International Tactical Training Seminars (ITTS)
Vehicle Assaults
14-15 May
Eagle’s Nest – Angeles Nat’l Forest shooting range complex
Scott Reitz (aka “Uncle Scotty”) is getting better known outside of both the LA Megaplex and the law enforcement world. For those not familiar with him … Scott worked LAPD for thirty years, the vast majority of it within Metropolitan Division and more than a few with D Team (SWAT). Specifics of his background are laid out in his book – “The Art of Modern Gunfighting.”
The vehicle assault class is based on Scotty’s experience and the experiences of officers and detectives in various teams, units Scott has worked in, with or around.
We started with a very focused safety brief, which included Scott’s additional rule on those of us who handle firearms a LOT being the ones most likely to screw it up.
There were nine students – all coppers as this was a restricted LE/Mil class. One was a street cop from New York state and another was Border Patrol from New Mexico. The rest were city cops or deputies from both NorCal and SoCal – assignments included custody, patrol, investigations, K9 and gang enforcement.
Day 1 was all on the square range. Scott would intro and demonstrate a technique then work in drills to reinforce it – first on paper then on steel, mostly reactive. Movement was quickly added and by early / mid afternoon everything was being done in pairs or teams.
Paper targets were reduced in size at what would be the nipple line. Only hits above the line were acceptable. Why? Think about how much of a person is above the bottom of the car window.
Team movement and assignments were talked through on a dry erase board before we started running them on the range.
Uncle Scotty de-briefed the TTPs used by dope rip / drug kidnapping crews in the SoCal area as they are being encountered by law enforcement.
Given the very short distances involved when taking down cars and the bad guys in them, the likelihood of taking a round or rounds to your hand or arm is pretty high. One drill we worked repeatedly involved starting with two hands on the pistol for an initial shot or two before peeling the support hand off and finishing the string of fire strong hand only.
Day 2 started with a review of the Eugene Bomar murder and hostage taking incident which was ended with a vehicle assault by D Platoon many years back. This involved the first actual use of the Harries flashlight technique against a BadGuy terminally.
We then shot several 9mm, .40 and .45ACP duty loads against a four door ‘Murican made sedan to see what they would actually do. The two best performing rounds were a bonded 230gr JHP from Federal and Black Hill loaded 185gr Barnes all-copper bullet – both of them denting the exterior of the far door after making it through one door. Regular power shotgun slugs and a couple different .223/5.56 rounds were fired as well.
Full power slugs are a marvelous if you are stuck having to punch through the car’s body.
We then began taking down the cars in three man teams. Each run against the car saw an increasingly more complex problem. Multiple suspects, victims/no-shoots being used for cover, very limited exposure of good target areas. Then a laterally moving target came into play, it needed to be hit while the shooter was moving.
Two different moving target set-ups were used. One was a multi-pair hostage rack and the other the above mentioned target lateral mover.
The last rounds of the class were fired at a steel silhouette about 135 yards out, just to remind us about the pesky fundamentals.
Scotty is pretty adamant about his preference for using, when possible, a modified Weaver stance. The movements involved to get on target and to get hits lent themselves to using a traditional low ready / Guard position coupled with the modified Weaver.
This was not a high round count class (less than 600 rds); it was very much about getting accurate hits under time constraints or through rather narrow windows for the shots. Taking down the BadGuy with two or three rounds and not hitting anyone you can’t justify shooting is a whole lot more desirable than a mag dump with co-lateral damage.
He, also, might have mentioned a thing or two about disallowing yourself from making mistakes and the need to keep everything on a purely mechanical level.
This was my third class with ITTS and I’ll train with Scott and crew again.
While my shooting sort of “ok” I need to spend a wee bit more time working on my pistol presentation and not getting too locked in on one threat in close confines.
Weapons:
Out of the nine students – there were .40 & .45 Glocks; three 1911s (plus the two Scotty carried throughout); a .40cal Sig; and a .40 H&K;
One Glock .45 had enough issues that its owner had to detail strip & replace parts over night. One 1911 had two failures to feed –using Remington factory ball ammunition on day one – had its chamber reamed and recoil spring replaced overnight. A second one had feeding / chambering issues diagnosed as relating to the extractor hook – also fixed over night. The third 1911 – mine, a Kimber – fortunately worked quite nicely (thanks Hilton!).
Equipment:
With almost all of Day 2 spent in three man teams shooting on top of each other within les than an arms length of a car, armor was required throughout the class. Four guys wore entry vests, the rest were in concealed soft armor. I wore my day-in / day-out work armor – DBT RVA-3A with an Impact ST plate.
Gun belt et al – Eagle Ind duty belt with their 3 mag FB pouch and cuff case; SF hand held light and a Safariland 6280 for a railed Kimber and a SF X300.
Had more than a few issues with the holster … I’ve silicon’d the snot out of the inside of it, I dumped a fair amount of Mitch Rosen’s leather lightning into it to. The pistol/light has a somewhat frequent tendency to hang up during the presentation. Which led to a far less than smooth, quick presentation. The tension screw is all of the way backed out now too. It still has issues with hanging up. I have / have had several 6280 / 63whatever holsters for 1911s, Glocks, M&Ps and a Beretta – none have had this hanging up issue.
I used Black Hills .45ACP ammunition throughout the class. Both 230gr training rounds and three different duty rounds – 185gr JHP, 185gr Barnes (big thumbs up!) and 230gr JHP. Very solid in terms of function and accuracy.
While my office let us have duty time for the class, everything else came out of pocket. Money and time definitely very well spent.
