What:
Armed Dynamics Defensive Pistol II
Armed Dynamics Course Descriptions
When:
Sunday, October 28th, 2012
9am-9pm
Where:
Hillside Shooting Sports, Roanoke, IN
Hillside Shooting Sports
Who:
Jeff Bloovman – President and Instructor
Marc Seltzer – Instructor
Students:
Three from Indiana
Why:
I attended Defensive Pistol I in March of this year, and wanted to expand on the skills I acquired during that course. I strive to be a better shooter.
I’ve taken all the courses Armed Dynamics has brought to Indiana, through AGS Armament, and really enjoyed training with Jeff and Marc; enough that I let them stay at my house while they were in town, but that’s a different story.
We set out for the range and met with the other students at 9am. Harley from Down by the Tracks brought his father, who completed Defensive Pistol I a day earlier.
With Defensive Pistol I being a prerequisite for the course, and everyone having met previously, we skipped introductions and went right to work. We were reminded that this was an advanced level course and exceptional muzzle awareness and trigger discipline was expected. The medical plan was reviewed with the designation of a transport vehicle, and primary medical person—Marc, a paramedic.
When we stepped to the line, we reviewed the four step draw stroke and expanded on firing from retention positions (step two), and compression (step three). From there we discussed and practiced prepping the trigger as we pressed into full extension (step four). Marc showed us anatomical shot placement based on the the areas where bullets would be the most encounter the least amount of resistance from bones and tissue.
We moved on to executive protection, where we might find ourselves engaging a threat while controlling a friend or loved one that may be with us.
Expanding on protection, stress was introduced. In most classes, the student is left alone while conducting a drill. This was not the case on that brisk October morning. I won’t give it away. You have to experience it.
Speed shooting has its place in a gun fight. We were timed with a shot timer during a complete mag dump from the draw. The goal was to have a consistent cadence of fire while maintaining a six inch group. Split times varied, but most fell under .3 seconds; acceptable for accurate rapid fire. After a few runs of this drill, split times dropped. Now, I had been dubbed “smoke wagon” at previous courses by Jeff and Marc, but finding the happy medium between speed and accuracy takes practice. I found myself being able to maintain the required group with splits at .2 and under. Sometimes it’s a gift, other times it just means you can go through more ammo faster than the other guy. You can’t miss fast enough…
There is a very important difference between cover and concealment. Concealment does not stop bullets, and even cover can degrade to concealment as it takes fire. The other thing to be aware of is a rifle may quickly make concealment out of what was once cover from a pistol. The way you utilize these will affect the outcome of a gun fight. When entering a room, your options are limited. You are at a choke point and you can rush in or take your time. We were shown what many people call slicing the pie (slowly inch around cover while presenting as little of your body to the threat as possible). After you’ve cleared as much of the room possible without entering, dynamic entry was introduced by utilizing the retention positions covered earlier in the day.
There may be times where you need to get on the ground fast. Marc showed us a break fall technique that allows us to quickly get on the ground through a controlled fall to our back or side. Tucking your chin to your chest and tightening your core while falling on your back will allow you to drop to the ground without risking injury to the back of your head. Falling on your side is similar in contracting muscles to keep your head off the ground. After repeating these break fall techniques ten times each, we were shown a technique to quickly orient ourselves with our feet towards the threat, and shoot from the supine position.
Another topic covered was neuro linguistic programming, or NLP. This is something you truly have to experience as explaining it does not do it justice. This is a new school of thought for many firearms instructors and Jeff and Marc present it well. Again, you have to experience it.
Team tactics and communication were stressed in many different fashions as the day went on. Leap frogging cover to cover, and bounding while providing cover fire were demonstrated and executed very well. We ran these drills the better part of two hours as we incorporated much of what we had learned throughout the day.
When we had movement and cover squared away, applying self aid in the event of taking a round was introduced. Self application of a tourniquet was demonstrated and we were we off for more team movement. If we were firing from the same side of cover for too long, Marc would come by and announce where we were hit, and drop a tourniquet next to us. We had to call for cover from our team and apply the tourniquet, call when we were back up, and continue fighting through whatever injury we sustained. Strong and weak one handed shooting and manipulations came into play here as we continued to fight from cover to cover, reloading when necessary.
The low light portion of the class is where everything comes together. We did a preparatory run with the little daylight left on how we would not be using communication before moving to the next cover position. This ran smoothly and we waited for nightfall.
When sun was well over the horizon and the clouds had covered the moon, we began with the flashbulb technique. Light your target just long enough to identify them as a threat, extinguish the light and fire. Change your level and/or side of cover, flash, shoot, rinse and repeat. All this was done with no communication other than announcing “cover me!” if our gun went down or we were “injured.” It’s really something to see when flashes of light are followed by the flash of a muzzle, and no two shots coming from the sample place.
I thoroughly enjoyed this course as I brought home a lot of new skills to practice and scenarios to ponder. A weapon mounted light may be in my future after using Jeff’s Surefire x300 during a drill. I was sore the next day, but you take home as much effort as you put into the class. I went all out and really thought through the areas where I could improve from my own observations. Having the instructors staying at my house brought on some good discussion as well.
Don’t hesitate to train with the folks at Armed Dynamics. Ten hours is a long time to spend at the range, but everything is presented very well and you will retain the skills you took home if you pay your dues on them. That means practice.
If you have any questions feel free to ask!
