PRACTICALLY TACTICAL

Beyond Basic Handgun Classes

I’ve mentioned before that many handgun classes aimed toward the concealed carry customer are exactly that: classes on shooting a handgun.

This is not bad in and of itself because the basic skills required to operate a handgun rapidly and accurately are not something that comes built into the basic human evolutionary toolkit.

Once you have gotten the basics of being able to hit the target and taken some training to learn to safely draw and reholster the pistol from concealment, you may want to find a class that will challenge you a little more and help you push the boundaries of those skills.

Rangemaster Intensive Pistol Skills

A good example of that sort of training would be the Intensive Pistol Skills course from Rangemaster. As it says in the course intro, this is not a basic class, and there are prerequisites. You’ll need to have taken their initial Combative Pistol class, attended a school like Gunsite or Thunder Ranch, or have trained with one of the reputable roving instructors. This is to ensure you’re ready to keep up with the pace of instruction and not get overwhelmed, “drinking from the firehose” of a two-day class where you’ll be burning up six hundred rounds of ammo.

I took the class in Nappanee, Indiana, from Tom Givens himself back in 2016, but it’s taught all over the country now by Rangemaster instructors like Aqil Qadir and others.

Classroom and Range Time

There is some classroom time on mindset, legalities, and the criminal assault paradigm, but the bulk of the class will be spent on the range.

The morning of the first day on the range is going to start off with a basic assessment of your ability to safely get the pistol in and out of the holster and hit a target, and then it’s off to the races.

The class is conducted with a hot range, and you are assumed to be capable of keeping up with your own ammunition management. I’d recommend bringing at least enough magazines that you can step to the line with fifty rounds loaded and ready to go. A good habit is keeping a bunch of loose rounds in a pocket you can use to top up magazines while the other relay is running a drill.

There will be a focus on accountability for every round fired; accuracy under time pressure.

Key Drills

Some drills will be more accuracy-focused than time-focused. You’ll encounter the Rangemaster bullseye course, which is a thirty-round course of fire on a B-8 bull with a total of thirty shots fired from the 5-, 7-, 10-, 15-, and 25-yard lines. The 25-yard string might be a revelation if you use fat sights. I had AmeriGlo CAP sights on my Robar-customized Gen2 Glock 17, and the black of a B-8 disappeared completely behind the front sight at 25 yards, requiring centering the dot by more or less guesswork.

There’s the Casino Drill, which will involve firing twenty-one rounds divided between three magazines at small targets, with one shot on target #1, two on #2, et cetera, while performing mag changes as appropriate against a 21-second par time. It’s challenging!

The 3M Drill

The final drill on day two is the 3M (Marksmanship, Movement, & Manipulation) drill as developed by Tom Givens. You’ll start out with a loaded pistol with six rounds in the mag, with one dummy mixed in, and a spare magazine with three rounds.

At five yards, you’ll start from concealment, side-stepping on the draw and firing into the 8” body circle of the target. When the gun malfunctions from the dummy round, you’ll side-step while clearing the stoppage and re-engage the 8” body circle. When the gun locks back empty, you’ll reload… side-stepping again …and then fire two to the 8” body circle and the tenth and final round into the head zone. Par times are 15 seconds for normal earth people, 12 seconds for proficient pistoleros, and 9 seconds for Rangemaster instructors.

You will come away from this two-day class tired, probably a little sore, and with your handgun skills well-polished by a weekend of excellent instruction.