MDFI Cover and Movement

Today I attended MDFI's Cover and Movement Class, and I'm all sorts of sore.

Pulled into the range at 8:30 am and got signed in and everything laid out for the day.

After an intro and safety briefing we did the qualifier, which is somehow more challenging with everyone watching you do it.

Interestingly 6 out of 7 rifle shooters and the main instructor were running suppressors on their ARs, with the seventh shooter running a loud muzzle brake with impressive blast effects.  The suppressors certainly reduced the noise on the line. 

Everybody qualified including myself, even with one failure with the AR-15 not fully ejecting a case. 

The class picked up speed and was very much a movement class.

 We started with standing, squatting kneeling, double kneeling and prone and working out way through each position while shooting. 

By the time we were done that everyone was already rather dirty from hitting the ground to go prone.

Next time, knee and elbow pads would be a great idea to bring.  Managed to smack my knee nicely even landing on the inside of it as demonstrated and its all sorts of sore. 

Indeed, I have discovered I have less flexibility than I thought I had.   No, I cannot put my ankle flat to the ground while kneeling on one knee.

Next came urbane prone and supine shooting positions.

 After that was cover as in shooting around it and then using a CTAC barricade to shoot from various ports simulating cover at different heights.

After that was a heavy focus on movement with box drills and then shooting while moving and a box drill for that too.

Definitely a good class, if impressively tiring and frustrating. Learnign has occurred, and I need to get out and practice weapon manipulation while in these sorts of positions and moving a lot more. 

Gun School - Definitive Shotgun - Day 2

Day 2 began with a discussion about Slugs and their usage.

We then fired some slugs at some steel targets, with amusing results, including one slug that when it hit the steel target, the wood post holding it snaped in two from the hit.  

Then we moved on to buckshot and its usage at longer range.

Good Buckshot can hit a target out to 70 plus yards, and we demonstrated that.

The issue is it will hit the target and likely the target beside it if it is shoulder-to-shoulder.

A realistic usage case for buckshot at such a range is if you're being attacked by a shooter standing alone at that distance and you don't have or cannot switch to a slug for some reason - you can still get hits. Indeed, using FliteControl, we got some very tight hits as opposed to the cheap stuff that we used for comparison that sprayed everywhere - and in 20 gauge  on the vast majority of shots taken, the cheap buckshot actually missed the target entirely with its pattern at that range.

The less realistic and in my opinion far more legally risky usage case that was discussed for buckshot at such a range, is if you're being attacked by a vehicle or a mob bent on destruction.  

Justifying such a long range shot against a group of people, especially as at that range you are going to hit multiple persons with shot,  may be rather hard to do. Short of all of them possessing ranged weapons that can reach you and they've demonstrated a willingness or viable threat to do so it;s going to be hard to justify.   Such justification, while never totally impossible, is still pretty unlikely and I'd recommend not trying to shoot at a mob of people or vehicle from 70 yards away, knowing your shot is going to hit multiple persons.  Short of an end-of-the world, breakdown of society-type scenario, it is likely going to legally end rather badly.

We then worked on ammo select drills - switching from Buck loaded in the shotgun to Slugs when the transition was called for.

Had I been allowed to use the Tavor as designed, I would have had one tube loaded with slugs and the other two with buck and transition would be a cinch, and I woulda seriously smoked everyone else's time doing so, by a wide margin.

That was not to be. Instead, I had to eject a buck round, rotate the tube to the loading gate, load a slug from the shot card on the outside of the gun into the tube, rotate it back and load it and get it done.  Quite a but slower.  It was, however, excellent manipulation practice for me, but I sure wasn't winning the competition that way.

After that, we did some further drills, and then got a chance to try other people's shotguns.

Quite a few people wanted to try the Tavor, and they rather liked it.  I also demonstrated a full 16 round tube rapid dump on target with the Tavor, running it as designed, which is always a lot of fun.

I tried a Beretta 1301 and I do indeed find it to be a very nice and well-designed shotgun. It's impressively ergonomic, well though out and easy for mounting a red dot. I don't think anyone would go wrong by purchasing one and using it as a defensive/tactical shotgun, and it's likely the current top dog in that category.  Of course,  I personally believe the Tavor TS-12 is a similarly worthy competitor for that title and also a top-notch choice for a defensive/tactical shotgun. 

 It was a great class, with a great instructor.  I also ended up meeting a bunch of great people who attended it and it was a great time. I certainly improved in manipulating the shotgun from this class.

Definitive Shotgun is definitely a "Learn to use your tactical shotgun at a fundamental level" type of class, and it excels at that.  Zach Bush as an instructor is very clear with his instruction, explanations, and demonstrations. It is a very comprehensive class on the use and operation of a shotgun for defensive purposes. 

If you're looking for an in-depth class on the fundamentals of shotgun usage, I can recommend Definitive Shotgun. 

Gun School - Definitive Shotgun - Day 1

On Memorial Day Weekend, very bright and early at 5 am on Saturday morning, I met up with Tosh and we drove down to New London, Ohio to attend Definitive Training Solutions - Definitive Shotgun Class.

We arrived at the range at 7:45 and checked in to the class, and did the waivers etc and got our gear set up and set out.

With 16 students attending, it was a full  class. 

Shotguns ranged  in the pump department from a couple Remington 870s, a couple few Mossberg 590s, including two in 20 gauge brought by the two female shooters attending the class.

In the semi-auto category, there vast majority were Beretta 1301s, one Beretta A300, and my Tavor TS-12.

Only three years ago, at MDFI's shotgun class, the Benelli M4 series dominated.  Now there was not a single one on the line.

The class began with a safety brief and an introduction to what we would be doing and some note-taking on shotgun usage.

We then began by patterning the shotguns with our choice of high-quality buckshot.

 

Two words when it comes to quality buckshot - Federal FliteControl.

Some people tried cheaper buckshot and the difference - in their own shoguns when they tried FliteControl was night and day in terms of putting buckshot on target.

We patterned at 5, 7, 10, 12, and 25 yards. 

Using FliteControl, as seen above, the Tavor TS-12 kept some nice tight patterns, and even at 25 yards kept all the shot on target.

 The ladies using the 20 gauges had major issues patterning. Neither of them had the rare 20 gauge flitecontrol buckshot, and the buckshot they had looked like it had been thrown all over the target at 5 and 7 yards, and most of the shot was off target when shot from farther away. 

Interestingly, the malfunctions this class were all with the pump shotguns -  both of the ladies' Mossberg 20s were new and had issues including the end cap working loose on one and the safety coming loose and off on the other. First time for both of them using shotguns and they brought these new to class and both needed lubrication.  After some teething troubles, they worked but were simply not as accurate as the 12 gauges on the line, especially with buckshot.

