AAR - 3 Rivers Tactical Training Solutions Concealed Carry Handgun July 6th

[John A Brown]

3 Rivers Tactical Training Solutions, Inc. (3T) held a 1 day Concealed Carry Handgun course this past Saturday, July 6th at that Beaver Valley Rifle and Pistol Club.

Weather

Ungodly hot and extremely humid. The sun was very bright almost all day and the fact that there is practically no shade on the range combined with the very high humidity made things very uncomfortable. For these reasons after doing several drills using various techniques to draw the handgun from concealment I had the students take their cover garments off, so when you see the students not wearing a cover garment, this is why. Some of the students brought jackets (some of which were black) to use as cover garments, which was only going to make them hotter than we already were. After making sure everyone had the fundamentals down regarding drawing from cover, I had the students take them off. The cover garments were an extra layer of clothing that nobody needed. I was honestly concerned about medical issues related to the heat and humidity and didn't want to make things worse than they already were.

It rained hard for about 10 minutes during our dinner break and I briefly hoped it would cool things off. It didn't. At all.

Students

We had a small class of 5 students. While this doesn't do much for the bottom line, it was nice to have a small group and really go into detail on some topics that is usually not possible with large groups.

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe all of the students are PAFOA members. M&PChris, Spectre6 and snowboarder814 were present. Paul and Joe - I don't know what your PAFOA screen names are.

Weapons

This class was all Glock except for one Springfield XD. If I'm not mistaken, all of the Glock's were G19's. This is my all time favorite handgun, and if I had to pick one gun I could own for the rest of my life, the Glock 19 would be it.

Everyone's guns ran great. No weapon issues to report.

We did have one Serpa holster in the class, much to my chagrin. Luckily, no problems with it.

The Class

We started off as always with our in depth safety and medical emergency briefings. This gets everyone on the same sheet of music regarding what is expected from everyone from a safety perspective and what to do if there is a medical emergency. We had zero safety or medical issues in this class.

After the safety and medical briefings, we spent some time talking about the use of deadly force in Pennsylvania and issues and concerns to those with a LTCF.

We moved into the fundamentals of handgun marksmanship and did some basic accuracy drills. I knew right away this was going to be a very good class. These guys were dialed in.

We spent a fair amount of time talking about reloads and malfunction clearing. I stress these constantly in all of my classes. Most people are reasonably accurate and can put the bullets where they intend. Where I see a significant gap in some students is getting the gun back into the fight when either a reload or malfunction clearing needs to occur. If there is one thing I see on a regular basis that separates those who have attended a formal training class in the past from those that have not, it's what I call "running the gun" or getting the gun back into the fight. It's a very new thing for those attending their first formal, professional training class. Everyone in this class did very well on both issues.

Below, Joe (left) engaging steel, while Spectre6 (right) conducts a reload. Good form by both.



Below, snowboarder814 in black and Joe in tan during the rhythm drills. Joe used his reloads during the class. No issues there, except they generated smoke. And a lot of it.



Below, M&PChris drawing his Glock 19 from concealment. Very good technique here. Note the towel in his left pants cargo pocket. This wasn't a decoration - it was for sweat. Did I mention it was hot?



Below, Spectre6 engaging his VTAC humanoid target after drawing from cover. See the black mark on the target? Um, that's not a black mark - it's a hole from a bunch of rounds hitting the same area. Good shooting for sure.



We ended the first half of our day with a short class on conducting one handed reloads and one handed malfunction clearing. This stuff is not rocket surgery. We are not splitting atoms or launching people into orbit. However, there is a bit to it and these are important skills to have. I think the students got a lot out of that brief class.

One of the things I do in just about every handgun class I teach is distance shooting. And not, 20, 25 yards is not distance shooting with a pistol. Distance shooting with a pistol to me is 75 yards +. Most folks are very surprised to find out that not only are pistol capable of that type of accuracy, but that they can do it. Every student in the class successfully hit steel at 65 yards. Almost all did so from 75 yards, and a few did from 94 yards.

Below, snowboarder814 hitting steel at 60 yards. His fiancé signed him up for the class as an engagement present. How cool is that?



Below, Paul also hitting steel from 60 yards. This was Paul's 3rd class with 3T. His improvement has been noticeable and significant.



