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Old March 15, 2000, 10:46 AM   #1
jeffelkins
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Join Date: December 24, 1999
Posts: 410
My wife and I are just back from a two day tactical pistol course with Chuck Taylor. The class was about 80% LE/Alphabet Agency, 20% civilian.

Day one started at 8am ET. I used a Glock 23, day two a Colt M1991A1. Day one, my wife used S/W & Ruger wheelguns, day two the Glock 23.

Chuck opened with a hour lecture (very funny guy) then we proceeded downrange where we were broken up into two relays. Dry-fire practice preceeded most of the drills. After relay two finished a drill, Taylor gathered us together and gave a brief talk before starting relay one on the next.

We started at three meters for two shot COM shot placement, then head shots (FTS drill),instruction in a proper ready position, presentation from holster (day one, my wife used a gun purse and CT gave her special instruction in technique). The relays swapped out for each drill and after each live fire drill, Taylor analyzed each shooter's target.

During drills he was up and down the line providing individual instruction and tips. During daylight we moved backwards, until we reached 10 meters. We ended shooting in low light, moving on to shooting in darkness using a flashlight and a modified Weaver stance (Harries (sp). We finished up around 8:45pm ET. Lowlight/darkness shooting was a conducted during an amazingly hard rainfall, BTW. I can tell you this...tritium nightsites rule! As Taylor predicted, many of us shot better in darkness than light!

During our D1 lunch break, some of the LEOs broke out the class three weapons and several of us got a chance to try our hand with them. I was able to test a full mag from a suppressed Ingram 9mm...I want one

Loooong day.

Day two live fire drills were more complex...hostage targets from 3 meters to seven meters (However, CT believes that a seven meter hostage shot is improbable. In the 'real world' a sniper would be the best bet for seven meters and beyond). Individual targets with multiple partial 'heads' and further splitting the relays to engage multiple targets.

We spent at least 90 minutes on malfunction clearance drills (it could have been longer...I may not recall correctly) None of these were live-fire. CT does not mix live-fire/dry-fire drills and told some amusing (and scary) stories about why not.

We spent quite a bit of time on speed and tactical reload practice, both dry and live fire drills. Actually, not so much on speed reloads, Taylor thinks they are fine for games, but not much use in the real world. He hates to see a student shoot a weapon dry.

We ended day two with shooting from a on-knees position from 15 meters. I had problems with this when my knee gave out (during dry-fire practice). You drop into position from a standing position and my knees couldn't take it

We ended D2 about 5:30pm ET.

Nelson Marchand organized this class and served as chief range officer and assistant instructor. He and his team were excellent.

The facilities at Markham Park in Ft.Lauderdale were superb. We worked in the Sheriff's Department LEO-only section, but the public shooting facility was world-class (and free). A totally safe range with extremely competent (and strict) ROs. Tax dollars doing good for a change

Conclusions: This was money well spent. We left the course much better shooters than when we arrived and also came away with a good plan for further self-training. Taylor repeatedly stressed the fundamentals, pushing us beyond where we thought we could go. We are both more confident shooters now.

I started day one with my Glock 23 and a NY trigger and did OK, but swapped it out for a standard spring and a #5 connector at lunch and did markedly better.

D2 I switched to my M1991A1 and kicked butt (by my standards anyway). My personal performance with a single-action 1911 was markedly improved over the Glock. My wife OTOH, fell in love with the Glock and has now appropriated it for her carry piece She did OK with her wheelguns, but did much better with the self-loader.

If you ever have a chance to train with Chuck you'll enjoy it and learn a lot. But your butt will be dragging when you finish
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Old March 18, 2000, 06:11 AM   #2
Al Thompson
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Join Date: May 2, 1999
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 3,611
Very interesting. I have the NY trigger in my M26 and have considered switching back.

How close was the majority of your shooting?

Did you start your strings from the holster or with pistol in hand?

Giz
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Old March 24, 2000, 08:09 AM   #3
jeffelkins
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Join Date: December 24, 1999
Posts: 410
We started from both low ready and holster presentation...the majority was holster. Generally each exercise started at three meters and moved back to seven. We only had a couple at 15 meters.
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Old March 24, 2000, 09:42 AM   #4
George Hill
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Join Date: October 14, 1998
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 11,546
Sounds like you got some good training.

My opinions on Taylor are from many years ago... And from writings he penned years ago as well.
In all honesty - I will have to reevaluate Chuck Taylor.
I may have been wrong.

Ouch - that hurt to say... but I'll have to look into this matter with new eyes.

Thanks for the good report.
You may have resolved an old grudge.

------------------
"I like the word 'indolence.' It makes my laziness seem classy." -Bern Williams
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Old March 24, 2000, 04:21 PM   #5
jeffelkins
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Join Date: December 24, 1999
Posts: 410
You're welcome George.

This was the first professional training for my wife and I, but hopefully not the last.
Gabe Suarez and Mas Ayoob will both be training near us later this year and we're going to try to do both.
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