education and Training Department has been greeted with mixed feelings by the Training Counselor and Instructor community. Personally, I feel it is a change that has been needed for a long time. It allows the Training Counselor the opportunity to evaluate each individual Instructor Candidate in two classes over two full days of training on their knowledge, skills, and most importantly, their attitude.

The detractors say it is a money grab by the NRA, yeah right, because they make so much money on selling materials priced between $10 to $25 dollars, not even close. The NRA Education and Training Department has always had a policy that Training Counselors were to provide the corresponding Student package to all Instructor candidates, so that dog won’t hunt. They finally made this change because they were getting feedback from the Training Counselors that it was needed to create better Instructors, quality over quantity and the NRA listened.

Sadly, we will still have Training Counselors and Instructors not teaching according to the lesson plans, in fact recently one of my Instructors told me his Range Safety Officer course had only two guns for use by the students. Hint: The lesson plan calls for six different long gun action types, both revolver action types and a semi-automatic pistol, muzzleloading firearms, air guns and a BB gun. If you count that up that is twelve at a minimum. His Chief Range Safety Officer who is also a Training Counselor was ten shy of a dozen, a clear violation of policies and procedures, but I digress.

The schedule for 2018 Instructor Immersion Weeks will be as follows.

I am offering Basic Instructor Training or BIT three times prior to the start and once during the weeks so people can get their BIT updated as that is a requirement if you have not taken BIT in the previous twenty-four (24) months. There is no charge for BIT, it comes with your paid tuition to a discipline-specific Instructor course.

Discipline Specific Training Schedule:

NRA Basic Range Safety Officer Course
Monday, June 11th

NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting Instructor -Led Training Course
Friday, June 15th

NRA Instructor Pistol Shooting Course
Saturday, June 16th

NRA Chief Range Safety Officer Course
Monday, June 18th

NRA Instructor Personal Protection In the Home Course
Tuesday, June 19th

NRA Instructor Home Firearm Safety Course
Thursday, June 21st

NRA Instructor Rifle Shooting Course
Saturday, June 23rd

NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home Basic and Instructor Course
Wednesday-Thursday-Friday, June 27th, 28th, 29th

NRA Instructor Shotgun Shooting Course
Saturday, June 30th

NRA Refuse to be a Victim Instructor Development Workshop
Saturday, July 7th

Registrations began the week before last and have been brisk with my current base of Instructors getting in first before the masses. If you are wanting to get in and add some disciplines I’d suggest you make your plans now because seating is limited. Previous student discounts do apply, and multiple course discounts for new students will also apply.

 

Be vigilant, be the best!

Until next time …

As always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!

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Patterning your Shotgun for Professional/Duty and or Home or Self-Defense use.

Patterning your shotgun is critical, but an often overlooked aspect of being prepared to use that gun in self-defense.

I have patterned a few shotguns before and understand that many people do not because they are living in some type of an alternate reality believing that a shotgun doesn’t need to be aimed and that somehow their payload will magically find their intended target. The hard reality is you must practice sound fundamentals and have both a steady aim and good trigger control in order to hit your target, even with a shotgun.

Before I get started, I’d like to ask all of the Gun Pretenders, YouTube, and Instagram Instructors and of course those famous Keyboard Operators out there, please stop recommending birdshot for professional/duty and or home or self-defense. Birdshot offers less than adequate penetration and besides, birdshot is for shooting what … the correct answer would be, you guessed it, birds.

OK, let’s talk about how to pattern your shotgun.

In order to establish a control group, I recommend placing three (3) shots on a target with a variety of payloads, each from the exact same distance, 15yds or 45ft. The POA or Point of Aim I chose with my Beretta 1301 Tactical was the center of the “A” Zone on an I.P.S.C. (International Practical Shooting Confederation) target. (Yes, I patterned the gun with some birdshot and I used a distance of 10yds or 30ft for those payloads)

Sure you could use five shots and most often in zeroing my rifle I will use a five shot group because I want to make sure that I minimize the outliers or as Pat McNamara calls them, “Junebugs.” However, I feel that three shot groups are sufficient to get an accurate feel of the payload and what it will do when launched from your shoulder-fired shotgun.

The reason I specifically mention shoulder-fired shotgun is that there are a couple new kids on the block, the Remington TAC-14, and the Mossberg 590A1 Shockwave. These shotguns have been available for over a year now and maybe close to two; however, they are basically hand cannons and are difficult to shoot with much accuracy using full-power payloads even for the most experienced of shooters. One man, “Brobee223” on YouTube has perfected the art and was very successful using his Mossberg 590A1 Shockwave to bag a couple deer late last year. I have linked his video below, give it a look. Fair warning, it is rather lengthy.

 

Back on track with patterning my Beretta 1301 Tactical. The first load I chose to shoot was by far the best and it really comes as no surprise. The Federal Premium 2 3/4″ 00BK, 8-Pellet, Low Recoil Flite Control® Wad (LE13300) is the choice of many an experienced shotgunner. As you can see in the photo below, all twenty-four (24) pellets from my three shot group landed within a 3″ group with the three (3) larger holes being the wads.

Below are photos of my other targets, using different loads, showing their patterns.