In short, ladies certainly can, and probably should, handle 12 gauge shotguns for defense for the benefits from FliteControl alone, and for the much better ammunition choices that are available when using a 12.

Other malfunctions included some jams when port-loading a Mossberg 590, which was caused by the angle the gun was held at the time and was easily solved accordingly.  

The Tavor TS-12 ran like a champ, zero malfunctions.

 

After the buckshot patterning, we switched to bird shot for the rest of the day.

Lots of manipulation drills - loading via both the magazine tube and port, including under pressure during rolling thunder and Peel drills tom get used to moving with a shotgun.

We had an awesome lunch prepared for by the range owner and his wife and it was great - absolutely top rate hospitality and great people.

We also did one handed-manipulation and reloading drills as well. 

We finished up with a drill under competitive pressure which was fun, but the drill as structured didn't let me use the benefits of the Tavor to its fullest extent - namely its multiple tubes for very fast reloading. Instead, I had to load ammo that was loosely in my pockets compared to others who had them on cards secured via velcro on the gun.   This pocket retrieval was notably slower.

The next morning, I installed the cards on the sides of the Tavor.  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

After the end of the class day, the entire class went out to dinner together.  The Tosh and I headed back to the hotel and got ready for Day 2.

It was a great start to the class.  We prepared to slug it out on Sunday. 

Gun School: Tim Herron's Practical Performance Class

This weekend I was near Fort Wayne Indiana for Tim Herron's Practical Performance Class hosted by Condition Red Response.

To say the class is excellent in terms of the detailed instruction and absolute flood of information and analysis you receive to increase and improve your shooting performance is an understatement.

Tim is a USPSA Grand Master and it shows.   To say he is both fast and accurate in shooting is an understatement. 

He also has an excellent teaching demeanor and is able to convey a lot of complex information broken down into understandable parts, as well as a very sharp eye to detect issues with each student's shooting and point out immediate techniques for improvement.

He explained USPSA's often confusing concept of Hit Factor in the simplest way possible - it is simply the number of points you collect per second on a stage.  He also talked about how the classification system worked, and discussed stage planning.

Yes, there was indeed a stage in the class. First time we ran it cold and  I sucked.  We then worked on all the techniques to learn to shoot better and faster as well as identify how to better plan and read a stage, and improve our overall shooting technique with tailored instruction to each student based on what Tim observed as we ran the stage.

In short, I was definitely in the bottom quarter of the sixteen shooters there in terms of ability walking into class.  Wonderfully humbling. This was good as it gave me a lot of room for improvement, and some improvement did indeed occur, not to mention the desire to further improve. 

There were some really exceptionally good shooters attending - some A and B class and many other proficient shooters, all very friendly and willing to exchange information and everyone supported each other during the class.  So, I learned a lot from not just Tim but my fellow classmates as well.  I did improve quite a bit on subsequent stage runs becoming both faster and more accurate both.

Carry Optic Pistols dominated the firearms choices present with SIG 320s being the majority.  We had a few Glocks, some 2011s, one Walther PDP, a Canik, and an Open gun, and some iron sight-only pistols as well. The SIGs ran impressively well and I may just look into one moving forward as they offer some definite advantages over the Glock -- except in the area of magazine cost where Glock has pretty much everyone beat. The experienced USPSA shooters highly recommended the SIG 320 and had lots of good suggestions.

Among many other drills over the two days, we did the rectangle drill, Blake Drill, and a barrel drill.  This specific barrel drill was designed to teach shooting on the move as well as transition flow and it was quite challenging. 

Lots of movement on the second day and my hip was telling me it was getting annoyed.   It certainly didn't help my speed any.

Tim diagnosed an issue with my grip and my shooting improved remarkably from that one small observation and change.

I left the class with a ton of practical drills to use to improve my shooting, and  a much better understanding of how to do better, and of USPSA shooting itself which is really helpful.

I highly recommend Tim's class if you want to learn how to shoot faster and more accurately -- as well as on the move -- whether you participate in an action pistol game or not. There's measurable improvement after spending two days in class alone and he gives you the methodologies to improve further on your own  -- which is the hard part to keep the work up to have the improvements stick.

Practical Performance is a great class with a great teacher.

Pistol Intelligence Class Day 2

Day 2 of Pistol Intelligence started a little later than Day 1, which was nice.

The day began with Bill drills, went on to transitions, and then throttle control , and it ended with the standards test. 

Each session started with a briefing and explanation of the concept, then with Riley demonstrating the concept and then the students working on it. As with the day before Riley gave everyone lots of personal attention and customized advice to each student based on what they individually needed to improve.

One fun drill we did was "Bill Drill Till You Spill".  At 10 yards you do a bill drill and keep upping the cadence and continuing to fire until you drop a round out of the A zone, or even better, see your sights leave the A Zone,  and you prevent firing off a round that will miss, or you run out of ammo in the magazine which means you weren't picking up your pace fast enough.

Great fun in learning how to speed up your shooting.

Much more ammo was burned through in practice today and lots of learning occurred.

Transitions were good and I learned some techniques and what and how to look to speed up my transitions from target to target.

Throttle control I did very well at, modulating speed depending on the size of the target.

Riley also gave a good talk on stage planning that was very helpful.

For the standards test, I improved 10% over my score yesterday. This was despite being pretty tried and wrung out after a fun day shooting in the sun.   I only missed one point in terms of accuracy but wasn't quite as fast as I would have liked to be but I think everyone felt the wheels coming off at the time.  

Learning and applying new techniques certainly helped and it was a great class.

A great class, and highly useful if you want to improve your shooting techniques and better yet begin to understand the hows and the whys to improve your techniques.

Really worth it, and I just gained a lot of new techniques and new ways of looking at this that will improve my shooting moving forward. 

I'd highly recommend the class.

Acquiring Some Pistol Intelligence

Today was Day 1 of Riley Bowman's Pistol Intelligence Class in Pinckney Michigan.

So I got up rather early and drove to the range out there as learning how to shoot better is always a worthy goal.

Got here and joined thew 13 other students and we got started.

Nice bunch of folks and there are some really, really, good shooters among them. Thankfully I'm not "that guy" but I'm certainly not the top shot either.

Riley started with the standard administratrivia needed to start a class, and then  a solid  and comprehensive safety briefing, and going over the safety rules as well.

He very much wants shooters to be aware of what they're doing, what is in their surrounding and their target area.  All good things. He also focuses a lot on, and talks about the mental game in shooting which is an area not often talked about in shooting classes.

