Note: This is not a complete AAR, just my overall impressions and a few excerpts from my class notes.
Class: CTT Solutions/ Mike Panone 1-Day Covert Carry
Location: San Jose, CA
Date: July 29, 2018
Pistol: P2000 LEM with 11lb hammer spring.
Belt: Beltman 1.5” leather
Holster: JMCK AIWB
Magpouch: Phlster universal mag pouch
Ammo: 360 rounds 115 gr Magtech FMJ
TLDR Version: Good course. I recommend for anyone who carries concealed.
For context, I've had about 8 pistol classes in total, most of them in the past 18 months. Most of the classes have been 1-day courses. I've also done a small amount of long gun and edged weapons training.
Genesis of the Covert Carry class occurred when NSW asked Mike to put together a training course in preparation for a low-profile deployment to the Middle-East.
He did a ton of testing and video analysis to find robust and fast techniques. His material was further refined when he stood up the FAM office in the pacific northwest. He ran that FAM program for all of 2002 and half of 2003. He shot about 3000 rounds a week. And he and his partner tested everything with FoF. Everything they did was from concealment.
He doesn’t do a scan after shooting targets. He believes doing this automatically will pattern gross body movements that may be inappropriate for the given circumstances. In the FAM he also saw agents automatically “scan” and not see obvious threats.
He doesn’t believe in the automatic step left or right on the draw.
Triggers. If using a striker fired gun for ccw, especially AIWB, the trigger should be stock or very near stock.
Length of pull is a bigger concern than trigger weight, from a safety point of view.
We did lot of work on SHO and WHO drawstroke. The WHO only material was particularly valuable for me.
Many folks think the WHO drawstroke is only used when the dominant hand is injured. But Mike says it is used whenever strong hand not available. You may be controlling somebody (a principal if doing EP work, a captive, etc.). Or you might be holding onto something you can't let go. Mike has a story about when he used the WHO draw in Iraq.
Techniques for reloading SHO and WHO were covered. Good stuff that I'll incorporate into my dry fire.
Rabbit and coyote drills. Mike likes to have students compete in rabbit and coyote drills. A coyote and a rabbit will be frozen until the rabbit moves. Then the race is on. He thinks this pushes students more than a shot timer. He also gives students a wide degree of latitude in which skills they practice during this drill, because each student will find their respective strengths and their opponent’s weakness, then seek to exploit these.
WML. He likes XC1B. He looks for the smallest possible light that allows him target ID at 15m. He thinks a full-size pistol with a 600 or 800 lumen light is what an assaulter in his old unit will carry. And he’s not an assaulter anymore.
Tried to compress two days of material into 1 day. Supposedly we covered the same material as the two day class, just did less reps. But we didn’t get to 1 handed malfunction clearance, unfortunately. This particular range closes at 1600, so we stopped shooting at 1530 to colect brass, etc. Mike still had material to share, but logistics cut things short.
The class validated my live fire training and my dryfire regime. It also filled a couple of knowledge gaps, especially the WHO material.
The shooters around me were squared away and pushed me hard on the competitive drills.
Mike is approachable, easy going, and extremely experienced. He has a reason for everything he teaches, and can usually describe real-life applications of every technique.
Overall a very good class.