Federal 2 3/4″ 000BK, 8 Pellet, Maximum. (F127000)

Olin Corporation 2 3/4″ 00BK, 9 Pellet Military Grade. (Brown Box)

Federal Premium 2 3/4″ 1BK, 15 Pellet, Low Recoil Flite Control® Wad. (LE132 1B) This was the second best pattern; however, I find that the 1BK is not as consistent as the 8 Pellet 00BK patterned in the first photo.

Federal 2 3/4″ 4BK, 27 Pellet, Maximum. (F127 4B) Just to big of a spread for me at this range and not something I would recommend for professional/duty or home or self-defense use.

As I mentioned above, I wanted to put some birdshot on target and here are the results. Birdshot Federal #4 Shot “Heavy Field Load” – 2 3/4″ – 1 1/8oz – 10yds (Take note, the larger holes were made by the wad, not the shot) This sure appears to be a tight pattern, it’s the lack of penetration that makes birdshot suboptimal in its effectiveness for professional/duty or home or self-defense use.

Winchester Super Target #8 Shot 2 3/4″ 1oz – 10yds (Once again, the larger holes were made by the wad, not the shot) Same result, fairly tight pattern; however, penetration with this payload would also be an issue.

So, once you have established a control group and your desired starting distance (Mine was 15yds) and you have selected the payload that you feel works best in your shotgun, it’s time to find out what the maximum effective range of your shotgun is with that particular load. In order to determine that, you will want to run your shotgun out to a distance and stop when you find the point at which you can keep all of your pellets from your chosen payload inside an 8″ to no more than 12″ pattern. I’d also recommend not only shooting cardboard or paper targets alone, make sure to shoot some steel as well. I happen to use 12″ AR500 discs that are 3/8″ thick, they work well with 00BK at this range.

From this test, it’s easy to see that my 1301T likes the Federal Premium 2 3/4″ 00BK 8-Pellet, Low Recoil Flite Control® Wad (LE13300) best at 15 yards. From previous experience with this payload, I can move back as far as 30yds and still keep the pattern inside an 8″ to 12″ group and that is precisely the reason I choose this particular load for my shotgun.

When I can find some time in between the courses that I am teaching and the ones I am attending as a student this spring and summer I will pattern my Vang Comp Systems Remington 870P to find out exactly what it likes best. Candidly, I suspect that there will be some similarities; however, one never knows until we put in the work.

If you need assistance in patterning your shotgun for professional/duty or home or self-defense use please consult a reputable Instructor/Coach who is familiar with the nuances of patterning a shotgun and can give you proper advice on the appropriate payload for your intended use as well.

 

Until next time …

As always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!

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Gun Pretenders a/k/a the Grass Eaters of the Firearms Training Industry courtesy of industry giant, John Farnam.

Many people ask where did I come up with the term, “Gun Pretenders” or “Grass Eaters” when referring to some in the firearms training industry. I respond with, it’s not original to me, all credit goes to industry giant John Farnam. I’ll let him explain as he says it best in this Quip from August 2013… There is a funny story about this quip, I was having dinner with John and Vicki in Ohio last November and mentioned this as being my very favorite quip and asked why it was not in the archives. When I returned to my hotel room after doing a little grocery shopping for lunch an email arrived from John with the quip attached. If you are not subscribed to John’s blog you should be. Find him at Defense Training International.

22 Aug 13

Gun Pretenders

Recently, a gun “safety instructor” in OH accidentally shot a student in a classroom during a “gun-safety course.” The injury was serious, but not life-threatening.

Now, we learn this was not the first such “accident” on the part of this particular “safety instructor.” Years ago, he “accidentally” injured yet another person during a similar, foolish gun stunt. I wonder how many other “accidents” with guns (that were never reported) this person has had between these two.

I don’t know this person personally, so I’m just using the foregoing as an example of what I see all too often hanging around ranges, on range “committees,” and purporting to be “instructors.”

We call them “Gun Pretenders.”

Most don’t even carry a gun. When they do, it is not the same gun, nor carry-option, they use for demonstration purposes on the range (on those rare occasions when they actually perform in front of students). For many, their only involvement with guns is some form of sterile, non-serious recreation.

When supposedly “instructing” students on a live range, many don’t carry a gun, even then! When asked why they invariably bleat that they don’t want to be embarrassed when asked to personally demonstrate something they’re teaching! “It might damage my credibility,” I’ve repeatedly heard them say. I don’t know what they’re worried about!

And, they dearly love to shower themselves with pious “titles,” invariably ending in “… master” or “…wizard,” and we never get to know where all these dubious “titles” came from. For one, I’m always suspicious when someone purporting to be an “instructor” finds it necessary to endlessly recite his entire resume, in boring detail, sometimes for twenty minutes or so, before finally getting to the point. When we all don’t already know whom he is, it strikes me as a strategy of desperation!

When sitting down with these people at a restaurant, away from the range, assuming I can get a word in edgewise, I often ask, “… yes, but are you personally carrying a gun right now?” You can probably guess the answer, “… well, of course not.” I generally have no further questions!

Competent instructors are well-trained, humble, accessible, eager to learn, eager to teach, have lots of personal experience, and actually “live” the Art. We don’t live piously withdrawn from it. We are driven to spread the sunshine, and we measure our success by that of our students.

