This is a short review of a tactical rifle class I attended this past Sunday with Jon Tindal from Defensive Shooting Concepts. The class was taught in Atlanta, IN.
Tactical Rifle - Defensive Shooting Concepts
Before I get into the review, I want to briefly touch on my initial impressions of the instructor himself, Jon Tindal. This was my second training class with Jon, I have been more than satisfied with both classes, and I fully intend on doing more training with him in the future. His number one goal is safety, which goes without saying should be anyone handling firearms goal as well. I felt safe throughout both classes I attended and I'm a bit of a safety Nazi myself. He is very easy to get along with, firm but fair in his teachings, and very down to earth. And what I mean by down to earth is you don't get a condescending tone like he's some kind of elitist or anything, more of an older brother who's looking out for you kind of treatment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying instructors should treat everyone with soft gentle hands and worry about their "feelings" all the time, but most people (myself included) don't want someone yelling at them the whole time like R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket and make them feel like "deplorables" (thanks Hillary). If I wanted that kind of treatment, I could just stay home with the wife.
Okay, onto the short review, which will be somewhat of a scattered highlight reel (not necessarily in order) to allow people with short attention spans like myself to remain interested and reading. Please keep in mind that I'm not trying to give away any secrets here, but speaking more in generic terms on some of this stuff. I want to mention that this class was the right size to enable Jon to shoot along with us rather than just talking the whole time. I found this not only helpful, but I got a better sense of his abilities as well, which goes a long way with me. It's easy to listen to people talk about how much they know, but how often do you see them in action?
----Tactical Rifle----
- Meet up in the pistol bay
- Started with a safety briefing, brief discussion on current world events, introduction to others and the instructor. I personally like this in classes, even if you don't remember everything, you at least get to remind yourself out loud why you are there in the first place and find out others are there for the same reasons.
- Test fire stage to make sure everyone's rifles are hitting on paper.
- Focal point of the day was going to be fast and accurate shot placement. Two of my favorite things.
- Shot from various distances to show how the POI shifts the closer you get to the target, I'd say 20 yards in. I found this helpful as the local range I use does not allow rifle caliber rifles in the pistol bay, which limits me to 50 yds or more for rifle training.
- How to transition from strong hand to weak hand shooting and when this might be valuable, instructed in a streamlined logical approach. This was a struggle for me though as I've shot weak hand on the bench, but not while moving around and engaging targets on the go. I enjoyed the challenge as this was not something I routinely practice.
- Used figure eight maneuvers around barrels while incorporating numerous actions that were needed throughout, such as kneeling and transitioning shots between different locations on target.
- Practiced numerous mag changes, including mag changes for speed and incorporated randomly needed mag changes in a way that added numerous things to think about during the drill. I would give Jon credit for referring to some of these drills as "mind blown" drills. I got screwed up several times during this, simply because I had not ever trained for some of the things that came up, and finding out things I thought would work did not.
- Did some impromptu drills during the day because the class was doing really well with the folks there, this was kind of cool to just mix things up and kind of go on the fly (using some input from others as well).
- We were sure to take plenty of water breaks and a short lunch break in the middle of class. I can appreciate this as I'm always hungry.
- Practiced using the 9-hole board effectively. I've used a 9-hole several times prior to this and never liked it. The way Jon taught this made more sense and I surprisingly found myself really liking it and performed well.
- Had some impromptu speed contests at the end and I really really enjoyed this. I felt like it capped off an awesome training class.
There was so much more covered in this class, but I'm going off pure memory here (which gets worse daily). Overall the class was affordable, conveniently scheduled day of the week, and very easy for me to enjoy. I learned a lot about my abilities, my limits, and things I need to focus more on. I had some equipment issues that the instructor helped me out with (thank you again for that Jon). I would gladly recommend this class and any other classes that are offered for that matter. This is time and money well spent with an instructor who knows what he's doing and teaches using an easy to understand method. Jon knows his stuff, knows how to teach it, and gives you a discount on future classes. It doesn't get better than that in my opinion.
