My background: I am a civilian with minimal formal training who has spent the last two years trying to figure things out for myself. This course represented my first formal firearms training beyond a basic responsibility course. As such, I approached it with as much of a beginners mind as possible. I have had some instruction from military friends and have read a lot. I consider myself a competent, though not excellent, static range shooter. I took the course to begin the process of learning to fight with a gun, to learn what to do when things do not go as planned, and to gain speed and accuracy. These outcomes were achieved and, more importantly, I learned a lot that I did not anticipate, which is the mark of a good course and great instructors.
My gear: Springfield XDM in 9mm. Raven Concealment holster. American Eagle 147 gr flat point FMJ ammunition.
Lead Instructor: Kevin Kerkam
Assistants: D. Dotson and J. Maret.
Facilities: West Coast Armory, Bellevue, Washington.
The two day, 18 hour course (http://www.insightstraining.com/view_course.asp?courseID=146) was to be my first formal firearms training and I had been looking forward to it since the spring (the birth of my daughter delayed things for a few months). With tight finances, this was to be my only formal training for the year and I wanted to maximize the experience as much as possible. The course met with the Basic Firearms course at the beginning to discuss fundamental safety rules and the basic positions (secured, at the ready, on target) for firearms. Range rules were covered in detail.
The GDH students the moved to an open bay, inside range. There were 13 students total. We introduced ourselves. Twelve of the thirteen were civilians. Glocks represented the majority of firearms (7), with XD or XDMs second (4), and one M&P and 1911 rounding things out. There was one .45 ACP and one .40 SW and the rest were chambered in 9mm, perhaps reflecting the current cost of ammunition.
Unfortunately the HVAC system was not running, which delayed shooting. The instructors covered most of the lecture material in lieu of shooting. Basic safety issues, including the standards, more in depth range rules, etc, were covered, though an excursion into lead safety (i.e, how to avoid ingesting it) provided welcome new material.
The instructors then covered the basics of holster/unholster, loading and unloading procedures at the range, tactical reloads, immediate action drills (i.e, tap, rack, bang), and remedial action drills (i.e, to clear a double feed; lock the slide, rip the magazine, work the action).
After an hour lunch break, we returned to the classroom for more discussion. A nice lecture on the integrate act of firing then took place. The Insights staff are very detail oriented, though I have a lack of other courses to compare them to. It was clear, though, that they wanted you to understand why you were doing something rather than expecting you to simply repeat their movements. This, as a new student, is important to me. The integrated act of firing consisted of: Stance (slighted bladed fighting stance, equal length arms), grip (modern thumbs forward, fill up as much of the grip), sight alignment, and trigger press. The trigger press segment included a new idea to me, the “surprise break”. That is, the trigger slowly moves to the rear with you not sure when it will break, but confident that it will eventually. This was a common theme in the course: Do things slowly and well at first. Once you’ve gotten the idea and can work the skill then, and only then, try to speed up.
The HVAC system thankfully was fixed by the early afternoon and we returned to the range to practice some basic skills. There were three instructors for 13 students, which represents an excellent teacher-student ratio. With two rotations of firing, this mean that each instructor only had two students to work with and, as a result, there was a lot of one on one time with the instructors. Information is freely available online. Individualized instruction with experts is not.
The drills, no matter which ones, consisted of 6 rounds fired with a tactical reload at the end. All shooting was done at 7 yards. I do not know the name of the target, but it consisted in five oval “dots”, measuring approximating 8 inches tall by 6 inches wide. The drills began with slow fire for groups and progressed to 2 on 1 (i.e, 2 rounds on 1 dot). Shooting was done from the on target position (i.e, arms extended) and from the ready (i.e, low ready, extend outward, shoot). After a few rotations, we worked on combining the presentation of the firearm with trigger manipulation. I was unsure of the effectiveness of this at first, but under the over all philosophy (on target is for shooting and hence if you have made the decision to be on target, you have already made the decision to shoot) it made sense.
We worked on the presentation of the firearm: No bowling motions, no casting motions. The ideal was a sharp J-shape rather than a linear or rectilinear motion. Trigger reset was discussed and we worked to get to reset as quickly as possible ONLY AFTER practicing getting there as slowly as possible.
We then re-convened with the basic class to discuss common issues. First and foremost was an informative and interesting lecture on surviving a confrontation. The Insights staff taught that there are four components. The first, and vastly most important, was mindset. We were encouraged to formulate our own “mission statement” for why we would carry or use a firearm. I thought this was an excellent idea and one that I’ve tried to do for all of my firearms (i.e, why do I want to own this particular firearm?). I had never thought to try to formally explain in a short sentence why I would carry a firearm. Three types of battles were discussed: Physical, legal, psychological. An extended discussion of situational awareness ensued. After mindset was thoroughly discussed, the second major component was tactics. This was a much shorter discussion due to time and space limitations. Skill was the third lowest down and what we were currently working on. Last in importance, though still important, was the most talked about and least relevant “equipment.” More would follow on the second day about this.
