I apologize ahead of time for any vagueness, omissions, or mistakes in the AAR, as my notes are a bit incomplete, due to the fast tempo of the class and the large amount of discussion that arouse organically.
This is my eleventh formal pistol-oriented course, including those that were more oriented toward low-light, vehicles, and combatives. I have also had some coursework in edged weapons, long gun, and medical. Almost all the courses I have attended have been taught by nationally reputable instructors. Like the last few classes I had taken, this was hosted by Matthew Shockey of Falcon Tactical http://www.falcontactical.net.2-day pistol is a fast paced course designed to give students not only the technical but the practical understanding of the effective employment of their pistol in an extremely short period of time.
The CTT-Solutions pistol program of instruction is designed to give shooter specific answers based on operational experience of multiple vetted military/ LE sources, testing and historical data. All techniques taught are highly efficient and effective in the use of a pistol for combative engagements as opposed to sport shooting. The course requires the extensive use of steel targetry to accomplish rapid gains in skills with instant feedback as well as approximately 1000 rounds of ammunition per officer. The high round count and the use of steel give the shooter time and apparatus to refine his/her shooting technique based on the principles taught.
I used two different H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package carried in condition 1, with X400 Ultra - Green lasers/lights mounted with the DG-11 and zeroed for 25 yards. Sights were Trijicon RMR RM06es mounted by L&M Precision, with Dawson Precision suppressor height front sights (the serrated sight for my old black one, the tritium sight for the new RAL8000 one) and Ameriglo suppressor height rear sight mounted behind the RMR. Lube was FIREClean, magazines were modified with Taylor Freelance Border Special +5 magazine extensions with the included Wolff springs (first generation baseplates loaded only up to +4 for the black, second generation baseplates for the RAL8000), carried using a Kytex Shooting Gear open top magazine carrier as my primary reload and an ITW FastMag Pistol as my secondary. Holster used was Safariland 6004-39512 modified to carry a P30LS with an RMR, with a single strap shroud on TD1, and an RCS Phantom using IWB soft loops was used on TD2. Round counts at the start of the class was at 15876 for the black P30LS, while it stood at 55 for the RAL8000.
Due to the excessive Texas heat, I did not attempt to run the course in my EDC set-up. Attire was Outdoor Research Ferrosi Pants, Outdoor Research Ignitor SS for TD1, Velocity Systems Rubgy Shirt MC for TD2, Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra 2 GTX, and Arc'teryx H·150 Riggers Belt. PPE used were Oakley M-Frames 3.0, MSA Sordin Supreme Pro-X with gel earpads and OC Tactical headband; Arc'teryx Knee Caps were used for a short portion of the course where there was barricade work. A DARK Gen 3 IFAK was also carried on my belt.
Mike Pannone was the primary instructor. Class started at about 0905. Weather was very hot, reaching 97 °F, with minimal cloud cover and wind. There were 11 students in the class. Student firearms choices was my single H&K, a Beretta/Wilson 92G Brigadier Tactical, two M&Ps, and the rest Glocks, 19s, 17s, and a 34. Mike shot a CZ P-09 that had drop in CGW trigger parts. My H&K and a single Glock were red dot equipped, while mine was the only gun with a laser.
We started out signing waivers, and then moved straight out to the range. Mike stated that this class had been revamped relatively recently, and that the new curriculum would be a bit more structured than it was in the past. He explained that his coursework would be much more rooted in sports sciences and kinesiology than typical shooting classes; rather than teaching "advanced marksmanship", which Mike believe doesn't really exist, he would be trying to teach us and advanced understanding of the mechanics behind marksmanship.
We then quickly covered some basic safety issues. Mike noted that pistols were far more portable than long arms, so it is much easier to be less aware of what one is muzzling. He spoke quickly about the four safety rules, but stressed muzzle discipline as being king, and that we were to keep the muzzle in a safe direction, which he defined as being a direction where an AD or ND would obviously not cause any harm.
Returning back to the meat of the class subject, Mike said that shooting is just shooting, the difficulty laid in how one applies it. For him, his goal is to give us something to take home and practice, so that one week from the end of the glass, we'd be better than when we left the class. Mike also told us that we would be using NRA B-8 quite often, along with reduced-size steel targets. Mike noted that trying to hit a full-sized IPSC steel target at 70 yards isn't all that different from trying to hit a 3×5 index card at 7 yards, but because of the mental knowledge of the distance, along with possible mechanical accuracy issues with the handgun itself, the 70 yard shot is generally harder for most people than the 7 yard shot. Something any dedicated shooter should find out is the intrinsic mechanical accuracy of their gun.
