- Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:59 am
#4719
Last weekend I took the 4 Day Defensive Handgun class at Front Sight in Nevada. I wanted to share my thoughts with everyone.
In summary: What a blast!
I went in fairly confident I could handle a weapon. I’m no slouch and I train pretty consistently, but this is the first formal training I’ve ever had. It was also the first time I was ever in the company of people so truly skilled with a handgun – and I was humbled. I realized just how unskilled I and so many others are. Our Range Master and Instructor for the weekend was Darrin Hinze. Darrin is not certified as a “Handgun Combat Master” – and if he’s not, I shudder to know what a real Handgun Combat Master can shoot like. Darrin was scary good. I have rarely met anyone who I would want by my side when the SHTF. Darrin is on the top of my list now. He has reached that pinnacle of unconsciously competent in his handgun skills. His movements were poetry in motion – dare I say beautifully artistic in a brutally efficient manner. He was precise, crisp, fluid and a model instructor. He also had the rare ability to teach as well as DO. I can’t believe the amount I learned from him in such a short time – from the most basic things as tweaking my trigger press for a compressed surprise break, to finally delivering a controlled pair from a concealed holster at 7m in under 2 seconds.
At one point Darrin got frustrated that some people weren’t keeping their support hand on their midsections during presentation and holstering. He decided to do a demo. He stated that “Count 3” (of the draw, gun in firing hand only, rotated out to target, held close to the side of your chest, support hand on midsection), was a viable close-contact shooting platform, and if your support hand wasn’t on your midsection, you ran the risk of blowing it off. He walked up to a target and put his hand on it and said he was too close to this target to fully extend his arms. So like lightening he drew to Count 3 and drilled two shots into the thoracic cavity and without skipping a beat twisted the gun upward slightly and drilled a perfect headshot into the cranio-ocular cavity. All from close contact without aiming. There were a lot of jaws on the ground. I guess Front Sight teaches that kind of close contact shooting in their Advanced Tactical Handgun courses...I can’t wait!
We also had a couple of “Line Coaches” who provided individual attention and walked the line for safety. At Front Sight, in order to be an instructor you need to be able to do anything they teach, on demand – so all of the instructors were very good. Not quite as good as Darrin, but that’s why he’s the RM. In any case, safety was paramount and they had it nailed. The RM and Line Coaches had a very well orchestrated and very well rehearsed procedure for managing the range. They never once got complacent and were on people in a gently harsh fashion for the smallest infractions. I felt far safer there with shooters on the line who had clearly never handled a handgun in their life, than I do at my local range.
Front Sight starts off their welcome lecture by describing so many gun owners as “not knowing what they don’t know” – it was so true. I didn’t know that I didn’t know a LOT. But it’s not all applied handgunnery. There were very insightful lectures on the moral, ethical, and legal implications of employing deadly force, lectures on handgun selection, tactical scenarios and low light/night clearing and shooting.
The facilities at Front Sight are top notch. In the middle of the Nevada high desert surrounded by the Spring and Nopah Mountains. Very picturesque and a relaxing, almost spiritual environment to train in. It was also kinda hot (high 80’s, low 90’s)...but that’s ok. Front Sight provides unlimited water and powdered Gatorade at every range. The ranges were nicely laid out with a cool dynamic moving target system. There are five 20m handgun ranges, two 100m ranges, two 75m ranges, three 50m(?) ranges, one 300m(?) rifle range, four shoot house ranges, and three other ranges I didn’t even look in. There’s also a sizable rope/rappel/climb course and various other “shoot trail” courses. The place is huge. They had a nice big air-conditioned classroom that could hold a couple hundred people for lectures and lunch. Downsides: Their Pro Shop sucked – good stuff, ridiculously overpriced. $30 for a box of 9mm, $50 for a Springfield XD magazine. Also, no permanent bathroom facilities – “Brown Rooms” as they were affectionately called, dotted the landscape. There are plans to build nice bathroom facilities but they are a few years out on that.
Here’s a shot of the place on Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=36.0 ... 8&t=h&z=15
I won’t go into too much detail on the curriculum, but suffice it to say there was a lot packed into 4 long days. Start at 7:30am, go until about 6:30pm every day. Except the 3rd day – that was the day of the Night Shoot. We took a 1 hour break at 6:00pm, then had a 1 hour lecture on Night Shooting tactics, then went out to the range for live fire with a flashlight. It was over about 9:00pm. Talk about a long day. But man that Night Shoot was one of the best parts of the course. Scary and thrilling all at the same time to be loading, chamber checking, and holstering/unholstering in pitch blackness. They taught “light discipline”, so no flashlight use unless you’re scanning for a target. Everything else was done in the dark.
The rest of the week covered basic marksmanship, 5-count Presentation from the holster, controlled pairs, designated headshots, presentation from concealment, malfunction drills and a whole bunch more.
In conclusion, I know Front Sight has had its ups and downs in the past and Dr. Piazza (the owner) is an interesting...character. But I went there for the training with my mind set on that goal and ignoring all the BS I’ve heard about the place. I was very pleasantly surprised and extremely pleased with the experience. I’m trying to convince my wife to let me go back already!
Here are some pictures.
Range 5, where I spent the weekend:
The parking lot, and the Rope/Rappel/Climb course behind it. You can see a few of the "Brown Rooms" on the right.
One of the Line Coaches working on trigger press with someone:
The Amazing Mr. Darrin Hinze walking the line:
A shot of me on the range, in my highly tactical Wal-Mart concealment garment ($7 at the Pahrump Wal-Mart. Taped a few rocks into the hem and it was perfect!). There's a Glock 17 and 2 spare mags under there:
In summary: What a blast!