Pretenders are mouthy, shallow, self-centered, self-righteous, vain, pseudo-sanctimonious, and constantly afraid. They spend their time, not worried about students, nor our Art, but desperately trying to maintain the myth of competence. As noted above, on those rare occasions when they do actually carry a gun, it and its “holster,” are unfailingly phony, glistening monstrosities, built strictly for irrelevant competition. These pretentious toys spend all the rest of their time in a padded, mahogany box in a dresser-drawer, gathering dust.

And, if you’re wondering if there is a point lurking in all this, here it is: A gun-owner, and particularly a gun-carrier, has the individual responsibility to acquire and maintain personal competence. History and fate will not accept lame excuses, nor will the court!

When you voluntarily take-on the personal responsibility to have the ability to protect yourself with gunfire, then you must be able to perform adequately, on demand. This has nothing to do with recreation nor competition. It is an individual, ethical responsibility, a matter of personal integrity and character. Bottom line: learn to be competent with your weapon(s) and yourself.

Become one of us, or go back to eating grass!

“How the hell did you know I didn’t have the king or the ace?”

“I recollect a young man putting that same question to Eddie the Dude. ‘Son,’ Eddie told him, ‘all you paid was the lookin’ price. Lessons are extra!’”

Lecture, caustically delivered by Lancey “The Man” Howard (played by Edward G Robinson) to a hapless “Slade” (played by Elmore “Rip” Torn) in the 1965 feature film, “The Cincinnati Kid.”

John Farnam

 

As always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!

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Course Review: Defense Training International Advanced Defensive Handgun & Instructor Courses; November 17th – 19th, 2017 – New Plymouth, Ohio

“The time to prepare for your next shooting is now.” – John Farnam

Recently I attended the Defense Training International (John & Vicki Farnam) Advanced Defensive Handgun and the DTI Instructor Course in New Plymouth, Ohio.

Many of you probably know that John Farnam and Ken Hackathorn were two of the very first Instructors to take their Program of Instruction (POI) on the road and train Law Enforcement Officers, Active Duty Servicemembers and Responsibly Armed Citizens back in the 1970’s and if you didn’t, you do now. John and his wife Vicki, who have been training together as husband and wife for the past thirty-one (31) years are “Industry Giants” and if you have not trained with them yet, you really need to make that happen.

In case you didn’t know, John is also a long time advisory board member of Marty and Gila Hayes’ Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network along with other industry giants like Massad Ayoob, Jim Fleming, Tom Givens, Emanuel Kapelsohn, and Dennis Tueller. (In full disclosure I am a member of the network as well)

Let’s get to the course information. Friday morning, bright and early my friend Steve from Trailhead Defense, LLC and I met the Farnam’s for breakfast and then we took the thirty-minute drive to the range so we could get started promptly at 9:00am. The weekend schedule was as follows, DTI Advanced Defensive Handgun Course on Friday and the DTI Instructor Course on Saturday and Sunday.

We started all three days in the classroom and on Friday John began discussing the art and science of defensive shooting and his “Four D’s of Fighting.”

1. Divide his focus.
2. Disrupt his plan.
3. Disable his body.
4. Destroy his will to fight.

During the classroom lecture, John talked a lot about the immediate aftermath of a self-defense shooting. His background as a law enforcement officer and a top industry trainer for somewhere north of forty (40) years gives him the credibility of a subject matter expert in this area. Folks, we’re talking about how to handle the 9-1-1 call, and how to answer questions from responding officers at the scene without talking yourself into a pair of handcuffs. (Never once was the words, “I was in fear for my life” spoken, I say this just to prove how infantile that expression has become)

While inside the classroom we also worked on some handgun retention and disarming techniques. John believes that it is more likely that you might have to disarm someone rather than shoot them, especially when you are within arms reach of your assailant. This is an area of Defensive Tactics that I wish more responsibly armed citizens would spend some time in training and not in the Dojo. In the law enforcement community, there are plenty of hours spent training these skills.

(Photo: John demonstrating handgun disarms with Steve from Trailhead Defense, LLC)

Once on the range, we were introduced to the Ravelin Group Rotator® Rotary Action Targets. These targets are absolutely diabolical, and shooting at them around simulated friendlies and or cover is not easy at all especially from distance. John and Vicki’s POI is all about moving off the line of force so you won’t be standing with your feet in cement while you present your handgun, and they get you moving after each four-round burst. Move and re-engage the threat/target from your new position and move while reloading as well. There is absolutely no need to stay stationary in a gunfight, that is unless you want to get shot.

(Photo: Ravelin Group Rotator® Rotary Action Target)

The Ravelin Group Rotator® Rotary Action Targets have 8″ square paddles on them and in order to get them to rotate you must get your hits precisely in the right place and at precisely the right time so you can keep the inertia going. This can be both mentally and physically challenging as you’ve got to make every shot count, a missed shot breaks the inertia you’ve built up and next thing you know you have missed several times in a row because you get frustrated. All of us pitched our share shots during the course, it’s how we followed up those misses that counts.

During our range exercises, John emphasized his checklist that includes scanning and movement, reloading, creating distance from the threat, finding cover, checking yourself for injuries, accounting for everyone who might be hurt and finally calling 9-1-1. We practiced these things on the range after each drill and John would ask us key questions to prepare our “tape loop” for the immediate aftermath when law enforcement arrives on the scene.

