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05-16-2014, 10:46 AM
I apologize ahead of time for any vagueness, omissions, or mistakes in the AAR, as my notes are a bit incomplete, as a large amount of discussion arose organically and not as a set part of the class curriculum.
This class focuses on the tactical employment of the sidearm. The class will focus on the following:
Safety
A stair-stepped shooting program that covers all the basic skills needed for surgical shooting.
Discrimination
The use of cover
Transition drills
Realistic time and accuracy standards will be used as a training standard and goal.
Individual shooting plans will be developed and used.
Shooting “work out” plans for future individual development will be taught.
This was my first course with carbine instruction of any kind. I had a small amount of prior knowledge simply through online reading and informal shooting events with well-versed acquaintances; I have also taken multiple pistol courses from various well-regarded instructors, along with some edged weapons work.
For the pistol portion of the class, I used an H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package carried in condition 1, with an X400 Ultra - Green laser mounted with the DG-11 and zeroed for 25 yards. Sights were Heinie Straight Eights with the front sight painted bright orange with Revlon Colorstay nail enamel. Lube was SLIP 2000 EWL, magazines were modified with the Taylor Freelance Border Special +5 magazine extensions with the included Wolff springs. Round count was at 9536 at the start of the class.
For the carbine portion of the class, I used an AR-15; the upper was assembled by Weapons Outfitters (Centurion Arms 16" light-weight midlength barrel cut down to 14.5", MicroMOA Govnah, Vltor MUR-1S, Noveske NSR 13.5, Centurion Arms FA BCG, WOA gas tube, Surefire SF3P, AXTS Raptor), while I personally put together the lower (AXTS AX556 lower with mostly LWRC small parts, Vltor A5 RE and H2 buffer, Geissele SD-C, Magpul ACS-L, IKH SLAP, BCM Mod 1 Grip, BAD ASS, Sprinco Green Spring). Accessories on the rifle were as follows: Surefire M600 Ultra with an SR07 on an IWC Keymod Thorntail, Aimpoint T-1 2MOA on a GDI MT6-OSM with TD iO, EOTech G33, KAC 600m Micro BUIS, IWC Keymod QD sling mount, Magpul RVG attached via PXT Low Profile Keymod rail section, SOB QD Bitch sling, Surefire SOCOM556-RC, Magpul rail ladders, and Noveske Keymod rail panels. Lube was FIREClean, magazines used were Magpul PMAG MOEs and Lancer AWMs, with Magpuls mounted sideways. Round count was at 578 at the start of the class.
Since the usage of the carbine was unlikely in my EDC attire, I did not attempt to run the course in my EDC set-up, and instead opted for a battle belt. I used a TYR Tactical XFrame Brokos belt with their Assaulter's Base Belt-Tail and Emdom-MM Battle Suspenders. Attached to the battle belt, from the left side moving counter-clockwise, were two ITW FastMag Pistol, two ITW Gen3 FastMag, EGL Loppy Dump Pouch, a Gear Keeper retractable pistol lanyard, and a Safariland 6004-39512 with DFA.. Dress wise, I was fairly close to my EDC attire, besides the addition of Outdoor Research Firemark gloves and Arc'teryx kneepads. Eye pro was Oakley Ballistic M-Frames 3.0, ear pro was MSA Sordin Supreme Pro-X with the gel earpads and OC Tactical headband.
Paul Howe was the primary instructor, with 10 other AIs. Class started at about 0745. Weather was fairly warm and humid, but cloudy and with minimal wind, so decent training conditions for May in Texas. There were approximately 20 students in the class, mostly shooting Glocks, a couple of M&Ps, 3 H&Ks, 2 XD family pistols, and a 1911 when it came to pistols; for rifle, there were 2 AKs, the rest were all AR patterned rifles, mostly DI, but at least 2 LWRC, a KAC SR-15, a couple of SBRs, and two suppressed rifles (including one DD MK18 upper). Gear-wise, everyone ran their pistols from the open, and at least half were running retention holsters of some sort. Some were running battle belts, and a couple ran full plate carriers on the second day, with the carbine. The AIs shot similar guns, mostly Glocks, a couple of M&Ps, a 1911, and a Sig, and all ran ARs for rifles. Gear was similar to the students, all open carry, several battle belts, and even a couple of PCs.
The class started out with Paul having us fill out some paperwork. After that, he then passed out a sheet of standards, drills with the maximum amount of time allowed on them. These standards can be used as baseline drills, as it can show where one is weak and needs additional focus on. Also, this class is part of the 6 day carbine/pistol instructor course; the last two days are used for those taking the instructor course to have an actual class to teach, thus the 10 AIs. This is notable because this allows Paul to pair instructors with students in a way that maximizes information flow, such as left-handed instructors with left-handed students, or 1911 using instructors with 1911 using students. The same AIs are paired with the students through the whole class, so there isn't any conflicting advice.
Paul then went over the structure of the class. Hydration was stressed, given the weather here in Texas at this time of year. Also, the range was set up so that the students could simply work out of the back of their vehicles, rather than having to set up tables or the like. Beyond that, Paul runs a cold range during class. He also stressed that once one takes a course with him, the student is free to contact Paul via email for any kind of question, and he would generally respond within 24 hours, depending on his workload at the time. As for the instruction itself, generally a drill would be explained by an AI with everyone circled up, then demoed three times (slow to show the mechanics, then run normal speed, then slow again) by another AI, then the students shoot the drill. The vast majority of the drills were run with 24 rounds (8 rounds in three magazine), and utilizing this target:
http://i.imgur.com/h4vGUyp.jpg
We then headed out to the line. Before starting the first drill, Paul touched upon the SERPA; while he doesn't ban the holster at his class, he stresses that the retention must be defeated with a straight finger, rather than a curved finger, in order to prevent the trigger finger from slipping onto the trigger during the draw. For the Safarilands, there are two methods, coming in on top, or grabbing the holster and moving the hand up to the master grip. He also stressed that there is no reason to speed holster, as one would holster only if there was no more threats left. He liked to utilize the modified iso as his stance, a slight lean forward, with his feet heel-to-toe, which is to say, the weak side foot is slightly forward, so that the heel of the weak side foot is in line with the strong side foot's toe. The arms should both be locked, so the natural point of aim should be achieved via moving the feet, rather than the arms. The weak hand should be as high up on the gun as possible, striving to be the same height as the strong hand, so that the recoil will be neutral. If searching and needing to pivot, Paul usually floats the leading foot.
