Hammer67
Professional
I just wrapped up attending the Revolver Roundup at Gunsite this year - 2-1/2 days of some of the best defensive wheelgun training you can sign up for these days. Instructors this year were Daryl Bolke, Wayne Dobbs, Chuck Haggard, Lou Gosnell, Brian Eastridge, Mark Fricke, Caleb Giddings, Cecil Burch, Dave Dolan and Eric Gellhausen. If you know these names, you know that these are some of the most well-regarded instructors in the country, with deep knowledge and experience with revolvers and well beyond. This training opportunity has grown in popularity every year, and there were right around 100 people signed up for it this year. I was also pleased to see that it wasn't just a bunch of 'old dudes' - there were a healthy number of younger folks as well, and some of those younger folks were damn good with a wheelgun. Maybe revolvers aren't a dying art after all?
Given the size of this event, there were 5-6 different classes offered at any one time, with 3 time slots on Saturday, 4 time slots on Sunday and two time slots on Monday morning. This gave everyone plenty of opportunities to work on a variety of different topics with different instructors - much of it range based, but also some presentation classes, discussion and history thrown in as well.
If you've never been to Gunsite, I'll just say it lives up to its stellar reputation. It truly is a top-notch training facility, where everything is well-organized and professional, and the place just oozes history. Colonel Cooper's legacy is everywhere you look, along with many other pioneers of the modern training movement who spent time here.
I started Saturday morning working with Gosnell and Gellhausen on room clearing techniques. Excellent class and a good reminder that solo house clearing is something I don't ever want to have to do unless there's no other choice.
Then it was off to "Shooting from Concealment with Bolke and Dolan. This involved discussion of various concealment techniques and then the rest of the class was live fire. Given that many (most?) ranges in the country don't allow shooters to draw from a holster, much less concealment, this was a great opportunity to experiment with what works and what doesn't. Folks were allowed to shoot live from a variety of concealment locations, e.g. an OWB holster hidden under a jacket to deep concealment AIWB.
While I didn't get any pics at my last session on Saturday, it was "Intro to PPC" with Brian Eastridge. Brian is a highly accomplished competitive shooter, in addition to previously serving as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and then full-time LEO in Oklahoma. He also co-hosts the "Primary - Secondary" podcast. Brian's skill with a revolver has to be seen to be believed, and his deep historical knowledge, especially of S&W wheelguns is worth listening to.
Sunday morning I started with "Timed Revolver Manipulations" with Mark Fricke. As the name suggests, this involved a variety of reloading techniques combined with live fire and an emphasis on marksmanship, while on the clock. A good reminder of how timers add stress to situations, and there were a number of fumbled reloads (esp. with speed strips) as a result. Mark is a great guy and an excellent instructor. This one also had me so busy that there was no time for taking pics, but it was a great class.
Then it was off to "Timed Revolver Marksmanship" with Wayne Dobbs, which I'm just going to say up from was an ass kicker. And Wayne has very high standards for precision shooting. We were using B-8 targets and nothing outside the black counted. Trying to get everything inside the black with a snubby at 10-15 yards will quickly tell you where your skills are at, and was honestly humbling for many of us.
Sunday afternoon I attended Bolke's "Pocket Carry" class which started off with some great history from Daryl's own experience, and that of many others he worked with in SoCal doing undercover work, and the various techniques for deep concealment that they employed, and the pocket holster designs that developed out of that. The latter half of the class was live shooting from pocket carry, one handed and two-handed, at realistic contact distances. I really enjoyed and got a lot out of this class, and any time spent downloading Daryl's vast knowledge is time very well spent.
I finished Sunday sitting in on Chuck Haggard's "Low Light Shooting Techniques" which was excellent. If you have an opportunity to train with Chuck, don't hesitate. His resume speaks for itself, and trust that you aren't getting a bunch of theoretical BS - you're getting firsthand knowledge of what works and what doesn't from one of the best in the industry.
The final morning was something I was really looking forward to: "Ballistic Testing" with Haggard and Fricke. This is something they have been doing every year at this event, and Fricke has been extensively tabulating the results to develop a great database of many different defensive revolver loads and how they perform out of a variety of different barrel lengths.
My current defensive load - Underwood .38+P 125gr. Gold Dot (no longer made). I was pleasantly surprised to see how it performed out of a 2" barrel, esp. in comparison to many of the other options:
All loads were run through a chronograph into ballistic gel, with measurements taken for speed, penetration and expansion (and notes in regard to any fragmentation, etc). For the popular loads, they were also shot out of 2", 3" and 4" barrels with differences in performance noted. The results are quite eye-opening and informative and gave us lots to think about in selecting defensive loads, esp. for snubbies. They also accepted defensive rounds from the participants for testing as well. I could have stayed doing this class for hours and nerding out on ballistics, but had pry myself away to hit the road Monday afternoon.
