Instructor background: Military...trained under Mike Panone of CTT Solutions. Competes in USPSA and 3 gun as well. Found him on Instagram and followed him because Lucas Botkin of TREX Arms started shooting with him and having conversations about the 2A. There is some commotion in the USPSA right now because Tony Cowden was accused of cheating but then was cleared by the board but a shooter named Ben Stoeger didn’t let up so easy and started putting out emails and Facebook messages and posts supporting the fact that Tony did cheat! Most of his scores for classifieds are re-shoots from what he’s saying and other people are saying he just simply edited his score. He threw a couple of matches at his home range, and is accused of putting in his own score. I really don’t know how to feel about the situation.
Location: Impact Shooting Center in Cleves, OH (1hr 1/2 drive from Indianapolis)
Class needs: 800 rounds (shot more like 500) I shot Fed brass and Alum.
2 mag pouches
Eye and ear pro
4 mags
My setup: M&P9 2.0 Full size BONE STOCK
(1) OEM mag + (3) ETS M&P mags (ran great! BTW. Pick some up for training purposes at least, I know I’ll be ordering more soon)
(1) Blackhawk Mag Pouch
(1) Tier 1 Concealed mag pouch I took off my Axis Elite holster
Parabellum Gun Range IWB holster.
Kore Essentials Leather Belt (have had it for a year with multiple pistol classes matches and a rifle class) I LOVE THIS THING
This was his biggest open enrollment class so far. Before he could close registration; 15 of us had signed up. The weather was chilly. Not quite winter cold? If that makes sense. I wore a Carhartt hoody and a Colombia shell on top. When the sun came out I took the Colombia off. We started with introductions just to know who we were going to be sharing the line with for the next 8hrs. Everybody there were SHOOTERS. That’s why he said we didn’t shoot the whole 800 because newer shooters needs those extra rounds to get the fundamentals down, everybody was pretty much squared away on that though. We talked about drawing the pistol and some methods on OWB and IWB. I was drawing from concealment and having 2 layers on slowed down my draw considerable. I know next time I’ll be using a OWB setup because drawing from IWB and drawing from OWB. Will not harm your “muscle memory” that much where you have to spend a lot of time on either one. Point A is the gun in holster Point B is the marriage of both hands (your support hand is sitting your chest waiting for your firing hand to bring the gun to the “marriage zone”) Point C is the target itself. He made it where A and B were pretty much seamless. As soon as that gun leaves that holster get your support hand on it as quick as possible without having your hand sitting on your chest. This method was only used for new shooters to prevent them from shooting themselves in the support hand while drawing.
Next we got into transitions...near to far...far to near...side by side. As everybody SHOULD know. Eyes lead the gun, and the sights tell all. But there’s also throttle control involved in transitions. You wouldn’t shoot a 5yd target the same as an 10-15-or 25yd shot. 5yd is simply gripping that damn gun and smashing the trigger. Point shooting. 10 and 15 involves more thought on the trigger and sights. 25 you want to go back to that shot “surprising you” like they taught you in those intro classes.
The most important thing that I got was his prep...sights...press method. From compressed ready, push the pistol out and while doing that PREP THE TRIGGER. Then SEE THE SIGHTS and then PRESS THE TRIGGER. His thought process is you want that trigger ready to go so as soon you lock on target your break that shot IMMEDIATELY And you want to get back to that wall as quickly as possible. DO NOT HOLD THE TRIGGER BACK DOING RECOIL like they teach you in beginners class. YOU WANT TO MANIPULATE THE TRIGGER DURING RECOIL. When done correctly your gun will do a 2 shot BOP BOP with a crazy split time. This is how Jerry Miculeck shoots, pretty much manually bump firing the gun. Adding this method to transitions is like a whole ‘nother level of shooting I didn’t know was there.
Finished around 6:00 and if it wasn’t for us fighting daylight we would’ve still been out there shooting and probably would have used all 800 rounds. Did our own group AAR and headed home.
Would I go back? HELL YES! When he does DEMO. he makes it look effortless. He points out your problem...tells you how to fix or it improve it. With lightbulbs following right after. Hopefully he does a rifle and pistol 2 day.
Location: Impact Shooting Center in Cleves, OH (1hr 1/2 drive from Indianapolis)
Class needs: 800 rounds (shot more like 500) I shot Fed brass and Alum.
2 mag pouches
Eye and ear pro
4 mags
My setup: M&P9 2.0 Full size BONE STOCK
(1) OEM mag + (3) ETS M&P mags (ran great! BTW. Pick some up for training purposes at least, I know I’ll be ordering more soon)
(1) Blackhawk Mag Pouch
(1) Tier 1 Concealed mag pouch I took off my Axis Elite holster
Parabellum Gun Range IWB holster.
Kore Essentials Leather Belt (have had it for a year with multiple pistol classes matches and a rifle class) I LOVE THIS THING
This was his biggest open enrollment class so far. Before he could close registration; 15 of us had signed up. The weather was chilly. Not quite winter cold? If that makes sense. I wore a Carhartt hoody and a Colombia shell on top. When the sun came out I took the Colombia off. We started with introductions just to know who we were going to be sharing the line with for the next 8hrs. Everybody there were SHOOTERS. That’s why he said we didn’t shoot the whole 800 because newer shooters needs those extra rounds to get the fundamentals down, everybody was pretty much squared away on that though. We talked about drawing the pistol and some methods on OWB and IWB. I was drawing from concealment and having 2 layers on slowed down my draw considerable. I know next time I’ll be using a OWB setup because drawing from IWB and drawing from OWB. Will not harm your “muscle memory” that much where you have to spend a lot of time on either one. Point A is the gun in holster Point B is the marriage of both hands (your support hand is sitting your chest waiting for your firing hand to bring the gun to the “marriage zone”) Point C is the target itself. He made it where A and B were pretty much seamless. As soon as that gun leaves that holster get your support hand on it as quick as possible without having your hand sitting on your chest. This method was only used for new shooters to prevent them from shooting themselves in the support hand while drawing.
Next we got into transitions...near to far...far to near...side by side. As everybody SHOULD know. Eyes lead the gun, and the sights tell all. But there’s also throttle control involved in transitions. You wouldn’t shoot a 5yd target the same as an 10-15-or 25yd shot. 5yd is simply gripping that damn gun and smashing the trigger. Point shooting. 10 and 15 involves more thought on the trigger and sights. 25 you want to go back to that shot “surprising you” like they taught you in those intro classes.
The most important thing that I got was his prep...sights...press method. From compressed ready, push the pistol out and while doing that PREP THE TRIGGER. Then SEE THE SIGHTS and then PRESS THE TRIGGER. His thought process is you want that trigger ready to go so as soon you lock on target your break that shot IMMEDIATELY And you want to get back to that wall as quickly as possible. DO NOT HOLD THE TRIGGER BACK DOING RECOIL like they teach you in beginners class. YOU WANT TO MANIPULATE THE TRIGGER DURING RECOIL. When done correctly your gun will do a 2 shot BOP BOP with a crazy split time. This is how Jerry Miculeck shoots, pretty much manually bump firing the gun. Adding this method to transitions is like a whole ‘nother level of shooting I didn’t know was there.
Finished around 6:00 and if it wasn’t for us fighting daylight we would’ve still been out there shooting and probably would have used all 800 rounds. Did our own group AAR and headed home.
Would I go back? HELL YES! When he does DEMO. he makes it look effortless. He points out your problem...tells you how to fix or it improve it. With lightbulbs following right after. Hopefully he does a rifle and pistol 2 day.
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