japartridge
Master
Practical Concealed Carry 1
On Saturday September 14[SUP]th[/SUP] I attended On-Target Training’s Practical Concealed Carry 1 class. The instructor was Steve Griffon, I will first off state that he is top notch and knows his stuff. I was concerned when I signed up for the free(!) class as Concealed was part of the classes name, and as you all know I usually do not conceal. My fears were quickly put to rest and Steve assured us all that he wasn’t going to preach or lecture us on the “great debate” as I call it. He spent less than 5 minutes discussing his reasons for concealed carry and that was the end of it, there was no forcing anyone to conceal, or ridiculing anyone. I was very happy about this. We quickly, and I do mean quickly went through some of the basics, then ran a couple of quick groups on the line to allow him to judge our abilities. For this course of fire the target we were shooting for was a paper plate with a 1” black square (I’m assuming it was 1”, could have been smaller or larger, I do not know.) against a standard silhouette target. I was less than impressed with my performance, but it was not bad… IIRC all rounds were within a fist sized group near the square with 1 or 2 flyers.
Next was a quick lesson on some of the basic fundamentals, grip, draw, and trigger control. The next course of fire had us shooting at new paper plates, this time without the black square. My groups were fairly good, but with the subtraction of the square this and every subsequent COF my shots were low, about 1 ½ to 2 inches low; still on the plate, for the most part, just low on the plate.
We continued on with discussion of mindset, which was one of the best take-away’s from the class for me, Steve taught me to make it personal, and I found myself at times during the rest of the COF’s actually getting pissed thinking about some scumbag trying to take my wife, kids, and home from me! We discussed what it meant for us to carry, and what our personal reasons for carrying are. Steve described the OODA loop in great detail, and brought home the fact that we will always be reactionary in our actions, which means we will be behind the power-curve unless we can force our assailant to have to re-initialize his own OODA loop.
One of the next subjects we covered was malfunction drills. For this drill Steve supplied dummy rounds; normally this is not an issue, however the orange plastic dummy rounds that were provided proved to be no match for my XDm’s extractor… each time I would come to one of the randomly loaded dummy’s in my magazine, the extractor would rip right through the plastic rim, leaving me with a completely disabled firearm… I would have to leave the line with Chris, go to the tables, and using my cleaning rod, and manually clear the dummy from the muzzle end of the barrel. This exercise was completed twice… Then Chris pulled out some A-Zoom practice rounds… those worked MUCH better! I will say that I do need to practice my type 2 malfunction drills, as I have a tendency to forget to lock the slide back, and just rip the magazine out with the spring pressure still in place. It worked for me, but I could see it causing an issue.
One of the next drills we worked on was failure to stop (FTS). This is an excellent exercise to remind you that just because you put a double-tap in the BG’s chest, doesn’t mean that you won’t have to follow it up with a CNS (Central Nervous System) hit. The odd thing I noticed, is that while my normal shots were running about 1 ½ - 2 inches low consistently, my FTS shots, all three that we did, landed in an approximately 1” sized group, exactly where they needed to be. I spoke with Steve about this, and he told me, which I can see, and believe, that chances are when I take my FTS shots, I’m slowing down and getting a better sight picture before I squeeze the trigger. In general I was very happy with my FTS shots, as I’m confident any one of those three shots would have immediately and permanently put a BG down!
We also learned and practiced Close Quarter’s technique. This is where the BG is within arm’s reach. I had seen, and done some basic dry fire practice on this exercise, so I knew what was coming as soon as Steve began to instruct us. I feel that I did fairly well with this exercise, as I’m quite sure that any BG would have definitely have had a bad day, and would have been neutralized without incident. One thing that I was not anticipating and was not prepared for was the pressure that I felt from the gunshot so close to my body, I could feel the concussive wave each and every time I squeezed the trigger. It was surprising, and took a little getting used to! I will continue practicing this technique as time and ammo allow!
The last exercise of the day was a close quarter’s encounter, followed by backing away from the initial threat, scanning, and putting rounds in any additional threats found. I did fine on the CQ target, the backing away and scanning, but when it came to engaging the additional threats on my flanks, I was rushing far too much, and had a horrendous hit rate. On my right flank target I only heard steel ring a couple of times on the probably 8 – 10 rounds I fired. Left flank hit rate was better than the right, but still not good enough! I would have surely hit un-intended targets had this been on the street! I will be practicing that exercise more than any other.