It is worthwhile to note that John and Vicki run a hot range and will not allow a student or instructor candidate to ever holster an empty gun. An empty gun in a holster is useless and furthermore, it is dangerous because it adds to the administrative handling of the gun and most “accidents” happen during the administrative handling of guns. (Holstering) John’s range instructions are purposely vague, you have to be a thinker in his course and apply the instructions given into a plan to solve the problem.

The Farnam’s are also big on demonstrations as well. They believe as I do, a firearms instructor/teacher must be able to step up cold on demand and demonstrate drills to standard for their students. One has to be able to explain, demonstrate, and coach their students through drills, they must also give the “why” in training, most instructors can’t because they only regurgitate what they heard some instructor say or worse, what they read on the internet. If you heard it from John, he probably coined the phrase or developed the POI being taught.

During the Instructor course, John quoted these words many times as a way to emphasize the need to teach to the adult learning theorem, “What I hear, I forget; What I see, I remember; What I do, I understand.” He also made us keenly aware that feelings may be hurt during the course, it’s normal and part of the learning process. (My friend Steve mentioned that many sacred cows were slaughtered over the weekend)

On TD2 of the Instructor course, we got an excellent presentation from Vicki on teaching women. Her POI is based on her book, “Teaching Women to Shoot.” John and Vicki’s books can be purchased through the DTI Bookshelf at http://defense-training.com/

Additionally, the DTI Instructor course comes with a comprehensive Instructor Manual; however, you can find the POI well outlined in John’s book, “The Farnam Method of Defensive Handgunning.” I would highly suggest that you buy this book (And read it) before attending any DTI Handgun course, especially the Advanced Defensive Handgun course or the DTI Instructor course, you will thank me for that advice and you will be well prepared if you act on it.

Make sure that you prepare for some presentations as well, you will need to give them in front of your classmates cold on demand and with no preparation time. John and Vicki put pressure on their Instructors to perform. Thus you are assigned a subject and you must give a five-minute presentation and answer questions from the students and of course be prepared for Mabel to show up. (That’s Vicki’s alter ego)

(Photo: My closing presentation last Sunday during the DTI Instructors Course)

In summary, I mentioned earlier that these two courses pushed me both mentally and physically and the qualification is not particularly easy. I was able to pass in seven (7) shots and some thirteen (13) seconds and change after a little warm-up and time to work out some frustration. My friend Steve from Trailhead Defense, LLC stepped up and passed in six shots, cold on demand. That is pretty darn good shooting on those targets. The classroom presentations including developing a plan to deal with the immediate aftermath and the handgun retention/disarming techniques are a key piece of John’s POI and I am glad he had time to fit them into our course.

I strongly recommend that you attend a DTI course when John and Vicki are in your area, and if you are shooting 9mm, make sure to bring 147gr FMJ or some +P, they spin those diabolical Ravelin Group Rotators® quite well.

You can find the Defense Training International course schedule located in the hyperlink below.

http://defense-training.com/schedule/

(Photo: DTI Staff Instructors and Students – Advanced Defensive Handgun Course/DTI Instructor Course; November 17th – 19th, 2017)

 

Until next time…

As always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!

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Fourth Quarter 2017; Trigger Control Dot Org Training Schedule!

Hello Everyone! Because many of the courses that I teach are closed enrollment they are never announced anywhere. Regardless, many people have been asking for a listing of courses available for the responsibly armed citizen instructor and student and the ones I am attending as a student as well. This is a complete list of my upcoming training schedule for the months of October-November-December 2017. I foresee no changes to this schedule at the present time, plane tickets have been purchased, and both hotel and rental car reservations have been made as well.

October 4th (Wednesday) – Defensive Tactics Handgun Retention/Disarming Techniques (Closed Enrollment, LEO Only): Orlando, Florida.

October 7th & 8th (Saturday/Sunday) – Ken Hackathorn (Aztec Training Services) Two-Day Advanced Pistol Course: Burro Canyon Shooting Park; Azusa, California.

October 10th thru 13th (Tuesday thru Friday) – 9th Annual High Liability Instructor Training Seminar: Tallahassee Community College; Havana, Florida.

October 14th (Saturday) – NRA Instructor Basics of Personal Protection In the Home Course: Clearwater, Florida.

October 15th (Sunday) – NRA Refuse to be a Victim Instructor Development Workshop: Clearwater, Florida.

October 16th & 17th (Monday/Tuesday) – Simunitions Reality-Based Scenario Training for Law Enforcement (Closed Enrollment, LEO Only): South Florida.

October 21st (Saturday) – Handgun Essentials & Defensive Tactics for the Responsibly Armed Citizen Course: Nicolet Rifle Club; Suamico, Wisconsin.

October 23rd & 24th (Monday/Tuesday) – SIG SAUER Academy; Epping, New Hampshire.

October 27th, 28th & 29th (Friday thru Sunday) – NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home Student and Instructor Courses: Clearwater & Lakeland, Florida.

October 30th & 31st (Monday/Tuesday) – Vehicle Dynamics Course Days 3 & 4 (Closed Enrollment, LEO Only): North Central Florida.

November 4th & 5th (Saturday/Sunday) – NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting – Instructor Led Training and NRA Instructor Pistol Shooting Course: Clearwater, Florida.

