BassCliff
Professional
Greetings my friends,
It's going to be a glorious day today. The skies are clear and there is snow left on the local mountain tops from the recent rain. Today I attended another Handgun Skill Builder Workshop at the Lytle Creek Firing Line. It was a pleasant drive up the hill.
I took a lot of pictures today. I will be leaving soon and wanted to take some memories with me, like "the old man of the mountain" on the way up.
It was a balmy 54° when I arrived at the range gate about 10 minutes before they opened.
I pulled into our training bay and set up shop. I missed this class two weeks ago because I was in Vegas.
The coach had set up a line of targets for us. After some self-defense discussion regarding blocking attacks, defending our firearm, and light physical demonstrations, we'll start our shooting drills.
Our first drill was walking the line, shooting the targets as instructed, always on the move.
The second drill was similar only the coach would call out two or three targets at a time ("Red! Seven! Steel!") that we had to shoot in order. They might be in front, they might be behind. Eyes scanning, head moving, feet walking, hitting targets, etc, all at the same time. We did these drills walking in both directions. Yes, we even got to shoot at some steel. Good stuff.
The next exercise was more close quarters. We stood just two or three yards in front of our target, facing away.
The drill was to take one step forward, draw, and shoot backwards without turning around.
We were coached to get the elbow up high first then the arm would follow. The more your could bend at the waist the better sight picture you could get. I did a few dry runs to get comfortable with the procedure before my live fire runs. In four runs I got three in the dot and one at the top of the paper. This is something I can dry fire practice at home, just in case I ever need this skill.
Then we set up our moving target with "bystander" targets to avoid.
The first run at this we would start in the center of the line and engage the target when safe to do so. We could walk back and forth up and down the line if we wanted. Some students would "stand and deliver". I did a little "scoot and shoot" just because I needed the practice.
Here's the bad guy after we were done with him. The hits with three eyelashes are mine. I didn't hit the dot but I got all mine on the cardboard.
The second run with the moving target was from behind cover/concealment. We used all of the openings, even the one on the ground. After I slid down to take a few shot from the ground the coach said, "I'll bet you played baseball." Yes, I did. We practiced "slicing the pie", presenting as small of a target as possible through the windows, even changing hands with our pistol when necessary. Coach showed us a way to slide our thumbs over to the other side of the pistol while maintaining a firm grip. Then we could use our off-hand trigger finger. All the other support fingers would stay the same. It felt a little weird and will take more practice, for all of us.
After we picked up our brass I made my way back down the hill. I took a lot of pictures of this view because you don't get these in Wisconsin.
I came home with a lot of full magazines. I didn't shoot as much as I thought I would, only about 100 rounds today. I unloaded the mags, refreshed the numbers on them, and put the unspent WWB bullets in the used Remington and PMC boxes. Those boxes were empty because I shot those first.
Now we've got a nice, clean barrel. I'm getting a little lazy lately, cleaning this pistol every second or third range trip.
I used to clean it after every range trip. I always clean it before I practice with my laser cartridge. I just can't stick my laser cartridge in a dirty gun. (LOL!)
It looks like we will be accepting an offer on our house today. I should still be able to attend this workshop a couple more times before we leave. I sure am going to miss this training and these fellow students. They are a great bunch of folks.
Thanks for coming along today. I hope your training is going well.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
It's going to be a glorious day today. The skies are clear and there is snow left on the local mountain tops from the recent rain. Today I attended another Handgun Skill Builder Workshop at the Lytle Creek Firing Line. It was a pleasant drive up the hill.
I took a lot of pictures today. I will be leaving soon and wanted to take some memories with me, like "the old man of the mountain" on the way up.
It was a balmy 54° when I arrived at the range gate about 10 minutes before they opened.
I pulled into our training bay and set up shop. I missed this class two weeks ago because I was in Vegas.
The coach had set up a line of targets for us. After some self-defense discussion regarding blocking attacks, defending our firearm, and light physical demonstrations, we'll start our shooting drills.
Our first drill was walking the line, shooting the targets as instructed, always on the move.
The second drill was similar only the coach would call out two or three targets at a time ("Red! Seven! Steel!") that we had to shoot in order. They might be in front, they might be behind. Eyes scanning, head moving, feet walking, hitting targets, etc, all at the same time. We did these drills walking in both directions. Yes, we even got to shoot at some steel. Good stuff.
The next exercise was more close quarters. We stood just two or three yards in front of our target, facing away.
The drill was to take one step forward, draw, and shoot backwards without turning around.
We were coached to get the elbow up high first then the arm would follow. The more your could bend at the waist the better sight picture you could get. I did a few dry runs to get comfortable with the procedure before my live fire runs. In four runs I got three in the dot and one at the top of the paper. This is something I can dry fire practice at home, just in case I ever need this skill.
Then we set up our moving target with "bystander" targets to avoid.
The first run at this we would start in the center of the line and engage the target when safe to do so. We could walk back and forth up and down the line if we wanted. Some students would "stand and deliver". I did a little "scoot and shoot" just because I needed the practice.
Here's the bad guy after we were done with him. The hits with three eyelashes are mine. I didn't hit the dot but I got all mine on the cardboard.
The second run with the moving target was from behind cover/concealment. We used all of the openings, even the one on the ground. After I slid down to take a few shot from the ground the coach said, "I'll bet you played baseball." Yes, I did.
We practiced "slicing the pie", presenting as small of a target as possible through the windows, even changing hands with our pistol when necessary. Coach showed us a way to slide our thumbs over to the other side of the pistol while maintaining a firm grip. Then we could use our off-hand trigger finger. All the other support fingers would stay the same. It felt a little weird and will take more practice, for all of us.
After we picked up our brass I made my way back down the hill. I took a lot of pictures of this view because you don't get these in Wisconsin.
I came home with a lot of full magazines. I didn't shoot as much as I thought I would, only about 100 rounds today. I unloaded the mags, refreshed the numbers on them, and put the unspent WWB bullets in the used Remington and PMC boxes. Those boxes were empty because I shot those first.
Now we've got a nice, clean barrel. I'm getting a little lazy lately, cleaning this pistol every second or third range trip.
I used to clean it after every range trip. I always clean it before I practice with my laser cartridge. I just can't stick my laser cartridge in a dirty gun. (LOL!)
It looks like we will be accepting an offer on our house today. I should still be able to attend this workshop a couple more times before we leave. I sure am going to miss this training and these fellow students. They are a great bunch of folks.
Thanks for coming along today. I hope your training is going well.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
