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Old August 22, 2020, 03:51 PM   #26
TunnelRat
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Is it time to upgrade carry gun? Training question...

John makes some great points. I’d like to add some examples from my experience.

The point about time and money is a good one. An old adage is train how you fight. That’s a fair point, in my mind. One problem, however, can be when 1-2 students in a class are using revolvers or say micro pistols and the rest of the class is using duty pistols. Absent those 1-2 students having a lot of magazines or speedloaders, they will need to reload those magazines or speedloders constantly. Part of this is the function of how many shots are in a drill’s course of fire, but frankly most drills are repeated a few times after being introduced so even reducing the round count per drill doesn’t remedy this completely. What does an instructor do in this case? Should he or she wait for the students to get done reloading before giving more instruction (a new drill)? Is that fair to the rest of the students? Even if that instructor just goes ahead then when those students get back the instructor will need to repeat the instructions for safety because these are firearms.

I’ve personally seen two examples of this. One was a man with a SIG P238. He was in a reflexive shooting course where most everyone else was using duty pistols. He had 6 magazines and the mag pouches to support it. It looked a bit awkward but he kept up with us just fine and didn’t slow the flow of the course, which in a 2 day course can be a big deal. He also did very well shooting wise, but more so he was respectful of the time of the rest of the students. If he did run out of rounds for a drill he ran it dry to get reps in and understand what was required, then waited for a pause in the line to step off and reload and then hurried back.

The second was a man with a S&W Shield. This was an intermediate shooting course for general development. He had only the two magazines with the pistol. He would vocally complain when a drill kept going and he was out of rounds. An actual safety issue presented itself during one drill. The drill was about moving and then shooting. We started shooting at 25 yd, jogged in 5 yd, shot again, and kept repeating until we ended at the 5 yd line. The man in question ran out and needed to reload. However, he reloaded when the shooting line was moving to the next position. Rather than move with the line for safety, even if you reload on the move, he stopped and reloaded while we went ahead of him. That left him with a loaded firearm behind the line and him at a ready position. When the instructor talked to him and explained that safety wise it was better for him to move with the line, the man responded that tactically it didn’t make sense to move with an unloaded firearm. The instructor tried to explain that in a course setting you sometimes trade best tactics for safety. The man wasn’t very receptive.

I think depending on your personal attitude shooting courses can be done with firearms with lower round counts, both revolvers and pistols. But John is right that there are time (money) considerations and in addition to the safety concerns John mentioned there can even be safety concerns that result from having a low round count firearm depending on the dynamics of the course. As I mentioned earlier, I really think talking with the instructor beforehand is the best bet. Schedules are usually posted some time ahead. Call or email and ask them candidly.


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Last edited by TunnelRat; August 22, 2020 at 08:17 PM.
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Old August 23, 2020, 09:57 AM   #27
Aguila Blanca
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A number of posts that were completely off the topic of this discussion have been removed. The question has been answered and the OP has decided to stay with his revolver, so there isn't any need to continue this discussion.
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