The Bubba Effect
Grandmaster
School: Tactical Response
Class: Fighting Pistol
Date: March 26,27, 2015
Location: Camden, TN (Tactical Response Home Range)
Instructors:
Calvin Lim: Primary Instructor, Calvin conducted most of the instruction and directed the firing line. Calvin was well prepared and it is obvious that he has experience teaching classes.
Jay Gibson: Jay is a scary dude. My natural reaction to Jay was to do what he said as soon as he said it. Jay was polite and helpful, but definately intense and I think he is incredible hulk strong.
Dave Biggers: Dave is a friendly fellow and he did not yell at us until 10:30 am on the first day. Dave has a lot of experience in the industry and you can tell he is at ease teaching and discussing gun culture stuff with strangers. It makes sense that he has worked as a corporate executive in the industry.
Gary Marr: This was Gary's first class as an instructor and he mostly worked in a support role. He did seem confident and familiar with the material and I look forward to taking classes where he does more of the teaching.
Students:
Class Size: 20 students
18 men, 2 women
Experience levels ranged from experienced military combat veterans to a young man who received his carry permit 3 months ago and was attending his first class.
Occupations ranged from Clergy to asset management, symphony orchestra operations, law enforcement, small business owners, factory workers, intelligence types, executives and at least one gentleman of leisure.
The students were a broad spectrum of race, sex, class, experience and training. I found our class to be a good broad cross section of gun owners in every sense.
Topics Covered:
Safety:
Tactical Response uses the following four firearms safety rules:
1: Keep your finger off the trigger until your gun is pointed at the target and you have made the decision to shoot.
2: Never let your muzzle cross anything you are not willing to destroy.
3: Treat all guns as if they are always loaded
4: Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
We also covered some other safety instructions including:
Do not try to catch a falling gun.
Every time someone calls "eyes and ears", everyone is to verify that they have their own eye and ear protection on by touching them and also visually verify that everyone around them has theirs on, plus echo the command.
If someone calls "Cease Fire", we are to immediately stop firing, remove our finger from the trigger and to echo the command.
Mindset, Tactics, Skill, Gear:
Mindset:
Much of the class centered around the fighting mindset. We were constantly instructed and reminded to handle our pistols in a "martial" manner and never in an "administrative" manner. Every time we drew our pistols, we drew as if we were drawing on a threat, every time we reloaded, we reloaded as if facing a threat, we never handled our pistols "off the line" and we were expected to arrive at the class wearing loaded pistols and leave the class with loaded pistols, during the class, we kept our pistols loaded and topped off. Every time we removed a mag from the gun, we let if fall to the ground. Every time, no matter if we were running a drill or just swapping carry ammo out for training ammo. "No Administrative Gun Handling".
Tactics:
We learned and practiced a variety of tactics that we could employ to give us and advantage in the fight.
F, A, S, T
Fight: Shoot, stab, punch, shove, whatever it takes to stop the threat.
Assess: Do I need to shoot the threat again?
Scan: Does anyone else need to be shot? Is there a better place I can be? (maybe accross the street behind a car, maybe a few blocks away in my car)
Top Off/Take off: Put more ammo in the gun, MOVE
Skills:
We covered sight aligment and sight picture, proper grip, trigger press, drawing and reholstering.
We did not cover at all or very much: Stance
I do not remember a discussion of stance (weaver vs isoceles vs modified isosceles). An instructor did recommend the book "Surgical Speed Shooting" which covers stance, but if the instructors themselves mentioned stance, I forgot it. The instructors might have been coaching stance on the line 1 on 1 with the students, but noone said anything to me and I did not notice them saying anything to anyone else about stance either.
Gear:
We really did not talk about gear that much. Aside from some good natured ribbing, there were no big deals made of students carrying Glocks or anything else. Gear is the least important part of the discussion.
My gear: I used a Glock 19 carried in a Henry Holster OWB holster and an LCP in a cheap Uncle Mike's ankle holster.
My Glock is a factory Gen 4 except I swapped the sights for Trijicon HD's. The Trijicons are fine sights for shooting and excellent for racking the slide one handed. I saw some students having trouble getting their rear sights to catch on their belts and whatever I hit with the HD's caught and worked fine to rack them. The Henry Holster worked perfectly as expected.
