This is a course review, not an after action review; the targets were not shooting back.
Scott Reitz Low Light and Problen Solving Tactics. 11-13 Octover 2013. FIRE Institute. Pitcaim Monroeville Sportsman’s Club, Pittsburgh, PA.
The mission of FIRE Institute (a non-profit corporation) is to provide expert, affordable firearms training in the Pittsburgh area. (See the “About Us” tab at the link for more details of the FIRE Mission.) Pitcaim Monroeville Sportsman’s Club serves as the host club but has no affiliation with the training.
A complete course review would take several pages. Here are some random tidbits:
This is not an introduction to pistol shooting. Other than refresher training we spent little time on on learning the basics but they were always corrected and coached by Reitz as errors occurred.
A thoroughly satisfying weekend. Reitz is a personable instructor and an excellent shooter and gun handler. His background (and bias) is from 30 years as a Los Angles policeman with most of that career in the highly selective Metro Division and in D Platoon (SWAT). Reitz was a principal firearms trainer for much of his career and served during the transition from revolvers to automatic pistols. Scott is the owner of ITTS (see the previous link) and personally carries the M1911.
Reitz was not bashful about his bias. He has a very low opinion of "fandango" gun handling techniques and although he never mentioned Magpul Dynamics by name we knew they were one example. He also quashed the notion that the Modern Technique developed at Gunsight was strictly a “gun games” technique. He notes the Modern Technique was adopted and perfected by Los Angeles PD SWAT and thoroughly proven by them. Reitz was fond of saying “If it didn’t work LA SWAT wouldn’t be using it.” (My own bias comes from a lifetime as an Infantry and Armor officer and decades of M1911 and M9 use. My personal daily carry remains the M1911.)
Students for this weekend came from California, New York, and Ohio as well as Pennsylvania. I shot about 500 rounds over three days. The round count tapered off on Sunday when we were deep into the shoot-noshoot process. Hits are paramount. Speed is secondary. Reitz's very aggressive presentation cuts down the dead space between the holster (or low ready) and allows more time for an accurate trigger press.
In the low light portion of the course we had to deal with pistol induced fog that caused flashlight back splatter obscuring the targets. Atmospheric conditions seldom cause this in Western Pennsylvania other than near lakes or rivers. Good experience dealing with this for the first time. Changing the light position and dropping to kneeling helped me when this happened. Shooting prone did not work well with the Rogers/Surefire technique. Harries was more flexible.
We shot lots of “other hand.” I have ambidextrous frame safeties coming for my M1911s that lack them. I remain ambivalent to Colt Series 80 firing pin interlock. I have not heard of these failing.
Movement? “Get off the X?” Reitz questions the validity of this as doctrine. Statistical wound data indicates bullet strikes resemble a random pattern and oft quoted data indicates 85% of the shots fired in police shootings (the only source of data) miss the target completely. This means "one place is as good as another" and while seeking cover is always smart the best way to stop a gunfight is to stop the threat. Moving and shooting are difficult. Get off the X? You can move into the path of the next bullet. Or not. It depends.
Reitz questions the rote “check your six” maneuver as well. The near microsecond peek many take is not enough time to detect anything and the threat still remains in front of you. We can only deal with one thing at a time.
I've gleaned small nuggets from every course I've taken. I have no problems drop-loading an empty shotgun thru the ejection port but somehow got a brain cramp drop-loading my slide locked M1911 and tripping the slide lock! I removed the magazine first. Duh!
I was very happy with the skill sets of the participants. Everyone had a good basic knowledge of shooting and their pistols. I don't think anyone is going out and buying a different pistol after the weekend as all have made good basic choices. The only DAO pistol on the range was the SIG carried by a NYC policeman and he had no choice in the matter. A 14+ pound DAO trigger and police administrators wonder why their policemen have such low hit ratios. Everyone else seemed to have either a good M1911 or a Glock. (Those present noted I shot my M1911 and not my Beretta 92G!)
I'm ready to sign up for next year.
-- Chuck