Ok, I was gonna let Hickman do this but I had some time so I will post mine and he will post his soon I am guessing.
First, I signed up for Fighting Pistol a while back after talking to a few members here I have taken classes with or gotten good info from on other subjects and respect their opinion. (Wetsu, Britton, Shay, Jahred, Que) I went down Friday night and spent the first night in a hotel rather then the team room so I could relax a little and check out Nashville for the first time. In the morning I made the drive to TR to meet Marilyn(runs the show) and Jay Gibson and Chester for the first time. The instructors for the class were Jay and Chester. They both have different backgrounds with Jay being a Marine and contractor and Chester being a current duty police officer in Tennessee.
The class starts with introductions of each person and then some lecture time out of the book that took a couple hours I believe. Then you leave straight for the range from the gear store. It was absolutely nasty with pouring rain which made the red clay range a soupy mess that challenged the shooters as well as our gear. It was hard to move along with a nasty mess on your mags and gear but it was a great challenge to see how you react and how your equipment held up. For the most part Jay Gibson runs the shooting line with instruction and demonstration and Chester did some one on one with a few of the newer people and helped correct form issues. The guys let you run without screwing with you to much unless its a grip or safety issue which was a good thing to me. We shot from standing, 90 degree turns, kneeling, sitting, laying on our backs, all on the first day in the muck. It was interesting to see how people reacted when their guns began to fail as MANY did have failures. Also, during the first day we were given dummy ammo to induce malfunctions and practice clearing but after a few hours the clay did plenty of that for us. We were having to clean our mags in a small puddle of muddy water we found just to get the clay off so we could use them again. Also, we had to drop the guns in the muck to practice picking them up and shooting off hand. This was very interesting as it not only made for a face full of dirt after the first shot but it also was interesting going weak hand when I haven't practiced it much. For all the Glock lovers out there you can get off the soap box as two completely died on day one and others were malfunctioning quite a bit
The night time was spent cleaning stripping and relubing my gear as I had three mags completely shut down on me on day one from the clay and stripped all my mags and gave them a thorough cleaning and brushing. It was a great test of my pistol to see how it worked. I was using a M&P9 that had no failure to eject or failure to load but did have a few failure to fires in the first part of the day but ironically the muddier it got that stopped. I am not sure if it was just a bad experience with some Wolf 9mm that I have never had with Brown Bear or Tula but I was getting solid strikes but just a few failure to fires. The problem went away as the day went on and things got dirtier so I am not sure of the problem. I will continue to shoot the Wolf and get another thousand to try it again.
The second day starts off in the gear store again with the best part of the lecture and the stuff that is what I really was interested in hearing. We were given a book on day one with homework of reading twenty pages the first night to prepare for day two. It is worth it to read the info to not only hit home on some things but also to better prepare for day two. Jay, gave all the lecture on day two with Chester coming in on some of the police related stuff as that is his career field. The lecture is very thorough on what to do in a shooting situation that you hope never happens as well as to prepare before the fight so that you are not even more persecuted after the fight. We followed the lecture with a lunch break and then back to the range.
Day two on the range is where we shot on the move as well as from behind cover. I learned that I needed to stay back from the cover to better give myself shot options as well as make it easier for me to find my target on the other side. The drills we ran were very good to get you thinking and moving as well as testing your thought process on what you are being told to do. There were people who clearly did not listen to instructions and they would call that out but not in an embarrassing manner which was good for the shooters. Also, like day one they thoroughly stressed key point hits when shooting rather then just popping the target anywhere you can. A good hit on the move is more important the three non fight stopping hits was a very good point stressed. I liked day one a lot and day two complemented it very well and was both fun and challenging as well.
Now, going into the class I did not have a opinion of positive or negative of Tactical Response. The reasoning behind it was so that I could have an open minded opinion of judging them by what I learned and the instruction I received. When I was done with day two I left with a positive opinion and really do like Jay Gibson as an instructor as well as his approach. Jay was very good at ALWAYS doing his instruction drills with meaning as well as adding some humor and direct approach to a situation so that people were not overwhelmed or knocked down. Also, I left with a couple quotes from him that will stick out with me for sure. One thing I did notice is that Jay in particular is not much of a talker even at break time but when he says something during class time it is to make a point or to teach rather then to b.s. someone to boost their ego.
At the end I will say that I was not put off by much of anything in the class. There was one shooter who was a bit unsafe and everybody kept a close eye on him but what really was the best part of the class to me was watching another shooter get better. There were two women in the class and one in particular you could see get far more comfortable as a shooter and by the end of day two was handling her gun very well. I talked to both of them and they both said the class gave them a lot of confidence with their firearms and they were glad they took the class. As for most of the guys we were all people who have shot or taken classes before but everyone said they learned things both days to add to their shooting tool box. I did not mean for this to be long winded and I left a lot out but I will say that I am glad I took the class and will go back again. Finally, the down range photographer is NOT a big issue to me and after doing the drill I will say that it was not something that bothered me and if you are actually doing the drill you can see that the distance and the spread of targets make it a really non issue and to be honest I did not "see him" even though he was in my peripheral vision as I was focused on my target.(Your welcome Que)
I edited to add that several left with a nickname from the other class people which only Hickman will get as I will not post them here. MSM and HKH are the best
First, I signed up for Fighting Pistol a while back after talking to a few members here I have taken classes with or gotten good info from on other subjects and respect their opinion. (Wetsu, Britton, Shay, Jahred, Que) I went down Friday night and spent the first night in a hotel rather then the team room so I could relax a little and check out Nashville for the first time. In the morning I made the drive to TR to meet Marilyn(runs the show) and Jay Gibson and Chester for the first time. The instructors for the class were Jay and Chester. They both have different backgrounds with Jay being a Marine and contractor and Chester being a current duty police officer in Tennessee.