Mike then went over the grip. One wants to be high up on the backstrap as possible, in order to minimize the distance the hand is from the bore, and thus maximizing mechanical leverage over the handgun. One thing that Mike does to help that is to establish the master grip with the little and ring finger so high up that the middle finger must be jammed in and slides the little and ring finger down. The support hand then simply fills in the space left on the gun, with the off-hand thumb parallel to the barrel. Ideally, one does not want to lock their elbows, as this makes the elbows point down at the ground, and thus makes a very poor recoil absorption platform, as it allows the handgun to use the elbows as a pivot point to recoil upwards.
Next was the issue of breathing. The most stable position one has is the three or four seconds after exhaling, during the natural respiratory pause. This allows for the most steady sight picture, but one must take care to not and try to keep from breathing, as this will cause issues as one runs out of oxygen, e.g., quivering develops, vision distorts, etc. A common issue is that people will start to run out of oxygen while refusing to breathe, and then start to rush themselves to make the shot, and ends up throwing the shot as they simply just crank the shot off.
In stance, simply square straight at the target; a slight bend in the knees is usually preferred, just enough so that the knees are over the toes. There is no need to over-exaggerate the posture, as this throws us into a position where we are not as familiar with keeping our balance.
We then ran the first string of fire. At 10 yards, we were to put 10 rounds into the B-8, freestyle. After that, we would then move on to 10 rounds of SHO, then 10 rounds of WHO, pasting between each. We would be pasting each color with the right color tape, i.e., black tape for hits on the black on the B-8, white for the white hits on the B-8, and brown for the hits on the IPSC backer.
On the freestyle, I had no issues keeping all the shots in the 10 & X rings. SHO, I had one 8 ring hit, while the rest were all in the black. WHO, same score. I had one failure to lock back on empty, and 1 FTE, both with the RAL8000 P30LS.
Mike then went over the draw. One should strive to grab as high up the pistol as possible, the facilitate the be best master grip; if the draw is compromised, and one comes up with a grip that isn't as high up as possible, one can palm the top of the slide using the support hand, to force the pistol into a higher master grip. Mike has found that doing this, while costing precious time, will in the long run engender greater efficacy, as one gets back better recoil control, while a compromised grip would end up slowing down one's performance. Mike argues that one should try to shave as much time off the draw as possible, in order to give one's self the most time possible to align the sights and press the trigger; in fact, this is a recurring theme throughout the entire the class, the maximization of efficiency in manipulations to give ourselves the most time possible to pull the trigger. This also played into the idea of “conscious contradictions”, as Mike put it, one of the keystones of the class: one must consciously slow down during certain portions of the string of fire, and then speed back up again when needed, i.e., going fast during the draws and pressing out, but slowing down when pulling the trigger, then going back fast on the transition, etc.
For Mike, his hands come together in front of him, right about where a normal clapping position would be. He argues that while the four count draw is an excellent teaching tool for beginners, it lacks economy of motion, and its use slows down the draw. He estimates that good shooter can easily shave off a quarter second coming straight out with the gun once it clears the holster, versus keeping with the classic four count, L-shaped draw.
Our next set of drills was to draw at the 7 yard line, for a total of 30 draws, and fire at the A zone each time. Mike noted that each course of fire in his class tends to be centered around the idea of 15 round increments, simply because of his time in the AWG, which issued the Glock 19. Ideally, for this particular drill, we should strive for at least an 80% hit rate on the A zone; a 100% hit rate would suggest we were going too slow, and not pushing ourselves enough, and would thus eventually stagnate, while having a lower hit rate would mean we were going too fast, too far out of our skill levels. Ideally, this drill should be seen as an exercise of independence of events, as the drawstroke is a completely separate event from the firing of the handgun; we should master the ability to separate the two acts, as it is far too common an occurrence where a shooter will attempt to make up a slow draw by firing faster, which means not only a botched draw, but a probable miss.
I had a single drop outside the A zone, into the C. I was also having consistent failure to ejects with the RAL8000 P30LS, enough that I gave up on using it for the rest of the day, switching to the proven black P30LS. The original plan had been to wring it out through the class and to run it as my carry gun and retire the black P30LS as the practice gun, but this did not work out as planned.
After the draws, we then went back to the B-8 target, firing 10 rounds at 10 yards.
I had one dropped shot outside the black, a low right shot into the 8 ring; the rest were in the black.
