The Basics
School: On Target Firearms Training
Course: Practical Concealed Carry 1
Date: 9/14/13
Duration: 4 hours
Round Count: 200 required. I didn’t keep count during class to provide an actual.
Location: Silver Creek Conservation Club
Instructor: Steve Griffin (Latewatch)
Assistant Instructor: Chris Campbell
Related Threads:
1. Free Handgun Training
2. AAR On Target Training Practical Concealed Carry 1 (by JW58)
3. AAR On Target Training Practical Concealed Carry 1 (by Hoosier31)
4. AAR On Target Training Practical Concealed Carry 1 (by fasteddie48)
Summary
If I were going to rename this course, I might call it Introduction to Martial Gunhandling with commentary on mindset. This is basically a short course on essential gunhandling skills like draw stroke, reloading, clearing malfunctions, basic movement and dealing with multiple targets. Marksmanship is covered briefly but is not the focus of the course. Steve includes some very worthwhile comments on awareness, mindset, and conflict avoidance to round out the course.
Details
Safety
The first hour of this course was a lecture under an aluminum cover on the range. We started off with introductions. Steve introduced himself and told us about his police and military training experience. He also introduced the assistant instructor, Chris, who is a retired medic. After telling us a bit about his background, Steve moved in to the safety lecture. The four rules were explained. Steve made the point there is no “down range” as a safe direction in the real world and discussed some viable options for safe directions to point the gun. Down is generally the answer here. Medical gear was readily apparent on the range table, and Chris was introduced as a medic, but no specific medical plan was discussed with students.
Mindset and Awareness
After the safety discussion the topic changed to awareness and conflict avoidance. Steve made some good points illustrating the importance of avoiding gun fights. The seriousness and significant liability were illustrated with some examples from his law enforcement experience. The Cooper color codes and situational awareness were introduced. He brought up the concept of seeing vs. just looking around at things. From here he went in to a short, but good discussion of mindset. Steve gave us his definition of mindset and had some good commentary about how to develop an appropriate mindset. Making it personal and choosing your line in the sand was a theme of the mindset discussion. This flowed pretty well in to a very brief legal commentary. He cautioned us to be aware of what is legal in the areas we go and provided a reference to the applicable Indiana code covering deadly force encounters.
Gun Handling
The topic shifted to basic gun handling with a discussion of basic shooting stance, grip, and draw stroke from concealment. Steve demonstrated as he talked through the topics. He also went in to a brief discussion of marksmanship fundamentals. He talked about sight alignment, sight picture and trigger control. Trigger control was broken down in to four steps for the purposes of discussion. At this point the concept of threat scans and awareness during the gunfight was introduced.
The Range
Around 1300 we took a quick potty break and headed to the range. We started the range session shooting a couple of groups on paper at five yards to check everyone’s accuracy. Steve went down the line and corrected a few issues, and provided some feedback to those who needed it. This was the majority of the marksmanship work for the class. The rest would be focused on gun handling.
The next stop was draw stroke. We did a couple of one shot and two shot drills from the holster at five yards. Target assessment and threat scans were introduced at this point and would be part of all subsequent drills. After working a few iterations of the draw stroke, the concept of ‘getting off the x’ was introduced. Steve taught a quick lateral move during the draw stroke. This would be part of all subsequent drills as well. The concepts were taught and layered on one another. The progression was quick, but students seemed to be keeping up pretty well.
Reloading
We all took a quick break to reload and hydrate. We came back to a discussion about reloading. Steve discussed proactive and reactive loading techniques without expressing a significant preference for which a person might use. After this discussion we were back on the range at 10 yards for some more drills as before. Move/draw, shoot, assess, scan, reload if necessary. For some drills Steve mandated a certain type of reload so we could get experience with each method.
Stopping Power
There was a sidebar lecture around this point about “stopping power” and the three things that actually cause people to stop fighting. Anatomically advantageous targeting was discussed briefly here. Steve talked about head shots which lead in to some failure to stop drills. We stopped for a quick lecture about interview stance and general body language when interacting with unknown individuals before taking a quick break.
Stoppage Reduction
During the break each student was issued ten dummy rounds for use in the subsequent drills. Steve breaks malfunctions in to two types. Basically type one are things that seating the magazine and cycling the action will generally fix, and type two are things that require additional work. Steve demonstrated the methods of clearing both types of stoppages for us. Two methods were demonstrated for the second type.
