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Old April 20, 2006, 12:13 AM   #1
gordo b.
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Arizona Conference 2006

Day one for us was Sunday, we found Mad Dog land after a liesurely trip in our rented, Stealthed out Hemi Charger ($300 for 10 days!!)in the early afternoon. Tommy and Rusty and the usual suspects were allready there and it was a delight to see our buddies faces! Met Kevin in person and he is just like his pictures and prose!After fitting my hand to my new Sitka Kevin caused me and pal to strip with acetone our 9 weapons and XF-7 them. He talked my friend into using his newXD-45- I wasn't haveing any of that after spending 6months on/with my Para's!! Seems like Kevin would give a friend the shirt off his back! What a guy!
Day one, Monday had us in full kit 8 am on Denny Hansens range. After the formalities we were introduced to our trainers: Louis Awerbuck who needs no further intro other than this is Yoda him self on this planet! Steve McDaniel from Alaskan Tactical earned him a nick name from some of us "Tactical Ted" This guy is a flawless tactical bot! His size and demeanor are enough to make sheeple wet their britches! Another Prince in MY book! Alice Rogers is NOT married to Pat Rogers but she is one heck of a trainer! She was all over my fumble butt like .. well you get the picture! She is not sweet and motherly about it like Brett Mcqueen, being she trains the Washington State Prison system. I give her princess status if she won't kick my butt.Denny Hansen was our gracious host and helped on the line and everywhere.
We warmed up with handguns, which I was glad! My P-14 &P13 Para's were flawless and what a treat to have 15 on tap like my sissy Beretta 92 training guns AND with a good SA trigger! I used a G-Code Ready Tac rig on my Wilderness belt with Orca suspenders. It worked great EXCEPT I kept reaching for my P-13 back up in it's high ride holster out of muscle memory Alice had nice things to say about that! I don't think we used any long guns the first 8 hour day of going over the basics and getting to know the handlers in line drills.