For reloads, Mike simply brings the gun in, cant it so that it looks like he's reading the slide, and then inserts the magazine; as he says, there's no reason to make it excessively artificial, the gun will come in naturally to where you want it to be. For magazines that stick, he prefers to simply strip out the stuck mag using the support hand index finger as it comes up with a fresh mag; shaking the gun to free the magazine is not reliable, and thus creates time and accuracy penalties. As for how to drop the slide, Mike argues that almost every single modern handgun has almost all the controls accessible to the right-handed shooter's thumbs, and there is no real reason to do a slingshot or powerstroke to drop the slide. If one cannot reach the slide release with the strong hand thumb, simply use the off-hand thumb: return the off-hand into the start of the grip, drop the slide, then complete the grip. If left-handed, one can come under the gun with the off hand, toward the back of the slide, then rake the fingers forward and downward until the slide release is hit. Using the powerstroke or slingshot is not more reliable, but is in fact generally less reliable, as many people have the tendency to ride the slide forward, thus creating further malfunctions.
We then ran a 1-reload-1 drill, a total of 15 times.
Once again, I dropped one out of the A zone, into the C.
Mike then went over the idea of acceptable sight picture. At 10 yards, shot at the A zone of the IPSC target with the front sight centered, but all the way at the bottom of the rear sight notch, then all the way over the rear sight, then he placed the sights at even height, but all the way to the left, then all the way to the right. Even with these terrible sight pictures, Mike was easily able to score A zone hits. The lesson behind this is that as long as the front sight is within the rear sight notch, alignment is not critical when aiming at something as large as an A zone hit at these distances. Thus, misses outside the A zone are not due to poor sight alignment so much as trigger issues or flat out ignoring the sights. Mike also argues that one shouldn't "overanalyze" the sight picture; waiting too long, trying to get the perfect sight picture, rarely works, as most people get impatient and end up with a sloppy, rushed trigger press, even if they did find the perfect sight picture.
I had seen this demoed by Todd Louis Green in one of my earliest shooting classes, but it's always a very stark reminder of just how much trigger control matters when taking a shot, versus trying to get the perfect sight picture.
Mike then went back to giving us some thoughts on issues with manipulating the slide rather than the slide release for trying to send a slide forward. One of the things he noted was that when powerstroking, many people tend to change their stance to a more bladed position, in order to keep the muzzle down range. This opens them up to being shot from the side, which has the potential to damage multiple organs, and thus be far more lethal than a shot that went front to back, which would have much less damage. For those that wear armor, this is particularly relevant, since front and back plates are standard, but side plates not as much so. Mike noted that in his time in the military, he saw many people who survived multiple shots from being hit from the front or back; very rarely did those who were hit from the side and bisected by the bullet survive. Thus, if one were to be wedded to manipulating the slide to drop it, Mike would prefer a slingshot over a powerstroke, as it is also slightly more efficient, by rolling the gun inward and pinching it.
For the tap-rack-bang procedure, Mike simply doesn't see the point of rolling the gun outward so that the ejection port is facing down; the extractor should not need gravity to help it eject a round, while a right-handed shooter rolling it outward means that there's no way to visually inspect the ejection port. One might also accidentally cover up the ejection port when using a powerstroke, so again, use a slingshot procedure for this.
This segued into the issue of appendix carrying and the supposedly dangers associated with it. Mike notes that appendix is one of the few positions where one can actually easily see where the gun is going while holstering; far too often, he has seen people attempt to holster in a strong-side holster and simply point the muzzle of the gun right into their own stomachs as they hunted for the opening of the holster without looking. Mike personally uses the thumb to track against the body while holstering, thus ensuring that the muzzle is oriented outward, away from the body.
We then ran the rabbit drill at 10 yards against the reduced sized IPSC steel targets. At 10 yards, we would pair up; one student would be the rabbit, while the other would be the coyote. The rabbit would assume a static position of some sort, that the coyote would mimic. The rabbit would then initiate the draw and try to hit the target as soon as possible; the coyote would have to react strictly off of the rabbit, and could not start until the rabbit did. This would be done with a draw incorporated at first, then with a one-reload-one, then finally SHO, with about one magazine worth of runs for each position. Mike stated that this drill was excellent for getting one's speed up, as it forces the coyote to have to go as fast as possible to have even a ghost of a chance to beat the rabbit.