When Paul starts in the high ready, his muzzle is slightly elevated. This is to help him pick up his front sight as he extends, as he allows the front sight to sink into the rear notch during extension. Generally, he has a loose grip in the high ready, and firms up his grip only upon reaching full extension. He also likes to take up the slack as he's extending, stopping at the wall of the trigger until he reaches full extension, at which time he breaks the shot. For most slide manipulations, Paul likes to powerstroke, as this keeps things simple; the same action can be used for reloading, press checking, malfunction clearing, etc. While one can use a slide release, Paul notes that many guns have slide releases too small to be easily used while wearing gloves, a great concern of his; however, if one is able to do so, then he has no issues with it. A simple test for eye dominance determination is to simply put a thumb over a designated target, then closing one eye to see if the thumb is covering the target still. As for questions about both eyes open versus one eye open, Paul states that for shooting, it doesn't really matter, one just has to remember utilize both eyes during the search phase.
Paul then quickly went over the routine for loading and unloading, in order to facilitate a cold range. When loading, put the mag in, pull on it to make sure it's seated properly, press check, then holster. To unload, remove the magazine and stow it, eject the round in the chamber, and let the round fall to the ground. If one has magazines and rounds behind the firing line, one can pick them up, provided that one checks left and right to make sure that no one would muzzle them while doing so. Otherwise, step back from the line to allow Paul to know when one is done with the drill, and pick up empty magazines and loose rounds after the range is cold.
On a quick note on drop-leg holsters, Paul stated that his trick is to see if one can reach the bottom of the holster without any bending or dropping of the shoulder; if one can't, the holster is clearly too low. Also, he noted that gloves tend to degrade one's abilities by about 20%.
I passed the drop-leg height check with no issues, as I had my DFA set up so that the holster would be riding as high as possible. I had attempted to mount the holster onto my war belt using the MLS 15, but that brought the holster way too high for me to be able to draw. As for the gloves comment, I was curious to see what my performance for the day would be, since I planned on running the gloves the whole time, as I did not foresee myself ever utilizing the battle belt set up without a carbine, and thus without gloves.
In the post-shooting assessment, Paul liked to check left and right of the target with the pistol at extension, before going back down to the target. After that, he goes into the high ready, and does a full scan and assess. For the purposes of the class, the students were to check the target one the left and to the right of the target engaged, before checking the ground in front of the target. Paul notes that this is a calculated risk, as the threat that went down may still be a threat, but the assumption is that if they went down, the target is probably at least temporarily incapacitated. Also, this procedure helps break any tunnel vision that might have occurred. This act was to be done after each iteration of each drill, and the AIs did a good job in point out when a student failed to go through the post-shooting assessment.
As for thumb safety manipulation with a pistol, Paul swipes it off as soon as the extension starts, along with any kind of movement, coming back to high ready, etc.; essentially, any time there is no shooting.
We then started the first drill of the day. One is suppose to place the front sight blade right below the top left square pastie, so that the top of the front sight blade touched the bottom of the square. One then dry fired five times, then one live round. The goal of the dry fire is to make sure the sights were not disturbed, along with noting the POA/POI of the pistol and ammo.
My AI, George, suggested that I change my stance a bit. I had my feet exactly parallel to each other, and he suggested that I try moving the strong side foot back a little; this is a little ironic, given how I used to have the bad habit of standing with my strong side foot too far back. However, George was able to illustrate that having my feet exactly parallel was not the most stable platform, as it's relatively easy to push me off balance. It was also suggested that perhaps I lock both my arms and have them on an equal plane, rather than having them slightly bent with the strong arm slightly lower; I didn't really like that suggestion, because it would break my weak side wrist a bit.
After the drill, Paul noted that thumb-cocking, whether a DA semi-auto or a revolver, was undesirable, as that defeats the whole point of consistency in manipulations. By that same token, Paul is also not fond of DA/SA handguns, as that means that the shooter will need to master two distinct trigger pulls. Also noted was that one of the XD patterned handguns had locked up hard on this drill, and the student was now shooting a loaner Glock from Paul. Paul also touched upon his three ready positions: high, SUL, and holstered. High is used as the default position if the gun is out, SUL only when trying to move around friendlies, and holster for anything not requiring the pistol out.
Next up was the line drill, which is suppose to show a student just how hard they are suppose to grip the gun. One of the biggest issues for many shooters is the tendency to overgrip the gun, and thus push it one way or the other. Instead of muscling the gun into the proper position, Paul prefers to rely on a natural point of aim to do the majority of the indexing work. By shooting along the thick black lines that form the vertical boundaries of the target, one can see if grip pressure needs to be modulated, via the feedback generated from the groupings on the line. Paul stressed that each shot should have two sight pictures: one at the beginning, and one after the shot, as part of the follow through. Paul does not advocate strictly riding the reset, nor does he take his finger off the trigger, but instead a happy medium, where the trigger does end up with some slack again, but the trigger finger never leaves the trigger.
I did not really grok this drill; the whole grip pressure thing has long been a confusing one, and for now, I just grip as hard as I can without disturbing the sights, without regards to how to split the grip strength. I was able to keep the rounds on the lines fairly well, so I guess I was already applying proper grip strength?
The next drill was a single shot to the spine box from the high ready. With the introduction of a speed component, Paul stressed something that he would go to say almost every drill: speed stops when accuracy stops, which is to say, once one throws a shot out due to pushing one's self too fast, slow down a bit, and insure a good hit.
For this drill, I had my first malfunction of the day: a failure to extract. However, I do not believe this was an issue with the gun, so much as the ammunition used, which was Russian steel cased 9mm (Monarch, manufactured in Barnaul), as the empty casing was so locked up in the chamber that I had to field strip the pistol and use a pair of pliers to get enough purchase to pull it out. Later, I checked to see if the emptying casing would easily drop into the barrel, and it would not, requiring quite a bit of force to push the slide into battery, and requiring pliers to pull it out again. I switched to brass cased ammo at this juncture. I had not cleaned my pistol before this class, and as I recall, potential reliability issues can occur when switching between brass and steel without any cleaning, due to residue build-up and the different thermal expansion coefficients between the two materials. As for the drill itself, I did not have much issue with it, besides throwing one shot; the gloves certainly make a small, but noticeable difference in my shooting, due to the reduction of tactile feedback. I also started to get familiar with the way Paul wanted us to scan and assess, which I think is a bit more thorough than the way I used to do it.
