AAR 21cg handgun 2
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:44 pm
AAR 21st Century Gunfighter - Handgun 2
Instructor: Stephen Pineau
Location: Cresson TX
You are in a grocery store at the end of the meat section debating turkey bacon or regular. Your disgruntled over the decision since the wife has been riding your butt about diet over the last few weeks. A distinct “BOOM BOOM…… BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!” breaks the inner turmoil. As you turn around, your strong hand starts breaking your cover garment with your support hand assisting; your mind starts going into autopilot. Drills that you have practiced on clearing your CCW from concealment are kicking in automatically. You recognize the threat at the opposite end of the aisle that you are on. A gun slinging madman is at the front of the store is unloading on cashiers, moms, and kids with a pistol. At this point your heart is pounding, your visual acuity is focusing in, and you see the gunman in distinct detail. There is no doubt in your mind what he is, or what his intentions are. You draw your weapon from its holster, press through your read position and drive out on the target, moving all of your weight to the balls of your feet. Your front sight post is crystal clear. You pause and realize that your front sight is literally covering the gunman’s entire upper torso……..With no one in the line of fire except for the shooter and a solid backstop behind him, what do you do? Do you break the shot???
This is how Stephen started the morning, part of what he calls the “Superman Drill”. “Who here would make that shot?” Pretty much all of us in the class was hell yeah… make the shot… Drop that scumbag!!
“Ok”, he says…..“Dress it up on the 50”
The First Drill was 50 yards, 10 rounds, and a 10-minute time limit…. Clearly all the time in the world to debate it, grab a cup of coffee and think about it. The Class proceeded to send 10 rounds each down range. Cold range was called and targets checked. Instantly we where all humbled. Discussing as a class we all agreed that the distance from the rear of a supermarket to the front of the store could easily be 50 yards. “Now, seeing this, lets take our Superman capes off and go to work” was Stephen’s reply.
Handgun 2 with Stephen is not an introduction to handguns. It is a class for the intermediate to advance shooter. Stephen makes no mistake about it. He wants smart shooters that are accurate. Accuracy cannot be emphasized enough with Stephen. The morning drill was preceded with the brief that any student SHOULD be getting with a COMPETENT instructor. Safety, range rules, medical brief, and range commands are covered thoroughly.
Through out the course we worked on various aspects of the gun. For once, someone fundamentally explained the proper way to “squeeze” a handgun. Not only did Stephen instruct you how to do it, he showed you why. Different stances where covered and the goes and no goes for each. There are many instructors out there who tell you or show you how to do something. Sadly, a lot of them break down and fail to show you why. Stephen is a student of the gun. There is no doubt that he has spent thousands of hours and rounds not only perfecting what works and burning what does not. He brings this information from various resources, cites his sources repeatedly and gives credit where it is due. Stephen is not military nor a LEO. He is simply an individual that has a passion for teaching and making safe, competent shooters.
Drills ranged from the Superman drill, drills that stressed finding the perfect balance between speed and accuracy, kneeling, prone and how to “pie” around cover and concealment in all positions. Most of the target engagement range was 10 yards and further. I think we had one drill that was inside 10 yards. One POI, Stephen had us covering our sights with masking tape. This drill opened my eyes to the simple, but undisputed fact that the gun is an extension of your body. This is no different than pointing your finger at something. Shooting like this we started at the 7 yard line and backed it out all the way to the 20 yard line. I was blown away over the simple fact that once my sights where gone, natural pointing kicked in and focus was driven to smooth controlled trigger presses.
Another drill that we worked on was a torture test drill that is designed to see where your mental breakdown begins. A variation of a drill named “Malfunction Mayhem” (which was passed on to Stephen by Steve Fisher of Magpul – one of Stephen’s mentors), each student loaded several empty casings intermittently through out at least 3 loaded magazine. Every time you had a malfunction, it was cleared, then you had to drop to a knee and continue firing. Also on each malfunction you had to switch to a separate part of the target zone, Head, chest, pelvis, and then back up. This showed you that carrying frustration after you cleared a malfunction, showed up down range on the paper. Stephen explained how this drill emphasized the importance of all manipulation being subconscious. If it wasn’t, even simple, cognitive tasks such as changing target areas and positions will go out the window and, more than likely, accuracy as well. It was one of the best drills I have done that FORCED you to take a deep breath and focus.
