Yesterday I took part in KR Training’s AT-6 Pistol Workout class. This is KR Training’s most advanced class, focusing on high speed shooting. It also focused on long distance shooting.

Drills

We divided into two groups of 7, which made it easier to run the line and rotate between the drill stations. I was in group 2.

The first thing we did? Cold? Shooting groups at 25 yards. Not nice. 🙂  But I don’t go to class to be treated nice, I want to be challenged. Was I good at it? Well, let’s just say I’ve improved. What’s it all about? Trigger control. That’s really the key. I will say it’s also about finding a good index point. For instance, on an IPSC target it’s tough to aim “dead center” because it’s just a blur of brown cardboard and what may look dead center this time may be off just enough next shot such that your groups really open up. You really need an index point, such as aligning the top edge of your sights with the “shoulder edge” of the target. But it all depends what you’re going for: smallest groups (which I was) or getting ’em all in the A-Zone.

We then went to shoot the FBI Qualification course. The course was slightly modified, for instance we didn’t go prone because the ground is still a mess due to the near constant rain we’ve been having for months in this part of Texas.

We had a steel shootoff. Nine steel targets were set up, 4 on the left, 4 on the right, and one stop plate in the middle. Each steel was different shape, size, and distance. One shooter on the left, one on the right. The drill was on the buzzer both shooters draw, engage their plates from outside to inside, must hit each plate once, and the first person to hit the stop plate wins. Then the winners shot against each other and so on. This is high speed shooting at its finest. After running it one time with two-handed shooting, we’d run it again one handed, strong side. Then we’d run it again one-handed but you’d have to draw, shift to your weak hand, then shoot.

A special setup was done with some steel reactive targets. These targets are steel targets but with a plastic “man-like” covering, who is then dressed in a t-shirt. The intent is to provide you with a 3-D realistic target that only falls over if you hit it squarely in the vital areas. It’s a great way to break out of training against 2-D targets and non-realistic targets, which just don’t give you the same aim points at this such target does. It was a small scenario simulating getting out of your car and having to shoot on the move (from car to cover), engaging 2 reactives while you did so. So shoot on the move, proper targeting, shooting from cover, and so on.

Then another shoot on the move segment was done along a string of paper targets. Shoot shoot shoot, kneel behind cover, reload, stand up and keep moving and shooting at more targets. Since that takes a while to run (only one person can shoot at a time), after you shot that you’d go back to the steel range and shoot those same steel targets in the same way, shooting and moving.

Intermixed with all of this was drawing, trigger control, sight alignment, dealing with malfunctions, reloading. You weren’t really told to do these things, you were just expected to keep your gun running at all times. BTW, an UpLULA pays for itself very quickly. 🙂

The crazy thing? Next thing I know Karl is saying it’s time to take down the targets. I couldn’t believe 3 hours had already passed and class was over. I was just getting warmed up! I don’t know what the final round count was, but people were saying close to 400. I guess ultimately it all depended how much you missed on the steel targets. 😉

One thing to note. Usually this is a 4 hour class, but Karl ran it in 3. The class may or may not run like this again in the future. We got all the material, due to excellent structuring of the class (the FBI qual, the steel, and the reactive drills were run simultaneously on different ranges with different instructors).

My Performance

On 25 yard group shooting. I am improving, but I still have a ways to go; I’m pleased with my results in the class, but I know there’s room for improvement. One thing I need to do more of is shooting it from a benchrest so I can eliminate some factors from the equation. Make sure I know my sights, e.g. Springfield factory sights shoot high at 25 yards but I don’t have factory sights. Make sure I know the performance of my reloads AND my carry ammo at that distance. Get my eyes used to it. Then move to freestyle, including one handed shooting.

I’m happy to say I qualified on the FBI course. I heard no one in group 1 qualified, and I’m not sure how the others in group 2 did. Tho I’m not out to compare myself to others, there’s something useful about knowing where you sit in the grander scheme of things. My main lose of points was at 25 yards. But my 25 yard shooting here was the best of the day. It’s a matter of just doing more 25 yard shooting.

