Pistol Training Workshop is an unique workshop designed as an introduction to practical shooting competition where attendees are given an opportunity to learn skills and technique needed to successfully and effectively participate in local matches.  Rules of engagement, safety and tactics are discusses and drilled.  

 This workshop is aimed for those who had previously taken TAC-1 Pistol-I module or equivalent.  The 4 hr. pistol workshop will review techniques based on already instructed in prior modules and more.  Students will be given different drills and practices that are difficult to reproduce at local ranges.  Students will have an opportunity to shoot a Classifier to determine their shooting abilities compared to other shooters. 

Prerequisite: Must have satisfactorily completed Pistol-I(a)(b).  Pistol-II modules and/or equivalent are highly recommended.

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Course Topic: “Practical Pistol Competition 101”

What:  Pistol Skill Building Workshop

When: June 12th, 2016 Sunday  1230 – 1630 (#160612WS)

Where: A Place to Shoot in Saugus, CA

Price: $65

Workshop Format:
Live Fire Pistol Shooting: 4 hours

Ammo:  Min 300 rounds

Congratulation to Dave Shaw for taking the Top Shot!

*correction on 11/23/15 Ramin shot 40 (not 10) on WSSC #1 bringing him from the 7th to the 4th spot.

Schedule and Course of Fire for P3 (#151122P3)

0730 – Range Set-up and Registration (All to participate)
0800 – Introduction & Safety [Lou]
0830 – Overview of TAC-1 1911 Manipulation and Elements of Thumb Safety [Shoji}
0845 – Application of Thumb Safety [Buddy System]
0900 – Topic #1 “Trigger Control” & Drills #1
0945 – Topic # 2 “Sights, Grip & Reload” Drill #2
1015 – Topic #3 “Distance & Single Hand Shooting” & Drill #3
1100 – Break & Class Photo
1130 – Drill #4 FBI “Q” Course
1200 – Presentation by Dave’s Metal Work &  Discussion
1230 – Ear Protection fitting
1300 – END

Topic #1: Trigger Control Discussion and Practice:

Proper application of the 1911’s thumb safety was discussed using the example from loading, unloading, reloading and malfunction clearing. The critical nature of the safety in-conjunction with the single action gun was also cautioned.

“Smooth continuous press straight to the rear without disturbing the sight picture achieving surprise break.”  The majority of shooter errors can be related to improper trigger control. It is one of the hardest to learn and it is the hardest element to teach.

Drill #1 (Warm-up)

We began our shooter warm up using the Santa Monica dot targets. Slow, concentrated firing from single dot to multiple dots were practiced. Listening and following range direction is an acquired skill.  With complicated direction of fire instilled this skill set early on in the training. Multiple dots were shot incorporating the reload.  Releasing the magazine was discussed by a instructor. Furthermore, focusing on front sight and not looking at the target after each shots taken was advised for better accuracy and habit. SMPD dot target was shot at 5 yard line.

The general consensus of the instructors present at the training was that many students lacked proper presses on their trigger. Many missed the target at 5 yards. Often students shot way too fast for their abilities. More often then not, classes containing many shooters will often influence other shooters to shoot as fast as the person next to them not considering their own abilities. When the range instruction was to shoot “slow fire” students must have a hard focus on their front sight and experience proper trigger control on every presses.

Dot Torture  (For Score)  x 2

(1) Individual Result

1 Snow NA 47
2 Zarnegar Master 47
3 Shaw Master 46
4 Acencio Master 45
5 Gonzalez NA 45
6 Kanin Expert 44
7 Weir, K NA 44
8 Dern NA 40
9 Wisdom Sharpshooter 40
10 Bartolotti NA 38
11 Weir, C NA 37
12 Addiss Expert 36
13 Biggs NA 35
14 Pineda NA 33
15 Steinwender NA 29
16 Lahidjani/Alex NA 25
17 Salguero NA 25
18 Laforme NA 25
19 Sorfazian NA 24
20 Henriques NA 8

(2) Team Result

1. TEAM Gingerbread 45

2. TEAM America 35

3. TEAM Snowman 33

4. TEAM Mistletoe 30

Topic # 2 “Sights, Grip & Reloads” Discussion and Practice”

Once the marksmanship portion of the warm up and drill was complete, students were ready to tackle the tactical shooting.  What differ is the speed at which the shooter must press the trigger and maintain center body accuracy. Swift and consistent drawing of the weapon from the holster was needed.  The recoil of the 1911 must be managed in order for the front sight to come back and reacquire the adequate sight picture however not perfect. Any poor trigger presses will be magnified and will print accordingly on the target.

