Agile Training and Consulting: Pocket Rockets, by Chuck Haggard:

[RegularGuyMatt]

Pocket Rockets (aka Small Pistol and Snub Revolver Skills):
By: Chuck Haggard: Agile Training and Consulting.


I train and coach frequently in Virginia, earlier this year one of Tennessee’s top outfits (Citizen’s Safety Academy), came to visit my area through FPF/John Murphy’s program. Aqil Qadir and his crew were a blast to train and hang out with, so immediately I started looking at Tennessee as home base training area #2.

I see Chuck’s class pop up and immediately think: “Yeah, I suck at running a J frame, let me see one of the foremost experts on small guns and he can show me how to fix my deficiencies”.
Couse synopsis: This training will explore the carry and use of small handguns as EDC or BUGs, the non- standard techniques often needed to run these small handguns efficiently and effectively, and the important differences in how they need to be run vs full sized handguns.

Class was held at The Outpost Armory, a small but nice indoor range, which I very much appreciated after this season’s back-to-back courses in heatwave conditions. I haven’t been recovering from week to week to full 100%, an indoor air-conditioned course is exactly what was called for. Class started on time with introductions and what gun/guns we brought to run. * Something to mention here, over half of the class was filled by instructors, I knew most of the names from social media, but hadn’t met all of them in the real world. Being the first time, I had trained with Chuck, I knew of his reputation from Rangemaster Family Instructors I work with, but to the astute, this tells something: If other instructors are taking time away from teaching to attend, this gentleman knows something important and sought after.

Chuck then went on to discuss different carry methods for these small guns, ankle, off body, AIWB, pocket, etc. giving gear recommendations, (He brought quite a bit of different holsters), students also supplied examples. Further, he detailed the importance of ammunition choice, shot placement, wound ballistics, and the differences you could expect from shorter barrels and/or less effective calibers. After the thorough opening we adjourned to the range to shoot.

We opened by shooting a 5x5 drill individually twice, so Chuck could determine the level of competence or in my case incompetence with a J frame. We moved on to run quite a few different drills, one of the most beneficial to me was firing a shot, then opening and spinning the cylinder, and continue that after each shot, eventually you would land on a pre-fired round and you could check how much pre-ignition push/flinch you were imparting on the gun, (for me, at times, it was considerable, I wasn’t the only one). Shooting a small ultralight S&W 351c with a 14# trigger will bring out all your bad habits and put them on display in front of Jesus and all your peers. We got lots of practice reloading from speed strips or speed loaders, never leaving a gun dry before holstering.

Late in the day when everyone had peaked their performance with excellent coaching from Mr. Haggard, we shot a walk back drill. Shooting fundamentals and hits had greatly improved with practice under expert, watchful instruction. To end we donated various carry ammo and Chuck shot it into ballistic gel, some of the results were a bit surprising, what works great out of a 4” Bbl. Did not always perform out of 2”-3” barreled guns. I found this portion entertaining and insightful, having never worked with ballistic gelatin before.

Instruction was high level, well put together, and obviously practiced to perfection. I highly recommend this course for anyone who carries a small CCW gun, or like myself who nearly never carries less than a duty sized G17 with optic, but coaches’ everyday folks who may not have that option. Another of the many highlights were some of the techniques that are non-standard with a small auto, like malfunction drills, there were some subtle differences to tap-rack-assess due to grip length and slide dimensions that I know I will use to assist shooters at the schools I AI and coach for.

It was great visiting my neighboring state, CSA’s home base, and sharing handshakes and class with folks I have only known from the internet. Pocket Rockets is a course to attend for sure.

My Gear: I ran a S&W 351c .22 mag. with Hamre Forge grips from a Simply Rugged DB, S&W 36-2 with T grip from a Mitch Rosen pocket rig where I quickly determined the sights were sub-optimal to the point, I could not see them. While I didn’t shoot my G43, I ran it dry fire during the phase of instruction on small autos.

Class Guns: Most students ran revos, one shot a P365 with optic, Randy Harris from Harris Combative Strategies ran a slick nickel Smith M49, very well; Aqil Qadir looked smooth and practiced as always with a stainless 642, there was a S&W Performance Shop 9mm revo, Ruger LCR, and a couple of the new Lipsey’s UC’s in .32. All in attendance were frequent higher-skilled students and a joy to train with. I’ll likely be visiting Agile Training and Consulting again in the future.