Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training - a book

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training

by Karl Rehn (Author), John Daub (Author)

Wish to recommend this by my good friend and mentor, Karl Rehn. Bought it the other day and the content is excellent. Karl has been mentioned in our posts many times. John is a great guy also. I recall him 'shooting me' when I violated common sense in a FOF/medical class. Ouch.

The description:

What percentage of carry permit holders attend training beyond the state minimum? What are the barriers keeping people from attending firearms training that isn't mandatory? What are realistic standards for minimum defensive handgun competency? What are the best drills to practice? How can you compare the difficulty level of one drill to another? Written by two trainers with decades of experience, this book explores those questions and others related to defensive pistol training.

Amazon has it.

I first met Karl when I moved to TX and he was teaching a basic handgun class through U of T Austin continuing ed. Then I took his AT series and took advantage of his guest hosting of great folks like Insights, Tom Givens, Dave Spaulding, etc. Met Paul Gomez through a class there.

[Rangerrich99]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll look into it this week.

[T. O'Heir]

"...What percentage of carry permit holders attend training..." Better question is, "How many practice marksmanship with the ammo they carry in their firearm?" And/or, "How many think the assorted shooting games are practical in any way?"

[Rangerrich99]

Originally Posted by T. O'Heir

"Better question is, "How many practice marksmanship with the ammo they carry in their firearm?"

Not trying to start an argument here, but after having shot nearly 8,000 rds of all types through one of my carry pieces, 4,000 or so being my reloads, 3,000 or so being various manufactured target rounds, and about 750 Hornady Critical Defense/Gold Dots/other defensive loads, out to 20 yards I'm not really seeing much difference in accuracy, regardless of what I'm shooting.

The other day I split a card at 10 paces on the first shot (lucky) with my reloaded ammo. And I never built my reloads for accuracy. I wanted them to function the gun consistently, no more.

It took another three shots to split it again. All rounds landed in an area about the size of a 50 cent piece.

Not sure I could do better regardless of what ammo I was shooting with that day.

Now if i was shooting out at 50 yards or more, maybe I'd see a difference in consistency and accuracy. But at "normal" defensive training distances (5,7,10,& 15 yards) I'm fairly sure ammo is ammo.

[davidsog]

"How many think the assorted shooting games are practical in any way?

Drills are extremely important and develop muscle memory that will keep you alive in combat.

We used to define a soldier as "An individual who performs simple mechanical tasks while scared "S--t less."

That pretty much covers the mechanics of combat.

The soft skills such as judgement, situational awareness, and common sense are very important but can be meaningless without the ability to perform the simple mechanical task's.....

[Sharkbite]

Better question is, "How many practice marksmanship with the ammo they carry in their firearm?"

This was a bigger deal when we carried .357 mag ammo and practiced/Qual’d with 38 spl (and low powered 38 at that)

Today in 9mm, 40s&w and 45acp, we see “practice ammo” duplicating “carry ammo” almost exactly in like bullet weights. If you carry 147gn 9mm, practice with 147gn and for all practical purposes and distances the results are the same.

My 147gn reloads hit the same velocity (read that as recoil) and same POI as the Gold dot i carry. No need to take out a loan and shoot gold dots for training.

[Jeff22]

I just got this book and I've skipped around and read parts of it.

To answer the question "Why don't more people practice or get training? well the answer to that is simple. Some people are intellectually curious and like to learn new things. Most people are not. Most people over estimate their level of skill and competence which leads to complacency.

Attempting to define what might be considered a minimal level of competence and providing some drills to develop those skills is a worthy effort. Lots of people really don't have a training plan of any kind when they "go shooting" and so, while they might enjoy themselves they aren't doing anything to maintain or increase their abilities.