Reloading must also be swift and with out error. Proper purchase of the magazine from the pouch and its consistent insertion into the magazine well must be performed.

Drill #2

Modified P1 TEST (For Score)

From holster
5 yard –  5 rounds – 5 sec par (Mags: 2 rd & 3 rd w/ Reload)
10 yard – 5 rounds – 6 sec par (Mags: 2 rd & 3 rd w/ Reload)
15 yard – 5 rounds – 8 sec par (Mags: 2 rd & 3 rd w/ Reload)
20 yard – 5 rounds – 10 sec par (Mags: 2 rd & 3 rd w/ Reload)
25 yard – 5 rounds – 12 sec par (Mags: 2 rd & 3 rd w/ Reload)

Result:

1 Zarnegar Master 25
2 Addiss Expert 24.5
3 Weir, C NA 24
4 Shaw Master 22.5
5 Snow NA 22
6 Bartolotti NA 21.5
7 Wisdom Sharpshooter 21.5
8 Acencio Master 21
9 Sorfazian NA 19
10 Pineda NA 18.5
11 Dern NA 17.5
12 Gonzalez NA 17
13 Salguero NA 15
14 Biggs NA 13.5
15 Weir, K NA 12.5
16 Kanin Expert 11.5
17 Henriques NA 11.5
18 Steinwender NA 8
19 Laforme NA 7
20 Lahidjani/Alex NA 0

Drill #3

FBI “Q” Course (For Score)

1 Snow 47
2 Zarnegar 47
3 Bartolotti 47
4 Addiss 47
5 Weir, C 46
6 Shaw 45
7 Biggs 45
8 Acencio 45
9 Kanin 44
10 Lahidjani/Alex 44
11 Wisdom 41
12 Dern 40
13 Pineda 38
14 Weir, K 36
15 Steinwender 34
16 Sorfazian 33
17 Gonzalez 32
18 Salguero 29
19 Henriques 26
20 Laforme 19

Topic #3″Distance & Single Hand Shooting” Discussion and Practice

Drill #3

Students were given an opportunity to fire 6 rounds out of their 1911 50 yards slow fire to determine how their gun performed at that distance. As mentioned in the class, my Bar-Sto barrel was custom match fit by Dave’s Metal Work and it has not been the same ever since – it is sooo accurate that it’s scary. At 50 yards, I test fired my gun aiming just above the head shot of a steel target – it shot high. I lower my point of aim just lower and still shot high into the dirt.  Then I just aligned it center of the steel target and I fired 4 rounds hitting every one of them…I needed not to adjust my aim at that distance.

TAC-1 challenged the Pistol-III shooters with WSSC USPSA Standard. This is a difficult standard but shooters needed to be pushed and taken them out of the comfort zone.  In order for the shooter to be successful in this standard is to have proper grip (tight) that can with stand the recoil.  Less movement of the muzzle directly translated to the follow-up shots.

Western Single Stack Championship Standard (USPSA)

Start: Loaded, Holstered & TAC-1 Combat Stance (For Score)

(1) 50 Yards part time 5.7 sec (shots after 6 sec is penalty = 5 sec)
Draw, fire 6 rds, free style

(2) 25 Yards part time 5.7 sec (shots after 6 sec is penalty = 5 sec)
Draw, fire 3 rds, mandatory reload, 3 rds

(3) 15 Yards part time 5.7 sec (shots after 6 sec is penalty = 5 sec)
Draw, fire 6 rds, primary hand only

(4) 10 Yards part time 5.7 sec (shots after 6 sec is penalty = 5 sec)
Draw, fire 6 rds, support hand only

Result:

Final Score for TOP SHOT – [FINAL]

The Planning:

Dave Shaw contacted me about a month ago to plan a small get together where he could shoot with some of his closest shooting buddies for his 44th birthday and he wanted me to facilitate the session.  He wanted a session where he could get enough rounds down range and drill and learn what ever he felt deficient. I agreed. The planning of the shooting session began with finding the location of the range. As most ranges are full  a year in advance for any weekend slots. Since Dave’s birthday was on Aug 3rd – Monday, we explored the idea of doing it on that Monday.  Ranges were available where we reserved Angeles Shooting Range’s Tom George range.  Soon we discovered that Tom George range does not allow steels to be shot and only can accommodate 10 shooters across we switched to D range.  Soon Dave wanted to expand the list to how ever many people who could fit on the range, but had low hopes as it fell on a weekday.  We immediately inquired the members of TAC-1 via Facebook to see who may be interested in attending. Within minutes, show of hand flocked. Dave wanted to get a catering truck to come out to feed the crew and needed a solid commitment from everyone interested in attending. TAC-1 registration for the birthday shoot-off was opened. With a solid 13 committed shooters, the party was on.