Paul then went over the three types of reloads. The first is the admin reload, which is done with the gun holstered, and one is just swapping out the magazines. Paul stressed the need to press check to make sure that the gun is, in fact, loaded, each time the gun is expected to be drawn. There is also the tactical reload, which is done on one's own time, assuming that there is a lull in the fight. The magazine used to top off should always be the one furthest away from the first reload point. The retained magazine is then either put into the pouch where the top off magazine was, or else in a pocket; never place it in the first reload pouch (unless one only has one). Finally, there is the typical speed reload, which one does when at slide lock. When this occurs, hit the magazine release, and allow gravity to do its work and have the magazine fall out on its own; the weak hand should already be going toward to the magazine pouch, generally starting at the middle of the belt and moving back toward the pouches. After the magazine drops free, turn the magwell toward the direction of the pouch from which one is reloading from. It is preferable to take one's eyes off the target and look at the gun during the speed reload, to minimize any bobbles in the reload procedure. After inserting the magazine, Paul prefers to use the powerstroke, for consistency reasons and the fact that slide releases can be difficult to hit when wearing gloves, though he does not see any issues with using the slide release if one is able to do so consistently. Whenever possible, such as during a lull, remember to move a full magazine to the pouch one reloaded from. As a tip, if one is running a compact pistol that also has a pinkie rest on the magazine, and the magazine generally does not fall free, one can use the weak hand pinkie to strip the magazine out when taking the hand off the pistol. At this point in the class, we were to reload during a drill whenever our gun ran dry, without further instruction.
The drill shot next was 2 shots from the high ready, thus introducing the importance of follow through and speed. It is important to note that this is not a double tap, where two shots are fired with only one sight picture. Instead, for each iteration of the drill, one should see three distinct sight pictures. The first two magazines were run as practice, while the last magazine was timed.
I did not have too much issue with the drill, provided I didn't push my self extra hard.
For malfunctions, Paul teaches the classic "tap-rack-bang". For the next drill, one would start with an empty chamber and a loaded magazine, fire on the empty chamber, and then tap-rack-bang, and fire the live round. This can be done both extended, or back in the workspace, depending on one's physique and abilities. Paul has not seen much reason to roll the ejection port side of the gun outward to try and aid in ejection, as any time a simple rack failed, gravity would not have helped any, while at the same time, rolling the gun out weakens the rack.
After that drill came the 5-1 drill, which Paul had adapted from Jerry Barnhart. In this drill, starting from the high ready, one puts 5 rounds into the spine box of the target, then 1 to the head, and getting 7 sight pictures total during the drill. Paul states that if one has to get into a more aggressive than normal stance in order to maximize recoil control, that should become one's default position. It was also noted that there are two advantages to shooting higher up on COM, rather than too low: the first is that it's a faster transition to the head, the second is that shots below the diaphragm are generally much less lethal, as the soft organs there are generally not as critical as those above the diaphragm. Also, because of the multiple shots, one can't cheat with poor grip, as that quickly exposes itself in the multi-round strings; if one is utilizing a good grip and still doing poorly, consider stepping down in caliber.
I found that my gloves would sometimes ride a bit high, and make me ride the slide release, thus not allowing the slide to lock back on empty; I will have to work to get a more consistent grip with the reduced tactile senses. Also, I had 2 fliers, both times on the second shot in the drill; George reckoned that I was double tapping rather than doing controlled pairs.
After the drill, Paul noted potential problems with over-penetration, and how one might drop to a knee and shoot upwards in order to try to put the round into the ceiling after it goes through the target. Another thing he touched upon was caliber choice; Paul is known to be one of the few reputable instructors to use .357 SIG, which he states arouse mainly from the fact that he had a large stash of it. However, he also notes that the harsher recoil means that he can't be sloppy during practice, which is useful to keep him on his toes. Also, if the pistol is his only weapon, he likes a weapon to have a bit more gas. Still, he generally carries 9mm if it is a secondary for a rifle, and stated that he wouldn't feel under-gunned if he carried that by itself.
At this point, 1116, we broke for lunch.
After lunch, Paul went over the basics of Sul. There are three basic ways to run Sul, the first of which is to cross the thumbs, which is Paul's preferred method. The thumbs then becomes an index point, and allows one to get into a two handed grip easier. The second method is to put pads of the thumbs against each other. Again, the thumbs act as an index point, but the weakness here is that the gun generally doesn't lay as flat against the chest, and is thus a little less safe if one doesn't pay attention. The last method is the "C-clamp", where the weak hand actually grips the gun, with the webbing between the thumb and the index finger being pressed up against top of the slide. This is used for retention purposes, such as by FAMs, but lacks an index point, and is thus generally slower to come up on target with.
We then had a multiple target drill; two targets, each serviced with two shots. Paul stressed that one transitions the eyes first, then brings the gun in line with the target. Also, he notes that when transitioning between threats, in real life, there may be innocents, such as other civilians or even family members, that were between threats. While muzzling them may be inevitable given the time constraints imposed, one can still at least take the finger off the trigger during the transition.
I was able to do okay on this drill, and was able to remember to keep my finger off the trigger after two or three transgressions.
Paul then gave us a little tip he liked to use for new students. Have the student get a good grip on the gun, then, using a marker of some sort, draw a line from one thumb to the other. Now, when the thumbs are out of alignment, the student has instant feedback and can self-correct. He also demonstrated just how much material is needed to stop a bullet, buy having a student shoot into the ground (about 4 inches of sand). The point illustrated here is that, when loading, one must consider whether or not the object acting as a backstop would actually stop the bullet.
