Randy Cain Tactical Handun Kathleen Fl 11-15 11-17

[piefairy]

Sorry this is a bit more of a journal than an AAR, but I hope it helps people. Really great course.

Randy Cain Handgun 101 AAR (well journal)

Day 1
Started with safety briefing as expected. The 4 golden rules,
1. All guns are always loaded
2.Never let your muzzle cover anything your not willing to destroy
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target
4. Be sure of your target

After that was covered we went into some basic gun handling techniques, proper way to rack a slide using the slap method, how to load a gun from an empty chamber (no mag). And he went into detail on why he teaches things the way he does. There has been a lot of thought put into his methods and he can first hand reasoning on why to do things the way he teaches. Its all very rational. All guns were to be holstered at all times unless directed to. Even in the break area, you were not to unholster your weapon.

After that we went to the range. We started at 3 yards. The objective was to put the bullet on a piece of tape on the silhouette, and then put to more through the same spot. I did not do well. I’m not use to shooting in front of other people so my nerves were up. After that we went into how to do a tactical reload and how to manage out ammo. He left it up to us to know when we needed to reload in order to be ready for the next drill and have enough ammo. Some of the smaller Glock users had issue with this due to magazine size. In between drills while he was talking, you were encouraged to have a pocket of ammo and refill your mags. I had 4 17 rnd mags with me so managing my ammo was not as difficult.

After the 3 yard shots and the obligatory poor grouping, we went into grip, hand placement and how to not choke the hell out of your gun. We went to one hand shooting without gripping the gun. The tang rests on the web of your hand, the trigger guard on your “driving finger”, your thumb wrapped around loosely and firing a shot. This was to get us comfortable knowing that the gun was not going to leave our hand if we didn’t death grip it. We did several repetitions of this and groups immediately started to improve, even one handed.

After this was trigger control. Taking up the slack in the trigger and then slowly squeezing it making the break more of a surprise, this helps with the low left that most of the class was having (myself included as always). Groupings again were getting tighter across the class. We then started on double shot failure drill (I think that was the name) where you put 2 shots in the torso then 1 in the head as accurately as possible. My groups at this point were down to about an inch to an inch and a half, which is what I shoot more like at the range, I was settling in a bit. We were at about 7 yards.

Broke for lunch.

Came back and it was time to start shooting on the move. We started at the 7 yard line and worked our way in using tactical footsteps. Keeping our “fighting” stance while moving in and doing the same double shot failure drill. It was more difficult but I was doing alright. Slow movement in and again, shoot as accurately as possible.

That was the end of “put the bullet in the same hole each shot”. Now he just wanted us to maintain the fist sized groups we were pretty much all getting at this point. We stepped up movement to almost a walking pace, like you were looking for cover. Again, doing the double shot failure drill. Much harder than it sounds. You have to really concentrate on keeping your core as stable as possible while maintaining an accurate sight picture. 7 yards out, walking in, make 2 shots to the chest, 1 to the head, again in out same grouping we had before. He would rather you not take the shot than to take it and miss. You could not stop to take the shot, you had to remain moving at all times. Mixed results through the class. (I forgot to mention we had a handful of repeat students, some it was their 5th and 6th time through the class). So they tended to do better at this drill than others, obviously. After we all felt like that was a little tough to do, he doubled it up. Same 7 yards, this time 2 double shot failure drills. You had to speed up quite a bit making your shots. I was on target but my grouping was suffering.

After that we did it with 2 targets. Double shot one, then double shot your neighbors. (For the movement drills we were broken into 3 groups so there was plenty of space on the range and safe.) It was about 3pm at this point. Several people were having some fundamental failures at this point so he decided we were done for now. According to him we were doing better than many of his classes and were ahead of schedule. We ended with a steel plate race. 6 steel plates, 3 per person, 2 at a time. Whoever got them down first wins. I ended up getting all three down in 4 shots the first time through. 6 inch plates at 10 yards. First shot took down the plate but got the other 2 down in 4 shots but it was to late, I was out.

That ended day one. We broke after that for the day. About 7 ½ hours after start.

Today came with a more tactical feel to it. We reviewed the basics in the morning, and recovered everything that we did the day prior. The next step was the correct draw of the gun. Again, he was very detailed about it and explained why each step was the way it was. Position 1, left hand on your lower chest, right hand gets a firing grip on the holstered weapon, position 2, draw the gun to chest level tucked close to the body and take off the safety if your gun has one, position 3 without moving the gun, get a firing grip with the support hand on the gun, position 4 press out towards the target and make eye level. We focused on this for quite a bit. His emphasis was that this was the most important technique to cover.