I paired up with the host of the class, Matt, who was running an RMR'd Glock 22 out of an ALS holster, which left me at a distinct disadvantage, due to my SLS retention. He suggested that I run without the hood, but I declined to, mainly because every time I've tried to cheat a drill by leaving the hood off, I ended up fumbling for the hood release that wasn't there. While I was unable to beat him as the coyote in the draw only, I would sometimes come up ahead when starting as the rabbit. When reloads were incorporated, I was able to win, both as the coyote and rabbit. SHO, the advantage once again went back to Matt.
After the rabbit drill, we once again ran a B-8 target, firing 10 rounds at 15 yards.
I had one in the 9 ring, one in the X ring, and the rest in the 10 ring
At this point, 1200, we broke for lunch.
We resumed class at 1405, and started out once again with the B-8s, this time at 20 yards.
I had two in the 8 ring, one in the X ring, and the rest in the 10 ring. I suppose Taco Tony's Sysco products did a number on me.
We then moved on to the issue of target to target transition. Mike stated that the transition is an excellent way to make up time, to drive the gun faster from target to target rather than trying to make up time on the splits. Ideally, the shot-to-shot cadence should be about even with the transition split, i.e., it should sound like a string of four shots onto a single target rather than a string of two shots on a target, pause, then a second string of two shots, which Mike does demo at a nice even pace, running the 2-1-2 drill (draw, 2 shots on the first target into the A zone, transition, 2 more shots into the A zone). Mike stated the importance of cuing off one's sights, letting the sights limit one's actions in order to maintain accuracy while going at speed.
We then shot the 2-1-2 drill at 7 yards, pairing up and then creating 2 lines. Targets were taped between each line. Ideally, one should be shooting this at about a 2.5 second time when coming from concealed or from a retention holster, while an open top would be cut down to about 2.25 seconds. Having 1 A and 1 C zone hit is acceptable when trying to push for speed; Mike stated that up close, speed is king, as one should have a decent enough slide index to be able to stay on target. Mike felt strongly enough about the keeping of the cadence that he'd rather one slow down the splits in order to go faster on the transitions; one should be transitioning to the second target during the recoil of the second shot, rather than riding the recoil back down to the first target then transitioning to the second target. Mike estimates that one could easily lose up to a quarter second if one doesn't transition during recoil recovery, but instead afterwards.
I had some issues going from the left target to the right target; I'd over adjust and miss, the right target, while this issue did not appear while going right to left.
He notes that if one has a decent index, going too fast will manifest itself as going high, as one is firing before the slide has settled properly. Mike also talked about forcing one's self to go slow in order to get proper hits, and how that can often end up conditioning one to go slower and slower, which makes it a dangerous downward spiral. He also talked about not losing the front sight during a string of fire; once it is lost, one will most likely not get it back until the end of the string of fire, thus detrimentally affecting accuracy ones the front sight is lost.
Mike then showed us just how balance and stance affected our shooting, by having us shooting at 10 yards against steel, while standing on just one foot. While one can certainly shoot that way, it is overall a much less stable platform, and thus costs time and accuracy. Mike argues that one should simply stand up normally when shooting, rather than going into any distinct position that we would use only when shooting, as people are most used to the balance they have when standing normally. After the simple draw and shoot on one foot, we then had to draw, shoot, reload, then shoot again. This was far more difficult, as most people had a habit of changing their center of gravity as they reached for the fresh magazine.
I didn't have too many problems with the draw and shoot, but my tendency to lean right to have better access to my magazine as I reloaded threw me off balance. Plenty of other students' greatest challenge was simply finding the balance on one foot.
We then ran the 2-1-2 drills again on the IPSC targets, this time timed, each student shooting it thrice.
I fumbled the hood on my holster the first go around. Splits-wise, I was in the high 0.30s and low 0.40s, with the splits between my same target shots and my transitions being roughly the same. I was definitely one of the slowest shooters split-wise on this drill. I dropped only one shot, low into the C zone.
We then started a walkback drill on the steel targets, starting from the 25 yards and moving back at 5 yard increments, having to hit the target once each using freestyle, SHO, and WHO. Upon reaching 60 yards, we were to have 3 freestyle hits.
I missed twice on the WHO at 45 yards, and once SHO and once WHO at the 55 yards. One of the students shooting an M&P9 started having issues hitting the steel at longer ranges, and it would appear to be that the gun itself was partially to blame, as Mike was unable to consistently hit the plates freestyle using that particular gun.
After that, we then shot the B-8 at 25 yards, 10 rounds as usual.
I dropped one round out of the black, into the 8 ring.
Class ended at this point, at 1625.
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Originally Posted by Wannabe