The next drill was 2 SHO shots, and then transition the gun into the weak hand, and do 2 WHO shots. It was stressed that this drill was simply to show people the basic mechanics, and not run for speed. If one drops the gun, just let it go, don't try to grab at the gun. This drill was to be done dry first, then live. Generally, there are two ways to transition from the strong hand to the weak hand. The first way is to rock the strong hand down, creating a gap on top of the webbing between the thumb and the index finger on the strong hand, and the weak hand goes over. The second way is to open up the strong hand thumb, and let the weak hand come in from the side. As for the grip itself, Paul prefers to keep the gun straight up and down, rather than canting the gun slightly, but states that one should do whatever generates better results.
I had some issues with the transition from the strong hand to the weak hand, mainly in the sense that the weak hand would be too far to the left a bit, making it difficult to take the safety off and inducing poor recoil control; I normally don't really have this issue without gloves, so it'll be something I'll have to practice more. I also wound up throwing a couple of shots on the weak hand.
The next drill was to start in an interview position, then draw and fire one shot at the target. At this point, some of the students will also be running ball and dummy drills with this drill. Typically, to speed up the draw, one can speed everything up from coming out of the interview position to putting the hands together, but the extension should be the same speed. For reholster, Paul states that if one misses the first reholster attempt, look at the holster to reholster; this is not an issue from a situational awareness POV since one would holster only if there were no immediate threats. This drill was done dry first, with one-on-one assessments by the AI to determine if the student could do this drill safely.
It was good to get practice in with the SLS. I bobbled defeating the retention once or twice, but was fine for the most part.
The next drill was a simple shoot twice, reload, then shoot twice again.
I had switched back to steel after lunch to see if that one round was just a fluke. It wasn't. My gun locked up hard again, with the casing stuck inside the chamber, unable to be fixed with a rip drill, and had to be removed with pliers again. I switched to brass for the pistol for the rest of the class. As for the drill, it was interesting to get used to the tension on the FastMag Pistols, as it was much more than my open top CC mag carriers that I've used in the past.
After that, we went over the 25 yard kneeling. Here, we were instructed to shoot right at the bottom of the spine box, with the front blade sight right on the line. There are four basic kneels, the first of which is the Hollywood, in which one drops down on both knees. The torso should be in the same position as if one was shooting standing. To get back up, put one foot forward, and then push back with that leg to stand up. In the supported kneel, one puts the weak leg forward, and rest the weak elbow on the knee, getting bone-on-bone support. In the unsupported kneel, one still puts the weak leg forward, but has the torso be in the same position as if shooting standing. In the drop-down kneel, on puts the strong leg back, instead of putting the weak leg forward. The type of kneel one chooses is dependent on one's comfort and abilities, taking into account body size, build, prior injuries, etc. We ran this drill dry for awhile, so that each student can figure out which kneeling position they like the most.
The kneepads here were quite useful, as it meant that I didn't have to watch out for empty shell casings or rocks. I did not shoot as well as I liked; I chose the unsupported kneel and the drop-down usually, but did not really find much increased stability compared to simple standing; perhaps a familiarity issue?
The class then split into two groups, one doing the surgical shooting combined with moving around people Sul, while the other half went off to shoot steel around barricades and practice tactical reloads. I was assigned to surgical shooting while using Sul.
Each surgical drill would be run individually, and the first run would be dry. It was stressed that there was no emphasis on speed, but a huge one on safety and accuracy. Every other target had a person that one had to go behind in order to get to the next posted target (of which there was four); each posted target had 6 sub-targets, 5 of which depicted hostage situations (and each on with the hostage taker showing less and less of himself). Each student was to engage each sub-target once, then move into the next position in Sul. Upon finishing the run, the student would switch spots with someone who was standing as a barricade.
It was noted that no one did a tactical reload between moving, which is poor ammo management; I personally did not do so since I knew the course of fire and knew I would have enough rounds, but I suppose that's not really a good attitude to have in this kind of scenario. I had good shots on my targets, although many sub-targets had the hostage with quite a few holes. It was stressed here that, if one doesn't have a shot, it's better to simply not shoot from that position; instead, change the angle so one can. For example, one could engage the leg of the hostage taker, and once the hostage taker is down on the ground, put in the lethal shots.
We then moved over to the barricade side of things. Paul went over the three basic ways to engage from a barricade. The first is to simply flow out all the way from behind the barricade; this is not preferred, as this means abandoning cover. The second is to slowly pie out; this has the issue of potentially telegraphing one's move, as the feet may show before one clears the barricade. Finally, there is dynamic, where one simply steps out just enough to clear the barricade. The drill would be run dry first, then live twice, against narrow steel targets about 25 yards away, utilizing the standing and kneeling, on both sides of the barricade (so 8 total engagements). Because most targets take more than one round to take down, we would engage until we hit the target twice in each position (AIs would call out the location of a miss). When kneeling, the side that one is going to go out of is the leg that should be forward. In terms of leaning, this is a viable tactic, but only if one isn't too top heavy, which is an issue for those wearing armor. If doing a tactical reload, Paul prefers to stay aggressive and reload out of cover, as this allows him to keep scanning for threats and making sure that the threat already engaged stays down (since a tactical reload would occur only after the threat is done). If a new threat emerges before he is done reloading, he can simply dart back into cover.
I did a bit of leaning while kneeling, as this is how I was taught previously, and since I was running slick. I had a couple of misses, usually to the right of the target, which was disappointing. On the left side, kneeling had a weird tension, since I'm shooting right-handed.
After everyone had a chance to run this drill, we moved on to tactical reloads. As noted earlier, the magazine used to top off should always be the one furthest away from the first reload point. The retained magazine is then either put into the pouch where the top off magazine was, or else in a pocket; never place it in the first reload pouch (unless one only has one). Interestingly, Paul teaches that the fresh magazine should be between the ring and middle finger, and that the magazine being extracted should be pulled out with the index finger and thumb. One can still index the fresh magazine as normal, before shifting the magazine to the proper placement, and by extracting the old magazine with the index finger and thumb, it is far easier to put into a magazine pouch. This drill was run completely dry, with no rounds in the chamber, albeit with rounds in the magazines.
The new tactical reload format was somewhat awkward due to lack of familiarity, but once I realized the reasoning behind it, I found it to be superior to how I had previously done it (with the magazines in reversed spots). Also, the magazines were a bit difficult to seat, if only because of how full they were; downloading by one would have solved that issue.
