BLUF
I can’t imagine a better class with regards to fundamental weapon manipulation. Even if you’re a high level shooter or an experienced instructor, John has set a standard that the training industry needs to pay attention to.
The School
UpTex Shooting Range sits on a ranch. It’s about ten minutes out of Bastrop, which makes it a trivial drive from a large concentration of hotels and restaurants. It’s a pretty rural facility; there’s cattle on the property, and keeping the front gate closed is important.
The actual pistol range is positioned towards the rear of the property. It’s positioned behind a steep hill, and if there was rain the night before, you should probably not tempt fate by driving your vehicle all the way down.
The pistol range itself faces the big hill. There is a concrete slab, and permanent cover. You can pull your vehicle right up to the shooting area. We elected to pull equipment from our vehicle onto the tables provided, but if you just wanted to work out of your car, that was easy.
The latrines are literal latrines. The owner, Russ, does a good job of keeping odor under control, and I’d honestly prefer an outhouse than entombment in a Port-a-Potty. No running water or fans, but the cover is large enough so that everyone can spread out and enjoy the shade.
The Instructor
John is a former Unit guy that’s cagey about using the ‘D’ word. In addition to his time at The Organization That Shall Not Be Mention, he was also a Ranger, and attached to CIF at one point. So he’s familiar with pretty much every level of Army special operations.
I don’t know much about John’s background, but I’m guessing he first came to notoriety based on the singleton mission he undertook, portrayed in this book. Author Tom Greer (in this case, known by his pen name Dalton Fury) described John as such:
John performed that mission, successfully, by himself. He went on to be a SGM in Iraq, commanding a troop of 53 operators every evening. They hit target-after-target, and were in multiple gunfights every evening.Originally Posted by Kill Bin Laden
John is super big on neuroscience. He spends a lot of time on the road and listens to textbooks regarding habit, talent, and subconscious tendencies during his trips. He has a very deep understanding of how the mental process works, and incorporate that into his instruction. But he isn’t the type to start slinging impenetrable, multisyllabic terminology around trying to impress people.
John is easy going, funny, and has the patience of a statue. He keeps everything low pressure, and running smoothly.
Class Makeup
There were eight people in the class, with the ninth being our host, Russ. The makeup included three women, and three lefties. Experience level ran from “brand new,” to “doing this for a long time.”
There was a mother-son team, two SO teams (one of which was me and my SO, the other included an experienced cop who was a solid shooter), and two more unattached dudes, including Russ.
I was expecting Instagram operators, and was pleasantly surprised to see we were average folks who just wanted to shoot better. It was clear some of the inexperienced students were pretty intimidated going into the class (classes can be intimidating to the best of us), but everyone was soon relaxed and having a good time.
Context
Within the training industry, opinions on trigger jerk range from, “Trigger control is everything,” to “Trigger control is not a thing.” John is of the “trigger jerk isn’t real” camp. I’m not going to pretend I’m qualified to have an opinion, so I’ll just share my experience.
I began my shooting very firmly in the camp of “trigger control is everything.” So, before I’d head to the range, I’d spend about thirty minutes going through the same procedure. Clear the gun, stow the ammo in another room, and find a clear place on a white wall.
Step 1: draw the gun, and place front sight under eye level. Step 2: press out to full extension, making sure to follow the front sight all the way to the target. Step 3: perfect trigger press - press the trigger smoothly all the way to the rear, and do so with no perceptible disturbance to the sights. Reset, repeat.
Then, I’d head to the range. Post the target, load the pistol, and start from step 1. Draw the gun, front sight under the dominant eye, press out and track front sight to target, perfect trigger press.
The shot would go down, and to the left.
I’d tell myself, “Crap. Okay, massive trigger jerk. Deep breath, relax, stay focused.”
Start from step 1. The shot would go down and to the left.
“God damn it. Fuck. Okay. Deep breath. Focus on continuous trigger press to the rear. Relax, front sight all the way to target, smooth press to the rear.”
The shot would go down and to the left.
“Fucking shit ass bitch cock fucking fuck!”
I’d repeat ad nauseam, then I’d skulk home. Once I got home, I’d query The Hive Mind that is the Internet, and Google, “shot goes down and to the left.” The Hive Mind would always reply, “Stop jurking teh triger!!1!”
*sigh*
I’d clear the gun, stow the ammo in another room, and find a clear place on a white wall….
If that sounds like you, keep reading.
First Day
The class began with everyone loading two rounds into the gun, and two rounds in a spare mag. John filmed us from the three yard line drawing, presenting, firing, reloading and firing again. All students used the same target, and John didn’t bother marking which shots came from which students. From that he begin his analysis.
It took John all of six seconds (I timed it from the video he gave me) to diagnose me as a habitual down and to the left shooter. He didn’t even look at the target, just my grip on the gun. How’d he do that?
I would love nothing more than to share the video with y’all, and give you a detailed explanation of what you’re seeing. However, I don’t want to give away any of John’s proprietary secret analysis sauce. If you’re thinking, “That looks like every thumbs-forward grip ever,” that’s what I thought. But John saw something else.
John’s exact words were, and I’m not quoting this from memory, I’m quoting this because he records his analysis on video and then gives it to you, “Anytime I see this, this is where you shoot low and left. Right? And you probably get told you do trigger jerk, right? But the truth is _______”
In exactly two rounds, John diagnosed a shooting problem I have had since the first time I had picked up a handgun. He didn’t even look at the fucking target, he just looked at the video. How’d he fix this problem?
Blew my mind, and I’m not be sarcastic. That little mark completely changed my approach to shooting. And that was just the first part of day one.
