Next, there was the yearly Man-On-Man Steel match, where the competition wasn't timed or by points--merely were you faster than your opponent. Pistol and Shotgun for that one, plus the 6x6 wood shoot at the end. Two videos here---the first a general one showing a bit of everyone's shooting, and the second specific to me.
And just yesterday Julie, Ardi, and I were in another state getting some defensive shooting training. Specifically, an Introduction to Defensive Shooting course held in [someplace] by [some people]. I'm going to critique the class, and so at the moment, I'm keeping its actual name/place/instructor anonymous. We'll just call the class IDS, and the instructor "AA". (You'll get used to it.)
And this weekend, Ardi and I are going Illinois for the first every Drazy 500 Steel match, which should be a good time. Two days, 12 stages each day. One day is all Steel Challenge style, 12 stages. The other day is 12 stages of USPSA courses, with only steel targets. Targets left standing incur time penalties, and your final score is your total time from both days. Should be a blast! More to come on that one after we shoot it.
In the meantime, the IDS course from yesterday...
Details:
- 1 head instructor/2 assistant instructors
- 11 students (initially would have been 12, but one didn't show)
- Indoor range facility, but open bay, not shooting lanes
- Additional classroom area
- Other shooting bays/lanes were open to general public (and were very loud)
- Class lasted 6 hours, with only 3-4 small (5-10 minutes) breaks
- Most time was spent on the range performing exercises and drills. Probably less than 30 minutes was spent in the classroom.
Throughout the course, there was a continual emphasis on the "doubletap" for every situation. In every drill but one, no matter what the target, students were to always shoot twice, and the instructors repeatedly pushed the concept of "doubletap," even specifically saying that the second shot was not an aimed shot made while using the sights.
We then worked on their style of tactical reload, and the instructors came around to talk with various students with small hands who were having trouble holding a magazine, grabbing a second one, and pressing the magazine release. Ardi, for example, has to press the mag release with her weak hand, because her hands are too small to manage any other way. (For those who immediately thought of the "solution" to this: no, she can't adjust the gun to the side so she gets a better angle with her thumb. Her hands are too small.) Their generalized solution was that each student should get an extended magazine release to fix the problem. In all truth, I don't think that will help Ardi, because her thumb doesn't have sufficient strength to push it in from that angle. Hand strengthening exercises won't help, either, because it is a mechanical advantage problem--her hands are so small, even if she could reach the release, she won't be able to get a sufficient angle to apply pressure.
Anyway---so we worked on that.
The class was run "hot," most likely to get the students used to the idea of this as a defensive pistol course, not a competition or "range bullseye" class. For some students, this REALLY made them start thinking. Note: it was very obvious that a number of our fellow students had a definite lack of shooting experience. Matter of fact, in my opinion several of them were NOT ready for this class, even though it was fairly basic and was listed as an introductory class.
After the draw and trigger reset drills, we went out to the shooting bay and started with a basic "step-back" drill that is common in many shooting courses. It is a good warmup for the students, plus it gives the instructors a chance to see the relative levels of shooting basics for the students. The students started about 10 feet away from a FBI "milk bottle" target, and on command, shot twice (again, the instructors wanted a double-tap) on target. The line then moved back three steps, and did it again. We continued the "shoot 2, step back" sequence until we ended up somewhere between 10-15 yards. (It was really hard to tell distances in that bay, for some reason. I will say that we never took any shots past 15 yards, and almost never took any beyond 10 yards. Most were about 15 feet.)
Unsurprisingly, Ardi (as is normal for Miss Accurate) had a tiny little grouping in the middle of the target. The instructors did tell her they wanted doubletaps, include of two aimed shots, though.
More to come as soon as I have time. For the moment, though, I'll post this so the videos are up and available.
