First off thanks again to @JamesYeager,@dougiemac and @NWS for making this happen for me.After waiting well over a year to take this class thanks to an 11momth vacation to the Middle East the time is finally here.
I will be updating this post at the end of each day.
Day 0:
Plan: drive to Camden TN where I will be staying in the team room which is in the basement of James Yeager's house.
What happened: made it to the team room, got a bottom bunk. Made some friends. Went to dinner and now just talking shit. There is a SET sticker on the fridge.
Day 1: Plan, go to class with an open mind.
What happened: went to class with an opened mind. Started with going over basic safety rules like most classes but that's where the similarities stopped.
Went to the range (new range, not the one usually seen on YouTube) and with out giving away too terribly much we went from crawl to fast walk in just a matter of hours.
Went to SOE afterwards where John gave me and a few other guys a tour of the shop and BS'd with us for a an hour or so.
Now we're just hanging around the class room with James.
Both of these Gentlemen are great down to earth guys. Can't wait for the rest of the week.
Day 2: Plan, first half of the day is lecture then followed by shooting on the move in the afternoon. I'm told the lecture is the best part of the class. I am inclinced to believe so due to the fact that mindset is often the most overlooked aspect of any type of training.
What happened: Great lecture this morning that itself could be a whole class.
After lunch we went out to the range and ran some close up drills as well as shooting on the move and from cover/concealment.
This is the end of the "fighting pistol" part of "Way of the Pistol" tomorrow we start "advanced fighting pistol"
I would have been content with taking only FP class here. I have taken a few classes from other places and this environment by far has been among the top. The biggest thing anyone should take away from this class is the mindset.
I'm trying not to give away too much of the class because the environment and instructors are over half of the experience. I definitely look forward to the next chapter tomorrow.
Day 3: only 6 students in this class which is awesome.
First day of advanced pistol started with a brief reminder of the four safety rules and then it was trigger time. This portion of class is based on the premise that you already know how to properly shoot and maintain good safe fundamentals.
A few things we covered were single handed off hand malfunction clearing, shooting from our back in various position.
I decided to start running the drills and carrying a back up gun. After all, this is the place to try new things. I've decided that I'll be carrying a backup gun as well. The "New York" reload is the quickest reload when tap rack bang doesn't work.
Dinner time now with the instructors. Jay Gibson and Don Numbers.
Day 4: Started off with a few warm up type drills then went head on into advanced "fighting" and gun retention drills. This is the stuff the internet would blow up.
Shooting under stress drills and how to apply tourniquets and bandages under stress.
Finished the day off with low light shooting in the shoothouse. Doesn't always happen in the house. Just depends on when the sun goes down.
Day 5: Force on Force inside the shoot house using Simmunition guns. This was the "culminating event" where we took everything we had learned and used it to save our lives.
There is some stuff I'm intentionally leaving out. Come take the class for the full experience.
Feel free to post questions here. I had a great time and would definitely pay full price.
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