Maybe it’s time to look closer to home, to those local instructors that teach part time for not much money, because they want to share knowledge, and are willing to work with students on a case by case basis. They may not have one or more pages of ‘qualifications’ but they teach because they believe in what they are doing, and by and large are pretty cotton picking good too!
Go read the whole thing: He hits the points I have made before about The Super Tactical Instructors that will teach you how to shoot while rappelling form a helicopter wearing too much Molle crap.
get an instructor that teaches you the basics of defensive pistol/rifle or shotgun and leave the Ninja shit for when you hit the lotto. The basics are the fundamental, anything else is just plain decorations.
After shooting for five decades (I, um, started really young), I finally took a handgun class at Bullet and Barrel range in Huntsville, AL, taught by Bishop Solutions (former Army Special Forces and DEA). The class was about four hours long and was very thorough – I enjoyed it immensely and learned a few things.
We got to shoot a selection of handguns at the range, and I found that I was pretty decent with a revolver – somewhat to my surprise as I only have semi-autos.
RE: The importance of fundamentals. See The Tactical Professor. Lots of good info. and drills.
I agree 100%. There seems to be a cottage industry of “I’m a gun guy who did time in the sandbox and only wear 5.11 pants” tactical trainers. What they teach might be of little use to the person who only owns and wants to carry a J-Frame. I’d love to teach “fat guy with a bad back CCW.” I’m not a tactical operator, but I can run a snubby and thats good enough for Sam’s Club parking lot.
I started shooting early in life and then let it go for 20+ years. Then got back into shooting. It turned out that I was the go to guy for safety briefings and bringing first time users into the group. I felt like I had a good handle on shooting. I did well with bolt action, “modern sporting rifle”, and semi-auto pistols.
Then about a year ago I was at the range and decided that I wasn’t happy with my groupings and bought some Personal Instruction from one of the instructors at my range.
Her only question to me was “I’m a female, is that ok?” me: Huh? Are you any good?
She was able to see what I was doing and my groupings got much tighter from that. I still need to find a shoot and move rather than a square range and get instruction there.
I only teach the basics. None of the upside down over the shoulder between yer legs crap. Only fancy stuff i teach is shoot and move Ive seen the videos of the glock ninjas in action- reminded me of my high school basketball team. They d come running out jumping around and doin the harlem globetrotters stuff at the intro. The away team would be doin lay ups and foul shots. Come game time you d never guess who lost…..by 40-100 points.
A friend of mine recently took a course in Manchester, NH. It was in two parts: a classroom session about defensive gun use rules and laws and all that; the other was a session at a range in a nearby town. She reports she got a lot out of both. It seemed to be a “rigorous basics” approach. Some day I should take that course, too (all I have is NRA Basic, taught by a co-worker who is also an RSO at the local range).
That range in Manchester use to have a couple of very good instructors. The guy that teaches the NRA classroom party is also very good. Not so sure about the range training. Give them a try if you are out that way. They allow rifles on the range, no AP or steel cores. No black powder.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I didn’t mean the Manchester range; the practical shooting part of her course was at Patriot Gun Club in Dunbarton, same place I took my Basic course.
That reminds me… I quite enjoy James Rummel’s blog.. (hellinahandbasket.net)
He has many posts about training practically.
Thanks for the link and the support.