On the steel, I didn’t come out the grand prize winner, but I was one of the faster shots. I know my problem is high speed trigger control. I do know how to go fast when it’s time to go fast, and slow when it’s time to go slow, but I’ll still feel the pressure of the timer and the other guy and sometimes yank the trigger. Still, I felt good about my performance and even surprised myself at how well I did. Many times in a class I’m wanting to focus so much on particular areas of improvement that my brain gets in the way of things. Here I was of “no mind”. I knew what to work on, but when it came time to shoot I just shot. All the dry fire I’ve been working on since my private lesson with Karl has paid off.

The reactive. Plain and simple: trigger yanking. High speed, high pressure, and I’d yank the trigger and just miss. Not acceptable. But, I know what to work on. As well, I’m going to need to put in an order for my own targets and buy some photo-realistic targets and train with them more often. While I tend to use IPSC-style targets most of the time, the A-Zone just isn’t the same as the vital area.

Shoot and move, I did alright in.

Other general things: I’m happy with my reloading in the sense of the mechanics and doing it at the right point. Scanning, breathing. My draws were better. When I’d hear the “b” in “beep” on the buzzer my hand was moving and I was getting the gun out there as fast as possible, getting on the trigger faster, but taking my time to get the hits once it got out there (all depending on distance, e.g. I could shoot sooner at 3 yards vs. 25 yards). Again I paid some attention to how others were performing on the draw and I was happy to clear Kydex so quickly. Just like all things, getting faster.

What To Work On

Certainly 25 yard group shooting. Yeah, I know people go on about how most self-defense shootings are within 5 yards, and that’s true. But how do you know when it’s your turn you’re not going to be the statistical exception? One of Tom Givens’ students, I don’t recall the details of the story well enough to retell it, but the key point was he had to make a 20 yard shot (and did, and saved his life). And not just for self-defense, but for action pistol competition… long shots do come up.

I’m at a point now where dry fire is still something to do, but it’s actually not helping me so much any more. The thing is, my brain knows when I dry fire there won’t be any bang or issue to deal with, so everything is perfect. I need recoil. I need the noise, I need the recoil, I need to recover from the shot and shoot again. I need that. I’m not going to progress any further unless I just flat out have more trigger time on the range because the things I need to work on won’t come from dry fire. Yes I still need to dry fire and I won’t stop doing that, but I need to get to the range more and regularly.

When I’m at the range, what I need to do is run drills that push me. So, pick a drill like the Central Texas Standards, Two Target No Reload Standards, the Texas CHL qual, Bill Drills, IPSC classifier stages, whatever. Just pick something. Shoot the drill with no par time. The goal with no par time is to shoot it clean so you can be sure you’ve got the marksmanship skills to shoot it. If you can’t shoot it clean with no time, you need to work until you can shoot it clean with no time. Once you can do that, time how long it takes you to shoot it clean. Whatever that time is, that’s now your starting par time. Shoot it now with that as a par time set so you have the pressure of the buzzer. Once you can do that, drop the par time by say half a second. Shoot it again. Once that’s clean, drop it another half second, and so on. This is what I need, because I’ve got the fundamental skills, I can have the accuracy, I can have the speed. I now need to go faster, yet maintain the accuracy. This is how to do it.

One thing to do as well while I work my drills? Ball and dummy drill.

That’s the big things for me, really. There are some other things to continue to work on as well. I’m buying some weighted “blue magazines” (i.e. dummy magazines, but with the same action and feel as a loaded magazine) so I can do more practice of my reloading technique. On the gear front, while I love my combo mag/flashlight pouch, I need to get another dual mag pouch for use in class; the XD Gear mag pouch is OK to get by with but the fact it cants the mags gets annoying. Plus I’ve had thoughts about carrying 2 reloads and putting the flashlight elsewhere on my person. Furthermore, my XD-9 5″ is going to get sent off to Springer Precision soon. Oh, and I need to buy lots of reloading components. If I’m going to spend that much more time at the range, I need lots of ammo. 🙂

That’s about the size of it. A good class.