Each student loaded a couple of magazines interspersed with dummy rounds and we were back on the line for some more drills. Basically we would perform similar drills as before, reducing stoppages to complete the drills as necessary. When those magazines were empty, we performed five iterations of reducing a double feed.
Contact Distance Shooting
The group went back to the shelter for a quick lecture and demonstration of retention position and contact-distance shooting. Steve used a volunteer for the class to demonstrate the complications of contact-distance encounters and then demonstrated retention position. We went back out on the range and performed a few iterations of retention position shooting drills.
Multiple Targets
After another quick break, we went back to the range to work some multiple target drills. Steve talked us through one method for addressing multiple targets that present simultaneously and that was added to the drills. The final drills was set up for targets to present in a serial fashion. A paper target was set up at the berm, and two steel plates were set up at two different distances in front of the berm at either side. The student would start in contact with the paper, and engage the paper from retention, then move backwards scanning and engage the steel targets as they became visible. This drill was kind of the capstone of the class and incorporated some retention shooting, shooting while moving, a possible reload, depending on how much was shot, maintaining awareness during the drill, target assessment, and the threat scan.
My Thoughts
I think this was a good class. It really covers the essentials of gun handling and addressing a defensive situation in as short a timeframe as possible. This class squeezes 7lbs of stuff in to the 5lb bag. Steve doesn’t sweat the details and just wants you to find a solution that gets things done. His mindset comments were good, and everything he said in the lectures was spot on. He hit a lot of the points I like to bring up when I’m talking to shooters about defensive topics.
Even thought the class was effectively presented in the time given, this class could easily be an eight hour course and cover the same material in a bit more detail. When you’re in the fight, the details aren’t important if things get done. Sometimes when you’re learning the material, the little details can be helpful. I am a detail oriented person, though. So I like to hear them.
I would also like to see this class run on a hot range. We started off cold, and then kinda went back and forth. It was hit or miss whether we downloaded before leaving the line. I think you have to pick one and stick with it. For this type of class, where you’re trying to reinforce real-world topics, a hot range is the way to go.
School: On Target Firearms Training
Course: Practical Concealed Carry 1
Date: 9/14/13
Duration: 4 hours
Round Count: 200 required. I didn’t keep count during class to provide an actual.
Location: Silver Creek Conservation Club
Instructor: Steve Griffin (Latewatch)
Assistant Instructor: Chris Campbell
Related Threads:
1. Free Handgun Training
2. AAR On Target Training Practical Concealed Carry 1 (by JW58)
3. AAR On Target Training Practical Concealed Carry 1 (by Hoosier31)
4. AAR On Target Training Practical Concealed Carry 1 (by fasteddie48)
Summary
If I were going to rename this course, I might call it Introduction to Martial Gunhandling with commentary on mindset. This is basically a short course on essential gunhandling skills like draw stroke, reloading, clearing malfunctions, basic movement and dealing with multiple targets. Marksmanship is covered briefly but is not the focus of the course. Steve includes some very worthwhile comments on awareness, mindset, and conflict avoidance to round out the course.
Details
Safety
The first hour of this course was a lecture under an aluminum cover on the range. We started off with introductions. Steve introduced himself and told us about his police and military training experience. He also introduced the assistant instructor, Chris, who is a retired medic. After telling us a bit about his background, Steve moved in to the safety lecture. The four rules were explained. Steve made the point there is no “down range” as a safe direction in the real world and discussed some viable options for safe directions to point the gun. Down is generally the answer here. Medical gear was readily apparent on the range table, and Chris was introduced as a medic, but no specific medical plan was discussed with students.
Mindset and Awareness
After the safety discussion the topic changed to awareness and conflict avoidance. Steve made some good points illustrating the importance of avoiding gun fights. The seriousness and significant liability were illustrated with some examples from his law enforcement experience. The Cooper color codes and situational awareness were introduced. He brought up the concept of seeing vs. just looking around at things. From here he went in to a short, but good discussion of mindset. Steve gave us his definition of mindset and had some good commentary about how to develop an appropriate mindset. Making it personal and choosing your line in the sand was a theme of the mindset discussion. This flowed pretty well in to a very brief legal commentary. He cautioned us to be aware of what is legal in the areas we go and provided a reference to the applicable Indiana code covering deadly force encounters.
