Video at link.
By far, the most important thing to learn is how to keep your finger off the bang switch until you really mean business. Everything else (though useful) is secondary.
Although their focus is not handguns, they are an excellent resource for long gun training and for a historical perspective of the use of firearms to defend, going back to Lexington.
Formal training is good but being really familiar with firearms from a young age and having the right mental attitude is probably the most important.
I remember an article by Skeeter Skelton maybe 50 years ago. He was comparing modern shooters and old shootists from frontier times.
I agreed with what he said before he said it but basically his point was this. Today’s competitors would easily beat those old timers and today’s skilled shooters know more about shooting techniques.
On the other hand if you transported the champions of today back to Dodge City or Tombstone, they would pretty soon be dead.
It's educational and fun.
http://youtu.be/lcgsd9_cBm8
.
Todd Jarrett class shooting steel:
http://youtu.be/ysa50-plo48
BRASS
I added banglist to keywords,
Appleseed Project kick my butt
Years ago and worth every cent!
Eye - Muzzle - Target
About 20 boxes of ammo. Draw and shoot until you don’t anticipate the bang. Draw and shoot until all of your focus is on the front sight and you don’t notice the bang. Draw and shoot until you can continuously follow the front sight all the way through the shot and into the next.
My wife can go without shooting for a year and immediately punch one ragged hole group, but for mere mortals, shoot, shoot, shoot.
you don’t train until you get it right.
you train until you don’t get it wrong.
Key word there.
Competence is not measured in how many you put in the ten ring.
Competence is not measured in how well your weapon is concealed or quoting muzzle velocities or arguing leather vs kydex or revolver vs semiauto or how much you spent for the weapon or how many rounds your magazine holds, etc, etc.
Competence with a defensive hand gun is measured in whether or not you walk away from the use of it alive and morally, mentally and legally intact.
That competence, unfortunately, is measured after the incident.
None of us know how competent we are until it happens.
And even then, either way, you will still wonder.......
I’ve been curious about something for the longest time ...
How is it that civilians who become cops by attending a Police Academy suddenly become the only people around who are fully trusted with the use of firearms? Yet that same civilian who attends a “civilian” firearm safety class is barely trusted with a gun and is held in suspicion when armed?
Is police training THAT much more intense and involved than what most gun owners are required to receive to obtain a permit? (In states that require such schooling, of course.) Obviously I haven’t attended a Police Academy, if that wasn’t obvious.
Or is it just that our political overlords simply don’t trust us, which is most likely the bottom-line cause?
I like to think my 12 months in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam shooting the NVA taught me a lot about using a firearm. No training is as good as dealing with an enemy that is shooting back.
I'm also a Tactical Response Alumnus, though I know a lot of people here don't like James Yeager. Most people who don't like him probably never took a class with him.
Also, ECQC 'Extreme Close Quarter Concepts' with Craig Douglas, aka 'SouthNarc', is a MUST.