Default.mp3
Established
This course is for the Armed Citizen who wishes to train in Low-Light and No-light conditions with a handheld and/or weapon mounted flashlight. Participants will train on threat identification, gaining/maintaining standoff, use of cover, and proper light employment. Participants will engage multiple targets while moving away from the threat and/or towards cover.
This is my fourth formal pistol training course, having of previously taken a Vickers Tactical Basic Handgun, Vickers Tactical Handgun I, and a pistol-training.com Aim Fast, Hit Fast. I used an H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package, with an X400 mounted with the DG-11 (CROZ3212 was kind enough to lend me its usage, so mad props to him) and zeroed for 7 yards, and OWB carried it using a RCS Phantom at about the 0200 position. I also had two mag carriers, Cane & Derby Pardus SSLs. My handheld was the Surefire E1B, belt was Ares Ranger belt.
Kenan Flasowski was the primary (and only instructor). Class started at 1430; weather was relatively sunny, with one or two intervals of about a minute of light showering. Wind was mild for the most part, but noticeable at times. Sunset was at approximately 1730, with complete darkness at 1830, moonrise at about 2000, with it supplying enough illum to see the ground at about 2100. There was only one other student, Dan, who was using a Nighthawk 1911 and what I believe was a Surefire G2Z with combat rings. Kenan was using a Glock 19, and for the most part, what I think was a Surefire LX2 LumaMax with a lanyard. Everyone was right-handed, and used strong-side OWB kydex.
Class was actually slated to start at 1400; I had planned to arrive at the range at ~1330, maybe a little later to pick up lunch/dinner, but my plans fell prey to Hofstadter's law. On the Round Rock stretch of I-35, I got caught in traffic, and managed to traverse only ~3 miles in 1 hour. Thus, I arrived at 1430. There were suppose to be two more students for the class, but they were no-shows, which I guess saved me the embarrassment of being "that guy".
The class started out with Kenan going over the emergency medical response. He had a laminated card attached to his sizable first aid kit that gave instructions of how to contact emergency services, and the exact latitude and longitude of the site so that LifeFlight would be easier to coordinate, as the best case response time to the range was at least 20 minutes. On the back of the card was a bit of a multiple choice kind of thing that guided one along into describing the nature of wound. The kit itself had the usual QuikClot, compresses, chest seals, etc. He also had a minor scrapes kit for more minor injuries. This was followed by a brief overview of the basic safety rules, along with some common sense ideas (e.g., no reason to speed holster, slight hip turn when holster OWB so as to minimize the amount of flagging that is done to one's self through the holster, etc.).
The first drill was just 15 yard, 10 round slow fire against a standard B-8 target. The idea here was to establish a baseline of best scenario performance, and then be able to see the differences in performance when doing only SHO, under stress, etc. Kenan's belief is that one should be mostly measured against one's past performance, rather than some arbitrary standard, since once the standard has been beat, complacency may set in.
As 15 yard slow fire was basically what I do most of my time at the range, I was able to keep all the rounds in the black without straining too hard.
After the 15 yard slow fire, Kenan then moved us back to 25 yards. The idea here is that while 15 yards can be fairly illuminating about one's basic accuracy, there are still some sloppiness than one can get away with at 15 that one could not get away with at 25 yards. The drill itself remained the same, 10 rounds, as much time needed as possible. An old "trick" was to start one's day at the range with this drill, and end with this drill, so as to be able to see what one can actually do.
This time, I had issues keeping it in the black. There was enough wobble so that I would be outside the black, though not significantly. Still, about half of my shots were outside of the black, high and to the left. The group size itself of those outside the black were not too bad, and when Kenan shot 5 rounds through the P30LS, he also had the same issue, although to a lesser degree. Kenan stated that I may need to slightly drift my sights.