Class ended at this time at around 1610.
This class focuses on the tactical employment of the sidearm. The class will focus on the following:
Safety
A stair-stepped shooting program that covers all the basic skills needed for surgical shooting.
Discrimination
The use of cover
Transition drills
Realistic time and accuracy standards will be used as a training standard and goal.
Individual shooting plans will be developed and used.
Shooting “work out” plans for future individual development will be taught.
This was my first course with carbine instruction of any kind. I had a small amount of prior knowledge simply through online reading and informal shooting events with well-versed acquaintances; I have also taken multiple pistol courses from various well-regarded instructors, along with some edged weapons work.
For the pistol portion of the class, I used an H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package carried in condition 1, with an X400 Ultra - Green laser mounted with the DG-11 and zeroed for 25 yards. Sights were Heinie Straight Eights with the front sight painted bright orange with Revlon Colorstay nail enamel. Lube was SLIP 2000 EWL, magazines were modified with the Taylor Freelance Border Special +5 magazine extensions with the included Wolff springs. Round count was at 9536 at the start of the class.
For the carbine portion of the class, I used an AR-15; the upper was assembled by Weapons Outfitters (Centurion Arms 16" light-weight midlength barrel cut down to 14.5", MicroMOA Govnah, Vltor MUR-1S, Noveske NSR 13.5, Centurion Arms FA BCG, WOA gas tube, Surefire SF3P, AXTS Raptor), while I personally put together the lower (AXTS AX556 lower with mostly LWRC small parts, Vltor A5 RE and H2 buffer, Geissele SD-C, Magpul ACS-L, IKH SLAP, BCM Mod 1 Grip, BAD ASS, Sprinco Green Spring). Accessories on the rifle were as follows: Surefire M600 Ultra with an SR07 on an IWC Keymod Thorntail, Aimpoint T-1 2MOA on a GDI MT6-OSM with TD iO, EOTech G33, KAC 600m Micro BUIS, IWC Keymod QD sling mount, Magpul RVG attached via PXT Low Profile Keymod rail section, SOB QD Bitch sling, Surefire SOCOM556-RC, Magpul rail ladders, and Noveske Keymod rail panels. Lube was FIREClean, magazines used were Magpul PMAG MOEs and Lancer AWMs, with Magpuls mounted sideways. Round count was at 578 at the start of the class.
Since the usage of the carbine was unlikely in my EDC attire, I did not attempt to run the course in my EDC set-up, and instead opted for a battle belt. I used a TYR Tactical XFrame Brokos belt with their Assaulter's Base Belt-Tail and Emdom-MM Battle Suspenders. Attached to the battle belt, from the left side moving counter-clockwise, were two ITW FastMag Pistol, two ITW Gen3 FastMag, EGL Loppy Dump Pouch, a Gear Keeper retractable pistol lanyard, and a Safariland 6004-39512 with DFA.. Dress wise, I was fairly close to my EDC attire, besides the addition of Outdoor Research Firemark gloves and Arc'teryx kneepads. Eye pro was Oakley Ballistic M-Frames 3.0, ear pro was MSA Sordin Supreme Pro-X with the gel earpads and OC Tactical headband.
Paul Howe was the primary instructor, with 10 other AIs. Class started at about 0745. Weather was fairly warm and humid, but cloudy and with minimal wind, so decent training conditions for May in Texas. There were approximately 20 students in the class, mostly shooting Glocks, a couple of M&Ps, 3 H&Ks, 2 XD family pistols, and a 1911 when it came to pistols; for rifle, there were 2 AKs, the rest were all AR patterned rifles, mostly DI, but at least 2 LWRC, a KAC SR-15, a couple of SBRs, and two suppressed rifles (including one DD MK18 upper). Gear-wise, everyone ran their pistols from the open, and at least half were running retention holsters of some sort. Some were running battle belts, and a couple ran full plate carriers on the second day, with the carbine. The AIs shot similar guns, mostly Glocks, a couple of M&Ps, a 1911, and a Sig, and all ran ARs for rifles. Gear was similar to the students, all open carry, several battle belts, and even a couple of PCs.
The class started out with Paul having us fill out some paperwork. After that, he then passed out a sheet of standards, drills with the maximum amount of time allowed on them. These standards can be used as baseline drills, as it can show where one is weak and needs additional focus on. Also, this class is part of the 6 day carbine/pistol instructor course; the last two days are used for those taking the instructor course to have an actual class to teach, thus the 10 AIs. This is notable because this allows Paul to pair instructors with students in a way that maximizes information flow, such as left-handed instructors with left-handed students, or 1911 using instructors with 1911 using students. The same AIs are paired with the students through the whole class, so there isn't any conflicting advice.
Paul then went over the structure of the class. Hydration was stressed, given the weather here in Texas at this time of year. Also, the range was set up so that the students could simply work out of the back of their vehicles, rather than having to set up tables or the like. Beyond that, Paul runs a cold range during class. He also stressed that once one takes a course with him, the student is free to contact Paul via email for any kind of question, and he would generally respond within 24 hours, depending on his workload at the time. As for the instruction itself, generally a drill would be explained by an AI with everyone circled up, then demoed three times (slow to show the mechanics, then run normal speed, then slow again) by another AI, then the students shoot the drill. The vast majority of the drills were run with 24 rounds (8 rounds in three magazine), and utilizing this target:
http://i.imgur.com/h4vGUyp.jpg
We then headed out to the line. Before starting the first drill, Paul touched upon the SERPA; while he doesn't ban the holster at his class, he stresses that the retention must be defeated with a straight finger, rather than a curved finger, in order to prevent the trigger finger from slipping onto the trigger during the draw. For the Safarilands, there are two methods, coming in on top, or grabbing the holster and moving the hand up to the master grip. He also stressed that there is no reason to speed holster, as one would holster only if there was no more threats left. He liked to utilize the modified iso as his stance, a slight lean forward, with his feet heel-to-toe, which is to say, the weak side foot is slightly forward, so that the heel of the weak side foot is in line with the strong side foot's toe. The arms should both be locked, so the natural point of aim should be achieved via moving the feet, rather than the arms. The weak hand should be as high up on the gun as possible, striving to be the same height as the strong hand, so that the recoil will be neutral. If searching and needing to pivot, Paul usually floats the leading foot.
