Introduction to the Shooting Sports

Original Mentor Page

In the effort to promote responsible gun ownership and rights awareness, I make the following open offer to any resident or visitor in the Evansville, IN area:

If you have never shot a gun and would like to try, I am willing to take you shooting free of charge. I will provide the firearms, ammunition, eye/ear protection and I will cover your range fees. I guarantee if you are on the fence about gun ownership and usage, you will not be at the end of the session. You will have fun and learn a little in the process.

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to meet at one or the other!

If you live in a different area, please check this map for mentors that may be in your area.


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

North Texas Tactical Training Combat Handgun 1

Sorry for keeping everyone waiting on this review.

On 2/28 I took the Combat Handgun class with Hany Mahmoud and the guys at North Texas tactical. The class was held on the grounds of the Texas Tactical training area, just a few miles north of Weatherford TX.

The class started with some classroom stuff, before we all moved out to the range. We talked about being aware of your surroundings, and how the vast majority of people exist totally in condition white. We also talked about the fact that the proper mindset is condition yellow, which will blend in and out of orange as the day passes. Hany also emphasized that there are times when condition white is necessary for everyone's mental health. As an example, Hany mentions that he goes into condition white when he's relaxing at home, a pistol within easy reach. The key to doing the condition white safely is to have layered defenses (all the doors and windows locked, the alarm set, the dog ready to pounce, etc.) We also covered OODA loops and actions that could possibly disrupt your opponents OODA loop.

During the classroom section of the day, we covered range safety with a quick review of the four rules of firearm safety. Hany had an additional rule for us throughout the course of the day. From the time we stepped onto the range and went hot, until the time we were finished for the day pistols were to be either holsterd, or indexed on the targets. After all of this, we moved out to the range and started loading magazines and preparing for the range part of the day.

Range exercises started with some non-firing drills. We reviewed stance, grip, sites, trigger control, etc. From there we moved into live fire drills. I honestly don't remember all of the drills we did, but they were excellent, and were varied. We covered the draw in 4 easy steps, and then we removed the numbers from each of the steps and did it as a fluid motion. Then we added a lateral step to the mix, so that it became natural to take a step to the left or the right (disrupt the opponents OODA loop) while drawing the pistol. We did reloads, and then we added reloads with a lateral step.

One thing that particulary stood out to me was the use of multiple different target setups. Every couple of drills, the targets would get changed out. I don't mean that new targets were put up, I mean that a whole different style of target was put up. Hany pointed out that he uses multiple targets because there are only two things he CAN'T tell us about an encounter with a bad guy: When the encounter will occur, and what the bad guy will look like.

Overall an excellent class, and I'm hoping to take at least one more class with the guys at North Texas Tactical before I leave TX! Maybe next time I'll remember the camera and get some photos!

1 comment:

TXGunGeek said...

Jim, stop by www.krtraining.com for information about the class Secretlivesofscientists took this past weekend. If you're interested in taking that class or one like it closer to B/CS. Also you could get into some Force on Force classes if you really want to change your perspective of self defense skills.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the Security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.