Below, one more of Spectre6 hitting steel at 60 yards. Note the piece of brass in the air.



After the distance shooting the students engaged steel while seated at a table. As you can see in the pics below, all of the shooting and reloading was done while sitting. This drill is to simulate someone carrying a concealed handgun sitting at a table in a restaurant, or at an office desk, etc., etc. There is not need to stand up - it's nothing but a waste of time. Get the gun out and get to work.

Below, M&PChris and snowboarder814 (Toby) engaging steel while seated at a table. Note the empty magazine on the table in front of Chris from his reload. Toby is in the process of performing a reload. Magazine not seen.



Below, Joe on the left and Paul on the right doing the same. Paul is in the process of conducting a reload - his magazine is still falling to the table. Note the smoke from Joe's reloads.



Below, snowboarder814 engaging steel while Spectre6 (far) conducts a reload. Good technique by both.



The next drill we did was shooting from behind the wheel of a car, or more specifically, my SUV. This drill is to simulate a carjacking attempt while you are sitting at a red light. It's important to remember that if you ever find yourself in this position you best course of action is very likely to hit the gas and get out of there if possible. It was briefed that during this drill the driver was unable to get off of the X due to either a vehicle in front of them or cross traffic on the road.

After engaging 3 targets while sitting behind the wheel, each student had to exit the vehicle and engage all 3 targets again.

It was starting to get dark and some of these pics are not the best.

Below, M&PChris engaging threats from behind the wheel.



And engaging again after getting out of the vehicle.



Below, Spectre6 from behind the wheel.



And, Spectre6 conducting a reload from behind the wheel. Well done.



Below, snowboarder814 conducting a reload from behind the wheel.



And snowboarder814 engaging again after exiting the vehicle. Note the muzzle flash. Cool pic.



Paul engaging from behind wheel. Paul goes about 6'4" and is a big dude. He had no issues drawing and engaging from inside the vehicle. Well done.



Paul had no trouble conducting a reload either.



We ended our class with a night shoot exercise that all of the students said they liked. Shooting in the dark is something that nobody, no matter who you are, does enough of. The simple fact that it is dark makes simple tasks more difficult. I didn't get any pics of the night shoot because I was too busy watching the students.

This was a very, VERY good class. All of the students were above average for sure, and all did very, very well. As with any 1 day class, there was some stuff we didn't get to. I would've like to cover scanning and moving to cover as well as use of cover and concealment. There are only so many hours in the day and we just didn't get to some topics, which is one of the reasons why I prefer 2 day classes.

I'm thinking about making all of my 1 day classes 12 hours from now on in order to give everyone the most I can for their money.

Our next Concealed Carry Handgun class is scheduled for Sunday, September 22nd. You can sign up here - http://www.3riverstraining.com/news/...-carry-handgun

I welcome everyone's comments and questions.

John

www.3riverstraining.com

[M&P Chris]

Great class. Very hot but we didn't seem to break stride. We stayed well hydrated that's for sure.

I'll tell you what, I meet some of the nicest people at these training classes. Everybody was great, we gave positive reinforcement to each other and everybody was rock solid.

I had a great time with John and this bunch of guys. You can still have fun and not neglect safety, good learning and training. I believe being somewhat at ease improves my shooting.

I learned new things as well as continued practice on the fundamentals of using a handgun. I believe it's all about mastering the fundamentals.

Shooting while never leaving my seat was new to me. It's a very practical situation.

Shooting out of the vehicle was awesome! Very good training point as anybody could be in that situation.

The night shoot went pretty well for me. I noticed improvement in myself since my previous night training in John's tactical handgun course. Maybe I knew what I did wrong before.

It was a good day and I learned a lot. John's instructing approach keeps my attention and makes me want to keep trying to improve. Your character speaks volumes.

[slinkwc2k]

Looked awesome! Although I was out of state and couldn't attend, I'm saving my sheckles for the next low light class.

Can't tell from the pictures, but was anyone running night sights? I don't understand why carry guns like the XDs / M&P Shield / similar guns don't come with them from the factory. It just irkes me to no end! Ok, rant over...can't wait till September!

[M&P Chris]

Can't tell from the pictures, but was anyone running night sights?

Myself and Toby were running trijicon night sights and I believe there was glock factory NS in there also.

