Massad Ayoob's MAG-40

[BehindBlueI's]

This isn't a full blown review, so I'm not posting it in the AAR section. I did want to share a few thoughts, though.

I attended MAG-40 up at Sand Burr Gun Ranch (Rochester, IN) this past week. I highly recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you have no background in the legal process of how a self-defense shooting is investigated, how it is prosecuted if it goes to court, and how civil trials go. I'm quite familiar with all of those things and still learned some things that I consider improvements on my prior thoughts. I've always been a fan of Mas and understood him to be an expert. I walked away from the class thinking even more highly of him and his level of expertise in this arena. Some of his suggestions as far as actions, phrasing, and explaining are so elegant it's like watching a master paint a portrait.

Once you take the class you qualify on a shooting course and written test. Once you graduate, if you are in a shooting (and Mas believes it to be justified) he will assist you as an expert and/or material witness should you require it at no additional cost. That's a pretty strong argument to take the class right there, IMO.

He discusses what to do from pre to post shooting to set yourself up for legal victory in both the criminal and civil side. I had to laugh about his recommendations of what to say to police investigators because, other than wording differences, they were EXACTLY what I came up with independently. Nobody needs me to vouch for Mas, but I thought it added validity to both of our conclusions given our experience in the area from different angles (Investigator vs Expert Witness) and arriving at the same conclusions. The difference in wording stemmed from state specific differences (assist in prosecution vs sign the complaint sort of things).

The shooting portion was well worth it as well. I'll go into that a bit later. I did end up changing my support hand hold a bit based on his "stress fire" system and tightened up my shooting a bit as a result. I ended up as "Top Shot" in the class with a 593/600. Second place was 591/600. There were several competent shooters in the class. Mas shot a 594 in the demonstration, although I suspect @Mas intentionally threw 2 shots low to give us a chance to tie or beat him. The two "misses" seemed pretty close together...

[JohnO]

Once you take the class you qualify on a shooting course and written test. Once you graduate, if you are in a shooting (and Mas believes it to be justified) he will assist you as an expert and/or material witness should you require it at no additional cost. That's a pretty strong argument to take the class right there, IMO.

Just some minor clarification. Mas will not charge a MAG-40 graduate for his involvement in the good shoot case however he expects to have his expenses covered. This applies only to MAG-40 graduates not to MAG-20 (classroom no range) grads.

I suspect @Mas intentionally threw 2 shots low to give us a chance to tie or beat him. The two "misses" seemed pretty close together...

I've seen Mas shoot a one hole group on the qualifier.