Steve did an excellent job of instructing us in all covered topics, there were, of course, some minor issues. On one occasion Steve lost his train of thought completely and had to come back to that topic later. To me, this type of an issue is not really an issue, we are all human, I couldn’t even begin to think how many times I would have that issue if I were supposed to stand in front of a group of 7 “gun-guys” and attempt to teach them! I’d be a nervous freakin’ wreck! Steve is an excellent trainer, and I personally greatly appreciated the fact that he is a firm believer in the “this is one technique, if you have something that you do that is effective, then use it!” As Steve drilled into us throughout the course, He won’t be there when it’s 3 in the morning, in an alley with blood running into your eyes, so do whatever you have to! I also would like to personally thank Steve for not harping on the Open carry versus concealed carry topic. I typically OC, as I’m sure most of you know. I had reservations even taking the class in the beginning due to the title of the class. I was assured by numerous people that it would not be an issue, so I went forward with the class. I am very glad I did, and now look forward to my next training opportunity.
All in all the course is very good, and I would recommend it to anyone who has a firm grasp of the basic fundamentals of shooting already in place! philagothon and I were talking on the way home about the course, and both agreed that the class is good, but feel that it should be at the bare minimum a 6 hour course, preferably an 8 hour course. We both felt that even as “gun guys” we were constantly scrambling to keep up and/or catch up. For us it wasn’t that surprising, as I’ve done an Appleseed in the past and philagothon is an Appleseed instructor; and one of the things that most of the Appleseed instructors are fond of saying is that the first day of an Appleseed is like trying to drink from a fire hose. This course is similar to that, but it is more like trying to drink from a water main! I think that if a brand new, never shot before, student attempted this class, it could very easily dissuade them from additional training, and possibly from defensive carrying, and maybe even from shooting in general! It’s not that any of the topics covered are bad, or even poorly presented, it’s just that there is too much information presented, in far too short of a time frame. The group of students that I was in attendance with, were fairly well versed in carrying, and general skills, and our class ran almost 45 minutes long.
In closing I would like to thank On Target, Steve, and Chris for the opportunity to take this course. As it was my first formal training, I found it incredibly useful and informative. Keep up the great work guys! I’d also like to extend a special Thank you to JT Hickman, as without his posting about this on FB, I would have never known it was happening, Thanks JT!!!!
On Saturday September 14[SUP]th[/SUP] I attended On-Target Training’s Practical Concealed Carry 1 class. The instructor was Steve Griffon, I will first off state that he is top notch and knows his stuff. I was concerned when I signed up for the free(!) class as Concealed was part of the classes name, and as you all know I usually do not conceal. My fears were quickly put to rest and Steve assured us all that he wasn’t going to preach or lecture us on the “great debate” as I call it. He spent less than 5 minutes discussing his reasons for concealed carry and that was the end of it, there was no forcing anyone to conceal, or ridiculing anyone. I was very happy about this. We quickly, and I do mean quickly went through some of the basics, then ran a couple of quick groups on the line to allow him to judge our abilities. For this course of fire the target we were shooting for was a paper plate with a 1” black square (I’m assuming it was 1”, could have been smaller or larger, I do not know.) against a standard silhouette target. I was less than impressed with my performance, but it was not bad… IIRC all rounds were within a fist sized group near the square with 1 or 2 flyers.
Next was a quick lesson on some of the basic fundamentals, grip, draw, and trigger control. The next course of fire had us shooting at new paper plates, this time without the black square. My groups were fairly good, but with the subtraction of the square this and every subsequent COF my shots were low, about 1 ½ to 2 inches low; still on the plate, for the most part, just low on the plate.
We continued on with discussion of mindset, which was one of the best take-away’s from the class for me, Steve taught me to make it personal, and I found myself at times during the rest of the COF’s actually getting pissed thinking about some scumbag trying to take my wife, kids, and home from me! We discussed what it meant for us to carry, and what our personal reasons for carrying are. Steve described the OODA loop in great detail, and brought home the fact that we will always be reactionary in our actions, which means we will be behind the power-curve unless we can force our assailant to have to re-initialize his own OODA loop.
One of the next subjects we covered was malfunction drills. For this drill Steve supplied dummy rounds; normally this is not an issue, however the orange plastic dummy rounds that were provided proved to be no match for my XDm’s extractor… each time I would come to one of the randomly loaded dummy’s in my magazine, the extractor would rip right through the plastic rim, leaving me with a completely disabled firearm… I would have to leave the line with Chris, go to the tables, and using my cleaning rod, and manually clear the dummy from the muzzle end of the barrel. This exercise was completed twice… Then Chris pulled out some A-Zoom practice rounds… those worked MUCH better! I will say that I do need to practice my type 2 malfunction drills, as I have a tendency to forget to lock the slide back, and just rip the magazine out with the spring pressure still in place. It worked for me, but I could see it causing an issue.
