NickDrak
07-23-2013, 02:19 AM
6-7/July/2013
Aurora Sportsman's Club
Waterman. IL
19 students total. (5 LEOs, and the remainder of the class being civilians) There was a good mix of students with a couple of highly skilled competitive shooters in the mix.
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/177/lix.jpg
My gear:
Gen4 G19 with grip work from Cold Bore Customs
Chopped factory Glock beaver tail back-strap
Trijicon HD sights
Polished Gen3 trigger bar
Polished safety plunger
"-" connector
5.0lb striker spring
Gen3 (non-dip) extractor
White Sound Defense HRED
TangoDown Vickers magazine base plates
JM Custom kydex AIWB with "Extra-Tuck" option
Ares Gear Ranger belt
X-Concealment singe pistol mag pouch w/1.5" belt clip
Ammo:
124gr handload:
*Montana Gold 124gr CMJ
*WSF 4.9gr
*Tula SP primers
Rounds fired: I fired a total of 675rds. A couple of other student fired closer to 800rds total.
I went into this class looking to gain a few things, mostly to increase my ability to draw my pistol from concealment and to also validate my current off-duty/concealed carry gear choices.
For anyone considering attending this class I would like to make a couple of suggestions. First, don't treat it as an IDPA skills drill session. Wear the gear you honestly plan to carry concealed on a daily basis. If you come in seeing this as an opportunity to wow your classmates with your ability to burn down the drills that Mike runs you thru during the class then you will mostly likely gain little or nothing from it.
Secondly, if you have never received formal training in the fundamentals of marksmanship and manipulating a pistol then don't sign up for this class. This isn't a fundamentals class where you will receive one-on-one training on the basics. You will be expected to have a firm grasp on the fundaments of grip, stance, sight picture, etc as well as the 4 firearm safety rules. If you don't have all of these things already mastered prior to attending this class, you will end up frustrating your fellow classmates and your experience will be negatively affected by your lack of skill.
Having said that there were several highly skilled shooters in this class and despite the heat and the bugs it was an excellent learning environment for everyone.
TD1: Mike started out with a brief description of his background and experiences. Nothing overt as he obviously wasn't trying sell anyone anything regarding his teaching ability or his background. Everyone in the class seemed to be familiar with Mike's background. I got the impression immediately that he was all about getting into the business of shooting. He did start the range session off with a brief summary of each of the basics (Grip, stance, sighting, etc.) prior to getting everyone on line and shooting some multiple round, stationary shooting drills freestyle, S.H.O. and W.H.O. without concealment to gauge everyone's skill level in the class.
We then moved onto single shot draws from concealment and then multiple shot draws from concealment on a 5x8 sheet of paper centered on the A zone and a 3x5 card on the head box of an IPSC target.
We broke for an extended lunch break @ noon and returned @ 5pm to get into S.H.O. and W.H.O. draws from concealment. Mike then moved onto reloading W.H.O. The techniques Mike showed us were ones I have never seen before and after dozens of repetitions they made alot of sense to me. Mike was questioned on some of the other techniques commonly taught/used for drawing W.H.O. from concealment and also W.H.O. malfunction/reloading and why Mike preferred the techniques he taught instead. Mike was able to clearly state exactly "Why" he felt his techniques were more practical from a fighting point of view and without getting too much into detail his techniques offered substantial benefits in both stability and movement over the "V-Block" or "Belly roll" techniques. This was big learning moment for me.
Just before it got dark Mike then got into some flashlight techniques with handheld lights and showed a simple way of holding the light a bit differently which gives you a bit more dexterity for doing mag changes. Im still going to have to work this a bunch more as I was having some issues with focusing more on the light instead of the sights but it is definitely something I am willing to work on.
Once it got dark out Mike ran us thru some shooting on the move drills. We finished up the night shoot with a drill on a steel target that puts two shooters against each other. One controls the light with their pistol oriented towards the target and when they activate the light the other must draw from concealment. First to engage the steel wins. Sounds like the shooter controlling the light would win every time right? Not until we all learned to aim the light and get a sight picture at the same time. Good stuff. Learning occurred.
TD2 started of with some drills which forced us to avoid no-shoot targets that partially obscured the shoot target while moving.....