When Paul starts in the high ready, his muzzle is slightly elevated. This is to help him pick up his front sight as he extends, as he allows the front sight to sink into the rear notch during extension. Generally, he has a loose grip in the high ready, and firms up his grip only upon reaching full extension. He also likes to take up the slack as he's extending, stopping at the wall of the trigger until he reaches full extension, at which time he breaks the shot. For most slide manipulations, Paul likes to powerstroke, as this keeps things simple; the same action can be used for reloading, press checking, malfunction clearing, etc. While one can use a slide release, Paul notes that many guns have slide releases too small to be easily used while wearing gloves, a great concern of his; however, if one is able to do so, then he has no issues with it. A simple test for eye dominance determination is to simply put a thumb over a designated target, then closing one eye to see if the thumb is covering the target still. As for questions about both eyes open versus one eye open, Paul states that for shooting, it doesn't really matter, one just has to remember utilize both eyes during the search phase.
Paul then quickly went over the routine for loading and unloading, in order to facilitate a cold range. When loading, put the mag in, pull on it to make sure it's seated properly, press check, then holster. To unload, remove the magazine and stow it, eject the round in the chamber, and let the round fall to the ground. If one has magazines and rounds behind the firing line, one can pick them up, provided that one checks left and right to make sure that no one would muzzle them while doing so. Otherwise, step back from the line to allow Paul to know when one is done with the drill, and pick up empty magazines and loose rounds after the range is cold.
On a quick note on drop-leg holsters, Paul stated that his trick is to see if one can reach the bottom of the holster without any bending or dropping of the shoulder; if one can't, the holster is clearly too low. Also, he noted that gloves tend to degrade one's abilities by about 20%.
I passed the drop-leg height check with no issues, as I had my DFA set up so that the holster would be riding as high as possible. I had attempted to mount the holster onto my war belt using the MLS 15, but that brought the holster way too high for me to be able to draw. As for the gloves comment, I was curious to see what my performance for the day would be, since I planned on running the gloves the whole time, as I did not foresee myself ever utilizing the battle belt set up without a carbine, and thus without gloves.
In the post-shooting assessment, Paul liked to check left and right of the target with the pistol at extension, before going back down to the target. After that, he goes into the high ready, and does a full scan and assess. For the purposes of the class, the students were to check the target one the left and to the right of the target engaged, before checking the ground in front of the target. Paul notes that this is a calculated risk, as the threat that went down may still be a threat, but the assumption is that if they went down, the target is probably at least temporarily incapacitated. Also, this procedure helps break any tunnel vision that might have occurred. This act was to be done after each iteration of each drill, and the AIs did a good job in point out when a student failed to go through the post-shooting assessment.
As for thumb safety manipulation with a pistol, Paul swipes it off as soon as the extension starts, along with any kind of movement, coming back to high ready, etc.; essentially, any time there is no shooting.
We then started the first drill of the day. One is suppose to place the front sight blade right below the top left square pastie, so that the top of the front sight blade touched the bottom of the square. One then dry fired five times, then one live round. The goal of the dry fire is to make sure the sights were not disturbed, along with noting the POA/POI of the pistol and ammo.
My AI, George, suggested that I change my stance a bit. I had my feet exactly parallel to each other, and he suggested that I try moving the strong side foot back a little; this is a little ironic, given how I used to have the bad habit of standing with my strong side foot too far back. However, George was able to illustrate that having my feet exactly parallel was not the most stable platform, as it's relatively easy to push me off balance. It was also suggested that perhaps I lock both my arms and have them on an equal plane, rather than having them slightly bent with the strong arm slightly lower; I didn't really like that suggestion, because it would break my weak side wrist a bit.
After the drill, Paul noted that thumb-cocking, whether a DA semi-auto or a revolver, was undesirable, as that defeats the whole point of consistency in manipulations. By that same token, Paul is also not fond of DA/SA handguns, as that means that the shooter will need to master two distinct trigger pulls. Also noted was that one of the XD patterned handguns had locked up hard on this drill, and the student was now shooting a loaner Glock from Paul. Paul also touched upon his three ready positions: high, SUL, and holstered. High is used as the default position if the gun is out, SUL only when trying to move around friendlies, and holster for anything not requiring the pistol out.
Next up was the line drill, which is suppose to show a student just how hard they are suppose to grip the gun. One of the biggest issues for many shooters is the tendency to overgrip the gun, and thus push it one way or the other. Instead of muscling the gun into the proper position, Paul prefers to rely on a natural point of aim to do the majority of the indexing work. By shooting along the thick black lines that form the vertical boundaries of the target, one can see if grip pressure needs to be modulated, via the feedback generated from the groupings on the line. Paul stressed that each shot should have two sight pictures: one at the beginning, and one after the shot, as part of the follow through. Paul does not advocate strictly riding the reset, nor does he take his finger off the trigger, but instead a happy medium, where the trigger does end up with some slack again, but the trigger finger never leaves the trigger.
I did not really grok this drill; the whole grip pressure thing has long been a confusing one, and for now, I just grip as hard as I can without disturbing the sights, without regards to how to split the grip strength. I was able to keep the rounds on the lines fairly well, so I guess I was already applying proper grip strength?
The next drill was a single shot to the spine box from the high ready. With the introduction of a speed component, Paul stressed something that he would go to say almost every drill: speed stops when accuracy stops, which is to say, once one throws a shot out due to pushing one's self too fast, slow down a bit, and insure a good hit.
For this drill, I had my first malfunction of the day: a failure to extract. However, I do not believe this was an issue with the gun, so much as the ammunition used, which was Russian steel cased 9mm (Monarch, manufactured in Barnaul), as the empty casing was so locked up in the chamber that I had to field strip the pistol and use a pair of pliers to get enough purchase to pull it out. Later, I checked to see if the emptying casing would easily drop into the barrel, and it would not, requiring quite a bit of force to push the slide into battery, and requiring pliers to pull it out again. I switched to brass cased ammo at this juncture. I had not cleaned my pistol before this class, and as I recall, potential reliability issues can occur when switching between brass and steel without any cleaning, due to residue build-up and the different thermal expansion coefficients between the two materials. As for the drill itself, I did not have much issue with it, besides throwing one shot; the gloves certainly make a small, but noticeable difference in my shooting, due to the reduction of tactile feedback. I also started to get familiar with the way Paul wanted us to scan and assess, which I think is a bit more thorough than the way I used to do it.
