Here is an after-action review from the Rogers Shooting School Intermediate/Advanced handgun class taken in 2014, and written immediately afterward. I had extremely high expectations, and they were met.
The Class
Eighteen students. Some soldiers, a couple of doctors, a Fed, and other expected gun-skool types. The soldiers were a formidable bunch of experienced combat vets. They were in their 30's and were all obvious body-builders. The strongest shooter was from that bunch. Location is in Ellijay, GA, 90 minutes from Atlanta. The range is isolated in the hills. Weather was pretty comfortable. There were a couple of really hot days were I drank a gallon of water before 4pm. There was some fleeting rainstorms. The shooting positions were covered and mostly in the shade. Many people stayed in the lodge, which is a modest cabin 20 minutes away from the range by car. There are 6 bunks to a room, with three rooms, commons areas, and a chow hall. Three meals are served every day for everyone, and there is a mandatory dry fire practice session before dinner with Bill and the rest of the instructors. There was general storytelling and bullshitting after dinner. Admittedly, I moved out and took a room at the local Best Western for the last few nights at the princely sum of $60 per day.
Bill Rogers
Bill is a former FBI agent (from the J Edgar Hoover era!) who left his post to start a holster company. He continues to run kind of a think tank where he invents stuff and markets them. Many (most?) Safariland products are from him. He has been involved in shooting since being a champion shooter at a young age. I don't believe in gurus in general, but he's as close as anyone is to being a shooting guru. Kydex holsters? He made the first ones. Paddle holsters? He was the first. Miami FBI shooting? He was a primary consultant in the investigation. Elite Tier-One Delta Force Commando Units? He trained them all. He spoke with the the confidence of a guru. I have the feeling that the school is a labor of love for him. He has naught but disdain for the current state of firearms education, especially at the Federal level.
The System
Bill's idea is that the smallest human reaction time is 0.25 sec, and the par time for shooting should be based on using that as a unit. Shoot a target from an extended ready position? Two units, 0.50 seconds. Transition to another target? Another 0.25s. Ready position, shoot the body, the head, and another head? 1.25 seconds. It is quite fast! He also believes training should be on his pneumatically activated steel "reactive" targets, which shows the shooter if he has made a hit instantly and strengthens the neuro pathways. He also has a different conception of the classic Cooper Color Code. His shooting instruction is based on all that. I won't elaborate much more--just buy his DVD to get the speech.
Learning
Each day stressed a certain shooting position:
Monday: Extended Ready
Tuesday: Transition
Wedneday: Strong hand
Thursday: Weak hand
Friday: Review
There is relentless testing. The "school drill" is nine tests with a total of 125 rounds. The drill is run every day, twice on Thursday. There are less than ten people who have run it clean, and they include Bill Rogers himself, once, as well as Rob Leatham. Remarkably, two people shot possibles earlier this year. There are nine separate tests in the complete test:
1. Extended Body-Head-Head x3 (9)
2. Extended Four Heads Near-To-Far x4 (16)
3. Freestyle Seven Heads x2 (14)
4. Freestyle With Reload (Body-Body-Head) x1 (9)
5. Strong Hand Target Pairs x7 (14)
6. Strong Hand Out-To-In, In-To-Out x1 (10)
7. Weak Hand With Reload (Body-Body-Head) x1 (9)
8. Weak Hand Blast x1 (23)
9. Freestyle Blast x1 (21)
I think I will have to study the test a little bit more for the next time.
Almost everyone was an experienced shooter. I'd say a minimum prerequisite would be, say, a top 1/2 Gunsite 250 graduate who has had some good recent practice. I was exactly the middle shooter at the conclusion of the class. The weakest couple of shooters got lots of remedial attention from Bill himself. There was no question about where everyone stood--our place in the rank ordered shooting line was revised every day as the tests were completed. Shooters were graded Basic-Intermediate-Advanced. I was shooting for the Intermediate rating, but fell short by 7 shots. I'm a little disappointed with this, as a sincere self-evaluation makes me think I'm capable of it. Remarkably, I was slightly higher than a couple of the soldiers. In the end, there was one Advanced shooter, a handful of Intermediate, the rest Basic, and two did not pass. Yes, this is true: you can fail the class.
On Wednesday, Bill gave a lunchtime lecture on cleaning the Glock and demonstrated his proprietary cleaning system. Everyone detail-stripped their Glocks. The certified armorers in the class all said that this lecture was the approximate equivalent of the Glock armorer’s course in terms of knowledge imparted.
There was an optional Carbine portion of the class on Mon-Thu afternoons, and most of the class joined in. We used the school’s 9mm Colt AR-15 style carbines with red dot sights on the steel. The carbine portion was fun, although it was treated in a somewhat desultory manner, since the soldiers were basically 100% proficient in this weapon system. Some say doing the carbine class is too much in one day, but I didn’t have too much trouble. I did totally smash my strong trigger finger against the magazine well during a flubbed reload. It grew a colorful bruise and it was quite painful—possibly debilitating?—for the rest of the course. The finger was blindingly painful at night, but ibuprofen, ice, and adrenaline allowed me to forget about it while shooting the pistol tests.
Equipment
I used the full sized Springfield XDm in 9mm. It was an excellent choice. There was one stoppage, a Type III on a weak hand drill on the first day.
I used the Glock 19 with a Trijicon RMR on the last test on Friday, as an experiment. A disaster! I scored the worst score of any test. The sight showed promise, but I was simply not used to the Glock trigger after a solid week with the XDm. I mashed the shit out of the unfamiliar trigger. It was ugly.
The Army guys all used government-issue Glock 19’s with Surefire lights. Several had some difficulties with Type III malfunctions, which were apparently improved with downloading magazines.
I never really used gloves to shoot pistol before, but I think I'm warming up to the Rogers-designed shooting gloves. They were protective without interfering with my shooting.
Total round count for the five days, including carbine: 2300
Some Things to Remember
1. The flip-and-press really works.
2. When drawing, quick to holster, pause for good grip.
3. Tilt the gun, not the head.
4. Trigger control is 90% of my problem.
5. Breathe before shooting, using the Rogers Valsalva technique.
6. Must practice weak hand shooting, with a timer and steel.
7. Forget the red dot for now; concentrate on learning the iron sights.
Comparisons
Inevitably, I have to compare Rogers to Gunsite. In terms of the Cooper Combat Triad, Rogers is a pure Marksmanship class. There was very little of the basic “you must be aware of your dangerous urban streets” type of Mindset lecture. Most everyone had the Gunhandling down, but there were some things that wouldn’t fly at Gunsite, such as the sloppy tactical reloads that some shooters showed. A Judo master cannot be complete unless he learns a little Kung Fu, and a Classic Modern Technique-style shooter cannot be complete without learning from Rogers. Another Rogers advantage is that he runs from Sunday night until Friday noon, allowing me to be away from home for only six days as opposed to the required seven at Gunsite.
To compare Bill Rogers to any other single living firearms instructor is a bit like comparing Socrates to a grasshopper. For instance, I took a weekend class with Chris Costa a few weeks ago as a warmup to Rogers. Costa’s class was fun and met my very modest expectations, in that I shot two thousand rounds in three days and ran around in the soft grass. Its value was merely re-familiarization with my gun; there was essentially no learning and no improvement in my shooting.
Stay safe!
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Originally Posted by Poplin
