BassCliff
Ronin
Howdy Buckaroos!
This past Monday evening I took part in a skills clinic at one of my indoor ranges, the newer facility. It's pretty nice. We did a little scootin' and shootin' but mostly the instructors were messing with our minds. I don't have a lot of targets to show you so I'll show you around the place a little bit. When you enter the classroom you'll find a library available.
I actually checked out a book last night, On Combat by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. "The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace." On another wall is the full training curriculum.
I've taken all but one of the handgun classes. Some I've taken several times, just because they are fun and good for keeping up your skills. I'm planning to start on their long gun courses this summer. This is my little kit.
And this is the view of the classroom from my desk. This is where we do our briefings before and after. Next week we'll have a legal seminar in this room with lawyers and reps from the USCCA.
After our briefing we head out to the range. We'll be working downrange from the bays.
We'll be using this "Balance of Speed and Precision" target.
It's a small class this evening. That's the "main" medical kit you see there on the chair. If there is ever an accident on the range you must tell 911 that we've had a "training incident" and NOT a "shooting". Otherwise SWAT will show up to clear the building first, delaying aid to anyone who might be hurt. But I digress.
We started with simple drills, single shot from the draw, double taps, triple taps, from various distances, 5-7-10 yards. So far, so good.
As we progressed, the instructors started adding different shooting (or no-shoot) solutions to the commands. Some commands would rotate around the target, some commands would mean shooting the opposite target, other commands would mean a specific target. We had to keep all the instructions clear in our head, plus remember all the fundamentals, turning, pivoting, recognizing the target, etc. Add to this the fact that I was training with my new-ish optic.
Let's see if I remember the course.
The first "UP!" command would be 3-5 hits in the high center chest. The 2nd "UP!" command would be 3-5 hits in the A box. The 3rd "UP!" command would be 3-5 hits in the B box. The next "UP!" command would continue the rotation in the high center chest box, and so on.
A number command would mean shooting the other number in the same color, with the number of hits in that color. For example, a command of "3!" would mean putting six hits in the 6 circle.
A color command would mean putting one hit in both circles with that color. "BLUE!" would mean one hit on the 5 and one hit on the 2.
Any shape command would mean head shot. "Square!", "Circle!", "Triangle!", "Diamond!", whatever, would mean putting one to the head.
The instructors would call these commands in random order. We had to remember which fuzzy box was next plus all the other shooting solutions. Sometimes they would call "Seven!" Since there was no seven it was a no-shoot. Or you could shoot the four and three. As long as you could explain your action, at least you were thinking about it. One time the instructor yelled "First digit of you phone number!" I hesitated a second, "Do I shoot the area code or not?"
It was a lot to think about. Plus we were shooting from different distances and pivoting 90° or 180° and doing our "search and assess" after each action. The instructor would hold things in their hands and then ask us what we saw. A couple of times I was thinking so much about the course of action I did not search and assess. You gotta keep an eye out for any other bad guys in the area.
As a whole the class did pretty good.
We took a break to go load up some more magazines.
I'll be back in the next post to finish up. The software is complaining about "too many characters" in my post. Weird.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
This past Monday evening I took part in a skills clinic at one of my indoor ranges, the newer facility. It's pretty nice. We did a little scootin' and shootin' but mostly the instructors were messing with our minds. I don't have a lot of targets to show you so I'll show you around the place a little bit. When you enter the classroom you'll find a library available.
I actually checked out a book last night, On Combat by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. "The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace." On another wall is the full training curriculum.
I've taken all but one of the handgun classes. Some I've taken several times, just because they are fun and good for keeping up your skills. I'm planning to start on their long gun courses this summer. This is my little kit.
And this is the view of the classroom from my desk. This is where we do our briefings before and after. Next week we'll have a legal seminar in this room with lawyers and reps from the USCCA.
After our briefing we head out to the range. We'll be working downrange from the bays.
We'll be using this "Balance of Speed and Precision" target.
It's a small class this evening. That's the "main" medical kit you see there on the chair. If there is ever an accident on the range you must tell 911 that we've had a "training incident" and NOT a "shooting". Otherwise SWAT will show up to clear the building first, delaying aid to anyone who might be hurt. But I digress.
We started with simple drills, single shot from the draw, double taps, triple taps, from various distances, 5-7-10 yards. So far, so good.
As we progressed, the instructors started adding different shooting (or no-shoot) solutions to the commands. Some commands would rotate around the target, some commands would mean shooting the opposite target, other commands would mean a specific target. We had to keep all the instructions clear in our head, plus remember all the fundamentals, turning, pivoting, recognizing the target, etc. Add to this the fact that I was training with my new-ish optic.
Let's see if I remember the course.
The first "UP!" command would be 3-5 hits in the high center chest. The 2nd "UP!" command would be 3-5 hits in the A box. The 3rd "UP!" command would be 3-5 hits in the B box. The next "UP!" command would continue the rotation in the high center chest box, and so on.
A number command would mean shooting the other number in the same color, with the number of hits in that color. For example, a command of "3!" would mean putting six hits in the 6 circle.
A color command would mean putting one hit in both circles with that color. "BLUE!" would mean one hit on the 5 and one hit on the 2.
Any shape command would mean head shot. "Square!", "Circle!", "Triangle!", "Diamond!", whatever, would mean putting one to the head.
The instructors would call these commands in random order. We had to remember which fuzzy box was next plus all the other shooting solutions. Sometimes they would call "Seven!" Since there was no seven it was a no-shoot. Or you could shoot the four and three. As long as you could explain your action, at least you were thinking about it. One time the instructor yelled "First digit of you phone number!" I hesitated a second, "Do I shoot the area code or not?"
It was a lot to think about. Plus we were shooting from different distances and pivoting 90° or 180° and doing our "search and assess" after each action. The instructor would hold things in their hands and then ask us what we saw. A couple of times I was thinking so much about the course of action I did not search and assess. You gotta keep an eye out for any other bad guys in the area.
As a whole the class did pretty good.
We took a break to go load up some more magazines.
I'll be back in the next post to finish up. The software is complaining about "too many characters" in my post. Weird.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