He went on to talk about some of the fundamentals involved in shooting and we heavily discussed grip, stance and a lot on mental focus for shooting.

I ran my Glock 19 with the RMR on it,  and it ran perfectly throughout the day with no issues. Started out cold with a 5 shot drill at black of a B8 center at 10 yards. I was rather happy with how well I did with all 5 in the black with no misses. That did earn me an "Oooh, a lawyer that can shoot" from Riley.  I'll take it.

I somehow developed a tendency to throw my first shot to the left, which occurred in the next couple drills, and then I fixed it.  Overthinking things and not enough use of the support hand tends to do that.

We did quite a few different shooting exercises and then worked on drawing the firearm more efficiently and I learned to improve a couple issues with my draw which was very good.

It turns out that Yeti is an officer at the range we're shooting at and he dropped by to say hello to Riley.  Kinda fun watching two high-level and capable instructors do a little practice shooting over lunch.

Riley gives every shooter direct personal attention during each drill and personalized feedback and instruction to each and every shooter - the drills may take longer as a result but you not only get more reps in, which is good, and he gets to observe, critique, and help you improve which is great.

We finished up with his Pistol IQ Standards, and I ended up scoring a 100.2 which basically means I met the proficiency standards.  I did bugger the drill transition  drill dumping a few shots left and out of the scoring zone on the leftmost A zone target by a few centimeters. All the rest of the drills were nice and pretty darn accurate but I think I can learn to pickup the pace a bit and should be able to get solid hits on the transition drill, so there's some very real potential for improvement.  

We will be taking the Pistol IQ Standards again tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if I can clean it up and improve my score.

In short it is a great class if you want to learn to shoot better and faster and I'm looking forward to tomorrow even as I'm rather wiped right now.

Modern Samurai Project - Take 2

This would be my second time taking the MSP class, but it would be for a 2-day Red Dot Class rather than the 3-day Path To Performance class that includes the Red Dot Class.

I got up early and drove the 20 minutes form the hotel to the Deer Creek Conservation Club in Jonesboro, IN.  I wanted to be early having never been there before, which was a good thing as the GPS doesn't quite get you to the club.

On the upside I arrived the same time as the instructor at the wrong place and we then both found the range.  The club is very nice and they had arranged for us to use a bay with some shade, which would become very important.  It was both hot and really humid so lots of sunscreen and a ton of water was consumed on both days.

Unfortunately, Jedi himself would not be teaching the class as he was hospitalized due to an illness (He is feeling a lot better now, and that's a good thing). 

Instead, A.J. Zito would be teaching the class.

A.J. is a master-class shooter, and a very effective instructor with a great manner and an informative, entertaining and enthusiastic teaching style.

The class had quite a variety of students - newer shooters, more established shooters, quite a few police officers, and one FBI agent.  Oh yes, and before you ask, the Police and FBI agent could definitely shoot very well. A very good bunch and most of us got together for dinner at the end of the first day which was fun.

AJ was very true to Jedi's curriculum and gave excellent instruction throughout - explaining the hows and whys of the dot, and the ways to get the most effectiveness from using it.  The class was very much like it was last year, with a few changes.

I also understood more taking the class a second time - most especially about modulation, which went way over my head last year.   This is the first shooting class I've taken for a second time and it was worth it - as there is a fire-hose of information coming out taking a second time lets you catch things you missed the first time while you were busy absorbing something else.

The class also gave a great example on why you wear eye protection at all times.  While we were practicing transitions between some metal targets, I was in line waiting to shoot and suddenly it felt like I got punched in the mouth.  A piece of the bullet the shooter was firing, or a rock came back and gave me quite the bloody smack right on my left upper lip.  No major harm done but that was a bit exciting and as the class unanimously declared, chicks dig scars, so that's something.

We finished the class with the Black Belt test, and I did not set the world on fire by any means.

3x5 Drill -3.06 Clean
7 yard one shot - 1.56 clean
Bill Drill - 2.94 clean
25 yard one shot - 2.20 clean

Not my best times ever, but they were all clean and that's a good thing and overall my shooting improved compared to last year overall especially in terms of finding the dot and hitting the target.  I still have a bad tendency to punch the gun out when I'm feeling rushed, so I need to fix that and dry fire a heckuva lot more.

No one earned a patch this class, but a few came close.

Certainly a great class with a bunch of great people, and I learned a lot and doing it for a second time was worth it.

Indiana Nice Is Apparently A Thing

So this weekend I traveled to Marion, Indiana for a Modern Samurai Project class.

Leaving at 3pm on Friday traffic was ridiculous near 696 but opened up on 275 until hitting near Ann Arbor when it again slowed to a standstill for no known reason, and then opened right back up.

Made it to Marion in decent time and checked into the Hampton Inn there with no issues and rather nice and friendly staff.

I unloaded the car and then got some gas and went to get some dinner.  

I saw that Brooks Upper Crust Pizza was highly recommended and so I went there to get some pizza.

It turns out they were carry out only so I placed an order for a small pizza and they got to making it while I waited.

Quite a few people were coming in for pickup of pizza orders while I waited, and I then had a nice chat with the owner.  He explained they weren't doing dining in now as the wait staff did not want to come back to work.  This is a recurring problem and a lot of places are having as people are still being paid as much or more to stay home on UI than go to work.  He's thinking of converting it to quick-order dining to deal with the lack of wait staff as he misses having people and families in his restaurant.

So he showed me around the restaurant which is in a historic building on the river and very eclectically and nicely decorated with a lot of neat items and memorabilia, with much of it dating back to the late 1800s.  Kinda neat, and it would have been nice to dine in as it has a nice view of the river and a very nice ambiance.

Super friendly people there and the pizza was excellent. 

A thin crust round, but not so thin that it tasted like cardboard, and not too chewy either but just right and rather addictive.  Different from Detroit-style pizza but good in its own way.  Curiously Indiana apparently serves nacho cheese with bread-sticks in pizza joints, which is totally different from the Michigan style of marina/tomato sauce for dipping bread-sticks.   Local customs and all that. 

So I took the pizza back to my hotel room, enjoyed it immensely, and then did a bit of work, and I then prepared for class on Saturday.  A good start to the weekend.

Gun School - MDFI Foundation Carbine

Yesterday,  I got up early and headed out to Grass Lake, Michigan for MDFI's foundation carbine class.  My first carbine class, so I was looking forward to it.