Dave soon found out that Babe’s and Burger was too costly, he resorted to asking Angie to help with the craft table. She put in an order to Chipotle for 13 shooters. Since catering truck was going to be out of the equation, I recommended Dave to switch the range to A Place to Shoot from Angeles for better accommodations such as better parking, covered area and easier access to bathroom. The change of venue announcement was made via Facebook and some with text messages.

Due to the change, some began to drop out of the roster.  Mike Steinwender had to take care business at his church, Asim was summoned to work and Matthew mysteriously was no show. Matthew did leave a text message stating that something had come up. Immediately 3 people dropped out on the day of the training. Good thing we didn’t have excess burritos from Chipotle which Henry would have been more than happy to discard for us.

Range time:

Thanks to Mike Dozier the range supply and equipment had arrived by 07:30 am.  We had pursuit the idea of using the Private Range instead to accommodate the large number of shooters. Mike was asked by Tom of A Place to Shoot to stay up on the Law Enforcement Range instead.  We complied.

We waited until 08:40 am for those who had not shown up including Gio, Henry and Matthew before we started to warm up. I knew in advance that Mike Steinwender and Asim Rasheed was going to be a no show.  After a proper safety briefing, we started the drills.

We also had a guest shooters, Gio and Henry. Although they are not a regular TAC-1 students they like to show up for workshop sessions to shoot side to side with us. They both demonstrated their enthusiasm for shooting.

We warmed up with 3 rounds in 6 second at 7 yards. Repeated 4 times. We up the number to 4 rounds in 6 sec, 5 rounds in 6 sec and finally 6 rounds in 6 sec. all from holster. This drill was to warm up the trigger finger without going too fast at first but to gradually speeding up the presses without force.

Statice Reload / Varied Target Drill:
The next drill was a reloading drill where we’d shoot 2 rounds at the head, out of battery reload, shoot 2 rounds to the center body mass from holster. This was repeated 5 times.

In battery speed reload drill: Shooter will start on target with finger on the trigger. On the buzzer, shooter will release the magazine and reload, fire 1 rounds.

Moving Reload Drill:

This drill was enhanced with incorporating movements. The shooter would shoot 2 rounds, reload with one step to the side, and shoot 2 more rounds. This was repeated several more times.

Pistol-I Marksmanship Test: (5 rds from 5, 10, 15, 20 yards = 20 rounds from holster)
Shooters always welcome shooting this simple marksmanship test regardless of their abilities.  The first attempt was with time limit where students had a part time of 5 sec at 5 yards, 6 seconds from 10 yards, 7 seconds from 15 yard and 10 seconds from 20 yards to fire 5 rounds from each yard line.  Oscar took first place with 192/200.  Paul and I came in second with 190/200 each. Timed shooting is never easy adding stress to trigger control which often magnifies any anomalies to the shooter’s fundamental.

Then we shot the P-I Test with no time limit. However, after shooting fast ordinary shooter will begin to push into their gun as they pressed – anticipation was becoming noticeable. Both Paul and Oscar shot high 198 demonstrating their TAC-1 “Master” classification. Dave Shaw, the Birthday Boy, choked with 183/200 pt. Dave asked me if I remember witnessing him shooting a 199/200 a time ago. I reminded him that yesterday was yesterday and needed to focus on today.

Alphabetical Order

Support & Strong Hand Transfer Drill:
Draw and Transfer to the support hand and fire 2 shots to the body, then transfer to the strong hand and fire 2 shots to the same area.  Paul shot all 20 rounds within the 10 ring of the silhouette target capturing first place for this drill. Chris Weir always struggled to shoot with his support hand single hand and his deficiency showed with placing 8th in this drill.