Thanks for reading,
T-DOGG
Tactical Rifle - Defensive Shooting Concepts
Before I get into the review, I want to briefly touch on my initial impressions of the instructor himself, Jon Tindal. This was my second training class with Jon, I have been more than satisfied with both classes, and I fully intend on doing more training with him in the future. His number one goal is safety, which goes without saying should be anyone handling firearms goal as well. I felt safe throughout both classes I attended and I'm a bit of a safety Nazi myself. He is very easy to get along with, firm but fair in his teachings, and very down to earth. And what I mean by down to earth is you don't get a condescending tone like he's some kind of elitist or anything, more of an older brother who's looking out for you kind of treatment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying instructors should treat everyone with soft gentle hands and worry about their "feelings" all the time, but most people (myself included) don't want someone yelling at them the whole time like R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket and make them feel like "deplorables" (thanks Hillary). If I wanted that kind of treatment, I could just stay home with the wife.
Okay, onto the short review, which will be somewhat of a scattered highlight reel (not necessarily in order) to allow people with short attention spans like myself to remain interested and reading. Please keep in mind that I'm not trying to give away any secrets here, but speaking more in generic terms on some of this stuff. I want to mention that this class was the right size to enable Jon to shoot along with us rather than just talking the whole time. I found this not only helpful, but I got a better sense of his abilities as well, which goes a long way with me. It's easy to listen to people talk about how much they know, but how often do you see them in action?
----Tactical Rifle----
- Meet up in the pistol bay
- Started with a safety briefing, brief discussion on current world events, introduction to others and the instructor. I personally like this in classes, even if you don't remember everything, you at least get to remind yourself out loud why you are there in the first place and find out others are there for the same reasons.
- Test fire stage to make sure everyone's rifles are hitting on paper.
- Focal point of the day was going to be fast and accurate shot placement. Two of my favorite things.
- Shot from various distances to show how the POI shifts the closer you get to the target, I'd say 20 yards in. I found this helpful as the local range I use does not allow rifle caliber rifles in the pistol bay, which limits me to 50 yds or more for rifle training.
- How to transition from strong hand to weak hand shooting and when this might be valuable, instructed in a streamlined logical approach. This was a struggle for me though as I've shot weak hand on the bench, but not while moving around and engaging targets on the go. I enjoyed the challenge as this was not something I routinely practice.
- Used figure eight maneuvers around barrels while incorporating numerous actions that were needed throughout, such as kneeling and transitioning shots between different locations on target.
- Practiced numerous mag changes, including mag changes for speed and incorporated randomly needed mag changes in a way that added numerous things to think about during the drill. I would give Jon credit for referring to some of these drills as "mind blown" drills. I got screwed up several times during this, simply because I had not ever trained for some of the things that came up, and finding out things I thought would work did not.
- Did some impromptu drills during the day because the class was doing really well with the folks there, this was kind of cool to just mix things up and kind of go on the fly (using some input from others as well).
- We were sure to take plenty of water breaks and a short lunch break in the middle of class. I can appreciate this as I'm always hungry.
- Practiced using the 9-hole board effectively. I've used a 9-hole several times prior to this and never liked it. The way Jon taught this made more sense and I surprisingly found myself really liking it and performed well.
- Had some impromptu speed contests at the end and I really really enjoyed this. I felt like it capped off an awesome training class.
There was so much more covered in this class, but I'm going off pure memory here (which gets worse daily). Overall the class was affordable, conveniently scheduled day of the week, and very easy for me to enjoy. I learned a lot about my abilities, my limits, and things I need to focus more on. I had some equipment issues that the instructor helped me out with (thank you again for that Jon). I would gladly recommend this class and any other classes that are offered for that matter. This is time and money well spent with an instructor who knows what he's doing and teaches using an easy to understand method. Jon knows his stuff, knows how to teach it, and gives you a discount on future classes. It doesn't get better than that in my opinion.
Thanks for reading,
T-DOGG
