Tactical Pistol Instructor
3 Day Course
June 1 - 3
Indianapolis, IN Carmel PD
$650
Sworn LE Only
I attended on my own dime but company time. I took my Sig P226 SCT in .40, and my P229 in .40 as a reserve. I shot all factory ammo, mostly American Eagle but also some Fiocchi. I had zero malfunctions.
Carmel PD hosted the training, and they were great hosts. They helped out with frangible ammo for those who lacked it, provided water and a clean facility, and were helpful to out of town officers about where restaurants were, etc. The facility itself had everything required for this type of training. -1/2 star for being at the waste water treatment plant and the poo smell being pretty heavy. (Sorry, Sgt. RJ, but we told you we'd have to deduct 1/2 star for the smell..) Seriously, they were excellent hosts with a nice facility in a secured environment behind a code-required gate.
There were 9 attendees, and I believe I was the only one who is not an instructor for their own department. There were several K9 or SWAT officers who were also trainers. 6 Glocks, 3 Sigs and all the Sigs were "classic" Sigs in TDA. The only malfunction I observed was from one guy's Glock and he had a few failures to feed. Everyone shot pretty darned well and there was no "that guy" who was out of his depth and shouldn't have been there. Ernest Langdon said "you guys don't suck" so I think we were within tolerances for shooting ability. I was a middle of the pack shooter, and didn't feel bad about it all given the experience and resumes of most of the guys in the class. Everyone but me shot from a duty rig. I shot from my normal desk jockey set up, slacks, button up shirt, and a sports jacket.
To give an idea of the level of shooting in the class, each day a shooting competition was conducted with a hat for a prize. The first one was the 10 shots at 10 yards in 10 seconds into the bull's eye target (B-8, I think). I scored a 95 and I think I was 3rd, with a 98 taking the win. Day 2 was 6 shots 2 handed (reload) 6 shots SHO (reload) and 6 shots WHO. The winning time was in the 17 seconds and I wasn't close as I knew I was running slower and threw several shots WHO trying to make time. The last one was the shoot 9 into 3 targets at very close distance (left to right body shots, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1 then 1 head shot on each) and I shot it clean in 3.43 and was smoked by the winner who was under 3 seconds, something near 2.80 but I don't recall the exact number).
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Day 1:
Lecture covering some refresher/basic material from the color spectrum of awareness, shooting under stress, the importance of subconscious performance, grip and stance basics, etc, as well as touched a bit on learning theory and instructing. I won't go into detail, but I have 6 pages of notes from the lecture, so a lot of material was covered. We ended with a safety brief, identifying a primary and secondary medic, nearest hospital, etc.
Range training started with dry fire and moved into live fire. Ernest would later point out one of the important parts of having students do dry fire first was to observe gun handling skills and habits early on, which makes a lot of sense from an instructor standpoint.
On the range Langdon covered his 4 step draw, the importance of the hands moving at the same time, and when to complete the grip. I think this is going to help me speed my presentation as I saw a few tweaks I can make.
Next was reloads, with the importance of both hands moving at the same time and trying to have the magazines pass each other during the reload. Realistic goals were presented as for times to attempt to get to.
We shot several drills and packed up for the day.
Day 2:
My note taking on day 2 was a bit lax as we were on the range most of the day and I scribbled things down on break.
We shot the FAST, no one was in coin territory and while no one got a hat pin one shooter was maybe a 1/16th of an inch from his. I personally shot one of the worst FAST I've done in recent memory. I was simply trying to think of too many things to tweak at once, tried to change my draw a bit, and got a hand full of jacket lining. I rushed my shots making up time and shot for absolute butt. Actually I shot like butt most of the morning.
We started working on shooting on the move and Langdon's description of "pulling with your feet" instead of pushing off was one of my biggest take always from the class. My accuracy improved and I was able to move much faster with the movement as he presents it. I actually shot better moving than stationary because I was concentrating on my feet and got out of my own way on the gun and the recoil anticipation issues I was having early in the morning. We covered forward, backward, lateral, and angle movements and shot several drills to reinforce movement.
One handed manipulation, to include drawing, reloading, malfunction clearance, etc. was presented next. I was familiar with nearly all of this and it synced with previous training for the most part. Langdon did show as a one handed method for stripping the magazine for a double feed that was all new to me, and if I recall correctly he said Todd Green showed it to him.
Langdon borrowed my coat, and gave some demonstrations on a "hip dip" used to make space between the cover garment and the gun as well as some other tips on drawing from a suit jacket, sports coat etc. type cover garment.
By the end of day 2 we'd shot roughly 900 round to include frangible. I cleaned and lubed my gun after day 2.
Day 3:
We'd been warned the end of day 3 was going to include manual labor to reset the block wall that catches bullets, picks up brass, etc. I dressed for working, button up shirt and cargo pants, and shot without concealment for this day.
This was a pretty high round count day. The morning was one of the most enjoyable training experiences I've had that didn't involve blowing something up. We got a lot of reps in on a moving target when we also moved. We moved forward, backward, at various angles, and parallel to the target. The target was on a mover that kept it going at a decent jogging pace. My department has a mover and this wasn't totally new to me, but I've never been able to get so many reps in and to work so many different angles nor have I gotten the same level of feedback as I shot.
Langdon made some "3D" targets and we talked about shot placement on the surface of the target vs. at the vitals and some drills to show that to students.
We worked around cover, and Langdon's "modified prone" was all new to me vs. actually hitting the dirt and having a period of time you aren't able to shoot. He explained when to put which knee down based on distance, what you're trying to accomplish, etc. Standoff of cover and the reasons were covered, considering how much of you is visible to the target, not giving up ground, the "liquid pane of glass" concept for slicing the pie, etc.
We also went over the best place to stand when observing a new shooter before you've verified safe handling vs. best place to stand to observe what they are actually doing with the gun, how to control shooters about to do something stupid like turn with a gun in their hand, etc. Most of this part of the class was new to me as a non-instructor.
My round count was very close to the 1500 called for. I shot roughly 150 frangible and 1200-1300 jacketed bullets by the end of day 3.
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The class was well worth the investment in time and money. Mr. Langdon is an amicable and effective instructor, and I hope to be able to attend training with him again at some point. I believe the lesson plan was solid, is applicable to the students' goals, and was very well presented. Even the bullshit sessions during breaks/down time were not just "here's all the cool stuff I've done" but more of "here's cool stuff I've learned by doing cool stuff that I can let you know as well". Even with note taking I'm sure I missed some information that I nodded along with and then let it fall out of my brain as I nodded along with the next point. I've no doubt this will help me be a better shooter, and it already has made me a better shooter on the move. I'm looking forward to implementing the tweaks to get my draw time down and more consistent.
Thanks to Mr. Langdon, to Carmel PD and Sgt. RJ for hosting, and to my own department for allowing me to attend on duty. Thanks to the other students for the camaraderie, for being safe gun handlers...and for not sucking.I'd train with any of you guys again in a heartbeat, even in the poo smell.
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