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View Full Version : AAR: Ken Hackathorn Advanced Pistol -- October 24/25, 2009



TCinVA
03-03-2011, 09:58 AM
A little-read AAR I wrote some time ago about a superb handgun class with Ken Hackathorn:

I was excited to see this class announced because I had been trying to find my way into a Hackathorn handgun class for years. To have the opportunity to take an “advanced” class with Ken was a rare opportunity and I jumped on it as quickly as humanly possible. I had exceptionally high expectations for the class.

I was not disappointed.

TD1

Day 1 began with a lecture from Ken on the realities of using a handgun for its intended purpose…namely serious social interaction with people who want to hurt you. The information in his lecture was based on decades of experience with that subject area and countless hours of research and analysis of real life incidents to find lessons that can be learned. The main points are highlighted on the target seen here. I’ll briefly flesh out the outline presented in the picture:

http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Kens_Law.jpg

I. Most gunfights happen at ranges of 10 yards or less, with a heavy emphasis on the “less” part of that statement.

II.Most fights involve between 1 and 3 bad guys.

III. There are two types of incidents traditionally classified as a “fight”:

A.Shootings – a situation where generally only one person fires shots. Generally this involves one party producing a weapon and shooting on average between one to three shots. These incidents are more common than gunfights and generally carry a higher risk of legal liability than true gunfights.

B.Gunfights – a situation where gunfire is being exchanged between at least two actors in the fight. These situations generally see the involved individuals shooting their weapons until they are empty. These incidents are much more rare and generally carry a lower risk of legal liability as the incoming gunfire makes it pretty clear that the outgoing gunfire was the only reasonable alternative left to the good guy.

IV. When bullets start flying, people start moving.

V. The vast majority of shootings and gunfights happen in conditions of low light. Note that “low light” can be at night at the ATM or inside a parking garage at noon. Bad guys tend to use the cover of darkness to prey upon others.

VI. If you watch video of actual shootings you will see that often even relatively well trained shooters fire their weapons one handed under stress.

Given that these are the realities of how fights work, it is Ken’s belief that training should be structured to reflect these conditions. Much of what is considered “training” out there does not live up to these standards.

Ken spent the first chunk of TD1 working on the basics. It wasn’t necessarily to teach us the basics as everyone in the class already had the benefit of a solid foundation in the basics…it was more of an instructor development segment showing us how to teach the fundamentals to others. Ken showed us several tips and tricks to communicate important fundamentals like trigger manipulation, sight management, grip technique, and other basic manipulations. Ken ran us through several drills giving standards we could use to assess both our skill level and the skill of any students we might teach. I won’t describe the drills in detail as I’m sure others will do that for us. Ken mentioned that when he goes to various places to train he is often told “My guys are good!” The drills and standards he showed us helps to quantify what “good” really is so people have a good read on where they really are.

We were given heavy doses of shooting on the move in this course, which is a reflection of his earlier lecture points. Ken outlined the importance of being able to shoot while moving in *any* direction. Some out there are convinced that if they aren’t part of a SWAT team or a Tier 1 military unit that they will have no need to ever shoot while moving forward toward a threat. This is, of course, utterly silly. The box drill and the figure 8 drill (different than the figure 8 wobble drill) are excellent for teaching and practicing shooting on the move. The drills can be changed up to get people used to moving in all directions.

After returning from dinner we did some low light work focusing on using the light in a tactically sound manner so as to avoid being prolifically perforated by some bad guy out there in the dark. Ken even took us through the shoothouse in the dark to give us some opportunity to apply the lessons on light use taught earlier in the evening. Yet again my previously lamented training scar of charging targets manifested itself in the Fort Harmon shoothouse.

The weather was wet and rather cold and the hours were fairly long…but it was a most enjoyable day despite all of that.

http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Ken.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Ken1.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Todd.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Ken_Wobble.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Ken4.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Line_Shooting.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Box_Drill1.jpg
http://www.gandrtactical.com/images/archive/M4C/Hackathorn_Pistol09/Ken_offline4.jpg

TCinVA
03-03-2011, 09:58 AM
TD2:

Day 2 started off with Ken taking us back through the shoothouse correcting the errors seen the previous night as far as defensive CQB tactics go. He also demonstrated the advantages of switching hands in a CQB environment to minimize how much of yourself you expose to a potential lethal threat on the other side of that corner. Ken related that a lot of GSWs to arms, legs, hands, and heads from Iraq and Afghanistan happened as a result of folks exposing too much of themselves while trying to deal with a corner. Switching hands (or shoulders with a long gun) helps minimize exposure, which could be of critical importance in a real fight. The important distinctions between defensive and offensive CQB were laid out, as was the importance of working angles to your maximum advantage.