Wrapping up, in the afternoon after a short lunch break that included a heated debate on what goes on first, peanut butter or jelly when you only have one knife, we worked on one handed techniques, shooting around cover, and shooting and moving at the same time….
Shooting and moving at the same time was covered in depth. We have all seen videos or been to class where we walked by targets and 5 yards shooting into paper. But seriously.. how realistic is that? Why are you doing it? In order to actually get decent hits, you have to walk at a pace that ANYONE could drop your butt with little effort. As Stephen points out, we as humans are very adept to tracking a moving target anyway – the same reason a quarterback can predict exactly where a receiver running a slant route down a field is going to be and put the football right in his hands. So why does it make sense to “walk” at a pace that is still going to make you an easy target and attempt to shoot with sub-par performance on the target. As Stephen said, “If you are going to shoot, shoot. If you need to move, MOVE. If you MUST move AND shoot, you must do so in a manner that does not compromise the speed of your movement. If you decided to move, you must have done so because it was a priority. And if we make everything a priority, nothing is a priority”. To put this into test we had a POI with shooting that allowed us to walk and shoot, or sprint and post up and shoot. Distance started at 25 yards walking or even sprinting towards a target. The choice was yours. By the end of it, the class realized it is best to get where you are going, post up and shoot. Walking at an effective speed in order to be a hard target means that your going to be a shitty shot, period.
Every instructor will ask you what you learned in the class and what you have identified as your weak points. Stephen takes it a step further. Stephen demanded a negative be given about something a student did not like about a course. I found this amazing; as humans, we crave and demand serotonin. It’s hard for an individual to demand to hear a negative about them. Stephen takes this seriously and wants his classes to be better and sometimes, constructive criticism is the only way to do such.
In closing, this was my second course of instruction that I have had with Stephen. He has a very approachable personality and truly cares how well his students are progressing. The classes are affordable and the round count for me was 450 rounds. Good stuff...
Instructor: Stephen Pineau
Location: Cresson TX
You are in a grocery store at the end of the meat section debating turkey bacon or regular. Your disgruntled over the decision since the wife has been riding your butt about diet over the last few weeks. A distinct “BOOM BOOM…… BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!” breaks the inner turmoil. As you turn around, your strong hand starts breaking your cover garment with your support hand assisting; your mind starts going into autopilot. Drills that you have practiced on clearing your CCW from concealment are kicking in automatically. You recognize the threat at the opposite end of the aisle that you are on. A gun slinging madman is at the front of the store is unloading on cashiers, moms, and kids with a pistol. At this point your heart is pounding, your visual acuity is focusing in, and you see the gunman in distinct detail. There is no doubt in your mind what he is, or what his intentions are. You draw your weapon from its holster, press through your read position and drive out on the target, moving all of your weight to the balls of your feet. Your front sight post is crystal clear. You pause and realize that your front sight is literally covering the gunman’s entire upper torso……..With no one in the line of fire except for the shooter and a solid backstop behind him, what do you do? Do you break the shot???
This is how Stephen started the morning, part of what he calls the “Superman Drill”. “Who here would make that shot?” Pretty much all of us in the class was hell yeah… make the shot… Drop that scumbag!!
“Ok”, he says…..“Dress it up on the 50”
The First Drill was 50 yards, 10 rounds, and a 10-minute time limit…. Clearly all the time in the world to debate it, grab a cup of coffee and think about it. The Class proceeded to send 10 rounds each down range. Cold range was called and targets checked. Instantly we where all humbled. Discussing as a class we all agreed that the distance from the rear of a supermarket to the front of the store could easily be 50 yards. “Now, seeing this, lets take our Superman capes off and go to work” was Stephen’s reply.
Handgun 2 with Stephen is not an introduction to handguns. It is a class for the intermediate to advance shooter. Stephen makes no mistake about it. He wants smart shooters that are accurate. Accuracy cannot be emphasized enough with Stephen. The morning drill was preceded with the brief that any student SHOULD be getting with a COMPETENT instructor. Safety, range rules, medical brief, and range commands are covered thoroughly.