I will add a few more details and thoughts when I get back from vacation next week, but my recommendation for this class comes down to a few simple things. Due to Mike's drills and coaching I was able to identify a few things with my stance and my support hand grip that I need to work on specifically that are causing some issues with my point of impact @ 10yds and beyond. I can also say with absolute certainty that my ability to draw my pistol from cover using my every day carry gear listed above improved noticeably and I absolutely feel more confident now going about my daily business. Mike's teaching style is very easy going and he is always looking to give pointers on the little things like gear placement and different ways to clear your cover garments that paid off big time for me. I plan to host Mike again next year for his carbine class.
I also feel I validated my carry gear and while I have carried AIWB for the past 4 years I feel the JM Custom AIWB holster is the best I have used. It offers optimal ride height which translates into being able to obtain a full, unobstructed grip on the pistol during the draw and it also conceals my G19 well enough to not force me to change my typical daily clothing choices.
My Gen4 G19 functioned 100% throughout the class despite not being cleaned during the two days but it started to eject casings straight back toward my face, upper chest, shoulders, etc. I plan to swap-out the extractor for an Apex FRE which I have had good success with in my duty Gen4 G17.
A couple of other gear related things I picked up during this class....
Im really digging the TangoDown/Vickers Glock magazine floor plates. The biggest benefit for me was that they seem to have completely eliminated my hand getting bit/pinched during reloads which regularly caused me to get a nasty, bloody blister with G19 sized Glocks and standard Glock mag/floor plates. This alone makes them worth their price for me.
I got to shoot a mag through Mike's CZ P-07 during a break and was very impressed with it in-terms of the stock trigger and the ergos of the pistol. It also felt like it shot very flat for me. It had the nicest stock DA trigger I have every shot with. Very limited exposure to it but "IF" I were looking for a DA/SA auto I would look very seriously at the CZ P-07.
PICS (Photo credits go to Anthony Trimarco & Rick Cancino):
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/5528/0fjs.jpg
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2480/urci.jpg
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2199/fsqt.jpg
Mike rockin' the CZ P-07
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/5319/ycss.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9008/6r85.jpg
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1858/28re.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4164/kch6.jpg
F'ing cyborg with a Beretta:
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8581/pq2o.jpg
Aurora Sportsman's Club
Waterman. IL
19 students total. (5 LEOs, and the remainder of the class being civilians) There was a good mix of students with a couple of highly skilled competitive shooters in the mix.
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/177/lix.jpg
My gear:
Gen4 G19 with grip work from Cold Bore Customs
Chopped factory Glock beaver tail back-strap
Trijicon HD sights
Polished Gen3 trigger bar
Polished safety plunger
"-" connector
5.0lb striker spring
Gen3 (non-dip) extractor
White Sound Defense HRED
TangoDown Vickers magazine base plates
JM Custom kydex AIWB with "Extra-Tuck" option
Ares Gear Ranger belt
X-Concealment singe pistol mag pouch w/1.5" belt clip
Ammo:
124gr handload:
*Montana Gold 124gr CMJ
*WSF 4.9gr
*Tula SP primers
Rounds fired: I fired a total of 675rds. A couple of other student fired closer to 800rds total.
I went into this class looking to gain a few things, mostly to increase my ability to draw my pistol from concealment and to also validate my current off-duty/concealed carry gear choices.
For anyone considering attending this class I would like to make a couple of suggestions. First, don't treat it as an IDPA skills drill session. Wear the gear you honestly plan to carry concealed on a daily basis. If you come in seeing this as an opportunity to wow your classmates with your ability to burn down the drills that Mike runs you thru during the class then you will mostly likely gain little or nothing from it.
Secondly, if you have never received formal training in the fundamentals of marksmanship and manipulating a pistol then don't sign up for this class. This isn't a fundamentals class where you will receive one-on-one training on the basics. You will be expected to have a firm grasp on the fundaments of grip, stance, sight picture, etc as well as the 4 firearm safety rules. If you don't have all of these things already mastered prior to attending this class, you will end up frustrating your fellow classmates and your experience will be negatively affected by your lack of skill.
Having said that there were several highly skilled shooters in this class and despite the heat and the bugs it was an excellent learning environment for everyone.