Dot Torture Test:
We believe that precise trigger press will only enhance the fundamental and Dot Torture Test is a great tool to drill the trigger control.  Since the target area is small, proper sight picture in conjunction with excellent trigger control becomes indispensable in being successful with this test. At TAC-1, Pistol-I students will shoot this at 3 yards, Pistol-II students will shoot at 4 yards and advanced shooters are pushed to shoot the test at 5 yards. For this Birthday Shoot Off, we asked the students to shoot the test at 5 yards.  Oscar shot the highest score with 48/50 point with his Sig X5 9mm.

The next evaluation drill was to draw and fire one round from 7 yards in the A or C zone of the IPSC target.  We practiced this drawing and shooting several times for time.  Everyone continuously got faster with every draw. Much of TAC-1 shooters were able to draw and fire one round in 1.35 at 7 yards and maintain hits.  Paul was eventually able to pull off .84 who was the fastest of all.

I introduced the F.A.S.Test for the first time at TAC-1.  I had seen this drill posted on pistol-training.com which I thought was suitable for this workshop. It is a great standard test to assess the shooter’s manipulation, speed and accuracy. This drill is usually shot twice to ensure that 5 sec and under par time was not a luck.

Drill begins from the holster, pistol loaded with exactly two rounds. On the buzzer:

1. draw
2. fire two rounds at the 3×5 box
3. perform a slidelock reload
4. fire four rounds at the 8″ circle

We used the IPSC target instead of the IDPA target which is the standard for this test. They are ultimately about the same one is narrower & longer and  the other is wider and shorter for the center hit. Most students demonstrated they had the speed to get into the 5 second mark, however marksmanship suffered for most.  The 2 headshots proved to be the most difficult.  In order to be successful, the reloading must had to be flawless. Under 5 sec was requested.  Only Lance made the raw time of 4.46 with 2 misses.  Each misses added .5 sec to their raw time. Even with these 2 misses, Lance came in at the top with 5.46 sec.  Even the instructor (me) couldn’t muster all 6 six rounds under 5 sec.  I vowed to get them in under 5 seconds within this year.

We took down all of the paper targets and stands to prepare for the steel target shooting.  The first drill was 1-2-3 & 4-5 drill.  Set up three targets across – T1, T2, T3 respectively.  Shooter will fire 1 rd on T1, 2 rd on T2, 3 rd on T3, 4 rd on T2 and out of battery speed reload and 5 on T1. We practiced this drill competitively with man to man shoot off.  Interesting phenomenon began to occur. Chris Weir beats Tom Luna. Dave Shaw bests me. In my defense I shot over 10 rds on the T1 in the last sequence just to mess around thinking that Dave was way behind me. That will never happen again…Lol

Each shooter shot the drill for time. Paul’s crazy fast trigger presses (learnt from his paint ball days) got him in the first place with 10.81 sec.

Finally the workshop ended with a tournament style man-to-man shoot off utilizing the duel tree target that Tom had brought.  The course of fire consisted of: starting at 25 year line with empty gun holstered. They would run down to 12 yard line and draw and make ready. Fire 1 round each of the 3 steel targets equally spaced and sized. Then they would attempt to shoot 3 of the dueling tree targets and what ever the steels that was flipped over from the opponent. The point of the dueling tree is to flip over all of the plates to the other side before your opponent.  Every one loaded each of the 3 magazines to 10 rounds only.

During the first round, Oscar dropped his X5 on the ground while running to the 12 yard line. This mishap cost him dearly where the Birthday Boy smoked him out of the contention. Oscar needs to reevaluate his holster which was designed for competition use and not built for running while holstered.   Oscar was given a Wild Card position to fill the uneven tree for the Semi Final to give him an opportunity to redeem himself against Tom Luna.

First round:

Paul (W) vs Daniel (L)
Gio (L) vs Erich (W)
Oscar (L) vs David (W)
Henry (L) vs Shoji (W)
Chris Weir (W) vs Lance (L)
Tom Luna (BY)

Second Round: 

Paul (W) vs Erich (L)
David (L) vs Shoji (W)
Chris (L) vs Tom (W)

Semi Final:

Paul (L) vs Shoji (W)
Tom (W) vs Oscar (L Wild Card)

Tom won the man-to-man shoot off winning the LAPG range bag as the prize. Great job!…not that he needs it.