Grass Lake is west of Ann Arbor, so it was about an hour away in the relatively light Sunday morning traffic.  Having never been to the range there, it was a good thing I left early, as the range wasn't quite where the mapping software said it was, which led to a bit of consternation.  Turns out it was actually about a mile from where the mapping software said the entrance was, but at least the entrance was on the same street so all was well. Not a huge deal but it's good to be early.  

I got there and unpacked in a light rain that soon became a minor downpour.  Fun training.  Luckily, some people had brought some canopies and generously shared their space. 

We all got checked in, with one no-show.  So the class started with 19 students and 4 instructors, which was a very good ratio for a basic carbine class.

The safety and objectives briefing was lengthy and properly serious. 

 It was going to be a hot range, with the students responsible for keeping their carbines loaded and ready at all times, so careful muzzle discipline at all times was the order of the day. Excellent instruction and demonstration of the proper method of picking up and slinging a loaded carbine and moving in a way that you do not muzzle yourself or anyone else.  Since we would be donning and doffing the carbines multiple times throughout the day and moving on and off the line with them, this was good to learn right off the bat and everyone was committed to doing so safely.

The rain then stopped and eventually the sun came out, which was nice.

Then we went over basics of I&I - inspection and inventory - checking over all the failure points of the firearm to make sure all was ready from muzzle to the heel of the stock- mounts, lights, optics and mounts properly tightened down, sling properly configured, ammunition ready.  Good procedure.

The class was then divided into two squads with one shooting and one learning by observing.  This also let the 4 instructors really pay close attention, and give personal attention to the shooters which was helpful.

Then there was a warm-up at 5 yards.  17 of the students were running AR15s, one was running an AK, and I brought along my Tavor X95 with the can as I wanted to work on it and get better with it. 

I had not shot the Tavor at such a short range and I had to work on my sight hold as my normal sight picture would shoot low at 5 yards.  Good to know.

Almost immediately, we had a couple AR-15s lock up as they were being run drier than the proverbial popcorn fart. 

One had to be mortared open which was instructive  - to mortar an AR  (1. Move stock to its closed position [or you will bend/break the stock tube], 2.  Put safety on if possible, 3. Keep muzzle in safe direction, 4. With a hand pushing on charging handle, wham the stock in the the dirt in an attempt to free the charging handle/bolt - it works).

In short for semi-auto rifles, clean and dry is iffy in terms of function, clean and dirty is very iffy in terms of function, clean and wet should work, and dirty and wet should work.  After some generous lubrication was applied to both of the ARs they were then up and running for the rest of the class.

Next we did the different ready positions, threat engagement, and post threat scan including how to do a 360 degree scan without muzzling anyone or yourself with muzzle either up or down. 

After that was various reload techniques. Reloads with retention, speed reloads, and emergency reloads were done with the various varieties explained and practiced.  The L shape for fast retention reloads works really well on the Tavor, the OK technique doesn't work well at all given the position of the magazine well and your shoulder.

One new insight came out of the reload portion.  You can stuff 31 rounds into a Magpul PMAG.  If you're doing a reload with a round in the chamber and the bolt forward, the magazine will not want to fit into the gun as a result.  Something to watch for.

Then we did hands-on malfunction drills including how to clear double feeds and the brass over bolt malfunction. This involved setting up the malfunction for your opposite squad member without them seeing what you did, and they had to diagnose and fix the problem and get the carbine back in action.  Fun.

My Tavor ran like a top throughout the class with no issues, and cleared simulated malfunctions like double feeds without a problem.

Then we finished up with the qualifier which was 14 rounds.  I hit all 14 in the advanced inner box but was just too slow on the reloads, having badly bungled one and that cost me.  I now know what to practice, as I have not previously practiced rifle reloads on the clock, but will now.  Good to know what to work on to improve.

It was an all-day class starting at 9 and ending at 6:30, and very well run.

Foundation carbine is both a stand-alone class and MDFI's gateway to their more advanced carbine classes. As a comprehensive, basic-level class, it gave a good grounding in the fundamentals of carbine handling and usage. It was an excellent full day of instruction with a great set of instructors and a great set of students.

MDFI - Low Light Handgun Class

On Friday Duffy and I headed to Albion, Michigan, for MDFI's Low Light Handgun class.

We got to the range at about 4:00, and checked in, getting there a half hour early.

Traffic and construction on I-94 caught a few of the participants so it was a bit after 5:00 before the introduction and safety briefing started.

We had a very detailed safety brief and objective of the course brief, by Trek, the head instructor, and Shane the assistant instructor.  The thoroughness was welcome, considering we would be shooting in darkness.  

Then on to the qualifier.

Overall it's pretty easy, with 6 second time limits for each component of the drill, shooting at 7 yards.
5 shots from compressed ready
4 shots from the holster
1 round speed reload 2 rounds
1 round with an empty magazine, reload from slide lock, 1 round.

This is pretty simple, but it was complicated by the sun being right above and behind the targets and shining right in our eyes, and between my shooting glasses and the glass of the red dot, just seeing the target was difficult as the glare was blinding. 

You needed 12 in the inner rectangle for the advanced score.  I put all 14 in the rectangle.  Not bad for not being able to see the target.

Everyone passed the qualification.

We then did some shooting drills and warm ups as the sun began to set.

Next, was a discussion and demonstration and practice of handheld flashlight techniques and then weapon-mounted flashlight techniques and why and when to use each, including how to do a safe 360 degree scan of the area after engaging a target without muzzling anyone else or yourself for that matter.

Handheld techniques were the FBI, the modified FBI, the syringe, the neck index, temple index and the Harries techniques. 

We also covered purposes for using the lights, and how to do weapons malfunction clearances in the dark. 

We practiced all those in the twilight.

Then it started getting dark.

Everyone put on red glowsticks, one in front and one in back.

Targets then became pretty much invisible in the dark.

We ran the flashlight drills, both handheld and weapon mounted, and then we loaded up magazines with a mix of live rounds and fired casings and did malfunction clearance drills in the dark.

Then we did some shooting from cover and how to use the flashlights and not have the light flashback and blind you as you did it. Then from cover with simulated moving targets.  Adding to the fun were some strobe pyrotechnics and smoke that unexpectedly were added to make it a bit more stressful which was also a lot of fun.

We next worked on countering other people's lights and being able to see and identify them even when they were shining a light towards us, this was pretty useful.  I had a new Modlite as a hand-held and yes, it will punch through a Surefire light to identify a target holding it.  You can also throw the light beam at their feet and then see the target, which is a useful technique.

The final exercise was a blind run through a photo-realistic set of targets from behind cover.  - with a light from the targets pointing towards you. You had to identify with your light and not shoot the friendlies but engage the threats and quickly. 