The next thing we did was the tactical reload. How to reload in a gun fight either in the case of an empty mag or a failure of some sort. Not a lot to this, just the techniques we cover on day 1 of how to load and not to use the slide lock to return the gun to battery, use the slap method. (grasp the top of the slide, slam it to the rear releasing and hitting your shoulder).

After this was failure drills. What to do in the event of different failures. Failure to eject, failure to load, and double feed failure. He showed us what to do in each case and had us induce the failures and practice clearing them. We would put a spent casing in the gun caught holding the slide open, or in the event of a failure to feed its the same drill. Slap the bottom of the mag and then rack the slide again. The double feed failure was a bit different. You first lock the slide back, then drop the mag, rack the slide three times to clear anything in the chamber, re-insert the mag rack again and fire.

Next he had us induce a failure of our own choice, place the gun on the ground and walk away. Then run up to someone elses gun, clear the failure and fire 2 shots. Because it may not always be your gun you have to use in a fight. We did this two times. First gun I got was a Barretta and I had no clue how to operate it, and its safety is opposite of mine. Its also a larger gun any I had issues manipulating the mag release. The second gun was a Glock, a bit more straight forward.

After that we went back to the steel plate contest to close out the day. I survived 2 rounds today.. He changed it up today as well, after you got the first two plates down you had to speed load a new mag and then go after the third plate. We were also to use the proper draw stroke as well.

Ended day 2, just over 7 hours after start.

Day 3

Started with a review and the primary focus was speed. Draw fire 2 shots in the A zone on the target at 5 yards. Then we sped it up, and had to fire at cadence more or less, fire as fast as you can re-aquire the target in the sights. Then fire as fast as you can. The emphasis was really that a slower shot that is accurate is better than a bunch of shots that are not. The shots were we re-aquired sights were of course better groups.

Next we paired up and one person aimed the gun and the other pressed the trigger. The point to this was to show that you are accurate, its your anticipation that is getting you. It was an interesting drill. Groups were good.

Next was shots from retention. You don’t always have room to extend your arms to take a shot, so we stood at arm’s length from the target, drew to stage two (gun up parallel and tucked into your pectoral) fire two shots. Then we did the same drill followed by a retreat after the shot and firing while moving backwards. I had to learn to cant the gun out a bit because a slide hitting you in the pectoral is not a nice feeling.

The last drill of the day was the “If you think your good” drill. From 25 yards, on the fire command, we were to draw and fire on target and get A zone hits in less than 2.5 seconds. What he would call an excellent shooter woulds get 10 for 10 on the drill. The best in the class got 6 of 10. I managed a measly 1, 2 if generous, for 10. It was not easy.

Last thing we did shooting wise was a hostage rescue drill. Had the steel plate hostage silhouette and a black plate that flipped from either when hit. The target was a 4x6 inch plate. If you missed or even nicked the hostage, you were out. I succeeded the first round which was at 7 yards, it took me two shots since the plate didn’t flip on the first hit. 1 person failed on the first round. Second round was at 12 yards. I flinched and hit the upper shoulder blade so I was out. This continued to about the 20 yard line when the final person was left.

Last part of the day was about mindset. The proper mindset to have and how to think in situations and levels of alertness. Identifying threats and preparing scenarios and reactions ahead of time. There was a lot more to it than that but that’s the best way I can explain it.

End of day 3, 7 ½ hours from start

I felt it was a great training and the emphasis was on the practical self defense. It was not a target shooting class. It is the first training course I have taken and I am very happy it was. There was so much to learn, Randy was a wealth of knowledge. I hope to retake the course either early next year or a little later. He did say he was not sure how many more years he will be doing it. He has been at it since the 90’s and is late 60’s now, so if your interested I wouldn’t wait to long.

Sorry this was more of a journal than an AAR, but I didn’t know a better way to cover it. Hope I didn’t bore you to death and you look into his classes.

[MolonLabe416]

I’ve taken that class several times. I’ve also taken most of his other courses. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[piefairy]

I plan to take more, not looking forward to getting smacked with the plastic knife in the CQT course. Take the courses while you can, he didn't seem to sure how much longer he will be at it before retiring.