Critical Pistol Skills by First Person Safety

First Person Safety (Instructor: Lee Weems) continues to offer excellent training at an affordable price. Critical Pistol Skills is a good example of that.

Critical Pistol Skills
4/07/2019

As Chief Weems stated on Sunday, this could just as easily be titled "The Really Bad Day Class". Not that the training was a bad day, but rather the class is all about how to deal with a bad day such as when you need to perform a speed reload and/or malfunction clearance with just your strong or support hand and stay in the fight. And the class makes it clear that having to deal with a double feed with only your support hand = a really bad day.

After an excellent safety briefing (which was appreciated) we spent the morning on gun handling exercises using only dummy ammunition -- no live fire. This was a great idea and allowed us to really work the necessary skills without shooting live ammo. It allowed us to concentrate on the technical skills we were learning and practicing over and over.

The mechanics of the draw stroke, speed reload, and multiple types of malfunction clearing techniques were all presented, taught, and practiced. Chief Weems brought the information in such a way that each new skill built on the previous. All techniques were explained and demonstrated in a clear manner. As there is often more than one way to solve a problem, multiple solutions for the one-handed skills were shown.

The one-handed skills were where we spent most of our time and focus, since the skills are more easily done with the normal two-handed approach. The time spent with dummy rounds was very valuable in showing what worked and what didn't, as well as giving plenty of opportunity for each student to figure out what techniques worked best for them specifically.

The afternoon was spent working all the same skills as during the morning hours, only with live fire. So while we were working all the draw, reload, and malfunction clearing skills we were also doing a good deal of shooting and were expected to get hits.

A drill called the 3M drill was demonstrated and then we all performed it. The drill required the first magazine to have a dummy round in it to induce a misfire. The sequence was draw, shoot until the misfire, clear the malfunction, shoot to empty, perform a speed reload, then finish with 3 more shots to the torso and a head shot. Movement during the draw, clearance, and reload were also used when possible. The drill was demonstrated and then performed with both hands, then just the strong hand, then just the support hand. Par times were announced prior to each iteration of the drill. A good way to put the skills together, and a lot of fun.

At the end of the day a couple of fun contests were shot by all -- a good idea and a fun way to end the class.

Some takeaways for me:

The skills we practiced are the type that you hope you never need, but if you need them you REALLY need them.

Fixing a double feed one-handed can suck.

Support hand only shooting improves with practice. So practice. Mine was much better this time than in the last class I attended because I had practiced.

If the Really Bad Day happens, don't give up. Do whatever it takes to fix the problem or reload the gun and keep fighting. You may still lose the fight / get killed in da street but not for lack of trying.

Practice these things without concealment first before you try them with a concealment garment.

If you attend this class you will probably ruin some clothes. And get some bruises. No biggie.

Dueling trees are a lot of fun.

I let down Pistol Forum on the final contest by throwing my first shot wide of the score zone. But my remaining shots were in a nice tight group in the middle of the target.

All in all the class was challenging (actually somewhat difficult) but rewarding. Chief Weems runs a good class and keeps improving his format and instructing skills. I highly recommend taking his classes if you are able and if they are appropriate to your skill level.

Thank you for the kind words.

I readily state that some of the skills in this class are on the extreme outside edge of probability for a private citizen; however, if one learns these skills, there really isn't any gun handling that they can't perform. Furthermore, it's better to figure this stuff out on a range instead of trying to figure it out whilst crouched down behind a concrete planter with incoming rounds.

The range we used for the class is only a few miles from where a rookie officer was shot in the hand and had to ask an EMT for help in drawing his pistol; the bad guy was still on the loose. You can hear it at 3:19 in the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuMTj0wT6Cs