Through out the course we worked on various aspects of the gun. For once, someone fundamentally explained the proper way to “squeeze” a handgun. Not only did Stephen instruct you how to do it, he showed you why. Different stances where covered and the goes and no goes for each. There are many instructors out there who tell you or show you how to do something. Sadly, a lot of them break down and fail to show you why. Stephen is a student of the gun. There is no doubt that he has spent thousands of hours and rounds not only perfecting what works and burning what does not. He brings this information from various resources, cites his sources repeatedly and gives credit where it is due. Stephen is not military nor a LEO. He is simply an individual that has a passion for teaching and making safe, competent shooters.
Drills ranged from the Superman drill, drills that stressed finding the perfect balance between speed and accuracy, kneeling, prone and how to “pie” around cover and concealment in all positions. Most of the target engagement range was 10 yards and further. I think we had one drill that was inside 10 yards. One POI, Stephen had us covering our sights with masking tape. This drill opened my eyes to the simple, but undisputed fact that the gun is an extension of your body. This is no different than pointing your finger at something. Shooting like this we started at the 7 yard line and backed it out all the way to the 20 yard line. I was blown away over the simple fact that once my sights where gone, natural pointing kicked in and focus was driven to smooth controlled trigger presses.
Another drill that we worked on was a torture test drill that is designed to see where your mental breakdown begins. A variation of a drill named “Malfunction Mayhem” (which was passed on to Stephen by Steve Fisher of Magpul – one of Stephen’s mentors), each student loaded several empty casings intermittently through out at least 3 loaded magazine. Every time you had a malfunction, it was cleared, then you had to drop to a knee and continue firing. Also on each malfunction you had to switch to a separate part of the target zone, Head, chest, pelvis, and then back up. This showed you that carrying frustration after you cleared a malfunction, showed up down range on the paper. Stephen explained how this drill emphasized the importance of all manipulation being subconscious. If it wasn’t, even simple, cognitive tasks such as changing target areas and positions will go out the window and, more than likely, accuracy as well. It was one of the best drills I have done that FORCED you to take a deep breath and focus.
Wrapping up, in the afternoon after a short lunch break that included a heated debate on what goes on first, peanut butter or jelly when you only have one knife, we worked on one handed techniques, shooting around cover, and shooting and moving at the same time….
Shooting and moving at the same time was covered in depth. We have all seen videos or been to class where we walked by targets and 5 yards shooting into paper. But seriously.. how realistic is that? Why are you doing it? In order to actually get decent hits, you have to walk at a pace that ANYONE could drop your butt with little effort. As Stephen points out, we as humans are very adept to tracking a moving target anyway – the same reason a quarterback can predict exactly where a receiver running a slant route down a field is going to be and put the football right in his hands. So why does it make sense to “walk” at a pace that is still going to make you an easy target and attempt to shoot with sub-par performance on the target. As Stephen said, “If you are going to shoot, shoot. If you need to move, MOVE. If you MUST move AND shoot, you must do so in a manner that does not compromise the speed of your movement. If you decided to move, you must have done so because it was a priority. And if we make everything a priority, nothing is a priority”. To put this into test we had a POI with shooting that allowed us to walk and shoot, or sprint and post up and shoot. Distance started at 25 yards walking or even sprinting towards a target. The choice was yours. By the end of it, the class realized it is best to get where you are going, post up and shoot. Walking at an effective speed in order to be a hard target means that your going to be a shitty shot, period.
Every instructor will ask you what you learned in the class and what you have identified as your weak points. Stephen takes it a step further. Stephen demanded a negative be given about something a student did not like about a course. I found this amazing; as humans, we crave and demand serotonin. It’s hard for an individual to demand to hear a negative about them. Stephen takes this seriously and wants his classes to be better and sometimes, constructive criticism is the only way to do such.
In closing, this was my second course of instruction that I have had with Stephen. He has a very approachable personality and truly cares how well his students are progressing. The classes are affordable and the round count for me was 450 rounds. Good stuff...