TD1: Mike started out with a brief description of his background and experiences. Nothing overt as he obviously wasn't trying sell anyone anything regarding his teaching ability or his background. Everyone in the class seemed to be familiar with Mike's background. I got the impression immediately that he was all about getting into the business of shooting. He did start the range session off with a brief summary of each of the basics (Grip, stance, sighting, etc.) prior to getting everyone on line and shooting some multiple round, stationary shooting drills freestyle, S.H.O. and W.H.O. without concealment to gauge everyone's skill level in the class.
We then moved onto single shot draws from concealment and then multiple shot draws from concealment on a 5x8 sheet of paper centered on the A zone and a 3x5 card on the head box of an IPSC target.
We broke for an extended lunch break @ noon and returned @ 5pm to get into S.H.O. and W.H.O. draws from concealment. Mike then moved onto reloading W.H.O. The techniques Mike showed us were ones I have never seen before and after dozens of repetitions they made alot of sense to me. Mike was questioned on some of the other techniques commonly taught/used for drawing W.H.O. from concealment and also W.H.O. malfunction/reloading and why Mike preferred the techniques he taught instead. Mike was able to clearly state exactly "Why" he felt his techniques were more practical from a fighting point of view and without getting too much into detail his techniques offered substantial benefits in both stability and movement over the "V-Block" or "Belly roll" techniques. This was big learning moment for me.
Just before it got dark Mike then got into some flashlight techniques with handheld lights and showed a simple way of holding the light a bit differently which gives you a bit more dexterity for doing mag changes. Im still going to have to work this a bunch more as I was having some issues with focusing more on the light instead of the sights but it is definitely something I am willing to work on.
Once it got dark out Mike ran us thru some shooting on the move drills. We finished up the night shoot with a drill on a steel target that puts two shooters against each other. One controls the light with their pistol oriented towards the target and when they activate the light the other must draw from concealment. First to engage the steel wins. Sounds like the shooter controlling the light would win every time right? Not until we all learned to aim the light and get a sight picture at the same time. Good stuff. Learning occurred.
TD2 started of with some drills which forced us to avoid no-shoot targets that partially obscured the shoot target while moving.....
I will add a few more details and thoughts when I get back from vacation next week, but my recommendation for this class comes down to a few simple things. Due to Mike's drills and coaching I was able to identify a few things with my stance and my support hand grip that I need to work on specifically that are causing some issues with my point of impact @ 10yds and beyond. I can also say with absolute certainty that my ability to draw my pistol from cover using my every day carry gear listed above improved noticeably and I absolutely feel more confident now going about my daily business. Mike's teaching style is very easy going and he is always looking to give pointers on the little things like gear placement and different ways to clear your cover garments that paid off big time for me. I plan to host Mike again next year for his carbine class.
I also feel I validated my carry gear and while I have carried AIWB for the past 4 years I feel the JM Custom AIWB holster is the best I have used. It offers optimal ride height which translates into being able to obtain a full, unobstructed grip on the pistol during the draw and it also conceals my G19 well enough to not force me to change my typical daily clothing choices.
My Gen4 G19 functioned 100% throughout the class despite not being cleaned during the two days but it started to eject casings straight back toward my face, upper chest, shoulders, etc. I plan to swap-out the extractor for an Apex FRE which I have had good success with in my duty Gen4 G17.
A couple of other gear related things I picked up during this class....
Im really digging the TangoDown/Vickers Glock magazine floor plates. The biggest benefit for me was that they seem to have completely eliminated my hand getting bit/pinched during reloads which regularly caused me to get a nasty, bloody blister with G19 sized Glocks and standard Glock mag/floor plates. This alone makes them worth their price for me.
I got to shoot a mag through Mike's CZ P-07 during a break and was very impressed with it in-terms of the stock trigger and the ergos of the pistol. It also felt like it shot very flat for me. It had the nicest stock DA trigger I have every shot with. Very limited exposure to it but "IF" I were looking for a DA/SA auto I would look very seriously at the CZ P-07.
PICS (Photo credits go to Anthony Trimarco & Rick Cancino):
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/5528/0fjs.jpg
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2480/urci.jpg
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2199/fsqt.jpg
Mike rockin' the CZ P-07
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/5319/ycss.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9008/6r85.jpg
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1858/28re.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4164/kch6.jpg
F'ing cyborg with a Beretta:
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8581/pq2o.jpg