Tom Givens Defensive Revolver Course 22 April 2021

I attended the 22 April 2021 Defensive Revolver course taught by Tom Givens and was hosted by KR Training in Lincoln Texas.

The medical brief and range safety rules was provided by Karl and was both detailed and succinct.

In the first couple of hours of training Tom covered the Pros and Cons of carrying a revolver as a primary and/or secondary revolver. Spoiler Alert/Big Shock: Revolvers have more Cons than Pros when carrying one as a primary.

I used my WC GP100 and 130 grain LAX plated bullets. I carried my reloads in Safariland Comp III speedloaders in unknown manufacture kydex speedloader cases. I started off with a Blade-Tech holster strong side, but quickly changed to my JMCK AIWB holster. (I know it is preference, but the AIWB was better to me).

My buddy used a 3 inch fixed sight stainless GP100 and speedbees speedloaders. He and I went to our agency's academy together in 1994. He took this class (and bought the GP100 for it) because he is a great friend. He had not shot a revolver since his agency transitioned away from them in early the early 2000s.

Let the excuses begin. First of all let me start out by saying that I have work pretty hard to be an average shooter. For the last year Covid has made shooting very difficult and the lack of range time and range ammo was pretty significant. I worked with my SIRT gun and LASR system fairly frequently, but not nearly as often I should. End Excuses.

Shooting is almost always the basics, and Tom taught the basics like a champ. Tom stated that he knew there is an ammo shortage and that he was going to make us train for every shot we took. We broke up into 2 relays. While one group was shooting the other was watching. I think I learned almost as much from watching the other relay as doing it myself.

We started on the draw, with an empty piece, and worked that for 20-30 minutes. Tom then had us load one round spin the cylinder and then we worked on drawing and getting good trigger presses. I had to really work to keep my self from visually tracking the round moving position in cylinder. I caught myself anticipating recoil more than I thought I would.

We progressed to doing reloads on the clock. Tom suggested that we try the reloads from speed loaders, speed strips, loose and from the pouch. I discovered that I am not fast on the speed loader (compared to magazine reloads), but that I am glacially slow with loose rounds.

We shot from 5-25 yards with most of the shooting at 5 yards. We shot at a 8 inch circle mostly and then to simulate further shots we shot at 4 inch circle.

Tom had us shoot 2 graded events. I really choked on the first graded event, which I am sure was related to performance anxiety. I got a poor master grip and shanked my first (of 5) shots low. On the second event, a 40 round shooting test out to 25 yards I did better and shot a 90%. My buddy passed the first test.

I wish I would have done more than just casually looked at the guns on the line. On my relay there were 5 GP100s, and 3 S&W K/L frames as the primary hand gun. On the second relay there were more S&Ws than Rugers. There was one Rock Island 9mm with moonclips.

One S&W went down fairly hard and had to get taken off the line. The shooter was using Russian 38 Special ammo and the issue was related to very dirty ammo and a lot of unburnt powder. The shooter was able to get it functional again.

I would recommend Tom's class to anyone and I plan on taking more from him when I can.

I met a couple of PFers there and it was nice to meet them! There were some phenomenal shooters there.

I would take this class again with no reservations.

To pile onto my own thread. I traveled from Washington to take this class. I spent some time with my friend and we explored Austin a bit. We stopped at "The Range". It was a nice facility. They were offering private training for ~$120 per hour. I don't know and did not ask who the instructor staff is, but I would much rather take instruction from Tom a ~$250ish for an 8 hour class than $120 for a one hour block.

I guess people just don't know, what they don't know.

Thanks for the AAR. Sounds great. I love revolver classes and if I were there, would have taken it. Can't do better than Tom and Karl for training.

Thanks for the recap. I really wanted to attend but the time crunch for work was a bit too much. The only drawback to reading your AAR is that I am really chuffed now that I did not go.

Flamingo definitely gets the prize for longest drive for this class! This class is fun for me, watching students progress very quickly. Just a bit of proper technique improves revolver shooting instantly, but proper technique is becoming a lost art.

Sounds like a great class.