The first day ended with a lecture on legal issues. Although a repetition of what I had learned in my only previous course (different outfit), it was useful to hear about shoot-no shoot issues once again. I left the first day feeling edified, but not entirely content with the course due to the lack of shooting. I fired, I believe, 70 rounds with little individualized instruction. That was to change, and change dramatically, on the second day.
Day two commenced almost immediately with shooting. Again, all drills were done in rotation (7 students followed by 6 students) and were 6 rounds total. The idea was not to get locked into just shooting. Rather, they wanted us to focus on the skill and not just in blasting away. All drills (until the very end) had a tactical reload at the end. Drills included slow fire, two on one (two shots on one target), one on two (one shot each on two targets). During this last an emphasis was placed on using recoil to bump the point of aim to the second target and to reset the trigger during recoil recovery. Drills were done from on target, from low ready, and from the draw. We were required to put a plastic training cartridge in each magazine so that an immediate action drill would be required with each cycle. As my accuracy was good, I was encouraged to increase my speed even though I might stray from the dots. I found it difficult to get perfect sight alignment at the increased speed and found myself putting rounds on target faster, but with slightly less accuracy. I was surprised that my shots were not more off as I would rarely have the sights perfectly aligned before firing. At the increased pace, two or three out of every 18 rounds would be outside of the dots, but I seemed to be getting shots of before the other students. Although my speed definitely increased, I do not have the background to judge if the corresponding decrease in accuracy outweighs this.
After a solid three hours of shooting, we returned to the classroom for a discussion on handgun selection. Four issues were emphasized: Reliability (defined as 1:1000 stoppage ratio), good sights (night sights were demoted to low on the list of things to spend money on), trigger (a discernible reset, along with smoothness, was important) and quality fit and finish (no sharp edges, for example). A short discussion on holsters followed before we returned to the range for more practice.
At the range we worked on remedial action drills: How to clear a double feed. The instructors emphasized a “no diagnostic” approach to fixing a malfunction. The idea was that the time spent in diagnosing the problem could be better spent using a few techniques to try to fix it. In the case of any stoppage other than being out of ammo, a tap-rack (i.e, immediate action) drill was first. If the gun fails to go bang, remedial action is called for: Lock the slide to the rear, rip the magazine, work the action. Then re-insert the magazine, rack it, and fire. We practiced this only briefly. I need to work on this on my own. We then practiced speed reloads, which ended up quite a bit faster and easier than either a tactical reload or remedial action. The morning finished with a numbers drill in which the lead instructors called out numbers and we put rounds on the relevant target(s) as quickly as we could.
After lunch we returned to the beginning with fundamentals: Slow fire, 2 on 1, 1 on 2, from the on target position. Then we repeated the drills from ready. And finally from the holster. I lost track of all the drills at this point because I was shooting and then hustling to reload before my time came again. Hence, a lack of notes. But this is good! We finished off the first afternoon session with a drill whose name sounds like “Farm Drill”. Not sure if that is what it is. You start with a a magazine with 1 round chambered and 5 in a magazine, one of which is a plastic training round. You have a second magazine with 3 rounds. The idea is to put all 5 rounds in the first mag on target, clearing the malfunction along the way, do a speed reload, and put the remaining 3 rounds on target in 15 seconds or less. I liked this drill quite a bit.
We then adjourned to the classroom for another lecture on ballistics, which was also excellent. The inadequacies of any handgun cartridge for quickly stopping a fight (short of a lucky CNS shot) was emphasized. Hence, put multiple rounds on target, accurately, and expect incoming fire. Better not to get in a gun fight in the first place! The ballistics lecture also covered rifle and shotgun rounds.
We returned for more drills, then another brief administrative segment in the classroom, followed by a final shooting segment with voice commands.
In the end, I fired 550 rounds of ammunition. To my knowledge, no one in the class experienced a malfunction with their pistol, though a few people had magazine issues. I had two failures to lock open on empty. I had three lock opens when NOT on empty. I suspect this was my strong side thumb interacting with things somehow.
As a beginning student I especially appreciated the amount of time that we had with the instructors. On the second day we had four instructors for the 13 students, which allowed three to teach and one to perform the drill. This allowed those of us not shooting to watch the instructor perform the drill (as we reloaded). I came away very impressed with the staff and curricula at Insights and only wish that I had more funds for another course this year. I am hoping to take their General Defensive Rifle in the winter or spring and perhaps their Unarmed Combat course as well.