We then moved on to SHO for basically the rest of the course. To start out with, Kenan stated that the stronger the grip, the less trigger control mattered; however, most people are unable to grip the gun hard enough to be able to be sloppy with the trigger (he points to Rob Leatham as being one of the few people able to actually get by with sloppy trigger pulls if need be due to Leatham's freakishly powerful grip). What Kenan found for the grip though is that the pinky plays a far larger role than most people tend to think. He demoed for us that one experiences less front sight lift when using only the pinky and index finger to grip the gun (SHO) than compared to all the fingers except the pinky. The reason for this is due to the fact that the gun recoils in the web of the hand, which thus makes that act like a fulcrum. The pinky is the furthest away from the web of the hand; thus, it is kinda like being the point on the lever the furthest from the fulcrum, which thus gives it a disproportionate amount of usable force to reduce the recoil. Kenan stated that during his advisory role, he found that he was able to get Afghan women to be able to handle the recoil way better when deliberate force was utilize from the pinky, compared to when it was not. Also, canting the gun slightly would help control the gun better in SHO. Interestingly, Kenan does not advise riding the safety when shooting SHO; instead, he advocates putting the thumb down, like making a fist, for better recoil control. The drill ran was SHO at 10 yards, 5 rounds, both slow fire and timed (the latter to induce artificial stress).
The pinky thing, while unintuitive, certainly helped reduce recoil. This would be something I would need to practice changing the forces I apply when gripping the gun. As for not riding the safety, I did feel that there was some minor improvement in recoil management, but the grip overall was flat-out uncomfortable for me, since I had never, ever shot that way. Kenan did stress that the not-riding-the-safety was just something that he found works for him, and that if I felt better riding the safety while SHO, rock on, so I shot most of the rest of the class riding the safety.
Next, we moved up to the 5 yard line, for SHO shooting as fast as possible. One of the things Kenan found that really helped recoil management, rifles included, was the "positive shoulder", something that he readily admitted stealing from Pat McNamara. Here, one is suppose to tighten not just the arm, but also the shoulder and lats and such, so that when the handgun fires, it shouldn't just be part of the arm moving, but the whole arm and shoulder.
I found that really concentrating on the pinky and tightening the shoulder itself helped reduce the recoil quite a bit. Being weak and scrawny, I had issues with the front sight completely leaving the target after a shot; after these adjustments, I was able to keep the front sight at least on the target during recoil. Kenan stated that, ideally, the front sight should be able to stay in the black. At this point, the other student's 1911 started exhibiting a failure to reset the trigger, which continued sporadically through the course.
This is my fourth formal pistol training course, having of previously taken a Vickers Tactical Basic Handgun, Vickers Tactical Handgun I, and a pistol-training.com Aim Fast, Hit Fast. I used an H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package, with an X400 mounted with the DG-11 (CROZ3212 was kind enough to lend me its usage, so mad props to him) and zeroed for 7 yards, and OWB carried it using a RCS Phantom at about the 0200 position. I also had two mag carriers, Cane & Derby Pardus SSLs. My handheld was the Surefire E1B, belt was Ares Ranger belt.
Kenan Flasowski was the primary (and only instructor). Class started at 1430; weather was relatively sunny, with one or two intervals of about a minute of light showering. Wind was mild for the most part, but noticeable at times. Sunset was at approximately 1730, with complete darkness at 1830, moonrise at about 2000, with it supplying enough illum to see the ground at about 2100. There was only one other student, Dan, who was using a Nighthawk 1911 and what I believe was a Surefire G2Z with combat rings. Kenan was using a Glock 19, and for the most part, what I think was a Surefire LX2 LumaMax with a lanyard. Everyone was right-handed, and used strong-side OWB kydex.
Class was actually slated to start at 1400; I had planned to arrive at the range at ~1330, maybe a little later to pick up lunch/dinner, but my plans fell prey to Hofstadter's law. On the Round Rock stretch of I-35, I got caught in traffic, and managed to traverse only ~3 miles in 1 hour. Thus, I arrived at 1430. There were suppose to be two more students for the class, but they were no-shows, which I guess saved me the embarrassment of being "that guy".