This has already been long, so thanks for reading if you made it this far. I'll keep the summary short - if you are interested in defensive revolvers, this is THE event to attend. You won't find better instruction from better, more experienced wheelgunners anywhere else in the country at this point in time. It is worth every penny, and I'm seriously thinking about doing it again next year.
Given the size of this event, there were 5-6 different classes offered at any one time, with 3 time slots on Saturday, 4 time slots on Sunday and two time slots on Monday morning. This gave everyone plenty of opportunities to work on a variety of different topics with different instructors - much of it range based, but also some presentation classes, discussion and history thrown in as well.
If you've never been to Gunsite, I'll just say it lives up to its stellar reputation. It truly is a top-notch training facility, where everything is well-organized and professional, and the place just oozes history. Colonel Cooper's legacy is everywhere you look, along with many other pioneers of the modern training movement who spent time here.
I started Saturday morning working with Gosnell and Gellhausen on room clearing techniques. Excellent class and a good reminder that solo house clearing is something I don't ever want to have to do unless there's no other choice.
Then it was off to "Shooting from Concealment with Bolke and Dolan. This involved discussion of various concealment techniques and then the rest of the class was live fire. Given that many (most?) ranges in the country don't allow shooters to draw from a holster, much less concealment, this was a great opportunity to experiment with what works and what doesn't. Folks were allowed to shoot live from a variety of concealment locations, e.g. an OWB holster hidden under a jacket to deep concealment AIWB.
While I didn't get any pics at my last session on Saturday, it was "Intro to PPC" with Brian Eastridge. Brian is a highly accomplished competitive shooter, in addition to previously serving as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and then full-time LEO in Oklahoma. He also co-hosts the "Primary - Secondary" podcast. Brian's skill with a revolver has to be seen to be believed, and his deep historical knowledge, especially of S&W wheelguns is worth listening to.
Sunday morning I started with "Timed Revolver Manipulations" with Mark Fricke. As the name suggests, this involved a variety of reloading techniques combined with live fire and an emphasis on marksmanship, while on the clock. A good reminder of how timers add stress to situations, and there were a number of fumbled reloads (esp. with speed strips) as a result. Mark is a great guy and an excellent instructor. This one also had me so busy that there was no time for taking pics, but it was a great class.
Then it was off to "Timed Revolver Marksmanship" with Wayne Dobbs, which I'm just going to say up from was an ass kicker. And Wayne has very high standards for precision shooting. We were using B-8 targets and nothing outside the black counted. Trying to get everything inside the black with a snubby at 10-15 yards will quickly tell you where your skills are at, and was honestly humbling for many of us.
Sunday afternoon I attended Bolke's "Pocket Carry" class which started off with some great history from Daryl's own experience, and that of many others he worked with in SoCal doing undercover work, and the various techniques for deep concealment that they employed, and the pocket holster designs that developed out of that. The latter half of the class was live shooting from pocket carry, one handed and two-handed, at realistic contact distances. I really enjoyed and got a lot out of this class, and any time spent downloading Daryl's vast knowledge is time very well spent.
I finished Sunday sitting in on Chuck Haggard's "Low Light Shooting Techniques" which was excellent. If you have an opportunity to train with Chuck, don't hesitate. His resume speaks for itself, and trust that you aren't getting a bunch of theoretical BS - you're getting firsthand knowledge of what works and what doesn't from one of the best in the industry.
The final morning was something I was really looking forward to: "Ballistic Testing" with Haggard and Fricke. This is something they have been doing every year at this event, and Fricke has been extensively tabulating the results to develop a great database of many different defensive revolver loads and how they perform out of a variety of different barrel lengths.
My current defensive load - Underwood .38+P 125gr. Gold Dot (no longer made). I was pleasantly surprised to see how it performed out of a 2" barrel, esp. in comparison to many of the other options:
All loads were run through a chronograph into ballistic gel, with measurements taken for speed, penetration and expansion (and notes in regard to any fragmentation, etc). For the popular loads, they were also shot out of 2", 3" and 4" barrels with differences in performance noted. The results are quite eye-opening and informative and gave us lots to think about in selecting defensive loads, esp. for snubbies. They also accepted defensive rounds from the participants for testing as well. I could have stayed doing this class for hours and nerding out on ballistics, but had pry myself away to hit the road Monday afternoon.
This has already been long, so thanks for reading if you made it this far. I'll keep the summary short - if you are interested in defensive revolvers, this is THE event to attend. You won't find better instruction from better, more experienced wheelgunners anywhere else in the country at this point in time. It is worth every penny, and I'm seriously thinking about doing it again next year.
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