November 7th & 8th (Tuesday/Wednesday) – Two-Day Vehicle Dynamics Course (Closed Enrollment, LEO Only): Tampa Bay Area, Florida.

November 11th & 12th (Saturday/Sunday) – Rangemaster – Instructor Reunion Conference: BDC Gun Room; Shawnee, Oklahoma.

November 14th thru 20th (Tuesday thru Monday) – Closed Enrollment Course(s): Kentucky & Ohio.

December 1st & 2nd (Friday/Saturday) – USCCA Instructor Development Workshop: Clearwater, Florida.

December 4th thru 6th (Monday thru Wednesday) – NRA Practical Pistol Coach School: National Rifle Association Headquarters; Fairfax, Virginia.

December 9th & 10th (Saturday/Sunday) – NRA Rifle & Shotgun Instructor Course(s): Lakeland, Florida.

December 16th & 17th (Saturday/Sunday) – Pat McNamara TMACS, INC T.A.P.S. Sentinal Course: Panteao Productions Studios Facility; Swansea, South Carolina.

December 18th thru January 4th – Holiday vacation, no courses scheduled.

Please message me via www.facebook.com/triggercontrol for more information if you are interested in attending any of the open enrollment courses offered.

 

Until next time …

As always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!

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“On My Soapbox” – Open Carry while at Gun School.

Something new to Trigger Control Dot Org is an “On My Soapbox” blog. Hey, whenever I feel that I have something to say of importance about the firearms training industry in general and or some of the Gun Pretenders/Keyboard Operators who are in the industry I’ll press something, so stay tuned…

Open Carry while at Gun School:

As many of you know I go to Gun School a lot, and mostly as a student, not an instructor candidate. Candidly, I have all of the Instructor ratings that I need or want, but if one interests me in the future, I might take the course; however, it must fit with my long-term training goals and it cannot be an “In name only Instructor course.”

Edited to Add: One of the readers reminded me that many people have the attention span of a gnat and that they can only read and comprehend 140 characters at a time before losing interest. (Sorry Twitterville, it was his comment, not mine.) Regardless, he suggested that I drop some sort of hint that this is not about the competitive shooting sports and I said that I would make a slight emendation to the post. Here goes:

“This blog posting is not directed toward the Competitive Shooting Sports.”

If given a choice, I will always run a course as a student with my handgun in a concealment holster. Sometimes that is not an option based upon the policies of the instructor, the range or the academy that I am attending, so we make adjustments for those policies and get in the training.

One of my mentors, Tom Givens from Rangemaster Firearms Training Services has all of his students and instructor candidates work exclusively from concealment unless they are a sworn law enforcement officer or possibly a licensed armed security guard and normally carry their handgun in a security holster. I follow this same methodology and have for a long time because it is the responsible way to train the armed citizen.

Let’s face it, a significant majority of Americans carry their handguns concealed. How do I know this you ask? Just travel to one or a couple of the forty-five (45) states that allow some form of open carry, sit down with your latte and do some “people watching” at the food court in the local shopping mall, or go to a Walmart for a cultural experience (There’s always a lot of good people watching at Walmart) and look around at the waistbands of all the people that you see. I’m betting that you won’t see many handguns being openly carried. In fact, in the last several years I have traveled the country extensively (Eighteen different States) attending and also teaching courses, and I can count on one hand how many handguns I have seen attached to the waistband of people in those states.

FYI: I was just in three open carry states weekend before last and saw absolutely NOBODY open carrying except the people in Gun School while on the range.

So, what is the point for a responsibly armed citizen to pay all the money to attend Gun School and then run their handgun from open carry when they never carry that way? Again, let’s be real, and if your argument is I live in an open carry state, I have pretty much rendered that argument invalid. There are very few folks who practice open carry walking among us, most people carry concealed and that is just a stone-cold fact proven by my research that I continue to do each time I travel to an open carry state.

Seriously, if you go to Gun School and don’t run your handgun from concealment you are only cheating yourself out of all the repetitions that you would get from concealment. These are repetitions in the fundamentals that go a long way in building a level of automaticity into your motor cortex. (Psst, that means inside your brain because there is no such thing as muscle memory. I still shake my head each time I hear a Gun Pretender say these words or a Keyboard Operator write the words, muscle memory.)

OK, now to Mr. or Ms. Big-Time Firearms Instructor/Keyboard Operator I hit a nerve underneath your paper-thin skin didn’t I? Yeah, I meant to do just that, you can believe it. You say that running from concealment is not “Tacticool” enough for you and it doesn’t make for a good photo to add to your Facebook or Instagram account, right? You must be the type of Instructor/Keyboard Operator who trains students for photo opportunities and you offer little to no real hands-on training. Sadly I have seen it too many times at Gun School with the Instructor taking photos and uploading to his Facebook page not paying attention to his students. Oh, by the way, you Instructors/Keyboard Operators who don’t carry a gun all the time, John Farnam one of the top trainers in the whole shootin’ match from Defense Training International refers to you as “Gun Pretenders” and so do I, it kinda fits, now doesn’t it? (I just love that description, Gun Pretenders.)

It is your responsibility Mr. or Ms. Big-Time Firearms Instructor/Keyboard Operator to make your students do the hard stuff while in training so it will be easier for them to become adaptive to the situation when the fight is on, and believe me they will need to adapt very quickly or their loved ones might just be planning a funeral.