 Overall I did very well, unlike someone else who shot the innocent old man holding a cane perfectly in the A zone.  But, I and every other single one of the 16 people in the class shot a target in a yellow windbreaker pointing a gun in our direction.

Unfortunately, on his belt, obscured by the glare of the light by the target with the target lined up just for that purpose was a very small badge on his belt.  Crap.  Nobody saw it during the drill, only in the debrief,  everyone focused on the weapon pointed towards us and didn't see the badge in the glare and shot.

Certainly a good primer on getting as much info on a possible threat as possible. 

We shot in the dark until midnight. 

It got rather cold, and I was shooting from concealment from appendix with mags also concealed, under a jacket and a hoody sweatshirt which made draws interesting.  Most other class attendees wore OWB ALS rigs which let them keep their jackets zipped up.  Good experience but next time I'm going to put on some polypropelyne under my shirt.

A few of the attendees had night vision rigs, and the instructors did as well and those were phenomenal.    The head instructor let everyone try his set out and it was amazing.  We had the assistant instructor about 20 yards away and he completely disappeared into the darkness. With the night vision , You literally could see him clearly in the dark and how many fingers he was holding up.    Spendy as all heck, but man, that's some impressive stuff.

Then on to a debrief. Everyone at the class shot well, there were no safety issues and we all learned a lot.

There's not a lot of opportunity for night shooting and night shooting classes so this was a very educational and eye-opening experience. I'd certainly recommend taking a night shooting class to any firearms owner, and MDFI offers a truly excellent one that is very professionally done, very organized and offers excellent skill development.

Gun School: Adaptive Combat Pistol - Day 2

 Day 2 began in the same way as Day 1 - the 3 round fade-back drill and the orange dot drill.  I did an almost clean fade-back, dropping two shots low.  Both drills are really good warm-ups and a good way to make the most out of a limited and pricey ammunition supply.

On the upside, both shooters with misfitting holsters brought proper fitting holsters today.  If you're going to spend hundreds on a gun, and hundreds on a class to learn to shoot it better, spend some money on a properly fitting holster for it.

 Then it was on to some shooting offhand only, starting with the gun on the floor simulating you had been hit in your strong hand and dropped the gun.

Dave Spaulding would explain why each of these drill was done and the reasons for it, and often a lot of the history and development of why the techniques have evolved as they have over time.

Then we went on to shooting from different positions - kneeling, double knee kneeling, sitting, fetal position, and supine and moving through all of them and the reasons and advantages/disadvantages of each.

 Having run through that a few times on a concrete floor and you get a workout and rather sore both.

Then we did shooting from cover with the lunge technique which beats the fan / head leading technique for reducing your visible area to an attacker around cover.   Hadn't seen that before and it was rather enlightening.

Then we shot the 5 in 5 drill - 5 rounds at 5 yards, 10 years, 15 yards, 20 yards, and 25 yards with 5 rounds each from the holster/concealment in 5 seconds maximum time for each distance at an 8.5x11 target.

I made the time for all five areas, cleaning the 5 yards in under 3.5 seconds, but dropped a couple shots so didn't get a clean.

The class then ended with the performance of the 2x2x2 drill.  No one earned a belt buckle this class, even though the record holder with a 1.57 second time - Mike  - was in attendance.  I did it in 2.06 seconds, missing it by .06. 

It was a great class and I learned a lot from Mr. Spaulding.

Sadly, this may be the last year that Dave Spaulding will be teaching classes.  

I'd strongly advise getting out and taking on of his classes this year if you're able as you get a chance to improve your shooting, gain a lot of techniques, and a lot of the background for the development of these techniques and the reasons why for them. 

In short, the class was well worth it.

Gun School: Adaptive Combat Pistol - Day 1

Yesterday,  I attended Day 1 of Dave Spaulding's Adaptive Combat Pistol class held at Detroit Sportsmens Congress.

It's an excellent class with a very experienced, personable, and capable instructor.

Unfortunately, these days, the replacement cost of the ammunition I have burned through exceeds the cost of the class.

There were 16 students attended so it was two squads of 8 on the line at a time.

Class began with some warmups and Dave walked the line and saw things that could be improved as a result.  He spent time with each student and customized advice and also worked on getting everyone to stop pinning the trigger.  We also worked on the draw and grip.

Most were pretty good shooters and a few were really outstanding.

A few though had some holster choices that had me look a tad askance especially when standing behind them.

The gun was not fitting in the holster and the trigger was exposed the whole time.  Another shooter also had a leather holster that similarly didn't fit the gun they were running and was doing the course with the trigger hanging out.

Then we moved on to manipulating the gun and clearing malfunctions, first with both hands then one handed.  We also tried malfunction clearing sitting down one handed.  Then we added live fire to the jam clearing.

And that's when the fun started.

We were doing a one-handed stoppage drill - from standing - point gun downrange, pull trigger, hear click, then clear the jammed case by first a tap to the magazine and then racking the slide using whether the red dot window or shelf of the sights on your belt, holster, or other surface that normally have available to rack the slide. This tends to have the ejector port facing down so gravity helps as well.

Next after clearing the jam you quickly fire two shots at the target.

So one guy was on the line went click, turned his Glock over, racked it on his belt and BAM!

Round hits the floor in front of him.

His finger was not on the trigger.  This got people interested to see what was going on.

He repeated the drill and cleared the jam, this time angling the gun to point at the backstop and BAM!

Round hits the backstop in front of him. His finger again was not on the trigger.

While he had had no failures when the gun was upright, turning it upside down to clear it caused it to fire.  

It turns out he had a Zev extra light striker in it and the cruciform of the trigger bar had worn enough to detach it from the trigger housing.  With the combination of those two issues, once upside down, nothing stopped the striker from moving forward to slam fire the round  when the slide closed.    The striker and trigger bar were replaced and his Glock then hummed along happily after that.  Kinda exciting.

We then moved on to jam clearance while moving, and then on to one handed reload drills including while moving, which were conducted without drama.

 Day 1 ended and I had learned a lot.  I'll write up Day 2 once it is done.

Gun Skool - Training With The Jedi

This weekend, I along with my buddy Tosh,  was in Holland, Michigan for a 3-day class  The Path To Performance with The Modern Samurai Project - Scott Jedlinski, aka Jedi.

Scott Jedlinski is one of the, if not the, foremost instructors on the use of the red dot sighted pistol and appendix carry.

The class was like drinking from a fire-hose.

Scott began by stating that what he was teaching was not the only way, and that unless your instructor was an actual Mandalorian, any instructor who pronounces their class to be The Way is an instructor that one should be wary of as it is only A Way.  

