Originally Posted by
GulfCoast
Gabe White: Pistol Shooting Solutions
August 20-21, Memphis, Tn
Location: This class was held at the Top Gun shooting range in Memphis (Bartlett), TN. This is a full service range with a gun shop, indoor shooting lanes, instruction, and a laser engraving business. The facilities were clean and well lit, and range staff were literally always present sweeping up spent brass and making sure the indoor range did not become slick from lead dust, etc. The indoor range was a little tight, but everyone managed without any issues. Interestingly, this range has a very nice BBQ restaurant in the back, with plexiglass windows viewing one of rhe ranges, which was a first for me. Warning: This being Memphis, they BBQ restaurant puts slaw on everything unless instructed otherwise. The morning of TD1, the range took lunch orders to be picked up by those students taking the class, which was very convenient.
Equipment: I took the class with a Staccato C2 (Gen 3 magazines) in a Tier 1 Concealed Xiphos 2 holster, with a lower 1/3 co-witnessed Trijicon RMR with 147 grain Federal American Eagle flat tips. I had no mechanical issues. In this class there were 3 Staccatos, 3 Walthers, 1 H&K, and 6 Glocks of various flavors. The only mechanical issues in the class were with 1 Glock 34 developing a dead trigger, and another Glock experiencing “double feeds.” And, once I failed to engage the grip safety after a reload, but that’s on me. I went through about 1,100 rounds in the class, but I shot several extra drills working on my vision issues. I think most folks were right at 1,000 rounds.
Personal Details: I am your average mid-50's age, non-competition pistol shooter attempting to improve his shooting. No military or LE experience. I have taken many shooting classes of various types, but make no claims of particular competence. I recently lost the vision in my right eye due to macular degeneration, so this class was a test run for me in adapting to cross-dominant shooting. My goal was simply to walk out a little better shooter than when I walked into the range, and I think I met that goal.
Class Demographics: There were 13 shooters in my class. There were various levels of technical proficiency, from a Turbo pin winner, to good competent shooters who earned no pins. Most of the class earned Dark pins, there were 4 or 5 Light pins earned, and one Turbo pin. The Turbo pin winner was AJ, who stood next to me on the relay all weekend, and was nice, supportive, and humble as a person could be who can shoot like hell-on-fire. Kenny on the other side of me won a Light pin, and will probably be turning in Turbo performances shortly. Nicer folks to shoot with on a line you could not ask for at all. No one was “that guy,” and everyone was safe with no gun handling issues.
TD1: The first day started with Gabe’s world class safety brief, a medical brief, and a summary of Gabe’s philosophy on teaching an “enthusiast class.” Gabe handed out a set of notes to make it easier on the class, as there is simply not a lot of time to take notes once things get rolling on the range. On the range, Gabe starts out with a “skills assessment” to see what has walked in off the street, and then proceeds to work on his core skills blocks of instruction, including dry-fire trigger control, Bill Drills, and the Failure to Stop drill, and does some movement drills to mitigate by-standers in front or behind the intended target. He shoots every drill himself to demonstrate what is possible, the difference between “pushing” and “on demand” performance, and narrates what went wrong or right in his shooting during the drill. Gabe’s kinda-sorta-but-not-really Top Rock/Breakdance moves to demonstrate the traditional rheostat drill is pretty awesome. Did you know that Gabe also produces house/electronic music? There are also some head-to-head shooting challenges between the students, for which winners are awarded “sight patches.” These are NOT easy challenges, constructed so one side had an advantage, which the other side could mitigate through performance skills we had been taught, and I am bring one of these challenges back to my local range to annoy the Fudds. I am fairly certain every student won a “sight patch” for a challenge at some point. You can shoot each challenge from either side multiple times, which was good experience. I won as many challenges as I lost, which surprised me given the level of many of the shooters present.
TD2: The second day started on the range, with a movement drill, and then the “failure to stop” drill and blocks of instruction that built up to the actual skills test. After shooting this drill, Gabe went into his block of instruction on “shooting while (almost) running, which produced amazing results and accuracy. He also explains when and when NOT to attempt such an exercise. Gabe then began a series of exercises on shooting on the move and use of cover and barricades. These included how to maximize your advantage shooting from either side of cover, moving forwards and backwards around cover to shoot a moving target, and how to deal with a shooter attacking your position of cover, and how to defend against an adversary moving to flank (“envelope”) your position behind cover. This is simply some of the best instruction I have ever experienced. Then class then works on the block of instruction for the “split Bill drill,” and shoots that skills test. Alas, although I had at least Dark pin runs on all the skills tests, and Light pin runs on several, I was not able to pull out a Light pin run on my last split Bill drill, and only earned a Dark pin. However, given my recent visual issues, I was happy to score any pin. Gabe then had a couple of more movement drills using cover, a final head-to-head challenge between the students with movement to cover (hard as hell on the right side) and things wrapped up about 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.
Pros:
-Gabe may be the most passionate, enthusiastic, high-energy instructor on Earth. He makes the Energizer Bunny look like a tortoise. Each day is 10-plus hours of instruction. He truly want his class to be the best instruction that you have ever taken, and it probably will.
-The “movement/cover” portion of instruction in this class is the best I have ever experienced, and I have taken classes on these subjects from SWAT guys, Navy SEALS, etc. This section is worth the price of the class alone, IMHO.
-You will test your core shooting skills under pressure, multiple times. You will find out “who you are” during the process, without Gabe or the class being judgmental (at least if the class was composed of people like mine).
Cons:
-There is an EPIC amount of information presented in this class, 10 hours per day, and the pace is such that you probably will not have a lot of time to take notes. There are not a lot of “comfort breaks, so pre-jam your magazines. This is not “really” a con, but be prepared for the pace.
-The “movement/cover” portion of this class was simply excellent, but it occurs at a time when most students are a little smoked. It would actually be good if Gabe could amplify this into a one day stand alone class.
-If your looking for a “hey, let’s stop and fix your grip issues” type of class, this probably is not what you are looking for yet.
Too Long Didn’t Read:
If you are already a fairly competent shooter, but not yet a super-star, I would very much recommend that you take this class. I intend to take it again after I have more time training as a cross-dominant shooter, and take more detailed notes on the movement instruction block of the class.
