Wednesday, October 6, 2010

the last word

Sure... you can dress like a mall ninja, play by your big boy rules, add another gizmo to your rails, fine. Done safely, "training" can be fun and informative. Feel free to run 'n' gun to your heart's content. It's your time, money, and in the case of those idiotic downrange drills where you rely on the competence of complete strangers, possibly your life.

But remember...a couple of weekend tactical carbine classes isn't practice. It's playing.

You'd be better off honing skills you might actually use.

6 comments:

George said...

While I can't vouch for their carbine classes, I can say that the best value for money I have every spent in my life was the money I plunked down for my Gunsite 250 class. It sounds trite, but it was literally a life changing experience. I was transformed from a guy who carries a gun into a confident gun owner/user. I am deliberately avoiding the term gunfighter because of the macho bull**** associated with it. But I have no doubt whatsoever that if need be I can defend myself with a firearm.

Five days of no BS, no nonsense training from the perspective of reality...not Walter Mitty BS.

Bubblehead Les. said...

We'll probably have a spirited discussion about this topic at the Bloggershoot, but any GOOD school/instructors who runs these classes stresses that they are starting points for the skill sets they are teaching, and it is the students responsibility to get in the practice.

Of course, the BAD schools/instructors are there to take your money and feed their egos. The trick is to sort the Wheat from the Chaff.

Buckshot said...

We have a training group and work to teach CCW and some advanced pistol. We have 4 NRA Certified Instructors and 4 OPOTA Certified Instructors. Works out to be a pretty good goup.

The HIGHEST we ever go is working a pair together, and that is the final course and they can only sign up for it as pairs. So, while it is a "team" these people have all ready teamed up and come to the class as a team. Even then there is no room clearing or that kind of thing. It is basically how to work with another person so that you don't sweep them while working together and that kind of thing.

That is about as far as I am willing to go with it.

I am a rifle instructer also, but NRA 4 positon smallbore or NRA/CMP High Power is normally it. I have worked, once, with a civilian Rattle Battle team. That is probably as close as I will ever get to the "tacticool" crap.

Buckshot

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting the link to that very thoughtful blogpost.

Old NFO said...

Thanks for the link Breda- at least your commenters are taking the post in the context as it was written... :-)

Ansel said...

Very thought provoking post.

'Big Boy Rules'
BBR refers to the practice (in my experience) of not waiting for the Range Officer to tell you when to reload, or clear your malfunctions for you when you raise your hand. It does NOT mean you disregard any safety practices and start muzzling other members of the class.

'Tacticool crap'
It isn't crap, these are critically needed tools for providing safety for me and my family.

For when the Zombie Apocalypse hits and civilization goes DRT.

At least that's what I tell my wife.