He encouraged us from the start to question all of the technique and to take from the class what worked for us, and to only adopt what we had thoroughly tested and found to work.

Thorough testing there was.

The class began the first day with appendix carry and why he posits the method of carry is superior to strong side carry in terms of ergonomics and efficiency.  Scott is fully focused on being efficient via technique.

First we discussed body mechanics and why appendix carry makes the most sense in terms of efficiency.

Then on to body positioning.  Scott is critical of the isosceles stance both in terms of foot positioning hampering movement and forward and rearward stability, and how with locked out elbows recoil management suffers.  

Let's put it this way, my default stance prior to this class was indeed the isosceles.  Not anymore. 

Based on actually comparing the isosceles to the stance setup by Scott which is somewhat of an improved weaver type stance (support foot forward a step,  not over-bending the knees, arms bent at elbows, extended forward equally) in the drills we performed, it is very clear that there is significant improvement in recoil control, mobility, and efficiency by dumping the isosceles.  It is now so dumped by me.  Learning occurred.

Then on to the grip.  I have a trash panda grip  (an old style crush grip) that I must continue to work on changing as it is the main thing holding back my performance. Scott promotes a very high grip, with the strong hand only holding the pistol loosely with the support hand, and thumbs high up on the slide.  With the support hand,  especially the pinky of that hand, strongly gripping the gun for recoil control and dot management - with his technique, the dot on the draw drops perfectly from 12 o clock to the center of the sight -- every damn time.  Life changing. This was a revelation.

I still need to work on my draw and grip though until this change is ingrained. I keep reverting and even worse seem to bang my support hand into the gun, stopping it for a moment on the draw which is damn weird to watch on video.  Scott is very big on having you video your practice so you can see what you're doing well or not, and it helps.

Scott first demos each exercise, often several times based on what he is trying to convey, then has the students do it as he watches each student perform the drill, and he gives you immediate personal feedback.   This leads to a lot of reps as he walks the line working with each and every student.  This is not a go off and do drills class while he watches in the distance. He is hands on with each and every student diagnosing issues and helping students get better.   The class then discussed after each exercise if the technique worked for them, what they saw/felt during the technique and what they felt they did right or need to work on.

A few students then tried his Black Belt Standards Test.  There were some amazing shooters there, and while they got close, no one cleared it.  The test as you can see is kinda spicy.

After the first day of class, a bunch of the students and Scott headed into Holland for some food together and we ate some wings, had beer, and chatted.

The next day we met at the range and got on to focus on red dot shooting - everything from 3 yards to 25 yards.  Zeroing was discussed and he put forth his reasons why a 10 yard zero makes the most sense in terms of time and efficiency over a 25 yard zero and he had very cogent points for saying so.  Again he stated you can choose as you like and decide for yourself after trying both and xo long as you know the reasons why for both.

We did the 3x5 drill, and single shot drills at 7, 10, and 25 yards along with multiple other exercises.

Then 11 students in the class decided to try the Black Belt Test -Tosh and I among them.  None of us made it. I wasn't even close, and that's ok.

In the 3x5 my time was 2.51 but had misses, so no good.

At 7 yards I had a 1.12 time with a hit.  Which was pretty darn good for me, but it may have been luck and not skill.

On the Bill Drill I did a 2.48 but with half missing the A Zone.

And the one shot at 25 yards I had a 1.69 and a hit on the A Zone.

Saturday night quite a few of us met at the class host's house for a cookout and a BYOB party.  This was fun and lots of great conversation with some seriously interesting people. 

Since Tosh and I both do Jiu-Jitsu and Jedi is an accomplished practitioner as a 4-stripe purple belt, the talk turned to jitsu and some techniques, and then he offered to show us some pointers.

Yes, I got to learn some jitsu from the Jedi.   Way cool.

We headed to some mats the host had in the basement, and I got some great pointers on technique and really changed my mindset - as a result in rolls yesterday I was a lot more active, dynamic, and controlling in the rolls and won more than I lost, and had much better movement.  Simply amazing.

Sunday was about 25-yard distance shooting, Bill Drills, shooting on the move, and other activities. Lots of shooting and multiple exercise, all useful and learned a lot. 

We shot B8 targets at 25 yards, and I tended to hit in the high 80s, low 90s - it needs some work and it's the grip that is the culprit.

Then on to Bill Drills. I shot a clean Bill Drill in 3.0 seconds exactly during the testing phase of the drill, which was nice.  

Then the class ended with another Black Belt test.  Again, no one cleared it but a few came darn close (no, I wasn't one of them) and my scores were:

3x5 my time was 2.53 clean - while not close, this was still happy making for me as it was a solid clean run.

At 7 yards I had a 1.11 time with a hit. 

On the Bill Drill I did a 2.41 but with misses out of the A Zone.

And on the one shot at 25 yards I had a 1.66 and a hit to the C Zone so it doesn't count. Drat, but at least I hit the target.

The test is humbling and an excellent corrective should you ever think you're too good to get out and practice.  I need more practice and more practice will occur.  

In other news, that was 845 rounds through the IWI Masada with zero malfunctions this weekend, which is nice.

Then the class picture and the class ended with us each receiving a  class patch and everyone gave their thoughts as to how the class went and what was learned.  Yes the class mascot was a well trained K9 Dutch Shepard named Rip, brought to the class by a dog trainer that was attending the course - he's an amazing fur missile.

In short, I cannot recommend this class highly enough.  

As a red dot class, it blew Sentinel Concepts Red Dot class away in terms of content, technique, methodology, and instruction.  

The Class is simply fantastic and well worth the cost. If you want to learn a way to be better with your red dot and appendix carry, Jedi would be highly recommended as an excellent way to learn both red dot and appendix carry.

Gun Skool - Red Dot Handgun by Steve Fisher of Sentinel Concepts

Drove to Alliance, Ohio with Tosh to attend a one-day class - Red Dot Sight Handgun - by Sentinel Concepts.

Since I'm now running a red dot, I decided I should get some instruction in how to get the most out of it and to get better at shooting.

We drove to the Alliance, Ohio PD range - located right beside the Alliance, Ohio Waste Treatment plant - to say the environment is rather pungent is an understatement.

A fun building adjacent to the police range:

Basically, it's a job for both the police and the sewage department.

The range is rather nice with a classroom building and has nice washrooms and potable water on site and given the heat was in the high 80-s that was a good thing. While we were drilling on the range, a SWAT team was practicing dynamic breaching entries in the adjacent shoot house - lots of booms and smoke rising into the air from there along with the cracks of rifles as they practiced.