Gun Handling
The topic shifted to basic gun handling with a discussion of basic shooting stance, grip, and draw stroke from concealment. Steve demonstrated as he talked through the topics. He also went in to a brief discussion of marksmanship fundamentals. He talked about sight alignment, sight picture and trigger control. Trigger control was broken down in to four steps for the purposes of discussion. At this point the concept of threat scans and awareness during the gunfight was introduced.
The Range
Around 1300 we took a quick potty break and headed to the range. We started the range session shooting a couple of groups on paper at five yards to check everyone’s accuracy. Steve went down the line and corrected a few issues, and provided some feedback to those who needed it. This was the majority of the marksmanship work for the class. The rest would be focused on gun handling.
The next stop was draw stroke. We did a couple of one shot and two shot drills from the holster at five yards. Target assessment and threat scans were introduced at this point and would be part of all subsequent drills. After working a few iterations of the draw stroke, the concept of ‘getting off the x’ was introduced. Steve taught a quick lateral move during the draw stroke. This would be part of all subsequent drills as well. The concepts were taught and layered on one another. The progression was quick, but students seemed to be keeping up pretty well.
Reloading
We all took a quick break to reload and hydrate. We came back to a discussion about reloading. Steve discussed proactive and reactive loading techniques without expressing a significant preference for which a person might use. After this discussion we were back on the range at 10 yards for some more drills as before. Move/draw, shoot, assess, scan, reload if necessary. For some drills Steve mandated a certain type of reload so we could get experience with each method.
Stopping Power
There was a sidebar lecture around this point about “stopping power” and the three things that actually cause people to stop fighting. Anatomically advantageous targeting was discussed briefly here. Steve talked about head shots which lead in to some failure to stop drills. We stopped for a quick lecture about interview stance and general body language when interacting with unknown individuals before taking a quick break.
Stoppage Reduction
During the break each student was issued ten dummy rounds for use in the subsequent drills. Steve breaks malfunctions in to two types. Basically type one are things that seating the magazine and cycling the action will generally fix, and type two are things that require additional work. Steve demonstrated the methods of clearing both types of stoppages for us. Two methods were demonstrated for the second type.
Each student loaded a couple of magazines interspersed with dummy rounds and we were back on the line for some more drills. Basically we would perform similar drills as before, reducing stoppages to complete the drills as necessary. When those magazines were empty, we performed five iterations of reducing a double feed.
Contact Distance Shooting
The group went back to the shelter for a quick lecture and demonstration of retention position and contact-distance shooting. Steve used a volunteer for the class to demonstrate the complications of contact-distance encounters and then demonstrated retention position. We went back out on the range and performed a few iterations of retention position shooting drills.
Multiple Targets
After another quick break, we went back to the range to work some multiple target drills. Steve talked us through one method for addressing multiple targets that present simultaneously and that was added to the drills. The final drills was set up for targets to present in a serial fashion. A paper target was set up at the berm, and two steel plates were set up at two different distances in front of the berm at either side. The student would start in contact with the paper, and engage the paper from retention, then move backwards scanning and engage the steel targets as they became visible. This drill was kind of the capstone of the class and incorporated some retention shooting, shooting while moving, a possible reload, depending on how much was shot, maintaining awareness during the drill, target assessment, and the threat scan.
My Thoughts
I think this was a good class. It really covers the essentials of gun handling and addressing a defensive situation in as short a timeframe as possible. This class squeezes 7lbs of stuff in to the 5lb bag. Steve doesn’t sweat the details and just wants you to find a solution that gets things done. His mindset comments were good, and everything he said in the lectures was spot on. He hit a lot of the points I like to bring up when I’m talking to shooters about defensive topics.
Even thought the class was effectively presented in the time given, this class could easily be an eight hour course and cover the same material in a bit more detail. When you’re in the fight, the details aren’t important if things get done. Sometimes when you’re learning the material, the little details can be helpful. I am a detail oriented person, though. So I like to hear them.
I would also like to see this class run on a hot range. We started off cold, and then kinda went back and forth. It was hit or miss whether we downloaded before leaving the line. I think you have to pick one and stick with it. For this type of class, where you’re trying to reinforce real-world topics, a hot range is the way to go.