The class starts with introductions of each person and then some lecture time out of the book that took a couple hours I believe. Then you leave straight for the range from the gear store. It was absolutely nasty with pouring rain which made the red clay range a soupy mess that challenged the shooters as well as our gear. It was hard to move along with a nasty mess on your mags and gear but it was a great challenge to see how you react and how your equipment held up. For the most part Jay Gibson runs the shooting line with instruction and demonstration and Chester did some one on one with a few of the newer people and helped correct form issues. The guys let you run without screwing with you to much unless its a grip or safety issue which was a good thing to me. We shot from standing, 90 degree turns, kneeling, sitting, laying on our backs, all on the first day in the muck. It was interesting to see how people reacted when their guns began to fail as MANY did have failures. Also, during the first day we were given dummy ammo to induce malfunctions and practice clearing but after a few hours the clay did plenty of that for us. We were having to clean our mags in a small puddle of muddy water we found just to get the clay off so we could use them again. Also, we had to drop the guns in the muck to practice picking them up and shooting off hand. This was very interesting as it not only made for a face full of dirt after the first shot but it also was interesting going weak hand when I haven't practiced it much. For all the Glock lovers out there you can get off the soap box as two completely died on day one and others were malfunctioning quite a bit
The night time was spent cleaning stripping and relubing my gear as I had three mags completely shut down on me on day one from the clay and stripped all my mags and gave them a thorough cleaning and brushing. It was a great test of my pistol to see how it worked. I was using a M&P9 that had no failure to eject or failure to load but did have a few failure to fires in the first part of the day but ironically the muddier it got that stopped. I am not sure if it was just a bad experience with some Wolf 9mm that I have never had with Brown Bear or Tula but I was getting solid strikes but just a few failure to fires. The problem went away as the day went on and things got dirtier so I am not sure of the problem. I will continue to shoot the Wolf and get another thousand to try it again.
The second day starts off in the gear store again with the best part of the lecture and the stuff that is what I really was interested in hearing. We were given a book on day one with homework of reading twenty pages the first night to prepare for day two. It is worth it to read the info to not only hit home on some things but also to better prepare for day two. Jay, gave all the lecture on day two with Chester coming in on some of the police related stuff as that is his career field. The lecture is very thorough on what to do in a shooting situation that you hope never happens as well as to prepare before the fight so that you are not even more persecuted after the fight. We followed the lecture with a lunch break and then back to the range.
Day two on the range is where we shot on the move as well as from behind cover. I learned that I needed to stay back from the cover to better give myself shot options as well as make it easier for me to find my target on the other side. The drills we ran were very good to get you thinking and moving as well as testing your thought process on what you are being told to do. There were people who clearly did not listen to instructions and they would call that out but not in an embarrassing manner which was good for the shooters. Also, like day one they thoroughly stressed key point hits when shooting rather then just popping the target anywhere you can. A good hit on the move is more important the three non fight stopping hits was a very good point stressed. I liked day one a lot and day two complemented it very well and was both fun and challenging as well.
Now, going into the class I did not have a opinion of positive or negative of Tactical Response. The reasoning behind it was so that I could have an open minded opinion of judging them by what I learned and the instruction I received. When I was done with day two I left with a positive opinion and really do like Jay Gibson as an instructor as well as his approach. Jay was very good at ALWAYS doing his instruction drills with meaning as well as adding some humor and direct approach to a situation so that people were not overwhelmed or knocked down. Also, I left with a couple quotes from him that will stick out with me for sure. One thing I did notice is that Jay in particular is not much of a talker even at break time but when he says something during class time it is to make a point or to teach rather then to b.s. someone to boost their ego.
At the end I will say that I was not put off by much of anything in the class. There was one shooter who was a bit unsafe and everybody kept a close eye on him but what really was the best part of the class to me was watching another shooter get better. There were two women in the class and one in particular you could see get far more comfortable as a shooter and by the end of day two was handling her gun very well. I talked to both of them and they both said the class gave them a lot of confidence with their firearms and they were glad they took the class. As for most of the guys we were all people who have shot or taken classes before but everyone said they learned things both days to add to their shooting tool box. I did not mean for this to be long winded and I left a lot out but I will say that I am glad I took the class and will go back again. Finally, the down range photographer is NOT a big issue to me and after doing the drill I will say that it was not something that bothered me and if you are actually doing the drill you can see that the distance and the spread of targets make it a really non issue and to be honest I did not "see him" even though he was in my peripheral vision as I was focused on my target.(Your welcome Que)
I edited to add that several left with a nickname from the other class people which only Hickman will get as I will not post them here. MSM and HKH are the best
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