Paul then went over the three types of reloads. The first is the admin reload, which is done with the gun holstered, and one is just swapping out the magazines. Paul stressed the need to press check to make sure that the gun is, in fact, loaded, each time the gun is expected to be drawn. There is also the tactical reload, which is done on one's own time, assuming that there is a lull in the fight. The magazine used to top off should always be the one furthest away from the first reload point. The retained magazine is then either put into the pouch where the top off magazine was, or else in a pocket; never place it in the first reload pouch (unless one only has one). Finally, there is the typical speed reload, which one does when at slide lock. When this occurs, hit the magazine release, and allow gravity to do its work and have the magazine fall out on its own; the weak hand should already be going toward to the magazine pouch, generally starting at the middle of the belt and moving back toward the pouches. After the magazine drops free, turn the magwell toward the direction of the pouch from which one is reloading from. It is preferable to take one's eyes off the target and look at the gun during the speed reload, to minimize any bobbles in the reload procedure. After inserting the magazine, Paul prefers to use the powerstroke, for consistency reasons and the fact that slide releases can be difficult to hit when wearing gloves, though he does not see any issues with using the slide release if one is able to do so consistently. Whenever possible, such as during a lull, remember to move a full magazine to the pouch one reloaded from. As a tip, if one is running a compact pistol that also has a pinkie rest on the magazine, and the magazine generally does not fall free, one can use the weak hand pinkie to strip the magazine out when taking the hand off the pistol. At this point in the class, we were to reload during a drill whenever our gun ran dry, without further instruction.
The drill shot next was 2 shots from the high ready, thus introducing the importance of follow through and speed. It is important to note that this is not a double tap, where two shots are fired with only one sight picture. Instead, for each iteration of the drill, one should see three distinct sight pictures. The first two magazines were run as practice, while the last magazine was timed.
I did not have too much issue with the drill, provided I didn't push my self extra hard.
For malfunctions, Paul teaches the classic "tap-rack-bang". For the next drill, one would start with an empty chamber and a loaded magazine, fire on the empty chamber, and then tap-rack-bang, and fire the live round. This can be done both extended, or back in the workspace, depending on one's physique and abilities. Paul has not seen much reason to roll the ejection port side of the gun outward to try and aid in ejection, as any time a simple rack failed, gravity would not have helped any, while at the same time, rolling the gun out weakens the rack.
After that drill came the 5-1 drill, which Paul had adapted from Jerry Barnhart. In this drill, starting from the high ready, one puts 5 rounds into the spine box of the target, then 1 to the head, and getting 7 sight pictures total during the drill. Paul states that if one has to get into a more aggressive than normal stance in order to maximize recoil control, that should become one's default position. It was also noted that there are two advantages to shooting higher up on COM, rather than too low: the first is that it's a faster transition to the head, the second is that shots below the diaphragm are generally much less lethal, as the soft organs there are generally not as critical as those above the diaphragm. Also, because of the multiple shots, one can't cheat with poor grip, as that quickly exposes itself in the multi-round strings; if one is utilizing a good grip and still doing poorly, consider stepping down in caliber.
I found that my gloves would sometimes ride a bit high, and make me ride the slide release, thus not allowing the slide to lock back on empty; I will have to work to get a more consistent grip with the reduced tactile senses. Also, I had 2 fliers, both times on the second shot in the drill; George reckoned that I was double tapping rather than doing controlled pairs.
After the drill, Paul noted potential problems with over-penetration, and how one might drop to a knee and shoot upwards in order to try to put the round into the ceiling after it goes through the target. Another thing he touched upon was caliber choice; Paul is known to be one of the few reputable instructors to use .357 SIG, which he states arouse mainly from the fact that he had a large stash of it. However, he also notes that the harsher recoil means that he can't be sloppy during practice, which is useful to keep him on his toes. Also, if the pistol is his only weapon, he likes a weapon to have a bit more gas. Still, he generally carries 9mm if it is a secondary for a rifle, and stated that he wouldn't feel under-gunned if he carried that by itself.
At this point, 1116, we broke for lunch.
After lunch, Paul went over the basics of Sul. There are three basic ways to run Sul, the first of which is to cross the thumbs, which is Paul's preferred method. The thumbs then becomes an index point, and allows one to get into a two handed grip easier. The second method is to put pads of the thumbs against each other. Again, the thumbs act as an index point, but the weakness here is that the gun generally doesn't lay as flat against the chest, and is thus a little less safe if one doesn't pay attention. The last method is the "C-clamp", where the weak hand actually grips the gun, with the webbing between the thumb and the index finger being pressed up against top of the slide. This is used for retention purposes, such as by FAMs, but lacks an index point, and is thus generally slower to come up on target with.
We then had a multiple target drill; two targets, each serviced with two shots. Paul stressed that one transitions the eyes first, then brings the gun in line with the target. Also, he notes that when transitioning between threats, in real life, there may be innocents, such as other civilians or even family members, that were between threats. While muzzling them may be inevitable given the time constraints imposed, one can still at least take the finger off the trigger during the transition.
I was able to do okay on this drill, and was able to remember to keep my finger off the trigger after two or three transgressions.
Paul then gave us a little tip he liked to use for new students. Have the student get a good grip on the gun, then, using a marker of some sort, draw a line from one thumb to the other. Now, when the thumbs are out of alignment, the student has instant feedback and can self-correct. He also demonstrated just how much material is needed to stop a bullet, buy having a student shoot into the ground (about 4 inches of sand). The point illustrated here is that, when loading, one must consider whether or not the object acting as a backstop would actually stop the bullet.