Steve Fisher aka Yeti (if you ever see him in person you'll get where the name originates) is an excellent instructor.

He's friendly with a kinda gruff exterior, which helps him keep the class moving along. He's a rather no-nonsense and knowledgeable no-BS instructor, and that helps him both move the class along and get his instructional points across. He's very quick to identify issues students are struggling with and help students improve. It's one thing to be a great shooter, which he is, but another to be able to impart how to become better, which he does and does very well, and that's vital for an instructor to be able to do.

Steve definitely knows his stuff and can get it across to the students. He's very quick and able to diagnose issues students are having and can quickly propose methods to fix the problems. He also works to help students understand what didn't work with a particular shot or drill and how to move forward and fix it themselves. Since he had a lot of varied experience and levels of shooters on the line during the class, he was busy helping everyone improve, each at their own level. He also has a good practice of after every exercise going over it and getting feedback and diagnosis from every student as to what went well or wrong with the exercise. Good to listen to other students experience of the same drill and their thoughts what they did that went well, or did not go well. Very smart teaching technique.

We got a whole lot done in one day.

The class began with a bit of classroom work on choosing and installing red dots and some basics on using them. As well as the zero to use for them. Steve Fisher advocates and explains why a 25 yard zero is desirable and we got to see why. The main point was that shooting the red dot in essence requires the same fundamentals as shooting iron sights. Then to the range itself.

First we started zeroing our red dots from prone on a bag at 25 yards.

Since I had a 7-yard zero on the gun, my group was nice but high at 25 yards and we got it adjusted down to the 25. That zero then worked consistently well from 5-25 yards throughout the day. I can see why he uses the 25 yard zero and it makes a lot of sense.

Once we were all zeroed, He would demonstrate each technique before the class performed it. In short he walks the walk each time before he talks the talk and he consistently demonstrates each exercise in a very high-level manner. There were 24 students so we shot this in two relays of 12 with Tosh and I trading off on Target 3.

Once zeroed, we moved on to various drills starting at 5 yards - The first drill was Load 1, shoot 2 - which is actually a very effective drill for getting your speed and accuracy up. Then on to single shot draws, than two shots per draw, then three shots per draw all at a rapid cadence and with a focus on keeping each shot accurate.

Then shooting while only having the grip in the web of your hand and finger on the trigger with your remaining fingers away from the grip - yes you can shot accurately that way - done to show better grip management and not to choke the heck outta the gun with the strong hand. Pretty interesting drill.

Then out to 10 yards.

Then 15 yards.

Then 25 yards.

Fisher uses the B-8 repair center of the NRA 25 yard target as the target for each drill, with satisfactory hits being in the 10 and X. It's a pretty demanding standard, and the class did struggle with it. This is not a happy-fluffy course, it's a here's the tools to improve and let's push you to improve your shooting course.

I had some struggles myself - namely my grip - as I worked to change it following his analysis of my grip - basically my left hand placement is off. This threw me off my game quite a bit, as I was used to doing it as I was doing it before, but it is good to try and improve my grip.

After all, that's what a class is for - not to validate that you're already good, but to learn how to get better and it turns out that my grip really needs to be worked on.

He also has a neat technique of locking the strong hand thumb over the weak hand thumb with both pointing forward on the frame/slide which makes for a very solid hold on the gun - it really keeps the gun steady and returns it to a natural point of aim after each shot. Again need more practice to get this down but its an impressive improvement.

He also proposes actively pinching the scapula towards each other when shooting - it prevent over-extending the pistol and makes for better control. I tried it and it worked for me - so another thing to work on.

I'm going to be doing a lot of dryfire practice at home to learn the new grip and technique. It's really good, but I need to get my mind and unconscious on board.

Other struggles - yep, I had neglected to locktite the sight in place and sure enough even though I checked the screws before the class started, it came loose. This led to a really tight group that kept descending down the target face, but maintaining a tight group all the same. Oops. Rather embarrassing. Easy fix though, but it didn't hold its zero when reattached and tightened back down, which cost me nicely during the class.

I also had my first failure with the Masada - after one shot, the slide refused to open. It was shut fully closed rather tight and did not want to move. Took a hellacious tap rack to free it. Then it ran 100% the rest of the day without any other changes or anything. Not sure exactly what the cause was as I was in the middle of a drill but it was a bit of an off-putting failure. First failure, and could have been ammo induced.

The class was great, in general I was doing well but not as well as I wanted to do, as I struggled with the new grip and techniques. Good ego check, that. Obviously its going to take time to learn new techniques and make them second nature. Even with that, I hit a lot of Xs and 100s but again also hit a lot of 9, 8s and even 7 and the one 6 at 25 yards (ugh), I need to practice more to integrate these new techniques, not to mention get more practice in at 25 yards. Much learning occurred and I know how to get better which is the point. On the upside, I wasn't "That Guy" for the class which is a plus.

The class finished with shooting 10 rounds at 25 yards at the B8 target. I got all mine on the repair center with a few 10s and Xs or in the black but was clearly tired as the rest were hitting high and left (with one up in the 6 ring just outside the 7 ugh) for a total score of 85/100. I can do better, and with practice and implementing the new techniques learned will do so.

The class really showed the advantages of the dot and really helped brush up on shooting fundamentals and identify flaws. This is a very good thing.

That's another 450 rounds through the Masada for a total of 3,018 fired with now 1 failure.

Takeaways: The class was a great intro to shooting a red dot on a pistol and improving shooting fundamentals. Steve Fisher is a highly effective instructor. Well worth the time and money invested, and I got a lot out of it to work on. I'd recommend taking a class with him and this red dot class in particular if you're getting into red dots for your pistol, or even just want to improve your fundamentals. I will take more classes from him in the future.

Gun Skool On The Morrow

Off to take a shooting class tomorrow. Been far too long since I last took one. Looking forward to learning new things and how to better run what I’ve got.

Report to follow.

Aim Fast Hit Fast Class Review

The Aim Fast Hit Fast Class is designed for experienced shooters to improve their shooting ability. Taught by Todd Louis Green. A description of the class can be read at his website.

In short, it is an intensive and challenging class over two days with multiple shooting drills that help you increase your speed and accuracy as well as give you the tools to continue to improve after the class is over.

To The Range

So Murphy's Law and I pulled in Saturday morning nice and early onto the CCF&SA range in Wilmington, Ohio.

After running into some rather unfriendly people at the club, We figured out where and who Todd was, introduced ourselves, did the necessary paperwork and then the course began with a safety briefing and then on to some instruction and then the shooting. The day started out overcast with a weather forecast of heavy rains all day but quickly turned into sunshine and scorching hot temperatures requiring lots of water, sunscreen, and shade breaks.