Final:

Shoji (L) vs Tom (W)

Workshop Summery

Each Workshop has gotten more challenging and most TAC-1’er are able to hang with the pace. For some, they are excelling to the point that they are giving the instructors hard time to keep up with the pace. This is attributed to their solid fundamental earned in TAC-1 courses and their time invested in local matches on the weekend. Our special guests, Gio and Henry came out to have fun and celebrate Dave Shaw’s 44th birthday on the range.  Hats off to them for bravely stepping on the range with the rest to share their trigger time with TAC-1. Chris Weir has been shooting for about a year now with TAC-1.  He began as a novice and quickly moved up the ranks at TAC-1 – this is directly attributed to his commitment to training and time invested in all of the repeated classes.

Paul and Oscar continue to take the top ranking spots in these workshop.  Paul is one of the original TAC-1’er from the start of the organization. His accomplished background in paint ball competition has positively reflected in his ability to shoot fast and accurately. His fast advancement is giving his brother, Tom run for his money. At the same time Oscar hits local matches regularly and gets the necessary trigger time.  His ability to shoot competitively appears to be his number one goal.  I would like to see him pursuit more tactical shooting with proper gear and defensive mindset which he can easily excel.

Lance has been quiet in the last year or so from classes but he has been training secretly on his own at local ranges. His manipulations are on the money and his reloads are swift. He is widely known at TAC-1 as the “sleeper” who can not be over looked. He is inching in to the top shooter category in these workshops.  We like to see him work on the marksmanship aspect of shooting in future classes.

The birthday boy Dave probably shoot more than anyone here as he is a member of the 1800 Club.  It was his idea to get this workshop going for his Birthday and it turned out to be a great idea. He is relentless in pursuing perfection.  He brings about the work discipline of a professional shooter…this is one of the reasons why he is successful in what he does as a musician – this unmatched work discipline. Happy 44th birthday!

Erich was pretty quiet early on in the workshop unable to dial in on his marksmanship.  He decided to mess around with a .40 Beretta which turned out to be a bad idea considering the level of competition among the group. Training with different gun is always a good idea and it is highly recommended. However, when you are going against time and cut throat nature of the gathering, sticking to the gun most comfortable would have been the best practice. When Erich realized the harsh nature and his low scores, he bust out his XD9 and began to place high in the ranking. However, I was not able to find his score for the 2nd FASTest which was left blank on the sheet. He got no credit for this which brought down his ranking tremendously.

Daniel Luna is a product of the US Army. He began to show up to TAC-1 workshop without taking any classes at TAC-1.  He has basic understanding of the fundamental of trigger control and manipulation. I am not clear about his past training(s), but seems he has had some training.  Daniel is very competitive in nature.  He understands the nature of these drills that we do and he speaks the same shooting “language” which justifies his place at these workshops. I feel that TAC-1 can dramatically excel him into a better shooter if he shows up to some classes and allow us to instruct him. Workshops are by nature not a instruction session, but rather a practice session on what was learnt in classes.

Gio and Henry are another guests we have had in past workshops. It is also a pleasure to have them on board. They are product of ITTS and they have been taught correctly with regards to the manipulation and the operation of the handgun. Their marksmanship definitely suffers and they should re-evaluate their trigger control.  Speed will come naturally, but trigger control will not unless purposely worked on.  Once again I feel that TAC-1 classes can offer them in that aspect.

Once again, thanks for your continued support for TAC-1.  Thanks to Dave Shaw for organizing the session and financially supported the workshop.

By the way Dave Shaw, we got together and agreed to pay in $20 bucks each to purchase a Gift Card from Smoking Barrel, courtesy of Chris Weir who went their in adavance and paid up front.  The money collected amounted to $220 dollars.  A nice chunk, but their way of saying thanks for organizing the workshop and a sincere Happy Birthday wish.

The Winner:

The final score was evaluated based adding the ranking from each of the drills that was shot for score except the last man-to-man shoot off.  For example, Paul ranked #2 on the Drill 1, #1 on Drill 2, 1 on Drill 3 and so on. When added all those numbers, he received the factor of 20.  The lesser the number is the higher the placement. What killed Paul’s position was Drill #7 which he came in 7th over all.  For Oscar, it was Drill #8 where he came in 6th which it hurt him greatly. I do not count as I was the facilitator but I shot with you guys and scored as well so I’d posted my result for your reference. (It got me worried for a second)

Great Job and lets do this again soon.