The LCP worked fine for a backup gun, but the ankle carry uncle mike's holster was less than ideal because 1: you have to bend/kneel to draw/holster and that makes me feel pretty vulnerable in a fight and 2: it is very hard to holster the lcp while keeping my head up looking for threats.
I generally carry spare mags in my pocket and while I can see the definite benefit of carrying mags in mag pouches on your belt, I am likely to continue carrying extra mags in my pockets.
Comment on the Backup Gun:
The equipment list mentions bringing a backup gun if you carry one + 50 rounds of ammo for the backup gun. I brought my LCP and +50 rounds. The instruction never specifically covered BUG's, it was more of an organic thing. When my main gun ran out of ammo, I reloaded with one of the extra mags I carried. When I ran out of extra mags, I dropped my main gun and pulled my BUG. The one time I ran my BUG outo f ammo, I dropped it and drew my knife. I was not put off by the lack of specific instruction regarding BUG's as it felt natural in the context of the class to use whatever tools I had in the given situation. I did find it to be a challenge to pick my main gun off the ground with my strong side hand, holster it, pick up a partially shot main gun mag fromt the ground, insert it into my main gun and rack the main gun all while keeping my BUG pointed at the threat. I guess for that experience alone, I am glad I brought my BUG. As an aside, one of the instructors called me over after using my BUG on a string and asked me how much BUG ammo I had with me. He told me that he wanted me to be sure to not shoot all the ammo I had for it because he wanted me to go home with a couple of mags worth and a full BUG.
Classroom lecture on deadly force:
OODA loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act
Cooper's Color Codes: Conditions White, Yellow, Orange, Red,
Physical and Mental effects of Adrenaline: Tunnel Vision, Trembling Hands, Memory Loss,
Principles of Personal Defense: Alertness, Decisiveness, Aggressiveness, Speed, Coolness, Ruthlessness, Surprise
Target Glances: We discussed watching a potential threat's eyes as they may betray their intent. A bad guy looking from your chest to your chin might be getting ready to sucker punch you, a bad guy who keeps looking at your gun might be getting ready to make a grab for it. A threat who keeps looking at the door might be checking his escape route.
Belt Line: Bad guys usually access weapons from their belt line. Watch their belt line and their hands. They might be holding a gun/screwdriver/hammer in their belt line, they might be assuring themselves that it is still there, they might be reaching to draw it on you.
Do not talk to the police (or your spouse or your buddies, etc) after use of deadly force: We discussed that you should tell your lawyer everything and the truth after a deadly force use, but you should not tell your friends and family or law enforcement about the encounter as things get complicated and you need to not give the courts/media enough rope to hang you. Bad things happen to good people, even in court. Shut up and only talk to your attorney and tell them the whole truth.
The three fights: Preparation, The fight itself, Aftermath (legal, emotional, physical)
PTSD: Common reactions to deadly force encounters.
Carry Your F'ing Gun: A great emphasis was placed in every part of this class on carrying your gun all the time. I can not overstate the emphasis placed on this.
Misc:
Tactical Response/James Yeager internet drama
Down Range Photographer: Jay was taking photos downrange and on my second or third string he came up to my target and stood directly beside it, taking photos and reminding me to ride the trigger reset. I did find this to be stressful and I do suspect this is the intention. At no time did I point a gun at Jay and at no time did this violate the four safety rules as established at the beginning of the class. After spending two days with these people, I am convinced that the "downrange photographer" bit is not a publicity stunt but rather an effort to better prepare their students for the fight.
Yeager's personality: Yeager stopped by the classroom session and said hello and came out to eat with us after the first day's class. He comes across as a focused person and I suspect that his "internet persona" is a calculated and intentional one.
Yeager is the boss: Yeager is the boss, he manages his company. You can tell that he cracks the whip on his employees and is actively involved. His employees take him seriously.
Why did I decide to take this class?
A small part of my deciding to take this class was Yeager and the drama surrounding him (good marketing). I wanted to see for myself what all the noise was about.
Much more important in this decision was the reviews and suggestions of people who I have trained under and worked with. In particular, Mudcat from INGO heartily recommended the class and having trained under and worked the line with him, I have much respect for him and what he says carries weight. Shay from Mindset Lab also recommended the class and having taken his intro to force on force, I respect his opinions on training. The AAR's from other INGO users also served to convince me to take the class.
