Well, classes. Two to be exact.
KR Training held two classes today: Defensive Pistol Skills 1, and Beyond the Basics: Handgun. What was different was the classes were held at the Austin Rifle Club instead of Karl’s A-Zone Range. Reason is simple: Karl doesn’t do live-fire there during deer hunting season so the rural neighbors can hunt without gunfire scaring all the deer out of the area.
Apart from the strong winds all day long, the classes went alright. I’m actually rather exhausted so I’m not all that motivated to type, but I’ll say a few things:
It’s great to see such diversity in students. Young people, old people, various ethnicities, various backgrounds. Guns aren’t just for old white rednecks, no matter what the stereotypes say. What made me especially happy was to see a few women attending these intermediate-level classes. For whatever reason (and I have my hypotheses), you see lots of women in beginner courses but so few in courses beyond that. I think it’s great to see anyone wanting to take their skills to a higher level, but it’s especially wonderful to see women wanting to become truly skilled shooters.
It’s good for people to come to these classes and learn their gear sucks. Any gun is fine when you’re under no pressure, shooting at your leisure, and nothing important is on the line. But if you’re betting on this gun to save your life someday? It’s good to know if it can actually run. It’s good to know what gear is bad, what gear is good. It’s good to learn how crappy those double-action/single-action guns are (I’m looking at you, Sig)… when you have that long, heavy, first trigger pull and how difficult it is to get a good first hit — especially when the first shot is the most important — well… it’s just good to learn all of this stuff under the pressure of a safe classroom environment than when it may really matter. I tell people that while we have investment, financially and emotionally, in our gear, just weigh the costs here: if it’s a range toy, whatever; but if this is your life, what’s your life worth? If your gear sucks, abandon it and seek better gear. It may take you a while to shop around, lots of buying and selling, lots of trying, lots of asking questions. Do whatever it takes, because at least for me, while I might have a little emotional attachment to my choice in guns, I have a HUGE emotional attachment to Wife and Kiddos. I want a gun that works right and works best, so I can keep those emotional attachments that matter most.
But the best part? Seeing people improve. At the beginning of BtB:H oh… we had to do some serious reworking of fundamental skills of trigger control and sight alignment — mostly trigger control. And while yes, everyone needs more practice, there’s no question there was substantial improvement by everyone in the class. I was pleased with what I saw.
Two biggest things to help? 1. Dry fire practice. 2. ball-and-dummy drill.
So, apart from being very wind-blown and weary, it was a good day. Everyone left with the same number of holes they came with. Looks like everyone learned something, and hopefully we’ll see these folks back again at future classes.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Anyone shoot either class with a sub-compact?
I had a Walther PPS 9mm for 6 months till I discovered I could not shoot well at 15 yards plus.
We had a few, yes. Things like XD subcompacts… other things that left your pinkies dangling off the gun.
I think the longest distance they shot was probably 10 yards. They did alright with improved technique but still, it’s hard to shoot small guns let alone shoot them well. Yeah, small guns have their place, but they’re more “advanced guns” than beginner guns. Besides, it’s not hard to conceal full-sized handguns… good IWB holster and away you go.
Yeah The limited capacity hurts too as I would much rather have 16 rounds compared to 7. The recoil is much more pronounced with the smaller “pocket pistol”.
For me once I became serious about being a better shooter and carrying on a regular basis I ditched the little pistol.
I see a lot of people with subcompact guns doing things to make them more shootable. They’ll put grip extensions so their pinky has a place, but now the grip is almost as big as a full-sized grip so, what did you gain here? Or they’ll use the full-sized magazines with a grip sleeve to fill in the space and so now the only thing truly smaller is the barrel… but for most people you can use and carry a 4″ or 5″ barrel. So again, what was gained? I can speak from experience… buying little guns tends to be done because we don’t know any better (or get wrong advice). If you intentionally buy a little gun (e.g. like me with my snub) you gotta know what you’re doing and have good reason for it.
Little pistols have their place, but they’re “advanced” guns and certainly even the best shooters can’t shoot them as well as full-sized guns.
So hey… Karl preaches the good word, I try to help spread it. 🙂
I was at the club and saw you all there. It sounded fun but I have already taken both of those classes.
It was windy though. I picked the wrong day to sight in my rimfires.
Yeah, the wind was wicked.
Well, since you took those classes, just wait until Spring. More fun coming. 🙂
Are you taking Tom Givens shotgun class coming up?
Of course!
Nice! What shotgun are you going to use?
So I guess that means you’re coming too?
I’ll use a Mossberg 500 with their 18.5″ “security” barrel. It’s a field gun, so it’s got wood furniture on it. No need to get all tactical here… it works well.
I actually just picked up some Federal 00 buck shotshells… the version with the Flitecontrol wad, in both the normal and reduced load flavors. It was my hope in the next few weeks to see how they (and some other buck) performed out of that gun. All in prep for the Givens course.
I’m planing on it so far. I have a Mossberg 500 also. I just ordered a new stock, sling mounts, and a sling in preparation for his class.
I have very little time behind it so I will need to get some practice in before the class.
Sweet. I had to put in an order at Brownells this morning and was browsing the shotgun stuff before I finished up… just in case there was something. 🙂
I’m actually going to drop Tom a line and ask him about equipment requirements for the class. For instance, shotgun as a home-defense weapon… I see no need for a sling; in fact, a sling could be a liability, snagging on stuff in the house. But as a training aid, it’s good… that shotgun will get heavy to hold all day long.
It should be a fun class. 🙂
I spoke with Tom when he was at Karl’s last time. He mention the stock, and other mods. I purchased his shotgun dvd and it pretty much said the same thing.
I picked up the Magpul shotgun dvd a few weeks ago but I have not watched it all yet. They seems to be fans of red dots on shotguns so I may try that too.