Shoji

The mini course we designed on the “A” range challenged students with distance shooting, moving and shooting, target transition, tactical & speed reload, barricade shooting from cover, failure drill and finishing it off with a one handed shooting.  Some were seasoned in shooting a course like this Band this was a complete foreign concept for some.  Some shot the course smoothly without a hitch. But as always when stress gets going we always see increased incidences of weapon malfunctions. It is highly advisable for many to polish up on the malfunction clearance drills to save time and if in real life situation would mean – saving lives. This type of course is a balancing act of speed and accuracy. Faster you shoot, accuracy may suffer. This type of shooting is a thinking game where you must keep your head in the game and not to drift away and forget the sequence of fire – all this adds to the shooter’s anxiety and their stress level.

Paul Sol came in first with hit factor of 2.087 (added Points divided by Raw time).  Since Kawika and Doug shot .45 they will be considered to be in the Major category where it gives them extra point in B,C,D area of hits. Any Misses (M) are -10 points. We did not deduct points for failing to perform the mandatory reload, shooting targets in wrong sequence, shooting from wrong port hole, loading extra rounds for this course. Simple calculation of  speed and accuracy was mainly assessed.

Daniel Luna’s time was one of the fastest, however his speed sacrificed accuracy and dropped 3 Missed shots which cost him dearly. [He was shooting a 1911 .45 so that puts him in the Major category]

Chris shot moderately fast and shot accurate rounds which brought him into the 2nd spot behind Paul.

Mike Dozier’s new grip may have helped him tremendously since he shot himself into the 3rd spot which reminds us of how he used to shoot. I guess no spinning for him today…

I am glad that Angie showed up today and represented. She had improved exponentially and blended right into the class with other intermediate/advanced shooters. We’d like to see her more often on the range and getting her hands dirty.

Doug took some time off from his food business and came out to shoot with us. As usual he shot his 1911 from concealment.  He was consistently accurate. If he sped up his time, he would have easily came in at the top.

Mike S. shot well with good speed. However, his couple Missed shots hurt him greatly which brought his score down to the 5th spot.

Erich barely beat Dave Shaw taking the 7th spot with his kilt despite his catastrophic weapon malfunction he’d experience at the barricade. He was just simply happy to be there today. He was more concerned about his broken down Subie than his missed shot.

Jay never really shot action pistol course before but he’d handled himself well.  It was a true learning experience for him at the workshop.

Stu’s run was nothing but smooth. He had issue with reloading where he’d inserted a magazine with only 2 rounds in it. After in battery speed reload, he racked the slide spitting out a live (good) round from the chamber. I believe he did this twice. He fumbled with magazine which caused him difficulty inserting the magazine. Every which way his performance dwindled down to 58 seconds with a Miss which is unusual for Stu who had taken the TOP SHOT prize a the classes he’d taken with us. He was clearly frustrated which I felt it was good for him – not to be mean but to make him realize that this is all part of the process of becoming a better shooter.

I did not count myself in the ranking for this shoot off since I was the facilitator, but since Chris Weir challenged me to shoot it – I shot it just for fun.

The Original Sheet (.PDF)

Scoring:

Course Topic: Pistol Drills for Skill Building

What:  *The 500 Rounds Derby: Students will shoot at least 500 rounds in quality drills and practices in 4 hrs. Get some ammo!

When: Oct 5 th, 2014 (0800-1200 hrs) 4 hrs

Where: Angeles Shooting Range (Eagles’ Nest “C”) Lake View Terrace, CA

Weather:  102 degrees

(1) The session began at 8:18 at 5 yard line.  All 6 shooters set up for 5 x 5 Drill. It’s a new drill where the shooter will dry fire their weapon 5 times and insert a loaded magazine and fire 1 round. After the second 5x dry fire – 2 live fire, third 5x dry fire -3 live fire, fourth 5x dry fire – 4 live fire, fifth – 5 live fire. This drill was to replace skip loaded drill and done much faster. With proper dry fire, regardless of whether the shooter know that there is a live rounds, he should be able to fire with steady press. All achieve the proper press.  Jack seemed to have issues placing rounds at the 8 inch paper plate and slammed many rounds low to the right (left hand shooter). After a brief correction, he hit the marker perfectly.

(2) Warm-up at 7 yard line. From the holster – Fire 3 rounds in 6 seconds. 4 rd in 6 seconds, 5 rds in 6, 6 rds in 6.  The gradual speeding up ensure that the shooter had good sight alignment/picture. All of them were able to make 6 rds in 6 seconds.

