Date May 26,27 2012
ClassRedBack One 2 day Tactical Pistol
InstructorJason Falla
LocationBirchwood Shoot and Recreation Park, Chugiak, AK
WeatherCloudy in the 50’s on May 26. Raining and high 40’s on May 27.
Equipment used by author Springfield XDm .40 S&W with PRP trigger, Bladetech Paddle holster, UMC 180 gr ammo, 6 magazines, Crossbreed leather belt.
Rounds fired725
This was my second class with Jason Falla and RB1. My first, RB’s Basic Pistol, was in October of 2011. I thoroughly enjoyed my first class with Jason in October. My prior training had been in the early 90’s. For lack of a better term, my prior classes taught the more “old school” methods taught at the time for 1911 pistols. Jason’s more “modern” methods I was introduced to in the Basic class really made sense to me and I eagerly signed up for this class.
I am glad to see that Redback 1 has responded to the need for high level training in Alaska. There were 17 students in this class and roughly half the class was returning students from the basic class.
Our class started with an introduction of Jason’s qualifications. The exact details can be found on his webpage and Facebook page. We then did rollcall and sign-in. His classes do not allow photography, video or audio recording of the actual instruction. He had an “official” photographer for this class and hopefully pictures will be up soon on his Facebook page. We were moving so fast and the weather was so crappy that my camera didn’t come out for the non-instruction down time.
From the get-go it was obvious that Jason wants things to roll along quickly. The safety briefing was swift and concise. Jason has a huge desire to give you your money’s worth in one of his classes. The bullshit was kept to a minimum and his stories had a point to them, not just another war story. His leadership set the tone for the class and things moved along quickly. You found yourself wanting to hustle and keep your mouth shut because Jason never stops instructing or moving. The harder you work, the harder he works.
He performed a review of the equipment carried by the students in the class. We had a brief discussion of equipment decisions. Jason is careful to not belittle equipment choices unless it’s unsafe in some way. He wants you to come to class and learn for yourself what works and what doesn’t.
Day one consisted of working on fundamentals, slower precision shooting, working on our presentations, reloads and immediate action drills. Each section was started with a brief lecture and demonstration of the skill by Jason.
My greatest failure of the weekend was clearing a failure to extract jamb (double feed). He forced us to do the drill under a timer and I choked so bad that I wanted to throw up when I was done. I dropped magazines twice and fucked up in every way a guy could. It wasn’t until the next day that I came to grips with the fact that that is exactly why we go to classes. Jason loves to say if you don’t fail in training you will never learn anything and he is absolutely right.
We ended up day one with a race. It was kind of similar to the “three blind mice” M4 drill. We raced man on man to three handguns with different types of immediate action issues laying on the ground, cleared the issue, fired one round on target, emptied the firearm and then moved on to the next one. First guy to clear his three weapons and finish won. I actually pulled my head out of my ass on this one and beat the guy I was running against.
Day one ended at 8:00pm. For 11 hours of instruction (hour lunch). I was a hurting unit when I stumbled into my hotel room. We were told to bring a lunch for the next day.
Day 2 started at 7 am. At that point it was lightly raining and in the mid 40’s F for a temp.
I was surprised to find out that Jason’s Tactical pistol class included basic instruction in hand to hand combat and combat medical.
We started the morning learning basic techniques in hand to hand combat. We paired off with similar sized guys and spent some time learning some basic techniques of throat strikes and head control. We then learned to control a fight to the ground and how to dominate on the ground. Through it all Jason gave lectures on proper mindset and how fights are always dirty. I haven’t been in a fight in over 20 years, so this was a tough part, physically, for me. We rolled around in the wet grass for a couple hours.
We then progressed to close contact drills of fending off an attacker, blocking his attack, drawing your side arm, and shooting him. We moved this training to the range and practiced on target frames. This then progressed to live fire close contact shooting, breaking contact and continuing to place rounds on the target. We also practiced immediate actions if your pistol fails after the first round fired at contact range. Using your firearm to strike the head while breaking contact.
By this point the rain was heavy and the crushed gravel/mud was puddling up. Of course that was the time to move to barricades. We practiced strong side and support side (standing and kneeling) than roll over prone shooting under the barriers. Nobody wussed out and we were all thoroughly covered in mud and dirt by this point. Everyone’s gear, pistols and mags were thoroughly dirty at this point.
This was the moment I learned my first lesson. I performed a reload while prone. That empty mag holder than got a large amount of small rocks and mud in it while laying on my side. With a lull in the action I moved my mags forward one position (as we were taught). While sinking the mag into my now gravel filled front mag holder I shoved down hard enough to seat small rocks under the feed lips of the mag. The next reload resulted in a failure to feed as a handgun is not designed to feed rocks. I dropped that mag and went to my next one without skipping a beat and once the drill was done I discovered the issue. Let me just say that you have to do some interesting “dancing” to shake wet sand and rocks out of mag holders that are laced into your pants belt 
without having to remove all your kit.
Lunch was thankfully in a warm room (we were all thoroughly soaked at this point). We spent the time listening to Jason lecture on a basic combat applications of tourniquets and other emergency medical treatments in relation to gunshot wounds. It really was a good introduction to encourage serious shooters to consider getting additional medical training.
We then returned to the range and worked on first shot speed from the draw. We spent a bit of time shooting drills to teach us how far a proper sight picture can be sacrificed to get solid hits at short range. We then worked on our fast shooting with an emphasis on not sacrificing accuracy for speed.
We next practiced one handed shooting, draws, mag changes and clearing malfunctions with both strong and support hands.
The final part of day 2 was spent shooting an abbreviated “standard” to see how well we’d progressed.
We ended Day 2 at around 7pm for 12 hours of instruction.
Other than the gravel induced failure to feed, my pistol once again ran flawlessly. The biggest source of failures were ammo induced and I will let other students comment on that.
I loved this course. It was challenging and well run. Jason actually improved on his teaching style since last class. His pace was rapid, but not so rapid that you were overwhelmed. He worked hard for his money and we crammed essentially 3 days of training into 2. The lack of rounds downrange was more than made up for in the additional training received in hand to hand combat and combat medical. I highly recommend his training classes.