Thoughts on Camden: Camden is a small town of about 3,600. It has a Wal-Mart, a few hotels, a handful of non chain restaurants and some chain restaurants. I thought it was a nice enough little town, not too bad getting around it and the people I dealt with were really friendly.
Housing: I stayed in the Camden Best Western and found it to be a clean hotel with exceedingly friendly staff. Next time I will stay in the team room if it is available to check it out. If the team room is not available, I will stay in the Best Western.
Would I recommend Tactical Response Fighting Pistol?
Yes. It is worth the time and money.
Will I take this class again?
Possibly. Once you have taken this class, you can take it again for 1/2 price. That combined with saving money by staying in the team room makes it likely that I will take it again if I can get a friend to come down and take it.
Do I plan to take other classes at Tactical Response and if so, which ones?
I am now strongly considering Advanced Fighting Pistol and Immediate Action Medical.
What is the best advice I followed when I took this class?
Writing my name on my magazines was advice I am totally glad I followed. After a string of fire, there were tons of mags in the mud and probably over half of them were glock 19 mags. Previous to this class I had simply written my initials on the base plates of the mag along with mag #. Right before I drove down, I wrote my first and last name with paint marker pen on the side of every magazine. That came in very handy.
What is the best advice I wish I would have followed when I took this class?
Everyone told me to stay in the team room, but I did not. While I had a great experience with the Camden Best Western, I wish I had stayed in the team room, both to save some bucks and for the experience.
Conclusion: I am glad I took this class. I learned some new tactics and met some new folks, but more important was the mindset they teach and practice. This is not a "target shooting" or "Competetive Pistol" class this is very much a "Fighting Pistol" class and the emphasis of the class is solidly on the "Fighting" portion. The instructors showed a clear desire for their students to take the class seriously and become harder to kill and better able to handle a deadly force encounter. Yeager is obviously intentionally developing a community of students and instructors who share a common set of values. He is building a little tactical world down in Camden and I suggest you check it out.
Class: Fighting Pistol
Date: March 26,27, 2015
Location: Camden, TN (Tactical Response Home Range)
Instructors:
Calvin Lim: Primary Instructor, Calvin conducted most of the instruction and directed the firing line. Calvin was well prepared and it is obvious that he has experience teaching classes.
Jay Gibson: Jay is a scary dude. My natural reaction to Jay was to do what he said as soon as he said it. Jay was polite and helpful, but definately intense and I think he is incredible hulk strong.
Dave Biggers: Dave is a friendly fellow and he did not yell at us until 10:30 am on the first day. Dave has a lot of experience in the industry and you can tell he is at ease teaching and discussing gun culture stuff with strangers. It makes sense that he has worked as a corporate executive in the industry.
Gary Marr: This was Gary's first class as an instructor and he mostly worked in a support role. He did seem confident and familiar with the material and I look forward to taking classes where he does more of the teaching.
Students:
Class Size: 20 students
18 men, 2 women
Experience levels ranged from experienced military combat veterans to a young man who received his carry permit 3 months ago and was attending his first class.
Occupations ranged from Clergy to asset management, symphony orchestra operations, law enforcement, small business owners, factory workers, intelligence types, executives and at least one gentleman of leisure.
The students were a broad spectrum of race, sex, class, experience and training. I found our class to be a good broad cross section of gun owners in every sense.
Topics Covered:
Safety:
Tactical Response uses the following four firearms safety rules:
1: Keep your finger off the trigger until your gun is pointed at the target and you have made the decision to shoot.
2: Never let your muzzle cross anything you are not willing to destroy.
3: Treat all guns as if they are always loaded
4: Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
We also covered some other safety instructions including:
Do not try to catch a falling gun.
Every time someone calls "eyes and ears", everyone is to verify that they have their own eye and ear protection on by touching them and also visually verify that everyone around them has theirs on, plus echo the command.
If someone calls "Cease Fire", we are to immediately stop firing, remove our finger from the trigger and to echo the command.