I went in fairly confident I could handle a weapon. I’m no slouch and I train pretty consistently, but this is the first formal training I’ve ever had. It was also the first time I was ever in the company of people so truly skilled with a handgun – and I was humbled. I realized just how unskilled I and so many others are. Our Range Master and Instructor for the weekend was Darrin Hinze. Darrin is not certified as a “Handgun Combat Master” – and if he’s not, I shudder to know what a real Handgun Combat Master can shoot like. Darrin was scary good. I have rarely met anyone who I would want by my side when the SHTF. Darrin is on the top of my list now. He has reached that pinnacle of unconsciously competent in his handgun skills. His movements were poetry in motion – dare I say beautifully artistic in a brutally efficient manner. He was precise, crisp, fluid and a model instructor. He also had the rare ability to teach as well as DO. I can’t believe the amount I learned from him in such a short time – from the most basic things as tweaking my trigger press for a compressed surprise break, to finally delivering a controlled pair from a concealed holster at 7m in under 2 seconds.
At one point Darrin got frustrated that some people weren’t keeping their support hand on their midsections during presentation and holstering. He decided to do a demo. He stated that “Count 3” (of the draw, gun in firing hand only, rotated out to target, held close to the side of your chest, support hand on midsection), was a viable close-contact shooting platform, and if your support hand wasn’t on your midsection, you ran the risk of blowing it off. He walked up to a target and put his hand on it and said he was too close to this target to fully extend his arms. So like lightening he drew to Count 3 and drilled two shots into the thoracic cavity and without skipping a beat twisted the gun upward slightly and drilled a perfect headshot into the cranio-ocular cavity. All from close contact without aiming. There were a lot of jaws on the ground. I guess Front Sight teaches that kind of close contact shooting in their Advanced Tactical Handgun courses...I can’t wait!
We also had a couple of “Line Coaches” who provided individual attention and walked the line for safety. At Front Sight, in order to be an instructor you need to be able to do anything they teach, on demand – so all of the instructors were very good. Not quite as good as Darrin, but that’s why he’s the RM. In any case, safety was paramount and they had it nailed. The RM and Line Coaches had a very well orchestrated and very well rehearsed procedure for managing the range. They never once got complacent and were on people in a gently harsh fashion for the smallest infractions. I felt far safer there with shooters on the line who had clearly never handled a handgun in their life, than I do at my local range.
Front Sight starts off their welcome lecture by describing so many gun owners as “not knowing what they don’t know” – it was so true. I didn’t know that I didn’t know a LOT. But it’s not all applied handgunnery. There were very insightful lectures on the moral, ethical, and legal implications of employing deadly force, lectures on handgun selection, tactical scenarios and low light/night clearing and shooting.
The facilities at Front Sight are top notch. In the middle of the Nevada high desert surrounded by the Spring and Nopah Mountains. Very picturesque and a relaxing, almost spiritual environment to train in. It was also kinda hot (high 80’s, low 90’s)...but that’s ok. Front Sight provides unlimited water and powdered Gatorade at every range. The ranges were nicely laid out with a cool dynamic moving target system. There are five 20m handgun ranges, two 100m ranges, two 75m ranges, three 50m(?) ranges, one 300m(?) rifle range, four shoot house ranges, and three other ranges I didn’t even look in. There’s also a sizable rope/rappel/climb course and various other “shoot trail” courses. The place is huge. They had a nice big air-conditioned classroom that could hold a couple hundred people for lectures and lunch. Downsides: Their Pro Shop sucked – good stuff, ridiculously overpriced. $30 for a box of 9mm, $50 for a Springfield XD magazine. Also, no permanent bathroom facilities – “Brown Rooms” as they were affectionately called, dotted the landscape. There are plans to build nice bathroom facilities but they are a few years out on that.
Here’s a shot of the place on Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=36.0 ... 8&t=h&z=15
I won’t go into too much detail on the curriculum, but suffice it to say there was a lot packed into 4 long days. Start at 7:30am, go until about 6:30pm every day. Except the 3rd day – that was the day of the Night Shoot. We took a 1 hour break at 6:00pm, then had a 1 hour lecture on Night Shooting tactics, then went out to the range for live fire with a flashlight. It was over about 9:00pm. Talk about a long day. But man that Night Shoot was one of the best parts of the course. Scary and thrilling all at the same time to be loading, chamber checking, and holstering/unholstering in pitch blackness. They taught “light discipline”, so no flashlight use unless you’re scanning for a target. Everything else was done in the dark.
The rest of the week covered basic marksmanship, 5-count Presentation from the holster, controlled pairs, designated headshots, presentation from concealment, malfunction drills and a whole bunch more.
In conclusion, I know Front Sight has had its ups and downs in the past and Dr. Piazza (the owner) is an interesting...character. But I went there for the training with my mind set on that goal and ignoring all the BS I’ve heard about the place. I was very pleasantly surprised and extremely pleased with the experience. I’m trying to convince my wife to let me go back already!
Here are some pictures.
Range 5, where I spent the weekend:
The parking lot, and the Rope/Rappel/Climb course behind it. You can see a few of the "Brown Rooms" on the right.
One of the Line Coaches working on trigger press with someone:
The Amazing Mr. Darrin Hinze walking the line:
A shot of me on the range, in my highly tactical Wal-Mart concealment garment ($7 at the Pahrump Wal-Mart. Taped a few rocks into the hem and it was perfect!). There's a Glock 17 and 2 spare mags under there:
- By SR9