Revolver specific training?

[jlw]

http://www.shootrite.org/courses/Handgun/Handgun.html

Shootrite run by Tiger Mckee (Thunder Ranch protege) has some revolver specific training courses.

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I took the IDPA safety officer course from Claude Werner. I'd readily jump into a revolver class taught by him. He was lead instructor at the Rogers Shooting School for five years.

[Mitchell, Esq.]

DeBethencourt's classes are great.

[Wheeler]

FWIW, I recently found out that Thunder Ranch is now teaching Defensive Revolver classes. Clint has frequently recommended the large-bore revolver for defense and should give a good program with it.

Based on what I've seen from the videos and tv shows Clint's revolver manipulation skills are severely lacking. I hope his instructors are better than he is.

Wheeler

[David Armstrong]

Based on what I've seen from the videos and tv shows Clint's revolver manipulation skills are severely lacking. I hope his instructors are better than he is.

Wheeler

Ummm...OK.
I know Clint handles the wheelgun in more of a practical/tactical manner than a competition/range manner, but I'm not sure that qualifies as severely lacking in skills. YMMV.

[Jay Cunningham]

We're not going to turn this into an instructor-bashing thread. We can also do without the coy innuendo. If you have something to say from first-hand experience, just say it. If it's my-guru-vs.-your-guru BS, then just skip it.

[Mitchell, Esq.]

This is speaking as a person who's taken 1 class with a revolver and 2 classes for handugns:

A revolver is not, compared to a semi-auto, an efficient system in terms of body mechanics.

Even very smooth, efficient manipulations of a revolver inherently has more movement than a pistol does.

Looking at it from the point of view of a pistol shooter, revolvers manipulations are not going to look fast, clean or anything of the sort.

That doesn't mean any particular methodology is bad or ineffective or inefficient, because some instructors methods sacrifice efficiency of movement for security while manipulating individual rounds or hard (relatively) to align speed loaders (compared to magazines.

It just means that a revolver is a less efficient system than a pistol, and we shouldn't compare them 1:1 on such grounds.

[Wheeler]

Ummm...OK.
I know Clint handles the wheelgun in more of a practical/tactical manner than a competition/range manner, but I'm not sure that qualifies as severely lacking in skills. YMMV.

I'm looking at it from a practical/tactical viewpoint, not a competitive viewpoint. When I watch videos in which reloads are bobbled, grip is constantly adjusted, I question that.

Jay Cunningham
We're not going to turn this into an instructor-bashing thread. We can also do without the coy innuendo. If you have something to say from first-hand experience, just say it. If it's my-guru-vs.-your-guru BS, then just skip it.

I was pretty blunt, I could have phrased that better. While I previously extolled the virtues of another instructor in this thread, I didn't compare the two, nor do I intend to. If that's what you were referring to. Regardless, I apologize for stating it the way I did. I'll refrain from comment on the matter from this point forward.

Wheeler

[TCinVA]

I've done a little bit of time with Bethencourt and from what I've seen he understands all the old school revolver lessons well. There was a lot of specialized knowledge about the revolver that developed over decades of using them for serious social purposes that has now largely been lost. There aren't a whole lot of guys out there who knew all of those crucial little bits of information about fighting with a wheel gun left with us anymore.

Michael knows a lot of that stuff and is good at passing it on.

[MikeO]

I'm still using what I learned from vets w the DPD (Detroit PD), USMS, and FPS (Federal Protective Service) back in the 70s. It was, and still is, way more practical than some think it was.

Feelin' vintage... I remember "speed" loading from drop boxes. I use them high tech speed strips/loader thingies w my Ruger Speed Sixes now.

[Wheeler]

I'm still using what I learned from vets w the DPD (Detroit PD), USMS, and FPS (Federal Protective Service) back in the 70s. It was, and still is, way more practical than some think it was.

Feelin' vintage... I remember "speed" loading from drop boxes. I use them high tech speed strips/loader thingies w my Ruger Speed Sixes now.

Hey MikeO,

I've tried both. I'm horrible with the drop boxes but feel pretty good about the speed strips. Both are a lot more concealable than speedloaders (those are those new fangled round things that look like a cylinder with the cartridges poking out.) I modified my drop boxes to hold speed strips, and will sometimes carry my reloads there rather than in a pocket, with the drop box flipped over so the flap is on top. Still not as fast as a speedloader but a lot faster than trying to extract from a pocket.

Wheeler