One of the next drills we worked on was failure to stop (FTS). This is an excellent exercise to remind you that just because you put a double-tap in the BG’s chest, doesn’t mean that you won’t have to follow it up with a CNS (Central Nervous System) hit. The odd thing I noticed, is that while my normal shots were running about 1 ½ - 2 inches low consistently, my FTS shots, all three that we did, landed in an approximately 1” sized group, exactly where they needed to be. I spoke with Steve about this, and he told me, which I can see, and believe, that chances are when I take my FTS shots, I’m slowing down and getting a better sight picture before I squeeze the trigger. In general I was very happy with my FTS shots, as I’m confident any one of those three shots would have immediately and permanently put a BG down!
We also learned and practiced Close Quarter’s technique. This is where the BG is within arm’s reach. I had seen, and done some basic dry fire practice on this exercise, so I knew what was coming as soon as Steve began to instruct us. I feel that I did fairly well with this exercise, as I’m quite sure that any BG would have definitely have had a bad day, and would have been neutralized without incident. One thing that I was not anticipating and was not prepared for was the pressure that I felt from the gunshot so close to my body, I could feel the concussive wave each and every time I squeezed the trigger. It was surprising, and took a little getting used to! I will continue practicing this technique as time and ammo allow!
The last exercise of the day was a close quarter’s encounter, followed by backing away from the initial threat, scanning, and putting rounds in any additional threats found. I did fine on the CQ target, the backing away and scanning, but when it came to engaging the additional threats on my flanks, I was rushing far too much, and had a horrendous hit rate. On my right flank target I only heard steel ring a couple of times on the probably 8 – 10 rounds I fired. Left flank hit rate was better than the right, but still not good enough! I would have surely hit un-intended targets had this been on the street! I will be practicing that exercise more than any other.
Steve did an excellent job of instructing us in all covered topics, there were, of course, some minor issues. On one occasion Steve lost his train of thought completely and had to come back to that topic later. To me, this type of an issue is not really an issue, we are all human, I couldn’t even begin to think how many times I would have that issue if I were supposed to stand in front of a group of 7 “gun-guys” and attempt to teach them! I’d be a nervous freakin’ wreck! Steve is an excellent trainer, and I personally greatly appreciated the fact that he is a firm believer in the “this is one technique, if you have something that you do that is effective, then use it!” As Steve drilled into us throughout the course, He won’t be there when it’s 3 in the morning, in an alley with blood running into your eyes, so do whatever you have to! I also would like to personally thank Steve for not harping on the Open carry versus concealed carry topic. I typically OC, as I’m sure most of you know. I had reservations even taking the class in the beginning due to the title of the class. I was assured by numerous people that it would not be an issue, so I went forward with the class. I am very glad I did, and now look forward to my next training opportunity.
All in all the course is very good, and I would recommend it to anyone who has a firm grasp of the basic fundamentals of shooting already in place! philagothon and I were talking on the way home about the course, and both agreed that the class is good, but feel that it should be at the bare minimum a 6 hour course, preferably an 8 hour course. We both felt that even as “gun guys” we were constantly scrambling to keep up and/or catch up. For us it wasn’t that surprising, as I’ve done an Appleseed in the past and philagothon is an Appleseed instructor; and one of the things that most of the Appleseed instructors are fond of saying is that the first day of an Appleseed is like trying to drink from a fire hose. This course is similar to that, but it is more like trying to drink from a water main! I think that if a brand new, never shot before, student attempted this class, it could very easily dissuade them from additional training, and possibly from defensive carrying, and maybe even from shooting in general! It’s not that any of the topics covered are bad, or even poorly presented, it’s just that there is too much information presented, in far too short of a time frame. The group of students that I was in attendance with, were fairly well versed in carrying, and general skills, and our class ran almost 45 minutes long.
In closing I would like to thank On Target, Steve, and Chris for the opportunity to take this course. As it was my first formal training, I found it incredibly useful and informative. Keep up the great work guys! I’d also like to extend a special Thank you to JT Hickman, as without his posting about this on FB, I would have never known it was happening, Thanks JT!!!!