(3) P-I Test 5 rd – 5 yrd, 5 rd – 10 yrd, 5 rd – 15 yrd, 5 rd – 20 yrd:

Dave Shaw score the 199 missing just 1 round to miss the 200 Club.  Close but no cigar.  Fadi surprising shot really well with 197 – with the instructor’s Glock 34.  Mike’s score slipped with his weapon that was not firing correctly with numerous failure to fire malfunctions.  Mike got really good at tap-roll-rack technique. The expectation at this level is 180 and above to be satisfactory.

(4) Moving from line to line implementing the SUL ready position. Although this is not an official TAC-1 curriculum technique, Shoji showed and demoed the usage of SUL so that the shooters can actually turn around up range and move away from the target without covering and not violating the 180 rule.  All participants performed will with minor adjustments.  Shooters shot at 7 yard line – 5 rds standing, 5 rds speed kneel, SUL position moved up to 10 yard, 15 yard and 20 yard repeating the shooting sequence.

(5) Running Drill: drills involving running was requested by Dave Shaw who had the great urge to run.  Any drills that incorporate running and raising heart rate is an excellent way to discover what the shooter does under stressful situation.  Usually students lose not only the ability to hold sights, but also the mobility in the hands, and rational thinking. When students are not exposed to repetitive training, practice proper operation of the weapon system, and proper mind set they usually crumble and fail at some point of the drill. For some, reloading became a toil. Some froze when the weapon went out of battery, speed reload became pseudo tactical reload, fumbling with magazines (usually associated with improper hold).  Often shots were fired without proper sight picture (front sight focused).   Shooter started at 20 yard. As a group they all ran and touched their own target and ran back to 20 yard to fire 5 rounds as a group.  Ran and touch the target and returned to 15 yard to fire 5 rds, ran and touch the target and return to 10 and 7 yard line. The workshop is now picking up where if not properly prepared, shooters would sure to fail at many levels.

(6) 1-2-R-3 Drill: Shooter begins the drill with three rounds in the gun at 5 yrd line.  On the buzzer, draw and fire six rounds as follows on the

Target: 
– one round at the 1″ square
– two rounds at the 2″ circle
– perform a reload
– three rounds at the 3×5 rectangle

This drill is ordinarily done at 7 second par time. Mike Dozier came in very strong with this drill and no one was able to come close to mike’s raw time. Dave was also fast and accurate as well. For many, more you speed up, more you miss.

(7) Running Drill #2: Identical drill from #5 but now individually timed. 

Dave Shaw consistently demonstrated strong shooting through out the day and him hustling his running cut his time drastically.  Chris Weir who had a pull hamstring due to over powering at the Edged Weapon class in September caused him to run slower, however his accurate shooting as result almost caught up do Shaw’s best time.  Fadi often mess up the direction and this drill was no exception. Fadi only shot 4 rounds at 10 yard line and attempted to make up rounds at 7 yard line firing 10 rounds (???). His rational was never understood.

Remember,  “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training”.  If you are not operating your weapon correctly, if you are not mentally connected to the training, if you cut corners – all these things will aid you in your failure when SHTF. Why do we assess during our training? Why do we ask you to hold the magazine with 3 finger grip? Why do we perform chamber checks when handling administratively? Why do we go back to on target when completing a combat task such as speed reloading?  These things must be re-visited as students were cutting corners today. You will fall to the level of your training and if you are not training correctly…well, that’s what you will fall on. 

I take great responsibility in teach you these matters. It could make you or break you when you need it. But if you are not retaining material taught to you, just ask.  Don’t make thing up and don’t cut corners. Please take pride in the things we teach at TAC-1.  We have nothing less to expect from you. 

(8) Pistol-II(D) TEST (1/2)Marksmanship Test (Stage 1): 25 rounds

Positions Test (Stage 2): 25 rounds

Scores @ 500 max score

Chris Weir came in at the Top for this drill.  This course was designed for those who’d completed all of Pistol-I and Pistol-II module and the course is not easy by any means. Although the workshop participants had only shot the first half of the test, they’ve gotten down and dirty. Fadi was quickly disqualified for shooting with two hands when he was only allowed to use one. Fadi shot 474 and would have been at the top but his inability to follow direction due to language barrier hurt him greatly. Jack took a break during this drill due to exhaustion from both running and heat. He sat out for this portion.  Doug told me later that he’d never trained positions that he felt he needed further training.