The class started out with Kenan going over the emergency medical response. He had a laminated card attached to his sizable first aid kit that gave instructions of how to contact emergency services, and the exact latitude and longitude of the site so that LifeFlight would be easier to coordinate, as the best case response time to the range was at least 20 minutes. On the back of the card was a bit of a multiple choice kind of thing that guided one along into describing the nature of wound. The kit itself had the usual QuikClot, compresses, chest seals, etc. He also had a minor scrapes kit for more minor injuries. This was followed by a brief overview of the basic safety rules, along with some common sense ideas (e.g., no reason to speed holster, slight hip turn when holster OWB so as to minimize the amount of flagging that is done to one's self through the holster, etc.).
The first drill was just 15 yard, 10 round slow fire against a standard B-8 target. The idea here was to establish a baseline of best scenario performance, and then be able to see the differences in performance when doing only SHO, under stress, etc. Kenan's belief is that one should be mostly measured against one's past performance, rather than some arbitrary standard, since once the standard has been beat, complacency may set in.
As 15 yard slow fire was basically what I do most of my time at the range, I was able to keep all the rounds in the black without straining too hard.
After the 15 yard slow fire, Kenan then moved us back to 25 yards. The idea here is that while 15 yards can be fairly illuminating about one's basic accuracy, there are still some sloppiness than one can get away with at 15 that one could not get away with at 25 yards. The drill itself remained the same, 10 rounds, as much time needed as possible. An old "trick" was to start one's day at the range with this drill, and end with this drill, so as to be able to see what one can actually do.
This time, I had issues keeping it in the black. There was enough wobble so that I would be outside the black, though not significantly. Still, about half of my shots were outside of the black, high and to the left. The group size itself of those outside the black were not too bad, and when Kenan shot 5 rounds through the P30LS, he also had the same issue, although to a lesser degree. Kenan stated that I may need to slightly drift my sights.
We then moved on to SHO for basically the rest of the course. To start out with, Kenan stated that the stronger the grip, the less trigger control mattered; however, most people are unable to grip the gun hard enough to be able to be sloppy with the trigger (he points to Rob Leatham as being one of the few people able to actually get by with sloppy trigger pulls if need be due to Leatham's freakishly powerful grip). What Kenan found for the grip though is that the pinky plays a far larger role than most people tend to think. He demoed for us that one experiences less front sight lift when using only the pinky and index finger to grip the gun (SHO) than compared to all the fingers except the pinky. The reason for this is due to the fact that the gun recoils in the web of the hand, which thus makes that act like a fulcrum. The pinky is the furthest away from the web of the hand; thus, it is kinda like being the point on the lever the furthest from the fulcrum, which thus gives it a disproportionate amount of usable force to reduce the recoil. Kenan stated that during his advisory role, he found that he was able to get Afghan women to be able to handle the recoil way better when deliberate force was utilize from the pinky, compared to when it was not. Also, canting the gun slightly would help control the gun better in SHO. Interestingly, Kenan does not advise riding the safety when shooting SHO; instead, he advocates putting the thumb down, like making a fist, for better recoil control. The drill ran was SHO at 10 yards, 5 rounds, both slow fire and timed (the latter to induce artificial stress).
The pinky thing, while unintuitive, certainly helped reduce recoil. This would be something I would need to practice changing the forces I apply when gripping the gun. As for not riding the safety, I did feel that there was some minor improvement in recoil management, but the grip overall was flat-out uncomfortable for me, since I had never, ever shot that way. Kenan did stress that the not-riding-the-safety was just something that he found works for him, and that if I felt better riding the safety while SHO, rock on, so I shot most of the rest of the class riding the safety.
Next, we moved up to the 5 yard line, for SHO shooting as fast as possible. One of the things Kenan found that really helped recoil management, rifles included, was the "positive shoulder", something that he readily admitted stealing from Pat McNamara. Here, one is suppose to tighten not just the arm, but also the shoulder and lats and such, so that when the handgun fires, it shouldn't just be part of the arm moving, but the whole arm and shoulder.
I found that really concentrating on the pinky and tightening the shoulder itself helped reduce the recoil quite a bit. Being weak and scrawny, I had issues with the front sight completely leaving the target after a shot; after these adjustments, I was able to keep the front sight at least on the target during recoil. Kenan stated that, ideally, the front sight should be able to stay in the black. At this point, the other student's 1911 started exhibiting a failure to reset the trigger, which continued sporadically through the course.