ChrisL VSM Basic Pistol - 2/19/11

My History:

The last formal training was in the US Coast Guard when working in AMIO and drug interdiction which had sub par training in my eyes at the time but may of changed now. Ever since getting out of USCG I've only shoot recreationally. First civilian class/AAR so be gentle, and in my eyes really first class really overall.

Trainer/Class Info:
Trainer was ChrisL he is active LE in Arizona and has attend classes from a variety of known trainers. He also had his friend from DEA help run the class. The class tuition was $125 and was held at the Casa Grande Police Range. Chris called the bad weather and told us awhile ago in class email to prepare for the worst weather wise.

Class:
The class ran from 0830 to 1800 with approximately 500 rds shot. Chris started us off with a safety brief, student introductions, and Chris explained it was his first class teaching civilians. We had 13 students with varying backgrounds from a lot of professional training to first class but seemed like the majority had taken some training classes recently.


Worked the first half the day around seeing where we were at and improving our accuracy on target from 15yds in. Chris had a approach of building us up 1 skill at a time till we had the whole picture. He would do a drill to work on one skill this would include huddling us up to explain what we were to do, why he like the method of doing it that way, answer questions about what we were going to do and then we would execute the drill. Just before lunch we did the walk back drill. This first part of the day was windy/dusty and the target stand next to me that wasn't being used that day in the class snapped due to the wind.

Wind

Dust rolling in from Distance on break

Rain



After lunch Chris went over his insights into self defense shootings and some about what has happened locally crime/shootings. I found this interesting as I hike, hunt and live around this area so I learned allot in this portion. After lunch the rain came and we did some drills, man on man competitions and then wrapped up the class as the rain stopped.


Conclusion:


The class was a bargain at $125 in my eyes even though the weather was bad most the day. Chris was right on at diagnosing my issues and it doesn't take long to realize he's passionate about helping people learn to shoot better. Chris also talked about other quality classes/trainers he recommended (LAV of course) which I liked as says something about the person. This VSM basic class was a friendly/low stress starting point to start me off in organized firearms training.

Half the class was 1911's and other half was Glock's with one SIG. I shot in my normal clothes/CCW gear and still like my set up after the class. Glock 19 RTF2, Comp-Tac CTAC IWB holster, CCC magazine pouch and had 4 double feeds with 4 different magazines which was the most malfunctions in the class that I noticed. I was centered on learning so didn't really concentrate on much other then that so may of missed a few things.

Double feeds were on me: I opened up the 4 magazines with the double feeds and they were caked with dirt. I practice in the desert and just drop these in the dirt all the time never really clean them as I haven't had an issue in the past. Once it started raining I think this went to sludge and then dried cement like when I broke the magazines down to clean later that week.