(9) Movement Drill: Lateral and Forward move.
– Lateral: 2 shots on 6 targets moving left to right / right to left x 4 times
– Forward: walk from 15 yards to 10 and draw and fire 5 rounds as the shooter moved to 5 yard line x 2 times

(10) The Bill Drill: 7yd, gun in holster, 6 rounds fired, IPSC size steelThe Bill Drill is designed to improve speed without sacrificing accuracy. Six shots are fired quickly hitting the target. The drill teaches sight tracking, proper visual reference, recoil management, and trigger control.  One important aspect of the drill is learning to track the sights at all time including recoil so that the shooter can fire consecutive shots as soon as adequate sight picture. It just needs to be “adequate” where perfect sight picture is not needed.  The shooter must pull and press the trigger as soon as the front sight comes back down onto the scoring zone without waiting for precise alignment or for the sight to stop moving. At full speed, the front sight is constantly moving, never coming to rest until the drill is over.

At this point Jack had disappeared from the range so he does not get a score.  Dave Shaw shot his Glock 21 (.45) with Safariland Level 2 holster.  He had the top score through out the drill until Mike Dozier stepped in and shot in the 2 second mark which made Dave nervous. But it wasn’t until when Chris Weir stepped up at his last string of fire and shot 2.65 taking the top spot for this drill.  I find this drill extremely beneficial and I stepped in and demoed the drill. The first attempt with 1 miss and the second attempt was clean with 2.30 (.40 S&W). All I heard was “shit” coming from very competitive Dave Shaw who immediately challenged himself to break my time.  I’m looking to break the 2 second mark before the end of the year.  Doug also told me that he had never trained speed shooting like this Bill Drill. His trigger was erratic and he had difficulty finding the proper cadence.  Although he was shooting a Wilson Combat 1911, his improper trigger reset cost him in this drill. Unlike precise shooting, trigger should NOT be reset just to the click which will eventually cause the trigger to have “hiccup” and press on the trigger before the reset. This will cause the shooter to lose concentration and become desperate in getting the rounds down range which often results in missed shots.  The trigger should be reset all the way out even to the point where the trigger finger lose contact with the trigger.

(11) Duel Tree Challenge: Knock all 4 steel targets to the opponents side before he does.

Round #1
Dave Shave (L) VS Mike Dozier  (W)
Doug (L) VS Chris Weir (W)
Fadi (L) VS Shoji (W) taking Jack’s spot

Round #2
Mike Dozier (L) VS Chris Wier (W)
Dave Shaw (W) VS Fadi (L)  <WILDCARD>
Shoji (W) VS Doug (L) <WILDCARD>

Round #3
Chris Wier (L) VS Dave Shaw (W) Dave’s third or fourth shot with his .45 hit the center post and knocked all the plates to Chris’s side then knocked the whole dueling tree down.
Dave Shaw (W) VS Shoji (L) Dave Shaw came back from his initial loss to take the KING of the Dueling Tree. Shaw seemed extremely satisfied that he had beaten the instructor in this drill.  His perpetual smile will not go away until the last drill.  Dave, thanks for bringing the tree with you today!

(12)  Last drill: 5 shots on steel at 45 yards.  Shoot 5 rounds and count only the hits. 

 Chris and Shoji headed for the final.  Shoji only got 3 hits, but Chris could not beat it with only 2 hits at the end. 

Instructor’s Final Note:

Workshop attendees were reminded to be prepared for strenuous training such as this workshop session.  Students shot approximately 500 rounds in 4 hours involving movements.  Some students showed up mal-nourished  skipping breakfast. Some showed up drinking just Diet Coke and smoking cigarettes.  Such poor eating habit and destructive behavior will sure to fail the operator   It is the responsibility of the student to stay sharp through out the training so that they can receive full benefit from the workshop and mostly to stay safe on the range.  It is indispensable to stay alert during any firearms training where students must function at 100% as any mistake and violation of firearms safety rules can have catastrophic consequences to their team mates/friends. Therefore, it would be considered irresponsible to show up not physically prepared. Furthermore, students who operates at this level and higher at TAC-1 must be physically fit to perform the given task. Stumbling, falling, tripping due to uncoordinated body movements will surely to have disastrous consequence when handling firearms. It is the student’s responsibility to bring their well conditioned body to higher TAC-1 modules especially in in these workshops where constant drilling and practicing must not equate to participant’s exhaustion compromising safety.  

TAC-1 is committed to student’s physical and mental well being.  One of our instructors (Shoji) will assist any student who are having any difficulty with their physical fitness when assistance is requested. However, it must begin with the student’s will to change and to improve themselves. 

Thanks for coming!

SHOJI
TAC-1