The rest of the day, we focused on grip, stance, and reload. There were a few drills mixed in, but for the most part, it was shooting into the A zone with John right there coaching you.
Probably 70% of the rounds you fire in class are going to be under John’s direct supervision. If your grip needs to be adjusted, he’ll move your hands for you, rather than giving vague instructions on how you’re supposed to improve. He’d then look at your shot pattern, and teach you how to recognize what you were doing that was creating a certain pattern. Other than making sure to start the trigger press earlier because of the LEM’s long trigger pull, trigger control didn’t come up.
We got the essentials done on the first day, and then wrapped up around 6:00pm.
Second Day
The second day was a little wonky, because a torrential downpour was headed in our direction. UpTex had been flooded before, and John made the assumption that the range would be flooded again, so he front-loaded all of our videos, just in case we had to cut the class short.
John filmed several videos on the first day, including a video critiquing our reload procedure. To provide some insight into how John analyzes videos, I’ve included some screenshots below.
Trigger Warning: the following include graphic photos of an epic Viking face mane the unbearded may find upsetting. Viewer discretion is advised.
(And yes, I need to lose some weight. Shut up.)
This is screen cap of John telling me where I should have released the magazine. I screwed that up because I only released the magazine after I had brought it into my workspace.
Here, John is illustrating that you can eject the mag immediately while bringing it into your workspace, so long as you keep the pistol level with the ground so the mag falls free without hanging in the mag well. I didn’t do that. Observe:
And then:
Then I fumbled the reload because I was moving the gun around.
The HK P30 exhibits the tendency to automatically release the slide when you insert a magazine. You see that here, when the magazine is fully seated, and I begin to press the pistol out again.
So here, the magazine is fully seated, and I’m doing as close to a standard press-out as I can. John identifies when I’m at full extension, and then starts watching the hammer on the back of the gun (I was using an HK LEM setup, which involves a long first trigger pull).
This is me at full extension, and this is me when the firearm actually discharged. You can see from the earlier screen cap, I was already pressing the trigger back to the rear, but I just didn’t do it fast enough.
So it took me over half a second to actually fire the pistol.
Now I know you’re probably thinking, “Well, I could have told you all of that,” and yeah, a lot of it’s obvious. The difference is how many videos John has seen – far into the thousands – and he catches things a lot of people wouldn’t. On several occasions I asked him, “What are you seeing that indicates that?” He’d point out the indicator, which looked like a whole lot of bupkis to me, but the feedback he gave me worked, so he’s obviously seeing something. He has an extraordinary eye for detail and I am beyond convinced that if you’re not using video to train, you’re just wrong, and that’s all there is to it.
That day we shot new videos for draw and reload, then worked on multiple targets, clearing stoppages and correcting double feeds. All of those were videoed and analyze. We wrapped up the day filming John’s Yemen drill (a straight-forward drill, but based off of something that actually happened, and emphasized several of the things we learned during class).
John analyzed all our videos, we wrapped up around 5:00pm, and headed out.
The Bad
Honestly, I think my only genuine complaint is that John recorded all the videos on an iPhone, which produce a .mov file. In January of 2016, Apple stopped supporting QuickTime on Windows. That means that if you want to watch .mov files on a Windows machine, you have to do some finagling. It is entirely possible (and I’m not being hyperbolic, I’m being literal) that the issue is confined to just me, but my Windows 7 installation doesn’t like .mov files.
Other than that, I can’t really find anything to complain about. The first time I saw the outhouse, I thought, “Oh, shit” (heh), but Russ employs whatever proper procedure you’re supposed to use with outhouses, and it actually wasn’t bad. And the outhouse was far better than having to “pop a squat,” as my SO calls it.
There is a lot of down time in the class, but that’s only a bad thing if you’re stupid. Probably less than 400 rounds total, but the majority of them of while you’re either being filmed, or with John standing right next to you. Providing that amount of individual attention will result in down time, there’s no avoiding that.
If you’re a student of shooting, observing his individual coaching, and then sitting in while he examines and analyzes each student’s video is a bonus. You’re not just learning how to shoot well, you’re learning how to analyze video of people shooting, which makes you better at analyzing your own videos. So “down time” doesn’t equal “wasted time.”
The Good
The videos he shoots are invaluable. He analyzes and narrates the whole thing, so instead of trying to remember, “Okay, he said something about this…” on the drive home, you can look at yourself on the video and hear John’s exact words.
John is an easy-going guy with a spectacular depth of experience. He could easily setup a line of 24 armchair commandos and start lining his pockets. But he doesn’t. Class size is small and he spends a significant amount of time with each student, no matter their disposition of skill level, because he actually wants you to do better. No yelling, no derision, no intimidation, just patient feedback.
I always felt like I had something missing with my shooting, and that made me reluctant to throw myself into hardcore training. I intuitively realized the ends didn't meet, but I had no idea what the problem was. I feel like I have all the pieces now, and I’ve John to thank for that.
Easily the best shooting course I’ve ever had.
Summary
Any shooter, from never held a gun to world class, could get something out of this course. John is a tactical guy, but he also shoots IPSC at a Master level, so even if you’re just the sort that runs a gun for fun, this would be a great class to take.
If you’re an instructor, I think it’s worth taking a look at what John’s doing. He has a masterful command of video analysis, and I think it’s something the training industry needs to mimic.
My SO and I made big jumps in our shooting and had a blast doing so. We’re already planning to train with John again, and are going to use Gunfighter U (John’s service where you film yourself, send it to him and he’ll analyze it for) in mean time.
This was simply a phenomenal course, and if you’re a serious student of shooting, you’d be remiss not the train with John.
Reply With Quote