I cannot be any more clear than this, open carry on the range at Gun School is just a bunch of “Tacticool” asshattery and those who perpetuate it are typically the ones that have a bunch of paid followers on Facebook, Instagram, and various other social media outlets or better yet, an Internet Radio Show. The crap that some of these people teach has unfortunately been codified in the training community for years by those who probably shouldn’t be instructors in the first place. Yeah, I just said that and I can feel your anger, I am very easy to find if you want to talk about the butt-hurt that statement has caused you.

Oh boy, I bet this wins me some friends among the Keyboard Operators in the community, not! This just in, I don’t care.

By the way, I will continue to call B.S. on the asshattery I see on social media and at Gun School each and every time I see it, and that you can bank on.

 

Until next time …

As always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!

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Course Review: SIG SAUER Academy P320 Armorer, M400 Armorer & Low Light Pistol Instructor Course(s), conducted August 14, 15, 17 & 18, 2017

On Sunday August 13th I flew up to New Hampshire to attend three courses at SIG SAUER Academy in Epping.

All three of my flights on Southwest Airlines, the two going and the non-stop coming home from New Hampshire went off without a hitch. I got upgraded to a Subaru Outback and logistically everything went very well. Once again I stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Exeter. The hotel is very nice, I took advantage of the pool and the Jacuzzi this time and the complimentary buffet style breakfast buffet each morning is very good. The staff, to include the General Manager were all very professional and attentive to a few special requests that I made before and upon arrival. I will stay here each and every time that I visit SIG SAUER Academy.

Dinner at The Holy Grail twice and Telly’s once along with a pizza from New England Pizza kept me full. If you are in the greater Epping/Exeter Metropolitan area, you must experience The Holy Grail. It is a restaurant and pub inside an old church not far from the Academy. Telly’s specializes in pizza and other American fare, and New England Pizza in Exeter has a white pizza that is pretty darn good, especially when you put bacon and some other toppings on it. The Hanaford Supermarket was my other “go to” while I was there, along with the Hammersmith Sandwich Company for lunch while in class.

Upon my arrival at the SIG SAUER Academy and Pro Shop late Sunday morning I noticed that the P320 X-Carry was on sale and I “attempted” to buy one with my student discount, one of the sales guys told me they had three of them in stock and I was all excited; however, after he came back from the storage room I was crushed because they were out of stock. At least I was able to put a deposit on one and will have it shipped to Florida when they are available. Still no P320 X-VTAC as of yet, Lipsey’s is shipping them out to their dealers, but not the Pro Shop. Had one of those been in stock I would have bought it instead, so I am 0-2 in gun purchases while attending courses at the Academy. On the bright side, I was able to buy a lot of accessories with no state sales tax and at the student discount price, score!

Important Note: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how professional and courteous the Academy Staff and Pro Shop employees are, those folks are always eager to help.

Let’s get to the course reviews …

TD1 for me started Monday morning I started in Classroom #1 in the Indoor Pistol Range Facility with Chris “Cav” Cavallaro for the P320 Armorer Course. “Cav” is the Subject Matter Expert on campus for the Armorer courses, and that means that he is in charge of the Program of Instruction for the Armorer courses. The P320 is a very simple weapon system to work on for both the operator and the certified armorer. Candidly, while attending the course there was no running from the elephant in the room, we talked about the voluntary upgrade announced by Sig Sauer on August 8th, 2017 and our Instructor was open and honest about all the things that the company is doing to remedy the situation. The voluntary upgrade will include a small amount of CNC work on the frame (That is the metal part inside the grip module) and they will be adding a disconnector and also swapping the current trigger to one that is lighter in overall weight and with a balance point that is near the pivot pin. My questions were answered about this issue and I used a P320 in the Low-Light Pistol Instructor Course on Thursday & Friday with no issues whatsoever. Parts for certified armorers are readily available by calling in to customer service and ordering them direct over the phone. I like that versus sending in an order form and waiting for months to get parts shipped to you. (Not mentioning any manufacturers in particular)

Overall, Monday’s course was excellent, and oh by the way, it was attended by several factory people and a couple Academy Instructors that interjected their insider knowledge of the gun and what is going on inside the factory to get ready for the influx of guns coming in for the voluntary upgrade. We were told to not leave with questions unasked and all of us got in our share. By the way, successfully passing the course (There is a test) gives the graduate a three year certification.

TD2 on Tuesday was all about the M400. You would know this as the AR15 platform rifle. My first exposure to this type of rifle came 35 years ago this month when I joined “The Green Machine.” Many of the things taught came right back like I was in my Unit Armorers course while I was in the Army. We didn’t break the gun all the way down back in the day, but I knew how to and “Cav” showed us some techniques that really helped when disassembling and more importantly reassembling the rifle.

I enjoyed all the repetitions we got in working on the rifle, similar to the P320 course we were not left wanting more and all of our questions were answered. Same as the P320 armorers course, successfully passing this course (There is also a test) gives the graduate a three year certification. One important note, this course is hopefully switching to a two-day format with a one-day re-certification in the not too distant future.

Photo: My instructor for both Monday and Tuesday’s courses, Chris “Cav” Cavallaro summoning the power of Thor!

