“Good Guy With a Gun” with Erick Gelhaus (Cougar Mountain Solutions) and Defensive Accuracy – Dublin CA June 28 2021
Location: Hosted at Defensive Accuracy’s indoor range – nice facility!
Instructors: Erick Gelhaus as primary instructor, assisted by Rick, Mike, Alex and Denise.
Students: 11 Students, predominately civilian with a mix of new shooters, security professionals, and female shooters (4). Glocks were well represented; there was at least one Kahr and M&P Shield.
Personal Equipment:
Supplied packing list was accurate.
I shot a Glock 17, stock aside from 10-8 precision sights with Gadget
Round Count: Roughly 100 PMC eRange EMJ; no malfunctions
I ran my deployment belt (Safariland ALS) without any issues.
Training
This course is Defensive Accuracy’s follow up of their initial CCW course, but also accommodates those who do not CCW. This was a 5 hour course. This course assumes at least safe basic weapon handling skills which all students had down.
The course started off with a safety brief and medical plan. Denise has one of the more impressive medical range bags I have seen. During the discussion of the 4 rules, rule #4 was particularly emphasized as this is a course with movement in mind – changing target angles can have a drastic effect on shot placement and potential shoot throughs.
Erick then led a quick discussion of the recent Arvada, CO shooting, and lessons to be learned. We discussed what the scene might have appeared like to responding officers. The use of cover, retreating, and making yourself look less of a threat as quickly as possible after a critical incident was emphasized.
We then moved onto practical training. Due to the severe shortage of ammunition (locally multiple stores don’t have any handgun ammo in stock), there was a reasonable balance between dryfire and live fire.
We started off with reviewing holster presentations and maximizing efficiencies.
We then moved onto the 5-yard “Round up drill” – this was my first time running this drill and it works the fundamentals very well with a good balance of speed vs accuracy.
We then moved onto moving lateral and forward/reward movement. Drills were conducted in two relays, starting off dry then live, and we were well supervised by the instructors. The Erick and the co-instructors took the time to help coach individuals who needed some additional help with the fundamentals.
Interspersed between the drills discussions of dealing with malfunctions and utilizing cover when they came up. There was a good balance of breaks for students to load mags/hydrate.
We then ran a series of movement drills to compare their times vs accuracy: shooting from 5 yards then running back to cover at 10 yards vs shooting on the move from 5 yards to 10 yards vs retreating from 5 yards to 10 yards and then engaging the target from cover.
The final drill was utilizing a linear array of 6 targets but with the twist of intervening cover. Students had to fire to eliminate one target and then move to another position prior to engaging the second target while utilizing cover. It was a good drill to culminate all the lessons in this short 5 hour class.
In this class I noticed I have developed a training scar of immediately collapsing my arm position into a high compressed ready after a shooting string – I really should be tracking the target to the ground. Additionally, I have work to work on my shooting while moving backwards.
Final Thoughts and Summary
This was a short but effective course. It was a constructive, safe and welcoming training environment for new and experienced shooters alike. Teaching movement in a shooting class is like herding cats, except the cats all have access to 115 grain projectiles.
With the pandemic last year, aside from running through the Army pistol qualification for a few times, this was my first formal pistol class in 2 years. The local area does not have ranges that can easily accommodate holster work, let alone any movement. This course allowed me to train both these skills and has helped me tweak my current dry fire regime.
Erick is a fantastic instructor (and accomplished shooter); his Gunsite lineage shines through. I appreciated that Erick emphasized there was never “one” way to accomplish a task, but provided his insights from his experience on how to do certain tasks more efficiently. It was helpful to hear his LE perspective on legal considerations for those that will CCW. He is articulate and breaks down topics to allow even the most novice shooters to understand them. Pat Rogers would be proud of him.
I look forward to training with Erick and the Defensive Accuracy crew in the future!
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