Please Don't Let Me Be "That Guy"

You know, in every class there's That Guy, the one who: isn't ready for a drill, or who isn't paying attention, or drags the class down in multiple ways through incompetence.

Of course, luck had it that Todd made the order of the class so that I would go first on each of the individual drills after he had demonstrated them. I was number 1 in squad 1 so our squad shot first on the group drills as well.

So I was uniquely positioned to be able to demonstrate to the class how not to do a technique after Todd had demonstrated it correctly.

Without the opportunity to see others do the drill, I often at times felt and probably looked like a retarded monkey. At times, a retarded monkey could have shot better too.

Thankfully, while I wasn't the fastest shooter, I was one of the cleanest, meaning hitting the target with all shots, no misses. I did a 30 second yet clean barrel drill (I can't recall the real name for it - there's two barrels and you weave a figure 8 between and around them firing a shot at a designated target each time your either are at the outer side of the each barrel or in the center - much harder than it sounds) and my other events were pretty clean with the occasional frustrating miss, generally due to anticipating the shot, which Todd helped me work on fixing, more on that later.

In short, I wasn't the class "That Guy".

The FAST Drill:

This is Todd's signature drill. A test of speed and accuracy - 2 shots into a 3x5 "head" above an 8 inch circle "body" in which you reload and fire into it 4 shots, all at 7 yards. On the FAST Drill, I shot the first two clean, getting my best score on the drill Saturday afternoon shooting with a score of 7.66 making Intermediate, but missing Advanced by a long 1.67 seconds. I was the only one that had shot clean on both FAST drills that day if memory serves.

On Sunday morning, just before I got ready to shoot the third FAST, Todd said, "You know, very few people in a class shoot all four FAST Drills clean...." So I got the two head shots, made 3 body shots and on the final shot I jerked the trigger putting it just outside the circle. Jinxed! But it's my fault for thinking too much for about a 10+ second run plus penalty for the miss. Try to think or decide to go fast in your head and you'll end up going slow in reality.

On the fourth FAST, all tired out, I shot clean but with a 9.13 second time, too slow and messing up the mag change.

Other Drills

I scored a 45 out of 50 on the dot torture drill, showing I need to work on my trigger control. First time I've ever done that drill and it is very useful indeed, and worth practicing.

In the weak hand drills I learned I need to practice weak hand only shooting more. 'Nuff said.

My best draw from a holster was on the second Triple Nickel Drill at the end of Sunday. It was 1.4 seconds from beep to shot and everyone said it looked very smooth.

The first Triple Nickel drill started off funny however: On the beep, I drew, the gun went click (I had not chambered a round after the last Fast drill, just loaded the magazine with the amount of rounds instructed) I said "S..t!" very loudly and clearly, and proceeded to rack the slide and get to shooting. I shot a clean run but was over the five second "win" time.

There were lots more drills, all of which showed techniques to enhance one's shooting ability.

Things Learned

If the Class was solely about putting 1000+ rounds downrange, I could do that a lot closer to home. Instead, the course was about learning new skills to improve your technique and shooting faster and more accurately than you had before.

Keeping an open mind, I tried all of his suggested techniques, often with difficulty, but finding adopting them a marked improvement over how I had previously done things. The Press-Out, while I couldn't quite grasp it from his good description on his website, became understandable with his in person instruction, demonstration and then practicing it all weekend under his observation and tutelage made it a must-use technique.

Todd was able to give individual instruction to each of the 12 students and he helped me immeasurably with my grip, fixing a problem I didn't even realize I had, and my shooting got measurably better.

He also diagnosed a trigger control issue where I was squeezing the trigger but then crunching it down when I wanted to break the shot, anticipating it and causing it to go low. Again, my shooting improved a lot in a very short time.

In other words, those two corrections and the instruction in the use of the press-out alone were worth the price of admission, but I learned lots more. The side manipulation technique for reloads that he teaches is itself so simple yet much more effective than any technique I've done before.

Todd is an excellent and capable instructor and very able to demonstrate and communicate how to improve your shooting. His demonstrating and explaining the Press-Out really improved both my shooting time and accuracy. He has an approachable manner with a good sense of humor and excellent instructional skills.

Conclusion

If you're looking to seriously improve your shooting abilities, and be able to leave a weekend class with new techniques that you can continue to practice and perfect to make your shooting even better, Todd Green's Aim Fast Hit Fast is a fantastic class to take.

I will continue to practice the techniques learned and I'll keep on improving thanks to this great class and instructor.

Back from the Ohio Trip

I'm back from Ohio.

On Friday, Murphy's Law and I after driving through a thunderstorm to get there, met up in Dayton, Ohio and we spent the day and had a great time at the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson Airbase.

If you've never been there and you like aircraft, you are missing an awesome treat. Let's put it this way, if there's a military aircraft you like, they probably have one on display.

They also have some of the "onlys", as in "the only remaining model of its kind in the world" like a XB-70 Valkyrie (189 feet long, 105 foot wingspan and 30 feet high) on display indoors.

From the Wright brothers to a Spad VIII,

to a Predator drone and just about everything in between, they had one, nicely and informatively displayed.

A more detailed report of the trip around the museum, including the very interesting discussions with the friendly and learned docents, and more pictures will follow shortly.

Then Saturday and Sunday we did the fun class - The pistol-training.com's Aim Fast Hit Fast taught by Todd Green. A full review will follow but as a preview:

1. Awesome instructor.
2. Learned tons.
3. I need more practice.
4. Without a doubt the class is worth taking and I highly recommend it if you want to improve your shooting skills.
5. When the weatherman predicts thunderstorms, expect a blazingly hot sun and prepare accordingly.

A big thanks to Tam at View From the Porch for informing us by blogging about the class and her good, descriptive, and positive review.

Tired but happy I returned home last night, unpacked the car, did the laundry and passed out and slept the sleep of the just, or something like that.

Before I go on with the AFHF review however, I thought I should pass along a few things learned while wandering in the wilds of mid-southern Ohio:

1. Ohio drivers will regularly pitch a tent in the left lane of a highway and blissfully camp there driving under the speed limit.

2. Ohio drivers have yet to figure out that the stalk on their steering column can cause a turn signal to be activated. Its use apparently never gets covered in Ohio's driver's ed curriculum.

3. Damon's is considered to be fine dining.

4. The staff at Arby's in Wilmington, Ohio can, and did, flunk lunch.

5. Dayton likes to close all of its on and off ramps to I-75.

6. For all of that, gas was 30 cents a gallon cheaper in Ohio.