Additionally on Monday and Tuesday I had the pleasure of meeting and training with Ofer and Amir from Be’er-Sherva, Israel. These two guys are living the motto, “Live Free Or Die” each and every day of their lives. Think about that, and let it sink in. They are at a constant state of war with all the terrorism in their tiny country, amazing when you spend some time in thought about it.

On Wednesday morning I got to spend some time with Steve Gilcreast, my Instructor from the Master Pistol Instructor Course I attended in June. Steve put me on the shot timer through his 100 round warm-up exercise, and I must admit that I didn’t do as well as I expect out of myself, and I had to hit the gong in Area 51, but I had a great time. Steve is a thinker and a doer who can translate his points across to students very well, anytime spent with him one-on-one is time well spent because of his knowledge, skills and his attitude. Steve is one of the top firearms instructors that I have ever trained with, period.

Back to the gong issue, in case you don’t know, if you don’t have a round chambered and you press the trigger on your gun and your gun goes click when it was supposed to go bang, (Dead Man’s Gun) you and your partner must run to one of the gongs on campus and you must smash the gong ten (10) times with authority using a hammer and then run back to your training area. (Your training partner goes along with you for moral support) It could also be that your magazine was not seated correctly, or a few other reasons. Yes, I had my moment with the gong while the students in the Master Rifle Instructor Course observed. Oh, and the hammer was missing so I had to make due with a BFR. I posted this photo for accountability in the photo album that I created on my business Facebook page at Trigger Control Dot Org, and I also posted one on my Instagram page @TriggerContolDotOrg – this one below is for accountability here.

On Wednesday afternoon I got to see the factory from the inside, it was nice of one of the engineers to invite me in for a peek. Nothing to see here, no cameras allowed in the factory.

Lastly on Wednesday afternoon/evening I was able to go to Stratham Hill Park and find the very rock where Robert Todd Lincoln stood and read the Declaration of Independence to the citizens of New Hampshire on July 4th, 1860, just before his father Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States. Pretty cool stuff to stand on that rock, no kidding , it gave me goose bumps.

After I stopped at the Lincoln Rock, I climbed the rest of the way up the Lincoln Trail (It’s pretty darn steep) to the top of the hill and found the Forest Fire Service Tower. I had to climb to the top all seventy-seven steps and seven flights to get a look at the surrounding area, and it was quite a sight. I highly recommend you go to Stratham Hill Park when visiting SIG SAUER Academy to experience these things, I can assure you that it is an experience I won’t soon forget. You can find out more information on Stratham Hill Park by clicking on this link to their Facebook page. Stratham Hill Park on Facebook

TD3 for me started in Classroom #9 in the Indoor Pistol Range Facility on campus with New Hampshire native Todd Moriarity and Nick Brazeau from Montreal, Canada in the Low-Light Pistol Instructor Course. We had six students/instructor candidates and that made for a really great course.

Photo: For this course I ran my Surefire P2ZX Fury Combat Light (500 lumens) with a Surefire V85A holster system. I also brought my Surefire E2D LED Defender Ultra (500/5 lumens) as well. Both worked well and a few of my new best friends wanted to try my bezel down holster. Once I left the course I purchased a Surefire Y300 Ultra High Dual Output LED Flashlight as Todd had one and it looked promising for a back-up flashlight.

By the way, 500 lumens is plenty enough for anyone. These new flashlights with 1,000 lumens, yeah, they get way too hot running courses of fire like this and also they end up giving you a lot of back-splash if you are to close to cover and have poor technique, What happens is you will end up momentarily blinding yourself with the light bouncing back in your eyes. (So yes, there is such a thing as too many lumens)

After a short classroom session on Thursday morning going over some of the different flashlight options out there and of course the safety rules, we all hit the Indoor Pistol Range with our frangible ammunition and got to work. Like all SIG SAUER Academy Instructors, Todd is a master at teaching to the adult learning theorems. Before teaching each technique Todd would explain, and demonstrate the technique and then we would imitate it dry-fire and then practice it live-fire. This goes to the core of the SIG SAUER Academy training methodology of E.D.I.P. or Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, Practice. (I’ll add in Test for E.D.I.P.T. and call it good)

By the way, I really can’t share the course of fire with you, it’s not something that they give out; however, I take really good notes and have it down on paper, but that is the exception, not a one of my fellow Instructors were taking notes on the range during the exercises, I just don’t have that good of memory to not take notes.

On Thursday, Todd taught us a new technique that was developed by Academy Instructor Jim Meyers. It is referred to as the “Jimmy Meyers Technique.” This technique is similar to the Rogers-Surefire; however, it is different in the fact that you turn the wrist of your support hand 90° so the back of your hand is up, and then you place the thumb of your support hand in contact with the grip of the handgun under the thumb of your master hand. It is an interesting technique, one that I certainly need to practice some more in order to become a whole lot better at.

Photo: Todd and Nick going to put out a little fire inside the range on Thursday afternoon caused by the powder from the frangible ammunition we were using while shooting steel. It was only a little smoke, nothing major.

The Low-Light Pistol Instructor Course also requires the student/instructor candidate to preform a teach-back to the other students and cadre. On Thursday just before we broke for the day, we were assigned ours and my partner and I were assigned to T.E.A.M. teach the Modified FBI and the Neck Index technique.