After the shoothouse lesson we went through more drills which I won’t attempt to list because I’m pretty sure I have them out of order and I have some of the standards wrong. Drills from TD2 that I’ll definitely be trying again are the Triple Nickel drill and the pistol permutation of the 1-2-3-4-5 drill, as well as “The Test” which is a favorite I was first introduced to by Larry Vickers. (Who credited Ken for teaching him the drill) The last drill before lunch was Todd’s F.A.S.T. drill, which some people performed rather well on. That was my fifth time shooting the drill…and while I did fairly well on most of the drills we shot over the course of the weekend (generally passing the standards Ken laid out, sometimes by a considerable margin) this attempt at the F.A.S.T. (my fifth time shooting the drill in total) was…well…ugly. Once more the lesson that you have to look at the sights AND properly manipulate the trigger to actually get a passable score on that drill seemed to escape me.

After lunch some of us went to an adjacent range where Rob Haught gave us a quick and dirty explanation of his shotgun technique and some demonstrations of its effectiveness. I only fired 3 rounds using Rob’s technique, but I’m a believer. During Rob’s demo someone noticed what appeared to be a dead raccoon laying out in the open on the range…only it was breathing. This is, of course, rather abnormal behavior for a raccoon, leading us to the conclusion that it was sick. It’s not sick any more.

After the shotgun demo we went back to more drills working on accuracy, speed, movement, point shooting, and even one where we had to shoot someone else’s gun.

Later on in the day Ken ran us through the shoothouse but this time with a twist: We were only allowed one magazine for our weapon. Those of us who had more than 15 rounds in our mag had to download to 15. Each bad guy target had to be engaged with a minimum of 2 shots. There were enough bad guy targets to make sure all of us would run out of ammunition at some point during the clear. Ken told us ahead of time that there were 3 weapons left in plain sight inside the shoothouse that we could pick up to finish the problem.

I went through the shoothouse using my weak hand as Ken had instructed with little problem. Shooting left handed was slower than using my strong hand and required more mental attention than shooting with my strong hand, but it wasn’t too bad.

We finished up TD2 with more movement drills and hung around to watch Ken and Todd hit a milestone with Todd’s H&K P30. That was entertaining. All I’ll say is that in important moments one’s ability to function with equipment that they are familiar with tends to go downhill whether it’s a handgun or a camera.

I wanted to take a moment here to cover something Ken said that I think deserves a spotlight:

Under stress you will not do anything you are not confident in your ability to do.

This means that if you haven’t trained on it to the point where you are reasonably certain you can pull it off, you will NOT do it under stress. Todd said this should be referred to as Hackathorn’s Law. I think that’s a splendid title.

I’m sure I’ve heard Ken say similar things in past training experiences, but for some reason this time it seemed to hit my brain different and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Equipment:

My M&P ran great, as usual. During the low light section I was thoroughly pleased with my Warren 3 dot sights. We did a considerable amount of shooting without the aid of a light, using only our night sighting references. I was continually amazed at the accuracy and speed the Warren 3 dot sights gave me. I was shooting better in the dark than I was in the daytime. It was unreal. What misses I had I could easily attribute to the big black hole at the center of my vision from the hideous muzzle flash provided by my American Eagle FMJ practice ammo. After a few shots I was literally unable to see my target. I could barely make out my front sight enough to make another shot. The shots where I could actually see a bit of the target and make out my sights were all very good…usually tightly clustered high in the chest of the target. I bought the 3 dots on a lark a while back and every time I use them in low light I am more and more impressed with them. They are fast, easy to use, and incredibly precise.

Lasers are, of course, the heat. As good as my Warren sights are, I used another student's M&P (equipped with the CT unit) with more speed and accuracy than my own pistol. That’s a “clue”. I’ve put off buying a laser for my M&P too long.

Conclusion:

It’s impossible to fit everything I got out of this course into an AAR or to quantify all the great aspects of the course for the reader.

My fellow students were all exceptionally good shooters and generally just good dudes overall. We were all eager to learn and willing to have some fun, which, when combined with a pretty high skill level, made for a most pleasant learning experience.

Ken is a phenomenal instructor. If you don’t walk away having learned something that changes the way you think from a course like this, then you just weren’t paying attention. There’s a reason why everybody in the industry calls him the “Tactical Dali Lama”. Having Rob along to act as AI and at times class participant was a great bonus. It’s the first time I’ve met Mr. Haught, but hopefully I’ll end up in one of his shotgun classes in the future.