Day 2 introduced the carbine, let me say right here and now I HATE THE AR platform! Even though I try to make up a decent gun they suck in general IMHO! Lots of people,me included had little problems with the thing hanging up ect.I've always had minor flubs with ARs since I gave them a second chance in the late 90's. I took a course in OCT with an AK and never had ONE problem other than a bloody right thumb after 3 days! I am not gonna waste any more time down the AR alley, which was my first impression in 1969 when I first was handed one after being trained on an M-14! OK nuff of that rant. We went thru the basics, sighting in ect. and progressed to line drills and transitions by the afternoon.
I think we did the first force on force in Denny Hansen's old ranch house that night, Tommy'd know as he took notes to do a SWAT magazine article.. Denny had his kids role playing and who would want to go on invite for help in a dark ramshackle place full of screaming pyshcos unless you are SWAT? Me and my friend Dennis backed the family into the back closet were they killed each other-but not us!Heck I didn't know we were suppose to defuse the situation! [Wink]
Weds morning out on the range at 8 am with 5 hours sleep -again! At least it was SHOTGUN day! I love the shotgun! Louis is the best SG trainer in the world, unquestionably! Everything was good for me and my Robar 870 and all the world was in perfect harmony! Blasting all the targets cleanly and not forgetting to 'run the bolt'!We went to Fred Wells gunshop in the afternoon. Oh my G-d! I got to hold the original bull pup! You kids wouldn't understand! The place is the valhalla of custom Mausers and more! Rachel Wells our host as Fred recently passed is an unbelieveable engraver and still runs the busy shop. She showed us walls of priceless treasures! John Jardine and I walked around and ogled the good old machines and projects Fred had going! Simply Amazing!
Once again it is a blur but I think we went back to another night shoot from vehiclesand bobbing targets and another force on force game. I was forceing this 60 year old butt to be "switched on" till 11 pm in the cold AZ night!
Another 5 hours sleep and we were on thursday's range. Here's where Louis really starts a slow burn as some in the class (not me YET) start chatting and not responding to his calls. Could we REALLY be the 'worst class in 18 years"? His line of thinking was' you paid lot's of money($1000) and are supposed to be advanced students and you are not following orders and I won't have enough time to give you all the advanced things you paid for which reflects on me as an instructor". Anyway my Carbine starts to act up in volume fire but of course I have another bolt in the stock(what kind of rifle needs an extra bolt?) so it was only another 10 minute delay! [Roll Eyes] Wishing for my 870 again! Shooting 5 layered movers by the PM!
The saving grace of the day which was cold and showering, was an afternoon trip to the Sconce!Mrs. Cooper is soooo gracious! She recieved 20 disciples to sit at the feet of her husband in front of a fire! The Good Colonel looked poorly in all honesty. What a shock from when I was in abject terror of him in the early 1980s ! But we hung on every word from his wizened lips! He went thru the Combat Mindset with complete wisdom and understanding. The high point for me was when he said he hated the M-16 and the M-1 was the best rifle ever invented! We got a complete tour of the sconce and hung out as the Col. retired himself. I got to hang out and somewhat 'coon finger' things like THE American Handgunner award guns ect. until Louis pulled me up short! [Embarrassed] We stayed there a few hours as rain hung off in the distance , the Col. reappeared and autographed our books! What a sobering day spent with our Guru! We recieved the Blessing!!! Dennis and I drove up the Mongolin Rim back roads to Sedona in the falling snow for an evening's reflection on this high point of our lives!
Friday, and actually got 7 hours sleep after a couple industrial strength Gray Goose tranqualizers!
TGIF! 8 am full kit ready to go, the pace goes up. Louis dresses us down regularly and warns of impending anilhlation. He pulls dennis off the line for starting to dehydrate (he was drinking plenty H2o but needed some fruit sugar) as his shooting went down man on man- big misses ect. Ha not me- for another 2 hours!My fingers curled up and I suddenly started hooking my shots! I have hit MY wall at this late hour! After resting and eating a snack we went back at it until the gruelling finish of wrong handed weak hand stuff ect.. Louis told us he felt bad our class was not up to all he could have given us- Good Grief! We said Goodbye to Alice and Steve and Louis. I may see Steve again when he goes to Las Vegas for his Alaska Tactical Seminar!
Now off to Kevins' Mad Dog Land for a 2 hour lecture and tour. Wow all those blades! The high point was Kevin freaking us all out TRYING in vain to break a reject Atak with the 2" of blade in a vise and a 10" crescent on hilt ! We all backed off in fear. He thought he could break it but even almost 90 degrees and it sprung back after three HARD full strength trys ! I inspected the blade later and it was perfect- he wouldn't take $200 cash for it!
A few of us Mad Dog ophiles had dinner with Kevin and his lovely wife AND Kathy Long who was visiting . What a lady! Dennis didn't know who she was, he got to sip his martini next to her for the evening, and I can tell you he was IMPRESSED! I sat next to St. Teryl and I am impressed too with such a wonderful lady! I am trying to get my wife to hang with her while I take Kevin's July class! I sat across from John Jardine and got him to um, discuss 1911 geometry, among other things for 2 hours! He and Kevin did real good, thank you Jesus! What a wonderful evening!! Allem Gemutlichkeit!
Sat after a good nights rest we went back to Denny Hansens Range and set in the tent most of the day for our AZ non resident CCW license. I was surprised at the retired cops taking it! Seems some departments in Nevada ect. don't give their oldguys CCW! This gave us time to say goodbye to old and new friends. A certain entourage went back to MD land, some went to Gunsite and we took the hemi home to Central Kali at an extreme rate of speed!
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Old April 22, 2006, 08:00 PM   #2
gordo b.
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Join Date: October 20, 2002
Location: Peoples republik of Calif.
Posts: 961
yeah, but for all the interest here or the High Road , I would have been better off posting about the latest tacticool colors for kevlar codpiece holsters Or how to best survive a mall gunfight with nuclear terrorists.
Funny , it was meant for Tactical forums at the urging of Tommy G. , and was well recieved there, I thought others would care to here about it! I guess a man just has to know his place!

Last edited by gordo b.; April 22, 2006 at 09:15 PM.
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Old April 23, 2006, 02:52 PM   #3
Don H
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Perhaps a little background on just what the "Arizona Conference 2006" is would have been a help. I had never heard of it before your post.
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Old April 23, 2006, 03:04 PM   #4
gordo b.
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Join Date: October 20, 2002
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Posts: 961
It isn't a help if nobody views it! And this being a place to post reviews of such kind of training , well like I said I just might post' What machine pistol clone for CCW in shopping malls?' and check the post count!
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Old April 23, 2006, 04:28 PM   #5
Don H
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Join Date: May 8, 2000
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As of this moment, 113 people have viewed your post. And I still have no idea what "Arizona Conference 2006" was about. Is this an annual event? Where is it held in Arizona? Can anyone attend or is it by invitation only? Is there a website I can go to for information?

By the way, I normally would have passed over this huge block of text with only one paragraph break - it can be difficult reading for those of us with older, less than perfect vision, and my patience isn't what it used to be.
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