The next drill was 2 SHO shots, and then transition the gun into the weak hand, and do 2 WHO shots. It was stressed that this drill was simply to show people the basic mechanics, and not run for speed. If one drops the gun, just let it go, don't try to grab at the gun. This drill was to be done dry first, then live. Generally, there are two ways to transition from the strong hand to the weak hand. The first way is to rock the strong hand down, creating a gap on top of the webbing between the thumb and the index finger on the strong hand, and the weak hand goes over. The second way is to open up the strong hand thumb, and let the weak hand come in from the side. As for the grip itself, Paul prefers to keep the gun straight up and down, rather than canting the gun slightly, but states that one should do whatever generates better results.
I had some issues with the transition from the strong hand to the weak hand, mainly in the sense that the weak hand would be too far to the left a bit, making it difficult to take the safety off and inducing poor recoil control; I normally don't really have this issue without gloves, so it'll be something I'll have to practice more. I also wound up throwing a couple of shots on the weak hand.
The next drill was to start in an interview position, then draw and fire one shot at the target. At this point, some of the students will also be running ball and dummy drills with this drill. Typically, to speed up the draw, one can speed everything up from coming out of the interview position to putting the hands together, but the extension should be the same speed. For reholster, Paul states that if one misses the first reholster attempt, look at the holster to reholster; this is not an issue from a situational awareness POV since one would holster only if there were no immediate threats. This drill was done dry first, with one-on-one assessments by the AI to determine if the student could do this drill safely.
It was good to get practice in with the SLS. I bobbled defeating the retention once or twice, but was fine for the most part.
The next drill was a simple shoot twice, reload, then shoot twice again.
I had switched back to steel after lunch to see if that one round was just a fluke. It wasn't. My gun locked up hard again, with the casing stuck inside the chamber, unable to be fixed with a rip drill, and had to be removed with pliers again. I switched to brass for the pistol for the rest of the class. As for the drill, it was interesting to get used to the tension on the FastMag Pistols, as it was much more than my open top CC mag carriers that I've used in the past.
After that, we went over the 25 yard kneeling. Here, we were instructed to shoot right at the bottom of the spine box, with the front blade sight right on the line. There are four basic kneels, the first of which is the Hollywood, in which one drops down on both knees. The torso should be in the same position as if one was shooting standing. To get back up, put one foot forward, and then push back with that leg to stand up. In the supported kneel, one puts the weak leg forward, and rest the weak elbow on the knee, getting bone-on-bone support. In the unsupported kneel, one still puts the weak leg forward, but has the torso be in the same position as if shooting standing. In the drop-down kneel, on puts the strong leg back, instead of putting the weak leg forward. The type of kneel one chooses is dependent on one's comfort and abilities, taking into account body size, build, prior injuries, etc. We ran this drill dry for awhile, so that each student can figure out which kneeling position they like the most.
The kneepads here were quite useful, as it meant that I didn't have to watch out for empty shell casings or rocks. I did not shoot as well as I liked; I chose the unsupported kneel and the drop-down usually, but did not really find much increased stability compared to simple standing; perhaps a familiarity issue?
The class then split into two groups, one doing the surgical shooting combined with moving around people Sul, while the other half went off to shoot steel around barricades and practice tactical reloads. I was assigned to surgical shooting while using Sul.
Each surgical drill would be run individually, and the first run would be dry. It was stressed that there was no emphasis on speed, but a huge one on safety and accuracy. Every other target had a person that one had to go behind in order to get to the next posted target (of which there was four); each posted target had 6 sub-targets, 5 of which depicted hostage situations (and each on with the hostage taker showing less and less of himself). Each student was to engage each sub-target once, then move into the next position in Sul. Upon finishing the run, the student would switch spots with someone who was standing as a barricade.
It was noted that no one did a tactical reload between moving, which is poor ammo management; I personally did not do so since I knew the course of fire and knew I would have enough rounds, but I suppose that's not really a good attitude to have in this kind of scenario. I had good shots on my targets, although many sub-targets had the hostage with quite a few holes. It was stressed here that, if one doesn't have a shot, it's better to simply not shoot from that position; instead, change the angle so one can. For example, one could engage the leg of the hostage taker, and once the hostage taker is down on the ground, put in the lethal shots.
We then moved over to the barricade side of things. Paul went over the three basic ways to engage from a barricade. The first is to simply flow out all the way from behind the barricade; this is not preferred, as this means abandoning cover. The second is to slowly pie out; this has the issue of potentially telegraphing one's move, as the feet may show before one clears the barricade. Finally, there is dynamic, where one simply steps out just enough to clear the barricade. The drill would be run dry first, then live twice, against narrow steel targets about 25 yards away, utilizing the standing and kneeling, on both sides of the barricade (so 8 total engagements). Because most targets take more than one round to take down, we would engage until we hit the target twice in each position (AIs would call out the location of a miss). When kneeling, the side that one is going to go out of is the leg that should be forward. In terms of leaning, this is a viable tactic, but only if one isn't too top heavy, which is an issue for those wearing armor. If doing a tactical reload, Paul prefers to stay aggressive and reload out of cover, as this allows him to keep scanning for threats and making sure that the threat already engaged stays down (since a tactical reload would occur only after the threat is done). If a new threat emerges before he is done reloading, he can simply dart back into cover.
I did a bit of leaning while kneeling, as this is how I was taught previously, and since I was running slick. I had a couple of misses, usually to the right of the target, which was disappointing. On the left side, kneeling had a weird tension, since I'm shooting right-handed.
After everyone had a chance to run this drill, we moved on to tactical reloads. As noted earlier, the magazine used to top off should always be the one furthest away from the first reload point. The retained magazine is then either put into the pouch where the top off magazine was, or else in a pocket; never place it in the first reload pouch (unless one only has one). Interestingly, Paul teaches that the fresh magazine should be between the ring and middle finger, and that the magazine being extracted should be pulled out with the index finger and thumb. One can still index the fresh magazine as normal, before shifting the magazine to the proper placement, and by extracting the old magazine with the index finger and thumb, it is far easier to put into a magazine pouch. This drill was run completely dry, with no rounds in the chamber, albeit with rounds in the magazines.
The new tactical reload format was somewhat awkward due to lack of familiarity, but once I realized the reasoning behind it, I found it to be superior to how I had previously done it (with the magazines in reversed spots). Also, the magazines were a bit difficult to seat, if only because of how full they were; downloading by one would have solved that issue.
Class ended at this time at around 1610.