Mindset, Tactics, Skill, Gear:
Mindset:
Much of the class centered around the fighting mindset. We were constantly instructed and reminded to handle our pistols in a "martial" manner and never in an "administrative" manner. Every time we drew our pistols, we drew as if we were drawing on a threat, every time we reloaded, we reloaded as if facing a threat, we never handled our pistols "off the line" and we were expected to arrive at the class wearing loaded pistols and leave the class with loaded pistols, during the class, we kept our pistols loaded and topped off. Every time we removed a mag from the gun, we let if fall to the ground. Every time, no matter if we were running a drill or just swapping carry ammo out for training ammo. "No Administrative Gun Handling".
Tactics:
We learned and practiced a variety of tactics that we could employ to give us and advantage in the fight.
F, A, S, T
Fight: Shoot, stab, punch, shove, whatever it takes to stop the threat.
Assess: Do I need to shoot the threat again?
Scan: Does anyone else need to be shot? Is there a better place I can be? (maybe accross the street behind a car, maybe a few blocks away in my car)
Top Off/Take off: Put more ammo in the gun, MOVE
Skills:
We covered sight aligment and sight picture, proper grip, trigger press, drawing and reholstering.
We did not cover at all or very much: Stance
I do not remember a discussion of stance (weaver vs isoceles vs modified isosceles). An instructor did recommend the book "Surgical Speed Shooting" which covers stance, but if the instructors themselves mentioned stance, I forgot it. The instructors might have been coaching stance on the line 1 on 1 with the students, but noone said anything to me and I did not notice them saying anything to anyone else about stance either.
Gear:
We really did not talk about gear that much. Aside from some good natured ribbing, there were no big deals made of students carrying Glocks or anything else. Gear is the least important part of the discussion.
My gear: I used a Glock 19 carried in a Henry Holster OWB holster and an LCP in a cheap Uncle Mike's ankle holster.
My Glock is a factory Gen 4 except I swapped the sights for Trijicon HD's. The Trijicons are fine sights for shooting and excellent for racking the slide one handed. I saw some students having trouble getting their rear sights to catch on their belts and whatever I hit with the HD's caught and worked fine to rack them. The Henry Holster worked perfectly as expected.
The LCP worked fine for a backup gun, but the ankle carry uncle mike's holster was less than ideal because 1: you have to bend/kneel to draw/holster and that makes me feel pretty vulnerable in a fight and 2: it is very hard to holster the lcp while keeping my head up looking for threats.
I generally carry spare mags in my pocket and while I can see the definite benefit of carrying mags in mag pouches on your belt, I am likely to continue carrying extra mags in my pockets.
Comment on the Backup Gun:
The equipment list mentions bringing a backup gun if you carry one + 50 rounds of ammo for the backup gun. I brought my LCP and +50 rounds. The instruction never specifically covered BUG's, it was more of an organic thing. When my main gun ran out of ammo, I reloaded with one of the extra mags I carried. When I ran out of extra mags, I dropped my main gun and pulled my BUG. The one time I ran my BUG outo f ammo, I dropped it and drew my knife. I was not put off by the lack of specific instruction regarding BUG's as it felt natural in the context of the class to use whatever tools I had in the given situation. I did find it to be a challenge to pick my main gun off the ground with my strong side hand, holster it, pick up a partially shot main gun mag fromt the ground, insert it into my main gun and rack the main gun all while keeping my BUG pointed at the threat. I guess for that experience alone, I am glad I brought my BUG. As an aside, one of the instructors called me over after using my BUG on a string and asked me how much BUG ammo I had with me. He told me that he wanted me to be sure to not shoot all the ammo I had for it because he wanted me to go home with a couple of mags worth and a full BUG.
Classroom lecture on deadly force:
OODA loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act
Cooper's Color Codes: Conditions White, Yellow, Orange, Red,
Physical and Mental effects of Adrenaline: Tunnel Vision, Trembling Hands, Memory Loss,
Principles of Personal Defense: Alertness, Decisiveness, Aggressiveness, Speed, Coolness, Ruthlessness, Surprise
Target Glances: We discussed watching a potential threat's eyes as they may betray their intent. A bad guy looking from your chest to your chin might be getting ready to sucker punch you, a bad guy who keeps looking at your gun might be getting ready to make a grab for it. A threat who keeps looking at the door might be checking his escape route.