Oh, and I don't do pics...so I made a video.
http://youtu.be/8pGWq49J--8
Armed Dynamics Defensive Pistol II
Armed Dynamics Course Descriptions
When:
Sunday, October 28th, 2012
9am-9pm
Where:
Hillside Shooting Sports, Roanoke, IN
Hillside Shooting Sports
Who:
Jeff Bloovman – President and Instructor
Marc Seltzer – Instructor
Students:
Three from Indiana
Why:
I attended Defensive Pistol I in March of this year, and wanted to expand on the skills I acquired during that course. I strive to be a better shooter.
I’ve taken all the courses Armed Dynamics has brought to Indiana, through AGS Armament, and really enjoyed training with Jeff and Marc; enough that I let them stay at my house while they were in town, but that’s a different story.
We set out for the range and met with the other students at 9am. Harley from Down by the Tracks brought his father, who completed Defensive Pistol I a day earlier.
With Defensive Pistol I being a prerequisite for the course, and everyone having met previously, we skipped introductions and went right to work. We were reminded that this was an advanced level course and exceptional muzzle awareness and trigger discipline was expected. The medical plan was reviewed with the designation of a transport vehicle, and primary medical person—Marc, a paramedic.
When we stepped to the line, we reviewed the four step draw stroke and expanded on firing from retention positions (step two), and compression (step three). From there we discussed and practiced prepping the trigger as we pressed into full extension (step four). Marc showed us anatomical shot placement based on the the areas where bullets would be the most encounter the least amount of resistance from bones and tissue.
We moved on to executive protection, where we might find ourselves engaging a threat while controlling a friend or loved one that may be with us.
Expanding on protection, stress was introduced. In most classes, the student is left alone while conducting a drill. This was not the case on that brisk October morning. I won’t give it away. You have to experience it.
Speed shooting has its place in a gun fight. We were timed with a shot timer during a complete mag dump from the draw. The goal was to have a consistent cadence of fire while maintaining a six inch group. Split times varied, but most fell under .3 seconds; acceptable for accurate rapid fire. After a few runs of this drill, split times dropped. Now, I had been dubbed “smoke wagon” at previous courses by Jeff and Marc, but finding the happy medium between speed and accuracy takes practice. I found myself being able to maintain the required group with splits at .2 and under. Sometimes it’s a gift, other times it just means you can go through more ammo faster than the other guy. You can’t miss fast enough…
There is a very important difference between cover and concealment. Concealment does not stop bullets, and even cover can degrade to concealment as it takes fire. The other thing to be aware of is a rifle may quickly make concealment out of what was once cover from a pistol. The way you utilize these will affect the outcome of a gun fight. When entering a room, your options are limited. You are at a choke point and you can rush in or take your time. We were shown what many people call slicing the pie (slowly inch around cover while presenting as little of your body to the threat as possible). After you’ve cleared as much of the room possible without entering, dynamic entry was introduced by utilizing the retention positions covered earlier in the day.
There may be times where you need to get on the ground fast. Marc showed us a break fall technique that allows us to quickly get on the ground through a controlled fall to our back or side. Tucking your chin to your chest and tightening your core while falling on your back will allow you to drop to the ground without risking injury to the back of your head. Falling on your side is similar in contracting muscles to keep your head off the ground. After repeating these break fall techniques ten times each, we were shown a technique to quickly orient ourselves with our feet towards the threat, and shoot from the supine position.
Another topic covered was neuro linguistic programming, or NLP. This is something you truly have to experience as explaining it does not do it justice. This is a new school of thought for many firearms instructors and Jeff and Marc present it well. Again, you have to experience it.
Team tactics and communication were stressed in many different fashions as the day went on. Leap frogging cover to cover, and bounding while providing cover fire were demonstrated and executed very well. We ran these drills the better part of two hours as we incorporated much of what we had learned throughout the day.
When we had movement and cover squared away, applying self aid in the event of taking a round was introduced. Self application of a tourniquet was demonstrated and we were we off for more team movement. If we were firing from the same side of cover for too long, Marc would come by and announce where we were hit, and drop a tourniquet next to us. We had to call for cover from our team and apply the tourniquet, call when we were back up, and continue fighting through whatever injury we sustained. Strong and weak one handed shooting and manipulations came into play here as we continued to fight from cover to cover, reloading when necessary.
The low light portion of the class is where everything comes together. We did a preparatory run with the little daylight left on how we would not be using communication before moving to the next cover position. This ran smoothly and we waited for nightfall.
When sun was well over the horizon and the clouds had covered the moon, we began with the flashbulb technique. Light your target just long enough to identify them as a threat, extinguish the light and fire. Change your level and/or side of cover, flash, shoot, rinse and repeat. All this was done with no communication other than announcing “cover me!” if our gun went down or we were “injured.” It’s really something to see when flashes of light are followed by the flash of a muzzle, and no two shots coming from the sample place.
I thoroughly enjoyed this course as I brought home a lot of new skills to practice and scenarios to ponder. A weapon mounted light may be in my future after using Jeff’s Surefire x300 during a drill. I was sore the next day, but you take home as much effort as you put into the class. I went all out and really thought through the areas where I could improve from my own observations. Having the instructors staying at my house brought on some good discussion as well.
Don’t hesitate to train with the folks at Armed Dynamics. Ten hours is a long time to spend at the range, but everything is presented very well and you will retain the skills you took home if you pay your dues on them. That means practice.
If you have any questions feel free to ask!
Oh, and I don't do pics...so I made a video.
http://youtu.be/8pGWq49J--8
