To say the guy is intense, is an understatement. Had I known what I was signing up for, I wouldn’t have, but I’m glad I did. The class was good, I learned more than I could absorb, but I didn’t really consider it much “fun”, and there was no relaxing. I’ve trained with Rogers, Hackathorn, and a couple other not so well known, and the physical and mental intensity level of this class isn’t even in the same zip-code, no, Its not even in the same hemisphere.
During drills, he’s everywhere and doesn’t miss ANYTHING. He brought a couple things to my attention that I don’t know how the fuck he noticed. Lets just say he never had to tell me the same thing twice.
There are no laid back funny stories, no down time, when the carbine is slung up YOU MAINTAIN POSITIVE CONTROL OF THE WEAPON! – meaning your hand is on the pistol grip and your finger indexed over the trigger guard, ready to go. And YOU ALWAYS MOVE WITH A LOADED WEAPON. And when you have positive control – make damn sure you are watching your muzzle.
IMO, as a “teacher”, I think Super Dave, not so much. He’s too hyper, too involved, and talks way too much. He (admittedly) goes off in tangents, that my little attention span could not follow(I wasn’t the only one). He would do everything except get to the point, and when he got to the point, you completely forgot what the fuck the point was supposed to be. Luckily, during individual communication, he made the point very clear. As I said above, he never had to tell me the same thing twice.
You’ve heard the saying those who “can’t”, teach.
Well, Super Dave can actually “do”. I have never seen an instructor do as much shooting as Dave. Dave can shoot, and then it was up to us to follow his example. Well, his example as a guideline and it was somewhat at our discretion to MAKE A FUCKING DECISION.
You should already know what to do because when its time in Dave’s class, you better be ready to MAKE A FUCKING DECISION!. There is no spoon feeding how to do anything.
Not much to say that can explain what it was like. Pay total attention at all times, and everything is important. In regards to the little things, there are no little things
It was obvious to me I lacked in the shooting while moving gunteam drills, and Dave let me know it when he caught me looking everywhere except watching my team members six. Information overload – walking backwards in the dark against someone I don’t knows back, while moving towards another team coming from the opposite direction also shooting at the same targets; I had reached my comfort level and saturation point by then for the day.
It was a lot, compressed into what seemed like a little time. It was two full days, and nights. Lots of pistol shooting, which was excellent and what I was hoping for. I put 1500 rounds through my pistol, over 1000 rounds on the first day. I took 25 1911 mags and still had to stuff mags at every opportunity. My RRA ran like a champ. I got several nasty looking bruises on my inner thigh, but I’m now able to chamber a round 1 handed (even with Novaks).
My suppressed SBR ran like a champ. Steel at night, 25yds away is pretty cool – like little fireworks with all the sparks. I did pretty good except for the team stuff, and I never got the level of individual attention some others received, or as Dave would say – “Gave him the opportunity to excel” .
At the end of the class I got a “Good effort dude” from Super Dave which I really appreciated. Little things I picked up that I forgot, have been popping into my head ever since I left the range, so I’ll have bunches to pull from my tool box next trip to the range.
It was a pretty wired together group, several SWAT guys who worked well together. I don’t recall a single weapon going down, or insufficient gear issues. Everyone in this class had more than a couple classes from the other “big guys”. When he told everyone to raise their carbine, then drop it on the stones no one hesitated. All knew the difference between a toy and tool. I also noticed the lack of extensive cool guy gear. In the other classes, there were usually several who are dressed up in every piece of gear they can attach to themselves. These guys just seemed to be wearing what they needed.
By the way, stay away from his truck.
It was cold, but luckily no wind. Most all of the shooting was done in a pit with almost 360 degrees of blasting berms.
The pit was interesting at night with no wind. The smoke just hung and it was pretty hard to see.
I dont rememeber what hes saying to me, but I can tell by his posture its a good conversation(no eye contact). It probably started with “What you got goin on there dude?”.
So thats why I had to bring a bag of rubber bands.
Attempt to go through SD, or go around? MAKE A DECISION!
Sure looks simple…
Souviner T-Shirt
