I recently had the chance to attend Pat Goodale’s Advanced Handgun class at his tactical training facility in Lewisburg, WV. Pat is a top notch instructor who over the years I have had the honor of training under. With over 35 years of experience in the field of operations, training and PSD to his name, Pat’s resume is too extensive to list here, but a short bio is listed on the school’s website www.pgpft.com , as well as, a video and slide show of the facility that is currently in production and should be posted soon.
The Advanced Handgun Class is a three day format with two night shoots for a combined training time of approximately 32 hours starting at 0900 on Friday and lasting till 1900 on Sunday with the round count being 1100-1400 rounds per shooter. This depends on how many luxury rounds a shooter likes to send down range during scenario training and problem solving. With Pat’s extensive use of steel targets during his training programs he requires HITS on the threat not Shots at the threat, so many shooters of all skill levels find themselves challenged at times and finding that reckless pulling of the trigger may sound good on a paper range but is expensive on the reactive targets used at PFT. I say expensive not because of ammo prices but because of Pat’s use of “reminders” to aid the shooters in refocusing their attention on the hits (more on this later).
Starting on Day One Pat does a standard range accountability briefing that includes his preferred range commands, introductions to his training aids, safety on the range brief and the forecast for the following days of training. Pat doesn’t waste time in the classroom with this level of shooter and to even be in this class you have either been shooting with Pat in previous handgun classes (1 and 2) or another respected instructor/school that teaches tactics at an advanced level. This is not a “front sight, trigger press” school and other than the PFT Basic Warm-up there is little time devoted to marksmanship practice. After the in brief and gear up we moved to the paper line to find the standard IPSC targets waiting for us to get a skills evaluation and warm-up in.
Starting at the 5 yard line we immediately went to work out of the holsters with shooters responding in proper order to Pat’s “THREAT!” command as the initiator for the drills. Balance between speed and accuracy is pushed anytime paper is being hole-punched during this class with an open hand being the standard form of measurement for marksmanship. Shooters slowing down and driving one round on top of another is pretty redundant and throwing useless rounds down-range by trying to go to fast and missing the mark is immediately identified and discouraged, even harassing the offending shooter at times. Finding each shooter’s balance is key for the days to come as stress is induced and fatigue starts to set in to all the shooters bodies and minds. The morning drills take us back to the 40 yard line and keeping all rounds fired under that open hand group size. At five we are hammering and most shooters in the class putting pairs into the threat in under 2 seconds from the holster and running around 3-6 seconds at the back end. It may not sound like much but when you consider half the class is shooting from concealment, a couple of compact and sub-compact Glocks and one H&K 2000, with everyone keeping inside the standard creates an eye opener for the challenges facing the shooters in the days to come.
On a side note about gear; none of the shooters attending came decked out in full kit. This course while not specifically designed for any one environment and most of the students attending this class were civilian shooters of the highest caliber and they carry their sidearms concealed everyday and they know this is how they need to train. Most everyone on the line had their standard carry gun with the addition of a few extra magazines to keep the guns fed for the extended time on the line. With the temps being in the 40-50s most everyone found themselves shooting from concealment and gloves during many iterations of the program.
Sometime around 1130-1200 we moved to the quarter size steel line at 10 yards and went to work on getting speed and accuracy pushed to the next level. A quarter size steel is essentially the A and B zones of a standard IPSC target and is the main target for used at PFT for Advanced Handgun classes. At this point the rounds are going down fast the exercises are coming out almost as fast as we can complete them, scan and access, re-holster and listen to the next command. This is the point when things start to pick up and move at a higher speed which builds the momentum for the coming days.
After a quick lunch break we moved over and start working on vehicle exits and fighting off multiple adversaries that are surrounding the vehicle forcing the shooter to use the vehicle as cover and learning where the best spots of cover are on the vehicle and learning to stay away from windows, doors and any other non bullet stopping parts of the vehicles. Currently Pat has 5 different vehicles on the range to train with and discourages students from adding holes to them during training which is an important lesson in bore/sight alignment for new shooters that have never shot from behind cover/concealment.
With 11 shooters in the class Pat breaks the class up during many of the single shooter evolutions so that nobody is waiting around for more than a few minutes to shoot an evolution getting bored and feeling like they are paying money to watch other people shoot. This is where his facility really comes into its’ own. PFT has multiple ranges, berms and target arrays allowing up to four groups of shooters to be training if needed. With Pat and his adjunct instructors working on multiple scenarios at any one time training seems to never stop and there was barely a chance within the three days to get cold let alone bored with a lull in the training.
PFT has a great selection of movers and target options for training and Pat’s recent improvements on the range have now brought several moving targets into a separate range that has you working around vehicles and shooting up to 5 different movers in one scenario. The thing about Pat’s movers is that he loads them up with balloons and you are not simply sending rounds down range while you “look good” doing it.
Note: By this time Pat and his RSOs have figured out everyone’s skill level and the balloons are blown up to the appropriate cup size and inserted into a standard military green backer. So if you are spot on through the drills and pushing the envelope you can expect to have B and C cup size balloons to blow out of a moving target from 15 to 20 yards away while working behind a vehicle or other forms of cover/concealment.
Class broke for chow around 1730 and the 1st of two night shoots started at 1900 with a short reminder of the basics of night fighting tactics and theory then off to the line for a skills eval and scenario training. Many of the drills for the first night shoot are re-runs of the daytime events with target changes, low light fighting techniques, and plunging temperatures.
Day two kicked off with the PFT Warm-up and close quarters fighting. While many instructors consider 3-5 yards as a CQB environment so that their students can assume a solid shooting stance and continue to work at full arms extension, Pat puts you within arm’s length and you work that threat from the holster with the gun never leaving the position of retention and even performing strikes and hold-offs with your support hand and fighting your way out of the danger zone.
From this point forward we worked through more problem solving evolutions than I can notate here, but I can assure you that all 12 shooters were pushed to the limits of their individual ability and reminders of cane hits, air-soft, and even a stun-gun knife were used to remind shooters that sticking your foot out from behind cover is a target indicator for the bad guy.
Rolling into a hardcore night fire including navigating a 360 degree shoot house, movers, vertical and step wall cover and plate racks while working light and gun as one, leaves everyone in the class dragging ass by day’s end and looking forward to a warm hotel room and something to eat.
Day three has more than a few highlights but I will focus on one in particular and it goes like this… Shooter is flat on his back and 15 yards from two steel targets. Instructors pile on to the shooter and while holding arms, legs and body down the go signal is given. Now you fight! You fight with all you’ve got. Of course you don’t move much. But there is a huge adrenaline dump and after 15-30 seconds later the holders scatter and you have to gain your situational awareness, recover to some form of a fighting position and engage the steel threats down range. While hopefully moving and getting out of the area.
The Level 3 Handgun is a challenge to all levels of shooters and no matter your operating environment you will definitely find your time and money well spent working with Pat and his crew at Practical Firearms Training. With the main facility in Lewisburg, WV and other facilities in the Billings are of Montana Pat is sure to have a class on the schedule close enough for many to seek out this solid program.
Tac