[Spectre6]

Agreed it was a great course and a bargain at 150. A very practical course with some vey good info and techniques. It was disgustingly hot, and rainy at times... I can't seem to remember the last time I trained in pleasant weather however.
Even with the gnarly heat the course was loads of fun and kept me on my toes.. I have never fired a pistol from behind the wheel and it was eye opening. Same with seated in a chair.

I have trained with some fairly 'high speed' individuals and the course that John offers has the same 'no bullshit' highly polished practical feel. John has arguably much more experience in this particular area (concealed carry) than many of the military instructors I have worked with, it was a great experience.

I did order a set of night sights for my glock 19 as soon as I got home..

[John A Brown]

Myself and Toby were running trijicon night sights and I believe there was glock factory NS in there also.

The benefit of night sights cannot be overstated in my book - particularly when replacing the cheap plastic sights on Glocks. Even if for some reason somebody doesn't like or want night sights, replacing the plastic sights on a Glock and going with steel sights is a must.

John

www.3riverstraining.com

[Spectre6]

I also sprung for the glock sight tool.. I had nice tight groups but they were all slightly to the left, which is why I suspect I could hit steel with 1 shot out to 60 yards.. then couldnt figure out the hold any further than that.

Im going to have to get a membership at the butler club, althought PMSC seems popular too.

[Johannes_Paulsen]

The benefit of night sights cannot be overstated in my book - particularly when replacing the cheap plastic sights on Glocks. Even if for some reason somebody doesn't like or want night sights, replacing the plastic sights on a Glock and going with steel sights is a must.

John

www.3riverstraining.com

Understand the value of night sights, but why go to the trouble of changing out the Glock stock sights for non-night sights?

[John A Brown]

Understand the value of night sights, but why go to the trouble of changing out the Glock stock sights for non-night sights?

Johannes,

I've had some people over the years tell my that they don't like night sights. Nobody has every been able to give me a good reason why, but some people insist that they just don't like them.

It makes absolutely no sense to me at all, but this is what some people think.

Personally, I think being able to see your sights in low light situations is a particularly good thing.

For those who just don't like (or refuse to see the value of) night sights, it's still a good idea to replace the cheap, stock plastic sights that come on Glocks with steel sights.

John

www.3riverstraining.com

[snowboarder814]

I had a great time at this course. John has a lot of real world experience, and is an amazing instructor.

This course was the first professional training course I have taken, and because of that I learned a lot. John has a no-bs style which at first can be intimidating, but as you spend more time with him, and receive coaching it is extremely valuable. He does not waste his time or your own. When demos were needed he gave them, when explanations were needed they were concise and clear. I did not feel that a single thing we did through out the day did not hold value. I learned something with each and every exercise and drill. John has spent years refining his teaching skills and it greatly shows. Amazingly enough alot of the correction and feedback i got from John was fairly simple. He did not try to correct a great many things, however he did correct a small number of basic things that were affecting everything, from my grip to my mindset. I cannot tell you the number of times I heard John throughout the day saying "Toby SLOW DOWN." That was exactly what i needed to hear. We were not trying to shoot as fast as possible, but instead develop cadence and accuracy, Which is something that I need to work on, and with the drills we ran I can do that on my own time.

Some of the most eye opening things were not even necessarily found on the range, but however in discussions during breaks. The concept of "there is no such thing as a miss, every bullet always hits something." This is something i had considered but never really spent any time thinking about. We also had a conversation about 100% accuracy 100% of the time being the standard for using your weapon when carrying.

We had many talks about equipment and gear. After John pointed out some bad habits i have I went home and practiced with my every day carry gear, to see if I could find the source of the problem. Lo and behold the IWB holster I have been using had caused me to get used to reholstering without a good grip on my gun. I would constantly move my thumb over to the back of my slide. I use a kydex/leather hybrid, and the leather had been collapsing on the space where the gun is supposed to be and caused the reholstering to be fairly hard. I have not yet fixed the problem, because it is something I am going to have to train to correct, but I have an all kydex holster on the way. Which is a step in the right direction.

All in all this was a great time. I had an awesome time. It was great getting to meet fellow shooters and learn alot in the process. I would very strongly recommend that everybody, repeat EVERYBODY, should take a course with John. I can not wait until the next course I take with him.

Toby