Belt Line: Bad guys usually access weapons from their belt line. Watch their belt line and their hands. They might be holding a gun/screwdriver/hammer in their belt line, they might be assuring themselves that it is still there, they might be reaching to draw it on you.
Do not talk to the police (or your spouse or your buddies, etc) after use of deadly force: We discussed that you should tell your lawyer everything and the truth after a deadly force use, but you should not tell your friends and family or law enforcement about the encounter as things get complicated and you need to not give the courts/media enough rope to hang you. Bad things happen to good people, even in court. Shut up and only talk to your attorney and tell them the whole truth.
The three fights: Preparation, The fight itself, Aftermath (legal, emotional, physical)
PTSD: Common reactions to deadly force encounters.
Carry Your F'ing Gun: A great emphasis was placed in every part of this class on carrying your gun all the time. I can not overstate the emphasis placed on this.
Misc:
Tactical Response/James Yeager internet drama
Down Range Photographer: Jay was taking photos downrange and on my second or third string he came up to my target and stood directly beside it, taking photos and reminding me to ride the trigger reset. I did find this to be stressful and I do suspect this is the intention. At no time did I point a gun at Jay and at no time did this violate the four safety rules as established at the beginning of the class. After spending two days with these people, I am convinced that the "downrange photographer" bit is not a publicity stunt but rather an effort to better prepare their students for the fight.
Yeager's personality: Yeager stopped by the classroom session and said hello and came out to eat with us after the first day's class. He comes across as a focused person and I suspect that his "internet persona" is a calculated and intentional one.
Yeager is the boss: Yeager is the boss, he manages his company. You can tell that he cracks the whip on his employees and is actively involved. His employees take him seriously.
Why did I decide to take this class?
A small part of my deciding to take this class was Yeager and the drama surrounding him (good marketing). I wanted to see for myself what all the noise was about.
Much more important in this decision was the reviews and suggestions of people who I have trained under and worked with. In particular, Mudcat from INGO heartily recommended the class and having trained under and worked the line with him, I have much respect for him and what he says carries weight. Shay from Mindset Lab also recommended the class and having taken his intro to force on force, I respect his opinions on training. The AAR's from other INGO users also served to convince me to take the class.
Thoughts on Camden: Camden is a small town of about 3,600. It has a Wal-Mart, a few hotels, a handful of non chain restaurants and some chain restaurants. I thought it was a nice enough little town, not too bad getting around it and the people I dealt with were really friendly.
Housing: I stayed in the Camden Best Western and found it to be a clean hotel with exceedingly friendly staff. Next time I will stay in the team room if it is available to check it out. If the team room is not available, I will stay in the Best Western.
Would I recommend Tactical Response Fighting Pistol?
Yes. It is worth the time and money.
Will I take this class again?
Possibly. Once you have taken this class, you can take it again for 1/2 price. That combined with saving money by staying in the team room makes it likely that I will take it again if I can get a friend to come down and take it.
Do I plan to take other classes at Tactical Response and if so, which ones?
I am now strongly considering Advanced Fighting Pistol and Immediate Action Medical.
What is the best advice I followed when I took this class?
Writing my name on my magazines was advice I am totally glad I followed. After a string of fire, there were tons of mags in the mud and probably over half of them were glock 19 mags. Previous to this class I had simply written my initials on the base plates of the mag along with mag #. Right before I drove down, I wrote my first and last name with paint marker pen on the side of every magazine. That came in very handy.
What is the best advice I wish I would have followed when I took this class?
Everyone told me to stay in the team room, but I did not. While I had a great experience with the Camden Best Western, I wish I had stayed in the team room, both to save some bucks and for the experience.
Conclusion: I am glad I took this class. I learned some new tactics and met some new folks, but more important was the mindset they teach and practice. This is not a "target shooting" or "Competetive Pistol" class this is very much a "Fighting Pistol" class and the emphasis of the class is solidly on the "Fighting" portion. The instructors showed a clear desire for their students to take the class seriously and become harder to kill and better able to handle a deadly force encounter. Yeager is obviously intentionally developing a community of students and instructors who share a common set of values. He is building a little tactical world down in Camden and I suggest you check it out.