Photo: The Indoor Pistol Range at SIG SAUER Academy in low-light, that is not my camera flash, the lens is picking up light from in back of the range, once the shades were dropped it was pitch black inside that range, a perfect training environment for this course.

TD4 for me started on Friday morning again in the classroom with a review of the the previous days POI, and then were in the Indoor Rifle Range. My partner and I were selected to go first with our presentations. We prepared well and hit E.D.I.P. by explaining the technique and the history behind it, then we talked each other through the demonstration phase of the technique and then we had the other students/instructors candidates imitate and practice the technique. (Personal Note: I love doing teach-backs)

After each presentation we were given actionable feedback on what we did good, what we needed to work on and what we did really well. During the review, we were told that we did a great job by our peers and the cad re. They made a couple comments about how we worked as a T.E.A.M. and that is exactly what T.E.A.M. teaching is all about. (Positive-Improvement-Positive or the “sandwich method” of evaluation is alive and well at SIG SAUER Academy)

Additionally Todd and Nick set up a drill for us to practice all the things that we learned on Thursday in a low-light/no-light environment. We had to start by moving to cover and then find and engage our threat with two to five live rounds. (The SSA-1 Brett Target gets shot a lot at SIG SAUER Academy) During this drill, we were had to move to a new piece of cover and perform a tactical reload when necessary, and then try a different technique, we got to do this twice going one direction and then moving backwards through the course in the other direction. I found this to be very beneficial because it allowed me to try just about all of the techniques from some unorthodox positions, e.g., kneeling, supine and laying on my side, and of course standing.

This brought us to lunch time. Once we had our bellies full of Hammersmith Sandwich Company sandwiches we got suited up for some training in a shoot-house. There are several single family homes on campus that the Academy uses for this purpose, they also have a series of Conex style containers set up for this type of training as well. The house we were in was nicknamed “Red Feathers.” Seriously, it should have been named “Bat Feathers” because there was a bat in the house that we had to eradicate during this evolution.

Each one of us got to clear the house as an individual and then as part of a T.E.A.M., Todd said this was not to grade us on our tactics, but to make sure we were using sound flashlight discipline, both he and Nick gave us excellent feedback on our flashlight use and gave us tips to make us better with our tactics, I found this to be an excellent evolution.

Funny Story: When I was picked to be the “bad guy” students John and Victor, both sworn law enforcement officers entered the house searching for me and Victor called out, “Gordon, are you in here? We got a warrant for you, come on out boy.” I had to do everything I could to keep from laughing. My new best friend Victor said he did it hoping that I would give my position away, that failed, but these two sworn LEO’s cleared this house like a boss using sound flashlight discipline and T.E.A.M. tactics.

One thing I enjoyed about Todd and Nick’s teaching style was this, after each evolution on the range or in the shoot-house we did a short review. Todd asked us what we liked and disliked, making us think about the techniques that we used and how we liked them in that particular situation. We got plenty of repetitions and both Todd and Nick gave us personal coaching to make sure we were preforming the techniques properly and with sounds tactics, with a student-to-instructor ratio of 3:1, that is easy to do.

At the end of the course may of us suggested adding a third day and incorporating the long gun into the POI. That could be in the plans, Todd is responsible for the POI for this course and he said that he has thought about that as a possibility.

Photo: Sig Sauer Frangible Ammunition. The Course of fire was true to the number at about 500, rounds, we used this is the indoor pistol range; however, on the second day of the course we were able to use FMJ ammunition. SIG SAUER Academy has plenty of ammunition, if you show up they will give you student pricing on the ammunition. We all arrived with a good working knowledge of the techniques, what we did here is refined the techniques and preformed a teach-back as all Instructor level courses should require. Now, it is up to us as Instructors to transfer this knowledge to others. As with the other courses, upon successful completion of this course course, graduates are given a three year certification.

Overall, the Low-Light Pistol Instructor Course conducted at SIG SAUER Academy was excellent, I really enjoyed it and learned a lot of subtle nuances that make the techniques work well in a live fire situation. It tests your gear and your TTP’s under stress and that’s what you must do in training. I would highly recommend this course to an agency instructor or anyone who teaches these techniques to the responsibly armed citizen.

To find out more about taking an Armorer Certification course at SIG Sauer Academy click on: Armorer Certification Courses

To find out more about taking an Instructor Development course at SIG Sauer Academy click on: Instructor Development Courses

To find out more about taking a Shooting Development course at SIG Sauer Academy click on: Shooting Development Courses

To find out more about taking a Competitive Shooting Development course at SIG Sauer Academy click on: Competitive Shooting Development Courses

To find out more about taking a course in a certain specialty at SIG Sauer Academy click on: Specialty Training Courses

To find out more about taking a course from a Guest Instructor, e.g., Mike Pannone or one of the many nationally and internationally known Instructors they bring in to the Academy each year, click on: Guest Instructor Courses

Important Note: Your tuition includes free loan of firearms (In most courses, not all), holsters, safety glasses and hearing protection at the Epping, NH location.

Now, if you guessed that I am planning another trip back to SIG SAUER Academy, you would be correct, stay tuned!

 

Until next time …

As always, live life abundantly; train hard so you can fight easy!