Have photos but I need to re-size them even more.
Vehicle Assaults
14-15 May
Eagle’s Nest – Angeles Nat’l Forest shooting range complex
Scott Reitz (aka “Uncle Scotty”) is getting better known outside of both the LA Megaplex and the law enforcement world. For those not familiar with him … Scott worked LAPD for thirty years, the vast majority of it within Metropolitan Division and more than a few with D Team (SWAT). Specifics of his background are laid out in his book – “The Art of Modern Gunfighting.”
The vehicle assault class is based on Scotty’s experience and the experiences of officers and detectives in various teams, units Scott has worked in, with or around.
We started with a very focused safety brief, which included Scott’s additional rule on those of us who handle firearms a LOT being the ones most likely to screw it up.
There were nine students – all coppers as this was a restricted LE/Mil class. One was a street cop from New York state and another was Border Patrol from New Mexico. The rest were city cops or deputies from both NorCal and SoCal – assignments included custody, patrol, investigations, K9 and gang enforcement.
Day 1 was all on the square range. Scott would intro and demonstrate a technique then work in drills to reinforce it – first on paper then on steel, mostly reactive. Movement was quickly added and by early / mid afternoon everything was being done in pairs or teams.
Paper targets were reduced in size at what would be the nipple line. Only hits above the line were acceptable. Why? Think about how much of a person is above the bottom of the car window.
Team movement and assignments were talked through on a dry erase board before we started running them on the range.
Uncle Scotty de-briefed the TTPs used by dope rip / drug kidnapping crews in the SoCal area as they are being encountered by law enforcement.
Given the very short distances involved when taking down cars and the bad guys in them, the likelihood of taking a round or rounds to your hand or arm is pretty high. One drill we worked repeatedly involved starting with two hands on the pistol for an initial shot or two before peeling the support hand off and finishing the string of fire strong hand only.
Day 2 started with a review of the Eugene Bomar murder and hostage taking incident which was ended with a vehicle assault by D Platoon many years back. This involved the first actual use of the Harries flashlight technique against a BadGuy terminally.
We then shot several 9mm, .40 and .45ACP duty loads against a four door ‘Murican made sedan to see what they would actually do. The two best performing rounds were a bonded 230gr JHP from Federal and Black Hill loaded 185gr Barnes all-copper bullet – both of them denting the exterior of the far door after making it through one door. Regular power shotgun slugs and a couple different .223/5.56 rounds were fired as well.
Full power slugs are a marvelous if you are stuck having to punch through the car’s body.
We then began taking down the cars in three man teams. Each run against the car saw an increasingly more complex problem. Multiple suspects, victims/no-shoots being used for cover, very limited exposure of good target areas. Then a laterally moving target came into play, it needed to be hit while the shooter was moving.
Two different moving target set-ups were used. One was a multi-pair hostage rack and the other the above mentioned target lateral mover.
The last rounds of the class were fired at a steel silhouette about 135 yards out, just to remind us about the pesky fundamentals.
Scotty is pretty adamant about his preference for using, when possible, a modified Weaver stance. The movements involved to get on target and to get hits lent themselves to using a traditional low ready / Guard position coupled with the modified Weaver.
This was not a high round count class (less than 600 rds); it was very much about getting accurate hits under time constraints or through rather narrow windows for the shots. Taking down the BadGuy with two or three rounds and not hitting anyone you can’t justify shooting is a whole lot more desirable than a mag dump with co-lateral damage.
He, also, might have mentioned a thing or two about disallowing yourself from making mistakes and the need to keep everything on a purely mechanical level.
This was my third class with ITTS and I’ll train with Scott and crew again.
While my shooting sort of “ok” I need to spend a wee bit more time working on my pistol presentation and not getting too locked in on one threat in close confines.
Weapons:
Out of the nine students – there were .40 & .45 Glocks; three 1911s (plus the two Scotty carried throughout); a .40cal Sig; and a .40 H&K;
One Glock .45 had enough issues that its owner had to detail strip & replace parts over night. One 1911 had two failures to feed –using Remington factory ball ammunition on day one – had its chamber reamed and recoil spring replaced overnight. A second one had feeding / chambering issues diagnosed as relating to the extractor hook – also fixed over night. The third 1911 – mine, a Kimber – fortunately worked quite nicely (thanks Hilton!).
Equipment:
With almost all of Day 2 spent in three man teams shooting on top of each other within les than an arms length of a car, armor was required throughout the class. Four guys wore entry vests, the rest were in concealed soft armor. I wore my day-in / day-out work armor – DBT RVA-3A with an Impact ST plate.
Gun belt et al – Eagle Ind duty belt with their 3 mag FB pouch and cuff case; SF hand held light and a Safariland 6280 for a railed Kimber and a SF X300.
Had more than a few issues with the holster … I’ve silicon’d the snot out of the inside of it, I dumped a fair amount of Mitch Rosen’s leather lightning into it to. The pistol/light has a somewhat frequent tendency to hang up during the presentation. Which led to a far less than smooth, quick presentation. The tension screw is all of the way backed out now too. It still has issues with hanging up. I have / have had several 6280 / 63whatever holsters for 1911s, Glocks, M&Ps and a Beretta – none have had this hanging up issue.
I used Black Hills .45ACP ammunition throughout the class. Both 230gr training rounds and three different duty rounds – 185gr JHP, 185gr Barnes (big thumbs up!) and 230gr JHP. Very solid in terms of function and accuracy.
While my office let us have duty time for the class, everything else came out of pocket. Money and time definitely very well spent.
Have photos but I need to re-size them even more.