YVK
05-02-2011, 08:48 AM
EAG Tactical is best known for a variety of carbine-centered classes; their pistol curriculum is not well known. Pat and Mike came in town again for their carbine class, but this time they also offered their Pistol 2 class. I took upon myself a duty to represent pistol-forum.com and show the world how we do it here ;).
Pat’s background are USMC and NYPD, Mike doesn’t advertise his.
The class is structured around two day curriculum, 09:30-18:00 TD1, followed by a night shoot on the same day, 20:00-22:00. TD2 is 09:00-17:00. Total round count was just above 750 rounds, my personal count was a bit higher as I shot on my own before the night shoot and jumped on opportunity to run a part of MEUSOC drill when the lane was open. First day was damn cold. Weather is never a deterrent to EAG classes; last year we shot day 2 of carbine class in 6 inch snowfall...We had about 13 students, all safe and solid shooters.
Departure: we all serious about training, but if one never took EAG class, you owe it to yourself just to listen to Pat’s stories…Seriously though, his stories are in context of a EAG’s explicit philosophy – teaching how to fight with weapons, and all stories have their purpose. Their class is not super-technical, although certainly there is discussion of manipulations and techniques; after all, it was a level 2 class. A notable exception was Mike’s excellent review on flashlight techniques, and, importantly, the whole prep for being prepped to do it in darkness. However, a lot of attention and corrective steps are directed towards enforcing behaviors important in a gunfight; most of the time it is a negative reinforcement such as: “You guys are fucking this up!” EAG has a lot of personal experience being in gunfights…
I do not disclose actual content of a class in my reviews on principle. Suffice it to say, we faced a full range of tasks from contact distance out to 25 yards [fair deal of shooting was done at 15 and 25, both standing and kneeling], with different accuracy and speed demands. SHO and WHO shooting, with brain shots from 15 yards, evoked predictable responses from the student body. Shooting on the move was done again and again – awesome for most of us without access to ranges where this can be practiced.
The night session was close to being worth the price of admission. These days it is practically next to impossible to find a class that has night shoot portion. The experience was new and illuminating for many students – reflecting overall scarcity of available low light/no light training options. As I have already said, Mike’s lecture was excellent, probably the best I’ve heard. I am not new to this, but shooting in darkness always adds another level or two of complexity. On one runs, I stepped to the line with a single-shot pistol – one in chamber, no magazine inserted…
The class is wrapped up by running a rather comprehensive MEUSOC drill that consists of two subsections, single target and multiple targets, total of 50 rounds. It incorporates shooting from all distances, SHO,WHO, walking, reloading etc. With exception of one small part, I like the drill. We had two runs at it, and it was a good “summary statement”.
Gear/other notes: pistols were mostly MPs, with a couple of Glocks, one DA/SA Sig, one V2 LEM P30. Didn’t see much of problems. One shooter ran a 1911 – pistol ran well, some of his mags not so much. I shot ¾ of a class with 5” 1911 – as expected, I had no problems. By the lunch time of second day, having shot first MEUSOC with a decent score and having arrived to a point where I liked how my target looked, I put a 1911 away and finished a class with my own P30 LEM. Given a total of 250 rounds of prior experience with it, the transition was not painless…
Crimson Trace grips rock. A head of my SF X300 needs to go back to Surefire. I may reconsider my EDC light (LensLight currently); I will not go back to EB1 for sure.
I recommend EAG pistol 2 class to anybody who is looking for a comprehensive challenge of own skills, with strong emphasis on fighting with a weapon.
Pat’s background are USMC and NYPD, Mike doesn’t advertise his.
The class is structured around two day curriculum, 09:30-18:00 TD1, followed by a night shoot on the same day, 20:00-22:00. TD2 is 09:00-17:00. Total round count was just above 750 rounds, my personal count was a bit higher as I shot on my own before the night shoot and jumped on opportunity to run a part of MEUSOC drill when the lane was open. First day was damn cold. Weather is never a deterrent to EAG classes; last year we shot day 2 of carbine class in 6 inch snowfall...We had about 13 students, all safe and solid shooters.
Departure: we all serious about training, but if one never took EAG class, you owe it to yourself just to listen to Pat’s stories…Seriously though, his stories are in context of a EAG’s explicit philosophy – teaching how to fight with weapons, and all stories have their purpose. Their class is not super-technical, although certainly there is discussion of manipulations and techniques; after all, it was a level 2 class. A notable exception was Mike’s excellent review on flashlight techniques, and, importantly, the whole prep for being prepped to do it in darkness. However, a lot of attention and corrective steps are directed towards enforcing behaviors important in a gunfight; most of the time it is a negative reinforcement such as: “You guys are fucking this up!” EAG has a lot of personal experience being in gunfights…
I do not disclose actual content of a class in my reviews on principle. Suffice it to say, we faced a full range of tasks from contact distance out to 25 yards [fair deal of shooting was done at 15 and 25, both standing and kneeling], with different accuracy and speed demands. SHO and WHO shooting, with brain shots from 15 yards, evoked predictable responses from the student body. Shooting on the move was done again and again – awesome for most of us without access to ranges where this can be practiced.
The night session was close to being worth the price of admission. These days it is practically next to impossible to find a class that has night shoot portion. The experience was new and illuminating for many students – reflecting overall scarcity of available low light/no light training options. As I have already said, Mike’s lecture was excellent, probably the best I’ve heard. I am not new to this, but shooting in darkness always adds another level or two of complexity. On one runs, I stepped to the line with a single-shot pistol – one in chamber, no magazine inserted…
The class is wrapped up by running a rather comprehensive MEUSOC drill that consists of two subsections, single target and multiple targets, total of 50 rounds. It incorporates shooting from all distances, SHO,WHO, walking, reloading etc. With exception of one small part, I like the drill. We had two runs at it, and it was a good “summary statement”.
Gear/other notes: pistols were mostly MPs, with a couple of Glocks, one DA/SA Sig, one V2 LEM P30. Didn’t see much of problems. One shooter ran a 1911 – pistol ran well, some of his mags not so much. I shot ¾ of a class with 5” 1911 – as expected, I had no problems. By the lunch time of second day, having shot first MEUSOC with a decent score and having arrived to a point where I liked how my target looked, I put a 1911 away and finished a class with my own P30 LEM. Given a total of 250 rounds of prior experience with it, the transition was not painless…
Crimson Trace grips rock. A head of my SF X300 needs to go back to Surefire. I may reconsider my EDC light (LensLight currently); I will not go back to EB1 for sure.
I recommend EAG pistol 2 class to anybody who is looking for a comprehensive challenge of own skills, with strong emphasis on fighting with a weapon.